Cafes & Wineries

When people often ask me how I “got into wine″ I have a sense that they are expecting me to relate some story of a revelatory mouthful — that one wine which struck me like a lightning bolt and sent me down the path to become the wine fanatic that I am today. Strangely, I possess no story like that about wine. I remember merely a pastiche of many special and prosaic moments with wine that have gradually led to me to the depths of my current passion.

I do, however, have a story like that about how I fell in love with sake.

It was the year 2000, and I was a Director of User Experience at Sapient Corporation, and I was asked whether I would be interested in going to Japan to help the company open an office there. Single at the time, with no pets or other obligations, I excitedly said that I would at least go on the initial exploratory trip, and would make my decision based on that experience.

The company planned to make its introduction to the market with the help of a partner firm, a relatively upstart organization that happened to be headed by several of the former top executives of BCG Japan. Our second night in the country, they took us out to what, at the time, was the best sushi I had ever eaten in my life in a private sushi club in Tokyo’s Roppongi district. I knew that my job description that evening was going to involve the consumption of a lot of alcohol, but I didn′t much care for beer. So when it was offered, I asked politely if I might drink sake instead. The CEO of our partner firm barked at the chef behind the sushi counter, and that’s when it happened.

In my memory, the lights dim a little bit around the restaurant so that the sushi chef is bathed in the sole splash of bright light. He places a beautiful small wineglass on the counter, its bowl foggy with the chill of the freezer he has just taken it from. Then he turns slowly and reaches down below the counter to emerge with a huge brown bottle in his arms, its striking handmade paper label brushed with a stroke that resembles a huge number “2.” My glass is poured and placed in front of me, shimmering and cool. And my first sip is like drinking a pristine glacial lake under a full moon.

I had the presence of mind to keep my initial outburst to something along the lines of “Wow, this is really good.” But what I really meant was “Holy fucking shit, THIS IS SAKE?!?”

In that moment, I knew that I wanted to drink fine chilled sake for the rest of my life. I wanted to try as much as possible, as many different kinds as possible, and as often as I possibly could.

And that was my introduction to the sake known as Kubota Manju.

To put this in terms that might make more sense to wine lovers, here’s an analogy: until that point I had been drinking sparkling wine from a box (heated up in the microwave, I might add) and then someone poured me my first glass of properly chilled Krug Champagne.

Kubota Manju is produced by a brewery known as Asahi Shuzo in the Niigata prefecture of western Japan, and it may well be the most well known fine sake in the world. Asahi Shuzo was founded in 1830 and is the largest producer in Niigata prefecture, and therefore one of the largest producers in all of Japan. Just as the massive Champagne houses who manage to strike a fine balance between making huge quantities of product at a very high quality, elevated further by a globally recognized brand, so too has Asahi Shuzo managed to turn Kubota into the Cristal of sake. The brand of the drink has eclipsed the people who have made it.

Kubota is a trade name — one of the very first successful “brands” of fine sake on the market. The sake was originally named Asahiyama, and was finally branded Kubota in 1985, taking the nickname that the brewery had enjoyed. The Kubota line of sakes, and Kubota Manju in particular, gained massive popularity in the 1980s as Japan rekindled (some would say created) its appreciation for fine sake, partially due to simply good timing and savvy marketing, but also no doubt because of its extremely high quality and taste.

Asahi Shuzo was one of the pioneers of the fine sake movement (which has only really been around for about 50 years, and successful for 30), and in particular was one of the first to use stainless steel tanks for making sake. The use of steel in sake making has a similar effect to the use of steel in winemaking. It is more hygienic, leading to lower numbers of outside or unwanted bacteria during the fermentation process, and tends to accentuate the fruit. Or in the case of sake, the floral qualities of the rice.

Kubota Manju is an unusual sake in several respects, independent of its popularity or quality. It carries no formal designation of its level of quality, which is why I’ve had to note the fact that it is actually a junmai daiginjo sake parenthetically above. For those of you who aren’t familiar with sake designations, this means that it is made from rice that has been polished down to at least 50% of its former mass, and includes no added alcohol in the brewing process. Not content to stop just past the 50% mark, Kubota Manju is usually made from rice polished down to about 33% of its former mass.

Instead of such quality designations, the Kubota line of sakes are simply given numbers, if you will to correspond to their quality. The “ju″ in the name roughly translates to “celebrations” or “congratulations” (though some snidely suggest it might mean “ostentatious”) and the other character is a number. Kubota Manju means roughly “10,000 celebrations.” The two lower grades of Kubota are known as Senju (1000) and Hyakuju (100), respectively. There are also two or three other, even higher, grades of sake made with the Kubota name every year, as well.

There is a reason that this is the most popular and most well known fine sake in all of Japan. It is the same reason that I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction into the world of fine, chilled sake. It is delicate, refined, and incredibly high class, in addition to being a textbook example of top class sake from an organoleptic standpoint, and definitely one of the world’s top sakes.

While in the past nine years I have discovered sakes that I like better than Kubota Manju, it will always remain one of my favorites, both for nostalgic reasons, and because it really is damn good. I buy a bottle or two to bring back with me from Japan every time I visit, which isn’t nearly often enough.

Tasting Notes:
Colorless in the glass, this sake has a nose of cedar trees and fresh rainwater, with hints of dried orange peel aromas. In the mouth it is smooth and silky, with a beautiful weight on the tongue and a perfect dry balance that allows flavors of tuberose and orange blossom to mingle with hints of cedar and wet stone that leave the palate feeling alive and refreshed. Outstanding.

Food Pairing:
I love drinking this sake with sushi and sashimi of all kinds, but in particular with the creamy goodness of raw scallops.

Overall Score: around 9.5

How Much?: $75

This sake is available for purchase on the Internet.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

The more good Champagne I have, the more it seems to me that you really get what you pay for. Unfortunately, what you have to pay for the really good stuff is out of the reach of most wine lovers, which was why I didn’t like Champagne until several years after I started getting into wine.

Now I love it, but only because I’ve been able to taste Champagnes like these.

Alfred Gratien represents an interesting class of Champagne producer. When we speak of those who make Champagne, we most often talk about the Champagne “Houses” — the massive brands who contract with sometimes hundreds of growers to produce very large quantities of bubbly — and the “grower producers” who make what some call affectionately “farmer fizz.”

There is a third category, however, that in more ways than one represents an earlier age in Champagne production. Before the big Champagne houses got so big, they were small. While they did not grow their own grapes (or at least not a majority of them) they made small lots of handcrafted Champagne with grapes from growers with whom they had long term relationships.

Champagne Alfred Gratien, founded in 1864, operates not only at the scale of these traditionally small houses, producing no more than about 22,000 cases of wine per year, but also maintains all of the handcrafted traditions that some of the larger houses have had to abandon over the years (Gratien was sold to a holding company in 2000, but has changed none of its practices or production levels as a result).

The estate gets its grapes from 65 different small farmers spread throughout the Côte des Blancs, Montagne de Reims, and Vallée de la Marne growing regions. In some cases, these farmers have had family relationships with the estate going back many decades. After meticulous hand harvesting in small lots, the grapes are crushed and fermented entirely in 228 liter barrels made of old French oak. This small-lot, barrel fermentation represents the traditional method of champagne production that is rarely practiced today, as most larger producers favor fermentation in steel for volume and ease.

In a similarly old-fashioned manner, the wine is never allowed to go through a secondary malolactic fermentation, but is instead carefully blended with older vintages (in the case of non-vintage wine) and put into bottles with the liqueur de tirage (the mix of sugar and yeast that produces the sparkling fermentation in the bottle) and closed with a wired cork. The use of a cork at this step is extremely unusual, time consuming and costly. The rationale for using a cork at this stage is much like using a cork at any stage — the tiny amount of oxygen that the cork permits into the bottle helps to mature the wine.

The trouble is, however, that this cork closure comes with all the downsides of normal cork — you have to remove it carefully by hand and you have to make sure that the wine is not corked. So after careful hand riddling (the process of turning each individual bottle to settle the yeasts and other sediment into the neck of the bottle) and three years of aging, each bottle must not only be opened and re-corked after adding the dosage (the mix of sugar and older vintage wine), but each needs to be tasted to make sure that it is not corked - a daunting task even at the estate’s maximum production level of 250,000 bottles per year.

The estate’s production is overseen by cellar master Nicolas Jaeger, who is the fourth generation of the Jaeger family to hold this title at Alfred Gratien. Under his guidance, the estate produces five non-vintage and one vintage wine of outstanding quality and distinction from the traditional blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grapes, many of which are organically, or at least “sustainably” farmed.

While they are made in small quantities and cost a pretty penny, these wines are most certainly worth the effort and the money required to experience them.

TASTING NOTES:

NV Alfred Gratien “Brut Classique” Champagne, Epernay, France
Pale blonde in the glass with fine bubbles , this wine has a remarkable nose of mineral, and striking hibiscus aromas — a unique combination of floral and fruity qualities. In the mouth it is bright with a mineral acidity, very soft mousse, and beautifully yeasty warm bread quality that merges nicely with citrus elements as the wine lingers through a long finish. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $55. Where to buy?

NV Alfred Gratien “Brut Classique″ Rose Champagne, Epernay, France
Pale salmon in color with very fine bubbles, this wine has a nose of old socks (in a good way) and redcurrant aromas. In the mouth it offers hints of berries amidst deeper more earthly flavors of wet chalkboard, and wet dirt. Excellent acidity floats the wine through a beautiful finish. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $55. Where to buy?

NV Alfred Gratien Blanc des Blancs Champagne, Epernay, France
Pale green-gold in the glass, this wine has a bright zingy nose of lemon juice and lemon zest aromas. In the mouth it is equally bright, with flavors of pink grapefruit and lemon zest with lovely accents of warm brioche in the very fine mousse that seems to linger quite long in the mouth. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $75. Where to buy?

1998 Alfred Gratien Millesime Blanc de Noirs Champagne, Epernay, France
Light gold in the glass with the tiniest of bubbles, this wine has a beautiful, ageless nose of warm brioche and rainwater aromas. In the mouth it is nothing short of phenomenal. Beautifully layered with core flavors of warm freshly baked bread and brewers yeast wrapped in an explosively tangy layer of citrus and brown sugar qualities that moderate to toasted white bread flavors on the very long finish. Outstanding. Score: between 9.5 and 10. Cost: $100. Where to buy?

NV Alfred Gratien “Cuvee Paradis” Brut Champagne, Epernay, France
Palest gold in color, this wine has a nose of toasted brioche and bright lemon and mineral aromas. In the mouth it is soft and airy with clear, bright flavors of lemon zest, and a beautiful yeasty quality that lingers beautifully on the palate for a long time. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $130.Where to buy?

NV Alfred Gratien “Cuvee Paradis” Brut Rose Champagne, Epernay, France
Pale salmon in color with extremely fine bubbles, this wine has a nose of wet wool and hibiscus aromas. In the mouth it is strikingly mineral and lean with hibiscus and rose hip flavors peeking around the edge of a remarkable stony core of the wine that maintains a presence in the beautiful finish. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $130.Where to buy?

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

One of the things I love about the wine world is the way in which it rewards people with vision, initiative, talent, and above all, passion. I find it magical that someone can fall in love with wine, and decide that the most important thing for them to do for the rest of their lives is to make wine, and then actually make a living following that passion.

Maybe the same thing happens in a lot of industries, but you just don’t hear such stories about accounting. Or maybe we only ever hear about the success stories in the wine industry, and just never hear about all the failures.

Regardless, some of my favorite wines in the New World are made by people who just decided one day to go off and make wine, simply because they loved it so much.

Michael Twelftree and Richard Mintz are two such people — a couple of Adelaide businessmen that decided they would like nothing more than to make their own versions of the Australian Shiraz they enjoyed so much. Twelftree, who originally started in the construction business, dipped his toe into the wine industry in 1998 by starting a small export business to bring some of his favorite Australian wines to the United States. Twelftree was emboldened by his success, and no doubt encouraged by his friend Richard Mintz who worked at Australia’s Heinrich cooperage, so the two decided to launch their own label the highest quality wine they could make from some of South Australia’s best wine regions.

The degree of business acumen that the two founders brought to their venture makes it clear that neither passion nor winemaking talent alone are not individually responsible for their success (though it’s clear they possess both in spades). Twelftree and Mintz set about not only to make wine, but to build a brand and a company besides, even going so far as to establish a set of core values for the organization: quality without compromise; differentiation through innovation and fun; best barrels go to the best wines; get the best grapes around deal with every bit of fruit separately through the whole process; make wines that feature fruit, not oak.

I don’t recall ever seeing a winery with a published set of core values like this. Not that they’re somehow remarkable values, but the fact that the winery has them, and publishes them says something about the way that Twelftree and Mintz think about their operations.

Two Hands Wines debuted with the 2000 vintage and quickly rocketed to fame, thanks to accolades from Robert Parker and The Wine Spectator among others. Within five years of their first vintage, which was only about 800 cases of a single Shiraz, Robert Parker was calling the winery “The finest négociant operation south of the equator.”

Today the winery produces five tiers of wines, their three flagship wines, their single vineyard bottlings, the Garden Series, the Picture Series of wines, and a set of wines only available at the winery. Of the groups, the Garden series has been around the longest and they are the wines that largely made the winery’s reputation.

The winemaking at Two Hands is handled by Matthew Wenk, with oversight and participation from Twelftree. As dictated by the winery’s core values, the fruit is babied every step of the way through the winemaking process. As a matter of philosophy, the grapes are picked only when they taste ripe. Twelftree claims to never use brix measurements to make harvesting decisions, and subsequently the alcohol levels of the wines end up being whatever they end up being (usually between 14% and 15%), with no apologies. Twelftree says he’d rather a wine come in north of 16% alcohol than to water it back or use any de-alching technology.

For this reason, and no doubt also because of the adulation heaped on the wines by Parker and the Spectator, Two Hands gets their share of flak for producing what some people consider to be “fruit bombs.” However, of the many top Australian Shiraz I’ve tasted, theirs are among the least deserving of this moniker. Certainly the wines are fruit forward, but they never approach the cough syrup quality that marks the over-extracted, extended hangtime that many find objectionable.

Rather, the Garden Series of wines (I’ve only had the Garden Series and a few of the Picture series wines) are among some of the consistently best Australian Shiraz on the market in my opinion, and for fans of the varietal and the style, well worth seeking out.

Full disclosure: I received these wines as press samples.

TASTING NOTES:

2006 Two Hands “Lily’s Garden” Shiraz, McLaren Vale, Australia
Inky garnet in the glass, this wine has a nose of black cherry, blackberry, and cola aromas. In the mouth it is spicy and deeply resonant with blackberry, black cherry, and roasted fig flavors. A hint of savory meatiness creeps into the finish, which lingers nicely. Score: around 9. Cost: $60. Where to buy?

2006 Two Hands “Harry & Edward’s Garden″ Shiraz, Langhorne Creek, Australia
Dark garnet in color, this wine possesses a rich nose of chocolate, blackberry, and blueberry aromas. In the mouth it explodes with bright juicy flavors of tart blackberries, blueberries and hints of milk chocolate. Luscious is an adjective that comes to mind, but a hint of woodiness underneath everything keeps it from being too frivolous. Score: around 9. Cost: $60. Where to buy?

2007 Two Hands “Bella’s Garden” Shiraz, Barossa, Australia
Inky garnet in the glass, this wine has a deep earthy nose of wet dirt and rich blackberry pie. In the mouth it is smooth and silky, with great acid balance and rich juicy flavors of dark boysenberry, blackberry, and cassis flavors that linger into a long finish. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $60. Where to buy?

2006 Two Hands “Max′s Garden″ Shiraz, Heathcote, Australia
Very dark garnet in color, this wine has a nose of chocolate and blackberry bramble. In the mouth it is a little leaner than the other wines, with a hint of tartness to the blackberry flavors that meld nicely with the smooth tannins. The wine’s finish is not as impressive as it could be. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $60. Where to buy?

2006 Two Hands “Samantha’s Garden” Shiraz, Clare Valley, Australia
Dark garnet in color, this wine smells of rich blueberry pie with hints of mint and herbs. In the mouth it is silky and smooth with lightly gripping tannins and primary flavors of blackberry, black plum and hints of spearmint that linger into a long finish. Score: around 9. Cost: $60. Where to buy?

2006 Two Hands “Sophie’s Garden” Shiraz. Padthaway, Australia
Dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of blackberry bramble. In the mouth it is an explosion of juicy bright blackberry and cassis flavors that beg to be drunk. Boisterous is a word that comes to mind with this wine that simply bounces around the palate into a lingering finish. Super tasty. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $60. Where to buy?

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

In this day and age of farmers markets, boutique stores, and micro-breweries, it’s easy for the upwardly mobile wine lover to forget that there are a lot of great wines on the market that are made in quantities well north of 5000 cases. There are big wine companies that make great wine, and big wine companies that make lousy wine. And some that do both.

I’ve had mixed luck with Rosemount Estate wines throughout the years. I’ve had some wines that were everything I wanted them to be, and others that sent me running for the hills. In particular I have fond memories of sipping Rosemount Chardonnay on the quay in Sydney with a friend on a sunny afternoon. In truth, I’ve not had one of their wines in three or four years, so when I got a box of samples from the winery the other day, I was excited to taste through the lot.

Rosemount Estate is one of Australia’s most well known brands. As a winery name it has existed for more than 100 years, but its modern history and incarnation came at the hands of pioneer Bob Oatley, who began growing grapes in 1969. Forty years later, what started as a family farm is now one of the largest wine producers in Australia.

In many ways, though it may be a weak comparison, Oatley can be looked at as an Australian Robert Mondavi. (Oatley and Mondavi actually collaborated on several wine projects over the years).

As part of the Southcorp/Fosters wine empire (which owns some of Australia’s other mega-brands like Penfolds and Lindemans), Rosemount produces somewhere north of 5,000,000 cases of wine each year, split across five confusing tiers of wine at different price points.

This wine comes from a series of wines labeled Show Reserve, which was one of the original lines of wine produced by the estate when it was in its infancy. A couple of Rosemount Show Reserve wines were responsible for vaulting the winery into the spotlight after they won several international wine competitions.

This particular wine is sourced from a sub-appellation of the New South Wales wine region known as Mudgee, which lies on the other side of the Great Dividing Range mountains from the better known Hunter Valley. In the Aboriginal language, Mudgee means “Nest of Hills″, an accurate description of this basket shaped river valley ringed by hills.

Mudgee, apart from its self-evident role as one of Australia’s smaller wine regions, also has some special significance viticulturally speaking. Grapes were first believed to have been planted in Mudgee around 1858, including what are believed to be the first Chardonnay vines on the continent. Indeed, much of Australia’s Chardonnay has been propagated from this original block. Despite continuing to be a source for high-quality Chardonnay grown on older vines, Mudgee is better known for red wine these days, with only about 17% of its 8000 or so acres of vineyards planted to Chardonnay.

Rosemount owns about 1000 of those acres, which are planted mostly to Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, as well as the parcel that produces this wine.

I know very little about the winemaking for this wine, other than what I can assume based on its flavor profile. I’d guess that only part of the wine goes through malolactic fermentation and it is aged in a combination of steel and oak, or in a mix of new and used oak barrels.

The Rosemount Show Reserve portfolio of wines is a solid tier of good quality wines (no real duds) but this one in particular left me thinking that I ought to go out and buy half a case, which is always a good reaction to have to a wine.

Full disclosure: I received this wine as a press sample.

Tasting Notes:
Pale yellow-gold in the glass, this wine has a very pretty nose of cold cream and buttered popcorn. In the mouth it is smooth and mellow, with flavors of cold cream, lemon curd, and nice mineral notes, lit from the side, as it were with the faintest rays of oak. Good acidity, nice balance, and a sunny disposition make this a winner. Not complex, but quite tasty.

Food Pairing:
I’d be happy to drink this wine alongside pasta in a cream sauce with smoked salmon.

Overall Score: between 8.5 and 9.

How Much?: $14

This wine is just about to be released into the US market. The 2006 vintage is available for purchase on the Internet.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

I’m not entirely sure why some of the best wines in the world are made by people who are more than a little crazy, but there are enough wacko winemakers out there to make it clear that the connection between great wine and reclusive eccentrics is more than mere coincidence.

Even more telling are the number of these “eno savants” (to perhaps coin a phrase) that live in Friuli, in northeast Italy.

Once upon a time, there was no Italy, there was only the river Isonzo, winding its way down out of the Alps towards the Adriatic sea. From the high peaks it looped and loped, laying down beds of granitic gravel to make a sloping country which sprouted many things. Protected from the harsh continental weather by the Alps, and warmed by the humid breezes off the Adriatic, this mild region naturally attracted the various nomadic people that passed through the region, some of whom knew a good thing when they saw it, and settled down.

Some of the earliest settlers of the region were likely Celtic peoples who brought with them not only the skills of cultivating grape vines, but the inventive skills of aging their wines in wooden casks, a technology which surprised and delighted the Greeks and the various other Mediterranean cultures who came to trade in the 4th century B.C.

The region that would eventually become known as Farra d’Isonzo to those who live there, passed through the hands of many an empire before it settled down into the little nook of Italy that it represents today. But throughout the centuries Friuli has always been known for two things: grapes, and people who do things their own way.

Fulvio Bressan represents the 9th generation of winemakers carrying the Bressan name and working a small plot of land in the Farra d’Isonzo since 1726. And given the way he runs his winery, you would think that he might just be channeling all 9 generations of prior expertise, with little care for how the rest of the world might make their wines.

OK, so he does make one concession to modernity, which entails fermenting his wine in stainless steel tanks which he cools with water from his well. But apart from that, Bressan is as old school as you can get, down to the fact that he seems to run the family estate nearly single-handedly.

The Bressan recipe for wine is as simple as it is maddeningly extreme. Take lots of old vines growing various indigenous varietals, as well as Pinot Noir. Dry farm them with the most extreme pruning methods possible, to the point that each vine bears only one or two clusters of fruit. Pick after personally tasting every single cluster to make sure it is ripe, then cut off only the shoulders and the most perfect clumps of berries on those clusters and throw them into the tank, leaving the rest to be made into jam or grappa.

