Hey, why am I here? You want me to open this? Are you gonna wait? Wow, that's a pat amount of wines over there. Good job, guys. This is a Chris episode. I can't take any credit. Jesus. Is this your first time? Representing the Am side of Pro Am is Alicia. Even Ryan thinks it's funny. I think she wanted to make sure that Alicia didn't stop. It exploded and she screamed. One day. Damn, you guys. What the hell is going on over here? F***ing down. So are you ready? Sure. We're going to... Look at all this wine they brought. They finally brought a respectable amount of wine for a podcast. Nine bottles. Nine. Can I have a spit bucket? I think this is going to handle everything. It's probably not going to do the trick. We'll have to do it during... Got any more complaints before we start, Raj? Half time during this marathon wine tasting, we'll get a spit bucket. That's why I like to come prepared, baby. I don't yell at people to come in when I'm not prepared. What? First of all... It's already contentious. Let's get some alcohol in these people. Chris brought a Brophy's worth of wine bottles. It's not that much. That's cool. That's an international measurement stand. It's like a Keurig. This is a Hay Brophy worth. It's three-quarters worth of Brophy of wine. It's a Hay Brophy. Yeah. If it was Pat, he'd have a box beneath him as well for the second half of the show. Pat thinks everything is beneath him, but that's another story. This is way too clever, you guys. Hi, you're listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Chris, and today we're just gonna kind of peruse our way through some tasty summer wines, things that will go great with picnics. Oh, porch pounders? I didn't know we were doing porch pounders. Do not use the term porch pounder. That is not an approved messaging. Look how disgusted Alicia is right now. There will be no porch pounding. Only you knew, Pat. That is the exact same look I got the first time I swore in front of my mom. I missed drinks the other night and there was an AARP party going on at the same place. There was. I was the only one in attendance. You missed a real cool tree in the parking lot too. We all drove off as Pat was still gazing upward at the tree. I believe that. The tree was amazing. Back to Chris' wine picks today. Great picks, but he also dressed accordingly because your shirt looks like a picnic blanket. I shall take it off and lay it down for you. Picnic tablecloth, perhaps? Yeah. It is very picnicky. It's the man version of a sundress, really. I did consider doing- I can dig my pants off and really, I'll just cinch my pants. That's a perfect place, a moment of silence. Shut the **** up, everybody shut the **** up. Are we thinking about Chris Panslis? Give Jim a cut in, God. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. Wait, I didn't say join with me, can join with me. Yeah, you got to do that. I'm Alicia Wine. Pat Brophy, liquor guy. Roger, beer? All right, thank you. Chris Panslis. But I do have a long tail shirt cinched at the waist with my belt. Just imagine in Panslis, baby, Chris, just tie it off. All right, now it's a wine podcast, we have to get boring at some time. Now it would be a great time to do it. This is not boring, this is exciting. I've got a picnic shirt on, everybody's ready to go. Chris, what did you bring for us? It is cold-cut weather. It's cold-cut weather. I did consider bringing some picnic items, but I'm lazy. I also threw this together the other day, and I picked out about 20 bottles, and then Alicia kindly jettisoned half of them. Kindly. A honing process. These are rookie numbers. You got to pump those up. Well, I was trying to go big, and she was like, get this out of here. Pass the first wine and tell us what the theme is. The theme is easy going outdoor drinking wines, but things that are a little off the beaten path. Easy going outdoor. Yeah. Picknicks, barbecues, parties. Are we going to try that one German style that Greg always makes fun of? Or it's Austrian. What is it? So one of these wines has Zweigelt in it, and we weren't sure whether to include it, but just because Zweigelt was in the blend, I said we must. Especially for Gregory. Yes. I actually passed this before I saw it. Is this Alagote? Yeah. So this is Domaine Arnoux Alagote, Burgundy's other white grape. Yeah. I had no idea that was a thing. I know. Oh, it's a thing. Very few people know, and you learn just Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for Burgundy, but Alagote is this wonderful, fairly reasonable white wine to get from Burgundy. It's the only other white grape that they're permitted to grow in the heartland there of Burgundy, and it's just deliciously refreshing. Is it grown anywhere else? Does it have a different name like Trebbiano or does or anything like that? Would anybody know this from another region? No. No, they would not. Alagote, huh? You might find some planted in other places, but not in significant quantities, and it will be by the name Alagote. Price-wise compared to Chardonnays from Burgundy, are we talking less accessible or more accessible? 18.99 for this. Oh, wow. So more accessible in price, less accessible in volume in the market. You got to find it, but you're going to pay less for it. Correct. The best examples will come from an appellation called Bouseron and that's all they can actually claim for Bouseron AOC, that will be Alagote. So you can school your friends on that. So one village specifically for Alagote, and then most of them you'll see that are grown outside of this, are Burgundy Alagote, how they're appellated. Deceptive nose on this wine, it smells like it's going to be peaches and spice, and then on the palate, it's like zippy citrus and aluminum and bright refreshing acidity. That is its calling card. So Alagote is all about intense, high acidity, crisp, clean flavors, and it is the classic wine to make a cure out of. So- Oh, nice. Yeah. Everybody always thinks bubbles with cure, right? Well, cure royale. That's cure royale. I thought champagne made it royale. It does. We need to have a cure. A cure royale with cheese. Cure is still wine, Alagote. And I do have some raspberry liqueur if anybody wants to try some. Let's do it. Yes. No cassis? Yeah, should you have a cassis? I was just going to explain that cassis is the classic. This is a really good wine. I don't want to pour this in it yet. Don't. Cassis is widely grown in the Burgundy region, and creme de cassis from Dijon is quite well known. Put a little mustard on it. Yeah, also Dijon mustard. Terrible. If you make a raspberry Royale, it's actually called a Kyr Imperial. Kyr Imperial, usually made with Chambord, but today we've got Matilde. So you can bring a wine to a party and this liqueur and be happy in both variations. Yeah. So the classic, yeah, Kyr would be creme de cassis and alagotay, and this would be, I guess, a Kyr, I don't know. It's Kyr Imperial when it's sparkling. I don't know what you call it. Alagotay. Who's the producer on this alagotay? This is Domaine Arnoux. Domaine Arnoux. They're located at the northern end of the Cote du Bon, if you know your geography. I don't. In Choire le Bon. Well, the city of Bon is near the northern end of the Cote du Bon. I can't talk about this without giggling. I know. I was surprised that it took that long. Pat's maturity on display. Every store should have a couple skews, two to three skews of alagotay and ask someone seek it out. Again, you can be in Burgundy for a much more affordable price point, and it's just a high acid delightful white wine, typically un-oaked and it's- White Burgundy under $20. Wow. Great for a summer day because it's so bright and fresh, and it'll cut right through fatty foods, cheeses, charcuterie, whatever you want to call it. Whatever they cold cuts. Cold cuts. It is cold cut season. I think it's worth re-emphasizing the magic sauce here with this Framboise. This is a very nice wine to begin with, but maybe you don't like the finish to something, or you just want something that's a little more approachable for people that aren't necessarily wine drinkers. Fruit added to things now is like in my world, is what everything is like. We joke about it. Flavor blasted. But Framboise can go well in all sorts of stuff, but you could try mixing some of that in all sorts of wines, right? A little sparkling stuff. Sure. Yeah. Good flavor blast anything. I mean, I put a very moderate amount in mine, and the raspberry just really pops, and it doesn't make it all that much sweeter, but it kind of takes the edge off the acidity. Yep. Really nice. So what do you think? Would you drink that outside? For sure. Only slowly if I'm on the patio though. Yeah. Greg drinks slowly. He's trying to avoid it. He's trying to avoid pounding it on the patio. Next. Next wine. Does anybody have anything that they would eat that with? Drink that with? Salad. Salad. Waldorf or like a Salad nicoise. I like it. Yeah. Casually, imagine a mortadella sandwich with oil and vinegar. That's exactly what I was thinking. You get that brightness from the vinegar and the wine can actually keep up with that. It cuts through a fatty. Cuts through the- Something like a mortadella. Yeah. It's no fried bologna sandwich, but- A few things are. So next, we're moving on to something. I picked a lot of kind of oddball things. This is Gamay Noir. It's good. Blanc. Blanc. Gamay Noir Blanc. Blanc. What are you talking about? What is this? Noir Blanc? Yeah, so just like they do in Champagne, it's commonly done where you press the juice off of grapes and take the free run juice and you don't have any skin contact. You can make a white wine. There's quite a few Pinot Noir Blancs out there these days. Pinot Noir Blanc. Yeah. I know. It's absurd. Left Coast Cellars is probably one of our more popular ones from Oregon. Okay. There's a nice Italian one from Cillerie. Cillerie, it's called. Frecca Rosa, maybe. So we know Gamay to find its home in beaujolais, but where is this Gamay grown? So this is grown in the Central Coast in Monterey, I believe, Monterey County, specifically Arroyo Seco, which is at the southern tip of Santa Lucia Highlands, and as is obvious from the name, it is a dried up river bed, an Arroyo Seco. Oh, never sounded that one out myself. Yeah. I love how he opened it with as is obvious by the name. Oh, yes. Let me go back to geography in college real quick or to geology. So, yes, an Arroyo. Yes, an Arroyo. So, there's alluvial soils. One thing is, this is one of the few places you might find some granitic soils, which Gamay loves. In beaujolais, all the best sites are granite soils. This isn't nearly as good as the last one. I think it's pretty good. I like it. There's some significant minerality on the wine. Yes, I like that. I like its cut. The last one was a little too focused for me, and this offers a little more breadth. Look at the little teeny smiley faces. It's a Mr. Brightside production. It's called Mr. Brightside, by the way. Coming out of my cage. Now, this has some super juicy acidity too. You're killing me. Yes, granite soils aren't that terribly common in California. And there's some good Gamay vineyards inland in El Dorado County. But there are a few spots where you can find a lot of granite. This is shockingly fresh. Yeah. I mean, this is a wine. If you love acid, you will love this wine. If you if you are not kind of an acid fiend with wine, then this might not be for you. There's a lot of tension. It's quite prickly. The fruit comes across a little tart. And there's a lot of lemon notes. Yeah, it's like a pithy, bitter. But that works with summertime. You know, it eliminates the iconic summertime drink. Yeah, bright, fresh. Give me a little tea sandwiches. Give me a cucumber sandwich or something. Yeah, Richard Cheez's. Cut through that. Richard Cheez? I know that guy. The cucumber sandwich with like cream cheese and dill on it. Yeah, exactly. Would be actually a nice pairing. That's what I'm talking about. Exactly. Is that a thing, Alisha, that people self-identify as acid fiends? Only when the dead are in town. In the wine world, at least. Hey, man, you got that purple haze. Yeah, I mean, I think so. I think people throw that around. It's like a peat head and whiskey or something? I mean. I'm asking for real. People in beer love really acidic beers for a while. We're super popular. Hopped up on goofballs. Yeah. I'm not sure everyone uses that terminology, but people are very aware when they gravitate towards high acid wines that might be off putting to others. I tend to be in that camp. I like