Just in time for the Inoni tasting (this Sunday, 3-6, $50)
Ciao,
Jaime
October 24, 2011
Pure Montalcino, Minus the Wait
By ERIC ASIMOV
IN retrospect, what was all the fuss about? Here sat the wine panel, having tasted 20 bottles of Rosso di Montalcino, reveling in the unmistakable earthy, dusty flavors of pure sangiovese. With their winsomely bitter, citrus-tinged cherry flavors, these wines were soulful and elemental, like good trattoria food. They wanted less talking and more drinking.
In fact, they were so good that I couldn.t help but wonder about all the conflict in Montalcino, where it.s been a rough few years for the wine business. First came scandal in 2008, when some producers of Brunello di Montalcino were accused of adding other grapes to a wine that by law must be made of only the sangiovese grape. Then came prolonged debate over whether to change that rule and others, along with soul searching, breast beating, garment rending and other essential expressions of an acute identity crisis.
It.s not as if the region were tampering with centuries of tradition. Brunello di Montalcino was a relative latecomer to the ancient world of Italian wines. Although wines had been labeled Brunello di Montalcino since the late 19th century, the name was largely the province of one producer, Biondi-Santi. The rules of the appellation were not codified until 1968, and the wines did not explode in popularity until the 1980s.
Even from the outset, the rules for Brunello di Montalcino struck many as being overly rigid. In addition to the 100 percent sangiovese standard, the wines had to be aged at least 48 months, 42 of them in barrels, before they could be released. Over time, the period of barrel-aging was reduced to 24 months, although producers were still required to age their wines for four years, delaying substantially the return on their investment.
To help ease this burden, back in the early .80s the authorities created Rosso di Montalcino, a wine that, like Brunello, could be made of only sangiovese but was required to have only one year of aging before it could be sold. In addition to improving cash flow, the new category let producers release as Rosso the wine that didn.t make the cut as Brunello or that came from grapes grown outside the areas designated for Brunello.
So far, so good. So, again, why were people unhappy? Brunello made in the traditional manner can yield a wine that is lean and tight, requiring years to unwind, even after its long aging at the winery. While good traditional Brunellos like those made by Biondi-Santi offer a rare combination of purity, depth of flavor, intensity and grace, many consumers did not want to make the investment in time.
What.s more, in the late 1980s and .90s, critics and consumers became enamored of wines that did not conform to any appellation rules , like the Super-Tuscans. These wines used foreign grapes like cabernet sauvignon, syrah and merlot, and many were aged in new barrels of French oak.
Seeing the popularity of these luxuriant wines, many Brunello producers began their own stylistic experiments. The wines grew darker, softer, thicker, explosively fruity. Suspicions arose that not all Brunellos were 100 percent sangiovese. You know the rest: scandal, debate and, finally, in late 2008, affirmation of the 100 percent sangiovese rule.
Yet another effort was mounted to ease the sangiovese standard, this time in Rosso di Montalcino. Just last month, producers voted again to uphold the 100 percent requirement.
With wines as good as those in our tasting, why would anybody have wanted to change the rules? For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by two guests, Lacey Burke, a sommelier at Del Posto, and Gabrio Tosti di Valminuta, the proprietor of De-Vino, a largely Italian wine shop on the Lower East Side.
We all found common ground in our love for sangiovese, and thought our favorites were excellent representatives of the grape. Most of the wines were from the 2008 and 2009 vintages, with one 2007 thrown in. In the past I.ve tasted Brunellos and Rossos that I suspected were not exclusively sangiovese, but none of these wines raised suspicions.
Naturally, we did find some stylistic deviations. Some wines were leaner and lighter-bodied; others were more robust. Some tasted of new oak barrels; others tasted just of the grape. But very few of the wines were polarizing. It seemed as if, in the case of these wines at least, the so-called traditionalists and modernists were meeting somewhere in the middle.
Our No. 1 bottle was the 2008 from Le Chiuse, a lovely, pure and balanced wine that seemed perfumed with the exuberant essence of young sangiovese. Likewise, our No. 2 bottle, the 2009 Altesino, was graceful and silky with clear, direct aromas and flavors. The 2008 Poggio Antico, our No. 3 wine, was denser and more tannic than the first two but with attractive aromas of red fruits and flowers. No. 4 was the gorgeous, earthy and vibrant 2009 Uccelliera.
Unlike Brunellos, most of these Rossos are ready to drink now and over the next few years. They are less structured than Brunellos, and simpler, but offer great values. In fact, 13 of our 20 wines cost $25 or under, and our best value, the fresh, graceful 2009 Mocali, was just $17.
At the more expensive end, at $38, were the 2009 Valdicava, a lush, rich yet delicious wine, and the 2009 Conti Costanti, a dense, tannic wine that was one of the few in the tasting that did seem to need a little more aging.
Returning to the question of what all the fuss was about, I will say that I am thrilled that the Montalcino producers will retain the sangiovese rules. Does this limit the flexibility of producers in years when they are unhappy with their sangiovese crop? Of course. Yet producers are not without recourse. They do not, after all, need to call their wines Rosso di Montalcino. Plenty of wines are labeled Rosso di Toscana, indicating they are red wines from Tuscany, but don.t necessarily conform to the rules of any appellation.
Sangiovese, exclusively, is the foundation on which Brunello di Montalcino, and Rosso by extension, have been built. To change that would blur the meaning of the appellation and our vision of its wines.
Tasting Report
Le Chiuse, $22, *** ½
Rosso di Montalcino 2008
Pure, firm, balanced and perfumed with great texture and persistent flavors of red fruit, flowers and smoke. (Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York)
Altesino, $25, *** ½
Rosso di Montalcino 2009
Dense and rich yet clear and graceful with silky, lush flavors of flowers, cherries and licorice. (Winebow/Leonardo LoCasio Selections, New York)
Poggio Antico, $33, ***
Rosso di Montalcino 2008
Dark and tannic with earthy, spicy aromas of cherries and violets. (The Sorting Table, Napa, Calif.)
Uccelliera, $28, ***
Rosso di Montalcino 2009
Earthy and well-balanced with sweet, ripe fruit flavors and vibrant acidity. (Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, N.Y.)
BEST VALUE
Mocali, $17, ***
Rosso di Montalcino 2009
Pure, fresh, light-bodied and elegant with pretty aromas of red fruit, flowers and smoke. (Michael Skurnik Wines)
Valdicava, $38, ** ½
Rosso di Montalcino 2009
Pure and bright with floral, mineral and red fruit aromas. (Vinifera Imports, Ronkonkoma, N.Y.)
Collemattoni, $23, ** ½
Rosso di Montalcino 2007
Meaty, smoky, dense and tannic with aromas and flavors of cherries and violets. (Vignaioli Selections, New York)
Campogiovanni, $25, ** ½
Rosso di Montalcino 2009
Tannic and dense, with aromas of minerals and dark fruit. (San Felice U.S.A., Manhasset, N.Y.)
Col d'Orcia, $24, ** ½
Rosso di Montalcino 2009
Rich, plush and ripe with flavors of black cherries, licorice and a touch of oak. (Palm Bay International, Boca Raton, Fla.)
Conti Costanti, $38, ** ½
Rosso di Montalcino 2009
Earthy with persistent aromas and flavors of ripe black cherries. (Empson U.S.A., Alexandria, Va.)
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
* james(a)brewingnews.com James.Ellingson(a)StThomas.edu *
October 14, 2011
German Rieslings, Too, Go Austere
By ERIC PFANNER
ELTVILLE AM RHEIN, GERMANY . Austerity is all the rage in Germany. Its budgeteers are not the only people spreading the word that less is more. Have you tried any German wine lately?
While classic, sweet German Riesling still attracts a cult following in places like Britain and the United States, Germans now consider anything with even a hint of sugar the ultimate in kitsch. As a result, German producers are shifting from sweet to dry wines.
Yet even some Germans were shocked by the dryness, the austerity, of the Rieslings from the latest vintage to be bottled, 2010. How dry are these wines? Painfully so, in some cases. Deliciously so, in others.
.This is not wine to sit down and relax,. said Raimund Prüner of the S.A. Prüate in the Mosel region. .This is food wine. We make wine, not fruit juice..
Last year was a freak vintage in Germany. First, the vines flowered irregularly, leaving growers with a tiny crop. In central and southern parts of western Germany, where the Mosel and the other main German wine regions are located, the summer started with a heat wave, but that was followed by lots of rain and hail in August. The harvest was labor-intensive.
Some German journalists initially labeled 2010 an .Arschjahr,. which translates loosely as a bad year. That assessment was premature.
Growers who were patient, waiting until late October or even November to harvest, picked Riesling grapes that were unusually ripe . but also, bizarrely, unusually high in acidity, which normally fades the more the grapes ripen.
This provided the raw material for wines that display an exquisite tension. They are rich and concentrated but also, because of the acidity, dry and fresh. Imagine corking up a Greek fiscal planner and a German accountant in a bottle and letting them fight it out.
This juxtaposition, of ripeness and acidity, is exactly what fans of sweet Riesling crave, and 2010 certainly looks like a great vintage for the dwindling number of sweet German wines. But what about the dry Rieslings? Would they, too, manage to strike this balance? Or would the acidity, which is prominent in dry Riesling even in normal years, overwhelm in the 2010 vintage?
The VDP, the main trade association for wine growers in Germany, showed off more than 100 of the best dry German Rieslings at tastings last month at the Eberbach Cloister, which nestles among the vines in the Rheingau region, near the city of Wiesbaden.
The producers featured their so-called Grosse Gewäse, which means .great growths. . or, to use the more familiar French equivalent, .grands crus.. The adoption of the term, introduced only a decade ago, reflects growers. newfound ambitions of making dry wines that can rival the great chardonnay-based whites of Burgundy.
The jury is still out on that effort, not least because of confusion over the naming system. The German wine authorities have not endorsed the Grosses Gewäs designation, so growers are not permitted to print it on their labels; generally they just use the initials .G.G..
Just to make things more complicated, one German wine region, the Rheingau, has adopted a rival designation for its best dry wines: Erstes Gewäs, which is equivalent to the French term .premier cru,. or .first growth.. This is permitted on labels.
What is more, these recently introduced terms sit alongside a longstanding classification that employs separate terms to indicate ripeness levels. This system is more useful for sweet wines, but some growers also use it for their dry wines, which are sometimes labeled as such, other times not.
And, at a time when Americans like to shorten the names of grape varieties like cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay to .cab. and .chard,. German producers still delight in selling wine under colorful, polysyllabic, alliterative vineyard names like Kreuznacher Kröpfuhl or Ruppertsberger Reiterpfad. (.Kreuznach turtle pond. and .Ruppertsberg riding path,. respectively.)
As challenging as German wine nomenclature can be, that is nothing compared with actually tasting the wines . at least, tasting more than 100 dry 2010 Rieslings in a single afternoon. Rarely have I encountered such a range of styles and quality in a group of wines from a single vintage and a single variety, all of them ostensibly made in the same general way.
At their worst, the 2010 Grosse Gewäse are sudsy, carbolic and bilious. At their best, they are among the most sublime young Rieslings I have tasted . perhaps among the best young whites of any kind. Fortunately, there were quite a few examples of the latter: wines that were engineered with Teutonic precision but that danced across the palate, intertwining ethereal citrus notes with a seam of serious salinity.
As with any good Riesling, minimalist winemaking . there.s that austerity again . is crucial. While chardonnay, for example, is often aged in small oak barrels and subjected to a secondary fermentation to fatten the wine, such treatments are frowned on by lovers of German Riesling. As a result, any flaws in the terroir, the vintage or the winemaking are cruelly exposed.
While some producers decided to de-acidify their 2010s to flesh them out and make them more approachable, others decided to work with what nature provided.
.For many people, the question was, where do we go with a vintage like this?. said Christoph Graf, commercial director at the Reichsrat von Buhl estate in the Pfalz region. .Do we want to emphasize the potential power, or the expression of the site? We were convinced that the material was there, it was ripe..
