2006 Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling Eroica, Columbia Valley ($19)

Rating: ♠ ♠ ♠ 1/2
 
When it comes to user-friendliness, one would have to go mighty far to equal the Riesling grape. It can be graceful, racy and superb with all manner of foods that would leave lesser whites panting and bloated; properly treated it even makes for a stellar dessert wine.
 
This is not to say that one can pick spectacular bottles blindly, but even downmarket cousins can exhibit some of the familial charm and allure, much like, say, a supermodel’s kid sister. Sure, these “gateway” Rieslings can sprint a mite too happily towards the grapefruity-limey end of the spectrum and wind up skidding to a bit of bitterness, but properly paired (grilled poultry, say) all is well. Not bad for the $8-$10 these invariably cost.
 
Washington State is generally considered the epicenter of U.S. Riesling output, both in volume and quality. One risks a charge of chauvinism, but all else being equal, I prefer our stuff to the French (i.e. Alsatian) or German which, to my mind, is a shade too flinty and minerally. Regardless where your geographical proclivities take you in your purchasing, the idea is to find one that is bracing in its acidity yet neatly balanced by a whisper of sweetness. This is the sort of general skeleton that makes nice with salty-ish and sort-of rich foods better than anything else my palate has yet sampled.
 
However, the Board of Trustees at Vinapedia U. is not here to bring you placidly towards “well.” We aim for the glorious, monumental and the ridiculously excellent…as cheaply as possible. OK, that last bit is exclusively mine, but you get the idea.
 
Chateau Ste. Michelle is one of the big names in Washington State Riesling. Their entry-level bottlings are uniformly good and reliable and you could do infinitely worse if you had to select a white wine with no other information available to you. Where things get extra-interesting is when you start wafting your way upmarket. Keep a weather eye for their Indian Wells Creek and Cold Creek variants as well as today’s spotlight bottling, the Eroica from the Columbia Valley.
 
It has a lovely, light color, with a very gentle scent of peach and nectarines, as well as a — and I’m not crazy here — a minty-slate sort of thing. On the palate, you will get a dry (but not too dry) and very round freshness with wonderfully intense flavors of peachy minerality and mildly citrusy acidity. The finish is plenty rich and persistent, with a hint of lingering minerality. Think of summery foods, trying to avoid anything charred by the grill, such as assorted tartare of fish, ceviche, whatever scallopine permutation is your favorite and sauteed shellfish.

An interesting piece on the story of hooch comes to us by way of Arts & Letters Daily — my intellectual savior — and New York Magazine in the form a review of the new book, Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol, by Iain Gately. Although the reviewer didn’t much care for the book’s style, he nevertheless lauded it for being chock full on obscure information — which if you’re anything like me is the whole reason you buy books at all.

The fun facts include:

• Egyptian wine connoisseurs rated their varietals using the word nfr, meaning good. A wine could be rated from one to three  nfr’s: “nfr nfr nfr.” We don’t anticipate trading in our system of spades for nfr’s, but it may one day come in handy, perhaps in the afterlife.
• The Greeks drank wine mixed with water, spices, and honey — and drank it constantly. No wonder Alexander came to rule the known world.
• The Aztecs drank fermented tree sap, but the legal drinking age was 52 — except on one day every four years when they would celebrate New Years, and everyone, including little children, were compelled to get drunk.
• The Anglo-Saxon word for drunk is beordruncen.
• Although Muslims banned alcohol, Arabs nevertheless gave it its name: al-koh’l.
• A single phylloxera bug can produce 25.6 billion descendants within eight months.
• Elizabethan England had a pub for every 187 people. Sadly, by 2004, the country was down to one for every 529.
• The Mayflower was actually “a claret ship from the Bordeaux wine trade.”

2005 Solaire Chardonnay

Rating: ♠ ♠ ♠ 1/2 

2005 Solaire Cabernet Sauvignon 

Rating: ♠ ♠  1/2 (Now), ♠ ♠ ♠ - ♠  (Later)

“Sunshine” wasn’t the first word that came to mind when we dipped into Robert Mondavi’s 2005 Solaire Chardonnay and 2005 Solaire Cabernet Sauvignon, but it quickly became the consensus. These samples had come in the mail a few days before, and we — my roommates and I — had chosen to taste them together over a dinner of heirloom tomato and mozzarella di buffula salad followed by a pasta bolognese.

We started with the white, of course, letting the bottle sit out of the fridge for a while so that it wouldn’t be too cold, and letting it breathe a few minutes. The Solaire Chard comes from Mondavi’s Bianchi Bench vineyards, on the southeast-facing slopes of the Santa Lucia Highlands, above the Salinas Valley. It’s a nice spot for Chardonnay, as it gets the classic cool morning sea-breeze and the hot afternoon sun.

The Solaire has potent nose for a white, with notes of hazelnut, pineapple and apple blossom. Holding it up to the light, you can see a slight greenish cast in the clear, bright yellow reflections. It offered a full, big feel in the mouth yet seemed a bit more austere than many of your typical oaky-buttery California Chards. With medium tannins but pretty high acidity, you can really feel the heat — it leaves a lingering tart at the back of the palate — although it becomes more lush as it opens up in the glass. 

“It’s like driving down the Highway 99 when all the orchards are in peak bloom,” said my room-mate, Alicia.

We gave it three spades for flavor but four spades for aroma, leaving the 2005 Solaire Chard with a more-than-respectable average of 3 1/2 spades.  

“Feel the heat…” is a phrase that could well describe the Solaire 2005 Cabernet Sauvingon in its current state. That heat started right away in the nose, with a spicy, cayenne pepper aroma with hints of almonds, cocoa and stone fruits, like Italian plum.

While the Chard comes from the Santa Lucia Highlands, the Cab gets its grapes from the Paso Robles area, which experiences a much wider range of temperatures during the growing season (50F in the evenings, often over 100F during summer days), with a little bit of San Lucas, in Monterey County, mixed in — although the 2005 summer was comparitively mild.

Never mind. This wine is all about the heat. It’s up front flavors are tart and chocolaty, but with a lot of fruit  — “If jam was hot and dry,” my roommate, Dave, noted.

“It numbs my lips like a fireball candy,” said Alicia.

The spice of our pasta bolonese was not optimal against the spice in the wine. At present the 2005 would probably go better with a blander but meat-rich meal, like prime rib. What it really complimented was our dessert of Charles chocolate with crisp rice.

This is a great buy-now, enjoy-later wine, as it could probably use another year or two in the bottle to smooth out its rough ages and mellow its hot-hot heat and spice. It should only improve with age.

Recently, a number of Oenophiliacs wrote in and asked us some questions about wine. Jim Bacchvs answers…

Marguerite asks:

We are hosting a welcome dinner for our friends that will be attending our son’s wedding in St. John, Virgin Islands. They will serve prime rib and a fish dish.  I would like to provide each table of 4 with a white and a red wine.  Could you suggest affordable wines for us? There will be about 40 people.I will be grateful for your assistance.

We emailed Marguerite back to ask if she would be buying wine on the island or shipping it from the mainland, as island wine shops might be a bit limited in selection. No answer was forthcoming, so we’ll venture some recommendations here…

Marguerite, 40 is quite a lot of people… and quite a lot of wine. Generally, one bottle serves 4 people — one glass of wine each and a dab more. So if you want everyone in your party to enjoy 4 glasses of wine — one per course in a four-course meal — that’s 40 bottles, easy.

Let’s say we start with a little sparkle, some Champagne or other sparkling wine. On the high end you could go for the industry standard, Veuve Cliquot. But at $30 per bottle, you’re looking at $300. I’d go with a Spanish Cava. Cava’s tend to be dry, inexpensive… and under-rated. Naveran Cava Brut Reserva retails for about $11 per bottle and is quite acceptable.

Moving on to the salad and fish, since you’re in a humid climate, I’d go with a Sauvignon Blanc — light, crisp, dry, with a hint of citrus. Two Angels, a widely available 2006, retails for about $16.

