Dr Vino's wine blog

Rustic, is it good or bad for a wine?

Charlie, a participant in my last NYU class, cited it as the reason for his taking the class. He said that a friend had served him some wine recently and described the wine as rustic. Charlie had to find out what that meant.

I heard the word again yesterday at a tasting of wines from the Alto Adige region of Italy. One producer described lagrein, a grape variety, as rustic. So what is “rustic”?

I think of rustic mostly as a good thing. When discussing good value wines, I think of it as off-the-beaten-path varieties or regions that maybe have some quirks or rough edges but also have a certain undeniable charm, particularly in the face of a pasteurized, homogenized wine in an “international” style. One importer used the term “rustic authenticity” to underscore this difference. For varieties I think of connonau, aglianico, falanghina, pinot d’aunis, carignane, or moschofilero. For regions I think of Fitou, Cahors, Basilicata, Sardinia, or the Halkidiki among others. Few of these wines are meant for cellaring–they’re meant to be enjoyed soon, with a good meal.

I suppose if the term were applied to high end wines, such as Burgundies, it would be interpreted as a bad thing or a flaw. But in the context of good value, everyday drinking wines, it’s something to seek out even if it does mix in some clunkers with the charm.

What are your favorite “rustic” wines? Can a new world wine be rustic?

tags: wine | rustic

Guess which wine is sponsoring Fashion Week in New York? You might think that it would be part of a conglomerate with wine, handbags and scarves in the portfolio. But you’d be wrong. I’ll give you a hint: Heidi Klum.

That’s right, Wines of Germany will be this year’s wine sponsor according to this article in the NY Sun.

It’s not usually worth commenting on who’s sponsoring what (their ad dollars are speaking for them after all). But this year the fashionistas will be sipping on Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese and Trockenbeerenauslese. Or will they?

German wine makers have been trying to make their labels easier to read. “People are tired of these Prussian-style labels. They say, ‘I don’t want to have a language barrier before I can drink.” Thomas Haehn, national sales director for Rudi Wiest Selections, the largest importer of German wines to the United States told the SF Chronicle in a story about the trend.

The Mosel-Saar-Rewur recently shortened its name to simply Mosel. And a new crop of wines, mostly entry level, are losing German altogether.

While it may be sweet for producers to target a larger, younger, global market, how will we know just how sweet the wine is without the olde tyme nomenclature? Since the word dry has been corrupted in the wine world I would propose another globally recognized form of communication: numbers. Tell us the grams of residual sugar on the back label. Now that’s something even the fashionistas could be interested in.

Related: last year they drank “eccotinis”
In case you don’t remember Sprockets

Want free wine? It can be yours for the next few days courtesy of…HBO. Roll the tape [source: AdAge]:

HBO will offer complimentary bottles of “Rome” cabernet sauvignon at more than 100 eateries in the three cities to promote the second-season launch of its sex-blood-and-togas series, debuting Jan. 14. But rather than have restaurant servers introduce the product by saying “And our house wine tonight is brought to you by HBO,” consumers will be presented with a polite card at their tables: “A taste of ‘Rome’ awaits you. Ask server for details.”

Mmm, cabernet, swords and sandals. Sounds authentic? Hardly. But at least the promoters recognize as much.

Though intended to give diners an authentic taste of the show’s premise, the “Rome” wine was not shipped in from Italy; it was produced in California. HBO’s senior VP-consumer marketing, Courteney Monroe, was unable to secure an Italian wine vendor, but she doesn’t believe the promotion fails logistically. The detail is as subtle as the promotion was intended to be.

Somehow, I bet the special effects are better than the wine…(hat tip: UTB)

tags: wine | marketing

Look like an aggressive moron: Remove foil and wire basket around cork. Clasp bottle with both hands by the neck and work cork out with both thumbs. Shaking optional. For safest results, this method is only recommended off the side of a boat.

Look like a sommelier: Remove foil and wire basket. Place palm of left hand over cork. Clasp and gently twist cork. Pour chilled champagne into nearby flute. Switch hands if you’re left handed or want a “10” for degree of difficulty.

Look like a ninja sommelier (champagne sabering): Remove foil completely from the neck of the bottle and wire cork basket. Find the seam of the bottle with your thumb. Find a saber, machete or other sword-like instrument lying around. Holding the bottle firmly in your left hand, position sword at the base of the neck of the bottle on the seam. Swiftly move the sword up the the seam and strike the glass lip right where the seam meets it. Ideally the cork and top portion of the bottle will fly off. Note: best done outside. Also note, this will require much practice so as they say, “don’t try this at home”–or on a date since you might end up looking like this guy and wasting an entire bottle of bubbly (not to mention looking like a dork).

Recommended boutique, grower champagnes:

Pierre Gimonnet, nonvintage, $34 find this champagne
A blanc de blancs (only from chardonnay grapes) that has pleasant notes of green apple.

Lamandrier-Bernier, nonvintage, $38 find this champagne
A fresh, crisp wine from a boutique producer who practices biodynamics, a sort of “organic plus” style of farming.

Jean Milan, Terres de Noel, 2000, $70 find this champagne
This is also a blanc de blanc although richer than the other two in part thanks to the single vineyard where the grapes are grown but also because of a dash more sugar though it is hardly perceptible.

See my previous notes on rose champagnes.

tags: wine | uncorking champagne | champagne sabering

“I don’t care about red wine,” Dr. David Sinclair told the Boston Globe in a story that ran on Monday. Why should we care that he doesn’t care?

Sinclair, associate professor in Harvard Medical School’s Department of Pathology, is the lead researcher in the much-reported study about resveratrol and aging. He and his research team found that resveratrol extended life in yeast cells first, then tried it on mice. The mice not only lived longer but had lower incidence of diabetes.

Resveratrol is a naturally occurring component in red wine among other things. Lab mice were given the equivalent amount of resveratrol as a human would find in 300 glasses of wine.

So what’s up with the ‘tude, dude? Why denigrate red wine in it’s entirety? Where’s the respect for the French Paradox? Or intellectual curiosity? Or gastronomic adventure? He’s from Australia, after all. He may win a medal one day for his research on aging, but I doubt anyone is going to send him a case of shiraz with an attitude like that toward the fruits of the vine.

The 37 year old researcher is obsessed with mortality (if he wants to postpone death, what does he do with his equally inevitable tax payments?). “Aging is the worst thing that has ever been put upon humanity,” he told the Globe. Well, I guess he’ll be popping pills–not corks–til he’s old and crinkly. But he might just want to chill out from time to time, live that long life a bit, and have a glass of old vine grenache.

Related
“His research targets the aging process”, Boston Globe
Sinclair Lab, with pics of him and his research team
“Resveratrol now promises cardiovascular sloth” [Dr. V]
“BREAKING: resveratrol extends life and promises free gluttony” [Dr. V]

When I visited Argentina I was surprised to learn that some ten percent of the harvest each year is lost to hail. I’m sure every vineyard has a pest or a problem that attacks the juicy grapes. I’ve heard of birds and deer attacking vineyards here in New York. But on Wednesday I met with a wine maker from South Africa who loses 12 percent of his crop each year to something unusual: baboons.

The 40 acres of vines on Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards abut a national park. Marauding baboons wander into the vineyard just as the grapes are approaching harvest, when the sugars are high. The vineyard owners used to lose a quarter of their crop to primates. They implemented several controls that have reduced the toll, but not eliminated it. They put up a fence but the baboons dug under it. They used patrols, but the baboons waited until the patrol was around the other side of the vineyard.

Since Chris Mullineux, the vineyard manager and wine maker, adopted biodynamics last year, he searched for a harmonious way to eliminate the pests. One British wine writer told him that the biodynamic solution to pest management was to capture a pest, burn it and sprinkle the ashes around the vineyard to deter future incursions. That was a little much for Chris to stomach in this case. A mealybug, maybe. But a baboon?

In the end, he got lion dung from a lion park in Stellenbosch and sprinkled it around the periphery of the vineyard. That proved the most effective solution. It scared the poop out of the baboons. Or, rather, it was the poop that scared them. The grape loss has been cut in half.

2004 Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards, Syrah Mourvedre find this wine

Winemaker Chris Mullineux doesn’t like pinotage (the taste). Nor does he like wine competitions (they favor big, extracted wines). All the grapes are hand-harvested. And the vineyard has been organically farmed since it was planted in 1999, but they’re in the first year of a transition to biodynamics, a sort of organic plus plus. Further, I know no animals were harmed in the making of this wine (see above).

This 85-15 syrah/mourvedre is a hugely serious wine. The syrah gives it tannins and spice and backbone; the mourvedre rounds it out and gives it a wild side. Minerality blends with dark berries and notes of leather to make a wine that disappears quickly from the bottle.

The bad news: 1165 cases produced. Since Chris gave me this bottle, I’m sad to report that a quick search doesn’t show any more in the US market. More details as they become available.
Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards

THIS JUST IN: the 03s are in the US–but only 339 cases were produced. The 2004s are coming. The importer is Indigo Wine Group, in Venice, FL. (941) 483 1816

tags: wine | south africa | baboons

Fully 70 percent of human resource professionals say that drinking on the job is ok according to today’s Wall Street Journal. The only catch is that it has to be at the holiday party, the most widely accepted opportunity to drink at work.

The results are from a survey of 501 HR professionals. Surprisingly less than a third said it is OK to drink in celebration of a company milestone–no champagne, it’s back to work!

Most of the piece’s of advice at the end of the story are good–don’t drink during a job interview, for example. However one struck me as in need of elaboration.

Dinner with a client: When dining with clients, let them order first. If the client orders a drink, it’s OK to order one, says Phyllis Davis, the founder and director of the American Business Etiquette Trainers Association in Las Vegas.

An alternate approach, particularly when it comes to wine, is simply to ask your client if he or she is interested in wine. I do agree that if your client says no then you are probably going to be paying homage to San Pellegrino that night.

But if yes, then ask them if they have any wine preferences in general or what was the last bottle they had that really stands out in their memory. That way you can gauge how into wine they are–and whether you can justify ordering something expensive or unusual. When it comes to business entertaining, after all, client satisfaction is the key! (Just don’t take it to the extreme, the way this guy at Jefferies & Co. did to win new business)

Original story: “Sober Thought: How to Mix Work, Alcohol” [WSJ$]

tags: wine | drinks at work

On an October trip to Germany, I visited a number of supermarkets, and inevitably I found myself browsing the wine department. Out of chauvinist curiosity — or perhaps Schadenfreude — I always made sure to look for the wine offerings from the United States.

In nearly every supermarket I visited, including some smaller shops outside of city centers, there were two predominant Californian wine brands available. Gallo and, secondarily, Fetzer. (Interestingly, Chilean and South African brands are more prominent and varied on store shelves.)

But one wine in particular caught my eye. I noticed a Gallo wine that was called “Gallo Sierra Valley Merlot.” I thought, “Sierra Valley? Where the heck is that?!”

Visitors to California looking for Sierra Valley will be disappointed. I looked closer at the bottle, to find a tiny “(tm)” after the name. Indeed, there is no Sierra Valley — it’s an “appellation” invented by Gallo’s marketing department for sending bulk-produced wines to Europe with fancier labels.

The company’s website for the Sierra Valley brand offers this description:

Let us introduce you to California. The grapes for our Ernest & Julio Gallo Sierra Valley are sourced from our sun-drenched vineyards throughout California. By balancing Old World heritage with New World innovation, we harness the potential of the California terroir and bring it to you in the bottle.

“Vineyards throughout California” allow them to “harness the potential of the California terroir“??! One terroir for an entire state? Obtained by blending wines from the Central Valley? Who wrote this?

Sadly, it turns out that “Sierra Valley” and its broad notion of terroir are not limited to Germany, or even Europe. The brand is sold to Canada and Japan as well. For many people, sadly, this bulk wine with the phony-baloney appellation is the only exposure to Californian wine they can readily receive.

— Mark Ashley, Upgrade: Travel Better

tags: wine | Gallo Sierra Valley | Germany