Dr Vino's wine blog

A couple of months ago, when it was wintry outside, I read a Bloomberg story by John Mariani about the “lovable mongrel” Chateauneuf-du-Pape. I probably had a fire going and old vine grenache, mongrel version, sounded like the perfect thing. Mariani detailed some wonderful sounding wines from Sabon and even one of my perennial faves, the Vieux Telegraphe. But he concluded with this homage for a Chapoutier:

Finally, my favorite of the evening was M. Chapoutier’s 2000 Le Bernardine ($38), made from an estate planted exclusively with grenache. It has a blossoming bouquet that’s almost as wonderful as the complex flavors of the wine. There’s the spice that a good southern Rhone wine should have and enough tannin to ensure a very long life, with each year revealing more and more flavor, layer by layer.

Yummy! I had to order some. So I fired up wine-searcher, and found a retailer who had the wine for a fraction of the price that Mariani quoted. I called the store and asked where the wine had been since release from Chapoutier, presumably going on four years now. The clerk said that it had just been released from the distributor and was properly stored. I bought two bottles.

I poked around on the retailer’s site and found they had the 01 Vieux Telegraphe (find this wine). Mariani described the previous vintage VT as “not ready to drink…The use of large, old oak barrels assures the wine’s big tannins and longevity, and it should be a bold beauty when it matures. It’s well worth cellaring a case.” So I figured why not take a flier on the 01, also a good vintage.

Fast forward a few weeks. We had some friends over and they were thirsty friends Read more…

“Housecleaner, boyfriend arrested after brazen wine heist”
My hopes for a Catherine Zeta-Jones movie called “Inside Job” crashed and burned after this news story about the recent heist in Atherton, CA. Catsuits and wine will remain the sole domain of Aureole in Vegas.

Parody becomes prophecy
On April Fools Day I posted a spoof about a new wine bar that serves wines based on point scores including a flight in two ounce glasses. Shockingly, a commenter pointed out that one such points-based wine bar already exist in California! Now there’s news that Sauvignon Republic, a brand that sources sauvignon blanc from three continents, is offering on-premises establishments two-ounce shooters for their flights. Eegad! Next year I’ll have to be much more outrageous.

Distiller-in-chief
While Thomas Jefferson had a love for fruits of the vine, it turns out that his predecessor and Father Of Our Nation, preferred the grains of the plains, specifically, rye. Lost among the stories of chopping down a cherry tree and wooden teeth is the fact that George Washington was also the biggest distiller of his day. Now $21 million reconstruction (paid for funded in large part by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States and the Wine and Spirit Wholesalers of America) at his home in Mount Vernon offers visitors the chance to see steps in the distillation process–and even buy a bottle of the “ardent spirit” at the gift shop. [Courier-Journal]

Wrap it up
Wine corked? Try cling wrap. Crinkle and put in carafe. Pour wine in. Shake. Voila! No cork taint. But mmm, love that cling wrap flava! [LA Times]

A couple of years ago I started a project that I called the Real Wine World. No, it didn’t involve locking three wine industry participants in a house and filming them 24 hours a day. Its goal was simply to follow a wine producer, a wine importer, and a wine retailer for a year to get a better look at how the wine biz works.

The participants were Susana Balbo in Argentina, Italian wine importer Gregory Smolik in Chicago, and the small shop Big Nose Full Body in Brooklyn’s Park Slope.

The reason I bring this up now is twofold. First, I have just transfered all the pieces over to this new site, posted to their original dates. You can find the lead-off piece here. And thanks to the new categories function, you can find all the pieces under The Real Wine World. The pieces now have space for your comments!

Second, I thought I should bring closure to the project. Everyone got busy and the project didn’t make it the whole year. Susana Balbo had further demands on her time as she became president of the Wines of Argentina trade association. Gregory Smolik’s career as an independent importer of boutique wines from Italy came to an end but he now brings his passion and knowledge to his new job at the importer Domaine Select. Big Nose Full Body is still lubricating the palates of Park Slopers with free tastings on Saturday afternoons and 15% case discounts every day.

Who knows, maybe we’ll try for a second season of the Real Wine World sometime?!

Will Cooked be Wined?
Will Smith may play the role of Chef Jeff Henderson of the Cafe Bellagio. Reprising his rags-to-riches, overcoming-adversity success in Happyness, Smith may play the lead role in a film adapted from Henderson’s autobiography, “Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to Foie Gras.” Just think if he throws in a scene extolling the virtues of wine–it could be a boom bigger than Sideways with his starpower! [via Slashfood]

Jay-Z holds an Ace
Jay-Z makes Page Six today. Not news for us. But what is news is that the gossip hounds say the Cherry Coke and Budweiser pitchman is getting throw some more bubbly in the mix by formalizing an ownership stake in Armand de Brignac, aka Ace of Spades. The champagne brand was cooked up last summer. Page Six reports that 100 cases of the bubbly has gone missing from a Florida warehouse. But for those willing to pay, it is now available from select retailers for $300 and up (find ace of spades). [NY Post]

Wine that loves…food
A new line of “wine that loves” certain types of food is to be launched in coming months. Cute label images tell drinkers which food to drink it with starting with three popular meals–roasted chicken, pasta, and pizza. No word on whether the back label reveals trivial details such as the grape variety, region, or vintage. And what if I like pinot noir with my salmon but their “salmon” wine is a chardonnay? Or if I like the pizza wine with my pasta? Eegad. Insurrection! [BusinessWeek]

Bluffing wine
A waiter from Chanterelle in Tribeca tells NY mag how one of his diners didn’t drink wine but wanted to look as if he were drinking wine in front of the rest of the party. So the waiter substituted ginger ale for champagne and pretended to spill water in the red wine glass returning with organic grape juice in the wine glass. Very odd. Didn’t anyone at the table wonder why he was pounding the “wine”? [Grub Street]

Related:
“Jay-Z puts an Ace in play” [Dr. V]
“Reader mailbag: finding Ace of Spades champagne” [Dr. V]

At a press event last week in New York City, the Fladgate Partnership announced a first for Portugal: organic port.

David Fonseca Guimaraens told the assembled group that the vineyard had been farmed organically since 1992. Since port is made by fortifying fermenting wine with the addition of a distilled spirit (brandy), the breakthrough for this new port was finding an organic distilled spirit. This paves the way for organic labeling in Europe as certified by Socert.

Guimaraens said that the port would not be labeled as organic in the United States but instead “made with organically grown grapes.” Even though sulfites naturally occur in wine, adding sulfites, as Fonseca does, prevents the producer from calling it “organic” in America.

The port, with a ruby hue, has aromas of dark cherries and blackberries with a hint of the 20 percent alcohol. The mouth feel is pleasantly balanced between sweet and acid as well as being luscious–thanks to the advances in automated crushing, no doubt, since it is piston fermented–and the finish long and sweet. It’s the equivalent of a premium ruby port, Guimaraens said.

But does it taste any different? Or is it any better for you? Guimaraens said that the organic distillate that was added had more fruity notes than the non-organic one but that may also have to do with a different source the of raw materials. As far as the health effects, Guimaraens said that the residues of any fertilizer or pesticide are non-existent. But it makes a difference for labor, since he said that organic viticulture has a “much greater benefit to vineyard workers.”

Available on the US market in June, the Terra Bella port will retail for $22. I’ll be looking to pick some up. (search for retailers)

Are Gen Y wine shops all they’re cracked up to be? Since I’m Gen X (and a wine geek) I had to find a Gen Y person, relatively new to wine to tell me. I posted about this mission and from the replies, I selected Grace Nguyen (whom I have never met) to take the challenge and report back to us.

Our agent: Grace Nguyen, 27….Studied Environmental Economics and Policy at Berkeley….Then became a line cook and pastry cook for five years…Now studying for a Master’s in NYU’s Food Studies program…She wants to learn more about wine…And now, over to Grace, with notes from the field.

They’re calling them Gen Y wine shops because they have one thing in common; they cater to the neophytes of wine drinkers. Customers will no longer have to suffer wine-shop inferiority. A smaller wine selection, wine descriptors by flavor, and printable tasting notes, are some of the recent trends. These shops have taken a new angle and have figured out the reasons why the average person drinks wine: for taste and for dinner.

So let’s see what these shops have to offer. My wine price range: $10-$15. My dinner: chicken with mustard. The recommendation: a 2005 Verdicchio and a 1990 Vouvray from Moore Brothers Wine Company (map it). And a 2004 Corbieres from Bottlerocket Wine and Spirits. Although both shops were eager to help me find that perfect wine to complement my dinner, they offered conflicting recommendations.

“You’ll want something earthy with a little acidity. You don’t want too much fruit, especially with mustard.” The clerk at Moore Brothers suggested the Vouvray Aigle Blanc 1990 at $25, and although apologetic for suggesting a more expensive bottle, he couldn’t stop praising it (find this wine). “It’s earthy, with hints of mushrooms, slight fruit, and just enough acidity. It’ll go very nicely with chicken and mustard.” It sounded sincere enough.
Read more…

This just in from Bordeaux: a political institution is found to be full of politics!

In a surprising turn of events, a local court has suspended the St. Emilion grand cru classification, dating from 1954. Four producers who were bounced from the list of 61 producers at last year’s update have brought suit and the court has ruled in their favor. The supposedly independent committee chosen to reclassify the list every ten years was found not to be impartial. Nor did they do much legwork, visiting only seven of the 95 properties they were reviewing.

An interesting aspect is that the four spurned producers who brought the suit are not considered the top in the region anyway. In fact, Nicolas Thienpont, whose Château Pavie-Macquin was promoted to first growth, told WineEnthusiast.com that the four disqualified properties “produce rubbish.” Many of the Parker favorites from the region, such as Valandraud and Quinault, were not included in the reclassification last year. But when I asked Jean-Luc Thunevin of Valandraud about it last fall, he was disappointed but in the end shrugged it off. His wine sells at $250 a bottle after all. The wines of some of the four DQ’d producers sell for much less, if they could even find an importer interested in marketing their wines.

And what the heck, the garagistes don’t get mad, they get even. Thunevin, Raynaud of Quinault, and others decided to make their own group anyway, the Cercle Rive Droite. More to follow on this development. And hopefully we will learn more about the inner workings of the Grand Cru system as the court continues these proceedings.

Additional coverage: Telegraph.co.uk, Decanter

A politician from Ontario is taking a bold stand: he wants wine to have the honor of being sold at 7-eleven.

Kim Craitor, a Liberal member of the Ontario provincial parliament who represents Niagara Falls, introduced a private member’s bill to free wine sales from the iron grip of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO).

Blending wine and provincial patriotism, Craitor doesn’t want just any wine sold in the 3,000 convenience stores in the province, only wine from Ontario. The CBC reports:

“The proposed legislation applies only to wine containing 100 per cent Ontario grapes, which means “it’s not blended, it’s not mixed with foreign grapes,” he says.”

The legislation has little chance of becoming law since it does not have the support of the provincial government. Maybe Craitor could persuade them to vote for it with the promise of more than just wines from Ontario.

CBC, Fort Frances Times