Villa Maria Wines of New Zealand

With a name like Villa Maria, it's got to be... New Zealand?

Yes indeed... And on top of that, the winery does not have a Spanish or Italian background. It was founded by Sir George Fistonich, the son of Croatian immigrants who got tired of being a carpenter and decided to start growing wine grapes in 1961.

New Zealand is often associated with only Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, but Villa Maria has a pretty wide range including rosé and sparkling wines.

2014 Villa Maria Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc
Marlborough
100% Sauvignon Blanc
$15, 12.5% abv.

The wine opens up with a bold gooseberry profile with an herbal edge. On the palate it is tart with firm acidity. I enjoyed it with a nice tuna salad sandwich, where the bright citrus style made a nice contrast with the creamy food.

2013 Villa Maria Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc
Marlborough
100% Sauvignon Blanc
$20, 13% abv.

These two wines are an outstanding example of how different two wines can be from the same grape. The Cellar Selection is far more restrained nose with a hint of orange blossom, not the powerful grapefruit you might be expecting from New Zealand. It is more light and delicate with just enough acidity to achieve proper balance. Highly recommended for serving with good scallops and a simple summer salad.

Note: These wines were provided as samples for review.

2011 Loveblock Pinot Noir

One of the difficulties of the wine blogging game is that there is a huge push for Valentine's Day, but all of the samples tend to arrive in the two weeks before the date. This one arrived early on, but I was still working through a backlog from the Christmas and New Year's rushes and did not get around to writing about it on time.

Loveblock is a project run by Kim & Erica Crawford, who are well-known in the New Zealand wine business. This is a smaller project with a focus on organic, sustainable, and even biodynamic elements involved in the production. The Pinot Noir comes from the mountainous Central Otago region at the south end of the Southern Island.

I haven't talked a lot about label design recently, but I love the dandelions on this one. I had a childhood fascination with the flower: blowing the little seeds off was fun, but the scent of the yellow flower heads brings back so many memories of playing in the yard, neighborhood baseball games, cookouts, and the other delights of summer. Years later I'd read Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine and see how a writer truly captured the magic of such a humble flower, and then in 2008 I got to try the actual beverage thanks to a small winery in Ohio's Amish country.

2011 Loveblock Pinot Noir
Central Otago, New Zealand
100% Pinot Noir
$20, 14.3% abv.

Crisp and tart and full of ripe raspberry, while some earthier undertones open up after a half hour of breathing. Gentle tannins and a soft finish. With our current winter weather, I made a big dish of spaghetti and homemade meatballs, and loved the combination while wrapped up in a blanket watching a good movie.

Note: This wine was provided as a sample for review.

Nobilo Wines

Nobilo Wines was founded in 1943 when Croatian immigrant Nikola Nobilo started making wine in New Zealand. He and his wife Zuva had arrived in 1936 and helped initiate the NZ wine industry.

I've tried many Nobilo wines in the past and recently got the opportunity to sample three recent releases.

2012 Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc
Marlborough
100% Sauvignon Blanc
$8, 12.5% abv.

Aromas and flavors of gentle citrus with medium acidity and a short finish. Quite tasty with an afternoon tuna fish sandwich.

2012 Nobilo Icon Sauvignon Blanc
Marlborough
100% Sauvignon Blanc
$14, 13% abv.

Bright and fruity with tons of grapefruit. Floral nose, high acidity, long finish. Good match for grilled amberjack with a tangy Asian slaw.

2012 Nobilo Icon Pinot Noir
Marlborough
100% Pinot Noir
$15, 13% abv.

Lovely ripe cherry aromas with a little hint of baked pie crust underneath. Tart but with mild tannins, low acidity, and a long finish. I enjoyed this pleasant little red with a steak sandwich full of onions. Nice to play the vibrant fruit flavors against the earthy onion elements.

Note: These wines were provided as samples.

Mud House Wines and the America's Cup

Mud House Wines is the official wine supplier of the Emirates Team New Zealand in the 2013 America's Cup. Having won the Louis Vuitton Cup, they will go on to challenge Oracle Team USA off the coast of San Francisco.

Starting in 1851, the Cup was won by the New York Yacht Club every year until 1983 when the crew of the Australia II of the Royal Perth Yacht Club emerged victorious. I can remember the excitement in 1987 when the US Stars & Stripes 87 defeated the New Zealand Kookaburra III. Since the 80s, there's been a lot of attention and technological development around this particular race, yet it's nice to know that there's still so much enthusiasm around wind-propelled sea vessels.

2012 Mud House Riesling
Waipara Valley
100% Riesling
$12, 12.5% abv.

The nose is dominated by light green apple and honey, while the flavor is crisp and acidic. Very similar to New Zealand Rieslings I've had in the past, and one that would be perfect with a ham sandwich on a picnic.

2012 Mud House Pinot Gris
South Island
100% Pinot Gris
$16, 13.% abv.

Rich floral aromas that also include peach and apricot. Ripe white fruit flavors and a clean, round finish. Great with a cold chicken salad full of grapes and walnuts.

2011 Mud House Sauvignon Blanc
Marlborough
100% Sauvignon Blanc
$14, 13% abv.

A standard New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with full grapefruit peel aromas and flavors. Touch of spice on the palate and a long, acidic finish. Serve with creamy cheeses and melon.

