The Other Bordeaux

Yes, Virginia, there really is a Bordeaux besides en primeur sales of premier crus Medoc and Pomerol wines. For those of us who believe wine shows its true capacity for enjoyment in the drinking of said wine, rather than in the capital appreciation of said wine, I offer the following.

Cru Bourgois: These are a collection of around 200 chateau properties that did not make the 1855 cut in the grand classification scheme, were not in existence at the time or, because of calcified French wine regulations, are not allowed to even apply for admittance to the country club of growths 1 through 5. The wines are of the Medoc terroir and use classic Bordeaux grape varieties. They often are properties still family owned and many have long traditions of well crafted, well made and delicous wines.

These wines are capable of aging for several years and require four or five years before they should be enjoyed. Wines of the 2000 vintage are at their peak and will remain so for a number of years. Even at this tender age, it is best to allow the wines some breathing time by pouring into a decanter several hours before you plan to enjoy them with dinner. It is not necessary to decant them in the traditional sense as they generally do not throw sediment.

When it comes to cost, the Cru Bourgois are typically 1/5 the price of premieur crus Bordeaux and can favorably compare with many fifth and fourth growth wines; also for a fraction of the cost.

Please do not misunderstand me. Classed growths are fine. But not everyone can afford prices of between $300-$3000 per bottle, or more, for their dinner wines; even special occasion wines.

Next time you are in your wine mongers shop, see if you can find:
Chateau Meyney Chateau Potensac Chateau Chasse-Spleen Chateau Gaillac.

These are only a couple of the wonderful wines awaiting. As I tell my students, get started on your homework. Now!

Au votre Sante.

Great Summertime Wines Plus...

Summer is a comin' in. Actually, it is here in metro Atlanta. It is HOT! HOT! HOT! Did I mention it was hot? Humid?

What's a body to do? Swooning like Scarlett is an option but somewhat limiting.

PLAN B: Try these fantastic summertime wines and one wonderful lager. Prices are for metro Atlanta.

FAMEGA VINHO VERDE, DOC, Portugal, Alcohol 9.5%. BOTTLED 2007. Crisp and fruity with lemon, lime and peach aromas and tastes. It has a wonderful soft sparkle so common to these delicous wines. The low alcohol makes for easy drinking and does not load you down in the hot weather. Forget about food with this. Take off your shoes, dangle them in the lake, and sip this lively creation. NOTE I SAID BOTTLED 2007. Typically the stil wine is kept aroun 0°C-32°F until needed. This reatains the fruit and the CO2 goes in at bottling time.
No lake? Close your eyes and sip. You'll have a lake. $9.50

PINE RIDGE CHENIN BLANC/VIOGNIER, CLARKSBURG VINEYARDS, OAKVILLLE, NAPA, CA. Alcohol 12.6%, 2005. What a find. Two of my favorite white grapes in one wine. The crisp acidity of the chenin blanc is rounded out by the fruit of the viognier that creates a wine more than equal to the sum of its parts. 81% chenin blanc and 19% viognier make up a wine that surrenders aromas of apricots and ripe peaches with the acidic balancce to make these flavors come alive in your mouth. If you must have food with this, try a baked bass with a citrus butter sauce. $12.00

COLD CREEK VINEYARDS RIESLING, COLUMBIA VALLEY, WA, CHATEAU ST. MICHELLE, Alcohol 12.5%, 2006. This wine shows the results of a year long and apparently continuing partnership with Dr. Loosens of the Rhineland in Germany. The wine is redolent with crisp citrus aromas and flavors, lime and lemon leading the charge. At 12.5% it is dry and wonderfully balanced, fruit-alcohol-acid. Ch. St. Michelle just recently hosted an international conference on Riesling, YES!, and it looks like this grape is finally getting some respect. Sales of riesling wines in the US were up over 11% in 2006 compared to 2005, based on super market data. Try this and you will see why New World wineries are the Florence of the Riesling Renaissance.
$16.50

MOOSBACHER LAGER, BRAUEREI SCHEURER, BAVARIA, GERMANY. The lager is crisp and soft at the same time with a creamy head and aromas and tastes of grain, citrus, toast and malt. This beer is absolutely delicous and will refresh the most tired souls around. The brewery makes several flavors. I also tried the Kellerbier which is a dark lager. Add a caramel flavor to the above description and you hae a good idea of how it tastes. Myy prefernce is for the Lager. $2.40, .05L.

