Gettin’ A little Chile in South Carolina

I have been away for a bit. Sorry ‘bout that. The SLA (State liquor Authority) hearing for the shop is coming quick so we have been working double overtime to get all the demographic research together for the judges. I hope they have had their coffee and decent commuter traffic that day so we can wow them with the hard work we have done. We just want to bring the geekiness of wine to the East Village with no pretense. Hopefully we can bring that across. Anyway, with all this business going on and my wife not-so-looking-forward to the beginning of the school year we needed a couple of days of R&R so we flew down to Bluffton and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina to visit family for a couple days. Some good food, good golf and -from Sam’s Club- some good wine and we were ready for autumn in New York.
When shopping for wine in a place like Sam’s Club one should focus on bottles not from California (unless the wine buyer caught the wine geek bug one day and ordered some boutique stuff that is quite good and in that case stock up before it is gone) but -in my experience- South American and certain Spanish and Italian wines of good quality. They can be found among the sea of sub-par California wines. Not many mind you but enough that can diversify a week’s worth of meals. When we were browsing the isles of wine last week at Sam’s I found some promising Chilean and Spanish wines and one well-known Italian. The one I want to talk about in this post is a Chilean.
Even if I don’t know the producer I always give low-priced South American wines a chance. For one they are low-priced which equals low risk and secondly they are usually quite good. And thirdly every wine has a story whether it is six dollars or six hundred dollars. After doing some research I found the wine history of Chile to be pretty interesting. The country is noted along with Mexico for being one of the first wine producing areas in the Americas. Just as in Mexico the Spanish came in and began to spread Catholic reform planting vines to be used for Eucharist wine and nothing more. The control of this was lost as native Indians looted the vineyards and began to grow and produce their own wine. One very cool fact is the country has never (or so I have read) suffered from the phylloxera dilemma. This is where it gets really crazy; a Frenchman by the name of Claudio Gay came to Chile and set up the Quinta Normal; a huge isolated nursery holding “exotic botanical specimens,” which included the vitis vinifera that already existed in the country (I think mostly in the central valley). Our boy Claudio did this before the onslaught of the scourges of phylloxera and another problem powdery mildew (a native American plant disease). So most of the vineyards I would imagine are made up of pre-phylloxera vines. Actually this isolation would later spur the Country’s wine industry along. While the mite was attacking Europe and giving The States a run for their money Chile was enjoying a rich quantity-driven wine era. But once the pest problem was “taken care of” the rest of the world caught up so to speak and Chile began to suffer because of political and economical woes.
In the late 1800’s after the country had gained it’s independence rich Chileans traveled the world and brought back with them vine cuttings of wines that are staples of the their wine industry today such as carmenere and cabernet sauvignon. But I don’t want to talk about either of these varietals because as usual I found something outside the norm for Chilean wines (At least I think it is). Fast forward to 1979; a man by the name of Miguel Torres from the Torres family in Spain came to Chile and fell in love with her soils and geography. This guy had some money and was looking to diversify with vineyards all over Spain as well as California’s Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley. In Chile he has an interesting selection of wines ranging from the cabernet and carmenere to gewürztraminer and viognier. And the viognier is the one I would like to talk about. I don’t know much about viognier other than it is native to the Rhone area of France and became popular for a minute in the US and then dropped off a bit. Also, it is used in Australia to sometimes blend with Shiraz which I have tried one or two and if done right is very enjoyable. Jancis Robinson tells me that it is a cousin of nebbiolo and is related as well to freisa, a grape from piedmont that makes a bright naturally fizzy red wine. Pretty cool.
So, my parents had enlisted their son the wine geek to scour the shelves of Sam’s Club and let them know what to buy and what to avoid. I found a couple of Chileans one of which I will talk about in a later post from a producer called VEO and an Italian that I know quite well and may have to talk about because of the price to quality ratio. The other Chilean that I found while wandering the isles was a Miguel Torres wine for six bucks. The bottle looked really cool with storm clouds and lightening bolts cracking over the capsule and the label; the wine was a viognier named Tormenta (storm in Spanish). Normally with an overly ambitious label like this I would be wary but it wasn’t from California and it wasn’t over priced so I felt I was pretty safe. I showed my parents the wines I had chosen and then brought them around to take a look at the prices of some of these sub-par producers from Cali charging way more than the quality of the juice in the bottle is worth. I don’t need to name names here just think South Carolina, Sam’s Club and go from there and you’ll probably come up the same usual suspects I am eluding to. So I says to my ma’, I says, “You see this ocean of over priced wine that you just don’t like too much? This is the stuff to stay away from.” I held up the Tormenta and said, “this bottle is only six bucks and I bet you it will be better than any of the Cali mass production wines.”
We headed home with the South American wines and some snacks and began to cook dinner popping the Tormenta while we sliced, diced, basted, grilled and chilled. A little bit about the wine: It is a 2006 Miguel Torres Chilean viognier. There is no oak contact whatsoever and the grapes are organically grown. This is a great summer wine. We poured some tastes and the color was nice and pale. I am not sure if this is the norm with viognier or what but it was very pleasant. We swirled and coated and got down to business. The nose was fresh and floral with a bit of fennel I dare say. There was a lot happening on the nose but it was quite balanced. Not too much alcohol and not too much of one thing. The aromas knew their places and stayed there not trying to out do each other, which was nice. The wine had been chilled pretty well so the initial palate was a bit muted but you could still taste the balance to come. The acidity was quite racy and untamed but with all the floral power on the nose it was nice to see where this was going. As it came closer to room temperature the acidity settled a bit and helped keep all the flavors of ripe fruit and flowers and all the aromas in check creating a threshold that would not budge. And that is a good thing and probably a result of no oak. Stainless steel is a beautiful thing in a world of too much oak. Oak is great but it has a purpose and if that purpose is over used then we are forced to start coming up with acronyms like ABC (Anything But Chardonnay).
By the end of the bottle the wine achieved a nice depth. The floral aspect of this viognier was still in check and not too overwhelming but definitely prominent playing with a new flavor of peach or pear. This was made blatantly apparent when we popped a fresh bottle and went through the whole process again. After our palates were used to the room temperature flavors and aromas popping a new cold bottle accentuated the beginning of the evolution of this really nice and refreshing wine. Later after we had run out of the Chilean we were forced to pop on of the Cali mass production wines. I had one sip and decided I was done for the night. Not because of too much alcohol intake but after the Chileans this wine tasted almost exactly like cardboard. The look on my mom’s face was great. After a few bottles of this really interesting and floral and inviting South American wine the Cali was just down right sour and bitter and…well…undrinkable. We used it the next day for cooking. I feel like I had done some good. I showed my parents that just because you spend more than twenty bucks on a bottle of wine don’t mean it’s good. Especially the California wine one finds in a place like Sam’s Club. My mom wrote the wines down that we drank and will be getting them every time she has people over. This will hopefully spread some love for Chilean wines in the their community. I hope a little light was shed on the small town of Bluffton, South Carolina. Cheers.

