Vino Della Casa 2009 Table Wine
12% by Volume, $5.99 at Berkeley Bowl
Thursday June 2nd, 2011
Two things caught my eye about this wine as I hastily glanced around the Berkeley Bowl West Wine section last grocery shop: type and price. I love the idea of table wine, and this was one of the cheaper wines in the section. My laden basket did not allow for much perusal and I had already hit my budget limit for the trip, so I grabbed Vino Della Casa and ran. Much to my surprise, what I picked turned out to be much better than I expected.
In most regards, (and according to the EU), table wine is classified as "lower quality". It's the cheap wine restaurants serve to guests who don't care, don't want to spend too much, or are uninformed. I happen to disagree; there will be examples of restaurants that fit the above, but most make very conscientious choices about every part of the diner's experience, including the wine they serve as "house" or "table". Most restaurateurs will not deliberately choose a bad wine, but will pick the best they can for what they can afford. To that end, I would encourage trying house wines, as you might find many surprisingly pleasant glasses ahead.
Vino Della Casa is labeled as "Indicazione geografica tipica", which signifies it is a blend of different grapes from the Abruzzo region of Italy. This classification also indicates it is what's known as a "Super Tuscan". Aside from being an awesome title, the "Super Tuscans" are above-average wine blends made mostly with Sangiovese grapes. Sadly, the importers of this wine did not feel it necessary to put any more information than the classification on the bottle, so I can't say for certain what kind of grapes went into this blend, other than "red".
To that end though, I really enjoyed this wine! The bottle came with a screw-top, which is becoming more popular as cork becomes rarer. I left the bottle to breath for about one hour while PiW and I watched an episode of Farscape.
The first thing I noticed about this wine was the enjoyable scent of fruity roses, with a hint of tannic woodiness and raisins. This kind of wine always makes me think of roses. The next thing that struck me was the color. Young red wines are usually quite dark, becoming lighter over time. This wine is a clear ruby red that is very entrancing. The pictures I took don't really do it justice.
The taste starts out sweetly, with a slightly acidic middle and a caramel finish. The most prominent flavor I could discern was something like cherries, but not quite as tart. The wine was smooth throughout, though I felt it lacked a little in body. I would buy this again, but to serve with a lite meal or snacks, as it wouldn't stand up to something heavy like beef. I could imagine enjoying this with a nice roast chicken or salmon.
The best thing I can say about Vino Della Casa is that it reminded me of our favorite house wine at one of our favorite restaurants, Lo Coco's in Oakland. If you live anywhere in the area, seriously, go check them out!
Liebfraumilch 2009 Rheinhessen Qualitätswein
9.5% by Volume $3.99 at Trader Joe's
Thursday June 2nd, 2011
I love wines with silly or weird names, and with my poor understanding of the German language, Liebfraumilch sounded too good to pass up. The price was attractive as well, at $3.99 per bottle.
When I first saw the world milch (milk) and the woman on the bottle, I thought it had something to do with shepherdesses or milkmaids. After closer inspection, I realized the bottle is graced with a Madonna and child. The mystery was solved when I turned to Wikipedia, and discovered the actual translation of Liebfraumilch is "Beloved Lady's Milk". This label refers to wines made for import in the Rheinhessen, Palatinate, Rheingau and Nahe regions of Germany, and can be made from a mix of at least 70% Riesling, Silvaner or Müller-Thurgau, and it must have 18-40g/li residual sugar. All of these regions produce excellent wines, the more upscale being the Spätlese or Auslese varieties. These varieties are similar in flavor and color to Riesling wines, though I generally only see them sold at actual wine stores, like Vintage Berkeley.
This bottle came with an artificial cork. Once that was popped, PiW and I took a minute to admire the clarity and color of this wine, which is light yellow in a pleasant, grassy way. I found the scent to be quite faint, with the strongest note being a crisp tart apple, though PiW thought it smelled "sort of yeasty".
The flavor to me turned out to be sweet but not too dry, with a nice brightness throughout. The little tinge of acidity prevented a cloying sweetness that can come with this type of wine.
After drinking the whole bottle, I feel that this is a slightly better than average table wine, one that I wouldn't be embarrassed to serve to my friends, but would probably keep around the house more for my own consumption. Perfectly adequate I feel sums it up; it won't blow you away on either end of the spectrum of awesome or horrible, but it will keep faithfully soldiering on. This turned out to be a good, serviceable wine that looks fancy because it's imported, and works well as both a cooking wine, and a sipping wine.