Tag Archives: white wine

Father’s Day wine 2023

Father's Day ties
Yet again, the Father’s Day tie picture — the WC does love it.

Father’s Day wine 2023: Quality wine for Dad, because that’s what we do

Once again, wine for Dad for Father’s Day that fits what we do here — price and value, and not silliness or scores or expensive wine for the sake of spending money. And don’t forget the blog’s wine gift-giving guidelines — don’t buy someone wine that you think they should like; buy them what they will like.

Father’s Day wine 2023 suggestions:

• Pedroncelli Sauvignon Blanc Giovanni & Giulia 2022 ($22, sample, 13.9%): Yes, more money than I usually spend, but I love this wine. It’s top-notch, varietally correct California sauvignon blanc — so some grassiness, some lime, and even some tropical. Highly recommended.

• Douglas Green Rib Shack Red 2021 ($12, purchased, 13.5%): Pinotage, baby! Which means it’s South African through and through — full and rich, a bit tannic, and with lots of black fruit (plus the telltale pinotage aroma and some fake oak). Imported by Cape Classics

• VillaViva Rose 2021 ($10, purchased, 12%): Not quite as well-rounded as the 2020, but well worth buying. Still savory, some red berries, some minerality. Imported by Aquitane Wine USA

• De Chanceny Brut NV ($15, purchased, 12.5%): Amazon Fresh private label (as well as Whole Foods). Made with the Champagne method, but with chenin blanc as well as chardonnay and cabernet franc. A bit softer, some lemon fruit, but still lively. Imported by Dropping Wines

More Father’s Day wine:
• Father’s Day wine 2022
• Father’s Day wine 2021
• Father’s Day wine 2020
• Expensive wine 164: Albert Bichot Fleurie La Madone 2019

Wine of the week: La Chapelle du Bastion Picpoul de Pinet 2022

La Chapelle du Bastion Picpoul de Pinet bottle
La Chapelle du Bastion Picpoul de Pinet 2022/$10-$16

This white from southern France offers a refreshing change during a long, hot summer

One of the less appreciated aggravations of premiumization is that it has led producers to focus on specific wine styles – chardonnay, of course, and sauvignon blanc, as well as rose and reds – the trendy blends and a handful of varietals. So not only does ordinary wine cost more, but it has become more difficult to find wines that aren’t like those.

Cases in point are muscadet and picpoul, which sit somewhere between chardonnay and sauvignon blanc and which are not only interesting, but very, very fairly priced. Plus they’re just the whites for a hot summer, the antithesis of a heavy, too oaky chardonnay.

We’ve written much about both on the blog, despite the difficulty in sometimes finding the wines. But my job, if nothing else, is to keep looking, and it’s almost always worth the effort.

Such as the La Chapelle du Bastion Picpoul de Pinet 2022 ($12, purchased, 12.5%). Most picpouls, which come from southern France, offer a tart, almost puckery fruit flavor (picpoul can be translated as “lips-macking,” more or less). But this is a softer, rounder picpoul, so there is almost some stone fruit lurking in the mix, as well as the citrus and the sort of stony finish.

Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2023 Hall of Fame. Chill this and drink it when you want wine that refreshes.

Imported by Monsieur Touton Selection

Expensive wine 168: Ceretto Blange 2021

Ceretto Blangé 2021
Ceretto Blange 2021/$19-$22

Italian white wine shows off the arneis grape

Italian wine, which is full of ironies to begin with, gets especially ironic when it comes to white wine. Most of us don’t think of Italian whites as the equal of the reds, and the most popular varietal is pinot grigio, which is usually used to make vast amounts of indifferent supermarket wine.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t Italian whites that deserve our respect, whether it’s the less expensive grillo from Sicily or arneis from the Piedmont.

Case in point is the Ceretto Blange 2021 ($22, purchased, 13.5%), which I bought as part of the recent expensive wine week experiment. I’ve long enjoyed arneis, and look for it when I want to spend a little more money. It’s both food friendly and a welcome change from the citrus fruit driven white wines that I usually drink.

Hence, the Ceretto, made by a producer best known for making $100 and $200 Piedmontese reds. Which, in this case, means we’re getting a top-notch winery for our $22.

Most arneis is floral and almost nutty – the tasting notes say hazel nuts, but it always seems more almond-like to me. The wine is not quite as rich as a California chardonnay, but always round, with stone fruit flavors.

The Ceretto is a little fresher with less almond and more citrus and apricot than others I’ve tasted. This doesn’t mean that it’s not worth drinking, but just that it’s different. And, frankly, it was head and shoulders above the quality of the other pricey wines I tasted during the expensive wine week effort.

Highly recommended, and just the thing for Mother’s Day – as a gift or for a leisurely Sunday dinner.

Imported by Heritage Collection

 

Wine of the week: Marques de Caceres Verdejo 2021

Marqués de Cáceres Verdejo bottle
Marques de Caceres Verdejo 2021/$8-$12

Spanish white demonstrates one more time that scores are useless

The Wine Curmudgeon has no idea why the Marques de Caceres Verdejo, one of the world’s great cheap white wines, scores so poorly on CellarTracker, the blog’s unofficial wine inventory app.

Oh, that’s right. I do know. Scores are useless.

