SF Natural Wine Week 8/23-8/28

SF Natural Wine week. Do it.

Many thanks to Wolfgang and co-organizer, Nattie Light (just dubbed him that, but I think it's a good nickname that might stick) for all their work putting this together.

For your convenience, I am copying and pasting the schedule of events from their site below:

Monday 8/23 – Terroir Natural Wine Merchant

Time: 6.30pm for the first seating; the second seating is at 9pm.
What: The boys at Terroir – one of the premier natural wine destinations in the US – are hosting a special dinner 3-course dinner with wine pairings in their shop/bar on Folsom Street.
Cost: $80
For more information, please contact Terroir at 415-558-9946

Tuesday 8/24 – Bi-Rite Market

Time: 7pm – 9pm
What: Bi-Rite’s wine buyer, Trac Le, will feature a selection of 6 – 8 everyday natural wine values, available for $20 and under. In other words, wines you can take home tonight for not a lot of money!
Where: Hosted at Bi-Rite’s 18 Reasons space at 593 Guerrero (at 18th St.)
Cost: $10 for members of 18 Reasons; $15 for non-members
For more information please contact Trac Le at Bi-Rite Market at 415-241-9760

Wednesday 8/25 - Biondivino

Time: 6pm – 8pm
What: Local italophile Queen Bee, Ceri Smith, will feature a selection of Italian natural wines at her intimate shop in lower Russian Hill.
For more information, including cost and specific wines being served, please contact Biondivino at 415-673-2320

Thursday 8/26 – Arlequin Wine Merchant

Time: 6pm-8pm
What: Ian Becker, wine director at Arelquin and Absinthe as well as the co-founder of SF Natural Wine Week, will host a walk around tasting featuring the innovative winemakers leading the way for natural wine in California.
Cost: $20
For more information, please contact Arlequin Wine Merchant at 415-863-1104

Friday 8/27 – San Francisco Wine Trading Company

Time: 5:30pm-7:30pm
What: One of San Francisco’s top independent retailers and bastion of fine wine in the fog-bound western half of the city, the San Francisco Wine Trading Company will present natural wines from Europe and North America. Featured producers include La Grange Tiphaine, Occhipinti, Maestro Sierra, Luis Rodriguez, Stave 28 and County Line.
Cost: $15 (including appetizers)
For more information please contact San Francisco Wine Trading Company at 415-731-6222

Saturday 8/28 – The Jug Shop

What: The lovely Floribeth Schumacher will host a tasting of her favorite natural white wines from Italy — mostly Friuli, but also other Italian wine regions. Of course ‘white’ is relative here; expect a few of these to be orange wines.
Time: Afternoon
Cost: $25
Please contact the Jug Shop directly to confirm the exact time of the tasting.

Long time, no beer post

As the title suggests, it's been a while since I have discussed beer - at least on this site. As we recently received in (and very quickly sold through) our allocation of some lambics and geuze from Cantillon, and as I anticipated the usual run on them by purchasing two of each (one for now, one for the cellar) I thought that it would be an opportune time to write about these fantastic, peerless beers of the sour style. If you are not familiar with sour beer, their home base is in Belgium and Flanders - though they are so popular now that most countries with a serious craft brewing scene produce at least a few examples. Lambics and geuze beers consist of water, hops, barley, wheat, and often times a single variety of fruit. They ferment spontaneously with native yeasts as well as bacteria such as Brettanomyces. After fermentation, they are typically aged for at least a year in used oak barrels and then refermented in the bottle. Lambics are from a single batch. Geuze is a blend of 1,2 and 3 year old lambics blended for their distinctive flavor components.

From my experience, Cantillon makes the tastiest, most balanced and elegant geuze and lambic beers. Below are some quick notes for the Cantillon beers I drank last week.

Cantillon Geuze

Crisp, tangy sour apricot flavors with some subtle Brett characteristics. Refreshing in a tough to pinpoint way, this is sneakily complex as well. I like to serve it in a white wine glass, just as I prefer to drink champagne.

2007 Cantillon Iris

Whereas the Geuze above is a blend of different lambics, this is a single lambic brew. There is no wheat in this one, just barley, water and a 50-50 blend of dry and fresh hops. As a result, the beer has a darker, more amber color. Its aromas and flavors are more burnished, with a bit of sour, but less fizz and deeper, bassier tones than the geuze. In a seriously high quality line-up, this might be my favorite
of the bunch.

Cantillon Kriek

Spicy, tart, complex and deeply satisfying. The essence of fermented cherries as only a lambic can manifest. I find a tough time describing how good this is without employing profane language....

Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus

This is usually the most challenging of Cantillon fruit lambics. It can be really sour. This batch, however, is mouthwateringly delicious in a way similar to the Kriek above. Rasberry flavors are pure and evocative of the fruit. Elegant and addictive.

Cookin'

Drinking Notes - Geeky Italian edition

I drank a good amount last week (maybe too much?) But this is an important part of acquiring wine knowledge, drinking. An obvious point, perhaps, but plenty of people, even professionals, could stand the occasional reminder. To the aspiring oenophile, I offer you some words of advice: Engage in some regular exercise, eat a sensible diet, drink lots of water, and you should be ok drinking a few glasses of wine on a nightly basis. OK, last week there were a few nights where I had a few more than a few, but sometimes things need to go down that way. It's the natural ebb and flow of the wine drinker's drinking.

Some wines drunk last week with brief notes:

2006 Tenute Dettori Vermention

Wonderful freshness, texture and pungent fennel snap make this 2 day skin macerated, hazy yellow white a must order at La Ciccia.

2004 Tenute Dettori "Dettori" Cannonau di Bade Nigolosu

Co-owner Massimiliano Conti generously opened a bottle and gave us a taste. A friendly gesture to be sure (it's not cheap). 16.5% alcohol old vine cannonau. Not shy. Likely a one off for me.

2001 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

Showing well initially, with deep, structured dark fruits and some Brett. As the wine opened up, it showed an ever increasing proportion of brett, and monster tannins. Fun for an hour, shut down city the rest of the night. NCAA hoop fans, remember the heyday of Dicky V? As he might say, "Shut down city, baby!"

2008 Giuseppe Rinaldi Freisa

As good as a wine can taste at 3am after a day of work, a big dinner, and lots of wine preceding it. Ask Wolfgang for a real tasting note on this piemontese classic.

1979 Il Colle Brunello di Montalcino

Still hanging in there. This wine was, amazingly, made from 7 year young sangiovese vines. '79 is not as well regarded as '78 for old Brunello, but this is hanging in more than fine. Wonderfully perfumed, with elegant savory cherry fruit, some subtle barnyard savory funk, and a bit of a creamy, lactic quality in the particular bottle I drank. I meant to have it with meat, but as we had a later reservation we just got too stuffed to go any further. Weak, I know. The well respected, currently on wine internet hiatus GG on this wine, "It tastes like old fucking wine."

2003 Marques de Murrieta "Capellanía" Rioja

Is there anything that old vine viura cannot do? This is hot vintage, estate grown viura from very calcareous soils on the Murrieta property. The wine is fermented and then aged 18 months in French oak barrels. Think of this as a slightly riper, richer, oakier LdH Viña Gravonia. What it lacks in Gravonia's understated grace and silken texture it more than makes up for with great intensity, freshness and acid driven structure. [Pause for the pimpin' cause: at the shop we sell this wine for $15, order it if you're intrigued].

1999 Lopez de Heredia "Viña Gravonia" Crianza Rioja

Somehow this wine is eminently drinkable, serious enough to analyze while sipping, and great with a variety of foods. A most complete package.

2006 Pedralonga Do Umia

High acid blend of caiño, espadeira and mencía dazzles the Spanish wine haters with beautiful, spicy, floral aromas, 12% alcohol and high acidity, a smidgeon of it volatile.

Old Overholt Rye Whiskey

"Old overalls" as I have heard it called is a classic San Francisco rye whiskey. I do not advise drinking this after Mount Gay and ginger ale drinks and Boont lager.

Tasting Notes - Some Dunn, lots of Spanish

Here we go, another batch of tasting notes for your reading pleasure.

THE SPANISH

2009 Montebuena Rioja

Fresh, unoaked tempranillo, to me, is rarely an interesting wine. Neither is this, but it is certainly easy to drink and tastes of its place. It's $10, you know? A wine that if you are on my employer's email list you will likely hear about today....

2008 Volver Tempranillo La Mancha

Purely a commercial prospect, this is wine I would not personally enjoy drinking. However, given the sweet-ish, Taransaud laced ripe La Mancha flavor profile, there is a place for this wine amongst my customers, so yeah - I bought it. Sometimes there are buying decisions that I make with the end customer and our bottom line in mind more than my inclination to drink a wine. Most buyers work that way, and though it is not coming from an aesthetically pure place, such is life in the great big online wine retailer game. Don't worry, we still have rueda dorado, traditional rioja, sans soufre macabeu and Canary Island wine for your drinking pleasure (and mine).

