The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine of the week: Casteller Brut Rose NV

The two most unappreciated wines in the wine world are rose and sparkling wine. Don't believe me? Let the Wine Curmudgeon quote from sales data: Nielsen doesn't even track rose, which is apparently lumped in with blush wines, a category that includes white zinfandel. As near as I can tell, maybe two out of every 100 bottles sold in the U.S. between March 2010 and March 2011 were rose. And sparkling? The Wine Institute reports that about 135,000 cases of bubbly were sold in the U.S. in 2008. Which is less than the wine sold by the two or three biggest wineries in Texas in a normal year.

Hence this Mother's Day wine of the week, which is both rose and sparkling -- and cava to boot, which makes it a terrific value. The Casteller ($12, purchased) has a bit of what Champagne geeks call yeastiness (and is a good thing), a burst of strawberry fruit at the front, and a surprisingly long mineral finish, something rarely seen in a a wine that costs this little. And the bubbles? Long, lingering and lovely, which is also a surprise in a wine at this price. The Wine Curmudgeon loves Cristalino, and this wine makes Cristalino seem quite ordinary.

Toast Mom with this wine on Sunday. She'll appreciate it. It's also a fine food wine; pair it with any sort of brunch dish, main course salads or grilled chicken. And, if you need a little variety, Casteller makes a regular cava, also about $12, also worth checking out.

Wine of the week: Ipsum 2010

Sometimes, wine doesn't taste the way we want it to taste. When the Wine Curmudgeon first tried the Ipsum, a Spanish white blend, two years ago, it was a revelation -- fruit forward in a New World style, but crisp and with lots of minerality. It was a sure thing Hall of Fame selection.

The 2010 vintage, sadly, is not up to that standard. The Ipsum ($10, purchased) is still a more than adequate wine, and there is still lots of tropical fruit. You could do a whole lot worse, and the Wine Curmudgeon has. But the extra something that pushed previous vintages over the top is gone. The minerality isn't there, and this year's wine doesn't have the freshness and clarity that the others did.

How does this happen? Who knows? The winemaker had an off day, the weather didn't cooperate, the grapes weren't up to snuff. So drink this, well chilled, with seafood or grilled chicken, and hope that the 2011 Ipsum returns to its previous standard.

• Ipsum 2008 review: "... much better than I expected it to be."

Sangre de Toro's plastic bulls

The Wine Curmudgeon got an email from a reader: Did I have any of the plastic bulls that come with the Sangre de Toro? That's the red Spanish blend from the Torres family that has been around for since the end of World War II. Its trademark is the little black plastic bull that you get when you buy a bottle of the wine.

Or, as it turns out, most of the company's wines these days, and the bulls now come in a variety of colors. The bulls have been a key to the popularity of Torres wines around the world for more than 40 years, and they're one of the reasons why I tried my first bottle in the early 1980s. That's the bull hanging from the neck of the bottle, left.

The reader, who needs the bulls for a special occasion, wanted to borrow mine. At one time, I had hundreds around the house, but they seem to have vanished, though did I offer to send him what I had. And, since he is a reader, why not do him one better? Hence, this post.

If anyone in the cyber-ether has any of the bulls lying around, send me an email. I'll forward the reader's contact information, and you can send him your bulls. I'll also make a few calls to some people I know in the wine business, and see what turns up.

Why the mystery? The reader needs the bulls to surprise someone, so we need to be discrete. Rest assured the bulls will be used for a good cause, and I'll report the results here. And, I'm told, there will be pictures.

Wine of the week: Montecillo Rioja Crianza 2007

Let's get the full disclosure out of the way first. Maria Martinez-Sierra, the winemaker at Bodegas Montecillo in Spain's Rioja, is one of my favorite people in the wine business. She is talented, outspoken, and funny, and makes wine to make great wine -- not to get on the cover of the Wine Magazines.

So am I exaggerating a little when I say that her crianza ($10, purchased) is classic Spanish winemaking? Not in the least. It's everything that Rioja is supposed to be -- and for just $10. There is a wonderfully funky Spanish nose followed by a touch of fresh sour cherry fruit, lots and lots of Spanish-style acid, and a long, though subdued, finish. It's a food wine, as all well-made Spanish wine should be, and will pair with everything from red meat to egg and seafood tapas.

No, it's not nuanced and subtle, but it's crianza, made to drink now, and not gran reserva, made to age. (There are three styles of Rioja wines, based, broadly, on how long they age before release -- crianza, reserva, and gran reserva, and all Rioja is made with tempranillo). Highly recommended, and almost certainly in the 2012 $10 Hall of Fame.

The Wine Curmudgeon's cava adventure, part II

This is the second of two parts about cava, the Spanish sparkling wine -- reviews of many of the cavas I tasted. The first part, an overview of cava, posted Feb. 3.

Mini-reviews of some of the cavas that I tasted during my Spanish adventure (photos here, courtesy of Mary Gorman, DWS). Full disclaimer: The trip was paid for by cava producer Segura Viudas, which is part of one of the largest cava companies in the world. But no quid pro quo was part of the trip, and I have not agreed to write anything in exchange for being invited. The reviews, after the jump:

The Wine Curmudgeon's cava adventure, part I

This is the first of two parts about cava, the Spanish sparkling wine. The second part, short reviews of several cavas, posted Feb. 4.

Two things confuse wine drinkers about cava, the Spanish sparkling wine. First, they assume that because it has bubbles that it's like French champagne or California bubbly. Which it's not. Second, because it's so cheap -- almost all of the world's cava costs less than $15 -- they figure that it's one of those cheap wines that they shouldn't be seen drinking in public.

Neither could be further from the truth. The Wine Curmudgeon is a long-time cava supporter; after all, it's cheap and offers value, and that's my reason for being. Yet even I discovered there is more to cava than meets the price tag during my trip to Spain last week. It is, as the inestimable Janet Kafka noted, "a wine that needs someone behind the label to explain it."

What those things are, after the jump -- and I have photos from the trip, courtesy of Mary Gorman, DWS:

Wine of the week: Segura Viudas Aria Estate Brut NV

Cava, the Spanish sparkling wine, is a conundrum. It's significantly less expensive than champagne, the French sparkling wine, which immediately makes it suspect among the Winestream Media. Their thinking, of course, is that something that isn't pricey can't be any good. Yet there is a not a thing wrong with cava, most of which deliver quality and value for around $10.

So, as a public service, the Wine Curmudgeon offers the Aria (sample, $13), since it is actually a little more than $10. (There are cavas that cost $20 and more, though they are rarely available in the U.S. I'll review several for those who are curious when I wrap up my Spain trip, paid for by Segura Viudas, later this week.)

The Aria is a little richer and more full bodied than basic cavas like Cristalino and Freixenet, and is probably a little closer in style to champagne. But it's still cava, with the typical fresh, clean lingering finish, a minimum of fruit, and a notable absence of yeast and oak. In all, a lot of wine for not a lot of money.

Serve this chilled on its own, or with most white wine dishes. It would also work with cold plates -- Iberian ham, corned beef on rye, and the like.