GeerWade

Shopping smart in Europe for the holidays? What the locals buy?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:10:00 -0800

ITA622, $17.99 2006 Deltetto, Langhe Arneis, Piedmont, Italy

Way undervalued, when compared to PG. & Chard
Plus white from a “red wine region”
This busts the light, clean, crisp & refreshing, usually no oak Italian white cliché
Rascal Textural , vibrant, assertive, with plenty of personality. Plus it’s an ABC from the emperor of Arneis. Classic beauty always a better bet than rather than current popularity, where you overpay - Catherine Deneuve or Sophia Loren versus the bimbette of the week

SPA108, $14.99 2007 El Salegar, Joven, Ribera del Duero, Spain

Sapin is hot though $ is not, so we pick very carefully for our clients. If Rioja is Spain’s Bordeaux, Ribera del Duero is Spain’s Burgundy
Perfect representative of current Spanish wine industry – more international (read as new world friendly) in style, better quality, more accessible when young, more food friendly, fruit not submerged by the oak as it ages. House wine price alternative to the almost-see-God $50 September feature SPA106, with less time in oak 100% Tempranillo, regionally named tinto fino or tinta del pais: Spain’s greatest varietal - high acidity, herbaceous olives & nuts quality Lush, vibrant, red velvet in a glass

BOR661, $14.99 2004 Chateau du Piras, Premieres Cotes du Bordeaux, France

Region that created the modern wine business world-wide, despite of all the changes, still #1 in prestige
House wine price Bordeaux, the complete package, is becoming rare Exhibits: Terroir, that forest floor quality, affordable elegance, breed, finesse. Held back at the estate on their dime so it’s ready to enjoy now but still aging Potential in the bottle One of the Cinq Cotes, where the smart shoppers and locals go Parker on 04 - the last affordable vintage 51/30/19 M/CS/CF blend – what the components bring & more than a sum of its parts pushed literally 200 other Bordeaux off the tasting table.

RHO162, 2006 Jean Berteau, Cotes du Rhone, Cuvee Prestige, France

Magnificent vintage. Smart shopper area, accessibility, aging potential, value Jean Berteau - the man, the myth, the legend, in the 18th century replica bottle with the “B” - the ego Really is a separate cuvee prestige. Ultimate BBQ wine. Unusual pair, but have it with trout! Modified Southern Rhone 85/10/5 S/G/M blend - new world variation on traditional G/S/M blend – could be labeled Syrah, tailor made for new world palates CA vintners & winemakers use this as a model, not OZ for their Syrah. Beat all of the Cdr R satellites, CdR & CdrV, in addition to plenty of more prestigious SR ac’s at the table.

If You’ve Got it, Flaunt it! Our Happy House Brand Primer, Part 1

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:16:00 -0800

At Geerlings & Wade, we follow the most arduous, labor-intensive wine buying process in the nation. Our pool of California suppliers represents some of the finest vintners, winemakers and wineries working on the Left Coast. We have the resources and flexibility to consider for our clients existing market brands, custom bottlings, brands we’ve improved upon in some way, unknown wines, and wines blended or assembled under our own direction. More than in any other category, our house brands, aka “signature selections”, exhibit the fruits (sorry) of our expertise and labor. Here we bottle the optimum wine values available at their price points. The right to become a Geerlings & Wade house brand producer is earned through rigorous blind tastings, plus the vintner, winemaker and their facility must demonstrate the flexibility for my team to be part of the production process, if necessary, every step of the way. And that right must be re-earned each vintage. As anyone who’s been there over time can testify, it’s far more difficult to repeat.

New, CAL896, $14.99 07 Black Shadow, Syrah, California:
Black Shadow is traditionally our own Syrah and Zinfandel label Philip Zorn and Brent Shortridge

If this wine were the model for the Aussies, Shiraz would still be the current vin du jour!
Mother Nature’s magnificent 2007 Central Coast fruit, fermented in stainless steel, malolactic completed in French oak (20% new), and barrel aged one year prior to bottling. Dark and dense while complex and beautifully balanced. Sleek and supple in the mouth. Blueberry, blackberry and pepper flavors, over vanilla and all spice, due to nicely integrated oak. A touch of minerals present, just enough to remind you that this is an agricultural product. Other tasters identified dried black cherry, plum, molasses, tobacco and leather – perfect barbecue wine. This will become the thinking person’s house red for the duration.

