Wine Innovations

Cain Concept is the only cab my wife asks for by name. I’ve stocked up on 2005s and was very excited to add the 2007s to the cellar. Of course, I had to open a bottle to see how it compares with the 05’s. I opened it on Oct 20, 2011. Wow - was it tannic! The first glass had to breathe for over an hour before I could even really enjoy the fruit in the wine. I ReServed the bottle and decided to wait for a while.

I poured the second glass on the 26th. The fruit forward bouquet finally presented itself. I was able to really enjoy this glass after 30 minutes. But I had the feeling that I finished the glass before the wine fully presented itself. Nevertheless, I ReServed the bottle again and put it aside.

I poured the third glass on the 30th. Now this is tasting more like the 2005s. Fruit forward and built in layers. Nice long finish. Velvety feel. I enjoyed this glass thoroughly.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this wine evolves by the 4th and maybe a 5th glass. For my palate, I think I will be putting the rest of the case away for at least 3-5 years. Now, I only hope that I have enough 05’s to last 3-5 years…

What a difference an hour makes!

The Roth 2007 cab was introduced by a friend who has similar preferences for cabs as mine. For $20 at Costco, this is a full $9 less than Heitz, our reference wine for bargain cabs. I opened this last THU (May 20) and had a glass. At first taste, it was thin, with little bouquet - I was about to write it off, but then decided to let it sit for a while to open. I admit I was rueing the recommendation as I went back to the office and left the glass in the dining room.

An hour later, I remembered the wine and tried it again. And wow! It was smooth, not quite velvety and the fruit presented themselves very well. The medium finish was nice as well.

I just drank glass #2 and #3 last night (May 25) and both were very nice. Though It won’t be able to keep up with the other cabs we enjoy, I still think this would be a great wine to have. I’ll probably serve it at poker night. And at $20, it’s a great deal. I’ll try the last few glasses this weekend to see if there’s enough structure in the wine to last over a week.

I’m pleased to report that I found the 2009 Bartenura Moscato d’Asti during a routine grocery run. It was listed at $14.99 (just $1 more than at K&L last year) and with a case discount, it was a nice bargain indeed. Similar to the 2008, I found it very refreshing and tasty. Pear is the dominant fruit this year. As in prior years, this will come out when the grill is on and everyone is lounging around chatting and enjoying the appetizers.

For those of you in Silicon Valley, this bargain was found at Molly Stones.

Cheers!

This summer, I’ll be enjoying and serving the very tasty 2008 Bartenura Moscato d’Asti. Before selecting this wine, I tried several that were available at K&L. The Bartenura’s fruit is more subtle (whereas the other choices were heavy on peach flavors) and has hints of tropical fruits intermixed with pears. More good news - K&L sells this for $13.99! Enjoy!

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted… like most of you, Q1 and Q2 of this year have been quite busy as we all adjust to a roller-coaster ride in the stock market and doldrums in the general economy. Five-Sixty by Wolfgang Puck actually implemented ReServe in the beginning of 2009.

We are of course very excited to welcome this renowned restaurant into the ReServe Family. I spoke with the wine director in May and he confirmed that he is very happy with ReServe and that they have taken all the waste out of their wines by the glass program. By extension, their guests must also be very happy with their wonderful wine program!

I am very pleased to announce that famed AQUA in San Francisco joined the ReServe Family in Q4 of 2008. As you may know, AQUA was launched by Michael Mina and continues to be a destination for seafood-loving foodies in SF. And of course, AQUA is well known for its excellent wine program. If you are in SF, stop by AQUA and see ReServe in action… or at the very least, enjoy a glass of wine knowing that it has been perfectly protected by ReServe.

Passalacqua Winery’s cabernet was introduced to me in 2004 (http://www.passalacquawinery.com/). Jason Passalacqua had just purchased the winery that year and was working through the existing inventory of 2000 and 2001 wines. The previous wine maker loved essence of berries apparently. Under Jason’s guidance though, Passalacqua Winery’s cabernets have become much more structured and increasingly more appealing to my palate.

