Old Hippies

I was under the Eiffel Tower drinking some of the best wine I had ever tasted. It had no brand name other than 12%. It was 1974 and I had picked up the jug in the Parisian version of a corner grocery, where the wine was sold by the level of alcohol, not a brand name. I know it didn’t cost very much because I basically had no money. That bottle was my ticket to lunch as my contribution to the myriad communal meals being shared by small groups of traveling hippies like me scattered on the broad green expanse surrounding the tower. It was great, you just showed up with some wine, bread, cheese or salami and joined into a group meal. I still remember those meals with a certain psychedelically enhanced sentimentality.

Recently I was sitting at the bar of a restaurant in Washington D.C. that I had just wandered into as it was close to my hotel, it was late and I was hungry. It turned out to be swankier than I expected and I, still wearing my standard issue Oregon attire, felt quite underdressed. First one gentleman, than another, joined me at the bar. Both were wearing dark suits, white shirts and red ties, which I now believe are the only items stocked by men’s shops in D.C.. I had ordered the excellent 2004 Giacosa Nebbiolo d’Alba, while the other ordered an expensive Super-Tuscan, which to save a few more oak trees, will remain nameless and as boring as almost that entire genre. The other ordered a bottle suggested to him with great Italian accented flair by the chef. At first we were all quiet, but by the second glasses of wine we had become friends and bottles were passed around. One was in the oil business (Cheney must have been busy that night) and the other was, not surprisingly, a lobbyist.We were all a clearly 50+ bunch, so these guys could have been sharing wines with me under the Eiffel Tower some 33 years ago. Not only had the wines we shared gone up a lot in price over the years, but also increased a lot in alcohol. That 12% wine I bought three decades ago had been the top-of-the-line jug wine, but that D.C. evening’s expense account driven meal did not bring a wine under 13.5% to our glasses. Needless to say we were best friends and exchanged cards and hugs as the evening came to a close. You can’t beat a reunion of old hippies.

The chef had recommended the 2001 Braida di Giacomo Bologna Barbera d’Asti ai Suma to my new best friend. This is a wine that combines eccentricity, exoticness, excess, and expensiveness into the perfect wine for Washington D.C. expense accounts. It’s a late-harvest, barrique-aged barbera that instead of a wine flavors, creates kind of a strange, sweet, raisiny grape stew in your mouth. Like Amarone, it may be a great combination with some delicious, stinky, runny cheeses, but the idea of matching this glob of wine with any kind of refined cooking is not very appetizing. Just to give you an idea of how over-the-top this wine is, Parker gave it 94 points, and you know what that means. I’m not saying this is a terrible drink, but it certainly is nothing to match with a meal.

Those few Francs I paid for that simple French wine in 1973 brought me far more pleasure and luck than this big buck Barbera in 2007 as Nixon resigned while I was drinking that little French wine under the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, even with the increased price of the Bologna ai Suma, it brought no such luck in 2007.

Bitterness

The Italian culture is full of bitterness. It's something they've become accustomed to as it seems to run through much of their daily lives. After all there are apertivi and disgestivi that start and end each meal with a bitterness that stimulates the appetite then aids the digestion of all the food that your over-stimulated palate coaxed you into eating. Bitter flavors run through the Italian day with bitter apertivi like Campari, bitter vegetables,greens and amari like Fernet Branca. This is at direct odds with the American sweet tooth in almost everything: even in their "dry" wines.

The American taste for sweet has created a whole range of wines with overripe flavors and significant amounts of residual sugar in wines that pretend to be dry. I'm not talking about riesling or chenin blanc here, but cabernet sauvignon, merlot, zinfandel, pinot noir, syrah and, famously, chardonnay. This preference for sweet means that many Italian wines will seem bitter to the C&H'd American tongue, but not to an Italian who finds bitterness a enlivening flavor sensation.

That bracing bitterness runs through the 2006 Francesco Rinaldi Grignolino d'Asti and it's certainly a wine that will shatter the sugar coating on the palate of  lovers of California merlot or Australian shiraz. Layered with bitter flavors and aromas like licorice root, tar and bitter wild cherry this excellent wine finishes with an acidity that will leave no lingering fat anywhere in your mouth. No velvet or sweet plum or lushness can be found that will get in the way of the characteristics that makes this an extraordinarily good wine at the table. Each sip of this wine wakes your taste buds and inspire them rather than lulling them to sleep.

Bitterness can be a good thing.

