2003 Petra 'Quercegobbe' Merlot - Toscana

Winery:	Petra
Location:	San Lorenzo Alto – Suvereto – LI -Italy
Wine :	2003 Quercegobbe Merlot, Toscana
Appellation :	Toscana (Indicazione Geografica Tipica)
Price :	~$38
Color :	Dried-Cherry Red/Black
Nose:	Pipe tobacco, polished antique wood, dried rose hips, plum
Palate / Balance / Flavors:	Unmistakable aged cigar wrapper, coating tannins, deep black fruit that is evanescent – moving toward the spice box / cigar notes quickly. Vinous in a way that California often is not – fruit is secondary, this wine makes clear that it is, first, wine.
Style:	Not overdone, not over-oaked, not overripe. Clean and professionally made. Balanced at a big, but agile build. Feels to me like a wine with plenty of time to age well.
Analysis:	13.97% alc, 3.57 pH, 5.1 g/l TA, 0.6 VA, 0.00 ML, 0.24 RS
Comments:	Had to include a photo of our swank new tasting room, complete with an integrated basin in the middle of the table. All part of our new offices, which we just moved into this very week.

Cork Taint - the Survey

Click here to link to the cork-taint survey

This is a cork taint survey that my friend Arthur set up - it can be used by anyone who is willing to track how many bottles they open and then how many of those are affected by cork taint. He will tabulate the results, as we are trying to get a sense of what the real-world level of cork taint might be in wines closed with natural cork closures.

2007 Vina Robles 'Roseum' Paso Robles

Winery:	Vina Robles
Location:	Paso Robles, Central Coast, California
Wine :	2007 ‘Roseum’ Paso Robles (Huerhuero)
Appellation :	Paso Robles AVA
Price :	$13
Color :	Bright pink-red
Nose:	Watermelon, carnation, orange
Palate / Balance / Flavors:	Not quite ripe raspberry, floral notes, and a touch of bitter orange zest / kumquat. Very refreshing style, tiny edge of tannin, I love the balance of sweet fruit with herbal floral and slight bitterness like citrus peel. Doesn’t have the heaviness associated with a lot of Paso dry rosé.
Style:	Tasty, fun, easy to drink lots of this! Like the price too.
Analysis:
Comments:	I really like Vina Robles’ touch with white wines, (reds are generally good too, just that they are SO good at the whites; usually there are a few bottles around our house) – emphasis on fruit, freshness and vibrancy. This is a nice example. (Sorry my photo is so crappy – iPhone does not like up close shots very well.)

2003 Petra 'Rosso' Toscana

Winery:	Petra
Location:	San Lorenzo Alto – Suvereto – LI -Italy
Wine :	2003 Petra ‘Rosso’ Toscana
Appellation :	Toscana (Indicazione Geografica Tipica)
Price :	~$60
Color :	Deep Violet - Black
Nose:	Freshly dug earth, coffee, concentrated blackberry and cassis
Palate / Balance / Flavors:	Beautiful rich open palate, active acidity moves the palate through rich plums, currant, orange peel, and fennel
Style:	Thoroughly modern – lushness of tannin texture, ripeness of fruit, weighty build. Has vigor to age gracefully for many more years.
Analysis:	Too tasty, forgot to save any to run analysis.
Comments:

