Tag Archives: South African wine

Mother's Day wine

Mother’s Day wine 2017

mother's day wine 2017Four suggestions for Mother’s Day wine 2017

The same lesson applies for this, the Wine Curmudgeon’s 11th annual Mother’s Day wine post, that applied to the previous 10. Buy Mom something she will like, and not something you think she should drink. Our Mother’s Day wine gift giving guidelines are here; the idea is to make her happy, not to impress her with your wine knowledge. She’s your Mom – she’s impressed already.

These Mother’s Day wine suggestions should get you started:

• Pewsey Vale Dry Riesling 2015 ($16, sample, 12.5%): Australian rieslings are some of the least known quality wines in the world, because who associates riesling and Australia? This white shows why the wines offer so much quality at more than a fair price: dry, crisp, lemon and lime fruit, and a certain zestiness. Highly recommended.

• Cristalino Rose Brut NV ($9, sample, 12%): Every time I taste this Spanish cava, or sparkling wine, I am amazed at how well made it is, and especially how well made it is for the price. No wonder it has been in the $10 Hall of Fame since the beginning. Tight bubbles, red and citrus fruit, and perfect for Mother’s Day brunch.

• Mulderbosch Cabernet Sauvignon Rose 2016 ($10, sample, 12.5%): This South African pink is tighter and more closed this year, and the weight of the cabernet is more obvious. Having said that, it’s still a fine, fresh rose, with dark red fruit and a little spice and what could even be tannins in the back that add a little interest.

• Bravium Pinot Noir 2015 ($30, sample, 12.5%): This California red is nicely done, a varietally correct pinot from the well-regarded Anderson Valley and more or less worth what it costs. Some earth, red fruit and even a hint of orange peel.

More about Mother’s Day wine:
• Mother’s Day wine 2016
• Mother’s Day wine 2015
• Mother’s day wine 2014
• Wine of the week: Anne Amie Cuvee Muller Thurgau 2015

Cheap wine checklist: $82.67 for a case of wine

cheap winePutting my money where my crankiness is: A case of quality cheap wine for about $80.

This is the second of two parts about buying cheap wine in the age of premiumization. Part I on Sept. 22: The cheap wine checklist.

Why do so many people pay so much money for so much lousy wine? Because, as I discussed with Laura Lawson on her Wine Crush radio show last week, we’re afraid to try something different. If it’s not what we always drink, and that’s almost always overpriced cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, and merlot, then we’re stuck paying too much.

Hence the cheap wine checklist, and its five guidelines to help us find quality cheap wine. How well does it work? Quite well; I used the checklist to buy a case of wine at the main Dallas Spec’s for $82.67 last week. The wines were from Spain, France, and South Africa, there was nary a cabernet or chardonnay among them, and four were roses.

I’ve bought some of the wines before, but almost half were first-time purchases:

• The repeats – four bottles of the Rene Barbier white Spanish blend, the Chateau Bonnet white Bordeaux, the Bieler et Fils rose from Provence, and the South African Goats do Roam rose. Total: $46.29

• I splurged on the Château La Tour Beraud Blanc, made with grenache blanc from the southern Rhone in France. Total: $12.62

• The Brumont tannat-merlot blend from Gascony in France, made by the same producer who does a nice Gascon white blend. Total: $10.52.

• Two Spanish wines from Frederico Paternina, a tempranillo and rose, because almost all Spanish wine is worth buying. Total: $16.82.

• The 2015 vintage of the Marques Caceras rose, which I hadn’t tasted in a couple of years. Total: $8.09.

Grand total, minus $11.67 in cash and case discounts and not including sales tax, was $82.67.

So no bellyaching when you say you can’t find anything cheap and good to buy. Yes, I benefited because Spec’s is the biggest retailer in Texas and because it’s locked in a death struggle with Total Wine for control of the Dallas market – both of which account for some ferocious price cutting.

But the point is not where you buy your wine, but that you understand how wine pricing works and that trying wine that you’re not supposed to like will save money. It’s one of the first lessons I learned in wine: if I don’t like chocolate ice cream, why would I buy it because someone told me I was supposed to? So why do we do that with wine?

Wine of the week: Ken Forrester Petit Chenin Blanc 2014

forrester petit chenin blancIn a perfect wine world, the Ken Forrester Petit Chenin Blanc would be on store shelves everywhere, and I wouldn’t have to write this kind of post. Until then, know that this is the kind of wine that I wish more producers made and that my colleagues in the Winestream Media allowed more people to enjoy.

Because the Ken Forrester Petit Chenin Blanc ($11, purchased, 13.5%), from South Africa, is the sort of fresh, crisp, and cheap white wine made with a grape that gets very little respect and that the world needs more of. It’s bright and juicy (peaches?), with a touch of citrus and an almost zesty finish that’s devoid of the bitter, pitty flavors some chenin blanc has. And it’s not sweet, either, with only about as much residual sugar as a typical chardonnay.

Chill this and drink on its own; it’s the kind of wine to keep around the house when you feel like a glass. Or pair it with almost any holiday meal that isn’t red meat, and especially a Christmas turkey or something to make all those leftovers that much more enjoyable.

My tasting notes say “thoroughly delightful,” which goes nicely with the note from the producer (and which are rarely worth quoting): “Should last half an hour with the cap off and reach for the next bottle!”

