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New York Times Writes About Harvest at Clos Roche Blanche and Clos du Tue Boeuf!
Melissa Clark has a nice article in Today's Food section.
Take a look:
Being Fed by Catherine Roussel's Mother!
Special Hotel Rates for the October 24th Louis/Dressner Tasting Are Now Sold Out!
A lot of people are coming to the tasting from all over the country and we were able to secure some choice rooms at a special rate.
Unfortunately, we have completely booked (much to our surprise) our quota of rooms and we no longer have these reservations available.
Our apologies.
Some Important Facts About the Louis/Dressner October 24th Tasting
- Formal wear is optional
- The tasting is by invitation only. If you're not invited, you're not invited. Do you go to other people's dinner parties without being invited? This is a private event.
- Having a business card you printed on your home printer which describes you as a wine consultant or wine journalist does not qualify as that all-important invitation.
- You are always free to call our office or send an e-mail requesting an invitation. The worst that can happen is we will say no, but it doesn't hurt to try.
- This is not an event for people with no interest in our wine who want to get drunk or network to further their personal careers.
Objects Confiscated from Gate Crashers at Last Year's Louis/Dressner Tasting.
- Anyone caught filling a half-glass of wine to take a tiny taste and then spilling everything out will have their arms broken at the door by our security team.
- The third person who tells us it is great they can buy direct from us because they can avoid the excessive mark-ups of our wholesaler will have their arms broken at the door by our security team.
- Anyone asking if Galimatias from Domaine le Briseau is available in New Jersey and if they can have the three case price for a one case order because Galimatias will be a hand sell in New Jersey's less sophisticated market, will have their arms broken at the door by our security team.
- Anyone asking why Galimatias from Domaine le Briseau is more expensive to a restaurant account in Connecticut than a restaurant in Brooklyn will be on their way back to Connecticut faster than they can say Metro North.
- The fifth person who tells me that the Poulsard from Emmanuel Houillon is a wacky wine will be subject to a public humiliation, to be announced later.
- Your packages and bags are subject to a security search at the entrance of the tasting, at the discretion of our security staff. We apologize in advance for this inconvenience, but we use a very sophisticated system of wine tasting parasite profiling.
A so-called wine consultant being searched at the entrance of last year's Louis/Dressner Tasting. Notice the offender's lack of optional formal wear.
- This is a very congenial, user-friendly event. Our experience is having gate crashers hurts the ambience.
- Most important, have fun!
Byron Bates Sommelier
The Wine Importer would like to congratulate Byron Bates of Bette Restaurant in New York for winning last year’s annual Louis/Dressner Selections contest during our October National Portfolio Tasting. Byron was one of over two hundred attendees who put their business card in a fish bowl at our annual drawing. Yes, it was Byron’s card which was picked at random to win the big prize – a feature article on this blog.
Byron has been very patient, particularly as it has taken me nearly 11 months to publish this article. There were several legal obstacles – one of New York’s best known sommelier, whose name I legally cannot reveal, threatened action against me if I featured Byron Bates on my blog. This sommelier, who now is the head buyer for a major restaurant in New York, insisted that the contest had been rigged and that we had intentionally awarded the prestigious article profile to Byron Bates because he buys a lot of our wines for Bette Restaurant. After several months of wrangling between his attorneys and our legal team, the sommelier has dropped his legal pressure and I am finally free to publish this article. Let me assure you, dear readers, that the drawing was at random and under the supervision of one of New York’s leading accounting firms.
So, Congratulation to Byron Bates and the whole Byron Bates Family!
What do Thierry Puzelat, George Clooney, Colman Andrews, Pierre Breton, Florence Fabricant, Christian Chaussard, Uma Thurman, Cher, Michelle Williams, Ed Norton, Paul Giamatti, Eric Nicolas, Stanko Radikon, Russell Hermann, Scarlett Johannsen, Ellen Barkin, René Mosse and Alyson Careaga have in common?
