Obscure Grapes

I was lucky enough to be invited to a dinner at Wine & Spirits Senior Editor Tara Q. Thomas' house recently. Julia Harding, Jancis Robinson's Assistant Editor was in town, and she has a special interest in obscure grapes. That would be the theme.

What do you bring to a dinner like this? These are folks who are familiar with things that are obscure to me. My Mondeuse would be mundane, my Poulsard too popular, and my Clairette commonplace.

I left this until the last minute, and then went to Slope Cellars, one of my absolute favorite Brooklyn wine stores. Patty, one of the owners, suggested a red wine from Germany made of a grape called Dornfelder. I liked this immediately because I’m pretty sure it is also the name of one of the main characters from the hit 1980’s film Revenge of the Nerds. And also because Savio Soares imports it, and I trust him as an importer. I also chose a sparkling Scheurebe, another German wine, and another Soares selection.

When I walked in I was greeted warmly by Tara’s husband Robert who helped me unpack my wines and said “Oh nice, a Scheurebe. We just did a Scheurebe dinner, all Scheurebe, all the time.” He then went back to deep-frying chickpeas. Okay, so Scheurebe isn’t obscure in this house. But aha – I brought a sparkling Scheurebe, the NV Brüder Dr. Becker Scheurebe Sekt Extra Trocken, and Julia had never had a sparkling Scheurebe. This must, by the way, set the world record for the most times the word Scheurebe is used on a single blog post.

Who were the other guests at the dinner? Oh, just Ray Isle, Joshua Greene, and Jamal Rayyis, a prominent wine writer. They all have done a fair amount of wine tasting, you could say. In fact, everyone at this dinner has forgotten more than I know about wine. But they were completely easy going and were there to enjoy themselves, and enjoy ourselves we did. Here are the wines we drank that evening. If these are not sufficiently obscure for you, well you can host your own obscure wine dinner.

We began with the sparkling Scheurebe (off-dry, floral, interesting Wrigley’s Spearmint finish) and the 2007 Terre del Principe Fontanavigna Pallagrello Bianco, a weird white from Piedmonte. With deep-fried squid perfectly seasoned with sea salt and oregano we had the 2007 Botani Moscatel Sec from Malaga, Spain. This was my favorite of the evening’s obscure wines. It was fresh and clean with a primary white grape essence, and also a lovely green herbal finish. It paired perfectly with the squid. It is obscure in that it is a dry example of Moscatel.

With seared scallops and a puree of parsley and celery roots we had the 2007 Vatistas Kidonitsa, from Greece. I had never before had a wine made of Kidonitsa, but I was assured that it was, in fact, classic Kidonitsa in character. We also drank the 2005 Cellars Unio Roureda Llicorella Blanc, a white wine from Priorat made entirely of Pedro Ximenez, of Sherry fame. Apparently the white Grenache varieties are the common white grapes in Priorat. Had I tasted this blind I would have had to guess it was an oxidized Savagnin from the Jura, and I liked it.

We then drank the 1988 Chapoutier Chante-Alouette Hermitage Blanc, a fantastic wine that was rich and broad and still taut with energetic acidity. This was a beautiful wine that defies my compulsion to name specific aromas and flavors in a tasting note because it was just so harmonious and gorgeous. Marsanne, obscure? No, but this is a rare wine, and I certainly was thrilled to be able to drink it. Just gorgeous wine, memorable and inspiring.

There were merely two red wines. We drank them with a perfect brisket (although I refused to finish my Hermitage and nursed it throughout the brisket, and they paired perfectly). I brought the 2006 Latitude 50 Nektar, the Dornfelder. It reminded me of Pineau D’Aunis – peppery and leafy. But it didn’t have the acidity that good Pineau D’Aunis has and overall it was a bit clumsy. Maybe it just wasn’t a good example of a Dornfelder. The other red was the 2006 Ravenswood Old Hill Zinfandel. I have almost no experience whatsoever with Zinfandel, primarily because I've never met one that I like. This one was perhaps a bit more cut than most, the flavors more precise, but I still just don't get Zinfandel.

With apple crisp we had the 1994 Julius Wasem & Sohne Huxelrebe Trockenbeerenauslese, a German sweet wine made of Huxelrebe. And it was really good – great acidity, clean fruit flavors, unctuous without feeling heavy. We also had the 2007 Persimmon Creek Ice Wine, a sweet wine from Georgia (the state, not the former Soviet Republic). I think the grape is called Albarola. I can tell you that a guy named Dr. Sonny Hardman made the wine, and that he must be a man of vision. I mean honestly, who lives down in Georgia and decides not only to make wine, but ice wine?

A Portuguese Wine Tasting

Recently the gods, having decided that my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds (like Bernard Kerik when he was Police Chief in NYC maybe?), ensured that I was invited to participate in a very special lunch and wine tasting put on by The Port Wine Institute, ViniPortugal, and the Portuguese Trade Commission. Lunch was in the private back room at Gramercy Tavern, a hallowed institution of fine dining in New York City.

There were about 15 distinguished folk at this event, and I'm talking about Rui Abecassis (the Deputy Trade Commissioner of Portugal), esteemed wine writers such as Jamal Rayyis of Food and Wine Magazine, David Talbot of Wine Enthusiast, and bloggers like our very own Dr. Vino. And Rui Reguinga, Portuguese wine maker and wine consultant guided us through our tasting.

I know that I'm probably supposed to write about this event if and only if I'm going to shower praise on the wines. But that's why I'm a blogger - I can report my real feelings about what I experienced. And although I really enjoyed a few of the wines (and the food was great), I was basically unimpressed with the overall lineup of wines we tasted before our lunch. I found the reds (8 of 10 wines were reds) to be almost uniformly big and characterless. Not memorable or emotional, business-like, the result of a focus group or something. Smooth and powerful, yes. But not my cup of tea.

Be warned - I have almost no context in which to place these wines. If I knew nothing about French wine and went to this kind of event, but it was French wine instead of Portuguese, and they poured only big manipulated Bordeaux wines, I might walk away thinking that I don't like French wine. For all I know, they poured only the Portuguese equivalent of big manipulated crowd-pleasing Bordeaux at this event. Are there soulful, lighter, elegant reds from Portugal? What is the Burgundy of Portugal, the Cru Beaujolais, the Chinon?

Anyway, here are a few wines that I liked. There was a lovely rosé, the 2006 Quinta da Alorna Touriga National Rosé from Ribatejo DOC, a large flat valley in the south-central part of Portugal. This wine had an absolutely gorgeous color, a nose of fresh berries, and a sweet berry palate with an interesting medicinal nuance. This wine retails for about $12, and I would buy it happily if I saw it on the shelf.

I enjoyed the 2005 Quinta do Poeira Douro. It was described as having "less structure, more elegance" by Mr. Reguinga, and maybe that's why it stood out for me. At 13.5% alcohol, it was lighter than many of the other wines. I liked the light nose with some cinnamon spice, the well balanced palate of spicy fruit with a bit of earth, the relaxed mouth feel. I do not know the retail price of this wine, so I have no idea whether or not it is a good value. But if it were under $20 I would happily buy it.

