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Over May 13th, 14th and 15th 2007, thirty wine writers, sommeliers, and industry professionals from across Canada and the U.S. met in Windsor, Ontario to judge the 27th annual All Canadian Wine Championships. More than 850 wines were submitted from...
Sake is a Japanese alcoholic beverage, made from a series of fermentations using steamed rice. The process removes the millet and the protein from the rice, leaving the starch-similar to how beer is made from grain. Over time, the starch is converted to sugar naturally and a little yeast, called koji, is added in later stages of the fermentation, which acts to create alcohol out of the sugar. At the end of the process, the liquid is filtered to remove any millet or other particles. The resulting product is clear and about 15 percent alcohol. Sake has been made in Japan for over 6800 years.
Types of Sake There are two kinds of sake: junmai (with no alcohol added) and honjozo (with alcohol added during the fermentation process). Over 80 percent of the sake made in Japan is honjozo sake. Within those broad classifications, there are different grades of sake:
Futsu - economy sake
Ginjo - premium sake
Daiginjo - ultra-premium sake
How to Drink Sake Futsu (ordinary) sake is warmed for drinking. (Ginjo and Daiginjo are served chilled.) Traditionally, sake is poured from a stoneware carafe, called a tokkuri (pictured above). Warm the sake in the tokkuri by placing it in a partially-filled pan of boiling water. (Don't overheat the sake; it should be warm-a little over body temperate, not hot.)
To serve the sake, pour it from the tokkuri into individual sake cups, called ochoko. It is proper sake etiquette to hold your cup while the sake is being poured. Inhale the sake's aroma gently before sipping. Sake is meant for sipping, not throwing back like a shot of whiskey.
Storing Sake Sake does not improve with age, like fine wines or Scotch whiskey. Instead, buy sake with a recent bottling date. Once open, a bottle of sake should be kept in a cool, dark place (such as the refrigerator), as the liquid is sensitive to heat and light. A bottle, stored properly should last around a year.
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I mentioned on Sunday that I was in Ravello, wandering around and eating a very good meal on a spectacular terrace overlooking the sea, the vineyards and the lemon groves. The restaurant is part of the Hotel Villa Amore. The photos of the place and the food may tempt you to go there. From the terrace of the Villa Amore restaurant Again from the Villa Amore terrace. By the way, the hotel is not at all expensive. On the following page are some pix of Ravello and its immediate surroundings....
Normally when a person passes away, our memories of him fade over time. I don't think that this will apply to Robert Mondavi. Much has been written about him, his life and his many contributions, to wine and beyond. He was a singular man, as focused on one great objective as anyone I have ever known.
Following the theme of my last post about Americans? increasing awareness of the quality wines that many artisan producers of Argentina are exporting, I?m pleased to post the first installment of my interview with Ed Lehrman of Vine Connections. Along with his business partner, Nick Ramkowsky, they formed a company that not only imports the wines of artisan Mendoza producers, but selectively forges meaningful, long term relationships with them. As Ed Lehrman explains in the interview, this type of involvement encompasses much more than shipping and distribution, extending into representation, consulting, label design and many other crucial aspects which in the end, bring American consumers the types of genuine artisan wines that multinationals couldn?t even conceive of delivering.
Based out of Sausalito, CA, Vine Connections has been at the forefront of the changing of the guard, in terms of tastes, that I described in my last post. Their portfolio includes excellent California, New Zealand and Japanese Saké producers, alongside the wines of star Mendoza winemakers Susana Balbo and Pedro Marchevsky, along with others to look out for, such as Mapema, Tikal and La Posta del Viñatero. If you really want to know what Argentines really like to have at the table and moreover, the breadth that Argentine wines are capable of achieving, I encourage you to explore the types of artisan producers that Vine Connections represents and whose work, over the coming years, will ultimately triumph over the characterless, corporate-backed South American wines saturating our shelves.
I would like to thank Ed Lehrman for taking the time to provide his in-depth responses concerning Vine Connections, its vision and inspiration. Our conversation unfolded over e-mail:
*What is the vision behind your company and what were some of the key experiences that led you and your business partner to get started?