a lot of cut in my wine. Do I gravitate toward high acid wines? No. No. Okay. You like flabby. No, Pat, if anything, you like the stupider notes of American oak. Stupider. Interesting. My god though, he's a lambic guy. He should like acid wines. Yeah, but he likes lactones. Do love lactones. Pat loves him a lactone. All right. So there we are. I think that's delicious. I think even better with your picnic, just to make sure everyone can appreciate and- I agree.... balance and it can balance out that acid, but it's super interesting. And yeah, Central Coast, as we've talked about, just something to watch. So it's a cool play on Black Friday. What if you flavor blast it out with a little framboise? It would definitely work with the framboise. Reds, pink lemonade. Are you doing it a second time? Roger's going to put framboise in every single one. He just really likes that framboise. You know if we did this to beer, you'd be so upset. This is amazing, by the way. It's pink lemonade. I believe that actually because even just on its own, as you pointed out early, Roger, it does have a little bit of a lemonade feature to it. Come on, try it. This brings me to the point that I actually wanted to make, is that these are actually not wines I would consider porch pounders, mostly. These are wines for picnic foods or for barbecue. A lot of these have some significant intensity, high acidity, not necessarily perfectly balanced right down the middle, but meant to spark off on foods. Pretty good. That is legit like a powdered Kool-Aid, lemonade, whatever. You know what? If you really wanted to get drunk, you would just add vodka to it and it's- And you'd have a cocktail. Yeah. Let's stay classy here. This was very good with the raspberry. I think classy went out the window 20 minutes ago. That's what time I came in. This is how you teach the kids about lemonade stands, start mixing these up. Yeah. Yeah, right? There you go. You can charge them real money. Charge a fair deal. Two dollars for lemonade, $12. For the real stuff. What's it called? Imperiales. When it's fizzy, this is one of those unnamed variables of a cocktail. It's real good though. Yeah. Yeah, it's better with the raspberry in it. Raspberry enhancements. Well, it makes sense, right? because the acid in this was even higher than the last wine. So that fruit just makes it plusher and rounds it out. Yeah, it's really good. Consider this, you could take these wines, both of the first two wines through a picnic to the point where you're having like a fruity or custardy dessert at the end and you make your little cure and it matches with your raspberry tart or your Indeed. You can dial in the sweetness for your dessert. Next wine. It's right here for you. It is Molder Bosch Chenin Blanc. Oh, South African. Now that I've dirty both of my glasses. Indeed it is. Have you vacationed in South Africa lately, Pat? No, I've not. I think that's probably the only South African wine brand I can name. From Stellen Bosch. Hamilton Russell, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. You've tasted them. I'm sure I have. He immediately forgot about it. I salute their unique bottle and label design. That's pretty cool. Yeah, their Pinot Noir looks the same way. Anyway, Chenin Blanc is the historical signature white grape of South Africa. Oh, you mean Steen? Yes. Known as Steen locally. Steen? Yeah. Well, I will note that Steen is on the bottle here, although they're smart enough to put Chenin Blanc on it. They call it Steen op ut, which means Steen in wood. Oh, which we do see Chenin in all styles from South Africa, but the majority is stainless steel, so it's kind of cool to see. Sees neutral oak. So is all Moldoboschenin in wood, or is this like a special version of it? No, it is. Oh, neat. I was wondering why it was yellow. The latter, special version. Yeah, cool. I never had this before. This is very strange. Uh-huh. It is. Yeah, yeah. So wait, real quick question. Shenobank traditionally from France, we're talking about? Alpe. Vouvray. Vouvray, right. The greater lalaur Valley. So do they tend to do more oak, or do they tend to do more neutral or both, or what? Neutral oak is a very common stainless steel. This is very Melanie. Yeah. What's cool about South African Shenobank, one is that you see significantly more plantains of Shannon in South Africa than we see in the lalaur. It's homeland. So as Chris mentioned, this is the most planted variety in South Africa. And they do it, stainless steel and kind of cool climate expressions, and then all the way through to more kind of tropical fruit, riper styles, oaked, un-oaked, et cetera. So you see it really kind of morph into whatever the terroir and wine-making styles are of the place. So you can just, I just feel you get way more diversity of Shannon in South Africa, in addition to value. Well, I would counter that by pointing out... The sweet wines, too. Pointing out, yeah, the diversity of styles in France. For a second there, I thought they were going to fight, but they didn't fight. Well, we haven't gotten there yet. Haven't thrown down the gauntlet yet. Anyway, you can get everything from bone-dry, like severely dry sauvignon to the richest Botrytis-affected Chenin Mloc you can imagine out of Card du Chamb or something like that. That's very true. Totally agree. But the way the wines are made is quite broad. I agree with that. The stylistically among dry wines, it's a very broad stroke they use in South Africa. I think the South African Chenin is just that inoffensive, pleasant. It's not super memorable. Something that you might enjoy drinking at a quick pace, possibly on some kind of outside structure. Well, consider this, Chenin Blanc has remarkably high levels of malic acid even compared to other bright fresh wines. So it tends to have a really intense green appley quince-like flavor. Quince is a really popular tasting note for Chenin Blanc. Does the wood cost extra? No. Same price? I think this is their standard entry-level bottling and then they make a single vineyard bottling. They make us... Do you have the price? Yeah. They make us... There's an interesting herbaceous note to it. I'm getting like rosemary and sage. I definitely see the sage for sure. Good pair. Well, I'll listen. By the way, I don't know if