The Corkdork - Wine and Food Musing

Pinot Days Are Here - Check out the roster for the grand tasting Sunday!

One of my favorite series of tastings has begun in San Francisco and it's time to get to Fort Mason on Sunday for the Grand Tasting. The list of producers is staggering this year and this is one ticket that is more than worth the price of admission.

Please note that online ticket sales will close on Friday, June 26th at Midnight. Tickets will be available at the door for the Grand Festival on Sunday, beginning at 11am for the same price.

Father's Day Treat: Dinner Cooked by the Kids

Leave it to my kids to pick such a foodie dinner for their first attempt at cooking dinner with no parents around! Chez Panisse's Goat Cheese Salad and Giada De Laurentiis'  Cappellini Aglio Olio. Both were perfectly cooked and they set a lovely table with linens, candles and a paper crown for me! I'm a proud Pop.

Clos de La Tech Pinot Noir Meets Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

I was extremely fortunate to be invited to a brave tasting last night put on by Alyssa Rapp of Bottle Notes, Tim McGarr of Global Vintuition, and our hosts T.J. and Valeta Rogers of Clos de La Tech. Why Brave? It's one thing to pour a Pinot from a vineyard in Woodside, California next to examples of the world's best Pinot regions, it's another to taste it next to a 1987 Domane de la Romanée-Conti Échézeaux. This wasn't a blind tasting, so the notion of Clos de La Tech vs. DRC in a head-to-head taste-off should be dismissed. The point was to showcase some great examples of Pinot around the world and see what markings are ones that Clos de La Tech is going for and see how it stands up. If you read no further, know that it stood up extremely well and should be considered strongly recommended if you can get your hands on some.

The connection to DRC is no mistake. Silicon Valley entrepreneur T.J. Rogers, CEO of Cypress Semi-Conductor equates good Pinot with Burgundy and good Burgundy with Romanée-Conti. He and his wife, Valeta, want the best of what DRC has in it: minerality, black fruits instead of bright cherry ones, mushroom/forest floor not oak, tension between fruit and acid. They visited DRC to pick Aubert de Villaine's brain as best they could and use that visit, the knowledge inside a great bottle of DRC, and the entrepreneural spirit of Silicon Valley to help guide them into producing world-class Pinot.

While lots of California Pinot producers strive for the same things, often they end up with a Pinot that is distinctly New World. Clos de La Tech wines are pushing to be part of the new Old World. And by picking impossibly steep terrain to plant on, like many of the best vineyards in the world, T.J. was forced to design some literally game-changing farming equipment that can make a real difference in the wine world. They worked with Clemens GmbH to design a cable-driven tractor built like a mars rover to handle super-steep terracing. This award-winning design will open the doors to planting on slopes that were previously accessible only on foot or donkey. So do not dismiss Clos de La Tech as just some vanity project. Having the money to build machinery to solve not just their problems, but those that have plagued wine makers for centuries will make a real difference in the wine world and they are making serious, world-class Pinot.

On to the wines of the night:

My two favorites of the set were the 1987 Domane de la Romanée-Conti Échézeaux and the 2001 Clos de La Tech, Domaine du Docteur Rogers for different reasons, but these were the two wines I could drink all night.

2004 Dry River Pinot Noir, Martinborough, N.Z. - stayed a tad closed through the tasting but was a dense, tightly woven wine with scents of strawberry-rhubarb pie with a touch of green stemminess.

2004 Giaconda Pinot Noir, Manua Vineyard, Victoria Austraila - Lots of mushroom/truffle aromas and pretty black fruits. A touch of barnyard funk on the nose and is also a bit green. Nice on the palate with a good long finish.

2000 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley - this one smelled like a freshly-baked cherry clafloutis, with the slighly burned cherry aromas and bits of bready aromas. This may have had a touch of brettanomyces as the nose had a funk one small step beyond. Also had a pretty strong SO2 scent at first, like a struck match which dissipated pretty quickly. Drink this up as I doubt it will improve any with age.

1987 Domane de la Romanée-Conti Échézeaux - always a treat to try a DRC (Thanks, T.J. and Valeta!) and this one was really interesting. Because it was 22 years old, it had lost the fresh raspberry aromas that are in young Échézeaux and has settled into comfortable old age. It has acquired scents of mushrooms and ancient fruit along with black tea. Towards the end of the night, the scents transformed into something quite like beef. This came from a magnum and still the wine had dried out slightly, so you have 750s of this wine, I think this is the time to try one.