2011 Mud House Pinot Noir
Central Otago
100% Pinot Noir
$19, 13.5% abv.

In addition to a strong overripe strawberry profile, there is a back end of green bell pepper that I wasn't expecting. It starts out a little harsh, but after an hour of breathing the wine softens considerably and is ready for fare like grilled veal chops. It's a bold enough Pinot Noir that it can stand up to some strong sauces and preparations.

Note: These wines were provided as samples.

Brancott Wines of New Zealand + Contest

Originally founded as Montana, these wines were always marketed under the Brancott name in the U.S. to avoid confusion with the Big Sky Country. Now the winery has changed its name to Brancott Estate for markets both foreign and domestic. I've enjoyed their pleasant, inexpensive wines over the many years of this blog, and in the summer heat I was excited to try a pair of their screwcap-enclosed wines again.

If you like Brancott, you may be able to win a trip to New Zealand. Details below the reviews...

Let's start with the food. I found a deal on a bunch of thick-cut lamb loin chops. I prefer rack of lamb, but when the loin chops are cut this thick, they can function as mini porterhouses of delicious, tender meat. I dressed them minimally with salt and pepper, performed a hot sear over charcoal, and then let them slow cook in the cold side of a covered BBQ grill until reaching a succulent medium rare.

For a sauce, I used a variant of Michael Symon's recipe, which is a piquant mole-style sauce incorporating sherry vinegar. I substituted some dried peppers and a few other bits of magic based on prior experience with Mexican savory chocolate sauces.

Rounding out the plate is a little medley of black beans, corn, peppers, and onion, served hot, not like a salsa. The smoky lamb and tangy sauce went perfectly together, and the side dish was just light enough to not be overwhelming. When you've got this much flavor on the plate, you don't really need to eat a pound of potatoes.

I tried both of the wines with the meal:

2012 Brancott Estate Sauvignon Blanc
Marlborough, New Zealand
100% Sauvignon Blanc
$13, 13% abv.

The classic aroma of grapefruit is there but it's balanced out by a riper apricot tone. Great combination of tart and soft body elements, tropical fruits on the tongue, leading to a crisp finish. Vegetal elements emerge as the wine warms up. Highly recommended with a bucket of steamed mussels.

2011 Brancott Estate Pinot Noir
Marlborough, New Zealand
100% Pinot Noir
$14, 13% abv.

Soft plum, strawberry, and just a background note of bacon fat. Medium tart acidity with a finish that is much rounder than expected. Overall a quite mild and refreshing Pinot Noir. I thought it was perfect with the lamb.

And if you're on Facebook, you can enter the Chill Hour Promotion to win a trip for two to New Zealand. I'm not eligible, and I get no kickback on this deal, but if you like these wines and want to enter, go for it!

Note: These wines were provided as samples.

BWR Classic: Kare Poaka

After writing this piece in 2010, I've heard often from British expats around the world who love the dish. Today, a reader in England e-mailed me the original recipe, listed below my post.

Round about 1990 I saw a cooking show on TV hosted by an odd chap named Graham Kerr. I knew nothing about him, but he was rather exuberant, despised cooking with alcohol, and promoted a lot of low fat recipes.

This confused me, because my father spoke of the exact same chef who went by the name Galloping Gourmet and used butter and cream in everything, juggled eggs, and swilled wine throughout the show. Each episode concluded with his signature "find a hot chick in the audience and invite her to dine on the completed meal with a nice glass of wine". (For info on his transformation and details on his biography, check the Wikipedia article.)

As this was a formative period in my cooking self-education, I remember a show in which Graham Kerr made a dish he called Kare Poaka, something from his New Zealand days. In fact, he made it as a special dish for a visit from the late Queen Mother. I remember it being odd but easy, as it was basically a stew of pork, sweet potato, coconut, and rice. I made it the weekend after the show and it went over well with the family. For years I thought it was an authentic Maori dish, but the name is just "dear pig" in the local language and further research doesn't reveal anything specifically like it. It should also be noted that, aside from the sweet potato, absolutely none of the ingredients are native to the islands, and even the local version of the sweet potato (kümara) made its way from South America around a thousand years ago.

Similar dishes are made in the Caribbean, and while I don't have access to Kerr's recipe (his book is out of print and this whole thing is curiously absent from the internet), I can remember enough to make it happen. And even improve upon it. The original was something of a starchy mess, with big cubes of pork and a mash of sweet potato and rice. I've tried to treat it more like a Thai curry, and an array of hot sauces are ideal to perk up individual bowls. Here's my rough recipe:

Benito's Coconut Pork Curry

3 lbs. Pork Scraps (I grabbed cheap packages of neckbones and boneless ribs; chicken thighs also work quite well)
1 can Unsweetened Coconut Milk (not the cocktail ingredient)
1 can Chicken Broth
1 cup White Wine
1 Small Onion, Diced
1 Large Sweet Potato, Peeled and Cubed
2 Cloves of Garlic, Smashed
1 cup Basmati or Jasmine Rice

Brown the pork or chicken. This can be done in the Dutch oven on the stovetop, or using a dish inside the oven. Either way you don't want to fully cook them, just get them brown on the outside and render out some of the fat. Pour a couple of tablespoons of the fat in the Dutch oven and sauté the onion and garlic until clear. Add in the meat and stir, then add in the liquids. (The coconut milk may be semisolid and look like yogurt--don't worry, just stir it in.) Mix well, add in the sweet potato. If you'd like, feel free to add some peppers for color, flavor, or heat. Seasonings like Chinese Five Spice Powder would be appropriate, or go nuts with ginger, cumin, lemongrass, etc.

