Sparkle this Season

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample for review.

The weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. So if you’ve no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, and drink the 2010 Albert Mann Cremant d’Alsace.  It’s a delightful sparkler from a not as internationally recognized and therefore way less expensive French region.  We chose it to pair with a rather heavy chicken casserole the other night, and the brightness of the wine helped cleanse and refresh the palate.  The wine has a real cork closure, clocks in at 12.5% alcohol by volume, and retails for around $22.

Four takeways from this wine:

1.) There is excellent value to be found in French sparklers outside of Champagne.

2.) At a retail of just around $22, the Albert Mann makes an excellent addition to your holiday parties.

3.) It’s vintage. Where else might you find a vintage sparkler for this price?

4.) Yes, I’m focusing quite a bit on price, but really, can you beat it?

On the nose I found an herbal note, lemon, apple and pear.  On the palate I first noticed all the bubbles. The wine had tons and tons of bubbles.  In the mouth I got lemon, pear, salt, peaches, and a mineral streak. Overall I found the fruit to be tart and the wine to be refreshing, especially with the saline vein.

Filed under: France, Sparkling wine, Wine | 2 Comments »

Bring on the Bubbles!

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample.

Joy of joys, that time of year has returned where 4 pm on a Saturday rolls around and my thoughts turn to bubbly on the porch. In wine world, sipping bubbly on a perfect sunny afternoon outside is one of my favorite pleasures. This Saturday we turned to the 2008 Albert Mann Cremant d’Alsace. The Albert Mann retails for about $22, has a typical Champagne closure, and clocks in at 12.5% alcohol by volume.

Four takeaways from this wine:

1.) 105 degree weather + bubbles. Need I say more?

2.) At the price point it definitely doesn’t break the bank for an afternoon summer sipper.

3.) I was surprised by the red fruit notes on this wine.

4.) The nose was pretty simple. I was hoping for a bit more.

On the nose I found white flowers, strawberries, and a waxy note. In the mouth I got raspberries, strawberries, biscuit, and a slight honeyish note. Overall I found the wine to be crisp and refreshing with excellent acidity.

 

 

Filed under: France, Sparkling wine, Wine | 1 Comment »

Time to Sparkle!

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from F. Wildman.

Sorry for the radio silence! Christmas and my daughter’s first birthday being within 3 days of each other left me with little time to write.  Though plenty of occasions to raise a glass of bubbly and toast, which is what we did with the JJ Vincent Cremant de Bourgogne.   The JJ Vincent has a traditional Champagne closure, clocks in at 12% alcohol by volume, and retails for about $20.

Four takeaways from this wine:

1.) We drank it on a Saturday afternoon, which just set the tone for a good day.

2.) It’s a great budget friendly option for bubbles.

3.) You can get a lot of bang for you buck looking outside of Champagne to some of France’s other sparkling wine regions.  In general, Cremant d’Alsace is a favorite of mine.

4.) In the coming year I hope to drink even more bubbly, as it always makes me happy.

On the nose I got lemon, yellow apple, pear, teething biscuit (am I showing my mom colors now?), and pineapple.  In the mouth I found very prominent apple, pineapple, and a melon finish.  Overall, the wine had nice acidity with a touch of sweetness on the finish.  With the low(er) alcohol content, this sparkler made a great start to a Saturday afternoon.

 

Filed under: France, Sparkling wine, Wine | Comments Off

Sparkle this Season

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from the PR folks for the brand.

Thursday of last week was the annual arrival of the Beaujolais Nouveau from France. That is really not my thing, so I celebrated by drinking French wine, but not Beaujolais Nouveau.  The holidays tend to make people think of sparkling wine to toast at all the parties and belt-widening dinners and cookies. I’ve made a big effort the last few years to drink sparkling wine throughout the year, but must admit I still drink more of between now and January 1 than I do the rest of the year! We started out this season with the Jaillance Cremant de Bordeaux Cuvee de l’Abbaye.  The Jaillance has a traditional Champagne closure, clocks in at 12% alcohol by volume, and retails for about $19.

Four takeaways from this wine:

1.) It’s never a bad thing when my first note for a wine is “yum.”

2.) The bready-yeasty notes just jumped out of the glass.

3.) If you greeted me at the door with a glass of this at your party I’d think you are awesome.

4.) I’m adding this to my list of sub-$20 house sparklers.

On the nose I got lemon, pear, yeast, sourdough, bread, and apple notes. In the mouth the yeast carried through with lemon, green apple, and pear. The wine had great acidity and bubbles. I was definitely happy with my selection to celebrate French wine!

 

Filed under: France, Sparkling wine, Wine | Comments Off

Always Solid

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from F. Wildman Imports

Tonight’s wine was the 2009 Hugel Riesling. It had a Diam closure, clocked in at 12% alcohol by volume, and retails for somewhere between $15-$19.

Four takeaways from this wine:

1.) You can always count on Hugel to be a good bet for the money when you are faced with the (often confusing) Riesling wine section of the store. That goes for their Gewurtraminer and Pinot Gris  as well. I’ve purchased it many times.

2.) Riesling is what I consider a “gateway” wine to move folks who have always been only Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay people into different wines.

3.) My mom liked this wine. She doesn’t like wine at all.

4.) We drank it with roast chicken. Sort of like turkey, which is often recommended for a pairing with Riesling. I made a simple roast chicken rubbed with butter and sprinkled with Kosher salt. Yum.

