Monthly Archives: March 2012

Mar21

Books: A Toast to Bargain Wines

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Books: A Toast to Bargain Wines

With too many wine books and publications fetishizing first growths and California cult cabs, George M. Taber‘s A Toast to Bargain Wines: How Innovators, Iconoclasts, and Winemaking Revolutionaries Are Changing the Way the World Drinks offers the more novice wine fans among us a different look at the world of wine. But there’s more here than just wisdom for beginners. The history in these pages is intriguing and at times dastardly, making this book, or even parts of it, an enjoyable read for even the more seasoned winos among us.

Taber, author of the critically acclaimed Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine, does a solid job of revealing interesting bits of history behind some of the most successful bargain wine brands, and the development of regions, and perhaps in the case of China, regions soon to be, known for bargain wines.

I relished the colored past of the Bronco Wine Company, the winery behind that familiar Two Buck Chuck of Trader Joe’s fame, and founder Fred Franzia as well as the underdog tale of the rise of [yellowtail] through adversity and up against the giants. If you think of this Aussie brand as a giant dealer of cheap swill, look again at its roots and the success it has achieved not only among the masses but also with wine critics.

But what really had me tweeting, thinking and wondering was the world of wine contests. This stage of gold medals and awards is a mysterious game without any hard and fast rules. other than that it is all just a matter of taste. Made me think twice about the gold medal badges I see on bottlenecks – what contest did it come from? Who awarded the medal, a professional wine critic or a joe regular to whom Little Penguin is a luxury?

Though Taber’s actual list of recommended bargain wines is limited, his briefs on the histories and bios of the wineries behind these labels is a nice touch. And in looking at his recommendations, opinions – including mine – vary greatly on the wines he has recommended, it’s important to return to that same thought as above – it’s all just a matter of taste. What is Taber’s prized bargain find is another man’s bad memory.

A Toast to Bargain Wines is essential reading for those uninitiated in wine history and wanting to get a peek behind the curtain of the wine business. Taber binds it all together with colorful prose that made this enjoyable quiet time away from the daily grind of sipping and spitting.

PS. Taber’s book names in their entirity sure are a mouthful.

Mar15

Haywire Portfolio Tasting

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Haywire Portfolio Tasting

Recently at the Vancouver Urban Winery, Haywire Winery and the Okanagan Crushpad had a portfolio tasting that gave us a pair of solid rosés out of the Okanagan Valley, and also introduced an interesting Semillon aged in an even more interesting concrete egg.

Here are my meandering thoughts:

Haywire Crush Pad White – A blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris from the Oliver area in the Okanagan valley. The Crush Pad White had a tight nose that wasn’t very giving. Crisp apple, stone fruit that leaned towards a near-ripe peach, and on the palate, a crisp, dry apple dominated. Refreshing, long finish.

Haywire Crush Pad Rosé – 100% Gamay Noir from the Secrest Vineyard in Oliver, BC
Hints of strawberry and rhubarb on the nose, and tangy citrus on the palate. A quality rosé that is ready to drink, though my favorite rosé in the tasting was the Bartier Scholefield, which hails from the same vintage and same vineyard (see below).

Haywire Crush Pad Red – Blend of Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon
A nose of ripe plums and red licorice and the juiciness of plums and light berry jam on the palate, supported by soft tannins. The Crush Pad Red is easy drinking and approachable, and most definitely for a new world palate.

Bartier Scholefield Gamay Noir Rosé – 100% Gamay Noir from the Secrest Vineyard in Oliver, BC
Oh, what a nose. This rosé was full of sweet summer strawberry, which was accompanied by watermelon on the palate. Light and crisp, this is an amazing summer wine. Definitely my style of rosé.

What was interesting was that the Bartier Scholefield rosé comes from the very same vineyard as the Haywire Crush Pad rosé, but was picked two weeks later. It was a treat getting to sample two wines of the same grape from the same vineyard and experience how they differ. The Bartier Scholefield displayed a much more summery feel with its sweet strawberry on the nose, which makes me wonder about what a difference two weeks might have.

Kurtis by Kurtis KoltKurtis by Kurtis Kolt – 100% Semillon from the Cerqueira Vineyard in Oliver, BC
Dominant tangerine peel and citrus notes on the nose, and a sweetness, perhaps apricot, that was hard to pin down. On the palate, there was a rush of tangy, lemony citrus, and a very pleasant finish. Kurtis says that the wine may develop rich fig and nougat notes, so perhaps that elusive sweetness is the nougat/fig still in its cocoon. This made for a very intriguing wine, and I’d urge you to drink one bottle now and hold the other for a few years to see how it develops.

And as I already mentioned earlier, this Semillon was aged in a concrete age – apparently Egg 15 to be exact, for all you numerologists out there. So no oak on this lovely wine.

Mar13

Tasting: Domaine Tempier

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Tasting: Domaine Tempier

Our first acquaintance with Domaine Tempier, the Peyraud family, and Bandol was in the pages of Kermit Lynch’s wine travel book Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer’s Tour of France. The Peyraud family were painted as almost legendary pioneers of Provence wine-growing in spearheading the establishment of Bandol as its own A.O.C and the large-scale replanting of Mourvèdre – which would result in wines with greater aging potential – in place of higher-yielding varietals.

So thanks to the impressive selection of wines at Marquis Wine Cellars, the opportunity to taste wines by the legendary Domaine Tempier, which Kermit Lynch – one of America’s foremost wine merchants – refers to as “our cornerstone, stands more in the defense of terroir, and is more intricately interwoven with our own history” in relation to his wine merchant business, was something of an event here at Wineshout.

Domaine Tempier, located near Le Plan du Castellet, just outside the Mediterranean seaport village of Bandol in Provence, has been run by the Peyraud family since 1834 but did not become a domaine until the 1940s. Organically farmed, the domaine is comprised of three vineyards: La Migoua, La Tourtine, and Cabassaou. These vineyards’ soils are variations of clay and limestone, providing an annual production of 11,000 cases.

Domaine Tempier 2010 Rose (50% Mourvèdre, 28% Grenache, 20% Cinsault, 2% Carignan) – From vines that are on average 20 years old, these grapes are harvested by hand, and aged in cuve for 6 to 8 months. It presented cassis, violet, strawberries, black currant leaf, with light touches of sweet lemon and ice tea. This is a very dry, medium-bodied rosé. Robert Parker has said at one time that the Domaine Tempier rose is the greatest rosé in the world, which has surely helped it achieve cult status. The 2010 wasn’t, in our opinion, able to live up to these lofty standards, but is undeniably one of the best roses we have tasted, like Provence in a glass.

After the tasting, we served the rosé with a dish of scallops with roasted tomatoes and crispy prosciutto (a Jamie Oliver recipe from one of his earlier – and in our opinion best – books, The Naked Chef). Here is a great, similar recipe for you to try for scallops.

 

Domaine Tempier 2007 Rouge Cuvee Classique (75% Mourvèdre, 14% Grenache, 9% Cinsault, 2% Carignan) – From vines that are over 40 years old, the grapes are harvested by hand, and aged in oak foudres for 18 to 20 months. This wine was very tight when opened, and decanted for 4 hours before tasting. We were greeted with black fruits such as dark cherry, blackberry, and blueberry, with hints of smoked fat. This is an intense wine with balanced tannins and high acidity. Another couple hours in and in a follow-up tasting the following day, notes of toffee, licorice and tar had developed.

Others have referred to a certain savage nature to this wine that we did not find in this vintage, but rather a character of luscious elegance seemed to dominate.

After the tasting, we served with Rack of lamb and garlic potatoes. We kept things rather rustic with this dish, and the pairing was spot on.

For review of earlier vintages of Domaine Tempier’s wines, hop on over to this tasting profile at Winedoctor.com

Mar12

Wine Collector Rudy Kurniawan Arrested

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Wine Collector Rudy Kurniawan Arrested

California-based wine dealer and collector Rudy Kurniawan, who has bought and sold millions of dollars worth of wine annually, was arrested by the FBI at his southern California home last week and charged with five felony counts of wire and mail fraud. If convicted on all charges, he faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.

