Dr Vino's wine blog

The BBC has a story out on the UK Government’s wine cellar, valued at about $5 million. Needless to say, it puts the dinky White House collection to shame. (Check out the slideshow from the London vaults.)

One item that grabbed some attention in the vinosphere is that they served Obama a wine their tasters had described as “soapy” at his last state dinner at Buckingham Palace. In 2008, they wrote, “Slightly soapy odd palate – hope it comes round. Review in 2011.” Upon review in February 2011, they wrote, “Not soapy, but harsh acidity.” Then the wine was served at the May 2011 state dinner. The article does not note the feedback, if any, from the Palace.

So what was the nasty wine? Well, digging through our “Leaders and Liters” series, we can inform the vintelligentsia that it was the 2004 Domaine William Fevre, “Les Clos,” a grand cru site in Chablis. (Find this wine at retail.) You can check out a few critical reviews here, where the scores ranged from 92-96 points, and none of them used the word “soapy” or comments on the acidity in a negative way. In fact, they bandy around terms such as “star of this extraordinary line-up” at William Fevre, “show-stopping,” “suave,” “seamless,” with an “incredibly intense finish that reminded me more than a little of a great Corton-Charlemagne.” (Whew, that read like a Zagat tasting note.) Clearly premature oxidation is an issue with white burgs, but harsh acidity is not commonly a premox note.

So, what say you: should the White House be offended that they were served a wine their internal tasters panned? Or is the BBC trying to gin up some controversy since the wine has a pedigree and was well-reviewed? See the rest of the wines served at the state dinner. Pity we don’t have the tasting notes for the rest of the wines–would love to have seen how their tasters reviewed the 1990 Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Echezeaux or the ’63 port–such dogs!

A wine story will be splashing on the silver screen this year: Samuel Goldwyn has bought the theatrical and digital distribution rights to “Somm.” The documentary, directed by Jason Wise, follows four candidates studying for the Master Sommelier exam. It will be released as a feature documentary some time this summer. The film got good reviews around the time of the Napa Valley Film Festival; while it’s not likely to knock off The Avengers, Part 56, from the top spot this summer, I, for one, am looking forward to it. For now, I’ll have to settle for the above trailer.

“Samuel Goldwyn toasts ‘Somm’ acquisition” Variety

Ray Isle, Executive Wine Editor at Food & Wine, digs through the the magazine’s 35 years of archives to dig up predictions that Robert Parker made in their pages. Then he presents those (often inaccurate) predictions to Parker himself. What follows is lots of contrition, honesty and humility. Well, not exactly. Click through to check it all out.

I find the prediction about distributors disappearing to be the most disheartening–did Parker really think these multi-billion-dollar oligopolies would just roll over and die? His lack of leadership on the crucial and related issue of direct shipping has been particularly glaring. Without direct shipping from retailers and wineries, tens of millions of wine consumers across the country face higher prices or simply can’t get many wines. Had he used his bully pulpit and renown to champion this issue, it would have burnished his reputation as a consumer advocate, papering over some of the cracks caused by the polarizing styles of wine that he championed.

Over on wine-searcher, I have a 1,300-word Q&A with Howard Goldberg. Howard has been writing about wine since the mid-1980s and just edited a compendium of wine writing from the New York Times.

Howard has lots of provocative views on wine writing and more; I humbly subit that it’s worth checking out.

Paul Pontallier is a curious, open, and humble guy. All the more so since he is he managing director and winemaker at Chateau Margaux, where he has been for 30 years, crafting the sublime yet supremely expensive wines.

Pontallier was in New York City last week and he brought suitcase full of treats Read more…

I had a lot of fun a couple of weeks ago observing a bunch of business school students engage in competitive drinking. No, it wasn’t on-campus–it was the US qualifying round of the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup at the French Consulate on Fifth Avenue.

I post a gallery of photos below but my story is over on wine-searcher. Click through to find out who will represent the USA at Chateau Lafite this summer. One thing that struck me is how into wine the grad students were, with many having been in some aspect of the wine industry or thinking about giving up a career in finance to pursue the fruits of the vine more fully. It was a photo finish that evening: A cluster of teams finished very close. Read more…

It was just an aside from the podium during Danny Brager’s talk on the state of the wine industry. But the Nielsen wine guru said that wine is closing in on beer among viewers of the Super Bowl. According to their polling, 71% of viewers will have carbonated beverages (aka soda), 42% of viewers will have beer, 35% will have bottled water, 32% will have wine, and 22% will have spirits. I’m not a math whizz, but I think that adds up to a whole lot of bathroom breaks!

The survey info came out yesterday and included information on food consumed during the Super Bowl. As you might expect, it included many of our “impossible food-wine pairings.” So, from the archives, here they are:
* Chips and Salsa
* Buffalo wings
* Seven-layer dip
* Pizza

Bonus: “Betting wine for football”
Bonus bonus: “How and why did light beer come to be the choice of NFL viewers?”

Pinot noir and Riesling have more than just being (the greatest?) “noble” varieties: next month they each have worthwhile public tastings dedicated to them.

First up, in SF and LA next week, is In Pursuit of Balance. Organized by Raj Parr of RN74 and Jasmine Hirsch of Hirsche Vineyards, this annual tasting showcases some of the most cutting-edge Pinot Noir (and Chardonnay!) from California. There are a couple of seminars, but the main event provides the chance to sample wines from 28 wineries and have your picture taken with the hirsute hipsters from Santa Barbara, Sonoma, and Mendocino. $85; Feb 4 and 6.

Then, kick off President’s Day weekend in NYC with the first-ever Rieslingfeier, the brainchild of Steven Bitterolf of Crush Wine & Spirits (here’s a Q&A with Stephen from five years ago) . The events start on Saturday, Feb 16, with a free panel discussion of diversity in the Mosel and the Saar. Participants include Andreas Adam, Thomas Haag (Schloss Lieser), Florian Lauer, Dorothee Zilliken as well as David Schildknecht of the Wine Advocate. Then there’s the opportunity to crawl from uptown to downtown sampling Riesling and talking with producers at four wine shops (all free). The main event of the Fest is a BYO dinner at Rouge Tomate with some NYC’s top sommeliers, all the above producers plus Klaus Peter Keller and Katharina Prüm. It sounds fantastically fun and, while pricey at $275, I would definitely attend (but I will be out of town). Check out their website for full details.