Food and Wine during Frankenstorm

Posted by | Posted in Wine Reviews | Posted on 10-30-2012

On Sunday evening, as Hurricane Sandy started to settle in, the entire eastern seaboard dashed to the grocery store to shore up on sustenance for the coming days.

We purchased the essentials, of course, but also picked up an occasional pleasure, pork chops. With the afternoon and evening free, we had plenty of time to brine them while watching my beloved Cowboys lose to the Giants (the cathartic act of cooking helped soothe my heart).

The chops were dusted with Asian five-spice, salt, and pepper; seared for 1.5 minutes on each side; and then thrown in the oven for ten minutes until they achieved a perfect rosy center. We coupled the pork with cast-iron cornbread and steamed green beans.

“Sounds delicious,” you might be thinking, “but what were we drinking?!”

Pork, as we know, can accompany a wide selection of wines, Riesling leading the charge along with a myriad of fresh, lighter reds. Dinner was paired with two wines I blind tasted the day before.

Wine #1, the 2010 Domaine Barville Optimum Châteauneuf-du-Pape, was not my favorite of the two, yet sported an appealingly rich texture and smelled like a holiday favorite — eggnog coupled with ripe fruits and hot, stewed cherries.  Grenache is quickly making its way into my blind tasting repertoire.

Wine #2 was more appealing. The 2010 Domaine de la Perrière Chinon was a classic, cooler expression of Cabernet Franc. The wine was marked by red fruits — fresh, underripe strawberries, along with cranberries and raspberries — and green peppers. It’s healthy acidity (and chewey tannins) made the wine wonderfully food friendly. This wine reaffirmed my belief that the “green” aspects of wine can be a positive influence when food is involved.

This once-in-a-lifetime storm was certainly memorable. So hopefully, all our readers reached into their cellars and pulled out some memorable wines to pair with the storm! Please let us know what you opened in the comments. A few of the the highlights leaving the Bourbon Steak cellar were the 2006 Frederic Mangien Chambolle-Musigny “Les Charmes,’ 2008 Vincent & Sophie Morey Puligny-Montrachet ‘La Truffière,’ 2004 Château Pichon-Longueville au Baron, and, oh yes, 1998 Château Margaux.

Our thoughts go out to all our readers along the east coast — especially those in New York and New Jersey, who appear to have suffered the worst from the storm.

Gearing Up for Fall with Petite Sirah

Posted by | Posted in Wine Reviews | Posted on 09-19-2012

As the chill asserts itself in the air, it might be time to start talking about something other than Riesling.

Note that it’s not time to stop talking about Riesling, it’s simply time to add an autumnal layer to wine discussions. After all, we’re going to need something to drink with our squashes, roasts, and other comfort foods as we hibernate like bears til next mating season… er, summer.

Today marks the tenth anniversary of PS I Love You, an advocacy group for Petite Sirah created by Christine Wells-Groff (Foppiano Vineyards), Dan Berger (Dan Berger’s Vintage Experiences), and Jo Diaz (Diaz Communications).

A few things to know about Petite Sirah, also known as Durif: It was discovered — perhaps by accident — by François Durif when his Syrah and Peloursin pollinated and created a new, small-berried vinifera grape that is only small in physical size. This humble stature may be how ‘Petite’ got appended to the name of a grape that was showing similar characrteristics to its famous parent. In the glass, its modus operandi is big fruit and tannin, generally complemented by a dose of oak.

With the leaves just beginning their annual turn, I headed up to the mountains of southern Pennsylvania with super-sommelier David Metz (he’s new to Twitter, so follow him!) where the low temps snuck below 50, and we tore through 32 bottles of Petite Sirah.

The best wines paired excellently well with our end-of-summer feast of roasted lamb leg, charred grilled chickens, mid-atlantic sweet corn (the only corn to eat), and a plethora of other vegetables. The lineup was enticing with names like Ridge, Biale, and Foppiano.

Some of the bottles, though, were disappointing. Too many accounts of stewed fruits, plums, dark chocolate, and alcohol painted our notes. As huge a wine as Petite Sirah is, many of the bottles after a few hours open in the bottle were almost undrinkable; likely the most surprising discovery of the weekend.

There were, however, several highlights. Check them out below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

Weekly Interview: Matt Meyer

Posted by | Posted in Interviews | Posted on 07-13-2012

Each week, as regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we’re featuring Matt Meyer, the winemaker and owner of Meyer Family Cellars.

Matt’s wines have serious pedigree. His father, Justin Meyer, co-founded Silver Oak Cellars in 1972 and created one of the biggest wine brands in history through great winemaking and marketing prowess.

Matt hoped to follow in his father’s footsteps from an early age. He spent much of his adolescence working in the vineyard and cellar at Silver Oak, and went on to earn a Masters in Viticulture at UC Davis in 2000.

Matt runs the winery together with his wife Karen, a native of western Australia who studied enology at Charles Sturt University. The two met in 1999 while working a crush at Argyle Winery in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. And today, they produce a number of wines, from rich and powerful Oakville Cabernets to a charming cooler-climate Syrah from the Yorkville Highlands.

While the Meyer’s flagship wine, Bonny’s Vineyardis fantastic, great value can be found in the Syrah (about $25/bottle) and the Spitfire Cabernet (about $45/bottle). The Spitfire has perfectly integrated layers of flavor and tannin, much like the layers of a great lasagna. Cherries, currants, smoke, spice and herbs are all enveloped in a down comforter-like mouthfeel. Tremendous.

Check out our interview with Matt below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

Summertime Means Chablis!

Posted by | Posted in Wine Reviews | Posted on 06-21-2012

The east coast is sweltering. Here in Washington DC, temperatures are expected to top 100 degrees today — and things aren’t expected to cool off anytime soon. So get your grills and ice chests ready, because Old Man Summer is knocking at the door.

I’ve been in DC for a number of years now, and I’ve seen people use all sorts of heat-blocking devices to stay cool — ranging from the cheap and silly to the gaudy and outrageous. My solution to the heat comes from just over 4,000 miles away, from a sleepy town of 2,580 people.

There live the people of Chablis, who can ease our summertime sweltering with their native elixir. Winemakers there battle fierce winters and worrisome autumns to craft bottles of citrus and mineral-laden potations that ought to be cracked en masse anytime that thermometer hits three digits.

Chablis has something for everyone — from its cheap, ready-to-drink Petit Chablis, to its standard Chablis, to its Premier Cru and Grand Cru bottlings.

Chablis is an ethereal place, thanks largely to the stark white Kimmeridgian soil, on which the region’s finest vineyards sit. This prized soil is an amalgamation of chalk, limestone, and clay where one can easily find the fossilized remains oyster shells and marine creatures. The soil has a bleached look to it — so much so that “at twilight,” according to Karen MacNeil, “you feel as though you’re on the moon.”

The grapes in Chablis need more than just great soil to thrive, of course. The aspect of the vineyards is more important here than perhaps anywhere else in France — and possibly all of Europe, save for a few spots in Germany. All of the Grand Cru and highly regarded Premier Cru vineyards lie north of the town with a southern exposure, with eastern exposures also making fine wines.

Once upon a time, the wines of Chablis were the top whites for many Parisian restaurants. In the late 19th century, however, vintners in Chablis fell on hard times thanks to oidium and phylloxera. This was compounded when the Paris – Lyon – Marseille railway was built, bypassing Chablis altogether and making wines from the Midi cheaper and more accessible.

Fortunately, Chablis was too unique to fall completely off the map — and today, it’s experiencing a resurgence of sorts. The region’s more simple wines are firm and refreshing, and the better bottles leave even the best palates searching for appropriate descriptors.

Below the fold are my tasting notes from a recent Chablis masterclass presented by Jay Youmans CWE, MW. Please note that all wines listed pair well with 100-degree heat, raw oysters, and a battery powered fan attatched to a spray bottle. Read the rest of this entry »

The Wines of Jed Steele: A Tasting

Posted by | Posted in Wine Reviews | Posted on 06-18-2012

If you’ve ever met Jed Steele, you’ll know he’s humble, approachable, and distinctive, like most winemakers. One could describe Jed’s wines with the same words.

Jed has been making wine in California for 44 years. He started his career at Stony Hill, where he worked in the cellar. He then went to UC Davis, where he earned a master’s in Enology, and soon landed a position as the first-ever winemaker at Edmeades in Mendocino, where he spent a decade. He next helped launch Kendall-Jackson, as the wine juggernaut’s first winemaker. He made KJ’s first nine vintages, and left when production hit one million cases.

He launched his own label, STEELE Wines, in 1991 — and today makes wine under four different labels: Shooting Star, Writer’s Block, Steele, and his reserve line, Steele Stymie. The grapes come from across the West Coast — from  California’s Lake County to Washington’s Snipes Mountain. And the grapes are unusual. As you can see by the wines I tasted (notes below), Jed and his team are thinking outside the box when it comes to grape varieties.

The Shooting Star Aligote comes from a vineyard in the Snipes Mountain, Washington’s second-smallest AVA. The Burgundian grape has been grown there since the 1970s. Jed attributes the Chardonnay boom of the 1980s to the availability of Aligote, and thus, this wine. I’d love to try this one side-by-side with the A. & P. Villaine Bouzeron, an Aligote from its ancestral home that both Jed and I adore.

Sticking with the odd-ball varieties, the second wine I tasted with Jed was his Blaufränkisch. This grape hails from Austria, and famously has a number of synonyms. It’s called Lemberger in Germany, Kékfrankos in Hungry, and Frankovka in Croatia — and those are just a few of its names!

Blaufränkisch is often called the “Pinot Noir of eastern Europe,” as it’s light and marked by high acid and non-assertive tannins, and it exhibits flavors and aromas dominated by red berries. Blaufränkisch will stray into the spice, smoke and game territories faster than Pinot Noir. Oak is generally used sparingly in Blaufränkisch production.

Perhaps the wine I was most excited about tasting with Jed was his Writer’s Block Lake County Counoise. Counoise is traditionally a blending grape in the wines from Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and an excellent compliment to Mourvèdre’s weight. It’s brings a ton of aromatics and lift; I’d love to see more of it planted in ht United States. Jed gives his Counoise a bit of a backbone by incorporating a small amount of Syrah and Grenache (approximately 10 percent of the total) into his final blend. My only other experience with domestic Counoise has been a positive one as it is blended into the Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel.

I was also eager to try Jed’s Tempranillo, as the grape has found a comfortable home in parts of California and Washington. Tempranillo is synonymous with the great Spanish regions of Rioja and Ribera del Duero, and when made well, it creates wines that are fruity, savory, smoky, and lush.

Check out my tasting notes on these wines below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

Weekly Interview: Bob Varner

Posted by | Posted in Interviews | Posted on 06-15-2012

Each week, as regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we’re featuring Bob Varner.  Alongside his brother Jim, Bob crafts beautiful Chardonnay and Pinot Noir under both their eponymous label and Neely Wines.

The grapes for all their wines hail from a small plot in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. Beginning just south of San Francisco, the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA boasts elevations over 3,000 feet. With the Pacific Ocean to the west and San Francisco Bay to the east, it’s home to a myriad of mesoclimates and microclimates.

While this AVA is often overlooked, well-respected wineries like Ridge, Kathryn Kennedy, Mount Eden, and David Bruce call the Santa Cruz Mountains home.

Bob and Jim grow their acclaimed Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on primarily east-facing slopes averaging 700 ft in elevation. Don’t even try to visit their tasting room — access to the vineyard is through preserved land, so traffic is limited. In addition to their top labels,  the Varners have a Central Coast label, Foxglove, where the are consistently named for great value wines (under $20).

Check out our interview with Bob below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

The Wines of Salta

Posted by | Posted in Grape Adventures | Posted on 05-30-2012

The Embassy of Argentina.

Last week, I had the chance to step off American soil and into the Embassy of Argentina.

The embassy was hosting a seminar and tasting with five producers from the northern province of Salta. Salta, the eponymous capital of the province, is 934 miles northwest of Buenos Aires. To call it remote is an understatement.

Salta, referred to locally as “Salta la Linda,” is characterized primarily by its altitude. Some of its vines are planted higher than 9,000 ft above sea level. As it’s on the eastern side of the Andes, Salta sees almost infinite sunlight and a mere 10 inches of rainfall, per year. Salta’s wineries are predominately based in and around the city of Cafayate, the second most popular wine destination in Argentina.

The region’s wines certainly are not unknown.

Michel Rolland has his signature on the wines from San Pedro de Yacochuya, both on the bottle and in the wine.

Another winery, Bodega Tacuil, is notable because it sits high above the rest of the world’s vineyards, literally, at just about 10,000 ft. Bodega Tacuil is only accessible via a road from Cafayate that would qualify for an appearance on one of my late-night pleasures, Hell Roads. With the lack of accessibility and precipitation, the family spent 3 months digging miles-long aqueduct-like channels from the Andes to allow water to the vines. The wines from Tacuil were among the standouts of the tasting.

