The most creative Piropo will win a four-pack of wines, a Spanish-themed cookbook and some other fun material.  What is a Piropo you may ask?  Translated literally it is a “flirtatious or poetic compliment to a woman.”  Things like, “If beauty were a sin, you’d never be forgiven” or “So many curves, and me without brakes” (shudder).  But, that’s been so done.  I want to see how clever and unique you can voice your appreciation for wine.

Tapeña—the wine with the little fork on the label—is a blend of tradition, camaraderie and gathering close friends.  I had the chance to partner with them a few years ago on an event so if you want to know more about the  wine.

For more info about Tapeña, check out their website, Facebook  http://www.facebook.com/tapenawines or Twitter @tapenawine.  They also have a reward program, for those of you who become fans, where you can get more free stuff.

 The fine print – you must be 21 years or older to enter, and that by entering you verify you are over 21.  The contest will close on January 31 and you can enter here.  Looking forward to seeing your poetry in motion.

When some friends, Peter and Jen, invited us over for a night of cards, great food and wine, I knew there would be a group of wine lovers who would be able to give me lots of good feedback on wines from a number of regions.  Thus, we popped open the corks and began to taste.

We first tried the Nine Walks Sauvignon Blanc.  It had tropical and citrus notes combined with some herbalness.  It was a very crisp wine and at $11 a bottle, tasted much more expensive than its list price.

We then tried several wines from New Zealand’s Craggy Range, a vineyard that I was already familiar with for its Te Kahu label.  The first wine was the 2010 Te Muna Road Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc.  Lots of green in this wine — but complexity came from hints of vanilla.  The 2010 Kidnappers Vineyard Chardonnay, which was made in an Old-World style without lots of oak, had notes of lemon, almond and some depth. Hands down the favorite was the 09 Te Kahu Gimblett Gravels Vineyard.  A Bordeaux blend of merlot, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and malbec, it was a great red with notes of blackberry, deep fruit, sandalwood and tobacco. 

We then moved to Chilean wines and tried the full line from Casillero del Diablo, the flagship line of wines from Concha y Toro. The story behind these wines is fun.  At the end of the 19^th century Don Melchor de Concha y Toro, a successful businessman and vineyard owner, discovered his wines had been stolen from the “casillero” (cellar) under his house.  To keep folks from stealing more, he created a rumor that his cellar was haunted by the devil.  These wines are also affordably priced at $12.  We tried several including the 10 chardonnay, 10 pinot noir, 09 syrah, 10 merlot, 10 carmenere and 10 malbec.  The group favorites were the more traditional Chilean wines including the carmenere with its notes of plum, chocolate, oak and spiciness and the malbec with blackberry and mocha notes.

We then delved into Spanish wine.  The first one was the 07 Montecillo Crianza Tinto. This was nice with notes of dark blackberry, vanilla and smoke.  The second wine was the 03 Montecillo Rioja Reserva.  This was a rich cherry, spice, vanilla and dark fruit that I really enjoyed.

After dinner, the wine shipping boxes became the most coveted thing with the under 7 group proving that imagination can still win over iPads, Play Stations, iTouch and all the other latest technology.  Seemed an appropriate nod from the kiddos — especially with many of the wines tried made from an Old World-style.

I have always had a soft spot for La Mancha.  Growing up, I remember my parents dressing up the kids (me being one of them) so we could go to Atlanta’s Fox Theatre to watch old movies.  One of those movies was Don Quixote, and that movie became special to my parents.  In fact, on Christmas, we were likely to see presents addressed to Don Quixote and Dulcinea. When I saw the invite for the La Mancha denomination of origin (D.O.) of Spain, I hoped the wine could live up to the memories. 

Because I only took a half day of work off, I missed the much lauded seminar by Sommelier Charlie Arturaola.  Still, I made it in time to talk to Marisa Flores, Director of Overseas Network for the Foreign Trade Office of Castilla-La Mancha and try several of the 100 La Mancha wines at the tasting.  Some were already being distributed in the United States while others were looking for distribution.  Grape varieties included Airén (one really good one, one that smelled like a hair perm) and Cencibel (tempranillo) as well as Viura, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Grenache, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.  La Mancha is the largest wine region not only in Spain, but in the world.

Marissa and I had almost the identical conversation that Gloria Collell and I had about how Spain needed to learn to market its great products internationally.  “It’s important that we keep our heritage and tradition, but we have to market our quality and what the region has to offer,” she said.

The La Mancha DO covers about half of the Castile-La Mancha region and is known for its extreme temperatures.  I tried some really nice wines, many at great price points.  My favorites were as follows, as I felt like they best represented the Old World style of Spanish wines that I enjoy:

• 08 Case Antonete Crianza 08 and 04 Reserva (Bodegas La Remediadora)
• Fuente del Ritmo Airen and 09 XX Allozo Anniversary (Allozo Central Espanolas)
• 00 Torre de Gazate Gran Reserva (Vinicola de Tomelloso)
• Besana Real Crianza 07 (Vinos Coloman)

I’m glad that Spain has embarked on its marketing campaign. When done well, the wines are distinctive, the people are delightful, the price points are on target and I’m told the food pairing opportunities are almost flaw-proof.

I’m not quite sure how it started or why I picked up that first bottle of Marilyn Merlot wine back in the 90’s.  What started as an impulse buy somehow grew to a collection that ranged for ten years.  When I dug through the cellar recently, I realized that I had acquired eight vintages (not sure what happened to 98 or 01) with duplicate bottles of some years.  After much prodding from my husband to clear some wine cellar space and realizing I had a few hundred dollars of sunk cost in this particular wine, I decided to host a vertical tasting for my friends. 

The Marilyn wines begain in 1981, when a small group of Napa friends started making wine at their home in the Napa Valley. One evening in 1983, over dinner and a bottle of homemade wine, the “Marilyn Merlot” concept was born and the wines went on sale to the public in 1985.  

Other than wine and art, I am not a collector (my husband would disagree and add expensive shoes to the list).  No Hummel’s or figurines or themed knick knacks adorn my home. So, while I had no idea why I had started this particular collection, I was hopeful that a wine between $19 and $30 a bottle would be decent and it would be fun to taste the evolution.

So five of us gathered with some anticipation and began to taste.  I planned to do tasting notes for the eight bottles that we tried beginning with 96.  The wines were uniformly described in online reviews as tasting of chocolate, raspberries and blueberries and having an almost velvety mouth feel.  That wasn’t our experience with a single bottle. In fact, most were undrinkable.  Of the eight that we tasted, only the 97 was interesting enough to take another sip.  It was just not good and I had two bottles of two different vintages that were both corked.  

Now I could blame a few moves for the earlier bottle disappointment, but I’ve had proper Eurocave storage units since 2000, so I no excuse for the later vintages.  My final tasting note after having the 04 and 05 was one simple word – no.  Marilyn Monroe once said, “I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated.  Or, in my words, sometimes you can’t stand on celebrity.

So, a lesson was learned by me that day.  Just say no to trendy collections.  Do not buy wine affiliated with a celebrity unless you have personally validated it.  And, the overall reality that I could have acquired a great Napa cabernet, a bottle of fine Italian wine or even a vintage second growth Bordeaux for the cost of ten bottles of Marilyn made me realize there would be no more meaningless relationships with celebrity wines in my future.

The Winning Dish - Courtesy of Steven Doyle, Crave DFW

I attended the third annual 2011 Dallas/Fort Worth Chefs Under Fire Regional Culinary Competition last month at the Milestone Culinary Arts Center.  The contest, which is sponsored by the Keep Collection, LLC, was won by Kevin Martinez of Tokyo Cafe with a dish of seared tilefish, fresh peach and tomato salsa on a corn and okra-yuzu succotash topped with crispy shallots.  It looked great.  However, only the chef judges – Chef Tim Byres of SMOKE, Katie Natale of Four Seasons Resort and Club and Sharon Van Meter of Milestone Culinary Arts Center got to try the dishes.

The Wine Matching Challenge of a Lifetime

The rest of us had an array of appetizers to taste and a wine and food demo from Commissary Chef John Tesar, who prepared beef tongue, and Sommelier Scott Barber who had to match the dish with wines.  The question of the day is what wine do you serve with beef tongue?  Barber recommended two whites and a red.