Ferment the wine for months with only ambient yeasts after a month-long maceration period, letting the wine do its thing as long as necessary in the tanks, including malolactic fermentation after the juice has been pressed off the skins. After this secondary fermentation, the wine is transferred to 2000 liter, ancient oak casks, where it receives regular battonage (a process where the particles of yeast that settle to the bottom of the cask, known as lees, are agitated and stirred around in the wine). Fining and filtration are also eschewed.

After that, it’s anyone’s guess. The cellar dissolves into alchemy. Bressan regularly mixes vintages, forgets casks of wine, makes special blends never to be repeated, and generally disregards all the modern traditions of winemaking and bottling (no doubt breaking some laws in the process, but hey, this is Friuli, not Brunello). Some of the labels are handmade, some don’t bear any vintage date whatsoever, and those that do are never guaranteed to be correct. The wines are released and sold when Bressan damn well pleases, and in such minute quantities (as small as 20 to 40 cases for some wines) that most people have never even heard of them.

Which doesn’t bother Bressan one bit.

Tasting Notes:
Light to medium garnet in the glass, this wine has a nose of dried herbs, raspberries, woodsmoke, and dried meat. In the mouth it is gorgeously textured, smooth to the point of being otherworldly, with a mysterious concoction of cranberry, raspberry, cedar, incense, wet leaves, and leather flavors that linger for a long time. With more time and air, this wines fruit becomes more crystalline even as the sharp acids mellow to a tangy note amidst the earthy qualities. Quite distinctive, this wine is not for everyone, but those who are looking for personality will find it here in spades.

Food Pairing:
Of the things that I drank this with tonight, I thought it did best with the prosciutto and fresh burrata on warm foccacia.

Overall Score: around 9

How Much?: $37

This wine is sometimes available for purchase on the Internet.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

To paraphrase Shakespeare, there are wineries that are born great, those that achieve greatness, and those that have greatness thrust upon them. To explain: some fantastic wineries are started by people who are superstars already, and it hardly seems to matter what they do — these properties are destined for success. Some top wineries seem to come from nowhere, and indeed have greatness thrust upon them, when out of the blue, their wine scores highly somewhere and they are vaulted from obscurity to fame.

The majority of the best wineries in the world, however, fall into Malvolio’s second category through their own achievement. Achievement seems perhaps not quite the correct term, however, for the amount of sweat and energy that goes into building a world class winery over decades, even centuries. Wine lovers early in their education (and in their earning power) are often flummoxed by prices for wines that start to head north of $80 or $90 per bottle. Should they pursue their love of wine long enough to really learn (and see for themselves) what kind of work goes into some of the world’s best vineyards, and to taste the wine that they produce, such prices no longer seem outrageous.

Indeed, there are some wineries and vineyards in the world that seem to produce wines of such quality and consistency as to be nearly magical. In Europe, and especially France, such pieces of land are often given special designations, such as Grand Cru, to signify their quality.

There are very few plots of land in California that might be accorded Grand Cru status, should Americans decide to institute some method of classifying vineyards for quality, if only because many of California’s vineyards are so relatively new. There are some very few, however, that have definitively proven their distinctiveness and quality over several decades.

Unquestionably, the first vineyard on my list would be Rochioli Vineyards in the Russian River Valley. Tucked in between Westside road and the meandering curves of the Russian River as it heads south past Healdsburg, Rochioli Vineyards produces some of the most sought after Pinot Noir in California.

Since the early part of the century, the 162 acres of flats and sloping hillsides that run down towards this particular bend in the river have been farmed by someone with the last name Rochioli. After working the land for decades, Joe Rochioli, Sr., began buying up the land, bit by bit. By the 1950’s, he had been joined by his son Joe Rochioli, Jr. and together they spent several decades growing grapes that were sold to wineries throughout Sonoma County.

It wasn′t until the early Seventies, however, that the farm produced Pinot Noir which it continued to sell to various wineries. Like many long-running family winegrowers, however, eventually the hankering to make their own wine started to germinate, and in 1976 Joe Jr. made a few thousand cases of Pinot Noir at one of his customers’ wineries.

By the early Eighties, the Russian River Valley had clearly proven its potential for growing Burgundian varietals, and Pinot Noir in particular, and the Rochioli’s saw a gradual increase in the demand for their fruit. One small winery named Williams Selyem became a particularly good customer, and the single vineyard wines they made from Rochioli fruit rapidly made their fortunes and brought Rochioli to national and international attention.

Around this time, Joe Jr.’s son Tom had grown dissatisfied with his business career and decided to return to the family business. Capitalizing on the rapidly increasing demand for the family’s fruit, Tom helped transform the Rochioli ranch from a farm to a full working winery. With the help of another of their customers, Gary Farrell, the family produced its first vintage under the Rochioli brand in 1982, a 150 case production of Pinot Noir from a vineyard plot known as the West Block.

Within a few years, Tom had taken over as winemaker, a position which he continues to hold today, even as his father Joe Jr. continues to direct the management of the family’s vineyards.

Producing about 13,000 cases of wine each year, Rochioli produces appellation designated wines under the Rochioli Vineyards label, and single vineyard and block-designated wines under the J. Rochioli label. These latter wines, including this West Block Pinot Noir, are available only to their mailing list customers.

Tom Rochioli’s winemaking style, as well as his entire family’s philosophy of wine production are based in the traditions of Burgundy, and in particular the Cote d’Or. Exacting quality standards, clonal diversity, and vineyard management techniques produce top quality fruit, which is then babied through a traditional hands-off winemaking process that attempts to manipulate the wine as little as possible through its lifecycle.

More so than almost any other Pinot Noir in California, Rochioli wines are built to age, and do so beautifully, as this wine clearly attests. I have had the pleasure of drinking bottles dating back to 1991 in the past few years, and they are holding up magnificently. Whether they have the 50+ year longevity of old world Burgundy, only time will tell, but if any Pinot Noir America will likely age in that fashion, it will most certainly be Rochioli.

Whenever possible I avoid favoritism, as I believe my life and the lives of my readers benefit from a diverse exploration and recommendation of wines. However, when it comes right down to it, I am hard pressed to think of another California wine that I care for more than Rochioli’s block designated Pinot Noirs. And if I could have them all with 12 or more years of age on them? Well, as they say, just shoot me now.

Tasting Notes:
Medium blood red in the glass, with very little fading towards the rim, this wine has a mouthwatering nose of rosemary smoked meat aromas mixed with a background hum of raspberry and hibiscus. When the wine enters the mouth, it’s like John Coltrane snuck up behind you and started playing — the world slows down, and everything rings like crystal. Perfectly balanced between acid and tannin, fruit and earth, this wine sings with a delicate concoction of raspberry, leather, and the mix of herbs that the French refer to as garrigue. Like all fantastic aged Pinot Noir, those core flavors are just the beginning, however, as layers build and build headed into a long finish. This wine in particular has a gorgeous high note of tart red apple skin that hangs in the air (or is it the mind?) long after you’ve swallowed the wine. Drinking phenomenally well now, and likely to last at least another 10 years, and maybe more?

Food Pairing:
Good lord, who wants to eat food when you could drink wine like this? I served this wine in a still moment between courses at a recent dinner. While some people were content to pair the wine with the roasted leg of lamb we served, I found myself merely waiting for the wine to release me back into the flow of dinner, which it eventually did a few minutes after I drained the last drop from my glass.

Overall Score: between 9.5 and 10

How Much?: This wine was sold only to mailing list customers, meaning it must be bough on the secondary market. Current prices at auction are around $180.

It is possible to purchase this wine on the Internet.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

The wine industry spends a lot of time and energy fighting for the attention of global consumers. In particular, they’ve tried hard to market seasonally to consumers, but they just can’t quite compete with the likes of Oktoberfest for beer drinkers. The best that the wine industry has been able to come up with sends even the most tolerant wine lovers running for cover every November, as the rollout of Beaujolais Nouveau reaches ever more spectacular heights of commercial bling.

It would be one thing if the wine was even somewhat drinkable. But these days, what passes for Beaujolais Nouveau is, by and large, utter crap. That’s just my professional opinion, of course, and no offense meant to those who enjoy a bottle of the banana and bubble gum concoction that is foisted on consumers the third Thursday in November each year.

It’s sad that such wine, and the marketing hoopla that goes with it, has become so entrenched in the industry, and even sadder still that we can’t come up with a better event with better wine. OK, maybe New Year’s Eve and Champagne are a saving grace here.

But let’s get back to Beaujolais. Because today I want to talk about the other Beaujolais — the quiet, shy sister to the airhead that is Nouveau.

Beaujolais, is of course, a wine region that snuggles up to the southern borders of Burgundy in East-Central France. For centuries, Beaujolais was simply a neighbor of Burgundy that happened to grow more of the grape Gamay Noir than the land to the north, thanks to the grape’s preference for the granitic soils of the region rather than the limestone of Burgundy. In 1395 Philip the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, ordered that all the Gamay vineyards of Burgundy be torn up, and forever banned from the region. Rather suddenly, Beaujolais became a much more unique wine region, and a safe haven for a grape that went from widespread popularity in France to nearly being unknown thanks to Ducal decree.

Beaujolais as a region produces several classifications of wine, the vast majority based on Gamay, from the wine simply labeled Beaujolais to appellation designated wine from Beaujolais Villages, or the ten “Cru” appellations of the region: Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly, Côte-de-Brouilly, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Juliénas, St-Amour, Chénas, and Chiroubles.

These latter appellations, and in particular Morgon, play host to a resistance movement that is slowly proving to a widening circle of wine lovers that the region deserves a better reputation than Nouveau is capable of supporting.

This new reputation for more serious wines is largely the work of a band of winemakers that have retrenched to more traditional Burgundian grape growing and winemaking methods. Known as the Gang of Four, these winemakers have spent the last twenty or more years making wines that are the complete opposite of Beaujolais Nouveau.

Which is to say that they are actually quite good.

Jean-Paul Thevenet is one of the Gang members (the others being Guy Breton, Jean Foilard, and Marcel Lapierre) and perhaps best embodies the “old school” qualities that these winemakers have championed in the region.

Thevenet works a plot of extremely old vines in the Morgon appellation. The average age of the vines is 70 years and they are cultivated organically and yield very little fruit. The grapes are fermented with natural yeasts and, quite remarkably, often without the addition of any sulfur dioxide (commonly used by winemakers as a preservative and to prevent bacteriological growth). After fermentation Thevenet ages the wine for six to eight months in used oak barrels that he manages to get from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. It is bottled without filtration.

Thevenet’s wines, as well as the rest of his gang (and those of a number of producers that have started to follow suit in the region) represent a fundamentally different side of Beaujolais and the Gamay Noir grape. A side that frankly deserves a lot more celebration than the millions of liters delivered with fanfare every November.

Tasting Notes:
Light ruby in color, this wine has a rich, loamy nose of cassis and cranberry aromas with darker notes of fruit and earth underneath. In the mouth it is lush — silky, smooth, and very nicely balanced with flavors that bounce between the red tart fruit of cranberry and the darker, juicier notes of cassis. The tannins are faint, nearly imperceptible, and tinged with notes of smoke and wet dirt. This wine is concentrated to a perfect degree, rich without being overpowering, and pure without being too polished. Lovely.

