Dr Vino's wine blog

Evesham Wood, Blanc du Puits Sec, Eola Hills, 2005. $13 find this wine

While I was in Oregon recently, I tried this excellent organic pinot gris. Russ Raney adds depth to the wine by blending in 15 percent gewürztraminer, which makes it a terrific aperitif wine. It has the floral notes of pinot gris with a hint of the lusciousness of gewurtz all with minerality and refreshing acidity—I’d like to taste it blind against some Alsatian whites, or forget that, with some seafood! The only bad news is the limited availability of the wine. But based on this taste, I’d be very willing to cobble together an order of his very reasonably priced wines from Russ at the winery directly. Pinot gris, as only Evesham Wood! eveshamwood.com (503) 371-8478. Organic.

tags: wine | wine reviews

I flew. I gave unto the TSA.

In this case it was a corkscrew, not liquids. It must be the fourth corkscrew that I have forgotten in my bag this year while traveling. The 20 millimeter foil-cutting “blade” is what makes it verboten–corkscrews themselves are not actually banned. Know your rights!

And I thought I was doing so well with the 2 oz toothpaste in a ziploc bag…

tags: wine | TSA | corkscrews

[For part I of this story click here.]

The wines included three vintages from Clos de los Siete in Argentina and four Dourthe properties from Bordeaux.

As with many Argentine wines, the Clos de los Siete packs a lot of punch for a $15 red. Mostly malbec, Rolland blends in healthy doses of cabernet sauvignon and merlot as well as a dollop of syrah, something he couldn’t do in Bordeaux. These are big wines, not for the faint of heart.

The first commercial vintage of 2003 I found to be an abrupt combination of dark fruits and alcohol. (find this wine) The 2004 I found more balanced between the fruit and the alcohol—it’s elegant in the way that a woman on a Harley Davidson is elegant. (find this wine) The 2005, Rolland assured us, would be the best wine of the three but at this point I was surprised by its monochromatic heft that made me want to sing “oh tannin-bomb.” He said that it would settle down quickly since it was just bottled 2 months ago. (find this wine)

The 2003 Bordeaux wines were stylistically different and varied. The Ch Pey de la Tour has a rich style but had a light minerality that the Argentines lacked. (find this wine) The Le Bosq is a serious wine with notes of leather, dark fruit, beef drippings and vanilla. It made me say “mmm, Bordeaux.” (find this wine) The Ch La Garde is made in a lighter style that was oddly vegetal given the high heat of the vintage. (find this wine) The Ch Belgrave was solid though lacked the depth of the Le Bosq. (find Belgrave 2003)

Do you use American oak, came a question from the crowd?

“No, it’s very peculiar. I don’t like the taste.” Rolland replied. “But that said, maybe we will look at it again soon since it is economically interesting.”

Huh? I did not understand this sudden flash of economic rationality for the aesthete winemaker with the high fees. That’s like saying you don’t like McRibs but you’ll eat them because they’re $0.99.

So, returning to the Mondovino criticism, does he have a one size fits all solution? The answer appears to be variation within a range. He seems to implement many of the same practices in the vineyard—thinning leaves, reducing yields, and picking late—wherever he goes. He was adamant that while some Argentines are trying to improve their wines with the use of small oak barrels but they had not done enough to lower their yields.

And he no doubt has many similar practices in the winery, though he was less forthcoming about those. But the wines I tasted were different across regions and across vintages.

He is clearly a man of strong views, moderated by a sense of humor, and a love of Argentina. He loves the free reign that his investors have given him in Clos de los Siete and he loves the freedom that Argentina gives him to plant however and whatever he wants. “I am a blender—I love to blend.” He’s mixing it up in the wine world.

* * *
The following day, Rolland appeared on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC. Listen here.

See my photos from Argentina, including Clos de los Siete.
Related: “Malbec match-up” [Dr. V]

tags: wine | Michel Rolland | Clos de los Siete

Michel Rolland, the globetrotting consulting enologist, is perhaps best known for playing the role of Mephistopheles himself in the documentary Mondovino. He was shown cackling in the back seat of his limousine smoking cigarillos and urging various winery owners in Bordeaux to “mico-oxygenate.” The film portrayed him as on par with Robert Parker, the Emperor of Standardization and Globalization (read my review of Mondovino here).

