The economic crisis isn’t bothering the wine swells. Tix went on sale at midnight Monday for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival that’s Feb. 19-22, 2009, and by 2 p.m. they had sold out the Rachel Ray Burger Bash, Joe’s Stone Crab’s Big Brunch, the Saturday Grand Tasting and the Grand Tasting Weekend Pass. More than $1 million in sales, says guru Lee Schrager.
There’s some hope: On Jan. 1, 2009 they will put more tix on sale for the Grand Tasting, the Burger Bash and the BubbleQ (which is not yet sold out).
I keep hearing people say they aren’t going because it’s too expensive. But I guess, as Yoga Berra is alleged to have said: “Nobody goes there any more because it’s too crowded.”
You'll dig deeper for 2009's South Beach Winefest
It'll cost you $200 to eat ground beef with Rachael Ray at the Burger Bash during the 2009 South Beach Wine & Food Festival, Feb. 19-22. That's up from $150 last year. And the sip of the evening isn't even wine -- it's Amstel Light.
It gets worse.
The Grand Tasting, which in 2008 went from $137.50 to $187.50, in 2009 goes to $212.50. And Sobefest host Lee Brian Schrager expects to sell it out again. The Perrier Jouët Bubble Q goes from $300 to $350. So does the Best of the Best tasting of top wines.
"I don't know if even I would be spending that kind of money right now," says
Schrager. "But we feel our audience will pay it. It's good value for the money."
In a week of presales to prime American Express and Delta customers, ticket purchases were up 90 percent.
"The only thing I can figure is that people who usually fly to Europe or the Caribbean are staying closer, coming here this year."
The Saturday night Tribute Dinner, at $550, will honor chef Emeril Lagasse. And there will be four more dinners that night to assuage wine fans who, last year, couldn’t get into the dinner honoring Robert and Peter Mondavi. The new dinners will include one by Mouton-Rothschild at the Wolfsonian Museum, hosted by the Baroness Philippine Rothschild. It’s $66.
Tix go on sale today. See www.sobewineandfoodfest.com. 877-762-3933.
Casa Lapostolle offers good, inexpensive wines
About 100 miles south of Santiago, in Chile's central valley, is a winery called Casa Lapostolle. The soil, the climate and the vineyard workers are Chilean.
Everything else is French: the winery, above, the owner, the chief wine consultant, even the grapes, albeit a century or more removed.
Ninety-seven percent of the wine is exported, to the United States, England, Russia and beyond. Few Chileans ever taste it.
"Only the wealthy people in Santiago can afford it," says Jérôme Poisson, a French-born winemaker at Casa Lapostolle who is on a U.S.tour this fall.
"Chile was never a big wine-drinking country like Argentina," Poisson says. "They drink beer or pisco or boxed wines."
Chile's loss is our gain. Casa Lapostolle wines are great values for the money -- from the crisp and fruity $10 sauvignon blanc to the smooth and powerful $25 Cuvée Alexandre to the shifting, complex, even savory $70 red blend of carmenère, merlot and cabernet sauvignon called Clos Apalta.
The wines are the products of strong personalities, beginning with "flying winemaker'' consultant Michel Rolland. The Bordeaux winemaker guides more than 100 wineries worldwide -- and sometimes is accused of minimizing the natural differences among their products by his insistence on super-ripe grapes and extensive aging in powerfully flavored French oak barrels.
"He visits three or four times a year," says Poisson. ‘‘Once before the harvest, then two or three times during blending."
Blending decisions are made by Rolland, chief winemaker Jacques Begarie and French winery owner Alexandra Marnier-Lapostolle.
"You need a strong personality to work with Michel Rolland," says Poisson. "But she [Alexandra] wants thelast word in blending."
For example, in the 2006 vintage, the $70-a-bottle Clos Apalta wine wasn't quite up to her standards. Poisson suggested demoting some of its grapes to the $25 Cuvée Alexandre merlot eventhough it would cut Clos Apalta production from 6,000 bottles to 3,000.
"She said, ‘Go ahead.' Shehas to take a long-term view of creating only the best quality."
So here’s a tip: If you can score a bottle of the 2006 Cuvée Alexandre Merlot, it'll have some pretty high powered grapes. You read it here first.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
• 2008 Casa Sauvi-
gnon Blanc, Rapel Valley
(90 percent sauvignon blanc,
10 percent semillon): Crisp
and fresh, almost spritzy;
intensely fruity with flavors
of melons and minerals; $10.
• 2005 Casa Lapos-
tolle Cuvée Alexandre
Merlot, Apalta Vineyard (85
percent carmenère, 15 per-
cent Merlot): black plums,
mulberries and bitter choco-
late; smooth, ripe, opulent;
long finish; $25.
• 2004 Casa Lapos-
tolle Clos Apalta, Rapel
Valley: complex, shifting aro-
mas of tar and roses; flavors
of mulberries and licorice;
big, ripe, smooth tannins;
long finish; $70.
RECOMMENDED
• 2007 Casa Chardon-
nay, Casablanca Valley: hint
of oak and mint; tangy tan-
gerines, ripe fruit; tart finish;
$13.
• 2007 Casa Merlot,
Rapel Valley (85 percent
merlot, 15 percent cabernet
sauvignon): black cherry and
herbal aromas and flavors;
ripe tannins, long finish; $13.
• 2006 Casa Cabernet
Sauvignon, Rapel Valley:
aromas of cassis, aged meat,
iodine and oak; flavors of
black cherries and espresso;
firm tannin; good steak wine;
$15.
Merlot's ups and downs, courtesy of Hollywood
Fred:
I was sort of ambivalent about merlots, liking some, not liking others, until I saw the movie Sideways a few years ago. In that movie it was severely dissed. I have not purchased a merlot since. Am I being a snob, or is merlot just misunderstood?
Take care,
Woody Graber
Woody,
It was a bit enigmatic when Miles, the wine snob played in the 2005 movie by Paul Giamatti, made his famous statement: “I’m not drinking any ^&%$#* merlot.” I guess he was referring to the fact that merlot, in the previous 10 years, had become so popular that growers started planting it everywhere – including some places where it didn’t do well. It was widely agreed that the wine had declined in quality.
Nationwide, sales of merlot slumped. And sales of pinot noir, the wine that Miles praised, soared.
“It’s amazing how much effect a little joke can have,” said Frank Ostini. It was his Hitching Post restaurant outside Santa Barbara, Calif., where the movie was filmed, and his “Highliner” pinot noir that got all the glory.
Well, in the time since, merlots have recouped some of their reputation, as growers figure out where they should grow and where they shouldn’t.
In fact, when Ostini came to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival last February, he brought bottles of his Highliner Pinot Noir to show off.
And he brought bottles of his latest new offering: a soft and fruity merlot.
