Take Poll and Weigh In On Future High-End Wine Economy

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Take a second, look to the right of your screen,  and share your own thoughts on what it takes for you to spend $50+ on high-end wines at retail.  With the preliminary findings report from Silicon Valley Bank’s Wine Division (see recent post Wine Sales Stink and the World is Not Flat) underscoring the massive swing in growth rates that has lead to an (11%) decline in high-end wine sales in 2Q ’09,  share your thoughts on what needs to happen to reinvigorate your appetite to purchase more high-end fine wines  by taking the one question poll to the right of this post.   

The pipeline at retail and in consumers’ cellars is clearing out after a destocking period that contributed to sales declines this year and things look better for 2010.  Already the producer economy is adjusting and the Bank’s report outlines margin recovery steps in motion throughout the industry that is contributing to a normalizing wine economy; 

renegotiating grower contracts, dropping less important contracts, examining farming costs for savings, and upward adjustments in yield to enhance per acre revenue, selling down excess bulk wine, developing programs for the slowest moving SKUs, and blending down reserve wines to boost value in lower priced wines  

The Bank’s report reminds that this troubled condition is not permanent and recovery will come for those that can adapt their business models and navigate through their current challenges.  They quickly point out that this market downturn is dissimilar to past blips and will take time to sort out: 

This isn’t a permanent change.  However, true recovery will take time to sort through due to lasting negative impacts in housing, consumer wealth, consumer credit, business spending, and restaurant sales…Consumers always aspire to better products. Wine as a product category has demonstrated consistently increasing per capita consumption for decades now and nothing suggests that is likely to stop…we do believe that we are in the midst of a price reset in fine wine that will lower the wannabe cult wine prices and collapse brands into narrower pricing bands below $50. 

So what do you think?  Take the poll and weigh in!

Wine Sales Stink and The World is Not Flat

In Silicon Valley Bank’s recently released Preliminary Findings Report (you won’t get a recap of all the details here, save a few,  so click on the link and download the PDF if you are so inclined) which precedes their more exhaustive Spring 2010-2011 Annual State of the Wine Industry Report, the Bank’s opening salvo declared;

The fine wine business, at some point in the past decade began to believe that the product was about an expensive purchase and ego-based conspicuous consumption. 

No kidding…..and will the 2011 report conclude that the earth isn’t really flat?  

I am only a dedicated wine consumer without the benefit of exhaustive original research, but back in 1995 I was already inking the same lead the Bank just now unleashed in their 2010 “acknowledgement of all that went wrong and better hurry up and change your ways” industry report.   The nineties was an era when I almost entirely, but sadly, stopped buying California Cabernet and passed on delicious high quality wines from around the world as they elevated to cult status, one label at a time.  I remember saying goodbye to the lovely Shafer “Hillside Select” Cabernet, for example, with the same angry emotions that must be summoned up waving forever goodbye to a loved spouse that all at once turned untrue.  I took a spectator’s (no pun intended Mr. Shanken) seat as the unnatural spike in the fine wine business mushroomed.  It seemed like the only constituency taking wary note was the serious wine enthusiast watching their favorite quality wines move through price zones and inventory squeezes that turned regular consumption into non trivial financial commitments. 

With a fair dose of generalization, it was not the industry’s total fault since a fresh new crop of young and wealthy wine consumers bought these wines for immediate social standing, unaccompanied by levels of appreciation to adequately assess the fitness of three and four figure price tags. I remember sitting with a West Coast media executive in New York’s shrine to fine wine, Veritas, back in 2003 as he commandeered the wine list to order a magnum of off vintage California trophy Cabernet to drink alongside his SWEETENED ice tea at lunch. I don’t mean to pick on him, but that vignette has sat in my mind like a poster child for everything I witnessed and all my personal lamentations generated by an unnatural wine economy.  Growers, four steps removed from the end market, turned happy with fatter contracts, winemakers experienced margin growth that the Bank’s preliminary report now demonstrates can only be supported by unnatural demand, volume, and price points, and the channel played along getting sucked into inflated inventories and weird program buying and selling.  The financial community slurped up deal fees, lenders inhaled aromas of double-digit rates on debt, and wineries built monuments to themselves so freshly paneled tasting rooms could support the branding required to sell wine at prices that a real economy or knowing palate would eventually refuse to support.  It was one giant combustion chamber.  You can read a bit about this in this post that was written back in June on the heels of the Bank’s 2009 report.

And now the Bank’s invocation to the high-end wine industry that has slipped from annual sales growth rates in the mid 20% range just a few years back to (-11%) negative growth in the second calendar quarter this year, and that can’t charge or sell enough to stay afloat is that consumers will still buy wine but:

Products made by real people, and not just expensive brands without a sole…..each producer has to find out new ways to touch every one if its consumers in an authentic way. 

The Bank has declared this as

good news for an industry connected to family business, the earth, and hand-made production.

