FYI/FYE
SFGC
The Chronicle Recommends: Oregon Pinot Noirs
Jon BonnéChronicle Wine Editor
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Oregon Pinot Noir 2006 Argyle Nuthouse Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2007 Bergstorm Bergstorm Vineyard Dundee Hills Pinot Noir 2008 Big Table Farm Resonance Vineyard Yamhill-Carlton Pi... More...
If you're an Oregon winemaker, you never forget the constant risk of rain - certainly not in 2007. An extended spell of precipitation, several weeks in the midst of the harvest, took its toll on an otherwise auspicious vintage.
That didn't spell disaster. But it did create a serious challenge - for winemakers scrambling to get grapes during the dry spells and now for the rest of us, facing the 2007s on shelves.
Our annual tasting of some 80 Oregon Pinots hinged around that year, plus a handful of late-released 2006s and newly hatched 2008s as bookends. The 2007s were the most difficult Oregon releases I've assessed since 2003, when blazing heat drained many wines of typicity.
This isn't to say that there aren't great 2007s. It might be overstating the case to say that success came from the Willamette Valley's most experienced hands, but experience clearly counted. Consider it a reminder that winemaking talent is more about navigating tough years than basking in easy ones.
To navigate it all, I was joined by Clay Reynolds, beverage director for the Moss Room and Coco500 in San Francisco; and Alex Bernardo, owner of the Vineyard Gate in Millbrae. Both are loyal Oregon fans, not always easy when deluged by Pinot grown closer to home.
Oregon's promise of Pinot that tips a hat to Burgundy's nuance - a sometimes overstated claim - was on display for good and ill. The most successful 2007s offer deep red fruit and the earthy mystique at which the state excels, achieving ripeness amid a high-acid edge. That signals good potential in the cellar.
But those successes came amid shortfalls: wines that wore too much oak to the party, refusing to accept a stylistic retrofit in a light year; wines that lacked concentration but tasted as though they minted from a more grandiose blueprint.
Judging from our lineup, not many wineries declassified. Many wines would have been good drinking at $20, but not north of $30, where we frequently found ourselves. As Reynolds put it: "For this vintage, you need a guide."
Which brings us to the experience part. Winning examples came from winemakers including Bergstrom's Josh Bergstrom; Stoller's Melissa Burr; Cristom's Steve Doerner; Penner-Ash's Lynn Penner-Ash; and Tony Rynders, at the time still guiding the wines of Domaine Serene. All have a track record; all found distinctly pleasing expressions in delicate fruit. Those finessed expressions leave 2007 as a year when subtlety reigned, if imperfectly.
A coda: After the trials of 2007, Oregon received a Pinot bounty last year.
The initial 2008s we encountered were brimming with pretty fruit. If the '07s
are an uneven lot, a new crop of excellent Pinots should soon be winding their
way down Interstate 5.
2006 Argyle Nuthouse Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($60)
Argyle's broad-shouldered effort shines in a fine vintage. Distinct baking spice and deep red fruit, with a bright huckleberry overtone and touches of soy and orange peel. Properly ripe and oak-inflected, with a suppleness all through.
2007 Bergstrom Bergstrom Vineyard Dundee Hills Pinot Noir ($75)
Loamy and dense, like a young Gevrey Chambertin. The high tones sail through but there's lots of darker, deeper fruit underneath. Put them together and you have a terrific interplay that keeps returning you to the glass. You'll find a similar energy in Bergstrom's De Lancellotti Vineyard effort ($65).
2008 Big Table Farm Resonance Vineyard Yamhill-Carlton Pinot Noir ($45):
Burnt orange peel, sweet extracted cherry and a bell-clear cranberry highlight, with a mineral edge. Hard to access at first - it's still pretty young - but there's ample ripeness amid its edgy acidity.
2007 Brandborg Love Puppets Umpqua Valley Pinot Noir ($30):
>From southern Oregon, a high-acid approach with some grain in the tannins. But the herbal and cranberry notes offer great freshness. A lighter, lunchtime Pinot.
2007 Cristom Mount Jefferson Cuvee Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($30):
Steve Doerner's efforts show how it could be done in this vintage. An unmistakable scent of matsutake mushroom, with rich cherry fruit and a leathery meatiness. Generous fruit balances out forward tannins. Rich and dense for the vintage, and absolutely lovely. Keep an eye out for the 2007 Jessie Vineyard when it's available.
2007 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($45):
Musky and subtle, with some distinct tannin up-front but a generous, pine-tinged palate. Amply ripe dark fruit and mineral energy demonstrate its staying power.
2008 Duck Pond Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($20):
A lighter approach, with full, up-front fruit: sweet bayberry and sour cherry.
2007 Domaine Serene Yamhill Cuvee Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($42):
With guidance from now-former winemaker Tony Rynders, Serene's polished style found a more subtle, high-acid expression in 2007. There's pleasing richness balanced by bright fruit. Huckleberry highlights, with a bit of textural grain adding structure.
2007 Le Cadeau Vineyard Cote Est Oregon Pinot Noir ($47):
Tom and Deb Mortimer hire several winemakers to work the different portions of their vineyard. Steve Ryan of Mendocino Farms tackled this eastern block. Silky and subtle, with a deeper, extracted style and bold structure that shows its potential.
2007 Lemelson Thea's Selection Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($32):
A frosty, precise approach from a mix of organic vineyards. Slightly standoffish at first, but gray mineral and cool huckleberry accent a ripe fruit core lifted by buoyant acidity.
