Benjamin Wallace at the Free Library
Filed Under The Wine World
Benjamin Wallace – author of The Billionaire’s Vinegar – will be appearing at the Free Library of Philadelphia on Sunday, May 18, 3:00 PM for a talk and book signing.
Writer Wallace took six years to track down the players in this Byzantine story surrounding the world’s most expensive bottle of wine: the 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux that sold at auction (1985) for $156,000. Everyone from Thomas Jefferson to Robert Parker get drawn into this facinating tale of deception and high-stakes wine collecting.
The story made news in both the Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker, but those tellings only scratched the surface. We haven’t had a chance to review the book yet, but its getting some great press already.
What we talk about when we talk about wine
Filed Under The Wine World
In the theatre of the absurd, playwrights gave artistic articulation to Camus’ philosophy that life is inherently without meaning. How perfect a read is Desert Island Wine, where author Miles Lambert-Gocs reminds us how inherently meaningless so much wine talk can often be.
[Some important characteristics found in the theatre of the absurd: dialogue that is full of cliche’ and nonsense, characters forced into repetitive or meaningless acts, plots absurdly expansive, a dismissal of reality.]
Hm.
Lambert-Gocs loves his wine, but not at the expense of sense of humor. With wicked wit does he serve up those “mincing Brits”, traverse Boolgovia (a newly liberated communist country just east of Vienna) to try their new and exciting wines; and unearths the missing pages of such literary classics as Moby Dick (Melville), The Suffering of Young Werther (Goethe), Notes from the Underground (Dostoevsky), and The Stranger (Camus) - works that apparently suffered major cuts due to the temperant environments in which they were writ. But for Lambert-Gocs, we can now appreciate them entire.
This book is full of wonderful vignettes and laugh-out-loud moments. “Just ask Parker if he cares if his wife is a 6 or a 5 by anyone else’s standard.” That’s Dionysus talking, by the way, in the chapter covering CNN’s interview with the great god of the vine. And the interview with the proprietor of the renowned Gobs-of-Fruit Vineyards is especially enlightening.
There are chapters on appellations (”A Personal Stake in Names”), sparkling wines (”Bursting the Bubble of Effervescence”), Jefferson (”Report to Tom”), and Quality Recognition Deficiency Syndrome (”Blind Spot”). Socrates even has his say. And for those of you nature lovers out there, Lambert-Gocs’ guide to how to spot and track enophiles is a must-read.
Lambert-Gocs leaves us with a “Wine Bore Bonus (no funny business)” - a factual, sourced account on the ancient Greek grape variety that begat cabernet. As the author of The Wines of Greece - the definitive work on the history and traditions of Greek wine - Lambert-Gocs knows a thing or two on the subject, and even here his writing flows with the same brimming intelligence.
Ionesco said, “Explanation separates us from astonishment”, and Miles Lambert-Gocs puts aside punditry and all that blathering, instead laying before us a book filled with delightful anecdote, conjecture, and pure fun. Wine talk can certainly be without meaning for any number of us, but I daresay there’s few among us who would state that drinking wine is without any meaning. That said: add Desert Island Wine to your summer reading list, open whatever pleases, and enjoy.
Italian Pick of The Week, 5/05/08
Filed Under Wine Reviews
Enzo Mecella 1998 “Rubelliano”, Rosso Conero DOC, Le Marche
The reds wines of the region are more or less characterized by their use of the Montepulciano grape. Even though other red varietals are grown it has become Marche’s signature, and is best known in the DOCs of Conero and Piceno. The former has roughly one tenth the acreage of its southern counterpart yet adheres to an exact blending formula as specified by its DOC regulations - Montepulciano makes up at least 85%, Sangiovese up to 15%.
In Fabriano, where Mecella produces his wines, growing conditions allow for slower, more even development and, therefore, more depth and nuance than usually found in Piceno. His barrique aged “Rubelliano” gives off a complex and elegant nose of spice with matured fruits, of raisins and prunes. In the mouth you encounter black cherries and dark, foresty berries, with an underlying layer of damp earth. The tannins are still there a decade later, and it opens with some tightness, but it comes around to drink smoothly and well. This is proof positive that even an often pedestrian and maligned grape can become sublime in the hands of a dedicated craftsman.
Albarino Season!
Filed Under Food & Wine
With the warm weather upon us and the season of root veggies and all things braised blissfully put away for another year, this time has come to break out those bottles of peachy-keen Spanish goodness. Now, don’t get me wrong here: Francophile that I am, I’d be more than thrilled to celebrate the season with a bottle or eight of Condrieu. There is, after all, just something about Rhone viognier’s addictive, eye-rolling-to-the-back-of-the-skull perfume that gets my day going better than any shot of espresso ever could. But sometimes, all you really need are simpler (and blissfully cheaper) pleasures. Which is exactly where albarino comes in.
