A few of California's finest whites: Varner Chardonnay

Jim Varner came in today to pour his 2006 vintage Chardonnays. Located in California's premier area for fine wine production, the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, Varner chardonnays are amongst the brightest, cleanest, most transparent and complex white wines produced in the US. 2006 was apparently a very successful vintage (as they mostly are here in sunny California). The growing season for chardonnay lasted two weeks longer than in 2005, though the acidity measured to be roughly the same. And these wines do not lack for acidity- good, natural, balanced acidity. I'm listing these in ascending order of richness and fleshy texture.

2006 Varner Amphitheater Block Chardonnay

This is always Varner's most mineral expression of Chardonnay. Which makes sense given that this particular site has the least amount of top soil above the layers of sedimentrary rock. Though the wine goes through full malolactic and spends some time in new oak, the wine retains its steely, tangy apricot fruit edge, which is unusual for a new world Chard. Jim mentioned that he allows the indigenous yeasts to do their work for fermentation on all of his wines, joking that his brother (and Varner winemaker) Bob likes saving a hundred or so bucks on the bags of yeast he chooses not to buy!

2006 Varner Bee Block Chardonnay

Smells and tastes a bit fleshier, but still a great overall sense of balance and liveliness on the palate.

2006 Varner Home Block Chardonnay

While this is the biggest and richest of the three, with the most mellow and subdued acidity, I still think that this is a terrifically balanced chardonnay. Some riper, melon flavors appear here, but once again with the acidity, balance and natural flavors which all of these wines are known for having, year in and year out.

Some 2006 Austrian Rieslings and Gruner veltliners

Considered one of the best vintages in recent memory, 2006 in Austria apparently really delivered the goods, especially for Riesling and Gruner Veltliner. So far, I have really enjoyed many of these wines; at their best they are more pristine, mineral, vivid wines than '05 (which is no slouch on its own), and have more heft and flavor intensity than '04. And of course they are infinitely tastier than the '03's. My only gripe is that gruVe, even in as successful a vintage as 2006, just comes across the palate with too much spice, too much power for this particular imbiber. Some wines, some notes:

2006 Weingut Schmelz Gruner Veltliner Pichl Point Federspiel
Round and supple, yet retaining a tart apple crunchiness. Simple. Tasty.

2006 Summerer Gruner Veltliner Steinhaus
Very mineral, slightly creamy, with a delicate citrus and sorrel flavor. Quite enjoyable, a bit more so than the Schmelz.

2006 Nigl Gruner Veltliner Privat
From old vines, this is obviously a good deal weightier and spicier. Juicy pear and white pepper. Juicy, ripe, spicy. Long. Terrific wine that needs several years to come together.

2006 Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Vom Urgestein
Juicy and so, so clean. This is a blend of younger vines from the grand cru Heilegestein and Gaisberg sites. Each produces great Riesling on their own, and here the combination of the two sites makes interesting wine indeed. Yellow stonefruit, mineral, acidity are really balanced and super tasty. I like it now, but 3 years from now would be when I would drink more. Can't say enough good things about the wines at Schloss Gobelsburg.

2006 Wenzel Furmint
Very aromatic in an autumnal, orchard sort of way. Squeaky clean, racy, and Pinot Blanc like. The vagueness in this note doesn't properly convey how much I really enjoyed this wine.

[Note: the following trio from Donabaum were tasted three days after they were first opened]
2006 Weingut Donabaum Wachauer Bergterrassen Riesling Federspiel
Ripe, yellow plum and hints of orange blossom on the nose. Very mineral, firm and nervy. Meyer lemons on the palate. Tasty, well-integrated acidity. Delicious federspiel.

2006 Weingut Donabaum Setzburg Riesling Smaragd
A red apple and banana nose leads to a creamy, fat, viscous palate with some ripe peach as well. A bit hot on the finish. I should note that I generally am tougher on the higher alcohol Smaragd wines - I usually prefer the Feds, at least at this early point in their development.

2006 Weingut Donabaum Johan Gruner Veltliner Federspiel Wachau
Spicy. Arugula and lemon flavors are a bit plodding and heavy. Slightly astringent on the finish.

[Note: these three from Weingut Gritsch were also tasted on day 3]

2006 Gritsch Kalmuck Gruner Veltliner Wachau
Really good weight, texture and spice on this guy, especially considering its retail of $12.99. Ripe melons on the nose leads to yellow stone fruits lentil and spice. Serious mid-weight white for cheap.

2006 Gritsch Gruner Veltliner Singerriedel Federspiel
While I liked the Kalmuck for its surprising weight and depth of flavor, I think the same attributes detracted from this Federspiel. It was a fat, no, an obese fed. No cut, no clean minerality. Unfocused and not very well balanced.

2006 Gritsch Singerriedel Gruner Veltliner Smaragd
Heavier, smokier nose than the above. Hot - the 14.5% alcohol unfortunately really shows on this gruVe.

Stuff that White Bloggers like #1 - A book deal

So the dude behind the ever popular stuff white people like blog recently was offered a $300,000 advance for a 'Stuff white people like' book deal with Random House. I read this in the Sunday NY Times, and cannot say that I am at all surprised. Clever concept, funny (if at times a bit mean-spirited) writing, and a potential to appeal to many white (and non-white) readers all add up to a risk that might be worth taking by a larger publisher.

It was particularly interesting to read about literary agents scouring blogs for potential talent. As a blogger in the growing blogosphere, specifically in the rapidly expanding wine blogging community, I wonder if anyone focusing on wine blogging might also get a book offer.

And a few more Greek wines worth mentioning....

Coincidentally, my recent group tasting featuring Greek wines preceeded a tasting including a few Greek wines at work. 2005 Tsantali Rapsanis (xinomavro, krassato, stavroto) had a nose of blackberry and tar - again there is that nebbiolo similarity. Fresh, nervy, stylish, well-made wine. I like the cut of this wine's jib. And at under $20 it's a deal. Next up, a Peloponnesian sparkler. Tselepos makes a sparkling wine from Moschofilero named 'Amalia.' Though some, no, all, of the muscat-like floral qualities are inexplicably lost in this bottle, it is still undeniably fresh, chalky, appley methode- champ sparkling wine. It tastes good. Finally, a little something sweet courtesy of the most successful Greek co-op. Muscat of Samos was all bitter-sweet, orange marmalade with a pine resin quality to the finish. Not my cup. Though after a big meal and before an espresso, it could work.

The Group meets again for a double blind tasting

A few weeks ago, Mario of the PMW tasting group selected a theme, told us nothing, and selected eight wines for us to run through and discuss. Unfortunately, I could not help but notice one of the wine's turquoise capsules poking out of the bag. Without so much as a sniff, I had a fairly strong hunch what we would be tasting. My first job in the business was selling wines imported from this country, and even though it has been four years since I have regularly tasted these wines, they have left their indelible mark on my palate and career trajectory in the wine business. So while I knew what the theme of the evening would be, and was feeling nostalgic for my years working for a fledgling import company, I of course kept my mouth shut. It would be fun, I thought, to see how many wines I could guess, as there is still a fairly small number of wines imported from this country into the states. Well, fellas, we were to be tasting the wines from Hellas (ok, that's Greece to us Americans).

FLIGHT 1, THE WHITES

Tselepos Moschofilero Mantinia 2006

I nailed this one. As well I should have - I used to rep the wine and it is very distinctive. Mantinia is an appellation situated on a moderately high plateau in the Peloponessos (southern Greece). In Tselepos' hands, the wine is simultaneously aromatic, floral, tense and nervy. White peach, tarragon-chervil notes on the nose lead to a crisp palate that lacks a bit in the middle, but is super clean and finishes well. It's like a Greek answer to the ubiquitous (and, I would say, fairly well done) Crios Torrontes, but less fruity, drier, and more mineral.

Moraiti Sillogi Moraiti Paros 2006

An interesting organic, Macedonian blend of the fleshy, Viognier like Malagousia and the more chalky, tensely structured Assyrtiko. I guessed that this was another Peloponnesian specialty, Roditis, given the mineral and citrus character. I was also thinking maybe Santorini, but it didn't have the explosive minerality.

Sigalas Santorini 2006

A top producer, though I still prefer Argyros, whose Santorini wines I find to be cleaner, more crystalline and simply better. Not to slight the Sigalas rendition, though, which is still chalky, fresh, and perhaps a bit more aromatically expressive and melon inflected. Maybe there is more Athiri and Aidani added to this wine, which adds some heft to the leaner Assyrtiko.

