Wannabe Wino

First off, holy high alcohol batman. I chose the 2006 Mauritson Rockpile Madrone Spring Vineyard Syrah for our wine the other night. It clocked in at 15.9% alcohol by volume!!!! That alone made it a one glass kind of wine. Now, as you know, I'm not one of those "high alcohol wines are all evil and unbalanced" type of people. However, I do like to have a glass of wine with dinner and one after. When the alcohol content is THAT high, I just can't. The wine cost us $38 minus a 20% discount in a club shipment and had a real cork closure.


In the glass, the wine showed as a deep dark purple, almost inky color. On the nose I found aromas of cinnamon, red hots, vanilla, pie, plum, black cherry, baking spice, espresso, and violets. The wine had an incredibly complex and intriguing nose and I didn't get any of the heat I expected from the alcohol level. In the mouth, the flavors came through as plum, black cherries, pepper, licorice, and a little leather.

Overall, in the mouth, the wine seemed a bit hot. It also had some tannins to spare, so perhaps with a bit of age this one would settle down. I really loved the nose, and thought the mouth had potential, maybe some decanting to let the heat integrate a little better.

I broke out both the fancy Riedel stemless glasses and this decanting/aerating contraption called the Soiree to drink this bottle of 2005 Mauritson Zinfandel from Dry Creek Valley. Mostly because I wanted to play with them, as decanting a Zin is definitely not something I do on a regular basis (if at all.) I'll tell you more about the Soiree another day, but I picked it up for $20 at the DC International Wine and Food Festival and the idea is that the unique shape will perform the same task as decanting your wine!

The Zinfandel clocked in at 15.1% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and cost us around $25 in a club shipment.


On the nose of the wine I found blackberry, spice, boysenberry, and cedar. The fruit was very fresh and just jumped out of the glass (perhaps due to the Soiree? I have another bottle of this, perhaps I'll taste it sans Soiree and compare my notes!). In the mouth, juicy blackberries, dark fruit, and pepper. The wine was spicy and a bit tannic on the back of the palate, but very juicy fruit up front.

Another great Zinfandel from Mauritson, and much fun and amusement was had in the Wannabe Wino house playing with the new wine toys.

(PS-Yes, I do know it's April Fool's Day, but no joke post here today!)

Giving away a little bit of how behind I am on posts, we drank this 2004 Mauritson Grower's Reserve Zinfandel from the Dry Creek Valley on Super Bowl Sunday. This will also show that while in theory I like the concept of pairing food and wine, really I just like the drink what I like with what I like to eat, though I will occasionally comment on whether or not a pairing worked for a wine.

Point in case: I served this Zin with a mish mosh of Super Bowl type appetizers- cheeses and crackers, various chips and dips, bourbon chicken, etc. It didn't work, but no one much cared as the wine was good and the appetizers yummy!

The wine clocked in at 15.5% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, cost us $26.40 in a club shipment, and only 275 cases of it were made in a mix of grapes from 3 vineyards.

My first note on the wine was that the juice was not as dark as I thought it would be, based on it being a Zin and all the other Zins I have consumed. On the nose I found pepper, jammy blackberries, vanilla, and other dark fruit. It had a very nice and aromatic nose that didn't seem to succumb to the alcohol content at all. In the mouth, the fruit was incredibly juicy with blackberries and blackberry pie being dominant. It also showed all spice and had a peppery kick on the back palate.

Overall, a very tasty Zin, and a good value for the money.

Many of the wines that came in my most recent Mauritson club shipment were two things: one, they were single vineyard Zinfandels, and two, they were labeled under the name Rockpile Winery, which is still made by Mauritson. They were also more expensive than previous Mauritson offerings, making me wonder if Mauritson is becoming a
"tiered" winery, offering their "special" selections under one name and keeping the more affordable line under another?

This botttle was a 2005 Rockpile Winery Rockpile Ridge Vineyard Mauritson Zinfandel. It cost $27, had a real cork closure and weighed in at 15.6% alcohol by volume. I served it with beef straganoff, cheddar biscuits, and broccoli. A little too big for the meal, serve it with a steak, bqq, or maybe a marinated pork loin.

