Wine (1 Viewer)

[Ponder]

Hi Harry,

I bought 4 boxes of this wine the other day: Casa de la Ermita
2004 Monastrell (organic) - delicious ripe and savoury fruit, raisins v firm tannins and smoky long finish.
Delicious red wine, not cheap but no hangovers.

Are you familiar with this bottle?

Ponder

 

[HarryC13]

Hey, I know I've had something by Casa de la Ermita, but I don't think it's the Monastrell. Sometime soon I'll go through back issues of my column and see what the wine was that I had.

I have, however, had another Monastrell that is affordable and very good. It's called Castano and it is delicious ... nice deep fruit and a great aroma. If you can find it, it retails at around $8.99 a bottle. Great value.

By the way, Monastrell is what the Spanish call Mourvedre, often used as a French blending grape. The same grape is also called Mataro in some parts of the world. If you like the taste of this grape, and I really do, you can also check out Cline Cellars. They make a killer Ancient Vines Mourvedre and a Small Berries Mourvedre.

Thanks for the question! Hope you find and enjoy the Castano Monastrell!

 

[cirerita]

Is that wine from Cataluña (Catalonia)?

 

[HarryC13]

It's actually from Yecla, made by Bodegas Castano ... Vila Vinateca in Barcelona has it and you can order it online. And it appears to be even cheaper in Spain than it is here!

http://www.wine-searcher.com/regions/yecla/1

Maybe this will make up for the Tres Ojos Ganacha that I can't seem to find ... :confused:

 

[Ponder]

Hey, I know I've had something by Casa de la Ermita, but I don't think it's the Monastrell. Sometime soon I'll go through back issues of my column and see what the wine was that I had.

I have, however, had another Monastrell that is affordable and very good. It's called Castano and it is delicious ... nice deep fruit and a great aroma. If you can find it, it retails at around $8.99 a bottle. Great value.

By the way, Monastrell is what the Spanish call Mourvedre, often used as a French blending grape. The same grape is also called Mataro in some parts of the world. If you like the taste of this grape, and I really do, you can also check out Cline Cellars. They make a killer Ancient Vines Mourvedre and a Small Berries Mourvedre.

Thanks for the question! Hope you find and enjoy the Castano Monastrell!

I'll look for the Castano Monastrell, but I'm kinda stubborn and always try to find organic wine. Call it a hobby...

Last year I drank Parra, La Meseta Tempranillo 2005, La Mancha. Nice, dark taste. A few boxes later I opened another bottle and it tasted like a Beaujolais Nouveau...
I checked the bottle and it was a Parra, La Meseta Tempranillo 2006, La Mancha. Tried another bottle, same result.

Bad year or not ripe yet...?

How are your experiences with organic wine?

 

[roni]

How are your experiences with organic wine?

By 'organic' you mean 'biodynamic' do you?
If so:

Though I'm usually the cheap guy concerning wine, I once had a bottle of the secondary-wine (right expression?), the Savennieres, by NICOLAS JOLY. Payed around 25.- EUR (approx 35.- USD) for it. Not my usual range I can tell you!

It was about 8-9 years old and ripe at it's best. The bottle needed (and that was stated on the label) to be opened AT LEAST one day before drinking! That's because biodynamic wines are very compact.

It was not an 'easy' wine. It was the most complex and interesting and enthralling experience I ever had with a wine.

One day I will go try his primary wine (the Coulée de Serrant), even if these are starting at 50.- EUR (70.- USD). Joly has a website, where he informs about biodynamic winemaking.
http://www.coulee-de-serrant.com/fichetechniqueangl.htm
http://www.coulee-de-serrant.com/biodynamieangmenu.htm
http://www.coulee-de-serrant.com/presseang.html
He is a crazy guy. (I've read a book by him on the topic too.)

 

[bright]

..interesting info, roni.

...i once drank some rothschild,popes castle nr.9,:).
A lasting experience.

 

[Ninjerk]

I've been trying out the wines that my employer sells just as an easy way to get into wine. Thus far I've had Redwood Creek Cabernet Sauvignon and Beaulieu Vineyards Merlot, and a couple of other wines in unrelated experiments. I'm finishing the merlot as we speak since I was working since 1AM and I need to do some extra unwinding.

 

[hank solo]

...and a couple of other wines in unrelated experiments...

I also love science. :cool:

 

[mjp]

Read a funny sort-of-wine-related bit in the Lester Bangs bio Let It Blurt recently.

Bangs was one of the first American journalists to go to Jamaica to see just what the hell was brewing down there with this weird new Reggae music stuff, and he spent a day in Lee "Scratch" Perry's Black Ark studio.

You may or may not know that the Rastafarians favor the natural herb over man-made alcohol (which they basically considered a toll of oppression). But Bangs was never much for herb, and as he was sitting in a dark corner of Black Ark, Perry suddenly came over to him and said, "you a wine mon! I always know a wine mon!" and laid some potent Jamaican local wine on him. That had a lasting impression on Bangs, but then Perry was one of a kind.

Until reading this book I had no idea Bangs was an early proponent of Reggae. Same guy who wrote a glowing review of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music (a double album featuring exactly 16 minutes and one second of multiple overdubs of guitar feedback per side). Go figure.

I never contributed to the "5 writers besides Bukowski" thread, but if I did, Lester Bangs would be in there.

 

[the only good poet]

and laid some potent Jamaican local wine on him.

my jamaican neighbours invited me to their daughter's post-christening party and they laid some jamaican rum on me. i wasn't right for two days.

 

[HarryC13]

June edition of Ten Dollar Tastings wine column now online

Hi all, it's been up for a while but have been busy and forgot to let you know. Just follow the link in my signature to go there.

If anyone wants me to add you to my mailing list, let me know. Also, ideas or themes for upcoming columns are also welcome. Hope you enjoy.

 

[Ponder]

Maybe one of the moderators can add this thread to this .....[done].....thread?

 

[Carterofmars]

Hey, you wanna make a 10.00 bottle of wine taste like a 40.00 bottle.... decant. But let it sit for a good 3 hours or so...


joe

 

[Black Swan]

Hey, great tip,
that is, if I can stay away from the bottle
for three hours.

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Three hours after uncorking, it's already at the wastewater treatment plant.

 

[slimedog]

Bangs was who I read when I thought my only addiction was music, it wasn't till years later that I realized he was the first writer that made me want to read.

 

[mjp]

Bangs wrote some liner notes for an album that went on about Bukowski for a few paragraphs. In fact, the "liner notes" were several pages long, so I don't know what album cover they would have fit on.

He was mining the same vein as Hunter Thompson at basically the same time. They just went after different subjects (and Bangs had the misfortune of dying 25 years before HST).

 

[slimedog]

I agree but Bangs was a billion times better, tis a shame he didn't stick around and really write some novels or short stories etc. I like Thompson's Rum Diaries, I think his first book, than all his gonzo stuff.

 

[HarryC13]

Maybe one of the moderators can add this thread to this .....[done].....thread?

Yeah, I tried to start a new thread because people seemed interested in this in the past, but someone buried it here ... thanks for noticing, Jan. :(

 

[Hosh]

Hey--anyone tried La Posta - a malbec from Mendoza in Argentina? Yummy!

 

[hoochmonkey9]

wish them luck...

going to a wine festival tonight. 13 countries, over 300 wines....

wait 'til they get a load of me.....

heh.

 

[Black Swan]

Hooch, we want a list of the best.
Please , bring a note pad in case your memory fails. . .

 

[hoochmonkey9]

they pass out a booklet and one of those little golf pencils so you can take notes.
the booklet has all the wines listed, as well as all the award winners from the festival.
I take notes for the first hour, trying to hit the award winners. the next hour I spend time in countries that usually fall in my wine buying (Australia, Argentina, South Africa, Chile. $10 to $15 bottles). the last hour, I find the country with the shortest lineup. last year it was Lebanon. no shit, Lebanon. it was red wine, 2 choices. sweet or dry. friendly bunch, though. I preferred the dry.

 

[Black Swan]

Good strategist Hooch,
Vatican city being the smallest country in the world, I bet they don't have a bottle to spare! And probably the best wine.
Have fun , don't drive!

World's Smallest Countries
The 10 smallest countries in the world:

Vatican City - 0.2 square miles
Monaco - 0.7 square miles
Nauru - 8.5 square miles
Tuvalu - 9 square miles
San Marino - 24 square miles
Liechtenstein - 62 square miles
Marshall Islands - 70 square miles
Saint Kitts and Nevis - 104 square miles
Seychelles - 107 square miles
Maldives - 115 square miles

 

[Cassady]

You should stick to the classics.

What's the word: Thunderbird

 

[informal]

I like the large cheap red wines best

 

[roni]

2 weeks ago, while falling in love, i drank a bottle of 1996 Sauterne to go with my mood.

(Sauterne is a sweet, white Bordeau that tastes like fairytales.)

 

[Black Swan]

How wonderful Roni,to be in love.
so we assume the bottle of Sauterne 1996 to be in the recycling bin,
May we ask if the lover was a fairytale?;)

 

[roni]

May we ask if the lover was a fairytale?

at least she looks like a fairy.

 

[1fsh2fsh]

well good luck to you Roni. I've always had better luck just falling in love with the wine....:cool:

 

[roni]

...I've always had better luck just falling in love with the wine...

since you put it that way: me too.
which brings us back to topic - the wine.

i still have a bunch of these 1996 Sauternes, because a friend of mine (not a girl-friend, but a close friend) was having a baby in 1996 and since this was a good year for Sauternes, i thought it would be a nice idea to buy several bottles and keep them till her child is 16 or 18 or something and then give it to her on her birthday.

Not too many years left to wait...