Fill del Temps 2004 Gran Seleccio Red Wine

*Bottle #50: Fill del Temps 2004 Gran Seleccio Terra Alta Red Wine
*Price Tag: $18
*Running Tab: $581

My wine shop owner tells me somewhere between here and Spain (via a LA importer), Spanish wines can tend to be a "little skunky," often times one bottle per case falling into that descriptor.

"Skunky" wine*: An analogous smell, which is caused by mercaptans.
"Mercaptans*:" The result of hydrogen sulfide combining with the components of wine. The result is a pungently offensive, sour odor that can smell like garlic, stale sweat, skunk, or rubber.
*Definitions courtesy Epicurious.com

This is often a sign of careless winemaking and let's you know the wine's turning into crap, for lack of better phrasing... No offense.

The first time I tried the 2004 Fill del Temps red blend of 55% Garnacha, 40% Carignan and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, I was hopeful. I've really liked my recent Grenache experiences and Carignan is getting bigger and bigger in my local wine area, where as Cab is often times fail-proof and in this case is a backbone for the blend.

Upon tasting this wine, all hope, tastebuds and my stomach went to the wall. I could have sworn the wine was port from my first sniff of the wine. I smelled raisins, dried fig and some leaf-like aromas in the back. Beyond ripe fruits with oak came out a lot but I think the best way to describe it is that the nose was like the winemaker crushed the grapes and pressed the skins off the grapes but then bottled the skins with the juice.

Nose = Chewed up and spit out grape stems. Yeah.

And it tasted just like it smelled, but not in the good way that I get excited about. Remember, chewed up, spit out grape stems.

A sharp and acidic attack with lots of oak, grape skins, borderline fruit leather-ish on the mid palate and finishing out with, again, that acid and lingering sour on the tongue.

Yummy, right? So we figured there was something wrong with the bottle. It wasn't corked, it might have been oxidized or just a crappy bottle of wine. I took it back to the wine shop, told the owner about it and enter the "skunky" speech. He gave me a new bottle, promised with a sales smile that it was just as much of a "fruit bomb" as he had initially described and so I tried it a couple weeks later.

Low and behold, it was just as bad as the first bottle. Flat out undrinkable. Case and point, Spanish wine is known to have that occasional bad bottle in the bunch but not two bottles in a row from the same case.

This was simply bad wine. But gosh, did it look pretty!

Score: 1.

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Erin

Cuillin Hills 2006 Weinbau Vineyard Cabernet Franc

*Bottle #49: Cuillin Hills 2006 Weinbau Vineyards Cabernet Franc Wahluke Slope
*Price Tag: $26
*Running Tab: $563

Darren and Derek Des Voigne are brothers. They are also winemakers and owners of two separate wineries, sourcing from different vineyards, specializing in different varietals and varying price points. Darren's wine feature "Tuscany-inspired" blends while Derek leans more toward Rhone and Bordeaux style varieties. Darren enjoys the smooth jazz of Miles Davis and Derek sometimes wears a kilt and plays the bagpipes - rumor has it that's how he caught his Scottish wife's eye.

These two separate companies are separate, seemingly, only by title and style. They share production facilities, tasting room suites and a last name.

Funny to think it all started with encouraging their fathers' drinking habit in the late 90's, Derek later left his family's basement winemaking practice to take on the grape giants at UC Davis.

Derek's Cuillin Hills (pronounced Coo-lin) limits his production to 600 cases a year and opens his tasting room doors only once a week to the public, sanctioning an impression of exclusivity to form. Keeping his case numbers relatively low, Derek also keeps his prices and reputation modest with his recent releases of a claret blend, Cabernet Franc and Syrah.

Representing some of the best vineyards in the state, Derek bought grapes from the prestigious Sagemoor Group, a group of Washington grape growers since 1972, for his 2006 Cabernet Franc. Their Weinbau Vineyard in the Wahluke Slope AVA, a site known for its Cab Franc grapes, was the source for this 97% Cab Franc and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon blend.

To gain a bit of perspective: 62 wineries, of the 500 some-odd wineries in Washington, source their fruit from one of the four Sagemoor vineyards. They do a pretty good job.

Beautiful black currants and spice fill up the nose of this wine with subtle draws of cocoa and white pepper. Derek recommends decanting her for about a half hour but letting her sit in the glass or in the opened bottle did her decent justice. A plush and rich aroma came out immediately and you can imagine how it only became a more luxurious experience.

The palate was soft and velvety with smooth cassis in the back of the finish. The Cab Franc had a real gentle acidity with easy and rounded (soft) tannins. Like last week's bottle, this one really charactertized the meaning of "dark, fleshy fruit."

I believe Derek produced a very nice Cab Franc. All of that being said, I'm just not sold on the varietal. This purchase is apart of my great search to find a Cab Franc that blows me away. I've spoke with several shop owners, winemakers and sommeliers about how to find such a thing and I keep hearing exceptions, tasting them and just not fixing my palate.

What it comes down to is the cold hard facts: Cabernet Franc is a blending grape. One of the five noble Bordeaux varietals, it still just can't quite stand alone.

