WINESCENE

Time to Buy 2009 and 2010 Rhone Wines

Since 2007 the Rhone region has seen nothing but very good to excellent vintages, with consistent quality and age worthy capabilities with the most exciting new wines coming from upstart producers like Michel Gassier and his sidekick Phillip Cambie. But there are others.

Alain Jaume, long a family with holdings in Chateauneuf du Pape and elsewhere have been steadily expanding their holdings and adding more wines from Lirac, as well as along the Cotes du Rhone Village. Vieux Telegraphe, also a CdP house has recently rolled out yet another CdP as well as their wonderful collaboration with USA importer Kermit Lynch, Les Pallieres where two stunning Gigondas wines come from.

This all leads to the remaining wines in inventory from 2009 and 2010, both of which are exceptionally good for laying down. It is a buyers market as the 2011 wines are just showing up, which means distributors and retailers need to make room. Prices drop, and consumers win.

This is where savvy buyers clean up, picking up wines for sometimes as low as 60% lower than release prices. But once they're gone, future value of these wines will only rise, so for collectors and speculators, its time to buy more Rhone reds from the rising new producers that many who don't know who they are passed over.

Grenache Blanc. Grenache Gris. Two different grapes. Two different tastes.

The 2010 Les Enfants Sauvages Cotes Catalanes Blanc is a delightful wine that comes from the Roussillion region outside of Perpignan, France. Vinified freshly and in a nice dry style, to me, this wine can rival some of the best whites anywhere.

Loaded with sub-tropical fruit flavors, with hints of flowers and a spring day, this is a wine that matches up very well to Peruvian Ceviche, as the Meyer Lemon and fresh picked lime tastes brings out such a nice crispness. Lovers of Alsatian wines can now look south and find a nice alternative as this Grenache blend can also do a wonderful job of standing up against heat from Asian spices.

Location:2010 Les Enfants Sauvages Cotes Catalanes Blanc

2010 J.J. Prum Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese

Last night at Murano in London the wine of the night was the
2010 J.J. Prum Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese. The lovely orange and lime citrus flavors, all encased in a delightful honey on the mouthfeel made it delightful. Prum for years has been one of the Mosel region's star producers and the 2010 release shows they have not skipped a beat.

This is a wine to age and lay down as it is very precocious today.

The Next Big Wine Event - Decouvertes du Rhone

While the winter months mean dormant vineyards, this time of the year is the key selling season for winemakers, as they get to show off wines both in bottle and barrel.

No event is bigger for a wine region than Decouvertes du Rhone, the every other year Rhone Valley four day extravaganza that takes place in Avignon, Mauves, Tain Hermitage and Ampuis over four days, starting March 11.

Between the stands, the discovery tables and the special areas of assembly, like the Femmes du Rhone or the Chateauneuf du Pape who showcase wines in a wonderfully thematic fashion. Then there are the AOC and Villages with winemakers big and small showing whats new.

Most importantly are the after hours events known as OFFs. These are usually by invitation only, but scoring an invite is usually simply just asking for one. The first off of the week is Sunday night March 10, when the International Grenache Association holds their soiree at Delirium in Avignon.

Having never missed a DvR since its inception, this is one wine event where those looking to discover whats happening in the Rhone, that trade and industry won't want to miss.

Feeling Kinda Bleu

The air is full of mist, and the sky is full of fog. Not exactly the night to drive far for dinner, so fortunately Pamplemousse Grille is in striking distance, and they are serving truffles on the menu.

The full menu is $300 for four courses, but I have a better idea. The Herbed Gnocchi in a Parmesan Cream Reduction with the Piedmont White Truffle and the ethereal, and unworldly 2009 Chene Bleu Viognier followed by a bunless Kobe Beef burger with truffled cheese and fries.

Made from high on the hillside in the town of Cresset, the all Viognier first came to my attention during a delightful lunch at the winery this past spring for an ambassadorial meeting to plan the 2012 International Grenache Day. It's a lovely wine, with an exotic perfumed nose of honeysuckle and lavender, encased in white peach fruit. The wine is soft, with low and gentle acidity that takes a back seat to the fruit and spice. It is a lovely wine, and very different from more Northern Rhone viogniers, like those found in Condrieu. It has softer and more lighter mouthfeel, and is far more food friendly than most and pairs perfectly with the truffled Gnocchi. Possessing a long, lingering finish, this is a wine that has 4-6 more years of aging and likely a ten year Lu's life ahead.

Long before it was sold to new owners, Chateau du Trignon was the high value Rhone winery that Kermit Lynch imported and actually made his own Cotes du Rhone and Gigondas wines. Then the Gigondas based Trignon was sold, Kermit found Les Pallieres and sought out another high value Rhone producer to import.

But back in the 90's and early 2000's, for me, Chateau du Trignon was dollar for dollar the best "go to" stalwarts in the cellar. So, as part of the 2000 or older, pull it out and open it up, the 2000 Trignon Cotes du Rhone was tonight's red of choice. Made from Grenache and Syrah, the 10 plus years in the bottle and time in the cellar showed a cork with almost no degradation. It was, other than a kiss like lipstick touch on its bottom, simply pristine. As for what was in the bottle, well, lets start with the youthful color, cherry and raspberry bouquet and a blackberry flavor to start. There's a nice dried cherry mid palate fruit explosion followed by a wild berry finish, so at age 12 the wine is clearly at a point of readiness that provides total enjoyment.

