Party Wines

We had a party last night--the kind with about 80 people and lots of standing around talking, eating and of course drinking wine. Finding good wines to serve at parties is always a bit of a challenge, because you need to find a wine that is affordable, that suits a wide variety of palates, and that doesn't require food to be at its best.

I set a strict under $10 limit for party wines, and usually head over to a wine superstore like Beverages and More to make my selections. For most parties I stick pretty much to pinot noirs from New Zealand and Sauvignon Blancs from California or New Zealand. This time, though, I went a bit mad and decided to get chardonnay and sauvignon blanc for the white wines, and two red blends because I just couldn't find an affordable pinot. But I did find four wines that promised to have good QPR or very good QPR.

I ended up with the 2004 Falesco Vitiano ($9.99, Beverages and More; even less elsewhere, like Wine Library). Made from equal parts of sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, and merlot it has received high marks from critics, but mixed reviews from consumers. Still, I thought it would appeal to folks who loved cabernet, but be a little softer and less in need of food to drink well. I was right, and people were drinking this down with great enthusiasm. I didn't get a chance to drink a proper glass and think about it, but will post a full review in the upcoming weeks.

My other red choice was the 2005 Rosenblum Chateau La Paws Cote du Bone Rhone ($9.99, Beverages and More), a red blend of 98% Syrah mixed with touches of petite sirah and zinfandel. I love syrahs--so drinkable, so lush tasting. From my brief encounter with this wine last night it was very juicy and fruit forward. A bit simple but very quaffable, which is what you are looking for in a party wine. I think this would be excellent with bistro fare, like burgers, rotisserie chicken, and French onion soup as well as your Friday night pizza.

For the whites, I picked up the latest release of the 2006 Pomelo by Mason Cellars ($9.99, Beverages and More). I reviewed the 2005 Pomelo in November, and this wine was consistent with its grapefruity flavors and aromas. Definitely a hit, and its Stelvin screw-top closure made it a great wine for a party. The other white was definitely most popular among the dedicated oaky chardonnay lovers. The 2004 Buehler Chardonnay Russian River Valley ($9.99, Beverages and More), was bright gold in color, with aromas of smoke, pears, and apples. There were proncounced oaky flavors, tempered slightly by ripe pear and a barely discernible rocky taste, which was more apparent when the wine was cool. As it warmed, however, the oak took over. It was my least favorite wine, but it was a big hit among the Chard Brigade.

Parties are a wine challenge, but it is possible to serve some good wines like these without breaking the bank. What do you serve at your parties, and how do you figure out what types of wine to buy? Leave your comments and suggestion since I still think I could do a better job finding wines that are more interesting and get people talking about the wine, and not just drinking it.

Back to the 60s with a Smokin' Sauvignon Blanc

Chateau St. Jean wines are available everywhere--at least in LA. In the supermarkets, CostPlus, and of course in every pallets section of every Costco in the greater metro area. I recently picked up a bottle of their 2004 Fume Blanc from Sonoma County, and it turned out to be a good QPR wine with a 60s, retro feel to it.

What, you might ask, is fume blanc? It's actually a term unique to America, coined in 1968 by the legendary Napa winemaker Robert Mondavi, to describe a dry, oaked sauvignon blanc. Modeled after the Loire's Pouilly-Fume, the fume blanc wines were intended to be smoky, inflected with the taste of minerals, and elegant. They are a far, far cry from the New Zealand style sauvignon blancs popular today, with their tangy, grassy, and citrus flavors and aromas. Back in the 60s, though, this was as trendy as could be when it came to sauvignon blanc.

The 2004 Chateau St. Jean Fume Blanc from Sonoma County ($7.49, Costco) is pale straw in color. It has aromas of smoke and citrus, which are followed by round flavors of melons, citrus, pear, and oak. This wine was a little disjointed--the flavors didn't evolve smoothly, one into each other but seemed at times to almost fight for dominance. Initially, the smoke won out, and if you're going to try this you might want to open it a bit before you drink it and let some of the smoke blow off. As the wine sat in the glass, the melon and pear flavors began to move to the foreground. This wine might overwhelm delicate food, and I would recommend thinking of pairings that might work well with chardonnay, rather than sauvignon blanc if you want to serve this wine with dinner.

I thought the wine would be perfect with a salad, so we had it with a suitably retro, only-in-California fusion salad of hotly contested origin--the Chinese chicken salad--updated by the folks at Sunset magazine to include more vegetables (asparagus and avocado). It was good with the wine, and I suspect that the wine would do equally well with other retro favorites (like chicken tetrazzini), or even a simple (and timeless) roasted chicken.

Having this wine was another good reminder about wine trends and fashions. Soon the New Zealand style sauvignons will have to make way for something else--wonder what that will be? This is one of the true joys of being a wine enthusiast: no two bottles are the same, and the world of choices is always changing and evolving.

Bordeaux Step 6: Hitting the Books

Once upon a time, before there were wine magazines, people used to see advertisements like this one and trot down to their wine merchant to order up some Bordeaux. All research was done in the shop. Now, the trade magazines tell us "time to buy!" and we hit the internet for more information. Modern bordeaux buying typically involves a lot of research, and the wine buyers and critics are happy to put their oar in the water to help out. I just got my March 31 Wine Spectator, for example, complete with their list of the 50 best Bordeaux under $50 and notes for the 2004 vintage (which kind of got lost between the 2003 and 2005).

Every year, lots of ink is spilled on giving consumers like you and me advice on how to spend money on Bordeaux wines. And if you want to make savvy choices, and spend wisely, you need to read barrel reports, early bottling reports, and later tastings once the wine has developed a bit. Even if you don't read Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, Decanter, or any of the other magazines regularly, if you're going to buy Bordeaux futures on the basis of barrel samples, or pre-arrivals on the basis of early tastes from bottles coming soon to a retailer near you, researching your options is imperative.

But this research can be confusing. Early responses to Bordeaux wines are typically prognostications about how a buyer or critic thinks a wine will develop and taste when it is at its peak. As a result, leading critics and wine buyers at big retailers like K&L Wines often give point ranges ("89-91," for example) because it's just not possible to exactly predict how a wine will perform. Often, you will see indications that a wine might be a "sleeper of the vintage." This term is used to describe wines that might be from lesser-known producers but show early indications of maturing into interesting, complex, and highly-drinkable wines.

Some of the best values in Bordeaux are among wines given an "89-91" rating in the initial barrel tastes, and among so-called "sleepers." Among K&L's 2005 Bordeaux and Sauternes Pre-Arrivals available now, for example, there are more than half a dozen wines under $20 that fit into one--or both--of these two categories. But it's absolutely vital that you buy for flavors not just points. I like currants, licorice, flowers, and a silky texture in my Bordeaux, so I gravitate towards those wines regardless of the scores.

My advice is to find a critic, a blogger, or a buyer whose palate more or less coincides with yours and follow their lead. I find Clyde Beffa, the Bordeaux buyer at K&L, likes the same kinds of wines that I do and tastes pretty much what I do when I drink the wines. Another person whose recommendations I like is Chris Kissack, aka the Wine Doctor, who has great tasting notes for Bordeaux, all available right here on the web. I think his palate is fantastic, and his notes are really detailed and informative so check him out if you haven't already. Most of these resources will also be able to give you a sense of when the particular wine is likely to reach its optimal drinkability--something that can help you to plan your storage.

In general, I find that the best value Bordeaux are lurking among cru bourgeois wines. Bordeaux wines are divided among a dizzying array of classifications, beginning with the 1855 classification of Medoc wines and Sauternes and Barsac into crus. These wines tend to be very, very expensive. More classifications followed when the wines from Graves were classified in 1959, the wines of St Emilion in 1996, and the Medoc's cru bourgeois in 2003. A lot has changed since 1855, and this newest classification of cru bourgeois wines began as a way to recognize the excellent wines being made by chateaux not included in the original 1855 classification.

Bordeaux prices tend to rise steadily as the wine progresses from barrel, to bottle, to retailer shelves, to retailer storage facilities. Your best bet is to buy as early as you feel comfortable doing so. So if in your research you trip across a barrel tasting that describes a wine that sounds just perfect for you, the buyer or critic predicts it will develop into a very good or excellent wine, and it's under $20 you probably want to order it then. Next time you see it on offer, it's likely to be $25, and the next time $30, and so on.

Bargain hunting among merchant websites and magazines can be a lot of fun but it's easy to get carried away and end up forgetting what you've already ordered and have stashed in the closet. Don't forget to sign up with CellarTracker or keep a good list of your futures and pre-arrival orders so that your budgetary limits and your storage constraints won't be forgotten in all the excitement.

Next week: a few final recommendations regarding how to twiddle your thumbs productively while you wait for your Bordeaux to enter its ideal drinking window.

That's Amore: the 2004 Forchini Papa Nonno

Every now and again I just need to watch Moonstruck. I love the scenes in the Italian restaurant, the dinners at home, and the omnipresence of wine throughout the movie. And then there's the soundtrack.

If you are in the mood for Italian-American food (spaghetti with meatballs, a pizza) a movie, and some amore, you might want to pick up a bottle of the very good QPR 2004 Forchini Papa Nonno red blend ($13.95, Chronicle Wine Cellar). Forchini Vineyards was started by up by Jim and Anita Forchini in 1996, after Jim had worked in the business as a wine maker for nearly two decades. (Previously he'd been a mechanical engineer--there is hope for us all!) The Papa Nonno is a tribute to Jim's grandfather Pietro Bernacchi, who arrived in the US from Lucca, Italy in1908.

The 2004 Forchini Papa Nonna ($13.95, Chronicle Wine Cellar) blends together red and a small amount of white grapes. With 58% Zinfandel, 27% Cabernet, 11% Carignane, and 4% mixed whites--nearly all from grape vines that are 50-90 years old--I found this to be a soft, medium-bodied wine. It was deep, inky garnet in color. I didn't get much aromas, just a little bit of red fruit and spice. Flavors of blackberry and brambles from the Zin were accompanied by mild spiciness and dusty tannins from the 19 months the juice spent in American oak. I thought that the winemakers did a good job capturing the bright acidity of a Tuscan chianti, even if there wasn't a drop of sangiovese in the mix. We had it with a pizza margherita and salad, which was a perfect pairing, but it would be equally good with spaghetti and meatballs, eggplant parmesan, or any other Italian-American favorites.

The 2004 Papa Nonna has received several awards, including a Silver Medal from the 2006 Sonoma County Harvest Fair and a Silver Medal from the 2007 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. If you can't find this wine near you, and you can accept direct shipments, the wine is available through the Forchini's own website. Buon appetito!

Gewurztraminer's Turn? the 2004 Snoqualmie "Naked" Gewurztraminer

With riesling moving steadily from the unfashionable to the fashionable side of the wine spectrum, and costs bound to follow from affordable to sky-high, perhaps it will soon be gewurztraminer's turn to take a spot in the bright lights. There are many similarities between Geuwrztraminer and Riesling--both can be off-dry, both pair well with ethnic foods--yet it can be difficult to find good gewurztraminer at affordable prices, not least because relatively little of the grape is cultivated here in the US.

But there are good gewurztraminers coming out of California and Washington, including this one from the Columbia Valley. Winemaker Joy Andersen of Snoqualmie Vineyards in the Columbia Valley AVA of Washington state, faced a difficult vintage in 2004: hot and dry conditions led to early ripening and the beginning of grape harvesting, followed by a cold snap and a "second harvest" in October. From these challenging conditions sprang this good QPR Gewurztraminer, made from certified organic grapes. It's the organic status of the grapes--bare of pesticides and chemicals--that gives this wine its pure, "naked" character.

The 2004 Snoqualmie Naked Gewurztraminer ($12.99, Malibu Wines) was golden straw in color. There were subtle aromas of pear and honeysuckle, but nothing like the perfumed spiciness that often accompanies a wine made with this varietal. I was struck by its slightly syrupy texture, which I enjoyed very much. It accompanied tastes of sweet apple and white peach, which finished with a honeyed note. Though it had many of the varietal calling-cards of gewurztraminer, I felt that it lacked the spiciness and the fresh acidity to bring everything into focus and produce a really memorable wine. We had it with a spicy stir-fry, but I think it would have been even better with very spicy Indian food or even Thai cuisine. The next day, I had a glass before dinner while I was just unwinding and it was an excellent aperitif, so it's worth thinking of this wine if you are having a drinks party. The 2004 may not be easy to find (although there were quite a few bottles up at Malibu Wines when I was last there), but there is a 2005 version of this wine out now.

Feel free to leave a comment if you like gewurztraminer and would like to give us all a heads up on your favorite finds.