The Wine Curmudgeon

Labor Day wine 2011

It's OK to drink wine over the Labor Day weekend. Really. The beer police won't come and arrest you. Holiday picnics and back porch barbecues usually mean lighter wines, and I've offered several suggestions below. But, assuming this summer's heat wave is ending where you are, Labor day also marks the return of bigger red wines, like cabernet sauvignon or merlot -- not bad with ribs or burgers.

The Wine Curmudgeon will spend this weekend at the Kerrvile Wine & Music Festival, where I'll participate in a couple of panel discussions about Texas wine. It's one of my favorite wine events, and the music isn't bad, either. Stop by and say hello:

• Cortijo III Rose 2010 ($10, purchased): A solid and dependable Spanish rose, with more fruit (strawberry and watermelon) than most of its brethren but a bit of heft to remind you that it's still Spanish.

• Paul Cheneau Blanc de Blanc Brut NV ($15, purchased): This, along with a cava from Bodegas Sumarroca, were much better than the food at a Sunday lunch at a Dallas tapas restaurant. Very, very well done Spanish bubbly, with lots of tight bubbles. Highly recommended.

• Tormaresca Roycello Salento 2010 ($22, sample): This Italian white has lots of stone fruit (peaches) and a very floral aroma, similar to viognier (though it's made with fiano, a little known grape, even in its native Italy). It makes for a soft, relaxing wine that is very different from the usual sort of Italian low-fruit, acid-driven labels.

For more on Labor Day wine:
• Labor Day wine 2010
• Fourth of July wine 2011
• Wine of the week: La Fiera Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2009
• Wine of the week: Marietta Old Vine Red Lot Number 53

Wine of the week: Evodia 2009

A regular visitor to the blog suggested the Wine Curmudgeon try this Spanish red, so I bought it and brought it home. It was only then that I noticed the alcohol level: 15 percent. Gulp.

But, because I firmly believe in tasting a wine before I judge it, I did just that. And I can report that the Evodia ($10, purchased) handles the high alcohol well. Save for touch of alcohol-inspired heat at the front, that 15 percent wasn't an issue.

Having said that, the Evodia is not a subtle wine, and it does need food like beef, barbecue or something with enough fat to offset its oomph. It's not a summer porch sipper by any stretch of the imagination; this is a New World-style garnacha with lots of sweet fruit (blackberries and cherries?). It doesn't have much more than that, but what's there is excellent, and it's a candidate for the 2012 $10 Hall of Fame.

Wine of the week: Pasa A Paso 2009

The Wine Curmudgeon needed two wines to go with the paella he was making (and which didn't turn out well at all, a story for another time). I knew which red I wanted, and which will show up here as a wine of the week one of these days. I wasn't sure about the white; all I knew was that I wanted something that I had not tried before and that it should cost $10.

Which is how the Paso ($10, purchased) ended up in my shopping cart. I didn't know the producer, Bodegas Volver, but I knew the importer, Jorge Ordonez, who was one of the first to being quality Spanish wine to the U.S. The price was right, and the Paso was made with verdejo, which makes seafood-friendly wines that are usually more expensive.

Call it wine-buying roulette, and yet another example of why wine is so much fun. I took a chance and won. The Paso was everything I hoped it would be and a little more -- fresh and lively with lots of citrus-style acid and stone fruit flavors. It wasn't as complex as a pricier verdejo, but it wasn't supposed to be.

This is exactly the kind of wine that I wish more California producers appreciated: Well-priced and well-made, and just the thing to drink with dinner when you want wine but don't want to spend a lot of money or endure wine-pairing hell.

Mini-reviews 25: Moet, El Coto, Martin Codax, Pecorino

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. This month, a couple of roses to close out rose week.

• Moët & Chandon Grand Vintage Brut Rosé 2002 ($80, sample): Classic in style, with lots of acid and fantastic bubbles. Could probably age for a couple of years more to give the fruit a chance to show. A fine gift for someone who appreciates Champagne.

• El Coto Rioja Rosado 2010 ($10, sample): Much more New World than Spanish in style, with lots more fruit (strawberry) than a Spanish rose would have. Having said that, it's still dry and a fine, simple, fresh rose for summer.

• Martín Códax Albariño 2009 ($15, sample): Spanish white had lemon fruit and was a little fresher than usual, which was welcome. But it's still $2 or $3 more than similar wines.

• Cantina Tollo Pecorino 2009 ($16, purchased): This white was bright and Italian, which means not that much fruit (pears?), balanced acid, and long mineral finish. Highly recommended.

Memorial Day and rose, 2011

Memorial Day weekend means it's time for the annual rose post -- where you won't have to spend much more than $10 to have a good time.

Surprisingly, despite the weak dollar and the passage of all that time, that price point hasn’t changed since the Wine Curmudgeon started writing an annual rose piece almost 10 years ago. There are still dozens of terrific roses that cost $10 or so from all over the world. The one thing that has changed? The quality of rose keeps getting better, and it’s unusual to find a poorly made rose (something that wasn’t necessarily true 10 years ago).

What you need to know about rose -- after the jump:

Wine review: Sangre de Toro 2008

As much as the Wine Curmudgeon appreciates this wine, both for how little it costs and its sentimental value, I don't do much with it on the blog. It's one of those wines that I seem to get around to only once in a couple of years.

However, people who visit the blog apparently want more. There was the request six weeks ago from a reader looking for the plastic bulls that come with the wine, and there has been a pretty significant increase in search requests from the cyber-ether this spring. So, the Wine Curmudgeon, vigilant as ever to the needs of his visitors, decided to review a bottle.

Which turned out to be a good idea. Save for a screwcap, the Sangre de Toro ($8, purchased) is much as it always has been, a rough and peasant-style red wine blend (garnacha and carinena -- the Spanish versions of grenache and carignane).

Do not be put off by that description; it's a welcome development in a world where too much wine is bland and glossy and without character. There's some red fruit and lots of acid, which means this wine needs food -- meat sauces, stews and similar dishes. I drank it with sausage gravy over rice, and I was surprised at how well it worked.

$200 worth of wine

Don't fear, regular visitors. That's not one bottle of wine, but the result of a recent Wine Curmudgeon shopping expedition -- 13 bottles, only two of which cost more than $16. And there wasn't a stinker in the bunch.

The occasion for this spree? A chance to shop at Spec's, probably the best liquor retailer in Texas. Spec's doesn't have any stores in Dallas, but I was in Austin for a wedding and Spec's has several stores there. So that gave me a chance to check out Spec's vast inventory (at 80,000 square feet, it's bigger than most grocery stores) and its very competitive pricing. I was not disappointed.

More, after the jump: