Brew Hops & Wine Stops

I found out three months ago, that I was going to South Africa to visit a few wineries and to learn about their wine industry, but with everything else going on that time of year it seemed like a long way away. Well, I’m on the plane right now headed to Johannesburg. This will be the longest flight I’ve ever had (17 or so hours), but with iPad & Ambien in hand, we’ll be there in no time. This is my first trip to this part of the world and I’m very excited to see, smell, listen to and taste all of what South Africa has to offer.

Wines from some of the wonderful wineries we'll be visiting this week.

We are scheduled to visit Paarl, Elgin and of course Stellenbosch while we are there, with stops at Painted Wolf, Edgebaston, Tamboerskloof, Black Pearl, Downes and a couple other wineries. One of the more intriguing visits will be having the opportunity to get in a cage for a little face time with a great white...shark !  The shark part notwithstanding, this trip looks to be scheduled at a very calm pace and will allow us to really learn and enjoy each of our visits.

I will have unlimited Internet access, so anyone who follows me on Twitter will be able to see how it is going down there--join me one my travels there, @abcwinekena. I will also be blogging about the trip in the coming weeks right here, at blog.abcfws.com!

Ken Amendola, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits wine supervisor

What can I say? I love the outdoors. Perhaps this accounts for my bias towards craft brew in cans. While it can be debated all day about 100% light blockage vs. 98% or a host of related subjects, the versatility is undeniably useful for simple instances such as the beach, pool, camping and hiking, or when you need to go from a warm beer to a cold one quickly. Simplifying the choice even further is based upon how packable cans are (compare the weight of a sixer of bottles to the same in cans). Another plus is that as they are finished, the can be crushed to minimize their footprint in your pack.

I have experimented with bringing spirits on a prior hiking trip, however it just wasn’t the same; there is something so enticing, relaxing and downright desirable in getting to enjoy a craft brew after a long day. When said long day includes 20 miles of hiking over some serious elevation changes, a nice brew sounds like a taste of nirvana.

For the selection process, a few aspects must be accounted for, primarily weather conditions and ABV/style (and of course, if not already obvious, whether or not it's canned). Hiking in some colder weather? A nice Russian Imperial Stout will fit the bill. (Disclaimer: Use your head. While alcohol has the wonderful effect of making us feel warmer, in reality we lose more body heat. If you are in extreme conditions, play it safe and save that night's beer for when you safely finish.) ABV comes into play in the simple fact that session IPAs are great if you plan on having several over the course of the day. But who wants to strap a 12-pack onto their pack for a multiday trek in the wilderness? We aren’t car camping after all. One higher ABV brew a night is more than enough, resulting in a much smaller pack load (alcohol related at least). For example, my next trip planned for a multiday excursion will be fueled by two Oskar Blues Ten Fidys and two Sixpoint Resins (Hi-Res if available).

Be sure to check the local laws of where you are backpacking, as possession of alcohol is not legal in all areas. As always plays it safe and use common sense.

Cheers!

Bennett Clark, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits beer consultant - Port Orange

Follow me on Twitter @abcbeerbennett

In 1989, a successful négociant carrier in Bordeaux, Jean-Luc Thunevin and his wife Murielle Andraud, bought a 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres) plot in Saint-Émilion between Pavie-Macquin and La Clotte, and a former garage to be used as a winery.

That's when Château Valandraud was born.

The name is as much geographic (Val: Vallon de Fongaban) as it is sentimental (Andraud: Murielle’s family name).

The first vintage was released in 1991: 1,500 bottles, priced at less than $20. 

Exemplified as a typical "micro-château," Valandraud was given 96 points for the 2009 vintage and 97+ points for the 2010 by The Wine Advocate, and its price approaches $400.

Château Valandraud was promoted 1st Grand Cru Classé in the 2012 ranking of the great wines of Saint Émilion, just 20 years after its first vintage! Unprecedented! And even more importantly, with Valandraud, a new appellation of origin "un”-controlled was born: the “Garage Wine!”

This kind of success and ultimate achievement would have been enough for most people, but not for the true artist. The true artist does not work for fortune or fame, but for the love of what they create. For that reason they are never satisfied and always innovating, breaking the boundaries, pushing the limits.

And that is the nature of Jean-Luc; the restless “bad boy” of Saint Émilion has looked beyond his native Bordeaux into the ancient, but newly re-discovered, wine region of Roussillon in Southwestern France.

The new Thunevin-Calvet winery is located in Maury, the first building at the entrance of the town. The ruins of the mysterious Cathar castles (Quéribus and Peyrepertuse) close by, with their thousand years of history, add to the majesty of this outstanding, unspoiled natural environment.

The town of Maury gave its name to the appellation for sweet fortified wine, but Maury is today just one of many outstanding wines produced here and the only sweet one. The focus is on full-bodied, dry reds from old vines Grenache Noir and Carignan and high-altitude Syrah, as well as crisp whites from Grenache Blanc and Macabeu.

The following five outstanding wines from domain Thunevin-Calvet are now available at ABC Fine Wine & Spirits:

Thunevin-Calvet Maury 2007 and 2008

Thunevin-Calvet Cuvée Hugo 2008

Thunevin-Calvet Les Dentelles 2008

Thunevin-Calvet Cuvée Constance 2010

Read more about the Thunevin-Calvet winery in the upcoming edition of the Wine Journal, in stores March!

Atanas Nechkov, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits wine supervisor

Follow me on Twitter @abcwineatanas 

ABC is happy to add two great South African wines to our portfolio from A.A. Badenhorst Family Wines:  Secateurs Chenin Blanc and Secateurs Red. Winemaker and co-owner Adi Badenhorst, who trained in Bordeaux, the northern Rhone and New Zealand before becoming winemaker for nine years at Rustenberg, purchased 60 hectares in the Swartland in 2008 and set about making natural wine in the traditional manner.

Once something of an ignored area in South Africa’s Western Cape, the Swartland has grown in stature over the past decade and has become one of its most interesting appellations. A beautiful but sometimes wild, sometimes forbidding area it is now the home of The Swartland Revolution (‘We came, we saw, we revolted’) of which Adi Badenhorst is a founding member. The idea of the Revolution is to showcase the wines of the area. Despite whatever stylistic or philosophic differences the winemakers of the Swartland may have, all will agree that it offers a true sense of place which can be enjoyed and detected in the wines.

Old bush vines

Most vines in the area are bush vines, which is the original and most natural way of planting. With no trellis support, only pruning, the vines flourish in the wilderness and produce wines that have great character and depth, wines that are meant for enjoyment even more than idolization. When asked what he likes most in wine Adi replies, “Just that it quenches your thirst. Wine that you can drink and that can last and change in the glass. You must feel nourished after drinking wine. You mustn’t feel confused by wine.” Pretentious is the last thing that Adi Badenhorst is.

Secateurs Chenin Blanc is beautifully simple and delicious. Crisp and vibrant with pleasant citrus aromas and a dry finish, it is the perfect white wine for our Florida weather.

Secateurs Red is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, Cinsault and Grenache. Badenhorst’s vines are unirrigated, biologically farmed as much as possible and fermented in traditional concrete tanks. The 2011 Secateurs Red was awarded 91 points by Wine Advocate. (Though when asked his view on wine scoring Adi replied, “I don’t know. I’m no good at maths so it doesn’t work for me. If it’s more than 10, I get a bit nervous!”)

Breakfast with Adi Badenhorst

I had the pleasure of staying at Adi Badenhorst’s Kalmoesfontein farm in the Swartland a while back, along with our ABC Director of Wines Brad Lewis and a small group of wine specialists. It was, as you might expect, a very happy and laid-back time, with the emphasis on enjoying the wines in good company, in pleasant surroundings and with great home-cooked food. Somehow it seemed wrong to discuss the wines too deeply, as wonderful as they were. The farm was a real ‘home’ – with Adi and his beautiful family making us perfectly at ease, and neighbors stopping by to join the festivities (and to watch the rugby game). But my prime memory was after everyone else had gone to bed, sitting up until late at night with Adi, drinking that delicious South African Rooibos tea and talking about – not wine so much – but good books, life philosophies, the pleasure of collecting vinyl records and our mutual affection for Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin.

I don’t think I need to say more about the wines. Try them. Enjoy them. Oh, and “Long live the Revolution!” 

Kalmoesfontein Farm

Bill Stobbs, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits wine supervisor

Follow me on Twitter @abcwinebills

Cooperstown, New York

Cooperstown is a small town. Locals joke that they have “one stop light and a flag pole.” There is a farmer’s market every Saturday down an alley on Pioneer Street. When I first saw the main part of town I immediately thought of Mayberry, Mom, apple pie and baseball. For me, Cooperstown became the real-life approximation of small-town America. It is the embodiment of all that America holds dear:  our tradition and culture. To expand that distinction, Cooperstown is America. Seeing this first-hand, it became immediately apparent why the Baseball Hall of Fame is at home here. It also became apparent why Brewery Ommegang is equally at home here. How can the real-life version of Americana be the perfect place for a farmhouse-style brewery specializing in Belgian beer? Tradition and culture.

The backyard of Brewery Ommegang

Central and upstate New York was an important hop growing region in the 19th century, with Cooperstown an integral part of the industry. Appropriately, Brewery Ommegang was built on a formerhop farm. Founded and built in 1997, Ommegang sought to produce authentic Belgian-style ales. Blending American and Belgian tradition, its name came from a festival held in Brussels in 1549 to commemorate a visit by Emperor Charles V.  All of their beer is brewed with tradition in mind. Their ales are open-fermented and spiced with traditional Belgian ingredients such as grains of paradise, licorice root, star anise and coriander to name a few. Also according to tradition, each beer has its signature glass.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Current owners Duvel Moortgat cemented Brewery Ommegang’s place of prominence in brewing culture. Much like their other brands – Duvel, Liefmands, De Koninck, Chouffe and Boulevard Brewing – their focus is on maintaining the local culture and tradition of the brewery, creating a network of internationally known and respected local breweries. Much like the famed Baseball Hall of Fame exemplifies the great American past-time, the bastion of sports equality, Brewery Ommegang personifies the cultural blending that made America a great nation.

Stop by your local ABC to find a selection of Brewery Ommegang beers today. 

Stephen Schmitt, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits beer consultant - Tampa

Follow me on Twitter @abcbeerstephens

Collalto cellars at Susegana

In the past 10 years, prosecco has risen from relative obscurity to one of the best-selling sparkling wines on the US market. Massive advertising from the large wine suppliers and distributors certainly contributed to the success. The idea was to save money by trading down from Champagne. But is the consumer really getting a bargain? Most prosecco is produced on a very large, industrial scale resulting in a less-than-exciting product. For that reason, in this case, only the best will do; that name is (all wine professional agree) Collalto.

Azienda Agricola Conte Collalto is one of the oldest and most influential winemaking estates in Northeast Italy. Collalto’s family roots date back as far as 958 AD. In that year, Berengarius II, King of Italy, leased to Count Rambaldo I, illustrious ancestor of the Collalto family, the contea (county) of Lovadina, with all of its fields, pasturelands, woods and vineyards.

Castello San Salvatore, Collalto

For over a thousand years, the Collalto family has tenaciously preserved its agricultural patrimony, through countless political seasons and wars, and ever-changing social systems and fashions. Pincess Isabella Collalto is currently at the reins of the estate.

Our ABC wine team has visited the Collalto estate on numerous occasions. This is not an ordinary winery: the Conte Collalto estate is an ecological oasis without peer among all the ecosystems of northern Italy. Its 150 hectares (371 acres) of vineyards are harmoniously surrounded by magnificent, centuries-old olive trees, dense woods, fields and grazing pastures, where cattle and horses, woodcocks, pheasants, hare and boar reign undisturbed. Significant investments over the years have helped to preserve the natural environment by applying only the most appropriate forms of land conservation and sustainable farming.

Isabella Collalto and family

The Conte Collalto estate vineyards currently yield about 850,000 bottles, of which 550,000 are Prosecco Superiore Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG. Conte Collalto produces wine exclusively from its own estate-grown grapes and performs every step from grape-growing to vinification and bottling in its historic cellars at Susegana.

The Glera grape--the main variety of proseccos--represents the heart of Conte Collalto’s wine production. Full 160 acres of the estate’s 371 acres of vineyard are dedicated to this noble variety. Prosecco is made with a minimum of 85% of the Glera (prosecco) grape and, up to a maximum amount of 15%, of Verdiso, Bianchetta, Perera and Glera Lunga.

Currently available at ABC Fine Wine & Spirits are the Prosecco Superiore Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG Brut ($17.99) and Extra Dry ($15.99). Other favorites and best-selling wines from Collalto are the Spumante Rosé ($18.69), the Pinot Grigio ($13.89) and the Cabernet Sauvignon ($29.99).

Salute!

Atanas Nechkov, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits wine supervisor

Follow me on Twitter @abcwineatanas

Just returned from a few days in north Georgia. Camping in the mountains; spending the days fly fishing for the magnificent Brown and Rainbow trout and the evenings in front of the fire telling lies about the fish that day while dinner was cooking and the wines were opened. In the fresh air, wines always seem to taste better, as does the food, and for this reason I usually bring some of the good stuff.

Our first day, we spent the entire day on the Soque River getting wet, getting the gear tuned up and relaxing. I drove through the night and needed a slow day…no better place to slow the days down! At camp, we grilled up some mixed veggies and some smoked sausages while we snacked on some gruyere, manchego and cheddar with salami. W. Fevre Chablis 1er Cru Vaulorent 2008 with the cheeses was simply delicious, and Michel Chapoutiers’ Bila Haut Occultum Lapidem 2010 ($25) was as good as it has ever been.

A good night’s sleep was interrupted by our need to get on the water at Blackhawk Trophy Fly Fishing. We grabbed our gear and a guide and spent the day on one of most beautiful sections of water I have seen. The fish were big and hungry and the day passed way too fast. Back at camp, we cooked up chicken and peppers on the open fire. A bottle of Pic & Chapoutier St. Peray ($20) signaled the end of the day and was also quite fine with the cheese plate. We chose the Cyrot-Buthiau Volnay ($45) for the wine, and it was stunning!

At sun up the next morning, we were already on the way to one of my favorite places in the area, Fern Valley. A beautiful stretch of the Soque, made even more so by the morning clouds and slight drizzle. I especially love casting the fly in the rain. It seems to be more tranquil, less people on the water and the trout come alive. A fat pork tenderloin roasted on the fire while we sipped the Mosel Riesling Spatlese trocken. Maison Champy Volnay 1er Cru Taillepieds ($64) was perfect with the pork. Then all the fresh air caught up to us and we were out.

Our last day we were greeted by 50 degree temperatures as the sun came up over Duke’s Creek in the Smithgall Woods. Another of my favorite spots in north Georgia, for its rugged beauty and technical water—very hard to be successful consistently on Dukes. All day yielded only one trout for me, but it was a beautiful 23 inch hooked jaw leviathan, and it fought like the champion it was. After slipping her back in the cold water, we lazily roamed back to the truck and already you could feel the change in seasons, as the wind was settling down and the temperature was dropping. It was reported to be heading into the mid-30s that night, and it did. Two fat porterhouse steaks and a little Bordeaux helped ease the cold. The Ch. Ampelia 2011 ($18) and the Ch. Gloria 2010 ($55) both rocked the nearly two pound porterhouse cut, although keeping them warm enough to enjoy was a chore!

And did I forget to mention we also had a lovely selection of cigars? My next trip is already in the planning stages—just can’t get enough of those mountains!

Shayne Hebert, Central Florida wine supervisor

Follow me on Twitter @abcwineshayne

Sandwiched between seven days visiting wineries in north Italy (Giorgi, La Cappuccina, Collalto and Nicolis) and spending four days vacationing in Roma, I had the opportunity to visit Castello Banfi in Montalcino. My visit was arranged by Filippo di Belardino, artisan vino specialist and Wines of Italy Hall of Fame inductee, and by Nick Shoults, national retail director of Off Premise Chains.

Approaching the castle, I noticed the modern Banfi Winery a kilometer or so away at the base of the hill. The castle and tasting room is perched high on a hill overlooking 7,100 acres of Banfi land; one third of the property is under specialized vine and the balance is shared between olive groves, wheat fields, plum trees, truffle stands, forest and scrub. 

Once inside the tasting room, I was greeted by Michela Dominici at the Enoteca wine shop (located next tothe castle) for the winery tour. We drove back down the hill where Michela walked us through the winery.

Our first stop was to see the Banfi patented fermenters. They call this technology Banfi hybrid composite. The concept is that the winemaker likes both stainless steel as well as French oak for fermenting the premium wines. The 24 Banfi hybrid composite fermenters have stainless on top with French oak in the middle for just the right effect of both! They are rather large, containing over 22,000 bottles worth of wine. Since they are primarily for fermenting, which doesn’t take long, they can be used 4-5 times each harvest season. These fermenters cost around 24,000 euros and have a life of about seven years.

As we ventured further into the winery, I saw a forest of huge temperature controlled stainless tanks that house the one million+ bottles produced each year of what they refer to as their “volume labels.” At this facility, they produce 10 premium and 25 volume wines. The best are the Brunello di Montalcino 100% Sangioveseand Summus, which is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Sangiovese. The Brunello, by law, must spend three years in the barrel and two more years bottle aging.

The next amazing thing I was shown was their barrel farm. I don’t think anyone else does this, but Banfi buys freshly cut French oak “barrel stays” and ships them to Montalcino where they age and season them themselves! There are dozens of tall stacks of barrel stays neatly stacked and organized by the specific French forest they come from. Some of these forests include Troncais, Nevers3, Fountainbleau and Allier Ott. They have them labeled by the vintage they were cut. Once they meet their seasoning expectations, Banfi ships them to Piedmont where a master cooper builds the barrels.

After the very informative tour of the winery, we returned to the castle/hotel restaurant for a five course typical Italian meal paired with five Banfi wines.

Banfi was founded in 1978 thanks to the will of Italian-American brothers, John and Harry Mariani. At the tasting room, the pourer said that the money for starting Castello Banfi was generated mainly from sales of the very popular Lambrusco Riunite.

Andy Abernathy, COO of ABC Fine Wine & Spirits