Roundup Resistant

Disappearing Foods

Woodcock for $16, please

2007 Domaine de la Mordorée, Côtes du Rhône Rosé, "Dame Rousse"
40% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 15% Cinsault, 10% Carignan, 5% Mourvèdre
Baked cherries with fennel and lavender--the last two aromas are utilized best as antidepressants, or, if you're the happy-go-lucky sort, breath fresheners. This rose is made from the juice of 20 year-old vines grown in the Southern Rhone. Darkly colored, like the inside of a baked blood orange, and tasting like its jam.
Available at Strawberry St. Vineyard and J Emerson

What if the Kennedy's made wine?

Burgundy, made by the "f" word--family. Inheritance and marriage vinifies, as does death and divorce. Confusing it isn't. If you can remember the names of the Kennedys and their summer homes, then you can remember the names of the winemakers and villages in Burgundy. Jack and Bobby shared a last name and visage, but they were as different as Marilyn and Jackie and Bobby's wife, what's her name.

05 Hudelot-Baillet Chambolle Musigny
Baillet's have been growing south of Morey-Saint-Denis and North of Vougeot for four generations. They hold 36 acres in Kennebunkport, ahem, Chambolle-Musigny, including the tasty bits, 1er Cru “Les Charmes” and Bonnes-Mares.
True to the hype, or maybe because of it, the bottle is hedonistically fragrant: begonia, daffodil, violet, rose, mint, berry. It opens in a Jungian way, slowly and symbolically with strawberry, mint, dried crushed leaves,raspberry in the glass.

2005 Anne- Francois Gros Bourgogne
This bottle is not to be confused with the other Gros of Burgundy, notably her parents, who relinquished some of the vineyards to Anne in the late 80's , or her distinguished cousin, Anne Gros.
Fragrant and fruit-filled-- garnet-colored like the meat of a poached lobster's claw and but not as delicate. Pommegranate, strawberry, must and nutmeg--fresh and flavorful--would be tasty with seared duck or salmon in a soy glaze.


05 Domaine Joseph Belland Santenay
Helmed by JB's son, Roger, this is a tangy, amiable pinot-- yet savory and lasting. It isn't as aromatic as other AOCs, like Chambolle-Musigny, but it is ready to drink and offers satin texture on the palate (as opposed to silk). We had this today with a Caesar salad straddled with rare beef and studded with parmesan. The acidity in the wine went well with the mustard and acids in the dressing and softened a bit with the cheese. The cool-rouged center of the beef was lean and suited for a wine with low++ tanins. Strawberry and rhubarb fruits with a bit of quicksilver. Ok--the quicksilver is a stretch--but there's a cordial minerality to the wine and I use quick silver as a descriptor because these words separately mirror the expense of Burgundy.





02 Francois Parent Bourgogne
Francois is married to AF Gros and makes wine for both. This wine is a shroom-fest under a pitchfork of wet leaves and earth. There's fruit: swirl and love and it it emerges; cranberry, foremostly. Delicious and inspiring to drink an aging, broad AOC that still works. It wants duck breast, root vegetables or mushrooms.

Bye Bye Blackbird

Merlot grapes are aubergine hued, like jewel-box eggplant, and for this reason, Oz Clarke believes the French word, merle, meaning blackbird, is root of the word "merlot". The grapes are the color of a blackbird's feathers.
If you can count your digits, than you can count the number of classic "noble" varietals, and tick merlot off with a thumb. What makes merlot noble is that it makes an elegant monovarietal wine in several places on the map; notably, Bordeaux, Italy, California and Washington State. Washington merlot benefits from sweltering days and chilly nights, is drip irrigated, and sports a full-body while remaining stacked. Fidelitas merlot in Parkerisms is "packed and stacked" with "lots of stuffing".
Charlie Hoppes, winemaker for Fidelitas, makes merlot the way Ferrari makes cars; powerful, stylish, furious and just veering past whimsy.



2004 Fidelitas Columbia Valley Merlot
A multi-vineyard blend
Champoux Vineyard23%
Garnache Vineyard 17%
Goose Ridge Vineyard 17%
Milbrandt-Katherine Leone 17%
Still Water Crreek 13%
Weinbau Creek 13%
Produced and bottled by Charlie Hoppes
This is not a bargain bottle but I opened it with one at 3PM. The retail for this wine is around $30-$40. The second bottle's retail value is around $20. At first sip, the second bottle was more immediately appealing. It had much more fruit while the Fidelitas seemed fragrant, with mocha, but not a lot of berries and it finished with a slight alcoholic heat. The wine had potential, so I waited until 7PM and had a glass of delicate, concentrated cassis syrup, mocha- studded flannel, cinnamon and vanilla. The fruit was cool and the wine was dark, with medium-minus tannins. The alcohol on the finish had become a base for the fruit and texture of the wine and was not as discernable on the finish. The wine had evolved.This is exciting, to try something again and recognize why it is different in the glass. I can't do this with barrel samples---leave that to the growers--barrel tasting, blending, bottling and waiting, the taste bud acumen required is boggling.
And way too acidic. No, too much heavy thinking and tongue scraping required for barrel tasting.
Oh, and the second bottle? By 7PM it was one-dimentional, had peaked, and was dropping fruit.

