A Confederacy of Geekery

Two friends came over for dinner the other night. These guys are wine professionals and we enjoy sharing interesting wines with one another, but nothing could have prepared any of us for the degree of geekery that occurred on this evening. I didn't tell them what I'd be serving for dinner, we didn't discuss the wines we'd be bringing, it was just a random thing, but everything we drank was the epitome of geek-wine.

I don't aspire to drink geeky wine, and I'm not saying that geeky wine is by definition good wine - that would be absurd. I'm just saying that on this night, with a couple of serious wine lovers, it happened that we drank a lineup of incredibly geeky wine. And I loved it.

We started with the 2010 Ameztoi Getariako Txakoli Rubentis, $22, imported by De Maison Selections. You already know about Txakoli, the refreshing Basque country wine. This is a rosé, though, and there is hardly any rosé Txakoli made. I heard such wonderful things about this wine and bought some of the 2009. Liked it but didn't love it - I just thought it was straight forward fruity wine, not terribly interesting. This wine, however, I loved. Salty and herbal - think rosemary, zesty and fresh, and the effervescent texture is so lovely. There is some fruit but it;s not the main point of the wine. Note to self: find and purchase several bottles of this wine.

Then we drank the 2008 Domaine Gauby Vin de Pays des Côtes Catalanes Les Calcinaires, $27, imported by Weygandt Metzler. What, never heard of this wine? Me neither. It's a white wine from somewhere in the Roussillon; 50% Muscat, 30% Chardonnay, and 20% Macabeu, for you Macabeu fans and I know you're out there. Here are the specs, if you want to know more. I don't feel like we gave this wine enough attention that evening, but I drank the remaining half bottle the next day and it was delicious - quite intense, focused with acidity and minerals, and the texture is just slightly oily. I like that it is only 12.5% alcohol and very easy to drink. I'm not sure that I understand the price, as this is country wine from the Roussillon after all. But maybe this is one of those culty producers with a following and I just don't know about it.

Then it was the 2002 Vodopivec Vitovska Venezia Giulia IGT, price unknown, imported by JK Imports. Maybe you already know and love this wine. The whole orange wine thing (and the whole Italian wine thing, really) kind of passed me by. I know nothing about this wine or about this type of wine, but here's the website. I've had only a few orange wines and this one was head and shoulders the finest one I've had. Brilliantly fresh and pure with mandarin fruit and perfectly harmonious. The wine changed a bit in the glass and got more and more complex. Just fantastic, a real eye-opener for me. And it was absurdly good with fregola, clams, basil, and dried red chili.

With skirt steak we drank the 2004 Els Jelipins Penedès, $72, Jenny & François Selections. This is that Spanish country wine made from very old Sumoll and Garnacha, a natural wine made by a lovely family who use solar power to run their winery and home. I've heard really good things and was excited to drink this bottle. It smelled great when we opened it - earthy red fruit, complex and deep. I decanted it and we got to it about a half hour later. By then, everything had gone wrong. Aldehyde and volatile acidity all the way, the fruit candied and it felt unstructured. This wasn't a flawed bottle and some people might love this wine, but I found little to enjoy.

And lastly, with a slightly aged hard goat cheese, we drank an amazing Amontillado Sherry, the Valdespino Jerez-Xérès-Sherry Amontillado Tio Diego, purchased in Epernay, France for 20-something Euro, not imported. On the Fino-Amontillado continuum, this wine is as close to Fino as possible, while still being an Amontillado. This is what happens when Valdespino Inocente, quite possibly the world's finest Fino, becomes Amontillado, and it is completely delicious. It's butter (from the flor), salt, and roast nuts, and there is just the beginning of that burnished and deep Amontillado character. The finish is so long and combines lactic buttery-ness with salty nuts. Awesome wine.

Geeky enough for you? I hope so, because we'll be back to regularly scheduled mainstream and most likely boring programming tomorrow.

The Handsell

Some wines sell themselves. Consumers know about and want these wines, and do not require any discussion with sales staff in order to buy. Not being in the business myself, I don't know for sure which wines these are, but I'm guessing things like high end Bordeaux, cheap Malbec or rosé, or most any California wine in the $20 and under price range.

Then there are wines that simply will not sell without some special urging. Think of the customer that walks in and says "I want a dry white wine and I don't want to spend more than $20." If left to their own devices, are they going to decide on Clos des Briords? I don't think so. The bottle is shaped funny, and what the heck is Muscadet anyway? Actually, Clos des Briords and particularly a wine like Granite de Clisson are probably not good examples here because they also sell themselves. To a far more limited audience than high end Bordeaux, let's say, but there are people (count me as one) who anticipate Granite de Clisson the same way others anticipate Bordeaux futures.

Think back to the days when you were in the early stages of learning about wine. If you wandered into a retail store, would you have picked out a bottle of $24 Granite de Clisson? If that's the bottle you got, it's more likely that you would have told one of the staff about some of the other things you enjoy drinking, and that person might have asked you "Well, have you ever tried Granite de Clisson?" Five minutes later, after they helped you to develop some context for the wine, you bought it.

It's easy to forget that there are many wines that I love, you too probably, that require conversations like the one above before they sell. Entire categories of great wine - Beaujolais and Jura to name two. If you don't already drink those wines, even if you drink wine several times a week, who wanders into a retail store and picks out a $20 Morgon or a $29 Trousseau without help from the staff?

I guess this is why the stores that carry those wines tend to be the stores that employ intelligent and well-trained sales staff. How else can you move the wine? And make no mistake, as much as we all respect Clos Rougeard, it doesn't make sense to have $45 Saumur-Champigny sitting on the shelf for over a year. The wine has to move.

The other day I was in Astor Wines and I noticed a few bottles on the shelves by Henri Milan, a producer that I really like in Provence. I said to the wine buyer "Wow - I love Henri Milan wines, that's so great that you carry them." She said "yeah, I think they're great wines, but Henri Milan was in town last week and I had to get him in here to train my staff on how to sell them before I agreed to carry them."

This is Astor Wines, one of NYC's mecca's for great wine, and Henri Milan is, as she put is, "completely a hand sell." Makes sense I guess - the wines start at $25 for a VdP and go up to over $50 for his top wine, a gorgeous Syrah blend called Clos Milan. But the wine isn't one of the spectacularly popular Provence wines, like a Bandol for example. You have to know what it is before dropping $50 on Clos Milan, or $25 on the VdP, never mind $35 on the VdP white blend.

Last week I was hanging out with my friend Clarke who represents Neal Rosenthal's wines, and he poured me something that I had never heard of, a white wine from the Languedoc by Mas Jullien, the 2006 Mas Jullien Vin de Pays de l'Hérault. (sorry for the rough photo, but it was taken with a blackberry) I was immediately captivated by this wine. It had been open for almost 2 days and it was showing great balance, an expressive and expansive nose of dark floral and wet stone aromatics, bright fresh fruit that was completely infused with flowers, and that elusive (among Languedoc whites, anyway) combination of richness and intensity with lean texture and energy on the palate. Truly delicious wine, something I would love to explore further at home with dinner.

You might have noticed that I didn't give the price of the wine, and that's because as far as I know, no one sells it. Clarke says that perhaps 25 cases come in each year, and so far, only restaurants buy it. When I asked why no retailers have bought it he said "This is the ultimate hand-sell - an over $30 white wine from the Languedoc."

