The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine of the week: Domaine du Tariquet Classic 2011

My mom enjoys a glass of wine now and then, and I’d like to think that I’ve helped her with that. She reads the blog, and is better informed when she walks into a liquor store to buy a bottle.

Which is one of the reasons why the Tariquet ($10, purchased, 11.5%) is the wine of the week with Mother’s Day coming up. Yes, I’ve praised this wine many times before, and it has been in the $10 Hall of Fame since 2009. But its great strength – and I don’t know that I’ve emphasized this enough – is that it’s table wine the way it should be but isn’t often enough in this country. You don’t need to be a wine geek to enjoy it. You don’t need to have piles of money. You don’t need to read the Wine Magazines or to parse scores.

All you need is $10. Good wine shouldn’t be more difficult than that, should it?

This vintage of the Tariquet isn’t as grapey, which is one of the things I always enjoyed about it. Look for more citrus, probably because this year’s blend has sauvignon blanc in addition to ugni blanc and colombard, the classic grapes of Gascony. But the wine is still balanced, clean and fresh -- very well made and not only among the best cheap wines in France, but in the world. Highly recommended. Drink a toast to mom with it on Sunday; I know I will.

Wine of the week: Cune Rioja Blanco 2010

How much did I like this wine? I bought another white from the same producer that cost a couple of bucks more, and I didn’t even have to think twice about it. Just picked it up and put it in the cart. That doesn’t happen very often; if a wine costs more than $10, I’m often seen mumbling to myself in front of the shelf.

Even more impressive is that white wines from the Rioja region of Spain have traditionally been pretty awful – badly made and even oxidized.

None of that is the case here. The Cune ($10, purchased, 12.8%), made with viura, has enough white fruit to be noticeable, maybe some lemon peel, and is amazingly fresh and clean – very impressive given the track record for white Rioja. Chill this, drink it in the summer on its own or with salads or seafood. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2014 $10 Hall of Fame.

And yes, even though the company name is CVNE, the wine is called Cune. 

Expensive wine 49: Cornerstone Cellars Chardonnay Willamette Valley 2010

The Willamette Valley in this wine’s name is important, because Cornerstone is more than just an Oregon producer. It’s actually better known for its Napa Valley wines, including a high-scoring cabernet sauvignon that makes the wine geeks giddy.

In some hands, this kind of secondary project might be an afterthought. But Cornerstone does its Oregon wines proud, and they seem to receive the same sort of attention and care that the Napa wines get.

The chardonnay ($35, sample, 13.5%) is, not surprisingly, more California in style than Oregon – richer and oakier. But the fruit (somewhere between citrus and green apple) still shows through, along with the minerality that should be there in well-made chardonnay. All of this is complemented by a long, juicy finish.

I’m not quite sure elegant is the best adjective for the wine, in the way a white Burgundy can be elegant. If the latter is Catherine Deneuve, then this is Katharine Ross in “Butch Cassidy.”

Wine of the week: A to Z Chardonnay 2011

From the scores are stupid department: Someone on CellarTracker, the blog’s unofficial wine inventory web app, gave the A to Z chardonnay an 85. If this wine is only an 85, I’m going to start writing rave reviews of over-oaked, too alcoholic California chardonnay.

To be fair, I can can understand why someone would not treat Oregon's A to Z ($10, purchased, 13.5%) with the respect it deserves. It doesn’t have any oak, and if you expect chardonnay to taste like a vanilla milkshake, then this wine will confuse you and you’ll score it lower. Which is just one of the many reasons why scores are stupid, since they don’t account for individual likes and dislikes. In wine, one size does not fit all.

What the A to Z does have: Crisp, juicy green apple fruit, classic for this style of chardonnay; a little richness at the back, which makes up for the lack of oak; and an intensity that is quite refreshing. Serve this chilled on its own, or with any white wine dish that isn’t too rich, and especially grilled seafood. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2014 $10 Hall of Fame – unless, of course, you like a lot of oak with your chardonnay.

Wine of the week: Pacific Rim Dry Riesling 2011

The sweet wine craze, for some reason, has not really included wines that were available before sweet wine got hot. This is particularly true of riesling, which has been the world’s best-known sweet wine for hundreds of years.

This is just another of the things about the wine business that I’ll never understand, given how many quality, cheap rieslings exist. One of my favorites is Pacific Rim, which shows up more often than not in the $10 Hall of Fame.

The 2011 dry riesling ($12, purchased, 13.5%) is not the best of the past several vintages, but it does a workmanlike job of demonstrating why riesling deserves more attention than it gets. It’s a touch sweet, which is true of most dry rieslings (sweet rieslings can have six times as much sugar), but that sweetness is balanced by some zingy lime fruit, a floral hint, and a little riesling oiliness. My only disappointment was that the wine’s finish was too short, leaving me wondering where the rest of it went to. But that’s the difference between a $10 wine and a Hall of Fame wine.

Chill this and pair it with Asian food, grilled seafood, or even cold plates. It’s not so sweet that the manly among us will be offended, but it is sweet enough so that sweet drinkers will be happy.

Wine of the week: Dry Creek Dry Chenin Blanc 2011

I’m doing research for an upcoming blog post about U.S. wine sales – what varietals we’re drinking, the brands we’re buying, and so forth. Chardonnay, not surprisingly, is still the white wine of choice for most of us.

This wine and grape are not high on those lists. Which, frankly, is a shame. The Wine Curmudgeon has long been an advocate of chenin blanc, a white wine grape that is fairly well known in France but is known in the U.S., if at all, for indifferently made sweet wine. Chenin blanc is much better than that.

The Dry Creek ($10, purchased) is not indifferently made and is not sweet. In fact, It's one of the few wines in the world that isn’t reisling that lists the residual sugar on the label -- 0.6 percent, which makes it as dry as many red wines. (Though, given that hardly any consumers know what residual sugar is, it’s more a good idea in effort than execution).

Look for lots of white fruit aromas, a little lemon peel fruit, and a sort of slate-like, fruit pit finish. This is a wonderful alternative to chardonnay, especially for salads, grilled vegetables, and cheese courses.

Expensive wine 47: Etienne Sauzet Puligny-Montrachet 2006

During the publicity blitz for the Cheap Wine Book and the Kickstarter project (Q&A explaining how Kickstarter works; Kickstarter link; What the book is), I did a virtual talk show with a group in Napa Valley. One of the questions I got was why I drink only cheap wine; what did I have against expensive wine?

The Wine Cumurdgeon is so misunderstood.

I don't have anything against expensive wine. I even drink it myself when the occasion arises. My point is that we expect everyone to drink expensive wine, whether they want to or know anything about it instead of realizing the limitations involved. It's like learning to drive -- you don't start with a Lamborghini, do you?

In fact, I told the people on the show, I look for the same thing in expensive wine that I look for in cheap wine -- value. And the Sauzet ($50, purchased) delivers on this count over and over and over. It's chardonnay from the French region of Burgundy, and specficailly the area called Puligny-Montrachet. In this, the wines are elegant and always in such balance that it's almost impossible to believe.

Sauzet is just one of many excellent producers from the area. The 2006, which I've tasted three times, has changed -- and for the better -- each time. Always, it's a mix of green apple fruit, spiciness (cloves or white pepper?) oak nestled in the background, and the  minerality that defines this wine.

This would make a lovely gift for The Holiday That Must Not be Named, as well as for any dinner with someone you care about.