If I had to select one red to bring home to BrooklynLady and enjoy over dinner, it would be the 2005 Quinta da Bacalhoa of Terras do Sado, at about $29. This wine is 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot -- that's right, a Bordeaux blend is the wine I liked most in the tasting. I liked the lovely dried rose petal nose, the pretty fresh berries and the overall feeling of the wine, light and elegant, but with deep and focused flavors, well balanced with good acidity. I didn't even notice the alcohol, and at 14.5%, that's impressive.

Let me say this right now - the revelation of the tasting for me was Tawny Port. I loved the Sandeman (beware of ridiculous website) 20 year old Tawny so much that I've looked in at least four stores for it so far, with no luck. Peter Cobb, a delightful English gentleman who lives and loves Port wine guided us through a tasting of four Ports, including a young ruby vintage Port by Quinta de Noval, a Fonseca 10 year old Tawny, and the Sandeman 20 year Tawny. I learned that Port wine is better served with a chill, that Tawny compliments cheese quite well, that the Tawny style really appeals to me, with its complex and oxidized nature, and that I would pay good money to have an afternoon of Port with Peter Cobb.

So thank you gods for smiling on me that afternoon. This was a wonderful afternoon of wine tasting, eating, and learning, and I met some great people too. And I'm going to find a bottle of 20 year old Sandeman Tawny before the holidays, I can promise you that.

Addendum: here is the full lineup of wines we tasted before our lunch:

1. 2006 Anselmo Mendes Muros de Melgaco, Vinho Verde
2. 2006 Quinta da Alorna Touriga National Rosé, Ribatejo
3. 2005 Campolargo Termeao, Beiras
4. 2005 Quinta dos Roques Touriga Nacional, Dao
5. 2004 Quinta de Chocapalha Reserva, Estremadura
6. 2005 Quinta da Bacalhoa, Terras do Sado
7. 2005 Jorge Moreira Poeira, Douro
8. 2004 Symington Family Estates Chryseia, Douro
9. 2005 Herdade dos Grous Reserva, Alentejo
10. 2004 Rui Reguinga Terrenus Reserva, Alentejo

Roundup - Recent Sips and Bites

A few wines of interest from the past few weeks that don't get their own post:

Burgundy

2003 Marechal Savigny Les Beaune Vieille Vignes, $ unknown (restaurant purchase). I have come to expect excellent wines from this producer, and I remember enjoying the '03s in general. If I'm not mistaken, it was this wine that won the NYTimes tasting panels' "Village Burgundy" blind tasting a little over a year ago. We were not so impressed this time, though. Maybe this wine is not that long lived, as the '03s are low in acidity. Not likely - it's only 2007. In any case, reserved aromatics, some red fruit and a bit of earth. Somewhat flabby palate reflecting the same. Not terribly complex, some baked characteristics. Pleasant, but not worth seeking out. Maybe the restaurant (Savoy) didn't store the wine properly...?

2005 Paul Pernot Beaune Clos du Dessus des Marconnets, $22. Back here I first wrote about this wine, so this is the second bottle we opened. I will admit - I was worried based on recent bottle variation issues, that this wine might not be a good as I remembered. Wrong. just as good. We enjoyed it with rack of lamb and turnip puree, and it the wine was excellent. Interesting aromatics, loaded with underbrush and dried leaves. Also some sour cherry and strawberry. Light to medium bodied texture, great acidity and balance, there is still some sappy baby fat on the palate. The fruit is ripe and lovely. It might be hard not to drink all of this young, but I am curious to see how it ages. This is honestly a steal at under $25.

2005 Desvignes Morgon Javernieres, $21. I really liked this wine the first time I tasted it. It was every bit as good this time, but it definitely needed some air time to get there. Plenty of fresh strawberries and raspberries and a little funk on the nose. Zippy and juicy palate of ripe strawberry with nice dusty tannins. An excellent Beaujolais.

2005 Jean Manciat Macon Charnay Franclieu, $17. This is a real find for me because I have basically given up on Chardonnay at this price point. I just never like it as much as I like other whites at the same price point. But this wine is an exception. Nice aromatics - ripe stone fruits, some citrus, some tropical fruit. And this is steel fermented wine - no oak! These are the aromatics of the grape as grown by this producer. The wine is lean with good acidity. There are floral and mineral flavors to go along with the citrus and stone fruit. A definite re-buy for me - this is as good as any white I know of that is currently on shelves and under $20.

Oregon
2003 Bergstrom Pinot Noir Cumberland Reserve, $34. A few years ago I was a real fan of this wine. Not so sure now. It is a brawny style, rich and heavily extracted. And it clocks in at 14.5% alcohol. I wanted to like it because I have a few more bottles, but BrooklynLady and I agreed - it's just not that good. Sappy pine smells, and lots of heat from the alcohol. Unfocused palate without any defining characteristics. BrooklynLady said that she would not have known it was Pinot had I not told her. Is this Bergstrom in general or just this cuvee, I wonder. In any case, I would have to taste first before buying any further Bergstrom.

Loire
2003 Delesvaux Coteaux du Layon Selection de Grains Nobles, $30 (secondary market). For some reason I often find particularly good deals on Loire dessert wines on web auction sites like Wine Commune. Good can mean half price or better, as in this case. I don't seek out Loire whites from '03, as the heat kind of did away with the acidity, but supposedly the sweet wines survived well. Not sure I agree based on this as an example. This wine was amber in color with pronounced ripe pineapple on the nose, some caramel too, with a little whiff or roast nuts. The palate was not as complex as the nose - honeyed with some mineral notes, but too much flab. Acidity definitely lacking, and the wine wasn't balanced because of it. One interesting thing - the texture was almost aloe-like in viscosity.

Rhone
2005 Eric Texier O' Pale, $15. I loved this wine at the Real Wine Attack tasting so I was curious to see how it would show at home with food. Deetrane and his family came over for brunch one sunny morning and we sat on the deck eating omelets and BrooklynLady's popovers with her homemade peach conserves (last summer's batch now gone). Why not the O Pale, at only 7% alcohol? Made from 100% Viogner grapes from Condrieu, this wine was every bit as delicious as I remembered. A nose full of orange blossoms, light and lovely stone fruits, and confectioner's sugar on the palate. Good acidity and balance for an inexpensive sweet wine. Deetrane was swooning over this stuff, by the way...

2005 Texier Cotes du Rhone Brezeme Roussanne, $20. Didn't love this one at the same tasting, but it was the only Texier wine that didn't impress me, so I decided to get a bottle and try it at home with dinner. BrooklynLady and I have been working on our roast loin of pork lately, experimenting with different herbs in the marinade. Here is our new favorite method:

Fresh oregano in the mortar and pestle with a few cloves of garlic and some kosher salt. A little olive oil (safflower is good too, and allows the oregano to shine a bit more) and then rub the paste all over the pork loin. Generous salt and ground pepper, let stand for at least a half hour. Layer a pan with potatoes (I like a mix of white and blue for color), toss in olive oil and a little salt. Place a few sprigs of oregano on top of the potatoes and then the pork. Roast at 450 degrees for 15 minutes to brown the exterior a bit, then lower the heat to 375 and roast for another 45 minutes, tossing the potatoes once during roasting, or until it has reached desired temperature. I like it at 140 degrees F when I take it out of the oven. The juices run a little pinkish, but cover loosely with tin foil for another 15 minutes and it continues to cook, but gently.

