A little about Madeline:

Hi, my name is Madeline Puckette and I'm the host and wine expert at Wine Folly.  You can read an interview about me on Here on Wine Folly

You can find out more about me at:

http://winefolly.com

http://www.facebook.com/madelinepuck
and
http://www.twitter.com/madelineelectro

In a Pinch: Grocery Store Garnacha

Yours truly on the patio.  Yes, those are skulls on my scarf.

I just moved to Seattle, WA.  In a fit to get out of the biggest little city I took the certified exam in Seattle, fell in love, packed the car with my partner and the kitty cat and moved!  Now, barely settled, we are tasting some grocery store bargain wines to see how low my palate will go!  

Borsao 2008 red wine. $6-7 USD.  75% Garnacha 25% Tempranillo

Sight: Dark Ruby-Purple with hibiscus pink rim, bright with light just passing through center of liquid, little to no rim variation

Aroma: clean with red cherry, lemon-orange citrus, slight vanilla characteristics, candied plum and a feint smell of tar oil 

Palate: Watermelon jollyrancher, maraschino cherry & tar, candied orange rind, citrus notes 

Wood: slight vanilla notes, perhaps 4 months in american oak or oak chips

Earth: Tar, Dried Clay

Tannins: light, mostly grape tannins, 

Complexity: Minus, this is a simple one-note wine with low complexity but no major "off" notes. 

Summary: Borsao, for $7 is exactly what $7 wine should be: simple, fruity, and not cloying or harsh.  I wish I could get lucky like this with all my under 10 dollar wines.  

Food Pairing:  Tonight I made a eggplant basil dish with long beans over jasmine rice.  The sweetness from the caramelizing of the sugar on the eggplant matched rather well with the citrus flavors in the garnacha.  The green crunchy character of the long beans helped lighten up the oily finish of the wine.  A late harvest torrontes would have been a perfect pairing....

Howell Mountain: menthol and mint

Rudy Zuidema, winemaker at White Cottage winery on Howell Mountain

When someone says "Howell Mountain," everyone gets this serious look on their face: a combination of awe and nostalgia all at once.  Perhaps they are remembering a very fine old bottle of Dunn Vineyards or they are reminiscing on the smell.... that smell of strong menthol permeating from the glass.  

Rudy Zuidema pulled out bottle after bottle and lined them up on the bar.  The name "White Cottage" seemed kind of innocuous, like a name selected for WalMart brand, designed to appeal to 35-50 year old women.  Rudy was beaming at me from in front of the bar and I remembered how much I hated the idea of myself slowly descending into wine-snobbery and elitism.  Oh what the hell, let's try this liquid!

Little did I know, White Cottage winery is not a branded wine, it's the name of a small family winery on non-other-than-my-favorite-napa-ava Howell Mountain!  I am such a dick!  White Cottage has a line of wines all made from mostly Howell Mountain fruit from their vineyards.  The more amazing part about these wines, is that they are only around $30-45, which is astonishing because Howell Mountain commands some of the highest prices per ton of grapes (as high as $6000/ton vs $1300/ton for napa valley, as a generalized comparison, sorry).

Rudy's wines are a gestalt of Howell Mountain, they have all the aromas and flavors that one would note about that particular growing area.  I will keep looking out for them, because I believe Rudy is going to make better stuff as he keeps making wine.

White Cottage also is trying to take a not-too-serious approach to their wine.  They offer a stand-up red blend with sangiovese, zinfandel and syrah and offer it in a 1L jug.  It's great: I want it for dinner and a mid-morning snack.

oh noes!  We spilled the good sh*t!