23
May
2011
0

Make the wax wane, please

OK, I just nearly poked a hole through my finger trying to get the “wax” off a bottle of wine.

A sharp knife didn’t work, perhaps because the substance, whatever the hell it is, was pliably soft. The edge of the corkscrew proved better at impaling digits than ridding the bottle of this foreign substance.

Some of my favorite vintners have been guilty of this treatment. But this particular bottle was from a Wisconsin winery (!). The juice inside was actually pretty good, but no wine is worth the effort it took to open this abomination.

I am ready, willing and able to hear any rationale for putting a big gob of waxy material around the top of a bottle. I’m probably not gonna buy it. I’m fine with treatment at left, btw.

In the meantime, I’ll just consider it a pretentious, ludicrous affectation.

23
May
2011
0

Biodynamics pass the smell test

Alois Lageder, a great vintner from Italy’s Alto Adige region, was in town last year and gave a fascinating talk on the virtues of biodynamic farming.

But when I asked whether he used phases of the moon or any other biodynamic practices to choose the date he picked his grapes, he quickly responded with an Italian version of “negatory, good buddy. 

It was reassuring that Lageder (left) was not so beholden to the biodynamic calendar that he would risk what many winemakers call their most important task: choosing the picking date. After all, Lageder’s wines are delicious, and it would be a bit disconcerting to think that the moon phase or some cow dung in a horn might be entirely responsible.

The previous fall, during our visit to Burgundy, Phillipe Drouhin had touted the virtues of biodynamics. Three other justifiably esteemed French wineries — Domaine Leroy, Zind-Humbrecht and M. Chapoutier ““ have been champions of the practices concocted by Rudolf Steiner.

For most of us, the whole biodynamic thing has prompted a mix of intrigue and skepticism. Many wine people strongly believe in a calendar that is divided into root, flower, fruit and leaf days (actually partial days).

So it was refreshing and illuminating to get the take of a local wine purveyor and enthusiast, Artisan Vineyards’ Nicholas Livingston:

“I’ve been reading [biodynamic calendars] over the last few years and have gone from bewildered disbelief to accepting that there must be more to it. All of our blind tests (among our own staff and participating retailers and restaurateurs) suggest that wines, biodynamic or otherwise, are in fact more harmonious, complete and expressive on Fruit and Flower days.

“On Root or Leaf days, however, the wines were described as disjointed, clumsy, sharp, thin, closed and dumb by comparison ““ even though the wines we tasted both days hailed from the same vintage and even the very same case!

“There is a bit of The Blind Men and the Elephant going on here, too; we realize there is certainly something to all this but without being able to explain with reductive science how the stars and lunar calendar impart these energies, it has proven a challenge to pin down just what’s going on ““ not that we have to! It’s just fascinating is all ““ especially being brought up on the empirical method as a man of science.

“One curious outcome during our first blind tasting was that on the Fruit day even seasoned and respected palates in the trade (who can unerringly identify a varietal wine accurately) confused Gaillard St. Joseph Blanc as an over-oaked California chardonnay when we usually go on about the elegance and supple complexity of that wine. Does this beg the question: If wines are already brimming with richly ripened fruit, must they be drunk on Fruit days or might they tone all that effusive fruit down a bit on “˜off’ days so as to let other aromas and flavors come through?

“Learning a little only seems to inspire more questions. Are wines made according to biodynamics affected more or less by these calendar days? Is it the wine what’s changing or is it the subject drinking them? Are heavily oaked wines affected differently because they’re not exclusively made of fruit? So many questions to explore only prove that the more you learn, the less you realize you know. Isn’t this world more inexplicable than we’d like to believe?”

Yes it is, and ain’t life more grand because of it?

22
May
2011
0

Express thyself

A lot of wine descriptors are downright silly — especially the food-oriented ones. The ever-loquacious importer Terry Theise captured this phenomenon well during an interview a couple of years ago.

Robert Parker had described a wine’s bouquet as being like melted liciroce. “Well I don’t know what melted licorice smells like,” Theise said. “But I can see him putting some licorice on his car dashboard in the sun, then later going out to smell it. Then he probably fed it to his dog, which is why his dog farts so much.”

It was classic Terry Theise, throwing in a funny aside while making a salient point. Like Terry, I prefer descriptors that are direct, familiar and expressive.

Like, well, “expressive.”

And last night it was my great good fortune to have an array of truly expressive wines over a delicious dinner at my friend Molly’s house. She started with an Adami Bosco di Gica Prosecco ($20), which not only was vivid and delicious but paired perfectly with the grilled pizzas (one with artichoke, the other with fiddleheads).

