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Wine Tasting
I just finished reading a prepublication version of Elin McCoy's upcoming book about Robert Parker. I found a copy, by accident, at a local coffee shop and was lucky to read this interesting book before it comes out in July.
On the whole, it is a balanced portrait of everything the man has done well and badly for international wine. I'll have more to say about the book's treatment of Parker when the book is published, but McCoy's portrait of how the wine world changed from the 1970s through today is a compelling story.
McCoy sees the tasting organized in Paris in 1976 by Steven Spurrier as one of the turning points. That tasting, for those who don't remember, created international headlines when a series of California wines bested some of the great names of French viticulture in a blind tasting conducted by some of France's best-known wine critics. Stags Leap came out the winner, matched against some of the greatest wines of Bordeaux.
There seemed to be something democratic and practically revolutionary about the results. The upstarts from America beat out the aristocratic Moutons and Haut-Brions and the lesson was that tasted blind, without seeing the prestigious labels and without knowing the history, the superior wines were from young vines from a young country with a young wine industry which was not trapped by tradition and class privileges. American brashness and dynamism reigned supreme.
More importantly, the old system of evaluating wines, a system based on the history of a region, a vineyard, a producer and the track history of their wines was no longer reliable. Blind tasting, deconstructing wine into fleeting aromatics and flavors was now the way to evaluate the worth of each bottle. Wine was no longer a culture, a way of life, a complement to a meal, but was now an Olympic event best judged by great and aspiring-to-be-great palates. Wine was removed from context and the eventual result was the Score/Tasting Note evaluatory system.
I spend a great deal of time with impassioned vignerons and always try to explain to our customers how the work in the fields and in the cellars is what makes great wine. I try to explain that the 20 second sniff and spit tasting exercise can only offer a glimpse of the vigneron's work and achievements. But, it is often difficult to sell wine as a natural product since so many people in the trade have been trained to believe that the way to judge wine is through a reductionist search for "tasting" characteristics.
So few people now are being trained to taste a wine in context, for where it came from, what it expresses and how it interacts with food and the real world. Instead, we have an external construct of fruit/wood/earthy flavors and aromas and we try to pigeonhole a wine into the confines of these external evaluators. We do not taste and drink the wine for what it is, but for what it approximates in wine tasting lexicon.
Certainly, famous wines are not great wines because of their birthright and history. There are underachievers, deceptions and disappointments -- wine is horribly complicated..
But I am still happy to drink a Raveneau knowing it needs years to develop and seeing a Raveneau label when I drink a Raveneau does not dull my critical perspective. In fact, it enriches my knowledge of what I am smelling and tasting.
Because the wine is not about me and not about my palate. Wine is not a vehicle for egomania, boastfulness and self-promotion. All the great "tasters" I have known are able to submerge their ego and understand what is in the bottle. Where it came from and where it is going. And they've done that without charts, tasting wheels or tortured prose likening wine to 57 different fruits (the Heinz Variety Tasting method).
A great taster is at one with the wine. Something we can all hope to be through experience, constant skepticism and openness to new experience and new sensations.
How boring the world of Points/Tasting notes has become! I even see my friends, people I like, writing endless tasting notes with endless useless fruit/wood/earth analogies that are of no possible use to anyone. Yes, they drop off the points, but they are still using the same methodology. Furthermore, modern oenology has learned how to manipulate wine to create manufactured aromas and flavors that fit into the "tasting palates" artificial construct.
I'm always shocked to see people enjoying fake fruits and fake sweetness and fake viscosity that is so obviously fraudulent and alien to wine. But even people with good intentions get sucked into this whirlwind of tasting frenzy, thinking that they are somehow coming closer to learning something about wine.
Why not just sit down with one great bottle. Learn everything you can about the region and producer. Go visit them on a vacation. Immerse yourself.
Learn to enjoy wine.
