Sharko’s BBQ with Yakima Valley Syrah

Sharko’s Beef Brisket BBQ with Yakima Valley (Washington) Single Vineyard Syrah  

Wife Linda picked up Beef Brisket BBQ at Sharko’s in nearby Downers Grove, (IL), our favorite and arguably the best BBQ in the western suburbs. 

Sharko’s have a long history and legacy of restaurants in Chicago and the Western Suburbs dating back to the 1930’s, starting with a family butcher shop in Chicago opened by George Sharko. In the 1950's, Sharko’s sons Jerry and George promoted the Sharko brand selling spices, extracts, and small wares through catalog sales. 

In 1956 they opened Sharko's on 63rd St in Chicago, which was successful from the beginning, leading to 2 more additions and the start of a traditional family style menu. Joined by brothers Don and Greg, and Jerry Sharko’s son Ron, the business expanded with four more restaurants in East Chicago, Villa Park, Lisle and Lombard (IL), as well as banquet halls and a catering company. Greg eventually went on to start Sharko's Catering in Scottsdale, Arizona which is still thriving.

We dined at the Lisle Sharko’s restaurant back in the late seventies, a fine dining establishment that eventually closed when the site was taken over and incorporated into the vast Molex Corporation global headquarters campus. 

In recent years, Sharko’s opened in Naperville on the Freedom Drive restaurant row, then moved to the current location in Downers Grove. Sharko’s BBQ Sauce took 1st prize fat Naperville's First Rib Fest, an immensely popular event for more than a decade. 

For pairing with the Beef Brisket, we pulled from the cellar this limited release single vineyard designated Syrah. 

Arnaut “Avenida” Boushey Vineyard Yakima Valley Syrah 2017

We wrote about this producer and this label last year about this time, in this blogpost, Arnaut Avenida Boushey Vineyard Columbia Valley Syrah, as excerpted here:

Last year, we eagerly opened this just acquired, highly regarded Columbia Valley Syrah. I admited I’d never heard of this producer or this highly acclaimed vineyard source, hence I was curious to try this highly rated label.. 

Avennia is the partnership project of entrepreneur Marty Taucher and winemaker Chris Peterson, founded in 2009 based on core principles; “a passionate commitment to signature vineyards and natural processes in the cellar - resulting in timeless, world class wines that are solely and undeniably Washington”. 

This approach and objective is similar to another high profile Washington State producer, Long Shadows, and their Vintners Collection Series of labels, which we love, and have collected as wine club members since discovering them on our trip to the region back in 2017. 

Interesting, that like Long Shadows, Avennia also sources their fruit from contract growers, and promotes their brand through three different tasting rooms in three of the major Washington State wine areas, Woodinville, Walla Walla, at their sole estate vineyard site in the Red Mountain appellation in Yakima Valley. We visited both the Woodinville and Walla Walla wine areas during trips to the region. 

In their first year of production, 2010, they acquired 16 tons of fruit that they transformed to wine that was ultimately released in 2012, Receiving much acclaim in that inaugural release, and affirming and building upon relationships in place with several of the state’s most legendary growers, the stage was set to secure the best fruit in the region for follow-on vintages. More than a decade later, the same core principles continue to guide the direction of the winery and the business.

Marty Taucher, Managing Partner, a native Oregonian, Marty graduated from Oregon State in 1977 and started at then upstart Microsoft in 1984. He went on to lead Public Relations and Event Marketing, then, spent his last five years as Director of Marketing and Brand Strategy for a consumer and online product group. 

In 2009, Taucher signed on as a crush intern at DeLille Cellars where he met Chris Peterson and together they laid the plans for what is now Avennia.

Always inspired by new ideas and fresh thinking, Marty is an angel investor. He serves on numerous non-profit boards. When he’s not in the cellar, he’s an avid golfer, a world traveler, and a perfectly reliable

Chris Peterson, Winemaker/Partner was engaged in the Washington wine industry for more than a decade,  working to make some of the state’s most heralded and award-winning wines at DeLille Cellars. 

Together they founded Avennia with the quest to showcase Washington as a unique and compelling place for great wines, acquiring fruit from some of the finest vineyards in Washington, with a specific focus on the grape varieties used in Bordeaux and the Rhône, in light of their similar latitude to Washington, which makes them a natural fit to excel there.

In thoughtfully choosing vineyard sites to match their winemaking style and preferences, they chose not only the vineyard sources themselves, but down to our favorite vineyard blocks. There is an emphasis on older vines, and moderate climates, as these features tend to create wine with more depth and complexity—a balance between fruit and non-fruit characteristics. 

They strive to craft wine that is balanced and harmonious - the fruit, acid, tannin, perhaps oak. 

