WINO 101

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to the next edition in the Better Know a Wine Series, the weekly foray into the world of wine with the Carpe Vinum Summer Sipping and Sampling Spectacular and the Super S– . .. uh . . . Tasting and Newsletter . . . uh . . .Thing! Okay, that wasn’t very well thought out. But you know what is? This week’s tasting: Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier! These are three grape varieties I’ve been keeping my eye on for a while, and they constitute, either alone or in varying blends of each other, some of my favorite white wines. I’ve been planning on this tasting for well over a year now, and so the fruits of my labors have come into being, or fruition as it were. Even if the fruits of my labors include only thinking about the tasting. Hey, thinking is hard work! At least I think it is.

So what brings us to these three wonderful grapes? Well, it all starts in the French Rhone. All three grapes are grown in both the North and the South Rhone. Viognier stands alone in the Northern districts of Condrieu and Chateau Grillet, while Marsanne and Roussanne appear together in Crozes-Hermiatge, Hermitage and Saint-Joseph. And, of course they all appear together in the Southern Rhone Cotes du Rhones and Chateauneuf du Pape, often blended with other grapes. It’s like the three are like a trio of musicians, like the Dixie Chicks, only without all that annoying country music. (Note: I could have said they were like Wilson Phillips, but that’s a pretty outdated reference any more, isn’t it?) So here are these three, the three sisters of the Rhone. Let’s meet them a bit closer.

Viognier! She’s the most dominant of the three, striking out on her own at an early age, and performs solo quite often, although her producers often misrepresent her art. That is to say, there are quite a few excellent single-varietal Viogniers out there, but one must tread lightly, because there are quite a few that have been mishandled, over-ripened, over-oaked, over-fermented and often too high in sugar, acid or alcohol. But considering the Viognier was almost an extinct variety in the 1960s (with less than 35 acres planted at that time), you could still say that the grape is relatively new everywhere it’s grown, and perhaps many growers still need to figure out how to handle it. Produced well, and it makes a beautiful and aromatic and full-bodied wine that I often recommend for red wine drinkers who want a white wine, or for Chardonnay-haters.

The next two I can group together: Marsanne and Roussanne! We can consider these girls twins of the Rhone. The grape varieties aren’t exactly related, but they can hardly ever be separated and are often mistaken for each other. The idea is that the two harmonize very well together. Where one lacks acid, the other brings it. Where one lacks fruit, the other has it. When they do appear apart, the results are usually not quite as good as when they’re collaborating. (And somehow these rare solo appearances tend to be more expensive.) Alone, Marsanne can be a bit light, limp and lifeless and Roussanne can be a bit brash, acidic and harsh. But those are rare singular appearances. We may see more in the future, and hopefully with a bit of proper handling, they may yet have their own successful solo careers.

So here is collected some fine examples of these fine French ladies’ works, both from the homefront and while out on tour. There are some of my favorite appearances of Viognier in Washington, a French duet in Languedoc between Marsanne and Viognier, and then one in the Northern Rhone region of Crozes-Hermitage with the obligatory Marsanne and Roussanne. There is an appearance of Roussanne and Marsanne in Sonoma with Cline Cellars as well as a superb performance down under in Australia’s Torbreck in Barossa Valley. Then there’s is the project I’ve been waiting for, which is the collective work at the organic Tablas Creek winery in California, comprised of Viognier, Marsanne AND Roussanne. Also appearing in that one is the Grenache Blanc, also from the Rhone. I guess someone has to play drums.

So Friday, July 27th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier!!!
Zerba 2005 Viognier, Columbia Valley, Washington
Cline 2005 Marsanne/Roussanne, Sonoma County, California
Grange de Roquette 2005 Marsanne/Viognier, Vin de Pays d’Oc, France
Domaine des Martinelles 2005 Crozes-Hermitage, Northern Rhone, France
Tablas Creek 2005 Cotes de Tablas White, Paso Robles

The Three Sisters of the Rhone!!!
K Vintners 2006 Viognier, Columbia Valley, Washington
Torbreck 2006 Rousanne/Marsanne, Barossa, Australia

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours.

