Dr Vino's wine blog

Would more labels like this help Bordeaux wines sell in the US? I think so. A lot of the talk about reviving Bordeaux wine beyond the top 200 wines (there are over 10,000 vignerons in the region) focuses on the need for consolidation and big brands to rival American and Australian brands. While that may be true, clever packaging such as this may help save smaller producers. This 4,000 case wine comes from the Laurencin family winery in the Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux.

This is an example of the varietal labeling phenomenon of appellation wines from Bordeaux.

tags: wine | wine labels | Bordeaux

Jerry Shriver has taken the plunge and started his own blog! Jerry has an interest in finding good, affordable wines, a subject also near and dear to my heart. In his new blog, the USA Today wine writer will make daily wine picks for wines under $15. Daily! Whoa! Given his national audience through the largest circulation daily paper, Jerry will aim to blog about wines with high-ish production volumes, with a minimum of around 10,000 cases available.

That actually makes his site a good balance to mine, since the affordable wines that I recommend are usually produced in volumes well under 10,000 cases. While Jerry is trying to make life easy for his readers to find his picks, my goal is clearly to frustrate readers with tasting notes of wines you can’t find. Just kidding! I recognize that some of my wine picks may be hard to find but that’s why I think a tool like wine-searcher is invaluable.

Eric Asimov of the NY Times also launched a blog recently, which explicitly does not offer tasting notes, instead focusing on his personal experiences (we have learned about Grand Crew his “martial arts food and wine food group” and even that his car was broken into on a very bad day). Many other staff writers have gotten the blogging bug and each has his or her own style. It seems that features writing and food and wine make for a good fit with blogs. The blog is mightier than the sword!

Jerry Shriver’s blog: http://blogs.usatoday.com/cheers/

tags: wine | wine blogs

Lucien Albrecht, Alsace, pinot blanc, Cuvee Balthazar 2005. $8 find this wine

Pinot blanc is the other, other pinot. It’s not pinot noir. And its not even pinot gris/grigio. But it is worth checking out from this Alsatian producer. The light floral notes in this aromatic white are balanced with the crisp acidity somehow seem to make it a good choice for a mother’s day brunch, one heavier on savory than sweet. Or it is great with a salad or hors d’oeuvres. Whatever you pair it with, it does pay to shop around since I found a range of $8 – $16 for it through online vendors for the previous vintage. Importer: Pasternack, Harrison NY

tags: wine | tasting notes

When I read the recent Wall Street Journal story on varietal labeling for the wines of Bordeaux, I was surprised. The story revealed that some producers of appellation wines are stating grape varieties on the label, such as Merlot 45 percent, Cabernet Sauvignon 55 percent. Several people wrote me that day pointing out the story and asking how the producers were able to do it. The story itself provided one explanation:

Producers of Bordeaux AOC wine also traditionally followed strict French wine rules forbidding them from disclosing varietals on labels. The rules, which were a part of French law, were that only wines that happened to be 100% merlot or 100% sauvignon blanc could specify their grapes on the front. Most Bordeaux wines are blends. Created in 1935, France’s AOC system also guarantees that when consumers buy a Bordeaux, the grapes came from the Bordeaux region and were treated in a specific way.

Concluding that the existing French rules were too restrictive, some producers are choosing to follow far more lenient standards set forth in 1999 and 2002 by the European Economic Community, a predecessor of the European Union. EEC rules not only allow appellation blends to disclose varietals on front labels, but also allow wines to characterize themselves as say, cabernet, as long as a mere 85% of the wine was made from that grape, according to Le Conseil Interprofessionnel du vin de Bordeaux in France, a group of Bordeaux producers.

But yesterday I spoke with two producers of appellation wine in Bordeaux who use the varietal labeling. How did they do it? Nothing as complicated as the EU: they simply called it the back label.

Thus they had a consumer friendly “back label” that stated the grape varieties on the front of the bottle. Brilliant! But what about the US “government warning” that is supposed to go on the back label? That goes on the back label, which is actually the front according to the French authorities. Talk about spinning the bottle…

(I will try to get label images soon in case this was too difficult to follow)

tags: wine | wine law | wine labels

Elin McCoy ventures to Greece to discover the return of the native–grape that is. (Bloomberg) She also liked the Alpha, as did I when I tasted it last week (although in New York, sadly, not Greece).

The recent bilateral accord on winemaking that allowed many winemaking practices that were previously not allowed is causing grumbling in Europe, specifically the Mosel. (NYT)

This AP story on Mendoza provides a good lay of the land. (WaPo) Things are so great you might even consider moving to Argentina for the cheap rent! President Kirchner’s brusque style may be scaring off foreign capital reports the FT although foreign wine producers still have an appetite for Argentine vineyards.

Red and Blue America redux: “Consumption patterns seem to be correlated with cultural attitudes. For example, the states with the largest level of wine consumption per capita also tend to have the most liberal political and social attitudes. In vino veritas?” (NYT)

Beer sales are bubbling again in America, thanks to efforts to make beer more fun. Critter labels for Bud? (NY Times)

tags: wine | wine news

Pity Georgia. Russia played power politics with the Caucasian republic by banning Georgian wine imports on the grounds that the wine was tainted by pesticides and chemicals. Georgian wine officials sent samples to France and got a clean bill of health.

Then they went for the “big guns“: they tried to recruit J-Lo to sing in the main square of the capital Tbilisi on their Independence Day, May 26. But apparently $500,000 wasn’t enough to entice the pop star to sing the virtues of their wines.

Now Russia has just banned Georgian mineral water, known in Russia as a hangover remedy, on similar health grounds. Are the Georgians going to go for the nuclear option next: recruit Dick Cheney?

tags: wine | Georgia | J-Lo | Cheney

Robola
Moschofilero
Malagousia
Assyrtiko
Xinomavro
Agiorgitiko
Xinomavro
Krassato
Stavroto
Vertzami

I absolutely HAD to go a Greek wine tasting yesterday since I knew with 300 indigenous grape varieties that it would push me over the edge of the Wine Century. Indeed it did as I crossed off all those grape varieties above.

My 100th grape variety was thus the Moschofilero, an aromatic gray (!) grape grown all over Greece. The Tselopos 2005 (find this wine), which I had, was surprisingly aromatic, had crisp acidity but didn’t really do much for me. Maybe it needed some feta to go with it. Or saganaki.

But Greek wines have come a long way. One wine that stood out for me in the tasting was the Alpha Xinomavro 2004. Although there was more oak than I would usually like, it was an heirloom grape in a modern style, concentrated, extracted and with a good finish. On the whole, the whites and reds had good acidity and I was just sorry there weren’t at least any olives available.

So I’ll be sending in my form for the Wine Century Club today. Net-net I think the idea is a very good one. It knocks wine drinkers out of their groove and forces them to try something different. Certainly as it stands, where tasting notes aren’t required and grapes used in blends are allowed, the bar has been set too low for the most hard core of wine geeks. Perhaps Steve and Deborah De Long will add a more advanced Wine Century by country to take advantage of the revival in indigenous grapes in much of the Old World. Or a Wine “CCentury” for the next one hundred grapes.

But even as it stands, it’s lots of fun. If I were going to have a glass of wine with someone, it would probably be more fun with a member of the Wine Century Club than one who had tried one hundred 100-point wines. I urge you to give it a shot!

Download the application (in pdf)

tags: wine | wine century | grape varieties

Just how much truthiness is there in American wine? Thanks to a US Treasury Department ruling this week, the answer it about 10 percent less. Federal regulators get this week’s wag of the finger!

Yes, the Wine Institute of California pushed the federal regulators to relax the rules for putting a vintage on a wine’s label. Previously American wines only had 95 percent truthiness when it comes to their age and now some will only have to have 85 percent.

While less truthiness on wine labels is a step in the wrong direction in general, federal regulators sought to confuse consumers by having the new standard apply to only SOME wines. Yes, if a wine comes from Napa or Sonoma the 95 percent truthiness still holds. But for generic California wines, age now matters less, creating a two tier system for consumers to keep track of. Heap opprobium on federal regulators with a wag of the finger!

A tip of the hat this week goes to Fast Company magazine who had the good judgment to recommend this wine blog as a site that’s worth its weight in Bordeaux 2005 futures.

tags: wine | wine | wine blogs