Avennia "Arnaut - Boushey Vineyard" Yakima Valley Syrah 2017 

The 2017 Syrah Arnaut Boushey Vineyard is 100% Syrah from Dick Boushey's highly regarded vineyard on the western side of the Yakima Valley AVA, considered one of the state's premier Syrah vineyards. 

This is a cooler site, that tends to instill Northern Rhone-like character in the fruit. Dick Boushey was the first grower with whom Avennia partnered. 

From the Boushey site they source three different varieties which go into the three flagship wines. Boushey is best known for Yakima Valley Syrah and Avennia is the only winery that uses both of the oldest blocks of his coveted fruit. The combination of these two Syrah blocks makes up this Arnaut, a wine we have made since our first vintage, 2010. 

The older, called Grand Côte (meaning "great hillside”), produces wine that is piercingly pure and focused, with meaty and mineral aromas backing up its deep blackberry and damson plum fruit flavors. Wines from the second block, Factory Road, show richer body and feature savory cured meat notes, along with orange peel, and a distinct iron note. 

This release was awarded 95 points by Decanter, 93 pints by Jeb Dunnuck and Vinous, and 92 points by Robert Parker and Wine Enthusiast, an Editor’s Choice. 

Aged 18 months in 15% new French oak. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. Case production was 354 caees

Winemaker's Tasting Notes - "This vintage brings an exceptional level of finesse to Arnaut, but no shortage of the wild, savory aspects we expect from this wine. The nose features, blueberry, salted blackberry, charcoal-grilled pork chop, asphalt, bittersweet chocolate, bee pollen, and a hint of grapefruit pith. Rich and beautifully textured on the palate, with pure Boushey notes of blueberry reduction, bacon fat, cacao nibs, charcoal embers, and grilled thyme. The elegance here hints at this wine drinking well on release, and it should age nicely for 8-12 years." - Chris Peterson, Winemaker

Dark garnet colored, medium to full-bodied, black berry and black raspberry fruits are layered with intense forward notes of black pepper with accents of creosote, dark spices, black olive, black tea, garrigue, and cigar leaf.

RM 91

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3277603

https://avennia.com/

https://sharkosbbq.com/

Tensley Santa Barbara County Shiraz 2022

Tensley Santa Barbara County Shiraz 2022

We received our wine club allocation shipment of (2024) Tensley Santa Barbara County wines. So, I pulled from the cellar an older vintage bottle of the just received label, as part of cellar inventory management, to try. 

We enjoyed this with leftover ravioli and bolognese sauce, and the remains of my veal saltimbocca from our Wine & Dinner at Bruna’s in Chicago’s Little Italy, the other evening. 

Tensley Santa Barbara County Shiraz 2022

We discovered this producer and acquired their wines, and joined their wine club, during our visit to the Santa Maria Valley Foxen Canyon Wine Trail back in 2022. We saw their vineyards and then their tasting room in downtown Los Olivos, during our Wine Experience, chronicled in this blogpost at the time, excerpted here - Tensley Santa Barbara County Wines.

Tensley Santa Maria Valley, Santa Barbara County Wines

During our Santa Barbara County, Santa Maria Valley Wine Experience, we drove the Foxen Canyon wine trail. On one of our stops, we were referred by one producer to check out Tensley Wines, which was near the estate we were visiting. 

We drove by the Tensley vineyards on Alisos Canyon Road, (shown left) which was closed, so we stopped in the Tensley Vineyards hospitality tasting room in downtown Los Olivos.

We first visited a central location serving as the confluence of many producers in Woodinville, Washington, during our Seattle/Woodinville Wine Experience, where over a hundred wineries have retail tasting facilities. 

The town of Los Olivos is all about winery tasting rooms with forty different producers having public retail facilities there. It is the anchor for the Santa Ynez Valley wine appellation, situated on State Road 154 just off the major Route 101, about thirty five miles north, inland, from Santa Barbara.

One of the great surprises of our Santa Barbara County, Santa Maria Valley wine experience was the revelation of Syrah being one of the lead varietals in the area. 

We were expecting to see Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, which are predominant taking advantage of the cool climate being close to the coastal maritime effects. The cool coastal breezes run up the valleys of the mountains that run perpendicular to the coast. 

We were delighted to find several producers featuring or even specializing in Syrah, Tensley included. 

We taste a flight of their wines during our visit to the producer's hospitality tasting room downtown Los Olivos, where we were able to taste a flight of their Rhône varietals centered on their Syrahs.  

Readers of these pages know we're huge fans of Syrah as one of our favorite varietals for big fruit filled every day sipping as well as serious wine pairing with robust foods such as BBQ.

Joey Tensley launched Tensley Wines in 1998 with the goal to produce well-priced, Syrah-driven wines, by "sourcing the best fruit possible and let the unique vineyards of Santa Barbara County speak for themselves." 

