Archive for October 2011

Home Archive for October 2011

I have been an admirer of Kevin Zraly for nearly 25 years. His "Windows on the World Complete Wine Course" is a must-read for anyone looking to increase their wine knowledge. After my recent trip to Italy, however, I must take exception to something Mr. Zraly wrote in the latest edition of his book. He states,"The Italians traditionally do not put the same effort into making their white wines as they do their reds." While this may still be true for some regions that specialize in red wine, I think if Mr. Zraly had joined us on our visits to Soave and Orvieto he might amend that statement.

In Soave we visited the La Cappuccina estate. Since 1890 the Tessari family has been making wine on this property. Eighty-six acres of vineyards surround the family's villa. A new state of the art cellar has recently been completed. Day to day running of the estate is now in the hands of the third generation: Sisto, the agronomist, Pietro, the winemaker, and Elena, responsible for public relations. The Tessaris' quest for even greater quality has led them to carrying out all phases of the winemaking process according to organic precepts since 1985.

The family's attention to detail can be seen in all of their wines, and while some spectacular red wines are produced at La Cappuccina, the primary focus is on the production of white wine.

Sisto explaining the drying process for his Recioto di Soave.

In the stunning hilltop village of Orvieto, we visited the historic estate of Le Velette. Le Velette lies in the center of the Orvieto Classico zone. Their ancient cellars were carved into the tufaceous rock during the Etruscan period. There are still Etruscan amphora in the cellars to testify to the antique oenological tradition of this place.

Today, Le Velette has been run by the same family for six generations. The passionate brother and sister team of Corrado and Cecilia Bottai jealously guard the ancient traditions which they combine with modern technology that together give life to wines of outstanding quality. Experts from around the world have given the wines from Le Velette international acclaim.

Cecilia and Corrado Bottai are pushing quality at Le Velette.

Etruscan Amphora found in the cellars of Le Velette.

Just as at La Cappuccina, Le Velette has introduced international red grape varieties onto the property, but the primary focus is their spectacular white wines.

If you are in the market for exceptionally well-made white wines from passionate, quality driven producers, look no further than La Cappuccina Soave and Le Velette Orvieto.

Paul Quaglini

Wine Supervisor

Spain Trip Log (Part 8), Day 4 (Part 2): Rioja Alavesa

Leaving Bodegas Muga after lunch, we return to Hotel Villa de Laguardia for a few hours of downtime. By now my middle-aged bones are beginning to feel a little road weary. I use the free time to visit the aptly named Wine Oil Spa at the hotel which features several healthful treatments incorporating, you guessed it, wine and olive oil! Time is of the essence however, so I settle for a first-rate shiatsu massage instead. But if I ever find myself back here again with the requisite time on my hands….

Refreshed and invigorated, our troupe sets back out in the late afternoon to the village of Samaniego and an intimate visit with yet another inventive Riojan winemaker (no complaints here, mind you). However, merely referring to Fernando Remirez de Ganuza of Bodegas Remirez de Ganuza as simply “inventive” is probably short of the mark. The terms “perfectionist” and “visionary” are perhaps more suitable.

Samaniego may be the most charming of towns in a region filled with them. This little hamlet in Rioja Alavesa is tucked neatly at the base of the Sierra Cantabrias. Bodegas Remirez de Ganuza is so close, you almost feel that you could reach out with a hand and touch the giant stone outcroppings. A stroll through the vineyards nearest to the winery with Fernando and his export manager Luis Martinez reveals the first hint of innovation: the winery employs a practice known as cepillado de las cepas in which the trunks of the vines are brushed, removing the dried strips of bark. This is done to promote vine health by naturally reducing pests and vine diseases.

The innovative process continues inside the winery too. For example, start with selecting what part of each grape cluster makes it into the finished wine (Fernando only uses the “shoulders” of each bunch). Then implement an unconventional crush process (utilizing a large water-filled plastic bag to gently press the grapes). Follow that up with adding white grape skins (skins only!) to his red wine to increase color and complexity. At Remirez de Ganuza, attention to every detail is extensively paid in the pursuit of making great wine.