Let it simmer with the lid askew for a couple of hours. You want the liquid to reduce somewhat. Stir gently once in a while (you don't want to smash up the potatoes), and skim off most of the fat that collects at the top. When the meat is easily shredded with a fork and tastes good, kill the heat and let it rest. Right before serving, make the rice. I like something aromatic like basmati or jasmine, but anything will work. Serve some of the shredded pork and sweet potatoes over the rice, and ladle a bit of the sauce over it. Some chopped fresh basil or cilantro would be great on top.

This goes great with a nice cold beer, but an inexpensive sparkling wine would work as well, maybe a crisp Sauvignon Blanc.

* * *

Here's the original recipe e-mailed to me from reader Phil Cosson:

I have just found your Kare Poaka blog.

I have a copy of the original graham kerr book. This is a firm favourite when we have guests round. I am cooking it right now! Here is the recipe:

2 lbs pork
Salt
black pepper
1 medium onion
1 medium green pepper (i use 2)
1 clove garlic
juice of half lemon
14 fl oz coconut milk (unsweetened)
quater cup of tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon of curry powder
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 bay leaf
1 table spoon redcurrant jelly (I use seedless raspberry jam)

Prepare:

remove fat from pork and cut into 2-inch cubes. season with salt and pepper. Slice onion into 1-inch wide rings. Cut pepper into 1-inch cubes. Smash Garlic. Squeeze lemon. Combine coconut milk, lemon, recurrent jelly and ketchup in a bowl.

Cook:

Heat 2 tablespoon sunflower oil in a large pan, add meat and fry gently. Add ohio and curry powder. Then add mustard seeds, green pepper, bay leaf and garlic and continue to fry gently, stirring.

Poor in coconut mixture. Simmer in open pot for 1.5 hours

Skim off fat and serve. If you want - you can take a quarter cup of sauce and add 1 heaped teaspoon of chilli powder to it to proide an extra 'kick' for those that want it.

BWR Classic: ANZAC Biscuits

Warm wishes on ANZAC Day for all of my good friends in the antipodes. Your service is not forgotten. Here's an authentic recipe from one of my friends from Perth.

* * *

I keep an eye on holidays that aren't part of the usual US calendar. I noticed that ANZAC Day was approaching on April 25, a holiday that I knew mostly because of the little cookies (more properly, biscuits) that show up in grocery stores each April. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and the day began as a memorial for soldiers who served in WWI, though today it covers a general remembrance for veterans from the two countries. It's a very important and solemn day, marked by traditional Dawn Services.

I was thinking about the holiday, my relatives who served alongside troops from AU/NZ in the world wars, and the myriad connections that America continues to hold with members of the Commonwealth. I also thought about the incredible wines that I've tried from Down Under, and how lucky I am to be able to enjoy them in peacetime, with clear shipping lanes between our continents.

And lastly, I thought about the biscuits.

The store-bought ones are tasty, but homemade is always best. I Googled around for some authentic recipes for ANZAC biscuits and began to get concerned. After all, if someone wanted a great BBQ sauce recipe, the internet might direct them to some perverted source in Texas or Kansas, surely a travesty against all that is good and holy in this world.

So I e-mailed Jane Cleary, my contact in Western Australia who has sent me many interesting wine samples through The Country Vintner. I asked her advice, and within an hour she called up her 93-year old grandmother and retrieved the family recipe. With her permission and my deep gratitude, I reprint it here, only slightly modified for American cooking units and spelling:

Nanna's ANZAC Bikkie Recipe

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
⅔ cups sugar
¾ cup dried coconut flakes
2 tablespoons golden syrup*
1 stick butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons hot water

"Preheat oven to 320°F. Mix the oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a bowl. Place the golden syrup and butter in a saucepan over low heat and melt. Mix the baking soda with the water and add to the butter mixture. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well. Sample some of the mixture (go on--it is so hard to resist!) Place tablespoons of the mixture, leaving space between each one for spreading, onto baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper and flatten to about 3 inches in diameter. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until a deep brown. Cool on trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool."

Now, as longtime readers know, I don't have a sweet tooth, and I almost never write about desserts here. But it doesn't mean that I don't know how to make them. I'm actually pretty good at making cookies, and used my air-flow baking sheets lined with parchment paper. It's just that I don't often find myself in need of several dozen bourbon-pecan-chocolate cookies.

Let's get back to the ANZAC biscuits... Utterly delicious. Great balance of the butter, coconut, sugars, and oats. Next time I might even add a few crystals of sea salt on top just to play against that caramelized sugar flavor. A lot of cookie recipes require a dollop on the cookie sheet that will flatten over time, but these do need to be pressed into roughly the size and shape of the finished product, with just a little room left for expansion. These are fun to make, particularly with the heating of the butter and syrup, which negates the need for mixers. In fact, the brilliance of this recipe is that it relies almost entirely on dried ingredients that ship well--butter is the only perishable, and there's no chocolate that might melt. Butter/margarine/shortening/lard can last for a good while at room temperature and could probably be scrounged up somewhere, while traditional cookie ingredients like eggs or milk require fresher sources.

