WN: Havens 2004 Bourriquot

The Havens 2004 Bourriquot, a blend of 70% Cabernet Franc and 30% Merlot from the Carneros district in southern Napa, is a wine that I wanted to love, but had to settle with really liking. There's the Cab Franc factor, of course, but I also like that the producer is known for his nuanced somewhat Old World style and that the grapes are sourced from a cooler part of the Napa Valley moderated by the ocean's influence. The proprietary name Bourriquot, which roughly translates to a wild horse, adds another nice touch as it's a thinly veiled reference to Cheval Blanc, the famous wine of St. Emilion that consists of Cabernet Franc and Merlot with Cab Franc often being the more prominent of the two varietals in the blend.

This wine was really tight at first with bitter and disjointed flavors prevalent. After about an hour of decanting, it opened up with peppered meat, some horsey funk, an herbal quality, cedar and hints of sweeter caramel smells on the nose. The bouquet was complex, interesting and savory, and ultimately wove together into an integrated aroma that couldn't be separated into its constituent parts. With exposure to air the flavors rounded out into a nicely balanced yet earthy expression with a bit of butter on the mid-palate. Tannins were present but very tame, while the acidity was appropriately inconspicuous. Unfortunately, there was a burst of heat on the transition to the finish that never improved with time.

The finish is the real killer for me. I loved the medium-bodied style the winemaker was pursuing as well as the funky, seemingly profound aromas. This is a serious wine. But the finish is the most important aspect of a layered wine like this. It's like going out to a nice dinner with dishes prepared by a professional chef, then being served a McDonald's milk shake for desert. It lets down everything else.

This is the second Havens wine I've tried. Two things are clear: these are wines aiming for balance more than power and they need a good hour of air to show properly. It sounds like the 2004 vintage was a difficult one for winemakers pursuing age-worthy, nuanced wines as Havens' own notes state, "in a spectacular apex of the trend that began in 1999, our Napa Valley 2004 growing season showed us just how warm things can get when the Pacific sea breeze deserts us." I'm betting the troublesome finish is the byproduct of a tenuous balance between phenolic and sugar ripeness. Hot weather is good if you want a high alcohol monster, but not for wines like this. From a less problematic vintage, this blend could be spectacular.

And that's the rub. Despite the flawed finish, I found myself savoring the wine, basking in its bouquet and lovely balance. From a numerical standpoint, this is not a 90+ point wine. It's just not a great wine because of the finish. But there's just too much else going on to reduce a wine like this to a number. So no more points on the blog, only a few pros and cons, an evaluation of QPR (Quality to Price Ratio), and my feelings on decanting at the end.

Pros: Complex Bouquet, Medium Body, Balanced, Good Structure, Old World/New World Hybrid
Cons: Hot Finish
Decant: Yes, give it an hour or more if possible
Price: $30 from K&L Wines
QPR: Fair (out of Poor, Mediocre, Fair, Good and Excellent with Fair denoting expectations were met for the price point)

TN: Sierra Salinas 2005 Mira

I picked out the Sierra Salinas 2005 Mira from DO Alicante (to the left of the bottle in the picture, in south-eastern Spain) for several reasons. For one, the blend is an intriguing 65% Monastrell (aka Mourvedré), 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 10% Garnacha Tintorera (aka Alicante Bouschet). This is the wine to potentially answer what happens when you start with dark and meaty Monastrell, then throw in the king of reds, Cabernet, and the practically black teinturier Alicante Bouschet. It also is priced under $20 and has a few positive notes from critics.

But there's a catch, of course. The critics are just a little too bullish and about 2/3 of the wine's components saw new oak. As I suspected, this is an oak wine. It could be from anywhere and the varietals could be anything that is dense enough to carry all of the oakiness. But it is nonetheless a very good internationally styled wine. The wooden astringency does show in the tannic finish. Yet the ultra-creamy mid-palate and floral yet musky bouquet are rather nicely woven into the fabric of the wine. The texture and non-vanillafied nose save this wine. Meanwhile, hints of blackberry and gaminess are present. The acidity is nicely balanced to prop up the potentially fat fruit and oak flavors. At 15% ABV there is certainly some weight to the wine, but no heat is evident.

At $19, this embarrasses wines at much higher prices that aim for the same effect. I like the occaisional oak (or fruit) bomb, and cocktail wines like this make the point that you don't need to pay much for a wine in this style. They all taste pretty much the same, so who cares what the label says. New World wines are primarily about texture, in terms of oak, fruit extract and elevated alcohol level. Many are grotesque caricatures of themselves. The Sierra Salinas Mira is enjoyable and only moderately grotesque as texture-driven wines go. That's a win in my book, though I'm left wondering why the producer wasted all that money on new oak when he he could have made a much more serious wine with about half as much of it.

Score: 87-89
Price: $19 from K&L Wines

TN: Trader Joe's Closeouts

I've come across two seriously discounted closeouts at Trader Joe's recently, the Domaine Alfred 2006 Chamisal Vineyard Pinot Noir and Howell Mountain Vineyards 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon. The Pinot was priced at $23, marked down significantly from its suggested price of $38, while the Cabernet was even more jaw dropping at $15 with a typical price point of $60.