And with that, the bank has belatedly pointed to the lighthouse after the fleet has run aground on shallow banks.  With some helpless head shaking and a wagging “I told you so” finger, I agree wholeheartedly with the bank’s assessment.  Maybe some day I will choose to meet my old Hillside Select friend from Shafer once more.

Mendoza Monday: Focus on Wines of the Uco Valley

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John and family recently returned to the US following a year-long Life-Zag in and around Mendoza (with a separate story Side-Zag to Barcelona).  Carrying back a souvenir passion for great Argentine wines and epic grilling sessions, I ended up in a subterranean space in his barely decorated new home in Needham, MA this past Monday to taste through a wide range of wines he secured via friends in his new Argentinian network at Vines of Mendoza.   The company’s Acequia Reserva Wine Club says they…”deliver Argentina’s best boutique wines directly to your door – wines that are otherwise nearly impossible to find outside of Argentina.”

John always struck me as seriously inquisitive, tapping knowledgable sources until he is expert. That is how we met about a dozen years ago while he was establishing a new wine cellar in Telluride, CO to address his developing and serious interest in wine.  When he became frustrated with challenges managing his businesses around the US from Telluride’s remote geography, he bought a vintage plane and learned to fly.  Making his family’s home base Telluride and taking a natural interest in quality of town life, he became the city’s mayor.  And, realizing that raising children in Telluride can lean towards insular, he relocated family and plane to Mendoza to swing like the locals do for a year.  So when John extended an invitation to taste though a bunch of newly arrived Argentine wines, I knew it would not be an evening of garden variety $15 Malbecs.

When I glanced over at the six bottles wrapped in brown bags, I clicked into blind-taste-ready mode.  John had other ideas and was positioned at the computer with beautiful images of the Andes spread across the oversized screen.  With his cursor, he drew a big circle around the mountain range and explained tonight would be about the Uco (pronounced ooh-ko) Valley.  It sits south of Mendoza boasting a most interesting ecosystem that produces some of the finest wines in Argentina.  The Valley is surrounded by mountain peaks reaching 22,000 feet high and vineyards  positioned at 3,000 feet, creating wide swings in daytime and evening temperatures.  The soil is supported by small rock providing remarkable drainage, primarily for the drip irrigation systems delivering Andes mountain water since the valley only receives an average of 1″ of rain each year.  The stark environment does not support insects or birds, so no pesticides are required in the vineyards.  It is all a clean set up to unmistakable terroir of minerality, excellent texture, and immense tannin to support all the flavor. You can hear more about this by clicking on the image link below and listening to France’s colorful icon for global expansion, Michel Rolland, and some of the local Uco wine personalities on the topic of Uco wines.

The wines we worked through this evening were opened more than an hour before tasting.  There were varied varietals and vintages, so there was limited direct comparison opportunity.  As such, here are the wines we tasted in order of our small group’s collective preference:

Cavagnaro Reserva, 2004 100% Malbec $42:  A remarkable wine that is somewhat closed and trying to hide its bold fruit behind strong Uco tannins.  There was clearly vanilla wood and smoke in the nose that combined with something like stewed bright strawberries.  This all turned clearly into rich black cherry flavors that should become even more accessible with some time.  The wine finished with some heat and a good jolt of tannin.  It is a really fine wine that is worth buying and laying down for a few years.

Promeio Reserva, 2003 100% Cabernet Sauvignon $29: Showing some brown on the edges. A cedary earthy aroma dominates and also blends in some sweetness.  Behind that is a more classically structured wine with berry and caramel flavors.  The wine appears to be advancing quickly.  This was our second favorite wine with a fair share of the credit going to its ready to drink mode.

Nomade Reserva, 2003 100% Syrah $39: This wine transported me to Australia.  If it was not served in this tasting, I would have guessed it to be a rich, unctuous, extracted wine of muddied black purple color with jammy cherry flavors from Down Under.  A gamey, meaty, blood like taste component was in evidence, and the wine had seriously soft edges around its large dollops of fruit to make for a very pleasing mouthfeel.  It was a load of fun to drink, and probably smart to drink it soon,

Gran Lorca Poetico, 2007 100% Petit Verdot $42: Two reasons I was not surprised when the bag was removed after tasting.  It was one of our youngest wine of the night and made from all Petit Verdot, so naturally it showed as the most intense and tannic wine of the group.  Yet, this wine that represents one of the classic Bordeaux blending varietals that integrates structure, flavor, and color behind Cab and Merlot, showed its tell-tale black purple color and then jammed home a sweet perfume reminiscent of Cherry Charms (remember that candy?) on top of deep black cherry aromas.  The flavor of minerals, graphite, and flint were clear to all of us and there was a finish of licorice.  So all this wine needed was a little more middle from some blended cab or Merlot and what a winner it would be.  It is a great wine that is fun to explore, but a bit too hard-edged and missing some middle richness.

