Empire Estate Dry Riesling 2016

Since getting into wine I've had several different jobs in the industry, some were definitely better than others, but even the terrible ones had their bright moments. Working for Whole Foods definitely falls under the category of terrible, honestly it might have been one of the worst companies I ever worked for, but those three years did have some good moments. Like how much freedom they gave their wine buyers to bring in pretty much whatever the hell we wanted. For a while the locations that Kye and I worked in San Antonio had a pretty amazing selection of both typical and eclectic wines and we were actually pretty damn decent at selling them. These days they definitely don't give the buyers as much freedom or support, but I'm still able to find some random gems on the shelves.

Empire Estate Dry Riesling 2016 is definitely one of those gems. I'm a girl who likes her Rieslings and this one I was most impressed with. It comes from the Finger Lakes region in New York and has a light gold color with notes of ginger, lemon zest and green apple on the nose. The citrus flavors carried over to the palate, joined by white peach, honeysuckle, limestone and powerful (but enjoyable) acidity. While this was a dry wine, the fruit notes balanced it out nicely making it one that even sweet wine lovers might enjoy.

US Pinot Noir 2015

Thanksgiving, a holiday that really means nothing to me, is when I sell the most Pinot Noir. It’s a grape that has always been lauded as the best pairing with Thanksgiving meals. It’s also one of my favorite varietals due to the different expressions you can find of it throughout the world. One of my favorite quotes in the film ‘Sideways’ is when Miles is trying to explain to Maya his fascination with this grape:

“It’s a hard grape to grow, as you know. Right? It’s uh, it’s thin-skinned, temperamental, ripens early. It’s, you know, not a survivor like Cabernet, which can just grow anywhere and thrive even when it’s neglected. No, Pinot needs constant care and attention. And in fact it can only grow in these really specific, little, tucked away corners of the world. And only the most patient and nurturing of growers can do it, really. Only somebody who really takes the time to understand Pinot’s potential can then coax it into its fullest expression. Then, I mean, oh its flavors, they’re just the most haunting and brilliant and thrilling and subtle and… ancient on the planet.”

Basically, this is a grape that can’t just be grown anywhere in any climate by just anyone. It’s hard to grow and usually only flourishes in cooler areas. That’s why when my parents gave me a bottle of Old Soul Pinot Noir from Lodi, a California AVA known for being on the warmer side climate-wise I was a bit horrified.

They gave the bottle to me in a brown sack and made me promise not to reveal what it was before I tried it. I even went so far as to open the bottle with my eyes closed so as not to see the cork. When I tried it I was convinced it was Zinfandel or possibly Petite Sirah. When I finally pulled it out of the sack I was shocked that it was Pinot Noir, I hadn’t even considered it as a potential varietal for what was in my glass. That being said, it actually wasn’t a bad wine. Full-bodied, bursting with dark fruit notes and only medium tannins. It just wasn’t Pinot Noir and I found it harder to enjoy after knowing what it supposedly was.

Luckily I’d had a good Pinot earlier that week: Trisaetum Willamette Valley 2015. This is one of my favorite Oregon Pinots, partially because it’s so affordable and just so damn delicious. I hadn’t been able to find it in a while, but Kye brought it home after a shopping spree at Total Wine, and I was thrilled. It’s light to medium-bodied with ripe red fruit notes of strawberry, cherry and raspberry. It finishes with hints of black pepper and nutmeg, a hint of acidity and silky tannins. It’s a truly beautiful example of the best kind of wine this grape can produce and I was more than happy to drink it again.

Gryphus Carménère 2016

At my first liquor store job, I had a sales rep (from some random company I can’t remember now) who seemed to always have very interesting descriptors for the wines he was peddling. The most memorable of those was his selling point for Carménère (all his wines were Chilean), a varietal he’d always claim was a “panty-dropper”. To this day I have yet to have proof of this and I mostly suspect he was an idiot who probably hadn’t even tasted the wines he was selling, but it’s always stuck with me, mainly because it is hilarious.

Carménère has a very interesting background: it started as one of the six grapes allowed for France’s Boredeaux AOP, but these days it is virtually extinct in the region. After phylloxera devastated much of France’s vineyards in the mid-1800s, it wasn’t really replanted due to its unpopularity and thus it became the “lost” grape of Bordeaux. Luckily, cuttings of this varietal wound up in Chile, where for years it was mistaken for Merlot. It wasn’t until DNA research in 1994 proved that much of what Chilean wine-makers thought was Merlot was actually Carménère and since 1998 the country has embraced the varietal that is now considered the national grape of Chile.

I’ve found that wines made with Carménère are usually very interesting (though not quite “panty-dropping”). They tend to be medium-bodied with distinct green pepper and spicy notes that pair very well with heavy meat dishes. For quite a while I was under the impression that it was a varietal that needed to be paired with food (mostly because that's what everyone always told me), but since then I’ve started to enjoy it all on its own. I’ve had Montes’ Purple Angel (a beautiful expression of this grape from the Colchagua Valley), but since I can’t afford $70-ish wine all the time (or ever, really), I’ve sought out other, more affordable Chilean Carménères.

The one I’ve been most impressed with recently was the Gryphus Carménère, a very affordable wine from the Maule Valley in (it probably goes without saying, but heck, I’ll say it anyway) Chile. It is 100% Carménère with 40% aged in used French oak barrels. This wine starts off bursting with flavors of black cherry, blackberry and plum which are then quickly followed by notes green and black pepper. It has a medium finish with smooth tannins and a slight acidity. It had surprising complexity and elegance that I don’t usually expect in wines that are so inexpensive (under $10). This wine is more than enough proof that Carménère has found a very good home in Chile… and maybe it really could be a panty-dropper (though I’m still waiting on more concrete evidence of that before I start using it as a descriptor).

The Ned Sauvignon Blanc 2015

I recently had a discussion with my dad about “epiphany wines” (aka the bottle or glass that first really opened your eyes up to the awesomeness that is wine). His was Gundlach Bundschu’s Gewurztraminer that he tried based on a sommelier’s recommendation at a restaurant. It just so happened that I carried that wine at my store so he got to try it again for the first time in forever. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to his expectations all these years later, but that’s not super surprising.

I didn’t have an epiphany wine so much as I had an epiphany varietal, Sauvignon Blanc, specifically from New Zealand. I’ve mentioned the time I was down from Denton and my parents and I had a blind tasting with three different bottles of NZ Sauvignon Blanc before. What I didn’t mention is that I got back to Denton and made my friend accompany me on a trip to find a bottle of Drylands Sauv Blanc (my favorite from that evening). Thanks to Denton being a dry county there weren’t a whole lot of wine shops to choose from so we wound up driving to Dallas too. Unfortunately nowhere had it or had even heard of it so I think we picked up a bottle of Bitch Grenache (yes, just because I thought the label was hilarious) and some other New Zealand wine. It was actually a pretty fun time despite not finding the particular wine we were looking for.

Several years later I spotted Drylands at a store in San Antonio and of course had to get a bottle of it. Just like my dad with Gundlach Bundschu, I was disappointed. It just lacked the complexity I’d come to expect from that varietal and was rather bland. While it didn’t live up to my memory of it, it still wasn’t a bad bottle of wine, it’s just that by then I’d had better.

One of those better bottles is The Ned Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough. Unlike many NZ Sauv Blancs it’s not so in your face with grapefruit, which can get old rather quick. That’s actually why I stopped drinking or buying this varietal for quite some time (until Kye introduced me to the awesomeness that is Sancerre). It’s a medium-bodied wine that has notes of green pepper, wet grass and gooseberries on the nose. The palate is more fruit forward with lemon peel, passionfruit, and crisp green apple, and of course, a bit of grapefruit. Nicely balanced with sharp acidity and a long-ish finish. This is a super refreshing wine that is lovely by itself or paired with a wide range of dishes. While Kim Crawford and Drylands will always have a special place in my heart, this Sauvignon Blanc beats them not only in price, but also in taste.