NewsletterApril, 2009
TASTING CALENDARA TALE OF CABERNETPart 1, Wednesday, April 29th, 6 p.m. Coaltrain will be doing a two part evaluation of “New World” Cabernet Sauvignons, the grape that has led the contemporary wine revolution. Let us hone our skills as comparative shoppers. Part 1 will include 6 different growing regions from 3 separate continents and will cover wines priced from $9.00 to $20.00 per bottle. Part 2 will raise the stakes and explore the $21.00 to $40.00 per bottle range. The Warehouse Restaurant on Cimarron will be our venue for Part 1. Things will begin at 6:00 P. M. PIZZERIA RUSTICA WINE DINNERMonday, April 20th, 6 p.m. Our next wine dinner will be our Passport to Tuscany Earth Week Dinner at Pizzeria Rustica. Reservations are via Coaltrain Wine & Spirits at 719-475-9700. We will be donating the proceeds from this dinner to the White Acres acquisition fund being sponsored by the Friends of Red Rock Canyon Open Space. For more information see www.redrockcanyonopenspace.org We will serve five wines from Tuscany/Umbria paired with five Tuscan dishes for $49 plus tax and tip, and can also accept any additional donation you may wish to make to the White Acres project. SPRING BEER TASTINGFriday, April 17th, 5:30pm Join us at The Warehouse for this sit-down tasting of twenty excellent brews. The tasting will feature Blondes, Wit Bier, Farmhouse Ales, and Saisons. Most of the offerings are from southern Belgium and Northern France, with some American efforts mixed in. The price is $40 a taster (inclusive), and reservations are a must. Call 475-9700. 2nd ANNUAL TRAPPIST BEER TASTINGThursday, June 11th, 6pm Save the date for the upcoming Trappist Beer tasting. It was so popular a year ago; we knew it would become an annual event. $40 per taster inclusive, again at The Warehouse. Red Wine of the Month2007 Perez Cruz Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva, $15.99/Sale $11.99: Let’s face it, it’s not easy to get exciting Cabernets for under $15. Well, we think we’ve done it here. It comes from the esteemed Maipo Valley wine zone of Chile. It gives you sexy black fruit aromas and flavors with a bit of green tea (probably tannin) hanging around. The oak and alcohol complement the wine’s fine flavors, not distract from them. By the way, there are a few atoms of Carmenere and Syrah in the blend. It was aged a year in wood and four months in the bottle before shipment. Sure it’s not a Napa valley “monster,” but a most debonair drink. Try it with elegant meat dishes. We’ll be tasting it at our Cabernet tasting on April 29. White Wine of the Month2007 Huber Gruner Veltliner, Hugo, $12.99/Sale $10.99: Austria’s Gruner Veltliner grape has lately become the darling of gastronomic in-spots throughout North America. From Vijay’s in Vancouver to Charlie Trotter in Chicago, hundreds of fine restaurants feature Gruner Veltliners on their wine lists. What’s the deal? Versatility, baby. Gruner Veltliners pair delightfully with ethnic foods, particularly Eastern, and they won’t clash with most creative chefs’ dreamiest inventions. Characteristically, Gruners give you a straw color and scents of fruit and lentil (yes you are reading correctly). This one has all that besides being bone dry and extraordinarily clean. We think customers who enjoy New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs would go ape over Gruners too. Try it with stir fries, oriental pork and all light, creative dishes. And it’s pretty darn tasty all by itself. It could be the perfect wine for you to see what all the Gruner frenzy is about. $120 Mixed CaseNOW AVAILABLE IN BOTH RED AND WHITE, AND ALL RED!Our preselected mixed case has been a huge hit. The staff at Coaltrain chooses 12 great wines for a case that will keep you happily surprised! We’ll say it again: we know you can find mixed cases for $100. But instead of a case that’s just OK and probably has a dud or two, Coaltrain’s mixed case is full of wines that live up to our standards. They offer excellent examples of a range of wines from across the globe. And the $120 will always beat our already great 10% off a mixed case. (This month your savings average around 15%!) And what could be easier? They’re pre-packed, either 6 red and 6 white, or all red, and ready to go. Quantities may be limited. New ArrivalsCalifornia & Oregon2006 Andrew Rich Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, $33.99/$25.99: Lordy, to get an Oregon Pinot at this price is the answer to our prayers. It comes from the rich 2006 vintage and it shows it. With gobs of Pinot fruit and buxom shapes, no anorexic Burgundy here. It’s ready to drink and, the sale price is killer! 