Dave McIntyre's WineLine

Parker: Will Bordeaux Alienate the U.S. Market?

A roundup of recent news from the world of wine:

* Bordeaux is in the throes of its annual frenzy of futures (or en primeur) sales as chateaux, buoyed by rave reviews from journalists, release the prices for their 2010s. No surprise, perhaps, that many prices are up substantially from the record levels set in 2009. The increases even have uber-critic Robert Parker complaining to the Agence France-Presse that the prices are getting out of hand. Parker’s love of Bordeaux has helped fuel the rise in prices, but he warned of a “big, big crisis” if the trend continues.

“Bordeaux is the epicenter of the greatest wines,” he told AFP. “I hate to see the image damaged by the fact people tend to think it’s too expensive.” He said Bordeaux is focusing too much on the demand for fine wines in Asia and risks alienating the American market. What do the French say to such criticism? Foreign minister (and Bordeaux mayor) Alain Juppe chalks it up to the market and calls the wines “good value.”

* Speaking of the American market, Decanter.com (the Web site of the leading British wine magazine) reports that U.S. retailers are balking at the high prices for the 2010 futures. Elliott Staren of Wide World of Wines in Glover Park is quoted as saying, “We are buying so far, but being much more selective.” A New York retailer says the top wines will sell at any price but worries about “mid-range” Bordeaux, “where wines that used to be $50-60 a few years ago now come out between $100-120.” That’s “mid-range”? Wow — further evidence that the fine-wine market is out of touch with reality or real people.

* That Asian market is no myth. Decanter.com also reported last week that a new store set to open in Taipei, Taiwan, will sell only first-growth Bordeaux (plus a few other chateaux that have achieved cult status), with vintages dating from 1945 to 2000. Sounds like a niche market, but a total of 10 such stores are planned for cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo by the end of this year. New York and London will bring up the rear next year. And this week, Decanter made its own play for the Asian market, posting an online guide to the 2010 Bordeaux vintage in Chinese.

* Meanwhile, the French wine culture seems to be fading. A new study shows that French wine consumption has dropped by 3 billion bottles over two generations, to just 4 billion bottles a year, according to The Telegraph. That makes for one bottle per week for each French adult, the laggards. More tellingly, younger French drinkers are less inclined to savor a bottle over a meal while reminiscing about the good ol' days, and prefer to drink socially with friends. And to add insult to injury, ShankenNewsDaily.com reported that U.S. wine consumption is set to eclipse that of France in 2012. We have a big population advantage, of course - France's per capita wine consumption was 46.07 liters in 2010, compared to a paltry 8.7 liters for Americans. But overall, we bought 307 million cases of wine last year, while France consumed 321 million cases. The trend lines show U.S. consumption ascendant.

(Photo: eRobertParker.com)

Wine: There's an (iPad) App for That

The inevitable has happened. There are now wine magazines created exclusively for the iPad.

The tablet computer is a media revolution, so it isn’t surprising that we now have wine publications dedicated exclusively to this format. It isn’t a complete wine experience of course - the iPad offers sight, sound and touch, but not taste or smell (yet).

First out of the gate was By the Grape, with an introductory issue featuring Jancis Robinson, the British wine writer, master of wine, columnist for the Financial Times, editor of the Oxford Companion to Wine (aka, “The Great Big Book of Everything”), and Internet wine maven. The introductory issue, available in the iTunes App Store for $3.99, is a hagiography of Jancis written in glowing terms. For example, it quotes Hugh Johnson, Britain’s senior wine authority (and co-editor with Jancis of the World Atlas of Wine), saying, “Secretly or not, perhaps we’re all a little bit in love with her.” (Guilty!)

By the Grape is the product of a Dutch team that traveled to Languedoc in southwest France to interview Jancis and her husband, FT restaurant critic Nick Lander, at their summer home. The magazine takes advantage of the iPad’s game-changing features, including interactive tasting notes and a lengthy video (helpfully subdivided into chapters for shorter attention spans), in which Jancis discusses her tasting techniques and tries some surprisingly good Dutch wines, while Lander cooks lunch and raves about the local produce.

It’s actually rippingly good video, of a wino/foodie, Peter Mayle-ish, aspirational sort. And Jancis’ discussion of her wine tasting technique should be watched and digested by every serious oenophile, wine writer, or even casual consumers befuddled by tasting notes. It’s a short distillation of her wonderful book, How to Taste.

