~$18US, 100% Saugivnon Blanc, Stellenbosch South Africa

My hunt for weird and wild white wines takes me to South Africa, this time to one of Stellenbosh’s top producers, Mulderbosch. This wine has been noted as a prime example of Southern Hemisphere Sauv Blanc, so I thought I’d see how it stacked up against the Loire and New Zealand companions I’ve had in the past (I embarrassingly haven’t had a white Bordeaux example yet).

Very pale yellow color. Aromatically complex and unusual, with extreme green vegetable action. Lime pips, bell pepper, and peas. Very bright and high-toned on the palate with lime, green apple. and jalepeno peppers. The acidity is so fresh it’s spicy through the midpalate. Very focused and precise. Crispy finish bursting with chalk and grass. Like a gravel ceviche.

Overall a wild ride through the vegetable garden - you usually don’t get this complexity and uniqueness below 20 bones - in the Loire, or beyond. This is not a wine for everyone, but I’m loving it for the nose alone. I wouldn’t pair it with anything acidic - probably softer sweeter cheeses, asparagus, and oysters.

Update: After 24 hours, the wine loosened up considerably - so much that it fell apart - the spike of acidity was too aggressive as the rest of the fruit softened.  Sharp and disjointed.

Schloss Gobelsburg Brut Resever (NV), Kamptal: Bubbly and bone dry, with a crisp green-apple snap and powerful acidity. Enough herbal-earthiness and weight to make this one of the 2 top most compelling alternatives to Champagne I’ve had (Foreau’s Vouvray Brut being the other). Versatile pairing-wise with spicy and sweeter dishes.

Quinta do Portal Reserva, Douro 2001: Massive plum, black cherry and pepper. The acidity really lifts the wine and sings a great counterpoint to the fruit and oak spice. Attractive backend smokiness and dry, slightly tannic finish. Pair with a riper cheese or anything grilled.

Chateau Lancyre Rose Pic St. Loup 2006: Beautiful if confounding nose of melon, bananas, and a little citrus. Ripping fresh acidity and opulent fruit backed with a stony-grassy Languedoc-meets-Loire finish. Dry, light, and a fantastic value @ $US13. You could have easily tricked me into thinking this was as much more expensive full-bodied white wine. A great case study in how the pink stuff can be a serious wine.

~US$13, 52% Touriga Nacional, 16.5% Touriga Franca, 14% Tinta Barroca, 13.5% Tinta Roriz, 4% other, Douro, Portugal

Medium Ruby color. Ripe black fruits on the nose - plums, black cherries and blackberries along with a mild dried herbaceousness. Darker, portlike flavors make their presence known, but the wine is never heavy or cloying. The medium-bodied palate revealed vibrant acidity and surprisingly refined tannins. Black fruit gave way to a nice white pepper component reminiscent of southern Rhone varieties. Short and dry mineral-driven finish.

My overall impression was this tasted like the lovechild of a Priorat and a rustic Cotes-du-Rhone, but with a  lighter body. Very interesting and a fantastic value - probably my favorite sub$15 red wine in the past 4 weeks. Try the sweet-and-savory combo foods like Hawaiian pizza or Peking duck.

~US$13, 100% Monastrell (Mourvedre), Jumilla, Spain

Fruit forward, with red cherries, strawberries and black raspberries on the nose and palate. Clear oak influence. While soft and juicy, the palate is supported by enough acidity and tannic stucture to hold itself together without feeling flabby. The typical Mourvedre gaminess is absent - and the interplay of big red and black fruits reminded me of a oversized new-world Pinot Noir more than anything else. Some spice notes of cinnamon and allspice towards the finish.

Overall, not a serious geek-out wine, but a tasty value that satisfied. It showed well the 2nd day, but I wouldn’t keep the 05’s around much past 2010. Great with BBQ.

~US$25, 100% Mourvedre, Bandol

I’m usually pretty regret-free and open-minded when it comes to wines - if something I buy doesn’t resonate with me, I can usually imagine/rationalize a ‘right’ situation for the wine - be it more age, food pairings, certain company, etc. so it’s rarely a total loss. Then came along this wine.

The Bandol region in southeast France is known for sturdy, rustic, beastly red wines made primarily from the Mourvedre grape. They also produce world-class Roses - but most are snatched and drunk before they make it to my side of the pond. The lower-tier Bandol reds tend to be more accessible in their youth, so I popped and poured this 2001. Deep deep garnet color. The nose is shy - with black fruits and some soapy, floral flavors hiding in a cloud of alcohol.