2005 The Girls in the Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Hills Lake County, $24.99/Sale$19.99: This may be the “Lolita” of California Cabs. It’s tender, shy, sulky, on the willowy side and, at times, gushy. But it is loveable and irresistible. It will bring youth back to you. It did for us! Let’s just keep Quilty off the trail. 2006 Petite Petit, Petit Sirah, Lodi, $19.99/Sale $16.99: This is a blend of 85% Petite Syrah and 15% Petit Verdot …a blend we honestly had never heard of before. We were pleasantly surprised when we tasted it. The Petit Verdot (a Bordeaux blending grape) tones down the punch of the Petite Syrah resulting in a wine with beautiful berry fruit that is more graceful than most Petite Syrahs. Definitely worth a try! 2005 Pedroncelli Merlot, Dry Creek, Bench Vineyards, $12.99/Sale $10.99: This is serious Merlot, not fluff. There is even some Bench Vineyard dirt in the nose and a bit of tannin on the tongue. Plums, blackberries and spice round out the package. Without question, the best Merlot at its price in Coaltrain. 2006 Tobin James Syrah, Paso Robles, $21.99: A landmark in California Syrah. It’s not dense, sweet, overly gushy. Rather it’s stylish and well tutored. It reminds us of a top level St. Joseph or Crozes-Hermitage from the north Rhone of France. Our compliments to Tobin for this achievement. 2005 Scott Harvey Barbera, Amador County, $24.99: This is probably the first Barbera outside the hills of Piemonte, Italy to which we apply our top superlatives. It’s rich and round, full of dark fruits… an exuberant wine, but constrained too. In ways, it reminds us of some of the great Barberas produced by Elio Grasso, outside Monforte d’Alba in Piemonte. Another top performance from Scott Harvey. Spain2007 Garnacha de Fuego, Calatayud, $11.99/Sale $9.99: When we tasted this blind we thought, “what a charming Cotes-du-Rhone.” Well, like Cotes-du-Rhone it is largely made from the Grenache grape, but it is Spanish. Tricked us. It’s certainly a “simpatico” red, but in no way obsequious or boring. Germany2007 Leo X-Treme Riesling, Pfalz, $20.99: Leo has been giving us some formidable wines. This Riesling is bone dry with essences of apple and stone fruits. It’s one of the most refreshing whites we have in Coaltrain. Bring on some hot weather! France2007 Albert Seltz Riesling Reserve, $16.99: We just love the stony essences of most 2007 Alsatian Rieslings. This has got it, plus some zippy Granny Smith apple notes and many other entrancing flavors. No overpowering petrol, the bane of a lot of Alsatian Rieslings. Being pretty much bone dry, it begs for a platter of Alsatian “choucroute garni.” 2007 Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet, Sevre et Maine, $13.99/Sale $11.99: This offers one of the most exotic and fetching noses we’ve experienced with a Muscadet. The importer tells it is due to the solo use of natural yeasts in the fermentation. The flavors are round and complex, not with surly acidity like many a Muscadet. One of the best Muscadets we’ve tasted. 2006 Champalou Vouvray, Cuvee des Fondreaux, $21.99: Wow. This is as good as Vouvray gets. It’s a special cuvee that approaches complete dryness. But still it gives all that lush Chenin Blanc fruit. We’d love to be sitting outside a Loire chateau drinking this with a “boudin blanc” (carp sausage) or some of the local goat cheeses. Life can be hell. 2007 Bourgogne Chardonnay, Kimmerigien, Jean Marc Brocard, $18.99: The whole story here is that Brocard has grown this Chardonnay in Kimmerigien soils. These are the same limestone, fossil infested soils that make many Chablis and Champagnes great. You get this addictive minerality and dryness that can make French Chardonnay and Champagne difficult to resist. 