#114 Mauzac

Mauzac from southwest France. It is one of the seven permitted varietals in Bordeaux. This wine is the color of apple cider, or more vinuously (to create a word) its neighbor Armagnac.

It is a sweet wine that I dare say tastes to me a bit like a blend of the aforementioned apple cider and Armagnac. It leans toward being a desert wine but doesn't get that syrupy. I think this is a wonderful wine and for $15 it is clearly worth a try.

#113 Sagrantino

Sagrantino.... Tiny production, almost nothing exported. I managed to find a bottle of the 2004 vintage Scacciadiavoli Sagrantino. If it was not for the internet its likely I would never have had the opportunity to try this one. Don't worry I am sure our politicians are working on shutting down availability of this and many other wines in order to bloat the pocketbooks of the entrenched liquor distributors. Or maybe that only happens in Illinois. Grab your pocketbooks people this is going to be an ugly decade.

Big, Tannic, Zinfandel on steroids. Currants and backbone. Yes this is a bruiser but its not bad at all. Next time I am in Montefalco I would love to try a well aged bottle of this stuff. At $36 a bottle though I won't be buying it again.

#112 Bobal

I said it would be more difficult to find some of these remaining grapes in their purest form. I have set as my rule that the grape in question must constitute at least 70% of the wine being tasted. In this case the 2004 Rozaleme does just that. It is 70% Bobal with the remaining 30% the more famous Spanish Tempranillo. Yes this will be tonight's spaghetti wine.

Spanish wine with spaghetti you say? Did you think I would stick with the grechetto? OK so it wasn't such a good pairing but I knew it was a long shot going in. At $12 this is not a bad wine at all. At first I thought that I was tasting a bit of anise but I think now that it is in fact hazelnut. It has big fruit, nice acidity and none of that alcohol "burn" I find in less expensive bottles. Perhaps its time in the bottle allowed the components to meld well. I admit I do happen to enjoy most Spanish wines but despite my bias I think this one is a winner.

#111 Grechetto

Grechetto is another Italian white grape. Unfortunately the more white wines I try the more they begin to taste the same. Almost every one has some comparisons to Chardonnay and/or to Sauvignon Blanc. Sadly I am unable to drill down into the flavors and point out the fascinating undertones of forest black fruit or the sizziling frostiness of Hibernian sea moss. (In a future tasting I just might try)

When left on my own with this glass of wine and a keyboard I will say that it begins with the typical oily chardonnay mouthfeel and ends with the acidic bite of sauvignon blanc. Light on sweetness, pleasant minerality and a dusty almost citrusy finish. I suspect this would work well with grilled fish. But tonight it will be a prelude to a spaghetti dinner and a few hours of Survivor!

#110 Picpoul Blanc

Moving right along. Tonight we begin our push into the second phase of the wine quest. This phase will be as much about finding the wines as it is about trying them. This bottle, a picpoul blanc from the Languedoc region in France was not hard to find (its popular at a local shop) and was not terribly expensive. For less than $15 the following experience can be yours.

Picpoul Blanc is one of the 13 accepted varietals allowed in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Given its notoriety for tight acidity it is typically used as a blending grape. It appears that the grape's name is derived from "lip stinger" or "hen peck" or some similar pucker inducing term. Imagine if you will, a reisling with the sweetness dialed down, the acidity dialed up and the whole product diluted by a quarter. Now imagine fresh oysters, a splash of lemon and a salt sea breeze. Welcome to the French Mediterranean.

Submitted for your approval......

Somewhere in the middle of that larger than desired gap between wine 108 and wine 109 this paperwork was submitted to the ardent operators of The Wine Century Club.

For a time I thought that I would endeavor to be the fastest member to get to 100 varietals via any means possible. I may have considered at one point a giant mixture of every variety I could find (and a pint glass to serve it in). One gulp and done! Then I thought perhaps I would try to get to 100 varietals by drinking the fewest bottles possible. I found a few great blends that would have gotten me right up to 25 in a matter of days.

I realized however that this would be more of a journey than a sprint. And more of a labor of love than just pure labor. It has been an informative delight tasting through every one of those 108 wines. Almost every bottle, save 2 or 3, were 100% pure varietal as far as my research was able to uncover so I hope that I was able to capture the core essence of each grape.

Now the question is "Where to now?". Thankfully for you my dear reader, that question comes pre-answered. I will focus on completing the two sheets in full (which likely will be harder than I imagine.)

So, as my 2008 quest warmly dulled the impact of our planet's ongoing financial calamity, I hope that my 2009 quest will continue to add a nice fuzzy edge to the swirling mess we are in.

Raise your spirits for raised spirits! Cheers.

#109 Vermentino Nero

"Vermentino!" I can hear all of my avid readers cry out in unison, "That's a repeat!" Sure enough a little over a year ago on January 11th 2008 I did in fact have a Vermentino from Sardenia. This however is a Vermentino Nero and it is a very difficult to find red from Tuscany.

From what I understand this wine is almost never available outside of Tuscany and it was a stroke of luck that allowed to me to pre-order this bottle from a now rapidly capsizing Chicago wine retailer. This retailer is a victim of a private equity buyout whose managers seem to believe that jamming gallons of Yellowtail down the consumer's throat is far preferrable to bringing them interesting varietals. Quantity over quality is their new rallying cry. It is very lucky for me that I was able to complete this quest before this famous retailer drove out all of the founding family, nearly all of their very experienced employees and most of their interesting wine. With sadness I tip my hat to a once great wine store and wish their employees all the best. I am graciously thankful for all the great wine they have secured for me in the past. For me I am now shopping almost exclusively elsewhere. I wish them loads of luck trying to become a wine version of wal-mart. Oh yes, where was I? Oh right.... the wine!

This bottle greeted me with a deep rich violet nose. Surprisingly the body of the wine did not hold up to the promise of the nose. That is to say that the wine wasn't a big juicy blockbuster but a lighter finer wine. Most remarkable was the bracing acidity. This bottle did run me closer to $40 if I remember correctly. I wouldn't repurchase it at that price but I would certainly enjoy the chance to try more efforts.... as difficult as that now appears to be.