June 20, 2019

Review: Asconi Special Collection Old Tavern Liquor Red Wine

Grape(s): “Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and other varieties of red types of grapes”

Region: Codru, Moldova

Winery: Asconi

Style: At 16% alcohol, I suspect this was fortified in some way (yeast usually dies around 15%). It’s listed in several places as a dessert wine, though the label refers to it as a “liquor red wine.”

Tasting Notes: Weak structure, unbalanced, simple, low tannin, low acid, overly sweet, red fruit flavors.

Pairing Suggestions: Suitable for making Gluhwein or Sangria, but not really a wine that I felt could be improved by food.

TL/DR: “… it’s fucking terrible.”

I’d like to tell you this is the first time I’ve bought a bottle of wine that looks like a tree, but that would be a lie. A wiser man would have learned from the first experience, he would have remembered why it’s better to not drink wine from strange bottles. Hell, at the very least, a wiser man would have encouraged caution. I am not that man. Oh no! When I see that beat up van with missing hubcaps and the words “free wine” hastily painted down the side, I open the door, and climb right in. Regardless of how pretentious I may seem, sometimes I’m little more than a thirsty Philistine.

This free-spirited attitude usually works out in my favor, most of the strange wines I’ve encountered were positive experiences. I mean, it’s one of the reasons I started this blog. However, I recognize not everyone will agree with my opinions and I never want to make someone feel wrong for hating a wine I liked or liking a wine I didn’t. After all, society is a grand tapestry of clashing ideas, a beautiful mosaic of diverse perspectives that should be nurtured and cherished. That being said, this wine… it’s fucking terrible.

Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh and to be fair, I’m not the biggest fan of dessert reds. It’s the one style of wine popular in Eastern Europe that I’ve never been able to appreciate.

Made from “Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and other varieties of red types of grapes” this “liquor red wine” comes to us from Asconi winery in the Codru region of Moldova. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that one of the strangest wine bottles I’ve ever seen has some of the oddest descriptions.

There are two ways I assess quality. The first way is keeping in line with how I was trained, taste the wine, break down the structural components, look for complexity and diversity in flavor. Sweet wines require high levels of acidity to balance out the excess sugar, in this case the acidity was lacking, unbalancing the wine. It was sweet, but not refreshing. Think of it as the difference between drinking soda vs. soda syrup, one is light and refreshing the other not so much.

The second method is more straight-forward: did I enjoy it? I think I’ve made it pretty clear I didn’t, but to drive the point home I’ll tell you I have about 20 bottles sitting beside my couch, these are wines I’ve tasted and photographed that are waiting for me to write reviews on. Only one of those bottles has any wine left in it. In fact, there’s about 3/4 of a bottle left.

This less than stellar review might lead some to the conclusion that it’s best to avoid wines from Moldova, or Eastern Europe in general. Others might suggest that my experience is no different from any encounter with a sweet wine. I strongly disagree with both sentiments.

When someone tells me they don’t like sweet wine, I usually just assume they’re saying they don’t like cheap Moscato, which is a valid opinion. It’s usually awful for the same reasons I disliked this wine. If, however, you’re telling me you don’t like Sauternes, we probably can’t be friends. I mean, at that point what do you like? Well-done steak? Taylor Swift? The films of Uwe Boll? It’s probably better we just part ways amicably.

As far as Moldova, they make some amazing wines, this just happens to be one that didn’t impress me, and one bad experience will in no way dissuade me from trying more in the future. At least this was fun to photograph.

Review
January 18, 2019

Wine Diary: Château la Grolet Côtes de Bourg 2016

Most of my reviews have been pretty generous, even when I don’t like a wine I try to be fair about it. Sometimes the wine might not meet my expectations, but in those moments I have to consider that my expectations may have been unreasonable. At the end of the day, I’m not an expert, I just have a thirst for wine and knowledge. All that being said, I was disappointed with this wine.

