Snapping Turtle Chardonnay bites back

Ok, so I did it: I was lured by the lovely label...and low price... and so bought Snapping Turtle Chardonnay. The California white remains in my fridge next to Fry's milk and CoffeeMate simply because it doesn't taste so good. You might say that the Snapping Turtle Chardonnay bites back.

I remind myself that you get what you pay for and add some ice to get it really cold. Please believe me, I don't add ice to my chardonnays, but in this case, I thought that it might improve the taste.

There is one good thing about this 2009 -- besides the ultra cool label -- it contains only 12.5% alcohol so you can drink more and not get buzzed. I just can't drink more of it.

Vinted and bottled by Snapping Turtle Vineyards, the 2009 Chard did win a Gold at San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, 2011. (What??) I didn't taste the peach, no hint of vanilla oak for me. Maybe it got heated up en route through Phoenix. Maybe, at $5.99 per bottle*, it would be worth another chance. Hmmm, I do love snapping turtles - they lived in the ponds near my growing up home near Minneapolis.

"As the legend warns, never touch a Snapping Turtle™ – for if you do, it will not let go until thunder rumbles in the sky. Snap this wine up before thunder strikes again!Snapping Turtle is the stuff legends are made of" or so reads the website, dangling participle and all.

If you touch the Snapping Turtle™ let me know what you think. Does it bite back?
___________
Stacey Wittig is an Arizona Travel writer that writes wine reviews and gives free wine tips on her True Vine Wine Blog.

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Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc on the ski slope

We took this bottle of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2009 on our spring-break ski trip to Colorado where we skied Wolf Creek, Breckenridge and Vail. We found this New Zealand wine at our local Flagstaff Safeway grocery store for $10.39 plus tax. This wine retails for $16.49, so we felt that we snagged an excellent deal.

I love the zesty flavor and crisp acidity of the NZ sauvignon blancs and the Oyster Bay did not disappoint. Wine tips: This wine made for a great hot tub wine - in a plastic glass, of course. But since I don't particularly care for wine in plastic, I always bring along glass stemwear for "in the room." This wine made for a fun, festive spring break wine.

Tomorrow we will be skiing the last day of the season at Arizona Snowbowl. We're expecting 18" of powder after the spring snowstorm that has been pounding us for the past 24 hours.  We might have to uncork a bottle of Oyster Bay for après-ski tomorrow evening.

Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2009 comes from fruit grown in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. It has one of New Zealand's most sunny and most dry climates so it allows the grapes a long, slow ripening period. The cool nights there are said to add to the zesty taste by preserving the grape's natural acidity. I hope to visit the region this November while I travel New Zealand. I haven't decide on which vineyards to visit, so if you have recommendations, please leave a comment below or RT me @Travelwriter on Twitter.com.

With a slogan like "Sometimes the world really is your oyster," one of Oyster Bay's four Marlborough vineyards is in the running for a visit. So here we are again, tasting the world, one bottle at a time.

Click here for winemaker's tasting notes.

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Blog 4 New Zealand: Show your Support of Earthquake Ravished Island

Found: Kim Crawford Marlborough Unoaked Chardonnay-Sam's Club

Blog4NZ is a grassroots blogging and social media effort to support New Zealand travel in the wake of the Christchurch/Canterbury earthquake.

The earthquake in Christchurch has not deterred my trip to New Zealand. I am planning on attending the International Association of Museum Facility Administrators 2011 Conference in Auckland in November. From there I am taking a flight to Queenstown to begin my tramping (hiking) adventures.

Somehow, I want to fit in some of the world-renown New Zealand Wine Country. And so, I am sitting here in snowy Flagstaff, AZ (I have 7" of the white stuff on my deck railing) sipping an unoaked Chardonnay by New Zealand's Kim Crawford. Unoaked Chard? What's the point? To make it taste like the zingy NZ sauvignon blancs? I like my Chard slightly oaked to oakey... I love New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs. I hope to know a lot more about NZ's fabulous wines before I go. Tell me by leaving a comment below.

