Maryland Cru Meet (or Why You Should Start a Wine Tasting Group)

Several fine Champages...more than a dozen premium California red wines...Joseph Phelps...Sea Smoke...Chateau St. Jean...delicious French Cuisine. Sound like something you would be interested in? If you like wine and have a pulse, I would have to assume that your answer would be a resounding “YES!” If your name is Robert Parker, Stephen Tanzer or Eric Asimov, a night like this would probably be called...uh... “Tuesday.” For the rest of us, such an evening would constitute a rare treat indeed.

Well, I had this rare treat this past Sunday at the February meeting of a group of Wine Spectator Forum regulars called “The Maryland Cru.” We met up at a fine Columbia, Maryland eatery called Café de Paris and drank some serious wines, and a lot of them. The group tries to meet every month to experience a variety of wines, eat some great food and just enjoy each others company. Even though this was my first time out with them, the company I did enjoy...tremendously. We were even joined by Paul and Stefania of Stefania Wine who brought not only themselves and a lot of insight into the world of California wine making, but also some delicious barrel samples.

I chose to not take copious notes and rather sit back, snap a few pictures, enjoy the many wonderful wines and food and relax. As such, I shall defer to Mike over at A Food and Wine Blog for the listing of wines and tasting notes.

Of course, the point of this post is not to make you jealous about all the great wines we sampled while you sat at home in your recliner watching the Academy Awards. The point is to highlight that such diverse and wonderful wine experiences can be enjoyed anywhere. If you are not a member of a local wine tasting group, be it an informal group of friends who share an enthusiasm for fermented grape juice or a more formal club, you should be. Delicious and educational tastings happen when ten people show up with ten wines and everyone passes the bottles around and the cost of admission need only be the cost of a single bottle of wine. So, by all means, recruit others on wine-related Internet forums like those at Wine Spectator, Wine Library TV or The Wine Lovers Page, all of which have separate sub-forums for “offline” wine meets. If that doesn't work, try and put up some flyers at your local wine shops, recruit co-workers or relatives, or even stand at a busy stoplight with a cardboard sign. It's simply a wonderful way to meet some great folks and experience a lot of different wines.

Notes From an Argentine Malbec Tasting

I recently stopped by WCA for a Saturday Malbec tasting. The event offered a nice selection of Malbecs at various pricepoints and I found much to recommend from the selection.

The 2006 Dona Paula Malbec Estate offers a delightful nose of bright cherry and other red fruits as well as a little smoke. It is very nicely balanced albeit a little restrained and offers light-moderate tannins in what is very obviously a young wine. It is fairly basic but would make an very good entry into a weeknight easy drinking red rotation and at ~$13 it offers solid QPR.

La Posta offers some additional complexity at just a few bucks more per bottle. Their 2006 La Posta Cocina Blend is a blend of 60% Malbec, 20% Syrah and 20% Bonarda and offers a much more ruby-driven visual in glass than the Dona Paula with a sweet raspberry syrup nose. It is a little weak on the front palate but offers a tasty flavor profile overall with moderate tannins and a nice pleasing finish. The 2006 La Posta Malbec Angel Paulucci single vineyard surprisingly looks almost identical in glass but offers much more tart cherry flavors and violets with a touch more tannins and a good finish. The wine notes indicate that this wine was aged in 100% French oak but only 20% new oak. This sort of new oak restraint is just the sort of thing likely to appeal to my palate and this wine delivers. Parker gave both of these wines 90 points and I cannot say I disagree with his assessments. The Cocina Blend sells for about $15/bottle and the Paulucci for about $16.

The last two wines reside in the more premium $25+ pricerange. The 2006 Susana Balbo Malbec is the higher end offering from the famed Argentine woman winemaker and comes in at about $27. As much as I like her Torrontés, I was a bit disappointed with this wine. The profile is very Cabernet-esque (supposedly 10% Cabernet was used in the blend) with flavors of black cherry and cassis but the new oak is too overt on the nose and it is very cedary and medicinal on the tongue, being reminiscent of some lesser-quality Left Bank Bordeaux I have tried. At this price, I would have to give this wine a pass based on how it is drinking now. Parker gave this wine 91 points, an assessment I will have to respectfully disagree with.

