If you go to any wine region its really tough to get to all of the great wineries. That happened to me in the summer of 2008 and spring of 2009 when I visited Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Domaine Drouhin was on my target list both times but for a variety of reasons I never made it to the winery. Drouhin is a well-respected French name that bought property in Oregon early in the rush to start producing Pinot in this great area. They even sell their French wines in the Oregon winery.

I finally tasted their Pinot Friday night and it certainly lives up to its reputation. A young man at Wabash College, from Portland, brought me a bottle as a gift for allowing him to store a lot of his personal items in my home over the summer.

I opened the 2006 Domaine Drouhin Willammette Valley and immediately got week-kneed at the nose. I think if I keep drinking Oregon wine – which I will – I could blind sniff Oregon wine and pick out the soil from just the nose!

The wine was a very clear and ruby red color that was beautiful in the Riedel crystal I dug out for the occasion. On the palate it was medium-bodied with a spicy and earthiness that only great Pinot can deliver.

There was a sense of muskiness that I love in a Pinot along with a hint of strawberry.This is a very well-make, silky wine.

This wine consistently has been rated 89-91 by the national review publications. This is what I call the classic “next tier” of Oregon wines. Most of the wineries have something around $30 or just under and the next price point tends to be $40-$45. This retails at $39.95 though I did find it up to $44.

It’s a great representation of the better Oregon Pinots. If you can’t find Drouhin, find an Oregon Pinot Noir.

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If you like your Zinfandel with some pepper, tannins, and a medium flavor you’ll like Ottimino “Zinfinity.”

Ottimino is a Sonoma County, Russian River Valley, winery known for its Zinfandel. The winery recently releasted its first Zin blend or “Zinfinity” of 93 percent Zinfandel with seven percent Petite Syrah.

I liked this wine a lot. I was suprised at the balanced flavor against the peppery finish and rather big tannins. The wine is aged 20 months in French Oak creating the big finish.

The Zin grapes come from a number of vineyards including some old vine Zin. I picked up the peppery finish, a jammy dark fruit flavor with a hint of vanilla. This is not a wine for wine wimps.

It’s not huge like many California Zins and suprisingly low in alcohol at 13.9 percent. This is handcrafted wine with just 1028 cases produced. The suggested retail price is $17 but I did find it online for as low as $14.

It’s a luscious, rich wine with a big wine finish.

I tasted this wine as a sample. I’d pay for it any time. A great glass of wine. I had it with some pasta that included ground veal and mild Italian sausage. The wine was a great pairing and would have held up just as well against seasoning stronger than I used tonight!

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It had been years since I had tasted a Beaujolais Nouveau but for the sake of wine journalism I bellied up at the wine shop and picked up a bottle along with a 2008 vintage of Beaujolais Villages from Louis Jadot.

Beaujolais is that little area north of Lyon, France, known for its Gamay grape (think of Pinot Noir) and soft fruity wines released each year on the third Thursday of November (by French law) and sold inexpensively around the world.

George Dubouef is the wine’s dominant producer and chief promoter. He sells more than 30 million bottles a year! So I bought a bottle of his 2009 Nouveau in anticipation. The wine is exactly what it’s billed to be: fruity, pretty direct, no bite and inexpensive.

I spent some time reading about Gamay and reviews of Beaujolais and largely decided I wasn’t fond of the flavor characteristics. I can easily see how people would enjoy this wine and serve it during the holidays with fowl and use it as an introduction to more serious wine for non-wine drinkers.

My assessment, ‘Okay, but unremarkable.’ I can see why people like it. Or, do they like it because of its uniqueness …. the quirky November release each year, the much ado, the total lack of any tannins or bitterness?

The wine has it’s critics and some insist the Nouveau craze is fading each year.

As mentioned above, I also bought a Jadot “Villages” that I liked quite a bit. The 2008 has had the obvious extra time to mature. There are very mild tannins and it makes for a very drinkable, but light, red wine.

It has the freshness of the Nouveau but just that little bit of tannin and acidic finish which makes it more appealing to the more frequent wine drinker.

I could see drinking this wine with turkey, ham and sides at Thanksgiving or Christmas. I also believe I’d offer this wine up to a wine newbie with a higher level of confidence than the nouveau. I’d definitely serve the Jadot wine over any Nouveau if I was pairing it with food.

So try a Beaujolais and the Gamay grape, but go for the one with a little age on it!

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I’ve hesitated to add a bunch of links on my page to other blog sites. Recommending wine is one thing but recommending other wine writers is another.

Two of the blogs I’ve had up quite awhile are Indiana based while one is just my newspaper columns. I occasionally glance at a couple of national blogs. There certainly are some with a knowledge level way beyond mind and I enjoy learning from them. Some also come with a ton of that “looking down their nose” attitude that makes me wonder who their readers might be!

All that said, I’ve always liked Edward Deitch’s writing on MSNBC.com and his appearances on the Today Show. He has a very high knowledge level, he’s practical in his advice and offers up great suggestions without a know-it-all attitude.

You might want to give his blog a look. It’s named “Vint-ed” and I’ve linked it in the left column. (Oh, and if you haven’t already bookmark “Grape Sense,” do it now!!)

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If you haven’t tried and fallen in love with the great Spanish wines and great Spanish wine values it’s time to give them a try.

I’ve written about many really good value Spanish wines in the past. During my last trip to The Bottle Shop in West Lafayette, IN., I took Donna’s suggestion and picked up a bottle of Pasanau Ceps Nous from Priorat.

This wine is a blend of Garnacha, Merlot, Mazuelo, and Syrah and its dynamite juice. This dark and purplish wine has a big mouthful of lively fruit with just the right amount of acidity. It’s not quite a fruit bomb, but some might use that often complimentary and sometimes derisive description.

Nonetheless, this is a great wine. The wine retails anywhere from $19-$22 and is worth every nickel. This is the best Spanish red I’ve tasted in this price range.

The wine comes from the Priorat region of Spain. It’s a region within the Catalonia area. It’s a hilly area that is gaining a lot of attention for its fermented grape juice.

This was my first Priorat but it has gained a lot of love in the wine world. Robert Parker gave this wine 92 points. But Donna’s recommendation is always good enough for me!

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Whenever I write about Lange Winery wines I almost feel like I should add a disclaimer in order to maintain a semblance of credibility: I’m a fan!

I brought back a mixed case of Lange wines during an April, 2009, visit that I intend on enjoying for some time. I took a bottle of Lange’s 2008 Pinot Gris Reserve home for Thanksgiving and I’m finishing it off tonight (Friday).

The beautifully balanced white was great with Thanksgiving dinner, and honestly even better tonight. I’m not going to go out on a limb and suggest you decant this wine but the acidity relaxed tonight making a beautiful glass of white wine.

The acidity was fine against Thanksgiving dinner but tonight with some mild fresh tomatos and pasta the Gris was a better-than-expected complement.

I got a big nose of lime yesterday on this wine with more-than ample-acidity. Today the limes isn’t as pronounced but there is a wonderfully blanced citrus nose that any wine love can appreciate. This is tart with out creating a pucker!

Oregon Pinot Gris is one of this country’s great white wines and in some circles still a bit of an unknown. It’s definitely worth a try. The great new is Lange wines are available throughout Indiana.

The 2008 Pinot Gris Reserve sells for around $22. This great white got a 90 from Robert Parker. It’s light on the alcohol at just 12.6 percent. And every now and then I go off here about handcrafted wines. Lange made just 850 cases of thise nice wine.

Lange also makes a Pinot Gris at the $16 price point that won’t disappoint.

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Shouldn’t a “fruit bomb” of a wine have a little “bang” to accompany it? I think so; therefore, the headline!

If you go to wine shops or better supermarkets it’s hard to imagine that you haven’t seen Layer Cake wines. Layer Cake Syrah seems to be everywhere. Recently, I recieved a tasting sample (freebie!) of 2008 Layer Cake Malbec. I popped that open to have with a piece of roasted pork.

The Layer Cake line of wines come from Jayson Woodbridge. Unless you’re a real wino you might not know the name. Let’s just say he makes wines grown in some of the great wine regions of the world. He also makes a high-end Napa Valley Cabernet that starts at $250 a bottle and sells out as soon as it’s released.

Fortunately, Layer Cake is his effort to bring great wine to the value wine market. They make their wines, bottle them, and ship them from the country of origin. The Malbec was grown and made in the Mendoza Valley of Argentina.

Oh, back to the fruit bomb issue. Sometimes wine snobs will look down their nose and call a wine like this “jammy” or a fruit bomb. Well, this is one darn fruity wine but what’s wrong with that?

Woodbridge clearly follows the modern trend of crafting wines for a younger market by aging 80 percent of the Malbec in stainless steel and 20 percent in barrels. As you would then expect, this is a very smooth Malbec with very palatable tannins.

I liked the wine for what it was – a spicy nose with some pepper and black fruit. It’s rather high in alcohol at 14.2 percent.

This is good juice. It’s easy to drink and very fruit forward but very true to the Malbec grape.

Woodbridge is an interseting guy. Here is a story from Departures Magazine.

This wine consistently sells for around $15. You’ll find some Malbecs better suited to your invididual taste, but Layer Cake is one most are going to like. Also, I’d recommend it as a first Malbec if you haven’t enjoyed the great South American grape previously.

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I seldom get bored with wine, or drinking wine, writing about wine, doing wine research! But on rare occasions when I have to make an effort to post to the blog or crank out a newspaper column, I scratch my head and wonder why I do all this work for no pay.

Then I discover something new or really good and none of the above matters at all.

It happened tonight after a long work day. I had purchased a bottle of Italian wine on the recommendation of the owners at a Vino 100 wine shop in Columbus, Ohio, – Westerville, to be exact.

It was Aglianico from Ocono Winery, 2003, and it was dynamic Italian wine. Aglianico is grown in Southern Italy and dates back to the 6th Century B.C. Supposedly, I learned, the grape made its way to Italy by the Greeks.

The wine has a nose of dark cherry fruit, a hint of coffee or a musty sense to it. It’s rich but refined. In the glass, it reminded me a bit of a Pinot Noir by its look and well-balanced taste characteristics but its definitely a medium to bigger bodied wine.

This is a big ol’ mouthful of dirt for those who like earthy wines or “terrior.”

I was pleasantly surprised by the balance, the smooth tannins and even a hint of mineral in this luscious red wine.

It is a lighter style wine as the color indicates. But it’s a wonderful change of pace from the standard Sangiovese-based Italian wines.

I paid $17 for this wine but, if you can find it, $14-$19 is the usually range.

Aglianico is a signature grape in Southern Italy. It was wonderful with a mild pasta dish and some chocolate. This is a surprisingly flavorful wine that will let you know it’s Italian but do it with a gentle hand, not a club.

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Turkey wine? Well, not really!

But this time of year there are lots and lots of stories about pairing wine with your Thanksgiving meal. I offer up a primer and some very affordable suggestions in my latest newspaper column.

All of the columns are posted on Grape Sense, there is a link mid-page on left hand side of this blog. Or, just click Grape Sense above.

Pretty cool Wine Turkey, don’t you think?

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Consider this – a respected Australian winemaker takes an iconic varietal and pairs it with an iconic name and produces a sparkling Shiraz.

Yes, an uncommon bond of the artistic and iconic works of a respected winemaker that leads to the unexpected.

Unexpected, except when it’s in the Wine Zone.

Ha! Only a few will get the obscure reference and recognize the photo but hats off to those folks.

Sparkling Shiraz – even the words seem misplaced in the same sentence. Still, I had an email one day offering up a sample of Wyndham Estate Bin 555 Sparkling Shiraz. The curiousity was killing me until the day it arrived and tonight when I opened it.

The marketing folks promoted the sparkling wine as a nice and satisfiying alternative for Thanksgiving. So tonight, I roasted a chicken with onions, apples, thyme and lots of rosemary. I made some sage dressing I added cranberries to and had my little pre-Thanksgiving feast!

I popped the cork on the Wyndham wine and really enjoyed it with my roasted hen. I’m still a little unsure of what to make of it.

The wine certainly has an effervesence as its poured into the glass. It has a dark crimson color and a nose of – imagine this – Shiraz! I picked up more oak on the nose than I did vanilla.

At first I was just confused by the fizz. But after the wine was open for awhile, I was appreciating the rich and spicy Shiraz flavor with the buzz. It’s a medium weight wine with a very soft finish. And, its definitely something different!

The wine comes from Hunter Valley in New South Wales, Australia. It’s 13.5 percent alcohol with a suggested retail price of $18.

There are several sparkling red wines from Australia, I’ve learned, and it may take another or two to know what I think of it.

I liked the wine. I’m not sure what to think of the effervesence but it sure is a change of pace. I’d recommend anyone try it. Some are going to love it as something as a big change of pace. I suspect others are going to think they’ve entered the Twilight Zone!

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