win September 2005

win@thebarn.com

3 participants
9 discussions

by Jim L. Ellingson

Here's an update and another obscure Italian varietal. I haven't heard from many so my list is a guess. Lee Short/Melissa Kocher 740 Mississippi River Boulevard South Apartment 21-D St. Paul, MN 55116 651-698-3022 Directions. I 94 to Snelling (S) to Ford Parkway (East) to River Rd (N) to 740. I 94 to Hwy 55 to 46th St. Left, across river, curl around onto East River Rd, N. to 740. 494 to Hwy 5 to Edgecombe/Fairview OR Cleveland OR East River Rd. Lots of other options. >>> "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> 09/27/2005 5:38:04 PM >>> Greetings, We have (and we had) a standing invitation to do eclectic grapes and food to match at Lee and Melisa's place. Thursday at 6:30 (Bob's calling Dave T to check on the status of the great Chinese adventure.) Many of you have been there. I'll plan on tracking down an address by Thursday. It's the highrise apt building just north of Ford Parkway on East River Road. Lee Short. 14th floor? Focus is on lesser known grapes and food to match. Please coordinate the food w/ Lee/Melisa blackcat(a)pro-ns.net Lee/Melisa Bob Cheese?? Betsy Dave Ruth Jim Breads (Honey Wheat, Whole Wheat, Potato) ----- Forwarded message from The 30 Second Wine Advisor <wine(a)wineloverspage.com> ----- Authentication-Results: smtp-relay.enet.umn.edu from=wine(a)wineloverspage.com; sender-id=neutral; spf=neutral Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 14:01:55 -0400 (EDT) To: jellings(a)me.umn.edu Subject: 30SecWineAdvisor: Campi Flegrei Falanghina From: The 30 Second Wine Advisor <wine(a)wineloverspage.com> X-Sender: <wine(a)wineloverspage.com> X-Greylist: IP, sender and recipient auto-whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-1.6 (smtp-relay.enet.umn.edu [128.101.142.227]); Wed, 31 Aug 2005 13:02:03 -0500 (CDT) X-Spam-Score: 0 () X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.51 on 128.101.142.227 THE 30 SECOND WINE ADVISOR, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005 ________________________________________________________________________ TODAY'S SPONSOR: * CALIFORNIA WINE CLUB Prices "Falling" During the Club's Autumn Sale! http://www.cawineclub.com?Partner_ID=winelovers ________________________________________________________________________ IN THIS ISSUE * CAMPI FLEGREI FALANGHINA A new arrival prompts a revisit to this favorite Southern Italian white variety. * TERRA DI LAVORO 2003 "VILLA CARAFA" CAMPI FLEGREI FALANGHINA ($14) Full-bodied but crisply acidic, a fine example of this appealing grape from the Neapolitan Amalfi Coast. * ADMINISTRIVIA Change E-mail address, frequency, format or unsubscribe. ________________________________________________________________________ CAMPI FLEGREI FALANGHINA Here's a favorite Southern Italian grape from a region so obscure that a number of wine-merchant Websites appear to confuse the place name with the producer's name. Let's parse this pretty but somewhat confusing label that adorns a stellar white from the scenic Amalfi Coast, where the stony volcanic soil of Vesuvius and its neighbors tumbles down to the deep blue sea. Taking the attractive label from the top: * FALANGHINA is the grape variety, one that's steeped in history, dating back at least 2,000 years to the Roman Empire. As noted when we last examined Falanghina in the April 6, 2005 Wine Advisor, folks in the region declare that this was the grape used to make Falernum, one of the most highly regarded wines of the Caesars' times. Could be, although it's worth noting that fanciers of the excellent regional grapes Greco di Tufo and Fiano di Avellino make similar claims. * CAMPI FLEGREI is the region (a "D.O.C." appellation under Italian wine law, "Phlegraean Fields" in English), lying along a stretch of the Amalfi Coast that extends along the Gulf of Naples from the sprawling edge of the city westward. It's one of three regions in Campania where Falanghina is made, the others being Sonnio and the island Procida in the Gulf. * VILLA CARAFA is the producer, a family-run operation near the village of Caserta in Campania. * The vintage, 2003, and the bottler and shipper, Cantine TERRA DI LAVORO ("Land of Work," an ancient nickname for the region), are provided only on the back label, along with the importer, the alcoholic content (13 percent) and, in the U.S., the mandatory Surgeon General's warning. It's a lot of information for a bottle of wine, but worth learning. The white grapes of Southern Italy are only recently gaining international attention - Jancis Robinson's grape books give Falanghina the shortest of shrift, and Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book doesn't even give it a separate listing. But they're coming on fast, and if you like rich, structured, food-friendly whites, you'll follow my lead in snapping up any Falanghina you see. ________________________________________________________________________ TALK ABOUT WINE ONLINE If you'd like to ask a question or comment on today's topic (or any other wine-related subject), you'll find a round-table online discussion in our interactive Wine Lovers' Discussion Group, where you're always welcome to join in the conversations about wine. http://www.myspeakerscorner.com/forum/index.phtml?fn=1&tid=65748&mid=565235 If you prefer to comment privately, feel free to send me E-mail at wine(a)wineloverspage.com. I'll respond personally to the extent that time and volume permit. ________________________________________________________________________ PRINT OUT TODAY'S ARTICLE Here's a simply formatted copy of today's Wine Advisor, designed to be printed out for your scrapbook or file or downloaded to your PDA or other wireless device. http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/print050831.html ________________________________________________________________________ TERRA DI LAVORO 2003 "VILLA CARAFA" CAMPI FLEGREI FALANGHINA ($14) This clear, straw-color wine shows pretty glints of gold. Its appetizing aroma and flavor profiles are typical Falanghina, floral white fruit with complex hints of almonds and wool, full body held up well by structural acidity, all over a "stony" minerality that - perhaps mostly by the power of suggestion - evokes the volcanic soil of the scenic Amalfi Coast. Well balanced and clean, there's a shot of snappy acidity in the long finish. U.S. importer: North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, Calif. (July 15, 2005) FOOD MATCH: Fine with seafood or "white meats," it was brilliant with an Italian-style dish crafted to match: Veal flank steak pounded thin and rolled around an aromatic filling of mushrooms and rich Italian tuna. VALUE: More than justifies its price point in the middle teens. WHEN TO DRINK: Meant for immediate enjoyment, it's drinking beautifully now, but its richness and acidic balance hint that it wouldn't suffer from a few years of careful cellaring. PRONUNCIATION: Falanghina = "FA-lan-GHEE-nah," with a hard "g" as in "geek." WEB LINK: The importer has an article about Terra di Lavoro in its November 2004 newsletter, which is archived online: http://www.northberkeleyimports.com/new_offerings/nov2004W.htm#carafa FIND THIS WINE ONLINE: North Berkeley's wines are available at fine wine stores in many parts of the U.S. and through online sales where the law permits. For information click the "Contact Us" link on the importer's Website, http://www.northberkeleyimports.com/ You'll also find vendor listings for Villa Carafa Falanghina at Wine- Searcher.com: http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/Carafa%2bFalanghina/-/-/USD/A?referring_s… ________________________________________________________________________ SUBSCRIBE: * WineLoversPage.com RSS Feed (free) http://www.wineloverspage.com/rss/ * 30 Second Wine Advisor, daily or weekly (free) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/index.shtml * Wine Advisor FoodLetter, Thursdays (free) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/foodletter.shtml * Wine Advisor Premium Edition, alternate Tuesdays ($24/year) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/premium.phtml ARCHIVES: For all past editions: http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/thelist.shtml CONTACT US E-mail: wine(a)wineloverspage.com SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: For information, E-mail wine(a)wineloverspage.com ________________________________________________________________________ ADMINISTRIVIA To subscribe or unsubscribe from The 30 Second Wine Advisor, change your E-mail address, switch from weekly to daily distribution, or for any other administrative matters, click to http://www.wineloverspage.com/admin.php?id=20970&cs=7d1109b668af1f87d36d12e… We welcome feedback, suggestions, and ideas for future columns. We do not use this list for any other purpose and will never give or sell your name or E-mail to anyone. All the wine-tasting reports posted here are consumer-oriented. In order to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest, I purchase all the wines I rate at my own expense in retail stores and accept no samples, gifts or other gratuities from the wine industry. Wednesday, August 31, 2005 Copyright 2005 by Robin Garr. All rights reserved. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

