Wine Love, Love Wine

Okay I just needed to post some sexy wine. Because Valentine’s Day. Which I will be spending on a platonic double date with my best friend and a married couple we hang out with. People surely see us and assume that we are two couples on a date together by nah. My bestie and I are platonic.

I can’t wait. V-day plans with friends are the best. But being friends does not preclude the four of us drinking sexy wines and eating sexy foods and generally having a beautiful time because we all love each other.

So ZIN. I’m a Zinfandel nut. Luv Love LURVE Zin.

Got this in the mail free incidentally but this is like one of ten bottles I feel like speaking of.

And okay this is a Zin/petite sirah/tannat/teroldego blend.

If you are a wine snob shut up. It’s okay. If you judge me talking of this you won’t like it as you’ve decided not to. This wine is not Chateauneuf-du-Pape and shouldn’t be it is just yummy and silky and zippy and fucking-A why not sexy.

Also sexy is not being worried about money. And this wine will not concern you. Have I had wines I would put…oh in another level? Maybe. But whatever. I first encountered Dark Horse at a fave LA restaurant, Mess Hall. That’s suitable pedigree to me.

Then on the podcast we asked peeps for their favorite grocery store wine and Dark Horse came up. Then this bottle showed up and I cracked it and decided it was a wine to share with loved ones.

Dark Horse Double Down Red Blend

Yay. So friend V-day notes. This wine is overwhelming at first and then you want more.

Tasting notes let us go: deep ruby purple to the eye with thick slow tears. Dry, medium acid, medium tannins, medium plus alcohol. Voluptuous body. Dark cherries, raisins, leather, licorice, baking spices and dirt.

Yum dirt.

Finish is medium. It goes on a wee bit but is consistent.

Yum. I’m into it. I’m into affordable numminess.

Love. Sexy full-bodied love.

love you too

Nothin’ says happy like a girl and her magnum….

Okay so getting personal will sometimes throw you. And sometimes bring out the best! Or maybe it was just my passion for a Zin. Anyway. A friend on the Delectable app has “more wine than we could ever drink” and sent a vintage my way. A magnum no less!

Holy cow 2006 Martinelli Jackass Vineyard Russian River Valley Zinfandel !

I am over bowled by the generosity of the wine community sometimes. Really. I’ve been dwelling in heartbreak half the time of the last month. And the bolstering of the people who love wine like I do has kept me going. And my friends willing to come to my support in person…!

I mean granted I had bottles to pour but they also were willing to stop by just for hugs or to take me to a new fave wine bar where we ordered wines and pretzels with spicy mustard. What the fuck would I do without these people, both online and not?

Not sure.

Let’s talk about this wine. I think mayyyyybe it may have been a smidge past its time. But honestly. I looked. This was a garnet wine. That signifies either nebbiolo or age. I took a whiff: it was all jam and…spice and also…animal? Not being a meat eater I am never sure. But then on the tongue. Jam…but not in a cloying way. Allspice, pepper and nutmeg speak up, as does leather with a VENGEANCE once decanted. Yeah the more time I gave this baby to relax the more it said come chill on my leather sofa and I said fine since it is wine not a sofa. There is a mincemeat quality to this but it is just…RIPE enough I know it is not, say, a grenache. Plus the tannins fuck the tannins are developed and velvety as can be.

This is zin. Fresh zin is all blackberries, jam and cloves with slightly more biting acid and alcohol. This Zin is elderly in a way that has softened the bit. I am taking this zin out to play shuffleboard. I dunno.

So grateful. As were my friends that don’t delve into 11 year old wine every day, much less out of a magnum.

Gonna drink this Zin right outa my wine fridge…

I edited like justttttt close enough although why oh why is there not nipple freedom for all?

But back to the title of this post: forgetting. Fuck. Am I being too personal? I’m trying to get rid of the wines that remind me of love lost. Which right now is Zin. FML. In the future I plan to stop educating my romances in wine. If they become fond of my faves suddenly all those former faves make me sad.

So I thought “I’ll drink up all those and focus on learning new ones”.

