Bigger Than Your Head

Wine of the Week

Fredric Koeppel — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:50:47 +0000

Chateau des Annibals “Suivez-moi-jeune-homme” 2010, Coteaux Varois en Provence, was one of my favorite rosé wines last year, and it made my list of “25 Great Wine Bargains of 2011.”

Now it’s the turn of Chateau des Annibals “Suivez-moi-jeune-homme” 2011, and though it’s still early in the rosé-drinking season, I know it will once again be among my favorites. The appellation lies in an area of Provence east of Marseilles and north of Toulon, a region of sun-bleached rocky soil, dusty fragrant wild herbs and wind-sheltered pine forests; vineyard cultivation here goes back beyond the stolid Romans, beyond the wily Greeks to the clever and mysterious Phoenicians. The wine, produced on an estate run on bio-dynamic principles (and founded in 1792), is a blend of 60 percent cinsault grapes and 40 percent grenache, made entirely in stainless steel; let no oak tamper with this sheer delicacy and elegance! The color is the palest of the most pale onion skin, just slightly tinged with watermelon pink; spare yet evocative aromas of dried raspberries and red currants are subtly imbued with melon and peach; the wine is bone-dry, vibrant, shimmering with acidity and limestone-like minerality, flush with spice and a hint of thyme, devolving to a finish that manages to be both taut and supple. Really lovely but with backbone. 13 percent alcohol. Winemaker was Nathalie Coquelle, whom I nominate, on the basis of this wine, for a Nobel Peace Prize. Sip it or remark on its versatility as you drink it with a variety of summer fare. Excellent. About $18 to $20.

The wine’s name means “Follow me, young man,” perhaps a reference to Hannibal’s armies, which marched through this region, with their elephants, in the Autumn of 218 B.C., before turning north to cross the Alps southward on the way to do battle with the Romans on the plains of northern Italy. I think the golden elephant depicted on the label should be evidence enough.

Bourgeois Family Selections, Asheville, N.C. I bought this one.

Bio-Dynamic in Burgundy, Part II: Domaine Emmanuel Giboulet

Fredric Koeppel — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:16:51 +0000

Sometimes we can learn a lot about wine from small producers who keep ambition, not to mention grandiose schemes, in check and focus on doing an excellent job on a small but impeccable scale. Such a producer is Domaine Emmanuel Giboulot, from whose 10 hectares of vines — a bit more than 25 acres — around the city of Beaune in Burgundy come about 4,350 cases annually of what could be considered minor wines, at least compared to the Big Leagues of Premier Cru and Grand Cru vineyards. Emmanuel Giboulot, the name of the owner and winemaker as well as the domaine, is not trying to be all things Burgundian to all people, accumulating a few rows here and a few rows there in all the prestigious appellations up and down the Côte d’Or, in the manner of the important negociants. No, Giboulot steadfastly works in the Côte de Beaune, up on the hilltop, or to the east of the city, in the little-known Vin de Pays area and manages to produce wines of precision, clarity and integrity. He does make one Premier Cru wine, the white Rully La Pucelle.

This is a bio-dynamic estate. Giboulot went all organic in 1985 and bio-dynamic in 1996, and he subscribes to most of the principles: root and flower “tea” preparations; the infamous dung buried in the cow horn; organic composts. He also uses methods that just make sense: indigenous yeast, manual harvest, very careful deployment of sulfur, minimal new oak. How much the success of the wines depends on the bio-dynamic approach I couldn’t say; I do know that while we are not looking here for the glorious depth and dimension of chardonnay and pinot noir from the world-renowned Premier Cru and Grand Cru vineyards what Giboulet delivers is a gratifying sense of infallible craftsmanship, unimpeachable character and lovely purity.

These wines were tasted at the “Return to Terroir” event in New York on March 6. A Becky Wasserman “Le Serbet” selection for Domaine Select Wine Estates. New York. Image of Emmanuel Giboulot from rawfair.com
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Made from chardonnay vines that average 50 years old, the Domaine Emmanuel Giboulot La Grande Chatelaine 2009, Côte de Beaune, is a wine of “verys” and verities, that is, it’s very floral, very spicy and very minerally, and it expresses what feels like the truth, the verity, of the chardonnay grape’s fruit, acid and mineral-driven essence; 18 months in oak lend suppleness to the texture but do not hamper the crystalline purity and intensity of the grape. The vineyards of the Côte de Beaune appellation lie nestled around the tops of the Montagne de Rochetin and Les Mondes Rondes — 396 and 350 meters, respectively — above the prime area of the Beaune appellation, which are adjacent to the famous medieval city of that name; we do not expect wines from Côte de Beaune — red and white are permitted — to be as full-bodied, complex, generous or expansive as from Beaune’s Premier Cru vineyards. I mean, to take a rather extreme example, last night a gentleman at an event I attended poured me a glass of Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru 2007, from the great vineyard north of Beaune; the wines produced from the Côte de Beaune vineyards could not attain that level of sublimity, not would we expect them to. Pleasure, however, occurs at many different planes and ranges of excitement; if this were not so, we would die of transcendent satiety. The point is that Emmanuel Giboulot’s La Grande Chatelaine 2009 offers its own essay, as it were, on the virtues and character of the chardonnay grape, among which are a lovely dense, almost talc-like texture balanced by crisp clean acidity; a full range of citrus and stone-fruit scents and flavors fleshed out with slightly macerated and baked elements; and a burgeoning earthy limestone and shale quality that keeps the wine scintillating and vibrant. 12.5 percent alcohol. Now through 2014. Excellent. About $39.