For just a few bucks more is the 2006 Tikal Amoriỏ Malbec. This wine possesses the velvety purple hues of youth and also offers a sharp nose of cassis, black cherry, smoke and faint cedar. The balance of this wine is fantastic and it says “adios” with a very nice finish. At ~$30/bottle, I recommend that fans of more expensive California Cabernets seek this wine out as a possible at least occasional alternative.

An Evening with Terry Theise

Terry Theise is a prominent and highly-regarded importer of German and Austrian wines as well as estate Champagnes. Thanks to “ob2s” over at the Wine Library TV Forums, myself and a couple of other Vayniacs were able to attend a German Wine Society tasting of many of his 2006 vintage Rieslings as well as a couple of older surprise wines to add some additional variety to the evening.

I spent a couple of minutes speaking with Terry and also pestered him with several questions during the tasting and found him to be very friendly, knowledgeable and very approachable. And if I needed any more reason to like the guy, the wines he poured for us were exquisite.

Theise began by telling us about the remarkable 2006 vintage. In his words, the vintage is “outsized”, where grapes in the middle Rhine and Mosel were so ripe that wines are mostly at least one and perhaps more than one quality level better than what the label indicates. In other words, wines labeled Kabinett are actually likely to be made from grapes with at least Spätlese if not Auslese measurements on the Oechsle scale. This vintage was unfortunately not so stellar in the Pfalz.

This may have been the first 10+ wine tasting I have ever been to in quite some time where I genuinely liked every wine that hit my glass. However, considering how much of a Riesling fan I am, I cannot say I was surprised. If Bonny Doon's Randall Grahm actually did start a “National Riesling Association”, I would join. Heck, I would be President of my local chapter.

Here was the lineup from the tasting:

2006 Buntsandstein Spätlese Trocken Theo Minges – Pfalz ($27) - struck me as the most classic of the bunch on the nose, apples and apricots, a little imbalanced towards alcohol on the rear palate. Overall very nice.

1997 Riesling Kogl Reserve Erich Salomon – Kremstal (unknown) – the only Austrian wine of the evening, only moderate petrol notes despite its age, tangy, crisp and persimmon flavors. A very interesting wine.

2006 Zeltinger Himmelreich Kabinett Halbtrocken Selbach Oster – Mosel ($24) – very rich with honey and overripe peach, long finish, excellent.

2006 Zeltinger Schlossberg Kabinett Selbach Oster – Mosel ($22) – candied orange nose, explosive fruit in mouth with little minerality. Seemed like the most un-German of the group.

2006 "Soil to Soul" Kabinett Strub – Rheinhessen ($16) – Designed to compete with wines like Leitz's “Dragonstone”, tight nose, peach and minerals, explosion of flavor on the tongue with ripe peaches and apricots coated with powdered sugar. Price aside, this was one of my favorite wines of the evening and at only $16, the QPR on this wine is outstanding.

2006 Dhron Hofberg Spätlese A.J. Adam – Mosel ($38) – this one definitely represents at least a quality level or two upgrade. The nose is very much that of a dessert wine with apricot notes being dominant. This was a little fat for my tastes but it was still very good.

2006 Meddersheimer Rheingrafenberg Spätlese “Eisendell” Hexamer – Nahe ($29) – My other favorite of the evening, very sharp, stark mineral nose with a little smoke and almost a green undercurrent. Mouth explodes with peach, honey, tropical fruits and minerals. Outstanding.

2006 Munsterer Dautenpflanzer Spätlese Kruger Rumpf – Nahe ($24) – very tight nose, sharp, apple and apricot, excellent finish. Overall very good.

2006 Oestricher Lenchen Spätlese “303” Spreitzer – Nahe ($48) – probably my least favorite of the evening, a fruity syrupy nose and the syrup continues to the tongue coming across as a bit cloying.

1994 Dorsheimer Pittermannchen Spätlese Schlossgut Diel – Nahe ($62) – This wine was an accidental insertion into the tasting. It was supposed to be another '06 from Rheingau but the wineshop packed the wrong wine...and I am so glad they did. This wine brings the petrol in spades, gas station and car exhaust rather than diesel, this wine smells like the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway during rush hour. Deliciously oily on the tongue with a long finish of ripe Fuji apples. This wine is like a cologne for auto mechanics and is amazingly still available for sale in the primary wine market. Since I was driving that night, I had been diligently spitting at this tasting but I swallowed every drop of this.

2006 Leiwener Laurentiuslay Auslese Carl Loewen – Mosel ($40) – honeyed mineral nose with a slight vegetal element, maintains solid acidity with explosive honey flavors. Very good.

The quality of these wines, overall, lends evidence to Terry's statement that, “Grand Cru vineyards are the earth's erogenous zones.”

Report from the 2008 Virginia Wine Showcase

The 2008 Virginia Wine Showcase, which occurred on February 9-10 at the Dulles Expo Center, was the first big Virginia wine event of the year. The winery count in Virginia has long since surpassed 100 and this event featured about 35 of them pouring a selection of their wines as well as several craft and food exhibitors. At $25 advanced purchase and $35 at the door for unlimited tasting, this is a very good QPR event and an opportunity for me to get a high level perspective on the quality of Virginia wines being sold this year.

My last attendance at a Virginia wine festival event was in 2006, which was also the year that I visited more 20 Virginia wineries in person. Other than visits to a handful of Loudoun County wineries in the fall, 2007 went by with little personal evaluation of Virginia's wine.  
This event was an opportunity not only to try a bunch of wines, but also an opportunity to get reacquainted with Virginia wine after what was, in effect, a one year personal absence.

Knowing that I could not conceivably hit every winery at the event in one afternoon, I chose to focus on wineries I have had little to no previous experience with. This resulted in my skipping some Virginia mainstays like Horton, Pearmund and Williamsburg in favor of some smaller, newer and lesser-known producers. Although I may very well have missed some of the best wines at the event, I did manage to taste and score 102 wines from 20 producers in the 5 ½ hours available to me.

Keeping in mind the inherent fallacy of comparing an incomplete mental snapshot from two years ago against another one from this year, here are some of the overall observations I took away from the event:

I was pleasantly surprised at how few genuinely bad wines I tasted at the event. There were certainly many very average wines but very few that resulted in tasting notes containing the words “awful” or “dreadful”, words I am not shy about using when appropriate. This was a bit of an improvement from my last trip down this road. Unfortunately, there weren't any wines that I would categorize as great either, but several did make it into “very good” territory. Despite this, across the board quality of Virginia wines does appear to be continuously improving.

I haven't kept up with vintage reports in Virginia, but a very high percentage of the state's red wines seem to be of very thin extraction from the two primary red wine vintages on display (2005 and 2006). Even a couple of the Norton wines I tried (a grape that normally produces extremely heavy extraction) were visually thin. No doubt related to this, I found a few of the red wines to be very underexpressive to a fault. On the plus side, several winemakers were raving about the 2007 vintage in Virginia so I look forward to trying these wines over the next couple of years.

Looking at my scores, I did find that, as a group, the red wines were superior to the white wines. Since my personal wine consumption is probably 60-40 in favor of white and rosé over red, this finding did run counter to my personal bias.

Virginia is still doing Cabernet Franc very well but I was also very impressed with the quality of Petit Verdots at this event. As varietal Petit Verdot seems to have rising rapidly in popularity nationwide, Virginia may be well-placed to capitalize, at least with regional consumers. On the downside, the overall quality of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot still has a lot of room for improvement.

Virginia seems to have improved in its use of new oak. In prior years, I have tasted many an “oak juice” wine produced from a Virginia winemaker. The number of wines that fit this description at this year's event was very small indeed. This is very good news as it perhaps demonstrates that the “New French Oak” craze is on its way out the door. Related to this point, I found many of the winery staff specifically stressing that their Chardonnays were fermented and aged in stainless steel or old oak. It was so obviously stressed in many cases that it makes me suspect this is an offshoot of many wineries very deliberately moving away from trying to emulate the butter n' wood California Chardonnay style. I hope this is indeed the case as almost all of the best Virginia Chardonnays I have had in the past have been of a clean, fruit-centric style with little to no perceivable new oak contact.

