Archive
Overwhelmed…
Tua Rita Redigaffi 2009
I don’t know how this works for you, but sometimes (lots more often than I want to) I find it very difficult for blogging to keep up with the life. Once you are bitten by the blogging bug, even the routine experiences always raise the question in your mind – “does it worth a blog post”. And the answer is often “yes” (it is your personal blog after all, your life’s journal). But from the “yes” answer to the blog post your happy with, there is a thorny road, filled with sudden and unexpected traps, gaps, and changes of directions – the thing called “life”. Life gets in the way, and the unwritten posts become the heavy load, as pleasant as a toothache, drilling your brain with similar persistence “and remember, you still didn’t write that blog post… Yeah… What is wrong with you, huh? Come on already”.
As you might be able to deduce from this lengthy prelude, this blog post will be one of those, supposed to be written a while ago, but coming to life only now. Well, I still think it still has a merit, but you tell me.
At the beginning of September, I was lucky enough to attend 4 trade wine tastings in the row. The trade tastings are conducted by the wholesalers and distributors for the wine trade – retailers and restaurateurs – to introduce new wines coming to the market. These trade tastings are very large in size – they might consist of 100 tables, each table featuring 6-10 different wines, so total number of wines can be easily in 600-800 range. Nobody can taste each and every of the 600 wines within 4 hours which is the typical duration of the tasting – you have to chose what do you want to taste.
Now that I described the trade tasting to you, let me ask you a question – let’s just conduct a mini poll with only one question – do you think the trade tasting is a hard work, or it is all fun, and all the attendees are there just to drink free wine and have a good time?
Now, let’s rephrase the question:
Let me tell you – it is a hard work. You only have a few seconds to evaluate wine. You don’t have the time for the full assessment – most importantly, even if you try to do the full assessment, you don’t have the time to write down your notes after you sip, swish, suck the air, swish again, spit, move to the next. After 5 Barolos in the row, your mouth becomes completely numb, and you need somehow to restore your taste buds. You grab a piece of Parmesan cheese (either that or a sip of a cold sparkling wine), and your taste buds gradually recover, only to be hit again and again. By the end of the 4 hours, you are really overwhelmed, but generally happy.
So the four trade tastings I attended were definitely overwhelming, but exciting at the same time, as I had an opportunity to taste wines I would never be able to taste otherwise, like, for instance, Tua Rita Redigaffi. Of course when you focus on quantity, the quality might suffer – as the desire is to taste as many wines as possible, looking for unique profiles and new discoveries, it is obvious that something has to give. So in my case, I didn’t even try to write down full wine descriptions or rate the wines on my standard 10 points scale. To move fast from wine to wine, I used the “+” signs where + technically means “well, ok”, ++ means “very good”, and +++ means “excellent”. I guess “+++” should be equivalent to my standard 8 rating, but the problem is that thinking about actual numerical ratings for me requires time, and using this system of pluses was allowing me to move from wine to wine a lot quicker. Oh yes, and to stay with my traditional system of half points, I also used half of the plus sign (-|) to mark the wines which I thought were better than, let’s say, ++, but not as good as +++.
So below you will find a huge (I’m not kidding) list of wines I liked during the 4 tastings I attended. Absolute majority of those wines are +++ wines, but yes, you will see wines with other ratings too. I also sometimes used a single word or very short sentences to convey my impressions better, so you will see it reflected in the list below. Additionally, when available, I listed the grapes and some additional information about the wine.
Before I will let you ponder at the list and look for the familiar wines, I want to present some of my general conclusions based on those 4 tastings. Here we go:
- One must be humble around wine and never make any assumptions as to taste and value of the wine without actually tasting it. My experience with Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc is an example of that (before tasting it, I couldn’t understand why would anyone pay for it double+ price of any other New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc – now I do).
- Once you cross $60 (approximately), California Cabernet Sauvignon become “one better than the other”.
- Looks like 2010 was a great year in California, for sure for Cabernet Sauvignon – I didn’t taste a single bad wine from that vintage.
- I have a problem with California Chardonnay. It seems that all the complainers about too much oak, vanilla and butter finally had their way. Now, it is practically impossible to find those big and buttery wines, and most of the California Chardonnays produced today are dull, have no character and overall universally boring. Somebody, please change (fix) that!!!
Ready to look at the list? Hold on, here are some pictures of the wines in the tastings:
I feel inclined to still add a few more comments, this time just explaining the logic of what you will find in the list. I was choosing the wines to taste based on the few factors:
1. Price – yes, I wanted to taste many expensive wines – go ahead, blame me for it.
2. Uniqueness – I don’t know when and if ever again I will have an opportunity to taste Tua Rita Redigaffi or Catena Zapata Adrianna single vineyard Malbec (both wines are part of my Must Try List) – so of course I made an effort to taste those wines.
3. Wines with rare grapes – as I continue my Wine Century journey, I still always look for the grapes I didn’t taste before. This time I added 4 – Moscatel Morisco, Sauvignon Gris, Kountouro Blanc and Tribidrag
4. Otherwise I was just following the lead of my friend Zak who was tasting wines for his store.
And (ready for it?), here is the list of the wines I tasted, sorted by the country – but I’m warning you – continue at your own risk – you might get overwhelmed too…
Reminder – unless otherwise noted, all the wines below are +++ wines, thus these are all the wines really liked, and it is only a fraction of what we had to work through…
Now – enjoy and cheers!
Beauty of Montefalco Rosso and Power of Sagrantino
About two month ago (yes, I know, I’m the speedy one) I was invited to participate in the virtual tasting. The subject – Italian wines. To be more precise, the wines from Umbria, made out of the grape called Sagrantino.
I never participated in the virtual tasting before, so I was not sure how it was going to work. The idea was simple. I will get the wine, which should be opened and tasted in parallel with the winemakers, who will be doing it live on ustream. Of course I gladly agreed to take part in this wine drinking tasting.
The subject was wines from Umbria, from the region called Montefalco. Actually, it was not just one tasting, but two – one for the wines called Montefalco Rosso, and the second one for the wines called Montefalco Sagrantino.
It appears that Sagrantino is an Italian indigenous grape, which seems to be cultivated in Umbria for at least 500 years, if not longer. However in the 1960s it became literally extinct, and if it would not be the effort of the few winemakers, Sagrantino would be gone completely from the winemaking scene.
Sagrantino has dark and very thick skin, which results in very tannic and concentrated wines, literally black in color when young. Sagrantino has the highest polyphenolic content among most of the red grapes, if not among all red grapes in the world (take a look at the chart below). Just to get technical for a second, polyphenols (also called phenolic compounds) is a large group of chemical compounds, responsible for color, texture and mouthfeel of the wine (think tannins!), and the group also includes medically beneficial elements, such as reservatrol. As usual, I have to refer you to Wikipedia for additional reading, but I hope you get the point here.
My wines arrived few days before the tasting. As luck would have it, the day which the wines spent on the UPS truck, was one and only day in September when temperature outside reached 96F (extremely atypical for Connecticut in September). When I took the wines out of the box, I could feel that they are quite warm – on average, my wine thermometer showed all the bottles to be at around 84F, so I was obviously concerned… I opened a number of bottles the next day, and to my big relief, the was no sign of heat damage (I quickly closed the wines back using the gas canister) – I was ready for the tasting.
First day of tasting was dedicated to the wines called Montefalco Rosso. Montefalco Rosso wines typically are Sangiovese based, with the addition of 10% – 15% Sagrantino and 10%-15% Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. We had an opportunity to taste through 5 different wines:
At the specific time, the ustream broadcast started with live tasting, where the panel of winemakers from all 5 wineries were talking about their wines and answering the questions. The ustream broadcast was accompanied by the live twitter exchange among all the participants in the tasting. The twitter stream was used to ask panelists the questions, share tasting notes and impressions. Definitely was interesting to see and hear the diversity of opinion both from the panel, and from the audience on twitter. To be entirely honest, the most difficult part was to do a few things at once – taking my own notes, talking to the people on twitter and listening to the panelists – difficult, but well worth it!
