Dr Vino's wine blog

It’s sunny with a high of 86 today in New York. Although rosé is food-friendly and refreshing for more months than it is usually given credit for, today is classic rosé weather. I’ve got a couple of good rosés so now all I need is a pool…

Last week I stopped by Crush Wine & Spirits on 57th St (map it). They used to do free tastings weekly in the store but now have switched to larger ones only once a month. A staple in this vein has been their annual “war of the rosés” where they uncork and pour a dozen or more for consumers who think pink.

My favorite of the all-2009 lineup, both foreign and domestic, was the Clos Roche Blanche, a rosé from the pineau d’aunis grape, which usually makes some pretty light reds to begin with. This wine ($18) from the central Loire had great brightness and an alluring subtlety. The other wine that I bought after the tasting was the Commanderie de Peyrassol, a Provencal rosé that is consistently fun and delicious (and a good value, on sale for $14.39 that day–search for these wines).

After tasting the wines, I wondered if 2009 might not be the greatest rosé vintage in Europe? Not that people really give much thought to rosé and vintages. But it seemed to me that some of them were not as bright and snappy as in prior years. What is your experience? While awaiting your reply, I might just uncork one of those bottles pictured above.

Tasting the legendary Chablis from Domaine Francois Raveneau is a rare event since the wines are almost impossible to find (search for Raveneau). And tasting them with some age and oysters hardly ever happens outside of Chablis and the Hamptons.

But I managed to try oysters with three Raveneau wines at a collector’s house recently, thanks to an invitation from a friend (I brought the Champagne, as we already discussed). Since I didn’t have my tasting notebook with me, I don’t have much in the way of tasting notes to offer you but I do have cameraphone photos!

The 2000 Butteaux, a premier cru site, had a golden hue and an amazing balance between precise, alluring acidity, stoniness, and the gentle breadth that old wood aging provides. With a lasting, layered finish, this wine got the evening off to an excellent start. The 2000 Mont Mains was also impressive, but it had a slight oxidative note. The 1998 Valmur, a grand cru site, was not oxidative but not showing the delicious precision of the 2000 Butteaux, which was really en feu that evening.

The wines were terrific with the oysters; sometimes those classic food-wine pairings got that way for a reason.

It is rare to see long-form journalism on the web. It’s even harder to find superb investigative journalism in wine writing. Thus the department of fine and rare wine writing just got a path-breaking new entry: “What’s in the Bottle?” published on Slate.com.

In it, Mike Steinberger explores the rarefied and occasionally louche world of supremely expensive wines that the book The Billionaire’s Vinegar made widely known. The cast of characters includes Hardy Rodenstock and billionaire Bill Koch as before, but expands to include a prominent merchant, auctioneers, collectors, and the critical role of Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Consider the piece a must-read. Uncorking a magnum of 1921 Petrus while reading is optional, however.

After surveying several dozen choices last night in my basement last night–too cool an evening for a rosé, never enough Pinot around–I settled on the 2008 D. Coquelet, “vieilles vignes” from the often-overlooked appellation of Chiroubles. Still in his twenties, Damien Coquelet is both the stepson of Georges Descombes, the Morgon vigneron, and a rising star of Beaujolais.

I chose the wine because I wanted a good wine with dinner. I did harbor a hope that my wife and I could enjoy it over two nights, thus extending what I hoped would be a good bottle. But something happened: it was so delicious, we drank it all!

Somehow, the best bottles always seem to disappear quickly. Put out a bunch of wines, invite friends over for dinner, and (all things being equal) the bottle most quickly emptied is likely the best that evening.

That made me wonder if this might be the best way for wine drinkers to rate wines, where the highest praise is a rating of “quickly emptied.” The rest of the scale might look like this: empty, half-empty, sipped…and spit.

Sure, it’s kind of goofy, not very precise and has some obvious flaws, such as discounting future improvements of the wine. It’s very here and now and unabashedly so. But it is a great tonic to what ails the point system, which aims for precision and objectivity but often lands wide of the mark. In his memoir, A Life Uncorked, Hugh Johnson wrote, “The weakness of [the 100-point system] is that it is based on tasting, rather than drinking.” Indeed.

