Go-To Wines

The April 2007 Food and Wine magazine is listing it's "50 wines You Can Always Trust." I call these "go-to wines," the wines that you can easily pick up in most retail stores and supermarkets when you are stuck without a helpful sales person or can't find any of your usual favorites. The list is also on their website, for those who want to check out the complete list with tasting notes. (image from Food and Wine)

Food and Wine's list is made entirely of wines under $20, and is producer and vineyard focused. No vintages are given, since Food and Wine contends that these wines have proven track records and vintage after vintage represents good quality for the price. Now, you can quibble with this philosophy a bit, but I have to say I agree with their choices. They even have added a list of 5 perennial Bordeaux values priced at under $25.

Among their 50 picks are the La Crema Chardonnay (around $18), which is widely available and often finds its way into my shopping cart if I am heading to dinner at someone's house who I know loves chardonnay. For red wine lovers, the stalwart performer Bogle Old Vines Zinfandel (around $11) typically represents excellent QPR no matter what the vintage, as does the Chateau Ste. Michelle Merlot ($16) and the Hogue Columbia Valley Riesling ($7). Not all the selections are US wines, and there are suggestions for Australian bottlings ( like the Koonunga Hill Cabernet Sauvignon for $12 that Wannabe Wino recently enjoyed on an evening out), South American bottlings (the Trapiche Oak Cask Malbec for $10 looks like one to try), France (the Hugl et Fils "Gentil" is one of my favorite wines, and makes their list, too), Italy (Castello Banfi's Centine red blend caught my eye here), and Spain (I definitely will be trying the Osborne Tempranillo-Cabernet blend for $9 as soon as I can find it). Click on the image or story title, above, to check out the full list.

I'm going to print this out and keep it in my glove compartment, purse, or briefcase for wine shopping emergencies. Look forward to receiving your copy of this month's magazine if you are a subscriber, purchase a copy in the grocery store, or use the miracle of the internet to check out the list today before you head out to do some wine shopping. And feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the list here.

Bring On the Funk: the 2005 Domaine du Vissoux "Les Garants" Fleurie

Barnyard. Dung. Merde. Stable. Horse-sweat. If you've ever seen a wine review that has one of these descriptors and wondered a) had the critic lost her/his mind? b) was this a positive review, or a negative one? or c) what are they talking about? here's what was going on: brettanomyces.

It's a big word for a little yeast that can creep in to a wine and lead to spoilage. Affectionately known as "brett" by wine experts, there are lots of folks who believe that a touch of brett actually adds a note of complexity to wine. This is especially true of burgundy drinkers, who sometimes seek out bretty wines. Don't believe me? Just check out this recent post by Fred Koeppel. Of course, too much brett and you find yourself in the same position as Quaffability's JohnG and his wife, drinking a wine and thinking of cleanup chores after walking your dog.

People's sensitivity to brett varies enormously. Some can detect even the slightest hint of the stuff and pour the rest of the bottle down the drain. Others can tolerate quite a bit in their wines. Red wines are especially prone to developing the brett yeast, and the incidence of brett may actually be on the rise for a variety of reasons. First, wines that have been minimally manipulated are increasingly popular. Minimalist wine-making, as Wine Anorak's Jamie Goode explains in an excellent article, actually contributes to the yeast's growth and development, since minimalist winemakers avoid adding sulfur during crush--and sulfur retards the yeast's growth. Ripe grapes also contribute to brett--so the ripe, fruity wine style that many consumers favor also contributes to the incidence of brett with its higher pH levels.

Brett's in the air of the blogosphere these days, and when I opened up my bottle of beaujolais recently it was in my kitchen, too! This past fall I picked up some Beaujolais wine made from gamay grapes by Pierre-Marie Chermette. Chermette is one of those minimalist wine-makers we all like to support, and it's my suspicion that his no-sulphur practices enabled a hint of brett to get into his 2005 Domaine du Vissoux "Les Garants" Fleurie ($16.95, Chronicle Wine Cellar; available through other merchants for under $20). It had the bright ruby color characteristic of gamay wines with pronounced aromas of black cherry and some alcoholic heat burned in the nose. Flavors of black cherry and some mint and herbs were tasted first, and then a bit of barnyardy, bretty funk caught in your throat at the end. For me, it always smells like sweaty saddle leather, but your perception as always might differ. There was a slightly bitter finish, too. While the brett in this gamay certainly did make it more complex, I felt it had a bit of a disjointed sensation, with the flavors almost clashing at times in the drinking experience rather than complementing each other. We had this wine with some steak sandwiches from Cooking Light made with flank steak, sauteed onions, and a tangy, savory, and simple homemade barbeque sauce. Accompanied by coleslaw (which has its own funkiness), the flavors of the wine--even the brett--were really brought out and it made for a good food and wine pairing.

This wine represented good QPR with its funky flavor profile and complexity. I still preferred the fruity, juicy, and cheaper bottling I reviewed in my very first post here on the blog back in October. But if you want to bring the funk to your dinner table, here's a way to do that is far more affordable than a pricey burgundy!

Wine Club? Start a Blog

I just discovered an interesting new blog, Vino Club, that I wanted to share with you because I thought it was such an great combination of traditional and non-traditional wine experiences.