I guess there are hand-sells on the importer/distributor side of the business too. There are hand-sells everywhere, come to think of it. I need to think about this more, but it occurs to me that most of the interesting and good things in life are hand-sells.

Levi's Luncheon

The other day I was lucky enough to attend the luncheon honoring Levi Dalton, the head sommelier at Convivio who is now moving to Alto. Levi is one of those guys who loves to share whatever he has with you, so as the host of the luncheon, he opened some pretty amazing wine. I drank some things I've never had before and I want to share a few thoughts.

Bottles were passed around the tables in a mostly random order, so you helped yourself to a little pour as each bottle made it to the table. The very first wine to hit one of my glasses (I had four, I am proud to say) was the 1986 Mas de Daumas Gassac Vin de Pays de l'Hérault. I've wanted to taste this iconic wine from the Languedoc for a long time now. It is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and there little bits of many other grapes in there too. Here's the thing - if I were served blind, I would have thought it to be a young wine. Perhaps it's because it actually was the youngest wine at the luncheon, but I just don't know. Supposedly it takes forever for one of these to come around. If this is representative of the '86, it has another 20 years to go before it starts to show some secondary notes. Can anyone shed some light on this Mas de Daumas Gassac phenomenon?

We drank some old Nebbiolo, including 1969 Luigi Nervi & Figlio "Riserva del Titolare" Gattinara, 1964 Luigi Nervi & Figlio "Riserva del Titolare - Podere dei Ginepri" Gattinara, and 1964 and 1967 Fratelli Bettini Valtellina Sassella Riserva. I prefer to drink Nebbiolo that is older than these when I have lunch, but this is what Levi had, so it is what it is. These wines were all fascinating to me - I don't know about you , but I don't drink wines like this very often. I think my favorite was the '64 Luigi Nervi. It was remarkably fresh and vibrant for such an old wine, and it played very nicely with Testa, Convivio's house made pork terrine with fried egg.

(photo courtesy of Scott Reiner)

And then there were the two Baroli, the 1982 Giacomo Conterno Monfortino Riserva Barolo and the 1978 Giuseppe Mascarello e Figlio Villero Barolo. Although I left it to rest in one of my glasses for the entire span of the luncheon, the Conterno never really finished unfolding itself (although it's possible and likely that I simply do not understand the wine). It was a striking wine, and I wish I still had it in my glass. The Mascarello was just beautiful. I don't know what else to say about it, except that it was the physical manifestation of what I imagine great Barolo to be.

I loved the 1986 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses too, and the guy I sat next to, David Lillie of Chambers Street Wines thought it smelled great too, but Joe Dressner waved his hand and scoffed at the wine and said it was too green. He imports Raffault's wines, and knows them as well as anyone, so who am I to argue. But I would drink it anyday...There were other great things, including a 1982 Macle Chateau Chalon, but I've said enough about the wine already. The company was great too, an excellent group of people from all over the wine world, all Levi's friends and all happy to be there to congratulate him.

It's funny to be the least experienced person at an event like this one. A group of experienced wine pros like this, and with wines like these - I expected the atmosphere to be one of reverence and quiet contemplation. Not at all, my friends. These folks understand wines like this, they've had them many times before. Serious tasting occurred, of course, but so did catching up about daily life. Some one's basement flooded that morning, and they had to stand there with a bucket. Some one else's huge dogs love her apartment, but she's worried that other people don't love it so much, and she's expecting vignerons as guests - what to do? Some one else is annoyed with how disrespectful and impolite competitors often are at industry tastings. Someone else has to leave early to get back to selling wine. Life doesn't stop for 1964 Luigi Nervi, I guess.

Anyway, congratulations on your achievements Levi, and all the best in your new role. New York is better for having you here.

How to Buy Excellent Cheap Wine

Is it possible to drink great wine on a daily basis if you're not rich? I'm talking about wines that cost between $8 and $12 a bottle? I think it it is possible, yes. I've been thinking about this lately because my wine buying budget has been cut in the past year, but also because Eric Asimov has written about this several times, most recently pointing to Mike Steinbergers' article in Slate that discussed inexpensive wines he recently drank with mixed results.

I can (and will) name some cheap wines that I think are excellent wines. But before that, I want to explain my general approach to this problem.

First of all, I reject the notion that as a consumer I should forgive a wine for being inexpensive and expect little of it. Regardless of the price point, if I buy a wine I want it to be excellent. Sure, a liter of Hofer Zweigelt and a magnum of Barthod Chambolle Les Cras are excellent in different ways. But for me to buy the Hofer Zweigelt, its excellence must derive from the smell and taste of the wine, and from its expression of place, not from the mere fact that it is palatable and costs $10.

Secondly, I don't think $10 is a rational way to define cheap wine anymore. You know this already - the dollar, although stronger right now, has been weak against the Euro for years. European wines cost more now that they did 5 years ago. That great Beaujolais that sold for $12 in the 2002 vintage costs $17 now. For me the new cheap wine cutoff is something like $12 or $13. Buying a mixed case allows me to buy $14 or $15 wines and pay $12.60 or $13.50 for them, essentially eliminating NY State's drastic liquor taxes, and keeping my average bottle price in that $12-$13 range.

Thirdly, the best way to get excellent cheap wine is by choosing your retail store carefully, not by identifying the best individual wines and then buying them wherever you can find them. I don't want to buy a case of any one cheap wine - who wants to drink the same wine on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then again the following week? And I don't want to buy a bottle here and there and pay full retail. I'd rather buy a mixed case, enjoy a greater selection, and pay a little less.

So how do you buy great cheap wine in NYC? Here's how I've been doing it lately. I've been putting together mixed cases at one of my favorite retail shops, Chambers Street Wines. There are other stores I like that stock great wines at the $12-$13 price point, but so far I haven't found another store where I can buy 12 wines in different styles, all of them excellent. Chambers actually has many more than 12 - the wines below are only some of the goodies that you'll find there for $12-$13. Here are my favorites right now (prices are with the 10% mixed case discount):

Whites

2008 Benaza Monterrei Godello, $11.70, Jose Pastor Selections, Vinos & Gourmet Imports. Chris, the Spanish wine buyer at Chambers has been filling my ear about Galicia for a while now. "Galicia is the new frontier for inexpensive great wine," Galicia this, Galicia that. If this wine is representative of what the region has to offer, then I wholeheartedly agree. Use this wine wherever you would use Sauvignon Blanc, but instead of being annoyed at how mediocre your Sauvignon Blanc is, you'll be thrilled with this wine. Godello is the grape and this version is fresh, balanced, and just delicious. Grapefruit and pith, spring water, coriander? Once I forgot a half-drunk bottle in the fridge for 3 days, and it was even better, completely harmonious.

2007 Domaine des Pothiers Vin de Pays d'Urfé Fou de Chene, $12.60, Fruit of the Vines Imports. This is Chardonnay, technically from the Loire Department, but we're talking closer to Lyon and Burgundy than to Vouvray or Chinon. Perhaps not terroir specific in the sense that the wine would be identifiable as a Loire Valley wine, but that's okay in this case. It's not easy to find delicious, varietally correct, old school Chardonnay at this price. Here is one. Ripe lemony orchard fruit infused with minerals, well balanced and fresh. The finish is surprisingly long and stony.

2008 Knebel Mosel Riesling Trocken, $12.60, Mosel Wine Merchant, USA Imports. An expressive and unmistakably Mosel wine that treats you gently but also cuts like a knife. I've been drinking a lot of this wine lately and I love it every time. We did split pea soup - very good. Crab boil, not as much, as the wine is lean and got a bit lost amidst the Old Bay. Pork cutlets with mustard and kale - excellent.

2009 Weingut Hofer Grüner Veltliner Wienviertal, $10.80 (1 liter), Michael Skurnik Imports. This delicious Grüner is a bit simple on day 1, although it is well balanced and shows some of the lemongrass lift that is typical of the grape. On day 2 (get your own stopper, this is a crown cap) the wine shows more complexity and harmony, with herbal tones, more depth of fruit, and an intriguing sour cream like note on the finish.

2007 Laurent Barth Pinot Blanc, $12.60, Louis/Dressner Selections. This is the delicious Alsace Pinot Blanc I drank the other day with a Vacherin-style cheese. Such an expressive and delicious wine, focused and mineral driven.

2008 Michel Brégeon Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie, $12.60, Kermit Lynch Imports. I really like the '08 Muscadets so far. This one is quite intense with citrus and creamy lees on the nose. The palate is piercing with minerals and acidity, but is approachable with lovely herbal and citrus flavors. Quintessentially Muscadet, we had it the other night with cornmeal crusted fried flounder and it was great.

NV Pedro Romero Manzanilla Sherry Aurora, $10.80 (500 ml), Frontier Wine Imports. This wine offers a combination of brisk salty tang and the rich vinosity of very old solera wines. It feels weightless but is quite intense, especially on days 2 and 3. I've yet to encounter the food that this wine doesn't compliment.

Reds

2009 Weingut Hofer Zweigelt, $10.80 (1 liter), Michael Skurnik Imports. I've gone through almost a case of this wine since November. Beaujolais starts at $15 now, and this wine, although most certainly not Beaujolais, fills the cheap Beaujolais role these days in my house. It has the texture and body of a well made Beaujolais, and like Beaujolais, I prefer this wine served cool. It shows smokey, medicinal, and herbal flavors. There is fruit in there too, black currants maybe, but this is not a fruit-driven wine. We've enjoyed it with mushroom omelets, with a spicy tofu dish, with turkey burgers, and all by its lonesome. You could have this wine with lighter fish dishes.

2008 Domaine Guion Bourgueil Cuvée Domaine, $9.90, Fruit of the Vines Imports. I've actually not had this vintage yet (my bottle waits for the right meal in the fridge), but I like this wine each year. This is slightly rustic Cabernet Franc. Typically everything you'd expect in a red wine from this place - pure ripe fruits, earth, mineral, raspy tannins that are easily tamed by whatever food you're eating.

2007 Château la Grolet "G" Côtes de Bourg, $12.60, Fruit of the Vines Imports. This wine is 90% Merlot from Bordeaux. I'm going to let that sink in for a moment. On a recent trip to San Diego my interest in Bordeaux was piqued, and if David Lillie says he has a couple of excellent and cheap Bordeaux wines, I'll try them. Honestly, this wine is great. Gravel, tobacco, damp soil, pure dark fruits. fresh and balanced, just delicious wine, and improves on the second day, becomes very harmonious. Not a light wine - think roasts or a steak or a burger, but not in any way overwhelming.

2008 Domaine Rimbert Saint-Chinian Les Travers de Marceau, $13.50, Jenny & François Selections. This is a blend of Mourvedre, Carignan, and Grenache from the western Languedoc. For a leathery and dark wine that sheds grains of soil with every sip, this wine manages to have great purity and poise. Think thinly slices dry sausages, or roast chicken with potatoes and mushrooms.

2008 Clos la Coutale Cahors, $13.50, Kermit Lynch Imports. I always enjoy this wine, a meaty Malbec with a bit of Merlot in the blend. It offers lovely fragrance and texture, and achieves an elegance that I find lacking in most Cahors. Of course it's great with beef, but there's something about the way it works with duck that really pushes my buttons.

Savio Soares, Alice Feiring, Il Buco, and 10 Wines

"I drank a few of your wines recently and I really like them. I want to try more of them - are you having a spring tasting?" I asked Ariel, Savio Soares' wine rep. "Not that I know of," she said, "but I have another idea. Let me get back to you."

And that is how I found myself on a recent Sunday evening, along with Alice Feiring, sitting with Savio Soares at Il Buco. Savio strongly feels that the best way to understand his wines is to enjoy them with friends over a meal, so he created this opportunity for Alice and me - a very lovely gesture. And because he used to be the General Manager of the restaurant and in charge of the wine program, we received what you might call special attention. Maybe this is every day stuff for you, but I have a 3 month old and a 2 year old and I don't get out much. And this is a recession - my work world is slowly shrinking. I don't get to do this very often - enjoy a lavish meal and 10 wines at one of the city's better restaurants. I had a blast.

"Don't assess on the first sip. Coat your palate with this wine, take your time, take another sip, and then you will understand the wine."- Savio Soares, as I sipped my Riesling.

That pretty much sums up Savio's attitude in general. Make time to smell the roses. Don't rush to judge a wine, because the good ones take time to unfold in the glass. And I think he has successfully knit this attitude into the fabric of his everyday life. He lives in Krefeld, Germany, his wife's hometown. He spends a lot of time with his son, now 7 years old (and he was the primary caregiver when his son was an infant and his wife had a "regular" day job). He travels frequently and greatly enjoys his work with a small group of wine makers, mostly in Germany, France, and Austria. He is a man who is perpetually smiling, and genuinely. He seems like he is truly at peace, and that, my friends, is a nice thing to be around.

And what of his wines? We drank 10 of them with our fantastic meal, and although I tried to take good notes, I was more interested in our conversation and company. So instead I will tell you a few things in general, and also share a few highlights. Savio works with small growers who take care for their environment and who make wine naturally - relying mostly on indigenous yeasts, minimal sulfur, minimal cellar manipulation, and light or no filtration. When I asked him how he chooses wines to import, Savio wrote in an email:

I like elegant wines: harmony, silkiness, acidic structure, aromatic finesse, all that I find very important. Personally I really like high levels of acid in my wine and find that this is one of the most important elements to bring elegance to a wine and the one that also makes drinking and enjoying wine, a fun thing to do. For the same reasons I like wines from cold climates, longer ripening seasons and also wines that are made in the traditional style of its region and reflects it. Above all, for me to import a wine, I must like and respect the winemaker and 99% of the winemakers I work with have no secretaries. Everything in regards to our collaboration is treated directly with the winemaker or his wife/husband. I only work with family-run wineries with an average size of 7 HA. These winemakers do care about the wine they produce and after sometime working and enjoying wines like these, one notices that these wines are imbued not just with traces of its region but also with the energy of care and respect that was dedicated to it in the vineyard and in the cellar.

Savio Soares' wines as a group are cut from the same cloth as Joe and Denyse Dressner's and Jenny & François'. They are "real" wines, wines that showcase purity of fruit and do as little as possible to mask the place they come from. They are energetic and lively, and they are meant to be enjoyed with food. They are competitively priced too, which is a nice thing.

One of my favorite dishes of the evening was the very first, bruschette topped with sea urchin, arugula, capers, and lemon. The ultra-clean briny sweetness of the little sea urchin half-moons played beautifully off the bitter arugula and the sour lemon. I would happily eat that dish every day for the next 5 months. And I thought the 2007 Ernst Clusserath Trittenheimer Apotheke Riesling Kabinett Trocken (about $30) was a great pairing. The round and rich nose of the wine belied its bone dry bitter fruit pit flavors. Like the sea urchin, the wine was clear as a bell.

The 2005 Reynald Héaulé Vin de Table L'Insoumis de Village, or 'Black Sheep of the Village' (about $30) is a serious country wine made by one of the new wave Loire Valley natural wine hipsters. This wine is Cabernet Franc, Pinot Meunier (yes, you read that right), and a third mystery grape which the producer will not reveal. This wine had a wild leafy peppery streak. Alice loved this one, and she was already quite familiar with the producer. It reminded me of Pineau D'Aunis, but richer, and it paired beautifully with the olive oil poached octopus with chick peas.

The 2006 Philippe Bornard Trousseau Le Ginglet Arbois Pupillin (about $25) was redolent of red berries and cinnamon. "Typical of wines made in the Jules Chauvet method," Alice said. I loved this wine, with it's wild intensity and it's leafy herbal character. It went beautifully with gnocchi, and not the typically dense dough balls that pass for gnocchi. These were feathery pillows of deliciousness, accompanied by Brussels sprouts and walnuts for a subtle flavor combination that really accentuated the texture and flavor of the gnocchi. I've seen these Bornard wines around a lot lately, and I want to try the Poulsard next - I've been really digging Poulsard lately.

The 2005 Wilfred Rousse Chinon Les Puys (about $20) was, to me, a classic. Ripe fruit (this is 05, after all) iron and salt, and eminently drinkable. It should retail at about $20 and it's a great new discovery in Chinon. It was delicious with our roast quail. As was the 2007 Avanti Popolo Les Temps des Cerises (about $25). This wine is a full bodied mouthful of old vine Carignan from the Languedoc, but is is also quite graceful, and the acidity keeps the wine feeling lively. This comes from vines high up on the hillsides, Savio explains, and the grapes are cooled by evening breezes.

Perhaps the most memorable wine for me was the final wine of the night, a sweet wine, a rosé of Pinot Noir. The 1994 Geschwister Ehrhard Rudesheimer Berg Rosenach Spätburgunder Beerenauslese (about $60 for 375 ml). This wine was luscious and primary in its beautiful fruit, with soaring and penetrating acidity. I've never had anything like it before, and it was just a fantastic experience to drink.

Right now Savio's wines are distributed only in New York and New Jersey, so if you're in the area, keep you eyes open for them. Hopefully they'll make it to the rest of the country soon.

Brooklynguy's $20 and Under Case

Call me crazy, but I don't see us climbing out of this recession any time soon. I think we have another two years of hard times ahead, maybe more. I'm trying to be prudent with the household finances, so I want to spend less money on wine. But I want to continue to drink fantastic wine. Sounds like I want my cake and to eat it too, but no - I think there are a lot of excellent wines in NYC retail shops that sell for $20 and under. Used to be $15 and under, but those are far fewer now than they were 5 years ago.

But here's the thing - when I say excellent wine, I really mean it. I mean wines that are compelling, that offer complexity and interest. Wines that I would confidently open for fellow wine lovers over for dinner. Excellent wines, wines that I feel great about buying now because they represent some of the best juice on the market at this price point.

Here is my "Best $20 and Under" case of wine, each wine available in NYC right now (hopefully elsewhere too). Not all of these can be found at the same store, I'm sorry to say, but I'm going for quality here, not convenience. These are all almost French wines because that's what I know, but there must be similarly excellent wines from Italy, Germany, Austria, and elsewhere. Please feel free to chime in with your suggestions.

Sparkling
Domaine de Montbourgeau Crémant du Jura, $20, Rosenthal Imports. Delicious and earthy Blanc de Blancs. Give it some air and watch it expand.

Whites
2007 Domaine de la Pépière Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie Clos des Briords, $16, Louis/Dressner Selections. Sharp and vibrant old vines Muscadet from one of the top producers, and this vintage seems like it will be one of the better ones in recent years. I've heard several people who know an awful lot about wine say that this is the finest value in the entire world of wine.

2007 Gilbert Picq Chablis, $20, Polaner Imports. 2007 is a return to Chablis in Chablis - the wines will speak of the sea shells and iodine, brine and minerals. This wine has ripe fruit too, and is quite the elegant little package. I will say this, though: for an extra $4 you can buy the 2007 Picq Chablis Vieille Vignes, which is a tremendous step up, and I bet will improve for a decade minimum, should you be the patient type.

NV Audrey & Christian Binner Saveurs Printanières, $17, Jenny & François Selections. This is a bone dry blend of white Alsace grapes, and it is ripe, herbal, and completely delicious. For about $22 you can buy the 2004 Binner Reisling Katzenthal, which is a big step up for your 5 bucks. That wine is drinking beautifully right now too.

2007 Domaine de la Sauveuse Cuvée Carolle, $18, Imported by Vintage Trading, Inc. A beautiful wine from the Côte de Provence, a blend of 85% Rolle (that's Vermentino to you Italo-philes) and 15% Ugni-Blanc (that's Trebbiano to you Italo-philes). Made in an oxidative style, this wine is full of orange fruit, and feels fresh and minty. Great acidity balances the rich flavors. If this wine were from someplace famous like Burgundy it would cost $50.

2007 François Pinon Vouvray Tradition, $20, Louis/Dressner Selections. This is a blend from several parcels on mostly clay soils and the wine is round and rich, with a bit of residual sugar. I prefer the 2007 to any recent vintage, as it has great acidity and balance, and the flavors are absolutely fresh and clean. I'm going to wait a few months before opening mine, although you could wait 8 years if you like. You could also spend $24 and get Pinon's 2007 Vouvray Silex Noir, a drier and more elegant wine. One is not better than the other - different styles.

Reds
2007 Michel Tête Juliénas, $20, Louis/Dressner Selections. It's been a while since I've liked this wine as much as some of the others in the impressive Dressner Beaujolais stable, but the 2007 is a truly lovely wine. Fresh, ripe, snappy, just a great Beaujolais.

2006 Weinhof Scheu Spätburgunder, $18, Savio Soares Selections. In my book, this is the truest and best Pinot Noir on the market right now for $20 or less. Fresh and pure, and on the lighter side of the Pinot spectrum, this wine will surprise you with its grace and hold your interest with its deliciousness.

2007 Bernard Baudry Chinon Les Granges, $18, Louis/Dressner Selections. Baudry is the reference point for Chinon. This is the "entry level" wine, which is a joke because it is a complete wine, ripe, complex, cellar-worthy. Versatile too - this works just as well with hearty vegetable soup as it does with roast beef. I don't even want to discuss the other Baudry 2007's here, because I don't want to get you all worked up.

2005 Domaine Rimbert Mas au Schiste, $20, Jenny & François Selections. A blend of old vines Carignan (is there a more under-rated grape?), Syrah, and Grenache. This wine floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. I love this wine, plain and simple. Great definition and clarity for a full bodied wine from the Roussillan, with a lovely perfume of ripe fruit and lots of interesting mineral and soil tones. This wine ages well too. For $14 you can get the 2007 Domaine Rimbert Travers de Marceau, a less intense and complex, but also very delicious wine that omits the Grenache and includes Cinsault and a little bit of Mourvedre.

2006 Mas des Chimeres Coteaux du Languedoc, $20, Louis/Dressner Selections. 75% Syrah, some Grenache, Cinsault, and Mourvedre make up the balance. Classic peppery and meaty Syrah, with good energy and balance. A wine for Boudin Noir, ribeye steak, grilled portobello mushrooms, and things like that.

You may have noticed that there are only 11 wines in this case. It's recession - 11 is the new 12.

Jenny & François Fall Portfolio Tasting

Jenny & François' tasting is something that I have come to look forward to. They do everything right - they send their email advertising the tasting well in advance, they create a good physical space in which to taste, and they order the wines thoughtfully and encourage tasting in that order. And they provide brief but comprehensive notes on their producers and wines - all in the same order in which the wines are poured. On top of that, they're a lovely group of people, very friendly and eager to discuss their wines. Oh, and by the way, they're committed to finding and importing wines that are good for you. Wines that are made with organically and/or biodynamically grown grapes and with minimal intervention in the cellar - natural wines. Their website describes their philosophy rather eloquently and without any dogma.

My two favorite Jenny & François selections are wines that I would pour for anyone. Lassaigne's Champagne from the chalk hills of Montgueux is just a fantastic Blanc de Blancs. Intensely mineral and dry, broad and rich with great fruit, and very well balanced. Sadly, this Champagne seems now to have broken the $50 barrier. It used to be about $36, and I'm talking about a year ago.

And then there is Binner. I like every wine they offer, from the lovely blend called Saveurs Printanieres to the Gewurztraminer, the Riesling, the Pinot Gris, and even the light and incredibly drinkable Pinot Noir (not as crazy, though, about the Crémant d'Alsace). This is a super-solid Alsace producer whose wines cost no more than $25, and in some cases are under $20. That Pinot Gris and a plate of choucroute...or that Gewurztraminer and a bowl of spicy goulash...or that Pinot and a bowl of creamy mushroom soup...I'll take it.

The Jenny & François portfolio offers some of my favorite reds that cost less than $20. This, in my opinion, is the strongest part of the portfolio - the selections from southern France, country wines from the Rhône, Languedoc-Roussillan, and Provence. There must be 10 fantastic wines from these areas that should retail for $20 or under. Serious, delicious, terroir focused, food friendly, interesting wines.

Such as, in no particular order:

1) 2005 Hervé Souhart VdP Le Souteronne (100% delicious Rhône Gamay).
2) 2006 Gilles Azzoni VdP Le Raisin et L'Ange Fable (100% Ardèche Syrah for acid freaks).
3) 2006Estézarques Côtes du Rhône Gres Saint Vincent (a top scorer in the recent NYT piece).
4) 2006 Estézarques Côtes du Rhône Villages Les Genestas (same wine coop, I like this one even better).
5) 2007 Chemin de Bassac Isa VdP des Côtes de Thongue (typical Languedoc blend plus Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir)
6) 2005 Deux Anes Corbières Fontanilles (full of brett and fruit).
7) 2005 Domaine Rimbert Saint Chinian Mas au Schiste (Gorgeous!).
8) 2005 Les Tonnillières Coteaux du Languedoc Pic Saint Loup (Gorgeous!).
9) 2005 Clos Siguier Cahors (a good decant, and beautiful - try with duck breast).
10) 2007 Estézarques Côtes du Rhône From the Tank (4 bottles in a box - and it's really good).

Here are my notes from the Spring Tasting, in case you're interested.

This is a importer worth watching, strong enough so that I would try a bottle knowing nothing other than the fact that Jenny & François selected it.

What I Drank on my Summer Vacation

Do you realize that in New York City in just over a week from now, about 400,000 kids, literally, are going to write short essays with almost the exact same title as this post? Another summer comes to an end.

I love summer in New York City. Yeah, it's hot and humid and the streets can get a bit smelly, but it's beautiful in the evening, especially from our deck, with the light coming through the leaves. On the weekends it can get eerily quiet though, as people flee for the country. We were lucky enough to get out of town twice in August - a long weekend in Vermont and more recently, a week in San Diego and Portland.

Here are some of the wines we drank in Vermont with my pal Deetrane and his family:

2007 Domaine de 2 Anes Vin de Table Rosé, $14. This is my favorite rosé of the season at the under $15 price point. It's a deliciously fruity wine that retains interest and drinkability because it's also lively with acidity. This is a Grenache blend, a natural wine from the Jenny & François Selections portfolio. 2 Anes (2 Donkeys) is in Corbières in the Languedoc, although for some reason this wine doesn't have AOC status.

2004 Château Pontet-Canet, $41. Decanted for about 90 minutes and served with a beautiful porterhouse steak. People salivate over this stuff in their CellarTracker notes. I just don't get it. It's perfectly pleasant dark, rich and ripe wine, with nothing particularly interesting about it, no distinctive character. You're going to tell me that it needs 20 years in the cellar, that I drank it too young. Maybe it will improve with age, but it wasn't a knot of tannic structure or anything when we drank it. It was open and showing its primary fruit. And that's all there was.

1997 Chapoutier Côte-Rôtie, price unknown. Deetrane says that '97 was an off year in the northern Rhone. I really liked this wine - it was light in color and in texture, a highly perfumed jumble of floral and earth aromas. So much better with the porterhouse than the Pontet-Canet, in my opinion.

2005 A. et P. de Villaine Bouzeron, price unknown. This was a lovely gift from Joe when he visited a little while ago. I drank the 2006 and wasn't crazy about it, but this was delicious. Incredibly full bodied and loaded with sweet lemon fruit, and cut with good acidity. Very nice indeed, although it bares little resemblance to any Aligoté I've had - this is much fuller in body and in flavor. Yes, this is the DRC wine maker.

2000 Voirin-Jumel Champagne Millésimé, $37. This is a crazy price for this wine, or for any vintage grower Champagne, really. Gotta love Astor Wines. This is a rich Blanc de Blancs with mature notes, but it hasn't lost its youthful fruit yet. With a little bit of airtime there are broad aromas of roast nuts and biscuits and the palate is deeply mineral with good acidity, nicely focused. Astor still has a few bottles too...

On one of our nights in San Diego, BrooklynLady and I drove out to Bird Rock, just south of La Jolla to have dinner with Jeremy Parzen, the professor of Italian wine, and a few of his pals. What a night! I'm telling you, if you have the opportunity to meet up with a fellow blogger, to share a meal and some wine - do it. Some think it odd to meet in person with people you only know from the internet. There are times when it is weird, but this isn't one of them. You already know each other, in a way. And Jeremy and I slipped naturally into conversation as if we'd been hanging out together for years. A gentleman and a scholar, and his friends are nice too. We enjoyed some very tasty seafood at taqueria Bahia Don Bravo, along with a smattering of interesting wines. Here are notes on some of them:

2007 Robert Sinskey Vin Gris of Pinot Noir, price unknown. Each year this is without question my favorite American rosé. It's well balanced with delicious stone fruit and good acidity. Great with shrimp ceviche tostadas.

NV Guy Charlemagne Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut Réserve, $40. Salty minerals all the way, great focus and acidity, fresh and light, almost sheer. Just delicious.

