2008 Fog Crest Laguna West Pinot Noir

2008 Fog Crest, Laguna West, Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley

Spicy red berries, blackberries and cherry cola (ala Dr. Pepper) on the nose with hints of vanilla oak and baking spices. Lovely medium bodied palate full of darker fruit cola flavors balanced by a silky smooth tannic structure, warm oaky notes and ribbons of white chocolate that lead into a long and satisfying finish of chocolate covered strawberries. There’s a nice level of acidity that keeps the overall character of this pinot on the lighter more elegant side to pair well with lighter dishes while still remaining bold and confident enough to hold up to more robust dishes.*

We had the first bottle with pasta shells with spinach, homegrown sun-dried tomatoes, roastrd whole clove garlic and peas in an arrabiata sauce and the match was made in heaven.

*Just a sidenote on these tasting notes for the second bottle, which was poured through our Vinturi aerator into the decanter while the first bottle was decanted without the use of the Vinturi. The first glass of the first bottle was still a bit tight but did open up nicely after a half hour or so…just in time for dinner! The first glass from the second bottle was amazingly smooth, like the last glass from the first bottle, and only got better as it sat in the decanter.

2007 Fog Crest Estate Bottled Chardonnay

So the first bottle to be cracked is one of the 2007 Fog Crest chards.

Beautiful bright nose full of lovely tropical fruits hints of hazel nut, oak and cool stoney minerality. The mouth is treated to more crisp yellow fruit flavors with more touches of oak and hazel nut. The finish is long and structured with some warm peach notes, lovely acidity and minerality.

 

I thought I prefered the bigger rounder whites but this one left me breathless. The balance of lush fleshy fruits and the cooler nuances of the stoney minerality, that recalls memories of sitting stream side just after a spring rain, and the crisp acidity really made me rethink what my palate really wanted. This chard is an old world style for the new world lover and vice vera. There is just enough of the toasty oak and hazelnut notes to keep the balance and structure in near perfect harmony. This first of the two bottles we brought back was paired with finger foods such as spinach and artichoke dip, cheese quesadillas and loaded fries with cheese and giardiniera. The toasty elements complimented the creamy elements of the food, while the minerality and acidity offered a nice contrast to the spicier elements. The second bottle was paired with blackened tilapia and sweet potato mash and again the warm toasty notes complimented while the acidity and structure brought contrast.

Fog crest vineyards

The Highlight of the weekend for us, hands down, was Fog Crest, sitting on the hill off Occidental Road in the Russian River Valley! After being stopped by a fill-in postal worker wanting a signature for a package, we continued down a gravel drive that wound its way through the vineyards.

There we were greeted by Jim Manoogian, one half of the husband/wife owner/vintners team! It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the 70’s and barely a cloud in the sky! He started us of with the first of two Chards and then walked us down to the vines where the chard grapes are grown and bud break was in full force.

We tasted both the 2007 Laguna West and 2007 Estate Vineyard Chardonnay. The Laguna West was a richer and rounder chard with lush pear falvours intermingled with hints of peach and baking spices that led into a nice mild and toasty hazelnut finish with a pleasant touch of crisp acidity. The Estate Vineyard chard was a bit more old world in style exhibiting lemon floral and soft hazelnut aromas on the nose that led into a palate of crisp apple and citrus notes on a cool base of minerality and nuanced oak flavours. The finish was warm and bright with just the right amount of cool acidity

We then headed back to the barrel room to taste the pinots. With glasses in hand Jim lead us over to the upper estate pinot vines, where he talked about their pruning process and how they will eventually drop double buds.

Here we tasted the 2008 Laguna West Pinot Noir that welcomed you in with a warm and spicy nose with notes of dark and bright cherry cola. The palate was rich and smooth with a base of silky smooth tannins supporting a chorus of ripe red berry fruit flavours accompanied by nuances of anise and lush plum. The finish added more dark fruit and cola flavours that tapered slowly off with light acidity.

Once we were hooked Jim then capped off our tour with a barrel tasting, or thieving as he called it! My very first! He treated us to a preview of their 2010 Upper Estate Pinot Noir that was barreled last October. Though it was still young with lots of green notes you could tell that this was going to develop into a very lush and complex wine as it was already exhibiting the signature berry flavours and soft structure of the 08 Laguna West.

After all was said and done we walked away with two bottles each of the 07 Estate Chard and the 08 Laguna West Pinot and I guarantee we will be ordering more! If you get a chance I highly recommend that you try to visit them! http://www.fogcrestvineyard.com/

Fiction is Better than reality

2009 Fiction, Red Blend, Paso Robles

It’s a blend of Zinfandel, Petite Verdot and Tempranillo. With a limited production of only 400 cases. This was an amazing wine for $20. Deep ruby-red colour; Vibrant nose of spiced berries; Lush and rich palate of dark fruits and warm baking spices; and lively finish. It had great balance and structure with smooth tannins providing grip and tangy acidity to keep you wanting more!

it’s a zin not to drink a cab

Had these over the last couple of nights.

The first is the 2008 Dry Creek Vineyard, Heritage Zinfandel, Sonoma Coast
It had a pretty low ABV for a zin about 13.5% if I recall, but it was big in body with lots of juicy stewed dark fruits with lovely smooth tannins and dark acidity to balance it out.

The second is the 2008 The Sum, Cabernet, Napa Valley, Oakville
For the price, in relation to other Napa cabs, this was a real bargain. I paid $23.00 (US) after tax at Marion Street Cheese Market. The nose was deep, dark and spicy with tell tale hints of eucalyptus and cedar. The palate was equally rich and dark with ripe plum and blackberry flavours. The tannins were a bit tight and finely textured but did smooth out over time. I’m looking forward to having a glass tonight to see how it opened up. The long finish treated the mouth with some nice dark cocoa notes wrapped around black cherry flavours.

2007 Hendry Pinot Noir Napa Valley

I picked up a couple of bottles on Friday from Just Grapes. One was a fav of mine the La Cartuja Priorat 2009, which was every bit as good as the past two vintages that I’ve had and the other was this Pinot Noir from Napa Valley near Carneros and Mt. Veeder along the Redwood Creek.

This Pinot shows deep garnet and ruby in the glass with a rich warm nose of spiced red berries, leather and earth with hints of backing spice. The palate is treated to bold red and dark fruit flavours with touches of cocoa and toast brought on with a good decant and the 11 months of 50% new French Oak aging. The Finish is well-balanced a nicely structured with supple and velvety tannins mingled with a fresh but not too tart acidity.

2007 Hendry, Hendry Vineyard, Napa Valley – Pinot Noir

2009 Grandmaster Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

I got this on sale last night at Wholefoods for $13.99! Originally it was $24.99. It was really quite nice for the price with lots of warm spice, leather and cherry aromas. The palate was rich and juicy with darker berry flavours, think black cherry and mulberry, with notes of baking spice that lead into a long supple and velvety finish with nice acidity for balance. The grapes were harvested in September of 2009 and were barrel aged for 14 months and limited to just over 1400 cases, which isn’t too limited but that’s what the label says 🙂