Outside of Chardonnays, I am still seeing a substantial lack of solid varietal character among many of the white wines, including many of the Viogniers. Overall, I was pretty disappointed with the Viognier wines I tried and neither of the Pinot Grigios I tried had any perceptible typicity at all.

It may just be my imagination, but there seemed to be fewer hybrid varietals and hybrid-centric blends being offered from Virginia wineries than in the past. Seyval is still used as a blending component (in some cases very well) in several whites and I saw and tried four Vidal Blanc varietals and one varietal Chambourcin. I have previously found Virginia to produce only passable Vidal Blanc wines (I think it may just be a bit too warm a climate for the grape in many years) and none of the four I tried demonstrated good typicity and only one was good. One winery, Davis Valley, uniquely offers a red wine based on Maréchal Foch and another based on a Cornell-created hybrid called Corot Noir.

In reviewing my tasting notes, the following wines were my favorites from those tasted, in no particular order:


Chrysalis 2005 Chardonnay
Lake Anna Spotsylvania Claret (vintage not recorded)
Tarara 2006 Charval (Chardonnay/Seyval blend)
Breaux 2006 Viognier
Breaux 2003 “Lafayette” Cabernet Franc
Rappahannock 2005 Meritage
Rappahannock 2006 Cabernet Franc
Bluemont Vidal Blanc
Savoy-Lee 2005 Echo Forest Red
Cooper 2006 Cabernet Franc
Three Fox 2006 Leggero Chardonnay
Chateau Morrisette NV Liberty (Chambourcin/Cab Franc/Petit Verdot)
Chateau Morrisette 2005 Petit Verdot

My nod for the best picnic/fun wine tasted at the event is the 2006 Sarah's Patio Red from Chrysalis, which is a semi-sweet tank-fermented Norton that I can only assume they sell the hell out of because it was very tasty indeed.

In terms of the overall quality of the wines being offered, I was especially impressed with the lineups from Rappahannock Cellars, Chateau Morrisette and Savoy-Lee. Savoy-Lee was especially impressive in that it is a very new winery, releasing its first wines only in September of 2005.

For some other coverage of the event, see the relevant posts over at Virginia Vine Spot and Virginia Wine Time, which are two great regional wine blogs and both were live blogging at the event.

OK, now I have to rant a little bit.

I was quite annoyed that more than one winery did not have dump n' spit buckets for tasters to use. While Virginia has better wine laws than my home state of Maryland, there are still some very restrictive laws on the books and there still remains a certain amount of distrust against the producers of alcoholic beverages by many within the state government. It should be absolutely mandatory for any winery pouring its wines for the general public at any wine event in the state to have dump buckets readily accessible for tasters to use. This rule should not just apply to indoor events like this one. It should apply to outdoor events as well. No not have them encourages tasters to drink all of what is in their glass rather than to exercise moderation. I visited the booth of one winery (which I shall decline to name) that did not have dump buckets and I ended up spitting and dumping in a nearby garbage can. After that, I deliberately skipped the booths of two additional wineries because they did not have them. People do drive to and from these events. Wine festivals need to help their guests help themselves stay safe and also not provide an easy way for the opponents of wine festivals to lob legitimate criticism at such events.

Smarten up, folks.  Have dump buckets at every winery booth.

Good Read: Where Pinot Noir and Syrah Grow Together

Just in case you are not aware, some of the best wine journalism in the United States can be found in the wine section of the San Francisco Chronicle. They often achieve successfully a beautiful balance between giving good intel to wine wonks and educating those of us who always on the lookout for opportunities to increase our wine smarts.

This past Friday brought us a great article from the word processor of Jon Bonné (onetime author of a terrific food and wine blog called “amuse-bouche”) entitled “When Syrah met Pinot: One's Feisty, the other's finicky - but they're finding common ground” which highlights the growing trend towards planting Syrah in much cooler climates than those it is most often associated with in the minds of many wine consumers. Those following the swing of the wine style pendulum back from brawny “bruiser” wines to those that offer more nuance and elegance should not turn their backs on Syrah or feel like they have no choice but to chase high-priced northern Rhone offerings. Syrah grown in the cooler areas of California and in Oregon, specifically those areas known for production of wines from the more fickle Pinot Noir, offer their own take on this wonderful grape and at fairly affordable prices.

Data Mining Wine Spectator 2007 Scores

Fredric over at Bigger Than Your Head has performed some interesting data mining based on the current issue of Wine Spectator, where they have published a listing of all the wines reviewed in scored during 2007 by name, price and score. From this, he has extracted the average wine price by region for all French wines that received scores from 90 to 100 and also extracted the average price by varietal for all California wines that received scores from 90 to 100. There are some interesting results but rather than post them here and steal his thunder, here is a link to his post:

Let Me Spell It Out For You

Lambrusco Baby!

Curse you, Riunite! The the late 1970s and early 1980s, Riunite, which is a large consortium of wine co-ops, deluged the U.S. market with 2+ million cases of wine per year and a barrage of television commercials that featured a gut-wrenchingly nauseating jingle. Ugh, it's in my head right now. Make it stop! I was only in elementary school when the domestic Riunite television advertising blitz was in full swing and I still vividly remember those TV spots.

Among Riunite's lineup of wines is a Lambrusco which, to be frank, I find pretty disgusting. It's primary flavors remind me greatly of these revolting fluffy light orange-colored candies the name of which I cannot recall but the flavor of which scarred my palate as a child. Even if you love Riunite Lambrusco, you should still agree with me when I say that it is unfortunate that, in the minds of many, the word “Lambrusco” has become synonymous with Riunite Lambrusco. In addition to the fact that most Lambrusco wines bear only a sketchy resemblance to Ruinite, this association in the minds of many wine buyers keeps them from exploring a group of Italian wines which actually offer a substantial amount of diversity.

Lambruscos, considered frizzante (slightly sparkling) wines, are often, but not always, bottled with a a traditional sparkling wine cork and are almost always made with the Charmat (tank fermentation in a pressurized tank) method rather than the Champagne method. What many fail to realize is that there is not one Lambrusco, but five Lambrusco DOCs in Italy and that there are actually more than 60 clones of the Lambrusco grape with several of these commonly used in the production of the various “Lambruscos” available on the world market today.

The center of Lambrusco production is the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, specifically the western Emilia part of the region, around the city of Modena. Four Lambrusco DOC areas cluster around the city in a contiginous block.

The largest of these DOCs and the one responsible for the majority of Lambrusco DOC wine imported to the United States is Lambrusco Reggiano. Much of the wine produced here is of the sweeter style that many Americans are used to and this is also the home to the consortium that produces “Ruinite” wines as well. For an indication of sweetness levels, look for the words “amabile” (slightly sweet) or “dolce” (sweet) on the label. As the various Lambrusco clones used to make these wines are not naturally very sweet, the sweetness in these wines often comes from the additional of up to 15% of partially-fermented juice from the much sweeter Ancellotta grape.

The remaining three Lambrusco DOCs in Emilia are Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro, Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce, and Lambrusco di Sorbara, which all tend to be dry and acidic and, on occasion, fairly tannic. Dry Lambrusco wines usually come in between 10-12% ABV while the sweeter versions will tend to be substantially lower.

There is a fifth Lambrusco DOC, Lambrusco Mantovano, which lies just to the north of the others, across the Lombardy border and it also produces predominantly dry Lambrusco wines. One fairly common brand of Mantovano Lambrusco available in my neck of the woods is “Gelsomina” from Vinicola Negri. They are vintage labeled and have proven to be quite good in both recent vintages of I have tried.

If you have never had a traditional dry Lambrusco, you owe it to yourself to try one.

For this article, I decided to try and find a more interesting example of the more ubiquitous Reggiano wines, picking up a Ca' De' Medici Lambrusco “Cubista”, which is a dolce wine that comes in at only 7.5% ABV. While seeking glassware for this wine, one of my Riedels committed suicide by falling from the rack onto our ceramic tile floor. I hoped it wasn't a bad omen for the wine and, fortunately, it proved not to be.

Dark purple with moderate froth, the very expressive nose is of crushed blackberries and chocolate, almost cocoa, and a distinctive and rich smoky undercurrent. This is low-alcohol and sweet without being in the least bit syrupy with moderate acidity. The finish is more dry than the pronounced sweetness on the front palate would lead one to expect. The finish is medium-long and very pleasant. Drinking this wine is like eating a delicious blackberry chocolate tart a few feet from a guy smoking a big Cuban cigar. Ringing up at $12-$13 a bottle, it offers solid QPR as an after-dinner wine or as a pairing for hearty Italian pasta dishes like Lasagna Bolognese.

