Chateau Ricaud Bordeaux 2008

Oh, yes. I felt the need to indulge in one of my comfort foods - comfort wines? A good ol' Bordeaux. 


I don't know why Bordeaux is my favorite, my standby. Perhaps because it was one of the first wines I tried that I liked, or I get nostalgic about living in France and the taste, smell, feel of a Bordeaux wine sends me back to a summer evening in Paris. In any case, whenever I'm in a grumpy mood or feeling a little down, I look for a bottle of nice Bordeaux red (but not in an alcoholic way, really!) Sort of how animal crackers and Kool Aid send you right back to Kindergarten. There's something charmingly simplistic and quintessential about it to me.


Some people dislike the Bordeaux wines because, frankly, they all taste the same. There's not much variety, if you control for quality. Well, being a creature of habit (I hate to admit it), I think of Bordeaux as my old reliable. Also, it's hard to find a bad one. But it's easy to find a cheap one! Especially if you are living in Europe (like me).


This particular wine, Chateau Ricaud 2008, I snapped up at Merkur during a BOGO - normally priced at €4   apiece, I got two for €4. Lucky me!

Glühwein!

It's Glühwein time here in Austria - has been for about a month, actually, but I'm just getting around to posting a comment now...been enjoying it too much, perhaps?!?


For those unfamiliar, Glühwein is the German-speaking term for mulled wine. It is typically red, but also comes in a white variety (similar to Sturm, though the law's the opposite, with white being the norm and red the outlier). The Christmas tradition of German mulled wine uses spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, orange peel, sometimes vanilla pods, cloves and sugar added to boiled wine. 


In Vienna, you can visit a charming Christkindlmarkt (Christmas market) - there are dozens around the city - and sample Glühwein or Punsch (rum, sugar and orange or other fruit flavors) at one of the stands (€5-7 for a 1/4 l mug, which you can keep after draining, or give back for a €2 refund). Or, you can buy your own pre-mixed tea bags of spices and add them to the wine of your choice at home for a cheaper version (€2 for a 2-liter bottle of junk wine + €2 for a box of spice bags = party-sized tank of Glühwein). The choice is yours - and your liver's! 

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Stellenrust Pinotage

This South African pinotage has similar taste and tannins to the California wine I bought a couple of months ago from Wine & Co. I'm starting to think whoever is in charge of stocking at W&C is letting his or her taste buds get in the way of a diversity of stocking choices. For everything under €10 that is.


These wines are both too sweet for my taste. As I've mentioned, I like my reds meaty (this from a vegetarian!) and had I known that pinotage was a mix of pinot noir and another, lesser grape, (see here for Wikipedia page) I probably would have skipped it - yes, even though it was on sale!


As things stand, I may have to skip W&C for a while. Their reds are seemingly disappointing, and why splurge on a bad bottle of €9 stuff from South Africa when I can get a perfectly good bottle of Bordeaux at Billa for under €3? I did, nonetheless drink the whole bottle (it's bad luck to waste wine!) so it couldn't have been that terrible.

Did You Know?

Did you know that most wine does not improve with age? Only bottles marked "vintage" are suitable for aging and will gather more flavor as they get older. In addition, there is a classification of of types within the vintages, which is why a 1994 Bordeaux may be worth more than a 1986  Chianti. Additionally, the growing conditions of the season impact the final product, with warmer, sunnier years making for better grape harvests, ergo better wines.

Of course, new wines like a Beaujolais should be drunk immediately, not saved. You probably won't find any vintage wines on this blog in the near future anyway, unless one of us wins the lottery!

Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

I bought this wine for Halloween (think: devil) but didn't have the chance to drink it until now.

It was definitely worth the wait, and the extra cash spent (a whole 8 euros, I know - broke the bank on this one)! Delicioso. Very much like a Tempranillo, not too sweet, not too dry. A little spicy, but not devilishly spicy (wink, wink). It was bought on the same trip to Spar that featured the delicious Hiedler Veltliner.  All in all, a great round of purchases, I think.

Their website has a lackluster commercial in league with Manchester United (...in league with - get it? OK, so it's not all that clever) that probably fared a lot better with South American audiences than with me. Perhaps you need to be a real fútbol fan and not just a poseur (i.e. me). 

Jamek 2011 Grüner Veltliner

Oh, autumn! The most wonderful thing about autumn is the harvest - as it is getting closer to Thanksgiving, my American upbringing is kicking in and I am getting excited about stuffing and pumpkin pie! Here in Austria, the focus is not exactly on turkey and stuffing yourself until you explode, but quite a few seasonal delicacies have sprung up at the Naschmarkt, including mushrooms (it's mushroom season and a favorite Austrian pasttime is picking your own...) and Kürbis (translated as both "squash" and "pumpkin"). I've been experimenting with both ingredients, and since I decided to make a chantrelle (Eierschawmmerl) goulash for dinner, I thought I would flavor it with another favored Austrian autumn classic, a new wine! 


This delicious white wine, produced in the Wachau, is a soft, fruity, light wine - just what you'd expect from a new wine! Opening the bottle reminded me of spring, and though I don't often compare wines to perfumes, it really reminded me of Yoko Ono's signature scent, Ma Griffe (certainly it tastes better than Ma Griffe would, however). Sort of a lemony-sage-jasmine flavor (scent?). I tasted a distinct grapefruit flavor in the palate. The finish is a bit earthier than expected, and the color is a beautiful pale yellow.


I bought this wine for roughly €8 at Wein & Co. It's a bit more than what I normally pay at Spar or Billa, but definitely worth the splurge. 

Duca del Frassino Soave Classico

I picked this bottle up at Merkur, near my apartment. It was on sale for around 6 euros, and the bottle said it won a bronze medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards in 2010. So I was surprised to find that in the US, this wine is marketed (and sold) in a box.

Perhaps I am the consummate snob. Perhaps I am woefully out of date. But the boxed wine I remember is Franzia in a four liter cardboard monster, being sipped out of plastic cups (or gulped straight from the carton) by very drunk and insouciant college students gathered in a dorm room, around a campfire or "hidden" in a thermos at a less-than-stellar poetry slam. Not the stuff of dinner parties or persnickety sommeliers.

The wine itself is nice, with a very crisp fruit taste, like Bosco pears or Macintosh apples. Or maybe a bit of both. I've had better Italian whites, I feel...but maybe I'm being overly picky. I prefer Italian reds anyway, but giving this a chance, I can say it is a definite improvement over Franzia, despite how it's marketed outside Europe.