Episode 174: A Visit with Wayne at Youngberg Hill
March 25, 2013
We found out about Youngberg Hill last year, and were happy to have a chance to taste with Wayne Bailey this past week. Wayne is the wine grower and maker at Youngberg Hill. With vineyards near the top of the hill, Youngberg Hill has vines growing in a few different soil types allowing them to show off the versatility of Pinot Noir. For this show, we taste the 2007, 2008, and 2009 Youngberg Hill Jordan Block Pinot Noir. This is the highest section of their vineyard, and the differences in these three vintages are quite evident.
When you’re shopping, and don’t know the labels, why do you choose the wine that you choose?
We’ve been a fan of Matello Wines for years after discovering Marcus at the tasting room in Adea. Since then, his operation has grown, and he’s moved into a new space in McMinnville. We’ve been trying to get a show together for over a year so it was very exciting when all of our schedules lined up on a Friday night. We were offered five wines, and we were unable to select bottles to drop, so we ended up doing a long show. We think that Marcus provides some excellent commentary on his wine making philosophy, and the individual wines as well. Matello is a great part of the Oregon wine community, and we’re excited to share this conversation and some insight into how his wines age. In part 1 we taste the 2010 Matello Clover (Pinot Gris), and the 2007 and 2010 vintages of the Matello Whistling Ridge Pinot Noir. In part 2 we taste the 2008 Matello Souris Pinot Noir to discover that it’s improved a lot, and that we drank it way too early when we tried it about 2 years ago. We end with the 2009 Matello Fool’s Journey (Syrah) from the Deux Vert Vineyard.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Will Ben Roethlisberger be back for the playoffs?
Wine Is Serious Business 155: Trying Wines From North Carolina
November 3, 2012
Last summer, Joy picked up 3 wines from North Carolina for us to check out. Neither one of us had tasted wine from North Carolina before, so we were excited to check it out. The Cabernet Franc reminded Dan a bit of wines he tasted in Virginia. And, after the fact, we discovered that we tasted our first wine made from Muscadine grapes, the Cypress Bend Vineyards Roseneath. We also taste the Biltmore Pinot Noir and the 2008 Childress Vineyards Barrel Select North Carolina Cabernet Franc.
Besides the iPad, what tablet has your attention?
Episode 142: Kirkland Wine
August 5, 2012
CNBC published an interview with the wine buyer for Costco where it was implied that wine was a commodity like tinfoil or toilet paper. We disagree profoundly with this idea, but we do recognize that this mentality drives a huge portion of the wine sales in the United States. We were curious about what wine selected specifically to deliver on this philosophy would taste like, and we wanted to share our thoughts here. We taste the 2008 Kirkland Signature Series Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2009 Kirkland Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, and the 2010 Kirkland Chateauneuf du Papes Cuvee de Nalys. Not surprisingly, they taste like bulk wine. We’re grateful to be living in a region where we have lots of small producers making interesting wine, and we encourage you to look beyond bulk wine whenever you have the chance!
When did you first realize it was worth the effort to look for more interesting wine?
Our friends Kevin and Rick spent ten years living in California’s Central Coast wine country. Since we don’t have a lot of experience with California wine, and since we focus heavily on wines from the Northwest, they offered to open some favorites from their cellar for a show. They’ve always shared good wine at other events, so we were both excited to give it a try. The results far exceeded our expectations, and set new standards for our palates in regard to Pinot Noir and Syrah from California. They were so good, that we even became self conscious of our enthusiasm. But, sip after sip confirmed that these wines hit our palates very well. We tasted the 2007 Rosemary’s Vineyard Pinot Noir from Talley Vineyards, the 2008 The Hedge Syrah from Terry Hoage Vineyards, the 2009 Parea from Transcendence, and the 2006 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Chateau Margene.
Did you know about Central Coast wine before this show?
Episode 105: Rasa Vineyards Lineup
November 14, 2011
In Episode 84, we tasted the Composer Riesling from RaSa Vineyards in Washington. Our friend Scott shared the video with the winery, and they were kind enough to work with him to get us samples of their current releases. Since Scott is much more familiar with wines from Washington, we thought he’d be a great guest to help us discuss the wines. They were all fantastic, and we hope you enjoy the stories about the wines that Scott was able to share. We taste the 2010 Lyricist Riesling, the 2009 Vox Populi Mourvedre, the 2008 QED, the 2008 Principia, and the 2008 Creative Impulse. We typically pre-taste samples to select 2 or 3 for a show, but all of these were drinking so well that we wanted to talk about all of them. Episode 105 will be split into two parts, with the Principia and Creative Impulse appearing in Part 2. The question of the day will wait until then.
Part 1: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTGcVasjVec
Part 2: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMm_fDgtFXA
Give the 8 professional sports teams between football, baseball, and basketball that do not end in the letter “S”.
Episode 100: Celebrating With Two Favorites
October 12, 2011
Dan’s back from vacation, and we were very happy to get episode 100 on the camera. To celebrate, Chas picked out the 2008 DePonte Cellars Dundee Hills Pinot Noir, and Dan picked the 1992 Jos. Christoffel Jr. Ürziger Würzgarten Auslese. We really appreciate those of you who have watched and engaged with us over the past couple of years, and we’re both very excited about the content coming in the near future!
What did you do with your summer?
A New York viewer who loves Finger Lakes Riesling saw one of our older blogs, and wanted to share some more New York Riesling with us and the audience. While travelling he generously brought us 3 bottles to try, and Dan added one that he had picked up on his own. We’re very happy to be able to explore New York some more, because we consider them vital to the search for the great American Riesling, even though it’s more difficult to buy them out here. As an additional bonus, our friend Vivian from Vivacious Gourmand joined us as a guest. She’s always been one to appreciate Riesling, and you’ll see that she provides some good discriptions and thoughts on wine as well. For this show, we taste the 2009 Heart and Hands Reserve Riesling, the 2009 Thirsty Owl Wine Company Dry Riesling, the 2008 Ravines Dry Riesling, and the 2009 Billsboro Riesling. It was great to see some unique characteristics from the grape that we’re not used to seeing in local wines!
We encourage you to check out Vivian’s blog at vivaciousgourmand.com
What do you do with your leftover wine?