Dr Vino's wine blog

We wine tasters are not the only ones tasting under blind conditions–consider this excerpt from the excellent August 13 New Yorker article about fraud in the Italian olive oil market. But we’re more social, since many wine tasting panels don’t isolate tasters in cubicles but actually welcome discussion among the tasters. Also, I’d gladly slurp–sorry, do a strippaggio–with wine instead of EVOO any day. To Italy, after the jump: Read more…

Jack Nicholson, wine critic? [Gawker, via TR]

Up the Nile, with a paddle?
Mark Vadon, CEO of the successful gemstone retailer, BlueNile, joins the board of wine.com. But can he help the retailer, which has undergone many revisions of their business plan over the years? [CNN]

Wine and capitalism
“The laws of capitalism are, he argued, ‘not adapted to wine because behind wine there is history and tradition,’ and because vines take years to develop, have a life span of decades and do not provide the quick returns required by the market.” Roger Torreilles, president of the wine producer Cave des Vignerons in Baixas, near Perpignan, quoted in the NYT.

Harvest heats up
In Italy, harvests have begun. Global warming anyone? On NPR, some St. Emilion growers say they don’t mind.

Drunken chicken?
Yes, this NYT recipe is drunken, but Shaoxing wine is not grape wine.

Unoaked chardonnay is all the rage. When wine drinkers started dumping oaked California chardonnay and turning to unoaked, fruit-forward whites such as pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc, they threatened to throw the baby out with the oaky bathwater. But chardonnay has lived to see another day in its new, unoaked form.

But is it new in the Old World? In Chablis and various parts of Burgundy, the chardonnay grape often sees little oak. So when Lenn, the grandpappy of Wine Blogging Wednesday, assigned us unoaked chardonnay for this 36th, anniversary edition, my thoughts turned to Chablis. But which of them is made totally without oak as opposed to simply old, neutral oak?

I’m not sure about that, but I managed to find one that is fermented in stainless steel: Drouhin Chablis 2006, about $17 (find this wine). The resulting wine is lean and light, with good acidity, notes of lemon, lanolin and minerality with a retrograde 12.5% alcohol. It’s a very pleasant for summer wine.

Head on over to Lenndevours.com for a roundup of unoaked chardonnays from other participants in this edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday.

A friend called me from supermarket the other day. No, it wasn’t a “Help, which wine!”-style emergency.

Instead, he said that the shelf talker gave the number of a global wine company to text to resolve your own wine-food pairing emergency. Just for the sport of it, I sent an SMS to the number with our own “impossible food wine pairing” of chips and salsa! And what did the computer reply suggest?

Two of their own-brand sauvignons blancs, one from NZ and one from California. A third suggestion was a zinfandel.

So how did this stack up to our collective genius? The most popular choice was to go for a slightly sweet; bubbles were also a popular option. Four people suggested SB; one person suggested zin and as one choice among six wines he liked.

So I shot them another SMS about falafel sandwiches. The reply: two California chardonnays or a California merlot. Only one suggestion in our discussion of this pairing yielded a chardonnay (unoaked, unlike the ones suggested) and no merlots came up. Ha–California merlot under $20! One last, related query: hummus. Result: two under $10 Australian pinots noirs. Ack!

Net-net: while a neat idea with virtually instantaneous delivery, this service appears more intent on making suggestions from the existing portfolio of their wines rather than ones that consumers might otherwise suggest. We’d better keep churning out our own suggestions! (for your in-store browsing on your iPhone.)

“This is good, this year is bad. If we bottle it, we consider the product good.”

Which vintage-hating vintner said this?

A. Fred Franzia, owner of Two Buck Chuck
B. Jess Jackson, Kendall-Jackson
C. Baron Elie de Rothschild, Lafite Rothschild
D. Corinne Mentzelopoulos, Chateau Margaux

We went to Saratoga on Saturday and a horse in race 8 grabbed my attention: Winemaster! Yes, horse number five was an MW! Well, his name was Winemaster at least. Doing the classic newbie tactic of betting on horse name, I took Winemaster “across” in for a win-place-show! And with 8-1 odds, think how juicy the payout would be. So how did he do?

He was somewhere in the second half of the pack. Oh, and my “name” strategy didn’t work well in race 7 either with my exacta box on Dr. Pleasure and Dr. Googles Boogles. Next time, quantitative analysis only!

What would you name your race horse to have it called out when crossing the line in first place?

And, btw, if you do venture to Saratoga, head off Broadway for dinner–we had a very good meal at Beekman Street Bistro, which has an interesting, succinct wine list to boot.

62 Beekman Street, 518-581-1816

Reader mail: Which has more calories, red or white wine?
-Jill via yahoo mail

Well although I am a doctor, I’m not that kind of doctor. But I know where to turn. So I sat down with Geoff Kalish, MD who used to write a column about wine and health for the Wine Spectator.

Dr. Vino: So which is more caloric, red or white?

Dr. Kalish: Neither. The color of the wine makes no difference on the calories.

Dr. V: Aha! A red herring. So what does make one glass of wine more caloric than another?

Dr. K: Primarily, the alcohol level. A four ounce glass of wine at 12 percent alcohol has about 120 calories; the same size with a wine 14 percent alcohol has about 140-160 calories; a 16 percent alcohol wine, about 160-190 calories.

Dr. V: Holy Turley, Batman! What about residual sugar in a wine? Does that make a difference in the calories?

Dr. K: Not as much as alcohol.

Dr. V: What about moscato d’Asti at 5.5% alcohol and lots of sugar?

Dr. K: Sugar provides many less calories per gram than does alcohol (4 compared to 7). Moscato is a lower calorie wine. That, prosecco, brut zero Champagne are all low calorie wine choices. It’s zinfandel, amarone, some California chardonnays, for example, that have higher calories because of the alcohol level.

Dr. V: So should people watching their weight cut wine out as an easy way to reduce calories?

Dr. K: No. Research has shown a small amount of wine in a weight loss plan can actually act as an appetite suppressant, in part because of the alcohol level as well as the pectin content. However, young, tannic reds appear not to have this effect, so aim for a wine that is 11 – 12% alcohol and not overly tannic.

Dr. V: Interesting. I thought red wine was overall the “healthier” drink because of those tannins.

Dr. K: Tannins may have other health benefits but this is just in terms of acting as an appetite suppressant.

Dr. V: All right, thanks. And bottoms up with a dry chenin blanc!

I have been meaning to write up a few Paris odds ‘n ends from our recent family trip. They’re a few wine related, and a few that aren’t. 😉

Great carafe: Le Comptoir du Relais. We enjoyed a great lunch (excellent salads all around) at Yves Camdeborde’s hot spot right by the Odeon. The wine highlight was a one liter carafe of “KO” Puzelat cabernet franc for 15 euros! (find this wine) Amazing. It’s pretty much gone from NYC where the wine was available for $23 a bottle in a store, making that carafe all the tastier. If only US restaurants could have this quality of wine this cheap. Sigh. (6th arr; 33 1 44 27 07 97)

Great lunch: Chez Michel. Thierry Breton cooks the food of his home region, Brittany, in this homey place in the shadow of a church near the Gare du Nord. We had excellent white asparagus, mouthwatering clams and mussels cooked in a rich, herbed broth, and the largest–and very tasty–rice pudding I’ve ever seen. Solid wine list. Prix fixe: 30 euros. (10, Rue Belzunce, Paris 10e – +33 1 44 53 06 20)

Great wine shop: Caves Augé Manager Marc Sibard stocks some great bottles in this cramped shop (now actually owned by the same owners as Lavinia). The emphasis is on natural wines and it is a treasure trove for wine geeks. Be sure to ask for things if you don’t see them since there is also a large storage area in the basement. Great spirits selection, particularly Armagnac. Read more from my visit last year. And be sure to check out their blowout tastings with producers in the spring and fall. 116, Boulevard Hausmann, Paris 75008

Another great wine shop: La Derniere Goutte. American owner Juan Sanchez presides over a small but well-chosen selection of wines from the growers themselves, including Champagnes. He has weekly tastings with visiting producers on Saturday afternoons. And being a good American, he opens the shop on Sundays. English spoken by everyone in the store. 6, rue de Bourbon le Chateau, 75006 Paris

Best falafel sandwich: l’As du falafel (rue des Rosiers, Le Marais). Great street food, which made me want to sit down and pair it with wine. 4 E 50. I tried come of the competition on the street and the lines in front of l’As are there for a reason.

Best ice cream: Berthillon. Though the now ubiquitous “Amorio” chain does a nice job, their floral presentation of the gelato seems to have slipped since last year as the number of outlets have increased. We tried a chocolate and a mint from Amorio and Berthillon on the Ile Saint Louis and Berthillon won each category. Deep dark chocolate! Fresh mint! A no-brainer. Although the original Berthillon store is closed most of the summer (!), the ice creams are sold throughout the city through various resellers.

Best mille feuille pastry in Paris: Pierre Hermé. Mrs. Vino and I were lamenting the downgrading of the mille feuille pastry as it no longer appeared to have quite the “thousand” layers of its billing. Thanks to a tip from our friend Mike, who is a Pierre Hermé junkie, we discovered their deux mille feuille–inflation! Swallow your pride about not wanting to look like a touron (tourist-moron) and ask for a fork. See if you can make it past the square in front of the church St. Sulpice before you tuck into this absolutely delicious treat. 72, rue Bonaparte 75006

More of my wine odds ‘n ends from Paris and France.
Some of these places may be closed in August.