Ala Negra Reserva, 2006 100% Malbec $25: Comes from Lunlunta, Maipu and I am not sure how that relates to Uco, but it managed to get into the tasting.  The wine was disappointing in this group of company.  It was purple middle to edge, the nose was hard to coax up and it had soft and loose edges with dark fruit flavor that disappeared quickly.  The wine might not be bad with food, and food that requires low tannin accompaniments.  Thinking this wine might work for large Thanksgiving dinners seemed to be its savior.

Familia Mayol Cuatro Primos, 2007 55% Malbec, 35% Syrah, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Bonarda $22: This wine stunk…horrible, a clunker.  It was not acquired through Vines of Mendoza but picked up at a local wine shop.  It had a vegetally tinged mushroom nose and was hollow and alcoholic.  Not recommended.

The wines of Uco Valley are not shy in a good way.   They flash their new world interpretations of classic varietals and are finding their way to a style that is wholly representative of their unique terroir.  Of the wines I liked in this group, all seemed to have something going on that connected me to the context of their origin.  It was a wonderful evening….topped off with the pefectly yummy freshly herbed grilled lamb chops that I imagine is only a weak sister to the asado enjoyed in the local parillas of Mendoza.

A Case for Avoiding the Wine Rating Mousetrap

Leave it up to an expert on randomness and a statistician turned winemaker to make an astonishing case that wine ratings are inconsistent and unreliable.  The debate on ratings value has been legitimately extended by a couple of primary and secondary research studies presented by Robert Hodgson in the Journal of Wine Economics.  Hodgson’s work and conversations with a few high profile wine critics and winemakers were nicely organized in a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled “A Hint of Hype, A Taste of Illusion.”  And this time, maligning rating reliability is not aimed at any one system or critic, but more fully at the fundamental inconsistency and susceptibility of the human brain when it comes to sensory interpretation.

Hodgson’s research renders degrees of satisfaction and validation that my personal sensibility for ignoring marginal point differences in wine reviews has not left anything on the table.  I have attempted to uphold a pattern for discussing wines in this blog and elsewhere that sidesteps numbers and avoids drawing concrete lines in the sand.  Without self-contradiction, I also respect the 100 pont scale and other numerically deployed systems that are comfortable approaches for other reviewers because they provide a general indication of how much a reviewer likes or dislikes a wine.  I look at a 96 and 92 point rating knowing anyone could appreciate either one over the other. 

Hodgson ran a conclusive experiment over four different years with panels of 70 judges from the California State Fair Wine Competition.  He served them 100 wines over a few day period employing the same blind tasting rigors they are subject to in the actual competition.  But in his study, every wine was presented to each judge three different times from the same bottle to be judged and awarded point scores.  The findings are profound, but not surprising:

The judges’ wine ratings typically varied by ±4 points on a standard ratings scale running from 80 to 100. A wine rated 91 on one tasting would often be rated an 87 or 95 on the next. Some of the judges did much worse, and only about one in 10 regularly rated the same wine within a range of ±2 points. …..the judges whose ratings were most consistent in any given year landed in the middle of the pack in other years, suggesting that their consistent performance that year had simply been due to chance.

It is my personal experience that the  same bottle of wine will often taste different even within reasonably tight windows of time.  Open vs. blind tastings of the wine will provide different results and side by side tasting with other peer group wines can also alter perception.  Drinking the same wine in different moods, at different times of the day, with varied aeration periods, in different quantities and environments all change interpretations and conclusions of quality. 

Hodgson went further and studied track records for specific wines’ after submitting to judging across several contests.  His study showed that a wine’s opportunity for winning a gold medal is statistically equal to random chance:

…..he made a bar graph of the number of wines winning 0, 1, 2, etc. gold medals in those competitions. The graph was nearly identical to the one you’d get if you simply made five flips of a coin weighted to land on heads with a probability of 9%. The distribution of medals, he wrote, “mirrors what might be expected should a gold medal be awarded by chance alone.

I am flabbergasted with the specificity and range of flavors promulgated by the umpteen thousands of reviewers, professional and otherwise, offering their opinions about specific wine characteristics in print, online, and in person.  Not meaning to single out this recent example review by a reliably experienced and respected wine writer and founder of Palate Press, David Honig, I bring reference to it  only as representation of a widely embraced genre of reviews.  While it most surely was Honig’s honest experience I (1) can almost guarantee these will not be my specific flavor perceptions and (2) get the feeling it leans toward “base covering” for the multiple impressions that came and went during the tasting experience:

 This comes at you [in]waves of flavor, starting with blackberries, coffee and plums. Fruits sweeten on the mid-palate, adding some blueberry to the blackberry. The espresso changes to unsweetened cocoa. Leather shows up at the end of the mid-palate and lingers with black fruit on the finish

A  favored review style  presented by one wine writer , The Brooklyn Wine Guy, leans toward broad, sensory reactions combined with a dominant flavor characteristic or two, weaving in the context of his tasting experience to transmit a conclusion that is easier to embrace.  Here is one example review:

Levi and I both had this as 1st choice during the tasting. I thought it clearly stood out above the rest – it was completely harmonious, subtly quite intense, and very beautiful. The nose was spicy with pomegranate fruit, very elegant, there was good acidity, and great length – the floral finish really lingered in my nostrils. The funny thing is, everyone agreed that this wine fell off over the course of the evening, and was perhaps overshadowed rather than enhanced by our dinner (biryani-style rice with beef, watermelon radishes, green salad).

Mlodinow references a 1996 study presented in the Journal of Experimental Psychology that predates Hodgson’s work and offers up a current example that suggests ignoring the very specific flavor nuance claims of other enthusiasts and professional critics alike:

….. a 1996 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology showed that even flavor-trained professionals cannot reliably identify more than three or four components in a mixture, although wine critics regularly report tasting six or more. There are eight in this description, from The Wine News, as quoted on wine.com, of a Silverado Limited Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 that sells for more than $100 a bottle: “Dusty, chalky scents followed by mint, plum, tobacco and leather. Tasty cherry with smoky oak accents…” Another publication, The Wine Advocate, describes a wine as having “promising aromas of lavender, roasted herbs, blueberries, and black currants.” What is striking about this pair of descriptions is that, although they are very different, they are descriptions of the same Cabernet. One taster lists eight flavors and scents, the other four, and not one of them coincide.

So much of the criticism on this subject to date has been directed at one or another critic’s track record or performance against self-proclaimed superiority.  This was in evidence in Tyler Colman’s recent post about the Robert Parker lead 2005 Executive Wine Seminar tasting which Mlodinow also references in his WSJ piece and I wrote about here in a post entitled “A Roadside Bomb.”   Even the most heralded wine critic of our time will have point variation and wide swings in perception about wines when subjected to blind tastings of the same wines multiple times.

The Mlodinow piece was refreshing in not picking on one system over another and for not maligning specific critics or the commercial realities inherent in reviewing and selling wine.  Instead, it helped me and others feel good about the favored strategy of connecting with educated wine friends, sellers, and critics that align with our personal style preferences to taste what they recommend.   So, it’s safe to go back in the water to taste everything you can, to make your own decisions about what you enjoy, while staying clear of the rating/review mousetrap in defense of the lurking influences to drink something you simply don’t like or understand.

Boston Wine Festival 2010

The 2010 Boston Wine Festival will return again to the Boston Harbor Hotel beginning January 8. Chef Daniel Bruce has an uncanny ability for wine/food pairing and so many of the specific events recently announced are great opportunities to get over to Meritage and experience Chef Bruce at his finest moments.

There are lots of interesting events on the calendar this year and the following are just a few that caught my eye and are worth reserving early for. These events have regularly sold out in the past:

Wednesday, January 13: Quarterly Review of Wines: “Best of the Best”
Friday, January 22: Chateauneuf-du-Pape wiht Alain Junguenet
Thursday, February 11: K Vintners and Charles Smith Wines
Friday, February 26: Arrowood Vineyards & Winery
Wednesday, March 17: Hirsch Vineyards
Thursday, April 1: Stony Hill Vineyard

See you there? 

Wine Festival Contact Information:

www.bostonwinefestival.net

888.660.wine or 617.330.9355

bwf@bhh.com

Bordeaux Matchmaking

via bordeauxmatchmaking.com

Here is an interesting event coming to Boston this Friday night, November 20. A couple of French ladies matching your interests with suitable and affordable french Bordeaux and like minded new friends. A multi city tour with soirees Boredelaise style in Boston, Chicago, NY, and Miami. Certainly an unusual one-of-a-kind format. Check out their site and dates for the event closest to you. Definitely a far cry from the Commanderie, but full of fun potential!

 

15 Wines in Simple Format Unlock Path To Wine Apprecation

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Hosting less experienced wine drinkers to easily replicated and structured tasting formats appeals to my ritual instincts for making wine more accessible to more people.  On the one hand, it’s a refreshing personal break from the usual “club” and a way to strip away the bravado and bias brought to tasting tables by hardened wine aficionados.  On the other hand, it is a chance for me to witness the  joyous personal discovery that learning about wine is simple and just a little knowledge can remove years of intimidation that heretofore may have restricted a deepening appreciation.  I recently had this opportunity again fulfilling a charity obligation with an organized tasting for 14 people who, for the most part, would not consider themselves overly experienced wine consumers.  They were a smart and open group of really decent people seeking a fun evening doped with reasonable levels of education.  Perfect!

Here are the twelve wines we tasted in four flights of three, with all flights served blind except for the first flight of whites:

White:

2007 Burgans Albarino

2001 Kerpen Riesling Spatlese Bernkastler Bratenhofchen

2007 Pierson Meyer Chardonnay Charles Heintz  

Cabernet:

2000 Columbia Crest Grand Estates

1985 William Hill Reserve

1994 Chateau Margaux 

Mencia Grape (Bierzo, Spain):

2007 Losada 07

2007 Jose Palacios Petalos

2007 El Cayado

Syrah:

1999 Guigal Brune et Blonde Cote Rotie

2006 MollyDooker Boxer

2006 Pax Griffin’s Lair

As you can see from the lineup it was an unusual tasting, with a broad array of vintages and regions served in varied flight formats.  We started the night with a sparkling wine reception that included a simple Pinot Noir based Cava and California Brut.  The first sit down flight was an open look at three dramatically different white grapes, regions, and vintages.  All three wines are wonderful in their own right but didn’t show especially well in the context of each other.  The group voted the Pierson Meyer Charles Heintz Chardonnay as their favorite.  In full agreement, I deeply admired the eight year old Kerpen Riesling and how well the acidity had mellowed and the wonderful mouthfeel and advancing flavors it created. 

As we moved to the second flight, things started to get a bit more serious and we showcased Cabernet Sauvignon from three great geographies including Margaux, Napa, and Columbia Valley.  Vintages ranged from 1985 to 1994 to 2000.  The 85 William Hill was disappointing and while technically alive,  has given up all its fruit and is totally dried out.  The first growth 94 Chateau Margaux was strutting its stuff with smoke and lead pencil streaming out of the glass and classic currant flavors dominating this wonderfully balanced wine that is starting to really become accessible.  I bought some 1994 first growths in the futures market since they seemed like great bargains at just under $1200 a case in this unheralded vintage.  It was my favorite wine of the night…blind. 

The group, for reasons I totally understood, voted the $10 Columbia Crest Grand Estates as their favorite.  Without exaggeration, I went through 8 cases of this wine in the earlier part of the decade.  I never acquired and consumed that much of any one wine before in my life.  I continue to think of it as one of the most delicious and rewarding $10 wine values I have ever stumbled across.  Credit goes to Dr. Stephen Jones, a long time wino friend and early east coast fan of Washington State wines, for providing that tip.  Subsequent vintages have also been excellent values with characteristically true Washington State bones, but none as good again as the 2000.  This tasting proved that the wine does not age gracefully and its flavors get flat and muddier instead of advancing.  Still, the mocha aromas that were an intoxicating component of the wine in its earlier stages were still perceptible, and the round mouthfeel was also noticeable, but the richness of velvet fruit has become seriously muted.  Yet there were no flaws in the wine and the great accessibility of this wine’s style won the group over and they voted it as the flight’s favorite.

As I have mentioned before here and here again, I have fallen in love with the Mencia grape from Bierzo and this evening was a good chance to taste three 2007 versions blind.  Unfortunately we had a corked bottle of the Petalos, which in non blind tastings has proven itself to be a wine of great finesse and structure.  Of the two remaining bottles, the wines were quite different in style and the El Cayado edged out the Losada as a favorite.  Both were wonderful wines and continue to push me to explore this grape and region with mounting vigor.

The last flight was really interesting since it showcased three Syrahs of varied styles from Cote Rotie, Sonoma, and Australia.  In a validating moment proving less experienced groups can make legitimate personal preference decisions, they threw out the Mollydooker Boxer as something that did not feel representative of Syrah sensing that there must be something awry with the racy and overblown nature of this highly extracted wine.  If anyone continues to wonder why Australian wines have been failing miserably as of late in the American market, this small flight of three wines is a microcosm of the answer.   The 99 Guigal Brune et Blonde showed wonderfully soft grace and a classic bacon fat and floral nose, but the group legitimately favored the Pax Griffin’s Lair which was quite close to the Northern Rhone entry in overall style, but offered more power and intensity from its recent vintage.  Both were absolutely delicious and along with the Margaux, were the three wines I went back to for a last taste at the night’s conclusion.

We finished off the evening with some special deserts and a bottle of Lustau East India Solera Sherry while we celebrated a great evening of fun and learning.  The tasting gave everyone something to build on and replicate for more discovery and wine education.  I grabbed my 60 wine glasses and left everyone feeling a little more confident in tasting and discussing wines that grab their palate in all ways. 

p.s. Thanks to Doug Shattuck for taking some special photos (included in the post and here) while nobody was looking and to Betsy and Dan Kravitz for helping with the work of the tasting.  Also, thanks to Jesse and Valerie for hosting the evening and to everyone else for bringing your palates, open minds, easy ways, and wonderful food to accompany the wines.

Bang for the Buck: Magically Transforming Moulin-a-Vent

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I purchased a reasonable amount of mixed 2003 Cru Beaujolais by Georges Duboeuf on release since the vintage appeared to be of historic quality and the best wines could be had in the usual $15-$20 value range.  They were enjoyably rich and round with the great depth of fruit that was a signpost to the vintage’s outstanding conditions.  These wines were consumed with gusto by my tight circle of wine and food junkies, but I was unable to hold onto even a few to learn how Gamay of a great vintage might progress in the cellar.  I was just recently blown away by the transformation and quality of the 2003 Duboeuf Moulin-a-Vent Cuvee Prestige in a recent retasting opportunity on the heels of a chance to restock at ridiculously low prices.

I have learned through experimentation and my fair share of insipidly weak wines, that the best of Beaujolais comes from the northern parts of this French winemaking region that otherwise carries an earned reputation for mass market, fruity, and acidic Gamay based wine.  In almost sub-appellations of the more desireable northern appellation of Beaujolais-Villages are the Beaujolais Crus, vineyards or communes where the most delicious wines seem to emerge on a reliably consistent basis.  One such Cru, Moulin-a-Vent (windmill in French and named that way due to its proximity to a local mill), has a reputation for producing Gamay grapes with longer term aging potential akin to advancing Burugundian Pinots.

A few weeks ago I was in the back room clearance section of a New Hampshire State wine outlet and found five stacked cases of the Duboeuf 2003 Moulin-a-Vent Cuvee Prestige with a mark-down price of $10.  With a quickening heart rate, I looked over my shoulder in case I had to ward off anyone that might be racing in to grab the whole lot and lifted a case into my cart as great memories flashed in my head of past summers serving this red wine ever so slightly chilled with grilled lamb, duck, and boullibaise.  I had no idea how good the storage was in this outlet, but figured a few years in closed cases in a decently sized warehouse created resonable odds for survival.

Last night I opened a bottle from this lot for the first time and was completely blown away, certain that I just stumbled on one of my top wine experiences of the year (read: discovery of highly desireable wine with advanced characteristics at ridiculously low price point).  This Moulin-a-Vent had characteristic hues of age-rust on the edges of an overall dulling burgundy color that spoke to bottle age.  I had to continually recheck the nose to convince myself that I was not imagining the exotic multidimensional aromas of clove, oregano, sandalwood incense, and my long time favorite smells of licorice rich Good & Plenty candy.  All this combined with the characteristic advanced nose of earthy mushroom and slightly damp cardboard.  The mouthfeel was smooth and rightfully evolved, offering a silky coating with appropriate amounts of lasting acid and a whoosh of alcoholic heat in the finish.  Having tasted the wine young, I was clear on the ways it had sacrificed some of its earlier bright black fruit transforming the wine into an advanced showcase of its true character and terroir.  AND, for me it was totally reminiscent of the great bottle aged US Pinots and Burgundys that I have tried; only at 1/5th-1/20th the price!

I am going back today with the suspicion that Southern New Hampshire has not all of a sudden discovered 2003 Beaujolais and at least a couple of cases are sitting in that exact same spot.   I want to drink this wine regularly over the next few years and possibly longer.  If you can get your hands on some, it could be the best investment in near term drinking of advanced and bottle aged wine you will ever find.  For certain, find this wine in current releases of strong vintages and buy it by the case load. 

I could not help pausing on the back label where it reads:

…its sumptuous palate promises a long evolution for this wine of great distinction  

Now I can add Gamay and Duboeuf’s Moulin-a-Vent Cuvee Prestige to a memory bank of notably wonderful moments dotting a life of wine exploration and discovery.  Go get some if you can.

One-Word Buying Strategy and a Must-Have Wine

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I look forward to hearing from Matt Kramer in his regular Wine Spectator column.  He delivers “regular guy” sensibility with intellectual strength wrapped in an entertaining style.  His cut-to-the-chase humility combines with child-like amusement when discovering sources of fairly priced, quality wine that are messengers for their place of origin.  I mean wines that unleash vineyard identity, maybe a hint of unique rock or soil womb, whiffs of a cooling ocean breeze or wafts of a dry valley mistral, charming odors of stones or minerals baking in their personal angles to summer sun, or sometimes herbs growing close to a hillside’s sun-baked terrace.  None of these qualities get masked or shifted to fit a more crowd pleasing market style.  I share Matt Kramer’s weakness for these kinds of wines that taste like they can only come from their very own ancestral patch of irreplaceable earth.

This past month Kramer rang up my palate and pocketbook sensibility twice; first in his piece on the Loire in the November 15 Spectator and again leading a simple, pointed tasting of three wines made from indigenous Sicilian grape varietals last week in New York.  Out of Kramer’s discoveries comes both (1) a buying strategy and (2) a specific wine that will reward anybody sharing this orientation for honest wine of high quality and fair value.

On the Strategy: Last month I had the great opportunity to taste through dozens of wines at a Loire Valley Wine Bureau event and shared my observation on the very real and honest character of the wines here in an earlier post.   Kramer kicks around evidence of the emerging trend to make buying and indentifying wine simpler and also a strategy for reliably securing honest wines of high quality without any previous knowledge of the wines.  In his recent column, “The One Word Wine Buyer,”  he declares:

The answer- drumroll, please – is Loire….With only the barest amount of knowledge-and not great gobs of money, either-you can obtain some of the finest, most pleasurable, most original and individual wines made anywhere in the world today by invoking the word “Loire”.  That’s data point number one.

