Dr Vino's wine blog

Things are heating up in the Mosel–and it’s not just global warming. Mike Steinberger posted on Slate about planned demonstrations last Friday to protest a “four-lane, mile-long highway bridge across the Mosel river, a project that threatens a handful of Germany’s most celebrated vineyards.” Manfred Prüm, Willi Schaefer, Markus Molitor, and Erni Loosen were to be in attendance, as will wine writers Hugh Johnson and Stuart Pigott. Check out his excellent overview piece.

Decanter has a wrap on the event in which a Green party member decries the bridge as simply stimulus money. Johnson is quoted saying, “Bridges have been built from nowhere to nowhere, but don’t let that happen. Don’t think that this can’t be stopped.” And to top it off, the bridge as depicted in the above rendering is an anodyne collection of matchsticks, not even a soaring Calatrava creation!

The bridge would shorten the commute from Belgium and Holland to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport. Opponents of the bridge say it would shave only 30 minutes of the journey. The state of Rheinland-Pfalz seeks to turn the airport into a cargo hub. But it already is a hub for Ryanair, the low-cost carrier that even charges for printing boarding passes, collecting lost and found, and threatens charging for on-board toilets!

If this burns you up, Stuart Pigott, for his part, previously was reported to have supported the burning of a puppet representing the state prime minister of the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, Kurt Beck, in effigy. (Where does one get a good effigy these days?) But if you want to try another, less-combustible approach, you could try writing to the Chancellor. We received a somewhat cheesy sample letter here today, which is reproduced after the jump. Read more…

Have you ever had a 92 point wine and thought it was most excellent–just because you knew it got a 92? If so, then you are not alone since that was the finding from a recent study by Michael Siegrist and Marie-Eve Cousin from ETH Zurich published in the journal Appetite. They gave 163 volunteers a taste of 2006 Clos de los Siete, a $15ish wine from Michel Rolland’s Argentina property and rated 92 points from the Wine Advocate. They told some of the participants the score beforehand, others not, and a told a third set that the wine got 72 points. Science Daily reports on the findings:

The analysis of the test results revealed that the test people who had been given the ratings with 92 or 72 points before the tasting rated the wine differently to those who weren’t given the Parker rating until afterwards. In the first two groups, the test people who had been given negative information rated the wine considerably worse than those who proceeded on the assumption that the wine was good. Those who knew beforehand that the wine had been given 92 Parker Points also found the wine better than those who only discovered the rating after they had tried the wine.

The information not only influences the sense of taste, but also how deep we are prepared to dig into our wallets: again, the test people with negative advance information were prepared to pay the least.

The researchers feel their initial hypothesis has been confirmed and conclude that the opinions of wine critics do have an impact on a wine drinker’s sense of taste. Surprisingly, the subjects did not change their opinion if they received the information after tasting. “People therefore were not simply trying to show themselves in a good light; the information really did alter their sense of taste”, says Siegrist.

The results are not surprising, really. But it’s too bad the the synopsis doesn’t elaborate on what the group with no prior information thought about the wines.

I do wonder if the study is somewhat backward looking as consumers are getting more independent. Consider the Sierra Carche incident; if Robert Kenney would have just accepted that it was a 96, he would have drunk it and moved on. Instead he went to the trouble of overnighting a bottle of it to the critic in question. While a third party endorsement can certainly sway a wine consumer to a one-time purchase, increased consumer savvy has arguably led to greater independence, leaving wine evaluation as something contested and not accepting scores as given.

Siegrist et al. Expectations influence sensory experience in a wine tasting. Appetite, 2009; 52 (3): 762 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2009.02.002

Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher used their Friday WSJ column to blast a hole in the side of the barrel that is American Chardonnay, calling it, “simple, sweet, alcoholic and false.” Moreover, much of the pricey stuff isn’t getting discounted, as many other expensive wines are. They write:

So, did we find great bargains? No. We did not find cutthroat competition on price among higher-end American Chardonnay. It’s as if most wine stores these days are like developers who built homes on spec and now refuse to lower prices even in the face of weak demand. More important, most of the wines themselves weren’t good values at any price. They were too often disappointing, with too much oak, too little fruit and little care. Too many tasted like stagnant water, like pickling spices, or like vanilla flavorings added to water. They were not pleasant to drink on their own and would not pair well with any food…

We wondered, honestly, who they think their market is and we finally realized that many high-end American Chardonnays have become the Cadillac of the wine world. Their core audience is older, moneyed and comfortable with the names they’ve come to know. As a result, too many Chardonnay producers have decided that, as long as the bottle is just as heavy and the label is just as nice, they can take advantage of those customers by shirking on quality. But even General Motors decided, in the long run, that Cadillac needed more attention—not to mention younger buyers. We don’t believe that the current business model for most producers of higher-end American Chardonnay will work in the long run. We hope not.

Yeeow! Check out the whole article for more, including the ones they actually liked. “U.S. Chardonnay Has No Bargain Bin“

Drinking wines with age on them can be rewarding. We’ve had the chance to pop some mature wines recently; here are four with two under $30!

Luneau Papin, L D’or, Muscadet, 1999 About $20
Muscadet is not the first thing you might think of when it comes to mature wine. But from the top producers, it can be worthwhile. I bought this wine from Crush Wine Co in NYC a couple of years ago as a late release from the winery. In the glass, it has a more golden color than most young Muscadet and aromas of delicate honey drops on wet rocks. Totally dry on the palate, the wine still has great acidity and minerality as well as a suppleness of age. We had it as an aperitif with cheeses but would also go well with seafood.

