Not every podcast recording is two and a half hours of bulls**t, and we're gonna prove that by tasting 18 wines. That's right. This is all killer, no filler, baby. Right, okay. While Chris cracks that bottle, here we go. 18? What? It's gonna be fast. Brophy hasn't been on a podcast in a while. I thought he'd make up for his absence. Yeah. Ready? Look, it's a really big porch. Yeah. It's a screened in rocking chairs. You are listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast, up in your feed with some wine. It's a wine show. Chris is here. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. Yeah, I'm Chris. I'm Dew Wine, and we're gonna taste a bunch of... He brought so much wine. Yeah, so it was easy, and this is why I have so many. I did, like your average consumer, I just got a cart and walked on the aisles. And before I knew it, I had a case and a half of wine in my cart. And they're all, you know, easygoing so-called porch pounders or patio pounders. Gazebo Guzzlers. A bunch of things that you might want to drink in the spring and summer. They go well with food, but you can have them on their own. They're crisp, they're fresh. Longest introduction ever. Roger. I'm Roger. I do beer. And Lexi's back. I'm Lexi. I am the communications coordinator. So Chris, we're pounding the porches today, right? Yeah, we're pounding porches. We have 18 wines, so let's get into it. Yeah, so the idea is fresh, crisp, beautiful wines. The first one is Austrian. It's from Pratsch and it's a Grüner Veltliner 2022. Light, fresh and easy going. Chris, this is a hefty bottle. Yeah, so this is the other thing I considered is we have an increasing number of one liter bottles that offer a lot of value to the porch pounding community. Did you go larger than a liter? Cause we haven't done that episode in a while. No, I haven't. I didn't go larger than the liter. These are all things that you'll find in our normal shelf set. They're a little bit bigger. You're getting an extra third bottle of wine, but you're still- This is a liter bottle? This is a liter bottle. It's kind of deceptive. And we have a few Gruners in this style bottle. Austria seems to really dig doing this. Bonus wine. They like drinking beer by the liter. In an age when a bleeped out unnamed supplier cuts their 750s down to 700 milliliter bottles, the nation of Austria is giving you an extra 33% of wine. Exactly. If you compare it to 700 milliliters, it's really a bargain. Yeah. Okay. Not to mention the fact that this sucker is only 12.99. This liter is 12.99? 12.99, extra third of a bottle. You are squeaking my language. It's got the Roger Adams and whatever you call it. Seal of approval, seal of approval. The good house. Bam. All right, so describing this Grüner Veltliner in a one liter bottle with the screw cap, delightfully fresh on the nose, not real complicated. Exactly. I mean, there are beautiful single vineyard Grüner Veltliners that are very, very serious wines that you could put on par with maybe Great White Burgundy. This is not one of those. This is a porch bounder. It's supposed to be simple. It's supposed to be fresh. It's supposed to be bright. Drink it with a picnic, have it with fried foods, you know, Wiener Schnitzel if you're going very traditional, fried chicken, fried fish, anything that could use a spritz of lemon. There you go. You should see Chris's porch. It's littered with fish and chicken groats. So a little bit of grassiness, some apricots, some peach, a melon, just like a real simple fruit salad melange kind of thing. Yeah. You got like an apple crisp acidity too. Yeah, indeed. You would expect that most of these wines we're going to taste are not going to go through malolactic fermentation. So they're going to retain any malic acid they have, which usually resonates as green apple. Does it seem like it has like a prickle to it, or is that just acidity? Yeah, it's a little prickle, which is also not unusual in these bright, fresh white styles. Some producers specifically leave carbon dioxide or add carbon dioxide to enhance freshness. Yeah, like it's not bubbly, but it has like an almost carbonated crispness to it. Right. You know, gruner tends to have a kind of a savory side to it. Often people note white pepper in the nose. That's one of the hallmarks for blind tasting. I mean, it did say grass. Yeah, and it is herbal for sure. So, you know, sometimes even chive. Does this seem a tiny bit salinic to you also? Yeah. Like way back on the finish. And now I want to eat oysters and I want to drink more wine. Oysters would be a great choice. And yes, it brings you back for another taste because it's refreshing. What do you think, Lexi? Honestly, I would picture it with like a little salad with pomegranates. Yeah. Lemon. I like it. That's how I want to drink it. Salad. Oh, yeah. This is a thin slices of fennel. Yeah. Yeah. Fennel, you know, like a fennel and orange salad is pretty classic Italian salad. It's delicious. That would work. How would you compare this for people that are unfamiliar with the style? Would you say that this this has some similarities, seemingly to me, with like Riesling? Definitely similar to dry Riesling in a lot of ways. And in fact, Riesling is grown side by side with Gruner in Austria. They're the two real driving forces in white wine there. So, yeah, you see the affinity there. This is a fruity version. But definitely in the more expensive versions, you'd expect a little more savoriness out of Gruner and a little more fruitiness and minerality from Riesling. But yeah, if you like dry Riesling, this is a good one. I really like this. This for the money. I think this bats well above 12.99 for a liter. Crazy. Hell yeah. Well, this has been Porch Pounders, a barrel to bottle. We're done. Anyway, great start, I believe. OK, so we're moving on to our next wine. This one happens to be from France, specifically eastern Alpine France near Switzerland. This is from a village called or an area called Abyme and it's Domaine Labbe. It's made with a grape called Jacquer, 100% Jacquer. You don't really see that much outside of this area. Again, this is a fresh, clean style. There are lots of great cheeses made around in this area. This is also near where some French vermouth come from. So this is just a stone store from Chambourie. So are we going to recognize any of these porch founders? Yeah, certainly. I did pick, I mean, I pick things that are familiar to me, but are probably not so familiar to the average wine consumer. The average barrel to bottle listener. What's a Savoie? Where is a Savoie? So that's the broad region, Savoie or Savoie. Like I said, in eastern France, in the Alps, not far from Switzerland and just north of Italy, you're basically directly east of the Rhone Valley. In fact, the headwaters of the Rhone are in the Alps up around here. Does it have the Swiss flag on it? Yeah, a lot of the stuff around here, you'll see that Swiss-like flag, which should be an indicator. I sell these wines or you sell them all the time to people looking to pair fondue or raclette or things like that. They have a great affinity for Gruyere Emmentaler. There's a great- Some of the best cheeses in the world. Roger, if you haven't had this one, you should definitely seek it out. It's hard to find, it's huge wheel called Beaufort, which is made right around here. It's another Swiss-like Alpine cheese that is just complex, delicious, weird, I highly recommend. When we think of French wine, we think of Burgundy, we think of Bordeaux Blanc, but it's so funny that France is such a diverse country. You go all the way from Alsace, which is practically Germany, to this part of France, which is practically Switzerland. That's a pretty serious range. And Provence is practically Italy. And yeah. And the Rhone is practically Mediterranean. Yeah. It's all true. And this is not that far from Burgundy since you bring it up. Some of the reds are made with Burgundian varietals. There's Gamay grown here, Pinot Noir. But mostly in the whites, you see this Jacquer as the driving grape. And there's also something called Altesse, and you might get Chardonnay and things like that too. This sure has a fresh, vibrant acidity to it, and a strong, bright stone fruit. There's a show on Netflix called Emily in Paris, I don't know if anybody watched it, knows what I'm talking about. I do, I saw a few episodes. This seems like a wine that she would drink. Yeah, very sophisticated, but not overly complicated. Yeah, absolutely. I think you might find some alpine-like herbs here too. Maybe it's the vermouth connection, but I think it's there. Yeah. I agree. The freshness here is great. I like the level of acidity and very nice. I think it's a really beautiful wine. Again, very reasonable. We're talking about $14.99 a bottle for this. Nice. Not a liter. I could see this pairing really well with the cheese as you mentioned. I'm really making for some cheese right now. You know what? After all that country ham and pimento cheese talk, I almost went home and made a... Because these are kind of picnic lines, I almost went crazy and made an array of six different kinds of little finger sandwiches for you guys. I'm imagining it. But I respect that you didn't. I didn't do it. Because I would just make mouth sounds through this entire experience. It would be totally gross. That's what stopped me. Very quickly turned into an ASMR podcast instead. Different audience. Okay. All right. Is it though? Yeah. Number two, that is delicious. Now we're going to Italy proper. This