It takes the new Wine 2.0 technology and the old standby of the friends who start a Wine Tasting Club and uses Blogspot's technology for multiple contributor submissions. (I'm guessing this is not unique to Blogspot, but I don't know for sure) What you get is a rolling set of notes and news written by seven friends who talk to each other in the comments as well as posting new entries. This is a new blog (they started on January 30, 2007 and have posted 17 posts).

They've also syndicated CellarTracker notes on their wines (presumably to inspire their future tastings?) I may steal this feature, since it's a good way to bring more voices into the dialogue about wine.

Welcome to the Blogosphere, Vino Club, and sorry it's taken me a few weeks to find you! And if you have a wine club, I think that blogging is a great thing to do!

Some Weekend Wine Tastings To Check Out

There's a lot of wine being tasted this weekend in LA, and I wanted to highlight some good options for you if you want to take advantage of the warming temperatures and sample some wines. It's so much more fun than going to a movie, so round up some friends and head on out to one of the following. And treat your designated driver to dinner afterwards!

Things kick off tonight, March 9, at Colorado Wine Company in Eagle Rock with their wine and cheese tasting that runs from 5:30-8:30. For $15 a person, you get five generous pours as well as a selection of cheeses from Auntie Em's marketplace. You need to RSVP for this event by contacting them at info@cowineco.com or by calling (323) 478-1985. On pour are: the 2005 Alouette Middleridge Ranch Vineyard Chardonnay, an unoaked beauty from Mendocino; the NV Ballet of Angels White from Connecticut; the Morgan Cotes du Crow from Monterey; Etims Old Vines Grenache from Spain; and the 2005 Santa Cruz Grenache. If you are tied up on Friday, they also have a tasting (no RSVP required) on Sunday from 1-4. They haven't posted this weeks selections yet, but you can check back on Saturday.

Mission Wine's Saturday Tasting in South Pasadena from 12-5 on Saturday is featuring three red blends along with two luscious whites. They are sampling the following 5 wines: 2005 Apremont Vieilles Vignes, a citrusy white from the Savoie; 2005 Blackjack Chardonnay "21"; 2005 Ludovicus, a red blend from Spain; 2005 Malm Cellars Cross Blend, another red blend; and the 2004 Aphillanthes Trois Cepages. As always, Mission Wine's tasting is $10 for 5 generous pours, or just $5 with the purchase of any bottle of wine from their diverse, and carefully selected, stock. Things will be hopping by 2 pm, and this tasting is always friendly, informal, and lively.

In LA the Wine Hotel, one of Los Angeles premier wine storage facilities, is holding their weekly Saturday casual tasting from 4-6. For $20 sample 5 wines and hors d'oeuvres. Reservations are a must for this--don't just show up, they always sell out--but it's a great venue, and while you're there you can check out their roster of wine classes, too. Call 323-937-9463 for reservations and further information.


Saturday evening, if you are still upright, Mel and Rose's Wine Room is kicking off a three-tastings series on Italian wines between 4 and 7 pm. They begin with Northern Italian wines, and if you attend all three in the series, and have your "passport" stamped, you receive a free bottle of Italian wine at the final tasting. It's $12, and no reservation is required.

Enjoy, and drive safely!

History in a Glass

Gourmet magazine debuted in the 1940s at a time when, thanks to two world wars and prohibition, America was a virtually wine-free country. Grape vines that had been lovingly tended for centuries had been ripped up, and we lost our "everyday wine" culture.

Reading History in a Glass, a fabulous collection of stories drawn from Gourmet magazine's monthly wine columns by editor Ruth Reichl, is like watching the History Channel for wine. (Amazon.com, $18.21) Filled with writing from some of the best wine and food writers who have ever put pen to paper--Frank Schoonmaker, James Beard, and Hugh Johnson to name just a few--this book gives you an inspiring look at the resilience of the American wine industry, at its success at coming back after almost total extinction, and at the growth of US appreciation for wine.

It's hard to pick a favorite story from among those included, but I think mine is Everett Wood's 1957 "The Last Kellermeister." Heinrich Allinger was the cellar-master of Schloss Johannisberg, a famous winery on the Rhine. Only three years of his life were spent outside the village where he lived, all fighting in World War I. When his employer tried to give him a three-week vacation in 1950, Herr Allinger refused to go. He knew every barrel in the cellar, and talked to them like children, chiding one for not developing as he'd expected it to, praising another for surprising finesse. A lifetime of wine knowledge was in that man, and Wood's fluid writing makes it possible for us to get a sense of him, and the information that he had accumulated over the years.

There are lovely surprises on every page of Reichl's collection--Hillaire Belloc's advice on wine manages to be both timeless and dated, Schoonmaker's 1948 survey of northern California wineries is a revelation in terms of the diversity of grapes planted and the wine fashions of the time, and Gerald Asher's 1993 story on Oregon Pinot Noirs was one of the first to catch the rising quality of that region's wine. It's been a while since I reviewed a wine book, and while I mentioned this book in my holiday gift picks for wine lovers, I wanted to give a fuller idea of why I think this book is so great. It's a book to have on the bedside table, to read a story before dropping off to sleep with visions of grape vines dancing in your head.