Ah, Bordeaux

Thank you faithful reader for your encouragement that I update my blog. So…

Back in my San Francisco days, I was more of a Bordeaux buyer and drinker than I am today. There are several reasons for the change.

One is simply that I don’t drink nearly as much cabernet- or merlot-based wine than I used to. If I do, it’s likely to be Loire cabernet franc, which I find to be the Burgundy of cabernet-based wines. Lighter in body, emphasizing its perfume and simply a better fit on the dinner table. My table, at least. And it’s more ageable than conventional wisdom suggests. Far more. Ignore those writers who tell absurdly you that Chinon and the others cannot age and improve with time.

Second, the Bordeaux selection here in Oregon is abysmal. Why is this? Portland’s wine selection is terrific in depth and breadth for bottlings from around the world. One very notable exception is Bordeaux, and what Bordeaux we do see is usually horribly priced. I know I could order from afar (i.e., Premier Cru), yet I don’t. See reason one above.

Third, with the 1995 vintage, Bordeaux pricing went absolutely crazy. Sure, older timers will say that 1982 changed everything. Those older still will point to the 1970 vintage, which led to such a run up in prices that a few (poor) years later the market crashed. People have predicted another Bordeaux crash ever since, without success. The latest run up indeed started with the well-hyped 1995s, then the 1996s, then the 1998s from the right bank (St. Emilion and Pomerol), then the 2000s, 2003s, and now 2005s. Will it ever end? Sure. But people have been predicting it for so long, no one should claim credit when things finally do change.

Finally, though I’m loathe to bring it up, there’s clearly been the dramatic change in grape growing and winemaking in Bordeaux wines in the past decade or two. Suffice it to say that, indeed, more wines from Bordeaux taste like California cousins than ever before. Whether that’s a good thing is debated endlessly. I prefer more traditional examples. Clearly the American press in general sees it differently. So I find myself simply bored by the whole topic of Bordeaux.

At least, until I try something like the 1994 Ch. Grand Mayne St. Emilion.

Back in the late 1990s, after prices started to rise, good but not great vintages like 1994 fell out of favor. So there were some terrific deals to be had. It didn’t hurt that I met my wife in that year, and spent a good part of that summer in France. I loaded up on ‘94s, but these were wines I knew I’d need to wait on. The press faulted the rainy harvest (after a nicely warm growing season) and its firm, tannic wines. To me, they tasted like classic young claret, provided you were patient.

More than a decade later, the ‘94s I’ve tried are still a bit tough. The ’94 Leoville Barton was still too firm for my taste at Christmas more than a year ago. But it’s early yet. Good Bordeaux can age for decades, so we’re still early on with things. And if this Grand Mayne is any indicator, good things are on the horizon.

The 1994 Grand Mayne has its own controversy. Robert Parker liked this producer in the late ‘80s but felt that the ’93 and ’94 were possibly flawed in the cellar, with repeated samples showing elements of “cork” taint that can come from bad barrels or even a mold-infected cellar. I tasted this wine young and found it promising, so I bought a few cheap on close-out after Parker readers must have passed it over. Back on Thanksgiving 2000, it tasted tight and hard, not bad, certainly not corked, just lackluster and in need of time. I didn’t open another until last week and, wow, what a difference.

Let’s be clear. This isn’t first growth quality. But after nearly 14 years, this wine shows a nicely maturing ruby color and that vague sweetness of bottle age in its perfume, like the way onions caramelize and sweeten with cooking. There are also nice red fruits in the aroma and herbs from the merlot, and that clean, rocky earthiness I love in Bordeaux. In the mouth, the texture has become more smooth, the tannins a bit softer though still clearly there, the flavors of oak, fruit, and earth coming together as a whole rather than parts. On its own, this wine would be too dry for many drinkers I know. But with food, I found this simply delicious. My wife too, and we easily finished the bottle over the evening.

The lesson here? Don’t always believe what you read, this blog included. You may hate 1994 Bordeaux, but I found advantage in the critics’ distaste for this vintage. Same, too, with reports that a producer’s entire harvest is suspect. That’s not the case here, unless I’ve been incredibly lucky. If so, I suppose I’ll just smile all the way to the cellar.

Bubbly de Savoie

To celebrate the fact that my 2006 red wine is nearing the bottle, I popped a bottle of NV Domaine Labbe Brut Vin de Savoie Methode Traditionnelle. That's French for delicious sparkling wine from the Savoie.

It has a fine frothy mousse with crisp, fresh aromas of yellow fruits and stones. The flavors are similar with a lemony tang, so lively and pure with tantalizing minerality. Yes, that word's thrown around way too much. But this wine shows that unmistakeable stony flavor that you simply don't find in many (any?) local wines. Dry but not austere, my less educated palate regarding vins des Savoie might guess this was good Loire sparkling wine. For something like $14, this is stealing.

2006 Pinot Noir Update

Just got back the ETS report on my single barrel of 2006 Pinot Noir and I'm very surprised and glad to see the chemistry. Here are the numbers:

Free sulfur dioxide -- 23 mg/L
Total sulfur dioxide -- 75 ml/L
Volatile acidity (acetic) -- 0.056 g/100mL
Titratable acidity -- 0.54 g/100mL
pH -- 3.54
Molecular SO2 -- 0.42 mg/L

I'm not a technical guy, but seeing these numbers really helps give perspective to what I've been experiencing, and thinking I've been experiencing, with this wine over the past year and a half. I wish I'd done a "juice panel" before fermentation to know the initial pH and TA. I'm not sure the measurements we did on this at the time were very accurate.

