A real charmer. Bright, quite light ruby/garnet. Very clean, fresh bright fruit. A real bargain in every day pinot noir: something very, very hard to find. Something to buy by the case.
The wild claim I made in my last post, "The Best Wine I Ever Tasted" worked perfectly. Without the hyperbole, I could never have gotten anyone to read a tasting note about a lowly Muscadet. Sensationalism works!
While not the best wine I ever tasted, that Muscadet was a great wine, but wines like this just aren't on the radar today. Press reviews only focus on current releases and the public show little inclination to go beyond the wines and varietal of the moment.
Wines like this, great as it may be, are the orphans of the wine media of today.
A stunning bottle of wine that offers almost none of the attributes that knock down the big points today. Wonderfully warm and earthy with just the right touch of inelegant abandon on the nose, this wine hits the palate with a bitterness and acid zing that evolves into a wine of such length and complexity that it indeed took my breath away.
Only a faint hint of older gold shines in the brilliant fresh straw yellow color. On the nose it is expansive yet firm, showing dense mineral highlights over fresh honeysuckle and red apples with cinnamon. Rich, yet zesty and alive on the palate with a finish that evolves into layer after layer of complexity for those paying attention.
I could not resist the bottle. A 1995 Muscadet for sale today. It was one of the best wine choices I have ever made as this bottle is one of the finest white wines I have ever tasted - and it cost $15.99.
A wine name that deserves a line to itself to contemplate the incredible achievement of producers Patrice and Vincent Gregorie. This is an extraordinary bottle that will be intensely ignored by the wine media because it does not cut the profile they are looking for, but this wine is everything I look for in a white wine. Unbelievably fresh for an eleven-year-old wine, this is a wine at the peak of perfection. It is worth noting that most of the white wines getting big points today will fall apart by their fifth birthday.
Only a faint hint of older gold shines in the brilliant fresh straw yellow color. On the nose it is expansive yet firm, showing dense mineral highlights over fresh honeysuckle and red apples with cinnamon. Rich, yet zesty and alive on the palate with a finish that evolves into layer after layer of complexity for those paying attention.
No, its not the best wine I ever tasted, but it is almost perfect and is certainly the best dry white wine I have tasted in the last several years. Congratulations to Portland Oregon’s Casa Bruno for having the courage to import such a gem.
At least that is what Decanter Magazine is reporting. It still remains unclear what's the main cause of the increasing girth of wines around the world. The culprit of the moment seems to be Robert Parker, but perhaps Mother Nature is more to blame. It would seem even she has more impact on vineyards than Mr. Parker. A quick look at the string of warm vintages in places like Piemonte and Oregon has to send up a few warning signals to even the skeptical. Pinot impossible in Burgundy over next 50 years - decanter.com - the route to all good wine.
Never have the great wines of the world been more clearly identified. Same for great vintages. Magazines, newsletters, web sites and blogs provide us with up-to-the-second reports on great bottles not to be missed. Big scores create feeding frenzies that clear store shelves nationwide. Now that we know who the best-of-the-best are, what do we do with them? We drink them as fast as we can.
More and more we are drinking the best at their worst. Consuming them at the very moment they are overwhelmed by full-blown young fruit power. What all this means is that consumers are learning that a great young wine, it all its majestic simplicity, is what great wine tastes like. This is truly a waste of some potentially great wine.
Robert Parker comments on drinking wines too young in the current New York Times article by Eric Asimov, “It's like walking into a maternity ward and looking at all the newborn kids, and other than the different colors, they all look alike."
Very, very true. With modern vineyard and cellar techniques, wines are more intensely fruity than they used to be when first released. This fruitiness, while charming, is simple stuff to what many of these wines will offer with a little bottle age. Perhaps everyone should stop blaming Mr. Parker for big, simple fruity wines and blame their own impatience and unwillingness to cellar a wine in the rush to taste whatever is hot and new in the press.
Recently I purchased two wines with a few years of bottle age on them from The Wine Expo in Santa Monica. The depth of complexity these wines offered from just a few years of bottle age was stunning. No amount of breathing or magnets can replace this time in the bottle. If you are going to seriously collect great wines, access to proper storage conditions are essential to enjoying these expensive and rare bottles at their finest.
Wine Sediments - Feds acknowledge myth of under-age drinking in direct-shipping debate.
Wine Journalist Mark Fisher (and I really mean journalist) reports on minors buying wine over the Internet. I always thought the concept of teenagers, motivated by instant gratification, would have the patience to try to illegally buy wine over the Internet was ridiculous. Now here is some research to back that up.
The more you drink, the harder it is to find a wine that takes your breath away, that makes you step back for a second and say: Wow!
I had that experience tonight with a bottle of 1998 Barbera, La Strega, La Gazza e Il Pioppo, Oltrepo Pavese from the exciting Az. Ag. Martilde. A stunning bottle of wine that offers almost none of the attributes that knock down the big points today. Wonderfully warm and earthy with just the right touch of inelegant abandon on the nose, this wine hits the palate with a bitterness and acid zing that evolves into a wine of such length and complexity that it indeed took my breath away. It was wines like this that got me into wine in the first place and wines like that are damn hard to find these days.
This wine is boldly Italian in character with an explosive rich earthiness and bracing acidity throughout. A brilliant garnet tinged ruby, the aromas are expansive and wonderfully complex with layers of dark fruit, leather, porcini and a warm smokiness. This wine caresses your palate, not overwhelms, but in no way is it light. Rather it is quite rich and concentrated, but the acidity and tannins carry the flavors beautifully. A tremendous, length finish. Fully ready to drink, but able to grow over the next several years, this is by far the finest Bonarda I have tasted.
Those who know business travel, but love wine and food know the drill. You finally get to your hotel to0 late to seek out the best local restaurant, but you are starving. With no choice you head off to the hotel restaurant. There is little hope for an interesting wine on the list and forget anything nice by the glass. You are in corporate wine heaven - otherwise known as your wine hell.
When handed the wine list in such situations, sometimes, low-and-behold there is one wine that looks promising. This week I found a bottle of 2000 Talbott, Case Pinot Noir, Sleepy Hollow Vineyard in the midst of all the blandness. It was lovely.
It reminded me that all to often, when looking at lists we focus on varietals and price, when a better strategy may be to run your finger down the vintages. My 2000 Talbott was a full 3 to 4 years older than the other pinots on the list and what made this wine so enjoyable was the fact that it actually had few years in the bottle. It was no longer dominated by the big dark black fruit flavors of young wine, instead offering real nuance and complexity. You can't replace bottle age. Strangely enough the 2000 Talbott was actually cheaper than some of the more "famous" names on the list.
Keep an eye out for those bottles with a few years of bottle age on them when you search the wine list and not only will you be rewarded with a more interesting wine, but you just might save a few bucks as well.
No, not that VinExpo, but the Wine Expo of Santa Monica California. Perhaps “Expo” is not a good name for what they do there as it implies a gigantic wine exposition, which it is not. The Wine Expo is a small shop, although every inch is filled with wines worth drinking.
The Wine Expo is presided over by manager Roberto Rogness, whom you may also know as the nemesis of the anti-terroir Mark Squires on Robert Parker’s Forum. They have created a store that is filled with wines that have two things in common, they are labels almost nobody knows and they are outstanding wines. To top it off, they are great values.
They have accomplished this by hard work, creative thinking and the wise decision to not try to be all things to all people. The selection at the Wine Expo concentrates on two things: Italian wine and Champagne. Not that that is limiting, as Italian wine on its own is an overwhelming project. However, the store is not filled with the usual suspects: Antinori, Gaja, Giacosa, Krug, Cliquot and on-and-on….
What they have assembled are small producers, many of whom they import directly (another significant savings), who are dedicated to producing wines of character with pure flavors from varietal and vineyard. Oddly enough, their catalog physically looks a lot like The Wine Advocate, but one look at the wines selected and the commentary tells you that this is another world - and a more interesting one at that. Their Champagne selection is simply stunning, full of small estate producers and wines that sell for under $50 that blow away big name Champagne selling for hundreds of dollars. You can buy cases of Champagne here for the price of a few bottles at other stores.
Tonight I am sipping on the 1999 Bonarda, Oltrepo Pavese, Millennium from Azienda Agricola Fratelli Agnes. A bargain at $28, here is a wine that almost screams of its Italian origin, full of earthy aromas and flavors over bright fruit, with a racy acidity throughout, this is a wine that demands great food and pleasure. This is a wine I would never have known without the great work being done at The Wine Expo.