2006 Pahlmeyer Chardonnay, Napa Valley

Winery:	Pahlmeyer
Location:	Oakville (Napa Valley) California
Wine :	2006 Chardonnay, Napa Valley
Appellation :	Napa Valley AVA
Price :	$65 to $75
Color :	Green – gold.
Nose:	Smoky, burnt almond, orange peel, botrytis ‘marmalade’, fresh cut hay, burnt caramel. Butterscotch, cream Bruleé, browned apples, bananas, roasted pine-nuts.
Palate / Balance / Flavors:	Mouth is rich and full, seems high in alcohol, moderate acidity. Buttered popcorn and smoked oak, a light continual astringency and light bitterness of oak tannin. Our guess is Napa Chardonnay
Style:	Style-driven. No faults in this wine at all, rich and oak based. Going for maximum richness and sweet / browned character over fruit. A triumph of winemaking over fruit character (maybe that’s too harsh, but definitely an example of a wine that was ‘made’ as opposed to ‘grown.’ I know that a lot of people really love this style of Chardonnay – I am a white burgundy guy at heart though…)
Analysis:	14.4% Alc, 3.67 pH, 5.5 TA, 0.0 ML, 1.0 g/l rs(FOSS winescan)
Comments:	95 pts Robert Parket (Wine Advocate,) 90 points Jim Laube (Wine Spectator,) 90 points Steven Tanzer – We tended to agree most with Robert Parker’s assessment that this is a baked and spice wine with astringency and smoke, but we aren’t sure about the score bit. 3,000 cases produced.

Brown Bag Fridays - 2004 Tenuta L'Illuminata "Colbertina" Barbera d'Alba

Winery:	Tenuta L’Illuminata
Location:	La Morra, Langhe (Piemonte) Italy
Wine :	2004 Tenuta L’Illuminata Colbertina - Barbera d’Alba
Appellation :	Barbera d’Alba DOCG
Price :	~$30 retail (Imported by Blavod / Sapphire Brands)
Color :	Deep Claret. Translucent ruby, to slight orange. Pleases the Eye, giant Legs, viscous.
Nose:	Crushed Currant, juniper, orange peel, pepper, salumi. Black-cherry. Musty, fresh-dug earth. Earthy – espresso & chocolate
Palate / Balance / Flavors:	Unripe raspberries and cherries. Herbal, camphor, dried-fruit, citrus. Acidity higher, tannins lower than the balance we are used to in California. Cleansing acidity. Raspberry & plum. Long finish, slight back-palate bitterness. Cleansing acidity – would be an excellent wine with food. Paired with the right meat, something with a high fat content, this wine would show well, (Lamb, duck confit?)
Style:	This is definitely a wine that is balanced toward the herbal and earthy as opposed to overt fruit – it is lean, a bit racy, and moderate in tannin. Appropriately earthy for a wine from a region famous for wild truffles! The fruit character that is present seems like dried strawberry & slightly unripe raspberry. Definitely opens to more floral, rose-like aromas with some air. A well-made wine, it will shine at the table without overwhelming the food. It is nice to taste something that is so clearly not of the California mold. -NRC
Analysis:	13.76% alcohol, 3.24 pH, 7.3 TA, 0.00 g/l RS, 0.00 g/l ML, 0.073 g/100ml VA
Comments:	Barbera tends to be a fairly high-acid grape variety – there is not much of it here in California, but it does well in hot areas that tend to shed acid. Barbera a moderately deep-colored variety, but can be very aromatic and long-lived.

We started having ‘Brown Bag Fridays’ at work – this is a tradition that I am borrowing from Edna Valley Vineyards. The idea is to bring in a few wines, from anywhere in the world, stick them in a brown bag so that they are not visible to anyone, and leave them open so that members of the winery team can taste them throughout the day and offer notes on aroma and style of the wine, as well as venture guesses as to the origin of the wine. At the end of the day, the bottle is revealed to all, (I think that EVV used to give out a prize if anyone guessed the variety and region correctly, but we haven’t developed this that far yet.) The comments are a composite of all the tasters, (though style comment is my own.)

Montpellier – “Tamarillos”

On Monday, I had lunch at Philippe Chapon's "Tamarillos" restaurant, appropriately located at #2, Place du Marche aux Fleurs in Montpellier.

Pierre, though not much more than 40 years old, has had a strong career before starting his own restaurant in Montpellier. He trained as a patisserie chef, and was the French Champion chef in desserts twice, and worked in some amazing kitchens through his early career. His own restaurant is small in size, and nicely suited to turning out perfectionist cuisine that is inventive, delicious, and refreshingly lively in flavor.

