Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!
It is time, once again, for your favorite and mine: The French Rhone wines! More specifically, the Southern Rhone. It’s nothing against the Northern Rhone cousins of these fine gems, as they have some superb wines up there. . .it’s just that I find that the price of French wine is directly proportional to how close they are to Burgundy. But that’s another story, and an untested theory.
So I’ll apologize to everyone for the bad puns in the last email. As a self-proclaimed Attilla the Pun, I’m rather pRHONE to making those little jokes from time to time, although it causes eye-rolls and gRHONES from the readers. But rather than dRHONE on about it, how about we just talk about the wines? Agreed? And no more puns. (And besides.. .I don’t know any other RHONE puns, without resorting to chemical compounds, and it’s hard to work that into a regular conversation. Try using “dehydrocorticosteRHONE” in a sentence.)
So I’ve never met a Southern Rhone wine I didn’t like, barring perhaps wines from the disastrous 2002 vintage. So in honor of that terrible vintage, we’re totally sidestepping it by serving up the fine wines from the 2001 and 2003 vintages, almost completely pretending that 2002 didn’t happen. And with the exception of a few houses in the Rhone (as well as Languedoc, Italy’s Piedmont, and other parts of Southern Europe) the vintage pretty-much didn’t happen. However, the first wine in the lineup, “Le Petit Vin D’Avril” actually has a bit of 2002 juice in it, but is balanced out by bits of 2001 and 2003. (Which is also what gives it the NV, or Non-Vintage designation). Also featured is one of my old favorites, the Charbonniere Vacqueyras. Tasty stuff. No puns about it.
So Friday, January 28th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:
Rhone-a-licious Reds!
Clos des Papes NV Le Petit Vin D’Avril
Domaine Andre Brunel 2003 Cotes Du Rhone “L’Enclos”
Domaine de L’Ameillaud 2003 Cotes du Rhone Villages Cairanne
Santa Duc 2001 Cotes du Rhone “Vielle Vignes”
Saint Cosme 2003 Cotes du Rhone “Les Deux Albion”
The Extra-Special Premium Pours:
Domaine de la Charbonniere 2001 Vacqueyras
Caves Granier 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape
A stellar deal at $10 for the first 5, and $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours.
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!
Next Friday tasting is South American Reds!
M
Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!
At long last, after a rejuvenating vacation, we are ready to herald in a new year at Carpe Vinum, and yet another triumphant return of the Friday Flights with the magnificent Port! It’s not going to be any old Port, considering they’re making it all over the place, now. This is going to be the original Porto, the fortified wine from Portugal!
PORT
We already know Port is from PORTugal, so it’s imPORTed, and handily packaged in bottles for easy PORTability. However, it’s imPORTant to know the details of this wine, purPORTedly one of the best in the world.
The PORTrait of this fortified wine begins with monks in Portugal, contrary to the popular version of the story which attributed the wine to the English. Truthfully, though, it was two English wine merchants who discovered the wine made by the Abbot of Lamengo, which was doctored with brandy, making it very smooth. So impressed, they bought up the remaining PORTion of the stock for exPORT back to England. Soon after, a trade treaty between the English and the Portuguese had them on good rapPORT with each other, opening up more and more English owned Port houses in Portugal, and History was made.
To supPORT the PORTrayal of these wines, it’s imPORTant to know how they are made. A “normal” wine starts with juice crushed from grapes which goes through fermentation when yeast (which can be wild or added by the winemaker) consumes the sugar in the juice, and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. The fermentation is complete when the alcohol level reaches a level that kills the yeast.
In Port, there is a flavorless, high-alcohol (77% alcohol) grape brandy added to the juice once the fermentation reduces the sugars to an opPORTune level. The brandy kills the yeasts, stopping the fermentation. This makes the wine sweeter, since a good proPORTion of the sugars were not consumed by the yeast, and of course, stronger due to the alcohol. There is a significant number of different styles of Port, which would be too much to rePORT in email, so I will have more details here tomorrow. However, I can say that the wines are best served as a dessert after a tasty PORTerhouse steak with PORTabella mushrooms, but can be easily sipped with a PORT-du-Salut cheese.
Okay. . .Sorry about all the bad Port puns. Hopefully you all are being good sPORTs about it. . .but perhaps you think it’s in poor taste. (Get it? PORT Taste? Ha! Sorry.)
So Friday, January 21st, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:
The PORTfolio!
The TAWNY Side:
Warre’s NV White Porto
Dow’s NV Fine Tawny Porto
Graham’s 10 Year Tawny Porto
Kopke 1994 Colheita
The RUBY Side:
Warre’s NV Heritage Ruby Porto
Graham’s 1998 Late Bottled Vintage Porto
Dow’s Crusted Porto
Rocha 2000 Vintage Porto
A stellar deal at $8 Per Side of 4!
Hope to see you here! (In PORTland!)
Seize the Wine!
Next Friday tasting is French Rhone!