Brilliant ruby, quite translucent with just a hint of garnet at the edge. Lively smoky plum with bittersweet cherry aromas open into light porcini and tar. Floral, open and expansive with a bite. Firm, but very drinkable now with good complexity and balance. Spiced burnt oranges with sweet cherry fruit flavors carry the firm, but well integrated tannins. Delicious and ready to drink now.
Bright scarlet/ruby with just a touch of garnet. Layered complex nose. Ripe spiced plums and strawberry aromas broaden into dark plum notes. Racy and complex on the palate with wave after wave of flavor. Ripe cherry, wild strawberry expand into complex tar, porcini and oak flavors. Still a bit lean and closed on the mouth and nose but very promising. The finish is long and spicy with apparent but well integrated tannins. A fine effort that reminds me of Pousse d’Or Volnay in years past.
Bright ruby/scarlet with garnet hints. Just translucent. Closed at first but opens into floral, rose dust, firm ripe plum aromas. Firm on the palate the tight flavors slowly grow to a delicious layered intensity. Tarry, bitter cherry flavors grow into warm ripe raspberries on the palate. The finish is extremely long, tarry bitter cherry flavors fade into firm but well rounded tannin. Perfect for drinking now and over the next several years.
Brilliant scarlet, hints of ruby and a touch of garnet. Just translucent. Spicy ripe plums with layered sweet vanilla oak. Smoky, charcoal aromas add complexity. Firm and structured on the palate. Loaded with ripe plums and cherries with a distinctive tang of chewing tobacco. Starts out medium bodied, but then expands magically in the mouth into an explosion of tannins, tobacco and wild dark fruit flavors. A really exciting wine to drink. With short term aging - 1 or 2 years - you will have a great bottle.
Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita. It sounds grand. It sounds like it should be wearing a sash with
the colors of the Italian flag like the mayor did at our wedding. Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita or D.O.C.G. was designed to be the ultimate level of wine law in Italy. In English it means that the place of origin is controlled and guaranteed for quality. In Italian it means another good idea sinks into bureaucratic hell.
I was contemplating this the other day on an AlItalia flight as I broke the D.O.C.G. strip stuck over the screw-cap on a 187 ml. bottle of basic industrial Chianti that came with my dinner. So much for the glory and the sash.
It was just 1963 when the Italian government implemented the D.O.C. (Denominazioni di Origine Controllata) to protect and promote Italian wines — and to better compete with the French. Only 17 years later they were forced to introduce the D.O.C.G. concept because the D.O.C. laws had lost all of their credibility as thousands of poor wines sported the designation.
The D.O.C.G. was to change all of this by protecting the great names of Italian wine. So the government selected five of the most important, world famous vineyard areas of Italy to be crowned in 1987 with the D.O.C.G. title. Those five were: Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, and Albana di Romagna.
Whoa … wait a second. Albana di Romagna you’re asking, what’s that? For those who care, Albana di Romagna is an average quality white wine and there was no reason in the world to include it with this elite group. To select this wine as the first white D.O.C.G. destroyed the credibility of the new classification from the start. Bureaucrats 1; Consumers 0.
Italy is blessed and cursed by its own diversity. Nowhere is there a country that produces a broader range of high quality wine styles from such a confusing number of grape varieties. This diversity makes for interesting drinking but bad wine law. The Italians wanted to compete with the French system of Appellation Controleé (AOC), but the sheer numbers of wine growing regions, varietals, and growers make the establishment of a definitive law impossible.
To add to the confusion the wide variety of styles being produced makes D.O.C. and D.O.C.G. more a simple geographical address instead of any kind of indication of quality. For instance, having a D.O.C. Riccardo Cotarella (the superstar consulting winemaker) would be more a more accurate indicator of style than the current geographical designations.
Take a D.O.C.G. like Barolo — clear cut, right? Exact laws, clearly defined vineyards, very specific wine making regulations, and only one allowed grape variety. What could the confusion be here? Just taste a Barolo by Elio Altare next to the Barolo produced by Giacomo Conterno and you will be mystified. They taste nothing alike. How can this happen with all those rules and the lofty D.O.C.G. designation protecting the name? It can happen because wine making is a complicated process offering the winemaker a myriad of choices that affect the final style of the wine — even in an environment with supposedly stringent regulation. In this glorious maze of wines the name of the producer is the only reliable indicator of quality.
Brilliant translucent scarlet with just a touch of orange at the edge. The aromas are explosive and delicate at the same time, full of the smell of fresh leather and dark wild cherries. The combination of silky and astringent flavors in the mouth are amazing. The delicious round, warm dark bitter cherry and cassis fruit flavors are mixed with a strong backbone of rich tannin. The complexity of this wine in the nose and on the palate is wonderful. The long finish sums up all the complexities of the aromas and flavors and lasts almost forever.
What a pleasure to drink a fine nebbiolo at its peak. Still rich in color (in a nebbiolo sort of way) it is a sparking bright scarlet with almost no brown except at the edges. After 20 minutes in the glass the nose was explosive. Full of dark wild fruits, leather and even a hint of roses. With this kind of wine it is hard to take your nose out of the glass. Full and rich in the mouth with only the right hint of austerity left this wine seems to be at its peak now.
Very bright scarlet with both ruby and garnet hints. Quite translucent. Full of round sweet spiced plum with bitter cherry hints with an underlying bitter chocolate and dried flowers. Starts with full ripe deep plum and bitter cherry fruit that quickly goes into multi-layered spices and leather and very dark chocolate. The finish is ripe and firmly tannic at the same moment. While big this is in no way a soft wine. Shows a bit of hotness at the finish, but it’s more warming than burning.
Very bright scarlet with both ruby and garnet hints. Very firm and still slightly closed on the nose although the coming power and complexity is very evident already. Ripe plums and bitter chocolate mix with leather and bitter cherries. A very complex wine. The finish is long but richly and firmly tannin. Needs at least 4 or 5 years to show its best. Excellent potential.
Bright medium scarlet with garnet hints. Quite translucent. Ripe smoky plums and spices grow into earthy and dried porcini aromas. Rich spiced sweet plum fruit is balanced by leather, fresh mushroom and bitter cherry flavors. The finish is long with sweet fruit held in check by the firm and gripping tannins.
Brilliant light ruby, quite translucent. Gorgeous fruit filled nose with layers of raspberries, wild strawberries, tart cherries and a firm cranberry touch. Racy and bright on the palate with fresh strawberry and raspberries dancing on crisp acids and a firm mineral componet. The finish is literally mouthwatering. Just delicious.
Bright medium ruby, just translucent. Very complex nose filled with tobacco, menthol, blood oranges and firm raspberry and burnt cherry fruit with a warm earthiness throughout. Firm and multi-layered on the palate with tobacco mixing with smoky dark cherry and blackberry flavors with a bitter tart cherry highlight. The finish is a blend of wild earthy flavors, ripe fruit, zesty acidity, cigars and a touch of tannin. Very nice Barbera.
The romantic pull of winemaking. You see it in the eyes of everyone who visits you at the vineyard. You hear it over elegant dinners and at wine tastings as people dream of having their own vineyard and winery. For most it only remains a dream, but a fateful few take the plunge. Two such lucky souls are Amy Lillard and Matt Kling who are living in Castillon du Gard in France’s Cotes du Rhone wine region tending 4.5 hectares of grenache, syrah and mourvedre and are now into their second vintage of winemaking. While few can personally experience such a life, thanks to the blogging of Amy you can at least live it vicariously. Check out their very entertaining (and sure to turn you green with envy) La Gramiere Blog at the address below. Just reading it alone is increasing my consumption of Cotes du Rhone wines and I hope someday to get a chance to taste theirs – at the winery, of course.
Visit La Gramiere at the link below:
“Somewhereness. For a European it is everything. You need to come from somewhere and probably your family has been in that somewhere
for years upon years; you need to know where you stand in a hierarchy, where you fit in. In our New World egalitarian, meritocracy, it doesn’t matter where you came from, it’s what you have achieved. New World wines are really all about achievement; they are vins d’effort, rather than vins de terroir.” Randall Grahm from the article on AppelationAmerica.com: Randall Grahm on Terroir This is post #2 relating to Grahm’s paper. You can find post #1 here.
“Somewhereness”, what a concept. It is this almost mystical concept that really defines what makes wine interesting. That feeling you have when you taste a wine that really sings of a certain place at a certain time: the combination of vineyard and vintage. A wine that does not have this sense of “somewhereness” may be an attractive beverage to wash down a meal, but it is nothing more than a beverage. Wine only rises to challenge the intellect when it possesses a sense of place.
Equally interesting is Grahm’s comment, “New World wines are really all about achievement; they are vins d’effort, rather than vins de terroir." That’s the American spirit: I can do it if I just try hard enough - no matter what kind of terroir I own or manipulation I have to do. This is why “points” have become the defining measurement for wine quality. Points measure that effort on a quantifiable scale and we need to have a firm hierarchy. A messy mix of different terroir characteristics that shine because of their differences just don’t make for a a firm ranking of quality and that’s just not good marketing. Literary descriptions, no matter how well done lack this firm sense of ranking that insecure American consumers seem to need.
What makes terroir driven wines more interesting to drink is the very fact of the differences: like them or not.
I was nineteen and just returned from a semester studying in Europe. Culinarily reborn, I now considered myself quite the sophisticate. As a self-assured wine expert, I went to the liquor store to buy a few bottles to impress my friends. Much to my dismay, not a label or name did I recognize. The wines that had so impressed me were everyday wines: pitchers of Edelzwicker in Alsace, Passe tout grains in Burgundy and Lord know what in Paris. Being on a hitchhikers budget, I was not dining at Tallivent or drinking La Tache.
As simple as these wines were, they somehow captivated my imagination and are why I am deeply involved with wine to this day. I wanted to know more, and in 1973 there were few resources available. By sheer chance, I picked up a copy of The New Signet Book of Wine by Alexis Bespaloff. I could not have been luckier for even today, The New Signet Book of Wine remains the best introduction to the world of wine ever published.
Today, The New York Times reported the passing of Alexis Bespaloff, who has left a legacy of millions of wine lovers to whom he introduced the wonderful pleasures of wine and food. While his New Signet Book of Wine provided the primer for the would-be wine lover, his Fireside Book of Wine provided insights into the emotional and intellectual pull that raises wine beyond a mere alcoholic beverage.
What raised The New Signet Book of Wine to such a level that it is still the best introductory wine book out there is that it was first and foremost a literary work that told a story. Unlike the “how to” and reference style books of today it conveyed both knowledge and passion for wine. It actually made you understand why, not only how.
It was with sadness I heard of the death of this man whom, although I never met him, shaped my life so much. It also made me recall with a tinge of sorrow that wide eyed innocence that I had for wine those many years ago.
Thank you Alexis from all of us.
In one fell swoop of the word processor, Randall Grahm has defined the value of two controversial topics: terroir and biodynamic. In an entertaining and eloquent paper for the Terroir Conference at UC Davis, Grahm has clearly defined terroir, a concept that for some reason so many choose to deny.
Notes Grahm in his paper, “Terroir is a composite of many physical factors – soil structure and composition, topography, exposition, micro-climate as well as more intangible cultural factors. Matt Kramer once very poetically defined terroir as “somewhere-ness,” and this I think is the nub of the issue. I believe that “somewhereness” is absolutely linked to beauty, that beauty reposes in the particulars; we love and admire individuals in a way that we can never love classes of people or things. Beauty must relate to some sort of internal harmony; the harmony of a great terroir derives, I believe, from the exchange of information between the vine-plant and its milieu over generations. The plant and the soil have learned to speak each other’s language, and that is why a particularly great terroir wine seems to speak with so much elegance.”
Somewhere-ness is the essence of what makes wine intellectually and emotional simulating.
Continues Grahm, “A great terroir is the one that will elevate a particular site above that of its neighbors. It will ripen its grapes more completely more years out of ten than its neighbors; its wines will tend to be more balanced more of the time than its unfortunate contiguous confrères. But most of all, it will have a calling card, a quality of expressiveness, of distinctiveness that will provoke a sense of recognition in the consumer, whether or not the consumer has ever tasted the wine before.”
Expressiveness, distinctiveness: words that should be more compelling to wine lovers than opulent, rich or powerful.
On biodynamics Grahm writes, “biodynamics is perhaps the most straightforward path to the enhanced expression of terroir in one’s vineyard. Its express purpose is to wake up the vines to the energetic forces of the universe, but its true purpose is to wake up the biodynamicist himself or herself.”
Let’s repeat that again because its meaning is so significant, “its true purpose is to wake up the biodynamicist himself or herself.” In other words putting the winemaker in visceral contact with their vineyards. It is this connection that produces truly unique and characterful wines.
Anyone straining to understand these two concepts should read and re-read this very meaningful piece. Compliments to AppellationAmerica.com for getting Randall’s comments out to the public.
“ Yeah the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
and it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops:
it's CLOSING TIME” Leonard Cohen
You pay the big bucks on the big wine with the big points, but it doesn't deliver. What’s up?
“It's closed” is the big excuse. You see it on the wine discussion forums all the time. Some whiney writer complains that the pointy Barolo they opened was disappointing because it was closed. This is either a big lie or a huge rationalization made by people that either:
The fact of the matter is that in over two decades of tasting I have never tasted a great wine that did not show its greatness every day of its life - and I mean every day. Exceptional character is something that cannot hide.
I don’t care how tight-assed that Giacosa (or Colla, Marcarini, Conterno, Mascarello etc.) Barolo was – there was never one day could you not taste its potential greatness. If you have a great wine that you are unimpressed with; you either don’t like it or don’t understand it – and that’s true from the time it’s ready to bottle. There is one exception to this and that is travel or other bottle abuse. Shipping wines across the Atlantic or the continental United States is like putting a wine through a blender and many wines need months of rest to recover – especially Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo.
There is no “hell to pay” from drinking wines that are too young or closed. Certainly there will be better times to drink them, but if a wine is great it will always be great each and every day of its life. “It’s closed” is a crutch used by too many wine drinkers who empty wallets on wines based on fashion instead of what they really like. It’s like buying a shirt that is the hottest thing in fashion that looks ridiculous on you, but justify it by thinking it will look better on you next year: an unlikely event.
There is never a truly great wine that is not always, from the beginning to the end of its voyage, enjoyable and intellectually stimulating. The more complex the wine, the more responsibility the drinker has to participate in that greatness and to appreciate the individual character and development of that wine at that moment.
Enjoying greatness in wine is an interactive, not passive experience.
What is this 1999 Cahors still doing around the market? A very good wine offering earthy, black tea laden fruit. Medium body, but plenty rich enough. Good balanced finish. A very nice wine at $15.
While all the hype surrounds other vintages, if you really love that true angular Bordeaux character you will be wll satisfied with the elegant 2002 vintage. The 2002 Pichon Longueville is a classic Bordeaux lovers delight. Wonderfully angular with spicy, minty nose and a complex linear beauty on the palate. This will certainly be a beauty in a few years.
A bottle full of easy charm here. Brilliantly fruity and alive. This is a wine not about complexity, but about the seductive fruit flavors and aromas and mouthwatering juicy character. What a great food wine. While this is not a wine defined by complexity, there are more than enough layers to keep any wine geek happy. A buy-by-the case wine at $17.
