CONSUMER NEWS

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Metal Caps for Champagne Corks

Celebrate Grenache on September 24

Bordeaux Faces Unripe Grapes

WINERY AND INDUSTRY NEWS

Christian Moueix and Napanook

Michele Rolland: Satan or Savior?

Napa to Seoul…for $275 and 100 Points

Washington’s New Destination Winery

WINE TASTING AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Asimov on Muscadets

Exploring Italian Whites

Verdejo Reigns In Spain

Wolf Blass Shiraz Cab

Each acre of vineyard produces, on average, 4 tons of grapes.  Some, though, produce as little as 1.5 to 2 tons. In a few places, such as California’s Central Valley, yields of 12-14 tons per acre are not unheard of.  

Each ton of grapes produces, on average, 150 gallons, or 63 cases, or 756 bottles.  Thus, you get about 3024 bottles to an acre.

It takes about 16 pounds of grapes to produce a gallon of wine.

Each barrel contains enough wine to produce about 60 gallons, 25 cases, or 300 bottles.

We typically think of wine bottles as the standard 750 ML liter model. But they actually come in many sizes with unique names:

• Magnum (1.5 liters)  2 bottles
• Jeroboam (3 liters)  4 bottles
• Rehoboam (4.5 liters)  6 bottles
• Methuselah (6 liters)  8 bottles
• Salmanazar (9 liters)  12 bottles
• Balthazar (12 liters)  16 bottles
• Nebuchadnezzar (15 liters)  20 bottles

Pastis - New York City

Comment dit-on “Home Run?”

After a delicious lunch at Bond 45 on Times Square (don’t laugh, it’s a great place) and a matinee of Jersey Boys (including Lehman High School grad Matt Bogart) we headed downtown to, once again, the meatpacking district.

After a long, hot but enjoyable stroll on the Highline Park, we ended up at Pastis, a traditional French Bistro at the corner of 8th Avenue and Little West 12th.

The place is simplicity itself, and rightly so. Named for the Anise-flavored (think black licorice) aperitif from the south of France, also known as Ouzo in Greece and Arak in the Middle East, Pastis offers a nice selection of wines in very friendly and affordable formats – by the glass, half-carafe, carafe, and full bottle. This is a great way to sample a number and variety of wines over the course of an evening without ending up horizontal, either literally or financially.

The wine list is perfectly suited to the joint.  Among the reserve selections, the Champagnes are uninspired and overpriced, but there are some really interesting blancs (a Chateauneuf, an Aligote and a Cotes du Luberon, for example), and rouges (a delicious Gamay from Fleurie, a Cab/Syrah, a Vacqueyras and a Chinon).  But focus instead on the house wine list – great, and great matches for the food, with a nice cross-section of whites and reds, and a couple of roses thrown in for grace notes.  Actually on a hot summer day I’d have liked to see a few more of those. The full list is here.

The food is classic bistro, with appetizers ranging from a mousse of chicken liver and fois gras, grilled sardines, fried calamari and steak tartare.  Of course you can get steak frites here, but at a surprising $35 it was the priciest thing on the menu and we passed.  Instead, our entrees of Veal Milanese and Poulet Citron were delicious, plainly presented without pretension, and surprisingly generous.  I guess the American appetite for enormous plates has found its way across the ocean a bit, but on this night the slightly above-average portion sizes were welcome.  Great french press coffee and an amazing apple torte a la mode finished off the meal, followed by a couple glasses of dessert wine.  Yes I know Esquire says after coffee you’re done, but what the hell do they know?

Anyway, the restaurant is just what you’d expect and want – checkerboard tile floors and worn wooden tables – but the place is more open, airy and the tables less crowded together than at all the French bistros I’ve visited in…France.  Service was superb; our waiter Jake (and the guy who filled in for him for 30 minutes at the start of the meal) was close by just enough without being obtrusive, checked on us at the right time, kept our glasses full and our new wine selections coming, and did it all with delight and a smile while navigating a large bar crowd in addition to his tables.  Just great.

When I Googled the place for images (I ended up using the one from the restaurant’s website) I saw that a lot of celebs eat here – Beyonce, Adriana Lima, Peter Fonda, Sienna Miller and Jude Law, Sandra Bullock, on and on.  So, if that’s what you’re into, stop by, by all means.  We came for the food, the wine and the atmosphere and we were not disappointed!

