Wines I Bought This Week

 

At a friend requested, I am going to start regularly posting what I have bought and drank from the grocery store or from various websites in an effort to help others navigate the enormous world of wine. 

This week I had a French Rose, a Sparkling Rose from California, a Sauv Blanc from New Zealand, a Chianti (Sangiovese) from Italy, and a couple Vivac wines that have not yet been released. From the photo you may recognize some of the labels and perhaps you are already purchasing these wines. As always, I am an advocate to drink what you like with what you want so ignore my opinion if it doesn't fit with your likes or dislikes. 

Let's start with the still Rose. If you aren't familiar with wine lingo, "still" means not sparkling, it is just a regular wine. I am particularly fond of French Rose wines, from the petal pink citrus ones to the darker lush fruity ones, they all have a place in my heart. And if you are at the grocery store and can get some on a wicked discount, even better! A quick reminder, ALWAYS buy 6 bottles so you get the deep discount. Buy 1 bottle of 6 different wines, if you really like it, take a photo of the label and go back and buy more. Remember that the tag hanging from the shelf shows the regular price at the top, then the sale price on the lower left and the really important one is the one in the lower right that is if you buy 6 bottles (mix and match). If the price difference from the top number and the one in the lower right are at least $5 different, I consider it. In this particular case it took this rose down to under $10. And it was about right at that price. I would not pay over $10 for this wine, but it was just fine for watching TV on the sofa. The fruit was a little thin, the acidity was a bit over the top and it lacked character on the nose. Honestly I would have been just as happy with a can of Underwood. 

Next was the Vivac Tempranillo 2021 which as I mentioned is not released yet, the 2020 is still for sale at the Tasting Room. The 2021 is less oaked which I prefer. Of course there are tons of Tempranillo fans out there that love the big smoky wines that are so popular, so please do buy the 2020. For those that like more integration and finesse, get ready to swoon with the 2021! Great mouth feel, nice rhythm of fruit over the palate all the way to the finish. $24 with discounts if you buy 6 or even more if you buy 12 and a big discount if you are a wine club member. I happen to be the best kind of member, an owner so I get mine for free and lets face it, no other wine tastes as good as a free one.

New Zealand Sauv Blanc is a standard in most homes. It has textbook flavors that hit the mark and are reliably constant. This one was on sale for under $10 and exactly what I thought it should be: fresh, fruity, aromatic and balanced. It was a little thin, but that is to be expected when shopping this price range. It is uncomplicated and tasty. We paired it with roast chicken and a warm New Mexican evening. 

One of my favorite grapes on the planet, Sangiovese, can be light and tangy or deep and intense. Chianti is arguably the most famous of the world's regions for Sangiovese and for good reason. Chianti, like other regions in old world countries, has legal specifications for their wines and label them as such so that the young fruity rustic ones can be sold cheaply while the ones aging and maturing fetch a bigger price. That is a ridiculously simplified explanation and the winemakers of Chianti would probably not allow me to drink their wines if they knew I had boiled it down to that simplification. But this isn't a class on Chianti, it is a personal review of the wine and I really loved this wine! Ripe cherry with aromas of salami and herbs, a perfect balance of tannin and acid and excellent depth with tons of umami. It smelled and tasted like Tuscany. I bought it on wine.com on sale for $14, and have already reordered. it is fabulous. Tip: join their shipping club so that you pay once and then shipping is free after that. Also order a case at a time (mix and match) to lock in discounts. 

The Sparkling Rose from California was on mega sale for $7 so I don't feel like I can really critique it, I mean it was $7! But if pushed, I'd say it was a little sweet for my preference. It is a Brut (dry) wine, but the fruit is overly ripe raspberry that felt cloying after the initial few sips. We sipped it while watching the "Trainwreck: Woodstock 99" documentary which was a nightmare of an event so maybe that colored my interpretation of the wine. 

And lastly, is another Vivac wine. This is another sneak peak at a wine that isn't released yet, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2020 (still available at our tasting room) is also impressive, in fact our Cabs have always been stunners and one of the more fun wines to pour for people. Everyone is a self proclaimed Cab expert and this wine always shocks. It is full bodied, but has character and charm with finesse, balance and an appropriate amount of alcohol so that you can enjoy it on its own or with a meal and not feel completely clobbered over the head. The 2021 vintage was so magical, I opened a 2nd bottle because I wasn't ready to relinquish that baked pie fruit and velvety tannin combination. $32 (and don't forget the discount options I mentioned earlier with the Tempranillo) and absolutely worth the money... which sounds silly since I do get it for free, but I swear, if I didn't, I would be buying it in bulk. It isn't an open every day wine at that price, but it is a perfect Friday night dinner date wine, or a gift wine, or a hard week I owe it to myself wine. 

Hopefully this helps give you some direction when you start shopping. My store happens to be a Smith's that I find myself at regularly, but they are all pretty similar when talking about these big wineries and they all structure their discounts the same way. Trader Joe's is another fun spot to shop, but I rarely find myself in the city that has one. And my favorite website is wine.com because I can shop from home, they have an excellent selection and you can make notes easily that you can reference later. Obviously Vivac is what I drink most of, but I am always trying other wineries, near and far. It would be easy to say Vivac is the best, but it is all relative... LOL I guess that pun is intended. I regularly analyse the wines, sometimes to my winemaker husband's chagrin, but I would not recommend a wine that I didn't fully stand behind. My personal favorites on our list right now are the Gruner Veltliner and the Chardonnay for the whites, and for the reds currently released, I am in love with the Abbott Merlot, the Montepulciano, the Malbec and the Divino. But honestly, my winemakers are killing it and the wines show a mature wise hand behind the crafting of them. 

Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, I Can't Smell That... Can You?

With Bali in the rear view mirror of life and too many messages asking for an update to even count, I have finally made myself sit down and try to collect my thoughts. Since May so much has happened I almost don't know where to start! I had a complete meltdown after having a sensory overload of too much Bali and we had to pull the ripcord on that vacation. We opted for Amsterdam as an escape and breathed in the magnificent spring flowers there, the charming neighborhoods... and covid. Yep, after 2 years avoiding it, and 4 covid shots, we went down like a ton of bricks. 

The horror stories of covid had scared me since day one. My fear of being put on a ventilator was real as I take a high powered medication that lowers my autoimmune system to zero, but more than that was the fear that I would lose my sense of smell. They say that you attract what you put your attention toward, so I guess in some sick version of events, I brought it on myself? Needless to say, I went from sick as a dog, to slightly better, then slightly better after that, to a morning where I awoke to Jesse making coffee, but the air was clear of smells. Jesse and my daughter had also gotten covid with us each having different experiences of the virus. My husband had lost some amount of smell, but I was about to discover that he was doing far better than I was. 

For those of you whos lives are not centered around olfactory senses, you may not know that coffee is one of the most powerful smells on the planet. My inability to smell the coffee was a terrifying sign. 4 days of zero sense of smell sent me into the darkest of depressions. I had to come to terms that it may never come back or if it did, it may be damaged beyond the point of return. My career would be finished, but even more than that, which still gets me all choked up, is that I wouldn't be able to smell the smells that make my life so rich. While my intense "gift" has caused actual physical pain when the smells are too intense (like in Bali), I rely on it to inform me of things I hadn't really thought about; my husband smells different if he has been sweating in the sun working in the vineyard, sweating after a run verses a bike ride, or the smell of him when he is angry, I know exactly what has happened in his day based on these smells. The smell of great food (New Mexicans, is there anything better than roasting green chile???), trees and plants, sea air or desert rain on its way, and perhaps the most devastating for a mom, the smell of the top of my child's head. I was in a downward spiral and I didn't speak for days. Then, just as instantly as it left, a glimmer of hope appeared! I could sorta smell the coffee. We quickly ran out to the local cafe and ordered two different glasses of wine, it was a test, could I smell a difference? I could! It wasn't strong, but it was there. I rushed to the market and bought all the Somm 101 tools for training, fruits, herbs, and anything else I could grab fast. Back up to the room we ran, bursting out of the elevator and almost into the maid's cleaning cart, it wreaked of vinegar... it WREAKED! I tumbled into the room and pealed a banana. I could smell the banana. Tears of joy and deep relief soaked my face. 

This miracle happened just days before I had a huge, and very important, wine competition. I worked hard on retraining my receptors to identify and connect smells, it was a fast track approach and luckily worked. I took a seat at the competition table and prepared to excuse myself should I see that I was not back to judging level. The palate set wine came out and I judged it exactly the same as the very esteemed judges at my table and even had the exact same notes. I feverishly texted Jesse the news, he responded with a string of emojis in celebration. I think he was on pins and needles knowing his life would be greatly impacted if I came home destroyed by my incompetence. Especially since my daughter and I blame him for giving us covid in the first place. I think he feared for his life. 

After the competition, I had the honor to host a formal tasting class on New York wines with a teaser on New Mexico, followed by a full blown VIP event for New Mexico wines at the American Consular General's home. It was incredible and has led to conversations with other powerful people to invite me to create events for them. I was positively elated! 

Then we came home. Unlike my family, I did not miss home. I love my home, but I was not ready to BE home. I had been robbed of time with the weeks down battling covid and now had to return to a long list of work projects I had avoided while traveling. I also felt robbed of vacation time, which I am fully aware of is a load of shit coming from someone that was gone for 4 months. But hear me out. I had anticipated a Hawaii like experience of sitting on a pristine beach with lovely warm breezes and someone fetching me Mai Tais. Instead, Bali was hard. It was hard fought for food and respite from the intense heat and even more intense humidity. The smells were off the chart in a bad way and, as you all read in my previous blog posts, there were the damn monkeys that had given me PTSD. And maybe there is another component, my wine competition travels rock! Being treated like royalty suits me. The incredible dinners, the amazing wines, the tours of exquisite cities and elite wineries create a level of fan fair that is hard to compete with. Especially if you come home to cleaning your own house, heaps of laundry that never seem to end, grocery shopping and meal prep for picky eaters, doctor's visits, and tedious work projects.

I was trying to wrestle with the discrepancy of "home life" and "competition life" when I realized I can't make them equal. The 4 days of covid darkness I experienced had also given me time to contemplate my life without these glorious trips, gave me time to think about appreciating what is right in front of me. Now I felt the darkness trying to move back in and I fought to recall my insight. I focused on my glass of wine being enjoyed on my front porch. I fought to remember that this fancy life of flying off to iconic places to be wined and dined could all disappear, but what will remain is an amazing family, a home in a gorgeous place and the memories of what I have been lucky enough to experience. 

I also got a phone call from Italy with a personal invitation to participate in a new and very exciting competition in Aosta Valley! And just like that, the darkness slipped away. I know how lucky I am to have the life I do, both at home and on these trips. I know that we are beyond lucky to have not suffered real loss during these covid years and I know that you have to stop and smell the roses while you still can.