It's also worth noting that once baked, these cookies could survive a long, unrefrigerated sea voyage from the ports of Sydney and Auckland to the fields of Verdun and Gallipoli, a welcome treat for brave lads thrown into a war far from home.


*Note: Lyle's Golden Syrup is like a very light molasses (more properly a treacle) without any bitterness and with a luscious butterscotch flavor. You can substitute corn syrup or honey if absolutely necessary, but it won't have the purely authentic flavor... er, flavour. Lyle's invented the process and is the most popular producer. Founded in 1883, it has held a Royal Warrant to supply the British royal family since 1911. This stuff is tasty. I want to pour it on cornbread and distill rum from it.

The can and lid are the same style as wood varnish, and the logo is perhaps one of the ugliest in the world, depicting a lion corpse surrounded by bees. It's a Biblical reference, check out the link for more details. Also, I've heard this is really difficult to find in many parts of the US, so you can order it online if you like.

Mud House Wines

Mud House Wines was founded in 1996 and operates two wineries on the South Island of New Zealand, one based in Marlborough on the extreme northeast, and one in the coastal Waipara Valley just south of Marlborough. Additional, Pinot Noir is sourced from the cool southern region of Central Otago, the southernmost wine region in the world. At 45° south latitude, it's at the antipodal level of Bordeaux. Sure, Pinot Noir would probably grow a little better at 47° (on the level of Burgundy), but that would require planting on tiny Stewart Island, home to only 400 people.

I've written about this before, but that wine belt that passes through the wine regions of France, Germany, New York, and the Pacific Northwest is pretty tiny in the Southern hemisphere. You go through the tapered end of South America in the valleys of Chile and Argentina, barely scrape the southern tip of South Africa, and catch the south coast of Australia. Go any farther north and it's too hot and wet. Go any farther south and you're just in the cold ocean between civilization and Antarctica. Soil and modern viticulture can allow you to grow wine grapes practically anywhere, but making really decent wine requires specific amounts of sunlight defined by the latitude as well as the effects of ocean currents, two things that farmers can't control.

I'll update this later if I get the US prices, but for now everything is listed in New Zealand Dollars.

2009 Mud House Riesling
Waipara
NZ$19, 13% abv.
I haven't tried a lot of New Zealnd Rieslings, but this one was wonderful. Honey and green pepper aromas, an alluring combination. Dry and tart with a crisp lemon finish. Light and refreshing, and overall a very sunny wine. Highly recommended for next spring.

2011 Mud House Sauvignon Blanc
Marlborough
NZ$19, 13% abv.
Julia asked me, "What's that aroma?" Not in a bad way, but she didn't recognize the scent. "Gooseberries," I replied. "Lots and lots of gooseberries." There's that unique citrus-like smell combined with grass and hay and some darker notes. Really complex and interesting to sip on, as it had been quite a while since I'd had a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc like this.

2010 Mud House Pinot Noir
Central Otago
NZ$24, 13.5% abv.
A clean and smooth Pinot Noir with a dominant ripe strawberry character. Mild body with just a little tartness. This is a great roast chicken wine, and I'd suggest a lot of rosemary in the bird and the fingerling potatoes that you should pan fry along with it.

Note: These wines were received as samples.

Broken Shed Vodka

Every year there are more and more premium vodkas coming on the scene, and much like bottled water the producers seek to attract customers through packaging and an exotic origin. Ultimately vodka is just 40% alcohol and 60% water. The alcohol can be distilled from anything and the water can either come from glacial ice or the tap. (I'm waiting for the first commercial Antarctic vodka. I say commercial, because my high school physics teacher flew there a lot as a US Navy pilot in the 70s and used to make a drink with PGA swiped from the scientists, snow, and orange juice crystals called "Absolute Zero".)

Broken Shed surprised me, and not because it uses spring water from both islands of New Zealand. No, what really struck me was that it's distilled from whey, the liquid byproduct of cheesemaking. Whey is rich in protein and lactose, a sugar. The Mongolians have been making airag from mares' milk forever, and variations on fermented milk exist throughout Asia and the middle east. Given the Kiwi origin of this spirit, I'm going to guess sheep's milk was the source of the whey.

Broken Shed Premium Vodka
Wanaka, New Zealand
$50, 40% abv.

Like Grey Goose, this bottle features a frosted bottle but with icy mountains instead of big waves. It's a tall, slender bottle with a cork stopper--an elegant touch in comparison to the usual thin metal screwcaps. While I like screwcaps on wine, with spirits I like stoppers, whether natural or synthetic. A bottle of wine will be consumed within a few days of opening, whereas a spirit may hang around for years. I've had leakage issues with screwcaps, and besides the mess that also means that other things are getting into the bottle.

The vodka is crisp and bracing on its own, though when chilled and mixed in a cocktail it takes on a--dare I say it?--creamy smooth quality. Maybe it's just the power of suggestion, but it does blend quite well into martinis, Salty Dogs, and even kicks up a bit of homemade lemonade quite well.

