Sottimano Barbaresco - 2001 Vintage

The argument over which is the best Piemontese vintage in the string of exceptional harvests spanning 1996 to 2001 will probably go on forever. Which vintage you favor depends on your palate and the style of winemaking you prefer. As each of these vintages receives top scores from both winemakers and critics you can rest assured that when you purchase a bottle of Barolo or Barbaresco from a top producer from any of these years that you have obtained an excellent bottle of wine. Nebbiolo lovers are living in an golden age when good bottles are everywhere.

Up to now, out of this group I have had a personal preference for the 1996 vintage, but the more I taste the finished 2001 Barbaresco vintage, which is now ready for release, the more I am convinced that this vintage may even surpass the impressive 96s. Whatever the case, it is sure fun trying to decide.

Raccolta Selection:
2001 Sottimano Fausoni Barbaresco
all 4 Sottimano 2001 Barbaresco releases
(Fausoni, Curra, Cotta and Pajore)
Estimated retail price $65 - April 2004 release

Nebbiolo purists argue that using barriques for Barbaresco and Barolo is to destroy a grand tradition, but the Sottimano family in Barbaresco is proving that barrels themselves are not the enemy: it's what winemakers do with them. In a small village just outside of Neive in the Barbaresco zone is the tiny Sottimano cellar where Rino and Andrea Sottimano, father and son enologists, quietly produce some of the Barbaresco zone's finest wines.

Tasting their wines is proof positive that barriques can be used to produce nebbiolo while still maintaining every nuance that a vineyard can give a wine. Inspired by both the distinct characteristics of their four (soon to be five with the addition of Basarin) nebbiolo vineyards and the diverse "terroir" wines produced by Burgundy's finest winemakers, the Sottimano family does everything possible in the vineyard and cellar to bring out the character that nature gives their vineyards, the wines from which are each bottled under their own names. The results of their efforts speak for themselves in four superb Barbaresco wines that are excellent vintage after vintage.

The Sottimano family, as are the other Barbaresco producers, is now preparing to release their 2001 vintage. As excellent as the 2000 vintage wines are, the 2001 vintage looks to be an almost perfect vintage combining all the aspects required to make great Barolo and Barbaresco producing wines with every facet in harmony and balance and with fruit ripeness alone not being the major definition of personality. The 2001 vintage is for enthusiasts who love the both the power and idiosyncrasies of nebbiolo. In other words, if you prefer the austere pleasures of nebbiolo to the jam of shiraz, 2001 is a vintage not to miss and it challenges 1996 as the most classic vintage of this string of excellent vintages. As Andrea Sottimano noted during my recent visit there, "You have to love the purity of nebbiolo to love the 1996 and 2001 vintages."

The four 2001 Barbaresco releases from Sottimano are superb across-the-board, with each offering unique characteristics that are fascinating to compare as the wines are made in exactly the same way with their differences coming from the vineyards alone. Their wines spend their first year (the exact number of months depends on the vintage) in new, small French oak barrels then is racked into older small barrels for the last year of wood aging. This first passage in new oak helps "set" the beautiful colors and structure of the Sottimano wines, but as they are then moved into used barrels the oak flavors are a highlight and not the main theme. In fact, when tasting the 1996 Curra with Andrea it was hard to believe the wine had spent any time in barrique as no overt oak flavors marred the beautifully developing nebbiolo fruit. "I want people to think about the vineyards, not the barrels I used," explained Andrea. Four of the Sottimano Barbaresco vineyards fall within the Neive commune (Fausoni, Curra, Cotta, Basarin) while Pajore, one of the zones most respected vineyards, is located in the Treiso commune.

It is difficult to choose which Sottimano wine to drink as part of the pleasure is comparing the characteristics and development of the individual vineyards, but everyone has their favorites and for their current releases I will give a slight personal nod to the floral and spiced refinement of the Pajore in the ripe 2000 vintage and the smoky, deep black fruit intensity of the Cotta in the more structured 2001 vintage.

However, as my Raccolta Selection I am going to highlight the graceful and refined 2001 Fausoni not as the "best" Sottimano, as that choice is a personal pleasure, but because of the special characteristics of this vineyard. The need to age Barolo and Barbaresco is always a problem for restaurants and those without wine cellars and the natural characteristics of the Fausoni vineyard combined with intelligent vineyard techniques and winemaking used by the Sottimano family, produce a nebbiolo that can be drunk with pleasure in six or seven years - as always, when it comes to Barolo and Barbaresco the term "forward" is relative. The 2001 Fausoni Barbaresco is a rich ruby with garnet hints and is radiantly translucent. It is a graceful wine with a tannic punch at this early stage, but is already showing the classic "balsamic" character of vineyards in the heart of the Neive commune. Andrea Sottimano recommends at least 5 or 6 years of aging, but certainly more patience will be rewarded.

While it is one thing to make good wines in great vintages it is another to make good wines in difficult years and the excellent potential of the problematic 2002 and 2003 vintages still resting in barrel in the Sottimano cellar are a tribute to the winemaking skills of Rino and Andrea.

"What is most important is my terroir," explained Andrea -- a statement that truly lives in his wines.

A Marc de Grazia Selection - various importers including:
Michael Skurnik - New York
Vin Divino - Chicago

Intemperate Consumption: Play it Cool

Craig Camp
Friday, June 18, 2004

THE TABLE OVERLOOKS the frozen river, but it is warm and cozy by the fireplace at this local Italian restaurant with high aspirations unfulfilled. I order a bottle of Valpolicella as a safe choice from the spare wine list and it arrives at our table slightly colder than the river. “Do you happen to have one not quite so cold?” I ask with little hope.

After a long wait our waitress returns to the table with another bottle of Valpolicella. This one is almost hot to the touch apparently having been stored in a rack by the roaring fire. In a fit of inspiration I take both bottles and ask for a decanter. Upon its arrival I pour both bottles into the decanter under the confused gaze of the waitress. Once again the sum of two parts made a greater whole: the wine was now at perfect serving temperature.

Welcome to America, the land of the free, where we serve our red wines too warm, our white wines too cold and, though it makes me blue, dry rosé wines not at all.

There are few greater pleasures than drinking a two-year-old Napa Cabernet sporting 14.5% alcohol at 80°F -- making it a kind of very expensive warm tannic, raspberry alcohol tea. We are kinder to Lipton’s in the summer than we are to Screaming Eagle -- at least the Lipton’s gets a little ice.

We spend a fortune on Reidel glasses, hard-to-get wines, wine cellars, wine books, magazines and newsletters and all the accoutrements of the wine scene, but more often than not serve (or are served) our wines at the wrong temperature. This is a mistake that mars our enjoyment of a wine much more than the differences between Reidel and Spiegelau or if the wine has been decanted for the right number of hours.

Restaurants are often the worst offenders with red wines stored in warm storage rooms or behind the bar and with white wines stored in refrigerators with the appropriate brand name, Sub-Zero. Just take a look at the White Burgundies full of tartrate crystals in the ice-cold cooler at your favorite national steak chain. Apparently the restaurant management did not agree with the winemaker’s decision not to cold-stabilize the tartaric acid out of their wines. Worse yet are the ice bucket battles all too often won by busboys trained with military precision to keep the ice water glasses full and the white wine bottles in the bucket. The Lettuce Entertain You restaurant chain must put their floor staff through an intense brainwashing in this regard as they are obsessed with keeping your glass filled to the absolute brim with ice water and your white wine several degrees colder than your water. I often feel like a goalie facing a power-play as the busboys circle my table with their eyes on my bottle of white wine that I have already removed from the bucket several times.

There is one word to think of when it comes to the correct serving temperature for wines: cool. The range for enjoyment runs only from very cool to cool -- warm and ice cold don’t fit into the picture. There are exceptions to this rule of course. For example lousy wines (like lousy beers) should be served as cold as technology permits so that your palate is slightly anesthetized to the experience of drinking them. Sparking wines are served the coldest of all, but once again great sparkling wines should not be served at tooth-cracking temperatures. Why spend all that money on a Krug only to kill the flavor?

Proper serving temperatures would fall generally into these guidelines:

• Great red wines: just over 60°F (about 17°C)
• Young, simple fruity fresh reds: just over 55°F (about 14°C)
• Great white wines, dry rosés: around 50°F or a bit more. (about 12°C)
• Zesty fresh young white wines, sparkling wines and white dessert wines: about 45°F (about 8°C)
• White Zinfandel: about 20°F (about -7°C) -- love those White Zin-sicles

It seems “room temperature” would mean a pretty chilly room.