I just had the lunch menu at this tasting – I am planning to go back Thursday evening for the full degustation menu.

Here are some notes from the menu – I will list them in order – photos are above, hopefully in the same order as the notes. Sorry, again just my iphone camera was on this jaunt, and it could be better as a camera.

Amuse Bouche: Foie Gras Vanille – This was a delicate slice of foie gras terrine, scented gently with vanilla, textured perfectly on toast points. Perfect!

Entrée: Scallops, seared and served with a warm spinach salad, pistachio, and fresh flowers. This had a balsamic reduction over the top – the flowers were impossible for me to identify, but they looked almost as if they could be arugula flowers, except that they were blue. This was delicious – the scallops were perfect. I had heard that all the French fisherman are on strike because of diesel prices, but Philippe knowingly said, "not ALL fishermen" so apparently he has a source that is happy to keep good clients well provided.

Plat: Veal Cutlet, Chestnut puree, sauce a l'Orange: This was incredible – delicate, fragrant, almost honeyed in aroma. There were tiny white flowers dusted over the surface of the veal, I would have sworn that they were Olive flowers – their nectar was beautiful and intense without being intrusive in the experience of the food. The orange sauce was light, zesty, just barely sweet, and delicious. Veal prepared just to rare – perfect.

Refreshment: Les eaux des Fleurs – (waters of flowers) – this was a light infusion of sorrel and hibiscus flowers, almost like a cold tea, slightly sweet and a perfect palate cleanser.

Desert: Tarte Vanille, dry Poires - this was great too. A classic, rich vanilla tarte, with crisps of pear as an accent. Light, delicious, perfect.

Café: a chocolate and hazelnut crisp served with the café. Sugars for the café are infused with various flowers. Perfect and delicious.

Notes on a few wines that I had with the meal:

Had a perfect rose to start with – not sure of the producer now…

2004 Chateau Puech-Haut, Saint Drezery – Deep color, dark chocolate character, aged tannin character, fruit receding towards dried fruits, plums, figs; very good wine.

2006 Chateau de Cazeneuve, "Les Calcaires", Pic St Loup – Deep color, fig & dust, great tannin, a bit of heat which this wine will certainly grow into. Fruit is secondary to herbal, chocolate, rich dried characters. Love the dusty, cocoa texture.

Mas Amiel "Cuvee Special" 10 Ans D'Age, Maury Appellation Controllee – This was a Banyuls-type dessert wine. It was served chilled. The label says that it is aged for 1 year outdoors in glass bottles, and then another 9 years in barriques prior to bottling. Simply GREAT. Chocolate / Tobacco / preserved cherries. Great residual tannins – this wine really held onto them throughout the slight sweetness and through the aging.

This is a must-visit for any serious foodie whom finds themselves near Montpellier.

Tamarillo's
2 Rue du Marche aux Fleurs
34000 Montpellier, FRANCE
04 67 600 600 phone
04 67 600 601 fax
www.tamarillos.biz

Tasting Notes- Joseph Drouhin, (Burgundy)

Whites- The 2003 whites I tasted were different from most white Bourgogne wines that I have tasted in the past; lacking a bit in intensity of flavor and acidity. In fact, the acidity balanced by great flavor and richness are what I really appreciate in Chardonnay from Burgundy. The Vero, a second label 'negociant' bottling, is a decent enough value, but there may be other wines that would provide a greater level of pleasure for the same price.

2002 'Vero' Bourgogne Blanc ~$20 retail- This is a generic Chardonnay from Burgundy, but in the mouth it is anything but generic. Hazelnut aromas, solid structure for early drinking, not a long ager. Sweet cream, a bit of 'struck match' & minerality. Devoid of oak. Nice wine.