“Smells and tastes are not perfect subjects for words,” Jancis says. “They’re very private, they can’t be extracted and objectified and compared to somebody else’s. So you just have to get as close as possible to some other taste that will be comprehensible to people, which I suppose is why in tasting notes you read so many of these strange fruits and herbs and woods and things like that.”

She also explains how young French wines can be reticent in aroma but “amazing” when you taste them, while in contrast, “typically with a very technically made New World wine you’ll have an explosion on the nose, very beguiling and aggressively aromatic, and then it just fades to nothing on the palate.”

The second early entrant into the iPad wine comes from Nomad Editions, a web-based venture headed by former Newsweek magazine president Mark Edmiston. Nomad produces lifestyle publications designed for mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad - including Uncorked, a digital wine magazine launched last month.

Uncorked, a weekly magazine available for 99 cents a month in the iTunes App Store, is actually rather conventional in its approach. It doesn’t take advantage of the interactive possibilities presented by the iPad or iPhone, except you swipe pages rather than turning them.

Yet Uncorked could find a niche: It is smartly written, using well-known wine writers and focusing on value wines versus cult wines (though its definition of “cheap” wine seems to be $30). It could use some sharper editing; cliches about the “snotty French” or pinot noir producers “living on the knife’s edge” quickly get dull, and no wine publication should misspell Lafite. Even so, Uncorked features some lively writing, including an article by Tina Caputo on “flash” Internet sales of collectible wines, or editor Stephen Yafa’s skeptical look at wine aerators.

Uncorked really isn’t different from other wine publications except in its voice, which is noteworthy, and its exclusivity to the mobile format. If it ever takes full advantage of that format and all it has to offer, such as embedded video and the iPad’s interactive possibilities, Uncorked — and other publications such as By the Grape — could help define a new genre in wine media.

(This post appeared in slightly different form on The Washington Post's "All We Can Eat" blog.)

Exploring Loire Reds In Their Terroir - Literally

Wine lovers are always searching for the taste of terroir in their wines, but they rarely taste wines in their terroir.

I experienced the latter — literally — in one of the strangest wine tastings I have ever enjoyed. It happened on a cold, damp day late in March last year, near Bourgueil, a small wine town in France’s Loire Valley. I was touring with Ed Addiss and Barbara Selig, the husband-and-wife team that is Wine Traditions, a specialty importer based in Falls Church, and Ben Peach, a friend of theirs who’d abandoned wine retailing in the District for life in France. Addiss had made an appointment with Sandrine Deschamps, half of a husband-and-wife winemaking team, who met us at her winery. But instead of showing us her barrel room and bottling line, Deschamps hopped into her SUV and led us through the winding streets of town and up the hillside to the Grand Mont vineyard, the highest and farthest from the river in the Bourgueil appellation.

On foot, we followed her into a tunnel under the vineyard, into an old quarry that had provided much of the stone that built the town of Bourgueil. During World War II, the labyrinth sheltered Resistance fighters; Deschamps pointed out their anti-Nazi graffiti along one wall.

About 10 years ago, she explained, a group of vignerons had bought the quarry with the idea of using it to store wine and developing it into a tourist attraction. Some vineyard equipment had been placed in a few alcoves; here and there, vine roots from the vineyard above snaked through the ceiling in their quest for moisture. But mostly the cave showed evidence of its previous incarnation as a mushroom farm. There was fungus everywhere: dripping from the ceiling like stalactites, oozing from the walls and encrusting the stone table on which Deschamps had arranged our tasting, for which there were several glasses and a few bottles of wine.

“C’est champignons!” Deschamps said of her table covering. Nobody was tempted to pry some off for shaving onto our evening salads, however.

The Loire Valley is known primarily for its white wines: crisp sauvignon blanc or muscadet and luscious chenin blanc. Cabernet franc dominates the region’s reds, though gamay, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon and malbec make cameo appearances. For years, the reds had a reputation of being underripe and astringent. Warmer vintages over the past decade have made the wines riper but not ponderous, and some importers have crisscrossed the region searching for the most talented producers. At their best, Loire reds are fresh and invigorating, tasting of black cherry spiced with white pepper. They often have a smoky, savory, leathery quality I call “Grandpop’s library.” Chinon is the best-known area, followed by Saumur, Bourgueil and Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil.

