Dr Vino's wine blog

I recently bought the 2007 Lafarge Bourgogne rouge ($30; find this wine) and popped it open on a Friday evening for Mrs. Vino. With the delicious pinot noir in our glasses, light in color with excellent balance between acid and youthful tannin, the weekend was off to a great start. Then our neighbor dropped by to collect his son and, in no time flat, the bottle was empty. Our sipping wine got gulped! Good thing that fun wines are for sharing.

When I was speaking with Becky Wasserman recently, the Burgundy-based exporter of this and many other wines, she suggested to get to know a Burgundy producer by their Bourgogne rouge, a sort of house calling card for a relatively low entry point. In the case of Domaine Michel Lafarge, I’ve also had the chance to try the recent vintages of his Volnay; the 2006 has great snap and the 2007 has fine balance. So, good advice.

A previous evening Mrs. Vino and I enjoyed the Lafarge Bourgogne Passetoutgrain 2007, “L’Exception” ($24; find this wine). Passetoutgrain is the rare red Burgundy that allows grapes other than pinot noir in the wine since it is a blend that includes gamay. In this case, the grapes are interspersed in in the same vineyard (a field blend, as it is known) of fifty-five year old vines. They are harvested and fermented together. The resulting wine combines the gulpability of gamay with the structure of pinot. While I preferred the Bourgogne rouge, this is still a fun wine–as such, this switch-hitter is good for a relaxed evening of sipping but still a good choice in case any gulping neighbors drop by.

SIPPED: headline writing
“Baboons give Chardonnay a thumbs up,” was a recent headline on timeslive.co.za. Nice. How many baboon thumbs up could catch on as a new, powerful wine evaluation method. (See our previous baboon coverage.)

SIPPED: market disarray
“Bordeaux” and “discount” rarely appear in the same sentence. But with Diageo’s retreat from the Bordeaux marketplace, possibly over $100 million worth of wines are looking for a home, including the unloved 2007s. One buyer predicts a “bloodbath” (again); Bloomberg cites “a consensus” among retailers that the deals will last about six to eight months. Will this signal the end of the American market leading the way for Bordeaux?

SPIT: the old way (wine sales)
Another Bloomberg story focuses on the travails of the high-end wine market. One producer in Monterey, Chris Cutler, dropped his distributor and started selling directly, lightweighted his bottles, and lowered the price of his pinot noir from $49 to $35. His reaction? “It was the best decision I made.”

SPIT: Varietal labeling; SIPPED: the old way (winegrowing)
The process of growing different varieties in a vineyard, harvesting the grapes that ripen at the same time, and co-fermenting them is coming back. Check out this piece in the LA Times.

SPIT: oak; BITTEN: the hand that feeds
Seven bloggers went on a sponsored trip to Piedmont to taste some wines made from the barbera grape. They were served oaky “important” wines and juicy, entry-level ones. Their criticism of the first category was so loud that it made paper (local and national)! Tom Maresca, also at the Barbera meeting, has the tale.

SIPPED: social media satire
Blogger Hardy Wallace has a send-up of wineries’ latest obsession, using Twitter and Facebook to hype useless wines. His fictional case in point: Crazy Bear charbono-nay. [Dirty South]

SPIT: the old way (jobs)
Someone has fired up the robo-dialogue video machine again! This time we have an NYC sommelier who wants to quit and move to Walla Walla to start a winery. Check for the definition of winemaking… (via candidwines)

All the chatter in the NY dining scene is about cheese made from breast milk. At Klee Brasserie, Chef Daniel Angerer blogged about making cheese from his own lactating wife, blogged about it, and the requests to try it came pouring in. So he started giving it away as a canapé with figs and Hungarian pepper. Sadly, the story doesn’t describe the flavor profile of the cheese (looks like a chevre ball). Nonetheless, for a wine pairing, the chef recommends…Riesling.

What do you think? Impossible?!?

The alternative packaging trend gets bigger and reusable: a 2009 Riesling from the Finger Lakes in 20-liter tank will soon be available in NYC.

