Wine of The Week - Tait Ball Buster Barossa Valley 2009

Tait Ball Buster Barossa Valley 2009 ($19.99)

In the time I’ve worked at Schneider’s of Capitol Hill, I’ve come to expect great things from our Australian wines. Along with Chile and Argentina they consistently offers high quality without necessarily breaking the bank. The Ball Buster, a blend of 73% Shiraz, 15% Merlot, and 12% Cabernet Sauvignon, is from Barossa Valley and made by exceptionally talented wine maker, Bruno Tait. The 2009 vintage does not disappoint.

In the glass, the wine exhibits an appealing deep purple color. The aroma is a pleasant blend of dark chocolate, honcho pepper, and cranberry. Upon tasting, you’ll immediately notice that the wine is full bodied, with a moderate level of acidity. On the palate, there is an opulent display of blackberry, baked plum, and dark chocolate. There are definite notes of cinnamon and vanilla, on what is an impressive and lengthy finish for a wine at this price point. At $19.99 it’s a steal, ideal with grilled meat, yet is sophisticated and balanced enough to be appreciated on its own.

Kevin Ross

Wine of The Week - Poggio Amorelli Chianti Classico 2007

Poggio Amorelli Chianti Classico 2007

Key Facts:

Grape: Sangiovese

Region: Tuscany, Italy

Style: Medium body - vibrant red cherries and violets

Alcohol: 13.5%

Vintage: 2007

Price: $24.99 $17.99

From one of the most famous regions of Tuscany, producer Poggio Amorelli is located in one of the most picturesque places in the heartland of the Chianti, the village of Castellina in Chianti.

Their 2007 vintage is a great expression of the regions traditional style. Made from 100 percent sangiovese, it delivers intense aromas of red cherry, violets and just a hint of vanilla imparted from its maturation in oak. One of the hall marks of this style is the streak of vibrant acidity and savory fruit and subtle spice quality, making it a great wine to pair with a wide range of food, not just its typical companions, such as pasta and pizza. Its silky texture and medium body reminds me how well this would work alongside turkey and all the trimmings for Thanksgiving. At such a reasonable price, this is definitely going to be one of my picks on the table.

Felix Milner

Wine of The Week - Chateau de Bel 2009

Chateau de Bel 2009 Bordeaux, France ($19.99 reduced to $15.99)

Anyone with an elementary knowledge of wine knows that purchasing anything from Bordeaux can be an expensive undertaking. Unfortunately for most people, that often means that Bordeaux is enjoyed only on special occasions. It’s for this reason that I was anxious to try Chateau de Bel, a modestly priced red which retails for only $15.99.

Beautiful dark-cherry red in the glass, the wine was rather closed upon opening but after a few minutes it’s fragrance opened, displaying notes of ripe plum and oak. Upon my first sip, I noticed tastes of dark blueberry, plum, and modest amounts of oak manifested by cedar and warm sweet spice notes. Tannins were bold but not overpowering and overall I thought Chateau de Bel is an amazingly well structured, balanced wine. Considering it is under $20, it makes for an excellent everyday drinking wine for any Bordeaux lover. This is a great wine for those cooler nights curled up on the sofa, and though it would work well with grilled meats and hearty pasta dishes, I enjoyed a couple of glasses with a mouthwatering wedge of sharp cheddar.

Kevin Ross

Wine of The Week - Bodegas Olivares Panarroz 2009 Jumilla, Spain

Panarroz 2009 Jumilla, Spain $9.99

It might start looking like we are being subsidized by the Spanish wine industry, given the number of wines I’ve featured from Spain in the last couple of months. But the answer is really down to the fact that I keep finding a growing number of very pleasurable and relatively inexpensive delights. This week’s pick is a case in point. Panarroz is a delicious blend of Monastrell (Mourvedre) 60%, Garnacha (Grenache) 20% and Syrah 20%. I’m not quite sure where the name rice bread comes from, but the delightful fresh fruit on the nose and palate seem to make more sense especially given the astounding price, coming in at under $10. I recommend picking up a bottle to try and I would be surprised if you didn’t come back to grab a case, as I think it makes a great standby, week night wine. It’s direct and youthful character, partly due to the absence of any oak ageing, means it is very versatile. Great for quaffing on its own, it would also work well with pasta, chicken, and even some meaty fish.

Felix Milner

Wine of The Week - El Agosto Mencia 2010, Bierzo, Spain

El Agosto Mencia 2010, Bierzo, Spain ($24.99)

After taking stock of Gines Fernandez’s Mencia for the first time and with an interest in try something a little different, I decided to take home to try.

