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.

Tasting Notes and Drinking Notes

Here are some wines tasted and drunk recently. Drinking notes always provide a better sense of the wine, but most of these are tasting notes as that is how I am exposed to the vast majority of wines, with a quick 1 oz nose, swash around and spit.

TASTING NOTES

2008 JM Brocard Chablis Vieilles Vignes

Produced from estate fruit grown in a vineyard planted in 1946, this Chablis is a big step up in concentration, minerality and interest from the basic Brocard Chablis. For $5 more this is undoubtedly worth the extra cost. Good weight and ripeness for a basic Chablis bottling, while not sacrificing the cut, minerality and acidity you should get in the region's better wines, particularly from a spectacular (some would say best in a quarter century) vintage. While I tasted 08 Montee de Tonnere, Les Clos and Bougros from Brocard, it is this bottling that stands out for its value and deliciousness. Apparently this is what the Brocard family drinks most often. Out of magnum, of course.

2008 Jean-Marc Vincent Auxey Duresse "Les Hauts"

Holy shit, this took me by surprise. I tasted this immediately after the aforementioned Chablis and prior to a Meursault 1er cru. This is another killer 08 white burg. Spicy citrus and a touch of new oak stand out on the nose, which is briny and sort of pickled, in a good way. All of the same qualities present themselves on the palate, with some delicate white flower qualities in the background. Serious wine.

2005 Poggiarellino Brunello di Montalcino

As always, this is a direct import where I work (consider that the disclosure). Nonetheless, this is one of the few Brunelli I enjoy tasting, at least at this young age. Instead of the ripeness, toasty barrique, and overtly fruity quality, what you get here is smoke, savor, a touch of brett, and more of a traditional sensibility. A bit rough and tumble, rugged and rough, but it's wine with grit, good acid, and a likelihood of developing well in bottle for at least a decade.

2007 Fontodi Chianti Classico

This shows the softness and elegance of 2007 in Tuscany. Pretty dark plum and cherry aromas lead to a wonderful palate. Fresh, mineral, pure berry flavors and a touch of sangio savor.

2007 Ferrero Rosso di Montalcino

Another DI. Just to balance out the coverage here, I'm including this wine because I don't dig it. This wine, how to say...I'm not feelin' it so much. OK...I hate this wine. Ripe cherry fruit and wood, a whole lot of it. As anonymous as a Rosso di Montalcino could ever be.

2005 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco "Pora"

I love this wine. Intense mixed berry aromas with an elegant, feminine, mineral and acid driven structure. But still not lacking in fruit - I could drink this now and likely will after shelling out for a handful of bottles. If you like Italian wine, you would be hard pressed to find a better way to spend $55.

2000 Lanessan Haut Medoc

Lanessan is one of the few more traditionally structured Bordeaux that I know. They are generally seen as being classed growth quality, but since the chateau missed the 1855 classification it is a cru bourgeois. This wine is in a weird spot right now and I'm not sure that it will come out of it for the better. The bottle I tried was tough and lacking in fruit purity, with some dry tannins on the finish. I prefer the '99, '96 and '03.

1990 Chasse-Spleen Moulis-en-Medoc

The mostest in Moulis, Chasse-Spleen can be the quality of better class growths. This one, however, shows some dark fruit and not a whole lot of interest aromatically. Another tough wine from a well regarded, but more than occasionally tough vintage for present drinking.

1989 Chasse-Spleen Moulis-en-Medoc

Much better, with deep cherry aromatics and flavors, though the complexity was not what I remember in this wine the last time I tasted it three years ago.

DRINKING NOTES

2009 Mancini Vermentino di Gallura

Initially disappointing, this wine showed a riper, fruitier quality than I like. Minimal mineral or acid. However, with some fridge time, the wine's structure tightened up and revealed more acidity, minerality, and the sappy, herbal, slightly piney quality that vermentino is known for.

2009 Quinta do Feital "Auratus" Vinho Verde

This wine showed the opposite progression from the vermentino. I had the opportunity to drink them both side by side last night, which was a fun study in comparative wine drinking (this is like comp lit but easier). While this vinho verde came out the gate with golden stone fruits leaping out the glass, and a similarly delicious quality on the palate, with just a hint of CO2 driven minerality, it did not last too well with extended fridge time. To be fair, though, this was subjected to at least a five day slumber in the work wine fridge before I remembered to take it home. At that point, though, much of the minerality and immediacy of the wine had softened, which made it seem simpler and riper.

2001 Bodegas Casa Juan Señor de Lesmos Crianza Rioja

Though it was a bit too rich and plump to work with some roasted chicken and fried yuca, I have a feeling that this was partially due to my opening it immediately prior to dinner. We still drank most of the bottle, though, and as a result have neglected to follow its development over the week. If past experience holds, however, I suspec that this wine will still be drinkable (and possibly even interesting) a week after I opened it. I will be sure to try it tonight and report back.

2005 Edmond Vatan Sancerre "Clos de Neore"

Intense, ripe, slightly tropical and pungent. There is none of the herbaceous quality here, as I believe these types of flavors in Sancerre to be the outcome of larger yields, inferior producers, and cooler vintages (roughly in that order). This is such an intensely flavored, immovable wine right now. I had it in the fridge for a week and did not notice a whole lot of evolution. There is some minerality there but in a few words I would describe this wine, in its current state, as bright, pungent and chunky. Yes, the wine is a baby and I opened it young but I just couldn't hold back the temptation to try it. Fortunately I have another bottle to re-visit. In five years? Ten?

2008 Dashe Riesling "McFadden Farms" Potter Valley

I have to hand it to Mike Dashe. This Riesling is delicious, with bright yellow stone fruit flavors and a Kabinett level of residual sugar. A pure fruited, balanced, California riesling. Well done.

Well I will end there. Thanks for hanging in and making it through the TN's and DN's. I know they're not always the most exciting to read, but to me they still serve a purpose and hopefully you have found at least one or two interesting nuggets.

Sugar Minott (May 25th 1956 - July 10th 2010)

As I'm getting some work done in a local coffee shop playing a reggae playlist, it's fitting that I finally post a long overdue obituary for Lincoln Barrington "Sugar" Minott, a legendary singer, producer, performer and promoter in the reggae world for four decades. To do so, I have supplemented my own knowledge of his career with some information taken from obituaries in The Guardian, The Gleaner and The New York Times.

Sugar Minott was underrated. A favorite amongst serious reggae fans, especially in the UK where he charted higher than anywhere else, and in Japan, where he popularized sound systems, the reggae convention of a selector (DJ) and DJ's (MC's) who chant over the music and collectively perform at parties and night clubs.

"Coxson (producer Clement Dodd) and Prince Buster, dem man deh a the king of sound system, U Roy a the king of deejay, him a the teacher," Minott said in a 2003 interview with The Gleaner.

"Mi gi dem man deh dem respect but as a man who start the new wave dancehall, nuh man nuh gi mi dem kinda reverence."

In other words, Minott agreed that he did not always get his due. His was a career that not only traced a good portion of reggae's evolution, from the charmingly low-fi R&B and jazz influenced Studio One recordings, to the smoother, more commercially oriented, danceable lovers rock, to early electronic synth based dancehall, and back to a hybrid of these latter two styles, but also helped to develop the careers of many other artists. Junior Reid, Tenor Saw, Tristan Palmer, Garnet Silk, Tony Rebel, Yami Bolo and many others were all mentored by and in some cases, produced by, Mr. Minott on his Black Roots label.

At the beginning of his career, Minott achieved moderate success with Tony Tuff and Derrick Howard as part of The African Brothers. After the group disbanded, Minott began recording for Sir Coxsone Dodd at Studio One, singing and playing guitar as well. Here he helped to give a boost to Studio One during a time when the studio's influence was waning, with his Live Loving and Showcase records.

After his brief Studio One stint, Minott focused on his Black Roots imprint, where he recorded his own records as well as those of young aspiring artists. On the two volume series, Hidden Treasures, New York City's Easy Star Records compiled a selection of some of these tracks hand selected by Minott himself. It is excellent.

I'll remember Sugar Minott as much for the memory of his smooth, breathy vocal delivery as for the positivity he projected, and of course for his famous smile, which according to reggae archivist and former publisher of The Beat, Roger Steffens, was "a hugely gap-toothed smile that you could drive a minibus through.”

We have no shortage of wonderful music to remember the man and his musical talent.

Live Lovin': Sugar Minott, RIP

I'm going to try to get an obituary up here that pays proper homage to such a talented and amazing human being. Just in case it doesn't happen today, though, here is a quick clip of one of my all time favorite Sugar Minott tunes, released on Studio 1. Reggae music this good is what makes so many people embrace this culture and art form.

The Tasting Group tastes Northern Rhones

I thought of another reason to join a tasting group: tasting wines you seldom drink. I rarely drink northern Rhone wines, whites in particular, and it so happens that the Northern Rhone was the theme of our tasting last night. You don't have to like all the major wine regions to know wine. In fact, you may only choose to drink Burgundy, for example. But to know wine, to really know wine, you better at least be familiar with the major regions and their reference points. Most serious wine drinkers, wine writers, wholesalers, and retailers, which is to say most people in the world of wine, do not know wine. Yeah, I said it. Most people who purport to know wine don't know wine. They are lazy, or they can afford to cater to their expensive, 1er and Grand Cru Burg palates without ever checking in on wines from elsewhere, or they just choose to dismiss entire swaths of fine wine producing regions. Though I may hate on regions or grape varieties, that dislike is justified by at least a requisite amount of recent experience. Participating in tasting groups have become a regular part of my wine consumption routine, and I believe that I am better off for it.

To express how I feel about the northern Rhone in a turn of phrase that I love, I ain't mad at ya', northern Rhone. Your reds can have a wonderful balance of bursting blue-red fruit, spice, and even acidity, especially if it's from Cornas or Hermitage. As for the whites, I cannot get into them quite as much, as I simply value acidity too much in my whites to show more than merely occasional respect for Roussane and Marsanne. Anyway, let's review the two flights from last night's PMW Tasting Group.

FLIGHT 1

2008 Qupe Marsanne Santa Ynez Valley

I like Bob Lindquist's wines. Like this one, an 81% marsanne, 19% roussane blend which is 12.5% abv, they typically show some restraint, and are fun to drink. There was a very fresh and mineral quality to the nose, here, which combined with the texture and acid had me initially thinking Saar Riesling QBA. Not enough sweetness or acid, though. Plenty of sulphur, however, which is probably why I first thought German riesling. Confusing sulphur on the nose with minerality? Yep, guilty as charged. I knew that the sulphur content was high, but also seemed to catch a minerality to the aromas which had me thinking old world. This was my favorite wine of the flight, narrowly edging out the wine below.

2007 Dard & Ribot Crozes-Hermitage Blanc

What?! Somehow this was my number two wine. A wine which nearly everyone loves (it finished our group first) and cannot get enough of. Allow me to explain. As much as I enjoyed the wine, it needs to be decanted. There is some real funk on the nose, and a pungency on the palate which improves with air. Mainly roussane with some marsanne. No sulphur added. It tastes that way. I am not certain but I suspect that there is a bit (maybe a day or two) of extended skin contact with the juice. It also tastes that way. While I really enjoyed this wine, it did not taste as pure, pristine and focused as it did two years ago when I drank it at Le Verre Volé. It is evolving in a way I find to be interesting, if not as much to my liking as in its pre-evolved state.

2006 Pierre Gonon St Joseph Blanc "Les Oliviers"

Awful. To me, nearly undrinkable. Apparently this is from a south facing slope. In a warm vintage, with a high alcohol grape that tends towards blowsiness, on a south facing slope is not where you want to be. Some bitter honey and nutty notes dominated this wine. Maybe this is what Honeynut Cheerios would taste like if they were made with spelt, without any added sodium and a bare minimum of sugar or HFC added, and vodka replaced milk in the cereal bowl?

2008 August Clape St Peray

Meh. As non-descript and innocuous as the wine books say it is. Yes, often times the wine books are actually right.

FLIGHT 2

2005 Pierre Gonon St Joseph

What a delicious bottle of syrah! As I thought, given the purity and approachable quality of the fruit, this indeed turned out to be a St Jo. Dark cherry, macerated plums, some of that black olive character on the nose. A hint of cardamom. Juicy and supple on the palate, this is wine to drink, not contemplate for hours on end. Tannins crept up a bit on the finish, if only for the relative lightness and lack of density on the mid palate. Delicious wine, and my second favorite of the flight.

2005 Yann Chave Crozes-Hermitage

Whoa! This sucked. Highly offensive aromas of Baltimore Harbor, Potomac River, and 101 N on a day where you smell the Bay. The palate lacked any sort of elegance, acidity, or reason to want to drink this now. Others really liked the wine, noting the bay/fishiness or however you wanted to describe the aromatic profile, but also a hidden depth of flavor and complexity (most hidden to me). Some folks thought it was shut down and will be terrific in 5 years or more - I strongly disagree. Time will tell.

2005 Emmanuel Darnaud Crozes "Les Trois Chenes" Crozes-Hermitage

Given the theme and the fact that we had Dard & Ribot in the earlier flight, and the fact that this tasted so natural and delicious, I thought it was a Dard & Ribot Crozes Hermitage. There was the interplay of ripe fruit and savory mesquite like smokiness, as well as a texture that to me reminded me of their wines. No D&H, but rather this producer whose wines I have not yet tried but am now curious to learn more about. Apparently, he has vineyard land on the flats (like most growers in Crozes-Hermitage, instead of on the steeper, granite laced sites), and cultivates his vines well. The wines are fermented with native yeasts, and aged primarily in barriques (some new) as opposed to foudres. This is because Emmanuel has no help in the winery: barriques are more easily moved than larger foudres. The oakiness did not seem over the top to me. There was plenty of fruit and acidity to balance out the oak.

2005 Les Vins de Vienne "Les Palignons" Crozes-Hermitage

A "super group" of winemakers composed of Yves Cuilleron, Francois Villard and Pierre Gaillard. Slightly smoky ripe dark fruit aromas led to a chewy palate of cherry and some prune flavors. Ripe but not overly so, with some cardamom bite on the finish. More stylized in a deliberate and modern way, but not at all bad.

2001 Emmanuel Darnaud "Les Trois Chenes Crozes-Hermitage

This was a bonus bottle poured to see who could guess which older version of a wine in the flight this was. I guess incorrectly, thinking that it was a late 90's version of the Les Vins de Vienne. Anyway, the wine was holding up well, definitely in secondary flavor country though a fellow taster called it "primary" - so it often goes with comparative brown bag tastings. The acidity was still hanging in there, adding dimension to what seemed like a very coffee bean and dark chocolate tasting palate with some dark fruit in the background.

I should note that the current releases of these reds (07's, I believe) retail somewhere in the $25-30 range. Pretty good values, as someone mentioned when we had finished the flight. Northern Rhone syrah...in the words of MTV news corresondent, music critic and author Kurt Loder, "Do try to catch it."

LIVE from SF: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Jonathan Richman

Catching a performer at their most creative, representative moment is a tricky business. There are many factors which can influence a performance, everything from a band's experience playing music together, the energy and visible appreciation of an audience, how an artist chooses to take care of himself (or not) while touring. Last week, at the venerable Bimbo's in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, Ariel Pink was in what I suspect to have been a very representative moment for his unique brand of experimental folk, pop and 70's influenced rock. Fresh off a major label contract with 4AD, and heaps of critical praise, one could sense that Ariel clearly thinks he's hot shit. At least that's how he acted, complaining throughout the set about not having a decent sound check, not having enough reverb, and whatever else he was babbling about. Between complaints, he snacked on a sandwich, guzzled some beer, and decided that he would knock the mic down, all of which made it a miserable show for the sound guy, the crowd and his backing band. A portion of the crowd was really into it, dancing to the admirable jams laid down by Ariel's Haunted Graffiti (his backing band), despite his best efforts to shout, scream, and distract from any sort of musicality or genuinely interesting musical expression going on around him.

Last Wednesday at the Swedish American Music Hall, I saw a whole other type of weird: cheerful, playful, offbeat and intelligent. A performance from someone who has been writing and performing music for over thirty years. Who else but Jonathan Richman can write catchy songs meandering from Vermeer ("so much perspective, you know, for the times"),to urban living ("my little two year old mind was thinking I love this place, the dirt, the greasy pizza smells...") to Keith Richards ("love those internal melodies and minor 6ths"). In his trademark partially sung, part conversational, spoken style, Jonathan confidently entertained a small-ish crowd (who in true SF fashion were mainly seated on the floor until he urged them to stand up and clap because, "you know, you'll feel better"). All Richman needs is his classical guitar, a mic, and drummer Tommy Larkins to put on a show. Between the engaging lyrics, which come out clear as a bell, proficient if not flashy or perfect guitar playing, and some killer dance moves, Jonathan Richman is someone you need to see next time he plays in your area.

In this battle of the weird, I'll take Jonathan over Ariel any day, even if it means sacrificing some cool points with the cool kids amongst my readership.