Deflation
Nebbiolo
A Barolo/Barbaresco tasting anywhere close to home is sure to attract me like a magnet. Is there anything more elusive than great nebbiolo? Outstanding examples of pinot and cabernet from around the world have long ago proven themselves, but nebbiolo from the Langhe Hills of Piemonte remains unchallenged.
The turf wars of traditionalist vs. modernist have calmed in recent times. The new wave has backed off on all the new oak and over-extraction (not yet far enough in my opinion), while the old guard is producing wines with softer tannins due to better vineyard management.
The St. Helena Wine Center hosted the following tasting last week. It was a bargain at only $20. I am always amazed more people don’t come to take advantage of such opportunities. The tasting:
Sottimano, Langhe Nebbiolo, 2006 ($24) - I bought three bottles and should have bought more. Perhaps the greatest value in nebbiolo anywhere, the Sottimano family could call this wine Barbaresco and sell it for four times as much. However as the vines are “only” fifteen years or so old they’ve decided to just sell it as Lange Nebbiolo. High toned, concentrated and still closed, this wine needs three for four more years to show itself. Sottimano is the most intelligent and light-handed of the modernists in the Langhe today. Simply great wines across the board.
Mauro Molino, Barolo Gallinotto, 2004 ($48) - The Molino wines are less over-the-top oaky these days and much better for it. Not my favorite style, but very well made and their wines show more nebbiolo varietal character than they did in the past. A very good wine at a very fair price.
Moccagatta Barbaresco Basarin, 2004 ($65) - I just could not find much to like here. Just not to my taste, but they’re a serious winery that deserves respect.
La Spinetta Barbaresco, Vigneto Gallina Vursu, 2004 ($120) - Ever see the huckster selling sham wows on late night TV? He must be the marketing director of La Spinetta. This is an almost silly wine at a price that would be silly too - except that some people actually pay it. A rip off. Why would anyone pay $120 for this wine when you can buy a great Zinfandel (which this wine tastes more-or-less like) for a quarter of the price. Anyone who drops $120 on this wine is a fool. The wine version of the Emperor’s New Clothes.
Paolo Scavino Barolo, Bricco Ambrogio, 2003 ($62) - I have never really liked these wines, but respect Paolo Scavino for his passion and dedication to making great wine - that is just not to my taste. Unlike the cynical La Spinetta, which just went out to create wines that would get big points and big bucks, Scavino really believed in his vision. Happily he too has throttled back and is making more graceful wines. This wine is very good - very modern, but still tasting of nebbiolo and the Langhe Hills. If you like the modern style, this wine is for you, not the over-everythinged La Spinetta and it’s half the price to boot.
Mascarello Barolo Monprivato, 2003 ($88) - The nose just blew me away on this wine. Could this lifted, elegant and expansively delicate nose really be from the hot, hot, hot 2003 vintage? This is just a glorious wine and easily the best 2003 Barolo I’ve tasted. Sure their 04 is better, but this wine is nothing short of outstanding and a great accomplishment in such a hot year. This wine should really not be touched until 2013.
Rinaldi Barolo Brunate, 2004 ($150) - Well if you’re going to drop $150 on a wine you might as well get perfection and this wine is about as close to perfect nebbiolo as you’ll find. From a very, very great vintage, Rinaldi took the extraordinary fruit they got from the “Grand Cru” Brunate vineyard and got everything they could out of it. A true classic that should be aged for fifteen or more years before drinking. Today it’s all closed, tannic and promise, but this wine will deliver big time.
Oddero Barolo, 1996 ($70) - If a wine can cost $70 and be a bargain this is it. The 1996 vintage has proven itself to be among the very greatest vintages in Barolo and Barbaresco. However, if you think this wine is ready to drink you’re wrong as it’s still closed and young and needs many more years to reach its peak. Yes, it’s wonderful to drink now, but in five or six more years it should be astounding. If you think about the price of this wine in the context of how good it is and that it is already thirteen years old, I think you’ll agree this is a bargain. That a famous critic rated the flabby 1997’s higher than the regal 1996 vintage is a cruel joke on consumers.
