Better Wine Blogging 101 ? Using links effectively

Continuing on with our goal to help improve your wine blogging, we want to tackle an important strategy that is often avoided, typically because many people are under the false pretense that it will hurt them, but it’s quite the contrary. This simple strategy can not only bring more traffic to your site, but will [...]

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Desert, mountains: Choose your visual feast at Loews Ventana Canyon

Abide by the Santa Catalina Mountains; Loews Ventana Canyon is a perfect retreat in the idyllic desert setting of Tuscan. This heavenly retreat, with unsurpassed natural beauty throughout its surroundings, offers a premier luxurious lifestyle to its guests. The hotel is spread over an expanded region and its architectural design draws the attention of everybody [...]

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SWAT For Wine Disasters

Most of the time wine lovers take corkscrews for granted. We regularly take them out and open bottles without incident. But there are times when special weapons and tactics are needed to prevent wine disasters. Such an event occurred here this evening when I was opening a double magnum. Large format bottles are always a [...]

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The Most Enjoyable Wine on the Planet?

In the past couple years, few categories have captured my attention more than domestic Pinot Noir. And within that category, few wines have defined the essence of what I'm looking for more than the Belle Glos Las Alturas Pinot Noir. The 2008 was the first vintage that caught my attention. Tonight I had a chance to try the 2009 vintage of the same wine. A lot of friends and I have purchased this wine and are wondering... will it live up to its predecessor -or- prove to be a disappointment? Read on...

The Belle Glos label comes to us from the Wagner family - producers of Caymus - one of the most reliably outstanding Cabernet producers in Napa Valley. Their Pinot Noir label is Belle Glos. When I tasted their 2008s I was blown away. The Belle Glos Meiomi is a screw-capped $25 bottling produced from grapes grown in Santa Barbara, Sonoma, and Monterey. But they also offer a trio of single vineyard Pinot Noirs with a release price of $44:

  • Santa Maria Valley - Clark & Telephone Vineyard
  • Santa Lucia Highlands - Las Alturas Vineyard
  • Sonoma Coast - Taylor Lane Vineyard
The good news about these single vineyard wines is they've been available at retail for around $34.99 without much effort. Heck - even the notoriously unfavorably priced Wine.com has them available at this price point. Deep discounters have offered these wines for right around $25 (as a limited time offer) which has established a new benchmark for value hunters. Every Pinot Noir offer that comes along is compared to this wine at $25 dollars.

Perhaps what makes this wine so desirable to me is its versatility. It's perfect for so many occasions. It's full-bodied enough it provides a viable gateway for Cabernet lovers to transition to Pinot Noir. It's light enough it plays to a broad audience. And it comes in nice looking package so it works well for gifting. At under $30 it's a wine I can't imagine buying too much of.

Wine Spectator rated all of the 2009 single vineyard wines between 92 and 93 points. Here are my notes on the 2009...

2009 Belle Glos Las Alturas Pinot Noir
$44 Release Price
14.7% Alcohol

Hard to think of a more delicious wine than this. It brings the same rich, plush satisfaction of the 2008 but (at this point) balances it out a bit with a layer of brighter flavors on initial attack. Behind this are the same slightly-sweet spice notes, cherry pipe tobacco, and enjoyable fruit flavors found in the prior vintage. Dangerously difficult to stop drinking. Highly recommended - back up the truck.

95/100 WWP: Classic

Further Reading:

Question of the Day: Have you tried the 2009 Belle Glos single vineyard Pinot Noirs? What did you think? Either way - any tips for wines you'd consider utterly enjoyable?


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Best 2009 California Pinot Noirs Under $30

In my prior post about Wine Spectator's 2009 California Pinot Noir ratings I mentioned I'd be talking more about the best values under $30. I'll get into that in today's post, but before going further I'd like to encourage you to subscribe to Wine Spectator.

I truly enjoyed reading through this Pinot Noir issue in particular. There's something unmatchable about taking a break from staring at the computer monitor and thumbing through glossy pages while enjoying a glass of wine. The issues arrive with higher frequency this time of year, covering the most interesting categories for the upcoming holiday buying season, so it's a great time to subscribe.

