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Leelanau Cellars markets this unique spiced wine as Witches’ Brew around Halloween, but let me assure you that it is a great wine to have on hand throughout the winter. This wine has two labels, the Halloween one (Witches Brew) and the label for the rest of the year, simply named Leelanau Cellars Spiced Wine.
If you’re looking for something fun and unique to bring to a holiday party this year, this is your wine! This wine is best served heated! Simmer in a pot over low heat until it is warm (the temperature of a witches’ tongue, if you’re celebrating Halloween). This spiced wine should not be served with dinner, but rather as dessert, with some good, dark chocolate. I suppose it could also be good before dinner, while folks are still arriving to the party. It would make a great ice-breaker!
Witches Brew is obviously a sweet wine, with aromas of cinnamon and cloves. It has very different characteristics when heated vs. room temperature. Try both!
Rating: 9/10 — Truly unique! Price: $5.99 Where can I get it? Many places in Michigan carry this wine, especially around the holidays. I found it at Meijer. You could always visit the Leelanau Cellars north of Traverse City to stock up!
Torbreck’s top shiraz – the Run Rig Shiraz, priced at well over $200 per bottle – is probably Australia ’s most hedonistic wine. It leaps out of the bottle like a rattlesnake, all fanfare and bite. It is, always, dangerously drinkable. It is thick with flavour and accented by sweetness, its spicy, gravelly, smoky complexity ramping its class through the roof. There’s always been a question mark though: this tastes so bloody good the day it is released – what happens if you stick it in the cellar? Is it Australia ’s best early-drinking wine, or will it develop and evolve if given time? A tasting in the Barossa Valley recently of every vintage yet made of Torbreck Run Rig Shiraz (including the just-released 2005) threw a crust of clear answers.
Created by Jim Henson, this made-for-tv movie broke new ground. It aired in 1969 on NBC?s Experiment in Television, a one-hour, commercial-free show that ran on Sunday afternoons and featured drama, comedy, and documentaries peppered with such personalities as Frank Langella, Nanette Fabray, Fritz Weaver, Bernadette Peters, Verna Bloom, Frank McHugh, Jack Gilford, Nancy Walker, David Steinberg, Mildred Dunnock, Donald Pleasance, Richard Briers, John Gielgud, George Plimpton, Christopher Plummer and Diana Rigg. Documentaries featured people like Marshall McLuhan, Frederico Fellini, Arthur Penn, Al Capp and the Beatles.
With an on premise spa, accommodations, restaurant, and soon even their own brand of cheeses, Village Farm Winery is a resort destination for wine lovers and the merely curious alike. That's not even to mention the wines, which are well worth mentioning.
At the entry level there is a delightful rose of Syrah with the even more delightful name of Ma Cherrie. The Village Cellar line offers a 100% Chenin Blanc and a Shiraz with 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. Both of these are fruit forward styles that are easy to enjoy.
The Chateau des Brumes Shiraz / Cab blends have a name that evokes France, and this is more than a coincidence. In a controversial, but highly successful move, the des Brumes wines are made in part from Cabernet grape concentrate brought in from France.
This practice is somewhat akin to chaptalization which is the adding of sugar to increase the potential alcohol of a wine. Some would say the most honest way of accomplishing this would be the addition of concentrated grape juice, which is exactly what des Brumes is doing.
It is not only the addition of the sweetening agent that some might consider to be cheating, but that the grapes come from France. No laws are being broken, and the resulting wines are of excellent quality, so it is mostly a question of honesty on the label that is at stake. Chateau des Brumes is completely honest about the origin of their wine.
I usually let the product in the glass make up my mind about a wine, and in this case Chateau des Brumes gets my vote. There are three levels of the Shiraz blend, a Gold label with 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, the Les Prestige with its mauve color label and 30% Cab and at the top La Fleur a royal blue colored label and 40% Cab with the longest aging in oak barrels.
The vineyards are maturing and the amount of French wine they are adding is decreasing, but during my visit there I saw first hand one of the reasons they like to hedge their bets.
More than 1/3 of their Cabernet fruit had been destroyed by that oldest of vine pests, powdery mildew. Oidium as it is known to the techie crowd was one of the nails in the coffin of the French wine industry in the late 19th century, but it is far from unheard of even in modern times.
Fungicide and other extreme measures can be taken to prevent the mildew, but you have to commit to spraying before it shows up, and in this day and age the unbridled use of petrochemicals is not highly regarded by careful stewards of the land. Therefore they take their licks, and keep on trying to produce the highest quality grapes they can.
The resort itself is a treat to visit. Taking the rustic air of the Village Farm name to heart the whole place is designed to evoke a visit back to simpler times, but without any sacrifice of comfort.
The rooms are sparse but comfortable and overlook a whirlpool bath and pool. The day spa has all of the usual treatments and massages that Thailand is famous for, and the old barn converted to a restaurant hosts daily wine appreciation courses.
A small glass window bust-out lets visitors peek into the winery itself. Carved out of the ground with much of the bare rock left exposed, it has a real traditional wine cave feeling that also helps to keep the temperature down. The winery is tiny, and only has two basket presses to process the grapes as they come in. It seems an impossible task. Half of what little space they have is set aside for the temperature controlled barrel aging room.
Combining hand ons techniques with modern advances and some good old fashioned ingenuity they make the best of what they have, and every glass of wine they pour proves the results.
Viravrat Cholvanich took what was an only a fruit farm just a decade ago, and has added to it a modern wine destination. The plans for the next generation are in place with daughter Viravadee having already taken over the reins as Managing Director.
Further down the road then some of the other wineries of the area, Village Farm is the perfect place to end your tour of the wine scene centered around Khao Yai National Park. Enjoy a facial and back rub, saunter over to experience a Thai Fusion dinner, pop a couple of corks, and then rest up in your room after a brisk swim and soak.
Wine & Spirits Magazine recently announced its Top 100 wineries in the world, and that included the first New York state winery to ever make this prestigious list ? a list that has an amazing 22-year history.
Fox Run Vineyards on Seneca Lake will be featured with the others on the list in the November issue of Wine & Spirits.
Congratulations to Scott Osborn at the entrie crew over at Fox Run on this monumental achievment!
A bunch of us went to the workshop of the new Sondheim musical drama at the Public Theatre. ("The Roadshow".) Most of our group liked it though they didn't love it. I was rolling my eyes after the first three minutes -- typical Sondheim, blah blah. Some of the actors were terrific but the material struck me as -- what? Archetypal? Is that a nice word for cliche? I'm accused of not loving the theatre...
The wine world is chock full of gadgets these days and this is one of the funniest I have seen in such a while. A physician by trade, Patrick Farrell claims that he has an invention that will improve the quality of a wine simply by pouring wine into a glass. Let me explain?
He has created a device that will fit around the neck of a bottle that uses magnets to enhance the wine.
Farrell started out tying magnets to the neck of a bottle at the urging of business acquaintances who were distributing magnets to try to improve water quality. At the time, he thought the chance magnets would work on wine was ?about the same as seeing pigs fly.? But, he says, ?I took the thing home, put it on a bottle of shiraz from Australia and was shocked to see it made it taste smoother and fruitier. So then I went down to my cellar and I got a bottle of Bordeaux from the Medoc and it made it taste softer and fruitier.? Eventually, he came up with a molded plastic device that looks like a regular non-drip pourer and has an air hole to speed up oxygenation. That intensifies the effect of the wizard and differentiates it from other magnetic devices on the market such as The Wine Clip, which clasps around the bottle neck, says Farrell. Um?magnets?? I guessing the pourer at the top actually aerates the wine and that?s what softens the wine as opposed to the magnets. But let?s see what the critics have to say.
?Testimonials are irrelevant. Tastings are not proof,? says Ball, a professor at Cleveland State University, and ?amateur wine snob,? who says magnetic fields aren?t strong enough to change the shape of tannins. ?All that magnetic field is doing is separating you from your money,? says Ball, who won?t be trying the Bev Wizard any time soon. Awesome! At $30 for the gadget you?re better off buying a $5 corkscrew and a $25 bottle of wine!!
This really promises to be a cool event. I hope to see some of you there.
Seven North Carolina breweries - including all five from Buncombe County - are teaming up this month to host a Slow Food beer-tasting event at the downtown Asheville Brewing Company, 77 Coxe Ave. Slow Food is an international group that works to preserve food traditions and sustainable agriculture. Proceeds from the beer tasting will be used to send local delegates to the Slow Food Terra Madre gathering, Oct. 26-30 in Turin, Italy. The tasting, at 5 p.m. Aug. 27, will feature beers each from Asheville Brewing, Highland Brewing, Pisgah Brewing, French Broad Brewing, Green Man Brewing (all from the Asheville area) Catawba Brewing of Glen Alpine and Foothills Brewing of Winston-Salem. Each brewery will have at least two beers at the event, and Asheville Brewing will likely serve all of their ales, said brewmaster Doug Riley. Beers will be served in four-ounce samples, and the evening includes pizza. Tickets are $20, on sale now at Asheville Brewing and its sister operation, Asheville Pizza and Brewing, 675 Merrimon Ave. http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060809/NEWS01/60809012/1119
So, things have been really hectic at work and with dial up access only (and limited at that) blogging is very difficult. Anywho I am not giving up on it, just lagging behind. I expect the next post to be on Sunday unless the heavens open up and smile upon me. Tomorrow I am going to a Highland Beer dinner at Ganache so I'll post the deets then. Lay-tah!! Cheers!
Posted by 1 Much to my horror, my recent trip to the United States and Canada revealed to me that some people have actually been reading this blog. While it was not a shock that people visit WineSpectator.com, the fact that anyone would labor through my heavy prose and factual notes was a total revelation.
Beaujolais Nouveau Est Arrive! I bought the first bottle at our local store and am serving tonight with raclette of salmon and baby spinach with dill cream cheese.
The wine is purple--of course-- with a fairly big bouquet of sweet strawberry that is nearly perfumy. Palate is a little chewy with light strawberry flavors and a slightly steely finish.
This is pretty straight forward Nouveau although better than last years! I paid $9 for it a the super market. Look for other producers and also look for Beaujolais Villages Nouveau and give them a whirl. Let us know how you like them--or don't and raise a glass!
The whole world failed Rwanda - Words attributed to UN staff members under Secretary-General Kofi Annan, reported by Philip Gourevitch in Annals of Diplomacy: The Genocide Fax, New Yorker, 11 May 1998.
Since I don’t want to SPAM my friends over e-mail I thought I’d relay this joke on my blog and let people opt-in to reading it… I thought it was funny!
Home Depot Scam
Be Careful - A ‘heads up’ for those men who may be regular Home Depot customers. Over the last month I became a victim of a clever scam while out shopping. Simply going out to get supplies has turned out to be quite traumatic. Don’t be naïve enough to think it couldn’t happen to you or your friends.
Here’s how the scam works:
Two very hot 20-21 year-old girls come over to your car as you are packing your stuff into the trunk. They both start wiping your windshield with a rag and Windex, with their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T-shirts. It is impossible not to look. When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say ‘No’ and instead they ask you for a ride to Lowes. You agree and they get in the backseat. On the way, they start undressing. Then one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet.
I had my wallet stolen March 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, 24th & 29th. Also April 1st, 4th, twice on the 8th, 16th, 23rd, 26th, 30th, three times last Saturday and very likely again this upcoming weekend.
For our coverage of the 2008 Hospice du Rhône, we decided to put people on the spot. We came up with 5 of today’s Hot Topics, and posed the questions to winemakers, producers, importers, and attendees. No debate, no discussion, just right to the point. So, today, we wanted to know: What’s you favorite - Cork or Screwcap? What does “terroir” mean to you?
There are not a lot of beet lovers in my family. I remember during a game of Trivial Pursuit with my grandfather Chuck the following question came up: "What vegetable goes by the scientific name Beta vulgaris?" Chuck gave the correct answer, with the explanation that no vegetable could be more vulgar than a beet. I enjoy red beets and go crazy over golden beets--in fact the only ingredients I dislike are those that are bland and flavorless (chickpeas, I'm looking at you). With colder nights, I thought that it would be fun to make a hearty pot of borscht, a soup that doesn't get a lot of respect thanks to lingering misconceptions from the Cold War. Borscht is boiled beets and sour milk, right? Just like the trope that Russian women are ugly, and we all know how that turned out.
Like garam masala, BBQ, pasta sauce, and kimchi, there are as many conflicting recipes for borscht as there are grandmothers in the given culture. Arguments erupt, friendships split, cities go to war against each other on the soccer field. Somehow millions of different people each have the Perfect Version of Dish X, the One True Recipe Since Time Immemorial, and woe unto the heretics.
Without any relatives from the former Soviet Republics, I have no dog in the fight. So in looking at various recipes I decided to go with one attributed to the famous Russian ballet dancer and defector Rudolf Nureyev. Chuck roast, cabbage, carrots, beets, potatoes, tomatoes, assorted flavorings... I roasted the beets before shredding them into the soup, and I increased the amount of beef and tomatoes for additional flavor and body. When serving, be prepared to add two things: salt and acidity, the latter from lemon juice, white wine vinegar, or if you're like me, hot sauce. It's a deep, rich, savory soup, but that necessary punch is best moderated by the individual diners. Whatever you do, don't forget the dollop of sour cream in the middle, and if you have it on hand, a sprinkling of fresh dill.
Frankly I don't know if you can pair a wine with this--I just started eating the soup and the bowl was gone before I thought to try it with the wine. With the earthy peasant heritage beer might be better, but afterwards I relaxed with a glass of the 2007 Bodegas Naia Verdejo. $13, 13% abv, 100% Verdejo from the Rueda region of Spain. Big peach and spice cake aroma, with full-bodied apple and peach flavors. It's easy to get a little tired of fruit bombs with red wines, but luscious fruit flavors can be refreshing in whites. My pairing advice for this wine wouldn't include borscht, but I think it would be a perfect wine for assorted appetizers or a muffaletta: the touch of sweetness and fruit flavors make you crave ham and olives.
Thanks to my friend Angela at Kirby Wines & Liquors for choosing the wine, though at the time I wasn't even thinking about borscht. I can stop by and ask for something like a "fun Spanish white" and she'll select a winner for me. I can't stress this enough: talk to the people at your local wine shop and find someone who works there with similar tastes to yours. Those folks have most likely tried a lot more wine (good and bad) than you, and can quickly find something you'll like in your price range.
Set your sights on wine, and you?ll set your eyes on some of the most incredible scenery in BC?s three main wine regions. Here are ten of the best scene-stealing sights and activities that insiders guarantee will tempt your palate...
I helped out at a trade event in London devoted to Sauternes and Barsac the other week. Entitled ?Sweeties with Savouries? it set out to show how both Sauternes and Barsac can be drunk not only with the usual foie gras and desserts but also with all the courses of a complete meal. With courses ranging from roquefort crème brulee with figs (see picture) through roast Moroccan quail with sweet potato mash to blue cheese cheesecake, the food was absolutely wonderful. Attendees were then asked to vote for which wine made the best match with which course. There was quite a lot of agreement about which of the 16 wines went with which of the 5 courses but there were also many individual opinions. As with wine tasting there is no definitive answer in the area of food and wine matching.
Tasting through the 16 wines was an education in itself. Considering they were all the recently bottled 2005 vintage, there was a range of aromas from honey, peach, minerals and smoke to flavours on the palate of marmalade, peach, citrus and honey. There were also subtle but significant differences in the weight and texture on the palate. The differences can be understood when looking at the percentages of grapes with everything from 90% semillon and 10% sauvignon of the premier cru classe Chateau Clos Haut-Peyraguey through to the 70% semillon, 25% sauvignon and 5% muscadelle of Chateau d’Armajan des Ormes. The aging process whilst broadly similar in length of between 18 and 24 months, varies according to the percentage of new barrels used.
The key to good Sauternes and Barsac, apart from the terrroir, is the botrytis that is required to shrivel up the grapes and concentrate the sugar in the grapes. From talking to several of the producers the 2007 vintage was going to be a worry as the summer was cool. However the autumn was as hoped with cool misty mornings followed by sunny afternoons, the perfect environment for the ?mushroom? spores of botrytis cinerea to develop.
