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First--Ripasso is a specially made wine from Valpolicella created by fermenting young wine with the unpressed but drained skins and lees left over from making Amarone. Ripasso is made by a number of producers, often using their own variations of this basic method.This wine has a heavily pigmented hue like a Syrah with a deep black cherry presence.
Bouquet is brimming with ripe rich berries and light spice.
Palate--rich tannins with steel and minerals, forthright, juicy, fruit and very tasty.
This wine is voluptuous, velevty and plush; a pure wine. A bit pricey around $22 but well worth it! Raise a glass!
The growing sense of optimism over the 2008 vintage in Oregon has spilled over the edge of the fermenter into outright excitement. Veteran winemakers throughout the Willamette Valley are letting their enthusiasm for this vintage show now that almost all their fruit is harvested. Here are some comments on the 2008 vintage from some of Oregon’s most important winemakers.
Brian O’Donnell owner and winemaker of the one of Oregon’s finest estates Belle Pente describes 2008 this way, “In terms of my impression of the harvest, I’m really excited! We brought in 10 tons October 1st that is now done, and these are some of the most delicious young wines I’ve ever tasted! The chemistry on the stuff we picked later is a little bizarre, but with a few tweaks it should be fine….we’re planning to let fermentation run a little hotter than normal and do longer than normal post-fermentation maceration to try and “burn” some of the obvious fruitiness out of the wines to let the site characteristics show thru better. But frankly, I think we’ve got a tiger by the tail, and she’s wild and sassy and will take a lot of good (and lucky) winemaking decisions to get the best out of her.”
Few growers and winemakers have the depth of experience possessed by David Adelsheim one of the true founders and pioneers of the Oregon wine industry. About this vintage he comments, “Another weird year. Three weeks late, rain in July and August, and still we saw the beginnings of drought stress in some sites. We starting picking on Sep 29th and finished this past week on Oct 18th. A third of our Pinot noir was picked by Oct 3rd; during the next 10 days (which were damp) we picked only a few lots of white grapes; everything else was picked in the final six hectic days. And the quality is looking pretty grand. It will need to be – our crop levels were off by 30% compared to 2007”
Jerry Murray winemaker and vineyard manager of highly regarded Patton Valley Vineyards says of 2008, “The harvest has looked great. We pulled in the last of our fruit yesterday. Considering the way the season started out, late bud break and all, mother nature has given us exactly what we needed to not just to avoid a disaster but to really ripen fruit in a way that should make some amazing wines, true pinot. The chemistry of the grapes has been just about perfect, great acidity, moderate alcohol, great color and phenolic development. As a winemaker you hope for this sort of vintage every year but I would be surprised if you get more than a handful in a lifetime. All that is left is to see the quality through to bottle. It is very exciting.”
Top: Vines at the Belle Pente estate vineyard change color. Below: Harvest in Tony Soter’s Mineral Springs Vineyard
It's been a wetter and milder than normal November, which perhaps accounts for the large number of snails in my garden. I've ceased my campaign of chemical warfare and decided coexistence and photography is the best approach. . .
Copia opened in the midst of an economic downturn during the dot-com meltdown and just after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. New director seeks creative route to solvency at Napa center
Now, seven years later, the institution seems to remain jinxed, and after many stabs at success, it is considering steps as drastic as filing for bankruptcy to escape its crushing debt.
This merry band of merchants, flying the flag for small, artisanal wineries with distinctive, regional wines came to Fulham last week to give both press and public a chance to see what they have to offer.
The lower and upper ends of the wine market are well served by supermarkets and the "establishment" but there is increasing demand for wine between these extremes. The best value for quality of wines with integrity and interest. These merchants are really passionate about their lists and usually have personal relationships built up with the producers so they have fairly extensive knowledge of the vineyards, wineries and vintages.
Some of the listings are inevitably idiosyncratic and not all the wines will be to everyone's taste but these are dedicated people who will help you find treasures you will come back for again and again.
Jim Monks from Decanter Wines is a private collector who started by bringing in pallets for his own cellar, his approach is unashamedly personal (all the wines are aged in his cellar until he feels they are ready to drink and only then offered to the public) and any commercial success is second to his goal of providing himself with the kind of wine he wants to drink. Luckily, his taste seems to be shared and his wines show very well.
Also showing was Nick Dobson a self-proclaimed "niche player" with some outstanding and unusual wines from Switzerland, Austria and Germany. With these countries slowly garnering a following for their wines it is worth knowing where to track down some great examples.
Also well-represented were Amordivino, Italian importers; The Big Red Wine Company showing mainly the Southern Rhone on this occasion; Abbe Arrous whose "Cyrcée, Collioure 2002" was the outstanding wine of the day for me; and Leon Stolarski with a wonderfully diverse selection of regional French wine.
The full list of tasting notes will be put up on this site but have a look at their website and sign up to their free monthly newsletter asdw.org.uk it is always going to be worth finding something a little bit different and a little bit special.
You might have to walk past this one a few times before you pick it up. The small black and white vineyard scene on the label depicts terroir, but it does so in a quiet way. You eventually pick up the bottle. After all, it's an affordable Pinot Noir, and you're curious about its roots in Argentina. Flipping to the back label, you read the description and discover this is one of Dan Kravitz' Hand Picked Selections. That closes the sale on the first of many bottles.
At any given time, if you find an importer that you can trust, that's great. If that importer is finding real bargains, you have a personal shopper. There are so many labels and so much good wine out there, a solid importer like Dan Kravitz can help you cut through a lot of clutter.
Alfredo Roca Mendoza Pinot Noir 2007 is a versatile red with nothing to hide. Though terroir is a difficult term to define, this wine embodies it. Beneath the bright garnet color, you begin to pick up some rocky overtones in addition to the prevailing black cherry, vanilla and roasted aromas that conspire to stimulate your appetite. Then plum and red currant preserves, herbal and earthy flavor notes carry through to a warm and rustic dry finish. There's a nice complexity here and not an overwhelming sense of oak or alcohol in the way of the fruit of the vines.
Good as a starter, you can pair this Pinot Noir with a wide variety of dishes. We can vouch for roast chicken, pork tenderloin medallions in a savory gravy, and pan grilled wild salmon. This sort of versatility makes it a candidate for the holiday table.
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!
This wine and its red counterpart are always nice values. This white blend from the Cotes Du Luberon is a light golden with sweet almost perfumy bouquet of vanilla, red apples and pears.
Palate--lively acidity, light citrus, pears and crisp clean finish. Blended from 4 different grapes, this wine is just a decent wine and drinks well by itself yet handles the right foods as well. I find this wine most everywhere in the $6 (when on sale) to $8 and again--this and its red version are writh keeping around for lighter drinking that won't break the bank. Raise a glass!
Looks like a piece of news slipped by me a couple of months ago. Every year I look forward to a report, which more than any other single piece of news, speaks the truth about the state of wine in America. Restaurant Wine magazine commissions and publishes a report every year on the top 100 wines and top 100 wine brands sold in restaurants around the country, from family diners to fine dining restaurants.
Based on the simple measure of how many cases of each wine were sold at these restaurants, we get a picture of the most important person in America when it comes to wine: the average American wine consumer.
And why is this person so important? Because they are the bread and butter of the wine industry. They are the fuel for the wine engine. They are the bottom 95%, so to speak, whose spending habits make (or break) the market and who make up the pool of wine drinkers from which true wine lovers slowly graduate to more expensive wines and esoteric habits like...reading wine blogs.
I like knowing what the rest of America drinks when it comes to wine. Here at Vinography, here in San Francisco, here in my group of friends, I live in a bubble of unreality when it comes to wine. In this bubble, $40 bottles of really good wine are a steal and most everyone I hang out with knows how to pronounce Viognier ("vee-own-yay"). But that doesn't represent wine drinking America any more than San Francisco represents the political tenor of the rest of the country.
This is what wine drinkers in America drink:
1 Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay USA 2 Beringer Vineyards White Zinfandel USA 3 Cavit Pinot Grigio Italy 4 Sutter Home White Zinfandel USA 5 Inglenook Chablis USA 6 Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio Italy 7 Yellow Tail Chardonnay Australia 8 Copperidge Chardonnay USA 9 Yellow Tail Shiraz Australia 10 Franzia Winetaps Vintner Select White Zinfandel USA
Those are the top 10 wines consumed by Americans (by volume) in 2007.
And here are the top 10 wine brands sold in American restaurants in 2007:
1 Beringer Vineyards, Foster's Wine Estates Americas 2 Kendall-Jackson, USA, Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates 3 Franzia Winetaps, USA, The Wine Group 4 Yellow Tail, Australia, W.J. Deutsch & Sons, Ltd. 5 Sutter Home, USA, Trinchero Family Estates 6 Inglenook, USA, The Wine Group 7 Copperidge, USA, E. & J. Gallo Winery 8 Cavit, Italy, Palm Bay Imports 9 Woodbridge, USA, VineOne (Constellation) 10 Foxhorn Vineyards, USA, The Wine Group
For me and for the wine lovers that I hang out with (and no doubt the folks that read this blog) these are somewhat sobering lists, if only because for most of us, these are wines we generally don't, and wouldn't, consume given the choice. The average retail price of these wines is well below $8 per bottle, and the last time I asked you readers what you spend on average per bottle it was somewhere around $20.
And some of you probably didn't think that you were all that sophisticated when it came to wine, did you? Notice how the top 10 wines only includes a single red wine? If you're a Cabernet drinker you're a member of the wine elite. And I'm only partially kidding.
Here are some additional interesting facts about this year's list:
- White Zinfandel sales are down 15% - Chardonnay was more popular than Pinot Grigio for the first time - Pinot Noir sales were up (again) by 89% - Merlot sales were down (again) by 9% - Sauvignon Blanc and Sangiovese wines appeared for the first time on the top 100 list (bravo!)
So what to make of all this? I take a number of things away from this list every year. The first is appreciation for how lucky I am to be able to drink the quality of wine that I do regularly. The second is humility -- a reminder that while I may not choose to drink them, these wines, the companies that make them, and the people that drink them are what really make the wine world go 'round. And finally, I always finish my perusal of these numbers with hope. The amount of wine America drinks continues to go up, and slowly, but surely, the diversity of that wine continues to expand.
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.
Cima Collina will be at the Pinot Days event in Chicago on November 14th-15th. If you want to attend this wonderful event, please go to their website and enter the code “Collina” to get a 10% discount on tickets! Please be advised that the number of discounts available is limited.
Winemaker’s Dinner
I will be present and pouring Cima Collina at Christopher’s on Lincoln, in Carmel-by-the-Sea this Friday at 7:00. Christopher’s is one of my favorite local restaurants (chef owned and operated), and Christopher himself is a James Beard award-winning chef. Great food, great atmosphere, great service. Tickets are available at: montereywines.org.
Although I missed the boat on this one completely, the results are in for the latest Wine Blogging Wednesday over at CorkDork. This month’s objective was to try new red wines from New Zealand. 31 bloggers participated this time! Check it out!
As the summer turns up the heat and the sounds of BBQs, street festivals and music, sweet music waft through the air, the chiming of Mojito glasses can be heard. To celebrate this classic drink, Tidings has commissioned two recipes...
I'm on the road for work, which means that I'm reading The Wall Street Journal. This paper is everywhere business travelers are: in lounges, planes, and hotels. I don't subscribe at home, but as it's Friday and the paper was outside my door, I turned to the "Tastings" column written by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher to read what two of my favorite wine critics had to say. (photo by filtran)
Essentially, they said that expensive wine was so five minutes ago. And then they made a surprising recommendation for this year's "holiday gift pick."
It's not expensive. It's not hard to get. But it will leave you wondering if America's expensive wine habits are on the brink of changing--for the better. What do I think? For my thoughts on their story, click over to Serious Grape, my weekly column on the excellent food site Serious Eats, and get all the details.
During a recent trip to the Mount Pleasant cellar door, one of the staff kindly slipped us a bottle of the Brands Laira “Blockers” Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 to try. I have not really explored the Brands label, a stablemate to Mount Pleasant within the McWilliams company, however this particular bottle was festooned with gold trophy stickers.
