Michele Chiarlo - great value
i
August 15, 2011
Barbera: I Knew It When
By ERIC ASIMOV
OH, me. Oh, barbera. Are we growing old together? My once youthful scruff now comes in gray, while you, Giacomo Conterno Barbera d.Alba, who sustained me in my graduate-school days at $8 a bottle, cost $50 now!
Inevitable, of course . I mean the graying. But $50 for barbera, what can this signify?
Partly, I suppose, the price indicates that more people appreciate this once-humble wine. More important, though, it demonstrates how the estimation of Giacomo Conterno as a great producer has risen spectacularly in 30 years, as has the worldwide thirst for Barolo, Conterno.s primary stock in trade. Just as an unassuming little Bourgogne rouge made by an exalted vigneron costs as much as another Burgundy producer.s premier cru, so have the prices risen for barberas from top Barolo and Barbaresco producers.
In the Langhe region of the Piedmont, in northwestern Italy, barbera largely remains the little brother to nebbiolo, the grape of Barolo and Barbaresco. Around Alba, prime Barolo country, nebbiolo hogs most of the best vineyard sites. Barbera must settle for leftovers, some choicer than others. This was the natural order of things. Barolos sold for big bucks and were socked away to age, and age, and age. Barberas were bottled for immediate pleasure, were sold cheap and were opened at dinner.
That.s how it was when I was first developing a taste for wine. Those memorable, and inexpensive, bottles of Conterno captured me with their gorgeous, juicy, yet bitter red fruit that danced a tightrope between sweet and savory, propelled along by an energetic, vivacious acidity. For me, it was an easy-to-swallow lesson in how wine could be both pleasurable and thought-provoking, while performing its basic function of making food taste better.
Barberas from the hilly Asti region to the northeast of the Langhe would seem to have it a little easier than their Alba siblings. Nebbiolo is not grown so much around Asti, so barbera gets the best vineyard sites. Indeed, in the 1980s Braida di Giacomo Bologna, a producer of Barbera d.Asti, pioneered the aging of single-vineyard barberas in barrels of new French oak, winning critical acclaim and raising prices accordingly.
Braida.s success inspired other producers to age their wines in new oak, often with unfortunate results. The lively immediacy of this honest wine often ended up buried beneath vanilla and chocolate cheesecake, wiping away any trace of regional identity.
Nonetheless, my affection for barberas remains both sentimental and real. To check in on barberas currently in the marketplace, the wine panel recently tasted 20 bottles, 14 from Alba, 6 from Asti. Indeed, the tasting confirmed our belief that top Barolo and Barbaresco producers tend also to make the best barberas, at prices that reflect the esteem in which they are held.
For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Lacey Burke, a sommelier at Del Posto, and Levi Dalton, a sommelier at Bar Boulud.
All of us, I think, came away with the feeling that barbera has settled into a more confident period after a prolonged, awkward battle with its oak issues. While some wines were indeed marked and even marred by oak, we found much less of it than we had feared. Perhaps, as with Barolo, producers are using oak in subtler ways? Or maybe, as Levi suggested, our sample was not entirely representative.
In any case, we had bigger issues than oak: namely, balance. The structure in barbera comes from its buzz-saw acidity, which keeps it fresh and cuts through rich fatty foods. If the acidity is out of whack, barbera can be unpleasantly aggressive, like heartburn in a glass.
Other issues with balance emerged as well. The 2008 vintage of my old favorite, the now $50 Giacomo Conterno Barbera d.Alba, still showed robust fruit and mineral flavors, but something seemed disjointed. It was a bit sweet and a little hot, from high alcohol.
We had no such problems with our top wines. Our No. 1, the 2006 Vietti Barbera d.Asti La Crena (another $50 barbera) was gorgeous: zesty and energetic as barbera ought to be, with lovely flavors of red fruit and earth. Our No. 2, the 2008 Bartolo Mascarello Barbera d.Alba, a $45 bottle, was beautifully balanced on that knife.s edge between sweet fruit and mouthwatering acidity, the tension keeping the wine lively.
Our No. 3 wine, the 2008 Barbera d.Alba from Bruno Giacosa, was by comparison downright cheap at $30. It was what Levi called .real-deal barbera,. with that pull between sweet and bitter that exemplifies many good Italian wines but is impossible to imagine in, say, a French wine.
