Wine Beneath The Palms

Colorful winemaker from Down Under

    Chris Hancock has been watching you eat and says he has you figured out. When you're dining, you don't bother with the sniff-sip-and-slosh method of drinking wine, he says. You just drink it.
    “People take a bite of food, somebody pours them a glass of wine, they put it up to their mouth and drink it,'' says Hancock, executive director of Robert Oatley Vineyards in Australia. “It's that first impact that wins them over. If you get the texture right, you've got them.''
  By “texture,'' he means the way the wine feels in your mouth, its flavors, the way the tannin kicks in at the back of your palate, the way the flavors linger.
 “People taste the wine, not blueberries or something. They don't want a short hit that disappears.''
     Hancock admires what the French call the “artifice'' of making wine … not something artificial, but something added to the wine. A hint of oak-barrel aging, for example.
     “It's like using spices in cooking. If you can taste them, you've used too much.''
     Talking about wine this way, of course, is so abstruse it gets us wine fans labeled as snobs. Which is odd, because if we devoted equal time and admiration to discussing, say, Star Trek, we'd simply be called nerds.
     But when the affable, garrulous Hancock speaks this way, only passion comes across.
     Robert Oatley Vineyards is a 3-year-old venture put together by Oatley, a well-known Aussie yachting racer, and Hancock, his long-time wine-making colleague.
     They control 1,350 acres of vines spread over 3,000 miles of southern Australia. I tasted and wrote about some of these wines a year ago; now they have matured and opened up to riper flavors.
     Hancock's favorite Oatley wine is its cabernet sauvignon/merlot. It's a classic cab, he says, not the typical Australian effort.
     “Australian cabernets have an image of being cheap, fruit-bomb wines, syrupy, alcoholic Robert Parker wines, which are horrible.''
     This is a little jibe at wine author Parker, who tends to praise somewhat bombastic wines.
     For all his outspoken nature, Hancock lets you know he doesn't take himself too seriously.
     “I just like to rabbit on about wine,'' he says.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
     ø 2008 Robert Oatley Rose of Sangiovese, Mudgee, New South Wales:  pretty, rose-copper color, tart strawberry and raspberry flavors, creamy, very dry: $18.
     ø 2007 Robert Oatley Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot, New South Wales: intense, classical cassis aroma, black raspberry flavors, firm tannin, bright fruit and acid, lively; $20.

RECOMMENDED
     ø 2008 Robert Oatley Pinot Grigio, South Australia: crisp, saliva-inducing acids, green pear flavors, crisp, bright; $18.
     ø 2008 Robert Oatley Sauvignon Blanc, Western Australia: sprightly and rich, with white grapefruit flavors; $18.
      ø 2007 Robert Oatley Chardonnay, Mudgee, New South Wales: intense, ripe pineapple aromas, mineral and vanilla flavors, smooth, sweet-tart and spicy; $18.
     ø 2007 Robert Oatley Shiraz, Mudgee, New South Wales: mint and black cherries, intense aroma, chalky dry, with a hint of tart tannin on the finish; $20.

 

Unexpected pleasures in wine

  Here are some wines you don't see every day. But they can be delightful, so I want to tell you about them. These aren't supermarket wines, for the most part. You'll have to visit your local wine shop -- which is a nice idea anyway on a hot and steamy Saturday in the doggiest days of summer.

PETITE SIRAH

   I've been a wine judge a time or two at the Indiana State Fair, where they make you pay your dues by judging a couple of flights of amateur wines made in kitchens and garages before you get to the good stuff.

   Petit sirah can be a hard, rough-tannin, high-acid wine if made improperly, and some of those amateur ones felt as if they were going to take the enamel off my teeth. Professional California winemakers, on the other hand, have learned the technique to it, turn ing out smooth, intense, opulent, liqueur-like wines that are wonderful with big beef, wild game, hard cheeses or even dark chocolate.

   • 2006 Concannon Vineyard Petite Sirah, Central Coast: hint of oak in the aroma; flavors of blackberries and cinnamon; very smooth and full-bodied; $15. (highly
recommended.)

   • 2006 Captain Joe's Petite Sirah by Concannon, Livermore Valley: black cherries
and bittersweet chocolate; rich, concentrated and smooth; $30. (Recommended.)

   • 2007 Francis Ford Coppola Diamond Collection Petite Sirah, California aromas and flavors of black raspberries and vanilla; powerful and smooth; $20. (Recommended.)

WHITE BLENDS

   "Summation'' is the apt name Kendall Jackson gave to its multi-grape white blend. It appears to be the summation of every white grape they ever grew from every California wine region from which theyever got grapes.

   Summation is 31 percent sauvignon blanc, 18 percent chardonnay, 13 percent semillon, 11 percent viognier, 9 percent pinot blanc, 8 percent roussanne, 4 percent marsanne, 3 percent grenache blanc, 1 percent gewürztraminer and 1 percent chenin blanc. It comes from eight California wine regions, from Mendocino to Santa Barbara.

   • 2008 Summation Vintner's Reserve, California: a dry wine with a tiny hint of sweetness; aromas and flavors of grapefruit, peaches and golden apples; $17. (Recommended.)

 TOKAJI ASZU

   This exotic wine from the northern reaches of Hungary is aged in caves dug in the 1300s for protection from invading Turks. It was the wine of emperors, turned medio-
cre after World War II by decades of overproduction under Soviet domination, then brought back brilliantly by outside investors and experts after the fall of communism. It's a sweet dessert wine for fruit tarts and such. And, because of its concentrated, glycerine- filled mouth feel, it's also the counterintuitive but perfect match for foie gras.

   • 2005 Royal Tokaji Red Label, 5 Puttonyos, Hungary: thick and rich, with intense flavors of honey, orange peel cinnamon; crisp with balancing acid; very sweet; $41 per two-thirds (500 milliliter) bottle. (Highly recommended.)

 

Fine wines with prices that shine

   Wineries get it. They understand that people send me angry e-mails when I write about $40 wines. And tell me I'm a fine fella when I describe the joys of more frugal libations. So those wineries now are putting out a great variety of good value wines at $15 and under. Here are some of them:

   • 2008 Finca La Linda Torrontés, Bodega Luigi Bosca, Cafayate, Argentina: This grape, which may be related to gewürztraminer, is grown at nearly 6,000 feet above sea level in the foothills of the Andes. The wine is crisp and lightly sweet, with ripe peach flavors -- a great match for spicy Asian food like Thai green curry chicken, for $11. (Highly recommended.)

   • 2006 Viña Zaco Tempranillo, by Bodegas Bilbainas, Rioja, Spain: Bodegas Bilbainas says it's seeking the fruitiest expression of the tempranillo grape of Spain's famous Rioja region. It succeeds here, with crisp, intense tart cherry flavors in a medium-bodied ine that would be great as an apéritif or with tapas, at $15. (Highly recommended.)

   • 2007 Lander-Jenkins Cabernet Sauvignon, California: This wine, made for the Rutherford Wine Co., of grapes from the Central Coast area of Paso Robles, is an interesting not-quite-Bordeaux blend of 94 cabernet sauvignon, 3 percent malbec, 2 percent petite verdot and 1 percent merlot. It's full of black cherry and black pepper flavors, with firm tannin. A good steak wine, for $12. (Recommended.)

   • 2008 Lander-Jenkins Chardonnay, California: Another wine from the Rutherford portfolio, it's made of grapes from California's Lodi and Monterey areas. It's rich and lush, with ripe pear flavors, at $12. (Recommended.)

   • 2008 Castello di Gabbiano Pinot Grigio delle Venezie, Italy: This is from the cool
northern region of Italy -- Trentino, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, up against the Alps and Dolomite mountains. It's light and crisp, with apricot and mango flavors -- given some extra fruitiness by the addition of 8 percent garganega grape and 7 percent chardonnay. (Recommended.)

   • 2008 Tapeña Rosé, Tierra de Castilla, Spain: You gotta have a rosé for any picnic,
and this one is crisp and tart, with strawberry flavors and a hint of minerality. It's
made in Castilla, just south of Madrid, of monastrell, garnacha and shiraz grapes, at $10.
(Recommended.)

   • 2008 Saracco Moscato d'Asti by Dalla Terra Winery, in Italy's Piedmonte region:
You're sitting bare-chested under your mango tree on a warm night in South Florida. You
pop open a bottle of this. Nice. It's crisp, sweet and bubbly, only 6 percent alcohol,
with flavors of oranges and peaches, at $15. (Recommended.)

   • 2007 Lockwood Vineyard Malbec, Monterey: This grape, which is putting Argentina on the world wine map, is now being grown in a few places in California. It works pretty well here, producing a smooth, mellow, medium-bodied wine with violet aromas and rich blueberry flavors, at $15. (Recommended.)

   • 2007 Lockwood Vineyard Chardonnay, Monterrey: The same vineyard is producing a
quintessential California chardonnay -- rich and lush, with pineapple and vanilla flavors.
One-third of the wine was aged in French oak barrels, the rest in stainless steel tanks,
so you get some of the richness of oak and some of the crispness of steel, at $12.
(Recommended.)

Big occasion wines for hard times

  Life goes on despite the economy. Graduations, weddings, anniversaries are rites of passage that call for celebratory meals with fine, congratulatory wines. This can be hard with money tight.

   So I'm highlighting three superb wines worthy of the best occasions, priced from
$14 to $30 -- wines you'd serve if the Obamas or Martha Stewart dropped by. All three are highly recommended.

   • 2007 Casa Lapostolle Carmenère Cuvée Alexandre, Colchagua Valley, Chile; $28. When I visited this winery, 100 miles south of Santiago, Chile, in 1996, the year it pened, I stood in awe in front of  thick, gnarled grapevines, some of which were 80, even 100 years old. And wine experts agree that old vines make the best wine.

   I was told the vines were merlot. More recently, DNA testing has revealed that some of them were really carmenère. It's a noble grape that was wiped out in France's Bordeaux region by the root louse phylloxera in the 1890s, and was thought to be nearly extinct. Turns out it's been thriving all along in phylloxera-free Chile.

   Casa Lapostolle is run by Alexandra Marnier-Lapostolle, daughter of the French family that makes the liqueur Grand Marnier. The wine, named for her father, is beautiful: complex, dark, rich, mellow, ultra smooth, with flavors of black raspberries and cinnamon and ripe tannins. To me, it's as good as any $50 wine. It's not a grilled-steak wine. Serve it with roast duck, slow-roasted prime rib of  beef, grilled pork, rosemary roast chicken or coq au vin, for example.

   

• 2007 Clos de los Siete, Valle de Uco, Argentina; $19. Michel Rolland, origi-
nally from the Pomerol region of France, is called ‘‘the flying winemaker''
because he consults with more than 100 grape growers and winemakers around the world, from Chile to South Africa to Hungary. His style is powerfully fruity wine with hearty oak-barrel aging.

   Now he's making a wine of his own in the foothills of the Andes in Argentina. Bringing in six  French investors, he calls the wine Clos de los Siete, or "vineyard of the seven." He starts with Argentina's signature grape, malbec, for its mullberry and chocolate flavors, adds merlot for smoothness, cabernet sauvignon for its tannic backbone and syrah for its hearty richness. He ages it in expensive new French oak barrels.

   Rolland turns out a wine that's wonderfully rich, with shifting flavors of mulberries, black cherries and black raspberries. It's an amazingly complex wine for under $20. This is one for red meat -- grilled steak and roast lamb.

   • 2005 Merlot Encore, Christian Moueix, Bordeaux; $14.  This Bordeaux-based winery owner's top wine, Chateau Pétrus, sells for nearly $3,000 a bottle, so it's astonishing that he's now also producing a French merlot for $14.

   It lacks the power, finesse and longevity of the Pétrus, of course. But it's a great value for the price -- earthy, with flavors of black cherries, black pepper and herbs and soft tannins. It's a good wine for backyard barbecuing.

   Quick hamburgers are OK, but I'm really talking about all-out grilling -- massive haunches of beef dry-rubbed with spices, slow-grilled for hours over indirect heat. At this price, it's a good candidate for big, multi-bottle parties.

 

Mountain retreat becomes winery in California

 

   If you were going to create a winery, wouldn’t it be nice to start from scratch? You could if you were a multimillionaire businessman like Jerry Brassfield. The son of a Fresno, Calif., rancher, he left home at 19 to found his own empire -- direct sales of vitamins and nutritional supplements in 50 countries, half a dozen car dealerships, restaurant stock.

   In 1973, seeking a quiet refuge for his family, he bought High Serenity, a 2,500-acre cattle ranch and wildlife preserve. It was beautiful -- rolling hills in a volcanic valley on the shores of Clear Lake, north and east of California’s main Napa-Sonoma wine area, two hours north of Sacramento.

   He meant to leave it like that. But one day, helicoptering in from work, he noticed a neighbor planting grapevines. “I can do that?” he asked.

   Soon, the cattle were sold, says winemaker Kevin Robinson, and in 1998, 350 acres were turned into vineyards. The winery followed in 2003.

   With the confidence of beginners, Brassfield and Robinson decided to plant everything -- pinot grigio, zinfandel, gewürztraminer, Johannisberg riesling, sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, pinot noir, syrah, merlot, petit verdot, grenache, petite sirah, malbec and mourvedre.

    Robinson's winemaking philosophy is simple: ‘‘I want wines that just taste good. Wines you can bring to a menu. A lot of people make bigger wines, forgetting that wines are enjoyed best with food. I try for fruit-forward wines with good acid, modest oak aging and lower alcohol."

