The Wine Curmudgeon

Mini-reviews 52: Beach House, Trump, Hedges, Drouhin

• Beach House Sauvignon Blanc 2013 ($10, sample, 13%): South African white was much different than I thought it would be -- young and fresh and citrusy, with a bit of a pithy finish. It’s a one-note wine, but delivers value for price.

• Trump SP Brut 2008 ($30, sample, 12%): Virginia sparkling wine from the former Kluge Estate continues the Kluge tradition of excellent bubbly. Lots of tight bubbles, crisp cherry fruit, an even finish, and a noticeable and welcome lack of oak.

• Hedges Family Estate Red Mountain 2011 ($25, sample, 13.5%): One of the best wines I've tasted this year -- classic Washington state red blend with rich, black fruit and where the Washington state syrah stands out. Highly recommended.

• Joseph Drouhin Bourgogne Laforet 2011 ($17, sample, 12.5%): Pinot noir from France has some Burgundian character, which means it has a little earthiness and not that much fruit. But it's a little thin, and the price is problematic.

Wine of the week: Domaine de la Janasse Terre de Bussiere 2009

Just when the Wine Curmudgeon thinks that he can’t be surprised by wine any more, I taste something like this. Is it any wonder that this is the best job in the world?

My reaction to the first sip was “Wow!” – for just that reason (and because, in my notes, wow stands for a possible wine of the week). The Janasse ($15, purchased, 15%) is a red blend from the Rhone in France, but with some very un-Rhone-like merlot added to syrah and grenache. I don’t pretend to understand what’s going on here, but I didn’t need to understand to enjoy it.

This is an earthy and fruity wine (black cherries?), if not especially complicated, and another example of the fine values that are available from the Rhone. It’s an end of the summer barbecue wine, perfect for the porch.

And don’t worry about that 15 percent alcohol level; frankly, I don't believe it (though 2009 was a very warm vintage in the Rhone). The wine wasn’t hot or overdone in the way that so many California 15 percenters are, and I only realized it was so high in alcohol when I did my notes.

Cupcake wine review 2013

The Wine Curmudgeon has discovered the flaw in the Cupcake Vineyards marketing juggernaut. It’s almost impossible to find the wines in a store, whether grocery or wine, that has any kind of inventory. It took me 10 minutes to locate the two bottles for this review, scuttling between aisles at my local Kroger; would a less determined consumer have done as much?

Maybe they would. Cupcake is the post-modern wine business success story, eclipsing even Barefoot and its millions and millions of cases. Three years after it started, Cupcake was named wine brand of the year, and its sales increased 67 percent in 2012, according to one market research firm.

Cupcake, as Blake Gray wrote last year, approaches wine from a different perspective. It markets its brand before it markets its products, so its customers don’t buy on varietal, like pinot noir, or region, like France, the way most of us do. Rather, its customers buy Cupcake first and worry about varietal and region later.

In this, the wine is marketed almost like women’s clothing, where Cupcake is the designer that shoppers look for before they look for a specific item like a dress or a skirt. That’s why Target has long offered designer collections, whether from Isaac Mizrahi, Jason Wu, or Phillip Lim.

None of this, of course, takes into account whether the wine offers value. That’s why I’m here – this year’s take is after the jump:

Wine of the week: Planeta La Segreta Rosso 2010

How much of an impact is Sicily making on the wine world? Terlato Wines, which prides itself on its “luxury wines,” is the new importer for one of my favorite cheap Sicilian brands, Cusumano. That Terlato, whose brands include wines that cost as much as $100, sees a future in Sicily speaks to the quality and value available on the island. What Terlato will do to the price of Cusumano, sadly, is another story.

Let’s hope that Terlato, or another “luxury” importer, doesn’t find out about Planeta, whose wines are equally as well done as Cusumano. The La Segreta ($8, purchased, 13%) is a red blend – which includes the very un-Sicilian cabernet franc -- that again shows how far Sicily has come from the old days.

Think of it as a Super Sicilian, the island’s version of the Winestream Media-approved Super Tuscan blend. The Segreta combines merlot, syrah, and the cabernet franc with Sicily’s signature nero d'avola, so it isn't as dark and earthy as other Sicilian reds, but fruitier and richer. Who thought those adjectives would ever be used in a review of Sicilian wine?

