Wine

A review of the Binyamina Reserve Unoaked Chardonnay 2011 and the Highland Park Loki 15-year-old single malt Scotch Whisky. By Joshua E. London and Lou Marmon Washington Jewish Week  May 9, 2013 Last week we noted that a wine’s flavors are primarily the result of how and where the grapes are grown coupled with the skill of winemaker, and that wine is essentially free of additives. There are parts of the wine producing world where the nonadditive approach is simply common practice and well-established tradition, while there are other regions where this sort of nonadditive winemaking is actually regulated. Even where regulation prevails, however, there are sometimes stipulated allowances for certain invasive steps and ingredients. In some regions for example, where grapes develop with low sugar content, the winemakers are permitted to add some sugar to provide more sugar than the grapes can do on their own for the yeast to ferment into alcohol (this is commonly referred to as “chaptalization”). Another common additive is sulfur dioxide (SO2), generally noted with the slightly alarming all caps, “CONTAINS SULFITES,” on the back of most wine labels. Even though this sounds bad, sulfites are naturally occurring anyway because wine yeasts produce sulfur dioxide during the fermentation process. Indeed, wines with no added sulfites contain anywhere from 6 to 40 parts per million of sulfite already. Additional sulfites are added merely to preserve freshness and stop fermentation in fruits and juices. Sulfite use has been in vogue since Roman times. In modern winemaking, sulfur is used as an antiseptic to kill yeast, bacteria and molds, and sulfur is also used as an antioxidant because it can inhibit enzymes that cause oxidation. Mostly though, as we noted last week, the most frequent “additive” to wine is simply the use of oak barrels, either as the vessel used for fermentation or, more commonly, as the vessel used for aging the wine. Various types of oak have diverse effects upon the wines. For example, American oak is thought to impart more vanilla flavors into wine as compared to French oak. The interior of the barrels are also “charred” or “toasted” by fire to various degrees by the cooperages, depending on the species of oak and the specifications of the client. It is up to the winemaker to choose the oak type, toast level and duration of contact with the developing wine. Occasionally, in any given harvest (“vintage” in wine-speak), some of the wine may be given, say, medium toasted American oak treatment while other wine might be given lightly toasted French oak treatment, and then all of the barrels will be blended together for the final product. Since oak barrels are expensive, some wineries merely add oak chips or staves of oak barrels to the stainless steel tanks in order to approximate some of the same effects of actual barrel Aegina. The positive influences of oak are upon the color, body, texture and character of the wines. However it can also be used to mask flaws and, for a while, there was a tendency toward too much oak, resulting in some wines tasting more like twigs than fruit. Not surprisingly the pendulum has shifted. Now there are wines that the consumer had associated with oak-aging that are increasingly being made in stainless steel, with no oak influence at all. Chardonnay has long been made into noteworthy wines without seeing any wood at all. The advocates of “unoaked” Chardonnays believe that the wood masks the wine and that unoaked more accurately expresses the nuances of the grape. A kosher Israeli example is the Binyamina Reserve Unoaked Chardonnay 2011, a vibrantly flavored wine expressing loads of peach, pineapple, orange and melons on a medium frame with a clean, mineral laced finish. Spirits-wise, rather than leap headlong into another discussion of oak and whisky we thought we’d return to

So, like, what is this stuff, anyway? I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes with you via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be quirky, fun, and easily-digestible reviews of currently available wines. Below is a wrap-up of those twitter wine reviews from the past week (click here for the skinny on how to read them), along with links to help you find these wines, so that you can try them for yourself. Cheers! 10 Tendril White Label Pinot Noir (Willamette Valley): Inching its way towards spicy awesomeness, should really bloom in 5 or 6 years $48 B+ >>find this wine 10 Euclid Sierra Foothills Syrah (Sierra Foothills): Not afraid of exploring the feminine side underneath the manly, smoky exterior. $40 B+ >>find this wine 09 Z'ivo Pinot Noir (Eola-Amity Hills): Juicy wild cherry, slathering itself in spices as it admires its own sexy-thang-ness. $40 B+ >>find this wine 11 Cloudburst Chardonnay (Margaret River): Like plugging into the Death Star's power generator, if made of lemon curd & stone fruit $150 A- >>find this wine 11 Altos Las Hormigas Terroir Malbec (Uco Valley): Argentina's silkiness + France's peppery spice and flowers = our crowd-pleaser. $17 B >>find this wine 11 Altos Las Hormigas Reserva Malbec (Mendoza): A well-lit view of a peppery, chalky and deep dig into their mysterious bit of earth. $30 B+ >>find this wine 08 Nieto Senetiner Cadus Finca Villa Blanca Malbec (Mendoza): From 100 yr old vines, this gaucho has far to ride & ain't in a hurry. $NA A- >>find this wine 11 Nieto Senetiner Malbec (Mendoza): High volume, high on the oak, but high on the quality, age-ability, likeability & nods to France $12 B >>find this wine 12 Nieto Senetiner Don Nicanor Chardonnay Viognier (Mendoza): Starts with honeydew, fnishes with grapefruit, cleans up along the way. $20 B+ >>find this wine 06 O Fournier Syrah Cabernet (Uco Valley): Kind of like artisanal Spanish tailoring on some high-end South American threads. $95 A- >>find this wine 06 O Fournier Alfa Crux Red (Uco Valley): Savory, herbal, meaty Malbec meal served up on stylish and elegant earthen dishware. $48 A- >>find this wine 11 O Fournier Urban Uco Torrontes (Cafayate): Floral, pithy, rich, structured, and coming to the rescue of your wine spending account $10 B+ >>find this wine 09 O Fournier B Crux Red (Mendoza): Leatehr-clad dark and light berries, duking it out over a span of austere, flower-laden territory $27 B+ >>find this wine 12 O Fournier Urban Uco Malbec Tempranillo (Uco Valley): Sweet, plummy, and a little forward, but underestimate it & you'll regret it. $12 B >>find this wine 11 O Fournier B Crux Sauvignon Blanc (Uco Valley): Melons & hay; also, about as sexy and heady as a passionate roll in that hay. $19 B+ >>find this wine Grab The 1WineDude.com Tasting Guide and start getting more out of every glass of wine today! Shop Wine Products at Amazon.com Copyright © 2012. Originally at Wine Reviews: Weekly Mini Round-Up For May 20, 2013 from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