A bit of doggerel, because I couldn't resist:

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet
Staring at leftover whey.
"If this can be distilled
My bottles can be filled
In a most delectable way."


Note: This bottle was received as a sample.

Tiny Wine Olympics with TastingRoom.com

I've got a lineup of six bottles representing five countries and... two languages.

OK, maybe it's not quite as diverse as the 2012 Olympic Games (no Chinese table tennis win, no surprise Canadian upset in the women's modern pentathlon), but it is a neat little tasting kit from the folks at TastingRoom.com. The selection they sent me is called the Wines of the World Super Flight.

I really enjoy these samplers, and each 50 mL sip is just enough to get a general idea about the particular wine (though they do now offer a Wines by the Glass option that involves 100 mL bottles). I've had several of these kits in the past, but one of my favorites was when it was used in an online tasting with fellow winebloggers. But the real application for these is as gifts, and that's where the Super Flight option comes into play. More on that in a bit, so let's see our competitors for tonight's Lilliputian tasting:

2011 Old Coach Road Sauvignon Blanc
Nelson, New Zealand
13.5% abv.

Lime peel and touch of grapefruit, crisp and just tart enough to be interesting. Long finish of grapefruit peel. Recommended with grilled scallops and an Asian slaw.

2010 Spring Seed Wine Co. "Four O'Clock" Chardonnay
McLaren Vale, Australia
$18, 13.0% abv.

Rich lemon meringue pie aroma and flavor, firm acidity and a bright, brassy mouthfeel. Citrus flavors with hints of overripe peach. I absolutely love the old seed catalog artwork on the label, which is another neat thing about these bottles--getting to see the full label in miniature form.

2009 Stickybeak Pinot Noir
Sonoma Coast, California
$15, 14.3% abv.

Ripe wild strawberry aromas and flavors, blending toward raspberry on the finish. Light and mild with a short finish. I think this would have been a really good pairing with my recent veal chops with muscadine grapes.

2009 Il Cuore "The Heart" Zinfandel
Mendocino County, California
$16, 15.3% abv.

Black cherry and an earthy, woody nose. Spicy dark fruit flavors with surprisingly mild tannins, a bold fruit profile, and a mild finish. Great California Zinfandel that would be good at the Thanksgiving table, and certainly one that would be pleasant to sip on a cold winter afternoon.

2008 La Montesa Rioja Red Blend
Rioja, Spain
$18, 14% abv.

Red cherry and bacon fat with a touch of ash. Medium tannins and a tart, ripe cherry flavor with a long finish. Slightly nutty aftertaste. I'm a big fan of Rioja, and this doesn't disappoint. When this flavor profile comes around, I think lamb is the only real option.

2008 Urraca Malbec
Mendoza, Argentina
$20, 14.8% abv.

Plum and white pepper with a hint of tobacco. Rich dark plum flavors with an earthy undertone and a long finish. I'm thinking slow braised oxtails with caramelized onions and steamed broccolini. I have future plans for this wine, but how can I do that with just a drop left in the 50 mL bottle?

This tasting kit came with the "Super Flight" option, which includes a gift card with a code that lets you pick your two favorites from the flight so that you can receive full size bottles. I went with the Chardonnay and Malbec, which should arrive in a few days. These are pretty good deals for gifts, though at first I thought it meant that I just got two extra tiny bottles. And when you buy this category, you'll need to kick in an extra $13 for shipping, but the end total is still pretty reasonable. Check out the website for an ever-growing list of flights and themes.


Note: These wines were received as samples.

The Seeker Wines

Over the years I've reviewed multiple wine brands that collect various bottles from different parts of the globe under a centralized marketing scheme. It's a concept that I like, and if you buy the whole set you can pour an exciting "tour of the globe" if your guests are into geography and the romance of the vine. It's also a quick study for those hoping to expand their horizons a bit in a safe and inexpensive manner.

Today's example is The Seeker, and once again, I was seduced by labels, dominated by old prints of early airships. A lot of people don't realize that hot air balloons were flying shortly after the American Revolution and that gliders were sailing before the American Civil War. Such designs and prints are now a major part of the steampunk aesthetic and a wistful hope that blimps and zeppelins and other lighter-than-air craft had become major modes of transportation.

But it's not just a dream of an alternate history. The famous LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin flew over a million miles from 1928-1937 and touched down on fields all over the globe. The Seeker website features some fictional aviators and aviatrices with stories of exotic travels, but in the notes below I'll talk about the real life flight pioneers pictured on the labels.

2009 The Seeker Sauvignon Blanc
Marlborough, New Zealand
$15, 13.5% abv.

Full of grapefruit, touch of sweetness, firm acidity. On the finish there are some tropical fruit and floral elements, but the grapefruit peel is the dominant factor. I'd say serve this with some aggressively spiced grilled shrimp where the wine won't overpower the food.

This label shows an early hydrogen-filled balloon made by Vincenzo Lunardi, who toured around England in the 1780s. Boat oars were used for steering, though were not terribly effective. Lunardi barnstormed around England in a for a while before returning to his home country.

2008 The Seeker Pinot Noir
France
$15, 12.5% abv.

This is labeled as Vin de Pays Vignobles de France, a table wine designation covering the entire country that was only in use for a short time between 2007 and 2009. It has been replaced by Vin de France. This is a plump and fruit-forward Pinot Noir with lots of blueberries and blackberries. Medium tannins and a splash of tart raspberry round out the flavor. It's reminiscent of some Languedoc Pinot Noirs I've had in the past, and while it will never be Burgundy, it's a good burgers and BBQ wine. I served it with pulled pork shoulder and it made for a fun Saturday lunch bottle.

The label features the Giffards Steam Airship, built by Henri Giffard in 1852. A gondola hanging from the hydrogen-filled dirigible was propelled by a steam-powered propellor and steering could be accomplished by the use of a rudder. (Like the oars and anchor of Lunardi's balloon, early airships used a lot of naval engineering elements and terms.) It was a very successful proof of concept for navigable airships.


Note: These wines were received as samples.

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay

Here are a few wine notes from a month ago that I'd neglected to turn into posts. Nothing wrong with the wines--in fact, I really enjoyed these. But sometimes you get caught up with other things, and sometimes you want to wax nostalgic about your Scouting days, and sometimes you're more in the mood to write about cooking.

I don't review every wine that I taste, though that was the goal of the blog in the first two years. And I slogged through it with notes and links and prices on everything I tasted, which was kind of crazy since I was mainly going to free tastings on weekends and reviewing 10-20 wines per post. Now I write about far fewer wines but spend more time with them. Perhaps during my 10th anniversary year I'll just write about one wine a month, but it will be some legendary, rare vintage plucked out of a cellar in Bordeaux. A fella can dream, can't he?

2008 Foley Chardonnay Rancho Santa Rosa
Sta. Rita Hills, California
$30, 14.4% abv.
Honey and vanilla with a touch of coconut. Firm acidity, long finish. A surprisingly tropical Chardonnay with an excellent use of oak. While tasting it I found myself wishing that it was summer and that I had some Thai food in front of me. The aromas on this wine are not too strong, but it is a very fun wine to let novices sniff while they try to figure out what those elements are in their glass of white wine.

2009 Parducci Small Lot Blend Pinot Noir
California
$12, 13.5% abv.
Firm tannins but still smooth and creamy. Strawberry with slight leather and smoke. This is a bargain Pinot Noir without a lot of complexity, but it works well. I enjoyed it with leftover turkey sandwiches during the holidays, and the combination made for a pair of delightful weekend lunches.

2009 Craggy Range Te Muna Road Vineyard Pinot Noir
Martinborough, New Zealand
$40, 14.4% abv.
This one probably deserved its own post, but I did recently get the opportunity to try two other wines from Craggy Range. This dignified Pinot Noir was fascinating with a solid body and great red berry flavors. Elements of spice and a hint of raspberry seed, medium tannins, and firm acidity. As it opened up, floral and additional spice aromas were present. Even though it was two years old at the time, I still felt that it was not quite ready. In a few years this should be spectacular. I'm not an expert on aging and cellaring, but if you do enough verticals and early release samples from established winemakers, you start to figure out the differences between a "drink now" wine and a "arrggh... why didn't I hold onto this for half a decade?" wine. Which means that if you're thirsty now, you might want to be on the lookout for any surviving bottles from 2004, and set this vintage aside for enjoying during the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.


Note: These wines were received as samples.

Craggy Range Wines

When I received the wines of Craggy Range from New Zealand, I experienced that momentary thrill that I get whenever something has taken a very long trip from the farm to the table. Yes, I know that with that statement, millions of locavores suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I like the eating local thing when the season's good and the region's good. When it comes to drinking local, I like our local beers but otherwise everything else is coming on a truck or a plane or a boat from a very long way away. The green tea leaves that gently stained the water in my teacup this morning like an artist's brush resting in a jar of mineral spirits came from somewhere in China. Everyone gripping a Starbuck's cup is holding onto something that came from Colombia or Kenya or Indonesia or elsewhere.

There are heated arguments over shipping costs and packaging costs and lots of other factors, but at the end of the day I am that six year old boy staring at the globe while lying on the floor, checking out all of these interesting places on the bottom of the sphere. Why is New Zealand a separate country from Australia? What does New Guinea have to do with New Zealand or New York or New Jersey? Why do all the pictures of New Zealand in National Geographic look a lot more like Ireland or Scotland instead of the South Pacific? As a child, I had to seek out these answers, and today, the luxury goods of the islands are delivered to my doorstep. What a wondrous time to be alive.

2011 Craggy Range Kidnapper's Vineyard Chardonnay
Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
100% Chardonnay
$20, 13% abv.
Very interesting for a Chardonnay. Lots of green apple and pear, balanced acidity, slightly tart. Fascinating and ultimately delicious with some grilled shrimp with lime. The name of the Vineyard comes from Cape Kidnappers in Hawkes Bay, where Captain Cook's crew got into an altercation with the locals and they tried to nab a Tahitian servant from the H.M.S. Endeavour. A bit ironic that they named the cape after that event when later, Cook would die after attempting to hold Hawaiian King Kalaniʻōpuʻu hostage.

2010 Craggy Range Te Kahu Gimblett Gravels Vineyard
Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
80% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Malbec
$20, 13.5% abv.
When this first arrived I was thinking that it was a Pinot Noir and let it rest in the cellar next to other representatives of that grape. And then when I served it, I knew it was something much different. While mellow and mild, this has definite structure and the balance of black cherry and leather and chocolate is incredible. Highly recommended and a great bargain, not to mention showing that New Zealand has an opportunity to do some Bordeaux or Meritage blends that can stand out.