There is a much history associated with the ownership of the chateau in Sauternes with many of them having been in the same family for generations. Check out the web site of Chateau Dudon if you want some history of a typical family owned Sauternes producing chateau.
Following the theme of my last post about Americans? increasing awareness of the quality wines that many artisan producers of Argentina are exporting, I?m pleased to post the first installment of my interview with Ed Lehrman of Vine Connections. Along with his business partner, Nick Ramkowsky, they formed a company that not only imports the wines of artisan Mendoza producers, but selectively forges meaningful, long term relationships with them. As Ed Lehrman explains in the interview, this type of involvement encompasses much more than shipping and distribution, extending into representation, consulting, label design and many other crucial aspects which in the end, bring American consumers the types of genuine artisan wines that multinationals couldn?t even conceive of delivering.
Based out of Sausalito, CA, Vine Connections has been at the forefront of the changing of the guard, in terms of tastes, that I described in my last post. Their portfolio includes excellent California, New Zealand and Japanese Saké producers, alongside the wines of star Mendoza winemakers Susana Balbo and Pedro Marchevsky, along with others to look out for, such as Mapema, Tikal and La Posta del Viñatero. If you really want to know what Argentines really like to have at the table and moreover, the breadth that Argentine wines are capable of achieving, I encourage you to explore the types of artisan producers that Vine Connections represents and whose work, over the coming years, will ultimately triumph over the characterless, corporate-backed South American wines saturating our shelves.
I would like to thank Ed Lehrman for taking the time to provide his in-depth responses concerning Vine Connections, its vision and inspiration. Our conversation unfolded over e-mail:
*What is the vision behind your company and what were some of the key experiences that led you and your business partner to get started?
- My partner, Nick Ramkowsky, and I have both been in the wine business since 1986 (we started very young), and we could have done any number of things together. Nick was a small California distributor at the time, and I had just sold my direct-to-consumer wine business where he had been one of my suppliers. A fateful trip together in May of 1999 launched us into the importing/national sale & marketing business. We spent about a week in Mendoza on that trip tasting wines from bottle, barrel, tanks?you name it?and we met some incredible winery owners and winemakers. By the end of the week, we were looking at each other and asking, ?How does the 5th largest wine producer in the world hide incredible wines like these from the US?? It seemed like this must be the opportunity of a lifetime for wine guys like us to lead the charge in introducing Argentine wine to the US, and in a way that they would be fully appreciated for their quality and authenticity, and not just their price. As an aside, of the first 12 wines we imported from Argentina, the LEAST EXPENSIVE wine was $22 retail! So in fact, Vine Connections was originally formed in order to be an Argentine wine importer. *Compared to other importers, what is the depth of Vine Connection's involvement with the producers its represents? (in terms of consulting, marketing, other assistance, etc.)
- It is hard to speak about other importers, since some do quite a lot and some just taste and buy. As for us, we take the approach that we are the winery?s own sales & marketing department and they can use us for as little or as much as they need. That may mean writing back label copy, helping with label design, or determining whether a new blended wine is even a good idea to add to their portfolio.
For all of our wineries, we do the copywriting for all printed materials since we can communicate their stories in English more effectively, and along the same lines, we handle most press relations since we are here and readily available. And I guess the most valuable thing we do would be called ?consulting? since we offer our advice on many topics based on our 40 years of working in the U.S. wine biz. *How does your company forge relationships with producers? In this vein, what is the process like for you when considering an addition to your portfolio? Do the producers come towards you in the way of trade events, do you travel to areas to scout, so to speak, or some combination thereof?
- We are very careful in this regard since our objective as an importer is to build brands and not just sell wine. That requires long-term relationships, so besides tasting backwards and forwards through a winery?s production, we spend as much as time as we can with the owners and the winemakers to see whether there is a good fit for working closely together. When we meet people who already think they know it all about winemaking, marketing, etc., we politely walk away no matter the wine quality. Our initial screen is the wines?they have to be particularly good since that is what we are known for importing. Then we start talking about their philosophies, their dreams, their business objectives, and where we should all eat dinner together (a meal with a potential supplier is always a good way to gain more insight).
