Some new stemware

Last Christmas my parents got me a set of Schott Zwiesel glasses (the Forte red wine glasses). At the time I figured I finally needed some nicer glasses, and I decided on the Schott Zwiesel for several reasons:

• They don’t have lead in the crystal. I know that most people are OK with it, but I would rather not have to think about it.
• They have titanium in the crystal instead. Titanium is teh awesome, and it makes the glasses very strong (check out the videos).
• They are made in Germany. The craftsmanship of German made shit is something that I appeciate a lot.
• I like the style.

Since I was liking them so much and my birthday was coming up, my parents got me a 1L Schott Zwiesel Diva decanter and some more glasses from BeverageFactory.com. The prices were very good, and the shipping was prompt with nothing broken (that I have found so far). The decanter was a bit of a worry, but maybe the titanium and styrofoam joined forces to repel the rigour of travels.

I agree with Jeff about drinking wine – no wine glass will make crappy wine taste better, and good shit is good shit even out of a styrofoam cup. But wine glasses are made for the job and they definitely are more enjoyable to drink out of. Personally, I think that the Schott glasses are every bit as good as the Reidels that I see everywhere, but they are priced better and there is no lead to worry about.

2004 Redheads Viottolo Shiraz

Winery Page

It was time for the mid-week bedtime wine, and the Viottolo fit the bill nicely. Under $20, already 3 years old and ready to go right now. As I write this review I do my search for the winery page, and behold – RedHeads wine is the maker of the Viottolo. And they also make Pikkara! Funny how the search for Pikkara got me nothing but the sister wine made in the same place was found. I will update my Pikkara posts now to reflect this and maybe help this great little winery out.

My impression of the Viottolo is positive so far. The nose is just what I like in a wine like this – you can smell a bit of the limey flavour. It is a big jammy wine with the definite prescence of the tannins there as well. I don’t know if this was to put some balance in or not. Maybe a little bit more time is needed for this one to bring the balance back to the sugar side of the force.

Which isn’t to say that I dislike this wine. It is interesting, with a complexity that I don’t find in wines this cheap too often. As with the Pikkara, I will try to make sure that I get more of this stuff the next time around. It is great tasting stuff and very good value.

2004 Fox Creek Short Row Shiraz

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(WordPress ate my first attempt at this post. I hope this version works at least as well)

I was in the mood to try something new and write about it, so I decided to grab the new Fox Creek Short Row that I had sitting around in the fridge. I have been impressed by many of their offerings in the past, and the notion that this was a special wine made me curious. Note to wine marketers – annotating your wine with some manner of exclusivity is sure to hook me. Say that the wine came from grapes that are only on a certain hill, or only picked on Wednesdays, or have some other special hook, and I will want to try it. I think that I fall for this because this strategy has always pleased me in the past, but who knows how much bias is in that unscientific assessment….

However unscientific it is, it just got stronger for me because the Short Row is amazing. Loads of black fruit, sugar, alcohol and a minerally flavour, with a hint of pepper and a perfect finish. The balance is great – this is not a subtle wine, but all of the unsubtle flavours are the ones I love, so this is a pleasure to drink. The aroma is impossible to miss when you pour the stuff – very much the same kind of style as the Euroa Creeks and the Pastor Fritz, making me wish that I had way more of the stuff.

One of these days I will be good enough at tasting wine that I will be able to catalog what I love about this stuff and look through wine reviews to find other similar wines. I certainly like styles other than this one (the GAM was just as nice for me, but a completely different style), but I don’t find enough of this style for my liking and considering most of the wine of this genre is about $20 a bottle, it makes sense to get loads of it and drink it every day.

2004 Yasa Calatayud Garnacha

(no winery page found)

I had the opportunity to get this for about 8 bucks a bottle, and I took it because I want more cheap stuff to drink and because I have had good luck with Spanish Grenache in the past. Spain has some hot weather, which is bound to bring about a wine to my taste.

I do quite like this stuff. The warm weather has given a mostly tannin-free taste, and it is leaning more towards the dark fruit flavour that I like. It has an interesting combination of a light texture with a dry, rich aftertaste. It is certainly not jammy or syrupy, which is a good contrast to the normal stuff that I drink.

For some reason I get the feeling that this will go well with lamb. I will try that theory out soon.

Penfolds Grandfather Tawny Port

Winery Page

Jeff generously opened this stuff up the other night after we went to Tosoni’s to celebrate his marriage, and I got to have some. This was not my first Penfolds Grandfather experience – I once had a glass at the Greengate in Killara. It cost me 15 dollars Australian and was worth every penny.

