Tiny Dancer - WBW #22

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It was haunting. Mysteriously darting here and there while all my senses reached hungrily out for each nuance,wbwlogo_6.jpg chasing them like glints of light radiating from a gem. A cloud of delicate sensations ran through my brain then lofted away. Nothing overwhelmed me, but its teasing, tempting and almost impish personality became addicting. I found myself coming back to it night after night as there was something so compelling about its vulnerable, yet soaring complexity. Like a seemingly weightless ballet dancer, every move floated through my senses.

There’s a pretty good chance you’ll hate it, or won’t get it, but I find myself pulling the cork from a bottle of this wine several times a week because I have found few wines so satisfying at the dinner table.

terresdorees_small1.jpgThe wine: 2004 Beaujolais, L’Ancien, Vielles Vignes, Terres Dorees from Jean-Paul Brun. Just writing about this wine makes me salivate.

It’s not big. It’s not powerful. It’s not pointy. It is simply delicious. No juicy-fruity Duboeuf here, but a wine with a strangely powerful delicacy. The bouquet entices not attacks and on the palate it dances, challenging your palate to follow its lead - if you have the time and inclination. Considering the under $15 price tag, a wine that can lead your senses in so many directions is a staggering bargain.

Never passing 12% alcohol and produced without manipulation, the delicacy of such a wine is sure to disappoint palates trained on the hyper-extracted and manipulated wines of today, but if you are getting a little bored with indistinguishable wines from unidentifiable places, maybe, just maybe, you can open your palate and mind to something new. Actually, it’s not new; it’s very, very old. We all just forgot.

Beaujolais , L’Ancien, Vielles Vignes, Terres Dorees is imported by Louis/Dressner

Death Wish

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Wineandspiritsmagazine

Wine and Spirits Magazine must have a death wish. They are writing about interesting wines in interesting ways, and to make matters worse, they are writing about interesting wines that are good values. Considering how popular the commerce driven style of coverage is in other wine publications, Wine and Spirits is certainly trying to commit suicide by taking such a radical approach.

Look at the current issue (June 2006) featuring value wines of the year. For example:

  • Joshua Green is recommending Clos Puy-Armand Côtes de Castillon and Navarro’s Methode à L’Ancienne Pinot Noir

  • Tara Thomas suggests Castel Montplaisir Malbec from Cahors, Château Les Tours des Verdots Bergerac Mouelleux and Domaine Berthoumieu Madiran

  • Patrick Comiskey likes Château de Beauregard (a Pouilly Fuisse of all things!) and Amavi Cabernet Sauvignon from Walla Walla

  • Peter Liem recommends Domaine des Terres Dorées Beaujolais ( a wine sure to confuse California or Australian wine drinkers) and a German Pinot Gris from J.L. Wolf in the Phalz.

Throughout the article the Wine and Spirits writers recommend French wines from little-known regions, wines from producers around the globe making elegant and balanced wines and ignore the power brokers of the wine business. There can be no other reason for such reckless behavior than a desire to put the magazine out-of-business. Perhaps this article was edited by Marvin Shanken in disguise. I mean, who could possibly want to read an article full of recommendations of wines that are wonderful to drink and don’t cost much.

Unfortunately, for Wine and Spirits, way too few people.

Barbera d'Asti Superiore, Litina, Casina Castle't, Maria Borio, 2003

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The lovely cascading “C”s of the front label well convey the delicous wine in the bottle. This is an outstanding Barbera with both depth and zest. Both deep fruit and mouthwatering acidity. Both, both, both as this is a wine of perfectly intertwining counterpoints. The combination of rich fruit with electric acidity makes this a perfect wine for steaks and chops. It is sure to impress anyone who takes a sip and pays attention.

Barbera del Monferrato, Goj, Maria Borio 2004

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Maria Borio is rapidly becoming my favorite Barbera producer for the clean authentic beauty of her wines and this zesty Barbera is no exception. It is vivace, or lightly effervescent and this lightly sparkling quality is well-loved in Italy, but has no counterpart here in the USA, so consumers are often confused by such wines. However, there is nothing to be confused about as these wines are all about simplicity and straightforward pleasure. The combination of acidity and effervescence makes such wines extremely refreshing with the rich everyday dishes so common in Northern Italy. I find this wine an absolute delight with pizza and recommend drinking this simple pleasure slightly chilled.

Bandol, Chateau Jean-Pierre Gaussen, 1999

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A year in Provence is not enough when you taste wines like this. Deeply aromatic and earthy with a wonderful layered character unlikely to generate many points, but certain to generate pleasure at the dinner table. Yes, this is a big wine, but not by today’s standards as it sports the weight of a big Bordeaux on the palate and will seem almost delicate to Shiraz drinkers. A top-notch wine that really adds pleasure to a meal.

Pleonasm

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PleonasmDefinition: pleonasm: the use of more words than are necessary to express an idea

I have a new word for Webster’s – eno-pleonasm: the use of more winemaking techniques than necessary to make a wine.

Winemakers today seem to lack confidence, or perhaps it’s a personal vision. Most of all, it’s a lack of a solid tradition. Not so many years ago, winemakers didn’t have to give much thought to the style of their wine. That was determined by tradition: you knew what your wine was supposed to taste like and you made it like your father and grandfather and great-grandfather did. That was good and that was bad. A lot of bad wine was made because little thought was put into it, but a lot of good wine was made because the winemaker had a clear sense of history and time and what that meant to their wine. This confidence meant change came slowly. Of course, this meant that many beneficial changes were too slowly accepted, but it also meant that regional character was safe from the whims of the wine fashion market. No longer is this true.