is Suave. But an adorable little squat bottle. Yeah, I know. This is new for the vintage. I've never seen this bottle before, but this is a wine we have carried for many vintages. It's Suavia Soave Classico 2022. Rico Soave. Yes, Rico Soave. Every time. So, the Classico part of this is important, just like it might be in Chianti. Generally, the Classico name in Italy is reserved for the traditional heart of a region after it's been expanded or if there are other sub zones around it. So the important thing about Suave Classico is it is all the best hillside vineyards in the area. And this is in the Veneto, kind of near Verona, west of Venice. This is made with a grape called Garganaga, 100%. This smells delightful. It's fruity and fun and easy. Garganaga? Garganaga. Garganaga. Sounds like a bad guy. From one of those X-Men movies that Pat likes. Again a highly localized grape. You don't see it very many other places. It is the soul of Suave. However, you can blend in a little Chardonnay and you can blend in something called Trebbiano de Suave. Is Trebbiano de Suave different than Trebbiano from anywhere else? Yes. Of course it is. It's actually an interesting story. Trebbiano de Suave is actually genetically the same as Verdicchio, which is grown on the Adriatic coast down the East Coast of Italy in places like Metallica. Wait a minute. There's a place called Metallica? There's a place called Metallica. Yes. How did Roger not know this? I don't know. Get yourself some Verdicchio. It's a classic fish wine. Gargan Goua. It sounds like a Metallica song. Oh, yeah. Actually, I was going to say Monster Magnet. That was going to be my next joke. Yeah. This is really interesting. I'm struggling to put my finger on how to describe the fruit character here. It's somewhat exotic slash tropical. Yeah, but it's not like mango. It's not super fleshy. It's thinner. It is more full-bodied and rounder on the palate than the other two, but it still has fresh acidity. Yeah. I think the fruit does hint at tropicality, but I think it still resonates broadly in stone fruit. Yeah. Yeah. More towards like plum maybe or apricot. Yeah. There's a palate gripping quality on this one too. Indeed. It's like more than just acidity. It's almost hannock. Yeah. Well, sometimes there's a little skin contact that's involved with white wine making. I don't know exactly what they did here. Right though? Yeah. There's some texture to it. Or like flintiness or some kind of steamy quality? So this area does have limestone and volcanic soils. So you might be getting definitely getting some mineral qualities that are associated often with like calcareous clay and limestone like chubly or burgundy or something like that. But nothing says porch mounder like calcareous clay and limestone. Yeah, no. I mean, so true. Well, I enjoyed it. What does this set you back? I got my money on 20 bucks. Oh, this is a mere 15.99. Outstanding. Nice. Isn't it though? This is a really, really good producer and you can get some very reasonably priced suaves that I think suave was very popular in the States for a while, but it was mostly quote unquote suave bolla, which was advertised on television and magazines and was hugely popular in the seventies, but it was pretty neutral stuff. It wasn't great and we still sell it. You know, you can get it in a jug, one five and it's a serviceable white wine, but this is real, real wine, real suave classico. So there you go. Real good. Interesting. So we have a Portuguese white wine here. Nortico Alvarinho. Is Alvarinho? Yes. Alvarinho. Yes. It is. It is. So widely grown, of course, in Galicia, in Rios Baixas, which is- That's great that Portugal and Spain have different languages, but they basically call the grape the same thing, as opposed to Italy, where they're like, why don't we call that Frankie's Backyard? Exactly. We're dialing up in intensity. Kind of gluey. Strange. I don't mind it. I find it interesting. I like this label. So well, the thing is that geographically, this is very close. The main region for growing Alvarinho is a coastal area just north of Portugal and Spain. And if you cross over the border, you remain on the coast in the north of Portugal. And you're in an area called Mino. This is where Vinho Verde comes from. And you were talking about a little spritz earlier. Most of these wines are inexpensive and sold with a little carbon dioxide. They're fresh and fizzy and fun. Now this does not call itself Vinho Verde, even though it probably could. But I think they're trying to differentiate because there are still wines without the carbon spritz made with the same grapes from the same area that are trying to be more serious. This is fantastic. Oh, good. It's really focused and grippy and vibrant. And it has the same stupid blue and white color pattern as a lot of Vinho Verde does. That appealed to me. No, me too. I think it's underselling itself. That's a classic Wedgwood blue. Classic Wedgwood blue from the Delphi School. Yes. So here again, I think it's perfectly pleasant to drink on its own, but there are some mineraly aspects to it. There's some savoriness. It's fresh. This is the kind of thing great with seafood. Yes. Grilled octopus, whatever you want. Any sentient being you want to. He's like, only the ones that can operate calculators. That's right. Not scientific calculators, just the normal kind. Yeah, just the normal kind. Anyway, you said earlier, anything that needs lemon. Exactly. I hate to throw this out there and be wrong, but asparagus comes to mind. That's what came to my mind. Yeah. So asparagus is considered notoriously hard to pair, but your best pairings are crisp, dry whites. And this would fit into that category. A lot of people, and interestingly, the first one we had, a lot of people lean toward gruner as a real great asparagus pairing. But there are a number of them that will work. This has, to me, a really expressive florality, not just in the nose, but in the taste as well. Kind of reminds me of that old-timey candy reference, the violet gum. Oh, yeah, sure. But more subdued than that. That stuff's a little over the top. It is. I wish I remembered the violet gum. He doesn't either. He has to go to a really expensive novelty store to get it. Come on, Roger was like hanging around in a pinstripe suit in his 30s. He's not like 120 years old. Hey, pal, pass the violet gum. Yeah, that's right. See? Music break, music break, music break, music break. That delightful line was 1499, a mere 1499, including Wedgwood Label. Nice. Why, that's under, you can pick up a bottle for under two sawbucks. That's right. Got a double sawbuck helping burning a hole in your pocket? That's a tray of fins, boys. Next, we have Champalou Vouvray. The first one that I think I have definitely had before. So as you may know. Very fun to say, Champalou Vouvray. Yeah. Champalou. So this is a winery that's only been around since maybe the early mid-80s, but very serious practitioners of Vouvray, which is 100% Chenin Blanc. Wait, their word for sustainable is durable. Durable. That's great. It's very durable. Vouvray. Yes, Vouvray. 100% Chenin Blanc as I said. This is made by Didier and Catherine Champalou. I was kind of thinking of Chenin Blanc on some of these other wines but this is the first one that really smells like Chenin Blanc. Yeah, Chenin Blanc is pretty distinctive. It usually has really bright acidity and resonates in that green apple quince realm. Sometimes gets a little bit obscure fruit reference. Obscure fruit reference. Please cook your quince before you eat it. OK, apples but pears too. I mean, quince has the tartness but this is still like a fleshy full round fruit. You are absolutely correct. Pear often rears its head in Chenin Blanc. This is really good too. Yeah. Lexi, word in edgewise. So I think that this actually reminds me of the fall. You know those days where it's like 78 but it's in October? Yeah. This is the time that I want to drink this wine. I can totally get that. I get those apple kind of notes in there. Right. I don't disagree with that at all. But I'm demanding that you drink it now. There's a softness here. I feel like the other ones were a little zippier than this. This is a little more rounded, which I think fits in the way you're describing, like a baked apple. I agree. It's also really acidic, too, which means it's amped up in terms of flesh. Yeah, I think although that I don't know if they still do, but they used to say dry Vouvray. One of the problems with the Vouvray is some people use terms like sac, demi-sac, molu. But not everybody. It means soft, basically. It's sweet. Demi-sac, half-dry, sac, dry. Even in sec wines, there often is a bit of residual sugar to balance the really, really bright, intense acidity of the Chenin Blanc grape. There's definitely some residual sugar here for sure. I wouldn't necessarily put this in the demi-sec camp, but it's present and you can tell. A trick recently pulls off sometimes where it's balanced with acidity so well. Exactly true. It's just like making lemonade, you know? You can add sugar for a while and it still tastes sour, sour, sour, sour, until you start to get balance. So, you know, it's all a matter of relative amounts of sugar and grams per liter of acidity. How much is the Champalou Vouvray? Champalou Vouvray, 22.99. That's a value. It is. This is a beautiful wine. Great, great on a hot summer day with a picnic or in the fall, a warm fall day with some comforting foods. This is a great gift, I think, as well. You're going over to someone's house, you're sitting on a porch. Super safe. Everybody will enjoy it. Yeah, definitely. I know we've harped on this a lot, but this is a Kermit Lynch imported wine. He always seeks out really, really fine examples of naturally made, unaffected wines of regions and champions them, and this is one of those. We're going to move into some slightly more aromatic wines now. This is a Riesling from the Rheingau, the famous Rhine region. This producer is located in a town called Asmannhausen. His name is August Kessler. And this is the entry level R Riesling. It's very affordable, quite delicious. Seems like they touched up the label on this one. They did, yes. This is a newer label. It's always been green. I don't like it. It's too modern. Roger wants Baroque. If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it. Nailed it. It still is Baroque. So August Kessler, the Rhine River hits a stretch of east-west aspect where the vineyards are facing largely south. So you can get some beautiful ripeness in your grapes and you can even grow red wines there. So this gentleman grows a lot of Pinot Noir, beautiful Pinot Noirs, in fact. We have at least one on our shelf that I would recommend and it's only like 20 bucks. So August Kessler Pinot. This is his entry level Riesling. He makes, of course, all kinds of Prada Kat wines. This is a basic qualitats vine. It should be dry to off dry. Kids, get your barrel to bottle bingo cards out because we're about to play Name That Tropical Fruit because this thing is loaded up with tropical fruit salad. They get mad at me when I say lychee and it's not reverse germiner, but that's in here. And pear, Roger starfruit, what am I missing? Yeah, like the lychee rambutan is the first thing I thought of. That kind of perfumey, tropical. I'm not going to argue with you. I think it does have tropical fruit here. There's also ripe red apple, little tart green apple, little peachiness. Yeah, it reminds me of some really like old school, like heirloom antique apple. Yeah. That crazy like bitter sharp. Yeah, because there's a bright acidity, but there's definitely... So we've gone from a very lightly balanced with slight sweetness in the Vouvray to a more frank sweetness. I wouldn't call this wine sweet per se on the broader scale of Riesling, but there's definitely residual sugar here that is noticeable pumping up the impression of fruit, but still bright, fresh acidity. And then some dill or like a tiny bit of matchstick in a cute way that doesn't make it too sulfuric. Sure, there's a little bit of that kerosene that... Well, that's what I was gonna say. And then there's also that charming, like you don't want to admit that you like it, but you like it like going into the garage smell like. We have a wet garage after a rain. There's some solvents and petroleum products floating in the air. We've discussed this before. This is the result of something called TDN, naphthalene, that is a metabolite of keratin, just like as in carrots. When you get a lot of sun exposure, which you might expect from south facing vineyard sites, Riesling grapes tend to develop a fair amount of keratin and turn kind of orangish color when they're very ripe. And yeah, that can metabolize into naphthalene and it has this distinctive aroma. And how about the combination of sugar and acidity on the finish that grips your teeth and makes you just your mouth water? Exactly, mouth watering fun. Yeah, for sure. What do you think, Lexi, do you like this one? I do like this one. It definitely is, I pick up those little bits of sweetness compared to the last one for sure. I would still crush it on a porch. Yeah, how about the green apples? Yeah. How about them green apples? How about them apples? Yeah, I mean, talk about something you crush on a porch, right? It's got just that little bit of sweetness, but it's still super refreshing. How much? 15 bucks? This, my friend, $14.99. You nailed it. Not gonna hurt your pocket. I'm really resonating in this mid-teen area. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. I can't believe how pale this is. Yeah. Like if you turn it the right way, it looks like water. Yeah. It's got that. That's really interesting. Clear, bright, almost platinum effect. All right, what do we get next? We're moving across the Rhine River. All we've got to do is jump across into France, sometimes Germany, unfortunately. Are we in Alsace now? We are. We are in Alsace. And we're going to try something known as Edelzwicker. Come again? Edelzwicker. Literally means noble blend. Edel mean noble, like Edelweiss. Zwicker meaning blend. If Roger says Sucre Vosser in that accent that he does, I swear to God. This is an interesting style. This is, first of all, the producer here is Meyer Fonné. It's another hefty bottle. Yep. Oh, it is. We got another liter bottle. It's a steel. Yes, it is. We might as well get that out of the way. This is 16.99 for a liter. And Alsace, there are two kind of classic blends that are almost exactly the same. Something called Gentille and Edelzwicker. Edelzwicker is maybe the fancier of the two. Oh, it is noble. Yes, exactly. You would think, and historically, I do believe that they required the grapes to be the quote unquote noble grapes. Of Alsace. Of Alsace. However, this one contains, well, I guess it still qualifies. Hang on a second. I just had the Hugo Gentille like last week. It's so good. It has such a value too. Exactly. So I could have easily have picked that wine, but I went for the leader. So that is along the same lines. And what these do is they take most of the grapes of the area and they blend them together. Sometimes in a field blend, sometimes not. This one happens to be Pinot Blanc, which is not considered a noble variety, but that's obviously allowed. Pinot Gris, Sylvanner. There's also Riesling, Muscat and Gewürztraminer. One of the hallmarks of this style, Jean T or Edelzwicker almost always has to be some aromatic grapes. So Gewürztraminer and Muscat both considered noble grapes of the region, not allowed to be grown. That's it, it's the Muscat. Yeah. I'm smelling the green fruit quality that is just overwhelming. Yeah, so that floral nature of these things, it's lifted, it's floral, it's fun, it's easy. Hear me out. We were talking about lemon curd a couple of weeks ago, and on the palate, this has the citric fruit, the sweetness, but it also has almost a cream-like sweetness. The palate feel, it's plush and full and milky and sweet. I would also note it's a little reductive in the nose. It has a little bit of a sulfury component to it. Yeah, I'm not crazy about the nose. Yeah, I do believe that that will go away with aeration. He doesn't want to admit he likes it. I liked it out of the nose, to be honest. I like the nose a lot. I think it's intriguing. Yeah, definitely. I also like the way that this one kind of evolved. The first sip was nothing like my second sip. Because you'd get past the onslaught of fresh fruit right up front and start tasting all the other complexities underneath. I actually get more savory green qualities on an herbal out of this than fruit. It's on the back edge very much, on the finish, deep into the finish. Well, we've got a lot of different grape varieties contributing different things to the blend here. So it's not too surprising that we're finding a lot of disparate angles to this wine. I think it's very nice. And I think it definitely had a liter bottle for 16.99 or whatever the hell I'll say. Yeah, it's very complex and that's crazy for that price. But not so complex that you wouldn't just sit there on the porch and be like, I would want food with this. This is the first one where I was like, this slightly savory character I'd want with food. And what would it be? Maybe some of those we were talking about, like the Alpine cheeses. I think this will go really well with those. So like any of the, your favorite Swiss or even like Taged Gouda. Taged Gouda. Yeah, Brie for sure. How about a triple cream if you're feeling indulgent on some nice crusty bread. Or maybe some Pimenta cheese. I think a big fluffy pretzel. Yeah, I want to eat it with like a, yeah. I mean, there is some sweet fruitiness to this. So salty is a good call. Like this would probably play off ham pretty nicely if you were having a little ham sandwich, picnic ham. Bring it right back around. Hear me out, ruffles. They have ridges. Yeah, sure, why not? The plain Jane ones or? Yeah, with some sour cream and onion dip. Sour cream, onion. I love this idea of sour cream and onion dip because you could pair this with a tart flambe or an Alsatian onion tart, which is essentially sour cream and onion. OK, so you make an onion tart. Yes, it's beautiful. If you've never had an Alsatian onion tart, you should have one. It's called tart flambe because they put it in a blazing hot oven. It literally gets a little charred in places. I know you're a little sensitive to that, Roger, but if it's done right, it brings a deep, deep flavor to it. It's caramelized onions, bacon, creme fraiche. I just saw this on America's Test Kitchen. I watched that nonstop and they just made one. Well, how about that? In a cast iron skillet. That makes sense. That's a good way to do it. They look pretty awesome. It's great. Yeah, there aren't many places. The one place I know you can reliably get one around here is at Le Bouchon. Oh, I've had this before. This is just straight pandering for Roger. This is a Marlboro Sauvignon Blanc that he loves so much. He likes this one in particular? No. I don't know if he's ever had it, so I thought I would give him an opportunity to try it. Chris, people like Alicia like to scoff at these kinds of wines because they say they're overblown and they all taste the same and that they all smell like green pepper. What would you say to that? I would say that there is always a kernel of truth to things, but there are very good examples of the style. And I haven't tried this vintage, but I've always thought that this producer did a nice job. This is Nautilus Sauvignon Blanc. Nautilus. Marlboro. Like the shell? Indeed. There's in fact a shell right on the label in the classic spiral that. You're hitting all the Roger faves here. Get ready with the gooseberry horn. It's found in nature everywhere from our galaxy down to the humble Nautilus shell, the mollusca, beautiful little animal, sea dwelling, buoyant beast. If you're saying that some get derided as being too much green pepper, I don't get any of that here and I'm really sensitive to it. There's a tiny bit, but really it's about your gooseberries, man. Oh yeah, this is gooseberry and I love it. If Sauvignon Blanc or Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet Franc are under ripe, particularly under ripe, you get a lot of pyrazine, which a lot of people associate with green pepper or herbs or even jalapeno pepper sometimes. Or asparagus in the worst case. Yeah, grass, all kinds of green things. But also because Roger's all about these New World hops with the elevated thiol levels. This style of wine, why Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand is so distinctive is the production of thiols and their winemaking technique accentuates it. And here we go, Nautilus. So if you are a beer drinker and don't normally venture into the wine department. And you really like Nelson's Oven. And you love Nelson, you like Ruaca, Motueca, any of those really awesome New Zealand varieties. So many synergistic aromas and flavors here. Boy, this is a gooseberry bomb too. Holy God, I just tasted it. It's just gooseberry. I am really digging all these under $20. I mean, it is porch pounders. So I'm thinking that's probably what inspired you. But of course, it is appreciated. $16.99 down to $14.99 for the June sale. Nice version of Sauvignon Blanc. You know, you can pound Coton Charlemagne if you want. But you know, you got to pay for it. OK, so next up. Did you bring some Coton Charlemagne? I did not bring any Coton Charlemagne. I brought the next best thing, Val de Garrigues. I love this. Oh, nice. Brand new vintage. It's the new vintage. It's finally here. Folks, don't sleep on this one. We sold out of the last vintage so fast. We did. And it was kind of tragic. And now the new vintage is here. This is really good. Don't say the price until the very end. I will not say the price until the very end. She's like, either it's $800 or it's $2. So this is a Cote du Rhone Blanc, 2023. Very fresh. Just came in on the shelves. It's a blend of 40% Viognier with Grenache Blanc and Roussaint. No Marsan in here? No Marsan in here. Some of the fancier grapes of the Rhone Valley going into this wine. And the 2022 was literally an absolute delight. Yeah. And I really have high hopes for this. I mean no shade when I say this, but this has a nose of circus peanuts, marshmallow circus peanuts. Oh yeah. It does. Yeah. And if I were blind into smelling this, I would guess it is a rosé. It is very, very circus peanut-y, you are correct, with a herbal edge on the nose. It's very fruity right at the front and fresh, you know, for sure. There's so much banana here. How'd they get all that banana in this wine? It's like banana cream pie. Yeah, you're right. It is like banana cream pie. Wow. This might have a little more residual sugar or maybe lower acidity than last vintage, although... No, the acidity is way on the back end. Yeah. White wine from the Rhone Valley is often relatively low, like Cote du Rhone, often relatively low in acidity for white wine, but there is often a bit of tonic bitterness that they encourage that serves the purpose to balance the fruitiness rather I think that's here. Yeah. That's what it is at the finish. You're right. It's like quinine. Yeah, exactly. Actual bitterness. Exactly, that's pretty classic for the style. This is a very young wine, which is why it's probably showing so much of this estuary banana and circus peanut. Yeah. That might calm down in months, but I think some people will find that appealing because it is very- It's so joyous. Yeah. It's so fun and easy. A-peel. I liked that. It is circus peanuts to some degree. To give it a little more than that, the florality here reminds me of going through a walking tour of a garden. I'm at the Arboretum. So it's called Val de Garrigues. Yeah. So in case people out there don't know, the Garrigues is the kind of scrubby underbrush that grows throughout the Rhone and most of Southern France. In some places, they call it the maquis. It consists of a whole bunch of different herbs like rosemary, thyme, sage, also lavender. Getting like lavender and it just really reminds me of begonias. Yeah. There's also a maritime quality to it. There's a slate, salinic, like slick feeling on the finish, too, at the front of the palette. There's a little bit of mineral here. This is grown in mostly in sandy soils. If you ever wanted to make a white sangria. Yep. I mean, this would work really well with the kind of fruits you would put into white sangria if you loaded this up with peaches. Yeah. This has a white peach quality. Yeah, for sure. Chris, how much is the new vintage? This is a mere 8.99. Get out of here. That's crazy. Isn't that crazy? Last time we featured this on the podcast, I went and bought some. Yeah. And then you and everybody else, and it was gone in like a week. Yeah. Our regular price would be 10.99, but we sell it pretty frequently at 8.99, and it's a value for sure. Oh, and because it's part of our Vineyard Direct program, if you buy six bottles, you get an extra 10 bucks off. Look at that. It's kind of silly, the price you can get to. Right. So 8.99, if you bought six of these, $10 off, man, you're paying almost nothing. Almost nothing. Yeah. And is this not a joyous wine for drinking on its own on the porch? I want to tell you to make an email offer about this, but I also kind of don't so we can have it for a while. Oh, good game, Baba on this one. He knows what's up. This is one of Baba's great scores. Yeah. Was hooking up with this winery. The red is fantastic, too. We still got 2021, 2022 red. You don't have to take our word for it. Next wine is actually a local wine. I picked it last week because of the cocktail theme I was working with. It's rhubarb wine. You got rhubarb wine? Yeah. Is this from Illinois? This is from Roselle, Illinois. Oh, my goodness. Highly local. Linford Winery. I don't even like rhubarb. Shut up. You don't like rhubarb. I love rhubarb. I don't want it in my yard. You love drinking it, though. Oh, that's true. And I still have some of that rhubarb simple syrup in my fridge that I need to use up. So who knew you can make wine out of rhubarb? Oh, it's pink. Who would have thought? Look at that beautiful color. Man, what else is in here? It's not just rhubarb juice. What else is in here? Roger, do you see anything other than rhubarb juice in there? Probably sugar. Rhubarb juice and sugar. I mean, a normal winery would probably make like an apple wine or something and put some rhubarb in it. I don't know here. They ain't saying. They ain't saying. Chris, have you had this before? No. This is untread waters, man. Yeah. This could be a disaster. I was like, how could I not pick this given- It smells nice. It smells crazy, yeah. It's not even a fruit. It's a vegetable. It's not fruit wine. If I had to guess, there's probably some strawberries in here too. It smells like strawberries, not just rhubarb. It's quite sweet. That's all he has to say. Well, these fruit wines, I mean... These fruit wines always are. If you've ever had any of these, the wineries that do the old-timey dandelion wine and stuff, they get even sweeter than this, trust me. It's true. They get into just undrinkably sweet. I think this would be another good sangria base. Load this up with strawberries and raspberries. Yeah. It needs to be mixed with some gin on ice. This is a spritz wine. You know what this reminds me of? Very good in a spritz. The nose of it alone just reminds me of being a kid in the park in the public swimming pool at the hottest day in the summertime. That is what the nose takes me back to. It smells like chlorine. It smells a little bit like chlorine, and a lot of people standing around a pool... Who was watching you? Somebody that was boozing out on wine? And the wind blowing across the trees of the forest that's next to the park from where I'm from? I actually think you're right on. You stretch this out with some soda water and put it on ice, maybe put a lime or a lemon on there. That is a nice drink. Oh yeah. Any recipe that we'd use for a white port spritz would be great. You know what this needs that it's leaning towards the bramble fruit category? You get some blackberry in there, so some of that acidity, lemon, blackberry and this could make a great spritz. Oh yeah, you smush up some fruit and a little bit of tonic on the top of it. Right. Which is why I said sangria or you could do kind of like a long tall high ball with some fruit in it. You definitely need some acidity because it's there but needs to match the sweetness. Yeah, which is weird because rhubarb is so acidic. It's so tart. I think they're playing to the, again, these fruit wines are always crazy sweet. This is why I like hanging out with these guys. If you would ask me like, would you pick up a soave, if I recommended you a soave, would you try this? Yeah, almost certainly. You know, the Savoie, you know, maybe if somebody recommended it to me, if somebody was like Greg get this rhubarb wine, I'd be like, uh-uh. And please stop making recommendations. But here we are and I tried it and it's interesting. I mean, these are usually really affordable too. How much is it? Like 10 bucks? Um, 37.99. Oh, $20. Never mind. Like 10 or 12 bucks, I think. I lost it. I like the AVA on this bottle too. USA. Yeah. A lot of, a lot of Lymphrid wines are like that. Yeah. That means it's probably mixed with some juice that they got from somewhere, some grape juice. 