The first release of Tensley totaled just 100 cases. By 2015, production had grown to 5,000 cases and included five single-vineyard Syrahs, the most in Santa Barbara County. Tensley Syrah’s have made the Wine Spectator’s Top 100, scored 99 points with Robert Parker, and won Food and Wine Magazine’s award for the “Top Syrah in America over $20.”

Joey’s first experience with wine took place when he was just twelve-years-old, when his soccer team toured a winery while taking part in a tournament in France. He vividly recalls the chill of the old caves and the aromas of wines fermenting in barrel. From that moment on he knew he wanted to be a winemaker. “Which pretty much made me the only kid in Bakersfield with that particular dream,” Joey says.

Joey got his start in the wine business working as a “cellar rat” for Fess Parker Winery in Santa Barbara County in 1993. Three years later, he became assistant winemaker at Babcock Vineyards. There, he came to appreciate the importance of the vineyard and the grower. 

Over time, Tensley also came to appreciate the uniqueness of Santa Barbara County as a growing region. “We’re one of the only places in the world with a mountain range that runs east-west. That gives us many different, unique micro-climates, so a Syrah grown in one place is so different from a Syrah grown in another. It’s an exciting place to make wine.”

In 1998, Joey became assistant winemaker at Beckmen Vineyards where he was also offered the chance to produce his own label. There, he developed his love for Rhône varietals and decided Tensley would produce only Rhône varietal wines, sourced solely from Santa Barbara County.

Tensley wines gained the attention of the wine press in 2001 when Matt Kramer of Wine Spectator named two of Tensley’s 2001 Syrah’s to his list of the Top Ten Wines in the World, and, Robert Parker scored all the ‘01’s in the high 90’s, calling them “serious, hand-crafted efforts.”

In 2008 Food and Wine Magazine named the Tensley 2006 Colson Canyon Syrah “Top Syrah in America Over $20.” Two years later, Robert Parker gave the 2008 Anniversary Series Colson Canyon Syrah 99 points, and The Wine Spectator named the 2008 Colson Canyon Syrah #17 of its Top 100 Wines in the World. The 2007 Colson Canyon Syrah was ranked #22 the year before

More recently Tensley received high praise and high scores from wine critics Josh Raynolds, James Laube, and Jeb Dunnuck. Dunnuck gave Tensley’s 2008 Syrah Noir 99 points and named Joey, “one of the rising superstars in California.”

I was not aware of this brand prior to this trip. It was a top discovery and revelation and may certainly be one of our go-to boutique labels going forward. We joined their wine club to obtain a supply of their labels from these tasted and going forward. 

After we returned to OC, we visited the two top wine shops, Total Wines and High Time in Cosa Mesa, the top independent merchant in the area. We were surprised and delighted to find Tensley wines on the shelves in both outlets.  

Three years later, more recently, we now are delighted to find Tensley at Total Wine and Binny’s Beverage Depot, our two ‘home’ wine superstores. 

Our Tensley tasting flight in Los Olivos included: 

• Laird Vineyard Marsanne 2021
• 'All Blocks' Estate Blend 2020 
• Colson Canyon Syrah 2020, and,
• Santa Barbara County Syrah 2020 - the then current release of this just received, and tasted wine.   

Tensley Santa Barbara County Syrah 2020

Winemaker Notes: "Every year the vineyard percentages change, yet the style remains the same. In 2020 we introduced Laird Vineyard to the blend. By adding this vineyard we continue to work with sandy cool sites to add freshness and savory notes to the final blend.' 

"We add complexity and power by including all of our single vineyard Syrah sources. At the end of the day, this wine is both powerful and fresh. It beams with bright acidy and saline notes, rounding out with blue and black fruits to make it generous, juicy and easy to drink. It will age 7-10 years, but do not hesitate to open and enjoy its freshness today." 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=4091582

Tonight, we tasted the 2022 release of this label. 

Tensley Wines Santa Barbara County Syrah 2022

This release was awarded 94 points and"Top Buy: America's 30 Best Syrahs," by Decanter, 92-94 points by Jeb Dunnuck, 93 points by Erin Brooks of the Wine Advocate, and 92 points by Wine Spectator.

This label is 100% Syrah sourced from five different vineyard sites across the appellation with a diversity of terroir, providing a broad, bold and complex tasting profile. 2,100 cases were made.

Deep inky purple garnet colored, full-bodied, concentrated, dense, almost intense, full round, complex rich ripe blackberry and black raspberry fruits with savory layers of black olive, black pepper, cassis, black tea and sage with full approachable tannins on a moderately acidic finish. 

RM 92

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=4747493

https://tensleywines.com/

https://twitter.com/tensleywine

@tensleywine 

Tensely Colson Canyon with Burgers

Tensely Colson Canyon with Burgers

Labor Day holiday weekend, grilling burgers on the grill, I opened one of our absolute favorite wines and it did not disappoint. 

This was the last bottle of this vintage release of this label, but we have several follow on vintage releases. 

