My wife's birthday

Last Friday we went to the Palace restaurant in the Cincinnatian for my wife's birthday. They have a Prix fixe menu with two savory items from the menu and one sweet for $44.00. We both ordered appetizers and I had a chicken dish and my wife had a salmon dish. The food was exceptional. We chose a Verdicchio to have with our meal. This is a wine comes from the Marche region of central Italy on the Adriatic. More specifically it comes from the zone Castelli di Jesi. This particular example comes from a wine maker named Maurizio Marchetti. This is a vibrant white wine light enough to pair well with fish and chicken, yet it has enough body to hold up well with rich sauces. We both very much enjoyed this wine and finished it in the room with out accompaniment and it was just as good without food. This is a nice change of pace for a summer sipper. The restaurant price was $35 and I think it perhaps could be had for as little as $10 to $12 dollars retail. For those with a bit of adventure give it a try.

Our New Venture

After getting the short of the end of the stick on an attempt to purchase an existing wine store in Cincinnati, my wife and I decided to look for a building and open a wine store and tasting room from scratch. We have found a building in Mt Washington and will close on it within several weeks. We have purchased a liquor license, that we are in the process of transferring to our business. We have begun jumping through all of the other hoops to get to our opening day. It is our hope to be open with our store by mid September or early October. I have established a Facebook fan page "Water Tower Fine Wines and Tasting Room" and a Twitter acct. "wtfinewines". Both sites will have updates with progress and the twitter acct will have information on what wines I am opening each day, that can be sampled for a small fee. Please visit and follow these pages for updates and We will look forward to seeing you once we are open.

Great Value

Last Friday I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to join #TTL or twitter taste live. The featured winery was Clos LaChance and we were trying several of their entry level or Hummingbird series wines. Included were an unoaked Chardonnay Glittering- Throated Emerald 2008 Monterey Co., Cabernet Sauvignon Ruby - Throated 2006 Central Coast and finally Meritage Crimson Topaz 2007 Central Coast. First as a blogger, I was privileged enough to get these gratis. That said, I have no issues with pointing out if I do not like a wine, because what I may find a flaw may be desirable to others. First we tried the Chardonnay, which if tried blind all of those assembled would have sworn was a New Zealand Sauv Blanc. The wine had loads of citrus with hints of other tropical fruit, which to me was largely overridden by the grapefruit. I am not a fan of citrus/grassy sauv blancs, however this wine was very refreshing and would have been perfectly suited for a hot evening on the deck. Next we tried the Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine was great,particularly for the money (under $20). There was rich black raspberry flavors that coated my tongue. This wine outshone it's price point and left me wondering what their more expensive wines are like. Finally we dug into the Meritage. This also was a treat, with traces of red, black and blue fruit all melded into a harmonious blend of flavors that also lingered nicely in my mouth. I was really impressed with these wines which priced out from mid teens to mid twenties.
To me good values and though the chardonnay tasted more like a sauv blanc to me that should not be an issue for those who appreciate grapefruit and grass in their white wines. If you come across these wines or any others from Clos LaChance, I would not hesitate to try them as long as the price is right for you.

wine blogging wednesday

The topic this month is California Dreaming or remembering the first magical wine from California. My wife and I shared our development of wine appreciation. This was largely accomplished through a long series of tastings we attended at a now closed wine store in Cincinnati( The Mushroom ) from the mid 90's until they closed in the early 2000's. We were learning about wine at a time when California wines were still reasonable and when I look back at my tasting sheets from those days, I see many of the wines that today are considered cult wines and are substantially more expensive. The one wine that sticks out through all of that fantastic clutter is Bouchaine and their wonderful Carneros Pinot Noir. The wine, at the time was made by Eugenia Keegan, who is very highly respected as a wine maker. We had tried Bouchaine Pinot Noirs at 3 separate tasting and without remembering it, each time purchased another bottle. The price at the time was in the mid twenties, which was at the higher end for our wine buying habits of the time. Shortly after discovering the wine it changed dramatically and was almost not recognizable. We subsequently found that Eugenia Keegan had left the winery. There were many years were we stayed away from Bouchaine because it had changed so dramatically. Just last year however I attended a tasting of Bouchaine wines and was thrilled to find that the quality had returned and, though not the same as it had been, it was once again a very good Pinot Noir. Better still their base Pinot was still in the mid twenties price wise. This is still a special wine to my wife and I and will always hold a special place in the history of our wine enjoyment.

A rare find

Yesterday, I had the pleasure f a attending a wine trade tasting, at which there were a lot of good wines in a variety of price points. There was one producer that stood out for me though. It was Bonaccorsi Wine Company and I had the pleasure of sampling three of their single vineyard Pinot Noirs and single vineyard Chardonnay.I had a nice conversation with the wine maker Jenne Lee Bonaccorsi. The wines were quite sophisticated. The chardonnay was lush with ripe tropical and rich mouth feel. All three Pinot Noirs were very good, but I was particularly fond of the 2004 Melville. There seemed to be a greater depth of flavor and lushness here that I have found with other premium small production Pinot Noirs after additional time in the bottle. I have found that these wines compare favorably with some of the fine burgundies, yet retain the playfulness often found in New World wines when compared to Old World siblings. It will be exciting to see where this young winery goes in it's next decade of wine making.

It's Rose' season! Maybe?

Last night we opened a bottle of 2006 David Girard Rose, which I bought at Arrow Wine in Dayton last year. I had tasted David Girard Red wines before and been very impressed, so when I saw this wine we decided to try it. Now that we have I have even more respect for this producer. The wine is a rose of blended Rhone varietals and has rich red fruit flavors usually associated with Red wines. There are hints of cedar and a great balance of tannin and acid. This was a very pleasant wine that even though it was theoretically over the hill for a Rose, it was still very fresh and vibrant, not the least bit washed out. I would be comfortable recommending this producer's Rose from newer vintages based on the quality of this older wine. As it warms up give it a try if you can find it.

Last weekend

Last weekend one of the local distributors had a meet and greet at his warehouse with Jim Anderson, who is part of the ownership/winemaking team at Patricia Green in Oregon. He and Patricia had previously been the wine making team at Tori Mor. We were treated to a great selection of their current vintages a one off sauvignon Blanc called Panama White 2006. This was a neat wine. The 2006 growing season had been very hot, so the winery team was occupied harvesting their Pinot Noir fruit when they would normally have been been picking the Sauv. Blanc. Thus this fruit was harvested at almost 20 brix and was destined to produce a really hot wine. It was decided to ferment the juice in neutral oak This gives the wine much more body than is normally found in Sauv Blanc and gives it a hint of creaminess while still maintaining some of the citrus more common to the grape. Though this wine is over 15% alcohol, it is smooth without a hint of the heat that one would expect. This, with the wonderful Pinots should have been enough, but Jim also brought six older vintages including a 1997 Balcombe vineyard from their time at Tori Mor. This twelve year old Pinot was still fantastic and still had great fruit. For all of you out there who were under the impression that Pinots did not age this wine shows that they can hold up beautifully. I am finding that there is a whole crop of American Pinot producers capable of making wines that will age. Let me know if you find a good age-able Pinot , I always enjoy finding new ones.