Dr Vino's wine blog

David Lett, the pioneering “Papa Pinot” of Oregon’s wine country, died last week at the age of 69 from heart failure. [AP, The Oregonian]

I had the occasion to meet him only once, which was in July at a fabulous, legendary retrospective tasting that included every top pinot noir made at his Eyrie Vineyards from 2006 all the way back to 1970. I was a tad late in arriving at the winery because it is not where the vineyards are in the Dundee Hills–it is actually on the edge of the town of McMinville! By some stroke of luck, in the packed room I found a seat still open right next to Diana, David’s wife, and two seats over from David (pictured with his son Jason, the current winemaker at Eyrie, in the background).

The wines have been controversial since they are classically styled, as the Letts eschewed new small oak barrels, extraction and commercial yeasts among other things. I sent a friend a cameraphone pic that day of the lineup in front of me and he wrote back, “Eyrie–the ultimate anti-Parker wine!” Read more…

Crises–they’re everywhere, not just the financial markets. In France, the low-end producers have been in crisis for some time with adjustments in global demand and European policy. And for appellation wines, theoretically high-end of the quality pyramid in France, the crisis is that the system is now approving bad wines while squeezing out producers who dare to be different. I explore these issues in my book, Wine Politics, and Mike Steinberger offered his own recent broadside against the AOC system in discussing the celebrated case of Jean-Paul Brun’s 2007 Beaujolais. In a nutshell, the wine tastes great and was denied the appellation while truckloads of insipid wines were given the green light since they were deemed “typical” in an AOC taste test.

In a series of posts, I’ll be exploring some of the producers who have decided for whatever reason to make their quality wine outside of the appellation system in France.

And one of my favorite such producers is the super-naturalista and heirloom grape cultivator Thierry Puzelat in the Loire. I’ve been reluctant sometimes to pour wines made from the hipster grape variety to an audience of non-wine geeks. But I poured his Pineau d’Aunis (about $20; where to buy?), at a recent at a recent event in Chicago but it rocked the house.

But the wine for today is La Guerrerie (about $20; where to buy?). Since it is bottled as the lowly administrative category vin de table, it can’t state grape, place nor vintage. Thus it is simply La Guerrerie, which I thought was some sort of cheeky name riffing on “war” (la guerre) for the struggle with the authorities. But it is not so. I queried the wine’s US importer, Joe Dressner, who replied:

Guerrerie is a site, about 68.37% Côt [malbec] and 31.18% Gamay. Folklore has it that the spot was where the ancient gangs of the area used to rumble, or something like that. But no one is certain. Nevertheless, that is the name of the plot on the map. It doesn’t have the AOC because the wine took a long time to finish and it was not in a tastable form when the AOCs were evaluated.

The wine, with only a dash of sulfur added before bottling, is dark in color with great aromatics, particularly a grind of pepper. The wine has some fruit, lively acidity and a fun level of tannins that make it substantial and extremely rewarding–a perfect red for fall weather since it’s got more heft than a straight gamay but not as much as, say, a barrel-aged cabernet.

For more on the Puzelat brothers, including photos and why he has to maintain to wine making facilities 50 years apart, check out a very thorough post on Bertrand’s Wine Terroirs. And don’t forget how well Thierry Puzelat did as the Cinderella in Wine Madness!

One of my aunts recently showed her fine sense of judgment by telling me that she’s always on the lookout for light-bodied red wines under $15. Unfortunately, with the bump up in euro-denominated wines, this isn’t as easy a proposition as it was even one year ago. But here are two wines from the lip-smacking gamay grape that fit her criteria.

Pierre Chermette, Le Vissoux, Beaujolais 2007 (find this wine): Although a humble Beaujolais, as opposed to one of the smaller crus in the region, this wine still has lots of interest and is highly quaffable, with a good balance of fruit and acidity. They should put it in a bag-in-box to make it easier to squeeze off a glass or two! (Btw, this is a “drink now” kind of wine; I stumbled on a 2005 vintage in the Dr. Vino cave a few weeks ago and it was shot.)

Clos Roche Blanche, cuvée gamay, Touraine, 2007 (find this wine): A tad more minerality, though still not as complex as a good cru Beaujolais, this gamay from the Loire is organically grown and delicious with a wide range of foods. I went nuts at the Chambers Street Wines sale last month and bought several mixed cases. But this is the one wine where I splurged for a whole case (at $13 a bottle), which is now, sadly, running low, thanks to my own depletion–and giving one to my aunt. In all honesty, this wine is listed at $16 retail so a tad above her threshold. But with a 10% case discount, she’ll be in the clear. And who could resist buying a case of this?