I have seen a special wine glass with a thermometer included in the stem: please shoot me if I buy one of those. Thermometers are not required, just good common sense. The flavor of wine is based on fruit and those flavors are enhanced by a cool serving temperature. The fruitier the wine the cooler you serve it. Thirty minutes in a normal refrigerator for your red wines is all that is usually required on warm days. For your best white wines the situation reverses itself: during cold weather thirty minutes out of the refrigerator before serving will open the flavors dramatically.

What temperature does to the taste of wine is simple: too much cold deadens the taste. Try your favorite big Barolo ice cold and you will discover the flavor has disappeared leaving only tannin and alcohol. Too much heat volatizes the alcohol and other components making the wine seem harsh and out of balance. As you pass 70°F (21°C) the alcohol starts to volatize faster and faster and alters the aromatics of the wine -- for the worse. For this reason it is always better to err on the cool side as the wine will normally warm up a bit in the glass or decanter unless you’re tailgating in December in Minneapolis.

Hot weather and the pleasures of outdoor summer dining are a bit of a problem when it comes to wine temperature. At home we eat in the garden both for lunch and dinner and, as the temperature runs in the high eighties almost every day during the summer, it gets harder and less enjoyable to serve big wines.

The other day I put two bottles of Barbaresco in the refrigerator thirty minutes before lunch. The first glass was perfect, but before I could finish the glass it was already too warm and what was an elegant, complex wine dissolved into a thin, bitter and hot wine in just twenty minutes. Ice buckets help keep your big reds cool enough, but this hot and cold temperature rollercoaster takes its toll on big tannic red wines. Sometimes matching the weather is just as important as matching the food. Hot days just don’t go well with big wines: red or white.

This fortunately is not a problem because you don’t have to be a big wine to be delicious and you don’t have to be pink or white to take a chill. There are many excellent reds that thrive on more than a little coolness no matter what the time of year. The key in finding interesting reds that can stand the heat of summer is in finding wines with lower alcohol levels, little oak, restrained tannins and a fresh acidity. A light chill brings out the lovely fruit of these wines and only enhances their refined balance. The ultimate example of a wine with these attributes, yet still offering real complexity, may be the stunning Domaine des Terres Dorées Beaujolais imported by Louis/Dressner, a wine so delicate, yet so complex it is impossible to put into words, so I recommend putting it into your mouth as often as possible. Other regions producing such wines include: red Loire wines like Clos Roche Blanche, Touraine Gamay (Louis/Dressner); fruity Oregon Pinot Noir like Benton-Lane; villages Burgundy like Côte de Beaune Villages from Drouhin, Valpolicella like Corte St. Alda Ca’Fiui (Europvin) and the lusciously spicy 2003 Dolcetto wines now being released like those from Vietti, Marcarini, Poderi Colla, Sottimano and Prunotto.

Warning: Once your palate becomes tuned to these svelte wines you may find yourself drinking them no matter what the weather.

Often, for summer meals, both the temperature and the types of foods served make rosé the best choice of all. However finding good rosé can be a problem. Because of the success of the often sticky-sweet White Zinfandel, the reputation of pink wines has taken a beating, but they don’t call White Zin a rosé for a reason. Top dry rosé wines come from many countries including: France -- Tavel, Lirac, Bandol, Provence; Italy -- Cerasuolo Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Bardolino Chiaretto; Spain -- Rioja, Navarra and a smattering of good dry pink wines are made by a handful of courageous (or hard-headed) producers in the United States including: Iron Horse Rosato di Sangiovese, Bonny Doon Vin Gris di Cigar and Saintsbury Vincent Vin Gris.

The most exciting rosé I have tasted in some time comes from Torre Quarto, an excellent estate in Puglia, the heel of Italy’s boot. Their 2003 Guappo (87 pts. -$14) is about as delicious to drink as a pink wine can get. This is a fantastic rosato, just packed with flavor and freshness. The color is a radiant, bright light-scarlet and the aromas are filled with bittersweet cherries and strawberries. The full-bodied fruit flavors continue across the palate into the long, rich and lusciously fruity, but crisply dry finish. This is no simple light wine, but a dry rosato with real depth and complexity and it is my top choice this summer for burgers, brats and picnic foods. A blend of uva di troia, primitivo, sangiovese and montepulciano, Torre Quarto Guappo Rosato is imported by Montecastelli Selections.

The temperature inside and outside the glass both dramatically affect the way you perceive and enjoy a wine. To really appreciate fine wine both you and the wine have to be cool.

Amore e Amaro: Bitter Choices

By Craig Camp
Friday, July 25, 2003 

I'M BITTER and I like it.

No wait. That's wrong. I should say I like bitters.

Italy is famous for amore, but in reality it should be famous for amaro. Amaro is the bitter, sometimes bittersweet digistivo that is produced under dozens of name brands in virtually every corner of Italy. Fernet Branca, Ramazzotti, and Averna are sold throughout the world, but in Italy there are many major brands and in every region of Italy you will find local brands, some only sold in the town of their birth.

Amaro is magic. At least that what the monks that used to make it thought they were doing. They steeped herbs in alcohol to create medicine for almost anything that could ail you. In the 1700s, monasteries throughout Europe were producing alcohol and herb concoctions that were supposed to provide some sort of medicinal benefit. These beverages may not have cured you, but they made you care less about your ailment. This second factor increased the popularity of these potions to such a point that around 1800 these beverages began to be commercially produced. Most of the famous brand names of today were established by the late 1800s.

The recipes for these magic elixirs are closely guarded secrets. The producers blend around forty herbs, fruits, and spices with a base of grape brandy or grain alcohol. The varied recipes mean brands of amaro can differ greatly in flavor, weight, darkness of color, and alcoholic punch. The one thing they all have in common is that they are all bitter. Not that they bite, but the first taste by those not accustomed to the it often elicits a look of horror and a quick grab for the water glass. Amari (plural of amaro) are often an acquired taste, worth acquiring.

While herb-infused alcohol products are common throughout the world, in Italy they are part of daily culture. Every bar has five or six types often displayed in large 1.5 liter bottles. A 1.5 liter bottle of Fernet Branca would be several years' supply in most American restaurants, but in a busy Italian bar they're gone in a day. Italians believe with all their hearts that amaro aids you in digesting a meal, and that taken with sparkling water before a meal it not only aids your digestion but also stimulates the appetite. In a country filled with such a plethora of extraordinary things to eat, this perceived property alone could explain the popularity of amaro,

I agree with the Italians. Nothing settles the stomach like amaro.

Italy may be the home of amaro, but in the United States Jagermeister is the king of the bitters hill. Much to the chagrin and amazement of the powerful Italian brands, a German bitters has cornered the lucrative American market, leaving the Italian producers in chinaroot dust. Fernet Branca, the largest Italian brand with a sales volume in the same league as Fiat, is a far, far distant second in the category in the USA.

Amaro is normally severed at the end of the meal after your coffee. Some people like to add it to their coffee, but I prefer to enjoy it on its own. Usually amaro is served straight-up in a liqueur glass, but in warm weather an ice cube or two makes it even more refreshing. It is quite common in an Italian home to drink your amaro from your empty espresso cup, mixed with the leftover coffee and sugar. Served with a splash of sparking water, amaro becomes an aperitif and the large producers, being good marketers, are always coming up with some new cocktail with amaro as a prime ingredient.

Bitter Choices:

-Fernet Branca, Milano: Fernet is actually a type of amaro produced in the Lombardia region and Fernet Branca is the most famous brand of Fernet amaro. Darkly colored, pungently bitter, and with a strong alcoholic kick, the brand is far and away the best selling brand of Italian amaro in and out of Italy. Included in the recipe are aloe, bay leaves, absinthe, anise seeds, bitter oranges, basil, cardamom, nutmeg, peppermint, and saffron. It is quite bitter and has no fear of any amount of anything you have eaten: Fernet Branca will search and destroy whatever lurks in your stomach. This brand is easy to find almost anywhere and is often the only Italian amaro a store or restaurant will stock. I am amazed by its success in the United States because Fernet Branca is so intensely flavored. Jagermeister lovers will freak out at just at the smell. A great party trick to play on your enemies, Fernet Branca is an excellent product, but a little intense for most. A bottle lasts a long time.

-Branca Menta, Milano: This is Fenet Branca with a good dose of mint liquor. You can get a similar product at home by mixing Fernet with about 40% creme de menthe. Very refreshing on the rocks and much easier to take than straight Fernet, while getting the same digestive benifets.

