A Taste from Small Vineyards

 Damiano Meroi (left) and Marc Baldwin, our distribution representative.

Paolo Meroi's son walked into the wine bar today and sat there telling me about his family.  5 generations of wine making in Fruili with varietals like Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, & Merlot.  He expressed that the majority of these wines had been planted on Meroi's panco soils since before phylloxera.  Panco is an alluvial soil, but it's high mineral content and structure makes hard clumps that almost look like schist, it's a tough soil which forces the vines to dig up to 3m deep for resources.

Starting with the Meroi 2008 Sauvignon Blanc I was immediately greeted by the familiar smells of sauv. blanc encased with this intense smokey aroma.  With a blanket of umami on my palette combined with Sauvignon Blanc's tartness this wine made it clear fromt the start that it was not a Sauvignon Blanc to be taken lightly.  Fruili wines overall seem to have this quality that can only be described as Cheese-a-licious.

Overall the production at Meroi is about 20,000-25,000 bottles.  On challenging years, they often do not produce very much at all, letting only the best grapes get to the press.  Years that are tough in Fruili go from harsh rains to extreme highs around 105° Fahrenheit. 


The Chardonnay seemed to hold up better to the intense meatiness that the terroir imbues into the wine...as well as some oak too!


The Néstri, a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon had really intense plummy nose and here is where the meaty earth really made the wine complex and animalistic.  I would recommend this wine to those who want to be blasted with terrior and umami, perhaps a lover of aglianico!

Silvaner - The Underdog White from Germany

Justin and I tried Graf von Schonborn Silvaner with Cauliflower and Garbanzo Beans with a lemongrass honey and coconut infusion.  

With a star bright complexion and pale straw color, the silvaner from Graf von Schonborn showed perfume and powerful fruit aromas of star fruit and a zesty lemon character.  With a slightly lighter palette of fruit than a typical riesling of the same area, this wine defines itself with its minerality and delicate tropical fruit flavors.  The pairing was nice,  however, if I would have actually used a little coconut milk in the sauce I think the creamy texture against the vibrant acidity would have made me a  happy camper.  

Mad Palette - RUINART TASTING!

Madeline Puckette and Ruinart winemaker, Frédéric Panaїotis. 

I walked into Orson Restaurant at 10:30am at the pounding 'bmp bmp bmp' of house music.  Standing around in the foyer area were all the representatives from Ruinart, Hennesey & Moet, and Guildsomm.com.  I was giddy and very early so I opted to dive in and introduce myself whole-heartedly.  When I meet people in the wine business, I try to just be myself, there is nothing worse than putting a false-foot forward.  

The tasting consisted of 4 chardonnays from major chardonnay growing regions, I nailed one but had a tough time creating all-vegetarian for pairings.  When you blind taste, it's not just about getting the wine right, it's all the details that are scored (see my CoM tasting notes for Brancaia below).  The winner has not been determined yet, and the competition was fierce!

Afterward the challengers all relaxed a little with a glass of blanc de blanc as Frédéric Panaїotis discussed the current state of chardonnay in Champagne and also current winemaking practices.  Ruinart (and a couple other champagne houses) save a portion of wine that has undergone 100% malolactic conversion to add to the new cuvée right after the initial fermentation.  Since traditionally it takes about a month to grow a proper malolactic culture, this technique saves precious time and energy as the wine does not need to be warmed back up. 

Panaїotis was clearly passionate about wine as he invited us to reconsider "bitterness" as a valuable flavor on the taste palette.  He indicated that bitterness, which is often indicated as a negative, can add subtleties and create a much better balanced wine.  I did not feel that his Blanc de blanc was at all bitter upon tasting it, but, I have noted bitter characteristics on many highly rated wines. 

For alcohol conscious people he indicated that wine and alcohols made from starch (potato vodka) affects the liver where as grain-alcohol (whiskey) and sugar-cane alcohol (rum) affects the brain.  

With all this information floating around in my brain, I opted to taste 2 more glasses of Ruinart blanc de blanc....go liver!

Chardonnay Challenge by Ruinart!

Okay, it's not Ruinart, but the closest thing I had on hand: 2000 Dom Perignon.  and, on a side note, I tried one of the reserve Brut's at Frank Family Vineyards and it tasted strikingly similar to the 1999 Dom Perignon vintage.   Go Cali!

on www.guildsomm.com I found out about The Ruinart Chardonnay Challenge.  Ultimately, if you win the challenge, you win a trip to Champagne.  I entered by taking an online quiz about chardonnay and got an email 3 days ago that I got accepted to attend!  It's tomorrow in San Francisco!  Aeeiii!

I'm hoping to make some good contacts, invitees include Gillian Ballance who is the head Sommelier at PlumpJack Restaurants, Jess Altieri who heads up a wine-related webvideo site called http://winechanneltv.tv/ and Michael Ireland at Quince Restaurant.  Unfortunately, if they googled my name, like I did to all of them, they'd see that I'm an electro-pop producer, which is a world or two away from being a certified wino.   Bygones.