With your prime rib entree I’d start with an Oregon Pinot Noir. Try A to Z pinot from the Willamette Valley, retailing for about $19. (This red is light enough to go also with many fish dishes.)

Lastly, with your beef entree, I’d go for a Bordeaux.Don’t worry. You needn’t spend a firtune to get a decent Bordeaux. The Chateau Mont-Perat 2005 retails for about $21 a bottle and rates well against more expensive competitors.

Wandio asks:
Could you explaine the subject of sulphites in wines and why some inform such and some do not.

Sulfites occur naturally in wine, a byproduct of fermenation. Almost all vintners, however, add additional sulfites to their wines to help them last longer in the bottle — give them more “shelf life.” Sulfites are not known to cause health issues except in people who have an sensitivity or allergic reaction to them. It is a myth the sulfites cause “red wine headache.” Wine headaches are caused by a natural histamine that occurs in wine. 

U.S. law states that wines cannot contain more than 30mg per liter sulphites and wines that contain more than 10mg per liter must label them with the warning “Contains Sulphites.”

Jonathan asks:

Would you like to exchange links with eBacchus?

You bet! We’re honored you thought of us!

Cheers!

—Jim 

2005 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Parallèle 45 
Rating: ♠ ♠ ♠ 1/2 

As part of my New Year’s resolution to only drink wines that are uncompromisingly spectacular, monumentally food-friendly and absurdly cheap, I bring to you the 2005 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Parallèle 45.

Diligent Vinapediacs such as yourself will recall my waxing lyrical on the California Rhône-style blends and it was in the course of rigorous investigative journalism that I decided the only noble thing to do is sacrifice myself and launch into an exploration of Rhône Rhône-blends. I mean, it’s the only decent thing, right?

I was fully expecting these sorts of wines to prove serviceable at table and none-too-abusive of my cash reserves. What I was not expecting was the near-uniform goodness these wines what can only be called, in the technical argot of the industry, “way cheap prices.” Yes, you could drum up four-figure invoices with a few judiciously chosen bottles if you wanted to. But why would you want to? Unless you have become enthralled with serious wine expenditures as a means to shelter income from confiscatory taxes – in which case, keep in mind my day job is right in that field and I will travel – there is no reason to do so.

One of the very big wheels in Rhône wines is Paul Jaboulet Aîné. Not only in importance is this big wheelness manifested, but also in the bewildering gamut of wines bearing this imprimatur. To give you an idea, if you were to traipse (on foot or, more easily, online) merrily seeking to purchase one bottle of each bottling, you’d be saddled with almost ten cases of generally wonderful wine. In which case I remind you that I will travel to render assistance.

This wine, which I have kindly chosen to focus upon on your behalf, will certainly provide you with reverse sticker shock. The official price is a paltry $10 a bottle, but you’d have a serious job finding it for more than $8. As I reviewed my receipts and tasting notes, I simply could not believe this wine was priced correctly. To be blunt, this wine is too inexpensive and too food friendly to be believed.

In the glass, it is a limpid purple with some crimson, and a clean blueberry/floral nose. The first tastes are of blueberries (What? Again?) and blackberries , with hints (and I mean hints) of currants and sun dried plums and a half-floral (violet?) half-minerally edge. It has a racy acidity and just enough tannins to give it a bit of scaffolding to make purchasing a case for consumption through the next few months an eminently reasonable proposition. This wine is ideally paired with foods that would be just a bit too overpowering for a rosé. An herby crown roast of pork with savory-sweet aspect to play the complementary card, or something along the moderately spiced ragout (sausage, mushrooms, etc.) spectrum if you wanted to showcase a pleasant contrast…that sort of thing.

If I told you it was $20/bottle, you would be right to sprint to your local Wine Shack, but at $8? You should leave skidmarks in the parking lot.

—J.M. Garcia III

Against the “International Style” 

Tom Wolfe once excoriated the International Style in architecture — those now ubiquitous glass boxes that have sprung up like weeds since the 1950s. J.M. Garcia III does the same for the new International Style in wine, with its move toward homogeneity.

I am one of those sensible sorts of men who places the potable at the service of the edible.