Image, much cropped, from vinloyal.wordpress.com.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Also from the Côte de Beaune appellation, the Domaine Emmanuel Giboulot La Combe d’Eve 2009 is 100 percent chardonnay and aged 12 months in small oak barrels, none new. The color is mild straw-gold; the bouquet is a penetrating and beguiling amalgam of jasmine and camellia, damp shale, spiced peaches, yellow plums and pears. The wine feels lacy, transparent, edged with limpid and lucent limestone elements and bristling acidity that decorate and support the delicious citrus and stone-fruit flavors. The finish is lithe and silky smooth, packed with spice, stones and bones. 13 percent alcohol. It would be difficult to find a prettier, more seductive chardonnay. La Combe d’Eve means “the valley of evening” or perhaps of Eve herself. Now through 2014. Very Good+. About $39.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Domaine Emmanuel Giboulot Terres Burgondes 2009, Vin de Pays de Sainte-Marie-La-Blanche. This seldom-seen Vin de Pays, established in 1979, covers 17 parishes in the Côte d’Or administrative department that surround the village of Sainte-Marie-La-Blanche, four miles southeast of Beaune. We are, in other words, in the flatlands not entitled to the name Burgundy. Red and rosé wines may be made from pinot noir, gamay and pinot gris grapes, whites from chardonnay, pinot gris, pinot blanc, aligoté and auxerrois and even melon de bourgogne, the grape banished from Burgundy by royal edict in the 17th Century; it migrated to the Nantais and became the grape of Muscadet. Anyway, Emmanuel Giboulet makes the red Terres Burgondes from pinot noir; the white is pinot gris. The red Terres Burgondes 2009 — is the name Giboulot’s way of saying that the wine still comes from “Burgundian earth”? — is a light cherry color; the bouquet offers delicate, almost ethereal scents of dried roses, spiced cherries and red currants and a hint of briers and slightly mossy underbrush. The flavors are a bit warmer and fleshier — there’s a touch of mulberry and plum — and definitely more spicy, yet this remains a spare, dry, earthy and slightly austere pinot noir, held soldier-straight by a backbone of brisk acidity and graphite-like minerality. 11.5 percent alcohol. Now through 2013 or ’14. Very Good+. About $32.

Image from bonamanger-bonapenser.com.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Domaine Emmanuel Giboulot Beaune Lulune 2010 is from the Beaune appellation, not Côte de Beaune. One hundred percent pinot noir, it offers a light, almost transparent red cherry color that makes up in radiance what is seems to lack in darkness; red Burgundy does not need to be blatantly dark in hue. Aromas of macerated and slightly roasted cherries and currants are borne by briers and brambles, a touch of mossy earthiness and a delicate wafting of that characteristic beet-root scent, a hint of honed granite. How is this wine different, you ask, from its cousin from the wrong side of the tracks? (The Paris-Lyon line runs east of the town of Beaune, and Sainte-Marie-La-Blanche lies beyond that.) The difference, particularly on the palate, is concentration, intensity and duration and, paradoxically, a sense of refinement. Every aspect of the Terres Burgondes 2009 can be found in its Lulune stablemate, but in deeper more profound qualities, with more breeding and elegance and with a longer, slightly more layered finish; the wine is kept vibrant by clean acidity that cuts a swath on the tongue. Now through 2015 or ’16. Excellent. About $54.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Friday Wine Sips: Eight Rosés

Fredric Koeppel — Sat, 12 May 2012 17:48:02 +0000

I love rosés. There, I said it and I’m not sorry. Once the temperature goes above 70, I’m ready to be charmed and delighted by these pale, dry, stony evocations of sun and wind and dusty herb gardens and hot stones and bowls of dried or fresh and spiced fruit. Today we look at a group of rosé wines that includes examples from the South of France, their natural home; from France’s Loire Valley; and from diverse areas of California: North Coast, Central Coast and Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey. The range of grapes is diverse too, mainly reds that we associate with Provence, the Rhone Valley and Languedoc — syrah, grenache, cinsault and mourvèdre — but also pinot noir, cabernet franc and even pinot gris, whose pinky-gray skin — it’s nominally a “white” grape — can impart the slightest pale hue to the wine. Rosés are versatile in their relationship with food, and we tend to drink them throughout the Spring and Summer with just about everything from snacks and appetizers to entrees except fish, which can make the wines taste metallic. Whether you’re feeling carefree or care-worn, a crisp, dry elegant rosé will perform wonders at elevating the mood and creating a fine ambiance.