Have to say, it’s pretty amazing that you can buy a six year old wine as a current release for just over $20.

Why should you care? The distinctive South African variety called pinotage was created in 1925 at the University of Stellenbosch by crossing pinot noir and cinsault, the latter grape known at the time as  “hermitage” in South Africa. Although pinotage is the Cape wine region’s signature red grape, it’s a variety that polarizes tasters, especially those outside South Africa. Its detractors are put off by what they describe as aromas of burnt rubber or banana, and many traditionally styled examples make rather rustic ambassadors for South African wine. But the best pinotage bottlings are complex, deep and serious wines, and many modern-style examples are juicy, stuffed with fruit and utterly satisfying at a reasonable price. What does it taste like? The suave, cleanly made Painted Wolf 2010 Guillermo Pinotage Swartland from Painted Wolf is one of the best values in pinotage I’ve tasted in recent years. Its perfumed aromas of black raspberry, blueberry, spices, game and smoke reminded me of syrah. On the sweet, pliant palate, ripe acidity frames black and blue fruit flavors, and the wine’s smooth, building tannins give it the structure for at least a few years of positive development in bottle. My rating: 90 points. How much does it cost, and where can you find it? $20; Southern Starz.

One of the best Dad’s Army wheezes of the British home guard in the phoney war which later went postal, was to jumble up the sign posts on country lanes in England so that when the panzers rolled up the road to London, they’d end up in Middle Wallop. SA vinous terroir is very Mom’s [...]

What’s happening to the wine blog world? Attrition. It reminds me of my college classes. We’d start the year with 40 students in the class, and by the end of the semester, we’d be down to half that size. The only class that didn’t go that way, and actually seemed to grow, was the Wine [...]The post What’s happening to the wine blog world? appeared first on Wine Blog.

Last week I was able to attend the “Taste the Wines of America” Congressional Wine Reception, which coincides with the annual Board of Directors & Membership Meeting of WineAmerica, and organization which "...serves the interests of wineries in all 50 states by leveraging its formidable grassroots lobbying strength to benefit the entire industry.". The reception is a unique event that allows guests to sample wines from throughout the United States (see list below) and particularly those made from non-standard grape varieties. For instance, we sampled a few Chambourcin - notably our friends at Port of Leonardtown Winery (MD) as well as Glacial Till Vineyard & Winery (NE). In fact there were several Nebraska wines with James Arthur Vineyards and Soaring Wings Vineyard Dragon's Red from Frontenac - being two more to follow. Texas was represented including Blanc du Bois ( Chisholm Trail Winery Belle Star Lone Oak Winery) as well as our favorite the McPherson Cellars “Tre Colore” Red Wine. Temparnillo seems to be a popular grape in the Lone Star state as two wineries brought some to share: Landon Winery & Pedernales Cellars. Tennessee's Arrington Vineyards contributed their Petite Noir made from the Noiret grape - another Cornell University variety with Steuben as a parent. The wine is interesting, raspberry with a little smoke finishing with smooth tannins. But perhaps the most unique non-standard grape was the Valiant Vineyards Winery Wild Grape Wine - actually produced from wild grapes. Proprietor Eldon Nygaard uses native vitis riparia (riverbank grape) that grow along the rivers and streams in the South Dakota and being native grapes are very cold-hardy and disease resistant. Nygaard's property resides near the banks of the Missouri River and while chatting he explained how Lewis & Clark camped on his site. He also showed us pictures of his Wild Grape Wine in wine shops in Paris selling for over 70 Euro. You don't have to pay that much in dollars - it's closer to $30 domestically. The wine is quite good, somewhat jammy as are many native grapes, but with a chocolate texture and a smooth tail. Very nice. Nygaard was also pouring his Full Throttle Saloon a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Norton - another nice wine Moving to more traditional grapes, there was plenty of Riesling represented by Colorado, New York, Michigan wineries. The Black Star Farms Arcturos Riesling was a favorite - with the brand being named for the brightest star in the constellation Boötes and the northern celestial hemisphere. Fenn Valley Vineyards Edelzwicker (Riesling and Traminette blend) was another nice wine from the Wolverine State. The Midwest was also represented by other Michigan wineries as well as a couple from Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana's Oliver Winery. Unfortunately no mead. The Northeast was well represented with wines from throughout New York state - from Lake Erie to Long Island. From the later, Cabernet Franc was well represented from the North Fork by Clovis Point Wines, Palmer Vineyards, & Osprey's Dominion Vineyards. From Connecticut, the Jones Winery Chardonnay was quite nice and we always enjoy the Dornfelder from Presque Isle Wine Cellars (PA). Heading into Virginia, I had never sample the Lovingston Winery Petit Manseng - giving us another incentive to visit the winery. Needlesstosay, there was quite a few wines being sampled - other favorites included the Colorado Cellars Winery (CO) Gewurztraminer; Gallifant Cellars (AZ) Chenin Blanc; and Stone Hill Winery (MO) Norton & Vignoles. What about the big three - California,Washington, and Oregon. They were well represented with several Oregon Pinot Noir - all very nice and very similar. L'Ecole No. 41 wines and proprietor, Marty Clubb, came from Washington and his Columbia Valley and Walla Walla Valley wines are always fine. Note to self to start drinking more from the Pacific northwest. And finally their were several California wines with the most interesting being the

