Dave McIntyre's WineLine

Malbec Throw-Down at Vinexpo

Vinexpo 2009, which ran 21-25 June in Bordeaux, featured an interesting and obviously intentional juxtaposition. The Wines from Argentina pavilion was flanked by a more modest but still brazen presentation of the wines of Cahors, in southwest France, which considers itself the ancestral homeland of malbec, the grape that has made Argentina famous.

The ploy by the Cahors wineries worked as far as this writer is concerned – being rather familiar with Argentina’s malbecs, I was more interested in tasting the French versions. I sat down with Laurent Marre, a sommelier born and raised with the “black wine of Cahors,” who poured me several of the wines on display.

These were arranged from fruity and accessible to more tannic, expressive and expensive. Yet there was an impressive continuity of style and flavors, as one would expect from a wine region that has found its voice. These are large, tannic wines for the most part, with impressive structure, lots of fruit, and minerally finish. Although I am usually a fan of wines that do not see oak, I found myself drawn more forcefully to those that had been aged in new oak barrels for at least part of their lives – the oak gave structure and smoothed out the tannins. A skeptic could easily (and perhaps convincingly) argue that the oak stripped some of the appealing rusticity from the wine. But I felt the Cahors character came through even with the polish. That makes the choice a matter of preference, and probably price.

My favorite producers: Château Lamartine, Mas de Périé (organic), Le Cèdre (organic), Château La Reyne.

Argentina’s malbecs are cheaper and more accessible, which makes them more marketable to the U.S. consumer. But during my short tasting with Laurent Marre, we were interrupted several times by Argentine wine makers coming over to taste the “original” malbecs. So the savvy decision to place the Cahors booth near the Argentine pavilion reached a core audience.

What are you going to drink, dear?

This isn’t a wine glass, actually, but an impressive and thirst inducing decanter. It is rather tricky to pour from, but it certainly does a nice job of aerating the wine. This was taken at L’Envers du Décor, a delightful wine bar and restaurant in St.-Émilion. The food was delicious. The wine, unfortunately, was forgettable, a St.-Émilion Grand Cru Château Something-or-Other.

Life Through Rosé-Colored Glasses

In Bordeaux, Vinexpo week has been blessed with stunningly beautiful weather – bright, sunny skies, warm-to-hot-but-not-stifling temperatures, and steady breezes leading into cool nights. It’s been such a treat after all the rain back home.

That rain had me in a bit of funk as I was writing two columns on rosé for The Washington Post, with summer temperatures in mind. You can still check them – one from June 17 on Old World rosé, the other from June 24 on some worthy ones from the New World. (Don’t forget to click on the links for “Rosé Recommendations” to find some extraordinary wines for your summer sipping pleasure!)

Cheers!

Dave

Photo: Julia Ewan, Washington Post

From A-List to Riffraff in 12 Hours at Vinexpo

One very important aspect of Vinexpo is the industry's effort to flatter the press. On Sunday evening, the Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855 Médoc et Sauternes hosted a black-tie dinner at Château Lafite-Rothschild in honor of the international press attending Vinexpo. Lafite is one of five chateaux ranked as “first growths,” literally the peak of the pinnacle. About 300 guests – press and winemakers – strolled about the lawn sipping on champagne or sauternes and slurping oysters or devouring foie gras. (“Where is that itinerant mi-cuit vendor?” one peckish British publisher moaned.) A gong summoned us to dinner, and we filed solemnly through two barrel rooms, with candles atop the barrels lighting the way. I felt we should be carrying candles ourselves, for it had the air of a religious procession. (Here’s a Decanter magazine video of the party, including an interview of my friend Elin McCoy of Bloomberg News. The online Decanter report is  here.)

Dinner was served in the main barrel room. It was my good fortune to be seated with wine royalty: Two seats to my left was Baron Eric de Rothschild, owner of Lafite; between us was Decanter’s Sarah Kemp (wine writing royalty, resplendent in red hair and British accent – she makes a cameo in the video above). On my right was Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, owner of Château Mouton-Rothschild. At age 75, the baroness is a hoot, and sharp as a tack. She constantly regaled those around her in French and English, while everyone nodded somewhat sycophantically. (As did I, as the evening wore on and I fell increasingly under her charm.) Every now and then, she would turn to me and command loudly, “Tell me about Obama!”

The food was superb, of course, and our table enjoyed a taste-off of Lafite and Mouton, from the 2001 and 1989 vintages, followed by 1978 Lafite poured from jeroboams (jeroboa?). The last wine was magnificently fresh and vibrant, especially considering it was made the year after I graduated high school and has aged much more gracefully than I. Of course, the wine had never left that cellar until I flushed it down the men's room pipes.

As we rose to leave sometime after midnight, the Baroness extended an invitation. “Monsieur Dahveed,” she said. “Please come by and see me at Vinexpo tomorrow! Taste our wines – have lunch with us!”

I said I would. And so I did. Or at least I tried.

The next day I was in the Douro Valley – actually, the Douro alley in Hall 1 at the Parc des Expositions. Just before noon I excused myself and walked outside the hall on the lake side, where several pavilions were erected en plein air for tasting and dining. I walked up to the Baron Philippe de Rothschild pavilion and was greeted by an officious young woman in a white airplane stewardess uniform.

“Do you have an appointment?” she asked, looking askance at my wine writer’s attire – an all-American blazer over a polo shirt and khaki pants.

“Um, no, but the Baroness said - “ I stammered, trying to make sure she saw my badge with “The Washington Post” prominently displayed. I mentioned meeting the Baroness at Château Lafite, but the woman probably thought I'd gotten my Rothschilds all mixed up.

“Perhaps if you give me your card, I will see if someone is available.” I gave her my card (which, according to Post policy, does not mention my affiliation with the paper), and she came back a few minutes later.

“Je suis desolée,” she said. “Perhaps if you come back some time after 3 p.m., someone might be able to meet with you.”

So I went back to the Douro for some more Portuguese hospitality.

Post Scriptum, July 3: I returned home to Maryland last night and turned on my cell phone to check for any messages during my trip. (I'm a cell-phone Luddite, in that I still have one of those antiquated American ones that won't work overseas.) The first was from Baroness Philippine, chiding me for not showing up for lunch on Monday when she had been expecting me. A wonderful opportunity lost, all for want of a GSM mobile phone. Now it seems like a worthy investment. From A-List to Riff-Raff, to Chump.

Scenes from Vinexpo

Vinexpo, Bordeaux's biennial bacchanal for the wine trade, is dangerous. It is easy to get whiplash flitting from Austria to Australia, or Burgundy to Romania, with a mere turn of the head. This wine fair is not your garden variety wine festival where you're likely to get shoved to the side by a thirsty crowd and be forced to swallow a horrible wine because the spit bucket is back at the other end of the table. The exhibition hall would give an airplane hangar an inferiority complex, and the booths have spit buckets to spare. Heck – some of the booths even have restaurants!

Everyone is on the make here. Wineries cater to their importers while hoping to attract new clients in unexplored markets. Wine writers troll the exhibits hoping to conduct interviews and explore a year's worth of article ideas in just a few days.

Here are some scenes from this year’s Vinexpo, underway June 21-25 in Bordeaux.

Something tells me Asia’s an important market …

Argentina is down this way, somewhere …

The Decanter magazine booth, with the winners of Decanter World Wine Awards available for tasting, caused traffic jams in the Exhibition Hall to rival the rush hour bouchon on the Bordeaux ring road …

Now, I love Port, and I love rosé, but I’m skeptical about the combination ….

Watch out! It might be a trend!

Visual Terroir

Sometimes a  photo doesn’t need to show grapes, vines, barrels or bottles to illustrate wine. While researching a column on the dry wines of the Douro Valley in Portugal, I came across this photo I took last July at Quinta do Noval. Something in the geometry of this staircase attracted me when I snapped the pic, but looking at it now, I see Douro terroir – the schist stones blasted out of the terraced vineyards and layered here speak of the mineral soil in which the vines grow, while the narrow stairs up the steep wall illustrate the dramatic slopes on which the vines are planted. And nary a grape in sight.

Spain's Underappreciated White Wines

Spain's white wines - albariño, godello and verdejo are the main ones - have somehow slipped under the radar for American consumers. Restaurants have caught the fever, but most of us have yet to realize that these refreshing wines can be great values for casual summer dining, when we slap a fish on the grill or sit back and relax on the patio. Check out my column in today's Washington Post for some top-notch Spanish whites worthy of your attention this summer.

Bruce Here's in Charge of the Sheep Dip

When I posted yesterday’s defense of my wine pricing on The Washington Post Food section’s blog, several commenters rallied to my defense. Their support is much appreciated. But I couldn’t leave one comment, from someone called “sheepherder,” on the Internet without a challenge. Not so much because sheepherder would like to herd me into oblivion, but because the criticism leveled is so wrong and ill-informed that I could not leave it alone.

Here’s is sheepherder’s lament:

Mr Mcintyre should be shown the door at the WP. He reviews are wrose than his predecessors and don't hold a candle to Ben's.

If the WP keeps him he needs to concentrate more on VA and MD wines and throw in East Coast wines for good measure. At least one column a month should concentrate on local wines only. You have more than enough material for 3 local wine columns a month and tastings. With all hoopola over eating local the Food section of the WP needs to get with it and concentrate on local wines along with local produce, local cheese and local meat especially locally raised lamb! And lets not forget the stock dogs that work local livestock. Nothing beats watching a a good herding dog moving 500+ sheep and lambs on beautiful spring morning with fog just lifting.

Posted by: sheepherder | May 28, 2009 7:26 AM | Report abuse

(Sheepherder was referring in his nostalgia to Ben Giliberti, who wrote the Post wine column for 20 years and rarely, if ever, wrote about local wines. I believe this is the first published comment I’ve seen since I took over the column last October wishing for the old days. Some sort of milestone, I guess.)

And here is my reply, posted on Sunday, as soon as I saw the comment:

Oh, Sheepherder, wake up and smell the sheep dip. I've written more about local wines in my eight months with the Post than anyone ever has, including Ben (who doesn't like local wines, by the way). Remember my recent column on Virginia Viognier? My column about local wines in October (and my creation - with a friend - of the DrinkLocalWine.com Web site and "Regional Wine Week")? Or that I recommended Virginia wines for Thanksgiving, including them along with wines from elsewhere because they are good enough not to be treated as novelty items anymore? I reported on Jim Law's shift to lighter bottles at Linden, and I included Virginia in my recent column on US Sauvignon Blanc. Did you see Mary Jordan's fine piece about Virginia wines wowing the British vinoscenti at the recent London International Wine Fair? It was published merely ONE DAY before you posted your comment. Who do you think alerted her that Virginia wineries were coming to London?

You have seen plenty of coverage of local wines and the local wine scene in my columns - and you will continue to, if you pay attention.

Thanks for reading - and thanks to everyone else for the kind words and support. I appreciate all feedback, including negative (as long as it's justified, which sheepherder's complaint is not.)

Cheers,
Dave Mc

Posted by: DaveMcIntyre | May 31, 2009 12:43 PM | Report abuse

And here are the columns I’ve written for The Washington Post since I took over the wine column last October 1 that either feature or mention local or regional wines:

October 8: Local Vintner’s Grow Respect

October 15: Some Rules Are Made to Be Broken (I have to fix this link – a Virginia wine was featured in a column on unusual blends.)

November 19: The Annual Puzzle of What to Pour (Virginia wines included in Thanksgiving wine recommendations.)

December 24: When it Pays to Be a Lightweight (Linden Vineyards featured in discussion of wineries switching to lighter bottles.)

January 7: How to Put Riesling Fears to Rest (New York and Canadian Riesling featured.)

April 1: A Grape Virginia Vintners Can Love

May 13: Sauvignon Blanc’s American Makeover (Virginia Sauvignon Blancs touted.)

And one extra:

May 27: Virginia Makes Wines? Yes, and London Likes Them (By Post London Correspondent Mary Jordan. Unfortunately, I was unable to go to London for the International Wine Fair, but I did alert Mary to the idea of a fun story that would resonate back home, and she did a terrific job. I hope she got to taste the wines!)

Whine Pricing

The complaint was predictable. I had written about Heart's Delight, the premiere wine charity event in the Washington area – one of the premiere events in the country, an event that over the past decade has raised more than $8 million for the American Heart Association and its fight against coronary disease and stroke. The column combined elements of drama, or at least what passes for drama among wine lovers: The world's pre-eminent wine critic, his recent pronouncements on the surprisingly high quality of the 2008 Bordeaux vintage, the havoc the economy was playing with prices in Bordeaux, and how the turmoil is hurting one of D.C’s finest wine stores as it struggles to sell its inventory of previous vintages.

