dom. de la quilla muscadet

This particular Muscadet actually comes from the village where Muscadet grapes originated. As this is another Robert Kacher import, you can check his fact sheet for more info on the winemaking Vinet brothers and the village. I suppose the most important fact about this wine is that they leave it sur lie for 8 months. This means they leave the wine sitting directly on the grape skins over winter and therefore bottle later than others in the appellation. This allows it time to take more of that tasty acidity and flavor from the skins. This allows time for complexity to develop in the wine and also a slightly different flavor profile. In any case, I loved it.


This wine immediately hits the back of the palette with it’s tartness, while the front of the palette is clean and bright. This would be great with green salads, fruits, and oh yes, oysters. This wine has an excellent salty flavor that really gets the palette salivating for food, and oysters more than anything, at least for me. Right this second I really wish it weren’t summer and we could be eating some Kumamotos at Mary’s Fish Camp. Soon. The oyster eating months are returning (right now they are spawning in warm water, so I wouldn't recommend eating them just yet). We ended up having this bottle with grilled salmon, mostly because I didn’t feel like opening our good bottle of Russian River Chardonnay. We decided to drink this cheaper bottle instead. I’m saving that Chardonnay for the last white to drink in Colorado before we move back to New York. Just a couple weeks left here in the mountains and we have been playing hard.

Tasting notes
Color: Straw colored
Nose: Clean aromatic, citrus and hints of green apple
Taste: Sour green apple with a citrus twist that leads you down the righteous path to bright, clean acid. Some might call it lemon squirt. I haven’t had something this tart since the last time I sucked on a green apple Jolly Rancher. The mouth feel is light bodied and lean. You get salty fruit, minerals, lots of depth and length. Robert Parker gave the 2003 vintage an 89, though for the low price of $12 I’d give it a high score for value.

Most likely this wine, with all the good acidity, could handle a couple years of cellaring, but there’s no real reason to do it. Drink now and buy another bottle for later. The Domaine de la Quilla is available in many stores in the New York area. Or you can always try winefetch.com for locating the cheapest price.

wow oui

Wow Oui is a Savignon Blanc from winemaker Joe Benziger with a hint of Muscat Canelli blended in. This savignon blanc is all Russian River Valley from Imagery Estates but they bring in the muscat from Lake County in California. The quality of this wine is excellent, using free-run juice (the first and best juice that comes out of grapes when they are pressed) that is tank fermented. You pay a bit more because they commission art for every label, which of course factors into the price of the wine.
In the tasting room in Sonoma County just recently in May, Keel and I enjoyed a bunch of different wines from Imagery, but this one stood out as a show-stopper. (This winery also stands out because it is the money bag for wine. Imagery is basically big professional winemakers with a need to make art gallery wine. It's much different from the rest of small label high quality Sonoma wine making we sampled). However, even though my preference is for small producers of local fruit, we weren't disappointed when we uncorked this bottle for a post-sushi dinner glass. It had just finally stopped raining from the afternoon storm we seem to get every day around 5pm here in Vail Valley when we both simultaneously said, "What are we waiting for. Let's drink it." The reward was this beautiful sunset and the cool wet breeze from the mountains after they drank in the rain.


Tasting notes
Color: Off white with a hint of lemon
Nose: Honeysuckle floral bouquet and lichi
Taste: Big fruit! Honey, honey, honey, lichi, and a strong but pleasant pink grapefruit flavor is maintained through the incredibly long finish. Makes you want another bottle.

tres picos garnacha

This bottle from Tres Picos is one of the better values in Spanish red wine. Garnache and Tempranillo regularly battle it out for "top grape" in Spain and this granache is excellent when you consider the bottle only costs ~$10. The fantastics smells jump out of the glass and I'm still suprised at how deep and complex this wine is for the price. This is the third time I've slurped and gurgled a bottle of Tres Picos and I'm still convinced. The wine is made from old-vine granache and you can taste the earth. Also, the bottle is thick and makes a great presentation. Pick this one up for a dinner party and everyone will be impressed.

The importer, Jorge Ordonez, has been in the business since before anyone stateside was drinking Spanish wines. I, for one, am a HUGE lover of Spanish wines, especially after spending New Year's 2004/5 with a friend and his family in Madrid. Lucky for me they are serious wine lovers. The father has a nearly 10,000 bottle cellar in the north part of the country devoted to Spanish wines and personally picks up cases from his wine growing friends. Let's just say the wines he poured that night I've yet to drink their equal in the U.S. In any case, when you aren't drinking a killer Rioja or better yet, my current favorites come from Priorat, then pick up this granache for dinner. We served it with grilled beef tenderloin and corn, but this has body that would go great with grilled chicken. The smoke goes so well with this red wine.
Tasting notes
Color: Deep ruby
Nose: Plum and cherry with floral notes
Taste: Strawberry and cherry with hints of light vanilla and spice. It could develop some leathery characteristics with age. I enjoyed the round supple tannins and natural good acidity. Don't bother aging, just drink it.

