Feb 21st 2008
I decided to have a multi course wine dinner for Kathrine on Valentine's Day. Since there were only two of us, and I planned on opening some of our nicer bottles, I limited myself to two bottles and half bottle for the night. That meant I had to find wines that would work with at least two course. To make things harder, I wanted each course to feature chocolate. The three wines below are the ones that I featured.
Course 1 & 2 featured Guy Charlemagne Brut Extra. These courses were a white chocolate with caviar, and a green salad with cocoa nibs and Champagne vinaigrette.
Course 3 & 4 featuredHarbringer Rapture. Number three was a take on a black forest cake, but made savory with duck. Number four was a blue cheese and chocolate truffle.
Desert was a white chocolate and ginger creme brule that I paired with Andrew Rich Vinter Gewurztraminer.
Comments(0)
Jul 16th 2007
We went to a Saturday tasting at Maple Leaf this week. Tim Shannon of First Crush Wines was their to show off some of the stuff he imports. We had previously tasted his wines from Alsace, and since the Rhone is one of my other favorite regions, and it was Bastille Day, we felt obligated to show up.
We started out with two whites and a rose. The first was a 60/40 split of grenache blanc and roussanne. It was fruity and a little thick in the mouth. Not a bad wine especially at the price. The second reversed the ratios being made up of a majority of roussanne. I get the feeling that roussanne can be high in acid, because this wine was much more crisp. It was also a little more complex, but I actually liked the first better. Finally, we had a rose from the Languedoc. This was exactly what a rose should be like. Crisp, fruity, and refreshing, it was a pleasure to drink. And at $6.50 how can you pass that up?
Next, we moved on to the reds. The first wine we tasted was made up of carignan. I've had blends of this before, but never had it on its own. It had a great aroma to it. I could smell the fruit, but I also got a floral and mineral component that was almost like new car smell (Kathrine said it was like gasoline). It didn't taste as great as it smelled, but it was a good every day red wine at $13. Following that, was a syrah/grenache blend from the Costieres de Nimes. This was a bright fruity wine that was just complex enough to be intersting, but simple enough to be enjoyed without thinking to much. If the previous wine was a good everyday drinker, this was an even better value at $10. Finally we moved on to the last wine a Mourvedre. Again, this is a varietal I've never had on its own before. If the syrah/grenache was a sipper that didn't require thought, this was something that demanded that you concentrate on every sip. It was filled with fruit flavors and aromas, smoke, minerals, and a gaminess. The wine was deep black and the tannins nice and soft. It was a big wine, but not an oak bomb like you usually find. At $22 it's a little more than I usually spend on a wine, but I think this one would be a great candidate to cellar.
Comments(0)
Jul 14th 2007
Another Thursday night tasting at Maple Leaf. Vin du Lac is French for wine of the lake. It's a good description because I found much of their wine very French in style. This was not a tasting I was planning on attending until I went to their website and looked at their offerings.
We started out with white wines and a very dry riesling. It was quite good, the aroma was powerful, but I think in the taste department it didn't quite stand out. The acid was a little to low, and the fruit was really prevalent. It almost was a little green. At this price point ($20) you can do much better. Next, we had the viognier and my high hopes were restored. It's aroma was super powerful and it was full of fruit flavors, but was big bodied and fat in the mouth. This was a wine I could drink. The next white we tried was the Les Amis. It was a riesling blend (that changes every vintage). This time it contained both gewurztraminer and muscat. It was a touch off dry, but acidic and complex enough to handle the sugar. It was a very good and much like an edelzwicker from Alsace. The final white was a sauvignon blanc that was vinified with some residual sugar that I didn't care for.
Next we moved on to the reds. The first was a red table blend containing merlot, syrah, petite sirah, cabernet sauvignon, and malbec. It was a good basic red, if a little tanic. Maybe a little overpriced for a basic wine. The next was their regular cabernet. It was a well made wine, but the tannins and black pepper and oak overpowered the fruit. Next up was the Barrel Select cabernet. This was a great wine. The tannins were much softer letting the fruit shine. But the acid, spice, and mineral tastes were all still there, but in perfect balance. If I had to wager I'd guess that they have about 50% French oak and 50% American oak. The Barrel select gets almost all the French oak and a touch of the American, while the basic cabernet is the leftover. The final wine was a syrah. One of the better syrah's I've had in a while it was full of fruit, pepper, and black licorice flavors. Very complex and very good. If Kathrine hadn't been such a fan of the Barrel Select I would have bought this, but it is so rare to find a cabernet that Kathrine likes, I felt I had to jump on that.
Comments(0)
Jul 8th 2007
We went to a Saturday tasting at Maple Leaf Wine Cellar for the wines of Saint Laurent.
first we tasted a riesling, that while good, was nothing special. I think this riesling was probably a bit over ripe on harvest for my taste. Then we tried their rose of syrah. I found it quite enjoyable, if not a little overpriced. The wine rep informed me that it was actually a blend of 85% syrah, 10% chardonnay and 5% riesling grapes. Not a traditional blend at all, but it was pretty good. Next we moved on to a chardonnay. It was aged in oak, but I didn't find the oak overpowering. It added a nice spicy vanilla flavor to the wine without really buttering it up.
