As I wrote here the other day, I’m in San Francisco for the Harlan 25th anniversary dinner at the restaurant Poggio in Sausalito tonight. But, of course, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t had the chance to experience some of what else the Bay Area has to offer beforehand.
After getting settled in my beautiful suite at the historic (and just renovated) Hotel Shattuck Plaza in Berkeley, I headed downstairs for drinks and snacks at Five, a fantastic new restaurant helmed by Executive Chef Scott Howard. If there’s a better way to relax in a new city than with a refreshing basil gimlet, orzo macaroni and cheese with tomato jam and crab, and chicken and waffles, then I haven’t found it yet. This was as comforting and satisfying after a cross-country flight as anything I’ve ever had.
Afterward, I met two friends for dinner at NOPA and, as always, was just blown away by the Pinot Noirs of Dutton Goldfield. In particular, the 2006 Devil’s Gulch bottling, with its deep cherry notes and gentle hint of smokiness on the finish worked perfectly with grass-fed-beef burgers topped with bacon and Gruyere cheese. The wine was light on its feet despite its concentration, and, after a brief stint in the decanter, just sang in the glass.
Friends, excellent wine, and fantastic food—what a great way to start the trip.
I’m heading to California Wednesday morning on a very quick trip to San Francisco and Sausalito. Two nights and back, just like that.
But what a trip. I’ll be attending the 25th anniversary dinner for Harlan Estate, one of the greatest wines produced in the world and what Jancis Robinson has called “one of the ten best wines of the 20th century.” The dinner will be held at Poggio this Thursday night, and will feature not just Harlan’s wines but also a magnificent white truffle menu. I will be reporting on the trip in an upcoming issue of John Mariani’s Virtual Gourmet, and will be blogging about it right here on UncorkLife.com from California, so keep an eye out for details.
In the meantime, here is the menu with wine pairings. It should be an amazing experience.
The big news this Monday is that Wine Spectator has come out with its annual list of the Top 100 wines of the year. Making the list can be a big financial boon for the producers, and, as it’s nearly holiday season, it also tends to play a reasonably significant role in the gift-buying habits of many consumers.
The link to the Top 100 list is here, and if you’re interested in seeing how the wines get chosen, take a look at the video linked up right here. It's from 2006, but the process is the same today.
But the wine that really jumped out at me first on this year’s list is Number 2, the Bodega Numanthia-Termes Toro Termes 2005, an utterly delicious wine that always seems to be one of the best values out there, regardless of vintage. In fact, I posted a tasting video of the 2006 here on UncorkLife.com this past April and was extremely impressed with it. I’ll be tasting the 2007 soon, too, and will post my impressions of it here. But it’s a safe bet that it’ll be a winner and a heck of a bargain, just as it always seems to be.
I received a call earlier this week from a friend of mine who I’ve written about here before—Scot Ziskind, the highly regarded custom storage, humidification, and cooling expert, owner of ZipCo Environmental Services, Inc. and My Cellar wine storage firm. A long-time client of his had recently passed away, and, as per his instructions, Scot was to open his locker, catalog the wines in it, and sell them off, with the proceeds to go to his wife.
Over the course of a couple of hours on a damp afternoon, we unpacked, cataloged, and repacked over ten cases—everything that this man had left of his collection, all the bottles he hadn’t had the chance to open with family and friends while he was still here. (The good news, Scot told me, is that his client had made a point of pulling his favorite bottles to share before it was too late.)
It was a bittersweet afternoon: This, after all, was all that was left of another man’s beloved wine collection, of another man’s passion. There was something touching and surprisingly intimate about the process: With the sale of the bottles he had left behind, his wife would receive a bit of a financial windfall; and on our end, we were handling (very carefully, of course) bottle after bottle that he had chosen himself, each, ostensibly, for a different reason that only he, ultimately, ever really knew.
And what bottles they were. With each case we sliced open, we discovered new, often unexpected treasures. Certain ones, of course, weren’t all that surprising: The bottles of Lynch Bages, the assortment of Ducru-Beaucaillou, the smattering of Cheval Blanc and marquis California producers and Gaja Barbaresco. We even found a single 1982 Lafite, which will benefit his wife immeasurably. But other wines were less expected, and spoke of a man who loved experiencing all that the wine world had to offer just as much as he loved collecting its most prominent examples (there’s often a big difference): JL Chave Hermitage Blanc, Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc, a couple of older Echezeaux from Mongeard-Mugneret—wines whose value, despite their higher cost, are far more about idiosyncrasy and personal taste than anything else.
