Wine Review Wednesday

SIMI Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, Alexander Valley

This shows a surprisingly high-toned nose, with super-ripe and roasted green bell peppers, a passing whiff of wild mint and licorice, and lots of currants. Its youth is apparent on the palate, where it’s still tightly wound and not showing all that it ultimately will. For now, there’s coffee grounds, as well as a creaminess that carries within it intimations of tiny wild strawberries, raspberries, brambly fruit, and wild herbs, with a hint of fennel on the finish. There’s lots of potential here; let it evolve for another 2 or 3 years, and then enjoy it for 4 - 6 after that, when it should really come into its own. The acid and tannins will allow it to age well. Subtle, with great structure.

Quivira Vineyards and Winery Zinfandel 2008, Dry Creek Valley

The nose here explodes with a deep, ripe bowlful of summertime berries: Blackberries, black raspberries, and wonderfully evocative strawberries. There’s some peppercorn spice too, but this wine’s story centers on its density of fruit. All that fruit, in fact, follows through to the palate, where it manifests itself with a sweetness, as well as a hint of cherries reduced with a splash of balsamic, that’s addictive. Lush mouthfeel, with subtly dusty tannins that serve as excellent and successful foils to the glycerin-like slipperiness. This is a wine that manages to be both fun and serious at the same time. Drink now, with barbecue or a burger.

Ehlers Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2009, St. Helena, Napa Valley

There’s an earthy, almost mushroom-referencing note to the nose here: Unusual, unexpected, and intriguing. With air, this refines itself into fruit in the clementine family, and there’s an almost fresh-herb-and-spun-sugar perfume to it that makes the aroma a lovely analog for summertime, no matter when you’re drinking this. The palate is much more acidic and tightly wound than the nose implies: This is a sauvignon blanc for the cellar. Flavors of slate, lemon, and something lanolin-like linger on the finish, and promise a wine of both serious potential and intense food-pairability. Loire-like in profile; tasted blind, I’d think Sancerre more than Napa. Excellent. 4 - 6 years.

Waterstone Merlot 2007, Napa Valley

Lots of juicy plum and berry aromas jump from the glass here, an almost light-bodied, relatively high-toned mixed-berry composition kicked up with shiso, if such a thing exists. The palate is still tight and not showing much fruit right now beyond a subtle hint of cherry, though in time more cherry, tea, colorado-wrapper cigar, as well as more tarragon and shiso flavors, should express themselves nicely. Restrained style, and a nod in the direction of Napa’s potential for subtler reds. 3 - 7 years.

Cupcake Vineyards Riesling 2009, Columbia Valley

The nose here is defined by its soft peach and orange blossom notes, a summery combination that implies sweetness but doesn’t force the issue. On the palate, those peaches are joined by tart apples, a touch of grapefruit and minerals, and a hint of the kind of petrol note that defines accurate Rieslings all over the place. Pleasant, straightforward, and a nice accompaniment to spicy dishes. Drink now.

Clos du Bois Pinot Noir 2008, North Coast

There’s nice lift to the spicy cherry and kirsch of this wine’s nose, an expressiveness that people who haven’t tasted Clos du Bois lately might not expect. Those cherries follow through to the palate, where they’re joined by mushrooms and a smoky mesquite finish that adds depth and a nice grounding to the fruit. Drinking well right now.

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Wine Review Wednesday: Thanksgiving Edition

Thanksgiving dinner is one of the more difficult meals to pair a single wine with. From the hors d’oeuvres that you nibble as the rest of the family slowly makes its way to the house, to the roasted turkey (which itself wouldn’t be too much of a headache, blank canvas as it is), to the more troublesome sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and stuffing, tomorrow night’s meal is enough to challenge even the most wine-versed among us.

Which is why you shouldn’t worry about sticking with one wine. Keep your options open, mix and match throughout the meal, and see what works best. Personally, I always have a bottle of bubbly on the table, as well as crisp whites (both dry and a bit sweeter), an aromatically bright red (try Pinot Noir or Beaujolais-Villages), and something for dessert. Below are three wines I’ve tasted in the past week that would work beautifully.

Gini Soave Classico 2009

There’s a distinctively crisp, clean, mineral-driven nose here, with flecks of dried apricot and spice at the edges; it’s a fantastic counter to anyone who says that Soave can’t have a sense of purpose and real complexity. On the palate, it shows zippy peppercorn flavors wrapped around ripe lemon and orange, preserved lemon peel, and something approaching acacia. For all this linearity, however, this is a Soave that should not be drunk too cold: You want to experience it in 360 degrees, and this one has more than enough character to shine at cellar temperature.

Rocca Sveva Soave Classico 2008

This is a totally different expression of Soave: Waxy and nutty, with lots of cream and perfumed flowers. It reminds me, in a lot of ways, of a white Rhone, especially considering the density of the aromas. The nuts and cream continue through to the palate, where they take on a slippery, almost glycerine texture that gives this wine remarkable weight and presence. The minerality and lemon notes are still here, as are loads of apple and a hint of something near persimmon. Totally different, completely unexpected, and thoroughly delicious.

Inniskillin Vidal Icewine 2007

It’s clear that this is a very special wine from the moment you pour it into the glass: The rich gold tone is the first thing you notice, but then the aroma lifts out of the bowl and intrigues with its scents of dried pineapple, caramelized apple, candied orange peel, and the slightest flutter of flowers. These fan out on the palate and are complicated by flavors of super-fresh pineapple, grilled white peach, mulling spices, and spun sugar. It’s a rich wine, like the best sweet ones are, but never heavy or plodding: There’s a strain of acidity keeping it bright and maintaining a sense of linearity from attack through finish, which itself lingers on with more tropical fruit, flowers, and mouthwatering brightness. Wonderful intensity and balance, and never too sweet: What a great way to end Thanksgiving dinner.

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Wine Review Wednesday (on Thursday): Five Recommended Wines from Around the World

After missing a week of Wine Review Wednesday--I spend last week playing catch-up from having been away the previous 10 days in Argentina; I’ll be posting those tasting notes over the course of the next weeks and months--we’re back today with five recommended wines from all over the world. These represent some of the more notable bottles I’ve tasted recently, are are listed in no particular order.

Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, Rutherford, Napa Valley

From the excellent 2007 vintage comes this stellar red by Sequoia Grove. It starts out with a distinct note of smoke on the nose, with back-up roles played by rich, ripe blackberry, plum, coffee grounds, asphalt, and mesquite. The youth of this wine becomes apparent on the palate, which right now is still tightly wound, though the ripe currants are appealing right off the bat. With some air, it really becomes clear what the future holds: Smoky tea, morels, cigars, black cherries, chocolate, and cedar--so much promise. This wine’s spine of acidity, careful balance, and dusty tannins imply 10 - 12+ years of evolution for this masculine, terroir-driven, beautifully crafted Cabernet.

Chateau Tanunda Grand Barossa Riesling 2009

With it alluring aromas of sweet, taut green apple and melon, as well as a flutter of sun-warmed granite in the background, this wine smells both richly expressive and structured. The impressions is borne out on the palate with almost vibrating acidity and more of that great green apple, and balanced out by flowers and something hinting at honey. This is serious Riesling, yet so easy to drink. I’d love to taste how well this has evolved in 5 - 10 years: It has the stuffing to go that long, though it’s drinking brilliantly right now. Yet another great wine from this historic Australian estate.

Bernhard Huber Spatburgunder Alte Reben 2007, Baden, Germany

This old-vine German Pinot Noir starts off with sexy scents of smoky cherries, sous bois, red-apple skin, and the higher-toned perfume of pine and violets. There’s incredible detail to the nose here, and its tarragon and cherries nod in the direction of Echezeaux. The palate starts off a touch stemmy, but this is going to resolve itself with some age. And anyway, it really lends a lovely brightness to the wine’s deeply concentrated cherry and raspberry fruit. This is a stunner, leaning toward Burgundy on the nose, New Zealand on the palate, and utterly unique (and thoroughly wonderful) in its entirety.

De Loach Pinot Noir 2008, Central Coast “Cool Coastal Vineyards”

Almost transparent in color, which is nice considering all the opaque, inky California Pinot Noirs you see these days. It sends a message right from the start that this wine is simply about expressing the fruit as it was grown in this specific part of the state. The nose shows really pretty, subtly juicy wild strawberry and red cherry notes, as well as raspberry preserves and tarragon hovering in the background. The flavors of this wine are remarkably consistent, though a touch sappier and riper than the nose implies. It’s a more feminine style, with a pretty, lingering sweetness to the cherry fruit. Well made. Drink now.

De Loach Pinot Noir 2008, Sonoma Coast “Cool Coastal Vineyards”

When compared to its Central Coast cousin, this Pinot is deeper, richer, and darker in color, as expected from the Sonoma Coast. The nose, too, is darker and shows more roasted aromas, including smoke, mushroom, charcoal, and dark cherries. The palate, too, is much more masculine, and while it lacks some of the delicacy of the other bottling, it’s winning by virtue of its muscle and smoky persistence. The flavors are almost meaty here, with a touch of Chinese five spice, mushrooms, and licorice. Very nice on its own, and a fascinating comparison when tasted alongside the Central Coast bottling.

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Weekend Reading: News and Articles

Brunello di Montalcino, unquestionably one of the great wines of the world, has seen its fair share of controversy, drama, and, of course, seriously great wines in the past year or so. Now, Brunello is in the news again, with the election of Ezio Rivella to be president of the Brunello consortium, the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino. And while this may seem like a footnote to most consumers, it’s causing plenty of drama among the most passionate Brunello fans.

I’ll be posting responses to Rivella’s election in the coming days and weeks, but as wine consumers, it’s a news story that, though it seems to be based in bureaucratic minutia, is likely to cause some serious discussion and debate. Details to follow as they become available. Just keep your antennae up for details and reactions as they filter in, and feel free to post links in the comments box as you find them.

Then, make sure to click over to Eric Asimov’s excellent column in this week’s New York Times Food Section, on California syrah. For lovers of big, brooding Australian shiraz, the more elegant, detailed style of California syrah that Asimov discusses here may be a bit unfamiliar, which is unfortunate, because they have the potential to be fantastic. But, as he quotes one of California’s great proponents of the Rhone Valley varietals as saying, syrah “'appears to have crashed and burned in this country,' said Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyards, who 20 years ago was one of the early proponents of planting California with grapes from the Rhone Valley, like syrah, grenache and mourvedre. Or, as Ehren Jordan, proprietor of Failla Vineyards, put it: 'There has been a collective running into a brick wall by people who make syrah.'”

There’s hope, it seems, but California syrah has a way to go until it captures the significant market share it so richly deserves.

Finally, a follow-up to my post the other day on 2009 German riesling: Make sure to take a look at Bruce Sanderson’s column on the 2009s from St.-Urbans-Hof, which is often responsible for some of the top rieslings in Germany, year after year. He reports that, like so many others have pointed out, the 2009s are generally excellent wines, and certainly worth picking up.

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Wine Review Wednesday: Fantastic 2009 Riesling

Riesling, among far too many consumers, is either misunderstood or exists completely below the radar. Which is unfortunate, because for my money, there are few wines in the world that offer the complexity, ageability, and unmitigated drinking joy that riesling does.

Most people, of course, assume that riesling is pretty much monolithically sweet, German, and cheap. (None of which, of course, accounts for the great variety, and astoundingly high quality, of riesling that’s available.) As a result, even many of the most ardent white-wine lovers are missing out on one of the great pleasures of the wine world for no other reason than their first and last experience with riesling was likely with one of the mass-produced, teeth-rottingly sweet versions with quasi-unreadable Gothic script on the label and a flavor profile that consisted of sugar, a disconcerting mustiness, and little else.

But those wines--and we all know the names--bear as much resemblance to good riesling as, say, a straw-covered flask of Chianti does to the great wines of Barone Ricasoli. And in a year like 2009, when the conditions throughout much of Germany were more than favorable for an excellent riesling harvest, the wines are superb, offering complexity, depth, and a sense of sweetness that finds a sublimely balanced counterpart in the acidity that’s such a hallmark of the wines.

I recently had a chance to taste the 2009 rieslings from Heinz Eifel, a family firm that, while it may not share the same name-recognition as, say, Joh. Jos. Prum, is nonetheless producing some truly delicious wines. The wines are labeled simply by region and ripeness level; there are no vineyard-designated bottlings. This has not hurt the quality one iota: In fact, the blend of fruit and the careful, fresh winemaking style has resulted in bottles that are utterly charming right now, and really don’t require any aging to enjoy. My tasting notes are below.

Heinz Eifel Riesling “Shine” 2009, Pfalz

Very fresh peach, seckel pear, and orange blossom aromas jump from the glass and are backed up by the slightest hint of minerality and slate. There’s also a note of spun sugar in there, almost reminiscent of cotton candy in character. The palate shows a surprisingly tongue-coating texture on the attack, but that’s balanced out and cut quickly by a well-balanced and zippy sense of acidity. Fresh flavors of green apple, nectarine, and a hint of Meyer lemon dominate the palate, and lead to a finish that comes in a wave of acid and apple notes.

Heinz Eifel Riesling Kabinett 2009, Mosel

There are spun sugar and sugar-grilled peaches on the nose, as well as orange blossom, honey suckle, and the unexpected anchoring notes of mushroom. On the palate, there is enough acidity to keep it fresh, but the richness of the fruit, and its ripeness, come through very clearly, as do toffee and honey notes and a touch of flint. The lime-inflected finish is quite floral, and, though a bit on the short side, supremely fresh and enjoyable.

Heinz Eifel Riesling Spatlese 2009, Mosel

This is what I love about good spatlese: There is a real sense of bright, sunny freshness here despite the sweetness. The nose is beautiful and charmingly suggestive of springtime, with aromas of candied lemon peel, ripe Asian pears, and dried, slightly sweetened ginger. The palate hints at marzipan, hazelnuts, and toffee, as well as fruit notes that include sweet lemon, pineapple, ripe white peach, and red and green apple.

Heinz Eifel Riesling Auslese 2009, Mosel

The nose here is similar in profile to the spatlese, but, of course, richer: It’s like the smell after biting into a dripping peach on a warm late-summer day. There's also brown sugar, hazelnuts, marzipan, the crisp top of a creme brulee, and pears. Despite all this ripeness, it retains its freshness perfectly. The flavors of this wine cover a lot of ground, much of it fairly exotic: Solid minerality, yes, but also grilled pineapple, orange-peel candies, sultanas, clementines, and lemongrass, as well as preserved lemon and a French apple tart. The finish is generally of a piece with the mid-palate, but there’s a note of orange-pith bitterness that adds to its depth immeasurably. Utterly wonderful.

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News Round-Up

This was a busy week in the world of wine, so rather than focus on just one topic or story in particular, I thought it would be useful to offer up a handful of links that are worth taking a look at over the weekend...preferably, as always, with a nice glass of wine in hand.

In Wednesday’s New York Times Food Section, Eric Asimov extolled the beauty--and gulpability--of the 2008 Riesling Kabinetts from Germany’s Mosel. The link is here. Read about them, then pick up a bottle, find a porch somewhere, and revel in the summer-like temperatures.

A few days earlier, the Wall Street Journal ran a brief piece on serving temp, something that, as the writer points out, is especially important this time of year. It’s a solid refresher on how to make the most of your wine. The article is linked up right here.

Finally, if you’re in the mood for something a bit denser, take a look at Mike Steinberger’s column in Slate this past week. I don’t know that I agree with his argument or not--and I wouldn’t say so either way here!--but it’s a fascinating read. Sip a Burgundy and a Bordeaux while working your way through it and deciding where you stand.

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New Week, New Relationships: Wine Q & A With Ask.com

Today marks the beginning of a new relationship we’re building here with Ask.com, the top Q & A search engine in the world. Moving forward, the good folks on the Ask.com team will be sending me over their top wine-related questions every two weeks, and I’ll not only post their answers, but often elaborate on them myself. The benefits of this are potentially significant: By teaming up, we’ll be harnessing Ask.com’s ability to divine what specific issues are on the minds of millions of wine lovers, and using our expertise to provide answers that will go into as much depth as possible.

In the beginning, I’ll post specifically chosen questions and answers every other Monday or Tuesday--in the form of written blogs, of course, but occasional videos, too, where they’ll help. I’ll also choose which of the top questions to elaborate on based on what’s happening in the non-wine world. Today, for example, though the team has sent me over the top 10 wine questions inquired about wine on Ask.com, I’ll be focusing on #6--what wine goes best with chicken?--because of the time of year: Passover started last night and Easter is next Sunday, and with the amount of food consumed at meals marking both of these holidays, it seems appropriate to focus on this food-and-wine pairing question before moving on.

So...

What kind of wine does go with chicken? This is one of the great mysteries of the wine world, one that I’m personally asked about at least five times a week. Ask.com’s answer is a great place to start: “A chardonnay or pinot blanc are traditional, but we’re of the belief that you should drink what you like!”

The first thing we should address is the last part of that answer, because it is the key to wine happiness: Drink what you like. The big mistake that most people make is obsessing over their food-and-wine pairings so much that all the joy is taken out of it. So, please--we beg you: Drink what you like, eat what you like, and we promise the world will be a happier place for you when you’re done. This is about pleasure, after all, not pressure. The old line is important to remember: If you like the wine, then it’s a good wine. Don’t let scores or so-called pairing rules get in the way of your enjoyment.

That having been said, though, you can take things a bit further in the pairing department. Because as all wine lovers know, a great food-and-wine pairing can make both taste a million times better than they otherwise would have on their own.

Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc are good wines to start with: They’re produced in a wide enough range of styles to cover most of your chicken needs. But they are not your only options. One of the reasons that chicken perplexes so many people when it comes to pairing, after all, is that the meat itself tends to play a background role to its seasoning, accompanying sauce, and cooking method. In that regard, chicken is a bit of a chameleon (wrap your mind around that one!), which makes pairing wines with it both exciting and--let’s be honest here--nerve-wracking.

But it doesn’t have to be. Here are a few simple tricks to get you started on the road to becoming a Master Chicken Pairer (which is a completely made-up title, by the way).

Ask yourself how the chicken is cooked. Roasting a chicken will tend to bring out both its richer and its sweeter flavors, which would seem to reward a great Chardonnay, like an '07 Meursault. Grilling it, on the other hand, with all the smoke and charring, requires a wine with a bit more acid--say, a Northern Italian Pinot Bianco. Then there’s the best pairing of all: Fried chicken and Champagne. I know it sounds strange, but this is honestly one of the greatest combinations you can ever experience: The nuttiness of the fried crust is echoed by the nuttiness of the bubbly, the oil and fat from the frying is cut by the high acid of the Champagne, and any grease left on your tongue is scrubbed right off by the bubbles. Trust us: This pairing is a life-changer!

Consider the sauce. Chicken stir-fry with a lot of soy sauce calls for Champagne again, or even Prosecco or Cava, whereas tomato sauce-based chicken cacciatore or chicken parmesan are perfect with Italian reds like Dolcetto and Barbera. In all three of these cases, the chicken, really, isn’t the focal-point; the sauce is. Pair accordingly.

How is it seasoned? Because most chicken doesn’t have a whole lot of aggressive flavor on its own, the way it’s seasoned often defines the characteristics you have to work with in terms of wine pairing. The gorgeous perfume and gentle spice-heat of a chicken pad thai, for example, mean that Riesling or Guwurztraminer are in order. On the other hand, the more delicate lemon notes of, say, chicken piccata, sing alongside a crisp Pinot Grigio.

Of course, your best bet isn’t to obsess over the single perfect pairing. Why limit yourself? Come up with a handful of pairing possibilities, pop the corks on two or three bottles that you think might work well, and see which ones you like most. This is, after all, supposed to be fun. And for me, at least, nothing says fun like multiple open bottles of wine on the table, sharing them with friends, family...and, in this case, a great chicken dish.

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What's in a Label?

Just a bit of food for thought (or, rather, drink) as we head into the weekend. Earlier this week, Wine Enthusiast Magazine posted a column on its web site by Joe Czerwinski about the importance of a wine's label. The title of the piece ("How Much Does the Label Matter?") deals with an ever-more relevant question that consumers are faced with.

As all of us become more marketing savvy, and as we all have learned to tune our proverbial antennae to the smallest details of branding, product placement, and brand identity, wine producers and marketers have stepped up their efforts to make their products as appealing as possible. There is nothing wrong with this.

I couldn't agree more with Mr. Czerwinski, however, when he notes that, "What’s in the glass is what counts, and that’s something wine writers have espoused for decades, if not centuries. If a wine tastes good to you, it shouldn’t matter...what the label looks like." But that's a difficult trick to pull off, especially as a consumer faced with shelves of often unfamiliar bottlings.

Just something to think about the next time you start to shy away from a bottle of, say, Riesling Spatlese Wehlener Sonnenuhr, or Pernand-Vergelesses 'Les Vergelesses' simply because the names and labels are a bit complicated.

Branch out, take a chance, and don't be afraid to ask questions when you're buying wine. You'll exponentially increase your chances of finding your next favorite bottle if you're willing to break out of your comfort zone and try something whose name may be a bit intimidating or whose label may not be as 'charming' as you'd like.

In the end, it's the juice that counts above all else.

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Introducing Wine Review Wednesday (On A Thursday!)

As promised last week in my post about the wine regions of Germany, I’ve included a review of a very pleasant Riesling that I recently tasted. Today, in fact, marks a new addition here at UncorkLife.com: Wine Review Wednesday. (NB: This post was meant to go up yesterday, but technical difficulties with my home computer prevented that from happening.)

I receive lots of wines for review, and make it a point to taste everything that arrives at my door. And, as I’ve done from the beginning here, I try to post notes on the wines I particularly enjoy. But up until now, I’ve posted them at irregular intervals, when the timing seemed most appropriate.

Now, however, I’ll be sharing a new tasting note here every Wednesday. Of course, I’ll continue to post my reviews of specific bottlings on other days too, as well as news, commentaries, updates on important issues in the world of wine, videos, and more. But Wine Review Wednesday will be something you can count on week after week.

That having been said, here is my note on a particularly enjoyable Riesling I recently tasted, the Weingut Baron Knyphausen Riesling Kabinett Rheingau 2008 Baron K’:

Intriguing peach, apricot, and spice mark the nose, as well as a touch of stoniness. The stone fruit and spice notes follow through to the palate, both of them lifted by well-balanced, lively acidity. All of it is carried on a lithe, light-bodied frame that, texturally, seems perfectly matched to the sense of minerality brought by this appealingly transparent wine. The finish--subtle, quiet, true to what preceded it--whispers of spice before fading to a very pleasant memory. This wine delivers just what you’d hope, and is a pleasure to drink.

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Countering Riesling Confusion

Readers of this blog know how much I love Riesling: From its food-friendliness to its longevity to its spectacular ability to transmit the nature of the land in which it’s been grown, there are few white wines in the world that stir up quite so much emotion in me when I pop the cork or unscrew the cap from a bottle.

Sadly, however (and as we all know), Riesling suffers from a lot of bad information, and the unfortunate tendency of consumers who haven’t been exposed to the good stuff is to assume that all of it is a sensory relative of Blue Nun--sweet, syrupy, and devoid of character.

The truth, though, is exactly the opposite, and I’ve been heartened to see more and more wine lists with excellent selections of Riesling, and an uptick in the number of consumers who express a genuine interest in the grape.

Fortunately, Riesling producers, importers, marketers, and other representatives of the wines have not only seen the problems with all the misinformation out there, but they have begun to take steps to rectify them.

This morning, for example, Decanter.com reported that “[more] than 12 million bottles of Riesling sold in the United States this year will feature a 'Riesling Taste Profile,' designed to help consumers assess the taste of a bottle before opening it.”

The system (which I wrote about right here last year) was developed by the International Riesling Foundation, and will alert consumers of a particular wine’s sweetness. The categories are Dry, Medium Dry, Medium Sweet, and Sweet, and the goal is to disavow consumers of the incorrect notion that all Riesling is monolithically sweet, and to allow them to make more well-informed purchases.

Beyond sweetness, the issue of deciphering German Riesling labels is also a hurdle that lovers of the grape occasionally struggle to overcome. Once they do (and once consumers learn the basics of German Riesling-label layout, and discover that they are among the most informative and useful in the world), the inevitable question is this: What’s the difference between one region or village or vineyard and another?

Late last year, I received an excellent guide to German Riesling-producing regions from Valckenberg, the oldest family-owned wine merchant in Germany. (Their portfolio includes some of the most remarkable wines in Germany, including one of my personal favorites, Joh. Jos. Prum; I’ll be posting tasting notes for a number of Valckenberg's wines in the coming weeks.) The guide is below; click on it to make it larger, or, even better, just download it and read it as a full-page image. And make sure to take a look at it in its entirety: It’s a fascinating read, and a perfect primer for some of the most expressive, utterly delicious wines in the world.

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A Sense of Discovery...and A Dram of Scottish Wine?

Too often, wine lovers get bogged down in the whole obsessive business of chasing ‘great’ wine. And while this effort--which I’m sure all of us have (or currently are) engaged in--typically leads to the uncorking of some remarkable bottles, it also has the unfortunate side-effect of obscuring a whole other class of wines from our respectful view if we're not careful.

When I first got into wine professionally, I found myself slipping into this trap, and it began to feel like some sort of (with apologies to Kant and standard English usage) myopic vinological imperative to amass as deep a well of experience with the greats as possible. Now, there’s nothing wrong with this in and of itself. In fact, wine professionals should be able to understand and comment on certain specific touchstone bottlings with a broad, well-considered sense of context...but not at the expense of everything else.

Eventually, I learned that the wine world is about much, much more than just a handful of famous names and iconic labels. It is, rather, about a sense of discovery, and a desire to understand and make connections between all the moving parts of that world, no matter how famous or unheralded one particular corner of it might be in relation to another.

This was driven home most clearly to me when I began getting together with a group of local wine professionals here in Philadelphia for occasional BYOB-style dinners and at which the game, as it were, is not to bring the most famous bottle we can find, but, rather, the most interesting. This has led to some revelatory glasses of wine that we wouldn’t have had otherwise: Dry Furmint from Hungary; sparkling and bone-dry Shiraz from Australia; a sweet wine from one of the smallest appellations in Italy, the tiny Loazzolo DOC tucked away in the Piedmont region; and more.

So why talk about this today? Because this morning I read the news that Scotland is just about set to release its first commercially produced wine, a Riesling. And while no one really expects it to be great, or even, for that matter, terribly good--even the producer, Chef Peter Gottgens of the Ardeonaig Hotel on Loch Tay in Perthshire, says, according to the article in the Scottish Daily Record, “‘I don’t for one minute think we are going to rival any of the great wine-producing areas of the world. But we are going to learn and have a great experience from it’”--that doesn’t matter all that much. The importance is in the effort.

I cannot think of a better attitude, and a more propitious place to start, than that: At the intersection of exploration and passion, where so many of us began our journey in wine.

No matter what you drink, whether it’s First Growth Bordeaux, Grand Cru Burgundy, or Scottish Riesling, the sense of wonder at the wine world’s breathtaking diversity, and a desire to explore every nook and cranny of the map, is the bedrock, it seems to me, of a lifetime of wine enjoyment. The great vintages of the best producers can be magical, and anyone who tells you that they don’t get excited whenever they are lucky enough to taste one is either lying or in the unfortunate possession of malfunctioning taste buds. But there’s more to a satisfying wine life than just those bottlings. Balance and context, in wine as in life, is the key to happiness.

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2009 Riesling, and The Origins of French Wine

As a bit of a follow-up to the Mosel Riesling tasting video from last week, a brief report on the 2009 harvest. Decenter.com is reporting that “Germany's 2009 vintage will be as fine as the excellent 2007 – but with less wine, vintners say.”

The piece continued, “Ideal weather in the summer and early autumn means quality will be very high but yields will be down because of uneven flowering in June…Helmut Dönnhoff of the Dönnhoff estate in the Nahe region said 2009 would be ‘another great vintage, on par with 2007,’ potential alcohol between 12.5% and 13.5%.”

This is good news for the ever-growing number of German Riesling fans, as it marks yet another in an already exceptional string of good years. (Take a look at the vintage chart on Robert Parker’s web site: Germany’s major wine regions, according to his assessment, have not had less-than-stellar vintages since 2000.) This just seems to reinforce the fact that German Riesling provides one of the most reliable, affordable, and food-friendly wine experiences available today.

Moving further West in Europe and on a more academic note, British newspaper The Telegraph is reporting that, contrary to popular belief, it was likely the Greeks who brought winemaking to France, and not the Romans or Etruscans.

The article notes, “The original makers of Côtes-du-Rhône are said to have descended from Greek explorers who settled in southern France about 2500 years ago, [the report] claimed.”

It continued: “The study, by Prof Paul Cartledge, suggested the world's biggest wine industry might never have developed had it not been for a ‘band of pioneering Greek explorers’ who settled in southern France around 600 BC.”

And while this may not have any real impact on your experience of whatever wine you pour into your glass tonight with dinner, it is yet another reminder of our ancient ties to the beverage. Really, every time you take a sip, you’re re-enacting a ritual that has gone on for thousands of years. No matter how you look at it, that’s an amazing thing.

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2008 Mosel Riesling Tasting

Mosel Rieslings from the excellent 2008 vintage offer classic character and generally abundant pleasure, even this early in their evolutions. And lucky for fans of these wines, 2008 represents yet another vintage in an extraordinarily good string of them going back to 2001.

Word is spreading that what 2008 offers in such abundance is the deeply rooted sense of place that the best Mosel Rieslings typically show so beautifully. Wine Spectator reported, “The 2008 harvest in Germany looks like a trimmer, leaner version of 2007, or perhaps more along the lines of 2004, a vintage with plenty of sleek, vibrant wines, but not as many lush, opulent ones. The grapes ripened nicely this year, but only reached spätlese level or slightly above. Winemakers made very few dessert wines, a consequence of the low incidence of botrytis or dehydration late in the season needed to concentrate the sugar levels in the grapes. Thus, there should be good quantities of estate Rieslings, kabinette and spätlesen.”

The report continued, “‘2008 is the year for great kabinett and spätlese wines made from fully ripe [not overripe] grapes with expressive aromatics and ripe yet crisp acidity,’ said Johannes Selbach, whose family owns the Selbach-Oster estate in the Mosel. ‘The '08s are wholesome, with beautifully delineated flavors, and they are compact, not over the top. For me personally it is a classic Mosel vintage.’”

I recently tasted two excellent 2008 Mosel Riesling Kabinette, the Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Piesporter Goldtropfchen and the C. von Schubert Maximin Grunhauser Herrenberg. Both of them were inseparably tied to their region of origin, but expressed it in very different ways. Take a look at the tasting video below for my notes.

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A Riesling Primer

The Napa Valley Register recently ran a fascinating piece on Riesling, the still-unnecessarily-maligned (or, at the very least, widely misunderstood) grape variety that far too many people think produces only sweet, syrupy wine. (This, of course, could not be further from the truth, but still too many people insist…)

The article provides a solid debunking of these persistent Riesling myths, in addition to introducing a new scale that some producers are using in order indicate clearly, once and for all, just how sweet the wine inside the bottle is going to be. (There’s an image of the scale below.)


And if you want more information on this great grape, you might want to poke around the International Riesling Foundation’s web site, from which I copied the chart above. There are some excellent resources on it about the grape itself, its characteristics, and more. It’s probably best to visit the site with a glass of Riesling nearby. Personally, I like the J.J. Prüm Riesling Spätlese Wehlener Sonnenuhr 2007, but any nice one will do.

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A Stunning Austrian Riesling

It’s not often that I have a wine that flat-out stuns me. Most of the wines I taste are very good, and many of them are great, but relatively few make me step back, take a second or third sip, and stand there in awe of the juice in the glass.

The Hirsch Riesling 2007 from the Heiligenstein vineyard, in Austria’s Kamptal DAC, did just that: It made me stand up a bit straighter, shake my head a few times, and go back for a re-assessment of what I had just experienced. It was just that great.

In The Ultimate Austrian Wine Guide 2008/2009, Peter Moser notes that Hirsch’s “Riesling from the desert sandstone in the heart of the Heiligenstein vineyard…excel[s] with exceptional fruit and mineral character.” I experienced that, too, as well as a gorgeous petrol perfume that was accompanied by smoky notes swirling around aromas of summertime stone fruit. On the palate, concentrated, clean, perfectly defined flavors of apricot, peach, nectarine, and what can only be called ‘mineral sweetness’ led to a lingering, stony finish.

I’m often asked what wines I would include in my hypothetical desert-island case, and I always try to avoid providing specific names and vintages. Too much, after all, depends on what I’ve enjoyed lately. But this one is a no-brainer: If I could drink the Hirsch 2007 Riesling Heiligenstein for the rest of my days, I’d be a happy man indeed.

Earlier this month in Austria, during Wine Summit 2009, I had the chance to speak with Johannes Hirsch during a fantastic tasting that focused on “The Diversity of Danube Terroirs,” held at the breathtaking Stift Gottweig in Kremstal. Take a look at the video below to hear what he has to say about his wines.

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A Top Austrian Riesling

One of the most extraordinary wines I tasted in Austria—in a trip filled with extraordinary wines—was the Hirtzberger Riesling Singerriedel 2008. The fruit is grown on a steep vineyard in the Wachau town of Spitz, and shows all the characteristics that you would hope to find in great Riesling.

The nose is amazingly complex, with notes of peach, nectarine, tangerine, mineral, mandarin orange peel, honey, and orange blossom. All of this leads to a palate of honey-drizzled oranges that evolve to summer peach, more minerality, and a hint of exotic spice. There’s a gorgeously subtle sense of perfume on the mid-palate that stays on through a finish that lasts for minutes. It’s still young, to be sure—this is a wine that promises 20+ years of evolution—but so perfectly balanced right now, showing such exquisitely calibrated acid, fruit, and mineral, that it is absolutely impossible to resist. My recommendation is to buy several bottles and follow them over the years.

We experienced the Hirtzberger last Saturday morning at a tasting and lecture on "Great Single Vineyards of Wachau" at Domäne Wachau in Dürnstein (more on their wonderful wines in a future blog post), and afterward had the chance to take a short bus ride to Spitz, where we were met by Franz Hirtzberger himself (that's him on the right), who led us on a tour of the Singerriedel vineyard.

Take a look at the video below—it really shows how steep the vineyard is. And though it doesn’t quite convey the thinness of the topsoil and the rockiness of the land itself, it definitely provides a sense of place for the Hirtzberger Singerriedel 2008, one of the best Rieslings I’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting.

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The Wines of Austria

I’m back in Philadelphia from the Austrian Wine Marketing Board’s Austrian Wine Summit 2009, and am, to be honest, going to have a very difficult time containing my enthusiasm for the wine, food, and hospitality I experienced there. I’ve hinted at it before, but I’m going to say it plainly: Austria is one of the single most exciting places in the world right now for wine.

From wines you’ve heard of (Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Zweigelt) to ones that are perhaps less familiar (Zierfandler, Muskateller), Austria is simply exploding with fabulous grapes, world-class vineyards, and a range of styles, from white and red to sweet and sparkling, that rivals anywhere on the planet.

Between last Thursday and this past Sunday, I took dozens and dozens of tasting notes and shot several hours of video, so it’s going to take some time to work my way through it all. In the coming days and weeks, however, keep checking back for more from my trip to Austria.

For now, however, I’ll leave you with this video. It was shot immediately following our lecture and tasting last Friday at the Schloss Hof in Weinviertel on the wines of Niederösterreich, or Lower Austria. The Schloss Hof is considered one of the most exquisite Baroque buildings in the world, and at one point was even owned by Empress Maria Theresia. Learning about and tasting the wines of the region in a historically significant and absolutely magnificent palace like this was easily one of the most amazing experiences of my wine life.

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Spectacular Austrian Riesling: Part 2

I talk about it all the time in my classes at the Wine School here in Philadelphia, but it bears repeating right here, too: Riesling is one of the most food-friendly wines around, yet too many people still don’t think of it enough when the time comes to select a wine to bring to the table.

Riesling’s magnificent usefulness with food was driven home yet again at the Wine Media Guild’s Austrian Riesling lunch at New York’s Felidia this past Wednesday. The often bracing acidity, the wonderful minerality, the lively citrus character: Everything about the wines screamed out for the kind of deeply flavorful, springtime-bright dishes that were served that afternoon.

Now, the dishes we enjoy at these monthly lunches are not paired with any specific bottlings. Rather, they are conceived in such a way that they will work well with the overall wine theme of the day. Beyond that, it’s up to those of us in attendance to mix and match and discover which wines pair best with which dishes, which is a heck of an education.

This is a fantastic way to explore pairing theory in general, and to really get to know the specific wines from the tasting even better. The Knoll Riesling Federspiel 2007 (above left), for example, was excellent on its own, all minerality and bright citric acidity. But when sipped alongside the house-smoked salmon pastrami with red watercress and chive sauce, its pepperiness came right to the fore, though this was tempered by the spring-like freshness that the greens brought out in the wine. The Riesling's acid, too, was subdued a bit by the oil in the fish, making it impossible to stop eating the salmon or drinking the wine. Dangerously delicious, indeed.

I also loved the spring quinoa “risotto” with spring vegetables and spinach puree (right) with the Hirtzberger Riesling Smaragd Hochrain 2006. Sipped without food, the wine showed beautiful peach and apricot character and a bass-note of something almost woody and mushroomy. With the quinoa, a sense of earthiness came to define the combination, and cast both the wine and the food in a completely different and unexpected light.

That’s one of the main virtues of tasting like this, and of experimenting with combinations that you might not have had or even thought of before: Discoveries abound, and excitement becomes the defining characteristic of the meal.

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Spectacular Austrian Riesling

I just returned home from the Wine Media Guild of New York's monthly tasting and lunch, this one featuring the Rieslings of Austria. Now, I've written a lot in the past few months about the utter deliciousness of Austria's reds--well-made Zweigelt, Blaufränkisch, and St. Laurent are absolutely irresistible--but the Rieslings are certainly deserving of just as much attention.

Austrian ones differ from their German counterparts in a number of ways, but the major one is the overall dryness of the wines (there are exceptions, of course, but in general, the majority of Austrian Rieslings you're likely to taste will be dry). At the tasting and lunch this afternoon, held, as always, at Felidia restaurant, we were treated to 16 bottlings, all of them dry, all of them eye-opening and beautifully crafted.

I'll be posting pairing highlights and more tasting notes over the next couple of days. For now, however, here are the notes for two of my favorites:

The Prager Riesling Federspiel Steinriegl's nose was all subtle white-blossomed flowers with a background flutter of mushrooms and something quietly smoky. Ample lime-like acidity led the way to a finish that reminded me of nothing so much as hazelnuts. Just fantastic. The Prager Riesling Smaragd Wachstum Bodenstein, on the other hand, was a textural tour de force of amazing length and concentration that still managed to maintain a sense of litheness. It was, indeed, a truly complete wine: Fruit, earth, mineral--everything was present and in perfect harmony.

And the best part is that the wines were even more stunning with food. But more on the pairings later...

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