2000 Dessilani Ghemme Riserva, price unknown. Dr. J calls this "an outer-borough Barolo." I guess he means that Ghemme is close to Barolo the way the Bronx is close to Manhattan. And that you can eat good Italian food on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx for half what you'd pay in Manhattan. This wine was soft cherry earth deliciousness, so nicely balanced and food friendly. I enjoyed the complexity of aromas - smoky, fruity, earthy...excellent wine, and completely new to me.

1996 Fleury Champagne Brut Millésimé, $56. This is a crazy price for a wine of this caliber. I found it on the shelves at a place called Meritage in a mall near Encinitas. I doubt that they raised the price over the years that they stocked this wine. Live in or near San Diego? Like Champagne? This one is worth the drive, especially at $56. Beautiful mature nose of roast nuts, honey, and bitter minerals. Let this one air out a bit and it becomes truly beguiling. So elegant and poised on the palate, soft and creamy, but still very focused with powerful acidity. Just delicious wine.

Then there's the amazing dinner in Portland with Peter Liem and his friends. This post is long enough already though, so tomorrow you'll hear about the ridiculous wines we drank that night.

Tallahassee Wedding Wine Choices

I just got back from a weekend in Tallahassee, Florida. For those of you who weren't paying attention in 5th grade social studies class, Tallahassee is the capital of Florida. It's on the panhandle, actually closer to Macon, Georgia and Montgomery, Alabama than to Miami, for example. I'd never been there before, or anywhere in the real south, for that matter.

The trees were shockingly beautiful. Old and graceful Cypress, Willows, and others, trunks of huge diameter, and many of them with lacy green Spanish Moss draped all over the branches. I saw alligators, blue heron, various other heron, and ibises on the Wakulla River. I ate an amazing pulled pork sandwich at a place called Gertie's BBQ. I saw many stately looking houses set in deep green fields, and many boarded up houses and stores in the downtown area. It was super humid, and quite hot - at least 95 during the days. Some of the accents were amazing - this park ranger who piloted our boat on the Wakulla River - I could listen to books on tape, or anything else this guy says, all day long.

My friend asked me to select the wines for his rehearsal dinner and wedding, an honor of the highest proportion. Approximately 250 people planned to attend each event. Rehearsal dinner was BBQ ribs and chicken and the usual sides. Wedding dinner was a buffet that including everything from Sushi rolls to roast beef to cheese fondue. Budget was $15 per bottle, which I took to mean including shipping from NY, which adds about $3/bottle. Why ship from NYC, you ask? I wanted to get delicious natural wine for the wedding, and the closest cities I could find that had what I might have wanted are New Orleans, Atlanta, and Miami. Why not just go with what I know and do it from home.

This wasn't easy! After several tastings with bride and groom, we decided on the following for the rehearsal dinner:

2006 Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet, $12, (Louis/Dressner Selections). Crisp, bracing, a bit creamy, nice citrus falvors, easy to drink as an aperitif or with dinner. It wasn't as easy a year ago when it was released, but the year in the bottle has mellowed the edges. This vanished right quick, before the dinner even began, I believe. That's what happens when you offer delicious white wine on an outdoor terrace on a summer Friday evening in Tallahassee.

2005 Clos Siguier Cahors, $10, (Jenny & Francois). You already know that I love this light, but deep and complex rendition of Cahors. I thought that its berry and licorice flavors, and its medium bodied and slightly grippy texture would work well with BBQ. Hard to gauge, but it seemed as though people enjoyed it.

For the wedding:

2006 Domaine de la Fruitiere Jardin de la Fruitiere, $9 (JD Headrick Imports). A VdT blend of Chardonnay and Melon de Bourgogne, this is one that I discovered while tasting through the recession wines.

2004 Domaine de la Soucherie Anjou, $12 (Rosenthal Imports). I was worried about the alcohol at 13.5%, but in all other respects it seemed like a good choice. It turned out to be a lovely glass in the frothy heat of the wedding. So yes, both whites are Loire Valley.

2006 Château d'Oupia Minervois, $10, (Louis/Dressner Selections). A beautiful dark and fruity red. I only wish that they had chilled it a bit.

2006 Domaine Rimbert Saint-Chinian Les Travers de Marceau, $12 (Jenny & Francois). Yeah, I know that it's also a Grenache blend, but this wine is very different from the Minervois. This one is lighter in color and body and the perfume is raspberries and herbs. The Minervois is darker and juicier and earthier.

It was a gorgeous wedding. Even the weather cooperated - for those two hours, the humidity lifted, the breezes swayed through the trees, the light was perfect over the pond. And everyone focused on having fun, not on their wine, which is a good thing.

What I Drank Last Night

Just a few quick things while I get myself together and write a real post:

Had the 2006 Château d'Oupia this weekend. Why would I drink anything else for under $10, in red wine anyway? A rhetorical question, of course. This is ridiculously good wine. Such a rich and elegant perfume, such nice fruit, great texture, excellent balance. Delicious wine! Under $10! Mean Joe Dressner brings this one in, and you might try it if you haven't already. Very sad, that André Iché, the man behind this and many other great wines died last year.

Had the 2006 Domaine de la Fruitière VdP de la Loire Jardin de la Fruitière this weekend. Why would I drink anything else for under $10, in white wine anyway? A rhetorical question, of course. This is ridiculously good wine. Bright and airy nose of citrus and a bit of yeast, with time. Crisp and clean, this is simple, but very well done. Good citrus and apple fruit cut with great acidity and surprising length on the finish. Delicious wine! Under $10! JD Headrick brings this one in and you might try it if you haven't already.

Had the 2006 Comptoirs de Magdala Côtes de Provence Escapade this weekend. This is a Mourvèdre blend made by the fellow who makes wine at Tour du Bon in Bandol, and it costs about $17. I loved this wine when at the Jenny & Francois tasting, but this is the second bottle (the first was an '05) I've had at home now that hasn't lived up to the tasting. Do they double-extra-special-decant at those tastings? Beauty pageant contestants put vaseline on their teeth for that special shiny smile - what is the wine tasting equivalent of that trick? The wine is nicely perfumed, but the mid-palate was kind of hollow. Pleasant iron minerality and good acidity, but something is just missing. Not the alcohol - over 14%. And I was so excited for this wine - I dry rubbed some lamb spare ribs and slow roasted them in the grill for about 4 hours. Should have gone with the Brouilly.

Corrections:

I was wrong on the composition of two recent sparkling wines. Montbourgeau Crémant du Jura is not, in fact, 100% Chardonnay, as I cannot be proven to have stated. The Chambers Street Wines website says there is some Savagin in the blend. Also, my spokesman recently said that the NV Bedel Entre Ciel et Terre is a Blanc de Noirs, and my friends, it isn't. It is mostly Meunier, there is some Pinot Noir too, and about 10% of the blend is Chardonnay. So sue me.

Jenny & Francois Follow Up

I was very much impressed with the Jenny & Francois portfolio, so much so that I decided to buy a few and taste them at home with dinner. I'm happy to tell you that these wines are even better with a meal than they were at the tasting.

You know what this means? This means that there's a whole new crop of under $20 wines that I am confident about buying. This is important, as the dollar buys less and less wine these days. And by the way, all of these wines (and many other Jenny & Francois wines) are available at Astor Wines in Manhattan.