I thought the free SO2 might be really low. Instead, it's pretty close to where I want it for bottling in the next month. Total SO2 is a bit of a puzzle. I recently added 60ppm after the long malolactic fermentation finally concluded. I'm confident in my calculation, and the only other SO2 added to this wine was (I think) 40ppm at the crusher. Certainly no less, perhaps a bit more. So how do I only have 75 total SO2? Shouldn't total SO2 be the sum of all adds? I'll have to read up on that.

VA is both higher than I'd like, but lower than I feared. Actually, I have no idea about how much VA I should tolerate. I've just read Peynaud and he suggests keeping it below 55-60ppm. My wine shows some lifted notes that suggest a little VA. I want more purity in the wine. Maybe it's not VA. Maybe it's just the ripeness of the vintage. Seeing the VA at 56 ppm makes me think it could have been lower with a better ML. Yet, I'm relieved that it isn't higher. At this level, is it generally noticeable?

TA is about what I would expect, but given where I thought I started with pH and how the wine tastes, I would have thought my pH now was 3.7. The lower number simply helps me keep bugs out of the wine with less SO2. Meaning, molecular SO2 is very good, I think. I need to read up on this some more. Molecular SO2 represents the anti-bacterial properties of sulfur (anti-oxidation is the other main property). One table I found so far suggests I'm in great shape, but I'll read further before drawing conclusions.

Anybody have thoughts? Am I a slave to science? Or is this like putting a instant read thermometer in the bird you're roasting in the oven?

I'm hardly a technical guy

Wine That Tastes Better Than Its Price

I'm always looking for good, inexpensive wine that is really worth drinking. Sometimes unknown labels deliver pleasant surprises. But the easier bet for finding worthwhile bargains in my experience is in the cheaper labels of the better producers. It's not always true (ahem...Mouton Cadet), but the exceptions prove the rule.

But let's get one thing straight. I'm not advocating for those who hype those "just outside the AOC" wines. You know the ones you read about in wine shop newsletters. "This would be Chateauneuf but the owner didn't bother with the forms, so it's Cotes du Rhone in name only." These stories are sometimes true. But more often they seem as ridiculous as the idea that some generic Bourgogne is distinguished because it's "just a nine iron from [such and such] Grand Cru." A nine iron? Isn't the basement just an elevator ride away from the penthouse? That's a short ride but a big difference.

N0, I'm thinking of the bargain bottlings from producers that don't typcially mess around with bad wine. Evesham Wood in Oregon is a great example with its red wines. The basic Pinot Noir is always nice. Even the "Bruno" label they do for their local distributor for even less money is worthwhile. A. et P. de Villaine in Burgundy is similar. Their wines always seem interesting, no matter the price. They even make reference standard Aligote, and if anything is going to get its corners cut, it's Aligote.

With that in mind, I don't have much experience with Guy Bocard wines from Meursault. But I've heard they're good and figured they probably make good cheap wine. So I bought a bottle of Bocard's 2002 Bourgogne Blanc, and sure enough this was delicious and, while certainly not Meursault, really showed Cote d'Or character for very little money. This isn't a current release, so I had the added chance to see how good cheap wine might keep for a few years.

The wine started a bit stale, not oxidized as many people are finding their aged white Burgs. Rather, something less severe that just suggests the wine is getting a bit too old. Happily this element receeded with air time in favor of really nice baked apple and seashell aromas. In the mouth the wine was bright but flavory, with nice length and a mineral note that mixed well with the ripe yellow fruit flavors. I wouldn't keep this too much longer, but at 5 1/2 years this is terrific, distinct and inexpensive white Burgundy.

Who says you have to pay a lot for interesting wine? And no 9-irons required. Just don't refer to it as "baby Meursault."

Selbach-Oster Tasting

Yesterday I stopped by Liner & Elsen in NW Portland for a free tasting of Selbach-Oster rieslings. Johannes Selbach was scheduled to be there but apparently wasn't well and had to return to Germany. Local German wine guy Ewald Moseler -- the last name sort of gives away where he's from -- filled in and poured six wines.

The first few were fine enough but nothing special. Noteably, the 2006 Selbach-Oster Estate Kabinett and Spatlese Riesling both showed the gushing ripeness of the vintage. I prefer a bit less sweetness and lushness in these lower pradikat levels, but these aren't bad wines at all. I didn't note the other initial wine, but it was equally fine if a bit too sweet and fat.

A few people commented on how well the 2006 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese showed. Again, it's nice wine, but the ripeness of the vintage seems to overwhelm any other element in the wine at this point. I enjoyed it and would recommend it if sweet fruit is what you're looking for.

As a nice contract, the last two wines showed more acid structure. The 2005 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Himmelreich Riesling Auslese was hardly sweeter than the other wines. But it showed a spectacular aroma of red and yellow fruit and lots of slatey mineral notes. The taste was piercing, nicely sweet with zingy acid. I don't usually buy $34 wines, but this is one to buy if you're looking for something special. Wow.

Finally, the 2004 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese was a bit more tight, without the incredible aroma and more coiled in the mouth. This isn't tart wine, but coming after some fat examples of riesling, this seemed almost austere. Very good but I think you might hold this one for a while to see its best.

All in all, a couple very impressive wines and the rest, if made in Oregon, would be revelations. Maybe German rieslings, even sweeter than I prefer, are still so good and pure that really I'm just jaded.

Wine As Background Music

I love music, but the older I get, the more music seems to be in the background of my life. In my teen years, I largely spent weekend nights with friends in secondhand record shops -- usually Rhino in Westwood. We'd always go straight home to listen intently to our latest purchases. These days, music is mostly something I listen to alone, unless we have friends over. Only then we rarely listen to the music. It's usually just background noise.

