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I like to think I’m not a wine snob. So when I heard about mega-popular [yellow tail] ® wines’ Reserve line of course I wanted to try it Luckily, I learned about it through the US distributor, and WJ Deutsch & Sons delivered a sample of all 5 wines.
This is a relaunch of the Reserve, and the marketing campaign is clever: regular label Yellow Tail for ‘any night” and the Reserve for “Date Night” – backed up by their statistics that 90% of Americans like a wine upgrade for special events. Sounds reasonable.
So, what is the wine like? The Pinot Grigio is light and lively, with a hint of tangerine and plenty of lime in both flavor and finish. Fine as an aperitif wine, but too sweet when I kept the glass and tried it with dinner.
More of the self-confessed, unsophisticated wine-drinkers in the house liked the Chardonnay, favorably identifying with both its look (a medium-pale tan-yellow) and its flavors; this Chard is somewhat fruity but is not over-oaked or overly sweet. And it did work with the chicken we had for dinner that night.
The reds were a problem for me because all three were astoundingly similar to each other. So much so that I went back and checked the glasses against the bottles several times. The labels identify them as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, but the visual, aromatic and flavor elements were hard to tell apart.
When drinking one of the reds, if someone accidentally poured you a refill of one of the others, would you notice the difference? Maybe not. But does this matter? Maybe not, at the time, if all the wines are pleasant enough: some fruit, little tannin, berry flavors, non-acidic finish. The Merlot’s fruit is a touch more restrained than the Cab’s; the Shiraz is a tad more exuberant. The wines did benefit from air – I would suggest opening them about a half hour before serving to let the flavors develop – though they remained very similar.
The PR stuff that came with the wines maintains that each wine is made with 100% of the grape on the label, which further mystified me because I had thought their similarities might be explained if the wines were blends. In the US, single-varietal wines must contain 75% of the varietal named on the label; the other 25% can be any other wine grape. The wines I sampled are vintage 2008.
The grapes are sourced from various parts of Australia, then blended. Perhaps that’s the issue. In looking for consistency of flavor for the line, the winemakers have gone too far over the edge and made them all the same, instead of allowing for each grape’s varietal expression in the wine.
If you have a different experience when trying these wines, I’d love to hear about it. The line’s suggested retail price is $12 but I found it heavily discounted online.

Coca-leaf liqueur from Bolivia? Of course I had to try it. The first time I heard about Agwa de Bolivia the producer seemed conflicted: they openly stated it was made with coca leaf, but they seemed to want to soft-pedal the coca/cocaine references. (Of course there is no actual cocaine in the bottle, but still…)
A few months later, that was all over. I got a promotional package with Agua de Bolivia Coca-Leaf Liqueur terrycloth wristlets – that a visiting school teacher immediately scooped up. Then there’s the bookmark-shaped promo which actually proclaims “Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Nose.” The liqueur itself is a green color, reminiscent of Jagermeister – as is its digestif-like flavor. Best taken over ice, or used as a cocktail mixer.
Wait, I just noticed another card that says to add lime “which activates the alkaloids of the coca leaf to produce an oxygen buzz.” Heading back to the kitchen right now!

Just got back home, changed into shorts and flip flops, and made a drink.
It’s a good thing I like Oxley gin. I mean Oxley Classic English Gin. We have a whole bottle of it and my husband decided he likes Tanqueray better. I think they’re similar; he doesn’t. There’s a clarity and brightness to the cold-distilled Oxley. And for me, there’s that herbal spiciness that’s just perfect in a gin-and-tonic on a summer evening. With or without lime.
I get the whole bottle, now.
Thanks, PR people, for sending it to me.

I’m intrigued at the brininess of excellent Manzanilla – perfect with seafood. Why don’t we have sherry with our oysters + chowders more? Maybe we will if the Secret Sherry Society expands. http://www.secretsherrysociety.com/
I also love the fact that Oloroso and Amontillado are not abstract names from literature but real sherries you can drink.
Sherry in general: some is bone dry, some pungent and fascinating, and some sweet as fig syrup.
Who would have guessed that sweet, dark Pedro Ximinez sherry goes with one of my favorite New England desserts, Indian Pudding. If I can’t have whipped cream or vanilla ice cream with Indian Pudding, give me the PX sherry!

I wonder if this is true elsewhere? Apparently, recession mentality bottomed out for NYC fine dining customers in the 4th quarter of 2009. Now diners are not afraid to show off anymore, if they have money.