Learn About the Rain Saints
Denyse Louis of Louis/Dressner Selections has written a fabulous article about The Rain Saints, a follow-up to last year's popular article about The Ice Saints.
Don't miss it!
Religious Ritual and Louis/Dressner
Joe Bruno and Dave Lininger Sightings!
I don't know where they are today.
I have looked for them today in at least ten parking lots throughout the Detroit area.
Perhaps they are at a day long sales meeting.
Fine Dining in Detroit
I had a wonderful feast tonight highlighting the cuisine of Macedonia.
There are nearly 30,000 Macedonians in the area, a migration that started decades ago when there were actually jobs in the auto plants. Many immigants came to Detroit looking for work over the years, but Detroit has lost 150,000 jobs in the past five years alone and countless thousands before then. The evening was great fun for me as I got to learn about a culture I know nothing about.
Tonights main course was a delicious and savory Ðjuveç. Actually, the little curvy thing goes above rather than below the c, but my keyboard can't produce the typographic character. The dish is kind of like a ratatoutille with savory meat and exotic spices.
The only wine around was a generic Bordeaux that was bottled expressly for Sams Wines in Chicago. The wine lacked character, but nothing can spoil your fun when you are with good friends, having good times and scooping up generous portions of Ðjuveç while watching Serbian television on satellite transmissions.
I didn't spot David Lininger or Joe Bruno tonight, but did see famed Gang of Pour columnist Putnam Weekly. Putnam is now the buyer for a major shop and remains as passionate about wine as ever. Even though David Lininger and Joe Bruno are not his sales reps.
Putnam remains a strong supporter of Kermit Lynch and David Shiverick''s wines. Putnam asked me who the Langdon was in Langdon-Shiverick and i had to admit I had no idea. This remains one of the perplexing mysteries of the American wine industry.
I also met with famed internet personality David Guimond, who is one of the key organizers of the annual Mocool festival in nearby Ann Arbor. They are gearing up for the 18th Annual Confab and it shoot be a doozy.
Tomorrow's highlight will be my ritual Coney Island Hot Dog at the famed Restaurant Lafayette in downtown Detroit, along with unexpected encounters with David Lininger and Joe Bruno in parking lots outside Detroit's many fine wine shops.
What a town!
Help!
I survived the Northwest and have landed in Michigan.
Paul Antonelli is one of the nicest men in the wine trade and I am delighted to be doing business with Veritas again,
Incredibly, I have already sighted two of the legends of the Michigan wine trade this morning. I saw Dave Lininger in a parking lot of Bello Vino in Ann Arbor. Dave still has a moustache!
Earlier, I saw industry pioneer Joe Bruno at another parking lot. I believe in Dearborn.
I wonder what they are doing these days.
An Apology to Jonathan Nossitor
I finally got to see Mondovino last night after condemning the movie for months.
I want to apologize to Jonathan Nossitor. I have been skeptical about the film without seeing it, in the grand tradition of American know-nothingness, but finally got out to see it here in Portland, Oregon. This is a very wine conscious city and the film was playing at a drive-in theatre in Beaverton, a swank suburb housing countless Nike and Adidas executives.
I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I regret that Hubert de Montille was cast as Jesus Christ and that his daughter Alix was featured as Mary Magdalene. Off hand, I can think of 50 other vignerons who better fit the role. Of course, de Montille turns out to be a great cinema presence and has a future as the French James Earl Jones. Great voice and great presence.
The choice of de Montille as the personification of peasant integrity, the same de Montille who is a successful Dijon lawyer and who recently told Pierre Rovani that September 11th was the greatest day of his life, is plain silly, even if it made cinematic sense. Hubert de Montille is the personification of Hubert de Montille and little else. Unfortunately, his central role in the film opens Nossitor to attack as being too broad a propagandist. And this is too bad, because the points made by the film are compelling and largely true even if the choice of narrative vehicle is unfortunate.
