Yalumba, Sangiovese Rose, Y Series, 2011, South Autralia

This budget rose from Yalumba is strikingly deep orange and brown in the glass.    The nose somehow pulls off blending curacao, sea salt, vanilla, and just a touch of sauteed asparagus.  A nice summery light to medium bodiy is counterbalanced by a subtle oily texture.  I wasn't crazy about the flavor profile as its fairly simple with tart cranberries, spicy radish, and just a kiss of lemon on the short finish.  It did pair quite well with my bachelor-style poke bowl of pre-frozen safeway bought spicy ahi and microwaveable brown rice.  Maybe I should start reaching a little higher? Nah fuck it, this is good enough for now.        

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!

Sanford, Pinot Noir - Vin Gris, 2011, Sta. Rita Hills, California

I just got back a few weeks ago from a wine tasting trip in the Santa Ynez Valley and was blown away by the quality, diversity, and consistency of wines I had.   The Syrahs were pure, tannic, and powerful.  The Grenaches were lighter but had layers of complexity and grace.  I loved the white Rhone blends more than most of the  Chardonnays I had.  The Pinots were clean, balanced, and expensive.  I had a few Cabs from Happy Canyon that rivaled anything I tasted on my trips to Walla Walla, Yakima, and Red Mountain.  Anyway, on to the review!  This rose is is electric hot pink almost appearing internally lit in color.  It flashy color is matched by its hedonistic nose of burnt marshmallow, watermelon, and simple syrup.  This wine is appealing both for it's freshness and depth of flavor.  It is rare to find a rose that is this true to its varietal.  This Pinot sings with flavors of dried strawberries and subtle earth.  It has weight on the palate, saline acidity, and a clean citrus finish.  It's juicy but still lean and dry.   This is another perfect island wine.  Hawaii needs less Moscato and more dry rose!  

aloha oregon (no, not that aloha)

Okay, I moved to Honolulu, Hawaii a few months ago after in Portland for 13 years straight.  I needed to put northwest winters behind me once and for all.  Don’t hate me.  Right now, after way too many shitty light beers and overly sweet tropical drinks, I’m missing Oregon wine.  Here are some reviews I somehow forgot to put up from a visit to the lovely east-side urban Enso Winery.  More review to come soon . . . promise. 

Enso, Resonate #2

This is a nice clean if a little unassuming white wine for the summer.  It a blend Oregon Gevurtraminer and Washington Riesling.  It’s got heaps of peach and sugar cane on both the nose and flavors.  It’s got a slight syrupy sweet edge but still ends quick and clean.  I would have liked more spice from the Gevurtz or mineral notes from the Riesling.  Still not bad at all.  Also, it’s a nice treat to be able to scoop up a wine with such a tiny production (52 cases!) at under 15 dollars. 

Enso, Pinot Gris, 2010, Wheatland Vineyard

A much brighter and drier wine compared to the resonate.  Lemon, golden raisin, and pear dominate the nose with a touch of wet rock.  This gris has some real unique qualities compared to a lot of others I have tasted lately.  It’s fruit forward but loaded with lemon candy and dried apricot as opposed to a lot of the day old puckery lime flavors I get from a lot of other Oregon Pinot Gris.  The fruit from this wine comes from Arcane Cellars Wheatland Vineyard, where the winemakers at Enso used to work.  You can tell that this fruit is in good hands.

Enso, Rose, Alder Ridge, 2011

This bottle was tasted about 3 weeks after being bottled.  It’s a southern French style blend of Syrah, Grenache, and Mouvedre.  The fun factor on the nose (strawberry, watermelon, and bubble gum) is balanced out by some nice background herbal notes.  The strawberry carries through on the flavor profile with the addition of vanilla bean and tar.  The tannins are a bit bitter on the end.  This wine is definitely still young even for a Rose.  The 2010 Enso Rose was made up of different varietals.  It wasn’t as focused or clean as the 2011 but I do think it was a little more interesting.

Enso, Resonate #2, Washington, 2009

This 50/50 blend of Sangiovese and Counoise has super enticing nose with lots of clean earthy notes,  musk, and shoe leather polish.  Considering the strength of the nose, the resonate #2 is light on its feet on the flavor profile.  It’s a medium bodied wine dominated by plum, cinnamon, and cocoa powder flavors.  There is a nice acidity running throughout as well.  The winemakers call the resonate #2  “dominate yet strong” and I couldn’t agree more.  This wine would pair really well with lots of food and I think is a real value at $16 a bottle!

Enso, Resonate #3, Washington, 2009

The #3 is a blend of 50% Mouvdre, 25% Grenache, and 25% Syrah from the Alder Ridge Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA.  This wine is also a brand new release for Enso.  It’s got a much darker color than the #2.  The nose is not as open ended and much darker.  There is a hefty dose of creamy oak rounded out by rose, violet, and crushed blueberry.  The #3 is closer to full bodied with a milky mouthfeel.  I found this wine to have lots of awesome sweet notes but still not dominated by fruit.  Think caramel, coffee, and fudge!  There is also a nice dose of black pepper and currant.  This is quite a rich wine that I couldn’t find much acidity in.  Still it’s far from flabby.  Good stuff to drink on its own once the weather cools down a little.

Carol Shelton, Rendezvous Rose (100% Carignan), 2008, Cox Vineyard, Mendicino County

I picked up this strange yet seductive wine on a recent tasting trip to Sonoma with my first cousin. We somehow thought it would be a good idea to hit up 28 wineries in 4 days. Crazy I know but more about that later. Carol Shelton is a legendary California wine-maker who perhaps has fallen out of the spotlight in the last few years but still makes some baller site-specific Zinfandels. Although her tasting room is hidden in an ugly corporate park in Santa Rosa and is dominated by purple painted walls and an over abundance of stuffed animal wiener dogs, the wines themselves meant business.

I really liked most of the Zins but I chose to focus on this Rose since it was selling at just $5 a bottle! This was supposedly due to the damage that was caused to the grapes by the forest fires that ravaged California that season. (I remember really loving a 2006 Pinot from Phelps Creek that was on discount for the same reason.) Although grape vines can filter out temporary periods of poor quality in the air, the smoke from the fires that year stuck around for most of the growing season.

This rose has quite a dark pink color with a fire engine red core. The nose is dominated by caramelized burnt sugar, cotton candy, and dirty pond water. I get canned peach and watermelon fruit on the flavor profile with notes of peaty whiskey and smoke. It’s a California style full bodied rose that falls on the sweeter side of the aisle with a fairly short finish. The smoke has effected this wine but for my palate it adds character to an already decent rose. Its pretty cool to get a real taste of the 2008 vintage for only 5 bucks. If you find yourself in the area, head over to the Carol Shelton tasting room for some well priced high quality Zins and pick this up by the case.

Trium, Grenache Rose, 2009, Pheasant Hill Vineyard, Rogue Valley

Gevurtz is back like it never hurt before! Happy summer everyone. Sorry for the long hiatus. I lost my tasting mojo for a bit at some point but the sunny weather has got me all motivated to spend lots of time on the internet drinking, spitting, and swirling all by myself! Ha. Anyway, I just got back from a little trip down to southern Oregon with the lovely Shannon Wilson and tasted some really great under the radar wines bursting with originality and character. Here is a little sneak peak.


We stumbled upon Trium Winery in the hills outside of Ashland and both fell pretty hard for this ballsy little scrapper of a wine. The 2009 Grenache Rose features fruit from the estate Pheasant Hill Vineyard. (This is the same vineyard that produces fruit for the outstanding Ransom Cabernet Franc.) The Trium is colored at the darker end of the rose spectrum. In fact, it's just a hint lighter and brighter than a Willimate Valley Pinot. The nose has forceful creamy strawberry shortcake notes combined with green honeydew and a touch of heat.


It has a more rich, luscious, and mouth-coating body compared to many of the roses I have been drinking lately. This is a very giving wine putting forth layers of gummy cherries, gummy peach, and ripe plum flavors on the front to mid-palate. It walks right up to that line of being too sugary sweet but it ends with a nice high limey saline note that somehow leaves your palate feeling clean. At 15% alcohol, this is no easy feat. I don't know if it was just because it was one of the first really hot days I had experienced in Oregon. And even though it was quite fruit forward something about this wine felt terroir-driven. A bit of southern Oregon summer in a glass . . . Yum.

J. Christopher "Cristo Irresisto," 2009, Oregon

Unlike most Willamette Valley wineries, J Christopher makes its rose in a southern French Style (Grenache, Syrah, Viognier) rather than using Pinot. I was curious about this wine after reading Katherine Cole’s glowing review in my favorite section of the Oregonian. FOOD DAY! The Cristo Irresiosto Rose is super pale and almost closer to a white wine in color with a touch of fish skin pink. There is a really nice fresh oceany nose with a huge dose of minerality, salinity, coconut, vanilla, and sharp lemon. The touch of Viognier, which lightens the color, also gives the nose a big pop. The rose has a lightly sweet acidity and delivers more body than would be expected based on the color. Fresh apricot is super lively on the palate and jumps around like pop rocks on your tongue. Hints of white pepper and radish seal the deal on the finish.