Last week, Wine + Spirits’ Joshua Greene moderated a panel with top NYC restaurant sommeliers Levi Dalton of Alto, Beverage Director Juliette Pope of Gramercy Tavern and Head Sommelier Rajeev Vaidya of Restaurant Daniel.

High-end sommeliers are busy rearranging their winelists and letting some of the less expensive wines fall off. That’s not to say everything is sky-high: summer is coming, and typically people want lighter wines which are often less expensive. Vaidya will be looking toward Chablis, Riesling and other German whites, Italian whites and Rhone reds and whites. Dalton and Pope are expressing seasonality in their wine lists with moderately priced wines, too.

This spring I had lunch at 2 high end restaurants, with NON-high-end wines: and it works surprisingly well. Very good to know.
More specifics? Wine importer Pasternak thought this up.
Cave de Lugny’s white Burgundy wines ($11-$20) very nicely paired with 3 courses at lunch at one of Boston’s top classic restaurants, L’Espalier.
Also in Boston, lovely Loire wines ($12-$30) from Guy Saget at uber-chef Jean-George’s Market at the W Hotel.
OK, we don’t have to break the bank with our wine choices at the finest restaurants.

This is what I learned at the recent South African wine seminars.
Chenin is 30% of South Africa’s white wine and the grape is grown on 18% of the country’s vineyards. In the rest of the world, this grape is known as Chenin Blanc; it makes great wines in the Loire region but has little respect elsewhere.
Because South Africans have been growing Chenin for 350 years, they’ve figured out where it grows best. They have also experimented enough to know how to make Chenin into a light, crisp wine (think the lightest Chablis crossed with the least aromatic Sauvignon Blanc you can image), a bigger-bodied version (think chardonnay) and a sweet dessert wine (think late harvest from northern France). What you choose depends on what you like – and what you’re eating.
Now that you’re thinking of buying it, you might want to know South African Chenins start around $12-$15. Some vintage Chenins, rare or dessert Chenins can go up to $25, $45 or even $65 a bottle.

Oh, yeah, not to forget the Pinotage. A lot of us have had bad Pinotage. Some of us have had good Pinotage. Good Pinotage involves low yields, letting the grapes achieve full phenolic ripeness on the vine – achievable in 8 out of 9 years in South Africa – and manipulating the grapes very gently to avoid getting the harsh tannins from the grapes’ thick skins into the wines. So we tasted a few and they weren’t tannic, they had OK flavors, and now I know what to look for next time…

Tonight a bunch of us tried Merriam Vineyards wines – among others – that various writers + friends brought to Jonathon Alsop’s Boston Wine School for an informal tasting. Teaching two young women how to taste wine, I employed 2 Merriam Vineyards Cabernet Francs. Kind of shocked them by saying “You have to spit. You don’t want to get loopy.” From the looks on their faces, getting loopy was just what they had expected. Once they got over that, they did well, learning to look, sniff, taste and spit. They immediately got the difference between the 2 cab francs, one much fruitier than the other. Good work. I’m sure they were glad when I left them alone after that…
I went on with the 2005 Merriam Vineyards Block 21 Dry Creek Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, 24 months in new French oak, 14.5% alcohol. Leather, heat and black fruit aromas turned into caramelized fruit on the tongue, then spicy tannins led to a fruity finish. The 2004 seemed already to be developing its secondary wine characteristics, lightly floral, thin, aged, plum flavors and lighter tannins in the finish.
The 2005 Merriam Vineyards Windacre Russian River Merlot began with florals and blackberry aromas, with a nice structure in the mouth and tannins really integrating giving it definite appeal as a wine to age.
In the meantime, I had also tried the 2005 Merriam Vineyards Sonoma County Red Wine, which really stuck in my mind as a rounded mouthful, very appealing and easy to drink, the kind of wine you could easily serve with dinner and just as easily pour a second glass.

Recently returned from tasting the recent vintages of all the wines of Burgundy — more later. I also have to say that the food creativity in the region is incredible: layered flavor nuances, varied presentations in various shaped vessels. But most of my time was tasting, tasting, tasting wines

Wonderful concept by Cadaretta Winery: show its cabernet sauvignon in a line-up of half a dozen similarly priced ($40) cabs. It showed OK, but thinking about it later, none of the wines really stood out. Is Washington wine getting blah? Maybe. Or maybe not: when I got home, I looked in my new book of biodynamic wine tasting times, and found that yesterday was not a good day to taste wine. Hmm…