American wine idol

My golly. So I started the Diploma program for the Wines and Spirits Educational Trust (WSETs) and the first (of six over two years) segments is…Viticulture and Vinification. And our class on vinification was guest-talk by…Brandon Sparks-Gilles of Dragonette! And I LOVE Dragonette. So life is mighty cool when you suddenly start being taught by the people you look up to.

Sorry I’m probably so not funny right now. I’m just reeling from “what is this wicked awesome wine life I’m living” joy. Oh and I’ve been acting a bunch more so my brain is addled.

So! Today’s wine. From my fave winery aka the winery owned by my home slice Brandon. The 2015 Dragonette John Sebastiano Vineyard Grenache. I promise to never say home slice again unless it’s my own recipe in house made pizza.

Such a sophisticated Grenache. For those needing review Grenache is a big ol’ player in the southern Rhône and it’s the G in GSM (Syrah and Mourvèdre are the other two letters). Even though I know Dragonette wines have oh so much finesse, for a Grenache from California I sorta was expecting a BIG wine. It’s so much better.

Grenache is known for being ridiculously high alcohol but this one’s vineyard is one of the coolest Rhône-varietal sites in this state. And seeing as such this wine (no surprise like its totes Dragonette duh) has oh so much elegance. And a “mere” 13.5% abv.

Smells like a Cali Pinot. Looks a tad ruddy. Light tannins. Tastes of underripe cherries black grapes and maybe…arugula? Something totally refreshing. I love a chilled red and oddly I think this does well as one.

Dragonette you are my darling. Cheers to you being in my life be it in my glass or teaching me. Wine love. So good.

I promise to be funny again someday but for now gonna finish this elegant glassful of fun.

Return of That Rosé (you almost forgot you sampled)

The…EVERYTHING of an amazing rosé. I am gonna say it is this. WTF why not.

Oh heck so two years ago I was at a special event ( I was guest mixologist ooh ahh) and I tasted this and I went home and bookmarked the winery and…neglected that bookmark until now. And now. Just now! I ordered a couple bottles and doubted the amazingness I was about to taste because when I first tried it, it wasn’t on a blank palette–it was on a drinking-my-own-bourbon-cocktail palate. But tarnished or blank palate this wine will MOVE you. At least the rosé. I also ordered a red and cannot wait to try. 

But. Let’s talk the rosé.

Holy heck. Their wine. So good then and so good two years later when I ordered a bottle and started writing this entry.
Ok now sure. Let’s go with metaphors.

The Fantasie. That is this vino’s name.

2016  Seebass Rosé of Grenache

So you meet someone. It is big like at first meet. And I’m not talking romance–Just the ohhhh this person could be a lifelong friend! 

You get their info. Or jot down the name of the wine somewhere. Ya know.

Then you get distracted. For like two years. And you think…can I contact them? Will it be as magical as the first time we met?

So it was here. I was resident mixologist at a farm-to-table dinner. This wasn’t even the sponsor wine. This lovely winery was. But one of the benefactors of the dinner brought the Seebass Rosé for kicks and it…made an impression.

So it took two years for me to say hey…I should get a bottle and soberly evaluate. 

But nah this shit is legit.

You will regret not having followed up sooner. Oh no this friend is better than memory. Y’all will make up for lost time.

This rosé is filled, when you smell, with grapefruit. And perhaps unripe raspberry but then you taste and it…well people who don’t know better mightttttt say sweet and I would correct them: it is just the fruit. But then the stones kick in.

The big story? Just taste strawberries soaked in white balsamic vinegar and there ya go. But I will give a more…in depth description. All the same you SHOULD taste strawberries with the white balsamic treatment. Preferably with a twist of black pepper.

And then this is grenache has a wicked high alcohol level (14.5abv) and yet the acid is cutting enough you slurp this stuff up not realizing. What you are getting into.

Oh heck okay I am sipping with sober palate so let me do the boring WSET analysis but before that let me just say…METAPHORICALLY this is the person you meet and are SO impressed with and worry when you meet again you won’t like and then they are even better. Okay.

Eye: clear, medium salmon pink, medium quick tears.

Nose: clean, medium intensity, lemon, grapefruit, peach, youthful as fuuuuuuu

Tongue: Dry, acid is medium, tannins nahhhhh, alcohol I THOUGHT was medium but that sneaky sneaky grenache…this is medium plus alcohol. Medium body. Flavor intensity medium, and the flavors? This is a pinkkkkkkk grapefruit. With maybe a whiff of juice from a white one. And maybe a wet rock. And then a strawberry but an unripe one that was soaked in white balsamic vinegar. Come to think of it there is a LOT of white balsamic but you have to have spent way oodles of money on vinegar and berries to confirm this. Instead just drink this wine. You will get the flavor profile and tipsy too.