Today winemaking has taken on the same emptiness as the fashion runways of Milan and Paris, where it is more important to shock than create real clothing. Today’s wines are all-to-often like the bizarrely dressed models prancing down the runway in an outfit that no one could really wear in real life – or to put it in wine terms – have with dinner.

Too many of today’s winemakers create eno-pleonasms using every intervention at their disposal instead of making real wine, because they don’t really know what they want and, as a result, are slaves to the fashion world instead of wine with food world.

Champagne, Brut, Nicolas Feuillatte. NV

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Don’t waste you money on this generic effort. You can buy Oregon or California sparkling wines for the same price that offer much more to get excited about. Proof that a name in itself no longer has any importance in an era where top quality wines are produced around the world. As much as I revere Champagne, there is nothing to revere here. Try Oregon’s Argyle for $10 or more less a bottle and you’ll get a far more interesting wine.

Rebecca Wasserman

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I was looking for a good bottle of Champagne, but, in all honesty, I find the big firms like Cliquot make pretty boring wines at high prices. The best values in the Beckywassermanworld of Champagne are no secret, it is the Récoltant Manipulant (RM) brands (small producers making Champagne from their own grapes) that offer the most interesting wines at the best value. The trick is knowing which to pick from the dozens of RM labels, which are now being imported into the USA.

I was again faced with a selection of promising RM Champagnes, but not having tasted them all, I began turning the bottles around to find the name of the importer. On the back of one interesting bottle I found the reassuring words: “Becky Wasserman Selection”. I bought it immediately without another thought because I knew if Becky said it was good – it was good. I was rewarded with a delicious wine at half the price of some of the bigger guns on the shelf. In fact, not only was it half the price, it was twice the wine, making it a spectacular value. The wine: Champagne Camille Savès, Brut Rosé, Grand Cru Bouzy

As interesting as this bottle looked, I might have passed it over for a lesser wine, but for Becky’s name on the bottle. Certainly no name on a bottle is more important than the producer, but for imported wines the name of the importer or shipper is next in importance. While it is a daunting and impossible task to stay on top of all the top small domaine wines of Europe,  we are fortunate that there are people like Becky Wasserman who have devoted their lives to this quest. Their name on the bottle is a guarantee of high quality and, as there are only a handful people like Becky who are obsessed with quality, you don’t have to memorize the names of hundreds of estates, you just have to remember the names of a few passionate importers. Unfortunately it is a short list as few importers have the passion, patience or palate it takes to seek out the finest small wine estates.

When you see  “Becky Wasserman Selection” on a bottle, you can be absolutely assured you will get a bottle of wine with character and an expressive personality that reflects the vineyards where the wines were born. Becky’s selections will never be easy to find, but the wines that carry her signature were not easy to make. The winemakers worked hard to make them, Becky worked hard to find them and a little effort on your part will be required to drink them, but good wines never come easy and your efforts will be well rewarded.

 

Coteaux du Languedoc, Château La Rogue, Pic Saint Loup, 2003

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Pic Saint Loup is probably a tough sell. It’s a shame for in the under $20 category red Lanquedoc wines still offer some of the best value you can find. Just compare this wine, selling at $16 against a California Merlot or Cabernet selling for the same price and you will see there is no contest. Full rich fruit flavors mix on the palate and nose with tar and black licorice to make for a really interesting drink. A great wine for summer cook outs.

Malbec, Tikal, Amorio, Altos de Medoza Argentina, 2004

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Winner of the heavy bottle award of 2004. Out of this massive bottle comes a pretty good wine - often a surprise when such pretentious bottles are used. Richly colored with a woody, ripe character that, with a little air time,  starts to reveal some real complexity.  Going for under $25 a bottle, those who love Napa Cabernet, but can’t stand the price should grab up some bottles of Tikal Amorio, as you are sure to like the style.

Sleaze and Wine

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wswavegas.jpgTom Wark at Fermentation is once again holding their feet to the fire - that is the well heeled feet of the W.S.W.A., the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America. Take some time to read Tom’s latest exposé HERE

Tom clearly points out the evil in this organization by identifying the key personnel of the W.S.W.A. staff as former lobbyists of the National Rifle Association, Big Tobacco and Big Drugs. It’s hard to imagine a sleazier or more adept team and we should be afraid of them.

As many of you know, my real job is to produce and sell wine. Our wines are represented by distributors in nineteen states and not one of them belongs or has any interest in the W.S.W.A. - no wine distributor that really cares about the wines they sell is seriously involved with this organization primarily financed by vodka.

As a small wine producer, it would never occur to me to not work primarily with our distributor network. This has nothing to do with the mandated three tier system. I would work through our distributors anyway, as they do outstanding work on our behalf. They present our wines, educate consumers and trade on our philosophy and maintain an inventory of our wines to support their market. I would never consider not working with any distributor who does such fine work - with or without the three tier system.

So why is the W.S.W.A so paranoid? It’s because most of their members are incompetent when it comes to selling fine wine and only truly care about spirits - where the big bucks really are.

They should be afraid, because without three tier laws they would have no reason to exist for any fine wine producer.