It feels like Ruinart is trying to reinvigorate the chardonnay varietal for connoisseurs, by celebrating it as a major component in Champagne.  I'm not opposed to this, mainly because I'm part of the school that is convinced that France makes better white wine than red.  So let's do this!  Tasting is tomorrow.  Wish me luck..

Sommelier Review: Brancaia Top Wine of 2009

Madeline Puckette with a bottle of Toscana Tre 2007 Brancaia Wine.

Brancaia got my attention this winter: they popped Top 10 in Wine Spectator with their 93 point rated Toscana Tre.  Low and behold, our distributer walked in about 3 weeks later with a couple of Brancaia's wines including the yellow label(93 pts, WS, $16) and their wine called Il Blu(95 pts, WS $67).  I think Wine Spectator implemented a very savvy plan for their top rated wines this year: they included more wines in the below 40 price point, reflecting our more economically minded consumer.  That said, with prodigious buyers in mind, Brancaia's Il Blu commands a higher price and the palate proves it's worth it.  

Today, I'm going to experiment with the Court of Masters tasting method in order to really investigate the wine.  Brancaia blend is ~80% Sangiovese, ~10% Merlot, ~10% Cabernet Sauvignon.

VISUAL INSPECTION:

Clarity: slight haze

Brightness: Day Bright

Intensity of Color: Medium

Color: Garnet

Rim Variation: Yes, light pinkish to Ruby-Garnet hues

Viscosity: Medium

NOSE/AROMA:

Condition: sound/clean

Intensity: Medium-Low

Fruit Aromas: Dark Sweet Cherry, Cooked Raspberry, Dried Strawberry.  Predominant red fruit aromas.

Other Aromas: Chalkboard, white pepper, anise & oregano

Presence of wood: yes in the form of a slight vanilla smell

PALATE:

Sweetness level: Dry

Body: Medium-Plus

Fruit on Palate: taste matches nose with cherries & raspberries

Earthiness: Chalkiness + Green rhubarb, oregano on mid-finish

Wood: I would say yes, very slight, perhaps large barrels or less new barrels

Alcohol: Medium

Tannins: Medium - Plus to High, very structured fruit tannins, perhaps from whole bunches

Acid: Medium Plus

Complexity: Medium Plus complexity, based on big fruit with strong tannin structure

Finish: Medium-Plus, Acid clears palate relatively quickly

Greek White Shark: Moschofilero

Skouras Moschofilero 2007

A nose like viognier & chenin blanc, light bodied, low alcohol and tingling dryness on the palate.  As with many under-represented varietals on the marketplace, Skouras really champions the easy-to-love characteristics of moschofilero, which made me scratch my head "why haven't I heard of moschofilero more?!"  We sampled this wine with a very salty-sweet Quorn "chickenless" dish, dill & chive fried potato coins and lemon zest soycutash (check your TJ's frozen aisle).  I really enjoyed the bright floral acidic character of this wine against the salt-friendly dish, it cleared my palate of saline and held up against the strong sweet flavors.  

I purchased the wine at the Hollywood location of K&L Wines where I also purchased a Brunello di Montalcino (I'm hoping to capture those figgy/nutty aromas with a slightly older 2001 vintage), and a Cremant rose from the Loire.  So more write-ups will ensue!

Court of Masters Experience

It's Official!  I have completed the Introductory Course for Sommelier put on by Court of Masters. For those of you who may be interested in extended wine education, the CoM does a great job of illustrating wine service as well as teaching fundamental ways of blind tasting wines.  That said, the course was very fast paced and would be difficult for someone not familiar with the major wine varietals and regions in the world.  Tim Gaiser, MS, who conducted the class, and Steven Poe, MS, had incredible enthusiasm and knowledge for wine, making sitting in a chair in a hotel convention hall for 7 hours fun!

During the class, there were many blind tastings.  First day was loaded with French wines, for which I had a lot of trouble identifying.  Aei! Gotta drink more Chablis and Crozes-Hermitage!  I wish I could blame a nasty cold for my off-palate, or perhaps it's because I always find myself sneaking passed the "FRANCE" wine aisle and spending too much time in the "ITALY" or "GERMANY" aisles.  hurrah for riesling!

The second day blind-tasting was a breeze, particularly when I spotted the Zind Humbrecht Pinot D'Alsace after the room of 100 people sat stumped.  rockstar.  Then, on the last 2 wines of the day, it was as though I tasted the lips of an old lover... when good ol' California Zinfandel touched my lips. Ahh Seghesio...my good friend.  The last wine was a hot red brick in my mouth with so much tannin and leather, my guess was Barbaresco... it was Barolo.

Wow.  I left the class with a list of wines (scant notations all over my notepad document) and next day found myself at K&L Wines in Los Angeles with a bottle of Peloponnese (Greece) Moschofilero.  I'm going to take the Certified Exam in April in Seattle... see yah there!