Unfortunately, Loire reds are underappreciated in our market and therefore underrepresented here. But try to find them. Their medium weight makes them ideal reds for summer, and their robust flavors can stand up to hearty meats in any season.

They also appeal to wine explorers: those oenophiles who love delving into the intricacies of why wine tastes like it does. Bourgueil, for instance, is a small appellation, yet it contains three distinct terroirs, as Deschamps explained that day in her mushroomy alcove. (Visits with French winemakers often turn into geology lessons.) Those terroirs are marked by gravelly soil (gravier) near the Loire, clay mixed with flint (argilo-silex) on the slopes around the town, and chalky soil (tuffeau) on the plateau above the town, where we were standing. The wines progress accordingly from the gravier’s soft, supple and young-drinking wines to the tuffeau’s tannic, minerally wines with enough structure to last a decade.

Deschamps’s own wine, the La Fontaine aux Fougeres Myosotis 2008, was made from cabernet franc grown organically in the mid-level, argilo-silex, vineyards. It showed clean, spicy fruit flavors and minerality from the flint in the vineyard soil. A few months later, this wine became part of the Wine Traditions portfolio, along with one from another producer, Bruno Dufeu, grown on the Grand Mont vineyard above our heads. True to its terroir, Dufeu’s wine is powerful, structured and age-worthy.

As Deschamps led us from the maze of tunnels back into the sunlight, I realized that in a short time I had gained a substantial understanding of a small but enchanting French wine district, one well worth exploring.

In Bourgueil, all roads lead to wine.

 

Wine Recommendations

Red wines from the Loire Valley show some diversity of grapes, but cabernet franc is the star. Unless otherwise noted, these are exclusively cabernet franc. They are also noteworthy for their lack of new oak. Loire vignerons apparently do not feel compelled to kill forests to make wine. Bravo! Unfortunately, these wines are not widely available in the Washington area; distributors told me that for some reason, they sell better in other markets.

Domaine Bruno Dufeu Cuvee Grand Mont 2008

*** GREAT VALUE

Bourgueil, France, $15

From the tuffeau (chalky soil) on the plateau above the town of Bourgueil, this wine is stunning for the price. It is deep and richly structured, with black cherry, peppery spice and earthy animal/leather notes. It finishes with soft, supple and savory tannins. It should age well for five to 10 years. Worth stockpiling.

Wine Traditions: Available in the District at Cork Market; on the list at Cork Wine Bar and Petits Plats. Available in Virginia at Chain Bridge Cellars (formerly Cecile’s Wine Cellar) in McLean, J. Emerson Fine Wines & Cheese in Richmond.

Domaine des Baumard Logis de la Giraudiere 2006

**¹ / ₂

Anjou, France, $20

This wine played tricks on me. It was nondescript at first — almost reticent — as if it were evaluating me instead of the other way around. But when it realized I wasn’t going to force it to fit a preconceived idea of what a red wine should be, it drew me close with enticing floral notes and a pure, mineral core. It is a blend of cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon.

M Touton Selection: Available in the District at Rodman’s, Sherry’s Fine Wine & Spirits, Watergate Wine & Beverage. Available in Maryland at Bay Ridge Wine & Spirits in Annapolis, Wine Harvest and World Gourmet Wine & Beer in Potomac; on the list at La Ferme in Chevy Chase.

Manoir de la Tete Rouge Bagatelle 2009

**¹ / ₂  GREAT VALUE

Saumur, France, $15

Cabernet franc grown organically on chalky tuffeau soils, this wine exhibits all of the Loire hallmarks: dark fruit, savory tannins and a spicy, earthy tobacco note that lingers like a fond memory.

Potomac Selections: Available in the District at Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits. Available in Maryland at Calvert Wine & Spirits in Hunt Valley; Mt. Washington Wine Co., Wells Discount Liquors and the Wine Source in Baltimore. On the list at B Bistro, Grand Cru and Helmand Restaurant in Baltimore. Available in Virginia at Arrowine in Arlington Au Domaine in Alexandria, Chain Bridge Cellars in McLean, Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market in Richmond.

La Fontaine aux Fougeres Myosotis 2008

**¹ / ₂  GREAT VALUE

Bourgueil, France, $16

Made from organically grown grapes, this wine is lively with floral, earth and leather flavors. It is nicely balanced and ideal for drinking now, slightly chilled, with burgers or steaks from the grill. Don’t forget the mushroom sauce.

Wine Traditions: Available in Virginia at Arrowine and Whole Foods Market in Arlington.

Domaine de la Colline 2009

**

Chinon, France, $15

From a very ripe vintage, this wine is light and expressive, floral and mineral. Chilling it slightly will enhance its fruit and reveal an inner verve, the way a breeze imparts energy on a warm day.

M Touton Selection: Available in the District at AB Liquors, Circle Wine & Liquor, Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits, Rodman’s, Schneider’s of Capitol Hill, Watergate Wine and Beverage; on the list at Bistrot du Coin. Available in Maryland at Bay Ridge Wine & Spirits in Annapolis; Cork & Fork in Bethesda; Franklin’s Restaurant, Brewery and General Store in Hyattsville; Frederick Wine House, Old Farm Liquors and Viniferous in Frederick; Rodman’s in White Flint; Silesia Liquors in Fort Washington. Available in Virginia at various Wegmans locations, Wine Made Simple in Charlottesville; on the list at Zin in Staunton.

KEY

***Exceptional  **Excellent *Very Good

This article, minus the photographs, was published June 8 in The Washington Post.

Photo credits: Me

Top photo: Welcome sign at the Grand Mont vineyard above Bourgueil.

Second photo: Sandrine Deschamps pours samples for (l to r) Ben Peach, Ed Addiss, and Barbara Selig.

Third photo: The tasting lineup. Where do those mushroomy aromas come from?

Bottom photo: Thirst-inducing roadsign in the town of Bourgueil.

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 ...

What's Ahead in 2011?

What should wine lovers expect in 2011? More debate over direct shipping, and hopefully we'll get that privilege here in Maryland this year. But will be able to order from out-of-state retailers, or just wineries? And will we be allowed to bring our own wines to restaurants in Maryland?

Politics is likely to dominate debate in other states as well, as governors in Virginia and Pennsylvania try to privatize their states' liquor control regimes. Should the government be in charge of selling alcoholic beverages? It's a worthy question with no simple answer.

Local wine will continue to gather buzz as well. The DrinkLocalWine.com conference focused blogger attention on Virginia last year - look for more this year when the Wine Bloggers Conference comes to Charlottesville - the Napa of the East.

Consumers, of course, will continue to seek value. We've learned that we don't have to pay top dollar to get a really good wine - we just may have to search a little harder. $10 is the new $20, etc.

And where will we find bargains this year? My prediction for the hot "new" bargain wine region is none other than France, as wines from the textbook 2009 vintage reach our retail shelves throughout the year. My January Recession Busters list in today's Washington Post already has a few French 09s, and you can expect many more throughout the year!

Happy drinking, everyone!

Stop "Pandering," Dave!

My October series about Virginia and Maryland wines received praise from several readers, but also some complaints. One reader accused me of "pandering" to local winemakers and urged me to stick to writing about French wines, which he said provide better value at about 30% less in price. "Why buy inferior wines because they are local?" this reader asked.

Of course, I never suggested anyone should buy an inferior wine simply because it is local. I merely said we should no longer assume a wine is inferior simply because it is local.

And while I don't agree that local wines are as overpriced as some people say, I recognize that such a perception is out there. And in today's Washington Post Food section, I explain why I believe the best local wines are worth exploring, whatever the price. And of course, some Recession Buster recommendations.

An AmpelWHATapher?

Ampelography is one of the funniest sounding words in wine, a field that's full of potential puns and double entendres. It means simply, the study and identification of grapevines. And Lucie Morton is one of this country's leading ampelographers. But she's not just good at identifying grapevines - Morton identifies and wages war on grapevine pests and diseases. She is also a revered vineyard consultant here in the Eastern United States (though she also has clients in California and France).