Therefore, I’m adamant the wine (and occasionally the beer) serve the purpose of making the food a higher, better version of itself. The wine, then, is given a sacred duty to discharge: become the means for the wine’s self-actualization. This is hardly a menial role. It is the cement which holds the edifice of the meal together and erect. While expressing this very opinion recently, I was told this was a very French way of looking at things. I was thinking this was very Iberic rather than very Gallic, but I shan’t quibble over what part of the Roman Empire begat this very sensible outlook. I s’pose the Italians may view this sort of opinion in a proprietary manner themselves.

It’s my greatest thrill when sampling a wine to realize I know exactly what sorts of foods will pair off beautifully therewith. “This would be ideal with grilled lamb chops!” or something like that.

There are others, alas, who take an opposite view. They stash away overoaked tannin bombs and then try to pair off these juggernauts with something edible. Failure is inexorable. Why? Because this is what the mass opinion of the wine writers have led these poor deluded fools to believe. If you are willing to take a large, expansive, big-picture view, you’d notice the modern wine writer’s palate has done as much for modern wine as phylloxera. Actually more, because when phylloxera strikes, it doesn’t replace what it destroys with something abominable.

In some quarters, such a representative of the modern wine, er, press could be safely called “Father Christmas” (no, not because mention of his name makes you want to belt out “Oh, Tannin Bomb!” in a ringing baritone, although that’s a proper instinct) because the International Style of WineTM which he has seemingly championed — with its varnish-dissolving tannins, clumsy masses of fruit, blunted and stunted acidity, forests of oak, and hot with ethanol — really have made winemaking very easy for the non-conscientious or expedient-minded vintners; with the added cultural component of allowing them to charge confiscatory amounts for 750ml of abused grape juice. You can’t blame the winemakers, exactly. They run businesses and not charities for the oeniphilically sophisticated. They produce wine to sell at a profit, not wine to store amid glad smiles of knowing self-satisfaction.

The lesser-known French, Italians and Spanish haven’t fully succumbed. Yet. But the 100 point scale is handwritten on the wall. One day, the scion of some grand family (an enterprising lad, who’s been to the city) will rip out acres or, if you’d rather, hectares of ancient native vines and replace them with Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot or some other ubiquituous-yet-incongruous varietal and proceed to make his best caricature of a California clone of a Bordeaux grand cru.

His efforts will be rewarded with a 95-plus rating and he’ll have to hire additional workers to harvest all the ducats which will inevitably be showered down upon him, courtesy of grateful serfs, the denizens of Winegeekville.

And you will have to seek out another unspoiled place in order to find a wine that, when paired with your favorite food, doesn’t make the entire enterprise taste as if one of the more misanthropic Borgias was the steward of the feast.

Think of it this way. It’s as if women of all ages, races, ethnicities and nationalities decided to start emulating the look of Pamela Anderson.

Not that I feel passionately about this or anything.

But all is not lost. There are still winemakers who have declined to, as it were, “drink the Kool-Aid” becoming recusants in the face of the International Style of WineTM, and even some of the most egregious offenders still have little-known bottlings worthy of your search. We cannot turn back the clock, but we can turn back the tide.

Your call.

—J.M. Garcia III

Holiday Gift Choices for the Cork-minded 

By Nellie Day
 
There are a million different reasons to give gifts this time of year: to say thank you to a loyal client, to express your gratitude for a party invitation or to fill your secret Santa stocking. As the holiday season seems to start earlier and earlier every year, the number of dinners, holiday parties, after-work get-togethers and present exchanges just keeps growing.

Though these occasions can be fun, they can also be stressful as etiquette and the all-around desire to offer others something that will truly please dictates that one gift may not fit all. This is not true, however. There is one gift that is appropriate for almost every need and occasion.

Almost 6,500 years after the ancient Greeks gave it to the Egyptians, wine is still a primo gift. But with so many choices and so little time, how is the average person supposed to sort through all the varietals to pick a bottle that will please all the people he or she will encounter during the holiday season?