This may also be just the first arrest of many as Laurent Ponsot of Domaine Ponsot, who has worked for two years with the FBI on this case, told Wine Spectator he knows who Mr. Kurniawan’s accomplices may be.

For details, jump over to this Wine Spectator article.

Mar7

Kermit Lynch, Wine Merchant

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Kermit Lynch, Wine Merchant

Reading Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer’s Tour of France made me an instant Kermit Lynch fan. So, when some time later Jancis Robinson passed on one of my questions to Kermit in her interview with him, it was a thrill. He is like the sensible uncle in a world gone crazy.

A lot has been written about Kermit Lynch, the wine merchant from Berkeley, California, and I’ve devoured my share, so rather than regurgitate, I’ll link up some solid sources to get yourself more acquainted with this man who has bucked the trend and stuck to his guns by dealing in wine that has often been said to be unfashionable.

Here is a fantastic interview from 2006 in which Kermit talks about his view of the industry, about such things as how the winemaker has become a sort of superstar. What’s enjoyable is that Kermit is frank in his opinions and whether you agree or not, it is an interesting interview.

the bourgogne sessions: kermit lynch from dean berdusis on Vimeo.

Gary Vaynerchuk talked a while back with Kermit Lynch about how he got into wine, the origins of his business, and his thoughts on the wine industry. Here’s 20 minutes you’ll enjoy!

1WineDude also put up a piece just this week on his interview with this living legend. Do drop by and check it out. Here’s the video from the meeting in Kermit’s Berkeley store.

…and if you have a Kermit Lynch article, interview, etc. send me a comment below with the link, so we can share it with all the other readers.

You can buy Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer’s Tour of France at Amazon. There is also a French version, Mes aventures sur les routes du vin (French Edition), available.

Mar6

Cupcake 2010 Central Coast Merlot

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Cupcake 2010 Central Coast Merlot

Cupcake Vineyards Central Cost MerlotWe soothed our sweet tooth today with 2010 Cupcake Central Coat Merlot from Cupcake Vineyards. People have been mentioning it on and off the past few months so we wanted to see what’s the hype about.

We like the faux-classic branding that’s simple but surprisingly eye-catching. The wine itself is fruit-forward, jammy and sweet, but lacking in complexity. But at this price point, a hair’s breadth under $10, it delivers an easy drinking Merlot that’s suited to many North American palates. It’s a wine that doesn’t demand much, and asks that you just sit back and enjoy the ride.

The Cupcake Vineyards site recommends this wine with the very specifically noted “decadent chocolate molten cupcake”. We went with chocolate truffle cheesecake from Chuckanut Bay, which was a good fit. The chocolate does a good job of cutting the sweetness of the wine, and made for a decadent enough pairing, and it should go down well with most things chocolate.

With a solid performance from this entry-level wine, we’re looking forward to tasting other wines from Cupcake Vineyards.

Mar5

March Blog Madness

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March Blog Madness

I’m starting a new monthly look at great, fresh, wild and trailblazing wine blogs. Here’s our round-up for March.

SwirlSmellSlurp is an award-winning, impressively branded blog that I keep going back to. Make sure to keep track of ‘em on Twitter at @SwirlSmellSlurp.

The folks at Vin65 make some of the flashiest wine-related web sites I’ve come across, and they share some juicy web-biz morsels on their blog.

Want some of the best-written wine reviews around? Look no further than BiggerThanYourHead.

And to round-out our round-up, 1WineDude is a must-bookmark on any browser. Joe Roberts, who in his own words is “deeply, madly in love with wine” knows his stuff and his passion comes through on the page. And don’t take our word for it; his web site is full of accolades from everybody from Forbes.com to Gary Vaynerchuk. If you love wine, you’ll love Joe.

For our full blogroll, which might very well be the biggest compilation of wine blogs, click here.