The Clones of Dr. Dunkenstein

John Stockton and Karl Malone turned me onto Jazz in the 90's. These guys played killer ball and had connective chemistry. Utah being one of the whitest (and wierdest) states in America, it's crazy how good the Utah Jazz was. Basketball found its second homeland in a square state. Just when Utah was on the top of their game, along comes Superman, Michael Jordon. I knew that Utah would never win the NBA championship against the Lakers but in every game they played there was suspension of disbelief. The championship was possible. Like most Americans I root for underdogs, and against Michael Jordon, everyone was an underdog. Yes, Michael got the trophy, but Stockton and Malone almost did. As honed as the Jazz were in 97, they electrifyied in the 80's. The Jazz player sine qua non for voltage is Darrell Griffith. His creation of the vulcanizing dunk-a-thon earned him the best nickname in the history of the game: Dr. Dunkenstein.
So here is this team, out in a state I imagine looks like the inside of an ice cave where Superman spends Father's Day, that smokes, but is never #1. Two decades of great players should-of-could-of-would-of, well, maybe next time. Just like Washington State wine, and every dog, the Jazz will have its day. And, just like Dr. Dunkenstein, the clones grown in Washington, are sine qua non for New World wine in a state that gets less play than CA.

Here's a dribble of WA wines worth trying. McCrea is the caretaker for syrah outside of the Rhone. Quilceda Creek is the Dunkenstein of cabernet with back-to-back slam dunk vintages. Wa's Helix Pomatia is Stockton, the little guy that could. Another all-star from the Columbia Valley Fidelitas:
06 Fidelitas Semillon Columbia Valley
A lasting Bordeaux-style white blend of sav blanc and semillon. The oak is prominent and keeps this wine from fugacity. Toasty fig and apple wrapped in a blanket of nutmeg and white pepper. Monied mouthfeel with a long finish. Like the postman, this wine delivers.

Paso Robles Dinner at the Jefferson

Next month, Victor Brandstetter of Orchid Hill Vineyard will host a Spring wine dinner at the Jefferson Hotel. Here's a sneak peak at the menu:


LEMAIRE
ORCHID HILL WINE DINNER TASTING MENU
Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Executive Chef Walter Bundy
Sous Chefs James Schroeder and Brian Hukey



Pre Dinner Reception
assorted domestic and imported cheeses
Orchid Hill Muscat Canelli 2006

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Early Season Soft Shell Crab
herbed orzo, ramps, English peas
Orchid Hill Viognier 2006

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Garlic Roasted Georgia Quail
Maytag blue cheese, apples, spinach, bacon
Orchid Hill Pinot Noir Estate 2004

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Rhubarb Apple Sorbet

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Grilled New York Strip Loin
morels, asparagus, oven cured tomatoes,
lobster cream
Orchid Hill Syrah Estate 2003

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Strawberry Shortcake
mascarpone, vanilla bean, aged balsamic
Strawberry Cocktail

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Orchid Hill is a 51-acre vineyard located on sloping limestone hills in the Templeton Gap area of the west side of Paso Robles Wine Country on property formerly owned by Jeopardy host, Alex Trebek. These low vigor vineyards are hand-harvested and the resulting wines are rich and bold while maintaining good acidity for the table. The 04 Pinot Noir took home a Gold Medal in the 2006 San Francisco International Wine Competition. The viognier and muscat canelli are voluptuous wines and are featured in a weekly wine and cheese tasting at the winery. But, the powerhouse of the winery is its syrah. California syrah grown on the west side of Paso Robles is a bit rough-and-tumble, but the Orchid Hill Syrah is a refined cowboy. Please join national sales force, Victor Brandstetter , as he leads a tasting of these wines from Paso Robles paired with a Southern-inspired Spring dinner at The Jefferson Hotel.
Registration is $100 per guest, including tax and gratuity
Please call 804.649.4629 or email lemairerestaurant@jeffersonhotel.com

Housekeeping

I don't post retail prices and here's why:
They are as varied as the microclimates within our AVAs. Why?
1. Retailers pay different prices for the bottles they bring in. Some buyers can afford to buy quantities, others can't or don't have the storage space for quantity. Buy more, pay less, and hopefully, charge less. Not everyone can take advantage of bulk-buying.
2. Wines go on deal, or are closed-out, or are pre-sold. Again, not everyone can take advantage of this.
3. Location, location, location. Some retail shops pay more per square foot for the privilege of selling to us.
4. The type of store dictates the price of the wine. Some stores want to move volume and sacrifice bottle-by-bottle profit. Other retailers utilize the loss-leader philosophy when pricing wine. For example, Santa Margarita, probably the most over-rated label of an overrated grape, is a common loss-leader. By loss-leader, I mean that the wine is sold at cost in order to draw customers. Customers see the wine priced inexpensively and come to the conclusion that all the wines in the shop are priced accordingly. Not true--often the rest of the wines are priced over the industry standard of 50% above cost.

There are many other factors not touched on, including the internet shops that don't have the same overhead as a brick and mortar location. But, my point has been made.
I'm thinking of instituting an "expect to pay range" for the wines I post about, so if anyone has suggestions, send them my way.




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