2011 Michel Gassier Nostre Pais Blanc - A Stunning White For Under $20.00 From France

Français : Feuilles de Vignes - Grenache Blanc (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I'm not so much a white wine buyer these days, but the wine I'm very excited about and thankful that I bought two cases of is the 2011 Michel Gassier Nostre Pais Blanc, a delightful blend made from three Rhone grapes. The wine is 90 percent Grenache Blanc, while the remaining ten percent is equal parts of Roussanne and Viognier. This is a far different wine than the 2010 Lou Cacardie which is equally impressive and desirable as a first wine of the night. Here in California the wine can be found for under $17.00 at leading online retailers like the Wine House in Los Angeles and JJ Buckley out of the Bay Area.

Gassier, whose wines come from either the North end of the Languedoc or the Southern end of the Rhone are fantastic. His alignment with consulting winemaker/oeneologist Philip Cambie also can't be discounted, as Cambie is becoming the Rhone grape equal to Italy's Ricardo Cotarella 

The comparisons being made to the Beaucastel Viellies Vignes are notable, but the Nostre Pais blanc is a different wine, other than the nose. The Beaucastel wine will likely live longer, and develop a more waxy quality, while the Gassier white will be far more aromatic and drier. Grenache Blanc is an amazing grape, and here in the USA both Tablas Creek and Margerum Wine Company also make some amazing wines from it. Availability and production while small in the USA is booming in France, and while Gassier makes wines at the top end of the Languedoc, I found that wines in the Roussillion made from Grenache Blanc, like the 2010 Clos des Fees Grenache Blanc to be one of the most ethereal examples of the grape, especially when blended with some rarer Grenache Gris. These are all white wines to seek out and enjoy as I am finding that Grenache Blanc based wines are some of the most food friendly whites around, being right up there with dry Riesling as the supurb alternative to Chardonnay.

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Let's Turn Five Dollars into $300 or More

Census Bureau map of Little Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yesterday I was doing some wine touring in theWoodinville Washington area with two very dear friends who like me, share a very deep passion for wine, and as wine professionals, we don't normally go touring on a weekend. But, one of them, is a very dear friend who moved up to Washington recently and for his birthday, my neighbor and I decided since he no longer can take part regularly in "our Secret Wine Society" events in San Diego, we would bring the "Secret Wine Society" event to Washington with three days of wine to make up for what he's missing. 

At the end of the day of tasting and touring using a combination of lifts, limos and Uber Car, we ended up at Sparkman Cellars, a garage winery in the warehouse district of Woodinville. Of the six wineries we visited yesterday, it was the winery that turned me on the most. Much like Margerum Wine Company or Core Wines from friends Doug Margerum and David and Becky Corey, there was a vibe around the people, and the wines. As I was tasting wines I was offered the opportunity to make a donation to help victims of Hurricane Sandy back in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey where a $5.00 donation let's you play a cork toss game. If you got one of the corks in the jar, you win a magnum of the unreleased 2010 Sparkman Cellars Wilderness Red.

The premise was simple. A glass jar had been set up about 10 feet from the ground. You were handed ten magnum wine corks. You stood ten feet back on the charity line, otherwise known as the "free throw" line.

On toss five, after "whiffing" and a rim shot, the cork floated right into the glass jar. Much to everyone's amazement, and yes, even mine. Tossing a cork, that weighs almost nothing, that distance, in a drafty winery, where the lightest breeze can shift where the cork will end up, of course made it no easy feat. But I did it.

And I did it, not for the magnum, but for the cause. I grew up in Philadelphia and drove through Little Egg Harbor and Egg Harbor on my ways to the Jersey Shore. My late uncle Meyer used to call out the township's name as we drove down in the car "E---gg Harbor" with his southern drawl.I used to laugh when I heard that or when my mom would tell us the story, so for sentimental reasons I gladly gave the five dollars because it wasn't for the toss, but for the cause. 

So now I have this magnum. My friend, and neighbor, RIta and I cooked up an idea on how to drink the wine, once it arrives.

We are going to toss a party for our friends. I'll cook up some "crack" from Cardiff Seaside Market, various flavors of it ranging from the original Burgundy Tri-Tip to the Chipotle marinade to even the Hanger steak, pork tenderloins and chickens. I'm all in, but I've decided to add a wrinkle.

Let's raise more money from the bottle.

We'll open the wine, and for a $10.00 per taste donation I figure we can raise another $300 dollars or so for the people of Little Egg Harbor.  I figure we can easily get 30 tastes or more out of the magnum.

Date and time of the party is TBD. 

Oh..and yes, I ended up buying some of the Sparkman 2009 Wilderness too. It was the best red blends of the day I tasted. It will go great with Cardiff "crack" or pizza, or chicken or even turkey. Best of all, it will go great all by itself. 

