Mouthing Off

Got back yesterday evening from the first annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine festival, a three-day extravaganza of tastings, lunches, dinners, seminars and (for those who know which end of the stick you hit that little white ball with) golf.

Highlights for me included what seemed to be unlimited amounts of Dom Perignon 1999 being served before a lunch that included, among other terrific courses, a superb piece of venison cooked by Eleven Madison Park's Daniel Humm. Someone asked him about why the meat was so tender, and he said in his Swiss-French accent, "Yes, first they slaughter the animal, and then they hang the carcass for three weeks." Various looks of slight alarm arose from the less game-obsessed at the lunch. "And then I marinate it for three days," he added, somewhat of an afterthought.

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Peter's a senior correspondent at my former home, Wine & Spirits Magazine, and one of the more savvy writers about (and tasters of) Champagne I've ever met. He seems to have taken time off from his years-long task of writing a comprehensive book about Champagne terroir to jet to Japan and chow down on live shrimp (and taste sake while there). While his blog's not always this culinarily outré, it's always worth checking out.

I had lunch the other day with Sandro Boscaini of Masi, the Italian Amarone producer, at Manhattan's Alto restaurant. Boscaini has a bit of that same mischievous twinkle in his eye that the late William F. Buckley, Jr. had (which David Remnick memorably described as "the eyes of a child who has just displayed a horrid use for the microwave oven and the family cat"—so actually it's probably more fair to say that Boscaini has the same mischievous twinkle but without the implied hint of cheerful sadism). In any case, the lunch was terrific—chef Michael White's cooking blew me away—and the wines, a series of Masi amarones stretching back to a 1983 Campolongo de Torbe, were remarkable, too.

Boscaini has a way with a phrase, and I particularly liked this comment: "It's impossible to bring Juliet's Balcony in Verona to New York, but we can bring a bottle of Amarone. Through the juice of the grapes we can encapsulate in a bottle the romance, the culture, the story of a people."

He went on, "In Tuscan wines, the sense of Renaissance nobility—sometimes a little arrogance?" Yep, there's that mischievous twinkle, and a sort of half-smile to himself. Then, "But the Veneto...I think it's the sweetness. Supple, elegant, approachable, with a little understatement...we take life very easily. Even our wines, from the Veneto, they have a certain understatement or cordiality." Hemingway, he added, described the wines of Verona as dry and cordial, like the home of a brother one gets on with.

We tasted a string of 2001s, including the cherry-and-tea-leaf-scented '01 Vaio Armaron, full of sweet dark cherry notes and a nice lush depth, the '01 Campolongo di Torbe, with a note of black olive in the nose and spicy, exotic, cherry-blueberry fruit, and the '01 Mazzano, much more austere and brooding, its plum and dark chocolate wrapped up in drying tannins. Boscaini said, "Mazzano is very austere, with no voluptuous character. The vineyard is very high in the hills, the soil is very poor, and the temperature is colder. It's severe. Campolongo is more like a painting by Rubens, more color, more warmth. It has that illusion of sweetness that is typical of Amarone. Mazzano is more like Modigliani." A side note: this was very surprising to hear, as I'd just used the same analogy about two wines in my March column on Washington reds. He continued: "And Vaio Armaron is more a baroque style, an elegant, majestic wine."

The older vintages were all from Campolongo di Torbe, in honor of its fiftieth anniversary. I found the '97 Campolongo a bit overly ripe and raisiny—"gormless" was the word I used in my notes, which means brainless; mostly I meant it was a bit hulking. However, it came to life paired with White's delicious short-ribs. Context, y'know, it's a pretty crucial consideration. The '88 Campolongo I loved for its complex aroma of herbs, tobacco, dried cherry and clay, its round cherry pie flavors, brick dust tannins, and note of milk chocolate...just terrific stuff. And the '83 Campolongo, though a bit attenuated, was still intriguing and pleasurable, with a sort of delicate perfume of almond, dried cherry and licorice, and sweet dried cherry fruit wrapped with licorice notes.

I'll wrap this up with Sandro Boscaini's advice about the best way to enjoy Amarone, at least in its first twelve years. "Serve it with a piece of Parmesan cheese drizzled with a spoonful of acacia honey. It's a perfect match." 

As it turned out, I tasted so many good Washington reds for my March Tasting Room column that I ran out of space—the overall quality of the wines during the series of tastings I did was remarkable. Our online department thought it would be a fine idea to run a bunch of the wines that I couldn't quite squeeze in on the regular F&W website, but since the page is a little hard to find (it's right here), I figured why not run them on this blog as well. So, with no further ado:

Cabernet Sauvignon
2005 ANDREW WILL CUVÉE LUCIA CABERNET SAUVIGNON ($25)
Classic Cabernet Sauvignon notes of red currants and a touch of green herbs characterize this affordable cuvée from star winemaker Chris Camarda.

