The Silk Road of Wine

World's best inexpensive wines

The NJ Star Ledger has an interview  with Howard Kaplan, founder of Executive Wine Seminars and one of the world's foremost wine authorities.  The interview covers many topics, and although he is often awash in the really good juice he offered the following suggestions for inexpensive daily wines:

My current favorite inexpensive red wines are 2001 Wynn's Cabernet Sauvignon (Coonawarra, Australia) and 2001 Sierra Cantabria Crianza (Rioja, Spain). As to whites, there is a plethora of inexpensive -- under $15 -- German Kabinett rieslings from 2001, 2002 and 2003 that are phenomenal, low-alcohol wines, ideal for summer drinking. Also, 2004 Twin Islands Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough, New Zealand) is a cut above in quality and a cut below in price.

He also defended French wine from the global bad press it has experienced of late:

French wine was -- and still is -- the benchmark for the world, the standard-bearer of excellence to which all others are compared. In fact, the quality of French wines today is much higher than it was when I first started to drink wine.

Pinot Gris & Pinot Grigio: Spot the Difference

Good article from Down Under on two often-confused varietals made from the same grape.  Some highlights:

Pinot Gris is most famously found in Alsace in the north east of France on the border with Germany (hence its other name that is being phased out - Tokay d’Alsace), and tends to be (for France) a relatively big, smooth, round full-flavoured wine with higher alcohol level that gives the wine more weight.

In contrast, Pinot Grigio is a minerally, flinty dry wine that usually has a restrained nose, delicate pear and green apple fruit and a good acid structure with a clean long finish. Pinot Grigio is traditionally from Friuli in the northeast corner of Italy, on the border with Slovenia and Austria.

And, if you happen to be in Australia, some suggested (regional) food pairings:

Pinot Grigio is a great wine to match with seafood as it is clean, dry and subtle, so it won’t overwhelm the delicate flavours of say, Tasmanian Scallops.

Pinot Gris goes well (surprisingly) with spicy Asian Food such as great Thai from Jimmy Lik’s in Sydney.

Food Pairing: Sweet Corn Soup and Chardonnay

A glorious combination, straight out of the textbook for food and wine pairing.  Friday night at Marche in Menlo Park, I started the meal with their Sweet Corn soup, an unctuous concoction that included Florida rock shrimp and pan-griddled cornbread.  Since we were having a red Burgundy with the entrees, I opted for a glass of the 2002 Ramey Chardonnay (Hyde Vineyard) to pair with the soup.

It turned out to be fantastic -- the sweet corn in the soup blended perfectly with the oaky, buttery notes of the Chardonnay and the combined effect was reminiscent of buttered popcorn.  Try it next time you are home watching a movie!

Andrea Immer is a genius!

Andrea Immer has been one of my favorite wine commentators (along with Jancis Robinson and Karen MacNeil) for a long time, and she has recently risen to the top courtesy of her stunningly good wine & food pairing book: Great Tastes Made Simple.  Without a doubt, this has been the one book on wine pairing that I return to often, and always with (gastronomic) reward.

Future postings will go into a bit of detail on her suggested pairings, but try on the most basic for size:

- A French Sancerre
- An Italian Chianti
- Soft goat cheese
- Italian prosciutto
- Hummus

Try the wines individually with each of the foods, e.g., try the Sancerre with all 3 foods before moving to the Chianti, then try each of the foods with each of the wines.  She delineates the different flavor profiles and what you should be experiencing with each of the combinations, but it is even more fun to try it on your own and see what you think.  You will be quite impressed by what subtle flavors emerge in each of the different pairings -- who knew that Sancerre (tart, acid) would pair so well with goat cheese (tart, acid)?          

If you want to get even deeper into Andrea's wine pairings, she just put out a beginner and advanced set of DVDs on the subject:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-08-11-andrea-robinson_x.htm?csp=34

2002 Burrell School Merlot, Estate Reserve

  Burrell school cork 
  Originally uploaded by vineguy.

Maybe the photo is a bit fuzzy, but the wine is very nice and easy drinking.  Burrell School vineyards is a small producer located in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Los Gatos and Scotts Valley (on the way over the hill to Santa Cruz itself); they operate out of an old one-room elementary school building and don't take themselves too seriously (as you can tell from the writing on the cork). 

You can find their wines in a few local grocers such as the Los Gatos Whole Foods, but you should check out their scenic location if you are in the area!

L'OMBRETTA WINE BAR, SANTA BARBARA, CA

Visiting Santa Barbara for the weekend, we came across this gem: L'Ombretta, a Venetian-style wine bar at the corner of Chapala and Anapamu.  The website still has a ways to go, but Venetian native Andrea and his wife (co-owners) run a great operation -- 100-200 wines by the glass, with selections that change weekly, and a six-page menu that features regional Italian cuisine ranging from small plates, smoked meats and cheeses to larger plates, all highlighting the distinct food and wine pairing typical of Venice.  Two important caveats, though -- the wine list is heavily weighted to the Veneto region (so don't be embarassed if you don't recognize a lot of the names) and the food menu titles are all written in Venetian dialect (so the words are a bit closer to French and Spanish than to traditional Italian ... but the English translations are right underneath, albeit in small font).

We sampled a few small dishes such as the wild boar prosciutto, taleggio cheese and the mixed olives -- all were uniformly excellent.  We paired those with the following wines:

2001 Anselmi Capital Croce
2002 Villa Russiz Tocai Fruiliano
2002 Schiopetino F. Sgubin
1999 Viviani Valpolicella Superiore
2000 Corte Lenguin Amarone
1999 Tedeschi Montiolmi Amarone

For those of you that have never tried Amarone -- do so, without reservation.  Made from grapes that have been dried (rather than fresh), it shows succulent, extremely concentrated flavors that continue to evolve on the palate 2-3 minutes after you finish taking a sip.  Once hooked, you may never go back to another wine again ...

As if you needed another reason to stop by, check out their coming attraction for Eclectico:

   

WINE & BBQ: A PERFECT PAIR

Nice story about Manfred Esser (of Esser Vineyards) and his picks for wine with good ol' Texas BBQ:

Chardonnay
-Smoked chicken, grilled chicken fajitas, grilled shrimp & fish
-Mango salsa
-Sweet yellow corn & butter

Pinot Noir
-roast chicken & other poultry
-heavier fish: salmon, swordfish, tuna
-veal and pork
-mushroom dishes

Merlot
-smoked brisket & grilled sausages

Cabernet Sauvignon
-steak or beef fajitas
-peppercorns    

WINE PAIRING: SEASONAL FRUIT AND WINE

Madison Magazine (the Wisconsin version) has a great piece on the proper wines to look for when you crave those juicy fruits for the end of summer -- definitely worth a read, all the more so since one of our local favorites (Ridge) made the "Midwest Best"!  In their words:

 

Late summer ripeness calls for similarly ripe wines. While the season brings a juicy ripeness to our produce, we also start to taste starchy flavors as well, especially in our squashes and apples. These call for broader shouldered wines with uncomplicated, rich fruit and no discernable "earthiness."

The wines below are listed in order of increasing weight/intensity.

Guntrum Scheurebe Kabinett "Red", Germany, 2003 $12
Passion fruit and grapefruit aromas that carry through on the palate. Fresh and piquant, this moderately sweet white shines with Thai food. Look for the red bottle at your wine store.

Serve cold.

D'Arenberg Marsanne/Viogner, "Hermit Crab", Australia 2004  $16.50
Its tropical fruit gives an impression of sweetness, but the wine finishes dry. Rich and nutty, it's quite fine with salmon and fruit-glazed

barbecue.

Clay Station Malbec, Lodi, California 2002  $14
Raspberry and floral scents with a rich, broad mouth-feel and nicely balanced oak flavors of vanilla and spice. Great with steak and barbecue.

Ridge Zinfandel, Spring Mountain, California 2002  $28
Restrained style of Zinfandel with a surprising elegance. Black pepper and blackberries show through moderate tannins. Consider decanting for an hour to bring out its nuance.

MONTEBELLO ROAD, CALIFORNIA (7:45 AM)

Awesome.  No other way to describe it -- before work I combined two of my main hobbies, road cycling and wine (visually only, not taste-wise ...), by cycling with Greg and Ken up the 5 mile, 1,900 foot climb of Montebello Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  While any ride in the Bay area is pretty darn good, this was extra special.  We did it as part of a 40 mile ride this morning -- it was overcast in the flats leading up to Montebello and the fog turned pea-soup thick about one-third of the way up, just past Picchetti Winery, and continued that way until we broke the fogline above Ridge. 

As the fog slowly burned off it was pure bliss, as you can see from the photos ... this goes on every day, no wonder the grapes turn out so good up there!

Wineries passed along the way:
Picchetti
Sunrise Winery
Fellom Ranch
Jimsomare (now growing grapes for Ridge)
Ridge         

It's primarily Zinfandel and Cabernet country, so if interested in this slice of Cupertino wine country you can read a good article here.   

GUESS WHICH COUNTRY'S WINE CONSUMPTION ROSE BY 25% LAST YEAR?

U.S.?  Nah.  China?  No way. 

You'd be surprised -- it's Russia.  Demand for foreign wine is booming driven by a combination of rising consumption, higher disposable incomes and a declining domestic wine industry in Russia.

And you know who benefits most from the new importation craze?  Spain  I do enjoy the good Spanish wines that are becoming increasingly available so this is great news for their up and coming industry.

You can read the details here.