pinot days / bordeaux blockbuster

photo from Nature 444:1051 for a book review of Molecular Gastronomy

I know I'm on a Pinot Noir kick and it's unlikely to change since the weather in high altitude Colorado is perfect for drinking pinot. And even though I can't complain about much, I've found something I can complain about. I MISSED PINOT DAYS! Yep, the 2nd annual Pinot Days in San Francisco was last weekend. I take it last year, pre-Sideways super pinot hipness, was low key. This year appears to have been a rucous. Sideways didn't help the price of good pinot either. I can report from my recent trip to Russian River valley that the best pinots are bringing high dollar. It was easy to spend $40-$60 on a vineyard specific tasty bottle of pinot. A more professional wine blog than mine can attest to the pricing first hand from tasting at Pinot Days. My take home message, when you find good pinot that will keep 3-5 years, buy it up. The price is only going keep rising.

My instructor, Philippe (yes, he's French) from a recent class I took at IWC repeatedly discussed the rising American consumption of wine. The U.S. is projected to become the largest global consumer of wine in the next 5 years. That fact not only drives the price up, but opens up the market for more winemakers to get into the business. However, more wine drinkers also means more selective and educated wine drinkers.

Good news: the quality level for high-end wines should go up with more discerning wine drinkers.
Bad news: the price will go up as more consumers are willing to pay.

For cash poor wine lovers like myself, that means I need to buy everytime I find a good deal, and hold onto to as many bottles as I can. It's a great time to be in the wine business. An even better time to be drinking wine.

And since we are talking financials, if you haven't heard already, 2005 is supposedly the best vintage in 60+ years to come out of France. Some say this blockbuster vintage may be the best vintage of all time, given that great vintages in history never had the refined technology that winemakers now use. The 2005 Bordeaux is likely going to fetch all time high prices, making it nearly impossible for someone like me to score a good bottle. I'll have to call it an "investment "and hold onto it as investment property in order to rationalize buying anything. And if I do that, will I have to sell it someday to pay for my kid's (yes, keel is slowly talking me into it) college education?

How to get some of that tasty 2005 Bordeaux that we can drink, and drink, and drink for the next 50 years? Someone give me a clue on this one, pleeeease.

dezio red table wine

I bought this Dezio red table wine from Italy at USQ wines in New York and took it to Block Island, then back to New York, then on the road trip in the blazing hot trunk of our little Jetta for 4 days across the midwest, through Chicago, camping in the Badlands, and finally to Vail, Colorado. Somehow it made it and we finally got to try it out last night. I am pretty sure it's a Sangiovese based wine. I couldn't find much information on it, but it sure tasted like Sangiovese grapes all mashed up and juiced and aged just for my drinking. For all I know it is blended a bit, but I'm not going to worry about it. Tasting it is what I'm most interested in.

We decided on this bottle to drink with our filet mignon and sweet corn on the grill. It held it's own decently against the steak, though it would likely fair better with tomato based pasta dishes, where the weight and acidity would match each other better. However, I never mind a good wine with good food, and this worked out well. The Dezio started to thicken up as it was exposed to more air. We could have decanted this one to speed it along, but I'm too lazy and like to drink a bottle from opening to finish to see how it changes. It's alive after all and changes dramatically with the air. Drinking slowly, we tasted this for over an hour.

"It tastes so Italian," Keely said. I think that's right. Not fruit forward like California reds, but strong in acid like Italian food.

Tasting notes
Color: A deep thick, dense red - nearly purple- but not old enough to have any browning up on the edge. For an Italian red, this one is young at 3 years old.
Nose: Dark red cherry, plum, under-ripe blackberry, and hints of cassis.
Taste: Same as the nose with good strong black pepper coming through. Medium tannins, decent overall structure, though better after it opened up a bit. Good acidity, which is good for moving the flavors around the mouth. Weak on the back of the palette, but the acidity kept the flavors working in the mouth for a bit after swallowing. Round tannins, but you can tell the dryness on your gums, as you should expect with any Sangiovese.

balletto pinot noir

Wow, I love the smell of pinot noir. The nose is so fresh and clean on this 2004 bottling from Balletto. I wasn't that impressed in the tasting room when we tasted through every bottle of Balletto wine available in Sonoma. But this time around - with less drinking to compare it to - the first thing Keely and I said was "this smells good."

Lots of red cherry and not much else. It is a light bodied wine, good acidity, proper alcohol at 13.5% with a light mouth feel. I'd say pretty typical Russian River pinot. When we tasted it at the winery we were comparing with everything else in the valley. When tasting against a pinot from Dutton-Goldfield, the Dutton-Goldfield won hands down. They make their wine fuller bodied with more complex flavors and balance. Elegant. This Balletto was not complex, just good drinking wine. It's a blend from Balletto properties, so not vineyard specific, which also means it's cheaper.

However, sitting out on the deck overlooking Vail valley in Colorado, I'm pefectly happy to drink this bottle. Even at the winery it still comes in under $18. At bottlebarn.com, it was around $13 I think. That's about the right price for this wine. Over all, excellent value and I give it a 3.5/5.0. If you can find it for cheap, get it. Perfect for light fish, like the wild Alaskan halibut we had over couscous with a salsa of olives, capers, arugula, and garlic sauteed in white wine, squeezed lemon juice and olive oil with a dash of red pepper. Top that off with more fresh arugula and you've got yourself a nice dinner to match this pinot (the grilled halibut is also great pan seared).

chateau la blancherie white bordeaux

This one is easy to review. Absolutely terrible!

I was about to pour it down the drain when Keel reminded me that we can cook with it. I guess it has a use after all. It wasn't corked, but had a steely bitter flavor that was unacceptable. I'm not sure if it could have gone "bad" in some other way. Nothing like a rotten cork that I could recognize. I picked it up at Union Square Wines when I was buying whites for the wedding party. This was an extra bottle that somehow escaped the massive consumption we accomplished that weekend. Nearly 8 cases of wine. Luckily, I didn't make the mistake of serving this at the wine and cheese tasting we concocted for ~60 guests. Avoid this crap wine at all costs. A slightly cheaper and better alternative, though nothing fancy, would be the easy to find Chateau Lamothe white bordeaux. Next time I find the need to drink an $8 bottle of white, I'll do it and post the review of the Ch. Lamothe here.

pascal jolivet sancerre

You know the smell you get when the rain first hits those big field stone steps leading up to your aunt's farmhouse in the country (in my case, my Aunt Karen's place in Indiana)? That's what is in the nose on this Sancerre from Pascal Jolivet.

As a Sancerre, this is typical of the 100% Sauvignon Blanc varietal generally cooked up in the Sancerre region of France. I love Sancerre. If you are looking for a white on menu of unknown wines for a seafood dinner out, go with a Sancerre. It's hard to be disappointed with these wines and this particular one hit the spot. After a hot day of hiking in the 10,000 foot hills of Colorado, it went down excellent. When I pulled it out of the fridge it was a bit too chilled. Slightly warmer is better, though not as warm as you might drink a Chardonnay.

Tasting notes
Color: Light lemony yellow, a little watery
Nose: Wet stone, green pear, citrus, and grassy
Taste: Lemony crisp, lingering acidity, light mouth feel, light body. Keel's description included branchy and twiggy.

martinelli pinot noir

This is the first bottle we opened to christen our move to Colorado. Sitting out on the balcony with the setting sun zooming in, it was time for a good bottle of red, and this was it.

Fruit forward is no joke here in this 2004 vintage. A big splash of red cherry comes straight out of the glass. The red cherry effect is abundant in the deep ruby color. A good nose with red fruit strong and perfumy. The amazing thing is the nearly full body in this pinot noir. With other Russian River pinots, body is often lacking. Helen Turley, the winemaker for the Martinelli family, pulled off a strong, full mouth here. The mouth feel is not quite silky (it's pinot after all), but smooth and light, working along the tongue and sides gently, though again with big red fruit. A little french oak is detectable but in balance.

The only dissapointment, which I gather is sort of trademark of Turley's (she's not afraid of doing this with all of her Martinelli wines), is the high alcohol content. It's fully 15.6%, and you can feel the burn in the back of the throat. Frankly, I already know I'm drinking alcohol. I drink wine so I don't have to remember that fact until the bottle is empty. Wine is the art of making drink. No need to let it burn. It's the same reason I really like my 26 yr. old Dallas Dhu Highland single malt scotch instead of a crappy burning 10yr blended whiskey. The harshness of the alcohol has to have time to seap out of the oak casks. If you wait long enough, that scotch turns buttery smooth. Here, the pinot is young, only 2004, and wants to drink young. It's the American way I guess. These bottles sell out within a few months of release, so there's no storage unless you buy enough to store. Which I can't do. So, drink up we must.

This Martinelli Pinot Noir is vineyard specific from the Zio Tony Ranch. It has few tannins, which is to be expected with pinot's thin skins. Balanced acidity works well in the mouth. The sugar, acid, and light tannin all hold their balance well (given the strong fruit punch of the California style), even after 30 minutes of air. A couple years might help this particular wine, but I'm pleased with the flavors and finish nonetheless. I give it a 4.0 out of 5.0, which is a strong rating and would be a 4.5 but for the alcohol. For California pinot, this is some of the best. It's great drinking, no kidding.

after sonoma

After Sonoma we headed out to commune with the redwoods in Humboldt State Park.


A beautiful private backcountry camping spot along a stream was the perfect setting to start the marriage off right. I probably shouldn't mention this either, but making love along the banks of the stream with the sun overhead and a camping pad underneath is something I want to do every summer of my life.

We were only in New York 3 days before heading back out on the road. Just time enough to finish my work at AMNH and pack up. For newcomers, I work at various places. An outdated AMNH biography is here and my current Columbia page is here. On the road means a road trip to Vail, Colorado where Keel and I are spending the summer. We won't be back in New York until mid-August.

sonoma: farmhouse inn

If you haven't afforded a trip to the Farmhouse Inn in Russian River Valley, afford it. The focus is on local raised and farmed food with a penchant for the organic. Quality comes out of the kitchen effortlessly, and the enjoyment factor is high. Very high. Our sommelier helped us pick a vineyard pinot noir from the area that we hadn't been able to taste at a winery because it was sold out. A Lynmar Quail Hill 2002 Pinot Noir if I remember correctly. The additional age gave it a bit more body than you might expect. After a little tuna,

I helped myself to the fabulous bread while waiting on the big steak to come out. Sometimes you need a black angus ribeye to settle all that drinking, I mean tasting, we'd done earlier in the day.

bottle barn

So here's the scoop on the Bottle Barn. They carry international wines and have a decent selection from all around the world. Their California selection however is very good. The most important thing about them is that they have a fixed mark-up of 17%. They get the lowest prices from the wineries, and then mark it up a set amount. If they get a good deal, then so do you. We stopped there to check prices before leaving Sonoma County and found a range from $2 to $12 savings per bottle on wines we'd already purchased. I stopped looking at prices and just started buying to finish filling up some cases to ship to New York. There's a limit to how much I want to know about my overpaying at the wineries. They did carry Porter Creek, Flowers, and Arista, among other great wines. Also, they have good shipping prices. Matt Helman, the director of the store personally packed our wines to ship. It's the down-home friendliness of Matt and his willingness to try to get any wine that will have me picking up the phone to make orders. I can almost guarantee he can beat any New York wine store prices.

sonoma: porter creek

Sonoma is like the farmboy version of Napa. Sure, there are some large estates with fancy architecture, but we only stopped in a couple just on the off chance their high consistency, high production wines (try 40,000 - 200,000 cases) were actually good. A couple were. I'll get to that later.

The Russian River valley is rolling hills surrounding the steady flow of the river. A large opening in the California coastline widens up where the Russian River pours out into the Pacific. This allows the cool evening fog coming off the Pacific to roll in every evening as the sun goes down, covering the grapes with cool moisture throughout the valley. We watched the fog burn off in the mornings as it slowly returned to 85 degrees and full sun. The location, the hot sun and cool evening moisture, is what makes this such a great wine growing region.

Keely and I had a great view of the valley from a 26 acre hill-top farm we stayed at run by Tim and Tony, two very laid back gay farmer dudes who provided us with a braying donkey,

morning rooster crows, and our own little cottage overlooking the valley.

Oh yeah, we had an outdoor hot tub too. We used it to wake up in the morning and smooth out the wrinkles at night. There's just something about making love in the hot bubbly under the stars thats unstoppable. I know you needed to know about that. Did I mention there was a mirror covering both doors of the closet running the whole length of the bed?

Our first stop in wine country and favorite was Porter Creek. The tasting room is a tar paper shack, or the equivalent, in shed form. No air conditioning here. But the pinot was fabulous. I wish we hadn't stopped there first, because by day three of tasting, I had started to forget just how good Porter Creek was. We should have gone back. I've got a bottle or two to remind myself though.

I came to Sonoma for the Pinot, though Keel ended up persuading me to taste and eventually buy other varietals. In any case, Tony (of Tim and Tony) works at Porter Creek and so we had a nice first entry into the local wine scene. Drinking some of the best from a place that only produces a couple thousand cases was the perfect starter. Mike, the guy who poured for us was at the end of his day, or else we might have had better conversation. We were the last ones out. Sometimes its hard to decide whether to buy that strange but good bottle of 100% Carignane. We were still packing up the couple bottles we bought while Mike walked down the gravel lane to change the hanging "open" sign to "closed".

sonoma: lynmar winery and american drinking habits

The Lynmar Winery tasting room is housed in a sort of glorified barn. It's actually pretty fancy, but the architecture I found a bit funny. Keely loved the wines here so we came home with some Chardonnay and Pinot Noir Rose. They were out of Pinot Noir. How can you be out of pinot in Russian River valley? Scroll down to find out.

Anyway, at Lynmar, the estate Chardonnay was 10 times better than the blend, much more character and complexity. It's usually that way, even in an objective tasting. Of course, the estate wines costs more too. I'll try to pull out my tasting notes and wine lists from our tastings to update this blog when we return to New York in August.

Here's the deal on running out of pinot: Americans drink their wine fast. There's very little aging in this country unless you can afford to buy enough volume that you can't possibly drink it all. Only then does some stay in your cellar. Or in my case, in the wine fridge under lock and key. After this trip I have to buy another fridge. What I really need to do is move to the country and build a house with a proper cellar, but that's another story/dream.

In any case, the better the winery, at least in Sonoma and Napa, the faster the wines sell. And the better the wine, say, an estate wine, or vineyard specific wine (for example, Porter Creek Hillside Vineyard Pinot Noir, which they were also out of), the faster it sells. Most good bottlings from reputable small producing wineries sell out in 3-4 months, or so I was regularly told at the wineries. And to prove it, I kept sidling up to the tasting bar only to find out that the 2004 is sold out, sometimes there was a 2003 laying around that I could buy but not taste, and the 2005s aren't expected until August -November.

What this means is, besides the need to buy quickly, if you are coming out to wine country to taste, new wines are typically released around March/April and September/October, depending on the grape. Old wines are sold out. So if you want to taste the good stuff, you'd better come at the right time. Come out around May or November. Otherwise, you may find yourself like I did, even in the first week of June, with spring 2006 releases of a 2004 or 2005 (if white) vintage already sold out.

Naturally, after a certain amount of tasting without spitting (which I was forced to do much more of in the next days) leads to a bit of giddiness.

I found out later shopping at Bottle Barn that the prices we paid were a tad inflated. In some cases by as much as $10/bottle. Never get drunk and then buy wine. You ALWAYS spend too much.

san francisco

Following our weekend wedding party on Block Island, RI, we headed out to Sonoma via San Francisco. After checking in to the W hotel, which Keel somehow talked them into 2 free nights in a king room on the high floor,

we cleaned up, had a drink at the W bar with my friend James,

and went out to a fabulous meal at Quince.

Now I've had a few good meals in my life, but this might have stole the #1 spot. With barely 15 tables they manage to make it feel quiet and private and I swore every person working there was waiting exclusively on us. Perfectly orchestrated service without interrupting. Impeccable demeanor and naturally, outstanding food. Wine too of course. Picking dining places for the honeymoon was at least fifty percent about the wine list. A hefty bill at Quince to be sure. You can spend $200 for two without trying. We won't make it to Qince again any time soon, or even San. Fran., but if I had to suggest a great dining experience, I'd say "get thee hence to quince".

As for wine, we started with a short bottle of Champagne and moved to an excellent Burgundy. Since we were headed to Sonoma, why drink anything other than the art of France? And it's pinot anyway, right? I can't remember the bottle, but it was a cheap one at around $65. The appetizers were incredible and the entrees impeccable. I'll try to remember what the actual orders were, but as the menu changes daily, I can't even look it up. I do remember that there were fava beans on almost every plate. Also, the cheese plate was divine. One reason the quality is so high is that there is an abundance of local and organic foods brought in by Michael Tusk. From organic produce to local fish to ethically raised and local beef. Much of it from Sonoma county. Just the kind of place I want to give all my money to, and did. Thank god for honeymoon gifts.

catching up

For this first post, and many to follow, you can expect the tasting to focus on a series of California bottlings. Keely and I just returned from our honeymoon trip to Sonoma and are spending the summer in Vail, Colorado going through the nearly 3 cases of wine we bought from various small wineries there. Well, we might need part of the fall to drink through them, especially since I get stingy about the good ones. In any case, the first few posts will be to catch up to the present with a bit of background.

One, I'm partial to French wines, I am also in love with Spanish wine (give me a quality Priorat any day of the year and I'm happy). Naturally, I have a healthy respect for the 100 odd varietals growing in Italy and feel glad to know (and consume)that Californian's are making world class wine. The Sonoma bottle we had tonight showed its color immediately. But first, a quick catch up on Sonoma, in case you haven't made the visit yet. In short, you should. I'll get to the review of the Martinelli Pinot Noir we drank in a later post. So here goes the quick rundown/background. I'll only start with the wedding party (which had a great wine and cheese tasting if I do say so myself), since anything before that is history.

Keely and I actually were married August 18th at the courthouse in downtown Manhattan near Wall street and all that financial business. We had been back from Tibet for only 4 days when my cousin and best friend Josh showed up to say hi. We figure, hell, we've got a witness. Let's go. It took us 2 weeks to tell her family. A couple weeks later I told mine and by Christmas we decided to actually have a party for our friends and immediate family. After Keel's mom encouraged us to ditch the vermont camping trip (we thought we'd rent an entire campground out and make everyone come with tents), we came up with a long weekend over Memorial Day on Block Island. We ended up rented 3 houses, 1 for each side of the family and 1 for the "kids". And we had a blast.