Mommy Wine?!?

A good friend of this Rampant Oenophile made an off handed comment last week that stopped me in my tracks. He was talking about something that included the phrase “mommy wine.” My quizzical look must have amused him, as he told me about how is wife has a secret stash of what he calls her “mommy wine,” the wine that mommies have after the kids are down for the night.


The problem with mommy wine, though, is that an open bottle doesn’t last, so we started on a conversation about how to keep wine fresh. Without a fancy nitrogen system, which is too expensive, or a cheap vacuum pump, which doesn’t really work, opening a bottle means committing to 5 or 6 glasses of wine in short window. I just envisioned a horde of drunken Mommies swerving about the neighborhood pushing strollers to and fro. Not a happy image.

So, with the question of “how does one affordably keep wine fresh,” in mind, I set out on some research. I’ve been thinking about box wines for a while. I’ve always been a fan of the screw top. It’s an economical if slightly industrial option to cap a bottle and eliminate corkage problems completely. Austrailia, South Africa, and New Zealand adopted it long ago, and “upstart” California vintners enjoy it today. The French? Not so much. But, screw tops don’t solve the problem of storage open wine.

What about the Box? The phrase “box wine” projects the image of those nasty bulk wines from the 1970’s that restaurants used in bad sauces or to braise tough cuts of meat. Not for the faint of heart or tender of palate.

But, today, box wines offer terrific values and tremendous flexibility for wine drinkers. For the price of a few bottles of modest wine, I can find three varieties of box wines equivalent to a case of bottles, which store easily and save for up to 4 weeks upon opening. Each box contains a polymer bladder and spigot that protects the wine from air and age. Once open, air cannot flow into the bladder and harm the wine, thus extending the shelf life. Quite ingenious, actually.

So, I tested a few and bought my friend a Bota Box of Shiraz for his favorite “mommy.” For about $17, Bota box packages 3 liters of Shiraz in a convenient cardboard box (with up to 25% recycled materials). The Shiraz is a blend and very drinkable. It offers a good blend of warm fruit and vanilla, has silky textures and leaves a little spice on the finish. Overall, a solid wine that works out to about $4.25 a bottle. Far better than a Yellow Bird or other such wine, at a remarkable value.

Best of all, our favorite Mommy can enjoy a glass or two a night without pressure to finish off the bottle. Bota Box lasts on the counter or in the fridge for up to 4 weeks, more than enough time to keep mommy from terrorizing the neighborhood with sloppy strollering.

Finding Respite from the Heat, a Cool Sauvignon Blanc Delivers...

For the first time ever, the heat of this summer has evaporated my will. I am moving from my beloved Zins and Petite Sirahs to cooler wines that can be served slightly chilled. I just can’t take the Central Florida heat!!


My wine club, The Tasting Room, sends small 6 bottle samplers to me monthly that let me try before I buy. I get a set of 6 50ml sampler bottles of cool wines from distinct regions or varietals, then I compare, rate, and select two bottles for my club shipment. Last month, I found a wonderful Petite Sirah (that I will be saving for cooler weather and a hot grill), as well as a very nice Sauvignon Blanc that balanced a lighter wine with complex flavors for a very satisfying and cooler wine.

Napa Station 2009 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc is a crisp, cool, slightly acidic Sauv Blanc with a complex texture and flavor profile. I enjoyed a soft bouquet with some melon and pear on the nose, but was surprised by the crisp mineral tones on my tongue. The slight acidity made my mouth water slightly on the finish, which is exactly what acidity should do. Overall, very nice, and much more complex than I expected. Serve it cool, but not cold, or you will have a glass of alcoholic grape juice.

Napa Station is a winery, not a vineyard. They make wines from grapes grown all over Napa Valley, and offer a Sauvignon Blanc, a chardonnay, a merlot and a cabernet sauvignon. While they do not offer genuine online sales (you can download a .pdf and use snail mail), The Tasting Room offers the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc for $14.99 a bottle, and it is found in some of their samplers, too.

