Wine Beneath The Palms

When France finally admired American wine

      I don’t know how Access Hollywood missed this – it’s certainly the talk of the wine world.

      In 1976, a Paris-based British wine retailer named Steven Spurrier staged a publicity stunt, setting up a blind-tasting between up-and-coming California chardonnays and the top chardonnays from France.
To the anguish of French pride, the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay from California beat them all.
     American wine lovers look back on the date as if it were the Fourth of July. It literally put America on the world wine map, and see how far we’ve come now.
     Now, two new happenings:
      A new movie, Bottle Shock, is coming out, loosely based on the 1976 tasting.  It stars Alan Rickman as Steven Spurrier. Viewers say it’s the next Sideways – the 2004 film in which Miles and Jack put California pinot noir on the map and did major damage to merlot.
     Just as the movie comes out, the news arrives that the famous Chateau Montelena has just been sold – to the Bordeaux wine estate Chateau Cos d’Estournel.
I’m not sure whether to be proud or sad about that. I guess the dollar is so weak that the French figure that if you can’t beat them, buy them.
     Fans, what do you think?
     Click on the “comments” icon below and tell us.

Finding furmint can be frustrating

Dear Fred :
   
   Where can I buy (in Miami) your recommended white wine "2006 Royal Tokaji Furmint" ?
   Many thanks for your answer.

   Leo Yanez

Dear Leo:

A couple of readers asked this question after I mentioned the wine in my column last week. It’s an unusual wine -– a bone-dry white made of the furmint grape in Hungary, where it’s usually used to make the ultra-sweet Tokaji dessert wine.
And I don’t know the answer.
Readers, shop-owners, tell us: Where can Leo find furmint?

Fred

Beer regains lead over wine

            Remember those national polls that said drinking wine in America had become almost as popular as drinking beer?

            Well, forget ‘em.

            In 2005, Gallup said wine was up to 37 percent and beer was down to 40 percent among ages 30-49. Well, their most recent poll finds beer back up to 47 percent, wine down to 27 percent.

            I guess we Americans took our shot at sophistication, but we couldn’t keep it up.

            

Reader reminisces about Australian wine country

Hi Fred.

     I enjoyed your article today about Australian wines.  My husband has an office in Adelaide and when there we have spent a lot of weekends visiting wineries in Adelaide Hills, Barossa and McLaren Vale.

     It is just beautiful (if you have not been there), really reminds us of Tuscany.  But with the Gulf of St. Vincent in the background in McLaren Vale. 

     There is such diversity in the wineries, large, small, the type of town they are in, the food selection available (from none to a cheese platter to a full gourmet lunch or dinner), and whether or not the winery even has a cellar door. 

     One thing is similar - if they do have a cellar door they usually have you taste at least five wines, and we've never been to a winery that charges for the tasting.  One of our favorite wines, a Shiraz from Barossa, is First Drop's 'Mother's Milk'.  Now there's a name!  Thanks for a nice reminder of Adelaide! 

Susan Groden
Plantation, Florida

Hi Susan,

    Sounds like a great trip. I haven't been there yet, but it's next on my list.

     One thing I've learned from your letter and some other reading I've just done is that Aussie wineries usually have tasting rooms -- and they call them cellar doors.  Very colorful.

Fred Tasker

It's like American Idol, only with grapes

You’re sick of Big Brother. You cringe at Hell’s Kitchen. Now there’s a reality TV show that might actually be worth watching. Or maybe I’m just biased.
Come September, Doc City Productions will be in Miami holding auditions for a new PBS TV series called The Wine Makers. They’ll pick 12 contestants from around the country to spend a few weeks in California’s Napa and Sonoma Counties competing in grape picking, fermenting, blending, bottling, choosing labels, devising marketing schemes and so on.
As the season goes on, contestants taste each others’ wines, evaluate their techniques and vote each week on whom to eliminate.
The winner gets a contract to produce 1,000 cases of wine, a five-city tasting tour including New York, San Francisco and maybe Miami and help with retail sales contracts.
“We mean for this to be a life-changing experience,” says spokesman Kevin Whelan.
This is actually season two. Season one is in the can, shot last year in Paso Robles, in California’s Central Coast wine region. It awaits viewing on PBS in January, after the national elections. This season will be shot this fall, aired in fall of 2009.
Here’s how to check it out:
· www.youtube.com/winemakerstv to see clips from season one.
· www.winemakerstv.net to sign up for the Miami auditions.

PS: If you decide to audition, please let me know at ftasker@MiamiHerald.com I’d like to follow your progress.

Miami traveler seeks new wines in Argentina

Dear Fred,

I am currently visiting Buenos Aires for the next three weeks. Could you suggest any local wines for me to try?  I've been enjoying the food and I might as well take in a good wine as well.  I'm a long time Miami native and I thought you might be of assistance.

