Wine
Michelle and I can often be found walking our Golden Retriever “Peanut” along the beach beneath Orange Street Pier. Michelle searches for smooth sea glass and has a particularly keen appreciation for the light blues and reds which seem to be the most difficult to find. I try to help, but all of the beach junk blends together and I rarely find anything smaller than a beer bottle.
This idea of searching for individuality in color and texture translates directly to the task of wine selection and appreciation. With the myriad of wines available to us today, deciphering varietal, regions and prices often requires more concentration and focus than we are willing to expend. It is no wonder that the average wine drinker picks a brand and a grape at a price that doesn’t disappoint and sticks with it.
The similarity between beachcombing and wine drinking doesn’t end there. Like every piece of glass on the beach, each bottle of wine is different. Some have worn smooth, with a satiny finish. Others are sharp and don’t hold our interest. Michelle likes to examine the glass and guess where it came from. Sometimes a letter or two will remain on a fragment. A cool, smooth, rose-colored piece might have come from a perfume bottle.
We can play the same game with wine. A cedary taste hints at time spent in oak, maybe Cabernet Sauvignon. A burst of peppery mineral might hint at vine roots burrowing through limestone. A dense muscular tone reminds me of clay. Perhaps beachcombing and wine drinking satisfy the same desires; to relax and appreciate everything that we have around us. To leave the rush and bustle behind, if only for a moment, and notice the peaks and valleys that normally grow blurry in the rear-view mirror.
This is all very easy to point out, but the question still remains: Can we get individuality without spending an arm and a leg? I regularly head overseas to find wines of distinction for less than 15 bucks, but the wines I tasted yesterday have rekindled my interest in affordable domestic value wines.
Many of you are probably already familiar with Cartlidge & Browne wines. Tony Cartlidge joined forces with Glenn Browne’s financial prowess and became a winery with the 1980 vintage of Chardonnay, which sold out in two months. They actually sold their very first bottle of wine to a wine retailer named Paul Moser who liked it instantly.
Paul had never made wine, but his time spent in France during his Stanford University days helped to form a discriminatory and appreciative palate. For some reason Tony and Glenn decided that they needed Paul to be their winemaker and after two years of unrelenting courtship, Paul finally obliged. This sense of vision and teamwork set the tone for 25 vintages of wine bottled under the California Appellation.
Robert Parker deems all of the current offerings excellent. The Chardonnay, in particular, has received scores of 87 or 88 for 10 years in a row. This is quite a feat considering that the price has never wavered over 11 bucks! The 2004 Chardonnay is clean and rich with just a touch of oak and is heralded as one of the two best Chardonnay values in the world.
The bulk of the 2004 Sauvignon Blanc is sourced from organically grown grapes in Lake County. No oak or Malolactic fermentation help to reveal a juicy, high-toned white with some weight (probably from the clay soils). The 2006 vintage of this Sauvignon Blanc will be 100 percent organic (Katie Brown, you’ll love this one). Cartlidge & Brown also bottle a Merlot, Cab, Zinfandel, Syrah and Pinot Noir (The 2005 Pinot Noir will be available in our market in April). At less than 12 bucks a bottle, every single one of these wines offers a truly commendable value at a price that puts the majority of wines to shame.
Each is created from a blend, not dissimilar to a NV Champagne, so the sense of place is muddled, but the varietal correctness is dead on and the textures and flavors offer numerous nooks and crannies to explore. The qualities of these wines are a testament to the skill of the winemaker. Thanks to Paul Moser and others like him, we’ll have many years of pleasurable beachcombing to look forward to.
Contact Matt Devan at wineguy@lagniappemobile.com.
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