Wine Tag: K

[Brad Ballinger]

Wait a minute. How did K-J get equal billing with the others? Well, but the simple fact that it fits the theme and I decided to list three producers in the topic subtitle. I suppose I could've considered Kenwood, Kunde, Kent Rasmussen, and Keenan as well. If you'd like to consider other producers who don't begin their first or last name with K, perhaps you will travel to Germany, walk into your keller and select a kabinett from the Kupfergrube vineyard, or a kerner from the village of Kallstadt. Or, you may travel further east to Austria to have a kremstal or kamptal region. If France is more your speed a Bordeaux from Chateau Kirwan perhaps. If Italy (Sardinia), maybe Antillio Contini's "Karmis." And, as long as you don't debase Krug in this manner, any bubbly with creme di cassis for a kir royale will do just fine.

2003 Marc Kreydenweiss "Perrieres," Costieres de Nimes. 60% carignan, 20% syrah, 20% grenache. Kreydenweiss is probably more known as an Alsatian producer. In 1999, Kreydenweiss purchased Domaine de Perrieres, and bottles a Costieres de Nimes wine keeping the vineyard name as the primary name on the label. Biodynamic. Although 2003 was a hot year, this wine is nicely balanced (and is only 12.8% alcohol). Juicy plum and boysenberry flavors mixed with a mineral spine and fine tannins. Not much complexity to the wine, it's fairly straightforward. But it hits on the small amount of cylinders its chosen to showcase. Easily worth the $12.

[mike volker]

Kaiken Malbec '03 from the Mendoza region of Argentina, this has great dark fruit and not much RS. At $7.99 this was the QPR of last year in Pennsylvania.

Best,

Mike

[Marco_Polo]

By luck, I happened upon a "K" wine just this week: Kadarka Zoltan Polgar 2006 from the Villany region of southern Hungary. I had the chance to meet the winemaker, Zoltan Polgar, when he was visiting Devon. He explained that Kadarka is a widely grown indigenous grape in this region, sometimes blended, often used to make a varietal - I hadn't come across Kadarka before. The wine was young, quite full in colour, with rather rustic, bubble gum fruit, an easy-to-drink guzzler that would be good with a paprikas or grilled meats Magyar style.

[dinwiddie]

Just for fun this weekend my siblings and I decided to have a "starts with a K" wine line up with dinner. (See these threads do have some use.) We had:

2006 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Rose

2004 Kistler Chardonnay Sonoma Coast

2000 Killibinbin Shiraz

2001 Karl Lawrence Cabernet Sauvignon

N.V. Kittling Ridge Estates Vidal Ice Wine