The best dry 2010s combine power . in a coiled, compact kind of way . with site expression, something that became clear when running through four different Grosse Gewäse from Von Buhl. All of them were from vineyards in the village of Forst, but the style varied from direct and saline, for the Pechstein, to rich and expansive for the KirchenstüThe strongest-performing regions seemed to be Pfalz and Nahe, which is named after a tributary of the Rhine that lies north of Pfalz but south of Germany.s two best-known wine regions, the Mosel and Rheingau.
Some growers in the Mosel still seem more comfortable with sweet wines or with lighter weight, more delicate dry whites than with the intense, concentrated Grosses Gewäs style, which is like the Mercedes S-Class of German winemaking.
That is not necessarily meant as a criticism. I think 2010 favored the approach of producers like Reinhard Heymann-Löstein, a Mosel maverick who stops the fermentation of his top .dry. wines just short of completion, leaving around 20 grams, or 0.7 ounces, of sugar. Because of the high acidity in 2010, these wines still tasted dry, though not punishingly so. Yet they breach the Grosses Gewäs rules, and are not permitted to carry the .GG. designation, despite being shown off at the VDP tasting.
As the new standard-bearers for German winemaking, the Grosse Gewäse come at a price . usually, at least .20, or $26. Yet even the best bottles rarely cost much more than .35, so they compare favorably with top whites from regions like Burgundy.
Speaking of prices, there is another advantage to buying these wines, at least for readers in Europe: the quality of German online wine shops. Retailers like Wein Refugium and Pinard de Picard deliver to my home in Paris at .10.50 and .9 per case, respectively . about half the fee that most French Internet retailers charge for domestic delivery.
As good as some of the wines from the top estates are, I.m not sure 2010 is the best vintage to introduce Riesling neophytes to the pleasures of this variety, or to German wines more generally. The 2009s, which are widely available, are much more user-friendly, and considerably more consistent.
Aficionados, on the other hand, ought to consider adding some of the dry 2010s to their cellars.
.It really is a year for Riesling lovers,. said Oliver Mü winemaker at the Wagner-Stempel estate in the Rheinhessen region.
October 14, 2011
Abundant Austerity
By ERIC PFANNER
Here are some dry 2010 Rieslings that made strong first impressions. The first name is that of the producer, followed by the vineyard site and, finally, the wine region.
Döoff, Hermannshö, Nahe. For me, the best wine of the tasting, from one of the most lauded producers in Germany. Complex citrus notes. Poised and refined, like a Puligny-Montrachet from Burgundy. About .33.
Schär-Fröch, Felseneck, Nahe. The Nahe region is firing on all cylinders. This fully leaded, high-octane example sent German critics into rapture. It is smooth and very long. About .38.
Robert Weil, Gränberg, Rheingau. A civilized wine from a producer that is best known for its sweet output. The ferocious acidity of 2010 has been nicely tamed here. About .35.
Reichsrat von Buhl, Jesuitengarten, Pfalz. From one of several top sites in the village of Forst. This combines salinity and breadth and will be very digestible . in time. About .30.
Wittmann, Aulerde, Rheinhessen. The most approachable of three Grosse Gewäse from this estate, which produces concentrated, deep yellow Rieslings, balancing the fruit and acidity nicely. About .24.
Wagner-Stempel, Höerg, Rheinhessen. A very ripe wine that shouts out, .This could only be Riesling,. even if it is fruitier than most of what was produced in Germany in 2010. About .24.
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
* james(a)brewingnews.com James.Ellingson(a)StThomas.edu *
>From the NYTimes
Enjoying Cabernet of a Certain Age
By ERIC ASIMOV
THE wine in my glass was a pale, rusty red, browning at the edges, as you.d expect in an older wine. The aroma, with its intimations of tobacco and graphite, suggested a good Pauillac, with an added touch of anise. It was lovely and graceful, tangy and deliciously fresh despite the years, and the flavors persisted in the mouth. Beautiful.
It was a 1966 Charles Krug Vintage Selection cabernet sauvignon, the top-of-the-line wine from this historic Napa Valley producer, and if the wine was a great pleasure, I can.t say it was a great surprise.
I.ve enjoyed enough beautifully aged Napa cabernets to be convinced of their age-worthiness, at least the wines made decades ago. But the dominant character of Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon has changed since 1966, and one of the questions about modern-day Napa cabernets is whether they will be able to age as well as their forebears.
In general, the wines have become bigger, softer, fruitier, more powerful and less structured. Whether the currently fashionable style is an improvement is a matter of taste.
Personally, I long for the old days, when Napa cabernets had an elegance and grace that I rarely find today. Some recent wines recall the older ones, or at least modern versions of them: Mayacamas, Corison, Dominus, Frog.s Leap, Heitz and Smith-Madrone, just to name a few. But most are after something else.
I understand I.m in the minority, and I don.t mean to be nostalgic, or to overly romanticize the past. Of course many wines from the 1960s that we taste today are going to be great. The rest fell by the wayside long ago, or were not very good at the outset.
I had an opportunity to reflect on the evolution of Napa cabernets recently at a tasting of 20 old vintages of Charles Krug Vintage Selection cabernet sauvignons from the years 1961 to 1991, culled directly from the Krug cellars, and held at Sotheby.s in New York, which may auction off some older Krugs. The tasting marked the 150th anniversary of the winery, which was founded in 1861 by a Prussian immigrant.
Charles Krug was purchased in 1943 by Cesare and Rosa Mondavi. Their two sons, Robert and Peter, ran it together until a feud resulted in Robert starting his own winery in 1966. Fame, fortune, great accomplishment and loss came his way. Peter stayed on at Krug, plugging away as a mid-range Napa winery, with his two sons, Marc and Peter Jr. Robert Mondavi died in 2008. Peter Mondavi, who will turn 97 in November, is still going strong, showing up to work at the winery every day, Peter Jr. said.
The Vintage Selection is their top wine, made in most but not all vintages, usually but not always 100 percent cabernet, from various vineyards over the years.
Peter Mondavi Jr. was at the tasting to discuss the wines. He, too, has his doubts about how modern Napa cabs will age, even as his own Krug cabernets have become plusher and fruitier, with more alcohol and higher pH levels, which indicates lower acidity.
.It.s a big question and a concern,. he said. .I have serious doubts. The chemistry is out of whack, and the pHs were much lower than today, which affects the aging ability..
The wines were served in a series of four flights: five wines from the 1960s, four from the .70s, eight from the .80s, rounded out by 1990 and .91. The choice of vintages, Mr. Mondavi said, was based both on what he and his family believed would show well, and on availability.
The Krug wines of the .60s bear little resemblance to today.s Napa cabs. It.s not just that they were so much lower in alcohol . 12 percent or so with a high in 1966 of 12.8. The wines were also fermented in open-top tanks made of redwood, a traditional material in California going back to the 19th century. Not until 1990, in fact, did Charles Krug install modern stainless-steel fermentation tanks with technology to control temperatures.
The first three wines, from 1961, .62 and .64, were aged in old barrels of American oak. Not until 1965 did Krug obtain its first barrels of French oak, which are now standard, although with significant exceptions.
My favorites included the .66, of course. The 1961 was browning at the edges, with a slight aroma of mushrooms. Yet beneath this autumnal quality was a freshness and harmony, and a sense of nobility. The .62 also had an underlying freshness, with a touch of the herbal among the aromas. Nowadays, herbal is often the kiss of death in Napa, where so many winemakers strive to avoid any suggestion of .green.. But this wine was lovely.
.I.m not big on herbal, veggie cabs, but it adds subtle nuances,. Mr. Mondavi said. .Today, they.re trying to get all of that out of the cabs..
The .74, too, had pleasant herbal notes. It was not a complex wine, but it was graceful and relaxed, seemingly effortless. The .79 stood out from the others. It was pleasant and elegant, but had a touch of eucalyptus among the aromas. Mr. Mondavi revealed that it, alone among these wines, had been aged in what he called Yugoslavian oak.
