Dr Vino's wine blog

Texier, Cotes du Rhone, 2004. $10 find this wine
I pulled out this wine as a “third bottle” one evening because I expected it to be big. But it was lean. And very food friendly. I poked around the web and found this comment from the importer: “Eric Texier and his wife, Laurence, studied nuclear science in France and in Illinois.” Oops, that wasn’t the important part. Take 2: “He vinifies all of his Rhones as if they were Burgundies. His touch is therefore light, and involving cold maceration of all reds…and the gentlest, non-filtered, gravity powered bottling possible.” Aha! Well, it certainly is an unusual CDR, but good nonetheless–and Texier is tres sexier at $9.99! Importer: Louis/Dressner.

tags: wine | tasting notes

A dozen intrepid tasters gathered at the Dr. Vino World Headquarters on Saturday to answer two pressing questions: (1) is mourvedre the next grape “for men” and (2) if we see more of it thanks to global warming, is that a good thing?

The two questions are interrelated. Because mourvedre (minus one for machismo—French name) has a long hang time (plus one!) it can produce powerful red wines (plus two!) that are high in alcohol (plus three!).

Further, the late bud break and late ripening mean that it does well in warmer climates, such as its ancestral homeland, Spain. The grape has grown so well in Provence that the appellation Bandol mandates that all reds must have at least 50 percent mourvedre. As the world heats up, are we going to see more mourvedre?

Mourvedre is popping up around the world. Originally named after the Spanish town of Murviedro, it came to cover much of southern France. In the late 19th century when phylloxera devasted vineyards, mourvedre lost out since it was difficult to graft, the successful remedy against the louse. Only in the last 50 years was mourvedre able to be grafted and as a result it has swung back into favor though it still lags the other big reds.

It is often blended with grenache and syrah in the Southern Rhone. Chateau de Beaucastel has had as much as 70 percent mourvedre in the blend. Known for giving brambly, rustic, gamey or animal aromas it can take a wine to the wild side. Australia also makes blends known as “GSM” after the three grape varieties although I found it hard to locate one with a significant amount of M.

The best wines from mourvedre are known to improve mightily with age. So I wanted to be sure to include some with age as well as from various growing areas. And it tends to be good in its inexpensive incarnation from Spain, so I wanted to include a few of those too.

I bought ten wines that were mostly mourvedre—or monastrell as it is known in Spain or mataro as it is known in California. Seven of our wines are currently available on the market. One, the Castano Solanera 2001 had been in my cellar for the past couple of years since I purchased it for about $10. The two others, the Tempier and the Ridge, I purchased from Hart Davis Hart in Chicago.

They came from Spain (5), California (3), Washington State (1), and France (1). I bagged them that morning so the tasting would be free of prejudice.

The tasting (in my order of preference)

Ridge, Mataro, Evangelo Vineyard, ATP, 1993. $25 find this wine
An excellent example of aging gracefully. Soft and delicate tannins, notes of forest floor, brambles, dust, leather and some tart cherry, this bottle was quickly emptied. With only seven barrels made, this was a small production that is now out of production.

Tablas Creek, Esprit de Beaucastel, Paso Robles, 2003. $38 find this wine
Wonderfully balanced with notes of earthy rusticity. The luscious black fruits, supple tannins, and mouth-filling charm with layers of complexity including faint clove, briars, and sage made this my favorite of the young wines. 50 percent mourvedre.

Rafael Cambra, Valencia, 2003. $30 find this wine
Modern in style, this wine exhibits the intensity of the grape in its youth: a slight minerality and acidity followed by solid but fun tannins from the oak as well as the grape. This one could do with 3-5 years in the cellar.

Castaño Solanera, Yecla, 2001. $10 find this wine
Although this wine had a couple of years of age on it, the tannins were still serious. But they made it seem more grown up. Sadly, a second bottle opened after the tasting was corked.

Juan Gil, Jumilla, 2003. $15 find this wine
This highly praised wine from importer Jorge Ordonez is fun and approachable with big concentration and supple tannins and notes of dark fruit, bacon fat, and vanilla. Many tasters enjoyed it, as did I. But I couldn’t help wondering if, in the future, if it wouldn’t be just a tad dull? Still it was the best performer of the currently available under $15 group.

Domaine Tempier, La Migoua, Bandol, 1998. $35 find this wine
Still very dark in color, this single vineyard Tempier with eight years of age was a disappointment. It exhibited musty, skunky notes with licorice and fatigue. I tried it again after the unveiling. A half a bottle remained at the end of the evening.

McCrea, Mourvedre, Red Mountain, Washington State, 2003. $13/375ml find this wine
Bottled in clear glass, the wine has a bright, Jolly Rancher color. It was a prelude to a taste: odd sweetness permeated the wine. Well made and improved with some of the cheeses, but oddly sweet finish remained.

Casa Castillo, Jumilla, 2004. $11 find this wine
No great complexity, no tannic backbone left me thinking, “eh.”

Luzon, Jumilla, 2005. $7 find this wine
With the previous vintage receiving huge praise (although my experience was one good one bad), I had thought that this would be a ringer. Unfortunately it was not to be. There was an odd mustiness that would not blow off, bright berry up front and oak that was not well integrated.

Garretson, mourvedre, “la graosta,” Paso Robles 2004. $30 find this wine
This 100 percent mourvedre had odd notes of sea salt and sulfur that took a while to blow off. Bright cherry and wet dog notes also present. Perhaps blend in some grenache or syrah? The alcohol too was perceptible with 14.8 percent on the label.

Returning to our two questions, mourvedre may not be too manly since men and women enjoyed the wines equally. And if we do see more of it in an era of global warming, it is able to produce exciting wines, particularly when blended with the fruitiness of grenache and the spiciness of syrah. On its own, a great site and top winemaking skills appear needed to make a good one. If game or fowl is on your plate this fall, try matching it to a mourvedre in the glass.

[For part I of this story click here.]

The wines included three vintages from Clos de los Siete in Argentina and four Dourthe properties from Bordeaux.

As with many Argentine wines, the Clos de los Siete packs a lot of punch for a $15 red. Mostly malbec, Rolland blends in healthy doses of cabernet sauvignon and merlot as well as a dollop of syrah, something he couldn’t do in Bordeaux. These are big wines, not for the faint of heart.

The first commercial vintage of 2003 I found to be an abrupt combination of dark fruits and alcohol. (find this wine) The 2004 I found more balanced between the fruit and the alcohol—it’s elegant in the way that a woman on a Harley Davidson is elegant. (find this wine) The 2005, Rolland assured us, would be the best wine of the three but at this point I was surprised by its monochromatic heft that made me want to sing “oh tannin-bomb.” He said that it would settle down quickly since it was just bottled 2 months ago. (find this wine)

The 2003 Bordeaux wines were stylistically different and varied. The Ch Pey de la Tour has a rich style but had a light minerality that the Argentines lacked. (find this wine) The Le Bosq is a serious wine with notes of leather, dark fruit, beef drippings and vanilla. It made me say “mmm, Bordeaux.” (find this wine) The Ch La Garde is made in a lighter style that was oddly vegetal given the high heat of the vintage. (find this wine) The Ch Belgrave was solid though lacked the depth of the Le Bosq. (find Belgrave 2003)

Do you use American oak, came a question from the crowd?

“No, it’s very peculiar. I don’t like the taste.” Rolland replied. “But that said, maybe we will look at it again soon since it is economically interesting.”

Huh? I did not understand this sudden flash of economic rationality for the aesthete winemaker with the high fees. That’s like saying you don’t like McRibs but you’ll eat them because they’re $0.99.

So, returning to the Mondovino criticism, does he have a one size fits all solution? The answer appears to be variation within a range. He seems to implement many of the same practices in the vineyard—thinning leaves, reducing yields, and picking late—wherever he goes. He was adamant that while some Argentines are trying to improve their wines with the use of small oak barrels but they had not done enough to lower their yields.

And he no doubt has many similar practices in the winery, though he was less forthcoming about those. But the wines I tasted were different across regions and across vintages.

He is clearly a man of strong views, moderated by a sense of humor, and a love of Argentina. He loves the free reign that his investors have given him in Clos de los Siete and he loves the freedom that Argentina gives him to plant however and whatever he wants. “I am a blender—I love to blend.” He’s mixing it up in the wine world.

* * *
The following day, Rolland appeared on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC. Listen here.

See my photos from Argentina, including Clos de los Siete.
Related: “Malbec match-up” [Dr. V]

tags: wine | Michel Rolland | Clos de los Siete

Michel Rolland, the globetrotting consulting enologist, is perhaps best known for playing the role of Mephistopheles himself in the documentary Mondovino. He was shown cackling in the back seat of his limousine smoking cigarillos and urging various winery owners in Bordeaux to “mico-oxygenate.” The film portrayed him as on par with Robert Parker, the Emperor of Standardization and Globalization (read my review of Mondovino here).

So I was surprised to see a different Michel Rolland lead members of the NYC press and trade in a tasting yesterday of seven wines that he had made. Although he wore suit that made him look more like he hangs out at investment banks rather than fermentation tanks, he was charming. He joked and told stories. This was the human face of globalization? He didn’t strike me as particularly fearsome.

Rolland is known as the “flying winemaker” par excellence. He consults to over 100 wineries mostly in Bordeaux where he got his start on the right bank. He wryly observed, “I started making wine in the US before I went to the [left bank] Medoc!” Along with 14 wineries in California, he consults in countries as diverse as India, Tunisia, and Uruguay, which makes him a juicy target for his detractors. His wines are often big and powerful since he likes to pick his grapes late and use French oak barrels. His fees are as high as his Parker point scores.

He said there are three keys to making great wine: great terroir, great grapes, and picking at the right time. Hmm, great wine is made in the vineyard? Sounds as if he might be talking himself out of a job as winemaker.

To illustrate the point that winemaking now requires more attention in the vineyard re recalled his first harvest in California in 1986. As the grapes were coming into the crushpad, a priest was there to bless them. He asked Zelma Long where the grapes had come from. She didn’t know.

Now, it’s all about the vineyard. And he sure has a big one in Argentina with five investors from Bordeaux in Clos de los Siete. (The d’Aulan family, the seventh in the name of the project, withdrew to focus their efforts on their Alta Vista winery) They just started planting in 1999 and quickly covered 450 hectares in vines. Then they stopped. The scary part is they still have 200+ more hectares that they can plant. With a vine density of 5,550 per hectare, that’s 2.5 million vines growing. That’s mucho malbec.

He said that contrary to his portrayal in Mondovino, he does not advise everyone to microxygenate, a process of running small bubbles through the wine during fermentation to soften the tannins. This is particularly the case in Argentina where they have such phenolic maturity that adding oxygen would turn the wines an unpleasant brown.

“The whole argument about globalization and standardization is silly,” he told me after the tasting. He said he doesn’t make wine one according to a formula. “You could taste that here today!”

But could I? Stay tuned tomorrow for part deux, including tasting notes, his thoughts on American oak and more.

Continue- “Michel Rolland: the man, the myth, the legend, part deux“

Chateau Turcaud, Entre-Deux-Mers, white 2005. $11 find this wine

The Entre-Deux-Mers region of Bordeaux is a misnomer. It’s not between two seas, as the name states, but between two rivers. This wedge of flat land between the Garonne and the Dordogne Rivers used to produce a lot of boring wines but the economic crisis in the area is starting to invigorate the area as a whole. This dry white, a blend of sauvignon blanc (50%), semillon (45), and muscadelle (5) is great value vino from Bordeaux. Luscious notes of pineapple layer on top of crisp acidity giving the wine a great mouthfeel. It’s an excellent companion to potato-leek soup. Mmm, fall is here. Consider this a wine for between two seasons, not seas.

Importer : Fleet Street Wine Merchants

tags: wine | wine reviews

Grower champagnes pose a problem: they lack the flash. What they don’t lack is cash. So, why spend the same on an unheard of producer when you could buy one of the grandes marques? In a word: taste. In two words: wine geekdom.

I tasted through a half-dozen grower champagnes recently and really liked the ones from Larmandier-Bernier. The Blanc de Blanc Brut 1er Cru NV (find this wine, about $38) is very lively with a straw color, a fine bead, pleasant acidity reminscent of green apples, and lovely balance.

The Terre de Vertus bottling is slightly more and has the rare distinction among champagnes to be bottled without a dosage, the topping up that is done to most champagnes before the cork is placed in and they are moved out the cellar door. It has excellent purity and is crisp, dry and food friendly. It’s slightly more expensive so I’d opt for the other bottling.

Thanks to Sam at Becks and Posh for suggesting this theme for WBW!

tags: wine | WBW

Caves Augé

Credited with being the second oldest wine shop in Paris, Caves Augé is on Boulevard Hausmann. It’s not sandwiched between the big department stores on this famous street, but instead it is down the boulevard, around the traffic circle and on the less touristy, more neighborhoody, end of the grand boulevard.

The store is known for stocking many “natural” wines, particularly from the Loire, as well as older vintages from Bordeaux and beyond. Many of the producers represented are not exported to the US, which makes it a rewarding exploration for the visiting American wine geek. Tons of boutique bottlings of armagnac, cognac, sherry, vodka and other spirits cluster in one corner. Even though wine treasures abound in the small shop, not everything is beyond the reach of the budgets of mere mortals as there are many interesting wines available under $20.

But the wines may be beyond the physical reach of customers. The small shop is packed with excellent French wines. And I mean packed. The display tables are laden with their bounty and on the walls, wines are shoved into bins. I dared remove a wine from Provence to inspect the label and Marc, the store manager, barked at me in French from across the store “I’d prefer if you looked with your eyes and not with your hands.” Ah, a customer service flashback to 1850.

One reason to go to Caves Augé is when you don’t actually have to be in the cramped store (being scolded). During the spring and the fall, the store recruits many producers to come and pour their wines for customers. According to those who have been, it is a great event, casually sipping on the grand boulevard on a weekend afternoon, with some of the most interesting independent wine makers in France. Be sure to check with the store to see if your visit coincides with one of these days.

Caves Augé
116, Boulevard Hausmann, Paris 75008
Tel: 01.45.22.16.97
Open 9 AM – 7:30 PM. Closed Sunday and Monday mornings.
Manager: Marc Sibard

tags: wine | Paris wine shops | France travel

Jean-Luc Thunevin is a “bad boy.” So says Robert Parker. The maker of the vin de garage Valandraud may have turned heads thus far in his brief career as a vintner but now he’s turning tables–table wine, that is.

This vintage will be the first vintage of “Bad Boy,” the table wine, produced by Thunevin. Making a quality wine in the administrative category vin de table is a rarity in France.

“The appellation system is still very important for the French consumer,” Jean-Luc Thunevin told me recently. But he is willing to forego it for this wine in order to radically experiment with this wine.

Bad Boy will be a blend of 70-30 blend of merlot and grenache. The grapes for this unusual blend will come from St. Emilion and Thunevin’s property in the Roussillon, respectively. Michel Rolland will be the consulting enologist. “He’s the best blender,” Thunevin told me. The wine has not yet been priced.

The wine will have a picture of a black sheep on the label and Bad Boy in large font.

Vin de table is rare in France since restrictions prohibit producers from stating either the region or even the vintage on the label.

Related: “Merlot-grenache” [Dr. V]

tags: wine | French wine | AOC | Thunevin