Scott Barber, the Man with A Plan — Courtesy of Steven Doyle, Crave DFW

The Line Up

• 09 Château de Sancerre “Passe Avant le Meilleur” Sancerre, Loire Valley.  The minerality, pepper and smoky taste came out when paired with the beef tongue. A very crisp and subtle wine that stood up to the green notes in the salsa verde sauce.
• 2007 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Spätlese.  This wine paired surprisingly well with the spices used on the tongue and with the floral, honey and tropical notes.
• 09 Château St. Jean de la Gineste Vieilles Vignes Corbières.  The lone red paired with the black fruit and Asian spices used in preparing the dish.  It was a mix of fruit and earthiness.

Gene and Julie Gates of 103.7 Lite FM cracked me up as guest emcees of the event.   

Chef Martinez will now advance to compete at the Chefs Under Fire final competition to be held on October 16 in Austin, TX.  There, he will compete against Chef Daniel Valenzuela, a student at Escoffier School of Culinary Arts who won the Austin/San Antonio challenge, as well as the Houston Regional Winner for a one week stay in Los Cabos.

I wanted to outline some wines that were the highlight of my tasting; some that are new to Texas:

Tuck Beckstoffer Wines, Tony Glorioso

Tuck Beckstoffer wines – Tuck has been producing wines under his namesake label since 1997 and is known for well-priced, critically acclaimed wines.

• The Cabernet Sauvignon ‘Amulet’ was great and the single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon ‘Mockingbird’ 07 red was exceptional.
• The terrior made a big difference (warm vs. cooler and higher elevation) between the Pinot Noirs tried – the 07 ‘Semper’ Gold Vineyard and the ‘Semper’ Ellenbach Vineyard.  I loved the fruit, femininity and silkiness of the Ellenbach Pinot.

Lioco, Matt Licklider

Lioco wines –  These are a labor of love from Matt Licklider and Kevin O’Connor, two wine lovers who decided to create a negociant wine label focusing on Old World style wines made in … get this … California.  The philosophy is to tie the wines to the terrior and to make them naturally.  My favorites included:

• Lioco 09 Sonoma Chardonnay – this wine mirrors a French Bourgogne Blanc and was a very nice Old World style wine.
• Lioco 09 Pinot Noir Hirsch Vineyards was full of black tea, dried orange peel and oriental spice.  It’s a wonderful Pinot.
• Lioco Indica 09 – this blend of Old Vine Carignan was a nice and inexpensive wine that you want restaurants to serve by the glass.  Just a nice drinking wine.

Mauritson Vineyards, Suzanne Gay

Rockpile wines – the Healdsburg-based Mauritson Family is known for making award-winning wines from tough vines located on a rocky ridge, an active earthquake fault and at a high elevation.  From what I tried, they are doing it exceptionally well and the terrain is tough enough that only 13 others are making wine there.  My favorites included:

• My absolute best of show was the 08 Rockpile Petite Sirah.  What a lush, fruity spicy, fabulous wine.
• 07 Rockpile Red Blend ‘Buck Pasture’ was also great with notes of black cherry, tobacco and even a little cola.

I also had a chance to run into Rick Ruiz from Twenty Four Wines, who was nice enough to share his latest vintage.  Lots of berry, dark fruit, cassis with the nice integration of oak.  This was a wine you wanted to drink at the beginning of the party verses the end.  If this preview served as a snapshot of some of the wines available in the Texas market, grab the wine list at most local restaurants and demand more.

As you drive up to the grounds, a stately 1880’s antebellum house once owned by former Dallas Cowboy Owner Clint Murchison, looks over the vines and made me think of Scarlett O’Hara’s house in Gone with the Wind.  The house was relocated from downtown Athens and serves as a respite as the Tara Inn.  The winery is also adjacent to the Cellar Door restaurant, which I did not try, but heard great reviews.  

Susan Holding “The Hill of Tara“

I loved the story about how Tara came to be.  It was the name of Patrick and Susan’s sailboat.  The name comes from Irish folklore and stands for “a view from afar”.  The name originally came from a book discovered in a used book store in Berkeley, The Hill of Tara. 

While Tara makes 14 wines, we only tried a few produced in East Texas on the 7-acre estate while my six-year old and her friends played the drums, danced and sang “California Girls”.  It was quite the musical revue.   My favorite Tara wine was one that I had tried before from my friend, James.  It is a white blend of Texas grapes, the Texas Blanc de Bois.  It’s a fruity wine with tropical notes and vanilla on the end and is priced under $18.  The Stagecoach Red, priced at $18.50, was termed “barbeque wine” and I see how it would be a good match.

If you are visiting East Texas, Tara is definitely worth a trip – for the food, the wines, the conversation and the live music events.  I think this is a good winery to watch with lots of future potential.

I fully admit that I had some trepidation going back into an Olive Garden Restaurant, especially to taste wine.  But, I had willingly committed to doing a series about the possibility of finding a decent wine by the glass at a chain.  So, I grabbed my friend, Jennifer, and off we went.

Danny and Jeff

We were met by General Manager, Danny Gabaldon, and Certified Wine Trainer and a guy you want to work for you, Jeff Kidd, and seated in the bar area.  The restaurant had recently been remodeled with a Tuscan influence and was not the dark wood, dark place that I remembered from about 15 years ago.  We were presented with the wine list, which had 38 wines total with 35 offered by the glass at all price ranges.  The wines ranged from the house Cabit to the more interesting Italian wines.  Master Sommelier Andrea Immer Robinson helped create the wine training program for the Olive Garden and you can definitely see her influence.   So I’m sure you wondering which three bottles aren’t available by the glass – Zonin Prosecco , Bertani Amarone Della Valpolicella ($100) and Col d’Orcia Brunello di Montacino ($65).

Danny pointed out the featured wines list, which changes every six weeks, is matched with seasonal food items.  The wines are 6 oz pours or for another $2.50, they will pour 9 ozs.  The restaurant puts a sticker on each bottle that indicates the day the bottle was opened and when it is no longer consumable.  In addition, air is pumped from each open bottle nightly.  They brought us some bruschetta, Italian cheese and some individual sized desserts and we began to taste. 

We tried the following wines:

• Rocca delle Macie Sasyr 07, a blend of Sangiovese and Syrah.  This is a very fruity, tangy and easy to drink wine that pairs well with Italian flood.  This was our favorite red wine.
• Feudo Arancio Nero d’Avola Sicilia IGT 09, cranberry, berry and lots of fruit.
• Mandra Rossa Fiano 09, nice nose with lots of pear notes with tropical fruit and citrus.  This would be a great pool wine.
• Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie Sartori di Verona 10, a very typical Pinot Grigio that would pair well with Italian food.

We also sampled the Moscato and the Roscotto, a sweet red made only for Olive Garden, with the desserts.  I think I’m going to stick with my dessert wines favs, but it’s nice to know that these are around when Great Aunt Stella is ready to have some vino.

I must say that I’m impressed with the effort that Danny, Jeff and Darden Restaurants are putting effort into making sure diners have the option for a good glass of wine with their meal.  At least at Olive Garden, you can get a decent glass of wine at a chain.  Bravo!

I am a big fan of viognier, but shared some trepidation with the group of seven girls who I gathered for the tasting. Boy, were we wrong. Virginia makes some great Viogniers in a variety of styles from sparking to fruity to mineral in nature.

We started with the NV sparkling viognier, a 100 percent viognier wine. I got green apple, pear, mango and apricot in this wine. Winemaker Mike Heny told us that he wanted to do something unique that had not been done before. Well, he succeeded and beautifully. At $25, this was my favorite of the tasting.

Our next wine was the 2010 Blenheim Vineyards Viognier. This wine was full of honey, tropical fruits and had a minerality that made it a perfect match for the spicy shrimp we were eating. At $19, this was a great food friendly white.

We then tried the King Family Vineyards 2010 Viognier. This was elegant and well balanced with melon, honey and peach flavors. At $24.95, this wine was a delightful pairing with sushi.

We followed up with the 2009 Barboursville Vineyards Reserve. This was a very floral wine with peach, apricot and some minerality. It was interesting to see the change in flavor as the wine spent more time in the bottle. This wine was $22.

