Yossie's Corkboard

Period between August 13th – September 2nd

Congratulations to the well-deserving 2012 Wine Blog winners!

More on Randall Grahm’s risky [and successful] wine bet.

Eater‘s Talia Baiocchi muses on the trails and tribulations of wine blogging.

The always entertaining Wine Folly provides some fun wine and board game pairings.

Assuming a wine needs 100 points to be “perfect” illustrates one of the many things/what is wrong with scoring wine.

In Vino Veritas – Don Cornwall’s Bogus World of Wine.

Jefford gives us his version of all you wanted to know about oak.

As Penfolds makes its case for greatest Aussie wine (or at least most expensive), a nice discussion on what makes a wine “great”.

The Hosemaster, a favorite & easily the funniest wine blogger out there, gets his due from Jo Diaz.

With the debate raging on, the Daily Meal sums up the current positions in the Restaurant Wine List Debate.

Week of August 6th – August 12th

The NY Post’s Steve Cuozzo kicked off the latest wine-world debate with a rant about pretentious wine lists. Eric Asimov countered with a desire for interesting, illuminating and educational wine lists. After that it became a free for all with Jon Bonné, Lee Campbell (the wine director at Reynard restaurant singled out by Cuozzo) and others all weighing in with their 2 cents.

As a supplement to my recent newsletter on beating the heat, some more pitfalls of wine & the summer heat.

After serving its last meal months ago, elBulli auctions off its impressive wine cellar. Ferran Adrià will be missed and potential Buyers beware of foam or gelled wine!

Always a tremendous source of wine-related knowledge and information, Terroirist pens an excellant piece on avoiding the “wine rut”.

“Corkage” – the Good, the Bad & the Ugly. Lettie gives a quick primer on bringing your own wine with you.

Jo Diaz solicits thoughts from some winemakers on whether wine is better paired with or as food. Personally I think it depends on the wine [and the food]!

Keith Levenberg advises to learn what you like and why, before you start buying the wine you like.

The witty and always irreverent Hosemaster takes aggrandizing Jay McInerney to task for his Petrus vertical. On a roll and with the wine blog awards coming, he pre-pens his award acceptance speech.

Week of July 30th – August 5th

Tom Barras looks for and finds complexity in wine.

In his weekly “Wine Talk” column, Adam Montefiore writes about wine glasses, their history and oenophilic importance. I recommend my article on the the importance of glassware as well.

Ross Szabo provides some great tips & shortcuts for learning to discern wine’s many aromas & flavors. It’s also worth checking out Gary Vaynerchuk‘s awesome video on training your palate and my “Learning to Taste” article as well.

Michael Franz give you ten tips for taking the stress out of wine.

The Girl with the Glass pens an insightful article about the importance of wine barrels.

With more wines being bottled under screwcaps, the debate about which is preferable rages on.

Despite the many gripes and controversies surrounding Robert Parker, the Wine Curmudgeon unequivocally thinks he should be elected to the Vinter’s Hall of fame. For what it’s worth, I completely agree.

#223 – August 10, 2012

For this week’s topic I wanted to introduce a wine that is enjoying a recent resurgence, especially among Israeli winemakers –the flamboyant Gewürztraminer.  Besides being fun to pronounce (guh-verts-trah-mee-ner) and difficult to spell correctly (even without the delightfully sounding umlaut over the “ü”), the wine has a polarizing personality with some advocates loving the food pairing ability with tough-to-pair dishes and the wine’s uniqueness (I count myself in this camp) and others intensely disliking the residual sugar (most versions have), the distinct notes of lychee and rose petals, the somewhat oily texture and the wine’s lack of bracing acidity.

Gewurztraminer is native to France’s Alsace region, where it thrives in the colder climate but it has found success in many other parts of the world including New Zealand, which produces some of the best versions outside of Alsace, but also Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, the United States and of course Israel.  I have been told by a number of critics in the know that truly great Gewürztraminer comes only from Alsace with the area’s terroir providing a complexity of flavor and finesse not found in versions from other parts of the world.  Unfortunately, while some kosher Alsatian Gewürztraminer wines have been OK (like the Willm 2008); none have been anything to write home about.

Nicknamed the “spicy wine” for its perfumed aromatics, eclectic spunky nose and extroverted flavors (as opposed to any inherent “spiciness”), besides its signature scent of lychees, the wine can include healthy doses of ginger, cloves, allspice and freshly black pepper in addition to more aromatic notes of roses, pears, honeysuckle, red grapefruit, apricot, citrus and stony minerals.  While many versions of the wine are slightly off-dry, even those that are bone-dry may have some perceived sweetness resulting from the abundant aromatics and fruit flavors.  Together with the aroma and flavors, most versions are relatively low in acidity (giving rise to the need for a bit of counteracting residual sugar) and full bodied, that without precision winemaking can result in a flabby wine, with a number of kosher versions falling prey to this problem.

Gewürztraminer fulfills wine’s known idiom of successfully pairing a wine to the dishes of its birthplace, pairing nicely with rich Alsatian dishes of foie gras, goose breast and smoked fish.  My favorite Gewürz (as the grape is colloquially known) pairing is lox!  Other successful pairings for this wine include spicy Asian dishes, choucroute garni and certain nutty cheeses.  It has been known to pair acceptably to sushi as well.  A cold glass of Gewürz makes an incredibly refreshing aperitif without any food necessary.

Gewürztraminer has been utilized in Israeli wines for over a decade in one format or another.  Until very recently, Gewürztraminer was mostly utilized in dessert wines such as the Yarden Heightswine, Carmel’s Late Harvest Sha’al, Tzora’s “Or”, Binyamina’s Late Harvest version and Gat Shomron’s delightful Icewine version (all recently reviewed, many in my Dessert Wine newsletter) or in blends such at Tzora’s Shoresh Blanc, Tulip’s White Tulip or Saslove’s Lavan (which contained 85%, 70% and 45% Gewürztraminer, respectively).  Other than the Yarden single varietal Gewurztraminer from the Golan Heights Winery which debuted with the 2002 vintage, there were very few varietal Gewürztraminer wines.  However, the last 2-3 years have seen a proliferation of varietal Gewürztraminer wines.  While they may not be comparable to the great [non-kosher] Alsace Gewürztraminer wines, they are certainly well-worthy of your attention and terrific wines in their own right (most tend to be pretty good bargains as well).

