Dallas Wine Chick

An Evening Spent With Evening Land Vineyards

I was already excited to get the invitation for the Dallas Evening Land tasting hosted by Pioneer Wine Company.  But, when I found out that renowned chef Sharon Hage, formerly of York Street, was providing Pinot friendly matches, I was almost giddy.  You may recall some of the great parties that I’ve blogged about hosted by Pioneer owner Greg Kassanoff, who has become a good friend.

I wasn’t familiar with the Evening Land wines, but judging from the blogger response on Twitter, I knew I was in for a good tasting.  I had a chance to chat with Mark Tarlov, founder of Evening Land vintners during the event.  Tarlov started his career by writing speeches for Warren Burger and decided to go to Columbia for his law degree.  He served in Washington, D.C., as a federal attorney, but it didn’t fulfill his need to tell stories.  His next job as was at Warner Bros., where he worked in operations and started his own production business, Polar Entertainment.  He spent about 20 years in the movie industry and produced about 20 movies including “Copycat” and “Serial Mom.” 

An avid collector and wine drinker, as it often goes, when he had the chance to buy Occidental Vineyard, a 5-acre panel in Sonoma in 2004, it was going to be his retirement project.  But this storyteller kept hearing about other opportunities to buy other cornerstone vineyards in great locations – Seven Springs in Oregon as well as Santa Rita Hills Estate.  Another big opportunity soon presented itself.  Over dinner one night with legendary Burgundy producers, Dominique Lafon, of Domaine des Comtest Lafon, and Christophe Roumier, he was given the offer to enter Burgundy.  All of these wineries were packaged into Evening Land Vineyards.   

Evening Land makes Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from vineyards in Oregon, California and France.  The wines have a color-coded, tiered label system of blue, silver, gold and white, which reflects pricing.  Blue is the most affordable and starts about $20 leading up to the white label, which runs about $120 a bottle.   Isabel Meunier is the wine maker in Oregon; Christophe Vial is the winemaker in Beaune, France, and Sashi Moorman in California.  Lafon continues to consult in France.

So let’s talk about the line-up of wines for the event.  We tried seven wines that night and each one had a very different story to tell:

09 La Source Chardonnay, Seven Springs Vineyard Eola-Amity Hills, Oregon (Gold) – Floral, apple, peach, lemon and flint.  Definitely more New World in style.

08 Summum Chardonnay, Seven Springs Vineyards in Oregon (White) — citrus, apple, tropical, minerality.  Very old world style and my favorite chardonnay

09 Santa Rita Hills Estate Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills Tempest Estate, California (Silver) – blackberry and dark fruit with a big finish

08 Seven Springs Estate Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills, Oregon (Silver) – earthy, Old World, black cherry.  My favorite of the reds

09 La Source Pinot Noir Seven Springs Vineyard Eola-Amity Hills, Oregon (Gold) — blackberry, cherry, plum and floral notes

09 Evening Land The Tempest Pinot Noir, California (Gold) — black fruit, great balance, blackberry.  A big Pinot and my favorite “New World” style

09 Evening Land Bloom’s Field Pinot Noir, California (Gold) – blackberry, spice, very fruity

A great line-up and it was interesting to see the same wine making techniques applied to different terriors with such a range in wine styles.  And judging from the number of Dallas-based sommeliers in the room, I’ve stumbled upon a great “insider” winery that I’m happy to share with you.

A Bubbly Review: Domaine Carneros Brut Rosé and Poema Brut Cava

If you consistently read this blog or have ever met me, you know that I am a fan of all things champagne, sparkling or bubbly.  You also may know that last year I lost several people who were dear to me and I vowed that I would try to make every day a champagne occasion.  That was why when I received two bottles of bubbly from my friends at Kobrand, I was very happy.

What Happens When Moms Don’t Attend Y Guides

My husband and daughter were camping at a Y Guides (formerly Indian Princesses before we got all politically correct) retreat, so I had several of the gals in my girl’s wine over and pulled out the bubbles.

Our first bottle was the Domaine Carneros Brut Rosé 06. It was a fabulous fruit and floral blend with rose petals, peach and hints of raspberry, strawberry and great balance. A blend of 55% Pinot Noir, 45% Chardonnay, the Brut Rose retails for $36 and is worth every penny.  
 

The other sparkling provided was a Poema Brut Cava from the Penedès region in northeastern Spain.  This was nice, crisp with lots of pear, spice and almost a baked bread finish.  Quite a bargain at under $11 and a great summer sparkler.

