Dave McIntyre's WineLine

Bobby Kacher - Dean of the DC Importers

The Washington, D.C., region is a very fun and active market for wine consumers, especially for those of us interested in imported wines. There is a vibrant cadre of wine importers serving this market, enough to keep wine lovers turning bottles to look at the back label to see who is importing which wines.

The dean of these importers is Bobby Kacher, the ever loquacious face, palate and voice behind Robert Kacher Selections. I profile Bobby in my wine column this week in The Washington Post.

Bobby represents about 75 producers, and about 70 of these are French. (He has two producers in Argentina, one in Portugal, and one in South Africa, that I know of.) All are family owned and operated, they emphasize organic viticulture (at least, no pesticides and herbicides), temperature-controlled fermentation to keep the wines fresh, no filtration, etc - many of these seem commonplace now, but Kacher helped promote these practices when he started importing wines in the 1980s.

As you'll see in the sidebar on wine recommendations, I learned a lot about French wine by purchasing Bobby's imports back in the late 1980s. There are many more importers in the DC area that I follow now, and I seem to be learning about more every year as the market thrives and expands. And I've followed Bobby less reliably as I've explored other importers' portfolios. But each time I taste some of his wines, I'm reminded of my wine-loving roots.

And whatever you do, don't miss out on that Saumur ...

The Annual Thanksgiving Conundrum

Thanksgiving is coming, which means wine writers across the country are telling you to worry about what wines will clash with the cranberry sauce. To which I always say, "open one of everything" and turn the feast into a food-wine pairing clinic. But if you can't or won't do that, I offer some guidelines in today's Washington Post Food section. Also, I suggest some wines to pair with the Food section's Thanksgiving menus, including an all-American selection ranging from Argentina to Canada (and points in between).

 

NostraWINEus predicts 2010 ...

What's up for wine lovers in 2010? Here are a few prognostications ...

An increasing emphasis on value over stature as the recession maintains its downward pressure on wine prices. Consumers will continue to "drink down" and look for wines that cost less than they used to spend, but still taste expensive. This will reverberate across the price spectrum - those who could comfortably spend $120 in a restaurant two years ago will continue to look for quality in the $60- $80 range, while those who may be cutting their restaurant budgets altogether will look for the $30 - $40 wines that taste like the $80 they used to praise a sommelier for recommending.

The sweet spot in value in the retail market will continue to be in the $15-$20 range, especially for imported wines. Although the average price paid for 750 ml of wine in the US continues to hover in the $5-7 range, the "bang for the buck" is still in the teens.

More wineries will downblend their reserve wines into their basic blends - so we will see fewer $50 cuvées and more in the $30 range from places like California, Oregon and Washington. While these will appear expensive, they will often provide great value.

Bargains in imported wines? Portugal and Spain - more emphasis on the Iberian peninsula for sheer value. Why? Quality price ratio, of course, but also because these wine regions manage to bridge Old World sensibilities with New World preferences for riper, sweeter wines. Argentina will continue to shine, too.

More emphasis on "natural" wines - whatever that means. It means organic, and biodynamic, and - depending on who you read or talk to - even using ambient yeast instead of cultivated yeast. All well and good, and I applaud winemakers who want to preserve the environment and protect their vineyard workers from pesticides, fungicides, and the like. However, I worry that "natural wine" is becoming a buzzword that is more a reflection of marketing than viticulture. Wine has enough polemics - the pendulum may be swinging too far to the left.

The anti-alcohol movement will continue to grow - not an anti-wine (or beer or booze) movement, but a swing against the high-alcohol, high-extraction wines that have dominated the high end of the market the past several years. Consumers will favor moderate-alcohol wines well balanced with acidty, even from areas and wine types we now associate with syrup.

Regional wines will continue to gain in prominence. The Millenial Generation will continue to explore and expand its wine palate, and this rising consumer group appears to be unfettered by its elders' preference for cabernet, chardonnay and merlot. As local wines improve in quality, more consumers will ask for them in restaurants, stores, etc.

For better or worse, wine writing will trend towards new media. The recent demise of the popular Wall Street Journal wine column by Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher emphasizes the shift toward blogs, Facebook and Tweeter as mainstream media - newspapers - cut costs. This will mean a decline in substantive, thoughtful wine articles, but an increasing visibility for individual wine reviews in "tweets" or blog posts. Some familiar names from newspaper columns (Gaiter and Brecher, perhaps?) will gravitate toward blogs and "word of mouth" media like Twitter. But will they have the same market pull? Psst, buddy, wanna try a nice Zinfandel? ...

Happy New Year, everyone!

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.

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.

The Recession Claims Billington

The recession has taken a bite out of the Washington, D.C., wine community with the recent demise of Billington Wines, the Springfield, Va.-based company that helped put South American wines on U.S. dinner tables.

Billington closed its doors May 15, citing the loss of some of its primary clients to other importers, depressed demand for wines because of the economy, and declining sales at Havens winery in Napa, which the company purchased in 2006.

The company’s Web site still had no news of this development as of May 26, but it was confirmed to me by Alfredo Bartholomaus, the company’s founder.

