The Wine Curmudgeon

Mini-reviews 32: Beaujolais nouveau, Mondavi, Martin Codax, Kung Fu Girl

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:

• Georges Dubœuf Beaujolais Nouveau 2012 ($8, purchased): Grape juice, and not especially good grape juice. No varietal character; perhaps the most poorly made nouvueau in decades.

• Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 ($135, sample): Aged well enough -- 15 percent alcohol isn't noticeable, lots of dark fruit left, and acid still shows -- but anyone who paid three figures for this five years ago is probably very disappointed.

• Martín Códax Albariño 2011 ($15, sample): Spanish white is always consistent and varietally correct, though there are $10 albarinos that deliver similar clean, soft citrus results,

• Charles Smith Kung Fu Girl Riesling 2010 ($10, purchased): Look for lemon-lime fruit and even some oiliness, but always tastes too sweet to me (which is odd for a Charles Smith wine).

The Wine Curmudgeon doesn't have any "Leverage"

This was going to be my big break. If I played it right, I could eventually become one of those barely known talking heads who always show up as experts on the faux documentaries that run on the entertainment cable channels.

But it was not to be. More, after the jump:

Wine of the week: Yalumba Y Series Shiraz/Viognier 2010

The epic decline in the Australian wine industry has been well documented; the wineries that have survived have done so because they have been that much better than the rest of the business

Case in point is Yalumba, which managed to avoid the excesses on both the high and low ends over the past two decades and has emerged as an example of what a post-modern Aussie winery can be. Jane Ferrari, who tours the world for Yalumba, told me the effort wasn’t always a lot of fun, but that the fifth-generation family business was the better for it.

One improvement is better distribution, so that we can buy the wines in more places in the U.S. The shiraz ($10, purchased), a red blend with a bit of viognier to add interest, has been difficult to find in Dallas. That always annoyed me because Yalumba’s Y series has terrific cheap wine.

The shiraz is an Australian wine that one can actually drink without taking a nap between glasses. It's still big and juicy (lots of black fruit and 14 1/2 percent alcohol), but both are well under control. Missing is the ashy aftertaste that so many of these wines have, and that makes them so difficult to like. It’s a red meat wine, but you can enjoy it without food. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2013 Hall of Fame.

Winebits 257: Booze pricing, gift wine, wine investments

• UK minimum pricing: British doctors are convinced that raising the price of liquor will reduce alcoholism, using something called minimum pricing. Under one plan, this would raise the price of a £2.99 bottle of red wine (about US$5) £3.76 (about US$6). The British government is expected to announce its plan this week. What’s interesting about this for U.S. wine drinkers is that some states already have some form of minimum pricing, but not necessarily as a health measure. Rather, it’s part of the three-tier system, and is more law enforcement than anything else. When Americans want to deal with the health aspects of sin, we tax it, whether strip clubs or cigarettes.

• Ricky Ricardo wine? For all those men who forget anniversaries, birthdays, and the like. Or so seems the idea from the Safeway grocery store chain, which has launched a line of gift-wrapped wines. Because, frankly, can you imagine anyone else going to the grocery store store at the last minute to buy a pre-wrapped bottle of wine to give as a gift?

• Don’t drink those assets: The latest academic study finds that investing in wine is “is superior to equity, as it gives both higher return as well as lower standard deviation.” My math isn’t good enough to follow the entire discussion, but before we take our 401-Ks to the Live-Ex market, it’s worth noting there are only 17 years of data in the study. Which, of course, coincide with the wine investment boom but take in the last two recessions.

Holiday wine gift guide 2012

A few ideas for the wine drinkers on your list. Some general pointers:

• Don't forget the wine gift-giving guidelines: "Don't buy someone wine that you think they should like; buy them wine they will like."

• The Champagne and sparkling wine glossary to make sense of cava and cremant and all the rest.

• Most gadgets never get used after the first couple of times. My rule of thumb: Is the gadget worth its price in quality $10 wine; that is, is a $40 gadget worth four bottles of wine?

Suggestions after the jump:

The 2016 presidential election

From a wine perspective, of course – and regional wine at that. What else would you expect from the Wine Curmudgeon? Certainly not politics.

The Democratic candidate? Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, who has been a tremendous advocate for Colorado wine. He came to the DrinkLocalWine media dinner in April, where he said all the right things and seemed genuinely interested in what we were doing. (There is even a picture of the governor and I floating around the Internet, which I have not yet been able to find. My Mom is not happy about this, so if anyone knows what happened to the picture, please let me know).

The Republican candidate? Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, whose efforts to help his state’s wine business shame almost every other governor in the country (including and especially Texas’ Rick Perry). Maureen McDonnell, the state’s first lady, has been an especially avid proponent – even visiting Virginia wineries.

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

Enjoy the holiday with the people who mean the most to you. The blog is off today, but will return tomorrow with our regular features.

General Martok’s Thanksgiving will be a little less than he expected, though – someone stole his blood wine, and Worf is going to have to work over the holiday to find it (courtesy of trekclip123 at YouTube).