Querceto Chianti Classico red wine sangiovese
December 5, 2018

Wine Diary: Querceto Chianti Classico 2016

There’s something Americans find romantic about Tuscany. Seriously, just say the word and watch their eyes roll back in their skulls as waves of micro-orgasms penetrate the hidden corners of their mind. It doesn’t matter if you’re describing the place itself or can of chunky soup, there’s just something about the idea of Tuscany that satisfies the imagination like no other place can. We just find it romantic and I think the Italians know that, otherwise how could you explain something like this, a bottle of Chianti Classico with a unicorn on the label? I mean, c’mon, there’s already a castle overlooking the vineyard, at a certain point it’s not even fair; just take our money, please, we’d be honored for you to have it.

Querceto Chianti Classico red wine sangiovese

Querceto Chianti Classico is a blend of 92% Sangiovese with the remaining 8% consisting of Canaiolo, Colorino, and Mammolo e Ciliegiolo, if you’ve never heard of those last three, don’t worry, they’re not grapes you’re likely to find outside of Chianti. The wine spends six months in wood (I assume oak, but that was not specified on their website) and then aged in the bottle for a further two months before being released to consumers. They offer several different Chianti Classico labels, as well as other wines, and even olive oil.

Querceto Chianti Classico red wine sangiovese

Like I said before, there’s a castle overlooking the vineyard, they offer tours of the vineyard, cellar, and castle. There’s also rooms available to rent, should you want to spend your vacation there. Personally, I’ve never been to Tuscany, but if I was going this looks exactly like the kind of place I would want to go to get away from everything. Just look at the photos and you understand why people get that dreamy look in their eye at the mere mention of the region.

Querceto Chianti Classico red wine sangiovese

As for the wine, it was good. I’m not always a fan of Chianti, Classico or otherwise, but I enjoyed this. It was surprisingly tannic for such a light wine, so it paired well with my steak, but may not have performed so well with a lighter pasta dish. It was well-balanced, with good acidity, red fruit and spice flavors. All in all, I would recommend it.

Italian wine is kind of intimidating for me, it’s not something I’ve explored much and it’s a deep rabbit hole to fall into. We sell a few Iabels at work and I’ve delved in a little for the Chopping Block’s blog, I actually wrote a post exploring the differences between Chianti and Chianti Classico at the beginning of last year, but there’s so much more for me to learn about that county. I know that when I finally decide to take it on it’s going to require a lot more focus and energy than other areas, simply because there are so many new grapes and every region has its own unique personality; it’s just overwhelming. That’s really it, I know its going to demand so much of my attention that I’m afraid I’m going to miss out on something else. I’m not usually a fan of New Year’s resolutions, but this might be mine for 2019, to drink and learn more about Italian wine.

Querceto Chianti Classico red wine sangiovese

However, that’s all in the future. For the moment, I think the real takeaway, the moral lesson that needs to be understood here is, that if you find a bottle of wine with a unicorn on it, you should buy it.

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Hand Work Garnacha Tinto Spanish Wine
November 22, 2018

Wine Diary: Hand Work Garnacha 2017

Lincoln Square in Chicago has a surprisingly dense population of wine shops. There’s the Chopping Block, where I work, Gene’s Sausage Shop, Leland Liquors, Cardinal Wine and Spirits, and, my favorite wine shop in the area, Augusta Food and Wine. As much as I may enjoy the wine selection at work, Augusta does a far better job of curating their list and I find new things every time I go in. I would go so far as to say it’s one of the best wine shops in Chicago.

Hand Work Garnacha Tinto Spanish Wine

I was looking for something to review and I’d already hit the other shops in the neighborhood, so I decided to check out Augusta. Despite how much I like the shop, they don’t stock a lot of the counter-culture wines that I’ve come to love. No, Augusta is the place you go to find well made wines from mainstream locations. If you want sustainably produced wines that avoid the use of things like Mega Purple, Augusta is the kind of place you should be shopping.

As I’m building content for the site with these early posts, I wanted something from Spain to fill out the map and I needed a Garnacha Tinta for the Wine Guide. So, this bottle enabled me to cross two things off my to-do list, it didn’t hurt that it was a full 1L of wine at a very reasonable price. In fact, I probably would have been skeptical of this bottle at a different store, what with the flashy front label and all, it seemed too good to be true.

Hand Work Garnacha Tinto Spanish Wine

Hand Work Garnacha comes from Castilla La Mancha, Spain. Despite La Mancha being a Spanish appellation, I find no reference to a Denominación de Origen, anywhere on the label. However, there are three certifications on the back label: Demeter Biodynamic Certified, Vegano by the European Vegetarian Union, and USDA Organic. As well as an icon indicating this wine is a T. Edward (the importer) exclusive. According to the T. Edward, Hand Work is produced by three brothers who seek to, “celebrate their home of La Mancha by raising organically and biodynamically grown grapes.” The Parra Jimenez (the grower) website goes into a lot more detail on their sustainability practices, but, interestingly, I find no reference to this line of wines, I suspect this is due to it being exclusive to T. Edward.

This was one of those wines whose aroma was so fascinating I hesitated to drink it, I just walked around the apartment smelling my glass. I’ve heard people describe wines as meaty in the past, but I usually write that off as one of those terms that people use when they don’t know what else to say. People have used that term to describe such a broad selection of wines that the description has become almost meaningless for me. My understanding is that it’s supposed to serve as both a description of viscosity and flavor/aroma combinations, but I’ve never had a wine that actually tasted like meat… this wine tasted like meat. Specifically, it tasted like fruit with hints of steak marinated in Worscestershire sauce. Great complexity, great flavor. I couldn’t stop drinking it.

Hand Work Garnacha Tinto Spanish Wine

I’ve had great experiences with Garnacha (Grenache) blends from the Southern France, but I haven’t had as much luck in the grape’s native country of Spain. I knew there had to be great Spanish Garnacha wines out there, but I’ve been hesitant to really explore them after some lackluster purchases. This confirms my suspicions and makes me look forward to future purchases.

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November 14, 2018

Wine Diary: First Drop Mother’s Milk Barossa Shiraz 2016

One of the first somms I worked with gave me a bit of advice that has proven fundamental to my outlook on wine. She said, “When you’re taking a bottle of wine somewhere, a dinner party or whatever, what wine you bring is far less important than the story of why you’re bringing it.” The more time has passed, the more I agree with that statement and that’s why I start of all these Wine Diary blogs with a story. I mean, the circumstances of why I chose one particular bottle aren’t really that important, it’s not like you as the reader are going to experience those same events, but there’s something about being told the story that seems to make the wine more familiar.

Australian red wine Barossa Valley First Drop Mother's Milk Shiraz Syrah

So, why did I choose First Drop Mother’s Milk Barossa Shiraz? Because I needed a Syrah for the wine guide and I hadn’t reviewed anything from Australia yet. It was a very conscious choice. I went to Binny’s, looked at their wall of Australian Syrah, and picked one. Why did I choose this one? Well, I was between two and when faced with that kind of dilemma I do what everyone else does, I pick the label I like best (don’t act like you don’t do the same thing), but, interestingly, the label I chose is the one that told me a story.

The label utilizes comic book storytelling to tell, in brief, the story of how wine is made. There’s really nothing interesting happening on the label, the story they’re telling is somewhat universal to the wine world, but that also makes it very approachable. Presenting rustic agricultural imagery in an unconventional way, they attempt to convey both an appeal to traditional and modern sensibilities.

Australian red wine Barossa Valley First Drop Mother's Milk Shiraz Syrah

First Drop was founded by two friends who say they want to make, “wines with flavour, texture and a splash of funk.” They’re not growers, but they source their grapes from vineyards around South Australia. The grapes for this particular wine come from the Barossa Valley and are aged in French Oak for 15 months.

The wine was full-bodied with lots of dark fruit, and hints of anise, and tobacco. There was a ton of complexity, yet it remained approachable and easy to drink. A rare find, I was very pleased. It was the kind of wine you finish and wonder why the bottle is suddenly empty and where you can find more.

Australian red wine Barossa Valley First Drop Mother's Milk Shiraz Syrah

There’s a part of me that cringes at being sold on the label. What can I say? I like comics, and that puts me squarely within the demographic they were shooting for. As much as I hate to admit it, it worked. And the same way it worked on me, I know I could take this wine to my comic geek friends and they’d likely be sold on it for the same reasons. The fact I liked the wine is really just an added bonus, it was the story that sold the bottle.

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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.

 

 

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Red wine bottle glass Prokupac Serbian wine Janko Podrum
October 19, 2018

Wine Diary: Janko Podrum Bas Prokupac 2015

I knew what was about to happen, Butcher Pete was going to come over and we were going to sit up until four in the morning talking about ridiculous things. It’s important to have friends like that. Generally, I join him in cracking cans of Old Style or PBR, but I’m a wine guy, dammit, and drinking the same thing over and over wasn’t furthering my understanding of that thing I love, so I decided to pick up a nice bottle of Serbian wine to drink.

Red wine bottle label Prokupac Serbian wine Janko Podrum

Gene’s Sausage Shop in Lincoln Square carries a pretty diverse selection of labels, far beyond that of some self-proclaimed wine shops I’ve visited. They have a dedicated section for Eastern European wine, which I appreciate, and they rotate their stock often, so it’s always worth going in to see what’s new. Beyond Gene’s, Lincoln Square has about five shops that carry curated wine lists, and more Eastern European wine than anywhere I’ve been in the city, it’s a good neighborhood for the wine explorer.

Red wine bottle glass cork Prokupac Serbian wine Janko Podrum

After looking through everything, I decided to pick up a bottle of Prokupac, an old Balkan grape I’ve had limited experience with in the past and wanted to learn more about. Gene’s had one label from Janko Podrum, from Smederevo on the Danube River in Serbia. The producer began work in 2006 and is part of what they are calling a, “Renaissance wave of Serbian wine production.” Indeed, there is some very nice wine coming out of Serbia these days and this was no exception.

The wine itself was fruity, with cranberry and raspberry flavors, dry, with had a nice cleansing acidity. It’s always difficult to know what to expect when you’re drinking something you’re unfamiliar with, and my one previous encounter with Prokupac wasn’t enough to give me a solid foundation to build assumptions on. Next time, I think I’ll have expectations and we’ll see how that goes.

I’ve certainly had wines that were more complex, but something like that can be distracting when you’re in the company of friends. As it was, I found it the perfect pairing for an evening of ridiculous conversation.

Wine Diary
September 13, 2018

Wine Diary: Skouras Saint George Nemea 2015

Sometimes we buy a bottle of wine to pair with a meal or an event, situations where the wine enhances the experience. Other times, the wine IS the experience. For me, finding a bottle of Nemean red wine means that whatever else I had planned is off the table, I don’t care if it’s dinner plans with friends or trying to survive the apocalypse, none of that matters now because I’m about to drink this wine.

So, there’s not a good wine shop in my neighborhood. It’s better than Roger’s Park, where I used to live, but most of what I find is mass produced or, honestly, just boring. To be fair, the one shop I do kinda like carries this same wine, but they only had the 2014 vintage and I’d already tried that. There’s a Binny’s a couple miles South of me and it was a nice day, so I decided to take a walk and see what they had. I’m glad I did. I cannot express how excited I was to discover the new vintage of Nemean reds had finally arrived, an excitement neither shared or understood by those standing near me.

Skouras St George Nemean red wine

I’ve always been a bit of a Greek geek, but I caught it bad in college. Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon, Herodotus, I was reading anyone I could get my hands on. Once I started getting into wine, I had to see what the Greeks were doing. I was not disappointed.

Nemea is a wine region in Greece located in the Northeasten Peloponnese, it’s wines are made from 100% Aghiorghitiko wine. The best usually spend some time in oak. These wines can be elusive, even if you know what you’re looking for. Trust me, I’ve taken day trips into Chicago’s Greektown just to look for bottles I haven’t tried, they’re not easy to find.

Skouras is the producer I have encountered most frequently and they are a fantastic representation of what the region has to offer. Domaine Skouras was founded in 1986 after George Skouras returned to Greece from studying agriculture at the University of Dijon. Since that time they have shown exceptional growth. You can find several of their wines in the US, I’ve tried everything I’ve seen and I’ve never been disappointed.

Skouras St George Nemean red wine 2015 glass of wine steak dinner

This particular wine held up to my expectations, which were high. I savored the plum and clove flavors alone, too greedy to share the experience with anyone else, afraid they couldn’t possibly understand something so beautiful and unwilling to allow them to interrupt my mindgasm.

I can’t tell you that you’re going to have the same experience if you try it, I hope you do. Wine can be a subjective experience, but Nemean reds approach the summit of how great wine can be, at least in my mind.

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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
August 4, 2018

Wine Diary: Vina Skaramuča Plavac Mali 2016

After more than two years of talking about it, I finally rolled up to sleeves and taught myself how to make baguettes. It’s been one of my long term cooking goals since moving to Chicago, but one that intimidated me. Baking, I mean real baking, is an investment of time and patience, things I’m not always good at managing. I’m happy to report that my first attempt was a success, so to celebrate I broke open a bottle of Plavac Mali and made a small charcuterie platter.

Vina Skaramuca Plavac Mali red wine Croatia Pelješac peninsula

If you’ve never heard of Plavac Mali, don’t worry, most Americans haven’t. Plavac is an old Croatian grape, not one of the “Noble” or “International” varieties you find on the shelves of every shop that sells wine. Generally speaking, it’s something you’re going to have to look for. In this case I picked it up from a European grocer here in Chicago, but I’ve also found it in several corner shops. The trick is to look for something locally owned, you’re not going to find this at CVS or 711. Once you get your hands on a bottle, you should be able to walk away with it for around $15.

Vina Skaramuca Plavac Mali red wine Croatia Pelješac peninsula cork glass

This particular bottle comes from Vina Skaramuča, a family vineyard in Croatia’s Pelješac peninsula, overlooking the Adriatic Sea. They are the largest vineyard in the Dingač wine region, so chances are good that you’ll be able to find the same label. The wine was medium-bodied and dry, with a strong black currant aroma, and fruit flavors of cranberry and strawberry. It’s refreshing acidity was a perfect compliment to my homemade baguette charcuterie board.

Vina Skaramuca Plavac Mali red wine Croatia Pelješac peninsula charcuterie

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