Wednesday, September 29, 2010

HEIGHTS CHATEAU | RESTURANT SAUL present the WÖLFFER ESTATE VINEYARDS FALL HARVEST DINNER


Enjoy!

LeDom du Vin

Info partly taken and edited from the importer website at www.jandamorewines.com and from the winery website at www.contrasoarda.it Step into the Green! Drink more Biodynamic, Biologique and Organic wines (and spirits and food) from sustainable culture and respect the environment! Support the right causes for the Planet and all the people suffering all around the globe! Also follow projects and products from the Fair Trade, an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and promote sustainability. Also support 1% for the Planet, an alliance of businesses that donate at least 1% of their annual revenues to environmental organizations worldwide.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Fall is Back and 2009 Contra’ Soarda Vespaiolo Veneto Italy


Fall is back!

September is usually the month were everything re-start after a bit more than 2 months of terribly slow business. Generally, each year, just after June 15th, when school is finished (or just about depending on the school and the state), and children and students go on vacation, New York suddenly feels empty and sales drop dramatically.

Parents usually also take their vacation at that moment too, therefore the big apple become a hive for tourists from around the world. Unfortunately for us, wine & spirits retailers, when the local crowd is gone, tourists rarely come and visit us. They more often drink beer during the day and wine in restaurants at night. Rare are the few ones who come to buy their alcoholic beverage in stores.

However, September always brings a renaissance to the sales and thus we are back in business; and it goes crescendo until the 1st of January. These 4 months are the best months for all wine & spirits retailers in general, they habitually represent about 2 third of the annual revenue.

All of us, wine buyers, are eager to once again restock the shelves to full capacity with handfuls of gems and new vintage freshly arrived in the market. It is time to find the right strategy to buy intelligently most of the wines and spirits that we will sell up until the end of the year and the beginning of the year after.

Rosé, light red and refreshing white season is slowly going into a dormant faze, so it is time to find slightly heavier and substantial red and white wines to accommodate the Fall-Winter season dishes. It is also time to preorder the Beaujolais Nouveau and the bubblies for the up-and-coming festivities.

Therefore, September and October become the open season for wine treasures hunt. The city offers at least 2 to 3 portfolio tastings a day without mentioning all the lunches and dinners (I’m not surprised knowing that over the past 8 years I’ve been working at least with more 250 different importing/distributing company. Most of these specific tastings are for the trade, but they are plenty more open to the public. For more info, go to www.localwineevents.com).

Consequently, I started to go to certain tastings (can’t do them all, even if I wanted to…) and begin to ponder my wish lists for wines that will arrive gradually at the store over the next two months.

One of these wines is a Vespaiolo from a winery called Contra’ Soarda, a great white from the Veneto region imported/distributed by Jan d’Amore, a great Italian guy with a small portfolio, full of gems at great prices, which is worth keeping an eye on.


2009 Contra’ Soarda Vespaiolo Veneto Italy

Thought many times over since 1999, fully developed during 2001 and finally established in 2002 by Mirco and Gloria Gottardi, Contra’ Soarda is a modern, small family run estate, which possesses about 12 hectares of vines that lie in the picturesque village of San Michele, located in the alp’s foothills about 5 kilometers of Bassano del Grappa (about 86 kilometers north-west of Venezia, Veneto).

Rich of skills, knowledge and traditions passed on from father to son for nearly a century in the Gottardi family, Mirco and Gloria Gottardi created the new project of “Contra’ Soarda” with the desire to create a deeper tie to their native land. Meaning literally “hamlet on the slope”, the winery grows vines and olive trees with the utmost respect for the environment of this mountainous area, which sits at the mouth of the Valsugana. The Valsugana valley is one of the most important valleys in the autonomous province of Trento (also called Trentino) of Northern Italy. The valley borders the northern part of the Veneto region with its imposing mountains, which provide strong temperature changes between night and day.

The vines are densely planted to insure naturally low yields. The cellar, built inside the hill to minimize any environmental impact, is an architectural wonder and recipient of many prizes. The only use natural and biologic techniques. The soil of stony volcanic composition brings a lot of depth and complexity to resulting but more importantly confers a lot of minerality. Focusing on the often-overlooked native grape, Vespaiolo, but not neglecting the varietals that have been planted in his region for centuries, like Marzemino. Mirco produces wines that are pure, elegant and harmonious.

The production which first started in 2004 is 75.000 bottles and four of their wines are available thru Jan d’Amore: 2009 Vespaiolo, Vespaiolo “vignasilan”, 2006 Torcolato Riserva, 2007 Marzemino “Gaggion”. And I tasted them all and love them all, although the 2009 Vespaiolo was my favorite of the bunch and after re-tasting of days ago, I can already tell you that it will surely be one of my favorite white of this coming Autumn.



2009 Contra’ Soarda Vespaiolo Veneto Italy
Suggested retail price $19-$22
Imported / Distributed by Jan d'Amore in NYC

Vespaiolo is a white grape variety planted primarily in the Veneto region. The grapes ripen to high sugar levels and are used to produce off dry and sweet wines with a characteristic golden hue. The name Vespaiola comes from “Vespa” and refers to the wasps that are attracted to the vines.

Made from 100% Vespaiolo vinified in 100% Stainless steel tanks, the 2009 vintage is such an inviting white. In the glass, it offers a pale straw yellow color with golden reflects and hints of green. The distinctive and perfumy nose boasts a medley of yellow stone fruit with aromas of white peach and apple intermingled with mineral and floral notes. The ripe 2009 vintage brought some opulence to this wine. The palate is fairly soft and rounded, clean and refreshing with lovely balance, great structure and depth. With flavors similar as the ones from the nose, the juicy mid-palate is complex and expanding with coating minerality and enhancing acidity towards the lingering finish. Overall, it is an excellent wine that I highly recommend. It has opened my Fall-Winter wine-buying season on a high quality note.

If I found the time, I will try soon to write another post following this one about the other 3 wines that I tasted from Contra’ Soarda but also on quite a few of the other wines that I have been trying over the last few days.

Enjoy!

LeDom du Vin

Info partly taken and edited from the importer website at www.jandamorewines.com and from the winery website at www.contrasoarda.it

Step into the Green! Drink more Biodynamic, Biologique and Organic wines (and spirits and food) from sustainable culture and respect the environment! Support the right causes for the Planet and all the people suffering all around the globe! Also follow projects and products from the Fair Trade, an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and promote sustainability. Also support 1% for the Planet, an alliance of businesses that donate at least 1% of their annual revenues to environmental organizations worldwide.

Monday, September 13, 2010

2009 Clos de la Roilette Fleurie Cru Beaujolais Bourgogne France


For those of you who may not know it, notoriously famous for its esoteric, natural wines from artisanal producers crafting beautiful gems and solid consistent flagships in their own respective appellations, importer Louis/Dressner has left Douglas Polaner Selections, and is now distributed through David Bowler wine in New York state. No matter really who is distributing Louis/Dressner wines, as long as we can still buy them, that’s only what really counts for wine buyer like me.

However, talking about wines from Louis/Dressner, I just tasted one of the standards of the Cru Beaujolais: Clos de la Roilette Fleurie. This wine has always been a remarkable example of what Fleurie as to offer. And people who know my discriminating dissecting-like-a-surgeon palate, understand that I love crispy, crunchy wines with juicy fruit, vivid refreshing acidity and integrated yet present tannic structure, which are the essential backbone components of great wines. Well, trust me, I don’t say that for every wine, but I just found all of these needed and indispensable characteristics in the 2009 Clos de la Roilette Fleurie, and I was quite blown away by its gustative qualities.

You see, I talk a lot (didn’t notice?...) and can also write a lot (bored already?...), but when I love a wine, then suddenly no word can be heard from my claymation mouth. Not a sound. I just enjoy and savor the wine till the last drop. If I talk too much about a wine just after tasting it, it is because I dissected it so much that I found too much flaws in it (inharmonious, disjointed, unbalanced, unripe, no acidity, no texture, no structure, hollow middle, short finish, too ripe, too acidic, too thin, too woody, too tannic, bitter, sour, etc…). If I don’t say anything, it is usually because I found harmony of all the elements and components of the wine to my liking, perfectly adapted to my taste and taste buds’ cravings.

When I taste, I need to understand the wine: its origin, the climate of the region, the climate of the vintage, the exposure, the elevation, the type of soil, the way it was made, vineyard management, vinification, and what was the thinking behind the winemaker’s mind and adaptation to the vintage. So I always ask myself some questions when I taste to be able to appropriately judge the wine and comprehend why and how it tastes like it tastes. How was the vintage in that particular region? What is the usual style of the winemaker for this particular estate? Has the climate during ripening season and harvest season really imparted the winemaking and the final taste? Or did the winemaker choose to harvest earlier because it was a very hot year or later because it was a cooler vintage? How long was it aged? In tanks or in barrels? Were the vineyard and cellar managements Organic, Biodynamic, Sustainable, Lutte Raisonnée, Carbon Neutral, Biologic, Natural, or simply adapted with a combination of some or all the above?