2003 COUGAR CREST RESERVE CABERNET SAUVIGNON ($55)
Boutique Walla Walla producer Cougar Crest sources grapes from two of its estate vineyards-Stellar and Cougar Hills-for this elegant, structured Cabernet. Notes of mint and red currant lift its wild berry flavors.

2004 PEPPER BRIDGE CABERNET SAUVIGNON ($50)
Winemaker Jean-François Pellet somehow transformed fruit from the difficult 2004 vintage into this velvety, complex Cabernet, with mocha notes from 21 months of aging in French oak barrels.

Syrah
2005 AMAVI WALLA WALLA VALLEY SYRAH ($26)
Savory green peppercorn notes in the aroma and flavor mark this focused, northern Rhône-style Syrah. Jean-François Pellet, winemaker at Pepper Bridge, is one of the partners in this small, family-owned winery.

2005 BETZ FAMILY LA SERENNE SYRAH ($55)
Inky-purple in color and packed with powerful blackberry fruit; the fruit for this wine comes from the Boushey Vineyard in Yakima Valley, one of the finest Syrah vineyards in the state. Betz Family produces some of Washington's most sought-after wines. If this wine proves difficult to find, make sure to get on the mailing list for future vintages.

2005 SAVIAH WALLA WALLA VALLEY SYRAH ($32)
The remarkable 2005 vintage in Washington State helped winemaker Richard Funk produce this chocolatey Syrah, full of plump blackberry fruit.

Merlot
2004 BOUDREAUX CELLARS COLUMBIA VALLEY MERLOT ($40)
This is voluptuous, sexy Merlot, its plump blackberry fruit sheathed in spicy oak. Boudreaux, on the Icicle River outside the town of Leavenworth, is off the local power grid, and is the only completely self-powered winery in Washington State.

2003 COUGAR CREST WALLA WALLA VALLEY ESTATE GROWN MERLOT ($32)
A spicy Merlot with almost citrusy acidity, this lively, intense Merlot comes from a boutique winery located at the Walla Walla airport.

2005 J. BOOKWALTER COLUMBIA VALLEY MERLOT ($38)
Star winemaking consultant Zelma Long helps make Bookwalter's robust wines; from the 2005 vintage, look for the polished Columbia Valley Merlot, full of sweet raspberry and cherry fruit.

Red Blends
2005 BETZ FAMILY CLOS DE BETZ ($40)
A complex, spicy blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Cabernet Franc, this is the flagship wine from winemaker Bob Betz, long-time head of winemaking for Chateau Ste. Michelle before leaving to found his own winery in 2003.

2004 BUTY COLUMBIA REDIVIVA ($50)
Walla Walla local Caleb Foster makes this generous, silky Cabernet/Syrah blend with fruit from the renowned Champoux Vineyard, and gives it at least a year of aging in bottle to help develop its seamless texture.

2005 CADENCE CIEL DU CHEVAL ($40)
Though it's lighter and more elegant than Cadence's profound 2005 Tapteil red wine, the winery's 2005 Ciel du Cheval, from the vineyard of the same name, is equally delicious: imagine sweet cherry and berry notes with an overlay of complex herbs.

2004 COLUMBIA CREST WALTER CLORE PRIVATE RESERVE ($35)
Round and dense with flavor, Columbia Crest's top red blend shows velvety tannins and succulent cherry fruit. It's named after one of the pioneers of Washington winemaker, Dr. Walter Clore.

2005 DELILLE CELLARS D2 ($45)
Pretty aromas of violets and red cherries lead into velvety, dense plum and wild berry flavors in this Merlot-dominated red blend. DeLille is one of the benchmark wineries in Washington State, and their wines sell out rapidly; if this vintage is unavailable, try to get on the mailing list for the next one.

2004 DISTEFANO MERITAGE ($28)
Lots of mocha notes from oak are here, but the dense curranty fruit is full-bodied enough to balance them. In 2004, DiStefano's Meritage is a blend of 40 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 40 percent Merlot and 20 percent Cabernet Franc.

2005 DUNHAM CELLARS TRUTINA ($26)
Appropriately enough, the name of this wine is the Latin word for balance-in this case, of light minty aromas, wild berry flavors and zingy acidity. Winemaker Eric Dunham blends Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, and Cabernet Franc to achieve those flavors.

2004 JM CELLARS COLUMBIA VALLEY CUVÉE ($27)
An abundance of bright raspberry and cranberry fruit is the key to the appeal of this juicy blend, which winemaker John Bigelow derives from vineyards in several appellations-Horse Heaven Hills, Red Mountain, and Columbia Valley.

2005 SPRING VALLEY VINEYARD FREDERICK RED ($50)
Spring Valley Vineyard's top Merlot, Uriah, is often one of Washington's best reds; the '05 Frederick, a blend of Cabernet with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot, is making a bid to be its equal, though. It's aromatic and luscious, with a minty finish.

2004 THREE RIVERS WINERY COLUMBIA VALLEY MERITAGE ($39)
Sweet dark berry notes and a creamy texture make this robust red blend a pleasure to drink; firm tannins give it enough structure to keep it from being cloying.

 

That'd be Black Bowmore. Which, as any Scotch maniac worth their peat-bog can tell you, is one of the more sought-after bottles of scotch in the world (Park Avenue Liquor in NYC has a bottle for $6,000). Black Bowmore was originally distilled in 1964, and filled into oak Oloroso sherry casks from Williams & Humbert stamped "Walnut Sherry." Evidently no one is quite certain what the folks at W&H meant by that, but regardless, the Scotch that was bottled out of them, first at 29 years old, then at 30, and then at 31 became a serious cult whiskey item. Release price was a moderate $100 at the time (1993 for the first bottling).

Enter this new edition. Same casks; same whiskey (same day of distillation, same lot, etc. etc.). This particular release came from five casks stored in Bowmore's #1 Vaults, which, chance would have it, I visited a few years ago & most likely tasted this whiskey from barrel (have to check the notes, which are securely buried in a secret location, possibly my sock drawer.) In any case, here the stuff is on US shores, securely bottled, locked into some very nifty wooden boxes, and, I do have to say, this is some mighty damn fine Scotch. Toffee-colored, with a wildly aromatic nose of peat, sour cherry and citrus, rancio, and hay, it's dense, lush and incredibly concentrated, with flavors of fruit (fig, nectarine), honey, a touch of wood resin-leather-damp forest, and ghostly peatsmoke. It's also got that incredible, elixir-like texture that some ancient Scotches get. I would happily sip it for hours in front of a fire, or not in front of a fire, or even standing on a window ledge ten stories above the ground. 

However, that is not likely to happen. And why? Oh, that'd be the retail price...a modest $4,500 a bottle. Mercy.

A pair of very appealing southern French whites landed in the high-tech foam-lined Tasting Room bottle repository recently, and as we're headed away from Summer, at least in NYC, I figured I-d better squeeze them in before it becomes roast-moose-and-Amarone weather again.

2005 Guy Bossard Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie ($13) Normally I feel Muscadet should be drunk as fresh as possible. But sur lie fermentation seems to have given this bottling exceptional depth and staying power-it's got a lovely scent of lemon and seashells, and tastes roughly the same (yes, I know, the idea of chewing up a bunch of seashells isn't that appealing; if you'd prefer the term "chalky minerality," feel free to substitute.) Also, it's organic, biodynamically certified, and all that jazz, so you won't wake up dead the morning after you drink it.

2006 Laurent Miquel Viognier Vin de Pays d'Oc ($16) Finding good affordable Viognier is just about as difficult as finding good, affordable Pinot Noir. Most of the under-$20 Viogniers I run into basically need to be put on the Atkins Diet for wine. This one doesn't: lean and crisp, but still possessed of that classic peachy Viognier scent and flavor, it's a nicely made all-purpose white for a reasonable price. Plus, for 500 years this particular vineyard was tended by monks, until Robespierre and his gang summarily tossed them out. Et voilà! A history lesson in a bottle.

A few days ago, the wine department here convened (a three-person convention) to taste through 20 Napa Valley Cabernets from the 2004 vintage. That year saw generally warm summer weather that ended with a number of hot spells, which brought grapes in a number of weeks early in most cases. Based on this limited sampling I'd rate it just a notch shy of the 2001 and 2002 vintages, and somewhat better than 2003 (though those wines, which seemed in many cases thin and austere when first released, have come more into balance, I find).

Of the 20 wines we tasted, the best of the tasting for me were the following:

2004 Quintessa ($100) Though this biodynamically produced wine had a distinct earthy funk when it was first opened, that aroma blew off after a while, leaving scents of tobacco and black currants. Dense and complex, its rich cassis flavors sank in and lingered.

