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.

David Simon, creator of 'The Wire,' interviewed on Forum

Besides having some of the catchiest theme music in the talk show radio business, Michael Krasny's Forum has an amazing array of guests and diversity of topics discussed. Unfortunately, if a program interests me, I can usually only catch part of it before I head into work. Fortunately, I was interested enough in hearing this interview to check out it out online, and listen to it while I unwind, work on a wine entry for this blog, and ponder dinner options. Enjoy.

Jamaica, Jamaica

This is not a post on Kymani Marley’s 2006 summer smash, ‘Jamrock,’ nor does it have anything to do with the tiny Carribean island or its popular cultural export, reggae. I would simply like to pay tribute to one of my favorite summertime drinks, the refreshing Mexican chilled hibiscus tea, Jamaica (prounced ‘ha-MY-kuh). K&L’s resident Michoacaner, Jorge Valencia, makes a terrific Jamaica and has been sure to keep our Fridge stocked for the past few weeks. Nothing like fresh, tangy hibiscus tea for a mid-afternoon pick me up. Thanks, Jorge.

The DFA Cool Kids Indie Disco Invasion, featuring Holy Ghost!

As far as what the young dudes and ladies are listening, I am usually woefully out of touch. However, as with many others I occasionally find myself on the proverbial nuts of DFA. I first heard this delicious Holy Ghost! track on CALX, UC Berkeley's radio station. It was the instrumental version, and I was moved. It made me think of electro/funk music from over 25 years ago, which I suppose is why I liked it so much.

Bio Ritmo - La verdadera salsa

This Richmond, VA group is the real deal, playing salsa in the the golden age, late 70's style. The song structures, talent of the band, and spot on instrumentation all combine to make these guys great interpreters of This performance was a live one from a television show in PR. If you're in the mid-Atlantic or New York area and are looking for a fix of authentic salsa, you definitely ought to see these guys perform. Tight group, great live show. Here's a link (their site was apparently hacked, so this is actually their page on their booking agent's site)

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.

Wine Lethargy

Maybe it's the heat, or the fact that there have been few wines I've tasted this week which have really stood out. Or that I'm just easing back into bloggerdom after the holiday weekend. Whatever the case, for the time being I got nothin' man.

Hopefully, after a day at the office and some time spent at Terroir tomorrow night, I'll be newly energized and ready to roll.