Jane's Weekly Wines from the Atlanta Wine School PRINT AND GO VERSION January 5th, 2006 issue Cheap Sips! *************************************************************************************** EDITOR'S NOTE: Beginning with this issue you will notice wines have been given a score, based on a 100-point scale. Jane Garvey must taste 3-5 wines for every one making the revue. Consequently, your reading time will be better served by exploring the best of her tasting exercises, and as such, NO WINE SCORING UNDER 85 WILL BE PUBLSIHED in our weekly wine review. *************************************************************************************** Segura Viudas Brut Reserva (NV) Penedès, Spain Medium-bodied dry white sparkling wine; medium yellow. Lovely aromas of yeast and fresh white fruits, pear, with clean, crisp, pear flavors. Nuances of ginger and quince. Lively, persistent medium bead. Long, crisp, clean finish. Amazing valueServe chilled, about 45 degrees, in tall tulip-shaped glasses. It may be cheap, but it's so good, it deserves a good glass. Widely available: Beverage Artist (Suwanee--Peachtree Suwanee Crossing Chopping Center); Beverage Super Store (Suwanee), Bullock's (both), DeKalb Farmers Market, Dixie Beverage (Hwy. 92, Woodstock), Georgia World of Beverage (Fairburn); Harry's Farmers Market (Gwinnett, Marietta), Mac's, Jax (Cumming), Peachtree Wine Merchants, Smoke Rise Bottle Shoppe (Stone Mountain), Sigman Bottle Shop (Conyers). Tower (both), Whole Foods (Ponce, Buckhead, Sandy Springs), Windward Beverage Mart (Windward Pkwy./Hwy. 9, Alpharetta) Athens: Wine & Spirits Warehouse Just about anything savory: Dim sum; potstickers, tapas, toasted nuts (especially cashews, peanuts), lightly salted potato chips and French onion dip; hummus; spicy tomato pickled shrimp (see St. Joseph Hospital, Savannah, cookbook), lemon/Pommery mustard shrimp (Whole Foods), chicken pot pie, pinwheel and flat bread roll-up sandwiches, tarragon chicken salad (Publix) National Distributing Company $6-9 SCORE: 89 ************************************************************************************ Peter Mertes Privatkellerei Qualitätswein 2004 Pfalz, Germany Light-bodied slightly sweet white wine; medium pale slightly greenish yellow. Inviting fresh white peach aroma and flavors. Easy to drink, not complicated, and certainly not the best Riesling you've ever had. But what's there is very pleasant, and flavors develop in the glass. Crowd pleaser. Best with food. Very good value, and blue-bottle package looks smart. Serve moderately chilled in tall tulip-shaped glasses. At Jax (Cumming) Lots of crowd-pleasing foods, especially if they have some acidity as it's lacking in the wine: fried chicken tenders with honey-mustard dipping sauce; fried catfish; baked fish or chicken with mustard-flavored white sauce; chicken tarragon salad (Publix); hot dogs on sauerkraut with good mustard; pork steaks or baked chicken breasts with mustard cream sauce; mild Massaman curry; pud Thai; chicken satay; roast turkey, Chinese dumplings and egg rolls Savannah Distributing $6/750 ml.; $12/1.5 SCORE: 85 ************************************************************************************** Marqués de Cáceres Rosado 2004 Rioja, Spain Light-bodied dry rosé wine; medium cora-salmonl pink. Aromas of watermelon and aromatic spice; touch of rhubarb. Flavors grab a handful of all the red fruits-- raspberry, watermelon, strawberry, rhubarb--welding them together into one impressive mouthful. Lovely texture, well integrated fruit flavors, lovely balance. 2004 vintage is the best this wine has tasted in a long time. Grapes: Tempranillo. Wicked awesome value, sometimes as low as $5. Serve in white wine glasses, moderately cool, abut 45 degrees. At Beverage Super Store, Beverage Wareshouse, Embry Village Wine & Spirits (I-285/Chamblee-Tucker Rd.), Harry's Farmers Market (Gwinnett, Marietta), Sherlock's (Marietta & Kennesaw), Smoke Rise Bottle Shoppe (Stone Mountain), Tower (Doraville), Whole Foods W Paces Athens: Publix (At. Hwy.) Restaurant: Eclipse di Luna All sorts of foods: wings; ham of all sorts, such as ham salad, ham croquetas, grilled ham steak; Mexican casserole type dishes, not too spicy, such as chicken enchiladas; fajitas; Cuban sandwiches, such as the "medianoche;" muffalettas (E. 48th Street Market), Creole-style barbecued shrimp, Brunswick stew, turkey meatballs glazed with mushroom sauce (Whole Foods), fried chicken with honey mustard sauce, paella, fried catfish or shrimp, pasta with salsa puttanesca, pasta salads with sun-dried tomatoes, grilled vegetables Empire Distributing $7 SCORE: 