20 years, 2 months

[wine] Re: Eclectic Grapes and Food to Match at Lee and Melisa's

by Betsy Kremser

Lee Short/Melissa Kocher 740 Mississippi River Boulevard South Apartment 21-D St. Paul, MN 55116 651-698-3022 >>> "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> 09/27/2005 5:38:04 PM >>> Greetings, We have (and we had) a standing invitation to do eclectic grapes and food to match at Lee and Melisa's place. Thursday at 6:30 (Bob's calling Dave T to check on the status of the great Chinese adventure.) Many of you have been there. I'll plan on tracking down an address by Thursday. It's the highrise apt building just north of Ford Parkway on East River Road. Lee Short. 14th floor? Focus is on lesser known grapes and food to match. Please coordinate the food w/ Lee/Melisa blackcat(a)pro-ns.net Lee/Melisa Bob Cheese?? Betsy Dave Ruth Jim Breads Cheers, Jim ----- Forwarded message from The 30 Second Wine Advisor <wine(a)wineloverspage.com> ----- Authentication-Results: smtp-relay.enet.umn.edu from=wine(a)wineloverspage.com; sender-id=neutral; spf=neutral Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 17:12:35 -0400 (EDT) To: jellings(a)me.umn.edu Subject: 30SecWineAdvisor: Offbeat grapes and wines - Ruché From: The 30 Second Wine Advisor <wine(a)wineloverspage.com> THE 30 SECOND WINE ADVISOR, Monday, Sept. 19, 2005 ________________________________________________________________________ TODAY'S SPONSORS * CHÂTEAU PALMER Harvest begins this week at Château Palmer. http://blog.chateau-palmer.com * CALIFORNIA WINE CLUB Biggest Sale Event of the Year is Going on Now! http://www.cawineclub.com?Partner_ID=winelovers ________________________________________________________________________ IN THIS ISSUE * WINE ADVISOR PREMIUM EDITION Subscribe now to receive tomorrow's annual high-end new releases tasting report. * OFFBEAT GRAPES AND WINES - RUCHÉ An unusual Italian red from Randall Grahm's "Il Circo" collection offers a rare taste of the Ruché grape. * BONNY DOON 2003 "IL CIRCO" RUCHÉ DI CASTAGNOLE MONFERRATO ($18.99) A blend of red fruit and outrageously spicy character signal this unusual Northern Italian variety. * CHÂTEAU PALMER Harvest begins this week at Château Palmer. * CALIFORNIA WINE CLUB Biggest Sale Event of the Year is Going on Now! * THIS WEEK ON WINELOVERSPAGE.COM Virtual visits to Zaca Mesa in Santa Barbara and Chateau de Malle in Sauternes, and a quick poll on how many countries are in your wine collection. * LAST WEEK'S WINE ADVISOR INDEX The Wine Advisor archives. * ADMINISTRIVIA Change E-mail address, frequency, format or unsubscribe. ________________________________________________________________________ WINE ADVISOR'S PREMIUM EDITION: HIGH-END NEW RELEASES REPORT A very special edition of the Wine Advisor Premium Edition will go out to subscribers tomorrow: My annual tasting report from a regional distributor's annual new-release tasting will deliver my comments on more than 40 top-end wines well above the Wine Advisor's usual spending territory, including such sought-after goodies as 2000 Grange, 2002 Clos de Tart, Flora Springs 2001 Trilogy, 2001 Chateau Beychevelle, Chateau de Beaucastel 2001 Chateaneuf-du-Pape, and many more. The Wine Advisor Premium Edition is my only fee-based publication. A subscription is just $24 for a full year of biweekly Premium E-mail bulletins, which focus on finding the best values among wines in more upscale price ranges. This modest charge, only $1 per issue and less than the price of a single bottle of high-end wine, will more than pay for itself in savings over the course of a year's quality-and-value recommendations ... and it's a great way to express your tangible support for everything we do here at WineLoversPage.com. To subscribe now, click http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/premium.phtml Free sample: Read last year's high-end tasting. http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/premsample1.html ________________________________________________________________________ OFFBEAT GRAPES AND WINES - RUCHÉ Come join me on another our occasional excursions down the wine roads less taken, as we enjoy a quick look at Ruché ("Roo-kay"), an Italian red grape so obscure that it's only grown in a few small villages in the Castagnole Monferrato hills northeast of Asti in Piemonte. Long available only to tourists visiting the area, Ruché has started turning up occasionally in the world market, especially after Ruché di Castagnole Monferrato was legally designated a D.O.C. under Italian wine law a few years ago. It's such a rustic oddity, indeed, that the Italian Trade Commission's informative ItalianMade.com Website declares that almost nothing is known about the grape's history, which was never written down but exists only as an oral tradition. Even the name of the grape is under debate. I've read that it comes from a dialect word for "rock," but this may reflect confusion with the French Roche. ItalianMade.com speculates that the Piemontese name boasts of the vine's resistance to roncet, a local term for "a degenerative infection of viral origin to which the variety is more resistant than others cultivated in the district, particularly Barbera and Grignolino." Whatever it means, it makes a wine with a memorable aroma and flavor profile that offers a significant change of pace from the usual suspects. Put Ruché in your glass, and you certainly won't mistake it for Merlot. Pinot Noir, maybe. I've reported previously on an excellent example from the importer John Given, Cantine Sant'Agata "Na Vita" Ruché di Castagnole Monferrato. Today's tasting features an import from the colorfully labeled "Il Circo" line of unusual Italian varieties from Bonny Doon Vineyards. ________________________________________________________________________ TALK ABOUT WINE ONLINE If you'd like to ask a question or comment on today's topic (or any other wine-related subject), you'll find a round-table online discussion in our interactive Wine Lovers' Discussion Group, where you're always welcome to join in the conversations about wine. http://www.myspeakerscorner.com/forum/index.phtml?fn=1&tid=66471&mid=571808 If you prefer to comment privately, feel free to send me E-mail at wine(a)wineloverspage.com. I'll respond personally to the extent that time and volume permit. ________________________________________________________________________ PRINT OUT TODAY'S ARTICLE Here's a simply formatted copy of today's Wine Advisor, designed to be printed out for your scrapbook or file or downloaded to your PDA or other wireless device. http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/print050919.html ________________________________________________________________________ BONNY DOON 2003 "IL CIRCO" RUCHÉ DI CASTAGNOLE MONFERRATO ($18.99) This is a very dark purple wine with a bright reddish-violet edge. Luscious aromas offer a benchmark example of Ruché with a heady, rosy floral scent accented with warm brown spice. Rich and full in flavor, tart red fruit and spice, mouth-filling and plushy on first impression, but a firm core of acidity carries it into a clean, medium-long finish, with an unusual, intriguing hint of caraway seed and light tannic bitterness lingering. U.S. importer: Bonny Doon Vineyard, Santa Cruz, Calif. (July 16, 2005) FOOD MATCH: It went very well with a light summer dinner of spaghetti with salsa cruda, hot pasta tossed with chopped fresh garden tomatoes, sweet onions, diced fresh whole-milk mozzarella and basil. VALUE: I'd like to see it closer to the middle teens, but considering the strength of the Euro and the wine's artisanal status and flavor interest, it's certainly justifiable at this price, if only to add Ruché to your life list. WHEN TO DRINK: Ruché is a wine made to drink young and fresh, and it will lose flavor interest as its fruit fades with time. It should be safe to drink it through the next year or so, though. PRONUNCIATION: "Ruché" = "Roo-kay" "Il Circo" = "Eel CHEER-coe" "Castagnole Monferrato" = "Cahs-tahn-YO-lay Mawn-fehr-RAH-toe" WEB LINK: The Bonny Doon Website has a page about the 2003 Il Circo Ruché in its "Eurodoon" section, http://www.bonnydoonvineyard.com/wine/view/91 FIND THIS WINE ONLINE: Wine-Searcher.com shows limited vendors for Il Circo Ruché, but it should be available from the Bonny Doon Website or wherever Bonny Doon wines are sold in the U.S., Canada and Europe: http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/Circo%2bRuche/-/-/USD/A?referring_site=WLP ________________________________________________________________________ HARVEST BEGINS THIS WEEK AT CHÂTEAU PALMER Want to follow the harvest of 2005 with a close-up virtual visit to one of the great properties of Bordeaux? Château Palmer has launched its new blog-like journal, "The Daily Palmer," just in time to provide daily updates on the latest harvest information: http://blog.chateau-palmer.com What's more, Château Palmer's main site is now online with a complete redesign. The stylish new site is easier to read, and it has expanded its most popular features, assuring quick access to tasting notes, online reservations for Château visits, and information about finding Château Palmer and Alter Ego wines in auctions, restaurants and wine stores around the world. There's way too much to see in a single visit. Click now to start browsing: http://www.chateau-palmer.com ________________________________________________________________________ CALIFORNIA WINE CLUB: BIGGEST SALE EVENT OF THE YEAR IS GOING ON NOW! The Prices Falling Autumn Wine Sale, the California Wine Club's biggest Sale Event of the year, is now under way. Over 100 award-winning wines discounted at up to 58 percent. Premier Club wines are just $99/Case! International Selections and even the highly reviewed, rare wines in the upper level club, Signature Series, are also available at incredible savings. Stock your cellar today! 1-800-77-4443 or http://www.cawineclub.com?Partner_ID=winelovers ________________________________________________________________________ THIS WEEK ON WINELOVERSPAGE.COM Here are links to some of our recently published articles that I think you'll enjoy: * SCHAEFER ON WINE: Zaca Mesa pursues the elegant course Zaca Mesa Winery, one of the oldest wineries in Santa Barbara County, has been through some changes over the years. It served as a de facto Wine University to many former employees, now graduates, who are well known in the wine world. But in recent times there is a renewed focus on what Zaca Mesa does best. http://www.wineloverspage.com/schaefer/zacamesa.phtml * REPORTS FROM OUR READERS: A visit to Château de Malle For most wine lovers, "Sauternes" equals "Yquem." But of course the very traditional areas of Sauternes and Barsac includes other estates. While covering the giant VinExpo in Bordeaux this summer, WineLoversPage.com correspondent Evelyne Lejeune-Resnick, a Parisian wine lover, visited with Nancy de Bournazel, owner of the magnificent Château de Malle estate. http://www.wineloverspage.com/reports/malle.phtml * WINE LOVERS' DISCUSSION GROUP: How many countries are represented in your cellar? If you've been hesitant to participate in our online forum's interactive discussions, here's an exceptionally easy way to make your inaugural post: It only takes a moment to participate in this simple, poll-style discussion and compare the number of different countries represented in your wine collection (large or small, it doesn't matter) with those of other wine lovers around the world. Click this link and join the fun! http://www.myspeakerscorner.com/forum/index.phtml?fn=1&tid=66377&mid=571162 ________________________________________________________________________ LAST WEEK'S WINE ADVISOR INDEX The Wine Advisor's daily edition is usually distributed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (and, for those who subscribe, the FoodLetter on Thursdays). Here's the index to last week's columns: * Another angle on 2003 - Beaujolais (Sept. 16, 2005) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/tswa050916.phtml * Trade tasting (Sept. 14, 2005) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/tswa050914.phtml * Oak or noak? (Sept. 12, 2005) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/tswa050912.phtml * Complete 30 Second Wine Advisor archive: http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/thelist.shtml * Wine Advisor FoodLetter: Butter (Sept. 15, 2005) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/tsfl050915.phtml * Wine Advisor Foodletter archive: http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/foodlist.phtml ________________________________________________________________________ SUBSCRIBE: * WineLoversPage.com RSS Feed (free) http://www.wineloverspage.com/rss/ * 30 Second Wine Advisor, daily or weekly (free) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/index.shtml * Wine Advisor FoodLetter, Thursdays (free) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/foodletter.shtml * Wine Advisor Premium Edition, alternate Tuesdays ($24/year) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/premium.phtml ARCHIVES: For all past editions: http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/thelist.shtml CONTACT US E-mail: wine(a)wineloverspage.com SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: For information, E-mail wine(a)wineloverspage.com ________________________________________________________________________ ADMINISTRIVIA To subscribe or unsubscribe from The 30 Second Wine Advisor, change your E-mail address, switch from weekly to daily distribution, or for any other administrative matters, click to http://www.wineloverspage.com/admin.php?id=20970&cs=7d1109b668af1f87d36d12e… We welcome feedback, suggestions, and ideas for future columns. We do not use this list for any other purpose and will never give or sell your name or E-mail to anyone. All the wine-tasting reports posted here are consumer-oriented. In order to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest, I purchase all the wines I rate at my own expense in retail stores and accept no samples, gifts or other gratuities from the wine industry. Monday, September 19, 2005 Copyright 2005 by Robin Garr. All rights reserved. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

20 years, 2 months

[wine] Eclectic Grapes and Food to Match at Lee and Melisa's

by Jim L. Ellingson

Greetings, We have (and we had) a standing invitation to do eclectic grapes and food to match at Lee and Melisa's place. Thursday at 6:30 (Bob's calling Dave T to check on the status of the great Chinese adventure.) Many of you have been there. I'll plan on tracking down an address by Thursday. It's the highrise apt building just north of Ford Parkway on East River Road. Lee Short. 14th floor? Focus is on lesser known grapes and food to match. Please coordinate the food w/ Lee/Melisa blackcat(a)pro-ns.net Lee/Melisa Bob Cheese?? Betsy Dave Ruth Jim Breads Cheers, Jim ----- Forwarded message from The 30 Second Wine Advisor <wine(a)wineloverspage.com> ----- Authentication-Results: smtp-relay.enet.umn.edu from=wine(a)wineloverspage.com; sender-id=neutral; spf=neutral Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 17:12:35 -0400 (EDT) To: jellings(a)me.umn.edu Subject: 30SecWineAdvisor: Offbeat grapes and wines - Ruch� From: The 30 Second Wine Advisor <wine(a)wineloverspage.com> THE 30 SECOND WINE ADVISOR, Monday, Sept. 19, 2005 ________________________________________________________________________ TODAY'S SPONSORS * CH�TEAU PALMER Harvest begins this week at Ch�teau Palmer. http://blog.chateau-palmer.com * CALIFORNIA WINE CLUB Biggest Sale Event of the Year is Going on Now! http://www.cawineclub.com?Partner_ID=winelovers ________________________________________________________________________ IN THIS ISSUE * WINE ADVISOR PREMIUM EDITION Subscribe now to receive tomorrow's annual high-end new releases tasting report. * OFFBEAT GRAPES AND WINES - RUCH� An unusual Italian red from Randall Grahm's "Il Circo" collection offers a rare taste of the Ruch� grape. * BONNY DOON 2003 "IL CIRCO" RUCH� DI CASTAGNOLE MONFERRATO ($18.99) A blend of red fruit and outrageously spicy character signal this unusual Northern Italian variety. * CH�TEAU PALMER Harvest begins this week at Ch�teau Palmer. * CALIFORNIA WINE CLUB Biggest Sale Event of the Year is Going on Now! * THIS WEEK ON WINELOVERSPAGE.COM Virtual visits to Zaca Mesa in Santa Barbara and Chateau de Malle in Sauternes, and a quick poll on how many countries are in your wine collection. * LAST WEEK'S WINE ADVISOR INDEX The Wine Advisor archives. * ADMINISTRIVIA Change E-mail address, frequency, format or unsubscribe. ________________________________________________________________________ WINE ADVISOR'S PREMIUM EDITION: HIGH-END NEW RELEASES REPORT A very special edition of the Wine Advisor Premium Edition will go out to subscribers tomorrow: My annual tasting report from a regional distributor's annual new-release tasting will deliver my comments on more than 40 top-end wines well above the Wine Advisor's usual spending territory, including such sought-after goodies as 2000 Grange, 2002 Clos de Tart, Flora Springs 2001 Trilogy, 2001 Chateau Beychevelle, Chateau de Beaucastel 2001 Chateaneuf-du-Pape, and many more. The Wine Advisor Premium Edition is my only fee-based publication. A subscription is just $24 for a full year of biweekly Premium E-mail bulletins, which focus on finding the best values among wines in more upscale price ranges. This modest charge, only $1 per issue and less than the price of a single bottle of high-end wine, will more than pay for itself in savings over the course of a year's quality-and-value recommendations ... and it's a great way to express your tangible support for everything we do here at WineLoversPage.com. To subscribe now, click http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/premium.phtml Free sample: Read last year's high-end tasting. http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/premsample1.html ________________________________________________________________________ OFFBEAT GRAPES AND WINES - RUCH� Come join me on another our occasional excursions down the wine roads less taken, as we enjoy a quick look at Ruch� ("Roo-kay"), an Italian red grape so obscure that it's only grown in a few small villages in the Castagnole Monferrato hills northeast of Asti in Piemonte. Long available only to tourists visiting the area, Ruch� has started turning up occasionally in the world market, especially after Ruch� di Castagnole Monferrato was legally designated a D.O.C. under Italian wine law a few years ago. It's such a rustic oddity, indeed, that the Italian Trade Commission's informative ItalianMade.com Website declares that almost nothing is known about the grape's history, which was never written down but exists only as an oral tradition. Even the name of the grape is under debate. I've read that it comes from a dialect word for "rock," but this may reflect confusion with the French Roche. ItalianMade.com speculates that the Piemontese name boasts of the vine's resistance to roncet, a local term for "a degenerative infection of viral origin to which the variety is more resistant than others cultivated in the district, particularly Barbera and Grignolino." Whatever it means, it makes a wine with a memorable aroma and flavor profile that offers a significant change of pace from the usual suspects. Put Ruch� in your glass, and you certainly won't mistake it for Merlot. Pinot Noir, maybe. I've reported previously on an excellent example from the importer John Given, Cantine Sant'Agata "Na Vita" Ruch� di Castagnole Monferrato. Today's tasting features an import from the colorfully labeled "Il Circo" line of unusual Italian varieties from Bonny Doon Vineyards. ________________________________________________________________________ TALK ABOUT WINE ONLINE If you'd like to ask a question or comment on today's topic (or any other wine-related subject), you'll find a round-table online discussion in our interactive Wine Lovers' Discussion Group, where you're always welcome to join in the conversations about wine. http://www.myspeakerscorner.com/forum/index.phtml?fn=1&tid=66471&mid=571808 If you prefer to comment privately, feel free to send me E-mail at wine(a)wineloverspage.com. I'll respond personally to the extent that time and volume permit. ________________________________________________________________________ PRINT OUT TODAY'S ARTICLE Here's a simply formatted copy of today's Wine Advisor, designed to be printed out for your scrapbook or file or downloaded to your PDA or other wireless device. http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/print050919.html ________________________________________________________________________ BONNY DOON 2003 "IL CIRCO" RUCH� DI CASTAGNOLE MONFERRATO ($18.99) This is a very dark purple wine with a bright reddish-violet edge. Luscious aromas offer a benchmark example of Ruch� with a heady, rosy floral scent accented with warm brown spice. Rich and full in flavor, tart red fruit and spice, mouth-filling and plushy on first impression, but a firm core of acidity carries it into a clean, medium-long finish, with an unusual, intriguing hint of caraway seed and light tannic bitterness lingering. U.S. importer: Bonny Doon Vineyard, Santa Cruz, Calif. (July 16, 2005) FOOD MATCH: It went very well with a light summer dinner of spaghetti with salsa cruda, hot pasta tossed with chopped fresh garden tomatoes, sweet onions, diced fresh whole-milk mozzarella and basil. VALUE: I'd like to see it closer to the middle teens, but considering the strength of the Euro and the wine's artisanal status and flavor interest, it's certainly justifiable at this price, if only to add Ruch� to your life list. WHEN TO DRINK: Ruch� is a wine made to drink young and fresh, and it will lose flavor interest as its fruit fades with time. It should be safe to drink it through the next year or so, though. PRONUNCIATION: "Ruch�" = "Roo-kay" "Il Circo" = "Eel CHEER-coe" "Castagnole Monferrato" = "Cahs-tahn-YO-lay Mawn-fehr-RAH-toe" WEB LINK: The Bonny Doon Website has a page about the 2003 Il Circo Ruch� in its "Eurodoon" section, http://www.bonnydoonvineyard.com/wine/view/91 FIND THIS WINE ONLINE: Wine-Searcher.com shows limited vendors for Il Circo Ruch�, but it should be available from the Bonny Doon Website or wherever Bonny Doon wines are sold in the U.S., Canada and Europe: http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/Circo%2bRuche/-/-/USD/A?referring_site=WLP ________________________________________________________________________ HARVEST BEGINS THIS WEEK AT CH�TEAU PALMER Want to follow the harvest of 2005 with a close-up virtual visit to one of the great properties of Bordeaux? Ch�teau Palmer has launched its new blog-like journal, "The Daily Palmer," just in time to provide daily updates on the latest harvest information: http://blog.chateau-palmer.com What's more, Ch�teau Palmer's main site is now online with a complete redesign. The stylish new site is easier to read, and it has expanded its most popular features, assuring quick access to tasting notes, online reservations for Ch�teau visits, and information about finding Ch�teau Palmer and Alter Ego wines in auctions, restaurants and wine stores around the world. There's way too much to see in a single visit. Click now to start browsing: http://www.chateau-palmer.com ________________________________________________________________________ CALIFORNIA WINE CLUB: BIGGEST SALE EVENT OF THE YEAR IS GOING ON NOW! The Prices Falling Autumn Wine Sale, the California Wine Club's biggest Sale Event of the year, is now under way. Over 100 award-winning wines discounted at up to 58 percent. Premier Club wines are just $99/Case! International Selections and even the highly reviewed, rare wines in the upper level club, Signature Series, are also available at incredible savings. Stock your cellar today! 1-800-77-4443 or http://www.cawineclub.com?Partner_ID=winelovers ________________________________________________________________________ THIS WEEK ON WINELOVERSPAGE.COM Here are links to some of our recently published articles that I think you'll enjoy: * SCHAEFER ON WINE: Zaca Mesa pursues the elegant course Zaca Mesa Winery, one of the oldest wineries in Santa Barbara County, has been through some changes over the years. It served as a de facto Wine University to many former employees, now graduates, who are well known in the wine world. But in recent times there is a renewed focus on what Zaca Mesa does best. http://www.wineloverspage.com/schaefer/zacamesa.phtml * REPORTS FROM OUR READERS: A visit to Ch�teau de Malle For most wine lovers, "Sauternes" equals "Yquem." But of course the very traditional areas of Sauternes and Barsac includes other estates. While covering the giant VinExpo in Bordeaux this summer, WineLoversPage.com correspondent Evelyne Lejeune-Resnick, a Parisian wine lover, visited with Nancy de Bournazel, owner of the magnificent Ch�teau de Malle estate. http://www.wineloverspage.com/reports/malle.phtml * WINE LOVERS' DISCUSSION GROUP: How many countries are represented in your cellar? If you've been hesitant to participate in our online forum's interactive discussions, here's an exceptionally easy way to make your inaugural post: It only takes a moment to participate in this simple, poll-style discussion and compare the number of different countries represented in your wine collection (large or small, it doesn't matter) with those of other wine lovers around the world. Click this link and join the fun! http://www.myspeakerscorner.com/forum/index.phtml?fn=1&tid=66377&mid=571162 ________________________________________________________________________ LAST WEEK'S WINE ADVISOR INDEX The Wine Advisor's daily edition is usually distributed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (and, for those who subscribe, the FoodLetter on Thursdays). Here's the index to last week's columns: * Another angle on 2003 - Beaujolais (Sept. 16, 2005) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/tswa050916.phtml * Trade tasting (Sept. 14, 2005) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/tswa050914.phtml * Oak or noak? (Sept. 12, 2005) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/tswa050912.phtml * Complete 30 Second Wine Advisor archive: http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/thelist.shtml * Wine Advisor FoodLetter: Butter (Sept. 15, 2005) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/tsfl050915.phtml * Wine Advisor Foodletter archive: http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/foodlist.phtml ________________________________________________________________________ SUBSCRIBE: * WineLoversPage.com RSS Feed (free) http://www.wineloverspage.com/rss/ * 30 Second Wine Advisor, daily or weekly (free) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/index.shtml * Wine Advisor FoodLetter, Thursdays (free) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/foodletter.shtml * Wine Advisor Premium Edition, alternate Tuesdays ($24/year) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/premium.phtml ARCHIVES: For all past editions: http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/thelist.shtml CONTACT US E-mail: wine(a)wineloverspage.com SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: For information, E-mail wine(a)wineloverspage.com ________________________________________________________________________ ADMINISTRIVIA To subscribe or unsubscribe from The 30 Second Wine Advisor, change your E-mail address, switch from weekly to daily distribution, or for any other administrative matters, click to http://www.wineloverspage.com/admin.php?id=20970&cs=7d1109b668af1f87d36d12e… We welcome feedback, suggestions, and ideas for future columns. We do not use this list for any other purpose and will never give or sell your name or E-mail to anyone. All the wine-tasting reports posted here are consumer-oriented. In order to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest, I purchase all the wines I rate at my own expense in retail stores and accept no samples, gifts or other gratuities from the wine industry. Monday, September 19, 2005 Copyright 2005 by Robin Garr. All rights reserved. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

20 years, 2 months

[wine] Trappist Ales of Our Times (NYT-fwd)

by Jim L. Ellingson

September 21, 2005 >From Trappist Monks, Heavenly Brew By ERIC ASIMOV FOR single-minded devotion to quality, purity and tradition, the Trappist monks of Belgium are hard to match, especially when it comes to ale. It doesn't take much imagination to get carried away picturing them at their work. Seated at their rough-hewn tables, clothed in their coarse robes, they spend hours in the serenity of silent prayer and study. Then the word goes out: "It's time to brew the beer, it's time to brew the beer," and like so many Keebler elves, off they go to perform their sacred chores. Pure fantasy, of course. Though they adhere to traditional styles, Trappist breweries today are largely modern affairs, where the workers are often professionals hired by the abbeys. They have computerized equipment and well-designed Web sites. But the devotion remains to making ales as complex and distinctive as any in the world today, and, as the Dining section's tasting panel discovered, their beers set a lofty standard. The term Trappist describes the source of these ales rather than a particular brewing style. In fact, the beers vary considerably. Some are dark as chocolate stout and some are amber-gold, bordering on orange. They can be intensely sweet or dry enough to pucker. Sometimes they can be both, reaching a full, rich, complex sweetness as you turn the ale over in your mouth, yet turning dry and refreshing as you swallow. They can all be wonderfully fragrant, with aromas of spices, flowers and fruit, and they are always strong, ranging in alcohol from about 7 percent to 12 percent, as opposed to the 5 percent of a typical lager. Producing Trappist ales requires more than the usual sort of commitment. Only six breweries in the world, all affiliated with Trappist monasteries in Belgium, are permitted to use the hexagonal seal designating each bottle an "Authentic Trappist Product," and one of those six, the abbey of St. Sixtus at Westvleteren, sells its beer only at its monastery. A seventh Trappist monastery, Tegelen, in the Netherlands, sells La Trappe beer, but it is now made by a commercial brewer and no longer carries the Trappist seal, which guarantees that the beer is brewed in an abbey under the supervision of the religious order, and that most of the income will be used for charitable work. In the last few years, authentic Trappist beers have become increasingly easy to get in the United States, even at corner delis that take beer seriously. Some of the brand names have become well known, especially Chimay and Orval. They have been so admired that the Trappist styles are now widely imitated. Dozens of Belgian breweries make excellent versions of Trappist ales. Some of them are even commissioned by monasteries to brew ales or are licensed to use a monastery name. These are known as abbey beers. North American craft brewers, likewise inspired by these beers, have made their own distinctive versions. The panel tasted 25 ales, including bottles from the 5 exporting monasteries, 11 Belgian abbey beers, 7 from the United States and 1 each from Canada and the Netherlands. Florence Fabricant, Frank J. Prial and I were joined by Tony Forder, co-publisher and editor of Ale Street News, a consumer publication. By the time the tasting was over, we were all feeling the spirit. The quality of the beers was exceptionally high, which was surprising because so many were imported. Most beers are fragile. If they are not protected from heat or light, they can easily lose their vitality. They don't take well to long voyages and are generally at their best as soon as they are bottled. But Trappist-style ales are the rare beers that are meant to age. They are generally what brewers call "bottle conditioned," meaning that a small dose of sugar and yeast is added to each bottle just before it is sealed. Then, as with Champagne, the beers re-ferment in the bottle, developing complexity over time and a wonderful texture of pinpoint natural carbonation. Unlike the sediment in Champagne, the ale's sediment is not removed before the bottles are sold. It is left to settle to the bottom, and these unfiltered beers develop a soft haze. They are at their best served cool, rather than cold. As pleased as we were by the ales, we also disagreed considerably over which were our favorites, possibly because they were so stylistically varied. The two best-known Trappist styles are dubbel and trippel, which I've Americanized to double and triple. While these styles are never defined precisely, the doubles tend to be dark and rich, often with flavors of chocolate and mocha and a layer of fruity sweetness that can turn dry as you swallow. The triples are lighter in color and body but stronger in alcohol, with complex spicy flavors. Usually they are dry. There are even quadruples, which are stronger yet. Nonetheless, glorious exceptions to these categories exist, like the Orval Trappist ale, an unmatchable combination of the bitter austerity of a Pilsener with the full-bodied richness of an ale. It was one of my favorites in the tasting, and Tony noted that it stuck out from the others. But Frank and Florence found it merely routine. Other than the Orval, we tended as a group to prefer the drier examples, like our consensus favorite, the deliciously complex and balanced triple from the Westmalle Trappist abbey, and our No. 3, the spicy, refreshing Affligem, an abbey triple. Our No. 2, La Fin du Monde from Unibroue in Quebec, was also on the dry side yet with a pronounced, lively intensity. All five of the Trappist beers made our list, including the creamy, complex Achel, the light-bodied, floral Rochefort, and the Grande R�serve from Chimay. The Chimay epitomized the divisions in our panel. It was creamy and rich, with an aroma of roasted chocolate that struck me as beautiful. It had flavors of dried fruit and spice and gave the impression of sweetness until it turned dry as you swallowed. Florence also liked it, suggesting that it would be great with a steak, but Frank and Tony were less impressed. Frank and I both loved the Witkap-Pater Abbey Triple Ale, which I found complex, delicate and delicious, but Tony and Florence demurred. Perhaps I wasn't critical enough, because there were few ales that I did not like, regardless of the style. Tony and I very much liked the Southampton Abbot, a dark ale that had brilliant flavors. But Florence and Frank felt it was overwhelming. It just missed making the list. The only American beer in our Top 10 was the Weyerbacher from Easton, Pa., a complex, hefty quadruple-style ale that was the strongest we tasted at 11.9 percent alcohol. In addition to the Southampton, American ales that narrowly missed out included the Ommegang Abbey Ale and the Victory Golden Monkey Triple Ale. Why is it that the monks have historically been able to make such great beer? In his book, "The Brewmaster's Table" (Ecco, 2003), Garrett Oliver suggests that not only were they patient, educated and thorough, but because of their lower costs, they were able to use better ingredients than commercial brewers. No doubt that is all true, but I can't help imagining that somehow they get a little bit of extra help. Tasting Report: Aged in the Bottle, Beers With Character Westmalle Belgium Trappist Triple $6 *** � Floral, fruity and dry with long, lingering flavors; superb; 9.5 percent alcohol, 11.2 ounces. (Importer: Merchant du Vin, Lenox, Mass.) Unibroue Chambly, Quebec La Fin du Monde $2.30 *** Complex and full-bodied, rich, deep and dry; 9 percent, 12 ounces. (Unibrew U.S.A., Shelburne, Vt.) Affligem Belgium Abbey Triple $7.50 *** Dry bordering on austere, yet spicy, complex and very refreshing; 8.5 percent, 25.4 ounces. (Fischer Beverages International, White Plains) Weyerbacher Easton, Pa., Quad $6 *** Rich, complex and fruity; seems sweet at first, but turns dry; 11.9 percent, 11.2 ounces. Achel Belgium Trappist Extra $11 *** Citrus and spice aromas, complex flavors and creamy texture; 9.5 percent, 25.4 ounces. (Shelton Brothers, Belchertown, Mass.) Orval Belgium Trappist $6 ** � Floral and herbal aromas; very dry with long, lingering flavors; 6.9 percent, 11.2 ounces. (Merchant du Vin, Lenox, Mass.) De Ranke Belgium Abbey Guldenberg $10 ** � Lean and dry with complex, balanced citrus, herb and spice flavors; 8.5 percent, 25.4 ounces. (Shelton Brothers, Belchertown, Mass.) Witkap-Pater Belgium Abbey Triple $3 ** � Floral and citrus aromas; dry, delicate and complex. 7.5 percent, 11.2 ounces. (Vanberg & DeWulf, Cooperstown, N.Y.) Chimay Belgium Trappist Grande R�serve $10 ** � Roasted aromas of chocolate, dried fruits and spices; creamy and rich yet dry; 9 percent, 25.4 ounces. (Belukus Marketing, Princeton, N.J.) Rochefort Belgium Trappist 10 $6 ** � Surprisingly floral; balanced and light-bodied with persistent spice flavors; 11.3 percent, 11.2 ounces. (Merchant du Vin, Lenox, Mass.) -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

20 years, 2 months

[wine] Surdyks Presale Tasting - September 22nd

by Jim L. Ellingson

Greetings, Group is going to the Big S pre-sale tasting. Joyce has negotiated a very good deal for us. $10 off. I wish I was going... Take good notes. Next week, wines that work at the Rainbow Chinese Restaurant at 26th and Nicollet. More details next week. Cheers, Jim ----- Forwarded message from jhegstrom(a)csom.umn.edu ----- To: wine(a)thebarn.com Surdyks is allowing me to offer the "Bubbles Discount" for either of the two tastings on the 22nd. Spotlight is normally $60 - $10 off with Bubbles Discount = $50 (includes BOTH tastings) Charity is normally $35 - $5 off with Bubbles Discount = $30 To take advantage of this discount, they would like you to call the store at 612-379-3232 during the DAY and ask for either Zack or Lynn who will sign you up. You need to mention that you want the "Bubbles Discount". Discount cannot be applied to internet ticket sales or tickets purchased at the store. S?? U?? R?? D?? Y?? K?? S Charity Pre-Sale Spotlight Tasting Event proceeds will benefit the American Heart Association Thursday,??September 22nd Millennium Hotel - Loring Ballroom 1313 Nicolett Mall??- Minneapolis 5:30pm - 6:30pm SPOTLIGHT TASTING: From 5:30 until 6:30, we will have our Spotlight Tasting. During this time, some of highest quality wines of the Fall Sale will be featured, as well as some ???special purchase??? wines available during this tasting only! The donation is $60/person to attend this portion of the event. Join us to sample the best of the best in this exclusive tasting taking place before the main event. Arrive Early! Attendees will be invited to participate in a Scavenger Hunt for a one carat ???Heart on Fire??? diamond pendant! The first person to solve all of the clues will win the pendant worth $12,000! Jewelry has been donated by J.B. Hudson Fine Jewelers. $60.00 (tax deductible) Price includes both events (Main Charity Tasting and Spotlight) 7:00pm - 9:00pm Try before you buy! Our Pre-Sale Wine Tasting Event will feature more than 200 of the wines you???ll find in our fall sale. Enjoy cheeses and appetizers from Surdyk???s Bistro 2GO, artisan chocolates, and live jazz performed throughout the evening. In addition, there will be a silent auction featuring exciting wine items, gift certificates to great local restaurants, and a few must see surprises. And best of all, attendees have the opportunity to order wines at the sale prices two weeks before the sale begins! All wine orders taken the night of the event will be at sale prices. Donation - $35 in advance $40.00 at the door ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