Food Pairing:
I’d love to drink this wine to accompany pork tenderloin with pomegranate sauce.

Overall Score: between 9 and 9.5

How Much?: $23

This wine is available for purchase on the Internet.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

We don’t have a Cru classification in California (we just have mailing lists and release prices) but there are a few vineyards in the state that would most certainly be at the top of the list. Their names are well known to those wine lovers who can afford the generally expensive wines they produce, and one of them is unquestionably the Hirsch Vineyard.

First planted in 1980 by farmer David Hirsch, the Hirsch Vineyard is located on the mountain ridges above the northern California town of Fort Ross at 1500 feet above the ocean surface and 3.5 miles as the crow flies from its crashing waves. One of the pioneers of a region known as the Extreme Sonoma Coast, this 72 acre vineyard is planted mostly with Pinot Noir which thrives above the fog line in the unique and powerful mix of sunlight and cool ocean breezes. Within several years of its planting, the vineyard was recognized as one of the top sources of Pinot Noir in the country.

Williams Selyem winery is one of the main advocates and customers of the Hirsch Vineyard, and the Pinot Noir they make from this vineyard every year is almost always one of the finest in California.

Williams Selyem was founded in 1981 by Burt Williams and Ed Selyem, two friends who started making wine together in their garage in Forestville, California in the late seventies just because they loved the stuff, wanted to drink more wine together, and loved a challenge. A few years later, what started as a hobby became an avocation, and in a few more years, a cult phenomenon. Over the course of a decade or two Williams Selyem winery played a major role in establishing Sonoma County as a premier winegrowing region, and establishing California as a world-class Pinot Noir producing region.

Surprisingly, the two didn’t start with Pinot Noir as a goal. They were more excited about Zinfandel (which William Selyem still makes) but it was ultimately Pinot Noir that captured the majority of their attention, and the attention of the wider world when their 1985 Rochioli vineyard Pinot Noir was the winner at the California State fair in 1987, and the winery was simultaneously awarded the designation Winery of the Year.

At that point Williams Selyem was still just two guys in a garage, marshaling an army of friends to meticulously hand pick, hand sort, and hand crush small lots of grapes from what were at the time, relatively young but clearly very high quality vineyards. They quickly found themselves with the demand, and the capital, to invest in a proper winery.

By the early Nineties, William-Selyem had become one of Sonoma County’s first cult wineries. People were waiting years to get on their mailing list, and the wines were selling out before they ever got the chance to hit retail stores. But about that time, Burt and Ed were ready for a break after nearly 20 years of winemaking, and sold the winery to its present owners, John and Kathe Dyson in 1998. While the ownership and winemaking team has changed, the demand for the wines has not.

Currently the winemaking is done by Bob Cabral, Lynn Krausmann and oenologist Adam Goodrich, with little deviation from the strictly minimalist approach taken by the founders. Even today, no mechanical pumping is ever done to the wine, nor any filtration, and the wine is aged in a mix of French oak of which about 50% is new. Babied through the entire winemaking process process, apart from a forklift and a press, nearly everything is done by hand by this small group of individuals under Cabral’s careful direction.

Williams Selyem’s success as a winery has afforded it the luxury of being able to make no compromises when it comes to winemaking, which includes the ability to be a bit more European about working with the wine — the wine takes as long as it takes — to ferment, to age, to sit in the bottle.

This particular wine was aged in 67% new oak and 37% 1-year-old oak barrels for about 16 months before being bottled unfiltered.

Tasting Notes:
Light garnet in color, this wine has an elegant nose of raspberries, cherries, and crushed herb aromas. In the mouth it is equally as elegant, even distinguished, with gorgeously textured flavors of raspberry, red apple skin, hints of citrus oil, and a woody undertone that provides a base note to the brighter flavors. Perfectly balanced, this is a beautiful rendition of Pinot Noir that gives ample time to reflect as much in its long finish.

Food Pairing:
This would beautifully accompany a nice charcoal roasted quail.

Overall Score: around 9.5

How Much?: $72 to mailing list customers, though it goes for $95 and higher in retail stores.

This wine is available for purchase on the Internet.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

One of the greatest experiences that a wine lover can encounter is a wine that stops them in their tracks. I’ll admit that I’m excitable in general, but there’s nothing that gets me quite so giddy as a schoolboy as when I stumble across a wine that truly bowls me over. Such wines are the closest I get anymore to the emotions of that first passionate kiss in a new relationship — they electrify me. While the world slows down to a crawl around me, all I want to do is stick my nose in the glass and inhale slowly.

This is one of those wines. I was minding my own business, tasting away through a public wine tasting in San Francisco. As a matter of course, I marched up to the Guigal table, and tasted through what they had to offer, like I have done before at other tastings. I enjoy Guigal wines a great deal, especially their more exclusive bottlings.

But while I’ve had Guigal wines that have been great, even exceptional, I’ve never had one knock me on my ass in quite the same way as this wine did when I put it in my mouth.

Etienne Guigal founded his winery in the tiny Northern Rhone village of Ampuis in 1946. The vineyards he purchased to begin producing wine had been growing grapes for as long as anyone can remember. So long that some of the stone walls in the fields dated back more than 2400 years to Roman times.

The enterprising 32-year-old Guigal was no stranger to the wine business when he bought his first vineyard, having worked as a winemaker for several years before striking out on his own. By the time his blindness forced him to turn operations over to his son in the Sixties, he had personally worked more than 67 vintages.

The estate is now beginning its third generation of family ownership, and is widely recognized as one of the top wine producers in both the region, and the world. From its humble beginnings, the estate has grown to sizable proportions, or what amounts to sizable proportions in the relatively small appellations of the region. The estate now owns vineyards in Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, and Saint-Joseph, and buys a significant amount of fruit from producers all over the region.