d'arricaud white bordeaux

This D'Arricaud had an excellent crisp and steely lemony flavor. An excellent accompaniment to the fried calamari Keel and I treated ourselves to for starters on the night Frites calls Mussel Madness. Frites is a French bistro that sits down on the river in Vail Valley, technically in Edwards. We sat on the patio watching the sun set, trying the variations on the typical mussels plate with this bottle to make it all better. We paid $33 for the bottle, which is about as good as you'll get with the damn standard wine markup. If the meal is good too, who's going to complain? Not me. This is the best local restaurant we've enjoyed so far. An excellent interior atmosphere for Edwards, Colorado, which is not readily apparent from the poor choice of design on the outside. No matter, once inside Frites I'm happy.

naia verdejo

The sunsets off the balcony here are amazing. You don't get that intense color that you might find in the Indiana due to all the topsoil flying around in the atmosphere, or the intense deep pinks and oranges you'll find in New Jersey from all the pollution everyone is breathing in. Nope, here it's just pure atmosphere. When the moon comes over the hills it's like watching a planet rising on the horizon. The sunsets are so pure. Naturally, we can't help celebrating regularly with a bottle of good white. The other night it was this refreshing Spanish Verdejo from Naia.

Tasting notes
Color: Predictable golden, lemony, though richer in color than I expected. Fuller than a savignon blanc in its goldness, though not that creamy gold of a chardonnay.
Nose: Lightly aromatic with hints of peach and pear
Taste: Crisp fresh lemon, lots of green apple, maybe a little cut green grass, some pear overtones on the apple, very acidic.

global warming's wrath on grapes

There is a real threat to grapes in the near future according to a recent scientific study. Below I've copied a news article from Science, one of the top science journals in the world. The gist of the article is that a recent global climate model simulation for the U.S., published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, revealed many wine regions, California especially, at risk of very high temperatures in the near future. This risk was interpreted as a loss of farmland, since above a certain critical value in this study, ~35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), growing the best high-quality grapes is not possible. Thus, a real threat is on the horizon for quality grape growing in America. If you think this is bad, do you remember the heatwave of 2003 in Europe. If things like that keep up, France and Spain have a lot more to worry about than we do. And all global climate modeling scenarios predict a steady increase in warming.

I asked a question on this subject (whether French wine producers/growers are worried about the coming warming of their regions?) to Bobby Kacher, a famous French wine importer at a sit-down French wine tasting at USQ wines in New York a while back, and he pretty much brushed me off. Which makes me think growers are not looking that far ahead. And maybe they shouldn't bother. What are they really going to do about it?

It takes a long-term perspective to really consider these kinds of issues. Over the next 100 years, there could be quite a shake-up in what is considered to be the best wine regions, as growing conditions undergo dramatic changes. What those changes are likely to be and where the most dramatic change will happen is still anybody's guess. Even climate modelers in the U.S. are only coming up with likelihood scenarios that may or may not be born out. Still, long-term, the predictions look relatively robust and global wine production could be threatened. Will growers just shift to new regions? Will France lose it's hold on the "best wine in the world" title? Another excuse to drink the good stuff now!

copied Science article below:

Global Warming's Wrath on Grapes

By Betsy Mason
ScienceNOW Daily News
10 July 2006

Past its prime? Grapes used to make premium wines may suffer as the world warms.

Add fine Chardonnay to the victims of global warming. A new study indicates that climate change could cause a precipitous decline in the quality of top wines in the United States.
To date, assessments of the effects of global warming on U.S. agriculture in the coming century have suggested mild impacts on many crops, including wine grapes. But these studies have relied on global climate models that don't accurately gauge what will happen on a local scale. Premium wine grapes require a delicate balance of climatic conditions--not too hot, not too cold, and no extreme swings in daily temperature. Digging into the details, a team led by ecological modeler Michael White of Utah State University in Logan and climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, fired up a climate simulation for the continental U.S.

The simulation revealed local bumps in temperature that were not picked up by the broader climate models. Over the next century, these bumps prove catastrophic for premium grape harvests. When the team looked at regions that typically produce a premium harvest just once or twice every 24 years, for example, a significant bump in the number of days above 35° Celsius slashed the total area for growing the best grapes by a startling 81%. For regions that consistently produce a premium crop every year, the acreage was cut by 60%.

California, which accounts for 90% of the country's wine grape production, was particularly hard hit with just a narrow strip of premium-grape growing territory along the coast remaining by 2071 to 2099. Much of the U.S.'s remaining high-quality acreage shifted northward: the Pacific Northwest and the northeast stand to gain a healthy amount of premium grape-growing property. But don't rush out and buy a vineyard in Washington or New York just yet, the authors warn. Their study only looked at temperature and didn't account for other important factors such as humidity and precipitation, which may continue to be problematic for wine grapes grown in wet northern areas. The team reports its findings online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The results of this study are more dire than other studies on the impact of climate change on wine grapes," says ecologist Christopher Field of the Carnegie Institution in Stanford, California. "I think there is a growing appreciation of the fact that we experience climate change on a very local scale." Field hopes the study provides some incentive for people to do something about climate change. Wine connoisseurs in particular may want to raise a glass to getting more involved.

end copied article.

venta mazzaron tempranillo

Old vines of Viñas del Cenit Venta Mazzaron Tempranillo
La Tierra de Zamora 2003

For ~$14 you can enjoy a really nice 100% Tempranillo wine from Spain. I first had this wine a year ago when I was getting into Spanish wines. Then I took a case of it up to the wedding (since USQ wines gave me a pretty good deal) and that went down many gullets quite well. This 2003 vintage from Venta Mazzaron was happily drunk with my brother and Keel on Sunday after we returned from an incredible night of camping at Independence Pass, CO. My brother, Josh, was on a 3 day short, but excellent visit from Seattle.

We first started drinking the Viogner and then opened this one up as we started the grill. This did a decent job of cutting through the filet mignon while the corn on the cob did it's level best to hold its own against the structured tannins.

Here's the interesting details on this wine. It is made from old ungrafted vines which are planted on sandy soils with chalk and iron. I think the iron really plays a role in the taste and style of this wine as the mid-palate definitely has a touch of dark game meat to it with loads of cherry and dried currant flavors surrounding it. This wine has had some time in the bottle to smooth out so you should pick up much more red fruits and a touch of vanillin. Super smooth and delicious!

Robert Parker gave it 91 points and had this to say, "A superb discovery by broker Jorge Ordonez, the terrific 2003 Venta Mazzaron is a top-notch value. It offers a deep ruby/purple color as well as a sweet perfume of blackberries, cherries, smoke, licorice, and earth. Medium-bodied and elegant, with wonderful sweetness, plush tannin, and a long, pure finish, it will drink well for 2-3 years."

Tasting notes
Color: Deep garnet, thick though young
Nose: Fruity, dark cherry and black plum flavors
Taste: Chewy medium tannins, moderate dryness, definitely noticing it in the gums, a bit of ground pepper came through the dark cherry plum fruit, with good savory acidity.

Don't pay $20 for this bottle, but you'll get lots of fruit and good balance overall if you find it for $15. Not a whole lot of complexity, but who's complaining for the price. You'd need to spend $25 or so for a nice Rioja to beat this Tempranillo.

grange des rouquette viognier

Bobby Kacher's work with small family owned wineries in France regularly rewards us with excellent values. Because he works exclusively in France, he is a specialist. I can't remember every being disappointed with his wine. He works directly with the winemakers, often bringing them up to speed on modern production techniques, but also focuses on small producers who grow their own grapes and make their own wine. All Kacher wines are made by the farmers with usually very limited production (1-4000 cases). Though this kind of work is admittedly changing the old world style, Kacher stays committed to actually preserving the old world tradition of family grown wines by preserving the old techniques of small family wineries while updating them with modern handling, pruning, etc. He does encourage growers to lower the yields and concentrate the wine, which is no wonder that Robert Parker often points to Kacher as one of the most important French wine importers in the world.

I was at a sit-down wine tasting at Union Square Wines with Kacher last fall and had the good fortune to taste an entire flight of over $100 wines. In his words, "I want you to be able to taste, probably for the first time, what a true Bordeaux and a true Burgundy taste like." Since very few of the tasters could actually afford to buy the wines, the tasting was simply an education in what old world wine from small farmed acres in the heart of France tastes like. It was incredible.

Kacher can come off as a pompous son of a bitch to some, but after he guided me around the store, hand picking an entire case of wine for me, I was pretty well smitten. I can't help it. I like his taste. Our palettes must overlap perfectly because I haven't had a Bobby Kacher wine I didn't like yet. I hope it stays that way. Here's to more Kacher wines in the future.

(The Frenglish on the back of this label is particularly good. You know you are drinking the family wine "since five generations" when they haven't hired anyone to grammar check the English.)

Given what I've just said above, this particular wine was in the end "ok." Nothing incredible, but drinkable on a warm Sunday afternoon as I hoped it would be. I'm glad I brought it out from New York for a toast with my brother, Josh, and Keel.

Tasting notes
Color: Young golden with a bit of lemon
Nose: Crisp, steely pear, sweet green apple
Taste: No real fruit in the mouth except some carmelized apple, dry light stone flavor with good acidity.

As we drank through the bottle prior to starting dinner, I noticed more and more a slightly bitter tongue with no real reward. A bit weak on taste overall. The reason for drinking this bottle was simply to get the pallete ready for the bottle of red we opened up next, and before the steak went on the grill. And for that, it's perfect. The acid gets the saliva moving and made me hungry, as it should. This would be great with oysters on the half shell and a crisp caesar salad. Not my favorite Kacher wine, but it worked just fine to fuel pre-dinner conversation.