For less than $15, you can find yourself sipping nothing less than a glass of springtime sunshine. It’s got great acid, a stone-fruit perfume that’s just this side of addictive, and the ability to pair as well as anything else with crab meat. And if peaches and crab meat don’t make you excited about the cruelest month’s merciful departure, then I’d consider moving to colder climes. And getting used to the idea of root vegetables year-round.
Italian Pick of The Week 4/21/08
Filed Under Wine Reviews
Sella & Mosca 2004 Cannonau di Sardegna Riserva, DOC, Sardegna
Located in the northwesteren part of the island, Sella & Mosca has become Sardinia’s signature winery. Its vast acres of vineyards have made it and Argiolas the names most synonymous with wine from this ancient culture.
Cannonau is Garnacha…but nothing like its Spanish ancestor. It is potent, leathery, earthy and infused with the “macchia” that grows wild in the rocky, untraveled interior. Mouth filling flavors of dark forest berries ride along on mild waves of tobacco and dry herbs. There is a tannic structure that provides a solid foundation without sacrificing the primal, rustic nature of the wine.
The best Sardinian wines are simple, direct, authentic - and this fits the description. Have it with lamb or pork. Even better, with one of the unusual pastas found only in Sardinia accompanied by a local pecorino. Or orzo tossed with fresh herbs and drizzled with olive oil.
Eddie Feraud 2005 Chateauneuf-du-Pape Rouge
Filed Under Wine Reviews
What a polished, silky, modern wine, amazingly appealing now but with years of evolution ahead of it. The nose is rich with deeply stewed fruit, cigar tobacco, and an underlying note of black peppercorn. Yet despite its silky texture and sweet ripe red-berry fruit on the palate, the tannins maintain a real sense of grip. This wine embodies what makes 2005 such a benchmark year: The ripeness and generosity of fruit is held in check by gorgeous acidity–a rarity in such a hot vintage.
The Presidential Wino Poll
Filed Under The Wine World
Which Wine Schooler would you vote for?
Who among the staff at the Wine School would you write-in to lead us as President of the United States?
You will note that the wonderful Brian “Pony” Freedman (Roughrider that he is) and Maria “I love Jefferson in the Springtime” Valetta are missing from above below Alas, although old enough to enjoy the wine, neither is yet old enough to run this country of ours (as stated by Article II of the United States Constitution).
At press time, no candidates offered any platforms on which they stand. Platitudes a-plenty. Platforms, sadly, no.
Cast your votes and the Wine School shall endorse the Wine People’s Candidate!
The Presidential Wino Poll
Italian Pick of The Week, 4/14/08
Filed Under Wine Reviews
Antiche Vigneti di Cantalupo “Primagenia” 2005, Piemonte
The Colline Novarese DOC is located in the smaller cluster of designated zones in northern Piemonte that includes Gattinara and Ghemme, two familiar names for devotees of Nebbiolo. The regulations for both allow for the inclusion of Vespolino, a blending grape that also shows up with Bonarda in the Oltrepo Pavese region of Lombardy.
Wines from the Novarese area are noticeably smoother, softer, and able to be consumed earlier than their Langhe cousins. There is less earth and tar and the floral aspects more subdued. This Nebbiolo-Vespolino blend from Cantalupo in the town of Ghemme is indicative of its origins…fresh, food friendly, more cherry and raspberry than typically woodsy Nebbiolos from farther south. The tannins are already mild, the acidity keeping the fruit bright throughout.
Like Chiavennasca from Valtellina this is another version of one of Italy’s noble red grapes that illustrates the diversity of Italian wines and serves as a point of comparison to more renowned Nebbiolos.
Sauvignon Blanc Season
Filed Under The Wine World
Finally, it seems, winter has loosened its grip on us. Or, to be more accurate, we’ve finally been treated to something resembling springtime weather: Yes, this past week, we experienced not one but two sunny, warm days. And, in fact, as yesterday was the first truly springlike day of the year so far, I marked it in my traditional way: With hard-shell crabs and sauvignon blanc. The only thing that could have made the pairing better would have been..well, someone else to pay for the wine. But barring the opportunity to drink on someone else’s bill, there is no better way to ring in the springtime than with a cool, bracing bottle of the Loire Valley’s finest. Now is the time for it. Finally.
One of Life’s Great Pleasures
Filed Under Food & Wine
The Wine School is pouring a garnacha these days that is flat-out charming me: The Las Rocas de San Alejandro 2005 from Catalyud, Spain. Not only is it fabulously fresh with notes of ripe cherries–a classic quaffing wine–but it also finds a sense of varietally-accurate depth with waves of dried Mediterranean herbs. What really strikes me, though, is what an excellent pairing partner it makes for pizza. Sprinkle a bit of oregano on your pie and you’ll be taken aback; order it with some sort of herb sausage and your life may never be the same. And if there’s anything better than a wine that’s equally delicious on its own as it is paired with pizza, then I haven’t found it yet.
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