On the nose I found vanilla, blackberry, and blueberry. The wine was very dark and the berries jumped out of the glass. In the mouth there were berries, brown sugar, vanilla, pie flavors, and specifically blueberries that showed after some time in the glass. Overall the wine was a bit tannic, it could definitely use a bit more time to settle in the bottle, so I will keep the other bottle of this hanging around for another year or so. As always, I'll report back in then with an update on its condition!

As the hostess of this month's Wine Blogging Wednesday, I decided it was high time I pulled out all the stops for a WBW. With that in mind, Matt and I decided to host a blind tasting of Petite Sirah in honor of WBW. We invited several of our friends over for the evening promising a wine tasting and heavy appetizers, though I am pretty sure no one quite expected that tasting I had set up!

I dug about in our cabinets for wine glasses to do the tasting. With 8 people coming and 5 wines to taste, I needed 45 wine glasses, a tall order. After routing out every wine glass we owned, I was short 4 glasses, alas, and Matt was forced to drink out of our brandy snifters. (To be honest, I was quite surprised I owned 41 wine glasses, that seems like a ton of glasses!!)


Next, I printed out glass placement sheets and tasting note sheets for blind tastings from Wine Country Getaways to assist everyone in ranking the wines. Guests were to score each wine on scale from 1-5 on appearance, aroma, body, taste, and finish. I gave a quick mini-lesson before we started as we had a wide range of wine experience in our group, and off we went. Before everyone arrived, Matt and I had opened the wines, and I brown-bagged them, then left the room while Matt came back and rotated the bottles, so it would be blind for us as well.



The contenders for the evening were 5 bottles of wine: A Mount's Family Winery 2005 Petite Sirah from Dry Creek Valley, a Twisted Oak 2004 Petite Sirah from Lodi, a Mauritson Rockpile Winery 2005 Petite Sirah, a Connor Park 2003 Durif from Central Victoria Australia, and a David Bruce 2005 Petite Sirah from the Central Coast.

Sadly, we were moving through our tasting when one of our guests reached Wine C and said it smelled funny, like tuna fish. I quickly moved to that one, and the sulfur and yes, tuna fish smell was unmistakable, leading me to believe the bottle was corked, my first ever corked bottle and of course it happened when we had guests! I told people not to bother with that one as I took one for the team and tasted it, it was just awful. We were down to 4 bottles to score then.

Our friends seemed to have a lot of fun with the tasting, no one had been to a blind tasting before, so it was a new experience for all, and there were lots of questions about Petite Sirah, wine in general, and things they were tasting in the wine. I had a great time playing wine geek and sharing what I knew with everyone!

And, drumroll please.......after all the addition, we discovered that 4 people chose Wine D as their favorite, 3 people chose Wine E, and 2 chose Wine B. One of our friends and I both tied D and E as our favorites.

Without further ado:
Wine D (the winner): 2003 Connor Park Durif from Australia
Wine E (2nd place, by a hair): 2004 Twisted Oak Petite Sirah
Wine B (3rd place): 2005 Mounts Family Petite Sirah
Wine A (4th place): 2005 Mauritson Rockpile Petite Sirah

And the corked wine turned out to be the 2005 David Bruce Petite Sirah.

Noe my notes on the wines:

Wine A: 2005 Mauritson Rockpile Winery Petite Sirah: Came in a club shipment, cost $28, had a real cork closure, and clocked in at 14.9% alcohol by volume. On the nose, I smelled alcohol and heat. In the mouth, more alcohol and heat, very tannic. I got to give a lesson on what tannins are and what it tastes like when a wine is tannic. This bottle was not ready to drink at all. A few hours later I went back and there were spices and blueberries on the nose, more berries in the mouth. Hold onto it if you've got it, even hours out didn't really help this one.

Wine B: 2005 Mounts Family Winery 2005 Petite Sirah: We picked this bottle up at the winery last April when visiting Sonoma. It had a real cork closure, weighed in at 15.2% alcohol by volume and cost us $28. The nose was much fruitier than the Mauritson, spice, vanilla, blueberries. Very smooth in the mouth, berries, spicy, some blueberry. Same year as the Mauritson, but infinitely more ready to drink.

Wine C: 2005 David Bruce Petite Sirah. Corked. I purchased this just on Friday at my local wine shop for $21.99 -a 10% case discount. I'm returning the bottle with most of the wine still in it.

Wine D: 2003 Connor Park Durif: From Victoria, Australia. I picked this up for $19.99 at UnWined in Alexandria, VA, about 2 months ago. It had a real cork closure and clocked in at 15.5% alcohol by volume. On the nose, cinnamon, currants, spicy, baking spices. In the mouth, plummy red fruit, chocolate, berries, spices, pie. Very smoothed out, very much ready to drink.

Wine E: 2004 Twisted Oak Petite Sirah. I purchased this bottle from WineQ in my last club shipment for $23.99. It had a real cork closure and weighed in at 13.5% alcohol by volume. Spice, blueberry pie, vanilla, cedar and leather on the nose. In the mouth, blueberries, blackberries and spice. I thought this bottle had the freshest tasting fruit of the evening, and I tied it for first with the Connor Park.

All in all, an excellent evening, and I can't wait to host another blind tasting. A great way to celebrate being the host of WBW this month and to educate our friends a bit on wine in general on on Petite Sirah.

I can't wait to see what you all found for your PS, looking forward to your entries!

The bottle for the night was a 2005 Mauritson Westphal Vineyard Rockpile Zinfandel. I think we drink a lot of Zinfandel. This bottle came in my latest shipment from Mauritson, which we are working through at fairly quick pace, which is alarming, given that we won't see another shipment from them until next October. It had a real cork closure, cost us $27.60, and Matt tossed the bottle again before I could write down the alcohol content...perhaps that's why he looks a little sheepish in my picture!

On the nose I found vanilla, blackberries, dark fruit, and oak. The wine had a sort of sweet perfume about it, which is different from what I'm used to with Zinfandels, I sort of expect an overall spicy aroma. In the mouth the wine showed blackberries, black cherry, and a bit of oak. Overall, is was smooth and balanced in the mouth.

I served it with what is known around our house as "Liz's Mom's Chicken Casserole," a recipe I got in 2nd grade from a friend at the time whose name is Liz. By this point, the recipe has been passed around to many people now, all with that title on the recipe card. It's a yummy, fattening concoction of sour cream, cream of chicken soup, chicken breasts, Ritz Crackers, and butter....clearly not healthy, but so good on a cold winter night. I will be the first to admit that the wine choice was not great with this casserole. So we drank most of it after dinner. I'd pick a Viognier or a fuller bodied Chardonnay with this next time.

Overall, this was a tasty Zinfandel, but I though it was a bit simple for the price tag. I have another bottle in the basement that I will hang onto for a bit to see how it tastes down the road. I understand that single vineyard Zins tend to be more expensive, but I really prefer the Mauritson Grower's Reserve we had the other night that was significantly less expensive.
yummy, but $$ for a zin...even a single vineyard.

And time to root around in my cellar to see what's ready for drinking!

In my last post about this wine, I said you should hold it for at least another year or so. Well, it's been 7 months and I just couldn't leave this one in the cellar anymore. We needed a less expensive bottle for drinking after dinner and this one fit the bill at $19.20. I believe this bottle came in a club shipment, though I honestly couldn't say for sure as we picked up a case at Mauritson on our very first trip over a year ago and have subsequently received 3 more shipments from them. Whatever the case, this bottle arrived before I started using CellarTracker. The wine was a 2003 Mauritson Grower's Reserve Zinfandel. It clocked in at 15.1% alcohol by volume and had a real cork closure.