By contrast with our top three, our No. 4 bottle, the 2008 Michele Chiarlo Barbera d.Asti Le Orme, really was inexpensive at $13. It.s a wine reminiscent of the simple barberas of yore, fermented and aged in big, old oak barrels and offering direct, uncomplicated pleasure. Year in and year out this wine is a good value.
Of the 13 Barberas d.Alba, 6 made our top 10, as did 4 of the 7 Barberas d.Asti. One that did not was the 2007 Bricco dell.Uccellone from Braida. Aside from being the most expensive at $65, the wine was powerful, hot and a bit clunky at 15.5 percent alcohol. It was not oaky, though.
Are differences between the Asti and Alba barberas discernible? Levi, along with many producers, says the Barberas d.Alba tend to be plusher and fruitier while the Barberas d.Asti are tauter in texture. Honestly, with so many variables in the vineyard and cellar, it.s very hard to tell the difference.
Barbera remains a good friend, even if I don.t see as much of it as I once did. My gray beard is just temporary. High prices for barbera, I.m afraid, are here to stay.
Vietti Barbera d'Asti, $50, *** La Crena 2006
Ripe, energetic and tangy, with lively flavors of fruit and earth. (Dalla Terra, Napa, Calif.)
Bartolo Mascarello Barbera d'Alba, $45, *** San Lorenzo 2008
Zesty and beautifully balanced with subtle, savory fruit and smoke flavors. (Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York)
Bruno Giacosa Barbera d'Alba, $30, ** ½ 2008
Classic barbera, slightly bitter and tensely balanced between sweet and savory. (Leonardo LoCascio Selections/Winebow, New York)
BEST VALUE
Michele Chiarlo Barbera d'Asti, $13, ** ½ Le Orme 2008
Densely textured yet understated with floral aromas and flavors of purple fruit. (Kobrand, New York)
Cigliuti Barbera d'Alba, $24, ** ½ Compass 2008
Lingering fruit and floral flavors with a touch of oak. (David Vincent Selection, New York)
Elio Grasso Barbera d'Alba, $35, ** ½ Vigna Martina 2008
Straightforward and savory with earthy fruit flavors and a little oak. (Martin Scott Wines, Lake Success, N.Y.)
Vietti Barbera d'Asti, $22, ** ½ Tre Vigne 2008
Pleasing, long-lasting flavors of plums and spices. (Dalla Terra)
Giacomo Conterno Barbera d'Alba, $50, ** Cascina Francia 2008
Brash, spicy flavors of fruit and minerals, but slightly unbalanced. (Polaner Selections, Mount. Kisco, N.Y.)
Coppo Barbera d'Asti, $19, ** Camp du Rouss 2007
Direct and sprightly with earthy, floral flavors. (Leonardo LoCascio Selections/Winebow)
Pio Cesare Barbera d'Alba, $25, ** 2008
Silky texture and flavors of black fruit, but oakiness is overbearing. (Maisons Marques et Domaines, Oakland, Calif.)
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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 SFGate.com
Loire Valley reds - a dose of honesty and affordability
Jon Bonnéunday, August 14, 2011
Where in the world to find compelling, affordable honest reds? The knowing bottle hounds are already drawing an arrow to Loire Valley. The Loire Valley, a lengthy stretch along France's heartland river, is home to some of the great French wines of all colors - Chinon, Muscadet, Sancerre. Though often viewed as white-wine country, even in the core of the Pays Nantais, where Muscadet thrives in the cool maritime shadow of the Atlantic, red grapes happily ripen.
It is France's original engine of affordability. Near the city of Tours, the communes of Chinon and Bourgeuil, and Saumur just a touch west, remain the source of simple carafe reds that are the very lifeblood of the Parisian bistro. And yet bottles of Saumur-Champigny and Chinon often outwork their price and provenance, blossoming after 20 years in the cellar. To those who want to age wine without a fat wallet, my answer is always the same: Buy Chinon.
Problem is, the Loire is often the recipient of a cold shoulder. Why? For one, its quality of winemaking remains uneven. There is too much rusticity that remains, too much supermarket wine in the mix, too many negociants willing to pump generic Chinon or Muscadet along the pipeline.