But the problem is I stock exemplary er…examples of Zin. So I can’t get over the wine. But maybe the wine is gonna be so good I’ll get over the lost romance? Maybe life is not so bad?

SO FUCK IT WITH THIS BOTTLE I RECLAIM MY LOVE OF THIS WINE AS MY OWN!!!!!!!! And my life.

Or something. In other words I’m my own goddamned lady.

Let’s talk wine. The glorious thing of this example is that it encompasses all your senses, including emotions. And it surrounds you with voluptuous joy. So:

2015 Dutcher Crossing Proprietor’s Reserve Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel

I discovered Dutcher Crossing from one of the wines my SF Wine Contest friend (he does their graphic design and such) brought back. It was good one year. Even better the next. So I bought some of my own.

Like I said it is a heady joy inducing wine. Like love you forget your woes in its presence. DO I NEED TO SAY MORE?!! Perhaps it is the tannic and aggressive aggressive 13% petite sirah that makes this wine give me wings.

In case you want tech notes I’ll get technical.

To your eyeholes: It is deep ruby with thick jambs. That’s legs sweet babies.

To the nostril-holes: It creeps out of the glass and assaults you with a kiss of dried cherries. There is more but that is the most important.

In your mouth hole/tastebuds/throat/nchest this is dry, medium plus acid, with medium tannins that have been to sex-ed, medium plus alcohol, and all the blueberries, blackberries, dried red cherries and super duper dried vanilla beans you could wish for which I am guessing are the love children of the 35% new american oak used.

Anyway this wine will take you for a ride. Dang it. My old love is no longer. Boys come and go.

Zinfandel is my life partner.

Cheers!

I apologize in advance if this entry is more maudlin and less haha funny. Because I want to toast to family. Which matters.

Family is the…BEST thing. If it weren’t for my parents I…well I need not go on. 

So. Accelerating to the drink because I can tell you more of my not-haha-funny past my family saved me from later. History will always be there where we left it.

How many of us can create wines in honor of our papas? If I ever make a wine I would. That’s what Joseph Carr of Josh Cellars did when he made

Josh Cellars Legacy Red Blend

And the winery was kind enough to send some to me. If my family were in town I certainly would have shared the wealth. But it was Tuesday night in LA and I needed to write another wine blog and there was nary a soul to share with. So I am cheers-ing with the camera. With you.

My blog family.

I love you dear readers. Not as much I love my family but like, a whole bunch.

But because I love you I’ll stop being sappy and talk of this vino I would share with you.

Were you here. 

My lovelies.

Okay wine.

The grape varietal combo is luscious:

45% Merlot for the juicy alcoholic tastiness. 45% Zinfandel for those of us who like our rough and also slightly spicy stewed fruit. Then 5% Cabernet Sauvignon (everyone will drink it!) and 5% Petite Sirah (why not?).

This drink is indeed good for family because it is medium in almost every category. So no one will argue. It’s a balanced bottle.

To the eye: deep cherry-plum red, medium tears

Nose: clean, medium intensity, cherries, plum, tobacco and raisins, youthful (2014)

Tongue: dry, medium acid, medium tannins, medium alcohol (13.5% abv), medium body, medium flavor intensity, plums, raspberries, currants (red and black), stewed dried fruit (raisins, prunes, cranberries), vanilla, cigar box, cloves, allspice, medium finish

All over: good quality. Quite do-able. If I was at a party and someone handed this to me I’d be at home.

I’d take this wine home. Cheers!

You may and can and will have it ALL

All caps means it is soooo important.

What else is important?

Bread.

Cheese.

Butter.

Eggs.

Fucking waffles. Yeah waffles too.

I took a cheese sandwich, dipped it in savory French toast batter and put it in the waffle iron. I cracked open my old trustworthy Ravenswood and waited. I ate.

Things were good.

Here is what to do.

Waffles-French-Toasted-Grilled Cheese Sandwich Yeah

• 2 pieces of bread
• 1-2 oz cheese
• 1 egg
• 2/3 cups half n half
• Dash salt
• More butter!!
• Big bottle of red

Heat the waffle iron. Whisk the egg, half and half and salt. Slice tiny slivers of cheese. Sadly you cannot put the cheese on too thickly or it’ll ooze into the waffle maker, so slice thinly. Put it on one piece of the bread. Put another slice of bread on top. Butter both sides. Then put into the waffle iron and cook away. Meanwhile open red wine. Ooh and ahh at your life. It is worth it. 