Party Like A Rock Star: A Night With Charles Smith

So, if you had a huge opening of your new wine tasting room and world headquarters scheduled the next day in Walla Walla complete with lots of pre-event hype and only had one hour to get from the airport to the ribbon cutting, would you risk attending a party in Dallas the night prior?  Charles Smith would.  Why?  Because he made a promise to his friend, Pioneer Wine Company Owner Greg Kassanoff, and he doesn’t break promises. 

My first encounter with Charles and his breath-taking wife, Ginevra Casa, the maker of Secco sparkling, happened during last year’s Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla.  A group of bloggers were invited to his pre-party, which was held at the site of his new wine tasting room in a former auto shop.  As we walked in the door, we were handed plastic cups of his Boom Boom Syrah and were greeted by the sight of Burlesque dancers.  Did I mention they were wearing flaming pasties?  Yup, not exactly what I expected for Walla Walla.  I actually turned 41 that night and credit Charles for throwing me one hell of a birthday party.

Charles is a controversial guy with a rock star manager background who is one talented winemaker.  He’s non-conventional, from the Sammy Hagar flowing locks to the “no holds barred way” that he does business to the way that he markets his wines taking cues from how the music industry markets.  He told me that he’s about staying true to his brand.  He’s the largest wine maker/business owner in Washington and just wants to make wines that reflect his rocker sensibility.  In his words, “It’s just booze.  Drink it.” 

I had the chance to try the K Vintners 06 Guido, which was an 80/20 blend of Sangiovese and Syrah.  It was smooth with some earthiness, tobacco, cherry and leather.  We were then in for a big treat – the unveiling (and sorry folks you can’t get it in Texas yet) of the Charles Smith Cabernet 08, the first Cab bottling from the Stone Ridge Vineyard site.  It was big and concentrated with hints of cedar, cherry, bramble, mocha and spice.  We then moved to the K Vintners El Jefe Chamberlin 08, which was a 75/25 tempranillo and cabernet sauvignon blend with lots of spice, blackberry and smoke.  

I’m glad to report that Charles did make it to his grand opening and naturally it was a rocking success.

Kid In A Candy Store: Serendipity Portfolio Tasting

Occasionally I get the opportunity to truly be a big kid in a “candy store.”  In the wine world, these opportunities are known as portfolio tastings, where a distributor displays all of its wines for sale to a particular market.  For me, it’s like receiving the Barbie Townhouse that I got when I was seven.  That was one fabulous Christmas.  Spoiler alert: Incidentally this was the same year I learned about the reality of Santa.  While putting together the aforementioned Barbie Townhouse, my father let out a stream of words that I never heard from him before, and still have not heard since.  This caused me to leave my bed to investigate.  I have to say that since I have become a parent and dealt with “some assembly required.” I totally understand the reason for his outburst.

Last week, I arrived at the Palomar Hotel for Serendipity Wine Imports Texas Tour of 2011.  There before me were approximately 250 wines that I could taste.  Yes, 250 wines.  Absolutely overwhelming.  When I go to these I always try to peruse all the information in advance so I can make informed decisions.  My checklist usually starts out simple – am I familiar with the wines, are they new to Texas, what is the buzz from the other folks attending and what just looks interesting?  I try to hit those first.  Then, I start the reconnaissance portion of the mission by asking the folks who are pouring – if I was to try one or two of your wines, which ones do you recommend?  You avoid kissing a lot of frogs this way.  But, you also miss out on the opportunity at times to try new vintages – but did I mention there were 250 wines?

Sometimes you run into some old friends. I was thrilled to finally meet Mitch Bakich from Donati Vineyards and taste his new vintage of Claret, which was a delightful big red blend.  I hosted some of his former co-workers a few years ago when they came to Dallas and set up some events for them to gain Dallas exposure.  We ended the day with a party at my house.  At one point we figured they were lost as there was a long delay in them getting from the wine bar to my casa.  I later found out they had “committed a random act of wine” by stopping a neighbor and gifting him with a leftover bottle of vino.  My kind of people.

I also was thrilled to run into Ginger Dollins from Domaine Serene, one of my favorite Pinot producers from Oregon.   The full line up of Pinots (06 Evenstad Reserve, 07 Yamhill Cuvee) and one Syrah (07 Rockblock SoNo) were delightful and topped my favorite list.  The Domaine Serene Pinot Noir Grace Reserve was elegant, silky and filled with rich stone fruit.  This wine rocked.

