Catching up! A Week-and-a-Half of Wines!

Tonight, I'm catching up on some recent wines I've shared with friends or tasted.

The price points range from $7 to $30 and I have some whites and reds to share. And since I'm reviewing several wines here, I'm going to offer a "recommended, not recommended" type of rating for each.

S.Morris 2007 Petite Syrah - I got this wine through a Paso Robles wine club I joined. It's hard to find many details on this small operation but they sure do know how to make interesting Petite Syrah.

Normally you expect big and bold written all over a Petite Syrah. This wine was full flavored but with outstanding balance and a velvety mouth feel and finish.

It featured dark fruit and a little spice on the finish. (S.Morris 2007 Petite Syrah, $25, Recommended)

Villa San-Juliette 2008 Sauvignon Blanc - Simply put, this was the best Sauvignon Blanc I've tasted in a long time! At $15, I don't think you'll find a better one.

Now, this is a new winery but made 30,000 cases of this vintage. The Paso Robles area tasting room is scheduled to open this year. All of that means you might not be able to find the wine in some states. But the name is going to be one to remember.

This was an elegant Sauv Blanc without in your face tart fruit and/or acidity. I tasted pear and rich grapefruit instead of the usual grapefruit tartness. This is beautiful white wine from California's Central Coast. (Villa San-Juliette 2008 Sauvingon Blanc, $15, Highly Recommended)

flipflop 2009 Pinot Noir - Regular Pinot Noir drinkers often lament that lack of an inexpensive Pinot Noir. I often direct those folks to Mirassou, found in many markets. I'm now going to tell them Mirassou or flipflop!

I was skeptical when marketing friend Stephen Mitchell told me about this new line of wines. There is a cause behind the wine that everyone can support. flipflop wines is working with Soles4Souls to provide shoes for children. Underdog Wine Merchants, the company that does boxed wines for Octavin, is working with flipflop and Soles4Souls to provide 11 million pairs of shoes to needy children around the world.

Stephen told me I wasn't going to believe the quality of the wine for $7 retail. I was convinced Stephen would be right - I wouldn't believe him. Now, first off - it is a $7 wine. If you're expecting a big California style Pinot taste you're not going to get it. But at this price point --- the wine TASTED like Pinot Noir. That's the litmus test for me at the price. It's light in style and very drinkable.

My local Kroger supermarket has a palate of flipflop wines. The company is offering the Pinot, Pinot Grigio, Riesling,Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Moscato - all selling for just $7 each. I tried the Pinot Grigio as well and thought it easily could have passed for a $15 bottle. (flipflop wines, SRP $7, Trade Sample, Recommended!)

Veramonte's Cruz Andina 2008 Malbec - This was a juicy Malbec made from grape regions Mendoza, Uco, and Lujan de Cuyo in Argentina. It's actually a blend of 85 percent Malbec, 8 percent Syrah, and 7 percent Cabernet.

I liked this SRP $19.99 wine a lot. I enjoyed the touch of raspberry and the wine's rich, long finish. This wine has a pretty strong oak presence that doesn't bother me at all, but will put off some wine drinkers. The alcohol is at 14.5 percent.

If you like big and full-flavored Malbecs, you'll like this one. (2008 Andina Malbec, SRP $19.99, Trade Sample, Recommended)

Veramonte 2010 Sauvignon Blanc - This was a disappointment for me. Chilean Sauv Blanc has become one of my favorites. This wine had huge grapefruit and hints of nasty sweat sock. It was quite acidic. The alcohol was a reasonable 13.5 percent and it's a real value at $12.

The Veramonte was medium bodied, but just too much mineral taste for my palate. This is a reputable winery, this white wine just wasn't suited to my palate. I have a bottle of their Pinot Noir I'm anxious to try. It's gotten a lot of accolades. (2010 Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc, $11.99, Trade Sample, Not Recommended)

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

OTBN - Enough Reason to Open That Bottle!

Twelve years ago Open That Bottle Night was created by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher.

The concept is rather simple. Most wine drinkers have 1-2 or a few dozen "special" bottles stashed away for a special occasion. OTBN is designed to get wine drinkers to open a special bottle - essentially - for the heck of it on a night in February.