Yet there is a growing army of scrupulous producers who harness old vines, low yields and increasingly organic and biodynamic field work to make impressive wines at modest prices. (The Loire seems impervious to Bordeaux-style price inflation.) A current generation of fashionable importers like Louis/Dressner Selections - Kermit Lynch too, at times - have made the region a sought-after ticket.
And there is a burgeoning avant-garde, winemakers like Olivier Lemasson and Christian Chaussard, who are capitalizing on the Loire's perennial uncoolness to make wines outside the usual appellation rules. La Dive Bouteille, the Woodstock of the natural wine movement, is annually held here.
For this tasting, we tackled an interesting pair of vintages. 2009 started cold but soon made up for 2008's tough frosts with a potential bumper crop pushed by a progression of early autumn rain and sun - which meant offered the potential for deep flavors if you resisted the temptation for that bumper crop and pruned your vines.
In 2010, another cold winter and then generally fine weather stretched into October, creating potentially ripe wines with few of the green flavors that cause so much harrumphing about the Loire.
I was joined by Sarah Elliott, wine director of Commonwealth in San Francisco, and Gerald Weisl, owner of Weimax Wines & Spirits in Burlingame. Both are confirmed Loire devotees, and we found many wines with potential, grown on the region's complex patchwork of limestone, silica and clay soils.
But our panel of some 30 wines was still a mixed bag, showing the variable quality of winemaking and grape-growing that remains the region's shortfall.
It's this mixed bag that keeps the Loire from transcending its modest appeal. And something else: I suspect the real issue, at least for the region's reds, is the base material.
Cabernet Franc, the region's anchor grape, is polemic as can be - savory, spicy and delicate to its lovers; green and bizarre to others. The bit players, like Cot (Malbec) and Pineau d'Aunis, are similarly advanced-level fare. These are not grapes for the novice, and they do not hide flaws well. Thus they have been buried under years of derision by those who see Loire reds' freshness and verve as a liability.
Silly folks. These wines have quintessential nuance and life. Chinon and Bourgeuil have been bistro staples for one reason: The wines beg to be on the table. Put them there.
NV Les Vins Contes Poivre et Sel Vin de France ($20, 11.5% alcohol): The minimal winemaking of Olivier Lemasson frames the Loire's quintessential flavors - but often he works outside official appellations, which is why this mix of Pineau d'Aunis and Gamay Noir has a simple table-wine moniker. Aunis' telltale agave scent emerges in this mellow bottle, with a salty edge and ripe plummy fruit. If this were a movie character, it would be the Dude abiding. (Importer: Louis/Dressner Selections)
2010 La Grange Tiphane Les Cassiers Touraine ($16, 13%): This young release from rising star Damien Delecheneau shows why his talents, and this label, are worth watching. A pure expression of Gamay, it has a rooted, foresty side: pinecone, wintergreen and radiant, amply rich raspberry fruit. (Importer: Farm Wine Imports/USA Wine West)
2009 Chateau de la Bonneliere Touraine ($14.50, 13%): Marc Plouzeaux organically farms this site at the edge of the Chinon appellation; technically it could be Chinon but the regional name stuck. A pitch-perfect Cabernet Franc nose, with lily and chile, and a dark hue to the fruit; think black cherry and anise. For perhaps the deal of the season, seek out Plouzeaux's 5-liter box of 2010 Les Tuffeaux Chinon ($65/5 liters, 12.5%), a winning Chinon equivalent to nearly seven bottles of wine. (Importer: Winewise)
2009 Clos de la Briderie Touraine Mesland ($19, 12.5%): Amid Touraine's better-known red wines, there's also Touraine Mesland, a small appellation on the right bank. Here we depart from the Cab Franc routine, with a mix of Cot (Malbec) and Gamay Noir in addition to 30 percent Franc. Vincent Girault, who farms his properties biodynamically, shows the rare proper use of Cot, with its pretty India ink presence, plus dried porcini, loam and black plum. Robust, with lots of dark fruit. (Importer: Martine's Wines)
2009 Alain Boréomaine du Fresche Anjou ($15, 13.5%): In La Pommeraye, on the western edge of the Anjou area - verging on white-wine country - the Boréamily works their small estate. Here's Cabernet Franc without obfuscation, fermented in glass and aged in steel, from 40-year-old vines on schist soil. Ripe and deep, it leans more toward ancho chile and blueberry, with a saline edge and a big chew of tannin. (Importer: Paul M. Young Fine Wines)