Some of my other favorites included:

• Blue Rock 06 Cabernet Alexander Valley.  Big fruit, cherry, licorice – this wine continued to evolve in the glass.  The name Blue Rock comes from the soils where the vineyards are planted on top of rock.
• Blue Rock 05 Syrah.  Full of vanilla, currant and blackberry.  Sadly, this is the last vintage since I heard several times over the course of this event that syrah doesn’t sell.  That’s a damn shame as this is a great wine.
• Monmartre Brut Sparkling, which just debuted in Texas last month, is a fresh light sparking that is perfect for an aperitif from Montmartre, the heart of Paris.
• Bonny Doon 06 Le Cigare Volant.  This earthy Rhone blend is full of ripe fruit, but with almost a rosemary herbal nose to it.  A nice and well balanced wine.  And, one of my favorites folks on Twitter @megmaker works here, so I was very excited to try the wine.
• Bonny Doon 09 Ca’ del Solo Muscat. This one is delightful but hard to describe as it is a dry Muscat, with the floral nose you would expect, but with a crispness you don’t.

On my way out, I was given a secret handshake from my friend, Eddie Eaken from Veritas, and led to another table.  Behold was a decanter and I had the chance to taste the 06 Poderi Aldo Conterno Colonnello Bussia, Barolo DOCG, Italy.  It was a symphony of flavors in a glass – cherry, earth, herbs, licorice — and it kept me smiling the whole way home.  While I probably only sampled less than 20 percent of the wines featured, I can tell you I am looking forward to continuing my Serendipity research.

Deep in the Heart of Texas’ Wine Country

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I recently was invited to attend an event in Fort Worth for the Texas Hill Country Wineries at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.  The session began with a panelist seminar of winemakers that included John Rivenbaugh from Bending Branch Winery, Gill Bledsoe from Pillar Bluff Vineyard and David Kuhlken from Pedernales Cellars who discussed a variety of subjects as related to producing wine in Texas.

I learned a few things:

• The Texas wine and grape industry is fifth in the U.S. for wine production with over 2 million gallons produced annually.  The 2,700 acres of vineyard and 200 plus wineries contribute $1.35 billion to Texas’ economy.  Wow.
• And, the proposed budget cuts at a state and federal level will absolutely level the gains made in Texas wine production.

I wanted to know more about where the winemakers thought the ‘sweet spot’ was for Texas wine.  Not surprisingly, they talked about the potential for growth in Texas as only six percent of Texas wines are consumed by Texans.  When I was on the efactor panel in February, I heard the same from Dan Gatlin from Inwood Estates.  I was glad to hear that they all acknowledged planting the right kind of varietals for the crazy Texas weather is the key to success.  As someone who has palate skid marks from trying Texas wines in the 1990’s, I was heartened to hear this.  Bledsoe had my favorite quote of the night, “I want to show that we can dance – I’ll throw our wines up against anyone.”  The fact that 15 of 21 Texas wines that were awarded medals in the San Francisco International Wine Competition were from the Texas Hill Country shows he may have a point.

Naturally I asked about the challenges they face.  Texas weather and funding seemed to top the list.  If you’ve spent any time in Texas or watched the Big Game this year, you know temperatures can drop 50 degrees overnight.  There is also some research that is making gains in improving Texas wine – collaborations between Texas A&M and the program at Grayson County College – that could be severely impacted by budget cuts.

If you’ve been reading Dallas Wine Chick for the past year, you know that I’ve had some past struggles with Texas wine.  I’m sure your big question is what I thought about the wines.  I tasted 29 wines.  Some took me back to my experience in the 1990’s.  However, I had four that made me take notice.

• Duchman Family Winery, 09 Montepulciano, ($15) this was a red wine full of stone fruit, slight oak and a bit of spice at the finish.  It was a Texas wine that is actually possible to drink in August Texas weather.
• Duchman Family 09 Vermentino ($10), a Texas patio wine that is floral with hints of pear, but balanced with some minerality.  Lively and light for patio weather.
• Perdernales Tempranillo ($29.99), a little high priced for my threshold for a Texas wine, but with soft tannins, an earthiness and cherry notes that make it well matched for Texas game.  The highlight of my tasting note was simple – “Nice” with an exclamation point.
• Singing Water Vineyards Reserve Merlot/Cabernet Blend ($24.95), also priced on the high range, this was a deep red wine full of stone fruit, raspberry and vanilla.

Coincidentally, a group of Texas sommeliers blind tasted more than 100 Texas wines and both Duchman and Perdernales wines were on the winners list.  The Singing Water Vineyards has also won a number of awards for their reserve blend.