Score: 7.5.

Gilbert Cellars 2006 Allobroges

*Bottle #46: Gilbert Cellars 2006 Columbia Valley Allobroges *Price Tag: $24
*Running Tab: $537

Here's one of my favorite "industry perks:" Wine events, wine people, wine talk usually involves cheap or free wine. And there is nothing wrong with free, even if it's not a good free, it's still free.

This week's freebie was a bottle of "Allobroges" from Gilbert Cellars, a Rhone Valley structured blend straight from Yakima, WA.

Here's a tid bit of contrasting information: The state of Washington is known particularly for growing Bordeaux varietals that exemplify the original region of France itself.

What: Bordeaux red varietals (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec) and white varietals (Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon).

Why: Washington's latitude - 45°31' N. France's latitude - 44°1 N. Pretty similar.

French is French? Not necessarily. Considering a different grape variety can be as different as a banana is to an apple, those different varietals grow differently in different climates, soils, sun exposure, land sloping, etc.

The Rhone Valley, located in Southern France, has many varietals that grow beautifully in both Washington and California, but the latter exceptionally well because of California's similar latitude to Rhone.

However, despite the geographical contrasts, Rhone varietals have the potential to grow beautifully and distinctly in Washington State.

Gilbert's Cellars seemed to agree but it appeared as if the wine was a little afraid to show off its swimming legs before taking the big dive into impressing me.

The "Allobroges" - originally a group of Celtic people who roamed the Rhone Valley during the Roman Empire and "dark, rich red wines" - is now a mastered blend of 60% Syrah, 22% Grenache and 18% Mourvedre.

With a classic Rhone nose full of spice and bright fruit, the depth of the aroma truly opened up after a half hour of uncorked bottle time into a dark and rich red wine.

The winemaker's notes mention a "fleshy" dark fruit tone and I couldn't have said it better myself. However, that "umpf" doesn't come out until some oxygen has coaxed the wine into really going all out.

First sip of this wine, I found it light with not much flavor, a supple acidity and a mediocre palate. It wasn't bad, I just wasn't blown away. It had the potential for substance but stopped a little short. It seemed to have all the right things - a good name, good people behind the label, good fruit, a decent vintage and harvest...

And just when I had given up home, the Allobroges came through. Earthy, medium+ bodied and lovely spice tones with "fleshy" dark fruit. Job well done.

Score: 8.

J. Calvet Reserve 2005 Medoc

*Bottle #45: J. Calvert Reserve De L'Estey 2005 Medoc

*Price Tag: $7

*Running Tab: $537

One thing: Trader frickin' Joe's. Bargain after bargain, I've shopped their aisles, grabbing $2 packages of gnocchi, single portion baby bokchoy and organic goodness of multiple splendors. 

I have always been a good girl with self control and stayed away from the fully stocked shelves of wine. But this week's trip, I decided to indulge in value wine.

Perusing the wines at first seemed a chore but a very young stocker/possible wine steward was kind enough to help me narrow done some uber cheap and desirable choices. When faced with $8 Bordeauxs and $10 Burgundys, it's easy to get a little ahead of yourself considering these typically are not inexpensive purchases.

I don't know if it's the French translation and my piss-poor attempt at trying to Internet the heck out of it so I can comprehend all eight names used to identify this wine, but it seems as if the wine has the astute ability to be in two places at once... Let me explain. This particular Bordeaux blend from producer J. Calvet, a long-time mass-producing winery in the Saint-Emilion area of the Bordeaux region, happens to be made from the grapes of Medoc, another area of the Bordeaux region.

Still too much? This is how I dumbed it down for myself. A Napa located winery bought grapes from a Sonoma located vineyard, thus producing a Sonoma Valley wine. 

It just sounds so much more exhaustive and convoluted in French. 

The wine, however, is rather the contrast. J. Calvet's 2005 Medoc Reserve Red - blend unknown but presumptively Cab/Merlot/Cab Franc - lets lose some quiet aromas of black cherries, black currants, strawberry rhubarb and distinct oak. Some soft spice tones come later with vanilla. 

Let me say here and I hope I have not contradicted myself in the past but I hate strawberry rhubarb in wine. What an awkward "fruit," what a horrible pie and artificially fruit leathers tend to ruin most flavors anyway. 

That being said, I don't think the nose was half bad for a 7 Buck Chuck. Neither was the palate. The wine sweetly enters and dries out in the mid-palate and finish. Easy cherries and berries with delicate nutmeg sprinkled on top. 

And yet, the cons. If you build a cheap house, it's likely you use cheap materials to hold up the structure and foundation of this overall cheap product. The house might look and feel fine at first but chances are, those materials will refuse to hold and the house will fall down. Just like this wine: fresh and bright up front and after 20 minutes, it's crumbled to the ground with a lack of structure, tannins and acidity. 

But what you can you expect? Spend this little money on a wine and I hope you drink it fast and share it with people who don't care what they're putting down. Speaking from experience, I can thank Katie, Erin, Leann and Jason, ABC's new bachelor. No, he didn't drink it with us but we drank it for him.

Score: 6.