This particular bottle of 2005 cabernet sauvignon was opened in mid-December to complement a beef dish with a hearty sauce. The second and third glasses kept me company as I wrapped Christmas presents over the next week. Then Holiday festivites, family gatherings, and week-long ski trip to Lake Tahoe dominated my attention and this opened bottle was left in the refrigerator for another 3 weeks. Of course, I ReServed the bottle after each glass.

Being the adventurous sort, I tried the last glass around mid-January… and wow! It was still tannic. The fruit continued to present themselves over the course of the next 30 minutes or so. I’m certainly glad I have a case of this wonderful cab - it will likely be a core member of our poker night gatherings.

Cheers!

 [Just found this in the drafts folder… we conducted this tasting in late 2008]

As you can imagine, this is a continuing quest. Some good friends joined the effort and brought 4 new wines to taste:  Cannonball (2005), Est 1975 (2005), Four Sons (2005) and Olema (2005). As a baseline reference point, we also opened a Heitz (2003). And as the evening progressed, we decided to reward ourselves with a Paradigm (1997)!

We reached an unanimous conclusion about how well these 4 new wines (to us) performed. For the interested readers, do note that we used Riedel Extreme Cab glasses for all wines and opened all 4 + Heitz at the same time. Our assessment was done serially - e.g., compared each new wine vs. the reference wine. Then we tasted the new wines vs. each other to confirm our conclusions.

1. Olema (http://www.amicicellars.com/) is the second label from Amici Cellars. K&L Wines sells it for about $19. This was the clear favorite of the 4 new wines. It is not tannic and is fruit forward. It also has a nice smooth finish that lasts more than a few seconds. We see this as a very nice table wine to enjoy immediately. No fuss, no wait, just a nice glass of wine. Without the tannins, it’s not likely to store well so any additional Olema we buy will be for 2009 consumption.

2. Est 1975 (no url found) came in second. It has decent fruit and is easy to drink. We sensed a little complexity and structure. Whole Foods sells it for about $13.

3. Cannonball (http://www.drinkcannonball.com/) came in third. We did not taste anything interesting about this wine. On the other hand, there was nothing offensive about it either. K&L sells this for $12.99.

4. Four Sons (no url found) came in last. This was actually priced over $35 and was snuck into the tasting just for fun. All of us found it to be too earthy and minerally for our palates. Some of us thought it tasted oily. 

It’s summertime. There are few things I find more relaxing and enjoyable than whiling away the afternoon with friends in the backyard… on this particular occasion, we adults enjoyed some fruit and crackers/cheese with a Muscato d’Asti while the kids ran amuck with their Super Soakers. Our conversation flowed along with the breeze and the essence of lychee fruit in the Muscato made us all feel like we were back in Hawaii.

With the fresh halibut in a citrus sauce, we enjoyed a nice structured Chardonnay from El Molino (www.elmolinowinery.com). I discovered this Chardonnay when I ordered a few bottles along with my first case of the El Molino Pinot Noir. And of course, when the steak was ready, so was the cabernet from Heitz Cellar (www.heitzcellar.com). Some of you may recall that the Heitz cab is one of my picks for tasty cabs under $30. It is about $4 more than the CDB cab, but i like it much better.

This picture was taken after we wrapped up the evening - we still had a couple glasses of the cab and chard left and a glass of the d’Asti too. The d’Asti was finished off 3 days later - still tasty and lively. We just finished the cab (opened for 12 days) and thoroughly enjoyed it. The chard will probably be finished by tomorrow night (it’ll be 13 days). I’m sure it’ll taste just as structured and full of fruit.

I have a soft spot for this wine. It is a light, refreshing wine with a lot of tropical fruit. Thus, it goes very nicely with Chinese cuisine as well as just sipping on a hot summer afternoon. And, it is only 5% alcohol. This varietal seems to be mostly available in the summer and the wines available at K&L Wine Merchants (www.klwines.com) seem to vary from year to year. Last summer, they recommended Lonati and it’s been a hit with my family and friends. I saved a few bottles and have been savoring them over the winter and spring. Summer is almost here so I’m excited to see what new wine K&L will recommend.

This particular bottle I enjoyed over the course of 8 nights. One night it complemented my Thai take out. Another night it paired nicely with our home cooking. And the other 3 nights, it was a refreshing complement to processing emails and fielding overseas calls at 11PM.