Vintage Troy

Domaine De Nizas Les Mas 2007 Wednesday Wine at it’s finest

When hump day hits there is something magical about a glass of wine.  The magic also has to come at a reasonable price.  To many, that means Yellow Tail, Barefoot or something like that.  For me, it’s an opportunity to pop some French wine.  Yes you heard right.  I’m not breaking out the prized Pomerol but there are options.

To satisfy my mid-week wine crazing I reached for a bottle of 2007 Domaine De Nizas Le Mas.  This wine comes from the value laden Languedoc.  The wine is a blend of Cabernet, Syrah and Petit Verdot.   This is a cool blend and offers a great change up for the tired and bored palate.  Here’s the low down.

Color:  Dark Purple-Black

Nose:  Dark berries, bark yard, plums and dustiness. 

Palate:  Medium body with nice acid balance.  The fruit is present but a tad over run by the woodiness.  Licorice and fennel come out.  The sugary aspect of the licorice and the savory vegetal fennel essence combine to make a great midpalate.  The wine is also balanced and has focus.

Overall I enjoyed this wine.  It will not go down as a classic glass of wine for me but it has character.  It’s like a date with an interesting women that was enjoyable but the two of you just don’t click.  The biggest joy I get from this Domaine De Nizas is it is true to itself.  There is no fake-ness to the wine.  It shares it sense of place and for the price it beats soooo many wines in the range.  I was lucky enough to get this from Cinderella Wine for roughly $12.  Yes pretty good French wine for under $15.  Why not break out of a wine rut and experiment.  You never know, the Wednesday Wine just might surprise you and become a sneaky Saturday dinner wine at a great price.  Cheers!

Back in the Swing

****Spoiler Alert*** The return of Vintage Troy will be a dud.  Well at least the wine was.

After doing a little organizing and sifting through my wine collection it dawned on me I have a bunch of wine that needs to be drank.  Some sooner then others.  So in that spirit I popped a bottle of Concha y Toro “Marques de Casa Concha” Cabernet 2004.  I know, I should have drank that already but tonight that juice gots a swirl in my Riedel.  

The cork was in terrific shape and came out without a lot of trouble.  

The color gave me the most hope.  This wine is still bright and showing no bricking at all.  

The nose was a little telling that this wine was in the evening of it’s days.  Light tar and leather gave way to a mix of stewed tomatoes and sweet tobacco juice.  

On the palate this had pretty good fruit which i was not expecting.  There was aged characteristics and there was a smoked prune component that was interesting.  The tannins were lost and very little acid was present.  This tasted like sugarfied Aussie Cab from the Little Yellow Alice Penguin White Tail Vineyard.  That was a bizarre and not very welcome realization.  This just tasted fake and a bit tired too.

The funniest thing about this wine was I wished I had opened it with some novice tasters or my sister.  This was not challenging and I’m sad I did not drink this sooner.  You see this wine’s problems were my fault.  In it’s prime it was good.  Trust me I drank some a few years ago.  Ultimately this session was a palate expander and a cautionary tale.  Keep an eye on your wine.  Drink more often in good company and comment on this awesome blog! :) 

Villa Des Anges Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

I’m stoked to try a true value play. No bones about it, this $9-$10 (7.98 from our friends at Wine Library) bottle of Cab could turn my wine world on it’s ear if it lives up to the 89pt rating it recieved from critic David Schildknecht, of the Wine Advocate.  A Cab at this price of any real quality is very hard to come by, most are very fake tasting or extremely unbalanced, especially when it comes to oak integration. Let’s see what we get with this bottle from Languedoc.

Pop and pour and this wine is a dark purple and the after an initial tilt-and-swirl the nose takes center stage.  I find the nose to be worth the price of admission.  Very complex offering red fruit, cocoa, and a herbaceous/cologne thing going on.  I catch a blending of old school Polo cologne (you know the green bottle kind) and rosemary. This is cool for me and gives hope to this tasting session.  

Time for a pass over the palate.  On the attack the tannins grab hold and introduce the acid and alcohol but the mid-palate and finish are astonishing.  Fresh red fruits sprinkled with black pepper and cedar comes to mind. Much more complex then I expected.  The oak is present but it definitely plays a background role.  The finish is long and expressive.

 This is “real” wine at this price point.  It feels a little young.  Do I think it has 5 years in the bottle? No.  But I feel 6 months from now this will be a very well balanced and polished wine.  What wrinkles there are will definitely be smoothed out.  The structure just feels setup to do a little more.  If you like your wines a little on the lean side, this is for you.  If you are looking for a inexpensive Cab this is for you.  Bring it to a blind tasting and see what people say.  I bet $17-$20 comes out of their mouths.  I would drink this again and right now I feel like this would be great with a Ribeye cheesesteak.  Good QPR and IMHO 89pts is on the money.  Break out of the ho-hum usual suspects and give this a try.