I wrote about this producer and this label in an earlier holiday grilling dinner last year. We love this wine and discussed the peril of writing about it, raising awareness about it and creating competition to acquire it.   

Here is my last blogpost about this label, excerpted here, Tensley Colson Canyon Syrah 2020 with BBQ ribs.

One of my favorite days of the year, watching the Monaco F1 Grand Prix, and then the Indianapolis 500, and then over again, we had BBQ ribs. For pairing with BBQ, I pulled from the cellar this big full fruit Syrah - perfect for such an occasion.

We love this full throttle Syrah. We’ve been acquiring it as part of our wine club allocation since discovering it at the producer’s tasting room, and we pick up whatever few bottles are in stock at the Total Wine big box beverage store in Indy and in Pensacola. And, then, I picked up some more at Winebid auction last winter, which just arrived this week in weather appropriate season shipment from storage.

I wrote about our discovery of this producer and this label in detail in these pages last year, reiterated and excerpted here …Tensley Colson Canyon Santa Ynez Mountains Syrah 2020.

It was just about two years (now) ago that we discovered and acquired this and several other Tensley Santa Barbara County Wines, that I wrote about here, and replay below, during our Santa Barbara County Wine Experience. This was the standout of that tasting and best represents the style that we love.

We discovered Tensley Santa Barbara County Wines during that Santa Barbara County, Santa Maria ValleyWine Experience while driving the Foxen Canyon wine trail. One of the producer's we visited recommended we check out Tensley Wines, which was near that estate we were visiting. 

We drove by the Tensley vineyards on Alisos Canyon Road, (shown left) which was closed, so we stopped in the Tensley tasting room in downtown Los Olivos.

I was not aware of this brand prior to this trip. It was a top discovery and revelation and may certainly be one of our go-to boutique labels going forward. We joined their wine club to obtain a supply of their labels from those tasted and going forward.

Colson Canyon Vineyard | Santa Ynez Mountains

Since joining their wineclub, we have acquired a half dozen labels from this producer, but this single vineyard designated label remains our favorite. Sourced from Colson Canyon Vineyard, high up in the Santa Ynez Mountains north of Los Olivos, it has been providing exceptional Syrah fruit to Joey Tensley since 2000. It is this fruit that helped Tensley become the one of most sought after Syrah's on the coast with consistent high ratings, one vintage flirting with Robert Parker perfection at 99 points.

Tensley released his first vineyard-designate Syrah from Colson Canyon in 2001 and the wine press took notice. That year Matt Kramer of the Wine Spectator named two of Tensley’s 2001 Syrah’s to his list of the Top Ten Wines in the World. Robert Parker, Jr. scored all the ‘01’s in the high 90’s, calling them “serious, hand-crafted efforts.”

By 2008, Food and Wine Magazine named the Colson Canyon Syrah “Top Syrah in America Over $20.” Two years later, Robert Parker gave the 2008 Anniversary Series Colson Canyon Syrah 99 points, and Wine Spectator Magazine named the 2008 Colson Canyon Syrah "#17 of its Top 100 Wines in the World". The 2007 Colson Canyon Syrah was ranked #22 the year before. Since then, the string of high scores has been consistent.
Tensley and his wife Jennifer, purchased the Colson Canyon property about five years ago, ensuring that they would always be able to tap the most distinctive site.

Perched high up at an elevation of 1,400 feet, the combination of warm days and cool nights produces dense, fruit-forward wines with opulent jamminess. The site covers 115 acres but has only 16 acres of grapes because the elevation and rugged terrain make so much of the site untamable. Tensley believes that only three more acres have the potential to be planted.

Tensley Colson Canyon Vineyard Santa Ynez Mountains Santa Barbara County Syrah 2020

Winemaker Notes: "Everything we farm in house is something very special to us. This site is one of the most unique and special places in the world of wine. High (1400 elevation) in the hills north of the Santa Maria Valley with some of the most iron-laced soils I have seen in Santa Barbara County.'

"This wine always delivers juicy round seamless edges. This is the only wine we add some new French oak, as its weight and power integrates with the oak, adding a bit of toasty buttery complexity. Colson Canyon is such a beautiful example of fruit forward juicy California Syrah. Open it anytime and enjoy its blueberry, cassis and chocolate nuances or leave it 20 years and enjoy its leathery, almondy notes. It does not really matter when you open it, it will deliver."

1925 cases were produced.

This was awarded 94-96 points by Jeb Dunnuck, 96 points by Wine Advocate, 95-97 points by Vinous, and 95 points by Wine Spectator.

Might I consider this the Tensley 'flagship'? This reminded me of a couple other memorable highly rated Syrahs that has been standouts - Kongsgaard Carneros Hudson Vineyard and Penfolds Grange. Both are flawless, seamless, and notable for their smooth, polished, balanced profile. While not to that level of perfection perhaps, this is close and evokes the same experience. This bottle was from the Wine Club allocation we received from that visit. We're anxiously awaiting our fall release shipment that we're told was shipped this week.

