A Cepage By Any Other Name…

Can you identify the most common name for the grape also known as Tinto Madrid and Tinto Fino?

• A. Chenin Blanc
• B. Cabernet Sauvignon
• C. Tannat
• D. Tempranillo
• E. Zinfandel

Answer forthcoming in the comments later.

Cheers – and good luck!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Weekly Wine Quiz: A Cepage By Any Other Name… from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

They put down their small glasses of aged Sauturnes (which have been chilled by Winter fairies blowing ice crystals at them), and are lifted out of their easy chairs on large red ribbons made of the finest silk, held aloft by cherubs singing a lullaby from the music of the spheres, and on the way through their marble hallways to their lavish canopy beds they are heralded by smiling, talking statues who repeatedly exclaim how blessed those owners are to be themselves, and how lucky the world’s mortal wine drinkers are to have their glasses graced by even the tiniest drops from the nectar aging in their chai’s barrels.

I imagine this because living in a fantasy land is one of the few logical explanations for how the 2009 Bordeaux wine prices are shaping up. At least, that’s the conclusion I reached after attending the recent Union des Grand Crus de Bordeaux 2009 vintage tasting in NYC.

For sure there were some amazing wines being poured (more on my faves after the jump), but a higher density under one roof of “pretty good” to “errr… uhmmm… not-so-great” wines for $50 and up you are not likely to find anywhere else on the planet. I interviewed Robert Parker a couple of years ago, and in that conversation he told me that Bordeaux wines were dramatically overpriced – the situation appears to have gotten a sight worse since then. As one salesman I met at the NYC tasting told me, when it comes to 2009 Bordeaux prices, “whatever you think it is, add… A LOT!” (that same person hinted that a recent vintage of one of the First Growths was rumored to be $22,000 a case).

But before you start shouting foul play on the part of the Asian wine market being responsible for putting Bordeaux prices out of reach of non-cherub-owning humans, bear in mind that it takes a certain amount of avarice (and probably arrogance) to charge a ton of money for a product that cannot be said be at all a rarity…

As detailed in the excellent book What Price Bordeaux, the Bordeaux “quality pyramid” is now totally inverted, with some of the highest-ranking, and highest-rated producers churning out quite large volumes of wine that they then price stratospherically (hey, those cherubs probably don’t come cheap, right?).

This is the opposite situation from Burgundy, where the most storied wines are made in such small quantities that supply and demand might actually make their enormous prices (somewhat) fair, in market terms, and thus give their quality pyramid a decidedly more upright stance.

If I sound grumpy about all of this, it’s because I don’t want to have to do silly things when it comes to wine; like, say, paying $200 for a bottle of vino that I wouldn’t serve to the horse of which its aromas reminded me. I get that the region of Bordeaux is amazing, and rightfully can be called an historic world treasure. And I get that their wines can be amazing no matter what the production volumes. And believe me, I get that it could be open season on me for going open season on a region with which I have little detailed experience. But as a wine lover myself (hey, that’s how I got into this whole thing, after all!) I don’t really get the insanity of the pricing, or at least I don’t want to face the cold, hard fact that they could just be due to the almighty dollar always-always-always winning out.

And so it’s all the more heartening to encounter a producer like Chateau Lagrange, whose 2009 is, for sure, a deserving “honorable mention” here in more ways than one: it’s peppery, spicy, seductive, full of beautiful red fruits, and is currently clocking in somewhere around $65 a bottle (far from highway-robbery territory).

Now that the depressing exposition is over, and now that I’ve got all that off my wine-soaked chest, let’s talk about some of the stars of the NYC tasting (you’ve already been warned about the prices…):

Fave White

2009 Château Carbonnieux Blanc (Pessac-Léognan)
Price: $45
Rating: B+

A beautiful wine – just mouthfuls of citrus, melon and total gorgeousness. Having said that, this is not a wine for now; only the truly patient need apply, because it will require a few years to really smooth out all that intense, acidic structure. Patience will probably be very much rewarded, but it’s really damn good right now, too, and if you do up some really fancy scallops you might get away with drinking it soon (the thought for sure crossed my mind).