I’m sitting on a few dry Rose wines that may make the heat moderately bearable, so watch for upcoming blogs for new reviews. Enjoy!

WTSO Deal on 2005 Hugo from Oriel Wines

I recently joined a new service called “Wines Till Sold Out” or WTSO. They offer special discounts on odd lots of wines that they buy directly from the vintner or winery. I’ve seen some great deals on lofty brands like Silver Oak at more than 50% off. Most wines are available at 40% - 65% off the wine shop price, and shipping is usually free if I buy 3-4 bottles.


A few weeks ago, WTSO sent me an email that caught my attention. Friends of this Rampant Oenophile know my love of Zinfandels, so when WTSO offered the 2005 Hugo, a Russian River Valley Zin, from Oriel Wines for just $9.99 a bottle, shipping included for 4 bottle purchases, I jumped.

The Zinfandel grape is America’s grape. Though it came from Croatia and other Eastern European slopes originally, today the Zinfandel grape is grown nearly exclusively in the US, and California vintners use it for some spectacular wines. Zinfandel is always lusty and big, often fruit forward in the parlance of wine writers. I love it for its dark fruit and spices. The spice overtones of the wine make it a perfect pair for steaks and cheeses, as it cuts through the fatty richness of those foods.

The Oriel Hugo, from wine maker Dan Goldfield, offers a big nose full of pepper and clove that anticipates the dark fruit in the wine. You’ll definitely taste cherry and currant on the front. This wine finishes smoothly, especially paired with food. It’s a great grilling wine with very little sugar. The Oak in the Hugo compliments smoked meats. I got some good advice from Vine Talk suggesting that a good pairing is a match of textures in the wine. Smoke on smoke, acidity with acidity; so a Zinfandel aged in oak with layers of rich silky textures should go very well with the Great American Barbeque. The Hugo makes a splash at grill side this summer, for certain.

The 2005 Oriel Hugo is still available on their website for $25 a bottle, or you can watch WTSO for another offer of this excellent Zinfandel. Enjoy.

A Rare Find in a Rosenblum Zinfandel

A work celebration offered this Rampant Oenophile to enjoy the 2007 Rosenblum Richard Sauret Paso Robles Zinfandel, a terrific Zin blend that sources grapes from a premium Paso Robles vineyard for a string of annual releases. The 2007 was muted compared to the 2006, but still a winner in my book.


It’s like all of the great Zinfandels from Rosenblum, a consistent producer of top quality wines. More than half of their impressive 40+ varietals are Zinfandels, so Rosenblum knows a thing or two about that wine. The Richard Sauret vineyard is special because of the soil, but also for the low yield for these zinfandel grapes, which means we should enjoy these wines whenever we find them because they are in short supply.

The bouquet was a bit one note of plum fruit, and I didn’t notice a lot of spice on my nose. As the wine opened up in the glass and warmed slightly, you will notice smoky oak and some pepper. Tasting this Zin offers up more red fruit in an enjoyably subtle way. This isn’t a brazen Zin that smacks you in the face with fruit or spice. It’s more of a good friend that you can enjoy for hours. Served too cool, the wine was a bit flat, but as it warmed up, so did the complexity on the tongue. I could taste some of that oak, and some mineral overtones. The fruit is ripe and full, but not too sweet or jammy. You’ll find those plumbs, but also currant and licorice for some extra depth.

In a wine bar, expect to pay too much because the wine is in limited circulation. At a wine store, the Rosenblum is available for $20-$22, though I found a few bottles online for $19 plus shipping. I’d absolutely order the Richard Sauret Paso Robles Zinfandel again, especially by the glass served at a proper temperature. With so many bottles of great Zins from Rosenblum available, I might have to compare it with a couple of others before adding this dependable wine to my wine rack.

