Dr Vino's wine blog

Today is the day for the international, monthly, blogtastic event of Wine Blogging Wednesday. Fatemah at Gastronomie has selected the theme for today: drink small.

You might think that this was the wine slogan of Tiny Living, the trendy 450 sq ft store in the East Village that caters hip, apartment-dwelling New Yorkers. But no, Fatemah’s assignment was to try a wine with limited production–250 cases or less.

My selection is Luddite Vineyards Abouriou 2002. Find this wine. I’m not sure of the case production actually but I figure it is at least approaching that level of boutique production (c’mon how many acres of Abouriou are planted in Sonoma anyway?). Luddite’s Languid Duck wine only had 190 cases last year and that has Syrah and other more easy to find Rhone varietals so I’m hoping that the Abouriou is similar.

Even if the production volumes aren’t actually low enough, the winemaker’s heart is in the right place for the spirit of this assignment. Luddite, as the name implies, eschews many technological or chemical interventions (this may include email too since an email query about production volume was not returned–see UPDATE below).

The wine itself is a wine geek’s wine. The inky black color is reminiscent of Tannat, another obscure southern French varietal, but the mouthfeel is not as tannic. I would agree with the winemaker who writes that “it has the aromatics and flavors of Malbec but the structure of a Dolcetto.” Consume it yourself with roasted pork or bring this as a present to a wine geek friend and prepare to impress with your knowledge of off-the-beaten path wines. The price of this “small” wine? $19, if you can find it.

***11/5 UPDATE: I just got an email (!) from Steven Canter of Luddite who writes that the production levels of recent vintages of Abouriou are: 2003, 23 cases; 2004, 69 cases. He writes that he has just put an “amazing” 2005 in the barrel which will yield around 95 cases. Alas, I neglected to query him on the 2002, which I tasted but it definitely appears in the range of our assignment.

Kudos to Matt and Ted Lee who wrote in the Sunday NYT magazine about “gastronomics:” the rising cost of fuel as an input in restaurant prices. Although crude oil prices and prices at the pump have retreated recently, fuel prices have still risen sharply over the past year and restaurateurs and those who sell to them are often not able to pass on the price increases.

It’s a good thing that “volatile food and energy prices” don’t factor into the consumer price index!

One aspect the authors don’t consider though is that rising fuel prices might keep restaurant consumers at home instead of eating out. Even if fuel is a minor part of the dining out experience, the expense of the meal (and possibly a sitter) might make a couple stay home and have Trader Joe’s prepared foods or take-out while watching a DVD. They can apply the expense saved to their rising fuel bills. That is a scenario that restaurateurs should fear more than $3.95 fuel surcharges. But hopefully everybody’s not such an economic maximizer.

Michelin released the results of the first ever Red Guide New York and some gourmets have their forks out for the inspectors. Only four restaurants got the top honor of three stars (Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, Jean Georges, Le Bernardin and Per Se) and only four restaurants received two stars (Daniel, Masa, Bouley and Danube). Thirty one restaurants received one star including the Spotted Pig, a Greenwich Village gastro-pub, and Saul in Brooklyn, which has a $30 prix fixe menu Monday to Thursday.

Mario Batali, who Time Out New York last week called a “legend” and a “grand master,” got only one star for his popular Italian restaurant Babbo. Daniel Boulud, another “grand master” according to TONY, was also slighted by not getting a third star. Chanterelle, Montrachet and Union Square Café–all pioneers of the restaurant scene in New York–got no stars. Thomas Keller of Per Se was the first American-born chef to ever receive three Michelin stars. The Guide officially goes on sale Friday.

The best take on the guide appeared in the Weekend Financial Times. Freelance writer Mike Steinberger (also Slate’s wine critic–great life, eh?) argues that “New York is as good as Paris” for restaurants and after recent scandals at Michelin’s guide publishing, that Michelin “may need New York more than New York needs it.”

Indeed, New York seems to be listening to the vox populi more than professional critics. Tim and Nina Zagat have made a publishing empire with their slim little guide of diners’ composite reviews. And discussion forums such as chowhound.com and egullet.org and various blogs offer up-to-the minute reviews from empassioned enthusiasts. That’s a crowded field for the Red Guide to enter and one with a culture clash of top-down or bottom-up. But it seems to be weathering the storm well already clocking in at #67 on Amazon three days before the official release.

FT, NYT. Technorati tags: food & drink | michelin | New York

A company with $7 million a year in sales decides to have an IPO. Is this an internet start-up? No, it’s the Napa winery Consentino Signature Wines, which will list its shares on London’s Alternative Investment Market in the coming weeks according to Decanter.

Chairman Larry Soldinger hopes to raise $30 million at the IPO, which would give the company a $60 million valuation. Soldinger claims the regulatory burdens of Sarbanes-Oxley in the US make London a better place to raise capital and float the shares. Hopefully he’ll bring some wine when he rings the bell in London. Consentino wines aren’t currently even available in the UK market.

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Further items about the business and politics of wine (and food):

Constellation Brands goes hostile in their bid for Canada’s Vincor offering C$31 a share. Vincor pauses to think it over. Vincor’s shares traded yesterday at C$34.43.

You add water! You add sugar! The EU and the US continue to air their differences about wine making during trade talks.

Wine tourism? Mais oui. Tobacco tourism? Mais non!

Add your $48,231 worth. That’s what Michigan wholesalers added to the still unresolved question on opening the state to direct wine shipments.

Whole Foods Market emphasizes freshness, but is the business model perishable?

No, the headline does not refer to Harriet Miers whose state of denial came to an abrupt end this morning.

It refers to the wine picks of King Tutankhamen. Archaeologists have shown that he was buried in his tomb with a jug of red wine, which was consumed by ancient Egypt’s upper classes.

King Tut was a man for origins:

Wine bottles from King Tut’s time were labeled with the name of the product, the year of harvest, the source and the vine grower, [researcher] Guasch-Jane said, but did not include the color of the wine. (CNN)

Vin rouge de Nile 1352 BC? Not quite.

A jar from Tutankhamun’s tomb was marked: ‘Year 5. Wine of the House-of-Tutankhamun Ruler-of-the-Southern-on, l.p.h (in) the Western River. By the chief Vintner Khaa.’ BBC

The celebrated Paris tasting of 1976, which stunningly established California wines as among the world’s best after beating equivalent French wines in a blind tasting, is getting a lot of attention in the run-up to its 30th anniversary.

George Taber, a former editor at Time, has expanded on the four paragraph story he originally wrote after the event and has a new book out on the subject, Judgment of Paris (Scribner).

Yesterday, Warren Winiarski and Mike Grgich, the makers of the red (Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars) and white (Chateau Montelena) wines that won, were in the Capitol Hill office of Mike Thompson (D-Calif), wining and dining with the Congressional wine caucus.

Republicans and Democrats alike packed Thompson’s office. Fraternité across the political divide on the Hill? Wow, maybe next year the 30th anniversary reception will be at the French Embassy!

You can win a 14-day trip for four worth $20,000 by telling the world about your “first time”–in 75 words or less. Oh yeah, that’s the first time you fell in love with French wines lest you think it is anything else.

Usually I wouldn’t post about promotional events such as this. But hey, 20 grand is 20 grand! (What are the tax consequences of that?) There’s also a EuroCave wine cellar and some Michelin green guides thrown in too.

For the details and entry forms, check out www.wines-france.us

Quick: where does Kendall Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay come from? And Yellow Tail? Woodbridge? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

According to a recent survey, unearthed from deep in my inbox, the most influential factor in a consumer’s wine buying is the recommendation of a friend. The second most important is the region where the wine comes from.

So states the new Center for Wine Origins, a new organization based in Washington DC and funded by the European Union, the Champagne bureau and the Port Authority (er, the port wine trade commission). I have enjoyed their ads over the past few years emphasizing the importance of place. And I indeed search for wines very often by place of origin and I agree that place names should have greater legal protection. But I couldn’t help but raising a quizzical eyebrow at these survey results. (See survey highlights; raw data not available)

“Where is the YellowTail?” is something an American consumer is less likely to ask according to the survey than “do you have anything from the Corbieres?” (Or Napa or wherever). “I’m looking for a good red under $10” would be next as price comes in only fourth importance. And asking “Do you have any wines over 90 points and under $20?” does not exist since the scores of critics do not influence wine buying at all according to the survey.

With domestic wines accounting for about 75% of the wine sold in America, and much of that quantity coming from the largely anonymous San Joaquin Valley, I find these results emphasizing origins a little tough to swallow.

Harrumph. Show me the data!