Weighing in on Natty wine

Within a period of two years, no single wine term has been as galvanizing, polarizing and heavily debated as "natural wine." Communities of vignerons, starting in France and spreading to Italy, Spain and the United States, have been formed around the strong sense of purpose and aesthetic behind natural wine. Business plans have been formed around the idea of selling natural wine. Columnists have given plenty of consideration to the topic. Wine blogs have formed their raison d'etre around natural wines (here is one, and another, notable example).

Recently, it seems that many in the wine intelligentsia are concerned about natural wine as a category and as a means of defining one's wine. In his column today, SF Chronicle writer Jon Bonné spelled out his concerns that the term "natural" is only beginning to see the type of abuse which will pervade the marketplace by wineries looking to market a trend. During the second annual SF Natural Wine Week, there was a debate about the "naturalness" of certain participating California wineries. A clever video illustrating some of the frustrations inherent in the terminology went viral (well, viral by wine geek standards).

Those who work hard to make what they view as natural wine, more importantly those who do so and are vocal about their methods, would argue that farming organically, on a smaller scale, fermenting musts with native yeasts, minimizing or eliminating the use of sulphur dioxide, enzymes and other additives, yields a more transparent wine. A wine that is more reflective of terroir, vintage, grape variety and the true regional style. While this may be the case, some would counter that the personality of some natural wines trumps the character of the surrounding terroir. Carbonic maceration, for example, does impart a certain character anywhere it is applied. A wine with no sulphur is more inclined to have a higher count of yeast and bacterial populations. These cause flavors that some find appealing while others find unacceptable.

I choose to view natural wine not as a style in and of itself, not as a flawed term soon to be exploited by marketers, not as a radical outsider movement. Rather, I view it as just one school of thought, one means to achieve what a winery is looking to produce. I respect anyone who makes the effort to produce a natural wine; it is not easy. Particularly, I admire those who, through a combination of experience, diligence, lots of work and study, and yes, unique terroir, are able to consistently produce good wine.

Two Kinds of Wine

There are two kinds of wine: good wine and the other kind.

My 1/4 of a day spent at the Ten Bells in New York City

Shit is getting a bit boring over here. Yes, I'm calling myself out on the lack of excitement of late. There is no academic rigor a la Jules Chauvet discussion. No antagonistic comments back and forth between high profile NYC sommeliers and high profile blogger and wine forum participants regarding the merits of orange wine. Just a feeble bunch of weekly to twice weekly posts over the last few weeks about what I don't quite remember because me, I'm as bored as you probably are.

So, what better than a good old rambling post about that institution of natural wine bars in New York, The Ten Bells, enjoyed in the company of cool knowledgeable wine people, opinionated folks who love to drink. Incidentally, that's what it's all about - drinking. Food is good, potentially delicious. Ditto wine. Together they can either fight, exist in relative harmony, or fit hand in glove in a special, delicious, symbiotic existence. Most often the middle descriptor is apt. So, I say, let the wine speak on its own merits, and do not hesitate to drink wine without food!

Prior to the big Kermit Lynch tasting at Chambers Street, McDuff, Natalie and I attended a casual tasting of wines from the Loire et Cher imported by Louis/Dressner at the Ten Bells. Several producers were present to pour their wines. The event was probably the most low key, relaxed trade tasting environment in which I have ever been. Whether due to our arrival earlier on in the tasting, the relaxed demeanor (persistent jet lag?) of the producers, or the City's conservation of energy leading up to Halloween festivities, things were mellow. Which was fine- mellow works well for wine tasting. We started out tasting Sauvignon Blanc, Gamay and Cot from the Clos Roche Blanche, except they weren't made by Catherine Roussel. Rather, it was made by Noella Morantin, who rents some of CRB's vineyards. They were all tasty, though the 2008 Morantin Gamay Mon Cher was a particular favorite - I've a soft spot for tangy red fruit. Next it was off to Olivier Lemasson's table to taste Les Vins Contés wines. I do enjoy both of these, both the focused P'tit Rouquin Gamay and the deep, mineral Cot. Next, a new producer (I think) for Dressner in Cour Cheverny, Domaine du Moulin. OK, not great. Romorantin better than the Cheverny Rouge. From there we tasted a few Puzelat wines: the '08 "Rouge Est Mis" Pinot Meunier which was a juicy, fun drink to be sure. It was a wine I had a tough time spitting. Finally, we tasted the 2008 Clos Roche Blanche 'Pif,' the blend of Cabernet (Sauvignon and Franc) with Cot. It's a bit tough and tannic now, and needs at least 6 months to a year to show better.

Fast forward about two hours, after we had been to the Kermit Lynch tasting, when we returned to The Ten Bells to drink (not taste) some wine. With a few tasty bites on the table (salmon tartare, beef tartare, squid and seaweed salad, and others) we drank the following (all magnums, no "half bottles"):

2007 Puzelat "La Tesniere" Touraine (Menu Pineau/Chenin) - As fresh, cutting and palate awakening as ever. Perhaps a bit more generous than what I expected, compared to the piercingly acidic Brin de Chevre.

2006 Domaine Henri Milan Le Grand Blanc

A blend of Grenache Blanc, Rolle (Vermentino), Chardonnay, Roussane and Muscat, this is actually similar to the blend in the wine which I thought this was, the Chateau de la Tuilerie (thanks again for the correction, McDuff). There is a minerality and freshness to the wine (in addition to the nutty/sweet oak and fatty texture) that suggests some pretty excellent terroir here near Avignon, France. Marl and limestone in your soil doesn't hurt your chances of producing interesting wine.

2007 Dard et Ribot 'K' Crozes Hermitage Blanc
Fun and pure fruited, but I didn't give it a whole lot of attention. I suspect that it will never taste as good as it did with pig ears salad at La Verre Voleé.

2008 Puzelat Pinot Noir Touraine
I thought I had ordered "La Tesniere," but it in fact was this Pinot Noir. Competent and quaffable if a little bit lacking in excitement compared to the vinous company surrounding it.

2008 Houillon/Overnoy Ploussard (aka 'plou-plou'; 750ml)
Tense, tight berry fruit which I liked but clearly needs some more months and ideally years to show better. As this was only a "half bottle" it was not plentiful so it came and went fairly quickly amongst us eight.

1989 Olga Raffault Chinon "Les Picasses" (750ml)

Not the wine I wanted it to be. Don't you hate when that happens? Very softly textured, with fully resolved tannins and full on tertiary wet tobacco development. Somewhere there was some fruit but not with enough vibrancy to keep me interested.

Late night we headed to Casa Mono, Mario Batali's ode to the Spanish tapa, where it was packed and we were directed next door to Bar Jamón, something of a 'B' team designation amongst these two establishments. Especially given the quality of the tapas, which were mediocre at best. My memory of Casa Mono three years ago is that of a much stronger restaurant putting out much fresher and more lively food than what we ate at Jamón. Other than jamón, I don't remember what I ate at Bar Jamón, partially my jet lag, but more owing to the lackluster cocina. C'mon, Mario, the people deserve better.

Overall it was a fun night in the big city, though I don't recommend putting in a 20 hour day following the California to New York red eye.

Orange Wines, La Cucina di Sardegna at La Ciccia - PT. 1

This is the first in a two part post about a recent orange wine tasting held last week. As I don't have many good pictures of the evening and try not to subject you to too many in-depth wine notes at once, I'm dividing this post into two. Enjoy.

So, how'd I arrive at the 'Clockwork of Orange' tasting? It comes back to two great connectors of people: Cory Cartwright's insightful, innovative 31 Days of Natural Wine series on his blog Saignee, and San Francisco natural wine merchant/bar Terroir through which I finally met Slaton, a cool, knowledgeable wine drinker who occasionally comments on this and other blogs. He invited me to tonight's west coast version of Levi D's New York City orange wine tasting, and I was all in.

Here's how it went.

Before we begin, though, a brief definition of 'orange wine' is probably in order. Wine made from a grape traditionally used for white wine production, which when fermented with extended skin contact with the juice (as is the case for red wines, anywhere from 15 days to eight months), obtains a darker color than is usual for white wine, an appearance which may be a clear or cloudy amber, occasionally with reddish glints. Sometimes this wine is aged for an extended period of time in clay amphorae. It may likely contain the barest minimum of added sulphites, or as in the wines from Stanislaus Radikon or Franck Cornelissen, none at all.

We starting the evening with a relatively young, fresh white wine, an 06 vermentino from 6 Mura, and enjoyed a few terrific appetizers, my favorite being a spicy, calamari based seafood sautee, which had some terrific olive oil which I think really elevated the level of this dish. Paper thin, delicate slices of smoked raw tuna were also quite good, as were the sardines if you're into strong, oceanic/fishy flavors.

On to the orange wines. For each of these I will include personal tasting note, as well as some winemaking notes provided by event organizer Slaton L.

Flight 1, "California does Zin, California does chard, but can California do orange?"

1. Frank Cornelissen 2006 "MunJebel 3 Bianco," Sicilia IGT

Personal notes - Controversial to say the least. This is wine from someone who is said to produce the most natural wines in the world. Acetyl, dirty, and uniformly disliked by the crowd, this was my least favorite wine of the evening. It may well be delicious when drunk close to his vineyards around Mt Etna in eastern Sicilia. Maybe, as someone suggested, it gets better after 10 days in the fridge (if that's the case then I certainly didn't see it). But at the moment, this particular bottle tasted like band-aids mixed with cider vinegar -not a good combination.
Wine notes: Carricante, grecanico dorato, coda di volpe. Vinified like a red wine, with long skin-contact.

2. Paolo Bea 2006 "Santa Chiara," Umbria IGT

Personal notes - citric, with orange and sweetened red grapefruit flavors that struck me as direct to the point of simplicity, though the wine did open up nicely and improve with air.
Wine notes - Grechetto, malvasia, chardonnay, sauvignon, garganega. 16 day fermentation on skins, finished in stainless.

3. Monasterio Suore Cistercensi 2007 "Coenobium Rusticum," Lazio IGT

Personal notes - as good a showing of this wine as I can remember. Many other tasters also quite liked the wine. Very distinctive and one of two wines which I fairly easily guessed, probably owing more to the fact that I have drunk it within the past 6 weeks than anything else. Pure, appley and pleasantly tannic on the finish. It showed less bitter chestnut honey than when I had last tasted it, a good thing in my book.

Wine notes - Trebbiano, malvasia, verdicchio, grechetto; 15 day fermentation with
the skins, extended lees contact. Yes, as we all know by now this is harvested by nuns....

4. Movia 2005 "Lunar"

Personal notes - this was my wine of the evening. Cloudy amber hued, the wine showed a good amount of red fruit and fetching oxidative aromas. Also a hint of washed rind, stinky cheese on the nose. A terrific, spicy, cidery balance bolstered by good acidity on the palate makes this a strong bearer of orange style.

Wine notes - Ribolla gialla, 65 yr old vines. Whole grape clusters are placed in barrels. The wine is never pressed off the skins or racked, and after 7 months the free run juice is bottled unfiltered.

5. Cowan Cellars 2008 Sauvignon Blanc "Silver Pines Vineyard," Sonoma Mountain (Barrel Sample)

Personal notes - Indeed this was very SB-like on the nose, with a touch of a grassy quality, which seemed to border on stronger vegetable root aromas with a hint of mintiness as well. It tasted like it has received the least amount of skin contact of this grouping, though it is still fun, bright and not at all boring. Probably the wine that best complemented our seafood as well.
Wine notes - For those of you who know him (and I suspect many of you out there do), Florida Jim makes this wine. Sauvignon blanc. 13 day cold soak with no sulfur, followed by 15 day alcoholic fermentation before pressing off skins. Full malo.

6. Natural Process Alliance 2008 Chardonnay "Skin Fermented," Sonoma Coast

Personal notes - Another wine which I had a pretty good idea of what it was. An interesting twist on New world chardonnay flavors: clean, pure, noticeably riper than its burgundian counterparts, but also a whole lot more textural, balanced and interesting than 99.9% of other California chardonnay. I'd be curious to see what would happen if these guys were to use less ripe grapes and increase the amount of time on the skins.
Wine notes - Chardonnay. 18 days on the skins (entire alcoholic fermentation) w/ 2x daily punchdowns, then pressed off to neutral barrels.

While going through this flight, I devoured a plate of fregula pasta in a sea urchins sauce. Rich, subtly powerful, deeply satisfying flavors and textures made this my favorite dish of the night, and good sustenance to ready me for the second flight.

to be continued....

Best under $10 bottle of the year thus far

A photo of Phillipe Tessier's Cour-Cheverny. Please note, the bottle pictured is 2006 vintage; the post is about the 2004.

Let's start the week off right with a genuine, bona fide post about honest, tasty, affordable wine. A wine blogging back to basics post if you will. Tonight I opened my second to last bottle of 2004 Phillipe Tessier Cour-Cheverny to go with a quick, light, thrown together at the last minute vegetarian dinner of perciatelli a la trapanese (i.e. pureed, uncooked roma tomatoes with garlic, salt, olive oil and almonds) accompanied by sides of swiss chard sauteed with bacon, and baked zucchini. While the food was fresh, tasty, and competently prepaired, and the pairing worked fairly well, I must admit that the highlight was the 100% Romorantin wine I had opened.

Tessier makes wines that typically have minimal fat and little immediate appeal. They are usually a bit taut and mineral, in fact there is this tough to describe pungency to his wines (both red and white) which may be off-putting to some. For this particular bottle, on this evening, however, the pungency took a back seat to incredibly pure, focused, well-delineated flavors. Citrus oil, pink grapefruit, a hint of grapefruit pith. Not NZ sauvignon blanc grapefruit here. As an aside, what an unfortunate thing that some people associate grapefruit like flavors with obnoxious, manufactured New Zealand sauvignon blanc. That's like confusing a perfect, in season grapefruit for Minute Maid grapefruit juice from concentrate. Away from grapefruit and back to Tessier, his '04 Cour-Cheverny is pure, perfectly balanced and quite persistent. I paid a mere $6 per bottle on this wine (solid closeout purchase) and I wish that I had at least another case.

May everyone out there drink at least one bottle this tasty over the next week.

Read this gentleman's blog for the Next 30 Days

In the absence of any current inspiration to put fingers to keyboard and blog, I figured that I would urge you, if you are not doing so already, to follow Cory Cartwright's 31 Days of Natural Wine series on his blog, Saignée. He has assembled a terrific list of contributors, as well as some acceptable B listers such as myself - I'll be posting about tradition, modernism, and whether there is any momentum in the Spanish natural wine community. For which I need to prepare and interview a few folks, so it's back to work for me.

Good ol' Tasting Notes...in three words or less

Some more quality time spent at Terroir last night, with my Birminghamian (England) co-worker, her husband, one of her friends (also from Birmingham) visiting San Francisco, as well as everyone's favorite San Jose based wine/food/music blogger, Cory Cartwright, with his lovely wife Emily. Incidentally, Cory has some very interesting things planned on his blog to celebrate natural wines in June. It's a growing list of slated contributors, including myself, Dr. J, Natural Process Alliance's Kevin Kelley, and others. As Kurt Loder used to say on MTV news, 'Do try to catch it.'

Last night, I was also spinning some records, often times letting a few tunes run in a row as there is only one turntable set up in a tiny area towards the back of the bar. Assuming the powers that be enjoyed the change of pace, I might do this again, in which case I'll publicize beforehand next time. If you enjoy the more than occasional youtube clips I post here including (but not limited to) the likes of Mobb Deep, Black Uhuru, Steel Pulse, Gangstarr, Kraftwerk, Mad Professor, etc, then you might enjoy checking it out.

And now, les vins...

'07 Marc Ollivier 'Clos de Briords' Muscadet- Crispy entree
NV ('95, not labeled as such) Renee Collard 'Cuvee Ultime' Champagne - lees, spice, broad
'07 Thierry Puzelat Le Brin de Chevre Touraine - Squeaky clean, focused
'08 Jean Foillard Gamay (forget exact name on label) - beaujo light
'07 Jean Foillard Morgon - now we talkin'
'06 COS Cerasuolo di Vittoria - cherriesburntbrownsugar
05 Eric Texier St Gervais - needed more decanting
'04 Domaine de Belliviers 'Hommage a Louis Derré' Coteaux du Loir- crack cocaine production

I need more SAVAGNIN in my life.

2004 Emmanuel Houillon Arbois Pupillin

I don't recall if I am listing this wine properly, because as many of you already know, Houillon took over the estate from his mentor, Pierre Overnoy, and both names are mentioned on the bottle (sometimes). Houillon works completely SANS SOUFRE (sulphur free). Yes, it can be done people... Anyway, this is Savagnin at its piercing, achingly acidic, and, with some air, fleshy, nutty, intriguing best. Not as much sous voile influence as, say, the '05 Montborgeau L'Etoile, but definitely a little more nutty, savory character than the '04 Domaine de la Tournelles Savagnin, which is also very tasty Savagnin, by the way. If you appreciate clarity, precision, intensity and ACIDITY in white wines than Savagnin is basically the shit. I need to drink more of the stuff.

For some interesting discussion on the intriguing wines of Houillon, Overnoy, Houillon/Overnoy, or however you choose to refer to this Jura estate, see here.

Or here.

Of course, I'd be remiss to not point you over to G's direction.

Oh, and for those with French language skills and/or aspirations, and a taste for the dramatic, here.

Chapeau Melon: Natural wines and Bistro in the 19th

[OK, thanks so much for bearing with the lack of activity on these pages of late. Collarbone recovery has been the focus of late. It takes me more time to do stuff - from work, to eating, to getting around, even sleeping - I seem to need an hour more sleep per night post collarbone fracture. Not to complain, just saying that I haven't updated as often as is typical and now you know why. Hopefully a change for the better this week.

My feedburner feed and widget seem to be back on track thanks to a little toying around (thank you Mateo). So if you'd like to subscribe, or have attempted to subscribe without any luck, or had subscribed way back in the day and then mysteriously lost the subscription, go ahead and enter your email to get your subscription to the world that is old and the school that is also old.]

And now, back to adventures in Paris....

The 19th arrondissement is to Paris what Queens is to New York: a diverse cross section of immigrants, the working class, and others who who make up a lively, colorful part of the city, that unfortunately goes under-appreciated by most tourists and even many city residents. What brought me here, besides taking a break from the touristy Paris, was actually Le Baratin, billed by none other than Terroir's Guillhaume Gerard as a 'must fucking go!' establishment for the quality of the food and the wine list. Since I tried to book a same day reservation for dinner, I was not surprisingly told that they were booked for the night.

I did happen to hear that another local spot, Chapeau Melon, was doing interesting things with natural wines. So I checked them out and confirmed this fact. They have a nice selection, with many of the usual French natural wine suspects, as well as Radikon and some other international representation, much more so than Le Verre Voleé. After purchasing a bottle of sous voile Arbois chardonnay as a thank you gift to one of my terrific hosts in Champagne, I discovered that this wine shop, as do many in Paris these days, doubles as a bistro at night.

I was able to make a reservation for two for that evening. While the 16 or so seats were full, the dinner did not quite deliver as much as I had expected. Salmon tartare with julienne granny smith apples in a soy sauce and olive oil dressing was a tasty start. After that, however, dishes were not as memorable: a plain chilled cream of asparagus soup; overdressed baby greens; overcooked pork. Given the enthusiastic reviews I've heard about this place, I might well have caught it on an off night. If you're around the neighborhood during the evening, I would encourage you to give Chapeau Melon a try for dinner, otherwise just check out their wines during the day and head elsewhere for dinner.

Chapeau Melon
92, r. Rébeval
75019 PARIS
T 01 42 02 68 60
m° Pyrénées / Belleville

Le Verre Volé

While I'm still kicking myself for not making a point to dine at Racines, I can at least take solace in the fact that I did eat dinner at Le Verre Volé, near the popular canal St. Martin area in Paris' 10th. The concept at Le Verre Volé (translation: 'the stolen glass') is similar to Racines: sell a focused selection of mainly natural wines (though Racines takes it a step further, sans soufre only), offer access to the same wines during lunch and dinner service (for a very reasonable surcharge of 7.50 euros) and, for people in the know, provide a terrific menu selection of simple cuisine, made from an array of ingredients sourced from top notch purveyors of farm grown food.

Upon walking in to Le Verre Volé, the first thing you might notice is the small size of the place. There are no more than 25 seats throughout, at tables fairly tightly packed together. Then your eyes will likely drift to either wine wall on opposing sides of the room. With prices marked in white chalk on the bottles, there is an excellent spread of mainly natural wines, from the likes of Rimbert's 'Mas au Schiste' St Chinian bottling up to more coveted bottlings such as Philippe Pacalet's '06 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru, and bottles of every conceivable stripe in between, the common thread often being that these are wines produced naturally, in smaller quantities, from grapes grown without herbicides, pesticides or other sprays, and fermented with their natural yeasts and a minimal amount of sulphur (if any) added during the winemaking process. That having been said, there were a few Bordeaux wines, Haut-Medoc bottlings (and definitely not 'natural') as well as a decent single malt selection (Springbank, Signatory) to break up the landscape somewhat, should you be craving something a bit more commercial (bdx) or strong (scotch).

Natalie and I started with an amazing bottle of 2007 Dard & Ribo Crozes Hermitage Blanc. Just the basic bottling, but so delicious. Fresh, a bit floral, with yellow fruits and a hint of a mineral/anise notes adding some structure. The wine improved steadily, especially when accompanied by my first course of pig ear salad with toasted coriander seeds which really brought out the freshness and balance of the wine, the coriander in particular bringing out the floral notes beautifully. I suspect that, like a versatile rhythm guitar player, this wine could have worked great with a number of different styled offerings, adding its own flair all the while.