The French rosés here were tasted at a wholesaler’s trade event; the others were samples for review.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Saint Martin de la Garrigue “Tradition” Rosé 2011, Coteaux du Languedoc. 13.5% alc. 50% cinsault, 30% syrah, 20% grenache. Pale melon color with a slight violet tinge; classically proportioned, dry, austere; raspberry and a touch of tart cranberry, dusty and herbal, wet stones, flint and chalk. Very Good+. About $15.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Eric Chevalier Pinot Noir Rosé 2011, Vin de Pays du Val de Loire. 11.5% alc. Ruddy copper-salmon color; dried currants and raspberries, hint of mulberry; provocative whiffs of thyme and white pepper; chalk and limestone, crisp, tense acidity, with a spicy, flinty finish. Excellent. About $15, representing Great Value.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Domaine de Fontsainte Gris de Gris Rosé 2011, Corbières. 12.5% alc. 70% grenache, 10% each mourvèdre, carignane, cinsault. Pale copper-salmon color; very floral, very spicy, compote-like maceration of strawberries and raspberries highlighted by dried spice; limestone and flint, slightly dusty and earthy, touch of dried thyme; crisp and lively. Super attractive. Very Good+. About $16.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare 2011, Central Coast. 13.5% alc. 73% grenache, 10% mourvèdre, 8% grenache blanc, 5% roussanne, 4% cinsault. Pale yet radiant melon-copper color; fresh and dried strawberries and red currants, hint of watermelon with an overlay of peach skin; a little dusty, earthy and brambly; very dry, spare, elegant, an infusion of macerated fruit with scintillating liquid limestone. Excellent. About $16, a Real Bargain.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Domaine de Reuilly Pinot Gris Rosé 2011, Loire Valley. 12% alc. Very pale onion skin color; dried raspberries and red currants, quite dry, spare, elegant; lots of stones and bones and crisp acidity; hints of roses and lilacs; buoyant tenseness and tautness balanced by an almost succulent texture. Really attractive and tasty. Excellent. About $20.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
V. Sattui Rosato 2011, North Coast. 13.5% alc. Grenache, syrah, carignane grapes. A Florida of a rose, that is, florid, floral, the color of hibiscus, the scent of roses, violets, strawberries and raspberries, cloves, hints of orange rind and peach; more layered and substantial than most rosés, like what in Bordeaux is called clairette, falling between a rosé and a full-blown red wine; savory limestone and spice-laden finish. This could age a year. Excellent. About $21.75.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Charles Joguet Chinon Rosé 2011, Loire Valley. 100% cabernet franc. Very pale melon color; ripe and fleshy yet cool, dry, packed with limestone and bright acidity, a touch austere; spice-infused red currants and raspberries. Very Good+. About $22.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
La Rochelle Pinot Noir Rosé 2011, Santa Lucia Highlands, Monterey County. 12.5% alc. Very pale shimmering onion skin color; very dry, spare, austere; imbued with nuances of spiced and slightly macerated red currants and raspberries and, as in a dream, an evocative and fleeting scent of dried rose petals; structure is all clean acidity and honed limestone. A superior rosé. 119 cases. Excellent. About $24, and Worth a Search.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

America Will Never Have a Genuine Wine Culture

Fredric Koeppel — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:27:31 +0000

Perhaps Americans who care about wine romanticize the notion of a European wine culture. You know what I mean, the image we carry around in our imaginations that depicts a long table set outside under ancient olive trees — this would be in Provence, of course, or Tuscany — with three or four generations of the family partaking of utterly fresh and simple yet wonderful food while sipping from glasses of a tasty unpretentious local wine. The kids get a little wine diluted with water in their glasses, and the teenagers are allowed one glass and no monkey business, thank you very much! See, these people know that learning about drinking starts at the family table, with Grandma and Grandpa looking on benevolently as the youngsters are gradually initiated into the knowledge that so many Americans can’t comprehend: That wine is part of life and is inextricable from the enjoyment of food. Gosh, wouldn’t we like to be in that movie!

Because the truth is somewhat different. In Great Britain laws governing the consumption of alcohol have become draconian. Germans are turning away from wine and drinking more beer. The French — sacre bleu, the French! — have become almost hysterically puritanical about alcohol consumption, though now that their non-drinking prez has been booted out perhaps the atmosphere may lighten up a bit. In any case, America traditionally looks to Europe for its lessons about food and wine and life the way that an ingenue looks to a wiser, more sophisticated older man for instruction in love. Oops, not anymore! That’s a different motif from a different time and a different movie!