New, CAL909, $19.99 08 Mira Luna, Pinot Noir, California (not to be confused with our SON549, $24.99 06 Mira Luna, Russian River Valley Pinot Noir): Mira Luna is our “more serious” Burgundian varietals label Hossein Namdar and Bob Goyette

The final blending session for this “post-Sideways-affect” Pinot Noir took four of us 3 ½ hours! The almost one-half Sonoma Coast fruit component delivers balanced deep black cherry flavors and spice. The similar percentage Central Coast component furnishes vif and intensity - vibrant, complex dark berries, with hints of leather and spice. The small but cost-effective Mendocino component is delicate and floral, violets and rose petals. I wish there was more of this fruit available, and not just because I’m a cheap bastard and worry over price. This deep ruby Pinot boasts soft tannins, a satin-like texture, floral strawberry, cherry and raspberry aromas and flavors, backed by graham cracker with a touch of toasty oak. Complex and well-balanced, overall, the impression is “here’s one satisfying wine”. The Bud Light marketing gurus beat me to the punch, however, as the difference here really is drinkability.

New, CAL893, $19.99 05 San Valencia Winery, Reserve Malbec, Mendocino, California:
San Valencia Winery is our almost-too-good-to-be-true-deal California label Shahin Shahabi, Dennis Patton, Jon Alexander-Hills

Is Argentine Malbec still the current vin du jour, or is it Malbec, the wine grape? Argentina clearly benefits from varietal labeling – there was no Malbec madness in the US due to it being a part of the traditional Bordeaux blend. Even less Americans know the “black wine of Cahors”, in spite of the region’s recent educational blitzes. When compared with Argentina, a stronger US dollar makes most Argentine Malbec sold here at least as much about price as it is about quality. But at the $15 and up price points, it becomes far more about value - does the wine deliver - and just like the Merlot boom of 15-20 years ago, Argentine Malbec at the most affordable price ranges has slipped. Supply and demand, Argentina’s fiscal strength and the world financial crisis have all eroded price/value ratios. Most of all I miss the display of affordable complexity – inky purple fruit juxtaposed against a delicate violets nose, followed by juicy, yet still rustic fruit – too many wines are now “homogenized”, lacking any sort of personality or dimension. What I am find more and more is that non-Argentine Malbecs often now clearly out-deliver the world market leader when at the same price. Time to abandon the soapbox…the cost-effective Mendocino County fruit for this gem hails from one of the best vineyard sites in Sanel Valley, Southern Mendocino County. Here, the “reserve” on the label is not just a legal marketing term, as was we culled this lot out of a somewhat larger production that retails for approaching $30 per bottle - our San Valencia label, remember – feeling it has about a 10 year bottle age potential. Small tank fermentation was the key, allowing the dense, inky purple-black color to emerge. An almost dainty floral nose leads into a hefty, slightly rustic (plenty of pepper) juicy, soft, silky mouthfeel bursting with black cherries, blackberries, anise, hazelnut and white chocolate. This Malbec will be magnificent - give the Argentines credit where credit is due – they know their beef - with a grilled steak, chimichurri sauce and fries.

New, NAP960, $24.99 04 Brava Terra Reserve, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, California:
Brava Terra is our Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon label and we almost never - one time in the past twelve years – bottle a Brava Terra Reserve, to give some perspective as to how special this wine really is. Robert Skalli, Emma Swain, Josh Anstey, Michael Scholz

Fruit for the 04 Brava Terra Reserve originated at a model-for-sustainability, a family-owned ranch farmed in a tranquil corner of Napa Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon is one the family’s trademark varietals. Here the Napa Valley ‘s warm days and cool nights are exaggerated a bit, due to elevation and distance from the moderating influences of the San Francisco Bay. This yields ripe, luscious fruit with crisp acidity – well balanced grapes that produce well balanced wines. Enough stress on the vines insures concentrated, complex flavors. This yields rich, sophisticated, accessible-when-young wines that unfurl layer upon layer with bottle age. And this 2004 was already aged for two additional years on the family’s dime! (Most of Napa Valley is shipping 2006’s or 2007’s.) This is classic, delicious now, intense, luxurious Napa Cab. A blueberry, cherry and currant nose precedes explosive cassis, cherry and anise flavors in the mouth. The topper is that we’ve seen current vintages of Cabernet from this ranch for $30 to $40 per bottle, back vintages at $100 to $130. And since this $24.99 wine will continue to age gracefully minimum another six years, I’ll let you do the back vintage price math…

Bad Ideas to Best Seller-The Story of Hamilton Merlot

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:15:00 -0800

Hamilton Estates Merlot has evolved from a handful of questionable marketing decisions to an affordable, go-to item for legions of long-time Geerlings and Wade clients.

