Dr Vino's wine blog

I had a great time on GMA today even if it meant waking up before the crack of dawn (although, with a two-year-old son, that’s not exactly a foreign concept to me). Sam Champion is a hoot; I appeared on his weekly segment, “Just One Thing.” It was fun, it was fast! With wine, we tried to put the “good” in Good Morning America!

Video follows below, as well as a cameraphone pic from the set!

Read more…

Baseball season is winding down and we all know what that means–time for plastic tarps to adorn locker rooms, wine goggles to come out, and grown men to spray themselves with Champagne. Or, getting technical, is it instead sparkling wine?

Thanks to the Dr. Vino spy cam, we have locker room footage! (No, not of Brett Favre).

After clinching their wild card birth, the Yankees sprayed themselves with Hankell Sekt, a sparkling wine from Germany. (The Dr. Vino cam was too shrouded in bubbles to tell what went down after the Twins series, but we do get one look here.)

The Rangers, so as to include their star player Josh Hamilton who has fought alcohol and drug addiction, sprayed themselves with ginger ale after beating the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Rays had used Chateau Ste. Michelle’s sparkling wine from Washington state to douse their AL East victory. The Phillies sprayed Korbel from California for their NLDS win.

While the bubbles are flowing, the wine fans are still waiting for a team to pop the cork on actual champagne from Champagne (assuming they aren’t into ginger ale). Perhaps they will wait for the World Series for that.

Marcel Lapierre’s wines have brought me much pleasure. When I bring out one of his wines, with the beautiful script label and red wax capsule, my wife is always instantly happy. They are the rarest of wines, serious and structured, ready to drink now or later, with a few years age on them. They are made from organic (and horse-tilled) vineyards with minimal intervention in the cellar, including sulfur. But what really makes them rare is that they are also affordable: I bought a case of his Morgon 2009s for $19.95 a bottle. (find this wine)

So it is small wonder on this basis alone that he attracted a wide following among winemakers–beyond Beaujolais and even beyond France–as well as consumers. Add to this his infectious bonhomie as Tim Atkin described him in Saveur: “Lapierre is just Lapierre, a big, hulking, witty chunk of humanity with enough enthusiasm and joie de vivre for half-a-dozen men.”

Yesterday, sad news came from Morgon that Lapierre had died too young, at the age of 60 from melanoma. His son Mathieu has been active in the cellar for a number of vintages and will, presumably, carry on the tradition of crafting these supremely pleasurable wines.

Spaghetti tacos, abomination or stroke of genius? It depends on whom you ask, according to an article in the NYT last week. But for those who are “less than 5 feet tall and live with your mother,” the ital-mex dish derived from the TV show iCarly appears to be popular.

Although I haven’t yet tried it, I’d venture to say that from the sounds of it, probably a lot of parents have. Ah, the blend of (overcooked) spaghetti with (too much) sauce from a jar, tenderly tonged into a corn shell. Which wine pairs with this…or is it impossible?!? Pair if for the children, as this dish may well be the comfort food of the wine drinkers of tomorrow.

reduced size crop of Frencesco Tonelli/NYT image

It may seem absurd to write a post in praise of mature wine–indeed, it’s one of those things, like sunny days and flowers in bloom, that people aren’t exactly rushing to oppose. But sometimes we still need encouragement to take time to smell the flowers and such is the case with enjoying mature wine. It has come up a few times in (offline) discussion that I have been in recently: do people still cellar wine? Is mature wine relevant? And, most pointedly, why do young people hate mature wine? Read more…

SIPPED: wine on tap
Last week, New York magazine called self-serve wine tanks brilliant and highbrow. This week, their restaurant critics round-up the bourgeoning offerings of wine on tap. Fun as taps can be, let’s hope the cost savings are passed on to diners! [NY mag]

SIPPED: in vino, Veritas?
The NYC wine shrines Veritas and Cru, have closed according to the NYT. Grub Street reports that the lease for Veritas has been taken over and will now be a more casual place (with wine on tap?).

SIPPED: one for the road
A press release claims all 50 states (plus DC!) now allow diners to take unfinished wine with them from restaurants.

MUNCHED: Bordeaux 2010
Rabbits have descended on some vineyards in Bordeaux, one reporting 15 percent of the crop being eaten. At least some critics already like the 2010 vintage! Although “two paws up” was probably not the endorsement many property owners were seeking. [myfoxhouston.com]

SPIT: Strange brew, grand cru?
A British consumer claims to have found a frog in bottle of (Spanish) wine she was drinking. She has sued the retailer Asda. Ribbit! [Harpers.co.uk]

SIPPED: drinks?
Pregnant women can have a drink or two a week without harming the baby according to a study published today in the Journal of Epidemiological and Community Health. The study used data drawing on 11,000 children. [Bloomberg]

SPIT: anonymous comments
Charles Smith, owner of K Vintners, has sued anonymous commenters on a Blake Gray’s blog. Get the details and analysis of the “Streisand effect” from Felix Salmon on Reuters.

SIPPED: ghost writing
Utah’s Atty General calls a beer industry lobbyist who drafted his recent testimony on HR 5034 simply “a scribe or secretary.” [WSJ]

SIPPED: one more reason to die with an empty cellar
UK Revenue agents are cracking down on valuing wine collections in estates at market value, not the cost basis. [FT]

Three hundred people a week are injured in “glassings” in British pubs. The rate is so high that doctors have recommended substituting plastic tumblers for all glasses. In two test cities where the switch has been put in place, the incident rate has declined sharply. (I guess Riedel needs to think about making a plastic pint and plastic, stemless wine cups.)

What would happen if guns were allowed in bars and restaurants? We will find out here, apparently. According to a NYT story from Sunday highlighted a change in four state laws that now allow loaded weapons to be carried into bars and restaurants. Twenty other states, including New York, have legal gray areas and thus could be up for a challenge soon from gun-rights groups.

There is a catch, however that’s possibly more important than a trigger lock: those carrying weapons cannot drink alcohol. That does give a slight twist on the ordering process: will waiters now have to ask if you’re armed before they serve you? Red or white? Packing or not? And what about winery tasting rooms? The Tennessee legislator who sponsored the bill there highlighted the need for security between car and the restaurant. So if a winery visitor wanted to pack heat before tasting some fruit bombs, would he or she have to check the gun at the door? How would this affect the tasting room experience? Should wineries ban guns?

Have your say in the comments or the latest poll!
[poll id=”17″]

Vineyards have their pests: consider the baboons, rattlesnakes and bears we have discussed before as well as birds, deer and other vermin. But the latest threat is a human one: roving bandits.

Across three countries in recent weeks, grapes have been illicitly picked off the vines. In Washington State, 2,000 pounds of mourvedre grapes were stolen in what the vineyard manager described as “a professional job – a complete and clean illegal harvest.” In Germany, grapes destined for a small production wine called Sintfang-Cuvée were found missing a day before the scheduled harvest. And in the Languedoc, according to the Telegraph, one farmer had 35 tons picked clean, wiping out his annual crop.

Are these incidents related? It seems a far-fetched that there’s an international grape heist gang in operation. But that’s what an unnamed French detective told the Telegraph that “a wine mafia gang” targeting “some of the best grapes.” He elaborated: “We are undoubtedly dealing with the kind of upmarket criminals who steal old master paintings and antiques to order.”

Really? There was the attempted vine poisoning/extortion at Domaine de la Romanée Conti earlier this year and that surely qualifies as one of the best vineyards in the world. But 35 tons of grape with a value of $20,000 as was the case in Languedoc? A German wine that is not even commercially available but rather given to the town councillors? These hardly sound like “some of the best grapes” in the world. At any rate, it is sad to see the fruit illegally plucked from the vine.

Will this outburst lead to the rise of Chateau Razorwire, a fenced vineyard with a panopticon in the center? Of course, back in the day, some of the best vineyards in Burgundy were “clos,” or walled vineyards. Chateau Razorwire would have a tad less charm.