Kir-Yiann Petra 2006

Formerly known as Samaropetra. As a five syllable, white Greek field blend of Roditis, Gewurz and a few others, this wine surprisingly never sold well for me. Now the name has been shortened, and it consists of 100% chardonnay (??). Or so I was told. It was fresh and clean enough, with fleshy stone fruit and good persistence. Yeah, I suppose unoaked chard would make sense given how the wine tasted.

FLIGHT 2, THE REDS

Tselepos Agiorghitiko Nemea 2005

As much as I liked his Mantinia, I did not much care for this 100% Agiorghitiko wine. It was a correct wine. Fruit was just dark enough, the French oak elevage just the right time to appeal to critics. A real boring wine though, and a shame, as I'd love to see what could be done with his grapes vinified and aged in concrete, or inox.

Chateau Halaftis Athanassiadi Nemea 2005

Now this one went to the other extreme. Our previous wine was reductive, oaky and contrived in a new school sort of way. This example of aghiortiko was a bit rancio, not at all fresh, thin and astringent on the finish.

Kir-Yianni Ramnista Naoussa 2003

Yes, a return to good wine! Though this was a bit more generous, ripe and fruity than usual (leading me to think that it was a xinomavro based blend with international varietals thrown in). The funky, red fruited nose, though, and pure red berry fruits on the palate, with dry finishing tannins, screams Naoussa. This is what they drink in the Macedonian region of Greece, with lamb. Think Nebbiolo, with a bit more rusticity but every bit as much character and very similar tannin structure.

Dalamaras Paliokalias Naoussa 2004

More of a dark fruited, black cherry nose led to darker fruits on the palate as well, with great acidity and very dry tannins. I like this one quite a bit - should be interesting to re-visit in five years. I later learned that this bottling is produced from 40-60 year old, organically farmed xinomavro vines. At $35 it's not cheap, but it shows the enormous potential of xinomavro based wines - which appear to only be getting better with each successive vintage.

Dramatic Lemur

I couldn't resist. There is no denying this lemur's star power.

What's 1976 village Savigny les beaunes taste like?

Before I tackle the question above, I'd like to thank you all for patiently waiting a few days for a new post - I needed the rest. The Cold came back, except this time it progressed beyond my throat, and brought some fever along with it. I actually did try to post a few youtubes, but as sometimes is the case the site wasn't working. I guess it was not meant to be. Basically you missed a video of a lemur, and of John Medeski trading organ licks with a guitarist (forget his name) with an organ effects rig hooked up to his guitar.

Briefly, in other wine blog news I added a few links to the bottom of the page: Spume by Wolfgang Weber and Besotted Ramblings and other Drivel by Peter Liem. Many of you are probably familiar with their work both online and in Wine & Spirits magazine. Wolfgang's blog is wine focused, of course, but shows the wide array of other interests which I love in a blog. Peter's 'Besotted...' has already made me salivate by describing and posting photos of a hearty bowl of ramen in Tokyo, and has detailed tasting koshu, or aged sake, in Nigata. Very interesting and well-written. Check both of these blogs out, you'll be glad you did.

Now on to the '76 Chateau de Meursault Savigny les Beaune. It is a wine for which I had low expectations, but I bought it anyway because of the year (my brother's birth year). Though it was a good vintage in Burgundy (a hot one, though), and many of the better wines have apparently aged quite well, this is merely village wine from the cotes de beaune. From my understanding that is two strikes as far as extended bottle aging is concerned. I have limited experience with 30+ year old burgundy, though another wine from '76 was one of the most compelling, complete and satisfying wines I have ever tasted. This bottle tonight was not that. The color was light brick, with a touch of an amber glint towards the rim, in other words spot-on for mature burgundy. Black truffles, dark cocoa and berries on the nose preceeded a snappy palate of tangy cherries. At first the wine was a bit one-dimensional, but still obviously hanging in with fruit and some life yet. This humble, village savigny gained some intensity and heft as the meal went on, with the fruit turning a bit more assertive and darker. The pairing was with boneless leg of lamb (one day I'll venture outside of lamb for my mature burgundy food pairings) and herbed whole wheat orzo. It was fine, but the real pairing was the savigny and track 4 off Boredom's Vision Creation Newsun.