Get your floss ready folks because we’re going in.

Color

Well, I said it up there: Syrup. Thick black, rich syrup. Boysenberry and motor oil. A nice glass of 10W40.

Nose

We’ve got another violent wine here. A giant purple hand reaches out of the glass, but it doesn’t just lightly flutter in front of your nose to waft up some delicate aromas, no. This thing slaps you across your face and then grabs your nose, giving it a nice hard twist. Then it screams at you: “Smell this, you pansy!!”

Taste

If you enjoy these bombastic fruit nukes, than we’ve found a wine under $20 for you. Thick, chewy prunes, dates, blackberry fruit roll-ups and black pepper. The varietal characteristics that are meant to be there are all present, they’re just wearing size 15 black army boots and stomping all over your face. The fruit dominates and leaves little room for tannins or any real progression or structure. What I’m saying is, the mid-palate and finish are the same as the front. I mean, this stuff is so thick and heavy that—if you are a male—you should be careful not to spill any on your privates. You’ll be writhing on the floor in agony for a few minutes.

With Food

This wine would actually be good with food from a freshness standpoint because it’s probably violent enough to slaughter an animal and clean it for you. Just bring in a cow and pour some of this into it’s trough. Wait a few minutes and the cow will be a nice pile of steaks.

Seriously though, I hope you’ve got mouth insurance.

Where to Buy

$19.99 per bottle at Southern Hemisphere Wine Center, or $14.99 per bottle if you buy 6!

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UPDATE – I made an error concerning the vintage of this Chardonnay. It’s actually the 2007 since Cantara did not actually make an ’08. Thanks to Mike Brown (winemaker) over at Cantara for the correction.

I’m going to start a category called “Little Known” for wineries that are very small, below the radar, off the beaten path, or have little to no budget for advertising and so rely pretty much solely on word-of-mouth and (if they’re lucky) a “Wine Trail” pamphlet for their region in order to sell product.

In case you haven’t noticed, I tend to like these wineries. While they tend to have fewer bottles offered under $20, they often have impeccably-crafted wines offered at ridiculously low prices. The adverbs in that last sentence will really piss off my writer friends, so I hope you enjoyed it due to the tongue-lashing I’m about to take.

Also in case you haven’t noticed, Cantara Cellars is one of the kinds of wineries I’m speaking of. Cantara gets all of its fruit from Lodi, a region near the bloated Napa and Sonoma regions of California that forces my tax bracket to budget a yearly trip to get up there and visit them. However, the tasting room (and their home base) is located on what is known as the Ventura County Wine Trail. Hooray for a wine trail less than 2 hours from my house! (*cricket chirps*) Moving on.

Cantara got it’s start by getting away with what I’ve been arrested for: Making wine in your home’s garage. I guess they threw fewer “Chug from the Barrel!” parties. They even named it after the neighborhood they used to concoct this hooch in. My wife and I found them while staying at the awesome Glen Tavern Inn in Santa Paula, CA. We were desperate to taste some vinos and plugged “winery” into our GPS and , low and behold, a winery tasting room popped up in the midst of a non-descript office park. Seriously, you drive toward the area they are located in and you begin wondering whether you are actually visiting a tasting room or going to complain at a Time Warner Cable satellite office. It was there that we found the Ventura County Wine Trail brochure and learned that it crawls all the way up to Ojai, where we found more small wineries and tasting rooms (more on that later). Since then we were able to taste their delicious wines a second time at the Malibu/Calabasas Food & Wine Festival.

In conclusion, these people are the salt of the modern-day-wine-making-earth. And their wine kicks ass.

So let’s get into the Cantara Cellars Chardonnay:

Color

Golden, solid, textbook. Makes you confident that you are in fact drinking Chardonnay (I hate this section of the reviews).

Nose

Wait a minute, is this…is this really what I’m smelling? A wine that actually smells like lemon meringue pie? Cream, lemon, acid, full. Delicious nose.

Taste

The flavors match the nose in a step-by-step fashion. Bright lemon, some green apple, some white fig for a good mix of acid and fullness. Rich mouthfeel. Velvety but not buttery, just like a light pie crust. Great mid-palate of what seems to be cinnamon and a bread-like finish. Nice sourdough at the end. Weird but intriguing and great.

With Food

A very food-friendly wine. Thanks to the acid it won’t overpower already-buttery dishes. Chicken or Salmon Picatta, shellfish, savory crepes and the like. Not for an appetizer. This is Main wine.

Where to Buy

$21 at CantaraCellars.com. Yes, that’s the winery website, and yes I realize that it’s over $20. But it’s a buck. Dig through your sofa cushions.

Winery/Tasting Room Info

126 N. Wood Road #104

Camarillo, CA 93010

(805) 484-9600

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Color

Great violet color, vibrant and looks well-made from the start.

Nose

Wow, tropical fruits: Pineapple, papaya, what the hell is this? Some tobacco and red fruit is there, but I can’t make out what.

Taste

Holy crap, the tropical fruit is still there. The pineapple, the papaya. This tastes like one of those orange juice combo drinks they make. Almost Sunny Delight-ish, if you can believe that. I don’t know quite how to describe this. I want to say “fruit-forward” but I’m used to the usual red fruits. Those red fruits are there, but not in any force at all. And all along with these strange fruits comes structure. The tannins are weak, but they are there. No hollowness, and a great finish of cherry mixed with pineapple. Like a sorbet.

With Food

You know, I wouldn’t mess with this one. This is far too unique and complex to be a food wine. ‘Nuf said.

Where to Buy

Under $20 at the winery: http://www.oreanawinery.com/.

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The Ventana Dry Rosado is a definite winner. I had never heard of Ventana and I barely knew where Arroyo Seco was before buying it (despite visiting Monterey, for God’s sake). Back to the point, this wine is a stud. I’m not even sure it should be referred to as a Rose, as every Rose I’ve had before is a crying little girl compared to this. Perhaps that’s why they used “Rosado” as the specific name. I’ll have to look it up.

Color

Cranberry juice cocktail. Deep rich ruby. Stiff for a Rose, but like I said, it’s a stud. Red wine is often referred to as ruby in color. I disagree. Look at a ruby and tell me if the color is more like a Gamay or this wine. You’ll see what I mean.

Nose

Skunk. Pure skunky cherry and cranberry notes. It dominates the nose. Tart strawberry, moldy blueberry, dry carpet.

Taste

More tart but juicy as can be. This is explosive strawberry, cranberry and some gasoline. Almond sneaks in to finish you off. Huge mouthfeel like velvet. This is not Granny’s $5 Rose.

With Food

Give it it’s due. Don’t pair this with just salad or fish or even light chicken as you would a typical Rose. We’re talking 10% Syrah and 90% Grenache here, left to soak with the skins longer than usual for a Rose. Stiffen things up by putting some time of slightly darker sauce on the chicken or fish. Actually, now that I think about it, grilled fish or chicken with lime and salsa, or even a good ceviche would work perfectly with this. Hey, look at that! Another wine that works with Mexican food, and from the most unlikely of varietals.

Where to Buy

$18 at TasteMontery.com, which by the way is an awesome little wine store right nextdoor to the Steinbeck Museum in Salinas. Go get some culture and then get buzzed off the beautiful wines Monterey has to offer.

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So last week we left off at Ortman Vineyards in downtown Paso Robles, and for the conclusion of our little 2-day sojourn to Paso Robles, we’re going to get past the blur that was Saturday night (after Ortman) and jump straight into our Sunday tastings. However, I would be remiss not to mention where we ate dinner on that Saturday night, a fantastic place called Villa Creek, right in the heart of downtown.  Since this is a wine review site for the poor, I won’t go into too much detail concerning the meal. I will only mention three things:

1. My wife had the rabbit, which was outstanding.

2. I had the brisket-stuffed poblano chile, which was for some reason even better than the rabbit.

3. I spilled an entire glass of wine on myself (If you remember where we left off last time, we were at Ortman and I’d lost my sense of taste. Add a visit to a nearby pub to that just before dinner, and it was really partytime).*

Cut to the next morning. A brilliant start at Margie’s Diner (also near downtown) with the biggest plate of breakfast I’ve ever seen, and it surely did the trick. This place was serious. There had to be like an entire bag of potatoes on that plate. Anyway, onto the wines!

Pomar Junction Winery

This was a great place. A former railroad junction (go figure) the place boasts a great old tasting room, and out back you can climb into an authentic caboose car and admire the view of what was once a fairly busy California crossroads of sorts. Besides Pomar’s awesome website, they had some pretty good stuff for a new winery. Their under-$20 standouts are as follows:

Pomar Junction Syrah Rose

COLOR: A nice strawberry juice. Dare I say that it looks like a hearty white zinfandel?

NOSE: Strong strawberry, metal, cheese rind. All good signs of a great rose. A good nose for a cool summer wine.

TASTE: Here come the strawberries again along with the the cheese rind. The metal dissipates among a strong mid-palate of hard candy and a hint of marsala. Absolutely delicious and unfortunate that this has to come in the form of a rose when such a wine is difficult to market to the general public with their current perceptions of rose.

WITH FOOD: Like I said, a good cool summer wine with barbecued chicken and a strawberry salad.

WHERE TO BUY: $12.00 from the winery itself.

Pomar Junction “Picnic” Chardonnay – Canvas Series

COLOR: Pale. Almost too pale. Usually I look for at least some semblance of straw color, but this looked like a Sauvignon Blanc.

NOSE: Green apple, caramel corn and a nice shot of minerality.

TASTE: Good mouthfeel. Rich for a Chardonnay at this price. Good acid, strong finish, a little empty on the mid-palate, but the green apple is there for the most part throughout the whole movie.

WITH FOOD: Honestly? Keep this solitary. No sense in pairing this with food that will most likely destroy it; even lemon chicken. It’s on the cheap side, so treat it as such.

WHERE TO BUY: $12.00 from the winery itself.

So we had soaked our stomachs in the first wines of the day with Pomar Junction, and now it was time on to some even more serious wines.

Wild Horse Winery

We were lucky to have stopped at mostly wineries I had never heard of before or seen on store shelves. Wild Horse was the only exception. You will recognize the label immediately and I think I have even seen some of their wines in grocery stores. While everything we tried here was absolutely delicious, take note of the “Unbridled” Merlot and the Cheval Sauvage, there were only a couple that were under the $20 mark, and among those there was one standout:

Wild Horse 2008 Malvasia Bianca

COLOR: Rich gold but not to the apple juice level. Looks very calm in the glass. What did that even mean?

NOSE: Strong, strong aromatics here, even though it was chilled. Once you plow through the initial honeysuckle smells, you get into some tangerine and cantaloupe and some ruby red grapefruit juice.

TASTE: The melon is strong with this (*cue Darth Vader breathing*). Great lychee flavors (go out and by some, their nuts) support a very rich mouthfeel and strong honey flavors. It feels like it would be too rich for even a hot day, but once you get to the finish, which stays but doesn’t really make it’s presence felt, you will know that this stuff will be good all summer long. Plus, I should point out that my brother bought an entire case.

WITH FOOD: This is a tough one, but I can’t see anything wrong with fish or even some spicier foods. It’s not going to really cut through the buttery dishes, since the acid is not the lead here.

$20 from the Wild Horse Winery

And finally, we reach the grand finale of our trip, wherein I experienced the best California red wine I have had thus far in my life. This will be a tough one to beat because the flavors were wacky and the varietal is Italian.

Bella Luna Winery

This place was the spitting image of an Italian home, right down to the half-dead dog in front and the custard paint. Run by two old fellas, both veterans of the Vietnam conflict, named Kevin Healy and Sherman Smoot. Kevin served us that day in the “tasting room” which was basically their enormous garage. The most interesting thing, other than the taste of the wine I’m about to go over, is that their Sangiovese vines are head-trained, meaning no trellises (those T-shaped things you normally see holding up the grapevines). this makes the vines grow, well, everywhere. Sort of like your lazy neighbor’s bushes.  Also interesting is that all of their fruit is dry-farmed, meaning no water unless it rains.

Bella Luna 2008 “Lot One” Barbera – San Benito County

I’m not going to go through the whole spiel here since this isn’t an under-$20 bottle, so I’ll give you the gist of my thoughts on this wine.

BUY IT IMMEDIATELY, EVEN IF IT IS $38

Basically, if you like red wine or have even the slightest interest in Italian varietals, this is a wine worth checking out. The fruit is definitely there but it doesn’t explode, and there are strong vegetal characteristics like asparagus, broccoli, green beans, and green bell pepper. Great firm tannins that don’t muscle their way in. Everything is perfectly, PERFECTLY balanced. I can’t wait to open this thing again. I even asked Mr. Healy for another try of it at the tasting room, which I’m not used to doing.

$38 at Bella Luna Winery

So that concludes our little Paso Robles Wine Country adventure here at Wine Welfare. Other trips are coming, including a number of trips up to the Edna Valley region, Santa Ynez, including Los Olivos, and a trip up to Napa, so stay tuned. AND LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS SERIES IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

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Cheers!

*My wife will probably repeat that I have obsessed over this embarrassing accident since it happened nearly three weeks ago.

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Been meaning to write a post on this wine for awhile now. The Merkin Vineyards Chupacabra is made by Caduceus Cellars, owned and operated by Maynard James Keenan, lead singer of the bands Tool, Puscifer and (the now disbanded) A Perfect Circle. I’m going to just come out and say this to get it out of the way:

TOOL ROCKS

Tool is far and away my favorite band on the entire planet, so it was only natural that when I saw Mr. Keenan had started his own winery and vineyard in the stunning Verde Valley of Northern Arizona, I had to try the wine.

Note: While Caduceus Cellars is an Arizona winery, the Merkin Chupacabra is made from California Cabernet and Syrah (hey, he had to start with something, right?). But you can buy his 100% Arizona fruit wines online at the website.

Northern Arizona is the epitome of “burgeoning wine country,” and based on the the wines I have tasted from this region, Arizona is going to be a major, major player in both the High-End and the more vital “Value Wine” world. The flavors are as stunning and complex as any other wine region (maaaaybe not Italy, but that’s because I also think Italy rocks). Beyond all that, what will truly set this region apart for wine makers and wine lovers is that these flavors are NEW. Brand new. Like nothing you have ever tasted.

Cheers to Mr.Keenan and Eric Glomski (owner of Page Springs Cellars, one of the first Arizona wine makers to bring attention to the region) for the success of their vision, because if this California-fruit wine is any indication of their combined talents, we will be seeing quite a change in the U.S. wine world (now get going on the next Tool album).

So, let’s get into the juice:

Disclaimer: DECANT THIS WINE. We’ve said it before and we’re saying it again: IF POSSIBLE, DECANT EVERY RED WINE YOU DRINK, NO MATTER WHAT.

COLOR: I’m not sure if this is filtered or not, but this looks like tomato juice on an iron binge. Seriously deep, dark, rich burgundy colors. You’ll be smacking your lips right away.

NOSE: Black stewed cherries and grandma’s basement. An odd, yet delicious combo.

TASTE: Every summer when I was a boy I would go to visit my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in tiny little Munich, North Dakota (population approx. 350). Those days spent there were some of the best in my entire life. The flatness, the quiet, the landscape, the farm, the machines, the people and of course, the food. I basically loved everything about the place (of course, I’ve never experienced a winter there, but that’s another post on another site). Now this will sound strange, but it’s the one thing that popped into my mind when I tasted the Merkin Chupacabra: This wine reminds me of North Dakota.

I know, I know. I don’t understand it either, but it did. The smell of basement, the flavors of dark cherry, the slight mint, the brief and out-of-left-field-flavor of baked bread. It reminded me of a dessert my grandmother used to make that I am going to spell wrong called “Cherries Jus” or something like that. Basically, it was sweet, creamy cherry soup, served warm. It was delectable. This wine’s structure is solid, with awesome, awesome fruit and good balance of tannins to the sweetness. It’s not too dry in the least. The alcohol is there only to support and intoxicate, and believe me, you will be intoxicated by this stuff.

WITH FOOD: While it seems almost sacrilegious not to savor this on its own, I am a firm believer that food came before wine and so all wines should be able to pair with foods. In this case, you could do worse than a traditional filet mignon, roast lamb, ostrich steak or even buffalo.

BEST PRICE: $19.98 at WineLibrary.com!

Further Info on Arizona Wines/Wineries:

http://www.arizonastrongholdvineyards.com/

http://www.doscabezaswinery.com/

http://www.arizonavinesandwines.com/wineries.html

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NOTE: We decanted this for about an hour before tasting.

COLOR: Deep musty red. Looks lighter than most Bordeauxs.

NOSE: Even with decanting, this is a tight nose. You can pick up some cherry and a bit of wet earth, but that’s it.

TASTE: A little flat upon intake. No explosion of anything here, which is expected for Old World wines like Bordeaux, but come on, Ballan-Larquette. This should taste like something fruit-related. I mean, we’ve got the dirt again, some good tannins, but nothing else. No real structure. The finish would be good, if there were something to finish. I guess I’ll admit that there were some faint cherry flavors, but nothing I could describe as delicious. To manipulate one of my favorite phrases from the 80s: “Where’s the fruit??”

WITH FOOD: Well, based on the lack of fruit, how about a nice bowl of steam? Perhaps leaving it out and enjoying it with a steak would wake things up.

WHERE TO BUY: $19.99 at Bevmo, though you may find it cheaper in local shops.

Check out our other Bordeaux wine reviews! (There’s really only one)

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Every few weeks I start to get bored with the wines I’m tasting. It seems I keep coming back to the same descriptions of scents and tastes, finding nothing new to say and not much to proffer. This makes the wine reviews stagnant and lifeless. I don’t like that. Whether it is the fault of the wines (Under-$20 can be a tough category to find mind-blowing vino) or my own lack of creativity, tedium occasionally sets in. There is only so much you can say at times without trying to reinvent the wheel.

But every now and then, in the midst of all the “blackberry flavors,” “good finishes,” “firm tannins,” “acids to balance the fruit” and everything else used to describe wines, comes a bottle that really just blows you away. Last week I almost had one with the Peachy Canyon Petite Sirah, but it fell short in that it tasted like most Petite Sirahs, only bigger. This week it finally happened. I tasted a wine that pretty much awakened whatever buzz-induced drag of familiarity I was in, while simultaneously blowing my face off.

COLOR: Chardonnay. Deep, rich golden yellow. Apple juice amber that is very unlike Riesling colors.

NOSE: Here’s where it gets very interesting. Huge wad of butter and apple served on a moldy tree trunk with honeysuckle blossoms in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland (hopefully most of you can identify that smell; if not, the closest thing I can think of is a toolshed after rain).

TASTE: Heavily-spiced apple pie with cheddar cheese, huge fruit cocktail of pears, grapes and nectarines topped with metal shavings and a caramel syrup. That makes no sense, but go with it. Add in those blossoms again at the end. The acidity is there with the metallic and mineral flavors, leading to a long, warm finish. When you take a small sip, it feels like you’ve shoved that entire slice of pie into your mouth and are now attempting to chew.

WITH FOOD: Dessert for one, though I’d stick with white fruit desserts rather than anything like chocolate, but this thing could probably make the floor of a public bus taste good.

SCORE: 10/10

WHERE TO BUY:$18.00 at CentralCoastWines.com!

or

$14.40 when you join the Wolff Vineyards Wineclub (which I highly recommend).

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Background

Claiborne & Churchill is a small winery in the Edna Valley of California’s Central Coast, a stone’s throw from Pismo Beach. We stumbled across this place after the recommendation from pretty much every other winery in the area:

“If you like whites, you need to visit Claiborne & Churchill.”

C & C is known for its Alsatian varietals, particularly Dry Riesling, Dry Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Gris and Muscat dessert wines. Their book of red varietals is also stellar and should not be missed. We highly recommend you visit them if you are ever in the Central California area, and be sure to ask about their “straw-bale house,” which houses some of their casks. It’s a house made completely of straw that has no heat or air conditioning; rather, it maintains the perfect temperature for storing wine at all times.

Color

Beautiful, clarified, red. Nothing too inky. Light, but with the expected juiciness.

Nose

Brilliant pepper, sour cherry, broccoli and dirt. Fantastic and complex, but with balance. Nothing outweighs another.

Taste

Well-crafted and absolutely delicious. This wine is not challenging but also not easy. It has complex flavors that pretty much match the nose, but with more dark fruit. Very well balanced with great, subtle fruit, good tannins that come on slow and linger. Great balance of heat as well, without overdoing it. Amazing, amazing Pinot that showcases the brilliant climate of California’s Central Coast.

With Food

Lamb, steak, pork, maybe even chicken, so long as your meat is either smoked or served with a form of black pepper. Spice-rubbed pork loin or filet mignon seems perfect.

$18.95 at NapaCabs.com!

Of course, we recommend you also head to the Claiborne & Churchill winery in Edna Valley, CA to see things firsthand.

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Bad News First: It’s contradictory to the good comments above, but the butteriness might be off-putting to some. The wine was obviously oaked heavily, but not to death. Still, for those who like a less creamy chardonnay and prefer something more dry on the palate, this is a pass. You can also find chardonnays like the Edna Valley Paragon, which are just as good for less than 18 bones.

Now the Good: For under $20, this was the butteriest Chardonnay I’ve had since my trip to the Edna Valley in 2008. The second it hits the tip of your tongue your entire mouth feels full. I guess that’s what they call a “full mouthfeel” but I just say it’s delicious. Fruit forward but still just alcoholic enough. Peaches baked in butter.

With Food: Great with anything cooked with butter. Shellfish or Alfredo sauces.

$17.99 at BevMo

Firestone Vineyards

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