Online Auction Buys - Bottles Bought At Auction March

I have been posting my online auction buys recently here. I have found wine values can really be had given the state of the economy. Unlike stores that are reluctant to reduce wine prices as they already have their cost built in so their spread will shrink. Many will just wait out walk in buyers who will hopefully buy the wine off the shelf eventually. Auctions work differently.

Auctions are in the secondary market where buyers are more motivated and the auction houses just want to make the vig and other fees for transactions, so they just want the wine sold. Thus, when there are less wine buyers and bottles stay unsold for a few rounds, weeks or longer - steals and deals can happen. I'm only looking for good deals. Everyday wines or more established bottles. Reds, whites, doesn't matter to me.

Anyway, last month this is what I was able to pick up:

2005 Kalleske Greenock Shiraz $20.00
2006 Hogue Riesling $5.00
2006 Kutch Mcdougall Ranch Pinot Noir $55.00
2005 Turley Zinfandel Tofanelli Vineyard $30.00
2005 Hanna Estate Chardonnay $10.00
2005 Paringa Individual Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon $5.00

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You Tube Wine Videos

I wanted to take a break from posting wine notes and mention a great way to spend time drinking a bottle of wine (I guess a glass is good enough for some! lol). youtube just has some terrific wine videos on there. I don't know about you guys but if I'm by myself in my home office (many times on purpose - wife and 2 kids) with a wine, I love to watch and listen to wine themed videos.

Not only are many of the wineries themselves making great on-site videos, but also just visitors and regular people with a video recorder of course.

Just typing in "napa wineries" or "Bordeaux Harvest" "2005 Burgundy" and dozens of other great searches really gives nice wine videos to geek out with while sipping something special. I was watching a great vid the other day by Chateau Palmer presented by the owner in the vineyard! - talking about sugar levels, when they look to pick and so much more. It really was awesome.

I am also a fan of Wine Library and Gary Vaynerchuk. I know some people think he's a little over the top but I think it's great. His videos are not 3 or 4 minutes, which I hate. They are 20 minutes or so and are very informative. He's honest and regularly pans a bad wine even though Wine Library probably has 100 cases of it. I like the guy and what he does. Ok - I'll leave that there.

I really love the small winery or even better - small vineyard owners. Some vineyards are so special that they grow and sell grapes to several quality producers. In California, you'll see bottles with wine grown from Gary's Vineyard or Shea Vineyard in Oregon and so on. Some of these growers have wonderful homemade videos of their life and what they do.

These vids are great to hang out with and escape to. Some people need more escaping than others I guess....

2005 Switchback Ridge Petite Sirah

Switchback Ridge is a small production (ok cult) winery in St. Helena California. They make stunning Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. I have had their petite sirah before. I have wanted to try their sauvignon blanc as I have heard it's one of the best in California. Hint: You can email me to arrange a quick case to taste if the Switchback people are reading.

This wine had a deep and dense color with initial aromas of sweet leather, dark chocolate, cherries and some coffee grinds actually. Pretty expressive nose and it's evolving with a little apple too. I'm not being a show off wine-snoot here! The aromas really are complex on this 2005.

The taste shows rich dark fruit of blackberry and currants that is full bodied but not too thick or chewy. Almost aged cabernet like in the fullness and finesse of the fruit without the heavy tannins or dryness of new cabernets.

The finish is lingering. Drink now out to 5 years. Air out if drinking now though.

92 Points

Switchback knows how to do Petite Sirah for sure.

This is one of the best Petite Sirahs I ever had for sure. Grace, power and complex. Not cheap. This will run you north of $45 and that's if you can even find it. Oh wait - you can find it below if you search! (by one of our sponsors)

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2005 Eric Kent Chardonnay Russian River Valley

2005 was an excpetional year for Chardonnay in the Russian River Valley area and throughout much of California. Eric Kent is one of the producers I enjoy from that area. I have enjoyed Chardonnays, Syrahs and Pinot Noir from this producer.

The wine had nice aroams of nuts, sweet butter and light oak. The swirl seemed not to show a heavy oaky chardonnay. It looked light on it's feet. The mouthfeel was medium bodied with full flavors of lemon oil, oak and very crisp acidity - almost spritzy for a chardonnay. I happen to like chardonnays like this. Full flavor but not heavy or over oaked. The lemon flavors are a bit too much on the back end of the palate which knocks a few pointies off - fwiw. Finish is good but a bit simple and citrus driven.

Not that this wine isn't delicious...it is. If you ask me, it's a go. It's really my style. For Chardonnay purists, maybe not. It has a "wee bit" sauvignon blanc flavors and acidity. I don't mind that either. A tasty wine is a tasty wine if you ask me.

Would I peg this as 2005 Russian River Valley? No way. Try some heavies from Kistler and some others and you can literally see in the glass the difference in concentration. I happen to not love the Kistler style myself and their wines are literally double what Eric Kent's are.

This Eric Kent chardonnay can be enjoyed by itself but would be terrific with some raw clams or oysters. The spritz, acidity and other chardonnay characteristics make it a perfect match for cold seafood.

Score for me: 89 points

Enjoy!

Copain 2005 Madder Lake Syrah

Copain just released (and I just received happily) their 2007 single vineyard Syrahs and Pinot Noirs (2 offerings of each type), so I was in the mood to pop a 2005 Madder Lake Syrah. This is a wine I have had from other vintages, including 2004 and found them to be fairly open and floral fruity wine.

This 2005 Madder Lake was no different. The nose had a great sweet smokey quality to it. Almost a sweet BBQ cedar component and sone cranberry. The aroma was very nice.

This 2005 Syrah captured great dark fruit and sour cherry on the palate with a pretty sweet blueberry finish. I enjoyed that as I love blueberry, but it could be a tad sweet at the end for some. Had a good dryness touch at the end which could, for a moment throw some off as a cabernet. More likely it is just still young.

I thought this was a solid wine from Copain. I enjoy so many of their wines and I am a proud mailing list member. Wells Guthrie - the winemaker does a really nice job year in and year out.

Let this air out some if tasting it in the near term, but the flavors and aroma are all there.

90 Points

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2002 Beckmen Estate Cabernet Sauvignon - Beckmen

For anyone who knows me or has seen many of my wine tasting notes here and elsewhere, I am a big fan of Beckmen wines. I have really enjoyed their Syrahs and their Grenache was out of this world good and one of my favorite wines of this year.

2002 was a pretty ripe year for many areas in California. I have had some strong bottles of Cabernet from 2002, but I was unaware of Beckmen's offering of Cabernet Sauvignon. I bought this at a very affordable price on an auction site. Where most estate or single vineyard Cabs I drink come in at the $30-$40 range, this was bought for only $10. Beckmen's Syrah and Grenache are normlly over $30.

Wine impressions and notes

I found the 2002 Cabernet not my style at all. I don't know if this was an off bottle or not. It was not corked nor did it carry any suspicious odor or color. In fact the aroma has pretty rich with hints of earth, figs, brown sugar and black cherry. But once I took a sip, it was just a thick jammy mess honestly. I hate saying that as I do love this producer, but this just clunked for me. Jammy, tannic with some black cherry, and dark fruit. Got very tart and a little harsh towards the end too and did I say "thick"?

This 2002 was just a total miss for me and way out of balance. If this was an off bottle, so be it. I have had too much experience with this solid producer to slam this bottle with a low score, so I'll leave a score out. If I was a professional big shot taster like Robert Parker or Jim Laube, I'd have my secretary request another bottle of this to compare. But alas, I have no such resources - nor the motivation to seek it out again.

If you can find their Grenache or any of their Syrahs - go for it.

I guess I leave it right there. On to the next wine....

Wine Glass Size - Big Glass

I'm going to really try to refrain from saying "Size does matter" with wine. Ooops Sorry.

Does wine taste better when you have it out of a bigger glass? The answer in my opinion depends. If the wine is good, a big glass will make it better - most of the time. I don't think you have to always get caught up in what is a Bordeaux glass specifically and so on, but a nice big well crafted Reidel Stem made for a Cabernet or other full bodied wine can really deliver. Deliver what? Big aromas that are released easier when drinking from a bigger stem.

Younger Bolder Red Wines

If there is one type or style of wine that benefits from a nice size glass it is bold young reds that have great body and aroma but maybe are also young and need the extra space in a big glass to stretch out and air - almost like a mini decanter. Even if you are someone who does not sit and smell a wine for 5 minutes before drinking it (ahem...that's me by the way), the aroma of a wine will effect the taste and your full capturing of the flavor. It just does. Try a good full body wine and pour it in to a little glass, you know the kind you'll get at a pizza restaurant or something and pour some into a nice size Cabernet Bordeaux glass. The wine will open up faster, give off stronger aroma and taste much better. Why not drink your best wines in stemware that gives you the best method of enjoyment?

Lighter Bodied Reds and Whites

I enjoy good wines with good sized glasses at low pours. That's just me and there are no rules. I don't even drink champagne out of flutes. I use white wine glasses. I like a big bowl, love to swirl and sniff so lighter bodied reds such as Chianti, Classic Style Pinot Noirs, Malbecs and others work fine for me in bigger stemware.
Full bodied Chardonnays can be big and bold with a large red style wine glass as well.

Not all wines benefit from more real estate in the stem for me. Older wines that past their peak and cheaper everyday bottles will only fade out faster or just taste worse than they would out of a little glass with a high pour!

These are mainly preferences by your truly and certainly more opinion than fact. There is very little about wine enjoyment that is totally based on fact. Still, do yourself a favor and drink your best wines out of a nice big glass and get your whole head in there!