I wish it were that easy. Funny enough, very few regions in Italy publish their own maps or really do much to tell the world that they exist. Take one of Basilicata’s newer regions, TERRE DELL’ALTA VAL D’AGRI D.O.C. I would bet a lot of money that you haven’t heard about it, much less had any of their wines. They were officially recognized as a region in 2003 and make red and rosé wines from Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.

This is all taken from the official regional document, which is also where we get the map information described in text:

Le uve destinate alla produzione dei vini a DOC “Terre dell’alta val d’Agri” di cui al precedente art 2, devono provenire dai vigneti ubicati nei territori amministrativi dei seguenti comuni:
Viggiano Grumento Nova Moliterno
Tutti in provincia di Potenza
Le uve potranno essere prodotte in vigneti coltivati fino alla quota massima di 800 metri s.l.m.

Which translates into: The area below 800 meters (above sea level) in the communities of Viggiano, Grumento Nova and Moliterno.

This was actually a fairly easy region to document. Most of them resemble some sort of sat-nav from hell:

RIVIERA DEL BRENTA D.O.C.
Tale zona è così delimitata:
partendo da via Valmarana in comune di Noventa Padovana all’intersezione della autostrada A 4 Serenissima, la delimitazione prosegue lungo questa strada verso est fino al semaforo, ove gira a destra verso il centro di Noventa Padovana lungo la via Roma; superato il ponte sul canale Piovevo il confine gira a sinistra lungo l’argine in via Argine Destro Piovevo per poi proseguire su strada bianca mentre il canale Piovevo delimita il territorio verso est fino a raggiungere il confine amministrativo tra Padova e Venezia.
Da questo punto la delimitazione è rappresentata da tale confine fino all’ incrocio con la strada provinciale Vigonovese e percorre questa in direzione sinistra verso Villatora di Saonara lungo via III Novembre, alla fine della quale il confine svolta a destra in via XX Settembre e quindi a sinistra in via Mazzini fino al semaforo.
A questo incrocio, girando a sinistra in direzione Saonara, si percorre la strada dei Vivai per uscire al primo svincolo a destra in direzione Legnaro e quindi a sinistra in direzione Sant’Angelo di Piove di Sacco lungo via Morosini.
Allo stop la delimitazione gira a sinistra per entrare a Saonara in via Roma per poi proseguire diritta per la strada che diventerà prima via Valmarana e poi via Caovilla ed entrare quindi nel comune di Sant’Angelo di Piove di Sacco attraversando via Roma prima e via IV Novembre poi.
Superato il centro di sant’Angelo di Piove di Sacco, in corrispondenza di una curva a gomito a sinistra di via IV Novembre, il confine gira a destra proseguendo fino al semaforo che incrocia la strada provinciale n. 12.
Da qui gira a destra in direzione di Piove di Sacco lungo la via Alto Adige che successivamente diventa via Scardovara, per girare quindi a sinistra in via T. Vecellio, che percorre interamente fino al comune di Campolongo Maggiore da dove, all’intersezione con via Righe, gira a destra in direzione Corte.
Oltrepassa quindi la ferrovia e prosegue fino al semaforo in centro del paese di Corte, da dove gira a sinistra per arrivare al fiume Brenta e oltrepassato il ponte, gira a sinistra in via Sampieri e quindi subito a destra in via Fiumazzo.
Questa viene percorsa costeggiando l’argine, sino al confine provinciale tra Padova e Venezia da dove parte, sulla destra, il canale Cavaizza che rappresenta il limite sud-est del territorio delimitato, fino ad arrivare sulla strada statale n. 309 Romea.
Il confine territoriale prosegue quindi verso nord lungo la strada statale Romea in direzione Venezia, fino al canale Seriosa (Km. 122,100), per girare a sinistra al semaforo, per via La Seriosa Veneta Sinistra verso località Casona; quindi attraversa il canale per proseguire lungo via Sabbiosa ed attraversare anche il Naviglio del Brenta e la strada statale n. 11 Padova – Venezia.
Gira quindi a destra e poi a sinistra in via Risato e Bellin; lungo la via incrocia lo scolo Lusore, che diventa il limite dell’area seguendo lo scorrere naturale verso est fino al punto di raccordo con il canale Tron.
Ripercorrendo il canale Tron verso nord si incontra via Ghebba (prosecuzione stradale di via Risato e Bellin) ed in direzione nord passa sotto l’autostrada A 4; si prosegue per via Oriago fino all’incrocio con la Miranese, quindi si gira a destra verso Mestre e poi a sinistra, verso nord, lungo via Risorgimento in direzione Asseggiano (Palazzo Friendenberg).
La delimitazione gira successivamente a destra e subito a sinistra per via Martiri di Marzabotto (brevemente via della Spiga) e via della Vigna per riprendere via Martiri verso Case Dosa da dove, allo stop gira a sinistra lungo via Visinoni fino a Zelarino; al semaforo che incrocia la strada statale n. 245 Castellana gira a destra e poi a sinistra per via Scaramuzza e poi a destra in via Paccagnella fino ad incrociare la ferrovia la quale delimita il territorio verso nord fino ad intersecare via Gatta.
Lasciata la ferrovia, il confine prosegue verso ovest lungo via Gatta fino alla via Molino Marcello che percorre fino a via Marignana, su questa gira a destra e poi a sinistra per via
Chiesa Gardigiano fino ad incrociare via Nuova Moglianese Gardigiano, per girare quindi a sinistra ed entrare in frazione Cappella in comune di Scorzè.
Arrivata all’intersezione con la strada statale n, 245 Castellana, la delimitazione gira a destra in direzione Castelfranco fino all’incrocio con via Manetti (km. 17,800) e quindi a sinistra in direzione Fossalta di Trebaseleghe percorrendo via S. Tiziano fino al centro di Fossalta, da qui gira a sinistra verso Massanzago ed al primo incrocio gira a destra per via Rustega sulla strada provinciale n. 44 per entrare quindi in comune di Camposanpiero lungo via Fossalta.
All’incrocio la delimitazione gira a destra per via Borgo Rustega, quindi via Guizze di Rustega ed entra in comune di Loreggia e successivamente in comune di Camposanpiero oltrepassando anche Muson dei Sassi.
Allo stop il confine gira a sinistra sulla strada statale n. 307 fino all’incrocio, per girare quindi a destra in direzione Cittadella in via S. Antonio, oltrepassa la ferrovia percorrendo la strada provinciale n. 22, esce dal comune di Camposanpiero, attraversa la località Fratte di S. Giustina in Colle, supera la ferrovia ed al km. 27,000 gira a sinistra in via Militare in direzione Villa del Conte; allo stop gira a sinistra in via Rettilineo attraversa in centro del comune di Villa del Conte per girare quindi a destra sulla strada provinciale n. 58 fino a San Giorgio in Bosco; da qui il confine supera l’incrocio con la strada statale n. 47 proseguendo fino al ponte di Carturo sul fiume Brenta strada provinciale n. 27 Giarabassa.
Da qui è lo stesso fiume che verso valle delimita il confine ovest dell’area interessata fino al limite amministrativo del comune di Padova, segue questo fino all’intersezione con la strada statale n. 47 che percorre in direzione Padova fino al cavalcavia con l’autostrada A 4 Serenissima.
Da qui sarà detta autostrada A 4 che in direzione Venezia delimita il territorio fino a raggiungere l’intersezione con la strada Noventa Padovana, via Valmarana e cioè al punto di partenza.