2008 Do Ferreiro Albariño Rias Baixas

I do not want to rush to judgement for what is typically amongst my 2 or 3 favorite albariños each year, but this tastes uncharacteristically ripe and lacking in minerality this year. Simple golden stone fruit. In its current state, a huge disappointment. Let's see where it's at in 4-6 months.

2007 Benito Santos Viñedo de Xoan Rias Baixas Albariño

Terrific wine. Todd Blomberg, a San Francisco native, is a partner in this winery, which takes its name from the original owner and one of the early pioneers in the Rias Baixas D.O., Benito Santos. This vineyard, a mere .5 hectares, is farmed organically. Vines here are old, about 80 years I believe, and they grow in granite soils which are so typical here. There is a density, and flavor intensity that reminds me of dry chenin blanc. Plump and generous but mineral, full of fruit yet bolstered by good acid structure. No fru-fru, simple, flabby albariño here.

2006 Benito Santos Viñedo de Bemil Rias Baixas Albariño

Another fantastic example from a separate 80 year old vineyard, this one containing limestone. The structure here is a bit more tense. The acid bites more, in a good way though. I love the minerality, deeply intense flavors and length of this wine. Could age and improve longer for sure.

2008 Ferreira Soalheiro Alvarinho "Primeiras Vinhas" Vinho Verde

The formerly cool, edgy, tense, tangy green fruit profile has opened up considerably since I last tasted a few months ago. It is slightly tropical, in a totally acceptable, structured way. The fruit is intense and persisent. Very interesting alvarinho.

2007 Pedralonga "Barrica" Albariño Rias Baixas

I have never found an oaked albariño I liked. Until now. Somehow, the elevage here does not take away from the amazing acid and mineral structure. If anything, it contributes some subtle nuance of flavor and sweetness, adding a component which blends quite well with the intense, steely acids and minerals. I like to think of some white wines (often times my favorites) as having big, mouthfilling acidity. Savagnin, menu pineau, Chenin, sauvignon grown in Mont Damnes...stuff like that, you know? This wine has got a similar acidity and somehow the oak does not mess it up.

2007 Mengoba Godello y Doña Blanca "Sobre Lias" Bierzo

I am still not a full fledged godello believer. I've seen some interesting wines such as this, but they just get a bit too creamy and soft after some bottle age for my taste. 6-7 months with weekly battonage can have that effect. The acidity is here, but not as present or dominant as I prefer. I have heard the comparison that some people make to Muscadet for these wines, and I think that perhaps for the cooler climate godellos there is something to that comparison. I'm just not sure if the best wines have as much drive and ability to transform in bottle as their Atlantic climate French counterparts in the pays nantais.

THE DUNN

I have a lot of respect for what the Dunn family, with Randy's son Mike now at the helm, have accomplished and continue to achieve with their wines up on Howell Mountain. Their wines have been known to age extremely well, given their tense, tannin driven structures in their youth (structures which, for cabernet based wine, also are not shy in acid). Dunn is old school Napa, anti cult cab, critical of the critics, and proud to be that way. These are folks with whom I would be inclined to roll, so to speak.

2006 Dunn Napa Cabernet Sauvignon

I liked this a lot. Very promising black fruited nose, with the sort of tensely knitted balance which these young wines are known for. I have not much experience with older Dunn wines, and would be curious as to how the Napa bottlings age compared with those from Howell Mountain.

2006 Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain

Like the wine above, but with more intensity to the darker fruits, more richness. The wine has a denser core to it. I could see drinking the first wine with a steak, whereas I would definitely hold off on drinking this wine for at least 5 years, but ideally for much, much longer. Maybe Dunn wines have a shutdown period, as well? That should be taken into account for cellaring and drinking purposes.

2004 Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain

For some reason, this wine showed a rather soft, precocious quality which seems at odds with the winery's reputation for producing hard, tannic wines which need a long time to become drinkable. Black cherry fruits dominate here, and though the wine is still primary it shows well enough to enjoy now if you like a youthful, fruit dominated wine.

2002 Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain

Here is where the questions arise and some doubts began to surface in my mind. There is a weird, band-aidy flavor in the wine, and a certain volatile quality aromatically. I would be curious to see if this is a widespread issue with this vintage.

1998 Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain

Just as I was taking in the rather large stamp which Brettanomyces has imprinted on this wine, Mike was mentioning how the wine has transformed and become a wine that people really enjoy, regardless of the panning of the 1998 vintage amongst wine critics. I have had good wines from this vintage and enjoy that the wines are typically more elegant and balanced than usual. Montelena, for example, made a very good estate Cab in 1998. With this wine, or at least this bottle, however, there is just too much Brett for even my taste. More barnyard like and fecal Brett than savory and meaty Brett. My understanding of Brett in wine is that, over time, it will not go away with extended bottle aging.

