Wine a bit Wednesday

Black Box

Malbec

Argentina

Stop cleaning your glasses, wiping your computer screen or rubbing your eyes…that IS indeed a box wine on the blog. I know what you are thinking, "I thought Wine a bit Wednesdays were for good wine"…oh, yes, you are right, 'tis! The only box wine ever worthy to be a WABW.

Box wine takes me back to the good ol' weekends in college (hey, hey YCP!). My friends and I would scramble up the change from underneath the cushions,  bottom of our purses, and what was left in our bank accounts from the bar down the street (hey, hey Murphs!). They  would scared-ly (because they knew how I drove) get in my white t-top camera with pink racing stripes (yes,  that actually was my car, her name was Britney) and we would head to the wine shop. We would walk in like we owned the joint and when the clerk asked if we needed help we would laugh because, HA,  we didn't need their help…we knew where we were going,... to that bottom shelf,... all the way to the right, ...where the cheapest  5 liters of pink sangria in a cardboard vessel sat waiting for us at $7.99 a box. And we would buy 3.  

This, however, is not like that. In fact, I know we would not have even wanted it in college since this box wine is only 3 liters and retails around $20-30; as it should and is worth it. Let me start by saying that I have tried many of Black Box varietals, and they are all up to par and worthy of an elleDesign's  WABW. This is not your typical box wine, all of the varietals (there are like 10 or something) are pretty darn good. It is like buying 4 bottles of a decent $10 wine, that has a spicket, that stays good for 4 weeks.   That is the best part for those of you who don't want, or shouldn't, drink an entire bottle in one or 2 nights. If you want a glass of good wine, a glass at a time, this is for you.

My husband just brought home a bottle…I mean, a box, of Black Box Malbec and I added to the list of Black Box wines that didn't disappoint. I am a fan of Malbec in a bottle, and I now am a fan of Malbec in a "black box". Malbec has grown in popularity a tremendous amount, especially Argentinean Malbec.  In France, Malbec is very popular as well and is used typically as a blending wine. In Argentina the weather is perfect for full ripeness of the grapes,  which means it gets the most flavor and it is perfect to stand alone by itself (non-blended). This, my friend, is from Argentina.  This, my friend, shocked me how good it was! It is medium-bodied, peppery, and smooth. It is a little, just a little, heavy on the oak, but, ehh,  many of you will probably dig that. 
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For me, this wine is great and my Mom is also a fan of Black Box (Hi Mom!).  I love having a wine that I can enjoy a glass at a time…and also for those times I would like a flowing spicket. If I didn't enjoy trying different wines and writing WABWs, I may switch to Black Box for most of the time. I know I would get less looks from the neighbors and be able to avoid that awkward smile when I bring my recycling bin around from the back that clings and clangs…and clings.......and clangs. Ku-dos Black Box.

Black Box

Wine a bit...Wednesday

Freixenet

Elyssia

Spain

       I always plan my WABW. I do. But there is so much going on in the elleDESIGNS world that I couldn't keep up this week. I just couldn’t! I am sorry! This was about to be my first WABW without a wine.  I have not slept due to constant brainstorming; I have at least 22 inspiration boards minimized across the bottom of the computer screen; I have sketches flown around my office and the desk working on a million things. Am I complaining? NO!  How I love it!!! If I could go talk to that 18yr old girl (with horrible dyed blonde hair I might add) who couldn't figure out what her major should be, but knew she loved to decorate, draw and paint and tell her that she would be a designer, for her career…well, I wouldn't. I would let her find out the same old, gut-twirling, nervous, following-your-dream way. More fun! I would tell her to stick to her natural color, though. Oh, and that Leonardo Dicaprio doesn't respond to fan mail.

       Anyway! Despite what you may think, I am not a big drinker. I do enjoy wine, but I never drink during the day. Occasionally, hubby and I will have a bottle of wine with dinner and we will indulge a smidge if we go out on the weekend, but that’s about it.  Today, was a day I needed to celebrate, and calm my nerves. Weeks of brainstorming, sleep-less nights, ended in an amazing way today.  I will be honest: I was alone, in my house, with my pup and cats looking at me, as I looked at the wine rack and wine fridge for what would go in my glass. Cue Friexient Elyssia. That gorgeous pink bottle winked at me as soon as I saw it.  Ooh, la la…Ok, gracious amiga! (get it? its a spanish wine...oh, brother...)

