Henri Perrusset, Macon-Villages, 2011, Burgundy, France

This Chardonnay is fairly translucent in the glass with just a touch of darker gold.  The nose is dominated by lime, graham cracker crust, and pine sol.  This is a medium-bodied and crisp wine with a slight oily texture. It's a clean crisp classic with a hint of rock candy sweetness on the mid-palate.  Kermit Lynch once again delivers a nice understated balanced effort but somehow right now it's leaving me with something to be desired.  I mean its pairing quite nicely with a solo night of season 2 of Friday Night Lights and Pepperidge Farm Salted Pretzel Milano Slices cookies.  Still I'd rather be with a good friend and a plateful of Willapa Bay oysters.

tasting at HASR wine co.

Kelly and I went to a great tasting last week at HASR in Chinatown and had some decent value-driven California wines from Morgan and Bishop's Peak.  I keep forgetting the name of the guy who pours there on Tuesday and Friday nights but he is extremely nice, knowledgeable, and efficient.  The holy trinity of attributes for anyone working in a tasting room.

The 2011 Morgan Sauvignon Blanc was probably the star of the show with a surprisingly big body for the varietal and its clean, minerally, and old world flavor profile.   It is blended with small amounts Sauvignon Musque and Semillon as well as spends 6 months in mostly neutral oak to lend complexity and texture.   The 2011 Chardonnay from Bishop's Peak was lighter in body and color and had an extremely closed nose.  It had nice light clean citrus flavors but not much else to write home about.

BP's Pinot was temptingly priced at $20 and had a plump body with well-rounded tannins and true to the varietal rustic cherry flavors.  The Cabernet was also dominated by simple cherry notes on the front end that fell off too quickly.  It also had a bit too much oak and heat for me.  Finally, the Morgan rhone-style "cote du crow's" blend was much rounder and heavier on the palate with riper darker fruit.  There were some tertiary bitter subtle vinegary notes on the mid-palate that for some reason I was into.  
I would definitely recommend the free bi-weekly tastings at HASR.  And if you see a short dorky-looking haole scribbling tasting notes in the corner, say hi!

Hayman & Hill, Interchange, 2007, Santa Barbara County, California

I picked up a glass of this bombastic white at Morning Brew in Kailua last weekend in between the beach and the bookstore.  A while ago I remember H&H making a fairly decent low-priced Pinot, so I was intrigued when I saw it on the wine list.  Then when I saw they were pouring it for 6 bucks a glass, I said, "Screw coffee.  It's wine time!"
The Interchange is dark gold in color.  It's has a fairly complex but awkward nose of honey, banana, durian, algea, and heat.  It is mouth-coating, full-bodied, and almost like a desert wine in texture.  The flavor profile is dominated by honey lemon lozenge and round cantaloupe notes.  Although the acid is strong throughout, overall the flavor profile is a little clunky, cloying, as wells as sugary/bitter at the same time.  Maybe I should have stuck with the coffee?    

Alta Maria, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007, Santa Ynez Valley, California

The 2007 Alta Maria is an approachable yet complex enough effort that will satisfy the oenophiles who tend to lean away from California Cabs.  Its got a dark purple core with a hint of crimson translucence on the edges.  The nose is extremely generous with burnt sugar, maple bar, coffee liqueur, boysenberry, and a strange memory inducing scent of a lonely dark dusty old room from my childhood.  The maple translates well into the palate while embracing some dark dark dark black fruit flavors with smokey meat undertones.  It is medium-bodied with smooth sweet rounded out tannins from time napping in the bottle.  The Alta Maria has a pleasing syrupy/juicy body but avoids the fake sweetness found in a lot of California Cabs.  For under thirty bucks, this is an lively, tough as nails, varietally-correct to the core Cab that you can thank me for recommending later.

P.S. The roundness of these tannins feel about as good as Louis C.K. saying a certain taboo word.

      

Torbreck, Woodcutter's Semillon, 2009, Barossa Valley, Australia

The Woodcutter's is light slightly dehydrated pee colored in the glass.  It's is a bomb of aromatics in the glass with banana, dandelion, sea water, candle wax, and lemon (turning to lime on day 2).  The bold flavor profile is dominated by bright original fruit flavors of tangelo, dried apricots, and Aranciata soda with nutty overtones.  As the wine warmed, the fruits tended to blend into more of a white grape juice blend and reminded me of the "t-bone steak cheese egg and welches grape" awkward lyric from "Big Poppa."  Like the greatest rapper of all time, this wine is full-bodied and in your face.  It also has a lovely milky mouth feel that put it head and shoulders above all the other sucker mc white wine summer sippers.  

see pee colored!  also keeping in classy in a dixie cup! 

Kaena, Grenache Rose, 2012, Santa Ynez Valley, California

I finally got to taste this beautiful rose on a trip to the Santa Ynez Valley last month.  I have been wanting to get my hands on this wine for so long after falling in love with pretty much everything I have tasted from Hawaiin-born winemaker Mikael Sigouin.  He knows his way around a Rhone style white as wells as lovely single vineyard Grenaches.  But can he make a knock out rose?  The answer is a resounding yes!  

This Grenache rose is a fun dark pink in the glass hinting at ripe California fruit.  It's got a playful candied yet fresh nose evoking vanilla, hot cotton candy, and circus peanuts.  The wine-maker does a good job of taming the ripeness of the fruit and bringing out lovely clean strawberry and Asian pear flavors riding on a silky smooth body.  This wine ends super clean with just a hint of green on the finish.

It's funny because when we visited the Beckmen tasting room (where Sigouin is also the wine-maker) in Los Olivos they told us that their rose was sold out even though it is still widely available on Oahu.  However, I have hunted long and far for the Kaena rose over here and have never seen it!

Honolulu late afternoon sun shining through a Foxen tasting glass!

La Massa, IGT, 2010, Tuscany, Italy

This super Tuscan style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Sangiovese gives you an introduction to the style with just enough body, complexity, and old school style to get your palate salivating.  It's got a sexy nose of raspberry, whipped vanilla, clean oak, and a bit of rust.  Though far closer to medium rather than full-bodied, the La Massa has a densely packed core of flavors.  Rhubarb, cranberry, raspberry,and sweet tobacco ride on a layer of roughly grained tanins.  The juice of the berries kicks in beautifully on the mid-palate like gushing juice from the center of hard candy.  The acid still dominates the fruit suggesting this is more of a food pairing wine.  The finish is very dry and long.  Priced in the teens, the La Massa comes highly recommended.