Wine

You know how much we love the High Line, it just keeps getting better and...

Robert Mondavi in 1966  My friend Robert Mondavi would have turned 100-years-old today. To commemorate his 100th birthday, and acknowledge how much he influenced the lives of so many of us living in Napa Valley, Margrit Mondavi, and Bob’s eponymous winery, hosted a birthday party of sorts this afternoon. Margrit Mondavi and Genevieve Janssens, Director of Winemaking. Some 200 guests assembled on the lawn at the foot of Bob’s favorite vineyard, To Kalon, and toasted to his memory with a glass of perfectly chilled Robert Mondavi Fume Blanc. Bob would have loved it. Margrit spoke and said that her 28 years married to Robert were among the most cherished of her life. Genevieve Janssens, Director of Winemaking at Mondavi, spoke and said that going forward, all Mondavi Reserve Cabernet bottlings would, for the first time, be made exclusively with fruit from the To Kalon vineyard, which Bob identified as being the most important, best producing, vineyard in the valley. “Mr. Mondavi always urged us to keep improving our wines,” said Genevieve. “From now on, we will only use fruit from To Kalon in our reserve Cabernet... which is one more way to keep improving our wines,” she added. To make better wine, to make wine as good as, or better than, the wines coming out of the Old World, that was Bob’s passion. And boy, did he make a difference and prove his point. I remember nights in the winery’s Vintage Room, well beyond 1 am, spent with Bob and one of his visiting Great Chefs of France, like Jean Troisgros, or Paul Bocuse, sipping and comparing Mondavi Cabernets, or Mondavi Pinot Noirs, with French selections from Bordeaux, or Burgundy, respectively. The chefs always agreed that Bob was on to something... that his wines complemented their dishes equally as well as any wines they brought over from France, and quite a few chefs agreed, off the record in our late night tasting sessions, that they liked Bob’s Napa Valley wines more. Happy Birthday, Bob, wherever you are. I raised a glass to your memory this afternoon, and I shall do so again tonight. It’s an ideal occasion to pull an old Mondavi Cabernet out of the cellar and thank you, one more time, for having introduced me to Napa Valley.

A recipe from Pearl & Ash, a restaurant on the Bowery.

For the latest Recipe Lab, try this highly practical Batali family recipe.

Or try a dry, earthy cider, either from Normandy or northern Spain.

Just on my way home from Bordeaux, and a quick one-night stay for Vinexpo, the huge bi-annual wine trade fair. These Castel girls were unloading a palette of gift bags every few hours, which – inexplicably – punters seemed keen to snaffle. But what was in them worth snaffling? The scale of Vinexpo, with it’s multitiered stands and kilometre long exhibition hall, is quite daunting. It’s not really a place for journalists to come to taste wine; it’s more about doing business. I was here to present a masterclass on Loire Sauvignon. I can’t comment on my own performance, but the wines that were on show – 14 of them – were really good, and showed just how high-quality and diverse Loire Sauvignon is these days. I also spent some time tasting wines – mainly Portuguese and Austrian. An impressive Blaufrankisch from Weninger. Just beautiful: rich yet quite elegant. A new producer to me: Malat from the Kremstal. Amazing freshness and precision in the wines. The wines of J Reinisch, from the Thermenregion, were a nice surprise. Loved this Northern Rhone-style St Laurent. Striking stuff. Tried through a large range of sweet wines from Tschida. This was the best: just beautiful complexity and balance. Remarkable. Great German Riesling: such pure wines from Schloss Johannisberg in the Rheingau. A really great wine from Joao Portugal Ramos. Ripe but very fresh, with great definition. This is seriously good. Also from JPR, this Foz d’Arouce Vinas Velhas 2009 is a remarkable Baga. A paradox of a wine: ripe, sweet fruit, but also amazing structure and precision. I’d never tried the wines of Pocas before, so I put that right today. This, their Simbolo 2010, is really striking. It’s quite savoury, with a bit of sternness, but there’s good fruit here too. It’s a proper wine, I reckon, and could age well. And, finally, last night I dined at Brasserie Bordelaise with Ben Smith, previously of Enotria, now of Concha y Toro UK, along with a couple of Ben’s colleagues. We had a great time, and ended up in a pub drinking weissbier, served by an Aussie bartender who is related in some way to Amelia Jukes.

As part of Dominican University’s invitation-only inaugural Wine Marketing Conference, I was invited to speak on the topic, “Observations of a Wine Marketing Practitioner.” Since all of the other attendees were marketing professors from around the world, I thought it’d be opportune to conduct a tasting of local wines while speaking about wine marketing.  The [...]

A June Monsoon of Maroon, Um, WineMuch classier than a brown paper bag.Time for another parade of wines and the accessories that love them. If you haven't seen our special summer wine shipping policies, get familiar with them before you roll out the barrel. It's just one more way we make summertime the season of wine.

“It’s our own universe, our version of a clam bar the way we’d want it to be,” said Jeff Zalaznick, about the latest restaurant he's opened with Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone.

There are only a limited number of truly distinctive wineries using expert wine making technique in unique terroir to produce wines that are singular expressions of that terroir. When I opened Fass Selections, one of the main reasons I did it was to source and sell wines like this that I couldn't previously find in the United States.The wines of Andreas Laible are wines that have the singularity that I love. They are also about as exclusive as they get in Germany. It's always nearly impossible to get your hands on the limited and allocated quantities of Laible in the States. The top wines are limited production and sell out fast. Most of the top level 2012's Rieslings are already allocated in Germany.The great German producers (Lauer, JJ. Prum, Wittman, Battenfeld-Spanier, Immich-Battiereberg) are also dry/off-dry/sweet wines from Germany with distinction, in that when you are drinking them there is nothing else comparable. Distinct character, for me, is one of the hallmarks of the world's greatest wines. I would put the dry Rieslings of Andre Laible in that class.Today I am offering two of Andreas Laible's brilliant 2012 Rieslings. With the Fass Selections model, these will be significantly less expensive than they otherwise would be if you could actually find them. The first wine is the 2012 Andreas Laible Durbacher Plauerlain SL Spatlese Trocken for as low as $24.99 on the 6-pack. This is a great wine. A wine that is ridiculously great at $40 yet is only $24.99. It is a wonderful introduction to the Laible style with elegant, pure fruit, wonderful acidity and his hallmark scintillating/caressing minerality.The second wine is their "big boy" Spatlese Trocken as Greg Popovich would say (Go Spurs!) and in 2012 the Andreas Laible Durbacher Plauerlain Achat Spatlese Trocken is a knockout and can be had for as little as $29.99 on a six pack.The Achat Spatlese Trocken is disturbingly great. I'd compare it quality-wise with Grosses Gewachs in the $50 and up price category. This wine will leave you muttering, "why have I not known about this estate" and "I really like German wine" over and over. The Achat layers incredible floral notes on the nose with wonderful sappy fruit on the palate to go with the balancing intense 2012 acidity and bracing minerality. When the wine is open for a few hours, the minerality is so complex and interesting that it becomes almost transcendent - almost like no wine I've ever had. I call it the Laible mineral stank.There is such a sense of serenity in Laible's wines. Most people think of Baden as hot and also that Pinot rules down here. There are tons of Grauburgunder, Spatburgunder and Weissburgunder planted in Baden. Some good, some not. Riesling is not considered anything of consequence in Baden as it was deemed too hot by the cognoscenti. Most of Baden is sweltering and that is why they grow Pinot varieties. Enter the Ortenau and more specifically Durbach where the great Plauerlain vineyard resides. Laible's house is right in the middle of this very special site. The Ortenau is easily the coolest part of Baden and that is why Riesling thrives here.The vineyards are like the wine version of Brigadoon; an almost hidden area, nestled by the Black Forest on one side and steep valleys which protect them from the wind. An absolutely unique microclimate in Baden. It is the definition of idyllic, with the winery at the bottom of a bowl of vineyards. Combine that protection with soils mainly composed of granite, gneiss and mottled sandstone (also quartzite and porphyry depending where you are) all which release the warmth of the sun. Ortenau could be in the Mosel minus the slate. The vineyards are steep. I've walked the vineyards with Andreas and it is steep on a par with the Mosel. So hot days, cool nights, rocky soils that absorb and release the sun and steep vineyards all produce an environment that is perfect for producing light, airy, mineral and elegant Rieslings. And no one can do it bette