A rating system for wine drinkers instead of merely wine tasters reshuffles the deck: suddenly, being an utterly drinkable Riesling or Beaujolais becomes a trump card, rather than the hindrance it can be in a blind tasting lineup. Moreover, it limits the number of wines that can reasonably be reviewed to a hundred or more a year–really, how many people need thousands of wine recommendations? Also, it brings context in to the evaluation: the food, the seasonal appropriateness, where the wine is in its evolution, if you’re drinking it on a vacation. With the wine drinker’s ratings, the best wines become memories in a scrapbook, rather than trophies traded at auction in Hong Kong.

Anyway, it’s not perfect. But it’s worth discussing. And maybe even worth raising a glass to!

Chenin blanc is one of the world’s most underrated grapes. Beautifully multifaceted, it displays multiple forms: dry, off-dry, sweet and sparkling. It can tack on decades effortlessly. Here are a few more-or-less current releases that I have had recently (all on separate occasions) that are worth noting. (Search for these wines at retail.)

Domaine du Closel, La Jalousie, Savennieres, 2006. $18 I poured this wine with some apprehension at an event for 75 people recently. Would the gathered crowd “get” the wine? In fact, the color alone got them, as the golden wine appeared in their glasses. I polled them after tasting, and to my amazement, only two people disliked the wine–chenin blanc with such low negatives, it could run for office!

Domaine Laureau, Savennieres: Damien Laureau, aged 39, is not only the father of six children but also an up and coming star of the Savennieres appellation. Although he owns no vineyards in the appellation, he has long-term leases on two that he farms organically. I recently had the 2005 Les Genets bottling, which is aged for 18 months in vat. The wine is deliciously aromatic, layered, and complex on the palate and has the kind of lingering finish that tingles even your bones.

Domaine Aubuisieres, cuvée de silex, Vouvray, sec, 2008 $18: really a gorgeous example of chenin–and a good value too. Enticing aromas of honey and white flowers, delicious mouthfeel combining acidity and minerality in a wine with six grams of residual sugar, barely above the threshold of perception. Bernard Fouquet, somewhat controversially, bottles this wine under screw cap but my bottle was not showing any sign of reduction.

Francois Pinon, cuvée tradition, Vouuvray 2008. $17. Another great value Vouvray. I really liked the 2007s, so was a bit disappointed how closed and tightly minerally it was on day one. But on day two, the wine really opened up and was soaring. Although it’s not labeled as demi-sec, it is and has a superb texture. Also of note: Pinon’s sparkling Vouvray (now with a new label design) is a perennial excellent value at about $17.

Domaine Huet, Le Mont, Vouvray, sec, 2007 $22.50: This legendary estate recently changed distributors and I picked up some bottles of this wine for an amazing price. The wine is really packed with minerality, acidity, medium weight, has an excellent arc and shows very well today since it has yet to hunker down for the long haul in the cellar. I’m doing a dinner for 200 next month and have put this wine on the menu, paired with halibut.

Domaine Belliviere, Jasnières, 2006. Along the northern fringe of the Loire, starting about ten years ago, Eric and Christine Nicolas have helped revive winemaking in the tiny appellation of Jasnières and surroundings. They have planted some new vineyards and also own some with over 50 years of age. (The two wines tasted here come from the younger vineyards.) The long, fluted bottles of Belliviere may make you think Riesling. But this is chenin through and through. The 2006 “Les Rosiers” (about $29) bottling is a serious wine and that possesses quite a layered structure mainly of the honey on rocks variety. Consider decanting. The 2006 “L’Effraie” bottling comes from the nearby Coteaux de Loir appellation and is slightly more accessible at this stage–I had it with a homemade spinach pizza and it worked well.

If you were invited to a sumptuous dinner at your friend’s boss’ house and had to bring the bubbly, would you bring a grower champagne or a better-known label?