This process means that while we have run into some wines that we like, we have sometimes been unwilling to take the winery on. The most common stumbling block for us seems to be that the winery lacks a strong winemaking philosophy, and often because they have abdicated this cornerstone to a consulting winemaker (and most often to foreign winemakers). As time has passed, we have pretty much settled into the idea of only representing wineries owned by Argentines and with Argentine winemakers since the winemaking vision is usually clearer and more grounded in expressing what makes Mendoza so special compared to other regions.
From the first moment that we meet a winery team, it usually takes about 18 months before we come to an agreement, do the ground work, and then start selling the wines in the U.S. It seems to work--we have never lost an Argentine winery and every brand that we represent has achieved a significant level of success.
I wish I could say that finding these producers followed a particular recipe, but in truth, all of our brands have come to us via different sources. The key is to have your radar on all the time so that the best ones don?t slip by accidentally.
*You represent Susana Balbo and Pedro Marchevsky's Dominio del Plata Winery?how did that relationship come about and how far back do you go?
- Well, if it weren?t for the ?dynamic duo? of Mendoza, we may never have been Argentine wine importers. We met them on our first trip to Mendoza in 1999, and they were so obviously talented and knowledgeable that they got us thinking a lot about the possibilities. We also formed a trusting relationship so quickly that it became obvious that we would work together, and together push forward a common vision of making Argentine wine part of the daily American fine wine conversation. That seems like an ominous task looking back now?we had no company yet and they were renting a very small winery at the time?but at the time it just seemed like destiny.
In between the last sips of the last glass of this bottle of Bogle Phantom 2005, I pick up my blue guitar and strum a few measures of that old hymn and wonder what it means. What circle? The reason this tune is on my mind has to do with the seemingly imminent passing of an uncle. He's about to leave a gap in the circle here, and I suppose he will join the circle of those who left before. This is a favorite song of his and he is on my mind.
Whenever I play my guitar, there are phantoms in my head. One tends to play tunes written or performed by those who have already left the room. I first picked up a guitar as a point of entry into the head of one such person. You can learn a lot from those who pass before.
Bogle Phantom turns out to be a lush wine, offering up lots of fruit preserves flavors and aromas, wrapped in sweet spicy oak overtones. Plummy, cherry and currant fruit abounds. The spice is a bit along the lines of a Moroccan blend, and there's a touch of vanilla in there as well.
The blend is 55% Petite Sirah, 42% Zinfandel, with the balance being Mourvedre (Monastrell). The spicy notes are brought out through the time spent lying in American oak barrels. Bogle is known for giving a lot of wine for the money, and Phantom always sells out quickly. I guess that's why they call it Phantom - it's elusive - hard to get a hold of, so to speak.
Earlier in the evening, we paired Phantom with some barbecue beef, of the sweet tomato variety. Anything of that hearty stick-to-your-ribs sort of food will pair well. Now that the last sip is gone, I put down my guitar and let go of the day.
Price: $19 (Nashville). Closure: real cork. Alcohol content: 14.5%
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Fat Bastard wines are doing their part to cure this disease by donating 25 cents for every bottle sold in restaurants and retail stores, up to $75,000. This is the sixth year the company has run this program and to date, they have donated more than $250,000 to breast cancer research.
During October, Fat Bastard wines will be easy to spot on the shelf. They'll have a pink ribbon necker with an attached pin for consumers to wear. Fat Bastard's wine collection includes Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Rose, Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
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How could I omit the two intelligent value Godello picks? I chose these two because they convey distinct interpretations of the variety, in spite of the two D.O.?s not being terribly far apart. Taste them together to see the immense differences evident in each Godello within what would amount to a short bus ride from Bierzo to Valdeorras. It?s quite hard to argue that neighboring wine regions cultivating the same variety aren?t little miracles, with this sentiment growing even more potent for the wine lover within single vineyards with many producers, though that?s another topic altogether.
Enjoy this, one of many examples of all new things Spanish that will slowly become more prevalent in the U.S. market over the coming six months or so?Godello.
Before I forget, speaking of the next wave of imports from Spain, if you haven?t been paying attention to Telmo Rodríguez in the past few years, I would try his Godello and watch this video. Aside from being a fascinating Spanish entrepreneur, he exudes passion for well-crafted, regional wines. The video is eight minutes in length, though for some reason, it winds up being 3 and change. Nevertheless, listen to Mr. Rodríguez introducing his wines on a recent visit to Toronto?s Lifford Wine Agency. In essence, he is responsible for affordable little masterpieces from various Spanish D.O.?s. His progressive outlook in terms of production methods is matched by an ability to reinvigorate production of traditional varieties in the regions where he owns vineyards. This in turn, yields intelligent value wines from various Spanish D.O.?s that much like Susana Balbo?s wines in Argentina, seem to be produced in a manner which never sacrifices regional character for novelty or the wrong type of market's tastes. What with how things are going nowadays in the wine business, what a refreshing point of view!
Los vinos: 2007 Pilgrim Godello Bierzo D.O.
This wine is clean, pale straw and unassuming at first sight. The nose is vibrant, driven by wild flowers, citrus, treefruit and stone minerality. Complex mouthfeel, with a crisp, racy shot of acidity (pink grapefruit), alongside rich treefruit and distinctive mineral notes.
This wine is produced by Viñedos Agribergidum in Bierzo, located at the westernmost outpost of León bordering Galicia. The Godello vines are an average of 40 years old, with the variety purposely farmed to very low yields.
Imported by Beacon Wine Company. 2005 Gaba do Xil Godello Valdeorras D.O.
A really nice pale gold in the glass. The nose is clean and pronounced, with perfumey floral element, lush green pear, peaches, honeydew melon and touch of sweet spice. Complex but never overwhelming medium-bodied white with great balance of ripe fruit flavors and medium citrus acidity. Love the soft spice undertones that follow the lovely fruit into the aftertaste.
Despite the kazillion posts of tastings these days, it's not something I get to do nearly as often as I like. Sure, I do a lot of in-store tastings where I pour a couple of my wines to innocent by-standers, but a full-on tasting with some sort of reason to it is somewhat rare. It's for that reason that I get so! stoked! when one comes along.
Betty's, one of my favorite restaurants in Buffalo, is looking to expand their wine program. I spoke with Carroll, the owner, a few weeks ago about a staff training to go through their entire list and explain the differences between grapes and styles and what foods to pair them with. This was a pretty monumental task; everything they have is by-the-glass, and they have about 20 or so wines to get through. This may not sound like a lot, but since the staff was bent on not spitting, you can see the potential for mayhem. Anyway, I was over there last night and the chef prepared nibbles to go with the tasting. Predictably, the room got exponentially louder as we made our way through, but hopefully it was a good exercise to taste them all side-by-side, if for no other reason than to taste how awesome Sauvignon Blanc and goat cheese are together.
The quality of California Syrah continues to skyrocket, and its success is pulling along other Rhône Valley grape transplants, chief among them Grenache. As we've tasted through dozens of new Rhône-style reds in recent weeks, it's amazing how delicious so many of these infant wines are.
I happened to finish two things about the same time last week. The first Wine Bloggers Conference and a book, The Billionaire’s Vinegar. This was perhaps a coincidence as I did not find time to read a word at the conference. Drinking trumped reading in Santa Rosa that weekend, but I finished the book a few days later. It’s hard to think of a greater contrast between the event I attended and the events and people in the book.
The Wine Bloggers Conference was defined by an almost innocent enthusiasm and love for wine, while The Billionaire’s Vinegar represents The Dark Side of wine. You cannot be help but be stuck by the ugly greed, arrogance and ignorance of the wealthy posers chasing “great wine” in this book. It’s one of those plots were there is no protagonist, they’re all bad guys. I highly recom
Tecnorati
Attendees were then asked to vote for which wine made the best match with which course. There was quite a lot of agreement about which of the 16 wines went with which of the 5 courses but there were also many individual opinions. As with wine tasting there is no definitive answer in the area of food and wine matching.
The aging process whilst broadly similar in length of between 18 and 24 months, varies according to the percentage of new barrels used.