In the end, it took just over two hours to complete the project. The sale of the bottles shouldn’t be all that time consuming, either. But despite the brevity of the work itself, there was something undoubtedly intimate about it. I didn’t know the man who once sought out, purchased, and stored these bottles. In fact, I’d never even met him. But in helping to close the circle on his wine life—in helping to do the final accounting of the wines he left behind and, in some small way, contributing to the reward that the wife who survives him will ultimately reap—I feel as if I’m connected to him now in some small way.
Wine, perhaps more than anything else, has the unusual ability to bring people together that way. Even if they never knew each other.
Thanksgiving has snuck up on us again. Two weeks from now, many of us will be bracing ourselves for the traditionally gluttonous kick-off to the holiday season, and girding ourselves for the inevitable onslaught of meats, fishes, sides, and plateful after plateful of dessert.
Which means that the time has also come to consider that most traditional of Thanksgiving questions: Which bottles go best with the turkey-day feast?
As always, the major newspapers and magazines have begun publishing their advice and tasting-panel findings. Three recent articles have stood out, but they are by no means the only sources of advice out there.
In this morning’s New York Times Food Section, wine writer Eric Asimov reported on the findings of the annual tasting panel he convenes. He summed up their results: “The wines need to be versatile, to complement a wide assortment of dishes, including the idiosyncratic variations that every family knows and loves. They must be modest but confident wines that assert their flavors in harmony with the food rather than trying to dominate the proceedings. And they must be modestly priced.”
Highlights from the Times’ tasting panel included Austrian Gruner Veltliner from Domane Wachau, Napa Sauvignon Blanc from Charles Krug, and Sicilian Nero d’Avola, among others. The panel’s advice is excellent, and the wines they recommend wide-ranging. Make sure to take a look at the complete list for some very good ideas for your own Thanksgiving dinner wine pairings.
And Wine Spectator recently ran a story on sommeliers’ advice for Thanksgiving wine pairings. Click here for the link to the article. The magazine also ran a separate piece on its web site in which wine pairing options are broken down into categories: Sparkling wines, aromatic whites, rosés, and Cabernet Francs. Click here for the full article and recommendations.
Personally, I’ve always had good luck with Beaujolais Crus, good Champagne (especially rosé), still rosés, Chenin Blancs, and Sonoma Pinot Noirs. As Thanksgiving draws nearer, I’ll put together and post a list of specific recommended wines, but for now, take a look at these other pieces to get the gears moving.
There are few wines that I enjoy and admire more than Angelo Gaja’s. They are, year after year, among the most well-crafted, evocative, downright delicious produced in the world of wine.
Yesterday, I received in the mail the 2009 harvest report for Gaja Family Wine Estates, and the news is good. The report begins: “We are very pleased with the quality of the grapes from all three of our properties in 2009 and rate them very good to excellent. Though always reluctant to predict the quality of the wines this early, we are quite optimistic about this vintage.”
This is great news for fans of the wines that Gaja produces in Piedmont (under his eponymous label), Montalcino (Pieve Santa Restituta) and Bolgheri (Ca’ Marcanda). And though it will be a while until the 09’s are available, legends like the 2005 Costa Russi and the excellent 2002 Ca’ Marcanda Magari will certainly make the wait a bit easier.
Two years ago, I had the chance to visit Mr. Gaja in Barbaresco, taste his wines and then enjoy a spectacular dinner with him afterward. I wrote about the experience and the wines for John Mariani’s Virtual Gourmet; the article is linked up here.
And for more information, click here for an excellent interview with Gaia Gaja, Angelo’s daughter, that ran on Grape Radio in July of 2007.
No one really likes to talk about it, but technology plays an important role in a good bit of modern winemaking. And, in many cases, it is largely responsible for the significant uptick in quality around the world: Better conditions in wineries, a deeper understanding of what’s happening inside the grapes while they’re still growing in the vineyard, even the selection of yeasts and the environments in which they are allowed to do their magic: All of these, at some level or another, can be attributed to technological advances of some sort.
The question, though, is where does technology cease to be beneficial and start to alter the essential nature of wine to its detriment. After all, the interaction between grape and earth and climate that produces what is ostensibly a unique wine-expression year after year is a delicate thing; when it is too drastically altered, are the results desirable?