The wines from the 1980s all seemed markedly younger. Sweet fruit seemed to leap from the glass of the .80, and the lingering flavors became more complex with exposure to air. The .86 had a mineral, graphite quality that, like the .66, reminded me of a Pauillac, and I especially liked the .88, which had an aroma of violets along with a touch of mushrooms, for complexity.s sake, and gorgeous fruit flavors. The 1991 had a spicy aroma, along with the telltale graphite. It seemed more complex than the monolithic, fruity 1990.
The youngest wine in the tasting, the .91, came along just as Napa.s cult cabernets began to make names for themselves.
.It would be great if people today had a great appreciation of these wines,. he said. .But it.s difficult to reconcile them with the marketplace..
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
* james(a)brewingnews.com James.Ellingson(a)StThomas.edu *
Aromatic whites cast a spell
Jon Bonnéunday, October 2, 2011
I'm deep in the midst of the charmed category designated as "other" as I look through white wines for this year's Top 100 Wines.
"Other" can include the ripe tree-fruit pleasures of good Pinot Gris, which by its name usually signals that someone wanted a bit more flesh and depth in the wine - probably with a nod to Alsace rather than to Italy's often peckish version.
"Other" can also include the pine-accented charms of Chenin Blanc, a grape that remains a workhorse in California but a rarely appreciated one (see sfg.ly/nJXxnN). We had hoped that more varietal Chenin Blanc would appear this year, and a few new examples surfaced. There's a ways to go in reviving this affordable, interesting grape, but there is progress.
And then there are grapes like Malvasia, still a relative rarity here but a beauty when done right.
All these are great alternatives for those who already enjoy wines like Gewurztraminer (which we'll look at on its own as fall progresses) and Riesling. The best common link is their aromatic signatures; when made well their inherent pleasures are on full display, with no winemaking to obscure them.
2010 WillaKenzie Estate Willamette Valley Pinot Gris ($21, 13.5% alcohol):
Oregon has long banked on the other Pinot as one of its strong points, and this longtime Willamette name taps plantings from the mid-1990s in the Yamhill-Carlton district for a plump but peppy effort fermented in steel. Like a ripe Golden Delicious spiked with thyme.
2010 Horse & Plow Filigreen Farm Anderson Valley Pinot Gris ($20, 14.2%):
Chris Condos and Suzanne Hagins usually aim for more Rhoneish fare with their label, but here they've harnessed fruit from Mendocino's Alsatian haven for a ripe, barrel-fermented effort. Opulent pear, fig and orange peel flavors, with a distinct Boston cream note but plenty of freshness for its larger style. Open it 15 minutes before you serve.
2010 Picnic Wine Co. Blue Plate Clarksburg Chenin Blanc ($10, 13.3%):
Clarksburg, in the Sacramento River delta, has long been California's answer to the Chenin bounty that is France's Loire. The grape seems to love the mild, river-influenced land, and wise drinkers know that Clarksburg Chenin is worth keeping eyes peeled for. So kudos to this new label helmed by Mason Cellars' Grant Hemingway and two friends; they've devised a great value that shows off a fresh pear blossom Chenin presence, with a bit of grassy bite and ripe apricot fruit. Fresh, crisp and breezy, with a tad of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay blended in.
2010 Etude Carneros Pinot Gris ($24, 13.6%):
Etude proudly continues its tradition with this grape in a Carneros iteration. Aged in small steel barrels, it's a bit shy - taking some time for the aromas to come play. There's saline edge to juicy pear and peach flavors, and its softer tree-fruit opulence is balanced by the fresh bite of salted plum. A serious, noteworthy effort.
2010 Birichino Monterey Malvasia Bianca ($15, 13%):
Take note of this new label, from Bonny Doon veterans John Locke and Alex Krause. They've found a plot of this aromatic Italian variety near the Santa Lucia range, and with some savvy use of lees they've brought forward a dense texture to rich orange and Anjou pear fruit. It's just the foil for the sappy, floral scents of Malvasia - think nutmeg and rose petal - that burst out of the glass.
2010 Husch La Ribera Vineyards Mendocino Chenin Blanc ($11, 12.8%):
This Anderson Valley label has long worked with Chenin Blanc, and theirs is back in fine form with an orange creamsicle finish that balances its cool piney presence and tree fruit. Friendly, approachable stuff.
