I love cool-climate syrah. I’m always searching for the earthy flavors and sensual experience of Cote Rotie… for less than $80 a bottle, and preferably with at least 14% ABV.

Enter Domaine de Fondreche Persia 2012, from Ventoux, France. Persia is the vineyard; Ventoux is an area east of the southern Rhone where the local climate and weather are influenced by a single mountain.

Notably, while summer days are very hot, nights are cooled by air coming down from Mont Ventoux. Hence, northern Rhone-like cool climate syrah, from a region much farther south, where land is much cheaper.

When I was done with my first bottle, I rushed back to buy a case. I should have bought two.

Continue reading The Dark Side of Syrah, with Domaine de Fondreche Persia 2012 (Ventoux), for #Winophiles →

For ten bucks you get a seriously full-bodied petite sirah. (!!!) Petite sirah is the standard-bearer for opaquely dark red wine. You won’t be disappointed by the amount of flavor, either.

Continue reading Cycles Gladiator 2015 Petite Sirah: Buy Buy Buy →

Amarone blends deserve their place among the Great Big Reds. We enjoyed this one very much.

For those who haven’t come across amarone: it’s a north Italian blend of light red grapes, but they dry the grapes before fermenting (!!?). It’s wine made from raisins, so a lot of the water is gone but the sugar remains. This gives them high alcohol, 15% in this case, but frequently even more.

Continue reading Zeni Amarone della Valpolicella docg Classico 2013 →

Here’s a Washington syrah with typically bright acidity, but more body — a Great Big Reds drinker’s Washington wine. Only 112 cases were made, so you’ll be lucky to find some.

Continue reading Helioterra Columbia Valley 2014 Syrah →

Dark flavors for dark times

Pino Doncel Black — monastrell/mourvedre, syrah, and 20% petit verdot — was there for me when I needed a dark, earthy wine in the under $15 range. ($12 on sale at Calvert Woodley in Washington, DC.)

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Yes, 20% petit verdot won me straight away. My first bottle I was struck by the tannin, but now I hardly notice. I get the lush, rich feeling that I like (14.5% alcohol) and this strong darkness.

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It takes a lot to get me to postpone drinking my hot-climate shiraz favorites. Pino Doncel Black is a lot.

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The winery is in Jumilla. It’s a family-run bodega, founded in 1914.

To me, this seems like an upgrade over pure Monastrell. And if you’re going to blend, blending with petite verdot beats blending with grenache any day.

Great Big Cava

This is a brut rose cava made from 60% monastrell (!!) and 40% garnacha. Some people we know are prejudiced against rose because it seems like watered-down red. But if you think of it as flavored-up white… that sounds better! (‘Cava’ is the Spanish term for sparkling wine made with the same process that the ‘Champagne’ region of France uses.)

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We think of champagne and champagne-oise as honorary Great Big Reds. The bubbles stand in for richness, and the acidity distracts less when the wine is cold and the mood is celebratory. Also, rose champagne-oise is colorful because the grape skins were left in the mix longer, and that results — all other things being equal — in more flavor than white. In this case, 60% monastrell probably adds a lot more flavor than they would have gotten from another grape.

Continue reading Canals Canals 2012 Brut Cava →

Cline Cellars’ Cool Climate Syrah was my first taste of the other side — the dark side — of syrah. For twenty bucks or so, you see a whole different world, darker and wilder than the Australian shiraz on the shelves of your grocery store.

Continue reading Cline Cool Climate Syrah 2012 →