2008 O'Reilly's Oregon Pinot Noir ($17):
Straightforward but very refreshing, with lots of fruit punch and raspberry. A perennial great deal.
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
October 16, 2009
David Lake, Washington Wine Innovator, Dies at 66
By WILLIAM GRIMES
David Lake, a pioneering Washington winemaker who made the state.s first vineyard-designated wines and its first wines from the syrah, cabernet franc and pinot gris grapes, died on Oct. 5 at his home in Sammamish, Wash. He was 66.
His wife, Connie Sile-Lake, confirmed the death. She did not give a cause but said he had been in poor health for years.
When Mr. Lake arrived in Washington in 1979, hired as an enologist by the company that would become Columbia Winery, he was venturing into virgin territory. As few others could, he foresaw great days ahead for Washington wines, especially the syrah, which is now, largely because of his efforts, the state.s third-most-widely-planted red-wine grape, after cabernet sauvignon and merlot.
.Nobody believed syrah would do well here,. said Richard Kinssies, the director of the Seattle Wine School. .They thought it could not survive the winter, that you couldn.t ripen it and even if you ripened it you couldn.t make good wine out of it. He proved everybody wrong..
Mr. Lake favored a French style of wine despite his American training. His cabernets, syrahs and chardonnays had a sleek, understated profile that contrasted markedly with the concentrated, oaky, high-alcohol wines of California.
.He understood and could make modern, New World wines, but the Old World was his template,. Mr. Kinssies said. .He wasn.t out to produce the biggest, baddest wine. He was interested in producing wines with elegance and a sense of place. And he did..
David Lancelot Lake, a Canadian citizen, was born in London on March 27, 1943, and spent his childhood in Britain. After earning a degree in history and political science at McGill University in Montreal, he began working for Saccone & Speed, a wine and liquor company, in Britain. In 1975 he passed the notoriously demanding Master of Wine test.
In 1977 he came to the United States and took graduate courses in enology and viticulture at the University of California, Davis. After doing brief stints with Eyrie, Amity and Bethel Heights wineries in Oregon, he was hired as an enologist by Associated Vintners, Washington.s first winery, where he became winemaker within a year. The winery, founded in 1962 by a group of friends who made wine in a garage, changed its name to Columbia Winery in the early 1980s and in 1988 relocated to Woodinville.
In 1981 Mr. Lake released Washington.s first vineyard-designated wines, cabernet sauvignons from the Otis, Red Willow and Sagemoor vineyards. He was particularly enthusiastic about the potential of the Red Willow vineyard in the Yakima Valley and encouraged its grower, Mike Sauer, to plant syrah, the principal red-wine grape of the Rhone Valley in France.
In 1988, Columbia released Washington.s first syrah, which led to a syrah boom in the state. In 1991, again using grapes from Red Willow, Mr. Lake produced the state.s first cabernet franc.
In 1994, Mr. Lake scored another first when he introduced a pinot gris from Otis Vineyard, a white wine with a floral quality. Although red wines, especially syrah, were his passion, Mr. Lake was successful with his gewüminers and rieslings.
In 2006, Mr. Lake retired because of poor health. His wife is his only immediate survivor.
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
According to amazon dot com, a revised & updated edition of Remington
Norman's indispensable "Great Wines of Burgundy" is scheduled to be issued
in mid-March 2010. You might want to have this on your radar.
FYI/FYE
October 13, 2009
Vital Signs
Nutrition: Lower Depression Risk Linked to Mediterranean Diet
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Eating a Mediterranean-style diet . packed with fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, olive oil and fish . is good for your heart, many studies have found. Now scientists are suggesting the diet may be good for your mental health, too.
A study of over 10,000 Spaniards followed for almost four and half years on average found that those who reported eating a healthy Mediterranean diet at the beginning of the study were about half as likely to develop depression than those who said they did not stick to the diet.
All of the participants were free of depression when they were recruited to the study, and each filled out a 136-item food frequency questionnaire when they joined. Based on their self-reported dietary habits, they were assigned a score between 0 and 9, with the highest score reflecting the closest adherence to a Mediterranean diet.
Over time, those who had scored between 5 and 9 on the Mediterranean diet were 42 percent to 51 percent less likely to develop depression, the study found, than those who scored between 0 and 2.
The study, which was funded by the Spanish government.s official medical research agency, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between the Mediterranean diet and a lower risk for depression, only an association between the two. Still, many scientists are convinced that some damaging inflammatory and metabolic processes involved in cardiovascular disease may also play a role in mental health.
.Both cardiovascular disease and depression share common mechanisms related to endothelium function and inflammation,. said Dr. Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzalez, professor of preventive medicine at University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, and senior author of the paper, published in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
.The membranes of our neurons are composed of fat, so the quality of fat that you are eating definitely has an influence on the quality of the neuron membranes, and the body.s synthesis of neurotransmitters is dependent on the vitamins you.re eating,. Dr. Martinez-Gonzalez added. .We think those with lowest adherence to the Mediterranean dietary plan have a deficiency of essential nutrients..
The elements of the diet most closely linked to a lower risk of depression were fruits and nuts, legumes and a high ratio of monounsaturated to saturated fats, the study found.
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
FYI.
Merritt Olson from Charles Smith Winery will be pouring at S. Lyndale this afternoon.
NYT article on WA State Rieslings.
Cheers,
Jim
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To: jellings(a)me.umn.edu
From: Mitch Zavada <Mitch(a)southlyndaleliquors.com>
Subject: Last week of wine sale + cool tastings
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:19:19 -0500
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Hello everyone-
South Lyndale Liquor's Fall Wine Sale is winding down, but you still have four days to take advantage of the best wine sale in the Twin Cities! Tonight is a great night to pop in as we will be hosting Merritt Olson of Charles Smith Winery ( http://e2ma.net/go/2461044145/2238550/84701827/32025/goto:http://www.charle… ) from 4-630 for a free tasting of their awesome wines. Charles Smith [also of K Vintners] is a leader in the new wave of Washington state producers. Click here ( http://e2ma.net/go/2461044145/2238550/84701828/32025/goto:http://www.winesp… ) for a Wine Spectator article on Charles Smith and his wines.
Charles Smith wines to sample:
2007 Eve Chardonnay
2007 Velvet Devil Merlot
2007 Boom Boom Syrah
2008 Kung Fu Girl Riesling
2006 K-Vintners Millbrandt Syrah
2006 K-Vintners Clifton Syrah
Finally, the next meeting of the Grapevine Wine Club ( http://e2ma.net/go/2461044145/2238550/84701824/32025/goto:http://southlynda… ) is Wednesday, October 14, 7-9pm at the Park Plaza hotel in Bloomington. We will be featuring the wines of Jorge Ordonez with Master Sommelier Sarah Floyd. Jorge Ordonez is the top of the tops when it comes to Spanish wine importers and the evening will be filled with great values as well as a couple of treats to finish.
As always, the tasting is free for members of the Grapevine Wine Club and just $15 for visitors. Grab a couple of your Spanish wine-lovin' friends and come out for a great night of wine tasting.
Thanks and we'll see you soon!
5300 Lyndale Ave S. | Minneapolis | MN | 55419
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September 30, 2009
WINES OF THE TIMES
Riesling Gains a U.S. Foothold
By ERIC ASIMOV
FOR years sommeliers and certain wine writers shouted themselves hoarse preaching the virtues of riesling.
In a white-wine world dominated by top-heavy chardonnays, saucy sauvignon blancs and vapid pinot grigios, they prescribed riesling as a wine that had everything. The riesling grape was versatile, producing wines that could be bone dry or syrupy sweet. Rieslings could be profound, delicate and sometimes both. They were rarely heavy or oaky, and they were great with food.
Riesling advocates continued to preach even though nobody seemed to be listening. And then it happened. While pinot noir, abetted by the popular film .Sideways,. was soaring in popularity, riesling was quietly gaining ground, too. In the last five years riesling has secured a neat little niche for itself in stores and on restaurant wine lists.
Now, it seems riesling is being grown everywhere. It comes from Germany and Alsace, of course. More rieslings are arriving from Austria, which is great news . I love them. I.m even seeing a little riesling from Italy. Australia is bullish on riesling, New Zealand calfish, and even South Africa.s in on the act.
Let.s not neglect the good old U.S. of A. California, for example, has more than doubled its planting of riesling in this decade, to almost 3,100 acres in 2008 from about 1,500 acres in 2000. Washington state.s riesling acreage increased to more than 4,000 in 2006 from about 1,900 in 1999. New York, which had just under 500 acres in 2001, now has an estimated 1,000, 90 percent of them in the Finger Lakes region.
Given the surge in popularity and production, it seems worth asking: is riesling the new sauvignon blanc?
Well, more on that later. First, it also seems worth asking just how good is American riesling? To answer that question, the wine panel recently tasted 20 bottles, restricting ourselves as best we could to dry riesling. For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Beth von Benz, a former sommelier who is now a wine consultant, and Evan Spingarn, a riesling fanatic who works for David Bowler Wine, an importer and distributor.
As usual in these blind tastings, we bought our wines retail from local wine shops and through Internet merchants. I can tell you up front that some of my favorite American rieslings, from Smith-Madrone and Stony Hill, both in Napa Valley, were not in the lineup. Those wines are made in small quantities and rarely show up in retail shops.
I.ve also tasted very good rieslings from promising but off-the-grid wine regions like Texas and Michigan. Those wines were not included either, as you essentially have to visit those regions to find them.
We were left with rieslings from America.s four primary wine-producing states: 7 bottles from New York, 6 from Washington, 5 from California and 2 from Oregon.
Overwhelmingly, we favored the rieslings from Washington and New York. Five Washington rieslings made our top 10, along with four from New York and one from Oregon. The California rieslings were shut out, including bottles that I.ve liked in the past, like those from Trefethen and Chateau Montelena.
The differences between those we liked and those we didn.t seemed vast. Florence was skeptical of the wines in general, saying she found very little sense of place in them. Evan agreed, saying the general level of mediocrity really made our favorites stand out.
Beth and I were more pleased. My favorites showed clear mineral flavors and discernible riesling character, while Beth was even happier than I was.
.Acidity and minerality drove through all,. she said, which is .refreshing and wonderful..
Another good thing about these rieslings was their price. All of them were $25 or less; 17 were $20 or less.
Our favorite, the 2007 Eroica, is a collaboration between Chateau Ste. Michelle, the huge Washington winemaker, and Ernst Loosen, the eminent riesling producer from the Mosel region of Germany. The wine is made at Chateau Ste. Michelle from grapes grown in the Columbia Valley. Regardless of where the inspiration comes from, the wine is superb, graceful and tangy, full of mineral, peach and ginger flavors. It is not quite dry, meaning the wine has a bit of residual sugar in it, yet it was so balanced it didn.t taste sweet.
Chateau Ste. Michelle.s ordinary bottling of riesling, made without the help of Mr. Loosen, was No. 6 on our list. Straightforward and pleasant, it lacked Eroica.s depth and dimension.
At $20, the Eroica was the most expensive wine in our top 10. The least expensive, and our best value, was the 2007 Hogue, also from the Columbia Valley, which we rated No. 2. It was lively and refreshing. Like the Eroica, it was not quite dry, yet so well balanced that it seemed crisp.
Next came another from the Columbia Valley, the 2008 Kung Fu Girl from Charles Smith. It was fresh, juicy and exuberant, though perhaps without the refinement of the Eroica and the balance of the Hogue.
The trio of Washington rieslings was followed by two Finger Lakes wines that are almost annoyingly interchangeable. They were from the two leading New York producers, Dr. Konstantin Frank and Hermann J. Wiemer, and I can never quite decide which I like better. In this tasting, both bottles were from 2007, both were $18 and we awarded both two-and-a-half stars. I gave the edge to the Dr. Frank because it had a bit more of a mineral character than the Wiemer, though I.d happily drink either one.
The 2005 Belle Pente from the Willamette Valley was the only Oregon riesling in our top 10, at No. 7. It was also the oldest bottle in the tasting, and it already showed a touch of kerosene, a pleasant sign of age in a riesling, but one you might wait another 10 years to find in European rieslings, which age far more slowly. Not that it.s fading fast . the wine was quite enjoyable.
To answer the question I left hanging: no, riesling is not the new sauvignon blanc. It will never be as ubiquitous, yet I think its niche is secure. While American rieslings are not yet consistently good, they are improving. They offer a lot to like right now, and it seems clear that the best is yet to come.
Chateau Ste. Michelle-Dr. Loosen $20 ... (Three Stars)
Columbia Valley Eroica 2007
Tangy, succulent and largely dry with peach and ginger flavors.
BEST VALUE
Hogue Columbia Valley 2007 $9 ... (Three Stars)
Crisp, balanced and fresh with aromas of flowers,
minerals and ripe peaches.
Charles Smith Columbia Valley $13 .. ½ (Two and a Half Stars) Kung Fu Girl 2008
Fresh and perfumed, with lively flavors of citrus, flowers and minerals.
Dr. Konstantin Frank $18 .. ½ (Two and a Half Stars) Finger Lakes Dry 2007
Balanced and very dry; tropical fruit, citrus and mineral flavors.
Hermann J. Wiemer $18 .. ½ (Two and a Half Stars) Finger Lakes Dry 2007
Graceful and zesty, with floral, tropical and citrus flavors.
Chateau Ste. Michelle $13 .. (Two Stars) Columbia Valley Dry 2007
Light and lithe with herbal and grassy flavors.
Belle Pente Willamette Valley 2005 $19 .. (Two Stars)
Subtle floral and mineral flavors with a touch of kerosene,
typical of an aging riesling.
Mercer Yakima Valley 2007 $12 .. (Two Stars)
Balanced with flavors of ripe peach and tropical fruit.
Shaw Vineyard Finger Lakes 2006 $18 .. (Two Stars)
Dry and floral with flavors of minerals and earth.
Red Tail Ridge $17 .. (Two Stars) Finger Lakes Dry 2007
Balanced and integrated with aromas of flowers, minerals and citrus.
----- End forwarded message -----
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
Anderson Valley Pinot Noir
Jon BonnéChronicle Wine Editor
Sunday, September 20, 2009
2007 Black Kite Redwoods' Edge Anderson Valley Pinot Noir 2007 Breggo Savoy Vineyard Anderson Valley Pinot Noir 2006 Chronicle Cerise Vineyard Anderson Valley Pinot Noir 2007 Copain Tous Ensemble Anderson Valley Pinot Noir More...
Anderson Valley was once a quiet, rustic haven, shut to outsiders but for a long, winding low road and a vertiginous, winding high road. In the 1800s, the local Boontling dialect was invoked to confound outsiders. A century later, the valley's foggy, redwood-lined slopes became a magnet for lovers of a subtler style of Pinot Noir.
The outside world has arrived in more ways than one. That Pinot style has been shifting for at least the past five years. As big Pinot names have turned their gaze north to Mendocino, the wines have gotten bigger and oakier, alcohol levels have crept higher, and fruit flavors have shifted from red to black.
Yet in our latest tasting of Mendocino County Pinots, with Anderson Valley in the leading role, we seem to have discovered a detente of sorts.
Many wines are indeed bigger. More than a few showed the same problems that have hit Pinot regions like Santa Barbara - an excess of oak, alcohol and ripeness that turns Pinot's near-magic transparency into something gloppy. The more ambitious the pricing - this time it topped out around $75 - the more likely the glop.
To consider a lineup of more than 50 wines, I was joined by Eric Railsback, one of the sommeliers at RN74 in San Francisco, who previously worked in Los Angeles at Osteria Mozza and Gordon Ramsay's The London.
A superb 2007 vintage offered the chance for greatness, and our best luck came with the growing number of single-vineyard bottlings emerging from Anderson Valley. When ripeness was handled with skill (and these are wines that can approach 15 percent alcohol), we found exceptional efforts that, if not inexpensive, will provide great pleasure now or after a few years of aging. Think gift-worthy.
