Great wines under $20 - Italy, Spain and France

This week's painting - a vineyard - from a photo on my iPad...

Each week, my friend, Keith, and I go out somewhere into nature and we paint - it's called plein air painting.

Lately, we've been painting in Keith's basement - when it's below freezing, it's just too darned cold to paint outside!

After we paint, we taste a couple of wines while we eat lunch. Thanks to my Coravin, we only have a small sample of wine while the rest of the bottle stays fresh.

The past few weeks have been really quite good for wine tasting so I thought I'd briefly share the wines that we've tried. In most cases, the wines are under $20.

When I backpacked in Europe at the tender age of 24, I recall taking a ferry from Brindisi, Italy, to Greece. I remember it being rather chaotic getting on and off the ferry and having to share a cabin with a couple of strangers as well as my friend. Little did I know that they make a very nice wine there - the 2015  Corte Ottone Brindisi Riserva ($16.99). 

Riserva, happily, means something in Italy - it is a better wine that has to meet certain minimum requirements in ageing (unlike most countries where it has no legal definition). In this case, it means that it has been aged a minimum of two years. Brindisi is in the Puglia region of Italy so it should be no surprise that this wine is mostly Negroamaro (with some Sangiovese and Malvasia Nera). There were tastes of dark fruit like black cherry, black plum, and maybe a hint of dark fruit with vanilla and spice on the nose.Tannins were medium with medium acidity and a medium finish. I would definitely suggest this one with food - especially Italian - anything from pasta to pizza. It was also quite drinkable all by itself. Rated Very Good.  

Staying in Puglia, there is the Codici Masserie Fiano ($14.99) which was a fresh and floral wine, with aromas and tastes of peach, pear and apple. There was also a minerality - like a stone taste - that was a bit unusual. The Fiano grape is usually found a bit farther north, in Campagnia, so I'm not certain if this is the typical taste for Fiano. High in acidity, this would be a great food wine. Interestingly, when I poured this wine, I accidentally poured it again for our second wine. By this time, the wine had opened up considerably and the floral nature and complex flavours were much more apparent - we initially thought it was a different wine! Rated Very Good.

The actual second wine we tried that day was another Italian, a 2016 Bolla Soave Classico. Soave is the name of a wine made in Veneto where wine is made from mostly the Garganega grape. Classico means that this wine is made in the original area of the DOC (designated wine area - sort of like VQA) and is the better wine of the area. 

This wine was an absolute steal at $12.99. It has lots of wonderful fruity aromas and tastes including pear, apple, honey, lemon and pear. It also had medium acidity that would help it be a wonderful food pairing wine. I wouldn't count this out as a sipper, though, as it had a nice, round flavour that would be excellent for slurping on the patio - or maybe in the kitchen, considering the weather right now. I would rate this one as Good to Very Good - and suggest that it would be a good one to stock up on. 

Yesterday's tasting was one where I thought it would be interesting to try two wines that were made from the same grape but from different countries. This can be challenging as we try to limit our purchases to under $20 a.bottle and we also need a wine with a cork so we can Coravin the wine. The grape I decided on was Grenache (or Garnacha) - particularly became Keith had stated that he really didn't like Southern Rhone wines because they were a bit dull and boring. He was a bit surprised by our tasing!

From the Rioja region of Spain, we tried a2016  La Maldita Garnacha ($18.99). This wine tasted of dark cherries, black plums, and had an earthiness and spiciness that was good. It had high acidity, a medium finish, and some smokey notes as well. This wine was a food friendly wine but was bit rustic in its spiciness - almost a bit too strong - but it would go well with a strongly flavoured dish. I would rate this wine as Good. 

The second Grenache wine we tried wasn't actually just Grenache. It was a blend of Grenache and Syrah and was a 2015 Boutinot Les Coteaux Côtes du Rhône Villages ($19.99). This wine had all of the wonderful black fruiit flavours of the the Garnacha - black cherry, black plum - but also had a roundness and sophistication that the Syrah brought to it. There were medium tannins along with medium plus acidity and additional flavours like vanilla and spice - but not too much spice. The flavours were much more integrated with this wine. This wine would be an excellent food wine as it would go with a fairly wide range of food - from pork chops to lamb to steak to duck. It is also very nice to drink on its own. I reviewed the 2013 vintage of this wine a couple years ago and was a bit lukewarm on the rating - the 2015 vintage, however, is much better - even Vivino agrees with me, giving its best rating for the 2015 vintage.  A great deal for a wine that is almost as good as some more expensive Chateau Neuf des Papes wines, I would rate this wine as Very Good to Excellent. Fill your boots!

Cheers.

WSET 3 results - are in!!!!!

I passed!

After waiting over two months, I opened an email today from Fine Vintage that told me that I passed my WSET Level 3 - both tasting and theory!

There's no breakdown of marks telling me how I did in each section - but I don't really care! I've got my level 3!

I was pretty certain that I had passed the theory but I was not certain about the tasting - it was a true challenge. But it all worked out in the end. I will find out more when they send out my results in the snail mail.

Now, off to find a really nice bottle of wine to celebrate!!!!!