2010 Pine Ridge California Chenin Blanc-Viognier ($14, 13%):
Napa's Pine Ridge has been tapping Clarksburg Chenin (and adding Viognier for a touch of plushness and peach) for years in this affordable blend. The mandarin, freesia and green apple flavors showcase great acidity and a hint of sweet nectar to soften the finish.
Jon Bonnés The Chronicle's wine editor. E-mail him at jbonne(a)sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/02/FDNC1LAUJR.DTL
This article appeared on page G - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
* james(a)brewingnews.com James.Ellingson(a)StThomas.edu *
September 30, 2011
The Secret to Buying Bordeaux
By ERIC PFANNER
PARIS . At 8:55 on a dreary September morning in a dull corner of Paris, several dozen shoppers are lined up outside a supermarket. Some are dressed in bankers. pinstripes, others in motorcycle jackets. With a firm grip on their shopping carts, they wait for the doors to open.
At 9 the security guard lifts the grate. Ignoring a special on baby wipes and a stack of dried sausages, the crowd heads toward a ziggurat of wine built out of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of wooden cases. Some of them contain the most precious grands crus of Bordeaux.
Châau Gruaud-Larose? This way, monsieur. Saint-Pierre? Over there, next to the Calon-Sér and the Léille-Barton. Lafite Rothschild, Haut-Brion or d.Yquem? Got .em, too, but no more than two bottles of each per customer, please.
This is no ordinary day at Carrefour. The wine fair, an autumn institution at French supermarkets, is under way.
Every year, French chains like Carrefour, Auchan and E. Leclerc sell hundreds of millions of euros worth of wine during these promotions, which take place in September and October. For some chains, the fairs represent a quarter or even a third of their annual wine sales.
This year, the emphasis has been on the 2009 Bordeaux vintage, called the greatest ever by some critics. Many of the wines have been selling at a sizable discount to the prices available from specialty merchants. Their presence in French supermarkets, in surprisingly large quantities, shines a revealing light on the often opaque global market for Bordeaux.
The greatest wines of the region have soared in price in recent years. After doubling or tripling their prices for the 2009s, owners of the top Bordeaux chateaux followed up with double-digit increases for the 2010s . another excellent vintage, to be sure.
The global economy may be suffering, but Bordeaux-drinking millionaires and billionaires are doing fine. Newly rich Chinese consumers, with a growing interest in wine, are said to be fueling demand.
Yet paradoxically, Bordeaux, the largest high-quality wine region in France, still produces more wine than it can sell. This surplus, in some vintages, extends relatively far up the price and quality scales. The chateaux need to unload this wine in a way that does not undermine international prices. The fairs are one way to do so, because word does not travel far beyond France.
In some cases, the wines sell for less in the supermarkets than they do during the so-called en primeur season, a futures market for wine that takes place more than a year before the wines are even bottled.
For example, Carrefour this year offered 2009 Lynch-Bages, one of the most prized wines from the Pauillac appellation in Bordeaux, at .86.75, about $115, 16 percent below the average en primeur price, said Bertrand Le Guern, a retired mathematician who runs a price-tracking Web site.
.Every year there is this fight between those who say you should buy en primeur and those who say you should buy at the wine fairs,. Mr. Le Guern said in a telephone interview from his home in Albi. .For many people in France, buying en primeur no longer makes sense..
An Internet wine auction company in Paris, iDealwine, gave up selling en primeur entirely for the 2010 vintage as French customers realized they would be able to save money by waiting for the wines to arrive at the autumn fairs next year.
.We haven.t had anyone ask us: What happened? Why?. said Angéque de Lencquesaing, a founder of iDealwine.
In some cases, wine fair prices are higher than en primeur prices, but still far below the prevailing market rates. Take Carruades de Lafite, a so-called second wine, made from grapes rejected for inclusion in the grand vin of Chateau Lafite Rothschild. A few years ago a Carruades went for around .30. But the price has soared over the last few years amid a Chinese craze for anything associated with Lafite Rothschild.