You don’t just decide to create a brand named after a call center employee without lots of forethought, no matter how fine a worker Ms. Hamilton was. Would a $10 wine with the Monkees on the label, for example, be taken seriously, excluding by the Monkees collectors? Shouldn’t a bottling sporting a Declaration of Independence/Bill of Rights swipe be at least a little suspect? Especially when this $10 bottle bears a “reserve” moniker, attempting to ride the Glen Ellen brand school of wine marketing, implying that this wine was a better lot, carefully culled out of a much larger production, strictly because you can get away with it legally? When my team inherited the Hamilton label, it was during the height of American Merlot Mania, so of course all Merlot response rates were quite high – Hamilton Merlot sold like it was free, as opposed to the closer-to-normal–moving Hamilton Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc. Hamilton became “the $9.99 Merlot” label - right place, right time for that decision.

Hamilton Merlot’s continued success is due to the wine over-delivering at its price point.

The real problem, as any production guy will tell you, is that to bottle the volume of domestic Merlot needed to satisfy the market at a $9.99 retail and maintain award-winning quality year-after-year is less rewarding and probably more difficult than making wines greater than the ten dollar price point. Remember, wine is first made in the vineyard! Plus we didn’t want to fall into the dumbed-down-to-cherry-juice trap that was already starting to sour (bad pun) the world Merlot market. Though there were no illusions that we were bottling Petrus, we were careful to insure that the wine always furnished tangible value at all touch points: supple in the mouth, some heft, adequate structure for short-term bottle aging, a touch of oak to help temper the varietal’s herbaceousness, plus textbook cherry and plum fruit flavors, with a hint of black tea. We still do that. This involves the assistance of winemakers long on integrity, willing to put their all into a project often less profitable for themselves than their own brands, in the service of our vision. And over the years, Hamilton has been a who’s who of California winemaking talent helping me: Dennis Hill, Guy Davis, Paul Moser, Steve Rued and Philp Zorn have all held the Hamilton reins in different vintages. It’s out of respect to them I refuse to put “reserve” back on the label even though it’s quite legal to do so – they don’t practice misdirection on their own projects.

Finally, the continued success of Hamilton Merlot generates resources that allow us to tackle some other, potentially more rewarding projects.

Bordeaux Influence on “All the Fixin’s”

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:00:00 -0800

In addition to supplying you with the perfect wine package for special holiday meals, our “All the Fixin’s” kit illustrates the persuasive influence of Bordeaux on the wine world, while presenting only one bottle actually from Bordeaux.

NAP954, $17.99 06Whitehall Lane Winery & Vineyards, Sauvignon-Semillon, Napa Valley, California:
This GW exclusive was first tested in Whitehall’s Lane’s own St. Helena tasting room. We sensed an opportunity to offer clients a “more new world” style of Sauvignon Blanc from this winery, and in a refreshing move for the Valley of Egos, this project was heartily supported by the Leonardini family, vintners, with the complete cooperation of talented winemaker Dean Sylvester. Bordeaux Sauvignon tradition starts in the vineyards and Napa Valley – synonymous with Cabernet Sauvignon -is obviously great for Bordeaux grapes. We changed our portion of the already-existing Whitehall Lane bottle blend to 62% Sauvignon Blanc, 38% Semillon – the additional Semillon made the wine almost creamy, more textural than the 75% threshold required for single-varietal labeling. This gave us a high quality California ABC for that portion of our clients who seemed to know “buttery” Chardonnay to the exclusion of any other white wines. Fermented 70% in stainless steel, 30% in new French oak and aged on the lees for almost two months delivered wine that’s a little more beginner friendly to the novice. (Occasionally the acidity/exuberance is too much for some and the herbal quality of the Sauvignon fruit can tend towards grassiness.) Here we brought out the more “understandable” grapefruit, melon and peach fruit flavors, with “additional” mouth feel. And because we put Dean through all of this grief, we agreed that the wine be bottled with a screwcap - no corky bottles to clients and we retained the winery’s identity as an alternative closure pioneer. (The only thing good about a corked bottle is that it spawned the name of our comic strip, http://www.corkedthecomic.com.)

The next two items allow a rare opportunity to do a thinking person’s mature Bordeaux blend versus aged Sonoma County Merlot point/counterpoint tasting (yes, I’m a child of the original “Saturday Night Live”), at the identical price. BOR645, $19.99 03 Chateau La Cote de Mons, Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux Eleve en Futs de Chene, France’s smart shopper points:

Undervalued vintage. The superb Subra family cellar, in Cenac, near St Emilion, is outside of the beaucoup more pricey region proper - think the same attraction as Lalande de Pomerol or Montagne -St Emilion - if you want quality Bordeaux that you can afford to drink, these satellite regions remain the places to shop, unless the you’re immune to this economy and can still afford them classifieds on a regular basis…The Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux wines have evolved structurally over the past couple decades, due to the region's calcareous clay soils they can no longer be dimissed as simply fruity and lively. The region now delivers rich, lush, still fruit driven wines, yet exhibiting plenty of individuality and character, clearly not dumbed down in favor of price. This Cinq Cotes, a 60/30/10 Cabernet Suavignon/Merlot/Cabernet Franc blend, displays aromas and flavors of plums, currants, vanilla, and toasty cedary oak. Even your least sophisticated guests will describe it as “smooth”, while the more food & wine savvy will appreciate the value it delivers.

Compare the 03 Bordeaux to the same vintage de Lorimier Winery library selection, SON559, 03 Mosaic Vineyards & Winery, Sonoma County Merlot:
Aged to drinking perfection on previous vintner Tom Fuchs & his winemaker Don Frazier’s dimes, even their romance copy at bottling read “reminiscent of a young Pomerol” and describes their greater Geyserville area as “California’s Bordeaux”. Under their more value-oriented, not always estate-grown Mosaic label, de Lorimier took individual local Merlot lots and blended them together to create a “old school California” Merlot that’s far more wine than just the sum of its parts, kind of like the Roman Mosaics in Gaul from after the conquest. OK, I’m reaching to support my theme here, but the point is that the “Mosaic” name works. Note the smooth, velvety tannins, supporting aromas and flavors of plums, cherries, cola, cedar and black tea. Learn how this 03 Sonoma County Pomerol homage stacks up against the 02 St Emilion satellite while you’ve got the chance.

ITA638, 05 Brumaia, Rosso di Toscana IGT, Italy, from legendary Fattoria di Basciano vintner and winemaker Paolo Masi, who must have attended the Pouilly Fume school of cuvee naming – “bruma” meaning fog:
Always the benchmark for affordable Super Tuscans, this originally 50% Sangiovese/50% Cabernet Sauvignon blend in recent vintages is now regularly tempered with a touch of Syrah, and I look forward to the day when Paolo bottles Syrah as a stand alone varietal, as the Brumaia has taken a quantum leap in accessibility since its addition to the blend. Virtuoso winemaking – all grapes are all picked at the same time, combined, crushed, fermented, aged and finished together – no blending of components. The Syrah knits the possibly-too-late-picked Sangiovese with the possibly-too-early-picked Cabernet. An aromatic violets and ricotta nose frames the Brumaia’s full-bodied palate of creamy blackberry and vanilla. Though a big, ripe, extracted bottle, this wine still remains silky and delicate. The Super Tuscan category is probably the most visible and successful transplant of Bordeaux varietals in Italy to date, and here Paolo has pushed the envelope to include the Rhone varietal Syrah.

I may be thinking too hard thematically, including the SON565, $19.99 375 ml bottle 06 Holdredge, Grace’s Cuvee, Late Harvest Russian River Valley Pinot Gris, Sonoma County, California: To most of the wine world, Sauternes and Barsac are Botrytis Central. Truth is, this gem pushed dessert wines from the entire wine world off of the tasting tables, not just late harvest wines from Bordeaux and Alsace, the wine’s clear model. The 06 Holdredge is a happy exception – here 2006’s extensive Botrytis in Sonoma County proved a plus, not normally the case in a region justifiably famous for dry wines. In the Vendanges Tardives tradition, the Alsatian varietal-type (and ancestor to the popular-but-less-profound Pinot Grigio) Botrytis Pinot Gris grapes held their sugars intact, while their water content was reduced dramatically. This yielded magnificent layers of melons, baked apples, baked pears, honeysuckle, white peaches, dried apricots, bananas, nuts and caramel – I may have missed a few – textural aromas and flavors. And coolness points to John and Carri Holdredge for naming this cuvee after their very sweet (and a little acidic, as the wine exhibits plenty of structure) six-year-old daughter.

For those of you that like to keep track, to sum up, our “All the Fixin’s” set includes a white Bordeaux varietal made in the Bordeaux tradition, a Pomerol satellite, a Sonoma County left bank homage, a Tuscan red that’s about one-half Bordeaux varietal and a dessert wine illustrating beneficial Botryis.

Why these features?

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:55:00 -0800

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The “wow” factor. We taste and reject hundreds of wines for each wine we offer to our clients. If we cannot find a wine that meets our standards, we may choose not to offer that category. If said category is important enough to our clients and we cannot unearth a finished wine, we sometimes modify-for-the-better an existing wine, or completely assemble a wine ourselves from pieces available to us that we feel can be part of something special. We take every advantage to tilt the price/value ratio scale in favor of our clients.

SOA362, $14.99 08 Rietvallei Estate Wine, Robertson Sauvignon Blanc, South Africa: Sauvignon Blanc out performs Chardonnay & Pinot Grigio for value. The number three white type in the USA needs to out-deliver the higher volume categories to grow market share. South African Sauvignon Blanc may have fallen through the Southern Hemisphere Sauvignon Blanc cracks – the wine press has been in love with New Zealand for some time, despite the possibility that the Kiwis may really believe their own reviews, and Chile still remains at least somewhat about price. The South Africans are masters of both the Loire Valley tradition (100% Sauvignon Blanc, no oak) and the Bordeaux tradition (blend with Semillon when necessary, age in oak when necessary) – they learned their winemaking from the from the French Hugueots and the Dutch, and have quite a wide palette - New World terroir supported by Old World traditions and expertise, particularly in the service of that Southern Hemisphere “gooseberry” quality – the assertive, in your face, fresh, high acidity, vibrant almost green pepper quality when young. Finally, vintner Kobus Burger may have a small chip on his shoulder, as he it has fallen upon him to guide Rietvallei Estate’s continued evolution from a dessert wine and fortified wine producer, to a world class table wine producer – he wants to place his imprint on Rietvallei Estate. And then the 08 Rietvallei Sauvignon pushed a couple table loads of Southern Hemisphere samples to the reject pile in our blind comparison tastings.

ITA650, $14.99 05 Canta Lupo, Rosso di Toscana IGT, Italy You don’t read as much about the Super Tuscan category as we once did. And some of what we see now says the category is dead – they must have missed this item. Or maybe a segment of the press would rather write about the less accessible to the world pricier items, rather than the better values? But it’s the values that keep the wine boat afloat. Annually this item is among the top values Italy has to offer, if you believe the “Gambero Rosso” and the “Wine Spectator”. Legendary Fattoria di Basciano vintner and winemaker Paolo Masi, using estate grown and purchased fruit uses a technique that would send most winemakers into another profession. He picks, crushes and ferments simultaneously, in the same tanks, 50% Sangiovese and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon. In addition to delivering the dances on your palate herbaceous cherry of the Sangiovese and the heft, tannins and currant to “dry raisin” quality of the Cabernet Sauviognon, the over-ripe Sangiovese and under-ripe Cabernet Sauvginon not only balance out each other, but clearly deliver more than the sum of their parts…probably why this beat the other 47 samples we tasted it against blind.

SOA364, $17.99 07 Rietvallei Estate Wine, Robertson Cabernet Sauvignon, South Africa: This wine is a testament to vintner Kobus Berger’s vision, as outlined above, and the fact that quality in South Africa’s reds continues to be defined by their magic touch with Bordeaux varietals. Since Cabernet Sauvignon is so adaptable world-wide, this item had to out perform literally hundreds of challengers for this slot. In addition to South African Cab, the blind tastings included Argentina, Australia, Chile, the United States, plus varietally-labeled Cabernet from France’s pays d’Oc, the Northeast of Italy, and Spain’s Penedes region - I stopped counting samples when we broke the 100 mark. This feature is not just about South African Cabernet, but about affordable Cabernet world-wide.

NAP944, $14.99 01 Truchard, Carneros Napa Valley Zinfandel was already staring me in the face. Drinking magnificently now, the cellaring and bottle aging on this beauty was done on Tony & Joanne Truchard’s dime. In case you don’t get out too much, the Truchards are one of the Carneros’ greatest growers, and what they bottle under their own label often proves to be exquisite. When I visit to Europe, the guys in the Rhone and in Italy always tell me to bring them more California Zinfandels to taste. When I press them, they say they like, and I’m paraphrasing here, the jammy, juicy red berry fruit juxtaposed with the agricultural, herbaceous, from the earth qualities - these are what make the wine interesting. When Gerard Jacumin and Paolo Masi, independently of each other, tell me that Zinfandel is the signature grape of California, I’ve gotta pay attention. Not only did the Truchard feature push a couple tables of samples to one side, this is the specific item that Paolo and Gerard requested more samples of from me in April and June…

Signs That Our Infant Food & Wine Culture May Be Maturing Some

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:14:00 -0800

This poor economy forces the need for wines to over-deliver value more than at any other time in recent memory. The local food movement helps – more aware at the market and more conscious in the kitchen usually leads to more informed at the table. Wine continues to penetrate American culture on myriad fronts: there’s a plethora of new American wineries – now even vanity custom-crush joints – just what we need, more wealthy amateurs playing at winemaker, wine tastings almost anywhere and everywhere – in one of my gigs, I bottle wines for a company who’s business is 100% dependent on in-home tastings – more food and wine magazines, sites, and television shows than ever, even whole networks can’t help but coerce some additional food and wine awareness.

Still sometimes, armed with their “insider information” from God and the Dictator, the already food and wine savvy continue to act superior to the rest of the world. Not all have grasped that wine is not The Vinous Edition of “Trivial Pursuit”. But there’s been a shift towards wine education even in those publications that may have put the con in connoisseur and rode those elitist horses a little too aggressively. Their paths, or at least their in-house ads, now clearly point towards their own wine education business, and education usually helps erode elitism. Hopefully I’ll never hear another American wine magazine publisher at Vinexpo, obviously still in the throes of I am a player disease, announce “I make or break wineries” while poignantly unaware that the Pessac-Leognan Blanc he’s sucking down is corked. [Adam Strum]

We see more and more consumers purchasing wines that are food-friendly, less ponderous, less overly extracted, less alcoholic and with less in-your-face oak.

Could it be that they’ve discovered fruit? And I get the feeling that even a large portion of the press has caught on – elegance, balance and the wine’s contribution to the meal also appear to be attributes once again. We’re seeing unparalleled success with wines that no longer scream “look at me, I’m the most important thing on the table”, Gary Oldman instead of Tom Cruise. (Though I’m not naïve enough to think that the entire trophy wine/cult wine culture has fallen by the wayside.) But since Italian and Spanish wines are perfect links to the fabric and culture of each country, and particularly since the Italian American communities in the larger cities have done a great job equating a specific neighborhood as a prime food & wine destination – North Beach, the North End, Little Italy, much of that food and wine ground work has been already done.

The current Northeast Italy features are perfect for today’s thinking wine consumer. The area fell out of favor among the cognoscenti as a huge portion of the region’s resources were devoted to Pinot Grigio. Meanwhile, like the rest of Italy (and Spain), improvements in the vineyards and in the winemaking process translated to better wines in the bottle – not coincidently, more accessible, more fruit driven and more international in style. The success of Pinot Grigio allowed vintners to devote some of those resources across their entire wine spectrum. And there just may be something to prove in Bardolino and Valpolicella - certainly the once-hot-commodity-factor translates into extra value.

ITA662, $17.99 07 Giarola, Bardolino Saint Valery is not your mother’s wine, unless she was drinking single vineyard local red from 40 year old vines with 20% Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon augmenting the indigenous varietal blend. Everything except the IMDB entry that that most recent wave of affordable Pinot Noir fans looks for lurks in this bottle – this is one fresh, fruit driven wine exhibiting plenty of character and accessible-to-all tannins. This extremely food friendly libation is perfect house red that deserves to usurp the current $ 20 Pinot Noir market share.

ITA634, $17.99 06 Desto, Valpolicella Ripasso could liberate for itself a significant piece of the Zinfandel business. Gian Andrea Tinazzi, an undisputed master of the Ripasso technique, delivers the Amarone alternative, sans the collectors-only price tag. The unpressed skins of dried Amarone grapes passed over the fermented Valpolicella juice deliver weight, heft, dimension, complexity, structure and botrytis-like raisin hints to the already accessible blend of local grapes. Here, soft, plummy fruit proves affordable while profound.

Meanwhile, Spain remains hot, though the dollar is not, but, like Italy, the wines have continued to improve, so we carefully picked our fights.

SPA104, the $14.99 07 Ops, D, unfiltered, from the Penedes, hails from Spain’s spiritual and ancestral home of Cabernet Sauvignon, the land of Jean Leon and Miguel Torres. The wine’s model, named for the Roman goddess of plenty, appears to be the Super Tuscans, but at a fraction of the price. Indigenous Tempranillo, blended with Bordeaux grapes. Obviously, the Cabernet component has the right pedigree, and Merlot also works well in Spanish Cabernet Central – think Bordeaux and California’s North Coast.

Brawny yet appealing, licorice, leather, tobacco, smoke, berries, vanilla oak cry out for big Mediterranean dishes, or if you’re a carnivore like myself, steak and mushrooms on the grill. And for you green scorekeepers, how many wineries do you know of that use sheep to trim their vines?

In the context of the prices fetched by Parkerized Ribera del Duero wines from Vega Sicilia and Pesquera, SPA106, $49.99 04 El Lagar de Isilla, Reserva, Ribera del Duero may be the steal of the decade. The 2008 Premios Envero Best Reserva winner is Miles Davis on “Flamenco Sketches” – it says so much a minimum of flash. You’re drinking a lush-while-light-on-its-feet velvety red and black fruit cloud. Elegance, balance, breed, finesse – ethereal plus power and sweep. And the wine will continue to develop additional layers of complexity in the bottle. 100% Tempranillo that’s so far beyond textbook it’s difficult to adequately describe.

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Who is Francis?

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:06:00 -0800

I’d like to be able tell you that I was bitten by the wine bug as a small boy and Bacchus himself stood on the shoulders of my winemaker grandfather and I as he taught me how to produce my very first Sonoma County Zinfandel. But my time in the wine business has proved spectacularly inelegant - work, not pick and shovel, but labor just the same.

Tasting potential wines to bottle for clients requires knowledge, discipline, time and effort, and it’s only recently that I’ve proved willing to do the necessary work: slog through all the thousands upon thousands of potential finished wines, unfinished wines and blend components requiring a home that are foisted upon me weekly from vintners and winemakers around the globe. You can read those highlights and disappointments here.

I’m a bit older than I look (tanna leaves) and when I was a young Ralph Kramden, I always had a scheme. Being a fresh young muffin good at the wine business, with OK French and an unhealthy interest in New Wave actresses (see www.corkedthecomic.com, almost any episode), the land of chateaux, cheese and churches beckoned.

Unfortunately, my need for garnering beaucoup Francs (now Euros) earned me the dubious honor of being the last surviving prisoner to be sentenced to do time on Devil’s Island. My curriculum vitae included counterfeiting rare classified Bordeaux – I still have the original Picasso Mouton label Dave Griffin painted for me, passing off Great Western as Dom Perignon, and making grand cru Chablis more accessible – the secret is blend Colombard in with the Chardonnay.

Unfortunately the Maigret wannabe that caught up with me was quite thorough, I was Guiana bound, but they closed the penal colony before my arrival and since I was an American, I was remanded to Alcatraz. Unfortunately for the justice system, my handlers, obviously children of Maginot Line designers, did not anticipate my going right around them, and I escaped into California wine country. Since they intended to put me in Northern California lock down, I worked the local wine business: bottling Gamay as Russian River Valley Pinot Noir and labeling Eastern Bloc Cabernet as Napa Valley - “of course Castle Dracula is in Calistoga, that’s the heart of the Carpathians”.

During the everything-is-an–allocated-trophy-wine era my specialty became selling and delivering that sole only-500-cases-produced-lot to as many clients as possible. With time, I mellowed (insert every wine cliché known to man here) and anyway, they had already closed the Rock. As I got older, I decided to use my wine background to steal legally, so I took a position at the fledgling Food Network, but got caught making public appearances as Rachel Ray, Giada De Laurentiis and Paula Dean. That was after getting pinched for forging signatures of the different Iron Chefs, ending a budding (bad wine pun) career in television.

The next license for larceny was obvious, I became the Hollywood wine consultant on both “Sideways” and “Bottle Shock”. My days behind the camera are presently over, and Martin Scorsese can relax once again.

That’s why I’m here now, potentially compromising my under-the-radar status for the benefit of Geerlings & Wade clients.

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