Four Red Wines To Know and Appreciate

English: Modified version of Commons image Image:Rhone transit suspension.jpg to show the major cities, rivers and wine regions of the Northern Rhone Valley (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last night I drank a bunch of wonderful wines that just have to be noted. I was up in Seattle for a birthday dinner of a friend. The dinner was at Terra Plata, an urban bistro that has to be on your must visit list if you ever make it to the Emerald City.

The first red wine was the Le Petit Cheval, 2003, a Bordeaux blend that was light, silky and smooth. It was very clearly ready and and delicious.

The second wine that just needs to be known about is from a winery I have become a fan of. Domain de Mourchon, is a Rhone Valley producer I have gotten to know this year. Nestled up in Seguret, not far from another winery I'm fond of, Chene Bleu, is the McKinley family's winery. The 2007 Domaine de Mourchon Family Reserve is made from 100 percent Grenache, and is so complex and rich, layered with forrest floor, raspberry, blackberry and cherry flavors. The wine is nowhere near showing any age, and will clearly go for another 8-10 years. It's complex, knitted and tasty. 

The last two wines are wines that are special to me. The first is the 2009 Comunicano Wine Company Syrah, that I blended in conjunction with friend and winemaker Doug Margerum. The second is the 2007Domaine d'Aupilhac Les Cocalieres. Both are moving along nicely, and are showing forward development and lots of years ahead. The Comunicano red is becoming the Northern Rhone style red that I envisioned when I first started with Doug on the project. The Aupilhac wine is numbingly complex and requires an hour or two to open, but when it does, it goes from being a very good wine, to something for the textbooks of what a wine from the Languedoc should be. Garrigue herbs, fruity middle and an amazingly long, lingering finish.

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Riberach Wine Shop, Restaurant and Hotel

I spent the afternoon meeting up with Guillhem Soulignac, one of the partners in the Riberach Cave, Hotel and Restaurant project in the town of Belesta high in the Roussillion Valley. It's an ambitious project, taking an old cooperative, turning it into a hotel, a working winery and a very neat cave (wine shop) that sells not only the wines from Riberach, but also from leading producers in the area. There red wines are wonderful, smooth, long and elegant, while the whites show off what the area is capable of. None of the wines are "pushed" so far to make them astringent or fat, instead there's a finese and fresh quality to them.

Guilhem and I spent about an hour going through the various wines of Riberach, including their stunning rose made from Carignan and then went into the cave to blend. Getting to play wine blender is always fun and I ended up making a wine of Carignan (50 percent), Grenache (33 percent) and Syrah (17 percent) from the 2009 vintage. We also made up one of 50 percent Grenache but the wine ended up far too astringent. A third was made where we increased the Syrah component pushing down the other two fairly equally, but while it made the wine more approachable now, it likely would have the aging of the Carignan (50 percent), Grenache (33 percent) and Syrah (17 percent).

One other note, the vines at Riberach are old, some passing 100 years of age. They are all grown organically, but there is some clearing of the vineyard of grass and overgrown brush. This year the buds are full and look very juicy already, so if the weather cooperates, Riberach may have an exceptional year.

As for the hotel, nothing has been spared. The ecologically friendly hotel has stone floors inside the old vats. Walls are adorned by flat screen TVs, the beds are fimr, and the junior suite offers a second room for working, along with a delightful terrace. The food in the restaurant is quite good and creative, with as you would expect a very well chosen wine list and spot on service. 

As winery stays and hotels go, Riberach is about tops in my book, as their wines make it only even better.

Clot de l'Origine from Maury, France

When one thinks of wines in the Maury region of the Cotes de Roussillion the usual thought is big, full throttle very Rhone like wines that we see so much of. But, all across the Roussillion Valley there's a movement afoot to make lighter, less extacted and more natural wines. At the front of the line of that is Marc Barriot and his tiny garage winery in Maury, Clot de l'Orgine.

I met Marc at an "off" prior to the start of Vinisud this past February and was impressed with his wine, especially, the whites he's making from Grenache Gris, Blanc and Macabau, the latter which is quickly becoming one of my favorite "white" grapes while his reds that are wines made of Carignan, Syrah, Grenache Cinsault and Mourvedre have a quality not usually found in the area. Marc makes his wines organically, and a look at his vineyard and tasting his finished product shows alot. His wines have a very natural character to them, with tastes of herbs and spices. The nuances in his wines are not for those who don't know, as Marc's wines, when tasted very young require a more educated palate to taste through the wines, but once one does, one finds that the wines of Clot d'Origine are more like Burgundy, then the Rhone. They are not cookie cutter wines like in Napa or Bordeaux, where better wine through chemistry is at work. No, Clot d'Origine wines very terroir specific as are many other wines here in the Roussillion.

Having tasted through most if not all of Marc's wines, one can only hope a smart importer in the USA picks up the wines, and sells them through merchants who can talk about the wines, not just sell them based on their price and value. Personally, I've become a fan of his Les Quilles Libres and AOC Côtes du Roussillon Village wine that is made from 80 percent Grenache, with the rest Syrah, Grenache and Cinsault. There's a great quality in the wine that has it screaming for Tomme de Catelan, local cheese that ripe and nutty, or a nice piece of venison.