2009 Gerald Vallee La Croisee St. Nicolas de Bourgeuil ($24.75, 12.5%): Vallee works the lesser-known soils of St. Nicolas, just west of Bourgeuil proper. A classic, dark Cab Franc expression: roasted red pepper, chicory and plum skin. Up-front saline notes and tart cherry fruit add a bright edge. (Importer: North Berkeley Wine Imports)
2009 Catherine & Pierre Breton Nuits d'Ivresse Bourgeuil ($32, 12%): The Bretons are Loire royalty, and their various Cab Franc cuvees - despite a disturbing price hike - are among the must-taste canon. Here's quintessential Bourgeuil, in their unsulfured bottling (the name means "drunken nights") grown on clay and limestone soil. Deep and loamy, with charcoal, eau de vie, tarragon, pimenton and black fruit. Let it age a bit. (Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant)
2009 Bernard Baudry Les Grezeaux Chinon ($28, 13%): Baudry has become one of the Loire's most serious practitioners since 1975, making Chinons with true durability. The Grezeaux comes from the domaine's oldest vines, 50 years old, and is aged in older barrels. Warm aromas emanate: carob, ancho chile, baked soil. The fruit is robust and dark, more blackcurrant and black plum, with an impressive backbone. To drink now, Baudry's 2009 Les Granges Chinon ($20, 12.5%) is steely and fresh. (Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant)
2009 Charles Joguet Cuvee Terroir Chinon ($20, 13%): Joguet completes the Chinon roster here, and the Terroir harnesses younger vines from the soils of Beaumont-en-Vén for a drink-now bottle. Proper and tart, with more direct bayberry fruit than spicy aromas. But give it 20 minutes and the spice appears around the edges. (Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant)
2009 Domaine des Hautes Troglodytes Saumur Champigny ($15, 12.5%): A serious expression of Saumur, the other part of the Anjou red equation. Saumurs can be brooding and intense, and no exception here in this bottle from vintner and negociant Joseph Verdier. When it opens, there's a deep, loamy expression: beetroot and fermented tea, roasted cherry, sea salt and mirabelle plum. Decant it for full effect. (Importer: Winewise)
Jon Bonnés The Chronicle's wine editor. Find him at jbonne(a)sfchronicle.com or @jbonne on Twitter.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/14/FDVT1KLUG3.DTL
This article appeared on page G - 1 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 *
Check out Bill Ward's column in today's strib.
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/taste/126708638.html
Liquid Assets: 'Survey says ... ' and we respond
Article by: , Star Tribune
Updated: August 3, 2011 - 2:47 PM
Item: Millennials are more likely to consume
wine while socializing, especially at friends'
homes, than are their predecessors.
Reaction: The Wine Business Institute study
cites that generation's values of
collaboration and work/life balance. Good
on 'em. I'd also like to think that they're
smarter about the whole adult-beverage
thing: At least for this segment, it's
something you sip rather than pound, and a
lower-alcohol option than booze.
Item: According to a study of high-
frequency wine drinkers by Wine Opinions,
only 40 percent of wine is consumed during
meals: 27 percent with no food around, 19
percent with appetizers or snacks and 14
percent while preparing a meal.
Reaction: A lot of forces at work here. The
proliferation of both wine bars and "cocktail
wines" that aren't particularly suited for
food-pairing. Glossy magazine ads showing
"beautiful people" sipping wine sans food,
marketing it as something that sophisticated
people do (a la cocktails a generation or two
ago; a social thing but not imbedded into the
culture as in Europe). And it's nice to see
recognition of what my wife and I call
"cooking wines," what we consume while
chopping and sauténg.
Item: Oregon's commercial wine industry
nearly doubled its contribution to the state's
economy in four years, from $1.4 billion in
2006 to $2.7 billion last year.
Reaction: With more tourism, lots of new
wineries and America's continued love affair
with pinot noir, Oregon has upturned during
the downturn. The surprising part: Most
Oregon wines are priced in the recession's d
ead zone, $20 to $50 a bottle. But they tend
to deliver quality and value, and are hard
enough to find that merchants often say
"Well, I only get a case of that." Ka-ching.