That was a question I confronted head-on last week. Grower champagnes are a great story, since the wines are made in limited quantities by those who grow the grapes, not the norm in the region. But in the glass, they can be off-putting to mainstream drinkers since a trend in grower champagnes is to have low or no dosage, a jigger sweetness added before bottling. This can make the wines unbalanced and searingly acidic–or electric, vital and food-friendly, depending on the wine and where your tastes fall on the hipster axis. Further, grower champagnes lack the widespread name recognition of some of the big labels so some hosts may discount the unknown. Not to be superficial…but champagne is among the most brand-centered of all wine categories.

Would this gathering of non-hipsters appreciate the merits of good grower champagne in the glass and not miss a well-known label? I thought yes, given that they were wine enthusiasts, but I also thought they could find out for themselves.

So I brought two Champagnes and poured them blind. In the grower corner, I poured the Vilmart Grand Cellier, a multivintage wine (but based on 2006), a blend of 70 percent chardonnay and 30 percent pinot noir, all organically farmed on the 26 acres. After some deliberation in the aisles of Astor Wines, I opted for the Vilmart since it has a small dosage and is barrel-aged, for a bit more richness, perhaps better for an aperitif and for going against a grande marque. I also poured the 1999 Moët & Chandon Millésime blanc, perhaps not the best comparison given the age discrepancy, but it I figured it to be a reasonable effort form the bigger name.

The Vilmart was lithe with complex aromatics, good acidity (but not off-putting!) and a lovely arc. The Moët was more rich, round and certainly more mature and relied on weight than on subtlety. Everyone recognized them as quite different wines. More than one person in the group suggested they would be good for different occasions, such as with food or as an aperitif. I polled the group before revealing: four preferred the Vilmart while two preferred the Moët (with two not stating a preference). Everyone enjoyed the comparison. So maybe the moral of the story is to simply bring two bottles.

As the weather warms up, a couple of zippy whites may be in order. I’ve had both of these recently and they struck me for both being built on lean, acid cores but with slightly more weight roundness on the finish than your average summer sipper. It’s kind of like sauvignon blanc meets chardonnay–and in the case of Domaine des Huards, that’s exactly what it is! From the Cheverny appellation in the eastern Loire, the deliciously refreshing, wonderfully minerally wine is 85 percent sauvignon with 15 percent chardonnay. The 2008 balances citrusy acidity with a wet rocky quality beautifully; the 2009, of which I had tasting sized pour a couple of weeks later, seemed to have even more crackling acidity. (about $16; find this wine) For all the Tintin lovers out there, the chateau that adorns the label, Chateau Cheverny, served as the model for Captain Haddock’s country house.

The Benaza Godello (about $12; find this wine) is good, clean fun because it takes a grape from Galicia that few people have heard of and then wins them over in the glass. Again, good acidity with a bit more roundness, perhaps from two months on the lees, perhaps from a dollop of the treixadura grape that is blended in, or perhaps from the 30-50 year-old vines themselves. Chill and serve with seafood on the deck. Also of note: the Benaza red wine made from the mencia grape is a pretty tasty value as well.

While Merlot’s fall from grace can be traced to one line in the movie Sideways, the fall of Syrah has been more difficult to track. Australian wine, with Shiraz as the signature grape, has experienced a decline in sales over the past couple of years. Even more broadly, it’s still a tough sell: producers and retailers have repeatedly told me that save for a few appellations in the Northern Rhone, the homeland of the grape, Syrah remains a sluggish category.

I was happy to have the chance to check in with Syrah by organizing a small tasting at a private residence last week. In putting together the seven wines in the lineup, I wanted to be sure to include examples from Australia, the US and the Northern Rhone but had the usual constraint that the wines actually had to be available locally. I decided to spare the tasters the hot-climate, jammy style and the boring cheapie style since they were probably most familiar with those, especially the latter, which is poured with abandon at fundraisers and art gallery openings. Read more…