Louis Bernard 2015 Côtes du Rhône Villages

Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages Appellation d’Origine Protégée, France; 13.5% ABV
imported by Boisset America, St. Helena, CA
$6 at the Richmond, CA, store on 1 April

After liking the Louis Bernard 2007 Crozes-Hermitage so well, I felt I should try this Côtes du Rhône in time for the sale, too.  It’s somewhat similar to, but also quite different from, the C-H, and also quite lovely.

My first small sip right after opening the bottle seemed promising, but I didn’t really taste the wine until it had been decanted for over two hours.  Even then, it felt pretty closed, not yet showing all it had.  When I finally sat down to taste the rest of it, it had been decanted for over four hours.  It was smooth, elegant, and still restrained, with earthy, tangy, flavors of black cherry, black raspberry, purple plum, black olive, hint of rosemary, grape stem, and acid that reminds me of pomegranate.  There are some flavors similar to the C-H, but some different, and this wine is still rather young.

The next day, the saved 250ml screw cap bottle still needed a couple hours of air to smooth out, with its fruit finally more forward, but still with a noticeably tannic finish.  The wine should age well for at least a few more years.  If you like this kind of wine, this is an excellent value.

That circular sticker on the left side of the photo announces that this wine was awarded 90 points by the Wine Advocate.

Louis Bernard 2007 Crozes-Hermitage

Appellation Crozes-Hermitage Contrôlée, France; 12.5% ABV
imported by Boisset America, Sausalito, CA
$5 at the Richmond, CA, store on 28 March

GO has seen some good wines from negociant Loius Bernard, but I was worried about the wine’s age, as it seemed a little old for Crozes-Hermitage.  However, my bottle was delicious!

While the wine seemed promising right away, I thought (as usual) that it benefited from 2 – 2.5 hours in a decanter.  At two hours, the wine tasted of earthy, funky, tart red cherry, black cherry, and black raspberry.  As it aired further, the fruit included juicer, darker flavors (purple grape, soft red / purple plum), and was overall quite delicious.  The body was a little light for a Crozes-Hermitage, more like a full CA Pinot Noir, but delightfully tasted like C-H.  Maybe not everyone will be as enthusiastic about this wine as I am, but these are the kinds of flavors I love the most.  I have listed this wine under Syrah only, even though according the the Wikipedia page linked above, these wines may have up to 15% of the white grapes Marsanne and Roussanne.  This wine tastes to me like it has at most a few percent of white grapes, and I would guess it’s Syrah-only.

The saved screwcap bottle of this wine still needed a bit of time to air, but was then still as delicious, if not more so, but in a different way.  It was not so fruit-forward, more integrated with the earth and tannin, less purple and more red-black, and a little more pruney, really a classic mature Rhône wine.

White Oak 2013 “Mighty Oak” Proprietary Red

Malbec, Merlot, Syrah; 14.1% ABV
Napa Valley, CA
$8 at the Richmond, CA, store around 15 March

I had liked previous White Oak wines, so I was optimistic about this wine.  On first pour, it was tasty and seemed very promising.  For the next 2.5 – 3 hours, it stayed the same, with dark earthy fruits of boysenberry, blueberry, black raspberry, tasty but promising more.  However, on the first night, I felt like it never really opened, and expected more from the saved screwcap bottle.

My expectations were not met.  The saved wine was thinner and more acid, never filling out the body and complexity on the first night, and certainly never delivering on the wine’s initial promise.  So, I guess I’d say this is good wine to open and drink in three hours, but don’t expect it to really come together into a full, elegant whole.

Viña Pargua Anka 2012 Red Blend

Maipo Valley, Chile; 14.4% ABV
Produced and Bottled by Viña Pargua Ltda. Paine, Santiago, Chile
$5 at the San Diego – Downtown, CA, store on 4 November

Oh, how I wanted to like thee given the nice label, online MSRP, grape makeup and some decent prior vintage ratings from Wine Enthusiast. This wine reads very sweet to me and if you blindfolded me, I’d guess it were a California-designated Red Blend heavy on Central California fruit. According to the label, while it is 100% estate-grown fruit, Wine.com shares that it’s 60% Cab, 16% Cab Franc, 10% Merlot, 7% Carmenere, 5% Syrah, 2% Petit Verdot.

