Wine in the Shower » rhone blend

‘La Jolla Cave’ Rhone Blend 3 1/2 Year Tasting Note

gisela — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 04:39:29 +0000

I pulled out another bottle of my ‘La Jolla Caves’ Winexpert Crushendo “Montagnac Vieux Chateau d’Oc” red rhone blend to see if it is doing anything useful in the cellar. So far, this is one wine kit that has disappointed me all along, and I just don’t think this wine is going to come around. I poured it through a Vinturi aerator, which helped, but still not great. Weak aromas of overripe red fruits with faint hint of cedar box. Flavors of stewed fruits with light spice, still heavy on the acids, but a little more mellow and balanced. The Vinturi is probably helping a lot, will give it some time in the glass to open up. It’s not a bad wine, but not as good as I expected it to be.

One reason I was prompted to open this wine again is the announcement by Winexpert that they will be reinstating crushed grape pack kits again. They say the new kits will be an improvement over the old Crushendo kits, and after my experience with this one kit (and the only Crushendo I made, I admit) I hope they mean it! The new kits should be out soon, and I’ll definitely get them in stock at Curds and Wine (shameless self promotion).

Cellar Craft Rhone White and Winexpert Spanish Rose Bottling

gisela — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 01:51:20 +0000

I bottled both the Cellar Craft 2010 limited edition Marsanne-Viognier-Roussanne and the Winexpert Spanish Rose today, getting ready for summer sipping. The MVR wasn’t quite clear, which I think might be due to my use of marbles for topping up my wines. When wines with marbles are moved at all from their place of rest to the racking table, it seems to disturb the fine lees to a point that they never settle back in and clear out. It hasn’t happened with every wine, but seems to happen a lot; or, I just happen to need marbles in wines that won’t clear very well anyway. Either way, I ended up filtering the MVR with my Buon Vino minijet filter and a #2 polishing pad, and since I had it all set up I filtered the rose after the MVR also. As usual, there were partial bottles of both at the end of the day, so I tasted these.

Tasting notes for the Marsanne-Viognier-Roussane: Huge aromas of fresh apple, peach, and apricot. This wine was filtered, so very clear, pale gold in color. Actually very drinkable today, very balanced, with flavors of crisp red apple, melon, peach and citrus. Long, luscious, mouth-filling finish. Definitely more integrated already than the 2009 version of this limited release.

Tasting notes for the Spanish Rose: Bottling day tasting note from partial bottle. Very faint nose, barely any aromas. This wine was filtered, so very clear, lovely rose color. Flavors of strawberry and guava with light spice, though very closed up. It did open up later in the evening, so I’m very much looking forward to having this wine around for summer cookouts and sunsets.

‘Chateau du Pays’ Bottling

gisela — Thu, 26 May 2011 00:46:07 +0000

I bottled the Cellar Craft limited edition ‘Chateau du Pays‘ today. I intended to bulk age this wine 6 to 8 months, but realized I was a carboy short for upcoming winemaking and didn’t have time to get another one fast enough. As usual, there was one partial bottle left at the end, which went for tasting. This wine was technically ready to bottle 3/17/11, and I racked off of the secondary oak treatment 4/8/11 so it wouldn’t get over-oaky. Tasting notes: Big, bold aromas of brambles, plum, currant, and light spice; no “kit” nose. Very clear, dark purple-garnet in color, did not filter. Definitely taste the oak, very acidic up front, will certainly mellow over time. Underlying flavors of toast, blackberry, currant and cassis with long, spicy finish. Very young but showing great promise to be a most amazing wine!

More Limited Edition Wine Kits in Progress

gisela — Fri, 06 May 2011 20:07:40 +0000

A few more Limited Edition wine kits have come in. I posted previously about starting the Cellar Craft Chateau du Pays; I’m going to bulk age this wine for while, but I did do an extra racking about a month after stabilizing and clearing to take out the second addition of Hungarian oak cubes, so it wouldn’t overoak. The Cellar Craft rhone white blend of Marsanne-Viognier-Roussane and Winexpert’s Austrian Gruner Veltliner arrived and will be bottled in a few weeks.

The limited edition I’m most excited about right now is Winexpert’s Spanish Rose, “a blend of red and white varietals, including popular Spanish Tempranillo.” It has a super-cool bright magenta color and yummy fruit-laden aromas.

In the meantime, we’re thoroughly enjoying the Pacific White Limited Edition from Winexpert. It’s too bad I only made one of these kits, and now they’re sold out!