2006 Chateau Maris, Old Vine Syrah, Minervois la Livniere, $44.99: The “Minervois” appellation has never carried the respect of Bordeaux or Burgundy in France. But, boy, the region can be proud of this wine. It gives you crème de cassis, dark plum and chocolate on the nose and follows on the palate with a harmonious blend of dark fruit, dark chocolate and herbs de Provence. Syrah lovers must try this wine. It’s organic and biodynamic to boot! We were only able to get six bottles so try a bottle before it’s gone. 2006 Domaine des Tours, Vin de Pays de Vauclues, $19.99/Sale $17.99: What personality. It seems totally pure, even the “chemise” sediment indicates this. In color, it is much like a Pinot, though being a Rhone blend. It is made by the hallowed Reynaud family who own Chateau Rayas in Chateauneuf-du-Pape. They are known for both eccentricity and greatness. 2006 La Griveliere Cotes-du- Rhone, $10.99/Sale $9.99: How do they keep coming up with these super value Cotes-du-Rhones? This explodes with tasty Grenache fruit, presented in a velvet cape. Good “house wine”. We almost made it “Wine of the Month.” Italy2007 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, Azienda Santa Barbera, $12.99/Sale $9.99: Verdicchio is one of the most renowned white wines in Italy, and not only due to the one that comes in a fish-shaped bottle. A dandy “intro” Verdicchio. It’s clean with complexity and mineral notes. Fifteen years ago, this winery made a commitment to quality and they have stuck to plan. 2006 Poggio alla Guardia, Maremma, $20.99: Maremma is arguably the hottest wine zone in Tuscany today. Most of the action is taking place on a hillside between Grosseto and Montiano. The wines are normally a blend of Sangiovese with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. This combo gives the wine some flesh and suppleness. An imaginative and lovely young red wine. 2003 Rodano, Chianti Classico, $21.99/Sale $17.99: In the era of rocketing Chianti prices this is a considerable value. Why? It has full, gracefully wrought Sangiovese flavors in a traditional Old World style giving you a blend of cherry, tobacco, cedar and a touch of earth. Not easily found at any price. Try with all pasta dishes. 2006 Guerrieri Rizzardi Valpolicella Ripasso, Pojega, $21.99: This is a lovely, mouthfilling Valpolicella that is made by the ripasso (or “ripassa”) process which means the wine is refermented on the grape skins used to make Amarone (which are dried). This gives the wine a dried fruit aspect with more power and stick than generic Valpolicella. This is “as good as it gets” for the price. Featured Favorites2006 Paras Vineyard Viognier, Mt. Veeder, Napa Valley, $38.99/ $34.99: The key to this delightful Viognier is the altitude of the vineyard (1,200 feet) and its rocky soil. It reminds one of the vineyards above the village Condrieu, where the world’s finest Viognier is grown. This beauty has citrus, pear, apricot and all the goodies that great Condrieus provide their honored drinkers but in a richer style than the French version. Quite delicious! 2006 Grimaldi Barbera d’Alba, $20.99/Sale $18.99: Actually, we featured this same wine around the holidays. But we like it so much that we cannot resist more promotion. It is one of the lushest, juiciest Barberas we have recently tasted from the untrammeled Langhe Hills of Piemonte Italy. 2007 La Cappuccina Sauvignon Blanc, Veneto IGT, $14.99/Sale $12.99: It’s not every day that you see a Sauvignon Blanc from the Soave zone of the Veneto. This is, actually, one of the best Italian Sauvignon Blancs from any wine zone in the land. We like it because it has body weight. This comes from the aging of the wine for five months on its lees. It’s a unique wine from its golden hue to its earthy, citric flavors. 2007 Inama Soave Classico, $14.99: This shows just how captivating Soave can be. With a nose of iris and chamomile, the palate offers pear and citrus with volcanic mineral notes. The key is this Soave comes from the “classico” zone which is mountainous and of volcanic origin. This is nothing like the Soaves grown along the A4 highway, where it is flat and not blessed with volcanic soils, but a lot of truck exhaust. Extraterrestrial Oregon PinotsWe were thrilled to ski a month ago with Mike Etzel of Beaux Freres and Steve Doerner of Cristom Vineyards. Wild and crazy guys and superb winemakers. They make some of the greatest Pinot Noirs from Oregon’s fabled Willamette Valley. We were fortunate enough to taste every one of them! CRISTOM VINEYARDSSteve Doerner of Cristom is one of the few winemakers in the world to have only worked at two wineries—Calera and Cristom. Steve was at the start a biochemist, trained at U.C. Davis. His wine interests exploded when he went to work for Josh Jensen at the Calera Wine Company. His obsession became Pinot Noir. Today Steve’s “laboratory” at Cristom is 42 acres of vineyards divided into four parcels. The vineyards are named after women—Eileen, Jessie, Louise and Marjorie. All the single vineyards are medium bodied with wonderful balance, like most true Burgundy. The Eileen regularly has explosive black fruit and clear minerality. The Jessie bottling can have dark fruit, power and minerals. The Louise Vineyard reveals family traits, but is often the most feminine. The most restrained of the quartet is Marjorie, which is often angular in its youth but then evolves into the biggest wine of the group. The Mt. Jefferson Cuvee is a medium weight blend that can be immensely enjoyed from the get go. The 2006 “Sommers Reserve”, a blend of estate vineyards, is drinking beautifully right now. With luscious fruit and balanced acidity, it is smooth and supple. It is our favorite Cristom Pinot for immediate consumption…and it’s on sale! 2006 Cristom Pinot Noir, Jessie Vineyard, $48.99 BEAUX FRERES WINERYAs Robert Parker (the wine writer) and his brother-in-law, Mike Etzel, traversed the back roads of the Willamette Valley, Parker leaned over to Etzel and said, “Mike, you’re going to love it up here…there are a lot of free spirits, like yourself.” That certainly was true back in 1985. And the statement was prophetic. Mike Etzel has loved every minute of founding and running the Beaux Freres Winery with Parker. Today Mike is still a “free spirit” and also a laid-back, slightly rumpled and an utterly organic Oregon winemaker. Mike plunged into organic viticulture about five years into the project. And not only has he adopted the ethos of organic winemaking, he makes his wine biodynamically. You logically might inquire, “What is biodynamic?” Generally, it’s a way of making wine that is organic (no herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, chemical fertilizers, etc.), but much more. Biodynamic winemaking has practically made organic winemaking passé. Biodynamic winemakers, like Mike, work with their vines and wine according to a special calendar. This “cosmic calendar,” if you will, tells them when to perform their work according to the alignment of the planets and other astronomical conditions. Sounds a bit like sorcery. But we do know that many winemakers have for centuries bottled their wine, at least, when the moon is full. In addition to gazing at the sky, biodynamic winemakers do a lot of other unusual things. They make teas, sprays and potations of dandelion seeds, yarrow flowers and other plants to apply to sick vines. The dandelion seeds are fermented in cow’s intestine and the yarrow flower in a pig’s bladder. Mike takes particular delight in packing cow’s horns with cow dung and burying the horns over the winter in a specially selected trench with the ideal shade, pitch and proximity to stream water. A solution is made by dissolving a ¼ cup of the dung in enough water to cover one acre. The solution is stirred for an hour. Finally, a whiskbroom is dipped into the solution and it is sprayed on