2007 A to Z Night & Day Southern Crossing Red Blend

35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 20% Syrah, 10% Sangiovese, 4% Grenache and 4% Cabernet Franc all sourced from vineyards in the Rouge Valley of Southwestern Oregon. The wine is aged in French oak barrels, A to Z’s website does not specify the length of time the Night & Day was aged, but says the wine should continue to improve for the next 5 to 10 years. 13.5% alcohol content.

Really dark opaque red. The nose is cherries, plums, dark chocolate, cigars and vanilla. Complicated and good tasting, Ripe red fruit, then cocoa powder, followed by black and blueberries, oak spice and creamy vanilla hits at the mid-palate. A long, long finish of blueberry and vanilla.

A talented Winemaker can take good grapes and blend them into a final product that is far better than the individual ingredients. The A to Z Night  & Day Southern Crossing, a bit of a long winded name, is an expertly made, well balanced, yummy wine. This would pair very well with a nice bacon wrapped filet.

The A to Z website has a list of local distributors, if you would like to find the Night & Day Southern Crossing in your area.

http://www.atozwineworks.com/distributors.html

2007 Clayhouse Vineyard Adobe Red

A red wine blend sourced from California’s Central Coast, Clayhouse Vineyards says that much of the fruit came from their Estate Vineyard in Paso Robles. The grapes used in the blend are 41% Zinfandel, 32% Petite Sirah, 16% Syrah, 5% Malbec, 4% Grenache and 2% Mourvedre. 15% of the wine has been aged in neutral oak barrels for 14 months. Alcohol content is 14.1%.

See thru burgundy red with a salmon pink halo. The nose is reminiscent of a fruit stand, plums, cherries , raspberries with a touch of vanilla infused oak. Tart cherry juice hit first, then a softer plums and strawberry. Tannins can be felt all over your mouth, but in a good way, it gives the wine a nice strong character. The Adobe Red smooths out at the mid-palate, tart cherry and the tannins fade away and a fresh juicy berry flavor takes over. The finish is mixed berries and vanilla, you will be tasting it 5 minutes after you put the glass down.

The Clayhouse Adobe Red is a well constructed, big, bold, good tasting wine. A rough and ready Red that also has a well mannered side. BBQ Ribs or Steak Fajitas would pair very well.

2006 Yangarra Cadenzia GSM $16

A single vineyard, Estate grown GSM (Grenache 68%,Shiraz 27% and Mourvedre 5%). Yangarra is located in the McLaren Vale Region of Australia. The Cadenzia is aged in oak for 18 months, the Shiraz in new French oak, the Grenache and Mourvedre in used barrels or neutral oak. Alcohol content is 15% .

A deep dark clear see thru burgundy red. The nose is black cherry, menthol and milk chocolate. Big lush fruit, bold flavors, blackberry, rich dark chocolate, tart cherry. Really terrific mouth feel, the flavors burst into your mouth. Good soft balanced tannins, you know they are there, but they don’t intrude into the luscious fruit. A long fruit driven finish.

This is a sexy wine, bold, curvaceous and challenging, yet firm and muscular. Drink it with a meal you love or with a person you love or better yet, both.

P.S. interchange love and lust, if needed

2004 Bordon Rioja Reserva $18

Wines from the Rioja region of Spain are balanced. If you have heard of structure and balance being used to describe wines and are not sure of exactly what that means, try tasting a Rioja wine and then comparing it to a massed produced inexpensive wine, say a Yellowtail or a Turning Leaf. Structure and balance will become immediately evident, what tannins and oak bring to a wine will stick out like a sore thumb.

The Bordon Reserva is made from 75% Tempranillo, 20% Garnache and 5% Mazuelo grapes. The wine is aged for 24 months in American oak and then aged another 24 months in the bottle before it is released for sale. Wines aged for this length of time are not usually priced under twenty dollars, this is the traditional way of making wine and modern techniques can not duplicate what proper aging brings to wine.

The color is a earthy crimson red. The nose is dark fruit, plums, smokey dried leaves, spice and flowers. The flavor is round, smooth red strawberries, cherry jam, a hint of the vanilla from the oak,a slight bite in the back of the palate from the tannins, the mid-palate is raspberry compote.  The finish is lengthy. There is no sharp edges to this wine, there is a real sense of many different flavors being carefully blended together.

An exellent wine for a good meal. A traditional, well made wine. If you are new to wine, try a Rioja wine, they will help you understand what a good wine should be.

2008 Monasterio De Las Vinas Garnacha/Syrah Blend – $7

Okay, we outdid ourselves this time.  We found another wine from the Cariñena region of Spain that is a ridiculous steal.  This 70% Garnacha 30% Syrah blend – aged 3 months in American oak – has a nose of strawberry and raspberry jam.  On the palate you get orange, raspberry and a little spicy pepper, with a finish that lasts and lasts!

It’s great with ribs and pizza and comes in at 13% alcohol.  It also scored an amazing 91 points with the Wine Enthusiast. You really need to buy this one by the case!

Sourced from a single vineyard, the “Monasterio de San Jose”, where for centuries monks produced wine. Nowadays, this is a large production wine made for the American market, but they really got it right. The Quality-Price Ratio (QPR) is off the charts for this one.

2008 Big Woop Red Wine $13

A full one liter bottle, makes this Grenache, Shiraz and  Petit Verdot Red blend a Big Woop. Ben Riggs is the winemaker and he also makes our favorite $8 Red Wine, Woop Woop Shiraz. Sourced from McLaren Vale, Riverland and the Limestone Coast of Australia, with a 14.5% alcohol content.

The color is a deep dark red with crimson highlights. The nose is unexpected, pencil shavings, cedar moth balls, light menthol, leather and red fruit. What’s going on with cheap wine, all these aromas used to be the exclusive right of the expensive stuff. The mouth feel is very full, a bit of an explosion of taste. The flavor is ripe dark fruit with a dose of the Shiraz spice at the end. Nice long finish of raspberry iced tea.

The Big Woop Red Blend is a tasty little wine. You don’t expect a whole bunch from something called Big Woop, but this wine delivers beyond expectations.

2008 Agostón Garnacha Syrah – $10

OK first of all you know our stance on wine with cute little critters on the label (we’re looking at you Yellow Tail, Long Neck & Tall Horse). Yeah usually horrible! But a wild boar isn’t exactly cute, plus a friend is really pushing for us to review Little Penguin Shiraz, so we might as well start somewhere.

This 60% Garnacha, 40% Syrah screw top blend hails from the Cariñena region of Spain which aside from giving the Carignan grape its name is right next to Calatayud in the shadows of the Ibérico mountain range. It gets its name from the wild boars that would sneak down into the vineyards at night to feast upon the grapes like – well, pigs.

It’s a light bodied, see-through crimson in the glass and noses like the black currant iced tea you get at Egg Harbor or Maggiano’s. A sip gets you raspberry and black cherry that fades into a nice wild herb and cocoa finish. It’s juicy and relaxed even at 13.5% alcohol.

This wine is like Lucky Charms, it’s magically delicious. Drink it all by itself to see what I’m talking about or drink it down with grilled steak skewers, Firecracker Shrimp or the Buffalo Wild Wings #4.

2008 Cotes Du Rhone Signargues La Granacha – $13

I was wandering thru the wine shop looking for a bottle to purchase, nothing on sale interested me.  I saw a Granacha (why the Spanish spelling for a French wine, I don’t know) from the Cotes du Rhone, I checked the back label and saw that it was imported by Eric Solomon, that was a good sign. I have had good luck with Eric Solomon wines, he has a knack with finding good “off the beaten path”wines.

I hit the internet to find a bit of information and found this is sourced from 80 year old Grenache vines from the Signargues region of the Rhone Valley. Organic and sustainable farming, unfiltered and unfined (that means they do nothing to get solids out of the wine). Half the wine sees 6 months in French oak, the other half aged in stain-less steel vats. The Signargues is not a well known wine area, so the wines do not command a high price. The 2007 vintage got 91 point in Wine Spectator.

Opaque purple with a contrasting red halo. The nose is French funk, black  licorice, the smell of coloring Easter eggs and raspberry jam. The taste is bright fresh fruit mixed with jammy fruit, blackberries and blueberries with a late splash of spice in the back of your mouth, a bit of acidity can be felt on the tongue. The finish is chocolate milk, berries and a touch of spice. A well structured wine, not just a ton of fruit, layered and nuanced. This is a versatile wine that can be paired with many different dishes and still be a good back porch sipper.

2008 Bitch Grenache – $9

You have probably seen this in the wine shop and thought, “With a name like that it can’t possibly be any good.” But you would be wrong, it’s actually a nice little Grenache. The back of the label is funny, they printed the word “bitch” 68 times in a row, then added, “ and bitch some more” for a total of 69 bitches. No other information other than what is required by law. Sourced from the Ebenezer region of the Barossa Valley in South Australia and made in a “drink it now” style. so it sees no oak. The alcohol content is 15.5% and in Australia the posted alcohol content has to be within 1.5% of the actual alcohol content, so it could possibly be 17% alcohol. The 2006 vintage of this wine got 90 points in Wine Spectator.

The color is a see thru cranberry red with orange highlights. The nose is fruit, but not fresh fruit, more like a bag of pungent fruit flavored hard candy. The mouth feel is light and oily, the flavors stick to the parts of your mouth the wine hits. It tastes of candied fruit, with spice reacting with your tongue. The finish is cherry Dr. Pepper, the finish lasts a long time, but the intensity fades fast. There are two main flavors competing for your attention, the sweet candied fruit and hot cinnamon spice, think strawberry Jolly Rancher followed by an Altoids. This may not be a wine you would want to pair with dinner, it would be better served with dessert or skip the food altogether and have it after dinner

2008 Bodegas Borsao Tres Picos Garnacha – $16

Grenache is THE GRAPE of Côtes du Rhône and Châteauneuf-du-Pape – you know – the Rhone blends. It’s a grape that gets you lightly colored, soft yet FULL wines chock full of strawberry and raspberry. While not particularly rich or complex, Grenache is one of the world’s most widely-planted grapes, and it gives up a unique character wherever it’s planted.

Well, in the up-by-Rioja “Campo de Borja” region (no, not Victor Borge, he was the Great Dane, not the Great Spaniard) of Spain (well, all of Spain), it’s known as Garnacha. This one from Borsao’s Three Peaks (Tres Picos) is deep violet in the glass, insanely smoky in a good way – like someone lit a Cohiba full of black pepper and flowers dipped in Indian spices right next to you.

Taking a sip (or nibbling on Jillian Michael’s shoulders), you get awesome body in your mouth (apologies to Jillian, had to give Megan Fox a break). Blackberry, raspberry and strawberry give way to a long silky finish of cocoa. I have no doubt this thing would be $50 if it came from France and was called Grenache.

Drink by itself or with turkey chili or pork chops.