All of these people are presences at Bette Restaurant in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. Amy Sacco has brought her clientele to this restaurant where famed sommelier Byron Bates has put together a world-class list of natural, real wines. Rather than serving what would simply be easy to sell, recognizable brands which everyone buys without thinking twice, Byron Bates has tried to bring the world of natural wines to this part of Manhattan’s cultural scene.
Byron Bates was born in Forth Worth in 1968. He father worked on an assembly line at a General Motors factory and his mother worked for Bell Telephone (the predecessor to Skype). He was a cute, cooperative and devoted son.
Byron came to New York to make it as an actor, as many demented young people have done for so many years. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, but found that dramatic exercise and rehearsals tired him out. He became sick of pretending to be a bear or a lion.
Like many young drama students, he started working in restaurants to make a living. From the beginning, the wine side of the restaurant business seemed intriguing to him. Byron loved the weekly tasting sessions for the staff, where he would learn about wine and how it worked with food.
“I got into the wine trade by default,” Mr. Bates said. “I just took an interest.”
Mr. Bates career had its ups and downs before he arrived at Bette. “I don't think you can find anyone in New York who has worked in more places. I’ve been fired or banned all over the place,” he said.
“I was horrible” Mr. Bates said, “I always rubbed the managers and owners the wrong way. I joked around too much and didn't follow procedures…. It was like still being at school, and I was class clown of the restaurants.” As an example, Mr. Bates fondly recalls sneaking behind patrons and picking them with toothpicks in their thighs while they were reading the daily specials.
Mr. Bates’ career settled down and he began to get more serious about wine because of Opus One, of all things. “I was working in a restaurant in 1995 where a sales rep from Opus One came in to train the staff,” he said. “The guy went on and on about the marriage between the Mondavi family and the Rothschilds and everyone is all perked up and impressed. It was a big wine event for us, because usually we were drinking crap like Kendall Jackson and management had talked up this wine event for weeks,” he added.
“Finally, I tasted the wine and remember thinking it was horrible,” Mr. Bates said. “I realized then that I had a perspective on wine and could see through the bullshit. That's where my real wine interest started, or maybe I should say my disinterest in California wine.”
Mr. Bates then went on to work at Pravda and Balthazar and learned much under the wine programs of Jonathan Nossiter, who later went on to make the movie Mondovino. “He wasn't interested in points or trends and during the tastings we only tasted wines that were 30 dollars or under. It didn't make sense to me at the time; I wondered why we were not drinking the heavy hitters. “
But Mr. Bates came to admire the style of wines that Mr. Nossiter was featuring. “The idea was that those were the wines that were going to be everyday wines. Rieslings, food friendly wines. Cabernet Francs and Gamay.”
“That's when a lot of us got interested in simpler, real wines,” he said... “Right after that I became a Beaujolais freak. I became obsessed. Everyone called me Beaujolais Byron.”
In 2000 he spent four weeks in the Beaujolais and cycled all over the region to taste with vignerons. Every day he would drink Beaujolais, hop on the bike, and drive all over the often steep hillsides of the Beaujolais Crus.
“I started going to France once or twice a year and began to understand that wine was an everyday thing. They weren't drinking Opus One or anything like that. That connected me and I was really proud that I understood that. That it wasn't about perking up to a Mondavi/Rotschchild collaboration. Instead, it was working class, almost honorable.”
Now that Mr. Bates has his own wine program, he finds that the clientele is incredibly receptive. “Drinking natural wines is fun, we match them to the food and people love them. It is really as simple as that.”
Mr. Bates still has difficulty making concessions. “I subscribe to the French notion of wine service -- everything should be at temperature and don't preopen bottles,” he insists. “Especially temperatures…it never ceases to surprise me how four star places get away with serving too hot or too cold. Or too oaky or too high in alcohol. You can’t get a good restaurant rating if your cutlery is not up to snuff, but you can if you serve boiling red wine. It makes no sense to me.”
Bette Restaurant has now been open for over two years and with Byron’s help is more than a celebrity hangout. Yes, Amy Sacco is a fabulous host, and if you combine that with Mr. Bates' great wine list and the superb cuisine of Ken Addington, you have a fabulous way to spend your evening.