Inventiveness aside, the source for Remirez de Ganuza’s wines is roughly 30 hectares of old-vine, estate fruit from five single vineyards in Rioja Alavesa (El Sotillo, San Miguel, Lagillos, Ermita y Cofrades, La Coqueta) with diverse exposures and soils (calcareous clay-limestone, chalk, gravel). Tasting through their small portfolio reveals terrior driven wines with plenty of soul.

Throughout my two-week trek across Spain, I would ultimately taste several wines as compelling as Fernando’s, but none better.

Jim Greeley, Wine Supervisor, SW Florida

BTW: ABCFWS currently has a very limited allocation of the stellar 2001 Remirez de Ganuza Rioja Reserva ($75.99). It is rated 97 points in the Wine Advocate.

Continuing my somewhat sporadic investigation into boxed wines: the good, the not-so-good.

BOTABOX ZINFANDEL:

DAY 1: Slightly spicy, unmistakable Zinfandel aromas of underbrush and raisin. Really good! I would NOT guess a box wine for this, although I would immediately think Zinfandel.

DAY 3: Same as above, obvious Zinfandel quality, ripe and full, with loads of fruit and a nice balance.

DAY 5: Still coming across like a Zinfandel, plum and spice, has that heady Zinfandel quality that makes them so easy to enjoy. Low acidity and good weight combine to make it a very pleasing wine!

DAY 7: No real change over the past few days, I still really like the wine for what it is. I don’t drink many red Zinfandels anymore, for no real reason, but this one reminds me why I liked them to begin with. Has that unmistakable Zinfandel flavor, what else do I need to say!

DAY 9: Same as above, although I think there is a little less attractive fruitiness, maybe a bit of rustic bitterness in the finish. My guess is that is what you will find once the fruit begins to fade.

DAY 12: The box is almost done, which I am happy for, since I really liked it much more during the first week. Still easily drinkable, but this one is one that if I buy it again (and I do recommend it) I will consume a little faster!

BLACK BOX MERLOT:

Day 1: I really had no (or low) expectations for the merlot…..think ‘SIDEWAYS’…I never know what to expect from one anymore: there are so many mediocre examples to choose from (or to ignore if you happen to follow Paul Giamatti’s philosophy) and I am usually disappointed, regardless of price. The only way I can really think of merlot the wine is to try and remember the adjectives used in the Wine Spectator or Wine Advocate reviews. Descriptors like plums, black cherries and cedar…if I taste them, it must be a decent merlot. This Black Box had just those flavors. If I was blindfolded and tasted this, I would automatically say ‘Merlot’, which I must say could easily be a compliment.

DAY 3: Same flavors, as expected. I remember a few years back, one of our suppliers poured a wine from decanters for the staff of Wine Consultants, asked them to taste it, guess what it was and put a price on it. Many of us guessed merlot, and someone in the room said it tasted about like a good $25 California Merlot (I guessed it to be merlot, but it tasted like a much less expensive example than that one fella thought). You guessed it, it was Black Box Merlot. I think this one is pretty much what you would expect, and I am sure many people will buy it more than once. To my taste, it is good enough for the price, but very straightforward and not inspired. Hard to recommend it when the Zinfandel is such a better example for the same price, but this is MERLOT, and will have its fans.

Shayne Hebert, Central Florida Wine Supervisor

When I first got into the wine business, it seemed that all Sauvignon Blancs were “grassy,” or vegetal in taste and aroma. This was not very pleasing to many people. Today, we have options that seem to run to citrusy flavors like grapefruit. Something must have changed!

In part, though, this characteristic was largely defined by the location the wine was produced, as well as by what wine drinkers had easy access to. In recent years we have been exposed to more Sauvignon Blanc wines, from all over the world, than ever before. In the past, the Sauvignon Blanc selection was minimal; now, most countries each have a nice selection.

Another factor has to do with the craft of winemaking itself. In the early 1980s, winery and viticulture people got together and agreed to minimize the grassy, vegetal style in their wine, hoping to improve their appeal to wine drinkers.

They found out that Sauvignon Blanc grapes that grow in cooler regions need to be exposed to more sun. By trimming and pruning the vines and leaves, they eliminate the vegetative note (think canned asparagus).

Remember, all grapes are affected by climate, soil, or what the French refer to as “terroir.” Sauvignon Blanc has a unique taste profile in the different places it’s cultivated.

In the Loire Valley, France, where there is a cool climate, grapes don’t ripen as fully, resulting in high acidity and lower alcohol. Sauvignon Blanc here is labeled as Sancerre or Pouilly-Fume. These wines tend to have lean, crisp flavors like grapefruit, lemon and grass. When people ask for Sancerre or Pouilly-Fume, they expect this wine to have this flavor profile. Loire’s soil, which is chalky, creates a flinty, minerally taste.

In warmer climates, such as California, Sauvignon Blanc grapes reach a fuller degree of ripeness which means more alcohol and less acidity. The flavor profile for these wines is richer with pear, melon, fig, and if oak is used, toast flavors.

Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand has been described as “cat pee on a gooseberry bush,” which is actually an herbaceous, green fruit quality, and quite enjoyable! You must also take into consideration the marl soil New Zealand has, which gives the Sauvignon Blanc its bright grapefruit flavors.

Bordeaux Sauvignon Blancs have herbaceous notes in the wine due to gravely soil.

Summing up the Sauvignon Blanc “thing,” you need to remember wine-makers use their “bag of tricks” and modern technology to produce wine that is appealing to us. But, with all this, you still need to take into consideration where the wine is from and choose accordingly.

Marie Griffin, Northwest Florida wine supervisor

What is a Halloween wine? Scary wine? Spooky wine? Haunted wine? Blood wine? Wine incarnadine? Pairing wine with cheap, big-bagged candies is not an easy task: Riesling with your candied corn? Moscato with your circus peanuts? I do love Zinfandel with chocolate, even Snickers and Reese’s cups, but what do we really want out of a Halloween wine? We’re not giving the wine bottles to Trick or Treaters, right? The bottles are for the adults handing out the candy to pair with whatever’s for dinner on the 31^st. Perhaps Halloween wine is just for our Halloween-themed adult (as in above the legal drinking age) parties that seem to get bigger and badder every year. Now we have some interesting options for Halloween wines; wines that look the part but also bring great taste to the party.

Vampire Winery has made their name being that producer. Vampire wines have been helped a great deal by our recent cultural obsession with youthful vampires, as well as Goth subculture, but this winery really took off when they started producing their wines in California, rather than Transylvania. I remember when Vampire wine was only Pinot Noir and Cabernet and was only available around Halloween. It was sourced from Eastern Europe, which gave the wine a strong mineral acidity, tasting rather sanguine (think of Hungary’s Bull’s Blood wine or Egri Bikaver, which can also be a Halloween wine choice since it’s got “blood” in the name). Though Transylvania gave the wine a real connection to the Dracula myth, by geography and by taste, it limited its potential popularity as a wine for U.S. wine lovers. Therefore it made good business sense to have a better quality of wine available all year long. In California, the Vampire Vineyards expanded their line beyond incarnadine to include whites and blush wines and added some flagship wines like the Dracula Paso Robles Zinfandel and the Trueblood Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir (talk about cross-marketing).

Now the Vampire wines are more akin to their California cousins and follow typical varietal characteristics in a New World style. The regular Vampire Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon are available locally, and all year long, from most ABC Fine Wines and Spirits for about $10 per bottle. Of the prestige line only the Dracula Zin is generally available at ABC for $16 per bottle, while the rest can be special-ordered if necessary. You can check out the winery’s website to see all of the offerings available.

Some other Halloween-looking wines are the Spanish Garnacha de Fuego ($8 per bottle) and the California Bramblewood Zin ($12 per bottle), which are both black and orange and spooky. The Garnacha’s label has fire licking up the side of the bottle on a black background, while the Bramblewood looks like a scene out of any Halloween cartoon (Great Pumpkin time?) with thorny black brambles on an orange background. Both of these wines have great flavors to go along with their seasonal attire. The Gnarly Head wines have a similar orange and black color-theme, as does Bogle Old Vine Zin, and these wines are usually right around $10 per bottle and are consistently good. As a color alternative, the Apothic Red (about $9 per bottle) has a more classically Goth appearance, with a scarlet letter “A” surrounded by red filigree and scrollwork on a black background. The Undone wines (both Pinot Noir and Riesling, at $10 and $11 respectively) have a particular costume look (think corsets, slightly undone) that can work for some holiday events, though the Pinot Noir’s black label fits our current visual theme a little better.

There are many October-oriented beers, so I’ll leave that to one of our beer bloggers, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a perfect Halloween addition to any home bar décor, the Crystal Head vodka. Yes the bottle is one of those crystal heads out of the last Indiana Jones movie, but full of triple filtered premium vodka. And this month you get a free crystal head shot glass for every 750ml or larger size bottle you purchase. We sell skulls from 50ml for $10, to 750’s for $50 and 1.75s for $100. All of them look deliciously ghoulish when underlit at the front of your haunted bar. Enjoy your spooky drinks responsibly, which is why wine is such a great alternative, or addition, to your typical Halloween party bar.

Halloween is just a week away, so get your Samhain supplies now (or have us order in more quantity for your party) before the spooky rush creates a blood bath. Have a spooktacular holiday and be safe!

Daniel Eddy, Fine Wine Consultant for ABC in Gainesville, Florida

Dan's also the Wine Pairing Examiner for Examiner.com; you can read more of his suggestions at http://www.examiner.com/wine-pairing-in-gainesville/daniel-eddy

Wine and cheese pairing was my job for almost twenty years. I worked at smaller Gainesville wine and cheese shops before becoming a wine consultant with ABC, and though I miss selecting and cutting to order, I am very impressed with the quality and range of cheeses that we provide for our guests at ABC Fine Wines and Spirits. So let’s play a little pairing game with some of my current favorite cheeses, and maybe create a great meal option for a busy weekday evening. All you would need from the supermarket would be some fresh grapes or mixed greens, since we also sell a fine selection of cured veggies and olives, bruschetta toppings like tapenades, and gourmet crackers. With a couple of artisanal cheeses and a bottle of fine wine, you’ve got a complete meal in no time at all.

Sartori, from Wisconsin, makes a fine array of Italianesque cheeses. One was a real surprise for me, as I’ve never had a cheese that brings coffee to the table: Espresso Encrusted Bella Vitano. Yes, they use ground espresso beans to encrust the exterior rind of the cheese. At first I didn’t feel comfortable with the idea, even though I use coffee or mocha to describe dry red wines all the time, but to have that flavor with cheese? I’m accustomed to vegetable ash rinds, or cheeses wrapped in sycamore leaves or pepper-encrusted and herb-rind cheeses, but espresso? Then I tasted it, and I was hooked. If you sample the cheese blind you might not come up with espresso as the extra flavor component, but once you know what it is, it makes sense. The base cheese, Bella Vitano, tastes like a cross between Cheddar and Asiago, salty and dense, but not as salty and dense as the aged versions of either Cheddar or Asiago. The espresso gives a nice earthy richness to the cheese without overpowering it, leading me to pair with denser red wines that have hints of coffee or mocha flavors. Our new Block 77 Old Vine Zinfandel is one of those wines, with ripe and juicy characters at the forefront that merge into spicy and smoky flavors on the palate, with hints of mocha and licorice. Consuming the two together will bring out the subtler coffee flavors without overwhelming your palate with coffee, since there are so many other flavors to both the cheese and the wine. Spanish Garnachas would also pair very well with this cheese and even some Aussie Shirazes, though the South African Graham Beck Shiraz comes to my mind as a wine with mineral and coffee notes. Because of the espresso encrusting I’m thinking red wines would pair better, but almost all cheeses go better with some wine, and vice versa, so there is rarely a bad wine and cheese pairing.

Sartori also makes a Merlot-cured rind Bella Vitano, reminiscent of Spain’s Drunken Goat, but with a cow’s milk-based cheese. This Bella Vitano has a little more acid bite, since it’s been cured in red wine, which colors the exterior rind. My first thought is to go red, since the cheese has Merlot as a curing agent. Hart and McGarry 2008 Merlot (for about $13 per bottle) is an excellent choice, since it has a little more acidity than some of our other Cali Merlots, which makes it a very food friendly wine in my book. An Italian wine like our new Nicolis 2010 Valpolicella (for about $13 per bottle) would also pair very well, bringing its own acidity to the table, but with an elegant finish and softer tannins than other Italian wines. The Italian-themed flavors of this Bella Vitano cheese works with a whole range of Italian wines including some of our dry rosé wines from Italy (or other rosés from Spain and France). Both of these Sartori cheeses are $6, but they promise much more flavor than your usual supermarket fare, and therefore more enjoyment in pairing with our fine wines.