- My partner, Nick Ramkowsky, and I have both been in the wine business since 1986 (we started very young), and we could have done any number of things together. Nick was a small California distributor at the time, and I had just sold my direct-to-consumer wine business where he had been one of my suppliers. A fateful trip together in May of 1999 launched us into the importing/national sale & marketing business. We spent about a week in Mendoza on that trip tasting wines from bottle, barrel, tanks?you name it?and we met some incredible winery owners and winemakers. By the end of the week, we were looking at each other and asking, ?How does the 5th largest wine producer in the world hide incredible wines like these from the US?? It seemed like this must be the opportunity of a lifetime for wine guys like us to lead the charge in introducing Argentine wine to the US, and in a way that they would be fully appreciated for their quality and authenticity, and not just their price. As an aside, of the first 12 wines we imported from Argentina, the LEAST EXPENSIVE wine was $22 retail! So in fact, Vine Connections was originally formed in order to be an Argentine wine importer. *Compared to other importers, what is the depth of Vine Connection's involvement with the producers its represents? (in terms of consulting, marketing, other assistance, etc.)
- It is hard to speak about other importers, since some do quite a lot and some just taste and buy. As for us, we take the approach that we are the winery?s own sales & marketing department and they can use us for as little or as much as they need. That may mean writing back label copy, helping with label design, or determining whether a new blended wine is even a good idea to add to their portfolio.
For all of our wineries, we do the copywriting for all printed materials since we can communicate their stories in English more effectively, and along the same lines, we handle most press relations since we are here and readily available. And I guess the most valuable thing we do would be called ?consulting? since we offer our advice on many topics based on our 40 years of working in the U.S. wine biz. *How does your company forge relationships with producers? In this vein, what is the process like for you when considering an addition to your portfolio? Do the producers come towards you in the way of trade events, do you travel to areas to scout, so to speak, or some combination thereof?
- We are very careful in this regard since our objective as an importer is to build brands and not just sell wine. That requires long-term relationships, so besides tasting backwards and forwards through a winery?s production, we spend as much as time as we can with the owners and the winemakers to see whether there is a good fit for working closely together. When we meet people who already think they know it all about winemaking, marketing, etc., we politely walk away no matter the wine quality. Our initial screen is the wines?they have to be particularly good since that is what we are known for importing. Then we start talking about their philosophies, their dreams, their business objectives, and where we should all eat dinner together (a meal with a potential supplier is always a good way to gain more insight).
This process means that while we have run into some wines that we like, we have sometimes been unwilling to take the winery on. The most common stumbling block for us seems to be that the winery lacks a strong winemaking philosophy, and often because they have abdicated this cornerstone to a consulting winemaker (and most often to foreign winemakers). As time has passed, we have pretty much settled into the idea of only representing wineries owned by Argentines and with Argentine winemakers since the winemaking vision is usually clearer and more grounded in expressing what makes Mendoza so special compared to other regions.
From the first moment that we meet a winery team, it usually takes about 18 months before we come to an agreement, do the ground work, and then start selling the wines in the U.S. It seems to work--we have never lost an Argentine winery and every brand that we represent has achieved a significant level of success.
I wish I could say that finding these producers followed a particular recipe, but in truth, all of our brands have come to us via different sources. The key is to have your radar on all the time so that the best ones don?t slip by accidentally.
*You represent Susana Balbo and Pedro Marchevsky's Dominio del Plata Winery?how did that relationship come about and how far back do you go?
- Well, if it weren?t for the ?dynamic duo? of Mendoza, we may never have been Argentine wine importers. We met them on our first trip to Mendoza in 1999, and they were so obviously talented and knowledgeable that they got us thinking a lot about the possibilities. We also formed a trusting relationship so quickly that it became obvious that we would work together, and together push forward a common vision of making Argentine wine part of the daily American fine wine conversation. That seems like an ominous task looking back now?we had no company yet and they were renting a very small winery at the time?but at the time it just seemed like destiny.
Wed Feb 23rd, 2005, Los Angeles Cooking With Friends - SINGLE MEN NEEDED TO COOK Contact Robyn at http://www.dinnerwithfriends.la Wednesday–2/23/05 7:00pm-10:00pm $80.00 Cooking With Friends is back by popular demand and limited to just 12 lucky participants.
I think this is rather important and pleasing news for the South African wine industry.
"The government has rejected an application from a South African-born scientist and his business partners to sell genetically modified yeast to local wine producers, saying it cannot risk jeopardizing the industry?s access to key European markets."
The modified yeasts may have made the winemaking process easier and perhaps resulted in more consistently good wine - but I applaud the decision and believe we should strive for more organic solutions and less preservatives in both wine and all that we consume on a day to day basis .
What do you think? Are you pro genetically modified yeasts in wine?
Many people would be able to identify a bottle of wine that was truly faulty and, in a restaurant, ask for a replacement. But would you be able to tell what the fault was or what to blame for it? It is all to do with perception threshold. Different faults require different parts per thousand or even million to be perceived.
Some people are more sensitive to certain faults than others so while the host, who may taste the wine as it is brought to the table, is happily quaffing, one or more guests could be secretively retching into their napkins. Depending on how well you know your host and judging, diplomatically, how much of an ego dent your comments could produce, it might be worth discreetly asking people to have another careful sniff.
At a wine faults workshop this week, it was made clear that a fault is only a fault if the people drinking the wine consider it to be. For example the "fault" brett - produced from brettanomyces yeast acting on the phenolic acids of the grape - is a characteristic that some tasters love and some winemakers deliberately introduce. It can produce strong animal characteristics that enhance a wine's complexity and increases some people's pleasure.
Of course it is very important to get the balance right because the smallest increase tips a wine over from animal (yum) to bretty (yuck). And even in the lower doses some people adore the fragrant pong while others will recoil in horror at the filthy stench. Perception is all.
Then there is actual corkiness. Produced by TCA, TBA and TeCA it has various origins like the high levels of chlorine used to clean the winery and equipment, the breakdown of other cleaning agents by funghi in the winery - low ventilation and high humidity contibuting to high levels in the atmosphere.
The cork industry is keen to point out that it is not something inherently present in the corks more of a contamination at the winery. The plastic in alternative closure linings etc are equally susceptible to this contamination. With increased awareness, far higher standards of hygiene than ever before and alternative cleaning solutions available the problem should be getting better. However despite some high profile cases in California back in 2004, there are still many wineries taking the easy option and continuing bad practices.
At the other end is a sulfide problem that produces a tomato, truffle, cabbage, rubber character. This is reduction, the opposite of oxidation and the result of a complete seal which prevents any movement of oxygen into the wine. Unlike oxidation though, this can be corrected sometimes as simply as swirling the wine in the glass or decanting the bottle thereby allowing some air contact and dissipating the bad aromas.
This problem has been most associated with screwcaps which provide such an affective seal that all the positive benefits of cork permeability have been lost alongside the problems that can occur for freshness through excessive permeability.
New Zealand wineries have famously chosen to address this by slightly oxidising the wine before bottling in order to achieve balance once the wine is in bottle. As is often the case with the New World, they are quick to respond to problems and criticism.
However this is a dangerous and nervy solution and not always successful. Pascal Chatonnet, leading faults scientist, oenologist and consultant to wineries all over the world, argues that some of the essential character and originality is lost through this process and the overall quality and elegance is compromised, though this is not necessarily understood by the consumer as the original wine is not available to compare.
What is important to the cork industry is that while a consumer might recognise the wine is faulty, the only real language employed to describe or attribute the fault invokes cork. This is of major concern and is where the charm offensive needs to conentrate, for cork may not have played any part whatsoever.
For consumers the challenge to the industry as a whole is to find a closure with the correct level of permeability and which is kept free of contamination. It is in everybody's interests and with a more frank discussion opening up we can only hope that solutions won't be too far away.
Running with our retro theme, I?d like to share some highlights from our nine-plus years of publishing. Some names have been omitted due to legal issues; some kept due to stupidity issues. Strap yourself in, baby. Here we go...
Best Endorsement: Coming in a close second to Ron Loutherback?s endorsement (see The Insider, page 40 in this issue) is an endorsement by Wine Spectator. We learned in 1999 that they (mainly their publisher) call us ?The Dark Side.? Not quite sure why. You?d think they?d figure out that the more young adults we turn on to wine now, the more subscribers they?ll have in about 10 years. But then again, it?s Wine Spectator.
Best Brokest Moment: In 2000, Random House published our first edition of the Wine X-Rated Guide to Wine. They were flying me to LA for the Festival of Books at UCLA to have me speak on a panel with other wine/food authors. Sounded great. ?Cept I had absolutely no money. I mean NO money. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. And I had no one to sponge off. Luckily I had gas in my car, so all I really needed was $6 to pay for airport parking (when I returned). So here was my plan: I had some foreign currency (from press trips abroad). I figured I?d fly down to LA, do the festival, then get dropped back at LAX early so I could go to the International terminal to cash in the currency. These best-laid plans were going great until I found the foreign-currency exchange booth. Closed. After running through the terminal in near panic, I found another that was open. I cashed in my currency and made it back home with a whopping $11.52 in my pocket.
Best Catch-22: After a year of dogged persistence, former Wine X ad sales director Dan Eliason and I finally snagged a meeting with a brand manager for a big Italian wine company. For an hour we did the ol? dog and pony show, covering all the details on why the brand (which retailed for $11) would appeal to our readers. Their response? ?We don?t think your readers will spend $11 on a bottle of wine.? I could tell (from so many other meetings with middle-aged brand managers who think young adults don?t have any money) that arguing with them was futile. So I said we?d forward the results of our recent reader survey, which included the average price our readers were paying per bottle. Upon receiving this information, which indicated our readers were spending about $16.50 retail for a bottle, we received an email back saying that if our readers are spending that much on wine, they?d never buy an $11 bottle. D?Oh!
Best Cover: To this day, despite all the great celebs we?ve had grace our cover, I think the best cover we?ve ever published is the first. Not because it shocked so many old farts in the industry (which it did). And not because the design of the cover alone cost me more than the design of the following 63 pages (which it did). I think it?s the best cover we?ve done because it did exactly what it was supposed to do: it alienated the ?old guard? (as intended); it attracted young adults to a magazine about wine (as intended); it paved the way for a new era of wine magazine appealing to the other 35 million U.S. wine consumers who weren?t reading Wine Spectator or Robert Parker. If you have a copy of our first issue, Vol. 2.1, hold on to it. Trust me. It?s worth more than the paper it?s printed on. Wanna see the intricate detail that our then-cover designer Glen Martinez achieved on that first cover? Look at the button on the jeans. (No, Wine X wasn?t making jeans at that time.) Or examine the tattoo. One by one Glen painstakingly placed each hair that seemingly comes through the tattoo ink. Yes, the tattoo was Photoshopped in. But the belly ring was real.
Regular readers of Winewaves have noticed the slowing pace of new pieces in 2007. For the first 2 years I tried to keep a daily pace of providing new pictures and reviews here. Winewaves began in February of 2005, but it's over. At least for now.
Like many other well-intentioned bloggers, I simply cannot afford to provide the quality of content that I would like to. Other paying work occupies my time. The opportunity cost of the effort I've invested in Winewaves has been great and the benefits have been scarce. My balance sheet unfortunately fits on a Post-It note. Being that I don't have deep pockets, something had to give.
Thank you to those who tuned in, found themselves checking out Winewaves, and especially to those who have sent me supportive e-mails over the past 3 years.
And go figure. No other wine created the stir that Bitch Barossa Grenache has over the last 3 years. For all those who are looking for it, I DON'T KNOW where you can find it. Which brings to my mind a pet peeve. When there is an ocean of Grenache (or at least red wine) in Australia, and when so many people are looking for "Bitch" in America, and when the people who want it are not expecting the highest standard of gustatory excellence, why don't they bottle more of it? What's wrong with giving the people what they want?
Of all the lessons learned from Winewaves, the foremost one is that I wish I could be selling wine. That's because most people who have come here thought that was the point of the site. It's so frustrating that Tennessee state laws prevent a would-be entrepreneur like myself to add value to a marketplace. Most people don't see the value of great wine label pictures, except as a way of merchandising, which I am prohibited from doing. At least for now.
Lastly, if anyone has any ideas as to how to revive Winewaves, I'm all ears.
Robert Parker goes to China. It doesn’t quite have the same geopolitical impact as Nixon goes to China, but the magnitude for the wine world may be similar as Parker heads there later this month for the first time. Jancis Robinson stopped by earlier this year too. And two big auction houses have resumed wine auctions in Hong Kong this spring after a seven year drought. The removal of the wine tax in Hong Kong has driven a “thirst for top-level wines” in the city “is growing at an exponential rate,” according an auctioneer quoted in Bloomberg.
But now I am wondering if the locals are waking up to the joys of pairing Riesling with the cuisine. And the quality of German Riesling just keeps getting better and better. Perhaps they now have confidence to venture away from Bordeaux and cult Cali cabs.
Actually, since I am really getting into the sublime pleasure of German Riesling, dry and off-dry, young and mature, the thought of demand from Asia is something of a doomsday scenario for me. The last thing I need is to have investors pile in and run up the price in yet another category of wine!
The warm days of summer are almost upon us - time to break out the white wine. Versatile as an aperitif and food-friendly, Sauvignon Blanc is as varied in style and complexity as are completely different ... via Well Fed Network
Suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick has been ordered to pay more than $1.1 million for defaulting on a loan to Wachovia Bank. via WXIA-TV Atlanta
Clos Henri is a relatively new entrant to the Wairau valley of the Marlborough wine growing region. This property is also located close to Renwick and is actually opened by the Bourgeois family from the Sancerre region in France. The first vines were planted in 2001 with emphasis on bringing out the terroir. There are a multitudes of soils here but they essentially are either clay based or rocky riverbed. Their "Bel Echo" offerings of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir show definite minerality and bely the rocky riverbed soil which it was planted on. The "Clos Henri" series on the other hand definitely is more earthy, rich and deep being planted on predominantly clay. Of all the wines tasted in this region - these wines strike me as the most "terroir transparent" I have tried so far.
Their vine planting densities are some of the highest around here of around 5000 vines per hectare. I have high hopes for this property in the future as their vines begin to acquire age and more experience is gained each year on the boundaries of each specific "terroir".
There is definite potential here for these wines - give the vines some age, more experience with the soil and LOWER YIELDS. If there is one sticking point it's the yields which tend to be on the higher end. At ~50 Hl/Ha, this is just too high to produce anythng worthy of the "ultra-premium" status and certainly world class. To get there, we are going to have to drop fruit yields by 30% or more so let's watch this space - it's a great start.
"...one step remained. One step! One little, little step! Upon one such little step in the great staircase of human life how vast a sum of human happiness or misery depends! I thought of myself, then of Pompey, and then of the mysterious and inexplicable destiny which surrounded us... I thought of my many false steps which have been taken and may be taken again."? Poe
Got time for a little navel gazing? 'Cause that?s where I'm going with this one.
25 years of carrying the torch for the Italian team. I feel like someone just pushed me in the ditch.
There are all kinds of wines for different tastes. I understand that. But I cannot tell how many times I have heard this line lately, and not just from Italians: ?We have embraced tradition with innovation.? Or this one: ?We are a traditional winery looking forward into the 21st century.? And this one: ?We are an old style winery utilizing technology to improve what we have learned from the past.? None of these statements makes any sense.
Add to that the looming issue with Italian wines: Who can you trust?
When was the last time I had a Greco or a Fiano that really tasted like one? How many Verona IGT reds lately have I had that tasted more like a wine from the Maremma or Rutherford, than Valpolicella? When was the last time I had a Chianti that reflected the intentions of the land over the man? When did Mother Nature become la goomada? When did nurture become suffocate?
Did those starry-eyed post war kids with hopes and dreams become comfortable as they passed the keys to their Gucci-loafing children?
Well maybe not everyone, but the pendulum has swung out there. Way out. It cannot remain in an extreme position. It cannot be sustained. There is the issue of gravity. And balance.
This whirlwind in Tuscany is finally reaching the shores of America. Already in New York and out West there is rumbling. Pushback. Wayback. The midsection of the US has been rabbit punched for eight grueling years and we need a moment. To pay our bills, to recalibrate. To gather some hope for ourselves.
April was the first month I have witnessed where I?ve seen downward trends in Italian wine sales. Things are slowing down. It?s not a sky-is-falling spiral, but it?s a gut check for anyone who is looking at the numbers.
Let?s talk about wine. I was with a young one who lived in Southern Italy for four years and just returned home to Texas. We were tasting wine and she remarked about a winery in Campania, ?I don?t remember their white wine tasting so buttery and smooth and international.? I hadn?t thought about it, I was too busy plowing on through the year, when out of the mouth of babes came a truth. She was right. Last week, in New York, I was having dinner with an old friend and we were talking about the very same thing. ?Yeah, I talked to one of the owners and asked him how it was going. Do you know what his answer was? Our wines are very popular. Not, our wines are a reflection of our land. But, our wines are appealing.? Oh really?
I have tasted Montepulcianos from Abruzzo recently. Seems like a lot of people want to bring their wines to market. I have a long experience with Montepulciano and remember those brawny, sweaty, nutty, reds that when you tasted it knew it was from the hills above you. Now, many of them taste like they came off an assembly line.
I was in Italy last month, tasting Barolo and Barbaresco. For what seem like hundreds of years now I have tasted Nebbiolo, what a rollercoaster ride! Sometimes the wines are a reflection of where they come from, in that unique way a wine is when it only has one area where it is comfortable growing. And then sometimes it seems like we are dealing with a perfume manufacturing mentality; crank out another flavor, give us something sexy for the camera, can you show us some skin? More toast. More velvet, more color, more money, more stuff. Less substance.
Who can you turn to? What can you trust in?
Salespeople rattle about this wine and that wine like it is the latest laundry detergent or smart phone. What happened to the old gang who loved the camaraderie and the product? Sure there might be an incentive here or there, but what about the thrill of the game, not the urgent flavor of the moment? What about the soil? The vine? The grape?
These wines are now like trophies, everything is a treasure, without the hunt. We want a pretty wife; we get the doctor to make her prettier. We want to be cool, we get a fast car. We want to sell, we quote a score.
What about all those Italians in our veins and our DNA, looking out from generations past, what would they think of this moment?
I think we are at a crossroads and it is a crucial time for the wines of Italy and her relationship to the American market. Where's a good place to start? How about less marketing pesticide ? more plowing in the trenches of the heart.
There have been missteps. I hope for steps out of the darkness towards a future that swings back to authenticity and integrity.
In the long and storied history of Wine Blogging Wednesday, several bloggers have hosted the monthly virtual tasting twice. But only one, founder Lenn Thompson of LENNDEVOURS, has hosted three times. As of today, you can add my name to the WBW three-peat list as I again take up the reins and choose the theme.
The previous two times I’ve hosted, red wines were featured: first lite in alcohol, then full-tilt in the other direction. So this time out, I’ll pick my favorite white variety, Riesling. But not Riesling grown just anywhere, but where the grape first achieved noble status in the Old World: Germany, Austria and France’s Alsace region. In this terroir, the variety produces some of the most interesting and long-lived white wines from bone-dry to lusciously sweet.
Pick any style you like, at any price point, and join me as we explore Old World Riesling on Wednesday, May 7.
To participate, just pick up a wine made from Riesling grown in Germany, Austria or Alsace (OK, Northern Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovenia are also fine) and blog about it. If you don’t have a blog, sign-up and post at the WBW Community Blog. Once you have posted, send me an email at winecast (at) gmail (dot) com with “WBW 45″ in your subject line. Sometime after May 7th, I’ll post an event round-up here.
I hope you enjoy this theme as much as me and pick up a bottle from somewhere you have not tried yet. I think you will be very pleased with the resulting value.
Today is my anniversary and Kipp and I have a babysitter so we are going out tonight. I'll make up for no blog today by posting one for Thursday!! Cheers!
Although the Philipponnat family history in the Champagne region dates back to 1522, the recent history began when Auguste and Pierre Philipponnat settled in the Mareuil-sur-Aÿ region of Champagne in 1910. When Pierre acquired the steep Clos des Goisses vineyard on the southern flank of the Gruguet hill in 1935, he broke with the tradition of blending Champagne vineyards, creating a single-vineyard wine from a rather remarkable site that overlooks the Marne River. Charles Philipponnat, grandson of Auguste, is now President of the Maison and has overseen the creation of new wine making facilities and barrel storage.
Join us as Charles takes us on a walk (make that climb) of the five and a half hectare Clos des Goisses - which stood witness to the WWI battles of nearly 100 years ago. We also visit the cellars and barrel room, and disgorge some Champagne.
Tasted by TashNYC. Jen liked this wine and thought it drank the best of the 3 reds. At Bob Tarjan's 60th birthday party, in Princeton, NJ (88 pts.) - Tasted 5/9/2008. [FIND IT!]
96-100 points Parker: "This tiny (5 acres; 4,000 bottles produced) jewel is the ultimate vin de garage estate. A blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon from 46-year old vines and incredibly low yields of 18 hectoliters per hectare, the 2006 flirts with perfection. It possesses amazing power, precision, elegance, purity, richness, and just about anything else anyone could desire in a young Bordeaux. It will require 5-6 years of bottle age, and should evolve for three decades or more. Bravo!"
As the weather gradually warms up, I?m pleased to be encountering more intelligent value Argentine wines from provinces outside of Mendoza.Produced by Viña Cornejo Costas, an estate with established history in the Argentine northwest, here?s another Torrontés beauty from the mineral-rich CafayateValley.This is a great recommendation that can stand up to spicy and Asian dishes, given that Argentina?s native Torrontés variety is intense in acidity and flavor, even if light on body.
This wine reminds me again that Torrontés made in the CafayateValley could well be considered the benchmark for Argentine
Tecnorati
Robert Parker goes to China. It doesn’t quite have the same geopolitical impact as Nixon goes to China, but the magnitude for the wine world may be similar as Parker heads there later this month for the first time. Jancis Robinson stopped by earlier this year too. And 
Add to that the looming issue with Italian wines: Who can you trust?
This whirlwind in Tuscany is finally reaching the shores of America. Already in New York and out West there is rumbling. Pushback. Wayback. The midsection of the US has been rabbit punched for eight grueling years and we need a moment. To pay our bills, to recalibrate. To gather some hope for ourselves.
Let?s talk about wine. I was with a young one who lived in Southern Italy for four years and just returned home to Texas. We were tasting wine and she remarked about a winery in Campania, ?I don?t remember their white wine tasting so buttery and smooth and international.? I hadn?t thought about it, I was too busy plowing on through the year, when out of the mouth of babes came a truth. She was right. Last week, in New York, I was having dinner with an old friend and we were talking about the very same thing. ?Yeah, I talked to one of the owners and asked him how it was going. Do you know what his answer was? Our wines are very popular. Not, our wines are a reflection of our land. But, our wines are appealing.? Oh really?
I was in Italy last month, tasting Barolo and Barbaresco. For what seem like hundreds of years now I have tasted Nebbiolo, what a rollercoaster ride! Sometimes the wines are a reflection of where they come from, in that unique way a wine is when it only has one area where it is comfortable growing. And then sometimes it seems like we are dealing with a perfume manufacturing mentality; crank out another flavor, give us something sexy for the camera, can you show us some skin? More toast. More velvet, more color, more money, more stuff. Less substance.
Salespeople rattle about this wine and that wine like it is the latest laundry detergent or smart phone. What happened to the old gang who loved the camaraderie and the product? Sure there might be an incentive here or there, but what about the thrill of the game, not the urgent flavor of the moment? What about the soil? The vine? The grape?
These wines are now like trophies, everything is a treasure, without the hunt. We want a pretty wife; we get the doctor to make her prettier. We want to be cool, we get a fast car. We want to sell, we quote a score.
What about all those Italians in our veins and our DNA, looking out from generations past, what would they think of this moment?
The previous two times I’ve hosted, red wines were featured: first 
To participate, just pick up a wine made from Riesling grown in Germany, Austria or Alsace (OK, Northern Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovenia are also fine) and blog about it. If you don’t have a blog, 