You deserve it. It's your money. So pick a good bottle out for this special evening celebrating good wine and celebrating you!

Great concept huh?

Gaiter and Brecher will actually be participating in a live forum Saturday night on Palate Press if you'd like to join the conversation about your wine or just watch the comments. Here is more information.

Oh, I'm going to open a Tuscan wine from Corzano E Paterno I carried home from Italy just a little over a year ago. It was the one bottle in my suitcase after a two-week visit to the Florence area - but just one day in Tuscany. The 2006 is a Sangiovese, Cab, Merlot blend!

What are you opening?

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

Story On Red Wine Stains Up on Palate Press

I wrote a story for Palate Press about red wine stains and your teeth which went live on the site overnight.

Most of the advice seems practical but I had never heard of a few of these tips until recent years. If you drink much wine - red or white - it's worth checking out.

Here is direct link to the story!

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

"Try on Traminette" Boosting Indiana Winery Sales

Marketers know the best way to sell a product is to have a good product to sell. Indiana winemakers have struggled to find a niche beyond “sweet wines” for years. It seems “Try on Traminette” was the marketing campaign and grape to spur new-found success.

The Indiana Wine and Grape Council and Purdue University started a marketing campaign last year to introduce consumers to Traminette – a wine that is fruity and very floral. The grape is a hybrid that will remind regular white wine drinkers of Gewurztraminer – an annual Thanksgiving favorite. Cornell University is widely believed to be the developer of the hardy grape that grows well in Hoosier soils - best known for corn and beans.

The state designation of a “signature wine” has propelled Traminette to an Indiana tasting room favorite.

“We have seen "demand" for Traminette develop ever since the radio ads that Purdue is running,” said Mark Easley, Easley Winery, Indianapolis. “It is a great aromatic white wine that just needed to be discovered. Something ‘other’ than chardonnay comes to mind.”

The demand for Traminette has been felt all across Indiana’s 54 bonded wineries. More than 30 of the wineries are offering the wine, according to the Wine and Grape Council. The growth has challenged tasting rooms and vineyards. Just two years ago, only 15 Indiana wineries were producing Traminette.

“We are growing it in two of our southern Indiana vineyards,” Easley said. “Our Posey County vineyard gets a lot more heat in the summer months than our Jennings County vineyard. That creates an interesting difference in the amount of "fruitiness" we get from the fruit at each farm. The heat brings out a little more of the Gewurztraminer flavor.”

Easley markets its Traminette as a semi-dry wine with just over three percent residual sugar. It is going to be on the sweet side for most wine drinkers, but not overpowering by any means. Most Indiana wineries are producing Traminette as a sweet or semi sweet/dry white wine. But the grape can be used to make sparkling wines, table wines, ice wines, late-harvest wines, and standard dry to sweet wines.

“We are currently doing a varietal blend of the wine that we sold out of last year,” Easley noted. “Our winemaker also uses Traminette in the wine blends for both our Reggae White wine and our Barrel White wine. We find with the fruitiness and aromatic character of grapes like Traminette, Cayuga White and Riesling, that they step out into their own with a little residual sugar.”

Easley is quick to note Indiana wine drinkers still prefer sweeter wines and most Indiana producers cater to that market.

Christian Butzke, a Purdue associate professor of enology and a former commercial winemaker, is expecting most wineries that don't produce Traminette now will do so soon. He said the ongoing "Try on Traminette" campaign and its initial success would help those new Indiana wineries become recognized as agritourism destinations.

"Startups have the advantage of jumping into an existing campaign," Butzke said. "They can hit the ground running as many people enjoy local artisan wines even in a challenging economy."

That is another advantage the Indiana producers enjoy. Most of the Indiana-produced white wines, including Traminette are under $15 a bottle and low as $7 in some instances.

In the next Grape Sense, we’ll get another take on Traminette from a producer who makes a somewhat rare dry version of the floral grape.

Howard’s Pick:
Easley Traminette – This family winery is one of Indiana’s oldest, located in downtown Indianapolis. The Traminette is sweet but beautifully balanced. The wine retails at just under $15. The Easley folks suggest a bottle of Traminette with pork loin.
Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com