The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine of the week: Robert Hall Rhone de Robles 2011

The Wine Curmudgeon practically gushed about this wine during my recent chat with Robert Hall winemaker Don Brady, so more details are in order. The first is that this is the kind of California wine that undoes so much of the damage caused by the rest of California’s wines.

How much so? The night after I drank this, I drank a similar sort of red blend made by a popular Napa producer that cost a couple of bucks more. There was no comparison, and I was quite shocked that the Rhone du Robles ($15, sample) came off of so much better. But why not? It isn’t too fruity, too oaky, or too alcoholic.

Look for some red fruit, which Brady makes a special effort to keep to sensible levels, as well as a structure that shows something besides fruit, including some very pleasant tannins. This is a terrific food wine; think Thanksgiving, modern French bistro or even something as old-fashioned as steak frites. Highly recommended, though not, unfortunately, always easy to find.

Winebits 253: Halloween

The Wine Curmudgeon does not do Halloween and wine; how many times can I write about Bogle’s Phantom or Ghost Pines from E&J Gallo? But that doesn’t stop the rest of the wine world, so this week we look at wine and Halloween:

• The always reliable Ray Isle of Food & Wine got stuck doing a Halloween post last year – the Phantom and Charles Smith’s Velvet Devil merlot appear among several others. They’re all decent wines, and not the stuff that usually shows up with a cute name and that isn’t much worth drinking.

• From the whoops department, a link to a couple of wines on a Halloween supplies and decorations site that doesn’t seem to work. Did someone find out that selling wine on the Internet was not quite the same thing as selling Halloween costumes?

• Finally, because I have a special fondness for this sort of thing, how to turn an empty wine bottle into a Halloween lamp. Besides, how can I pass up an opportunity to link to site called Tattooed Martha? The fondness? That’s because I made a lamp in shop class in high school, and I am far from the handiest person in the world.

Fifth annual birthday week begins Nov. 12

The blog celebrates its fifth birthday the week of Nov. 12, which means a brightly colored chart, a couple of long posts with lots of bullit items, and the annual review of Tormaresca Neprica, the wine that has attracted the most visitors over the past five years.

Plus, of course, prizes – the best ever. That’s because the Wine Curmudgeon can’t celebrate the blog's birthday without thanking the people who have kept me here since 2007. That, of course, means you, who have helped the blog become one of the most visited wine sites in the world. Yes, I know that's difficult to believe, but who am I to argue with the statistics?

Among the prizes: Reidel wine glasses, courtesy of Banfi; two tickets to DrinkLocalWine's fifth annual conference; and a wine book gift pack. I’m working on a couple of other items, which will hopefully be equally as spectacular.

Planet Bordeaux II: More French wine you can afford

Anyone who says the French don’t understand social media or the importance of cheap wine need to note the Planet Bordeaux promotion that has been going on for the past couple of years. Almost all of the wines I’ve tasted as part of the campaign have been well made – several even better than that – and have cost around $10. Plus, we got to tweet about them.

Friday night’s Twitter tasting featured six whites and two roses. The Twitter conversation was quite lively, as these things usually are, I wasn’t able to add my curmudgeonly wisdom after the first couple; my Internet connection has been spotty for the past month or so, and it was up and down on Friday. Still, the wines were impressive – more, after the jump:

Planet Bordeaux Twitter tasting tonight

We’re doing eight French wines – six white and two rose, all costing less than $11. And who said wine prices were going up?

You can follow the tasting on Twitter at the #PlanetBordeaux hash tag or follow me at @wine_curmudgeon. (And, in one of those bits of irony that I appreciate, Moet & Chandon -- yes, that Moet -- follows me on Twitter now. Guess someone there needs a solid $8 bottle of wine when they're tired of all that $100 Champage.)

The event starts at 6 p.m. central. The Other Wine Guy, who recently celebrated the birth of his first granddaughter, will be on hand to help taste the wines, but he’ll probably make me do all the tweeting.

Those of you who prefer wine reviews that are longer than 140 characters can check out the blog on Monday, when I’ll post a more traditional account of the tasting.

Mini-reviews 41: Eurl Patrick, Fougeray de Beauclair, Chateau Massiac, House Band

Reviews of wines that don’t need their own post, but are worth noting for one reason or another. Look for it on the final Friday of each month:

• Eurl Patrick Barrière Village 2010 ($10, purchased): I bought this wine because I didn’t expect it to be worth drinking (I am the Wine Curmudgeon, after all). But it wasn’t French bad – green and tannic. Instead, it was California bad – overripe and extracted, without tannins or acid, and made in the grocery store style.

• Fougeray de Beauclair Bourgogne 2009 ($20, purchased): Another attempt to find drinkable red Burgundy for less than $40 with mixed results. Slightly rustic (pencil lead on the front and a rough, interesting finish), but not much fruit, even for Burgundy, and a bit thin in the middle.

• Château Massiac Minervois 2008 ($15, sample): Surprisingly fresh and fruity (black cherry?) red blend from southern France that includes syrah. But still dark and almost brooding; I'm not sure how it would fare with Americans used to Central Coast merlot.

• House Band White NV ($10, sample): This white blend takes full advantage of California's plethora of cheap, quality grapes and solid winemaking skills. It's dry and fruity, but not overdone in any way.

The buying a winery shell game

Or, buy a winery because it’s fun and glamorous, and don’t worry about how much money you’re going to lose. Or that it ain’t so fun and glamorous, either.

That’s the gist of an email I got from a PR flack touting a post on something called the Financialist blog:

Owning a vineyard is a common fantasy among wine lovers, but over the past couple of decades, it’s started to become a common reality as well. There are many reasons why investors are making their dreams of owning vineyards into reality; we unlock them in this article.

This is so patently untrue that I can’t believe anyone would write it, let alone send it to reporters and bloggers and expect them to write about it. As noted here, the wine business is a lousy investment; pre-tax profit was in the single digits for most of the past decade and still hasn’t gotten back to its 2007 level.

So why did I get the email? Turns out the Financialist blog is “presented” by Credit Suisse, one of those huge multi-national banks that has received so much good publicity over the past decade. So when the blog runs a post like this, entitled “A Terroir Fantasy: How to Buy Into the Vineyard Life,” it’s probably a come-on for the bank, which lends money to the people who buy wineries because it’s such a common fantasy.

The only difference between this release and the street corner shell game? The Credit Suisse bankers probably have all their teeth.