While there were six wines in the tasting, my sixth wine from Delaplane Cellars didn’t arrive until after the tasting, so our last wine was technically the fifth wine – the 2010 Cooper Vineyards Viognier. I tasted of peach, apricots, tropical and floral notes. While the wines shared many of the same qualities, they were all very different.

My friends, who usually are tougher than most wine critics, universally said that they enjoyed all of them. It was a reminder to me that there are some great wines out there and it often pays to go off the beaten path and experiment. I look forward to sharing my adventures with you during my time in Charlottesville beginning today through July 25. The Wine Blogger’s Conference is always good for new discoveries and good friends.  I look forward to sharing my adventures.

Those of you who remember last year when I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in my first Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla, WA, I mentioned meeting Neil Cooper. Neil was working on opening his winery when I made my visit to Red Mountain with Margot. Fast forward almost 11 months and COOPER: A Red Mountain Winery is not only up and running, but has taken home a slew of awards and medals for its Bordeaux-style reds. Having taken on several states successfully, Neil set his sights on Texas and I was more than happy to host the Dallas stop on his Texas tour.

Neil originally followed in the footsteps of his father, a farmer, and began growing grass seed. But he always had a strong appreciation for wine due to his family’s close relationship with Bill Preston, wine maker for Fidelitas. While I was drinking Gallo blush in a big jug, he and fellow members of the St. Luis Obispo water skiing team, would pool their money and buy wine. When they didn’t have tournaments, they went tasting in different cities in California. Grass seed farming was lucrative, but Neil found himself getting stuck in corporate politics and began to think about the wine business.

Around the same time Neil and his partners – all who were not in the industry — were looking for a place on Red Mountain to make wine. After three years of negotiating, the winery that they desired was for sale and, Neil decided to make the plunge into running a winery including the operations, sales and building a brand from scratch. Long story short – with the wine being made today by Charlie Hoppes from Fidelitas – COOPER has some fantastic wines that provide a great value as compared to the Napa blends. He brought the full line up with him to Dallas, which gave me the chance to throw a party that coincidentally fell during the kick-off of my husband’s birthday week.

About 50 folks rolled up to find the Urban Crust pizza mobile kitchen in front of our casa and were treated to Neil’s fantastic wines. I loved that the top wines differed among so many of our guests, but what didn’t change was the universal agreement that we need these wines in Texas. Here’s the line-up:

2008 Pinot Gris (Columbia Valley). This wine was crisp, bright and refreshing. I tasted tropical fruit and some floral hints. This is the first wine that I have ever heard my mom ask to have shipped to her and I totally understand why. Neil was sweet enough to let her have a bottle.

2009 COOPER Estate Chardonnay (Red Mountain). This is not your typical buttered toast bomb. It’s definitely an Old World style with butterscotch, pine nuts and a bit of lemon. There is lots of depth to this first estate wine. 2007 and 2008 Cooper L’inizio (Columbia Valley) L’inizio is a Bordeaux-style blend that showed spice, berry, tobacco, licorice and oak. While both were great wines, the 07 was my favorite as it was much more elegant with the gift of time. L’inizio means the beginning and is the cornerstone of the line-up and shows big notes of coffee, vanilla and cherry.

2008 COOPER Merlot (Columbia Valley) This is a very full bodied merlot with lots of berry. This one was the favorite of a good friend who is also a distributor in Dallas. I’d recommend some decanting time if you open it young. 2007 Cooper Cabernet Sauvignon (Columbia Valley) Dark fruit, cherry, spice and coffee made up this great tasting, full-bodied cabernet.

2007 COOPER Cabernet Sauvignon * Walla Walla Valley This is a big, complex, earthy cabernet. Lots of dark fruit and herbal essences like rosemary and even a little cardamom. Definitely one of my favs.

2008 COOPER Cabernet Sauvignon Hightower * Red Mountain This is the model for what Red Mountain Cabernet should be. Lots of tannins, minerality, cherry and a dry finish.

Cheers to l’inizio for COOPER wines in Texas and Neil Cooper, one heck of a great guy who followed his dream.