2001 Clos de La Tech, Domaine du Docteur Rogers -A stunner even after tasting the DRC right before it. There is still a hint of red raspberry fruit concentrated deep inside that points to New World, but does not immediately say "California". If I tasted this blind, I would think it was top Oregon Pinot, or Burgundy. It has a unique scent of mint/menthol (in a good way) mixed with forest floor and mushrooms. This is drinking perfectly now, but has the structure to evolve into something else entirely in the next 20 years. Highly recommended.

2003 Clos de La Tech Domaine Valeta - a dusty wonder. Bigger and denser than the DDRogers, its compass points a bit closer to California, but is certainly an excellent wine. The tannins have more grip and it seems like a riper wine in general. Lots of aromas of liorice, violets and dark black fruit. Recommended.

Extra treat: 2006 Clos de La Tech Domaine Lois Louise Tete de Cuvée - This has the same earthy profile as the 2001 DDRogers, but as it's still a couple years away from release, still has a youthful vigor and tension. Dark and brooding but not over-ripe in the slightest. I could smell lavender and white truffle. Others suggested crushed mussel shells. Very serious long finish with great secondary aromas. Another very serious effort and from a newer area facing the Pacific Ocean on super-steep slopes. There will be more of the Domaine Lois Louise vineyard designate wine, but only one barrel of the Tete de Cuvée produced. Keep your eyes out for this. Another stunning effort.

France Wine Tour 2009: Day Two: Burgundy and Beaujolais

The plan was to try to visit a couple of producers in Burgundy and then head down south to Beaujolais but my travel companion O, and I could only get one proper appointment before we left the states and that was at a cave that neither one of us knew too much about other than having an excellent reputation: Mugneret-Gibourg. My readers will find a theme here as we go along, but this is not only made by women --two sisters, but the whole facility is run by women from Grandma down to the kids.  Domaines Mugneret-Gibourg was started before WWII with a small plot of Vosne-Romanée and since then various plots of premier cru vineyards have been added to the domaine's holdings . We tasted with Marie-Andrée Nauleau mostly from their tiny tanks.

Domaines Mugneret-Gibourg
2007 Bourgogne - light, floral, tense in the mid-palate. This was from the original Vosne-Romanée plot but this parcel was declassified in 1935.

2007  Vosne-Romanée
Their basic Vosne-Romanée and it is showing very nicely with dusty bramble overtones.

2007 Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru "Les Chaignots"  - a little softer than the Vosne-Romanée but super-clean in the finish. Beginning to get some nice raspberry character This is a very elegant wine. Very good.

2007 Chambolle Musigny "Les Feisolettes" - earthy firm tannins are characteristic of this wine with blue and black berry flavors. Such a sweet nose. Very good.

2007 Nuits Dt. Georges "Les Vignerons"- Darker and denser than anything so far with tighter tannins. This one should go the long haul.

2007 Echezeaux Grand Cru - my favorite of the tasting with raspberry scents. Deep and dense from two parcels so you get the minerality from the slope and the maturity from the floor. This is a fabulous blend and it is the same one that Marie-Andrée's grandfather put together first many years ago. Excellent.

Next up were two different Chambertins from the same basic plot but the first made from younger grapes that can not be called "Ruchottes" and the other from older vines still classified. The young vine wine is called "Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru" 2007. This is a hugely complex wine, layered, chewy and thick. the 2007 Gevrey-Chambertin "Ruchottes" has even denser levels of black raspberries and and earthy base. Very good.

2007 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru from a plot from 1954 was very floral, refined and pretty.

2006 Nuit St. Geroges 1er Cru "Les Chaignots" - a little bit darker and settled, but not quite as elegant as the 2007s.

After a little snack in Beaune, we were off to Beaujolais in search of great natural wines and two nights in a row at the amazing Auberge du Cep in Fleurie.

The plan was to stay at Chateau Thivin and use that as our base for two days, but when we arrived, we discovered that two members of the family had booked the gite to two separate parties and we were out of luck. They found us a place in Montmerle called Hotel Emile Job and after our tasting, drove us there to make up for the error. We were hosted by the family's daughter in-law, a young woman from a Swiss winemaking family with a good command of English. There were two wines that I particularly liked.

2007 Chateau Thivin Côte de Brouilly "La Chapelle" - this is from a plot of land from volcanic basalt with lots of minerals and clove spiciness. Big and round, it has the aroma of a rasperry claflouti.

NV Chateau Thivin Brut de Gamay - very lively mousse in the mouth with a lovely dusty, Gamay nose. There is more than a touch of sweetness to this for a nice aperetif.