Which light-bodied reds under $15 do you enjoy?

One of my private tasting clients asked me an unusual question recently: which wine goes with almonds?

The answer was easy: sherry. A much misunderstood wine, it’s not just for sherry hour in the faculty lounge any more–it is distinctive and makes a great aperitif. And probably because of the confusion, it’s also a great deal.

In order to try this out, I bought the Hidalgo La Gitana ($10; find this sherry) and got some marcona almonds. On it’s own, chilled, the sherry is tangy and briney, refreshing and appetizing. But with the marcona almonds from Spain, the whole experience was elevated in one of those classic food-wine pairings that brings out the best in both.

And a little sherry goes a long way; we were able to have three evenings of aperitifs from the same $10 bottle. It may be the ultimate wine for an economic downturn. Pity the almonds were $16.99 a pound.

For more background on sherry, check out Eric Asimov’s recent article in the NYT.

One of those rare winemakers of the world, described as “iconoclastic,” “maverick,” and the “wild boy of Pouilly-Fume,” Loire legend Didier Dagueneau tragically died yesterday at the age of 52. The ultralight plane he was piloting crashed in the Dordogne region of France. Jancis Robinson has an homage as does Eric Asimov, as does Le Point, where I got an image of him that I reduced and cropped.

Faster than you could say “Holy carbon footprint, Batman!” two new box wines have arrived on our shores!

Naturalista wine importers Jenny and Francois win the prize for the first new box wine since my op-ed in the NYTimes last month! Actually, the red was around last vintage but the white is all new! Double your pleasure while reducing your carbon footprint.

Both the wines are from the Cotes du Rhone cooperative Estezargues, which Jenny & Francois claim is the only co-op in France to make “natural” wines (no commercial yeasts, no enzymes, no filtering, minimal sulfur before bottling).

The white, called “From the Tank” and packaged in unbleached cardboard, is actually a great value transitional white for fall (find this wine). This 2007 is aromatically complex, its big and rich, with typical low acidity, and dry. I was envisioning pairing it with a squash risotto. Although it is not a low-priced box wine at $40, it is, they write in their catalog, “exactly the same wine as what we bring in bottles,” which sell for about $14.50 each. Booyah! For all the Wine Century Club members out there, its 70% Grenache Blanc, 20% Clairette + Bourboulenc, and 10% Viognier.

The red, a big blend of grenache, syrah and carignan, has that ripe, juicy quality from many of the wines of the region. The wine lacked the precision and structure of some their other Rhone reds but it is a solid offering to keep around for squeezing off a mid-week glass. It’s the same price as the white “From the Tank.” (find this wine)

I didn’t have time to taste through all their wines at their trade tasting last week, unfortunately. But I did like the Binner wines from Alsace, which I had not previously discovered (search for Binner). The pillowy pinot gris 2006 has no added sulfites; the 2006 gewurztraminer had a blast of white flowers and mango on the aroma and balanced tropical fruits on the palate.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Hanna swept over the northeast on Saturday afternoon and early evening, stopping play at baseball stadiums and the US Open as several inches of rain fell in a couple of hours.

Here at the Dr. Vino World Headquarters, we lost power. As dusk fell and stomachs started growling, we broke out flashlights, candles and the sea bass we had gotten earlier in the day. Not to let some rain deter our dinner plans, I got out an umbrella and fired up the grill.

Which wine goes with a tropical storm and grilled sea bass? Well, in our case it was the immensely rewarding Vacheron Sancerre 2006 (find this wine). I pour Sancerre at some events, especially in the summer, since it has such great minerality and can really illustrate terroir and be refreshing without breaking the bank. This Vacheron also had a layer of richness, honey-like but completely dry, with sprightly zest of Meyer lemon. When the power came back on, the bottle was empty!

I told this to a friend and he thought the scene sounded “very Thurston Howell III.” To that I say, “Lovey, have Gilligan open up another bottle. It’s de-lish.”

Domaine Tempier, venerable rose from Bandol, emerged victorious against arch rival from Provence, Domaines Ott, in a war of the rosés on the official Dr. Vino Deck this past weekend.

First up was the Ott (Chateau de Selles bottling), with its sleek and stylish bottle that vaguely resembles a pink bowling pin, boasting a retail price of $30+ a bottle–obscene by rosé standards, which has made it the unofficial wine of the Hamptons.

Better than my reduced expectations had led me to believe, the overpriced yacht juice that is the 2007 Ott actually Read more…