Vibrant blood red in colour with exceptional clarity, the aromas were initally a bit closed with brooding blackcurrant and aniseed evident. In the mouth this cabernet is powerful and full bodied with juicy dark berries, black olive, restrained cedar oak and a dash of spices. The fine yet pronounced tannins are approachable now, however the structure also suggests medium term cellaring potential.
I was surprised when I looked up the alcohol content, never would have picked it from what I saw in the bottle as even now the wine is so well balanced and very very drinkable. As a matter of fact I wish I had another glass right now…
Score: 93/100 Price: $20 Closure: Screwcap Alcohol: 15.5% Other Opinions:Winorama Would I buy this wine? RRP is $25 however you should be able to source this wine for under $20 - a bargain at that price, I will buy some.
My first selection for these troubled times is the second most popular wine reviewed here by pageviews, the Petite Sirah by Crane Lake. This label is made by Bronco Wine Company who also produce the Charles Shaw brand for Trader Joe’s. Crane Lake is offered to independent retailers and typically sells for a couple dollars more than the more famous “2-buck Chuck.” Another difference is that more than just the typical varieties are offered, including this Petite Sirah and even a Sangiovese.
Petite Sirah is a good variety to look for in value wines these days as it flies a bit below the radar of most consumers. Many of the best examples can be found for less than $20 a bottle but I was interested in what you could get for $4. I picked up the 2004 vintage a while back but did not review it was a bad bottle, but I was able to track down the 2005 vintage for this tasting.
Tasting Notes:
Crane Lake, Petite Sirah 2005 ($4) - Dark purple-black color with aromas of blueberry compote and white pepper. Simple and juicy blueberry and plum flavors with some black pepper finishing with plush tannins and good acidity. Clean and surprisingly varietally correct.
Composite cork closure 12.5% ABV Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
…Big Boy style Rob had been planning this event seemingly all his life, and twelve very fortunate guests were invited to the private room at Cru one innocent Spring evening for this once-in-a-lifetime event, making me the resident Chesire Cat. For those of you that might not know or forget, double-blind means you do not know [...]
Two weeks ago a team of American researchers promised what the New York Times story called "guilt-free gluttony" through resveratrol, a component found in red wine.
Now, in a scientific detente, French researchers are doing them one better: cardiovascular-improving sloth. To wit:
"Resveratrol makes you look like a trained athlete without the training," said Dr. Johan Auwerx of the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in Illkirch, France who led the study. [Read full story]
This is going to be serious competition for the ab toning belt.
We all know that red wine can cause pinot envy. So only four deadly sins to go! What will resveratrol create next? Humble pride? Gentle anger? Generous greed? Platonic lust?!?
Related: "Lose weight on a red wine diet"--with video of lab mice! [Daily Telegraph]
It's hard to believe that a year has almost gone by and Christmas Time is here. In getting into the holiday rhythm, I went looking for some music only to find most of it unsatisfying (surprise, surprise). There are exceptions, and here I think is one of them.
December 1965, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was aired and became an instant standard. Most people will remember the Charles Schultz cartoon along with the catchy tunes. Upon listening to the recent 2006 re-master of this album by Fantasy records, I was amazed. This is so much better than coming out of a 14 inch mono TV. Arranged & composed by Vince Guaraldi, there is an underlying quality of happiness and cheer to the music. Perhaps it brings back happy memories of my childhood but I think it is intrinsic to the music. Guaraldi to me, has the lyrical qualities of Bill Evans together with the rhythm and swing of a Dave Brubeck - it is a shame he died of a heart attack at an age of 47 between sets at a jazz club. Thought I would share this one with you, the album code is FCD-30066-2 in case some of you are interested.
Merry Christmas, good health, peace on earth and may joy come over the world.
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...
Hot on the heels of the sensational success of the 'World's Greatest Book Of Useless Information', the Official Useless Information Society bring you another essential compendium of everything you never needed but always wanted to know., Reference ; Curiosities & Wonders, The Best Book of Useless Information Ever
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.
During a recent trip to the Mount Pleasant cellar door, one of the staff kindly slipped us a bottle of the Brands Laira “Blockers” Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 to try. I have not really explored the Brands label, a stablemate to Mount Pleasant within the McWilliams company, however this particular bottle was festooned with gold trophy stickers.
My 
