Category Archives: Rated C-

Review: 3 Ribera del Duero Wines

Posted on April 10, 2011 by Christopher Null| 1 Comment

These wines hail from the northern, central portion of Spain and are composed exclusively of Tempranillo grapes. Yet, like many varietals and regions, Ribera del Duero comprises a huge range of wine styles — though all are surprisingly light in alcohol (under 14%). Here’s how three vintages of RdD stack up.

2007 Bodegas y Vinedos Neo Vivir, Vivir – To live, to live! Vinedos Neo’s Ribera is a young, funky, and a bit skunky wine that exudes barnyard tones. Meaty and medium-bodied, it has a sharp finish that doesn’t help matters. Not my favorite of this batch. C- / $10

2003 Penafiel Ribera del Duero Miros de Ribera Reserva – Straightforward, spicy, and racy, a big food wine with a lush, lustrous body. It has an edge to it, which gives it a bit of a tough finish, but the big bramble, stone, and dark plum fruit flavors, it’s worth the journey. B+ / $25 (est.)

2003 Valdubon Crianza Ribero del Duero (pictured) – Valdubon shows how big Tempranillo can get, with this inky, licorice-inflected wine that recalls Italy’s Amarone wine. Silky, with a lasting finish, there’s a tart cherry body, notes of menthol, and cedar. A fun wine, tastes like it’s an alcohol bomb but actually pulls just 13.5%. A bargain. A- / $20

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Posted in Rated A-, Rated B+, Rated C-, Reviews, Wine

Review: Warsteiner Premium Verum Beer

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Christopher Null| 2 Comments

A fairly staid German pilsner (or pilsener, as the Germans call it), Warsteiner has been a survivor for some 250 years. It’s a little hard to believe considering how plain this beer is. A light gold brew, Warsteiner Premium Verum comes across as immediately bitter and not terribly fresh. Preserved, almost with some bitter lemon peel, and the kind of old, dried herbs you’d find buried in the back of your spice rack. The finish is lasting and, frankly, not really pleasant, but you’ll drink a bit more to wash the aftertaste out and keep things moving along, I suppose.

C- / $10 per six-pack / warsteiner.com

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Posted in Beer, Rated C-, Reviews

Review: 2008 Michael-David Winery Earthquake Wines

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Christopher Null| 1 Comment

We’ve reviewed Michael-David’s wines in the past, with its Incognito line. Earthquake is another of label of wines sourced from Lodi, California.

Quality is all over the place.

2008 Earthquake Zinfandel Lodi is a miss. Very, very young, it’s almost prunelike, syrupy and with chocolate notes — but Russell Stover, not Lindt. Out of balance in almost every way. C- / $19

2008 Earthquake Zinfandel Cabernet Sauvignon is a great improvement over the Zin. There’s no mistaking its youth, but the balance of fruit and wood is much improved here, giving this a distinct (yet inexpensive and easygoing) Cabernet character. Plummy and with more of those cocoa notes, but with a richer and more velvety body. A good value, vs. the overpriced Zinfandel. B / $21

lodivineyards.com

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Posted in Rated B, Rated C-, Reviews, Wine

Review: Yorkville Cellars Mendocino 2006 Wines

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Christopher Null| Leave a comment

Mendocino’s Yorkville Cellars is a unique little oddball in the wine world. It produces classic Bordeaux varietals (plus Carmenere), but it’s based in Mendocino, known mainly for Zinfandel production (which Yorkville doesn’t make).

Then, it doesn’t blend those varietals: It bottles them separately. In fact, Yorkville says is Rennie Vineyard is the only place in the world where these six grapes are grown together and vinified separately.

How do they stack up? We tasted all six (sold as a set) from the 2006 vintage. Here we go:

2006 Yorkville Cellars Malbec Rennie Vineyard Yorkville Highlands – Intense licorice character, with a huge oak backing. A little out of whack, which is common for California Malbecs. Drink it with a big meal. B

2006 Yorkville Cellars Cabernet Franc Rennie Vineyard Yorkville Highlands – Awfully jammy and up-front for Cab Franc, with a simply structured but very extracted body. Night and day vs. the Malbec. Almost like a Zinfandel. B+

2006 Yorkville Cellars Petit Verdot Rennie Vineyard Yorkville Highlands – Surprisingly full of character. Unbelievably purple. A flash of pepper plays nicely with the hugely cherry body. Moderate and tart finish, with a decent balance on it. Very unusual. B+

2006 Yorkville Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Rennie Vineyard Yorkville Highlands – Lovely on first blush, but the body retreats to jammy fruit too easily, and there doesn’t seem to have been enough time in cask spent here. Might cool down with some bottle time, but I’m not certain. Decent but not a knockout. B

2006 Yorkville Cellars Merlot Rennie Vineyard Yorkville Highlands – Tough and incredibly herbal. Gets easier with time in the glass, but it’s still chalky and uncharacteristic of good Merlot. C+

2006 Yorkville Cellars Carmenere Rennie Vineyard Yorkville Highlands – Not a fan. Extremely tart to the point of astringency. Ultra-fruity, with sweet jam and candy notes, it goes way too far into the berry world for easy drinking. C-

$200 for case of six wines / yorkvillecellars.com

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Posted in Rated B, Rated B+, Rated C+, Rated C-, Reviews, Wine

Review: Ursus Vodka

Posted on July 30, 2010 by Christopher Null| Leave a comment

Everyone needs a gimmick, but the vodka industry, where product is legion, needs it more than anyone.

Ursus Vodka, which hails from the Netherlands and is distilled “from grain,” is a budget brand with a trick: Like Coors Light’s newer bottles, the bears on the label turn from white to blue when it’s chilled. (It does take a bit of chilling: The label turns blue in the freezer, but not in the refrigerator.)

In addition to a standard vodka, there are three flavored versions, two of which I sampled for review.

Ursus Vodka (unflavored) is a standard 80 proof, basically unremarkable in any way. Strongly medicinal on the nose and moderately harsh on the palate, it’s lightly sweet but with a lot of bite and a rough finish. Probably suited only for mixing bulk drinks. C-

Ursus Blue Raspberry Vodka is the color of that stuff they disinfect combs in at the cleaners, which is probably how it will be used: To add blueness to a cocktail when no blue curacao is available. Sweet but not horribly so, it’s a cross between real raspberry and cough syrup that may be satisfying to ultra sweet tooths. The finish coats the mouth in a slightly disturbing way. 60 proof. C-

Ursus Green Apple Vodka is the Scope to Blue Raspberry’s comb disinfecting liquid, color-wise anyway. Scope flavor would be an improvement, actually. The nose has no apple character at all; it’s more akin to some kind of industrial cleaning fluid. A touch of Apple-flavored Kool-Aid in the body does very little for this spirit, which is almost unbearable to actually drink, harsh and offensive. I hate to be quite blunt, but it’s one of the worst products I’ve sampled in the history of this blog. 60 proof. F

each $11 / no website

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Posted in Flavored Vodka, Rated C-, Rated D/F, Reviews, Vodka

Review: El Jimador “New Mix” Tequila Cocktails

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Christopher Null| 8 Comments

“New Mix” is not a slogan stuck on the can of El Jimador’s ready-to-drink tequila cocktails. It’s the actual name of the product: New Mix.

Hugely popular in Mexico, New Mix now comes in five flavors. We’ve had the first three flavors sitting in the fridge literally for months, and finally we are getting around to cracking them open to see what all the fuss is about. (We’re still not sure.)

Each is 5 percent alcohol and is made with actual tequila. The drinks are lightly carbonated.

Thoughts in each follow.

El Jimador New Mix Margarita looks like a lemon-lime soda, and frankly tastes like it too. The fizzy concoction is solid soft drink up front, then you get that tequila bite in the finish. There’s not much of it, but it’s noticeable. That said, this tastes almost nothing like a margarita (with none of the flavor of triple sec that it claims to have), but a lot more like a Seven-and-Tequila, but I guess that wouldn’t look as good on the label. C

El Jimador New Mix Paloma – A paloma is traditionally a grapefruit juice and tequila cocktail, and this rendition does at least smell like grapefruit when you crack open the can. The flavor is a little funkier than that, though — less grapefruit and more of a canned fruit salad. Less tequila bite than the margarita New Mix, which in this case is not a great thing. C-

El Jimador New Mix Spicy Mango Margarita – It’s not an orange crush in that can, it’s a spicy mango margarita! El Jimador radically overreaches here, pulling off something that is more reminiscent of Red Bull than anything that bears resemblance to spice, mango, or margarita. No idea where this one came from or why it exists. D

eljimador.com

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Posted in Mixers, Rated C, Rated C-, Rated D/F, Reviews, Tequila

Review: The Bitter Truth Bitters Lineup

Posted on July 10, 2010 by Christopher Null| 2 Comments

Hey Mr. Sheriff, there’s a new gun in town in the bitters category. Called The Bitter Truth (get it?), this brand hails from Germany and now spans eight types of bitters.

The house style is, how shall we put it, bitter. Strong on the bitterness, less of a focus on the fruit or other components of the mix. In fact, The Bitter Truth’s lineup is stronger in the bitterness category than any other bitters brand I’ve tried; I recommend a relatively light hand when mixing drinks with these, but while the overall line has some winners and losers, in the right concentration they can all be pretty good.

We tried six of the eight bottles in the lineup. Comments follow.

