April 28, 2009

The Best $400 Wine in the World?

As I sipped the 1993 Dom Perignon Oenotheque with winemaker Vincent Chaperon, I not only marveled at its youthful freshness, but I wondered who would buy it.

At $400 or so a pop, this is a luxury wine being released into a world market that's been staggered by the global economic downturn. I trust, however, that not every wine enthusiast has tapped out. It would be a pity if the glories of aged Dom Perignon were to go unappreciated.

I say that with all sincerity, for DP is at its best with a bit of mileage. The '93 is all the more impressive because the vintage delivered delicate Champagnes that didn't seem at the time as though they would have the depth or power to improve with extended cellaring.

Of course, wines selected for Dom Perignon's Oenotheque program have been cellared in pristine conditions in the caves at Moet & Chandon. The '93 Oenotheque was only recently disgorged and offers a complex bouquet of toasted aromas, yellow citrus, minerality and hints of red fruit, supported by lively acidity.

In the scheme of things, the price tag is modest compared to collectible wines of similar quality and age. It may well be the best $400 wine in the world, a value I suppose to those with deep pockets. Still, I wonder who will buy it. I'd be happy to help them with the task of popping the cork!

April 23, 2009

Critics Challenge Judges Have Their Say

Blogging has been light recently because I'm coming down the stretch on my third major wine competition of the year, the annual Critics Challenge.

This is the most unique and compelling of the three competitions under my direction because the judges not only take personal responsibility (in the form of attribution) for handing out awards to the wines they like, they get to have their say as well.

The added value for consumers is the useful information we excerpt from the Challenge judges' tasting notes and post on the Critics Challenge International Wine Competition website (and also here at WRO) alongside the results.

The excerpted quotes are delicious nuggets that allow you to peek inside the heads of the judges and discover what they were thinking when they decided to medal a wine.

All of the Challenge judges are accomplished wine journalists, and many are WRO contributors, too. You can be sure that their excerpted comments will be as entertaining as they are enlightening.

The Critics Challenge will be staged over the Memorial Day weekend in San Diego and the results and comments published as quickly as we're able to edit and post them.

Stay tuned. There's nothing else like it in the world of wine competitions!

PHOTO: Chief Judge Mary Ewing-Mulligan consults with Challenge judge Leslie Sbrocco at a previous Critics Challenge.

April 21, 2009

Rioja for the Ages

One of the most impressive stops during my recent tour of Rioja was a brief visit and tasting at Lopez Heredia in Haro. At 132 years, Lopez Heredia is one of the oldest wineries in the region.

It has been operated continuously by the same family since its inception, and the current winemaker, Mercedes Lopez Heredia, is the grandaughter of the founder.

Lopez Heredia, for obvious reasons, is all about longevity. That storyline extends to the wines of Lopez Heredia, which age remarkably well.

During the tour Mercedes plucked a couple of mold-encrusted bottles from the cellar and opened them in the tasting room in a display of Lopez Heredia at its finest. One bottle was from the 1970 vintage. The other from 1976. One was red, the other white. Both were in superb condition and utterly delicious.

Astonishing though it might seem, the older wine was the white. Who knew a white Rioja 39 years young would still taste like wine, let alone taste like very, very good wine?

I write about Lopez Heredia and other traditional Rioja producers who've stood the test of time in this week's Wine Talk column over at the Creators Syndicate. Click here to read the whole thing.

April 20, 2009

Taking a Pass on The '06 Beckmen Syrahs

I am loathe to dump on any winery in these troubling economic times, but I would be remiss if I failed to share my disappointment with a recent vintage of wines from a winery I've enthusiastically endorsed in the past.

I take no pleasure in reporting that I recently tasted a number of offerings of the 2006 vintage from Beckmen Vineyards and found them well below the standard I've come to expect from this Santa Ynez Valley winery that specializes in Rhone varietals.

The wines were uniformly overripe and the alcohols were high -- above 15 percent -- but more than that they lacked the cohesion and elegance of previous vintages, and in some cases were flawed by bitter green tannins despite an abundance of ripe fruit characteristics.

I was so surprised and disappointed that I placed a call to the winery's media representative to ask, in a nutshell, "what happened?"

The answer was reasonable. Something to the effect that the vintage was challenging and winemaker Steve Beckmen was forced to decide between green fruit and overripe fruit. I realize this is a tricky decision and those who nail it usually have decades of experience with the same vineyard.

The Beckmen family has been working its exceptional Purisima Mountain estate since 1994, so in the scheme of things the hostorical record does not extend over several decades. In my opinion, they timed their picking decision badly in '06.

OK, that happens. What I don't understand is why the Beckmens moved forward anyway and produced all of their special designation wines (mostly Syrahs from various blocks of the vast Purisima Mountain vineyard) at the usual high prices when the wines clearly represent less than the best that Beckmen can do.

On the bright side, Steve Beckmen is quite pleased with his 2007 vintage. Good. I'll stay away from the '06 Beckmens and wait for the '07s to come around.