That successful focus on site was rewarding to see. California Pinot has become cluttered by vineyard designates, but our Anderson Valley lineup made a strong case for the practice. We witnessed multiple interpretations of some well-known sites: Ferrington, Toulouse, Savoy. Rather than being a fetishization of place, these have legitimately earned their stripes.
There was less success with the blended wines, often marked simply as Anderson Valley. Along with fame has come a handful of wines made on a larger scale - up to 15,000 cases - that can top $50. For a once-low-key place, these are wines seemingly made for (and by) what in Boontling jargon might be called the "high-pockety."
Mercifully, some familiar names like Navarro and Copain still enjoy success with their larger-scale bottlings, with reasonable prices. They uphold Anderson Valley's good name. So do newer names like Boonville's Breggo Cellars (Boontling for "sheep"), Healdsburg-based James MacPhail and Jason Drew.
Drew, with his wife, Molly, runs a tiny operation in the seaside hamlet of Elk, due west of the valley. He produces increasingly compelling Pinots under 14 percent alcohol, including his Fog Eater blend (Boontling again) and a new effort from the Monument Tree vineyard in the valley's northern "deep end."
Their success signals Anderson Valley's forward potential. Its cloak of obscurity may be gone, but its ability to produce deep, edgy Pinot Noir hasn't wavered.
2007 Black Kite Redwoods' Edge Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($52) The first scent of an ever-evolving nose is evocatively char-tinged, like a burning field at harvest, leading to toasted baking spices. It's a shape-shifter, always changing, with very ripe fruit flavors but a masterful approach.
2007 Breggo Savoy Vineyard Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($55) Douglas Ian Stewart and consultant Ryan Hodgins have found a rewarding middle-ground style for Stewart's Boonville winery. There's lots of ripe fruit but persistent brightness. Leathery and muscular, with a core of boysenberry and distinct mineral weight.
2006 Chronicle Cerise Vineyard Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($48) OK, I admit - we like the name. But this effort sourced from a south-facing site above Boonville has not only a great fruit pedigree but also the skilled hand of Littorai's Ted Lemon making the wine. The ripe cherry flavors have an invigorating tension, edged by complex aromas: pine cone, sweet cherry, fresh flowers and marmalade.
2007 Copain Tous Ensemble Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($30) Wells Guthrie's blend includes fruit from the Cerise, Monument Tree and Wentzel sites. Leafy, huckleberry-tinged high tones mix with a truffly earth undercurrent. A great example of the valley's subtler expression.
2007 Drew Fog Eater Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($42) A floral punch adds tension to bright flavors of shaved cherry ice and an intense dry-earth complexity. Drew's limited Monument Tree ($42) bottling took time to open but blossomed into sweet huckleberry and dense forest-floor scents. Both are momentous and cellar-worthy.
2007 Elke Donnelly Creek Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($34) Grower Mary Elke's home vineyard was in fine form in 2007, making for an affordable single-site effort. Full of vibrant moss-tinged strawberry, with soy and lavender accents and an orange-like twang.
2007 Foursight Clone 05 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($49) The Charles family has quickly left its imprint with its new label. They isolated fruit from their Pommard clone and gave it extra oak. The result is smoky and heady, with allspice and cocoa accents on a dark-fruited base. Finessed tannins make it immediately drinkable.
2006 Londer Paraboll Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($54) A supple take on Londer's often robust style, with notable oak presence but a generous dose of sweet, rich strawberry flavors. Very well done.
2007 MacPhail Toulouse Vineyard Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($50) James MacPhail's Anderson Valley bottlings show that power doesn't mean sacrificing nuance. With 40 percent new oak, this one from a site in Philo is a fine example with its extraordinary nose: bergamot, fenugreek, forest-floor and damp soil, with rich black fruit flavors and a soft depth. Remarkably intriguing in its layers. The Ferrington ($60) is almost as dense and full of rich spice.
2006 Navarro Methode a l'Ancienne Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($29) This classic bottling harks back to Anderson Valley's more low-key style. Cinnamon-tinged black cherry gets depth from firm mineral notes and an orange-peel lift. Needs time.
2007 Phillips Hill Corby Vineyard Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($40) Artist Toby Hill again finds a powerful Pinot expression, with bright red fruit highlights and a rich earthy tone giving it momentum. His 2007 Oppenlander ($42) is more brooding and meaty.
2007 Roessler Blue Jay Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($32) Roessler's Anderson Valley blend opens with slightly overripe fruit, but cola spice and an appealingly musky black cherry note provide a deep, luscious quality.
2006 Saint Gregory Mendocino County Pinot Noir ($19) Greg Graziano uses mostly Potter Valley fruit in this approachable effort, with a bit coming from the Yorkville Highlands. A bit sharp at first, but with solid red fruit flavors.
E-mail Jon Bonnét jbonne(a)sfchronicle.com, go to sfgate.com/wine to read his blog, and follow him at @jbonne on Twitter.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/20/FDLV19NI03.DTL
This article appeared on page K - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
David was at a WCW event yesterday and looked great. Had to take it
easy, sitting often, but was otherwise back to form, tasting wine,
talking to everybody. Modern medicine is incredible!
Jason Kallsen
Greetings,
Anyone have any new information regarding David Anderson
and his successful surgery?
