Wine CPA

03/28/2017

New post added at Wine CPA - Wine-CPA Post #7: Rancho Sisquoc Merlot 2014

Region: Santa Maria Valley (Santa Barbara County) Varietal: Merlot Year: 2014 Cost: $20 Why I Like This Wine: A surprisingly complex Merlot displaying solid grip on the finish with nuanced fruit notes. Fantastic at $20! I visited this winery many moons ago and remember the quaint location and very f...

03/17/2017

Region: Bordeaux/Haute Medoc
Varietal: Mostly Merlot
Year: 2011
Cost: $20
Why I Like This Wine: Quickly evolves after decanting, deep fruit notes and good backend grip
Hello everyone and welcome to yet another post. It has been a little less than a month since I last identified a qualifying wine. Remember this blog covers all and every wine worth your hard earned cash that retails for less than $35. So here goes, the wine I have selected is one of a kind and came in at $20…an absolute steel if you can get your hands on it. First a bit about the wine, Cru Bourgeois is a quality classification term for red wines produced in the Medoc, which is on the left bank region of Bordeaux. As a reminder Medoc is a sub region of Bordeaux left of the Gironde river. If Cru Bourgeois is on a wine label it means that the wine has been examined and certified as having a solid foundation of quality and taste characteristics. The classification is independently assessed and vetted and you can learn more about it at: http://www.crus-bourgeois.com/?lang=en .php?article57&lang=en. Also the proprietors have done a nice job with their web-site as well. Have a look to learn more: http://lamothebergeron.com/2016/fr/
As to the wine composition it follows a traditional left bank style in that it is 60% merlot and 40% cabernet. The wine has a beautifully deep and intense color offering red fruit notes and a fantastic finish. Great minerality and can use about 30 minutes of decanting. Also most notably the wine evolves quite rapidly smoothing out with grace throughout consumption. You cannot go wrong giving this wine a try. I opened it up on a casual Tuesday evening and was blown away by how much it has to offer given its age of nearly 7 years. My sense is that this wine could easily age beautifully for another 10-15 years.
Cheers,
Ajay – Wine-CPA
http://wine-cpa.com/chateau-lamothe-bergeron-2010-cru-bourgeois/

03/14/2017

New post added at Wine CPA - Wine - CPA Post #6: Sonoma County and Ravenswood WineryThis past weekend we got away and headed into Sonoma County. We could not have picked a better weekend – blue skies and 75 degrees weather. We stayed for two nights at the Renaissance Inn. The hotel is a great place for anyone wanting to get away from the Bay Area and recharge for a few days. I have lived here my entire life and now more than ever these getaways are becoming ever so important. This is not going to be some tirade on my discontent with the Bay. It is about my recent trip.

Unfortunately we did not get to do much wine tasting as we were with my sister’s kids. However on Sunday we did make it out to Ravenswood. I have generally been unimpressed with the wines Ravenswood distributes throughout retail chains. However, the real value of this place is the winery-exclusive wines, the picturesque beauty surrounding the property and the kid friendly atmosphere. For starters the kids seemed to have a great time:

As to the property itself:

And then there were the wines. For starters realize that Ravenswood makes a lot of wine – and a lot of it that we see distributed throughout the retail channels is quite simply bad. You have probably come in contact with their zinfandel which typically retails for about $8-$10. This is not the stuff I went for and they were very good about focusing on their flagship/winery-exclusive wines. The best way to enjoy the benefits of Ravenswood is to become a member. With our membership our tasting fees were covered, we got complimentary cheese plates and 30% off their wines the day of membership instatement. There are two notable wines I want my readers to consider and here they go:

Wine #1 – 2014 Besieged Red Blend

Varietal: Petite Sirah, Carignane, Zin, Syrah, Alicante Bouschet, and Barbera

Cost: $17 (with club discount)

Why I like this wine: they have put the entire kitchen sink in this one. The way this blend comes together is simply amazing. The wine displays restrained fruit mid palate with an amazingly elegant finish.

