2006 Chateau La Rame Bordeaux

Tonight I accompanied friends to the birthday dinner of an acquaintance. We went to Silk, the Ultra-Americanized Thai restaurant in the Pearl District. I ate crazy noodles, which are basically spicy noodles fried up with chicken and bok choy.

2006 Chateau La Rame Bordeaux (grand vin de Bordeaux)
I haven't had Bordeaux before, and this was the most expensive by-the-glass option. I had no idea what to expect and was a bit unsure. Knowing nothing about Bordeaux (or wine in general, still) I was afraid that it wouldn't go well with not-so-traditional Thai fare. For starters, I could not make a good assessment of the color because of the lighting in the place, but it had an alcoholic nose. Pleasantly surprised, I found the Bordeaux to be dry but smooth, with only a little sour bite on the sides of the tongue when very oxygenated (swishing around in the mouth). The flavor was darker than most wines I've reviewed. By that I mean, that it was less spicy and seemed to have more integrated flavors, as in, less distinguishable individual flavors. This could also be attributed to consuming it with Thai food.

Overall, I would recommend this wine to anyone who likes red varietals.

2005 Campus Oak Old Vine Zinfandel

I find it an odd thing when I am Googling something and it has no website. Especially so when I am Googling a delightful, award-winning wine---one would think its winery would have a website you could easily find with Google. But, tonight I had dinner at the Press Club (which also has no website...) where I was able to taste a very nice wine.

2005 Campus Oak Old Vine Zinfandel (Lodi)
Just looking at the name made me think I could be making a mistake. The bottle and label are fine to look at but I was concerned by the name "Campus." I had already had a taste of the house wine, which was a Sangiovese, so once I tasted the Zin I instantly recognized its sweetness in comparison. Actually, I was so surprised by it that I likened it more to some Merlot's I've had than the red Zin's I've tasted before. I'm going to admit right now that I didn't give this wine the consideration I've given the other's I've reviewed (this is because I was busy with my friend in conversation). I failed to make a clear assessment of its nose, and so feel like I am 1) barely qualified to review it and 2) will not do it justice.

The taste of this wine was sweet. It was like jam on my tongue. There was no bitterness. Having paired it with a savory crepe, I instantly regretted sipping it during my meal because it was not nearly the right wine for the food. So while I finished my crepe I left the Zin to the side. After I finished I began with the wine again. It was pleasant to drink alone but I also ordered a dessert crepe and it went well with that too. I would definitely order this wine again. While it has won several awards however, I do think it a bit pricey at $9 a glass when you can purchase the bottle for less than $15 at somewhere other than the restaurant.

2005 Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon

I didn't really feel like having any wine tonight but since starting this blog, I feel compelled to try it if the bottle is open.

2005 Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon (Colchagua, Chile)
Like the Argentinean Malbec, this wine has an alcoholic nose. It smells a bit of jam, and recalls the memory of my mom making jam at home out of huckleberries. Having now tried two South American wines I can sense a subtle spicy flavor that other wines don't usually have. This Cab seems to have a shifted flavor from others due to said spice. Also like the Malbec, this wine is dryer than the others I've reviewed. At the back of the tongue it finishes spicy and then alcoholic. The tannins are present but not overt enough to detract from the wine. Overall, it most simply tastes like a Cabernet, went well with steak and is equally enjoyable as an after dinner drink.

2002 Heath Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot

World Market is a great place to pick up imported wines at fair prices. I recommend that if you want to get inexpensive wine, go there to select something that would be a bit more unique.

2002 Heath Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot (South Australia)
I didn't really expect anything from this wine. It wasn't expensive and I haven't tried this winery before so I didn't formulate any notions about it. I was pretty surprised for a few reasons. First, the wine is very palatable. After only a few sips it became quite smooth and produced little bitterness on the tongue. Second, it has a dark aroma whose cherry scent I can actually recognize and is not overtly alcoholic. Third, I thought I tasted some strawberry. Wrong though I may be, having seen the description on their site, I still pride myself on finally having been able to distinguish one flavor from the mixture even if I wrongly identified it.

This wine is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot. I think it is a nice combination because sometimes Cabs can be too spicy whereas Merlots can be much too sweet for my liking. I definitely recommend this bottle and I think it would go well with a variety of dishes because it becomes lighter as you drink it.

2005 Cycles Gladiator Pinot Noir

I have almost no experience with Pinot Noir. I can say without hesitation that I've only tasted it two or three times. For this reason, I was open, if not eager, to try some tonight.

2005 Cycles Gladiator Pinot Noir (Central Coast)
For some reason I expected the color to be darker than it was. It wasn't fully saturated up to the edge of the liquid where it meets the glass. When I smelled it I was almost surprised by its alcoholic aroma, because I'd sort of romanticized what was said about Pinot grapes in Sideways. I then swirled the wine in the glass and took a deep breath of the flavor---it released a much different scent. It was pungent and, I hesitate to say, had a slight moldy odor. When I did a bit of research, I found that common characteristics of Pinot Noir scent are "mushroom, earth, barnyard, truffle, leather, meat." Odd when thinking about wine but luckily it didn't taste like that. Instead it had a subtle fruity flavor---my undeveloped palate cannot distinguish these however.

