[wine] Zin? at Oddfellows?

Ruth suggested Oddfellows. I see we haven't been there since March, and vin du jour was Zinfandel. Style is certainly open to suggestion, as is the venue. Bob's stuck in depositions, so we most likely will not have confirmation on this until tonight/tomorrow. Cheers, Jim ----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> ----- Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 13:43:32 -0600 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Subject: [wine] Zins at Oddfellows Greetings, Zins at Oddfellows. Thursday. 6:30. Oddfellows is one block east of Surdyks on Hennepin. These are mostly guesses. Tables are small, so make the reservation for two more than we expect? (These are mostly guesses. certainly room for more.) Ruth Betsy Bob Nicolai Karin Russ/Sue Jim Dave Bill Joyce Cheers, Jim September 6, 2006 Wines of The Times The Risk-Free Pleasures of $10 Bottles By ERIC ASIMOV DON.T you get tired of those well-padded wine lovers reminiscing about the case of .61 Latour they picked up for $6.50 a bottle 40 years ago? It.s almost as annoying as the investment banker bragging about the brownstone he bought for a song back in 1980, or the fellow who fell upon a few acres in Napa way back when. These days, $6.50 or even $10 is not likely to win you decades of bragging rights. But it can still earn you a satisfying bottle of wine; more than a few, in fact, judging by a recent tasting of wines that cost $10 and under. This is especially welcome news as summer comes to a close and vacation bills start to roll in. Sit down with your checkbook and a glass of wine. While the wine may not take the sting out of your shrinking bank account, it helps to know that one hand won.t be robbing the other. For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Chris Goodhart, the wine director of Balthazar in SoHo, and Byron Bates, the general manager and wine director of Bette in Chelsea. We sampled 24 bottles, 12 white and 12 red, and the wines we liked confirmed our impression that the world.s wine shops hold a trove of inexpensive bottles that not only offer outstanding value but are highly enjoyable as well. The problem is that while a river of good cheap wine is out there, you may have to wade through an ocean of bad cheap wine to find it. Let me qualify that. Bad wine, as in spoiled, turned or foul, is largely a thing of the past. Technology and increased knowledge have liberated wine drinkers from those awful bottles of old. As with so many agricultural products, flaws nowadays stem from mass production and a lack of character rather than contamination and spoilage. Bad wine in 2006 tends to mean bottles that are insipid, vapid and lifeless, and to wines with elements out of whack . too oaky, too alcoholic, too flabby, too too. Nobody should be willing to settle for wine that is merely innocuous. In an age that practically demands that we esteem the self, don.t we deserve better than that? Of course we do. At a minimum, even for $10 and under, a wine ought to taste fresh and lively. It should have personality and a point of view. It must have something to say in the glass. Is that asking too much? Take our No. 1 white wine, for example, a 2005 gr�ner veltliner from E & M Berger in the Kremstal region of Austria. This $10 bottle . that.s $10 for a liter . was fresh and expressive, with citrus, floral and mineral flavors that linger in the mouth. It practically invites you to have a second glass. Is it the best gr�ner veltliner that you will find? Of course not. This wine doesn.t have the pronounced peppery quality that is typical of a really good gr�ner veltliner, nor is it complex. But it is refreshing, and it makes a definite case for its place on the table. So does our No. 2 white wine, a 2004 Saint-V�ran from Domaine Delaye. It, too, had a pronounced freshness, like one of those cartoon pies sitting on a windowsill, where the aroma rises up, snatches you by the nose and pulls you in. It.s a chardonnay, but without the oak trimmings. Simply a crisp, clean, modest wine that doesn.t intrude with pretensions. In a similar tasting last year, the white wine category was dominated by sauvignon blancs. We had fewer in the tasting this year, and only one made our top five, a balanced, inviting 2005 Pascual Toso from