March 7, 2019

Wine Diary: Valdespino Isabela Cream Sherry NV

“You should’ve been gone!”

…

Somehow I was able to restrain myself from making Steve Perry references in my last Sherry blog, no such luck this time. What do I know about Sherry (other than how I made you feel)? Not much. Within a couple of days of picking up my WSET 3 study material I realized I had lost nearly everything I learned about fortified wine from the previous course. To be fair, the fortified wine section of that material was tacked on at the end with scotch and rum tastings on the same day we were scheduled to take the test, it wasn’t ideal conditions to learn with so much anxiety focused on the end of the class.

While it’s not something I drink often, I do enjoy Sherry. For me it, and most fortified wine, is something is I associate with dessert. I know there are dry Sherries out there, I just haven’t encountered them. So, I picked up several splits at Binny’s to help prepare myself for the upcoming course. At the same time, I went ahead and grabbed this bottle we sell at the Chopping Block.

Isabela Cream Sherry is a blend of Palomino Fino and Pedro Ximénez from the Jerez DO in Andalucia, Spain. Once again, my winemaking notes here are a a bit sparse. Neither the producer, importer, or distributor make any reference to the growing conditions of the grapes, which, to be totally fair, may be the norm for Sherry. Like I said in the beginning, I really don’t know anything about it. I did find multiple references that stated part of the blend was drawn from a 15 year old solera, beyond that I don’t have much.

The best resource I found for information was a website called Sherry Notes, which is an awesome site for learning more about all things Sherry. Of all the sites I visited, they had the most comprehensive review, and a great profile on the producer. As I work my way through the bottles I purchased I’ll be coming back here to try to learn more.

With this style of wine it should be no surprise that it was full-bodied and sweet. It has a creamy texture with fig and cherry flavors. For me, this is the perfect wine to have with a nice brownie or piece of fudge for dessert. Of course, you can also just dunk your Oreos in it.

In many ways I feel like Sherry is this whole new level of the wine experience that I have yet to understand. I can’t help but think about some of my earliest experiences with wine, struggling to figure out how to articulate my thoughts in a new language, to express sensations I had only vaguely acknowledged before. Part of me is excited to find such a vast topic to explore, but another part of me is genuinely intimidated by how much I don’t yet understand.

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January 30, 2019

Wine Diary: Lagar de Besada Albariño 2017


In a lot of ways, Albariño feels like the girl next door in an 80’s coming of age movie; I know it’s a perfectly good wine, but for some reason my attention always goes to the more popular, perhaps prettier, wines. You know, the ones on the cheerleading squad. Basically, what I’m trying to say is Albariño is like Susan Ursitti in Teen Wolf and we should all stop being big jerks and start being nicer to it.

This bottle comes to us from Lagar de Besada in the Rías Baixas region of Spain and is made from 100% Albariño. Since I’ve started blogging I’ve noticed a lot of winery websites are poorly utilized with meager content. The website for this producer provides only the most basic information, and there’s a strong language barrier, so I wasn’t able to learn as I would like. Though I did notice they refer to this wine as “a safe bet,” which makes my earlier comparison to Susan Ursitti seem that much less appropriate. Comparing their write-ups and pricing on this wine to their other labels, it seems clear that this is their entry level Albariño .

Despite the limited information provided on their own site, I was able to find a profile of the winery on the Rias Baixas Wines website, which paints them as a small, but proud wine producer with a passion for making great Albariño wines.

Featuring a tropical kiwi flavor and a light body, this wine is aggressively acidic. My tasting notes actually compare it to Shock Tarts, which now means this blog has more nostalgic references to my childhood than any previous entry.

Compared to other grapes, my exposure to Albariño is pretty limited, in fact I’ve had exactly 3 bottles. I was only half joking with that Teen Wolf reference at the beginning; the only reason I don’t drink more Albariño is because I’m always looking for something new. As it stands, I try one every time we start carrying a new label at work. Guess where this one came from.

To me, this seems like a perfect wine for nice a seafood dinner. If you’re on a date, this will serve as a more exotic choice than Sauvignon Blanc. I would be reluctant to have it on it’s own due to it’s high acidity, but every person has their own threshold for that kind of thing. If you get a chance to try it, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

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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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