Dr Vino's wine blog

Want free wine? It can be yours for the next few days courtesy of…HBO. Roll the tape [source: AdAge]:

HBO will offer complimentary bottles of “Rome” cabernet sauvignon at more than 100 eateries in the three cities to promote the second-season launch of its sex-blood-and-togas series, debuting Jan. 14. But rather than have restaurant servers introduce the product by saying “And our house wine tonight is brought to you by HBO,” consumers will be presented with a polite card at their tables: “A taste of ‘Rome’ awaits you. Ask server for details.”

Mmm, cabernet, swords and sandals. Sounds authentic? Hardly. But at least the promoters recognize as much.

Though intended to give diners an authentic taste of the show’s premise, the “Rome” wine was not shipped in from Italy; it was produced in California. HBO’s senior VP-consumer marketing, Courteney Monroe, was unable to secure an Italian wine vendor, but she doesn’t believe the promotion fails logistically. The detail is as subtle as the promotion was intended to be.

Somehow, I bet the special effects are better than the wine…(hat tip: UTB)

tags: wine | marketing

Drinking up
By 2010, the British market for wine consumption will be Europe’s most valuable, topping France and Italy according to a new study released by Vinexpo. [Vinexpo]

Building up
Could a wine brand be in the top 100 brands in the world? Could it be better known than Starbucks?!? Apparently so according to BusinessWeek’s Top 100 brands of 2006. What is it? Check number 87 (and brand 83 for a cognac from the same company). [BW]

Breaking up
Jacques & Francois Lurton, Bordeaux brothers who make wine in places as diverse as the Entre-deux-Mers, Chile, and Argentina, are heading their separate ways. Jacques will stay in Bordeaux to play a more active role in his father’s properties (Chateau La Louviere among several others) while Francois will still trot the globe for JFL. [Vitisphere]

Heating up
Global warming threatens ice wine. Canada, Germany mourn. [Decanter]

Linking up
Alan Richman, the punchy food writer who recently caught some heat for slamming cajun cuisine and calling Creoles “faerie folk,” now links to this blog from his new blog at GQ. I’ll be sure to stay on his good side. Check out his hard hitting prose.

Foie gras, eating up
“Our mission is to protect human health and not the health of geese and ducks.” -Tim Hadac, Chicago Health Department spokesman on enforcement of the city’s foie gras ban, which has been widely flouted. [AP]

tags: wine | wine news

Join the couple of dozen fellow vino-philes who have already replied they will be there! Drop by Varietal between 6 and 8ish on Thursday evening to have a happy hour or two. See you there! More details here.

138 W. 25th St., New York, NY 10001
nr. Seventh Ave.
212-633-1800

tags: wine | offline

Moe Mamtazi emigrated to America from Iran in 1971. He’s made his career since then mostly outside the wine industry. But in 1997, Moe and his wife Flora bought 532 acres of hilly, disused farmland not far from where they live in McMinnville, Oregon. Since then, they have planted 113 acres of mostly pinot noir. They sell some fruit to other wineries as well as making their own wine under the label Maysara.

Moe was disenchanted with much of the produce he found in America when he arrived since he said looked good but lacked flavor. Later he learned about chemicals in American farming and wasn’t thrilled about that either.

One year Lalou Bize Leroy, something akin to the High Priestess of Biodynamics, came to the annual International Pinot Noir Celebration in Oregon. Moe told me that he tasted her Burgundies and thought they were great. He was intrigued why. He listened to her talk about her methods of biodynamic viticulture. Already an advocate of organic farming, pushed him over the edge to biodynamics. (read more on Moe’s transition in his words here.) Biodynamics prohibits chemicals and synthetics and blends in a dose of faith.

In the photo above, Moe holds a cow’s horn, one of several treatments that biodynamics requires. Moe was certified biodynamic in 2005.

Moe has build this multitiered system for “dynamizing” various applications. The liquid, in this case a nettle “tea” (that didn’t taste half bad!), is pumped into the top bowl where it rotates clockwise, then flows into the second bowl where it rotates counterclockwise, and continues down the multiple tiers to the final steeping tank at the bottom. Each bowl is made from the mold of the belly of a very pregnant woman.

The wines are quite good expressions of pinot noir. I’ll add some tasting notes and more about biodynamics in a posting next week where I round up some of Oregon’s biodynamic producers…Stay tuned.

Maysara winery

tags: wine | biodynamics

The French know how to protest. In a tradition that some ascribe to the 1789 revolution, demonstrators often march to express their interests. Beyond protests including baggage handlers and the police, recent years have even seen the unemployed and prostitutes take to the streets–to protest.

Wine protests have also been happened at various moments over the past century in France. Sadly, in the past few years they have been violent.

So it’s good to see these French protesters have a sense of humor [via BBC]:

French marchers say ‘non’ to 2007

Hundreds of protesters in France have rung in the New Year by holding a light-hearted march against it….

The tension mounted as the minutes ticked away towards midnight – but the arrival of 2007 did nothing to dampen their enthusiasm.