Cheers,
Jim
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
A two-fer:
September 16, 2009
Wines of The Times
The Languedoc Raises Its Game
By ERIC ASIMOV
YEARS ago, when I was in graduate school in Austin, Tex., I remember buying liter bottles of red wine from southern France, mostly from the Languedoc. I particularly remember those from the appellation Minervois.
They weren.t bad wines, at least I didn.t think so at the time, though they were lean and perhaps a bit tart. But they were ideal for anybody on a student budget, and those big bottles were great for dinner parties.
My, how things have changed.
I don.t see those big bottles anymore, and while the wines from the Languedoc, especially those from Minervois, are still very good values, these days they may stretch a graduate student.s budget a little too far.
But what.s really different is how much better these wines are now than they were 25 years ago.
For years, I.ve heard talk about the transformation of the Languedoc, a region that for so long was best known for supplying the rest of France with cheap red wine that only occasionally rose to the level of mediocre.
As the French began to consume less wine, and the competition for the inexpensive market has grown, Languedoc has had to undergo a painful evolution that is far from complete.
Not long ago the only thing you could be sure about in a bottle of wine from the Languedoc was that it would be unpredictable.
Styles might range from the most rustic wines imaginable to highly polished bottles of no discernable origin. And the quality of the winemaking was a similar grab bag.
In a tasting recently of 20 bottles of red from the Languedoc, the wine panel found them still to be all over the place stylistically. But the level of high quality in the winemaking was unexpectedly consistent.
For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Bernard Sun, the beverage director for Jean-Georges Management, and Michael Madrigale, the sommelier at Bar Boulud.
The Languedoc, along with Roussillon, the region just to the south with which it is habitually paired, covers a huge territory. The vineyards stretch in a long crescent along the Mediterranean between Provence to the east and the Pyrenees to the south, accounting for perhaps a quarter of all the vines planted in France.
For the tasting, we tried to confine ourselves to some of the better hilly regions inland, including Saint-Chinian, Minervois, Corbiès, Fitou and certain sub-regions of the enormous Coteaux du Languedoc, most particularly Pic Saint-Loup.
We also looked for bottles $35 or less. In the end, 15 of the bottles in the tasting were $20 or less. Only two cost more than $30.
These wines are generally made from a handful of grapes typical of southern France, including mourvèe, grenache, syrah, cinsault and carignan.
Carignan is of particular interest. The grape is much derided for its lack of allure, particularly when overcropped, resulting in thin, dark, acidic, tannic wines of . big surprise . little charm.
The European Union has encouraged many farmers to pull out their carignan vines. But when old vines are carefully nurtured, and the grapes intelligently blended, the wines can be very good.
Many of our top 10 wines have a significant carignan component.
It.s easy to find international grapes, too, like merlot, cabernet sauvignon and even pinot noir in some of the branded bottles that are intended to compete on the global market for inexpensive wines. We avoided these sorts of wines as, frankly, I find them of very little interest.
The wines we liked best were well made and focused, with clear expressions of regional identity, particularly the earthy, aromatic blend of wild herbs that, if you close your eyes, can.t help making you feel as if you.re smack in the middle of the shrubby, rocky Languedoc.
Even so, we had some disagreements.
One of the things I liked best about the wines was that they were not dripping with fruit flavors, as so many modern wines are today.
Florence, on the other hand, thought that the wines as a whole did not show enough fruit flavors. Bernard, too, was looking for clearer expressions of fruit, while Michael preferred wines that he thought were rough, raw and rustic.
As much as the wines have improved, Languedoc is still a forbidding proposition for winemakers, not only because of the rugged, dry terrain but the difficulties in making inroads in an overcrowded marketplace.
Is it any wonder that one of my favorite Languedoc producers, Domaine Rimbert in Saint-Chinian, calls its wine Le Mas au Schiste? Aside from referring to the schiste on which the grapes are planted, Le Mas au Schiste is, as the British wine writer Andrew Jefford has pointed out, a pun on the French word for masochist.
The 2005 Mas au Schiste, No. 7 on our list, was not at all painful to drink. It had great character in fact, with intriguing flavors of herbs, olives and cranberries.
Our favorite bottle was the spicy, balanced 2006 Le Rél du Loup from Le Loup Blanc in Minervois. Made from carignan, grenache and syrah, it offered herbal, savory flavors, and epitomized a wine that spoke of its origins and history.
Our No. 2 bottle, the dense, concentrated 2006 Châau de Séme, from Corbiès, was an entirely different sort of wine. Though it offered more obvious fruit, it too spoke of its region with aromas of menthol, licorice and herbs. At $14, it was also our best value.
We also very much liked the 2006 CuvéSyrah Conference de Presse from Domaine Faillenc Corbiès, with its combination of fruit and earth flavors that were somewhat rustic.
Our No. 4 wine, the 2005 Domaine de l.Hortus from Pic Saint Loup, also had an unpolished quality, yet we enjoyed its meadowlike herbal aromas and its tannic structure.
With their raft of unfamiliar appellations and little-known producers, the wines from the Languedoc have over the years often been an adventure.
The best bottles have always offered unexpected flavors and pleasing surprises.
As the viticulture and winemaking have improved, the good news is that many producers have succeeded in removing the risks while managing to leave the sense of adventure intact. That is quite an achievement.
Tasting Report: Navigating the Hilly Terrain
Le Loup Blanc Minervois 2006 $19 ... (Three Stars)
Le Rél du Loup
Great sense of place, fragrant of fruit, herbs, garlic, rocks and dirt roads. (Jenny & Françs Selections, New York)
BEST VALUE Châau de Séme 2006 $14 ... (Three Stars)
Corbiès Rérve du Châau
Big, dense and true, with aromas of menthol, licorice, fruit and herbs. (Allied Beverage Group, Carlstadt, N.J.)