Big. Ass. Mine Yours Which What-evs

So Milano Family Wines is up to putting out some hot ass. So what. The. Hey. Okay.

I wanted to be opposed to this based on name but for some everyday drinking in, I could be into this shiz-nit.

Ass! Mine…yours..whoevers…I would never in a mil and yon years have purchased this but this is what online contests are for, to expose more people to wine they might not select otherwise.

Psssssst! I got this from a giveaway on the venerable Bri’s Glass of Wine site. Bri knows some good stuff so… I figured if I won the results would be dandy. 

I am confused that Milano Family Winery is, oh say, family? I mean, my fam is open. Mom explained sex, at least the mechanics as they apply to baby-making when I was maybe 7 and my father advised me in family therapy as an adult that I should consider pre-marital sex (I took that up it was a good idea) and yes I’m writing a memoir of my fuck-uped-ness but Big Ass family wine? Okay sure. But really.

How. Does. It. Taste.

That is what matters.

Wait, first! A PSA:

TEMPERATURE IS IMPORTANT! WHEN PEOPLE SAY SERVE RED WINE AT ROOM TEMP THAT SHOULD BE BETWEEN 55 and 64 degrees Fahrenheit!!!! NOT THE USA “72 is perfect” ROOM TEMP! THAT IS TOO FUCKING WARM!

If only I could go to every bar in the USA and help them with wine temperature. EVERYONE would appreciate wine more.

This Big Ass red ain’t bad. I shall endeavor to assess with a bit of the WSET 3 criteria. But first the tech info:

This is a Merlot/Zinfandel/Cabernet/Carignan blend aged in 20% French Oak. I am assuming the Cab is Sauvignon, not Cabernet Franc because most people, if they say Cab. mean the Sauv.  

But let us not dwell on tech, let us dwell on experience.

Okay now the WSET drill:

Appearance: Clear, deep purple.

Nose: Clean, medium (+), dark red cherries and currants, white pepper and cinnamon, fully developed.

Palate: Dry, medium acid, medium (+) alcohol (apparently it is 14.5 abv), medium (-) body, blackcurrant and red currant jam (what the what?! red and black true!) cinnamon, white pepper, black pepper, allspice and cinnamon and some sage. A whiff of tobacco and vanilla but I do not think aging would accentuate it therefore ergo—-

Drink now, little reason to age. Flavor intensity was medium (+) and

Finish: medium (-) it does not totally drop off but then it does not evolve and move me. Which is fine anything over low is helpful to making me wanna have some more.

Quality? According to the WSET probably somewhere around good. Maybe between acceptable and good (closer to good but good for WSET is better than most people’s “good”)which for this price is super. Like, I would sip this freely and happily. And be like, “Hey dudes, check this BIG ASS WINE!”. It is big. And look at my ass. Hint I do have a sweet ass.

I mean in general this is good, but there is not a thing I would call special or idiosyncratic to a grape, or region but..this delight would pair up with a snack or  a dessert or even it would just pair well with a…drinking vessel?  Wine is really good when you pair it with a wine glass.

There ya go.

Wisdom for the ages.

zin sin

Yes there is lipstick on my nose.

  
Which do you suppose is worse? Never having loved or never being loved back? 

I say the former is worse because being in love is a sublime thing.

Also, I am in love with this wine. Being an inanimate object it is not capable of love rendering previous ponderings moot.

In other words: it’s all good.

Homefire of Sonoma 2012 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel–Daydream Vineyard

The body is medium and well-proportioned. Neither a Marilyn nor a waif.

There are cherries and berries.

Silk. It is rather silky like um, silk. But better tasting. 

I like the bottle you guys, even though I saw “Daydream vineyard” and was worried I was about to dive into some hippie shit. But the good ol’ Dry Creek Valley did not let me down. 