Fave Red (tie)

2009 Château Figeac (St. Émilion)
Price: $250
Rating: A

I am saying it is excellent juice – I am not saying that I’d pay $250 for it. But if you dig truffles, the bouquet on this will wine practically drive you insane with pleasure. I mean, this train has pulled directly into truffle station. The tannins are quite demanding, but not disjointed, and the structure is there for some long-haul aging. My favorite part was the tangy redcurrant action, which made me start to drool in my glass and suggested this will be an amazing food wine after it softens up in, like, a trillion years.

2009 Château Pichon-Longueville au Baron de Pichon-Longueville (Pauillac)
Price: $145
Rating: A-

Now this one… this one I would pay $150 for. So much tension and release is going on here, with excellent grip and structure but also tart fruit and an enticing floral edge. I loved it. I did not want to spit it. I wanted to take it to my bosom, and steal away with it while it whispered to me about its flowers. But that didn’t happen (though I may have seen cherubs when I tasted it).

Fave “Sticky” (tie)

2009 Château Climens (Barsac)
Price: $115
Rating: A-

Welcome to the lighter side of Bordeaux dessert wines. Lilting and pretty, this is a wine that sneaks up on you with its subtlety. But it doesn’t lack power in its funky yeasty-ness. It’s like a lovely, soft-spoken Barsac ninja. There’s a grapefruit edginess and plenty of citric lift to this wine, and it really dances on your tongue; so it’s a lovely, soft-spoken, dancing ballerina Barsac ninja.

2009 Château Suduiraut (Sauternes)
Price: $100
Rating: A

Su-Su-Suduiraut… Somebody call Weird Al Yankovic, I’ve got a killer idea for a song parody here…! Ok… sorry… Anyway…  Overall, this was the best and most complete wine I tasted among the 2009 Bordeaux lineup. Classic Sauternes: nuts, honey, vinyl, citrus pith, apricot, peaches… And it’s nearly the polar opposite of the Climens, muscular and powerful (and unctuously sweet – bring the toothbrush, you’re gonna need it). BUT… the key thing with this wine is the finish, which started when I tasted the wine in NYC and I think will go on until the 2012 Bordeaux grapes are harvested. That finish is like an extra treat after dessert, a meringue that is at once creamy and feather-light, and melts its way through your olfactory cavities after making you its beeeeatch.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at 2009 Bordeaux To Wine World: “Surprise! We’re Overpriced!” (Thoughts From The Union des Grand Crus NYC Tasting) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

I’m crazy excited to tell you that I will soon be authoring a freelance wine column on Playboy.com.

So now you have some legitimacy behind the “I’m just going there for the articles, honey!” excuse (you’re welcome!).

The folks behind Playboy.com reached out to me many moons ago, and the whole thing has been even many more moons in the making, so I’m thrilled to be able to get started – and humbled and honored by the opportunity to work with such an amazing brand. I don’t know how long this gig will last, and the column doesn’t have an official name yet (please shout out your ideas in the comments – I’ve got a feeling those will be very entertaining!), but we have some great ideas for content, which naturally will be exploring the more sensual sides of wine.

Now, I’ve never featured beautiful nude women on 1WineDude.com (though I’ve come close!), but I suppose you could say that there’s a bit of “spiritual alignment” in my writing style and the serious-but-accessible-and-slightly-irreverent take on the subject of wine that Playboy.com was looking for. To me, it’s a bit like Forbes.com bringing on Jeff Lefevre’s smart, analytical writing style, or how the populist, grounded voice of Vinography’s Alder Yarrow fits in so well with JancisRobinson.com. So you can add one more name to the list of home-grown wine bloggers being tapped by long-standing on-line brands.

There are a few things you probably should know about this Playboy.com gig…

1) This is a freelance gig, with freelance gig pay, and I’m not an employee of Playboy. But that’s okay by me, because Playboy.com reaches several million eyeballs per month; of course, most of those eyeballs aren’t visiting to get wine recommendations, but that kind of audience volume is substantial, even if most of them are going there more for boobs than booze (I don’t know where puts me on the list of U.S. wine peeps in terms of potential reach… presumably pretty high, but I’ll let the PR people run those numbers and tell us, since they’re supposed to be doing that kind of stuff anyway :-).