20 years, 2 months

[wine] Syrah at Craftsman tonight 4300 E. Lake Mpls

by Jim L. Ellingson

We have 6 confirmed and a few others unheard from... It's "Trade Tasting" season, so several are busy with that. Greetings, Those of us not lucky enough to be in Piedmont this week are mining our cellars for a nice Syrah to bring to The Craftsman. Dave T has made the reservation for 8 people, Thursday at 6:30. We will adjust as needed. The Craftsman Restaurant 4300 E. Lake St. Minneapolis 612.722.0175 www.craftsmanrestaurant.com Dave T. Karin Nicolai Jim Russ Bill Joyce may join us later. Janet? Annette? Cheers, Jim ----- Forwarded message from The 30 Second Wine Advisor <wine(a)wineloverspage.com> ----- Authentication-Results: smtp-relay.enet.umn.edu from=wine(a)wineloverspage.com; sender-id=neutral; spf=neutral Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 12:58:53 -0400 (EDT) To: jellings(a)me.umn.edu Subject: 30SecWineAdvisor: Trade tasting From: The 30 Second Wine Advisor <wine(a)wineloverspage.com> X-Sender: <wine(a)wineloverspage.com> X-Greylist: IP, sender and recipient auto-whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-1.6 (smtp-relay.enet.umn.edu [128.101.142.227]); Wed, 14 Sep 2005 11:58:38 -0500 (CDT) X-Spam-Score: 0 () X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.51 on 128.101.142.227 THE 30 SECOND WINE ADVISOR, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005 ________________________________________________________________________ TODAY'S SPONSOR * CALIFORNIA WINE CLUB Enter our raffle to win Monterey County's 9th Annual Great Wine Escape Weekend! http://www.cawineclub.com?Partner_ID=winelovers ________________________________________________________________________ IN THIS ISSUE * TRADE TASTING I wangle my way into a for-the-trade sampling and bring home notes on more than 40 new wines. * KATRINA FUND-RAISER: WINE SWEEPSTAKES WINNERS ANNOUNCED We've selected 16 prize winners in our online forum's charitable-giving sweepstakes for Hurricane Katrina victims. * ADMINISTRIVIA Change E-mail address, frequency, format or unsubscribe. ________________________________________________________________________ TRADE TASTING If you enjoy trying small samples of a lot of different wines and don't mind a bit of a frenzy, there's hardly a better way to get this sort of educational exposure than to wangle an invitation to a trade tasting. A trade tasting is a display of wine samples hosted by an importer or distributor to give commercial customers a taste of what's new. Even if you're not "in the trade" of buying and selling wine, chances are that if you have a good relationship with a local fine-wine retailer with whom you're a steady buyer, you can arrange an occasional invitation to an event of this type. It was my pleasure to get in on such a tasting this week, when the excellent Cincinnati-based importer/distributor Vintner Select came to town to show local wine buyers and restaurateurs samples of more than 50 new arrivals from Italy, France, Spain and Australia, as well as a cross-section of its fine California portfolio. The scene at Louisville's Blue Dog Bakery (which provided delicious goodies from pizza to pat� and, of course, first-rate artisanal breads) was crowded and noisy. One of the difficulties of this kind of tasting can be a distracting environment that makes it tough to spend much time in deep analysis of each wine. But I soldiered on, and came home with a PDA full of brief notes on more than 40 new wines, which I share with you today. Prices given are my unofficial estimates, approximating what you might expect to pay based upon the distributor's wholesale price. Vintner Select distributes wines in Ohio, Kentucky and parts of North Carolina; many of its imports are also represented in other parts of the U.S. by other regional importers such as Skurnik in New York and North Berkeley in California. Note that some of these wines are recent arrivals, so it may be a while before they show up on retail shelves. To find vendors and compare prices, plug in specific wine names on Wine-Searcher.com: http://www.wine-searcher.com?referring_site=WLP ITALY - MARC DE GRAZIA Il Palazzone 2002 Rubio ($15) Mostly Sangiovese, this wine is from Umbria but shares the style of neighboring Tuscany's Chianti with a profile of ripe cherries and a touch of earth. Il Palazzino 2002 La Pieve Chianti Classico ($22) Good fruit and singing acidity come together in a fine Chianti that's young but drinking very well. Sassetti - Pertimali 2002 Rosso di Montalcino ($27) A little shy on the nose but structured very well, with a good balance of fruit and acldity. Le Terrazze 2002 Rosso Conero ($16) Spicy cherries and plums, lots of brown spice and lemon-squirt acidity make this a good food wine. E. Pira & Figli 2001 Chiara Boschis Barbera d'Alba ($27) Meat, smoke and barnyard character make for a rustic wine on the nose, with sweet fuit more apparent on the palate. La Spinetta 2001 Pin ($54) A "cultish" blend of Barbera, Nebbiolo and Cabernet from a respected Piemonte producer, this is a big, "international" wine, with oak a bit too evident for my tastes. Sweet fruit and violets meld with heavy tannins on the palate, suggesting that cellar time may be a virtue. Clerico 2001 Arte ($45) A Nebbiolo-Barbera blend from Piemonte, perfumed sweet fruit and oak. Although I like Marc de Grazia's wines in general, they do tend toward an oaky, international, "Parkerized" style, as this and the previous wine suggest. La Spinetta 2002 Barbaresco ($90) Very pretty, black fruit and violets. Tannic, young, but already drinking well, the flagship bottling from the respected Barbaresco producer Giorgio Rivetti, with his trademark rhino on the label. Casanova di Spinetta 2002 Toscana Rosso ($20) La Spinetta's Giorgio Rivetti has a new Tuscan estate, where he fashioned this excellent "mini-Super Tuscan," predominantly Sangiovese. Ripe and juicy, a crowd-pleasing style built on a good, solid acidic structure. I'll be buying more of this goodie. FRANCE My old friend David Schildknecht, Vintner Select's French importer, presided at this table and modestly accepted congratulations on his recent appointment as contributor for Austria, Germany, Eastern Europe, and North America east of the Rockies in Robert M. Parker Jr.'s Wine Advocate. Marc et Roger Labb� 2004 Abymes Vin de Savoie ($9) Peachy, prickly and gulpable, a delicious value favorite from the French Alps. Boudin 2003 Chantemerle Chablis ($22) Juicy apples, rich and ripe, very atypical Chablis in the "California" style that's typical of the hot and super-ripe 2003 vintage throughout France. Javillier 03 Meursault les Tillets ($54) A delight from a favorite white Burgundy producer. Rich, clean, pure fruit over stony minerality. Egly-Ouriet non-vintage Brut Tradition ($45) Highly carbonated, foamy mouthfeel, appley and crisp. Good minerality, but 75% Pinot doesn't really manifest itself in this Champagne. Chateau Haut-Guiraud 2001 C�tes de Bourg ($14) Spicy red-berry fruit, plushy for a Bordeaux. Fine value. Herv� & Cyprien Arlaud 2003 Bourgogne Roncevie ($22) Ripe, fruit-forward and tannic. Good Pinot if not typical Burgundy, another "Californicated" 2003. G�rard Raphet 2003 Givrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux St. Jacques ($76) Lovely, ripe strawberries. Big fruit, juicy and sweet. Atypical again, but one of the most stylishly handled 2003 Burgundies I've encountered. Priced well above everyday level, but I love it if somebody else is pouring. Domaine R�m�jeanne 2003 C�tes du Rh�ne-Villages "Les Genevriers" ($22) Another old favorite that turns up on steroids in the 2003 vintage. Pure raspberries, ripe and fresh, julcy and sweet. Le Roc des Anges 2003 C�tes du Roussillon-Villages ($30) Meat, smoke, leather and ripe red fruit. Domaine du Dragon 2003 C�tes de Provence Cuv�e St.-Michel ($16) Cherries and plums, tight but balanced. SPAIN - EUROPEAN CELLARS (ERIC SOLOMON) Gramona 2004 Penedes Gessami ($15) Muscat adds a splash of Sauvignon Blanc, but the Muscat dominated with attractive grapefruit aromas leading into fresh, grapey fruit with crisp acidity for balance. Arrazu 2003 Artazuri Navarra ($11) Garnacha character shows in an appealing blend of raspberries and white pepper on the nose and palate. Les Alcusses 2002 Roure ($18) Black cherry and "barnyard" for a touch of rustic character in this tasty Tempranillo blend. Elvi 2003 Makor ($20) Red fruit and earthy red clay mix in this rather strange blend of the indigenous Spanish grapes Utiel and Requena from wine maker Sarah Perez. It's a kosher-for-Passover "mevushal" wine, a heat treatment that satisfies religious ritual but, in my experience, does little to enhance quality. Casta�o 2002 Sola�era Yecla ($15) A blend of Monastrell (Mourvedre) and Cabernet. Warm, plummy, a bit pruney, but good acidity holds it together. El Seque 2002 Alicante ($30) Mostly Monastrell. Extracted, intense, black cherry fruit and steely acidity, on the "international" side. Closa Battlet 2002 Priorat ($45) Raspberry Grenache fruit is framed by forward, somewhat intrusive new oak, but there's fine Priorat minerality beneath, waiting for a little cellar time to bring it out. CALIFORNIA Cinnabar 2002 Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay ($30) Smoky, rich, full, a big but stylish take on California Chardonnay. Alban 2003 Edna Valley Estate Viognier ($36) Varietal character is a bit overtaken by oak. Better on the palate, peachy and full-bodied. Lane Tanner 2003 French Camp Vineyard San Luis Obispo Syrah ($24) Bright and ripe, bold Syrah fruit in good balance. Bonny Doon 2001 California Le Cigare Volant ($36) The original "Rhone Ranger," Randal Grahm's California homage to Chateauneuf-du-Pape, is very pretty, perfume and fruit. Good balance, more "Rhonish" than I recall from earlier iterations. Robert Sinskey Vineyards 2001 Merlot Los Carneros ($30) Black fruit. Cherries and chocolate, excellent structure and balance, a Merlot that might have made the Sideways guy change his attitude. Robert Pecota 2002 Kara's Vineyard Napa Cabernet Sauvignon ($45) Fine, well-balanced Cabernet character; tannic, young but impressive. Rabbit Ridge 2002 LPR Russell Family Vineyard Reserve ($34) A blend of Zinfandel, Primitivo, Petite Sirah and other grapes, but Zin takes the lead role in its luscious bramble fruit, raspberries and blackberries. Jammy but beautifully structured, outstanding. Selby 2002 Sonoma County Bobcat Zinfandel ($35) Loads of fruit, big but refined. Nice. Qup� 2003 Central Coast Syrah ($18) Ripe fruit, good balance. A value treat. Edmunds St. John 2003 Bone-Jolly El Dorado Gamay ($20) Fresh berries, juicy, a whiff of meat. Gulpable. Talbott 2002 Logan Monterey Pinot Noir ($22) Red fruit, herbs, lots of spice and cola. Idiosyncratic but pleasant. Havens 2001 Napa Merlot ($27) Big, rich and powerful - the 14.5% alcohol shows. Good balance, though, in another serious Merlot. Laurel Glen 2001 Sonoma Mountain Estate Cabernet Sauvignon ($60) A beauty from a personal favorite California producer, showing very well today in spite of its youth, with black fruit and sleekly muscular structure over firm but palatable tannins. Paras Vineyards 2000 Mount Veeder Napa Cabernet Sauvignon ($100) Classic old-style California Cabernet. Outstanding. Not a cheap wine, and not easy to get ... Vintner Select received just a few cases of a wine that's usually available only from the winery. AUSTRALIA These two top Australian selections were tucked in at the end of a line of Californians. Dutschke 2002 Willow Bend Barossa Merlot-Shiraz ($25) Fruit-forward, good structure, an unexpected blend of varieties, but it works. Torbreck 2003 The Struie Barossa Shiraz ($50) Black plums and menthol in a big but balanced package. Torbreck is one of my Australian favorites, and The Struie is perhaps the point at which bargain price and value meet in its portfolio. I regret missing the table at which Robert Whale's Australian imports were presented, as it included such Ozzie favorites as Plantagenet, Coriole and Parker Coonawarra Estate. ________________________________________________________________________ TALK ABOUT WINE ONLINE If you'd like to ask a question or comment on today's topic (or any other wine-related subject), you'll find a round-table online discussion in our interactive Wine Lovers' Discussion Group, where you're always welcome to join in the conversations about wine. http://www.myspeakerscorner.com/forum/index.phtml?fn=1&tid=66275&mid=570216 If you prefer to comment privately, feel free to send me E-mail at wine(a)wineloverspage.com. I'll respond personally to the extent that time and volume permit. ________________________________________________________________________ PRINT OUT TODAY'S ARTICLE Here's a simply formatted copy of today's Wine Advisor, designed to be printed out for your scrapbook or file or downloaded to your PDA or other wireless device. http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/print050914.html ________________________________________________________________________ KATRINA FUND-RAISER: WINE SWEEPSTAKES WINNERS ANNOUNCED Many thanks to the 126 Wine Advisor readers and Wine Lovers' Discussion Group participants who made our charitable fund-raiser a big success by contributing well over $10,000 in donations to non-profit organizations involved in the Hurricane Katrina clean-up effort. We've closed out the associated wine sweepstakes today, and the winners, selected at random from all entries, are listed below, along with the wine prize that each winner will receive. Nick Molnar, New York, wins the Chateau Meyney "mini-vertical" (1986, 1989 and 1990) contributed by Dale Williams. Bob Archibald, Oregon, wins the 1990 Chateau l'Angelus contributed by Randy Buckner. Bill Gussett, Ohio, wins the 2001 J.J. Prum Goldcapsule Auslese contributed by John Trombley. Mark Lipton, Indiana, wins the 1999 J.L. Chave Hermitage contributed by Robin Garr. Carson Callahan, Florida, wins the 1998 Donnhoff (Oberhauser) Eiswein contributed by Randy Buckner. Johanna Turner, Kentucky, wins the Dehlinger 1998 Russian River Valley Syrah contributed by Robin Garr. Elizabeth Freligh, Massachusetts, wins the 1999 Bousquet de Papes Chante le Merle Chateauneuf du Pape contributed by David Bueker. Paul Marquardt, Washington, D.C., wins the 1982 Chateau Latour contributed by Bob Ross. Roger Merrick, Colorado, wins the 1990 Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron contributed by Randy Buckner. Marc Davis, Washington, wins the 2000 Chateau Leoville Barton contributed by Randy Buckner. Evan Schwartz, New York, wins the 1982 Leoville Las Cases contributed by Bob Ross. Dale Williams, New York, wins the 1975 Chateau Lafite contributed by Howie Hart. (Dale was the source of the fund-raiser idea, by the way, so the happy coincidence that made him a random winner returns a small, well-deserved reward for the significant effort and personal contributions he offered to make this venture a success.) John Tomasso, California, wins the 2001 Marcassin Chardonnay Three Sisters Vineyard contributed by Allan Bree. Dr. Arthur Lewis, Georgia, wins the 1998 Muller-Catoir (Muzbacher) Eiswein contributed by Randy Buckner. James Dietz, California, wins the 2000 Marcassin Pinot Noir Marcassin Vineyard contributed by Allan Bree. Clark D'Elia, Washington, wins the 2000 Chateau Lynch Bages contributed by Randy Buckner. Winners will be formally notified by E-mail today, along with contact information so winners and prize donors can get together to arrange shipment of the prize wines. (By the way, while winners were selected at random, I paired winners and prize donors non-randomly, seeking where practical to minimize the distance between winner and donor to simplify shipping issues.) And, although the contest is over, of course we continue to encourage contributions for Katrina relief and other worthy causes through Network for Good, a reputable organization that acts as a clearinghouse for online contributions to quality nonprofit organizations in many areas of need. A list of more than 100 worthy Katrina-related organizations will be found online at http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/animal_environ/hurricanes/ A NOTE ON RANDOMNESS: In case you're interested, I generated the random number lists used to select the winners from the intriguing Website Random.org, which provides an online form that generates true random numbers based on atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is statistically better than the pseudo-random numbers typically generated by computer programs. If you're interested in reading more about this, I recommend the essay Introduction to Randomness and Random Numbers by Mads Haahr, the host of Random.org, at http://www.random.org/essay.html ________________________________________________________________________ SUBSCRIBE: * WineLoversPage.com RSS Feed (free) http://www.wineloverspage.com/rss/ * 30 Second Wine Advisor, daily or weekly (free) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/index.shtml * Wine Advisor FoodLetter, Thursdays (free) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/foodletter.shtml * Wine Advisor Premium Edition, alternate Tuesdays ($24/year) http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/premium.phtml ARCHIVES: For all past editions: http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/thelist.shtml CONTACT US E-mail: wine(a)wineloverspage.com SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: For information, E-mail wine(a)wineloverspage.com ________________________________________________________________________ ADMINISTRIVIA To subscribe or unsubscribe from The 30 Second Wine Advisor, change your E-mail address, switch from weekly to daily distribution, or for any other administrative matters, click to http://www.wineloverspage.com/admin.php?id=20970&cs=7d1109b668af1f87d36d12e… We welcome feedback, suggestions, and ideas for future columns. We do not use this list for any other purpose and will never give or sell your name or E-mail to anyone. All the wine-tasting reports posted here are consumer-oriented. In order to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest, I purchase all the wines I rate at my own expense in retail stores and accept no samples, gifts or other gratuities from the wine industry. Wednesday, September 14, 2005 Copyright 2005 by Robin Garr. All rights reserved. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

20 years, 2 months

[wine] Syrah at The Craftsman

by Jim L. Ellingson

Greetings, Those of us not lucky enough to be in Piedmont this week are mining our cellars for a nice Syrah to bring to The Craftsman. Dave T has made the reservation for 8 people, Thursday at 6:30. We will adjust as needed. The Craftsman Restaurant 4300 E. Lake St. Minneapolis 612.722.0175 www.craftsmanrestaurant.com Dave T. Karin Jim Russ? Bill? Ruth? Janet? Nicolai? Annette? Cheers, Jim Craft's Fare A terrific bar lurks within East Lake Street's newest fine-dining restaurant by Dara Moskowitz The Craftsman Restaurant 4300 E. Lake St. Minneapolis 612.722.0175 www.craftsmanrestaurant.com In a new fine-dining restaurant, it's incredibly easy to make a million dollars--if you start with five million. It's not just that the startup costs are astonishing. You think it's expensive to buy a new dining room set and a case of wine? Try multiplying that by 40. There's the rent, the licensing, the liquor, the pots, the china, the ovens, to say nothing of the everyday food costs, which in fine dining are nothing short of astronomical. You say you want to pay a Maine diver to jump off a boat, pry up some scallops, and Fed-Ex them to you? Prepare to dig deep, my friend. Worse yet, when an aspiring fine-dining restaurateur finally spends more than he ever dreams possible, the customers drawn to fine dining aren't particularly frivolous or forgiving. Charge someone 10 bucks for dinner, and you can serve it off the back of a truck in a parking lot. Charge that same person 50 bucks, and you best compare favorably with that new TV that could fit in that one corner of the kitchen. And let's not even talk about the scrutiny: Every chef, every neighbor, every TV station, every architect, every interior designer, and every single amateur or professional critic within 40 miles will feel free to weigh in on your every choice, without any knowledge of the reasons you had to make them. Opening a fine-dining restaurant is wildly, desperately, insanely difficult. As a critic, I do know this. Which is exactly what makes it so difficult to contemplate the Craftsman, the newest fine-dining restaurant in Minneapolis. For it is a place that is really just a few dozen minor adjustments away from pulling off that insanely difficult feat. Let me explain. When I first started visiting Craftsman, I would enter the one large, very noisy, sage-and-mustard-colored main dining room, and I would contemplate the fine-dining menu. I would delight in the thoughtful grace notes of high living that the restaurant presents: the wonderful Rustica Bakery bread; the complementary vial of high-quality, high-priced Sciabica olive oil in all its eucalyptus and herb bouquet glory. I would order from the utterly ambitious fine-dining menu, and I would receive a parade of dishes that occasionally hit the mark, but were, more usually, a combination of various objects that showed some fine cooking skill, yet ultimately kind of fizzled out. Let's dwell first on the triumphs. The kitchen's most reliable dish is its ahi tuna poke. (That last word is pronounced pokey, for some reason.) In it, cubes of red ahi tuna about the size of gumdrops are dressed in a sweet and spicy tamarind vinaigrette, shaped into a low cylinder, and crowned with a fluffy wig of baby herbs. It is served with a paper-thin cracker, and costs $10.75. Slip a forkful of the slick tuna into your mouth alongside a few tangles of herb, and you encounter a sparkling achievement in texture and taste: the glassy tuna and grassy herbs, the spice of chile and the sweet jungle of tamarind. Sometimes the cracker might be striped wittily with black and white tracks of salt and pepper, and it might taste fried and lilting and light, like one of those Chinese soup noodles, suddenly ennobled. And sometimes it just might be kind of over-browned and nothing. In any event, the dish is whole, accomplished, and well balanced. It's the only appetizer that is. The Craftsman Caesar salad ($8.25) is a large volume of very thick garlic dressing coating two small, unseparated heads of lettuce beside a little block-stack of extremely hard homemade croutons. The Summit Oatmeal Stout-steamed Prince Edward Island mussels ($9.95) is a generous portion served in a wide white bowl; sometimes that bowl is filled to brimming with a super-salty brown broth topped with acrid-tasting burnt onions, and sometimes you only get a cup of the liquid so that the mussels aren't too salty, but they are cold. Sometimes these mussels come with slices of grilled bread that are beautiful, olive-oil-swabbed, and as roasty and pure as an autumn bonfire. And sometimes they arrive with slices of grilled bread so hard and inedible that your friends think it's a funny joke to pass a slice to you saying, "Here, try this, it's great." The pleasant natural saltiness of good-quality cold smoked salmon ($9.25) is lost when paired with a very salty salad of baby arugula in a soy-and-wasabi vinaigrette. The entr�es have a similar swing-and-a-miss tendency: Grilled citrus-marinated Wild Acres Farm chicken with grilled leeks and blue smashed potatoes ($18.75) was served so dry and overcooked that it was charmless, but the grilled leeks were sweet and elegant, and the smashed blue potatoes were nice, earthy, and rich. A thick piece of hamachi ($18.95) was served in a bowl surrounded by an off-puttingly sweet broth; the irony soba noodles and baby bok choy that accompanied the fish only seemed to accent how weird the broth was. A pricey nightly special of rose-salt-crusted marlin was disappointing: For $28.95, a big gray fist of fish was covered with a crust made of salt, rose petals, pink peppercorns, green peppercorns, and fennel, a crust which made it smell lovely, not just floral, but fresh and lively as a meadow. Unfortunately, the salt crust also made this fish nearly inedible. I found that any bite of marlin with any bit of the salt crust was so supremely salty that it turned my tongue to ribbons of fire, and any taste of the fish without the crust tasted unseasoned. The grilled ramps beside the fish were lovely curls of roasted springtime, but couldn't rescue the dish, which also came with dry and overcooked Yukon gold potatoes and mushrooms. As I pushed away dish after dish at the Craftsman, I glumly considered what a jerk I was going to feel like saying negative things about the first really nice upscale birthday-destination restaurant in the recent history of East Lake Street. I thought about the bazillions of dollars, hours, and dreams that owners Mike Dooley and Susan Kennedy-Dooley had invested in the spic-and-span restaurant and the pretty outdoor patio. I imagined the unpleasantness my notes would wreak upon the life of young chef Dennis Marron, until recently the sous-chef at W.A. Frost. I considered all the sweet, young, well-meaning servers who would likely suffer. And I thought about how the difference between a great kitchen and a good one isn't in the quality of ideas, but in the consistency of execution. I also devoted a few seconds to thinking about how much more fun it is to be fun than to be critical. As I toyed with my dessert, which on the occasion in question was a sort of rhubarb-strawberry cobbler topped with a scoop of ice cream and a chiffonade of fresh basil ($6.25), I wondered why such a pleasant, sturdy little cobbler was called an upside-down shortcake. I generally found that the desserts followed the same wildly unpredictable pattern as the rest of the fine-dining menu at the Craftsman: When I tried the "double-decker monster ice cream sandwich" it was made with oversweet M&M cookies that tasted like they could have come out of a convenience store, pressed together with a bit of nice chocolate ice cream ($6.25), and served with a tiny iced vanilla latte, which swam with odd white flakes. Another night, another dessert had been nothing short of elegant: To one side was a stack of understated lemon ginger snaps, to another side a snappy scoop of sharp citrus sorbet, and in the middle of these two was a pale little flat-topped dome of coconut-and-passion fruit panna cotta wearing a curly crown of sweet and tart orange zest. Scoop a forkful of the two together, and you experienced the delightful sensation of mellow and sharp, creamy and bright, frivolous and accomplished. I think it might have been at this point that I noticed something fairly obvious: While I sat at one of only two occupied tables in the fine-dining room, the bar was jumping. I had an idea. I assembled a reconnaissance party. We went to the Craftsman bar. We ordered burgers, from the bar menu, and cocktails. We had the best experience of all my visits to the Craftsman, by a country mile. The burgers and fries were the highlights. The Korean BBQ burger ($10.50) was fantastic. To make it, a big, buttery, fluffy patty of sweet meat is topped with thick, salty planks of well crisped bacon, a bit of white cheddar, sprigs of cilantro, grilled green onions, basil leaves, crunchy daikon, and, for wit and comedy, a little wad of translucent noodles. Then, the whole mess is sandwiched in a sweet, sturdy bun. The overall effect is like experiencing a perfectly executed boxing combination that leads to a knockout: sweet, spicy, meaty, salty, herbal, pow pow pow--and we're down for the count! Dang. The burger comes with a mug of wonderfully crisp, caramel-sweet, salty, slightly spicy, and entirely addictive sage-dusted French fries; the fries were so good that my friends kept passing the mug around even after they were groaning with fullness. Set that devastating combo beside a pint of crisp Rush River Amber Ale ($4.50) and you've got a burger to enter into the pantheon alongside the ones at the St. Paul Grill, Matt's Bar, and Vincent, which is the highest praise I know. The blue cheese burger ($9.25) topped with good-quality, ashy Black River Blue, arugula, tomato, and grilled green onions is also excellent. When you sit at the bar, you're more inclined to try the house special martinis, some of which are wonderful. The tomato water martini ($7.50), for instance, doesn't taste anything like tomatoes, really, but somehow the gin strained through them and steeped with white pepper and coriander comes out reminding one of ocean water made into a spear tip. The Minnesota pickle martini ($7.50), made with Minnesota Shakers' vodka and pickle juice and garnished with two little pickles feels somehow Depression-era and also deliciously modern, like eggs fried in a black iron skillet, or some other sort of thing that's so simple and simply brilliant it must be very old. In fact, everything having to do with Craftsman's beverage program is charming: The wine list is an unadulterated joy, offering so many of my favorite wines that I almost wondered if it could read my mind. Funky, yeasty, profound Schramsberg bubbly is available both by the glass (their Mirabelle, for $9.50) and by the bottle (the flirty and lilting Brut Ros� Napa Valley for $53). Their by-the-glass Pinot Gris, King Estate, for $8.25, is so wonderfully energetic and floral you wish you could plant it in the garden. The Terre Rouge "T�te-�-T�te" is one of the roundest, fullest, most spicily, strawberrily pleasant wines I've ever seen on a glass list for $7.50. I've only had Smith Wooton Cabernet Franc a very few times in my life, but I remember the stuff tasting like floating through the night sky in a black velvet balloon, so the next time I have $54 in my pocket, I know exactly what I'll do with it: Splash out for a bottle, and pair it with a couple of the Craftsman's burgers. This imaginary meal, I'll point out, unites the absolute most highbrow stuff on offer at the Craftsman, namely, one of their most expensive wines, and the most lowbrow, namely, a burger that costs less than certain appetizers. Is this silly? Yes. But also, in my experience, sensible. And so I offer this recommendation to you, dear readers: There is a wonderful bar hiding in the front of the Craftsman, a bar with fabulous burgers, great beers, and fine wines, and if you go there, it will be worth your while. Meanwhile, I offer this advice to you, dear Craftsman: When I say to you that you need to integrate the high and low parts of your establishment, and fast, I say it not because I want to be a jerk, but because I think it would be better for all of us if you hear it from me now, and not from your accountant two difficult years down the road. Chef Marron has a bold vision and a certain confident fearlessness that is impossible to teach, and I can well imagine him leading the Craftsman to great heights. � � Vol 26 � Issue 1274 � PUBLISHED 5/4/2005 URL: www.citypages.com/databank/26/1274/article13250.asp HOME: www.citypages.com City Pages is the Online News and Arts Weekly of the Twin Cities -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

20 years, 2 months

[wine] Matching Food and Wine (fwd-SFGC)

by Jim L. Ellingson

Great food, fun at JP's American Bistro. Ditto the BBQ Friday night at Chez Gregory. 10 tough matches Our Pairings expert plays matchmaker for foods that don't get along with most wines - Lynne Char Bennett, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, September 8, 2005 Click to View They're the problem children born to the marriage of food and wine -- the argumentative asparagus, bullying blue cheese and churlish hot chiles -- we send to their rooms because they act up when there's wine on the table. Some foods just aren't all that wine-friendly, clashing like a pair of band cymbals (think of bitter greens washed down with an oaky, tannic Cabernet Sauvignon). However, take comfort in knowing that there is a wine for every dish, and that like kids, all it takes are a few rules -- guidelines, actually, because nothing is hard and fast in matching food and wine -- for harmony to prevail. I chose 10 of the most challenging ingredients to match with wine and ultimately found a great partner for each. Two basic principles came out of the experimentation. One: White wines go well with a much broader range of foods than red wines. Two: Wines with no oak and a touch of sweetness (Riesling, Gewurztraminer and even simple White Zinfandel) and wines with bright acidity and citrus notes (Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris and brut sparking wine) are often the best choices for the most difficult ingredients. I recommend wines made primarily from major grape varieties in both the New World (the United States, New Zealand, Australia) and the Old (Europe), but there are so many different wines and foods that other matches will work, too. Everyone's palate is different, so try your own pairings. Trust your taste buds. Here are 10 of the toughest matches for wine: 1 Artichokes and asparagus When I offered my next-door neighbor some asparagus soup, he said, "No, thank you." He didn't like asparagus. "It tastes like grass," he said. Asparagus and artichokes are double trouble when it comes to matching them with wine. People either love them (like me) or hate them; a sip of the wrong wine can create a clash of the titans that even the most ardent asparagus or artichoke fan can't win. Both have a green, grassy, herbal character that by itself is not wine-friendly. Additionally, artichokes increase the pairing difficulty because they contain cynarin, a compound that causes a sweet aftertaste for most people and a metallic or bitter taste for others, though a few lucky people are not affected at all. The best wines to pair with artichokes and asparagus are citrusy Sauvignon Blancs and Pinot Grigios that can have a touch of herb or grassiness. Citrus aromas and flavors, brisk natural acidity and a lack of oak in the wines brighten the vegetables, much like a squeeze of lemon juice would. The wines' dryness and acidity help balance the sweet aftertaste from the artichoke. Sauvignon Blancs, especially those from New Zealand and the Sancerre region of France, echo the herbal notes in the vegetables, though they can be too overpowering for those who don't care for the green character. Improve the wine-food match by grilling or roasting the vegetables, or serving them with a mild vinaigrette or citrusy dressing to moderate their greenness and offset the artichoke's sweetness. A mayonnaise-based dip also works. 2 Bitter greens I recently discovered that I'm more sensitive to bitterness than most people. Now I understand why I don't like black coffee and can only drink it wimpified with milk and sugar. Though I grew up eating Chinese bitter melon and mustard greens, it still takes me a bite or two to calibrate my palate to the taste, though at times I crave some bitterness in my food. After moving to California, I started eating other vegetables with some bitterness: broccoli rabe, radicchio, endive, chicory and tiny Thai eggplants. You can add ingredients such as bacon, sauteed onions and cheese to bitter vegetables (or coconut milk in the case of Thai eggplants) to moderate their bitterness. You can also roast the vegetables, serve them with a sauce or dressing or add them to braises. But simply prepared, they're hard to match to wine. Blame our ancestors. Humans are usually able to detect bitterness at low levels, whether it's in coffee or medicine. Many poisonous plants are bitter. It's Mother Nature's way of protecting us from -- or at least making us think twice about -- what we might put into our mouths. Some people are very sensitive to bitterness compared to the general population, according to Linda Bartoshuk, a professor at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. These individuals, dubbed supertasters, have a greater number of taste buds for sweet, salty and sour as well as bitter. Bartoshuk says that a greater percentage of women than men -- and Asian women in particular -- are supertasters. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the non-tasters -- individuals who have fewer taste buds than normal. These folks detect less bitterness in food and wine. Bartoshuk provides an analogy: supertasters "taste" in neon colors and non-tasters in pastel; everyone else "tastes" normal colors. Very few wines can overcome bitter vegetables that are served plain. Yet bitterness is offset by a contrast of sweetness, which is why so many liquid medicines are sweet. Semisweet New World Rieslings serve this purpose (many German Rieslings have a petrol character that conflicts), so try serving them with unadorned radicchio, broccoli rabe and other bitter vegetables. Sauvignon Blancs are also good. Otherwise, if the vegetables are modified with other ingredients, pair the wine with the main flavors on the plate. At traditional Chinese banquets, the classic drink is Cognac, brandy or whisky diluted with 7Up, perfect for dishes that have a bitter element. Don't knock it until you've tried it. 3 Soy sauce Salt is one of the most important ingredients in cooking, enhancing flavors and making them pop. Saltiness gains complexity when it's in seasonings and condiments that have the savory character of umami, including soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce and oyster sauce. On its own, too much salt increases the perception of tannins in a wine. The umami in soy sauce intensifies that tannic effect. Any bitter notes or off flavors in wine -- especially red wine -- also come to the front, while the wine's fruitiness is muted. But soy sauce is not eaten as a stand-alone ingredient. It's used in a multitude of ways, including seasoning sushi, stir-frys, marinades and dipping sauces, so pair the wine with the overall flavors of the dish. An unoaked or lightly oaked Chardonnay with good fruitiness and medium- to medium-full body supports the depth and saltiness of dishes with soy sauce, though the toastiness will be accentuated. Also, an off-dry white wine like Riesling provides some sweetness to balance the saltiness of the soy sauce. Brut ros� and blanc de noirs sparkling wines and New World Pinot Noirs with low tannin levels have the fruit and acidity to complement dishes that contain soy sauce. The combination of Cognac and 7Up also does the trick -- Cognac cleanses the palate, and 7Up adds a touch of sweetness to balance the saltiness and strong umami of the soy sauce. 4 Candied yams I see yams and sweet potatoes baked with brown sugar and marshmallows only at Thanksgiving. Why is that? Tradition, most likely, plus it takes our teeth and palates the rest of the year to recover from the huge hit of sticky, sugary sweetness. Candied yams are one of the problem children -- besides the niece and nephew who keep chasing the cat around the house -- who visit on one of the most food-focused holidays of the year. Most wines taste thin and sour when they follow a bite of candied yam. As with wedding cake and other sweet desserts, the wine should be at least as sweet as or slightly sweeter than the food. Riesling has the ripe stone fruit and residual sugar to match the sweetness of candied yams. German Rieslings with Spatlese and Auslese levels of ripeness also have enough acidity to balance the residual sugar, so the wine doesn't seem cloying. Demi-sec sparkling wine, with 3.3 percent to 5 percent residual sugar, is sweet enough for many wedding cakes and candied yams that are on the less sweet side. The effervescence also helps cleanse the palate. 5 Chiles Heat is where it's at for many ethnic cuisines, where hot chiles combine with sweet, savory, spicy and pungent ingredients. Kung Pao chicken, Mexican salsa frescas, Thai red curry and Vietnamese dipping sauces are but a few of the dishes that can take your mouth from warm to burn. Beer is often the adult beverage of choice for chiles, because of its low alcohol and ice-cold serving temperature -- refreshing when your mouth's on fire. Alcohol exacerbates chiles' heat. Sweetness calms it. Tannins add insult to injury on palates already assaulted with chiles. So if you have only one wine choice, pick a well-chilled bottle of fruity Riesling with some residual sugar and balanced acidity. Slightly sweet White Zinfandel is also a good companion to fiery foods. 6 Chocolate "Cabernet and Chocolate" tastings are common in Wine Country, but let's face it -- Cabernet Sauvignon and chocoholics should stop meeting like this. Dark, bittersweet chocolate -- also called semisweet -- has a palate-coating texture, intensity of flavor and some bitterness. Cabernet Sauvignon's firm tannins and bitter, astringent character go toe to toe with dark chocolate, and neither one can win this bout. Wines that suit rich chocolate truffles must have similar fullness and intensity to the chocolate, and also need to be as sweet as or sweeter than the dessert. Fortified wines like Port and some late-harvest Zinfandels have the alcohol, sweetness and full body to stand up to a dense dark chocolate dish. Muscats and some white dessert wines hold their own with moderately chocolatey desserts like chocolate mousse. Moscato di Asti, a lightly sparkling Muscat from Italy, and demi-sec sparkling wines pair with lighter-textured, desserts with some chocolate in them, such as white wedding cake with chocolate filling. 