After that we moved on to the reds. They had blends of syrah, cabernet, and merlot at two different price points. I like them both, but I have to say that the more expensive blend may have been better, but not 2x better. Their merlot and cabernet were both very solid Washinton examples of the grapes, about the equivalent of a Columbia Crest Grand Estates. While these were a little more expensive, you are paying for a smaller and more independent operation.
The wine I like the most was their syrah. The rep said it was a Rhone style blend, so I asked if their was a bit of viognier blended in as that is traditional in the Northern Rhone. She said that no they actually blended in a touch of counoise, another Southern Rhone grape. I enjoyed the wine quite a bit, but still felt it was a little low on QPR. I can find wines I like more or almost as much for a lot less money.
Comments(0)
Jun 29th 2007
We went to Maple Leaf Wine Cellars for their Thursday night tasting last night. I was actually fairly excited for this one as it was going to be focusing on German wines. A well done German riesling can be very sublime.
We started off with two wines from Austira, both gruner vetliner. The first had a silly name, was about $11 and was quite quaffable. It taste quite a bit like a vihno verde though, so it was hard to justify the price. The next was a much richer one from Jurtschitsch Sonnhof. I liked this one better, but at over $20 a bottle I didn't think it was worth the price.
The first German wine we had was a Schlink Haus sekt. I've never had a German sparkler before this. It was alright, but a little two sweet for me, and had none of the complex yeast tastes that I love from sparkling wine. As an alternative to Asti Spumante or a moscato d'asti, this would probably be a good wine. But even at $11 I thought it was overpriced.
Next up came two wines from the Nahe region and one from the Rheinhessen. I was not particularly familiar with either region before, and after today, I'm not sure I will become much more familiar with them in the future, or maybe it was just the producer. The first was a Kabinett level wine from Schlink Haus. It was mostly riesling, but had some lesser grapes in it as well. A bit too sweet, with no acid to balance it. Then we moved on to the Rheinhessen where we tasted a St. Christopher gewurztraminer. It was alright, but at $11+ it's hard to pull the trigger when you find deals like this or especially this. Finally, we had another another Schlink Haus wine, this time a Spatlese. Again it wasn't pure riesling, although the blend was a little more riesling heavy. It had a touch more acid than the Kabinett, but it also had a touch more sugar, so it was just about as cloying.
Next up were the dessert wines. First, we had a Markus Molitor Auslese Riesling. This wine was on a whole different level than the previous ones. It actually had a fair amount of acidity to stand up to the sugar. I'm not sure if that's just a characteristic of the Mosel, or the fact that this was all riesling and not other varietals. It was not as good as this one from Steppe Cellars, but it was good enough where I enjoyed drinking it. I'd be curious to try different levels of their wine. The final was back to the Nahe for a Trockenbeerenauslese from Schlink Haus. Again, not a riesling, this time it was ortega. Never had the grape again, and I don't think I ever will. Almost sickeningly sweet, with no acid or character.
Finally we tried the one red on hand. It was also by Schlink Haus. This time it was a grape called Dornfelder. It is a cross between helfensteiner and heroldrebe. Don't know what those are? Neither did I, so I found out that helfensteiner is a cross between pinot noir and Schiava, while heroldrebe is is a cross between limberger and portugieser. So, I'm a big fan of two of the four parents. This wine was light, fruity and a quite sweet. It may have just been fatigue from all the other wines, but I didn't care for it that much. Kathrine liked it though, so we bought a bottle. It will probably be good chilled and with spicy meat dishes.
Comments(0)
Jun 23rd 2007
I've cleaned up and improved the site a bit so that it can become a little more useful. I've changed the site to allow for multiple tastings of the same wine. I've also added a feature that shows where I purchased all of the wine.
I've also added this feature which allows me to post the news. This will be handy for linking to wine articles I find, other tasting notes, or recapping tastings that I go to around town. Hope you enjoy.
Comments(0)
Jan 1st 1900
2700 Fourth Avenue South
Seattle, WA, 98134
http://www.esquin.com/If you want a wine shop that is going to have that wine recommended by the newspaper, or a TV show, or your in flight magazine, this is the place to go. The store is well laid out and huge. Their selection is pretty impressive, although lacking in a few areas (they could use much more from Alsace!). The staff is really friendly, but they tend to let you browse on your own without getting in your face. If you only have one place to get wine, this is probably as good as any to pick.
Comments(0)
9634 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, WA, 98115
http://www.mapleleafcellar.com/Maple Leaf Wine Cellars is a great neighborhood wine store. I've never bought a bad wine there, and their prices are more than fair. The best thing about them though are the free tastings. Every Thursday and some Saturdays too. It's a great way to expand your wine knowledge.
One thing to remember though, don't come here looking for a specific wine. If you don't see it in their inventory don't drop by just to see if they have it. They have a very small selection of wine. They will have something to suit most everyone's taste, but you may not get something you are familiar with.
Comments(0)