Superb Wine at Martin's Lane - Riesling and Pinot Noir

Our family tasting group at Martin's Lane

Just last summer, I enjoyed a visit to an amazing winery, right here, in the Okanagan.

Martin's Lane is owned by Anthony von Mandl of Mission Hill fame and their first wines were actually made at Mission Hill. Then, in 2014, the Martin's Lane winery was build on Lakeshore Road, just above Cedar Creek (also owned by Anthony von Mandl). It is a stunning winery with amazing wine and I was impressed by the experience.

Outside the winery, there is a large sculpture of Van Gogh's head (sculpted by Douglas Coupland of Generation X and Microserfs fame), with his missing ear to the ground. There was a contest to find a suitable subject for the statue and Vincent  is apparently listening to the grapes growing. The whole story of 'Project Redhead' is quite fascinating and you can read about it here.

As you can tell, it was an unusual start to our visit.

After giving the sculpture the heads up (argh), we headed towards the giant door that allowed us to entire the winery. By the way, Martin's Lane is a certified organic winery and the winemaking philosophy is one of non-intervention from the vineyard to the bottle.

I loved this spiral staircase right by the front door. There were  many interesting and unique architectural features at Martin's Lane.

Our first actual stop was a room with windows opening to the barrel room below. This was a place to watch the cellar hands work and look at the barrels of Pinot Noir and Riesling as they aged. Martin's Lane only grows those two varietals, similar to another von Mandl property, Checkmate, which only has Chardonnay and Merlot.  

Sitting on a table in the room was our first taste - a 2014 Naramata Bench Riesling ($65). This wine is made with grapes from old vines and was our favourite Riesling. There was a touch of sweetness and tastes of apples and pears with a wonderful minerality that balanced the fruit. Outstanding.

After one last look down at the barrel room, where we noticed another head of Van Gogh (insert joke here), we continued our tour of the winery. 

We saw this tiled floor with gold (probably real gold) tiles which represents the Pinot Noir and Riesling that is processed in their approximate ratio. 

I was also impressed by the display of different sizes of wine bottles. Just for kicks, it goes...

Piccolo or Split- 187.5 ml

Demi or Half - 375 ml

Standard - 750 ml

Magnum - 1.5 L

Double Magnum. - 3 L

Jeroboam - 3 or 4.5 L

Methuselah or Imperial - 6 L

Salamanazar - 9 L - that's a case of wine

Balthazar - 12 L

Nebuchadnezzar - 15 L

Solomon or Melchoir - 18 L

We then ended up in the tank room. 

One of the unique things about Martin's Lane is that it is on a slanted hill - the grapes are delivered to the top and work their way down the hill of the winery. The grapes are crushed and then the juice is gravity-fed to the stainless steel fermentation tanks. 

Then, down the slope to what looks like concrete ageing vessels. They actually might be clay/porcelain, as my vague notes have suggested. 

Speaking of concrete and stainless steel, there's lots of controversy. Stainless is very easy to control in terms of temperature and oxygen exposure but can impart a slight harshness to the wine. Concrete, on the other hand, gently oxygenates with little harshness but doesn't have quite the same amount of control that stainless had. Clay/porcelain, to further confuse things, apparently doesn't impart any tannins or minerality that concrete can.

Our tour over, it was time to taste some wines. Lauren, our guide, was knowledgable, experienced, humorous and personable. We really enjoyed our tasting experience with her. 

The 2015 Simes Vineyard Riesling ($55) was dryer than the first Riesling with a minerality complimenting the apple, pear and peach flavours as well as the floral aromas. This French clone also had some citrus notes. Very good. 

The final Riesling that we tried was the 2015 Fritzi's Vineyard Riesling ($75).  This wine had a complex nose and leaned towards tropical fruits. It was a drier wine as well and had some herbaceous notes as well as citrus flavours. There was also a touch of that wonderful petrol aroma to this wine. Very good. 

The first Pinot Noir we tried was the 2014 Naramata Ranch Pinot Noir ($100). It was a very aromatic wine with aromas and tastes of red fruit, especially cherries. It had medium tannins and a wonderful earthiness. Very good. 

Our second wine was a 2014 Simes Vineyard Pinot Noir ($100). This wine was both less floral and less tannic than the first wine. It was more refined  - even austere. Medium tannins. There were tastes of red fruit including cranberry and raspberry. Very good. 

Our final wine was the 2014 Fritzi's Vineyard Pinot Noir ($150). This wine really made me think of the Domaine Serene Evenstad Pinot Noir that I had had from the Willamette Valley. It was another complex wine with cherry as well as darker red fruit on both the nose and the palate. It had softer tannins than the other two and had a wonderful mouth feel. This wine is ready to drink but has definite ageability,. Outstanding. 

So, what did I buy? Well, even though I am always looking for a great deal, I bought two of these rather pricey wines because the quality was so high. I bought a Naramata Bench Riesling and a Fritzi's Vineyard Pinot Noir. The Riesling was opened for a special occasion - and was beautiful - and the Pinot Noir is in my cellar awaiting another special occasion. 

I also have this Pinot Noir that my son-in-law gave me - a 2012 Martin's Lane Pinot Noir. Could be time to pop this one...

Cheers!

"I can't hear the grapes!"