Byron Bates truly deserves the 12th Annual Louis/Dressner Award for Distinguished Service to the Wine Industry!
Or whatever award he won 11 months ago!
The Wine Importer is Now Available 24 Hours a Day on Skype!
For Immediate Release:
The Wine Importer is now available 365 days a year, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day on SKYPE!
Just download their software. You can get me on Skype at thewineimporter
Don't hesitate to contact me with any questions you have...big or small.
Fringe Benefits of Having a Wine Blog!
You get lots of free books.
Today, I received the thought-provoking What to Drink with What you Eat by James Beard award winning authors Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page (handsomely pictured below). This is a beautifully done hardcover book that is so packed with glossy pictures that it is too heavy for a man of my age to pick-up without the aid of a younger assistant.
I've agreed to read their book and in return they will feature my blog in their newsletter to over 20,000 wine lovers. Don't miss my review on Wednesday, October 18th.
The authors were kind enough to also include, stuffed inside the book, some press coverage of their activities. They recently were mentioned on Page 6 of The New York Post opposite an extremely suggestive picture of someone named Eva Longoria, who has nothing to do with the food and wine business. Mr. Dornenburg and Ms. Page had been invited to a tasting of Lorraine Bracco's wines in Southampton and are cited as liking Ms. Bracco's Pinot Grigio, which they told the Post is a perfect match for fresh-shucked clams and oysters.
I quite literally opened the book to a random page, Page 241, where there is a picture of Domaine de la Pépière 2004 in a general section about Muscadet. According to the authors, Muscadet has green apple and salt characteristics. It goes with aperitif, clams, fish (bass), oysters, salad, sardines, raw seafood, raw shellfish and shrimp.
The Muscadet section has a quote from noted wine critic, David Rosengarten, who writes: a Muscadet by itself has hardly any flavor; it is just crisp and lemony. With a salad, the acid in the vinaigrette cancels the acid in the wine, and all the fruit flavors come out. It is a beautiful thing!
Other highlights, opened at random, include Page 113, where they suggest that Tempranillo or Vigonier goes well with Cumin and Merlot goes with spicier curries.
Don't miss this comprehensive and delightful book!
I'll have more about it as I read throgh the 356 pages.
The book was printed in Singapore.
Persuasive Reasons to Go to The October 24th Louis/Dressner Tasting!
- Conveniently located near the IND, IRT and BMT subway lines!
- Pierre and Monique Luneau-Papin from the Muscadet will be serving vintages going back to 1976!
- Eric Texier will be showing strangely elegant Rhône Valley wines!
- Silvio Messana from Tuscany’s Montesecondo will give a daredevil demonstration of unrated Sangiovese wines.
- Radikon wines are back in America and we got them!
- Thrill to Philippe Pacalet’s light and delicate Burgundies!
- Get to taste not one, but two, different producers from Jasnières!
- Taste scores of biodynamic, organic, natural and real wines without having to attend a rambling, lengthy seminar!
- Participate in exciting and lucrative contests, including a drawing to win an encounter with a yet to be found celebrity of undetermined sex, age and race!
Formal wear optional
The Fabulous Cathérine Breton is on the Cover of L'Express Magazine
L'Express Magazine, which is the equivalent of Time or Newsweek in France, has a special issue out on wine.
Cathérine Breton from Bourgueil is on the cover, as she well should be.
Congratulations!
Welcome to The Sorting Table, An Exciting New Wine Importer!
There's a new exciting wine importer with an impressive list of big stars.
The Sorting Table is representing Domaine Dujac in Burgundy, Zind-Humbrecht in Alsace and Castello di Ama in Tuscany, amongst others. According to their web site, the company:
brings a new level of service and information to the selling and marketing of fine wine in the U.S.