Get some guts and get on this mailing list and invest a few bucks in vineyards and names unknown, in people who make wine with passion, not Excel. Roberto will introduce you to a whole world of wine you did not know existed.
Wine Expo
2933 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90404
310–828–4428 Fax 310–828–2969 Email: WineExpo@earthlink.net
Fino Sherry is a disgusting wine…at least by the time we get through with it. There the poor dusty bottle sits half-full on the back bar next to the Ports and Cream Sherry going bad as fast as it can.
It is rare to find a restaurant that properly serves and stores Fino and Manzanilla Sherry (the same thing from slightly different areas). This is a real sin as, when fresh and cold, these are among the finest aperitif wines on the planet and one of the most versatile white wines made, matching with an incredible array of dishes and, in fact, is the best match out there for Sushi.
The Sherry industry, importers and distributors must take the blame for this “wholesale” destruction of one of the world’s great white wines. Obviously none of these organisations gives a hoot if Sherry is served properly as long as someone buys it. The restaurants must also take part of the rap as serving warm, oxidized (Fino is not an oxidised style of Sherry like Amontillado and Oloroso) Fino to customers giving them good money is treating their customers poorly. Fino/Manzanilla Sherry should be served just like any other white wine they are serving by the glass. Certainly this is not too complicated of a concept for them to grasp. Can you imagine the reaction a restaurant would get if they served warm pinot grigio by the glass? Also, speaking of glasses, please stop serving fine Sherry in those crappy little liqueur glasses. You don’t have to invest in proper Sherry glasses for Fino, as your Champagne flutes will work perfectly.
Fino and Manzanilla are the most delicate of wines. They are never better than the first day they are bottled and decline in freshness every day after that. These are wines that should be consumed within six months of bottling and should be served chilled to enhance their beautiful fruit, mineral and nut flavors. The bottles should be consumed as soon as possible after opening, unless you drink Sherry very quickly, half-bottles or 500 ml. bottles are highly recommended.
There is one hero out there trying to save Fino from this awful fate. Steven Metzler at Classical Wines from Spain (http://www.classicalwines.com/) is almost a lone voice trying to educate the American trade and consumers on how to enjoy fine Sherry. He has good reason to do so as he is the importer of perhaps the greatest Manzanilla Sherry, Bodegas Hildalgo La Gitana Manzanilla, a beautiful wine that is worth all his efforts to protect. Steven imports this great wine only in 500 ml. bottles to promote freshness and carefully controls his distributors inventories to make sure they don’t offer wine past its prime. To understand the glories of this style of wine at its best, enjoy a chilled bottle of La Gitana with the freshest oysters you can find. There will be no going back.
Most people say they don’t like Sherry because their experience is limited to wine destroyed by neglect. This is like deciding you don’t like Burgundy when the only bottle you have tasted spent the last week in the trunk of a car in Arizona in August.
So I have a new cause for all of you. Save a bottle of Fino Sherry this week. Confront your bartender and get those bottles in the cooler!
For more information on Sherry - click here for my article: Sherry Use it or Lose it
Breathing may be overrated. Don’t get me wrong, I like to breath and try to do it as often as possible every day.
Breathing can do many things, it keeps us alive and opens up young wines to improve their drinkablity. What breathing does not do is replace time.
I don’t understand the claim by some that many, many hours, stretching even into days, can improve wines to the point that it almost replaces years and years in the cellar. Barolo/Barbaresco is the focal point of most of these wild claims. Time and time again you hear the refrain of, “when I first opened the wine it was closed, but after a day (or more) it finally opened…” This, I think, is a bunch of crap.
As someone who opens far more bottles than he should, I constantly find myself with a cabinet full of bottles that have been open for various days or weeks and never has a bottle been better the next day than it was after a few hours of breathing. Some wines do better than others, with some bottles remaining delicious for days, while others are shot the next morning. Strange as it may seem, the girth of a wine has little to do with how it fares with exposure to air.
A case in point, was a recent (gorgeous) bottle of 1999 Giuseppe Mascarello, Barolo Monprivato, which, when first opened was tight, but after two hours in a decanter was sublime and it then gained in complexity over the next two hours of sipping. Never once did it lose its edge. However, the next next night, this extraordinary wine was a shadow of itself: although a lovely shadow it was. The problem was, is this shadow now lacked definition. I want wine with sharp edges, not a diffuse, less interesting profile. It is best to drink a wine before it loses the edges that make it unique.