Wine seems to be similar. With non-wine geek friends, wine becomes background music, something considered for ambiance. At the least, something that should be inoffensive. But I wish you could talk about the background music more without interrupting the evening. Especially if you want to be a bit critical.

For example, the other night our neighbors had us over and we drank the 2006 Gascon Malbec from Argentina, which seems to be the latest brand to saturate the local market. To my taste it was sweet, either from sugar or some other enhancements that give a sweet impression, and had a "liquid smoke" smell and taste that just repulsed me.

I countered with two wines, one a 2006 Casa Silva Carmenere Reserva that I'd opened the night before as an experiment. I never drink Chilean wine after tasting too many long ago and learning to hate the weedy, vegetal flavor that seemed pervasive in the category. Then I heard about Casa Silva on a GrapeRadio podcast that mentioned their syrah, with the suggestion that things have changed in Chile. Researching the producer on the internet, I found positive tasting notes on this Carmenere, which is available locally. I bought one and wouldn't you know it -- it has all the vegetal notes of the old days of Chile. But this wine, like so many others these days, has twice or three times the level of extraction and a most unoriginal mix of unripe and overripe qualities that defy taste imagination. This is simply bad merlot.

Of course, the wine geek pick didn't do much better. The 1998 Chateau la Roque Pic St. Loup Cupa Numismae from southern France smelled and tasted a bit old though the cork looked fine and storage hasn't been an issue. The last bottle was considerably richer and youthful, but this one was more gamey and lean with some bottle sweetness but some oxidation as well. Still, I'd rather drink this flawed example of a good wine, but I'm sure the non-geeks hated it. But who knows? We didn't discuss the wines, and I'm not sure how much we even heard them. But like the other two bottles, we had no problem consuming this one. The background music keeps playing.

Nice write up, and a tasting note update

First, thanks to Andy Perdue for his post yesterday about this little site. It turns out Andy's an Élevage reader and coincidentially the editor of WinePress Northwest magazine. He happened upon this site last year after I posted a critique of the publication's coverage of Oregon wine. Apparently, when you write about someone's magazine or winery or whatever on the internet, it seems they find you pretty quickly. Happily in this case I didn't get the usual weird phone call. Rather, some very kind words.

Meanwhile, last year I tried the 1999 Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Cabernet, a blend of cabernet franc and maybe cabernet sauvignon from France's Loire valley. Then it wasn't showing so great. But tonight it seemed much more alive and pleasing, possibly even something to age five more years. The color is dark purple, but already there's a nice bottle sweetness emerging in the wine. The effect amplifies the aroma, rounding out the texture and sweetening the flavors. It's something I prize in aged wine, and though this wine is still not mature, it's getting there I think. Yes, my wife found this a bit "green" though she later enjoyed it with dinner. If you don't think you like Loire red wines, I suppose you might not like this one. For the rest of us, this again shows how so-called "bad" vintages can produce interesting and delicious wines. Ageworthy ones, too.

Peter Liem Blog

Thanks to whomever wrote on Wine Therapy about Peter Liem's blog.

Long ago Peter lived here in Portland and worked in the wine business, most notably as a co-founder of the terrific but long shuttered Riesling Report.

Peter moved to New York and maybe elsewhere working for Wines & Spirits magazine and other wine related things. Now he's in Champagne researching a book and writing a terrific blog.

Naturally, Peter's writing a lot about Champagne. But don't miss his recent Loire valley trip with the Louis/Dressner clan, among other things.

I also love the photo of his nephew celebrating Chinese New Year. That alone is worth your time, but Peter's clear but expressive writing is unusually pleasing to read. And he seems to write regularly. We hate blogs that don't get updated regularly.

Um...never mind.

Cheap, Classic Zinfandel

Being a native Californian, I left my home state some years back with a few reservations. One of them was about leaving zinfandel behind.

Zinfandel isn’t from California, but it’s an archetype of California wine like no other. Sure, Napa has its cabernet and the Sonoma coast has its pinot noir. But California had zinfandel long before either of those grapes meant much.

Nothing seems to reflect the ripeness, the precociousness, the tradition-busting nature of California better in my opinion than zinfandel. Sometimes I wonder if all red wine in California, if you aren’t careful, ends up tasting like zinfandel.

Zinfandel was also my conduit to winemaking. I thought I’d be in California forever, making zinfandel in my garage and hoping to go pro some day. Zinfandel was my first winemaking love. Turns out I’m in Oregon and that zinfandel in the garage is actually pinot noir. It seems pinot noir has become the love of my winemaking life.

Still, I love a good zinfandel. The trouble is, aside from the relatively poor selection of California wine here in Oregon, too many zins bore me with overripeness, high alcohol, and too much new oak flavor. So I find that I don’t drink much zin any more.

Even my wife questions me if I bring up a bottle of zin. Are you sure, she asks. Is it going to taste like vodka? Isn’t there a nice Italian wine down there?

All that changed with a simple, inexpensive wine that in one glass brought me back to zinfandel glory. Yes, it’s the 2004 Sierra Vista Zinfandel from El Dorado County in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

The wine itself is medium ruby in color, with a fresh, classically zinfandel berry aroma mixed with a little tobacco and pepper. In the mouth, it’s silky with that classic berry flavor, bright acidity with very soft tannin and a clean finish. Hardly wine for the ages, this modest bottle reminded me of delicious zinfandel I’ve had over the years but for whatever reason don’t seem to find so much any more.

This wine probably costs around $10. So for cheap wine, this is really good deal. If you like classically bright and medium bodied zinfandel, this might even be a great deal. A “bigger” wine will “blow it away” in a tasting. But if you’re looking for something interesting for the dinner table, this one’s a rare California bargain.

Wine Dinner at Alba Osteria in Portland

I attended a nice offline dinner this past Friday night here in Portland at Alba Osteria. As you might expect, Alba prepares food in the style of the Piedmont, and I found the variety of dishes we sampled, sort of family style, to be delicious across the board. This restaurant’s reputation locally seems well deserved.

For starters, we tried the 2006 Ferrando La Torrazza Erbaluce di Caluso, a white from the northern Piedmont that paired nicely with a Dungeness crab dish. Lanolin, flowers, and pretty yellow fruit aromas with a round, soft and then bright texture, fresh and clean wine and a completely new experience for me. Never had an Erbaluce before.

Then on to a mix of reds. Overall I enjoyed most of the wines, even though they were mostly more modern in style than I typically prefer. Lately I’m finding myself more pleased by some “new worldy” old world wines, and tonight was a good example of that.

First, a huge throwback. The 1982 Dessilani Caramino Riserva Vino da Tavola, a humble nebbiolo that is as old school as old school gets. Funky merde aromas at first that ease into nicely sweet tar and flower scents. Then nicely bottle sweet in the mouth, silky and a bit tart on the finish but really nice, especially with the tajarin with beef.

Next, the 1999 Clerico Barolo Pajana, which is pretty modern smelling with an oaky sheen and a dark crimson color. But in the mouth this is all nebbiolo, finely tannic and rich but clearly varietal if primary, a common them this night. I’m sure this will be more distinctive in another decade, but it’s solid now.

Then the 1997 Seghesio Barolo La Villa, with a slightly ligher color more in line with what I expect from nebbiolo. The aroma was deep and rich, oaky yes, but so nice with tar and flowers. The crime here is youth, as the finely tannic texture and tight flavors show this wine still needs many years to show its best. One diner said this and the Clerico were just too oaky, and it's true they aren't old school by any means. But they seemed like interesting wines and certainly not ruined by their less than traditional upbringing.

The 2001 Cabutto Barolo Riserva del Fondatore Vigna Sarmassa is controversial at first. Is it corked? Or does it normally smell like tree bark and mothballs? Neither. These elements fade with airing to reveal a nicely spicy, cherry smelling nebbiolo with another finely tannic, tight and primary flavor profile. Nice, but needs time.

My contribution was an odd bottle of 1999 Varaldo Barbaresco Bricco Libero, again a more modern-styled wine despite the import sticker of Casa Bruno, a local group I tend to associate with more old school stuff. Some ethyl acetate notes at first, then cherry pie aromas with oaky “crust” mixed in. Flavors were again cherry pie with a fine tannin structure, but the finish was marred by alcohol. Hard to read, I want to say this needs more time, but the heat the end is worrisome.

Then something different, a 1994 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon. This was tremendous cabernet even if it still needs at least another decade. Strong cassis and nicely integrated oak aromas, without the wood sticking out, with cassis flavors that mix with a nicely earthy, woodsy note that I really liked. This isn’t mind blowing wine, and back in the day Quilceda Creek wasn’t the hot property it now is. But this is terrific wine and well worth holding for many more years if you have some.

Decanters got mixed up and I was tiring of red wines, but I think I tried the 2003 Giorgio Toscano IGT. If correct, this was inky, shoe polishy modern Tuscan wine with a rich, saturated flavor and lots of tannins. I wasn’t moved.

Finally, the 1996 Albert Mann Tokay Pinot Gris Vendanges Tardives from half bottle. Pale, very young looking color with a bright, slightly petrolly aroma that is otherwise bright and youthful. Bright, fresh flavors with light honey notes and terrific, mouthwatering acidity, a medium body and a lingering aftertaste. A heavier, richer sweet wine would blow this out of the water. But in this context, this was fabulous and that’s more than enough for me.

My 2006 Pinot Noir And A Tasting Note

There's no other way to put it. I've struggled with my 2006 Pinot Noir.

There was some hydrogen sulfide stink during primary fermentation back in October 2006, but it went away with some gentle stirring of the fermenting juice. Aeration helps gets rid of stinky smells. And stinky fermentations aren't usual.

Then last January I racked the wine after it had been in barrel a few months and became stinky again. But I think I made a mistake. I was relying on malolactic fermentation to happen naturally, and when I racked the wine I knew it hadn't finished ML. But I think I left too much of the lees behind, meaning I took away the key ingredient to natural ML fermentation, the fine lees sediment that you get after primary fermentation.

Without the lees, I probably should have innoculated for ML. But I didn't. Instead I waited for spring, and indeed the wine began to fizz as spring arrived and the temperature warmed up a bit. I thought ML was progressing normally, but the fizzing never subsided during the summer.

For whatever reason, I waited until September to see if there was malic acid left in the wine. Turns out there was still 1.4 g/L of malic, not a lot if we were just beginning ML but a huge amount nearly one year after harvest. We need to get ML done and get the wine sulfured to keep it fresh. So I innoculated with freeze dried ML culture and kept the wine relatively warm (mid 60sF) to promote the acid fermentation. Immediately the fizzing increased and I was happy.

But the fizzing didn't stop, and after Christmas I tested the wine again. No malic left. Hmmm, then why is it fizzing? A winemaker friend suggested that maybe the wine isn't dry, and that the ML bacteria might be working on the sugar. But it tastes dry and seemed to ferment dry (-1.5 or -2 on a hydrometer, meaning essentially dry). And if there was even a little sugar, wouldn't the ML bacteria start on that and only get to the malic acid once the sugar was gone? The important thing here is that, when malic acid bacteria feeds on sugar, the result is volatile acidity that can make the wine smell like nail polish remover.

Who knows what was happening, but with malic definitely gone, I hit the wine with 60ppm of sulfur dioxide and the fizzing stopped. So how does the wine taste?

Before the SO2 addition, I feared that the wine lacked freshness. Too much time in relatively warm cellar conditions can take a toll on even sturdy, young wine. SO2 can mitigate the aldehydes that give that stale, not so fresh flavor, and SO2 is one of the key things winemakers use to "clean up" a wine before bottling. Meaning, use sulfur to bind up the compounds in a wine that muddy the aromas and flavors, making the wine appear fresher to our senses.

Happily, my fairly large SO2 addition seems to have helped freshen the wine. But I look back on the evolution of this single barrel of Wahle vineyard pinot noir and think of all the things I'd do differently. Beginning with staying on top of ML much better and intervening sooner.

I'll send a sample out to the lab to see how my ph and free SO2 (sulfur that still is active in the wine, meaning the sulfur I've added that is still available to react with oxygen or other compounds that can threaten a wine). Then I'll add SO2 to make sure I have enough for bottling, then rack into a bottling tank and bottle this stuff. That's probably in April.

A barrel sample yesterday seemed a little funky at first, but I was pretty happy with it as it opened up. This is ripe, typcial 2006 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, not as delicate and lacy as I'd like, but full of stuffing and probably something that will please more people than my ideal wine. I just want to make sure it stays as fresh as possible, so that the ripe fruit flavors don't wade into cooked, raisiny areas. That's not great for something like zinfandel, but it's absolutely horrible for pinot noir.

Which leads me to a tasting note of the 2006 Bruno Pinot Noir Willamette Valley. This simply bottling is made by Evesham Wood for its local distributor, Casa Bruno. Hence the name. I found a couple bottles of this at Storyteller locally for $9. It's usually about $15 locally, and for either price it's a steal.

This isn't big, rich pinot noir. And good for that, especially considering this is a 2006, not a year known for delicate, fragrant wines. And this isn't rich wine made for aging or impressing your friends. Instead, it's indeed delicate and fragrant red fruited pinot noir, perhaps as classic a Willamette Valley Pinot Noir as I've ever tasted. Light, fresh, bright, with alluring fragrance and mouthwatering acidity, this wine simply begs you to drink and eat a bite, and drink and eat another bite, and so on.

If you find this one, do decant as there is a lot of fine sediment at the bottom of the bottle. But if you told me this was Evesham Wood's basic Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, I'd believe it and say it's good. In fact, maybe a bit better to my taste than recent WV bottlings, which seems richer and fatter than in the past.

This Bruno wine is simply delicious. If you like John Thomas' Acme nonvintage Pinot Noir, this will be right up your ally. And for $15, or $9 (!!!), it's a ridiculous bargain. It's good to live in Oregon.

2005 Mastroberardino Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio

Here's another of those bargains I found recently at a local grocery discounter. I recently tried a 1995 Taurasi from Mastroberardino and liked it quite a bit. That red wine from the aglianico grape demonstrated why some people think aglianico is the nebbiolo of southern Italy. Lots of earthy, truffly, and red fruit aromas and flavors. Nice ageing potential.

Then, amid a variety of close outs recently, I saw a stack of 2005 Mastroberardino Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio for super cheap. I've never tried this DOC white wine (there is also red wine of the same name), and generally like trying things I've never tried. Am I glad I did.

Yes, I can now say with authority that Christ's Tears of Mt. Vesuvius makes for delicious drinking, alone or with food.

Actually, this is made from 100% Coda di Volpe, and if I tasted it blind I might have guessed this was a nice Loire chenin blanc. This light yellow colored wine has a gorgeous perfume that opens up nicely after being open for a day. Honeydew melon, some lanolin that I associate with chenin, then lots of minerals. In the mouth, it's not super complex but fresh, rounded but still bright tasting with yellow fruit flavors and a savory quality that makes you salivate. And wonder what's for dinner.

This is simply delicious wine and a steal at its close out price. I wouldn't have a problem buying it at the regular price either. But don't buy too much. This isn't a wine to keep very long. I suspect its charm will fade with time. Save more tightly wound whites for the cellar.

Blending Trials

A local winemaker whom I know called me recently with a nice invitation. He was doing blending trials and wondered if I could help him out. I jumped at the chance.

Winemakers it seems will let almost anyone sort fruit at harvest time. But it takes a while before you get the chance to really taste through their wines and give input on blending decisions.

Blending trials are when you taste through every barrel that's ready for bottling, evaluate the qualities of each sample, and make decisions about what wines will go into which bottlings. They are also a physical and mental challenge.

Seriously.

They are the vinuous equivalent of three days of interviewing potential new hires. Add in a mouth that feels like you've eaten a dozen bowls of Capt'n Crunch and you might understand how you can feel at the end. Wine is the last thing you want with dinner, that's for sure.

So three of us took nearly two days to taste many dozens of barrel samples in small groups, sniffing and spitting, of course, again and again. Then we talked about the wines and rated them on a rough scale, and moved on to the next group. Again and again.

It was nerve-wracking to give completely off the cuff comments in this rapid fire tasting environment, especially when I went first, ticking off the wines, what I smelled and tasted, the texture, the balance, what flaws, and what rough quality level the sample seemed to be.

The winemaker of course always spoke last. But I was amazed at how well I felt I did, finding the obvious issues in a few samples and generally feeling like I knew what I was doing. Not that we didn't disagree on things. But I never felt lost, like I shouldn't be there. And I think that the other taster and I had some valuable things to contribute to the winemaker.

We spent the last day coming up with sample blends, which were interesting to blend in cylinders and taste through. One blend of 10 barrels tasted radically different from that same blend with one additional barrel. How could they be so different?