Binyamina, Reserve, Gewürztraminer, 2011:  Delightfully crisp and refreshing, this wine (bottled under a screw cap like many of Binyamina’s recent white releases) is made from 100% Gewürztraminer grapes and clocks in at 13% alcohol.  Plenty of tropical fruits, lychee, crushed rose petals fill the aromatic nose, together with hints of citrus and spice.  Much of the same follows on the medium bodied palate with hints of residual sugar matching nicely to the spiciness, which combine for a refreshing food friendliness backed by decent acidity.  Drink now or over the next 12 months.

Golan Heights Winery, Yarden, Gewürztraminer, 2011:  A longtime favorite of mine (but not a traditional Gewürztraminer) that never seems to get any love or recognition.  A crying shame since this is a well-made wine with plenty of rich notes of lychee, rosewater, tropical fruits, some honeysuckle and warm spices leading into a medium bodied palate of ripe guava, pineapple and more lychee together with some citrus and a hint of spice with enough acidity to keep the wine fresh and lively leading into a nice finish of more fruit and spice.  Drink now through 2013.

Gvaot, Gofna, Gewürztraminer, 2011:  After the interesting experiment with the 2010 vintage that combined 83% Chardonnay with 17% Gewürztraminer, Gvaot decided to go with a traditional varietal Gewürztraminer, riding the grapes rising popularity in Israel.  Eliminating the Chardonnay created a lighter wine without the aging potential of the 2010 blend but a significantly lighter, spicier and more refreshing summer wine.  Plenty of melon, pears and citrus to go with the traditional lychee and hazelnut notes on a nose that contains the faintest hint of eucalyptus and floral notes.  A medium bodied palate that is round and mouth filling has plenty of the same fruity notes but with a sufficiently acidic backbone to keep the wine light and fresh on your palate.  As with nearly everything else from Gvaot, this wine is well made and interesting besides being delicious.  Grab whatever you can find as with an extremely limited production of 650 bottles, this was likely gone before they started.

Lueria, Gewürztraminer, 2011:  Lueria is a relatively new winery whose owners (the Saida family) have been growing grapes around Meron for many of Israel’s wineries for years and, after seeing their grapes win awards and accolades for other wineries, decided to get into the winemaking game themselves and released their first vintage in 2006 (utilizing 15% of their harvest for their own wines).  A medium bodied wine made from 100% free-run Gewürztraminer grapes with plenty of tropical fruit, traditional lychee and spice along with a pleasing bitter citrus notes with much of the same of the same on the light and refreshing palate loaded with bracing acidity with a nice touch of residual sugar and 12.5% alcohol, making this a great picnic wine and just in time for the spring we are beginning to see around the corner.  Drink over the next 12 months or so.

Tishbi, Gewürztraminer, 2010:  A pleasant surprise for me, this was tasted in conjunction with my judging the Jewish Week’s Kosher Wine Guide.  A nicely aromatic nose of crushed rose petals, pineapple, red grapefruit, some honeysuckle, cloves and subtle lychees nose with a medium bodied and pleasingly acidic palate with more tropical fruit and hints of spice, this is a refreshing wine that, while not complex makes for a refreshing change of pace quaffer that is well priced and worth picking up a few bottles.

Week of July 23rd – July 29th

Lettie Teague discusses a problem close to my heart – which wine to bring as a house guest (a problem I suffer from as host, not guest)?

A new wine tasting panel system introduced by Decanter prompts some analysis from Mike Veseth (a/k/a the Wine Economist).

As Robert Parker hits mandatory retirement age, W. Blake Gray pays the legendary wine critic proper tribute.

What is the real purpose of a wine bottle’s back label?

A great and recently discovered [by me] wine blog – Wine Folly – highlights some basic wine characteristics that can be helpful is finding your own oenophilic preferences.

Meg Maker lucidly illustrates, as anyone with a little interest in wine can appreciate, the weighty burden of “taking responsibility for the wine”.

Week of July 16th – July 22nd

The unveiling of the world’s largest wine bottle left me scrambling to find an appropriate and not-yet-used Jewish Kings name for a moniker.

With the mercury rising, Sauvignon Blanc tends to get pushed around a bit. Terroirist comes to the grape’s defense as does Ray Isle.

Despite its usually boring existence, the wine world gets a bit of excitement here and there (although usually relating two magnets for controversy, to Robert Parker or James Sucking). This time is the relatively docile Eric Asimov and James Molesworth who amusingly (for the spectators) go head to head.

The Wine Blog Awards announced the all deserving 2012 Wine Blogger Finalists and I was happy to see many of my favorite bloggers on the list including Alder Yarrow from Vinography, Joe Roberts from 1 Wine Dude, David White from Terroirist and Ron Washam a/k/a the Hosemaster. In the spirit of top writing, Tom Wark lists five important rules for successful wine blogging.

In his near-classic style, the Hosemaster gives us a peek of his latest wine tasting notes & reviews. His samples acceptance policy makes a mockery of many wine bloggers as well.

Discovery of a new yeasts strain could hold the key in providing thousands of allergic suffering red wine drinkers with welcome relief.

While Château Lafite may be all the rage these days, Will Lyons talks about Lafite’s good old days when a bottle could be had for a song.

Likely unintentionally providing us with one of the year’s best headlines, Pot-smoking moms got tired of being judged by wine drinkers.