the vineyard ground in the motion of casting seeds. This is to enhance the calcium process, to help plants and seedlings establish themselves. Mike says biodynamic farming was proposed by an Austrian scientist, Rudolf Steiner. Steiner delivered a series of lectures on agronomy (not viticulture per se) in 1924 that laid the groundwork (sorry) for biodynamic farming. He was a learned man in many fields. Kind of a Hesse, Ouspensky, Gaudi and the Jolly Green Giant in one. It should be noted that biodynamics is not something that has been applied mainly in Oregon. Ancient agrarian cultures have treated their farmlands as interconnected organisms with the cosmos. Witness the Egyptians and Mayans for two of thousands. In Burgundy, touted winemakers such as Leroy and Leflaive have employed biodynamics since the 1980s. Not surprisingly, the radical “terroirist,” Marcel Deiss has been working this way in Alsace for decades. More recently, Cayuse in Washington has enjoyed immense critical acclaim with its biodynamic wines. Coaltrain carries the BEAUX FRERES VINEYARD, now specifying “Ribbon Ridge” on the label. This is the original estate vineyard planted from 1987 to 1991. The vineyard consists primarily of Pommard and Wadenswil clones. In earlier vintages, this wine was normally concentrated, with striking extract. It almost always topped 14 percent alcohol. However, Mike has changed his style in recent years to a more elegant one. The 2006 is charming with beautiful cherry flavors and good balance. Mike estimates the wine will hit its peak in five to seven years. We also have the 2005 BEAUX FRERES, WILLAMETTE VALLEY. This bottling is a wine composed from select vineyard sites in the valley. Mike works with the growers of these vineyards and makes sure the grape yields are very low. The 2005 is more in the style of Savigny- les- Beaune with delicate flavors, lighter body, noticeable acidity and bright cherry/raspberry fruit. Coaltrain has in stock... 2005 Beaux Freres Pinot Noir, Beaux Freres Vineyard, $72.99 Spain’s Rising White StarWines made from the Albarino grape have been starlets in Spain and the province of Galicia for over a decade. A new starlet has risen from the casting couch and is made from the Godello grape. Rather than the coastal regions of Galicia, Godello thrives more inland near Ourense, in the Valdeorras, where it is much drier. The wine is light, floral, sometimes steely, even. Often it has more body than its co-star Albarino. Much of the credit for Godellos stardom can be taken by Bodegas Godeval. In 1986, sixteen men came together in the splendid monastery of Xagoaza and agreed to make Godello a world class wine. They installed a state-of-the-art winery. The rest is history. 2007 Vina Godeval Godello, Valdeorras, $18.99: The prototype. Mineral and depth. 2007 Louro do Bolo Godello, Valdeorras, $25.99: Utterly stunning. Reminds you of 1er Cru Chablis. 2007 As Sortes Godello, Val do Bibei, Valdeorras, $47.99: Big, bold, no holds barred Godello. Much like drinking a fine Meursault. Two of the World’s Most Civilized RumsRum has evolved from what was once given on a daily basis to British sailors. A fine rum can equal a fine Cognac, Armagnac or single village Mezcals. Many years ago we fell in love with the Guatemalan Rum, Ron Zacapa, while traversing that wild, dangerous land. It is 23 years old and made only from virgin sugar cane, not molasses. It is aged in a solera system (stacks of wooden barrels) like sherry. The result is a silken, easy drinking potation with complexity and interest. Perfect for a brandy snifter. A couple weeks ago we did blind taste test with Goslings Family Reserve Rum. We were stunned that this Bermuda rum easily stood its ground against the mighty Zacapa. It’s rich with a little more intensity than the Zapaco. Our unanimous comment was, “These are both great rums!” Here’s what we have: Ron Zacapa 23 year old—$39.99 G oslings Family Reserve Rum—$87.99 |
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COALTRAIN
Wine & Spirits
330 W. Uintah
Colorado Springs, CO 80905
719-475-9700