Known as Gotham Project, the thirst-quenching Riesling is the brainchild of Charles Bieler (above, left), of Bieler Rose in Provence and one of the Three Thieves, and Bruce Schneider (right), of Schneider Vineyards on Long Island. Bars and restaurants will be able to get it from local distributor Michael Skurnik; the only open question is whether it will be available for homes, as rooftops and poolsides beckon…

UPDATE: You can’t see it clearly in the photo, but both Bieler and Schneider are wearing black t-shirts saying “Give them the Finger Lakes.” I reproduce the image here courtesy of designer Steven Solomon. Welcome to New Yawk!

Over on HuffPo, there’s a piece up about the Red Bicyclette/faux pinot saga. Jacqueline Friedrich, author of the guide The Wines of France, posted this comment as a reply. As it touches on some issues that astute readers will remember from Wine Politics, I reproduce her comment here with permission:

1) As a previous post-er said, rightly, Pinot Noir is a grape. It is not an appellation. Read more…

SPIT: good times
Hard to tell which phrase would strike more fear in the heart of Napa: finances that are “very weak” or “on life support.” Even foreclosure has been the fate of 10 vineyards in the valley that once was called “Eden.” But probably the scariest phrase is this: “High-rollers are discovering that there are lots of drinkable $20 to $40 bottles of wine.” [“Vineyard Defaults Surge as Bargain Wines Hurt Napa”Bloomberg]

SIPPED: gilding the lily
Ah, spring is in the air. And with it come California winery newsletters offering their wines for $74 a case–just the shipping, that is.

SPIT: California values
The Bay Area NYT is the latest to ponder the question of why are there so few tasty value wines from California.

SIPPED: Buffett’s billions
Warren Buffett is getting into the wine biz. Not as a producer, but as a distributor. Through his subsidiary McLane, Berkshire Hathaway is buying the Georgia wine and spirits distributor, Empire, reports Wine & Spirits Daily. I guess Buffett knows where the profits are in wine.

SIPPED: spurious variable?
Wine drinking women don’t get fat! But is it wine consumption that explains the slower weight loss among women in a study? Not necessarily. [Globe and Mail]

SIPPED: subway reading
A twenty-something male in office clothes was spotted reading Wine Politics on the F train! Good thing it wasn’t on Kindle or the Cover Spies wouldn’t have known! [CoverSpy]

Paul Draper is, without question, one of the world’s great winemakers. Even though he has every reason to be an egotistical blowhard, he remains humble and democratic in spirit, asking sincere questions of those around him and quick to point to his team as the reason for the winery’s success. It may sound absurd to think that a winemaker’s personality is as discernible in the glass as the terroir, but that combination of curiosity, humility, and respectful excellence comes through in the wines of Ridge Vineyards.

Presiding over forty harvests at Monte Bello in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the winemaker and CEO at Ridge, has seen an almost unparalleled run of excellence. Read more…

Friday was a rare moment in the legislative sun for the subject of wine direct shipping in the Maryland, where, as we discussed, is a felony to ship wine. Consumers and wine industry experts gave testimony before a committee. Tom Wark, executive director of the Specialty Wine Retailers’ Association, who was there writes via email: “Huge turnout in favor of shipping. Largest contingent of consumers I’ve ever seen at such a hearing. Yet, there is pessimism. The chair said what we all knew…that it was unlikely to pass. Distributor opposition, the “minors” red herring and fear of job losses.”

On Friday afternoon, Adam Borden resigned as executive director of the pro-reform group. The Baltimore Sun reported that he had lobbied aggressively for the cause–even calling a delegate’s mother–and ruffled some feathers. They quote him as saying he was resigning because he didn’t want his style to hurt the cause. His resignation letter is reproduced here in full after the jump.

Some key contacts:
Marylanders for Better Wine and Beer Laws and their page On Facebook
Delegate Dereck E. Davis, Chair, Economic Matters Committee
Senator Joan Carter Conway, Chair, Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee
House Bill (80/141); Senate Bill (26/47) Read more…