Item: Moscato and malbec have shown
"explosive" growth nationally in the past two
years, according to Nielsen, which cited H
ispanics as a major factor. Moscato sales
have grown by 95 percent this year, and
malbec by 49 percent.
Advertisement
Reaction: This is not the first time we will see
Hispanics driving a trend; their ties to South
America's most popular wine shouldn't
surprise. But will the moscato embracers
who are new to wine stick with it the way so
many white-zin lovers have, or will they
"move on"? My guess is that moscato is here
to stay. Meanwhile, it's good to see a trend in
which Minnesota was ahead of the rest of the
nation, as it was with malbec.
Item: Barefoot remained No. 1 in sales at
major food and drug stores for the 52 weeks
ending June 13, and even expanded its lead.
With $255 million in sales, Barefoot grew 27
percent.
Reaction: Well, to my palate at least, the
moscato is Barefoot's best wine.
Bill Ward . bill.ward(a)startribune.com
WINE OF THE WEEK
MALVIRÀLaNGHE FAVORITA 2008
The experience: Sniffing and drinking this white delight is almost like being plopped
down into a lemon grove. It's light and bright with some salty minerality and a
really zingy finish. All of Malvirà wines are well worth checking out, and this
ess expensive white is a very good introduction.
The setting: Bring on the calamari, or most any other light seafood dish. This
brisk white also plays well with tough-to-match vinaigrettes and fresh cheeses.
The back story: The brand is a made-up word rather than a family name: "Mal" means
wrong and "viràis Italian for situated. The grape name is one of many Italian variations of vermentino.
The tab: $19, available at Bacchus, Lakeside, Sorella, Cafe Latte, Domacin Wine Bar and Kinsen restaurant.
BILL WARD
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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 *
Well, big in so far as the $90 worth of Dundee Hills juice.
AUGUST 1, 2011, 3:43 PM
Reconsidering Boxed Wine
By ERIC ASIMOV
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
It.s taken a long time, but discerning American wine drinkers are slowly getting used to the idea of drinking wine from a box. No doubt, that is partly because the quality of boxed wines is improving, as the wine panel found.
Another reason is the rising popularity of kegged wines, which more and more restaurants are using to serve wines by the glass. Their acceptance, I think, has caused Americans to reconsider their reflexive distaste for alternative wine packaging.
The bag-in-a-box technology is uniquely suited to preserve wine once a package is opened. How does it work? A plastic bag, as big as five liters, is filled with wine. The bag is then placed within a cardboard box, which serves as a sort of exoskeleton protecting the bag. A plastic tap allows access to the wine within, through a hole in the box. As wine is poured through the tap, the process acts as a vacuum, sucking air out of the bag, which shrinks to encase the remaining wine. With no headroom for air to fill, the wine is well protected. Once opened, the wine lasts for weeks, rather than for a few days in a bottle.
The boxes have practical applications. They.re perfect for picnics or the pool or beach, providing that wine at the beach is legal. And, if your refrigerator can accommodate a box, you have wine available at a whim. If you just want a glass, or need a splash to deglaze a pan, you don.t have to open a bottle and worry about wasting the rest of it. They can be fun, too. I admit I get a kind of childish pleasure working the spigot, knowing I have if not an unlimited supply of wine, at least a lot of it available.
If the bag-in-a-box guards against air so well, why not put all wines in such containers? Simple. While the packaging prevents large amounts of air from attacking the wine, it is still relatively porous. Even when closed, air slowly penetrates the box and bag, at a much swifter pace than through a bottle and cork. For that reason, boxes are not appropriate for aging wines. It is also the reason that some boxes will have both a vintage date and an expiration date.
While the wine panel restricted its tasting to three-liter bag-in-a-box wines, another, very different category has caught on with consumers: Tetra Pak wines. These boxes, made of foil-lined paper like those used for juices and milk, are light and easy to carry but offer no protection against air once opened. A subject for future investigation.
August 1, 2011
Thinking Inside the Box
By ERIC ASIMOV
IT.S the epitome of déasséthe vinous equivalent of trailer trash, the wine snob.s worst nightmare. No, I don.t mean the screw cap. I.m talking about boxed wine.