(repeat 330 times)

Fortunately (for our sanity) we are nearly done but unfortunately it will not be available until the New Year (January 2010). Thank you for your patience.

Pear drop is a term often used by wine writers to describe the flavor of Beaujolais Nouveau. These writers would all be British since pear drops are virtually unknown in North America. They’re a traditional type of candy that the British call boiled sweets and Americans call hard candy.

They get their flavor from isoamyl acetate, an artificial flavoring commonly called banana oil. Yes, pear drops taste mainly like bananas but also like ripe pears as well. Beaujolais Nouveau gets its pear drop/ banana candy flavor from carbonic maceration, a process where whole bunches of grapes are fermented without crushing. The process produces isoamyl acetate, the pear drop flavor compound.

The Wine Century Club – now 590 members strong – celebrated its 4th birthday last Thursday. To mark the occasion, members worldwide tasted 159 different grape varieties. The list included serious obsurities such as Himbertscha, Incrocio Manzoni and Bukettraube.

The club has also started a new level of recognition: Doppel Members, for those who have tried more than 200 different grape varieties.

Brettanomyces ‘Brett’ is a yeast with many strains that imparts a wide range of flavors. Fairly common, especially in red wines. Considered by some to add desired character to wines when at low levels.
Telltale aromas: earthy, horsey, barnyard, sweaty-saddle, manure, leather, smoked bacon, cheese, band-aid, antiseptic (from De Long’s Wine Tasting Guides)

I came across the term “brett bomb” when I was researching a seriously delicious wine that was also a great value at approx. $10 – the 2004 Château du Cèdre Cahors Héritage. I googled it an found an interesting range of opinions that pretty much sum up the differences in old world and new world tastes in wine.

Representing the Old World, Jamie Goode liked it:

. . . drinking Chateau du Cedre 2004 Cahors, which is inky, dark, tannic and gravelly. Yes, I’m back on wine, and I’m really enjoying it. Lying in bed, with a TV show on a laptop and a glass of wine in hand is like flying business class. Especially when the wine is authentic, too.

Representing the New World, Ray Johnson didn’t:

The nose combines the rugged side of wine-love, with horse blanket, cheese and ripe berry fruit. In the mouth the wine is quite tannic and strongly reminiscent of the horse, certainly too much so for many drinkers. This is the negociant wine from the famous estate. Eleve et mis en bouteille a Vire-sur-Lot 13% $10.99 at Bottle Barn. Yes, this wine is just too rustic for most consumers of New World wine. What is disappointing is that it doesn’t have to be such a brett bomb. Cedre has a great reputation but this wine is not in that league.