Stump Jump White 2008

Granted it’s a long name.  But it’s a great wine, made from a pretty interesting combination of Riesling (55%) Sauvignon Blanc (17%) Marsanne (16%) Roussanne (12%).  If you think about it, that’s three wine regions and potentially a dozen or more countries, but it all comes from the McLaren Vale region of Australia.

The wine is named for the unique plough that can ride over – but not get stuck in – the stumps and gnarled roots often found in this area.

Now let’s get down to the wine itself…It’s got a great nose that comes mostly from the Riesling, but on the palate you get crispness from the Sauvignon Blanc, minerality from the Marsanne and Roussanne, and nice peach, melon, and citrus flavors.

This is one of the wines we enjoyed in June Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas and it so impressed me that, as the summer wanes, I hope you’ll all give it a try.

Manhattan, only a few scant miles away, offers some of the best wine and dine experiences available anywhere in the world, and more of the best restaurants than any other city in the USA.  Having lived in Chicago and San Francisco I can say this with a straight face, although I’d rate both those cities a close second, at least in terms of quality eateries though not in number.

Now, while there are restaurant guides galore to consult – Michelin, Zagat, NYC.com, Fodor’s, Foodist Colony – nothing beats a personal experience.  And you might think – especially if you’re from out of town - that demanding, tough Manhattanites (and they are) would help ensure that only the best restaurants survive and would quickly weed out marginal and poor operators.

Problem is, a lot of joints open up to great fanfare, receive the acclaim of both patrons and critics, but then rest on their laurels for years as their food, service, standards, decor, wine service/selection and even cleanliness go downhill.  Yet oftentimes, they keep getting propped up by people who once loved and continue to promote the place, but haven’t actually visited for years.

This past Tuesday night, we visited one such place, The Fig & Olive at 420 West 13th Street, between Ninth Ave. & Washington St. in the Meatpacking District.

Now, we got off to a good start – the space is beautiful; there’s a behemoth center “island”  in the middle of the place stacked with wine bottles that are nicely backlit, lending both a sophisticated and wine-friendly air to the place.  The tables while not huge are big enough, covered with crisp white linen tablecloths, and appointed with comfortable wicker-like chairs.

As you can imagine, I tend to focus not just on the food but more so on the wine, and especially whether or not it’s imaginative, affordable and complements the menu.  The Fig & Olive list, while not exceptional, terribly imaginative or large (40 choices) was decent and above all…affordable.  All the selections but one were under $100, very rare at NYC eateries, and averaged about $62/bottle, mostly from France, Spain and Italy.  The majority of them are available by the glass, so I’ve got to give them a well-earned thumbs up on wine, with one exception: not a single American winery is represented.  Now, I know the restaurant is centered on Mediterranean cuisine, but there’s no reason that a few home-grown choices in old-world styles and grapes shouldn’t find its way onto the card.

Anyway, as it was a hot night and we were trying a wide variety of foods, I opted for a Provencal Rose made from Mourvedre and Grenache, Domaine L ’Alycastre 2009, for $48.  We’d already enjoyed a bottle of Petit Chablis next door as an aperitif, and given the wide variety of choices I know we’d make, the best compromise.  It’s a nice wine, aromatic and fruity but dry and crisp.  Unfortunately, the markup over retail ($13 average) is also pretty steep.

Moving on, our waitress Kate was fun and attentive, but the food was another story.  Kate came by fairly quickly, and delivered a miniscule plate of what looked like white Wonder Bread cubes, suitable for fondue.  On the same plate were three tiny, square bowls of olive oil, all of which looked the same and which gave off little or no aroma.  I tried all three, and all I can say is that the tastelessness of the bread was matched by the blandness of the oils. Ho-hum…what’s on TV?

We moved onto the highly-touted crostini, choosing 6 for $18, including crushed tomato and basil pesto; eggplant, w/basil and sundried tomato;  prosciutto with ricotta and fig; shrimp w/avocado, cilantro, and tomato; salmon /ricotta, citrus, and cilantro; and mushroom, artichoke, and truffle parmesan.  They were all ok, but the thing is, “ok” isn’t really what we wanted or were expecting.  And the entrees were nothing to write home about, either – the paella was a bit dried out and didn’t seem authentic (I’ve had it in Spain, Morocco, Portugal and Turkey), and my thyme chicken paillard clearly hadn’t been marinated and hadn’t even been threatened with thyme, much less seasoned with it. The sauce was bland and flat, and the grill marks looked as though they’d been ironed on; my first fork into the meat caused a thin layer of chicken (it wasn’t skin) to slough off, taking the grill marks with it.  Most telling, no one at our table gave the characteristic “yum” that indicates something really tasty.

