on the next episode of Soap Suds and smokes. So here's the winds were going to be discussing today. So from sharpened burger, we have the brut excellence and the brut Excellence Rose from Roederer estate. We have the brut rose and the one we know Armitage, Brut 2015 uh Champagne tell mont brut reserve And from en route we have the Russian River Romero Chardonnay 2019 and the Russian River Way Paumier, Pinot Noir 2018. So pretty decent lineup.
I'd say if you're not having fun and you're drinking wine and champagne, then you're doing something incredibly wrong. Right? I would be devastated if you did not join me for at least one glass of fine champagne. We'll be right back after this break by brought to you almost live from the dude in the basement studios. Why? Because that's where the good stuff is it sips suds and smokes with your smoke and host the good old boys. Now it's sip in time. Hey, it's time again.
Welcome to this episode where everything good in life is worth discussing. As always, we are the best thing on at two AM. No, we're not. Hogan's heroes, Man. Hogan's heroes. Well nothing's better than Hogan's heroes. Yes, that's, that's what I mean, streaming services bobby always forget about them. You know I, you know what can I tell you? I, I like anything that's Hogan's heroes. But you know that's just me, you can't go by me. So this made man bob and joining me today are goodbye harm.
Well thank you bob. I enjoy being here. It's a pleasure to be in the basement and drinking wine. Wine, wine wine. Is this an Alabama show or isn't it always? I don't know. I'm sorry. We abandoned Alabama and and Mike is going to kick me off the show now. No, we'll just do it. Good old boy. Mike is a Tennessee fan. So my wife regularly taunts him nice and made mandatory Good morning. Another exciting day in the basement with some crushed up grapes and goodbye Justin, Good morning.
Always good to be here among the vines and the wine guys, the wine guys, we'll take that. Well this is sips episode and our sip segments are all about wine, distilled spirits, tea, coffee, whiskey, and pretty much anything else you can drink. And today we did a coffee show bob. You're not on them. They do them all the time. I don't do them because I don't drink coffee. Well they don't do them because they don't like you. Coffee is t is where it's at earl gray hot, they don't like you.
That's why they don't do it. So, so here's the wines we're gonna be discussing today. So from sharpened burger, we have the brut excellence and the brut Excellence, rose from Roederer estate. We have the brut rose And the Hermitage brut, 2015 Champagne tell mont brut reserve. And from en route we have the Russian, River Romero Chardonnay, and the Russian River Lake Paumier, Pinot Noir 2018. So pretty decent lineup I'd say so.
Let's have Justin tell us all about our sips, sips, one sip, gag me with a spoon and a glass of water to wash out my mouth. I think you just did gag me. Oh my God, you did it before the show started. I said I need California and french together. That's just creepy. 26. But what else do you have? This is grody grody to the max. Mhm. Uh He brought it today. I just threw up my mouth a little three sips, interesting. Um what was this again? It's so absolutely tubular man. I already played the sound.
I'm just trying to make it go away. Four sips. Let's keep this secret to ourselves. Call me another and hide it from bill. That's classified. I think you need to work a dispenser in there somewhere. Five sips. Mm hmm. I was unaware. Anything could be this good. Like Heaven Hill. What what distillery? There's a dispensary. I don't know. It's a dispensary is because I'm on probation. Okay. I don't know all the strains of pop, but I've heard of northern lights.
Okay. Yeah, straight into the toilet, went with that. So how would you say that to the french accent. Northern lights, Their nose and lights light set. That's french, Canadian. Yeah. When you had an A to the end. That is definitely Canadian. I'm sorry. Alright, so we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna do our first one. So let's uh I would be devastated if you did not join me for at least one glass of fine champagne. Well, is that the need more cowbells guy? That's Christopher walking. What?
Hold on. I would be devastated if you did not join me for at least one glass. And that's his regular accent. I don't think he's making that up. I think that's just how he talks. So. All right, take it away maury. Thank you sir. Sharpen Burger Cellars was founded in 1981 by John Sharpen Burger in the heart of Mendocino does Anderson Valley with the coastal influence from the nearby pacific ocean ocean. Sharpen burger sellers enjoy sunshine and cool breezes within the protected Anderson Valley.