2009 – Grandmaster Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast

one last night at the Grapes

Today will mark an end to an era! Well, okay, not really and era, pre se, but an end to a brief stage in my life where I wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen financially and career wise. Just about eight months ago I started a second job at a small boutique wine shop in the West Loop. I often worked two to three days during the week and Saturdays. The first four weeks were considered an internship, which gave the owner a window of opportunity to see whether or not I was going to work out or not. After the four weeks were up, I was offered a permanent part-time position as a retail assistant; that basically meant that I did all of the grunt work. The trade-off, of course, was that I was making $10 an hour, got to attend all the classes, and had online courses from Wine Spectator available to me, plus a really nice discount on the wine. For a while there, as I got deeper and deeper into the industry, I was convinced that a career change into the wine industry just might be the way to go for me, and I still feel that way. I loved learning about all of the different regions in some of my favourite wine-producing areas such as Spain, Argentina and California. I loved exploring each new wine and writing about them. I loved visiting Sonoma and Napa and all the wine tastings and the industry treatment wasn’t to bad either. But, as I said, today marks the end of that, for now. Since I received my promotion I’ve had to cut out my weekday shifts and tonight will be my last one. It’s our First Wednesday tasting and it’s on the eve of my 40^th birthday. I will miss working there on such a regular basis and I’ve tried to keep a few Saturday shifts but I’ll be missing all the classes. I’ve learned so much while working there and will never regret having to work so hard just to keep a roof over my family’s head. I plan on continuing my wine education on my own and still plan on gaining at least certificate level sommelier by the time I’m 45! I’ll, without a doubt, continue tasting new wines and writing about them here. My next big installment will be the wine list I’m working on for my bbq coming up in a week and a half, but I’m sure I’ll have a few bottles here there before then! If there is any Iron Horse Cab left I’m going to grab one of those for my birthday dinner tomorrow night!

Till then…………….keep tasting

experiements in pairing

Had a busy but lovely weekend with lots of new vino to try! Friday night I killed off the 2007 Atalaya Red Blend from Almansa, Spain. It was a nice little wine with deep dark fruits and some nice chalky minerality and tannic structure that made it the perfect match for a nice piece of broiled meat! Saturday was a pretty big night and my friend from MSCM gave me these wines to try out! The first was a nice little labrusca, which had lovely body and tons of dark cherry and raspberry tart flavours and with a little chill it was very refreshing! I sipped on it while I manned the grill and nibbled of some cheese but I really loved how it complimented the barbeque chicken and fresh whole leaf spinach salad! Later that night came the 2008 Barbera from Piemonte. A little lighter in body than I was expecting but was still quite nice with rich red fruits and hints of spice. I actually liked it better after a day when I finished it off last night. It seemed to display more of its fruit flavours and less of the fleshy earth tones from when it was first opened. It finished longer as well. Last night was another indoor sit down picnic of Prosciutto, Genoa Salami, Drunken Goat, Oro Secco Jack from Vella, Fromager d’Affinois, Olives and French bread. I killed the last of the Barbera and then moved on to this lovely little Pinot. We fell in love with the La Crema Pinot when we were in San Fran and had the 08 Sonoma Coast with dinner one evening. We ran across the Monterey Pinot at Whole Foods and decided to give it a try. Though it wasn’t as fruit driven as its northern cousin it still displayed a wonderful nose of leather and spiced fruits and was rather silky on the palate with more pronounced yet soft tannins for some extra heft to the mouthfeel, which helped it pair quite well with the Salami and Drunken Goat cheese.

new and old friends

Drank this first one Saturday night. It was a sample bottle and really nothing too exciting or cerebral to write home about. 2007 Friends.Red, Sonoma County It’s a blend of Merlot, Zinfandel and Cab Franc: We had some neighbors over last night for some homemade empanadas and flan so the GF picked up a bottle of my favourite Malbec, which I preceded to decant about two hours before our guests arrived and what a beaut she turned out to be! She really just opened up with a lush fruity nose of raspberry and chocolate notes and hints of smokey spice. The palate was rich and full-bodied with deep cherry and blackberry flavours perfectly balanced by fine tuned and soft sweet tannins, which kicked off a long, nay eternal, finish that was borderline orgasmic! It paired beautifully with the traditional empanadas…it was as close to heaven as I’ve been in a while. Our friends brought a bottle of the 2006 Luigi Bosca Pinot Noir, which was a single vineyard PN from Maipu Valley. It too was rather nice with bright cherry and strawberry notes with just enough earthy and leathery spice to keep it from becoming to juicy but after the malbec it was like the opening act following the headliner and so it lost out a bit in the love department. But I liked it! 2006 Luigi Bosca, Malbec Reserva, Lujan du Cuyo, Mendoza Decanting: