Two weeks ago we tasted two whites from Montauto of Tuscany. While both were good examples of the white blends we're writing about here, the lower priced wine was the more popular of the two. Vermentino was part of the blend in each, but in the tasting winner it was a full eighty percent of the blend and my experience validates our tasting group's verdict: Vermentino-based blends rock! I just have to wonder how popular the wine would be if it had a less unfortunate name.
Tuscany, especially along the Ligurian coastline, is one of the classic venues for Vermentino vineyards. Sardinia would be another and the Cotes de Provence of France, a third. The Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France, however, is the place to watch for new Vermentino blends since that's where plantings are increasing the most now. In Tuscany the grape is called Pigato; in France, Rolle; and wherever it's planted in Spain, it's called Favorita. In my opinion, any of these monikers would do better in the American marketplace than Vermentino.
Ampelographers are divided as to the origins of Vermentino. Some say Spain; others, Italy. There is also some uncertainty as to whether it's related to its frequent blending partner, Malvasia. It definitely shares some DNA with Hungarian Furmint.
Vermentino is typically light-to-medium in body with bright, crisp acidity extending to the finish. It is low in alcohol and has just a tinge of greenish-yellow color. What it really brings to any white wine blend is an aroma of basil, pine nuts and minerality and flavors of green apples, limes, and herbs. In other words, the wine has an intense and persistent personality all the way to the finish.
In California, Vermentino is successfully grown by Tablas Creek amongst others in Paso Robles AVA. Bailiwick of Sonoma also makes a Vermentino featuring juice sourced from Paso Robles and the Red Hills of Lake County. That one is in the store at this time and compares with European wines if just a bit fruitier and bigger in the mouth. Like all Vermentinos, Bailiwick is seafood wine but also like most superior California wines, it stands on its own as a cocktail.
This Friday at the After 5 weekly event David Hobbs of Prime Wines presents a lineup of European reds and whites. On the 5th of June Dean Johnston of Eagle Rock returns with new selections from that great company and then on the 12th, Rose Adams representing Aveleda of Portugal, shows us all what summer wines should taste like! Please join us.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
White Wine Grapes, Part 1: Malvasia
European dry white wines never cease to amaze me with their quality-to-price ratio. Just how they do it is something I don't think I will ever fully understand. Nonetheless, this series beginning right here will attempt to examine wine types by their constituent grape varietals. We are starting with Malvasia (mahl-vah-Zee-ah) only because we had the Montauto Maremma Toscana Bianca on the tasting table last week and I thought it was exceedingly good.
Malvasia is actually a family of five or more grapes that share a common ancestor more than two thousand years ago, probably in Greece. Laconia is a region in southern Greece that featured a fortress Italians called Malvasia and that fortress is believed to be the namesake of the grapes grown thereabouts. Malvasia was extremely popular with the ancient Mediterraneans, so much so that Venetian wine shops became known as "Malvasias", one of the earliest examples of international commercial branding.
Of the many affiliated Malvasia grapes, the Malvasia Bianca is the most widely grown type. It is at home across southern Europe in Spain, France, and Italy, along with Greece. In all likelihood what the ancients preferred in their white wines would have been a sweeter styled Malvasia. Today that style is still popular especially in the dried grape dessert wine, Vin Santo of southern Italy, which is a style known as "aromatic passito" in Sardinia and Sicily.
Disease prone in damp conditions, Malvasia vines like hillside vineyards for drainage in hot, dry climates. Naturally low in acidity, Malvasia wines oxidize easily which explains its place in Malmsey, the dark, richly textured Madeira dessert wine of Portugal.
The essential character of Malvasia lies its bouquet of honey, bosc pear, and allspice. In a sweet wine that character is supplemented with lush fruit on the palate in an amply round textured body. If the wine is made in a drier style it retains the distinctive bouquet and fruit but in a medium body format, which seems to be what Malvasia brings in general to a white wine blend. In central Italy Malvasia is commonly blended with Trebbiano, a flavorful light white grape. In Spain, where more experimentation is allowed, the body Malvasia brings fleshes out any other constituent grapes.
Besides the locations already mentioned, Malvasia is now grown successfully in eastern European countries and around the world including California. The finest examples of dry Malvasia wine, however, still come from Italy, in particular, the DOCs of Collio and Isonzo in Friuli-Venezia-Giuli in northeastern Italy.
This Friday at the After 5 tasting we will have more French and Italian whites on the table, a rose, and a few Italian reds as Robert Jones of Mediterranean Wine Merchants makes his inaugural appearance at the store. We ask for a ten dollar donation to taste which is refundable on a fifty dollar purchase. Please join us.
Besides the locations already mentioned, Malvasia is now grown successfully in eastern European countries and around the world including California. The finest examples of dry Malvasia wine, however, still come from Italy, in particular, the DOCs of Collio and Isonzo in Friuli-Venezia-Giuli in northeastern Italy.
This Friday at the After 5 tasting we will have more French and Italian whites on the table, a rose, and a few Italian reds as Robert Jones of Mediterranean Wine Merchants makes his inaugural appearance at the store. We ask for a ten dollar donation to taste which is refundable on a fifty dollar purchase. Please join us.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Cahill's Original Irish Porter Cheddar
For a lot of us, all you have to do is look at Cahill's Irish Cheddar with Porter and the oral juices are already working up a storm. Even before cutting into it, the packaging seduces you with it's plain chocolate brown wax overlaid with bygone homespun images of women making cheese. If Norman Rockwell had been a nineteenth century Irishman, he might have painted the picture that now adorns Cahill's cheese wrapper.
Inside the wrapping, however, lies something else indeed. If Norman Rockwell did the outside, Marc Chagall did the tile work on the inside. Upon cutting into a Cahill's, the dark earth tones on the exterior morph into spider webs inside, segmenting the yellow matte paste into cells of irregularly small dimensions. Of course, maybe all of this isn't as unusual as I'm painting it here. Maybe with a little self-examination, it's actually my inwardly conflicted self that I'm describing and it isn't the cheese at all...but I digress.
Cahill's is actually very popular because of its uniquely artistic presentation but even more so, of course, because of its taste. While the cheese is categorized as a Cheddar, the 2% Guinness Porter taste overshadows everything else; and yes, it really is the historic Guinness that is flavoring this cheese. Cahill's firm creaminess may, in fact, be a mirror reflection of a healthy swig of draft Guinness Stout.
At their website, Cahill's cites Marion Cahill back in 1759 as a County Limerick cheese-making ancestor of David Cahill who emigrated to America a hundred years later in 1860. David made his fortune here before returning to Ireland and dairy farming in 1902. In the mid 1920's his nephew William took the dairy reins and ran with it until 1972 when his son David assumed ownership.
Cahill's is a full, rich, tangy, chocolatey/caramelly mouthful with a similarly rich, pungent finish. It is clearly a beer cheese down to that pungent finish. While the cheese has its long history, three things appear to reflect modernity: the cheese uses vegetarian rennet; it's described as a "truckle" (cylinder) but is, in fact, smaller; and since the 1950's, it's pasteurized.
Of course, we're writing about the cheese here because it's in stock and for sale ($19.99/lb) at the store!
Please join us this Friday for the weekly After 5 wine tasting. David Rimmer of Lynda Allison Cellar Selections represents some of the finest European wines in the marketplace. This time he will be introducing us to six new Italians. Of course, the cheeses will be flowing along with David's wines! We ask for a $10 charge to taste which is applicable to a $50 purchase.
Inside the wrapping, however, lies something else indeed. If Norman Rockwell did the outside, Marc Chagall did the tile work on the inside. Upon cutting into a Cahill's, the dark earth tones on the exterior morph into spider webs inside, segmenting the yellow matte paste into cells of irregularly small dimensions. Of course, maybe all of this isn't as unusual as I'm painting it here. Maybe with a little self-examination, it's actually my inwardly conflicted self that I'm describing and it isn't the cheese at all...but I digress.
Cahill's is actually very popular because of its uniquely artistic presentation but even more so, of course, because of its taste. While the cheese is categorized as a Cheddar, the 2% Guinness Porter taste overshadows everything else; and yes, it really is the historic Guinness that is flavoring this cheese. Cahill's firm creaminess may, in fact, be a mirror reflection of a healthy swig of draft Guinness Stout.
At their website, Cahill's cites Marion Cahill back in 1759 as a County Limerick cheese-making ancestor of David Cahill who emigrated to America a hundred years later in 1860. David made his fortune here before returning to Ireland and dairy farming in 1902. In the mid 1920's his nephew William took the dairy reins and ran with it until 1972 when his son David assumed ownership.
Cahill's is a full, rich, tangy, chocolatey/caramelly mouthful with a similarly rich, pungent finish. It is clearly a beer cheese down to that pungent finish. While the cheese has its long history, three things appear to reflect modernity: the cheese uses vegetarian rennet; it's described as a "truckle" (cylinder) but is, in fact, smaller; and since the 1950's, it's pasteurized.
Of course, we're writing about the cheese here because it's in stock and for sale ($19.99/lb) at the store!
Please join us this Friday for the weekly After 5 wine tasting. David Rimmer of Lynda Allison Cellar Selections represents some of the finest European wines in the marketplace. This time he will be introducing us to six new Italians. Of course, the cheeses will be flowing along with David's wines! We ask for a $10 charge to taste which is applicable to a $50 purchase.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Wine Tasting
Wine tasting is something we in the trade do very regularly and with no illusions of grandeur. There is an implicit understanding that we in the trade have, a rudimentary understanding that it's not so much an exercise in accomplishment like sommelier training so much as just information gathering for the purpose of exploiting a product. We are not aspiring to a loftier reality than the realistic station we know.
When we taste we look for value compared to similarly priced wines. We use accepted standards for types which may include norms for those regions known to be exemplary. While we may compare our immediate tastes to the ideal wine example, we may also look to eccentric wine making styles that could result in the next Cabernet/Syrah, a blend popularized by Australia a generation ago and now accepted everywhere. It is a commercial industry after all.
Wine tasting includes four basic steps: appearance, aroma, taste, and finish. These steps should be done slowly with pauses for reflection. For us in the trade, it's about deductive deliberation; we're comparing our immediate tasting experience with what is already on file in the old memory banks. Fortunately (and unfortunately) for us small market retailers, those memory banks also store our memories of impulsively-made bad wine choices which continue to haunt us.
Here is my understanding of how wine tasting works:
1. Appearance - Using a white background and tilting the tasting stem at an angle reveals not only the basic color of the wine but also its clarity or opacity, all of which lend clues as to grape types, age, filtering, and barrel-aging. It also reveals the wine's viscosity, an essential quality in most serious wines.
2. Aroma - This is the most important step in wine tasting. By immersing one's nose into a just swirled wine stem and slowly inhaling, one can discern the most basic of wine information; that it's good and nothing is tainted, oxidized, or otherwise contaminated. Because we in the trade know the dark side of the industry, that wines are potentially abused at any point between the winery and the retailer, our nose will tell us whether a recent vintage is actually as pristine as advertised or if it is prematurely aged or damaged through abuse. Finally, our nose informs us of both the basic fruit flavors of the wine along with secondary flavors like flowers, earth, spices, wood, and more. As much as 85% of wine tasting is done with the nose which then informs the palate of what to expect.
3. Taste - When the wine enters the mouth it is warmed, releasing aromatics retro-nasally to olfactory receptor sites in the brain, an actual continuation of what came previously solely through the nose. By allowing the wine to sit in the mouth we feel its weight, texture, and structure before tapping those memory banks for reflections on complexity and character. Complexity may be summed up as the breadth of harmonious flavors while character, or expressiveness, projects well-defined flavors. To take it all one step further, "connectedness" would show that a bond exists through taste between the wine in the glass and its origins in the terroir where the grapes were grown.
4. Finish - This is what we are left with after swallowing and exhaling. It is both overblown and underestimated. What it should be is a memorable lengthy pleasant reflection of everything that came before. "Wininess" is my own descriptor for the continuation of lengthy flavors throughout the entire tasting experience and one only recognizes this quality at the finish.
So who remembers Psychology 101 and the term, gestalt? Basically gestalt means an integrated whole thing. Stephen Tanzer is the best widely read American wine critic and has said that when he tastes he doesn't break the tasting into parts to score each and then compile those for a final numerical judgment. He judges a wine in its gestalt, the entire tasting experience as a whole. And that's good enough for me too.
Please join us this Friday after 5 when we taste examples of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, Italian Pinot Bianco, French Gamay, California Merlot, and Argentine Malbec. New cheeses from the New York importer will be on the tasting table also. We ask for a ten dollar charge to taste which is applicable to a fifty dollar purchase.
When we taste we look for value compared to similarly priced wines. We use accepted standards for types which may include norms for those regions known to be exemplary. While we may compare our immediate tastes to the ideal wine example, we may also look to eccentric wine making styles that could result in the next Cabernet/Syrah, a blend popularized by Australia a generation ago and now accepted everywhere. It is a commercial industry after all.
Wine tasting includes four basic steps: appearance, aroma, taste, and finish. These steps should be done slowly with pauses for reflection. For us in the trade, it's about deductive deliberation; we're comparing our immediate tasting experience with what is already on file in the old memory banks. Fortunately (and unfortunately) for us small market retailers, those memory banks also store our memories of impulsively-made bad wine choices which continue to haunt us.
Here is my understanding of how wine tasting works:
1. Appearance - Using a white background and tilting the tasting stem at an angle reveals not only the basic color of the wine but also its clarity or opacity, all of which lend clues as to grape types, age, filtering, and barrel-aging. It also reveals the wine's viscosity, an essential quality in most serious wines.
2. Aroma - This is the most important step in wine tasting. By immersing one's nose into a just swirled wine stem and slowly inhaling, one can discern the most basic of wine information; that it's good and nothing is tainted, oxidized, or otherwise contaminated. Because we in the trade know the dark side of the industry, that wines are potentially abused at any point between the winery and the retailer, our nose will tell us whether a recent vintage is actually as pristine as advertised or if it is prematurely aged or damaged through abuse. Finally, our nose informs us of both the basic fruit flavors of the wine along with secondary flavors like flowers, earth, spices, wood, and more. As much as 85% of wine tasting is done with the nose which then informs the palate of what to expect.
3. Taste - When the wine enters the mouth it is warmed, releasing aromatics retro-nasally to olfactory receptor sites in the brain, an actual continuation of what came previously solely through the nose. By allowing the wine to sit in the mouth we feel its weight, texture, and structure before tapping those memory banks for reflections on complexity and character. Complexity may be summed up as the breadth of harmonious flavors while character, or expressiveness, projects well-defined flavors. To take it all one step further, "connectedness" would show that a bond exists through taste between the wine in the glass and its origins in the terroir where the grapes were grown.
4. Finish - This is what we are left with after swallowing and exhaling. It is both overblown and underestimated. What it should be is a memorable lengthy pleasant reflection of everything that came before. "Wininess" is my own descriptor for the continuation of lengthy flavors throughout the entire tasting experience and one only recognizes this quality at the finish.
So who remembers Psychology 101 and the term, gestalt? Basically gestalt means an integrated whole thing. Stephen Tanzer is the best widely read American wine critic and has said that when he tastes he doesn't break the tasting into parts to score each and then compile those for a final numerical judgment. He judges a wine in its gestalt, the entire tasting experience as a whole. And that's good enough for me too.
Please join us this Friday after 5 when we taste examples of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, Italian Pinot Bianco, French Gamay, California Merlot, and Argentine Malbec. New cheeses from the New York importer will be on the tasting table also. We ask for a ten dollar charge to taste which is applicable to a fifty dollar purchase.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Cauliflower Crust Pizza
Last Friday at the After 5 wine tasting, two whites were on the table which, in my opinion, stood up to whatever discriminatory scrutiny red wine lovers could give them. The Giocato Pinot Grigio and Chilcas Sauvignon Blanc both offered moderate complexity within the bounds of their types with the Chilcas being noticeably more adventurous while the Giocato was light, clean, and correct. These are two to keep in mind for later this summer.
I mention them now because we're talking about vegetarian pizza here and I like white wine with my veggies. Saturday night I had those same two wines with a pizza I made using a facebook friend's recipe. The post was taken from myrecipes.com and entitled, Cauliflower Pizza Crust. So just to explain, the recipe is really about the crust and you could make it a meat-lovers pizza if you would like. I like veggies though and I just happened to have a drawer full Saturday night!
While you now have access to the website recipe, this is what I did Saturday night:
1. Grate 1/2 head of cauliflower
2. Microwave it for 8 minutes
3. Brush olive oil onto a foil lined pan
4. Grate 1 cup of hard Italian cheese (parmesan, probably)
5. Beat 1 egg
6. After the microwaved cauliflower cools, mix with egg and cheese
7. Add basil, black pepper, and garlic
8. Spread out the crust mix on your pan
9. Brush more olive oil on the top
10.Bake 15 minutes
So that concludes the crust-making part. Like I said, I loaded the thing with veggies, especially the offensive ones like onions and peppers. I added sauce and more cheese too, of course. Actually now that I think about it, I believe my recipe was not the one from facebook but the one I googled from Paula Deen at popsugar.com. Yeah, that's what it was!
After you get the top all gooped-up with whatever trips your gustatory trigger, bake your masterpiece for another ten minutes or, using the other recipe, broil 3-4 minutes. While my pizza tasted great, the crust did not hold together well enough to eat by hand, so I may have done something wrong. If yours too falls apart, scoop that scrumptious sucker up with a fork!
My heavily peppered vegetarian pizza probably showed better with the Sauvignon Blanc than the lighter Pinot Grigio but in another couple months, in the heat of summer, that Pinot may do the trick! For red "pizza wines", I always defer to the Italians.
This Friday, May 1st, we'll taste the current vintage of Maso Canali Pinot Grigio which I feel is their best in years. We'll also taste the Hall Napa Valley Merlot, which frankly bowled me over when I tasted it last week. I'm sure we'll also have a dry rose in the mix along with some more reds. We ask for a ten dollar fee to taste which is refundable on a fifty dollar purchase. Please join us.
I mention them now because we're talking about vegetarian pizza here and I like white wine with my veggies. Saturday night I had those same two wines with a pizza I made using a facebook friend's recipe. The post was taken from myrecipes.com and entitled, Cauliflower Pizza Crust. So just to explain, the recipe is really about the crust and you could make it a meat-lovers pizza if you would like. I like veggies though and I just happened to have a drawer full Saturday night!
While you now have access to the website recipe, this is what I did Saturday night:
1. Grate 1/2 head of cauliflower
2. Microwave it for 8 minutes
3. Brush olive oil onto a foil lined pan
4. Grate 1 cup of hard Italian cheese (parmesan, probably)
5. Beat 1 egg
6. After the microwaved cauliflower cools, mix with egg and cheese
7. Add basil, black pepper, and garlic
8. Spread out the crust mix on your pan
9. Brush more olive oil on the top
10.Bake 15 minutes
So that concludes the crust-making part. Like I said, I loaded the thing with veggies, especially the offensive ones like onions and peppers. I added sauce and more cheese too, of course. Actually now that I think about it, I believe my recipe was not the one from facebook but the one I googled from Paula Deen at popsugar.com. Yeah, that's what it was!
After you get the top all gooped-up with whatever trips your gustatory trigger, bake your masterpiece for another ten minutes or, using the other recipe, broil 3-4 minutes. While my pizza tasted great, the crust did not hold together well enough to eat by hand, so I may have done something wrong. If yours too falls apart, scoop that scrumptious sucker up with a fork!
My heavily peppered vegetarian pizza probably showed better with the Sauvignon Blanc than the lighter Pinot Grigio but in another couple months, in the heat of summer, that Pinot may do the trick! For red "pizza wines", I always defer to the Italians.
This Friday, May 1st, we'll taste the current vintage of Maso Canali Pinot Grigio which I feel is their best in years. We'll also taste the Hall Napa Valley Merlot, which frankly bowled me over when I tasted it last week. I'm sure we'll also have a dry rose in the mix along with some more reds. We ask for a ten dollar fee to taste which is refundable on a fifty dollar purchase. Please join us.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Cotes du Rhone (an overview)
If you look at a map of France, the Cotes du Rhone wine appellation is a 125 mile long vertical strip of land on the eastern side. It starts about fifty miles south of Burgundy, a little south of the N-S midpoint of France, and follows the Rhone River south ending near Lyon. A hundred miles to the east of the appellation lies Switzerland along with the northeast corner of Italy.
About two thirds of the way down the appellation, the town of Montelimar marks the accepted dividing line between the northern Rhone and the southern portion. Again on the map, the south is a bell-shaped expansion as opposed to the slender strip to the north. North of Montelimar the climate is continental with cool breezes influenced by the Alps. The southern Rhone is Mediterranean in climate with hot summers and mild winters. The topography of the north is hilly to mountainous featuring terraced hillside vineyards while the south is flatter; consequently, ninety percent of the wine production comes from the south.
Syrah is the primary red grape in the northern Rhone where place names like Cote Rotie, Hermitage, St-Joseph, Cornas, and Crozes-Hermitage have established the supremacy of the north as the finest Rhone wine production region. Grenache is the primary grape of the South with top production regions including Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Vacqueyras, Rasteau, Gigondas, Beaumes de Venise, and Cairanne.
Close to ninety percent of the wine production of the entire Rhone valley is red wine. The great white wines of the region feature Viognier as the primary grape with Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, and Rousanne in supporting roles. Sweet Muscats are produced in Beaumes de Venise and the commune of St-Peray produces sparkling wine. The noteworthy place names for Rhone whites include Hermitage, Condrieu, and Chateau-Grillet (its own appellation) in the north and Chateauneuf-du-Pape in the south. The Rhone Valley is one of only a few wine production regions in the world where the whites are often valued higher than the reds.
Having just covered Tavel in the previous post on roses, we will just add here that Tavel roses are the finest wines of their kind in the world. Lirac lies just to the north of Tavel and theirs are comparable.
So why this post now? In preparation for last Friday's French/Italian tasting we noticed an abundance of Rhones in the French wine rack along with three stacks on the floor. The wines range in price between $15 and $40 and as has always been the case, they are some of the finest red wine values available. Red Rhones, in general, are medium-bodied, spicy, dark berry wines that marry well with most any red meat dish. Consider picking some up for your weekend cookout!
Please join us this Friday after 5 when Dean Johnston of Eagle Rocks makes his debut at the weekly event with an eclectic lineup of wines from three continents, and by all means, become a follower of this here blog!
About two thirds of the way down the appellation, the town of Montelimar marks the accepted dividing line between the northern Rhone and the southern portion. Again on the map, the south is a bell-shaped expansion as opposed to the slender strip to the north. North of Montelimar the climate is continental with cool breezes influenced by the Alps. The southern Rhone is Mediterranean in climate with hot summers and mild winters. The topography of the north is hilly to mountainous featuring terraced hillside vineyards while the south is flatter; consequently, ninety percent of the wine production comes from the south.
Syrah is the primary red grape in the northern Rhone where place names like Cote Rotie, Hermitage, St-Joseph, Cornas, and Crozes-Hermitage have established the supremacy of the north as the finest Rhone wine production region. Grenache is the primary grape of the South with top production regions including Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Vacqueyras, Rasteau, Gigondas, Beaumes de Venise, and Cairanne.
Close to ninety percent of the wine production of the entire Rhone valley is red wine. The great white wines of the region feature Viognier as the primary grape with Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, and Rousanne in supporting roles. Sweet Muscats are produced in Beaumes de Venise and the commune of St-Peray produces sparkling wine. The noteworthy place names for Rhone whites include Hermitage, Condrieu, and Chateau-Grillet (its own appellation) in the north and Chateauneuf-du-Pape in the south. The Rhone Valley is one of only a few wine production regions in the world where the whites are often valued higher than the reds.
Having just covered Tavel in the previous post on roses, we will just add here that Tavel roses are the finest wines of their kind in the world. Lirac lies just to the north of Tavel and theirs are comparable.
So why this post now? In preparation for last Friday's French/Italian tasting we noticed an abundance of Rhones in the French wine rack along with three stacks on the floor. The wines range in price between $15 and $40 and as has always been the case, they are some of the finest red wine values available. Red Rhones, in general, are medium-bodied, spicy, dark berry wines that marry well with most any red meat dish. Consider picking some up for your weekend cookout!
Please join us this Friday after 5 when Dean Johnston of Eagle Rocks makes his debut at the weekly event with an eclectic lineup of wines from three continents, and by all means, become a follower of this here blog!
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Rose
We've covered this territory before (June 4, 2013), but it's rose season again, so let's have another splash of the pink stuff. As satisfying as the stuff is, we'll make this a "refresher" course (ahem). Let's start with a little history, then move on to the contemporary rose scene, eventually landing in the present here and now with our currently rich store rose inventory.
As we have said in the past, roses have a particularly prominent place in wine history. Since red wines have only been made really dark and extracted using twentieth century technology, you could say that virtually all of wine making history has been a history of making varying shades of roses.
Prior to the middle ages, written records showed that sweet roses were genuinely preferred to stronger darker and drier wines. In the middle ages, Bordeaux became the center of the wine world but it wasn't the reds that were in vogue. Once again the records show roses to be the more popular style. Similarly, at about the same time, the Champagne region emerged on the scene with both sparkling and still wines and the style there too was a darker shade of rose. Bordeaux, of course, went on to fame as a dry red wine region while seventeenth century Champagne learned how to make truly white wine from red grapes. If there is a general historical trend with roses though, it is that they have become progressively drier through time.
Today fine roses are made in every wine production region of the world. Europe, as usual, makes the best rose with Spain and France currently being the leaders by acclamation. Greece lies outside of the popular purview but the Kir-Yianni Akakies Rose we have successfully sold here recently takes a back seat to none. Disappointingly, Italy, despite its amazing wine culture, doesn't seem to have created a rose style commensurate with its other production.
Not surprisingly, the best grapes for making roses are among the oldest. Grenache, Syrah, Tempranillo,and Mourvedre are probably the best followed by Cinsault, Carignan, and in a different vein, Pinot Noir. France has the historical rose-making edge on Spain despite Spain being the older wine producing country. But for the popular American palate, Spain probably satisfies the best.
Because of their history, the French wine laws are definitive of just what kind of wine may be produced where. Those laws acknowledge southern France including Provence, the Rhone Valley, and Languedoc-Roussillon to be the primary rose region of the country and the rose epicenter of the continent. Spain, which no doubt had a history of rose production through the centuries, has only exploited its production in the modern era and now it is producing roses everywhere. While France is locked into its legally delimited production values, Spain, with its many modern wineries, is blending new grapes with the traditionals to create new roses.
We probably have a dozen roses here at the present time but I will only mention four. John Luc Colombo Cape Bleue Rose is from that southern French rose locale just mentioned. Cortijo Rose is from the acclaimed Rioja region of Spain. Both are sale priced at $9.99 because they are the 2013 vintage and the new '14s have arrived. Castel des Maures and Chateau Paradis are both 2014 Provence Roses and are priced in the high teens. All are exceptional wines and priced appropriately.
At the weekly After 5 wine tasting on Friday, David Rimmer of Lynda Allison Cellar Selections presents French and Italian wines from his fine portfolio. Then on the 24th, Dean Johnston of Eagle Rock Distributing pours tastes of wines from six different countries on three continents. Please join us for these events.
As we have said in the past, roses have a particularly prominent place in wine history. Since red wines have only been made really dark and extracted using twentieth century technology, you could say that virtually all of wine making history has been a history of making varying shades of roses.
Prior to the middle ages, written records showed that sweet roses were genuinely preferred to stronger darker and drier wines. In the middle ages, Bordeaux became the center of the wine world but it wasn't the reds that were in vogue. Once again the records show roses to be the more popular style. Similarly, at about the same time, the Champagne region emerged on the scene with both sparkling and still wines and the style there too was a darker shade of rose. Bordeaux, of course, went on to fame as a dry red wine region while seventeenth century Champagne learned how to make truly white wine from red grapes. If there is a general historical trend with roses though, it is that they have become progressively drier through time.
Today fine roses are made in every wine production region of the world. Europe, as usual, makes the best rose with Spain and France currently being the leaders by acclamation. Greece lies outside of the popular purview but the Kir-Yianni Akakies Rose we have successfully sold here recently takes a back seat to none. Disappointingly, Italy, despite its amazing wine culture, doesn't seem to have created a rose style commensurate with its other production.
Not surprisingly, the best grapes for making roses are among the oldest. Grenache, Syrah, Tempranillo,and Mourvedre are probably the best followed by Cinsault, Carignan, and in a different vein, Pinot Noir. France has the historical rose-making edge on Spain despite Spain being the older wine producing country. But for the popular American palate, Spain probably satisfies the best.
Because of their history, the French wine laws are definitive of just what kind of wine may be produced where. Those laws acknowledge southern France including Provence, the Rhone Valley, and Languedoc-Roussillon to be the primary rose region of the country and the rose epicenter of the continent. Spain, which no doubt had a history of rose production through the centuries, has only exploited its production in the modern era and now it is producing roses everywhere. While France is locked into its legally delimited production values, Spain, with its many modern wineries, is blending new grapes with the traditionals to create new roses.
We probably have a dozen roses here at the present time but I will only mention four. John Luc Colombo Cape Bleue Rose is from that southern French rose locale just mentioned. Cortijo Rose is from the acclaimed Rioja region of Spain. Both are sale priced at $9.99 because they are the 2013 vintage and the new '14s have arrived. Castel des Maures and Chateau Paradis are both 2014 Provence Roses and are priced in the high teens. All are exceptional wines and priced appropriately.
At the weekly After 5 wine tasting on Friday, David Rimmer of Lynda Allison Cellar Selections presents French and Italian wines from his fine portfolio. Then on the 24th, Dean Johnston of Eagle Rock Distributing pours tastes of wines from six different countries on three continents. Please join us for these events.
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