Participating Wineries include Bonny Doon Vineyard, Cline Cellars, Clos Saron, D.H. Gustafson Family Vineyards, Fess Parker Winery & Vineyards, Folin Cellars, Guy Riedel Wines, Katin, Rocca Family Vineyards, Sawtooth Winery, Stage Left Cellars, Stark Wine, Tablas Creek Vineyard, Tarara Winery, Tercero Wines, Terry Hoage Vineyards, and Vina Robles.

Winemaker Rob Folin

The Rhone Rangers held a press tasting at Zola Kitchen yesterday featuring outstanding white wines made from Viognier, Roussanne and Grenache Blanc, and reds made from Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre.  My favorites were:  Folin Cellars 2008 “Misceo” red blend from Oregon, which was lush and velvety with layers of dark berry and a hint of cocoa; Tablas Creek 2008 “Cotes de Tablas Blanc”, which offered hints of tropical fruit, melon and citrus with great acidity; and Terry Hoage’s (the Redskins Superbowl Champ) “Skins” Grenache which was peppery with plums and very refined.

If you can’t catch them while they are in town tonight at the Smithsonian, their wines are definitely worth seeking out.

Hugo kicked the meeting off with the Finca La Linda Torrontés, which had a floral aroma that made me anticipate a sweet, full-bodied white.  What I got was an ultra clean and bone dry refresher that held the door for the first course of market greens, herbs and truffled new potatoes.  The winery’s value line, Finca la Linda aims for a fruit-forward modern style.  Hugo next poured the unoaked Chardonnay from that line along with a chardonnay from the Riserva line.  Due to partial oak-aging the Riserva offered a sleek backbone and toast, while the La Linda was young and crisp with notes of apple.  Both were delightful pairs to finish our salads and an amuse of tuna tartare.

Next we compared Hugo’s Pinot Noir and  Temperanillo, poured to match a dish of duck confit, hand-rolled cavatappi, maitake mushrooms and beet purée.  The Pinot, which Hugo admitted to be the winery’s on-going experiment, turned out to be my favorite of the day.  Stylistically it reminded me of Monterey County, and its “crazy pluminess” reminded Dick of Russian River.  I thought the wine offered a bright contrast to the mildly gamey duck and the nestled up to the earthiness of the beet purée.  The Tempranillo was 100% pure from one of the older family vineyards.  Distinct old-world style with ripe, ripe tannins.

To meet Mina’s signature butter-poached, wood-fired filet, Hugo poured the two Malbecs from his line.  Both the Riserva and the DOC Malbec were outstanding representatives of Mendoza’s signature varietal, but the aromatics of the DOC made for an extra special experience.  ”To be honest, the winery is producing European style wines.  We are trying to have wine for food, and Europeans have the best wines for food.  Even when we are working with new world grapes, we are trying to make wines that will pair with different types of meats,” said Hugo.  Dick offered that, “Malbec is, or was, the flagship wine of Argentina, but it doesn’t need to be anymore, because Argentina makes many other good wines…Malbec brought Argentina the attention of the world, and now it has many other wines to offer.”

All of the wines we tasted cost between $12-$28 dollars.  They offer tremendous value, but do not taste like value wines.  Were we tasting blind, accompanied by cuisine from a top restaurant, I would have guessed that all 7 wines were ultra-premium samples from everywhere but South America.  The first comment I always hear about Argentinian Malbecs is that they are a great value.  While that is definitely true, I left this table enlightened about a wine region that is making many great wines regardless of the price.

While most Americans know Spain’s famous Rioja region, they can expect to increasingly find high quality–and often valued priced–wines from Navarra. This region lies in the north of Spain between Rioja and the border of France not too far from the Bordeaux wine region. Bordeaux has influenced winemaking in this this region, particularly starting in 1880s. At that time Bordeaux winemakers took their skills to Spain to escape the outbreak of phylloxera, an insect that nearly destroyed Europe’s wine industry until it was finally brought under control. Both Rioja and Navarra benefited as French winemakers shared some of the best winemaking expertise in the world at the time.

Like Bordeaux, these regions often blend various grapes (Bordeaux always blends) to make their wines, except in Spanish winemakers use native varieties that give their wines a unique character and style. Key among these grapes is Tempranillo, a grape that can produce soft, fruity and relatively light reds to big bold, oaked and aged reds. This grape is often blended with the Spanish Garnacha, which is the same grape as Grenache used to make southern Rhone Wines in France. Garnacha–which tends to be light, spicy, and high in alcohol–adds wonderful spice and fruit elements. It is also used to make dry and off dry (slightly sweet) rose wines, several lovely examples of which were available at the event. In addition, Navarra is also making blends that include more well known international/Bordeaux varietals like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and other grapes, often blended together or with Tempranillo.

At the event were wines produced by Bodegas Campos de Enanzo, the largest winery in Navarra. They produce a host of valued-priced, high-quality wines. A personal favorite was their incredible value wine: the unoaked Tempranillo, which retails for just $9.99. Even with the absence of oak, this is an unusually rich wine that is soft, fruity and a bit savory. Another treat is the 2004 Tempranillo-Cabernet Sauvignon, Crianza, which retails for just $14.99. According to Winesearcher you can find Enanzo wines in New York, but the Weekly Wine Pick learned at the tasting that the winery has just located a D.C. distributor. Look for these wines on store shelves and on wine lists soon in D.C.!

One table down the row was the Castillo Monjardin, which offered a number of lovey wines at great prices. Their Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot Crianza, 2005 (which also includes some Tempranillo) is a fantastic buy with retail prices around $12. Aged in French and American oak, this wine was grown in an excellent vintage year and offers soft and fruity notes. The Wine Advocate rates it an 89, and gives equally high ratings to their Tempranillo and a blend called Dejo as well as to their other wines. These wines surely are well-made. Keep an eye out for them at your local retail shops.

This wine is one of the several wines that Deborah Brenner decided to market after the successful release of her book.   She had escaped a career in high tech to write Women of the Vine, which highlights the careers of successful women in the wine industry.  The Wine Spectator dubbed it one of the “best new books” of the year (published 2007).  After profiling other impressive women in the wine industry, Brenner herself became one of them by launching Women of the Vine wine label.  Under this label, her company markets limited production wines made by successful female winemakers, including some of the women in her book.

The  Sommelier Society is America’s oldest wine education organization and offers resources for consumers and industry professionals.  In addition to her work as an educator, Ms. Frederick consults for numerous importers in the northeast and works with hospitality establishments to optimize their wine programs.

You can find this wine at many retailers on Wine-Searcher.

  The wine’s principal varietal is Garnacha (Grenache), which is blended with Merlot and Tempranillo.  The wine is aged in a combination of American and French oak barrels for a minimum of ten months, a process which imparts the smooth tannins.

  This bottle retails between $11 and $16, a price that Taylan remarked, “shouldn’t make someone feel guilty about drinking it as their Monday-Friday house wine.”  Taylan operates an impressive program at Stonehedge, maintaining New England’s largest wine collection of over 100,000 bottles and offering over 2000 selections on The Left Bank (Stonehedge’s fine dining restaurant, formerly Silks) wine list.  Taylan’s father, Levant, was quoted in a 2004 Food & Wine article as wanting “to see a bottle on every table.”  To that end, wine prices at Stonehedge are extraordinarily low.  Guests may also notice that recent releases are hard to come by on Taylan’s wine list, as he endeavors to offer wines at their peak drinkability.

  Check out Wine-Searcher.com to find this Crianza at a retailer near you.

Cuné is located in Haro, Spain. In 1879, two brothers decided to set up a business in the recently flourishing trade of the wine business. C.V.N.E., Compañía Vinicola del Norte de España (The Northern Spanish Wine Company) or la Cuné, as it is commonly known in Haro, was created.

The Cuné Crianza 2005 is a beautifully elegant expression of Rioja. Rioja today is a produced in a broad range of styles. At one extreme is the modern style – deep in color, made from 100% Tempranillo and aged in 100% new oak barrels, a style that sells well but is hard to recognize as Rioja.

The other extreme is the more traditional blend of Tempranillo, Mazuelo (aka Carignane), Graciano and Grenache aged in older American oak barrels, showing less concentration and fruit but more finesse, complexity, elegance and length. The Cuné Crianza 2005 leans towards the latter style. It has a beautiful color, the 25% Grenache gives it nice perfume, and it is medium-bodied with a slightly chewy finish. A great all-purpose red, highly food-compatible. Retail cost: $14-16.   FIND IT!

David’s choice for this week is a seasonally appropriate rose made from Garnacha, Viura, and Tempranillo. He likes it especially because it offers great acidity while maintaining a significant “oomph” in the body , which many roses cannot sustain.

The Bodegas Muga presents noticeable strawberry and cherry notes that complement tapas or other light summer snacks. Muga is a benchmark for quality wines in Spain; their reds fetch very high prices. This wine however, is widely available for around $10 a bottle.

Kyle was excited to pour this lush, fruit driven, medium-bodied wine from Ribera del Guadiana. “Crianza” translates to the aging process of wine to maturity. Two years of barrel aging allows this Tempranillo to produce aromas of vanilla that leap from the glass. The fruit comes from a vineyard plot planted by the Alvear family, one of Spain’s most notable producers of Sherry. This wine costs about $18.