Varieties of a Lesser God

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There are a few great varieties and a few terrible ones. However, most sit in the middle quality-wise and what gets in the bottle is totally on the shoulders of those that make the wines. Put a great variety in a great vineyard and it’s your fault if you screw it up. Put an ordinary variety in an ordinary vineyard and you better know what you’re doing if you’re going to make a good wine.

Such a variety is müller thurgau, the workhorse grape of Germany and the black sheep of Oregon winemaking. Perhaps its bad reputation in Oregon is understandable considering the simple, sugary wines that wineries made there over the decades. Producers were only interested in pumping out cheap, sweet grocery store wines selling for under $10 a bottle. The resulting bad reputation made müller thurgau the butt of the local joke:

What’s the leading cause of teen pregnancy in Oregon?
Answer: müller thurgau

Anyone who has tasted the wines of the great producer Rudolf Fürst in Germany’s Franken region understands that in the right hands this rather ordinary variety can produce a very, very good wine. His Pur Mineral Müller Thurgau is easily the finest example of this variety that I have tasted. It is dry as a bone with a mineral intensity hard to describe. Firm, elegant, racy and complex with a lacy flowery character that makes it both charming and briskly refreshing.

For the first time that I know of, there is an American producer taking a more serious stab at this variety and I’m sure the teenagers will hate it, but that you’ll love it. The 2007 Château Benoit Müller Thurgau Estate Vineyard, produced by Oregon’s Anne Amie Vineyards shows what can be done with such varieties when you actually try to make a good wine. In this case the combination of an outstanding winemaker, Thomas Houseman, and a passionate viticulturist, Jason Tosch made all the difference. By simply trying to make the best wine they could Houseman and Tosch have produced a lovely wine. It is on the drier side of off-dry with a charming bright, fresh fruity character laced with notes of fresh pineapple and wildflowers. It’s hard to think of a easier white wine for summer parties and picnics. It’s important to note that in vintages prior to 2007 you’ll find the Benoit more akin to those wines that spawned the joke mentioned above.

I do not intend to say this is a wine on the level of the Rudolf Fürst Pur Mineral Müller Thurgau, but it is a very good wine that is a pleasure to drink. What it proves that is that effort and attention pays off when it comes to varieties of a lesser god.

An Immense Wine

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Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast Marcassin Vineyard 2003
95 points | $120 | 450 cases made | Red
"An immense wine that’s rich and concentrated, with taut, supple, firmly structured blueberry, wild berry, and blackberry fruit that coats the palate. No shortage of tannins either yet it’s very deep and persistent, ending with smoky oak touches. Drink now through 2013. From California."—J.L.

Tasting notes like this always confuse me. Is pinot noir supposed to be an immense wine? If it's not (and I don't believe it is), why do you give it 95 points? If you tasted a syrah and noted it was light you would give it a lower score. Should not that standard apply to pinot noir, which is famous for its elegance and complexity not it's girth. Immense to me should be a criticism, not a compliment for great pinot noir. I offer no criticism for the wine here, which I have not tasted. However, these notes just don't seem to be describing pinot noir to me.

California Burgundy

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heartyburgundy Here's a riddle for you: When can you make Echezeaux in California? The answer: You can't, you have to wait until California comes to Burgundy. That's exactly what happened in 2003. I was living in Italy that year, our house tucked into the foothills of the Alps, and we baked for months. The television was full of the horrible news from France as thousands died from the heat. Burgundy was not one of the fatalities of that hot summer, but the vines and the wines did suffer as they did throughout Europe.

My gracious host for dinner last Saturday, winemaker Tony Rynders, brought me back to that sultry summer when he pulled a bottle of 2003 Echezeaux Domaine Dujac (find online) from his cellar. I admit I can't help but be thrilled by the appearance of a Dujac at any time.

Let's make no mistake about it, this is a very fine pinot noir. However, there is little to remind you of Burgundy, much less Echezeaux in this wine. Perhaps I'm nitpicking, but at $200+ a bottle I think picking a few nits is allowed. This is big pinot in the California style and I don't mean that as a criticism of the California style, although I prefer it in my California wines and not my Burgundy wines. While touches of stemmy whole cluster fermentation lighten the wine in a blind tasting you'd be hard pressed to spot this as a Burgundy. This comparison is interesting because it does not so much put down the Echezeaux as remind you how good the best California pinot noir can be.

While the best vintages are always from warm years, which produce ripe grapes that become rich, complex wines, it is also true that more is not better especially when it comes to pinot noir. Extremes of all types overwhelm terroir, in this case erasing Echezeaux and replacing it with an excellent pinot noir of indeterminate origin. As I remember the brutal and deadly heat of that summer it is amazing that Dujac produced a wine as good as this very hearty Burgundy.

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Great Grenache

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sellamoscacannonau From the stony vineyards of Chateauneuf du Pape comes great wines made primarily from grenache, some of which sell for hundreds of dollars and are fought over by collectors. From the wilds of Sardegna (Sardinia) comes great grenache that doesn’t cost fifteen dollars a bottle. While it doesn’t taste like the supercharged wines coming from Chateauneuf these days it certainly does remind of the wines from that region twenty years ago.

Proving itself year-in-and-year-out as a tremendous wine value is the Cannonau di Sardegna Riserva from Sella & Mosca and the 2004 vintage is no exception. Cannonau is the Italian name for grenache. Easily found for under $15 this is a great bargain and a quick look at WineZap showed some retailers under $10. If your reference point is grenache from Australia or new wave Spanish wines you won’t recognize this wine as a grenache. However, if traditionally styled wines are your thing you’ll love this wine for what it is not. It’s not purple, opaque, jammy or 15% alcohol. What it is, is graceful with with no small dose of complexity. Light ruby in color with a touch of garnet it is quite translucent as in good pinot noir. Leaning the glass over you can easily read through it. The nose is spicy and earthy with hints of leather, wild mushrooms, ripe plums and maybe, just maybe, a touch of brett. It hits the palate with a graceful lightness at first, but then firm tannins and warmth remind you it is indeed grenache. The finish is ripe and warm with a hint of prunes and closes with a tannic snap. While you can’t claim that this is a great wine, it is a very good wine and for the money a great deal.

Perhaps I like wines like this because they are so distinct. Wines made in traditional ways just have a more individual personality. I can’t imagine this wine coming from anywhere but Sardegna. I like that.

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Worth Reading (and a chuckle too): W.R. Tish's Hall of Shame

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2008hallofshame The Ratings Game has devolved to the point where there are now only two functional wine scores: 90 or not. People are more informed than ever, and wines are more plentiful and better-made than ever—rendering ratings high and low more useless than ever. But still, the numbers keep multiplying... like Energizer bunnies without birth control.

Wineskewer.com: Hall of Shame

Wine writer W.R. Tish combines both humor and wine knowledge, a rarity in the wine industry. Taking time with his site both entertains and educates. Obviously I more than agree with his take on the 100 point scale. This is, after all, a points-free zone.

Eating Budapest

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Budapest_cover_mdIt was a smooth flight with an abrupt ending. I had the feeling that the pilot had daydreamed a bit, woke up, looked down and seeing the airport immediately below pointed the nose down. The angle was steep, but no one seemed to notice so I went along with the flow. So it was, with the rush of landing on an aircraft carrier, that I arrived in Budapest. I was there for wine, of course, and after a quick lunch at a traditional Hungarian restaurant we were off in a car for the long drive out to the Tokaj-Hegyalja wine region in Northeastern Hungary, home to the legendary sweet wines of Tokaji, in this case the sublime wines of Oremus.

This was my first visit to Hungary and, while anticipating the culinary adventure I was thrown into a new and unfamiliar food culture. I could handle a menu in Western Europe, but as I gazed at the menus here nothing rang a bell, nor did it to my compatriots, one of whom ordered two courses at a dinner one night. His first course arrived, which was a beautiful and delicious smoked trout. After a short wait his main course arrived, which was two beautiful and delicious smoked trout. Thankfully he loved smoked trout.

After several days of fabulous sensory overload in the cellars of Tokaj, my wife and I headed back to beautiful Budapest for a small vacation. Armed with the few travel guides we could find we ate badly at tourist restaurants for the rest of the weekend. As usual, the guidebooks and concierges fail the devoted gastro-tourist.

The big travel guide books, Zagat included, badly let down the traveler that seriously wants to seek out the best local food and wine, but I was recently introduced to a wonderful set of guides for travelers that are as serious about wine and food as seeing the next cathedral. Publishers The Little Book Room offer a collection of guides that will lead you to the best tables in town. Their two current releases, Best Wine Bars and Shops of Paris by Pierrick Jégu with photographs by Caroline Rose and Food Wine Budapest, by Carolyn Bánfalvi with photographs by George Konkoly-Thege, which is part of The Little Book Room’s The Terroir Guides series, will make any gastro-tourist salivate. This latter guide took me wistfully back to Budapest where having this book would have made a tremendous difference in our experience of that beautiful city.

Best Wine Bars and Shops of Paris can be tossed in a backpack or purse and the extensive list of wine bars is conveniently listed by arrondissement so you can easily find a great glass or bottle of wine as you wander about the city. It’s light, fun and packed with pictures. Food Wine Budapest, while bigger and heavier, is still backpack size, but contains far more information. In addition to being a guide book, it also is a thorough primer on all things culinary in Hungary, which means that you can depend on not ordering the same dish for first and second course like my friend did. This is a must-have for anyone on their way to Hungary.

Guides like these make travel a delicious adventure.

 

Find these books on Amazon: Food Wine Budapest Best Wine Bars of Paris

Chicken Little

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All it takes are gray skies and a little more rain than usual and the wine press panics. Taking the Chicken Little approach to winegrowing, the sky-is-falling stories soon start to appear. Perhaps this is understandable as bad news sells better than good. Thankfully, the winegrowers themselves have much cooler heads. Cooler heads like Adelsheim’s excellent winemaker David Paige in the article below:

Wines & Vines - News Headlines - Northwest Vineyards Off to a Cool Start

David Paige notes, “We’re not at the point where anybody should be declaring disaster,” he said. “If we do our jobs, we are going to be absolutely fine. And if we get all the wrong weather, we’ll probably still be fine—as long as we’re on top of it.”

The wine press seems to still operate with a 70’s mentality, which is the last time a major wine region suffered vintages that produced commercially unsalable wine like Barolo and Bordeaux in 1972. The fact is that enology and viticulture have advanced so far since those days that vintages like that will not occur again. Every year producers can make at the minimum good wines. The only question vintage offers any more is how hard they’ll have to work and how good the wines will be.

For great reds today, the only rating necessary is if they’re ready to drink young or not. It’s quite nice of Mother Nature to mix vintages that need aging with those ready to drink young.

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Bet You 10 Bucks

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bardolino-le-fontane I’ll bet you ten bucks you’ll love these two wines. They both cost ten bucks each on top of it.

Now that I think it about I should reconsider. I could be out the $10 and I’d prefer to have a another bottle of either of these two simply beautiful wines.

  • Sauvignon, Marigny-Neuf, Vin de Pays du Val de Loire, 2007 - A bone jarring, slap in the face refreshing style of sauvignon blanc. Lovers of New Zealand sauvignon will love the ample “cat pee” punch, but there is more here with a bracing slate and mineral component. This is better than brushing your teeth as your mouth will never feel cleaner than it does after a gulp of this tart beauty. A baby Sancerre that longs for goat cheese or oysters.
  • Bardolino, Le Fontane, Corte Gardoni, 2006 - Light, almost delicate with a pure, simple clean fresh cherry nose and a lifting freshness on the palate driven by acidity and perhaps a bit of CO2. Lithe and quick from beginning to end, the mouthwatering finish makes you grab for your fork. Don’t think: eat, drink, talk and enjoy - preferably a bit chilled with your best homemade pizza. (Buy Online)

So I’m taking back my $10 bet as these wines are both too light and too acid driven for most consumers. Yet these are the types of wines I like for everyday drinking. They are not only moderate in alcohol, but so refreshing and uplifting with a meal that Wednesday night leftovers become a cause for celebration.

 

Trading Down On Wine

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BlackstoneCalMerlotLabel "You'll see people who on a regular basis have been drinking Kendall-Jackson at $13 and all of a sudden Blackstone is fine at $10," said Dale Stratton, vice president of strategic insights for Constellation Wines U.S., which owns Blackstone, the popular merlot brand. "Loyalty is very low in our category."

Trading down on wine | Santa Rosa Press Democrat // News for California's North Bay and Redwood Empire

Is moving down to Blackstone from Kendall Jackson really trading down? It seems to me that wines like this are indistinguishable from each other. The real question would be why in the world would anyone pay $3 more for the Kendall Jackson in the first place? Mr. Stratton's comment, "Loyalty is very low in our category" is true for one reason: there is no real difference between California wines in this price range. Considering the fact that they know this fact, I can't imagine that the marketing directors and sales managers of these companies sleep very well at night.

A marketing plan that values conformity and fears personality creates this kind of nightmare for those that practice it. Consumers are loyal to wines with distinctive character, which is something any producer should be able to deliver when a wine is over $10 a bottle. These wines don't.

America's greatest wines are stunning examples of the winemaker's art that rival any wine in the world. Why can't we make a good $10 merlot?

 

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Flogging Fino

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la gitana We beat the crap out of it: ship it badly, store it badly, serve it badly. I wonder why sales are not great for Sherry? While the more robust Oloroso and Sweet Sherry wines can somewhat stand up to this abuse, the delicate flower that is Fino cannot.

For practical purposes there are really only two types of Sherry, Fino and Oloroso, and everything else is a riff off of those two themes. What divides these two wines is the Flor, a film of yeast cells that is allowed to develop in the partially filled barrels. When the Flor is very thick the wine becomes Fino, while those where the Flor hardly develops at all become Oloroso.  Under the thick coating of Flor the Fino is protected from oxidation, while Oloroso becomes dark brown as it is very oxidized. Fino and Oloroso are two different wines to be served in different ways. The Oloroso wines are usually thought of as meditation wines, something to sip on while reading a book and munching on almonds in front of the fire. While Fino is thought of as, well, a wine. Fino should be consumed just as you’d drink a chardonnay or sauvignon blanc with the same food and in the same situations. By the way, my glass of choice for Fino is a Champagne flute.

For a more in-depth article and a look at all the Sherry types click on this link.

Fino Sherry should be served as young as possible and cold, not cool. The fact that expensive and elegant restaurants across the country, many of them with sommeliers, continue to have open bottles of warm Fino Sherry on their back bar is just incredible. I can think of no other of the world’s great wines that is so routinely mistreated by those that should know better.

Freshness is the key to enjoying Fino at its best and that means that not only do you have to look for a top producer, but for an importer willing to manage their inventory in such a way that only the freshest wine is available in the market. One company excels at this, Steve Metzler’s Classical Wines of Spain imports the great Bodegas Hidalgo Manzanilla La Gitana and goes to great lengths to insure that La Gitana is always in pristine condition. Manzanilla is a Fino Sherry from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where the wines develop a unique lightness and freshness. Along with Lustau, these are my favorite generally available Sherry wines of all types available in the United States. You are unlikely to get a Fino/Manzanilla Sherry in the United States in better condition than La Gitana. This, combined with the fact that no better example of this type of wine exists, means that if you want to understand why these are great wines this is the wine to try. If available, buy Fino/Manzanilla in half-bottles because these wines do not keep well once the bottle is opened.

Fino/Manzanilla wines are more like great dry wines than fortified wines when they are fresh. They are crisp, bright and fruity and match beautifully with seafood, sushi and savory appetizers, like the ones you see in the tapas bars of Spain. Always avoid Fino with an alcohol higher than 15.5%, which some producers do to give the wine more shelf-life, destroying the wine in the process.

This post was inspired by my Twitter (drdebs) and blogging buddy (Good Wine Under $20), who is making us jealous with her Twits as she drinks and eats her way through Spain. Her recent comment about drinking a glass of fresh Fino out of a frosted glass at a tapas bar reminded me of how great this wine can be. Drink an extra glass for me tonight Dr. Debs! I’m off to find a bottle of La Gitana. (Buy La Gitana online)

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Bargains

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muzak Sometimes it’s embarrassing as an American to taste the incredible range of bargains available for under $15 from Europe and compare them to American wines at the same prices. The boring standardization of the American wine industry in this range is numbing. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of different labels, but in the bottle you find only dozens of styles. As you stare at shelf-after-shelf of American cabernet, merlot or chardonnay in your local grocery store you can reliably just pick the one that’s on sale as they are all more-or-less the same wine. However, with just a little more work you can find an entire world of wine bargains that offer far more character than these homogenized industrial wines. It’s important to remember that these bargain reds should be served cool, 65°F or so, to bring out their freshness.

The red wines listed below are all under $15 and many of them are under $10. All of them were purchased in grocery stores, not fine wine shops, so it is possible to find them. Each has character, if not complexity, and best of all, they are great with food. Inexpensive American wines have become the elevator music of the wine world, wines like these are the original tunes.

  • Château Bouissel, Fronton, Classic, 2003 - Southern French estates offer some of best bargains out of France. This wine is substantial without being heavy and with the structure coming from the negrette will improve for a year or two. Rich and warm with a dark color from the malbec the tannins in the finish make this perfect for rich stews. Cassoulet anyone? 50% negrette, 20% syrah, 20% cabernet franc, 10% cot (malbec) Imported by Normandie Imports
  • Covey Run, Syrah, Columbia Valley, 2004 - What we have here is an American Côtes du Rhône and that’s a great idea. Ripe and juicy with a soft fruitiness that should please any merlot drinker. Don’t think, just drink and you’ll love it. At $6.99 a great bargain. Drink up fast and cool. (Buy online)
  • Fattoria Laila, Rosso Piceno, 2005 - Marche wines continue to be ignored Italian treasures in America, but that keeps prices down. This blend of montepulciano and sangiovese is a classic Italian red with a firm acid backbone and warm earthy flavors over the bright black cherry fruit. This matched with my penne with lamb sausage ragù perfectly.  Imported by North Berkeley Imports and Zancanella Importing. (Buy online)
  • La Ferme de Gicon, Côtes du Rhône, Vignerons de Chusclan, 2006 - This is just an amazingly easy wine to gulp. Rich, zesty, fruity and alive this is a wine all about honest simple pleasure that is happy to leave complexity to the big boys. This is a buy by the case wine at under $10 that will match with any summer meal. A half-hour in the refrigerator is mandatory and during the dog days of summer I’d serve it out-and-out chilled. Imported by Cellar Door Selections  (Buy online)
  • Villa Pigna Briccaio, Marche IGT, 2003 - Briccaio - Here is a step up on the complexity meter as it not only offers easy drink-ability, but some real character. Showing the breed of montepulciano, from which it is entirely made, this wine combines classic Italian backbone with a generous personality. A great match for your best grilled steaks. Imported by Zancanella Imports (Buy online)
  • Quinta da Espiga, Casa Santos Lima, Estremadura, 2006 - Portugal continues to pump out great wine bargains. This is a big, robust, deeply fruity wine and is a real mouthful. Those that like bigger wines will love this $8 steal. These dry Portuguese reds almost remind me a bit of what Port would taste like without the sugar.
  • Bodegas Luzon, Jumilla, 2006 - 65% monastrell (mourvèdre) 35% syrah - A big lush, ripe modern-style Spanish wine that will seduce many a merlot lover with its soft richness. Another wine for steaks or chops at your next cookout. A Jorge Ordoñez Selection Imported by The Henry Wine Group
  • Regaleali, Tasca d”Almerita, IGT Sicilia, Nero d’Avola, 2006 - I have always found the big players in the Sicilian wine scene, Regaleali and Corvo great values. They offered personality and typicity at a fair price. While these wines have modernized a bit over the years they have not gone down the road of becoming more like Australian wines than Italian wines taken by so many Sicilian producers. This wine has great backbone, good varietal character and, most wonderful of all, tastes like it comes from Sicily. Imported by Winebow   (Buy online)
  • Clos Roche Blanche, Cuvée Pif, Touraine, 2004 -  I first tasted the 2004 back in September of 2006 and it keeps getting better and better. It’s hard to imagine a wine more lifting and filled with personality at this price. This wine is for those looking for grace and elegance in a wine. Originally I recommended drinking this cot (malbec) cabernet franc blend early, but obviously there was no hurry. Imported by Louis/Dressner  (Buy Online)
  • Protocolo, Vino de la Tierra de Castilla, 2005 - Usually Ordoñez selections tend towards the modern school of Spanish winemaking, but here is one with a more traditional style. Very fragrant and flashing a touch of spicy/sweet American oak its ripe red fruit flavors are held taught with just a touch of tannin. With a more classic European style and balance this is a great match for gilled lamb chops or sausages.  A Jorge Ordoñez Selection Imported by The Henry Wine Group  (Buy online)
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Wright On! Power to the Pinot!

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ken wright It was more cocktail party than wine tasting, but the line-up on the table was incredible. It’s always a rare opportunity to taste such a broad selection of outstanding wines. Instinctively I went into power tasting mode, moving down the table methodically, focusing on the wines while the other guests focused on the conversation. It was very clear who the geek in the room was. I’m not a big fan of tasting wines in such conditions, but you do what you have to do.

While these were big name labels, more often than not the wines were less than big time. This always seems to be the case these days: the more famous the wines the more so-so they are. Just as my palate was about to be lulled to sleep from all the oak and alcohol something happened. I put my nose in the next glass and suddenly I was jolted into focus. The brightness of the wine in my glass stood out among technically well-made, but dead wines surrounding it. I tasted it again and then again to be sure. Indeed this was a special wine.

The wine was the 2006 Ken Wright, Pinot Noir, Abbott Claim Vineyard, Yamhill-Carlton AVA (buy online) and the first sniff tells you you’ve found something special. The nose lightly lifts out of the glass with a lively wild blackberry essence laced with a warm truffled earthiness. The first sip greets your tongue with a little acid love bite followed by a complexity that dances across your palate. All to often heavy handed overripe fruit dominates wine today, but not here as the gracefully ripe fruit lifts the wine more than weighs it down. The finish is long and firm and still a bit closed as this is a wine that needs two or three more years to revel its complete character.

Few winemakers have given us more fine pinot noir over than years than Oregon’s Ken Wright and with this wine he once again proves that powerful pinot is not powerful, but a wine that gains its power from complexity.

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A Top Ten List to Avoid

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OA_logo_eggplant I’ve written before about Steve Plotnicki’s outstanding restaurant guide for serious foodies only, Opinionated About. Now he’s taken another step in listing the top ten most overrated restaurants in New York, the USA and Europe. This is an extremely useful list as these restaurants are expensive, and when I mean expensive I mean expensive. These are restaurants that have main courses that cost as much as filling up your SUV so pay attention. I’ve eaten at a few of these restaurants, especially in Vegas, America’s most overrated dining destination, and I concur with these reviews. Have you been less than impressed with any of these restaurants?

Overrated Restaurants on Opinionated About

A Little Sad

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mondavi It was a little sad. Our host pulled out a bottle of 1992 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon and poured it around the table and we all immediately raised our glasses to the memory of Robert Mondavi, who recently passed away. The wine was lovely, everything a mature cabernet should be with a firm elegant character, a wonderful cigar box nose and that long, linear, intellectual finish that defines the variety at its best.

The sad part was not the passing of Mr. Mondavi, who lived a full and meaningful life into his nineties. It's hard to think of someone who lived a fuller life and no one left a bigger imprint on the American wine industry. The sad part was a wine blog post I read earlier in the day that grumped away about all the coverage of his death, wondered what the big deal was all about and why he should care. Writing a wine blog and not knowing about Robert Mondavi is like writing a blog about American history without knowing who George Washington was. How can a wine writer that doesn't understand the immense impact of Robert Mondavi provide meaningful commentary on the American wine industry? They can't and that's a little sad.

Understanding the sublime art that great wine can become is more than pulling the cork and giving it points. In every bottle of California wine that achieves greatness there will always be a bit of Robert Mondavi. To not understand that is to not fully know or appreciate that wine. It is the human spirit that raises wine from a beverage to an emotion.

We can be assured that there have been thousands of corks pulled from treasured old bottles of Robert Mondavi's wines in the last week and tens of thousands of glasses raised in his honor and memory. I can't think of a better tribute.

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