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 ...

Chablis: The Ultimate in Unoaked Chardonnay

I consider myself part of the Anything But Chardonnay crowd - at least, until I taste one I really love. Lately I've tasted several from Chablis that make me think of converting to the Chardonnay side of the aisle. These are traditional, unoaked Chablis. I know, some of the rarest and most famous wines from this region are lavishly oaked. As one distributor quipped, "I prefer unoaked Chablis, but I'll never turn down a bottle of Raveneau."

Here's my take on Chablis, in today's Washington Post. 

Cheers!

Chardonnay - Yes, Chardonnay! - for Summer ...

In the summer heat, we often say ixnay to the chardonnay, preferring lighter, more acidic white wines. But we shouldn't reject chardonnay altogether. This week and next, in my Washington Post wine columns, I recommend some terrific chardonnays for summer dining. The key? They are unoaked, with great acidity and moderate alcohol levels.

Click here for my column this week on the value-driven chardonnays of Macon, in the southern end of Burgundy. Next week - Chablis in the north.

Happy 30th Anniversary to Becky Wasserman!

Becky Wasserman is the grande dame of Burgundy. An American ex-pat, for the past 30 years she has represented many of Burgundy's greatest estates, helping sell their wines to the United States, Britain and elsewhere. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to visit with Becky in her offices in Beaune, on a cute little side street off a large square. It would have been idyllic except for the street construction that seemed, she said, to go on interminably. As I look out on my own suburban street, torn up for the second summer in a row for some mysterious water main repair, I want to say to Becky, "It's not just the French!"

My profile of Becky appeared in Wednesday's Washington Post. The photo shows Becky with David Croix (left) of Maison Camille Giroud and Jean-Yves Devevey of Domaine Devevey.

Reading the Vintage Charts

Vintage charts can be tricky. They can enslave us to focus on a high-scoring vintage while neglecting a "lesser" year. Or they can be clues to opportunity - even the "bad" years offer good wines, if you know where to look. And they can provide immediate enjoyment while waiting for the better vintages to mature.

Case in point: the 2006 red Burgundies - dissed as an irregular or "classic" vintage and overshadowed by the highly touted 2005s, the 06s are drinking quite nice right now, thank you very much. 

This is the subject of my column this week in The Washington Post. I hope you enjoy it.

Two Voices of Pinot Noir

I suffered cognitive dissonance a few weeks ago over pinot noir. I lunched on Monday with Richard Sanford at his Alma Rosa Winery in Santa Barbara County over beef stew and his 2006 and 2007 La Encantada Vineyard pinot. He had just driven me around the Santa Rita Hills in the Santa Ynez Valley, an appellation he pioneered by planting Sanford & Benedict vineyard in the 1970s and creating Sanford winery in 1980. He explained how the hills running east-to-west – unique in California, where most run parallel to the Pacific – channel the ocean breezes and fog into the valley and moderate the temperatures. Despite being just a two hour drive from Los Angeles, the Santa Rita Hills region counts as a “cool-climate” for winegrowing. Ideal for pinot noir, in other words. Such geography is easy to read about, but seeing is believing.

The Alma Rosa La Encantada 2007 Pinot Noir ($45) is rich and spicy, and tightly focused in a way that draws you closer with every sip. I gave it three stars (“exceptional”) when I profiled Sanford in the Post last August. It has what I love about California pinot noir – delightful floral aromas, good acidity and balance, and a lingering, silky finish. And it does not have what I hate about California pinot noir – excessive alcohol that leaves a burn across the palate, or a cloying, brown sugar taste. The 2006 was even better; Sanford described its aroma as “a day-old rose, just at the height of its power and on the edge of decline.” I couldn't disagree.

 

Richard Sanford of Alma Rosa Winery from Dave McIntyre on Vimeo.

Two days later, back in snowy Washington, D.C., I had lunch with Becky Wasserman, her husband, Russell Hone, and two of the many Burgundy producers she represents. Wasserman, an American who lives in Burgundy, is an influential broker and exporter of fine French wines, primarily from Burgundy. She was here as part of a U.S. tour celebrating her 30 years in business. She is as petite as Sanford is tall, but they seem to share a similar aesthetic – a preference for wines grown organically and manipulated as little as possible in the winery in order to achieve the purest expression of the fruit. Only Wasserman's pinots speak French, while Sanford's speak 'Murrican.

And that's where the dissonance came in. After five days in Santa Barbara County, sampling dozens wines in various styles, my initial taste of Burgundy was a shock. It was a Domaine Alain Burguet 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin “Clos la Justice” ($70), and at first sip it seemed unpleasantly astringent. Where's the fruit? I wondered. But my palate was attuned to California pinot noir; after a few sips, the fruit emerged, then the Burgundian earth and finesse that characterizes the French expression of pinot noir.

As we tasted the Domaine Michel Lafarge Volnay 2006 ($55), with its subtle, silky texture – for lack of a better word (pinot noir at its best is all about texture) – I thought of my lunch two days earlier with Sanford. Back in the 1960s, when he was looking to use his geology degree after a stint in Vietnam, it was a bottle of Volnay given by a friend that inspired him to plant grapes. He told me he does not remember the producer, but he recalls the flavors, the texture, and the inspiration it gave.

Is the Alma Rosa La Encantada the equal of the Domaine Lafarge Volnay? Yes – and here's why I say that. The Alma Rosa is not and can never be a Volnay. But it is a beautiful expression of the Santa Rita Hills and of California pinot noir, just as the Lafarge is a beautiful expression of Volnay. Burgundy will always have an advantage in that no one dislikes a good Burgundy, while Burgundy fans will discount California for not having the right soils or climate to make a Burgundy. Sanford has every reason to be proud of his pinot. And if, as he savors his wine and thinks of that day-old rose on the cusp between glory and decay, his memory wanders back to that long-ago bottle of Volnay, who can blame him?

Ansonia Wines - A Tiny Boutique Store in D.C.

If you had asked me a few months ago to name wine stores owned and operated by importers and devoted to that importer's wines, I would have mentioned two: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant in Berkeley, Calif., and Rosenthal Wine Merchant in New York City, which features importer Neal Rosenthal's selections. There may be others, but for various reasons such stores are rare.

Now there are two right here in the District of Columbia: Weygandt Wines, which opened in late October in Cleveland Park (and is profiled in my Washington Post wine column today), and the tiny Ansonia Wines, on 18^th Street NW. Ansonia, which opened its door earlier this month, is a shoebox of a store in the basement level of a row house. It features the wines of Mark Wilcox, who like Weygandt is a Philadelphia-based importer. Wilcox has gained a modest reputation over the past six years by supplying high-quality small-production wines, primarily to restaurants. The store is owned and operated by Mark's son, Tom.

The emphasis here is on Burgundy, with some wines from southern France, a couple from Alsace and a few stray Italian selections. The Burgundy focus means the wines are not cheap, but Wilcox' effort to represent artisanal winemakers helps keep the value quotient high. Tom said his father does not emphasize organic or biodynamic viticulture, but since he’s focusing on small producers, many of his growers favor those techniques. Another plus – the store stocks some older vintages (back at least to 2001), not just current releases.

Tom Wilcox said he will always have two wines open for tasting (and he Tweets the daily selections @ansoniawines). When I stopped in just before the Blizzard of Aught-Nine, he was pouring the Domaine Michel Gros 2005 Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits ($29), a delightful chardonnay that had just enough toasty oak to give structure to the abundant fruit, and the Mas Foulaquier “Gran'T,” Coteaux du Languedoc Pic St. Loup ($32), a rich red from France's Mediterranean coast, made from carginan and grenache.

For last-minute holiday shoppers, Ansonia is offering four gift boxes, each with two wines representative of the store's portfolio. They cost $49 or $99, depending on your taste and budget.

Ansonia Wines, 1828 18^th St. NW. www.ansoniawines.com

Pinot Reigns Supreme at IPNC

Everything you may have ever heard about the International Pinot Noir Celebration is true. Over the past 23 Julys, pinotpheliacs have congregated in McMinnville, Oregon, to spend a weekend pickling themselves in their favorite wine. This year's IPNC, held July 24-26, was a little less crowded than recent years, according to some regular attendees I spoke with. But the economy did not dampen the enthusiasm of about 800 wine lovers who ponied up $1000 each for the chance to mingle with winemakers and sample the cuisine of some of the best chefs in the Pacific Northwest.

This year's featured wineries included 46 from North America (including one Canadian) and 14 from Europe (two Austrian wineries, one from Alsace and one from Champagne, the rest from Burgundy – the lack of German participation was surprising). Australia and New Zealand sent four. British wine writer Jancis Robinson served as master of ceremonies. On Friday and Saturday, about half the attendees enjoyed seminar tastings designed to show the terroirs of Oregon and Chambolle-Musigny, while the rest boarded buses to vineyards throughout the Willamette Valley for tours and luncheons. And then of course there were more tastings, a petanque tournament, tastings, and dinners, including the annual salmon bake.

A threatened heat wave held off, though late-afternoon temperatures did climb into the 90s. Locals wilted in the heat, but District denizens reveled in the low humidity.

Bill Sanders of Washington, D.C., was attending his third consecutive IPNC. Sanders, a “workforce development consultant” who also blogs about wine and olive oil, said he values the connections and friendships he has forged with winemakers.

“I love to travel to the wine regions of the world, especially France,” he said, “and when I come here I meet the vignerons, then I go to Burgundy and there's an open door. I've made great friendships with the French winemakers here, and that makes travel to their region much more rewarding. It can be hard to get into Burgundy.”

As for the wines at the event, Sanders likened the exploration of pinot noir year after year to peeling the layers of an onion. (That reference may not endear him to many winemakers, actually.) Every year, you learn something new. “The pinot here is across the board, from syrupy monsters to laser-like fruit,” he said. Sanders has already registered for next year's conference.

Bob and Susan Crenshaw own two natural food stores in Goldsboro, N.C., and were here in McMinnville attending their 18^th consecutive IPNC. “Every meal you make new friends and meet up with old friends,” Bob Crenshaw said, pointing out three winemakers by name among the crowd milling around after the Saturday night salmon bake.

The tables on the lawn at Linfield College in McMinnville were littered with the detritus of a bacchanal – empty bottles from the featured wineries and from the personal collections of the attendees. Part of the fun at an event like this is walking around, glass in hand, looking for someone you recognize and seeing what they're drinking.

Photos: Bertrand Ambroise, of Domaine Ambroise in Burgundy, demonstrates petanque technique, left; a traditional Native American salmon bake capped off the festivities, above.