Organic WInes

Just began working with a wonderful new property making wine from organically grown grapes. Madonna Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are all farmed organically.

The category is quite complicated in terms of what actually is put on a label, and unfortunately many wineries don’t include this information in their packaging! For years, it was the kiss of death to be put into the section of the retail store in the organic section, as you watched the white wines slowly turn brown from lack of attention.

Today organic wines are highly sought after, and highly desirable.

Friends.red

I was reaching through my bag of goodies, and on a Friday night, found the best wine for pizza!

 

It’s made by Pedroncelli & it’s called Friends.red 2008. This year’s blend is zinfandel, merlot & sangiovese, done is a luscious, “friendly”, easy-to-drink style.  Usually I’m a sucker for Pinot Noir from just about anywhere, or a big luscious Cabernet, but tonight I just didn’t want full on, and needed something to go with Kinchley’s thin crust pizza.  They’re both  great.  Not as good as homemade pizza on the BBQ, but certainly faster. And the Friends.red  is going down well with the friends I needed to call to come & share this!

 

Give me a shout if you need a place to buy friends red.

It really is "friendly"!

Sweet Wine drinkers are more sensitive?

Very intesting study just came out by Tim Hanni MW showing how sweet wine drinks may actually have more sensitive palates than dry wine drinkers.  A very novel concept indeed!  Shoot me an email , and I can send you a copy of his report.

My recent experience has shown me just how much consumers are loving sweet wines: whether it’s a dornfelder from Germany,  a  soft Riesling from Germany,  or a sweet tempranillo from Spain.  Sales of all of these are through the roof.

Maybe we all need to open up our minds to ask consumers what it is they want…

Tasting Room Etiquette

Nice article on how to visit CA by Steve Heimoff, As an added bonus he includes Pedroncelli Chard as a top 10 wine of the week!

notice it’s 1/2 the price at least of his other pics!

Great Bargain!

http://bit.ly/aFRCwn

Although the article doesn’t really go into problem all professionals have of setting up great events for people who don’t show and dont’ call to cancel1

What the *** is Charbono?

Loved tasting the Charbono grape this past weekend, both in Hohokus and at the Karen Ann Quinlan Foundation Tasting on Sunday. Consumers love the taste and kept returning for more!

The grape itself has very large berries, this leads to a real juiciness in the wines. The skins are very thick which give it it’s great dark purple, almost black coloring (you can not see through this wine! The tannins are very soft and fleshy. Big , fat, rich, ripe fruit with relatively high acid for a California wine. This is what makes the wine so drinkable and so easy to pair with food!

Here’s Jim Summer’s description of his Summers Charbono Napa 2007

“Allegedly, Italian immigrants brought Charbono vines here in the late 1800s thinking they were Barbera. It was bottled as Barbera by Inglenook Winery and even won several medals as Barbera. Eventually, DNA testing done by Professor Carole Meredith of UC Davis proved that Charbono is the French vareity Corbeau, aka Charbonneau. Charbono wine is only produced in California, adding to its exclusive appeal. Now there are only 80 acres of Charbono planted in California, half of which are in Calistoga. Calistoga is a sweet spot for Charbono, and most of the older vineyards are there. Today only 16 wineries produce Charbono; with Summers Estate Wines holding the title of Charbono King for producing the largest amount of this special wine annually – about 2000 cases”

Here are some online references:

http://www.cal-italia.org/varietals/charbono.html

from Wikipedia: Confusion with other varieties
After genetic testing conducted by Carole Meredith, it was determined to be the same grape as the grape known as Corbeau, Douce Noire, or Charbonneau in the Savoie region of France; but in spite of repeated references, it is probably not related to Dolcetto of the Piedmont. It is likely that this confusion arose because an Italian synonym for Dolcetto is “Dulce Nero” which translates to “sweet black,” as does the French name “Douce Noire” for Charbono..

Why, oh why?

Why, oh why, does everyone seem to need someone to tell them which wine to buy?

Why are the scores so important?  Is the consumer who’s afraid to try something new?  Is it the retailer who’s afraid to sell someone a wine without some one else’s mark of guarantee?  What happened to the good old days, when wine was consumed because people enjoyed that particular flavor or style.

I admit there always was a hierarchy of must buy wines, the just because wines.  Because they were ranked in 1855, because the boss always drinks this one, because their father drank that wine, because they drive past it on their vacation route, …

But obsession for scores has yet again inflated them to the point that 88 best buy doesn’t mean much anymore.  The words could read as the most stunning, luscious wine, but few people seem to be reading those anymore…

Enough ranting, the best recipe I know of to get over this is to spend days lounging around wine country, hanging out, sipping one wine after another and letting it seep into your system.  All of it.  The hot rays of sun, the smell of oleander as we meader over to Dry Creek at Nick Goldschmidt’s place, the cool breeze on the top of Pedroncelli’s Ridge Ranch Estate, the gorgeous sunset as we sip Summers Reserve Merlot 2000 and linger over the shadows hitting the pond….

This is to me what wine is all about.  It’s not a drive to see which winery spent the most money on a consultant.  It’s about the authenticity of a wine that tastes like it came from some place.  It’s like those pictures of dogs that resemble their owners.  A true wine has enough personality that you can also see & meet the winemaker right through it!

And when I taste the wines again that we sipped throughout our trip, the big smiles of the winemakers come through.  A wonderful feel.

Nick Goldschmidt Dinner @ Knife & Fork in Atlantic City

We had a fabulous dinner last night at the Knife & Fork in Atlantic City featuring 7 of Nick Goldschmidt’s wines.

Everyone seemed to have a hard time deciding which was their favorite wine of the night as each course seemed to be perfectly paired, and accelerate in flavor & texture of both the food & the wine!

I especially liked finishing with a cheese plate served family style paired with the forefathers cabernet 2007 and the Goldschmidt Oakville Cabernet 06 (this is from the parcel right next to Screaming Eagle)

A blockbuster end to a great meal!

Thanks Pierre!

What to drink?

Seems there are so many consumers willing to try anything new as long as they have a willing partner in the store or restaurant to make the suggestion.  Most consumers still WANT to be told what to buy.  They WANT to try something new.

The wine buying crowd under 55 seems to be willing to try anything with any label as long as the price tag is under $20…

Why do we keep pigeon-holing our customers into the same old, same old varietals?

Have you tried some of the inexpensive Syrah coming out of California lately?  or Charbono?

Scandal ! Pinot Noir that’s not Pinot Noir

Tons of press and blogs are out regarding the fraud committed by individuals in France selling tons  (literally) of wine labeled as pinot noir that was not.  Gallo Red Bicyclette brand bought the wine and somehow they didn’t notice the wine didn’t even remotely resemble the taste or smell of pinot noir.

To assume that no one at Gallo doing the purchasing and in charge of quality control were able to notice a difference between a wine that must be 100% pinot noir and who knows what else is ludicrous.

I’m assuming it’s simply impossible to prove the complicit nature that Gallo was also involved.  They should still be obliged to refund any all purchases that were made under the fraudulent labels. Or would that take a class action suit?

US wine making laws are so lax, that they actually allow the addition of : water, concentrated grape juice, less than 100% of the varietal in a varietal.  so maybe the wine buyers at Gallo just thought it normal that something named pinot noir didn’t taste at all like pinot noir.  It’s done so frequently in CA that maybe they thought it was normal!

Having trained to be a winemaker in Burgundy and Bordeaux 25 years ago, I find outrageous to see how many CA wineries are still making pinot noir with added syrah, petite syrah, concentrate, and who knows what else?  And it’s all legal!  Does it taste like pinot noir?

Pinot noir is a delicate, highly aromatic grape with generally light bodied tanins.  When you find a wine that doesn’t resemble that, we’re all in trouble!

Michael Chiarello’s Bottega in Yountville

Michael Chiarello’s new restaurant in Yountville, called Bottega, is a smash hit.

We had dinner last week with Lauren Sagalow of Huneeus Vintners, of Quintessa fame, and I am putting this at one of my top dining experiences, not of just of 2010, since we’re only 3 weeks into it, but one of the top dining experiences of 2009/10.

We paired an assortment of appetizers, one more interesting than the next with the amazing 2008 Illumination Sauv Blanc.  The wine had enough acidity and a lot of depth and highlighted the creamy polenta, the home-cured prosciutto and few other appetizers.  Only 1 regret, and that was that we had ordered the shaved brussel sprout salad but didn’t realize until we were leaving that it had never arrived on the table.

They very friendly and helpful staff at Bottega decanted the 2005 Quintessa and the 2006 Quintessa.  Both wines were stunning.  The 2005 showed big fat rich fruit right from the start, and even with decanting the 2006 was very tight.  It’s clear that Charles Thomas has put his mark on the winery as this was his first full vintage at Quintessa.  The huge structure of the 2006 didn’t soften until we nearly finished out main course and then dark cocoa notes fleshed out the tannins for an incredibly powerful finish.  Note, you will definitely need to double or triple decant the 2006 or wait a few years because this is one huge wine!