I ask this because of an article recently posted on forbes.com called “When Smoke Gets In Your Wine,” about an Australian company that has developed the technology to remove certain major flaws from the wines it processes. The article begins:
“Taking alcohol out of wine seems a bit like taking the fun out of a day at the beach—and certainly very un-Australian. But that is how Memstar, a Melbourne business, is making money. Memstar uses high-tech membranes (hence the first part of its name) to remove unwanted elements in wine, right down to the molecular level. Removing alcohol is the major use of the technology, but with a switch in the process other unwanted elements can be removed, including smoke taint from forest fires. Both problems, rising alcohol levels in wine caused by excess sugar in grapes, and smoke from such fires, have been blamed on a warming climate.”
Technological advance or unnecessary manipulation? The answer is likely to be as personal as your taste in wine. Either way, it’s worth thinking about, because this is a technology that could be here to stay, and will likely affect the wines we drink for a very long time to come.
I spent this past Sunday cataloging and reorganizing my wine cellar. And while my collection definitely falls into the modest end of the spectrum, it still took all day.
Literally. All. Day.
But it was 100% worth the effort. I found bottles I’d forgotten about but that still need time to evolve in the bottle. (I had probably tried to forget about them in the first place so I wouldn’t be tempted to drink them too early!) I discovered others that definitely need to be opened soon. And still others that I don’t remember ever having purchased in the first place.
All told, then, it was a day well spent. And it reminded me why I purchased a good cellar in the first place: To have a space for the wines I love (or one day hope to love, once time works its magic on the juice), and to know that they’re being kept in the best possible environment.
I write about this because of an interesting letter that was published recently on Wine Spectator’s web site. In it, the reader asks: “Would it hurt to put a white wine in a regular refrigerator for a year?” The response, from the magazine’s Peter D. Meltzer, is as follows:
“The principal reason why you cannot store white wine for up to a year in a refrigerator is because the humidity is too low. That could cause the hermetic seal between the cork and the neck of the bottle to deteriorate, potentially resulting in oxidation. There’s also the chance that ambient smells from other products in your refrigerator (onions, boiled eggs, or fish, for example) could alter the flavor of your wine. Finally, the interior temperature of an average refrigerator is programmed around 35° F, whereas a professional wine storage unit is set at 55° F. The extreme cold may cause a precipitate of tartrate crystals, a crystalline substance that forms in the bottom of the bottle that could cloud your wine when poured. Use your refrigerator to chill your wine, not to store it.”
Would life be easier (and cheaper) if we could all just keep our reds in a nice rack in the corner and our whites in the fridge? Absolutely. But it would also be a lot less tasty when the time came to actually open those bottles.
Four years ago, my wife and I had my parents over for dinner. My father brought along a bottle of Moet et Chandon 1979 that he’d found in the back of his cellar. Everything we read about it said that it should have died years earlier. But when we opened it, the entire living room filled with the scent of tropical fruit, rich nuts, and truffles. It was nothing short of majestic. Proper cellaring had saved it, and allowed it to evolve unexpectedly well.
The bottom line is this: Treat your wine with care, and it will reward you for years to come.
The farmers markets here in Philadelphia have lately been full of the kind of hearty, leafy greens that make such perfect seasonal salads in the autumn. Baskets of apples and pears overflow at every turn. The smell of fireplaces sparking to life colors the morning air. And contrary to what you might think, this is the perfect time of year for a crisp white wine like Chablis.
Not all white wines are the same. Some, like New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, are pitch perfect for the spring and summer, their tropical, citric, and fresh-cut-grass notes elegantly mirroring the scents of the season. But now, as something smokier and more bracing comes into the air, is the time for Chablis.
Wine Spectator recently posted a very good video on pairing salad with Chablis, and this seems like the right time of year to consider what they have to say. Click here to watch.
And on the news front, Wine Enthusiast Magazine has named Trinchero the American Winery of the Year. According to a press release, “Trinchero Family Estates is being recognized for leading sustainable winegrowing and producing a diverse portfolio of more than 22 award-winning wines that represent quality and value.” The full text is available here.
As a bit of a follow-up to the Mosel Riesling tasting video from last week, a brief report on the 2009 harvest. Decenter.com is reporting that “Germany's 2009 vintage will be as fine as the excellent 2007 – but with less wine, vintners say.”
