Too Big, Too Bold, Too Brawny: Bogle's Not-So-Essential Red

The Bogle family has farmed the California delta region for six generations, 50 years now in the effort of growing wine grapes. Like a lot of farming families in the area, they started out selling their fruit to others, then got wise and started turning their grapes into wine themselves. 

The 2020 Essential Red is a California red blend of four grapes: 53% Petite Sirah, 23% Syrah, 16% Teroldego and 8% Cabernet Sauvignon. It was aged for a full year in American oak barrels. Alcohol is right where one would expect it to be, 14.5%. Essential Red sells for $10 or less. The Bogle website suggests making a mulled wine of it. I am not a fan of such, but it does seem to be a good use for this bottle, as bold and brawny as it is. 

This wine is quite dark and quite aromatic. The nose would be fruit-forward if the oak spices weren't so strident. The big display shows dark fruit - plum, blackberry and black currant - carried along by a huge whiff of clove, cedar, tobacco, cardamom and several other occupants of the spice rack, I'm sure. The palate is similarly blessed, or handicapped, depending on your own view of oak treatment. The oak in this wine is heavy-handed and best suited for blunt-force trauma. That is disappointing, since I have long been a fan of Bogle's wines. I’ll stick with their other offerings in the future. 

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Italian Wines On Display In L.A.

If you don't know Italian wine, shake hands with your new best friend.  Italian wine is what goes with Italian food, from pasta to pesto, scampi to scungilli.

The Simply Italian Great Wines U.S. Tour 2019 is underway, spreading the gospel of Italian wines to big cities across the nation.  The Los Angeles stop was held in October on the terrace garden of the fabulous SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills.  I was invited to attend the walk-around tasting session, and here are my notes.  All the wineries mentioned here are seeking U.S. importers.

Italy's terroir is varied, and I have always found that nothing tastes like an Italian wine - even a wine of the same grape, grown somewhere else.  Wine regions like Piedmont, Veneto, Lazio, Lombardy, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Emilia Romagna, Sicily, Tuscany and others were on display.

Cantina Sociale di Trento poured their 2018 Teroldego Dolomite Vineyard.  The grapes were grown at 600 meters and above and were vinified in stainless steel.  The wine shows good color and savory cherry and plum flavors.  The freshness is amazing.

Zell's 100% Chardonnay bubbly spent 30 months in the bottle.  It has a wonderful nose and palate, great acidity and bubbles from the traditional method.

Casa Vinicola Carminucci offered two wines.  The 2018 Belato Pecorino is made from grapes grown in Offida, the only DOCG in La Marcha.  The nose is light citrus and it's a wine made for food.  The 2018 Grotte sul Mare Rosato is 90% Sangiovese and 10% Montepulciano.  Cherry, strawberry, nice acidity, quite refreshing.

La Fortezza has the 2011 Aglianico Riserva, which aged for three years in oak and one in the bottle.  Lovely fruit, savory earth.  The 2015 Aglianico got 8-10 months of oak and six months in the bottle.  The 2018 Falanghina has beautiful florals, citrus and savory plum.

Azienda Agricola Zaglia Giorgio's 2018 Pinot Grigio is from Friuli.  Savory on the nose and palate, its presentation is earthy - not on pretty side.  The 2018 Prosecco is extra dry, not as sweet as one usual finds the style.  Their 2018 Rosato is made of Merlot from Venezia Giulia.  It has a beautiful salmon color and fruity cherry.

Manvi's 2017 Myra Rosso di Montepulciano is all Sangiovese with no oak treatment to get in the way of the grape.  The 2014 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is also a varietal Sangiovese, but it spent two years in oak and another in the bottle.  I get plums. Prunes and a savory finish.  The 2015 Ojas Riserva Montepulciano will pair well with game or lamb.  The name is Sanskrit for vitality.

Matteo Soria showed off their 2018 Soria, a delightful Moscato which is bubbly, fresh and fruity. It aged for nine months on the lees in the tank.

Azienda Agricola Sordo Giovanni brought their 2015 Sordo Barolo - light in color, lovely nose, easy sipper, nice tannins but not too firm.  Their 2009 Sordo Barolo Riserva Perno has better structure and a deeper color, showing some bricking on the edges.

Vignetti Repetto of Piedmont poured the 2017 Equilatero, a steel-made Barbera.  The 2017 Rosso is a red blend which also saw no oak.  The 2018 Derthona Quadro Timorasso Colli Tortonesi has a lovely salinity after steel vinification and aging on the lees.  The Timorasso grape is difficult to grow and almost went extinct in the 1980s.  Plantings in the area have gone from two acres to 350 in 30 years.  Derthona is the Roman name of the village. 


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Darkness Becomes You

The name "Apothic" is inspired by the Greek word, apotheca, which is defined as a repository or storeroom where wine was kept. There are wines named after natural beauty, mythological creatures and spaceships in France, but not too many named after a warehouse.

The grapes are from Lodi. I'm led to believe the varieties are Petite Sirah, Teroldego and Cabernet Sauvignon. Alcohol is actually a little low for that area, at a mere 14% abv. It retails for about $12 and comes bottled under a synthetic cork. Black, of course.

Apothic Dark is frightfully dark, enough so that we can just go ahead and call it black. As in a black hole, as in no light gets through. As in the pot and the kettle are green with envy. The aromas peg the needle on the dark side as well. Blackberry, black currant, black plum and - for variety - blueberry. Flavors are in that same realm, with a dollop of oak spice on top.  Other Apothic wines throw that element in with too heavy a hand for me, so it was a relief to find the oak effect more restrained in the Dark.


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