All I can say is that it is about time and more power to them! They've figured out how to do this, almost to a science, and I'm sure they will revolutionize the wine industry. According to their press release:
TST also has developed a proprietary, virtual, infrastructure designed to enhance communications and information flow among suppliers, distributors, key accounts and consumers. This enables the company to manage marketing, sales, product shipments, depletions, inventory, and account profiles at a higher level than traditional wine distribution companies.
They're on to something here. What the wine world really needs now is a proprietary, virtual, infrastructure and these are the guys to do it! They come with rich experience from Wilson-Daniels and Sam's in Chicago and too many varied virtual infrastructures to mention on this site.
This Wine Importer warmly welcomes TST!
Radikon - A Passion for Tradition
by Kevin McKenna
Stanko Radikon is a maverick in a land of mavericks. The town of Oslavia, on a relatively tiny stretch of hills north of the border town of Gorizia in the Isonzo zone of Friuli, is home to a number of talented and individualistic wine makers. From Radikon’s home, you can carry a plate of freshly cooked polenta to Edi Kante and Jasko Gravner, two other world-renowned winemakers, and still eat it piping hot.
Joe Dressner and I showed up on a bright, chilly morning in April at 7AM. It was hard to recognize Stanko in his vignaiolo duds. We had recently seen him wearing a natty suit and white button-down shirt at a counter-Vinitaly winetasting a few days before. Stanko was standing on the road watching for us because the sign for the winery had been removed years ago. Anonymity was the only way to get some work done and avoid waves of wine tourists.
Joe and I had an 11 AM flight from the nearby Trieste airport and it had been a long week, so we were hurried and tired, but excited to be at the winery. We had had a few memorable encounters with Radikon’s wines stateside. They were interesting, complex examples of what had come to be known, in reference to the ancestral origins of the winemaker’s working in this style and their geographic proximity to the neighboring country, as the “Slovenian” style of Friuli wines – namely hand-harvesting, extended skin maceration, large, older barrel fermentations without temperature control, no added yeasts or enzymes, and little or no use of sulfur.
The steep rolling hills surrounding the Radikon’s home/winery are testament to Fruili’s viticultural legacy. It was a particularly beautiful day to see the contiguous near 11 hectares of Radikon’s narrowly planted vines, still without foliage, laid out on the steep slope of marbled limestone clay in front of the terrace between his home and winery.
The vineyards were originally planted by Stanko’s grandfather Franz Mikulus with the local favorite, the Ribolla Gialla grape. In 1948, Stanko’s parents, who had inherited the property from his mother’s father, planted Merlot, (Tocai) Friulano and Pinot Grigio. Today, Stanko, his wife, Suzana and son, Sasa maintain their family’s land.
We asked Stanko how he came to make the wines we had tasted earlier that week.-- these golden wines, rich with complex fruit aromas, notable for their length in palate and ability to age. Stanko simply said, “It’s how my grandfather made wine in the 30’s”, and shrugged.
That made sense to us. Radikon explains on their website:
“The winery’s philosophy is to always make a natural, organic wine with the least human intervention possible and with the maximum respect for the soils and nature.
In the vineyard, the vines are planted extremely tight (between 6. 500 to 10,000 plants per hectare). We do not use any chemicals or synthetics and the treatments using absolutely innocuous, non-harmful products are minimized. Through careful pruning and selection at the time of harvest, the hand harvested yields are kept well below 2.25 tons per acre.
In the cellar, the grapes are de-stemmed and then macerated on the skins for 30 days more, with experimentation of 6/7 months for the whites, and 35 days for the reds. The pressing is done softly using a pneumatic press. All phases of the vinifications are in Slavonian oak barrels, first in wood vats and then in large barrels in which the wines are aged for about 3 years before bottling. The vinifications are done using only the natural yeasts present on the grapes. There is no sulfur added at vinification or bottling.”
Radikon, while extreme, has never thought much of the use of anfora, or buried terra cotta jars, for vinification. His idea of wine is an ideal taste of recent memory, not a renaissance of ancient winemaking arts. But not one to avoid controversy, Radikon, along with Kante, have initiated a new discourse on the ideal vessel for wine with the 2002 vintage releases.
