August, 2003
summer wine festivals. Most of these
are held at various mountain ski
resorts which are looking to fill rooms
during the non-ski season. Two of
the more established events are held
each August.
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The 18th Annual Rocky Mountain Wine, Beer & Food Festival was held August
14-16 in the ski lodge at Winter Park Resort with a wide selection of wine,
beer and food. While the food and beer offerings were great, I found the wine
less impressive.
It seemed that many distributors used the event as a way to get rid of their
lesser inventory. Others provided very average wines that can be found in any
grocery store or mass market retailer. How else do you explain tables offering
Beringer White Cabernet; dozens of flabby, oaky Chardonnays and plenty of
bland Merlots. Throw in a table dedicated to various Arbor Mist products and
you get the picture.
Of course there were some pleasing wines including the wonderful Finca
Antiqua Crianza, a deep and complex Rioja for less than $15. The Thomas
Hyland line from Penfolds are good wines at $12-$14 with Shiraz, Cabernet
and Chardonnay bottlings. My favorite from the event was the Crosspoint
Pinot Noir at $12 that had very nice cherry flavors with a solid finish and soft
tannins. Matua’s Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc was the best tasting bargain,
offering citrus and herbal flavors at less than $10.
The beer offerings were varied and impressive. Micro brewing in Colorado is
thriving with dozens of interesting beers for all tastes. Flying Dog Brewery
offered the most interesting names including Horn Dog Barley Wine, Doggie
Style Pale Ale and Old Scratch Amber Lager. Several attendees declared New
Belgium Brewing’s 1554 Brussels Style Black Ale to be the best beer they had
ever tried.
The biggest surprise in the beer pavilion had to be the Morimoto beers from
the Iron Chef of the same name. He offered a Hazelnut Signature Ale which
was a rich and heavy beer with distinctive hazelnut aromas and a Soba
Signature Ale which was much lighter with fruity characteristics resembling a
wheat beer.
Keystone 6th Annual Wine, Jazz and Art Festival
Keystone’s 6th Annual Wine, Jazz and Art Festival was the following weekend .
This is the perfect festival. More than 300 wines to sample in an outdoor
setting with the mountains as background, interesting seminars and
inexpensive lodging a few steps away. They even have a kids’ pavilion to
keep the youngsters relatively happy. It just can’t be beat.
This event surpassed Winter Park in both quantity and quality, although food
sampling was not included. With so many wines to sample, you need to have
a tasting strategy. Otherwise your tasting skills will be gone long before you’
ve worked half the tables. My strategy was driven by my buying plans. I’m
extremely low on whites. And while I have plenty of big reds (e.g. Cabernet,
Merlot and Syrah), I need to add lighter reds like Pinot Noir, and Chianti to my
collection. So I focused on those areas, allowing me to sample all the
relevant wines over two days.
ABCs of White Wine
I’m not a big Chardonnay drinker, so I focused my white tastings on other
varietals. With Chardonnay the most bottled white, this significantly cut back
my options, which was fine for this event. There were plenty of Sauvignon
Blancs and Pinot Gris (Grigios) to sample, along with a surprising number of
Viogniers.
I was very impressed with the Attems wines from Italy. Their Pinot Grigio was
surprisingly full bodied with ripe fruit flavors for $15. They also had a very
pleasant Sauvignon Blanc for $12. It was the first Italian SB I’ve had, and
would make a nice addition to an international SB tasting.
Iron Horse Vineyards is known for their sparkling wines, but I enjoyed their
Cuvee R, which is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier for $15. It has the
aromatics of Viognier with the body and citrus of SB. Other good whites were
White Oak Sauvignon Blanc for $14 and Steele’s yummy Viognier for $15.
Pinot Envy
Pinot Noir is not my favorite red varietal — that would be Syrah — but I often
end up pouring Pinots when entertaining. Its flexibility in pairing with food and
ability to satisfy the varied tastes of guests make it a good choice for groups.
The good news is there are many enjoyable Pinots available at reasonable
prices. The flip side is the supply of very good, age-worthy Pinots is
considerably smaller and prices higher. Those in the good category included
Kenwood’s Russian River Pinot Noir ($17) with cherry and just a bit of oak.
Kenwood’s Reserve Pinot had deeper flavors at $25.
Oregon winemaker Erath offers several Pinots at various price points. Their
basic Oregon Pinot is relatively light, with nice red fruit flavors for $15. Rodney
Strong’s Russian River Pinot is a bigger wine with cherry and currant flavors
for $15. Look for the 2001 vintage as it showed much better than the 2000.
While not represented at the festival, one Pinot to look for is O’Reilly’s Oregon
Pinot Noir for $15. Not big in body, but extremely flavorful. This is a nice
Oregon Pinot at a good price.
Other Reds
Toward the end of the event I did try a few other reds. Guenoc offered a nice,
basic California Cabernet for only $12. Jacob’s Creek makes a Grenache
Syrah blend that will please at less than $10. Stag’s Leap and Raymond
were pouring their flagship Cabernet Sauvignons which continue to impress,
but have experienced price increases that diminish their value.
Best in Show
There were two tables that really stood out from the others. First was Cline
Cellars. This Sonoma winery consistently delivers great wines at all price
points, mostly from non-traditional grape varietals. Their basic wines are
often available at less than $10 a bottle and they all are enjoyable and fun.
You can work your way up in price to various appellation and vineyard specific
bottlings that are all great values. Cline specializes in Rhone varieties and
offers Syrah, Mourvedre, Carignanne plus a Zinfandel. They also have a nice
Viognier and a fun, inexpensive white blend called Cotes d’Oakley. Cline
proves you needn’t spend big to drink well.
The other winery that impressed was Rosemount. Many people are familiar
with their “diamond label” Shiraz which is widely available for $8. I’ve found
the quality of this wine has lessened as production grew, but it’s still a very
drinkable wine for that price. Rosemount offers many other wines that are
consistently delicious and a good value. Their Grenache Syrah Mourvedre
blend known as GSM is my favorite wine, taking a traditional French blend and
applying Australian style. It can be found for $26. Others to buy are Mudgee
Hill of Gold Shiraz, Show Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and Traditional
McLaren Vale Shiraz all priced around $20. Rosemount also poured a
pleasant Riesling for $12.
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