I get a lot of raisin and prune on the nose (which is admittedly not my favorite) and dried fruit (as Wine.com noted) predominantly through the palate. The Cab Franc comes through heavily through the middle and finish of the wine with some pretty grippy tannins if that is your thing and they’re present even after 3 days of being open. This one does stay together and you don’t have to finish it in one night. I suppose for a bigger wine with mid-heavy mouthfeel that is cab-dominated, some would enjoy it but it’s not for me – between the nose and a predominant flavor in the palate, there’s something that’s off-putting but I think it’s the nose carrying through.

It’s not without its virtues if you like what it brings to the table but for me, this one’s a thumbs down.

Tahto 2013 Syrah

Piffero Vineyards, Mendocino County, CA; 15.3% ABV
Produced and Bottled by Yielding Wine, Laytonville, CA
$11 at the Oakland, CA, store on 15 Sept

This looked interesting enough, especially since we hadn’t seen it at the Richmond store, for me to spring for the $11.  There was also a Tahto 2013 Petite Sirah for the same price, but I rarely like unblended PS.  Has anyone tried it?

On the first night, the first sniff and sip were very promising, with earthy and tangy flavors of red cherry, darker plum, tangy rust / Chinese salt plum, and others I can’t remember.  However, after airing more, the flavors seemed to simplify, gaining a good component of sour candy, of which I’m not very fond.  Even after about 3 or 4 hours, with the fruit darkening to a dark purple plum, this did not really change.

However, a couple days later, the saved 275ml screw-cap bottle (filled when the Tahto bottle was opened and capped with very little air), after two or three hours’ air, was delicious!  The fruit filled in and became nicely complex again, and the sour candy flavor was gone.

I got another bottle and, the day before I wanted to drink it, I opened it and poured the wine into another 750ml bottle, then stuffed the cork in the top.  The next day, I decanted it about 1.5 hours before bringing it to a friends’ house for dinner.  This process worked very well, as the wine was just starting to fully open when we sat down for dinner of beef stew.

Saint Andre de Figuiere 2015 Magali “The Signature” Rose

30% Syrah, 30% Cabernet, 25% Grenache, 15% Cinsault; 13.5% ABV
Cotes du Provence, southern France
imported by Paul M. Young Fine Wines
$5 at the Richmond, CA, store. No longer there.

This wine was highly praised here and by GLPease in person, so I got one.  It is indeed lovely and delicious.  The wine is smooth, soft, delicate, but full of flavor: cantaloupe, pink grapefruit, a little yellow apple, and red berries.  The textured minerality is almost creamy.

I wasn’t able to try it the next day.  On the third day, the magical delicate flavor and texture was gone, it was still pretty tasty.

Two 2015 Southern French Rosés

Le Charmel 2015 Cotes de Provence (near Bandol)
30% Syrah, 30% Cinsault, 20% Mourvèdre, 10% Grenache, 10% Rolle (Vermentino); 12.5% ABV
imported by Winesellers, Ltd., Niles, IL
$4 at the Richmond, CA, store some weeks ago.  No longer there.

Les Vignes de Bila-Haut 2015 Pays D’Oc IGP; 13% ABV
by Michel Chapoutier
imported by HB Wine Merchants, NY
$5 at the Richmond, CA, store

When I bought these, they were both new arrivals.  The Bila-Haut is still around, but Le Charmel is long gone, at least from Richmond.  They were both pretty tasty, but I preferred Le Charmel.

Le Charmel was engagingly aromatic of less ripe cantaloupe and mild white flowers.  There was more of this on the palate, with a slightly viscous minerality and a hints of lavender and red berries, and the acid nicely in balance.  The flavor was perhaps a little light for me at first, but after adjusting, I found it a very pleasant and elegant wine.  Interestingly, it contains 10% Rolle (Vermentino), a white grape.