90 *************************************************************************************** Vinos Gustin-Padrè "Valcantara" 2003 Cariñena, Spain Light-medium-bodied dry red wine; medium garnet. Aromas and flavors of morello cherry, blueberry, with a touch of vanilla. Lingering finish, with soft tannins, and lovely fruit-acid-tannin integration. Red wine with a lively lightness on the palate, so it's never tiring or heavily tannic. A tinto joven, so it spends very brief time in oak, leaving superior fruit flavors Outstanding value. Grapes: Garnacha/Tempranillo. The largest of four DOs in the old kingdom of Aragón in northeastern Spain, Cariñena is a region as well as a grape. Serve cool, about 65 degrees, in large-bowled, tulip-shaped glasses. At Embry Village Wine & Spirits; Fiesta Package (Decatur), Georgia World of Beverages (Fairburn), Kroger Ansley; Haynes Bridge Bottle Shop; Old Crabapple Bottle Shop (Alpharetta); Paces Bottle Shop (Paces Center, Atlanta Rd., Smyrna), Athens: Five Points Bottle Shop; Shiraz (Pulaski St.), Wine & Spirits Warehouse Hiawassee: Bacchus . Less appropriate with beef than with lighter meats, such as veal or chicken. Chicken enchiladas, roast, grilled or fried chicken, wings, roast Cornish hen. Also black olives, caponata, stuffed cannolini, braised lamb, pimento cheese (major yum!), hunter-style salami (Shield's Market, Decatur); soppressata and similar deli meats, sandwiches, panini and wraps, three-bean salad, light tomato sauces on canelloni, Chinese-style barbecue, grilled or baked salmon Unique World wines $9 SCORE: 91 ************************************************************************************ Valdivieso Malbec 2004 Central Valley, Chile Medium-bodied dry red wine; clear, perfect ruby red. Bright berry flavors, with an emphasis on blueberry and very dark cherry in the aromas, as flavors tilt toward blackberry, touch of black currant, with round tannins and moderate acidity. Interesting touch of tobacco in the close. Easy tannins; luscious texture. Half pure tank fermentation helps preserve the fruit, while for the other half, tanks had French and American oak staves to enhance complexity at a low price. Interstaves are a winemaker toy that many use to craft good, inexpensive wines. At DeKalb Farmers Market, Embry Village Wine & Spirits; Peachtree Wine Merchants (Cherokee Plaza, Brookhaven), Windward Beverage Mart (Windward Pkwy./Hwy. 9, Alpharetta), Sigman Bottle Shop (Conyers). Tower Doraville Black oil-cured olives, caponata, meat-filled empanadas, Whole Foods' smoked mozzarella pasta salad; Asian-flavored flank steak (warm or cold); 'burgers, ham-and-cheese sandwiches, Cuban sandwiches such as "medianoche," wraps, antipasti with salami, grilled chicken, grilled sausages, creamy bleu cheeses (such as German Cambozola) New World Beverage $9 SCORE: 88 ************************************************************************************** C & G Marano Barocco Rosso del Salento (I.G.T.) 2004 Puglia, Italy Light/medium-bodied dry red wine; medium dark cherry red. Somewhat shy aromas of aromatic spice and dark fruits, with clean morello cherry, plum and aromatic spice flavors. Not a lot of depth nor length of finish, but what's there, to quote Spencer Tracy, is "cherce." (In the film Pat & Mike with Katie Hepburn-- in case you wondered.) Supple tannins. Easy to enjoy. Clearly Italian, too, not a fruit bombe with residual sugar. Grapes: Negroamaro (means "bitter black one") and Malvasia nera. Puglia is Italy from the spur to the heel of the boot; the heel is Salento. Trivia: Puglia makes more wine than all of Australia. Serve at cool room temperature, about 65 degrees, in large-bowled, tulip-shaped glasses. Good availability: Candler Park Super Market, Decatur Package (2003), Embry Village Wine & Spirits, Tower Doraville (2003), Old Milton Beverage (Alpharetta), Smyrna World of Beverages; Whole Foods (Sandy Springs), Parkaire (Marietta), Georgia World of Beverage (Fairburn) Athens: Shiraz (Pulaski St.); Restaurants: Vinny's on Windward (2003) Intense flavors, especially garlic: Creamy liver pâté, black oil-cured olives, muffaletta (E. 48th Street Market), Mexican tortas (Puras Tortas!!), ricotta-filled cannelloni, lasagna, caponata, awesome with grilled eggplant and other vegetables, wings, grilled thinly sliced flank steak (if served cold, serve with garlic mayonnaise on the side); from Whole Foods: very garlicky pasta salad with smoked mozzarella. turkey meatballs with mushroom glaze, lamb braised with ginger sauce, fried chicken, roast pork or chicken with classic bread stuffing Unique World Wines $9 SCORE: 86