Monthly Archives: May 2012

May24

Novelty Hill | Januik Tasting

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Novelty Hill | Januik Tasting

The Novelty Hill | Januik Winery is located along with at elast a couple dozen other wineries in the quaint, little town Woodinville, Wa. just outside Seattle. Winemaker Mike Januik, a former back-country ranger, was the head winemaker at Chateau Ste. Michelle for 10 years before leaving to start Januik Winery in 1999. Counted among Washington’s most acclaimed winemakers, he’s been making wine in the Columbia Valley since 1984.

Mike Januik makes wines for both of the winery’s two brands: Novelty Hill and Januik. The fruit for both brands comes from the Columbia Valley AVA in Washington. The estate vineyard is the Stillwater Creek Vineyard, a warm site known for its steep slopes and fractured basalt.

Both Januik and Novelty Hill wines have received praise from some heavy-hitting wine critics, and after tasting some wines in their expansive lineup, both brands showed very well. Here’s some thoughts on what we tasted that’s not so subtly slanted towards Novelty Hill wines (…and no Cabs in this roundup):

The Novelty Hill 2008 Stillwater Chardonnay (1,222 cases) from the Stillwater Creek vineyard, and barrel fermented and aged sur lie for 10 months, made me use the adjective “mouth-popping” for the first time ever. Don’t know where that came from, be it inspiration of the moment or a vestige of some review I had read in the past left behind in my noggin’. But yes, I dare say, there was mouth-popping pear on the palate with this Chard. The color of a pale lemon, with a silky smooth texture, and a creaminess to balance those poppin’ pears, this beauty’s ready to drink now (and the Wine Advocate says it’ll “provide enjoyment over the next 4 years” though you’ll need a few bottles for that kind of longevity).

At only 188 cases, the 2008 Novelty Hill Sangiovese from the Stillwater Creek Vineyard will most certainly be a hard-to-find wine. Aged 20 months in French oak. Ripe, stewed fruits on the nose, reminiscent of hot, southern Italy in my wandering thoughts. Spicy, peppery, with a slightly bitter finish. I wrote in my initial notes that it is intense, though winemaker Mike Januik said “intense” is an adjective best reserved for camping trips, so I’ll try to scratch that. My immediate thought was that this would pair well, if not perfectly, with flank steak fresh of the grill.

2006 Novelty Hill Columbia Valley Syrah – Dark, ripe fruit. An easy finish that lingered like a welcome dinner guest. The fruit for this wine comes 70% from the Stillwater Creek estate vineyard with another 30% from the Lewis Vineyard, both in the Columbia Valley.

The 2008 Januik Lewis Vineyard Syrah (only 415 cases made and now sold out) has received plenty of critical acclaim, with 91 pts from Wine Spectator and 90 from the Wine Advocate among others. Having spent 18 months in French oak and a year in bottle, it was now full of peppery spices and dark berries. The tannins had already mellowed nicely, and there’s a lovely acidity, and an elegant finish. This Syrah comes from 15-year-old vines cropped at two tons per acre in the Lewis Vineyard in the Columbia Valley just outside Prosser.

2008 Novelty Hill Roussanne (90 pts. Wine Advocate) – 296 cases with fruit from the Stillwater Creek Vineyard, and Sur lie aged for 10 months. 100% Roussanne. Pleasant, fruity nose. Citrusy mouthfeel. Clean, balance acidity. Washington State is not at all known for Roussanne, but with this wine, it’s done right.

The 2008 Novelty Hill Spring Run rose (a blend of Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre from the Stillwater Sreek Vineyard) Pearly pink in the glass, offered very sweet, candy-like fruit. A pleasant though sugary finish. A fresh alternative for White Zin drinkers. Old time general store candy in a glass.

Architecturally, the Novelty Hill | Januik winery itself is worth the visit. The minimalist concrete and wood structure was a sight to behold, and the clean lines of the tasting room with massive windows opening up onto the sunken barrel and vat room impressively combine enjoyment and industry. I personally also loved the cool moods of the Nancy Farrar Coughlin surfer watercolors on the tasting room walls, and would clamor to get a pair of these on our walls.

For more on Januik and Novelty Hill wines, as well as other Washington State wines, wineries and winemakers, I’d recommend picking up Washington Wines and Wineries: Essential Guide in paperback or for Kindle.

May18

Bordeaux 2003 Vintage in the Rearview Mirror

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Bordeaux 2003 Vintage in the Rearview Mirror

In 2003, many Bordeaux wine barons made a lot of noise in the media about the supposed excellence of that vintage even though the region had suffered through such a heat wave that, in Saint-Emilion for example, harvesting needed to be done very early. Some grapes were burned up, others under ripe, causing their critics to scoff at the proclamations of a great vintage. So looking back, let’s see what became of it all.