Bubbling Wines

Lately, this Rampant Oenophile has been hearing lots about “bubbling wine,” which has become all the rage among both bartenders and casual pourers. Vinturi, the company responsible for all this bubbling madness, launched a product last year intended to stimulate aeration in single glasses of red wine, as opposed to decanting an entire bottle to let a still wine breathe. On its own merits, bubbling wine makes a lot of sense. Most people serve red wine too cool, white wine too warm, and rarely let the wine breathe substantially to open the flavors. Faced with “flat” wine that has not yet opened, I typically would swirl the wine in my glass, or hold the bowl in my palm for a red wine to open the flavors and bouquet.

But, if there’s an accessory that could do that work for me and look cool in the process, well that’s something I want to try. A friend of this Rampant Oenophile gave me a Vinturi for red wine as a gift this holiday season. I’ve been coveting her Vinturi for so long that I’m sure she felt that giving me one of my own was the best insurance against losing hers after a party…

The concept is simple. Based on Bernoulli’s principle, the Vinturi causes the flow of wine to accelerate, thus lowering the pressure within the wine and inviting bubbles of air to mix with the wine for proper aeration. An aerated wine is an open wine, which unlocks extra bouquet on the nose and flavor profiles on the palate. A “bubbled” wine offers more aromatic profiles, a “bigger” nose, and more complete profile for you to smell. The wine should have more complex flavors on the palate, giving you a better chance to notice the nuanced tastes so often written about in wine blogs and reviews. Finally, a fully opened wine finishes more smoothly with less of an after-taste or concentration of flavors that might bog down a flat wine.

That’s the theory, anyway. As ashamed as I am to admit this, I completely blew it with the Vinturi. To borrow a medical expression, apparently I am contra indicated, meaning that I got it all backwards.

To try out my new toy, I did a blind tasting with two respectable burgundy style wines; one glass of each as poured from the bottle, another glass poured through the bubbler. In both cases, this Rampant Oenophile enjoyed better and falsely identified the un-bubbled wine. I waxed poetic about the enhanced bouquet, better finish, and bigger flavors of one glass versus the flatter profile of another, only to learn that the wines on which I heaped so much favor were actually poured directly from the bottle, and the bubbled wines, to me at least, tasted much less enhanced.

Oh, well. I’m still going to test my bubbler and see if I can tell the difference. I’ll give it a whirl on some older reds, which need more aeration anyway, and usually deserve decanting.

Happy Holidays!

Stag's Leap Special Find

It’s not often that this Rampant Oenophile gets the opportunity to enjoy a Stag’s Leap wine, let alone a special bottle like the 2006 Artemis Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, but dinner with dear friends surprised with two generous pours from this jewel.  This deep, dark, lusty red wine shines with great clarity in the glass, offers a full rosy bouquet with hints of a creamy caramel and black cherry.  On the tongue, it’s absolutely soft, velvety, and full without any of the mineral tones that might dry a wine.  Absolutely a top wine enjoyed with a range of winter flavors.  It paired perfectly with a medium Filet Mignon, butternut squash and a cilantro and parsley salad.  The wine stood up to the herbs of the salad, and perfectly complimented the creamy texture of the squash without backing down on its fruit and spice balance.  One of the best Cabernet’s of the year, and an essential find for a rack of fine Napa Valley wines.  A very special wine.

Organic Zinfandel is a Real Find...

Friends of this rampant oenophile recall a note about Quivira Vineyards and Winery biodynamic philosophy and organic farm, along with mention of their surprising and delicious 2009 Sauvignon Blanc. The real find at this beautiful winery, though, is the 2007 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel. As any regular reader of this forum knows, I’m a staunch fan of good Zinfandel, and the 2007 offering from Quivira Vineyards boasts two impressive medals for 2010 competition; the Best of Class from the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as the Gold Medal in the 2010 San Francisco International Wine Competition.

I loved everything about this wine. Let your nose lead your palate and breathe deeply of the ripe fruit and spice. You’ll taste plums, pepper, and rosemary in the deep red-purple tones of a very sophisticated young Zinfandel. At just $20 a bottle from the vineyard, you can’t go wrong. Though we are just finishing the summer grilling season, I’m adding two bottles to my wine rack for a BBQ dinner from the grill this fall.