-Averna, Sicilia: My favorite brand. Darkly colored, with a bitterness that is rounded out by rich fruit flavors. A bit of vanilla and sugar is included in the recipe and balances out the bitter herbs nicely. Quite rich in texture and mouth-feel, it is the fullest bodied amaro -- a good starting place for the amaro-deprived. Works almost as well on stuffed stomachs as Fernet Branca, but without the nasty face. Very smooth and easy to drink, Averna ices down nicely on summer days. Bottles of Averna have been known to disappear quickly.

-Ramazzotti, Milano: Another Milano brand that has caught on big time. In the eighties it was the brand to drink in fashion-conscious Milano. Medium-dark in color and quite bitter, but not as intense as Fernet Branca or as round as Averna. A great example of the Italian style. With Fernet at the extreme bitter end and Averna at the more generous end, Ramazotti would fall right in the middle of the range. An excellent digestivo with just enough bitterness to refresh without being too intense.

-Amaro Lucano, Basilicata: Decidedly bitter, but without the intensity of Fernet Branca. Very complex, nutty, herbal overtones without a trace of sweetness. The lighter body of Lucano makes it easy on a full stomach.

-Amaro Montenegro, Bologna: Very popular in Italy, with a unique squat bottle shape, Montenegro is quite similar in weight and bitterness to Lucano, but with a more citrus and nutty, spiced flavors. I don't think Lucano and Montenegro ice down straight as well as Averna, but they both work beautifully with sparkling water as an apertivo.

- Amaro Nonino, Friuli: The newcomer of the group and an innovation. Herbs are blended with the Ue brandy produced by this excellent grappa producer, then aged for five years in barrels. The result is very complex with warm, round flavors in the mouth. It brings the refreshing herbal characteristics of amaro together with the complexity of grappa. The Nonino is too serious and complex for ice and is a fitting end to the finest of meals.

-Amaro Braulino, Lombardia: Made with aromatic herbs which grow on the slopes of Monte Braulino in the Alps. This strongly herbal amaro is aged for years in barrel before release. Quite refreshing and bitter, it was reputed to be the favorite of Garibaldi -- how can you resist?

I can't. A meal without amaro is like a day without Rolaids.

Erdener Treppchen, Riesling Kabinett, 2003, Dr. Loosen Mosel Saar Ruwer

A pale light green with touch of gold. Deliciously fruity on the nose with touches of honeysuckle with a light touch of pineapple. Smoothly lush on the palate an acid bite soon shows itself. An absolutely charming wine that needs no aging for enjoyment, but it should age into a lovely wine in just a few years. Not great riesling, but very very good indeed.

Hedges Family Estate Three Vineyards, 2003, Red Mountain AVA, Washington

cabernet sauvignon 40%, merlot 56%, cabernet franc 3%, syrah 1%

There is so much to enjoy about this wine including the under $30 price tag. Brilliant ruby, with bright mint, cassis and vanilla aromas. Very forward and young without being simply fruity. Juicy and fresh yet firm on the palate with excellent balance. Certainly oaky, but it is well integrated into the concentrated fruit flavors. The finish is long with a juicy, youthful fruit that will evolve into something more complicated with a few years of bottle age. You have to love the structure of these Washington wines, which clearly remind one more of Bordeaux than Napa.

Dolcetto d'Alba Bruno Giacosa, 2003, Az. Ag. Falletto di Bruno Giacosa

You just won't find a Dolcetto better than this. Classic structure and balance that delivers a perfect food wine. No purple raspberry fruit bomb here (thank God), but a firm, yet easily approachable wine. Buy cases of this to drink over the next two years.

Sabato, Malbec, 2003, Mendoza, Argentina

I will be the first to admit I an not enamored of South American wines, but here is one whose charms are irresistible. Deep ruby colored, this wine approaches the "fruit bomb" category without going over the edge. The deep, forward dark fruit flavors are elevated by underlying layers of complexity. Ripe with firm edges that will match up well with your best steaks. An under $20 bargain.

Domaine de Valmengaux, 2003, Bordeaux AOC

Brilliant rich ruby. Ripe and velvety on the nose with a lush forwardness marked by touches of cabernet/merlot mint and herbs. Round and smooth on the palate with an excellent balance and a structure that carries the forward fruit on a firm backbone. The very round but still apparent tannins show themselves in a lovely finish. A modern style Bordeaux that does not forget its roots. Well worth the $25 price tag with a complexity and structure you will be hard pressed to find in new world cabernet/merlot at this price range. Drink over the next five years.

Raptor Ridge Pinot Noir Reserve, 2004, Willamette Valley, Oregon

Lovely, brilliant light ruby color. Firm mineral and iodine aromas blend with fresh black raspberry and toasty oak notes. Firm and powerful on the palate with a touch of earthy leather and sweet oak to balance the ripe young fruit. The finish is warm, sporting a 14.5% alcohol - surprising for a 2004. Still too early to see how this wine will resolve itself, but its off to a strong start.

Soter Pinot Noir, Beacon Hill, 2002, Yamhill County, Oregon

Here is a lush creamy pinot that covers every nook and cranny of your palate. Deep, velvety aromatics caress your nose. Opulent without any sense of over-ripeness, powerful without heaviness. I don't know if this wine will be a long ager, but why would you wait much longer to enjoy. A wine with no edges and a flavor profile that flies directly to your pleasure buttons.

Biondi Santi resigns in family disagreement

Biondi Santi resigns in family disagreement - decanter.com - the route to all good wine.

Quality is having a rough go of it these days.

Lafayette Escadrille

From Decanter:

“The unofficial boycott of French wine in the US has cost the country an estimated US$112m (£64m), according to an official study.”

We can rest assured that this boycott has cost the elite producers of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Bordeaux not one cent. Dom Perignon, Chateau Latour and Le Montrachet are selling just fine in the USA thank you very much. As always, it it the less famous that take the brunt of such political posturing.  The small French wine farmer is threatened with extinction and this boycott will have no impact on the war one-way-or-the-other. If we are not careful we will lose a grand agricultural tradition and only corporations will remain - and we know what that means for wine quality. A boycott of French wines only damages the small producer, while the big names are unt0uched.

With American opposition to the war passing the 50% mark here at home, it would be difficult to buy many of the things we want if the supporting the war become the litmus test by which we spend our money. Most of the countries of the world oppose this war. The Germans stood with the French on this issue, but I hear of no boycotts of Mercedes or the Rheingau. Why are we picking on French winemakers?

I’m going to to my bit and keep drinking as much French wine as possible. Some political statements are easier to make than others.

Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog: Memo to French Wine Industry: CHANGE!!

"Call me old fashioned, but I just don't get he idea of causing havoc as a way to address the fact that the world is changing when it comes to economic and marketing models that govern the French wine industry." Tom Wark
Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog: Memo to French Wine Industry: CHANGE!!.

While Tom gets a lot of things, he clearly does not get the French, or, perhaps Europeans in general. First of all, Tom lives in the heart of California wine country doing PR for wineries. While that is clearly a respectable profession, California wine culture and politics has little to do with the life of the average European wine farmer. Let’s face it, California wineries for the most part have buckets of money. Small boutique wineries are often owned by mega-bucks owners who made fortunes in other industries. Then there are the giant corporations like Constellation, Vincor and others who make wine with the passion of your average Vodka producer, the ethics of Enron and financial resources of Exxon.

What Tom does not take into account that all those radical Frenchmen taking to the street to fight for their rights, actually need those rights to stay in business. It not the Drouhins or Rothchilds tossing up the barricades, but small farmers just trying to get by who are taking this fight to the streets.

No, these small farmers can’t afford the professional PR skills of a Tom Wark and they don’t know they need to put funny pictures of animals on their labels in order to sell their wines to the sophisticated Americans. All they know is their farms are on the edge of failure.

The fact of the matter is that most European countries are far more democratic than the United States and that people, even small groups, are used to having their voices heard as a basic right of their freedom. Tom wants them to give up their freedoms and to fade quietly into history so that corporations that can afford the proper PR to sell their wines can take over the wine world.

For me, I’ll take the producer that hits the streets and has the courage to fight the system. These are the types of souls that have the passion and intensity required to make great wine. While obviously few of these protesters will ever make a great wine, their spirit is worthy of our respect and their problems are worthy of our understanding.

