Dr Vino's wine blog

Bonnie, the pun Queen from the excellent food blog, The Ethicurean, posted a comment requesting that we analyze the carbon footprint of her Blanquette de Limoux. She rides her bike to her local wine shop in Berkeley, CA to buy the sparkling white wine from the South of France.

We stopped our carbon analysis at the shop or restaurant and didn’t factor in how people get to the store. But there’s no beating the bike for reducing the carbon footprint, Bonnie!

Since she didn’t provide a producer name, which is fine, I’ve crunched the numbers based on a guesstimate rather than a specific case. Here’s the headline finding: Bonnie’s bottle produces just under 2600g of CO2 emissions, about the same as making and trucking a bottle of conventional wine from California to New York. More on the calculations after the jump. Read more…

Ray Isle has an cute article called “Holiday Wine Survival Guide” in the December issue of Food & Wine, which landed with a thud in my mailbox on Saturday. He offers many tips for the holidays including how much wine to have on hand (whoa, Ray, invite me over and send for the F&W stretch hummer afterward!), wine gifts, and some tips for temperature.

He also brings up the issue of renting or buying glasses for a big party. The appeal of renting is easy: it’s can be less than $1 a stem and you can often return the glasses unwashed. But then there’s the downside: generally poor glass quality, potentially high minimum charges for delivery, and, obviously, you’ve got nothing to show for your expenditure when the party’s over.

So break out the rent or buy calculators! My own calculations were just about finished when I saw that Ray recommended a decent-looking $3.95 stem from Crate and Barrel. But then I saw that it said “hand wash.” Whoa! Talk about a buzzkill cleaning several dozen glasses! I’ve had good luck with the Tritan Forte, which can be found for under $10 a stem, goes in the dishwasher, and is impact resistant (note: NOT break-proof).

What do you do for glasses at parties?

A reader sent in this photo. Where was he? Win our admiration and respect with a correct guess in the comments below.

…check out Serious Eats!

I met Ed Levine a few weeks ago and he asked me to contribute some wine postings to his site. For those of you who don’t know it, the site is a lively group blog of serious eaters. Well, as you can see from their logo, they’re not THAT serious. Somehow they manage to squeeze off something like 10-20 posts a day, which is mind-boggling to me. Long live the power of groups! And long live pairing food sites with wine ones!

So click on over and check out my posting “Value vino for turkey (and sides) day”–if you’re not too distracted watching Molto Mario’s video series “Mario unclogged!”

It’s Thanksgiving time. And you know what that means: crazy side dishes!

One of the craziest of them all is candied yams–sweet potatoes imbued with maple syrup and butter, topped with marshmallows.

What’s your suggested wine pairing for this oddball food that goes with Butterball? Comments are open!

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My posting last week on the carbon footprint of wine has generated a good discussion around them there internets. But one thing is missing: the wines YOU want to have analyzed!

So, in the comments below, have your say about wines you would like to have Pablo and me pour all over our carbon calculator. Let us know the wine name, winery location and where you will be consuming it. If possible, we would need to know the bottle weight (empty or full–the wine part always weighs the same).

Given our findings that transportation (coupled with glass bottles) makes up such a significant portion of the carbon footprint, it’s hard to say outright that one bottle is worse than another at face value. One of those ridiculously heavy bottles might not be so bad if it were made 50 miles from the winery and then consumed in the winery tasting room. But usually those are sent around the country (world) by air freight, which makes the biggest polluters.

Post here by Friday what you’d like to see us work on. We’ll pick one that seems popular or interesting and we will crunch the numbers over the weekend.

(image: istockphoto)

Dear Mr. George of Beef,

“Korea’s Airlines Enjoying Lots of Wine” read a recent headline in the English Chosun. Really, now, do you want the airlines to be enjoying wine? I’d prefer to see you lending your wine’s enjoyment to ships.