In 2000 and four, the winery entered a new chapter as a member of the Roederer collection. And with the winemaker, Jeffrey Jayendra continues to craft sparkling wines that showcase the Mendocino County terroir zeros right.
Every bottle of sharpened burger seller, sparkling wine is individually fermented using the time honored practice of the traditional method, champenoise process whereby the wines are individually bottle fermented before being riddled and then disgorged Approximately 80% of their wine undergoes malolactic fermentation. This secondary fermentation converts the tart malic acid, too soft and creamy lactic acid.
This technique is a signature of the sharpened burger style and contributes to the rich and creamy texture of their wine every year through fractional blending sharpen burger ads, reserve wine during the blending process. On average, 12% of reserve wine is added to their nonvintage blends to create a consistent flavor profile. Our first wine from Sharpen Burger will be the brut excellence from Mendocino County coming in at 12% a BV.
The brute is a blend of 60% chardonnay and 40% pinot noir grapes sourced from sharpen burgers own 120 acres of vineyards as well as select vineyards belonging to trusted growers in Mendocino County, aged a minimum of two years on the lease before being riddled, disgorged and topped off with the desired sausage and aged under the cork for six months. Okay, so let's talk about the wine. The wine is a beautiful, very pale yellow color. Thank you pal straw.
Um, on the nose, you definitely get a lot of yeast. Get notes of bread. What are you doing with the computer man? Stop touching buttons. He did not deserve that little sparkly tone. He wasn't, he wasn't sparkling yet. Um it's got a nice mouth feel. Uh it's, it's bright on the palate. It's got some nice acidity. It's got a medium finish. I think it's very nice wine. It's a, it's a, I think you could make this an all day, sit at the pool. I think it's light, it's refreshing.
Um it's um, it's not overly complex, but I think it's enjoyable harm, you know, uh Maury. When I first tasted this wine, I was not impressed at all. I don't know, I don't think we started to cold but I just felt it was too muted and it's gotten so much better with air and just warming up closer To about 60° rather than 54 45. It's it's you know, I'm spilling wine now. Anyway it's it's got a beautiful strong color. I get yellow grapefruit on the nose melon. Uh If there was a lot of apple earlier.
Green apple. Now it's like light lemons. I don't know if there's a hint of like you know just tart peach. The mousse is very light. It's not overly bubbly. Um Has the squirrel? There was zero moose and squirrel moose and squirrel must to get more. There was no finish when I had it cold. But now that it's warmed up to a little bit warmer than you normally serve champagne. It's the medium. It's a medium finish and I'm really enjoying it. It got better. But I just find it very un interesting.
Well so does your wife and I'm not talking about the champagne yet. Yeah. Well if it's too cold it shrinks. That's that's what that's what he keeps telling her but she ain't buying it. He lives in Florida. You know, cold days, 60 actually I really enjoy this as it warms up and I was I was not impressed at first but now it's actually gotten quite nice just in what you think. So the creamy vanilla mint on the nose and on the palate? I got cream soda with white melon. Zero vanilla, mint.
What the hell is that? Vanilla and mint. Not vanilla, mint. Creamy vanilla, mint. Open your ears. Creamy comma, vanilla comma, Yeah, creamy vanilla, mint. Right? Not creamy vanilla, mint. That would be interesting. I got cream soda on the palate. And seriously, when was the last time you had a cream soda? It's been the last couple of months. I had one. I'm married to an Alabama girl. We've got creeps out of the house. Was definitely Alabama. Regular mayonnaise in the house.
Oh no dude, we have we have three brands of mayonnaise, mayonnaise, mayonnaise and I'm taking your women. What's your favorite brand of mayonnaise? Yeah. Seriously it's craft. I don't I'm not I'm not down with this Hellmann's. Even though the Southerners craft, there was one mayonnaise. It's dukes and that's it. That's my wife, you're Alabama. Now now you say the right thing to say the thing I want you to say denim, the finish was light. What did you think Maury? I agree. It's short finish.
Um To me this is a poolside coughing wine. Yeah, I agree. I wish I I wish I was at the poolside coughing it right now Instead of sitting with us earlier. I know exactly. What? Excuse me. What are we doing in here. Where's the orange juice? We're making mimosa. Oh this is this is that's a good idea. Yeah, this is way better than using a Prosecco for mimosa. I would go here Much better do what he said. Yeah, well made it's got a nice crisp knows on its clean green apple.
It's a cost it's in the 20s like 22. I like it. We'll be back hey and we're back and we were just wrapping it up on the sharpened burger brut Excellence. Um Yeah, it's got a nice creamy palate to it. I get a lot of crisp apple and a little bit of pair on it. It's got a you got a clean finish. Not particularly long but a nice clean finish. Justin going on about the vanilla. The vanilla is there was not that much. He doesn't know the vanilla and chocolate cream soda is vanilla. Oh believe me.
I know the difference of vanilla and chocolate. I do. Is this a sexist thing? What's going on here? No, I just we're talking about vanilla. No, he likes them both. He goes, yeah, I'm just saying he goes both ways. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Just learning all about me today. First gay. Anyway, try and get this back out of the gutter. So the sheriff and Berber sharpened barber sharpened burger brut Excellence. We're going to give a solid three steps. So let's move on to our next one.
We're gonna have Justin. Tell us about that one now. We're going to talk about the shark fin burger brut Excellence. Rose. It's like french and german That Mendocino County. It's 12.5% alcohol by volume. The softened burger Bruce Rose Excellence is made from 55% chardonnay. You know what? They left the accent mark off the E. So this would be rose, screw you. It's not rose. It's rose. I'm ahead of my time and 45% of America, 45% pinot noir.
The fruit balance and color are achieved by adding four and 5% of pinot noir wine to the blend before undergoing a second fermentation in the bottle, the color. It's rosie, it's a pale pink. The nose is creamy. I got notes of broccoli and like grapes, but there's an art to it, but it's not broccoli, but that's just not what veggie is it? It's the green part of the strawberry. Okay, very good. I've never eaten that. So I'm going to defer to you just, you've never eaten a whole strawberry gun.
Grateful. I've always pulled that green part off. Like normal people philistine enjoyed the whole strawberry. He's the chicken with, I just saw this, I just saw this BBC show about these uh you know when you, when you shrimp that outside crunchy part supposed to come off. Uh that explains a lot. You know, I hate that when you get shrimp and grits and they leave the tails on. Yeah. What's going on with these people. Why don't they do the work for you. Isn't that why you're going out.
That's exactly yeah. Well I've never had that happen. So I guess they're just doing it to you. No, no, no, no, nobody leaves the tail and the shells on and shrimp and grits. Unless of course, unless of course you're starving Harmeet. Unless of course they see him sitting at the table and they go not peeling up shouldn't do that. So the pallet I got fruity and woody on the side palette and it was pretty light. Let me get this right. It's woody and tastes like broccoli.
Yes. Okay. No, it smells like broccoli and it tastes woody. I'm sorry my bad. But you said you had a woody, I didn't realize you were talking about when you say it to you. Are we talking like woody Harrelson or like woody guthrie? Okay. You're upsetting me. Now smell the broccoli. Okay, the wood's gone after air so that must have been a pre air note and the finish was quick and now it is not that quick. It's slowed down after it's finished.
That's what harms wife has to say to people that don't need to go to. He has that tattoo actually. It's usually are you done yet? Are you done yet? We have a pill for that less quick. Yeah, no harm was complaining to you that you didn't have a coupon for him this time? Publix Publix pharmacy has them half off right now generics and you just told the entire world that good for you.
This is why there's stds in nursing homes because there's a coupon because there's a coupon a pub definitely in south florida. Well mrs again, I enjoyed this one, you know, for the money, it's a very serviceable sparkling wine. Um very, very pale salmon color. Um it's a little bit tart, a little bit fruity. I don't get any broccoli where the hell that comes from? Um Mhm. I think this one definitely got better as it warmed up a little bit. I think we had it too cold harm.
Okay, pale pink color, light melon. I got strawberries, the green part, the strawberry white pepper on the nose. Um the pallets, raspberry, mhm, mm hmm. A little bit of like cherry good acidity, medium finish, Interesting one. And for the price. Great. And let me see the acidity carries through. It's like a little bit unripe strawberry, a little peach. I think the key to this one is don't serve it too cold once it warmed up.
It definitely, definitely, it got, it got so cold and you know, people tend to serve champagne, you know, screamingly ice cold. Um you know, and they'll spend fortunes on real expensive bottles and I'm like, you can't taste any of it. I mean, it's literally you're not tasting anything. It's, you might as well be drinking, you know, like seltzer so well we're going to be uh raiding the scharffenberger brut. Excellent. Rose in Mendocino County, It says rose on the bottle. Three sips.
There's no accent work on that. You want to let go of that and actually read your next part. Fine. Let me pour some more wine first. Yes, that's fine. We've got all day. All right, thank you bob, I mean, yeah. Thanks bob. Founded in 1982 by Jean Claude and then President of Champagne Louis Roederer. He selected the original 340 Anderson Valley Vineyard and Winery sites to create Roederer estate. If you're unfamiliar with rotor, they make crystal Champagne.
The vineyards were planted in 1980 for the warning was built in 1986 and the first rotor straight non vintage brut cuvee was released in 1988 based on their belief that the estate owned vineyards were key to ensuring the very best wine. They spent the following years patiently adding new vineyards to increase the size of their state to 620 acres.
In the Anderson Valley A V A jean Claude has since transferred management of the estate to his son Frederick, All of the grapes used by the winemaker Arnaud Weyrich are grown on his estate and each year he selects a portion of the best wines for aging in large French oak casks, 1200-1800 gallons each. Asian on average for four years. The wines from this reserve seller are added to the blend, creating a multi vintage cuvee in the traditional road race style.
So with this first one is the Roederer estate brut rose 12.5 A. B. V. The ST rose is a blend of 56% pinot noir, 44% chardonnay uh for the color of the winemaker Arnaud Weyrich prepares a small proportion of pinot noir wine. Extended master extended maceration and that adds about 3 to 5% of the to the blend before secondary fermentation imparting a subtle salmon tinge. It says here on the coup by first pressing Of 120 gallons per ton is used and no first or second tale the um what is it?
The fermentation takes place In high grade stainless steel tanks at 65°F zero to minimal malolactic fermentation is used in order to ensure the wines age well and retain the fresh, precise and well defined style that is characteristic of the Roederer estate wines and that's a great pr blurb that actually matches reality, which is fantastic because there is zero Malik here.
This isn't the Roederer estate, just if you bought the french wine and you brought the and you bought the american Roederer estate stuff, you'll see they're very similar frankly. The dirty little secret is the american stuff is half the price and better than the french. This is where you go Um unless you're going to crystal, but now your $300 a ball. Right, So this is around the $20 range, $25 range Back in the day. I could have it on sale for 18 bucks. Crazy prices. It's a pale pink eye.
It just verges on salmon. So that's that's a good, that's a good necessarily. Say the roses a little bit more than the white uh Roederer estate. Yeah, the roses a little bit more. It's like 25 30. The entry level is 18, 18 to 20 bucks rover estate. I cannot say enough about their wines. They do a great job in Anderson Valley and frankly it's half the price of the french stuff. That's what you should be getting all day. Rose means ramen all week.
So on the nose, fresh red apples, strawberries and a little bit of like raspberry um on the palate. Let's see. Mhm. This has a lot more moose than the 1st 2 Champagnes. The beautiful bubble um apple and peach, a little bit of baking spice. I don't know if that's clove or what it is, but it's very nice and the finish is medium long. This wine has gotten better. It's has been sitting. I just poured some fresh from the bottle here.
Just make sure you have the right temperature serving Champagne too cold does a disservice Justin. So I got on the nose, it was creamy chopping broccoli, creamy, light fruit buttercream on the nose. The palette was bold and the finish was long and strong. I like this Murray. Let's do it. I thought it was an Applebaum. I got a lot of overwhelming red apple up front. Um The red berries come in though.
They come in, they come in I mean it's it's improving some air and some time in the bottle I would say that it's an exceedingly uh like the other one relatively pale, very pale pink or rose color. Although you can't drink the color but it's it's a little hard to discern that it's a rose. Um And uh I thought it was a nice wine but for me it was just a little too fruity, a little too apple. E little hint of strawberry there. Um People are looking for fruity white wines and rose though.
People people expect that. Okay you don't think so? I think you're right to a degree. I think you need to see an ophthalmologist if you think that's not very pale. There is pink, that's definitely pink. Dude. Only when you compare two different roses together put compared to the first one, the first one. But the first rose was very pale. No I think it's lovely. It's got it is anne Applebaum but it's got mhm. It's got some red berries to it. It's definitely opened up once it warmed up a bit.
Nobody else got a hint of peach, a little bit of white page. Yeah. Um Yeah well what can I tell you? Putin's coming after me now. So it's you know, a lovely, lovely rose especially for the money. Um You know it's hard to beat anything from road or so we're gonna be rating the Roederer estate brut, rose. Precepts interesting. So we're gonna move on to our next wine. Let me grab that. So it's the rotor estate armitage brut 2015 12.5% A BV.
What Armitage rotor estate special technical V. Is a sparkling wine made only. You're gonna, you're gonna, you want me to go back to paragraph? Do you want me to go back and correct some of your french sport? Oh yeah, speak french yeah, I speak english. It's a sparkling wine made only in exceptional years from pre selected estate grown grapes. The wine for the dosage is added to the Hermitage 2015 was a 2015 wine aged for six years in the French oak casks.
Following discouragement, it was aged an additional six months on the court pride release the 2015 Vintage was at the end of the 2013, drought. Winter was mild and bud break was very early in february bloom in early May and it was windy and cool in june then it got very hot. This is all pushing for an early harvest. Starting in August August seven actually, that's a super early harvest. So the color.
Beautiful straw, gold going on the nose, hazelnuts, a little bit of straw, a little bit of white stone fruit. White peach and on the palate, mm hmm on the palate. It's got some white page. It's got some pair. A little bit of tart green apple on the tip of the tongue and on the sides. It's got a really nice mouth feel to it. I got a really nice creaminess. Um, pretty good finish as well finish goes on. Excellent one. Excellent one. What do you think? Justin? I really enjoyed this.
Um, I got a lot of the same notes that you did. Um, the thing that stands out for me is the finish that it's dry but not too dry. You could have this with like great fruits and like fragrant cheeses and it would cut them nicely. I don't like champagne with cheese. She's dead. And your palate. I think you need a boulder red wine. And frankly, um, when you, this is not champagne american sparkling wine. But when I talked to some champagne specialists recently, you know, Campagna.
It's not champagne unless it comes from the province of Champagne. I learned that in bartending school. That's right. Anyway, perfect. I love it. Hard to follow that one up, isn't it? Smart Guy. I had, I made the mistake of having some brie one day we're having a wine tasting. I made the mistake having some breathing followed with some champagne made all the champagne taste bitter. They don't serve champagne.
You don't serve champagne with cheese unless you have it with the special cheese they make in the champagne region, which is tiny production. Um, it's just hard to pear champagne with pretty much everything he tastes is better, but that's just, you know, the bile rising in him. No, not anymore, not anymore. They took my gallbladder out cold mastectomy for the win baby anyway. Mhm. The the wine was great, but I I feel like you can't do cheese with this man. Don't do cheese. Stop it, stop it.
Okay, that's okay. What do you think? Maury? I like this wine. I think this wine is delicious. Um I think it's extremely well made and I would agree that you've got to spend a lot of money uh to to do better than the Roederer estate uh sparkling wines. Uh I in fact did a blind tasting a number of years back where we compared the Hermitage, the Roederer estate entry level as well as the crystal and the entry level french champagne.
And we did it all blind and honestly on that particular day, at that particular moment, the ordinary Roederer Estate one, beat them all and none of them were roses. These were all honestly money. You can't beat it. The last three vintages of crystal over the top, stunning.
I used to not like Kristen, well this is going back more than five years ago, but the last three has not had the last few vintages, but it's important that Roederer Estate and Scharffenberger, you know, the same people, it's their affiliated companies at this point. Yeah. And that, you know, you can, you can definitely tell the house style. Yeah, there's there's Zillow, I'm sorry. Zero malolactic fermentation real estate.
So you've got that, you've got that, you've got all that malic acid, that's where all these green apple notes are coming from. So yeah, it's beautiful. Not true. What's not true. Sharpened Burger, goes, undergoes malolactic fermentation. I thought that they deserve rotor but not not Scharffenberger. Okay, so I'm glad he's listening so close. So this was a great wine. I love the palette, I love the mouth feel, I love the creaminess.
Uh I like to finish um I definitely got a lot of yeasty and bready notes on the nose and I personally like that in Champagne. I think some people like their Champagne a little more acidic a little brighter. But I thought this was I don't think this was as yeasty and bright as I liked though. This is this is more on the bright side. Great acidity. No, we'll be back hey. And we're back and we were just finishing up discussing the Roederer estate.
L'ermitage brut 2015. Um I think we're done going around that one. So we're going to be rating that won a well deserved forceps. So let's move on to our next one which is Champagne tell mont reserve brut, it's 12% a BV uh Champagne tell mont can trace its origins back to 1912 When Henry Capital to create his own Champagne House under his name. In 1937, his son Andre became cellar master following the death of his father after several years off for World War two.
Andre returned to Champagne to develop his father's legacy and named the brand Champagne Champagne Date Elmont After the name of one of his best vineyard plots. In 1983. Andrei's son, Serge takes over champagne to tell moment where he continues his father's legacy and serves as deputy mayor and mayor of Demery for 18 years. But he doesn't have a problem pulling a permit. So you know, yeah we wanna we wanna push this wall out and do a little bit of work. Oh yeah, that's not a problem.
In 1999 surge hands over the house to his Children, Bertrand and Pascal who carry on their family's values went even deeper care for their land. In 19 2017 they received the first organic certification for certain sections of the houses vineyard Basically. It took him 10 years to get to that point in 2021 tel mont launched his first certified organic cuvee reserve de la Terre with the goal of 100% of 12 months estate wines being certified organic by 2025.
In 2020, Remy Quantrill became the majority shareholder of Philmont with Bertrand capital remaining as the cellar master and the head of viticulture. And in 2022 Leonardo Dicaprio invested as a minority shareholder in Tel Mont Champagne House. So apparently every movie star out there is buying a piece of France and I just walked 12 of Wall Street on HBO the other night because nobody's home besides me right now. So you're saying this tastes like this tastes like.
Yeah. So Champagne Delmont brut reserve is a result of a marriage of three great varieties, 43% chardonnay, 37% manure and 20% pinot noir. Uh and it is a blend of seven distinct years made in stainless steel with my electric fermentation, aged for three years, bottled in April 2018 and gorged in 2021. Um the color is basically like a pail, sunshiny gold. They called straw. No, it's lighter than straw. On the nose. It's got a really nice crispy easiness to it.
A little bit of stone fruit, a little bit of sweetness. You don't get cut grass. I get cut grass, hmm. A little bit of, hey, um on the palate, very crisp, very clean. It's got a nice, it's got a nice aftertaste to it. Good acidity. Yeah. Overall, very nice. What do you think? Jason? I got a musty notes on the nose. On the palate. I got some nice fruit. It was clean. A little bit of rose petal flavor and in the background some cereal notes on the finish. It was long, balanced and pleasant.
Yeah. I definitely get the rose petal you get rose. I seriously have no clue you're talking about. Where's the rose petals? And it's on the palate, it's back very, very back of the palette, that sort of floral lei perfuming its white flowers, not rose. I get cut grass, peach and apples, a little white pepper, lemon and grapefruit, grape. Little like yellow grapefruit on the palate. Um It's actually there's a little bit of spice on what it is. It's quite good.
There's this, I love this aftertaste, it just goes on and it's got a great finish, a little baking soda in there. Not in a bad way, you know, I agree with harm as much as I hate to admit it. I think you got it spot on. I think the greatest asset to this wine is this nice, beautiful finish. I think it's uh but it drinks nicely. It's it's, you know, it's balanced, it's beautiful, It's enjoyable. Um And uh I agree with everything you said, I think you hit it.
You nailed, it says they've got malolactic fermentation, but I'm not getting a buttery nous to it. It's not creamy, but just enough for the mouth feel just, just softer mouth feel to balance that acid out, but there's such high acidity, it works. This is great. I think, Yeah, I think I think they put together a really a really quality product here. It's uh yeah, it's it's I mean, the front of the pallets very, very crisp and very queen. But the back of the pallet just goes on and on and on.
And they've got this. I want to talk about the bottle for a second here. They've got this label that has every geeky note on the front. It has the assemblage on it. It has the date it was harvested. It has the disgorgement date, the temperature of the time in the caves dosages 6.7 g per leader has the whole suppose john here 43% chardonnay, 30% 37% meunier, 20% pinot noir, uh verification, Classic fermentation, malolactic. It's all on here.
The front of their label looks like the back of somebody else's label. It's just it's not pretty but it's informative. It's cool. And that that I like about it. I I love it when somebody gives you that much information, you know, rather than just, you know a name and a fancy script and some flowers and a picture of a grape or something. It's nice when they give you the info. So for people that know nothing about wine like me, what's dosage dosage is the amount of sugar? They had 6.7 g/l.
And this one which would make it squarely brute. Alright, so we're gonna be reading the Champagne till mont Reserve brut. Uh forceps that's classified. We're. Moving on to our next winery. So we're gonna have Maury, tell us about that one. Thank you bob En route winery was established in 2007 by the partners of Napa Valley's Far Niente. Their mission brought them to the Russian River Valley, enveloped in fog where wet winters and spring give way to moderate summers.
These slow, consistent growing conditions allow them to shepherd every step of the verification process. Our first wine is the en route Russian river Brumer chardonnay 2019 14.5% A BV. While pinot noir brought them to Russian River Valley. The region's climate is equally ideal for chardonnay and root chardonnay broom air is named for the morning fog that famously cloaks the Russian River Valley, which creates the perfect climate to nurture their fruit to ideal ripeness.
So, um, this is a really lovely wine. It's a pale straw color on the nose. Lots of lemon, definitely a little bit of a floral note and a little bit of vanilla as well as citrus zest. It's that beautiful things now that it's warmed up. It's uh, it's nice on the lemon is going, lemon is popping that. It's sat out for a while. There's still stone fruit layers of citrus and vanilla. Don't discount the vanilla here. That that sweetness is there, no, the vanilla doesn't go away.
It's actually gotten a little bit better. I thought this was fairly ordinary when it came out of the bottle, but it really improved quite a bit with some air and some time in the glass and the finish was meeting. I think this is a lovely wine. It's well made. Um, I enjoyed it quite a bit Justin. This really opened up with time. Um, the palate. It's really creamy. A lot of great fruit flavors in it.
I don't know what I would pair with, but even on its own, it's, it's delicious and the finish is just silky smooth. It's just lovely. I do this with lobster. Yeah. In fact, where is my lobster in drawn butter bob? You invite us over to do a wine show and there's no lobster in brown butter. Not at the restaurant. You haven't paid for it yet. Yeah, wow. Uh yeah, this wine just really opened up. Let it breathe. Uh Everything they said was right.
It's not quite a butter bomb, but the malo, malo lactic acids there, It's buttery and creamy. There's just enough the butter there to give you the flavor. But it's not, you know, over the top, like some of them these days can be, it's really well done. I mean, the, the nose, the nose since we've sat here is, has increased tenfold. I mean, that that beautiful woman, like a woman. It's not just straight lemon, lemon vanilla and flowers. It's like a lemon curd like a pastry. Lemon curd.
Yeah, it is on the news. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's, yeah, this is it. I'm hungry now. I'm hungry. I need some lemon curd and some lobsters. Got just enough of the butter to it and it's just got a slight little bit of boat to it. Mm hmm. They didn't talk about the oak regimen on this one, did they? I'm guessing mostly french oak I would guess. I'll bet it's second fill french oak using the first fill for there was a lot of vanilla.
Maybe there's maybe there's some americans because a lot of vanilla here, I don't know. So good. But again, not over oaked. I think it has. You know, I think it was done tastefully in in a nuanced and finesse full way and again, another one that when we first started out was chilled and very very quiet and now that it's warmed up I'd say don't even think don't take this anywhere near a refrigerator, just take it off the rack and drink it, leave it alone. It definitely 10 minutes.
So yeah, I mean really, really well put together. So we're gonna be rating. I'm getting green apple now too. Mhm. We're gonna be raiding the unwrapped Russian river Brumer chardonnay, well deserved. Three steps interesting. I'd go higher but whatever considerably lower and then it really blossomed, you know, it started out unimpressive and now that it's just let we've let it bloom in the glass. It's just gorgeous.
Yeah, it's Yeah, don't don't chill this if you chill this you're gonna you're gonna ruin it, chill it. Don't don't over chill it and let it breathe. I don't I think it's a combination of air and warming up. Alright, so let's go on to our last one harm. Thanks Bob. En Route Russian River Lake Palmieri, Pinot Noir 2018 14.5% HBV is our last one in the evening.
This expression is a blend of wines from three different vineyards on routes Northern Spy vineyard in the Russian River Valley, Green Green valley A. V. A. Was abandoned was an abandoned apple orchard that groomed, was groomed specifically for en route that used as a walmart five mount Eden swan into two A and Dijon clones 1 15 and one's and 777 are planted in this vineyard there.
Amber Ridge vineyard is located in the rolling terrain in the upper middle reach of the Russian River Valley and planted with palm art five cholera and Dijon 115667 and 777. The man's on a vineyard in Green Valley is planted with Dijon clones 114115 and paul martin five. The color is um slightly translucent ruby.
I'm I feel like this wine is just from looking at, it's gonna be over extracted because there's the colors are richer than I would expect for 100% pinot noir but you smell it and you know it's 100% pinot noir, there is no sin. Our syrah, there's no Bernarda. There's no messing around with this. This is 100% pinot noir with probably a long time on on the, on the skins, uh dried rose petals and berries on the nose. It's I love this. This is the style of pinot noir. I like uh from California.
It's all about that floral note. Um gorgeous. It's got a lot of perfume and rose petal on the nose. I'll give you that. I think you're spot on with that. This is this is style like a lot. And now you you talked about rose on the wine there. I taste the roses here, dark raspberries, um A little bit of clove and forest floor. A little bit of mushroom penis going on. Um rose petals. It's silky and lovely and mouth filling. Uh there's spice from like clove and cinnamon coming on the palate.
I love this wine, man, Bring me more. Yeah, it's it's like walking into a flower shop on the nose. I mean, it's just so, so beautiful. And just lightly perfume me. And and I saw a lot of far niente and nickel and nickel. But I need to get some en route pinot noir. You need to get this in the store is good. I mean, it's very, very it's it's the nose is just so pretty. It really is. And the power mm hmm.
Mhm. Raspberries and blackberries and and again, that that that earthiness, that forest floor, down on the bottom pallet. It's got a little bit of a baking spice to it, sort of mid palate. Um But yeah, it's it's very well balanced. I tasted previous vintages. I wasn't as impressed. This. 2018 is so good. Yeah, it's got a really good balance to it. I think you could let this one lay down for a little while, but it's perfectly fine right now. Um you know, well done, definitely. Well done.
It really doesn't need time. I'm not sure how it'll evolve. I I don't think it will hurt it, but I don't think it's going to hurt it, but that's what I'm saying, if you if you put it down for a year or two, I don't think it's going to hurt it at all. It may improve it. But honestly, I wouldn't wait. I just drink it now. It's it's lovely. I mean it's a really, really pretty wine. So we're gonna be raiding the en route Russian river Les Paul, Meunier, Pinot Noir, 2018. Well deserved forceps.
That's classified. Alright guys, thank you Bob, I'm just looking this one up because I don't sell this wine. Um it's pretty pricey, it's in the $60 range, so it's you're getting what you're paying for here, You're getting what you pay for it. So this is not, this is not your inexpensive grocery store from being a noir. Yeah, I know a beautiful lineup today.
I really thought I enjoyed the theme and it was nice to have a chardonnay and a pinot noir as some of the uh it dovetails nicely into the champagne lineup. I knew we were in good shape because it's en route and that's far niente and they don't make bad wine. So anyway, well that's all the time we have for today. Hope you enjoyed this episode. I want to thank our co host for joining us today. Thank you harm.
Why are you going to me first man usually do me for last because I'm sitting in a different place, bob is kind of autistic that way artistic. I can draw. Well, thank you Maury. Thank you bob. Another great day in the damp, dank, dark basement and thank you Justin thanks so much. It was a fun day of mining champagne. If you know, if you're not having fun and you're drinking wine, you know, and champagne, then you're doing something incredibly wrong.
I would be devastated if you did not join me for at least one glass of fine champagne here. This is made man bob. I want to thank you for joining us. Remember life is too short to drink bad wine and thankfully we don't have to because also life is better with more cowbell. Yeah, well we hope you enjoyed this episode. If you're listening to us online, do yourself a favor and tap, just tap the subscribe button, give it a little tap tap tap, tap peru.
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