Dr Vino's wine blog

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…

Marcel Lapierre, the vigneron of Beaujolais, is a grandpappy of minimal intervention, “natural” wine. And Thierry Puzelat in the Loire is a leading, young naturalista. In fact, Puzelat has credited the beauty of Lapierre’s wines as the inspiration for choosing the path to making such wines.

Each of them made a reasonably priced gamay in the acclaimed 2009 vintage; I bought each for about $12 at Astor Wines and then tasted them head to head. Turning to the master first, Read more…

A couple of years ago, I had an op-ed in the NYT arguing for wine in a box. Since then, box wine sales have skyrocketed and many more selections, both foreign and domestic, have come on the market.

But one category that seems woefully underrepresented stateside is rosé. Given that it is perhaps the quintessential “here today, gone tomorrow” kind of wine, it seems particularly well-suited for the bag-in-box format. Fridges across France are stocked with box rosé in the summer; it’s almost a summer rite to come in from a warm day and squeeze off a nice cold one (rosé, that is). And, it’s clinically proven that having a box of rosé is also a great way to make friends with any passersby since it’s always cold and is likely a tremendous value.

Last week I was on vacation and wished I had a box of rosé in the fridge. But I couldn’t find one. Fortunately, we had some of the snappy Chateau de Roquefort, “Corail” 2009 from the Cotes de Provence. Maybe next summer, I’ll be able to squeeze off a glass when I’m on vacation?

Chilled red. It sounds like an oxymoron. Or something that would get your membership revoked at the club.

But, in fact, it works. The key is to choose a red wine that is low in tannin, which explains why Beaujolais from the thin-skinned Gamay grape, often is the prime red candidate for chilling. Bringing the wine’s temperature down to say 55 degrees, gives the wine an added refreshment value (you can slip one of those ice sleeve things on for about 10 minutes). However, it does cut down on the wine’s fruity aromas–and also the perceived alcohol (which may be welcome depending on the wine in the glass). And if there are a lot of tannins in the wine, they stand out since that’s all that’s left.

Here are three reds worth a chill.

Clos du Tue-Boeuf, Cheverny (red), 2009. $15
The Puzelat brothers–leading natural winemakers–have made this delicious blend that combines the fruit and fun of gamay with a bit of the structure of pinot noir. I’ve poured this wine a lot this summer and it has won plaudits from wine geeks and newbies alike. Pour slowly or decant since this wine has thrown a sediment. (Bottled with extruded synthetic closure.)

Valle dell’ Acate, Frappato, 2008, $20
Similarly, I’ve poured this red native to Sicily wine a fair bit this summer–always chilled–and people love it! One group was intrigued by the idea of chilling red and the wine was gone way too fast. Another group suggested it reminded them of sangria–and meant that as a compliment. To me, it has bright red fruit but enough structure to be interesting. (Bottled with bright orange injection molded closure.)

Torre dei Beati, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Cerasuolo Rosa-ae, 2009 $18
Technically, this wine is a rosé. But it’s a dark a rosé as you’ll encounter, so we’ll throw it in here with the chillable red since it also likes to chill. Hailing from (red) Montepulciano grapes in Abruzzo, to the east of Rome, the juice gets “bled” off after a couple days maceration. The resulting wine has notes of ripe cherries overlay surprisingly good acidity for this juicy, fun wine. (Bottled with cork.)

The other day, I was waiting for a train or a plane, flipping through magazines at a newsstand. I picked up the August copy of Food & Wine and saw Ray Isle’s fun, simple graphic suggesting changing white wines as the weather heats up.

Since I wrote a whole book centered on pairing wine with the seasons, I applaud all outdoor-temperature related pairings, which add more of the context of consumption. Generally, as the temperature rises, I prefer wines with leaner structure and lower price tags; here’s how I sliced up this summer more or less. It feels wrong to exclude fun wines such as Muscadet, riesling (!), assyrtiko, albarino or txakolina but there’s always next year–and raising a glass to parsimony.

Heat: 60°. Chenin Blanc
Layered and rich, a good example will turn heads.
Try: Domaine Huet, any of the 2007s or 08s, which start around $25.

Heat: 70°. Godello
Excellent mineral qualities combine with richness in this grape indigenous to northern Spain.
Try: Benaza, godello, 2008, $13

Heat: 80°. Gruner Veltliner
Gruner Veltliner of Austria is clean and refreshing, the uncola. No caffeine, never had it, never will.
Value: Berger, 2009 one liter $12, now with a crown (beer) cap

Heat: 90°. Vinho verde
Vinho verde is cheap, low in alcohol and gulpable.
Try: Aveleda Fonte, 2009 at $6

Heat: 100°. beer
Beat the heat and try a local lager or a Kolsch. I had an excellent one from Captain Lawrence Brewing Co ($12.50 for a growler).

Heat: 110°. Get some AC
And sparkling water.

How have you sliced up your summer whites?

I keep meaning to do a comparative tasting of wines made from the mencia grape. But every time I get a bottle, I drink it!

Case in point: D. Ventura’s Vina do Burato, 2008 (about $19). Weighing in at a spare 12% alcohol, this is a great summer red, perfect for chilling and serving dining outside. It’s reminiscent of a cru Beaujolais, although a tad darker in color, but with that same lively acidity, bright fruit and scoring highly on the drinkability scale.

Last year, Eric Asimov of the NYT explored the winemaking renaissance in Ribeira Sacra, the vertiginous region in northwestern Spain where this wine came from (check out the story and the gorgeous photos that make you want to book your tickets there right now). The maker of this wine is Ramón Losada, a full-time veterinarian descended from generations who have toiled the terraces in the region to make wine. He told Asimov “I make money on the wine, but not enough to live on, which gives me the freedom to make wine however I want. Some urge me to change, but I won’t.” Excellent!

Thanks to a tip from Chris Barnes at Chambers Street Wines, I tried a bottle of Godello from the region too. The Almalarga 2008 from Pena Das Donas ($22) was also low in alcohol (12.5% on the label). It was a Goldilocks wine–not too hot/cold, big/small, comfy/not comfy–it was, “just right.” The 80-year-old vines produce a wine with pleasant acidity and some stoniness of a Chablis and good richness thanks to aging on the lees. The only things holding this silky, drinkable wine back from white wine world domination are the presumably limited quantity of production and the slightly high price.

“Pass some more of the nun wine.”

I overheard someone say that at the other end of my table recently. Not Blue Nun, mind you. But a wine actually made by nuns!

Since the Trappist monks in Belgium still make (and market) Chimay beer, I was pleased to discover that Trappist (Cistercian) nuns still make wine in Lazio, a little to the north of Rome.

The wine in question, Coenobium from the Monastero Suore Cistercensi, is a blend of Trebbiano, Malvasia, and Verdicchio. If you’re looking for a fresh, breezy, fruity, summer quaffer, look to other wines. This white has an oxidative quality that blankets layers of minerals, faint nuttiness, and acidity. The reason these grapes produce such complexity is in large part because the consultant winemaker, the acclaimed naturalista Giampiero Bea, has left the wine in contact with the skins, unusual for a white. They actually make another wine with even longer skin contact called “Rusticum.”

It’s a wine of contemplation that I happened to serve on my deck on a cool summer evening, a context that I think made it more appealing than on a searing hot day.

To finish off our unofficial women and wine week, here’s a picture of the nuns in the vineyards with Giampiero Bea.