we mentioned it, but Mr. Brightside Gamay Noir Blanc was $17.99 and this sucker, Amir $12.99. It's really good. It's from Stellenbosch too, and Stellenbosch probably one of the more prized regions of South Africa, home to some excellent Cabernet as well. Boer sausage? What? They're big on Boer sausages in South Africa. Boer or Boer? Boer is one of their sausages down there. The Dutch immigrants, the Boers, the farmers. Yeah, sorry. Boer sausage. That's why I was confused. Those Boers are wild, but they're not wild Boers. Boerwurst. And the Boer Wars, famously. They're like blood sausages, right? So we're moving on to Brooks. I f***ing love this wine. Language, Lorraine. Twice. That's two of them, two of them. So this is an Oregon wine, but it's made in a kind of classic Alsatian field blend style. Neat. That they would call... Thus the Alsatian style bottle. Alsace Via Oregon, cool, I'm in, I'm in. So they would call this Jean T or Adelswicker. Ooh, Adelswicker. Which are very closely aligned styles, although this might have to be Jean T. I don't know, based on... Is that Pinot Blanc? Yeah. Yeah. That would be my assumption. And yeah, what's in there? It probably says... It's a delightful blend of 35% Pinot Blanc, 32% Riesling, 23% Muscat, 5% Pinot Gris, 5% Gewurz. So a couple of really aromatic grapes in there just to lift the nose, make it floral. Holy fruit. Yeah, it's the whole pear fruit salad. Yeah, but it's like strawberries too. And it's a white wine. It's crazy. And there's still that it's not as intense as some Alsatian wines, but with Alsace you get this spice, this like gingery quality that tends to come through. And there's a little bit of that here. But it's all like dull fruit cup on the front end. It's pretty delicious. Wine gummies. Wine gummies, yeah. It's the pear drops. I think where it thrives too, in addition to the aromatic complexity, the texture is spot on. It has kind of that prickly note of the gamay noir blanc that we were talking about, just that lifted acid. But then there's a slight kind of like waxy roundness to the palate. And that's thanks to the Geverts especially filling it out. And possibly the Pinot Gris in this iteration. Yes, for sure. You're right. But it has an acidic spine through the whole experience. Oh, totally. Yes. That's the remarkably excellent thing about this is the bright, fresh acidity. This wine is awesome. What do we sell this wine for? We sell this wine for $22.99. That's a deal. Yeah. It really is. Wow. This is really good. Yep. Alsatian style field blend. You're calling that. Well, I don't know if it's an actual field blend, but I mean, that- It has a variety of breakdown on it, so they're doing the blending on the back end. Field blend is when it's picked in the field as a blend. Really? Greg pulls off these random wine facts. You might be able to do that. You might be able to do that with a field blend though. All you have to do is- Every once in a while. Know exactly the number of- Know what's planting and then just do it. I think Ridge puts percentages on their field blends. Okay, fair enough. See, I was wrong, I'll be sure. But- On the whole though, it is. But I would guess that this is probably not a field blend, but I don't know. I doubt it, especially with Pinot Gris and Riesling. A lot of people in the world do single bottlings of those grapes, so you would want those separated out. Indeed. But this one I love because we can sit here and pick it apart, and I think there's a lot going on. But someone who could care less and just wants a refreshing white wine will find it pleasant. It is just joy. Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it. You could really take this apart from the levels of different subtle complexity, or if someone's just looking for something, it is very refreshingly crisp. This would be a good pair of Keef. Indeed. Indeed. We tasted through a ton of Willamette wines recently, and I just cannot share enough praise with what the region is doing right now. Well, it's... Big fan, especially on the whites. And just like everyone knows it for Pinot Noir. Yeah. Sorry to cut you off, Chris. And Brooks does a fantastic job on their Pinot Noirs. I mean, just tasted their Jamis Pinot Noir recently. But on the whites, and especially with Chardonnay and some of the more creative bottlings like this, don't miss it. Yeah, agreed. All right, another cool one from Burgundy, Chris. Yeah, another Burgundy, so another oddball from Burgundy. So as we were saying earlier, most people when they think of Burgundy or when they're taught Burgundy, it's all Chardonnay, all Pinot Noir, right? But here we have another grape playing a bit role. This is from the coteau Bourguignon, which is an appellation that allows grapes besides those two. So this is a blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay, which is of course big in just to the south of there in beaujolais. I've never had this one. Neither have I. Real dice roll right there, you guys. Flying blind. The extraction is quite remarkable, I have to say. It's really dark and intense. Yeah. It has a black cherry and. A brambly nose that I wouldn't expect from necessarily either a Gamay or an inexpensive Burgundy. A lot of dark cherry. It's interesting, this is good. Pats down with the couteau. couteau Bourguignons. I don't even know what. What is the question? What is this? What is it called? couteau Bourguignons. From a producer. It basically means the hills of Burgundy, the slopes of Burgundy. Sorry. No, you go. May I have it? Who's the producer? The wine word. The producer is Confuron Gindra. And Chris, correct me if I'm wrong on this and then Jim cut it if that's the case. Unlike some other appellations and most appellations, Burgundy words, it's like a defined piece of land, right? That's this village or this hillside designate. Like coteau Bourguignon is a very large designate that it's just allowing you the freedom of introducing Gamay into the wine. So you would never use the best site to do this because why would you plant Gamay and charge how much for this? $26.99. Right. So why would I plant Gamay to charge $26.99? Yeah, it's going to be a little bit on the lesser sites, but it's not like it's we can pinpoint the plot south east of bone that you can grow Gamay. It's kind of scattered, but this appellation gives you the right to use it. Exactly. Exactly. It's wacky and I actually really like this. Yay. It's hitting the salivary glands and it's the kind of wine that forces you to drink more and more fast. It has some of the Gamay qualities that I associate with beaujolais and you're going to hate these descriptors, sorry. Just as long as it's not fart. No, it's like- Bleach. Don't say bleach. No, it's like balloon rubber and this really intense fruit. Oh, yes. So much better. Oh, boy. Okay. Tell me I'm wrong. Is this like a sulfur thing or something? No, you're right. There is like a rubber thing. It's not anywhere in a bad way. No, fantastic. It smells like a balloon filled with farts. Counterpoint, why does this to me almost smell like smoke? I would agree. There's like this kind of like toasty aroma quality, this almost like a burnt kind of fruit element to it. I know what Greg was talking about. To me, balloon didn't come to mind right away. I was thinking like tire though, like tire rubber. Rubber, some kind of latex. Yeah. Do you know the winemaking on this? I don't. I made some assumptions about it, which would have been no new wood and a lot of things. You think it's whole cluster? because it's got a lot of reading this too. I actually. I mean, that would be typical with gametes. Yeah. They might be doing some stem inclusion and that could explain a little bit of this. Maybe you want more florals, more aromatic with that, but it could be partial. It's also really intense fruit, which could be like that. Is that anaerobic or whatever the fermentation? Anaerobic. Anaerobic fermentation. So this to me again, and I'm sensitive, seems kind of tannic. Is this something you'd age or is this not that tannic? No, it's not that tannic. It's just that it's kind of our first red wine here, but additionally, yeah, these are just not meant to age. And again, imagine putting this together with salamis, picnic fare, things that are fatty. Slight chill on it. Yes. There is a slight chill on this, I hope you all noted. Yes. Well done, Chris. Really timed it. But even a hamburger, I think would be delicious with this and it'll tame those tannins right. I think it's great. Yeah, it's very interesting. It's very different. It's delightful. And so many wines are, the stereotype is that they're overly serious. And this is a fun, fun wine. Well, it shows the French can be fun in Burgundy, which is crazy. The French are like, we. That's exactly why I picked it because it's a little weird, it's a little fun. Gamay amps up the jovial nature of this wine. You know, we got some of that kind of like roasted, baked, kind of smoky kind of quality. And the wine is at 15 and a half, which is quite high. I know, crazy, right? Wow, yeah. You know, we just think about kind of the fruit hanging on the vine and the rightness that we're going to get. I mean, you get that in the richness of the wine, but the alcohol does not stand out. I mean, that's especially unusually high for that region, right? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and it doesn't stand out at all. No. Right. Yeah, very well integrated. Okay. Well, I'm glad you found that interesting. We're going to move on to Sicily. This is Caruso Menini, and it's a blend of Nerello Maschilese and Frappato. So two maybe lesser known grapes that they call Frappello. What? That's the name of the wine? Frappello. It's a portmanteau. Frappello is a portmanteau of- You can't call the wine Frappello when there's Frappato in the wine. They're just two perfume seeds. Frappato and Nerello. Frappello. Jim, you know all these guys, right? It has a Frappello on it too. Yeah, it does. Okay. They pay their marketing people too much. Anyway, Nerello Mascleisi though, love- Actually, I love both of these grape varieties, but Nerello Mascleisi especially. Nerello Mascleisi, a very classy grape grown on volcanic soils of Mount Etna, often compared to pretty intense pinos of Burgundy perhaps, elegant and powerful at the same time. Frappetto, very high acid, very fruity, very low tannin. So you're filling in the tannin with the Nerello and you're getting really bright acid and fresh fruit with Frappetto. There is serious florality on the nose here. Yeah, that's the Frappetto likely. Like superviolet, super roses. On the palate, there's this upper layer of all these aromatics. Then you get all this fruit plane in the middle and then you get this layer of savory herbal quality on the bottom. It's so complex on the nose. It's almost like a cocoa thing going on too. Chris, this is interesting. Where else would we have encountered these grapes being used here? Nowhere else in the world. Both of these are indigenous to Sicily. Wow. They are indeed. I call BS. This is fine for the summer, but this tastes like Christmas. This is a Christmas taste in wine. Okay. But it's not a full body in wine. You guys ruined our picnic. It's so spicy though. It's like so herbal and spicy. There is spice for sure. You fruitcake boys would love this. That was not an insult. I don't know why you're laughing. You guys like fruitcakes, right? Yeah. Fruitcake in July. So you should pair this with Jimmy Buffett. Now I'm lost. Go back to it again. I almost get that same herbal raspberry juice thing. Yeah. Like elderflower. That's the bottle of Matilda open on the table. Forpato was allegedly descended from San Giovese, crossed with something. Yeah. This has like a cinnamony quality to it. I can see what you're talking about and there's like plum and- That's a plum for sure. Yeah. This would be a nice autumnal wine. Now we're three seasons. This is a good Thanksgiving wine. Yeah. This is a wine for all seasons, damn it. Cold cut season, turkey season. This would be nice with some burrata. I could see that being nice. Why am I blanking? A beet salad. Beet and goat cheese salad? I agree. I think there's an earthy element here. Sans beets. I would need the beet salad. I'm just throwing it out there as a good pairing for this. No, but I think also like a bruschetta with the- Basil. Yes, I completely agree. Mozzarella or brats as you mentioned with the basil and- Very ripe tomatoes. Yeah. This one too, you want to put a slight chill on as Chris did, and Pat struggling to come up with words because this is not his style. But again, this is that lighter old world kind of refreshing style. That felt needless. It's not your style, bro. It's not like you've been to Italy or anything. Yeah, he skipped that part of Italy. He is in Northern Italy. I really like this. What's the price point on this? This is, oh, just give me one. Chris, you know the question is coming. The bottle looks expensive. I know. I just looked at it and I forgot. $12.99. What? No. It's $12.99. Really? I'm telling you, I picked values and I picked interesting things. That is shockingly good for $12.99. This is great for $12.99. This is a good producer. They make Marsala too. Are you going to take a photo of it now, Pat? Chris, is there still some in the store? Yes. I need some stuff for this weekend. You know what I have a question about? What do you think about that they wrote dry red wine on the back here? Would you consider this particularly dry? I can see people turning them off to this maybe. Maybe I'm just think that there's enough fruit character and florality that I wouldn't think of this as a dry wine. Yeah. Good question. It does taste that it is fermented dry. It is a fruitier style and because of the aromatics of the grape varieties involved that it can play itself as, it can trick you a little bit, but it is fermented dry. Yeah. It's sweet, I guess. I mean, this is a common thing that we run into on the floor at Binny's. People are using a term dry or sweet, and sometimes sweet means fruity, but not actually sweet. In their minds. Yes. Communicating on the right level with the right vocabulary is always a challenge, but this is definitely a dry wine with lots of fruity elements and floral elements. Why they put that on the label though, I can't speak too much to it in terms of what their marketing play is. I will say though, the EU just passed some new regulation in terms of information that now must appear on wine labels. So moving forward, we will see a lot of nutritional information on wine labels coming out of the EU, which is honestly quite tragic. Insofar as when we heard about that, we had a German winemaker in town and he was quite honest about it. He was frustrated because he knows, say a lot of German winemakers will abide by this law. But he knows some of the biggest companies coming out of Europe and coming out of Italy, for example, et cetera, will just skirt around and just not do it. Actually, it's a lot of those wines, those bulk wines that do have a lot to reveal in terms of sugar that is in the wine and revealing that to customers. The conformity with the law and the abiding by the law will be different based on where you're at. That's the unfortunate part. The big guys that actually have something to disclose will not do it. The guys that should be, yeah, they'll do it and whatever. It doesn't matter for you. Here's where the sweet dry debate comes in. Again, because if we were to apply this to say, California wines at the low end and you had to disclose how much sugar was in say, whatever. I'm not going to name anything. Just a big brand Pinot Noir. Big brand anything at the low end, red wine that everybody calls dry. A lot of times they're not. Yeah. Oftentimes those wines are like 12 to 16 grams per liter of sugar. Customers have no idea. This is where that would help out. It's like rum level. Who's in the news? Who's in the news? All right. We'll save it for that. Next wine coming around, Domaine du Saint-Just. Pat's not going to like this one. Greg, it's Domaine du Saint-Just. Cap Franck? Domaine du Saint-Just? I really love the Cap Franck from Chapelet. Okay. So this is, well, this is- My brother's in their wine club and gets- You mean the $115 one? Yeah, my brother's in their wine club and gets the Cap Franck all the time. It's really good. I'm going to show it next month in class. This is not a Pritchard Hill level ripeness and it's not going to be fermented in new oak. I will say, I will say, Cap Franck out of the Loire though, due to the warmer temperatures, you're getting so much less of that green or beige quality than you once did. I remember a few years ago like blinding Cabernet Franc and being like, is this Cap Franck from the Loire or is this Carmonier from Chile? Right. For a second, you weren't sure. But because of the warmer temperatures. I get it. I'm raising my eyebrows at Cab Franck for summertime. Hot Temp, Cab Franck. I think Cab Franck is a nice chillable grape variety. It's a classic summer wine. Let's find out. Really? Yeah. This might be a little on the rich side, but Cab Franck in the Loire is traditionally made. Especially the entry-level bottles are fruity, bright, easy-going, medium-bodied, medium-tanned. As I've said before during a Barley Wine Podcast, let's not pretend that people don't lock themselves in their air-conditioned homes during the summer a lot. Thank you. Greg's sitting in a f**king dark basement and thinking that he needs to drink porch-pounders all day. Oh no, I'm on your side on this argument. Every day of the week, I'm always like, don't tell me what to drink. Come on. I can drink whatever I want. Also, we always talk about these lighter wines, but then you look at what people are putting on their grill. They're like, oh, we need a hefty wine. If you're grilling a steak, obviously, you need something big and bold. Can we talk about the back labels of wine for a minute? Like this looks like it was printed on a dot matrix printer. Well, the thing is- People pay extra for this. They need to class up their act a little. It's not the wineries necessarily. Yeah, that's the importer who's doing the import label. And they're not spending money on the back label. It's required because it has all the warnings and stuff. But- Okay, Pat, we'll leave you with this one. As a Chappalee Cab Franc lever from Napa, so more cooler climate Cab Franc. I'm totally on board with this as a summer red. It's light on its feet, but it's pretty full-flavored, ton of fruit. It's got a drying, oaky finish from what I'm thinking. It has actual acidity. It has this refreshing, acidic. Yeah, it has enough acidity that you really... It's almost the quenching type where you want to go back and have another sip right away. Exactly why Cab Franc is a good summer wine. Bright, fresh raspberry fruit. Yeah. Bright acidity. It smells like roses. Yeah. The aromas are so floral. So incredible. Just to be precise about this, this is Sommar Champigny, which is an Appalachian itself separate from Sommar, and only Cab Franc can be grown there. There's no Chenin Blanc there like the rest of Sommar. What's the producer? This is Domaine de Saint-Just. There's wine dripping out of Roger's goatee right now. There's a whole roll of paper towels right there. It's because I just drank tomato leaves. The truth comes out, he hates this wine. At least he's wearing a burgundy-colored polo. He was pretend choking a second ago because he hates this wine so much. Wait, really? You don't have to drink it. He's making him a lort face. It's tomato leaves. Yeah, I mean, Caber de Franc is famous for its pyrazine content, green pepper, tomato leaf, all that kind of stuff. It's not as bad as some that I've had. No, no, this is not particularly strong in that respect. This is so negative for a great wine. Raspberry and blueberry. I think that they handled this really well. It's this bright, fresh light on its feet, zippy red with full body flavors but not the weight. Roger, yes, it's a little vegetal, but it's not green pepper pyrazine. It's true on the herbaceous side. We need to make Roger drink Caber de Franc in its element because he would probably throw up. His wine is so off-putting. No, Roger, I've had them that just straight up seem like green pepper stew. It's just super gross. You want to dig into weird words on labels. This comes from a small plot in Seymour-Champigny that's called Saint-Cyr. Damn it. Right? But unlike the famous Saint-Cyr, it is spelled S-A-I-N-T-C-Y-R, Saint-Cyr. But it's literally indistinguishable if you hear a French person say this from Saint-Cyr. Barbara and I actually went to this producer. Amazing place. We pulled up to this guy's house. This is arnaud Lambert. We go into his yard and we go into the family room and there are kids toys all over the place and kids run around and we're tasting wine. Then it's really cool. He's super nice. The family is really nice. Then we go out in the backyard and they have these prehistoric caves like old dwellings that had been turned into wine caves at some point. We're walking around through these caves. It's completely amazing. Ancient wine presses and stuff in there. Literally like fireplace, like fire pits and stuff from ancient dwellings. It's in his backyard. It's very cool. That's awesome. He's like, don't tell the government, please. Anyway, very, very nice people. And I thought the wines were terrific when they were there. They're really great. Jeanne-Malang too. And not one of these multi-generational families only been around since the 90s. Arnoux's father started it. So pretty recent, but they're buying great plots and making really, really good wine. Chris, what's this set you back, like 25 bucks? Yeah, not even that. $21.99. Nice. Yeah. There's nothing expensive today. Nothing at all expensive. What's next? What is next? Meinklang Prosa. Do you remember talking about Meinklang before? Eastern Austria. Austria, cool. Austria. Uh-oh. Totally. There's Weigelt in here. I can tell you right now. There's Weigelt coming around the table. So hardcore natural biodynamic producer. This is a blend of Pinot Noir, Weigelt, and blaufranckisch. Pinot Noir, Weigelt, blaufranckisch. And it's bubbly. It's fizzy. And it's rosé. And it's rosé. And there's a cow on the label and it's adorable. It's adorable. Meinklang. I would not hesitate to recommend any of Meinklang's wines. I love all of them. And yes, so this is a Pet Nat. Yep. And they make some still wines as well. I don't know about going with this color scheme in the cow. It looks like a slaughterhouse scenario. Meinklang's Abattoir Prosa. But they were biodynamic way before it was cool. And it's a kind of a mixed farm, whatever you call it, a mixed farm. They have all this s*** going on. It's a working farm besides just a vineyard. There's a good reason there's a cow on it. Absolutely filthy today. If you told me biodynamic Pet Nat, I would not... I would assume I would have been disgusted by it. And this is really good. It's light and fresh and fine. It is. Are they aware that Pet Nat is supposed to taste gross? There are no funky notes here. It's Pet Nat. They couldn't help it. The interesting thing I think from my point of view, so Pet Nat is generally Frizzante, and this has a light bubble to it. But there's definitely residual sugar here that you can taste. So this on the shelf theoretically will continue to ferment, and it will get drier because it is Pet Nat. And bubblier. And bubblier. So there's a trade off. This is probably pretty fresh stock. It's 2022. I think it just came in. So here we are on the sweeter end of the trajectory. And it's going to get drier and more fizzy. It's very bubbly. It is so good. You guys, you didn't let Roger say bottle conditioned. Yes, bottle conditioned. Exactly, it's bottle conditioned. Okay. First for me, a Pet Nat I like. Well, you know, this is just proof that the so-called natural wine movement does not have to be about or embrace traditional wine flaws. They can be made cleanly and they can be made well. They can taste delicious and still be natural. Well, I know I'd liked Greg's pick of the year last year was that stupid Pet Nat, right? Yeah, it was a film recording. It tasted like a sour beer. Yeah. I did like that because it tasted like a sour beer. Exactly. Tasted like a Jim bag. Yeah. I went with Roger on this one. That was total sh**, Greg. Nuts to both of you. You picked that as a total joke. Yeah. You just wanted to seem like you were trendy or something. Do I? Look at my time shirt combination right now. I was going to comment on it, but then when I teed it at my head, it was just too mean, so I kept it inside. He did it literally just to tick you off. Really? Well, the colors go. So this I think plays into what we were talking about earlier about sweetness and fruitiness. It's so upfront and fruity that you almost at first, I'm like, wow, I didn't anticipate this to be this sweet, but it's not, but it tricks you into thinking it is at first. In this case, I think there is residual sugar here that I can taste in addition to fruitiness and this will