Week of July 9th – July 15th

Besides wine, oenophilic gadgets make a great gift for any budding aficionado. DesignWan has a nice list of 15 good wine gifts and the Drinks Business has ten more.

Starting a wine collection? Wine Folly has ten tips for getting started and I have a handy list of great collectable starter wines.

Adam Montefiore reveals how Spring and Summer truly bring out the best [and most beautiful] of Israel’s Galilee Region. Specially mentioned are the Dalton, Galil Mountain and Ramot Naftaly wineries. Egregiously left out was the Adir Winery.

Over at eater.com, Talia Baiocchi talks about Counterfeiting, Auctions, and the Impact on Wine Lists.

As [partial] retribution for California’s recent [ridiculous] ban on foie gras, French merchants start banning imports of California wines.

As the mercury continues to rise, some tips on protecting your wines during shipping, on the right temperature for drinking your wine and on generally keeping your vino cool.

In a riff on most popular wine blogs, the Hosemaster let’s us know what HE is reading.

In classic French one-upmanship, French farmers eschew Wagyu and feed their cattle 2 bottles of quality wine daily to produce finer beef.

Eric Asimov pens a terrific piece on Champagne‘s black box of bottling dates and disclosure.

Taking a stand on behalf of oppressed wine geeks worldwide, Lettie Teague defends us poor hapless wine snobs.

Week of July 2nd – July 8th

The Institute of the Masters of Wine recently became a bit more transparent and released its most recent Masters of Wine exam. Dr. Vino analyzes and discusses the test.

Concerned there are more Rudy’s out there? Bloomberg has you covered with some pointers for beating the wine scams.

With typical irreverence the Hosemaster satirically previews some [potentially] “coming soon” wine films.

With his typical insightfulness, Adam Montefiore drills down on wooden barrels, thier usage and effectiveness.

While Carmel’s Kayoumi Riesling has helped, together with Burgundy, kosher Riesling remains the holy grail of the kosher wine industry with exceptional food pairing ability & delightful refreshingness.

Week of June 25th – July 1st

Some detailed information on the Domaine Ponsot Clos Saint-Denis that was the begining of the end for Rudy Kurniawan.

Not resting on its laurels as Australia’s best-known winery, Penfold‘s creates the world’s most expensive [and funky looking] bottle of wine. Chris Kassel takes offense.

For all their perceived sophistication, wine geeks are swayed by fancy labels, just like the rest of us.

With the growing populist movement demonizing of all things successful, Tim Fish explores the meaning of a “wine snob”.

Taking well-deserved action, the French classify pre-Phylloxera vines as a “National Treasure“. I am surprised it took them this long.

Lettie Teague, the Wall Street Journal‘s wine writer, has a great profile on mega wine importer, Kermit Lynch.

Period of June 11th – June 24th

Focusing on the (in)famous “Two-Buck Chuck“, W. Blake Gray ponders whether cheap wine is good for the wine industry?

With his usual perceptive insight, Steve Heimoff discusses some of the many problems with wine competitions and why you should disregard those shiny medal stickers wineries love to place on their bottles. The late Daniel Rogov didn’t think much about them either.

In an interesting take on the Judgement of Paris, New Jersey wines fare pretty well against their Gallic peers.

After not being heard from for months, Mike Steinberger (aka the Wine Diarist) pens a terrific and in-depth article for Vanity Fair on the Rudy Kurniawan saga. More details on the saga come from Doug Barzelay, a true insider who had been around Rudy for years.

Alice Feiring pens a great article on how, in a similar path to many Israeli wineries, California Wineries are dialing back the jamminess and upping the ante for elegance. Eater.com‘s wine editor, Talia Baiocchi takes the it a step further and discusses additional stylistic changes occurring in the California wine industry.

With his usual incredible prose, Andrew Jefford discusses Burgundy and reveals that wine is really nothing more than plant feces.

While this website doesn’t contain any advertising, most wine blogs do. Fermentation‘s Tom Wark explores why advertisers don’t take bloggers seriously. The Wild Walla Walla Wine Woman also muses on the current status of wine bloggers.

Week of June 4th – June 10th

Jameson Fink sits down to chat with Georg Riedel about wine, history and of course wine glasses.

A short perusal through the Google results for “Organic Wine” and “Biodynamic Wine” will suffice to alert you to the complexities behind these terms and the varied philosophical differences on both ends of the spectrum. I am working on a newsletter covering these topics, but in the interim check our CellerDoor2Door‘s blog post loosely & succinctly explaining the two terms.

While much has been said about ridiculous tasting notes and the difficulty in writing good ones, John Elliot Trinidad of the SF Wine Blog discusses about finding the right words for the wine’s intangible characteristics.

The irreverent Through the Bunghole blog, puts tasting wine in a different light and describes “How to smell wine“.

Blending wine writing, art, poetry and photography, the delightful Alder Yarrow of Vinography pens the creative “Essence of Wine” series. Read Alder’s introduction to the series, and then check out each one.

Week of May 28th – June 3rd

In an effort to combat the recent [and not so recent] rampart wine counterfeiting plaguing [mostly] French wine, Chateau Lafite Rothschild announces that, starting with the 2009 vintage, all bottles will be proof tagged (a special capsule seal with a 13-numbered code used to authenticate individual bottles).

The Pour Fool takes [us &] French wine to task, hypothesizing that [these days] it’s a lot of hype and there isn’t really anything all that special about French wine. While controversial, it’s certainly true with respect to kosher French wine.

Entaste posts some pictures of truly awesome wine cellars (check out this Pinterest page of more awe-inspiring cellars). Serious eye candy for any wine lover & a great bucket list (for more great pictures, check out the book of beautiful wine cellars from around the world).

One of my favorite wine bloggers, 1 Wine Dude, illustrates how important marketing and branding is and that without a unique message, you are in trouble.

Meg Maker pens an in-depth article about the nuances of tasting and her method for teaching to newbie tasters. Worth reading for anyone interested in learning more about tasting wine – regardless of current abilities.

#218 – June 13, 2010

Although kosher wine consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated (fueled at least in part by the ever-increasing quality and quantity of the kosher offerings available), we are faced with a multitude of facts, tips and other information about the wines and what we are supposed to do in order to enjoy them properly.  While readers of this newsletter already know that the advice is to enjoy the wine you like in the manner that you enjoy, there are always general tips and suggestions that can assist in turning a pleasurable wine-drinking experience into an awesome one.  Unfortunately, many times this wisdom is outdated or irrelevant at best, and sometimes just plain wrong.

In this week’s newsletter I hope to debunk some of the so-called facts, and open your eyes with respect to some so-called conventional wisdom so that you can continue to enjoy vino in the best way possible.  I have also included some recent tasting notes on a few noteworthy wines I think you will enjoy.

(1)        Wine by the glass is a terrible deal.  Unfortunately this is true.  If you can conquer your fear of the restaurant’s wine list, you are most likely going to order a glass of wine since more people don’t expect to finish an entire bottle with their meal.  This is a really bad idea for a few reasons.  First, your choices are far more limited by the glass than by the bottle and usually only includes the more popular wines (typically those more sophisticated wine drinkers would prefer not to be exposed to).  Second, in many instances these bottles have been open for longer than is good for the wine, leaving you with less than a great drinking experience.  Lastly, you are being ripped off.  The price per glass is roughly equal to the wholesale price of the bottle (i.e. the restaurant sells one glass at the price it paid for the bottle, with the rest of the bottle being pure profit).  While still more expensive that what you would pay at your friendly neighborhood retailer or online purveyor (see below on paying retail), the price per bottle is a much better bargain.  Even if you don’t anticipate finishing the bottle, just take the rest home with you (see below on making the open bottle last).  And as long as we are talking about wine pricing…

(2)        Never pay retail.  Another very true statement.  While vexing for most wine retailers and despite the general (and mostly unjustified) rise in wine prices across the board, the power in today’s wine market rests with the consumer.  With the surge in internet wine retailing, partially assisted by continuously relaxed regulation, prices are in a true race to the bottom and one should never pay the suggested retail price for a wine (generally a truism about most consumer products).  These days any retailer worth his salt will match any other publicized price for any wines and there are a number of retailers out there with cut-rate prices on most wines.  Additionally, most retailers offer seasonal sales (usually around Rosh Hashanah and Pessach) as well as coupons and discounts throughout the year.  That said, finding a good and honest retailer with sound knowledge of the kosher wine world is a well-worthy endeavor.  Establishing a relationship with and frequenting such an establishment is almost always worth the few extra dollars you might spend on any given bottle of wine as they are usually good sources of advance information on new wines as well as sources for limited or hard to find treasures.  Fortunately readers of this newsletter don’t have to choose between the two as my Recommended Retailers Page lists a number of trusted wine merchants in the US and Israel who have great knowledge, selection and good prices and have offered readers of Yossie’s Wine Recommendations special discounts.

(3)        Scores are a good medium to base your wine-buying decisions on.  As you have noticed by now, I don’t score wines, preferring approach of only recommending those wines in my weekly newsletter that I think you will enjoy and allowing the detailed tasting notes to give a sense of how great the wine is.  The use of special Yossie’s Corkboard terminology like YH Best Buys, moshiach wines, Safe Bet Winery, Super Israelis and others provide additional guidance on any particular wine.  On a more philosophical note, one of the main reasons I don’t score wines is that I believe once a score is available, it is all a consumer sees / looks for, ignoring the verbiage of the tasting note which provides far more information than a number (or letter).  Tagging a wine with a 90 point score or higher will automatically make it desirable to the consumer.  Conversely (and much more problematic in my opinion), many consumers won’t look at wine if they are below 87-90 points which leads them to miss out on some terrific wines.  While this newsletter is too brief to cover the topic in detail (stay tuned for a coming newsletter), in short – rating wines is a [relatively subjective] art and not a science (regardless of how good or professional the taster is, the rating of a wine is subject to the taster’s mood, specific circumstances and other variables).  Scores give the impression that there is a fundamental difference between wines separated by 1-2 points, while the truth is that critics may deviate 1-2 points on the same wine in the same tasting session.  Talking about scores leads us to the second most trumpeted (and useless) marketing methodology.

(4)        Medals mean something.  Wineries, retailers and wine competitions love affixing stickers to their wines representing medals won by these wines in one competition or another.  Any winery’s website will be replete with a long list of every medal won by their wines over recent (and not so recent) years.  The reasons for this are both obvious and unfortunate.  While the deciding factor (besides price) in purchasing wines is the label, such medals are extremely persuasive in convincing the consumer that the wine must be good (“after all, it won a gold medal, didn’t it?”).  For the most part however, winning a medal in these competitions is utterly and completely meaningless for a variety of reasons.  For starters, these competitions are usually for-profit endeavors and, in many competitions, all you need to do in order to win a medal is to pay an entry fee!  Alternatively, there are so many categories, many of them obscure (best new Mediterranean white varietal between $6-7.50 anyone), that winning a medal for something is pretty much guaranteed.  Second, many of the top wineries don’t bother to enter these competitions, considering them, at best, a waste of time and leaving the prizes to the not-so-great wines and wineries.  Third, the public is only provided with a list of the winners, never the losers (i.e. one doesn’t know which wineries/wines entered the competition and were “beaten” by the winners) and rarely with the criteria for judging or even the judges themselves (panels of which are not always comprised with wine tasting experts to say the least).  Fourth, in many competitions the tasting conditions are far from perfect.  For more on the fallacy and unreliability of wine competitions including detailed descriptions of the problems arising in one of the world’s more respected competitions, see Daniel Rogov’s post on wine competitions on the Kosher &Israeli Wine Forum (f/k/a Daniel Rogov’s Forum).

(5)        Once opened, a bottle of wine doesn’t last.  While wines don’t last forever and tend to oxidize quickly once they have been opened, that doesn’t mean you have to finish your entire bottle in one sitting.  There are a few methods for preserving leftover wine which not only allow you to enjoy the remainder of a wine bottle the following night (or nights) but also allow you to enjoy the leftover wine from that bottle you wisely ordered in a restaurant instead of by the glass and took home with you at the end of the evening.  These gadgets include the VacuVin, PrivatePreserve and others.  Personally, my favored method for storing leftover wine from one day to the next (and rarely more than two nights) is to simply pour any leftover wine into one of the few empty half-bottles I save for these purposes, to cork the bottle and place it in my [regular] fridge overnight (an even better and more airtight option is to use a plastic water bottle, gently squeezing it until the wine rises to the top eliminating any internal air).  Works like a charm every time and is the cheapest of all the methods!

(6)        Expensive wine is nearly almost better.  While this newsletter spends an inordinate amount of time seeking out YH Best Buys and wineries that provide particularly good value for your hard-earned shekels, the truth is that, generally speaking and with few exceptions (like some boutique Israeli wineries), expensive wines tend to be better than moderately priced or cheap wines.  The price of any given wine (or most any other consumer product) is typically based on three things – production costs, supply and demand.  Production costs of the higher quality wines are generally higher than for lower quality wines.  The reasons for this are simple – good vineyards, staff, winemaking professionals, barrels and hi-tech winemaking equipment are necessary “ingredients” for wineries to produce wine of a much higher quality.  With better wines you have higher demand, resulting in lower supply.  Of course, wineries engage in substantial marketing hype around their wines and purposely limit production of specific wines in order to artificially create demand but generally speaking, this holds true.  To be clear, you can have good wine and cut-rate prices and great wine at decent prices (as we point out on these pages all the time) but for the most part, the better wines are more expensive.

(7)        Take note of wines you enjoy.  More a great tip then conventional wisdom, making a note of wines you enjoy is the best way to make sure you get to enjoy them again.  I often receive emails from folks trying to figure out which wine they recently had and enjoyed, usually involving vague descriptions of labels or names and requiring some detective work to figure out which wine it was.  While taking actual notes is the best way to preserve memories of special wines, I highly recommend at least writing down the full name and vintage of wines you enjoy and then following up with your local retailer to purchase a few bottles to enjoy again at home.  Alternatively, snap a picture with your smartphone and show it to your retailer next time you are shopping for some wine.

(8)        36 is too old for basketball.  While this “wisdom” was penned in the euphoric aftermath of the Celtic’s Game 5 win (which has since been severely deflated by their subsequent Game 6 and 7 losses), it remains a false statement and kudos to the Celtics for playing their hearts out as a team and never giving up!

Bazelet HaGolan, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2010:  A nice wine from a winery that is back on an upward trajectory.  The wine has a nice nose redolent with rich black fruit, hints of bittersweet chocolate and a bit of herbaceousness.  More fruit on the palate is joined by some spicy oak and caramel held together by nicely integrated tannins that opened up nicely over a 15 minute period in the glass.  A medium finish rounded out this delightful little wine that is well balanced with only a touch of the relatively high 15.1% alcohol showing.  Drink now through 2014.

Recanati, Special Reserve, White, 2010:  I wrote about the inaugural 2009 vintage in newsletter #184 and the 2010 is a successful replacement and a welcome addition to Recanati’s great portfolio of wines.  Hopefully the increased interest in and sophistication of Israeli white wines will help convince folks that it’s worth paying premium prices for what is definitely a premium wine (it is priced similarly to the Special Reserve red blend).  A blend of 50% Chardonnay, 25% Viognier and 25% Sauvignon Blanc, all from Recanati’s top tier Manara vineyard, the wine was aged in French oak for eight months (followed by seven months of bottle aging prior to release) giving it a bit of spiciness, aging ability, oaky creaminess (from 50% malolactic fermentation), flinty minerals and a nice balance to the rich tropical fruits on both the nose and palate.  A relatively limited production of 4,000 bottles (of which only 600 were exported), so grab some while you can.  A great nose of peaches, apricots, grapefruit, lime and some spicy notes, lead into a rich and mouth filling palate of tropical fruits, more citrus notes, a creamy lusciousness well balanced by good acidity that keep everything together nicely.  Drink now through 2014.

Tulip, White Tulip, 2011:  A successful follow up to the first kosher vintage of this wine back in 2010, while changing the percentages of Gewürztraminer (70%) and Sauvignon Blanc (30%) from the 50-50% of the 2010 vintage and yielding a wine with more fruit on the aromatic palate including tropical fruits, lychee, melon and citrus.  A medium and slightly viscous palate is loaded with good acidity that keeps the rich fruit from becoming too much leads into a nice and slightly spicy finish.  Drink now through 2013.

Vignobles David, Reserve, Côtes-du-Rhône, 2010:  A very welcome addition to the enjoyable Côtes-du-Rhône village wine from the same producer.  A rich blend of 40% Syrah and 60% Grenache with blackberries, currant and dark cherries on the nose together with forest floor, espresso, grilled meat and wood that come together nicely after half an hour in the glass.  The medium to full bodied palate has more of the same with delightful minerals and earthiness, rich and gripping tannins that are already nicely integrated and smoky meat dominating the rich fruit and slightly spicy oak.  While drinking nicely now, the wine definitely benefits from some time to breathe and should cellar comfortably through 2016, perhaps longer.

Weinstock, Petite Sirah, 2010:  As with many lower-tiered Israeli wines, the better low-priced wines from US wineries tend to be the more obscure grapes (i.e. Petite Sirah and Zinfandel over Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay).  One reason for this is their lack of popularity prevents the winery from placing the higher quality grapes in a higher-tiered (and thus expensive) series since folks won’t pay a premium for relatively unknown varietals which leads to a boon for us wine enthusiasts.  The Petite Sirah from Weinstock is no exception at an approachable 13% alcohol and a nice nose of fruit, lavender, espresso, and hints of chocolate.  The medium bodied, soft and mouth filling palate is loaded with good red and black fruit, extra dark chocolate leading into a nice finish with plenty of tangy fruit, some warm spices, slightly smoky wood and more chocolate.  Not one for much further aging, drink now or over the next 12 months.

#220 – July 5, 2012

I hope everyone stateside had a great Fourth of July and managed to spend some of it outdoors despite the wretched heat wave currently baking the Northeast.  As grilling season has officially started and is now in full swing, check out my Grillin’ & Chillin’ article on BBQing and wine for some tips on how to best enjoy wine throughout the suffocating summer Bar-B-Qing months.  In honor of my newborn daughter’s first weekend home and in time-honored tradition, this past week I popped the cork on some excellent Champagne, the newly released Drappier Carte D’Or (reviewed below) that was the catalyst for this week’s newsletter on Champagne.

Despite its crisp refreshingness and near-perfect pairing with a vast quantity of foods, Champagne has unfortunately been pigeonholed as a celebratory beverage, providing a foaming festivity gushing at many a celebratory occasion.  Centuries of celebrity quotes trumpeting Champagne as a wine to be consumed early and often including Winston Churchill’s “Champagne is the wine of civilization and the oil of government”, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right” and Napoleon Bonaparte’s “I drink Champagne when I win, to celebrate and I drink Champagne when I lose, to console myself” (plagiarized and basterdized by Winston Churchill into “In victory we deserve it, in defeat we need it”) have not succeeded in convincing the wine-guzzling masses to incorporate it into their regular repertoire (if only Champagne would hire Chardonnay’s PR marketing guru).  Despite the fact that I drink Champagne (and other sparkling wines) regularly (it is one of the best [and only] wines to be drinking in the morning), I realize I may be guilty of perpetuating its association with celebratory events by linking this week’s topic to the birth of Ariella.  Therefore, I plan to spend the rest of this newsletter enlightening you to the wonders of Champagne in the hope that the next time you are looking for a refreshing and versatile wine, you will reach for the most luxurious of wines – Champagne.

While the British actually “invented” sparkling wine in the 17th century, they failed to make it their own, partly as a result of their inability to grow quality grapes during their inferior dark and dreary English summers.  It wasn’t until 30 odd-years later that Champagne was born, after a French monk named Dom Pérignon fiddled with the process and helped create the luxurious wine by refining a number of the process (while an avid winemaker and oenophile, he wasn’t actually the “inventor” of Champagne, per se – for more on the history of Champagne try this link).

Despite prevalent usage around the globe as a descriptor for any wine with bubbles, legally Champagne may only refer sparkling wine grown in the chalky soil of France’s cool-climate Champagne Appellation D’origine Contrôlée (AOC), which yields grapes with considerable acidity contributing to Champagne’s food compatibility.  In order to be labeled as Champagne, the wine must also be produced in accordance with a stringent set of rules comprising the traditional méthode champenoise (the traditional method of making Champagne described below).  Located approximately 90 miles east of Paris, the region covers approximately 84,000 acres of prime wine-growing soil spread among 319 villages (Crus).  Approximately 90% of this land is owned and farmed by nearly 15,000 independent growers with the remainder owned by the approximately 110 Champagne “Houses” and collectively yielding over 300 million bottles of Champagne a year.  While the tradition of independent growers selling their crop to the houses continues for the most part, recent years have seen a proliferation of growers producing retaining all or part of their crop to produce, bottle and market Champagne under their own names with nearly 5,000 growers trying their hands these days at this process.  These wines are commonly referred to as grower Champagne and are prized for their quality and uniqueness among oenophiles around the world.  Unfortunately there are no kosher grower Champagne wines available today (and given the methodology of producing kosher French wine, I doubt there is any such grower Champagne in our near future either).

In addition to Champagne, many other quality sparkling wines from around the world (many of which I have previously reviewed) are produced in the méthode champenoise.  However, in addition to trademarking the name “Champagne” and after substantial [and successful] lobbying, in 1994 Champagne growers obtained protection for the production method as well and non-Champagne wines made in this traditional method may now only be labeled as haven been made in the méthode traditionale (although unlike with Champagne, to date this is rarely enforced outside the European Union).  This method incorporates a complex, intricate, expensive and multi-step process.  Utilizing Champagne’s three primary grapes – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, the wine first undergoes a fermentation process similar to that of other quality still wines (typically in stainless steel tanks).  Once this fermentation process has been completed, the still wine is bottled together with yeast and sugar (a syrup referred to as liqueur de triage) and then sealed, triggering a second fermentation in the bottle that yields the effervescence for which the wine is known.  Once the secondary fermentation is completed and the wine has sufficiently “aged on its lees” (referred to as sur lie – see below), the bottle placed in a special rack, tilted downwards at a 45% angle and slowly rotated over time until the dead yeast cells (the “lees”) settle in the neck of the bottle (a process referred to as “riddling”).  While some of the more prestigious Champagne wines are laboriously riddled by hand (over a period of 6-8 weeks, every few days each bottle requires a light tap and a slight turn), the majority of Champagne (and other sparkling wines made in the méthode traditionale) are riddled utilizing an automated process.  Following the riddling process the wine is flash frozen, the lees removed (in a process known as disgorging) and the bottle is then topped up with a syrup known as liqueur d’expédition (to compensate for the total lack of residual sugar as a result of the secondary fermentation) in a process known as dosage (some Champagne houses claim a proprietary syrup with ingredients other than water and sugar), corked, sealed with a wire netting to prevent the corks escape and covered in the festive colored foil we see in the wine store.  The amount of sugar in the added syrup will determine the level of the Champagne’s sweetness which is categorized based on dryness as follows: the sweetest level is doux, proceeding in order of increasing dryness to demi-sec (half-dry), sec (dry), extra sec (extra dry), brut (almost completely dry and the most common) and a small percentage of Champagne which is sold without any added sugar and categorized as extra brut, brut nature or brut zero.

Most Champagne is made from a blend of grapes produced in many different vintages (typically between 30-60 wines comprise every non-vintage Champagne!).  While the majority of wine in any given non-vintage Champagne is derived from grapes of the current vintage year, a certain portion from past years utilized to ensure the aforementioned consistency (even a small amount of aged/vintage Champagne added to the non-vintage blend can add substantial depth, richness and complexity).  This blending enables the winemaker to compensate for mediocre vintages and inconsistent climate.  The most important marketing aspect for the Champagne houses (also the winemaker’s biggest challenge) is to ensure a consistent “House Blend” year after year and blending is likely the most important aspect of Champagne – the soul of Champagne.  When preparing the blend, the winemaker needs to consider not what the wine tastes like right now but rather what the resulting wine will taste like after second fermentation and many years of aging on the lees.  In exceptional vintage years a vintage is declared and the best wine from that year will be marketed as vintage Champagne requiring a minimum of three years bottle aging on its lees under the AOC rules (non-vintage Champagne requires a minimum of 1.5 years) and guaranteeing a substantially higher price.  That said, most premium Champagne is aged around 6-8 years at least.

Besides vintage v. non-vintage Champagne, there are an additional number of different styles of Champagne including cuvee de prestige (typically the flagship Champagne of a Champagne house and usually the most well-known of its wines), Blanc de Noirs (which refers to a white Champagne made solely from “black” grapes, usually Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier), Blanc de Blanc (which refers to a white wine made from only white grapes, usually 100% Chardonnay the best of which are sourced from the chalky slopes of the Côte des Blancs) and finally Rose Champagne.  The years in which Rosé Champagne was largely disregarded as irrelevant from a serious wine perspective are long gone as nearly every major Champagne house worth its salt is producing at least one Rosé version.  Produced by a different method than still Rosé, most Rosé Champagne is made by adding around 15% of still red wine to the otherwise white wine.  Marketed as even more romantic and sexier than “regular” Champagne and coupled with a [controlled] scarcity, the prices of Rosé Champagne usually exceed those of their white brethren.  Unfortunately, only than the delightful added color your money yields very little extra in the form of added nuance or complexity with the white versions usually being better than their more expensive Rosé versions.

While opening a bottle of Champagne is always accompanied with some celebratory fanfare, if only as a result of the delightful popping cork, for true entertainment and flair nothing beats sabrage.  Sabrage refers to the method of opening a Champagne bottle with a saber (check out some of the cool videos of sabering on YouTube).  While seemingly dangerous and complicated, sabering merely requires sliding a saber with slight force along the bottle.  Coupled with the increased pressure inside the bottle, the force of the saber hitting the lip of the Champagne bottle breaks the glass and separates the lip from the rest of the bottle.  While a saber may be somewhat tough to come by, many slightly sharp or very thin objects will suffice – I have seen someone do it in person with an iPad.

Drappier, Carte D’Or, Champagne, n.v.:  A new true kosher Champagne imported by Royal wine, together with a Carte Blanc version (which I enjoyed less than this version).  A very welcome addition to the kosher Champagne scene, especially since my all-time favorite Nicolas Feuillatte hasn’t been available for a while.  Made from a blend of 80-90% Chardonnay, 5-15% Pinot Noir and 5% Pinot Meunier (all traditional Champagne grapes, if not in this exact combination), the wine has a delightful nose of citrus, toasty brioche, some green apples and stone fruits with hints of flinty minerals.  Much of the same follows on the palate with more yeasty notes, and good tight and focused bubbles that keep the flavors going on your palate and this wine was actually enjoyable the next day (under a Champagne stopper).  A bit more acidity wouldn’t have hurt but all in all, a delightful treat and worth trying.

Laurent Perrier, Brut, n.v.:  As with the Louis de Sacy wines reviewed below, I enjoy the brut version more than its sexier Rosé counterpart.  Plenty of toasted brioche and warm nuts on the nose to go with a subdued array of green apples, citrus and pear notes.  With a rich and complex palate so typical of true Champagne (and usually lacking in most other sparkling wines) and loaded with yeasty bread, hints of tropical fruit, zesty citrus notes all held together by tightly focused and tiny bubbles that continue to tantalize after the wine is good, this is a great bottle of wine and worthy of both special occasions and a random Monday evening with someone special.

Laurent Perrier, Rosé Brut, n.v.:  One of the only kosher Rosé Champagne wines made by a “real” Champagne house and a delicious treat (especially as it combines Rosé and Champagne – two of my favorite things).  Less obligatory and more romantic (and expensive) than regular Champagne, Rosé Champagne has exploded in popularity over the last decade with more and more Champagne houses trying their hands at producing this lucrative wine even though the added romance and price seldom yield much in the way of additional nuance or complexity.  This version is made from 100% Pinot Noir grapes and, as with most Rosé wines, is pretty light on the palate.  Loaded with typical yeast, toasted bread and green apple flavors, these accompanied by lush strawberries, cherries and hints of slightly astringent citrus.  This is a fun (albeit expensive fun) wine and a great accompaniment to any summer festivities.  A real treat!  I note that the quality of recent tasting has been somewhat sporadic with some bottles showing magnificently and others appearing tired.

Louis de Sacy, Grand Cru, Brut n.v.:  One of the things to be wary of when buying non-vintage Champagne is how long it has been sitting around since bottling (the bottles are stamped with a code indicating the bottling time but these are highly secret).  I purchased this straight from the cellar of Sherry-Lehman thus guaranteeing myself a good result.  The Champagne house of Louis de Sacy was established in the early 17th century.  While not deemed one of the “Great Houses”, it is a great treat!  Made from a traditional Champagne blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (with some Pinot Meunier thrown in for good measure and character).  Nice tangy berries including raspberries with plenty of lime and oranges to go with hazelnuts, some honey and yeasty bread all blend together for a delightful treat that went amazingly well with our celebratory dinner.  Tons of tightly wound bubbles that lingered throughout the entire bottle also contributed to making this a wine to which I will return (especially now that my favorite Nicolas Feuillatte is no longer available.

Louis de Sacy, Grand Cru, Rosé Brut n.v.:  As with the Laurent Perrier above, the “regular” version is a better bet than the Rosé, assuming you are OK trading a bit of beauty for taste (and here I say to each their own or “Eilu V’eilu”).  A traditional blend of 90% Pinot Noir and 10% Pinot Meunier yields a complex wine that is only slightly marred by a somewhat aggressive mousse (i.e. bubbles) that takes some getting used to.  A lovely nose redolent of strawberries, red fruit, toasty bread, yeast and some pears.  Much of the same of the slightly sweet palate with a hint of pleasing bitterness on the lingering finish.

Nicolas Feuillatte, Brut, n.v.:  Despite the fact that this wine is no longer available, it remains my all-time favorite kosher Champagne (which was a YH Best Buy to boot).  I have included it here as I am finding it hard to let go of all the wonderful memories it has provided me with along the years (and hoping against hope that it will be resuscitated).  A very dry wine with loads of lime, lemons and some grapefruit tastes along with hints of the traditional toasted white bread flavors with good bubbles that last forever.

Week of May 21st – May 27th

Meg Maker posted a well-written and very informative article on tasting wine. You can also check out my handy resource on “How to Taste Wine“.

With Moscato gaining popularity (also here and here) (Gamliel Kronemer recently reviewed some good Israeli Moscato wines (all better than the blue-bottled abomination), also providing a few nice Moscato-based cocktail recipes), Bev Media explores the recent surging popularity of sweet red wines. Interestingly, Gary Vaynerchuk predicted this years ago on Episode #204 of now defunct Wine Library TV. It appears that, sadly, he was right…

As more and more [Israeli] wineries (like Tzora) are focusing on the importance of terroir, Robert Joseph discovers how little the average consumer actually cares.

As screw caps turn up on more and more quality wines, recent research yielded the ability to put a screw cap on a bottle of sparkling wine. While I appreciate the scientific progress, personally I’m a sucker for the romantic popping of Champagne Corks.

W. Blake Gray discusses how much influence ones personal taste has in wine judging. While it shouldn’t be influential, it would be nonhuman for it not to…

In his typical style of cutting to the chase, The Wine Curmudgeon lays bare the truth behind five wine “untruths”.

Navigating the hoopla, Tom Wark philosophizes about the purpose of wine and comes up with the simplest reason of all: “wine is for pleasure”.

Period of May 7th – May 20th

I was profiled in Adam Montefiore‘s round-up of writers who are currently covering the Israeli and kosher wine world.

Some truly thought-provoking articles (here and here) on the ethics and potential conflicts of interest in today’s wine writing & criticism by Steve Heimoff & Andrew Jefford

Rating wine = bad science? @1WineDude discusses the fallacy of scores from a scientific perspective.

Benjamin Wallace, author of the Billionaire’s Vinegar (which is being turned into a movie starring Brad Pitt), tackles the most interesting wine fraud controversy of the hour – the Rudy Kurniawan saga

Eldad Levy continues his quest after Israel’s Icon Wines with a great write-up and detailed vertical tasting of one of Israel’s iconic wines – the Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon

I was interviewed on WineGuyMike’s radio show about kosher wine.

Very informative piece on the Champagne process BEFORE the bubbles “Secrets of Champagne’s Vins Clairs”

Decanter’s Andrew Jefford pens a great article on the importance behind the where & why of vineyard location: “Vineyard Existentialism“. A bit more on the importance of terroir.

The always biting and funny HoseMaster takes on Wine Tasting Etiquette with his personalized Guide to Tasting Room Etiquette

The Wine Curmudgeon discussed the importance of quality wine glasses, but cautions against going crazy with more on that here. My own article on the topic agrees with him.

With the release of his new book The Juice: Vinous Veritas, Jay McInerney sits down with Slate’s Troy Patterson for a discussion on life and the fruit of the vine.

With more and more wine purchasing moving online, Tom Wark provides a quick and helpful primer on buying wine online.

Week of April 30 – May 6th

While we have discussed wine and food pairing in the past, Eric Asimov of the New York Times pens a great article on pairing cheese with red wine.

Lettie Teague at the Wall Street Journal discusses various wine-storage options and explains the pros & cons of each. I use a Euro Cave in the house and have a natural off-site cellar at a relative’s house. What do you use?

Deemed one of the most powerful people in the wine world by CNBC during a show on the “Costco Craze“, Costco’s wine buyer Annette Alvarez-Peters indicates that “wine is no different than toilet paper“. Wine enthusiasts go nuts (also here, here & here) and Stephen Eliot provides an intelligent and thoughtful round-up.

Responding to a handy little Wine Glossary unfortunately titled “You too can talk like a wine snob“, Jo Diaz pens a thoughtful discourse on wine snobbery.

As Steve Heimoff discusses Robert Parker’s waning influence, in an interview for Sommelier magazine, the world’s most powerful critic, discusses his worldview (subscribers only), the future of the Wine Advocate, his recent scandals and lashes out at Alice Feiring calling her a charlatan and likening her to a snake-oil salesman for her push of “natural wines”. 1 Wine Dude (great blog BTW) discusses.

Basking in Hip-Hop love, Moscato continues to surge in popularity with the blue bottled abomination selling 400,00 cases annually. In a bald-faced attempt to capitalize on the popularity, Gallo decries May 9th as National Moscato Day.