Intense Competition

It started out strong, but soon had no chance as the competition overwhelmed it. The 2006 JM Sauvignon Blanc, Klipsun Vineyard was impressive when I took my first sip, but then the unthinkable happened: the food arrived. I was really enjoying the bight, clean and zesty flavors of this wonderfully varietal wine, but what happened next was not fair to any wine, yet is typical on today's menus.

We were dining at Seattle's excellent Dahlia Lounge and the waiter delivered their Sea Bar Sampler, which included; Hamachi sashimi, Dungeness crab with chili paste and tempura crispies, Dahlia smoked salmon with hot mustard, Alaskan halibut ceviche with red chilies and cucumber and Albacore Tuna with sweet onions lemon and ponzu. Everything was delicious, but the first taste of the citrusy ceviche made the formerly crisp sauvignon blanc taste flat, while the rich smoked salmon made it taste thin and so on.  Some fresh bread and butter returned my palate to normal and the JM was perfect with my main course of sauteéd Alaskan halibut with brown butter potatoes (some of the most wonderful potatoes I've tasted anywhere) Brussels sprouts chanterelle mushroom and bacon.

It's probably impossible to select one wine that would be perfect with each part of the Dahlia Lounge's Sea Food Sampler and not necessary as the JM Sauvignon was delicious with almost everything, but it's good to remember that some foods can make very nice wines not taste very good. The only thing I could think of to better handle such a broad range of flavors would have been a just off-dry riesling or a sparkling wine. Perhaps a more important point is that you can't always get a wine that is perfect with the entire meal and that should not be your goal, you can always revert to the water for the mismatched course and return to the lovely wine you've selected when the next course arrives.

Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You

I was beat. Harvest is upon us and I can’t exactly remember the last day off I’ve had. While few things are more exhilarating than harvest, few things are more tiring. The thought of cooking tonight was just too much so I grabbed some pizza on the way home. With it I popped open a bottle of 2005 Rosso Piceno Brunori, Torquis. Now I’m a big Marche fan and love the montepulciano/sangiovese blend of Rosso Piceno, but this wine did not thrill me and I considered opening something else. I guess I was just too tired to get up, but that appears have been a good thing. Indeed it was a good idea  I waited for, as I took a sip of my second glass, the wine suddenly changed. What had seemed flabby and uninteresting suddenly transformed itself into a firm, enjoyable wine with good character and backbone. What had changed? It was me. The wine was the same, but a bit of food and wine made me relax after a hectic day and my palate finally woke up enough to appreciate this very nice wine.

So the fault was not with the wine, but with me. You have to take time to get to know a wine and take into account that you may not be at your best. Mario and Giorgio Brunori worked hard to make this wine and I was wrong to judge their work so quickly and at a time I was not at my best. Once again, this reality must make anyone question the validity of the 100 point scale where wines are rated based on rapid fire tastings. Not even a tasting machine like Robert Parker can work at the same level of effectiveness every day and under every condition. This is where the king and I have divergent views on how wines should be evaluated.

Every time you taste a wine you should remember that the faults you find may be more yours than the wine’s.

Melange a Notes

Some recent under $20 tastes:

• 2005 Domaine La Garrigue, Cuvée Romaine, Côtes du Rhône - An excellent bargain from importer Eric Solomon. Rich, earthy and structured with bright, but not simple fruit. Very peppery and spicy with a warm, but firm tannic finish.
• 2005 Dolcetto d’Alba, Lorenzino, Germano Ettore - Brightly rich, fruity and charming, but with an edge you would expect from vineyards in Serralunga d’Alba. Delicious and ready to drink with anything from pizza to a good steak. Very nice.
• 2006 Barbera d’Alba, Germano Ettore - Zesty, fresh and bright. A wonderfully fruity and refreshing barbera that should be drunk young to enjoy all its youthful charms.
• 2006 Dolcetto, Walla Walla Valley, Woodward Canyon - A nice effort, deeply purple in appearance, aroma and flavor and enjoyable to drink. However, you can buy much better dolcetto at a lower price than this from top Italian producers. A curiosity, but a pleasant one.
• 2006 Coteaux du Languedoc, Domaine Le Pas de l’Escalette, Julien Zernott & Delphine Rousseau Vignerons - This wine is just so charming and pleasurable to drink that buying by the case is mandatory. Brilliantly and brightly fruity without simplicity, this is just a great red to have around this house as it’s guaranteed to elevate many a weekday dinner or weekend party.
• 2004 Pinot Gris, Pfleck de Wettolsheim, Domaine Barmès - Yet another oily, over-the-t0p quasi-late harvest wine from Alsace. Thick, sweet and ultimately boring (to me anyway). At 14.5% alcohol avoid driving after dinner.
• 2005 Riesling, Winninger Uhlen Kabinett, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Freiherr von Heddesdorff - At 9% alcohol, this wine is the polar opposite of the wine above - thank goodness. Light and delicate without missing any complexity. What a great bargain and so, so easy to drink. With just a touch of sweetness to balance the zesty acidity, this wine is so refreshing a second glass always seems to follow the first.