The Grandfather is still as stately as ever. This stuff is incredibly smooth, almost like honey has been mixed into it. Almost no trace of alcohol – you could down half a bottle of this and not feel anything but a sugar buzz (or at least it seems). In the US it will go for about $80 apparently – which is 8 times the price of the normal Penfolds Club port, which Jeff, Raphael and myself went in on a case for. Is it worth 8 times as much?

We debated this as Jeff, my father and I chatted in the backyard on a warm night at the end of summer in Kirkland. It was a beautiful experience, and the special nature of the port made it more so. I was glad to have my parents there at the end of a great night. There are some things that you cannot put a price on.

Now, I have a bottle of Great Grandfather that I got in duty free last year on the way back from Australia. This cost me about 300 dollars Australian (about US$240 at the time). When I have the guts to open this, I will see how much better port can be.

2001 Penfolds St Henri Shiraz

Winery Page

This was the other bottle that I brought to dinner with the Pikkara Shiraz. It is one of my Mum’s favorites, and she was coming to dinner so I brought it for her.

This one sat in the decanter for the night and opened up very nicely. I think that it was better received than the Pikkara, but this is not a big surprise, since the Pikkara costs half as much and is a bigger, meatier thing that some people find to be just too much. The St Henri is a gentle, refined Shiraz that sits at the bottom of the price range for the Penfolds premium wines. This range has some serious membership (RWT and Bin 707 among them).

There is not much more to say about it really. For a refined old fashioned shiraz St Henri fits the bill nicely, going well with the rich food at a European style restaurant very easily, even when having seafood. Just don’t pay too much for it – some places want 60 bucks a bottle for this, and you can faily easily find it for almost half of that at a good wine shop like Seattle Wine Co. Be warned that it sells fast too.

2004 Redheads Pikkara McLaren Vale Shiraz Redux

update – Winery Page

Well, it turns out I did not have the willpower that I thought I did when I drank the last bottle of this. My parents were in town and we all went down to Tosoni’s for some good ass food so I needed to bring something worthy.

I had fond memories of this wine being a big dark shiraz, which would go well with the standard Tosoni’s fare. It had only been five or six months since I last drank this stuff, but that extra time actually served it well. I think that it was smoother than the last time, and it still had all the positive attributes of before.

If I ever can find this again I will buy it, probably more next time. It does exist in the 2005 vintage, so I suppose that I will have to keep my eyes peeled for it.

Maybe if I pick away at the salt mines for a few more years then I can drink nothing but stuff of this quality and above. I probably could afford the cost now, but not the time to hunt down the variety of stuff that I want.

2005 Heartland Stickleback Red

Winery Page

This is going for about 10 bucks in a variety of locations now, so I got half a case to keep around for the time when I need a drink and don’t want to feel guilty about what I am drinking. This is an interesting mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Grenache by Ben Glaetzer. These are all varieties that I like and a winemaker that I respect, so I figured that this was a good bet.

I must say that I was not blown away by this stuff but not terribly offended either. Perhaps this is a result of expectations set too high – it is in the price point where you should not expect much. It is well made enough (no headaches for me) and it went well with the food. Perhaps the blend is something that I need to get used to.

Certainly if you only want to spend 10 bucks on wine to take to a party or something you can do *far* worse than this. Plenty of wine at this price point tastes astringent or will have you feeling like a dissappointed horse kicked you in the head. My apologies if this sounds like faint praise, but faint praise is still praise.

2005 Domaines Tatiarra Cambrian Shiraz

Winery Page

Jeff was getting married, and I wanted to bring something a little special to his wedding. I knew that his new father-in-law appreciates wine at least as much as I do, and his new bride’s uncle has very similar tastes to me. It was tough, though, because I did not have a lot of well aged stuff around (a weakness in my collection I think). But I did have 4 bottles of the Cambrian Shiraz lying around, and I was mighty curious to see if I was right to stock up on it.

And right I was. This stuff was great. I only had one glass, since there were 5 wine snobs and a couple of spectators tasting it. It was a deep dark colour, with a good balance of sugar and alcohol. There was a fantastic flavor and a full bodied taste to the wine, which I take to be the special terrior that the cambrian soil is supposed to imbibe into the wine.

I did drink this too soon, but the tannins were only there in a very slight form, which is very much to my taste. I can’t wait to try the other bottles in a few years time and see how it progresses.