2004 Marston Family Vineyard ($90) Aromas of eucalyptus and currants lead into a big, powerful, tannic Cabernet, full of spicy, even peppery blueberry and blackcurrant flavors. This is a seriously muscular wine, and is so tannic that drinking it right now is more an exercise in endurance than delight. Still, it's got so much substance behind the tannins that in a year or two it should settle down, then age beautifully after that.

2004 Vineyard 7 Cabernet Sauvignon ($90) Luc Morlet recently took over as winemaker here from Christian LeSommer, keeping this newish Spring Mountain's French bonafides firmly in place. The most elegant and gracefully aromatic of my top wines, this was more red currants and wild berries in the aroma with a light scent of minty oak; flavors suggested cocoa, cherry and blueberry, all wrapped in soft but distinct tannins.

2004 O'Shaughnessy Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon ($75) The most ebulliently fruity of these wines, but by no means a juicebomb, this Howell Mountain Cabernet was ripe and dense and purely delicious (and even more inviting when I tasted it again the next day). Think blackberry, spicy tannins, superb texture, streamlined tannins.

I'll report on a few more 2004s over the next couple of weeks-several bottles didn't arrive in time for the tasting, and there was one corked wine that deserves a retaste. Dishearteningly, there was nothing among the mix that I'd really consider a super value; some wonderful wines, but some mighty steep prices, too.

Met up with Australian winemaker Ben Glaetzer the other night for dinner at Gotham Bar & Grill, where vertical food is still vertical (the tuna tartare still has that tower of greenery rising above it, framed by two crisp cracker doodads) and the diners are still powerful (at the table next to us, unless I'm losing it, was Ken Chenault, CEO of Amex and, in a very extended way, my boss). Glaetzer is shaven-headed and sort of imposing, but he's such a nice guy you quickly forget that he looks somewhat like a much taller and more physically fit version of Dr. Evil. Over a bottle of 2006 As Sortes, an exotically aromatic, top-notch Godello from Spain's Valdeorras region, made by Ricardo Palacios, I quizzed Glaetzer about recent Australian vintages. That being the sort of thing one does to visiting winemakers if one is a wine journalist.

On the '05 Barossa reds, he commented, "They tend to be somewhat angular—what I call arms and legs—and are just settling down now. '05 McLaren is very similar, though Barossa is integrating faster. 2006 was basically a gift: no heat spikes, no rain—it combines the strength of the '05s with the grace of '04. 2007 was a pig of a vintage. An absolute freak. Everything was about three weeks ahead in terms of sugar, and about three weeks behind in terms of flavor. So a lot of people made really high alcohol, green wines; those who hung on and waited have less wine, but it's at least semi-balanced."

We tasted two of Glaetzer's 2006s, both of which will be in the US starting this month. First, the 2006 Anaperenna ($50; formerly known as Godolphin, but now with a new monicker thanks to some litigious Arabic fellow with a horse stable bearing the same name, apparently). A blend of 75% Shiraz and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, it had aromas of spicy oak, mocha, cassis and dark berries, with intense flavors that followed suit and were bolstered by spicy tannins. Impressive, but not as impressive as the 2006 Amon-Ra ($90), which is 100% Barossa Shiraz. Despite being potently flavorful—think cherry liqueur, ripe raspberries, light mint notes—it was exceptionally fresh and graceful. A lot of high-end Shirazes tend to leave me cold, they're so hyperripe and globlike; this manages to saturate your mouth with flavor but not weigh you down. Terrific stuff, albeit at a steep price. 

I'd meant to blog about this dinner last week, when it occurred, but then I got a call on the secret "scramble" phone I keep under my desk and had to quickly jet to the former eastern block to do some wet work for a black ops mission I've been—oh, wait. That's my other life. Sorry. 

In any case, I rendezvoused last Wednesday with a lively gang of Australian winemakers at Dressler, out in the nowherelands of Brooklyn (almost directly across the street from Peter Luger, actually). One thing to like about Aussie winemakers is they do things like start a wine tasting off with a round of gin-and-tonics, an approach to life best described as devil-may-care, I'd say. Nevertheless, I kept my wits about me enough to be duly impressed by the following wines, any of which are worth the investment in effort & cash required to check them out:

2005 Knappstein Hand Picked Riesling Clare Valley ($15) I've been a fan of Knappstein's wines since I visited the Clare Valley back in 2001, and foiled in that regard since they haven't been imported to the US until now. This is classic Clare Riesling—lime blossom aromas, tart, minerally, focused flavors, all lime and citrus with a talc-like finish. Sixty percent Watervale fruit, the rest on more slatey soils. 

2007 Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc ($15) Ben Glover, WH's appealingly unpretentious winemaker, remarked that '07 in NZ is a low pH year, with lots of green and herbal notes in the Sauvignons, which on the whole are pretty tight and tense—he added that for Pinot Noir "it should be a stunner." This had a nice pure gooseberry scent with a little tomato leaf, a bit of prickly texture when you first sip it, and grapefruit/grapefruit zest flavors.

2002 Petaluma Tiers Chardonnay (~$50) Price is approximate, since as far as I know this vintage is history, but what a lovely Chardonnay. The aroma was apple-apricot with a lot of leesy depth to it; on the palate, it was focused and refined, with more citrus notes than I would have guessed, and tremendous length. Not at all like most Aussie Chards, which often seem sort of pumped up and vapid to me. Curiously, Andrew Hardy, who's currently the winemaker at Petaluma, was the winemaker at Knappstein back in '01 when I visited. Plus ça change...

2005 Saint Hallett Blackwell Shiraz ($35) Potent Barossa Shiraz, with scents of coffee, smoke and oak, and then tense dark blackberry flavors underpinned by earthy notes. Calls for a big ol' steak, and I figured the hell with it and answered the call, since Dressler had an appealing sounding hanger steak/short rib combo on the menu.

2005 Petaluma Shiraz Adelaide Hills ($40) From vines planted in 1992, this was lovely stuff—berry scents lifted by a light peach pie note (it was co-fermented with 7% Viognier), then dense, rich blackberry-plum fruit, velvety tannins and a nice sustained juiciness. Sort of the Barry White approach to Shiraz, in a good way. This is the first release of this wine in America, apparently; 300-500 cases will be coming in.

Well, I knuckled down today and tasted through fifteen Petite Sirahs that had accumulated here over the past couple of months. I'm not sure why today seemed like an ideal day for big, black, tannic wines, but when the inspiration hits, one must follow it lest one's soul shrivel like a ten day old artichoke. Or something like that.

What I determined from this admittedly random and non-comprehensive sampling is that there's still plenty of Petite out there that winemakers feel an unholy obligation to slap with bargeloads of new oak, evidently as counterforce to the massive, aggressive extraction of color and tannin they also seem dead-set on providing. Weird. I just can't see how one would taste some of these wines in barrel and not think, "Well, Jeez, that's no fun." 

That said, there's also at least a few truly exceptional Petite Sirahs out there, and more than a few quite good ones. You could spend a good month or two trying to track down bottles of Switchback Ridge's imposing (and super-culty) version, which is kind of mind-blowing despite or perhaps even because of its Brobdingnagian proportions, or you could track down one of the wines below. Easier to locate, not as expensive, and mighty tasty. What more do you want?

2004 Quixote Petite Sirah ($60) From Carl Doumani's (founder of Stags' Leap Winery) new venture, this is certainly not lightweight stuff (nor is the price lightweight either), but it's so silky smooth and lush that you don't even notice the power. Aromas of vanilla, milk chocolate, and black currant jam; voluptuous blackberry fruit with a black pepper finish. My notes say "yum," which seems apropos.

2004 Stags' Leap Winery Petite Sirah ($38) Just chance that I happened to taste the current release from Doumani's old haunt next to his new baby; go figure. In any case, Petite has been one of Stags' Leap's focus wines for a long time: in '04 it's definitely young, with tough tannins that clamp down at the end, but underneath them are wild berry and roast meat notes, and the scent wafting up of soy, tar and berries.

2005 Mounts Family Winery Petite Sirah ($28) This Dry Creek winery is a new name to me, but if the rest of their wines are as good as their Petite, they're well worth checking out. I enjoyed this particularly for its clear, classic Petite-Sirah-blueberry aroma and flavor, as well as the firm but velvety tannins that cover the palate but don't abuse it. The berry notes increase in complexity in the finish. Good stuff.

2005 Oak Grove Reserve Petite Sirah ($8) I've got no idea what a wine that costs $8 is doing calling itself 'reserve'—how much is the regular bottling, $2? But regardless, this is a nifty little Petite Sirah for a very modest price. It might as well be a different species from the above three, as there's none of that tongue-blanketing concentration here, but there is a nice raspberry liqueur note in the aroma, and light but sweetly raspberryish flavors. Not a wine to think about, just to glug down at a barbecue or something. 

PS. If you find yourself turning into a Petite Sirah fanatic—it can happen—it's worth checking out  P. S. I Love You, the Petite Sirah advocacy organization.