remain quite fruity. It will just get drier slightly. And to Alicia's point about it being a broader farm, this is like Austria, the homeland of Rudolf Steiner. This is the true definition of biodynamic farming, where you have a working farm with all kinds of different fauna and flora that goes into a- It's your favorite word, Greg. Quit sighing heavily over it. Yeah, this is interesting stuff. You know what the kids would like? How about this? How about this? Put some framboise in it. Too much. It tastes like too much. It's just like your shirt tie combination. There it is. So if you want something that tastes like there's framboise in it, enjoy the next one. We don't have to put any framboise in here. Yeah. No. This is some bougie wine, Chris. It is totally bougie. Bougie. I can't wait to hear Greg's descriptors in the nose of this wine. Oh boy. Okay, it's like they took Lemon Pledge and mixed it with polish remover, nail polish remover. Like, we gotta fruit up this nail polish remover. What other chemicals do we have in the closet? Like, right above the vacuum. Taste it. Wow, I've never heard of anything on this wine label. Will you explain it to him as he's pouring it? Sure. So, this is Cerdan de Bougie. Renard Fache. Yeah. Cerdan de Bougie. Yeah. That's the style of wine this is. Yes. It's made with Gamay, although I think it can include Poulsard, another Eastern French varietal that's widely grown in the Jura. I think this is all Gamay. I don't remember the nose on this style of wine being so medicinal. I haven't. When did you have it last? It was like 18 years ago. It smells like a Band-Aid. I don't have it in my glass yet, so I can't comment on that. Hurry up, Roger. But this is. I'm looking at the ridiculous back label. Is this a coonskin cap, a frying pan? What exactly is that supposed to be? It's a sommelier's taste testament. Pass the bottle. Calm down. So I think you guys are smelling ethyl acetate, right? Sure. Probably. Yeah. I don't want to act like I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Acetone. Yeah. So the nail polish remover thing. Yeah. But it's like lip smacking combined with nail polish remover. It smells like the hobby shop. Are we going to make a Pinewood Derby car? I actually have to agree with the people in this room that this is a unique wine with a unique profile that I'm not sure that many people can wrap their heads around. I mean, if you just said sweet sparkling, then we've had that pink Moscato last summer maybe, or the summer before. It was not long ago. Wow, this is sweet. It's so sweet. Yeah. Ooh. Well, okay. So let me... Oh no, this does have pulsard in it. Oh, we were all wondering. We were all on the edge of our seats, wondering if there was pulsard in this one. Doesn't have pulsard. Is it? 21% pulsard. There's an odd, I don't mind how it tastes at all. I just, the thing on the nose, the band-aidy character on the nose is throwing me off. There's definitely plenty of customers who love this one. For the palate. Yeah. Well, it's just sweet and bubbly and rosé color. Let me point a few things out to you. It's sweet and savory though too. The savory character is throwing me off. Number one, this is also made using the Method Ancestral, meaning for re-fermented in the bottle with no disgorgement, so living yeast in here, this will get drier just like the last one. I would say that in a lot of highly aromatic wines like this, acetone in small amounts is an enhancement. Yeah, the same small amounts. Yeah, this tips the scale a little bit here. I've never- Do you think that'll change as it continues to re-ferment in the bottle? I doubt it. I think that's going to be there. It tastes like strawberries and olives. Strawlives? Try throwing some strawberry jam on your next olive pizza. I think you'll get this. Oh, green olive pizza? Yeah, this is something you'd polish a bowling ball with. Can we go on to the next wine? That was it. That's it. Oh, that's the finish? That's the grand finale. It's literally the- What a turd. What a turd. Give me the propello. For $12.99, this is the winner of the day. What an amazing bottle of red wine. Okay, but eat a fresh strawberry with this. You eat a fresh strawberry. You eat it. And an olive. Really cool selection, Chris. Thank you. I thought it was interesting. A whole bunch of Off the Beaten Path stuff, new to me stuff. That's cool. This is exactly the kind of wine episode I wish we had regularly. I don't know why you're staring at me, Chris. Fun and interesting. He's staring at you because I put it together. I think he's insulting your wine episodes. I'm fully aware. No, I'm just trying to stay on the mic and you're across from my mic. That's all. I'm just trying to put a fine point on it. All right. Both of you. We just need to wrap it up. Okay, here we go. Ready? I think that Brooks is the winner for me. This is really good. That was an amazing wine. So we got, it seems like the consensus is that white from when I'm at the Brooks. Yeah. What was the first one we had? The white burgundy? The Alagote. Alagote. That was great. Then that weird Italian one, Frappello. I love it. I love it. It's got the Frappello on the front. So that's how you can find it. Go drink different stuff, people. Yeah. Exactly. If there is a theme to this podcast, it's get off of your normal Chardonnay, sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir kick. Yeah. Get out there, explore things. These are inexpensive. They're super easy to drink and enjoy. It'll open up your eyes to whole new worlds. The selection of wines to pair with cold cuts is as diverse and broad as a selection of cold cuts themselves. Yes, indeed. Don't call them porch pounders. Don't call them porch pounders. Garden Guzzlers. You can go to the Willamette Garden Guzzlers. It's Gazebo Guzzlers. Gazebo Guzzlers. Mortadella mates. Sandwich zippers. Okay. I'm Alicia. Sandwich zippers. Chris, thanks for bringing this, all of them. Really good, affordable. These are awesome. Delicious during the summertime or year-round. Indeed. Yeah. Thank you. I'm glad you liked them. Thank you for listening to another episode of Barrel, to Bottle. Back in your feed next week with something fun. Until then, I'm Greg. I'm Pat. I'm Roger. I'm Alicia. I'm Chris. Keep tasting. It's so sweet. Ooh.