The Dinner Party Disaster

I’m proud of the wines that I have saved for decades and nothing gives me more pleasure than preparing a wonderful meal and opening some of these old bottles with friends that love both as much as I do. Last night I had invited a some wine loving friends to enjoy a few of my oldest wines.

I brought the wines up from the cellar days in advance to rest and spent the entire day cooking. That evening my guests arrived and we started on a upbeat note with some Champagne and smoked salmon, but then the disaster happened and I committed a horrible faux paux that I will never live down.

After clearing the plates and glasses of the the first course, I presented what I thought would be the highlight of the evening, a bottle each of 1970 Chateau Haut Brion and 1970 Chateau Montrose. I looked up expecting to see the excited eyes of my guests, but instead met cold stares.

“Well, now we now what you think of us,” said one.

“John, we’re leaving right now,” said another.

“Apparently we’re not good enough for the California wines,” snapped another as he walked out the door. Looking back he added, “What are you trying to do, unload all that old French crap on us? Don’t you think we know the results of The Judgment of Paris 2 – the sequel!”

As the last one slammed the door behind them I could hear them talking outside.

“The nerve, those wines couldn’t even finish in the top five!”

I finished the evening dining alone drowning my sorrows in Haut Brion and Montrose contemplating the damage being done to the world of wines by three ring circuses such as this sequel.

How did the wine world come to this? A bunch of  judges with rows of glasses in front of them decide which wine is the “best”. It’s ridiculous because the only thing they are deciding is which wines taste best when contrasted with the wines lined up in front of them - an unlikely dinner table scenario. By ranking them they imply that there is a linear ranking of best to worst in wine. Something that is a lie. You should mistrust any such ranking as they are not formulated in an environment that has anything to do with what they were made for or how they will be enjoyed.

So if you think this Judgment 2 – The Sequel has any meaning, please get rid of all the old Bordeaux in your cellar. I will be happy to come over and pick them up.

Below you will find the ranking for this tasting as published at Vinography. I publish it here to get more Google hits, which is the only practical use for these rankings.

CALIFORNIA JUDGES
#1 - 1971 Ridge Monte Bello (67 points)
#2 - 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (63 points)
#3 - 1970 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard (62 points)
#4 - 1971 Mayacamas (60 points)
#5 - 1972 Clos du Val (53 points)
#6 - 1970 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild (46 points)
#7 - 1970 Chateau Montrose (39 points)
#8 - 1970 Chateau Haut-Brion (36 points)
#9 - 1969 Freemark Abbey (35 points)
#10 - 1971 Chateau Leoville-Las-Cases (34 points)

UK JUDGES
#1 - 1971 Ridge Monte Bello (70 points)
#2 - 1970 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild (59 points)
#3- 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (56 points)
#4 - (TIE) 1970 Chateau Montrose and 1972 Clos du Val (53 points)
#5 -
#6 - 1971 Mayacamas (52 points)
#7 - 1970 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard (50 points)
#8 - 1970 Chateau Haut-Brion (46 points)
#9 - 1971 Chateau Leoville-Las-Cases (32 points)
#10 - 1969 Freemark Abbey (24 points)

Combining the scoring from the two judging panels gives us:

#1 - 1971 Ridge Monte Bello (137 points)
#2 - 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (119 points)
#3- (TIE) 1970 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard and 1971 Mayacamas (112 points)
#4 -
#5 - 1972 Clos du Val (106 points)
#6 - 1970 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild (105 points)
#7 - 1970 Chateau Montrose (92 points)
#8 - 1970 Chateau Haut-Brion (82 points)
#9 - 1971 Chateau Leoville-Las-Cases (66 points)
#10 - 1969 Freemark Abbey (59 points)

Vinography: A Wine Blog: The Re-Judgment Of Paris Results In California Landslide.

Do They Still Exist?

I thought it didn’t exist anymore, but there it was in my glass. The firm mineral and petroleum odors mixed with brilliant, zesty ripe apricot and white peach aromas that all exploded on the palate, which was braced by fine acidity. All was tightly packaged into a perfectly balanced wine. Most of all it was real, classic Alsatian wine, a type that has sadly dissolved into over-ripe  quasi-dessert wines with alcohol levels that bring out the no smoking signs.

The 2004 Albert Boxler Riesling ( imported by Robert Chadderdon) is a really pretty wine that will develop and grow for many years, although I probably won’t have the discipline to save my bottles as it is just too damn good to drink now. 

It is almost a shock these days to taste such a balanced wine from Alsace. Buy this wine and enjoy for it may be a dying breed. It won’t break your pocketbook to taste this classic as it goes for under $20 a bottle. Funny, it seems these days the more expensive an Alsatian wine is, the more undrinkable it becomes.

Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, sur lie, Domaine de la Tourmaline, 2004

Yikes! What a bad label, but what a good wine. This is a label that would frighten anyone who ever worked on a bottling line. How do they ever get it on the bottle?

More importantly this wine embodies everything that makes Muscadet one of my favorite white wines. Full of acidity, bright fruit that is layered with a yeasty, mineral complexity. A perfect food wine. Bring on the oysters!! 

Bourgogne Chardonnay, Robert Chevillon, 2004

It’s easy to forget why you used to like chardonnay, but this wine will remind you quickly and best of all costs under $20. Clean and fresh mineral, chalk and tart apple aromas lead into a fine firm chardonnay with a long toasty finish. Consumed over three days it hardly missed a step even on the last day. Very nice wine that will make you love chardonnay again.

Château de Ségriès, Côtes du Rhône, 2004

Under ten bucks and what a charmer. No great complexity here, but a great drink. Perfect for burgers and and any meat off the Weber. Serve with a light chill and you will be seduced.

It Bites

It Bites.

It bites hard. Punching the palate with searing acidity. I loved it.

Is there a wine more complimentary to homey, rustic foods than top-quality grignolino? I don’t think so because rich, full flavored dishes need a good dose of acidity to keep the palate alive and few wines deliver like grignolino. The 2004 Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese, Bricco del Bosco,  Az. Ag. Acconero imported by Montecastelli fills that bill just perfectly.

Warning: if you like California merlot or Australian shiraz with cute animal labels selling for under ten bucks a bottle, avoid this wine at all costs.

I fell in love with this wine from the first sip that set my saliva glands into hyper-drive. 

The Best Sangiovese Ever...

There can really be no debate about the best Sangiovese ever…

Well, that’s not exactly true for the best ever will be debated with no resolution. However, the best Sangiovese ever for under $20 – in fact, under $15, is not a topic open to debate in my opinion.

That wine is the Fattoria Zerbina Ceregio Sangiovese di Romagna Superiore. A wine of perfect Sangiovese varietal character vintage after vintage with a bright freshness that embarrasses most Tuscan reds. Ceregio is everything you could want out of Sangiovese at such a modest price range. In fact, Ceregio is a better Sangiovese and more Italian in character than most Tuscan reds at double the price. The only reason this wine could remain such a value is that it not Tuscan, but a product of neighboring Romagna.

Winemaker extrordinaire Cristina Geminani, owner and winemaker of Zerbina, has crafted this wine with the same passion, intensity and skill she devotes to all of her wines – no matter the price. Cristina is dedicated to excellence and that means her top wines, like Pietramora and Marzieno are extraordinary, but it also means that her basic wines, like Ceregio, are incredible values.

The current  release of Ceregio, the 2004, is yet another of a long list of very fine Ceregios that I have had the pleasure to enjoy for well over a decade. Explosively alive with fresh fruit on the nose and a bright rich ruby color that is still translucent, the juicy bittersweet cherry fruit mixes with sweet tobacco and a firm mineral backbone to create a wine that could only be Sangiovese.

This is a wine to go out of your way to find.

If Points Were Years

If points were years, less would be more, but now everyone pays for points, not maturity or complexity, while leaving older, more developed wines for others – like me.

The current release of Guigal, 2001 Côte Rôtie Brune et Blonde runs about $50, but there it was right in front of me, a long ignored bottle on the shelf. In the bottom rack was a 1997 Guigal Côte Rôtie Brune et Blonde at the same price. Sure, for those in the wine-know Guigal is famous and Côte Rôtie revered, but other than those eight people nobody cares so the 1997 was still there waiting…

Côte Rôtie was a name mentioned with respect and awe not so many decades ago, but now drinkers are more interested in Shiraz than Syrah. Easy is in and terroir is esoteric. I suppose that’s great for me and other old guys in that we can find bargains like this, but I find it hard to believe that decades from now someone will be waxing poetic about some machine-picked, low-acid and over-extracted wine from a hot vineyard made in 2006 – unless you have a thing for canned stewed tomatoes, which is what those wines will taste like in a decade or so – just about the time 2006 Côte Rôtie will be just getting warmed up.

Today’s feeding frenzy is for the latest and hottest, while store shelves throughout the USA are filled with bottles from a few years ago that are cheaper than current releases and far better to drink on the week you take them home. While I can’t understand why you (the consumer) aren’t grabbing up these wines, I am very happy that you don’t. The earthy beauty of this Côte Rôtie was exotic and layered with spices and a generous sottobosco of mushrooms and cedar chips with an expansive mid-palate and a lingering finish of wild flowers and a depth throughout that challenged and inspired the palate and the mind.