Hope to see you here!

Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is Northeastern Italy: Friuli, Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to the next installment of the Carpe Vinum Weekly (Yes, Weekly) Newsletter and Tasting Announcement That Justifies Its Existence! I hope the newsletter finds you all in good health and enjoying the alternatingly soggy and moody and sunny and hot summer. Actually, I hope this newsletter finds you at all! As you all know we’ve been testing a new Newsletter system, and there have been a few bugs to squash. Also, testing the system has proven difficult considering if someone doesn’t get the email, they can’t really respond to the newsletter they didn’t get to tell me that it wasn’t there. Even though all this is fairly intangible to begin with, that would make it even more so. Ugh, and writing about it is boring! What’s not boring? The tasting this week: It’s the Wines of Washington!

Ah, Washington. It’s the land just to the North, and one of my favorite subjects. Well, not Washington itself, but its wines. Over the past few years we’ve seen the Washington empire rising. Sure they’ve been growing grapes there since Captain Vancouver stepped ashore and said, “Let this land be the ever-giving of the grape and the free flowing of the red wines, and the white wines, and someone had better name two separate West Coast cities after myself.” And Lo-and-behold, there were grapes and feasting and free-flowing wine and two cities of Vancouver. Okay. It didn’t exaclty go down like that. There is one truth in there, though, that Vancouver was the location of the first vines planted in Washington. I’m afraid there aren’t any grapes grown there anymore. Hm . . . actually I think I’d be a bit more afraid if there were grapes grown in Vancouver.

As far as Washington wine is concerned, there is a vast variety of vineyards, grape varieties and wineries popping up all over the state. Every time I turn around it seems the number of wineries doubles. The mass of what is produced comes from the Columbia Valley, the agricultural area that follows the Columbia River through the Washington countryside. And the river is long, so that pretty-much covers the whole state. One feature of what’s going on in the Washington wine scene is the fact that it’s still a relatively young industry in the state, so there is still a lot of experimentation going on. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot have been successfully grown there for years, as well as many plantings of Syrah now coming into fruition. But the variety doesn’t stop there, it just takes off. And that’s what I like. Lots of variety.

That’s what we have here tomorrow. It’s a grand variety of single-variety wines from the Yakima and Columbia Valleys. There are three white wines: Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and, one of my favorites, the lovely Semillon. Then there are 4 reds: A Cabernet Franc, a Grenache, and two different red blends, the Sheridan Vineyards’ Kamiakin and Basel Cellars’ Claret.

As far as the newsletter, wish me luck in getting it to you! Of course, without already receiving the newsletter, how are you to know to be wishing me luck in getting this to you to ask you to wish me luck? See? That’s why I hate movies that involve time travel!

So Friday, July 20th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Washington!!!
Willow Crest 2006 Pinot Gris, Yakima Valley
Fidelitas 2005 Semillon, Columbia Valley
Woodinville 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, Columbia Valley
Sheridan Vineyards 2005 Kamiakin, Yakima Valley
Basel Cellars 2004 Claret, Columbia Valley

Washington!!! Washington!!!
McCrea 2004 Grenache, Columbia Valley
Tamarack Cellars 2005 Cabernet Franc, Columbia Valley

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours.

Hope to see you here!

Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is Marsanne, Rousanne and Viognier!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome again to the Mostly Weekly But Still Weekly Carpe Vinum Newsletter of Purported Reliability and the Friday Tasting of Super Reliability and Reliably-Good . . . ness . . . or something. Welcome back! Remember that time about two weeks ago when I had server problems and I said that the mail server would be better and more reliable than ever? Well, there are a few philosophies that can describe this situation: “It’s always darkest before dawn” or “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs”. You can take your pick. Also, and a way around any old clichés, is the new “A technologically inept wine guy blew up the server” philosophy that’s catching on everywhere.

We’re not sure what happened but it’s got something to do with spam filters, confused servers, bouncing addresses, untied shoelaces, ones and zeroes, and so on. To make a long story short, about 80% of you didn’t get the newsletter last week. Sorry ’bout that. We’re working on it. If you get this, I guess we got it fixed. Whoo! So anyway, back to wine. This week we’re tasting the fine wines of the French Rhone! Also, considering the sweltering heat, I thought white wine might be in order. I’d never done a complete “White Rhone” tasting before, although I had featured quite a few Rhone whites in tastings past, and the results have always been spectacular and the wines tremendously popular.

So the French Rhone! If most of you are familiar with what we do here at Carpe Vinum, you know I love the Rhone wines. I can seriously say it’s my favorite region in France. The wines are robust and fun, yet they can be austere and complicated, and there are still a lot of values there to be had. Stylistically, there is a split between the North and the South Rhone, creating different regional styles. The North makes their red wines predominantly with the Syrah grape. In fact, Northern Rhone is the source from where everyone else in the world got their Syrah vines, although the style of Syrah is totally different than anywhere else. The Southern Rhone is a different story as most of their wines are based on blends of different grapes, the roster of which is very long but is dominated by Grenache Noir, Mourvedre, Cinsault, and Carignane. But that’s for the reds. This week we’re talking about the whites!

The whites of the region also tend to be spilt by the North and South Rhone. In the North the best known white grape is Viognier. We know it. We love it. And the popularity of it is ever increasing. Viognier is the grape that makes up the most prestigious (and dare I say overpriced) regions of Condrieu and Chateau Grillet and it is often blended into the red wines of the region. The other two major players in the region are the Marsanne and Rousanne. Marsanne and Rousanne almost always appear together in the region’s white wines, and also tend to be blended into the region’s reds. There is another grape, Clairette, which mostly appears in an obscure regional sparkling wine that I’ve never seen and probably doesn’t really warrant this mention.

The whites of the Southern Rhone share the same grapes with the North, including the Clairette, as well as a few more major players. In the same way as the reds, the whites tend to be blended from multiple varieties, the most important being the Viognier, Marsanne, Rousanne and Clairette, plus the powerhouse of the Southern Rhone, Grenache Blanc. What is a Grenache Blanc? In the same way Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris are related to Pinot Noir, through mutations or cloning or some botanical mojo, Grenache Blanc is related to Grenache Noir, and shares many of the same characteristics. Except it’s white. Hence the “blanc” versus the “noir”.

So there we have it! It’s the whites of the French Rhone! I’ve picked out a selection of Rhone whites giving representation throughout the region, including the quintessential Chateauneuf du Pape blanc. I took an extra-long time trying to track down the grape variety makeup of each wine here just for extra-added information. And, well, for me, fun. All except for one of these wines. It’s the first wine here, under Kermit Lynch’s personal label. I know it’s made for him by Domaine de Durban, but could not find any further information about it. So as the mystery wine, perhaps we can compare it to the others and GUESS what’s in it!

So Friday, July 13th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Rhone, Blanc!!!
Kermit Lynch 2005 Vin de Table de Vaucluse (100% Mystery)
Domaine Trignon 2005 Cotes du Rhone Blanc (50% Viognier, 50% Rousanne)
Domaine Brusset 2005 “Les Travers” Cairanne Blanc, (Clairette, Grenache Blanc, Rousanne, Marsanne, Viognier)
Domaine J.P. Lafond 2005 Lirac Blanc (60% Grenache Blanc, 20% Viognier)
Domaine des Martinelles 2005 Crozes-Hermitage Blanc (95% Marsanne, 5% Rousanne)

Rhone, Rhone, Blanc Blanc!!!
Philippe Faury 2004 Saint-Joseph Blanc (80% Marsanne, 20% Rousanne)
Domaine Paul Autard 2004 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc (34% Grenache Blanc, 33% Clairette, 33% Rousanne)

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours.

Hope to see you here!

Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is Wines of Washington!!!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Happy Thursday! Also, Happy 5th of July! I hope the dawning of this fine day found all of you with the same number of digits as the dawning of the fine day that was yesterday, our nation’s birthday of sorts. If you can still count to 10, and that was the number you were able to count to yesterday, then it’s all good. For the purposes of today, though, you only need to count to seven! Seven delicious wines from Tuscany with the Carpe Vinum’s Super Summer Sipping Symposium and Terrific Tuscan Taste-O-Rama!

So what’s the deal with these wines? In Tuscany, Sangiovese is the king of the red wines. Heck, in Italy it’s the king of most of the red wines, being the most widely planted red variety. If you’re unfamiliar with the variety, it’s a hearty red variety that makes a medium to full-bodied red, fairly dry, often with cherry and gamey and meaty characteristics. If it still doesn’t sound familiar, then you’d surely recognize the name “Chianti” which is the most famous of wine districts in Tuscany. Chianti has a number of subappellations, but the most important to note are “Chianti” (naturally) and “Chianti Classico”. By Italian wine laws Chianti is made with at least 75% Sangiovese and a Chianti Classico is made with 100% Sangiovese. There is not, unfortunately, any Italian wine law against making awful wine, which Chianti does well. Over the years, I’ve had so much bad Chianti that I wondered if it was something I was doing wrong. And I was doing something wrong. I was buying bad Chianti. I shop much more carefully now and I’m here to ensure you’re doing the same.

Chianti is not the only notable wine district in Tuscany, although there are so many wine regions within Tuscany that it would take a lifetime to research them all. Okay, well, there’s 40 districts, but there are probably a billion wineries making a billion wines each, therefore it would take a lifetime to research them. We’ll do the shorter tour. The wine held in the highest esteem in Tuscany is the Brunello di Montalcino, a wine made with a local clone of Sangiovese called “Brunello”. These are powerful and long-lived wines, sometimes best after 15 or more years of cellaring. I think most of us don’t want to wait that long, or can’t afford the outrageous prices these things cost, so for the rest of us there is the Rosso di Montalcino. Also, not far from Montalcino is the other star of the region, the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. I like the wines from this region a great deal, made sweeter by the fact that it’s just fun to repeat the name of the district over and over again. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano! That’s 12 syllables of wine-y goodness.

Now a word about a term you may have heard before: Super Tuscan. This is a term for wines that follow a wine law that was created to get Italy in line with the rest of Europe’s wine trade. The designation is a middle step between the certified designation (DOC and DOCG) and the simple table wine (VdT). These are the IGT (Indicazione Geographica Tipica) wines, and they give winemakers a bit more freedom to create wines using different other-European grape varieties, usually Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It’s also given some winemakers the freedom to create other Sangiovese-based wines outside the designated areas. Are they super? They are generally really good, but they’re only “super” if you attach a little cape to the bottle and fly it around the room singing “Super Tuscan!”. People would think you’re a bit nutty, though.

So we’ve got 2 white wines and 5 red wines, including a GOOD Chianti Classico, a couple Super Tuscans, a Rosso di Montalcino and a Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. I also have a nice, air-conditioned space. I just thought I might mention that. Y’know . . . because it’s a bit toasty out there.

So Friday, July 6th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Tuscany!!!
Le Rote 2004 Vernaccia di San Gimignano
Tenuta Ponte 2005 Falanghina IGT
Villa Trasqua 2004 Chianti Classico
Perazzeta 2004 Rita IGT (Sangiovese)
Antonio Sanguinetti 2004 Nessun Dorma IGT (Sangiovese, Merlot, Syrah)

Best of the Best!!!
Avignonesi 2004 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
Podere Salicutti 2004 Rosso di Montalcino

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours.

Hope to see you here!

Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is The French Rhone!!!

M