Mendoza in Argentina. Even so, I think sauvignon blanc . from France, New Zealand, South America, South Africa . remains a reliable area to explore in this price range. The pungent personality of the grape shines through, and the wines often have a force that is too often lacking otherwise. Another approach is to look for wines made from unusual, offbeat grapes, like our No. 3 white, a 2004 from Cusumano in Sicily that goes by the proprietary name Angimb�. This wine is 70 percent insolia, an obscure Sicilian grape, and 30 percent chardonnay. It had a rich texture and the sort of exotic coconut and tropical fruit character that reminded me of a white Rioja. Inexpensive white wines have an advantage over their red counterparts. As with a mass-market lager beer, if you serve a white wine cold enough, it will at least quench a thirst. Red wines can.t hide in the ice bucket, though truth be told, a slight chill can enhance many reds. Our No. 1 red wine is the 2004 Perrin R�serve C�tes-du-Rh�ne, from the family that owns Ch�teau de Beaucastel, the esteemed Ch�teauneuf-du-Pape. Humble C�tes-du-Rh�ne used to be the house wine in countless Paris cafes and bistros, until it got too expensive. But this $9 one recalls the honest character of many of those wines, with its dark, earthy fruit flavors and lively acidity. By comparison, the 2005 Robert Mondavi Private Selection pinot noir is a surprise as our No. 2 red wine. Pinot noir is hard to produce cheaply, yet here.s a $9 bottle that.s not bad at all. In fact it.s quite pleasing, with a light texture and straightforward raspberry and anise flavors, and it.s dry on the palate. Inexpensive Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon is thought to be an oxymoron, but the 2002 Pavilion cabernet was a real eye-opener at $10, dry with dark fruit flavors supported by light tannins. It.s the kind of wine that you don.t see every year, but when the supply of grapes is greater than the demand, you can sometimes find deals like this. Spain and Italy remain superb sources for inexpensive bottles. Valpolicella was once a synonym for bad cheap wine, but the appellation has rebounded in the last decade, and the 2004 Allegrini Classico shows archetypal dried cherry and earth flavors. The last red had us all guessing Beaujolais, but it was a Spanish wine, a 2004 tempranillo from Bodegas Gormaz in Ribera del Duero, lightly fruity with mineral flavors. While 24 bottles is a small slice of the inexpensive wine market, the percentage of wines that we liked was high enough to warrant experimentation. The risk is not high, and if you find a wine you like, who knows, maybe you too will have a story to live on for years to come. Tasting Report: Lively, Fresh Flavors at Painless Prices WHITES E & M Berger Austria Kremstal Gr�ner Veltliner 2005 1 liter $10 *** Crisp, clean and fresh with distinct floral, citrus and mineral flavors. (Importer: Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, N.Y.) Domaine Delaye France Saint-V�ran Les Pierres Grises 2004 $10 **� Grassy and floral with a lively, inviting texture. (Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, N.Y.) Cusumano Sicily Angimb� 2004 $10 **� Nutlike, almost coconut aroma, with rich texture and unusual tropical fruit flavors. (Vin Divino, Chicago) Pascual Toso Argentina Mendoza Sauvignon Blanc 2005 $9 ** Crisp, lively and refreshing. (TGIC Importers, Woodland Hills, Calif.) Cuevas de Castillo Spain Rueda Con Class 2004 $10 ** Grassy, almost musky aroma with lingering mineral flavors; serve well chilled. (European Cellars, Charlotte, N.C.) REDS Perrin R�serve C�tes-du-Rh�ne 2004 $9 **� Direct, balanced and refreshing with aromas of earth, raspberries and dark fruit. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, Ala.) Robert Mondavi Private Selection Central Coast Pinot Noir 2005 $9 ** Straightforward and balanced with flavors of raspberry and anise. Allegrini Valpolicella Classico 2004 $10 ** Dry and lively with cherry and earth flavors and a nice bitter edge.(Winebow, New York) Pavilion Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 $10 ** Dry and lightly tannic with berry and plum flavors. Bodegas Gormaz Ribera del Duero Tempranillo 2004 $8 ** Earthy and direct, with clear fruit and mineral flavors. (Classical Wines, Seattle)