The protesters began to chant: “No to 2008!”

tags: wine | France | french protests

“I drank a bottle of 1961 Chateau Petrus on my 36th birthday recently, and it was better than sex,” Wais Jalali of WDJ Capital Holdings was quoted in Bloomberg as saying. Jalali has a 30,000 bottle collection.

Elin McCoy’s thorough story reports on the rampant $167 million wine auction market in the US. It makes for fascinating reading for shock and awe: shock for all the great wines in single collections and awe at the prices paid for them.

The story points out that “blue chip” wines–Mouton, Petrus, Yquem, for example–fare the best as investment vehicles.

“It’s been a real insane year; a new level of pricing is being established,” Acker Merrall auction director John Kapon, 34, said in November. (Acker Merrall was the year’s world auction leader at $60.3 million.) “The question is how fast and how much prices will rise. The top 20 wines seem to be bulletproof.”

That’s sad news for wine drinkers since many of the top wines have been priced out of the realm of drinkability for most wine enthusiasts. Good for Wais Jalali who pulls some corks and enjoys the wines. But it’s going to take him a long time to get through those 30,000 bottles…

See the excellent story for a lot of practical information about the current auction market. [Bloomberg]

Upcoming auctions:
Chicago: Hart Davis Hart, Feb. 3.
New York: Acker Merrall & Condit, Jan. 27, Feb. 24, March 24.
Christie’s, March 24 (also in Los Angeles).
Morrell & Co., Feb. 10.
Sotheby’s, Feb. 10.
Zachys, Jan. 19-20, March 2-3.
San Francisco: Bonhams & Butterfields, Jan. 27, March 31 (also in Los Angeles).
via Bloomberg

Related: A century and a half of Yquem sold for $1.5 million in London. Includes nine empty bottles for vintages when the wine was not produced. [Decanter]

tags: wine | wine auctions

Over the holidays, Mrs. Vino and I dipped into the Vino cave to pull out some older bottles of Turley Zinfandel. With great anticipation, I uncorked the 1997 Duarte Vineyard (it had a damaged label–had to put it out of its misery; find this wine).

In the glass, the wine was an odd brick red in color rather than the vibrant purply inky hue of young zin. The aroma was old and tired. Prunes, raisins and a whiff of nasty. I tasted some. Big mistake. It put me in misery with port-like tastes. But that’s actually an insult to port to have any association with the wine that was so obviously past its prime.

So I spit and drank some water and returned to the cave. Hmm, double down on Turley? Why not. I rummaged around to find something younger. I extracted a 2000 Old Vines (find this wine).

Returning to the kitchen, I uncorked it. Surprisingly thin in color, again. I was disappointed to get some of the old, dried fruit stew aromas again. But there was a whiff of cracked black pepper too. I had hope and sipped. It had some structure–prunes, a crack of pepper, then it teetered on the edge and took a swan dive into nasty land. Pl-ugh! I made Mrs. Vino take a sip for good measure. She hated me the rest of the evening. ;-(

We were in the mood for a big wine and ultimately turned to the Gran Araucano 2002 from Chile, which was very good and quickly emptied (it took a glass just to get the Turley taste out of my mouth; find this wine).

I should add that I purchased both of the Turleys from the producer when I was on their mailing list. The previous week we had opened a 1998 syrah, also purchased from the producer and stored right next to the Turleys. It tasted wonderful and seemed to still have quite a few years ahead of it.

Robert Parker frequently states that zinfandel produces a wine best enjoyed in its youth. But should he be more direct and advise drinkers NOT to age zinfandel? Should a wine of Turley’s quality (and price) not be age-worthy?

Since zinfandel is perhaps the most emblematic of the current wave of “hedonistic fruit bomb” wines–inky, extracted, approachable soon after release and high alcohol–it is reasonable to call into question the age-worthiness of the whole style. Even though the trend is not really that old, do you have experiences that would make you question whether these types of wines can be aged? Any old monster shiraz out there?

tags: wine | Turley | aging wine

It’s officially winter (although not a flake has fallen). There’s no better way to ward off midwinter blues than socializing. So open your calendars–we’re having an offline! January 11, starting at 6 PM.

We will go and check out Varietal, possibly NYC’s hottest new wine destination. With over 75 wines by the glass, there will be plenty to choose from.

One highlight is the “master sommelier” flight of tasting sized pours. This trio of wines is served blind–you correctly guess what the wines are and the flight is on the house! I’m up for the challenge, though fear it will turn into a round of “stump the chump.”

Greggory Hockenberry, friend of the blog who took one of my NYU wine classes last fall, is the owner of Varietal. Blog readers and everyone who has taken a class with me is welcome to attend–we can toast Greggory’s success and mingle with fellow vinomaniacs! If I haven’t met in person you before, I hope you can make it!

Drop me a line if you think you’ll be able to stop by for a glass or a flight. Hope to see you there! Thursday January 11, starting at 6 PM.

Review: Varietal [NY Mag]
138 W. 25th St., New York, NY 10001
nr. Seventh Ave.
212-633-1800

tags: wine | NYC