Mourvèdre Monday #30, Double-Feature: Vinavanti Mourvèdre & Rosé

Date: Mon, Apr 15, 2013 Wine Tasting

Vinavanti is an urban winery in San Diego whose Black Label wines emphasize a natural winemaking approach. Knowing my interest in Mourvèdre-based wines, Eric Van Drunen was kind enough to provide two bottles as samples for review. Both the 2011 Mourvèdre and Clara Rosé, sourced from nearby Temecula Valley,  are hand-picked, native-fermentation, unfined/unfiltered, no sulfite wines. [...]

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Khal Drogo Says: Keep Calm And Drink Mourvèdre

Date: Sun, Apr 14, 2013 Wine Tasting

It’s nice having Khal Drogo on #TeamMourvedre!

This wonderful image comes from the people behind Game of Rhones (why didn’t I think of that name!), a Rhone-focused wine event in Melbourne, Australia. Check out the website; they’re really all-in with the Game of Thrones theme. Oh, and the wine sounds awesome, too. I [...]

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House VINEgeek: We Drink Only Interesting Wine

Date: Sun, Apr 7, 2013 Wine Tasting

 

In preparation for Game of Thrones Episode 2 tonight, here’s my sigil for House VINEgeek:

Make your own at JoinTheRealm.com

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Mourvèdre Roundup: March 2013

Date: Thu, Apr 4, 2013 Wine Tasting

Your monthly roundup of Mourvèdre-related interestingness from the interwebs circa March 2013.

Last month’s roundup led off with a jealosy-stoking post about a major Domaine Tempier tasting, so let’s start March’s roundup with @ErinBScala‘s post on a vertical tasting of Hewitson’s Old Garden Mourvèdre, from the first vintage (1998) through the latest barrel sample (2012). If [...]

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Still Life with Randall Grahm, MacBook Pro & Bonny Doon 2011 Clos de Gilroy

Date: Wed, Apr 3, 2013 Wine Tasting

 

Bonny Doon Vineyard’s 2011 Clos de Gilroy is made from grapes not quite right for BDV’s top bottling, Le Cigare Volant (clos but no cigare, as Randall like to say).

83% grenache 7% cinsault 6% syrah 4% mourvèdre

from various locales around the Central Coast AVA

I love the freshness of [...]

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Mourvèdre Monday #29: Merum 2009

Date: Mon, Apr 1, 2013 Wine Tasting

A quick-hit #MourvedreMonday wine…

. Merum 2009 Monastrell – Jumilla

Dried cherry, raspberry, mossy earthiness and dried flowers. Rich, but with good acidity. This tasty and interesting little Jumilla is 85% Monastrell and 15% Syrah and well worth the $10.50 I paid for it. Grab a bottle if you come across it and let me [...]

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Wine in Game of Thrones: Wine Regions of Westeros

Date: Sun, Mar 31, 2013 Wine Tasting

I’m a huge fan of the George R.R. Martin books (A Song of Ice and Fire Series) and the Game of Thrones HBO series based on them. As a wine geek, I noticed lots of references to wine as I was reading the books. My mind would start to wonder about the wine geography [...]

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VINEgeek VINstagram: Tikal Patriota

Date: Sun, Mar 24, 2013 Wine Tasting

Tikal 2008 Patriota (60% Bonarda, 40% Malbec) Mendoza #vinegeek

on Instagram: http://instagram.com/p/XQwRR6s54M/

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Minerality, Science and Winespeak

Date: Tue, Mar 12, 2013 Wine Tasting

the drinks business is reporting…

NUTRIENTS NOT THE CAUSE OF MINERALITY

In an article written by Sally Easton MW in db‘s April issue, she highlights research to show that it’s impossible to get minerality in a wine directly from the nutrients in the ground.

This news came to my attention via Twitter in [...]

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Mourvèdre Monday #28: Bandol Rosé

Date: Mon, Mar 11, 2013 Wine Tasting

With spring just around the corner, my pick for this Mourvèdre Monday is a lovely little Bandol rosé. Bandol, located within Provence, is France’s only wine region where Mourvèdre is the dominant grape. In other words, heaven. I couldn’t find the exact varietal composition of this bottle, but the Bandol AOC regulations require at least 50% [...]

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Great Moments in Wine-Related Music: Heart Like Mine

Date: Tue, Mar 5, 2013 Wine Tasting

Heart Like Mine - Miranda Lambert

‘Cause I heard Jesus, He drank wine I bet we’d get along just fine He could calm a storm and heal the blind And I bet He’d understand a heart like mine

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Mourvèdre Roundup: February 2013

Date: Mon, Mar 4, 2013 Wine Tasting

It’s the first #MourvedreMonday of the month, so here’s a roundup of Mourvèdre-related interestingness from the past month: February, the dwarf month. (I wonder if someday, February will be downgraded from full month status to “dwarf”, like poor ole Pluto.)

The Leon Stolarski Blog stoked my jealousy this month with a post describing a major [...]

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VINEgeek VINstagram: Mon Coeur

Date: Wed, Feb 27, 2013 Wine Tasting

Mon Coeur || J L Chave 2010 #vinegeekapproved #vinegeek

on Instagram: http://instagr.am/p/WQfO_ls5y_/

UPDATE: I forgot the second half of this bottle in the fridge until tonight, 6 days later. I’m finishing it tonight and it’s still drinking quite nicely.

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Damn Fine Everyday Bordeaux

Date: Sun, Feb 24, 2013 Wine Tasting

#vinegeekapproved #vinegeek

on Instagram: http://instagr.am/p/WIwARPM55k/

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