Winebits 378: Box wine, South African wine, nutrition labels

box wine ? Bring on the cartons: Box wine, since it’s too awkward for most store shelves and because consumers are confused about its quality, has been little more than a niche product in the U.S. But all that may be about to change with the news that E&J Gallo will sell a $20, 3-liter box called Vin Vault, which works out to $5 a bottle for something that will be the quality equivalent of $10 grocery store merlot. If Gallo — perhaps the best judge of consumer sentiment among Big Wine producers — figures the time is right for box wine, it probably is (witness the success of Barefoot and Apothic). Look for big-time promotions and price cutting for Vin Vault when it debuts next month, which should also spur price-cutting for Black Box and Bota Box, the brands that dominate the better-quality box wine market.

? Whatever happened to Sebeka? The $10 brand all but disappeared in the U.S. after Gallo gave up on it a couple of years ago, realizing how difficult it was to sell South African wine in the U.S. The wine itself was OK, but as the Wine Curmudgeon has noted many times, South African wines have many problems in this country that don’t include quality. But Sebeka’s new owner figures the time is right to try again, though I have my doubts given this assessment from a Sebeka official: “We don ?t know what will be the next big thing but hopefully it ?s chenin blanc or pinotage. It just needs that one breakthrough that everyone writes about.” I don’t know what the next thing will be either, though I do know it won’t be pinotage or that anyone in the Winestream Media will figure it out. They’re still unsure about sweet red wine.

? Ingredient labels: The recent arsenic scare is about more than contaminated wine; my take is that it’s just one part of the long battle over ingredient labels for wine. So the news last week — and before we found out we’d all been poisoned by cheap wine — that Big Wine producer Diageo would add calorie and nutritional information to its wine is worth mentioning. The company, whose brands include Chalone, Rosenblum, and Sterling, said it wants consumers to know what they’re drinking. In this, reports the Harpers trade magazine, Diageo is the first drinks company to offer the labels. Would that more producers, large and small, had that attitude.

Wine of the week: Ken Forrester Petit Chenin Blanc 2013

Ken Forrester Petit Chenin Blanc 2009This South African white is one of the world’s great cheap wines. So why did I have to taste it in a restaurant in San Diego, instead of buying it in a store in Dallas?

You know the reason for that: the three tier-system.

But the Wine Curmudgeon will not let that deter him from his life’s work. What’s a constitutionally-protected regulatory system when terrific cheap wine is at stake?

Because the Ken Forrester ($10, purchased, 13%) is terrific — a surprisingly rich mouth feel given this is $10 chenin blanc, plus green apple fruit, a tiny hint of honey in the middle, and even some minerality on the finish. In this, it’s the kind of chenin — not sweet, not syrupy, not a sauvignon blanc knockoff, but with character and interest — that makes me wonder why the grape isn’t more popular. I rarely quote producer websites, but this is spot on: “Perfect everyday drinking wine.”

Especially if you live in the ninth largest city in the country where 100-degree summer days cry out for this kind of wine. Or, as several of my colleagues said when we bought the wine in San Diego, “What do you mean, you can’t buy this in Dallas?” Which, come to think of it, has always been a problem.

Highly recommended, but since it’s not for sale in Dallas, it can’t be in the $10 Hall of Fame. Unless I change the rules, but I don’t run that kind of Hall of Fame.

 

Winebits 196: South African wine, Trump Winery, trademarks

? Race and wine: A terrific piece in the New York Times about one of South Africa’s first — and only — black winemakers, that also offers insight into the country’s wine business. Says the winemaker, Ntsiki Biyela: “Somehow I fell in love with the ever-changing content of wine. Wine is never the same today as it is tomorrow. It even depends on where you drink it and who you are with and what mood you are in. It ?s a very, very nice thing.”

? New Virginia winery: Dave McIntrye reports on one of the first public sightings of Virginia’s new Trump Winery (with a picture), although there wasn’t very much Trump wine to taste. “Visitors to the Trump tent were given tastes of Kluge SP sparking wine (which was consistently quite good in my experience) and the Albemarle viognier, ros and red blends.” Maybe we can get Trump Winery to participate in Regional Wine Week? The man himself at DLW 2012: Colorado?

? Court to Budwesier — not so fast: Those of us who have been following the various name contretemps in the wine and alcohol business will be glad to know that a court has finally had enough. Europe’s highest court ruled that Anheuser-Busch, which makes Budweiser, must share the Budweiser name in the United Kingdom with the Czech Bud jovick Budvar. You’ll need to follow the link, since the story is quite confusing, but apparently, each brand has been using the same name for its product for decades. If only U.S. courts were so wise.

Wine of the week: Ken Forrester Petit Chenin Blanc 2009

Ken Forrester Petit Chenin Blanc 2009 This is not the wine that won a silver medal at this year’s Dallas Morning News wine competition, and which I raved about in February — with the caveat that it probably wouldn’t be available for me to buy.

Sure enough, the Wine Curmudgeon was right (another example of how misguided the wine business can be). But I did find the previous vintage, the 2009 (purchased), for $11 at Whole Foods. And it wasn’t too shabby, either. The 2009 isn’t quite as impressive as the 2010, but for a previous vintage of a simple wine that shouldn’t necessarily last this long, it was nicely done.

Ken Forrester, a South African producer, is known for its expertise with chenin blanc, and would that more wineries took this grape so seriously. The 2009 wasn’t as light as I remember the 2010 being, but it still had lots of steely minerality and tart green apple fruit. And, for those of you who are concerned about these things, it wasn’t sweet at all.

It’s a summer heat wave wine, and there’s nothing wrong with dropping an ice cube in it or keeping it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. It will pair with grilled chicken breasts and summer salads, and will also be quite welcome after work on its own as you sit out the heat of the day. And, hopefully, the 2010 will show up somewhere soon.