A cheese that might pair a little better with white wines would be our Kerrygold Blarney Castle from Ireland. This is basically an Irish version of Dutch Gouda (no Blarney to that statement), but it has more character than some of our domestic Gouda-like cheeses. It is a milder, softer cheese than the first two from Sartori, and can work fine with softer reds like Beaujolais or my favorite bargain Pinot Noir, Fog Bank, but the perfect pairing would be with a nice Chardonnay. I might choose an Un-oaked Chardonnay like the Paradise Sound, or just an “Old World”-styled Chardonnay (with less new oak) like the Ma Fleur 2010 Chardonnay from France’s Pays D’Oc (for $11 per bottle). This wine reminds me of much more expensive white Burgundies, with good acidity, but it also has a pear and green apple component that is very food friendly, especially with this mildly nutty, yet creamy-textured cheese.

As I said before, pretty much any cheese improves by consuming with wine, and pretty much any wine improves by consuming with cheese. Part of the fun is experimenting with different cheeses to see which pairing is your perfect match. Odds are you will enjoy the experimentation and not feel that a specific pairing hurt the flavors of the wine or vice versa, even if it didn’t pair quite as well as another. Now you understand why the French love to serve a cheeseboard, or a selection of artisanal cheeses, to enjoy the complex interplay between wine and cheese, a pairing they’ve been honing for over two thousand years. Enjoy!

Daniel Eddy, Wine Consultant for ABC in Gainesville, Florida (Newberry Road)

Dan's also the Wine Pairing Examiner for Examiner.com in Gainesville: you can read more of his choices at http://www.examiner.com/wine-pairing-in-gainesville/daniel-eddy

As aficionados of fine beer, wine, and spirits, most of us here at ABC are adventurous in nature, always on the prowl for a new flavor experience. In fact, there are quite a few people in the company whose job is to find the next new thing. With all this focus on what’s new, I thought it was a good time to explore something old.

Brewing is an ancient form of food preparation. In cultures that brew it commonly predates both agriculture and writing. In fact, some of the oldest examples of writing from Mesopotamia deal with beer recipes and grain transactions. Some have theorized that brewing was the cause for agriculture, as the process requires quite a bit of grain. Most of these early forms of beer would not bear much resemblance to our modern definitions of the beverage. They would have been relatively low in alcohol, muddy-looking, and probably slightly sour due to the nature of wild yeast strains. That said, it was still a nutritious beverage, probably more so than the balance of many early diets.

Similar to ancient beers that were brewed before the knowledge of bacteria, lambics are spontaneously fermenting. The ingredients are cooked together then left uncovered to invite the bacteria into the vessels and start fermentation. The beer is then allowed to mature in oak casks for a period of time, anywhere from a few months to several years. This produces what is called geuze. It is common for fruit to be added to the fermentation process to add flavor. These are traditionally named after the Belgian word for whatever fruit is used, such as framboise (raspberry), kriek (cherry), etc. Another variation is called Faro, where brown sugar is added. Unlike fruit lambics, Faro is not bottle fermented, as the added yeast would feast on the brown sugar and drastically change the desired flavor of the beer.

The use of hops wasn’t always the norm. A gruit is a brewed mix of herbs whose addition to beer pre-dates the popular use of hops. In modern times it is a common term for a beer brewed without hops. Sahti is a Finnish beer that uses juniper berries and other ingredients in place of hops.

Some of this history is being resurrected by modern brewers. Dogfish Head is known for their “off-centered ales” and has led the charge of ancient brewing resurgence here in the US. Their Midas Touch and Chateau Jiahu use molecular analysis of beverage residues to re-create and re-imagine ancient beverages. Midas Touch is an interpretation of the aforementioned Mesopotamian beverages (approximately 2700 years-old) while Chateau Jiahu is an homage to a 9000 year old Chinese specimen. They also brew an interpretation of Sahti with a modern twist, the addition of black Chai tea, called Sah’tea. In the UK, the Williams Brothers Brewery has made their mark brewing variations of traditional Scottish gruit, using heather flowers, pine needles, seaweed, or berries. Fraoch, the variety brewed with heather flowers, is highly recommended. Lambics are growing in popularity. Boon is a respected brewer of lambics, especially their geuze. They, along with the ever-popular Lindemans, also produce framboise, kriek, and faro varieties.

Here’s to trying something old!

Reviews

Dogfish Head Midas Touch- This is a golden amber delight with the smell of Muscat grapes and a hint of spices. The taste is Muscat and honey forward with lingering white wine qualities. A kiss of barley is present to balance the sweetness. This is a great beer to sip. Notice how the flavor changes as it warms. Highly recommended.

Williams Brothers Fraoch- This light amber concoction smells like a meadow of heather with light malty sweetness. The taste is rather similar with an appealing floral quality and sweetness coming from the malts. There is a slight hint of honey and light grassy bitterness to provide balance. This is a very refreshing beer and a great departure from the norm. Recommended.

Boon Oude Geuze- Pours golden orange with a nice fluffy head that emits scents of Granny Smith apples, light vinegar notes, and some must. With this beer you have to take the time to let the flavors explode in your mouth. The flavor parade starts with Granny Smith apples, sweet pears, bleu cheese, lemon candy, white vinegar, the sweet-tart quality of fresh raspberries, apple peel, and a bit of banana in the finish. Remember, this is unflavored so all of the complexities are from the beer alone. Take care removing the cork and cage as they have been known to shoot across the room. Bottle variation is common with this style, so your experience may vary. Highly recommended.

Stephen Schmitt is the beer guru at our Fletcher Road, Tampa, ABC Fine Wine and Spirits store

If you’re like me – and why should you be? – you’ve probably spent a lot of time outdoors, reading ancient Chinese and Japanese texts in translation while sipping on rough futsu sake from a choko. Or perhaps you’ve come to sake through slamming such conglomerations as saketinis or sake bombs. Either way, you might have wondered at some point – what is this stuff?

In Japanese, sake (or o-sake) refers to any alcoholic beverage. In English the term has come to mean an alcoholic beverage originating in Japan (some would argue China) made from a special high starch content rice, water, and a type of mold called kōji.

Though often thought of as rice wine, sake is made using a brewing process more characteristic of beer than wine. Instead of the natural sugar in grapes being converted into alcohol as with wine, the alcohol in sake is converted from starch as it is in beer. But unlike beer which goes through a two-step conversion (starch to sugar, sugar to alcohol), with sake the two steps occur simultaneously through a process known as multiple parallel fermentation.

Historically, the making of sake dates from the third century BCE and beyond when it was made in a style called mouth chewed sake. A person would chew rice, chestnuts, millet and acorns and spit the mixture into a tub and the enzymes from the saliva converted the starch to sugar. Sake, as we know it, is first mentioned in the 3^rd century CE when it was used during religious ceremonies to induce a spiritual high.

It was the alcoholic beverage of choice in Japan until the 1960s when beer consumption took over. Oddly enough, this was the time when world consumption increased as did the quality of the sake itself. The rough or futsu sake that most of us grew up on is seeing a decline while the various premium styles now make up over half of sake consumption in the U.S.

Although there are traditional vessels (such as the choko, sakazuki, or masu) to serve sake, most experts now agree that a wine glass is best. Rough sake may be served chilled, at room temperature or heated as the drinker prefers (though food or seasonal weather may also come into the equation). Premium sake, however, should never be heated because it would dissipate the aromas and flavors.

Sake is all about the balance of sweetness and acidity. It pairs very well with many types of food. Because of its acidity, sake can pair well with deep-fried tempura dishes and is very popular with sushi. More and more we are seeing sake paired with non-Asian cuisine, too – Brazilian, Italian, French, and Mexican, not to mention Cajun, Creole and BBQ.

Sake should be stored in a cool, dark place and is ideally best when consumed within 2 – 3 hours after opening. If you don’t finish it in this time, seal the top and put it in the refrigerator. Here it will keep in near-excellent condition for about two days. Actually, it will keep for two or three weeks, but the quality will diminish over time.

Another benefit that some premium producers are quick to advertise is that super-refined quality sake will give you “no morning-after hangover after drinking." October 1^st is the official Sake Day in Japan. We may be a few days late but why not raise a glass of a good junmai sake to celebrate with dinner tonight?

Bill Stobbs, West Coast Wine Supervisor