Dr Vino’s wine blog

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SIPPED: Stalinist architecture in St. Emilion!
A bottle of wine allegedly in Hitler’s cellar at the Berghof sold for $900 at Alexander Autographs recently. The label might have raised some questions since has only St. Emilion, Frankreich (German for France) emblazoned on the front with no producer name, a vintage of 1934, and what a blog at the NY Times describes as a “Stalinist-style structure towering over the church.” Donald and Petie Kladstrup, co-authors of Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure, told the NYT blog that Hitler “occasionally drank wine, though he preferred beer.” What ever happened to his being a teetotaler?

SPIT: translation
A lot of wine descriptors could be interpreted as bedroom talk. But Jim Boyce writes about a case worthy of Engrish.com, a Chinese back label that cuts to the chase: “Yellow flowers and a beautiful apricot color with a strong musk. Rich texture with sweet f*ck in sweet orange peel and apricot flavor at the end of a clean. Drink now.”

SPIT: Champagne corks
Champagne, perhaps the last regional holdout (ex-Portugal) from the assault of screwcaps, now has The Maestro. Although we mentioned it previously, details are now out: The new closure, which hides a crown cap (think: beer) under a plastic cover and lever, will soon adorn select bottles of Duval-Leroy champagne. TIME says that it is “far easier to use than a conventional stopper— no struggling to hold the heavy bottle as you twist, no worrying that you’ll take someone’s eye out with the cork.” But, really, a lever doesn’t add to the bottle’s aesthetics–get a grip! [see video of the Maestro in action]

SPIT: wine
In France, consumption continues to fall. So do exports. “French households drank almost 10 percent less wine last year than in 2007, and exports by French vintners sank 15 percent by volume and almost 30 percent by value in the first quarter of 2009, the agriculture ministry reported.” [AP]

SIPPED: ID
Equifax, a credit rating agency, is developing a service to strengthen online identities, which could be particularly useful to verifying the age of someone who wants to buy wine on the web. [Bits blog]

Photo: Alexander Autographs

Following our discussion of why there are so few tasty low priced wines from America, particularly compared to imports, I put the question to wine importer Bobby Kacher. Robert Kacher Selections is strong in bargains from Southwestern France; I highlighted the Tariquet Sauvignon (find this wine) in my book with wine recommendations, A Year of Wine, as one of 10 great wines under $10 (REDS from Patrick Campbell was also included).

Question: why there are so few good American wines under $10 while there are many more imports at that price point?

Bobby Kacher: A related question is why do so many American wineries make such expensive wines? So many American wineries have developed new, highly-allocated wines from very young vineyards that sell for $150 or more a bottle. They are trying to sell you the spin of romance and lifestyle. I visited a winery in California once and calculated just how much it cost to make Read more…

Drawing on the New Yorker profile of Fred Franzia, champion of wine under $10, last week we pondered the puzzle of why so few low-cost wines–say under $10 (or, perhaps, $15)–made in America are just not tasty. By contrast, several imported wines in the price range have appeal despite having to be transported and pass through the importer’s company as well.

Over 30 of you had your say in the post from last week. So I decided to put the question to several people in the trade. Today, we hear from Patrick Campbell and Veronique Drouhin Boss. Patrick Campbell of Laurel Glen Winery in Sonoma makes a tasty $10 California wine, REDS, billed as “a wine for the people.” Veronique Drouhin Boss is the winemaker at Domaine Drouhin in Oregon and is co-winemaker at her family’s negociant house in Burgundy, Maison Joseph Drouhin, which a Beaujolais Villages that is particularly lip-smacking in 2007 and is widely available for $9.95. Tomorrow, we will hear from an American wine importer with his views.

Question: why are there so few good American wines under $10 (or slightly higher) while there are many more imports at that price point? Read more…

Rivalries and conflicts simmer throughout the world. At least one was resolved peacefully last week in a historic vertical tasting of the wines of the two Pichons.