We don't drink a whole lot of wine from southern France, as those we've tasted are too big and roasted, a bit hot, and they don't drink easily with food (or at all). But these wines are graceful and perfumed, elegant sometimes. Here are the wines we sampled at home:

2006 Domaine Rimbert St Chinian Les Travers de Marceau, $14. This wine is from St Chinian, an appellation in the western part of the Languedoc. The blend is Mourvedre, Carignan, and Grenache. We enjoyed this wine with a simple meal of skirt steak and baked potatoes. Nicely perfumed, very fruity and floral, good acidity, very lively, and definitely had the muscle to stand up to the steak. A great value for everyday drinking.

2005 Clos Siguier Cahors, $12. Maybe this excellent wine is so inexpensive because Cahors is not a fashionable wine region. Whatever the reason, if I had to choose right now I would select this wine as the value red of 2008. This wine is just so good, so interestingly and enticingly perfumed, so nicely balanced, so lively in the mouth, and such a great compliment to food. And this is Malbec we're talking about, with a little bit (5%) of Tannat thrown in. We had this with a cuisine grandmère dish of French green lentils stewed with russet potatoes, pork shoulder, and thick-cut bacon. Ladle it right into a bowl, a green salad with a bright vinegary dressing, and YUM. Anyway...This wine benefits from 30 minutes of airtime. You can decant it too, no shame in that. Aromas of raspberries, flowers, and something herbal initially, then with air comes lots of black licorice and bit of cocoa. This is a bright and airy nose, very pure and enticing. The flavors echo the nose, and although the tannins are a bit coarse, the wine has nice texture and is just delicious. It is surprisingly light in body, but also quite deep in aroma and flavor.

2005 Blandine Chauchat Coteaux de Languedoc Pic Saint-Loup Les Tonillières, $17. But I got it on sale for $13 at Astor, which makes it all the more absurd. Blandine Chauchat has a plot in Les Tonillieres, a vineyard owned by her husband Pierre Jequier's family, the family behind the Mas Foulaquier estate. This is a blend of Carignan, Syrah, and Grenache. Lovely nose of rich dark fruit and soil, some black licorice with air time. BrooklynLady picked out sea water too, which I understood in the context of the mineral streak running underneath the fruit. The palate is well balanced with ripe earthy dark fruit and good acidity, and there are lingering licorice and soil mouth aromas. Sounds heavy maybe, but it's not - medium bodied and easy to drink. This wine has nice structure too, with fine dusty tannins. Worth the $17, a steal at $13.

2005 Comptoirs de Magdala Côtes de Provence Escapade, $16. I loved the 2006 vintage at the tasting. Both the 05 and 06 were available at Astor so I figured why not try the more mature wine, especially when it's a bit cheaper? It was very good, but it was less ripe and much lighter than the busty, dense, and spicy 2006. Very enjoyable, but not what I'd hoped for. It almost didn't stand up to our beefy grass-fed hangar steaks. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but not I'll-have-to-taste-this-importer's-other-wines good. So I'll try the 06 at home next.

If they're available in your area I really encourage you to try one of these wines. Jenny & Francois are bringing in wines that reflect a sense of place, and the craftsmanship of the wine maker. And the prices make it pretty easy, too. If you do try, please let me know what you think.

Friday Night Bubbles

A few weeks ago in their comments on a Friday Night Bubbles post about Pinon Vouvray Brut, the distinguished triumvirate Marco, Marcus, and Michael recommended Crémant de Limoux. Limoux is in the Roussillon, inland and northwest of Corbières and Fitou. Laurens and Maison Guinot were the producers mentioned. I was able to find a bottle from Guinot.

They've been making sparkling wine in Limoux using essentially the Methode Champenoise since the mid 16th century, well in advance of the rise of Champagne as superstar. Apparently there are three types of sparkling wine made in Limoux - Blanquette de Limoux, Blanquette Méthode Ancestrale, and Crémant de Limoux. Mauzac is the grape traditionally used to make sparkling wine in Limoux, but Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc have become standard too. Blanquette Méthode Ancestrale is a wine made only using Mauzac and it supposedly resembles very good apple cider. Crémant de Limoux is less than 20 years old, and according to Jancis Robinson' s Oxford Companion, it's an appellation created to connote a more international style of wine. I guess that Blanquette de Limoux is somewhat rustic - I've never tried it.

BrooklynLady and I had a few friends over on Friday night and opened a bottle of N.V. Maison Guinot Crémant de Limoux Brut Tendre, $20, Pacific Estates Importers. There is no information on the label regarding disgorgement date or time on the lees.

I figured that the wine would be better with food - the blend of Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc and the Tendre designation (between dry and off-dry) just said "hors d'oeuvre" to me. We went with pheasant pâté and pumpernickel toast with cream cheese and smoked salmon. I felt kind of like a smarty-pants because chenin blanc is a classic pairing with game bird pâté, chardonnay goes well with smoked salmon, and pumpernickel bread pairs perfectly with my Jewishness.

Everyone dug the wine, it was ripe and tasty with great texture, and it went very well with the food. I liked the complexity of the nose, with apple, slightly honeyed spring water, and hints of yeasty bread with air time. The palate was less complex, and with none of the precision and cut of a Blanc de Blancs from Champagne, but this is not Champagne. It's good in its own way - fleshy and ripe, not as sweet as I was afraid it would be, given the Tendre designation, and eminently drinkable.

By the Glass - Restaurant and Wine Bar Edition

I went back to Black Mountain Wine House, this time with an old buddy, and we grabbed prime seats at the bar for the evening. Among the various goodies we sampled that evening was a confit of duck leg. I threw myself at the mercy of Shane, the manager and wine buyer, and he recommended an Italian wine from Alto Adige made from the Schiava grape. Turned out to be a real winner. I read in my Third Edition of the Oxford Companion to Wine that wines made from this grape are "out of fashion," and that they have "no real character or concentration."

Okay, but I loved this wine, the 2006 Cantina Santa Maddalena St. Magdalener Classico ($8/glass). It felt like the Beaujolais of Italian wine. Nicely perfumed, light bodied, with good acidity and pretty red fruit. Utterly drinkable and delicious. It was a good counterpoint to the richness of the duck. So I'm going to be one of those unfashionable people who will order a Santa Maddalena (the name of the DOC), and you're going to have to just deal with it. I bet a bottle would cost $15 or less, too.

BrooklynLady and I escaped for a rare night out recently, didn't much care for the wine bar where we began the evening, so we went to a newish bistro nearby called Canaille (no website). We enjoyed two delicious wines there, both recommended by the gregarious French guy who owns the place. The first was a Corbieres, an appellation in the western part of the Languedoc made by a producer called 2 Anes, or Two Donkeys. It was excellent with the rich onion soup au gratin that I ordered. Mostly Carignan, with some Grenache and Syrah thrown in, the 2005 Domaine des 2 Anes Corbieres Fontanilles was smooth and supple, ripe and complex. And it drank so easily, my glass was drained before I knew it.

We then enjoyed the 2004 Le Raisin et L'Ange Fable with BrooklynLady's hangar steak and my cassoulet. This is honestly just beautiful wine. 100% Syrah, it is a Vins de Pays de L'Ardeche, a country wine from the hilly region in the middle of the Rhone Valley, sort of bisecting it into Northern and Southern Rhone. Oh, how I love discovering a humble country wine that blows away so many wines of "higher" nomenclature. Honestly, if you were to slip this bottle into a blind tasting of young Syrah it would surprise everyone.

Then a week or so later, the memory of these wines still fresh, I'm looking through the sidebar items on Alice Feiring's (pronounced Firing, as in clay in a kiln, for goodness sake - I always thought it was "fairing") site and I see her notes on the Jenny & Francois tasting. And there it is - the Corbieres we had. So what is this Jenny & Francois? Turns out they're a small company working in Paris and New York that imports natural wines. Quite a lovely thing that they're doing, definitely worth poking around their site. They don't list their other wines, so all I know are the those mentioned by Alice Feiring in her review.

Then last week I'm browsing the Williamsburg wine shop called Uva and lo and behold, right there on the shelf is a glistening bottle of 2004 Le Raisin et L'Ange, for $16 (and that qualifies as a $15 Beauty right now cause the dollar is so weak). Well, not glistening, the bottle is pretty grubby. But it's country wine - shouldn't it be sort of dusty? And the cork is protruding a little too - okay, maybe I'll buy a different bottle. They're all like that. Okay fine, I'm sure it's good wine. So I turn the bottle around to see the importer and there they are again, Jenny & Francois.

I emailed Jenny & Francois to ask them to ask a few questions and Jenny alerted me to the 2 Anes website, which really is a great site so check it out. The story of the domaine is very sweet and the commitment of the husband and wife team to their philosophy of natural wine making is explained without any sort of preachiness. Jenny also said this about the Raisin et L'Ange Syrah:

The "Raisin et L'Ange" that you tasted is the cuvée called "Fable." It is 100% Syrah, and 100% pure (nothing added at all -- no sulfitues, nothing..). It is all tank. Le Raisin et L'Ange is isolated in the beautiful Ardeche mountains. Gilles Azzoni's philosophy is to accompany the grapes and the wine, not to impose a specific transformation on them. He works totally, 100% naturally from the vines to the bottle (no added SO2). 9.35 ha, southern exposure, cool temperatures at night because of the altitude develop delicate floral aromas. Clay & limestone soil, with little depth, part of the vineyard on slopes. Gilles grew up in Paris, went back to school for wine making, and took over his vineyard in 1983. He planted some more vines with a large density per hectare (5500 vines/ha). In the cellar, Gilles treats the grapes and then the fermenting juice, as delicately as possible. Certified ORGANIC, NATURAL, NO SULFITES.

Sounds good, eh? And I can tell you that grubby or no, protruding cork or no, that was the freshest and most floral, most utterly delicious and satisfying bottle of Syrah I've had in a really long time. It is impossible not to enjoy this wine. I'd like to take a bath in it.

So do Jenny & Francois belong with Dressner and the other stars of the natural wine movement? Are the other wines any good? I don't know, but I'm intrigued enough at this point to try any wine they import at $20 or under. Anyone else have experience with Jenny & Francois selections?

WBW #33 - Mid-Priced Midi Wines

Here we are again folks, Wine Blogging Wednesday is upon us once more. Lenn's idea is now almost three years old! This month we must thank the noble Doktor Weingolb for hosting. He has gone above and beyond the call of duty in providing lots of information regarding his chosen theme: wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France that are priced between $15-30. Mid-priced Midi wines, if you will. And I certainly will!

The Languedoc-Roussillon, also known as the Midi, is a huge area west of Provence, south of the Rhone Valley, just northeast of the Spanish Pyrenees, all of it draped around the Mediterranean Sea. This is hot weather France where hardy grapes thrive, like Grenache and Mourvedre, Cinsault and Carignan, and of course, Syrah.

There are many appellations in the Midi. Some folks feel that the area is really too large to be one wine region, that the western part, the Roussillon, is distinct from the Languedoc. And within the Languedoc, for example, that the Coteaux du Languedoc appellation is too large and should be divided up. I do not have the knowledge or experience to add anything to that debate, but I will say that I have felt intimidated when I think about delving into the wines of the Midi. Is St Chinian different from Fitou? From Minervois or Corbieres? And if so, how are they different, aside from being in different places? Do they permit varying percentages of Syrah, for example, or it is an elevation and wind thing? Where would I start?!? I usually give up and walk back to the Loire section.

But Marcus' theme got me thinking...if I am trying to lower my average $ per bottle average, at the same time refusing to sacrifice quality, and while accepting the fact that I am an unabashed lover of French wine, I might need to get to know the Midi a bit more.

For WBW #33 I combined this sense of experimentation with another idea that appeals to me in wine and wine making - natural wines. I noticed that several Midi wines were poured at Dressner's Real Wine Attack tasting a while back, a 2004 Mas de Chimeres Coteaux du Languedoc among them. I liked the wine at the tasting, so why not follow up at home where I can experience it over the course of a few hours with dinner?

Unfined and unfiltered, aged in wooden barrels, in the 2004 vintage the wine is about equal parts Grenache and Syrah, with some Cinsault and Mourvedre for good measure. A southern country wine, a lusty blend, that seemed to call for lusty food. How about the hormone-free, organically fed and raised, free roaming, registered democrat lamb shoulder chops I grabbed at the Farmer's Market? Roasted with herbs, some spring vegetables on the side, sounds like a pairing.

BrooklynLady and I decided on asparagus, as they are perfectly in season and just beautiful right now. Also some pink potatoes roasted with a little garlic. For the lamb, we used the mortar and pestle to grind some aromatic fresh mint into a paste, added a little salt and some good olive oil. Shoulder chops can be a little tough if you just sear and eat, like a loin or rib chop. I like to sear them in a hot pan, and then finish them in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes. They are just a bit pink, but a more tender than they are when left rare.

This spring meal worked really well with the wine, both in flavor and in feeling. Holding greasy lamb chops with your hands, garlic on your fingers, picking up an asparagus spear, leaving mint paste fingerprints on your glass...works with this slightly rustic and definitely lusty wine. Here are some notes:

2004 Mas de Chimeres Coteaux du Languedoc, $17.
Incredible vibrant ruby red color, almost electric under the light, yet completely translucent. Warm and inviting aromas of raspberries and dusty earth. I found concentrated and juicy red fruit on the palate, BrooklynLady found intense bloody meat also. Interesting, but a little disjointed. After about 45 minutes when we sat down to dinner the wine was more balanced and complex, the fruit more relaxed, some herbal qualities present, and an interesting finish of what to me was, and get your alliteration meters ready for this one: chocolate covered cherry cordial candies. Very sappy, lots of kirsch. The tannic feel of this wine was very different from that in the Loire reds and Burgundies I am used to. These tannins were exquisitely fine grained, which made the wine feel expansive and lush in the mouth.

I was very much impressed by this wine and would definitely buy it again. A wine of this quality at this price without question has a place in my drinking rotation. My only issue is that it clocks in at 14.5% alcohol, which is about 20% higher than what I'm used to. Hard to have a glass while cooking, and then another and a bit more with dinner at that alcohol level. I mean c'mon folks, I have to be able to change and feed the baby daughter later on, and to do so with nimble, loving, and sure hands. I know that many Rhone reds are high in alcohol too, there must be something about these grape varieties in this climate that leads to higher alcohol wines...not a criticism, just a point of interest. But it might lead me to look elsewhere when deciding what to open for sipping on the deck. This bottle of lushness needs food and at least two other people around, or things can quickly get out of hand. So are there high quality and mid-priced Midi wines out there at lower alcohol levels?

Many thanks to Marcus for being such a gracious and kind host, and for making it so much easier to get a little Midi experience. I'm coning back for more.

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.