Proprietary labels aren’t new in the wine business. Remember Blue Nun? Or Hearty Burgundy? What was on those labels had no relationship to what was in the bottle. For centuries, most wines were named after the winemaker or the grape or its ancestral home. But sometime in the last decade, wknemakers and their marketing departments began stretching, and sometimes it’s fun, especially when the word plays are clever.
I’ve touched on this topic before, but a pair of recent samples brought a little intrigue, as well as some wine, into what we call the tasting room, a occasional change from the dining room. The wines cost about $12 at retail. Monogamy, subtitled "Truly. Madly. Deeply," is a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon from the North Coast, an area that includes Sonoma and Mendocino counties. It has a toouch of Merlot and it’s good, if not great. Easy drinking, and a good companion to burgers or pasta, Monogamy is a wine that probably will bring more conversation before tasting than after.
A better conversation piece, and a more enjoyable wine for our sampling, was labeled Pro-Mis-Q-Ous, and the label includes the tease that the wine is, "[Referring to many partners.] The act of blending multiple, mutually attractive grape varieties in an assortment of unorthodox combinations. Implies a wanton disregard for convention. May result in an intense sensory experience. Practice safe sipping." The Rhone-style blend is non-vintage, contains 45 percent Zinfandel, 35 percent Merlot, 15 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 5 percent Syrah. We found it extremely tasty, with the spice of the Zin and the softness of the Merlot working well together to offer flavor and depth. The Cab brings plummy richness and the Syrah a note of darkness, hard to explain, but that’s the effect it has on me.
Canopy Management, the company that makes the wine and notes, "Times are serious. Wine, not so much," also makes a pair of whites under the Pro-Mis-Q-Ous label, one a blend of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Gewurztraminer, the other a Pinot Grigio.
These labels offer information that makes the wine a conversation piece before the cork is drawn and after the bottle is empty. They make wine-drinking fun, and that’s exactly what it should be.
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When it comes to value, year in and year out, it’s difficult to beat Bogle, a 40-year-old, family-owned winery in Clarksburg, Calif., near Sacramento in Yolo County, northeast of San Francisco. The family makes a goodly number of wines, from grapes on their property, or from grapes purchased from other vineyards around the state. Most are barely in two figures, a lot at $11 or $12, and the ones I’ve been drinking through the years are excellent companions to food and fine representations of the grapes.
The Bogle family makes wines from its own vineyards (those are the most expensive); many, however, are designated "California," which means the grapes are from other areas. Some are labeled with a specific county, meaning that the grapes are grown there.
Four recent tastings, three at $11 and a 2006 Pinot Noir for only two bucks more, all showed real style, with lots of fruit and rich, deep balance. All are made to be drunk rather young, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Once purchased, most wines only age the few hours between the shop and the dinner table.
The Pinot Noir, from the Russian River Valley, home to excellent grapes, spends 12 months in American and French oak, and displayed the classic berry qualities of the wine, with a hint of violent in the nose, and good oak on the palate. Cabernet Sauvignon is from grapes grown in Lodi, where the temperatures help them ripen early, Clarksburg and Sonoma. The wine, with faint aromas of violets, is aged for 16 months in American oak, developing good balance and a hint of tobacco on the tongue. Petit Sirah, from Clarksburg and Lodi, is a wine so deeply red it is almost black, and is extremely rich, with a long, extremely smooth finish. It will go very well with lamb. Old vine Zinfandel, from vines 40-80 years old in Lodi, Amador and Fiddletown, ages for 10 months in American oak and has excellent balance, berry tones on the palate and an affinity for spicy foods.
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A few wines from Bulgaria arrived for a recent tasting and were sampled, but proved not particularly well-adapted to the Missouri palate. They are only $8, so if you want to show your friends (whom you may not have afterward) or taste them yourself, it’s not a big deal. Once again, there’s some word play, this time the Latin "Veni, vidi, vici," from Caesar’s "I came, I saw, I conquered," but a fourth word, "Vini," joins the group.
Chateau Boyar makes a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot, both from 2006, but both rather harsh and short on finish. Not for the faint of heart or refined of tongue.
–Joe