The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine review: Anne Amie Cuvee A Amrita 2011

This post was going to be a wine of the week for a different wine from Oregon’s Anne Amie – the muller-thurgau, one of my all-time favorites. But bizarre fog last year did something to the grapes, and rather than make a crappy wine, Anne Amie winemaker Thomas Houseman decided not to make it at all. How often do I get to write that?

So we’ll have to settle for the Amrita ($15, sample), a white blend that is a fine wine in its own right. It's mostly chardonnay and riesling (plus eight other grapes for good measure), and is fresh and lively and without the stilted, heavy fake oak that so many wines at this price use to compensate for poor quality fruit, to cover up a winemaking flaw, or to add oak flavor because they think it makes a more popular wine.

The Amrita, like the muller-thurgau, is a food wine with enough sweetness to pair with spicy food (look for a little citrus and apricot fruit), but not enough to offend people who think sweet wine means white zinfandel. In this, it would be a huge hit at Thanksgiving, what with turkey and cornbread dressing.

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:

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.

Wine of the week: Ludovicus Blanco 2011

Last week’s discussion about the book “Grape-a-hol” made me wonder: Do I do enough to find $10 wine that doesn’t taste like grape juice with alcohol? Are the wines I review worthy of being reviewed?

Then I found the Ludovicus ($10, sample) in my database, and felt a whole lot better about what I do and how I do it. This Spanish white is the kind of wine that the big milt-national wine companies claim they make, but know, deep down, that they don’t even try to do. It has a little bit of citrus fruit, but this wine isn’t about fruit. Rather, it’s made with the Spanish version of grenache blanc, so it has spiciness, minerality, and even a bit of honey – a combination that I don’t taste in a lot of other wines. It’s surprisingly complex and yet still drinkable at the spur of the moment, something else that hardly ever happens.

I wrote in my notes “No idea how this wine can be this good at this price.” It’s almost certain to make the 2013 $10 Hall of Fame, and is highly recommended – another reason why Ole is Spain’s best wine importer.

Expensive wine 44: Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Vau de Vey 2010

Those of you who insist on drinking chardonnay that tastes like it was flavored with vanilla and a national park full of oak trees can skip this review. The rest should pay careful attention.

That’s because this wine is chardonnay from the Chablis region of Burgundy in France that is made without oak and that takes the idea of unoaked chardonnay one step further. Regular visitors here know how much the Wine Curmudgeon appreciates white Burgundy, though Chablis sometimes gets short shrift given my preference to Montrachet.

This is not meant as a slight to Chablis, as the Brocard ($35, sample) demonstrates. This is classic Chablis -- clean, crisp, green apples -- at an incredible price. Everything that makes quality Chablis is here, from the minerality on the nose to the telltale acidity to the long finish. Best yet, this is a $35 wine that will age and only get better over the next couple of years as its fruit and acid blend and mellow. In this, it will demonstrate why a wine doesn’t always need oak to get better.

Serve this chilled with a classic bistro dinner – roast chicken, fried potatoes, garlicky green salad, and apple tart. And if you’re starting to wonder about holiday gifts, I know at least one wine drinker who would enjoy getting a bottle.

Wine of the week: Beni di Batasiolo Gavi 2011

Gavi is one of those Italian wines that lingers in a netherworld – not as popular as pinot grigio or even Soave and not always easy to find. But when it’s done well, it’s a wine that makes you go, “Wow, why was I wasting my time with all that crappy pinot grigo?”

Case in point is the Beni di Batasiolo ($14, purchased), which was everything I hoped it would be. This white wine is made with the cortese grape in Piedmont, where it has to vie for attention with some of the best-known Italian red wines, Barbaresco and Barolo among them. Is it any wonder it gets lost in the shuffle?

This wine has bright and fresh lemon fruit, some stoniness (or was that bitter almonds?), and low alcohol – the kind of balance that the best Italian white wines are known for. It’s surprisingly versatile, whether you drink it chilled on its own, with grilled seafood, or even with Tuesday night takeout.

Mini-reviews 40: Red Newt, Rene Barbier, Quincy, Steelhead

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:

• Red Newt Cellars Semi-Dry Riesling 2011 ($15, sample): This New York white, which I tasted as part of a Finger Lakes Twitter event, didn’t have as much varietal character as I expected. More sweet than anything else, without enough fruit or minerality to balance the sweetness.

• René Barbier Mediterranean Rose NV ($5, purchased): The best of the three Rene Barbier wines (and the most difficult to find), made more like a New World rose with strawberry fruit. Highly recommended.

• Domaine du Adéle Rouzé Quincy 2010 ($20, purchased): French white from the Loire is imported by the always reliable Charles Neal. Lots and lots of lemon; the wine may require a little more time in bottle to even out. Needs food, and probably seafood (boiled or grilled shrimp, steamed mussels).

• Steelhead Red 2010 ($15, sample): California blend is heavy on the cabernet sauvignon, so it needs beefy food. But it has lots of character and oomph, as well as blackberry fruit and dusty tannins.