It is important not to just taste the wine for what it is, but also for what it represents, the work of the men and women behind it, the region it comes from and more interestingly to be able to retrace its life from the end of the previous harvest, the dormant period of winter, the burgeoning and coming back to life period with the flowering and the emergence of the fruit, the ripening season up until the grapes are harvested and juice is pressed. In order to be truthful, passionate and convincing, get to know the wine that you taste, it will help you a lot when you will have to describe it to your customers or to your family and friends.

For certain person, wine represents only fermented grape juice in a bottle. As a passionate wine lover, wine buyer and wine drinker, moreover grandson of a winemaker, my love for wine goes beyond the label: topping the grape variety (ies) its was made with and the region, each wine encompasses a bit of history often associated with local culinary traditions, complemented by the regional and local topography, climatology, pedology, edaphology; and without mentioning biology, chemistry and mathematics... and the personality of all the people who participated to its elaboration from the vines to the glass.

Think about the fact that each winemaker has one shot each year to succeed, no matter what, to produce the best wine he or her can craft with a bit of help from the combination of mother nature and new technology (not always accessible for all of them). Winemaking is a fragile, often costly and testing difficult concept often counterbalanced by the skills, experience, knowledge, know how, style and personal instinct of the winemaker. Think about all of the above when you next taste a wine, you’ll see you may experience a brand new way to enjoy but also understand what you taste.

However, I get carried away once again, but it's true: it is very easy to open bottles of wine and empty them or condemn them if the wine is bad; yet it is not that easy for winemakers to craft these little gems, which are Happiness in bottle that you gorge on to every time a good occasion presents itself.

Let’s go back to our wine of the day:


2009 Clos de la Roilette Fleurie Cru Beaujolais France


Clos de la Roilette is located in the village of Fleurie, one of the 10 Crus of Beaujolais (from north to south the Beaujolais crus are: Saint-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly), about 60 kilometers north of Lyon.

The estate covers about nine hectares of one of the best slopes in the Beaujolais Crus. The “Clos” (literally meaning an enclosed plot of land planted with vines), which has an eastern exposure, borders the Moulin-à-Vent appellation, and produces wines that are beautiful when young and have the capacity to age 5-10 years, depending on the vintage.

In the 20’s, when the Fleurie appellation was first created, the former landowner was infuriated with losing the Moulin-à-Vent appellation under which the “Clos” had previously been classified. He created a label, using a photograph of his racehorse Roilette, and used the name Clos de la Roilette, without mentioning Fleurie. The owner vowed not to sell a drop of his wine on the French market and the production went to Switzerland, Germany and England.

By the mid-1960s, the owner’s heirs had lost interest in the “Clos” and a large portion of the land had gone wild and untended. In 1967, Fernand Coudert bought this poorly maintained estate, and replanted the vineyards. His son Alain joined him in 1984, and has been the winemaker since.

The Couderts say their particular terroir (mainly clay and manganese), and the age of their vines (25 to 33 years-old) account for the richness of their wine. It usually has a deep blackcurrant color with a hint of purple, a restrained nose of crème de cassis, a rich, full mouth with aromas of cassis, black cherries, and a nutty character, and finishes with zesty acidity. This is a wine that ages gracefully and takes on the aromatic character of a Pinot Noir.

With the 1998 vintage, the Couderts introduced a new wine, Cuvée Christal, which is lighter and meant to drink younger. Also, a few vintages ago, they started a selection of old vines cuvée that is partially aged in older oak barrels. They call this Cuvée Tardive, meaning that it needs more aging time and has even greater longevity than the Clos cuvée.



2009 Clos de la Roilette Fleurie Cru de Beaujolais Bourgogne France
Suggested retail price $19-$22
Imported by Louis/Dressner and distributed by David Bowler in NYC

First, and without trying to make any kind of generalization, I need to say that overall, 2009 was across the board a very good vintage, combining ideal climate and temperatures with optimum ripeness, great structure and complex resulting wines in many regions across the hexagonal country, as we like to call it in France. Many of you may have already realized that most 2009 French (and most European too) whites and rosés were quite fat and intense compared to 2008 and more especially 2007, which were leaner, somewhat more classic vintage depending on the region (and depending on your taste and palate too).

For the reds, 2009 seamed to ally similar ripeness as in the 2005 and 2006 vintage with the acidity of 2006 and 2008 and the tannins of 2007 (do you still follow me?). In any case and however you take it, it was a very good year, which produced exceptional wines for most producers. And the 2009 Clos de la Roilette Fleuire is no exception; on the contrary, it is a great example of what 2009 has to offer in the Beaujolais region.

It shows a bright ruby red color with pinkish reflects. The nose has reminiscent of earth combined with charming and inviting freshly crushed red and dark cherry aromas. Despite the ripeness of the vintage, the generous palate has a lovely crisp texture with excellent tannic structure and vivid, racy acidity that enhances the ripe red and dark berry flavors. This wine is really nice, balanced, focus, elegant and juicy with a lingering finish full of bright red cherry and earthy, mineral tones. What a delightful wine! Agreeable, gentle yet solidly built, crisp, juicy and crunchy like I love. I could enjoy drinking quite a bit of this wine.

It shows great potential, complexity and length in a straight to the point package. No chi-chi. No bla-bla. Just a great straight earthy wine that has the character and the profile of a charismatic vigneron, the frank and uncomplicated old style of “les hommes du terroir”, a wine that remind me my late grandfather and the winemakers of his generation (check out the picture of Monsieur Coudert on Louis/Dressner website, and you’ll understand what I’m trying to say). They knew how to make wine that expresses their terroir of origin and the full complexity of the grape variety’s aromas and flavors.

There are plenty of bad wines in the market, because there are plenty of bad and none passionate winemakers and too much vines planted where they shouldn’t have been planted (increase of the demand, lack of soil study, lack of knowledge, or skills or experience, etc…), but put a passionate winemaker on a great terroir and you’ll obtain magnificent results.

The list of my favorite estates and wines from around the world will be too long to develop in just one post, therefore I will just say that, like many other great wineries and estates that ally the resourceful human qualities with the qualities of a preserved and naturally tended Terroir and vineyard, Clos de la Roilette has established itself as a benchmark standard of high quality for the Fleurie appellation and an inspiration for wine buyer like me to constantly buy their wines year after year.

Enjoy,

LeDom du Vin

Info partly taken and edited from the importer website at http://louisdressner.com/Coudert

Step into the Green! Drink more Biodynamic, Biologique and Organic wines (and spirits and food) from sustainable culture and respect the environment! Support the right causes for the Planet and all the people suffering all around the globe! Also follow projects and products from the Fair Trade, an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and promote sustainability. Also support 1% for the Planet, an alliance of businesses that donate at least 1% of their annual revenues to environmental organizations worldwide.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

2009 Weingut Schloßmühlenhof (Schloss Müehlenhof) “Michel” Dass ist Müller-Thurgau Deutscher Perlwein mit zugesetzter Kohlensäure Rheinhessen Germany


2009 Weingut Schloßmühlenhof (Schloss Müehlenhof)
“Michel” Dass ist Müller-Thurgau
Deutscher Perlwein mit zugesetzter Kohlensäure
Rheinhessen Germany



A few months ago, while tasting with Savio Soares at the store, Matthew, the owner, and I fell in love for a delicious dry bubbly wine from Germany, more precisely a “Perlwein” (semi-sparkling), made by Schloss Müehlenhof, called “Michel Dass ist Müller-Thurgau”.

Weingut Schloßmühlenhof (Schloss Müehlenhof) is an estate, which now managed about 20 hectares of vineyard planted in the Rheinhessen region of Germany. The winery is located in Kettenheim, a village 3 kilometers south of Azley, a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde Azley-land, about 80 kilometers southwest of Frankfurt.

The Michel family produces a wide array of wines from various varieties. The varieties range consists of classic traditional varieties, such as Silvaner, Riesling, Weißer und Grauer Burgunder, Chardonnay und Sauvignon Blanc as well as lesser-known varieties such as Rebzüchtungen, Huxelrebe, Ortega, Morio-Muskat, Bacchus and Kernerrebe together. The red spectrum ranges from Portugieser and Dornfelder towards Regent, Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) and St. Laurent.

Wines are made with the upmost care for the environment, using sustainable natural methods adapted depending to the needs in the vineyards and in the cellar. Quality and consistency confer to their portfolio certain notoriety recognized all around the world. Crisp, vivid and focus, the wines from Schloss Müehlenhof are very good sought after values.

I probably should have written about their Michel Müller-Thurgau earlier in the season, because this wine is really dry and summery. Yet, it’s never too late and after all this wine can be enjoyed at any time of the year.

"Sekt" is the German term for quality sparkling wine. The majority of Sekt produced (around 95%) is made with the Charmat method. The remaining premium Sekt being made according to the “Méthode Traditionnelle”. Cheap sparkling wine usually made with CO2 injection must not be called Sekt, but rather Schaumwein (literally "foam wine" in German). A semi-sparkling wine is called Perlwein.

In fact, at first, I made the mistake of not paying so much attention to the label, only reading the bigger and more obvious letter: “Michel” and “Müller-Thurgau”. I thought that it was a dry still white wine, and it is only when I first tasted it that I realized that this wine had a fizz to it. Agreeably surprised but somewhat startled, I once again read the label. It says:

Michel “Dass ist Müller-Thurgau” “Deutscher Perlwein mit zugesetzter Kohlensäure” Rheinhessen Weingut Schloßmühlenhof – 55234 Kettenheim Bundesrepublik Deutschland Let’s try to disect this label:

"Michel" is the last name of the family which has owned and run the estate for the past 150 years, restructured and increased the vineyard in the 1920s and in 1985, established the name of "Weingut Schloßmühlenhof". Walter Michel and his wife Gabriele are proud to pass on the rein of the estate to their son Nicolas, who in 2007 has successfully completed his studies for viticulture and oenology. He benefited of his training in recent years not only in his parents' estate, but also in other vineyards in Germany and abroad to expand his horizon of experience. Diligently following his father’s steps, he would continue, to actively pursue the winemaking at the estate, combining tradition, natural methods and recent technology to maintain consistency and increase the quality of all of his wines.

“Dass ist Müller-Thurgau” literally means “this is Müller-Thurgau”, in a sense that this wine is a “kick-ass” Müller-Thurgau, and they are right about that, it is really excellent.

“Deutscher Perlwein mit zugesetzter Kohlensäure” literally means “German sparkling wine with added carbon dioxide (CO2)” which is exactly what this wine is: a semi-sparkling wine due to addition of CO2. Only difference with the regular fully sparkling “Sekt” is the method of course but more precisely the amount of CO2 added and therefore the “Bar” pressure that it implies. Perlwein’s pressure is between 1 and 2.5 bars, whereas in Sekt, the pressure is 3 bars or greater. Perlwein without the mention of “mit zugesetzter Kohlensäure” on the label, did not have any CO2 added and possesses bubbles due a secondary fermentation, generally occurring in stainless steel tanks, which has been stopped before the wine attained fully sparkling stage.

It is interesting to notice that German and French use somewhat the same term for a semi sparkling wine: “Perlwein” in German (semi-sparkling wine) and “Un vin perlant” in French, which literally and more metaphorically means a wine with a touch of fizz giving the taster the sensation to have multiple tiny airy pearls dancing with his tongue’s taste buds.

The following label slightly differs from the original, but you get the picture...



2009 Weingut Schloßmühlenhof (Schloss Müehlenhof) “Michel” Dass ist Müller-Thurgau Deutscher Perlwein mit zugesetzter Kohlensäure Rheinhessen Germany
Suggested retail price $11-$14
Imported / Distributed by Savio Soares in NYC

Made with 100% Müller-Thurgau vinified in stainless still tanks, the wine received an addition of CO2 before bottling topping the natural slight effervescence that may occur in young recently bottled white wine (the phenomenon is more current than people think, and people are often surprised when they taste that slight fizzyness in whites that just arrived on the market shortly after they were bottled).

Behind its pale yellow transparent color enlighten with greenish-silver reflects, ultra tiny bubbles may make you think that it is a young wine and that the bubbles will immediately dissolve in contact with oxygen, like for young wine recent bottled; nothing really to indicate that it is a semi-sparkling at this point, except the inaudible “pfffff” when you open the bottle. The nose is dry, clean and fragrant with light citrus and yellow stone fruit aromas combined with floral and mineral notes, and definitely no hints to let you guess that it will be sparkling. The palate is light, crisp enhanced by vivid acidity, with good structure and the same fruit and mineral flavors as in the nose. The expanding palate is quite delightful with refreshing fizzyness, nothing compared to real sparkling wine or Champagne. The finish is definitely super dry and crisp. What a wine under $15! Loved it. Definitely a friendly versatile food wine in my opinion, which will accommodate most dishes prepared with fish and white meat from the appetizers to the cheese.

Enjoy!

LeDom du Vin

Info partly taken and edited from the winery website at www.schlossmuehlenhof.de

Step into the Green! Drink more Biodynamic, Biologique and Organic wines (and spirits and food) from sustainable culture and respect the environment! Support the right causes for the Planet and all the people suffering all around the globe! Also follow projects and products from the Fair Trade, an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and promote sustainability. Also support 1% for the Planet, an alliance of businesses that donate at least 1% of their annual revenues to environmental organizations worldwide.