I hesitate to quote directly from press releases or company websites, but to explain the name of this wine I could not add anything to the following: "Te kahu means 'the cloak' in Te Reo Maori and refers to the mist that envelops our Giants Winery in the Tuki Tuki Valley. Legend has it that this mist was used to protect a mythical Maori maiden from the sun as she visited her lover Te Mata."

Another two wines, another two stories, and that little globe of cardboard with raised mountain features continues to spin at the slow rate of once per day, in a dance around the sun 365.25 times a year...


Note: These wines were received as samples.

2010 Nine Walks Sauvignon Blanc

The character on this blog formerly known as The Girlfriend became a serious fan of Vietnamese food after I introduced her to a local soup joint. More local to her part of town than mine, but Memphis has a wide range of options when you need to get your phở on.

I love the spring rolls with shrimp and lettuce and peanut sauce, the quail, the occasional odds and ends that show up as specials... I'm by no means an expert on Vietnamese food and my knowledge of the language and proper pronunciation is horrible. But I know good food, and when you get that craving for phở, nothing else will work.

So it was with much excitement that I got such a craving on a Sunday afternoon and grabbed myself a takeout kit of Phở Bò Viên from Green Bamboo, a little Vietnamese restaurant within walking distance of my house. I throw pretty much everything in there, and I like to eat the sliced beef before it gets too cooked. The basil and bean sprouts are really my favorite part. I have a great set of Japanese noodle bowls that The Roommate gave me over a decade ago, you just have to hold it the right way if you want to do the traditional slurp and shovel.

2010 Nine Walks Sauvignon Blanc
Marlborough, New Zealand
$11, 13% abv.
The nose is floral with notes of peach. On the tongue there is nice tart acidity, but it's not citrus, rather a general overripe fruit note that I like. Touches of minerality on the aftertaste.

How'd it work with the Vietnamese food? Freakin' awesome. I skipped the lemon wedge when building the soup bowl, and let the wine do the acidity balancing for the meal. Letting the wine do some of the work made the whole experience even more fun, and by the end I was ready for more.


Note: These wines were received as samples.

Brancott Wines

Brancott wines were some of the first New Zealand bottles I ever tried, and an early introduction to the often confusing corporate ownership of certain brands and vineyards. At the time, Brancott was run by Montana Wines out of New Zealand, but that name was confusing for the American Market. (New Zealand is exotic but safe because they speak English, while wines from the state of Montana might not be the ideal association for customers.) Then Montana was purchased by Allied Domecq, then by Pernod-Ricard.

When it comes to the business side of wine, I'm mostly fascinated by marketing and production methods rather than whose signature is on the lease. And while I've had higher-end NZ wines that are much more delicate, these three are still solid performers for a casual lunch or picnic.

Also, I'm only picturing one of the wines here to show how I'm tasting a lot of things these days: down in the kitchen with the trusty MacBook in front of me. I still like handwritten notes, but I can just snap pictures, plug in the camera, and taste, and have everything in one place. When you try a lot of wine, you have to focus on efficiency at some point. At some point I'll submit my full streamlined process for ANSI or ISO 9000 certification. I'm working on my Lean Six Sigma Burgundy Belt.

2010 Brancott Pinot Grigio
Marlborough, New Zealand
$13, 13% abv.
Lemony and crisp with good minerality. I had brought this along to a gathering for my sister-in-law, a Pinot Grigio fanatic, but she was unable to attend. It did end up being a great match with my heirloom tomato gazpacho.

2010 Brancott Sauvignon Blanc
Marlborough, New Zealand
$13, 12.5% abv.
Pretty aggressive grapefruit peel, bitter nose. Not a bad thing, because a lot of times I like this style, and I crave bitter flavors. Crisp mouthfeel with a bit of minerals again. I'm proud of these two bargain whites for having stony qualities--you don't see that a lot at this price point. Guilty pleasure: I paired this with fried chicken, and the acidity cut through the grease in the most delightful way.

2010 Brancott Pinot Noir
Marlborough, New Zealand
$13, 13% abv.
Dark strawberry nose with a dusky aroma. Much brighter strawberry fruit flavor and touch of acidity, short finish. I prefer a softer, lighter Pinot Noir, but this one's good with grilled salmon or a salty ham sandwich.


Note: These wines were received as samples.

Te Awa Wines

I still get a little tingle of excitement when I get wines from New Zealand. It's a place that's remote even by Australian standards, but is responsible for mainstream English-speaking entertainment like the film versions of The Lord of the Rings.

Here I present three wines from Te Awa on the north island of New Zealand. The full name of the area is Te Awa o Te Atua, Maori for "River of God". Things like this tickle my old anthropology memories, and I can recall reading first edition ethnographies by Margaret Mead and Franz Boaz in the Pacific. I can recall in my graphic design days when I got a bunch of invitations to typeset in a strange vowel-heavy language and thought, "Where did all these Marshallese come from?" And the answer was that loads of them live in Northwest Arkansas working at the various Tyson chicken factories. But let us move on to wine.

