Of Bacon Burgers and La Madrid's Bonarda

Thursday night I didn't really feel like cooking and I felt like eating some really unhealthy food.  In order to satisfy craving I decided to pick up a couple of bacon cheeseburgers and chili-cheese fries from Spanky's here in Brownsville.  To accompany our artery clogging feast Pris selected La Madrid's 2009 Bonarda from Argentina.  It turned out to be a fantastic choice for both Thursday and Friday night's meals.

The  Bonarda was bold, big, and somewhat sweet the first go around.  It offered a tangy nose with plum and ripe dark fruit.  Initially it was lighter and somewhat sweeter on the palate, but became more robust and nuanced as it opened up.  Dark fruit dominated the palate through and through, but the wine still remained well balanced on the palate. Subtle licorice notes appeared in the back of the palate and through the finish to balance out the heavy fruit up front.  The La Madrid Bonarda finished smoothly and softly with little fanfare leaving a nice crisp hint of spice and mineral.

This is a great wine to pair with a burger, but where it really shined was with the spicier foods.  On Friday I stuffed poblano peppers with a mix of chili, onions, jalapeno, corn, avocado, and cilantro.  They were spicy, tangy, and delicious and the Bonarda was perfect with them.  The ripe fruit paired perfectly with the heavy spice and cumin in the peppers. 

If you're looking for a wine to pair with heavily spiced Mexican or Southwestern food, this is it.  Open up the bottle and go to town with your meal.  If you're looking for something well balanced and a little more subtle and nuanced the La Madrid will also work for you.  If you're looking for the latter, just let it breathe for an hour or two before serving. 

We purchased the La Madrid Bonarda at the H.E.B. Central Market in San Antonio back in October.  It sells for $12.  For more information on the La Madrid wines you can visit: http://www.vinodelsol.com/

A bit of Haute and Down Home with Barrone Charlotte

The other day I took some vacation time from work to relax and take it easy.  Since I was home I decided to prepare a more time intensive dinner of oven fried chicken and broccoli slaw.  To go with the meal Pris pulled out a bottle of 2009 Baronne Charlotte Graves from Baron Philippe de Rothschild.  This crisp French white from the BordeauxGraves region was a great choice for the meal, and a fine spring/summer white.

The Baronne Charlotte is made from a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon grapes.  It had the bold nose full of fruit and floral notes from the Sauvignon Blanc.  On the palate its light and crisp with loads of citrus and spice, reminiscent of a Pinot Grigio with a touch of bite.  The Baronne Charlotte finished dry and crisp, with nice rich fruit notes lingering in the back of the palate for several minutes.

This was a bit of a highbrow wine for our down-home dinner, but it worked exceedingly well.  The light fruit and citrus was a great compliment to the Ritz crusted chicken.  It was a good compliment to the chicken, and a better counter-point to the tangy slaw.  With the hot months already started, this is a great wine to enjoy chilled.  Full bodied and refreshing its perfect for relaxing during our balmy late afternoons.

We purchased the 2009 Barrone Charlotte Gaves from Feldman's Market Center in Brownsville for $18.  For more information on the Baron Philippe de Rothschild's wines you can visit: http://www.bpdr.com/

Rendezvous with the Rex Goliath Cabernet Sauvignon

Whenever Pris and I go to H.E.B. she often looks at the wines to see if there were any gems worth picking up.  One wine she always thought about, but never bought was Rex Goliath's Cabernet Sauvignon.  At $5 a bottle, it could be an excellent deal or a royal flop.  Since we no longer really have a decent go-to table wine we decided to give the Rex Goliath a try this week.

For $5 a bottle the Rex Cab isn't a bad little table wine.  That said, this is one of the fruitiest Cab's I ever had.  Ripe raspberry and plum dominated the nose, and gave a hint of what was to come.  On the palate the wine is big and fruity with more raspberry and plum.  Exceptionally soft tannins allowed for a soft and smooth finish.  This Cab was very reminiscent of a Beaujolais or a fruitier Merlot. 

If you enjoy a fruitier red, the Rex Goliath Cab is definitely a great everyday wine to have on hand.  At $5 a bottle, the price is pretty unbeatable and since its carried at H.E.B. you can acquire it at a number of locations throughout the Valley.  For more information on Rex Goliath and their wines you can visit:  http://www.rexgoliath.com/index.htm

Los Rosales Chapel Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

Its been a really big slump in the wine drinking here in Brownsville.  I occasionally get comments from readers lamenting the fact that we're really not posting too much lately.  So a couple weeks ago I dove into our stash and pulled out one of our Wall Street Journal Wine Club Cabs to go with a Sunday steak dinner.

I pulled out a bottle of 2011 Los Rosales Chapel Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from the Rafael Valley in Chile.  The Cab had a big bold nose with lots of dark fruit and mineral.  Then the first sip.  Unfortunately my first impression was that the wine was awful.  It was compact, bitter, and I was even wondering if it had already turned. 

However, not being a person to let things go to waste I decided to let it breathe and give it another try.  I'm glad I did.  After resting in the glass and breathing for a good thirty minutes the Cab opened up, and the bitterness mellowed. It turned into a decent little wine.  After breathing you could make out a lot of cassis, mineral, and spice in the back of the palate. 

If you get this wine, let it breathe.  It may even be good to cellar it for a few years to see if that mellows things out.  I would recommend using a decanter and letting the wine breathe for at least an hour.  If you're not going to finish it in one setting then you can do the one glass decanting like I ended up doing.

The 2011 Los Rosales Chapel Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon costs $14 a bottle, and you can order it at the Wall Street Journal Wine Club's website: www.wsjwine.com.

A Night of Texas Wine: The 3rd Annual BHA Texas Wine Tasting

A few weeks ago, actually right around the beginning of the month, The Brownsville Historical Association had its 3rd Annual Texas wine tasting.  The crowd grew from 70 attendees last year to just over 120 this year.  The wine flowed freely, and sold rapidly after the event was over.  This was great for BHA, and I hope the event continues to grow.

There was a slight change in the format this year though, instead of trying a variety of wines from different vineyards, we had a variety of wines from just one specific vineyard: Flat Creek Estate.  Last year, Flat Creek was represented at the tasting when we sampled their Super Texan, which is modeled after Italy's Super Tuscan.  Flat Creek Estate is located in Central Texas just north west of Austin.  It features a number of Italian varietals, as they seem to take well to our Texas soil and climate.  This year we had eight excellent wines from Flat Creek Estate and the owner, Rick Naber, to guide us through the fine selection.

Our first selection was a 2010 Pinot Grigio.  This was a great light and crisp wine to get started on.  The Pinot Grigio was crisp and citrusy with loads of apple and apricot on the nose and on the palate.  The wine had a nice crisp finish that was quite refreshing.  We paired the wine with ceviche and a Greek salad.  The citrus was perfect with the ceviche, the two complimented each other nicely.  The wine was also a fine counterpoint to the salad with the crispness cutting through the savory dressing.  This is a great wine for the summer, and I plan to stock up some for what will likely be a long and hot summer.

The second selection stayed in the early dinner white wines with a 2009 Viognier.  The wine had a bold and expressive nose.  On the palate the Viognier was initially thick and sweet, but as it moved through the mouth you could pick up a more acidic bite.  This wine wound up smoothly with a slightly syrupy finish.  Rick had us pair the Viognier with spinach and cheese empanadas.  It was a good pairing, with the sweetness of the wine cutting through the salty white cheese and rich spinach. 

Our third wine moved over into the red territory with the Buckin' Horse Red Wine.  The Buckin' Horse was essentially a house red, which I'm generally not too fond up.  However, I loved this wine, as did most of the attendees.  The Buckin' Horse had a nice light nose.  This was followed with good light fruit and berries on the palate.  The wine finished smoothly with very light tannins.  The Buckin' Horse was paired with a plethora of soft and salty white cheeses and olives.  This was an excellent combination that brought out the best in the wine.  The Buckin' Horse was a great well balanced red that unfortunately is no longer going to be produced under the same name (hopefully we'll be kept appraised of what the new name will be though).  So if you see some out there, grab it and enjoy it and the bottle art.

The fourth wine was our old friend, the Super Texan.  The Super Texan was light and fruity with loads of raspberry and blackberry on the nose and palate.  Despite its lightness, the Super Texan had good structure that asserted itself and provided more fullness on the palate towards the rear of the palate.  Supple tannins allowed for a smooth light finish.

A 2008 Meritage came fifth, and was by far the richest and most robust wine of the night.  The Meritage had a full bodied nose that was loaded with dark red fruit and cassis.  On the palate you again savored the cassis and dark red berries and cherries.  Despite its heavy dark flavors, the Meritage was extremely well balance.  Bigger and bolder tannins gave this wine a much longer and drier finish that lingered nicely.  We sampled this wine with both chorizo and ham empanadas and it seemed as though the wine was tailor made for pork.  The salty and savory goodness of the empanadas paired fantastically with the rich red berries in the wine.  The spice in the chorizo was especially good. 

Our final red of the night was a 2008 Syrah that had a good nose full of light fruit.  The Syrah was slightly sweet, but that was to be expected since raspberry and boysenberry dominated the palate.  Even with all the light fruit, the Syrah still maintained a full flavor.  Easy going tannins provided an easy and smooth finish. 

Finally we hit the dessert wines with a 2008 Moscato d'Arancia Orange.  This white had a big fruity and sweet nose.  I didn't think it was possible, but the Moscato was even sweeter on the palate.  Unlike a lot of dessert wines, the Moscato was light and not syrupy, despite the high sugar content.  Thanks to its lightness the Moscato had a nice light and orangey finish.  This wine went very well with fruit and cheese cake.  The sugar rush afterwards was also quite enjoyable.

The final wine of the evening was a real surprise.  Normally I'm not the biggest fan of sparkling wines, and you can tell they aren't covered much on the blog.  However, I can say that I am now a huge fan of Flat Creek Estate's Sparkling Almond.  Smelling the wine was like being in a pastry shop.  It was sweet, light, and smelled of pastry and almonds.  You could really taste the almond on the palate as well and it mixed perfectly with the white sparkling wine.  The Sparkling Almond was refreshing, effervescent, light, and finished easily.  This wine went down very easily which could have led to some severe inebriation.  The only problem was that as soon as we ended, the attendees rushed to get more of this wine, or buy up the remaining bottles.

All in all this was en excellent event.  Great wines and food combined with a jovial atmosphere--this is what makes learning about wine fun.  A big thanks goes out to Feldman's for hooking BHA up with Flat Creek Estate for the event.  Feldman's carries the wines I reviewed here, but some can be hard to find.  Besides the Sparkling Almond, Flat creek offers a Sparkling Raspberry and other flavors.  For more information on Flat Creek and its wines you can visit: www.flatcreekestate.com

Savoring a Tolosa Syrah

Our first post on this blog was all about Tolosa's incredible 1776 Pinot Noir.  Because it was so good, Pris and I have been reticent to try the winery's standard Pinot.  However, sometime back we found a bottle of 2007 Edna Creek Syrah at Feldman's and decided to give it a tasting last Sunday.

The first thing you notice is how dark this Syrah is: deep purple and opaque.  On the nose it was all berry and plum with just a hint of pepper.  Despite its dark look, this was a relatively light wine.  Light berry and plum notes continued on the palate mixed with a touch of mineral and pepper towards the back of the mouth.  Soft tannins provide a light and smooth finish to this readily drinkable Syrah.

I paired the wine with a roasted leg of lamb seasoned with garlic and rosemary, couscous with feta, and some olives.  The well balanced wine was a perfect compliment to the mild and savory lamb.  Since Pris isn't the biggest fan of lamb, I also prepared a flank steak for her.  The Tolosa Syrah also paired surprisingly well with the steak.  It is a flavorful, but not overly beefy cut; and the lighter wine served as a nice compliment.

We purchased the Tolosa 2007 Edna Creek Syrah at Feldman's Market Center in Brownsville for $22.99.  This is a great well balanced and versatile wine.  You can pair it with a broad range of foods thanks to its lighter, but full flavored character. For more information on this good little wine you can visit:  www.tolosawinery.com

Los Vascos Revisited

Between revolving bouts of flu/colds and bad allergy attacks, February has been a very rough month for wine drinking.  I fact this is both the first and last post for the month.  However, we hope to get back into the swing of things this weekend with the BHA's Third Annual Wine Tasting.

Despite everything, I did manage to get in a good meal and nice bottle of wine last weekend.  I worked up some skirt steaks from Thomas Heller's Ad Hoc at Home and cracked open a bottle of Los Vascos' 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile's Colchagua Valley.  The previous Los Vascos review was of a different vintage of the winery's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, and you could tell the difference.  The Reserve was both more refined and bolder on the palate, but the standard Cab was still a good wine for dinner.

The 2008 Los Vascos Cab had a big nose with nice aromas of cherry, plum, and dark fruit.  On the palate it was slightly sweeter and thinner than its reserve counterpart.  Still, nice strong overtones of cherry and currant worked over the palate.  Despite being a nice Chilean Cab, the Los Vascos offered up a very mellow finish with nice soft tannins.

The Chilean Cab was tailor made for the skirt steaks, mashed potatoes, and salad with red wine/herb vinaigrette.  I know skirt steaks are fajitas, but these were cut into 6 ounce steaks; marinated in garlic, rosemary, thyme, and pepper infused olive oil; and then pan-seared and broiled to a perfect medium rare.  You could taste all the herbs in every juicy bite.  A stronger red may have overpowered the subtle flavors the marinating infused into the beef, so the mellowness of the Los Vascos was a perfect compliment.  All the flavors of a solid Cab were present, but they didn't overpower the meal.

We picked up the 2008 Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon at H.E.B. for about $12.  You can find out more about Los Vascos' wines at: http://www.lafite.com/eng/Other-Estates/Vina-Los-Vascos