Justin: a business man and a party wine

We are very lucky to meet the men & women behind the labels.

West Street Wine Bar sits in Reno, Nevada which is about as far as winemakers from California will drive without making it such a major affair.  And since Reno gets the same benefits as Las Vegas but is a much smaller community wine servers like myself reap the benefits.  Of course the business of wine is extremely personal so it exudes all people involved to break bread and drink wine together, turns out, this is exactly why I love it so much.  

Justin wines are typically big and fruit forward, and despite slight vintage differences, consistency with these bold characteristics always come through.  This makes Justin a perfect party pleaser wine, from his introductory priced cabernet to his serious and complex blends: Isosceles and Justification.  When I met Justin himself, I was not expecting to meet a tall, dark, slightly reserved man who clearly knows the business end of wine.  Justin utilizes his brain power to push his brand, hiring smart people to make the product and spending his time marketing.  Smart.  

He has a restaurant on site, a winemaker, a master sommelier and a master chef.  He surrounds his winery with the best of the business and then he goes out to meet people like me to hear from my mouth how I feel about the wines: His new 2007 vintage cab is more fruity than the 2006 but still has everything you would look for in Justin wines.  Buy it.

Unfortunately, I can already see wine snobs poo-pooing the entrepreneurialism at use here.  There is a lot of ideology when you get "deeper into wine" that the winemaker is someone who slaves away making wines, making very little money, but enough to survive on their passion.  That isn't fair, this same kind of hate for "sell outs" is prevalent in the music industry, art business and any business based on objective creativity.  I believe that if you are passionate and talented you should have just enough potential to make money like a mutual fund broker and not be hated for it.  Go Justin.  Go Madeline!

end rant.

Quinta Do Vallado

Quinta do Vallado Douro Wines. 

Quinta Do Vallado made an appearance in Wine Spectator in the February 2010 issue.  Dennis came in almost the same week with a trio of these inky still wines from Douro region in Portugal.  We are now selling their 2007 Douro Red for around 11.00/glass a deal for a wine that received 93pts.  Trying single varietals has lately been my prerogative since the Court of Masters test is coming up, so I've been very curious about Portuguese varietals like Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinta Barroca.  Quinta Do Vallado has a single varietal Touriga Nacional which is the middle wine in the image above.  

Smokey cocoa and black currant dominated the nose on the Touriga with the classic tongue-on-roof-of-mouth grit that I associate with Port wine.  I've been really hoping to find good still wines from Douro because these grapes make amazing Port and most of the time, such cheap blow-your-palette-up red still wines.  Thank sid, Quinto Do Vallado delivers, and I would encourage sommeliers to try the Touriga Nacional, I liked it better than their reserva... but perhaps a little unfairly because so much of that region is renown for their dedication to blending, and the Reserva delivered more point-scoring fruit. 

Dennis is the perfect example of people of love their job!

Guess Your Palate! and Rhone syrah Outta St. Joseph

Ty Martin, from Cepage Selections blind tasted me on this Kermit Lynch wine. 

There's a disconnect between the customer and wine server in that, neither of us know each others' palate.  There are a few tricks I use on a day to day basis to gather information without seeming like a butt hole:

Are you interested in a red or white wine?

For Red: Would you like a light, medium or full-bodied red wine

2nd Level Red: Are you looking for a wine with more fruit or more earthiness?

For White: Are you looking for a dry or sweet wine

2nd Level White: are you looking for a wine with a fruity presence and a bigger style or one with more delicacy and zesty-ness?

This way, we get to the bottom of that person's desires without saying directly "new world, old world, fruit forward" or "oakey" which can offend.  If there's one thing that I would like to see more from other sommeliers is an acceptance that no matter how fruity a particular wine from Vacqueyras or Chinon is, it's still going to be a earth-bomb.  

Ty Martin stopped by while I was having this epiphany and poured a mystery wine into my glass.  Looking at it's color I couldn't help but think one thing... SYRAH!  But instead of jumping to conclusions, doing a proper analysis makes a much stronger argument: 

Mystery Wine:

APPEARANCE: 

Clarity: hazy/murky

Brightness: Dull / Opaque

Intensity: Lots of extracted color, High-intensity

Color: Deep Purple/Violet to light pink meniscus, low rim variation indicating a younger wine

Viscosity: Medium, estimated 13.5% 14% alcohol 

NOSE: 

Condition: Sound and clean

Intensity: Medium plus, lots of big things happening in the aroma

Aroma/Bouquet: Young smells of fruit, not any bottle aged, yeast bouquets

Fruit: Black cherries, black olives, slight raisin 

Earth: Yes, revealing gravel

Wood: Yes, slight spice characteristics including clove, but not overly so, perhaps a blend of used oak

Other Aromas: a herbal nose with oregano, tarragon and slight notes of gardenia flowers

PALATE: 

Sweetness Level & Body: Dry with a Full Body

Fruit: Olives, Cranberries, Cherries, Sour Plums

Wood: a light spice layer makes me think it's with used French Oak

Other: herbal notes of tarragon

Tannins: Medium Plus, dryness on the roof of my mouth, with a gravelly feel

Alcohol: Medium, possibly 13.5% or lower

Acidity: Medium, moderate acidity

Complexity: Interesting palate that evolves from an initial sweetness to sourness and tannin character, medium-plus complexity

Finish: acidity clears finish, raisin characteristics remain, medium length finish

INITIAL CONCLUSION:

Old World wine, from a cool to moderate climate, probably syrah or mostly syrah about 2-5 years of age

FINAL CONCLUSION:

Because of the olive aromas and color, I really think it's a Northern Rhone unfiltered/naturally produced Syrah from the 2007 vintage.  I also would guess it's retail at around $45. 

Wine: 2006 Domaine Faury St. Joseph Red Wine (Northern Rhone Syrah!) Retail for $27 at Kermit Lynch. 

I would pair this wine with a braised portobello mushrooms and roasted potatoes with tarragon and a mint compote. a side of crispy kale would be a nice way to compliment the herbal characteristics.  The mint would bring out the fruitiness in the wine and the portobellos to accentuate the body.