We served slices of this pork with pan juices and the potatoes, with roast asparagus - a yummy spring meal. The Roussanne was a really nice pairing. The nose was the best part for me after the initial woody blast, full of flowers and wet stones, some wax and something like poundcake too. Oily texture in the mouth, not much acidity in this wine, but still light and flavorful. Waxy and mineral palate, with some flowers and apricots too. I enjoyed this wine, but BrooklynLady liked it much more than me. I know that it is good wine, but it might not be my favorite style.

Notes From the Dressner Real Wine Attack Tasting

Warning: this is a really long post you might need to read it over several days, or during one day in which you are really bored at work.

I hauled my butt into Manhattan (!) on Saturday, thinking I would be the first guy at Chambers Street Wines for the tasting. Nope. Packed already, and only 1:10 PM. And as a reader named Andrew pointed out in his comments on Spring Tastings in NYC, many of the people in the store seemed to have no idea what was going on, they were there simply because they walked by and smelled the wine in the air. Which is fine by me - the more the merrier, except that Chambers Street is narrow and there honestly just wasn't enough space this year. This is suggestion number one for the friendly and amazing people at Chambers: hold this incredible tasting somewhere else next year. You need more room to do this, and so do your customers

They had already broken the tasting into two shifts, early and late, and only some of the wine makers would be present at each shift. Suggestion number two: hold this incredible tasting somewhere else next year. You have some people come because they walk by, but lots of people who know and love your wines come specially for this tasting, and want to be able to taste them and meet the vignerons. Impossible in this venue.

Many wines listed in the flier were simply not being poured when I was there. As a regular customer who made sure to inquire beforehand so as to better plan my day, this was very annoying, I must say. No reason not to open the wines you say you're going to open, right?
So I helped them out by bringing this to their attention, and then by actually opening some wines for them and creating a little "self-pour" tasting table featuring the wines of Chidaine, Baudry, and Marechal...and this turned out to be a lot of fun.

My only other gripe is this: some of the people pouring the wine seemed confused. They were mystified when told that they were pouring only one Baudry wine, and the flier indicated that four would be available for tasting. They poured wines in a strange order sometimes, and explained things about the wine that I know are not true because Jedi-master David Lillie who partially owns the place had already told me differently. Suggestion number three: make sure that your staff are assigned to pour wines that they know about and can discuss.

Okay, griping is over. The tasting was amazing - the wines were for the most part just delicious and full of character. If you like Loire wines, you're not going to do better than this. Also, the vignerons poured not only their entry level wines, but their top wines, and this provided the opportunity to taste a $62 Cote Rotie without actually buying it, which is much appreciated if you are in my tax bracket and you want to sample the wares before investing.

I decided that for this tasting I would score wines from 1-5 with 5 being my favorites, 1 indicating a wine that I just did not like. Wines are presented so that my favorite in any group appears first, etc. I tried to write further notes after the tasting, but I want to say right now that these scores and notes in no way should be construed as a description of the wine during a meal, thoughtfully considered over a couple of hours with friends. In fact, I tasted one of the wines with BrooklynLady over dinner since then, and it was wonderful, yet I didn't love it at the tasting. Just goes to show you, there is probably a "right" way to taste wine...

My 5's

2004 Eric Texier Cote-Rotie, $62 - This Northern Rhone Syrah was lighter than his other reds, incredibly intense nose of roasted meat and herbs, olives and soil. Complex palate of dark fruit, with great minerality and a lingering finish, still lip smacking in its youth.

2005 Eric Texier Vins de Pays O Pale, $16 - This is a sweet wine made entirely from Viognier grapes. Since all of the grapes are grown in Condrieu, why wouldn't Msr. Texier charge $95 for this bottle and label it Condrieu? Because wines called Condrieu must be dry wines, and this wine is fermented to only about 8% alcohol, leaving lots of residual sugars. But let us rejoice, because for $16, we can enjoy this glorious juice, smelling of peaches, orange blossoms and honey; with a soft and well balanced palate echoing the floral and orange blossom flavors, and also a confectioners sugar-yellow cake kind of thing. Just delicious, and a steal at this price.

My 4's

2002 Domaine du Closel Savennieres les Coteaux Moelleux, $28 - this is a rare sweet wine from Savennieres, crafted only in certain vintages. So much better than it was when I stupidly opened my bottle two years ago. Deep yellow, almost gold. luscious nose of white flowers, honey, and minerals. Mouth filling but light at the same time, delicious!

2005 Marechal Pommard La Chaniere, $50 - who would have thunk it? The '05s from Marechal are now available, and the Pommard, the Cote de Beaune village with the biggest muscles, the one that might require the longest time to reveal its charms, it was this young wine that impressed me as the most complex and immediately drinkable. Dark purple colored and a little murky, this wine smelled like a flower shop, with smoky spices too. Fruit is faint right now on the nose. Beautiful, although obviously tight palate, with hints of earth, flowers, dark fruit, and spices. This seems to be something special.

2004 Bernard Baudry Chinon La Croix Boissee, $29 - Baudry's top cuvee, from old vines in clay and gravel, aged in wood barrels. This was tough right now, tightly coiled like the red string inside of a baseball. But the purity and elegance of the plum fruit and dark flowers was evident, and the tannins, although not yet integrated, are sweet and fine. You watch, talk to me in 8 years about this wine...

2005 Chidaine Montlouis sur Loire Clos Habert, $26 - Yum! I posted about this wine here.

2004 Domaine du Closel Savennieres Clos du Papillon, $26 - Closel's top cuvee, from the butterfly-shaped vineyard. This is still kind of closed, but the intense floral and mineral character shines through. White stone fruits too, and some quinine. I cannot wait to try this again (in at least 6 or 7 years).

2004 Cazin Cour Cheverny Cuvee Renaissance, $18 - Romorantin from the master, allowed to ripen longer on the vine, creating a sweeter wine than the normal Cour Cheverny. This might honestly be the best under $20 value that I know of in white wine...period. I posted about this wine here.

2004 Eric Texier (yeah, I didn't know about him either, but this guy might be a genius) Brezeme Domaine de Pergault Vieilles Vignes, $29 - I don't know what the name means, but this is Cotes du Rhone at its finest. 100% Syrah from the resurrected Brezeme vineyard, this is light in color, but intense with plums, herbs, and tar, and really well balanced with nice acidity and low alcohol. Has a long life ahead of it too.

2005 Desvignes Morgon Javernieres, $21 - Cru Beaujolais from Desvignes, always good. This one was really good though, from clay soils, with a lovely translucent purple color, a nose of violets, ripe red fruits, dark plums, and a little barnyard funk. Very smooth and elegant.

2005 Jean Manciat Macon Vieille Vignes, price unknown (about $30) - old vine Chardonnay from the Maconnais, a Burgundian region known for value whites. This wine was bright and fresh, with nice white fruit and citrus, and great minerals and acidity. I had zero expectations for this one, but I couldn't drag myself away...

2005 Chidaine Montlouis sur Loire Les Bournais, $32 - sweeter than the Clos Habert, very sweet in fact. It seems to have enough acidity to balance itself out though. After another few sips, and this wine was warm, by the way - it was opened at my urging (read: nagging) it came into focus. Clean and pure aromas of white flowers and honey, sweet palate of peaches, some pineapple, and some honeyed minerals. This wine has some serious stuffing, and I will have to revisit in a few years.

NV Renerdat-Fache Bugey Cerdon Demi-sec Petillant, $16 - this is a low alcohol (~7.5%) effervescent rose colored wine from Bugey in eastern France. Made from Poulsard and Gamay, it is sweet, fruity, and funky all at the same time, and pleasantly bubbly. So low in alcohol, you could pour your grandma a few glasses and she'll have a ball without falling asleep. I posted about this wine here.

2004 Michel Tete Julienas Cuvee Prestige, $23 - not cheap for cru Beaujolais, but it's worth the money. Smels of flowers and plums, with a mouth filling velvety texture and sweet black cherry flavors. This almost doesn't seem like Beaujolais, except for the fact that it has almost no tannic presence. Just yummy.

My 3's

2005 Domaine du Closel Savennieres la Jalousie, $20 - Closel's entry level wine meant for drinking young, although don't be fooled - this is serious wine.

2004 Cazin Cour Cheverny, $13.50 - surprised me by NOT being as bracing and acidic as the last vintage I tasted. Quite lovely actually, with melon and floral aromas, good acidity, but well balanced with a hint of sweetness. Definitely a $15 beauty.

2005 Eric Texier Cotes du Rhone, $12 - fresh ripe raspberries on the nose, so nice! Fruity and clean on the palate, a bit hollow in the midpalate, but c'mon, it's $12. This wine is made mostly from Grenache, but includes 20% white grapes in the mix. Another $15 beauty.

2005 Eric Texier Cotes du Rhone Brezeme, $16 - 100% Syrah from the Brezeme vineyard, this wine is tasty with dark smoky plums and herbs. A great value.

2005 Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet Clos des Briords Vieille Vignes, $14 - old vine wine from the musc-master Marc Ollivier. All of his Muscadets were just lovely, but this is my favorite. I posted about this wine here. This and the next two wines are unquestionably $15 beauties.

2005 Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet Cuvee Eden, $13 - a little more fruit than the Briords, less mineral character.

2005 Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet de Sevre et Maine Sur Lie, $10 - briny and bracing, good citrus and melon flavors, nice texture. Incredible that this wine is $10.

2005 Jean Manciat Macon Charnay Franclieu, $17 - Manicat's Chardonnay for younger drinking, fresh, vibrant, and delicious.

2005 Desvignes Morgon Cote de Py, price unknown - this one from schist soils, more tannic and mineral than the Javernieres. I am not familiar with Beaujolais as it matures - I tend to drink them young. Maybe this will improve, but currently eclipsed by its sister, the Javernieres.

2005 Chidaine Montlouis sur Loire Les Tuffeaux, $25 - sweet white fruit and honey, very pure, a little toasty, a bit disjointed right now but has promise to be sure. This wine is made from grapes from several plots.

2005 Chidaine Vouvray Clos Baudoin, $26 - my first taste of Chidaine Vouvray (and their first vintage of this wine?). Interesting smells of citrus and kerosine hints, flavors of red grapefuit and stones. More interesting than pleasurable to me, but maybe with some time...

2004 Bernard Baudry Chinon Les Grezeaux, $25 - Baudry's other old vine wine, also made from grapes in clay and gravel soils, but without the new barrel aging. Tight still, but clean and interesting with smells of barnyard funk and dark plums and herbs. Will need a few years to shine, I would say.

2004 Mas de Chimeres Coteaux du Languedoc, $17 - mostly Syrah (I think), this wine has a rustic feel to it, in a good way. Herbal and smoky, some road tar, and nice dark fruit. Light feeling too, not too much alcohol.

2005 Marechal Bourgogne Rouge, $25 - disappointing, not bad, but disappointing. A great and undervalued producer, a great vintage, shouldn't this have been special wine? It certainly was floral and had sweet fruit a-plenty, but there was little complexity, not much to hold your interest. For 25 smacks, you can do better elsewhere.

My 2's

2005 Michel Tete Julienas, $18 - barnyard city. I didn't like this the other time I tasted it, and that was at home with dinner. Maybe I'm missing something...

2005 Eric Texier Cotes du Rhone Brezeme Roussanne, $20 - 100% Roussanne from Brezeme. The nose was wonderful, full of orange oil and flowers. The palate did nothing for me though. This may be because I just don't often drink white wines that are low in acidity, and I don't know how to taste them. This wine felt flabby to me, no vibrancy.

2005 Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Cabernet Franc, $13. I very much like their Sauvignon Blanc, so I was surprised at how uninspired I was by this wine.

2004 Bernard Baudry Chinon Domaine, $15 - Hmmm, so much barnyard funk that its kind of hard to focus on anything else. Could it because I just opened it moments before tasting, and it hadn't yet blown off? I sure hope so. I loved the 2002 and 2003 vintages of this wine.

2005 Breton Bourguiel Franc de Pied, $20 - I know that Breton is kind of hip, and I usually like their wines. I was distinctly underwhelmed by the two wines I tasted here.

2005 Breton Bourguiel Trinch!, $16 - trinch, the sound of two glasses clinking, is a wine to drink young. Not this one though, not for me.

2000 Chateau Moulin Pey Labrie Canon Fronsac, $29 - You were right Joe, this is just nothing special. Deep cassis aromas, nice perfume - seems so promising, but a monochromatic palate of dark jammy plums. Not interesting enough to justify the price tag.

My 1's

2005 Clos Roche Blanche Cuvee Cot, $19 - nope, not happenin'. I know that some people love this wine, some people whose palate's I trust and respect. But I'm going my own way here - I just cannot drink this wine. All Malbec, and all funky soil, all out of balance. I would rather drink seltzer, and I say that in the friendliest way. I welcome someone's teachings on this wine...

NV Pinon Vouvray Petillant Brut, price unknown (about $17) - maybe a flawed bottle. Tasted like cardboard and excrement. And after I primed Adam for how tasty it would be, too...If not flawed, than simply yukky.

Wines that I could not score because I could not figure out what the heck was going on:

2005 Marechal Savigny les Beaune Vieille Vignes, $39 tight, bland, tannic.
2005 Marechal Savigny les Beaune 1er Cru Les Lavieres, $50 red fruit hints, too tight to tell what's happening.

Wines that I did not get the chance to taste:

All of the Beaujolais wines of Jean-Paul Brun, Domaine des Terreed Dorees.
All of the wines of Franc Peillot of the Jura.
Eric Bordelet's Normandy Ciders.

Wines that were not poured when I was present, that I wish I could have tasted:

Domaine Belliviere's 2005 Coteaux du Loir and Jasnieres wines - such a shame!!
Breton's "better" wines, Les Galichets, Nuits d'Ivresse, and Les Picasses.
Pinon's 2005 Vouvray Tradition or Moelleux sweet wine.

Okay, that's a wrap folks. If you can still focus your eyes, and still have control of your mouse-finger, you may now click away from this page.

Red Dessert Wine: Banyuls of Mas Blanc

It was over a year ago when BrooklynLady and I were talking about dessert wines, how much we love 'em, and how we'd like to taste more of 'em. She told me about this red dessert wine called Banyuls. It's not Port, it's French wine. Red dessert wine? Sounds good. So I stuck Banyuls on my mental list of "buy this if you see it" wines.

Problem is, I never see it, except in the oddest places. Chambers Street doesn't carry a Banyuls, neither does Prospect Wines. But the grotty little hole in the wall that just opened on Flatbush Avenue, the one that seems to specialize in half pints of no-name vodka - they have a Banyuls. I couldn't bring myself to buy it though - it had associated with too much bad wine and vodka during its time on the shelves, and maybe it's personality had turned bad.

So I waited. I had some idea of what I was looking for: Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book and Robert Parker's book both mention Domaine du Mas Blanc as an excellent producer of Banyuls sweet wines. Domaine Mas Amiel is also mentioned, but those wines are not Banyuls. They are called Maury. So what's the story with these sweet wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon anyway?

The Languedoc-Roussillon could easily be two different wine regions, as it is somewhat spread out along the Mediterranean coast and inland, from the western edge of Provence all the way to the Spanish border near the city of Perpignan. Almost all of the Rhone grape varietals are used in the Languedoc-Roussillon - there are similarities in climate. Much of Roussillon is hilly, the foothills of the Pyrenees. The vineyards are drenched in hot sun and there is not a lot of rain, perfect for hardy grapes like Carignan and Grenache.

Vins Doux Naturels, or natural sweet wines, are fortified wines like Port and Sherry. They must contain a minimum of 50% Grenache to be called Banyuls (the fishing port south on the southern coast of Perpignan) or Maury (the hilly northern coast). Alcohol is added to the fermenting wine, stopping fermentation, leaving plenty of natural sugar in the juice. Fortified wines can stay healthy after they are opened - no need to gulp this stuff down, although I bet you'll want to do just that. Careful though - these can be 17-18% alcohol, so after wine with dinner, this can sock you like a lead pipe. Like Port and other fortified wines, Banyuls are capable of extended aging. They are noted for pairing perfectly with chocolate - exciting, if you like chocolate desserts, and I know that you do.

Mas is the word for 'farmhouse' in southern France, hence the reason you see Mas in the names of so many producers. Dr. Andre Parce, until he died some years back, and his son Jean-Michel have been putting out highly regarded wines at Mas Blanc for over 30 years. Dry wines from the Collioure appellation, using Syrah, Mourvedre, and Counoise, a couple of whites here and there, and famous sweet wines from Banyuls.

Mas Blanc makes several sweet wines. Rimage, meant for drinking young, Rimage la Coume, made from the best barrels of Rimage, and only in better vintages, Banyuls Vieille Vignes, and a special, slightly oxidized cuvee, made with juice from various vintages and named after Jean Michel's father, called Cuvee du Dr. Andre Parce.

I have succeeded in finding absolutely none of these wines on NYC shelves. Winezap says they are available in the US though - those of you in LA, the DC area, and a few other places should be able to find them if you're interested. I had to turn to the secondary market - I bought a few half bottles of the Rimage on auction at Wine Commune. I could have bought Rimage la Coume, but only full 750 ml bottles were on auction and I couldn't imagine knocking back so much red dessert wine...until I tasted the "lesser" Rimage when it arrived. Here is what's available in Banyuls and other Languedoc-Roussillon wines today on Wine Commune.

2004 Domaine du Mas Blanc Banyuls Rimage, $13 for 375ml (secondary market).
Dark, almost black, with dark cherry rims. Smells like chocolate covered cherries and cocoa powder, and fresh orange peel, a hint of wintergreen? Vivid sense of purity to the aromas. Dark cherries, Dr. Pepper, and plenty of cocoa on the palate. Rich and decadent, but light on its feet, good balancing acidity. Really long sweet cherry finish. I had to force myself to stop drinking it (lies - my wife made me stop).

This wine is great on it's own (second night), but it was a little ridiculous when we had it the first night with a dark chocolate and ginger candy bar. Like rethink-everything-about-dessert-wine ridiculous. How good must that Rimage la Coume be?!? And the Vieille Vignes? I think we have to go to the Languedoc-Roussillon.

Dinner with the In-Laws

That phrase alone is enough to send shivers down the spine of many of us. It's never easy to completely relax but if you and the husband/wife are in a good place together, it can be done. BrooklynLady and I are in such a place, luckily, because her folks flew in last Thursday from California and we had several dinners together, all in our living/dining room.

For the last dinner of this visit I decided to whip up something special, a little bit festive. But with tiny daughter needing attention, the occasion called for a meal that would be simple to prepare. I went with roast rack of lamb - rub it with mustard, garlic, herbs, throw it in the oven, let is rest, presto. Also some simple roast potatoes with white truffle oil, and some braised kale. Everything worked out well, I am happy to say, and the in-laws were appreciative and in YUM-land.

I wanted to serve something interesting as an aperitif, I didn't feel like defaulting to Champagne. Not that there's anything wrong with Champs, but we did that on Thursday night. How about something elegant and festive in a white wine? I opened a bottle of Zind Humbrecht Gewurztraminer, an Alsace producer I have been meaning to try for a while now. Both Fork and Bottle (if you read the WBW 29 Biodynamic Roundup, you already know this) and The Wine Doctor have nice profiles of this biodynamic producer, so take a peek.

2004 Zind Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Wintzenheim, $28.
Not vieille vignes, not a grand cru vineyard, this is more of an "entry level" Gewurz from the Zind. I LOVED it, and will definitely investigate Zind Humbrecht further. Deep golden color, very inviting. Expansive floral aromas, also some classic lychee, some citrus, and a touch of honey. And that's just the nose, people! First impression of the palate is purity lean and clean wine, surprisingly so for a wine with innate sweetness. The wine zings with the tension that comes from a perfect mixture of sweet yellow fruit and acidity. The label indicates that this wine is a "2" out of 5 on the sweetness index, and this honeyed and floral residual sugar carried through on the long and elegant finish. I wanted more and more of this wine. I want some now...

Father-in-law stunned us by bringing to this dinner a bottle of mature Burgundy wine, a 1993 Volnay 1er Cru by Robert Ampeau, a producer I had never encountered. It gets mostly excellent reviews from the community on Cellar Tracker, and one of the reviews said that it needs time to open up. Good thing I read that note...

1993 Domaine Robert Ampeau et Fils Volnay Santenots 1er Cru
Smells of seaweed and rotting vegetables when first opened. Reminded me of the older regional wine I opened with cheese at our holiday wine dinner. Not good. But almost 3 hours later (thank you Cellar Tracker reviewers), by the time we sat down to our dinner, the nasty smells had completely blown off. Lovely tranparent ruby, no visible signs of aging. Enticing smells of sweet cooked cherries, some spices, and some musty earth undertones. Amazing, how much changed in the nose over a few hours. Silky texture, flavors of cooked red fruit and clay earth with some dried leaf character - an interesting and delicious mature Burgundy. Made fast and close friends with the food too. This wine is available at Crush in Manhattan for $70, and although I really enjoyed it, I am not sure if that represents a great value. I guess if you're in the market specifically for a mature red Burgundy, it is a good value, but if you have $70 to spend on any bottle of red Burgundy...not so sure.

I opened a half bottle of dessert wine as a final flourish, a 2002 Grgich Hills Violetta, $30 (on secondary market). I have enjoyed, but not loved this wine in the past, and this was the best showing thus far. This is a late harvest blend of mostly Chardonnay (65-70% I think), Riesling, and Sauvignon Blanc. Deep yellow with some light orange tint. Orange blossom and honey smells, some citrus peel. Fat and intense on the palate, with confectioners sugar and orange liquor at first, then some floral and honey flavors. A somewhat flabby and unfocused finish prevents this wine from soaring, in my opinion, but it is certainly a treat.

