Drinking Wine Before Its Time

Sometimes, you just gotta do it. You get a bottle of wine, you're dying to try it, you know it's probably too young to show itself at its best--so you open it anyway. We all drink wine before its time. What is important is to be able to drink it for what it is--a young wine--and to figure out what it will become if you give it some time to develop.

The 2005 Twisted Oak Syrah-Viognier ($24, directly from the winery) was just such a wine. I love syrah-viognier blends, with their spicy richness serving as a foil to delicate, often ethereal aromas of white flowers. I was dying to try it, and since I had two bottles on hand I decided to commit infanticide and drink one of them now. I couldn't wait.

What was it like? A teenager--all awkward angles and stuff that doesn't quite hang together. Yet. But who would want to be judged now on their 8th grade report card? So I kept careful track of its development as I drank it over the course of several days. I became convinced that in another 12-24 months this is going to be a bombshell of a wine.

The first night, I was struck by its dark, inky plum color and its huge nose of brambly berries and spice. Flavors of berries and pepper dominated, with just a bit of a lift in the mid-palate (that part of the wine's taste that comes when it rolls through the middle of your mouth). Nice, but it hinted at so much potential I didn't want to walk away from it yet. So I recorked it without any preservative, and left it on the counter overnight.

The next night, when I pulled the cork I found that the wine was already really opening up and developing as it got some more air. The viognier was much more prominent on the second night, with aromas of gardenia and jasmine dominant, rather than berries and spice. These syrah aspects were there, too, but the impression you had now was one of a spring garden, not a berry patch. The berries had become more distinctively huckleberry at the core, with the spice really coming through as you headed towards the finish line. Very good QPR, with its layers of fruit, flowers, and spice.

I liked this wine both nights, but the way that it bloomed in just 24 hours convinced me that it has great potential for short-term cellaring over the next 1-3 years. If you can't wait and have to open a bottle now, try decanting it or at least uncork it a few hours before you want to drink it. Like all teenagers, this deserves some time to grow out of its youthful exuberance and into a well-rounded and complex wine.

Wine Lovers: It's Time to Rethink the Little Black Book

There are lots of jokes out there about "little black books," the pocket-sized notebooks where you could list all your romantic triumphs, phone numbers, and seduction strategies. But I think it's time to rethink the little black book from a wine-loving perspective.

If you are a wine lover, you probably have wine information written on the back of your driver's license, on post-it notes, Trader Joe's receipts, ATM slips, and (if you are me) occupying lines in your check book that are supposed to keep a tally of your (diminishing) bank balance. What you need instead is a little black book that will become your mobile wine operations center and can be used to record everything vinous in your life.

It is imperative, I think, that the book be sturdy enough to survive being tossed into the trunk, your purse, or the stress of being sat on. It needs to be attractive enough that you don't feel like a complete dork carrying it into a tasting, and small enough that you don't leave it home rather than schlep it across town. I've found that the pre-fab "wine journals" never fit the bill, because they think I want to keep track of stuff I don't give a hoot about.

Instead, get yourself a Pierre Belvedere faux-leather notebook ($21.95 at Jenni Bick Bookbinding) which comes in a range of colors including (if you must) burgundy. Mine is black, and I carry it with me everywhere. This book is small without being minute at 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches. It has ruled pages that are relatively thick (no bleed-through), and the pages are perforated so that if you make a shopping list you can tear it out if you want to and throw it away. There is a handy little sewn-in bookmark to keep your place. And the covers are stiff without being bulky and slightly padded so they are easy to hold. This is a book that doesn't slip out of your hands.

What can you put in your little black book? Here's a sampling of what's in mine:

the number for the best local pizza delivery
menus and wine pairings for the week
a list of recipes I want to try from Nigella Lawson's Express cookbook
lists of wine moved up to Sonoma; list of wine moved to LA
wines I think I want to try from Trader Joe's to check on Quaffability
list of the next 12 wines coming up as "ready to drink" in Cellar Tracker
list of recommended champagnes
Wine Book Club ideas

The possibilities are endless, and once the book is filled up it can sit without embarrassment on your bookshelf, a permanent reminder of how far you've come in terms of your wine knowledge and enjoyment. If one of your resolutions for 2008 was to keep better track of your wine information, get yourself a little black book. If you use it faithfully, it will become the most frequently consulted "wine book" you own.

Grape Variety #86: Romorantin

Romorantin is a grape of kings. King Francis I loved wines made with the grape. He brought vines with him to his favorite residences in the Loire (Chambord, Blois) so that he could have an ample supply of the wine on hand. Many plantings were pulled out to make room for more popular varieties like chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, but in a tiny Loire appellation called Cour-Cheverny a small clutch of romorantin vines have been preserved.

One of my New Year's wine resolutions was to finish drinking the last 15 grape varieties that will qualify me as a member of the Wine Century Club. Dedicated to wine lovers who have tasted their way through at least 100 different grape varieties, Romorantin is grape variety #86 for me. As a dedicated history buff it seemed like the perfect wine to start off my countdown, given its sixteenth-century origins.

Wine tastes change over the centuries. What was popular in the 16th century may not go down so well with 21st-century palates. The 2004 Domaine Phillippe Tessier Cour-Cheverny Domaine Blanc is a testament to this fact. (K & L Wines, $12.99). Made with 100% romorantin grapes, its aromas and flavors of damp canvas, grapefruit pith, and soil will not be to everyone's taste--but I'm here to tell you that they are correct, varietally speaking. This bottle of wine was not corked; that's what romorantin tastes like, unless it's been made in a sweeter style. There are demi-sec and botrytized versions of romorantin wines, and my guess is that's what Francis I drank. They had quite a sweet tooth back in 1519, and old wine recipes and instructions often advocate dumping honey, cinnamon, and other additives into white wine (usually from Gascogny) to make them more palatable and taste like "German wine" which was considerably more expensive.

With these rarer grape varieties, it's difficult to sort out QPR. How many examples of romorantin is anyone likely to drink over the years? So I consulted the archives of some wine blogs that I just knew would include reviews of romorantin wines. Sure enough, Spittoon's Andrew Barrow served romorantin wines to a lunch group and discovered that romorantin's "complex oil, nut, carpet flavours, oddball aromas and high acidity didn't find many friends." Bertrand Calce of Wine Terroirs mentioned the wine's "peculiar aromas" but also noted that the wines typically needed some age on them to really show at their best. Closer to home, Brooklynguy had a demi-sec romorantin last year and liked it a lot, noting its citrus oil qualities. Ultimately, I decided this wine represented very good QPR judged by the romorantin varietal yardstick.

I'm not sure romorantin is going to be a frequent visitor to my table--at least not in this dry style. I'd like to try a demi-sec, and see whether that's how this grape really shines. But that will be some months down the road. Have you ever had a romorantin? I'd be interested to hear your experiences with it.

The Wine Book Club: the First Edition

In the spirit of the New Year, a group of bloggers decided to start an online Wine Book Club. Many of us want to read more--hands up if you've got a stack of books sitting on your bedside table with an inch of dust on them--and anyone reading this blog probably wants to learn more about wine. So let's give it a go in 2008 and actually read some wine books together. (potential logo for the Wine Book Club to the right, complete with a bottle of Bordeaux and a wine book from 1927 sitting on my dining room table)

Inspired by Lenndevours' Wine Blogging Wednesday, the Wine Book Club will be an opportunity for wine lovers around the world to read a book and then post reactions and discuss them on their blog. No blog? You have two options (three, if you are willing to start a blog): while you're reading you can use one of the public sites and discussion forums that are already set up on Shelfari and Facebook; or you can hop around the web and respond to the discussions that will be taking place in the comments sections of your favorite blogs. The host will post a round-up of contributions after the dust settles, and thanks to the generosity of Tim Elliott and Ryan Opaz we will also make use of a central website for announcements, roundups, themes, etc. When it goes live it will be at winebookclub.org, but there's nothing there yet.

Unlike Wine Blogging Wednesday, however, we're going to start by meeting every other month. Baby steps are the name of the game when it comes to New Year's resolutions. New book selections will be announced on the first Tuesday of March, May, July, September, and November. The Wine Book Club will reconvene for reactions/reviews/discussions on the last Tuesday of the following month (so February 26, etc.) If there is a lot of interest in the club, and people want a book a month, we can move to that format in 2009.

The host of the very first Wine Book Club is David McDuff, the intrepid wine retailer and blogger who leads readers down McDuff's Food & Wine Trail. And the book we're reading? It's tied into the Wine Blogging Wednesday themes for January and February, to give it some extra momentum. So head over there to see the title. Locate your library card or start alphabetizing the wine books you already own but haven't read, because this first book might be on your shelf already. Interested in hosting an upcoming event? Let me know, and we'll put you down on the list.

To keep everyone motivated between club meetings, Dr. Vino suggested we might play "Spin the Bottle" and invite wine bloggers to contribute reviews on books with more specialized content. When the bottle stopped spinning it pointed in two directions: Tim Elliott of Winecast and me. So look for coordinated reviews of the same book later this month, and if you see me in your inbox be warned: the bottle stopped at you this time. Have an idea for "Spin the Bottle"? Let me know that, too.

I'd like to extend a special invitation to those of you reading this from somewhere other than the US/Canada/UK: please set up a chapter where you live and let's make this an international, polyglot event. I would consider it a triumph if there was a Spanish Wine Book Club, a French Wine Book Club, an Italian Wine Book Club, a Greek Wine Book Club, an Israeli Wine Book Club, and even (yes, I know you are there, my Finnish readers!) a Finnish Wine Book Club. You may have to select different books, but it would be great.

We're just starting out, so there are bound to be glitches along the way (not to mention confusion). Let me know in the comments or by email if you have any input, questions, or concerns. Please publicize this new event on your blogs, and please consider participating. I am thrilled that so many bloggers are already on board with this event, and I want to thank them for the enthusiasm and generous help that they have given and continue to give as we get this up and running. So thank you, in alpha-blog order, to: Behind the Vines, Catavino, Celebrate Wine, domaine547, Dr. Vino, el Bloggo Torcido, Indiscriminate Ideas, LENNDEVOURS, McDuff's Food & Wine Trail, My Wine Education, Passionate Foodie, Through the Walla Walla Grape Vine, Wannabe Wino, West Coast Wine Country Adventures, Winecast, Winehiker, and the Wine Scamp.

Given this group, we're in for a fun time. Why not join us? Check out what we're about at one of our sites on Shelfari, Facebook, and winebookclub.org. Make room for the wine books on your nightstand, and get reading!

How Green Is Your Wine?

Wine leaves an enormous carbon footprint each time we drink it--unless we try to drink more locally- produced bottles. That's what blogger, teacher, author, and now NYTimes op-ed writer Tyler Colman contends in his thought-provoking piece on wine and environmentalism. (photograph by Andrea S. Neumann)

I find that I am not sad to see wines with Stelvin closures, but I must confess that I will be sad the day (and given the carbon footprint issue it seems inevitable) when wine is not bottled any longer, but Tetra-paked.

We can stave off the inevitable a little longer, however, by doing what Dr. Vino suggests and trying to drink more local wine. Everybody has vineyards near them--trust me. I grew up in suburban Philly and there was a winery outside New Hope, PA. Not the epicenter of the wine universe, but still. The point remains that we could all do something to offset our foreign wine purchases by seeking out, and then supporting, local wine.

If you are on the west coast and want to know more, why not sign up for Tyler's class at UC Berkeley on February 23? He'll be discussing just this issue, and leading you to some great new wines that just may help to save the planet.