So I was surprised to see a different Michel Rolland lead members of the NYC press and trade in a tasting yesterday of seven wines that he had made. Although he wore suit that made him look more like he hangs out at investment banks rather than fermentation tanks, he was charming. He joked and told stories. This was the human face of globalization? He didn’t strike me as particularly fearsome.

Rolland is known as the “flying winemaker” par excellence. He consults to over 100 wineries mostly in Bordeaux where he got his start on the right bank. He wryly observed, “I started making wine in the US before I went to the [left bank] Medoc!” Along with 14 wineries in California, he consults in countries as diverse as India, Tunisia, and Uruguay, which makes him a juicy target for his detractors. His wines are often big and powerful since he likes to pick his grapes late and use French oak barrels. His fees are as high as his Parker point scores.

He said there are three keys to making great wine: great terroir, great grapes, and picking at the right time. Hmm, great wine is made in the vineyard? Sounds as if he might be talking himself out of a job as winemaker.

To illustrate the point that winemaking now requires more attention in the vineyard re recalled his first harvest in California in 1986. As the grapes were coming into the crushpad, a priest was there to bless them. He asked Zelma Long where the grapes had come from. She didn’t know.

Now, it’s all about the vineyard. And he sure has a big one in Argentina with five investors from Bordeaux in Clos de los Siete. (The d’Aulan family, the seventh in the name of the project, withdrew to focus their efforts on their Alta Vista winery) They just started planting in 1999 and quickly covered 450 hectares in vines. Then they stopped. The scary part is they still have 200+ more hectares that they can plant. With a vine density of 5,550 per hectare, that’s 2.5 million vines growing. That’s mucho malbec.

He said that contrary to his portrayal in Mondovino, he does not advise everyone to microxygenate, a process of running small bubbles through the wine during fermentation to soften the tannins. This is particularly the case in Argentina where they have such phenolic maturity that adding oxygen would turn the wines an unpleasant brown.

“The whole argument about globalization and standardization is silly,” he told me after the tasting. He said he doesn’t make wine one according to a formula. “You could taste that here today!”

But could I? Stay tuned tomorrow for part deux, including tasting notes, his thoughts on American oak and more.

Continue- “Michel Rolland: the man, the myth, the legend, part deux“

Rocks. They’re all the rage.

Earlier this week, an Italian vintner gave me an elegant little box. In it, there was a collection of gravel from his vineyards. I put it on my desk next to a larger rock that I got from at an event with a New Zealand winemaker a few months ago.

I’m getting rock’d at wine events all over NYC.

tags: wine | rocks

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tags: wine | blogs | rss

Dear Jorge Ordonez, importer of wine from Spain,

Bring us a good bag-in-a-box.

Robert Parker may have just sung your praises in his most recent newsletter. He may have lauded some of your top wines such as El Nido with 97 points.

But you also have many great value wines ranging from Tres Picos, to Naia, to Juan Gil. Borsao is great juice for $6 a bottle. You need to put it–or something like it–in a bag in a box. There’s certainly no lack of old vine grenache in Spain that rolls in at value pricing. Tap that wine glut.

Boxed wine sales are the fastest segment with 204 percent growth over the past three years according to this story in August’s Wine Business Monthly. They eliminate the need for glass so can make a claim to being better for the environment. And they are certainly more convenient for consumers who just want to squeeze off a glass or two every night for a couple of weeks. While in France this summer, Mrs. Vino and I — and practically anyone who walked within 100 yards of the fridge for that matter — enjoyed glasses of wine from a 5L box of rosé that we bought for 12 euros.

Restaurants will love box wines since their per unit cost for a wine by the glass will tumble. Heck, if Avec in Chicago can sell the Cuvee de Pena 3L box for $89 on their list, there may be a future for selling the whole box to diners.

Get in quick while you can still be a pioneer. Others such as the three Ds with their DTour and the Three Bandits have beat you in terms of timing (learn more), but there’s still lots of time left on this trend. Catch the wave. You know quality. You know value. Now get to know new packaging.

Sincerely,

Dr. Vino

Paris Hilton pimps prosecco (in a can no less! And at Oktoberfest in Munich!) two weeks after getting a DUI.

Andrea Dan, the president of Italy’s Road safety Society said: “She has just only been arrested for drunk-driving and a few days later she is promoting an alcoholic drink. What sort of image is that?” [link]

Related:
“Canned wine is fine for Paris but not Italy” The Guardian
The Paris print ad for Rich prosecco

tags: wine | Paris Hilton | prosecco