And also know that the Marques de Caceres Verdejo 2021 ($10, purchased, 13%), which always offers value and quality, does even more this vintage. It’s almost nuanced and subtle, an amazing accomplishment for a $10 wine and even more amazing given that so many producers no longer care about that, opting for smoooth.

The Caceres, which comes from the Rueda region, is made with the verdejo grape, which gets about as much respect as most grapes used to make cheap wine (and which no doubt accounts for the poor scores — ITS NOT CHARDONNAY). Nevertheless, the 2021 is more round and full, and it’s much less tart and much less of a one-note wine. There’s an almost tropical middle to go with verdejo’s typical lemon fruit and lingering freshness.

Drink this on its own, or with grilled or roasted chicken, as well as something as different as braised chickpeas with lemons and herbs. Highly recommended, and does all that a $10 wine should do – and much, much more. Sure to be on the shortlist for the 2024 Turner award.

Imported by Vineyard Brands

Expensive wine 167: Ameztoi Hondarrabi Zuri 2021

Ameztoi Hondarrabi Zuri bottle
Ameztoi Hondarrabi Zuri 2021/$18-$32

Calling all wine geeks – a sweetish, fizzy Basque white

Regular readers know – for all of my wine practicality – that there are a couple of grapes and regions that make the Wine Curmudgeon geek out.

One of which is Basque wine from northern Spain and a region called Getariako Txakolina, featuring the hondarrabi zuri grape. It’s used to make whites and roses, but it’s not for all tastes. Anyone who likes lots of oak or lots of too ripe fruit or lots of smoooth will probably find these wines lacking. But that’s OK; that’s the way wine works.

The Ameztoi Hondarrabi Zuri 2021 ($22, purchased, 11%) is from one of what seems to be a number of smallish producers, in this case Ameztoi (which I’ve not seen before). Having said that, the wine does everything it’s supposed to do – a bit of spritz, a bit of citrus, a bit of sweetness, and maybe even a bit of savory. Because that’s how these geeky wines work – a bottle of contradictions. My only complaint is the price; if you pay much more than $20, you may be disappointed.

I suppose, if one is looking for a comparison, it would be the Portuguese vinho verde. But wines from Getariako Txakolina are more complex and more interesting, in the way cru Beaujolais is more interesting than the supermarket versions.

This is warm weather wine, perfect as spring starts to unfold. Highly recommended, and especially for anyone who aspires to wine geek-dom.

Imported by De Maison Selections

 

Wine of the week: The Curator White 2021

curator white wine label
The Curator White 2021/$8-$17

Once more, South Africa sets an example for the rest of the world

The Wine Curmudgeon has been doing this long enough to have seen any number of wine fads come and go. Sadly, South Africa got stuck in several of them, including Parkerized shiraz and New Zealand-style sauvignon blanc that didn’t come from New Zealand.

Maybe this time, though, the country is establishing something that will become much than a fad: quality cheap wine.

The Curator White 2021 ($12, purchased, 13%) is just one more wine that demonstrates that the South Africans may have figured out something that baffles so much of the rest of the world (yes, you California!). Almost a dozen South African labels have been a wine of the week in the past two years, and that doesn’t include the epic MAN Family chenin blanc that won the Turner award in 2021.

And why not? The producers who do these wines – including MAN, Boekenhoutskloof, Ken Forrester, and Badenhorst, which makes Curator – have figured it out. They make $10 and $12 wine that tastes like wine and not a fruit cocktail.

In this case, it’s a white blend (mostly chenin blanc and chardonnay) that is somehow pleasantly oily, as chenin can be; fruity (stone fruit) but not sweet; and fresh. This is not easy to do, even in wines costing twice as much. That Badenhorst does it so well here speaks to its commitment.

Drink this chilled on its own, with takeout chicken or leftovers when you’re cleaning out the fridge. Highly recommended, and almost certain to be included in the 2024 Hall of Fame as well as the shortlist for the 2024. Turner.

Imported by Broadbent Selections

Expensive wine 166: Drouhin-Vaudon Chablis 2020

Drouhin-Vaudon Chablis bottle
Drouhin-Vaudon Chablis 2020/$21-$30

Once more with feeling – white Burgundy for the Big Guy

The weather in Dallas was porch-like for a couple of days last week, and of course I thought about Mack Turner. It was just the kind of Sunday afternoon that he would have brought a bottle to the house and we would have sat on the deck, sipping and enjoying.

So, though we can’t do that any more, I can still write about the kinds of wines he loved to share with me – like the Drouhin-Vaudon Chablis 2020 ($26, purchased, 12.5%).

Chablis is part of Burgundy; though the wines are made with chardonnay, the style is much different – crisper, leaner, less oak. The Drouhin-Vaudon fits firmly in that style, though it does lean toward a rounder, fuller approach. That means it’s less austere Chablis, so softer (almost stone fruit instead of green apple) and a little less minerally. It’s still well made, of course – just an interestingly different take on the subject.

It’s Saturday night dinner wine, the kind to serve when you want to drink a better quality bottle but don’t want to spend $50.

Mack would have liked this, too. Our only disagreement would have been over price. I would have said it was a better value closer to $20 – since it Chablis, after all – and he would have given me one of his looks and said he enjoyed it a lot and why were we quibbling over a couple of dollars.

Imported by Dreyfus Ashby