   He concedes it's possible Brassfield will follow the example of other new growers and gradually cut back production to the grapes that do best on their land.

   "We might trim some out," he says. "On the other hand, we've been
talking about planting some Rhône grapes, some viognier."

HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED

   • 2007 Brassfield
Estate "Serenity'' white
wine, High Serenity Ranch
Vineyard, High Valley (sau-
vignon blanc, pinot grigio,
gewürztraminer, semillon):
soft, lightly sweet, with ripe
pear and apple flavors; $15.

   • 2006 Brassfield
Estate Pinot Noir, High
Serenity Ranch Vineyard,
High Valley: black cherry
and spice, full-bodied and
rich; $24.

RECOMMENDED

   • 2007 Brassfield
Estate Pinot Grigio, High
Serenity Ranch Vineyard,
High Valley: light and crisp
with floral aromas and fla-
vors of green pears; $15.

   • 2007 Brassfield
Estate Sauvignon Blanc,
High Serenity Ranch Vine-
yard, High Valley (85 per-
cent sauvignon blanc, 13.5
percent semillon 1.5 percent
gewürztraminer): crisp and
rich with flavors of green
melons and ripe pears; $16.

   • 2005 Brassfield
Estate Zinfindel, Round
Mountain and Volcano vine-
yards, High Valley (92 per-
cent zinfandel, 8 percent
syrah): soft and hugely rich
with red raspberry and
chocolate flavors; $22.

   • 2005 Brassfield
Estate Merlot, High Seren-
ity Ranch Vineyard, High
Valley (77 percent merlot, 18
percent cabernet franc, 5
percent petite verdot): rich
and ripe with black cherry
and black pepper aromas
and flavors; $23.

   • 2004 Brassfield
Estate Syrah, Round
Mountain, High Valley: rich
and ripe with earthy aromas
and black raspberry flavors;
$24.

Reader seeks wine, food in New York's Finger Lakes

Dear Fred,

I'm going on a road trip this summer in the Cayuaga Lake / Seneca Lake area in New York State.  I understand there are a lot of wineries in that area.  Do you have any advice on good wineries or restaurants in that area?

Thank you,

Vicki Pearlman

Dear Vicki,

            I envy you the trip. The Finger Lakes area is a delight. Here are a few paragraphs from a travel story I wrote about the area:
            Unlike California's wine country, the Finger Lakes wineries can show you flavors from three distinctive eras of American wine.
            At Bully Hill Vineyards the wines are catawba, elvira, Delaware -- hardy American native grapes that have grown along the Eastern Seaboard for centuries. The taste: grapy, simple, sweet. 
            At Cascata Winery, the wine is baco noir, a hybrid grape developed by French vintners around 1900 seeking better-tasting wines and vines that could withstand the frigid winters of North America. The taste: charry oak, resin, black cherries; a step up, but still unfamiliar to most American palates.
             At Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars, the wines are chardonnay, riesling, pinot noir. The taste: crisp, rich and dry - as main-line and familiar to American tastes as anything from California or Europe. The riesling in particular wins medals in national competitions.
              For dining, I like the bistro at Red Newt Cellars on the east side of Seneca Lake in Hector, N.Y. They make some nice wines as well.
               You can find more info at visitfingerlakes.com
                Let me know how you make out.

Fred

Historical wines from Down Under

   In 1992 two Aussies, Kim and Mark Longbottom, started a winery in Australia's Padthaway district, in the country's cool southern region, a three-hour drive from the chilly Antarctic Sea.

   They were history buffs, so they named the winery Henry's Drive, after the carrier on the mail route plied in that area by horse and stagecoach in the 1850s. As new wines came along, they, too, were named in the old postal theme. Pillar Box red and white were named for the colorful mail boxes that dotted the then-remote hillsides.

   Dead Letter Office shiraz got its name the same way. Parson's Flat shiraz honored the minister who rode the postal coach to tend to his scattered flock. The Trial of John Montford Cabernet Sauvignon was named for the outlaw who was hanged for robbing the mails.

   Last year -- sad to say -- Mark Longbottom died. But his wife Kim, and new winemaker Renae Hirsch, are carrying on making wines, working 500 acres of vines that produce 160,000 cases a year.

   The limestone soils produce wines with complex scents of minerals. The wines are made in the rich, fruity style equally popular with Australians and Americans. The bright sun produces fruit so ripe that their the juice's sugar levels can ferment into wines with
more than 15 percent alcohol.

   "In some of our grape parcels we use reverse osmosis to bring down the alcohol level to make more balanced wines," Hirsch says. "We want the wines to be fruity, but without too much alcohol in the finish."

   Some of Henry's Drive's red wines -- the Pillar Box Reserve Red, for example -- do end up at 15.5 percent alcohol (compared to a 12 percent average for wine), but they're so
intensely fruity that they can handle that alcohol.

   "We're happy with that," Hirsch says. "We don't plan to change."

  

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

  

   • 2008 Henry's Drive Pillar Box White, Padthaway (67 percent sauvignon blanc, 28
percent verdelho, 5 percent chardonnay): tart kiwi and lime flavors, very dry, crisp, very
fruity; $12.

   • 2005 Henry's Drive Parson's Flat Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon (70 percent shiraz, 30
percent cabernet sauvignon), Padthaway: aromas and flavors of lavender, violets,
mulberries and chocolate, opulent and smooth; $40.

   • 2005 Henry's Drive Reserve Shiraz (100 percent shiraz) Padthaway: intensely minty
black raspberry flavors, mocha overtones, voluptuous and smooth; $50.

  

  

RECOMMENDED:

   • 2007 Henry's Drive Pillar Box White, Padthaway (56 percent chardonnay, 30 percent
sauvignon blanc, 14 percent verdelho): green pear aromas and flavors, rich, opulent, sweet finish; $12.

   • 2007 Henry's Drive Pillar Box Reserve Shiraz (100 percent shiraz), Padthaway: very
dark color, aromas and flavors of mulberries and cocoa, velvety, deep, concentrated fruit; $20.

   • 2007 Henry's Drive Pillar Box Red (65 percent shiraz, 25 percent cabernet sauvignon,
10 percent merlot) Padthaway: black raspberries and mocha, big, bright and frity, soft
tannins; $12.

   • 2006 Henry's Drive Dead Letter Office Shiraz (100 percent shiraz), Padthaway: aromas and flavors of licorice and black cherries, very smooth; $27.

   • 2006 Henry's Drive Shiraz (100 percent shiraz), Padthaway: cassis and espresso, lush,
concentrated black fruit; $35.

   • 2006 Henry's Drive Trial of John Montford Cabernet Sauvignon (100 percent cabernet
sauvignon), Padthaway: earthy aromas, flavors of licorice and sweet chocolate; $30.

A soupcon of sea urchin in your chardonnay?

    I get in trouble from time to time for using terms like iodine, tar and cat pee to describe the aromas and flavors in wine.

    It could be worse.

    Decanter magazine has an article by a Chinese wine expert arguing that Asians find many Western wine terms inscrutable. She says we'd do better using descriptors more familiar to Asians -- like sea urchin, Kobe beef ot shark's fin.

     Keep an eye on my future wine columns.

Jacques Pepin popular on WLRN food & wine show

     I didn’t realize how beloved chef Jacques Pepin is until he was the guest on the WLRN food and wine show with Linda Gassenheimer and me on Thursday. Callers hardly even had questions for him. They just wanted to tell him how much they appreciated his cooking TV shows and recipe books.
     He talked about Mediterranean cooking, and I talked about the wines of the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. Linda had gone on a cruise and visited the island and its famous winery, Sela & Mosca. I complained that I didn’t get to go, but had to talk about the wines.
     Still, they’re very Mediterranean grapes, so they’re appropriate for Jacques Pepin’s recipes.
Sardinia is a big island about 120 miles off Rome on the Italian mainland. Its eastern shore, the Emerald Coast, is full of Italian vacation villas, fancy yachts and jet-setters cavorting in the emerald waters. But its interior, especially in the north, is mountainous and rugged. And home to a giant winery called Mosca & Sela that makes some very good wines.
      For the most part, the grapes aren’t the usual chardonnay, merlot, cabernet and such. They are more unusual grapes and wines. Just to name a couple:
· Vermentino, a crisp, rich white wine with flavors of grapefruit and oranges.
· Cannoneau, the red grape called Grenache in France, with spicy strawberry and raspberry flavors.
· Terre Bianche, a white wine from the local torbato grape, which tastes like vanilla.
· Terrarare, a red wine from the carignano grape, that’s spicy and fruity.
     Jacques said he has visited the winery and particularly likes its vermentino. Give it a try. Supermarkets probably don’t carry it; you’ll have to go to a big wine shop.
     Oh, and check out the program on our podcast. Click on the icon at left.

 

Eiffel Tower falling down

    Blame it on the recession or on France's newfound love for soft drinks, but the Associated Press reports that the French drank 10 percent less wine last year than in 2007. And their wine exports fell by 15 percent.