[wine] Loire, Rhone at A'Rebours TONIGHT

Mostly an update. Reservation is for 8. I've got 9 on the list, but haven't heard from everyone. Perhaps we can give our hosts the heads up so the later comers have a place to sit. Including a note on the 2003 Rhones. Sounds like the warmest year, earliest harvest on record has created some very concentrated wines, at least by rhone standards. I suppose the price of sugar plummeted due to decreased demand from the vintners..... ----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> ----- Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 11:13:40 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Subject: [wine] Loire, Rhone at A'Rebours on Thursday (again) Greetings, Re-cycling this for this weeks re-scheduled event. Annette: Are we on for A' Rebours this week? C, J ----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> ----- Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 11:22:28 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Subject: Loire, Rhone at A' Rebours on Thursday User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i Greetings, This week, the group goes to St. Paul. A Rebours 410 St. Peter, 55102 651 665 0656 Annette Bob Lori Betsy (late) Roger Jim (late) Nicolai Brian Mallie Russ McC Sounds like the rest. is in the Hamm building? Better parking is away from the X and the Ordway. e.g. on 6th, Wabasha, 7th, etc. Meters are free after 5:00. Vallet Parking available. If your coming via I-94, then take the 10th st. exit to St. Peter, Right on St. Peter. Better parking on Wabasha, and on 6th st. One ways all around. Cheers, Jim April 20, 2005 WINES OF THE TIMES Not the Same Old, Same Old Nouveau By ERIC ASIMOV IF you don't love a good Beaujolais you don't love wine. To me, that's a bottom line. You can throw out all the other reasons that people buy and drink wine, whether for status or religious observance, as an investment, as an intellectual exercise, as a social lubricant or simply to get drunk. Those all may be legitimate motives for opening a bottle. But the sheer joyous lip-smacking pleasure of drinking a good lively Beaujolais is what separates those who love wine for wine's sake from those more concerned with the added values a bottle might bring. The problem is finding a good Beaujolais. Any number of mediocre, pallid or tricked-up wines call themselves Beaujolais. Technically they have the right, if the wines are made from the gamay grape and are grown in the Beaujolais region south of Burgundy. If the grapes come from better parts of the hilly northern end of the region, the wines might be called Beaujolais-Villages, and if they come from the best parts of the north, the wines can be named after one of 10 communes considered distinctive, like Moulin-�-Vent, Morgon or Juli�nas. But over the last 25 years or so the identity of Beaujolais has become muddied. Once it was clearly an inexpensive, exuberant wine, served by the barrelful in French bistros. Then came the Beaujolais nouveau explosion of the 1970's and 80's, which turned a quaint local custom of celebrating the new vintage into a worldwide marketing phenomenon. Before long half the entire production of Beaujolais was devoted to the nouveau. But soon enough the world got over the hype and was yawning at yet another proclamation that the Beaujolais "est arriv�." Other factors contributed to a fall in demand for Beaujolais. More and more cheap wine became available from Australia, South America, South Africa and Eastern Europe, cutting into the market. And as a side effect of the Beaujolais nouveau promotions, many grape growers and producers took shortcuts to make a reliable mass-market wine at the expense of traditional character. This is not to paint a nostalgic picture. There was always plenty of bad Beaujolais to go around. But today it takes extra effort to find a good Beaujolais, the kind that makes you happy to have a glassful of wine. To help pick out a few good bottles, the Dining section's wine panel decided to taste a selection from the vintage of 2003. As you may recall, heat waves swept through France that year, producing unusual vintages in the Burgundy and Beaujolais regions. Many have heralded this Beaujolais vintage because the heat let growers ripen their grapes to a point of rare intensity. Others have feared that the ripe grapes would produce jammy, baked wines that would lack liveliness. Luckily, the panel - Florence Fabricant and I, joined by our guests, Chris Goodhart, wine director of Balthazar in SoHo, and Karen King, beverage director of the Modern in Midtown - concluded that the 2003 vintage was excellent. It was one of our rare areas of agreement about the 26 bottles that we tasted, which included 3 plain Beaujolais, 5 Beaujolais-Villages and 18 cru Beaujolais, those named after one of the superior communes. And yet we were all excited by what we liked. Ms. King loved the silky, velvety textures of the wines and found the lineup as a whole delicious. Mr. Goodhart and I loved the idea of drinking these softly fruity, minerally wines with food. Ms. Fabricant was happy to find ripe cherry flavors in her favorite wines. Yet there were frustrating moments. I loved a fresh, unpretentious wine with plenty of fruit and a pleasing bitterness. It turned out to be a Beaujolais-Villages from Ch�teau de la Rigodi�re, marketed as Le Petit Coq in a cute 500-milliliter bottle for $10. But Mr. Goodhart and Ms. King were so unimpressed that the bottle did not make our Top 10 list. Similarly, I loved a cru Beaujolais from Andr� Rampon, from the commune of R�gni�, which I found exuberant and substantial. But I was alone. It did not make the list. On the other hand, Mr. Goodhart and Ms. King very much admired a Juli�nas, sold under the ubiquitous Georges Duboeuf flower label, which I found way too sweet and candied. It squeaked onto our list at No. 10. Personally I find over-sweetness a common flaw in many wines, including Mr. Duboeuf's flower-label series, but Mr. Duboeuf, the dominant figure in Beaujolais, also sells more textured, less obvious wines, like his Jean Descombes Morgon, which we put at No. 9. We had no such disputes at the top of the list, though. Our top choice, a Fleurie from Ch�teau de Ch�nas, was just what we were looking for, a lively, juicy wine with an almost chewy texture that was pure pleasure in the mouth. A Juli�nas from Michel T�te, No. 2 on our list, was pleasing and graceful, with fruit, herb and spice flavors. While most of the best Beaujolais come from the crus, it is not a hard rule. Our No. 3 wine was a Beaujolais-Villages from Domaine de la Madone, and our No. 6 was a plain Beaujolais. It illustrates what dedicated producers can accomplish when they don't cut corners. Too often producers more interested in high grape yields than in quality will pick early, before the grapes ripen sufficiently. They will then make adjustments in the cellar, like adding sugar or acidity: legal, but shortcuts just the same. Harsh filtering can assure stability for shipping but can also strip away character. Better producers may make less wine, but chances are it will be more distinctive. It may cost a few dollars more, but these producers take greater risks in delaying their harvests and trying to preserve the individuality of their wines. Even so, Beaujolais is not really a wine that lends itself to extended analysis. People have told me that if you take a fine cru Beaujolais and age it for a decade, it begins to resemble a Burgundy. No doubt. But making aging potential the measure of a Beaujolais misses the point. Why not celebrate the simplicity of a good Beaujolais? A simple wine does not have to be a childish wine, sweet and sappy as soda. It can be a grown-up pleasure, offering joy that is profound in its own way. I think all wine lovers can agree on that. Tasting Report: 10 That Basked in the 2003 Sun BEST VALUE Ch�teau de Ch�nas Fleurie $16 *** Juicy and balanced, with ripe cherry, earth and cranberry flavors and a velvety texture. (Importer: Cellar Door Selections, Columbia, Md.) Michel T�te Domaine du Clos du Fief Juli�nas $22 *** Light and graceful, with persistent mineral, fruit and herbal flavors. (Louis/Dressner Selections, New York) Domaine de la Madone Beaujolais-Villages Perreon $13 ** 1/2 Dense and earthy, with rich, lingering fruit and spice flavors. (Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, N.Y.) Marcel Lapierre Morgon $23 ** 1/2 Appealing aromas of cinnamon and mint, with juicy fruit flavors. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, Calif.) Michel Guignier Morgon R�serve $20 ** 1/2 Succulent and balanced, with complex aromas of fruit, flowers and minerals and lingering flavors. (Village Wine Imports, New York) Domaine du Vissoux Beaujolais Cuv�e Traditionelle $14 ** 1/2 Dense and concentrated, with intense fruit flavors. (Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, Pa.) Tr�nel Fils Morgon C�te de Py $18 ** Well balanced, with mineral flavors; more earthy than fruity. (Robert Chadderdon, New York) Ch�teau des Tours Brouilly $15 ** Ripe fruit flavors; pure and not too sweet. (Baron Fran�ois, New York) Georges Duboeuf Morgon Jean Descombes $14 ** Ripe and substantial, with persistent fruit flavors. (W. J. Deutsch & Sons, White Plains, N.Y.) Georges Duboeuf Juli�nas (flower label) $11 ** Ripe, juicy and very sweet; a crowd pleaser. (W. J. Deutsch & Sons, White Plains, N.Y.) -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *