Pratsch 2017 Rosé

made with organic Zweigelt grapes; 11.5% ABV
Niederösterreich, Austria
imported by Winesellers, Ltd., Niles, IL
$4 at the Richmond, CA, store on 18 March

Curiosity got hold of me with this wine, and I was glad it did. The wine was smooth and pleasant, dry with nice fruit / acid balance, with flavors of red berries, cantaloupe, pink grapefruit, and less ripe watermelon, with a little grapeskin minerality on the finish.  There was perhaps a little fizz at first that aired out pretty quickly.  On the whole, I found it tasty for the low price.

The second day, it became more fruit-forward and less structured, and still yummy.

The “winemaker notes” on wine.com were: “Made from estate-grown organic Zweigelt grapes, this Austrian rose is delicate and dry featuring aromas and flavors of wild strawberries, peach, and pear, backed by crisp, refreshing acidity.”

Nativa Terra 2014 Sauvignon Blanc

Colchagua Costa Valley, Chile
made with organic grapes; 13.5% ABV
$4 at the Richmond, CA, store about a week ago

On the first night, I had just a glass (maybe less) of this while making dinner.  While the nose was delightful with yellow flowers and gooseberries, I found the taste didn’t quite deliver, being a little light and thin, with a little too much acid for the body.  It might have come around more if I had waited a little longer.

The next day, the wine has filled out a little more in body and a lot more in flavor and is pretty good, although still a little on the acid side for me.  The wine tastes of less ripe gooseberry, yellow melon, with some grassiness / maybe green bell pepper, finishing with zesty acid.  I’m on the fence for Thumbs Up or Drinkable, but I’ll go with the folks who have been very enthusiastic about this wine.

Petit Le Mont 2013 Sauvignon (blanc)

made with organic grapes; bottled by Foucher Lebrun; 12.5% ABV
Val de Loire Indication Géographique Protégée, France
$5 at the Richmond, CA, store on 15 May

We don’t often get Sauvignon Blancs from the Loire at the GO, so there’s already been a bit of excitement about this wine in comments.  However, this one didn’t really thrill me that much.

It’s clearly a substantial wine, with a fairly heavy body for a white.  I found flavors of tart lemon and less ripe green apple, a weighty minerality, and something that might be oxidation but I suspect really isn’t.  It could be wood.  I look forward to trying it the next day.

The next day, the rest of this wine was more fruit-forward and complex, less minerally, but there still didn’t seem to be all that much to it: less ripe fruit of lemon and gooseberries, and that flavor I still can’t pinpoint but is probably wood (although at one point, it reminded me of apple juice).  It strikes me as a very solidly made wine, but without enough complexity to stir my interest.  Weinish wrote that he liked this wine because, “I like my wines more restrained.”  However, I didn’t find much in this wine that required restraining.

DavidLikesWine wrote, “I found it well balanced between fruit and acidity with some interesting almost honeyed notes (but not in a bad way and not out of balance). For $5 this is an definite “buy” for me.”  DelMartian1 wrote, “I prefer my SB to be a bit dryer but the wife really liked this one. It had a slightly sweet finish reminiscent of a Rose D’anjou from the Loire.”  I thought this wine was totally dry, but maybe they are noting the same thing that struck me as “apple juice.”  K&L wines, which sold this for $12, wrote, “From such an inexpensive wine (organic to boot) this has fantastic fruit concentration on the palate and a clean zippy finish.  Floral and clean on the nose with hints of white stone fruits and soft minerals.”

Gérard Bertrand 2011 Chardonnay “Naturalys”

made with organic grapes; Pays D’oc IGP, southern France; 13.5% ABV
$4 at the Oakland, CA, store on 31 March

I think I bought all the Bertrand offerings present on the first day of the sale, and this is the last of them.  At the time, Delmartian1 wrote: It is much more in the style of a Californian or Australian chard and nothing like a French white Burgundy. Its OK but nothing special IMHO.  I agree.

The wine shows fruit of ripe yellow apple / melon, lemon, and pineapple, with reasonable fruit / acid balance.  The pineapple has a sort of overripe character that melds into too much oak, at least for me.  The overripe flavor / wood / maybe even oxidation makes the wine kind of unpleasant for me, although as the wine warms from fridge temp, the fruit comes forward more and more into balance.  I wouldn’t really recommend it, but I suppose it’s okay for the price.  The next day, the rest in the bottle was much the same.

Parra Jiménez 2010 Graciano

100% organic Graciano grapes; 13.5 ABV
La Mancha DO, Spain
$3 at the Richmond, CA, store on 5 March

When I saw this bottle, I recalled that Graciano had been a component of other wines discussed here, but I had never seen one bottled on its own.  I have become more suspicious of $3 GO wines these days, but I thought that it might be priced so low to entice people to buy something completely unknown.  Anyway, the low price and my curiosity got the better of me, and I’m very glad they did.  This is quite good wine for the price.

I decanted it off a small amount of sediment and didn’t taste it for about an hour.  Then, and over the next few hours, the wine showed flavors of tangy, medium to darker purple plum, darker red cherries, hibiscus tea, earth, perhaps a little prune or kalamata olive, and supporting wood.  The wine is not terribly striking, but is tasty and complex enough, has real character, and held up very well over the time we finished the bottle, with food and without.  I’d say it’s a nice value.