As daunting a question as this may be, the answer is not as difficult to reach as you may think. The first thing to do is think of your favorite well-known varietals. This is done to eliminate any tertiary wines that may be tasty to the seasoned enthusiast but may intimidate the average party guest. An easy way to do this is to think about where you dine often and what kind of wine that restaurant serves as its “house” wine. Typically Merlot, Cabernet, Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio are popular house wines.

After establishing a few favorites you’ll want to choose brands that are more on the fruity side than the acid side. If you’re unfamiliar with how to distinguish between the two a wine wheel may be helpful, or you can simply ask a clerk to suggest a few fruity labels.
Another thing to think about when choosing the perfect wine is whether or not the person receiving the gift will be serving or enjoying the wine with food. Though it may be difficult to guess what the main dish of any party may be, establishing what will be served as appetizers and desserts can be made even easier by bringing a small dish that will complement your wine. Merlot is sure to be enjoyed if you also provide some salami, cheese and crackers. And a Port will not go to waste if it is handed over in a gift basket containing quality dark chocolate.

Being that it is the holiday season, Champagne and sparkling wines are also appropriate, popular and convenient choices. They are beverages that are often associated with celebratory times, need very little introduction and are not necessarily paired with food. Though prices can range from a few dollars to a few thousand, a good champagne or sparkling wine does not need to cost an arm and a leg.
No matter what kind of party or gift-giving occasion, presenting someone with one of your favorite wines can be a very thoughtful, well-appreciated gesture. Just get a feel for your audience and have some fun—after all, that’s what wine is all about.
 
Nellie is a food and beverage writer in Hermosa Beach, California. She’s recently discovered a fondness for Cabernet, and is in the midst of creating the wine list for her wedding.
 
E-mail Nellie at nellie.day(at)gmail.com

The LA Times business section reports on Isreali-born, Georgia-based importer Pini Haroz’s efforts to bring the wines of Galilee to America. Called Grapes of Galilee, the wine is made from grapes are “grown beside the sea of Galilee, watered by the Jordan River.” The labels display images of Our Lord and Savior by the LA artist Morgan Weistling.

We haven’t tried this wine yet, so we don’t know if it’s any good. But the real question, of course, is will it wash away our zins?

Grapes of Galilee isn’t the only wine from the Holy Land. The 2004 Recanati Merlot is supposed to be quite good, ”reminiscent of ripe red berry fruit, strawberries and pomegranates.” Sounds heavenly. If you’d like to try it, click on the label below.

Wednesday is the day that most major metro newspapers publish their culinary sections. The Wednesday Wrap is a round-up of this week’s wine notes.

The LA Times leads, making an excellent, if safe, choice for its wine of the week. A blend of Syrah and Cinsault form the Côteaux du Languedoc, Beau-Thorey’s 2003 Danse de Ceps (16 bucks), says the Times, is “complex, giving this deep purple-red wine the taste of fresh, smashed blackberries.” Sounds nice.

Meanwhile, across the Hollywood Hills, the Daily News’ (and Red Carpet Wines’) Mike Ulanday picks the 2004 Mannina Cellars Merlot (17 ½ bucks) from Washington state for its red and Malm Cellars Russian River Valley Chard (20 bucks) for its white o’ the week. The Merlot, Mike says, is plumy, while the white has flavors of brioche, whatever that is. I guess we’ll have to try it and find out.

The NY Times‘ Eric Asimov ruminates on wines the “share and elusive quality.” Among the most elusive, Asimov notes, are the 2002 Radikon Oslavje Bianco, Lazy Creek’s wonderful gewurztraminer (’05), as well the Barolos of Giacomo Conterno and Bartolo Mascarello, and the Brunellos of Biondi Santi and Case Basse di Soldera. Now where can these be found?

Up in ‘Frisco, The Chron’s Olivia Wu heads south to the central coast to try a few Pinot Noirs and gives three stars to Calera Ryan Vineyard’s Mt. Harlan 2004 Pinot Noir (40 bones) and Morgan Rosella’s Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands 2005 Pinot Noir (55 bucks). The rest she rated at 2 ½ stars of fewer. Picky, picky.