Funny enough, their notes are very similar except for their tolerance of brettanomyces. Jamie makes a nod to it as gravelly and authentic, while Ray finds it a cheesy horse blanket (yuck!); indeed, a BRETT BOMB! To be honest, I really didn’t notice the brett on my first tasting, noting just earthy leather which could be a lot of things. On a re-tasting – after reading Jamie’s and especially Ray’s notes – I did notice the brett more and with a little antiseptic band-aid flavor to it as well. Such is the power of suggestion.

If you’ve ever been curious or not exactly sure of what Brettomyces tastes like, try to track down this wine. The 2004 is getting harder to find, but the 2005 illustrates this point as well, although with more fruit and less aggressive tannins. Since the wine is 90% Malbec, comparing it with a new world brett-free Argentinian Malbec – like Alamos – is an interesting and enjoyable comparison. Especially with a few steaks on the BBQ.

George Brett One of the greatest hitters in modern baseball history. Batting for the Kansas City Royals in Game 2 of the 1980 World Series, he left in the 6th inning with severe hemorrhoid pain. After minor surgery, he returned to hit a home run, leading the Royals to victory in Game 3. Although the Royals eventually lost the series to the Philadelphia Phillies, Brett became a hemorrhoids hero.

Robert Parker, Andrea Immer Robinson, Jancis Robinson and Gary Vaynerchuk hanging out at the Playmobil wine bar.

If you’ve noticed your 5 year old swirling and sniffing his/her juice glass, you may want to pay attention to this story.

Playmobil Wine Bar, one of Playmobil’s best sellers since it was introduced last fall, has hit a nerve with parents and trade groups nationwide. The Zirndorf, Germany-based company has previously courted controversy with Bank Robbers and Gangster play sets but may have taken it a bit too far this time.

The set includes miniature bottles, glassware and figures based on wine personalities Jancis Robinson, Andrea Immer Robinson, Gary Vaynerchuk and Robert M. Parker, Jr. in a relaxed wine bar setting. The details of the licensing deals are unclear, however, since none of the parties were willing to disclose terms.

While the wine industry has increasingly been targeting Millennials, who of course are above the legal drinking age, the Playmobil set has some community leaders up in arms. Not missing an opportunity to look good and lead in the outrage has been spokesperson Bruno Ashwip of the powerful Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association (WSWA).

“We’re really concerned about this one since they’re using wine celebs to get to the kids. The likenesses are pretty uncanny, I mean, the Robert Parker figure is a lot thinner than the real one, but they totally nailed his hair. Don’t tell me that children don’t know this. It’s just another reason that we shouldn’t allow state to state shipping of wine.”

The WSWA has gone so far as to propose legislation that would block interstate shipping of this toy. “We already have WSWA-friendly UPS drivers confiscating this item,” added Ashwip.

The calm at the center of this controversy are the wine celebrities themselves. They all seem to be oblivious to the outrage and much more concerned with advancing their personal brands.

Reached by phone at her London home, Jancis Robinson’s only apparent worry is that Immer Robinson and she are erroneously listed as the “Robinson sisters” on the packaging. “We are not sisters” was the terse response from the usually gracious Brit wine maven.

Immer Robinson initially laughed off the sister error has “good PR” but later admitted in a long-winded explanation that they were indeed not sisters. She was then off to teach a class of toddlers juice and cheese pairing at the French Culinary Institute where she is Dean of Liquid Studies.

Vaynerchuk, who proudly displays toy action figures in his popular Wine Library TV webcasts was ecstatic almost to the point of incomprehension. “This toy has the thunder^TM! My man is wearing his Vayniac^TM wrist band! Link it up, Mott^TM! We’re going to Digg^TM this baby to #1 on Amazon^TM!”

The situation is probably best summed up, however, by the towering Parker. Over the phone he simply offered a boozy refrain from a Bob Dylan song: “The times, they are a changin’.”

I’m pretty sure that Paul Masson did not say that over a century ago, but the words do apply here. After many production delays our Wine Map of California is finally available. Thank you for your patience!

In the spirit of shameless marketing and selling more maps, I’d like to share a few more ways to use them:

California Wine Travel Planning

Mount the map on foamboard and use it to plot new adventures or to remember where you’ve been. You can also attach it to your windshield as a crude form of sat-nav (not recommended by the California Highway Patrol).

Wine Map Wallpaper

The wine map wallpaper idea is the favorite of our marketing department since it involves purchasing a serious amount of maps.

Wine Map Drinking Game

This is my favorite and the most fun. It was sent to me by Cathy Jones who snapped this shot from her husband’s recent birthday celebration. In Cathy’s words:

He had taken up drinking an occasional Rioja after we traveled to Spain a few years ago. And he really liked your wine table that I bought for our anniversay last summer. Since then we have been trying to sample different varietals whenever we can. After getting your map, I made an impulse trip and purchased as many bottle of Spanish wines as I could find from the different regions. On his birthday, as he pulled each bottle from the box, we placed it on the map in the appropriate location. In this way, we were able to refresh our knowlege of Spanish geography and expand our repertoire of Spanish wines. We had quite a party after that. In fact, a couple of bottles “disappeared” before I thought to snap this picture. Needless to say, we are looking forward to your next map…

Thank you Cathy!

If you have any other creative ways to use these maps, please feel free to share them.

To help the cause, all you need to do is buy a $10 raffle ticket at First Giving – Menu for Hope and enter the prize code for prize you would like to win. The raffle runs between now and Christmas – please see below for more detailed instructions.

Here’s the prize we’ve donated (that you can bid on – hint, hint):

Giant Wine Map of California

California is the second in our series of wine maps. The regular retail size of this map is 24 x 36 inches, however, this one will be custom printed at a giant 4 feet wide by 6 feet tall. We’re finishing the artwork right now, so be the first on your block (actually on the entire planet) to have a Giant Wine Map of California. To get a better idea of the style and quality, please take a look at our map of the Iberian Peninsula. The map of California will be just as obsessively accurate, up to date and – all importantly – suitable for framing (if you can find a frame that large). This item can only be delivered to US addresses. Estimated Value: $400. Prize Code:WB12

You can see more wine-related prizes at Vinography

or the complete list of prizes at Chez Pim

It’s a tough year financially for so many people – especially the very poor – so if you can give please do.

First Giving – Menu for Hope

Donation Instructions:
1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope at http://chezpim.com
2. Go to the donation site at http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhope5 and make a donation.
3. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code.
For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02
4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.
5. Please allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Wine

Sweet wines are the perfect wine gift. Practically everybody loves them but either can’t admit it or won’t buy them for themselves. How did dryness ever become the popular standard of sophistication? Humans have a natural preference for sweet things – our positive response to them is our bodies’ primitive way of telling us what we’re eating or drinking has nutritional value. Back to basics: caveman and cavewoman need sweet wine.

Another great thing about sweet wines is that they’re cheaper than dry wines of similar quality. The easiest way to find excellent value sweet wines is to go to your favorite wine shop and ask for a recommendation. You may be amazed at the amount of geeky enthusiasm you’ve unleashed. Proceed with caution but go with their advice. Otherwise, here are a few excellent value suggestions:

Kourtaki Mavrodaphne of Patras NV $9 find this wine
Mavrodaphne of Patras is a Port-like Greek dessert wine from main wine region of the Peloponnese. Named after the indigenous grape variety, Mavrodaphne, that it’s made from, it has the spicy warm holiday flavors of English Christmas pudding. A cheap, cheerful and delicious way to toast Tiny Tim.

PEDRO ROMERO Moscatel Sherry NV $13 find this wine
In direct defiance of the wine press, wine drinkers worldwide ignore the great wines that are Sherry. What does that mean for Moscatel, one of the less regarded Sherry grape varieties? Quite simply, it means bargains. Also known as Muscat of Alexandria, Moscatel was probably more popular back in Cleopatra’s time. Deliciously raisiny, peachy with orange peel and toasted almonds but with the old world oxidized flavors that will get the nod from hard core wine geeks. Smiles and nods all around- this one is hard to beat.

2004 Coyeux Beaumes de Venise $15 /half find this wine
Guaranteed to cheer even the meanest Grinch’s tiny heart, it’s made from Muscat Blanc. Muscat Blanc à Petit Grains, which is the grape’s full name is the most acclaimed variety of Muscat. Fresh peachy, grapy and floral this has always been one of my favorite dessert wines. It’s made like port – alcohol is added to stop the fermentation of the grape’s sugars, preserving a nice balance of sweetness.

Alois Kracher Beerenauslese $22 to $40/half find this wine
The great Alois Kracher tragically died just over a year ago and the Kracher winery is now run by his son Gerhard. If you’ve never had a Beerenauslese wine, where the grapes are picked late in the season and have dried on the vine to concentrate their sugars, the Kracher wines are a great place to start. Not because they’re beginner wines, but because they’re amazingly good value for some of the world’s finest Beerenauslese – try any one you can find.

2005 Château La Tour Blanche Sauternes $32/half find this wine
This is a spectacular bargain especially since its more illustrious neighbor, Château d’Yquem, goes for $400 to $500 a half bottle in the same vintage. Decanter magazine recently had a blind tasting of Cru Classe Sauternes and preferred the 2003 Château La Tour Blanche (5/5 Stars) to the Château d’Yquem (3/5 Stars). The 2005 vintage is considered even better than 2003. This intensely aromatic and sweet wine is perhaps the greatest bargain in the wine world today. It’s delicious now but really should use a decade or 2 to develop into something amazing.

Glasses

If I could have only one wine glass it would be the 13.6 ounce Schott Zweisel Forte (known in Europe as the Viña). We use ours almost every day for both red and white wines. It’s also the official glass of the San Francisco Wine Competition http://www.sfwinecomp.com/, which make sense since it’s like an enlarged version of the official INAO (Institut National des Appellations d’Origine) tasting glass. The INAO glass was developed in France in the 1970’s and has long been regarded as the perfect tasting glass except for one critical thing: it’s too small. The Forte is also made from titanium crystal which makes them more durable than regular crystal. They’re not cheap but they don’t cost the world either.

Find them in the US
Find them in the UK

If you can’t force yourself to spend more than $10 on a glass you may want to go the IKEA route. They’re especially handy if your parties end with everyone throwing their glasses into the fireplace. Don’t let the funny names and umlauts distract you, it’s the shape we’re interested in. We want the sides to taper up to concentrate the aromas as the Forte does.

These are good choices:

IKEA 365+ IVRIG $2.99 each

OPTIMAL $1.99 each

Here’s a mediocre choice and the equivalent of an old wooden tennis racket. This style of glass is often used in fine wine shops and tasting rooms but that doesn’t make it good. Why handicap yourself with your equipment when you don’t have to?

SVALKA $4.99 /6

To Elvis, drinking his liquor from an old fruit jar was a high insult. These glasses show a similar level of contempt for any wine:

PRALIN $2.99 each

RÄTTVIK $2.99 each

POKAL $7.99 /6

Books

When times are tough it’s time to get real. The wine books recommended here all have a strong dose of reality as they all have a strong sense of context. Two are wine travel guides and one is a guide to drinking with the seasons.

The Wine and Food Lover’s Guide to Portugal, by Charles Metcalfe and Kathryn McWhirter, will make anyone who enjoys wine and food want to get on a plane to Portugal. It’s organized regionally from the Minho and the wines of Vinho Verde in the north down to the Algarve on the south coast. Beautifully illustrated with tons of photos and useful maps, it would be great if every country had such an incredibly in-depth guide.

Hey another country does have such a guide. The UK isn’t usually regarded as a wine country but its wines have benefited greatly from rising temperatures. A Guide to the Wines of England and Wales
by Philip Williamson, David Moore and Neville Blech is another exhaustively in-depth and beautifully illustrated wine travel guide. It’s from the people who make the excellent Wine Behind the Label series.

A Year of Wine is probably the first wine book to be organized entirely by season. It’s an approach that makes a lot of sense; just as we eat seasonally it follows that we drink that way as well. Written by super wine-blogger Tyler Colman of www.drvino.com in his easy going humorous style, it makes an excellent gift for anyone interested in wine. It’s the kind of book you can read cover to cover or easily browse with Dr. Vino showing you how to “Drink Different.” His unique approach includes shopping and travel advice as well as tips on installing a home cellar. The sommelier surveys – interviews with some of American’s best sommeliers – throughout the book reflect its casual conversational tone and high level of insight into the world of wine.

Wine Guides

Dude, I thought it was Wine, glasses and books. Period.

Okay, I can’t help meself, I need to hawk me own wares (as well as speak like a pirate). If you want a really special gift, divers right into our online shop. Here are a couple of excellent stocking stuffers:

Wine Tasting Pocket Guide

Hardbound Wine Tasting Notebook

Contest! Prizes!

In the spirit of holiday giving, Dr. Vino has offered us a signed copy of his excellent A Year of Wine as first prize, second prize is a copy of our new Hardbound Wine Tasting Notebook and third prize is a Pocket Wine Guide.

To enter, just let everyone know what your favorite sweet wine is in the comment section below (even if it’s Manischewitz Extra Heavy Malaga). Winners will be chosen at random Wednesday, Dec 17th, 2008 at 12 noon EST.

8 out of 10 cats would agree that wine ratings are based on personal taste. Vintages, on the other hand, seem to be more grounded in the firm reality of weather and climate and their effects on the grapes. A good year is a good year, no?

CLICK TO SEE
THE FULL VINTAGE CHART

I recently put together a vintage chart for an upcoming expanded version of our wine tasting notebook. Although I’m not a big fan of vintage charts, I generally find them interesting and thought yeah, why not include one? Just a little research to find the consensus and bada-bing bada-boom, a vintage chart. How wrong I was.

Vintage charts come in varying degrees of specificity, from the very detailed that describe the weather throughout the growing season and harvest to the very general which distill a vintage down to a number or star rating. This vintage chart is in the general category – I wanted to make it as bone-simple as possible and used a 1-5 rating scale:

1 poor 2 fair 3 good 4 very good 5 excellent

In keeping it simple, drink-now/keep/past-its-prime notations were omitted. Personally, I don’t find them useful. Especially now that you can just google, snooth or cellar track to see if a particular bottle seems to be ripe for the drinking. No, I just wanted a good general indicator of the relative strengths or weaknesses of each vintage.

Surprisingly, there’s not a lot of consensus out there. The following two examples – Alsace 1997 and Rhone 2002 – are pretty typical of how much opinions vary:

note: my interpretation of each score is shown in (parenthesis)

The scores run from 3 (good) to 5 (excellent). I could have easily just averaged them to a 4 (very good) and called it a day. The problem with this approach is that the chart would then have virtually no excellent or poor vintages. Instead, I went with a 5 (excellent vintage) for a two main reasons:

1. I found ‘official’ vintage assessments – in this case the Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins d’Alsace – to be most useful in the sense that they would run the entire scale from excellent to poor. You might expect them to be biased – that every year was a vintage year – but overall, they weren’t. Some of scales did have to be slightly adjusted at the downside, though. Bordeaux’s lowest rating is medium – they gave their awful 1991 and 1992 vintages a medium – a little like Starbucks calling their smallest size coffee tall.
2. One of Tom Stevenson’s areas of concentration is Alsace.

*Decanter gave 3/5 for the entire Rhone, but with this note: Classic concentration and power in the wines from the North but a poor vintage for the Southern Rhône – I’ve interpreted as above.

Again, there are some major differences. This time, I took the averages as they pretty much reflect my impression of the Rhône in 2002. Also, it correlates with Robert Parker’s numbers. Like him or not, Parker is extremely knowledgeable about the Rhône Valley.

Coincidently, we had a 2002 Allain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage (Northern Rhône) this past weekend. If it had listened to the vintage chart, it would have been only a middling wine at best. In fact, it was actually very good and an excellent example of what great wine makers can do in indifferent years.

It had all the signs of an off-year, which in this case means that the grapes didn’t ripen optimally. The alcohol was lower (12.5%), the acidity was a bit elevated, the tannins slightly rough, and the fruit reduced to a background player. A complete disaster? Far from it – the wine had an amazing intensity of black pepper and some herbal elements that would not have been so pronounced had the fruit been stronger. The intensity held up through a very long finish – the mark of excellent wine making. A four star wine in a two star vintage.

One of the other difficulties in putting the chart together was mixed vintages, where some areas in the region did well while others suffered. Hugh Johnson gives a range of number ratings (ie 6-8, 4-6 out of 10) which seems to be a good way to handle mixed years. However, in practice, every vintage gets a 3 to 4 point spread which sort of negates its usefulness.

In the end my method was this:

1. Take an average.
2. Look at the range.
3. Decide who to trust, take the average (or both).
4. Repeat for each cell.

Not exactly bada-bing-bada-boom.

Enter to Win Three Pocket Wine Tasting Guides

Not 1, not 2 but 3

The guide that’s been called “The Ultimate Wine Tasting Cheat Sheet” by our marketing department!

To enter, please leave any comment relating to vintages. Anything from a quick “vintage schmintage” to an doctoral thesis on “why vintages matter” will be accepted. Really, any comment will be accepted. Just keep it clean, Fred.

3 winners will be chosen at random Monday, November 3 2008 at 12 noon EST.

Yachts? Rosés? But the markets are tanking and the summer is over!

Damn the reality¹, full speed ahead!

For the past few years rosé sales have power-sailed at a record pace. No one knows exactly why given their perpetual image problem due to (in no apparent order):

• White Zinfandel
• Rosé d’Anjou (the original White Zinfandel, a sweet simple pink quaffer)
• White Grenache (the new White Zinfandel)
• White Merlot (didn’t the marketing department see Sideways?)
• Rosés are never great the way whites or reds can be
• They only taste good on vacation (like so many other wines)
• They all taste the same (like strawberries)
• Grandmothers tend to order cheap rosés
• Louche², middle-aged playboys tend to order expensive rosés
• All of the above – it’s just too tacky and embarrassing for words

But the image problem appears to be improving. Sales of more expensive rosés ($8+) are skyrocketing, which can only mean three things: 1. people are taking rose wines more seriously; 2. rose wine prices are going up; or 3. the population of louche middle-aged playboys is exploding.

Personally, I think it’s a combination of #1 and #2, so it seems like an opportune time to have an (double voice over, please) ICONS OF ROSÉ/THE MOST FORMIDABLE SELECTION OF ROSÉS EVER GATHERED IN ONE ROOM/WAR OF THE ROSÉS tasting before they’re collected and traded on the Liv-ex exchange.

Before we get to the tasting, let’s look at a few

Rosé Basics:

1. color (colour) A wide palette is found in rose wines from the palest pink to something that looks more like a light red wine. Almost all rosés are made from red or black grapes, with the color depth simply being a function of how much or little contact the juice has had with the dark skins.
2. blending Mixing red and white juice or wine is not permitted to make a rosé in almost all regions. Ironically, the two exceptions are expensive pink champagne and very, very cheap blush wines.
3. vin gris Literally, grey wine. It’s made like a white wine but with black or red grapes. The only contact with the skins and transfer of pigment is during the pressing of the grapes, resulting in a very pale orange-pink. This color is traditionally referred to as onion skin or partridge eye, terms that might come in handy if you attended an English public school or live inside a 17th Century Flemish still life (chortle, chortle).
4. saignée French for bled it refers to the “bleeding” of juice from freshly pressed dark grapes. It serves two purposes: concentrating the color and tannins of the red wine and producing a pale rose from the juice that’s bled off. Because of minimal skin contact, roses made from this process are similar in color to a vin gris.