Lopez de Heredia, Rioja, rosado, 1997 About $25
Again, a rose is another category that might not leap to mind when thinking of mature wines. But with this twelve-year-old Lopez de Heredia, it’s practically the current release! If you’re looking for the freshness of a 2008 rose from Provence, well, stick to Provence. This rosado has a pink and amber hue, gorgeous mature, nutty aromas with dried rose petals and a luxurious texture on the palate. The bottle was empty too quickly!

Marques de Murrieta, Castillo Ygay, Gran Reserva Especial, Rioja, 1985
I bought this wine several years ago at Sam’s Wine in Chicago. Sadly, 24 years after the harvest didn’t work for this one and it was over the hill. As the saying goes, there aren’t great wines, just great bottles.

Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou, St. Julien, 1996
Now you might think 13 years on a top is just warming up. And for this wine you’d be right. A friend pulled this out of his cellar recently; he’d received it as part of a farewell, current release case when he left a company in Paris a few years ago. Provenance is particularly important for this wine, apparently, as some consumers have expressed frustration with bottle variation. However, our bottle was on. Still tightly wound in tannins, this big dog is a dark berry, spice, coffee flavoplosion! (Well, at least compared to these others.) Structured and drinking great now, but the tannic vigor on the finish will likely bode well for many years of future enjoyment.

Find these wines with wine-searcher

The Preservation Society of Newport County holds its fourth annual Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival September 25-27. The two-and-a-half day affair, presented by Food & Wine Magazine, includes a wine auction on Friday night and gala honoring Jacques Pepin, a wine tasting on both Saturday and Sunday featuring over 150 wines, chef cooking demos and more.

On Sunday, you can experience the olde tyme bling of the mansions, the fall colors and wines with me as I will be the featured wine speaker!

The organizers have are offering $10 off any ticket purchase by entering the code DRVINO, valid through 9/14. That means that a ticket to just the Sunday grand tasting is $65 or 43 cents if you taste each wine–less than the price of a stamp! Other packages are available too for the whole weekend. Be sure to say hi on 9/27 if you are there!

Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival
September 25 – 27
The Breakers and Marble House
Newport, Rhode Island

SPIT: Bling champagne
An unnamed source cites declines of 50-85% in champagne sales with pricey stuff hit hardest. The story by Alice Feiring in this weekend’s WSJ. magazine also suggest price wars may be imminent. (Lack of) Money quote comes from Roberta Morrell, a NYC retailer: “The trouble with dropping prices is how will they raise them?”

SPIT: reporting on Champagne
An article on JancisRobinson.com criticizes recent coverage of Champagne’s 2009 harvest. Main quibble: “After the harvest there will not be masses of grapes left to rot on the vine.”

SIPPED: changes in Chicago
Sam’s Wine & Spirits closed their South Loop location last month and now will close their Highland Park store. Meanwhile, Illinois now has an increased tax on wine, rising $0.13 per bottle to $0.28. As a result, distributor Rocky Wirtz has sued the state. Five other states recently raised taxes on wine.

SIPPED: Binge shopping
Annual wine sales at big box stores in France bring out “legions” of consumers. Carrefour sold six million bottles during its sale last year. [AP]

Remember the saga of Sierra Carche? Here’s a reminder from our earlier coverage: “What happens when a reviewer tastes a good bottle, but some consumers buy what appears to be a completely different product? Think it couldn’t happen? Guess again and behold the saga of Sierra Carche 2005.”

Well, last week I met that consumer, Robert Kenney (right), whose dogged pursuit of Jay Miller popped the cork on this saga. Kenney purchased 48 bottles of Sierra Carche and has opened 18 of them, “hoping for a good one” but instead has found Jay Miller’s term “undrinkable” a more apt descriptor. I joined Kenney and a dozen other tasters for a blind tasting organized by Daniel Posner, a partner in the wine store, Grapes The Wine Co. in White Plains, NY.

Posner greeted the tasters in his apron as he pulled burgers off the grill outside the store. But his real work had happened well before the tasting even started, coordinating the lineup. He managed to find four bottles of Sierra Carche from two different lots of the wine (astute readers may recall mention of a third lot, #7033, but bottles from that small lot/bottling proved elusive). Posner selected similar wines, including wines rated 93 – 99 by Jay Miller at the Wine Advocate ranging in price from $6 to $150.

It was the worst tasting I have ever attended. Although the burgers and company were good, the wines were abysmal. I’ll spare you the play-by-play (if you want it, see Dale Williams’ funny account–I was sitting next to Dale). Suffice it to say, among the wines, there was one note that kept recurring: “Nasty, VA meets green pepper with a dash of jalepeno overlaying a bed of silage.” Other terms bandied about included burnt rubber, bacterial issues, fermenting/rotting hay, roadkill, and roadkill with burning rubber that ends up in a hog “lagoon.” Read more…

There have been a couple of videos about the wine business circulating recently. They both have used a site called xtranormal, which allows users to select a scene, type text, chose camera angles and music to make a short video.

If you have been dying to make your own wine “movie,” now is your chance! Whip up a short video (about a minute) and paste the link in the comments here by next Monday. Then we can vote from short list of finalists next week. Check out the above video for instructions!

Besides the heapings of glory, the top vote getter will win a copy of my book, A Year of Wine! So just when you thought you might get some work done after Labor Day, surf on over and get started at xtranormal.com. (Btw, I found that the editing only worked in the Safari browser.)