Last year, Carrefour sold the 2008 Carruades at .79 a bottle during its wine fair, nearly double the en primeur level. In China, however, the price had already reached to more than .200.
This created a neat little arbitrage operation for some intrepid wine fair-goers, who raced around suburban Paris on their mopeds, snapping up as many bottles of Carruades as they could find and reselling them via Internet auction sites at three times the price.
For wine drinkers rather than speculators, the wine fairs offer bargains, too. This year, among the good values, 2009 Rollan de By, a well-made Medoc, has been selling for about .12.40, 17 percent less than the en primeur price, according to Mr. Le Guern.
2009 was a particularly good year for cabernet sauvignon, the main grape variety for red wines from the Left Bank of Bordeaux . including the Medoc, Graves and other areas to the west of the Garonne River and the Gironde estuary. The Right Bank, where the big names are Saint-Éilion and Pomerol, may be marginally less consistent, but the general level is still high.
Dozens of well-made 2009s from all of these regions have been selling for less than .15 at the wine fairs, proving that, despite the bubble in its most prestigious wines, Bordeaux can still be a great source of value.
There is also plenty of bad wine: bulk production with a nonexistent, clip-art .chateau. on the label, often adorned with a medal from a dubious wine competition, the kind in which anyone who enters receives an award. And the selection from other France wine regions tends to be meager. Burgundy, for one, does not make quality wines in large enough volumes to satisfy the needs of national supermarket chains.
And you can forget about wine shop ambiance. Last autumn, seconds after an Auchan store had opened, I snatched a lone case of 2008 Haut-Bailly away from the outstretched arms of a suited gentleman, getting a nasty splinter in the process.
While access to the fairs is limited by geography . French supermarkets don.t deliver to China . a little knowledge of pricing discrepancies might come in handy elsewhere. Time for some tough talk with your local wine merchant?
Back at the Carrefour in Paris, many of the shoppers jostling for position have clearly done their homework. Some wield long shopping lists, some brandish iPhones displaying critics. scores.
One buying team of three men wheels a pair of shopping carts toward the checkout counter. They place a dozen cases on a conveyor belt more accustomed to carrying potato chips and Coca-Cola toward the cash register. A few loose bottles of Mouton Rothschild and Lafite Rothschild, wrapped in protective tissue, roll along behind.
The bill: .6,800. One of the men, in a track suit and flip flops, counts out .100 notes from a Ziploc bag.
Loyalty card, monsieur? Uh, no.
September 30, 2011
Bordeaux Bargain Basement
By ERIC PFANNER
Bordeaux bargains
Here is a selection of good deals on red Bordeaux available at French supermarkets during the wine fairs this year, some of which continue into October. Prices elsewhere may be considerably higher.
To drink
2009 Châau Fleur Haut Gaussens, Bordeaux Superieur. Merlot dominates the blend in this overachieving wine from a modest appellation. It is soft and fruity and benefits from a .vintage effect.. .6.50.
2009 Châau Larose-Trintaudon, Haut-Medoc. Until recently this estate, one of the largest in Bordeaux, made fairly coarse wine. But this vintage is excellent, with subtle oak, considerable finesse and a citrusy freshness. .9.50.
2009 Châau de la Dauphine, Fronsac. A velvety wine, made mostly from merlot, from an underrated Right Bank appellation. It rivals some of the grander, more expensive wines from nearby Saint-Éilion. .14.95.
To keep
2009 Châau Seguin, Pessac-Lénan. This is a beautiful wine from an up-and-coming producer in the best part of the Graves, south of the city of Bordeaux. Loads of black fruit, a serious structure and a long, fresh finish. .19.95.
2008 Châau Calon-Sér, Saint-Estèe grand cru classéHow did this classic fall through the cracks at this price? Snap it up if you can find it, then wait 10 years for it to shed its austerity and to let the tobacco and lead pencil notes come to the fore. .33.
2009 Châau Saint-Pierre, Saint-Julien grand cru classéThis is always one of my Bordeaux favorites . a dense, ripe, structured, delicious wine. Not cheap, but at less than one-twentieth the price of 2009 Lafite-Rothschild, it.s a bargain of sorts. .55.
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