A few notes on this tasting:

• All of the rosés were dry still wines; there were no pink Champagnes or off-dry wines like White Zinfandel or Rosé d’Anjou.
• All wines were tasted blind.
• There was a wide range of skill and experience levels among the ten tasters, from beginning enthusiasts to hard-core wine geeks.
• Wines were scored from zero to five stars and totaled for the rankings below.
• There were no yacht owners and probably only one boat owner in the group.

Drum roll, please.

In reverse order of preference:

14. 2006 Valentini Cerasuolo Montepulciano d’Abruzzo $75 (not available in the UK)
Cerasuolo is Italian for cherry red which sounds rather festive, however, the dark brown bottle this wine came in is more indicative of its character. It’s mysterious, it’s brooding, it’s slow. Gambero Rosso believes this is Italy’s best Rosé and has given it tre bicchieris – their highest award – for previous vintages.

This is a wine that needs an introduction and a strong belief system. It’s not going to hug you or smile at you. There are no primary fruit aromas. At first sniff, I thought it was off. There’s high VA³ and reduction⁴ (was that a Pirelli tire?) as well as some oxidation⁵. Notable aromas include leathery marmalade and lichen moss. But it’s also a well crafted wine with lively acidity, good balance and a very long bitter finish. I’m all for funky wines (and stinky cheeses) but this one really made me question everything I know. I definitely suggest trying all the Valentini wines you can to experience their traditional extreme of Italian wine making.

Unfortunately beard-tugging and introspection weren’t popular activities on our virtual Riviera so this baby – the most expensive in our tasting – found itself in last place.

13. 2005 Domaine Ott Château Romassan Cœur de Grain Rosé Bandol $35 £25
Domain Ott rhymes with yacht and is the original bling rosé. It comes in a beautiful version of the traditional skittle bottle but it’s often thought to epitomize overpriced unremarkable Provençal rosé.

That’s the consensus here as well. “Subtle” would be too generous a description here as there are several better delicate rosés in this lineup – it just simply seems bland and dilute in comparison

12. 2006 Domaine De La Mordoree “La Dame Rousse” Tavel $27 £14
A little north of Provence is Tavel, another famous rosé region and another famous producer, Domaine De La Mordoree. Weighing in at 14.5% alcohol this one packs a punch, not a mere sissy slap but a real Hawaiian Punch! It’s even bright reddish pink like Hawaiian Punch. Unfortunately, the alcohol tends to get in the way with a real fire-breathing aftertaste. Lovely herbal, fresh strawberry aroma, though.

11. 2007 Chapel Down English Rosé £9 (not available in the US)
This is generally considered England’s best rosé. OK, there’s not a lot of competition here but Jamie Goode and Richard Bampfield MW have said nice things about it. It’s a very pale salmon color, very light bodied and grassy like a Sauvignon Blanc. Personally, this was my least favorite one but it’s generally well received.

10. 2005 Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare $14 £10
Vin Gris de Cigare was the first serious US assault on the White Zinfandel Menace. It’s in the Provençal style and has an amazing amount of personality for such a widely distributed wine. It’s a slightly deeper pale copper than the other vin gris with a very slight sweetness and some funky herbal leather undertones.

9. 2007 Chateau d’Aqueria Tavel$18 £15
This is probably the best known and most highly acclaimed Tavel. It’s a very bright deep pink like the Mordoree Tavel and bone dry but with strawberry and raspberry fruit that seems candy-like. Overall, a well-balanced and enjoyable wine but nothing to write home about.

8. 2006 Mastroberadino Lacrimarosa Campania IGT$17 £8
Is this really an icon? For what it’s worth, Italian wine mavens David Lynch and Joseph Bastianich seem to like it and the Wine Spectator gives it 90 points – one of their highest rated rosés of all time. Off-dry, herbal and enjoyable the newbies in our group tended to really like this pale copper quaffer but the the geeks were skeptical.

7. 2007 Slowine Rosé Overberg$13 £8
Our only entry from South Africa and the only rosé mentioned in Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World. Did it bring thunder to our group? Not exactly but it was a very good, very well balanced earthy quaffer; bright pink as well.

6. 2006 Yering Station ED (Extra Dry) Yarra Valley $16 £12
This is one of Australian über expert James Haliday’s favorite rosés. It’s very very herbal, fresh berries and a little caramel on nose and palate; well balanced and clean.

5. 2007 Rosa del Golfo Salento IGT $14 £7
The great Italian wine expert Burton Anderson includes this wine in his favorites. It was one of the first roses in Italy to use cold fermentation, a modern wine in stark contrast to the Valentini. It’s all about clean, refreshing strawberries. A bit too simple and alcoholic for my tastes but was well liked here.

4. 2006 Bodegas Muga Rioja Rosado £8 $13
Robert Parker believes that this is one of Spain’s best rosés and it was well liked in our group as well. It’s a very pale orange (partridge eye or onion skin) but very aromatic, flavorful, well balanced and well made. It could almost pass as a Provençal rose with its marked herbal flavors.

3. 2007 Domaine Vincent Delaporte Sancerre Rosé $20 £12
We had a few Sancerre rosé lovers who identified this wine’s provenance fairly easily. The only Pinot Noir based rose on our list, this wine stood out with its grassy herbal, earthy character – a beautifully made elegant wine.

2. (tie) 2006 Charles Melton Rose of Virginia Barossa Valley $13 £13
This is considered by many to be Australia’s finest rosé. Obviously the French man who sold it to me would strongly disagree and suggested several alternatives. Like the Tavels, it’s Grenache based with a similar deep magenta pink color but with much less alcohol at just 12%. It’s also very well balanced with earthy, herbal and strawberry aromas and just barely a hint of sweetness. According to the winemaker, the grapes are harvested early to retain acidity as well as to keep the alcohol level down. I hate to say it, but I think the Tavel producers could benefit from doing the same.

2. (tie) 2006 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé $40 £13
If I had to pick a favorite going into this match up, it would have been this wine. It’s from a great producer and probably the first wine I think of when I think of a great rosé. Of course great wines usually don’t do well in blind tastings like this one so it was a surprise to see it just barely missing top billing. It’s intensely flavored but delicate with aromas of garrigue (the scruby plants that cover southern France), red fruits and a little leather. It sustains the intensity all the way through its very long finish, the mark of a great wine.

1. 1997 Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Rosado $27 £14

The oldest wine here by nearly a decade and the surprise winner. When putting together this list, I really expected this one to bomb. Like the Valentini, it’s an atypical rosé, but unlike the Valentini, it was very well received. It’s intensely aromatic and complex and seems to keep evolving in the glass. There’s scotch whiskey, dried cherries, orange and grapefruit, curry spice, leather, amontillado sherry. . . wow! Amazingly, there’s a citrus freshness on the palate in this complex mix of flavors. The alpha tasters are going wild over it, the beta tasters are annoyed by the alpha tasters, babies are crying, strong men are fighting. . .

Louche² middle aged playboys may have noticed one glaring omission in our lineup:

Chateau d’Esclans Garrus
This is the new iconic rosé from Sacha Alexis Lichine. Using a big pile of money, he’s purchased some excellent old vines, a beautiful Chateau, hired a great winemaker – Patrick Léon of Mouton Rothschild fame – and the critics are swooning. It’s just not fair. Where is the struggle? They’ve also taken the Domain Ott business model – bottle of rosé $5.00 $35 – up a notch to: bottle of rosé $5.00 $100. This is apparently working since all bottles were sold out here in London (I could have purchased a case but no).

Conclusions

• Rosés don’t all taste alike.
• Eccentric cult wines (Valentini and Lopez de Heredia) are either loved or hated.
• When in the expensive yacht juice aisle, go for the Domaine Tempier over the Domaine Ott. Dr. Vino recently came to the same conclusion in his own War of the Rosés.
• Our winner, Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Rosado, is probably more at home on a galleon than a yacht.

¹reality seems to be in very short supply these days, perhaps that’s why Time to Pretend was such a big hit this summer.

²louche [lōōsh]
adj. Of questionable taste or morality; decadent: “The rebuilt [Moscow hotel] is home to the flashy, louche Western disco Manhattan Express” (Liesl Schillinger).
[French, from Old French losche, squint-eyed, feminine of lois, from Latin luscus, blind in one eye.] From The American Heritage Dictionary Ed. note: The term louche middle aged playboy was used 5 times in this post – Fred you owe me 20 bucks.

³volatile acidity ‘VA’ is mainly due to the presence of acetic acid, the key component of vinegar. Acetic acid is present in all wines and much of winemaking is about keeping it in control. Barely detectable levels can add a fruitiness to a wine but it can also turn into ethyl acetate, which smells like nail polish remover. telltale aromas: vinegar, sweet & sour sauce, nail polish remover
From De Long’s Pocket Wine Tasting Guide and Wine Tasting Notebook

⁴reduction almost the opposite of oxidation. Modern winemaking techniques prevent oxygen from reaching the wine, thereby enhancing fruit flavours. But this process can produce volatile sulphur compounds. At low levels, these compounds can add desirable traits such as minerality, but at higher concentrations, the sulphurous aromas can be overpowering. telltale aromas: rotten eggs, burnt match, burnt rubber, cabbage, cat’s pee
From De Long’s Pocket Wine Tasting Guide and Wine Tasting Notebook

⁵oxidation A little oxygen is necessary in making wine, but unless oxidation is intentional as in Sherry or Madeira, it needs to be controlled. Barrels and corks allow minute amounts of oxygen into the wine, mellowing it over time. Slightly oxidized wines are considered old world in style, but too much oxygen makes a wine flat and less fruity. Excessive oxidation can also be detected when brownish hues appear in young wines. telltale aromas: sherry-like, madeira-like
From De Long’s Pocket Wine Tasting Guide and Wine Tasting Notebook

Contest! Prizes!

In recognition of Spain taking top honors, first prize is our Recently Released Wine Map of the Iberian Peninsula, second prize is a Your Brain on Wine T Shirt and third prize is you’re fired.

To enter, just let everyone know what your favorite rosé in the comment section below. (Yes mom, it’s OK to like Sutter Home White Zinfandel). Winners will be chosen at random Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 12 noon EST.