Fermentation Meditation 
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Sipping Legends in Central New York
The time: Last Saturday evening.
The place: The home of close family friends Donna and Richard Cross.
What: The opportunity to tour Richard’s impressive wine cellar, to do a blind tasting of five premium wines, and to enjoy a five course (with more fabulous wines to match) meal by cook-extraordinaire, Donna.
The Outcome: A very happy wine presenter with a very full belly.
Richard really pulled out all the stops with these classics. All were Cabernet Sauvignons (or Cab blends). All were vintages of between 1986–1988. And ALL of them were great wines.
Here’s the line up and my ‘tasting notes’:
- 1986 Chateau Musar, Lebanon (Dirt, wet leaves, and coffee. Complex. Like an effortlessly sculpted man–well dressed–expensive shoes–classy and unbearably handsome.)
- 1986 Antinori Solaia, Tuscany, Italy (Beef jerky and sweet herbs and spices. The ‘best friend’. He’s a little plain on the looks side of things, but strip off the outer layer and he’s a cracking guy. You could talk to him for hours, but as much as you’d like to feel more, he’ll just never be boyfriend material.)
I was rather chuffed with myself on the guessing side of things–I got most of them right (though not the grape variety!), and even guessed the French was a Chateau Mouton-Rothschild! A stroke of dumb luck perhaps, but still…I also realised how ‘Old World’ my palate has become. I preferred the French and the Lebanese over the New Worlds. (And although SuperTuscans are usually some of my favourite wines, I didn’t think this particular Solaia was as stunning as some I’ve tasted.) However, when you’re tasting a line up of such legends, it’s hard to actually dislike any of them. They’re all exceptionally well-crafted wines.
The dinner wines were all well matched, with the best one being an avocado ‘bowl’ with a mustard balsamic vinegarette with a 2008 Giesen Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand. Both food and wine were zesty and fresh and gelled perfectly together. The jammiest, most extracted Zinfandel (Tobin James ‘Fat Boy’) I’ve ever tried came next. It was such a change from the subtle complexities of the aged Cabs we’d just tried but it grew on me and I eventually loved it in the way you love that loud obnoxious neighbour who always means well. We turned the volume down again with the classic salmon/Pinot Noir matching–a lovely 1999 Carneros Creek Signature Reserve. The evening wouldn’t have been complete without a top dessert wine, namely a 1986 Chateau Climens Barsac matched with a fruit tart. Heaven in a glass (and on a plate!).
I’d like to say a massive thank you to Donna and Richard for their impeccable hosting skills, gorgeous food, stunning wine, and even better company. Who knew central New York could provide such vinous, culinary, and cultural treasures?!
Tags: antinori, bling wine tasting, carneros creek, climens, giesen, henschke, mouton-rothschild, musar, shafer, solaia, tobin james
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Fermentation Meditation
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
‘The Puglia Diaries’
Part 2: Susumaniello Who?
OK after gushing over Puglia and its people, finally I get to talking about their wines, if not in a rather lengthy, list-y kind of way (a warning: this post may be of interest to only the geekiest of wine geeks, but I think it only fair to give the best winemakers due credit, and to give you some recommendations, should you ever visit Puglia or want buy any of their wines).
A sea of glasses ready for the morning’s judging
Here’s a refresher: I recently spent three days in Monopoli on Italy’s ‘heel’, as a judge for Radici’s Festival dei Vitigni Autoctoni (aka the Festival of Puglia’s Native Grapes). There were two judging panels, 14 of us ‘wine journalists’, and 14 ‘wine lovers’ who were mostly local restaurant owners.
First, a disclaimer. We judges each tasted about 250 wines in total. The wines were arranged by grape variety and tasted in ‘flights’, usually about 20 at a time. I found I had no problem tasting the whites and rosés in this manner because they were wines that were splendidly easy to drink on their own. However this blind line up style of judging seemed unfair to the reds. This is because most reds are better with food and often need time to ‘breathe’ to open up and express their true character. It’s also because many of them will improve with age and we were tasting young wines and assessing them solely on how they were on that day alone. So when tasting reds by themselves one after another, it is hard to get an honest assessment of the wines. Especially in a particularly poor flight. You can imagine how some very well made wines, if stuck in a row of bad wines, could unintentionally get lost in the crowd. That said, blind tastings are a bit like the process of auditioning for a part in a play. It’s not best method to showcase talent, but there’s so far been no alternative that works as efficiently. And so we’re stuck with it.
Photo by Whitney Adams
OK ok, onto the wines. First the whites. Whites usually take the supporting role when it comes to Puglian wines, so I was pleased to discover what I thought were some of the best wines of the competition in this category.
Bombino Bianco is the most planted white grape in Puglia but I found it pretty forgettable as a variety. In the mixed whites we tasted several pleasant Malvasia Bianca. The first prize from the ‘journalists group’ went to ‘Maviglia’ 2008 from Milleuna which was thankfully also a high scorer for me. Like several others it was yeasty on the nose, but also slightly honeyed, high in alcohol (15%!), with a slight bitter finish. I scored Vigne di Rasciatano’s 2009 a bit better as I thought it has a cleaner finish and was more restrained alcohol-wise (at 12.5%). But the highest scorers for me in the mixed whites were wines made from the Greco grape variety (a few blended with Fiano and Malvasia). This is a grape I have loved and appreciated from the Campania region, and found almost equally as enjoyable in Puglia, however different it was. My notes on these wines varied from ‘tropical fruits’ to ‘banana chips’ to ‘Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal’ to ‘peachy’. I gave a generous score to ‘Hirondelle’ 2009 from Torre Quarto although it didn’t pick up any awards sadly. I felt that the Fianos were disappointing and not nearly as delicate, floral, or subtle as their Campanian (particularly in Avellino) counterparts. However, several of the Fiano Minutolo, a strain of the same grape but quite different in flavour, were quite surprisingly delicious. My highest score was given to the wine that won not only the category but the overall ‘Premi Vini Biologici’ and that was ‘Auva’ 2009 from Polvanera. It was headily aromatic with tangerine and peach, nice acidity, and a bitter finish. Yum.
Now onto the Rosés: We tried rosés made from Bombino Nero, Montepulciano, Nero di Troia, and Primitivo. Overall I seemed to rate the Primitivo rosés the highest as they had the best balance of fruit and acidity. My winner, receiving second prize from the journalists’ group, was ‘Petrarosa’ 2009 from Albea. Also scoring high with me was the ‘GiuliaRosé’ from Azienda Settimio Passalacqua.
I’ll also share with you (because it gives me a giggle) that for A Mano’s (a big exporter) rosato, my friend Whitney and I both found Fruit Loops’! Seriously, it was like someone fermented and liquidised the children’s cereal. Weird but strangely comforting.
Anyway, I digress. Moving onto the reds
This was a much bigger category as you can imagine. We tried wines made from Negroamaro, Bombino Nero, Montepulciano, Nero di Troia, Primitivo, Aglianico, and yes that forever fun to say Susumaniello.
I got a little lazy with my notes at this point and just copied scores into my pad so apologies but I’m just laundry listing now. Scoring high with the Nero di Troia (a grape variety found north of Bari and important in the Castel del Monte DOC) was the ‘Petrigama’ 2008 from Azienda Agricolo Tarantini. But not far behind was the winner of the judges’ group, a 2007 from Botromagno. Big, gutsy Negroamaro, found in its best expression on the peninsula of Salento, also scored high with me. My highest points went to ‘Magrede’ 2005 from Dei Agre, and close behind were the winners of the whole competition, ‘Terragnolo’ 2004 from Apollonio, and in third, ‘Nerio’ 2005 from Schola Sarmenti. However I thought it was unfair to judge the ’09 and ’08 Negroamaro in the same boat as the ’04,’05, and ’06. One of my top scores of the competition was in the mixed category and received second from the judges group, and that was the Malvasia Nera 2009 from Botrugno.