Wines in Progress

gisela — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:46:26 +0000

I have several wines in progress currently, besides the petite sirah and merlot that is waiting to be bottled. I started a very cool Super Tuscan red blend wine kit from Cellar Craft, “Rosso Fortissimo”, which is almost ready to be bottled. This wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese and comes with a pack of crushed merlot grapes that stayed in during primary fermentation. It also came with both French and American oak, and promises to have a “solid structure and bold fruit notes”, including cassis, plum and cherry with bold tannins. While we are very excited about this wine, it will need about 2 years of cellar time to really shine.

On the topic of Cellar Craft wines, I also recently started the February Limited Edition “Chateau du Pays” red rhone blend. This kit is really amazing, a blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre juices from France, with California Syrah and Spanish Garnacha in the mix. The really amazing part of this year’s limited releases, though, is the crushed grape “Super Pack”, 2.6 Liters of Crushed Red Mountain Syrah grapes, made from over 17 lbs of whole grapes. The Red Mountain Syrah is a clone sourced from Chateauneuf du Pape, and this blend is basically a clone of that famous wine. I am just a few weeks into this wine kit and will likely bulk age it before bottling. Again, this red will want about 2 years of bottle aging.

I also have some great white kits going. Besides starting another Chamblaise kit from Winexpert and bottling my first French Chardonnay wine kit, I also have their January Limited Edition “Pacifica White” blend getting close to bottling. This blend is very similar to the “Pacific Quartet” released in 2008, which I loved — in fact I made 2 kits, and was still very sorry to see the last one go! I’m sure I’ll be making at least 2 batches of this kit this year, in spite of all of the other winemaking, just because this wine is so very nice.

Those are the wines I’ve started, and I’m looking forward to the upcoming Winexpert Limited Releases of Austrian Gruner Veltliner and Portuguese Douro Tinto, plus the white rhone blend of Marsanne, Roussanne, and Viognier from Cellar Craft. Time to stock up on whites for the summer!

La Jolla Caves Red Tasting Note

gisela — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:13:36 +0000

The Winexpert “La Jolla Caves” red rhone blend is not quite 3 years in the bottle now. This wine has been quite a roller coaster, and this bottle is just adding to the sordid history. I’m not sure if the bottle opened is flawed, but it has a nose of port or sherry, with blackberry jam and hint of licorice. Flavors of smokey bacon and roasted overripe fruits. Chewy and big, a little out of balance, but tasty. Will have to try another bottle soon, I’ve been holding back on this wine and have half of the batch left still!

Two Year Tasting of “La Jolla Caves” Rhone Blend

gisela — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:55:08 +0000

It’s been 6 months since I touched my “La Jolla Caves” Winexpert Montagnac Vieux Chateau d’Oc, wanting to give it time to come together better. Now it’s at the 2-year mark, which sounds like a good time to test it out. I did not decant this time, I wanted to see how it developed out of the bottle. The “kit nose” is very faint now, mainly light aromas of spice and plums with brambles. Not foamy. Flavors are very well melded now, still sour up front, with flavors of preserved plums, quince, and dark berries with hint of almond. My hubby pointed out that there are very rich tannins in this wine, and asked if this kit came with a grape pack; in fact, this was the first kit I made with a grape pack, and now we are resolved to mainly make red kits that have “skins”. More time will mature this wine more, but it’s definitely coming together.

Yakima Synergy 3 Month Tasting

gisela — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 04:46:39 +0000

Nose of crisp apples with hint of vanilla. Very clear, pale yellow-green in color. Crisp flavors of green apple and peach with hint of bell pepper and vanilla. Wow, really came together VERY nicely, and sooner than I expected!

One Year Tasting of La Jolla Cave Rhone Red

gisela — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:41:37 +0000

One year tasting of the rhone blend. Decanted for about an hour. A little bit of the weird soapiness I get with the kit wines in the nose, also notes of plum and oak. Foamy. Sour flavors of black cherry, blackberry, and raspberry with strong oak and soapiness also. Long finish, but quite sour and tart, but really rich flavors underneath. Not ready, definitely needs more aging. Does seem to improve with more air. It is recommended to age this wine 2-3 years for optimal flavor, I guess I’ll have to make some more easy-drinkers to tide me over!

6 Month Tasting of La Jolla Cave Rhone Red

gisela — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:29:37 +0000

Opened for a party. Actually quite well developed, lovely deep, dark purple/black in color. Nice bouquet rich with fruits. A little sour, but flavors rich, velvety, and well balanced. Very happy with this one!