I agree you can’t argue with taste – actually no, I am debating taste on this point. I think that those who argue for outrageously long breathing periods for wines just don’t like the firm edges, that clear definition that certain wines bring you. Twenty-four hours in a decanter will make those edges hazy, less focused and demanding of the palate. While young wines certainly benefit from exposure to air before consumption, this evolution will never replace those slow years of development in the bottle. From time to time you will visit a producer who will proudly proffer a wine that has been open for days to show its durability and the precision of their winemaking, but not a one will recommend that their wine is best if you leave it in a decanter while the earth does a complete revolution before consumption: not one.
For young, tight wines like Barolo and Barbaresco, two to three hours in a decanter before serving is adequate. Nebbiolo greatness comes from its firmness, precision and edgy cut. Don’t steal a wine's character and try to turn it into merlot, revel in its tannic beauty.
Its great to see the continual expansion of high quality food and wine blogs. There can be no doubt the nature of culinary conversation is changing. Thank God. The recent issue of Bon Appetit features the following fine cooking advice on preparing a platter of fresh fruit for a spring party, “Make things really easy by everything ready the night before or – even simpler – by buying prepared fruit from the deli section of the supermarket.” So much for the concept of “fresh”
The explosion of alternative ideas brought by Bloggers are making culinary information fresher than ever. On excellent new source is The Well-fed Network (http://www.wellfed.net), which is a group effort featuring contributions from a wide range of food bloggers. On the wine side of things the Wine Sediments section of The Well-fed Network offers entries from such thoughtful writers as Tom Wark (Fermentations), Andrew Barrow (Spittoons), Lenn Thompson (LENNDEVOURS) and Mark Fisher (Uncorked) among other fine writers.
An example of the anti-Bon Appetit cutting corners approach is The Terroirista post by Tom Wark linked below:
Wine Sediments - The Terroirista.
Brilliant ruby laced with garnet. Deep bitter black licorice aromas mingle with tar and and minty chocolate over brilliant fruit. Firm and extremely layered on the palate with an amazing silky texture to the significant tannins. The dark, brooding fruit is blended with bitter amari notes balanced by a unique dry sweetness. A lively minty note expands on the finish of tar, bitter chocolate and spicy tannins. A really fine, classic Barolo. Just beginning to wake up, you don’t need to be in any hurry to drink this beauty.
Lovely brilliant light gold with green hints. Firm mineral-laden aroma with a cool stony note floating over key lime and tart peach aromas. Racy and mouth filling with bittersweet caramel flavors that frame the clean stone fruit flavors. A mouth-watering finish cries out for another sip.
1999 Tenimenti Fontanafredda Barolo La Rosa, Feb. 2004
Saved by the Bank
Like Bordeaux and Burgundy, Barolo is a complex patchwork of communes and vineyards where sometimes the space of only a few meters changes the character of the wines produced. In Barolo and Barbaresco these differences were often lost as production was dominated by large producers who bought grapes from throughout the region and labeled them as simply Barolo or Barbaresco.
However, the explosion of estate bottled wines in Alba has been changing this and slowly-but-surely the market is becoming aware that there are differences between nebbiolo grown in Serralunga d’Alba and La Morra - just as there are recognized differences between St. Julien and St. Estephe or Corton and Volnay.
The commune Serralunga d’Alba is on the eastern edge of the Barolo zone and the sandstone soils produce some of the most tannic and structured of Barolo wines. At the northern tip of Serralunga, as it reaches towards Alba, sits the great La Rosa and Gattinera vineyards that surround the historic Fontanafredda estate. This estate is indeed part of Barolo history and some of the earliest Barolo wines produced came from these cellars – a tradition that dates back to 1878.
However, the greatness that was Fontanafredda had gone into hibernation until it was rescued by the bank. That's right the bank – Fontanafredda was acquired by Immobiliari S.p.A, Gruppa Bancario Monte dei Paschi di Siena, who has also invested in two Tuscan wine properties, Poggio Bonelli and Chigi Saracini. This influx of capital and leadership has launched Fontanafredda on the road to reclaiming past greatness.