2003 Joseph Drouhin, Mersault- Light oak aromatics; spice, quince, cardamom. Hints of Matsutake mushroom, fennel seed, pear. Delicate lilly floral accent in the finish. Minerality and nice build; not at all racy, but rather measured and full.

2003 Joseph Drouhin, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru, 'Folatieres'- Medium richness, creamy texture, minerality. White peaches, wet stone, flinty 'struck-match' sulfurous touch. Soft, subtle.

Reds- These were 2003 wines, a very warm vintage in Burgundy, and the Vero from 2002. (Also included is a bottling from Drouhin's Oregon estate.)

2003 Domaine Drouhin Oregon, Willamette Valley- Very Oregon. Slightly herbaceous, with stewed leaf, balanced by raspberry and loganberry. This is their basic bottling, and it shows characteristic restraint with the oak. Not overripe, which was a danger for Oregon in 2003. Very enjoyable!

2003 Joseph Drouhin, Chorey-les-Beaune- Deep color for a Bourgogne. Plum, cherry and ripe strawberry aromatics, with light structure and open tannins. Grapey, with lightly reduced character. Nearly Grenache-like. Not very typical for Pinot Noir.

2003 Joseph Drouhin, Gevrey-Chambertin- Northern Rhone aroma, with white pepper, violets, and raw meat. Tough grainy tannins, slightly bitter. Oak pronounced, with vanilla, coconut lactones, and some raw oak tannin. Slightly alcoholic.

2002 Vero, Bourgogne Rouge- Stemmy green tannins, spice, clove & cinnamon. Decently elegant, if focused on these dry spice flavors. Angular, with grippy, rough 'cat's tounge' tannins. I liked it quite well.

Tasting Notes- Burgundy & CA Pinot Noir

2003 Merry Edwards, Russian River Valley, ‘Olivet Lane Vineyard’ $54- Pleasant aromatics, orange rind and strong coconut oak lactone character. The weight of this wine is lighter than I am used to in Merry’s wines, and the oak treatment seems to have been tailored to a bigger wine. The result is a somewhat awkward mouthfeel, with oak tannins sticking out the edges of the wine a bit. Successful overall, despite the intense oak character.

2003 Capiaux, Santa Lucia Highlands, ‘Pisoni Vineyard’ $45- Pisoni is a very highly respected site in Monterey County’s beautiful strip of benchlands above the Salinas River, near Greenfield and Soledad. Unfortunately, this wine does not convey that beauty well. The slightly aldehydic nose made me suspect neglect, or misused micro-oxygenization, and in the mouth, this wine tastes exactly like store-bought tannins. I don’t know very much about this winery, or their winemaking methods, but according to their website they don’t add anything at all to their wines. If you love big, dark, anonymous, obnoxious wines, this may be one to try. If you truly love Pinot Noir, in all of its Burgundian elegance, look elsewhere.

2003 Fritz, Russian River Valley $29- Love the aromatics, campfire, sweet spiced oak & vanilla. The structure of the wine is somewhat racy at first, but supported by lots of pretty fruit and spice character. This was one of my favorites of the tasting; unmistakably California Pinot Noir, and definitely delicious.

2003 Gary Farrell, Russian River Valley, ‘Russian River Selection’ $34- Aromatics were somewhat sulfurous at first, but blew back toward minerals, light berry and a juniper freshness. Felt thin and incomplete in the mouth, perhaps a slow fermentation or some other problem? Not my favorite, but at the same time not undrinkable.

2003 Saintsbury, Carneros $26- Subtle aromatics, apple & beetroot earthiness. Structurally a bit severe at this point, sharp tannins on the attack that are not supported by midpalate richness. Although the above does not read like a huge endorsement, the whole works together quite well, and it was actually one of my overall favorite wines of the tasting. Someone mentioned that they produce 26,000 cases of this bottling, so you have to applaud that kind of availability at this quality level, especially for Pinot Noir!

