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By Manos Angelakis
Some Very Good Bottles
I called again together the gang of the usual suspects during the holidays to try a variety of wines I had put aside for tasting. The main course served to accompany these wines was Coquille St. Jacques, a lovely version created by a friend who is an excellent still photographer and travel story contributor to our LuxuryWeb Magazine, and as good a cook.
I decided to try wines that would pair well with the appetizers and the creamy scallop dish.
The first bottle we opened was a 2008 Natura Chardonnay from Emiliana, an organic/biodynamic vineyard in Chile’s Casablanca Valley. It is pale straw colored with gold highlights. Buttery and slightly yeasty, with tropical fruits on the palate. Considerably fruity on the nose, with vanilla hints from the oak barrels in which it was aged (for more information see Emiliana).
We then opened the 2008 Cerasuolo i.e. cherry-colored wine, a 100% Montepulciano d’ Abruzzo rosé from the Castello delle Regine, one of my favorite Italian winemakers. This wine, though considered a rosé, has quite an appealing pure ruby red color. The nose is dominated by fragrances of violets and lilacs with hints of black cherries and pepper. It is an Umbrian wine, though another version known as Cerasuolo di Vittoria is a popular and inexpensive wine produced by other wineries in the Ragusa region of Sicily. Our wine was served medium-chilled, and that accentuated the floral components. Everyone agreed that this was very well-crafted, with a little more body than French rosés. It paired well with both the pâté de foie gras appetizer and the scallops.
A third bottle was a 2002 Cabernet/Merlot blend from the Marynissen Estates. It is a family run vineyard and winery, producing estate wines in Niagara-on-the-Lake. A different blend each year is designed to highlight the best aspects of the vintage, in this case, the blend is 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 7% Syrah, 4% Gamay, and 4% Cabernet Franc. The nose was a bit oaky and black fruit driven, but with hints of vanilla, cinnamon and cedar. There was also some black raspberry on both the nose and palate. Looking at the color, it was still quite dark, showing great extraction. The wine is not readily available, except perhaps on the East Coast of the US, but if you find a bottle grab it. The wine has not peaked yet, and is well worth the cost.
On a different day, we had a chicken Provençal main course. The wine I tried was the 2006 Montes Napa Angel, a Cabernet Sauvignon that Aurelio Montes, the well known Chilean vintner is now producing in California’s Napa. The angel theme has been consistent with all the better Montes wines and it should be noted that at the Apalta winery’s barrel cellar there is a continuous tape of Gregorian chants praying over the wine barriques. Creating wines in California is a continuation of Montes’ successful formula of producing quality vintages from carefully chosen terroir. This was a lovely Cabernet, with enough body to stand up to the flavorful Provençal chicken, it was a bit oaky, yet it was elegant and silky with black fruit, plums and cigarbox on the nose and a long opulent finish.
The final wine was a 2007 Merlot, Mercer, from the Columbia Valley served to a different group of the usual suspects. Mercer Estates is a family owned Washington State winery that produces premium wines. This Merlot was a dense wine with intense ripe berry and cherry flavors. Though the winery is better known for its Riesling and Pinot Gris wines, the Merlot, though very young, was very appealing. It came at the end of the meal with a lovely Scandinavian blue cheese and the pairing was impeccable. To quote my friend Mort Hochstein, “… it was a delight to taste this polished, finished wine. The Mercer was good the first time we tried it in New York a couple of years ago, even better now… It has black cherry fruit on the nose and is just a very polished wine with good dark red fruit taste, long finish, very smooth and very drinkable any time”.
To your health!
© January 2010 The Oenophile Blog. All rights reserved.
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