At winedoctor.com, Chris Kissack reviewed some wines from the vintage two years after the fact, and remarked that surprisingly “the red wines do not, on the whole, suffer from low acidity” and that tannins are prominent in many of the wines, but that “at this stage, offer typical mineral-blackcurrant flavors of Bordeaux.” So judging by Chris’s thoughts, it was still hard to pin down the verdict on these wines in 2005.

Then again, in 2011, Chris took another look at this unique “heatwave vintage”, as he called it. Chris pointed out his curiosity on the shelf life of these wines, which has had critics split into camps – but more on that further down – and himself found the vintage to have a multiple personality disorder in this regard. His take is thorough and I recommend you to read both his article sin their entirety.

Simon Woolf at The Morning Claret referred to the steep criticism of the vintage as “scaremongering” in his 2011 review of Phélan Ségur 2003, and 8 years on from the vintage, found the Phélan Ségur to be impressive and even a value, which is as he mentioned, more often than not difficult for Bordeaux wine. But this is only one wine, so on we go to find more clues.I wonder what some of the big fish have said…

Well, Robert Parker wasn’t handing out 100 point scores like bronze medals in Olympic boxing as he has more recently. He gave the highest school grades to Ausone (St-Emilion), and the first growths Lafite and Latour, then Margaux (and Jancis Robinson panned the lesser Margaux’s for over-oaking, so there is a clear falling into camps here), Montrose (St-Estèphe) and Pavie (St-Emilion), which surprised many European tasters who were especially surprised by Pavie’s grades. This all resulted in a war of words between Parker and Jancis Robinson (in the press) and created what Robinson humorously dubbed the “mid-Atlantic rift”. Robinson labelled the wine ‘ridiculous’ and Zinfandel-like. As Decanter’s James Lawther also bestowed praise, perhaps the heat had molded 2003 into a wine fit for that niche of the American market where big Cab, Zins and Oak Monsters dwell. Perhaps to support this theory, it should be noted that Parker marked down wines such as Canon La Gaffelière, which he said ‘lacks depth, concentration and length’, and Gazin while Steven Spurrier, who called the same wines ‘the successes of the vintage’, diplomatically responded that ‘This shows Parker appreciates the ripeness of St-Emilion more than the Brits do,’.

A portion of critics, among them Jancis Robinson (see her article 2003 Bordeaux – Drink Up!), have suggested that wines from the 2003 Bordeaux vintage are for short to mid-term drinking, while others have thought these wines could hold for up to 30 years. But I like Chris Kissack’s take on it – that this vintage has multiple personalities – though Chris’s slant when it comes to the reds from 2003 appears to be more for aging than immediate drinking (his stance was in 2011).

So in looking at all this, it could be said that the 2003 heatwave gave to the Bordelais something different in their bottles. Not worse overall, but a wine geared perhaps for a different audience, or giving something else – daresay even foreign – to the traditional audience. Difference and change always breeds resistance and criticism, and the initial pontifications of the Bordeaux wine growers added fuel to the fire at a time when in France the larger region as a whole was suffering from the same heat wave, and crops were being culled to make the best of a bad situation. And yet the elite among them insisted this would be a fantastic vintage.

Think what you may though, it is wonderful to see such passion for wine. Bordeaux 2003 engendered stronger feelings than probably any region’s vintage has in the past, and I look forward to the next vintage that entrenches the passionate critics and winos across the planet.

May16

2006 Chapillon Priorat Reves

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2006 Chapillon Priorat Reves

Simply wow! 2006 Chapillon Priorat Reves is a great wine, and offers tremendous value! A blend of 40% Carignan, 35% Garnacha, 25% Syrah from Priorat, that small region about 100km southeast of Barcelona known for its steep hillsides, hot days and unforgiving, slate-based soils.

Dark and dense, full of spices and dark fruit, and soft vanilla. The oakiness was spot on, and the tannins on the mild side. Having been opened for a short while, a hint of smoky fat developed nicely, and it kept on changing, with pleasantly surprising spicy notes materializing. So if you do go for this wine, take your time with it to enjoy all that it has ti offer.

Seeing some mixed reviews on Cellar Tracker, and on a tangent, interesting to see the Parkerized scoring by everyone on Cellar Tracker. Is this standard? But I digress…

Anyway, this is an old world wine best enjoyed with a meal of barbecued or roasted meat, and we’ve already gone back for more before it runs out. At $8.99 from Trader Joe’s, this is a must buy wine!

May10

Rudy Kurniawan Indicted

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Rudy Kurniawan Indicted

I wrote about the arrest of alleged wine counterfeiter Rudy Kurniawan back in March, and now Wine Spectator is reporting that Kurniawan has been indicted on four counts of mail and wire fraud in New York.

For more on this, check out the Wine Spectator article.

Also, for a closer look at the counterfitting itself that is going on, I urge you to pop on over to Wine Berserkers. Very insightful and intriguing information on how you can spot counterfeit bottles, and how many of these fakes there may well be at auctions.