We love this full throttle jammy rich fruit forward style of the 2020 Colson Canyon Vineyard Syrah. Notably it has been recognized with four scores of 95 points or more.We wrote about this wine in January and before that late last fall. Each time I gave it 94 Points. Tonight, I raised my rating of this label to 95 points, perhaps reflecting the effects of an additional year of bottle aging. 

Consistent with earlier notes - even better with BBQ ! Dark inky purple colored, full bodied, thick concentrated unctuous juicy black and blue fruits with layers of cassis and chocolate nuances with notes of oak, leather and tobacco on a tongue coating lingering finish.

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2023/01/family-celebration-dinner-smoked-ribs.html

Earlier, last fall I wrote: "Dark inky purple colored, full bodied, thick concentrated unctuous juicy black and blue fruits with layers of cassis and chocolate nuances with notes of oak, leather and tobacco on a tongue coating lingering finish."

RM 95 Points

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=4090797

https://tensleywines.com/product/2020-colson-canyon-syrah/

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2022/10/tensley-colson-canyon-vineyard-syrah.html

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2024/05/tensley-colson-canyon-syrah-2020-with.html

https://twitter.com/tensleywine

@tensleywine

Rose Rose’ with grilled shrimp and scallops

Rose Rose’ with grilled shrimp and scallops 

We hosted several of Linda’s dear friends, Kay, Marilou and Pat, at our Destin (FL) vacation rental home this week. 

Linda prepared grilled shrimp and sea scallops with mixed grilled vegetables and sticky rice and salad for a festive dinner. 

I opened a couple of Rose’ wines I brought from our home cellar for the occasion. We’ve had fun exploring Rose’ wines this summer, partly spurred on by reading about Frances’ love of this wine as a summer libation as highlighted by my favorite author’s books about life in Provence of Southern France. 

In addition to just having finished reading two of Peter Mayles’ classic books about Provence, I was also inspired to imbibe in some traditional Rose’ by the visit of our French friend, Phillipe, who hails from the area and hosted us on our trip there a couple years ago. I wrote about this and those books in an earlier blogpost - Château d’Aqueria Tavel Southern Côtes du Rhône Rose’.

We drove through the region and Côtes de Provence along the Cote d’ Azur during our Four days in Provence - Aix - Meyrargues trip in 2019. The area is featured in a separate blogpost about that trip - Red Wine with Chili? Bandol.

I took a Provençal Rose’ to dinner and wrote about it in this post - BYOB Fine Wines and Live Jazz at Suzette’s Creperie Wheaton - Caves d'Esclans “The Palm” Whispering Angel Côtes de Provence, Rose’ Blend 2024.

We drank a Rose’ wine of one the producers we visited that trip and wrote about it in this post - La Nerthe Côtes du Rhône Les Cassagnes Rose.

My appreciation for Rose’ as a serious wine drinking was piqued when it was included as a pairing with a course at three Michelin Star restaurant Alinea last year. That entire dinner and wine flight are featured in this blogpost - Magnificent Dinner at Alinea Kitchen Table.  We drank and wrote about that producer’s wine in a follow on tasting and blogpost - Domaines Ott Château de Selle Côtes de Provence Mourvedre Blend Rose' 2020. From that experience, son Ryan acquired this producer’s wine and brought to our Memorial Day afternoon cook-out dinner on the deck for casual summer sipping.

We enjoyed a couple other Rose’ labels as featured in these posts - one from Southern France Cotes’ du Rossilion -  Domaine Lafage Bastide Miraflors, and a Napa Valley label - Summer wine for summer outdoor grill dinner.

So it was that I brought from home two diverse Rose’ labels - one from the Languedoc in the south of France, and one from, of all plaees, Illinois! Both wines were delightful and exceeded my expectations for a wonderful food wine pairing accompaniment, and the ladies loved them as well. As I’ve often written in these pages, an optimal food/wine pairing amplifies and ameliorates the enjoyment of both! 

Gérard Bertrand Cote des Roses 2023

This is from Domaine Lafage in the Côtes du Roussillon appellation in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the furthest southeast corner of France. The appellation of Côtes du Roussillon was created in 1977 and covers the eastern half of the Pyrénées-Orientales (the eastern side of the Pyrenees Mountains) and lower lands of Roussillon along the Mediterranean coast. 

The Languedoc region spans the Mediterranean coast from the Pyrenees mountains of Roussillon all the way to the Rhône Valley confluence with the sea near Marseille. Languedoc’s terrain is generally flat coastal plains, with a warm Mediterranean climate and frequent risk of drought. 

The extensive appellation produces a diverse selection of good quality and great value wines. 