Due to its similarities, the Mencia variety was long thought to have been Spain’s cousin strain to Cabernet Franc, but recent DNA profiling has established the two are not linked. The grape is enjoying a gradual resurgence in popularity as young winemakers discover old vines and their potential to produce truly excellent wines, which is fuelling the development of a number of styles in this region. Some of the biggest examples see extended oak aging and need the best part of a decade to mature before reaching their prime. Others, like El Agosto, are made for near term drinking.

A dedicated and meticulous team hand harvest low yielding, old bush trained vines which are carefully cultivated on the hillsides of the sub region of Bierzo, in North West Spain. The grapes are fermented in small, plot specific tanks as they reach optimum maturity. Eight months in French oak has given backbone to this wine’s supple and delicious fruity quality. On the nose there is a display of soft plum and raspberry with a hint of mint. The palate takes on a burst of fruit, expressing a raspberry and blackberry compote with depth and somewhat grippy tannins.

Felix Milner

Wine of The Week - Domaine Dublere Bourgogne Blanc Les Millerands 2009

Domaine Dublere Bourgogne Blanc Les Millerands 2009 ($24.99)

This past Sunday, I sat down to taste a bottle of white Bourgogne Les Millerands from producer Domaine Dublere. The winery was started by Blair Pethel, a former political journalist from Washington, DC. After multiple trips to the region, he was so enchanted by Burgundy that he decided to quit his job, move to France, and begin producing wine. I was especially looking forward to trying this particular Chardonnay, hoping that a fellow Washingtonian could effectively capture the essence of Burgundy.

After pouring a glass, I first examined the color of the wine. It was about the color of straw, not too light and not too dark with a slight golden hue. Upon smelling my glass, I immediately noticed that this is not an overpoweringly fragrant wine, but it does have very pleasant hints of both oak and vanilla.

On taking my first sip, I observed that the wine was medium bodied, which I initially interpreted as a light cream taste. As with the aroma, the wine’s flavors are delicately present but not overpowering. The wine exhibited a nice acidity in the beginning which gave way to a restrained yet definitive mineral and oak taste. After the mineral and oak subsided on my palate, I was left with a clean, crisp finish which lasted well over thirty seconds. As the wine warmed up a bit in my glass, a faint nutty taste also materialized. It was enjoyable to sit and sip this wine on a Sunday afternoon while imagining the vineyard at this time of year.

Overall, I was very pleased Domaine Dublere’s entry level Chardonnay. offering good quality at such a reasonable price, given Burgundy’s high land and labor costs. The balance of the various flavors in the wine was excellent and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to venture into white Burgundy. I have no doubt that I will be trying more of Blair Pethel’s wines in the near future.

Kevin Ross

Wine of The Week - Máté Mantus Merlot 2007

Máté Mantus Merlot 2007, Tuscany Italy ($29.99)

Not content with his success as a writer, photographer, and ship builder (which he of course wrote about very successfully), around ten years ago Ferenc Máté turned his hand to making wine.

After sailing around the Pacific with his wife Candace in the boat they built, the couple finally chose to settle down in Tuscany, Italy. To begin with Ferenc renovated a beautiful 13^th Century Friary nestled in the hill of Montalcino and then set about building a winery and growing vines on the surrounding land.

With the help of Fabrizio Moltard, agronomist to Angelo Gaja, Ferenc chose grape varieties that suited each field of the small, 15-acre estate. Mate Winery makes a variety of remarkable wines, with their Brunello at the apex, reaching sensual heights. They also make a few “international” varietals, including a Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot.

I took home a bottle of the Merlot last week and was thoroughly impressed. If there is anyone out there who turns their nose up at Merlot, this is a wine to persuade them otherwise. The soft plum and sumptuous dark fruit on the nose are more akin to a Pomerol than any other Merlot I have tried.

Like Pomerol, Ferenc grows his Merlot in plots where the soil has a high proportion of clay. The combined facts that Merlot is happy to have wet feet and needs long warm days and cool evenings to ripen, explains why it works so well here. Montalcino enjoys a warmer, more arid climate than Chianti zones to the north, receiving several inches less rainfall every year. With less rainfall the roots stays well irrigated by the highly absorbent clay soil throughout the ripening period.

This wine would work well with any number of rich tasty dishes. I tasted it alongside a Burger from Five Guys, and although it probably isn’t a food match normally associated with fine wine, the result was sensational.

Felix Milner