Nice sort of name. Great Expectations for this wine though, I don’t harbour. Modest ones, perhaps.

From the people at Scotchman’s Hill, though I’m not sure whether or not to include that in the name.

Robert Parker, in what was called “a rare interview with the French magazine Terre du Vins,” denied “the idea of the ‘Parkerisation’ of wines and the emergence of a richer, riper style made to please the critic’s palate.”  Now, the information I cited above comes from an article about the Terre du Vins interview that was in the drinks business publication. I felt the need to read the original Terre du Vins story, so I Googled it and asked for a translation. Here is the relevant RMP quote: “is there a Parker taste? Even my wife thinks it is, but I’ve never subscribed to this belief. I think my taste is too complex and varied to be defined and placed in a small black or white category. I love too many wine styles, finesse and elegance of Pope Clement the creamy richness of Petrus or Trotanoy, through the extraordinary majesty, the fullness and aging potential of Latour or Pontet -Canet. The same goes for my appreciation of wines from other regions. But I know that even if I live another 25 to 35 years, and when I leave my obituary you read, there will be a reference to wine ‘parkerized’ or to taste ‘Parker’. There is nothing I can do against it.” Even allowing for the eccentricities of automatic online translation, these remarks ring true. So let me accept them as words Parker actually spoke, and tell you what I think. I think Mrs. Parker got it right, bless her soul. Of course there’s a Parkerized style. Everybody in the industry knows what that means. The topic has been endlessly discussed for decades, with worldwide agreement, that, yes, the era of Robert Parker has resulted in wines of higher alcohol, greater fruity extract, stronger oak influence, and a sweeter finish. For RMP not to see this clearly is a bit of a mystery. He may feel that, since he also has an appreciation for lighter, drier wines such as, for example, the Chenin Blancs of the Savennieres (which he described as “among the potentially most profound and ageworthy” of the world’s wines), he has immunized himself against allegations of Parkerization. As much as RMP himself may see things that way, surely the rest of us realize that it isn’t so: Parker may like a broad range of wines, but the high scores he has consistently given to the richest and most extracted of them is precisely what has caused the world to become Parkerized since the 1980s. Parker need not apologize for it. He ought to defer to his wife’s and history’s judgment and accept the verdict. He’s done nothing wrong, except to state his preferences. If the world has allowed RMP’s tastes to dictate the style of its wines, that is not Parker’s fault. It’s not something he set out to do, but happened of its own accord. Besides, I think that Parkerization has had salutary effects. You may like or dislike that style, but at least it has helped to make wine vastly more popular worldwide than it was pre-Parker, and is continuing to do so as RMP and his organization cement their hold on the Asia market. Parkerization also has stimulated a healthy conversation about wine style among critics, sommeliers, merchants, winemakers, educated consumers and others whose opinions count. This debate arouses passions on all sides, and can verge on the ideological; but it’s a good argument to have, as it forces everyone to think about wine in terms of a wider range of parameters than used to be available. I have just returned from two days of tasting the Cabernet Sauvignons of Alexander Valley with some very talented winemakers and sommeliers, and the topic of Parkerization and its associated issues–alcohol level, ripeness, food-friendliness, oak level, fruit bombiness–constantly arose. Each winemaker, facing his task, must decide where to throw down the gantlet on this spectrum, which Parker helped broaden. That, too, is healthy, I think: it may make the winemaker’s task more complicated, for a variety of reasons (including the market), but there’s no reason why winemakers (and proprietors) should n