The winemaker mentioned how he finds blending non-linear, so that adding an acidic wine to a blend won't necessarily yield a more acid tasting wine. Or more tannic, or more fruity, or whatever you might want to "add" to a blend to improve it or otherwise affect it in a certain way.

In the end, we didn't make final blending decisions, though we did come up with some blends that might end up pretty close to the final bottlings. But what a tremendous experience for me, seeing how to conduct trials and prepare sample blends. Makes me want to make a bunch of my own wine and do this for myself.

2003 Brezza Nebbiolo d'Alba Santa Rosalia

I wrote previously about finding this wine on close out locally for $6. This wine normally sells from $15 to $18, so at such a bargain price I bought six bottles on the spot.

Sadly, the first bottle was oxidized. It just tasted flat and to my mind "papery." Not "wet cardboard," which people often refer to when a wine has TCA cork taint. More like the way brown paper bags smell. Whatever it is, not good.

Of course I thought the remaining five bottles were equally shot. But the next one I tried was a real surprise. At first the aroma seemed a little flat. Then the wine began to open up, with ripe fruit aromas and a real nebbiolo perfume. All the dried flowers, tar, and spice you want in good Piemontese wine.

In the mouth, the wine was finely tannic and brightly acidic as nebbiolo tends to be. The flavors were cherry and spice, with a bit of jammy ripeness from the warm 2003 vintage. If you don't like dry wine, don't try this. And if you think that saying a wine was better with food is damning with faint praise, don't try this.

But I liked it. And more importantly, my wife liked it too. So I'm going to buy a few more. At this price, I'll take another clunker to find good wine this cheap.

If you try it, remember. Food. Very nice.

Wine Bargains in Portland

Maybe I should say "bargains," because you always need to be suspicious of deals that look good to be true.

Sometimes they are, and sometimes they aren't, even in the same shop. Or should I say, Grocery Outlet, which lately has had the best deals on interesting wine locally than I've seen in a while.

We know that I can't resist a bargain, so occasionally I check out local Grocery Outlets to see if they have something worthwhile. And no, I'm not talking about 5 year old white zin for $1.99 a bottle that's now turning amber in color.

No, once in a while they have some single digit deals on double digit wines that are pretty decent And for the skeptic, no, these wines usually aren't cooked. Damaged goods do show up at close out prices almost anywhere, but so do perfectly good bottles that, for one reason or another, simply must be priced to go away. And in my experience, the better labels I've found at the Grocery Outlet don't seem any more likely to be compromised than deals you'll find elsewhere.

So a couple weeks ago I stopped in at the McMinnville Grocery Outlet on 99W and found some closed out Italian wines from Castello Panaretta, all $10 or less. In fact, they had the same 2004 Paneretta Chianti Classico I saw as cheap as $10 at Portland retailers in the past few months for just $8. This same wine is back to $18 on local shelves now, as a new importer has taken over the line. Looks like the old importer dumped what stock remained. This isn't uncommon, but I found it interesting that the importer switch came mid-vintage, instead of with a new vintage.

The Panaretta wines all tasted undamaged to me, though only the basic Chianti tastes like Italian wine, so I didn't buy the Terrine or Torre e Destra in any quantity. But if you like them, they're just $10 each. That's well below the usual $20-$30 prices.

Then a 2003 Brezza Nebbiolo d'Alba Santa Rosalia for $6 caught my eye. I enjoyed this authentic Piedmont wine last year for $15 locally, so I immediately bought six bottles. Of course, this one tastes a bit tired as if it were poorly stored somewhere along the line. Live and learn.

After my experience at the Mac Grocery Outlet, curiousity got the better of me and I visited other local Outlets to see if different ones had different things to choose from. And did they.

At one, I found the Panaretta and Brezza deals, but also things like '04 Pieropan Soave for $6, '05 Mastroberardino Lacryma d'Christi and Greco di Tufo for $8, a stray bottle of '01 Panaretta Chianti Classico for $9, and some other unexpected things for low prices.

Then came the mother lode. One Grocery Outlet locally had a few cases of the '04 Drouhin Chassagne Montrachet Laguiche for $17, which I wrote about previously. Had, of course. It's gone now, thank you very much. One stray bottle of '03 Jadot Chassagne Montrachet may still be there.

And this same location also has estate wines from HdV, the Hyde/de Villaine project from Carneros down in southern Napa Valley. There's an '03 Estate Chardonnay for $19, an '04 Estate Syrah for the same price, and an '05 En La Guerra Chardonnay, the second label, for $13. That's a far cry from the usual $50-$60 prices on the first two or the $30 tab for the last one.

Even if these wines aren't your style, you have to admit these are amazing discounts. And nothing besides the Brezza Nebbiolo seems damaged, though taste for yourself before buying in quantity. This isn't a fine wine merchant we're talking about, and who knows what goes on in the back (or front, for that matter) of this chain's locations.

And no, I'm going going to give out specific locations. Do some searching, or email me. These deals aren't meant to be advertised, and even if the old practice of the wines business regarding unmentioned close outs isn't going to last in the internet age, I'm sure I've already said too much to keep from getting angry emails from in the business types who don't like their secrets published.

Weirdest Wine Gadget Ever

[edited after encouragement on the home front]

...Such as many bottles of the best wine buy I've found in a long time. That's the 2004 Joseph Drouhin Chassagne Montrachet "Marquis de Laguiche" that's really 1er cru white Burgundy from the Morgeots vineyard (according to two authoritative sources that I'd report if I were more academic and less lazy).

This wine retails from $50 to $90. I found some for $16.99 at a local discounter who has this and a few other treasures for a song. More on that soon enough.

Tonight's bottle was my tester to see if this stuff is damaged. Um, no. This is a gorgeous green gold in color with a fragrance of apples, clay, and subtle spices. No assertive, agressive oak, no weird buttery notes. Just pure, luscious white Burg.

