Whine # 47 (Christmas 2013)

WELCOME  to the following new readers of the Whine:  Marcel Comeau of Saulnierville, N.S.; Kim Corkum of Antigonish, N.S.; and Ken Popowich of Halifax.

 

DRINKING WINE IN BUSINESS CLASS:   Most of the time I travel economy class.  Usually this means that I don’t bother ordering overpriced low-grade wine, but simply stick to tomato juice.  However, every couple of years I have enough accumulated aeroplan points for an upgrade to business class.  This brings the pleasure of good food, being able to stretch out, and the enjoyment of several glasses of decent wine.

Last month we flew Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Toronto.  Not only were we offered real Champagne (Jacquart Brut) but we were given the choice with our meal of a reasonably aged Medoc (2008 Chateau Mazail) or a forgettable Austrian. 

One of the tricks in ordering wine in business class is that they usually have a special wine that is not listed on the menu, but which they appear happy to serve in whatever quantities one wishes.  When I asked if they had a special wine, I was offered a 2008 Viu Manent Single Vineyard (LaCapilla).  This I greatly enjoyed despite it’s being only slightly more expensive than the Medoc if purchased at NSLC.  I found it interesting that Lufthansa clearly considered the Chilean Cabernet to be superior to the Bordeaux.  But then Lufthansa is definitely not a French airline.

WINES OF SICILY:   Last month Betty and I were fortunate enough to spend a couple of days in Sicily.  A day in Erice/Trapani and a day in Palermo were just enough to make us add this beautiful island to our bucket list of places to which we wish to return.

Sicily has a long history of wine production, but until relatively recently most of the wine was produced in bulk and sent north for blending.  However, vintners are now stressing quality over quantity.  If you are looking for value,  consider seeking out a Sicilian wine at your local wine store.

The most famous Sicilian wine is Marsala, a sweet fortified wine.  I am not into sweet, fortified wines but Betty is never without a bottle of Marsala in her cooking cupboard.  If you have never prepared Veal Marsala, then let me suggest you google for any one of scores of great recipes.  This relatively easy to prepare dish will impress even the pickiest eater.

To accompany your Veal Marsala I suggest you pick up a bottle of Sicilian Nero D’Avola.  The almost black Nero D’Avola grape is indigenous to Sicily.  The wine is heavy, with lots of tannins, yet only medium in its acidity.   Although unrelated to the Syrah grape, many argue that Nero D’Avola tastes almost the same as a good-priced Australian Shiraz.

The best part is that decent bottles of Nero D’Avola can be had for anywhere from $ 12. To $ 18. in such places  as the NSLC or the LCBO.

While in Erice I picked up a bottle of Nerello Mascalese which was made from grapes grown on the slopes of Mount Etna.  This unique wine from the 2002 vintage set me back a princely 7 Euros.  What a treat.  Unfortunately, I may have to return to Sicily to get another bottle.

PENFOLD’S GRANGE:   Once a year Port of Wines in Halifax brings in a few cases of Penfold’s Grange.  Despite being very, very expensive this wine sells out almost immediately.  Penfold’s Grange is a Shiraz and is considered by many to be Australia’s very best wine.  Some even consider it to be the best wine in the world.  I have never tasted it.

This year Port of Wines offered the 2005 vintage for $ 375. (that’s a bottle, not a case) and the 2008, to which Robert Parker and others assigned 100 points, for $ 699. per bottle.  The 2005 is almost ready to drink and is expected to be at its peak around 2020.   The day the Penfold’s went on sale was my son’s anniversary and he bought a bottle of the 2005 as a gift for his wife.  I decided that I just had to buy a bottle as well.

Some of you know how the psychological construct “cognitive dissonance” allows one to convince oneself that the right choice was made after a difficult decision.  Basically you keep looking for what’s good about your choice.  For example, if you just bought a new Honda you now only read the Honda ads and ignore the Volkswagon pitches.

Nonetheless, I kept thinking:  “If I am only going to try Penfold’s Grange once in this lifetime, maybe I should have sprung for a bottle of the 2008.”  Then I learned from the Port of Wines expert that the 2008 would only be ready to drink after 2030.  My dissonance directed me to calculate the odds of my being around in the 2030’s and I soon realized that the chances that I would ever get to sip the 2008 were next to none.  Now, my dissonance is resolved and I just have to concentrate on surviving until 2020.

OPIMIUM CELLAR OFFERING 221:   Opimian issues seven offerings (catalogues) each year.  I am almost, but not quite, tempted to recommend that you ignore six of the offerings and clean out your bank account by ordering many cases of these great South American wines.  Among my favorites are: 7361 Blason de San Carlos Tempranillo; 7368 Casa Nueva Gran Reserva Carmenere; 7370 Casa Nueva Gran Reserva Cabernet Saugivnon/Merlot; 7380  Expresion Reserve Pinot Noir; and 7394 Cornellana Barrel Reserve Malbec.  AND, since its Christmas, treat yourself and your loved ones to 7364 Alfa Crux Malbec.  I know its pricey, but for the past two years an Alfa Crux has made my list of the 10 best wines I drank in the previous 12 months.

 

WHINE # 46

Welcome  Leslie Pierpont of Jacksonville, Florida to the Whine.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT WINE AREA?   There are many factors that determine wine quality.  These include “terroir”, sunshine, and rainfall, to say nothing about the vintner’s efforts and expertise.  The French talk endlessly about “terroir” or soil type, perhaps with considerable justification.  Soils can be alluvial (clay, silt and gravel), calcareous (high in chalk and limestone), jory ( volcanic soil of mostly basalt), etc.  Knowingly little about geology I shall not continue, other than to note that those who know more than me argue that the best wine-growing soils in the world are in Burgundy (lots of limestone), Bordeaux (lots of gravel), Napa (mineral deposits on top of limestone), Tuscany (volcanic soil with sandstone and clay), Priorat, Spain (unique in the world with dark slate and quartzite), Coonawarra, Australia (iron deposits over limestone) and, of course Mendoza (mainly alluvial).

Perhaps easier to understand is sunshine.  Long growing varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon need a long warm (but not too hot) growing season with lots of sunshine and little rain as the grapes ripen.  Of the major wine areas Mendoza has it best with at least 320 days of sunshine per year (2871 hours).  Argentina is followed by Rioja in Spain (300 days of sunshine), Napa (260), New South Wales in Australia (240 days), Tuscany (220).  Bordeaux has only 192 days of sun and Burgundy only 1649 hours of sunshine.  Thus, Burgundy specializes in cool weather varietals such as Pinot Noir.

With the exception of the Okanagan Valley, Canada’s wine areas have too few sunny growing days to produce varietals such as Cabernet, Shiraz or Malbec.  While Ontario, and to a lesser extent Nova Scotia, has the potential to make very good white wines, consumers seem to be rapidly moving toward reds, giving cold weather growers a very large headache.

In addition to good soils and warm days with lots of sunshine, water is an essential ingredient.  Here Argentina has a huge advantage.  The area around Mendoza is essentially a desert with constant sunshine.  However, the melting snows from the Andes are carefully directed through a series of canals to the vineyards, providing all the necessary moisture without the harmful rainfall.  People from Mendoza say that the most important person in Argentina in not the President but the head of the water authority.

THE EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGE:   We hear so often about pending climate change that it is tempting to shut our ears and ignore what’s coming.   While at my advanced age there may be little threat to my personal welfare, I can’t help but fear for my grandsons’ futures. 

Since it takes 20-25 years for grapevines to produce good wine, vintners are already looking at where to plant.  For example, producers in Champagne are already buying up properties in Sussex, England on the expectation that by mid-century many of the traditional top wine producing areas will either be too hot or too dry.  On the other hand, as temperatures rise some marginal wine-growing areas may be ideally suited to producing top grapes.  Who knows, Canada may even be able to produce top reds by 2050.

It is expected that high altitude areas will be least negatively affected by climate change, while lower areas, and those areas not close to the sea, will be the biggest losers.

Areas that are predicted to benefit from climate change will be the northwestern United States (Washington and Oregon), the Rhine Valley in Germany, the Mendoza Province of Argentina and all of New Zealand.

On the other hand the biggest loser may be Bordeaux which is expected to have a compressed growing season.  South Africa and Australia will probably produce few wines because of drought.

So, if you are thinking of investing in a vineyard pay attention to not just the present, but to life in the future.

RED WINE AND HEALTH:   It has long been argued that red wine drunk in moderation is good for you.  Research, however, is still in its infancy and most of the scientific evidence comes from research on mice.  No, they don’t have mice sipping from crystal glasses filled with aged Malbecs.  Rather the researchers gives daily doses of resveratrol to their squeaky subjects, in amounts equivalent to two glasses per day for humans.  Mice fed this amount of resveratrol have a 50% lower chance of developing cancerous tumors.

Resveratrol is polyphenol found in red wines.  This antioxidant compound is also found in dark-skinned berries such as blueberries.  In addition to the above benefits of reduced tumor growth, other studies indicate that moderate amounts of all types of alcohol raise high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and prevent damage caused by the bad type (low-density) of cholesterol.

So, the argument is that red wine has benefits in prevention of both cancer and heart disease.  How much benefit is an open question, and some have argued that to get the positive effects described above one would have to consume so much red wine that one’s liver would give out long before one’s heart. 

Perhaps over the next few years, researchers will be able to tell precisely the benefits of red wine consumption, or perhaps like the mice we’ll just take resveratrol supplements along with our corn flakes (of course, it is a well-known fact that corn flakes are bad for one’s health due to high levels of sodium).

Now, if you are rationalizing your red wine consumption as a health benefit you might consider which wines are the best choices.  High levels of resveratrol are found in wines from the South of France, in Malbecs from Argentina, in Tannats from California.  Low levels are found in Australian reds.

The highest levels, by far, are found in Pinot Noirs from colder climates such as New York State and the Province of Ontario.  There, I have finally found a reason to drink Ontario reds.  Didn’t think it was possible.

WINES OF THE RHONE VALLEY:  Despite the fact that France is still the world’s largest wine exporter, consumption of French wine is in decline in North America (but on the increase in China).  I think there are two reasons for the fact that I can’t remember the last time that I was at someone’s house and was offered a glass of French wine.  First, French wines, particularly those from the famous areas of Bordeaux and Burgundy, are grossly overpriced.  Second, French wines seem “thin” to those of us used to the more robust wines of California and South America.

On the other hand, there are affordable French wines that are both interesting and with body.  In a future Whine I shall do a more complete survey of the wines of Southern France, but in the meantime my recommendation is that you do not overlook the wines of the Rhone Valley.  These wines are good for both sipping and with food.  Wines from the Rhone Valley are blends of many varieties but the primary grape is Grenache Noir.

There are four grades of Rhone wines:  At the bottom level is Cotes du Rhone offering a variety of possibilities from a huge area.  Next is Cotes du Rhone Villages, followed by the wines from single villages such as Signargues or Cairanne.  At the top level are the 16 Crus.  These include such famous names as Chateauneuf-de-Pape and Gigondas.

For those of you from Ontario my son recommends the 2010 Terres D’Avignon Reserve des Armoiries as good value.  It is currently listed at $ 15.95.   Although I am unfamiliar with this particular Cotes du Rhone I suspect it might be considered as a “poor man’s Chateauneuf”.

OFFERING # 220:  I do not find this offering very exciting, perhaps because I am not a huge fan of South African wines, and I have yet to find a New Zealand red that impresses.  However, here are a couple of recommendations for those who are desperate to spend some money.  7302 Foundstone is a very interesting blend of Chardonnay and Viognier.  I expect it will match very well with scallops or lobster.  7327 GMH Meritage is a blend that is complex, but one that will not overpower like so many Australian reds.  A good value for everyday drinking.

 

WHINE # 45

 

A GREAT WINE FOR THE BARBECUE:   On a warm summer afternoon one usually seeks out a cold, cold beer for the first drink of the day.   If, however, you prefer a glass of wine, then it is usually something light; a chilled white, a rose, or a light, low-alcohol sipping red such as a Beaujolais.

Next, you think about firing up the barbecue and tossing on a nice steak, some ribs, or even a sausage or two.  Here the matching drink will be quite different.  You will want to pair your meat with a heavier wine, preferably one with nice tannins to match the protein in the meat.  Usually the choice is a well-aged Cabernet Sauvignon or a medium-priced Australian Shiraz.

As a change let me recommend a Spanish Monastrell.   Monastrell is the second grape of Spain (after Tempranillo) and is a big, tannic wine that can be an incredible value.  Monastrell is grown in various parts of Spain but particularly in Jumilla.   This varietal is also grown in south of France where it has been re-named Mouverdre.  Mouverdre is usually used for blending and is one of the many varietals that make up the famous Chateauneuf-du-Pape.  This varietal has also made its way to Portugal where it is called Mataro.

Monastrell is a very late ripening grape requiring lots of sun.  Spain has better growing conditions than France.  For that reason, in my view, Monastrell wins hands down over Mouverdre.  And, not only does it taste better, it is cheaper.

Finally, let me add a word of caution.  If you pick up a bottle, don’t pour yourself a glass as a pre-dinner sipping wine.  Have a glass of beer or a lighter wine and then enjoy your big, full-bodied, highly tannic Monastrell with your steak, cooked perfectly rare.

WINE TEMPERATURES:  We all like our coffee hot and our lemonade cold, but what about wine?  The old belief that white wine is to be served chilled and red to be drunk at room temperature is an insufficient guide.  Of course sparkling wines (Cava, Prosecco) are best placed in a bucket of ice for 30 minutes or more.   Still whites should also be cold, but not necessarily ice cold.

The problem, however, is with reds.   Room temperature of 21 or 22 degrees (in a centrally heated house) is too warm.  In the summer it is even worse.  Most North Americans do not have wine cellars and store their wines in a closet or perhaps even on the kitchen counter.  It is almost a crime to serve a wine at 25 or 26 degrees, but I bet that is frequently done.

Light, thin reds (such as Beaujolais) are best served at 14 or 15 degrees.  Heavier reds, such as Monastrell (see above) or Cabernet Sauvignon are quite lovely at slightly higher temperatures (say 18 degrees).

If you are about to uncork a bottle of red that is the temperature of a moderately warm room I suggest you place the bottle in your freezer for 10 minutes.  If the wine gets a little too cold that is not a problem.  It will quickly warm to a suitable temperature once it has been poured into a glass.  However, don’t forget and leave your wine in the freezer.   Making wine popsicles is not a good use of an aged Napa Cabernet.

SOME MEDICAL ADVICE:  Many thanks to Judi Travis of Florida for sending along this bit of medical wisdom.

Do you have feelings of inadequacy?  Do you sometimes wish you were more assertive?  Do you suffer from shyness?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, ask your doctor or pharmacist about Cabernet Sauvignon.  Cabernet Sauvignon is the safe, natural way to feel better and more confident about yourself and your actions.  It can help leave you willing to do just about anything.

You will notice the benefits of Cabernet Sauvignon almost immediately, and, with a regimen of regular doses, you can overcome any obstacles that prevent you from living the life you want to life.  Shyness and awkwardness will be a thing of the past and you will discover many talents you never knew you had.  Stop hiding and start living.

Cabernet Sauvignon may not be right for everyone.  Women who are pregnant or nursing should not use it.  However, women who wouldn’t mind nursing or becoming pregnant are encouraged to try it.

Side effect may include:  dizziness, nausea, vomiting, incarceration, loss of motor control, loss of money, loss of virginity, delusions of grandeur, table dancing, headache, dehydration, dry mouth, and a desire to sing Karaoke all night.

WARNINGS:  The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may make you think you are whispering when you are not.  The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them.  The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may cause you to think you can sing.  The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may create the illusion that you are tougher, smarter, faster and better looking than most people.

Similar benefits may accrue from the consumption of less expensive Monastrell (see above).

 

O.S. Special Offering 52:  Once a year Opimian offers wine in 500 ml bottles.  It is sometimes very convenient to have such smaller bottles on hand.  In this offering none of the wines are particularly expensive and most can be drunk almost immediately.  I think any of the offerings would be worth having, but I’ll list the ones that I have personally tried and will thus recommend:  Lot 7258 (the two wines from Puglia are particularly good); Lot7259 (the French Chablis is excellent); Lot 7262 (one can never go wrong with wines from Chile’s Central Valley).