Thank you in advance,

Allen Kaplan

Dear Allen,

There are a couple of interesting wines these days in Argentina.

Malbec is a red grape that originally was used in France's great Bordeaux blends (along with cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec, petit verdot and cabernet franc). In France it's hard as nails, but in Argentina's sunny climate at the foot of the Andes it turns soft, tasting like chocolate-cherry candies.

Torrontes is a white grape that may or may not be related to Germany/Alsace's gewurztraminer. It's white, crisp, almost spritzy, with white grapefruit and flower flavors.

Let me know what you find.

Cheers.

Fred Tasker

PS: A nice malbec/cabernet sauvignon blend would be great with Argentina's grass-fed steaks.
The torrontes would probably be good with breakfast.

                                                                                        

Taste 12 rums at Thursday event

     Rum is part of some of the greatest summer drinks recipes, from the iconic Cuba Libre, which embodies the hopes of a nation to the sinister Zombie, which has four kinds of rum and a splash of brandy.

     Now comes an opportunity to taste 12 rums for $20. Pretty good deal.
It’s the Gifted Rums of Jamaica event from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thur., July 24 at The Gables Colonnade Hotel, 180 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables. RSVP here or call 305-443-7973.

Rums tasted include Appleton Estate Reserve, Coruba Planter’s Dark Rum,
Myers Legend Aged Reserve, Blackwell Fine Jamaican, Sangster’s World’s End Rum Cream and others.

Will smoke taint top california grapes, wines?

          The wildfires raging in California have spared top vineyards in Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and other northern counties, says my Napa-based friend, wine consultant Tim McDonald.

          “We’ve been extremely lucky,” he says. “The one fire in Napa Valley was in a rural area with no residents, no vineyards, not even any horses.”

          Still, some growers are concerned that smoke from the fires could taint their grapes.

          There’s a story and photos of the problem in the online Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

          “In 1995 some vines actually burned, and other wineries nearby had smoke damage. When the wines were vinified, they tasted kind of smoky. But that was later in the season, when the grapes were more developed.”

          The chief danger right now, he said, is the Central Valley, where many inexpensive wines are made. The fires in Big Sur and Butte County are directly west of Modesto and Fresno, and the ocean winds have been blowing smoke straight east.

          “There’s been a lot of chat,” McDonald says. “People are concerned.”

         

Potent pisco to be poured; watch out

Now, you have to be careful with pisco, the grape brandy distilled in Peru and Chile. It tastes deceptively mild, with flavors of vanilla and minerals. It’s particularly smooth when made into the iconic drink, the Pisco Sour.

But it’s 40 percent alcohol, just like bourbon or scotch, and it’ll getcha if you don’t watch out.

Pisco’s history is disputed between Peru and Chile, even though there’s a town called Pisco in southern Peru. But it seems that Spanish conquistadores in the 1550s planted grapes in southern Peru. The best grapes went into export wine. The lesser grapes were given to local growers, who fermented them, then distilled the result into pisco.

Nothing wrong with that. The equally potent grape-based liquor called grappa in Italy and marc in France is fermented and distilled from from the stems and skins left over when the grapes are pressed.

Anyway, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Hollywood Vine, 2035 Harrison St in Hollywood, two piscos will be poured at a free tasting that’s part of this month’s Artwalk. Herble Loebl, owner of Montesierpe, one of Peru’s oldest Piscos, will pour his own pisco as well as the pisco from Viña de Oro.

The oil paintings of Rodrigo Picado are also on display.

Call 954-922-2910 or see hvine.com

Some wine fans vow to resist screw-top bottles

Yesterday I asked readers' reactions (see item below) to news that even French winemakers may be turning to screw-top bottles -- even on their best wines -- to avoid the problem of cork taint that is ruining so many wines. Here’s a response:

Dear Fred,

I will never buy an expensive red wine in a screw-top bottle. Part of the enjoyment of wine is when the sommelier comes to your table and ceremoniously cuts away the capsule and, with that little pop, pulls the cork. If I’m going to pay those big restaurant markups, I want something for it.

Jane Brow, Hallandale

Dear Jane,

I feel your pain. I’ve heard that some sommeliers have been working on how to elegantly open screw-top bottles. It seems that, if you position your wrist and hand around the bottle just right, you can twist the bottle open so the click is heard and the bottle label is precisely facing the customer. And just before doing that, the sommelier tells the customer, “Now, just listen for the click of quality.”
Think you’d ever buy into that?
Fred

Question: Does anybody have suggestions for how to cope if screw-tops ever become ubiquitous? If so, click on the “comments” Icon below and tell us.