Auberge Du Cep - First Time
A lot has been written, all gushing reviews, from the likes of Apple in the NY Times, and wine/food writers that have come through Fleurie about this restaurant and its' iconoclastic owner/host/chef, Mm. Chantal Chengny.  She smiles behind her dark glasses and instantly makes one feel at home, in her excellent English or her soft French.

While we were absorbing the staggering amount of local cru Beaujolais on the list, she sent out some amuse-bouches that made us instantly fall in love with the place for its unique simplicity and attention to flavor. On the plate were three tiny canapés; sweet onion confit, the best tapanade I've ever had, and one with a smear of fois gras. On the side were some slightly bigger toasts to pair with the radishes, fleur du sel, and stunning butter.

My first course was a generous bowl of white asparagus velouté with a few simple stalks of tender green asparagus floating inside. It's the simple things that impress.  She got the bowl exactly the right temperature so that the soup was hot to the last drop, but not  cooked on the side of the bowl.  

Mm. Chengny is famous for serving the best frog's legs, so I had to have them. Fresh frog's legs when cooked properly, they are a treat and these were the best I will probably every have. She butchers her own frogs and lets them relax on ice for two days before delicately frying them in butter and serving them en Persillade. Sublime --and one of the best things I had in France this trip.

I went for the cheese: perfect Comté, one-day-old local Chèvre, both runny and firm St. Florian (like an epoisse) so we could taste both, and an incredible Bleu de Bresse. Great with the Foillard Morgon 2000. We also had a fresh farmers cheese with a tiny bit of white sugar on top which was so fresh and delicious!

Dessert was local cassis sorbet and vanilla ice cream with a fresh black cassis sauce, as good as it sounds.  Here's the menu. This is a restaurant worth any amount of travel to. We were so lucky to have reservations for the next night too!

France Wine Tour 2009: Day One: Paris

First Day: Arrive in Paris

After sleeping off the effects of my overnight flight, the first stop on my gastro-eno-tour was a relatively new winebar called "La Cremerie" in the 6th, specializing in natural wines. If you want to go, and you should, call or email ahead and make sure you get a table for a snack and a glass or two of wine, as their license only allows you to have wine with a bit of food.

 La Cremerie wine bar
Serge and Hélène Mathieu
Open tues. - sat 10:30 to 10 pm, sun 10:30 - 2 pm
Reservations (required) +33-01-43-54-99-30
ODEON
9, rue des Quatre Vents
75006 Paris
lacremerie@gmail.com

Many of the wines on the shelves were oddly familiar and it was obvious that Mr. Rimmerman from Garagiste must have tasted some of these wines before offering to us back in the states. Speaking to Serge the owner (who grew up in America so his English is perfect), confirmed that  he comes in there every time he's in Paris and hangs out. We got a couple glasses of wine as that is what we are here to do, no? Serge also recommended what turned out to be one of my favorite Beaujolais later in the week from Yvon Metras.

The first thing I had was totally new to me. 2005 Cour-Cheverny "Les Acacias" from Le Domaine du Moulin. (Pictured is the 2006) made by Hervé Villemade in the Loire. This wine is light in weight and texture with a great earthiness to it. Plenty of minerality too. Biodynamic and a grape I was unfamiliar with, Romorantin. I'll be looking for this in the States.

Next up was a red wine from Touraine, Loire: P. Sinoutti Vin du Table; This is 100% Gamay with huge clove overtones. The body is light but the wonderful spicy scents that come off the glass make me want to drink this all night. Delicious and a great accompaniment to the pork and rabbit terrine we had as a snack.

 Then off to Chez Michel for dinner. Reservations are essential.

Chez Michel
10 Rue de Belzunce, 75010 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 44 53 06 20. 
I was here back in 2005 on my first tasting trip to France and had my favorite dish I've had so far in France --brouillade au truffle. Since it's no longer truffle season, I went seasonal with poached asparagus in a warm lobster vinagarette. Both white and green asparagus were warm and cooked perfectly with a very lightly lobster-ish vinagarette. Then quite probably the best chicken I have ever had, called a CouCou de Rennes, from Brittany. Brittany is known the world over for having some of the best chickens, all free-range, with long legs and small breasts, and this particular breed is known as one of the best in Bresse. The preparation was amazing. First they bring out the breast/wing portion, crispy and topped with some great spices, floating in morel cream sauce, then when the legs are done, they bring out the earthenware crock with the rest of the bird, resting in the cooking juices, leeks, thyme and bay leaves. Two sauces are better than one!