Okay the all important finish? Ohhhhhhit is somewhere between medium and medium plus. It is gentle yet nuanced. More nuanced than the loudmouth you THOUGHT you were following up with. This one is a keeper.

One for you, one because yum, sip, gulp

Okay this one is simple. 

Maybe I am over-simplifying because this wine is more complex than some of the other pinkies that arrived at my step this season. 

Yet the simplicity is quite elegant for a wine you can grab from the grocery store. 

2016 Dark Horse Rosé

This is simpler than some of the even cheaper rosés I’ve sampled this  season but better too. It is simple but pretty and balanced and I appreciate the name and label. 

So if you only ever buy grocery stores for wine do me a favor and grab this.

It is a good pink delight. Grab it. Drink it. Wooooohoo! 

That’s all for tonight, lovers.

WINTER comes Rosé

My main fear is that my multitude of smart, educated, impassioned musings on rosé still cannot get people to give pink wine a fair shot.

That’s not actually my main fear. My main fears are not fare for blogging here. ANYWAY.

Rosé is NOT JUST FOR SUMMER!!!!

HOPEFULLY ALL CAPS CONVINCE YOU!!!!

Rosé is a wine for all seasons. Don’t you give me lip. This is what you want. I promise. It will warm you up, cool your tongue and light up your soul. 

Before we get to today’s pick let us revisit rosés of the past. This Rosé is still my fave American pink. This One is still my SECOND fave french. 

But right now this is truly my latest hardcore Give Me pink vino love:
2015 Chateau de Trinquevedel Rosé

A full deep wine that offers as much on the tongue as it does to the eye.

ME-fucking-OW.

You are thirsty. You want something pretty badass and PRETTY to look at too. You want something that makes the woman in you roar. Or maybe the secure male in you knows that true men drink pink…you want that part to make some noise.

So this. It is full and vibrant pink that verges on salmon but is HOT DAMN deep pink.

45% Grenache, 24% Cinsault, 15% Clairette, 10% Mourvedre, 6% Syrah

It smells of pink grapefruit, limes, cranberries, and holy fuck fabric? Like crisp ironed fabric. Linens.

And some white roses. Picture a bouquet of white roses on Ophelia’s chest floating away from the shore. It is romantic and delicious.

It is those holiday napkins you starch and iron for special occasions. But you folded them into cornucopias holding strawberries and limes and maybe a pretty smooth river stone.

Like the stiffness of a starched napkin it is robust–a plate full of cranberry sauce and bread hearty stuff. But it is elegant. The starched napkin, unfolded into the lap of a woman in silk changes that dynamic.

It is good. Dang.

So that OUGHT to be enough but if you are a wine nerd here are my WSET 3 notes:

EYES: Clear, medium plus, salmon pink 

NOSE: clean, medium intensity grapefruit, wet stones, nectarines and starch. Youthful.

TONGUE: dry, medium plus acid, medium alcohol+ (thank you Grenache for that 13.5%abv), medium plus body for a rosé, flavor intensity medium, then the grapefruits, cranberries, linens, white peach, white flower and honey perhaps? And just fucking delicious. Finish is medium. Not complex but mellow and stony. Picture the feeling you get turning a cool stone over and over in your palm and that is this. Delish.

Quality: GREAT. That’s not WSET just me. I’d think at least twenty but holy duckbills it is like 18. Drink now don’t age. Get next year’s when it is there. Andddddd YES. THIS IS A YES WINE JUST DRINK IT EVEN IN WINTER ESPECIALLY IN WINTER

Oh the life!

The joy of this bottle.

2015 VieVite Rosé Côtes de Provence

It was not expected that random Wednesday afternoon and provided a needed spark in the midst of my week. I’d forgotten a publicist had promised me a bottle. Which is a back-handed way of me saying that yah I got this wine for free. But my opinions are my own and blah blah blah etc.

Beyond the thrill of random free food…Look at the shape of this guy. What a bottle.

And finally (before opening) the joy of saying “oh yes well, this is a Provençal vin from grapes grown in Domaine Sainte Marie which is near Saint Tropez.” Sounds so chic. Oooh lala indeed.

This wine is as close as I am getting this summer to the Riviera.

So let me not waste any time and get into cracking open this delight.

The grapes: 30% Cinsault, 30% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 10% Carignan

The color: Medium peachy pink, the color of…oh crud i do not have a good metaphor for it.

The nose: Lightly lemon, sweet grapefruit and perhaps mango and mace.

The Palate: Oh hell let us get colon happy and break palate down further:

Sweet: NO

Acidity: Low plus? It exists but dissipates in two blinks.

Body: Not a mesomorph, not an ectomorph. Perhaps a person who is of lighter weight but has no muscle tone so has some curve. Which is to say medium bodied with a certain silkiness and bite.