Below are my notes for the 5 Montefalco Rosso wines we tasted (as you will see, not necessarily taken exactly during that live tasting session).
2009 Romanelli Montefalco Rosso DOC (14.5% ABV, Sangiovese 65%, Sagrantino 15%, Merlot 10%, Cabernet Sauvignon 10%, 12 month French oak, 6 month in the bottle) – good dark fruit, easy to drink. Drinkability: 7
2010 Perticaia Montefalco Rosso DOC (13.5% ABV, Sangiovese 70%, Sagrantino 15%, Colorino 15%, 12 month in stainless steel, 6 month in the bottle) – day 2 notes – outstanding. Dark inviting fruit with a hint of sage on the nose, spicy cherries (cherries + black pepper) on the palate, with tobacco notes in the background. Delicious! Drinkability: 8+
2010 Le Cimate Montefalco Rosso DOC (14.5% ABV, Sangiovese 60%, Sagrantino 15%, Merlot 15%, Cabernet Sauvignon 10%) – was perfectly drinkable 6 (!) days after opening the bottle. Spectacular. Supple, ripe cherries, perfect acidity, espresso and dark chocolate, powerful, balanced. Drinkability: 8+
2009 Scacciadiavoli Montefalco Rosso DOC (14% ABV, 60% Sangiovese, 15% Sagrantino, 25% Merlot, 12 month French oak, 6 month in bottle) – Excellent. Dark, spicy earthy nose with some gaminess. Excellent minerality and dark fruit on the palate. Drinkability: 8+
2009 Colle Ciocco Montefalco Rosso DOC (14% ABV, Sangiovese 70%, Sagrantino 15%, Merlot 15%, 12 month in oak barrels, 4 month in the bottle) – nice soft red fruit on the nose, sweet and supple fruit on the palate, good acidity, soft tannins. Drinkability: 7+
The next day we had the tasting of Montefalco Sagrantino wines. Montefalco Sagrantino wines are made out of 100% Sagrantino grapes. The tasting was done in the same format – panel of winemakers discusses the wines live via ustream, and twitter followers taste and discuss in parallel.
It was recommended to open wines one hour before the tasting. Considering how massive those wines are, I would think the right suggestion would’ve been to open them in the morning. I don’t know if it could make the difference, but I have to admit that my experience was rather frustrating during the live tasting. For the most of the wines, I couldn’t get any of the flavor descriptors and impressions, compare to what was exposed by the other twitter tasters. For instance, Arnaldo Caprai was showing literally as corked, where the other tasters had violets, black tea and other nice things to say. Literally only one or two wines cooperated with me during tasting. But – most of them came back nicely right after (see the notes).
Below are my notes for the Montefalco Sagrantino wines (all wines are 100% Sagrantino).
2006 Antonelli Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG (14.5% ABV, 15 month in oak, 12 month in the bottle) – Dark fruit on the nose, same on the palate, very restrained. I’m sure needed more time. Drinkability: 7+
2007 Caprai Collepiano Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG (14.5% ABV, 20-24 month in French oak barrique, minimum 6 month in the bottle) – opened on 09/17, then closed with the argon canister. Reopened on 09/23. Concentrated, very dark. Initially gave an impression of being mildly corked. After 3 days finally started to open up into something interesting. Very substantial tannins ( more of stem/seeds tannins than oak). Dark fruit with undertones of leather and black tea. Drinkability: 8-
2007 Tenuta Castelbuono Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG (14.5% ABV, 28 month in oak, 10 month in the bottle) – dark supple fruit on the palate, very powerful, a wine with “broad shoulders”. Beautifully opened over the next few days, showing roasted meat notes on the palate, good acidity, excellent balance. Drinkability: 8-
2008 Tenuta Bellafonte Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG (14% ABV, 36 month in large barrels, 10 month in bottle) – wine was first tasted on 9/17, then closed with gas canister. Reopened on 9/25. Powerful, concentrated, almost black color in the glass. Nice fruit undertones, cassis and plums, with more tannins coming in later. Overall delicious and “dangerous” wine. Drinkability: 8
2008 Colle del Saraceno Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG (14.5% ABV, 12 month stainless steel, 12 month French oak barriques, 6 month in the bottle) – this wine unfortunately showed signs of the heat damage. N/R.
All in all, this was a great experience. The virtual tasting format was pretty well done, and I definitely will be looking forward to more virtual wine tastings in the future. And for the wines – my notes are above, and I definitely recommend looking for Montefalco wines – both Rosso and Sagrantino well worth your attention. Cheers!
Disclaimer: The wines were provided complementary by the PR agency. All opinions are my own.
[My belated notes from ] Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri Event
Two months ago I attended the Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri event in New York City. Writing this blog post late in the game has some advantages – particularly, I can refer you to the work of others. Here is the link to the excellent blog post by Stefano of Flora’s Table and Clicks and Corks fame. Moreover, I had the pleasure of attending the event in Stefano’s company, where his expert knowledge of Italian wines was very helpful in navigating the selection of about 500 creme de la creme wines. Thus you can even compare our notes (I doubt though you will find much discrepancy in our thoughts).
Every year since 1986, Gambero Rosso publishes its guide to Italian wines and awards its prestigious Tre Bicchieri (three glasses) rating to the best wines. An event like the one we attended has the purpose of showcasing all the best wines, and it attracts a lot of attention.
I have to start with the same rant as you can see in Stefano’s post. All the wineries were arranged by the distributors and not by the region – therefore, in the presence of 173 wine tables and countless people, my well-thought plan fell apart. Yes, I understand that distributors are important, but I don’t see why all the wineries couldn’t be pulled together by the region, instead of being all over the place. In terms of the overall organization, Vinitaly, which we attended about two weeks before the Tre Bicchieri event, was put together in a lot more logical way.
Leaving that aside, let’s talk about the event. I generally attend a good number of trade wine tastings. So when you start going from table to table, it takes time to find the wine which will “wow” you. What I didn’t realize at first was that the Tre Bicchiery event was different. All the wines which you taste there already had been preselected, they were all winners of the Tre Bicchiery award, and therefore they were all great wines by definition. This was exactly my experience. Table one – wow, this is good. Table two – very good. Table three – excellent! Table four – excellent again – what is happening? How is that possible? Ahh, it is the Tre Bicchiere event, so all the wines are rather expected to be great…
Another important part of the events such as Tre Bicchieri is the opportunity to meet a lot of great people there. For instance, we met Giuseppe Vajra, a winemaker at G.D Vajra in Piedmont, who was a pleasure to talk to.
He gave us a taste of his 2004 Barolo Cerretta Luigi Baudana, which he was not supposed to do at the event ( this wine was not a part of the 2013 Tre Bicchieri awards), and the wine was stunning.
Meeting people is great, but navigating the crowds – not so much. Here is a “Hail Mary” style picture – you raise your arm with the camera as high as you can, at the angle you think will fit, and then release the shutter. Here are a few pictures for you, I think it gives you an idea that the event was quite busy:
Another problem with an event like this? You are destined to miss out on some of the wines. Taking into account the gross level of disorganization at the event, it is obvious that you will miss out on the best wines. The list of the wines we missed includes Masseto, Ornellaia, Sassicaia, Oreno, Bertani, and more…
The real bummer in this group was Masseto, which is a part of my “Must Try Wines ” list – it is Super Tuscan made out of 100% Merlot – this is the wine that can rival Petrus. Well, maybe next year…
Now, let me offer you my highlights from the event. In the format of such an event, it is impossible (for me, at least) to take any detailed notes – I’m trying to experience as many wines as possible, only jotting down a single word descriptors at the best, which often don’t go beyond “wow” or “outstanding”. Below is the list of wines I really liked (a lot, huh?), with maybe one-word descriptors on them (or maybe not), and then I offer to your attention a picture gallery of mostly the same wines. Oh yes – and unlike the Gambero Rosso event itself, the wines below are grouped by region. Remember I recently suggested a new scale of ratings (yuck, ok, nice, wow, OMG) – let me use it here when possible, and I promise not to bring any “yuck” and “ok” wines to your attention. And one last note – not all the wines below have “three glasses” rating – some of them are rated at 2, but I believe they would still be worth your attention. Here we go.
ABRUZZO
2009 Torre dei Beati Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Cocciapazza – perfect!
ALTO ADIGE
2011 Abbazia di Novacella Alto Adige Valle Isarco Sylvaner Praepositus – outstanding bouquet on the nose, very nice overall
2009 Cantina Tarlano Alto Adige Pinot Blanco Vorberg Riserva – complex, beautiful, perfect minerality, wow!
CAMPANIA
2010 Nanni Cope Sabbie di Sopra il Bosco Terre del Volturno – nice acidity, very good overall. Added bonus – this wine has two rare grapes which I need to add to my grape count – Palagrello and Casavecchia
2010 Marisa Cuomo Casta di Amalfi Furore Bianco Fiorduva – my descriptors for this wine include “beautiful”, “amazing” and “balanced” – definitely a wow! wine. This is a very unique wine in many ways (outside of the fact that it is made out of three rare grapes Ginestra, Fenile and Ripoli) – I need to refer you to Stefano’s blog post where you can learn more about this fascinating wine.
FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA
2010 Livon Collio Friulano Manditocai – complex nose, nice palate
2011 Ronco dei Tassi Collio Malvasia – nice minerality, very good overall
2011 La Tunella COF Ribolla Gialla Rjgialla – perfect white fruit, clean, excellent
2011 Livio Felluga Friulano – super-expressive wine, very good overall
LAZIO
2010 Sergio Mottura Grechetto Latour a Civitella – excellent
LIGURIA
2011 Cantine Lunae Bosoni Colli di Luni Vermentino Cavagnino – mint and apricot on the nose and palate, OMG
LOMBARDY
2009 Mamete Prevostini Valtellina Superiore Riserva – very unusual nose, perfect power.
2004 Ca’Del Bosco Franciacorta Brut Rose Cuvee Annamaria Clementi – 100% Pinot Noir, the nose of fresh bread and yeast, strawberries on the palate – OMG
2007 Ricci Curbastro Franciacorta Extra Brut – perfect
NV Ricci Curbastro Franciacorta Brut Rose – more complex than the previous one, OMG
2006 Ferghettina Franciacorta Extra Brut – 80% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Noir; wow!
2007 Cavalleri Franciacorta Pas Rose – very bread-y, excellent!
2008 Guido Berlucchi Franciacorta Cellarius Brut – wow!
MARCHE
2010 Umani Ronchi Verdicchio dei Cazstelli di Jesi Classico Superiore Vecchie Vigne – wow!
2009 Umani Ronchi Conero Cumaro Riserva – excellent!
2009 Velenosi Rosso Piceno Superiore Roggio del Filare – roasted, gamey nose, a touch too sweet, but good
PIEDMONT
2009 Bricco del Cucu Dogliani Bricco S. Bernardo – 100% Grechetto, cherries on the nose and palate, very nice!
2008 Le Piane Boca – a blend of 85% Barolo, 15% Vespolina – wow!
2008 G.D Vajra Barolo Ceretta Luigi Baudana – this wine comes from a specific plot in the vineyard, called Baudana. This was a wow wine, but the next one was one level up, as it had an age on it
2004 G.D Vajra Barolo Ceretta Luigi Baudana – OMG
2008 Schiavenza Barolo Prapo – perfect fruit, open, beautiful, wow!
2009 Vietty Barbera d’Asti Superiore Nizza La Crena – excellent
2006 Massolino Barolo Villa Rionda Riserva – wow!
2010 Villa Sparina Gavi del Commune di Gavi Monterotondo – very nice
2008 Marchesi di Barolo Barolo Sarmassa – nice, round, perfect!
2006 Elvio Cogno Barolo Vigna Elena Riserva – excellent!
SARDINIA
2009 Cantina di Santandi Carignano del Sulcis Superiore Rocca Rubia Riserva – aged for 24 months in oak, excellent.
2009 6Mura Carignano del Sulcis – 120 years old vines, growing on sandy soils, very good balance, excellent.
SICILY
2010 Pietradolce Etna Rosso Archineri – very green
2010 Pietradolce Vigna Barbagalli – nice
2010 Donnafugata Ben Ryé Passito di Pantelleria – the only wine in Italy to receive top awards from all wine publications! Apricots on the nose and palate, perfectly balanced. Overall – wow and OMG!
2010 Tenute Rapitala Conte Hugues Bernard de la Gatinais Grand Cru – 100% Chardonnay, excellent, clean
2010 Firriato Ribeca Perricone – excellent! ( and the rare grape called Perricone)
TRENTINO
2006 Ferrari Trento Extra Brut Perle Nero – outstanding, off brut
2002 Ferrari Trento Brut Giulio Ferrari Riserva del Fondatore – 10 years aging on the lees, wow!
TUSCANY
2008 Famiglia Cecchi Chianti Classico Villa Cerna Riserva – very nice
2009 Famiglia Cecchi Coevo – wow!
2009 Tolani Picconero – 65% Merlot, perfectly Bordeaux in style, excellent!
2007 Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino – open, fresh, clean – wow!
2009 Poliziano Vino Nobile di Montepulciano – tannins! very good.
2009 Brancaia Chianti Classico Riserva – perfect balance, wow!
2010 Tenuta San Guido Montessu Isola dei Nuraghi – excellent!
2009 Tenuta Sette Ponti Orma Toscana – OMG! depth and breadth of this wine were phenomenal
2010 Marchesi Antinori Cervaro della Sala – perfect chardonnay, outstanding!
VENETO
2010 Ottello Lugana Superiore Molceo – perfumy, perfect!
2010 Ottello Campo Sireso – a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Corvina and Lagrein – roasted notes, wow!
2009 Roccolo Grassi Valpolicella Superiore Roccolo Grassi -very nice
2007 Vignalta Colli Euganei Rosso Gemola – Merlot/Cabernet Franc blend, classic Bordeaux profile, wow!
2005 Cantina Valpolicella Negrar Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Villa Domini Veneti – pure chocolate on the nose, a bit too sweet and too tannic on the palate. Just ok (I know, I promised that there will be no ok or lesser wines – but I’m an Amarone junkie, you will have to excuse me for that…)
2007 Tedeschi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Capitel Monte Olmi – 16% ABV, alcohol on the nose – not “yack”, but not good [at all]
2008 Tedeschi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico – very good
2006 Masi Amarone della Valpolicella Mazzano – 120 days of drying the grapes, good overall (not great), too much alcohol on the nose and palate
2008 Viticoltori Speri Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Monte Sant’Urbano – 15% ABV; wow!
And here is the photo gallery for you – enjoy!
Long post, after a long delay – but it is finally done. Yay! Cheers!
Vinitaly and Slow Wine Tastings – Part 3, Wine, And More Wine
In the first two posts I gave you some interesting stats and shared our experience with wine seminars at Vinitaly. Now, it is time to actually talk about wines.
Those of you who follow this blog for the while know by now that I mostly talk about wines with the pictures, adding a few words here and there, mostly of a very “excited” nature. If you are looking for the detailed report, I can give you two great references – blog posts by Stefano and John M. Fodera, both covering wines and wineries very extensively.
I have to thank Stefano again, as if it would not be for him, I would be pointlessly wondering from a table to a table, and surely would miss some of the gems. Stefano had a plan, and I gladly followed.
Again, if you are looking for systematic representation of wines, based on the regions and styles, [please refer to the two blog posts I mentioned above. I will just share my personal highlights. Oh, and one side note. It is so happened that I’m writing this last post about Vinitaly after attending another Italian wine event, Gambero Rosso’s Tri Bicchiery. While in general I had no complaints about organization of Vinitaly event, now I can also say that it was organized incomparably better that the Tri Bicchiery event – expect to hear my rant with the Tri Bicchiery post.
Enough words. Here are mostly pictures, with some comments, in the order of the regions appearing in the show guide.
Piedmont
Damilano Barolo
Damilano presented two outstanding Barolos – 2008 Damilano Barolo Lecinquevigne was beautiful, round and easy to drink. 2008 Damilano Barolo Cannubi was exactly what classic Barolo is – powerful, dense, mouth-puckering, but very enjoyable at the same time.
G.D. Vajra presented 2008 G.D Vajra Barolo Bricco Delle Viole, very delicate wine for the Barolo style overall. The wine underwent a 40 days maceration (quite long) and was bottled in the summer of 2012.
Two beautiful wines from Elvio Cogno:
Elvio Cogno Nascetta
2011 Elvio Cogno Langhe Nascetta Anas-Cetta – bright white fruit on the nose, same on the palate, very balanced and refreshing.
Elvio Cogno Barolo Ravera
2008 Elvio Cogno Barolo Ravera – so far it seems that 2008 vintage of Barolo is great across the board and the wines are very approachable from the beginning – perfect taste profile of Barolo (plums, minerality, earthiness) with the shot of tannins in the finish.
Liguria
VisAmoris
I can’t tell you which of the two wines from Vis Amoris I liked more. 2011 Vis Amoris Rivera Ligure di Ponente Pigato Dome – beautiful, toned down fruit, soft and opulent, more in style of Rhone whites, very refreshing and balanced. 2011 Vis Amoris Rivera Ligure di Ponente Pigato Verum was a touch bigger and brighter, showing very soft tannins without being fermented in oak. Truly two wonderful white wines.
Lombardia
Ar PePe Nebbiolo
Two excellent Nebbiolo-based wines from Ar.Pe.Pe – 2001 Ar Pe Pe Valtellina Superopre Sassella Rocce Rosse Riserva and 2005 Ar Pe Pe Valtellina Superopre Sassella Ultimi Raggi. The 2001 Riserva was one of the most delicate expressions of Nebbiolo I ever tasted, but it was perfectly balanced and very enjoyable.
Veneto
Veneto = Amarone – okay, never mind, this is just my personal biased statement, Veneto is actually a home to many great wines outside of Amarone. But – once you taste Trabucchi wines, Amarone will be on your mind.
Trabucchi Valpolicella
While Trabucchi had only 2 wines listed in the book, they brought a substantial line of wines to the tasting. 2003 Trabucchi “Terre del Cereolo” Valpolicella Superiore DOC was probably the best Valpolicella I ever tasted – round, supple dark fruit expression, dark chocolate undertones, very balanced. 2007 Trabucchi d’Illasi Terra di San Colombano Valpolicella Superiore DOC, was very comparable, concentrated, round and again very balanced.
Trabucchi Amarone
While 2004 Trabucchi Amarone della Valpolicella DOC and 2006 Trabucchi d’Illasi Amarone Della Valpolicella were very good, 2004 Trabucchi d’Illasi Amarone Della Valpolicella Cent’Anni was spectacular. Perfectly balanced, without any “over the top” fruit, showing dry fruit flavors on the nose, and showing full bodied, balanced and very polished wine on the palate. Definitely a highlight of the event.
Trabucchi Recioto and Dandarin
2005 Trabucchi d’Illasi Dandarin Rosso Veneto IGT was quite unusual – a blend of traditional Valpolicella varieties Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella, with 30% of Teroldego and Syrah – slightly different flavor profile compare to Amarone, but quite powerful and expressive. One of the true gems of the day was 2006 Trabucchi d’Illasi Recioto Della Valpolicella – grapes for this wine were dried for 6 month ( typical length of Appasimento process for Amarone wines is 110 – 120 days, i.e. up to 4 month). Tremendous concentration of the dried fruit ( figs, raisins), supported but vibrant acidity – you have to try this wine to believe it!
Before we leave Veneto, a quick stop in Soave, at Pieropan winery:
Pieropan Calvarino
2010 Leonido Pieropan Soave Classico Calvarino is a single vineyard blend of Garganega and Trebbiano – showing excellent minerality both on the nose and the palate, very round and refreshing.
Pieropan La Rocca
2010 Leonido Pieropan Soave Classico La Rocca is another single vineyard wine, 100% Garganega, showing more restrained fruit than the previous wine, as well as a touch of butter on the palate. Definitely a very nice wine.
Friuli Venezia Giulia
Le Vigne Di Zamo
Two beautiful wines from Le Vigne di Zamo in Friuli. 2010 Le Vigne di Zamo Colli Orientali del Friuli Friulano Vigne Cinquant’Anni ( that was one long name) had perfect nose of raisins, and supple, round white fruit on the palate, medium body and balancing acidity. 2011 Le Vigne di Zamo Colli Orientali del Friuli Pinot Grigio was one of the best Pinot Grigio wines I tasted in a while ( yes, I don’t drink too many of them), with good fruit and touch of minerality.
Toscana
Caberlot trilogy
Podere Il Carnasciale makes only about 3,200 bottles a year, all in the magnum size. All made out of the grape called Caberlot, which is an officially recognized hybrid of Cabernet Franc and Merlot. All Magnums. And all magnificent. We tasted 2009, 2008 and 2004 vintages of Podere Il Carnasciale Caberlot – both 2009 and 2008 were somewhat similar, showing perfect trait of Cabernet Franc green profile with fresh raspberries. And 2002 was whole another story:
Caberlot 2002
Take a look at the number at the bottom of the label – we were drinking the bottle number 4! Tobacco, pepper, dark fruit and perfect complexity – a Wow wine without any doubts. I wish the wines would be a bit more affordable… May be someone wants to get me a present?
Umbria
Tabarrini Montefaloc Sagrantino
We tasted two great wines from Tabarrini (yes, I know, I’m abusing “great” and “beautiful” in this post – but hey, these are the highlights – if I don’t think the wine was great, I’m not going to bother you with the detail…). 2010 Tabarrini Adarmando is made out of Trebbiano Spoletino, which is very different from the Trebbiano di Soave – Trebbiano Spoletino grows in the huge vines and it is a very late ripening variety (beginning of November). The wine had perfect acidity and bright fruit, somewhat of a citrus profile – very enjoyable. Next we tried 2008 Tabarrini Sagrantino di Montefalco Campo Alla Cerqua – perfect power, dark fruit, very balanced.
Marche
Villa Bucci
There were quite a few very good wines coming from Marche. 2010 Marotti Campi Lacrima di Morro D’Alba Superiore Orginolo was excellent, very open and food frendly ( or shall we say, food-craving), with very subtle warm fruit nuances. 2009 Villa Bucci Verdicchio dei Lastelli di Jesi Classico Riserva had perfect fruit on the nose and it was very light and refreshing. 2009 Villa Bucci Verdicchio dei Lastelli di Jesi Superiore had very good depth and clear fruit expression. Both Villa Bucci wines are expected to age very well.
Lazio
Frascati Girl
First, we found a very friendly girl.
Frascati Racemo
Then we found an excellent white wine 2011 L’Olivella Frascati Superiore Racemo. This wine is a blend of malvasia puntinata, malvasia del Lazio, malvasia di Candia, tgrebbiano and bellone – the wine was very round, with excellent acidity and white fruit.
Abruzzo
Donna Greto Pecorino
2010 Cantina Frentana Pecorino Donna Greta is 100% Pecorino. Very long maceration ( 8 month) allows to achieve a very nice complexity. White fruit, touch of minerality, good balance.
Sicilia
Planeta wines
Last, but not least for this post – Planeta from Sicilia, one of the best Italian producers overall. 2010 Planeta Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico Dorilli – beautiful nose, fresh fruit, strawberries on the nose and the palate. 2011 Planeta La Segreta had very nice nose of dark fruit, and perfect dark fruit expression on the palate. 2008 Planeta Santa Cecilia was soft and approachable, with nice soft fruit.
Aren’t you tired yet to look at all these pictures and enjoy all those wines vicariously? There were lots more of excellent wines presented at the event – but we have to call it a post. That’s all I have for my Vinitaly and Slow Wine report, hope you got the idea of what was happening at the event. The next event post I will be writing about Gambero Rosso, and I believe it will be even more difficult that this one. Until that time – cheers!
Vinitaly and Slow Wine Tastings – Part 2, Wine Seminars
This is the second post about my experience at Vinitaly and Slow Wine 2013 in New York. In the first post I only gave you some interesting stats. Now, it is time to actually talk about wines.
Attending big wine tasting is great, wine is everywhere, and lots of it – at the same time, it is also very challenging. You can’t really assess wine methodically, it is more of a “swirl (carefully), sniff, sip, suck air, spit” – in case you wonder, “swallow” is typically not the part of the process, otherwise your tasting will be very, very short. After “spit” goes “write a word, may be two or three”, and move on, either to next wine or to the next table. No, of course I’m not complaining, just explaining that as usual for this type of my “tasting posts” there will be lots of pictures, and a few words.
We – oh yes, let me explain “we” – I spent all of the time at the event with Stefano of Flora’s Table fame (by the way, Stefano also just started the new blog called Clicks & Corks – be sure to check it out). Stefano is a wealth of knowledge and a pleasure to be around – if it would not be for him, I’m sure I would miss out on a number of gems at this tasting.
Now, let’s start again . We spent most of the time in the Slow Wine section of the event, with the exception of two wine Master Classes and a few wineries in the actual Vinitaly section. Let me start from the seminars, and then we will talk about other wines (probably in yet another post).
The first Master Class was a vertical tasting of Nino Negri ‘5 Stelle’ Sfursat di Valtellina DOCG, a wine made out of Nebbiolo grape. Both Stefano and myself took care of pre-registering for this seminar (when I came to register, I got one of the last 3 seats). No matter. In addition to registration, program also mentioned that Master Classes are first come first serve events. So, do you think our registration helped us? Yep, you got it – not really. When we arrived about 15 minutes before the starting time, we were told that the room is full and there are no spaces left. Well, based on the fact that we had registered, we ignored the guy who was trying to stop us from getting inside of the room. But the room was full. No seats. And it is not that you need just seat – you also need a place for 6 glasses in front of you. I was witnessing a futile attempt of one of the organizers to remove two people who were sitting down and had no tickets. Nope, that was not happening. So when one wants to taste wine, this is what the one wants, right? Luckily for us, the place had very wide window seals. Stand by the window, get 6 glasses, ask for the wines to be poured. Actually, I have to say that service staff was super nice and super accommodating – we all got tasting placemats and we all got wine. Here are few pictures:
Just look at this bottle… Unfortunately, the wine was oxidized. But the bottle was way too cool.
No tickets, but hey, who need tickets when it is first come first serve…
Casimiro Maule, Oenologist at Nino Negri, presents the wines. In 2007, he was awarded the title of “Winemaker of the Year” by Gambero Rosso
Nino Negri winery started in 1897 in the Valtellina region of Lombardy, in the area of Alps close to the Switzerland. This location makes harvesting of the grapes very difficult – actually, a helicopter is used nowadays to transport crates with grapes from the vineyard to the winery – here is a short video in case you want to see how the harvest looks like:
Nino Negri estate makes many different wines out of Nebbiolo grape. The wines we tasted, ‘5 Stelle’ Sfursat, are only made in the best years, and they are done in the style similar to Amarone. After grapes are harvested, they are dried outside for 100 days before they are pressed. During these 100 days, grapes are sorted a few times, and all the grapes which don’t cut it are used to produce some other wines. After 100 days of drying the grapes are pressed with subsequent long maceration, and then aged for 18 month in new French oak barriques and 6 month in the bottle. Note that all these wines are not for the faint at heart – they boast 15% – 16% ABV.
Just look at the beautiful color
Here are the notes for the wines we tasted, in the order we proceeded:
2009 – Prunes, brick dust on the nose, pretty green on the palate, very light for Nebbiolo, good minerality, short finish. Better on the second try, but too watery. Probably needs time.
2007 – According to the winemaker, 2007 was a great year. But – this bottle was oxidized. Some prunes on the palate, tasted more like a dry sherry than a normal wine.
2004 – this year had low yield, and drying season was very difficult. But the wine had nice power, good minerality, good tannins, long finish.
2002 – Prunes on the nose, with some raisins, soft, round, dark roasted fruit on the palate, tobacco, savory herbaceous notes, great balance, overall very nice.
2001 – Perfect beauty! Supple, round, with only a hint of dried fruits on the nose, perfectly balanced, really a outstanding wine. Hell with the rest of the tasting – need a full glass of this one to enjoy. Best of tasting.
1997 – This wine was as good as 2001 – more herbaceous notes than fruit, but perfectly elegant. Dried fruit on the nose (more than the previous wine), graphite and tobacco notes on the palate. Great complexity, balance and elegance. Borderline better than 2001 ( wait, didn’t I just called 2001 “best of tasting” – yeah, I always have trouble with making up my mind…)
All in all, tasting through the vertical of Nino Negri ‘5 Stelle’ Sfursat wines was a special experience and I’m grateful to organizers for making it happen – the beauty of the wines overweight the logistical challenges.
At the end of the day, we attended another seminar, this one dedicated to the wines made on Volcanic soils of Italy. We were preregistered, at this point knew what to expect, ready for a fight and this time got the seats.
If you look at the map below (maps were provided as part of the seminar):
Map of Italy’s Volcanic Wines
there are many volcanoes all over Italy, including even some of the active ones, like Etna in Sicily. Volcanic environments are uniquely different for all the things growing, vines included, and this whole “volcanic wines” project is dedicated to researching the effect of the volcanic soils on the resulting wines. It is also interesting to note that at this point, the whole project is only dedicated to white wines ( and I was hoping to taste some reds).
All together, we tasted 9 white wines:
Overall, I wouldn’t say that I was super impressed with the wines. Some wines were better than the others, but there were no OMG moments. Here are the notes for my favorites:
Azienda Marcato – Lessini Durello Metodo Classico 36 Mesi NV – this was the only sparkling wine in the tasting, and it was outstanding. A blend of 85% Durello, 10% Chardonnay, 5% Pinot Nero, 12% ABV. Apple and toasted bread on the nose, nice minerality, smell of granite. Perfect minerality on the palate, very dry. Excellent.
2011 Cantina del Castello – DOC Soave Classico “Pressoni” – a blend of 80% Garganega, 20% Trebbiano di Soave, 13.5% ABV. Nice nose of lemon, green apple, good acidity. White apple and pear on the palate, good acidity, nice lemony aftertaste.
2011 Barone di Villagrande – Etna Bianco Superiore – 100% Carricante. Nice nose with minerality and some saltiness, very dry on the palate with pineapple aftertaste.
That concludes the part 2 of the Vinitaly experience. In the part 3, I will (finally) tell you about the wonderful wines we experienced at the event. Cheers!
Vinitaly and Slow Wine Tastings – Part 1, Just Some Numbers
For anyone who is into wine (oenophile, aficionado, snob, add here any moniker you like), learning more about their favorite subject becomes an object of insatiable desire, an obsession, if you will (of course I’m not hinting at any “wine exclusivity” here – feel free to substitute wine with any passion you have in life). Learning about the wine is long, tedious and super-expensive process – just reading and talking about the wine is not enough, you actually have to deep your tongue into one occasionally, and this is where your passion gets you. Thus in my opinion, nothing represents more valuable learning opportunity than a wine tasting or a professional wine show – you get to learn, experience and talk to the people who are equally passionate about your favorite subject.
There are many great wine shows all over the world, and the good news is that more of those wine shows come to US. Thus when I read Stefano’s note in the Flora’s Table blog that Vinitaly is coming to New York, I got very excited. Vinitaly is the biggest wine show in the world – definitely when it takes place in Verona, Italy (last year’s stats – 4 days, 4,000 wineries, 140,000 visitors), so you can understand my excitement. Luckily, it was much smaller event than the one in Verona, but still sufficiently overwhelming. To add to that excitement, Vinitaly joined forces with Slow Wine, which is a part of Slow Food movement, promoting true food and wine appreciation all over the world. To give you a very short summary – yeah, there was a lot of wine.
Before the tasting started, there was a presentation by John Gillespie, President of Wine Market Council, about state of US wine market according to 2012 consumer survey. While I was unable to capture the graphics, I did manage to capture some numbers. And while there are lies, damn lies and statistics, I want to share some of the numbers with you – whether they are right or wrong, it is still fun to process them. And to make it more fun, I will add pictures of wines, most of which I didn’t taste during the event (I will talk about those we tasted in the next post).
Here we go. Out of 228M adults living in US, 100m drink wine, 50m drink beer and spirits only, and 78M abstain (mind boggling – how can they live with themselves?). If you think about it, there are more wine drinkers in US than overall population of many wine drinking and wine producing countries ( we certainly beat Germany, France and may others).
Somehow music written on the label strikes the cord. I wonder if it can be played?
There were estimated 295 million cases of wine consumed in US in 2012, and 2011 number was 287M cases. Overall, there are 19 consecutive years of growth in wine consumption in US so far. US drinkers consumes more than 3 gallons of wine per adult.
Core wine drinkers (those who drink wine at least once a week) represent 25% of population, and 22% are non-core. Out of those core drinkers, 11% drink the wine daily, and 28% are weekly.
Out of the all wine drinkers, 51% are females, 49% are males.
Categorizing further, 40% are baby boomers, 20% gen X and Millenials represent 28%.
Next series of stats covers international wines – don’t forget, it was the presentation during Vinitaly, so wine imports definitely were of a major interest. For this imported wine survey, there were 1000 responders, 54% of them baby boomers, 52% male, 48% female.
In consumer panel, 34% were daily wine drinkers, and 52% were weekly.
In the imported wine category, France leads white wine purchases, and Italy leads red wine purchases.
Italy, France and Australia wines are most popular in the stores – promoted and marketed.
France, Spain and Italy are on top in degree of satisfaction from the wine purchased, and Spain and Italy lead satisfaction in under $20 category.
In the likelihood of having wine on hand in many different price and type categories, Italy is trailing California (but the gap is substantial).
Here are few more numbers, now based on US wine trade survey.
There were 400 respondents, with the same age category distribution as in Consumer Survey. France, Germany and Spain are the leading three in under $20 white or rose. Spain, France and Italy are leading in red under $20 category. France, Spain, Italy are leading in reds $20-$50.
Spain, California and then Italy are leading in recommended wines under $20 (Spain has a big lead). In $20-$50 category, France and Italy lead recommended wines group, then California and Spain is quite a bit behind.
Overall imported wines consumption in US hovers around 30%.
I don’t know what you think about all these numbers, but many of them make perfect sense to me, like Spain being in the lead in under $20 red wine category – I personally would look at Spanish red wines before I will look at anything else, if I’m looking for inexpensive wine.
More wine and music
For what it’s worth, I would like to leave you for today with those numbers – and we will talk about wines in the next post. Cheers!
Perfect Winter Fare – Shiraz and Cassoulet
You can call it “play it for Australia” (with a little bit of France). Or you can just call it Shiraz tasting. Whatever the name is, but a few months ago (actually, right after the hurricane Sandy – it was a miracle that we didn’t lose an electricity) we got together for a Shiraz blind tasting and the dinner.
For the blind tasting, we had two limitations imposed. First, the bottle was supposed to say “Shiraz” on it. Yes, of course Shiraz and Syrah are the same grapes, but – this was a limitation number one. Limitation number two (a soft one) – preferably, the Shiraz shouldn’t be coming from Barossa region. You wonder why? Easy. I had a couple of bottles in mind, all from Barossa, so I wanted others to do the hard work. Ahh, yes – and no blends were allowed – only 100% Shiraz.
Before we started the tasting, I threw in a monkey wrench. Doesn’t sound right talking about wine, does it? So the role of this allegorical wrench was played by Frank Cornelissen Contadino 8 wine. Frank Cornelissen makes very interesting wines in Sicily – natural, low intervention wines from the grapes growing on volcanic soils of Etna. His aspiration is to let people actually to taste the soil, the actual stones in his wines, and he is probably succeeding with that (here is the link which explains the wine making philosophy – I think it is worth reading). This wine literally represents a very distinct experience – outside of acidity and minerality, there is very little else which you can taste – nevertheless, it is an interesting wine to try (well, I’m not sure we got too many votes of approval for this wine from the group, but still). Okay, let’s get back to the Shiraz.
The tasting was blind. Of course all the wines were Shiraz, but the blind tasting format allows you to focus only on the wine in your glass – no matter who producer is, how cute the animal is on the label (no, I didn’t expect anyone to pull off the Yellow Tail stunt, but thinking about it now, it could’ve been interesting), did someone tasted the wine before or who brought the bottle.
We had 6 wines in the tasting. As the tasting is blind, the person who brings the bottle, gets to open it and puts it in the brown bag. Then we ask kids to stick the numbers on the bags, completely at random. The wines are poured in the numbered glasses, and the fun begins.
Shiraz is usually quite a playful wine when it comes to the fruit expressions, so this time we decided to add an interesting touch to our tasting – put the fruits on the table. We had raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and couple of different plums in the glasses, slightly smashed to release the flavor. The intent was to use those fruits as a reference while smelling and tasting the wine and to be able to identify what we were tasting. Not sure if it was a successful experiment, but as the very least it was fun.
Now everybody are at the table and we start the tasting – sniff, swirl, sniff, more swirling, taste – talking and taking notes at the same time – no, there is no requirement to participate in conversation, but it is part of fun! And the notes are helpful at the end, when we take a popular vote to identify the most favorite wine of the group. Each person can vote for two wines, and the wine which will score the highest, will win. I case of a draw, we take an additional vote to select only one favorite between the two, so we still will have a winner – this all is necessary to have then a culmination point of unwrapping the winner and listening to the collective “ahh?” as pretty much in all of our blind tastings the winning wine was a complete surprise to everyone, including the person who brought the wine.
Once we have a winner, all the wines get unwrapped and admired, and everybody count their surprises for a few minutes. Here is our line up from this tasting:
And here are the notes:
1. 2006 Domaine Terlato & Chapoutier lieu dit Malakoff Shiraz Pyrenees (13.5% ABV) – little smoke, blueberries, a bit tart, very restrained. Not a typical Australian Shiraz.
2. 2005 Oliverhill “Jimmy Section” Shiraz McLaren Vale (96RP, no ABV as my label was badly damaged) – a little dust, tart cherries on the nose, blueberries, very sweet on the palate, jammy, a little short on the finish, overall pleasant.
3. 2004 d’Arenberg The Footbolt Shiraz McLaren Vale (14.5% ABV) – interesting blackberries, very tart, not balanced.
4. 2010 Molly Dooker Blue Eyed Boy Shiraz Australia (16.5% ABV) – very nice, dark chocolate, jammy, blackberries, dusty nose, overall very balanced.
5. 2010 Jim Barry the lodge hill Shiraz Clare Valley (14.5% ABV) – very round, balanced, plums on the nose.
6. 2010 Eden Road The Long Road Shiraz Canberra District Australia (13.5% ABV) – Smells very young, but with the tannins in the back. Good dark fruit.
Can you guess the winning wine? I will give you a few moments.
And the winning wine was…
And the winning wine was…
And the winning wine was …
2010 Molly Dooker Blue Eyed Boy Shiraz Australia – the wine got 8 popular votes out of 10. In the second place with 5 votes out of 10 was 2005 Oliverhill “Jimmy Section” Shiraz McLaren Vale – interestingly enough, this wine has a very high rating of Robert Parker ( 96), and expected maturity in 2011 – 2018 – I guess we opened it prematurely… Oh well.
And now – dinner time!
Did you notice the title of this post? Yep, the cassoulet was involved. No, it was probably not cold enough yet, and cassoulet is a dish from south of France, so Cote du Rhone wines would be typically more appropriate – but, cassoulet is one of my all time favorite dishes to make (and to eat too), so you got to do what you want to do, right?
I fell in love with cassoulet during one of my trips to Geneva a while ago. White beans, pork, duck, lamb, sausage – all so succulent and so “together”, a perfectly heart, soul and body warming dish. I tried to find it in the restaurants in US, but never succeeded. Then at some point I came across an article about Cassoulet in Wall Street Journal, which also contained Alain Ducasse recipe – this was a turning moment when I started making it myself. I don’t know what any other cassoulet aficionados would think, but to me it tastes the closest to those I admired in Geneva.
I would like to share the recipe with you – which is mostly Alain Ducasse recipe (here is a link to the article and recipe on WSJ site) – I made certain adaptations which don’t sacrifice the taste, in my opinion, but make it easier to prepare.
Here is list of ingredients – as copied from the original recipe – with my comments.
For the beans:
1.5 lb Tarbais beans or white kidney beans (I’m talking about beans below)
3 carrots
1 celery stalk
1 onion
2 heads of garlic
1 tomato? ( well, in the original recipe there is a mention of tomato being diced – but then it is not used for anything – therefore, I just don’t use it)
Salt
For the meat:
4 sweet Italian sausages
1 lb pork ribs
½ lb garlic sausage
1 lb lamb shoulder
1 lb pork belly
4 duck legs confit
4 qt. chicken stock
3 carrots
1 celery stalk
1 onion
1 head of garlic (I just use garlic cloves here)
1 tomato
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 sprigs thyme
1 Bay leaf
Salt
12 whole black peppercorns
Cassoulet starts with beans. The subject of proper beans for the cassoulet can almost reach the level of religious war. The original recipe of Alain Ducasse calls for so called Tarbais beans. Good luck finding them here. May be you can order them in advance, but this is a bit too much preparedness for me. So we need a substitute. What’s important is to find beans which will sustain very long cooking time, but will not become a mush – you are looking to see and taste actual beans and not some kind of paste. I successfully used so called Great Northern beans, which can be found in supermarkets, and I believe so called Navy beans will work too, but I don’t remember trying them.
The process starts from soaking the beans overnight in a cold water. The actual cooking starts next day – but you still can do a few things in advance.
The recipe calls for duck leg confit. If you look into the recipes for duck confit, cooking it is a very lengthy process on its own. Buying duck confit is possible, but it is hard to find a supermarket which carries it. I successfully replaced duck confit with just fresh duck legs. Sometimes, finding the duck legs can be a problem too. This was my case this time. Well, when you want a cassoulet, you have to do whatever it takes… Duck flavor profile (gamey, nutty, etc. – you know how the duck tastes) is essential – replacing duck with chicken is not really an option. My solution – using the whole duck. I got the whole duck, cut it up into pieces, leaving the skin on legs and wings, but otherwise removing it together with the fat – there is way too much fat in the duck. I fried the duck in the evening, preserving all of rendered fat together with all the meat, so it was ready to go the next day.
Before we talk about the whole process, let me give you an idea about the sizing. I used 2 pounds of beans, cut up meat from the whole average size duck, about a pound of pork country style ribs, pound of Italian sausage (usually 5 pieces), about a pound of chicken garlic sausage, about a pound of lamb chops (4 large pieces). Instead of pork belly, I used one package of “bacon ends” from Trader Joe’s which were fried the day before. All together, this was enough to feed well 10 or so hungry adults, with some leftovers. Now, lets get back to the cooking.
In the morning, step one was to cook beans. Drain the water from overnight, put beans in the pot together with celery, carrots, garlic and the onion, season, cover with cold water and simmer for about 1.5 hours or until beans are tender but not falling apart. Discard carrots, celery and onion. Technically, you are supposed to discard garlic too, but I just couldn’t do it – so I reused it for the next step.
While beans are cooking, you can start working on the meat. First you will need to roast all the meat separately. I use the cast iron pot (you can also use a heavy skillet), and sear all the meat in batches – you will need to season it with salt and pepper. You really want meat to achieve a nice sear, so note that this operation will take time (usually it takes me about 1.5 hours using the amounts mentioned above). Once all the meat is seared by itself, add duck (whether you are using duck confit or the whole duck prepared the day before), add bacon ( unless you will use the pork belly), add diced vegetables and let it roast for another 10 minutes. Then I put together herbs, bay leaf and peppercorns into a cheese cloth, tie it up and use it as Bouquet garni – i.e., put it inside (this way you can remove it all together so nobody need to chase down that peppercorn out of the dish). Now, add broth, cover and let it simmer for about 1.5 hours.
Once done, strain cooking liquid into the beans and put all the meat on the cutting board and let it rest for about 20 minutes or so. Remove and discard all the bones, and cut up meat into large pieces.
We are ready for the last step. Preheat oven for 250F. Take the cast iron pot. Put all the cut up meat on the bottom. Gently put beans with liquid on the top (again, you want to preserve beans as they are, so you will need to handle them with love). Overall, you want to to have enough liquid in the pot, but without making the whole dish looking like soup. Put a good layer of bread crumbs on top of the dish (no skimping on the bread crumbs – having a nice crust on top is one of the important elements of cassoulet). Put uncovered pot in the oven for about 45 minutes. Take the pot out. When serving, make sure to go all the way to the bottom so you will get the meat together with beans. Now, most importantly – enjoy!
Also I have to mention that we had an outstanding “single plantation” chocolate as part of our dessert – can anything pair better with Shiraz than a spicy dark chocolate?
Never heard of “single plantation” chocolate before? Don’t worry, me too – but it appears that Akesson’s has a a substantial collection of single plantation chocolates, and the one we had was absolutely incredible.
Apologies for the post gone too long, but I think I’m finally done by now. I don’t know if I convinced you to make cassoulet, open a bottle of Shiraz or find that chocolate – but if you are still here and reading this – I’m happy. Until the next time – cheers!
Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere!
New Year is around the corner, and of course, we are all talking about sparkling wines. That little effervescence, the tiny bubbles, they create mood and tell us “this is all good, we got something to celebrate, let’s have fun”.
There is hardly a wine blogger today who didn’t write about Bubbly. Let me join them, and share some recent encounters and (in the spirit of summing up a year) some of the old ones.
My favorite wine store, Cost Less Wines in Stamford, had a Sparkling wine tasting today. Here is what you could try:
Picollo Ernesto Rove Rina Vino Spumante Brut – Italian sparkling wine made in the Gavi region out of Cortese grape. Simple and refreshing, probably could use a touch more acidity. Has apple undertones on the palate.
Champagne Philippe Prie Brut Tradition NV – very yeasty, lots of freshly baked bread on the nose. Probably could use a touch more acidity (either there was something wrong with me, or may be the wines were a bit too warm…)
Champagne Piper-Heidsieck Brut NV – yeast, baked bread, green apples on the nose – very balanced and refreshing on the palate. Best of tasting.
Bagrationi 1882 Sparkling Wine Rouge NV, Georgia – while I had a number of Bagrationi sparkling wines before, this was my first tasting of the Bagrationi Red. This wine is a blend of 4 different grapes. Very nice nose of fresh fruit. Full bodied, with the touch of sweetness on the palate, but only a touch. Very refreshing and very pleasant.
Here are few extra bubbles for you. First, for the full immersion into the sparkling world, visit this Pinterst collection of all things Champagne.
Now, here are the links for some of my past blog posts about Sparkling wines – a 2006 newspaper article and 2011 update to it.
In 2012, I learned how to saber the bottle of sparkling wine with the wine glass. Here is a link to the blog post about it. And here is how professionals do it.
And here are the Champagne and Sparkling wines which are planned to be open on the New Year’s night:
What bubbly will be in your glass? Cheers!
Battle of Viogniers: Texas Wins!
One of the fascinating things about blogging is that you get to meet a lot of great people online. Moreover, you meet people who is passionate about the same subject as you are. And then, at some point, you can even meet those people in real life. This was my story Wednesday last week, when I met @SAHMmelier, who happened to live in Austin (you can find her blog here). As soon as we met, the feeling was that we knew each other for ages – it was so easy to start conversation (it was much more difficult to stop it later : )). Thanks to @SAHMmelier, I got a full embrace of the Texas wines, at the “Texas versus The World” meetup hosted by GUSTO Tastings, which we attended together.GUSTO Tastings does a great job of hosting multiple wine events every month, each one with a slightly different purpose. Each first Wednesday of the month, the members of the meetup get together for “Texas versus the world” event where the group gets to taste and compare wines made in Texas with similar wines made in the other countries and regions – this was the exact event we attended, and it was dedicated to Viognier (the November event will be all about Tempranillo or Sangiovese, which should be very interesting, as I think both of those grapes produce very good results in Texas – oh well, I will have to live vicariously through that one…). GUSTO Tastings also runs blind tasting events once a month, which are some of the most exhilarating experiences for wine aficionados. Anyway, if you live in a close proximity to Austin (or few other cities in Texas), you should definitely check GUSTO Testings out and use the opportunity to learn about the wines.
Let me tell you now about the event. First of all, we had the best table in the town. We were lucky enough to meet and share the table with Flat Creek Estate winemaker Tim Drake, a witty and charismatic guy and his lovely wife Spring. In addition to all the fun conversations at the table, it was even more fun listening to Tim delivering his thoughts in bright and engaging fashion, with the ability to use very convincing expressions to emphasize his point (I will have to refrain from repeating his vivid answer and explanation for the question about Reserve wines).
This particular event was all about Viognier, once nearly extinct Rhone white grape varietal. A few month ago there was a Wine Blogging Wednesday dedicated to Viognier, so for more details about the grape, including the link to the short video teaching you how to say that “Viognier” word correctly, here is the link to my blog post.
During the course of the evening, we tasted through 17 different Viognier wines – 8 from around the world, and 9 from Texas. All the wines where split into the flights of four, and the last flight had 5 wines in it.
The first four wines represented the old world – my notes are below:
- 2009 Cacciagrande Viognier, Maremma, Toscana – very unusual, I had no idea Viognier is used in Tuscany. The wine had a beautiful nose of classic Riesling, sweet with a hint of petrol – but palate didn’t support that nose at all. Acidic, briny, not pleasant. Drinkability: 6-
- 2011 Domaine des Cantarelles Viognier, Vin de Pays du Gard – Typical nose – perfume, full body expectation -but the body is too watery, almost Pinot Grigio style… Acidic aftertaste. Drinkability: 6
- 2009 Vidal-Fleury Cote du Rhone – Strange nose, a bit vegetative, and then very oily (I never had a wine before with such a mouthfeel; scotch – yes, but wine? Never), some muted fruit – not good. Drinkability: 5
- 2009 E. Guigal Condrieu – this wine was redeeming the first flight – beautiful concentrated nose, with touch of sugar candy. Nice and delicate on the palate, but not enough power. Drinkability: 7
Flight number 2 consisted of the New World wines:
- 2010 Cono Sur Viognier, Colchagua Valley, Chile – Beautiful nose, touch perfumy, perfectly round palate, good acidity, some green apples. Drinkability: 7+ (best so far)
- 2010 La Capra Viognier, Western Cape, South Africa – somewhat green on the nose, with some matchstick. Let me stop here for a second, and I have a question for you, my readers. Have you ever experienced anything like that? Is that a showing of the extra sulfates used during the production? Anyway, let’s continue – there was also some minerality on the nose (or at least Tim suggested that it was) Pleasant on the palate, more of a Sauvignon Blanc qualities – lime, touch of grapefruit. As I was all puzzled by the nose, I’m not even sure how I want to rate this wine.
- 2010 Yalumba Viognier Eden Valley, Australia. If the previous wine had one matchstick on the nose, this one had a whole box. While that smell was going away little by little, the initial encounter with that wine almost game me a headache. Strange nose at first (heavy matchstick? Sulfites?). The wine opened up eventually on the palate into the medium to full bodied wine, retaining some sharpness. Considering that smell (which rendered the wine literally undrinkable to me) I can’t rate it. I can only hope that it was a particular faulty bottle…
- 2010 Miner Viognier Oakville ’Simpson Vineyard’, Napa. Perfect nose – great bright fruit, nice perfume. Best nose so far. Palate doesn’t live up – kind of flat and unimpressive. Judging nose by itself this wine should get Drinakability of 8, but as a whole, I can only give it a 6.
The next flight included a vertical of 4 wines from Flat Creek Estate Winery. As all of those wines were made out of grapes which didn’t grow in Texas (but the wine, of course, was made in Texas), they don’t carry Texas designation on the label. I have to admit that somehow I missed to take a picture of this flight, so just to give you an idea, I had to borrow the picture from the Flat Creek Estate’s web site.
- 2008 Flat Creek Estate Winery Viognier. Nose was practically non-existent (I couldn’t pickup any aroma), sweet on the palate. It is drinkable, but not great. Drinkability: 7
- 2009 Flat Creek Estate Winery Viognier. Nice nose, more of a typical viognier. Palate is touch out of balance (a bit sharp), but very drinkable. Drinkability: 7
- 2010 Flat Creek Estate Winery Viognier. Beautiful bright nose, touch of the pear preserve, fresh brewed tea on the nose. Needs a bit more acid on the palate. Drinkability: 7-
- 2011 Flat Creek Estate Winery Viognier. Perfect nose. Bright, clean, nice white fruit. Outstanding, perfect acidity, ripe fruit, perfect balance. Lodi fruit. To this point, this was my favorite! Drinkability: 8.
As we went to the all-Texas flight, Tim gave a great explanation to the room about different types of yeast and their ability to bring different qualities to the wine (more glycerin versus more esters etc.). And this is all in the hands of the winemaker. Yep, winemaking is Art…
And now, to the all Texas flight (look at my notes – they all show a progression of tasting as the wines were opening in the glass):
- 2011 Lone Oak Winery Viognier, Texas. Smell is similar to detergent. Not balanced. Not good. then it opened up on the nose, but with a note of brine. Pretty balanced now. Drinkability: 7+
- 2010 Brennan Vineyards Viognier, Texas. Some sweetness on the nose. Same sweetness on the palate – but not balanced. Needs more acidity. Leaves burning feeling. Improved after a breathing time!!! Much better! Drinkability: 7
- 2011 Becker Vineyards, Viognier, Texas. Nice nose, some gooseberry, little complexity. Finish is short. Drinkable, but not exciting. Drinkability: 6+
- 2010 McPherson Cellars Viognier, Texas. Interesting complexity on the nose. Sweet with some green notes. Beautiful palate, good round wine. Drinkability: 7+
And now (drum roll, please) let me present to you my best of tasting wine:
2012 Flat Creek Estate Winery Viognier, Texas. Barrel sample. Beautiful nose, light fruit, white fruit. 100% Texas fruit (brownfield). Very nice, good overall, some zest – really pleasant! Drinkability: 8+
The fact that grapes were picked 6 weeks ago, and that Tim had blended wine in the morning of the day of the tasting, is just makes it an incredible experience all together.
There you have it, folks – Texas makes great wines, so if you can get them – you should! And if your travel will take you down to Texas – make sure the wineries are part of your trip. You can tell them I sent you. Cheers!
Last Bottle Sign Up ($10 credit)
Talk-A-Vino 