A little background, I learned pretty early that red wines from France’s Bordeaux region are the prototype for red blends across the world. As a person wanting to learn more about wine, that seemed a good place to start. So, for several months I sought out small corner shops that sell wine, to dig through their shelves for a bottle of basic Bordeaux AOC wine. In Chicago you can find these practically everywhere, for $10-15. By exploring wine this way, I was able to create a base line to compare other red blends, whether they be Italian, American, Australian, or whatever. At the same time, I developed an opinion of what I felt a Bordeaux should be.

Chateau le Grolet didn’t meet my expectation. Instead of being well-structured and harmonious, I found it to be have an aggressive fruit profile and lighter body than I was used to. Normally, when confronted with a wine like this I would write it off, but there’s just one problem, it isn’t simply a Bordeaux, it’s a Côtes de Bourg.

You see, Bordeaux isn’t just a single region, there are about 50 smaller wine districts within the Bordeaux AOC and each of those have different rules. So, what’s the difference between a basic Bordeaux and a Côtes de Bourg? I have no idea, and that’s the problem. This is the first time I’ve encountered a Côtes de Bourg, it’s not really fair for me to try to hold it to a standard I developed while drinking a completely different wine.

Here’s what I do know, most of the Bordeaux wines I’ve had were from the left bank, which generally uses Cabernet Sauvignon as a base for their wine. Chateau la Grolet is on the right bank, which typically use Merlot as a base. In fact, this wine is a blend of 70% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Malbec. While I’ve had other right bank wines, they were more full-bodied and complex than this, but even that isn’t really a fair comparison since they were from different districts.

Chateau la Grolet is named for a 17th century manor that lies north of the confluence of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers. In 1997 it was acquired by the current owners who converted it to biodynamics. The wine is fermented with ambient yeast, it is organic, biodynamic, vegan, and Demeter certified. My impression was that it was a light to medium wine, with aggressive fruit flavors, and simple character.

At this point, I’m really trying to reserve judgment until I’ve had the opportunity to try another Côtes de Bourg. While I wasn’t pleased with how this wine performed, I wonder if I would have felt differently if I wasn’t expecting it to be something else. It seems clear the producers have made this wine with great care and I don’t want to casually dismiss their efforts due to my own ignorance.

If you’re looking for a basic Bordeaux, this is not a wine I would recommend. I think it would be a nice pairing for some fish, poultry, and pork dishes, but I would avoid pairing it with red meat. However, it is smooth enough that you don’t have to drink it with a meal. This also could be a good bottle to share with someone who tends to favor lighter reds or finds tannin disagreeable.

At least, that’s what I think. If you have the chance to try it, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Wine Diary
Monte Xanic Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot wine bottle label
November 7, 2018

Wine Diary: Monte Xanic Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2015

My brother called one night asking what I knew about Mexican wine. It was a short conversation, because I really didn’t know anything. He had just returned from a trip to Baja and had the opportunity to sample wines from a couple of wineries in the Guadalupe Valley. Now, this guy is a die hard fan of Napa reds, but he told me that the wines he sampled were on par with wines he liked from Napa. Obviously, I was intrigued.

In the United States there is almost an immediate dismissal of anything that comes out of Mexico (except street food), I’ve watched multiple chefs scoff of the very idea of Mexican wine while simultaneously acknowledging they’ve never tried any. Couple that with the fact it’s already difficult to find wines from any country that doesn’t have an established wine reputation and you’ll understand why it took me a while to get my hands on wine from Mexico.

wine cork monte xanic
After a couple of months, I was searching shelves at Binny’s when a clerk approached me to see if I needed help. Usually, I dismiss them because I’m never really sure what I want, but I decided to ask if they carried Mexican wine. We walked through the store searching all the shelves I had already looked through until we came to the “Domestic Reds” shelf where we found it just sitting on the bottom in the middle of miscellaneous California wines. To my delight, it was from the same winery my brother had visited.

Monte Xanic is in the wine region of Baja California. According to their website, the area has a microclimate similar to the Mediterranean, specifically Southeast France. Wine was introduced to the to the region by Christian missionaries in the late 18th or early 19th century.

The wine I picked up was a Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend that has seen 12 months of aging in French oak. For all the skeptics let me say, this might be the best red blend I tried in 2018. I would easily set this against anything I’ve tried from Napa or Bordeaux. It had a nice balance of fruit and spice flavors, tannin that were present, but not overly aggressive. For the price, this wine may be unbeatable and it’s always a good day when persistence and curiosity are rewarded.

So, I texted my brother and here was his response.

 

 

Wine Diary
Bottle of wine red wine glass of wine hamburger
August 17, 2018

Wine Diary: Bovin Cabernet Sauvignon 2014

The grocery store near my home had a sale on what they call “pub burgers,” which are essentially half pound hamburger patties, pre-formed, and ready to be taken right out of the package and placed on the grill. Generally, I prefer to buy my ground beef in bulk and form my own burgers, but in this case it was cheaper to get them pre-made. Basically, it was like winning the lazy lottery. It had been a long work week and I had suffered through a couple of disappointing hamburger experiences from a large purveyor that was the only lunch option near work, I needed a win.

The trick I’ve found to making a great hamburgers at home is just to do all those little extra things that no one else is willing bother with. Toast the bun with a little butter, caramelize the onion, buy an actual block of good cheese and slice it yourself, just the act of performing these small efforts will make the final product better than anything you’ve had from a restaurant. The final step, the thing that will elevate it beyond your wildest expectations, is to find the right wine.

Macedonian red wine Cabernet Sauvignon Bovin

Wine and hamburgers may seem counter-intuitive to some of you, but I take some kind of perverse pleasure in pairing fine wine with simple workman’s fare. If you make a good hamburger, with a little aged cheddar, and maybe a splash of olive oil, then pair it with the right Cabernet Sauvignon, it can euphoric.

That’s what I was going for here, but it isn’t quite what happened. Like a lot of Americans, when I think about Cabernet Sauvignon, I’m really thinking about California Cabernet Sauvignon. So, when I bought a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Macedonia, it didn’t quite perform the same. In these moments, it’s easy to look for fault in the wine for not living up to our expectations, but I’d never encountered a bottle of Cab from Macedonia, was it really fair for me to think it would taste the same as a bottle of wine from California? I don’t think so.

Bovin Macedonian red wine Cabernet Sauvignon glass of wine hamburger

As it was, the Macedonian wine was great, but lighter and more fruity than what I expected from a Cab. The tannin was there, but didn’t slap me in the face and, therefore, wasn’t enough to cut through the fat of the hamburger and the cheddar as I had hoped. In short, I had a great wine and a great hamburger, they just didn’t pair as well as they could have. If I had made something with pork, maybe bbq or a braised dish with the right sauce, the combination would have been divine. Next time I’ll know.

According to Bovin Winery’s website, this Cabernet is part of the “Classic” collection, which is their third tier of wines. The grapes come from the Tikveš district of the Vardar River Valley wine region in central Macedonia. There are Cabernet Sauvignon wines in the upper two tiers made from selected grapes or vintages, and given time to age in oak. The grapes in this particular wine would be those not from exceptional vintages or the best of their particular harvest. All bottles labeled as Cabernet Sauvignon are 100% varietal wines.

It’s important to try new things. Even if I didn’t get the exact experience I wanted, it gave me two solid ideas for the future. 1) I want to revisit this same wine with a different dish to see how it performs and 2) I’m going to look for one of those premium Macedonian cabs that spent a little time in the barrel next time I want a good burger wine.

Hamburger Bovin Macedonian red wine cabernet savignon glass of wine corks
You have to spill something in the background if you’re posting the picture to Instagram. It’s like some kind of rule, man.

Wine Diary