I′m not entirely sure of the estate’s current production levels but they are somewhere north of 340,000 cases, with the bulk of that being wines made from purchased grapes. The wines are currently made by Philippe Guigal and his father Marcel.

This particular wine is 95% Syrah and 5% Viognier, culled from some of the oldest blocks among 6 of Guigal’s vineyards:

Le Clos “Côte Blonde”,
La Garde “Côte Blonde”,
La Grande Plantée “Côte Blonde”,
La Pommière “Côte Brune”,
Le Pavillon Rouge “Côte Brune”,
Le Moulin “Côte Brune”

Some of these vineyards were planted in the early 16th century. Of course, they have been replanted over the ages, and the average age of the vines now is around 50 years. While the vineyards are not certified, they are essentially farmed organically.

The grapes for the wine are hand harvested, meticulously sorted, destemmed, and then undergo a cold soak for sometimes more than a month before fermentation is allowed to begin in steel tanks. After fermentation, the juice is transferred to the estate’s own barrels (since 2003 the estate has run its own cooperage on the property) where it ages for at least 38 months before bottling.

Tasting Notes:
Medium garnet in color this wine leaps out of the glass, grabs you by the scruff of the neck and drags your ass into a field in the middle of southern France and then stands back laughing as you stumble blissfully among sage, lavender, rosemary, and a small lake of fresh cassis. In the mouth the wine is equally explosive with an incredibly juicy core of cassis that is riddled with crystalline granitic minerality. Perfectly balanced, with the texture of satin and tannins that don′t grip so much as they caress. And just when you think it can′t get any better, the floral notes from the Viognier sweep in like valkyries to carry you away into the finish. Please, sir, may I have another? This is definitely the best current vintage of Côte-Rôtie I have ever tasted.

Food Pairing:
I’d love to drink this with a slow roasted leg of lamb with rosemary.

Overall Score: between 9.5 and 10.

How Much?: $130

This wine is available for purchase on the Internet.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

One of the greatest experiences that a wine lover can encounter is a wine that stops them in their tracks. I′ll admit that I′m excitable in general, but there’s nothing that gets me quite so giddy as a schoolboy as when I stumble across a wine that truly bowls me over. Such wines are the closest I get anymore to the emotions of that first passionate kiss in a new relationship — they electrify me. While the world slows down to a crawl around me, all I want to do is stick my nose in the glass and inhale slowly.

This is one of those wines. I was minding my own business, tasting away through a public wine tasting in San Francisco. As a matter of course, I marched up to the Guigal table, and tasted through what they had to offer, like I have done before at other tastings. I enjoy Guigal wines a great deal, especially their more exclusive bottlings.

But while I’ve had Guigal wines that have been great, even exceptional, I’ve never had one knock me on my ass in quite the same way as this wine did when I put it in my mouth.

Etienne Guigal founded his winery in the tiny Northern Rhone village of Ampuis in 1946. The vineyards he purchased to begin producing wine had been growing grapes for as long as anyone can remember. So long that some of the stone walls in the fields dated back more than 2400 years to Roman times.

The enterprising 32-year-old Guigal was no stranger to the wine business when he bought his first vineyard, having worked as a winemaker for several years before striking out on his own. By the time his blindness forced him to turn operations over to his son in the Sixties, he had personally worked more than 67 vintages.

The estate is now beginning its third generation of family ownership, and is widely recognized as one of the top wine producers in both the region, and the world. From its humble beginnings, the estate has grown to sizable proportions, or what amounts to sizable proportions in the relatively small appellations of the region. The estate now owns vineyards in Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, and Saint-Joseph, and buys a significant amount of fruit from producers all over the region.

I’m not entirely sure of the estate’s current production levels but they are somewhere north of 340,000 cases, with the bulk of that being wines made from purchased grapes. The wines are currently made by Philippe Guigal and his father Marcel.

This particular wine is 95% Syrah and 5% Viognier, culled from some of the oldest blocks among 6 of Guigal’s vineyards:

Le Clos “Côte Blonde”,
La Garde “Côte Blonde″,
La Grande Plantée “Côte Blonde”,
La Pommière “Côte Brune”,
Le Pavillon Rouge “Côte Brune”,
Le Moulin “Côte Brune″

Some of these vineyards were planted in the early 16th century. Of course, they have been replanted over the ages, and the average age of the vines now is around 50 years. While the vineyards are not certified, they are essentially farmed organically.

The grapes for the wine are hand harvested, meticulously sorted, destemmed, and then undergo a cold soak for sometimes more than a month before fermentation is allowed to begin in steel tanks. After fermentation, the juice is transferred to the estate’s own barrels (since 2003 the estate has run its own cooperage on the property) where it ages for at least 38 months before bottling.

Tasting Notes:
Medium garnet in color, this wine leaps out of the glass, grabs you by the scruff of the neck and drags your ass into a field in the middle of southern France and then stands back laughing as you stumble blissfully among sage, lavender, rosemary, and a small lake of fresh cassis. In the mouth the wine is equally explosive with an incredibly juicy core of cassis that is riddled with crystalline, granitic minerality. Perfectly balanced, with the texture of satin, and tannins that don′t grip so much as they caress. And just when you think it can′t get any better, the floral notes from the Viognier sweep in like valkyries to carry you away into the finish. Please, sir, may I have another? This is definitely the best current vintage of Côte-Rôtie I have ever tasted.

Food Pairing:
I’d love to drink this with a slow roasted leg of lamb with rosemary.

Overall Score: between 9.5 and 10.

How Much?: $130

This wine is available for purchase on the Internet.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola