1 Wine Dude

A Post From Under The Floorboards (Two Grenache Blancs As Winter Warmers)

Posted on by 1WineDude

As a general rule, I am not a fan of “phoning it in.” Not in anything, particularly in writing here on 1WD.

I’d love to tell you all that the demands of holiday planning with a first-grader around, hosting Christmas for out of town visitors, and various writing gigs are keeping me from writing up for you my thoughts on some of the recent visits to stellar producers that I have had, but it’s not the complete picture. I have all of that and  other shizz going down right now, and I am finding it difficult to do anything requiring focus and producing interesting thoughts with regularity.

I’m not fishing for sympathy here (though I wouldn’t turn it down), but I thought that the collective 1WD readership ought to know that in the near term, I might not be getting to the things I want to get to within the time-frames that you or I might want.

And so, the producer deep dives are going to have to wait a bit, but I did manage to get stoked enough about two recent white wine samples, the kind that delivered a brief, warming respite during the Winter of my discontent, and overachieved at their price points, to boot. So consider this a post made from under the holiday-decorated emotional floorboards, with the hopes that I will be reconnecting with regular 1WD drinking and merriment sooner than later…

2012 Edetària Seleccio Old Vines White (Terra Alta, $20)

Ah, Garnacha Blanca, you are so misunderstood; so often spoofilated into a high-octane melon-juice of a wine. Fortunately, the sixty-year-old GB vines (planted on what they call a “fossilized sand dune”) that are used to produce Edetària’s Seleccio offer up much, much more than that simplistic view. This is a gorgeously fragranced white, gentle in its display of charms but not without its potency. It’s liberally applying the oil and heady, floral perfume, squeezing the acidity from fresh citrus and tropical fruits, and grounding it all with stony minerals. That this wine can be had for about twenty clams makes it a bit of a steal. Just don’t expect the melon juice.

 2011 Bonny Doon Le Cigare Blanc Beeswax Vineyard (Arroyo Seco, $28)

Randall Grahm and Bonny Doon produced only about 1600 cases of this wine from the 2011 vintage, another Grenache Blanc, only here with about 38% and Rousanne mixed in, as well. From my experience, it might be the best LCB they have yet put forward, and its $28 price tag seems a trifle compared to the geektastic quality drinking to be had from a bottle of this overachiever. Pear and tropical fruits provide the richness, but what really makes this wine is the vibrancy of it on the palate. The acidity is so well integrated with the tannin (yes, white wine skin tannin) that I imagine this white will continue to surprise in its liveliness several years down the road. All in all, the combo of rich fruitiness, low-ish abv (12.5%), pith, and vibrancy make it both a keeper and a delicious way to get dinner guests talking if you’re opting to drink it now.

Cheers!

11 thoughts on “A Post From Under The Floorboards (Two Grenache Blancs As Winter Warmers)”

  2. Hey There! I'm a 72 year old woman with COPD…So…..my kids are bugging me to stop drinking my wine everyday because, well, because, the don't want me drinking!!! If you're in the "Dear Abby" mood, I would love to hear your comments. I usually have .750 litters a day. I don't get drunk and I am not in any state of loss of control!! And I have regular blood work done and all is fine there!!! I'm visiting in NY for the…God Help Me; next four weeks. They intend to monitor my intake and threaten even worse sanctions if I go over one glass!!! I am LOLing at this point because, when I get back to Florida, I will get back into the routine just as before I left!!!

  3. Oh follow up! I guess my question would be……It this amount considered dangerous??? 6 glasses a day?

    JoAnn

  4. JoAnn,

    I'm not a doctor . . . and I don't play one on television here in La-La-Land . . . but let me make this observation: low alcohol wines like German Rieslings in the 8% to 9% Alcohol By Volume range can allow someone to drink more glasses of wine per calendar day than the "fruit bomb" California Zinfandels that range up to 15% ABV.

    And then there is this: How large are your pours? How large are your wineglasses?

    Excerpt from The Wall Street Journal "Personal Journal" Section
    (May 1, 2007, Page D1):

    "The Accidental Binge Drinker: How Much We Really Pour"

    Link: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB11779754430…

    By Tara Parker-Pope
    "Health Journal" Column

    Chances are you're drinking far more alcohol than you think.

    The reason? Wine, beer and spirits glasses are surprisingly deceptive, and most of us — even professional bartenders — are over-pouring the alcohol we serve.

    While too much alcohol obviously adds calories to your diet, other consequences of supersizing alcoholic beverages are even more worrisome. The health benefits of alcohol disappear and risk increases when you drink more than a few servings a day. And because over-pouring can double or even triple a standard serving size, many of us are technically "binge" drinking without knowing it, wreaking havoc on our livers and overall health.

    A standard "serving" for an alcoholic beverage is 5 fluid ounces of wine, 12 ounces of regular beer or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All three portions contain 0.6 ounce of alcohol. But glasses today come in so many different shapes and sizes — tall "highballs," wide tumblers, bowl-shaped wine goblets and now the new popular stemless wine glasses — it's virtually impossible to estimate the right serving amount. Although a traditional wine glass holds about 7 ounces, many wine glasses today hold 16 ounces or more. Beer glasses often hold 20 ounces.

    "Often my clients think they are just having one or two drinks, when really they're having more like three or four," says Lisa R. Young, a New York University nutritionist.

    Try this experiment at home. Take your favorite wine or beer glass and use water to estimate drink size. Pour the contents into a measuring cup to see how close you come to the standard 5-ounce wine portion or 12-ounce beer portion.

    I did this myself, and was stunned by the result. I filled my favorite wine glass just half full. But I still ended up with 300 milliliters or 10.14 ounces — double the standard serving size. I tried again — this time with a smaller wine glass and then again with a large bowl-shaped goblet. But each time I still poured 200 milliliters or 6.76 ounces — 35% too much.

    . . .

    1. Thanks, my glasses are small…..maybe four ounces….and i tend to like the pinot grigio….a light sweet white wine. Thanks for your input. But to be sure!!!! One glass as my kids "demand" is a little absurd!!! CHEERS!!!

  5. JoAnn,

    If your family members are concerned about alcohol intoxication, you can consult these references guides:
    http://www.brad21.org/bac_charts.html
    http://www.globalrph.com/blood_alcohol_calculator…
    http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa35.htm

    Excerpt from above National Institutes of Health publication:

    "GENDER. Women absorb and metabolize alcohol differently from men. They have higher BAC's after consuming the same amount of alcohol as men and are more susceptible to alcoholic liver disease, heart muscle damage (footnote 8), and brain damage (footnote 9). The difference in BAC's between women and men has been attributed to women's smaller amount of body water, likened to dropping the same amount of alcohol into a smaller pail of water (footnote 10). An additional factor contributing to the difference in BAC's may be that women have lower activity of the alcohol metabolizing enzyme ADH in the stomach, causing a larger proportion of the ingested alcohol to reach the blood. The combination of these factors may render women more vulnerable than men to alcohol-induced liver and heart damage (footnotes 11-16)."

  6. Nice Article. I am exploring white wines. Most of the time I prefer reds.

    What is great is that you describe some wines I haven't tried before. Thanks for the insightful articles.

    Cheers.

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