This wine is worth a try, inexpensive, and probably would go decent with most meals, but it is also enjoyable on its own.

2005 Gouguenheim Malbec

Tonight we went and had dinner at Oba. It was busier than I've seen it the other two times I've been there---perhaps because it is Friday. For those of you who don't know, Oba is sort of a latin/South American inspired place where you can order tapas or single person entres. Along with the food, we ordered an inexpensive bottle of wine.

2005 Gouguenheim Malbec (Argentina, Valle Escondido)
Unfortunately, their website isn't very extensive so I found very little information about this wine online. This is what I gathered from it just by trying it: The scent was a bit harsh on the nose. The primary scent is actually alcohol, which made me a bit wary about it. However, when tasted, the alcohol isn't as principle in the flavor. I had a hard time distinguishing the fruit within the design. To me, it tasted almost cherry, but in one review I found it was described as black raspberry and currant. I suppose if I knew what currant tasted like off the top of my head I could validate or dismiss that claim. This wine also had more tannins and acidic qualities than the other two I've reviewed thus far---it finished sort of dry (I kept wanting to sip water along with it) and I noticed that the very tip of my tongue sort of tingled almost as if it were a sparkling beverage. I didn't care for this wine in combination with what I ate for dinner, but I think it would be enjoyable with some kind of beef dish.

2000 Fontalloro Super-Tuscan Sangiovese

Those of you local to Portland should really check this place out. Martinottis' has all sorts of interesting things from imported trinkets to an impressive wine selection. Bottle after bottle I was continually surprised.

When I entered, I walked to the most obvious wine shelf. Bottles there tended to be in the $15 to $20 range. The owner of course asked if he could help out, and then directed me to the other side of the store for more wine selections. I was not expecting to find cases and cases, wine racks, bottles stacked every which way---bottles as expensive as $900. There were a range of years, the oldest I saw was 1963 but I was only there for five minutes.

Entering that shop is how I remembered the other bottle we shared with friends the other night at dinner.

2000 Fontalloro Super-Tuscan Sangiovese (Tuscany)
The thing I remember most about this wine was that it tasted good, and that at first, my poor flavor indicator couldn't really decide exactly what it tasted like. It was pointed out to me that it had a heavy cherry flavor, which I then immediately recognized. It was an enjoyable bottle, also quite expensive, and definitely one I would want again sometime. This wine was very different than the Altamura Cab. Not being comparable on a flavor level, I can offer up that the Fontalloro had more discernible tannins. That fact did not negatively impact the likeability, however.

2000 Altamura Cabernet Sauvignon

Last night we were treated to a fantastic dinner. Out with friends, we had dinner more the way the Italians do. Things came in courses; I was full before my dinner got to the table, so I brought almost all of it home as leftovers. The restaurant, Bugatti's in West Linn, had a nice atmosphere and was packed---an affirmation that the food there is good. And it is.

The real surprise, I must admit, was the wine, however. We tasted several and I had saved the corks so I could remember what they were called. (Unfortunately, the waiter took them as he cleared the table and I didn't realize until it was too late.) Having not brought a pen, I had no way of writing down the information on the wine, so thinking smartly, I took a picture of the last bottle (which I liked the best) with my cell phone so I could at least remember the name.

2000 Altamura Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley)
This vintage is basically unobtainable with the oldest on their website being 2003. I have never tasted wine this expensive before. The waiter poured me a taste because (stupidly) I wasn't planning on drinking and since I had to get up very early, I didn't want to get tipsy. Had I been smarter, I would have demanded a full pour and then hoarded the bottle. Curse my sensibilities!

I like wine, and especially Cabernet Sauvignon. But I don't know the first thing about it. My palate is probably the most underdeveloped of anyone I know. I swirled the glass, I checked the density of the color, I breathed it in. When I tasted it, I found it to be the most beautiful and pleasant wine I've had thus far, and at this time I didn't know it was a Cab because the bottle was on the other side of the table. But no matter how much I tried, I couldn't pick out one definitive flavor---it was just...really good. It had a full flavor that didn't taper off into tannins as I swallowed it. It didn't make my tongue feel "squeaky clean" (like those old Tupperwear ads) as some other wines tend to do. Finally, I asked them to pass me the bottle whereupon I immediately knew why I liked it---my favorite varietal, Cab. Also I found the bottle itself to be appealing to the eye. Taller than I'm used to and slender, it seemed suited to the contents.

First Comment

This is the first post of my wine review and musings blog.

The next post will be a copy of the one from Hex on you, since I haven't had any wine tonight.