 

 

 

 

WHINE # 44

 

LESSER KNOWN REGIONS:    This time I thought I might briefly describe a couple of wine-growing areas that may be less well known to you.  Both of these areas; one New World, one Old World offer delightful wines that won’t break the bank.

 

Washington State:  After California the state producing the greatest number of wines in the United States is Washington.  Most of the wine is produced on the eastern slopes of the mountains where the air is very dry and sunshine abounds (two hours per day more sunshine in growing season than in Napa or Sonoma). 

As wines from Washington are not available to me in Nova Scotia I didn’t discover them until a recent cruise where several wines from Washington State were on the dinner wine list.  Because Oregon is famous for its Pinot Noirs and because Washington State is farther north I had assumed that long growing season wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon would not do well there.   Certainly I was dead wrong.  Washington State produces lots of good full-bodied wines.  In addition to Cabernets there are excellent Syrahs, and even some Malbecs.  The largest winery in Washington is Chateau Ste. Michelle, but there are scores of others that I would love to try if only they were available to me.

Aglianico del Vulture: Italy has a number of indigenous varietals that are rarely grown elsewhere.  Perhaps the best known are Sangiovese and Nebbiolo.  However, the Aglianico grape makes a wonderful wine that is not very well known outside of Italy.  The best comes from the slopes of Monte Vulture (Aglianico del Vulture) and I drank this wine for the very first time at St. Martha’s annual and wonderful wine show in April.

Basilicata is a mountainous region in the south of Italy that is west of Puglia, east of Campania and north of Calabria.  The area has very high unemployment and is rarely visited by any of the millions of tourists who flock to Tuscany or Sicily.  About the only visitors are Italians who go there just for the wine.

Aglianico del Vulture is a heavy, muscular, highly tannic wine that bursts with flavour.  Rough in its youth, once the tannins have softened it is a wine that will stand up to your best T-bone. 

Although produced in very limited quantities, this wine is not expensive and can be found in both LCBO and NSLC stores.  I strongly recommend you pick up a few bottles, and lay them down for a couple of years.  You will not be disappointed.

 

IN DEFENCE OF MERLOT:  Many of us enjoyed the 2004 Academy award winning comedy “Sideways”, in which two middle-aged men travelled through the Santa Ynez Valley of California in search of the perfect bottle of Pinot Noir.  The main character, played by Paul Giamatti, frequently denigrated Merlot.  After the movie was released sales of Merlot apparently dropped about 2% in the United States while sales of Pinot Noir increased by 16%.

One might even postulate that wine snobs think drinking Pinot is di riguer and that serving Merlot is pedestrian.

Recently Betty and I spent a week tending two of our grandsons while their parents took a short work/holiday trip to Madrid.  One night Betty asked me to raid my son’s wine cellar for a bottle of Merlot, which she needed as an ingredient for the sauce she was preparing.  In my surprise there was not a single bottle of Merlot on the otherwise reasonably well-stocked shelves.    Having known for a long time that it is unwise to argue with the Chef, I was forced to take a trip  through rush-hour traffic to the nearest LCBO.

 

Merlot, despite its bad rap, can be a wonderful wine for many occasions.  It is the most frequently planted grape in Bordeaux and it is grown in almost all of the world’s wine-producing regions. 

 

What separates Merlot from other common varietals such as Cabernet or Shiraz is its low levels of both acids and tannins, as well as it abundant fruit flavors.  The term that perhaps best describes Merlot is smooth.  For that reason Merlot is one of the first red wines that is found pleasing to those who are new to the wine world.  Merlot is the red wine that is much preferred by those who normally drink only whites.  For those of us who drink a lot of red wine Merlot is a great choice for sipping when the wine is not being accompanied by food.  While I would never choose a Merlot to match with a high protein meal (like steak) it is a very good match for fish and white meats.

Finally, because of its strong fruit flavors is a very good choice for cooking.  Conventional thinking suggests that one use the same wine in the sauce as one plans to drink with the meal.  Alternately, some cooks, my wife included, add Merlot whenever a red wine is called for in the recipe. 

 

CELLAR OFFERING # 219:   I must confess that I was slightly disappointed by this Offering as many of the California wines are quite pricey and the ones that are less expensive are not ones that I choose to recommend.  However, if price is not an object you might try any of the wines from Burgess Cellars (7200, 7201 or 7202). 

There is, however, one wine in this offering that I most strongly recommend.  Number 7249 Farina Gran Colegiata Crianza.   I am never disappointed in this Toro winery.

 

WHINE # 43

 

Organic Wines:   A very good drinking buddy asked me to discuss organic wines in my blog.  I’m not certain why he asked as his well-stocked cellar contains few of these currently trendy wines.  However, let me try and dispel a myth or two.

In simplest terms organic wine is a wine produced from grapes that have been grown without the use of pesticides (toxic or otherwise) and herbicides.   In an age when many of us are trying to be more “green”, buying organic wines means that we are doing a tiny bit to help slow the addition of harmful chemicals to our environment.  This is the main and perhaps only reason one should seek out wines that are labelled organic.   Organic wine itself is no different from non-organic wine, so as a drinker you will not notice any difference in taste.  On the other hand, the streams and rivers near the organic winery may be much “healthier.”  The only real downside of drinking organic wine is that the cost to the producer is slightly higher (more labor costs in pulling weeds, etc.) and that will be obviously passed on to the consumer.

But wait, you say, aren’t organic wines sulfite free?  No, all wines contain naturally occurring sulfites.  However, in some legal jurisdictions (California, for example) in order for a wine to be labelled organic it cannot contain any added sulfites.  But since many producers of non-organic wines also do not add sulfites the distinction between organic and non-organic is not very clear on this point.

This, of course, leads me to a short blurb on sulfites, and although I have written on sulfites before, it is an important topic worth repeating.

Sulfite is a synonym for sulfur dioxide (SO2), a preservative that not only occurs naturally as a by-product of yeast metabolism during fermentation, but which is frequently added during the wine-making process.  Sulfur reacts to oxygen reducing the amount of oxygen in wine.  Thus, sulfur dioxide reduces rotting of the wine itself; in other words, both naturally occurring and added sulfites act as wine preservatives.

Perhaps you know people who tell you that they are allergic to sulfites in wine, and either they do not drink wine at all, drink only white wine, or drink only organic wine.    They believe that the sulfites in the wine are the cause of their recurring headaches.  As noted above, organic wines contain sulfites, although perhaps in smaller quantities than in some non-organic wines, so if one is allergic to sulfites, they are probably allergic to organic wine as well as non-organic wine. 

Secondly, a person who claims that they can drink white but not red wine is someone who has fallen prey to a “self-fulfilling prophecy”.   The fact is that white wine contains MORE NOT LESS sulfites than red wine.  Red wine contains tannins which help to stabilize the wine during fermentation.  Thus less sulfur dioxide is needed to keep the wine from rotting.  In the European Union (and the same is true elsewhere) the maximum allowable level of sulfur dioxide in red wine is 160 parts per million, whereas it is 210 ppm for white wine.

Now this leads to the question, do the sulfites in wine really cause headaches?  The answer is perhaps “yes” for a tiny, tiny minority who are sulfite allergic.  However, the vast majority of those who think they are sulfite allergic are suffering from a psychosomatic reaction, not a chemical one.

How do you know if your friend, guest, lover is really allergic to sulfites?  Here is an easy test.  Make a salad that contains some dried apricots (perhaps chop the apricots into small pieces so they are not left in the bowl).  Two ounces of dried apricots contain 10 times the sulfites that are in a glass of red wine.  Now, if after dinner the salad eater heads to a dark room with a cold compress, perhaps she or he is in fact allergic to sulfites.  On the other hand, if there is no immediate migraine, then that person has nothing to fear from red or white, organic or non-organic, wines.

Wine Inventory:    How much wine do you have on hand?  I suspect some of you have 3 or 4 bottles on the back of your kitchen counter; others have hundreds of bottles carefully arranged in well-stocked cellars.  Perhaps most of you fall somewhere in between with partially filled boxes piled in a haphazard fashion.

Regardless of the above it is very important to take stock (at least annually) to determine which of your wines are still too young, which are ready to drink, and which have essentially passed the best beyond date.  While it is a shame to drink wines that have not fully developed, it is a much bigger mistake to keep wines to the point where they are starting to turn to vinegar.

If you are an Opimian member you are fortunate to be able to take advantage of the “my wine cellar” service.  Every wine that has been sold by Opimian is tasted annually and then rated on 10-point scales as to drinkability and maturity.  If you click on to “my wine cellar” at the left side of the home page you will find only those wines that you have purchased.  Each April when the wines ratings are updated, l  carefully go through my cellar and place the “drinkability/maturity” ratings on each bin of wines (or on individual bottles, if only singles remain.)  My masking tape labels are crude but effective.  My experience has been that wines number 7/7 or less are not ready, those labelled 8/8 or 9/9 are ready and the 10/10’s should be pulled aside for immediate consumption.  I think this service is one of the best things that Opimian does.

Organizing your cellar may be a task, but it is also fun.  You need to devise your own system, whether it be by using a spread sheet to track your wines, using a simple word processed list (my system), or going with a more elaborate commercially developed tracker.  For example, www.cellartracker.com offers a simple spread-sheet system that is free, or a more elaborate system for which there is a fee.

Future Whines:   I have now written 43 of these Whines.  It has been fun for me and I hope that the Whines have been useful to you.    However, I sometimes struggle for new topics to include.  If you have ideas for topics I should greatly appreciate your sending me a quick e-mail.  I’ll try to include your topic in a future Whine.

Cellar Offering # 218:  This is the second last offering from Opimian for 2013.  Next month the final offering will be made up primarily of wines from California.  Thus, my suggestion is that you save your money and stock up on California wines next time.

However, if you can’t wait, here are a few suggestions from this offering:

7150 Saint-Romain AOC.  The Pinots from Burgundy are famous, full of flavour, but very, very thin.  If you are looking for a muscular wine this is not it.  If you are looking for a subtle wine, perhaps.

7162 Chateau Canet.  I think the wines of Minervois are some of the best in Languedoc-Roussillon.  Much more body than the one above.

7181 Domaine Peiriere Grenache Rose.  It is perhaps time to stock up on a very inexpensive Rose.  With the warm weather coming it is always nice to sip an iced Rose on a hot afternoon.

7197 La Source, Chateau Vignelaure.   A heavier wine.  In a blind tasting you might even think it’s New World.

 

 

 

 

 

WHINE # 42

 

YOU SAY SYRAH, I SAY…  A couple of weeks ago a Whiner e-mailed me noting how much he had enjoyed a bottle of Bogle Petite Sirah.   Since this wine is probably not all that well known to many of you this might be a good time to try and throw some light on some rather confusing names of varietals.

SYRAH:  This varietal has been grown for about 800 years in Northern Burgundy.  For a long time it was thought that the grape came from around the town of Shiraz in Persia.  However, recent DNA testing suggests that the wine may be indigenous to the area and may date back as far back as Roman times.  Syrah is often described as full-bodied and quite tannic.  Personally, I would see Syrah as full-bodied only when compared to other French wines; not when compared to wine from the New World.   There is a nice fruit flavour that is most frequently described as blackberry.