2) I don’t yet know when the content will start running (and in fact, I’ve yet to create all of the content; so trust me, you will know when I know).

3) I have not met Hef (yet!). And I have not partied at The Mansion with Robert Downey, Jr. (…yet! Hey, a guy can hope, right?).

4) We’re talking Playboy.com here, and NOT Playboy the printed mag. And NO, I cannot get you free subscriptions to Playboy in either form (so you can stop typing that e-mail to me right now); though some of you in the biz may now be able to claim the subscription as a business expense (again, you’re welcome)…

5) Finally, and most importantly, I want to say… THANK YOU to YOU.

Yes, you.

I’m humbled, honored, and thrilled to have you along this crazy journey with me, and the ride is more rewarding and more fun for having you involved! I fully appreciate that many of you have been getting sick of hearing me say “big things are coming” and then delaying the announcements – all the more reason why I should be thanking you.

I don’t know if this adventure is going to end in sustainable income pooling, luxury yachts and diamond cufflinks for me, but I can promise you it is going to be quite an adventure. So please share the news as you deem fit!

And I’m looking forward to seeing many of you over at Playboy.com in the near future (for the articles of course!).

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Meet Playboy.com’s New Dot Com Wine Dude from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

The travel could mean some slightly interrupted service here on 1WD, most likely the week after I return while I’m catching up on the three-to-four thousand things to which I will need to attend when I get back (such as hitting the treadmill overtime after indulging in what the French consider a relatively normal volume of dietary fats). I’m hitting Napa very soon after my return from France (for a ton of producer visits and my annual coverage of the madness that is Premiere Napa Valley), and the space in between those trips will largely be occupied by, I hope, sleeping. All of which is a (very) long way of saying that your patience, as always, is most appreciated!

I’d tell you more about the Salon, except I don’t actually know too much about it because their website is, putting it mildly, in the running for the least useful Internet destination in the history of the known Universe. So I thought that I’d offer up a few interesting facts about the region instead, embellished slightly 1WineDude style for your edu-tainment…

Some Loire Did-You-Knows:

1. Peasant-turned-religious-icon Joan of Arc first presented herself to the Dauphin in the Loire town of Chinon, where she imprudently demanded both that they put her at the head of the army, and that Chinon stop making stinky, Bretty red wines. Only one of those demands was met (obviously).
2. In 2009, the Loire was not only #1 in white wine production volume in France, it was also the #1 wine region requested in French restaurants (and the #2 region for sparkling wine production in France, second only to (duh) Champagne.
3. One of the world’s most interesting regions for white wines, Vouvray is an unique spot in that its entire acreage is devoted pretty much only to Chenin Blanc. What it lacks in varietal diversity it more than makes up for in stylistic diversity, however: just about every sort of wine is made here, from dry still whites to (various sweetness levels of) sparkling to dessert wines.
4. In the Triassic era (when Coelophysis roamed the earth, and when Wine Spectator was founded), the Loire was at the bottom of an ocean. Sea fossils are relative common finds here, and its pre-history history is responsible for the area’s gorgeous tuffeau stone soil – which is used not only to carve out wine caves, but also to build some of the most impressive chateaux in the area and beyond (including spots like London’s incredible St. Paul’s Cathedral).
5. The world’s most translated author is Agatha Christie, who was not from the Loire. But the world’s second most translated author was – Jules Verne. Verne was from Nantes, and as most people know predicted submarines and space travel in his sci-fi novels long before they became viable from an engineering perspective (he’s also rumored to have been the first wine blogger…).

More to come from Angers!

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Joan of Arc, Jules Verne And Vouvray (At The Salon des Vins de Loire) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

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Copyright © 2011. Originally at Weekly Twitter Wine Mini Reviews Round-Up For February 4, 2012 from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!