My takeaways from this event – I found wines that I liked that give me hope for the future of Texas wines.  I would keep an eye on Perdenales Cellars, Singing Water Vineyards and Duchman Family.  I expect good things.

The Envelope Please: Cotes du Coeur Unveils Wine & Food Pairings

Last week I had the chance to attend the chef announcement party for the 20^th annual Cotes du Coeur International Fine Wine Auction and Celebrity Chef Dinner.  The event raises money for the American Heart Association’s fight against heart disease and is scheduled for April 9^th at the Hilton Anatole. A few days prior the event, I received an email that the location was being moved to the Addison Conference Center due to the increase in the amount of attendees expected.

Chef Richard Chamberlain served in an emcee role as he ran through the chef line-up paired with some wonderful wines.  He seemed surprised to receive the Cowboys Quarterback Award from Chairman John L. Adams for his tireless work on behalf of the Cotes du Coeur. 

The menu and associated wines are listed below and I have so many personal favorites including Gemstone, Realm, Ceja, Terra Valentine, Jordan and Peju that I’d be here all day talking about them. 

If you want to meet great winemakers, support a cause that impacts all of us and enjoy food from the best chefs in town, I’ll see you on April 9.

Wines.com, Texas Wineries, D Magazine … and me?

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This month is a big month for the Dallas Wine Chick.  It’s the one-year anniversary of this little blog and with over 9,500 page views, about 3,100 Twitter followers and almost 600 fans on Facebook, you all have exceeded my expectations for success and created this amazing wine community.

You’ll see a link above to my first advertiser, Wine Chateau, a great online retailer of fine wines, who offers you a shipping discount with the link above.  Thank you Wine Chateau for your support of Dallas Wine Chick.

Recently I had my first wine-related speaking opportunity for EFactor, a local networking group.  Alex Andrawes, the CEO of wines.com and a friend on Twitter, asked me to join a panel session with some esteemed names in the wine business.  So I found myself on a panel with two Texas winemakers — Dan Gatlin from Inwood Estates and Dave Duchman from Duchman Family Wines as well as two personal friends – Andrew Chalk, D Magazine producer for Side Dish and Lindsay Woodard, owner of Retour Wines in Oregon.  About 55 people gathered at Cork Wine Bar to taste wine, hear the discussion and network.

I first introduced myself as the “accidental blogger.”  For those of you who know the story of starting Dallas Wine Chick, I just wanted to share my passion and experience of wine with others.  I started first on Twitter and when I reached a certain following; I thought about starting the blog.  To my shock, it happened.

The discussion was interesting.  We were asked as a panel to discuss the wine industry in Dallas.  Dan talked about how Dallas remains a challenge for him and other markets like Houston are much more supportive of Texas wines.  I talked about how Texas wine – especially in Dallas – needs an image overhaul to occur before consumers can support it.  In my discussions with other winemakers, including Lindsay who was there to debut her wonderful Retour Pinots in Dallas, the market is definitely supporting wines from other regions.

Andrew voiced the frustration of the room when asked about challenges with wine and restaurants.  Because consumers are better educated and know the retail price of many wines, paying triple mark-up is a detriment.  He believes that if restaurants were to even double the price of retail wine, they would immediately see higher sales because people would be willing to buy more wine.  I wasn’t asked this question, which was probably a good thing, but my pet peeve is “cookie cutter” wine lists that have been purchased by a distributor.  If many restaurants would take the same care with wine lists as they do with their food, consumers would have a better experience.

We talked a lot of about social media.  Lindsay doesn’t use social media today because her customers aren’t using Twitter and Facebook.  Dan has an Inwood Estates Facebook page, but it doesn’t seem to be populated often.  Dave has his marketing department handle their social media efforts and they are active.  Andrew uses a blog, but not Facebook or Twitter for business.  So, that leaves me and Alex as the poster children of the power of social media.

There was also some general discussion about the three-tier system and I think many of those in the room were surprised to hear about how wine gets from the winemaker to your home.

All in all, it’s the type of panel discussion that brought together many perspectives – winemaker, wine writers, wine retails.  We just needed a distributor to get a holistic view of the wine business.

As we wrapped up the Q&A, one audience member asked if it was still possible to get outside funding for the wine business.  Dan responded with a well-known, but sadly true quote – “If you want to make a small fortune in the wine business, be prepared to invest a large fortune.”