       I didn't drink the whole thing! I AM typing aren't I? Half of the bottle is still downstairs in the fridge. The other half of the bottle, is what put this smile on my face. Friexient Elyssia Pinot Noir Brut is a cava from Spain (Wine Quickie: Champagne=sparkling from Champagne, France. California's is just called Sparkling. Sparkling from Spain=Cava) It is made with the Pinot Noir grape and just a tad of Trepat. The grapes were grown in a town just southwest of Barcelona, Spain with fermentation in the bottle. It is dry at first, but yet thirst-quenching. It is full of raspberries and strawberries as the bubbles fill your mouth, tickle your nose, and give you the hiccups. As the flavors come and go, you end with a sweet strawberry on your palette. Not sugar sweet, fruit sweet. This is delicious!


       If you have something to celebrate, want an nice sparkling for a treat... or...its 1pm and want to toast to yourself...give it a whirl!

Friexient Elyssia

Wine a bit...Wednesday

 Delas Côtes du Rhône

France

2009

At our fav local spot on Saturday at Pairings Bistro (kudos for always going out of their way to make me a delish Vegan dish), a group next to us were enjoying a bottle of  Delas Côtes du Rhône. My husband saw it being poured and immediately ordered one for us ranting about how wonderful it is. I just hate when husbands are right, especially mine because it happens too often.

There is no wonder why Robert Parker (the Yoda of wine from Maryland) gave it 90 points and it retails for around $15 (in stores, not in restaurants, don't want to give you menu shock).  I love Cotes du Rhone's! Chapoutier Belleruche is one of my favs, but Delas is up to par! [Wine Quickie: French wine is labeled very different than a typical California wine. For a very quick look into the large depth of French wine: The more you study French wine, the more you will notice French law reflects the wine and they are named by vineyard locations.  Bordeaux, Burgundy... all regions. In simplest terms, Cotes du Rhone is a wide Appellation of the very popular Rhone Valley. More info click here.]

Anywho, if you like a drier, medium bodied, red wine, give this little madamoiselle a whirl. It is just heavy enough to wrap around your palette, but not too heavy that it wears out its welcome. The notes of raspberry and pepper keep evolving in the glass [opens up more and more it hits the air]. It is 70% syrah, 20% Grenache and the last 10% a blend of Carignan and Mourvedre. The alcohol is not too high at 13.5% and makes this wine delicious with no heat on the buds. The bottle went down ever-so quickly and left room for hubby's glass of port and my glass of dessert wine. I would let it air for about 10 minutes or so before trying a sip.

Merci

DELAS

Wine a bit...Wednesday

The Prisoner

2010 Napa Valley Red Blend:

44% Zinfandel 26% Cabernet Sauvignon 18% Syrah   9% Petite Sirah   2% Charbono   1% Grenache

             Get your handcuffs, ladies & gents. I will start this WabW by saying  I feel a little bad about talking about the Prisoner because it is very hard to find and get a hold of. With my hubby having an “in” within the wine & liquor industry, I was lucky enough to enjoy it. It is not completely unavailable, so for anyone that could get their hands on it, do yourself a favor and buy the entire stock at the store or restaurant.  Not kidding.

           This story starts like many, my husband brought home this wine. He basically said, hold onto your corks because this wine is gonna knock your heels off. The ratings were phenomenal, the wine is from the always lovely Orin Swift, and the awesome artsy label had me hello. During dinner we opened it and poured it into our glasses. The color? GORGEOUS purple velvet that you would see on royalty in some sort of Cinderella re-make movie.  We swirled it around…and wow, I am 5 foot and 7 inches tall and this wine had longer legs then me! {Wine Quickie: “Legs” are the "streams" you see fall on the sides of the glass which signifies alcohol content. Sweeter wines with lower alcohol won’t have hardly any…higher content will...etc.} I took a look at the back and sure enough, 15.6% alcohol, wow.

          Here we go for a sip. (Cue that noise when there is a huge build up just to be let down…something like “Wa wa waaaa”) I just looked at him extremely unimpressed as he glanced back me with the same type of confused look.  One of the main things was it was very HOT. {Wine Quickie: If someone says a wine has “heat” or is very  “hot” it means the wine has a high alcohol content or you can really tase the alchol content..if a wine with a low alcohol content has heat...it probably isn't made very well!} You could not taste anything else other than that the very high alcohol.  It was extremely tight and nothing special. {Tight means it needs to have some air hit it for the flavors to open up. Good bottles of wine often need this. Use a decanter or wine aerator.}  I, very disappointiedly, moved it to the side and brought my water to the front.

         Dinner was finishing up and we decided to take one more sip since it had 20 minutes to breathe. (cue the angelic choir!) My eyes grew big and I am not the proud that I actually said the phrase, “OMG”.  Fig, sweet toastiness, currant…and I will even say hints of mocha and chocolate! Once it had time to breathe, this quickly became the best wine we have tried in years. The tastes were not just there, they swooped in like levels like in an elevator in your mouth. First floor-Cedar, Second Floor-Fig, Third Floor-Women's lingerie..wait got confused.. The finish was lonnnng and smooth. Even though you could still taste the heat, it was subtle and perfectly balanced.  The first 25 minutes we both took 1 or 2 sips, but after we re-tasted it, the bottle was done in ten minutes…that good! One of those wines that are sooo perfect you need to drink slow and savor but is too good you simply can’t.

the Prisoner

Wine a bit...Wednesday

Molly Dooker

Carinval of Love Shiraz

McLaren Vale

          The name "Carnival of Love" is deliciously fitting because I am having a steamy, sexy love affair with this bottle of Shiraz. The famous Molly Dooker wines have been taking the wine world by storm since it exploded on the scene in 2006.  When reviewed by the best of the best in the wine biz, it gets high points, great ratings, and almost perfect scores. Carnival of Love is over $90 and well worth every single leg dripping down the glass. [WQ:"Legs" on wine mean alcohol content. It runs down the side of the glass and shows just how much alcohol is in it.] With that said, even the Molly Dooker wines in the $25 range are kiss you on the lips and faint on the floor good. The grapes are from Aussie vineyards including the boss, McLaren Vale.  I know these can be hard to get, so I looked up at interview with Sparky Marquis who is the winemaker. He said that the USA gets 90% of the wine production, 5% to Australia, and 5% to the rest of the world. (Click here for interview)Lucky for us! Sorry "rest of the world".

          Back to my spicy, little affair with my Aussie, Carnival of  Love. In the glass it looks like  purple silk. The smells you get on the nose are the hypnotizing and match that deep, purple color. Rich and almost sweet plums, hints of violet…oh my gosh you could smell and swirl this glass for hours! Of course, then you would miss the best part, the sip. Molly Dooker prides themselves on "fruit weight". If you don't understand what that means, you will when you taste this wine. The flavors of spice and mocha hit every millimeter of your mouth making your taste buds yell, "do it to me again Ms. Dooker!" Be aware though that this bottle of wine is 15.5% alcohol which is on the very high end of the alcohol spectrum. If you are not careful,it kisses your lips, gives you a night a pleasure and leaves you lying on the curb.  Of course, it is so good, you are readily available the next time it calls to do it again...

MOLLY DOOKER

Wine a bit...Wednesday

PRIMUS

by Veramonte

Chile

Happy Wine a bit Wednesday!

To be honest, I had another wine all set and ready to go for this week, but then hubby broke out a bottle of this wine last Thursday. We were downstairs watching a movie and {makes embarrassed face} I was on the roll with my Bud Select 55's. He went into our little wine room and came out with Primus. I declined to a glass, but he poured one for himself. As the wine hit the glass the room filled with cherry, chocolate AND vanilla. Crazy, I know. The nose was that vibrant when he was pouring from 10 feet away. He swirled, smelled, took a sip and shook his head. When Michael shakes his head with that cute, little half-smile, it is a good bottle. OK, OK! I grabbed a glass from the the wine rack and got on the Primus train.

Many of you probably go straight to the California, Italian or Australian wine section when you go wine shopping. Have you ever ventured to the Chilean section? You Should! [Back in the 1990's, there were hardly any vineyards in Chile's Casablanca valley, about less than 100 acres. Since then, it has become one of the more popular areas for fantastic wine.] Veramonte is one of the best known producers of Chilean grapes and usually only makes single varietal wines, with this exception, Primus. It is a red blend of Cabernet, Syrah, Merlot and Carmenere from the Colchagua Valley in Chile. It such an elegant wine with great structure and powerful tannins. To be honest, I was surprised this bottle was under $20. Now, go wine a bit...

Wine a bit...Wednesday

Gnarly Head

Old Vine Zinfandel

LODI, CA

Well, any excuse to say "Gnarly" is really all it takes to impress me. The name, cute as it may be,  actually comes from their gnarled looking 35-80 year old vines in the fab growing region of Lodi, California! 

 [Wine Quickie: Old vines don't necessarily make better Zin, just different in a very good way! The vines are, again, so gnarled and old that they do not produce much fruit. However, the little grapes they do produce are fan-freaking-tastic and full of flavor!] Some of you non-winos may be thinking, "Wait..I thought Zin was pink and sweet?!" Okay, yes I see the dilemma, let's not get this confused. I don't want you to take Aunt Bee out and  have her order a glass of Zin expecting sweet. When she takes a sip she may fall back in her chair due to tannin-overload. [White Zinfandel is that blush-colored wine you see in mostly big bottles and jug bottles. It is made from the same grape I speak of, Zinfandel. When the wine is being made, the grape skins are removed quickly for less contact with the juice. So instead of deep red color, you get pretty in pink! Just like a White Merlot or White Grenache.]

I shared a bottle of this the other night with the lovebug (a.k.a. the man i said "until death do us part" to). It is full of spice and seriously intense flavor of black cherry and, Mmm, chocolate. Make some spaghetti with that yummy basil tomato sauce and go buy a $10 bottle of Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin for supper. Your local store has to have it, if they don't give me their number, that is just plain poppycock!

P.S. "Zin" is an abbreviation of Zinfandel that only the coolest of cool kids use, which is why I was using it..

GNARLY HEAD

Happy Wine a bit...Wednesday

       Voveti

       Prosecco

Voveti. This Prosecco  is fairly new to the market. I tried it on its first hello, but had the pleasure of sharing with some wonderful friends last week during a toast. When the bottle was done, we were not. We opened a bottle of something else, not comparable. We definitely wanted more Voveti. What was that? Oh, you said there are tons of sparkling wines out there, why this one? You know me too well, I'm glad you asked!

Let me start with that fact that it is not just a sparkling, it is a Prosecco.

{WINE QUICKIE: Without getting to "wino" on you, a Prosecco is an Italian sparkling. Like, oooh-la-la, Champagne is a sparkling that only comes from Champagne, France. A Cava is a sparkling from Spain and in California, it's, well,… it is called California Sparkling. Welcome to the USA, we say it like it is! Prosecco is normally made from Glera (aka Prosecco) grapes and it not done in the typical Champagne or bottle fermentation method but rather in steel tanks. This process is favorable for Prosecco because it preserves the, Mmm, freshness and yummy flavors of the grapes…} Ok, too far? Sorry..enough lessons, more wine.

With bubbles of honeysuckle that tickle your nose when you smell the glass, you can't help but take a sip.  It is dry, yet creamy and the flavors of green apple and peach are delish and refreshing. The website said something like, "makes you yearn for a second glass". I think it is supposed to say yearn for a second bottle…but, hey,  who am I to criticize their editor.

 Also, gift alert!!! It is named after the Latin word voveo, which means "promise" and "vow". Hey, hey!  What a lovely engagement , wedding or anniversary present, huh? On the front the "o" in Voveti is made up of 2 rings.  Now all I need is a crafty designer to make an adorable gift bag! Oh, wait…

Voveti

Wine a bit Wednesday

Ferrari Carano Tresor

A bordeaux blend from beautiful Sonoma County. Am I confusing you? No worries... {WINE QUICKIE-"Bordeaux Blend": uses 2 or more of these 5 varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot, Petit Verdot & Cabernet Franc. In the US, some refer to it as Meritage. "White Bordeaux blend": Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and sometimes Muscadelle.}

Tresor is a treasure. {One of the things you need for a good wine is bad dirt. Like when you lift weights, you get stronger... just like roots through the soil} This rocky, shallow soil makes this wine flavor intense. Blueberry & blackberry and aged in oak which gives this wine a vibrant vanlla kick. Don't bother getting a glass, ask the waitor for the bottle.

Wine a bit Wednesday

Eroica Riesling

Washington

Say it with me: e...ROY...i...ka...eroica! Enjoyed a bottle of Eroica this past weekend with pasta in a white wine sauce. Mmmm. I have always liked this wine, but forgot how much until I tried it again. I love the name and I think I always impress the waitors when I say it right. {WINE QUICKIE:The grapes were harvested at night when the vineyard temperature is at it's coolest which keeps the flavor super intense.} This riesling has slightly sweet notes and I mean just slighty sweet. Bright fruit & a crisp finish. Fill 'er up please!