Speaking of entrees, they’d arrived perhaps 10 minutes after we’d been served our appetizers, with several still on the table, and were unceremoniously dropped (and I do mean dropped) on our table by two busboys who then bolted away, not giving us a moment to protest.  Eventually I was able to send mine back to give myself a little “thyme” (since there was none evident in the chicken) to enjoy the rose, but my three dining companions just said “what the hell” and ate theirs anyway.

Again, I had no problem with our waitress, but a couple days later I emailed the general manager Will Sears, to discuss the bland food and rushed service. I also politely asked for some consideration on our next visit, especially given that with tip we dropped almost $500 on a very poor performance and, well, just lousy food.

He responded with one of the most creative and hilarious pieces of bullshit I’ve ever read, starting with telling me that “In no way are the food standards you recognized how we intend to operate on a daily bases (sic).”  Regarding the tiny, tasteless white bread cubes and bland olive oil, he wrote this gem: “Our olive oil tasting is meant to simply show the diversity of flavors and attributes towards a representation of cuisine de solei (what?). On your next visit I have already packaged (?) a northern Californian olive oil with immense flavor whose attributes can easily be recognized.”  Hey, what happened to Mediterranean cuisine…de solei?   He also said, much to my delight, that he’d “followed up with the chef about the grill marks.”  What? To ensure he uses a permanent marker next time?

He ended by saying he’d “personally expedite the planning of (my)next visit.”  How?  By coming to my house and sitting down with me?  Gee, I don’t ‘plan’ my visit, I just call some friends and make a reservation.  Don’t need any assistance there.  He also offered to “recommend a variety of dishes which truly represent what we have to offer.”  Hmm.  All that stuff on the menu that we tried and paid for, does NOT represent what Fig & Olive “truly” has to offer?

His email would be a good teaching tool in a creative writing class. But it’s not much of a response to a patron’s unpleasant experience.

In fairness, after 3 (identical) emails to the owner, he kindly refunded the food cost.  So we’ll give it another try down the road.

The fruit for this wine – mostly Cab with a few percent each of Shiraz and Cab Franc – is hand picked, basket pressed and unfiltered, giving it great authenticity that’s enhanced rather than overpowered by 18 months in oak.  It’s rich and dense but not sweet, with an elegance and subtlety that belies its power and finish that lingers long after.  The Noble Baron has got discernible mint and spice flavors, which I don’t always find appealing but which work perfectly in this wine.

It’s not cheap – WineAccess has it for about $40, but it’s worth every penny and it’s as good or better than a legion of California Cabs I’ve tasted at 2X or even 3X the price!

It’s also an impressive winery, the largest in Australia, around since 1890.   I’m so impressed with its offerings that I’ll be writing up the winery soon with tasting notes for this Cab, as well as Riesling and Shiraz (of course).

Australians make great soldiers, models, outdoorspeople and rugby players.  You can add the winemakers of Chateau Tanunda to this list!

More than 80% of the U.S. population already has access to direct shipments of wine and New Jersey residents should, too.

BUT two bills, NJ Assembly Bill 1702 and NJ Senate Bill 766, may pave the way for dramatically improving access to wines from across the U.S.  AB1702 is identical to SB766, which passed the Senate on March 11, 2010.

Both bills are based on the model direct shipping bill, now the legislative standard used by most U.S. states for legal, regulated direct-to-consumer shipments of wine.  These laws satisfy consumer demand and safety requirements, and create a new source for state tax revenues.

CLICK ON THIS LINK and tell your legislators to give us the rights enjoyed by residents of dozens of other states!

House Resolution 5034, introduced by the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA), is supposed to be heard in June before the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Michigan’s John Conyers. If you don’t know, Michigan was the losing plaintiff in Granholm v. Heald, the 2005 case that liberalized wine shipments, and the NBWA was one of Rep. Conyers’ top five donors in the last two elections.

