Turning wine into water

Whine # 57

The mystery of the missing wine:  Very recently friends from Barcelona attempted to mail us a beautiful gift of Spanish wines.  The boxes arrived, but they had clearly had been opened along the way and badly re-sealed.  My first thought was that the wine had been confiscated by the officious folks at Canada Customs.  However, the boxes contained one bottle of wine as well as bottles of mineral water.  Since the particular brand of mineral water is only sold in Catalunya it seemed there had been a thievery, not in Canada but in Spain. 

We all are familiar with the wedding parable about water being turned into wine.  However, this is an example of the much less pleasant outcome when wine is turned into water.

The story doesn’t end there.  Our Spanish friends had not only tried to send wine to the Johnson’s, but had also very generously mailed wine to their other Antigonish friends.  The result was exactly the same; the boxes had been opened, and all but one bottle of wine had been removed.  Our friends had tried to send a variety of wines to two different Antigonish couples.  However, in each case the recipients got a lot of packing paper and one bottle of Albarina Rias Baixas. 

For those of you not familiar with the Albarina varietal, it is a light and crisp white wine, rich without being sweet, and having hints of peaches in the aroma.  It is similar to, but better than, the Portuguese favorite Vinho Verde.  Now why would the thieves twice leave this particular wine and take the other bottles?  Not only do I not know, I cannot even come up with a reasonable hypothesis.  I am, however, saving the Albarina for just the right occasion.

Alfa Crux:  In my first blog each year I describe what wines I drank the previous year and what were the very best bottles that I had opened during the previous 12 months.  In each of the last four years I have included in my list of 10 or so a bottle of O. Fournier’s Alfa Crux Malbec.  No other wine has consistently pleased me as much.   Apparently I am not the only one to consider this wine to be something very special.  I just read that “Wine Spectator” magazine has recently  listed the 2010 Alfa Crux as one of the top 25 wines in the world.  Glad to see that this magazine has caught up with my ratings.

Carmenere:  Those of you that read these blogs know that the wine that I most frequently I drink is Argentinian Malbec.  This rich medium-heavy wine is full of beautiful tannins, but is quite low in acid.  For a number of reasons, it is a wine that represents great value, particularly in a year where the Canadian dollar has lost about 20% of its value against the U.S. greenback.  For variety, however, there is another high value wine that equally pleases my palate.    

Chilean Carmenere, which like Argentinian Malbec, traces its roots back to France is rapidly finding favor all over the Americas.  In the 19^th century root stocks were taken from Bordeaux and planted in Chile.   For some reason, however, the Carmenere plants tended to be mixed in with Merlot and planted in the same vineyards.  Local growers recognized that two different plants were growing and that the resulting wines were very different, yet they assumed there were two different sub-types of Merlot.  It was not until 1994 that scientists determined that varietal was in fact Carmenere and not something that had incorrectly been called Chilean Merlot.

In the later part of the 19^th century France was hit by the phylloxera blight and stocks of Carmenere in France all but disappeared.  Phylloxera has never reached Chile and in the last 20 years Carmenere has become the signature wine of Chile.  Today there are about 24,000 acres of Carmenere in Chile (as compared to 77,000 acres of Malbec grown in Argentina).

Both Carmenere and Malbec are low in acid but high in rich, lush tannins.  Both are dark in color although Malbec is perhaps more purple.  In terms of taste both have flavors of plum and spice.  In both cases the wines are frequently oaked (unoaked versions exist).

A couple of nights ago I decanted a medium-priced Carmenere and a medium-priced Malbec.  Under double-blind conditions four of us drank the two wines with an entrée of Veal Veronique.  The fact that Malbec is more purple than Carmenere was a bit of a give-away in terms of the blind tasting.  As it turned out three of the four of us preferred the Malbec, although all liked both wines.  The Carmenere was a little more tannic and perhaps could benefit from another year in the cellar.

The next time you are picking up a bottle of your favorite Malbec, also buy a bottle of Carmenere in the same price range and do a comparison.  I bet you'll be pleased with both.

Lent:  At a recent luncheon meeting of the Romeos (Retired Old Men Eating Out) a friend of mine was the after lunch speaker.  He casually mentioned that he was going to give up drinking beer for Lent.  The thought occurred to me that perhaps I should discipline myself by giving up something.  Wine immediately came to mind.  On the other hand, I do not like failure very much and swearing off wine would be resolution that would absolutely fail.  Instead I have decided to give up sobriety.

Opimian Offering 231:  Here are my recommendations:

7986  Serra Vinho Verde.  Each year I recommend this as a light summer white which also makes a very nice reception wine.
8003  Clos Montblanc Monastrell blend.  A nice Spanish red that goes well with food and which makes a break from the more common Tempranillo.
8009  Cava Parxet.  A lovely dry Cava for thos who like their sparkling wines without much sweetness.
8014  Blason Ribera.  Medium expensive this 2009 is almost ready for drinking
8024  Pouilly Fuisse.  Not cheap but well worth the price for anyone who wants a really good Chardonnay.
8032  Gigondas.  Again this will set you back a bit but it is still slighter cheaper but just as good as a Chateau-neuf-du-Pape.