Wine Blogging Wednesday #42: An Italian Red in 7 Words

It's time for the 42nd edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday, the online tasting event founded by Lenn Thompson of Lenndevours. This month Andrew Barrow, from the UK wine blog Spittoon, is our host. Inspired by BBC 6's challenge to describe what you did last night in just a handful of words, he charged wine bloggers around the world with this task: drink an Italian red and review it using seven words (or less).

As it's Sicily month at GWU$20, I decided to drink a Sicilian red. Primitivo would have been the classic choice, but I'm trying to drink outside the normal range of grapes so I selected an indigenous Sicilian grape called Frappato instead. Frappato is the gamay of Sicily--lighter and fresher than Primitivo. Mondosapore's Terry Hughes (aka Italian Wine Guru), gives valuable (longer) tasting notes and serving suggestions over at his site, so if you are interested in this unusual grape, you may want to check those out. I tried a later vintage of the wine he discusses in his post, the 2006 Valle dell'Acate Frappato ($17.99, K & L Wines; available elsewhere for between $15 and $18)

This has to have been the most devilishly difficult WBW yet. So, without further ado, the review:

Musky flowers perfume this bright, cherry wine.

Finding the perfect pairing for a Frappato turned out to be a challenge. It was so-so with pizza, even with a slight chill on it. I tried pasta with turkey and sun-dried tomatoes, and it was also kind of bleh. Then I made some chicken souvlaki--and the wine just sang. The Mediterranean spices went well with the brightness of the wine, and finally I felt like I understood its charms.

Check back here for the roundup of tasting notes and details about WBW #43, hosted by Joel of Vivi's Wine Journal (now the Wine Life Today Blog). Thanks to Andrew for a fun and enlightening WBW that underscored the value of words in describing what it is that we drink.

That's Amore--Italian Style

It's Valentine's Day on Thursday, and if you are still looking for something to pop open with the one you love, one of Italy's largest winemakers, Zonin, has an idea for you.

They've just come out with a new line of wines called "Primo Amore" designed with the younger, just-starting-out oenophile in mind. All of the bottles have bright graphic labels, and they also have screw caps. They are also priced for the budget-minded, at just $6.99-$7.99 suggested retail.

So far there are four bottlings under the "Primo Amore" label, and I'm going to focus today on the white and red that Zonin sent me to sample named for the famous star-crossed lovers: the NV Zonin Primo Amore Romeo and the NV Zonin Primo Amore Juliet. Just like young love, these wines are slightly sweet, fun, and fizzy. They are also low-alcohol, which makes them a perfect option for sipping before or after dinner with some appetizers or some chocolate, and one of them will even go with your main course.

The NV Zonin Primo Amore Juliet is a fresh and crisp wine made up a blend of Garganega and Moscato grapes. With lots of small bubbles and a low, 7.5% alcohol level, this would be a great pre-dinner sipper. Where it would really shine, however, it as a dessert wine. There were nice aromas of apples and flowers that drew you into the glass. Flavors of pear, apple, and peach kept this wine from becoming too sweet. Think of this as a perfect partner to fruit-based desserts, simple biscuits, or on its own. At under $8, this is a very good QPR choice for Valentine's Day, or any day.

The NV Zonin Primo Amore Romeo is made from a blend of Merlot and Malvasia Nero. It is just barely off-dry--not a wine for dessert, in my opinion. Indeed, the label suggests chilling it and having it with pizza or pasta. Pepperoni pizza is made for this wine (I tried it out with sausage pizza, and it was excellent), and it would go equally well with a big Italian sandwich or sub, or spicy antipasti with lots of salami. It is the color of cranberries, and is also effervescent with lots of fine bubbles. There is very little aroma to this wine (unlike the Juliet), and flavors of plum and cherry that are simple and eminently quaffable. For the price, this is another very good QPR wine to keep on hand for pizza night, or to have for parties this spring with big platters of antipasti when the weather gets warm.

Because we all -- ahem -- procrastinate, Zonin also set up a site where you can send the one you love an email with a snippet of classic poetry. The selections include not only Shakespeare and Yeats, but also more modern contributions from Elvis and Oscar Hammerstein. The emails come with a nice heart graphic made out of roses and a simple calligraphic script in red and black.