So the in-laws had a great time at dinner, and we did too - a successful evening to be sure. BrooklynBabyGirl slept through almost the whole thing too. And how lovely was that gesture, bringing that lovely old Burgundy? Good luck with your dinners with the in-laws.

Holiday Wine Dinner

We went a little over the top for this holiday version of Wine Dinner. BrooklynLady and I hosted, and we settled on the theme of Burgundy, in honor of our recent trip. Our very good friends Deetrane and his wife (and 2 month old son), and NorthCarolinaGuy and his wife NorthCarolinaGal wined and dined with us. Such a great way to spend some time with friends near the holidays - celebrate all good things together over a good meal. BrooklynLady and I prepared a 5 course dinner and everyone was asked to bring a mature red Burgundy. BrooklynLady and I put together the rest of the wine. Overall it was a hedonistic wine and dinner experience, that a brisk jog around Prospect Park the next morning did little to counter.

We nibbled on unsalted almonds and toasted with a bottle of 1998 Pierre Peters Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blanc Brut Millesime. This bubbly was surprising in its weight and power. It had sherry-like notes at first, seemed a bit over oxygenated. But after a few minutes it found its footing, and had nice almond and toast aromas to go with big mineral and nutty flavors. Unusual to me in that I detected no actual fruit in this wine, but plenty of minerally, nut, and herbal characteristics. I think I need to try more Champagne. Deetrane said that his favorite wine pairing of the night was actually the almonds and this Champagne.

Here was the Menu:

Fish soup with quenelles and aioli
Mushroom and shallot quiche with green salad
Rack of lamb with buttermilk mashed potatoes and white truffle oil
Five cheeses
Poached pear in vanilla and cardamom syrup with whipped cream and ginger cookies

The fish soup came from the stock I made and froze, and although the broth was okay, it was nothing like it was when I first made it. The bright flavors didn't survive the freezing and defrosting. The quenelles, my pal Adam's suggestion, were fun though. The simplest dumplings in the world, they were simply fresh flounder, cream, and grated nutmeg, all combined in a blender until smooth. Shaped using two tablespoons and poached. They had the consistency of matzoh balls, and in fact looked like matzoh balls.

The aioli was my favorite part of this dish. I have never before made aioli or any kind of mayonnaise, but this recipe from Gourmet was so simple and delicious - I might be making this regularly, to the great sorrow of my cardiologist (when I get a cardiologist, that is). It would be great with boiled shrimp or any kind of seafood and brown bread. It was great the next night with simple fried flounder.

We had 2005 Domaine Roulot Bourgogne Aligote with the soup, and it was exactly as it should be - light, crisp, clean tasting, briny and citrusy acidity. Deetrane reminded us that Aligote is the wine traditionally used to make a Kir (an aperitif using white wine and a touch of creme de cassis). I happen to have some cassis lying around the house and will investigate later today whether or not this Aligote does the job right.

BrooklynLady lined the bottom of her home made quiche crust with fresh thyme, and the mushroom and shallot mixture combined with the thyme to produce a potently earth quiche. I loved it. We opened (an hour before eating) two white Burgundies to taste with the quiche. With a little research I decided to focus on the 2000 vintage because it is considered a good, not great but good, vintage for white Burgundies, and more importantly because the wines should be ready to drink.

2000 Paul Pernot Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru les Pucelles. We tasted at Domaine Pernot while in Burgundy, so this was a sentimental favorite. This wine had tropical fruit smells and the vanilla that I associate with new oak. NorthCarolinaGuy found prominent barnyard smells to. I could not detect them without prompting, but he is known throughout the eastern seaboard for his ability to differentiate and name the aromas of a wine. The texture of this wine was rich and thick, and to me the minerality was more prevalent than fruit or flowers. I preferred this wine to the next, as did NorthCarolinaGal, but every one else preferred the next wine...

2000 Joseph Drouhin Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos de la Garenne. Lighter, fresher nose than the Pernot, with a little bit of a floral component. The texture was more medium bodied, and the oak less prominent. Very nice minerality also, with, to me, a rainwater purity that I usually associate with Loire Valley wines. I liked this wine very much (particularly the next day on its own...sip...sip), but the quiche might have overpowered it for me.

We had three reds (opened 90 minutes before drinking) with the lamb, each interesting and immensely enjoyable.

1995 Domaine Newman Latricieres Chambertin. This is a Grand Cru vinyard in Gevrey Chambertin, and Deetrane says that this is some American guy who bought vines and basically became a French man who makes wine. I have not yet managed to find out more online about this wine, but I am hoping that Deetrane will chime in with a comment explaining a bit more. As for the wine...bright and deep ruby, with appealing redfruit and spice smells. Classic Pinot flavors of earth, redfruits, and spices, with a medium bodied mouthfeel. This wine was delicious and it kept improving over the course of the evening (and tasted great the next morning right out of the decanter that I never washed out). The one issue that some of us noticed, though, was that it had a weak-ish finish.

1997 Domaine Groffier Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses. This wine BLEW MY MIND. I will admit that I was expecting to be wowed, but this wine exceeded my expectations. Deep dark garnet color. Nose of pine, underbrush, and forest, with some dark fruit underneath. After another 20 minutes the nose was truly explosive, with some animal elements. The texture was silky and seductive, and the flavors included plummy blackberry dark fruits, pine, leather, some herbs, and a cassis-like liquor near the finish. This wine was mysterious and brooding and I suspect that although they say 1997 reds should be opened now, this wine might have a few more good years in the bottle. What should I do now - I am stuck on Robert Groffier! This is going to get expensive...

2000 Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru les Cras. This wine had more purple to it than the others, and a soaring nose of bright red fruits, some bay leaf or cedar also. Les Cras is the southward continuation of the Bonnes Mares Grand Cru vineyard, and the wine shows the power and elegance you would expect. Bright red fruit flavors with cranberry acidity carried through the palate. This was a very pretty, food friendly wine with an elegant and perfumed red fruit personality. Madame Ghislaine is apparently a rising star in Chambolle-Musigny, and her Bourgogne Rouge is supposed to be one of the best values in red Burgundy.

This post is getting pretty long now, so I will be quick about the last two wines. We opened a bottle I brought back from our trip, a 1986 Louise Perrin Cotes de Beaune Villages. I loved this wine when I tasted it at the Domaine, and I enjoyed a delcious glass of it by the fireplace before dinner one night. But on this night, with 5 scrumptious cheeses (inlcuding the very Burgundian Epoisses), it was more odd than anything else. Deetrane immediately detected oyster liquor, NorthCarolinaGuy agreed, finding seaweed. I thought it smelled like rotting vegetables and tasted like Japanese rice and seaweed crackers. Hmmm...I guess after 20 years, a Cotes de Beaune Villages might vary a lot from bottle to bottle.

With our dessert we opened a well aged Loire Valley sweet wine, a 1990 Pichot Vouvray Moelleux Domaine le Peu de la Moriette. All I can say is YUM! I love these old Chenin Blancs. This one was golden amber honey colored with a lively floral nose, some apricots too. Pure flowers and honey in the mouth with a minerally rainwater finish. I could drink this wine constantly, and I did enjoy it tremendously as an aperitif while cooking dinner the next day. Alder at Vinography reviewed the 1996 vintage of this wine here. Everyone seemed to like this one.

I hope that your holiday dinners are spent with the people you love, and that your wines and eats are delicious.