Beaujolais nouveau is airdropped on the world the third Thursday of November. I would submit to you that the carbon cost of air freight is only worthy for a short list wines, and one that was harvested just a few weeks prior is not on it.

Sorry to rain on your Beaujolais nouveau parade. I’ve never been much of a fan of the wine from a taste perspective. But at 12% alcohol, it’s an innocuous enough gateway wine. I really do enjoy the gamay grape and cru Beaujolais–that’s a great way to get your Bojo working.

For consumers who enjoy the nouveau, I suggest leaving it behind this Year of the Falling Dollar and getting to know the differences between a Fleurie and a Morgon, both from the same grape and general area but world’s apart in terms of quality. Basically anything from 2005 works; here’s a run down of some crus with my seal of approval. Many of the wines, bought a year or so ago by importers and stores, are just a few dollars more than what the 07 nouveau will be.

With my earlier bottled water ban and recent calculations of the carbon footprint of wine, I must make this year a Bojo No-vo. Stick it on a ship, use lighter packaging and we’ll see about 2008.

Sincerely,

Dr. Vino

Every Thanksgiving has a challenge for the wine geek. Usually it is those dastardly side dishes like sweet potato with marshmallow and the cranberry sauce.

In my case this year, I’m adding the attendees and a budget to increase the degree of difficulty to Olympian proportions.

We’ll be heading to a family reunion with over a couple of dozen relatives, some distant cousins that I’ve never met. In fact, although we’ll be gathering in western Massachusetts, I’m not even sure where they all live–I know California (northern and southern), Minnesota, Chicago, Washington DC, and I think even Texas! I know some people are into wine but others might not really be that into it. I volunteered to coordinate the wines and was given a budget of about $15 a bottle ($400 for two dinners, one Wednesday and one Thursday).

So, what did I do? I called Chambers Street Wines in Tribeca and spoke with one of the owners, Jamie Wolff. Here’s what we cobbled together:

Bisol 2005 Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Crede Brut, $15 (find this wine)
Bubbles are always good, but they are expensive. This is a dry prosecco that I’ve poured at my classes before and people have liked. I figure I’m safe here.

Ferrara, Benito 2006 Greco Di Tufo, $19.99 (find this wine)
Jamie’s pick. Although I’ve previously enjoyed Greco di Tufo, a grape from the south of Italy that can make surprisingly full-bodied, dry whites with no oak, I’ve never had this particular one.

Erben, J. Geil 2006 Rheinhessen Bechtheimer Roseng Riesling Kabinett $13.99 (find this wine)
I wanted something off-dry and this is what Jamie recommended. He said it is a great Riesling, the kind that wine newbies will love and people who say “I don’t like Riesling” will want a second glass–providing I don’t tell them what it is ahead of time.

Hureau 2005 Saumur-Champigny Grande Cuvée $13.99 (find this wine)
I really wanted to include either a Loire red or a cru Beaujolais in the lineup. Jamie recommended this one, which I had heard was great too. Add to cart.

Richaud, 2005 Cotes du Rhone $18 (find this wine)
I wanted two full-bodied red wines. I don’t think that they go particularly well with the foods on offer for thanksgiving but many people–particularly men of a certain age–seem to love big reds. As Chambers doesn’t stock many American wines, I opted for a Rhone and a Bordeaux. I haven’t tried this one but Jamie recommended it. It’s a current staple in Parisian bistrots.

Peybonhomme 2005 Côte de Blaye Cru Bourgeois $12.49 (find this wine)
Cote de Blaye–ever heard of it? Exactly. This is a big, tannic Bordeaux that I poured at a class recently to the delight of many. Although it’s mostly Merlot, this one would even keep the interest of any “Miles” characters in the group. It’s organic too for any Slow Food types.

Total: 4 bottles of each, $382 including tax and a 10% case discount. My tasting notes to follow in the last week of November! What are your constraints (if any) and plans (if any) for your Thanksgiving day feast?