Seghesio Sonoma County Zinfandel 2011

When we went wine tasting in Sonoma County earlier this year, Seghesio Family Vineyards was a recommendation from some friends. Their tasting room is in Healdsburg. We didn't get there this year, but I noticed that Seghesio zinfandel is available by the glass just about everywhere in Healdsburg and Santa Rosa, and it's not hard to find down here in the South Bay either. About a month ago I noticed this bottle at Costco for $20, so I decided to get it to see what all the fuss is about.

As it turns out, this wine is good if big fruity zins are your thing. For $20, it wasn't much of a risk. The color is dark, but not deep dark. It was promising. The nose is really fruity, full of plums, ripe berries, and vanilla. The taste follows through on all of this - it's a fruit bomb. Very bold and full-bodied, and the flavor coats the tongue. This is a good example of this style. It's not subtle. The fruitiness is in-your-face, but it's not at all unpleasant. It went well with homemade pizza.

I've had a number of California zinfandels, and more often than not, they feature the big fruity notes. I like that, and I think the Seghesio avoids falling into so fruity it's jammy, which is just a little too far for me. Compared to other zins that are very similar, $20 is a really good price. If you see it at Costco, or you're in Healdsburg, give them a try.

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp #94 Black IPA

Black IPA is a trendy sort of beer style. Before a few years ago, they were more experimental and something interesting for brewers to play around with, but with the explosion in popularity of IPAs in particular and craft beer in general, they're becoming something that many breweries offer. I've reviewed a couple of other black IPAs before (Wookey Jack and Back in Black), let's see how this one compares.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is best known for their pale ale, which is a great example of the taste of cascade hops. Sierra Nevada pale ale is easy to find, and even at the saddest convenience stores you can often find it beside the Coors Light and Corona. I should do another post one of these days on the standby craft beers. Anyway, Sierra Nevada is still an innovative craft brewery, and the success of their flagship beer allows them to have limited release brews for beer fans to try. Every year they release a handful in the Beer Camp series, mostly on draught, but with some available in 22 oz. bottles. I got this one at Costco, and the label says "Belgian-Style Black IPA".

The beer pours very dark with a big foamy head. The nose is pleasant and fruity. I'd know it was Belgian-style from that alone. There's nothing that screams out IPA or stout to me. First sip - big taste, again, fruity, and not really bitter or roasty at all. At the finish, the hops come through a bit, and it's a little bitter on the tongue at the end. It's very nicely balanced and super drinkable. I wish I had more bottles of it.

How does it compare to the others? Well, I thought Wookey Jack was too hoppy and not anything else. Back in Black is a great beer with a good blend of piney hops and coffee notes. The Beer Camp #94 is something different. It's not really very hoppy, nor is it very roasty. It's more like a Belgian-style strong ale, and I think that's a great style and relatively hard to find (and when you can find it, the bottles are usually expensive). At 7.7% it does have the higher alcohol content of beers these days, but what are you going to do?  I suggest you sit back, pour a glass of this beer, and enjoy.

Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus

My local beer store sometimes holds drawings for the opportunity to buy rare beers. Last week, they had a drawing for the Rose de Gambrinus, a raspberry lambic from Belgium. I like sour beers and lambics, so I thought, why not?  A few days later I got an email that I'd been selected, so I went down to the store to pick it up, and I was a little astounded that it cost $15.99 for a 12 oz. bottle. Of course I went ahead and bought it. I'm used to sour beers costing more than other types, but this is a little ridiculous. I guess it's for the novelty of the thing, and how hard it is to get.

The bottle came both with a cap and a cork. The cork was a little tough to extract. I almost broke the cork while I was pulling it out, but I managed. The beer pours pink and fizzy. It looks more like strawberry soda than beer. It has a super fruity nose, like raspberries, but with a citric note too.

The taste is really tart. Super tart. But in a mouth-watering sort of way. It reminds me of the way a tart lemonade leaves you a little thirsty, so you drink more. Lambic is made by letting the cooled wort (basically, the unfermented beer) stay open in the brewery and ferment from whatever yeast or bacteria happen along. The raspberry flavor is from fruit or syrup that's added to the brew. I didn't actually detect a lot of fruitiness in the taste, but the nose is beautiful.

I'm glad I got a chance to try this. I think this is only the 2rd or 3rd time I've had a true lambic, and it was interesting to get to compare to other types of sour beers that I've tried more recently. It compares very favorably. At $16, it's a little steep to go for again very soon (and I probably wouldn't get the chance anyway, considering how I got this bottle), but it's always worth it to me to try something new. If you want to try a sour beer that's a little cheaper and easier to come by, try Duchesse de Bourgogne. If you ever see a Russian River sour beer in the bottle at the store, definitely buy one.

Campari Cocktails

Even though I haven't blogged much about cocktails, I do enjoy drinking them. I also enjoy reading about cocktails and what's in style at any given time. My tastes have evolved over the years and I've found that keeping an open mind about cocktails has helped me find new things to enjoy. For instance, I used to like apple martinis, and I ordered them pretty frequently. I've still got some apple vodka from those days. But at some point I started finding them too sweet and not at all complex, so I moved on to the dark and stormy and old fashioned, drinks I'd read about and once I finally tried them, found that I liked them quite a lot. Today I'm exploring some cocktails with a bitter component. Bitter is a flavor that people sometimes need to get used to, but there is a whole world of bitter ingredients out there once you're open to trying them.

Campari is a bitter Italian liqueur. It has a bright pink color, so it looks like it should be sweet and syrupy. It is a little syrupy, but there is a bracing bitterness that you don't expect. There are two well-known cocktails where Campari has a starring role - the Americano and the Negroni.

Americano

The American is equal portions Campari and sweet vermouth, topped up with club soda. Today I'm using San Pellegrino. Apparently in the James Bond novels, this was Bond's favorite cocktail before he became a vodka martini man. The cocktail is a very pretty color - pink at the bottom with a nice gradient to clear at the top. There's no nose at all. The first sip I had before stirring, and it just tasted like the San Pellegrino. After stirring, it's different. Bittersweet, like grapefruit juice. Bright and refreshing. It tastes rather sophisticated but it's a simple drink to make with the right ingredients. Most recipes call for a twist or a slice of orange, but I don't have one, so I'm doing without. 

Negroni

The Negroni is equal portions Campari, sweet vermouth, and gin. It should be served with an orange twist but again, I don't have one, so I'll just have to imagine what orange rind would be bringing to the party. It looks like a vodka and cranberry. It doesn't taste like one. The nose is all gin pineyness. Maybe that's because of the gin I'm using, Tanqueray, but I'm not sure. The taste is similar to the Americano, but with the evergreen notes from the gin. It's a stronger drink, and a little sweeter. 

Of the two, I prefer the Americano, and I'd drink it again. I don't really like gin, but I thought I'd give the Negroni a chance. I can see why people like it. It's a very adult sort of beverage. I like that the Americano isn't that strong. It seems like a nice drink when you don't want to get wasted, but you still want to enjoy what you're drinking. It's not like when I have a gin and tonic, which is something I order when I don't really want to drink at all, but I also don't want people constantly bothering me for not having anything. My tastes will continue to evolve, and while I don't know where they are headed, the Negroni is something I will revisit again someday, maybe with a different gin.