Dr Vino's wine blog

In a recent column on Slate.com, Mike Steinberger threw most Chilean carmenere under the oak bus. Many of the wines in his tasting, “lacked personality and depth, and some were jammy, hideously oaky confections that were indistinguishable from other, similarly afflicted New World wines.” I’d also add that some of the ones that I’ve had carry an unwanted sweetness, probably from the oak and alcohol.

Behold a savory and delicious carmenere: the Clos Ouvert Loconmilla 2008. In his article, Mike encouraged Chilean producers to pick up a bottle of it in his article, and, even though I’m not a producer, I did so, buying a bottle at Grapes the Wine Company in White Plains, NY (about $26). The wine is made by a pair of Frenchman, using organically cultivated old vines and with a gentle hand in the cellar, notably using old oak barrels over new. In the glass, the impressive aromas enticingly intertwine some dark fruit notes with a whiff of dried herbs and a lot of intrigue. Although the wine lists 14.5% alcohol on the label, it carries the alcohol well thanks to good balance and acidity that enlivens the palate. On day two of being open, this wine had just as much intrigue as on day one, always the mark of an excellent young wine. Read more…

The past few weeks have seen a few listicles about top wines or most memorable wines had last year. As is the nature of such lists, they generally skew to the fine and rare. I don’t have a problem with that–in fact, maybe I’ll get around to doing one of those myself–but there’s also something to be said for the everyday wines that bring great pleasure. I bought two such wines by the case in the last year and enjoyed them often.

Both are 2009 reds, one from Beaujolais and one from the Loire. The vintage was very kind to each region and each is made by a leading producer in the region. The J.-P. Brun Terres Dorrées, “L’Ancien,” 2009 is a wine to make converts of Beaujolais haters. It’s been a house staple here for a while but this vintage is particularly good, maintaining the snappy acidity of gamay but having a little more roundness thanks to the vintage. I served it to a lot of non-wine geek friends who really like it. The term “L’Ancien” refers to the traditional style of viticulture

The Cheverny comes from the estate vineyard of the Puzelat brothers. It’s a blend of gamay and pinot noir, made in a natural style. It’s a graceful introduction to a slightly more wild (low sulfur) version of natural wines. Delicious on its own, the mouthwatering acidity makes you look forward to food–as well as the next glass.

Ah, Christmas. Despite big meals on Christmas eve and Christmas day, Christmas food pairings get little attention from all those people who were so forthcoming with pairing advice on Thanksgiving. Perhaps it’s because there’s no national consensus on the menu. Or maybe those with pairing suggestions are all paired out. Either way, if you were celebrating Christmas or Festivus, what did you uncork and did it work?

If you care what the masses uncorked, you can always run a search on cellartracker, limited by dates opened, to see what cellartracker users opened. (Is it me, or is this list less interesting than the last time we took a look, for Thanksgiving last year?)

We opted for a younger wine this year, uncorking a Jacques-Frederique (“Freddy”) Mugnier, Nuits St. Georges, Clos de la Marechale, 2007. The Mugnier estate dates back to the late 19th century and today the estate’s crown jewel is a three-acre slice of filet mignon Musigny, which produces about three hundred cases of wine (that starts at $500 a bottle!). The past two generations have let other careers in banking, engineering and aeronautics get in the way–for shame! As a result, the family let others manage the properties and such was the case with the Clos de la Marechale, which Faively managed until 2003. This 2007 (find this wine) was showing well, with invigorating acidity, reticent fruit, and a good amount of NSG tannin on the finish. While we certainly enjoyed it (emptied!), it would likely benefit from a couple more years in the cellar–but it’s hard to resist!

What–you thought blogs were soooo 2005? Here are a couple of new blogs that raise good questions or bring good perspectives to the world of wine.

Keith Levenberg, a young collector in NYC, is two posts in to his blog (but don’t call it a blog!) and raises two good questions. First, at what level should wine writing be pitched, the newbie or the connoisseur? He informs us that he will dispense with explaining wine terms and cut to the chase. Also, he ponders a subject near and dear to our hearts: which wines are suitable for aging that mere mortals can afford? I’ll leave you to discover his suggestions but I will add a plug for chenin blanc, especially leading producers of Vouvray, such as Foreau and Huet, or Ridge zins. Hit the comments with your thoughts on this $64 (for two or more bottles) question.

Also, Levi Dalton, sommelier at Alto in NYC, has been posting frenetically over the past few days under the title So You Want to be a Sommelier? Please, direct all your sommelier career questions his way! I’m sure he will respond with his characteristic wit and aplomb.

All too often, Zinfandel is a highway to a quick, cheap buzz. It’s often confused with white zin, rarely celebrated by wine writers aside from patriotic holidays, and it’s almost never aged.

However, there’s Zin, and then there’s a wine like Ridge Geyserville.

I had a chance to visit the property and talk with the cellar masters this past spring. Although I also tasted some spectacular wines of Monte Bello, I was looking forward to the tasting of old zinfandels dating back to 1973, including multiple pairs of Geyserville and Lytton Springs–could a Zinfandel age gracefully, I wondered? Read more…

More Americans are drinking wine today than ever before. However, increasingly confident and interested wine consumers are thirsty not just for wine, but for reliable information about the wines they consume. Sadly, winery (and importer and trade association) websites don’t always provide the information we now crave. Forget social media and “web 2.0″–too many wineries haven’t even mastered web 0.9 yet.

Consider the recent discussion about Corbieres that emerged following my post about a wine from the region last week. Readers debated the percentage limits for the grape Carignan in the wine. Since this is a statute of the AOC regulations, you’d think it would be on the AOC/syndicat web site. But it’s not.

Or consider the six wines I was putting together my NYU wine class for last night. I was looking for some basic information about the wine I was serving, the vineyards, the cellar masters, and a photo for the slide show. Here’s what I found: Read more…

Carignan. When Bacchus was handing out the mellifluous names of grape varieties in French–Cabernet, Chardonnay, and Merlot roll easily of the anglophone tongue–he had apparently run out by the time he got to Carignan. In America it is often called carignane when planted, if at all, on domestic soil. But even in the Languedoc, in the south of France where the grape proliferates, reasonable people like Jancis Robinson have dumped on the grape for tasting like battery acid (or something).

By contrast, Becky Wasserman told me she considers Carignan to be “the Pinot Noir of the south,” especially given its high natural acidity. Wasserman, an exporter of French wine, includes one Carignan in her portfolio and it is a value, particularly now as the weather turns chilly. The family-run St. Jean de la Gineste, in the Corbieres appellation, cultivates some old vines of Carignan, ferments the grapes in a neutral, concrete vessel, and blends in 15 percent grenache. I purchased the resulting 2007 wine at New York Vintners for about $14 and found this true taste of Carignan to be worthy of respect. Dark in the glass, the un-pinot-like 14% alcohol makes it a bigger wine but the rustic grape tannin is unadorned by oak and then there’s the good acidity. Now if only I could rustle up some cassoulet…

Wine in a box? Try wine in a crate.

After my GMA segment last week, I thought I would elaborate a little more on one of the box wines that I tasted for the first time this fall: Wineberry box. The lineup includes about six wines, red, white and rosé, all from France. They are priced at about $40 for a three-liter box. (Search for the wines at retail.)

Eric Dubourg, president of Wineberry America, a wine importer and distributor based in New York, says that he wanted to change box wine, “to get away from bag-in-box as student or grandmother wine.” Read more…