6 Bucks
They're mass produced, industrial wines. Epicuro is just another label of many slapped on by Femar Vini in, of all places, Rome. The thing is these wines are pretty good. For the $6 Trader Joe's is selling them for they're very, very good. Cleanly made, brightly fruity and fresh you'd be hard pressed to beat these wines for everyday quaffers at this price. Best of all they're 2007's, by this time next year you'd better be looking for the 08's (both red and white), because these babies are not built to last. The white 2007 Lazio Vermentino and the reds: 2007 Beneventano Aglianco and Sicilia Nero d'Avola are excellent gulpers for washing down pizza, leftovers or big parties. The variety on the reds does not stand out as they're both purple fruit bombs, yet they actually have acidity and that gives them the edge over under $10 new world reds. By the by, the reds take a chill as well as the Vermentino.
The namesake (pictured above) of these wines may have been a deep thinker, but no thinking is required (or recommended) to enjoy the wines of Epicuro. Epicurus sought to attain a happy, peaceful life. Good simple wines like this had to be a part of his philosophy.
Miscellaneous Mendocino
The wines of Mendocino continue their exciting development. You cannot help but be excited by the energy and creativity of the winemakers there. Here are some excellent wines from less than popular varieties that are all delicious and highly recommended.
2007 Bells Echo Syrah - Firm, earthy butcher shop aromas and flavors over rich black fruit. A real beauty.
2007 Monte Volpe Pinot Grigio - Brilliant, bright and fresh with none of the annoying residual sugar that mars so many Oregon and California wines misusing the Italian name for this variety. It’s great to find an American grigio you can actually drink with fried calamari. Winemaker Greg Graziano makes this wine, St. Gregory and the Enotria below and it seems everything he touches is just great to drink - with a fair price to boot.
2005 Enotria Barbera - Explosively fruity and zesty. Oddly like real Italian barbera, which is rare from American examples of this variety.
2007 Lazy Creek Gewurztraminer - Wow, a real dry gewurztraminer. A true rarity these days when most Alsatian examples are almost dessert wines and most Americans are simply and sweet. This gewurz with guts is a wonderful find.
2007 Lioco Indica, Old Vine Carignan Blend - Lovers of brash, forward earthy Southern French wines take note, you’ll love this balanced bruiser. Sausages on the grill anyone?
2008 McDowell Grenache Rose - A perennial favorite, McDowell keeps pumping out this very good rose vintage after vintage. Would it be better dryer? For sure, but it’s still dry enough to be really enjoyable for summer picnics and parties.
Il Mio Vino - Current Issue
If you're wondering why print media is have such a hard time, just read Il Mio Vino.
Fourty Eight Years Old
Not me, a wine. As old as it was, I was still older. I wish I was in as good of shape.
Old wine is a hit and miss thing. One bottle can be great and the next shot. Buying old wines is an even bigger crap shoot. This was a hit. The bottle of 1961 Chateau Lynch Bages, Pauillac was simply perfect. They don’t mak’em like that anymore - literally. You can help but think of the old saw, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” when you taste wines such as this and wonder if the bigger badder wines of today could possibly taste this good at forty eight. I hope so, but secretly doubt it.
This beautiful bottle was supplied by my friend Donald Patz, of Patz & Hall fame, and a more perfect example of what old wine can become you’ll not find. The color was a gorgeous ruby becoming garnet. The addictive nose was exotically spiced, but still layered with seductive sweet, dark fruit that expanded into a growing complexity that could only remind me of listening to Kind of Blue on Bose headphones. The flavors and finish were all kissing Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. As you see I am older than the wine.
Greatness like this was no accident. They knew what they were doing. It has to make you wonder if we really know what we’re doing to have stopped making wines such as this.
Balloon Launch, Yountville, Napa Valley
Hot air balloon launch at dawn in Yountville
Take Down Two Points - is it best of 3 falls?
http://www.drvino.com/2009/04/16/changes-at-the-wine-advocate-correspondence-with-parker-and-miller/
Dr. Vino is taking on The Parker Empire based on ethics. While I get the point, in all honesty critics cannot be totally separated from their sources and still do an effective job. If a writer doesn't break bread with winemakers and importers they'll never learn the inside scoops. Considering how well most wine writing pays it would mean that most critics could not afford to taste many wines. The real bothersome issue is not that Dr. Vino (Tyler Coleman) brought it up or is pursuing it, but the attitude he's getting back from the Parker side, which would seem to be that they could care less what a wine blogger might think - that they are above such riffraff. At the very least, it makes for some very interesting reading.
Bitter and Black in Mendocino
Despite our corporate driven wine culture, that wants to force every producer into the chardonnay-sauvignon blanc-pinot noir-cabernet-merlot club, there is a growing cacophony of other voices. Stalwarts continue to slug it out with varieties like zinfandel, syrah and others, whose slow sales (unexplainable quality-wise) can only be based on consumer ignorance fueled by the monotone marketing by the mega-wine factories.
Despite the wine white noise pumped out by the mass wine marketing machine there are a few small producers that can make their voices heard. I can’t think of a better example than Mendocino’s Chiarito Vineyard, where winegrower John Chiarito (pictured on the right) has chosen the road less taken, in the USA anyway, and is making wines from some of southern Italy’s best varieties. Chiarito is making some excellent wines out of varieties most Americans have never heard of, much less tasted. The Chiarito Negroamaro ( the bitter black in the title) is explosively fruity, yet with a compelling earthy touch that makes it very interesting to drink. Their Nero d’Avola ratchets all of the above up a notch combined with a bright, racy freshness.
The Chiarito wines are not cheap, which is understandable as the pioneers take all the arrows, but perhaps their wines, along with other producers, will lead our industry down the road of making exciting wines at moderate prices from varieties more suited to their vineyards than the narrow choices pursued by corporate wineries and their marketing departments.
The Chiarito wines may not be bargains, but just maybe they’ll lead the way there.
Marvelous Mendocino
Lots of places on the West Coast think of themselves as pinot prima donna, but there is a very real possibility that the least pretentious of all will claim the throne. Sideways loved the Central Coast. Oregon assumes (a little to quickly) the crown is theirs. Yet it seems time after time the most exciting pinots I’ve been tasting are from Mendocino’s rugged Anderson Valley.Yesterday’s Taste of Mendocino was packed with enthusiastic tasters and expressive pinots. What's most exciting is, strangely enough, what these Mendocino pinot noirs lack. They are moderate in alcohol, missing a big price tag and offer more pleasure than attitude. They are brilliantly light in color, fragrantly lacy, exotically delicate and long on the palate. Pinot noir from Anderson Valley tastes like pinot noir - a claim many pinots from Oregon and the rest of California cannot claim. You'll not confuse a Anderson Valley pinot noir with a syrah.
We can only hope their increasing fame does not lead these growers down the path taken by so many Oregon producers who have given up the elegance that their cool climate can bestow on their wines in the headlong pursuit of points over purity of variety.
Some highly recommended Mendocino pinot noir wines from the tasting:
- 2007 Anthill Farms, Comptche Ridge Vineyard
- 2006 Saint Gregory (winemaker Greg Graziano competes for best pinot anywhere under $20)
- 2006 Handley Anderson Valley
- 2006 Husch Anderson Valley
- 2007 Jim Ball Vineyards, Booneville
- 2006 Jim Ball Vineyards, Signature
- 2006 Lazy Creek
- 2006 Navarro, Methode l'Ancienne
- 2006 Patz and Hall, Alder Springs Vineyard
- 2007 Phillips Hill, Oppenlander Vineyard
- 2007 Phillips Hill, Toulouse Vineyard
- 2007 Phillips Hill, Corby Vineyard
- 2007 Radio-Coteau, Savoy Vineyard
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Bud break is in full swing in the Napa Valley. Here Cabernet vines near Yountville welcome the Spring sunshine.