So now there's no excuse. Send the one you love a little note, buy some flowers, and get some light, sparkling wine. Happy Valentine's Day!

Taking the Riesling Shortcut to Alsace Via Oregon

When I bought the Good Grape blogger pack from domaine547 I was promised a trip to Alsace via Oregon. I got one! Even better, I discovered a winery I think I want to develop a lifetime relationship with--and it's a small producer I would never have heard of or had the chance to try in the normal course of buying and tasting wine in Southern California. So thank you to Jill and Jeff Lefevere of Good Grape for introducing me to Brooks Wines.

There is a heart-tugging story behind this winery, and it revolves around Pascal Brooks--who just may be the youngest winery owner in the US. Pascal was just 8 years old when the winery's ownership sadly passed to him after the death of his dad, Jimi. Friends and neighbors rallied to support the Brooks wine-making efforts to provide Pascal with a steady source of income and financial support. Since 2004 Pascal has had help making his wine, including the assistance of his aunt, Janie. They continue to bottle wine made from only organically- produced grapes, and to adopt biodynamic farming methods dedicated to sustainability. (photo of Brooks founder Jimi Brooks mixing biodynamic preparation for the vines, geolinkwine.com)

I got two Brooks wines in my blogger pack, and the first one I opened was the 2006 Brooks Riesling from the Willamette Valley (included in the domaine547 Good Grape Blogger pack of 3 Oregon wines for $52.99). This was an excellent QPR domestic riesling that (quite frankly) blew the highly touted Eroica of Chateau Ste. Michelle and Dr. Loosen out of the water. If you like that wine, and pay more than $20 for it, then treat yourself to a Brooks Riesling. There were complex aromas of lime, apple, Meyer lemon, petrol, and stone. I could have sniffed the wine all night without drinking any of it and kept myself happily busy. Flavors of lime, honey, slate, and even a hint of fresh red currants zinged in my mouth. I preserved the wine and left it overnight, and I think it should age nicely over the next 12-24 months, if you can wait that long.

With our Oregon Riesling we had a delicious pasta dish that used butternut squash and some zingy spices created by Mario Batali. It may seem odd to put Riesling with pasta and squash, but it was a dynamic pairing. The creaminess of the squash and pasta was nice with the silkiness of the wine, and the acidity of the Riesling cut through to the heart of the thyme, red onion, and red pepper that spiced the dish.

Brooks Wines are committed to making "exceptional wine at modest prices," and with this bottle they have succeeded and then some. Only 493 cases of this wine were produced, so get it while you can. And if you're in one of those states like Massachusetts that domaine547 can't ship to (and you know who you are!), check out Table & Vine in West Springfield. They have it, too.

Grape Variety #92: Pineau d'Aunis

It's pink. It has bubbles. It's under $15. It's Pineau d'Aunis.

It's what?

Pineau d'Aunis is a red grape variety that is native to the Loire. Popular in the late medieval period among those who could afford it, Pineau d'Aunis is relatively obscure today. With spicy flavors inflected with what some call piney and others graphite notes. The grape can also make a sparkling wine, which is even harder to find than the still reds made with this variety. In my hunt for the seldom-sipped to fill out my Wine Century, this was definitely a grape on my "must taste" list.

Vincent Girault, the winemaker at the biodynamic and organic Chateau Gaillard, makes just such a wine, and when I had the chance to buy it from Garagiste back in June, I jumped at the chance. Doktor Weingolb has had a Cab Franc made my this maker, and Girault also makes two sparklers, a NV Brut and this NV Rose Brut. I've had both, and definitely prefer the rose. As usual with the biodynamic wines I've tasted, I found that this wine had a nice mineral twang as you swallowed the wine.

The NV Chateau Gaillard Cuvee Charlette Voyant was a dry rose sparkler with very good QPR. (Garagiste, $11.84; unable to find this one online at any merchant). The wine had aromas of those tiny little European wild strawberries which are always a bit tart. Accompanying the strawberries in the flavors was a pleasant creamy note and a bit of stone in the finish. When you poured the wine there was lots of frothy mousse/foam, and a relatively large bubble or bead. Still, it was a great sipper, especially for early spring, and a definite conversation piece.

I know lots of folks are looking for sparklers for next week's celebrations, so if you are on the hunt for a wine to share with your loved one on Valentine's Day, ask your favorite merchant if they stock a sparkling wine from the Loire. You may not be able to find a biodynamic Pineau d'Aunis based sparkling wine, but you still may find something with great QPR.

Tasting Burgundy

I had the opportunity to attend a wine tasting devoted to celebrating the wine heritage of Burgundy recently that was sponsored by the Burgundy Wine Council. I wanted to share some of my observations from that tasting with you. Getting over my Burgundy anxiety was one of my 2007 wine projects, and I can't say that I had a lot of success. I still felt that I was paying too much for wines that were pleasant, but not memorable. And I was often stumped in the wine store by selections of wine that I simply could not afford. So I was particularly interested in this tasting because the organizers were emphasizing "Burgundy Best Buys" that cost less than $35. I wanted a chance to taste these wines, and to compare them with more costly wines from the same region.

Here are my thoughts, after tasting more than 60 different wines from this one spectacular wine region.

1. Yes, there are great buys in Burgundy. Let's get that out there right away. Sparkling wines, white wines, red wines--there were excellent choices for under $35 in each of these brackets. I loved the fresh biscuity aromas and flavors of the 2004 Dufouleur Pere et Fils Cremant de Bourgogne ($NA), and the unexpected anise note in the finish. Among the white still wines, I adored the aromas of golden apple in the 2006 Domaine Sylvain Langoureau Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Le Sentier du Clou ($NA). Though the 2005 Champy Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Le Charmois ($NA) had more muted aromas, the soft and balanced flavors of apple and citrus opened up nicely and I was impressed by how food-friendly the wine would be. Among the reds, the 2005 Chateau de Chamirey Mercurey ($35) was a stunner with aromas and flavors of earth, spice, and cherry. There was a pleasant lift at the core of this wine's flavors, and a nice silkiness, too.

2. These affordable Burgundy wines are not easy to find. Burgundian vineyards are tiny, tiny, tiny in most cases. The small number of cases each producer is able to produce means that it's going to be difficult to find these wines in most markets. The one bargain I could find online, for instance, is available only through NY merchants.

3. There are a lot of great wines that aren't being imported into the US. I tasted some great, great wine that is simply not available in US markets--and not because the winemakers don't want us to drink it! Champy, who makes the great white I mentioned in #1 is looking for an importer. I tasted nine of their wines, and with one exception each one was a wine I would recommend. They were complex, balanced--and not available in the US. Other producers whose wine I loved across the board, but who don't have importers at present, include Maison Lou Dumont and Domaine de Mauperthuis.

4. Gevrey-Chambertin. Because I was able to drink wines from many different appellations, I was able for the very first time to realize that I love wines from Gevrey-Chambertin, with Pommard coming in as a very close second. The 2005 Maison Albert Bichot Gevrey-Chambertin Les Corvees was just lovely, with its pure cherry aromas and flavors and spicy notes. And the 2005 Maison Albert Bichot Pommard Clos des Ursulines Domaine du Pavillon ($43) was just as nice, with deep aromas of black cherry and plum.

5. Entry level Burgundies can be just terrific. If you think there's no point in drinking entry-level Burgundies, think again. These will not have a specific vineyard or appellation associated with them, and often carry a varietal designation. But I was really impressed by the freshness and appeal of the "Bourgogne Chardonnay" and "Bourgogne Pinot Noir" that I had. the 2005 Maison Albert Bichot Bourgogne Chardonnay Vielles Vignes was clean and fresh, with creamy apple aromas and flavors. The 2006 Champy Bourgogne Pinot Noir had lovely aromas of cherry and cherry blossom, a gorgeous true ruby color, and a slightly drying finish. And the 2005 Maison Lou Dumont Bourgogne Red (which retails in Europe for around 10 euros), had a terrific structure and a cherry nose with a pleasantly earthy underpinning.

In just one tasting I was able to push my knowledge of Burgundy well past what I knew going in to the event. And it gave me hope that with some more experience, I might be able to return to my Burgundy project one day.