14.99. Not bad. 14.99. From what Roselle, Illinois. Something I like to do in the summer and the fall and winter, pretty much year round. Definitely not in the spring. Nope. Not in the spring. Never. I like to put a couple different bottles of wine and a bunch of fruit in a big, you know, like container in the fridge. You do that for your birthday. I happen to know. I do. I do usually do that for my birthday. I'll bring it in this year. I think that this rhubarb one would actually be a good component to that. Oh yeah. With a bunch of. Yeah. Lexi Gria. Ever since I saw this delightful photograph taken by our communications team of this looming over Lake Michigan, and it looked so appetizing and delicious and summery. So this is a hip little wine called Gulp Ablo. Gulp Ablo. Gulp Ablo. Gulp Ablo, that means I speak well when I'm drunk. I don't think so. That is just a loose interpretation. This is a Spanish wine. It's made in the orange wine style, which means you're making a white wine using white grapes with skin contact. That's awesome. And extracting color and also tannin, which what people often don't expect in white wine. This is a pretty popular version of orange wine. It's made out of Verdejo, which is a classic Spanish grape most closely associated with Rueda, and also Sauvignon Blanc, which is also allowed in Rueda. While I'm holding this gigantic bottle, can I mention a couple of things? It looks like orange crush. It does look like orange crush. It is a liter. The back of the bottle points out that it is certified organic and biodynamic. It is. And vegan. And vegan. Yeah. It is vegan. Yes. It's all of those things. That's, that's a lot. So, so I love orange wine when it's- Who do you think they're targeting here? Very tongue in cheek. The retirement community? Yes. Yes. The traditionalists among us. You know, the world needs exciting fresh things. So in my experience, orange wine has been like life changing in that having something something like delightfully fresh but grippy at the same time or just absolutely horrific. Yeah. So which is this? So orange wine, I mean it's an ancient style, an artifact of throwing grapes into an M4A, you know. You find it broadly, historically in Eastern Italy, Georgia. Finally, I have something to do with my M4A. Right. With your M4A. Your- All of them. Empty M4A. I mean it's a real conundrum. I usually just store my socks in them. And what to do with your M4A is one of many conundra. Very nice. Very nicely done. Yeah. We've had some that have been like- Hinky. Very challenging, let's say. Well here's the thing is this orange wine is broadly associated with the natural wine movement. Yet it doesn't have to be made in a way where you get all kinds of funky flavors. You know natural wines don't have to be made in a way that they get funky flavors. No. Not at all. Like I mentioned with the Vouvray, so Kermit Lynch would be like at the forefront of bringing in quote unquote natural wines, but they weren't marketed that way. They were just made in very, very traditional and unaffected, unmanipulated ways. And they end up being clean and delicious and fresh. Right. Right. The problem comes in when you completely eschew the use of sulfites, which is not necessary to make a natural wine, but some people do. And you can make clean wines, but you have to be hyper vigilant to do it. There's a reason that there is just centuries of history of using sulfite to stabilize wines to prevent oxidation, prevent infections. They occur naturally in wine anyway. There's nothing wrong with adding a few parts per million to your wine, no matter what anyone says, in my opinion. Rock and roll. So, anyway, this is a Spanish orange wine for Dejo and Sauvignon Blanc. What do you think? I love it. I think the first time I had this wine was maybe two or three years ago. And I have yet to go to a party. It doesn't matter what time of the year, but especially in the summer where I've not seen at least two or three bottles of this show up. That is an artifact of your youth and the cool kids you hang around with. And the marketing being applied around this, too. The marketing is great. You know, they have a full line. So they have a red, a white. I think they're both blends and then an orange. Yeah. This is by the way, Bodegas Parahimenes, which plays little role on the label. They really lean into the Gopablo branding, a winery that's been around for a while, but the next generation has taken over. It's in Castilla La Mancha in kind of north central Spain. Yeah, they're really leaning into what the kids are interested in. I like the tannin grip. Yeah. I mean, this is a really lean wine. If you're thinking in terms of red wine, because it has the palate grip of a lighter red wine, and then you kind of build up from there. But if you're expecting a refreshing white wine like everything we've had so far today, then it's a little bit jarring. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely different. But I also think that it is the kind of thing that a lot of people are interested in just kind of drinking on its own. Like you said, you see it at parties all the time, yet with that added layer of tannin and the kind of aromatics you can extract from skins that normally don't show up prominently in white wines, it gives you a whole different look at things. Yeah. I think that this is like the epicenter of the Venn diagram for the perfect cheese wine. Yeah. Because the grip goes with the fat of a cheese so well, but it doesn't have like overbearing fruit to dominate over some cheeses. And man, this would be perfect with everything. Your cheddars, your Wisconsin cheddars, your soft cream cheeses, all the things I'm forgetting, it would go with the bitterness. There's a tonic like bitterness here that would go with your Swiss cheese, your Emmentaler. You're getting some glares from Roger. Well, I just, when you think about the fruit character of this wine, I feel like you're getting lemon and citrus, mainly lemon and not much else. And that's where, I don't know, that's where I think it's a little one-dimensional. At the beginning, it was kind of green and there was a botanical quality that kind of reminded me of like bouquet vase water. Is that with or without nutrients in it? Oh yeah, the little packet. Not for me. All right. Okay, old man. I mean, I totally get that. So Verdejo and Sauvignon Blanc, that is blend with, are very herbaceous styles. There's a reason that they grow them together and you can make in Rueva, you can make all Verdejo, which is traditional, or even all Sauvignon Blanc or blend them together. And they have such an affinity for each other that's, you know, you might easily be confused between these two grape varieties and that finished wine. So the presence of green herbaceous savory qualities is no surprise. How much? This wine for one liter of wine is $12.99. I would like to point out that is less than half of some of our competitors. So regular upfront price is $14.99, but we've got on sale in the month of June for $12.99 for one liter of orange wine. That's actually Looney Tunes. Looney Tunes. It's perfect for everyone but Roger. Oh, I see your rosé. Let's go. It's about time for the summer's right on. We're on the doorstep here. We need our rosés. So the reason there's only one rosé in this entire podcast. All right, hey, real quick, cover it up over under here. I bet you that this rosé seems completely flaccid after that orange one. Don't tell Chris I said that though. Well, it looks great. So I only picked one rosé mostly because we just did a rosé episode not that long ago and covered eight or 10 of them. And I picked this one because I was walking along the aisle and we don't often have rosé from Burgundy. Oh, it's a Burgundian rosé. So this is a hundred percent Pinot Noir from the village of Marcenet, one of the few places in Burgundy where you can make white, red and rosé wine at the village level. So Marcenet, it's the most northerly village in the Cote de Nuit. So literally it's right near Dijon. It's where all of the action starts and moves south. Generally, the wines here are very aromatic. Put a little mustard on it. Little Dijon mustard, yeah. In the clear glass bottle, it has kind of a ruby tint to it. But when there's less volume in the glass, it's pretty light on the rosé scale. Kind of, I mean, it's like fleshy pink. It's not like light salmon and it shows no signs of oxidization, but at the edge it gets a little bit lighter. Yeah, but it is certainly not even approaching the realm of the classic onion skin color of a lot of Provence rosés. It is properly salmon pink or orangey pink. It is