The piece continued, “Ideal weather in the summer and early autumn means quality will be very high but yields will be down because of uneven flowering in June…Helmut Dönnhoff of the Dönnhoff estate in the Nahe region said 2009 would be ‘another great vintage, on par with 2007,’ potential alcohol between 12.5% and 13.5%.”
This is good news for the ever-growing number of German Riesling fans, as it marks yet another in an already exceptional string of good years. (Take a look at the vintage chart on Robert Parker’s web site: Germany’s major wine regions, according to his assessment, have not had less-than-stellar vintages since 2000.) This just seems to reinforce the fact that German Riesling provides one of the most reliable, affordable, and food-friendly wine experiences available today.
Moving further West in Europe and on a more academic note, British newspaper The Telegraph is reporting that, contrary to popular belief, it was likely the Greeks who brought winemaking to France, and not the Romans or Etruscans.
The article notes, “The original makers of Côtes-du-Rhône are said to have descended from Greek explorers who settled in southern France about 2500 years ago, [the report] claimed.”
It continued: “The study, by Prof Paul Cartledge, suggested the world's biggest wine industry might never have developed had it not been for a ‘band of pioneering Greek explorers’ who settled in southern France around 600 BC.”
And while this may not have any real impact on your experience of whatever wine you pour into your glass tonight with dinner, it is yet another reminder of our ancient ties to the beverage. Really, every time you take a sip, you’re re-enacting a ritual that has gone on for thousands of years. No matter how you look at it, that’s an amazing thing.
From Champagne to Chablis to Priorat, the concept of minerality in wine is both a constant and difficult-to-quantify one. Lovers of Priorat, for example, often note a sense of the mineral in the wines. When it comes to Chardonnay, few places can match Chablis in this department. Indeed, even if you have a hard time pinpointing exactly what it is that seems so mineral in these wines, the slightest perception of it alone can have a huge impact on your experience.
But where does it come from? This is a question that has vexed wine experts for some time now. Several years ago, The New York Times T Magazine ran an article on it (click here for the link), which prompted Rajat Parr, one of the top sommeliers in America, to pen a rebuttal (available here).
Eventually, all the hubbub died down. Now, however, it appears ready to pop into popular wine discussion again. Decanter.com recently reported that, “Scientists in Oregon are challenging the notion that terroir can be detected in a wine.”
The news item continued, “As part of a study into vineyard soils, geologists meeting in Portland for this year's Geological Society of America conference concluded that the French gout de terroir—translated literally as 'taste of the soil'—probably isn't caused by minerals found in the vineyard.”
Whatever you believe, it’s interesting food for thought this weekend. My recommendation is to ponder both sides while sipping a nice glass of Chablis. Or Champagne. Or Priorat.
Mosel Rieslings from the excellent 2008 vintage offer classic character and generally abundant pleasure, even this early in their evolutions. And lucky for fans of these wines, 2008 represents yet another vintage in an extraordinarily good string of them going back to 2001.
Word is spreading that what 2008 offers in such abundance is the deeply rooted sense of place that the best Mosel Rieslings typically show so beautifully. Wine Spectator reported, “The 2008 harvest in Germany looks like a trimmer, leaner version of 2007, or perhaps more along the lines of 2004, a vintage with plenty of sleek, vibrant wines, but not as many lush, opulent ones. The grapes ripened nicely this year, but only reached spätlese level or slightly above. Winemakers made very few dessert wines, a consequence of the low incidence of botrytis or dehydration late in the season needed to concentrate the sugar levels in the grapes. Thus, there should be good quantities of estate Rieslings, kabinette and spätlesen.”
The report continued, “‘2008 is the year for great kabinett and spätlese wines made from fully ripe [not overripe] grapes with expressive aromatics and ripe yet crisp acidity,’ said Johannes Selbach, whose family owns the Selbach-Oster estate in the Mosel. ‘The '08s are wholesome, with beautifully delineated flavors, and they are compact, not over the top. For me personally it is a classic Mosel vintage.’”
It’s not often that you find yourself involved in the news. So when you do, it always makes you take a step back. This is exactly what my colleagues and I at the Wine School are going through right now.
After weeks of small news items being published about it around the country, Wine Spectator Online ran the following story last week:
“Aggressive trademark disputes between wineries are nothing new, but this is the first time Unfiltered has seen a Goliath like Vince McMahon and his World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) go after the David-esque Wine School of Philadelphia. WWE recently delivered a cease and desist letter to the school after becoming aware of its popular “Sommelier Smackdown” series of events, in which instructors and local wine professionals compete to create the most crowd-pleasing wine and food matches. The WWE claims that the school has infringed on its copyright of the term 'smackdown.' Wine School of Philadelphia founder Keith Wallace told Unfiltered, 'Every intellectual lawyer worth their salt has told me that this is bogus, and the WWE doesn’t have a leg to stand on,' adding that the school plans to counter-file with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in an attempt to have WWE’s trademark on the phrase cancelled. Additionally, the fracas has inspired Wallace to add a 'Burgundy Cage Match' to the school’s roster of events. Unfiltered can only assume that McMahon and the WWE are still bitter about being forced to abandon its former WWF identity when the World Wildlife Fund came calling. As our mother would have told us, ‘Pick on someone your own size!’”
As Director of Wine Education at the Wine School, one of my duties is booking competitors for the Sommelier Smackdowns and, often, competing in them. How food-and-wine pairing competitions impede in any way with the WWE’s ability to do any part of its entertaining is beyond me, but one thing is certain: All of this has raised the stakes for future Smackdowns. Which, in all honestly, I’m thrilled about. As one of McMahon’s pro wrestlers might say, Bring it on!
I was rooting through my cellar earlier this week and came across a bottle that I’d forgotten about—the Prince Michel Cabernet Franc 2004. I had purchased two bottles of this Virginia red back in November 2006, as had my father, and, when we each opened up our bottles back in 2007, we agreed that, while tasty, it was overwhelmed by a rather injudicious application of oak. The following year—2008—the report from my father was optimistic if generally the same: It was starting to settle down, but still overwhelmed by wood.
So when I came across my last bottle of it the other night, I wasn’t really expecting much. Would it still be too oaky? Would the fruit have fallen away completely? Would there be any structure left at all?
The answers, in order, are: No, no, and—astoundingly—yes.
What I found was a wine that had absorbed and integrated all that oak and become a wonderfully mature, shockingly elegant example of Cabernet Franc. The nose showed notes of rich vanilla-flecked creamy chocolate, white chocolate, distinctive spice, tobacco, and currants. On the palate, it’s almost miraculously fresh acidity gave lift to a wine that unfolded in layers of currants, ripe raspberry and other sweet berry fruit, cream, and underbrush. The remnants of its youthful oak came back on the finish, but in the guise of a slight sense of charring and smoke, which in turn found its counterpoint in the gentle whiff of flowers and spice.
Honestly, this was the last thing I expected from the wine, and the surprise drove home two important points. First, you never know what surprises lurk in the back of your cellar. Sometimes, time is the best remedy for awkwardly youthful wines, even when you don’t expect them to age well. And second, Virginia deserves a chance in the spotlight. There is some excellent wine being produced there—I’ve had fantastic experiences with Kluge Estate, for example—and wine lovers would be well advised to start learning about it.
Good news and bad news today from the world of wine.
First, the good: Wine Spectator recently reported on yet another benefit of red-wine consumption, and in this case it has nothing to do with those much-publicized antioxidants that are supposed to keep you young and healthy forever. The Spectator writes:
“Red wine not only goes well with a nice meal, it helps the stomach convert potentially harmful chemicals into less dangerous molecules before they're circulated in the body, according to a new study slated to be published in an upcoming journal of Toxicology. A team of Portuguese researchers found that specific polyphenols in red wine trigger the release of nitric oxide, a chemical that relaxes the stomach wall, helping to optimize digestion.”
Most wine drinkers have known for a long time that red wine settles the stomach, or, at the very least, somehow seems to lessen the burden on it both during and after a meal. Now, the science seems to back this up with chemical and biological evidence. Click here for the full story.
And now, the bad news: We’ve been warned about it for years, but now, it appears, the predictions might actually start to come true sooner rather than later. Decanter.com reports that, “Climate change could force Australia's Hunter Valley to plant alternative grape varieties to combat rising temperatures, spring frosts and a higher risk of disease, according to a new study.”
In this past Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, Jim Holt writes about the new book Liquid Memory: Why Wine Matters, by Jonathan Nossiter. Several years ago, Nossiter gained a bit of fame (for better or worse, depending on how you look at it) for his film Mondovino, a tour of the world of wine and its globalization and supposed homogenization.
