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+--- Thread: Very brief notes from Wine South 2005 (/thread-2638.html)
- dananne - 09-21-2005
Anne and I got to go on the second day as guests of Angel Flight, a charitable organization that Anne has done considerable pro bono work for recently.
Started out attending the seminar -- "One Hour Wine Expert" with Kevin Zraly, who was wine director at Windows on the World until 9/11. Our flight of 6 wines was as follows:
1. 2004 Dr. Frank Finger Lakes Riesling
2. 2004 Schug Sonoma Sauvignon Blanc
3. 2004 McWilliams Chardonnay (Australia)
4. 2002 King Estate Oregon Pinot Noir
5. 2002 Aquinas Napa Merlot
6. 2002 Sebastiani Estate Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon
Forgive me in advance, as my notes look like something a garden spider would produce.
Before I get to the wines, I thought I'd share a few nuggets that Zraly offered. In no particular order . . .
When he started doing classes, people were 75%/25% white drinkers, and that has flip-flopped. In our seminar, it was more like 90% red.
75% of all new wines will be screw caps in 5 years.
If you can't read looking through the wine, it's not ready to drink.
I'm sure at least the latter two thoughts could be debatable. On to the wines, which we had to wait 40 minutes to actually try (I got so bored swirling and sniffing the whites that I moved over to smell the reds, was caught, and was scolded in front of the assembled group by Zraly -- not the first time I've been the troublemaker in class, but don't tell my students that).
The best of the whites was the Riesling, which was fresh, tart, and showed crisp green apples and had a ringing finish. I'm not a bit white wine fan, but that was refreshing.
The Chard was awful.
The SB was the next best white, but it would have done better matched with seafood. On it's own, it tasted a bit nondescript.
The King Estate, which I've had many times, was decent, and a good example of the varietal, though as you can imagine I had dozens better while out in Willamette last month.
The Merlot was wierd, with a distinct prune/raisin element on the nose and entry. I didn't take to it, but at least it didn't taste the same as every other God-awful Merlot on the planet.
The Cab was a good example of the varietal, with decent structure, but it's one that you could pop now given a bit of air time.
On to the real show, Anne and I had planned to visit the Georgia Pavillion and then scram, as we're still looking to replace my truck which was totalled last week in a major accident. However, the Georgia area was about half as large as it had been in past years, and the stuff wasn't thrilling at all. The Tiger Mountain wines stood out, as usual. They really are doing the best job in GA. We weren't satisfied after the GA area, so we began to prowl, looking for interesting stuff we don't get to try on a regular basis or simply haven't seen before. The stuff from Shelton, a North Carolina winery that is regarded as one of the best in the state, was dire. A good example of something new, however, would be a Feteasca Alba, a Romanian grape that produces an off-dry white with honeysuckle, orange, and apple aromas that finishes with just enough acidity to make me happy. Would be good with a dessert that was more dry than sweet, or perhaps with very spicy Asian food. It was made by Arte Forma. Tried an Oregon Pinot that we didn't see out there from Evergreen Vineyards called "Spruce Goose," after the Hughes airplane that sits in a museum adjacent to the vineyards in McMinnville. Wouldn't be a bad bargain PN, but I wasn't all that thrilled by it. Runs around $15. Had a tasty 100% Bonarda from an Argentine outfit called Bodegas Nieto Senetiner. Their '03 Reserva Malbec was a treat, too. If my notes are correct, it got a WE 89. Also had two nice sparklers from Argentina's Rosell Boher -- one was a Brut (60% PN, 40% Chard) and the other a Grande Cuvee Millesimee 1999 that may have been all PN, and showed a nice salmon color, good spicy peach flavors, and a nice yeasty/toasty element. Anne preferred the former, I the latter. Had an interesting dessert wine from Armenia from the Kharji grape, grown near Mr. Ararat in the Ararat Valley by Anahit. Hard to describe, it was somewhere between a Tawny Port and a Muscat. Came in very cheesy hand blown glass containers, however -- things like Santas and gnomes and the like -- that didn't give proper justice to the juice inside, which was tasty. Tasted a nice '03 Gigondas by Louis Bernard that needs about a decade of age. You get the idea -- we were trying to avoid stuff like Gloria Ferrer, J Lohr, and the like, as we see those every day. Probably the best wine we tried was an Amerone, but unfortunately I had given up trying to take notes by that time. Oh well. Anyway, overall impression is that, while there are more wineries participating now, and the space has enlarged considerably from my last time attending a few years back, the quality was markedly down, and more troublingly, more stuff tasted exactly alike. I really had to look up from time to time to check whether I was in the International Pavillion or the American one. IMHO, that's a kind of sorry direction the wine world is heading. It also probably explains why my notes were on wines like Feteasca Alba, Bonarda, and Kharji -- that's the stuff that stood out because it's different. I hope we don't end up losing these in favor of replantings of "big 5" varietals and "international style" wines, as the wine world could easily become vastly more boring. OK, enough pontificating. I know this "brief" note has already gone on long enough [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]
- Innkeeper - 09-22-2005
Thanks, great report. Am netural, but methinks some Carolinans make take some issue with some of your observations.
- wondersofwine - 09-22-2005
I'll stick up for the Shelton Riesling which I think is pretty good. I really don't have a lot to say about their other wines. Childress, of NASCAR racing fame, is starting a new winery that may be good in time. I may have to visit it in person once it really gets going.
Thanks for the notes, Dan. Dr. Konstantin Frank does make some nice wines--especially the Rieslings. You probably are aware that Willi Frank gave us a tour and tasting at the offline in the Finger Lakes last year.
- dananne - 09-22-2005
I promise I meant no offense to NC wines -- I've almost always got at least a mixed case of stuff on hand from wineries all over the SE, so I have no snobbishness about the wines and really try to support the local folks. Also, I really believe that the wine industry in the SE (especially in the extreme NE part of GA up into the Yadkin Valley in NC) is making strides. I had wanted to try Shelton's Riesling (which I have heard good things about), but they didn't have it out, so I had two of their reds. So, to be more specific, the reds I tried from Shelton weren't to my taste. I found them a bit too vegetal and dilute.
Wonders -- thanks for the heads up on Childress. I had read something about it recently in the Wine Report, that free wine mag that's at some of the wine shops in our neck of the woods (I think up in Charlotte, too). And, yes, I heard about your visit last year to Frank in the FL. Actually, this one was the first FL wine I've tried!