Wine for this was a 2006 Foillard Fleurie that was delicious but served ice cold. Beaujolais should be served a little cool, but this was a mistake. Towards the end of the bottle it was showing beautifully, but it took easily a half-hour to get to the right temperature.

On leaving Paris

Warning: This is another personal post...

I left L'Avant Goût in Paris tonight with a feeling of elation, not just because the food was inventive and the wine was unknown and surprisingly excellent, but because I proudly got through another trip to Europe safely. For anyone that travels and eats in foreign countries, just walking into a restaurant, getting a table, and parsing the menu is tough enough, but add to it the need to express the importance of paying attention to a food allergy can be extra-intimidating.

French service is sometimes cool and it often takes a waiter a course or two to warm up to any American with limited French. You read it in all the guide books, but yes, if you work at expressing yourself in French you begin to make up for the hoards of Americans who bark English at everyone.

If you're used to being in good restaurants where everyone is on their best behavior, it becomes a struggle not just to be understood, but to be polite and I have worked really hard at ma politesse this trip. Saying please and thank you at the right time goes a long way, especially if you say it with a smile. I generally like a collaborative relationship with my servers and you can not do that in a foreign country without doing your best to be polite.

I was also left with a burning desire for my children to somehow feel this same kind of satisfaction someday with being on their own somewhere where they  are not fluent in the language; navigating with maps and subways with purpose, ending up at home safely with a full belly and tired feet.

Soon the serious recap will begin...

I have only one tasting left, tomorrow at Champagne Tarlant, one of my favorites, and then I'm back to Paris for a day of shopping and one more French dinner before I jet back to California.

Highlights to look for coming in the next week or so, are visits to Mugneret-Gibourg, Miquettes, Pegau, Vilmart, Larmandier-Bernier, and  today's awesome tour of Delamotte and Salon. I've seen bottles returned from Hitler's pillage in WWII and tasted secret stashes of wine from personal cellars of which only a couple hundred magnums were made. I've reconnected with friends from my last trip and garnered some new friendships. All in all, an amazing trip.

So stay tuned for lots of tasting notes...from only the wines I really liked...and the rest of the story starting this weekend.

CD

Photo on left: The Champagne Window at Notre Dame de Reims. Above photo: the vines of Champagne Salon, Le Mesnil.

Posting from France: Slow going

Yes! I'm in France and have had some impeccable wines and unbelievable food, but have not been able to spend the time blogging due to terrible jet lag and an overly busy agenda for tasting. If you know me on Facebook, you can see some shots, like this one at Auberge du Cep of the best coq au vin in the world (details to come) and a beautiful wine from Thevenet in Morgon.

Keep checking in, but internet access has been very spotty indeed.

Wine Blogging Wednesday #57: California Inspiration

Like a lot of consumers that grew up in the East Coast in the seventies, "California" wine referred to wine made by a handful of wines we saw in liquor stores and wine shops. At the time they were mostly boutique-sized entities but now these are the names we think of as the established corporate ventures with big-time output: Beringer, Mondavi, Heitz, Clos du Bois, Clos du Val, Freemark Abbey, and of course, Chateau St. Jean. I grew up listening to lots of table-talk about wine between my Dad and his friends and the one name that was synonymous with quality California was Dick Arrowwood, the first winemaker of Chateau St. Jean. Both the Cabernets and Chardonnays were splurge treats when I came of legal drinking age (18 at the time). As I recall, in those days, the Chardonnays were around $15 and Cabernets were around $20, which at the time (late seventies) were premium prices for any California wine. But I knew that Dick Arrowwood's wines were worth it --because I had heard it lots of times at home. I wasn't reading wine books when I was 18.

Fast forward to when  I arrived in San Francisco ten years later with my then fiancée (in 1988). I was a full-time musician at the time and had still had groups and shows in NYC that I flew back for and tours to go on, so I had no steady income when I arrived. We had a studio apartment in Pacific Heights for $325 a month that was tiny but an amazing introduction to living in San Francisco. I put myself through music school in NY by working in gourmet stores, so I was used to eating and drinking well. Though we were living on one steady income, I spent my first few months scouring shops like The Real Food Co., Kermit Lynch,  and my thrilling discovery, Cost Plus (!) looking for food and wine bargains. I found so many and added to the excitement of living in the Bay Area.

Back then, we also had Liquor Barn. I had never seen such a thing! Thousands of different wines were available at sometimes unreal prices. And the first time I shopped there I found it...Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay at $2.88. My family's spluge Chardonnay was less than three bucks out here. "I'm gonna like it here" I said to myself. (And I still like it after more than 20 years.) I stuck to a budget for wine for the next year, and for $5 a bottle or under, we drank pretty darned well.