acidic. I'm pretty anti-rosé, which is probably shocking. Why is that shocking? Being under 30. But I like this one a lot, actually. It has some structure to it and it has some acidity. I think there's definitely people that are, in a contrarian way, tired of how trendy rosé is. Don't write off the category just because you've had sloppy rosés. Yeah, they are highly varied. I think he's coming at you. It's fine. I'm not tired of you in particular. I'm just saying more like some of our wine employees. Talk about Alicia. Maybe. It's too bad, Lexi, that you weren't on the Rosé podcast because we tasted through a bunch of offbeat rosés and all of them were relatively serious compared to what many people think of the kind of tutti frutti, maybe even circus pinot or banany estuary style that a lot of people love. You know, there are different ways to make rosé. This one is made by Domaine Colotte. I think I failed to say that from Pinot Noir from Marseillaise. So obviously strawberry is a pretty classic descriptor with a lot of rosés. This to me is true, fresh strawberry, almost like leaning under ripe as opposed to when you can run into like a jammy or a candy kind of quality. It really is, I think, pretty delightful here, pairs beautifully with the florality that's here too. Yeah. I agree. It's fresh. It's bright. It does not move into the candied fruit or the real estuary type of nose. It's a serious traditional rosé with a little bit of tannic grip, even if we're comparing it to the orange wine. Yep. So is it indeed flacid? No. Ah, it's a pounder. You failed. It's a pounder. Yeah. Yeah, it's gorgeous. Are we on to the reds? Yes. Oh, how many reds we got? We have six reds. All right. It's the home stretch. We're in the home stretch. Six to go. Yeah. Yeah. This is, wow. Guessin Beaujolais. What do we got here? Yep. We got Beaujolais. This is just Beaujolais Vélage, but from one of the truly great producers in Beaujolais, Jean Foyard. Chris, this is one of my guilty pleasures. Yeah. This is such a delightful smell. It's like a little bit of rubber and a little bit of blackberry and raspberry and like raspberry jam. And I just love it. Yeah. This is Jean Foyard. This is another Kermit Lynch imported wine. This is one of the so-called Gang of Four with Guy Breton and Jean Paul Thévenet and Marcel Lapierre. So way back in the day, in like the 70s and 80s, there's this guy, Jules Chauvet, who was a big proponent of making Beaujolais in an older, more unaffected way using semi-carbonic maceration. And he had these four acolytes, which I just mentioned, including Jean Foyard and Kermit Lynch, famous American importer, dubbed these four producers the Gang of Four. And they are, to this day, considered rock stars in the natural wine movement. And it was so much before people started talking about natural wine as such. So these are made in a really pure, unaffected way, minimal sulfite additions. Even some producers like LaPierre, if you've never had their Morgon, it's fantastic. Well, that's a favorite. They make a sulfite version where there's some sulfite added for stability in bottling and one with no sulfite at all. And they call that one the brown one. Yeah, the brown one. The one that goes awry. Anyway. Do you guys smell my grandma's perfume in here too? It's my grandma's perfume. I'm very shocked at this wine. Yeah? Yeah. How so? Tell us why. I don't know if it's good shocked or bad shocked quite yet. I do like the mouth feel. It's very dry. Kind of lingers for a minute. I know, Greg, you said you liked the tire smell. It's there though, right? That was an immediate turnoff. I said, oh, that's going to be so great. And then I went for it and it was not quite as great. But it's, I don't know, it's like in a pretty way. Yeah. It's like black tire rubber in a pretty way. It's like when you take an old truck tire and put it in your garden and plant flowers in the middle of it. Yeah. It's like that. I don't know, man. Once you said that and I smelled it, I was like, hmm. I ruined it for broken news guys. Maybe if I'd heard that after, I would have been like, oh yeah, that's fun, but I heard it first. Sorry. And that's all. Sorry. It's okay. I think you can definitely get past that. This is kind of a joyous little fruity but bright. I mean, there's good acidity here. It's not flabby or jammy. It's focused red fruits. Think about violets and think about black tea and those kind of qualities instead. And then the dry brambly raspberry patch late in the summertime when they're finally getting ripe, but the moisture has been sucked out of the reeds. I think a few of these- And there's bees and wasps. That's also from my childhood. So now we're at the tire shop and I'm getting stung by bees. Bees are your friend. I'm on a farm, I'm on a farm and sunburned. Thanks, Greg. He's just conjuring up the best images. You guys must have had better childhoods than me. Your descriptors are pretty dead on, but I'm still struggling with the tires. I'm like, yeah, I get the other stuff too, but- Well, there are a number of wines that I- What's that from, Chris? What's the chemical? That's a good question. I don't know what causes that rubbery effect. You don't think it's reduction? It is reduction for sure, but I don't know the exact chemical correlation. You find it a lot in South African pinotage is often incredibly rubbery, like beyond. But this is fresh and that's funky. All right. Now that I'm focusing on violets, I'm back to my old timey gum and it's okay. Well, this is what I was going to say is that there are a few whites. These are all really young, fresh wines. Some of them are bottled under screw cap and it is more and more common to make wine in a reductive fashion, which leads to some of these minerally, sulfury aromas. But that doesn't mean they won't go away with a little time. So I almost encourage you to come back to this at the end and see what you think. Sweet. How much? Beaujolais Villages. Beaujolais Villages. This is one of the premier producers. So this is a relatively expensive Beaujolais village at $23.99. But if you were to buy his Beaujolais crew, they would be pushing or over $50, which most people aren't used to. I'm tired of Beaujolaflation. Yeah, Beaujolaflation. It is real. All right, Roger, just imagine you're on the porch. Then would you pound it? No, I just, this is not a porch pounder for me. It's interesting. All right. Roger will not be pounding on the porch. Like I said, it's a guilty pleasure. Just like Roger said, you don't want to admit you like the smell of the garage. I think this is a great little wine. Fair enough. I wonder if too, you know those little corksical containers? Yes. I think if you pour this in there and then you sit out on the porch. Let it aerate? Yeah, that could help. All right, next wine I picked just because it shared something in common with Beaujolaf. This is an Oregon Pinot Noir whole cluster, whole cluster fermentation. What is whole cluster fermentation? I can't believe they put it right on the label. Yeah, they're really telegraphing what they're doing here. So this is Willamette Valley Vineyards whole cluster Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. This is a 2022. They are using carbonic maceration here. So you should expect to find exuberantly fruity nose, estuary, bright, fresh, maybe even candied. Blueberries this time. This is a lot more of what I would imagine is a true porch pounder. It is a little spritzy too. The finish. It's like just pulls everything out, all the moisture out of your mouth. That's interesting. There's very fine tannin here, but it is very drying tannin, especially when you couple it with that kind of fresh, fruity front. There's some acidity here, right? I mean, is it being accentuated by the tannin or? So yeah, I think everything is coming together on the finish. It seems kind of serious on the finish, but it's kind of whimsical when you put it in your mouth, if that makes any sense. I think it's well said. So what they're doing here is they're, instead of crushing and de-stemming grapes, which you know, there are machines, crusher de-stemmers that you put your clusters into and they goes through like a little auger and pulls all the fruit off of the stem, rejects the stem. Here the stem is going in and all of the fruit is intact. Leaves too? No leaves. No. Oh, they're just snipping the cluster of grapes. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a cluster of grapes. So thus whole cluster. Sometimes you'll see whole berry, which is a little different. And they're actually putting this in a sealed tank and getting rid of all the oxygen. So you just have a carbon dioxide environment, which is the definition of carbonic maceration. And what happens, strangely enough, is there is carbon dioxide promotes an enzymatic fermentation within the grape. So the grapes don't even burst, but they start to ferment internally. And you can get up to about 2% alcohol. And the other thing that's happening is you're extracting color and tannin into the pulp. If you were to pull one of these grapes out, the flesh would now be red, whereas it was clear or white to begin with. I'm surprised at this, the tannic structure here, because generally, tannins are very, very gentle when you do this, because you're just going to lightly crush and take the free run juice. So that's always blown my mind, because you're talking about literally having pieces of stem in there. But since the fermentation is happening inside the berry, it's not pulling the tannin out of the skin. Yes, it's pulling some tannin and color, but not as much as a hard pressing would. And stems do have tannin in them as well. It can add a spicy note. Chris has definitely eaten a stem. Yeah, for sure. And it's... Yeah, there's like a cinnamony allspice kind of quality here. Yeah, a lot of times you get that that from stems or even herbal kind of sharp or even oregano-y or something like that flavor. And there's some debate on whether you want your stems lignified or not. There is not. Yeah. When did this process come about? Carbonic maceration. What time period is... what did this originate? I don't know when it was... Pretty modern? Yeah, relatively modern because you have to have like a sealed tank, you know, it's not something... so here's the thing. You're talking like the 70s and 80s. One last question because I'm generally curious now. What percentage of wines are made this way? Oh. Tiny? Sliver. Yeah. Yeah. Most wines are made with traditional methods. They're crushed and they're either reliant on natural yeast or... So what countries are doing this? France, the US. I mean, you can find it all over. You might even find it in Italy with some wines. How much is the... How much? That is $21.99. All right. Willamette Valley Vineyards. Crushable, Roger? I like that a lot. Very much so. Crush it. Roger, you know how you guys talk about how vegan costs a lot of money? This is as vegan friendly. Yeah. You think the vegan people are like, pay up, and they're like, but we're friendly. Yeah. If you're not vegans, you should be friendly to us and not make us double down on this vegan tax. Yeah. Chris, what the hell is this? It's another grape I've never heard of in my life. You definitely have talked about Frepato before, and I think I made a joke about how it's a Starbucks thing. This is Starbucks. I will have the Venti Frappato, please. That's exactly what it sounds like. Well, this is an Italian wine. It's from Sicily. This is from a region called Vittoria. Frappato is an indigenous Sicilian grape. It's high. Sounds like a type of opera. Yes. Or a speed at which music is performed. Right. Yeah. I will be drinking this wine, Sonata Allegro, and also Pianissimo. Jim Cricket sound effect. Anyway, this is Santa Teresa Frappato from Vittoria, 2022. It's organically made. It's vegan friendly. This is a winery that has been around, not in its current form, since 1697, if you can believe that. Guys, hear me out. There's red fruit, but also like Grand Marnier, like an orange liqueur, like an orange peel kind of thing. Yeah. I mean, Frappato is famously bright, fresh, light bodied. Something you could drink with seafood as a red wine. Sicily being an island, that's not a bad idea to make a wine in that style. Yeah. This has like almost a brandy-esque quality. It's very interesting. Not in a bad way. Not in an alcoholic way. Well. Okay. In an alcoholic way. But it's acidic. It has way more acidity than tannin. Yeah. It's a fresh wine. Like we're not getting weight. We're getting lift. I mean, I agree with Greg. I don't think the alcohol is, I mean, it says 13% on the label. Did you bring your 17.5% bourbon barrel aged Australian Shiraz for the Porch Pounder episode? No, I did not. But I- Because that's a big wine. Maybe it's the acidity that's accentuating the alcohol. There's a lot of acidity here. I am going to make a bourbon barrel aged Furpato. Gross. Because that's what the world wants. So, you should definitely have this with oysters, with the little vinegar and the little bits of garlic on there. Maybe fried oysters. A mignonette sauce. Chargrilled, maybe. What about a vegetarian-friendly pairing? Like maybe something with- Vegans be damned. Something with roasted peppers. Something with cream. I don't know. This wine screams tuna to me. Fish. Yeah. Fatty or fishes. You know, bronzino maybe even. What about like a summer pasta? Like a little lighter? They typically have like a seafood, but you know, for me. You know, it would be nice. So you can make like a salsa crudo and toss it with pasta and serve it cold. So nice, fresh tomatoes, little basil, maybe some garlic. Toss with pot. That'd be beautiful with this. I think that's a good idea. This could work with a nice bruschetta. Or some kind of thing with tomatoes, but also mango. So it's like tart and twisting. To mango? The same place that they used to be. You dog. To mango. Yeah. Maybe like a... It has a mango like acidic twist at the back of my palate, is what I'm saying. It tastes like grandma. Wow. That was zippy. How much for the frappado? How much for that frappado in the window? You know what you need with that wine? 17.99. Ceviche or poke. You were talking about salads and started thinking about vinaigrette on a salad with citrus on it, which would go, but ceviche is the kind of shrimp that you would want. That makes most sense, for sure. I mean, famously a citrus island. Sicily is a citrus island? I never been. Never will. Oranges, lemons. Famous lemons. Big is your fist. I asked you if you brought a 17.5% bourbon barrel aged Australian Shiraz and you said no, but you did bring a 13.5% Shiraz from the Central Coast. Right, 13.5%. That's very moderate. That is moderate. What's this going to be like? Well, we're going to find out. A Shiraz can range from very bright, fresh and elegant. You might find styles like that in the Northern Rhone. Smells like canned tomatoes. I think it smells buttery on the nose. This is from the Central Coast. Greg, the sad trombone over here with the descriptors, I'm like, oh, I kind of like this. Yeah, it smells like tomato paste now. Thank you. Well. This kid rolling down the tire down the street with a can of tomato paste. I haven't said the word fart yet. Yeah, true. There it is. You worked in chlorine instead of bleach, too, which is a nice step back. I didn't say chlorine. You didn't say the word. You said the word. I said it's wonderful. Oh, you said, yeah, I think you did roll the tape, Joe. I think I said chlorine. You said swimming pool. He's learning. Anyway, Syrah or Shiraz can range from big burly over the top super alcoholic to something more elegant and moderate with lifted acidity and floral notes. This is made by a gentleman named Bob Lindquist, one of the pioneers of Rhone varieties in California, worked at Zaka Mesa way back when made the first Syrah on the Central Coast in 1982. Would you call him a Rhone Ranger? Yeah, he is one of the original, maybe the original Rhone Ranger. He had a winery in the middle of the Bien Nacido vineyard, a huge, huge vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley, which is an extremely cool climate. And this is a cool climate Syrah. And he was friends with the dearly departed Jim Clenenden. Yeah, I love that guy. Obon Climat. They had a facility together in this giant vineyard and they met each other at Zaka Mesa, an old Santa Barbara winery. In 1982, he started his own label called Coupe, which we carried Coupe Syrah forever. This is like the progeny, the follow-up to Coupe Syrah, which was always an elegant lighter bodied version. What do you think? I haven't tasted it yet. I mean, I'm famously sensitive to tannin. So I maybe just because comparatively to what we've been drinking, this expresses is very tannic in a way that would be non porch poundery, but it does have some structure for sure. This to me feels more like a porch punch than a porch pounder. It's pretty bold. It's pretty... Yeah. It definitely does that. Well, I have to admit, I hadn't tried it, but I was expecting... I think my gums are swelling up. This is vintage Roger. This is real Roger right here. Wait a second. Let's put this on the scale of Syrah here. Is there not elevated acidity freshness here? There absolutely is in the scale of Syrah. Yeah. Yeah. One thing I was doing... So we've had Syrah that tastes like chocolate milk for grownups, and this is like light and... Well, it's not light, it's heavy, but it's refreshing and tart compared to some that we've had. Correct. I wouldn't put it in the heavy realm. I'd put it in medium bodied, bright acidity with tannic structure. I'm going to just... If we said strawberries, like strawberries are visible here. It's not overwhelmingly strawberry. It's mostly cherry, deep cherry, but there's like still a tart upper tier to this thing. As opposed to just like a big bloop fruit, you know? Blackberry. Blackberry for sure. So I'm going to warn you, these last three wines that I have, I put them in the porch partner category, but they're also... I don't know either. What are we doing? Oh no. Three more? Three more? No, two more. I'm talking about this one. Oh, it was the last three wines. Gotcha. But I was also thinking about what you might want with a summer barbecue. So, if you take a burger off the grill or you're eating ribs or whatever you put on the grill, you know, this is the kind of wine you want. It's not, I don't think it's heavy. I think it has lift and freshness, but it has the structure to stand up to grilled foods. Any argument there? No. If you think of it as something you would drink with a meal, sure. I can't picture this without a meal. IPA. That's what I would want. And to tell you the truth, this isn't that far off in ways. It's refreshing and lifting. I also can't imagine drinking this without a meal. I don't know. It does have more tannic structure than I was expecting. You guys know that there's still two more, right? This had everything I expected except more structure. It has bright fruit and lift, but it is a little tannic. It had everything you expected, but it delivers more structure. What else could we... Where are we going from here? So... Backwards, hopefully. Again, I didn't think this would be complete without maybe a Zinfandel. So everybody says this is the quintessential barbecue wine. Yeah. They do say that. They say that. I've never understood it myself, but let's find out. So Zinfandel can produce a very wide range of styles. The grape variety itself tends to be an uneven ripener. So on the same cluster, you might have raisins alongside underripe grapes. To push ripeness, often people end up making 17% really jammy, over the top style, port-like wines. This is a Quivera from the Dry Creek Valley, who tends to make a more classic style. It's probably 14, 14.5% alcohol and should have some bright lifted fruit. Again, this is not a wine I've tried in this vintage. I like that you're like taking a risk here. I like the nose a lot on this. I haven't tried any of these wines in this vintage. Any of the wines in this whole lineup. In this whole lineup, not a one have I had in this vintage. We're smelling full fresh fruit. We're smelling like a little crust of vanilla. There's some port like characteristics to the nose. I really like the dark fruit, bramble berry, dark cherry. Definitely brambly. But what I think you're going to find, there is some tannic structure here, but it's not going to be port like on the palate. It's going to have some brighter acidity and it's going to be somewhat lifted fresh red fruits. Yeah, for sure. I just meant on the nose. Yeah, no. That's what it is though. That's what it is though. Yeah. This to me reminds me of quite possibly what might be my grandma, the first wine I had with my grandma. Your grandma had excellent taste. She, which is surprising, but yeah, yeah, this is like a very, this tastes very much like I'm sitting there. We're sitting in matching lazy boys and we're drinking wine together, looking out the window, the glass, the window is open, but we're just looking at it, watching the birds. That's what this tastes like. Beautiful memory. Anyway, the idea is bright Bramley fruit here, some focused acidity, not portine. It's not too fleshy on the palate. Not too fleshy. It's medium bodied. It's not over the top. Something that you could probably sip on the porch, but yeah, if you had a burger or something, this would be nice. So I'm pounding this on the porch and I could, but I'm an animal. And I just imagine looking over at my aunt and she has it in a red solo cup full of ice, which without a doubt is the way that it would be consumed in that case. Say you also have like, I don't know, something like being a pescatarian or a vegan or whatever. You might maybe have a vegetarian. Maybe you have a vegetarian. You might have a- I love cheese. Let's make sure that everyone knows that. I love cheese. I am aware of that. Maybe like a black bean burger or something, right? Would this not be delicious with that? I think it would. Yep, again, you're killing me with the tan in here though. It's on its own. This is interesting. Too much for me. Because it's a 2019. Roger's like a lilting southern maiden who needs a fainting couch. Yeah. For his porch patting. This is definitely about to give me the vapors. I do declare I have the vapors. I was guzzling in the gazebo and then this gentleman came a-calling with these reds. Yet the smell insults, yeah, but a very nice wine, just again, we need food. Roger desperately needs food. Well, you know, I mean, if I were a better person, you'd have it. Bring out the punchline. Bring out your dad. Cicada wine. This is actually featured next week, so this is perfect. I picked this largely because of the label and what's happening. We've got a cicada emergence going on. It's a little bit underwhelming. I was expecting, it's nothing like 17 years ago. Anyway, so this is the fabulist Cabernet Sauvignon. What vintage is it? Does it always have cicadas? Yes. Oh. So this is 2022. All of their labels. They've been waiting 16 years for this. They're time to shine. They're like, finally, it pays off. Well, their labels and their name tie together. This winery is called the fabulist. And this is the fable of the ant and the cicada, the industrious ant who works all day, all summer long, and the lazy cicada who wiles its life away singing in the trees. And the cicada says, I'm so hungry and feed me. And he's like, screw you. I worked for my s*** I never realized it was the cicada in that story. Yeah, it's kind of mean. And the cicada is like, this is my life cycle, man. I scream mate and die. Yeah, you don't realize that I've spent 17 years underground sucking a root, which is full of nitrogen brings me to the fact that the teenagers of the bug world, truly, we can bug ears makes up like 400. The whole reason we're drinking this is because it has a beautiful cicada on the label and we have the 17 year cicada emergence. And here it is. It's fine. Yeah, very interesting finish with something I can't quite pin down as far as what the taste is, which is a good thing sometimes. Yeah, definitely. I think there's a hint of anise that I'm picking up on. Yeah. I was going to say like a savory herbal character. Yeah, it is very interesting. Like almost licorice. Tart cherry. And perhaps sarsaparilla. Little sarsaparilla. And perhaps birch syrup without the sweetness. Right. You know what I like? I like to- Whorehound candy. Swish a little- You ever had a good whorehound candy? I cannot say I have. You never went to living history farms? I want to bring in some of this old timey candy for you to try. Well, we need to finish this with a punch. Well, I was just going to say that this is made by Andrew Jones from Field Recordings, who makes our Tin City wines in conjunction with another guy from Sains-Lige. Wines we also carry. Yeah, this is the fabulous label. If I was on the porch and I needed a Cabernet, I would consider this one. There's only 10% new American oak here. So the thing is, it's fruit driven. It's not overwhelmingly oaky. Again, yeah, you probably want to pull a steak off the grill or something, maybe a grilled Portobello mushroom or something. He's pandering again. All of these reds are juxtaposed against 12 delightful white, rosé and orange wines. So they seem heavy to us right now, but compared to some actually full heavy reds. Sure. I agree. If we had these in context with other red wines, you would realize that these are not... How wrong you are in describing them this way. No, I get what you're saying though. But they're not big tannic monsters. Tannic monsters, they are what they are and on the spectrum of red wine. But I'm on the gazebo, Chris. You put us there. If I was on Chris's porch and he handed me a glass of this, I'd be like, do you want me to go home? And I would say yes. I would probably hand it to you before you got to the steps. Well it's an important thing to remember is that there's like the porch before you eat and the porch after you eat. So maybe these are like later in the evening. Yeah. You can imagine a cool summer evening, cicadas chirping, you know, drowning out the crickets. You might even need a jacket at this point and you might want a little Cabernet at the end of the night. All right. Hear me out. You're on the porch and you need something to pound. Any of these 18 wines? Yeah, there are quite a few that I enjoyed. I would say that the first, well, you know me. I mean, I love, I tend to gravitate towards white. So the beginning of our journey was fabulous and I would, I mean, I like all the wines, but I'm saying I would definitely gravitate towards. And when people talk about summertime, I think they, but Chris brought up really good point. I mean, you eat no matter the time of year, the time of day. So some of these, once you're, you know, had dinner or you're having a wit dinner after dinner, I think they all qualify. And you do grow during the summertime and when you're growing, you're making heavy food. Yeah. Rich, heavy food. Also, Chris pulled the fast one on us here because he could have also called this wines you probably haven't had or wines Greg hasn't even heard of. Yeah. And all of them, I believe, were the nice price of what, under 20 bucks? Everything I think it was, well, one tip the scales at 26.99. The Beaujolais was the expensive one. In what universe do we live where the Beaujolais is the expensive one? Let me just point out that the Cabernet is only 17.99 on sale right now. That's fabulous. Also very affordable. It's fabulous and fabulous. I think there's at least three that I would take home this weekend. I'm throwing elbows and taking them instead of you. All right. Anyway, I'm pounding some of these on the porch this summer. And you should too. Thanks for listening to both weeks. Chris, thank you for bringing this one and a half brofee's worth of wine. Well, you're welcome. Thank you. Brofee, the bar has been moved. Yeah, seriously. Although, it's still less alcohol. That guy. True. Hey, don't forget to leave us a review on Apple podcasts or wherever they have podcasts on phones these days. Hit us up on social media, at BenizBev on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Say hi to your mom for us. And send your questions to comments at beniz.com. And I hope that you enjoyed listening to this as much as I enjoyed the Riesling. We'll be back in your feed next week with another episode of Barrel to Bottle, the Vinny's Podcast. Until then, I'm Greg. I'm Roger. I'm Lexi. And I'm Chris. Keep Tasting!