WTN: Maysara, Pommard, Portugal

On a bizarre Summer Sunday (20 degrees BELOW normal for once and howling winds), some friends met at Lucca in Sacramento for a fine meal. Their wine list is pretty much mid-grade commercial wines, and we all have wines we want to drink more, anway, so..

Sadly, the wine I expected to be the most interesting, the Paolo Bea from Umbria, is now a drying puddle on the sidewalk. Ouch, that hurts!

My friends Joe and Donna visited Oregon, so they brought back a 2006 Maysara Pinot Noir (Willamette Valley). Very dark in color. Roasted savory and earthy fruit, this wine, without intellectualizing it, was quite enjoyable. However, is this a textbook example of a "Pinot tasting like a Syrah"?? So...no vaunted typicite, but a solid 88 point wine. Especially for the sub $20 price!

2001 Pacalet Pommard. Much more open and fruit forward than the last bottle. Much lighter in color than the Oregon wine, a pretty ruby tone in the glass. Good pinosity on the nose-this is definitely a Pinot Noir! A sour cherry kind of wine, with good acidity and a quite nice earthyness underlying the fruit. More sweet cola notes than I am used to in my limited Burgundy experience, but the acidity and earthyness kept this wine very balanaced and grounded. 91 points this time.

1999 Quinta Carolina Vinho Regional de Portugal. Blend of indigenous Portugese grapes. Jerry Luper of Chateau Montelena fame tried to retire to Portugal and establish a small estate winery. According to the media (can't recall the source), the estate is for sale-too much bureaucracy, hard to find good farm labor, and he feels he is too old to start over like this. Sad, because I do like this wine. Very liquorous black cherry nose, reflecting the 14% abv. On the palate, though, the wine is very balanced. Plenty of blackberry fruit, great palate-cleansing acidity, and an underlying tobacco/earth character. Luckily, I have one bottle left. I should have probably ordered beef instead of halibut with this, but oh well. 92 points.

How did you like Lucca, Brian? Have the mussels, by any chance?

Brian, love your description of the Umbrian wine. We tried the 2006 Maysara Pinot Noir at a blind tasting of Northwestern wines and the color was the only thing that indicated to me that it might be a P.N. The nose and flavor both suggested otherwise. I didn't care for it but I'm glad you agree that it isn't very Pinot-like. I thought it was a pale garnet color but your notes suggest a darker shade. I thought it tasted like a Merlot and another person at my table thought it was Syrah. I have one Pommard on hand which I may open this fall. It's one I enjoyed at a tasting and then purchased two bottles.

(Edited because the first lines got deleted before transmittal apparently.)

How did you like Lucca, Brian? Have the mussels, by any chance?

Except for a mediocre wine list weak in Italian wines and heavy in commercial California bottles, a solid B+, Mike. (Since I have more wine than I can drink, I would rather pay corkage, anyway, so...)

Not in the same league as Mulvaney's (my favorite Sacramento restaurant) but enjoyable. Better than 28 Street Bistro, which I think goes for the same market. We all enjoyed our meals. I had Halibut with some of the sweetest and most perfect cherry tomatoes I've ever tasted and a corn base that was unusual-the texture was almost like hominy. Great polenta appetizer, too. Crab cakes were bleh. Bread was a little dry.

JC: In and of itself, I like the kind of earthy, roasted flavor that Maysara presented. But, it tasted more like "traditional" Syrah than a couple of the Syrahs at the Friday night tasting I attended. Very dark in color, especially next to the Burgundy.

Sadly, the wine I expected to be the most interesting, the Paolo Bea from Umbria, is now a drying puddle on the sidewalk. Ouch, that hurts!

Brian, which Bea wine disappointed? Was this dropped?(!) No licks??

Mark

It was his white melange-not sure what it was called. Hopefully the guys at Terroir won't cut me off because of the sacrilege-it wasn't even dropped, it was gently tipped over. Hit the sweet spot in the glass, probably.