Of course, I first tasted this "warm" after the failed [snip] experience. But it was so good, and only better after 30 minutes in the fridge. Which, you know, does a marvelous job chilling wine. Oh, the texture and flavors here. Definitely high thread count stuff, almost lacy if you can use that term for something other than red Burgundy. Just a baby now, I plan to cellar a bunch for the next decade.

That's more than I can say for the [snip, sorry].

Storyteller Wine Company

I'm not one for end of year "best of" lists. But I know this. One of the best things to happen in the Portland, OR, wine world this past year was the opening of Storyteller Wine Company.

I first met Head Storyteller Michael Alberty in the summer of 2006 at a wine gathering at the Manning's house. Alberty was the mysterious Christopher Walken-looking guy with a bottle of 2001 Pegau Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Laurence in his hand.

I immediately liked him. He's funny with a deep but totally unpretentious wine intellect, a great palate, seriously good taste in wine, and he tells great stories. It turns out he's a really good wine merchant too.

Storyteller is two stores really. One is virtual except for the back office of the John's Landing shop itself. Most of the sales here are internet and phone driven, with email specials, a website, and special orders of just about anything available out there. I'm on the email list but I don't special order much. But if you're looking for local stuff, or great Rhones or whatever, Michael's a really good guy to know.

Then there's the shop itself, open officially only Friday evenings and Saturdays. And when Michael's around (look for the Suburu wagon). Or by appointment. The shop is in a former day spa, with a few separate rooms that are different but work well, especially with events.

The tastings here have been consistently good so far, sometimes exceptional. I won't drop names, but Michael's not afraid to open pretty much anything ('05 Tempier Bandol Cabassou, oops) if the mood strikes him.

And it's just not for me, a sort of friend. I pay full price here by the way. No special favors. And I've been in the shop repeatedly where a lady walking her dog or who knows who else has stopped in only to end up drinking grower Champagne or three vintages of Vieux Telegraphe or whatever the line up was. "Oh, that is good, yes. What is that again?"

This is just a plain and simple good wine shop, and definitely one of the best wine things to happen around here in the past year. I look forward to seeing where Storyteller goes in 2008. Alberty's suggesting that bigger things are on the horizon. I'm usually skeptical of anything like that, but knowing Michael, I'm guessing this store has only just gotten started.

Wine from the Nandi Hills in India

Ever had wine from the Nandhi Hills? After trying the 2005 Grover Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc Nandi Hills, I can say I have.

I had been meaning to try this wine for months, after seeing a number of Grover bottlings in the Portland area. I've even seen some tasting notes online but they largely scared me away. The only really positive thing I recall reading was about the white wine. So when I saw this bottling for about $6 in a local bargain bin, I couldn't resist entering the world of Indian wine. Never mind the label's boast of enology services from the internationally employed Michel Rolland. That doesn't suggest artisanal wine, but I can't be picky with wine from the tropics.

So how is the Grover Sauvignon Blanc? Pretty good, in fact better after a couple days open in the refridgerator. It's clearly a modern, clean wine, but with a piercing acidity that seemed disjointed at first, then turned more pleasing over a few nights. The wine smells more like chardonnay or pinot gris than sauvignon, but it has some varietal character with grass notes mixed into the tart citrus flavors.

I understand that the grapes are grown at 5000 ft outside of Bangalore, well south of the Tropic of Cancer. I imagine the altitude allows for cool nights. Wikipedia says there is eucaplytus in the area, but also coffee and what sounds like high humidity. Hmm. Who knows how they grow vinifera grapes in such conditions, but the results are pretty good.

This isn't earthmoving wine, but if you see it in the low teens or less, it's worth a try. If only to say you've had wine from the subcontinent.

Recycled Wine Reviews

Let's be clear about one thing. Matt Kramer is a terrific wine writer. We should only wish other writers (myself included) were half as good.

That said, no one's perfect.

Kramer might be best known these days for his long running column in the Wine Spectator magazine. That's not to discount his small catalog of well regarded wine books. He also writes a column that appears in our local newspaper, The Oregonian.

That weekly column usually has two or three terrific buys, mostly around $20 or less, each one picked for its value and distinction. For local producers, getting a review is good for selling at least a palate of wine (that's 56 twelve bottle cases). I highly recommend you check out his reviews if you don't already.

That said, after reading about a super cheap 2006 Spanish garnacha a few Sundays back, I search online for the column to remember the name of the co-op that produced the wine. Here's what I found:

This helps explain just why Castillo de Monséran Garnacha 2004 is so improbably good. The Cariñena district is recognized as a good spot for growing better-than-average grenache. And like so many other vineyard areas in Spain, these vines are old, which tends to lend character to the grapes.

This is terrific, bursting-with-fruit grenache (the label, by the way, is marketsavvy: It declares both grenache and garnacha). It's silky red wine that slides down the gullet without a catch and is mercifully free of any oakiness.

Hmm. That sounded familiar. But this was Kramer's column in the New York Sun from August 2006, about the 2004 version of the same wine I had read about recently.

Searching further, I found the review I had seen in the Oregonian:

This helps explain just why Castillo de Monseran Garnacha 2006 is so improbably good. The Carinena district is recognized as a good spot for growing better-than-average grenache. And like so many other vineyard areas in Spain, the vines are old, which tends to lend character to grapes.

This is pretty, bursting-with-fruit grenache plumped with the grapey/black cherry flavors that characterize this variety. It's a silky red wine that slides down without a catch and is mercifully free of any oakiness.

Now this is just a $7 large production wine from a Spanish cooperative. I'm sure the '04 wasn't much different than the '06.