First, Stanko believes that the 750 ml size does not really provide the right amount of wine for 2 people to share at dinner – an argument not easily rebutted. Therefore, he wanted to bottle all of his wines in liters and half-liters (because 2 people could then have a half liter of white and a half liter of red).
Following from this, in studies that he and Kante conducted with a cork manufacturer, they have devised what they think is the proper size of cork for these two bottle measures that gives the optimal surface-to-air permeability ratio for aging their wines. It is a narrower, smaller cork than the classic model. In deference to this cork, Stanko himself created a prototype bottle from silicon for the new liters and half-liters, and then had them manufactured at a local bottle factory. They are graceful, elegantly-necked bottles that were designed to fit in to most spaces where a 750ml bottle would.
The wines:
Jakot 2002 (100% Friulano)
Ribolla Gialla 2002 & 2001
Oslavje 2002 & 2001 (40% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Grigio and 30% Sauvignon)
There is no difference in the vinifications of the wines, except that the Oslavje is vinified as a field blend with all varieties harvested and fermented together.
It took us another year and some debate to convince Stanko that he should appoint us his new importer for the United States, but we are very happy to include these very interesting and distinctive wines in our portfolio.
Nana's Chophouse Menu Finalized for September 18th Louis/Dressner Portfolio Dinner
It's only $75.00, its centrally located in Raleigh and you can reserve by calling at 919.829.1212
Here's what's planned:
Reception
Goat Cheese and Fig Streusel
Duck Rillettes with brioche crouton
Crab Salad with apples and celeriac on cucumber
Roasted or Grilled Oyster with melted leek-potato “chowder” and pancetta dust
Francois Pinon, Vouvray Mousseaux, Brut MV
Francois Pinon, Cuvee Tradition, 2005
Eric Nicolas, Les Giroflies, Vin de Table, MV
1st Course
Mussel Bisque
Gingered spinach and poached mussels
Clos Roche Blanche, Sauvignon No 2, 2004
2nd Course
Pan Seared Flounder
Fennel and frisee salad with brown butter- tarragon vinaigrette and lentils Du Berry
La Pepiere, Clos des Briords, Cuvee Vieilles Vignes, Muscadet Sevre & Maine Sur Lie, 2005
3rd Course
Roasted Squab
Wild rice “risotto” with cranberries, carrots, cranberry-infused demiglace finished with foie gras butter
Clos Roche Blanche, La Closerie, Touraine, 2004
Dessert
Figs
Francois Pinon, Cuvee de Novembre, Vouvray Moelleux, 2003
Everyone is Getting Old!
Even Buster has aged incredibly over the past year.
This is probably the last year we will do a Cuvée Buster Sancerre at Thomas-Labaille. We've been doing one too long there. We need to move on and call this bottling something else.
Tomorrow is my 64th birthday. The Sherff, a regular contributor to my comments sections, has graciously invited Denyse and I to eat at Alain Ducasse's four-star, New York restaurant.
What are they talking about?
I just took at look at The Wine Spectator's web site, where there is a curious report:
What's better than sex? "SexyBack" with Veuve Clicquot. At least Justin Timberlake thinks so. Veuve was the 'tween dream's drink of choice on Aug. 28 when he and his crew hit the trendy G Spa & Lounge in Manhattan's Meatpacking District to celebrate JT's forthcoming album FutureSex. Given the title, it's no surprise that more than half of the album's songs are filled with innuendos and come-ons, like the lyrics from the racy hit single "SexyBack": "I'm bringin' sexy back / If that's your girl, baby watch your back." JT and his producer pal Timbaland toasted their collaborative effort with Veuve, and during the three-hour party, the crowd had its fill too. MTV News reporters noted a "seemingly never-ending amount of Champagne flowing." Which is always a good idea in our book, but for the record, Unfiltered would prefer to drink Veuve without having to endure those lyrics.
I know I'm an old guy, Friday is my 64th Birthday, but I can't understand what they're talking about.