HR 5034 would exempt anti-competitive and discriminatory state alcohol beverage laws from most federal review, including capacity cap laws. In other words, states could freely write laws making it difficult or impossible for consumers to get direct shipments of wine from wineries within and outside their state.

If it passed, HR 5034 would be a complete reversal of the Granholm Supreme Court decision, that emphasized: “The 21st Amendment did not give States the authority to pass nonuniform laws in order to discriminate against out-of-state goods, a privilege they had not enjoyed at any earlier time.”

According to most news sources, the NBWA and the Wine and Spirit Wholesalers Association, WSWA, are lobbying aggressively for the bill on Capitol Hill. In fact, the WSWA took out a print ad on May 12 in Politico, a newspaper/website read by DC legislators and staffers, encouraging legislators to co-sponsor HR 5034.

My view? Wholesalers and the 3-tier system are important, and represent many jobs and a system that works well for many producers. BUT-it doesn’t work well for many others, and for some, not at all. Wineries should have the right to sell direct to consumers if they choose, and consumers of legal age should have an unfettered right to buy wine from any producer, anywhere. Anything else is, well, un-American if you ask this Marine.

For a backgrounder on the bill, go here. For a shortcut to send your legislator an email on the issue, go here.

Mulderbosch Rosé

For years, I thought that rosé wines were kids’ stuff – sweet, with no body or character.  This probably came from memories of drinking Mateus Rosé in my early 20s—that famously cheap, commercial wine in the familiar flask-shaped green bottle, invented to appeal to everyone. Too sweet to pair with food and lacking sufficient acidity to refresh, Mateus is fizzy but it’s not really a sparkling wine. I also remember drinking Lancers, Rosé d’Anjou, and under full disclosure I’ll even admit to having tasted white Zin from time to time. Hey, my Aunt Mary liked it and brought it to the house.

The result of those youthful indiscretions was that for a long time I though all pink wines were sugary, nasty stuff and almost never tried any of the many wonderful and bone-dry rosés on the market.  They’re actually great food wines, made from many grape varieties including  Grenache, Malbec, Merlot, Sangiovese, Syrah, Pinot Noir and yes, even Zinfandel, which when fermented dry makes a lovely drink that you will never confuse with Sutter Home’s sweet stuff.

Among wine snobs, Rosé has been “uncool” and that is unfortunate, because that’s kept a lot of folks from enjoying this wonderful wine that looks more beautiful in the glass than any other.  And there are plenty of wine-savvy places where drinking rose has always been in style.

How Rosés are Made

A lot of people believe Rosé wines are made by mixing a bit of red wine with a white wine. Generally, nope, with the exception of some Champagnes.  Most Rosés begin life just like red wines; red grapes are de-stemmed, crushed and then placed in a fermenter. But instead of spending two or three weeks with the grapes skins in contact with the juice, the skins are removed after a brief period, a few hours to maybe a couple days depending on the type of grape and the style the winemaker’s going for. This relatively brief skin contact allows just enough color to turn the wine pink (or salmon or orange or coral). It also adds a tiny bit of tannin, and some complexity.

Another method is to just drain off some of the juice from a red wine during its very early stages of fermentation, then place it into own fermenter and finish the process. The process is called saignee (“to bleed”) and it also nicely concentrates the original red wine.

Rosés are known for their strawberry and raspberry aromas and flavors, and their versatility; in fact, this is one of the few wines you can drink out of a tumbler on ice and still fully enjoy. And while a lot of wine writers say that these aren’t “serious” wines, I say hooey. Wine is supposed to be fun, to bring pleasure and to complement food and in my view, no wine does these more than a good Rosé.

Some of my favorites:

• SoloRosa Russian River Valley Syrah Rosé
• Château Miraval Rosé Côtes de Provence
• Monte’s Cherub Rosé of Syrah
• Marques de Caceres Rioja Rosé
• Domaine Lafond Tavel Rosé
• Mulderbosch Rosé (made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon)
• Chandon Rose NV (Sparkling wine from Domaine Chandon USA)

Some great food pairings:

• BBQ burgers and ribs
• Canneloni and lasagne
• Charcuterie
• Grilled or broiled salmon
• Ham
• Lobster
• Omelettes
• Pizza
• Pork tenderloin
• Tandoori and Thai chicken