Alsace: Blanc, Blanc, Rouge!

Blanc d'Alsace (2006)
Maison Kuentz Bas
60% Sylvaner | 15% Muscat | 15% Auxerrois | 10% Chasselas
Husseren-les-Chateaux, France

Crustacés (2007)
Dopff & Irion
Riesling
Riquewihr, France

Alsace Pinot Noir (2006)
Robert Klingenfus
Pinot Noir
Molsheim, France

Today's wines takes us to the heavily Germanic influenced region of Alsace in northeastern France. This area has changed hands between France and Germany a number of times throughout history, surely due to both wanting to claim the great wines produced there as their own! The only region in France that is permitted to use German grape varieties under the AOC system, Alsace is primarily known for white wine (90% of production) from aromatic varietals including Riesling and Gewürztraminer.

Alsace is considered to have a cooler climate and wine styles are influenced by two important geographical features: the Vosges mountain range and the Rhine River. With most of the vineyards planted on slopes between the two, the Vosges protect the vines from wind and also minimize rain fall while the Rhine encourages air flow and prevents rot from occurring. These factors result in dry sunny days which contribute to the concentrated characteristics displayed in many Alsatian wines, giving pronounced aromas and flavors and crisp, full acidity.

Blanc d'Alsace
Appearance: Clear white wine with medium color, somewhere between gold and straw. I wouldn't go so far as to call it "deep" in color, but it's almost there. Very distinct from lighter whites like Pinot Grigio.

Nose: Clean, developing in age, light oak, pronounced minerality, and unmistakable lemon or other citrus aromas. There is a slight smoky, almost greasy level to the nose - which isn't bad - and very soft pear at the top of the glass.

Palate: Holy cow! Huge acidity, mouth watering and it continues well into the finish. Dry wine with medium alcohol (12.5%), full body, and a long finish. Bursting citrus including lime or lemon but above all else grapefruit. Almost like grapefruit rind. A little oak and herbaceous characteristic, as well as the same minerality from the nose.

This was an interesting blend focused around some of the lesser known grapes found in Alsace. Sylvaner, Muscat, and Chasselas make up less than 15% of grapes grown and have declined in popularity over the years. Auxerrois is often grouped with Pinot Blanc because of their similarities and is considered to be a relative of the Chardonnay grape. Just on a whim I sampled this with some French goat cheese and it was killer. This is a definite food wine.

Crustacés
Appearance: Clear with a pale golden color. The wine shimmers brightly at the edge of the glass.

Nose: Clean and youthful with moderately intense aromas including lime, pear, apple, and tropical fruit. The nose for this wine is screaming Riesling - fresh green apple is the predominate aroma blending with some pineapple. The other aromas of pear, peach, and floral are all mostly at the top of the glass and much softer.

Palate: Zing again! Dry with moderate to high acidity - my eyes are watering a little here - full bodied wine with medium alcohol (12%) and a long finish. That granny smith continues to fight for the spotlight with an added level of lime. Acidity that has my mouth watering and cheeks twinging.

Producing mostly dry wines, Riesling in Alsace is held in the same high regard as those from Germany. Anyone who avoids Rieslings because of the undue presumption that they are all sweet definitely needs to get a bottle of this. Shrimp and steamed mussels with some lemon and lavender were wonderful paired with this.

Klingenfus Pinot Noir
Appearance: A clear, pale red wine. Color is bright and fresh looking - almost a cranberry red.

Nose: Clean with some development, moderate aromas. Lots of red fruits, including strawberry and crab apple, but mostly cherry. Very soft wafts of earthiness and a little dried fruit suggests the old-world origins and development that comes with aging.

Palate: Dry medium bodied wine with bright cranberry-esque acidity. Medium tannins noticeable on gums, medium alcohol (12.5%), with a lengthy finish. Surprisingly the first noticeable flavor was mushroom right at the front of my mouth - some of my favorite wines taste like fruit and dirt! Past this there was a lot of cranberry and cherry as with the nose. Also some hints of strawberry lingered on the finish.

The cherry flavors in this wine were more reminiscent of those tart yellow ones you can find. The combination of tart fruit and earthiness that this wine has really makes it a great example of an old-world style Pinot Noir. I enjoyed carrots and mushrooms seared in wine and butter and seasoned with French herbs with this.

Alsatian cuisine also has a strong German flair and is filled with things like pâtés and sauerkraut. Any of these wines would be an awesome accompaniment to any hearty meal as they all have enough body and acidity to stand up to bold flavors and textures. Think "concentrated" and you can't go wrong. Choosing a wine from Alsace is not as complicated as picking out a good Bordeaux given there are only a few classifications in the region. Look for any of the wines above, which are all reasonably priced (all less than $16), or ask for a recommendation and go from there.

Cheers!

Sparkling wines for more than just holidays & special occasions

Recently I attended "Counter Culture: Fizz-tivity," a wine and food pairing dinner at my local Whole Foods Market. Every month these dinners are held at the Osteria, a free standing cafe within the specialty foods department which serves fresh prepared foods to customers at a long, curved counter - thus the event name. December was all about sparkling wines getting everyone well prepared for the holidays.

Sparkling wine is an interesting segment of the wine world. Many of us think of sparkling wine as something only for special occasions - anniversaries and New Years Eve. Unfortunately that means that everyone only gets to enjoy it twice, maybe three times a year. Isn't that just utterly disappointing? Luckily there are many different styles and types of sparkling wines to suit any occasion and this dinner was a perfect opportunity to explore them.

We started with a cheese course consisting of Robiola, a sheep and cow's milk soft cheese, served with dried currants, fresh raspberries, and almonds. Paired to this was a special beverage called Deus Brut de Flandres Cuvée Prestige 2006. Surprisingly not a wine at all, this was a specialty Belgian Ale which is unique in that it follows the Traditional method for making Champagne. This barley ale was a light straw color with aromas of ripened pear and honey. The pairing with the cheese board was great, and I can understand why they market this as "the Dom Perignon of beer." Check out the brewer's lively website here: Brewery Bosteels

After our cheese and Belgian/French ale we transitioned to a more Mediterranean course with Presto Prosecco Brut ($10.99) served with a zippy roasted tomato fondue. Prosecco is an Italian white variety and is used to make really fun sparkling wines. The Presto was gold in color and had fresh aromas including citrus, yellow apple, and pear. A dry wine with similar flavors it offered nice crisp acidity which simultaneously paired very well with the acid from the tomatoes and cleansed the creaminess of the cheese from my palate. For the price this is a great wine to serve to friends. It's mild-mannered and easy to drink - definitely a great everyday bubbly to consider.

Next up on to French Champagne with Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Extrem' ($39.99) paired with pan seared pierogies with spinach, fontal, and roasted pear. Sadly the first two bottles we opened were corked but the third was in much better quality. Nothing you can do, right? I'd say create a synthetic Champagne cork but the French would never go for it. Golden in color with aromas of citrus, cooked apple, almond, and a soft yeastiness. The best match from our dish with this Chardonnay was the poached pear, making a perfect compliment to the lemon and citrus flavors. This makes for a great sparkling wine to pair with food.

An American-made rosé accompanied the next course, Gruet Brut Rosé ($17.99) made by Gruet Winery in New Mexico. Clear and with a soft salmony pink, this wine boasted mostly red fruit aromas like raspberry and cranberry with softer fragrances of apple and grapefruit. As expected from the nose I wasn't disappointed by the crisp acidity from this wine. More of the red fruits and a soft citrus made this Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blend very refreshing. The paired dish offered grilled swordfish, winter greens, root vegetables, and a blood orange reduction. Very, very cool! This was probably the best pairing of the entire dinner.

Our fifth wine was another French Champagne from Bouzy, Jean Vesselle Oeil de Perdrix ($42.99). This was paired with chicken and boursin roulade, proscuitto, ratatouille crepe and reduced cream. The Oeil de Perdrix is a blanc de noir (white from black) Champagne made entirely from Pinot Noir grapes, so it has a very pleasant peach color. Aromas were concentrated around tart stone fruit (peach, apricot), apple, citrus and raspberry. It also had a distinct minerality, offering a nice sense of terroir. The rich ratatouille crepe and reduced cream stood up well to the crisp acidity, full body, and refreshing citrus on the palate. This was my second favorite pairing of the evening.

The final course of walnut encrusted lamb chops with green lentils, beet, and feta salad was paired by the intriguing Australian Shingleback Black Bubbles Sparkling Shiraz ($24.99). Deep purple ruby with very small bubbles made for one of the more interesting sparkling wines I've seen. The aromas were reminiscent of any other big Aussie Shiraz - black cherry, plum, licorice, and spice. Plum also dominated the palate and was a great match to the lamb and lentils. More rich flavors of chocolate and coffee lingered on the finish. For being named after an animal also known as a skink I always enjoy the wines Shingleback makes.

Completing our dinner we were served a decadent double chocolate cake with espresso mousse and cherry compote. What kind of sparkling wine would you possibly pair with this to make it better than it already is? Cinzano Brachetto D'Aqui DOCG ($19.99), a sweet sparkling wine from northern Italy. Made from the Brachetto grape - known also as Braquet in France - this wine is a bright pomegranate red in color and displayed aromas of cherry and strawberry, as well as honeyed and floral notes. All these followed through to the palate and made a remarkably good pairing with the chocolate, espresso, and cherry dessert.