So, to the question “Could America become a country with a genuine wine culture, in the sense that wine is accepted as a foregone part of household and family existence, that wine is a natural accompaniment to food and belongs on the table, that wine, moderately consumed, is an enjoyable, even celebratory aspect of life,” I have to answer — “I think not.”

I’ll provide a tiny admittedly isolated though, I think, potent example of why I believe this is so. Here’s the background:

To the east of Memphis lie the smaller towns of Germantown and Colllierville, all these contiguous cities and towns running up against each other, so you could drive on Poplar Avenue from downtown Memphis, on the Mississippi River, east to the Shelby County line and seldom be out of a major shopping area. When I was in college, a drive from the center of Memphis out to Collierville felt like an all-day expedition; now the road is six lanes all the way and in a sense the drive is even more tedious.

Germantown and Collierville began as villages, and they each grew and grew, so that even these suburban towns have their own suburbs and malls and shopping centers and civic plazas. The heart of Collierville, however, is the old town square that retains a bit of original quaintness and a group of 19th and early 20th Century houses that surround it. Like many old villages that expanded into the era of urbanization and its growing pains, Collierville tries to hold on to its heritage, especially through an annual town fair that celebrates its history and its present.

Here’s the point of this preamble, quoting from a recent story about the Collierville town fair in Memphis’ daily newspaper, The Commercial Appealr: “It’s just part of Collierville. It is family-friendly, you know there isn’t alcohol served, and Collierville is all about family,” said Twentieth Century Club president Karen Ray. (Serendipitously, the article was written by reporter Chelsea Boozer.)

Anyway, there you have it: “Family-friendly” and alcoholic beverages are antithetical. The town of Collierville and its fair are “all about family,” and family values and alcohol don’t mix. (Though a good name for a cocktail would be “Family Values.” I’ll let you contemporary mixologists work on that.)

Now you may be saying, “FK, don’t get hysterical. This is one comment from one person.”

And while you would be right, I cannot help thinking that the statement epitomizes the attitude of a great deal of America’s conservative population regarding alcoholic beverages, whether we talk about beer, wine or spirits. The case doesn’t merely reflect a lack of sophistication; it’s more a matter of real apprehension about alcohol in its old-fashioned guise of Demon Rum. In truth, alcohol has been more and more demonized lately, not only in this country but, as we have seen, in Europe, the great home of vineyards, winemaking and food and wine culture. I would never downplay the real harm that excessive alcohol consumption can result in nor the devastation visited on some families and society generally by alcoholism; the physical, emotional and financial losses are tremendous. Alcoholic beverages, however, are designed to give pleasure, and used legitimately and with common sense they indeed impart a great deal of pleasure, yes, occasionally of a heady, giddy sort, to our lives. Americans, though, have historically fostered a love-hate relationship with alcoholic beverages, viewing their manifold pleasures as well as their deleterious effects with equal suspicion. Never will the dual nature of this contingency be resolved, because these suspicions, anxieties and alarms have been hard-wired into the consciousness of certain portions of the population for generations.

I wish American families could take as their models the Reagan family on the CBS dramatic series Blue Bloods — re-signed for a third year — in which three generations of New York police officers, centered around the police commissioner portrayed by Tom Selleck and including his long-retired father and his two sons, one a beat policeman and the other a detective (a daughter is an assistant district attorney), along with spouses and children, gather for family dinners at least twice during each broadcast. And there on the table always stands a bottle of wine, and there on the table stand wine glasses from which the adults sip throughout the meal and pause to refill those glasses. No one ever mentions the wine because there’s no need to; wine goes with food and is obviously a natural part of their daily life. It’s so damned refreshing!

Some of my readers may say, “Oh sure, and the Reagans are Irish Catholic, and we all know about them.” All right, then, perhaps it’s time that a whole lot of Americans should learn a lesson from these very loving and family-oriented Irish Catholics.

Al fresco dining image by Alexandra Rowley for sbchic.com. Collierville town square image from tnvacation.com. Blue Bloods image from tvfanatic.com.

Wine of the Week

Fredric Koeppel — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:28:44 +0000

Since 2003, Bonny Doon’s Le Cigare Blanc has consistently been one of the best Rhone-style white wines made in California. The high quality continues with the version for 2010, a blend of 55 percent grenache blanc grapes and 45 percent roussanne grown in the bio-dynamic Beeswax Vineyard, in the Arroyo Seco region of Monterey County, south of Soledad. This is mainly white grape territory, with chardonnay and riesling leading the pack. Beeswax, indeed, since the wine exudes in plenty the characteristic waxiness of the grapes and a touch of small waxy white flowers, like camellias, to which add roasted lemon and lemon balm, spiced pears and yellow plums and hints of bay leaf, hay and leafy fig. The wine is ripe and spicy and savory — there’s a fleck of rosemary-like or pine-like resin — yet its juicy pear, peach and fig flavors are allied to a sense of spareness and astringency; there’s nothing opulent or voluptuous strung on this glittering structure of plangent acidity and scintillating limestone, aspects reinforced by the long, lively, spice-packed and faintly bitter finish. 12.7 percent alcohol, and boy, it’s a long time since I saw a wine from California with that little alcohol. Winemaker was Randall Grahm. This was terrific with asparagus risotto with roasted garlic and shiitake mushrooms. Now through 2013 or ’14. Excellent. About $24.

A sample for review.

Friday Wine Sips: Some Italians

Fredric Koeppel — Sat, 05 May 2012 23:04:59 +0000

I know, you’re thinking, “F.K., why don’t you just call this weekly series Saturday Wine Sips, since you seem to have so much trouble getting the thing written and posted on Friday?” Well, because Friday is the lead-in to the weekend, and I think of this series as brief reviews of wines My Readers would like to find for their weekend (moderate) drinking enjoyment. So I miss by a day here and there! So what!

A group of Italian wines today, whites and reds from Tuscany and Piedmont, including one of the best wines made from vermentino grapes that I have encountered; there’s also an excellent Dolcetto and Nebbiolo. As usual with the Friday Wine Sips, even when I post on Saturday, I deliberately keep matters brief and decisive by striking to the heart of the thing and eliminating the usual data about history, specific geographical matters, winery personnel and so on. What you read is what you get. The Poggiotondo wines were samples for review; the others were tasted at a wholesaler’s trade event.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
La Scolca White Label Gavi 2010, Piedmont. 13% alc. 100% cortese grapes. Pale straw-gold color, faint green highlights; spiced lemon with a touch of lemon balm, hints of almond and almond blossom, peach and pear; crisp, lively, alert; pleasing texture infused with limestone-and-shale-like minerality; spicy finish. Very attractive for drinking through the end of 2012. Very Good+. About $18.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Poggiotondo Vermentino 2011, Toscana. 13.5% alc. 100% vermentino grapes. Radiant pale gold; fresh and floral as a spring garden; yellow plums and thyme, roasted lemon and pear; clean, bracing sea breeze and salt marsh astringency; quite spicy, very dry, scintillating acidity and limestone-like minerality supporting ripe stone-fruit flavors; long spice-thronged finish. Now through 2013 or ’14. One of the best vermentino wines I have encountered. Excellent. About $20, a Notable Value.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Poggiotondo Rosso 2010, Toscana. 12.5% alc. 40% sangiovese, 30% merlot, 30% syrah. I was not as impressed by the Poggiotondo red wines as by the Vermentino, but I definitely liked the Rosso better than the Chianti. Simple and direct and tasty; gushes with spicy red and black fruit scents and flavors balanced by bright acidity and sleek, moderately chewy tannins; the finish adds leather, briers and brambles. A decent quaffer for red sauce pasta dishes, pizzas and burgers. Drink through the end of 2012. Very Good. About $11.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Poggiotondo Chianti Cerro del Masso 2009, Toscano DOCG. 13% alc. 80% sangiovese, 10% merlot, 5% each syrah and colorino. A curious marriage of bland and harsh; takes rusticity to the edge of roughshod. Sangiovese deserves better. Not recommended. About $15.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Marziano Abbona Dolcetto Dogliani “Papa Celso” 2009, Piedmont. 14% alc. 100% dolcetto grapes. Dark ruby color with a violet-magenta cast; warm, fleshy, meaty floral bouquet, spiced and macerated red and black currants and plums, undertones of lavender and leather; quite earthy, with touches of moss and underbrush, a little spare and austere yet almost succulent in texture, almost velvety; a graphite-like strain of minerality through the finish keeps it in line. Now through 2015 or ’16. Excellent. About $30.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Marziano Abbona Barbera d’Alba “Rinaldi” 2009, Piedmont. 14.5% alc. 100% barbera grapes. Dark ruby-purple; leather, plums and mulberries, briers and brambles, a little fleshy and floral; very dry, packed with dried spices and dried red and black fruit flavors; fairly foresty, burgeoning underbrush, austere from mid-palate back through the finish where it picks up some granite-like minerality and a bit of heat. Now through 2015 to ’16. Very Good+. About $30.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Marziano Abbona Nebbiolo d’Alba “Bricco Barone” 2009, Piedmont. 14% alc. 100% nebbiolo grapes. Classic. Deep ruby-purple; tar, earth, violets and truffles, rosemary and its bit of resiny astringency, black currants and plums; full-bodied, dense, very dry, jammed with finely milled and sifted tannins, graphite elements and woody spices; touches of fruitcake, potpourri and bitter chocolate; long, spun-out finish. Demands rabbit fricassee, game birds, venison. Now through 2016 or ’17. Excellent. About $30.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Old-School California Cabernet XX: Pine Ridge Napa Valley 2009

Fredric Koeppel — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:45:15 +0000

Gary Andrus and a group of investors founded Pine Ridge Vineyards in 1978. (Remember, this “Old-School California Cabernet” series is devoted to wineries established in 1980 or before.) Now the company owns about 200 acres in some of Napa Valley’s prime vineyard areas: Stags Leap District, Rutherford, Oakville District, Carneros and Howell Mountain. Pine Ridge’s reputation rests on cabernet sauvignon wines — there’s also chardonnay and the popular chenin blanc-viognier blend — and the emphasis from the beginning has been on classic restraint and proportion; nothing flamboyant or overdone issues from this winery. General manager and winemaker is Michael Beaulac.

Pine Ridge bottles separate cabernets from each of its appellation vineyards, but the focus of the Pine Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, Napa Valley, is a general sense, as far as it can be manifested, of the region itself and its character as an ideal location for the grape, a character cemented after Prohibition by Beaulieu Vineyards, Louis M. Martini and Inglenook and built upon by many other wineries over the decades. The wine is a blend of 76 percent cabernet sauvignon, 14 percent petit verdot, 6 percent merlot and 4 percent malbec, drawn from Pine Ridge’s estate vineyards, mainly in Stags Leap and Rutherford. It aged 18 months in 60 percent French and 40 percent American oak barrels, of which 50 percent of the barrels were new.

If your ideal of a Napa Valley cabernet is a brilliantly dark-hued wine that exudes cool aromas of pure and elemental (and slightly briery) cassis and black cherry freighted with dusty cloves and thyme, graphite and iron with undertones of cedar, tobacco, black olive and bittersweet chocolate; if that ideal wine embodies a marriage of elegance and power in its balance among a sleek supple texture, a dense chewy structure and a combined sense of deftness, fleetness, substance and dynamic energy; and, finally, if that ideal Napa Valley cabernet would feel packed with spice and warm, ripe and slightly macerated black and blue fruit flavors supported by clean earthy granite-like minerality, burnished oak and prominent but modulated tannins: Well, brothers and sisters, this is the wine for you. And, in fact, for me. A sensible 14.1 percent alcohol. Drink now through 2017 or ’18, especially with a crusty medium-rare strip steak right off the smokin’ grill. Excellent. About $54.

A sample for review.

Wine of the Week

Fredric Koeppel — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:32:39 +0000

Wines made from gewurztraminer grapes can be so floral that they’re off-putting, like old flowers in a vase, or so sweetly ripe that they’re cloying, but find one that’s perfectly balanced and you should clasp it reverently to your bosom, especially when it’s priced as attractively as the Lucien Albrecht Reserve Gewurztraminer 2010 from Alsace. The estate was founded in 1425 and is now operated by the 18th generation.

Made all in stainless steel, the Lucien Albrecht Reserve Gewurztraminer 2010 displays a pale straw-gold color and an alluring bouquet of jasmine and honeysuckle, lychee and mango and a hint of slightly buttery and clove-inflected roasted pineapple; the final fillip is a trace of rose petal and golden raisin. This is a gleaming and (again) golden gewurztraminer which in the mouth is all ginger and quince, pears and pear nectar, though the wine is bone-dry, vibrant with crisp acidity and a piercing line of limestone-like minerality that rivets the finish to your blissful palate. Still, the texture is supple and silken, enveloping in character, and the whole package is sleek and seductive. 13 percent alcohol. Now through 2015 or ’16. We sipped this quite successfully one night with shrimp risotto and the next day with tuna panini. It would also be good with moderately spicy Southeast Asian cuisine. Excellent. About $20, a Great Bargain.

Pasternak Wine Imports, Harrison, N.Y. A sample for review.

Image, cropped and re-sized, from aglassafterwork.com.

Bio-Dynamic in Burgundy, Part I: Domaine Michel Lafarge

Fredric Koeppel — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:20:28 +0000

Domaine Michel Lafarge is one of the great producers of the wines of Burgundy’s Volnay appellation. The domaine is small, owning just under 25 acres of vines, and producing only about 4,000 cases annually, but the wines are models of their genres. The family has been cultivating grapes in Volnay since the early 19th Century and possibly back to the late 18th Century. Very gradually did the Lafarges accumulate, piece by piece, the portions of vineyards that comprise their domaine; these include Volnay Clos des Chênes and the wholly owned Clos du Chateau des Ducs, Beaune Grêves, Pommard Pezerolles (all Premier Cru) and parcels of Volnay village and Premier Cru, as well as Bourgogne Aligoté and Bourgogne Passetoutgrains and a village Meursault.

Lafarge was a pioneer in bottling its own wine, rather than selling the wine to a negociant, beginning with the harvest of 1934. The wines see only about 25 percent new oak, typically aging for 15 to 20 months, depending on the vintage and the vineyard. The entire domaine has been farmed on biodynamic principles since 2000. Does that mean that the wines are better than they were before the domaine’s steps toward biodynamic methods were instituted in 1997? And what would “better” mean? My experience with the wines goes back only to the Meursault 2002, Volnay Clos-des-Chênes 2003 and Volnay Clos du Chateau des Ducs 2004, so I have no standard of comparison, though these wines were superb and a little challenging — of the Clos du Chateau des Ducs 2004 my first note was “a chill comes off this.”

The literature, however, is primarily unstinting in regard for the classically proportioned and detailed pre-biodynamic wines — read Clive Coates on the Volnay Clos des Chênes 1990, 1983 and 1952 — so is it possible that the post-2000 wines are in some sense truer, more authentic, more reflective of the vineyards than they were for all those decades? The domaine’s philosophy has always been to pay close and careful attention in the vineyard and to leave the wine as undisturbed as possible during its making. What more could grapes or wine ask for?

Tasted at “Return to Terroir: La Renaissance des Appellations” in New York, February 27, 2012. Becky Wasserman Selection for Martin Scott, Lake Success, N.Y., and other importers around the country.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Domaine Michel Lafarge Raisins Dorés Bourgogne Aligoté 2009. Aligoté is Burgundy’s “other” white grape, grown usually in the highest or lowest sites, that is, not in the areas of the superior vineyards in the middle of the slopes. The wine is bottled as Bourgogne Aligoté; only in Bouzeron, in the Chalonnaise, does it get its own appellation. We expect aligoté to be immensely crisp with acidity — which is why it’s essential in a Kir, combined with cassis — even sometimes fairly arid with acidity’s drying quality, but this example leavens the intense vibrancy and nervosity with a lovely supple, moderately dense texture and tasty flavors of lemon curd and roasted lemon, subtly wedded to cloves, dried rosemary and limestone. A beguiling jasmine and honeysuckle aspect gets matters off to a good start. 14 percent alcohol. Seductive harmony and balance. Very Good+. About $23, but prices range from $18 to $28.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Domaine Michel Lafarge Meursault 2009. I’ll repeat the phrase from the previous note — “seductive harmony and balance” — but add something individual, almost feral that lifts this commune wine above its counterparts. It opens with notes of jasmine and lilac, cloves and orange rind, wedded to roasted lemon and lemon balm. The wine feels fleet, transparent, luminous, with lovely depths of spice and limestone, light citrus and quince-like fruit and a sort of crystalline distillation of chardonnay character, enrobed in a texture of ethereal silkiness and enlivened by bright acidity. This is chardonnay that I could drink every day, if I could afford it. 13 percent alcohol. Now through 2018 to ’20. Excellent. About $44 to $48.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Domaine Michel Lafarge Bourgogne Passetoutgrain “L’Exception” 2009. We rarely see the quaffer Passetoutgrains outside Burgundy — Lafarge spells this without the “s” — where it’s often consumed with simple meals. The wine is made from a minimum of one-third pinot noir with the rest gamay. This example offers a light ruby-cherry color and delicate aromas of red currants and black and red cherries supported by modest brambly tannins and shimmering acidity. 12.5 percent alcohol. More character and less rusticity than most Passetoutgrains I have encountered. Very Good+. About $25 to $28. (Can that be right? Passetoutgrains used to sell for $15 to $18.)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Domaine Michel Lafarge Volnay “Vendages Selectionnes” 2009. Classic Volnay, made from a selection of older vines. The color ranges from mild cherry at the rim to a slightly darker ruby-cherry in the center; the bouquet is a subtle weaving of dried spice and flowers with red currants and black cherries and a touch of plum and, at the heart, an almost ethereal gamy, slightly earthy aspect. The texture feels like the most delicate and ineffable of satin draperies, yet you sense, also, the structure of stones and bones and the clean acidity that cuts a swath on the palate. There is fruit, of course, red and black, a little spiced, macerated and stewed, yet nothing forward or blatant. The wine is elegant and graceful but very dry and draws out a line of spareness and austerity through the finish. Now through 2018 to ’20. Wonderful quality for a village wine. Excellent. About $68 to $75.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Friday Wine Sips: Way South of the Border

Fredric Koeppel — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:50:47 +0000

Malbec. Carmenere. Cabernet Sauvignon. We must be talking about Chile and Argentina. These wines are priced from about $11 to about $20, and some of them around $12 to $14 represent Excellent Value. I was more impressed with the carmenère wines than the malbecs or cabernets; I assume that conclusion is just the luck of the draw as far as the wines I had on hand. As usual in the Friday Wine Sips I eschew technical, historical and specific geographical information about vineyards and such for the sake of brevity and the clean, penetrating stroke. These were all samples for review. If you’re firing up the grill, most of these wines would be great accompaniment to steaks, burgers, sausages, pork chops and so on. I know it’s Saturday, so sue me.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Malbec
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Bodegas Elena de Mendoza Malbec 2010, Mendoza, Argentina. 13.6% alc. Dark ruby-purple color; simple, straight-forward, undifferentiated fruit, a little bland. Serviceable at best if you’re not thinking too hard. Good. About $11
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Chakana Maipe Malbec 2009, Mendoza, Argentina. ??% alc. Dark ruby-violet color; simple, direct, tasty; black currant and blueberry, touch of spice, back-note of lavender; nice complement of tannin and acidity. A decent burger and pizza wine. Good+. About $13.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Apaltagua Reserva Malbec 2010, Maule Valley, Chile. 13.5% alc. Black olive, cedar, thyme; black currants, blueberries and plums; quite dense and chewy; tannins, minerals and acidity prominent, if not audacious; spicy oak dominates. Needs a year or two to settle down. Very Good+. About $12, representing Great Value.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Trivento Amado Sur Malbec 2010, Mendoza, Argentina. 14% alc. With 10% bonardo & 10% syrah. Deep ruby-purple; intriguing aromas of lavender and leather, smoky currants and plums, rye toast and graphite; the wine is robust, tannins are soft and velvety yet gripping, chewy; black fruit flavors are dark and spicy; quite dry, a bit austere on the finish. Needs a steak. Very Good+. About $13, Good Value.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Carmenère
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Santa Carolina Reserva Carmenère 2010, Rapel Valley, Chile. 14% alc. Deep dark purple; ripe, fleshy and meaty, very intense and pure, fraught with graphite, lavender and leather over concentrated black currant, black raspberry and plum scents and flavors, touched with dried thyme and rosemary; an ink-iron-iodine-and-mint wine, dense and chewy but with high wild notes; sheathes the palate with finely-milled tannins. Give it a year – or a steak. Very Good+. About $12, a Terrific Value.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Apaltagua Envero Gran Reserva Carmenere 2010, Colchagua Valley, Chile. 14% alc. With 7% cabernet sauvignon. Vivid dark ruby-purple; cedar, tobacco, lead pencil, hints of black olive and bell pepper, intense and concentrated aromas (and flavors) of spicy cassis, black cherries and plums with a plangent note of blueberry; fills the mouth with dusty tannins, dusty slate and dusty oak; needs a year or two to unfurl. Excellent. About $14, a Great Bargain.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Marques de Casa Concha Carmenere 2009, Peuma, Chile. (Concha y Toro) 14% alc. Deep purple-violet; slightly roasted, slightly toasty, ripe but intense and concentrated; cedar, tobacco, thyme and black olive; black and blue fruit; plush, grainy tannins, earthy and minerally in the graphite-slate range but goes down easily; well-bred harmony and balance, though you feel the wood and forest floor qualities from mid-palate back through the finish. Drink now through 2015 to ’17. Excellent. About $20.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cabernet sauvignon
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
San Huberto Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, Castro Barros, La Rioja, Argentina. 13% alc. An intense and concentrated fistful of wheatmeal, walnut shell, cedar and tobacco, bitter chocolate and graphite, briers and brambles; lip-smacking tannins and acidity, very dry and austere. Will it ever soften? Good+. About $11.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Vina Siegal Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, Colchagua Valley, Chile. ??% alc. With 15% syrah. Deep ruby-cherry color; red and black cherries and currants, touch of strawberry jam; hints of vanilla, lavender and licorice, rose petals and leather; very pleasing texture, dense and chewy yet smooth with nicely tamed tannins; moderate finish with spice, pepper and brambles. Well-made for the price. Very Good. About $13, a Bargain.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cigar Box Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, Central Valley, Chile. 13.5% alc. As the name indicates, cigar box and lead pencil, cedar and tobacco, black currants and plums; walnut shell, brambles, earthy and mossy forest floor; succulent fruit lasts about a nanosecond; dry, austere, astringent finish, though give the wine a few minutes and it dredges up hints of blueberry and boysenberry, potpourri and orange rind in the bouquet. More zinfandel-like than cabernet. Good+. About $13.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Maquis Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, Colchagua Valley, Chile. 13.5% alc. & Maquis Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, Colchagua Valley, Chile. 14% alc. These are serious cabernets. The 2010: dark ruby color, almost opaque; very intense, very concentrated, iron and iodine, graphite and shale; profound core of dusty graphite, potpourri, lavender and bitter chocolate; immense but not daunting tannins. The 2009: deep ruby-purple; smoke and iron; bristles with briers and brambles and bitter chocolate; offers defining scents of cassis, lavender, licorice and lilac; deeply tannic but velvety. Try these from 2014 to 2018 or ’20. Each Very Good+ and about $20.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Red blend
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Maquis Lien 2008, Colchagua Valley, Chile. 13.5% alc. Carmenere and syrah each 25%, cabernet franc 20%, petit verdot and malbec each 15%. Inky-purple; real character, heft, tone and presence; supported by immense reserves of dusty, slate-laden tannins and burnished oak, vibrant acidity; dense and chewy, coats the mouth with tannins and graphite-like minerals; yet beguiling, seductive, delicious, manages to balance power with some measure of grace. best from 2013 or ’14 through 2017 to ’18. Excellent. About $20.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________