Virtually every style of wine is made in this expansive region. Most dry wines are blends with varietal choice strongly influenced by the neighboring Rhône Valley. For reds and rosés, the primary grapes include Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, Cinsault and Mourvèdre. White varieties include Grenache Blanc, Muscat, Ugni Blanc, Vermentino, Macabéo, Clairette, Piquepoul and Bourbelenc.

There are also some International varieties planted in large numbers there, in particular Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon.

The region also produces sparkling wines is Limoux, where Blanquette de Limoux is believed to have been the first sparkling wine made in France, even before Champagne. Crémant de Limouxis produced in a more modern style.

The terroir of Côtes du Roussillon includes complex soils of schist, limestone, gneiss and granite and climatic conditions that support a broad range of grape varieties. Côtes du Roussillon red wines are blends made from Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre and smaller amounts of Carignan, Cinsault and the lesser known, Lledoner Pelut. 

Côtes du Roussillon Rosé wines come from the same varieties, as well as may include Grenache Gris and Macabeo. White wines from Côtes du Roussillon are Grenache Blanc and Macabeo with small amounts of Marsanne, Roussanne and Rolle (aka Vermentino).

This label is a blend of classic Côtes du Roussillon any Rhône Valley varietals Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault. 

Producer’s tasting notes: It is fresh and intense on the nose, revealing aromas of citrus and exotic fruits, flowers and a few notes of candy, pear and pineapple. The fresh, flavorsome palate is lively, precise and pure thanks to the clear mineral backdrop and a certain opulence. Côte des Roses celebrates the Mediterranean lifestyle. The Languedoc appellation stretches along the Mediterranean coast from the Spanish border as far as the city of Nîmes, along the foothills of the Montagne Noire and the Cévennes. The bottle is original with its base in the shape of a rose, created by a young designer from the Ecole Boulle. A wine to be given in the same way you would offer a bunch of roses!

Winegrower’s note - Cote des Roses celebrates the Mediterranean lifestyle. The Languedoc appellation stretches alongside the Mediterranean coast The soils vary, mainly with hard limestone and schist, but also gravel transported from the rivers of the Languedoc region 

The wine is packaged in a unique custom designed bottle with its base in the shape of a rose, created by a young designer from the Ecole Boulle The producer notes - “A wine to be given in the same way you would offer a bunch of roses!”

Further winemaker’s notes - “The various grape varieties are harvested separately when each of them is just at the right ripeness level. The winemaking process is managed to respect the specific characteristics of the grape varieties and the qualities of the soil. The grapes are harvested mechanically with a built in sorting system The grapes are de stemmed, cooled down to 8 C and transferred to the press to extract the rosé wine must. Particular attention is paid to the pressing to ensure that only the first, highest quality juice is kept The juice is then left to settle according to the precise aromatic profile that is being targeted. The fermentation lasts between 15 and over 30 days, depending on the degree of clarification and the temperature. Finally, after a light fining, the wine is bottled quite early to preserve the fresh, fruity character of the wines.”

We served this wine from a large format magnum bottle. 

The winemaker’s tasting notes on this wine - the color is “Brilliant pink colored, with bluish tints developing over time towards more orangey nuances.” 

“The bouquet releases aromas of summer fruits, cassis and redcurrant Floral notes of rose along with hints of grapefruit complete the picture. On the palate the impression is fresh and full, with great aromatic persistence and balance The finish is fresh, offering notes of candy.”

This release was rated 90 points by Wine Enthusiast.

Bright Pink colored with an orange hue, medium bodied, full round bright vibrant flavors of cranberry, strawberry and cherry fruits with notes of floral, mineral and rose hips on a wholesome weighty crisp acidic finish. 

RM 90 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=4921720

https://www.gerard-bertrand.com/

We then opened this bigger darker Red Rose’ from Lavender Crest Winery which we Tasted and acquired at the winery during a recent visit featured in this blogpost. 

Lavender Crest Winery NV “Soirée” Marquette Rosé

This is a semi-sweet blush wine made with gently pressed, locally grown Marquette grapes. 

Winemaker’s notes - Sweet and tangy notes of strawberry and ripe red fruits create a celebratory dance of flavors. Served chilled as recommended.’

Darker golden burnt orange colored, medium bodied, this was very nice, and in-line with many Rose’ from California or even the Languedoc in Provence. 

RM 88 points 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=5469560

https://lavendercrest.com/

Zaca Mesa & Carpenter Creek Red Blends with BBQ Ribs

Zaca Mesa & Carpenter Creek Red Blends with BBQ Ribs 

Hosting Linda’s friends at The Cove, our vacation rental home in Destin, FL, Linda prepared BBQ Ribs with baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, asparagus and salad. 

I brought from our home cellar a couple wines for a food wine accompaniment for the occasion. 

Playing on Kay Z’s name, we brought and drank a ‘Z’ wine, a Syrah from Zaca Mesa.

Zaca Mesa Toyon Santa Ynez Valley Red Wine 2019

We tasted this wine at the winery and acquired it through our wine club allocation and wrote about receiving the shipment in an earlier blogpost - Zaca Mesa Mesa Reserve Santa Ynez Syrah. 

We just received our wine club allocation fall shipment from Zaca Mesa Winery. We visited the Zaca Mesa Estate and Vineyards in Santa Ynez Valley during our Santa Barbara County Wine Experience last spring. We joined their wine club after tasting their portfolio of Rhone varietal based wines highlighting Syrah, one of our favorite varietals.

This was one of the last bottles from that shipment, a mixed case of Zaca Mesa wines, that we had been holding to share and enjoy with our friend Kay Z. We wrote about this label in an earlier blogpost, excerpted here. 

Brambly bushes and shrubs around 
Foxen Trail Vineyards

Zaca Mesa Toyon is a red blend wine named after a native shrub found growing in the sandy hills and terraces that surround the estate vineyards. Toyon (also known as California Holly and Christmas Berry) is a native evergreen that grows into a dense 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide drought-resistant shrub. Covered in leathery leaves all year, it blooms pretty, but unspectacular, white flowers in summer.

Zaca Mesa Toyon is a unique blend comprised of a combination of Santa Ynez Valley Rhône and Bordeaux grape varietals, sourced from fruit grown on and off the estate.

Zaca Mesa Estate Vineyard adjacent the winery

Writing about the unique combination of grapes in this label's blend,   Matt Kettmann of Wine Enthusiast called it a "kitchen sink blend".  He gave the 2016 release of this label 90 points. 

The primary grape selection is akin to a Châteauneuf-du-Pape from the so named appellation in the southern Rhône River valley where the primary grapes required to be in the blend are G-S-M - Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. 

The GSM combination and so-called label is a popular blend released by many producers in Australia, California and Washington State - areas where Rhône varietals are grown. 

But Zaca Mesa take it a step further and adds the popular Bordeaux varietal grape Cabernet Sauvignon to the mix creating a complex wine that is somewhat a cacaphony of flavors, although the producer calls it a "seamless wine that is unlike anything else we produce".

Zaca Mesa Toyon Santa Ynez Valley Red Wine 2019

The actual blend consists of Shiraz/Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Mourvedre, and Cinsault grapes. Cinsault is another Rhône varietal. 

 

Toyon 2019 was aged 19 months in neutral oak 

Better than previous tasting, perhaps benefiting from a few years in bottle aging.

This was dark garnet colored, medium full bodied, complex, a cacophony of flavors with strawberry, black cherry currant and plum flavors with a layer of vanilla, accented by herbs, sweet tobacco and cinnamon spice, notes of earthy cedar and anise and a bit of pepper on a moderate tannin tangy acidic lingering finish. 

 

RM 89 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=4443020

www.zacamesa.com

@zacamesawinery @zacamesa

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2022/11/zaca-mesa-toyon-santa-ynez-valley-red.html

Paying tribute to our shared Hoosier (Indiana) heritage, we also opened and enjoyed a wine from Northern Indiana based Carpenter Creek Cellars. 

Carpenter Creek Cellars Fence Row Red NV

We tasted and acquired this wine at the winery. We featured the producer and their wines in a detailed blogpost of that visited back in 2020,  Carpenter Creek Cellars Indiana Produced Wines, excerpted below. 

We stopped at Carpenter Creek Cellars while passing through Jasper County in Northwest Central Indiana. They're located just off Interstate 65 in Remington, Indiana halfway between Lafayette and Chicago, not far from our family farm, relatively speaking. 

We've passed this spot literally hundreds of times over the years before stopping to visit the local winery,  Carpenter Creek Cellars. Exit I65 from the North at exit SR114, or from the south at State Road 231. Follow the signs on the back country roads to the winery on Jordan Road. 

Various photos here of Carpenter Creek from visits there in December 2019 and again in 2020.  

Winemaker Randy Rottler (left) and proprietor 
partner Ed Courtright

During visits there we tasted and acquired several labels from their broad extensive portfolio - remarkable as they exceeded my expectations for Indiana produced wines. This is a testament to the craft and handiwork of partner proprietors Ed Courtright (right), who wanted to grow grapes in northern Indiana to supply wineries in the area, and winemaker Randy Rottler, who had dreams of starting a small winery.

The farm has been in the Courtright family for three generations. Ed and his son Byron planted their first grape vines in 2002, in what became Byron's vineyard. In 2011, they planted 1.1 acres of Traminette, the Midwestern grape used to produce Indiana's signature wine. After two years of building a business, and one year of restoring a barn/planting vineyards/doing paperwork ... they opened to the public in 2013. Just six months later, they won awards at the 2013 Indy (Indianapolis) International (wine festival) - a Silver Medal in Carpenter Creek labels - Gunny White, Sunset Rosé, and Sunset Red and Bronze Medals for both the Gunny Red and the Riesling. 