She’s leaving on Midnight Train to Saint-Emilion

I know you’ve heard the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for….”  About a month ago, I was lamenting the fact that review wines were stacking up in my kitchen and I posted on Facebook that I needed some tasting assistance.  Naturally, several people immediately jumped to help and the next thing I knew, Lea Cromer had arranged for our tasting to be held at Saint-Emilion Restaurant.com in Ft. Worth, TX for a nominal fee. 

First, I had to figure out how to get a bunch of folks from Dallas to Fort Worth without having to drive.  We were planning to drink 16 review wines and we were ready for some fun.  Sure, we could have paid for a driver, but since it was the midst of the holidays we didn’t want to spend the funds.  In most metropolitan cities, this would not be that big of a deal, but in Texas, public transportation is not an easy feat.

We found out the Trinity Railway Express would get us from point A to point B in less than an hour.  Seemed easy.  Notsomuch.  My friend, Julie, and I took a taxi from my house to the station and found it difficult to navigate with someone else driving.  Actually, that’s an understatement.  Do you remember the scene from National Lampoon’s European Vacation?  We had our Look kids.  There’s Big Ben.  There’s Parliament moments.  The real irony occurred when several of my friends tried to (gasp) drive their cars to the station and park.  That’s when we found out that the ample lot located next to the station is closed and they wanted three women driving separately to park 15 minutes away and walk… because that is safe and makes sense? 

I must admit.  Once we got on the train we planned to clandestinely pour some wines into coffee cups to toast the journey.  The train was so packed that was not a reality, but I know some of the conversations that we had definitely were not what the daily commuters were used to overhearing.  Once we hit Fort Worth, we piled (and I mean piled) into the taxi where we were finally en route to Saint-Emilion Restaurant, one of Fort Worth’s treasures.

In the past, I haven’t spent a great deal of time in Fort Worth outside of client business or the arts community, but I can’t put into words how lovely and hospitable the owner, Bernard Tronche, was to us. He truly rolled out the red carpet.

Bernard had arranged for the tasting wines to be properly chilled and stemware was waiting when we arrived.  Our aperitif was the Biltmore Estate Blanc de Blancs Methode Champenoise.  Made of chardonnay grapes, it was floral, had a touch of honey and some citrus notes.  A very nice sparkling for $24.99.

Once we had finished our sparkling, Bernard began to bring out lovely plates of cheeses, frog legs, escargots and freshly baked warm bread to complement the food.   There were arsenal meats, goat cheese rolled in spices, almonds, olives and an amazing bruschetta appetizer that I couldn’t stop eating. 

My favorites of the 16 wines that we reviewed:

Favorite Wines

• Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc 09.  At $13.99, we were pleasantly surprised with this wine.  Lots of citrus, but with a touch of pineapple that made it balanced. It was named by one of the attendees as her 2011 “lakehouse wine.”
• Blackstone Sonoma Reserve Rubric 07.  I had a bit of a bias against the Blackstone wines, but really enjoyed the Rubic.  Big notes of blackberry and a caramel smoothness made this a nice drinking experience. Priced at $22.  The Blackstone Sonoma Reserve Cabernet 07 also received some good table reviews.
• Caviste Carneros Pinot Noir 07.  Lea, who reps several wines with retailers, brought this one made by Acacia.  It had notes of licorice and a lavender note that I really liked.  Priced at $17.99.
• Albino Armani Corvara Pinot Grigio Valdadige 09. This was an interesting wine.  I tasted pears, peaches, honeydew and a touch of bubble gum.  Definitely one to be served as an aperitif.  Priced at $19.99
• Bodegas Osborne Tempra Tantrum Tempranillo/Cabernet 09.  Very fruity with blackberry notes.  We deemed this a great picnic wine at $11.99.
• Robert Mondavi Merlot Napa Valley 07.  Raspberries, blueberries and black tea made this a well balanced wine.  Priced  at $23.
• Dona Paula Estate Malbec 09.  Hands down – our favorite of the wines to be reviewed.  Velvety smooth and notes of cherry, herb and licorice.  Very nice.  The quote of the night occurred here – “I want to sleep with this.  I want to bathe with this.”

Right as the Dona Paula Malbec was poured, Bernard and crew came with the grand finale – a fantastic steak, pommes frites and grilled asparagus.  The meal was absolutely heavenly and I don’t think I left a bite.  Saint-Emilion opened in 1985 when Bernard, a transplant from France, decided that he wanted to open his own restaurant after working at restaurants in New York, New Orleans and Dallas.  Mark Hitri serves as the Chef de Cuisine and joined last September. 