Hill Wine Co. 2012 Black Dog series Chardonnay

Napa Valley, CA
“95% organic”; 13.9% ABV
$6 at the Berkeley, CA, store on 30 Sept

This is a pretty nice wine for the money.  Although it is a Napa Chardonnay, a species I have often disdained, this is not a heavy, buttery, oaky wine.  It’s a little disjointed at first, but it smooths out and integrates pretty quickly after opening.  Then it shows elegant flavors of ripe yellow apple, pear, lower-acid lemon, floral vanilla, and in the finish, a little yellow peach and perhaps a touch more oak than I would prefer.  The body is medium full, not overwhelming.

The second night, the wine is a little lighter in body and more delicate and “liquidy,” with the flavors maybe a little less intense but otherwise much the same.  Still quite nice.  On both nights, I preferred it a bit warmed from fridge temperature, to emphasize the fruit over the acid.  If you’re in the Anything But Chardonnay club, you may not like this wine, as I thought it was quite typical of the California version, but if not, I think it’s good for the money.

2011 Lupi Reali Trebbiano D’Abruzzo, Italy $3.99

Silverdale, WA    12.5% alc.    (Purchased on 3/25/14)

Made with organic grapes.  Brilliant pale golden.  Nose shows lemon and lime zest and definite flinty minerality and these aromas bloom substantially after an hour or more in the glass.  In the mouth it’s tart (but not overly so) and dry; steely and austere with more minerality, citrus and underripe pear.  More flavorful than I expected.  Similar to, but less fruity than most French Ugni Blancs that I’ve had.  Rather simple, but clean and refreshing; perfect accompaniment to simple foods like roasted poultry and baked or poached white fish with simple or no sauces and lighter flavored herbs.  May even work well with fried calamari or pesto pasta dishes.  For lovers of old world style whites; typically Italian.

2008 Cerrillos Syrah

Limari Valley, Chile; 14.5% ABV
made with organic grapes
$3 at the Richmond, CA, store on 4 Dec

I first poured out a single-glass screw cap bottle of this wine to try later.  The remaining wine, after airing about 1.5 hr in the bottle, showed a soft body on the lighter end of full, with flavors of dark blackberry / blueberry, green bell pepper, with slightly abrasive boysenberry acid and a textured tannic finish.  This is a pretty good wine for $3 except for a couple things.  First, although many people dislike green bell pepper in their wine, I usually like it.  This is a little strong even for me, maybe partly because I don’t recall tasting it in a Syrah before.  Second, at least at the GOs near me, I can currently get Syrahs I liked much better for only a dollar or two more.

weinish noted about this wine: Big wine. I thought it was balanced. It ended with some real spice, and a tannic group. This is the kind of wine you’d want with Fatty Meats.  I let it air for many hours, but the structure didn’t change considerably. It may have softened a bit.  This is the kind of wine you can bring to a red-meat BBQ and it will serve you well.  And he links to a site with this review, apparently from Stephen Tanzer in April, 2010 (88 pts):  Opaque purple. Sexy, expressive bouquet of blackberry, spices and cracked pepper; this is very Syrah. Then sweet and lively in the mouth, with jammy red and dark berry flavors and chewy texture. Becomes spicier with air and finishes with good tangy cut and persistence. I like this wine’s balance and structure and would have scored it higher had there been some more concentration.  Well, as you can see, their impressions did not really match mine.  Maybe the wine has not aged well since Tanzer’s review?  Does anyone else have an experience to share?

The next day, the saved screw cap single-glass bottle was much redder in color and flavors, but otherwise much the same.

Veridien 2010 Tinto

DO Alicante, Spain; made with organic grapes
60% Syrah, 20% Monastrell (Mourvedre), 20% Garnacha (Grenache); Screw cap
$4 at the Berkeley, CA, store on 4 Oct.  No longer there.

This sold out pretty quickly at the Berkeley store, so I’ve put off writing it up, but I hope some folks are still interested.  If you see it, it’s very good for the price.

Although tasty enough at first pour, the lighter and tarter fruit and the tannic body indicated it needed air.  Finally, after about two hours in a decanter, the fruit darkened to be dominated by mildly tangy blueberry and blackberry / black raspberry, with some redder complexities, and nice funky earth.  It’s only ever medium-bodied, but the fruit and tannin give it a soft texture.  It’s neither totally fruit-forward modern winemaking, nor traditional Spanish restrained wine, and is quite good.

Momokawa Organic Creamy Nigori Sake’, Oregon $2.99

Silverdale, WA    16% alc.    375 ml.    (Purchased on 10/3/13)
Organic Junmai Ginjo Craft Sake’, USDA Organic and Certified Organic by Oregon Tilth

From Momokawa in Forest Grove, Oregon (northern Willamette Valley); label says to “Refrigerate and shake well before serving”.  In the undisturbed bottle the sake’ clears, leaving about a third white sludge at the bottom.  When well-shaken, the entire liquid becomes milky white, hence the “creamy” nature of the drink.  Looks like coconut milk, smells somewhere between beer wort and freshly fermented grape must; very yeasty and not particularly appealing.  Just the slightest sweetness on the front of the tongue, turning to slightly bitter, thinly “creamy”, yeasty liquid in the mouth.  Here’s a link to the sales page for the 750 ml. bottle.  I suspect the 375’s were sold to restaurants.

Having very little experience with sake’ and no experience with this type, and knowing this comes from a well-considered Oregon producer, I have to assume this is what it’s supposed to taste like.  Perhaps it’s an acquired taste.  Unfortunately, there’s really nothing about it that I enjoy.  So, I’ll chalk this one up to experience and return to wine (or beer).  And I don’t feel that I can fairly rate this product, so I won’t.  Just after preparing this review, I saw this comment from Seattle area reader RB.  Thanks, RB!