Flavor: There is pineapple and peach and red cherry. There is white pepper. There is what you would get if you took generic clover honey and took away the sweetness–a pleasant grass to it. A hint of a flower. Maybe honey blossom to go back to the not-sweet-honey comparison. There is some minerality the nose does not belie, but I am glad is there on the tongue.

Finish: medium short. There is a burn that is pleasant in this 13% abv darling.

Not a WSET category but I am adding it–Spritz Factor: There is a hint of spritz to this like–are those bubbles or just pleasant minerality? I am guessing it is the delicious white quartz soil of the Domaine Saint Marie at work.

Cheers, my sweets.

 

 

Cheap Good Yeaaaa

What a day. Or so. Shows, writing, and the business work us actors do that you don’t know you are signing up for when signing those papers saying you are majoring in acting.

All of which to say is life in many ways rocks. It is a volley from the highs of hearing an audience roar to the lows of not getting an audition for a week only to rebound to the epic high of a callback. Life being life-y. Anywho. Tonight (ok the night I wrote this since you’ll be reading it later) my sketch comedy team was in a fantastic show and I am so proud and happy for the work we are doing. Where it is leading I am still figuring out but it is making us better and getting us out in front of audiences. And we meet more and more people working and at some point all these connections are going to pay off. All you can do is do the work.

All this after a week of trying to impress casting directors, rehearsals, writing and yes, auditions. A drink is well-earned.

Oh right this is about wine. What better wine to celebrate a happy actor day with than one that fits a budget-minded person? A treat that is so much more than the price tag would denote.

A gosh-durned bargain, much like all the GENIUS shows I take part in (sometimes the genius is me at other times the other acts, sometimes all or none of us) that are FRIGGIN’ FREE. I tell you in LA you can get top-notch entertainment for nada. Like inexpensive wine it is a bit of a gamble as to how good a show will be. Comedy is a fickle beast. As is wine.

I am trying really hard to draw this comedy/wine parallel. Too much?

Anywho. Again. Both tonight’s free show and (practically) free wine were sensational.

This wine was less than 8 bucks. That there Garagiste gets you some insane deals I tell you. This one surprised me.

Garagiste says that this Grenache from Campo de Borja, a region in Spain southeast of Rioja grows high on Moncayo Massif, a “triple-headed monster of a mountain ridge”, at 600-750 or more meters. He says the promising yet value wines make this area like Park Slope 20 years ago. Pre-Brooklyn being the hipster/expensive-life mecca.

7.98 and these grapes were hand-picked? Aged in steel like the stone-cold motherfuckers those juice bombs are.

The gem?
2014 Legado del Moncayo “Garnacha” Campo de Borja

The nose makes me think “old church after communion”. Not “old church” in a musty way so much as “old church”  like being in a building with a lot of stone and it seems like there should be running water nearby even if there is not.

Medium in body and smooth as hell. But then at the end a tannin or two chucks you on the chin. Well, on the tongue and roof of mouth. Unless you are REALLY drunk and then maybe you would get some spilled on the chin but I held my own.

It’s just cherries and green pepper and perhaps some allspice to the end with this one. 

Do it up.

Vin vendredi?

Oops, its only Wednesday. Not Friday. But I have been trying post on Wednesday and Wine Wednesdays is just too cliche, so I started trying other languages and came up with Vin Vendredi. Fitting since one of the wines I am writing about is French. So it’s Wednesday, but I am giving you the drinks you should have on Friday, kapeesh?
That gives you time to plan.
I also had no pictures from the venue where I sipped these wines because it was too dark there and I did not feel like being the jerk with the flash going off.
I will tell you, however that City Sip, on Sunset Blvd. in Echo Park is awesome. Go there. Sip away. And order caprese sliders: small toasty sandwiches with tomato and mozzerella and basil. My problem with caprese salad is the raw tomatoes, I’m not into them(unless they are in a really spicy salsa). But the toasty sliders? Good stuff. Those tomatoes must be at least a little cooked.
On to the wine. First I tried a 2008 Grenache from Cass Winery, grapes grown in Paso Robles. I forgot to take notes on this. Oops. But I recall that it was darned delicious.
I know you are supposed to have white before red but I am a rebel so next up I had a white wine, this time from my favorite wine region, the Loire Valley. The Vouvray part of the Loire Valley. Say Vouvray. It’s even more fun than Viognier. It was a 2008 Vouvray from Charles Bove. This one had a bit more body to it than I expected, some fruit and…I need to take better notes. I highly recommend it though. In fact, it is my pick of the night.
I promise better details next time I decide do a wine Wednesday.

Wine question to ponder:
Do you have a region you find you particularly enjoy wines from?

Food question:
Raw tomatoes-delicious or the devil?

Discuss.