November Wine Dinner

Jess and Mike hosted Wine Dinner last night in their lovely South Slope townhouse. It was somewhat of a last minute affair, as new babies and other commitments prevented much advance planning. But the food was spectacular - Jess really knocked it out of the park. Here is the menu:

Starters:

Cured meat plate with sweet Sopressata and Imported Prociutto

Sweet Potato Crostini

Fresh Ricotta Cheese Crostini

Main:

Beef Goulash with home made spaetzle and braised escarole

Dessert:

Caramelized Apple Custard Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream

The prociutto and the sweet potato crostini were the highlights of the starters for me. The prociutto was rose colored and smelled quite funky, like the boys locker room after the big game. The flavor, though, was beautiful - sweet and salty and lightly musky. The sweet potato for the crostini had a little cottage cheese mixed in, and some chives - an interesting combination, and it was a nice counterpoint to the prociutto. Deetrane, by the way, baked the bread for the evening using some tips from the recent NY Times piece on bread. And the bread was wonderfully textured, fluffy on the inside with a crisp dark brown crust.

I was given the task of bringing wine to pair with the starters, and I chose a dry Vouvray made by Domaine Huet. I have mentioned Huet Vouvray before and I love their wines, all made from the chenin blanc grape. A little context this time - Domaine Huet is one of the most well respected producers in the Loire Valley, and probably is the biggest name in Vouvray. Victor Huet, the founder, and then his son Gaston Huet, now his son-in-law Noel Pinguet makes wines from 3 vineyards: Le Mont (Huet's lighter wines), Le Haut-Lieu, and Clos du Bourg (the vineyard whose grapes Huet uses to craft his biggest wines). In better vintages Huet produces sweet wines, labeled "moelleux," from those vineyards, and also an intensely expensive (about $130 for 500ml) dessert wine called Cuvee Constance. Curiously, there is no mention of Cuvee Constance on the Huet website right now. I imagine, but am not at all sure, that this wine represents the finest grapes taken from the premier trie, or first pass, in each vineyard.

The Wine Doctor posted a bunch of tasting notes and plenty of interesting information about Domaine Huet as part of his Loire Profiles series. If you have any interest at all in Loire wines, this series is worth checking out.

2005 Domaine Huet Vouvray Sec Le Haut-Lieu, $26. This wine is still very young, and the aromas and flavors display this quite clearly. There are clean smells of fresh stone fruits and pure but reserved flavors of pear and quince, with that mineral rainwater finish that defines quality dry Vouvrays for me. The wine paired well with the starters, but was not really ready for drinking. There is something hidden under the surface, and I imagine that checking back in on this wine in 10 years will reveal much more beauty and complexity.

Deetrane busted out a 1981 Domaine de Chevalier Pessac-Leognan to pair with the goulash. I know almost nothing about Bordeaux, but I do know that 1981 is one of those vintages that did not get great press attention, and therefore the wines can be somewhat reasonably priced. Again, The Wine Doctor has an informative profile and tasting notes on Chevalier. Mike, a Bordeaux lover who has tasted many wines at all maturity levels, said "this is everything you want in a mature Bordeaux." I was surprised to hear that, as I found some leather, like the fuzzy back of a belt, in the nose, but that's about it - no tobacco, cedar, cassis, or herbs - what I understand to be typical mature Bordeaux smells. And the palate was straightforward black fruits, and pretty flabby at that. No backbone of acidity or tannins to structure the wine. It was pleasant and fun to taste such an old wine, but ultimately not very satisfying.

The goulash was tremendous though, and the wine paired well. Without a doubt the best goulash I have ever tasted, and inspiring as a piece of home cooking. Perfectly textured, rich and light at the same time, beautifully colored and aromatic with ground caraway and caramelized onions. And the home made spaetzle...a tough act to follow for future wine dinners, I tell you.

Mike cracked open a 2002 Barton & Guestier Sauternes to serve with dessert. A large negociant house, apparently, I poked around on their website but have not been able to learn much about the wine. Light honey colored, the wine smelled of caramel and pineapples. Surprisingly light bodied and thin in texture, this wine was not at all sticky. Lovely and simple, there were flavors of sweet citrus fruit with some burnt sugar. It paired very well with the truly fabulous caramelized apple custard tart that Jess made. She served some leftover caramelized apples too, that were snatched up faster than 2005 Bordeaux futures.

All in all, a wonderful wine dinner, with good, but not great wine. But a GREAT time - little kids scooting around before bedtime, a warm kitchen and pots of yummy smelling food, good friends, my 6 months pregnant wife enjoying tiny sips of tiny glasses of wine...what more could you ask for on a Sunday night?

WBW 27 - Icewine

And now we continue the experiment that Lenn of Lenndevours began in 2004 - what happens when a bunch of bloggers form a tasting community once a month, sharing their experiences with a certain type of wine? So far, fun, "meeting" new folks and checking out their blogs, learning, and in my case, tasting wine I have never tried.

The Kitchen Chick is our host this month and she loves Icewine! I had never tasted a real ice wine (make sure to check out Kitchen Chick's great link that explains Icewine in detail), so I was pretty psyched to participate. And Kitchen Chick lives in or spends a lot or time in Ann Arbor, which is my college town, so I ahave an affinity for her even though we've never met...

First thing I learned is that Ice Wine is expensive! I’ve had my eyes open for the past few weeks and I saw nothing under about $30 for 375ml, and many of those were made from grapes frozen after they were picked. Dessert wine is costly in general, yes, but when sampling a new type of wine there are usually lower priced versions to begin with, for example, there are $12 half bottles of Sauternes or Barsac that allow the taster to decide whether or not to continue trying that type of wine.

I found only "freezer frozen" Ice Wines at entry level prices, and I just can’t bring myself to purchase 375ml of wine I have never tasted for $40. So I instead visited Vintage New York, a wine store that allows you to taste 5 wines for $10. They currently offer two real Ice Wines, and another wine that is Ice Wine style, all from the Finger Lakes region of New York. The dude pouring the wines agreed to help me to taste them blind so I could experience them without bias.

My notes:

Wine #1 - Honey gold color, lighter thatn the others. Appealing and mouth watering ripe pineapple smells. First impression on the palate is of vibrant acidity. Bright citrus fruit with some tropical notes of pineapple, and oddly, some cedar. A lingering finish of sweet pineapple. I liked this wine very much. I wanted to eat creme brulee with it.

Wine #2 - Golden caramel color with some orange hues. Completely different nose compares to wine #1 - no pineapple. Smells of flowers, orange peel, some vanilla, and rainwater. Great acidity, well balanced, thicker texture than wine #1, with floral and citrus flavors. This wine was powerfully flavored and textured, but somehow more delicate than the first wine. My favorite wine in the tasting. I wanted to eat a second creme brulee, possibly a pineapple creme brulee.

Wine #3 - Golden orange color. Nothing at all on the nose - I could not get anything even with vigorous swirling (tossing and flipping almost). Sweet dried fig flavors that are almost cloying and the thickest texture of the three wines. My least preferred of the three (and I guessed it was the only one that was opened right before my tasting - the others were opened the previous day).