Wine #2 – 2011 Rancho Salina Vineyards Red Blend

Varietal: Bordeaux Blend

Cost: $28 (with club discount)

Why I like this wine: few wineries do a true Bordeaux blend outside of Bordeaux. This is perhaps one of the best and closest I’ve seenand they do a reasonable job of it. At $28/bottle this is a great value and worth adding to your cellar. Very drinkable today.

This past weekend we got away and headed into Sonoma County. We could not have picked a better weekend � blue skies and 75 degrees weather. We stayed for two nights at the Renaissance Inn. The hotel is a great place for anyone wanting to get away from the Bay Area and recharge for a few days. I ha...

03/14/2017

Chateau Fleur Cardinale 2007 Grand Cru Classes " $32/bottle

Region: Bordeaux/St. Emillion
Varietal: Mostly Merlot
Year: 2007
Cost: $34
Why I Like This Wine: Beautiful structure, great finish and vibrancy
Okay readers here it is my first wine reviewed falling within the $35 or under. I have had later vintages of Chateau Fleur Cardinale but the 2007 was absolutely divine. In general I have noticed that while the wine quality has continued to go up the prices have not! Very very rare and something to consider as you seek later vintages. I purchased a few bottles and enjoyed in two tasting formats – 1) right out of the bottle and 2) decanted for approximately 1 hour. My advice would be to decant even for half and hour; while fantastic out of the gate given it has nearly a decade on it, it still can benefit from aeration. The ’07 is 70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon with 13% alcohol by volume. The wine is nicely balanced with a solid showing of fruit and a layered texture that lingers on the finish. The wine’s versatility enables you to pair with food or simply enjoy on its own. I paired the first bottle with a triple cream brie and the second bottle was consumed with portobello mushrooms.
The vineyard itself is located within the St. Emillion district. St Em is not part of the Medoc or the Graves regions but, instead is on the other site of the Gironde River, on Bordeaux’s less well-known Right Bank. St. Em has hillsides limestone outcroppings and plateaus plus gravelly terraces. Merlot and Cab Sauv are the dominant grape qualities in the region. I consider the region to also be one of the great under rated sub-appellations within Bordeaux and more often than not a great way to find Bordeaux bargains. Some of the best chateaus in said region are Chateau Ausone, Chateau Canon, Chateau Magdelaine and Chateau Pavie.
The proprietors of Chateau Fleur Cardinale are Florence and Dominique Decoster. The property is comprised of two vineyards Chateau Fleur Cardinale and Chateau Croix Cardinale. The two vineyards are planted on clay-limestone soil in the middle of the hillsides and they enjoy an identical harvest, notable for its 75% dominance of Merlot together with 20% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon.

http://wine-cpa.com/wine-cpa-post-2-chateau-fleur-cardinale-2007-grand-cru-classe/

03/11/2017

I decided to take a chance on a wine from a region I have limited familiarity with – this time we go to South America. This wine comes to us from Argentina. I tend to focus on wines from France but this one was a true gem.
Hard to believe but Argentina is the fifth largest wine producer in the world and at the same time makes wines that very few people, other than Argentinians themselves, have every tasted. Argentina is huge with a landmass covering over one million square miles. The country houses over 1,500 wineries primarily in the western part of the country, scattered across the foothills of the Andes at elevations ranging up to 4,900 feet above sea level, making these some of the highest-altitude wine regions in the world. Criolla and Cereza are still the grapes that lead in acreage, yet their popularity is declining. Both varietals are actually pink-skinned varieties used to make mediocre to watery white wines blended with other varieties and sold in jugs or cardboard cartons or in bulk. Argentinian wineries are steadily moving into more Bordeaux varietals, with their star varietal being Malbec.
The country has four major wine regions, the most important which is Mendoza. Mendoza is pretty much the epicenter of all the great wineries. Nearly 70 percent of all Argentinan wine is made in Mendoza. The region lies directly east of Buenos Aires upon the foothills of the Andes and roughly 1,000 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean. ReadMore.
http://wine-cpa.com/wine-cpa-post-5/