Wine Each Week - 2017 Steele Merlot

For over five decades Jed Steele has been going about his business rather quietly. “My goal was never to be a huge winery,” he says. “We bottle a lot of different varietals under four unique brands, but most of our wines are made in lots of fewer than 1,000 cases. This reflects my fascination with many diverse varietals and vineyard sites. And staying small means we can practice true craftsmanship in the production of all of our wines.” Which brings me to his 2017 Merlot: Great acidity and surprisingly taught tannins, this also offers blueberry, blackberry, black cherry, and boysenberry notes along with back notes of black tea, earthy smoke and light herbal touches. There are also notes of light sweet vanilla. Aged 14 months in a combo of French and American oak this also shows that really good, balanced flavorful wines can be made for very little money. If you’re not familiar with his wines, I really hope you’ll seek them out.

ORIGIN: Lake County, California

ALCOHOL: 14.5%

PRICE: $20 (750ML)

SCORE: 90 POINTS

STEELE

Wine Each Week – 2016 Steele Stymie Merlot

Merlot has always had followers, including me. In spite of the ups and downs of the market, Merlot has been a deifier of trends and the truly quality Merlot out there has held its value. Case in point: Jed Steele’s Stymie Merlot, which he has been making for two decades. This 2016 offers earthy notes of dark fruits, black cherry, black berry and a subversive acidity that snakes its way through the wine. It also offers up light tobacco, elements of mocha, vanilla and sandlewood. What’s unique about this wine is that this fruit is not the usual suspects (Napa, Sonoma) it is from the often-overlooked Lake County and these vines are 20 years old, so there’s a depth of maturity to this fruit. 22 months in French and American oak barrels rounds out its overall mouth feel.

ORIGIN: Lake County, California

ALCOHOL: 14.5%

PRICE: $42 (750ML)

SCORE: 91 POINTS

STEELE

Syrah Un-Stymied

In golf circles a stymie is a ball blocking another players ball, as in being blocked with a clear shot to the cup. Syrah in general has this same issue - much of what is out there, insincere iterations of Syrah, blocks the truly wonderful expressions of Syrah. I am and have always been a fan of Syrah. Trouble is – how to find a good one that isn’t great but stupidly expensive or not great and a waste of your money. Stymie removed: the 2014Steele Stymie Syrah from underappreciated Lake County.

Jed Steele manages to extract heady aromas of cedar, boysenberry pie, blackberry, red raspberry jam, cedar, vanilla, mocha, with back notes of sage and campfire smoke. The viscosity is stunning, a virtual liquid velvet, that does not subtract from the tannins and acids, which though mild as they are, support the structure of this wine. This in no way is over jammy fruit, instead, this is darker hued, alluring, seductive - a kind of Film Noir idea of shadow and light. It offers a depth of maturity, without the need to draw attention to itself. Aged for 22 months in both American and French oaks barrels, only 20% of which were new, means while the oak provides a framework to the fruit, it does not take center stage. Jed made just 150 cases of this, and I hope you’ll try a bottle.

ORIGIN: Lake County, California

PRICE: $36/ 750ML

ALCOHOL: 14.8%

PAIRING IDEAS: Braised pork loin with garlic marinara sauce; Veggie stuffed baked potato with smoked Gouda.

SCORE:  90 POINTS

Flipping You The Bird: Improper Wines For Thanksgiving

There is this weirdly compulsive thing these days to pair wine with your food, as if searching for and experiencing the “perfect pairing” is tantamount to Indian Jones discovering the Covenant of the Ark. Yes, I admit I’ve written about that too (uh, the pairings, not the Ark), and certainly wine and food are crucially important – not to mention I’ve reviewed restaurants professionally for a decade. The point being…drink whatever the hell you want with whatever the hell you want to eat. No more elusive pairings and “ideal” wine for turkey day. Having said that…I would like to see these wines on your table.

2014 IL Tascante

Soft and quiet, this is not a loud wine; it’s understated and you’ve probably never had this grape before – Nerello Mascalase. Grown on volcanic soils on the north-east slope of the volcano Mt. Etna in Sicily, there is an earthiness, a mineral note, a chalkiness with this wine. There is muted raspberry, cranberry, and rhubarb with back notes of Bing cherry. Though aged in Slovenian oak barrels for 18 months, you hardly notice any oak at all, more a testament of the lithe but structured fruit. And it is this subtleness that makes this wine so compelling. Well, that and the fact the family has been doing the wine thing for two centuries. ($50)

2015 Sonoma-Loeb Pinot Noir Dutton Ranch

Out of the Russian River Valley the good folks at Sonoma-Loeb turn out a lot of great wine and this Pinot, from a well-established vineyard is part of a great lineage. All Pinot all the time this make-up of clones 667, 777 and 115 was fermented using native yeast and aged for just 11 months in French oak. 11 months is correct because you don’t want this beautiful fruit to get lost in some kind of cedar box. Black cherry, red currant, candied cranberry, star anise, cola and soft baking spices round out this rich, but pure iteration of Pinot. Great acidity and mild tannins make this work with damn near whatever you put on the table, or, better yet, get some cheese and have at it. ($40)