2009 Te Awa Syrah
Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
99% Syrah, 1% Viognier
$27, 13% abv
Starts out with a tart, bright cherry profile, As it breathes, it's really light and delicate, with a quiet, smooth finish.

2009 Te Awa Sauvignon Blanc
Includes a touch of Semillon.
Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
$18, 13.5% abv.
Forward fruit of pineapple and balanced acidity, slightly floral nose and a long finish. Nothing like the big grapefruit SB you might expect from NZ.

2009 Te Awa Chardonnay
Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
$27, 13.5% abv.
Light oak with a touch of vanilla and buttered toast. Light body with a mild touch of creamy lemon flavor. Balanced acidity and a long finish. Quite nice.

Note: These wines were received as samples.

Pernod Wines: Stoneleigh & Wyndham Estate

Pernod Ricard is an international conglomerate based in France that owns many spirit and wine brands around the world. Beefeater, The Glenlivet, Kahlúa, Courvoisier, Absolut... it's very likely that you've had a Pernod product recently or even have a few bottles in your home. Here I've got a set of wines from two of their properties from the Southern Hemisphere: Stoneleigh of New Zealand and Wyndham Estate of Australia.

The PR firm had some story suggestions to go along with these wines. I normally ignore these, because either the timing is odd (there are only so many wines that you can cram into a Mother's Day post) or because I lack the knowledge to pair up each wine with a soccer player for an upcoming World Cup match. But these were fairly interesting, so I gave them a shot.

2010 Stoneleigh Sauvignon Blanc
$17, 14.4% abv.
Strong grapefruit and lime aroma, bold acidity and a long, tart finish. The challenge for these wines was to come up with a crazy BBQ pairing, something beyond burgers and hot dogs. With the Sauvignon Blanc, I'm going to recommend the grilled shrimp on sugarcane skewers that I made a few years ago. At the last minute dash with a little lime juice, chopped cilantro, and thinly sliced jalapeño peppers.

2009 Stoneleigh Pinot Noir
$17, 14% abv.
Classic wild strawberry aromas, but with a deeper bacon fat and slightly smoky aroma. A nice glass for slow sipping and sniffing over an hour or two. For this one, I picked another former dinner from the archives: smoked duck with fingerling potatoes roasted in duck fat. Trim off the big chunk of fat at the tail of the duck as well as the wings, and trim off any other dangling skin. Render out the fat ahead of time and use that for the potatoes. The last time I did it I smoked the duck using hickory, but I think I'll stick to a fruit wood like apple or cherry in the future.

2009 Wyndham Estate Bin 333 Pinot Noir
South Eastern Australia
$10, 13% abv.
Tart raspberry aromas and flavors. Smooth with low tannins and a short finish. I've had some mixed experiences with Pinot Noirs of Australia and Chile in the past, but I find that they are getting better and more varietally correct with each vintage.

2008 Wyndham Estate Bin 555 Shiraz
South Eastern Australia
$10, 13.5% abv.
Black cherry, touch of tea, medium tannins and a long chery finish. I really love this profile in inexpensive syrah, and it tends to be a good match for lots of casual fare. The challenge for this set of wines was to write about your first Syrah/Shiraz, or a particularly memorable one. My best experiences with this grape have come in Rhône blends or wines made in that style. The first magical experience was with a Côte-Rôtie. Not only did it seem exotic and interesting to blend Syrah and Viognier, but the wine was delicious and perfectly balanced. Every sip evoked a "wow", and I was sad when the glass was empty.


Note: These wines were received as samples.

Cupcake White Wines

When it comes to California and Cupcakes, my first thought isn't wine, but rather Google VP Marissa Mayer, also known as the Cupcake Princess. That has absolutely nothing to do with the wines below, but I thought I'd share.

2009 Cupcake Chardonnay
Central Coast, California
$12, 13.5% abv.

Apricot and pineapple, touch of sweetness with a big fruit profile. After some breathing the fruit settles down somewhat, and you're left with a soft, round wine. Not a lot of oak. It's the kind of wine I'd serve with a salad and a croissant/chicken salad sandwich on a warm afternoon.

2010 Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc
Malrlborough, New Zealand
$12, 13.0% abv.

Grapefruit pith, tart acidity, touch of lime curd, bright and clean. Serve with any shellfish and you're in business.

Funny thing with this one: I always taste wines as blind as possible. This means that I don't read the labels, don't read the paperwork, or look up anything about the wines beforehand. I'll take a look at all that later. When it comes time to taste, I'll just pull red or white as needed, and jot down notes while I'm tasting. I don't want to be influenced by price or composition or anything else. Obviously I'll have some idea based on region and grape, but it's the best I can do to ensure a level playing field in the absence of a fleet of attractive young interns who will catalog, open, and decant said wines so that I may try them truly blind. (Ladies interested in an unpaid wineblogging internship, let me know.)

While trying the Sauvignon Blanc, I kept thinking, "This really doesn't taste like California." I'm not an expert on these things, but I've tried a few wines... a few thousand at this point, I've lost count. And then I actually looked at the label and discovered, "They snuck in a Kiwi wine here!" I had just assumed that Cupcake = California, and hadn't thought that they might be producing international wines under that marque. A cautionary tale? A lesson? Not really, just that sometimes your nose and tongue will surprise you when the brain isn't paying attention.


Note: These wines were received as samples.