Think "revered" is a bit strong for a vineyard consultant? Well, check out my column on Lucie in this week's Washington Post Food section. Two of her clients use religious imagery while speaking of her - one calls her "our Moses leading us from the wilderness" while the other describes his "Road to Damascus moment" when he tasted a wine from one of her clients and became a convert to the gospel of high-density planting. And don't miss my recommendations of wines produced by some of her local clients.

The Best Wine with Salmon? Not Pinot Noir ...

Despite what the winemakers and the marketing folks will tell you, the best wine to pair with salmon is not pinot noir, whether from Oregon or anywhere else. No, the best wine with salmon is Oregon pinot gris.

At least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it, as I explained in my column this week in The Washington Post.

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!

Wine vs. Beer Smackdown!

Wine lovers can spend hours debating wine-food pairings (just one reason we are so boring to our children), and there are certain meals we dismiss as "beer food." These are usually spicy or cheap, and casual - in other words, unsophisticated foods.

But beer is becoming increasingly refined, and matching beer with food can be as subtle and complex as wine. This point was driven home last weekend at a Wine vs. Beer Smackdown staged by the Neighborhood Restaurant Group at the Columbia Firehouse in Old Town Alexandria.

Wine director Juliana Santos and beer sommelier Greg Santos each selected pairings for six dishes, and about 80 guests sweltering in an upstairs loft at the restaurant were asked to compare how each beverage fared. As a wine lover, I was naturally biased towards Santos's interesting selections, which included some small-production wines offered by top-notch importers such as Terry Theise and Jonas Gustafsson. But beer had the advantage of the unexpected.

"Beer makers are really starting to act like winemakers, and that is resulting in beers that are fascinating to pair with food," Engert said. "They are regressing to pre-industrial techniques, before stainless steel cleaned everything up for nice simple beers ideal for drinking with wings." those borrowed techniques include barrel aging reserve beers, he said.

Here are my quick notes from the smack down as I pushed my way through the eager crowds at each table.

1. Tomato, watermelon, and sheep's milk feta, paired with Bodegas O'Ventosela "Vina Leirina" 2008 from Rueda, Spain, and 1809 Professor Fritz Briem & Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan, Bavaria, Germany. The beer here had an unfair advantage, in that Engert mixed it with a splash or raspberry syrup that matched beautifully with the watermelon. The wine tasted thin and acidic in comparison. Advantage, BEER.

2. Tuna Tartare tacos, paired with Gobelsburg Riesling, 2009, Kamptal, Austria, and Hennepin Brewery Ommegang, New York. The beer picked up nicely on the fennel and apple in the tartare, while the Riesling jazzed with the citrusy dressing.  DRAW.

3. Maryland Shoat Porchetta, with Belle Pente 2008 Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon, and Schlafly Bière de Garde, Saint Louis Brewery and Schlafly Tap Room, Missouri. Pork and Pinot - a divine combo, and this biodynamic wine shined with the shoat and its stuffing. The beer actually reminded me of my home brew experiments from 15 years ago. Advantage, WINE.

4. Dry aged roast beef and buttermilk blue cheese, with Conceito Tinto, 2007,  Douro, Portugal, and Oerbier, Brouwerij de Dolle, Belgium. The beer's richness, at 9% alcohol, matched well with the cheese, and won my wife's vote. I preferred the wine for how it reflected the flavors of the beef. DRAW.

5. Charcuterie, with Cavoletto Dolcetto d'Alba "Vigna Scot" 2007, Piemonte, Italy, and Aecht Schlenkerla Märzen, Brauesrei Heller-Trum, Upper Franconia, Germany. The beer was smoked, which made it taste to me like a burnt-down house. The Dolcetto, on the other hand, may be God's own pairing with salami. Advantage, WINE.

6. Pecan Joy Candy Bars, with Domaine du Mas Blanc, 2007 Banyuls, France, and Coton, The Bruery, California. This dessert was so good that the matching became incredibly fun. The beer matched the richness of the gussied up candy bar, making me want more, while the wine melded seemlessly with the fruitier aspects of the coconut and the chocolate, signalling that the meal was over. Since I finished mine with the beer, I had to have another dessert. That one, I finished with the wine. DRAW.

So I guess I give a slight advantage to the wine in this contest, which given my bias may be expected. But I would gladly place my beverage selection in the hands of either Santos or Engert after enjoying the thoughtful and challenging selections for this wine-beer smack down.

Now, where was Bobby Flay?