Delivery, Pinot…Love it!

Last night my wife and I were celebrating for celebration’s sake. There was actually nothing to celebrate really but we popped a bottle of pinot like it was time to rejoice. With all this talk of the merlot and pinot noir it was now time to enjoy the latter. I dipped into the “cellar” and found yet another Cali wine from our trip. It was Summerland’s 2005 pinot noir entry level. If you have been reading this blog for a while you might remember my posts on their sauvignon blanc and their syrah (the syrah is my wife’s fav). Summerland is one of the better California producers in my book. Actually I just downright love them. They embrace new world style with restraint and balance. My wife and I were lucky enough and honored to sit and try every wine in their line when we visited their tasting room in Summerland California on our way to Ventura.

We put on some Modest Mouse in the background, ordered some veggie/Italian delivery, po0pped the bottle and talked about our day. Here is what we thought of the wine.
The color was nice and deep yet translucent allowing for a bit of acidity to brighten the wine up a bit. I had just taken it out of the “cellar” so it was a bit cool but after it warmed up a little the body fattened up nicely and showed those signature aromas of spice and dried fruits (minimal contact with one hundred percent French oak). This is a really good Cali pinot noir. We had tried some pinots out there especially in Sonoma that were just awful. This wine has balance and a good use of oak. The vanilla effect of the oak is minimal and vibes nicely with the fruit. You could just drink it on its own as much as you could have it with food. As it opens and the tannins become more prominent the wine holds its balance. Also, the nose nicely melds spice, vanilla and dark fruit into a wonderful melody that is so smooth and deeply silky to the senses and on the palate. Good stuff. I am not sure if this one is available in NYC. But I do know I want it for the shop. I think the guys will dig this one highly. If you haven’t already, try some of these California Central Coast wines. They are really drinking well. Never did get to Napa but of all the places I went for wine in The Golden State Santa Barbara County was our favorite…Sideways or no Sideways. Cheers!

Got Me Some Merlot on the Brain…Wonder Why?

