never thought i'd see the day you were raving about the oak monster!

QOTD: coming back a little to italian reds, but still hooked on NZ. lived there for a year & just came back. amazing stuff & they'll be hard to shake for a while.

Sluuuuurpin' some Neyers Carneros Chard 2007, YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :0)

who woulda thunk it…G makin' peace with the Oak Monster. A new Tee maybe? GV shaking hands w/the OM

I really wish I could have heard the schizophrenic conversation inside your head when you first realized you might be liking the buttery Chards. I imagine it was like Gollum and Smeagol.

YEEEEEEOOOOOOW, That Neyers is GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD !!!!!!!!!!

Really enjoyed the Chard Show!!! Chablis and Burgundy style Chards are more my cup of tea. I love minerality, earthiness, and high acidity. Sharp citric fruit complemented with hints of buttery roundness takes the cake.

The last Cali Chard I was very impressed with was 2006 Bernardus from Monterrey County. Great wine with hints of butter, fresh sugar cane (Love it!), and grassy-citric notes. Me and my best friend polished it off during a white wine marathon which included the Bernardus, a french Viognier, and a Texas hill country viognier. He was so trashed afterwards he urinated on my floor.

QOTD: I've gone back to drinking whites. But not whites I'm used to drinking. Discovering and tasting new varietals being grown in the hill country of Texas and analyzing what grapes may hold the future to great/successful wine. Also been talking to wineries and winemakers on how to create better quality wines out of the varietals they already make. I believe the Texas hill country makes the most complex viogniers in the world, but they lack one essential quality to really solidify Texas as a viognier powerhouse, and that essential element is acidity. The Texas heat seems to bake the acidity right out of the grapes. I hope to see Texas move to producing more Spanish and Portuguese varietals.

Love all the talk of the butter bandit – I like him more than the oak monster. Speaking of Chard, enjoyed a bottle of Rully this past weekend (one that you had on the show about 400 episodes ago) – it was drinking very well…

QOTD – never really move too far away from things, but I am starting to drink more value-driven 'wednesday night' wines – often that are a little more fruit foward. I drink them after dinner, so too much tannin isn't as welcome.

They don't seem to exist.

Interesting comments about Texas becoming a “powerhouse” for Viogniers. What do you think, in your opinion, makes them one of the showcase regions of the world? What elevation are the Texas hills? Are there any of these powerhouse Viogniers available in retailers in CA? I would be very interested to try one.

09 Bordeaux ?

Need my monday fix GV & CM, Speaking of CM has he pulled himself from the icy grip of death yet?

I second, third and fourth the request to try some Caduceus wines. If I remember correctly you scored them fairly high, you might have given them a range as well. I would be interested to see how you would score them without Keenan and Glomski on either side of you. Not that you are afraid of them, but I imagine it is hard to score wines in front of the producers.

thanks for the info Tim! At 10 bones its worth checking out at the very least!

Yer welcome! This Bogle Pinot Noir said “Russian River Valley” at the very bottom of the front label. I hope this wine is widely available. I was shocked at finding an RRV Pinot for that price, and it really was pretty good. I am not a huge pinot drinker, but I have had tons of them in our travels, including several trips to the Russian River Valley and Sonoma/Napa in general. Good stuff – phenominal for the price. Cheers!

Interesting show. Newton was my first major-leagues Cali Chard experience. It was the '02 vintage, which is still drinking great, btw. I also love the '05. The '06 was a step down, it seemed to me… haven't tried the '07, supposed to be a fantastic cali vintage though, so I probably should track it down, disjointed or not…
QOTD: Coming back to Aussie Shiraz a bit, currently… seems I really dig them for about a period of six weeks, every two years or so.

I'm coming back to Pinot at the moment. Been away in a world of Cabernet for a long while. Although, for me, it is also about what I can get at a good price point here in Asia. Pinots seem to be filtering in much more lately which can only be a good thing.

If I can find it I'll be checking out the Bogle Timinspokane mentioned.

Good showing for the wines this episode! I feel you on the “palate fetish” thing. While it's not what I usually go for, every rare once in a while I just crave a Cali-Chardonnay-Oak/Butter-Bomb or a Rip-Your-Face-Off-Shiraz-Fruit-Bomb. It's fun and enjoyable now and then. You should check out the Wolffer Perle Chardonnay 2006 or 2007 from the Hamptons. Kick ass stuff from LI made in the bigger Cali style. Roman Roth is the winemaker. He definately knows what he's doing. QOTD – From time to time I go on a hardcore Zin bender. Then I hate it for a while. Then I crave it again. Weird.

A little OAK never hurt nobody………..

SOOOOCK IIIIT TOOOO MEEEEEEEE !!!!!!!!!!!!! :O)

Yeah… Getting late back east, no Monday fix for me.

Sent from my mobile brain washing device.

Hang-in-there cellarrat5, I Feeel a New Episode is just around the Corner…… :o)

The Pros:
I believe there are several things going for Texas that allow us to produce world class viogniers. We have tons of sun and heat and our growing seasons can be very dry which concentrates the grapes very well on good years. Most of viognier producers grow the grapes near water sources and due to our humidity in these growing areas we have a good amount of fog and dew during the evenings and nights to cool grapes during the blistering summers. Our elevations for the best growing regions of viognier range from 500 to close to 3000 feet. Also our soil is heavily mineral rich and this can be easily tasted in the better viogniers.
The Cons:
As a die hard Texan, I believe it is my duty to be the most critical about the direction of our wine culture here in Texas. There are many kinks we are working out. First of all, our wine culture is very young in Texas, with most wineries being opened within the last 20-25 years. Many wineries are just now learning to grow varietals that suit our soil and climate (Tempranillo and viognier being the best so far). It sometimes gets too hot to grow good grapes on young vines;…..I think Texas needs to adopt vine growing techniques used in other parts of the world to decrease the heat stress on the grapes. Another con is that unfortunately our best efforts (especially Viognier) never see the light of day outside the state of Texas in retailers due to gigantic local support of our local wineries and low production= they sell out quickly. Another con is that sometimes these great viogniers don't come cheap if you stumble upon them. I paid up to $30-$40 a bottle for a Driftwood Vineyards viognier (the best viognier I have ever tasted no doubt) in 2004-2005.
But if you want to try a Viognier that might be accessible in another state (hopefully?), that is decently priced and could challenge alot of other viognier efforts elsewhere are from Becker Vineyards, Alamosa Cellars, and the best recently is from Brennan Vineyards,…all priced from $9-$17.

Oak?
Butter?
Welcome to my world Gary. I've been waiting for you.
While I generally like Chardonnays, I do prefer the taste of a tree with my drink. It just seems to add that bit of substance and kick that I am looking for.
Nice show.
QOTD- Nope. Pretty old school here. I find several wines I like, and I just seem to mix them up like a deck of cards, and start drinking.

Next time might wear a diaper before hitting the bottle 🙂