As one of the largest and oldest estates in the region they had a core of outstanding vineyard holdings - most notably La Rosa and Lazzarito in Serralunga d’Alba and La Villa (a sub-section of Paiagallo) in the Barolo commune to build upon. Under the leadership of Director General Giovanni Minetti and winemaker Danilo Drocco the entire Fontanafredda line has seen marked improvement, but what is most exciting is the introduction of a range of single vineyard wines from their classic vineyards which they have called Tenimenti Fontanafredda. This important range of wines includes offerings from all the important DOC and DOCG zones of the Alba and Asti region. Each is a single vineyard selection and the stars are, of course, the three Barolo selections; La Rosa, Lazzarito La Delizia and Paiagallo La Villa. The Tenimenti Fontanfredda releases make this estate once again a producer that should be considered by anyone who loves Piemontese wines and the 1999 La Rosa is a wine that deserves consideration from serious collectors.
Tasting Notes: 1999 Tenimenti Fontanafredda, Barolo, La Rosa
Bright ruby/scarlet with just the lightest hint of orange. Just translucent. The aromas are an exotic mix of ripe dark fruits and leather with hints of dried porcini mushrooms. Smoky ripe plums show in the nose and on the palate are followed by layers of dusty burnt cherries and bitter oranges that are still held in check by firm, hard tannins that are somehow surprisingly round in their intensity. The finish is restrained by its intense tannins, but the powerful complex fruit flavors are already starting to show through. Tasted over a four day period and the wine was still fresh and showing no oxidation on the forth day. Decidedly a wine for long-term cellaring.
It was an “in” place with a “name” chef. Racy architecture and mind-dulling pulsing modern Muzak. Everything designed to stimulate every sense possible. The only things missing are simple, clean flavors, that have no chance of survival in these food discos.
There is this compelling and uncontrolled American feeling that more is better…
My tuna tartare was overwhelmed by ginger, so what was surely sashimi grade toro was reduced to a searing ginger intensity that destroyed both fish and wine. Every course that followed was cursed by similar excess and obliteration of the prime flavors the dish was supposed to offer. After all, shouldn't tuna tartare taste more of tuna than ginger? What is sad in this more is better insecurity, is that the same chefs producing these excesses are also going out of their way to find the finest raw materials – then burying them under more and more of everything instead of letting their true character and elegance show through.
The same goes for winemakers today, who are harvesting some of the finest fruit ever produced, only to bury it under layers of oak and over-manipulation. The rule for chefs and winemakers should always be that the freshest and most expressive raw materials should be left alone to show their greatness. Add accents and highlights, but don’t destroy their essence. Cooking and winemaking should be like adding the proper frame to a great painting.
Oddly enough, the wine I ordered that night was just the opposite of the over-manipulated food. The 2000 Woodward Canyon Winery Walla Walla Valley Merlot (its OK to order merlot in Washington) was balanced and graceful. It was a wine full of edges and angles, unlike the insipid merlot offered by most producers today. It reminded me of the days (almost 30 years ago) when I discovered wine. A time when merlot was an interesting and compelling varietal only taking the lead in wines from Pomerol and Saint Emilion, before merlot became the wine hated in Sideways - and for good reason. This was a beautiful bottle, lean and firm with great complexity throughout. It was the best part of the meal and I saved my last glass to appreciate after the noisy food left our table in peace.
Food and Wine: two words that seemingly go together like ham and eggs. Yet the reality of wine today is that more and more of it does not go well with food. As chefs continue to push the envelope of complexity, the wine industry seems to be veering in two divergent directions. One branch is going down the road of clean, industrial stability with flavor profiles determined by market research and the other going down the points-driven feeding frenzy of more-is-better powerhouse wines.
I recently purchased a bottle of 2003 Peachy Canyon Zinfandel, and it convinced me that when push comes to shove, I’d rather go with blander wines with my meal than wine that could double as fuel for the NASCAR circuit. A clean, if somewhat boring, Zinfandel at 13% alcohol, actually compliments a meal better than the Peachy Canyon that weighed in at a combustible 15.5%. Strange as it seems, commercial can be better than artisan when it comes to wine.
This it the greatest danger of today’s points driven wine criticism. Ultimately it will always reward wines that are at their finest on the first sip or two. However, these very same wines dull the palate after a half-a-glass and do nothing to enhance the food on the table. Not only do they not enhance it, they conflict with food – they very thing a wine is created for in the first place.
Balance, refinement, elegance are all attributes that are as important in the kitchen as they are in the cellar.