Thanks to Silver Lake wine for steering me to this gem. It was the perfect date.

Wine I’d more than Grocery-Store settle for

 

A couple weeks ago I mentioned Ravenswood. It is my go-to grocery store wine. It had earned my adoration both in taste and price but got my heart when it was the wine that made my best friend start liking wine. He liked the dark moodiness of the label and name. And I think that somehow made him accept the taste.

And now he’ll drink wine with me. 

Extra dark name extra dark Label extra dark wine dark mood.
There are many dark berries in this.

Duh.

Ravenswood Old Vine Zinfandel Lodi Vintage 2013

Blackberry is the first berry I got. Then some strawberry snuck its face in like “hey! happiness in darkness, my morbid friends!”

It is jam. Dark, morbid delicious jam out of a glass.

There is some earth. The type of earth that has vines and trees sprouting from it, not dry, not damp, just right on a dark spring night.

Like picture that thou art 13 and going through a Wiccan phase and in the park with your best friend around 10 at night (taking a neighborhood walk) and the two of you, high on life, are frolicking and start rolling in the grass. That is the earth in this wine. Young, semi-dewy night earth.

Sniffing (huffing deeply) it I got a lot of berries and some whiff of maybe…flowers? honeysuckle? je ne sais…. like so unsure I’m not even gonna add the “pas”.
I taste some allspice hiding in the dark.

First sip gave an extremely acid ending but that was straight out of the fridge (keep all wine there if your home is warm as it is in LA unless you want your wine tainted by heat) but then I gave this wine some time to get some air and it softened so the scid was just right, running down the sides of my tongue and tickling the back of my tongue at the mid-point and the end in a delightful way.

Delightful. Available at your supermarket. Affordable. I dig. You can bring Ravenswood to my party any day.

Prim and Primal

  
looky here. she says without using caps like a proper woman who writes. 

Ok caps. Zinfandels have been a favorite of mine for a while. I like them. They have everything. Spice and fruit and leather and A Lot. They are the indecisive wine lover’s wine.

So naturally the fact that an ancestor of theirs is primitivo meant I needed primitivo.

This primitivo:

  
 The 2014 Tempo Vero Primitivo IGT

I got it on club w.

By the way if you want a free bottle of wine-any wine!-here’s my link. Clicky here:

http://www.clubw.com/eclifford

Very very smooth. Little tannins. Less spice. More berries. I picture strawberries and raspberries and a few blueberries and just maybe two blackberries.

The acidity is lilting and elegant, it’s the jaunty bridge to this wine’s ballad to berries.
I’d like to choreograph to this wine.

Book. Wine. Octopus.

   
This week you get it ALL. Wine, reading material and aquatic life.I present to you…The Tentacle.

  And! The Soul of an Octopus.  

And! Octopus:
  
Because that is how my book club rolls. I have a book club of 4. That is about the right number. So here is the story: one of the members picked The Soul of an Octopus for our next book. Before we met to discuss it he and I spotted the fine work of Eight Arms Cellars at Covell aka my second home.
The bottle could not be argued with, we needed to taste it. Being generous as they are at Covell we were poured a sample. Then we bought a bottle. Investigating the website I saw some other intriguing potions. I will write about The Argonaut on a later post but for now…The Tentacle.
At 48% Syrah, 42% Zinfandel and the rest percent (ten, I can do math) Petite Sirah, this is like my biggest wine loves with a touch of surprise. The surprise being Petite Sirah, which I normally am meh on, and have downright disliked but I think of it like this wine’s adorable tooth gap. Or cute mole. Wait, let’s not compare wine to moles.

So, tasting notes: this is berry-rich but not really sweet. In other words it is one hell of a glass of juice. Soft, soft tannins. Pleasant acid. I don’t know what else I can say besides two cheers for that malolactic fermentation? At least for this wine.

The book is likewise charming Octopuses are fascinating creatures. Did you know they taste with their skin? And they are very clever. And reading about them forced us to seek out a nearby aquarium so we could see one, the little purple guy you saw above. Now I want to meet one, seeing as this one was not particularly interactive. Time to learn to scuba. That is all.