To say I’ve neglected my blog would be an understatement. We’ve been drinking wine (I’ve been taking great notes) and enjoying wine adventures, but time is my enemy. And unfortunately, I believe it’s only going to get worse over the next few months. With my hosting contract expiring in the next few months, I made the executive decision to export Purple Teeth Diaries to my family blog (http://www.jonathanericagreen.blogspot.com) and create a new page dedicated to my wine posts.

So stop by if you wish, you’ll find all sorts of things including sports, wine, travel, food and our basset hound, Flash.

This review is long over due. Jonathan and I drank this wine several weeks ago, but I never got around to posting the blog. We paired the Willamette Valley Vineyards Riesling with homemade Indian food (one of our first attempts). I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again – Riesling and Indian food are a match made in heaven. I hoped this wine would be as tasty as the other bottles from Willamette Valley Vineyards, but I was left a little disappointed.

Let me start off by saying this wine is not bad. It’s strictly a matter of taste preferences. I prefer my Rieslings on the dryer side and this one leaned toward the sweeter side. It’s classified as a medium-sweet Riesling. In the glass, there was almost no color to the Willamette Valley Vineyards Riesling – extremely light and translucent. On the nose, we picked up an abundance of pear, apple and peach. There was quite a bit of sweetness on the palate and this Riesling didn’t seem as clean and crisp as others we had recently.

This wine was modeled after traditional German Rieslings. The grapes were harvested from October 25 – November 1, 2008 and were lightly whole cluster pressed. Fermentation was in 100% stainless steel and lasted approximately eight weeks. Just over 20,400 cases were bottled and released in October 2009.

Willamette Valley Vineyards is the dream of Jim Bernau. In 1983, he purchased the estate, cleared the land and began planting grapevines. Bernau hand watered the baby grapevines with garden hoses because there was no irrigation system. He honed his winemaking skills with classes at UC Davis and seminars around the world and soon his dream was a reality. Willamette Valley Vineyards manages 300 acres of vines, all certified sustainable, LIVE (Low Input Viticulture and Enology) and Salmon Safe.

*This wine was received as a sample.

Jonathan’s turning the big 3-0 this year (yes, I am too!) so for Christmas I gave him a bottle of Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande from his birth year. Granted, 1980 wasn’t a spectacular year in the wine world so this wasn’t a hot commodity like say a 1982 bottle. In researching various châteaux, I found several I was interested in, but some were potentially past their prime or at least on their downhill slide. I ended up just taking the plunge and going all in, purchasing the bottle I really wanted. I knew it would be hit or miss if this bottle was past it’s prime.

Jonathan chose to open this bottle for our anniversary a few weeks ago instead of waiting for his actual birthday. I don’t think he could take the suspense any longer! And the verdict – it may be over the hill, and on the backside of it’s life, but it was still an impressive wine. I’m not sure if I’d say that it was past it’s prime since it still showed several nice elements.

In the glass, the 1980 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande appeared orangey, rusty and light. Color wise it looked like an older wine, but I would have thought it might appear a little darker. On the nose, we picked up spice, leather, must, cedar and mushrooms. Neither of us noticed any fruit. On the palate, I noticed a hint of pepper or spice, but Jonathan didn’t seem to come across this. The leather, must and mushrooms carried over, but the finish was rather quick and simple.

The Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande vineyards are comprised of 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc and 8% Petit Verdot so roughly those same percentages went into this blend, depending on the performance of each grape. The 1980 vintage faced a cold and rainy spring with late and irregular flowering. The summer was hot and dry with low rainfall totals. This resulted in small grapes with high sugar levels and low acidity. September proved hot and dry with rain only coming on the 20^th. The harvest was on October 12^th and at full maturity. Many wine experts consider the 1980 vintage poor to mediocre, but considered Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande a nicely structured, concentrated wine that showed well.

*This is all in good fun, and is not intended to disparage Wal-Mart or the customers who shop there….I’m one of them!

Sponsor/VIP= free, unlimited wine tasting! 

We started slow, grabbing a few sips and making the loop around to check out which wineries were in attendance. Then, we decided to get down to business and really start wine tasting. Here are a few general observations about the wineries and the festival.

1. The Texas wine industry is like Napa before they were Napa.In talking with several of the winemakers and owners, they mentioned how they share ideas, equipment, things that work and things that didn’t work and in general help each other out. This was Napa in the 60s and 70s. Right now, it’s more about promoting the region and the wine than self-promotion. They’ll tell you, “hey, go visit my neighbor down the road. He’s been working on a great blend.” This is how Napa used to be, until they became uber-popular and commercialized.

2. The Texas winemakers are figuring it out. I know this sounds kind of general, but let me explain. The last time I was out in the Hill Country was five years ago. Then, recently I went with my friend Mariam for the day. After that trip, I was generally impressed by the quality of wine. This festival reinforced that thought even more. There were several wineries with beautiful, unoaked Chardonnays and Viogniers. I’m not a fan of the oaky, buttery California Chard, but these were definitely not California in characteristic. Texas winemakers are also discovering, “hey, it’s too hot to grow some things in Texas”….aka Sauvignon Blanc. I don’t believe I saw one all day. Instead, they are starting to focus on Spanish grape varietals like Tempranillo and Grenache.

3. Winery Offerings and Festival Prices. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of wine offered by each winery. Most offered at least four wines. Generally, two were on the sweeter side and two leaned towards the dryer side. And for the most part they were split evenly between reds and whites. I’ll admit that I tried more whites…it was a warm day and they just tasted so much better than a red to me. For patrons who purchased tickets in advance, they were $29.99 and that came with 10 one-ounce tasting tabs. If you purchased tickets at the gate, the price was $35 for the same. After your 10 tabs were gone, you could pay $1 for each additional tasting. Personally, if we would have purchased tickets in advance and paid $29.99, I would have been disappointed in the amount provided – those 10 tastings wouldn’t have gotten you very far. While profits do go to a charity, the prices did seem a little steep. In general, the wine tents weren’t crowded and at most we waited behind two or three people for a tasting.

4. A Few Surprises. Many of the Hill Country wineries were not in attendance, in fact there were only a handful. I understand it was a holiday weekend and quite possibly busy at the winery for them, but from what I gathered, the festival provided the wineries with volunteers to help pour. At some of the tents there was only one winery representative and the rest were volunteers. So I’m not sure why they didn’t make the short drive to Austin to promote their wine? Another surprise, none of the wineries from the Grapevine area were in attendance. There were a few from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but none from Grapevine. Again, it could be the factor of a holiday weekend or that they have their own festival in September.

5. Favorites. If I had to choose a favorite winery, it would be Haak Winery in Galveston…I know, who knew they made good wine in Galveston. Here I sampled a Blanc du Bois White Port, which is somewhat uncommon. It was sweet, but not sugary and syrupy. They also made a Malbec that I really enjoyed. This is one winery on my list to visit! Jonathan and I also had a chance to meet and talk with Mike Guillette, the owner of Woodrose Winery. He is wine enthusiast turned winemaker and is completely self-taught. He purchased the winery in 2005 and has been planting new grapes on the property. It was very interesting to hear how he turned his dream into a reality, plus his Tempranillo wasn’t too bad. My final favorite of the day was at Texas Legato Winery. They produce a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Petite Syrah and Merlot called Family Reunion.

Over the Christmas holidays, I got what may be one of my best ideas yet. At least I think this, I’m not sure Jonathan agrees. We were at a little wine bar, and I noticed they had their Christmas tree decorated with wine things…corks, small plastic glass, etc. So I decided, I needed a wine tree. Not only did I need it, but I must have it! So I went after Christmas shopping and picked up a few things like purple beads and green balls to “fill-in” on my tree. I have plenty of corks to use and I decided to try and incorporate some wine labels. So today I looked through all of our saved labels and picked out the nicer ones so I can begin looking for hanging picture frames. I figure this may take a while especially since the labels are in all different shapes and sizes. But what else could I incorporate onto my wine tree? And I still need a topper…any ideas? Let’s get creative here people…we only have about six months until I put this baby up!

Finally, if you’re in the Austin area this summer, make sure to check out the Summer Film Series at Mandola Estate Winery. The first film is Bottle Shock, showing on June 10 at sunset. The movies will be shown in the vineyards, and moviegoers can snack on wine and cheese.

I did enjoy the blend, but I do think it needs some time in the bottle to “work things out.” So I look forward to seeing how this wine progresses.

One more quick note, voting is open for the Wine Blog Awards 2010. Voting is open until Sunday.