On Friday October 26th, HamptonsWineShoppe and The Stone Creek Inn conducted their first collaborative wine dinner. About two weeks prior, Christian, Elaine, Paul and I sat down to discuss the menu and consider the wines. Unusual to the Wine Dinner format, we were free to use any wines we wanted, not just wines from a certain region or certain winery. The meal included Lobster, Risotto with White Truffles, Venison, and Chocolate. Some dishes were easy to match others less so.
For me the Lobster was easy as I had just had a favorite ‘value’ White Burgundy with lobster and it worked perfectly. There were many positive comments about the 2003 Domaine Caillot Bourgogne Blanc, but I felt it was served a bit too cool. After talking to several tables I heard many positive comments, but the comments became more effusive as the wine warmed up.
The 2003 Domaine Caillot Bourgone Blanc is such a great deal because it tastes like a fine Meursault, even though it isn’t and because it isn’t it only cost $20 a bottle rather than $50 for a similarly styled Meursault. There was plenty of interest in this wine but much more for the reds, most likely due to the weather. The wines nutty, ripe citrus and apple characters easily matched the powerful lobster and black truffle dish, yet didn’t overwhelm.
White Truffles are one of the culinary worlds most decadent foods, very rare, very expensive and very aromatic and bursting with flavors. A wine to match such is difficult without a massive budget for either mature and renowned Barolo, Barbaresco or Chambertin…none were in the budget so I had to really scour the Pinot Noir world for something reasonably priced and powerful and elegant enough to stand-up to White Truffle Risotto. The 2003 Tiefenbrunner Pinot Nero Lintaclarus from Alto-Adige fit the bill so well that several cases were sold that evening. The wine had classic cherry cola notes that reminded us of really fine 2005 Village Nuits, a long elegant finish, pretty and very long, a stunning value at $28 a bottle.
Venison is a wine match that is generally easy and to help woo customers to the dinner we decided to showcase a serious Bordeaux from the touted 2004 vintage. Yes I know, 2005 is getting all the attention, but at what cost…3 times the prices of 2004? Anyhow, we settled on 2004 Chateau du Tertre a 5th Cru Classe from Margaux. Margaux, due to the particular soils use a bit higher percentage of Merlot. Again this was a hit with the crowd, but I cheated a bit and decanted the wines almost 5 hours before it was poured. So those of you who are lucky to get a few bottles of this – if we still have some when you receive this e-mail I’d be surprised – either wait a few years to drink it or decant it for an hour or so before hand. Actually all the wines here will benefit a bit of decanting but none really need it except the du Tertre.
For desert we used a wine from a few hours from Chef Christian’s home town of Toulouse in Southern France, a Banyuls. Banyuls is sweet red wine made from Grenache that is produced in the same manner as Porto, as in fortified with brandy. The La Tour Vieile Banyuls 2005 was less sweet than many diners expected with a lovely fruity character and a long, bright finish. This interesting wine is sold in a convenient 500 ml bottle and is a reasonable $24 a bottle.
Oh and I forgot the Sparkling wine we served as guests arrived, it was a Martha Clara Brut (North Fork), that is produced in a Method Champenois style (just like Champagne) by a Champenoise. Gil Martin, the winemaker for the wine, grew up in Champagne and worked for Roederer Estate and his experience shows in this excellent value and local wine. $17 a bottle at the store or through the web-site.
Now for the lovely, rich, exuberant and yet elegant Chateau du Tertre 2004 – we are either out-of stock or have very few bottles left so act fast or check out our other 2004 Bordeaux offerings below…just a laundry list call or e-mail our wine specialist and Sommelier to discuss the Bordeaux best suited to your vinous needs and desires.
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( 3 / 316 )Over my many years of tasting with winemakers, I have found a trend, those winemakers that study wine from other regions, and taste many diverse wines make better wines. So this little tasting group of winemakers on Eastern Long Island matches that trend and helps our local industry learn how to compete and excel at making the finest wines possible from the resources available to them. The most interesting experiences I have had recently with Long Island wines have been at Bedell Winery and Paumanok Winery. What I learned at Bedell was the background and approach of the new winemaker, John Levenberg. John was a winemaker for several serious wineries in California (Paul Hobbs, Cuvaison) Saint Emilion (Chateau Quinault), and New Zealand and was wooed here by a headhunter for Bedell Cellars. He was quite hesitant but finally found the cool climate and lower potential alcohol of the wines were more suited to his own palate – it seems that many of his wines that got major kudos and 90+ Parker points while working for Paul Hobbs Winery had alcohol contents pushing 15% and more. While wines with such high alcohols can be impressive for a sip or two, they are not well suited to sitting down and having a few glasses with and after dinner (and driving home too). John is just one more piece of a serious winemaking team that includes founder Kip Bedell and consultant Pascal Marty (formerly of Mouton Rothschild and Opus One), but his influence can be seen in both the winery and the wines. The excellent valued 2005 Bedell Merlot was produced in a larger volume ever for the winery, yet still sold out in record time.
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Paul and I tasted this wine at the Spring Polaner Selections tasting held at the Puck Building. Now anyone familiar with these large trade tastings understands the amount of wines and quality of wines that are available. The Vinas de Gain was one of the most impressive wines of the tasting for me. It has class and elegance along with lovely fruit and oak characters that did not mask the wines finesse or its sense of place. That means, yes it did taste like a Rioja.
The wine is produced exclusively from Tempranillo that is grown in the the Rioja Alevesa sub-region. This region produces some of my favorite Rioja as the climate is a bit cooler and has more chalk in the soils, therefore the wines offer brighter and more perfumed aromatics. Tempranillo is the most important grape of the seven allowed in Rioja (3 are whites), but many producers blend both Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo to flesh out the wines and give them increased depth, structure and ageability. However if Tempranillo is a grown in the right 'terroir' and tended to carefully with low yields, those other grapes are not needed. Just consider the wines of Ribera del Duero for an example of this.
The Vinas de Gain 2005 is excellent and shows just how good the vintage is in Rioja for those producers committed to quality. The wine is fine now, but has the potential to evolve for another 20 years.
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( 3 / 391 )I need to write two articles in the next couple of weeks or so and I thought I would put my thoughts down here first, then use parts of this blog posting to weave together for the articles. This is my first attempt at using this spot as an editor for future articles...so let me know - give me feedback...etc.
As I may have mentioned a few times, wine is one of those passionate subjects and products for me and I can still remember that first taste of wine that made an impact on me. Not the producer specifically the the wine and the region. In 1977 I spent a year learning German and going to Gymnasium (the equivalent of our Highschool), my parents took across the border into France to visit the Alsace region. There I had my first amazing culinary experience and drank the local Riesling - it was crisp, refreshing with fresh sweet fruit...my mouth is watering now thinking of it. Anyhow, 15 years later or so I had that first Pinot Experience that made me go - oh my, what's this!! The bottle was a 1979 Corton Rouge from Bonneau du Martray, now this is not a great producer for red Corton (but their whites are incredible), nor is 1979 especially renowned as a Burgundy vintage. An early lesson for me about the philosophy of Burgundy versus Bordeaux. In Burgundy, it's the producer that is most important, while in Bordeaux it's the vintage that is most important. So for those of you that know and love red Burgundy, you know that once you have that special, wow bottle, you search and search till you find it again. Burgundy is tough, cause it is expensive and elusive. Meaning to find that 'nirvana' Pinot Noir again, you need to taste and buy a hell of a lot of bad, mediocre, decent, good and even very good to find a couple of great wines. But for some (include me in that) it's similar to a drug...if you are among those that are addicted to Pinot, I hope you have deep pockets and plenty of patience. If not then consider taking a Sommelier course and get a job as one.
Now Paul (my associate here and with HamptonsWineShoppe.com) feels I should be PC on the blog concerning the other critics of note and especially Robert Parker Jr. But when talking about Burgundy that is tough. If you love red Burgundy with elegance, finesse and that sexiness that they can achieve, I am not so confident that Robert Parker Jr. should be the goto critic... look I know I am not terribly strong when it comes to Zinfandel so I leave it to someone who is (in this case either Paul or other wine professionals).
Now for decades other wine regions around the world have been trying to replicate Burgundies success with both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. And while Chardonnay from other regions (Sonoma, Napa, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa to name few) have shown the ability to come close and in some cases even surpass white Burgundies it has taken much longer for other regions to match the Pinot Noirs of Burgundy - some might even argue that it's impossible. I however have been amazed by the progress of Pinot Noir in other regions. Thanks to my editor at Dan's Papers I was included in an impressive blind tasting of Pinot Noirs from around the world and even brought a couple of my own to include. We got to taste Pinot Noirs from Long Island, Upstate New York, California, Oregon, Chile, New Zealand, Cotes de Nuits and Cotes de Beaune. The wines were very impressive and the experience was very valuable. Usually Burgundy vintages of note come and go with only a bit of fanfare, but I believe the 2005 vintage will get more attention than past vintages. This is due to both the market and the vintage. 2005 from my knowledge of it is spectacular and due to all the new interest in Pinot Noir, it has come at the right time. I have been sent into the Burgundy trenches to taste this new vintage and have come away with some very impressive notes and shocking price quotes.
The 2005 vintage in Burgundy could become a benchmark vintage, a vintage like 1982 in Bordeaux, a vintage that brings mass recognition to these wines. The big question will be if the wine prices will be too much or not, cause they are high. The two key points of this vintage and greatness is the full, rich style of the vintage and the fact that the market has fallen in love with Pinot Noir since that movie (Sideways). So far I have tasted about 100 wines from the vintage, and I will be tasting another bunch Thursday and next Tuesday. For now my reaction to the vintage is that the reds are some of the finest seen in decades. But the red wines are easier to understand and richer than any Burgundy vintages I have seen, most of the wines I have tasted so far taste above there appellation. Meaning regional wines taste like they could be village wines, village like Premier Cru and Premier Cru like Grand Cru. This may give some Burgundy watchers a sense that the regional wines will offer great value, well from my research so far, that is not really the case. For instance, I really loved the Bourgogne Rouge from Domaine Sylvain Cathiard, but the wine will retail at between $38 and $40 a bottle. Which for my money is right along the lines of a Village or even lesser Premier Cru from a normal vintage such as 2002 or even the hot 2003. The historic problem with Burgundy is the tiny production of many of the producers and finest sites, with 2005, this is compounded by demand, smaller yields for the vintage and excitement about a really great vintage.
I have been talking to producers about this vintage since last February and the directors for Jadot, Bouchard, Drouhin, and Champy all were very excited about the vintage then. They all mentioned the absolutely clean, perfectly ripe fruit that came into the wineries and talked about the sending the sorters home as there was no need to pay them to look at perfect fruit on the sorting tables.
So far my favorite producers from the vintage are Nicolas Potel and his wines are actually pretty reasonable for the vintage. I tasted 26 of his wines and found the Volnay 'Vieilles Vignes' (~$42), Cote de Nuits-Villages 'Vieilles Vignes' (~$32), Pommard 'Les Vignots' (~$45), Vosne-Romanee 'Vieilles Vignes' (~$54), Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru 'Aux Exhanges' (~$81) and the Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru 'Malconsorts' (~$100) to be the best and even some of the best of the entire tasting. And those are pre-sell prices! Now the others that were special from the tasting were the Meo-Camuzet Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru 'Les Chaume' for a mere $155-$165 a bottle or the Meo Nuits-St-Gorges 1er Cru 'Perrieres' for a bit more - oh around $160 to $170 a bottle. Were they worth it? Depends on your disposable income I guess, certainly they were spectacular wines that I'd love to taste in another 8-10 years, then taste every-other year till the wines peak in say another 30? Other wines of note include the great Armand Rousseau Chambertins, with Gevery-Chambertin and Chambertin itself being the best of the lot, prices, I have no idea - well you know, if you have to ask.
Keep an eye on the Nuits-St-Georges from Domaine Pedrix, the whole line from Sylvian Cathaird and the Chambertins from Domaine Pierre Damoy. The Cathairds adn Damoys will require a second mortgage.
So I advertised this as Pinots of the World, well as mentioned above I have really been impressed with the Pinot Noirs from regions outside of the great Cote d'Or and I watch with great interest as these regions evolve. Up in Willamette Valley of Oregon are some great Pinot Noir areas, I have found the wines of Lachini quite noteworthy and fairly affordable for great Burgundy, $40 may seem a bit pricey but not when thought of in terms of 1er Cru Burgundy, which this wine certainly achieves. Also worth seeking out would be the highend Pinot Noir from Domaine Drouhin and Hamacher, both are in the norther part of Willamette near the Red Hills of Dundee.
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( 3 / 426 )Late last year we had troubles filling some orders for a couple of Italian wines, it seems that the distributor that supplied the wines went out of business and the wines were never picked up by another distributor. Paul and I did some investigation and found the importer who then asked us to help him with some small distribution issues here in the US. With this he has sent us several wines to sample and comment on (and he hopes we find good enough to bring into the market).
Last month we tasted a group of wines that included an Amarone (wasn't up to snuff for us so no note is available), Primitivo, Nero d'Avola, Negramaro, Rosso di Montepulciano, Rosso di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and a Brunello di Montalcino. We are just now re-visiting these tasting notes to determine what wines we would like to endorse for the coming months.
Feudo di San Nicola Primitivo 2004 had notes of brambly berries with a big dose of earth and white pepper, maybe even a touch of black pepper - spicy anyway. The second whiff included blueberry and plum notes, in the palate there were both sweet and dried fruit characters. Medium weight, but well balanced with a lingering finish that brings back the brambly berry and spice...the wine seems to evolve very nicely with time and exposure to air and gets more complex with each sniff. Lots of Zinfandel character and a good value at what we think with be the final price (depending on exchange rates etc.), about $15 a bottle.
Terre di Sole Nero d'Avola 'Apolos' 2004
Spicy noes, southern rhone-like, big and lush, medium acidity. Not the value of above and a similar price. We'll keep looking for something in this category.
Crociani Rosso di Montepulciano 2003
This is considered to be baby Vino Nobile, but with less aging requirements and less intensity, produced from mostly the Prugnol Gentile clone of Sangiovese.
Dried cherry aromas, old oak, astringent tannins, rustic palate with baked olive notes and very tannic. The fruits are bit too dried and roasted for me. About $19.
Le Gode Rosso di Montalcino (forgot to write the vintage down)
Baby Brunello with less aging requirements but produced from 100% Sangiovese Grosso, the Brunello clone.
Deep, dark, brooding cherries and tobacco, cocoa notes and a touch of asphalt. Good balance, medium bodied and fine tannins, oh and a pretty long finish...overall a pretty lovely wine that will cost about $34.
Crociani Vino Nbile di Montepulciano Riserva 2001
Black cherries, red cherries, tobacco, chalk are all found in the first sniff, later there is candied cherries. The palate is lush and classy with great balance, the wine is very approachable at this stage yet has plenty of stuffing. This is really quite impressive at any price less than $100 a bottle. We are still working out how much Nicola plans on charging us for it but for sure it will be less than $60. Yum.
Le Gode Brunello di Montalcino 2000
Dried leaves, brown cherries, red berry, plum, herbs, tar and other dark deep even brooding fruits. The palate is lush, long and big with fine, softening tannins and a classy long finish. Real Brunello breed here. Real good value for fine Brunello, I know $68 a bottle does not seem like a deal, but compare it to other Brunello prices.
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