Then it was on to something a little more readily available in the US, but no less delicious: 2007 Pierre Overnoy Poulsard. Emmanuel Houillon, who worked with Monsieur Overnoy, now runs the estate and is known for delicious, age-worthy sans soufre wines. The '07 Poulsard was bright, energetic and focused, a delicious foil to Natalie's fatty, Touraine saucisson, and to my herbal, savory, slightly sauvage tasting caillerets ardechoise (a very large meatball which, when cut open, unfurled a cloudy pillow of aromatic herbal grey smoke).

We also tasted a tasty St Joseph courtesy of Robert Camuto (who just happened to be in town, dining at Le Verre Volee when we were) - the producer's name escapes me. After our dinner we chatted with another American couple, and were cheerfully urged to share another bottle of wine by one of our kind hosts. We went ahead and followed his rec for a tasty, simple, carbonically macerated cotes du rhones (probably a good pick, as the couple seemed to prefer fruitier, more warm climate type wines). And before leaving, I sprung for that bottle of Pacalet Chambolle, which I drank in Epernay and, while tasty, it's clearly very young and I could not see what all the hubub (and top dollar pricing) is about with dude's wines.

So it was a very satisfying dinner at Le Verre Volé. I'll leave some info here in case you decide to go yourself. Definitely make a reservation for lunch or dinner, even if it's done midday for dinner that evening (which is what Natalie and I did). You won't get a table otherwise.

Le Verre Volé
67, rue de Lancry
tel: 01 48 03 17 34
Métro: Jacques Bonsergent

Leave the '81 Cote aux Enfants, take the fried chicken and vitovska

Last night my girlfriend and I, along with SF by way of Nîmes natty wine supporter/ California wine troublestarter Guilhaume Gerard and his lovely wife Claire, were treated to a delicious dinner hosted by our friends Josh and Catherine. A diverse group representing Baltimore, Philly, San Francisco, Sacramento, Southeast and Northeast France, we ate and drank quite nicely for a bunch of twenty somethings making a living selling wine, art and fancy desserts in a seriously downward trending economy. Food highlights included an amazing cream of celery root and parsnips soup, topped with a fried sliced fingerling potato and a drizzle of truffle oil - so simple and delicious. The 'fried chicken salad,' as coined by Josh, was a terrific mix of baby spinach, perfectly fried strips of chicken, crumbled blue cheese, lardons, sliced apple and persimmons.

As for wine, my favorite was an '03 Vodopivec Vitovska. Truly interesting, long maceration on skins Friuli-Slovenian type wine. It was so complex and continued to evolve until the last sip. Fresh stone fruit aromas, pronounced truffle, then some marzipan, a suggestion of acacia honey. Flavors on the palate were orchard fresh and unbelievably fleshy. Nectarines. You can really sink your teeth into this wine, it's so fleshy, but combine this with terrific acidity and vivid fruit, and you get a completely satisfying drinking experience, natural wine style. It was also cool in that this is, from the flavors anyway, much less oxidative style winemaking than Radikon or Gravner. I would guess a shorter maceration on the skins as well. This wine and the aforementioned soup - phenomenal.

On the other end of the spectrum, a bottle of 1981 Bollinger Cote aux Enfants, which I had happened across at work and purchased, with discount, for a modest $40, did not show too well. Very simple mature pinot noir flavors, a lack of acidity, and aromas which Guilhaume compared to wood floor cleaner just didn't make the cut. Guess that this rare bottling of pinot noir from Ay should be enjoyed in its first 10-15 years of life. In fact, a bottle of 1981 central coast pinot noir I drank last year absolutely would have killed this much fancier much higher pedigreed, northerly champagne in a head-to-head tasting.

In between the Bolli at the qualitative low end and Vitovska at the high end, there was some '06 Verget Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons (reductive and then gradually better, if a bit lacking in excitement), '98 Fonsalette CDR reserve (primary, chewy grenache, ok, but fruity and not a whole lot else, what do you expect - it's grenache) and an '07 Domaine de Reuilly rose of pinot gris (which was its usual, understated, subtle, elegant self).

Considerably less eclectic and fancy wines will feature for turkey day, which I'll hopefully get around to posting tomorrow prior to the flurry of prep which feeding 14 people in a small, minimally equipped kitchen entails.

Natural wines, steel frame bikes, vinyl LP's

Discuss.

A coupla' bistro French reds and Peruvian chicken

You know, I noticed that hardly anyone is blogging about cool, vin naturel on their wine blogs (I mean seriously, get off the Napa cabs and Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, wine bloggers). So, given the dearth of information on these hopelessly unfashionable, humble vin naturel, I thought I'd write up a few which a young upstart in the busniness named Joe Dressner imports. These are wines which I really enjoyed before and during dinner last night.

2007 Les vin contes Olivier Lemasson 'P'tit Rouquin' Gamay Touraine

French for 'carrot topped kid,' the p'tit rouqin is sourced from hand harvested gamay grown in clay and flint soils by several growers who farm organically within a 40 km radius in Touraine. Classical gamay vin naturel treatment here: no pigeage, carbonic maceration, only 2g/hectoliter sulphur added at bottling. And how does it taste? Delicious. Red cherries and goji berries on the noise, with a touch of earth, lead to a snappy red fruited and hibiscus inflected palate. There is a delicious minerality as well, one that at times stands out more than the understated fruit. This is definitely a mid to back palate and sides of the tongue wine. A chiseled, finishing wine. Streamlined, no baby fat, just perfect. Especially with roasted chicken and yuca (if you're in SF and have not yet done so, try Limon's on Van Ness btw 21st and 22nd). The Ptit Rouquin even held up to the spicy flavors of the various dipping sauces and a tangy cole slaw I made.