2016 Ritual Chardonnay

Chardonnay, again, really? Yes, really. This bright crisp Chardonnay from Chile is expressive, young, and fresh with a tanginess and food-worthy acidity. You’ll easily pick up on the lemon curd, kiwi, gooseberry, lime kefir, and green apple notes, and more subtly the hazelnut, mango and quince. The fruit hails from the Casablanca Valley, just 18 miles from the coast, and is whole cluster fermented in concrete eggs (which helps immensely with viscosity) and then gets a wee bit of oak time, so you’re left with a robust white wine that plays well with others. ($21.99)

2016 Steele Viognier

Viognier, the odd named grape most people mispronounce, is one of those, cool-if-it’s-done-right wines. And Jed Steele does it right. All the way from Lake County, this offers lychee, honeysuckle, Meyer lemon, lime curd and sugared almond. A beautiful viscosity and silkiness makes the floral components of this wine that much more provocative. It’s fermented in stainless steel so it retains a bright buoyancy but is not too heavy and flowery. A mere four month of oak time allows this wine to achieve a balance of fruit, acidity and wood. ($19)

MerlotMe: Time to Start Drinking Your Fu**ing Merlot Again

The self-proclaimed Merlot Month of October gives you permission to start drinking Merlot again. Just like the talented child overshadowed by his elder sibling (Cabernet Sauvignon in case you didn’t follow that), Merlot is getting the attention it deserves and the oft quoted, well-known line from Sideways, may never be uttered again.

Hello My Name Is…

Merlot grapes have been around since, some think, the 1^st Century. Who really knows? What we do know is that some French dude in Bordeaux mentioned Merlot for the first time in 1784, the same year in the US that we ratified the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Revolutionary War with Great Britain (I know, right?).

Because of the California Gold Rush and the influx of European immigrants, Merlot cuttings arrived in California sometime in the 1850s but it wasn’t until the late 1980s when planted acreage was increased and Merlot became more significant as a stand alone wine. Now, it’s the second most widely consumed red wine in the US.

2014 Duckhorn Napa Valley Merlot, Napa

Duckhorn is, without a doubt one of the best and most consistent producers of Merlot in California. Period. Part of that is their decades long attention to Merlot when others shunned it. The other part of that is they are meticulous with their fruit, and it shows. This Merlot is that foolproof wine that balances fruit, wood and age into a terrific bottle of wine. It’s the velvety texture that first grabs you as waves of mature blackberry, blueberry and black cherry fruit cascade across your palate. But it’s also the comprehensive acidity, the proper use of oak as an equal player and the tannic structure that allows this wine to be graceful and self-assured.

($52)

2013 St. Supery Napa Valley, Rutherford Estate Vineyard Merlot, Napa

St. Supery opened their Napa doors in 1989, and Merlot has always been a part of the equation. Elegant and refined this is predominately Merlot with 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Cabernet Franc, aged for 19 months, roughly half of that was in new French oak barrels. What you get is soft inviting fruit, black cherry, blackberry, ripe plum, dried boysenberry with back notes of wild herbs, Madagascar vanilla, campfire smoke, and hints of anise and mocha. The tannins and acidity are properly aligned in this wine making for a wine of balance.

($50)

2015 Shooting Star Merlot, Lake County

Jed Steele has an amazing knack for finding impressive fruit and delivering that fruit in a structured wine that over delivers in quality yet is underpriced. His Merlot, grown in volcanic soils, represents the minerality and richness these soils are known for. You get subdued blueberry, blackberry, plum boysenberry with some cedar and vanilla from the eight months of oak aging, but also fairly tight tannins. This offers mare mature fruit and if far richer that typical Merlots at this price point. This a wine that is so structured and uniform, that the price belies the quality in the glass.

($14)

2015 Chelsea Goldschmidt Dry Creek Valley Merlot, Sonoma

Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley is bet known for Zinfandel rather than Merlot, yet a few pockets turn out terrific Merlot fruit. This Merlot straddles a line between bright fresh fruit, and undertone of earthiness. Yes there is blackberry, black cherry, blueberry with back notes of plum, sage and wild thyme. But there is also delightful toasted oak giving off vanilla and cedar notes, but this wine has subversive tannins, they seem mild, but they announce themselves mid palate. The acidity rounds this out make for a great food wine. ($19)

2015 J. Lohr Los Osos Merlot, Paso Robles

From the El Pomar district of Paso Robles, the J. Lohr team brings you fresh bright fruit as Paso grapes tends to be more ripe and that’s the case here. The fruit is more berry driven, so you’ll taste blueberry pie, boysenberry cobbler, back notes of black cherry, blackberry with mild tannins and mild acidity. The oak is evident but not powerful and it lays a solid framework for the fruit and for an easy drinking Merlot. ($15)