Some pasta and a bit of salad for dinner; bowtie with some quick marinara and a fast red leaf salad with carrots, red onions, avocado oil and mustard dressing. This kind of quick dinner reminds me of my childhood. Mom, whippin’ up something quick after work for the fam not wanting to dirty too many dishes. And with all this talk of merlot in my head I thought I would break out one of my California Wine Club offerings. Last month was Gainey; a producer that has been around since the eighties located in Santa Barbara County in an AVA within an AVA; the larger being the Santa Ynez Valley and the smaller being the Santa Rita Hills. It’s kinda cool because when my wife and I were out in California one of the first tasting rooms we stopped at was Gainey so it was a pleasant surprise to see it in the mail recently. So I thought I would make the above mentioned meal and pop a bottle of 2005 Central valley merlot.
I don’t know if it’s just because of all my merlot talk but this wine was really good. It had a beautiful dark reddish-purple hue and just clung to the inner walls of the glass as we swirled. My wife took one sip and her eyes widened. We were both a bit surprised (Yes, we too have been affected by the industrialization of American merlot. Well, at least in the “value” category). The nose was all plum and spice with a bit of coffee waiting to come out after a little oxygen had given it a push. The palate was really nice and smooth initially with a sweet viscous body that opened up into a silky and well-rounded wine. This wine was great. I don’t even really remember the meal. Actually I don’t know that I would eat with this merlot. I mean you could though and I would suggest something like duck if you’re into that sort of thing or some sort of savory, marinated chicken dish.
This is kind of a short post for me but I don’t know what else to say other than this wine was just great. I would love to have it again and I hope that it is available in NYC…let me check…stand by…alas it is not. Well, at least on wine-searcher it’s not. They have other wines from them but not the merlot. I am going to try and find it for the shop. I would love to offer this wine to someone who is a skeptical of merlot because of the current state of reluctance towards such a great grape and a wonderful (and potentially reborn) wine.

Here Is My Little Therory….Am I Nuts?

So here’s the deal. I am going to just put it out there and see what comes of it. Pinot noir is huge right now. Sideways helped that happen. The demand for pinot noir is at an all time high but because the grape is not the easiest to harvest and take care of and because of its sensitivity to climate producers cannot fulfill the demand. So I see the U.S. catching on to this dilemma in the next couple of years realizing that the industrialization of the little pinecone can only go so far. I don’t think pinot sales will necessarily drop but I can see them reaching a plateau. When this plateau happens the merlot producers will be stepping out of the shadows to show us what they have been doing during pinot noir’s time in the limelight.
I feel that the 1990’s were good and bad to merlot in the United States. We fell in love with this grape’s wine because we loved it for what it was: a soft plum-jammy, sometimes spicy with a bit of coffee, easy to drink wine with aromas and flavors reminiscent of those merlot based Bordeaux blends from St. Emilion and Pomerol as well as the Bordeaux-style blends of the legendary Warren Winiarski at Stag’s Leap (sigh). Then it caught on and became a kind of demented obsession for the mass market as producers in California began to industrialize one hundred percent merlot to the point of lunacy. It just worked. Merlot is versatile and is harvested earlier than cabernet. It has a somewhat tough skin and yes it is susceptible to freeze and rot but I believe that is only if not harvested early enough. It also likes cold soil for those cool desert nights. By the end of the 1990’s merlot was not what it was before the craze. It wasn’t seen anymore as a wonderful wine for what it was. It was now just the swill that people bought for parties. No one thought about it anymore because there was so much bad merlot out there no one knew what was good and what was bad. But the trend held and the year 2004 came.
“The movie,” was released and…WOW. Everyone scrambled to find pinot noir wherever they could. No one really knew where to get it and from which country to buy it. So the media came in to help. Articles were written about the history of the grape and the number system was being put to work to help people get their pinot, whether it was from California or France or this place called New Zealand. Oregon was emerging into the limelight because of the states love for the new star and producers like Ken Wright got hit with a wave of love from the country that had been ignoring this finicky little grape for some time. And so, our little blackbird hung its head turned and walked off stage to the theme song of Sideways.
I don’t believe pinot noir can be industrialized…wait I take that back…anything can be industrialized but I just don’t know how far pinot noir can be. It is a picky and sensitive grape and I think the demand for the wine it yields cannot be met. Where merlot is resilient and easy to mass-produce; pinot noir has many objections to being made into jug wine. I think this is all just great. It’s the natural evolution of things. According to my weird little theory pinot noir will help the sales of merlot. The United States as of 2010 (some say 2008) will be the number one wine consuming country in the world. I think a love for pinot helped that along and gave us a palate for well put together wines that are deep and complex, invoking poetic musings. When merlot takes center stage with pinot in the next couple of years it will be a beautiful thing. I am not saying that all merlot in the U.S. is mass-produced and bad. Hell no. My wife and I just had a wonderful Californian merlot from Gainey in the Santa Ynez Valley last night with some salad and a simple pasta dish and it was delicious. I will be posting that one next. It’s just that the focus is on pinot noir right now and the good merlot is being ignored.
So there it is folks. Am I nuts? Am I on to something? Are my ramblings all for naught? Let me know. Until then: cheers.