According to what I've read, the Domain Alfred Pinot Noir as well as the other Domain Alfred wines are a casualty of the winery being purchased. The new owners changed the brand to Chamisal Vineyards and had to ditch anything with the Domaine Alfred label. Trader Joe's was happy to oblige them. As for the wine, it's not one I'd pay close to $40 for, so it may have ended up priced under $30 regardless. Although the forest floor aroma of the bouquet is definitely that of a Pinot Noir, it drinks more like a Grenache. There's a lot of ripe cherry juice, and a little caramel and oak flavor as well. It's slightly flabby, hot and disjointed. Very California, though I should give more credit for the likability factor. Wines with this level of ripeness at least are fairly approachable even when they lack the elegance Pinot Noir should should possess.

The Howell Mountain Vineyards Cab is supposedly the byproduct of a distributor getting rid of stock that wasn't moving in the slow economy. Again, I think this is a wine that doesn't justify the full retail price, but is a nice value at the Trader Joe's price. Blackberry, dust, leather and only the slightest hint of herbs show on the nose. There is also a bit of heat, though this isn't too distracting. The attack is a thing of beauty, all concentrated cassis and well-balanced acidity. This carries through to the mid-palate where creamy oak and dark chocolate take hold. However, the finish does not sustain what preceded it, showing some heat and an odd medicinal flavor. The tannins were also strangely lacking, which is not what I'd expect from a mountain wine. I'm left wondering if the wine was manipulated by micro-oxygenation, which would soften the tannins, eliminate herbaceous qualities, and round out the texture. Indeed, this wine is all about upfront characteristics and texture without the intoxicating bell pepper notes or big tannins I love in Cabernet. The initial salvo of flavors is worthy of the suggested price, but the finish has a cheapness to it that compromises the wine as a whole. Despite this objection, this is a great value at $15 for what you do get.

Domaine Alfred 2006 Chamisal Vineyard Pinot Noir
Score: 82-86
Price: $23 at Trader Joe's

Howell Mountain Vineyards 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
Score: 85-88
Price: $15 at Trader Joe's

TN: Gorrodona 2007 Bizkaiko TxakolinaTinto

Gorrodona 2007 Bizkaiko Txakolina Tinto is quite the find. Not only is the appellation of Bizkaiko Txakolina unpronounceable for an anglo monoglot, but the varietal is the obscure Hondurrabi Beltza. The appellation is located on the northern coast of Spain in the Basque region, and while this is quite distant from Bierzo in the north-east, I'm still tempted to compare this wine to Mencia from Bierzo.

As one might expect from a northern location with coastal influence, this is a lean, acid-driven wine. It's really the polar opposite of a high alcohol fruit bomb. Although I often appreciate this style, I did find this wine a bit austere. The bouquet is an intriguing mix of funky gamey aromas and pepper, both of the black and green varieties. Think of a hypothetical cross between Cab Franc and Mourvedré. The pieces are all there in this wine, but it does seem they are all a little muted. The finish is dry and mineral laden, so at the very least this wine is an excellent partner for food with subtle flavors.

While I don't crave white hot intensity, this wine makes me think more of smoldering ashes when a well-controlled camp fire is what I really crave. There needs to be a bit more there at the $24 price point in my mind since there are many excellent Old World wines that deliver comparable results for around $15.

Score: 83-88
Price: $24 from Woodland Hills Wine

TN: Sean Thackrey Pleiades XVII

Sean Thackrey Pleiades XVII is a wine that really defies ratings or criticism. The wine maker, Sean Thackery, apparently is a scholarly fellow whose winemaking is guided by ancient texts. In other words, this is outside-the-box wine. If you have any doubts, though, consider the blend: a non-vintage mix of Sangiovese, Syrah, Viognier, Mourvedre, Rousanne, Barbera, Carignane and probably other varietals as well.

Once opened, I can confirm this is a certifiably strange wine. It smells unmistakably of bananas that are turning brown. Not rotten bananas, but certainly those verging on the level of maturity one would desire for banana bread. But that's not all. There are medicinal menthol-lyptus aromas. It's rumored that Thackrey ferments his wine in a eucalyptus grove, so perhaps this shouldn't be too surprising. Love or hate--I fell on the not so into this camp--no other wine smells like this, that's for sure. I was more disappointed, however, in the generic fruit-bomb flavors it had to offer. The acidity seemed especially low. Given that it's common to add acid to wine in California, you can bet that a hands-off winemaker will not "correct" this problem. The consequence is a flabby, unstructured wine, though if you are philosophically in favor of minimal intervention, then this is a virtue.

Fascinating nose and eminently gulpable, but not what I'd consider an excellent wine. Still, I'd recommend it as an interesting one-off experience even though it's definitely not a re-buy for me. It's not a wine I can knock because intention is important in this context, kind of like how an imperfect art film is more fulfilling than a technically correct Hollywood production.

Score: Not Applicable
Price: $23 from K&L Wines