Domaine Faillenc Corbiès 2006 $20 ... (Three Stars)
CuvéSyrah Conference de Presse
A touch rustic with aromas and flavors of smoke, earth, fruit and minerals. (Rosenthal Wine Merchant, New York)
Domaine de l.Hortus 2005 $20 .. ½ (Two and a Half Stars)
Pic Saint Loup Grande Cuvé
Tannic and unpolished yet appealing with true southern French aromas of herbs and flowers. (Eric Solomon Selections/European Cellars, Charlotte, N.C.)
Châau Coupe Roses 2006 $18 .. ½ (Two and a Half Stars)
Minervois CuvéVignals
Distinctive flavors of smoke, herbs, bacon and fruit. (Vintage .59 Imports, Washington, D.C.)
Castelmaure Corbiès 2006 $32 .. ½ (Two and a Half Stars)
CuvéNo. 3
Big and structured with aromas and flavors of rich fruit, anise and herbs. (Regal Wine Imports, Marlton, N.J.)
Domaine Rimbert Saint-Chinian 2005 $20 .. (Two Stars)
Le Mas au Schiste
Intriguing flavors of black olives, earth, cranberry and herbs. (Jenny & Françs Selections, New York)
Ermitage du Pic Saint Loup 2006 $17 .. (Two Stars)
Coteaux du Languedoc
Balanced but tannic with smoky flavors of bacon and herbs. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, Calif.)
Châau Massiac Minervois 2006 $14 .. (Two Stars)
Earthy, spicy and intense with aromas of clay and bacon. (Rosenthal Wine Merchant, New York)
Châau Cazal Viel Saint-Chinian 2007 $14 .. (Two Stars)
Cuvédes Fé
Polished and juicy with simple flavors of dark fruit and herbs. (Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York)
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: September 23, 2009
The Wines of The Times column last Wednesday on Languedoc in France referred incorrectly to the origin of one wine. The 2006 Châau de Séme is from Corbiès, not Minervois.
Not to be outdone, from the WA Post:
French Quality Goes South
By Dave McIntyre
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Americans are always looking for something new, the next big thing, the undiscovered star, designer, iPhone app or whatever. So it might seem strange to look to France -- the stodgy, hidebound homeland of fine wine, with its rigid classifications and appellation laws -- as a source of innovation in wine. Yet the southern provinces of Languedoc and Roussillon have shown tremendous improvement in quality over the past decade, and they remain a great source of high-value wine at reasonable prices.
Languedoc and Roussillon have a reputation for producing massive quantities of inferior wine. With modern winemaking techniques and capital, these regions still produce boatloads, but the cheap wine is getting better. In part that's because big French wine names from other regions are investing in Languedoc's cheap vineyard land to produce bargain wines that anchor their portfolios. Foreign companies, too, are investing, including Gallo, which markets the Red Bicyclette wines.
You may have enjoyed some other Languedoc wines under cute brand names, such as Arrogant Frog, Petit Bistro or Fat Bastard, among others. There has even been a whiff of scandal, which shows how important this sector of the market has become. French and U.S. authorities are investigating whether pinot noir exported from Languedoc to the United States actually was pinot noir. They haven't determined which brands, if any, were sold as fraudulent pinot, but Languedoc is not exactly known for the grape, so suspicions run high.
The real excitement lies in the various sub-appellations of Languedoc and Roussillon, such as Corbieres, Faugeres, Fitou, Saint-Chinian, Minervois and Cabardes, and the broader Coteaux du Languedoc. Here, the traditional Rhone Valley grapes of grenache, syrah, mourvedre, carignan and cinsault feature in various combinations, often with a splash of cabernet or merlot for added interest.
The French magazine La Revue du Vin de France lavished patronizing praise on Languedoc in its July-August issue. "No other region in France has made as much progress as the wines of Languedoc over the past 10 years," the magazine said. (Presumably no other region had to.) The wonderful 1998 vintage surprised "local vintners" with the potential of their formidable terroirs, and, in the decade since, improvements in blending and aging their wines have enabled a few leading domaines to shake off the inferiority complex that haunts the region. So the magazine says.
La RVF, as it calls itself, listed what its tasters considered the best 100 red wines from Languedoc. Bringing the magazine home with me from a visit to France this summer, I decided to explore Languedoc wines available here. I found a few that were on La RVF's list of favorites and a few others from producers that were on the list.
Some of the wines I would call "modernized traditional": modernized in that the quality is high, traditional in that alcohol levels stay under 14 percent with little or no noticeable new oak. An example of this style is the delightful Ermitage du Pic St. Loup Cuvee Sainte Agnes 2005 from Coteaux du Languedoc ($23), imported by Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant of Berkeley, Calif. It is fresh and herbaceous, with herbal notes of the "garrigue" -- that heady mix of aromas, especially sage and thyme, that conjures southern France -- and an appealing citrusy note of orange peel. The 2006 of this wine ranked 57th on the RVF list.