On the nose I got lemon, white pepper, honey, honeysuckle, flowers, and pear. In the mouth I got lemon, pear, honey, and honeysuckle. The citrus and pear flavors dominated the palate whereas the honey/honeysuckle aromas were more prevalent on the nose. With good acidity and clean flavors, the wine made a great match with the roast chicken and mashed potatoes.

 

Filed under: France, Hugel, Riesling, White, Wine | 1 Comment »

Making My Day

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine in order to participate in a Taste Live event.

It’s a miracle! With this post I am caught up on all wines that I tasted in 2010! I’m close to being caught up with the first half of 2011 as well, since I kept up better with those. Within the next month I will be back on track. My only other wine from the 2nd Beaujolais tasting that was not corked was the 2006 Christophe Pacalet Cote de Brouilly. The wine had a real cork closure and retails for about $17. Again, this got recycled before I could record the alcohol content.

I first noted the ruby color of the wine. It intrigued me and I wish I was better with a camera to have been able to capture it for you. Alas, despite my best efforts, I pretty much suck at taking pictures. On the nose I found red cherries, red berries, spice, dirt, and earth. In the mouth I go more tart red cherry, raspberry, and just a hint of the spice and earth. Mostly this was all red fruit on the palate for me, very fresh and clean.

Filed under: France, Red, Wine | Comments Off

A Second Beaujolais Tasting

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine in order to participate in a Taste Live tasting.

I had the opportunity to participate in another Beaujolais tasting this winter, as part of a series held through the Taste Live site to explore the wines of Beaujolais outside of Beaujolais Nouveau. Sadly, 2 of my wines for this particular tasting ended up being corked, so I only have 2 to report on. The first is the 2005 Pascal Granger Juliénas. Keeping in the vein of the other Beaujolais tasting I participated in, I found these wines to provide a lot of bang for your buck in terms of depth, structure and flavor. I would seek out most again. The Pascal had a real cork closure and retails for about $20. The bottle got recycled before I recorded the alcohol content.

On the nose I got black cherry, spice, forest floor, black plum, and a slight herbal note. A very aromatic nose, I wanted to get lost in it. Alas, the fast past of the tasting leaves little time for studying the wines. I came back to it later though. On the palate I found the wine to display more red fruit than the nose would suggest. I got raspberry, cherry, and spice with a nice mineral vein running through. This is another that would work really well with Thanksgiving; it would complement many different foods easily.

Filed under: France, Red, Wine | Comments Off

More Beaujolais

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample in order to participate in a Taste Live event.

I feel like the little engine that could. I am so close to being caught up on old posts that I can almost taste it. Everyone at my house is looking at me because I’ve been sitting here all day bloggering away trying to catch up. I have a limit though. If the baby will let me, I’m hoping to type up 5 more posts for the day which will put me at having written up 15 today. I’ll be just a few short of being caught up again then and we can move back into what I’m tasting right now, since I’m back to drinking wine again! Up next in the Beaujolais tasting was the 2009 Chateau des Pethieres Beaujolais which clocked in at 12% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and retails for about $10.

On the nose I got smoked meat, mint, sweet fruits, cherry, sweet strawberry, and smoky notes. In the mouth I found the wine to be darker than I expected given the sweet red nose. Black cherry and black currants dominated with some smoky edges. The fruit still seemed sweet to me, but so much darker than the nose. This wine had more tannins and less acidity than the other two reds in the tasting.

Filed under: France, Red, Wine | 1 Comment »

Loving on the Beaujolais

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample to participate in a Taste Live event

I’m almost embarrassed to admit how little experience I have with French wines. But it’s true. I fell in love with California wine and while I make forays into other areas (see my affairs with Gruner Veltliner and sparkling wines for examples) I usually find myself coming back to my first love time and again. I should really spend more time with French wine though because as I learned through the Beaujolais tastings I participated in, you can get a lot of bang for your buck among these wines. Next up for this tasting we had the 2009 Jean-Paul Brun Domaine des Terres Dorees L’Ancien which clocked in at 12% alcohol by volume, had a plastic cork, and retails for around $13.

My first notes on the wine say “holy aroma on this one” and “it’s like the wine is jumping out of the glass.” A good start, no? I found blackberry, blackberry pie, raspberry, cherries, smoky notes, and more yummy tart fruit. In the mouth I found the fruit to be bold, with cherries, strawberries, and raspberries dominating and spice and herbs rounding it out nicely. Add to that excellent acidity and a pocketbook friendly price point and I’d put this wine high up there on my list of excellent Thanksgiving wines to stand up to the medley of dishes served on that holiday. (What, too early to be thinking of Thanksgiving?)

Filed under: France, Red, Wine | 2 Comments »

Slightly More Recent Live Tasting

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Sonadora

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample to participate in a Taste Live event

Most of my old tasting notes have been from the live tastings I’ve participated in. I find it very difficult to enter my thoughts into Twitter, respond to my fellow tasters, ask questions of the wine makers AND type notes into a blog post at the same time, so I jot down my notes on paper. Egads, paper! How quaint and old fashioned of me. However, the problem then becomes motivating myself to retype those notes into the computer instead of writing them up as I go along, my normal modus operandi. In any case, for this tasting we focused on Beaujolais. Not the Beaujolais Nouveau stuff.  We tasted the 2009 Domaine Dupeuble Pere et Fils Beaujolais which clocked in at 12.5% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and retails for around $13.

On the nose I got tart berries, raspberries, blueberry, blueberry pie, spice, cinnamon, cream, currants, and pepper. In the mouth I found tart blueberries, raspberries, black currants, pepper, and cherries. For $13 this wine had a lot going on with good structure and nice acidity to boot.

Filed under: France, Red, Wine | 1 Comment »

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