The next day, I liked it better, with the fruit more forward while the wine still retained most of its minerality.  This is an easy Thumbs Up for me.

The Bila-Haut had less of a nose, but showed stronger fruit of strawberry, cherry, and red currant, less minerality, and attention-getting lip-smacking acid and a tang of bitterness.  I found this more flavorful, but less elegant and balanced.  Here is a Wine Enthusiast review of this wine.

The next day, I liked it better, as the wine had smoothed out and integrated, but was still quite tasty.  I’d go with Drinkable for this wine.

Of course, my favorite was a blend of about 1/4 – 1/3 Bila-Haut, the rest Le Charmel.  🙂

Street Cred 2013 Shiraz

McLauren Vale, South Australia; 14.0% ABV
$5 at the Richmond, CA, store on 24 Feb

This wine was one whose label seemed a bit odd, but it was from a good area, so I thought it might be a good wine in hiding.  I did decide that’s the case, although not on the first night.

The wine seemed promising, with ripe dark fruit, rather dry, but with a good bit of acid that I hoped would resolve as more fruit came out.  However, even over about 2.5 hours, it never really did.  The fruit, of blackberry / plum / blueberry, never really filled out and balanced the acid of boysenberry / plum, although the wine did soften a little and add possible complexities of light prune and mint.  I suspect this wine is still a bit young.

The next day, the saved single-glass, screw-cap bottle was much better, still needing a bit of air for the fruit to become accessible and, to my surprise, elegant, with the complexities of mint and earthy prune more definite.  This wine should probably be given another year or two of age, but is pretty good for the price.  I got another bottle that I’m plotting to blend with the Pioneer Red.  🙂

Rock Springs 2013 (Rhone-style) Red Blend

Sierra Foothills, CA; 14.0% ABV
Cellared & bottled by Napa Wine Arts, Napa, CA
$6 at the Richmond, CA, store on 11 Feb

This looked interesting because I’ve previously very much liked Rhone varietals grown in the Sierra Foothills AVA.  The color through the bottle was a little bit translucent, but of a good color, so I was expecting a wine with medium body and good flavor.  That was what I got, except…

The wine has tasty ripe and tangy flavors of red, lighter purple, and slightly blue fruit, with the earthiness I associate with the Sierra Foothills, but there is also a tinge of spoiled-ness or vinegar that didn’t air out and that I couldn’t get past.  If all bottles were like mine, I have to go Thumbs Down here.  Did anyone have better experiences with this wine?

The next day, the saved, single-glass, screw-cap bottle of this wine was worse.  Not only was the slight spoiled / vinegar character still there, but the fruit had become more cheap candy-like.

2010 Hearthstone Estate “Lodestone”

Paso Robles (Adelaida), CA; 14.8% AVB
Received as a sample for review from Palo Alto on December 27th.

This is the second of my two bottles of the recently arrived Hearthstone Estate wines. I was excited to try something different from this producer as I liked the “Paso Superiore “(66% Sangiovese, 17% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Cabernet Franc), and this one had a completely different makeup (60% Syrah, 22% Grenache, 18% Mourvedre). While they are different wines, they are made very much in the same style, and I quite liked this one, perhaps even a bit more than I liked the “Paso Superiore.”

The common thread I found between this wine and the “Paso Superiore” is the cleanness and purity of the fruit flavors done in a more subtle, nuanced style. This isn’t a sledgehammer and would also make quite a nice food wine. I got some black cherry and blackberry on the nose with a little smokiness coming out as the wine aired. On the palate I got dark fruit, some well integrated oak notes, a little pepperiness that bordered on the green/herbaceous side (not unpleasantly so) framed by some tangy acidity and soft tannins that took about an hour to emerge. We opened this with friends and quite enjoyed it so none survived to see the next day.

A repeat buy and thumbs up for me. I visited the Palo Alto store yesterday and this wine was still available in good quantity for $6.99 per bottle.