Other wines I tasted were very modern, almost New World in style, with riper flavors, lower acidity, alcohol pushing 15 percent and sometimes lavish new oak. The Mas Laval 2006 from the Vin de Pays de l'Herault appellation, for example, has a gorgeous perfume of evening, a rich silky texture and new oak that is evident but comfortable in a supporting role. It is imported by Exclusive Wine Imports of Richmond and ranked 20th on the RVF list of 100. It is ambitiously priced at $37, but some of the same magic can be found at $19 with the 2007 "Les Pampres" bottling from the same winery.
The problem for consumers is that it can be difficult to know which style you have until you've tasted it, though the alcohol level on the label can be a clue.
Unfortunately, I also found several wines that were marred by excessive sulfur, most likely sulfur dioxide (a necessary and natural preservative) added at bottling. The characteristic burnt-match-rotten egg smell will sometimes vanish if you decant the wine and let it breathe. Too often, however, it lingers, and no amount of vigorous swirling will liberate the fruit trapped underneath.
On the whole, wines from Languedoc and Roussillon offer a variety of flavors and styles, good value and, increasingly, quality. They offer wine lovers a great opportunity for exploration.
Dave McIntyre can be reached through his Web site, www.dmwineline.com, or at food(a)washpost.com.
Recommendations
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Mas Laval 2006 *** Vin de Pays de l'Herault, France, $37
Perfumed with evening air, this gorgeous wine offers rich texture that coats the palate like fine silk. New oak is evident but content to play a supporting role. It ranked 20th on La Revue du Vin de France's list of the best 100 reds from Languedoc. The Mas Laval 2007 "Les Pampres" ($19, **, Great Value) is shy next to its more powerful sibling; decant it for an hour or two and let it blossom.
Murray-Sykes Selection: distributed by Nice Legs in the District and Maryland, on the list at Rasika. Exclusive Wine Imports in Virginia: available at Arrowine in Arlington, Grape + Bean in Alexandria, Wine Seller in Herndon, Maison du Vin in Great Falls; on the list at Willow in Arlington and Vermilion in Alexandria.
Ermitage du Pic St. Loup, Cuvee Sainte Agnes 2005 ** 1/2 Coteaux du Languedoc, France, $23 (Great Value)
Herbaceous and fresh, deceptively light in body but long in flavor, with a hint of orange peel and intrigue. The 2006, which is just now reaching area stores, ranked 57th on the RVF list, while another wine from this producer was 34th.
Winebow in the District: available at D'Vines, De Vinos, U Street Mini Mart; on the list at Acadiana, Bistrot Lepic, Cactus Cantina, Vinoteca.
Castelmaure Grande Cuvee "Vendanges Humaine" 2006 ** Corbieres, France, $23
Deep aromas of thyme, olives and sage speak of the traditional garrigue character of wines from southern France, yet this wine has an impressive richness that should appeal to fans of New World wines.
Kysela: available in the District at Whole Foods Market Tenleytown; available in Virginia at Unwined in Alexandria, Wegmans in Fredericksburg, Market Street Wineshop in Charlottesville.
Chateau Coupe Roses "Granaxa" 2007 ** Minervois, France, $25
According to importer Roy Cloud, "the important thing about this estate is that the wine is made by a woman, so you can trust it." Okaaaay. But this grenache-based wine is also grown in the highest part of the Minervois appellation, which gives it bright fruit and good acidity for structure and balance.
Vintage 59/Country Vintner: available in the District at MacArthur Beverages, Whole Foods Market P Street; on the list at Buck's Fishing and Camping, Indebleu.
Chateau de Caladroy, Cuvee Saint Michel 2005 ** Cotes du Roussillon, France, $26
Lavishly oaked in a New World style, this mourvedre-based blend needs a little air to settle down, but when it does reveal its fruit, it shines. Mourvedre is the main grape grown in the Bandol sector of Provence, and this should appeal to fans of the highly touted and hard-to-find wines of Bandol's Domaine Tempier.
Vintage 59/Country Vintner: available in the District at D'Vines, De Vinos, MacArthur Beverages.
Les Hauts de la Brune 2007 ** Coteaux du Languedoc, France, $15 (Great Value)
I love the color of this wine, deep purple but not opaque, as though I'm looking at a jewel and the summer of 2007 is reflected inside. Syrah, with grenache and mourvedre.
Kysela: available in the District at Whole Foods Market Tenleytown. Available in Virginia at Arrowine in Arlington, Wegmans in Fairfax; on the list at Cantina D'Italia in Herndon.
Chateau Aiguilloux, "Tradition" 2006 * 1/2 Corbieres, France, $11 (Great Value)
Minerally, cherry fruit, nice structure and balance. A good example of the traditional style from a producer that also captured the 94th rank in La RVF with another wine.
M Touton: available in the District at AB Liquors, Burka's Wine & Liquor, Rodman's, Watergate Wine & Beverage; by the glass at Montmartre. Available in Maryland at Silesia Liquors in Fort Washington, Bethesda Co-Op in Cabin John, Hillandale Beer & Wine in Silver Spring, and Old Farm Liquors and Frederick Wine House in Frederick. Available in Virginia at Arrowine in Arlington, Whole Foods Market in Vienna, Leesburg Vintner.
Chateau Jouclary, Cuvee Tradition 2006 * 1/2 Cabardes, France, $10 (Great Value)
Musky, herbal garrigue notes, light in body but with refreshing acidity and good fruit unmasked by oak.
Wine Traditions: available in the District at D'Vines, De Vinos; on the list at Bistrot Lepic. Available in Maryland at FineWine.com in Gaithersburg. Available in Virginia at Arrowine and Whole Foods Market in Arlington.
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