The film is fun and revealing, especially if you are an afficionado of hand-held cameras. All the scenes with Michel Rolland are hysterical and the viewer is astonished that Rolland is so taken in by his own Rollandmania that he cannot imagine that Nossitor is setting him up. Every so often, you almost feel pity for the poor Rolland, who delights in looking arrogant, foolish and imperial.
There are beautiful scenes with a peasant in Sardinia who speaks lyrically of his wine and life. The Mondavi family is made out to be too sinister, but again, Nossitor is only dealing in broad strokes here and not the subtleties. But the contrast between the Sardinian family and the Rollands, Mondavis, Parkers, Antinoris and Frescobaldis says it all. It is amazing to see the lavish estates of the wine aristocracy, enormous winery/plantations that they imagine look like heaven but which are more reminiscent of military fortresses.
I can't imagine how someone who is not a seasoned wine geek would understand what is going on in the film. Nossitor imagines that by painting everything in broad strokes he is making the moral issues simpler, but frankly, I think the film would have been more compelling if Nossitor had better showed the complexities of the wine world rather than the shadow world of monopolists. Even with this limitation, the film is a lot of fun and a valuable contribution.
Dining in Portland, Oregon
I had a nice dinner at Higgins Restaurant last night.
We had the good luck of having Andy Zahlman, the restaurant’s sommellier, as our waiter. I always feel that I should have the local produce when dining in a new city and the restaurant has a formidable list of Oregon Pinot Noirs. Most of them come from the Willamette Valley, which rhymes with damnit.
I always trust a skilled sommellier to make a choice for me and Andy is one of the best in Oregon. I don’t know much about the Willamette Valley, even though I have spent many enjoyable hours with Jim Proser from the JK Carriere Winery, so I asked Andy to rustle something up for us that was under 14.5 degrees of alcohol, not in new wood, not enzymed, not yeasted and without Dijon Clones. This might seem like a strange request, but it is how the guys in Sideways order Pinots. If you haven’t seen this film, make sure to take an over four hour air or train trip to any destination in America. The entire American transportation industry is currently featuring this film as on-board entertainment.
Andy hesitated and tried a 1985 Eyrie that unfortunately was no longer alive. Back to the drawing board and he found a 1985 Amity that was just smashing. Maybe a bit short, put pure Pinot elegance, lightness, finesse and fruit. Still young with time to go.
It was a great meal and I want to thank Andy and Higgins for finding such a special wine.
For a white wine, we had a delicious Guillemot-Michel Macon-Clesse 2002. I always thought the importer was David Shiverick, but it turns out that Fran Kysela now imports this wine. I had no idea that Fran was raiding David’s book.
There’s so much great wine out there it is a shame to see too of my best colleagues fighting each other for wine suppliers.
Seattle Rocks!
What a great stay I just had there.
FIrst of all I have to thank the staff at the Compound, Joanne and Shawn, for their incredible hospitality.
I have to thank the Nordstrom chain for making me go up a flight of stairs to see the only remaining shoe cobbler in Seattle and forcing me to trip on the stairs. I've seriously injured my ankle, am in intense pain, limp like an old man, am wearing an ace bandage and am not far from death. I still have several days of Marvining in Portland before I return to New York and I plan on renting one of those motorized wheelchairs.
All my thanks to Dieter and Michael, the evil geniuses behind Triage, our wholesaler in Washington State. What a bunch of guys!
Incredibly, Le Pichet, Seattle's fabulous bistro, had a dinner for me on Monday that sold out. I want to thank Jim and Joanne for a great evening and also thank all the crazy wine geeks, half of whom seemed to be under the drinking age, for showing up.
I had a strange dream last night that David Shiverick, the excellent Ohio-based wine importer, brought peace to Iraq.
God bless him!
Sideways Part 3!
I'm on the beautiful train ride from Seattle to Portland.
They even show movies on this train and incredibly enough they are showing the popular Wine-Sit-Com Sideways. This is the third time in the last two weeks I have been on a form of public transportation showing this loathsome movie.