This is the stuff wine lovers eat up, even if they can't afford to drink it up. But all the drama couldn't satisfy a chatter on the Food section's Free Range online live discussion. “Arlington, Va” complained about the prices of the wines presented at the charity auction, which ranged in price from $30 to $180. “I understand, just like the car column has to review Rolls and Mercedes once in a while to keep things interesting, but when will your wine column review a selection of under $15 wines commonly available at Giant, Safeway or Trader Joe's? Isn't The Post's budget for buying wine for you to sample getting a little thin these days?” the chatter asked.

Food editor Joe Yonan was prepared to come to my defense, noting that I routinely recommend wines costing under $15 and that he expected the complaint because, unfortunately, “people don't seem to be able to remember wine recommendations from one week to the next.” He didn't ask me to respond, perhaps fearing I might get a little too testy.

So I decided to look at my previous columns for some perspective. In the five weeks before that May 20 column, I recommended a total of 37 wines. If you had bought one bottle of each of those at the retail price listed, you would have spent $611, or an average of $16.50 a bottle. Those included a $50 pinot noir from New Zealand and a $36 California fume blanc, but also 31 wines at $20 or less and eight at $10 or less.

I devoted a column in December to wines under $15, and another in March to the effects of the recession on our drinking habits. I have consistently included inexpensive, overperforming wines in my recommendations. I am fully aware that the average price paid for a standard-size bottle of wine in America is about $5. However, I am also aware that most wine at that price is boring at best and horrible at worst. That's why I recently started a monthly “Recession Busters” feature in which all wines recommended will be over-performers that cost around $10 or less.

A newspaper wine column should not be just about wines from Giant, Safeway or Trader Joe's. It should be about wines that offer value at any price – by which I mean wines that taste more expensive than they cost.

Those wines, frankly, will mostly be found in specialty wine stores, such as those listed in my articles. These retailers seek out value-performing wines. We are lucky to shop in a highly competitive market that has importers and distributors searching out great-value wines at all price ranges. Some of these wines are produced in the hundreds of cases, or thousands, but usually not in the hundreds of thousands. So they won't be available everywhere. Stores and distributors may run out of them, because they are not made by the boatload. Those are the wines I feature in my column.

Sometimes we might find one of them at a supermarket, and I have mentioned those in my store listings. But the wine column should find wines that overperform, not wines that speak to the least common denominator. I will continue to write for the entire spectrum of wine lovers: the collectors who might support a charity auction, as well as average readers worried about the recession who want to find a tasty wine for Wednesday dinner. (For the record, I belong to the latter group.)

And to “Arlington,” I would just say this: I can't persuade you to spend more for your wine, but I hope you will read my columns carefully and try some of the $10 and $15 gems I recommend. You might be surprised. And on those Wednesdays when my recommendations don't fall into your price range, please remember that wine is a bigger subject, even in these tough times. Take another sip of your budget find from last week's column, and remember that I'll have more for you in future columns.

This discussion was originally posted May 27 on The Washington Post’s Food section blog, “All We Can Eat.” It prompted several comments, most of which came to my defense. One commenter argued, however, that I should be “shown the door” because I haven’t covered local wines. Moi?

More on the Loss of Billington Wines

In the fallout over the demise of Billington Wines, there is at least some good news: Alfredo Bartholomaus, the company’s founder and a joyful bon vivant, will not be slipping away into full retirement just yet. Leonardo LoCascio, president of Winebow, informs me that Don Alfredo will join the new division Winebow is setting up to represent former Billington brands. While Alfredo’s son, Alex (at left in the photo, with his father), is likely to head the division, the elder Bartholomaus will serve as a consultant and brand ambassador, leading trade and media trips to South America and representing the brands before the press, much as he has done over the past several years. So those of us who know and love Alfredo can still look forward to pisco sours, poetry recitals, and lots of good South American wine.

You can read my full report on the closure of Billington Wines on The Washington Post Food section blog, All We Can Eat.