Dave McIntyre's WineLine

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?

Sweet Endings for 2009

Earlier this month I wrote two columns for The Washington Post recommending sparkling wines for the holidays - one on wines above $30, the other for more budget-conscious revelers. All the wines were dry. That led one frustrated reader to fire off an e-mail complaining about "brut this and brut that," reminding me that some people prefer sweet sparkling wine.

So this week I oblige, with some delightful recommendations from southern France, Italy and Spain.

Cheers, and thank you for reading Dave McIntyre's WineLine in 2009! What started 10 years ago as an e-mail newsletter (no one called them "blogs" back then) will continue in 2010. You can find me on Facebook at /wineline and Twitter @dmwine as well!

Happy New Year!

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

Loredan Gasparini Prosecco, $12

This is the first in a series of posts throughout December on sparkling wines that offer great value for their price.

Loredan Gasparini offers this textbook Prosecco, with delightful apple flavors, surprising depth and refreshing acidity. It picks up an intriguing spice note with Sichuan peppercorns, making me think Prosecco might be a worthwhile partner to Asian cuisines. Chinese restaurants should at least give it a try. Made from organic grapes.

Imported by Dionysus Imports, Lorton, Virginia.

Bring Back the Samplers

When I began my wine explorations two decades ago, one store in DC I regularly visited was Mayflower Wine & Spirits, on M St NW. The store specialized in Italian wines, but it had a great selection from around the world, and a very helpful staff. A lot of people who currently shape the DC wine scene spent some time working at Mayflower.

One of Mayflower’s attractions was its monthly sampler. Each month, the store owner, Sidney Moore, would send out a self-published newsletter (a lot of work back then in the pre-email era) with various sale offerings, including a six-bottle sampler. These would be wines that she wanted to feature for one reason or another, sometimes following a theme, such as Tuscan reds, or northern Italian whites, or two whites and four reds from Piedmont, or syrah from around the world – whatever struck Sidney’s fancy that month.

When we visited the store, there would be six-pack wine boxes, the type wineries use for their tasting room sales, stacked on the floor, filled with that month’s sampler selections. They were typically priced with the case discount, and Sidney had printed fliers with her descriptions of the wines.

I didn’t buy the samplers regularly, but once in awhile when two or three of Sidney’s descriptions caught my fancy, I would splurge and lug a box home. The wines may not have been ones I was eager to run back and stock up on, but they were good, and I learned about wine as I explored different grapes and styles. And the sales staff – the same people selling me wine today at various stores or working for importers and distributors in the region – got to know me better and help shape my wine palate because of my reactions to these wines.

Mayflower is long gone, and Sidney Moore (now Sidney Margolis) is retired from the wine business, happily making furniture in DC. But I wonder - why don’t more stores offer samplers today? Many still do in-store tastings, allowing customers to try a wine before purchasing, but the samplers offered something else, a sense of experimentation and exploration, a hope that in that last bottle, the one I never would have purchased if it wasn’t part of the pack – part of Sidney’s recommendations – I might find a real gem.

Bad Mood, Continued

Tasted more American syrahs tonight. I really want to like these wines, but at the very best I find them …. meh. I opened four, then three more. Some nice herbal aromas from a Sonoma entrant, but it was still syrupy. A Santa Barbara County wine clocked in at a surprisingly modest 13% alcohol – it even had aromas! Its body was lighter, more balanced, and there was a hint of … something positive on the palate. Nice, not exciting. And still not particularly interesting.

For dinner, we had this simple braised dish my Taiwanese mother-in-law makes. It’s the cheapest cut of beef – from the back of the leg – and is ribboned with gristle. She braises it for hours in red wine (a reject from my last column, most likely), ginger, soy sauce and star anise. The meat ends up succulent and tender, the gristle very visible but pure gelatin and very easy to eat. It seemed a perfect dish for syrah.

So I went downstairs and found a Salice Salentino, from Cantele, 2003 (Vias Imports). It was delightful – bright spicy fruit, light body, lots of life, unlike those leaden US syrahs.

After dinner we tasted the syrahs again. A few of them were a tad more aromatic, more balanced, having wakened and stretched their limbs. Still, it wasn’t what we were looking for.

So I went to my cellar and pulled out a bottle of Crozes-Hermitage I’d purchased for $18 a few years ago from a trusted retailer.  I think he said. “That’s fantastic, and those are my last two bottles!” It was a 2003, from an importer I know and respect. So I bought them. We opened it with anticipation, expecting it to blow the American pretenders out of the competition.

I poured. I swirled. I sniffed, expecting to smell smoked bacon, earth and leaves, classic aromas of a northern Rhone syrah. The wine smelled …. like low tide. Clams. Sea water. Putrid seaweed. I swirled again, with vigor. Some herbs? A hint of meat? A taste. It was okay, but nothing to swoon over, nothing to spend $18 on either.

I willed that Crozes to be good. But after a few minutes the marine qualities were simply overwhelming. Was this a really crappy wine, or is it just going through its awkward teen years, shedding the adorable baby fat of its youth, but not yet overcoming its acne to reach its full potential as an adult?

And if I’m to be that charitable to the Crozes, what of those American wines? Perhaps I can’t recognize potential? Or are they truly mediocre wines?

Maybe I’ll never know. But these wines have had an unusual effect on me. I want to go to bed early.

Breakfast Wine for the Morning After …

Forget “hair of the dog.” The best breakfast wine can be the same one you finished with the night before. At least, that is, if you washed down dessert with Brachetto d’Acqui or other frothy Italian reds that are ideal with chocolate desserts.

These unassuming wines won’t win philosophical debates or score huge Parker Points. But they score high on my Fun Meter. And they are excellent with chocolate cake, cookies, brownies, ‘Smores, anything that includes a fruit component or sauce.

Here are some of the best, in my February 11 column in The Washington Post.

Happy Valentine’s Day! (Now, it’s up to you to arrange the flowers, the barbershop quartet, or the limo to the restaurant … )

Coppo Brachetto d’Acqui Passione 2006

Most of the Brachetto wines I tasted for my column this week in The Washington Post were bright, fruity, delightfully fun wines, spritzy with bubbles and deliciously sweet. The Coppo Passione 2006 ($28) was more complex, more serious. Its color was orange, as if the wine had been exposed to more oxygen than the others. Its flavors, too, showed toward the citrus – dried orange peel, and cloves and other woodspice, a pomander ball in a glass. Gorgeous wine, either by itself or with any chocolate or custardy dessert that features orange citrus flavors. Bravissimo!

Imported by Winebow.

Rosa Regale Brachetto d'Acqui - a Great Chocolate Wine

No, not a chocolate-flavored wine, but a great wine to pair with chocolate, especially cake and cookies and other confections. ‘Smores, perhaps? No need for stuffy gourmandise when the wine is as fun as a Brachetto d’Acqui.

If you’ve only seen one Brachetto d’Acqui, it was probably Rosa Regale, produced and imported by Banfi. It has the advantage of being made in relatively large quantities and being backed by a powerful and effective marketing empire. It’s also delicious, featuring bright cherry and strawberry flavors and enticing aromas of rose petals. It typically sells for about $18 - $20.

Brachetto has some other advantages as a dessert wine for your Valentine’s dinner – it’s bright red color suggests romance, as do the bubbles of its light mousse. It’s also low in alcohol – Rosa Regale chimes in at 7 %, which is actually a tad high for Brachetto. That means it won’t knock you out of contention for any post-dinner activities.

And oh yes – any leftover Brachetto will do just nicely with breakfast the next morning.

I’ll have more recommendations for Brachetto and other frothy sweet Italian reds throughout the week, and in this Wednesday’s column in The Washington Post.

Holiday Bubbles!

Even in economically depressed times, sometimes nothing less than Champagne will do!

For some people of course, especially in down times, nothing less will do!

After all, it was John Maynard Keynes, the noted economist whose theories got us out of the (original) Great Depression, who said on his death bed, "My only regret is that I did not drink more Champagne." Or something like that.

If Champagne offers the only bubbles to lift your spirits, then my December 17 column in The Washington Post is for you - I offer tips for finding extra bang for your buck.

But if you're more budget-minded this holiday season - despair not. My December 10 column mines values in Prosecco, Cremant and California.

Cheers, and Happy, Bubbly Holidays!