The two guys are so loathsome and so transaparent and so obviously the creation of hack Hollywood script writers. Only in Hollywood do such horrible and farcial versions of human beings reel in the beautiful, sensistive, intelligent and compassionate women.
I will be returning from Portland to New York on Sunday. I can only pray they are not showing this movie yet again.
Five Years Ago Today
Tuesday, May 24, 2003: Dr. Aubrey Claudius Galloway busted open my chest and wired four cardiovascular bypasses into my system and then stitched me back shut five years ago at New York University Hospital.
It was not a pleasant experience. Please stop smoking, eat well, drink lots of red wine, exercise, avoid stress and spread love to everyone around you. Try to do something to counteract human frailty and postpone mortality. Avoid family histories of heart problems and choose well who you marry and reproduce with. If you can, eat lots of bran.
When you face death you think of what you have. I have a wonderful wife who turned my life upside down and opened worlds, cultures, foods, wines and human kindness to me. I have a son who is incredibly smart, funny and oddly good-looking. A daughter who might eventually be funnier than I am and can see through hypocricy and pretense with incredible speed and wit. I still have two living parents who are celebrating 60 years of marriage in two weeks. I have a business partner, Kevin McKenna, who kept everything running and expanding while I recuperated. I even have a loyal and loving dog.
I work with passionate and engaging vignerons and have never received the coveted Robert Parker Wine Personality of the Year Award.
What else could a man ask for?
My love and thanks to all of you.
Joe Dressner
Snow
I'm sitting in the new Seattle Central Library reading a wonderful book.
The author is Orhan Pamruk and the book is Snow. The book was recommended to me by one of my fellow wine importers. I can't remember if it was Jorge Ordonez, Dan Kravitz, Eric Solomon or David Shiverick. Regardless, all my thanks.
Pamuk is a brilliant writer and the book is a beautifully crafted portrait of modern Turkey. I was supposed to Marvin with some horrible salesperson today, but instead snuck off to the library to read.
Even Margaret Atwood liked this book.She is also a big fan of Dan Kravitz' portfolio. Then again, I may have gotten that wrong and Margaret Atwood might be a big fan of David Shiverick's portfolio.
Both Kravitz and Shiverick have great wines in their book and Atwood can't go wrong.
Seattle Central Library
I just took a tour around this incredible futuristic building.
The main reading rooms are wildly imaginative and filled with light, space and imagination. At the same time, there is something stark and alien about the rooms. Little flourescent touches -- an escalator here, a walkway there -- make it clear that we are participating in someone's futuristic vision. Some of the upper floors are painted wild day-glo colors and you walk the corridors feeling like an extra in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The exterior is striking but reminiscent of bold 1960s architecture. Forty years later, one wonders what was in their mind in the 60s when they built those bold, sculpted boxes.
Since the library is a promoted tourist center, everyone feels free to talk here. An elderly couple opposite me are looking at pictures they took on their digital camera of the original Starbucks in Pike's Market. They don't stop talking and I might be inclined to revive an old library ritual if they don't shut soon. Remember that one --- shhhhhhhhhh!
Of course, that ritual dates to a time when libraries were used for reading and research and contemplation. The Central Library has endless promotional literature on how it is environmentally friendly, sustainable and architecturally innovative. On the other hand, there is very little mention about the library's actual collection. What exactly do they have here?
They do have lots of computer terminals. This is Microsoftland after all and Microsoft (along with Starbucks) are heavy contributors. I suppose much of the collection is digitized. They also have public internet terminals and lots of people are buying things with their credit cards in plain view. I'm considering copying down some of their numbers and getting into identity theft.
Nevertheless, it is a striking building and I hope it does not seems a ridiculous rundown spot in forty years. At the same time, it makes me nostalgic from the New York Public Library's Main Library, the British Musuem or even the futuristic Bobst Library at New York University, where I romanced my future wife.
I have to run to the Louis/Dressner dinner at Le Pichet.
Yikes
They are showing Sideways on my flight to Seattle!
Come and Meet Me in Seattle and Portland!
I'm going to the Pacific Northwest for the next week.
There's a heavy schedule of tasting events, so don't miss out!
Call me on my cell phone for more info: 917.862-3432.
Otherwise, call my office and ask Sheila for the lowdown.
What Happened to the North Berkeley Web Site?
I used to love reading their monthly newsletters.
They had a way of making every wine sound exciting, innovative and the best thing ever made.
Unfortunately, the site is rarely updated these days.
I hope it gets back up and running soon.
As someone who maintains multiple web sites, I know how hard it is to keep current. The internet is so much hard work!
Domaine de Bellivière: They’ve Gone About as North As You Can Go
Domaine de Bellivière is in the northern most part of the Touraine region, with two AOCs -- Jasnières and Coteaux-du-Loir. These are regions where the grapes normally struggle to reach maturity but in 2003 they exploded with sun, flavors, ripeness and bite.
This is an isolated region which made forgettable wine until Eric and Christine Nicolas set-up shop nearly 10 years ago and renewed the region’s reputation. They have received enormous press in France and their wines grace many three-star restaurants. We’ve been working with them for several vintages and have watched them develop and their wines flourish.
We have two wines in 2003 named after birds. The Rouge-Gorge is named after the robin and is made with the cult grape variety Pineau d’Aunis. Pineau d’Aunis is a nearly lost variety you find in this area, in scattered spots near Angers and forgotten locales in central Touraine. Rouge Gorge is perhaps the Richebourg of Pineau d’Aunis – there is a Romanée-Conti but it sells out early.
L’Effraie is a Chenin that is normally razor-sharp with biting acidity. 2003 has wacky richness and this normally dry wine is a demi-sec bordering on a moëlleux -- lovely, concentrated stuff. It is named after the finch.
These are wines that should cost double their prices. The work is so concentrated and sacrificing and the Nicolas have yet to make a dime. It is not easy to sell such an obscure appellation, it takes fanaticism, guts and conviction. That passion overflows in every mouthful. These are wines to treasure.
2004 Pépière Muscadet is Out!
What a great vintage!
Everything has come together and is in place. Buy multiple cases of this wine to drink now, to cellar for the short term, to cellar for the long term, to cellar for the grandchildren.
Several lucky markets have preordered Clos des Briords Magnums, a special hand-bottling done in a fancy bottle at the suggetion of Muscadet Brand Manager Mike Wheeler. I can't wait to get my hands on those!
Domaine de Roally Mâcon-Montbellet 2002 from the Thévenet Family in Clessé
We’ve imported this micro-estate forever.
Henri Goyard started Roally in the 1970s and retired after the 2000 vintage. Goyard then sold the under 8 acres of vineyards in Mâcon-Viré and Mâcon-Montbellet to Florent Thévenet, the son of Jean Thévenet of Domaine de Bongran in Clessé. The Thévenet family is long acknow¬ledged as the leading producer in the Mâcon.
Florent wanted a smaller vineyard on his own. Florent died tragically in June of 2003, a great loss to his family, friends and colleagues. Roally remains an independent estate and is now owned by Florent’s younger brother Gautier.
The wine is world-class Chardonnay, picked at ripeness in the northern Mâconnais with some botrytis, loads of material, depth and charm. The wine fermented for two years and all that bubbling and work paid off.
The northern Mâconnais ripens later than Pouilly-Fuissé and the Chardonnay plants from Goyard and Thévenet are somehow different. -- there are no clonal selections. Goyard always used masale selections and cuttings from old vines when he planted. As did the generation before him and the generation before that. There is an evolved, mutated and complex vine population that you find nowhere else and that is beautifully expressed in the bottle.
This is not simply great Mâcon. This is classic, great White Burgundy. Grand Cru in intent and performance, if not in name.
Available at a liquor store near you.