Grand Cru Rieslings from Alsace

It was my great pleasure this past Thursday night to attend a Grand Cru Alsace Riesling tasting led by Lisa Airey, CWE and sponsored by the French Wine Society. Ms. Airey began the event with an thorough educational overview of Alsace and the 51 recognized Grand Cru vineyards of the region while most of us indulged in a nice selection of fine French cheeses. Even though some of these INAO-delimited vineyards sites are quite large (a few in excess of 100 acres), the total of all wines produced from the grapes grown there constitute only approximately 5% of the region's entire annual output. Because of this, wines from these recognized vineyards come at a somewhat higher but hardly astronomical pricetag. The prices for the dry wines from this tasting range from ~$25 - $75 per bottle, with the mast majority coming in at under $50.

Prior to this even and to the best of my recollection, I had only ever tasted one Grand Cru Alsatian Riesling in my life and that was several years ago. As such, I definitely walked in the door a complete neophyte on the subject. Furthermore, I fretted in advance that my still-developing palate would not be able to accurately discern the nuance that separate the 10 dry Rieslings that would be poured at the tasting.

As it happens, I needn't have worried at all. The degree of variance among these 10 wines from 8 different vineyards from 5 different vintages was truly immense and disccerning the unique characteristics of each wine was no trouble at all. The chore turned out to be deciding which of the wines I liked the most as nary a bad wine was poured.

Working north to south through the region, here is the list of Grand Cru Rieslings that were poured, tasted and discussed in flights of two:

2004 Marc Kreydenweiss Riesling Wiebelsberg
2004 Marc Kreydenweiss Riesling Kastelberg
2006 Weinbach Riesling Schlossberg
2005 Otter Organic Riesling Schlossberg
2004 Josmeyer Riesling Brand
2003 Ehrhart Riesling Hengst
2005 Schlumberger Riesling Saering
2002 Lucien Albrecht Riesling Pfingstberg
2005 Lucien Albrecht Riesling Pfingstberg
2004 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Rangen de Thann Clos St. Urbain

As Ms. Airey pointed out, these are wines that were intended to age for 10 years or more so our drinking them so young was a little on order with mass infanticide. However, the differences in character between a hot vintage like 2005 and the other vintages was telling, as were the stylistic differences between producers and geographic and geologic differences between vineyards (although, as one would expect, discerning which factor was most at play proved to be difficult). The older wines, specifically the '02 Albrecht and the '03 Ehrhart, were both already showing the expected “petrol” notes that come with age (which register on my senses as a combination of diesel fuel and freshly-cut pine boards), most especially the Ehrhart.

The '05 Schlumberger struck me as the most Germanic of the wines, not straying far from what I normally associate with Mosel character, while the '05 Albrecht brought the most rich tropical fruit. Contrast that with the '04 Zind-Humbrecht, which was heavy on musky honey, jasmine and herbs and presented very distinct barnyard notes.

The '02 Albrecht was definitely my favorite of the night. It is drinking wonderfully now, appearing to be in the midst of its transition phase between youthful fruit and elderly petrol with spice and fresh tartness. I was already a big fan of this winemaker's Cremant d'Alsace before I walked in the door and his wines continue to rise in my estimation.

To finish off the event, we were poured the 2004 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Brand Vendanges Tardives, with its decadent sweetness and super fig bomb nose.

WLTV Airs Its 400th Episode

Congratulations are in order to Gary Vaynerchuk, who just aired his 400th episode of “The Thunder Show” on Wine Library TV:

Changing the wine world.

I am happy to admit that I watch his show pretty religiously. Despite all the antics and New York Jets references, there is just something about the guy and the energy he brings to the wine world. He's like a streaker who runs across a football field on national TV, but instead of “GoldenPalace.com” written on his chest, Gary would have “WINE” written across his ass. You might think he is a little weird and he might make you a little uncomfortable but you have to admire his tenacity and lack of shame.