2006 Domaine de la Pepiere 'La Pepie' Cabernet Franc (1.5l)

This (and now that I mention it the wine above as well) were both opened the day before for a Loire tasting at the store. It's tasting much better than we first received the wine in a little over a year ago. Dark cherry fruit, showing a much more expansive and fleshed out mid-palate than when I had last tasted the wine. Some pretty cab franc floral notes towards the finish made it even tastier. Good, but not quite gamay good, with the chicken and yuca.

Lovely French dinner, with French wine and new French friends

Last night, my special lady and I were invited over to our friend Josh's place for dinner with him and his French girlfriend, who is still settling into San Francisco. We all had a great time, and, true to form for Josh and I, it was only our yawning with increasing frequency around 1am which finally broke up the party.

We started with a delicious glass of 2007 Chaussard 'You are So Nice' Cot-Gamay. So much nicer than the last time I drank this! Apparently a customer of Josh's returned the wine earlier in the day and said it was not good. Well, the customer was right, as the wine was not merely good, but really fucking good! Lively dark berry and that delicious iron like minerality that cot seems to deliver in the Loire. The wine was delicious, impeccably balanced, and really persistent. I only wish Josh had received two returned bottles instead of just one.

I brought a bottle of 2005 Jo Landron 'Fiefs du Brueils' muscadet which was so ungiving on the nose, so compact and tight on the palate, that I suggested Josh keep it in his fridge and check in on it throughout the week. It would not have been too pleasurable a drink with dinner. Instead, Josh pulled out a wonderful bottle of 2006 Gramenon Cotes du Rhone 'La Sagesse.' Another natural wine, made with minimal sulphur added prior to bottling, it was richer and warmer than the Chaussard, with a touch of a baked character, but still showing pure grenache dark cherry fruit, balanced acidity and an accesible character. It should improve for up to 7-8 years (I think, there is the whole fragile low sulphur wine thing to worry about if you're not storing these carefully, though). We ate pork chops, sauteed with mustard, creme fraiche, rosemary and mushrooms, with sides of mini buttered elbow pasta and pan fried kale (cooked with a controversial, but unexpectedly tasty, dash of lemon zest thrown in). I love kale, and this version was good for a change of pace.

Pungent Valdeon (spanish blue cheese), really good, earthy/funky Brie and Pierce Point (from Cowgirl Creamery) followed dinner, which was then proceeded by a tasty Pippin apple crumble and then a wee dram of Caol Ila 10 year for me, some bourbon for Natalie and Josh and sparkling wine for Catherine. A really fun evening - thanks to our gracious hosts Josh and Catherine for cooking great food and entertaining us in their new apartment.

BLT and PdA

Without a doubt, the best matched food and wine pairing of the past few weeks was a delicious BLT from Bar Jules paired with the 2007 Clos Roche Blanche L'arpent Pineau d'Aunis. In typical pinot d'aunis fashion, this wine showed gorgeous wild strawberries with a hint of sichuan peppercorns, terrific acidity and very fine finishing tannins. Combined with the crisp, smoky, meaty BLT sandwich it simply could not be beat. It was a terrific Friday lunch. Thanks for bringing the bottle, Mr. Gerard.

My man Jo Landron is in effect mode. Domaine Bart too!

Obligatory ATCQ reference there, sorry I couldn't resist. Anyway, it is a very happy week when a new container of French wines, including such reliable, consistently good values as the Muscadets of Jo Landron and the Marsannays of Martin Bart, arrives at our warehouse. I haven't had the '06 Bart wines yet as I would like to wait several weeks for them to settle in and recover from their journey. However, I did recently drink a large portion of a bottle of Jo Landron's '07 Amphibolite, which is simply delicious. It is his one wine that is not aged sur lies for an extended period, and as such is not quite as mineral, compact, and intensely flavored as wines such as his Fief du Breils, Marc Ollivier's Clos de Briords, Guy Bossard's 'orthogneiss', and other more serious bottlings of Muscadet. It is, however, soft, pure, and incredibly tasty. Loads of gentle peach and melon rind flavor, with good length and an enormously high thirst quenching factor. Not one to forget about for a while, though. My last few bottles of '06, while enjoyable, are noticeably darker in color and, while gaining in weight, losing the pure, delicate fruit flavors that make this wine so attractive.

In these trying, uncertain financial times, I plan on drinking lots of Muscadet, even more than usual. It's good for you, invigorating and refreshing stuff. Having all but sworn off my credit cards after clearing my debt earlier in the year, I will pay for all of this Muscadet with cash or a debit card.

One re-evaluation and a Blog functionality update

THE CORRECTION

I recently re-tasted the Dressner Maupertuis gamay 'La Guillaume,' which I had tasted a few weeks ago and did not like. Tasting at a properly cool temperature and right after opening (as minimally sulphured and sans soufre wines really ought to be tasted) provided a much better wine, bright and tangy, earthy but not overly so. And definitely not poopy like my first experience with the wine. If you don't require your gamay to pack much mid-palate intensity or persistence, then give this wine a try. Hopefully, its subtle charm is lurking in a fine wine retailer near you.

THE UPDATE

You can now read up-to-date posts on google reader. Just go to the google page, click on the 'more' link, scroll down to click on 'reader' and add this blog. For all of you bloggers out there, the 'following' tool should also now be up-to-date. Thank you to everyone who pointed out this problem. It should now be fixed; please let me know if this is not the case.

In the process of trouble shooting I think that I may have deleted my current RSS feed list, so if you had been receiving these via email until recently, please go to the upper-right hand side of this page, enter your email and re-subscribe. Thanks.

And I'm out.