Despite the almost reflexive elevation of noses at the mention of boxed wines, one significant detail undermines these smug dismissals: the idea of putting wine in a box, or more accurately, in a bag within a box, is brilliant. The packaging solves significant problems that have dogged wine for millennia, whether it was stored in urn, amphora, barrel, stone crock or bottle.
No matter how elegant or handy those containers may be, their fixed volumes permit air to enter when wine is removed. Air attacks and degrades wine, making it imperative to drink up what remains, usually within no more than a few days.
The bag-in-a-box, to use the unlovely industry term, resolves this problem of oxidation by eliminating space for air to occupy. Wine can stay fresh for weeks once it has been opened. But while the packaging may be ingenious, what.s inside has been a problem.
Quite simply, the quality of the boxed wines sold in this country has been uniformly bad. Those in the wine trade have tried to explain this sad fact by citing an entrenched public perception of boxed wines as wretched. What.s the point of putting better wines in boxes, they said, if people won.t buy them?
Even so, the logic of placing wine in a box is so compelling that sooner or later, some producers were going to take a chance that better wines would sell this way. I have had isolated examples in the last few years of just the sort of fresh, lively, juicy wines that thrive in the bag-in-a-box environment. Did this signal that overall quality was turning a corner?
To answer the question, the wine panel recently tasted 20 wines from three-liter boxes. We tasted 12 reds and 8 whites, without regard to price or provenance. The only guideline for our tasting coordinator, Bernard Kirsch, was to seek out producers who were striving for quality. For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Colin Alevras, the service manager at the Dutch, and Alexander LaPratt, the sommelier at db Bistro Moderne.
Let me backtrack for a moment. To say that consumers have rejected boxes is not strictly accurate. At the lowest echelon of quality, the realm of domestic burgundies and rhine wines, a great deal of boxed wine is sold. These boxes, largely in five-liter sizes, the equivalent of 6.67 bottles, which might sell for as little as $12, did especially well just after the economic meltdown, said Danny Brager of the Nielsen Company, which tracks sales.
But sales are relatively flat now. The biggest growth in boxed wines, Mr. Brager said, was in the three-liter, higher-priced category: that is, $20 or more. Sales last year were up 19 percent, he said, and this year through June they are up 16 percent.
So let.s get to the crucial question: How were the wines?
Without a doubt, the choices are far superior to what was available five years ago. Among the wines we liked best, we found more than a few that we.d be happy to serve as a house pour, especially among the reds. We liked the boxes brought in by two small importers who specialize in French wines: the Wineberry Boxes from Wineberry America, and From the Tank from Jenny & Françs Selections, who focus on natural wines.
Jenny Lefcourt of Jenny & Françs became a fan of boxed wines while living in France for 10 years. .I always thought it was a fantastic way of serving and conserving wine,. she said. .I didn.t see any disadvantages to it, except that people still have a negative image of them in the U.S..
Since the From the Tank wines, one white and one red, were introduced in 2008, she said, they have taken off nationally. .I.m pretty bowled over by the success of it,. she said. .We were cautious at first, but we just kept selling out..
Wineberry began with its boxes two years ago, and now sells three reds, two whites and a roséThe Wineberry boxes are unusual in that they are made of wood rather than cardboard, which gives them heft, solidity and a certain personality the cardboard boxes lack.
.We live in the most sophisticated area in the world,. said Eric Dubourg, the founder of Wineberry, which is based in New York. .People care about what things look like. Still, the quality of the wine is the main point..
True enough, and Wineberry.s 2010 Cô-du-Rhôfrom Domaine le Garrigon was our clear favorite, with its fresh red fruit and mineral flavors. A juicy, pleasurable wine, it would be good for gulping uncritically but offers enough interest to satisfy people who care about what they are consuming.
We also liked the From the Tank red, a 2009 Cô-du-Rhôfrom Estérgues, a very good cooperative. This, too, was fresh and lively, though perhaps a little more straightforward than the Garrigon. Still, these were exactly the sort of pleasing wines we were hoping to find, and reasonably priced. Both were under $40 a box, the equivalent of less than $10 a bottle, and excellent values, in fact, compared with most $10 bottles.
