Noble Rot: I Dub thee Prince of Portland Wine Bars

The latest Terroirists covert sneak invasion of Portland led me to a wine bar showing some serious promise. The first moment of intrigue comes by way of the bar entrance. You have two choices: you can take the stairs up four flights, or if you’re a pussy, you can take the elevator (I took the elevator). It almost feels like an exclusive club, you leave the elevator and are presented with a fairly unremarkable glass door. This door leads you into an amazing view of downtown Portland.

This view conveniently has a fully stocked bar and a so-so wine list attached to it. The ambiance is paramount in this place, very relaxing, very chill and low lighting. The wines I chose left me a little unsatisfied. I had a flight of three white wines from Alsace produced by Dopff and Irion. One was a blend of Pinot Gris, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and Muscat, and it kinda sucked. The next wine was a Gewurztraminer which had a good nose and ultimately sucked less than the first one. The third was my favorite, and it was a Pinot Gris which was a little surprising but it too sucked, but just a little less than the other two. I would probably rate these wines around 82 through 84, so sucked may be a little harsh; but none of these wines blew me away. I’ll repeat that: none of these wines blew me away which is really disappointing because they were from Alsace.

Lackluster wines aside I had a pretty kick ass time there; you show me a cute bartender and I’m sold. They also have one of my favorite beers on tap which really helped. Overall I think this is a great place to stop if you’re in Portland. They have a diverse bar, a pretty decent wine list, and what smelled like great food. Noble Rot, I dub thee prince of Portland wine bars, but you’ve got a lot of work to do to dethrone the king.

You can check them out at http://noblerotpdx.com/

Songs that rock the wine world (or not)

This list is not intended to include the obvious choices such as “Red Red Wine” by UB40 (and whoever originally performed that song), but rather digs deeper into the world of music to discover songs that just wouldn’t be the same if wine didn’t exist. Sit back, enjoy, and disagree to your heart’s content.

Billy Joel: “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”

This song is listed because it opens up in such a way as, “A bottle of white, a bottle of red | Perhaps a bottle of rose instead”. It can only be assumed the wines which he’s referring to are Italian. I’m going with a Gewurztraminer from Tyrol for the white and a nice aged Barolo for the red. I can’t think of an Italian rose off the top of my head, but some mass brand Chiantis might as well be called rose… ouch. Listen to it here.

Lake Geneva - absolutely nothing to do with this post

Dream Theater: “Count of Tuscany”

I had to include this song from one of my all time favorite bands. The song is about Tuscany, 19 minutes long, and ridiculously esoteric. A verse near the 8 minute mark mentions soldiers hiding in barrels full of wine. Hopefully they didn’t intend to mean they hide inside the actual barrels. They then go on to state, “like the angel’s share the end is near | come and have a taste; a rare vintage | all the finest wines improve with age”. Mad props for whipping out the angel’s share, a term used in Sherry production for the wine which is evaporated during the aging process. Listen to it!

Eagle Eye Cherry: “Save Tonight”

The mention of wine is brief – “…you and me and a bottle of wine…”, but it’s a memorable lyric and the rest of the song rocks. I included this for 90’s rock nostalgia; for how I miss those days when good music was played on popular radio stations. Listen to it!

Alanis Morissette: “Ironic”

I actually can’t stand this song. It will probably be stuck in my head, and likely yours, for at least two days after writing this. Even worse is that somehow a black fly in your Chardonnay is ironic. Does this imply that whoever was drinking this Chardonnay is normally a Cabernet drinker and thus wouldn’t have cared if a black fly had landed in his Cabernet? The one time I drink an over-oaked, flabby, butter bomb a damn fly lands in the glass! Just my luck! Maybe flies have a taste for diacetyl – that figures. Listen to it (or don’t)

Queensryche: “I Don’t Believe in Love” and Tool: “Sober”

Last but not least, two songs from two rockers who have entered the wine world. Geoff Tate of Queensryche is currently working with Walla Walla’s Three Rivers Winery to create his own label, Insania. Maynard James Keenan of Tool owns Merkin Vineyards and Caduceus Cellars somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Arizona. Listen to Queensryche. Listen to Tool. (video)

I apologize for those of you who listened to each of those songs and therefore used up your free full-length preview. I apologize more strongly for those of you who watched the Tool video and subsequently had nightmares. Does anyone out there have suggestions for other songs that rock the wine world? I’m sure I forgot something good, but no UB40 please!