You can even use airline miles (here's how) and once you have a print subscription you can get an online subscription for 50% off. I constantly refer to their ratings database. Not just for the scores but for production levels, prices, and historical rating trends for a given winery.

But the thing I like best about the magazine is how it turns me on to new producers.

If we look at the top rated 2009 California Pinot Noirs they've rated so far, cap the price at $30, and sort based on the WWP QPR (what's that?) we find a select group of wines:


Price Rating WWP QPR
 Loring Pinot Noir Russian River Valley $29 93 2.07
 Loring Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands $29 93 2.07
 Siduri Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands $29 92 1.64
 Chasseur Pinot Noir Sonoma County $30 92 1.59
 Alta Maria Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley $28 91 1.35
 Siduri Pinot Noir Russian River Valley $29 91 1.30
 Siduri Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast $29 91 1.30
 Laguna Ridge Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast $20 89 1.19
 Sarapo Pinot Noir Carneros-Sonoma County Donato $20 89 1.19

I touched on Loring and Siduri in my prior post. I consider them to be cornerstones of value in California Pinot Noir and once we get past them we see a few names that might not be as familiar.

First - Chasseur. Their $30, 92 point 2009 Sonoma County Pinot Noir is one to seek out. I've tried two bottles of the wine and each time I've been impressed (91-92 points). The CellarTracker median for this wine is currently 90.5. They produced 562 cases of the 2009 Sonoma County and distribute to the east coast so there is still an opportunity to buy this wine at retail. I bought mine at Grapes the Wine Co in White Plains, NY (review of the store here - I think he still has some). Consult Wine-Searcher for retailers with availability near you.

The next producer is new to me - Alta Maria. They've got a tasting room in Los Olivos and although they've submitted wines to Spectator for review previously none have been rated 90 or better. Spectator rated their 2009 Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir 91 points and The Wine Advocate's Antonio Galloni rated it 92 points so there's multiple critics praising this vintage for them. The CellarTracker median is currently 89.5 and with 1,660 cases produced we see some availability across the country at retail with prices as low as $22.94. Might be a good mailing list to get on as well.

Strangely, it's hard to get excited about 89 point rated wines (c'mon, admit it - it is). But given the $20 price point of the last two wines on the list they're worth discussing:

Laguna Ridge is a second label from Lynmar who produces Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from (mostly) the Russian River Valley in Sonoma. Lynmar's Pinots range in price between $40 and $120 and Spectator rated their 2009s between 88 and 94 points. 492 cases of the 2009 Laguna Ridge Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir were produced. No CellarTracker ratings yet. Scarce availability at retail so far.

Sarapo resells small lots of wine from artisan wineries. It's run by Eric Kent's winemakers and deals mostly in the grape varieties Eric Kent is known for: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah.. The 89 point 2009 Sarapo Pinot Noir Carneros-Sonoma County Donato can be found at retail for $19.99 and eligible for mixed case discounts which would bring it down to $16.99 or so. One to consider on the more affordable end of the spectrum. There's even some availability in Massachusetts.

Conclusion

While there are a few new names to discover here, we haven't seen any mindbending QPRs revealed - at least not yet. It's been mostly a "get what you pay for" vintage as notable for the highly regarded producers who were snubbed (more on that another time perhaps) as it was for the reliable producers who delivered great wines in a great vintage.

That doesn't mean it's a bad vintage to buy from - far from it. It just means that for the most part we'll have to pay $25 and up to get an outstanding bottle of California Pinot Noir.

But that doesn't mean there's not a few gems out there Spectator didn't rate. Or that we just don't agree on. Check back later this week and I'll share my tasting notes for the 25+ 2009 California Pinot Noirs I've tried so far. I think there'll be some gems in there worth discovering.

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Question of the Day: What are some of your favorite affordable California Pinot Noir producers?


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It?s Time For Radical Simplification of Old World Wine Labeling

I’m a traditionalist but also a realist. And I think now is the time to shake up the centuries old wine labeling and classification systems that have stood as a barrier to selling many Old World wines to American consumers. Case in point is Germany where a tradition of bad Middle Ages typography continues on [...]

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