The boxed whites on the whole were less attractive. Too many were flat, lacked vivacity and seemed muted aromatically. We liked our top white well enough, the 2010 Torre del Falasco from Cantina Valpantena in the Veneto region of Italy. It was made of the garganega grape, the main grape in Soave, but for one reason or another didn.t qualify to be called Soave. Nonetheless, it was lively, with the nutlike quality that I often find in Soave and a fine value at $27.
Our next white, a 2010 New Zealand sauvignon blanc from Black Box, struck none of us as sauvignon blanc in the blind tasting. This was odd, as sauvignon blanc is generally one of the easier grapes to identify. But this wine, while fresh and tangy, lacked any sauvignon blanc character. We liked it enough to make it our No. 6 wine. We also liked the 2010 Picpoul de Pinet from La Petite Frog in the Languedoc, in southern France, a very pleasant summer drinker.
Even though two more whites made our Top 10, we all thought they could have been better. It occurred to me that while box packaging solves a problem once the wines are opened, it perhaps creates one before they are opened.
Unopened boxed wines have a shorter shelf life. The box and bag are more porous to air than an unopened bottle, so they must be consumed relatively young. What.s more, because they are so inexpensive, they may not be handled or stored with great care. Heat and vibration can be hard on whites in particular, which is one possible reason the whites didn.t perform as well as the reds.
I said these wines were cheap, but we indeed had one outlier. It was our No. 3, Dominio IV.s Love Lies Bleeding, a 2009 pinot noir from the Dundee Hills in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. It cost $90, almost twice as much as the next most expensive box on the list, Wineberry.s 2010 Bourgogne Blanc from Baronne du Chatelard, which was $48. What accounts for this disparity?
For one thing, grapes from the Dundee Hills aren.t cheap, and neither is aging the wine in oak barrels, 30 percent new, said Patrick Reuter, the winemaker.
The wine was fresh and deep, very ripe and a bit oaky but clearly identifiable as good pinot noir. Mr. Reuter said the boxes had sold well to restaurants, which poured it by the glass. But consumers, he said, seemed to think that the high price required a more elegant vessel.
.I think I need to think out the packaging,. he said.
At the same time, he said, he has kept a box on the counter in his kitchen for months, and the wine is still good.
.I can.t believe how intact it.s stayed,. he said. .It.s the craziest thing..
Tasting Report
Domaine le Garrigon, $39, ***
Cô-du-Rhô2010, 3 liters
Aromas of red fruit and herbs, fresh and lightly tannic, lingering flavors of fruit and minerals. (Wineberry America, New York)
>From the Tank Cô-du-Rhô $37, ** ½
Estérgues 2009, 3 liters
Fresh, bright and balanced, with tangy flavors of red fruit. (Jenny & Françs, New York)
Dominio IV Dundee Hills Pinot Noir, $90, ** ½
Love Lies Bleeding 2009, 3 liters
Rich cinnamon-scented fruit with clear pinot noir identity, but a touch too much oak flavor.
Cantina Valpantena Veronese, $27, ** ½
Torre del Falasco I.G.T. Garganega 2010, 3 liters
Lively with mellow flavors of nuts and minerals. (Omniwines, Flushing, N.Y.)
Châau Moulin de la Roquille, $39, ** ½
Francs Cô de Bordeaux 2009, 3 liters
Dark fruit flavors with a pleasant herbal edge and a light rasp of tannins. (Wineberry America)
Black Box New Zealand, $22, ** ½
Sauvignon Blanc 2010, 3 liters
With flavors of peaches and apricots, it doesn't quite taste like sauvignon blanc, but fresh, balanced and pleasing. (Black Box Wines, Madera, Calif.)
La Petite Frog Coteaux du Languedoc, $30, **
Picpoul de Pinet 2010, 3 liters
Dry and refreshing with flavors of nuts, citrus and herbs. (Kysè Pere et Fils, Winchester, Va.)
Baronne du Chatelard, $48, **
Bourgogne Blanc 2010, 3 liters
Low-key and somewhat neutral with simple flavors of apples and herbs. (Wineberry America)
Wüheinhessen Riesling, $27, ** 2010, 3 liters
Light citrus, herbal and floral aromas; serve well chilled. (Domaine Select, New York)
Osborne Spain Seven Octavin NV, $20, ** 3 liters
Straightforward and fruity red with a suggestion of sweetness. (Underdog Wine Merchants, Ripon, Calif.)
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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 *