Pinot Syrah

While sipping on an excellent syrah with dinner tonight, I could not help but be struck by the thought: why do producers try to make pinot noir taste like a syrah, when syrah itself is so much better at tasting like, well, itself. This is always confusing to me. It just seems that if you want to make a big, rich jammy wine that you would pick a vine that’s good at it.

The 2005 L’Ecole No. 41 Syrah, Columbia Valley is a wine that combines power and an earthy richness with complexity in a way no pinot noir can (or should). Pinot done in this style seems blowsy, but this L’Ecole is stylish, structured and balanced in its depth and intensity. If you want big and elegant a great syrah, like this L’Ecole, is a better choice (and cheaper) than those strange syrupy pinot noirs running around the market these days.

Big fat pinots seem a bit slutty, but big rich syrah has real class.

Wine Bars

Like most things there are wine bars and there are wine bars. A visit to the renowned Morrell Wine Bar, located next to their famed wine shop on Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan is a a great treat for any wine aficionado. To top it off, the food’s pretty good too. The expansive list of wines available by the glass makes choosing a complicated affair. Best of all, as Morrell’s is packed every day, the wines are fresh even though they have so many wines open at once. Here is a sampling of wines I tasted there on my last visit:

• Riesling Magus, Leasingham, Clare Valley, Australia, 2004 - The exotic fruit flavors and aromas put me off at first, but soon I saw the error of my wines as the crisp, mineral foundation of this wine emerged to elevate the mouthwatering tropical fruit character beyond its simple first impression. The dry finish almost shyly revels itself behind the sweet impression of the fruit. By the time I reached the end of the glass I really hated to see it go.
• Chinon Rosé, J.M. Raffault, 2006 - This is just such a pretty wine from the delicate salmon pink color, to the beautiful fruit purity on the nose and on to the zesty freshness that the bright fruit flavors ride to the long, absolutely delicious finish. Just a wonderful wine.
• Pinot Noir, Failla, Keefer Ranch, Russian River, 2005 - Just not much to like here, over-ripe and overwrought with a hot, porty finish. On top of that, it’s very expensive.
• Pinot Noir, Merry Edwards, Méthode à L’Ancienne, Olivet Lane, 2005 - A glorious pinot noir that highlights every refined characteristic that make pinot so seductive and irreplaceable. A beautiful pale garnet in color with delicate aromatics that continually invite you to dig deeper and deeper to find all the secrets hidden within. The complexity contained within this delicate framework is truly incredible.  As always seems to be with such fine pinot, there is almost none available and it’s very expensive. A great bottle to order when out on a vendors expense account.
• Ribero del Duero, Convento San Francisco, Crianza, Bodegas San Francisco, 2002 - This glass arrived with some roasted rabbit and a perfect match it was. The aromas and flavors of sweet oak express themselves throughout this wine, but as with so many Spanish wines, it just seems to work. Brilliant black current fruit, eucalyptus and a warm richness join the oak to create a big, yet harmonious and complex wine. A few more years of bottle age would be well worth waiting for as this wine, as good as it is now, has more potential.

Pie in the Sky

Finding good pizza in the USA used to be a pie-in-the-sky proposition. All that was available was the soggy mush made with loads of waxy fake mozzarella and way too old vegetables. When you picked up a slice the sodden crust would collapse under the weight of mediocrity. Of course, the vast majority of pizza in America is still like this, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

That light hit me the other night while traveling on business. Often you arrive too late and too tired to seek out fine food and the restaurant at hand is the only thing you have the time and energy to consider. This is what happened just the other night in Atlanta when I was lucky enough to walk through the door of Baraonda, an excellent pizzeria a block from my hotel. I ended up with a great pizza, but what’s exciting here is that crisp thin crust pizza made with fresh ingredients and cooked in wood-fired ovens are getting a lot easier to find. There seems to be a growing pizza revolution baking in America these days. Everywhere you turn there are pizzerias investing in wood-burning ovens and paying attention to their ingredients.

Now that there’s good pizza to eat, the next question is what to drink with it. The Italians tend to drink beer or fizzy local red wine, both of which are great matches. Woody or high-alcohol wines are absolutey terrible with pizza, but fresh, zesty young reds that appreciate a bit of a chill are perfect. Dry pink wines are also great for pizza. Good draft beer is a match made in heaven and most pizzerias that invest in these expensive ovens can be depended on to have a range of good micro-brews on tap.

Often when presented with really good pizza like Baraonda’s, I can’t resist trying a bottle on the list that normally would be considered too elite for pizza. That night I was inspired to try the 2001 Vigneti La Selvanella, Chianti Classico Riserva, Fattoria Melini, this Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri winner is made predominately from sangiovese grosso aged in large old barrels. It is a complex, balanced and elegant wine that reflects real sangiovese character. The combination of an excellent wine with an excellent pizza made for a lovely dinner. I admit a chilled frizzante barbera would have been a better match, but each glass and each bite was so good on its own I could have cared less.

A great pizza is the ultimate comfort food. Drinking this wonderful Chianti Classico Riserva with it my not have been the ultimate match, but it was very, very comforting. 

Beauty and the Wine

You hear the story often, someone tastes a wine while on the most romantic trip of their lives and loves it. They sip from the wonderful bottle at a cozy table at a little restaurant high on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. The wine is the best they’ve ever had and they buy every bottle they can, but when they open their treasure upon their return to Des Moines they find that the wine has transformed itself into something a bit less magical.

Recently, on a spectacular sun drenched afternoon, I enjoyed a delicious bottle of 2006 King Estate Oregon Pinot Gris with a lovely lady at my favorite seafood restaurant on Oregon’s coast, Local Ocean, in Newport. The day was perfect, we started with stroll  through the Yaquina Head Lighthouse (pictured) and after drinking in the gorgeous views proceeded to sip on the King Estate at Local Ocean alongside some perfect Dungeness Crab Cocktail, Crab Po’boys and grilled blonde salmon.

I thought the wine was excellent, but hope you’ll forgive me if you enjoy it in less perfect circumstances and it disappoints. However, I’m confident it won’t. The King Estate Pinot Gris is reliably exactly what you want from both pinot gris and Northwest white wines. That is bright, crisp, dry and refreshing. It is a great companion to the bounty of the Oregon coast matching crab, clams, fried oysters, razor clams and rockfish with refreshing precision.

Coteaux du Languedoc, Domaine Le Pas de l'Escalette Les Clapas Rouge, 2004

Coteaux du Languedoc, Domaine Le Pas de l’Escalette Les Clapas Rouge, 2004 Produced from old vines including the varieties ” Les vieux Carignan en gobelets complantés de quelques Aramon et Alicante Bouschet.” That’s right, not a noble variety there and the much maligned aramon, the bain of southern France is a respected component. Once again terroir and the passion of the growers create wonderful wine from varieties and vineyards that only produce commercial plonk for most others. Here owners Julien Zernott and Delphine Rousseau craft gorgeous wines full of rich fruit, complexity and irresistible pleasure.  Yet another under $20 wine that puts new world wines in this price range to shame. This wine has real personality instead of the cookie cutter industrial wine produced by American wine corporations who have learned that catchy names and cute labels go a lot farther with consumers than character.

St. Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, Vieilles Vignes, Joël Taluau, 2003

It was a very busy week and the next is sure to be busier. I was happy to arrive home for a relaxing Friday night with a kitchen full of the bounty from this week’s farmer’s market. Dinner tonight was to start with some Insalata Caprese made with some local heirloom tomatoes absolutely bursting with flavor followed by a grilled Carlton Farms pork chop sented with fresh thyme from my garden and corn-on-the-cob so sweet that it may have been better suited to dessert.

From the cellar came a bottle of St. Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, Vieilles Vignes, Joël Taluau, 2003 and just as I pulled the cork and served the caprese Bill Maher came on HBO.  This lovely cabernet franc washed down both the meal and the political commentary beautifully. An hour later, at the end of the show and the meal, I noticed that the bottle was three quarters gone while I was not. Yet another of the pleasures of drinking wine with moderate alcohol, in this case 12.5%.

This is an easy, seductively charming wine with concentrated mouthwatering fruit. There is complexity here, but that’s not the main attraction, which is the zesty purity of the fruit. Produced from vines closing in on their 75th birthday, these old vines speak eloquently for themselves without requiring artificial amplification from oak or other manipulations that would only distract.

By the way, this wine cost less than $14. What did you drink with dinner tonight and what did it cost? If you’d tasted this wine you’d feel a bit ripped off. Me, I’m very happy. 

Riesling, Dr. L, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Loosen Bros., 2006

Riesling, Dr. L, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Loosen Bros., 2006

If you want proof that the best wine values are to found in wines from Europe, not the new world, just taste this delicious riesling. With far more complexity, riesling character and charm than American rieslings at twice the price, this is an incredible bargain. Fragrant and racy with just a touch of sweetness and laced with fresh peach and juicy apricot flavors and aromas all tied together with a mouthwatering acidity. Priced well under $20 this is a wine to buy by the case so you can always have a bottle waiting in the fridge when you get home from work. On top of it all is a screw cap so you’ll know each bottle will be perfect.

Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, Vieilles Vignes, Domaine des Dorices, Sur Lie, Eermine d'Or, 2004

Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, Vieilles Vignes, Domaine des Dorices, Sur Lie, Ermine d’Or, 2004

It’s hard to imagine a more wonderful dry white wine for under $20. Light gold in color with layers of flavor and complexity throughout. Firm slate, chalk and wet stone aromas float over delicate, bright green apple and ripe pear flavors and aromas. The finish long and perfectly balanced without a trace of the residual sugar that mars the finish of so many new world whites. Offered by the every reliable importer Christopher Cannan. 

A Boléro Bottle

Starting out deceptively simple, understated and lithe it slowly built to a dramatic crescendo over the course of the meal. The wine was 2001 La Chapelle di La Mission Haut Brion, Pessac Léognan, the second wine of Chateau La Misson Haut Brion and it is a wonderful, classically styled Bordeaux.

Wines like this are so differently conceived that it is hard to compare them to today’s powerhouse style of winemaking. I can see how someone accustomed to the obvious charms of Napa Cabernet or Australian Shiraz would find such a wine hard to understand. The La Chapelle was all about nuance and finesse and, most of all, it is designed to be a harmonious component of a meal. As you sip this wine with your food it weaves a web of complexity that expands and focuses your senses on the complete experience of dining. Perhaps the biggest contrast that such wines have with so many of today’s wines is that the La Chapelle was actually refreshing to drink. The 12.5% alcohol also is a big difference enabling you to enjoy several glasses and to really experience it’s swirling, changing characteristics as you get to know this wine better.

The best wines should become more complex as you drink them. However, all to many wines are one-trick-ponies that offer little after the first bombastic sip. Like Boléro, the end should be more exciting than the beginning.

North-Westrey Cuisine

It was a beautifully warm July night with a gorgeous sunset expanding over the horizon. A fillet of very fresh, wild-caught Copper River Salmon was looking for a good partner and out of my cellar came a 2004 Westrey Reserve Pinot Noir, Willamette Valleyfor the occasion.

Such a full-flavored fish needs little additional fanfare, so I just sprinkled the fillet with fresh Savory from my garden along with a spattering of red sea salt and fresh ground pepper and quickly pan-roasted it to medium-rare. Then served it with a baby arugula salad from a local farm stand and some crusty, warm bread from the famous (in McMinnville anyway) Red Fox Bakery.

The Westrey seemed a bit harsh at first, but soon opened into a silky complexity that brought alive the palate in a perfect counterpoint to the dense, rich salmon. A spot-on example of the wired, electric richness that makes for great Oregon pinot noir this 04 Westrey Reserve is not only delicious, but a bargain at under $30. The initial tightness of this pinot underscores the necessity of decanting young Oregon pinot noir. A short exposure to oxygen will give you a wine with more complexity and balance. The reductive style of winemaking required to make outstanding pinot noir means that decanting young wines should be a standard practice. Let’s face it, with the entry level price for good pinot noir at $20 and well over $30 for real complexity, to not take the time to decant these wines if you’re drinking them young is a waste of good money and good wine.

As the last bite of this sumptuous salmon crossed my lips, the Westrey just hit its stride and a good stride it was as this pinot noir will challenge far more expensive wines.  Winemakers AmyWesselman and David Autrey (get the name of the wine?) continue to not only produce great values, but great pinot noir in Oregon.