Does anyone have a clue?
Thank goodness David Schildknecht is reviewing almost of the world's important viticultural regions for The Wine Advocate. He's a literate guy and I hope, by example, he elevates the level of prose in today's wine press.
Don't Miss Marc Ollivier's Incredible Cuvée Granit Mal Etiquetée Reserve Bottle!
Years from now, this rare collector's item will be worth enormous sums of money in the auction market, much like other classic examples of mislabelled commodities, currencies and postal stamps.
Cult Muscadet winemaker Marc Ollivier, who was recently called The King of the Muscadet by wine critic John Gilman, mislabelled his New York shipment of Cuvée Granit 2005. This delicious red Muscadet is a combination of 19.6% Cabernet, 19.6% Côt and 19.6% Merlot. Unfortunately, Marc put the wrong label on the bottles he sent to New York and the label mistakenly identifies the wine as Cépage Cabernet.
To correct this error, the bottles have been decorated with a beautiful gold label reading: Cuvée Granit Mal Etiquetée. Roughly translated, this means Cuvée Granit Mislabelled
Hold on to these collector items and keep them for your grandchildren. They'll be worth a fortune.
The Next Big Thing in Restaurants!
Eating in the total dark, that is.
Several cities around the world already have such restaurants and everyone swears it opens up new sensory sensations. Or something like that.
The latest is in Montréal and I'm sending my kids there Friday night to give it a try. There's an interesting article in the Montreal Gazette about the concept:
The Next Big Thing!
Chat with Wine Importer Joe Dressner and Wine Writer Alice Feiring!
Alice and I will be standing on the Northwest Corner of Bond Street and Lafayette Street on Thursday, September 14th from 2:15 pm through 3:00 pm.
There will be a special VIP discussion starting at 2pm.
Don't miss this compelling event!
Louis/Dressner Tasting at Chambers Street Wines on Saturday, September 30th at 4:15 PM
This is going to be a great event and it is open to the public!
That includes you!
There is a special VIP preview starting at 4 pm. There will be many new releases, some of which are top secret and cannot be mentioned until the day of the tasting.
Chambers Street Wine is located in downtown Manhattan, coincidentally on Chambers Street. It is a wee bit west of Hudson Street but East of Greenwich. I'm not sure if it is Greenwich Street or Greenwich Avenue.
Downtown Manhattan is very confusing. All hell breaks loose as soon as you step out of the more reasonable Uptown grid.
Don't Miss Exciting Louis/Dressner Dinnner On Monday, September 18th at Nana's Chophouse in Raleigh, North Carolina
You are invited for hors d'oeuvres and 4 seated courses prepared by Chef Konrad Catolos... featuring Loire Valley wines from the Louis/Dressner portfolio,
The date is Monday, September 18, 2006. There will be a reception at 7 pm and dinner will start at 7:30. It will cost only $75 and reservations can be made by calling 919.829.1212. The call will be absolutely free if you call using Skype, which has free calls throughout North America through December 31st.
I've never had the pleasure of sampling Chef Catolos' cuisine or dining at Nana's Chophouse. Here's how they describe themselves on their excellent web site (findable with a Google Search):
Nana’s Chophouse is an Italian style Chophouse with a contemporary American influence – A high-energy environment with a sophisticated feel. Our guests are treated to the Triangle’s finest service and highest quality, cutting edge culinary fare. Chef Konrad Catolos provides skillful preparation of local and seasonal ingredients expressed in creative antipasti, appetizers, fresh pastas and entrees. Our bar menu is served until midnight on Friday and Saturday, accommodating late night diners and post-theater patrons.
Nana’s Chophouse was born from a 1937 meatpacking plant. The brick walls and exposed beams reflect the old uses, but the rich millwork and warm yet contemporary finishes bring new life to the space. Rich walnut and brown leather cover the booths, while stunning gold and yellow fabric pop around the room. The space is designed to have an intimate feel for couples and small groups, but still a continuous and open space.
Don't miss this exciting event!