Details are still to be worked out, but most of the wineries in Billington's portfolio will now be represented by Winebow, the New Jersey-based company that grew from an Italian specialty importer into a major import and distribution powerhouse. Many of Billington's sales force, including Bartholomaus and his son, Alex, who has run Billington the past several years, will also work for Winebow.

Alfredo Bartholomaus, who emigrated to the United States from Chile in the early 1960s, started Billington in 1985. His main client then was Cousiño-Macul, Chile's oldest family-owned winery. Working primarily “out of the trunk of my car,” Bartholomaus introduced American retailers and restaurants to the value that Chile produces with inexpensive wines that outperform their competition. His company was one of the first quality importers to spring up in the Washington area – a market that thrives today.

In recent years, the company developed the Big Tattoo line of wines from Chile and Germany, which not only provided tremendous value at $8, but also donated proceeds from each sale to local charities.

“I came to this country with one hand tied behind my back, and I have been fighting ever since,” a defiant Bartholomaus said Tuesday. “I will keep fighting. I will still be around.”

(Some disclosure is in order. Like most wine writers in the Washington, D.C., area, I count Alfredo Bartholomaus as a friend and mentor. He has been a gregarious and effective missionary on behalf of the wines from Chile and Argentina, always with a keen eye, rapier wit and precise palate for the value these wines represent for consumers.)

I will have more on the demise of Billington Wines, both here and on The Washington Post’s Food section blog, “All We Can Eat,” at washingtonpost.com.

Argentina's Andes Advantage

In these recession-plagued times, we're all looking for extra value. Ask any retailer or sommelier what wines are selling these days, and Argentine Malbec will be near the top of the list. "We're selling the hell out of Mendoza," one retailer told me recently. (I didn't even know Hell was IN Mendoza!)

Argentina has some specific advantages in growing quality wines, and you really can't miss them, as they loom over every vineyard and have a way of sneaking into the background of every photograph. But you can read all about it in my April 8 column in The Washington Post.

Can you spot Argentina's secret in this photo?

Fair Trade Wines - Yet Another Factor to Consider???

Vinophiles face a large number of choices every time we buy a bottle of wine. Cabernet or Merlot? Chardonnay barrel fermented or unoaked? Imported or domestic? California or local? (Well, I can dream, can’t I?) Were the grapes farmed organically? What is the carbon footprint of this massive bottle?

No wonder we spend so much time in wine stores!

Add one more factor to consider: Fair trade certification. We’ve seen “fair trade certified” labels crop up on coffee, tea, chocolate and other agricultural products over the past few years as a feel-good reassurance that the developing world workers who toiled to give us a more delicious way of life were paid a fair wage and provided reasonably tolerable working conditions. TransFair USA, the California-based non-profit that certifies fair trade products for sale in the United States, is now bestowing the label on wines from Argentina and South Africa at selected retailers.

It’s a laudable concept, and one to consider if the wines are good. You can read my assessment of fair trade wines in today’s Washington Post.

Xmas Wine Camp 2008: Malbec and Petite Sirah Make Holiday Magic

Christmas is a wonderful time for getting together with family and friends - and for Wine Camp. I've written about this before, and about Dave Johnson, my brother-in-law's brother-in-law, more or less. We do this exercise in wine geekdom twice a year now, at Christmas and Memorial Day.

I lost count of how many wines we tested each other on, and some of the bottles have already been tossed. My notes, as usual, became less extensive and more ambiguous as the afternoon wore on. But two wines stole the show.

Bramare Malbec 2004 from Marchiori Vineyard in Argentina's Mendoza district, was stunning - rich and intense, with flavors of cocoa that seemed to transport Dave back a few years to his childhood; he described it as "Nestle's Quik on steroids." It had more blackberry fruit than the blueberry flavor I usually attribute to Malbec, which threw me off track at first as I tried to guess its grape and provenance. So I kept asking for another sip. Bramare is made by California wine great Paul Hobbs.

Another California legend was responsible for the second stunner of the day. Rosenblum Petite Sirah 2004 from Rockpile Road Vineyard in Sonoma County's Rockpile AVA was ripe nearly but not quite to the point of pruny, with notes of leather, cocoa (hey - Christmas is a time for memories, after all!), plums and cherries. It was long, deep and gorgeous with tight, stony tannins befitting the vineyard's name.

I had the pleasure of visiting Rockpile Road Vineyard a few years back and walking among the vine rows with Jack Florence, Jr., and his father, Jack Sr. They produce Zinfandel and Petite Sirah that epitomize mountain fruit, from steeply sloped vineyards overlooking Lake Sonoma at the far western end of Dry Creek Valley. They sell their grapes mostly to Rosenblum but also to Carol Shelton and perhaps one or two other winemakers. Rockpile wines are hard to find - the AVA is small and only a few wineries make wines from there, and only in small quantities. But if you can find them they are worth a splurge.

I hope you had a joyful and delicious holiday, too! Please tell me in the Comments about the wines you enjoyed.

Maipe - Bargain Wines from Argentina

Argentina continues to produce some of the best bargain wines in the market today, even with economic storms above and below the equator. One of my favorite labels is Maipe, with a consistently good line of wines, including a juicy Malbec, a spicy Bonarda, and a flowery Torrontes. At $10 each, these wines represent great value for everyday drinking.

Imported by Kysela Pere et Fils, Winchester, Va.