But there isn't too much cherry fruit, and there is still zingy Italian-style acid to provide balance. Even more surprising is that the wine needs food, which isn’t supposed to happen with something that costs $8. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2014 $10 Wine Hall of Fame.

Mini-reviews 51: Bolla, Grechetto, Chinon, Vouvray

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; for August, some surprisingly disappointing wines.

• Bolla Soave Classico 2011 ($8, sample, 12%): Ordinarily, I don’t review wines that are spoiled. But I mention it here, because the Soave had none of the flavors it should have had (white fruit, almonds) – just a musty, booze-ish feel to it, probably from being shipped in the summer heat and is no reflection on the producer. So if you taste a wine that has a musty, booze-ish feel, throw it out. Unfortunately, since the wine business pays so little attention to educating consumers, hundreds of thousands of people will buy this and assume that’s what Soave tastes like.

• Scacciadiavoli Grechetto 2012 ($11, purchased, 12.5%): Bland and boring, with almost no flavors of any kind, and apparently targeted at the pinot grigio crowd. Otherwise, very old-fashioned -- the kind of wine people drink and say, "I don't like wine."

• Pierre Archambault Chinon 2011 ($13, purchased, 12.5%): Disappointing, but probably because I love cheap Chinon (cabernet franc from the Loire in France) and expect more. Lots of violet on the nose and subdued black fruit, which is a Chinon trademark, but the middle was a little empty, and $13 makes it a problematic value.

• Sauvion Vouvray 2011 ($10, purchased, 12%): White wine from the Loire in France made with chenin blanc that is sweet without any acid to balance it, though it does have a little flowery chenin character. Another disappointment; cheap chenin is usually much better than this.

Expensive wine 53: Barboursville Vineyards Octagon 2009

One of the reasons regional wine has always done so poorly with the Winestream Media is that it doesn’t lend itself to iconic and cult wines. The critics and reviewers prefer wines, usually red, made by celebrity winemakers that they can get all silly about.

There just aren’t many of those in the other 47 states, whether because the wines aren’t expensive enough or no one knows about them or the winemakers aren’t famous enough. It certainly isn’t about quality, because most of the top regional states produce top-flight expensive wine.

The best may be the Octagon ($50, sample, 13.5%), made by Luca Paschina, who would probably be a celebrity winemaker if he was working in California. Instead, he is in Virginia, where his consolation is making some of the best wine in the United States. His viognier always makes me smile, even at $22 (and I have wanted to do a Texas-Virginia viognier showdown for years). And the Octagon is a step beyond that.

It’s a Bordeaux blend centered around merlot that shows off Virginia’s terroir and style – a powerful wine that isn’t showy, high in alcohol, or too fruity. Look for dark fruit (plums?) and nooks and crannies of complexity, all of which is bound together by some amazing tannins. This is wine made to age, and may seem rough now. But give it some time, and you’ll wonder how someone can make this great a wine and be so little known outside of Virginia.

Availability is limited, but it’s still worth looking for. Highly recommended.

Wine of the week: Tractor Shed Red 2010

The Wine Curmudgeon is always looking for $10 red wine that tastes like it costs more than $10. These are the most difficult cheap wines to find, though I’m not sure why. Yes, it’s easier to make quality cheap white than red, but not easier to make cheap quality sparkling. And there is plenty of the latter.

So I ask a lot of people if they can recommend a red that’s worth serving as a wine of the week. Many of the people I ask are retailers, and their choices are spot on more often than not (which is one reason why the forthcoming cheap wine book spends a lot of time discussing how to find a good retailer).

That was the case with the Tractor Shed ($10, purchased, 13.5%), and a tip o’ the Curmudgeon's fedora to Jeff Stuart at Spec’s in Dallas for the suggestion. It’s a California red – from Napa Valley, no less -- that combines an old-fashioned field blend with modern winemaking to produce a fruity wine with character and qualities other than just the fruit. Most of the fruit (sweet cherry?) is in the middle, surrounded by spiciness in front and earthiness and pleasing tannins on the finish.

This is a red wine to keep around the house and open as needed. It will pair with most red wine foods, but is also pleasant enough to drink on its down. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2014 $10 Hall of Fame.