2002 Domaine Vincent Girardin, Santenay 1er cru, ‘Les Gravieres’ $39- Devoid of aroma, either positive or negative. Thin, minty, herbal on the palate, with only sharp, gritty tannin on the attack, a muddled mess in the mid-mouth. Suspect Brettanomyces.

2003 Domaine Anne Gros, Grand Cru Clos Vougeot, ‘Le Grand Maupertui’ $160- The fruit and oak are complexed seamlessly in this wine, from the nose through to the finish. Rich, harmonious, supple, and absolutely likeable. This is a wine that seems simple on the surface, but promises more interest with time.

2003 Domaine Louis Jadot, Savigny-Les-Beaune 1er Cru, ‘La Dominode’ $35- Nothing worth noting in the nose at this point, thin, severe build. (Corked?)

2003 Domaine Du Comte Liger-Belair, Vosne-Romaneé, ‘La Colombiere’ $75- The single most interesting wine of this flight. The nose was pungent and powerful, expressing minerals, clove and hard-spice, and zest of orange, along with a powerful ‘marine’ freshness that persists onto the palate. Some fat in this wine, but compensated by the mineral intensity. Quite lovely.

2003 Domaine Christophe Perrot-Minot, Vosne-Romaneé, ‘Aux Champs Perdrix’ Vielles Vignes $153- Amazingly aromatic; sweet oak notes, brown sugar, iodine, Laphroiag, and the briny, marine aromatic again. Very fat on the palate; almost lacking in acidity. Tannin is persistent through the wine. A ‘tiramisu’ cocoa suggestion on the finish. Was not a favorite of mine early on, but as this wine opened, it revealed a lot of layers of complexity. (This vineyard is just slightly uphill from the world-famous Grand-Cru sites of La Romaneé, La Romaneé Conti, Romaneé Saint Vivant, and La Tache.)

2003 Robert Groffier Pere et Fils, Gevrey-Chambertin $70- Delicately scented with raspberry, melon, and strawberry. Harmonious on the palate, but lacking aroma and fruit intensity.

Sauvignon Update

Just to update on the Sauvignon tasting yesterday afternoon:

Overall, we were disappointed in the quality of the wines we laid in. Even some very highly regarded wines from New Zealand, with accompanying high scores from the publications seemed 'off' in many ways. Two of the California wines were absolutely undrinkable, one from some mysterious combination of poor cooperage, unhealthy lees and possible slow fermentation, the other from residual sugar that was so high and out of balance with the acidity to make it a caracature of Sauvignon Blanc. The third was a Napa Valley sauvignon, which while flawless, was absolutely uninteresting in a 'Sauvignon blanc tries to be Chardonnay' sort of way. Overall, we were surprised at the levels of residual sugar in the wines; I am having the lab run full analysis on what is left of the wines to see where they ended up.

Here are the wines that we did like:

2004 Marlborough (New Zealand), Kim Crawford- Impression of softness in the mouth, green aromatics are not out of line, lime-zest and green fig fruit, more floral and perfumed than the other NZ examples, which were more overtly vegetal. The most "inoffensive" and "commercially acceptable" in the words of one of our panel.

2003 Pouilly Fume, "Les Champs du Cri," Marc Deschamps (Loire Valley, France)- Sulfurous nose initially, with a cooked-cabbage note. This blew off quickly, revealing more of a wet-stone, mineral, and lime character. This is a very solid, big example of Loire Sauvignon. This was not one of my favorites, but the rest of the panel liked it quite well. (I reserve the right to change my mind, if faced with a plate of perfect, fresh oysters!) At any rate, everyone else liked it so much that there is not enough left for the lab to even run a sample on!

2004 Chevery, Domaine du Salvard- I tasted this wine a few days ago, and really liked it as well. It confirmed my thoughts about this being more of a new-world weighted wine in the mouthfeel and the assertive aromatics. Surprisingly, not many of the panel liked this wine much at all, except for one of the other winemakers. (Am I just a total acidity freak?)