Carpenter Creek is a farm winery housed in a quaint picturesque renovated 1919 barn. There is the winery and a tasting room of Carpenter Creek Cellars broad portfolio of wines. The estate is actually visible from the interstate highway, I65.

They claim to produce "world-class wines which embody the best terroir and fruit the Midwest has to offer". 

While I agree that they 'produce wines that embody the best terroir and fruit the Midwest has to offer', the front of that claim leaves much to be desired. The terroir, climate and soil are not well suited to vinis vinifera (wine grapes). It’s not their fault that Indiana, and most of the Midwest for that matter, is not well suited to growing fine wine varietal grapes. Their challenge is that what makes Indiana a top producer of corn and soybeans, tomatoes and other vegetables and fruits, is precisely why it is not well suited for wine grapes. 

As I written often in these pages, the concept of terroir embodies all the elements of a place that affect the growing of varietal grapes - climate, soil, drainage, sun exposure, slope and elevation, proximity to climate impacting bodies of water, and so on. Needless to say, the terroir of Indiana in most respects is not ideal for growing wine grapes. In any event, there are now more than a hundred Indiana wineries that span virtually all regions of the agricultural state from corner to corner. 

World class wine growing regions are in certain latitudes in areas with moderate or hot climates, in areas that are arid and possess poor rocky, well drained soils that would otherwise be harsh to the likes of corn or tomatoes. Ideal grape growing conditions - terroir - actually stress the grapes, forcing them to establish deep deep roots to strain in capturing nutrients from the sparse soil, which is largely void of sufficiency to grow extensive vines and foliage, or corn. In short, the conditions for wine varietal grapes are almost the opposite of those for the cornbelt. 

While Bordeaux varietals are suited for Napa Valley in the US, not so much in Indiana. One popular grape selected for Indiana and Illinois wines is Traminette. There are eighteen different varieties of grapes grown in Indiana on a total of 600 acres of vineyard lands. 

The concept of AVA's, American Viticultural Areas, is based on federally-recognized regions defined either by political boundaries, such as the name of a county, state or country, or by a designated area for that AVA. All the criteria for an AVA come down to terroir so that all wines from that AVA can be presumed to have the same characteristics, or from grapes grown under the same conditions. This is the same as in the old world wine producing countries, where they have rigorous grape growing and wine producing regulations subject to AOC - Appellation d'origine contrôlée regulations in France, and DOC and DOCG in Italy ((Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (DOCG) is the  superior classification to DOC). 

While there are 57 official appellations in Bordeaux, and seventeen in Napa Valley. Indiana has two designated AVAs, the Indiana Uplands AVA in the center of the state at the southern border along the Ohio River, and the Ohio River Valley AVA straddling the Ohio River along the southern border of the state. 

In order for a wine to be designated with an Appellation of Origin defined by a political boundary, such as a county name for example, federal law requires that 75 percent or more of grapes used to make the wine be from that appellation, such as Napa Valley.

Carpenter Creek Cellars source many of their grapes from California regions - central coast, Sierra foothills, central valley. They also source grapes grown in the Midwest, those tend to be from the southern reaches of Indiana in the two AVAs bordering the Ohio River, or from the wine growing areas of western Michigan, straddling Lake Michigan or Ohio, along Lake Erie, where the Lakes' have significant moderating effects on the local climate. 

Carpenter Creek have planted vineyards adjacent to the winery but they lost many of their planted vines due to the harsh winters and extreme cold and deep freeze of the soil. 

All that said, partners Ed Courtright and Randy Rottler have done an admirable job crafting some pleasant drinkable wines, that most assuredly represent nearly the best achievable outcomes from the grape sources available to them.

They produce an extensive portfolio of wines that cover the range from reds and whites, along with a port-like fortified wine, a dessert wine, and a Rose'.

Carpenter Creek Cellars Fence Row Red NV

Carpenter Creek Cellars sources many of their grapes from California regions - central coast, Sierra foothills, central valley. They also source grapes grown in the Midwest, those tend to be from the southern reaches of Indiana in the two AVAs bordering the Ohio River, or from the wine growing areas of western Michigan, straddling Lake Michigan or Ohio, along Lake Erie, where the Lakes' have significant moderating effects on the local climate. 

This label is a Bordeaux style red blend of grapes sourced from the California Central Coast.

This was a nice fun tasting accompaniment to the BBQ Ribs. 

Opaque ruby colored, medium bodied, moderately dry flavors of fresh black and red berry fruits with notes of leather and black tea with a pleasant flavorful finish. 

RM 88 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2577747

https://carpentercreekcellars.com/

https://twitter.com/carpenterwines

http://IndianaWines.org