This Counter Culture was a truly delightful experience and I was so pleased to be able to try so many different types of sparkling wines. In an unabashed plug for Whole Foods, if you're local and interested in coming to one of the dinners just call the store and ask for someone in the specialty department. Cost is usually about $45 and is entirely worth the amazing food and wine that is served - and is a great reason to have dinner cooked and served to you! A huge thank you to wine specialist Maggie Harrison and chef Eric Colby for making a great evening for all of us attending.

So when you go out to grab your bottle of bubbles to celebrate the beginning of 2009 check out some of the others sitting there on the shelf. Nothing needs to be expensive - just ask for a recommendation and you should be able to find some great sparkling wines for everyday enjoyment.

Cheers!

Picking Grapes in the Snow

Earlier this afternoon I was surprised to find that my power of thought was stronger than I had assumed. I've been wondering for the last week or so when the weather was going to drop to that perfect temperature - 18°F for 6+ hours, aka "Cold" with a capital C - that signaled the time to rush out and pick frozen grapes for ice wine. Usually the volunteer group that goes out isn't notified until well into the evening, and the harvest is more of a midnight till early morning hours rush to avoid the sun's thawing affects. This year the call came early in the afternoon and our glove-bearing hands were requested to be present at around 6pm.

This was my first year picking Vidal Blanc and I convinced my roommate Dan to come along to help. We met up with the other volunteers out in Madison, which included a couple dedicated ice wine drinkers I had met earlier in the year, Kate and Michelle. The final group was comprised of well over twenty people including staff from Grand River Cellars, Debonné Vineyards, South River Vineyard, and other volunteers. Below is a map of where we picked grapes - you can look at the satellite image to see the actual vineyard.


View Larger Map

Being dark by 6, there were large lights placed on tractors bearing stacks and stacks of yellow and grey plastic bins. The four rows of grapes stretched into the darkness, snow six inches deep between the rows, each netted with black mesh put up to deter birds and other animals from snacking on the sweet fruit. We worked in sections, cutting the netting, plucking the cold solid bunches in handfuls and dropping them in our bins. As each was filled it was picked back up and taken to South River's nearby pressing room.

Traditionally made from grapes frozen on the vine, ice wines are a unique specialty the best of which come from Germany (Eiswein) and in North America from the vineyards of New York, Ohio, and parts of Canada. In warmer climates, like California, similar wines can be produced by flash-freezing fruit, but to those picking frozen grapes this is regarded as cheating. A dessert wine made from a number of different white varietals - and also a few red varieties that create really interesting wines - Eiswein is one of the Prädikat levels that make up part of the insanely complex German wine regulations, which indicates a certain level of ripeness.

Back at South River we joined Gene, the vineyard manager and winemaker, who was monitoring the slow pressing process. The grapes are dumped from their bins into a large round container which is placed on the press. A mechanical process slowly crushes the grapes, allowing the sugar-rich juices to flow into a trough below but leaving behind most of the frozen water as well as all the deflated skins, stems, and seeds, or pomace. This mass, called a "puck" - just imagine a giant grapey hockey puck - is later discarded in the vineyards where it decomposes as fertilizer.


The juice is continuously tested for sugar content, or Brix, which for this particular harvest was within their goal range at around 38°Bx. Gene allowed us each to sample the fresh juice which was sweet but at the same time possessed amazingly bright fruit flavors including peach, tangerine, and other citrus. The burst of aromas and tastes was almost surprising, and it's clear how the finished product can have such intense characteristics. The juice is then pumped into new containers where it will ferment. Aging will be completed in either casks or stainless steel tanks before it is bottled in the tall slender, oftentimes blue, 375mL bottles that seem like so little for so much. However, this experience really supports the $30+ price tags on many bottles of ice wine. The risk of leaving fruit to freeze, the hand picking in below 20°F temperatures, the slow and diligent process of pressing and testing the juice, and the significantly smaller yields are all contributors to cost - all before the wine is even made!

If you've never tried an ice wine I would certainly recommend picking one up. It really is a magnificent treat, and while enjoyable all on their own they can also make great compliments desserts like crème brûlée and cheesecake or even rich starters such as foie gras! Additionally, some wines will be affected by Botrytis cinera, or noble rot, and have unique honeyed characteristics and most likely a higher price tag. If you need any help justifying the expense drop me an e-mail and I'll make sure you're on next year's volunteer call list.

Cheers!

Check my Web Album to see all the pictures from our excursion.

Organic Wine Update

Just a quick update on the two wines I recently reviewed - each bottle was stored in my refrigerator on Thursday evening, and on Saturday I was shocked to find each was harboring small colonies of bacteria on the top of the wine. The splotches aren't really clear enough to take photos, but they are visible when looking through the bottle in person. Just a reminder then that organic wines, or wines that don't have stabilizers added to them should be opened and drunk immediately. I'm going to give both a couple more days to see what they do, as I'm intrigued by such rapid growth, especially in a cold place like the fridge!

Also, I should clarify a little more than I did in my post about the "sulfite issue." While I did make note that sulfites are naturally occurring, there is a whole body of regulations surrounding labeling a wine for sulfite content. If no sulfites are added, or the present natural levels are below a certain amount (parts per million) or are "undetectable" then the wine can be labeled a variety of ways. "Sulfite free," "No sulfites detectable," or "No added sulfites" are all ones I've seen. Each statement is governed by some level of regulation that I personally can not speak about in much depth, but the links included in my last post will provide good starting points for any of you that are curious to learn more.

What I do know though is that the concept of sulfites as a bad thing is more than likely misunderstood by many consumers. Some people may have legitimate allergies, though I think more often than not sulfites are used as a scapegoat. If you think you might be allergic to sulfites think back to the last time you had any sort of dried fruit - these usually contain more sulfites in a single serving than a whole bottle of average red wine.

I've certainly not written off wines that fall into the organic camp though - I picked up a bottle of Zinfandel made with organically grown grapes that I'm anxious to try. Also, check back soon for posts about picking ice wine grapes in NE Ohio and on a dry Muscat from France's Bordeaux region

Cheers!

giving organic, sulfite "free," vegan-friendly wines a chance

California Viognier (2007)
Lodi Syrah (2007)
Orleans Hill Winery

It should be noted that I'm going into this with severe bias against what I'm going to taste. I'm not an "organic" wine advocate, but admittedly only in theory. Wines that claim to have "no sulfites" I think - how is that even possible? Fermentation produces sulfites. And if there are no added sulfites, then how long can the consumer be sure their wine is going to be stable to drink? And these bottles honestly say "Vegan Friendly." Well, no isinglass or egg whites here!

That said, I'm setting aside my preconceptions, and I'm going to give these two organic, vegan-friendly California wines a shot. Like any other wine, they deserve to at least be tried. Here are my notes on each.

California Viognier (bottle notes "Contains Sulfites")
Appearance: Clear, with a beautiful vibrant golden yellow color. Think of fresh straw or hay in the Fall. Also, there was a noticeable amount of foaming when I poured. This was consistent even after the first pour, so maybe it has something to do with the production?

Nose: Clean, and very aromatic. Youthful aromas including apple, citrus, stone fruit, and floral. Yellow apple and floral at the top of the glass, with the apple changing from green to more yellow deeper into the glass. Also lower distinct notes of earthiness or minerality, and a hint of malolactic fermentation or oak.

Palate: Dry with medium alcohol and body. Flabby acidity that almost instantly fell away, and very subtle flavors. I really had to stretch to get even the most basic apple and citrus found on the nose, and there was a little bit of grassiness. Length was very short, lasting only a couple seconds.

Lodi Syrah
Appearance: Clear with medium intensity - I could see text through the wine, but it wasn't very clear. Eye-catching ruby color that was very bright in the glass and had a definite purple hue.

Nose: Clean with moderately intense youthful aromas - red fruit, spice, and oak. Cherry and cinnamon were very noticeable above the glass. Deeper in there was more pepper, clove, nutmeg, and fruit that was almost reminiscent of red licorice.

Palate: Dry wine with medium alcohol and body. Very flabby acid and light tannins. Flavors similar to aromas, but much more subdued: spice, pepper, and oak. Fruit was cherry with a little plum. Also herbaceous notes on the finish - short as it was - like eucalyptus or mint.

Overall I'm going to say both of these wines had awesome color and really great aromas, but both also fell short on the palate. With the pronounced floral and apple aromas of the Viognier, and the spiciness of the Syrah I was really expecting a lot more, but was sadly disappointed. Intensity of flavor, acidity, and length were all severely lacking in my opinion. In all fairness though I can't say this is because of their organic/vegan-friendly status; maybe it was a poor harvest.

Looking at the winery's website I found some more information on organic wines (and the difference between those and wines made with organically grown grapes) as well as insight on the whole sulfite topic. They address some key points regarding the shelf-life of their wines as well as describing how sulfites are measured. Further information on the regulations put in place by the government on organic products can be found at the Agricultural Marketing Service's homepage

I'm totally impressed by the passion these guys put into their product and think the idea of growing organic grapes is cool. With the boom in the organic/natural/chemical-free lifestyle we've been experiencing in the U.S. they certainly have a place within the market. Unfortunately, I just don't care for these two wines, but that's not to say that someone else won't enjoy them - and at $9.99 a bottle I would recommend at least trying them or other wines in this category.

Cheers!