Here’s data point number two: Find a good wine merchant.  Getting good Loire wines requires a committed retailer….because Loire wines are not money makers.  They are a labor of wine love.

The third data point is critical:  Look for Loire wines that are declared on the label to be either organically or biodynamically cultivated.  Not because organic or biodynamic is definitively superior. Rather, it’s because, as a cohort, these producers tend to be more rigorous and more committed to making genuinely fine wine.  It’s a useful shorthand.

Kramer went on to test this approach, buying a few wines that fit these data points and came away with wonderful results, all wines under $25, without a clunker in the bunch.  This was also my experience tasting wantonly through a wide swath of Loire whites and reds of varying varietals and locations.  Just weeks before Kramer published his column, I conducted his identical experiment visiting Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge (a leading cheese and fine food importer and seller that shares this philosophy of honest wine making and recaps their approach to a small but select inventory here) picking up three Loire wines I never heard of but were biodynamically farmed.  These wines all had character, charm, and a sense of their homeland elements.  They were experiences to try and couldn’t be replicated by wine makers in other world geographies.  Loire wines represent so much about the joy of wine as far as I am concerned.

Try out this three point buying strategy for yourself and share your results here. 

On the Specific Wine:

Having just returned the previous day from Sicily, Kramer’s brain, palate, and nostrils were clearly filled with the Sicilian elements.  He shared three wines made from indigenous Sicilian varietals and stories of vineyards irrigated with dew and Mt. Etna runoff.  Wines that can not be duplicated anywhere else on the planet.  The first two were reds selling for $35 each and were quite good and carried their unique qualities proudly.  They were Benati Etna Rovitrello 2004 and Gulfi Nero d’Avola Sicilia Neromaccarj 2005 (the winemaker adds a “j” to every wine name since one of Gulfi’s first wines was called Rossobleo. The authorities objected because there a Mount Ibleo in Sicily and European wineries are not allowed to use place names as brand names. To get around it, they added a “ j” to rename it Rossojbleo and the tradition stuck.) 

They were good wines, unique wines, pleasing wines.  I would not hesitate buying them, but I think for the religious experience that Kramer seemed to get from these wines, you need to climb the mountain and walk the vineyard and connect the wine and its terroir in your brain. 

But the third wine, a sweet wine, was of the highest quality and once you taste it you will urgently dial up your wine monger just as I did.  For first time tasters like me, Carlo Hauner Malvasia delle Lipari 2006 will make Sauternes and Barsac fanatics take notice, sweet wine naysayers stand at attention, and the most experienced and dedicated fans of late harvest desert wines wonder how they went so long without tasting this magical nectar.  Matt Kramer actually said that it could be the finest sweet wine in the world for him.  That’s a large claim, but I understand how one could get there.

The wine sells for about $25 in the half bottle and is made and grown on the island of Salina just off the coast of Sicily. It is comprised of 95% Malvasia delle Lipari and 5% Black Corinth.  The morning dew remains a source of water.  The fruit dries out on mats for a few weeks after picking and before maceration.

I have now tasted the 2006 and the 2005 (found a 375ml of the 05 on the list at Cesca on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for a little over $60) and both vintages underscore what is probably a characteristic representation of the wine.  Both combine a silky, rich, nectar like consistency with flavors and aromas of specific fruits and herbs.  Fruit and herb cocktail!  The 2006 had apricot and peach combining with wild sagebrush aromas.  The 2005 had a pronounced nose of dried oregano with a more citric grapefruit flavor sweetened by honey tones.  The purity of these wines combined with their unique values that can only come from these specific varietals grown, picked, baked, and crushed on their homeland island off of Sicily to make a memorable and must have wine. 

In an era where good wines come and go like passing buses and subways, there are only 5-10 wines a year that I taste and say I “must have” for my cellar at all costs.  This is one of them.  Try it and let me know what you think.  And, by the way, thank you Matt Kramer.

New York Wine Experience; Part II

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A general assembly gathering of some of the nation’s most rabid fans side by side with an impressive line up of the world’s elite group of makers, negociants, and sellers of fine wine kicked off a day of informative tasting and recognition for outstanding performance this past Friday at the Wine Spectator’s New York Wine Experience.

Following on the heels of a strong opening night, the day’s first piece of recognition did not go to a winery, winemaker, or chef.  Nor was it planned.  Marvin Shanken’s serendipitous discovery of one event attendee, owner/operator of the wine-serious Doris and Ed’s New Jersey restaurant Jim Filip, who has participated in all 29 Wine Experiences created a spontaneous pause in the morning’s scripted agenda.  Shanken granted an impromptu stage visit during his signature sometimes-sincere-and- sometimes-irreverent opening remarks. This pretty cool two and a half minute moment of thanks and warmth is captured here (more of my amateur Flip work) and you can also see it by clicking on this photo video link. 