His new book, which I’ll be reading next week, explores the concept of terroir, which, he writes, “has never been fixed, in taste or in perception. It has always been an evolving expression of culture. What distinguishes our era is the instantaneousness and universality of change. Before, the sense of a terroir would evolve over generations, hundreds of years, allowing for the slow accretion of knowledge and experience to build into sedimentary layers, like the geological underpinning of a given terroir itself. Today layers are stripped away overnight, and a new layer is added nearly each vintage. ‘Why is this dangerous?’…Because it risks wiping out historical memory…”
Thought-provoking stuff, to be sure. And while this “polemic,” as Holt calls it in his review, is likely to antagonize as many people as it seduces, the conversations and considerations it starts are sure to be instructive. After all, no matter what your tastes—whether you prefer the richer, fruitier, higher-alcohol wines of the more modern, international style, or the often more austere, earthier, higher-acid wines (indeed, terroir-driven ones) that Nossiter so adores, one thing is certain: Thinking about the issues surrounding the juice in your glass is always a good thing. Anything, after all, that makes you delve deeper into the world of wine is likely to be hugely beneficial in the long run.
Wine, after all, “is among the most singular repositories of memory known to man…” Nossiter writes. It is, he continues, “The only animate vessel of both personal memory — that of the drinker (or maker) and the subjectivity of his experience and the memory of that subjectivity — and communal memory. That is, it is communal to the extent that a wine is also the memory of the terroir, which the wine expresses as an evolving, active taste. As communal memory, it is above all an expression of place as a communal identity, the history of the civilization of that place and the history of the relationship to its nature (especially soil, subsoil, and microclimate).”
Heady stuff to ponder, but well worth the effort. With, of course, a nice glass of wine by your side.
With all the talk of the potential of the 2009 vintage in Bordeaux, it seems appropriate to address one of the most perplexing issues in wine: That of vintages right before or immediately after the legendary ones.
Perhaps it should be expected—the same curse, after all, befalls perfectly good movie sequels that weren’t quite up to the lofty standards of the original at first glance. But just like, say, The Godfather Part II, a great many wines produced in years after the legendary ones turn out to be deserving of far more attention than they initially got. And, in fact, they often surprise and charm in the long run.
I’m thinking here of the 2004 and 2006 vintages in Bordeaux, both of which had the unfortunate luck of following highly publicized and clamored-after ones. (And, in the case of 2004, it suffered a double-dose of bad luck: That terroir-driven year found itself sandwiched between the opulent 2003 and the operatic 2005.)
The good news, though, is that, when it comes to these less-publicized vintages, there are often great deals to be found. And, even more important, remarkable wines to be enjoyed.
This was thrown into sharp relief yet again at a dinner this past Monday night. I visited a BYOB in Philadelphia with my friend Scot “Zippy” Ziskind, who I’ve written about here before. He’s one of the most highly regarded custom storage, humidification, and cooling experts in America, owner of ZipCo Environmental Services, Inc. and My Cellar wine storage, and a passionate collector of Bordeaux.
That night, we enjoyed, among other treasures, the 1981 Chateau Haut-Brion. And, as is so often the case when it comes to wines from next-to-great vintages, this one was a stunner. 1982, of course, is considered one of the best…and, indeed, they are remarkable wines. But there’s a high cost that goes along with that kind of reputation, and it’s not just monetary: Too many people, it seems, still get rather myopic when it comes to great years, and too often ignore the excellent wines from less-famous ones.
This wine in particular was magnificent, a fully evolved, silky masterpiece with aromas of flowers, damp earth, smoke, and a singing strain of lavender. On the palate, it was perfectly balanced, with lovely acidity providing lift to the exotic spice, tobacco, and smoky, grilled notes. The flowers came back on the finish and lingered on with persistence and elegance. It was a truly great wine by any standard.
The lesson here is simple: Don’t focus on marquis vintages at the expense of the supposedly lesser ones. Because when all is said and done, bottlings from years surrounding the most famous ones often evolve into wines that are every bit as sublime in their own way as their more famous siblings.
That, really, is the beauty of great wine: You never know where you’re going to find it. Or, for that matter, when.
After much discussion in the press and a fascination with the subject that seems to have gone well beyond traditional wine-loving circles, Michael Broadbent, wine columnist and expert in all things vinous, has been awarded an undisclosed settlement in his law suit against Random House, publisher of the excellent “The Billionaire’s Vinegar.”
“Mr. Broadbent, the world-renowned wine expert and former head of Christie’s wine department, had claimed in his suit that the book falsely depicts him as complicit in a crime,” The New York Times reported. “‘The Billionaire’s Vinegar’ traces the history of the Jefferson bottles, vintage Bordeaux said to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson, which were auctioned by Christie’s for exorbitant prices. The Jefferson ownership, though, was never clearly established, and many experts have concluded that the bottles were never Jefferson’s.”
The full article in the Times is available here, and is well worth taking a look at. And the book, which I can’t recommend highly enough, is available at Amazon.com right here. Finally, take a look at this article that The New Yorker ran two years ago; it provides a very good overview of the topics that “The Billionaire’s Vinegar” deals with.
As we've noted here before, Wine Chateau recently celebrated the opening of its new, 10,000-square-foot store in Piscataway, NJ. The celebration was fantastic, with lots of wines to sample, plenty of food, and even belly dancing. Take a look at the video below for just some of the highlights. It's even better in person, though...so stop on by for a look!
At the grand opening of Wine Chateau’s beautiful new store in Piscataway, NJ, last weekend, there were a number of spectacular wines available for tasting. From Cakebread Merlot to Spanish Quarter Chardonnay - Albariño to Polkura Syrah and seemingly everything in between, the entire world of wine was there.
Today, though, I want to focus on the wines of Sicily. I’ve written about them here before, but this seems like a good time to consider them again. Two of my favorites last weekend were the elegant Vignali Roccamora “Carlo Alfano” Nero d’Avola – Merlot 2007 and the powerful, lush Tinazzi No. 3, a blend of Corvina, Primitivo, and, yes, Nero d’Avola.
Both of these wines amply demonstrated the range and drinkability of this great grape of Sicily, as well as the different styles in which it’s being produced.
There’s a greater range of excellent wines coming out of Sicily right now than there ever has been before, and exploring what the island has to offer is a journey that will both surprise and delight you.
For a bit more on Sicilian wine, click here for a video that Wine Spectator recently posted. It provides a quick, easy glimpse of today’s Sicilian wine industry.
There has been a good deal of buzz about the 2009 vintage in Bordeaux—excellent fruit, great potential, even at this early stage of the game—and, as with most years as promising as this one, it’s rare to hear any words of caution coming out of the Gironde.
Which is what makes declarations like Pierre Olivier Clouet’s so notable. M. Clouet is the oenologist at famed Chateau Cheval Blanc, and Decanter.com recently quoted him as saying that, “The problem in great vintages like 2009 is the false assurance that every bit of tannin will be ripe, so you might see over extraction of wines.”
He continued, “With weather so good and grapes so ripe, people think they can pigeage and pump-over to their heart's content, but I never saw as many over-extracted wines as I did in the 2005 vintage.”
Could this be the opening salvo in an effort to help Bordeaux maintain its traditional identity as the home of more subtle, finely honed wines, a bit of pushback against the ever-encroaching so-called “international style?” When Cheval Blanc’s oenologist speaks like this, people tend to listen…
Also, a quick wine-review note. Wine Spectator recently came out with its “Insider,” and the focus this issue was California, Washington Cabernet Sauvignons, and Champagne. As is so often the case, Seghesio has earned a number of accolades, most notably this issue for its Zinfandel Home Ranch 2007 bottling, a wine that, on a personal level, I’m a big fan of. As the weather turns cooler, thoughts might appropriately turn to rich, larger-scale wines like this one that the Wine Spectator describes as “rich and powerful…[with] aromas of black cherry and licorice, with dense plum, cracked pepper and espresso flavors that finish with ripe tannins.”
Some big news has broken lately in the world of wine. Decanter.com recently reported that “Renowned Rhone producer Nicolas Jaboulet is set to release his first wine from a new joint venture with the Perrin family of Chateau Beaucastel.” This is a dream team of sorts for wine lovers: Jaboulet’s former firm, Paul Jaboulet Aîné, produces some of the most sought-after wines of the Northern Rhone. And the Perrin family produces what many consider to be among the finest wines of the Southern Rhone. This, then, is as promising a partnership as we’ve come across in a long time.