Notes from Dressner Tasting last week

Mr. Joe Dressner (?)

Now this was my kind of trade tasting. Held in the kitchen of Dressner's west coast rep's Castro home, with a manageable amount of wines to taste through and a friendly group of like-minded wine people. Thanks to Mr. Dressner and Shawn Mead for putting this tasting together.

2007 Lemasson Gama Sutra VdT

100% tasty gamay. This Puzelat protege clearly knows what he's doing.

2007 Lemasson Cheville de Fer

Cot. Deeper and more intense nose. Tangy mixed berries over a very smooth, elegant texture. Less earthy than the wine above, and a bit more heft. Delicious young cot - tasty now but will surely gain complexity over time.

2007 Cascina Tavign Grignolino d'Asti

Excellent. Pure cherry essence with wonderful acidity and loads of freshness. Grignolino as good as this is way too easy to drink (not necessarily a bad thing).

2006 Noussan Torrette Val d'Aoste

Mixed berry and dark fruit skins. Good flavors and focus here. Reasonably bright for a Torrette, which can sometimes be a bit darker and slightly chewier.

2005 Gioia de Colle Primitivo

My notes read simply, "Berry. Dusty cocoa. Best primitivo I've had." Ceri Smith, proprietor of the terrific San Francisco Italian wine shop Biondivino, shared my sentiments, saying that it was primitivo she actually liked. Couldn't agree more.

2005 Gioia Antello del Murge

More intense and brambly. Interesting. A touch more earthy complexity as well.

Massa Vecchia VdT Rosso (vintage?)

I have heard a lot about this wine. Maybe I'm just not ready for it; perhaps it's too 'challenging.' Regardless, I found the aromas to be very heady and intense. Macerated cherries on the palate, a touch of CO2, and the sans soufre/minimal sulphur nutty aftertaste I seem to be picking up with increasing frequency in some natural wines.

2006 Malescondo Rosso di Montalcino

Very intense, earthy, tangy red fruit. Some tuscan savor as well. Quite good.

2005 Malescondo Chianti Classico

More intense flavors. Darker fruits and fruit skins. Slightly raisinated nose and more assertive tannins, but all balanced and truly delicious.

Back to the French wines...

2007 Puzelat Tesnieres (Pineau d'Aunis)

Classic white pepper and wild strawberry nose, leading to vivid blue and purple fruit flavors. A true original, and very fine.

2007 Tue Bouef Cheverny

Light, earthy gamay. Tasty and decidedly thirst quenching bistro style wine.

2006 Descombes Brouilly
This is serious cru beaujolais; don't let the Brouilly cru designation fool you. Intense raspberry and blackberry on the nose lead to a palate of of lively mixed fruit, with great intensity and unique savor.

2006 Descombes Morgon
Damn, this is good. A good bit more tightly wound than the Brouilly and in want of long decanting or opening a night before consumption. Even better, stash it away for several years. Very dense, explosive berries, but as I mentioned, decidedly stern. It's not showing close to everything it's got to offer.

2007 La Guillaume Monpertuis

'Poopy red berries,' on the nose, according to my notes. Light, dilute, and perhaps too sans soufre-y for my taste.

2006 Ca de Nocci Sottbosco Ca de Roci
Emilia Romagna sparkler. 50% lambrusco grasparossa, 30% lambrusco maestri, 20% malbo gentile. Dark. Tastes like a sparkling Loire cot might taste if they made such a wine (maybe someone out there does?) Nice gripping tannins on finish. This wine makes me hungry for hearty Italian cuisine, of the regionally authentic, homestyle variety that is probably best pursued in Italy (but of course).
Long time, no new content...THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE! So despite my strong dislike for writing long posts with a bunch of random tasting notes, here is one such entry below. Occasionally, unique wines do merit my putting down the most boring, gray area prone, self indulgent of all prose known to man, wine tasting notes. Hope you enjoy reading.

Massa Vecchia Bia
Another wine that I don't enjoy. If I've lost points with the geeky Italophiles out there, that's just too bad. I apparently don't think dig these Massa Vecchia wines that much. The red was more enjoyable than this one, which had a weird, Brett and wild yeast geuze style savor to it. The Cantillon geuze of sparkling wines. I'd give you more info but the Dressner website links to the Ca de Nocci above when I drag my mouse over the Massa Vecchia link.

OK, whew...this took a good while to get up here. Busy at work, tired at home, and thus the delay in getting these up. Good wines, though, take a while to learn how to make. And so it follows that their descriptions sometimes take a while to post. Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading, and that you might find something new and exciting to try if some of these are available in a shop near you.

Two very different days of tasting wine - USA and ARGENTINA; FRANCE and ITALY

On Tuesday, I tasted around 50 wines at work. I thought 10 of them tasted ok. Two of them I might buy with my own money. It was a day spent tasting mainly California wines, with about ten Argentinean wines as well, so I guess I'm not surprised that I disliked most of the wines. I've noticed that many of my colleagues who sell wine retail and in restaurants, especially the under 40 year-old set (though not by any means limited to these folks) overwhelmingly prefer European wines to Californian, Washington, Oregon and other new world regions. Furthermore, most wine drinkers I talk to who have been drinking wine for a while often tell me that they gradually have grown to prefer European wines to their new world counterparts. That does not bode particularly well for new world wine regions, don't you think? Especially if more people continue selling what they actually like and think is good, not what they think their customers will think is good.

Of the 50 wines I tasted, there were six by Paul Hobbs, each of them truly awful, and unimaginable with any sort of food. What's up with Americans' unsatiable thirst for these crappy wines? Subject for a future post, perhaps.

