ST JULIAN WINERY RESERVE PINOT GRIGIO 2011

“Wine improves with age. The older I get, the more I like it.” ….. Anonymous

Close your eyes and think of Pinot Grigio. Are you thinking of Italy?  Are you thinking of a great value, yummy-delicious Italian Pinot Grigio with a short, very un-Italian sounding name, or of another from there that (my opinion) is both overpriced and disappointing? Both shall go un-named here. But I’d bet that in the process of that exercise, you didn’t think once of Paw Paw Michigan.

My first experience with this winery was at their tasting room in Union Pier located in Southwest Michigan in the designated Lake Michigan Shore AVA. I was so impressed, I subsequently visited the winery in Paw Paw. Other tasting rooms are located in Frankenmuth and Dundee to the East.  What attracted me was their signage reading, “Italian Roots. Michigan Soil.”  The attraction proved fatal and I’ve been a fan ever since.

The “Italian roots” are evident in this delicious Pinot Grigio.  This is a bright, zesty wine with all the best characteristics of Pinot Grigio that have made that varietal so popular. But blended to include a small percentage of Traminette (a cross of Joannes Seyve 23.416 and Gewurztraminer), St. Julian’s Pinot Grigio offers delightful twists and surprises.  In the glass, the wine shows as lemon grass tea. Aromatics are strong with notes of kiwi, tropical fruit, pear and spice. These same notes carry into the taste in a symphony of flavors with notes of Honeycrisp apple, zesty lemon, lychee, pineapple and pear all making their contribution.  With more body than most Pinot Grigios,

(L) Angela Braganini, David Braganini
and The "Mizer" enjoying a Riesling

it’s also lush in the mouth, a contribution of the Traminette, yet finishes clean with an excellent fruit to acid balance.  Together, these grapes create a most enjoyable sweet/tart interplay on the palette; a push-pull of flavors collecting in the pocket mid tongue, then developing while yet teasing for replenishment.  Quite simply, this wine is fun.

Entrance to Paw Paw Winery

To keep it fresh, grapes are collected in the cool, early morning hours. Skin contact is limited and the juice sees no wood. Fermentation and aging is within temperature controlled stainless steel tanks. No malolactic fermentation is allowed.  The result is a wine that is fresh, fragrant, floral and fun --- and meant to be enjoyed young. As with most “finds,” the tendency is to put off opening the last bottle so that you’ll always have one available. But I’ve tasted several vintages and found this wine to be consistently pleasing.  

Depending on how prepared or sauced, this wine would pair

well with roast fowl and seasonal vegetables, or baked macaroni with Fontina cheese and béchamel sauce.  Its sweet / tart interplay lends itself also to enjoyment with some desserts at the end of a meal. But as the cold weather here begins to give way to spring breezes, I’m thinking of carefree hours spent outdoors by a lake at a picnic table with sandwich in the basket and this wine in the glass.

Cheers!

……………… Jim
Follow Wine Mizer on FaceBook for mini-reviews of wine, fun facts and info, recipes and more.

St. Julian Winery

http://www.stjulian.com/

7166 S Kalamazoo St

Paw Paw, MI 49070

(269) 657-5568

VILLA BELLANGELO WINES (Finger Lakes, New York)

“If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere. It’s up to you New York, New York!”

But as was said in George Gershwin’s 1935 opera “Porgy & Bess”, “It ain’t necessarily so.”  While Frank Sinatra (backed by a terrific band) made a terrific song, when it comes to wine it is definitely not so.  Recently I had an opportunity to taste some of the estate wines of Villa Bellangelo. The wines were not only delicious, they served to affirm the importance of terroir.  Bellangelo Vineyards and Winery is located in Dundee near Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. 

The conditions for ideal grape growing in this region were actually set into motion tens of thousands of years ago. Retreating glaciers deposited a layer of topsoil on shale beds above the lakes. Seneca Lake is the deepest of the Finger Lakes at 618 feet and rarely freezes. And the lakes (there are eleven) moderate the region’s temperatures.

Move forward several tens of thousands of years and I was enjoying wines from the Finger Lakes here (in the Midwest) in the early 1970’s. But as California gained prominence, retail outlets allocated more of their limited shelf space to that state’s offerings, as well as to the expanding market here for non U.S. wines, and New York’s wines became difficult to find and enjoy. More the pity because these wines are affordable and exciting and truly unique.

Shale From The Seneca Lake Vineyard
This piece about 3"x3"x1/4" 

As Chateaubriand and Filet Mignon are similar, they are also different:  Bellangelo’s Gewurztraminer is similar to Alsace, and its Rieslings are similar to those of the Mosel region of Germany - similar but so appreciably different. Any lover of wine who professes an appreciation of terroir is self-obligated to taste Villa Bellangelo and other wines of the Finger Lakes.

I’ll be posting more detailed reviews of some of these wines in the months ahead. But in the meantime, these wines are too “Wine Mizer worthy”   to remain unmentioned. So being the dedicated reviewer that I am, I’ve ordered additional of these wines to taste a second time. And in the meantime, here are my first impressions:    

1)    2013 Seyval Blanc $16.  I’m starting with this wine because I generally don’t enjoy Seyval Blanc and there always seem to be so many other white wines to enjoy. For me, Seyval is weak in character; listless, wondering what to make of itself.  Even its color is non-descript.  But the nose of this rendering from Villa Bellangelo immediately captivated me. Character a plenty with notes of quince and lemon. Silky mouthfeel. Back taste brings in hints of orange and vanilla. A white wine of balance that plays with all its flavor hints in tandem and with a surprisingly long finish.

2)      2012 Gewurztraminer $20.  Nose is faint, but pleasantly floral. Kiwi, peach, quince, lychee. A luscious mouthfeel (more glycerin like than the 2013). Long finish.  Both this and the 2013 share similarities with a Gewurz from Alsace yet provide a uniqueness that give a sense of place and make these wines so fun to drink.

3)    2013 Gewurztraminer. Nose of honeyed peach that carries into the taste along with apple that develops noticeably. Sharper acid finish. 

4)     2013 Cabernet Franc $18.  Cherry colored in the glass – like a Pinot Noir. I’m concerned the wine may be thin.  Then again, I recently had a Cabernet Franc from Argentina that was hot-climate deep purple and tasted too much like Cabernet Sauvignon.  I’m looking for the graceful, unassuming but balanced style of a Loire style Cabernet Franc.  Another reviewer visited unexpectedly and I offered him a taste. “Delicious” he said immediately.  I enjoyed a delicate nose of sour cherry and raspberry and a taste of cherry cordial chocolates. A little alcohol-black pepper in the throat that thankfully wasn’t present in subsequent tastes.  My fault – I needed to give the wine more air and will be tasting this again.

5)     2013 Semi-Dry Riesling $18.  The nose is Mosel:  smell/taste this wine blind and you might take it to be an Auslese. Tart green apple that softens in the taste as sweet ripe pear develops. The tart-sweet interplay mid-palette is intriguing, but the experience continues as an interplay develops between honeydew melon and pear. Who said white wines can’t be complex?

6)      2013 Dry Riesling $18.  Classic, pale straw in the glass with edges that are almost translucent. Again, looks like a Riesling from Mosel. Nose is light, delicate and floral with orange blossoms. Heavier bodied than a Mosel Kabinet, it offers Granny Smith apple and Meyer lemon with hints of orange and a taste that just continues to build in this uniquely characterized wine. Long finish.

Frank Sinatra had a great song, was a great singer and certainly could afford to buy great wine. But what they do in New York is unique and just can’t be done anywhere.  The sampling of wines from Villa Bellangelo delighted me with wines that are graceful, play with the senses and uniquely reflect a sense of place.  And you needn’t have a star’s pocketbook to afford them. At prices shown, these wines are super values.

Cheers!

……………. Jim

Follow Wine Mizer on FaceBook for mini-reviews of wine, recipes, fun facts and more.

·         Wines reviewed provided as a sample by the winery

Villa Bellangelo

150 Poplar Point Rd

Dundee, NY 14837

607-243-8602

http://www.bellangelo.com/

CHATEAU CADILLAC 2010 AND THE IMPORTANCE OF VINTAGES

"Drinking good wine with good food in good company is one of life’s most civilized pleasures.” -Michael Broadbent

News, by definition, is not about the ordinary.  It is the attention getting story that gets played or published.  And so when wine gets attention in the mass media, it is often about a record setting price paid for a particular Bordeaux wine.  Along the line of “Tell a lie often enough about a generality and people will begin to accept it as truth for all particulars” we need to be reminded that not all Bordeaux wine is the same.  Just ask the French.  They live there and know something about French wine. 

They also know something about vintages which many of us take for granted here.  Weather is important to all types of agriculture everywhere.  But in France, where irrigating grape vines is not allowed, rain (its timing and its amount) are critical as are other factors that affect grape and other crops elsewhere.  So while wine collectors and investors worldwide pay big sums for a Grand Cru from a great vintage (hoping to later cash in on escalating prices), I buy wine to drink it.

And I prefer to pay other than big prices.

And I prefer to enjoy good wine.

And the two are not exclusive of each other.  And you can too.

So now we need to get to vintages and why they are important in Bordeaux, for example.  I’m not a fancier of numerology, but recent vintages of note are 1995, 2000, 2005, (2009) and 2010. Two-thousand and nine was, perhaps, made a good year by Mother Nature just in order to throw off the numerologists.  2007 also had its merit, but is a year to appreciate early. If you learn the years of good vintages, want to drink good wine and want to do so inexpensively, it’s important to learn this so that you can work with the “Wine Mizer” system.

When a year (vintage) is really stellar, almost any wine from that area will be enjoyable. It will not, certainly, be as complex or as structured or even as cellarable as a Premier Cru. It will also not necessitate that you apply for a home equity loan in order to enjoy a bottle.  A good example is Chateau Cadillac from 2010 (pictured here).  The Chateau is near Fronsac in Bordeaux and uses regional blends in making everyday table wine.   Their red blend is 70% Merlot / 30% Cabernet Sauvignon… pretty classic even without Cabernet Franc or Petit Verdot and made in an “old world” style being less fruit forward. The wine is medium-bodied and offers all the classic depth and elegance associated with French Bordeaux.

It cost me $17.

Now that I have your attention, let me better describe this $17 wine.  Respecting that palettes differ, I enjoyed the wine’s nose of pencil lead and dark cherry which carried into the taste and married with leather and juicy cassis. The finish hinted at black tea although tannins were smooth and the finish carried along some dark chocolate.

Chateau Cadillac is labeled “Bordeaux Superieur” meaning it is slightly “superior” to standard Bordeaux AOC wines. Although the Chateau is a 13^th Century Estate and makes what I consider very good value wine, and although the estate’s chalk and gravel soils produce grapes of character and a sense of place, wine begins in the field.  And 2010 was a great year for that area.

2004, an "off" year but drinking
beautifully  now from these 3rd growth estates.

Being a contrarian, and since I so enjoy Bordeaux wine, I do buy Grand Crus in off years. 2004 and 2006 encapsulated the great vintage of 2005.  I bought each of those years limiting my selection to 3^rd growths (Troisiemes Crus). The respected estates’ blending experience, and their access to quality barrels assure me of a wine that will cellar and develop beautifully over time. Buying the best (or at least very good) in off years means you don’t have to in great years. It means you can consistently enjoy quality “old world” wine in all years and at substantial savings in each.    

For another review of an excellent but remarkably value-priced wine, see my review of Chateau Pey La Tour (2010) and click this link:  http://www.winemizer.net/2014/01/chateau-pey-la-tour-2010.html

In the meantime,

Even the Mizer does occasionally splurge: Here on some
2010s - a great year - but they're 3rds.

why not try this Wine Mizer system for enjoying excellent Bordeaux wine at surprisingly affordable prices?  You’ll thank me later (if your parents raised you correctly).

Sante!

……………….. Jim (Master Gardner, April 1992. U of I Cooperative Extension Service).

Follow Wine Mizer on Face Book for mini-reviews of wine, recipes, fun facts and more.