For my WBW selection, I hit the modern-day California equivalent to Liquor Barn, BevMo and picked out one of the mid-range Chardonnays from St. Jean. Margo Van Staaveren has long been the winemaker and during her time she's seen the output grow tremendously and has tried to keep a tight rein on quailty. I found the 2006 Chateau St. Jean Belle Terre Vineyard Chardonnay for just under $20 which is significant in itself. The 20-ish range of California Chardonnay is somewhere between the bag-of-oak-chips in the 50,000 gallon tank wine and the real boutique Chardonnays that now start closer to $40. It is a tough market and it takes a lot to stand out in it.

I've outgrown the desire for the amount of oak in this wine, but it's still an excellent value if you're looking for a Chardonnay that shows very well upon release. It has a good sense of place, with enough minerality to balance the big phat fruit. The acid balance cheats towards easy drinking when it's young and it will probably not transform itself into something more impressive years down the line. It's made to drink now, just proceed with caution when you try to pair it with that delicate poached sole. It will snuff it. We served it with breaded chicken breasts that were baked with lots of parmagiano, garlic and herbs and I thought it was a good foil to a flavorful dish.

Thanks a lot to Jeff at Good Grape for hosting this month! And if you've read this far, thanks for indulging in a little of my nostalgia.

Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet Vielles Vignes 2005: A Stunner

I had high hopes for this bottle and every one of them was exceeded. Look at the label...it's a Chassagne, it's from old vines, it's from an unbelievable year, and it's from one of my absolute favorite producers, Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard. What could go wrong? Well, to begin with, it's Burgundy, so sometimes even the most seemingly perfect combination of place, time, and producer can disappoint. That's why Burgundy is so exciting. It keeps us on our toes. This one, though is damn near perfect.

I was introduced to Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard last year, and I have blogged about the 2005 Romanée and Les Caillerets Chassagne-Montrachets, which are two of the most astounding whites I have ever had. The Romanée is a model of the soil it came from, as is the Caillerets. So, the Vielles Vignes, which I've been hoarding for a year or so, is obviously a blend of old vine Chardonnay grapes with no territorial claims (other than ground zero for the world's best chardonnay --Chassagne-Montrachet), but in the hands of a master, Richard Fontaine, the blend is as amazing as the single vineyard offerings. From a house that produces Batard-Montrachets, single vineyard Chassagnes, and from all acounts staggering reds, one might think that this might be a bit of a toss-off, but no. This is one of those wines that makes one pity the supposed wine fanatics that don't drink white wine. They simply don't know what they are missing. Though the 2006s are now in stores, you can still find this at special wine shops like K&L and Paul Marcus.

Tasting Notes:

Upon first opening it, it showed beguiling aroma of yuzu (orange-y/lemon), gunflint, and vanilla. But on the palate, it's a live wire of acidity. It possesses a stoundingly clean finish that lasts forever. As it warms up, layers of scents come alive.  Stony minerality explodes from the glass and instead of the American way of handling old vine Chardonnay (drowning it in oak) the balance between wood and fruit is blurred and seamless. In the mouth, it sparks with citrus instead of dulling the palate with butter. A perfect food wine for something subtle. I served it with a sole meuniére and sautéed mushrooms. The earthiness of the mushrooms were perfectly complimented by the wine, and the crisp acidity cut through the buttery fish. Hightest recommendation.

The 2007 Vintage Port Declaration Preview Tasting

I had the supreme pleasure of tasting the soon-to-be-released Vintage 2007 Ports from a number of houses today. The weather in 2007 was quite cool in June and July but the first two weeks in September were hot enough to finish ripening. The vintage is marked by amazing freshness, great acidity, and silky tannins.  It was an excellent gathering in San Francisco and not only did we get a peek at what should prove to be an excellent Port year, but also at least one previous vintage from each shipper.

Key take-aways from this tasting were that modern Vintage Port production technique has lead to the wines being more approachable upon release but still with enough acid backbone to last for decades. Another key find was to hear Port shippers are no longer to use government-issue brandy, but are now allowed to source their own brandy suppliers (most from Spain or France) in order to halt fermentation and fortify. (This increases the potential for high quality in itself.)

Here were my favorites, which are nearly everything I tasted...