But seriously, Gary's main focus is obviously to make wine more fun and approachable for all and that, my friends, is a mission worthy of tremendous praise. Thank you for your show Gary and keep it up for at least another 400.

Notes from a Southern Italy Tasting

Saturday morning I attended a nice southern Italy tasting at Wine Cellars of Annapolis in their lovely “Barrel Room.” Here are some notes in case they are any use to anyone.

The tasting started off with a 2006 Santadi Vermentino di Sardegna Villa Solais, which had a nice nose of light peach, rich melon and wet stones. Elegant in the mouth with nice balance. I picked up a bottle of this and will write more about it in the future. The 2006 Villa Matilde IGT Falanghina Campania was a bit of a disappointment, crossing well over the line between elegance and undue restraint. The nose was very, very tight with just a little pear and apricot and perhaps a ocean air note. In the mouth it was equally unassertive and possessed a long but mildly bitter finish. I have had some very good wines from the Falanghina grape in the past (including the 2003 vintage of this same wine) but I have been underwhelmed with the past several I have tried. When I find my next good one I will be sure to write about it. It can be a truly wonderful grape when the winemaker can coax more out of it.

Moving on to the reds, first up was the 2006 A Mano Primitivo. While lacking in tremendous complexity, this was a very tasty wine with black cherry, plum and a touch of caramel. I know a wine would be great with a steak when drinking it makes me strongly crave one. This wine does exactly that. It possesses a nice flavor profile and sufficient modesty for red meat accompaniment, ringing up at only 13.5% alcohol and not something that would be mistaken for most California Zins. At only ~$11/bottle, this is very nice QPR for a dinner red.

Last up were to Aglianicos from the same producer, the 2005 Cantine del Notaio Il Repertino Aglianico del Vurture and the 2004 Cantine del Notaio La Firma Aglianico del Vurture. The '05 Il Repertino's first impression was a lovely and earthy ruby hues in glass and assertive, conentrated red fruits. It is a tart, acidic wine with emphatic tannins and a long finish. The '04 La Firma is a decidedly different wine with deep cherry coloring and a nose of old oak and black cherries. It attacks the tongue with firm tannins and a burnt plastic note reminiscent of a younger Barolo but its finish is a bit more modest than the Il Repertino. The Il Repertino was selling for ~$30 while the La Firma was going for $5 more. Despite the higher price, I think the La Firma is a better buy based on how it is drinking today. It definitely has more interesting things to say than its younger relative.

The Virginia Wine Showcase

Just as a reminder to my fellow D.C.-area wine-iacs, the Virginia Wine Showcase, the first big Virginia wine event of the new year, is coming up next weekend, 9-10 February, at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, VA.  300 wines to try for $25 in advance or $35 at the door, plus lots of seminars and non-wine vendors galore.  It should be a nice event.

Info here:

http://www.vawineexpo.org/

Bleak Numbers for the Wine Entrepreneurial Spirit?

In its recently published lists of the ten most and least profitable businesses to start, Forbes would seem to be lending truth to the old joke about “how to make a small fortune in the wine business.” On their list of the ten least profitable:

#3: Beverage Manufacturing, to include wineries and breweries. The main reason cited for the low profitability is competition.

#9: Beer, Wine and Liquor Retailers. The article cites the complications relating to state and local alcohol licenses and distribution laws and how much these laws tend to favor distributors over retailers.

Although not mentioned, many of the problems inherent to opening your own Ye Olde Wine Shoppe are almost certainly related to their #8 least profitable business, the broad category of “specialty retailers.” Certainly the pressures of nearby mega-retailers like Wal-Mart and Target (not to mention massive specialty chains like PetSmart and Barnes & Noble) have driven many a small niche retailer into the ground. In areas where more liberal alcohol distribution laws exist, the same threat holds true for wine retailers as well. A small liquor store can do well with low overhead and a good location for Saturday night purchases, but a wine shop may find itself in deep doo-doo if a Total Wine opens a mile away.

By the time shoppers realize just how lousy the megastore wine purchasing experience can often be, they may venture back to Ye Olde Wine Shoppe just in time to pick up some great buys on Burgundy during its “Going Out of Business Sale.”