The dinner party: Braised short ribs, côt, and a lot more wines

Sunday night Nattles and I had a lovely dinner with one of my co-workers, her husband, and another couple. There was much food and drink, especially for a school night, but the heartiness of the food and extended time period of the evening made for easy metabolization of the wine. I woke up Monday morning and felt pretty good. Decent enough energy at work, especially after lunch and a few ounces of kombucha. Anyway, a good time was had and without further adieu let's get to the wines.

Clairette de Die Raspail 'Grande Tradition' NV

This 100% muscat sparkler from Languedoc was 100% appley deliciousness. At 7.5% alcohol it is also very easy to drink. It tasted of orchard fresh apples, almost in a simpler Mosel spatlese kind of way. Yeah, if you were to take a fruity Mosel spatlese, put it in a sealed tank and make a charmat method sparkler, it would taste similar to this. Interestingly enough I had the wine today as well, and while it was very tasty the character was decidedly less appley, and more of the typical Muscat grapeyness with sweet, exotic citrus notes. Either side of this wine, the apples from Sunday night or the more typical Muscat flavors of today, works for me. The wine went well with the chicken and apple sausages, as well as the crocodile (yes, crocodile) sausages we were eating.

Schloss Schonborn Johannisberger Klaus Riesling Kabinett 1994

At first whiff, I thought that this Kabinett had headed too far down the road of ash and decay for my tastes. But it quickly revived itself and turned out to be a tangy, quince and citrus filled riesling, with characteristically sharp '94 acidity. A bit simple at first, but it improved and showed nicely after some time in the glass.

Hughes Beaulieu Picpoul de Pinet 2007

This simple quaffer was not as pleasurable as I remember from past vintages. A bit metallic and astringent on the finish. A bit more simple as well. Bottle shock, maybe?

Xavier Frissant Touraine Ambois 'Cuvee Renaissance' 2005

My hunch was that this, one of the two wines I brought, would work great with the short ribs. And did it ever. 50% Cot, 30% cab franc, 20% cab sauv from this talented grower in Touraine makes for a very fine food wine. Cot contributes the full, dark fruit flavors, cab franc the herbal savor and acidity, and cabernet some more of the herbs as well as conveying a bit of added tension to the structure. Once the wine had a chance to flesh out it really shined with the short ribs, which were tender and expertly prepared by aspiring Top Chef Derek Hena. If you like the Domaine de la Pepiere Cuvee Granit, I would try this Frissant, I prefer it.

Vincent Paris St Joseph 2006

Pure syrah, simple as that. Violet, white pepper, and mixed berry fruits on the nose, with juicy blue and red fruits on the palate. It's definitely softer, less tense and less spicy than his Cornas wines, but of course that is to be expected. Vincent Paris makes honest, tasty syrah, which comes as no surprise given that the famous Robert Michel (see Neal Rosenthal's new book) is his uncle and probably taught him some things. This wine reminds me that I really need to explore more northern Rhone syrah - the real stuff - not the ocean of Crozes Hermitage and assorted negoc wines aged in new oak.

City Slicker Syrah Santa Barbara 2006

Speaking of new oak flavors...this is a wine that my co-worker bottled with her dad, through crushpad here in San Francisco. It is juicy Santa Barbara syrah that is not my style but definitely well-made and easy to like if it's what you're into.

Domaine de Fondreche 'Nadal' Cotes de Ventoux 2005

These wines are always awarded high scores and it's easy to see why - they are extracted, anonymous tasting southern Rhone wines. That having been said, the O'sud, which is the cheapest of this series, is usually lighter on its feet and more lively tasting.

Domaine de la Pigeade Muscat Beaumes de Venise 2006

I don't like Beaumes de Venise and I didn't really care for this either. It reminds me of orange marmelade, spiked with alcohol. Bitter and hot. Not really refreshing. Then again, I'm not much of a dessert wine person.

Thanks to Chiara and Derek for the hospitality - next dinner's at chez moi.

More Rosé....

Our Saturday tasting at the store was rosés, and while the line-up was solid, three in particular really stood out.

2007 Chateau Pradeaux Bandol Rose

Funny thing, I’m reading Reflections of a wine merchant by Neal Rosenthal and two of the three rosés on this list are imported by the man himself – they are both on the higher end of their category, but incredibly tasty as well, which is in line with Rosenthal’s overall portfolio, at times expensive (especially on the west coast) but almost always of excellent quality and the worth the cost. This ’07 Pradeaux shows a really intense, bright character, with a touch of orange peel and a ridiculously long finish which is a bit spicy as well. Generally I’m not much of a Bandol rose person, but this is truly terrific. At $25 it’s not inexpensive, but I’ll still probably get a few to cellar for several years.

2007 Domaine de la Petite Mairie Bourgueil Rosé

I was so disappointed with the one cab franc rose I tried last year, a Chinon rose from Clos l’Echo. It was dark, clumsy, and well, overly cabby (as in cab family green vegetal flavors). This cabernet franc rose from Bourgueil is more like it: pink onion skin color, delicate aromas merely suggesting, not screaming, the herbal qualities of Cabernet franc, and lots of bright raspberry flavors, which were crisp and really cut through the palate.

2007 Lazy Creek Pinot Noir Rose Anderson Valley

Here I go again recommending a California wine. Oh well, I guess I’ll continue to lose wine geek points for writing about good CA wine (as well as Spanish for that matter) instead of a Beaujolais rose or Pineau d’aunis rose or something. But this is another rosé that is of extremely high quality, albeit at a price - $25. Produced from pinot noir selected especially for rosé production, and of course fermented with indigenous yeasts, this is my favorite kind of rosé: a rosé that tastes every bit like a lighter version of the varietal(s) and the winery’s estate offering (other examples: Tondonia rosado, Musar rose, Joseph Roty Marsannay rose) The Lazy Creek estate pinot noir typically is big, broad, spicy and dark fruited, a masculine style but seriously dry for CA pinot. All of this comes across in this delicious rosé, just in a more refreshing and transparent style.

So that's the latest pink report, with I'm sure more rosé notes to come over the proceeding summer months. Will be even happier when my slowly, ever so slowly growing roma tomato plant bears fruit for gazapacho, spaghetti a la trapanese (uncooked tomato sauce with chopped almonds), and all kinds of other uses.

I'm off to eat iberico ham

My friend Josh won a leg of iberico ham at a spanish wine tasting. To add to the Spanishness I will bring a bottle of La Gitana manzanilla. I'm excited.

eek a mouse

Nas - The World Is Yours - Illmatic

[I would like to dedicate this video post to my great-grandmother me-ma Jenny, who would have surely loathed this song, but inspired me to play the piano with her amazing ability to play beautifully by ear. She was never afraid to offer encouragement and praise, peppered with some good old constructive criticism.]

To this day, listening to Nas' album Illmatic still delivers an immediate emotional impact. It is amongst the best hip-hop albums ever produced. There is minimal fat: no skits, only a few guest appearances, and a mere ten tracks clocking in at under forty-five minutes, produced by four terrific artists with great ears and the uncanny ability to source and arrange beautiful samples.

'The World is Yours' was the song that introduced me to one of the most gifted MCs to ever grab a mic. The dark, sparse Pete Rock production features a jazz piano sample from Ahmad Jamal and rugged drums which resemble the instrument's sound in a band's practice room. During the chorus the music is punctuated by life support beeps and crisp record scratching. The music provides an ideal inspiration for Nas to provide his incomparable braggadocio laced narrative, replete with an amazingly worldly view and impeccable timing.

The wide screen parabolic, black and white video is beautifully shot and a real treat to watch.

New releases from Oddero

I was lucky to be on the sales floor yesterday when Enrico, an italian portfolio manager of a large distributor here in California, dropped by to taste a few new releases from Oddero. Run by the same family since 1878, La Morra's Oddero currently has two female Odderos, Mariacristina and Mariavittoria making the wine. While it is far from an undeniable truth, sometimes you can really sense a female winemaking stamp during a line-up of wines from a winery. There is a softness, lack of brash flavors, approachability and overall balanced character to the wines, even if made from grapes in an area known to produce bigger, bolder wines. I had the same experience recently tasting Vinedos de Ithaca's wines in Priorat (I'll post on it soon). Not to say that all or even most wines made by females are inherently softer, more subtle and balanced, that's just been my recent experience. And I'll leave it at that. Without a doubt, I plan on seeking out more wines made by females. After all, is it not true that we were made by a woman, got our name from a woman and our game from a woman?

So three baroli from the very good 2004 vintage and a barbera d'alba from 2006.

2006 Oddero Barbera d'Alba

A tricky barbera to classify. I tend to group barberas into these 4 categories:

1.) cheap quaffers with decent fruit and acidity
2.) mid weights with more sap, and stick to your gum qualities, often with a touch of wood influence (Vietti tre vigne)
3.) top-notch barberas with considerably more weight, complexity and ageability ( giacomo and aldo conterno, bartolo mascarello)
over extracted, over-oaked barberas that have lost their acidity and inherent barbera-ness (Cascina val de prete 'carolina', Vietti scarrone)

This barbera would be a cat. 2, but it is just so reserved, maybe closed, that it doesn't have the sap of others. There are somewhat shy, closed dark fruits that quite possibly will emerge and become more lively and interesting in the next few months. Maybe the wine recently arrived off a boat, or perhaps by truck from the east coast?

2004 Oddero Barolo Estate

Not particularly impressive, a bit muddled and lacking focus, but after all it's $35 barolo, and how often is $35 barolo worth drinking these days?

2004 Oddero Barolo Villero

Now things get interesting. This single vineyard barolo from the Castiglione Falletto commune has much more intensity, purity and drive to its dark berry fruits. The wine has a solid future ahead of it and is best stashed away for at least 12 years.

2004 Oddero Barolo Rocche di Castiglione

More complex aromas, with mixed red and dark berry fruit, sweet black licorice, a touch of anise and cocoa powder all making appearances on the nose. On the palate the red fruit flavors take over, and it is much more lithe and racier than the powerful nose would suggest. It's another balanced, traditional barolo that I would be proud to cellar if I weren't coming back from a trip where it cost me an average of 55 euros to tank up.

Pink wines in brown bags.

I arrived late and decided to roll note-free for this tasting with my fellow PMW tasting group members, so I'm not going to run through the wines and provide notes on each. Rather, here is a list of the hits and misses of the evening.

DELICIOUS ROSES

2007 Hijos de Crescencia Merino Viña Catajarros Rosado 'Elite' Cigales

Fresh, vibrant, sun soaked red fruits, with good intensity and a strong backbone of acidity lending a fresh finish to the wine. 80% tempranillo, 10% verdejo and 10% assorted others including garnacha and the rare white albillo (see Valduero post below).

2007 Unti Rose Dry Creek Valley

This was part of a four wine all domestic flight which many thought was all French. 60% grenache, 40% mourvedre. Given the light onion skin color and peculiar chewy savor of the wine, I thought Bandol all the way. Gary, who imports predominately French wines, said that there was no way this could be Bandol, and if it were in fact a famous Bandol rose, then he would give serious pause to his choice of profession. Thankfully, Gary was right, so keep on importing, Gary. Apparently I am familiar enough with Bandol rose to spot something similar, but not enough so to catch a look-alike from Dry Creek Valley (albeit a good one, from a producer who overall makes some pretty spot on wines, with natural yeasts, from grapes that are not overly ripe).

2007 Uvaggio Barbera Rose Lodi

Very pretty, with incredibly bright strawberry/raspberry flavors and terrific acidity. Tasted blind, this could have been a gamay or pinot noir rose - from France. And where is the wine really from? Lodi! I kid you not, this refreshing, nuanced, lovely little rose was from hot, hot Lodi, California. Now before the haters start to hate I should mention that the wine checked in with a mere 12% alcohol, and that yes, good wines can be made and are made in California, and it is not only made by Steve Edmunds. Wine drinkers, remember that there are always exceptions, and California winemakers, PICK YOUR GRAPES EARLIER!

FUCKED UP ROSE OF THE NIGHT

2006 Fort Ross Vineyard Rose Sonoma Coast

No surprise here, as anything I have had from these folks has been god awful. Truly repulsive. This one-year-old rose had had it. Fading fruit of a rancio quality, with residual sugar, zero acidity, and high alcohol. Vaguely reminiscent of triaminic cough syrup (triaminic, by the way, is way worse than Robitussin). Shall I do a Rovani-esque 'hypothetical blend' for you? Sure, why not. This is a hypothetical blend between a dirty vin doux naturel from the southern Rhone and poorly made new world gewurztraminer, stored on the upper-most location of a Southern Wines & Spirits warehouse - the southern California warehouse.