The new label, called “Nicolas Jaboulet, Perrin Frères,” will produce, according to the report, “cuvées of 3-12,000 bottles, selected from parcels of vines across the key appellations of the northern Rhone, and then blended and bottled in the Perrin winery in Orange….The first wines will be the 2007 vintage from Hermitage Rouge, Hermitage Blanc, Cote Rotie and Saint Joseph.”
Also of note is a recent blog post on the Carignan grape by Eric Asimov of The New York Times. What’s important about what he has written isn’t so much the specifics, but the fact that someone has finally penned a piece on this most misunderstood grape variety. For indeed, it has been responsible for—or, at the very least, contributed to—some excellent wines from all over the world, most notably South West France and California.
And, finally, the biggest news of all: Wine Chateau’s Grand Opening celebration of the new, 10,000-square-foot store in Piscataway, New Jersey. Hundreds of people stopped by the gorgeous new space this past weekend and were treated to tastings of fantastic wines (the photo above is a close-up of part of the spread), great food, the company of family and friends, belly dancing on Friday night, and a ribbon-cutting on Saturday. I’m still editing the video I shot, and will have it posted here in a couple of days. But needless to say, if you haven’t been able to visit already, make sure to do so soon. From the knowledgeable, passionate staff to the incredible selection of wines to the spectacularly elegant (and fabulously stocked) fine wine room, the new Wine Chateau in Piscataway is a wine experience you definitely don’t want to miss.
This is a big weekend for WineChateau.com as it marks the Grand Opening of the new, stunning 10,000-square-foot store in Piscataway, New Jersey. And, in true WineChateau.com fashion, this gorgeous location is about so much more than just the amazing selection of wine. Because the space itself will allow the team to offer you not only the same legendary service you’ve come to expect both in-person and online, but also a brand new shopping experience.
I’ll be writing more about the new store and the Grand Opening next week, but for now, take a look at the review below. I thought that today would be an appropriate day for it, simply because of its name—Big House wine, big new house for WineChateau.com. What could be better?
Big House Pink 2008 While the blend here is certainly unusual, the wine itself is nothing short of charming. Syrah, Charbono, Grenache, Tannat, Zinfandel, Barbera, Tempranillo, and Sangiovese come together to create a harmonious, spicy, raspberry- and watermelon-scented California rosé. Flavors range from the expected (peppercorn, dried Mediterranean herbs) to the surprising (cooked rice, caramel). All of it, though, works beautifully. And while it may be getting a bit late in the season to think about rosé as much as you did back in July, this mouth-filling beauty has enough richness and structure to work perfectly throughout the year.
Harvest season is here. Two weeks ago, while I was in Champagne, vineyard workers were busy picking grapes, and winemakers had their hands full crushing the fruit. Now, Decanter.com reports, it’s Château Latour’s turn down in Bordeaux. One of the grandest of the First Growths, Latour began harvesting Merlot a couple of weeks ago, with an eye toward picking its Cabernet Sauvignon sometime around October 5th.
Below is a video that was posted on Decanter’s web site; that’s Penelope Godefroy speaking, Latour’s Quality and Research & Development Manager. Scenes like this are unfolding all over Bordeaux right now. Let’s just hope the weather holds.
On another Bordeaux note, Château Brane-Cantenac, which readers here know I’m very fond of, has a new label. Fans of the great Second Growth will notice that, starting with the 2007 vintage, the label is just a bit cleaner, with some of the information that had previously been on the front label now relegated to the back one. But it’s still the same general idea, with crisp black lettering set against the famous brushed-gold background. And the capsule, once red, is now black.
Below is a photo of the new label. For my tasting notes on other vintages of Château Brane-Cantenac, click here.
For the first time since last year, the days have begun to get noticeably shorter, the weather cooler, and the wines I gravitate toward richer. And while I'll miss the warm, slow days of summer, I'm thrilled to be able to start drinking those bottles that didn't necessarily scream out to me when the mercury climbed past 90.
Sometime this week, I'll be popping open the season's first bottle of Tokaji. This isn't to say that I don't love these wines throughout the year, of course--I do. It's just that, as autumn settles in right now, I can't think of anything more appropriate than a nice glass or two of this Hungarian beauty.
To get you in the mood, take a look at the video below, produced by Wilson Daniels, on the wines of Tokaji. Better yet, uncork that first bottle of the season (either dry or sweet) and sip a glass while watching. It'll be an evocative and delicious way to kick off autumn.
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