2009 Big House White
California
Suggested Retail Price $7.50 (750ml), $21 (3-liter box)

2007 Big House Red
California
Suggested Retail Price $10.50 (750ml), $21 (3-liter box)

The Big House wines, red and white, were originally developed by Bonny Doon, which explains the “out-of-the-box thinking” when it comes to the grape varieties used and graphic labels front and back. The ‘Big House’ refers to the correctional facility located not that far from the original vineyard in Soledad, California. Spoofing aside, the latest incarnations of these wines hold interest and character in decidedly inexpensive wines for everyday use. And they now come in three-liter boxes which brings their per-glass cost down considerably with the added advantage of the boxed wine being as fresh when the last glass is poured as when the wine box was first broached, due to the collapsible pouch that protects the wines from oxygen.

Big House White 2009 is an aroma feast because of those intensely aromatic varieties used: Malvasia Bianca and its cousin Muscat Canelli (the noble Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains of the Piedmont and Rhône) along with the not surprising Viognier with its orange blossom aroma, and the unexpected Grüner Veltliner of Austrian fame (there’s very little Grüner planted in California). Fermented separately in stainless steel, then blended, the result is a medium-bodied, supple, dryish (but not bone-dry) soft and tender white with a complex aroma of flowers, citrus, and spice.

In the origins of its component varieties Big House Red 2007 covers most of the Meditteranean shores as it is a blend of France’s Syrah, Petite Syrah, Malbec, Tannat, and Petite Verdot, with Spain’s Tempranillo, Portugal’s Touriga, and — finally — Italy’s Aglianico, Montepulciano, and Nero D’Avola (wine geeks hope that Texas will get around to substantially planting these Iberian and Italian grapes). The nose is, not surprisingly, rather complex with red fruit aromas and spices dominating but not oak and it’s not jammy. Plump and supple, the wine actually shows a little tannin providing some grip and focus to the flavors. Can’t think of a better match up with this wine than the sweet, spicy sauce of barbecue or Italian sausage and pasta.

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2008 Turnbull Sauvignon Blanc Estate Grown
Oakville, Napa
Suggested Retail Price $17.99

Turnbull Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 Estate Grown
Napa Valley
Suggested Retail Price $39.99

Founded in 1979, Turnbull Wine Cellars is actually one of relatively few wineries in Napa that make estate-grown and estate-bottled wines. With five vineyards totalling 194 acres, Turnbull is able to draw from a diversity of terroirs in Napa — from the hills of Calistoga, to the Vaca Range, to the northern section of Oakville, famed for its Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2008 Sauvignon Blanc comes mainly from the 42-acre Skellenger vineyard. Fruit is hand-harvested, de-stemmed with a few hours of skin contact for extra aromatics, then fermented in stainless steel, with weekly lees-stirring for added texture once fermentation is over. The result is a fairly full-bodied Sauvignon Blanc with lovely aromatics that include touches of tarragon and pea pod dancing around the cool citrus tones.

The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon is a great example of luscious Napa Valley Cabernet: filled with ripe black currant, there’s a core of minerality and dusty accents that are complex and savory with notes of cocoa and spice to the velvety tannins. While rich, the wine retains a fresh balance to its full-bodied, satin-textured profile all the way to its long, black-currant-fragrant finish. The wine has small amounts of Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Syrah that add aromatic accents that amplify the key aromatic profile of Napa Cabernet. With its fine-grained tannin structure this is a wine that can be enjoyed now especially if decanted before serving, but is set for development over the next five to eight years in your cellar.

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2008 Flowers Pinot Noir
Sonoma Coast
Suggested Retail Price $48

Our celebration of American Pinot Noirs continues this week with a wine from the Sonoma Coast, the relatively new appellation where Pinot-philes hope and have some evidence that California’s most profound and complex Pinot Noirs will come from here. I think this 2008 bottling from Flowers adds compelling evidence of that.

By profound I don’t mean heavy or thick but rather nuanced and complex. In fact, one quality I look for in great Pinot Noir is a sense of virtual weightlessness, a sense of a panoply of flavors and aromas that don’t have to be carried or expressed, so to speak, in a thick or jammy texture. The beautiful array of aromas and flavors in this wine certainly justifies founders Joan and Walt Flowers’ intution in 1989 that this site less than two miles from the Pacific Ocean and at an altitude of 1,150 to 1,400 feet could grow great Pinot Noir.

The 2008 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir blends fruit from four separate vineyards planted on a rocky, volcanic and gravelly ridge. Hand-harvested, the fruit is cold-soaked for a few days then allowed to start fermentation with its native yeast, the cap punched down by hand twice a day. Aged in 100% French oak, 33% new, the wine is bottled after eight to 10 months. The end result is a bright, medium ruby-garnet in color, with an intense bouquet of violets, roses and red fruit suggesting raspberry and cherry or rather something akin to cherry stone pit. On the palate, the wine is medium weight with a texture that is both supple and taut reminding one of a piece of stretched silk. There’s also a firm minerality supporting the fruit along with a fascinating nuance of forest floor. Overall the impression is of a graceful and elegant wine ready to develop for three or more years.

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Yangarra Roussanne 2007
McLaren Vale, Australia
Suggested Retail Price $14.99

Roussanne in Australia and in the hands of Yangarra is a brilliant and very fine white wine of complexity, depth, and nuance. The wine is grown in Yangarra’s single vineyard known as ‘The Beach’ because of its sandy soil, which is not actually from a seaside beach but is the worn remains of an ancient mountain range that once stood in McLaren Vale, just south of Adelaide (Austin's sister city) in south Australia.

Roussanne is a rare white wine variety grown for its beautifully subtle and delicate fragrance in the Savoie of eastern France, where it is grown in Chignin, though there the variety is called Bergeron. But it is especially prized in the Rhône valley, where it is one of the two white varieties allowed in growing the white versions of  Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, and St. Joseph (the other variety allowed for these whites is Marsanne). It is also one of the four white varieites used in making white Châteauneuf-du-Pape (though Marsanne is not....as Hugh Johnson once observed, French wine laws can be as complex as theology). It is thought that Roussanne came to Australia along with Shiraz as the logical white grape partner from the Rhône, but of course it has not been as widely planted.

Whole-cluster pressed, fermented with indigenous yeast in seasoned French oak and aged for six months in those barrels the result is a fascinating wine. The color is a brilliant medium yellow leading to a deep, complex bouquet suggesting ripe peach, flowers, minerals, and spice accents both from the variety and the older, seasoned French oak. The palate is supple, medium-full, yet seems almost weightless with surprising nuances and shades of flavor brightened with crystalline mineral. And a food pairing? I think white fish or poultry with a touch of saffron or very simply seasoned to showcase the wine’s aromatic complexity. Note that only 280 cases were produced.