The definition of great Syrah is still in the Northern Rhone Valley of France.

Accidental Hedonist - Onion Relish

* 3 Tablespoon butter
* 2 yellow onions, sliced
* 1 red onion, sliced
* 1/2 cup sweet marsala wine
* 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
* 2 teaspoons honey
* 3 bay leaves
* 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
* 1/2 teaspoons ground corriander
* 1/4 teaspoons ground allspice
* salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the sliced onions and cook until softened, but not browned.

In a small bowl, mix together the wine, vinegar and honey. Add to the onions. Add the bay leaves, thyme, corriander, allspice, and salt and pepper.

Bring the the mixture to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The wine should be reduced to a thickened syrup.

From: 

Accidental Hedonist - Onion Relish.

Cassis and Oak Hunters

It smelled funky: earthy, compost and dried mushroom without a touch of black cherry or cassis. Man-o-man what a wine. I love the taste of wine aged in big old barrels, as this one was for eighteen months.

It was hidden there on the wine list in an out-of-the-way section sure to be missed by the cassis and oak hunters. All the  better for me and I pounced on it. Best of all, it was a bargain. I was doing them a favor as they would have hated this wine. I also did myself a big favor by ordering it.

This beauty was the 1999 Bosquet des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape, Cuvee Grenache. One of the best wines made from the grenache grape, it is a outstanding example of a varietal at it finest moment. Although, considering its non-fruit driven character, many will find this wine disorienting. That would be a good thing for today’s young wine drinkers need a bit of disorientation to wake them to the pleasures of wines driven by terroir and varietal instead of the “wisdom” of the latest hot-shot consulting enologist dead-set on making wine by a proven point-winning formula.

Brickish in color without a touch of purple, the aromas explode out of the glass with a smoky meaty character mixed with tar, fresh tobacco and coffee grounds. Not a bit of blueberry, blackberry, raspberry or currant show in any aspect of this wine. Warm and generous on the palate with flavors of a haunting burnt black fruit tarry-ness dominated by fresh morels and exotic spices. This is a wine more about wildness (sauvage) than simple, obvious fruit.

I found this tasting note from wine writer Daniel Rogov on this wine in 2002:

“Bosquet des Papes, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, 1999: Made entirely from Grenache grapes, this deep, full bodied wine is packed with ample black fruit, mineral, tobacco and earthy aromas and flavors. Showing its tannins and its acids rather strongly now so don’t dare drink this one now but give it until at least 2005 to find its equilibrium. After that this will be a wine to sip slowly, for as it opens in the glass it will reveal an almost sweet-stewed plum overlay. Don’t worry as the 2005 date approaches for the wine will store nicely until 2020 or longer. Score 94. (Tasted 6 Jan 2002)” Link to original article

I find his notes right on the money and forgive him for reducing such a complex wine to mere points.

This wine is yet another example of why it is better to first search a wine list by vintage instead of varietal. Most wine lists are dominated by current vintages and not only do wines with a few years of bottle age offer better drinking, but usually much better value.

13 and Under

I know numbers lie, but in the eighties I think they lied less. Alcohol levels were not an issue, so if they were less than accurate on their labels, they did it for convenience instead of as a marketing ploy. Yet, these labels of two wines from the 80’s made me think.

I opened two of my cellar wines over the weekend; a 1989 Girard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and a 1980 Fisher Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon - each were 13% or less. Both were excellent wines that had aged gracefully. In fact, the Fisher was an extraordinary bottle still showing great depth, richness and layer after layer of complexity.

How can that be? A twenty-six year old wine with less than 13% alcohol that is still rich and complex? The reason is these wines were made to last, to expand and develop over time.

If anything should make today’s winemakers sit back and contemplate the current fashions of winemaking,  it is bottles like these. We must seriously ask the question; how will today’s 14+% wines taste in twenty-six years? We certainly don’t know the answer, but the quality that these two bottles showed should make a lot of people insecure about extended aging of today’s California (and others) Cabernet Sauvignon.

Today they make’em to drink now. To taste great in a press tasting when only two years old. This was a concept that never occurred to Steve Girard and Fred Fisher when they made these magnificent wines. They aspired to make Cabernet Sauvignon that would develop greatness over time. The philosophy that made Bordeaux and Cabernet Sauvignon famous. They were trying to make great wines not great points.

A winemaker that makes wines like these today is consciously sacrificing high press scores when the vintages are first reviewed. This is courage not many have. It would be very sad if great California Cabernet Sauvignon, like these two wines, was a thing of the past.

(pictured: Fisher Wedding Vineyard) 

Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

200 grams dried (or canned) chickpeas
1 eggplant
2 small ripe tomatoes, diced
4-6 spring onion, sliced
6-8 Tbs olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 large sprig of rosemary, chopped finely
a splash of fresh lemon juice
1 tsp sweet paprika

If you are cooking dried chickpeas, place them in a bowl and cover them with a few inches of water. Allow them to soak overnight or at least 8 hours. Cook them over a medium heat with the crushed garlic clove for an hour and a half or longer, until they are tender. (I soaked the chickpeas overnight and then put them in a crock pot in the morning to cook all day on low.) Once they are tender, drain them and allow them to cool.

Cut the eggplant in half and score it with a knife in a diamond pattern. Drizzle a little olive oil over the eggplant and bake it at 200c for about 35 minutes, or until soft and tender. Let it cool while you begin assembling the rest of the salad, dicing tomatoes and slicing onions. Toss the tomatoes, onions, chickpeas and rosemary with the remaining olive oil. Cut the eggplant into bite-sized pieces and toss the salad again. Ideally, you should allow it to sit in a refrigerator for a few hours to develop flavours. Before serving, add the lemon juice and paprika and taste for salt, pepper and sour. You might want to add another glug of olive oil too, especially if you are using a really good quality one.

Too Many Chefs: Mediterranean Chickpea Salad.

Spring Salmon

Wild Salmon with Blueberry Marinade
1 pound of wild salmon

Marinade
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup finely chopped onion or shallot
Generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp roughly chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper

Place salmon on baking sheet.

Add all marinade ingredients to small saucepan and heat over medium until blueberries have popped. Allow to simmer for a few minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Pour mixture into blender and puree.

Spread a thin layer of the marinade over the salmon - you don’t want to mask the flavor of the salmon just enhance it.

Bake at 500 F for about 10 - 15 minutes depending on how thick the fillet and how well done you prefer your fish. I prefer that the salmon seem a little uncooked in the very center.

Slice the salmon into serving pieces and dollop with a bit of the remaining marinade.

Fresh Wild Salmon Painting the Salmon Salmon with Blueberry Marinade

From the:

Culinary Fool: Spring Salmon.

Randall Grahm on Terroir #3

While I found the recent comments made by Randall Grahm on terroir compelling ( Randall Grahm on Terroir #1 and Randall Grahm on Terroir #2), you can’t help but be struck by the distance between Grahm’s commentary, which I agree with, and the results of his winemaking, which I don’t. While he talks a good game, it is well known that the wines of Bonny Doon no longer have any relationship to his wines of the early 80’s. Bonny Doon today is nothing more or less than an industrial wine producer, just like Mondavi or Kendall Jackson.

Bill Zacharkiw recently brought to my attention an outstanding anonymous post on his Caveman’s Wine Blog in response to his provocative post on Biodynamics. This excellent post and thread is well worth your reading and below you will find an excerpt from the long and thoughtful comments of “anonymous” on the topic of Randall Grahm and biodynamics.

 Is it Doonsday for US Biodynamics?
Randall Grahm’s Faustian deal

"Bonny Doon Vineyard, run by the irrepressible Randall Grahm, now produces nearly 400,000 cases of wine, yet it continues to cultivate an image of a small, boutique winery. Some of the wine world’s most innovative packaging is created by this estate, but, as I have written before, the quality in the bottle has declined from Bonny Doon’s glory years (in the mid-eighties) when Grahm was both a pioneer and a committed Rhone Ranger revolutionary. It now appears to be all about image and high production, resulting in somewhat innocuous offerings." - Robert Parker, June 2005

Over the past couple of years, Randall has been at a crossroads. He suffered with a rare bone infection, his estate vineyards died off, he was involved in a lawsuit for smuggling in “suit case cuttings” from France by Caymus Winery, and he has openly admitted to succumbing to “seditious winemaking legerdemain” ie., making bad wine passable by using dubious techniques in the cellar.

Now in a move that has some in the “real wine” movement worried, Grahm the Santa Cruz marketing wiz behind the bulk juice winery Bonny Doon - is taking up the mantel of Biodynamic. He recently lectured on the subject at UC Davis Viticultural program called Terroir and is now holding himself out to his wine professional colleagues that he is now a born-again Anthroposophist – “fighting for the soul of wine”.

What is Biodynamic wine?…

Read the full text of this compelling post on The Caveman’s Wine Blog at the link below.

The Caveman’s Wine Blog.

Hacking Wine Spectator: Full Access!

Can it be true? Not that I would recommend this, of course.

Winexpression » Blog Archive » NEW - Hacking Wine Spectator: Full Access!.