The Bitter Truth Aromatic Bitters – Very strong, with a root beer attack and a very bitter finish. Angostura is sweeter and easier going, while Fee’s Aromatic has more of a soda pop feel to it. Angostura remains my clear favorite here. B

The Bitter Truth Creole Bitters – A direct alternative to Peychaud’s bitters, and quite similar if you can get the quantity right. Again, they’re considerably more bitter, however, with a sort of burnt aftertaste. B

The Bitter Truth Orange Bitters – Comparable to Fee’s Orange, with a big orange peel character and a strong, bitter finish. B+

The Bitter Truth Lemon Bitters – The biggest departure from the competition: Fee’s is hugely sweet, while The Bitter Truth has an intense citrus peel bitterness. This would be incredibly different in a cocktail — and I actually prefer this one to Fee’s. B+

The Bitter Truth Grapefruit Bitters – Bitter Truth’s version has virtually no grapefruit character to it at all and is mostly forgettable. Fee’s has a good balance of fruit with a bitter edge. C-

The Bitter Truth Xocolatl Mole Bitters – Alas, I have no other chocolate bitters for comparison. Interesting hints of chocolate and cinnamon on first blush, then quickly overpowered by a bitter conclusion. Interesting, but not sure where or how I’d use this one. B-

the-bitter-truth.com

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Posted in Mixers, Rated B, Rated B+, Rated B-, Rated C-, Reviews

Review: Hennessy Black Cognac

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Christopher Null| 12 Comments

First let’s cover the color: Hennessy Black, a spinoff of standard Hennessy cognac designed as a cocktail ingredient, is not black. It’s a dark gold color, much like any cognac you’re likely to encounter.

A blend of up to 45 eaux-de-vie, Hennessy Black is aged five years and dropped into a wholly opaque bottle designed to evoke the night.

The palate of this cognac is, to put it bluntly, rough. It has that back-of-the-throat bite that reminds me of young armagnac, though there is more fruit on the front of the palate. Fortunately, the sweeter notes that are there has good flavor, with citrus and perfumed cedar moderate in the mix.

But Hennessy Black suffers from its youth. The wood notes are rustic and have a turpentine character that really mars the finish. Not overly sweet like many young cognacs, it suffers from being too far on the other side of the fence. Stick with standard Hennessy.

UPDATE: At the behest of fellow drinks writer Camper English, I tried Hennessy Black with Coke, and it does indeed make for a better mixer than a straight spirit. The Coke is particularly effective at masking Black’s rougher flavors, and its sweetness is more prominent in the mix. That said, I shudder for the hangover young club-goers will have after a night of drinking these…

80 proof.

C- / $40 / hennessyblack.com

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Posted in Brandy, Cognac, Rated C-, Reviews

Review: Coruba Mango and Coconut Flavored Rums

Posted on May 22, 2010 by Christopher Null| 3 Comments

Coruba is Jamaican rum (imported to New Zealand and sold from there). These two new bottlings are flavored rums that have been considerably doctored not just with flavoring agents but lightened down to just 42 proof.

Coruba Mango Rum is an intensely sweet experience, and mango is really only hinted at in the finish. It’s so sugary that there’s no real hint off fruit, just sweetness with a touch of tropicality. Probably fine in any number of rum-and-juice cocktails, but not a winner on its own. C-

Coruba Coconut Rum is more successful, a decent competitor to Malibu with a more delicately flavored spirit than Coruba’s mango concoction. Here the coconut is more muted and the resulting spirit much less sweet, with a mellower, earthy finish. In fact, this rum can be safely sipped solo, though it would clearly find a better home in a tropical beach drink. B

$16 each / coruba.co.nz

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Posted in Flavored Rum, Rated B, Rated C-, Reviews, Rum

Review: Big House Red and Monthaven Chardonnay 3L Box Wines

Posted on April 17, 2010 by Christopher Null| 4 Comments

Boxed wine continues to tiptoe toward improvement, with the folks at Octavin offering some decent wines in considerably more handsome packaging. These three-liter boxes fit more easily into your fridge but still promise to store your vino without it breaking down for up to six weeks.

2008 Monthaven Chardonnay is not a big success. Thin and lightly oaky, it’s chardonnay-lite, with a tepid body, some random tropical fruit character, and a sort of meat-like finish. The Central Coast wine will do in a pinch, but it’s not something to cozy up with alongside your sweetie as you gaze at the sunset. Think party wine. Frat party wine. C-

2008 Big House Red is surprisingly a far bigger hit, actually. A blend of just about everything (see the review of the 2007 Big House Red for a sampling) from all over California, this one comes across far more successfully than its pedigree would imply. Balanced, with mild spiciness, light acid, and a solid core of fruit, it’s even got complexity through smoky wood notes in the mix. Pushing an A-, but still on the upper edge of B+

$22 per 3L box / octavinhomewinebar.com