The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine review: Mandolin Syrah 2009

This is a good news and bad news wine. The good news is that it's a tremendous value, another Mandolin wine that is much better than its price. The bad news? Availability, of course. It's not sold in the Dallas area, and its Texas distributor is small with limited capabilities. And, given the way the wine world works, if that happens in a market as important as this one, that means the Mandolin is likely to be difficult to find elsewhere.

Which is wrong. The syrah ($10, sample) is a wine that deserves to be in lots and lots of stores. It's impressive -- balanced and varietally correct, with just enough berry fruit to be fruity but not to be annoying. In this, there is acid to balance the fruit, which almost never happens with this style of wine, as well as a touch of oak and even some tannins, both of which provide even more balance.

Which, again, are two items that are rarely done well in wine from this part of California that costs $10. There is either way too much oak, to cover up a flaw or to give it a fake-y chocolate taste, or no tannins, to make the wine "smooth" and to appeal to people who don't like red wine. In fact, one reason why I don't drink much of this kind of wine is that it doesn't taste like wine, but something designed by a focus group.

Serve this wine on its own or with a weekend or holiday meal featuring beef or roast chicken (and yes, even for the holiday that must not be named). Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2013 $10 Hall of Fame.

Valentine's Day Wine 2012

The Wine Curmudgeon does not like the holiday that must not be named. The reasons aren't important; chalk it up to my natural crankiness, and leave it at that. Because of this, I have traditionally vacillated about whether to do a post for this holiday.

This year, you get one. Yes, I know, the last thing one expects from me is inconsistency, but that's the effect that the holiday that must not be named has on me. More, after the jump:

Wine of the week: Gérard Bertrand Crémant de Limoux 2009

The holiday that must not be named is next week. You want to buy sparkling wine. But sparkling wine, being sparkling wine, is expensive and confusing.

Not to worry. The Wine Curmudgeon is on the job, as always, looking out for everyone caught between bubbly's rock and hard place. The Bertrand ($15, sample) is sparkling wine from France that isn't made in Champagne, which is why it's one-third the price of entry-level Champagnes. Better yet, it has much more than one-third of the quality, and is a tremendous value.

It's made using the same method as Champagne, and it uses more or less the same grapes (including pinot noir, which is not common in sparkling wine made in France outside of Champagne). That's one reason why it delivers so much value; its grapes are grown in the Limoux region in the Languedoc, where land is a fraction of the price of Champagne.

This is not as simple a wine as its price would indicate; the pinot noir gives it an edge that others don't have. Look for very crisp apple fruit and an impressively long finish (lemon zest, maybe?). And you can impress everyone with your bubbly knowledge: If the wine says Cremant on the label, as this does, that means it's sparkling wine made in the traditional method but not in Champagne. Highly recommended, and sure to impress whoever needs impressing next week.

Expensive wine 36: Two Hands Gnarly Dudes Shiraz 2008

What's this? Has the Wine Curmudgeon gone soft on us? Two favorable reviews of Australian shiraz in the past month?

Indeed. Because, if nothing else, the Wine Curmudgeon believes in tasting the wine before judging it. And, even more than the Layer Cake wine of the week, the Two Hands ($30, sample) is an exemplary wine. Yes, I'm not a huge fan of this style, with its huge burst of fruit and high alcohol, and yes, wines made this way usually drive me crazy.

But you know what? This vintage of the Two Hands is full of rich, deep red fruit -- but it's less overwhelming than it would have been a year ago. Plus, the tannins show a little more and most of the ashiness (the odd flavor that many of these kinds of wines have in the back) is gone. And the alcohol, for whatever reason, is more integrated into the wine and less annoying. All of this, I'm assuming, comes from letting the bottle age since I got it in 2009.

Highly recommended, especially as a gift for next week's holiday that must not be named. This is a beef wine, but it's a beef wine that will appeal to more people than you would think.

Wine review: Tres Picos Garnacha 2010

The Wine Curmudgeon will say this right out front: I don't like this style of Spanish garnacha. There's nothing traditional about it, and it's certainly not about nuance and subtlety like a great Rioja. Rather, it's about cramming as much ripe, red fruit and alcohol into the wine as possible, producing a jammy, concentrated effort with very little in the way of tannins.

Having said that, this style of wine is immensely popular. Robert Parker adores it, and has defended it against all comers -- even insisting that it is Spanish not only in name, but in terroir. It does very well in the marketplace, too; brands like Las Rocas and Evodia sell well and show up on best-of-lists all the time.

The Tres Picos ($13, sample) is firmly part of this post-modern Spanish wine philosophy. It's dark, heavy, alcoholic (14 1/2 percent), rich and fruity, with minimal tannins and with an almost ashy aftertaste. It's not as well made as the Evodia, which came close to getting into the 2012 $10 Hall of Fame, but it is more approachable than the Las Rocas (which, frankly, has always bored me).

The Tres Picos needs food -- red meat preferably -- to balance all that fruit and alcohol. Again, it's not for everyone, but for people who prefer this style, it's a solid effort.

Wine of the week: Chapoutier Côtes du Rhône Belleruche 2009

White wines from France's Rhone region aren't particularly well known and, at least in this country, don't get all that much respect. You don't see many of them on store shelves or restaurant wine lists, and you don't see many of them reviewed, for that matter.

Which is a shame, given that white Rhones are usually different and interesting, and that's something the Wine Curmudgeon is always looking for. The Belleruche ($12, purchased), from one of the Rhone's largest producers, has always been one of my favorite wines for just that reason (when I can find it, of course).

This is a previous vintage, and the extra year of bottle age has given the wine, a blend of grenache blanc, clairette and bourboulenc, a little more character. There is lots of white pepper, some oiliness and just a hint of a green fruit, like lime or apple. This is a not a white wine for people who need something fruit forward, like sauvignon blanc or chardonnay, but it's not supposed to be.

And don't worry that you haven't heard of the grapes used to make it -- almost no one who isn't in the wine business has heard of them, either. Which is another reason why the wine is so interesting, and that's three more grapes for your Wine Century Club effort. Chill this and drink it on its own or with something like goat cheese; roast pork with apples would be terrific, too.

Mini-reviews 32: Antinori, Marques de Caceres, Souverain, Parlay

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:

• Antinori Pèppoli 2008 ($27, sample): Modern style of Chianti, with more red fruit in the middle. But still a fine wine -- balanced and fresh. The price is problematic, though.

• Marqués de Cáceres Rioja Blanco 2009 ($8, purchased): Traditional style, so not much fruit a little more rustic than California. Offers more than than $8 worth of wine, and more than suitable for a weeknight dinner.

• Souverain Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 ($22, sample): Grocery store quality -- thin, flat and uninteresting, with little terroir. Seem to remember this producer being much better than this.

• Parlay The Bookmaker 2005 ($20, sample): Lots of sweet black fruit in the middle of this red blend, but very well made with a long chalky finish and sturdy tannins. Not my style of wine, but well done nonetheless.