The morning kicked off with James Molesworth’s excellent Rhone Valley’s Rising Star presentation that moved North to South.  The wines included:

1)2006 Jean-Louis Chave St.-Joseph

2)2007 Le Vins de Vienne Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes Sotanum

3)2006 Michel & Stephane Ogier Cote-Rotie Lancement Terroir de Blonde

4)2006 Domaine du Coulet Cornas les Terrases du Serre

5)2007 Perrin & Fils Vinsobres Les Haut de Julien

6)2007 Chateau de St. Cosme Gigondas Le Claux

7)2007 Domaine Giraud Chateauneuf du Pape Les Gallimardes

8)2007 Domaine St.-Prefert Chateauneuf du Pape Auguuste Favier Reserve

My favorite wine of the first four from the North was hands down the Ogier Lancement Cote Rotie.  Unfortunately, it will probably be the only time I taste the wine since only 75 cases were made and the bottle retails for $232.  It comes from 10 acres of vines and is Ogier’s smallest production wine.  He compares it to having his own Burgundy Grand Cru.  The wine has flowers on the nose and amazing density combining with real finesse.  The purity and balance in this wine is unbelievable.  If you ever have a chance to buy this wine and you are in the mood for a splurge, go for it.

The strength of the 2007 Southern Rhone vintage was in evidence with the last four wines.  The wine I found most interesting of the bunch was not a CDP, but the Perrin from Vinsobres in the northeast corner of the southern Rhone.  Appropriate for a northern/southern Rhone, the blend is 50% Grenache and 50% Syrah.  Drinking the velvety wine transported me to its origins with animal aromas, licorice, and herbs.  Molesworth mentions he gets flavors of tampenade.  Possible.

A personal highlight of the entire event was Matt Kramer’s look at indigenous Sicilian grapes which uncovered three great wines including one mind blowing desert wine that smells and tastes like no other wine.  I will cover those wines in an upcoming post touching on a couple of interesting Kramer perspectives that are worth sharing for those of us interested in real wine, showing their true roots and terroir, at reasonable price points.

The day held a few other tastings including the Wine Spectator Top 10 in which the number 1 rated wine was clearly the best of the bunch for me…2005 Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalta Colchagua Valley.  The wine showed spice and herbs, tobacco, violets, and smoked meats in the nose.  It was blackish purple in color, amazingly soft in the  mouth, with hints of chocolate flavors.  It is a truly exotic wine from the Southern Hemisphere.

The Right Bank tasting was headed by the charming and venerable Christian Moueix, but the tasting was less interesting to me.  We did get to try some older wines including 1989 Latour a Pomerol, 1990 Chateau La Grave and 1995 Trotanoy.  The 98 Magdelaine was really disappointing.  These wines were of reasonable to excellent quality, they just did not excite me.  Interestingly and a good tip, James Suckling mentioned that he seeks out La Grave on restaurant wine lists as a target value at around $60.  It’s a good tip, the wine is excellent, and it was large of Suckling to share his favorite personal restaurant value wine with 1000 people.

The day closed with more trophy wine immersion at the Critic’s Choice Grand Tasting.  Some of my favorite wines on the second night came from the Rhone group and included the 2006 Tardieu-Laurent.  The wine is a low extraction version of 100% Grenache creating an unusually elegant Grenache based wine as opposed to the more familiar powerfully charged versions.  The 2007  Beaucastel was a mind-blowing fully packed wine as was the 2007  Vieux Telegraphe, underscoring the vintage’s reputation and depth and richness of the wines.  The Vieux Telegraphe was a little more approachable, which was unusual because it is a wine that I always felt showed its best down the line a bit more.  

One more takeaway from the evening was the 2006 Two Hands Ares, their top Shiraz.  The wine reminded me of a luxury Cote Rotie and debunked the Aussie curse for overly extracted fruit bombs.  The wine showed stuffing, finesse, pinpoint balance, and restraint.  I highly recommend the wine.

A final tip.  In speaking with the folks at Catena, I learned that the sub $20 value Catena 2007 Malbec from this outstanding vintage is difficult to tell apart from their more exclusive Alta Malbec.  I did not taste it and it is just coming to market, so probably something to watch for.

Overall, it was a great day of fantastic indulgence in great wines and wine culture.  The winemakers that come to NY from their farms in the European countryside to stand in front of thousands of well-heeled collectors and sellers of fine wine are often outside their comfort zone.  Winning awards and presenting to packed ballrooms is as different as hand pruning terraced rows of vines as you can imagine.  It is just wonderful to connect with these folks and get a chance to thank them for the special product they share that allows us to touch and revel in a small slice of their cherished remote country terroir.

Update: Tom Matthews, Wine Spectator’s Executive Editor, reminds me that not all the wine press “blew it” and that James Laube rated the 89 Ridge Monte Bello 91 points on release, and 92 points in a retrospective tasting in 1999.   Good job James and thanks for the correction, Tom.