One of the two wines that I really liked was the 2006 Unti Petit Freres (90% Grenache, Syrah) which tasted of dark fruit, fully dry, and unmarred by overripeness or new oak. No surprises here given that, if memory serves, they ferment with indigenous yeast in tank, with aging in used oak foudres The other one was a Pinot Noir from Hirsch's Bohan Dillon vineyard in the Sonoma coast. While CA pinot is generally not my tipple of choice, this wine was bright and lively, crunchy red fruits with good acidity and even a touch of minerality.

Now on to a different day of tasting, the day before this one, on my day off. It was a small Dressner tasting, basically a line-up of wines that are not represented by our CA distributor and are available direct from Mr. Dressner in New York. Of the 19 wines, I really liked 14, a markedly higher percentage than the day of tasting mentioned above. Granted, Joe Dressner has a pretty mean palate and imports good stuff, but I think you can readily see the contrast between these two days of tasting. Chances are, if you are reading this then you know what I'm saying and find yourself feeling similarly inclined, but I welcome any and all contrarians to state their wine preferences.

More detailed notes to come on the Dressner wines.

George Breuer, Lil' Wayne and much, much more at Terroir

If the title alone did not entice you to read more, all I've got to say is - wow...tonight (or more precisely, last night) was supposed to be a mellow evening to share a bottle and meet with a fellow SF wine blogger and Wine & Spirits magazine correspondent, Wolfgang Weber, at the nation's #1 wine bar, Terroir in San Francisco. As has happened on several other occasions at Terroir, the evening went by lightning fast. We drank a few bottles of Breuer rieslings (dry and delicious) and listened several times to the popular Lil' Wayne banger and '08 single of the year candidate, 'A Milli' as well as lots of reggae. Several bottles were cracked open, a few tastes were poured from bottles previously opened for other customers, and before I realized what had happened it was 1:45am and I was closing up the establishment with Guillaume and his friend Pierre. Where does the time go at cool wine bars?

It was an enlightening evening. My first wine blogger meet-up, tonight was interesting in that I met someone who both blogs about wine and writes about it professionally. I encourage you to check both Wolfgang Weber's personal and professional writing as he writes well and knows his stuff. His recent SF Chronicle article on sulphur in the winemaking process was particularly insightful and potentially of interest to readers of this blog. On a more personal note, we had the opportunity to discuss with one of Terroir's owners, Luc, the matter of taste, honesty and passion as it relates to the wines selected for his bar's list. We spoke about how French and sulphur-free does not necessarily equal good wine; ditto for biodynamic and low carbon footprint. No surprises here, but I feel that this bears repeating in what can be an absolutist, dogmatic hobby/obsession. You know what I mean...check yourself the next time you make a sweeping generalization, positive or critical, of any single wine growing country or region, vintage or producer. Wine suprises. It will underwhelm, surprise, impress, and satisfy. Repeatedly.

To that end, there were several wines we had tonight, none of which disappointed, one of which fully delivered on my high expectations, and one southern Rhone wine which surprised me for its sheer likeability and liveliness, especially given my general dislike for wines from this particular part of France.

2006 Kiralyudvar Tokaji Furmint Demi-Sec

The first vintage to be exported to the States, this winery has the benefit of some consultation from Huet's Noel Pinguet. A nose of dripping ripe melon, cantaloupe in particular, leads to a palate of intensely pure, melon like flavors, with a bit of the typical furmint orange blossom qualities as well. Pure, intense, gorgeously soft and textured. What more could you want from Hungary (or anywhere, for that matter?)

1996 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo Brunate Le Coste

A youngin'. Shamefully, I did not give these 1.5 ounces their proper due. What I tasted was a dark fruited, traditional Barolo, young, and just beginning to offer up some secondary, meaty flavors. Rinaldi is about as natural as they come in Barolo: fermented with indigenous yeasts and minimal sulphur throughout the winemaking process, aging in old oak. I was reading on Italian Wine Merchant's site that Rinaldi's barolos are fermented Ripasso style, over Barbera skins, which used to be more usual practice in the Piedmont.

2007 Gramenon Cotes du Rhone

A (new?) Kermit Lynch Cotes du Rhone, this is grenache-based, surprisingly lively and appealing. As I mentioned earlier, be careful when you generalize. I had told Guillaume earlier this summer that I generally dislike grenache, except for a few Gigondas and the very occasional Chateauneuf du Pape. A few visits ago he poured me a grenache I couldn't stand, and this time he got me. Apparently these wines are all the rage in Paris right now.

2004 George Breuer Riesling Berg Schlossberg

13% alcohol, duly noted. Young, compact, not too expressive, and a bit heavy. Not bad, but compared to the first Breuer we drank, a merely pretty good effort (sorry, Luc)

2002 George Breuer Riesling Nonnenburg

Produced from a terrific German Riesling vintage (better for many in the Rheingau than '01), from Bruer's highest sloped vineyards, this wine is a KILLER. Complex on the nose, with quince, apricots, and what I imagine as peach marmelade fermented dry (of course this does not exist, it just brings to mind the intensity of the aromas). After some air, the intense minerality reveals itself on the nose as well. The flavors on the palate are tense and intense. Vibrant, chiseled stone fruit with a real saltiness on the mid-palate and finish of the wine. Very persistent as well. Yes! My WOTN, no question, no contest.

There was a Tavel Rose which was surprisingly natural, nuanced and non-Tavel like. Forget the producer name. Also an '07 Saumur-Champigny from Germain which was tasty and well-made.

On many levels, this was a most enjoyable, educational and rewarding visit to Terroir. Just what the doctor ordered.