Structurally there is decent weight and hint of tannic grip, but the flavors are where everything turns south. Cloying soapy perfume - motor oily and very bitter, the fruit just disappears. There is stale cocoa powder mixed with wet fur (Mourvedre’s gaminess can be really appealing in the right expression) in the midpalate, which is awkward. The alcohol heats everything up and emphasized the bitterness. There is a slight minerality to the end of the finish that is almost distinctive, but the net impression is unpleasant. While this may have sustained heat damage or flaws - it feels to me like this wine was over-manipulated and over-extracted, masking fruit impurities.

My palate changes, like everyone else who drinks wine. I’ve tasted several wines that I wasn’t into at the time, but know I would love now (Ester Nin’s Vinya del Taus 2004 comes to mind) - this seems different. Just unpleasant and uninspiring. Pass on this producer, but I will try some others, and any Roses I can get my hands on.

~$15US, Alsace, White Blend

I thoroughly the support practice of biodynamic (uber-organic) viticulture as a means of creating wines that capture a more interesting footprint than their conventionally farmed competition. The practice of bionaymanie gained a strong foothold early on in the Loire Valley and Burgundy regions, and has spread like wildfire throughout Europe and the New World. I like to look at the practice as yielding a clearer, more transparent window into the wine.

Marc Tempe’s Alsace domaine (just under 20 acres) has been farmed biodynamically since it’s genesis in the early 90s. The Alliance is his entry-level field-blend combining (at the very least) Gewurztraminer, Riesling, and Tokay/Pinot Gris into a light-golden dry wine. Aromatically, the Gewurtztraminer gives an interesting tropical fruit-driven character, supported by dried-flowers. Light on the palate, the wine has a driving, laser-focused acidity and great purity which it pulls off as a blend by stressing the high-toned quality of the fruits (white peach, lemon/lime, bitter melon) rather than their individual nuances. Very Linenear. It’s zesty and refreshing and naturally fermented to bone-dry, making this a great summer choice with fish, soft cheeses and salads.

The wine comes in at a great quality for the price (especially for a biodynamic wine) - but there is some stiff competition in this price range for terroir-driven-fresh-whites via Austrian Gruners, Trocken Rieslings, and Loire Muscadets. I’m totally happy with another wine choice in this class (which is probably the class of wines I get most excited about right now ) and the great aromatics, clean fruit, and blend of the Alliance give it a unique sense of place and class.

~US$30, 100% Syrah, Corbieres France

Months ago, I tried the Ligneres Aric, a blended wine from Southern France that brought serious barnyard funk at a fairly steep price. When I saw the estates’s top wine on sale, the Notre Dame (100% Syrah) I figured the domaine was worth another try. Glad I did.

The 2002 vintage is generally considered a poor one in Southern France, especially parts of Bordeaux and the Rhone (Burgundy and the Loire seemed to avoid the rains of doom, somehow) - but you wouldn’t know it by tasting the Notre Dame. The nose speaks of big red fruit blended with dried herbs, pepper, and leather. A sexy balance of old and new-world styles and flavors. The palate is very polished and lush - it’s one of those wines that just hit on all the cylinders and its hard to find fault with. The finish shows a good bit of oak spice, but a pleasant bitterness lifts what could’ve been a too saccharine finish. 13.5% ABV = Thank you very much. Perfectly integrated tannins make for a big, delicious and balanced Syrah - the bottle was gone before I could dive any deeper into the flavors. I’d put this up against any similarly priced California Syrah, especially in terms of distinctiveness, balance, and palate.

2006 Shane Wine Cellar Syrah, Jemrose Vineyard, Bennett Valley - Infanticide, I thought, but I had to try… Obscene purple magenta inky tones. Blackberries, raspberries, orange zest and white pepper nose. Big, chewy fruit with proportionate oak and tannin structure. Fantastic pepperiness, spice (clove?) and typicity. The fruit is ripe, but not to the extant that it obliterates the uniqueness of the vineyard and vintage. If I am gunna be a stickler, I’d enjoy a  touch more acidity and more neutral oak character - but by the time the finish kicks in and pulls everything together with such effortless length, I don’t care. Obviously crafted with keen attention and passion, and I can’t wait to see how it (and it’s sisters) evolve over the next few years.