No alcohol on the nose this time. White pepper, blackberry, blueberry, vanilla, fresh blackberry on the nose. Definitely very prominent white pepper. More vanilla shows through as the wine airs. In the mouth, totally mellowed. Tannins are gone, smooth, very ready to drink. Fruit is there, but not overwhelming. Blackberry cobbler, vanilla, blueberries, creamy. Has turned into an excellent bottle of wine for the price point. I would definitely suggest drinking this now or fairly soon as I don't really see it getting much better.

But I still love Sauvignon Blanc! And this one arrived in my latest shipment from Mauritson, whom I haven't had any new wines from in a year as they were kind enough to combine my shipments for me to help my wine budget! So I was very excited to try out some of the offerings from the past year.

The wine was a 2006 Mauritson Sauvignon Blanc. It clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume, had a real cork closure, and cost us $13.60.

On the nose I found figs, grapefruit, wet stone, grass, and mainly citrus. The nose was fairly reserved, but easier to detect after it had warmed up a bit. In the mouth I found peach, grapefruit, and minerals. The wine was acidic and crisp, but well rounded.

We drank this on it's own one night, but I would serve it with crab or perhaps some nice creamy cheeses as an appetizer!

You don't have to tell me that this was a terrible match with my dinner of homemade Hawaiian pizza. I knew that before I even served it. But the weather has me craving white wines and roses and my collection of roses is embarrasingly tiny at the moment, so I chose this instead, food and wine pairing be damned.

The wine was a Mauritson 2005 Chardonnay. It is 14.1% alcohol by volume, cost us $18.20 and had a read cork closure. It did not go well with pizza, but both were good in and of themselves (if I can compliment my own pizza skills!).

On the nose I found pears, green apples, and oak (but not overally so, just enough!). In the mouth, there were lots of green apples and eventually a reserved lemon flavor. Overall I would describe the wine as creamy and full-bodied
with a medium-long finish, good structure and acidity. But NOT good with pizza :)

Sometimes I think I should break out of my habits and make new pairings. Then I think, naw, I love my steak with a big glass of Zinfandel, so that's what I picked to go with dinner. Dinner was pan seared steak with currant and zinfandel sauce over cheddar cheese, gorganzola and parmasean risotto and a side of broccoli.

The Zinfandel was a 2003 Mauritson Grower's Reserve. It clocks in at 15.1% alcohol by volume, cost $19.20 and had a real cork closure.

On the nose I found a lot a fruit, but I had to let all the alcohol dissipate before I could get anywhere near my glass. It was hot. Really hot. My glass sat out for almost an hour before I was willing to jump back into the wine. And then I found fruit jumping out of the glass. Blueberries, blackberries, black currants, oak on the nose. However, the fruits were more like blueberry and blackberry cobbler than fresh fruits.

In the mouth there were gobs of dark fruit, black currants and blackberries with a little kick at the end. The wine was really tannic. It dried my mouth out as I was drinking (not to mention stained my lips!) and didn't really get much less so as we worked our way through the bottle. I would definitely suggest letting this one hang around for a while before drinking it, unless you are patient enough to let it decant for quite a long time before drinking. We have another bottle and I will stick it in the back for at least another year, maybe two.

We drank the rest of the bottle of Mauritson Sauvignon Blanc last night. Now, I had no other option for preserving it on hand except my vacuum pump. So I went ahead and gave it a shot (it was the first time I had used, DH had always done it before) without much hope for how it would taste last night.

However, I think perhaps I used it correctly.....? I took Dr. Deb of Good Wine Under $20's advice and I let the bottle warm up on the counter a while before serving it. It wasn't perfect, but it certainly wasn't anywhere near as degraded as past bottles that we had saved. I still got the citrus and the grass in the mouth, but I also got a little bit of pear. Overall tasty, but I'm glad we didn't have to try to keep it for a 3rd night!

I served it with fried chicken, biscuits and broccoli. Matt cooked us dinner, which was a nice break for me! I attempted to help with the gravy by offering the suggestion that perhaps cornstarch is a better thickening agent than flour, but alas, the gravy was still quite a failure. The wine was fairly tasty with the fried food though, so at least the pairing was good!

I think I will shortly be looking into the alternative ways of preserving that everyone suggested last night. Thanks to all!

Last night Matt had to work very late and I still wanted a glass of wine to go with my Asian Basa filet. (Yummy fish by the way, I just sautee it lightly in a bit of butter, some salt and pepper.) I was originally planning to drink some Chantilly from Swedenburg with this meal, but we only have the one bottle and aren't likely to head back out there anytime soon.

The wine I chose instead was a 2004 Mauritson Dry Creek Valley Sauvignon Blanc. Picked this up at Mauritson for $12.80, has a real cork closure and is 13.5% alcohol by volume.

On the nose there is citrus, green pepper, and grass.

In the mouth, it's a little spicy, with some lime. As I made my way through my glass and a half (really, I had no chance of drinking much more than that if I wanted to be functioning at work) I thought some pineapple showed itself in the mouth. The wine has great acidity and structure and an excellent finish full of citrus. It's a very thirst-quenching wine and I can just picture drinking this on a hot summer day by the pool.

And I don't mean that in a bad way. Tonight's bottle was a Mauritson 2004 Zinfandel. Real cork, 15.1% alcohol by volume (or 15.5% if you read Mauritson's website?) and cost us $27 minus a club discount.

Quite different from the 2003 Mauritson Zinfandel I tasted here. It's not jammy this time, but juicy. Big mouthfuls of strawberries and blackberries. I swear a hint of vanilla on the nose, though Matt completely disagrees. The big alcohol in this one doesn't bother me as it's easily countered and covered by the fruit. A little scent and taste of oak, but not overpowering or offensive at all. And I remembered to decant! I got none of the peppery taste of the 03 and none of the initial alcohol scent, though the decanting might have helped that. This just tastes good and worked really well with the beef strouganoff I made for dinner. Excellent finish, with a good lingering mouth taste. I have another bottle. I wonder if I keep it around for a bit if it will show some of the jam that the 03 does?
My mouth is watering looking at the purple inky color of the wine in this picture. It was seriously a delicious bottle of wine and really easy to drink.

After a long day of baking Christmas cookies, I wanted nothing more than to have a glass of wine with dinner. Thankfully, we had leftovers tonight so I didn't have to cook! Roast beef, mashed potatoes and candied carrots. I decided on a bottle of 2003 Mauritson Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel. I can't remember whether we bought this while at Mauritson or if it came in a club shipment, but it cost $19.20, has a real cork closure and is 15.1% alcohol by volume.

On the first glass, there was a bit of alcohol, pepper and dark fruit. I let it air for a bit (and stuck it in the fridge quickly as it was a little bit warmer than I like) and I'm pretty pleased with the results. What I have in my glass is perfect for drinking now. The structure of the wine is smooth, with an easy finish and very jammy. As the bottle aired out, I got a lot of strawberry jam in the mouth, though the nose is still dark fruit and pepper. I think this would be an excellent bottle to drink at a summer barbeque. It'll definetly last until the summer, but I think it's at a great time for drinking now or pretty soon!

I'm unwilling to admit that summer is over. So when I saw the store had fresh caught snow crab clusters (not pre-frozen!) on Sunday, that's what we got for dinner. And why not pair it with a great, crisp, summery white? Ta-da! My idea of summer in December.

The wine was a 2005 Mauritson Sauvignon Blanc. A familar refrain, but we visited Mauriston in August, on our full day tour with Gene of Healdsburg Area Winery Tours. Again, Gene knew all the people in the tasting room, and we probably wouldn't have visited without him. Mauritson was easily my husband's favorite vineyard. He loved all the wines there, plus he really enjoyed picking the brain of the tasting room server. I know he can't wait to break into the Magnum of Rockpile Petit Sirah we've got stashed away.

Back to the wine. This bottle cost us $17 minus the club discount (did I mention we joined a ton of clubs, it's a party every day at our house, as wine arrives constantly!), screw-cap closure, 13.5% alcohol by volume. This was a great match with the crab legs! Very crisp and light and lots of clean fruit flavors. Citrus, some melon, and I definetly thought I got some green apple. Easy to drink. Yum, drink up!