‘The’ Swiss Pinot Noir, 2006 Gantenbein
At the ‘Friends of Ernie’ tasting I had a chance to taste a wine that has been dubbed “Switzerland’s Romanee Conti”. I tasted 1969 La Tache once but never any Romanee-Conti so I can’t really say whether the comparison is accurate or not but I will say that I bet Romanee-Conti always has more tannic clout at 4 years of age and never lets its oak peek through the way this wine did. Nonetheless this was a very nice Pinot Noir with lots of varietal character and I have to admit that in a blind tasting I’d tend toward Burgundy, so the above comparison is perhaps more appropriate than I made it out to be. The Gantenbeins undoubtedly put their hearts into this wine because it can’t be a simple task to produce Pinot like this in Switzerland. The comparison is maybe more apt to describe the dedication to making the best possible wine that they have in common with Monsieur de Villaine than to describe similarities in the potential of their respective vineyard sites.
The wine had a light red/garnet color. The nose was complex with wood smoke, caramel, red cherry and hints of mushrooms and cured meat. The tannin is low plus as is the acidity. The finish is smoky and cherry notes show up in the right place at the right time. I wonder how this will age because the structure is pretty light and the oak rather apparent but the fruit never fails to shine through. A Swiss Pinot this good gets you to thinking, that is for sure, and it was easily a very memorable wine experience.
2007 La Sauvageonne Pica Broca Coteaux de Languedoc
%50 Syrah, %35 Grenache, %15 Carignan. Moderate ruby color. Beautiful typicity on the nose. Roasted herbs, iodine, red cherry, plum and nutmeg. Medium tannin and medium minus acidity. Nice length on the finish. This wine is the probably the best I’ve had from Languedoc for under $20. Other contenders would be the K series from L’Oustal Blanc and Tribouley’s Les Copines, both of which were riper and more extracted, but I think I could drink more of this one so it wins.
1999 Ghizzano Nambrot
Most Tuscan Merlot I’ve tasted has hailed from the Maremma or has been a component in a blend. This 100% Merlot comes from the Colline Pisane which is the westernmost zone in Chianti. Ghizzano’s 1999 Nambrot was not exactly the style of wine I seek out (ripe and oaky) but it was dressed to kill on Saturday and I couldn’t help but want to take it home with me.
Deep garnet color and a brick rim. Lots of lift to the spicy nose and it’s easy to tell that some of this spice is oak related but I don’t seem to mind; it is not vanilla, caramel or burnt toast but instead intriguing with cinnamon, clove, cigar and camphor. The oak is very well integrated and although the spiciness of the wine is stronger than the fruit, it is not overwhelming. The fruit comes through more on the palate and it is reminiscent of cherry and blackcurrant. The texture is almost velvety, coming from candid tannins that skip along the palate instead of sticking to it the way younger phenolics would. The tannin is medium and the acidity is low plus. The finish is not as smooth as I might expect from such a classy start but the fruit is strong enough to make the finish pleasant and lasting. Also it is $16 a bottle. The same wine went for $300 for 12 bottles ($25/btl) at a Christies auction last year and I found it on wine searcher for up to $107/btl. I wouldn’t drink this every day but I wouldn’t mind having it around because I think it would impress a good many drinkers and would be a great for a peppery rack of lamb.
Domaine Gris de Bauries
Great stuff from this winery and the winemakers are really nice people too.
2008 Les Estras Rose. A rose of Syrah by a saignee method in which the tanks are filled with grapes from the top as free run juice is bled from the bottom. Enticing nose of fennel, melon and strawberry. Soft and easy structure. Probably great with a million different lighter dishes.
2008 Cotes-du-Rhone “Les Chaix”. 100% Grenache. I think I liked this wine best because it was so spicy for a light Grenache. Anise, black pepper, garrigue and kirsch. Light and simple palate. Low tannin and medium minus acidity. To be drunk while those spicy flavors are still exuberant and the fruit lively. Again I can’t really imagine what this is going to clash with aside from obvious seafaring culprits but I might stick with lighter fare to highlight the spices. Something like grilled veggies, especially eggplant.
I wasn’t nuts about their other two, dunno why, they were both sound but I expected more from them given the way their ostensibly lesser siblings flaunted themselves. Maybe they suffered more from bottle sickness than the lighter wines.
2008 Cotes-du-Rhone Villages “Duo des Achaux”. 50% Grenache and 50% Syrah. Cherry and subtle herbs. A little more structure. Solid and tasty.
2008 Cotes-du-Rhone “Serre de la Dame” 100% Syrah. Muted nose. Red fruits, black pepper and hints of nori. The most savory flavors of the bunch. The tannins are medium minus and soft. The acidity also in the medium range. Big enough to stand up well to some heavier fare like lamb or beef stew.
Le Cousin Rouge, Vielles Vignes Grolleau, Vin de Table
Got this at Wine Bottega. Not sure what vintage (probably 2007 or 2008) as it is a Vin de Table. The grape is Grolleau. I’ve only had one before and it was good but this one was much more interesting. It is more commonly used for rose wine than for red wine and the other Grolleau I’ve tasted could be described as something in between. Apparently some very famous wine writers, the diametric duo Robert Parker and Jancis Robinson, have unabashedly bashed the hell out of this grape’s already humble name. I would never go so far as to say that wine should not be made from Grolleau but I’d need at least few more examples to convince me that I should plant some if I had a vineyard. If I already had some old vines I certainly wouldn’t rip them up but I might experiment with planting some other varieties when the old vines died. I am however very happy to find these oddities so far away from their homes and I’m all for agricultural diversity so overall this is one of the more satisfying bottles I’ve had lately.
This wine had an appearance that was unique in my experience. It had a very light purple color but yet was completely opaque at a centimeter past the rim (when tipping the glass). Most of the time young opaque wines are very dark purple or black. It was definitely unfiltered and you could move clouds with a light swirl. If you let the glass sit there would be a small amount of fine sediment at the bottom of the glass. At first it smelled like a salt marsh. Then I wondered if this was what a cranberry bog smelled like. Eventually things opened up and it had a quaint fusion of stewed kale, wet hay bale, cranberry, blackberry and rust. The flavor was rather grapey up front and it was very frank in reminding me that I was drinking fermented grape juice; much wine I’d want to drink again is not so forthcoming in this manner. The texture of the tannins was not unlike that of certain organic grape juices I’ve bought at the super market, I liked this aspect of it. The acidity level was medium and the tannin low. The finish was tart blackberries and a very funky quality that was very informative as to the living nature of the wine. As the wine got more air the finish became increasingly alive with what was surely the flavor of some tiny French organisms on holiday in my mouth. I think this might be great with stuffed grape leaves.
2007 Yannick Amirault Bourgeuil La Coudraye
In my experience this would be a lighter Bourgeuil. Leafy nose with blackberry and a touch of black walnut. High minus acid and medium dusty tannins. The juicy mid-palate and tart blackberry finish are refreshing and save the wine from being mean because it is a little green and lean. Because of its Cabernet family flavors, a modicum of balance and a high acidity it will likely not clash with any number of red meat dishes but I’m having a hard time thinking of something it would go great with. Maybe grilled salmon with some kind of sauce or garnish that uses capers.
To taste or to drink? That is the question.
There was a time when my wine buying strategy was Spain, Portugal and, if I felt like a splurge, France or Chianti. This strategy was developed shortly after I was able to walk into a store and peruse the aisles freely with the intention of legally procuring alcohol. Wine was often the item that offered the greatest variety of choices and I found that in my $8-12 price range Spain and Portugal offered the most interesting wines. I would spend a little more to get a Cotes-du-Rhone because the really cheap ones were usually too light and fruity and stuck to Ruffino Chianti when I wanted to splurge for pasta (lately I prefer almost any Chianti Rufina). In retrospect I probably should have been trying other southern French wines as well as Italian and Chilean wines with more regularity but I’d found a niche in Iberia and stuck with it for some time. In the case of many of these Iberians I liked their distinct characters but often found them tough and rustic so I developed the (short-lived mind you) idea that each wine had it’s proper way to be swallowed. I thought that I could figure out a way to swallow any wine so as to make it perfect. I also thought that letting a wine hang around in your mouth for any sustained period was a not a good idea because it would make any wine taste bad. By the time I’d had a glass or two I’d usually developed a sipping strategy particular to the individual wine. Some wines did well to let rest on the tip of the tongue for a second before swishing it swiftly down the hatch. Others needed to go down as fast as possible while some I let touch the sides of the tongue briefly. This was an extremely delicate yet decidedly inexact science and I have come to believe that maybe it just took a glass or two to convince me that the wine was fantastic by any means.
