A Honey of a Wine

I love white dessert wines, never more so than in summer when their honeyed color, aromas, and flavors seem to contain the essence of the season. And, most white dessert wines (unlike ports or late harvest zinfandels) have relatively low alcohol levels, which is always welcome at the end of a meal, or on a hot day.

Recently I found a honey of a dessert wine made from muscat canelli grapes. The 2003 Robert Pecota Muscat Canelli Moscato d'Andrea ($11.99/375ml, Beverages & More) is perhaps the best value in US dessert wine I've ever had. They've been producing this wine for over 20 years, and it's no wonder. The wine is pale gold color, rather than the intense golden color of a sauternes or late harvest Sauvignon Blanc. Opening the wine I knew I was going to love it because of its pronounced aromas of honey and beeswax. Sipping the wine revealed a satiny texture, and as the wine warmed up there were lovely scents of honeysuckle, orange blossom, and lemon. These were echoed in the wine's flavors, and accompanied by a bit of rich creme fraiche roundness and tanginess in the finish. The wine's honeyed notes give it the illusion of botyritis, even though that is not present in this wine. Not overpoweringly sweet, and just 11.2% alc./vol., it is outstanding in its complexity. At a little over $10, this wine certainly qualifies as having excellent QPR. This wine is perfect to sip on its own, or pair it with some sliced peaches or a few simple cookies, such as madeleines.

Robert Pecota Winery has long been based in Calistoga, but the owners "downsized" in the summer of 2006 by selling their estate vineyard to Jess Jackson's Artisan label and moving to nearby Bennett Lane where they will continue to produce wines under the Pecota label. As the grapes for this wine come from the Solari Vineyard in Calistoga, I don't think the move will make a difference to production in this case. Here's looking to another 20 years of this delicious dessert wine.

WBW #34: Washington Cabernet Sauvignon

More headlines from the world of Wine Blogging Wednesday: Catie at Through the Walla Walla Grape Vine will be our host for the 34th edition of this online tasting event.

Her brief is simple: Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink some by June 13, and then let Catie know on that Wednesday what the link is to your site so that she can post details in the roundup. If you've never done a Wine Blogging Wednesday before, this is your chance. I defy you to walk into any supermarket or liquor store and NOT find a bottle of Chateau Ste. Michelle or Columbia Crest cabernet. Of course, Catie would like us to try to find something different if we are up to the challenge. But if you're not, either of these bottlings will do!

See you back here on June 13!

WBW #33 Roundup: Languedoc-Roussillon Wines

If you're looking for a good value bottle of wine, there are links to reviews of more than 40 mid-priced wines ($15-$30) from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France over at Doktor Weingolb.

Marcus, aka Dr. Weingolb, set a terrrific theme that allowed bloggers to review a wide variety of juicy reds and some intriguing whites, too. It looks like the Minervois showed particularly well in this blind tasting, as did the Cotes du Roussillon. In general, the entire region is one to explore if you are a budget-conscious wine buyer.

Big thanks go to Marcus for providing such good background material to the region prior to the event, and for getting the roundup online in short order. And thanks to all the participants who have given us such a range of wines to try in the upcoming weeks.

Drinking Italian at Enoteca Drago

We took a friend from out of town to dinner the other night, and because she's an avowed foodie who likes good wine, we decided to take her to Enoteca Drago in Beverly Hills, a wine bar and trattoria-style restaurant that promises to bring a little bit of Italy into your life. Conveniently located on a relatively quiet street (read: not Rodeo Drive), Enoteca Drago aims to be a comfortable place to stop in for a quick bite and a glass of wine when you're shopping, as well as to provide you with comforting food for a full dinner on the town.

After looking at the menu we decided to start with some small plates from their "Enoteca" menu, followed by pasta. The small plates were, in my mind, the highlight of the evening. We had some fresh sliced prosciutto that just melted in your mouth ($8), and some fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with ricotta that were perfectly prepared and very tasty ($12). We tried a variety of pastas, including a spelt spaghetti with fresh vegetables ($17.50), spaghetti carbonara ($13.50), and malloreddus with meat ragu ($15). There was still room for dessert, and with options like coconut flan, gelato, and affogato with biscotti there was something for everyone. My only complaint with the food was that the service felt rushed, with no room to breathe between courses and as soon as you finished your dessert the check was in front of you. The waiter didn't even ask if we wanted coffee.

While the food was perfectly good, and in the case of the small plates excellent, the problem came with the wine. You knew I was going to say that, right? One of the great draws of Enoteca Drago are the flights of Italian wine that they offer. Typically, you get three generous 2.5 oz. pours of different wines for between $15 and $30 depending on which wines are included. We each had a flight of medium bodied whites, and a flight of light-medium bodied reds. They came out with a placemat "cheat sheet" that gave some--though not all--the details for the wines tasted, i.e. the vintage and the type of wine, but not the maker. What's up with that? I insisted on keeping the wine list until we were through out of sheer determination to know what I was drinking. My favorites were the 2005 Mauro Sebaste Arneis, which was crisp and refreshing, and the 2003 Tenuta le Querce Aglianico del Vulture "Il Viola," which was like drinking plush red velvet.

The sad thing was, we were served a corked bottle of 2005 Villa Sparina Gavi di Gavi. I told the waiter it was corked. My friend told the waiter it was corked. He seemed uninterested, and said, "oh, you don't like it?" We expanded our treatment of what "corked" meant: it was mildewy; the wine was flawed; "there is something wrong with this wine and you should tell the person pouring it." We returned two full glasses, and received no replacements, no we're sorry, no acknowledgment from anyone that this had even occurred. Here's my tip: if you have a wine bar, and want to serve flights at the tables, TRAIN YOUR WAITSTAFF ABOUT WINE. There's only so much of the evening your guests want to spend trying to sort out a 2.5 oz pour of wine. After 3 minutes of effort, I simply gave up. Probably the wrong decision, but there you have it.

You can see sample menus by clicking over to their website. Unfortunately, there are no wine lists online, so you can't do a pre-meal browse and see what's on offer. If you are shopping in Beverly Hills and want some small plates and a glass of wine, stop in and see what you think. For me, though, this is one of those restaurants that could be a great restaurant for wine lovers, but falls short by not training its staff on what a wine lover wants from the experience.

Pizza Wine

Most weekends, Fred Koeppel has a homemade pizza. He shares his culinary successes, and his wine pairings, with his readers over on his blog, Bigger than Your Head, and his last picture was so mouth-watering that I just had to have pizza. Mine was "home assembled" rather than homemade, from pizza dough, sauce, and toppings I picked up at Trader Joe's. That was the easy part. Then there was picking wine to go with it. As you probably know, pizza can be a pairing problem. Not any old red will do. Ever had cabernet with pizza? Yech. Too oaky, too tanic, too huge. Sangiovese is a natural partner for pasta with red sauces or pizzas, but it can be difficult to find inexpensive sangiovese that strikes a balance between its acidity and its richer flavors.

If there is a perfect pizza wine (read: one that's easy to find, easy to pay for, and easy to drink) it's the Falesco Vitiano from Umbria. I recently had the 2004 Falesco Vitiano ($9.99, Beverages & More) and it had excellent QPR. Made from a blend of sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, and merlot, it was deep, dark ruby in color. Aromas of earth and herbs give this wine a distinctly Old World character. These give way to flavors of cherries, chocolate, and eucalyptus. More earthy notes round out the finish and keep the wine grounded. All in all, the fruit is of secondary importance to the other abundant flavors and aromas. I found it exceptionally complex for a wine at this price point.

In the past I've highlighted this wine's usefulness as a party wine. But this is also the spaghetti and pizza wine that you've been looking for. It is widely available, insanely inexpensive, and yummy. Your takeout pizza will probably set you back more than the wine will. I've had the past 2 vintages of this wine, which were consistently good although not quite as good as this, and the 2005 was recently released. Drinkers over at CellarTracker! report that it's pretty darn good, too. My only caution is that this label can have a higher than usual incidence of bottle variation--that aggravating tendency for bottles to taste slightly different despite coming from the same vintage. Bottle variation is the price we pay for drinking something as vibrant and alive as wine. Don't want any bottle variation? I'm afraid it's Coke for you--and more Falesco Vitiano for the rest of us.