SHIRAZ:  For some reason when the Syrah vine stock was taken to Australia, the name got changed to Shiraz, perhaps thinking the origin had been in Persia.  One should note that Shiraz and Syrah are genetically identical.  Yet, if you simultaneously tasted an Australian Shiraz and a French Syrah you would find it hard to believe they were the same grape.  Shiraz is much more full-bodied and tends to have a much spicier taste.  Australian Shiraz is extremely popular in Canada and is a favorite summer accompaniment to bar-b-que, whereas French Syrah is little known on this side of the Atlantic.

PETITE SYRAH:  Sometimes a French producer will call an inferior Syrah a Petite Syrah.  I have never tasted one (I try to avoid inferior wines) so I shall comment no further.

PETITE SIRAH:   This wine is not Syrah.  It is a cross between Syrah and a little known varietal called Peloursin.  It is almost as unlike a Syrah as Cabernet Sauvignon, a cross between Cabernt Franc and Sauvignon Blanc is unlike its white wine parent.  Petite Sirah is a wonderful dark (almost purple) wine with lots and lots of tannins.  Unfortunately we see it very seldom in our wine shops.  It makes a wonderful alternative to the also tannic Cabernet Sauvignon. 

On my Whiner friend’s advice I found a bottle of the Bogle (California) Petite Sirah and served it blind to some dinner guests.  At the same time I served a much-more expensive Cabernet Sauvignon.  Everyone preferred the Petite Sirah.  If you can find a bottle, try it.  By the way, Bogle Petite Sirah is currently available at Premier Wines in Halifax and also available in Manitoba.  Not available in Ontario.

WINE AND CHEESE IN THE DEEP SOUTH:  Having recently spent the dreadful winter months of February and March in the deep South, I can now report on drinking in that part of the country.
First, wine consumption is low in the fundamentalist countryside.  Georgia, in particular, was one of the first states to bring in prohibition and many towns were still “dry” only a few years ago.  In restaurants one notes few people drinking wine, and if they are they are purchasing it by the glass rather than by the bottle.  Sweet tea seems to be what is ordered after the hand-holding ceremony of saying grace.

Waiters are not very familiar with wine culture, even in better restaurants.   Twice I had a waiter call another staff member because they didn’t know how to uncork a bottle.  Whenever a waiter did uncork a bottle the cork was immediately stuck back in the bottle.

One night I asked our waiter what wines they had.  The response was Merlot and Cabernet.  I asked for a bottle of Merlot and with a shocked look the comment was “But sir, you’ll get sloshed.”  Apparently the only wine they had was in gallon jugs.

One afternoon we pulled into a nice hotel in Albany, Georgia.  It was too early to go to dinner and too late to do much else.  Betty said she’d like some crackers and cheese to accompany a glass of wine.  With the help of my trusty GPS I located a large supermarket and found the tiny cheese section.  There was Cheddar, Monterey Jack, and one lonely piece of Parmesan.   A woman who looked suspiciously like the manager offered to help.  I asked where the cheese was.  She looked bewildered and pointed to the Cheddar.  I asked if there was any other cheese.  She asked “what kind.”  “Oh, some Brie or Camembert, or even some Gouda”, was my response.  “Come with me” and she took me to a display of more Cheddar.  “This is the only other cheese we have, what kind of cheese was it you wanted?”  “Well, any cheese really, you know Camembert, Brie, Gouda, Havarti”, I suggested.  “Well, I have never heard of any of those” she said.  I guess if you don’t drink wine, why bother with cheese.

WINE TASTING IN GEORGIA:  Despite the above, Georgia does have a burgeoning wine industry in the northeast corner of the state.  In fact, they have a “wine trail” with scores of tiny boutique wineries, all of which are open for tasting.  Like any wine trail, it is fun to drive and to stop for wine tasting.  Several of the wines we tried were quite good, although a tad overpriced.  I shan’t describe them here as I expect you would not find them anywhere except in northeast Georgia.

FOR ONTARIO WHINERS:  Last time I passed on my younger son’s recommendation for Zenato Veneto Rosso.  This time I shall pass on a recommendation from my older son:  Zonte’s Footsteps, an Australian Shiraz.

OPIMIAN OFFERING 217:  This time Opimian is offering wines of Beaujolais, Bergerac and Bordeaux.  If you want a very light Beaujolais I suggest 7088 the Julienas.  There are many expensive Bordeaux in this offering and I expect some of them are quite good.  If your pocket is feeling heavy from carrying around too much money perhaps you might lay down a case of 7136 Hortevie Saint-Julien.  Cellared for three or four years it will be a wine to impress the most discriminating of guests.

 

 

WHINE 41

Welcome Lisa Gautreau (a fellow Maritimer now living in Alberta) to the Whine.

WHEN TO REFUSE A WINE:    There are three legitimate reasons to refuse a bottle of wine in a restaurant.    Firstly, the waiter presents you the bottle carefully displaying the label.   Pay careful attention.  All too often a wine will be presented which is a different year than that shown on the wine list.  This happens because the restaurant has not updated its list and a two-year old Cabernet will not be nearly as nice as the four-year old one that was promised.

Next the waiter pulls the cork and sets it next to you.  Don’t sniff,  you will only be embarrassing yourself.  The reason for the quaint custom of presenting the cork comes from a time when merchants would pour cheap wine into bottles with expensive labels.  Thus, you can check to see if the name on the cork matches the name on the label.  This type of fraud does happen occasionally.  For example, a few years ago a German restaurant in Pictou County, N.S. lost its license for this exact crime.

Next the waiter pours a small amount for you to taste.  What you are trying to determine is whether or not the wine is corked; that is, oxidized.  This does happen occasionally and a small sip is ample to detect a wine well on its way to vinegar.   However,  If you are in a very high-end restaurant the sommelier will taste the wine him/herself using the neat little serving cup that is carried on a chain around his/her neck.  You will still be allowed your own taste, but chances are the sommelier’s nose is more sophisticated than yours.

Finally, you may find yourself in a situation where you simply do not like the wine.  Unfortunately, that is NOT a legitimate reason to refuse the wine.

Recently, I found myself in the fourth situation.  Betty and I were eating for the second night in a row in a wonderful little hole-in-the-wall family restaurant (Bonelli Café Italia) in Pensacola, Florida.  I made the mistake of ordering a wine with which I was not familiar, perhaps motivated by how inexpensive it was.  Our waitress complimented us on our choice, noting that it was her mother-in-law’s favorite wine.  She poured two healthy glasses and Betty took a sip, giving me the strongest of evil eyes for my stupid selection.   “This is very sweet”, she noted, with anything but sweetness in her tone, “I can’t drink this.”

I thought for a minute and decided that I needed to act if relations at the dinner table had any hope of improvement.  I called over our waitress and told her that I had made a mistake and wanted to order another wine, indicating that I would be paying for both bottles.  Our waitress whisked away the sugar infused bottle and brought me a safely familiar Malbec.

The meal was excellent and even my stupid error was forgiven  when the cheque occurred.  “I didn’t charge you for the first wine”, our waitress noted.   “My mother-in-law is drinking it”, she smiled as she looked toward the kitchen.  The tip was quite a bit larger than my usual 15%.

Finally, you may wish to know the name of the wine that showed up my lack of knowledge of Italian wines.  It was a Rosenere Lambrusco.  Google tells me that Lambrusco, which is a frothy frizzante, was the largest selling imported wine in the United States in the 70’s and 80’s.  That’s the period of time when Canadians were lining up to buy the equally disgusting Andres Baby Duck.

REFLECTIONS ON DRINKING WINE IN THE US:   North Americans are not big consumers of wine as compared to Europeans.  Canadians (ranked 10^th in consumption) drink 10 liters per year while Americans (ranked 18^th) drink only 7.  Compare this to the Italians or the French who quaff 54 and 47 liters respectively.  Yet consumption in both Canada and the U.S. is increasing at the rate of 3% per annum.

Betty and I are currently holidaying (can you holiday when you are retired?) in the American South where wine drinking (except in Florida) is not part of the culture.  In fact, many states, such as Alabama and Georgia, ban restaurants from selling any alcoholic drink on Sundays.  Churches outnumber wine shops about 100 to 1.    Most nights we find that we are the only ones with a bottle of wine on our table.  Everyone else seems to be downing gallons of sweet tea.   In one restaurant the waitress called over another waitress to show her how to open a bottle and the other night our waitress asked for directions as to how to present the wine.   In Canada we also have regional differences in consumption, with the most wine drunk in the Yukon, followed by Quebec.  The least wine is consumed in Saskatchewan. 

Nonetheless, seeking a bottle of wine to accompany our shrimps or our bar-b-que usually meets with success, and the retail price, as well as the restaurant mark-up, is so much less than at home that eating out is almost always a pleasure.   As an example, we were in a pub- type restaurant the other night and I ordered a bottle of Malbec for $ 16.95.  Later I found the same wine in a Publix (grocery store) for $11.95.  Find a Canadian restaurant that only marks up its wine by 40 per cent.   

We did notice that Copper Ridge wines kept showing up as the house wine.  Incidentally, Copper Ridge Merlot is absolutely terrible, and quite sweet.   Google tells me that Copper Ridge wines are made by Gallo and sold only in restaurants.  Perhaps, that way the consumer never knows the original cost of the wine.

New Englanders are the biggest American consumers, and it appears they are not afraid of high-end wines.  We stopped in a New Hampshire Liquor outlet on our way down and while looking over the sale wines, Betty called my attention to a display of  ’09 Chateau Haut-Brion Blanc Pesac which was marked down from $ 1289.99 per bottle to only $ 1149.99.  What really caught her attention was the sign limiting this wine to two bottles per customer.  We left with two bottles less than the limit.

BARGAIN WINE FOR ONTARIO READERS:   My son recently brought my attention to a wine selling very cheaply at LCBO stores.  Although I do not know this wine as it is not available in Nova Scotia, Peter strongly recommends the 2009 Zenato Veneto Rosso IGT which is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Corvina and Veronese.  I can’t remember what he paid but I think it was $ 12. or less.

OPIMIAN OFFERING # 216:  If you are following my advice you spent a fortune on Offering 215 and may want to ease off a bit this time.  I know that I may skip this offering entirely.  However, there are a couple of wines that I can suggest, particularly if you want to add a few Italian to your larder.

7036  Chardonnay from Alto Adige

7030  Terre D’uva Negroamara

7063  Amarone :  For those who want to lay down a really good wine for a few years

7079 La Ferla Nero D’Avola:  If you only want one case I suggest this one.

                                                                                WHINE # 40

 

Wine through the ages:  Wine made its first appearance in Georgia near the Black Sea around 9,000 years ago.  But for the next 6,000 years it was produced in only small volumes and consumed primarily by the social elite.  However, the Greeks took to wine in a big way around 1,000 B.C. and wine became the most common drink, not only of the aristocracy but of the poor as well.

The ancient Romans adopted the Greek practice of drinking wine, consuming an incredible 17 fluid ounces per day.  Even slaves were given wine because of the belief that wine consumption increased physical strength.  Slaves in chains were allowed 1.3 gallons per week.

Wine was almost always mixed with water.  Probably this weak drink tasted more like vinegar than the wine we sip today.  However, as water was almost always polluted in the cities, mixing water with wine helped to kill bacteria, making wine the safest drink.  Also, it was very common to mix wine with sugar and various spices, again suggesting that the wine itself didn’t taste very good by our standards of today.

Although wine was given to children, women were expected to drink little.  Both the Greeks and the Romans believed that women should not be allowed much wine, and in Rome a woman could be divorced for intoxication.

Although the Romans recognized that some wines were of higher quality than others (they in fact preferred Greek to Roman wine), the vessels used to produce wine were not airtight and storage was also a problem.  The Romans discovered cork so they did have a method of storing wine in bottles.  However, most wine was drunk young.

After the fall of the Roman Empire wine production dropped dramatically and was kept alive largely by the Christian church which needed wine for the sacrament of communion. Wine was largely produced in monasteries.  Also, as the Moors advanced across the Iberian Peninsula and into southern France, all alcoholic drinks were forbidden.

Wine production began to increase again after Charlemagne (a wine drinker himself) united much of Europe.  The resulting urbanization led to a demand for wine.  There were setbacks, however, as the Protestant non-drinkers (Luther and Calvin) railed against the Roman tolerance of drunkenness.  Whether a coincidence or not, it is interesting to note that the European countries that converted to Protestantism were all non-wine producing areas, whereas the big three (France, Italy and Spain) stuck loyally to Catholicism.

During the Middle Ages grapes were usually trodden by foot and then the juice was fermented in earthen pots (today wine is fermented in sealed stainless steel tanks).  Once fermented the wine was stored in barrels which were frequently poorly sealed or not “topped up” following evaporation.  Although wine was then occasionally stored in glass bottles the art of making cork stoppers had been forgotten.  The bottles were closed either by glass stoppers or more commonly by oily rags.  Spoilage was all too common and wine merchants raced to get their products to market.  In fact, the value of a barrel of wine at one year of age dropped to less than half the original price.  Thus it would appear that wine drunk in the medieval times would have been both acidic and tannic, tasting nothing like the smooth, rich beverage that we all enjoy in the 21^st century.

It was not until the 17^th century that the problem of early oxidation of wine was solved.  Perhaps it was Dom Perignon who invented the modern cork (certainly this is more credible than the belief that he invented Champagne) as a way of sealing bottles.  However, when corks were first used they were only partially inserted in the neck of the bottle so that there would be a method of extraction.  Certainly the real unsung hero of this story is the unknown inventor of the corkscrew, of which the first printed mention was in 1681.  First called a “worm” the term corkscrew was not in usage until around 1720.

Once the fermented wine could be safely stored in corked bottles without fear of spoilage it became possible to age wine.  Quality of wine therefore dramatically increased in the 18^th century.  Wine as we know it has perhaps only a 300-year, not 9,000-year history.

Much of the above should be cited to  Hugh Johnson’s book “The Story of Wine.”

Macabeo:  This is a white wine that is not commonly sold in Canada (or a least not sold in Nova Scotia).  At one time, however, it was the most widely planted grape in Rioja.  More recently Spanish growers are replacing this varietal with red-wine grapes as they return greater profits.  Macabeo is a crisp acidic wine that is mild in flavour.  It is generally inexpensive and makes a nice summer wine or even as an accompaniment for salad.  It is also grown in France, in particular as a blending wine in Minervois.  Should you run across a Macabeo when browsing in a speciality wine shop, don’t be afraid to give it a try.

Let the French eat steak:  Some of us steak.  On a summer’s night there seems to be nothing better than the smell of a thick porterhouse grilling on the bar-b-que.  However, imagine eating steak 7 nights a week.  For variety you are allowed a prime rib roast and maybe even a hamburger.

Drinking wine is a bit like the above.  We don’t drink the same wine every day.  We switch wines depending on the food match and just because we want variety.  In Canada we are very fortunate because we have easy access to wines from all over the world.  Just as wines are different from different grapes, wines are different from different parts of the world.  Contrast a thin (although complex) wine from northern Burgundy to a heavy rich wine from Mendosa.  They are not the same drink.

In many countries (Argentina, Chile, France, Italy, Spain, to name a few) one only has access to native wines.  No matter how good those wines are in and of themselves citizens of these countries miss out on the wonderful experience of drinking very different wines from other places.  I don’t know if this is just traditional marketing or not but I suspect that protectionist laws prevent the importing of wines from other countries.

In Nova Scotia we even have one restaurant reviewer who insists that a restaurant is only good if the wine list is primarily made up of Nova Scotia wines.  Thus, I usually avoid the restaurants he recommends.

Things are not perfect here either.  Tax on wine is way too high.  However, we have perhaps the best selection of wine in the world.

New Offering from Opimian:  This offering has lots of good wines that won’t break the bank; particularly the ones from Chile.  Here are my recommendations:

6954 Cornellana XL Carmerere/CS/Merlot/Marbec

6964 Cornellana Reserve CS/Mer

6966 Cornellana Barrel Reserve CS/ Merlot  A MUST BUY

6975 Casa Nueva Syrah Reserve

6979 L’Assemblage Grand Vin by Villard

6987 Liriro Malbec

6994 Blason Malbec/Temperanillo