Out with the Gewurz, in with the Franc

Sadly, I must proclaim this the last day of Gewurztraminer’s short month. What great memories we’ve created over the last 28 days. From drinking Fetzer with cigars to pounding $50 New Zealand insanity in a Chinese restaurant, this month has seen it all when it comes to Gewurztraminer. As a tear develops in my eye, I present to you the final Gewurztraminer review. 😥

2007 Columbia Winery Gewurztraminer

I wrote the above paragraph before realizing that I owned not a single Gewurztraminer. Baffled, I quickly drove to the local Safeway only to find a whopping four Gewurztraminers to choose from. I settled upon the Columbia Winery – one of Washington’s oldest and Chateau Ste Michelle’s Woodinville neighbors.

The first strike against this wine was removing the foil to reveal a synthetic cork. Oh no, not the plastic, please, anything but the plastic. For some unknown reason I decided to use my table top rabbit opener, and immediately the cork was shoved into the bottle – awesome. I could have opened it just as well with a chop stick, and probably better with a shoe (like this slightly inebriated Frenchman).

Pressing on, the wine became accessible to my glass, and some fermented grape juice was poured. The wine smells of perfume which was applied yesterday with a hint of inflatable raft. Tubing down a creek in Northern Georgia with an unshowered, perfume wearing, honey loving, middle-aged woman would provide a similar experience — only in a completely different way.

Tonight’s food pairing is equally glamorous to the previously mentioned middle-aged woman. Scavenging the fridge in the casa de Terroirists, I stumbled upon one of the world’s greatest known entities: a frozen Tombstone pizza. This works surprisingly well, but then again I’m a big fan of white wine with pizza. Overall, the wine is worth the $7 I paid for it, but I would have preferred either a little less sweetness or a little more to help bring out the aromatics. I want to be roundhouse kicked in the face by Chuck Norris, and this wine isn’t bringing that.

March’s variety is Cabernet Franc. More details will come soon – if they don’t come tomorrow, just wait longer!

Gewurztraminer. Difficult to spell maybe, but who gives a s*** this stuff is delicious.

Night of Gewürztraminer

If there ever was an argument for living in the heart of a wine region perhaps this is it. After naming Gewürztraminer the variety of the month we set up an impromptu tasting, which in a matter of hours escalated from three wines to seven. To add to the epicness of the night, one of the six tasters actually made two of the wines himself, and to top it all off we brought six open bottles to a Chinese restaurant to be merry. I’m still not sure how we managed that.

The winner of the seven wines was pretty clear to all of us, and it is potentially the best white wine I’ve ever had the honor of trying. For something around $30 the 2007 Domaine Weinbach Reserve Personnelle Gewürztraminer from Alsace is about as good as it gets. It’s just an awesome beverage experience, and one that too few people ever get to know.

The Night's Winners

The second most praised wine of the night came from a location I never could have guessed – New Zealand. Yep, the world’s Sauvignon Blanc factory has managed to pump out a great Gewurztraminer – this one grown on the North Island in Gisborne. Decanter magazine actually named this wine, the 2003 Vinoptima Gewürztraminer Ormond Reserve, the best new world white in 2005; saying, “As good as top Alsace grand crus”. At $50 though the choice is pretty clearly in favor of the Domaine Weinbach, but I’m still in awe of how interesting Gewürztraminers can be.

The 2007 Pacific Rim Gewürztraminer which Eric and I tasted in the above video became quite a stink bomb two hours after opening. Eric described it lovingly as, “like West Highland White Terrier Diarrhea after eating Hormell chili”. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Something just wasn’t right there – and at $10 I’m tempted to buy another bottle to see if it was an isolated case.

The 1997 Canoe Ridge Vineyard Gewürztraminer is still holding up, and is actually tasting better right now than it did last night. I have to moderately disagree with Eric’s assertion to drink all whites young, as some of them can become quite interesting with age. It’s a crap shoot though, and I probably would have enjoyed this wine more in 2005.

We also had our friendly neighbors to the north represented with the 2008 Lake Breeze Vineyards Gewürztraminer from British Columbia. Despite a relatively weak showing this wine did show the potential for Canadians to make better beverages than that beer they make… can’t think of the name.

There’s hardly a better way to open up “Gewürz until it hürts” month. From the Okanogan to New Zealand one has to wonder why this grape is not more popular. The Terroirists are beginning that movement now.