Bryant Family Vineyards

You cannot deny the quality. The color is a perfect ruby. The bouquet is lush, but balanced and complex. No simple black fruit flavors here, but layer after layer of nuance. It coats the palate with velvet sporting a bite. Round, but still firm tannins carry the concentrated fruit flavors. The finish just goes on-and-on. An exciting wine with not a fault or shortcoming. The 2001 Byrant Family Cabernet Sauvignon is stunning – to bad its no longer a wine. It is a commodity to be chased after by those with more money than palate. A look through winezap.com reveals pricing raging from $295 to $499 a bottle for this former wine turned negotiable security.

No other category of wine contains more individual great wines than cabernet sauvignon. You can find stunning examples from seemingly every wine growing region of the world. There are literally hundreds of stellar quality cabernet sauvignons available and yet wine prices are driven to the stratosphere for wines like this by those who are addicted to possessing what other can’t have. With all the fine choices available anyone should be embarrassed, not proud to own a Bryant Family. Its a shame that most of this truly fine wine will be consumed by people with palates more attuned to what they spend then how the wine tastes.

With a little luck maybe they’ll invite us to dinner…

Zul on Nero d'Avola

I'm not sure who is pictured here on the right, Dana or Zul. Whatever the case, Zul himself inhabits the world of Enemy Vessel (www.enemyvessel.com) and posts on The Wine Therapy Forum, hosted on the Enemy Vessel site. Yes, Enemy Vessel is primarily a wine forum so don’t be put off (I wasn't) by the vitriolic attack on President Bush on the front page. You’ll find the link to the wine forum at the bottom of the page. The Wine Therapy Forum is host to some of the most interesting wine posts on the Internet, although it sometimes seems to be a little club-ish and the personal forum of Joe Dressner. Unlike the over-moderation of most forums, here the patients run the asylum and threads can spin off into off-topic hell – or heaven depending on your point of view.

The best part of this forum are the regular postings of “Zul”, whose insights and knowledge of Italian wine (not to mention the rest of Europe) are worth a paid subscription to read. On a recent thread for example, Zul offers information you would be hard pressed to find in an English language publication. Follow the link below to that thread and keep an eye on The Wine Therapy Forum for his posts. Zul on Nero d'Avola

Chinon and Cabernet Franc

There often is not much to like about cabernet franc. Weedy and thin when over-cropped and unforgiving of cool vintage years, many wine drinkers pay it no mind – and for good reason. In northeastern Italy millions of bottles of unpleasant wine featuring pungent bell pepper flavors and aromas flood grocery stores under the generic “cabernet” label, while in its homeland of Bordeaux it only shows up as a high-tone highlight, except in some outstanding wines in St. Emilion. However, in the hands of a master with just the right vineyards, cabernet franc can touch some very unique points on your palate, if not the 100 point scale.

The domaine Charles Joguet is dedicated to terroir with individual plots fermented and bottled as individuals. As many as eight wines may be produced in a vintage – all 100% cabernet franc and each a distinct creation. The Joguet wines take cabernet franc to a mystical plane. These are intellectual wine that challenge your taste buds to dig into each furtive nuance. The aromatics are truly stunning with delicate layers teasing you nostrils and keeping your nose in you glass for minute-after-minute. The wines of the Loire are so often overlooked in today’s point driven world of wine sales and Chinon from producers such as Joguet will reward the adventurous palate. The hot 2003 vintage produced great wines in the cool Loire and the Joguet wines from this vintage are outstanding across-the-board.

Some current releases from Domaine Charles Joguet:

2003 Cuvée Terroir – An unoaked cuvée made for early drinking, but no simple quaffer. Brilliant purple/ruby with a fresh, zesty bright fruitiness balanced by a touch of mint and earth. You just keep going back for another glup. ($16)

2003 Varennes du Grand Clos — My favorite, this is really a lovely wine. Great complexity with stunningly elegant aromas and flavors. The nose is like a field of wild-flowers with hints of spices and red currents. A few more years of bottle age will create a delicately powerful masterpiece. As refined and silky as this wine is, there is plenty of concentration and backbone. It matched gorgeously with wood over roasted chicken and root vegetables. ($29)

2003 Clos du Chêne Vert – Deeper more brooding and decidedly more closed than the Varennes du Grand Clos, this is a wine that requires more years in the bottle before it opens. While the Grand Clos is all flowers and spice, the Chêne Vert is earthier and riper. Not to overstate the ripeness as the wine is still very balanced and well-structured. ($29)

Imported by Kermit Lynch

http://www.charlesjoguet.com

Robert Parker is the Enemy

Robert Parker is the enemy. Why on the Wine Therapy forum his name is banned. You can't even type it, as when you type Parker, only the word "censored" appears. The British press blames him for their loss of power and curse him for single handedly destroying their own personal backyard, Bordeaux.  Comments from Parker and his crew (Rovani et al) are met with hails of indignation and threads with hundreds and hundreds of posts drag on in circular arguments on his forum.

 But I think they are all wrong. Robert Parker is not the enemy. If there is an enemy it is The Wine Spectator, a publication with the same journalistic standards as Us magazine.

If there is one characteristic that makes for an excellent critic, it is consistency and no palate I have ever seen is as consistent as Parkers. If he gives a wine 95 points or 88 points I know exactly what it will taste like. It does not matter that personally I will usually prefer his 88 point wine to his 95 point wine, what matters is he successfully communicates the character of a wine to me because he is so consistent in his likes and dislikes. This makes for a great critic. Greatness in a critic does not mean that they agree with you, but that they can guide you towards your likes and dislikes reliably. I don't think anyone does this better than Robert Parker. For this he is worthy of our respect and admiration. He is a finely honed tasting machine.

The attacks on Parker come because he is on the top. Humans just love to pull people down. What Parker offers is his opinion, nothing more and nothing less. The fact that his opinion on certain styles of wines is so reliable makes his opinions useful. 

All of these attacks seems to have created an us-versus-them mentality over at The Wine Advocate and that's too bad as they would be better served by concentrating on what they do so well, instead of getting mired in circular arguments with Steve Plotnicki.  Taking on the persona of a statesman instead of a street fighter is a better strategy.

The Wiki Road to Chardonnay Nirvana

One incredibly good thing has come out of the Parker/Rovani oxidized white Burgundy brouhaha, it is one of the most useful consumer information sites you will ever see. A Wiki site was created to provide a consumer clearing house for information on the good, bad and ugly on the white Burgundy scene. You can find this most useful of Wikis at:

http://oxidised-burgs.wikispaces.com/

The Straight and Narrow

As the debate rages on multiple forums over Pierre Rovani's take on the premature oxidation of white Burgundy, you can't help but be struck by the extremes in the way people perceive wine. Some like it straight ahead and some like a more indirect approach. I see no exact advantage of one school over the other, but one thing for sure is they don't see eye to eye. I suppose its like listening to Miles Davis or Ornette Coleman: they are certainly different, but both are considered great.

There can be little doubt that Robert Parker and his associates are of the straight on, or what I call linear style, of the wine pendulum. That's why there is little debate (on this side of the Atlantic anyway) over The Wine Advocate reviews of Bordeaux and new world cabernet sauvignon, but introduce wines that dance around your pleasure centers like Burgundy or Barolo and a firestorm of controversy breaks loose – even on Parker’s own forum. Cabernet takes a straight line to that pleasure button and creates less of a critical mess.

I think that for wines like Burgundy and Barolo/Barbaresco, the only reliable places to go to are specialists; like Allen Meadow's Burghound or Antonio Galloni's Piedmont Report. Mass publications trying to cover the entire world of wines can not handle the curves thrown by such elusive and constantly changing wines. As reliable as The Wine Advocate is for Napa and the Medoc, the coverage breaks down with it come to non-linear wines, which is just not their specialty. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Dry Douro

Over the last decade, Portugal’s Douro producers have tried to get the world to go beyond Oporto and enjoy their dry red wines. However, all to often, these wines tasted more-or-less like dry, unbalanced Oporto.

A group of top estates dedicated to quality came together in 1999 to push the possibilities of dry Douro wines to the limit and the Lavradores de Feitoria was born. The results: excellent wines at very reasonable prices.

Doug Salthouse at SmartBuy wines in New Jersey recently sent me a bottle of the 2002 Três Bagos and you will be hard pressed to find a more satisfying wine at under $20.00. No full blast overripe dry port here, but a balanced and brilliantly fruity wine for enjoyment over the next 2 to 3 years. The bright, zesty raspberry fruit is contrasted with good acidity and a moderate (for Douro) 13% alcohol. A real pleasure to drink.