Around 1850, faced with the inheritance laws of the Napoleonic code, Baron Pichon split his Pauillac estate among his five children: his three daughters got the larger share of the property but his two sons inherited the chateau itself and two-fifths of the vineyard. This action not only set up a rivalry between the two properties but also doomed legions of wine consumers to confusion between the two adjacent estates now colloquially known as Pichon-Baron or Pichon-Lalande. Read more…

Okay, these wines have little to do with each other besides being red and under $20. Oh, and they’re tasty and balanced. And suitable for throwing in your basement with 90 days’ worth of canned food. (canned beans: an impossible food-wine pairing?)

De Forville, Dolcetto d’Alba, 2006. (about $17; find this wine) I’m not always a huge fan of dolcetto, aka “the little sweet one” but, perhaps more aptly, “the little tannic one.” But this one really struck a chord with truffle and earthy notes and a good balance of acidity, fruit and tannin. Second day open, just as good, which is always a good sign. Importer Neal Rosenthal’s site has some more specs on this family producer; I picked up this bottle at Pasanella & Son.

Nicolas Potel, cuvee Gerard Potel, Bourgogne, 2006. (about $19; find this wine) Given that Potel is a leading negociant house in Burgundy and from several tastings of 2006 red Burgundies, I was optimistic that this wine would work out when I added it to my virtual shopping cart. It did. Dark fruit aromas, good acidity and tannins make this a standout in that rough-and-tumble category of pinot noir under $20.

Domaine Bernard Baudry, “Les Granges,” Chinon 2007. (about $17; find this wine) Bernard Baudry is one of my favorite Loire producers of red wine and offers consistently good values across the line. Even in 2007, a difficult year for some, was strong at Baudry. This “Les Granges” has good depth and succulence, which combine to make it a natural match for unadorned grilled meats–or even those cans of beans. This wine was also going strong on day two…On a related note, the Baudry 07 Clos Guillot bottling, alluring, fresh and vibrant with a great crack of pepper on the finish, bears mentioning. But since it costs $27, we’ll have to talk about that in another post.

On a forgotten page of nytimes.com yesterday, wedged in between stories entitled “Liberals Attempt Overthrow” and “Octopuses Taught to ‘Read,’” ran an unexpected wine story. To the tape:

PARIS Within the next month, Americans at Pacific coast ports will be able to enjoy gratuitously 3,600 bottles of French wines as the result of a generous gesture of the “little fellows,” or small producers of France. The consignment of wine left Le Havre yesterday [April 26] on the French liner Wisconsin after being inspected and tasted by representatives of the press.

Only the story wasn’t breaking news; it was part of a roundup of “100, 75, 50 Years Ago.” This item dates from 1934, a few months after the repeal of Prohibition. Unfortunately, their offering of “Château du Liot Haut-Barsac 1929 Riesling, Chambertin 1923 Champagne brut and 1835 Cognac” didn’t spark US wine consumption, which languished for several more decades. Now, let’s get back to those octopuses from 1959…

Simon Staples of Berry Bros & Rudd, a patrician wine shop in London, has an estimate in today’s NYT on the actual cost to make a bottle of Lafite, which sells for about $500 retail (find this wine). To the tape:

Mr. Staples pointed to the example of Château-Lafite Rothschild, a first-growth Bordeaux, which soared from £675, or $955, for a 12-bottle case in the 2002 futures to £4,000 a case for 2005 — which he called “the best vintage I’ve ever tasted.” But despite merely average years subsequently, the price only fell back to £3,500 in 2006 and £2,800 in 2007. He estimated it cost the château €10, or $13, to make a bottle of the wine.

Wow, talk about return on investment! I actually get asked the question a lot about whether a winery’s costs are really reflected in a higher priced bottle. Certainly, there are expensive ways to make wine and there are inexpensive ways to make wine.

But according to a fascinating exposé in the Revue de Vin de France, even the expensive way to make wine is wildly profitable. Consider some of their examples: the cost of Petrus is 30 euros and it retails for 4,500€; Dom Perignon costs 22.80 to make and retails for 129€; a generic Bordeaux wine might cost 1.38 euros to make and retail at a supermarket for 1.86€.

“Le veritable prix des grandes bouteilles” Revue de vin de France, February 2009.
“Bordeaux futures, wine investment, waste, insurance - sipped and spit“

SIPPED: sanity!
French winegrowers feared that a bill making its way through the legislature could prohibit free tastings at the vineyard/winery, often an important sales channel (and one that can offer fantastic prices too). The increasingly powerful health lobby was pushing the bill but, in the end, the health minister, Roselyne Bachelot, was able to prevent some promotional wine tastings from inclusion as well as striking down a proposed ban on wine advertising on the internet. Other changes include raising the drinking age from 16 to 18. See jancisrobinson.com for more perspective on the current law. And learn more about how France got to this point in my book, Wine Politics.

SPIT: insanity!
In 2007, Illinois wine consumers became legally prohibited from buying wine from out-of-state wine stores, thereby reducing a national market for wine to a local one. State Representative Julie Hamos from Evanston–where I lived for several years and, ironically, the home of the once-powerful Woman’s Christian Temperance Union–has submitted a bill to repeal this restriction. The Chicago Tribune had an editorial in support of the new bill calling the current situation “boneheaded.” Learn more about how America got to this point in my book, Wine Politics.

SPIT: minimum pricing
Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the UK rebuffed an attempt to set high minimum prices for alcoholic beverages. The chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, sought the increases, which would have doubled the price of some beer and spirits and set a minimum price of £4.50 for a bottle of wine as a strategy to combat binge drinking. Separately, Scotland is set to impose minimum prices on alcohol by year-end. [Guardian]

SIPPED: more celebrity wine
The latest entrant into the crowded field of celebrity wines is Sting (who has chosen the downturn in the NYC real estate market to offload his Manhattan apartment, btw). The two red wines will come from his 300 hectare (!) Tuscan property and are, as yet, unnamed. Will they go with Message in a Bottle? [The Times of London]

Here’s a trio of French reds under $20 (plus a bonus) for your weekend pleasure.

Domaine de la Pepiere, Clos de Briords, 2007 (about $16, find this wine)
Over the past few years, I’ve alternated my Muscadet attention between Luneau Papin and Marc Ollivier of Domaine de la Pepiere. While both are terrific values and great wines, I’d ultimately have to side with Pepiere. And if anything pushed me over the edge, it’s this superb bottling of 2007 Clos de Briords. I poured it for my NYU class and it won plaudits from people who had never even had a Muscadet. It’s a little richer and fuller than the normal bottling from Pepiere but still has that great minerally verve with a touch of briney character that goes so well with seafood. I bet this one is built to last too.

Moueix, Merlot encore, 2005 (about $13, find this wine)
Most straight-up Merlot under $20 has about as much appeal as Muzak. But if there’s anyone who could bring an interesting, value Merlot to the market, it’s Christian Moueix who, among other wines in his portfolio, presides over the acclaimed and supremely expensive Chateau Petrus. If I could only find my blasted tasting notes for you I could have something more specific to say but the wine, as I recall, had some nice dark fruit character with some underlying minerality and acidity that are so lacking in lower-priced (and, too often, higher priced) versions of the grape from the New World. Moueix buys from a few dozen growers, mostly from St. Emilion and the farther flung appellations of the Cotes de Castillon. If they could pour this at art gallery openings, sales might rise!

JL Chave, Mon Coeur, Cotes du Rhone, 2006. (about $19; find this wine)
I suppose I could have recommended this “mon coeur” for Valentine’s Day but it’s much more, um, original to recommend it on March 13! A fuller bodied red from a top producer in the Northern Rhone, it is plush with dark fruits and dried herbs. Good for days when March is coming in like a lion but you are eating lamb.

Charles Hours, Clos Uroulat, Jurancon, 2006 (about $35; find this wine)
Aha! This wine is not really under $20. But my friend Mike and I went in on this one as our contribution to a recent wine dinner where we weren’t supposed to bring anything. So that made my contribution under $20. I was happy to take some credit since the wine was widely praised among the many hard-core wine geeks. Made from Petit Manseng (how many times can you trot that out?), the wine has wonderful aromas of white flowers and golden apples and honey; it’s rich but with wonderful texture as well as acidity so it really feels light and refreshing as opposed to a thicker Sauternes. A great way to finish a meal. Find a friend and make it under $20 for you.