These days I give each and every wine fair and due process. It took a few tries to get used to letting a wine coat the whole oral cavity and I still believe that most wines do not stand up well to this type of analysis. The elements of a wine become obvious and it is here that many observations, upon which an objective position on a wine might be based, are made. The period of time after a wine has evacuated the mouth usually gives me a better idea about how much I like a wine or what it might pair with at the table. This contorted process of analysis is likely to cause anyone to become at least a little more picky about wine because in my experience only really good wine finishes well after it’s been swishing around in your mouth for more than a few seconds.
I think however that I’ve gone too far with this tasting process. I’ve caught myself swirling a glass of tap water, giving it a sniff, coating my mouth with it and slurping its meager vapors, all the while trying to consider chlorine and fluoride. Nuts, I know. The elaborate ritual with water doesn’t happen very often but it cause me to realize that beverage has become inextricable from task when it comes to that first sip. Most people have no problem remembering to enjoy their drink but I guess I sometimes do. Lately instead of trying to remember to analyze the taste of a wine I have been trying to remember those ill-informed days when I tried my best to make every sip pleasurable (not measurable) and let a swig take its natural gravitational course every once in awhile. One of my favorite things to do when I’ve got a great wine is to take the tiniest sip and place the liquid in the center of my tongue and just let it spread out. This is far and away from a good way to analyze a wine (though it might be a good way to judge it’s mineral content) but if it is a sufficiently concentrated wine it can show you a really interesting side of its personality. Plus it’s a way, if a bit harried, to take advantage of the forgetful drop that always seems to miss the last toss.
So, to taste or to drink? It should be easy to do both simultaneously. For most people it undoubtedly is. I always encourage people to take some time to learn how to taste a wine for its quantifiable elements but I also hope you won’t end up like me. You won’t and I’ll get better, no worries.
Life is What?
Ok, I’ll say it. Good. Or damned (or is it doon?) good when you spend a day tasting great wine and talking to friendly wine makers. Factor in a free book (Randall Grahm’s Been Doon So Long) and it becomes a sweetly memorable set of diurnal occurrences.
Started off at about noon at the Eric Solomon and Jon-David Headrick annual portfolio tasting. Tons of great wine there. Then at about 2 o’clock the “Friends of Ernie” tasting, where all of the winemakers were present for my querulous indulgences. Less wine here but they were more consistently interesting; plus the atmosphere was divine compared to the last tasting where spittoons replenished themselves at a demoralizing pace.
Last but certainly not least, after several hours respite, from 10 to midnight a tasting of Randall Grahm’s fabulous current releases. Albarino, Muscat, Cigare Blanc, Syrah, Cigare Volant and dessert wine. I wish I had taken notes but then I’m not sure how much Mr. Grahm would appreciate my dissection of his wines. I liked them all and I wouldn’t have scored them anyways so I still wish I’d taken some notes. One way to describe them would be to say that they were all true to their respective varietal compositions and they all showed characteristics of having been grown in a climate with no lack of clement weather. Another way: they were all delicious, distinct and well suited to their own set of food pairings.
Randall read from his book (awesome, hilarious, priceless) and then we were all asked if we’d like to put our business cards into a drawing for an autographed copy of his book. I forget how many books were given away, 3 or 5, but I got one. Hooray! It’s the most original wine book I own. Much of the book is taken up by his parodic fiction, which is brilliant and delightful but best taken in occasional doses. I could not however get enough of his expository works. His comments about the wine trade and press are astute and refreshing. The ideas about terroir he presents might be alienating to some but I found them (if not always credible and conclusive) compelling and endearing. Of particular interest to me was an idea about growing grapevines from seed. Virtually every grapevine worldwide comes from cuttings of another vine. One reason this is necessary is because of phylloxera but in a place free of phylloxera (such as Chile) it would be a fascinating project to develop new grape varieties that will have adapted themselves to their homes the way so many green things have done for aeons. His book is for all sorts of wine lovers and although it is not the first wine book you should own it wouldn’t be a bad second.
First off if you plan to try to introduce a red wine to a white wine drinker I might first ask them what white wines they prefer. This is a red I might choose for someone who drinks dry un-oaked whites. There are many reasons I think this would be a good red wine introduction for a white wine drinker. First off it is red, a rose made from red grapes could come across alot like a white wine and I don’t want to confuse folks. Negroamaro translates to ‘black and bitter’, at this point you’re thinking ‘swift move’ I know, but this is a wine I recommend all the time to people who like something lighter and fruitier and they always come back raving. I’ve never had a Negroamaro with such pure fruit flavors; usually they are a bit unbalanced, rustic and somewhat reflective of their name. This one is fruit focused with blueberry and a variety of other dark fruits allied to a spiciness reminiscent of sprigs of rosemary. The tannin and acidity are both low and the finish is fruity. The acidity may be a little low for it to be the most versatile red wine but it will be flexible and I think it would be great with pasta and sausages or a puttanesca sauce. Also reds with higher acidity levels can have very low tannin levels but those tannins never seem to be as soft as those in low acid reds from warm climates. I think that the nature of the tannin is as important to consider as the level of tannin in choosing the right red for a white drinker.
Wine Education
I have enjoyed reading a great many of the posts at Ampelography and a recent post on wine education spurred me to comment for the first time on a wine blog that does not belong to a friend of mine. It also made me think about a bunch of stuff that wouldn’t fit in a comment. The following post is part response and part its own esoteric discourse.
I agree that there could be more wine education in the world. It could benefit the many people out there selling wine and also the great deal more who drink it and want to know more about it. I also agree that there could be more wine educators especially those who have no connection to a sales-force. I do not think that educators associated with sales and marketing cannot do a good job but I do think that separation of these two things is for the better. I don’t agree that testing is unproductive. Preparing for tests is a great motivator and getting things wrong on tests can teach us more than getting things right.
It seems that blind tasting is alternately revered or maligned. I put stock in the blind tasting I’ve done and look forward to doing alot more because I’m confident it has been a great teacher. Trying to blind taste alone as an amateur or in a group of novices is likely to get you nowhere fast but in a classroom setting or with a group of trusted colleagues it can be a great tool. Blind tasting is not a trick but a honed skill. It is as far as I know the best way to hone your skills of analysis for wine tasting. If you taste a Chablis or Savennieres knowing what it is you will automatically assume it has relatively high acidity because that is the normal state of these wines. Blind tasting these wines will allow you to make a judgment that is untainted by considerations of such norms. It is entirely possible to accurately analyze a wine even when you know what it is but it is more difficult without some background of blind tasting behind you. One must remember when blind tasting to be sober, take your time and clear your head of any considerations that are not relevant to the sensible qualities of the wine in front of you. I believe that blind tasting is something any wine professional should get used to because it is one of the best educational tools at their disposal. If a reputable organization seeks to include only those who show honed tasting skills then blind tasting is the best way for them to judge this.
One of the problems with blind tasting is that it is intimidating. You can have blind tasted successfully many times but if you are in the wrong state of mind at the time of a new foray into obscurity you will find yourself completely lost. I have been all over the map at any point in my blind tasting career. When I have blundered I have always tried to maintain that same sense of calm that is necessary to blind taste in the first place because I know that I can look back on the mistake an learn something. Embarrassing appraisals can teach you not only about the skill of appraisal but also about yourself. One thing that I can’t remember hearing often in school is that the right answer teaches less than the wrong answer. If you know why you’re wrong you move forward as new questions and answers spring to mind. Knowing you’re right is informed stasis. Why does it feel so much better to be right? Blind tasting has afforded me many opportunities to be wrong and I’ve always tried to remember that a sense of accomplishment is not undue as long as I’ve kept my mind open to change.
Memorization is so important but not just for its own sake. Memorizing facts regardless of their relevance and spewing them is trivia. Keeping a great deal of significant facts stored away for the day you have to construct a coherent argument out of them is a pinnacle of scholarly achievement. One of the ways to make sure that all those facts that don’t come up in everyday conversation (unless you happen to hang out with a bunch of folks who are studying for their MS or MW) stay in your head is to forget about the noxiousness of triviality and make those flash cards. Memorization can be an important part of blind tasting as well. You should keep track of as many varietal identities, climatic characteristics and regional styles as possible if you want to be any good at it.
I don’t know what to say about certifications. Sometimes I’m embarrassed to say I’m a certified sommelier because I’ve never worked in a restaurant. I do however usually qualify ‘sommelier’ with ‘certified’ because I’m thinking of this. I am however never embarrassed to talk about the education I received at the Boston University wine school. Blind tasting is an integral part of the curriculum there and the program might not be for everyone, because it is intense, but I cannot recommend it highly enough to those who want to learn everything they can about wine.
Bacchism 