A superb julienned asparagus salad was accompanied by another (literally) pure delight from northeastern Italy, the 2006 Terlan “Vorberg” Pinot Blanc Riserva ($22). Layers of fruit and especially texture (lean, then creamy, then zesty at the end) made this a spot-on expression of what pinot blanc can and should be.

Neither of these wines is cheap, but both of them are screamin’ bargains.

An astonishing morel lasagna and then a delightful quail main course were joined by reds from the other end of northern Italy, the Piedmont. The two nebbiolo masterpieces provided by fellow guest Bob were profound and noble. The bold, energetic 2004 Roberto Voerzio Cerequio Barolo had gorgeous floral and dark-fruit aromas, spot-on tannins and a finish that, well, I can almost taste and feel this morning. The aforementioned Mr. Parker gave it 97 points, and he probably underestimated it.

That wine put the lie to the notion that Barolos should not be consumed for at least a decade. On the other hand, the 1990 Ceretto Bricco Asili Barbaresco exhibited the virtues of cellaring nebbiolo. Since the ever-generous Bob brought a double magnum, we had plenty of opportunity to witness its opening up over the course of the meal. Slightly austere at the outset, it joined its peers in the “expressive” vein by evolving into a rich but still Old World delight.

And yes, there was some licorice in there, but not of the melted variety.

21
May
2011
0

Wines of the Week: May 16-22

Everyday: It’s always fun to try a new grape, especially from a new place. It’s an even bigger delight when that offering turns out to be as tasty as the Popova Kula Vranec 2005 ($15). Straddling the Old and New Worlds, this is a dusty, hearty red with some nice dark blue and red berry fruit. It turns a bit jammy in mid-palate but has earthy tones on the finish. Vranec is indigenous to the Tikveshija region of Macedonia, where these grapes are grown, and the word means “powerful black horse” in Macedonaian. This bold red would be delicious with hard cheeses, spring lamb or caponata.

Occasion: A lot of California’s North Coast wineries release expensive juice that tastes manufactured. Beringer generally manages to avoid that pitfall, and the Beringer Napa Valley Private Reserve Chardonnay 2009 ($38) continues a tradition of ripe delights. Judicious use of oak lets a veritable fruit cocktail of flavors (pear, melon, etc.) shine. The texture is lush and lovely, the finish sublime. Enjoy it with the usual suspects — crab or lobster, fish with rich sauces, corn dishes — or with some nice milk chocolate.

15
May
2011
0

Wines of the Week: May 9-15

Everyday: It’s not exactly shocking that an Amercian rendition of gruner veltliner would have a riper profile than most of its Austrian counterparts. But it is surprising how minerally and focused the 2010 Zocker Edna Valley Paragon Vineyard Gruner Veltliner ($18) is. This vibrant white has some lemon-lime and pear flavors and just enough acidity to keep it from being too weighty. There’s nice grip on the finish, which is clean, lovely and long. Like most gruners, it’a good match with Asian dishes ranging from sushi to spicy stir-fries as well as green salads and smoked salmon or trout.

Occasion: Peter Kitchak’s timing for opening a high-end winery turned out to be less than fortuitous, but his 2006 Kitchak Cellars “Adagio” ($79) can hold its own with the better Napa red blends. Kitchak and cellar master Ralph Bashioum are sticklers for having the right percentages of varieties, and the 16-percent cabenrnet franc here provides an earthy spiciness that plays beautfully off classic cabernet sauvignon (48 percent) and merlot (31 percent) fruit, with a tannin-y kick from the petit verdot (5 percent). It’s almost zesty in mid-palate but hearty and just rich enough on the finish. Roasted meats (including chicken) and veggies would play beautifully with this classic blend. It’s most readily available from the winery.

15
May
2011
0

Wine Country travel tips: Loire

(This is one in a series of travel guides to wine regions by people whom I trust mightily. Mindy is a savvy traveler with a finely attuned appreciation for food, wine and life itself.)

By Mindy Matthews
Like so much of France, the Loire region is a spectacular blend of history, scenery, food and wine. And, as a former getaway for kings and their courts, there is the bonus of breathtaking chateaux and their gardens open to visitors.

Our base for visiting the region in the spring of 2007 was the village of Vouvray. It was about a 3½-hour drive, thanks to some nasty rush-hour traffic tie-ups on the highways around Paris.

My sister and I had booked a room in a small chateau in Vouvray, Domaine des Bidaudieres. Although it is a sprawling old place, it has only five guest rooms, and on the grounds were vineyards, gardens, an orangerie and a pool. It was quiet and charming and the perfect base for our Loire explorations.

Despite a name well-known in wine circles, Vouvray itself is really just a small crossroads town right on the Loire River. Of course, that didn’t mean it wasn’t thoroughly endearing, and offered several excellent restaurants and patisseries.

It’s about a half-hour outside of Tours, a much larger town that I’m glad we didn’t stay in. Tours seemed overly touristy, with lots of disaffected European youth lounging around, which gave it a slightly scuzzy air. We had intended to spend a whole day in Tours but ended up cutting it short after a visit to the city’s wine museum and a stroll around the center of town.

Read More

14
May
2011
0

Chardonnay’s unfiltered future

The ABC movement seems to have failed, as chardonnay remains enormously popular. But it still might get its desired result.

And that’s not even counting the Anything But Chardonnay brigade’s victory of sorts. By promoting a market for white grapes that don’t taste like what St. Innocent winemaker Mark Vlossak (left) calls “furniture slathered in butter,” Jancis Robinson and other ABCers probably helped pave the way for a boatload of no- or low-oak/butter chardonnays.

More and more New World chards never see the dark of oak or the jarring process of malolactic fermentation, as I noted in my Star Tribune column this week. Another of my favorite wine writers, Jon Bonné, writes in the current issue of Decanter magazine about “a beautiful new diversity of Chardonnay styles emerging, with generally lower alcohol and more nuance. 

I’m guessing that quite a few consumers who decided they didn’t like chardonnay after sampling some K-J-like butter bombs have come back to the varietal in its cleaner, leaner iterations. (My way-better half is among that contingent.)

But the long-range future of chardonnay is a bit murky, thanks to a generation of drinkers that likes a little bit of everything and not a whole lot of anything: the Millennials. The 30-and-under set has embraced wine in a big way, but also in a decidedly experimental way.

Brand loyalty, never mind grape loyalty, is not part of their M.O. The rich chard that they loved last night is not in their sights again anytime soon, merchants and other experts agree.

During my last several visits to California wine regions, the only line heard more often than “cheers” was “We’re pulling back on the oak in our chardonnay.  Letting this delicious grape shine on its own is a good start, but it might not get the job done.

11
May
2011
0

Class(less) actions

The latest proof that becoming rich doesn’t bestow good taste on anyone: a look at Bernie Madoff’s cellar. Pass the teeny-tiny Smirnoff, please.

And the latest evidence that being raised semi-right didn’t bestow good taste on yours truly: I might have graded the riesling from this winery on a positive curve. It’s simple and sweet but decently made, and a swell gimmick gift. And the website has a slogan contest with rotating offerings that range from the sublime to the ridiculous, but mostly to the puerile.

11
May
2011
0

Arneis: a grape worth saving (and savoring)

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky then good, even if we’d like to think we’re both.

I was having lunch last week with a Piedmont winemaker and mentioned that I had heard that there was one farmer who, back in the 1960s, basically had saved the arneis grape from extinction.

“The farmer was my father,” said a beaming Luca Currado of the Vietti winery. He then recounted the saga of Alfredo Currado:

“We don’t make international wines; we make traditional wines. My father in the 1960s wanted to make a white wine — not chardonnay or sauvignon blanc. He remembered a white grape that had made a sweeter wine like moscato and a rosé. It was not popular, and it was not good. In fact, it was called ‘the wine of the mother-in-law.’

“So my father collected enough vines in 1968 to make a dry version. He took cuttings and got just enough. Then all the other farmers took cuttings and the university took cuttings to select the first clone. My father was very, very proud. Now we make 3,000 cases in Roero, and the region produces more than 9 million bottles.

“I am happy because we don’t know who made the first Barolo or the first Barbaresco, but we know this.”

In addition to the ample and growing production in Piedmont, arneis has found its way to Israel (try the Golan Sion Creek White blend) and California (both the Seghesio and Graziano are delish).

But arneis still finds its fullest expression in its homeland. Currado’s Vietti is an exemplary effort, with jolts of minerality and salty lime flavors that glide across the palate and linger in lovely fashion. The Bruno Giacosa is a bit flintier and livelier, the Cereto fruitier and less minerally. Malvira’s arneis is “stony” in two ways (wet-stone texture, stone-fruit flavors). Paitin and Pertinace also make worthy wines from this grape.

Arneis used to be grown primarily to blend into Barolo and Barbaresco in order to soften nebbiolo’s tannins. Thanks to Alfredo Currado, this grape now proudly stands on its own.