So, I guess you can say that the Dunn tasting raised more questions than it provided answers. For a variety of reasons (chief amongst them time constraint and no prior contact with Mike Dunn), I did not get into any of these questions. By the way, I have no problem with a winery producing some wines that (at least for my palate) miss every now and then. But I would love to hear from anyone who has more experience with Dunn than I do. Maybe I had some bad luck with individual bottles, or maybe I just need someone to school me and tell me to shut my pie hole.

Next up, my preferred variety of notes, drinking notes.

Notes from New World (part 2): Waiting for Weinert, or what's wrong with Argentine wine

I taste Malbec every week. EVERY WEEK. While some people may view this to be cool or fun, are maybe even a bit envious, let me assure you that this is not my idea of a good time. It is not one of my favorite responsibilities of the J-O.

Argentina boasts abundant sunshine and cheap land - even planted acreage is comparably cheap. As a result, foreigners spend lots of time here. They may hail from Napa, Bordeaux, Tuscany or elsewhere, but ultimately what these wine industry and entrepreneurial types are invariably looking for is a piece of the growing Argentine wine export market. To do this, they all suggest similar means to reach the same result: overly fruity, extracted wine that tastes more like a room of new French barriques. While one may argue that these types of wines have infiltrated all over, from their epicenter in Napa and Bordeaux, to Tuscany, Piedmont, Rioja, even Greece, Argentina remains so disappointingly steadfast in its dependence on a single varietal, cultivated, harvested and vinified in similar ways. Please feel free to correct me if you believe I'm wrong here. However, tasting Argentine wine every week, this is my opinion. To prove me wrong, you will need to point me towards individual wines that are more than merely well made, fruit forward, intensely flavored wine from old vine fruit aged in Allier barrels.

One notable exception to my difficulty with Argentine wine would be Bodegas Weinert. These are unique wines. They are not aged in new barrique. Their wood foudres range in size from 600 to 2500 liters. Not a single new barrel is used; in fact, barrels are conditioned for 4 years with tannat prior to being used for their wines. Prior to their elevage in wood, these wines are fermented in concrete. There is acidity in these wines. Sometimes, a tiny portion of this acidity is volatile. Some brettanomyces makes the occasional appearance. All of this is fine by me, as these characteristics make Weinert wines some of the most unique and characterful in Argentina. You might call Weinert the Lopez de Heredia of Mendoza.

The same week which I tasted the Luigi Bosca wines (see my earlier pt. 1 post) I had the opportunity to taste through some Weinert wines.

2008 Bodega Weinert Carrascal Blanco

Composed of 70% sauvignon blanc and 30% chenin blanc. Sweet citrus and starfruit aromas lead to a fresh, zippy palate, with good texture as well. An original wine.

2005 Bodega Weinert Carrascal Red

A blend of malbec, merlot and cabernet sauvignon, aged two years in cask and another year in bottle. Savory dark cherry fruit shows a sunny, warmer climate generosity and richness, but does not veer towards sweetness or oaky wine flavored beverage status.

2004 Bodega Weinert Malbec

This is like a more intensely flavored, richer version of the wine above. A darker fruit profile and a shade oakier, but still nothing approaching Bordelaise consultant levels of oak here. Enjoyable enough, but as often is my experience with a producer's range of reds, I enjoy the cheaper one.

Notes from New World (part 1): "F'd up"

Though I seldom write up wines from the New World (feel free to refer to the blog title if you're wondering why) I taste quite a few at work. In fact, in addition to my Spanish and Portuguese buying duties, I also help select the wines from Argentina and Chile. While they are not my favorite, peoples out there still like these wines quite a bit, and it is important that I cull through the oceans of swill to determine the best from the rest. Due to, um, let's just call it uniformity of product, this is not an easy job. I was going through my notebook, looking for anything of interest, and I believe that I found a nice contrasting morning of two tasting appointments. We will start this two part series with some quick notes I took on the wines of Luigi Bosca.

2006 Luigi Bosca Pinot Noir Mendoza

Baked and f'd up.

2007 Luigi Bosca Pinot Noir Mendoza

Plum, dark fruit. Not much wine or pinot noir character here. F'd up.

2006 Luigi Bosca Gala 2 Mendoza

Nose - sweet dark fruit, a bit greenish. OAK.
Palate - ripe, tastes forced. F'd up.