Water of Life

Water of life- a term used to indentify the spirits distilled from wine. (My definition)

This process goes back several thousand years BCE, although it probably was not widely practiced in the ancient Mediterranean cultures. Greeks and Romans were well aware of the process, but aside from occasional mentions in scholarly or philosophical texts, there apppears to have been no wide spread use of the technique to create potable spirits.

Fast forward a few centuries to the Arab dominated world of the 700, 800, and 900 hundreds. Arabs had absorbed much of classical learning. The "center of the universe" was the now Spanish city of Cordoba; Arab universities and libraries would often house more books and treatises, under a single roof, than entire western European countries; in the fields of mathematics, science, and literature, the Arabs were the western world leaders. Although some may cringe at the very words, Arab civilization invented algebra, modern numbers and number theory, and trigonometry.

In the field of ditillation Arab scholars reigned supreme. Using distillation to produce flavoring oils and perfumes, the science found its way into the realm of spiritous beverages. After Charles Martel defeated the Arab armies in Tours in the late 800 hundreds, wider dissemination of distilling followed. Eventually the process was carried to most, if not all, western European countries. Distilled spirits were thought to be cure alls for bodily and mental illnesses, based on Galen's theory of medicine postulated in the realm of Marcus Aurelius. Hence, the distilled spirits became know as waters of life.

Today, most countries that produce wine also produce spirits derived or distilled from wine. The great wine brandies of France, Armagnac and Cognac, come from wines made from grapes grown especially for distillation. The same holds true in Spain, where the largest use of wine grapes is for later distillation into brandies. Italy produces marc and grappa. Brandies are produced in Germany. Brandies are made in the USA.

How these distilled spirits are handled is purely a local option and is often controlled by strict laws and regulations on proof for distillation, how many times a product is distilled, aging requirements, bottling proof, and so on.

Later posts will look at types of distilled spirits as a corallary to my wine postngs. The two drinks are so closely related that they belong together.

Protecting Your Name-Australia and the EU

You read on this blog a couple of posts back that Calistoga is searching for its own AVA name. The EU recently recognized Napa and Napa Valley as GIs, Geographical Indications. Now comes news from he EU business web site that the EU and Australia reached an agreement on names of wine areas and styles.

The agreement states that one year after the agreement is implemented, Australian wineries must phase out terms such as “port”, “Champagne”, and other such misnomers. In return, the EU is protecting Australian place names, certifying certain production techniques and will make it easier for Australian to get certified for export to the EU.

This process aids producers in both regions and should serve as a model for future agreements in the US as well as around the world. A prooduct is know by its name. If others can simply “borrow” a place name, it does two things: It impinges upon the verity of the original region or producing area; and it is misleading for consumers.

The more a consumer knows about the products purchased, the better the producers and manufacturers are. Truthful labeling benefits everyone.

Maybe someday, here in the US, our producers will stop calling wines what they are not. There are still wines labeled Chablis, Burgundy, Rhine wine, and so on. It is time for all winemakers to mature to the point where they call their products what they really are. Calling a wine California Central Valley White Wine for example, does not denigrate the wine in the bottle.

Some producers say that much time and money were invested creating these so called brand names. Maybe. But that does not make a bad situation and a fundamentally dishonest practice any more acceptable. Most consumers are more savvy now about wines, beers, liquors, and all types of foods. One needs only to look at the rapidly expanding trends in natural food products to see that. People in general are more savvy about what they are eating and drinking. It serves no good purpose to have wine as an exception to this trend.




Good Wines, Great Prices

I rarely drink expensive because it is, well, expensive. My price threshold for everyday drinking wines is around $10 to $12. If we are talking a special occasion, then the roof gets raised to the $20 to $30 range. My once or twice a year wine purchases, over $30 are just that: once or twice a year. Fortunately for me, I am involved with a couple of tasting panels and have opportunities to sample wines I would not normally encounter. Also, there are a surprising number of store where tastings are regular occurrences. And we have a goodly number of restaurants with extensive wine lists that offer some great choices by the glass. So, there are options.

But for regular Tuesday night dinner wines, I seek good, well-made, dependable wines that go well with food or are fine to sip while I watch the grass grow.

Lately, some of my choice has been:

Marques de Caceres, White Rioja, 2005, Rioja, Spain. This little gem is made from two of the classic three native Spanish grapes used in Cava production, macabeo and parellada. The wine is a pale lemon color, light/medium bodied, crisp with snappy acid and hints of citrus, minerality and wonderfully balanced. This is well paired with grilled veggies, white meats and all kinds of seafood. It also is fabulous with deli sandwiches. Last night, I had a grilled cobia fish dressed it with a Thai green chili sauce. What a wonderful match with this wine. I look forward to sampling some more spicy food with this one.

What I like about the wine is how well it is made. The producer has long been known for standard setting red wines. Give this one a try. For the price, how can you go wrong?
Retail price: $4.99

Dona Paula, Los Cardos, Malbec, 2005, Mendoza, Argentina. This is a wine with a deep ruby appearance, a high color level, almost opaque. The nose has aromas of dark berries, plums, and a slight tinge of earthiness. It is medium/full bodied with balanced alcohol, acid and fruit. It shows a medium/long finish. Did I mention it is also delicious? I have been drinking this wine for about three years, off and on. I keep coming back to it because it is so good. It pairs well with all kinds of red meats, grilled pork loin, moussaka, spicy black bean soup served with a tooth breaking, crusty sourdough bread. And if you are looking to just relax after a week of Mondays, try this one on for size. It is an absolute pleasure to imbibe.

Got a stinky cheese? Do I have a wine for you! I tasted this wine over four vintages and it always consistent.
Retail price: $4.99

Il Valore Primitivo, IGT, 2005, Compania Gello, Puglia, Italy. The color is purple with a medium intensity. The nose is a mix of plums, black berries, dark cherries, and earth. The palette is medium bodied with a medium fish, an earthy bite, fruits as on the nose, and at 13%, has balanced alcohol, acid and fruit. Tannins are medium and serve as a counterpoint to the fruit.

Primitivo is the Italian zinfandel, reportedly brought to Italy from California in the mid-1800s. What I like about this is the flavors are as for a zinfandel but the affect is entirely different. This wine has a rusticity and earthiness not normally found in a California zin. Where a CA zin is a mouthful of ripe fruits, this is a direct line of fruit and dirt from Italy to you.

I enjoy this with whole-wheat pasta and a spicy, chunky marinara sauce or with some spicy Italian sausage added in. This drinks well with all grilled meats, and is super if you like using spicy meat rubs before cooking.

For those of you not familiar with Puglia, this is the top of “heel of the boot”. It is hot, dry, has a spectacular coastline and intensely flavored foods.

Retail price: $7.99

Pinoting in the Wind

OK, horrible pun aside, let’s talk about Pinot grapes for a few minutes. So many grape varieties have the word “pinot” in them that it pays to get to know the family a little better. The word “pinot” is actually a reference to the shape of the grape cluster as it ripens on the vine. Think about a pine cone; that is where the name came from, because the grape clusters are pine cone shaped.

The Pinots are a pretty big family with some well known and some obscure relatives. I think most everyone is familiar with the best known varieties and that’s where we start our exploration of this wonderful family tree, er, bunch.

Pinot Noir
THE red grape of Burgundy fame that can produce exquisite wines for which folks have been known to spend hundreds of dollars per bottle. This grape can produce a supple, elegant wine, surely not a “powerhouse grape” such as cabernet or syrah or merlot, but a wine that charms and eventually seduces all those who come in contact with it. That is if it is well made wine in a good year. PN can also produce thin, acidic, astringent wines, seemingly without any undue provocation. It is known as a problematical grape in that it demands so much from the grower and wine maker.

PN is an old grape and has been living in Burgundy for almost two thousand years. According the the Oxford Companion to Wine, it was almost certainly known as Morillon Noir. The first clear reference to Pinot Noir as Pinot Noir comes from around the 14th century.

Rumor has it that PN has around four dozen (48) clones of itself officially recognized in France. With so many choices, the viticulturalist can select clones for yield, disease resistance, degree of ripeness, and resistance to rot, among other characteristics. Certain clones can also be selected for local soil conditions and climactic variations, and maybe this is why PN is in such demand in France and around the world.

Despite its personality disorders and moodiness, PN is planted around the world where winemakers like to challenge themselves; if successful, a winemaker can enter the pantheon of great pinot growers, surely one of the most exclusive clubs in the world. Great risk and work but these come with a potential huge payoff.

Some of PNs better know relatives, all of which sprang from the loins of PN, include Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Meunier, and the ever popular Auxerrois; there is also some credence to the idea that chardonnay is a cousin of PN, but more about that in a later entry.

Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Auxerrois are found most famously in Alsace; as Pinot Grigio, Pinot Gris thrives in Italy; Oregon has a deservedly outstanding reputation for quality Pinot Gris as well as exquisite Pinot Noirs. PB and PG look so much like their famous ancestor that until varaison, that time when grapes start taking on color as they ripen more fully, these three varieties are almost impossible to distinguish in the vineyard.

This mini-series will be continued and we will speak in more depth on this large family that produces some of the world’s finest wines and some of its most frustrated winemakers!

Chianti and Brunello

What an amazing pair of wines. Chianti everyone knows from endless caricatures of wine bottles wrapped in straw where the straw was worth more than the wine. In this incarnation, the poor SAN GIOVESE grape was subjected to horrendous handling and wine making practices. Rumor has it that the name means “Blood of Jove.” Well, he must have shed lots over the junk that was put in those bottles.

Fortunately, for Jove and all his pals on Mt. Olympus, the condition of Chianti has improved enormously. the growers in Tuscany are now making making quality wines from this wonderful grape, all the way from a simple Chianti to elegant Chianti Classico Riservas.

But hold on a second. Will the real San Giovese step forward? The reason for this is that there are any number of clones of SG thriving in Tuscany. There are so many that a twenty plus year project to identify and name and classify all the clones is still not finished.

So, hop on over to Montalcino for a minute. Anyone heard of Brunello di Montalcino? Brunello is the name of a clone of our old friend San Giovese. He happens to line around the town of Montalcino, hence the name........

It is almost hard to realize that these two wonderful wines are of the same grape. Chianti-medium bodied, fairly acidic, black plums, cherries, black raspberries, tobacco, leather, oak, dirt (this is good), depending on the quality level of the wine tasted.

Brunello-much more full bodied, expensive, redolent of dark cherries, black raspberries, wood, intense plum flavors If one were to taste the two wines side by side, one would notice no more than a passing resemblance between SG and B.

They live in different towns and areas and while they may be first or second cousins, they must be from distant parts of the family. Do a tasting:you buy a couple of Chiantis and have someone else buy a few bottles of Brunello. Do a blind tasting. See what you think.

Zinfandel-THE American Grape

What we here in the US of A, as well as the US of California, like to think of as “our” grape really traces its roots back to he European mainland, most likely Austria! According to the Oxford Companion to Wine, it seems possible to trace the importation of Zin to the early 1800s, when it was first planted on the East Coast, including New England. From there it made its way to California around the time of the gold rush, circa 1849. I guess if you had lousy luck prospecting for gold, you could always start growing things, and Zin was one of the best things to grow.

Mr. Z likes warm but not hot climates; Zin ripens more fully when it has a sufficient time to fully develop all the berries on the bunch. But once it is ripe, it does need picking quickly or, as it is a thin skinned black grape, it may turn into Zinfandel raisins. Given its predisposition to ripen berries unevenly, it can be a good idea to makes a couple of passes through the vineyard to get only the ripest berries and leave the slower ripening berries more time to develop.

With tight bunches of grapes, it can be prone to bunch rot and must have dry harvest conditions to be most successful. The yield can be high, so thinning the vines is a necessity for quality wines. The juice can be vinified so many ways: As a white wine; as a “blush wine; as a rose; as a red wine spanning the spectrum from light and fruity to full bodied and tannic capable of extended aging. Some folks also make port style wines from Zinfandel.

The grape is also grown in southern Italy, notably Puglia, “the heel of the boot.” Here it produces a wine with the same essential fruit character of a California Zin but with a more linear, earthy taste. In a real reversal of tradition, it seems, again according the OCW, that the grape was exported from California to Italy, instead of the more common other way around of grapes traveling from Europe to the US.

With a flavor profile of plums, ripe dark berries, black cherries, and moderate tannins, Zin is a truly delicious wine. With some judicious barrel aging it will take on some woody, oaky , and vanilla flavors from the wood and may taste ‘sweet” even though fermented dry. Most Zins are perfectly fine to drink at release time, with some more substantial bottlings capable of lasting four to ten years and even beyond.

There is a group called ZAP which is devoted to Zinfandel appreciation and production. They maintain a small vineyard site in Napa VAlley dedicated to old Zinfandel vines. They also have a conference in San Francisco every year.

Zin is a great wine by itself or with grilled items of all kinds, spicy Southwestern flavored dishes, chili, and hearty deli sandwiches.

Some of the Zins that strike me as being consistently good to excellent quality are, in general price order,low to high: Rabbit Ridge, Renwood, Ravenswood, Bogle Old Vine, Estancia, EOS Paso Robles, Seven Deadly Zins, Ridge Vineyards-Dusi Ranch, Hunt Cellars -Destiny Vineyards.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list but if you are not familiar with Zinfandel there are lots of good starting places here. And don’t forget the Primitivo, either-the Zinfandel Grape Fairy may leave you a lump of coal on St. Swithens Day if you do!