But are we that short of writers that our newspapers just recycle content? I'd gladly write for the local rag if the regular guy is too busy to write something new. Don't people realize that, with the internet, you can't do this anymore without getting caught?

I do like how there are subtle differences between the "different" passages. I'm sure it's just editors doing their thing. But does "gullet" not resonate on the west coast? Can we not handle it? Does the local rag have something against accents in foreign words? There are many questions.

For what it's worth, I bought a bottle of this 2006 Castillo de Monseran Garnacha for $6.99 at a local market. And it's terrific. In a world where budget Spanish red wines have largely become candied, oaky, sweet, fruit punch wines, this wine actually has aroma. It tastes delicious, too. It's the best, cheapest red wine I've had in a while.

Too bad the Kramer review leaves such a bad taste. Better luck next time.

Wine Anxiety

Are you ever reluctant to buy a wine because of what the wine shop staff will think?

I know I am, and I’m not alone. In fact, I recently wanted to write about this situation, but initially decided not to when I thought maybe it was just me. You know, buck up, don’t worry about what people think.

But it’s not so simple. Just the other day, I was in a local wine shop talking to the proprietor and the subject came up. And the stories I heard made me think about the situation in a whole new way. The experience made me want to write about it again.

What originally brought all this on was a visit a few weeks back to another local wine shop that had two different wines from Loire producer Denis Jamain. Click here for a write up I did last year when Denis himself was here pouring at yet another local shop.

Jamain makes nice if light, delicate wines from a lesser known Reuilly appellation. Only instead of bottle prices ranging from $14 to $20, here were cases of the 2005 Jamain Reuilly Pinot Gris Rosé for $5 and the 2002 Jamain Reuilly Les Pierres Plates for just $7.

Usually such startling discounts suggest damaged goods. Here was “old” rosé from a grape you’re not “supposed” to make rosé from, and a five year old sauvignon blanc, albeit from a terrific vintage. But this wasn’t some lowbrow shop. They wouldn’t bring in wine that was damaged, right? Right, as it turned out in this case.

But I’ve worked in a fine wine shop that occasionally had wine for sale at bargain prices that wasn’t very good. It happens. And if you think that you can just ask the staff for an honest opinion, even at a “good” shop, what could I say when a customer asked me for my opinion. Usually I hemmed and hawed, unsure of how honest I could be and completely uncomfortable about the whole thing. One time I was completely honest and I got in some trouble. I didn’t work there long and the owners were probably fine with that.

Still, I asked a staff member who I know for his opinion on the Jamain wines, and though he was fairly positive, I could tell he was hesitant. He ended with the faint praise that the wines are priced “appropriately.” Hmm, what does that really mean? Is that code for “don’t buy it, it’s only here to satisfy our cheap ass customers who can’t tell Gallo from Maxim Grunhauser?”

I knew he couldn’t be completely honest with me. His boss was right there. And he didn’t want to rain on my parade if I was interested in the wines. These are delicate situations to be sure. But I know that it’s common for wine shops all over to have wines that are sold with at least some amount contempt. Were these such wines?

Which brings me back to the conversation the other day with the proprietor, who had joked about his wife asking him, “what, another gruner veltliner?” when he came out of a store a while back after having to buy a last minute pinot noir on the way to a dinner party. He’d gone in for one bottle but felt the need to buy something else to keep the staff from snickering.

Now why would this matter? Surely we’re above such adolescent behavior, right?

Wrong. The proprietor rolled into a few stories – and I have plenty of my own – of being in wine shops when a customer leaves with a bottle of, say, high priced California cabernet, only to have the wine geek staff, and even the shop owner, tear the customer to pieces for buying such awful wine. Let’s not get into the rumors you’ll hear about what supposed crap some famous winemaker adores, or how drunk he or she got toasted at one event or another.

The fact is, this happens a lot, maybe more than you think. And while we must rise above that fray, it can be tough in the moment to feel comfortable buying what you want to buy. Call it what you want, but that’s the honest truth we all go through in any purchasing situation.

I appreciated the proprietor’s take that it’s bullshit for wine shop staff, and especially an owner, to participate in the somewhat public hazing of a customer. Who knew who else was listening, or if they knew the person or, at the least, might take the opportunity to tell a stranger what the shop really thinks of him.

Why’s this important? Because it’s at the heart of the weird feelings people have about some wine shops. That snobby sense of not belonging or not measuring up, when we’re at most trying to satisfy an intellectual passion or at the least just trying to get some hooch to make the night a little more fun.

I’ll be honest. I’ve passed up some things that I just couldn’t, for whatever reason, bring myself to bring to the counter. And I’ve done as the proprietor and mixed in some coded wine in some weird attempt to display my alleged wine cred. I’ve quietly enjoyed compliments at some of my selections. And I imagine I’ve been the butt of some jokes about the “bargains” I like to purchase.

This time, of course, I bought one of each Jamain wine. The rosé wasn’t so hot. Not tired or oxidized, just a bit tart and more phenolic than I remember. Maybe we shouldn’t make rosé out of pinot gris after all (though secretly I want to try it myself…oops). Yet the blanc was delicious, more like a light, dry chenin than sauvignon with a waxy roundness that kept my interest over a few nights. This isn’t a wine to cellar much longer, but I bought another and will enjoy it in the coming months.

In the end, yes, we should be resolute with the confidence to buy what we want to buy. But it doesn’t always play out that way, and that’s what interests me in the whole affair. What do you think? Ever been ashamed to buy a wine? Maybe next time, we’ll be a little less reluctant to be who we are. And hopefully those who exchange our big bills for change will keep their oh-so-knowledgeable opinions to themselves. That includes you too, boss.