NB - Don’t be afraid to try this now if you are sitting on it - I actually enjoyed the wine more right after I popped it vs 3 hours of decanting. The air-time integrated the fruit, spice notes, oak and tannins - but the intensity and freshness of the initial fruit attack (while a bit monolithic) was most exciting to me.

2005 Orsolani Erbaluce Di Caluso Rustia, Piedmont Italy - The wine of the weekend. Straw gold. Mysterious nose; grassy, some lime, chalk-dust, and after some time in the decanter - tropical notes, honey, lemon and ginger. High-toned, almost austere in its acidity at first (pleasant) but over time the wine put on more and more weight and developed a sweet softness (with mango and coconut) in the midpalate that balanced the wine perfectly. Fascinating transformation on the palate - it started out like a Loire Sauvignon Blanc, moved through a fuller, sweeter, Viognier-like heft and finishes with a mineral-driven dry-riesling slatiness. Rare and confounding, I must find more. Perfect partner to seafood with adventurous sauces.

Diseño Malbec, Mendoza Argentina 2006 - Opulent fruit-driven wine with a decent backend structure and mild spiciness. Juicy and ripe black fruits, plus some tobacco and cinnamon - but with a detracting fakey-oakey vanilla flavor and mild acidity.

Overall - Tasty and not bad wine at all, but “International” in style - having little to show for the Malbec grape or anything particularly unique to the Mendoza region. However, I would probably grab for this before a Shiraz in the under $10 category from a sheer value standpoint.

~US$30, Grenache/Carignan/Cabernet Sauvignon, Priorat Spain

I love Priorat wines for stories and soul that goes into the wines as much as the actual liquid. From accounts and photos of the area, it’s a beautiful and dangerous other-worldly terrain that would seem unlikely to be producing much in the way of agriculture/viticulture. But in the past 20 years,a small group of producers (led by Alvaro Palacios, Daphne Glorian, and Rene Barbier) have proven that through insanely hard work - world-class wines from indigenous varieties can be coaxed from the schisty, terraced cliffs.

Les Terrasses is Palacios’ entry-level Priorat cuvee, comprised of Grenache and Carignan with a bit of Cabernet Sauvignon. Pop and poured - zingy acidity, red fruits, but tight and astringent - so I put it away for 2 days to see how it developed. Retasted and it put on wonderful complexity and weight. Bing cherry flavors melded with a deep, herbal spiciness - primarily lavender and thyme. Immediately comparable in flavors to a Chataueneuf-du-Pape, just lighter in body. The Cabernet brings some nice cedar and currant to the midpalate with an clean tannic lift. Signature Priorat wet-slate finish, which could be lengthier. Even after 2 days open it still had very dry tannins which mark this for pairings with fattier foods - it could make your gums a little too sticky on its own. There is clearly enough fruit here to carry this wine for another day or 2 in an open bottle, or probably till 2018+ in cellar.

Personally, this is a great value @ $30 - because it affords the ability to be played with over a week - and it’s just delicious and not mind-blowingly alcoholic or too fruity or oakey. This is a finessed wine that probably wont be revelatory to the wine-drinker buying Spanish wines in the $10-15 range - but for those who drink the pricier Rhones, Shiraz, and even certain Bordeaux, this wine will have you wondering why you’d want to spend 2x or 3x this price.

2 very interesting wines in the sub-$12 range. Both sort of one-trick-ponies, but the tricks were distinctive and cool. The Zantho was light bodied but almost overwhelmingly lemony and piney - aromatically and on the palate. Very purfumed. Mineral / stoniness comes across as a supporting role from nose to finish. Pine Sol exactly. Bone dry. Fresh, bright acidity means this would pair great with shellfish and seafood. Interestingly, I left this in the decanter overnight to taste in the morning - and it tasted even better?! The acidity integrated and the wine overall was a little plumper and softer. I’d love to see what a dry Muscat tastes like after 15 years in the cellar…anyone have that opportunity?

The Riondo Prosecco was all about Banana Now-and-Laters (my wife pinpointed this - thanks m) and white balsamic vinegar. Tiny bubbles filled the palate, with a very light and ethereal body. Refreshing and probably better before dinner than with the Thai and Sushi we enjoyed (which wasn’t a bad match by any means). This is quite dry, but I did detect a slight residual sugar to keep it drinkable and balance the acidity. Fun and cheap - everyone should have a bottle on hand for nights when champagne might be too opulent, and beer doesn’t suit the mood.