7 Eggs Most people have eggs at breakfast, without wine. But egg-based dishes like quiches, frittatas, omelets and eggs Benedict are often on brunch and lunch menus and sometimes are enjoyed at dinner, too. The rich, palate-coating yolk of a runny egg can seem metallic when consumed with wine. Fully cooked hard-boiled eggs have yolks with a slightly crumbly texture and light sulfurous aromas and flavors -- also a wine-pairing challenge. A dry, medium-bodied wine with bright acidity and citrus aromas and flavors like Sauvignon Blanc, Alsatian Pinot Blanc and brut sparkling wine will cut through an egg yolk's richness. Mayonnaise, Caesar salad dressing and hollandaise sauce also contain egg yolks (with richness that primarily comes from oil or butter) and will work with a lightly oaked, moderately acidic Chardonnay that has a little buttery character. Add other ingredients to eggs to make them more wine-friendly, like onions, mushrooms, bacon and cheese. They provide texture, overshadow any sulfurous quality and modify the egg's flavor. No wonder sparkling wine -- with or without orange juice -- is often served with brunch -- it's a great match for eggs. 8 Blue cheese Pinot Noir, Syrah/Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon often are served with a cheese course, but if blue cheese is one of the selections, it won't do the wine, or your palate, any favors. There are many types of blue cheese, with varying levels of salt and acidity, richness and pungency. But in general, blue cheese and dry red wine bring out undesirable characteristics in each other and suppress the positive ones. For example, a salty blue cheese like Point Reyes Original Blue can make a moderately tannic Cabernet Sauvignon seem sharp and bitter. The most universal match with blue cheese is a fruity white wine with moderate acidity, no oak or minimal oak character and some residual sugar. The wine's ripe fruit and sweetness are a refreshing contrast to the pungency and salt of the cheese, while the wine's acidity refreshes the palate after the cheese's mouth-coating richness. The best results come when the wine and cheese have similar levels of acidity, body and intensity. New World Sauvignon Blancs are a surprisingly good blue-cheese partner; the match works because of the similarity in acidity, as long as there is no oak in the wine. Sweet dessert wines such as Sauternes and Port also work with blues like Roquefort and Stilton. If you must have a red wine, choose one that is fruity, with soft tannins. 9 Sweet and sour pork Balanced acidity and sweetness in food and in wine creates harmony in the mouth. However, high levels of acidity and sweetness in a dish can overwhelm the wrong wine, making it seem harsh and tannic. Sweet and sour pork, lemon chicken, sauerbraten, pickled beets, sweet pickles and cranberry sauce make dry wine taste tart, to the point of sourness, even though there is acidity in the dish. Keep the food's acidity and sugar in balance and lessen the intense pungency for the most successful wine matches. Fruity, off-dry, high-acidity wines are best with sweet and sour dishes. Off-dry to semisweet Gewurztraminer and Riesling are good bets, though Beaujolais Nouveau and fruit-forward, low-tannin Zinfandels will work if you insist on a red wine. 10 Vinaigrette You order a pricey Cabernet Sauvignon to go perfectly with your porterhouse steak, yet every time you take a bite of your side salad, you think you've wasted your money. What in the world is going on? Vinegar can be death to wine. If a vinaigrette is more acidic than a wine, the wine can taste flat by comparison. The vinaigrette's tartness can also make tannins or oak in wine seem harsher. But if the acidity level in the wine and vinaigrette are somewhat similar, the fruit in the wine comes to the front. Choose a Sauvignon Blanc with zippy acidity, citrus aromas and flavors and no oak for the salad course. The wine's acidity will help cut through the oil in the vinaigrette. If you're making your own salad dressing, reduce the vinegar to match less acidic wines like Viognier, Pinot Grigio/Gris and Gruner Veltliner. Use a higher proportion of oil to vinegar, say four or five parts oil to one part vinegar, or add some stock to increase the volume and dilute the acidity. Or try something less acidic in the vinaigrette, such as orange juice, rice vinegar, raspberry vinegar and even red and white wine, which all have less acidity than sherry, Champagne and red wine vinegar. Add other ingredients like fruit, nuts or cheese to the salad to round out its flavors and increase the chance for a successful match. Ten classic matches Just as some ingredients give wine-and-food aficionados a devil of a time, other successful pairings are made in heaven. Here are 10 can't-miss matches: Cabernet Sauvignon with steak grilled medium-rare: The steak's protein and fat smooth the wine's tannins, while the intensity, complexity and chewy texture of both steak and wine sing in harmony. California Chardonnay with lobster in butter or cream sauce: The rich, sea-sweet succulence of lobster was made for a rich, mouth-filling wine. When made in a buttery, oaky style, Chardonnay needs an equally opulent dish. Chianti with pasta bolognese: A high-acid Italian wine made from Sangiovese has red fruit aromas and flavors and finds a friend in the acidity of the tomatoes; Chianti's typical rusticity mirrors that of the dish. Pinot Noir with duck and mushrooms: Rich, fatty duck gets a refreshing wash of natural acidity from Pinot Noir, and the wine's earthiness and truffle character are spot-on matches for fungi; in addition, the berry fruit in the wine plays counterpoint to the gamy duck. Sauternes with foie gras: A rich dish calls for a wine with similar richness; at the same time, the wine's sweet fruit and honey flavors contrast with the meaty flavor of the foie gras. Although an unctuously sweet wine, the Sauternes also has enough acidity to cut through the fat of the foie gras. Sancerre with fresh goat cheese: The wine and cheese are complementary in their tanginess, yet the racy acidity of Sauvignon Blanc clears the palate for another bite of creamy, mouth-coating chevre. Muscadet, Chablis or Sauvignon Blanc with raw oysters: These clean, crisp, citrusy and sometimes minerally whites counter the briny, slightly metallic character of fresh-shucked oysters without overwhelming their taste and texture. Red Bordeaux with lamb: The meat's intense, gamy flavor stands up to a full-bodied red like Bordeaux; the lamb's fat moderates the wine's tannins. Sparkling wine with caviar: The effervescence and firm acidity of bubbly mediates the salt, oil and crunch of the caviar. Luxury to the nth degree makes this an especially sexy match. Zinfandel with barbecued ribs: A spicy wine complements a spicy dish; the inherent sweetness of the Zinfandel grape suits sauces that include brown sugar or molasses; and there is enough tannin and acidity in the wine to slice through the meaty, slightly fatty ribs. -- Lynne Char Bennett Basic pairing principles Some considerations in pairing wine to food include the similarities and contrasts of richness, texture, intensity and flavor of the dish and the wine. Similarities -- Match food and wine richness and texture. For example: lobster in butter sauce with a buttery Chardonnay. Contrasts -- Opposites can work too, especially in cases of richness versus acidity. For example: lobster in butter sauce with a crisp brut or blanc de blancs sparkling wine. Regionality -- Regional food usually pairs well with the wine produced there. For example: Alsatian choucroute with Riesling and wild salmon with Oregon Pinot Noir. Flavors -- Pair food and wine with similar flavors, such as steak in green peppercorn sauce with a peppery Syrah. Opposite flavors also can work -- a fruity, New World Pinot Noir goes with earthy sauteed mushrooms. Balance -- Balance the acidity of the dish or sweetness of a dessert so it is similar to the wine. When pairing wine with dessert, the wine should always be as sweet as or sweeter. Dominant flavors, sauces and accompaniments -- The main ingredient is not always the dominant flavor in a dish; other ingredients contribute flavors and textures -- like chicken braised with olives and tomatoes versus simple roast chicken -- and influence the wine pairing. Modifiers to a dish, such as sauces and garnishes, can improve a match or allow a dish to happily mesh with more than one wine. For example, while many white fish go best with lean white wines like Pinot Gris, adding a sauce made with rich chicken jus helps the dish work with richer Chardonnay; adding mushrooms makes it Pinot Noir-friendly. Other factors that influence the match include: Cooking method -- Steaming and poaching are better suited for lighter wines. Medium- and full-bodied red wines are better with grilled, roasted and braised dishes that have more intense flavors. Occasion -- A chilled ros� is perfect for a warm day at the beach or a picnic with grilled shrimp and vegetable pasta salad. Price and time commitment -- While some people might have meat loaf with a $100 Cabernet Sauvignon, similarity between the price of a wine and the ingredients in the dish usually makes more sense. Grab a pepperoni pizza and a bottle of inexpensive Chianti. Or, plan a dinner party and go all out with an elegant, earthy red Burgundy and made-from scratch pappardelle topped with light creamy wild mushrooms and shaved truffles. -- L. C. B. E-mail Lynne Char Bennett at lbennett(a)sfchronicle.com Page F - 1 URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/09/08/WIGCEEHLHD1.DTL �2005 San Francisco Chronicle -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

20 years, 2 months

[wine] Surdyks Presale Tasting - September 22nd

by jhegstrom＠csom.umn.edu

Surdyks is allowing me to offer the "Bubbles Discount" for either of the two tastings on the 22nd. Spotlight is normally $60 - $10 off with Bubbles Discount = $50 (includes BOTH tastings) Charity is normally $35 - $5 off with Bubbles Discount = $30 To take advantage of this discount, they would like you to call the store at 612-379-3232 during the DAY and ask for either Zack or Lynn who will sign you up. You need to mention that you want the "Bubbles Discount". Discount cannot be applied to internet ticket sales or tickets purchased at the store. S U R D Y K S Charity Pre-Sale Spotlight Tasting Event proceeds will benefit the American Heart Association Thursday, September 22nd Millennium Hotel - Loring Ballroom 1313 Nicolett Mall - Minneapolis 5:30pm - 6:30pm SPOTLIGHT TASTING: From 5:30 until 6:30, we will have our Spotlight Tasting. During this time, some of highest quality wines of the Fall Sale will be featured, as well as some “special purchase” wines available during this tasting only! The donation is $60/person to attend this portion of the event. Join us to sample the best of the best in this exclusive tasting taking place before the main event. Arrive Early! Attendees will be invited to participate in a Scavenger Hunt for a one carat “Heart on Fire” diamond pendant! The first person to solve all of the clues will win the pendant worth $12,000! Jewelry has been donated by J.B. Hudson Fine Jewelers. $60.00 (tax deductible) Price includes both events (Main Charity Tasting and Spotlight) 7:00pm - 9:00pm Try before you buy! Our Pre-Sale Wine Tasting Event will feature more than 200 of the wines you’ll find in our fall sale. Enjoy cheeses and appetizers from Surdyk’s Bistro 2GO, artisan chocolates, and live jazz performed throughout the evening. In addition, there will be a silent auction featuring exciting wine items, gift certificates to great local restaurants, and a few must see surprises. And best of all, attendees have the opportunity to order wines at the sale prices two weeks before the sale begins! All wine orders taken the night of the event will be at sale prices. Donation - $35 in advance $40.00 at the door

20 years, 3 months

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win September 2005