One of the strongest varieties in the reds was the broody, intense Aglianico which actually comes from Puglia’s neighbour, Basilicata. One of my favourites, which also took second overall, was the ‘Grifalco’ 2007 from Lucania sas, and also a 2007 from Macarico.
Now onto the Primitivo. To be honest, with a few exceptions, this was a disappointing lot. I found them (and this was a problem with many of the wines) to be overoaked and baked (and so darn high in alcohol—some as high as 16%!). Primitivo is a hard grape for me to like as it’s just so naturally low in acidity, I found myself desperately wanting something refreshing. Beer please?! Some exceptions: ‘Primitivo di Manduria’ 2008 Pirro Varone, and ‘Fior di Vigna’ 2008 from Paulo Leo.
That said, we spent the longest bus ride known to man (let’s just say the driver was ‘directionally challenged’) to visit some Primitivo vineyards in Manduria. We met Aussie winemaker Lisa Gilbee from the small, boutique winery Morella, and she showed us her Biodynamic vineyards full of 60+ year old bush vines. Down the road and in completely different soil were Luca Attanasio’s Primitivo bush vines. We learned about the winemakers themselves, their families, and the love and expression that went into their wines. That evening when we (finally) dined at a local restaurant and did a vertical tasting of wines from Morella and Attanasio dating back to 2000, the wines were splendid. Some were meant for ageing and showed great potential, and some of the older wines were (for once!) centred on the fruit and not baked to a crisp. Both of these winemakers had entered a vintage of their wine into the Festival but neither placed.
Photo by Whitney Adams
It was a good example of the flawed system of blind tastings. Because the more you learn about the people, the land, and the craftsmanship behind the wine, you can’t help but get more enjoyment out of it. Also, with time to really ponder over the wines, to let them breath, and to try them with several foods, a much fairer assessment was made.
Unfortunately we would’ve been there for weeks if we tried each wine in the competition this way. But hey, an extra few weeks in this beautiful part of the world? I wouldn’t say no!
**To see if and where these wines are available near you, try putting them into wine-searcher.com. A few of Morella’s wines are available at Berry Bros. and Rudd. **
Tags: attanasio, bombino, fiano, greco, malvasia bianca, malvasia nera, manduria, minutolo, monopoli, montepulciano, morella, negroamaro, nero di troia, primitivo, Puglia, radici, susumaniello
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Fermentation Meditation
Monday, June 14th, 2010
‘The Puglia Diaries’
Part 1: A ‘Heel-ing’ Trip of Tastings
I am a believer in Karma. For example I was devastated when two bottles of treasured dessert wines carried back from the Canary Islands were broken in equally tearful ways. A few months later, out of nowhere, a kind gentleman from the Wines of Croatia fair gave me two bottles of the best dessert wines on offer. Karma.
So when I found out I was being sent to Monopoli in Puglia to judge Radici’s Festival dei Vitigni Autoctoni (Native Grapes Festival), I regarded it as Karma making up for my cancelled-due-to-volcano-madness holiday in April. (OK I probably don’t know what Karma really means but it’s fun to think it exists in this way!) Yes, technically I’d be ‘working’ on this trip, but I’d also be hanging with one of my best friends Whitney in a Greek-style resort visiting vineyards and lounging by the pool and beach. And let’s face it, the ‘work’ (tasting 70 wines per day) wasn’t exactly strenuous.
By the pool at our Hotel Melograno
There were other more career related bonuses to the trip as well. I was privileged enough to be tasting with 13 of some of the top wine journalists around, including our Presidente Carlo Macchi, member of the Wine Gang and author of The Wine-Pages Tom Cannavan, Italian scribbler extraordinaire Franco Ziliani, Italian wine, food, and travel expert Kyle Phillips…to name a few (full list on Radici’s site). I was exercising my palate (don’t laugh, becoming a wine expert take LOTS of practice), and learning heaps about the wines of Puglia. I’d certainly tasted Primitivo (the grape variety made famous in the USA after it was found to be Zinfandel’s twin), Negroamaro (the robust ‘big boy’ grape of Puglia), and Fiano (although only from Campania) before, however lining them up one after another gave me an excellent idea of the varieties and how they fared from region to region, and winemaker to winemaker.
Whitney and fellow judges doing what they do best
I won’t bore you with tasting notes on each of the wines (you’d be reading for days), however I will tell you MY winners (and whether other not they coincided with the winners of the festival or not) and my general impressions of the wines. But let’s save that for part two. For now I’ll just tell you how nice everyone was and how pretty Puglia is (journalism at its best I tell ya…).
Hotel Melograno
But it’s true. Everyone WAS so nice. From organisers Nicola Campanile and Enzo Scivetti, to translators and assistants, Marilena and Cristina, to the winemakers we met, and of course my fellow judges, generousity and ‘amichevolezza’ abounded. The Italian spirit is such a welcoming warm one, and Southerners in particular open their doors and hearts with a sense of sun-soaked relaxation, a witty, sharp sense of humour, and tons of charm.
I Trulli in the town of Alberobello
And I’m going to sound like I work for Puglia’s tourism board right now, but if you haven’t been to Italy’s ‘heel’, it is a must-add to any list. Unlike most of Italy’s North and West, Puglia (or Apulia in English) has been one of the areas least invaded by tourists. It is rugged and unspoiled with its copper soil and white-washed Trulli (see picture), and it looks more like Greece than it does like the fertile Tuscan hills that come to most Americans’ minds when they picture Italy. Northern Italians refer to the South half-jokingly as ‘Africa’ because it is considered to be poorer and much less developed than its Northern neighbours. However, having travelled extensively around all of Italy, I do not find this to be the case. OK, statistically they are poorer. Agriculture is their main source of income, and they produce the vast majority of Italy’s olive oil (not surprising when you see the ancient gnarled olive trees that dot the landscape). But, from a foreigner’s perspective at least, I don’t find the South to be that much less developed than the North (in fact the only ‘holes in the floor for toilets’ I had to squat over were in the North!! Too much information..?). Every region in Italy has its own unique characteristics and traditions. While there is of course something intrinsically ‘Italian’ about all the people I’ve met on my travels, they are all deeply tied to and proud of the region they come from. And rightly so. Each region is beautiful in its own way. And Puglia is no exception. So GO! Puglia is really pushing the tourism thing right now (although let’s hope all these tourists don’t spoil what’s so wonderfully ‘untouristy’ about the place!). And buy some olive oil. And some wine of course.
Tags: festival dei vitigni autoctoni, monopoli, Puglia, puglia wines, radici, trulli
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Fermentation Meditation
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
Wines of Croatia 101
I am a wine geek. No surprises there. So when I heard about the Croatian wine tastings, I went along because I knew approximately two things about Croatia. 1: It’s sunny and has nice beaches that I’d like to be on right now. 2: My ‘saint-because-he–puts-up-with-me’ web designer Janko (he made that lovely banner up there!) is Croatian and he’s pretty darn cool. And that was about it. My knowledge of Croatian wines was pretty much zip. And so the geek in me wanted to learn more. It turned out, I wasn’t alone. Most of my wino colleagues didn’t know much either and were there for the same reason.
Post tasting I’d like to think that while my knowledge of Croatian wine is fairly basic and scattered, at least I now know something about the stuff. Let me regal you with my new found knowledge so that you too may nurture your wine geek within.
Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and craftsmanship of many of the wines. Unfortunately I didn’t get to taste everything (you never do at these things) so my tasting experience was limited mainly to wines from the North in the coastal region of Istria (just a stone’s throw away from Italy’s fabulous winemaking region of Friuli), and inland along the River Danube.
Stuff I learned:
The whites in Istria are mainly made from Malvazija (that’s Malvasia to you and me) and in the Danube region from Graševina (known in Austria as Welschriesling and very different to THE Riesling). They’re also very successful with aromatic varietals like Gewurtztraminer and Muscat and a bit less successful with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. I took a masterclass on Graševina and emerged with three thoughts on the variety: It’s very herbaceous/minerally. It’s got a very distinct bitter almond finish which on its own I didn’t like but I don’t think would bother me with food. And it makes a deeeelicious dessert wine (despite the bitter finish that remains). More on that later.
An excellent dessert wine made from Graševina in the TBA (Trockenbeerenauslese) style of Germany
I learned that many reds are made from Bordeaux varietals and some Syrah and Pinot Noir but especially from Teran which is basically a more acidic Refosco and in order to soften the acidity I found most of it was oaked to death. The best were the ones with the least amount of oak however the acidity was then lip-puckeringly high. So it seems it’s a no win situation for poor Teran.
Further down Croatia’s coast in Dalmatia it’s a different ball game with the most widely planted red being a grape called Plavic Mali (meaning ’small and blue’) which is a crossing between Zinfandel and Dobričić. I only got to taste one Plavic Mali which I described in my notes with one word: ‘fireplace’ so therefore I have no idea what the grape is actually like as it was completely masked in oak. However having only tasted one, I hardly have the right to speak with any authority on these wines.
Roxanich's 'Antica' and 'SuperIstrian' really stood out
While we’re talking about fireplaces, this seemed to be a theme for many of the wines I tried. It wasn’t just the reds that suffered from the attack of the oak gremlin, but many of the whites as well. I found myself pining (no pun intended) after more fruit and less oak.
A few, however, granted my wishes. Roxanich’s SuperIstrian (a nod to SuperTuscans) which was a blend of Merlot and Borgonja (a crossing of Pinot Noir and Gamay) was especially well balanced, and their Malvasia Antica 2007 which receives skin contact for 67 (!) days was a honeyed, funky specimen. Their Rose stood out as well. I also enjoyed Galic’s ’08 Pinot Crni (Pinot Noir) which was light, fruity, and spice infused.
Bruno Trapan and his wines (the slightly fizzy candy floss coloured Rose with a pink cork was the girliest wine I’d ever seen!)
I chatted with winemaker Bruno Trapan who had a ’09 Malvazija called ‘Ponente’ to taste which was refreshingly unoaked and quaffable. Bruno’s ‘Uroboros’, a ’08 Malvazija was aged in Acacia wood. Bruno told me it was a ‘love it or hate it’ style and that Malvazija naturally has some Acacia flower characteristics so by ageing it in the wood, it brought those notes out even more. Acacia had a much milder affect on the wine when compared with its ‘hit you over the head when used too heavily’ French counterpart and I decided I was on the ‘love it’ side of the scale. Bruno told me his vineyards are two years away from getting their Organic Farming stamp of approval from the EU. Good on ‘ya Bruno! I tried a few other Organic/Biodynamic wines and was pleased to see Croatia making wines in this way. The most successful I tasted was the Kabola ‘Amorfa’ ’06 Malvazija.
However I have so far only touched upon the style that I think Croatia does best, and that is dessert wine. From Krauthaker’s Graševina TBA (Trockenbeerenauslese) to both Ilocki Podrumi and Mladina’s Gewurztraminer Ice Wines to Agrolaguna’s unique red ‘fermented rose petals’ Muškat Ruza (Rose Muscat), I was impressed with all of the luscious sweeties on display.
Croatian wines may still be tricky to find, but I have a feeling that with more trade tastings like these and better overall marketing, they may find themselves in quite a niche market in the coming years. I’ll try to keep my eyes peeled for some readily available Croatian wines and let you know, so watch this space!
And that my students, is your lesson on Croatian wines.
Class dismissed.
Tags: borgonja, croatia, croatian wines, dalmatia wines, grasevina, ice wines, istrian wines, malvazija, plavic mali, refosco, roxanich, TBA, teran, trapan, welschriesling
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