Dr Vino's wine blog

The hot button-issue of wine and numbers is at the heart of what we discuss in my critics class at NYU. Alder Yarrow at Vinography recently dug up a 2004 article by WR Tish that sparked a vibrant discussion. In case you missed the very good (92 points? haha) discussion, I recommend it.

What do you think?

tags: wine | wine criticism

When Mrs. Vino and I went on our first trip to wine country in Northern California in 1995, I had high hopes of scoring some real bargains by buying directly from the winery. We drove up and down Route 12 in Sonoma, stopping at many wineries that then had free tastings. We pulled into BR Cohn and tried the wines and olive oils of Bruce Cohn and admired his gold and platinum records on the wall from his days as manager of the Doobie Brothers.

We bought a few bottles there and at other wineries. Even though I was frustrated to find hardly any discounts, I still insisted we wouldn’t be able to find many of these gems back in Chicago. So we both lugged a half a case under each arm through SFO and back to Chicago. Then I found many of the “gems” for sale at Sam’s. That was when I learned to never schlep wine–that’s what UPS is for–and certainly never make someone else schlep wine for you! (And now thankfully we have the internet too, which can locate wines with a click)

Those were some of the memories we had last night as we uncorked our B.R. Cohn 1993 Olive Hill Cabernet Sauvignon that we purchased from the winery on that trip 11 years ago. For the first time we got around to participating in the seventh edition of Open That Bottle Night (OTBN).

The wine itself was excellent and well beyond my expectations. Though not as vibrant a purple as it was in the tasting room, the aromas and flavors were still complex, with tobacco, leather, blackcurrant, faint chocolate all mingling into a long finish. Fortunately, we still have one more bottle.

What were some tales from your OTBN last night? If you missed it, pull a special cork sometime soon. The spirit of OTBN is about actually drinking fun bottles, instead of just looking at them (or worse, forgetting about them). Now that’s an idea we can all raise a glass to!

tags: wine | OTBN | BR Cohn

Two nights ago when I was at dinner in Chelsea, a waiter charged at me with a small glass filled with orange fluid and orange crystals sticking to the rim.

“Care for a Tang-tini? It’s made with Tang, like the astronauts used to drink,” he said.

I accepted with trepidation and ventured a sip. The smack of saccharine was so cloying that I rushed to find a side table where I could ditch the drink. Fortunately there was also Pol Roger rose 1998 being poured. Pink was much better than orange.

Clearly almost any drink can be sold now simply by adding the suffix “-tini.” This happened during Fashion Week when fashionistas swilled “eccotinis” made with Gallo wine. Hmm, it must be time to launch “tini” into space with the Tang.

tags: wine | cocktails | tang

Bodegas Naia, Las Brisas, D.O. Rueda, 2004, $9. Find this wine

Not so long ago white wine from Spain was dismissed as industrial plonk but several regions have been coming along and raising the country’s profile. Rueda, a region on the Castilian plain (where it doesn’Â’t rain all that much actually), has started making some crisp and lively whites based on the Verdejo grape. In this Las Brisas, Sauvignon Blanc and Viura blend with Verdejo to make a wine that has crisp acidity with floral notes–think orange blossoms. It’Â’s a great wine for summer weather but even in the winter, it pairs well with soft cheeses or grilled white fish. Importer: Jorge Ordonez.

tags: wine | wine tasting notes

In Bordeaux:

“Prices of the 2005 Bordeaux vintage are likely to be stratospheric – in some cases 300% up on last year – experts reckon. The quality of the vintage is considered so extraordinary that excitement reached fever pitch almost before the grapes were off the vines.” (Decanter)

While in Languedoc:

“On Wednesday Mrs Montosson and thousands of other winemakers will take to the streets of southern France to highlight a crisis they claim is driving them into crippling debt – and, in some tragic cases, suicide.” (Telegraph)
* * * * * * * * * * *
Note: if you’re in Chicago on 3/25, consider finding out more about these issues in a one-day class I will be offering at the University of Chicago entitled “A Tale of Two Regions: Bordeaux and Languedoc.” And don’t worry, there’s a tasting component too!

tags: wine | France

Lawmakers in Massachusetts overrode the Governor’s veto yesterday and passed a law for shipping wine directly from wineries to consumers. The legislation also allows diners to re-cork an unfinished bottle at a restaurant and bring it home with them. With New York and Connecticut already open to direct shipping, opening up the densely populated Northeast should be a boon to boutique winemakers in California and the Pacific Northwest. Now, if only shipping costs can be reasonable…

In New York City, two restaurants are show just how much wine New Yorkers can drink. The Silverleaf Tavern is offering three grades of “all you can drink wines” at $35, $48, and $84. I like their description of the last one “endless wonderful wine, if you arrived drunk and pointed to the wrong grade of wine.” Yikes. Makes the bottomless cup of coffee look so benign…Cité throws in some food too for $69…more

And New Yorkers are mixing it up with many bartending classes available around town, reports James Oliver Cury in Time Out New York. Columbia even offers one–talk about shaking things up!

Winemakers in France staged protests across the south of France yesterday. They are the bulk producers who compete on price and find that they are losing business to New World competitors, who have better labels among other things that appeal to consumers. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin’s plan for the sector is still pending…

tags: wine | New York | France

The holidays may be long gone but many retailers are still feeling the hangover. The first quarter is often slow and many wine stores have sales in February to make room for new inventory arriving in the spring, which means…

wine sale!

Near me in New York…Astor Wine and Spirits is having a moving sale with different regions discounted by 25% every week. The last week of February the whole store (what’s left!) is on sale since they don’t want to carry wine across the street to the new location at 4th and Lafayette. Some aisles are looking distinctly picked over but it is also a great opportunity to get some values in the Burgundy aisle.

…Zachy’s, the smallish store in Scarsdale, NY that does a whopping $50 million a year in business is also having an internet sale. One week left!

In Chicago, Binny’s is not having an across-the-board sale but it is having selected sale pricing for “members”–including a huge range of great wines under $10.

Wine.com is having a “President’s Day Sale!”

…and many more stores around the country…You’ve got to move it, move it!

Also check out my buying tips for stretching your wine dollar.

tags: wine | sale

Glug, glug, glut.

So read the title of an article in The Economist on the wine industry about five years ago. But on Friday when California’s Department of Food and Agriculture reported the state’s biggest grape harvest in ten years, it showed that the global glut has even hit the Golden State. Where will all that wine go?

Quality wine producers in France are distilling their wines into ethanol and Australians are contemplating the same fate for their tens of millions of gallons of excess wine in tankers. (see my backgrounder) Coming at a time when America is famously “addicted to oil,” will the bountiful harvest send California Chardonnay to American gas tanks?

Probably not. For one, in the last big harvest Bronco Wine Co. reinvigorated the $2 a bottle category with its Charles Shaw wines (“two buck chuck”). Further, American wine consumers are actually increasing their consumption, so the big harvest may just end up on tables instead of tanks. Finally, the US already gets most of its ethanol from corn, which is even more abundant than wine grapes–and cheaper too thanks to $1.4 billion in annual subsidies.

But with oil trading at $65 a barrel, that wine had better find its way to barriques quickly.

tags: wine | fuel | energy