Here are the wines:

Wine #1 - 2005 Hunt Country Vidal Ice Wine 375 ml, $40 (opened before the tasting)
Wine #2 - 2005 Casa Larga Fiori Delle Stelle Vidal Ice Wine 375 ml, $40
Wine #3 - 2004 Standing Stone Vidal Ice Wine 375ml, $27 (the "fake" Icewine)

I guess there is something to letting the grapes freeze on the vines. The Standing Stone wine is well regarded too, but it just didn't compare with the other two. Thanks again to Kitchen Chick for inspiring me to try these interesting wines, and go blue!

Weekend Wines and Eats II

Some darn good eatin' and drinkin' this weekend, yeah. BrooklynLady and I shared meals with friends on both nights, and had our usual Sunday night cookfest too.

Friday night we made the trip to the Upper West Side of Manhattan to eat dinner with my oldest friend Nick and his wife Mavis and the kids. Mavis said she was making lamb, so we brought a bottle of 2003 Bernard Baudry Chinon Cuvee Domaine, $14. We visited the Domaine during our Loire trip a year ago - one of the highlights of the trip. Not just because the wines are delicious and Henri Baudry, the young and charming son of Bernard, took the time to explain each cuvee and vintage to us, but also because we toured the winery and the caves. I climbed a ladder and stuck my torso into a vat of fermenting juice!

The Cuvee Domaine is a remarkable value in red wine. Made from vines of at least 30 years old, this is an expressive wine full of fresh fruit and the sensation of terroir. Medium to full bodied and lusty, this wine should be placed on a long table on a sunny afternoon outside of your villa, and comsumed with great vigor before taking a siesta with your sweetheart. For $14, what more can you ask? The 2003 was a bit thicker and heavier than usual, but it was great with dinner.

On Saturday night we had a few friends over for dinner and I decided to try out a few new drinks from our bar. I mixed up a couple of French 75's - yum! Sort of like high quality lemonade with bubbles. Two of our friends decided that they wanted cocktails made without hard liquor, so we made them a simple combination of 2 parts fresh pear cider and 3 parts Prosecco with a twist of lemon. There is a name for this cocktail and I cannot find it right now.

We began the eating with a flourish by opening a dozen littlenecks with a few lemon wedges and a simple Mignonette of cider vinegar, Prosecco, a little fresh clam juice, and tabasco. BrooklynLady then served her silky and sweet butternut squash soup. Not the usual curried affair, her's uses ginger to add some spark and lets the sweetness of the fresh squash shine through. We opened the 2005 Dr. Stephan Reuter Findling Trocken Qualitatswein Riesling that our friends brought with the soup. I do not know the price on the wine. It was dry, pleasant, and food friendly.

Because one of our friends inexplicably and foolishly refuses to eat meat, we served fish as a main course (he's a "pescaterian"). I got up early on Saturday morning and went to the farmer's market in time to buy Blackfish fillets. They're usually gone by 8:15 am. I salted, peppered, and seared the fillets and then finished then in the oven. Deglazed the pan with a little of the Riesling and the juice of a lemon, added some finely chopped leeks and fresh sage, and cooked the mixture down until it thickened. A little butter because that's how I'm livin', and voila.

We opened a bottle of 2005 Hermann J. Wiemer Dry Riesling, $25 to serve with the Blackfish. This is a wine I tasted and described a little while ago at Vintage NY, a store where you can taste New York wines. The Riesling was delicious again, but I think I needed to leave it open longer before drinking. Only by the time my glass was almost empty could I sense the same floral aromas and flavors as before. The wine was a great compliment to the fish, though, and I will be more careful about how I serve it the next time.

BrooklynLady made an apple crostada for dessert (a lighter version of an apple pie, and without the top crust) and we opened a half bottle of 1998 Chapoutier Muscat de Rivesaltes, $16. I purchased this wine because 1) I know that Chapoutier is an excellent producer, and 2) I have this problem where I always buy something when I enter a good wineshop, even if I enter just to "browse." This wine was beautifully colored, deep gold with a bit of rustiness. The nose was all orange peels, and that followed through on the palate. Simple and straightforward orangey dessert wine. Certainly pleasurable, but not something to seek out.

Last night we made a whole load of food for the week, including braised beef with turnips and carrots, broccoli rabe with garlic, delicata squash puree, Japanese white sweet potatoes, and bone-in pork chops (fresh from the farmer's market, like the cutlets from a week ago) with sage and olive oil. While cooking, and then eating, we sipped a 2005 Domaine Chignard Fleurie Les Moriers, $19. I was warned by David, my wine guru at Chambers Street to open this a day before drinking, that it needs some air time to fully develop. I remembered David's warning Sunday morning, yet somehow failed to open the wine until 6pm. I can't wait to try the other half of the bottle tonight because last evening was fantastic. Great acidity, raspberries and spices, dusty tannins...just delicious. Note - on the second day the wine is indeed better - vibrant and spicey, very juicy. It is darker than most Beaujolais I've had.

Cheers to a good weekend, and a good week ahead.

September Wine Dinner

Three months ago when my buddy Dee-trane and I were talking about how we wished for more opportunities to taste wine together, our monthly wine dinner was born. Last night was our third installment.

We served hors d'oeuves of farmers market smoked bluefish and creme fraiche on crackers, and home-made olive bread twists. I cracked open a bottle of NV Egly Ouriet Brut to go with the bluefish. I have never tasted this champagne, and after reading several good reviews from the last Wine Blogging Wednesday at the Becks & Posh blog, I decided to give it a go. It was deep golden yellow with strong aromas of bread, flowers, and something like golden raisins, and it was really fruity and powerful. People seemed to like it more than they liked the bluefish bites. Even though I sprinkled lemon zet on them and served them on my wife's beautiful blue enameled platter, they were barely half gone when we sat down to eat. People are clearly prejudiced against bluefish, and I, for one, think it stinks.

Our menu:

Fall root vegetable salad with mint and parsley pistou
Braised short ribs with herb salad and chestnut flour baguette
Shortbread with fresh whipped cream and raspberries

Mike (who couldn't be there at the last minute) and Jess brought a 2001 Morellino di Scansano from Moris Farms. This wine was just delicious, my favorite of the night. It was deep purple with well delineated smells and favors of plums, tobacco, and leathery earth. It had a smooth velvety texture too with very fine tannins. That said, it was a big wine and it was not a good pairing with the fall vegetable salad.

Dee-trane brought a 1999 Le Gode Brunello di Montalcino to pair with the shortribs. Now this is an $80 bottle of wine, and Dee-trane went through great lengths to get it (more on his story about buying stolen wine from the criminal ex-manager at Esca another time). But we all agreed - there just wasn't much happening for us with this wine. No fruit to speak of, nothing on the nose. Completely innocuous. Maybe a bad bottle or a dumb phase, but completely unimpressive.

Adam and Tyrie brought a 2002 Durigutti Reserve Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina. Everyone liked this wine, and why not? Dark purple and intense, scents of dark fruits, some vanilla, and some spice. Velvety texture, and a sweet, young fruitiness that complimented the rich shortribs.

I opened a 1996 Chateau Pierre-Bise Coteaux du Layon Chaume with dessert. I love Loire Valley sweet wines. They are complex with flavors of baked pineapples, creme brule and toffee, spices, citrus and honey, and they can have wonderful acidity and minerality too. This one was no exception - beautiful round flavors, scents of savory spices like mace, and a racy acidity that lingered on and on. For a great piece on Chateau Pierre-Bise check out thewinedoctor's.

Interesting wines and great company - what more could you ask for? I'll tell you what - no more bluefish.