The Wine Curmudgeon

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: Il Poggio Rubicone 2011

The official name of this wine is actually a lot longer -- Il Poggio dei Vigneti Sangiovese di Romagna Rubicone – which is one of the contradictions that makes the Rubicone interesting. An old-fashioned name, yes, but a modern and professional wine.

Increasingly, there are two kinds of Italian sangiovese – the traditional, which I like but which don’t seem much in favor with the Winestream Media, and what I call the post-modern – Italian in label only. I did a tasting a couple of years ago where we paired a high-point Tuscan red made with sangiovese and a Texas sangiovese. Not only did the latter taste more like traditional Italian sangiovese, but the people at the tasting preferred the high-point Tuscan, which tasted like it came from Paso Robles. Maybe the Italian Wine Guy can explain this to me.

The Rubicone ($12, purchased, 12%) combines the best of both styles. There is a lot of juicy cherry fruit and top-notch winemaking, but also more traditional Italian sangiovese characteristics like bright acid and earthiness. It will please those of us who don’t want the traditional styles to go away, but also don’t want the flaws and off-flavors those wines sometimes had, as well as people who need gobs of fruit in their wine.

Wine of the week: Brennan Vineyards Buffalo Roam 2010

One of the greatest wines in the history of Texas was the 2006 Brennan syrah (and the 2007 wasn’t bad, either). I have waxed poetic about both, and the 2006 helped form the tweet that launched the local wine movement in 2009: “Texas wines aren’t s---.”

Unfortunately, Brennan no longer makes syrah. But it does make a red Rhone-style blend, the Buffalo Roam ($18, sample, 12.9%).

Yes, the wine isn’t $10 or $12 and availability is limited, two things I rarely do for the wine of the week. But this week, with the fifth annual Drink Local Wine conference just a couple of days away, I wanted to use this wine to show how far local wine has come – not just in Texas, but in much of the U.S.

Because there are hundreds of wines like this in the 47 states that aren’t California, Washington, and Oregon:

• It’s professionally made, without the flaws and off-flavors that were all too common in regional wine a decade ago.

• It reflects Texas terroir and a Texas style of winemaking – lower alcohol, earthy, spicy, less fruity and, above all, balanced. In this, it tastes like a Rhone-style wine that was made in Texas, not a California-style wine made with Rhone grapes that could come from anywhere, including the Rhone.

• It uses grapes suited to Texas, mourvedre and syrah, and not grapes grown in Texas because consumers have heard of them.

How impressive is this wine? So much so that I don’t even mind the name.

Wine review: Charles & Charles Rose 2011

The blog has made substantial progress in its five-plus years of existence – helping wine drinkers appreciate cheap wine and local wine in particular, and adding to the limited number of resources written in English for beginning wine drinkers.

Its great failing, though, has been in rose. No matter what I do, I can’t find a way to interest you in dry pink wine. The rose reviews are rarely well read, and at a time when thousands and thousands of people visit the blog, their poor showing seriously hurts my numbers.

Someone more business savvy or better attuned to the ways of the cyber-ether would get the message and cut back – or even eliminate -- the rose reviews. Needless to say, the Wine Curmudgeon is neither of those.

Because roses are worth drinking, even when it’s not summer. The Charles & Charles ($10, purchased, 13%) is bone dry, food friendly, balanced and fruity – the sort of wine that would go with any informal dinner, afternoon wine sipping, or friends in the living room. It has lots of strawberry and watermelon, which is balanced with pleasant acidity and a touch of minerality.

This is what U.S. rose should aspire to -- enough fruit to please Americans, but not so much as to confuse it with sweet, blush wine.

Wine of the week: El Coto Rioja Crianza 2008

The Wine Curmudgeon has been tasting a lot of post-modern Spanish wine lately, the kind made to appeal to the American palate and the Winestream Media. That means they have as much as 1 1/2 points more alcohol and lots of sweet red fruit. The wines are sound (my new favorite wine term), but just don’t taste particularly Spanish. There’s nothing really wrong with this, as long as you understand what’s going on.

The El Coto ($11, purchased, 12.5%) , on the other hand, will never be confused with one of those wines. It’s about as Spanish as they come –  red wine from the Rioja region made with tempranillo, a very funky, classic mushroom/forest floor aroma, and a fair of amount of oak on the finish that shows up as vanilla. And don’t worry about it being an older current vintage, since that’s not unusual for Rioja.

What makes this wine even more enjoyable is that it’s not old-fashioned in technique. There is lots and lots of bright cherry fruit, all in balance and all quite pleasant. And, since it’s Rioja, it will pair with everything from roast chicken to meatier fish to grilled beef to Spanish cheese.

If this isn’t quite a $10 Hall of Fame wine, it’s a reminder that old-fashioned doesn’t always mean out of date.

Mini-reviews 46: Beronia, Toad Hollow, Neprica, Mazets

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:

• Beronia Tempranillo 2010 ($15, sample, 14%): Spanish red is rich, has lots of red fruit, and is professionally made. That it doesn't especially taste like it’s from Rioja is only a problem if you care about those things.

• Toad Hollow Chardonnay 2011 ($13, sample, 13.9%): California white is unoaked, and mostly tastes as it always does, with green apple fruit. But seems to be a hint of sweetness.

• Tormaresca Neprica 2011 ($12, sample, 13.5%): This vintage of the one-time favorite is more balanced and Italian than the 2010, but still firmly in the international style with lots of sweet red fruit.

• Mazets de Saint Victor Côtes du Rhône Villages 2010 ($10, purchased, 13%): This French red blend has funky, Rhone-like aroma, but that's about the only interesting thing. Thin and watery in the middle and quite disappointing.