Bernard and I enjoying the evening

We wrapped up the night with a few wines from our own collections.  The Summers Adrianna’s Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon Napa 07, the 00 Chateau Margaux Pavillon Rouge and the 05 Marquis Phillips S2.  This time we planned ahead and filled out “to go” cups before arriving at the station for the long ride ahead.

I can tell you one thing – the food at Saint-Emilion is worth the trip.  I will be back – and might even take the train again to do so …

Texas vs. New York Gridiron: Let’s Get Ready to Rumble

Earlier this month, with high hopes for a Ranger’s World Series win and the Cowboy’s at a pathetic 1 and 4; I was invited to attend the 2010 Grape & Gridiron Classic that was thrown by the “GO TEXAN” folks at the Texas Department of Agriculture.

I was excited to see two industry folks that I hadn’t met live yet,  Russ Kane and Jeff Siegel who were co-hosting the event on the Texas side.  Russ and I have been Twitter friends for a long time, so it was great to finally meet him live.  The premise was to do a taste off Texas vs. New York wines in conjunction with the Cowboys/Giants game that was scheduled that evening. Based on the Cowboy’s season at that time, I wasn’t surprised to see that the better competition was going to be in the room that night at El Centro (wine vs. the football game).

We started with ten whites, which we tasted blind.  Of all the whites, I found I preferred the 09 Llano Estacado Winery Unoaked Chardonnay. This was a good thing as Mark Hyman, president and CEO of Llano was sitting at our table. I am a huge fan of New York Finger Lakes Riesling wines. However, not one Finger Lakes wine was represented due to the archaic laws regarding shipping wines to Texas. Because of this, I feel like we were able to showcase the wines we wanted to in Texas, but the New York folks were sparring with one hand tied behind their backs.

We tasted ten reds and a dessert wine. I also found that the palate of my table mates – Mark Hyman, Ron Ruggles from Nation’s Restaurant News and Hunter Hammett from the Fairmont Hotel, were overall very similar. However, the palate of almost everyone else in the room was drastically different as choice after choice of ours lost the vote.

Texas won by a landslide – eight to three for a total of 11 flights. The “best of show” favorites were McPherson Cellars Rose’ of Syrah 2009 (Texas) and Dr. Konstantin Frank Semi-Dry Riesling 2009 (New York).  All in all, I found some good wines from New York and from Texas. I must commend Russ and Jeff for figuring out how to take very different wines, including different varietals, and pair them together in categories for tasting. I’m hoping that we’ll do it again next year … only let’s involve Lenn Thomas and tie it to the Rangers/Yankees play off games.

All photos are courtesy of  Jenny Gregorcyk.

A New Journey with Beaujolais

I was invited to participate in another Twitter Taste Live event with a focus on lighter style crus.  Full disclosure – it had been a long time since I had Beaujolais and those that I had were the mass market ones focused around a certain November release that I generally found to be pretty uninspired.

My session made me definitely want to take a closer look.  We had four wines to try.  The 09 Domaine Cheysson, Chiroubles; the 09 Henry Fessy, Brouilly; the 09 Charly Thevenet “Grain et Granit,” Regnie and the 09 Alain Coudert, Close de la Roilette, Fleurie.  Three of the four wines were under $20 and were really interesting.

In the 09 Domaine Cheysson, Chiroubles, I tasted raspberry and red currant with some floral accents.  For $18.99 a bottle, it was a very nice everyday affordable wine with more complexity than I expected.

The 09 Henry Fessy, Brouilly ($17) had a big earthy muskiness to it that didn’t reconcile on the nose with strawberry aroma.  However, once I tried it, it was balanced.  

One of my favorites – and imagine that – was the most expensive at $35.99 — the 09 Charly Thevenet “Grain et Granit,” Regnie.  I tasted violet, big strawberry, cherry, raspberry, spice and eucalyptus.  I also wanted this one to spend a little time in the decanter.   I had it open for about an hour, but I think this is a wine that would evolve drastically from day one to day three.  I, unfortunately, was leaving town for the paying gig, so I couldn’t experiment.

My other favorite was the 09 Alain Coudert, Close de la Roilette, Fleurie priced at $20.  I tasted currant, cassis, chocolate and it had an almost velvet finish.  It was very impressive for a wine priced at $20.

While I am a fan of Bordeaux, this tasting proved to me that you need to venture off the beaten path.  These Beaujolais wines are a great value and once again prove that if you treat trying new wines as a journey of discovery, you will be rewarded most of the time.