Tag Archive for Roussanne

Review: 2015 Midnight Cellars Aurora

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We almost didn’t go to Midnight Cellars on out last trip to Paso Robles. We had already been to three wineries and I had made a rule that this time, we would cut ourselves off after three. That didn’t happen. We slid right back into our 4 to 5 wineries a day bit. Oh, well.

Walking into Midnight Cellars, it was just half an hour before most of the wineries were shutting down for the day. The winery was down the street from a few others we had visited (Caliza, Grey Wolf, Niner — no worries, I’ll talk about them all in future posts) and I had seen it when I was googling around for new places to visit during our anniversary trip to Paso.

We walk in and our greeted by a very, very old cat. Chardonnay has been around for 17 years! We were the only ones there and ordered up two tastings. The woman who helped us was very sweet. She had grown up in Paso and many of the winemakers in the area were her her childhood friends’ dads. Outside the window we caught a group of ducklings running around with mama out of sight. It was all very quaint on the 28-acre estate.

"Oh yea, that's from the winery with the 1,000 year old cat." Sipping @midnightcellars' 💫Aurora 💫 tonight

A photo posted by Wine For The Win (@wineforthewin) on

We took home the Aurora and the winery kindly waived both our tasting fees. We cracked open the bottle a few days after returning home. It’s been hot outside and we were craving a white. Right away, the wine emits a sweet smell, but it doesn’t taste saccharine. Instead, it tastes tart with tropical fruit flavors shining through. Grapefruit!

This is a crisp wine that’s a quarter each Viognier, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne and Marsanne. Rhone varietals represent! I’m a fan of rich, dry Rousannes and I was surprised to see it quite a bit while we were in Paso this time around (Paso tends to be a red-loyal town with few wineries that I’ve seen offering a healthy white wine tasting. One winery even told us that they stopped putting whites in their wine club shipments because so many people complained that they wanted all reds!) You could taste the citrus of the Marsanne shining through and the mixture made for a flavored dance bopping around in your mouth.

Nuts & Bolts:

Winery: Midnight Cellars
Type: Aurora
Origin: Paso Robles
Vintage: 2015
Price: $29
Alcohol content: 13.6%
When to drink: We drank this while watching the 2nd Harry Potter as we are revisiting the entire series, but I can see this as a perfect wine for sunny picnic days. Would be great even sitting out in the yard, munching on a citrusy ceviche.

Review: 2011 Saucelito Canyon Cotes de Blanc

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While weekend getawaying in San Luis Obispo with three lovely ladies, I imbibed the 2011 Saucelito Canyon Cotes de Blanc.

This blend smells of peaches and melon and lays heavy on the tongue, lingering for awhile, in a good way. It has a pleasant hint of butteriness and its light minerality gives it a dash of crisp bubbly. The blend of Grenache Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne is a drier white and it’s sweet, but not too sweet, a perfect match for the thai salad I ate with it for dinner at Big Sky Cafe, a wonderful foody haunt in SLO. IMG_20140502_181259

The next day we drove by the winery as we headed to the wine trail. Sadly, we didn’t make it there in time, but I heard they have stand-out Zinfandel. For another visit!

Nuts and Bolts

  • Winery: Saucelito Canyon
  • Type: White Blend (62% Grenache Blanc, 16% Sauvignon Blanc, 8% Viognier, 8% Marsanne, 6% Roussanne)
  • Origin: Central Coast
  • Vintage: 2011
  • Price: $22 (at the restaurant, probably less in stores)
  • Alcohol content: Whoops, forgot to jot it down!
  • When to drink: This would be lovely for a midmorning brunch/lunch featuring something with a little spiccccy.

 

Review: 2009 Kunin Roussanne

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Kunin Wines is small on production, but big on quality. I stopped by the bungalow that houses the winery on the Urban Wine Trail in Santa Barbara when I was there this summer. The tasting room is fresh and airy, a perfect locale to sip a flight of whites.

My favorite Kunin was the 2009 Roussanne, so I brought a bottle home with me. I finally had a chance to open it a few months later.

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The wine smells grassy, but there’s honey there, as well. When you sip it, it’s tart. Pineapple is there, too.  It’s crisp and kind of oily, so the flavors stick with you, even after you’ve swallowed. This isn’t a gulpable wine. It’s complex–it’s got a lot of layers to it, but it’s not chewy. In fact, this French grape makes for a quite thin drink. It’s lean and mean, but honestly, it’s not for everyone. This wine is not for the flowery white wine lovers.

Kunin makes their Roussanne in stainless steel, while traditional winemakers put this Rhone varietal in oak. Roussanne is often blended, but Kunin lets it stand on its own. The winery only produced 210 cases of the 2009, so it’s definitely a special find. Oh, and it’s a screw top!

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Seth Kunin opened his namesake winery in 1998 and believes in letting the wine speak for itself, rather than manipulating it with fancy vintner tricks. His message on kuninwines.com is clear: let Mother Nature do the heavy lifting:

If the weather was a bit warmer one year, and the wine from that vintage shows more ripe fruit and less acid, then this is an accurate representation of the fruit and its terroir. If the next vintage is cooler, with more earthy flavors and tart acidity, then so be it. That is what Mother Nature intended for you to taste. The process should not be blurred by invasive winemaking techniques.

Nuts and Bolts

  • Winery: Kunin
  • Type: Roussanne
  • Origin: Central Coast
  • Vintage: 2009
  • Price: $28
  • Alcohol content: 14.2%
  • When to drink: When you want to have a deep discussion of philosophy and literature with a dear friend, you know like the French do.