April 16, 2009

Rioja Without the Rules

Although Rioja is arguably Spain's most prominent wine region, it was just about the last to catch the wave of modern winemaking that has made Spain the darling of the young, hip crowd of wine enthusiasts populating wine bars across America.

Make no mistake, traditional Rioja can be fabulous wine, but it often leaves generation next wanting more -- more fruit, more alcohol, more obvious new oak. A growing number of producers in the Rioja district are stepping up to meet this demand with what are being described as "high expression" Rioja wines that sometimes eschew the traditional crianza, reserva and gran reserva classifications.

I tackle the subject in my nationally syndicated wine column for the Creators Syndicate. Click here to read the whole thing. I've penned brief thumbnails and wine ratings for four of the more impressive modern Rioja producers, but I must admit I was most impressed by Artadi and Roda.

Unfortunately, Artadi's flagship wine is the limited production Vina El Pison, a 100 percent Tempranillo from the 60-year-old El Pison vineyard. It not only costs $300 per bottle, but only 600 bottles (100 six-packs) are exported to the U.S.

On the other hand, the other Artadi wines are remarkable as well and splendidly priced at around $20 per bottle for the least expensive (but still yummy!).

Photo: Artadi's prize vineyard, El Pison.

April 15, 2009

All Aboard: Wine on Amtrak

It's not easy to find a good glass of wine when traveling.  Eateries along the Interstates and even the Blue Highways usually pay more attention to soft drinks and beer than wine.  Wine selections on airlines are more encouraging, especially if you're lucky enough to fly business or first class.  And then there's the wine list in the dining car on Amtrak, the nation's premier railroad train.

Recently, my wife and I had occasion to travel by Amtrak from Pennsylvania to California in a compartment that Amtrak calls a 'Bedroom.'  It was the best accommodation you could book for that Amtrak trip, presumably equivalent to flying First Class on a commercial airline.  We boarded at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station (the one made famous in the movie 'Witness') and rumbled down the Atlantic corridor to Washington, D.C., where we boarded the Capitol Limited to Chicago.  Following a five-hour lay over in the aptly-named Windy City, we boarded the California Zephyr for a scenic ride across the plains to Denver, over the snow-covered Rockies, across the Great Salt Lake, the high desert of Nevada, over the snow-capped Sierras, past Sacramento and into Emeryville, California, a small town next to Oakland.

Amtrak is punctual and we departed and arrived at the various stops on time and even rolled into Emeryville at the end of the trip an hour early.  Try that on a plane today.  The trip took three and one-half days and we ate all of our meals in the Dining Car.  Now, if you are of an age to remember when railroad dining was among the best around, treasure your memories, because Amtrak food today is little better than Denny's on a bad day.  The food is mostly pre-cooked (scrambled eggs so dry they had dust on them) somewhere else and mostly warmed up on the train and served on plastic everything, except curiously the stainless steel flatware.  Two items that helped to pass the time were Green Mountain coffee and Haagen Dazs ice cream.

I could go on about the meals we were served on Amtrak, but this is about Amtrak wine, or what passes for a wine list.  The wine selections, along with the other beverages, were on the back of a shiny menu card that looked like one you'd be handed in a diner.  The wine choices included Cavit 2007 Italy Pinot Grigio, Meridian 2007 Central Coast Chardonnay, Santa Emma 2007 Chile Merlot and Hahn Estate 2006 Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon, all in 375ml bottles for $13 each.  Penfolds 2006 Koonunga Hill Australia Shiraz and Chateau Ste. Michelle 2007 Washington Riesling were available for a reasonable $5 by the glass. 

If beer helps you get through the night rockin' and rollin' in an upper berth, Amtrak offers Bud, Bud Lite, Miller and Miller Lite for $4.50 a bottle and for $1 more you could pop the cap on Corona, Heineken or Sam Adams.  Pre-mixed cocktails cost $6.  All of the beverages were available in the Dining Car and the Lounge Car.  The Dining Car stopped serving at about 9 p.m. and the Lounge Car closed the bar around Midnight.

Storage is a problem on trains (but not as restricted as on airplanes) and vibration is the norm as aging trains rumble over aging tracks, so it's understandable that Amtrak trains would not stock an extensive wine list, especially of older more delicate wines.  So, given the unique circumstances, the Amtrak Mini-Wine List wasn't all that bad.

This summer, why not see the USA from an Amtrak train and if your trip will be of any distance, book a Bedroom, or at the least a Roomette; sitting up for a couple of days in Coach may be less expensive but it's bad for your soul, not to mention your back.  Oh yeah, even though the fare for a Bedroom comes with meals (although not wine or other beverages), if you're picky about your wine and food, you might want to pack along enough wine and food to enjoy in the privacy of your private compartment.

April 8, 2009

A Rejoinder on High-Alcohol Wines

Recently I read an opinion piece by Jon Bonne, wine editor for The San Francisco Chronicle, suggesting that high alcohol wines may be a matter of taste.  Bonne doesn't think that the age of the wine consumer is a factor, but he does caution that critics of the high alcohol trend shouldn't draw a line above which no winemaker should dare to go.  "Truth cannot be found between 13.9 and 14.1," he says, drawing a thin line on the alcohol battleground.

That's missing the point.  Critics of high-octane wines, myself included, are not trying to draw a magical line between what we deem as high alcohol and what we consider more moderate levels of alcohol.  We're simply saying, 'Enough, already!  Is the balance of a wine no longer important so long as winemakers reach even higher for more flavor?'

As wine consumers we are urged to seek out wines that are balanced, or wines that present components like sugar, tannin, acidity, alcohol, on the same level plane.  When one of these components throws the balance off, it's immediately noticeable.  With alcohol, the tell-tale sign of excess is a nose-prickling sensation and a measure of 'heat,' or alcohol burn, in the taste and the finish of the wine.  It's not a pleasant experience, and it spoils the pleasure of drinking a wine the same way that coarse unripe tannins, excessive sugar or acid would prompt the drinker to stop at one glass--or less. 

Apologists for high alcohol wines will also tell you that you'll never notice that the wine contains 15% alcohol when you have it with food.  Phooey!  Maybe if I pair my red alcohol bomb with haunch of elephant!  But even then, I don't want my foods to have sledgehammer flavors anymore than I want my wines with a sign warning that they shouldn't be poured near an open flame.
 
Further, Bonne and others point out that a number of high-alcohol wines (Spanish Garnacha, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Zinfandel) present themselves just fine at 14-plus alcohols.  And why is that?  Because winemakers continue to push the envelope; squeezing every drop of flavor from every grape.  To achieve high levels of 'flavor ripeness' means, of course, that natural grape sugars soar to heights not previously seen, and that means that in order to get the wine to dryness, alcohols also soar to new heights.  So winemakers water the juice before fermentation or use mechanical devices to separate the alcohol from some of the wine, then back-blend that portion to achieve a lower overall alcohol.  But, for some wine consumers these practices smack of voodoo winemaking or even worse, implying that winemakers are surreptitiously manipulating the wine.  So, to achieve high levels of concentrated flavor, which the public supposedly demands, winemakers forgo the techniques and let the alcohols rise.

Granted, higher alcohols come easier with some varieties than others.  The jammy flavors of Zinfandel are especially evident when the wine is at least 14% alcohol, while Riesling, planted in the right place, produces a flavorful wine at 12% or even 11% alcohol.  But not everybody likes Zinfandel that smells and tastes like a jam pot, preferring a more subdued 'claret' style that doesn't usually result in high alcohols.  

There are, of course, other factors that define the growing conditions of certain grapes so that the final product is in balance and pleasurable to drink.  I also admit that generalizing a complex issue doesn't help get the point across.  But I'll close with one more quote from Bonne's article, which I happen to agree with, but think demands a contextual comment: '…building a barrier at 12 percent doesn't help to understand wine as it exists today.'  Point well put, but I would add that 'understanding' does not mean the same as 'liking.'

April 1, 2009

Banfi’s New “BelnerO” 2005

Banfi has done it again.  About 30 years ago, Banfi astounded-and frightened--the locals in Montalcino when they purchased roughly 8,000 acres (the size of the island of Manhattan), planted Sangiovese and started making Brunello.  Known for their importation and commercialization of Riunite at the time, the locals were scared that Banfi would destroy Brunello by making a low-end product and, as many told me, 'bottling it in screw cap,' a clear pejorative reference to Riunite. 

The locals' fears turned out to be unfounded.  Banfi achieved the remarkable feat of modernizing Brunello while maintaining its clear Italian--and Montalcino--roots.  They walked a fine line to do so.  They could easily have made Brunello into an 'international-styled' wine with no discernable origin.  Banfi was responsible, in large measure, for the world wide explosion of Brunello's popularity and success by producing a sufficient quantity of a reasonably priced high quality Brunello that gave consumers access to this previously very limited wine. 

Over the years, Banfi has also rolled out over the years an excellent bevy of blends of Sangiovese and international varietals--Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah--such as Cum Laude, Summus and Excelsius, in which the Sangiovese has played a supporting role.  Now they release their first vintage of a wine, BelnerO, in which Brunello-quality Sangiovese plays a leading (85%) role. 

The remainder of the blend is Cabernet and Merlot, but it's the Sangiovese, with bright cherry-like flavors, that speaks. Cabernet Sauvignon adds structure without dominating and Merlot adds a touch of fleshiness.  Distinct from a Rosso di Montalcino ('baby Brunello'), BelnerO conveys the varietal nature--cherries--of Sangiovese in contrast to the deep core of earthy black fruit flavors that is the hallmark of Brunello or even Rosso.  It has a smoky savory element that complements the cherry-like flavors.  More flavors emerge as it sits in the glass.  Fine, supple tannins provide structure and lip-smacking black cherry acidity keeps it lively.  Lovely to drink now, it's a Brunello-like wine for those who don't want to wait for true Brunello to be ready to drink.  I scored it at 93 points, and priced at $40, it offers strong value.

As an aside, Banfi may have figured out a way to resolve the current controversy in Brunello regarding whether Brunello should remain purely Sangiovese.  Now, those in Montalcino who want to blend Sangiovese with other varietals have a model to follow.