2004 Nelson (New Zealand), Neudorf- This was not one of the panel's favorites either. I liked everything about this wine except for the level of residual sugar. The nose was more elegant than the other NZ examples, and in the mouth the acidity was tempered by the residual sugar, making it seem more balanced to a point. But on the finish, the R.S. spun the wine wildly out of balance. (Disclaimer: My friend, Jim Esper (now Assistant Winemaker for Lemelson winery in Carlton, Oregon; great pinots, and GREAT Riesling!) did a harvest at Neudorf a couple years ago, so I really, really wanted to like this wine. They are primarily a Riesling and Pinot Gris producer, and this may influence their Sauvignon style.)

The rest of the wines failed, to one degree or the other. Even wines that have been highly rated by the press. A couple of the NZ wines under screwcap seemed as if they may be suffering from reductive problems, it would be interesting to know more about them. Others may have suffered in transit or storage.

On the bright side, our favorites of the tasting were samples of our 2005 wines, spun down in the centrifuge to clean them up from the yeast and sediment still in suspension. Despite being high in alcohol, the aromatics were absolutely correct, acidity searing in some cases, and a good, lengthy finish. I made a sample from both the standard Sauvignon block as well as the Musque clone, which is amazingly aromatic in the grape form, but always seems to become the more muddled, 'sweaty armpit' style as it ferments. The main block has very heady aromatics, but the texture of the musque, rich and animal and yeasty adds a lot of interest in a small addition to the more straightforward fruit and floral notes, (anyone know what a fejoa tastes like? That is exactly the fruit character!) So things look good for our 2005 Sauvignon if we don't muddle them too badly from here out!

2004 Cheverny, 'Domaine du Salvard'

We are tasting a flight of Sauvignon Blanc wines at work tomorrow, in an effort to solidify some sense of where our wines can and do fit into the marketplace. I can't wait, as I really feel that I need some more specific guidance from Marketing and the owners as to where the wine should be going, stylistically. I should have a lot more info to guide some critical blending decisions that need to be made early next week.

I have been busy procuring some examples of wine types from around the globe, and the selected wines have begun to arrive this week. In one of the shipments, from The Wine Cask, in Santa Barbara, I ordered an extra bottle of an inexpensive wine from the Loire appellation of Cheverny. I do not know much about this AOC, but turned up some info on the web. Apparently Cheverny AOC allows reds from Cab Franc and Pinot Noir, and whites from Sauvignon and Chardonnay. I think I remember seeing a note to the effect of 60-85% Sauvignon being typical in the appellation whites. (If someone has more solid knowledge, please share!)

SO, I have a bottle here at home this evening of the 2004 Domaine du Salvard Cheverny (blanc,) imported by Kermit Lynch, and retailed at $13.

Definitely a familiar Loire aromatic in the nose; a tiny touch sulfurous, but yielding to a kind of struck flint, crushed granite minerality. Fans of solid acidity will appreciate this wine, and yet it has a very new-world richness on the palate. I would guess that we are in the 13%+ alcohol range here, almost a new-worldish opulance, but tempered by the minerality and structure of the wine. Lime zest is the nearest we come to overt fruit in this wine, perhaps along with slightly underripe apricot. I think that this is definitely worth the price of admission, maybe more bang for the buck than a lot of California Sauvignons...

This is going to be LOVELY with dinner tonight; I am making a homemade pizza on crisp handmade crust, with sliced yellow squash, fresh chevre, cracked peppercorns, fennel seeds, and a drizzle of a fruity, slightly bitter olive oil. Some salad on the side, (using up the last of the store-purchased salad, as I am starting some arugala this weekend, per my last post.)

There is a bit of chill in the air this evening, but I just got the fireplace started, and it will soon be glowing with a gentle heat. A good night to read, I guess!