Wine Beneath The Palms

Good wines, interesting poster from Hahn Estates

 

   Hahn Estates of California is a nice family winery story. In the late 1970s, Nicolaus
and Gaby Hahn established their first few small vineyards in California's cool Monterey
County. By 1988, they had persuaded authorities to create an official wine appellation
status for the lands around them … today called the Santa Lucia Highlands.
   Today they own 650 acres there ranging up to 1,200 feet in elevation for cool weather.
   Their Hahn Estates wines are made entirely from those acres. They also have created other wine brands with grapes from other areas. Cycles Gladiator Wines come from the Central Coast and elsewhere in California.
   They make wines for the times. Their most expensive one is $16.
   Trying to come up with a label for their Cycles Gladiator line of wines, the couple
settled on a 1895 bicycle theme, celebrating the golden age of biking and bike racing in
France. At the time, biking was seen as liberating to women, who donned bloomers or even slacks and pedaled off away from home.
   They chose a Parisian art poster created by the French artist G. Massias for the label.
It depicts a nymph, nude, soaring on one of the new bicycles, called the Cycles Gladiator.
   The label was deemed pornographic and banned by the state of Alabama, although they didn't have trouble elsewhere.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
   *  2008 Hahn Estates Syrah, Central Coast (syrah, petite sirah): deep purple color,
aromas and flavors of black raspberries, mocha and cloves, ripe tannins; $14.
   * 2007 Hahn Estates Meritage, Central Coast (merlot, cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot,
malbec, cabernet franc): big, ripe black cherry and black coffee aromas and flavors, soft
and hearty; $16.
   * 2008 Cycles Gladiator Pinot Grigio, Central Coast: white flower aromas, flavors of
ripe apricots and golden apples; $10.

RECOMMENDED
   * 2008 Hahn Estates Chardonnay, Monterey: big and ripe, with pineapple and mango aromas and flavors; $12.
   * 2007 Hahn Estates Merlot, Monterey: aromas and flavors of black plums and black
pepper, soft tannins; $14.
   * 2007 Hahn Estates Cabernet Sauvignon, Central Coast (cabernet sauvignon, merlot):
black raspberry and bittersweet chocolate aromas and flavors, smooth, full-bodied; $14.
   * 2008 Cycles Gladiator Pinot Noir, California: tart cherry and cinnamon aromas and
flavors, crisp, soft tannins; $11.
   * 2007 Cycles Gladiator Merlot, California: (merlot, cabernet sauvignon): soft and
sweet, black cherry and black pepper aromas and flavors; $10.
   * 2008 Cycles Gladiator Syrah, Central Coast: soft and rich, with mulberry and black
coffee aromas and flavors; $10.
   * 2007 Cycles Gladiator Cabernet Sauvignon, California (cabernet sauvignon, petite
sirah): aromas and flavors of black raspberries and chocolate, rich and soft; $10. 

 

Wine: the best of the best of the best

 

   My favorite tasting at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival is always the “Best of the Best,'' in which some of the world's top wineries show off their...well...best stuff.
   There's always something new, something exotic, something fabulous. Here are some of my favorites from this year and the stories behind them:
  * 2006 Maison Alex Gambal Clos Vougeot Grand Cru, Appellation Clos Vougeot Controllée, Burgundy, France (pinot noir): pale red hue, aromas of smoke and violets, flavors of tart cherries, cloves and minerals, very smooth, long finish; $170.
   Alex Gambal is living every wine fan's dream. A real estate executive in Washington, D.C., he started poking through a local wine shop and got interested.
   “In 1992 my wife and I took a vacation to France. We had dreamed of taking a sabbatical year and perhaps working in the wine industry. On vacation we met Becky Wasserman [a wine exporter in Burgundy]. During an evening of good food and wine at Becky's we discussed the idea of an apprenticeship at 36 years old, and by the evening's end we had agreed to move to France."
    Today he's a respected Burgundy vineyard owner and exporter. So, keep dreaming.
  · 2007 Chateau d'Esclans “Whispering Angel'' Rosé, Cotes de Provence, France  (grenache, rolle, cinsault, syrah, mourvedre): light and dry and lively, with intense tart strawberry and cinnamon flavors; $19.
   Sacha Lichine, owner of Chateau D'Esclans, runs in lofty social circles. At a dinner party on the Riviera, he met Denise Rich, a socialite who was setting up a foundation to fight cancer in memory of her daughter, Gabrielle Rich Aouad, who had died of leukemia.
   Rich talked Lichine into donating wine for a charity dinner on her yacht in St. Tropez, and he sent his “Whispering Angel,'' feeling it appropriate.
   How did it get its name?
   “We have a chapel at our chateau with two angels at the altar. One time I heard them whispering to me.”
   · Multivintage Krug Grande Cuvée Brut Champagne, Reims: long-lasting pinpoint bubbles, toasty, nutty aroma, fresh citrus flavors with an oxidative quality that reminds one of baked apples, even beer; creamy, lingering finish; $170.
   Krugistes, as its cult followers call themselves, use all the dark and brooding adjectives to describe it … nutty, toasty, oaky, spicy, dense, rich, powerful, oxidative, with flavors
of minerals, ginger, marzipan, almonds, pears, smoke, even beer. Yet it always retains a certain creamy freshness.
   * 2007 Planeta Burdese, Sicily IGT (70 percent cabernet sauvignon, 30 percent cabernet franc): inky hue, rich and powerful with aromas and flavors of black plums, mocha and tar, muscular tannins, good steak wine; $32.
    What's the biggest wine-producing region of Italy? Sicily, of course … more than Tuscany or Piemonte. To be sure, 80 percent of Sicily's wines are bulk stuff, but the other 20 percent is led by the Planeta family, which in just 13 years has established four vineyards and two wineries. This wine will put Sicily on the world map of wine.

Good, cheap wines from South Beach Festival

   What a day for a beach party. Blue Atlantic. Sunny sky. Crisp, cool air. White sand. Smiling people offering to fill your glass at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Miami Beach.
   Among all the fancy wines, there also was was a stunning array of inexpensive wines on display … wines $15 and under poured by merchants who understand that we love good wine even when times are tough.
   In the Celebrate France tent, Stephen Hauser of Pasternak Wine Imports was grousing about how expensive wines have lost their “sales velocity'' these days, with cheaper wines to the fore.
   “People who were buying $35 wines are now buying $20 wines,'' he said. “People who were spending $20 are now spending $15.''
    Here are two dozen wines from nine countries at $15 and under that I tasted at last weekend's festival.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
   ø‚2008 Barons de
Rothschild White Bor
deaux, France: crisp and
rich, with ripe pear fla
vors; $15.
   ø‚2006 Chateau
Fombrauge Grand Cru,
St. Emilion, France: black
cherries and black pepper;
rich and hearty; $15.
   ø‚2007 Twin Vines
Vinho Verde by Jose
Maria de Fonseca, Portu
gal: very dry, with lime
and kiwi flavors; $9.
   ø‚2008 Lucien
Albrecht Reserve Ries
ling, Alsace; aromas and
flavors of ripe peaches;
lightly sweet; $15.
   ø‚2009 San Telmo
Torrontés,  Mendoza,
Argentina: crisp, lightly
sweet, intense lychee fla
vors; $12.
   ø‚2007 Sauvion
Muscadet Sevre et Main,
France: light and dry, with
crisp white grapefruit fla
vors; $11.

RECOMMENDED
   ø‚Nonvintage Mus
cat de Saint Jean de
Minervois, dessert wine,
Languedoc, France: very
sweet, flavors of oranges
and hazelnuts; $12 per half
bottle.
   ø‚2008 Patch Block
Pinot Noir, Vin de Pays
d'Oc, France: tart cherry
and cinnamon flavors,
full-bodied, very rich; $10.
   ø‚2008 Falanghina
dei Feudi di San Grego
rio White Wine, Italy:
light and crisp, tart apple
and mineral flavors; $14.
   ø‚2007 Jean-Claud
Bougrier Vouvray, Loire
Valley, France (chenin
blanc): tangy, sweet-tart
white grapefruit flavors;
$9.[PARA]
   ø‚2005 Rubrato
Aglianico dei Feudi di
San Gregorio Red Wine,
Italy: inky black color, hint
of oak, black plum flavors,
firm tannins; $10.
   ø‚2005 Folie a Deux
Menage ÞaTrois, Calif.
(chardonnay, muscat and
chenin blanc): lightly
sweet, flavors of pears and
cinnamon; $13.
   ø‚2007 Antigal Mal
bec, Mendoza, Argentina:
black raspberry and dark
cocoa flavors; $15.
   ø‚2009 Sanama Sau
vignon Blanc, Valle de
Rapel, Chile: soft, with
aromas and flavors of
white peaches; $8.
   ø‚2007 Straccali
Chianti Classico, Italy:
tart and crisp; flavors of
red raspberries and cinna
mon; $15.
   ø‚2008 Megapanos
Savatiano, regional white
wine of Spata, Greece:
very crisp, very tart white
grapefruit flavors; $15.
   ø‚2009 Miolo Family
Vineyards Chardonnay,
Vale dos Vinhedos, Brazil:
simple, tart green apple
flavors; $13.
   ø‚2008 Miolo Family
Vineyards Pinot Noir,
Vale dos Vinhedos, Brazil:
earthy black cherry fla
vors, tart finish; $13.
   ø‚2008 Marquis de
Rueda Verdejo, Spain:
intensely fruity with fla
vors of ripe peaches and
minerals; $11.
   ø‚2008 Voga Pinot
Grigio delle Venezie,
Italy: smoky, earthy, full-
flavored with hints of
green apples; $10.
   ø‚2008 Bodega Sep
tima Malbec, Mendoza,
Argentina: black cherries
and milk chocolate; $10.
   ø‚Nonvintage
Schnebly Winery Pas
sion Fruit Wine, Home
stead: sweet-tart, with
pomegranate and red
apple flavors; $14.
   ø‚2007 Cotes du
Rhone Parallele 45 Red,
Paul Jaboulet Aine, Rhone
Valley, France: muscular
red plum and cinnamon
flavors, big tannins; $11.

We're ready for our close-up, Mr. Director

     

    Hey, wine fans. Check out the new wine videos I've just done with Dinkinish O'Connor, the wine columnist for Miami.Com.

    That's her sig, to the right.

    We tell what we think of some of the wines that will be poured at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

     

    

Sonoma: A tale of two wineries

 

Tales of two very different Sonoma County wineries:

La Crema: Head west out of Santa Rosa, Calif., through acres of grape vines, passing tractors and wagons on the road, and soon you're in a dark forest of 100-foot redwood trees alongside a fast-moving river. It's the Russian River Valley.

Here, in one of the coolest parts of Sonoma County, sisters Laura Jackson Giron and Jennifer Jackson, with winemaker Melissa Stackhouse, produce cool-weather varieties of chardonnay and pinot noir.

La Crema is a small family winery with vineyards spread around northern California's coolest areas, including Anderson Valley to the north and Los Carneros to the south.

Stackhouse specializes in the winemaking style of France's cool Burgundy

area, fermenting the grapes in oak barrels, using secondary malolactic fermentation to soften the wines and make them more complex.

            Frei Brothers: This winery dates to 1890, when Swiss immigrant Andrew Frei purchased 334 acres in Sonoma County from a gold miner, and, by 1895, was making 20,000 cases of wine a year. In 1903 he turned the vineyard over to his sons, Walter and Louis.

After Prohibition ended, the Frei brothers signed an agreement to sell all of their grapes to Julio Gallo, and, in 1978 the E‚&‚J Gallo Winery bought the vineyard outright, keeping the Frei Brothers name. Today it's part of Gallo's high-end Sonoma operations.

 

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

   ø‚2007 La Crema

îîNine Barrel'' Chardon

nay, Russian River Valley:

a big wine, with 14 percent

alcohol; ripe and rich and

creamy, with powerful

baked fruit flavors; $70.

   ø‚2008 La Crema

Pinot Noir, Russian River

Valley: black cherry and

bittersweet chocolate aro

mas and flavors; lush and

ripe; $38.

   ø‚2007 Frei Brothers

Reserve Sauvignon

Blanc, Russian River Val

ley: aromas and flavors of

cut grass, minerals and cit

rus; crisp and lively; $20.

 

RECOMMENDED

   ø‚2007 La Crema

Chardonnay, Los Carne

ros: lively citrus aromas,

with flavors of toasty oak

and caramel; rich and

creamy; $30.

   ø‚2007 La Crema

Pinot Noir, Los Carneros:

black raspberry and

mocha aromas and flavors;

rich and ripe; $38.

   ø‚2007 La Crema

Nine Barrel Pinot Noir,

Russian River Valley: big

and rich, with black plum

and cinnamon flavors,

creamy, with ripe tannins;

$90.

   ø‚2006 Frei Broth

ers Reserve Cabernet

Sauvignon, Alexander

Valley: full-bodied, with

aromas and flavors of

black cherries, licorice

and mint; $24.

   ø‚2007 Frei Brothers

Reserve Merlot, Dry

Creek Valley: medium

body, black cherry and

black pepper aromas and

flavors, soft tannins; $20.

   ø‚2007 Frei Brothers

Reserve Syrah, Russian

River Valley: black rasp

berry and black pepper

aromas and flavors, soft

tannins; $24.

   ø‚2007 Frei Brothers

Reserve Chardonnay,

Russian River Valley: aro

mas and flavors of lemons,

pears, peaches; rich and

soft; $20.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reader seeks info on two new wines

    Reader Doe Stern wants to know about a couple of new wines: Kupelweiser Pinot Grigio and Los Boldos Cabernet from Chile.    

    I haven't tried them.

    If you have, message me at wine@miamiherald.com and tell Doe and me about them.

    Thanks.

    Fred Tasker  

Toast your valentine with rosé-colored glasses

  

   What's the proper role of wine at Valentine's Day? The Gaylords described it
nicely back in the '50s:
   From the vine came the grape,
   From the grape came the wine,
   From the wine came a dream to a lover.
 What’s the proper wine for that lover’s dream? proper wine for that lover's dream?
 Rosé.
 It's pretty. It can smell like roses. When well-made, it tastes of red fruits from
strawberries to raspberries to cranberries. Like romantic relationships, it ranges
from soft and sweet to crisp and tart.
   Rosé’s reputation was down for a while, as too many California winemakers made sickly sweet “blush” wines and “white zinfandels,” and some Spanish winemakers made their  rosé sweeter for the U.S.
Those days are gone.
Today's rosés tend to be crisp, tart and intensely fruity. They're made of red
grapes … zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, gamay … with skins removed hours after crushing for that pink hue.
   Rrosés fall somewhere between white and red wines in style, so they go with many foods. They're great picnic wines, with sandwiches, chicken, tuna or fruit salads. In Provence, they're drunk with bouillabaisse; in Spain, they're popular with paella. They go
with ham … pink meat, pink wine. Makes sense.
   And they're made as sparkling as well as still wines. So what could be more romantic than toasting your Valentine with rosé?

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
   ø‚Nonvintage Roe
derer Estate Brut Rosé
sparkling wine, Anderson
Valley, Calif.: lots of lively
bubbles; floral aromas, tart
cranberry flavors; $27.
   ø‚2008 Bonterra Rosé, Mendocino County,
Calif. (organic sangiovese,
zinfandel and grenache
grapes): aromas of red
roses; intense, tart red
raspberry and cinnamon
flavors; long finish; $13.

RECOMMENDED
   ø‚2008 Beringer
White Zinfandel, Calif.:
lightly sweet; ripe straw
berry aromas and flavors;
$8.50.
   ø‚2007 Remy Pan
nier Rosé  d'Anjou, Loire
Valley, France (caber
net franc): tart cherry
aromas and flavors; full-
bodied; $12.50.[PARA]
   ø‚2008 Mas de la
Dame Rosé du Mas, Les
Baux de Provence,
France (grenache,
syrah, cinsault): red
berry aromas; dry black
cherry flavors; full-bodied;
$17.50.[PARA]
   ø‚2008 Mouton
Cadet Bordeaux Rosé,
France (merlot, cabernet
franc, cabernet sauvi
gnon): aromas and flavors
of cranberries and miner
als; very dry; $12.50.[PARA]
   ø‚2008 Marques de
Caceres Dry Rosé, Rioja,
Spain (tempranillo, garna
cha): dry, rich and crisp,
with intense tart cherry
aromas and flavors; $13.50.[PARA]
   ø‚2008 Marques de
Riscal Rosé, Rioja, Spain
(tempranillo, garnacha):
crisp and dry with intense
red raspberry and
cinnamon aromas and
flavors; $10.[PARA]
   ø‚2008 Louis Jadot
Beaujolais Rosé
(gamay): tart cranberry
and mineral aromas and
flavors; crisp and dry;
light-bodied; $11.50.[PARA]
   ø‚2008 Red
Bicyclette Rosé, Vin de
Pays d'Oc, France (syrah,
grenache): light, tart,
 crisp, with cherry and
spice; $9.[PARA]

 

Wine of the day: Scharffenberger Brut NV bubbly

 

    The wine: Nonvintage Scharffenberger Brut sparkling wine, Anderson Valley, Calif.

    It's full-bodied, made with two-thirds pinot noir grapes and one-third chardonnay.

    It has a yeasty aroma and flavors of mangos and peaches.

    It's nice for sipping all by itself.

    But you know its perfect use: With a bucket of KFC fried chicken. Its crisp acids and active bubbles will scrub that fat off your tongue and leave you ready for the next bite.

    It's $20.

Wine of the day: Carmel Road Pinot Noir

 

    A good pinot noir for $17 is nice to find. Here's one.

    It's the 2007 Carmel Road Pinot Noir, Monterey, California. It's rich, with violet aromas and blackberry and cinnamon flavors.

    Try it with grilled salmon. Or salmon sauteed in butter, maple syrup and soy sauce.

    

Bubbly is super for Super Bowl

 

    Last minute tip for Super Bowl sipping!

 

    Cava, the Spanish name for sparkling wine, is the perfect sip for football parties. It's versatile and pleasurable. And cheap.

 

    The one shown here, Cordon Negro by Freixenet, is about $10 in your local supermarket. It has big, soft bubbles and green apple flavors. It goes well with seafood, tacos, chips & dips -- its scrubbing bubbles even match well with fried chicken.  And you'll find several more brands on the shelves.

 

    Cava also makes a nice sparkling wine punch. Just add a can of frozen concentrate from your favorite fruit, a bottle of soda and a bunch of ice.

 

    And give three cheers to the Who Dat? Nation.