The 2007 Vintage Port Declaration Preview Tasting
First the 2007s:

Croft 2007 - very dense fruit and has both a big dark color and flavor, tangible tannins.
Fonseca 2007 - Earthy with green herb scents of mint and menthol. Multi-layered red and black fruit finish.
Noval 2007 - The first whiff was like Beaujolais --really fresh and lively. Very clean but dark and dense fruit. One of my favorite 2007s.
Quinta da Romaneira 2007 - This wins for the most unusual Port of the day and I really enjoyed it. It smells like a fresh, still Touriga Nacional still wine --fresh and floral. Smells and tastes of roses.
Silval 2007 - Pretty and floral
Smith Woodhouse 2007 - Shockingly easy drinking for a brand new vintage Port. Lots of cloves and red raspberry scents and flavors. Jammy.
Taylor's Vargellas Vinha Velha 2007 - Stunning Port. This is from 100 year old fruit with so little fruit that it takes four vines per bottle. 100 years ago, it was common to plant mixed varieties to vintify together and the complexity of the 15 or so grapes in this blend shows beautifully. Highly recommended if you can find it. Only 200 cases were produced and the price should be around US$250 upon release.
Warre 2007 - This had both scents and flavors of a beautiful dark cherry pie. Fresh and vibrant.

Older Vintage Ports:

Dow 1980 - Quite fresh with lots of red fruit flavors. Very youthful still.
Fonseca 1985 - Highly perfumed (violets?) with hugely ripe and unctuous fruit. Tongue-tingling acids. Great.
Graham 1970 - One of the highlights of the tasting. Celestial perfume of flowers, cocoa powder and coffee. Lots of blackberry on the palate. Delicious. There is quite a bit of this around because Graham's moved a lot of this out of Portugal fearing political strife in the 1970s and a parcel of this was recently unearthed. Recommended.
Noval 2000 - Still fresh and clean, earthy with citrus peel overtones. Not as dense as the 2007. Delicious.
Quinta da Romaneira 2004 - Another surprise from this house, Fresh blackberry tastes with a hugely floral nose. Lovely and unusual.
Silval 1998 - Quite dense and almost peppery with generous tannins. This will last a very long time indeed.
Smith Woodhouse 1977 - Hardly browning at all after 32 years. Amazing mature flavors of caramel and vanilla. Terrific.
Taylor Fladgate 1977  - Smells like a linzer torte with mature fruit flavors. A bit of cocoa on the palate. Delicious.
Taylor's Vargellas Vinha Velha 2000 - Stunning in a more mature way than the 2007 with more eucalyptus aromas, spice, and blackberry pie. My top pick.
Warre 1983 - Scents and flavors of Dolce de Leche. Super-fresh with great acidity. Lovely. 

Unbelievable Value: the 2003 L'Oratoire St. Martin "Réserve des Seigneurs"

I had another astounding wine from Domaine de L'Oratoire St. Martin tonight, the 2003 Réserve des Seigneurs 2003 from Cairanne, Côtes du Rhône Villages. I have been buying this for several years and had quite a few bottles of the very lovely 2001, but this was my first of the 2003s that I put down upon release. I paid US$10.95 for this and it is a wine of great depth, far beyond its price.

As do a lot of the wineries in the Southern Rhône, L'Oratoire St. Martin make a variety of different releases and blends, this one is dominated by Mouvedre with a bit of Syrah in it. It's an earthy, un-filtered treat. When first opened, aromas of roses and violets arise from the glass, giving way eventually to more baking spice scents. In the mouth, it is big and chewy, but neither heavy with alcohol nor grippy tannins. They say in Chateauneuf du Pape that wines go to sleep between 7 and 9 years old, but the wines of the neighboring villages, like Cairanne, seem to do great in 6 to 8 years. This is drinking perfectly now and if you can find any, I would jump on it. Highly recommended.

The best things I have had this week No.1

I'm thinking I should do some shorter posts about the best things I've been able to taste or drink during the week. With friends over this weekend, we had a pretty lavish meal that I prepared and some good wines, one of which is even better today than it was on Sunday.

First up is the wine that has been open for 4 days, the Domaine des Baumard "Cuvée Ancienne" from the Coteaux du Layon. This is an esoteric white wine lover's dream. It consists of a blend of fifteen vintages of Chenin Blanc and according to the label, is never to be repeated. (Never say never...I would check back fifteen years from now!) I was serving homemade chicken liver mousse with black truffles and thought a nice sweet Loire wine would be a good foil for the earthy fattiness of the chicken livers. This wine is actually so earthy and full of sweet honey notes with a bit of pleasant bitterness, that in fact it was too big for the pate.
On its own, the Baumard Cuvée Ancinenne is a knockout though. Serve it with some rich sheep cheese or some milder liver like monkfish or fois gras, and you will have an awesome combination. It's rich and pretty sweet though, so it's not for the dry Chardonnay-only drinker.Recommended.

Instead, with the liver, my choice was the 2006 Belle Pente Riesling from Willamette Valley. The Bell Pente is a simpler wine, still with some sweet fruit to it, but it's super clean and a little lean. It has a lightly floral nose and explosive acidity to counter balance the touch of sweetness on the finish. Like the Coteau du Layon, it's light in alcohol which makes it a great way to start a meal. Recommended.

For the entrée, I made some grilled, marinated lamb (butterflied leg) and wanted some toothsome Syrah. I found a lovely wine that is drinking exceptionally well now, and I'm not sure for how much longer. It's the Rochecourbe Saint-Joseph 2001 from Domaine Alain Paret. Though I've since found some Parker numbers for this in the low 90s, in his seminal book on the Rhone Valley, Alain Paret barely gets a mention, only an address. This wine has a superb mid section to it, full and volupuous. The nose is of spicy cloves and blackberries and on the tongue, it's perfectly ripe and soft. I was surprised to read in the Wines of Northern Rhone, that Gérard Depardieu is part owner of this domaine now (largely due to M.Paret's fine Condrieu) and they get thousands of visitors now! Still, it's recommended.

Wine Blogging Wednesday #56: The Round-up

First of all, thanks needs to go out to all the participants.  I realize that this theme was a little tougher for people outside of metropolitan areas to participate in, and it pushed most of us out of our comfort zone. But, that's what is exciting about Wine Blogging Wednesday; it offers a chance to really explore the sections in the wine books we would normally skip over, or give us an opportunity to seek out something special. Here are results from our exploration of many Fine Kosher Wines from around the globe.

Debbie at Hudson Valley  Wine Goddess tried to visit her local Kosher winery, Kedem (part of the Royal Wine Corp.) in Marlboro, N.Y., but they were closed for Passover on Monday.  She picked up a 2002 Bordeaux (Entre Deux Mers) brought in by the Herzog Family.

Randy from The Wine Whore tried the Fortant Merlot 2005, imported by Skalli Family Wines, a Mevushal wine that got high bang-for-buck points.

Erika from StrumErika.com already had a favorite Kosher wine, Domaine du Castel 2005, but found another to try from the same area near Jersalem in the Judean Hills, Katlav, Wadi Katlav 2005. Worth the splurge? Read her blog and find out!

Ezekiel at A Flowery Song Ezekiel compared the normal supermarket fare, Manischewitz Concord Grape to something a bit finer, The Tishbi Cabernet-Petite Sirah 2007.

Sonadora at Wanna Be Wino would easily recommend the 2005 Galil Mountain Yiron from Galilee.

Michelle & Kevin at My Wine Education  had some samples on hand from Yarden and they opened the 2006 Galil Mountain Barbera from Gallilee.

Rob at Wine Post had the 2006 Galil Mountain Barbera from Gallilee too but had a different take on it.

Lowell from the PSychos' Path, a Petite Sirah focused blog, found one  that fit the bill, the 2005 Carmel Winery Appellation Petite Sirah from the Judean Hills.

Joe from I Wine Dude went the extra mile and tried two very different Kosher wines and has an awesome photo on the site!

Allison at A Glass After Work really took the Kosher theme and ran with it finding four wines, including a Chateauneuf du-Pape and a Prosecco.

Kori at Wine Peeps found a couple she wasn't crazy about, but found the event interesting none-the-less.

Kevin from Under The Grape Tree found some Kosher Pinotage from South Africa - check it out on his blog.

Liza at BrixChicks got a good pick, the 2007 Sion Creek White from Galilee.

John at Anything Wine found another Fortant pick, this time a Cabernet Sauvignon and his blog shows some of the required kosher marks to look for on your next bottle of Kosher wine.

Frank at Drink What You Like is in Australia and had a tough time finding something kosher until he landed on the Teal Lake 2007 Shiraz. Check out his notes.

Tom at Ithacork also took the plunge and tried some of the supermarket standards and some Herzog to compare and contrast. He even gives a little science lesson and de-mystifies the Jancis term, "Foxy".

Rémy from The Wine Case found a Spanish Kosher wine with some unusual grapes. Check it out.

Our humble founder, Lenn of Lenndevours, always the over-achiever, tasted six Kosher wines. His favorite was the 2006 Tzora Vineyards Givat Hachalukim Cabernet Sauvignon.

David from McDuff's Food & Wine Trail got to explore a lot of Kosher wines at a modern Israeli restaurant in Philadelphia, Zahav which has a large selection of Israeli wines, most of them Kosher. Check out his in-depth report.

Both Alder from Vinography and myself from the Corkdork got the royal treatment from Jeff Morgan, who makes very expressive and maybe the most expensive Kosher wines in Napa called The Covenant.

In analyzing all these blogs, what I'm left with is that with some exceptions, most Kosher wineries have some growing to do. While almost everyone that participated had some level of surprise in how sophisticated some of these wines could be, ultimately there were almost equal amounts of mediocre wines and wines with good marks. On the positive note, there were only five that were considered really sub-par. I was pleased that there was such a variety of countries represented: France, Australia, Spain, South Africa, Israel, Italy, and the U.S., with a surprising amount of Israeli wines --the distribution of Israeli wines is far wider than I imagined. 

Wine Blogging Wednesday #56: Fine Kosher Wine: Red C and Covenant Wines

It's WBW time again, and I'm pleased to be hosting this month's theme, Fine Kosher Wines. As I said in my original theme announcement, Jeff Morgan & Les Rudd's Covenant Cabernets from Napa opened my eyes to the fact that Kosher wines could be made exceptionally well in the right hands. And after meeting tasting through the wines with Jeff Morgan, Brian McGonigle of Indy Wines, and Alder from Vinography,  I gained a whole new level of appreciation for anyone that can make superior wine under the constraints of the very fundamentals of Kosher winemaking. In some ways it's like making wine with both hands tied behind your back. Because the acts of picking, crushing, bottling, adjustments, etc., have to be undertaken by a Sabbath observant Jew, someone like Jeff, who is Jewish but isn't as strict as he would need to be to qualify his wines as Kosher, can do very little hands-on winemaking. Fortunately, he has both David Ramey as lead consultant and Jonathan Hajdu (who's observant) as associate winemaker. Jonathan was a cellermaster at Herzog, where the first few years of the Covenant wines were vintified.

  Another major factor in making Kosher wine is the Jewish holiday schedule or the sun down of the friday Sabbath, that can interrupt the process. Careful planning has to take place ahead of time so that all the observant pickers and cellar workers are available when the grapes are ripe and all the grapes are crushed before sun down on Friday. For instance, in the 2004 harvest period, when other Napa growers were picking, there were three holidays that needed to be worked around. Thu. 16 September 2004 was  Rosh HaShanah, Sat. 25 September 2004  was Yom Kippur and many people in Napa were still picking on Thu. 30 September 2004 which was Sukkot. Take out 4 friday nights and Saturdays too, and you have very few full days in September to work. Jeff told us that there were crushes that started very early in the morning and finished just as the sun was setting!

Because these wines are non-Mevushal, (i.e., not boiled or pasteurized) once a non-observant Jew, or a lowly gentile like me pours the wines, they are no longer Kosher. Wine bottles can be handled and transported by non-observers, but can't be opened or poured by them.

On to the wines. I do hope everyone got a better handle on what makes a Kosher wine Kosher, and I'm anxious to read everyone's findings. I know a few bloggers were planning to visit other Kosher wineries (that in itself posed a challenge as the were closed for Passover, of course, once it started on the 7th).

Covenant Wines

2006 Red C
This has a gentler oaking than the Covenant wines below due to using recycled barrels from the regular Covenant bottlings. Though not as chewy as the grander bottlings,but lots of blueberry, licorice, and mushroom/forest floor scents are present. Fruit-forward on the palate to balance some of the heat from the alcohol.

2006 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
Nice bit of cherry pie , mint, and cola to the nose. Boysenberry flavors, licorice, and menthol on the palate with pretty, soft tannins.

2005 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
Much spicier nose with fine grained tannins. This had a larger yield and the wine is more herbal tinged than any of the other vintages.

2004 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
My favorite of the vintages we tried, partly because it is nicely matured at this point and is drinking well. Lots of blue fruit on the nose, with a pleasant bit of menthol and herbs. Great balance between the fruit and oak. Recommended.

2003 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
There were huge spikes of heat in 2003 (as well as in 2007) and the heat added to the richness and darker tannins in this one. Quite floral on the nose, like lily, with mushroom/umami flavors.

Also watch out for the 2008, which we tried in barrel, it was very rich and has good potential.

Thanks again to Lenn, Tim, and all you participants out there in the 'sphere. Check back this weekend for the wrap-up!