Ciao! --Stacey

Blog4NZ is a worldwide blogging event happening on March 21-23, 2011 and you can be a part of it. Sign up here.

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Plan now for Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Fest

California's popular Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival happens June 3, 4, and 5 (Friday, 5-9pm; Saturday, dawn and 10am-9pm; Sunday, dawn and 10am-5pm) at Lake Skinner Recreation Area. Make plans to book a room now. Like the adjacent Wine Country, the venue is scenic, big-sky country, affording panoramic views of the festival's hot air balloons.

Among many crowd-pleasers will be Balloon Glows, Friday and Saturday evening. While pilots synchronize the balloons' igniting burners to a musical beat, tethered balloons boldly flicker and shine dramatically against nightfall hues. Saturday and Sunday morning, mass Balloon Lift-Offs fill pastel-colored dawn skies with awe-inspiring sights of dozens of hot air balloons taking flight. More than twenty of the valley's premium, award-winning wineries will be pouring for the Festival's wine tastings. National-headline entertainment will perform on the Lake Skinner Amphitheater stage; live jazz, pop, and R & B on the Wine Garden Stage.

Before the events during Festival Week enjoy 

• spectacular golfing at five excellent courses
• hot air balloon rides 
• horseback riding 
• hiking and wildflower viewing 
• Old Town Temecula wine and specialty food tastings 
• Wine Country tours and wine tastings 
• exceptional dining and  
• live music and entertainment.

The casual, picturesque Temecula Valley is just an hour from Orange County and Palm Desert, and 1½ hours from Los Angeles. For reservations and more information, click here.

 

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Stacey Wittig is an Arizona travel writer who writes about food and wine and blogs at True Vine Wine Blog.

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New Zealand Wine Tasting Party in California

Tasting New Zealand: Grass or no?

OK, so the premise here is that if I can buy this New Zealand wine in my small mountain hometown of Flagstaff, AZ, YOU will certainly be able to find it somewhere near you. I purchased a bottle of Matua Valley Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc at my local Safeway last week for $8.81 (regularly $13.99.)

I brought the bottle with me to Carlsbad, California this weekend. "What? You're bringing wine WITH you to California?" exclaimed my hubby, Dan. "We're driving right through Temecula!"

"I'll get a bottle of red at Hart Winery when we drive through Temecula wine country. But I'd really like to find out if the others we are meeting in California can taste the "grass" in this New Zealand wine. I can taste the "herbaceous" flavors, but can't taste "cut grass." A bartender at Cuvee' 928 Wine Bar and Cafe' where we had a Flagstaff TweetUp last Wednesday night said, "Oh, yeah! You'll taste the cut grass. That's what it tastes like: cut grass. I don't know if he was BS-ing me or not, because I still could not taste cut grass in the glass of NZ Stoneleigh that he served me.

So I was really hopeful that this Matua Valley Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2010 that I was bringing to California would deliver the mowed experience. There were only three wine drinkers at the gorgeous vacation townhome we rented very near the Carlsbad beach. I proudly poured the Matua. "That is very good!" said Rolf, a red wine drinker.

"I like it, too!" said Brandy. "I think I taste herbs on the back of my tonung. It might be grass."

"The New Zealand Sauvignons really have a long finish - the taste is great all the way back to the back of the tonung. But does it taste like grass? Cut grass?" I plead disappointedly. I am excited that I taste a hint of green pepper and crisp apples...well, maybe pear. Oh, I don't know maybe it is the passionfruit touted on the label. I think we need our wine aroma guide.

The vintners, Bill and Ross Spence, were the first to plant Sauvignon Blanc grapes in New Zealand, and so began the legacy of the best terrior for Sauvignon Blanc wines in the world. But the vote was in: 3 to 3, no cut grass in the Matua Valley Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Herbs and fruit: yes!

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Stacey Wittig is an Arizona travel writer who writes about food and wine and blogs at True Vine Wine Blog.

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Villa Maria Private Bin Marlborough Savignon Blanc

Villa Maria Private Bin Marlborough Savignon Blanc

Villa Maria touts "New Zealand's Most Awarded Wines for 30 Years" on this bottle of Private Bin Marlborough Savignon Blanc. I was excited to open it on this snowy day in Flagstaff, AZ.

The label promises that this wine is "bursting with ripe tropical and gooseberry aromas" so I thought it might add to the feeling of being on a tropical holiday on this already-festive snow day.

Alas, swirl after swirl would not break loose tropical aromas. Since I've never tasted gooseberries, I can't say if the second promise was broken or not. Although I did google gooseberries and found that "most liken the unripe gooseberry in taste to a sour grape."  Hmmmm... the Villa Maria Private Bin Marlborough 2009 Savignon Blanc certainly is zingy. The winery says it's the "racy acidity." Yes, I like the smooth, racy acidity very much.

I was disappointed because the price of this wine ($19.99 USD) gave me expectations that is would  surpass other New Zealand wines of lesser price points. I usually don't pay more than 10 bucks for a bottle of good wine. (Proving once again that a wine doesn't have to be expensive to be good.) I found the Villa Marie on sale at Safeway this week.

This experience won't stop me from trying other Villa Marie wines. Only after I purchased this bottle did I realize that the fruit came from many vineyards across the Marlborough region. Next time I'll try one of Villa Maria's single-vineyard wines.

By the way, the idiomatic expression  playing gooseberry used by Brits and Canadians is similar to the term being a third wheel used in the U.S. Probably because gooseberries grow in clumps of three.  

Too bad that even though I day-hiked and picked agates at neighboring Gooseberry Falls State Park when I lived in Duluth, Minnesota, I never did pick or taste one of those rascals. Gooseberries, that is.

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Stacey Wittig is an Arizona Travel writer that writes about food and wine.

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Wine two turns of the world away

I found this lovely New Zealand wine in Flagstaff

It's pretty amazing to think that wine made two turns of the world away can be found in this little town of Flagstaff, AZ. Two turns of the world away?  Does that make sense, you all may ask. 

Well, if you give the globe a half-turn up, there's South America. And sure, there are good wines coming from Chile and Argentina in the southern hemisphere, but let’s go another ½  turn away from South America, this time to the west. That would land us in New Zealand.  I know this is rather drawn-out … but does it make sense now?

New Zealand is two turns of the world away. How on earth do they get get those wines from there to here?

Auckland, the capitol of New Zealand is a twelve-hour flight from L.A. If I could fly directly from Flagstaff to L.A., it would be another two hours. NZ is so far away that as I write this at 8 p.m. Saturday in Flagstaff, it is already 4 p.m. Sunday there. When I fly to Auckland in November I will cross the International Dateline and actually lose a day out of my lifetime. No worries, I’ll pick it pack up when I fly home in December.

I have until November to get familiar with NZ wine. “Wine from New Zealand?” chides one Flagstaff girlfriend. “That’s the last place on earth that I would think of being a wine-growing region. Is their wine any good?”

After asking a NYC friend recently back from NZ for a recommendation for a good wine tour, she asked, “Why do you want to go to a vineyard? It's really not the essence of NZ."

Well... can you tell by these reactions that NZ wines have not yet made dramatic inroads into the U.S. market? I've been drinking NZ wines for over four years now and appreciate them as the best sauvignon blanc wines that I've tasted. I must tell the world!

So my mission is to scout around this mountain town of Flagstaff and find all the NZ wines that I can, drink the ones that I can afford and then report back here on the True Vine Wine Blog. So far, I really can’t believe how many different NZ wines that I have found at local markets. If I can find it here, you will find it in your home town. (Please let us know where you find NZ wines by posting a comment below.)

So take a spin around the globe with me and let's get a taste of New Zealand together. Watch for wine reviews to come!

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