Most of Salta’s wines fit Argentina’s traditional mold — the reds are primarily Malbec or Malbec blends, and the whites are primarily Torrontés. There were some appearances of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Tannat as well. All wines were varietally recognizable, with lots of floral and stone fruit notes coming from the Torrontés, and big ripe plums and blackberries from the Malbec. In contrast to their Mendoza counterparts, the wines from Salta showed a refreshing amount of acidity and minerality, something I’m always looking for in Mendoza wines.

Here are a few of the more memorable wines: Read the rest of this entry »

Weekly Interview: Ted Lemon

Posted by | Posted in Interviews | Posted on 05-18-2012

Courtesy of Rémy Charest (2008).

Each week, as regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we’re featuring Ted Lemon, who launched Littorai, in western Sonoma County, with his wife Heidi in 1993.

Ted’s winemaking career began in Burgundy, when he received an enology degree from the Université de Dijon in 1981. Over the next few years, Ted immersed himself in the Burgundian wine culture, working at a “who’s who list” of fine producers, including Domaine De Villaine and Domaine Dujac. He soon landed a position as the head winemaker and vineyard manager of  Domaine Guy Roulot in Meursault, becoming the first American to have such a position in Burgundy.

Ted returned to the United States in 1984, and would go on to work at or consult with a number of wineries, including Chateau Woltner, Franciscan, Clos Pegase, Green and Red Vineyard, Reverie, Black Sears, Archery Summit in Oregon, Burn Cottage Vineyard in New Zealand, and many more.

Littorai, Latin for “coasts,” specializes in single vineyard wines from the Anderson Valley, Sonoma Coast, and Russian River Valley. As Littorai’s website makes clear, the Lemons are passionate about the earth. They take sustainability to the next level, hosting an entire farm to give the vines everything they need, naturally. The winery, completed in 2008, uses hay as its insulation and plant-recycled water.

A benchmark producer to those in the “In Pursuit of Balance” movement, all Ted’s wines show purity of fruit and bright acid.

Check out our interview below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

Spanish Wine: A Brief History

Posted by | Posted in Wine Education | Posted on 05-03-2012

Dare I refer to Spain as an up-and-coming wine region?

Spain has been around for a long, long time. It is believed that wines have been cultivated on now-Spanish lands for nearly 6,000 years. The Spanish wine industry is solid and well-established, no question. But today, most people associate Spain with its fruity, easy-drinking, cheap wines.

Believe it or not, Spain puts some serious stuff put into bottles — and the potential of the nation’s wine industry is still enormous.

The evolution of Spanish wine has certainly hit some snags since the ancient vines of 4000 BC. The Phoenician settling of Cádiz in 1100 BC was the first international boon, legitimizing Spanish wine as a viable export asset. During Spain’s time as a Carthaginian state, the wine industry grew, thanks in part to the writing of their own Mago, who penned a 28 book-long agricultural manual.

Following the Punic Wars, where Rome successfully conquered the Carthage empire, Spanish wine was traded throughout the new Mediterranean empire, with the wines from Tarragoña and Andalucía leading the way. Though quality was questionable, more Spanish wine was making its way to the rest of present-day Europe.

In 700 BC, the Moors took power of Spain. As followers of Mohammed, the Moors’ theology forbade alcohol, so the industry paused.

Fast forward to 1492, when Reconquista was completed and the Christians “recaptured” the Iberian Peninsula, and Spanish winemakers once again became excited to export their wines. The market rejuvenated, with production throughout the Peninsula expanding. Read the rest of this entry »

Weekly Interview: Scott Lindstrom-Dake

Posted by | Posted in Interviews | Posted on 03-30-2012

Erica & Scott Lindstrom-Dake

Each week, as regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we’re featuring Scott Lindstrom-Dake, the owner and winemaker of Thumbprint Cellars in Healdsburg, California.

Along with his wife Erica, Scott Lindstrom-Dake is churning out 3,500 cases of fantastic whites and reds each year from Sonoma County’s principle appellations like Dry Creek Valley, Alexander Valley, and Knight’s Valley. Scott developed a taste for fine wine at an early age, but when he found himself in the financial doldrums of college, he did what any sensible person would do: make his own wine. The name of the winery and design of the label came about when Scott had an excess of gold-ink running down a bottle with which he subsequently added his thumbprint to future bottles.

Thumbprint’s first commercial vintage was in 2000 and the winery has been successful ever since.  To back the toothsome juice inside, the wines are labeled with sultry monikers like “Arousal,” “Threesome,” and “Four Play.” Scott and Erica host guests in a swanky tasting room in the Healdsburg Plaza.

Check out our interview with Scott below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »