Fresh off the plane from sunny Bordeaux and I’m fired up! Why? Because along with Kyle and the Winerychannel.tv crew, we just spent two weeks filming in HD the 2009 harvest. Being in Bordeaux or any wine region during harvest is exciting because there is a buzz in the air… somthing all owners wait and plan for all year. From pickers in the vineyards to tractors rolling up and down the road, it just an exciting place to be and experience. There are many reasons that makes this trip so special and we will get into that in later blogs and videos, but the quality of the vintage has to be one of the top. While it’s still too early to speculate, one thing is for sure… the fruit is some of the best both Kyle and I have ever seen and the juice (tasted anywhere from 2 to 5 days) was rich, dense with outstanding purity and already has an opaque in color. We tasted tank samples from Pavie, Le Gay, La Violette, Pontet Canet, Belle-vue (Haut-Medoc) and Beausejour-Becot. Gerard Perse (Pavie) finished harvest while we were there and he said that 2009 was one of his best ever at this stage. Gerard Becot said the same of his Merlot while his Cabernet Franc was being picked on Tuesday, the day I left under warm sunny skies. I spoke to many of the vignerons during the trip and the comments were the simular. As much as they are estatic about the vintage, they are cautious not to speculate too early. But, if you’ve been aroud wine has long as we have, you know they have somthing very special. So stay tuned as we track this vintage from its infant stages to tasting the finished product at en-Primeur in April 2010.
Archive for October, 2009
2009 Bordeaux… Could it be better than 2005?
O.C. Folks in the Big Apple: Part 1
The impetus for the trip was to collect an award for the website from Market Watch Magazine, an an alcoholic beverage industry publication of sorts owned by the people who own Wine Spectator. Don’t really know who decides on these things but that, and the occasion of Steve and Kathy’s 35th anniversary, made for reason enough to go back to the Big Apple for the first time in quite a while. Naturally activities were planned around meals as we had only so many available time slots in the period from Monday night (sept 21) and Fri afternoon (sept 26), with one taken up by the awards banquet. Our basic list stemmed from a list published in Wine Spectator about eating out in NYC by one of their staff who obviously lives there and eats out all the time.
What may be as evident as the group of very interesting and varied restaurants we speak of here, but the ones that aren’t there. A word on that. If you are going to do any kind of culinary adventure, it seems you need to visit at least one or two of the icon establishments. Trying to do that with some of these places required a rare combination of survival and game show skills in remembering when it was allowed to attempt reservations (some were 30 days, some were 7, it varied). Given the economy, the general state of the restaurant business nationally and what we have heard from friends in the business, it was a little surprising how difficult some of these culinary establishments made it to get reservations. How hard does one have to work to reserve the right tospend a silly amount of money on dinner and an overpriced wine list?
Frankly, with so many great eateries in New York, we quickly tired of the game with places like Per Se (30 days yet fully booked within 5 min of the opening bell?), Momofuku (7 days…what if you wait and don’t get in then you’ve missed all of the others?), etc. . Mind you we are not tallking about 8:00 PM on Friday, but about mid-week and pretty flexible time Even though there was a big UN thing going on that week, and traffic in parts of the city was a bit difficult at times, Pres. Obama couldn’t be eating everywhere, could he? As to the restaurants, pretty much actual people wouldn’t talk to you in some of these places either. Wish I was in a position to run my business like that but I’m not and I’m not sure I could do it if I was. In any case, it isn’t hard to find interesting eats in New York, and we’ll toss up our notes over the next few days.
CASA MONO/ BAR JAMON
52 Irving Place, New York
Casamono
We put the two together since they are connected (owned by the same folks) and next door to each other. The Jamon Bar was a small, noisy, lively place that very much has the feel of tapas bars we had been to in Spain. Therestaurant had a pretty extensive wine list, reds, whites and sherries by the glass and a list of pretty traditional Spanish nibbles scribbled in the mirror behind the massive slicing apparatus. We ordered Jamon Serrano (very thinly sliced and pretty good) and spanish tortilla (traditional potato/egg fritatta style that was authentic though a touch dry and a little on the salty side…a smear of aoli helped a lot). Glasses of Txakoli poured from high up to accentuate the spritz in the traditional manner of the pintxos bars of San Sebastian. We have had better executions and drink better Txakoli at home but that’s to be expected. All in all satisifying, very spot on theme-wise, and and a pleasant, slightly nostalgic experience.
Moved next door to get to our table which wasn’t quite ready (we were a little early and the place was small and jumpin’) so we waited outside. It wasn’t a long wait, it was a pleasant evening and we only got hit up for money once. Sat down to again a pretty serious tapas menu with an extensive Spanish wine list (bottle of Contino 2001 and a glass of La Rioja Alta Vina Ardanza 2000 to finish the cheese plate of three different ages of Manchego with quince paste. Kathy apologizes for ‘deusching’ but she thought it was important to mention that Lawrence Fishburn sat down at the table behind us. Very close, quite loud, but it was OK within the framework of this place which had a lot of energy, played upbeat music and was quite a bit of fun. The food was overall quite good. The Sardinas Fritas with simple lemon wedges was spot on if you like that stuff…I do. The ensalada mono with manchego was mostly a frisee type of green dressed with a slightly sweet, slightly tart, slightly creamy concoction that worked beautifully, possibly the most interesting dish to both of us, though unusual as green food (veggies, lettuce) is pretty rare in our experience in Spain…can’t imagine being vegetarian there in the land of salted pig parts and fish.
Fideos with chorizo and clams was very tasty but kind of difficult to eat in combinations as the fideos, sort of a fried angel hair pasta, was blanketing the clams in shell, and the chorizo bits had fallen through mostly to the bottom. The pumpkin and goat cheese croquetas leaned a little more to the pumpkin and less to the piquent goat cheese so they came off a touch sweet for me but definitely balanced and interesting. The Pork Belly with Spicy Sandia was salty, sweet and savory with a bit of a crisp chicharone edge that was comforting to a guy who’s history ranges back to a butcher shop in East L.A. All in all we’d go back here. It was fun and there are other dishes that looked interesting. Good date place, wouldn’t want to have a business meeting here and, if it’s cold and the windows aren’t opened out to the street, one could get a little claustrophobic. Great for what it is trying to be, but probably a little too intense for some folks.
Website http://www.casamononyc.com/home.cfm
Menu (http://www.casamononyc.com/menu_casamono.cfm).
Wine List (http://www.casamononyc.com/pdf/wine_list.pdf).
THE MODERN
The Museum of Modern Art
9 West 53rd Street, New York
(between Fifth and Sixth Avenues)
This was our one foray off of the Spectator generated list, recommended to us, and was a complete hit for our taste. We went on a Tues hoping to catch a quick look at the Monet exhibit before lunch. Alas no one told the dumb California tourists that MoMA was closed Tues, nor did the website mention it. Oh well, a ten block stroll to Central Park, stumbling across a unique cigar bar/store along the way (ain’t never seen one of these in Cal if orn I yay but we hadn’t looked for one either), and then back for lunch. We got the tip, sort of left handed although it would seem that the place is no secret, not only being right next to a famous arts center but having won the James Beard award recently as well, from someone we know in the trade.
The sommelier there, Belinda Chang, was someone we met at the store with another sommelier/represenative at large for the Jorge Ordonez portfolio. We had been to Belinda Chang’s last stop, a very cool family style Italian place in Chicago, Via Stato, where the list was all Italian. Here, there are no holds barred and the list is massive with all kinds of who’s who bottlings from California, Bordeaux and Burgundy, verticals of stuff like Guigal single vineyards, and a huge Alsace lineup (chef Gabriel Kreuther is from Alsace, so I guess that part figures) Nine vintages of Marcel Deiss ‘Burg’, anyone? Eight Huets from 71 or before? They had Spanish wine, too, (Vega Sicilia and Valbuena verticals and one other…Urban Ribera del Duero?). There was representation, albeit generally icon/high end, from most significant wine venues in the world. It was one heck of a list but we wonder how much of that kind of super upper end thing gets sold these days. The markups didn’t seem excessive as restaurants go, but it was pretty high priced stuff by and large simply because of what it was. It wasn’t any easy matter to find deals on the list and this from someone who kind of knows his way around. In any case, for lunch, a Chateauneuf Blanc 2007 from Usseglio and a Pinot Blanc 2005 from Boxler were great matches to most of the lighter handed, very precise dishes we had here. The room was just that, modern, open, high ceilinged and spacious with open windows looking out on a sculpture garden that opened it up even more. The food, as mentioned, was generally lighter handed and precise and the service very crisp and professional. One point to make there is that they changed my amuse bouche to something tomato based from the custard they served Kathy because that one was too similar to one of the dishes I ordered. Impressive attention to detail.
view from the sculpture garden/ahi-scallop tartare
Kathy made her own tasting menu choosing three appetizers, starting with Field Greens with Goat Cheese Ravoilis, Beet Carpaccio and Truffle Vinaigrette, then a Pea soup with Barley and Cream and Tartare of Yellowfin Tuna and Diver Scallops seasoned with Yellowstone River Caviar. I did the same with Foie Gras Terrine flavored with Juniper Marinated Raisins, Pistachio Joconde, Cauliflower Panna Cotta with Yellowstone River Caviar, Cockle Clams, and Orange Emulsion, avioli, Zucchini Blossom Risotto with Heirloom Tomato Confit, Shiso and Flounder Carpaccio.
The Foie was creamy and had an nice touch of crunch as it was coated with the pistaccio mixture., the cauliflower notes very subtle to the panna cotta, the pea soup showed great purity of flavor and refined ‘peaness’. The slightly tart dressing brought the greens on the salad alive. The favorite was the tartare combination that really showed the freshnes and salinity of the sea cut nicely with the caviar and dressing. The zucchini blossom risotto was the one weaker dish, in part because it was dominated by the tomato and clashed with the other dishes and the wine. It seemed radically different in concept than everything else we had and came across, far too blunt amongst the other more delicate dishes. Overall, though, this was good eats if not necessarily for really hungry folks. Definitely recommended.
website: http://www.themodernnyc.com/
20 Years of Stonewell: A rare opportunity indeed…
Today Steve and I attended one of those tastings that are kind of like a tasting grenade. At the time that you you RSVP you don’t think too much of it other than, “Hey, this could be fun.” But this gig was a little more than “fun”. The sight of having 20 consecutive vintages of one of Australia’s most acclaimed Shiraz wines sitting in glasses in front of you does not go unnoticed. The opportunity to learn and glean something from an event such as this does not go untaken. And not only was it a chance to get a comprehensive look at this icon bottling but it was also an even rarer chance to get a snapshot in time of every vintage in the Barossa Valley since 1987, the first year this bottling was produced.
The background on Peter Lehmann. Peter was the winemaker at Saltram, a Barossa Valley old-timer winery, in the late 70′s. In a familiar scenario, larger corporate concern comes in and buys the winery, but not to produce wine, they instead want to store booze. Thus, the growers who sold grapes to the winery got the ax, leaving 150 farmers out in the cold with nowhere to sell their fruit and no one to make their wine. Old Pete steps in and tells them, you give me the fruit and I’ll make the juice and when I sell the juice you’ll get paid. Not having many options, the growers took Pete up on this offer and the rest, as they say, is history. Lehmann slowly grew the business through the 1980′s, success coming over a period of time as consumers warmed up to the concept of dry red Australian table wines.
Now Pete swings a pretty big stick in the Barossa, with many farmers indebted to him for saving their livelihoods, and
many more signing on since they knew they could trust the guy. He has access every year to the finest fruit from every major sub-region of the Barossa, from which he produces a number of wines, with Stonewell being the cream of the crop. It is 100% Shiraz, 100% Barossa, sourced from mostly 100+ year old vines (they send cuttings back to the Rhone all the time since phylloxera wiped these clonal selections out in France) but also from whichever growers ‘bring the drama’ vintage to vintage. A few changes have taken place over the years, including a little less time in wood and more French oak finding its way into the program. But the wine is still aged five years before release (a la Grange and Hill of Grace) and, from what this tasting unequivically demonstrated, capable of extended aging (and improvement) in the bottle.
The wines: We won’t go into wine hues, as all of these showed excellent color for their respective ages. It’s Barossa Shiraz, it’s dark, Got it?
1987- Some sweet saddle, with plum, Asian spice and cinnamon. Tawnied a touch but still fresh, medium weight, drying out some but overall a darn fine drink. Good wine from a solid vintage holding up well.
1988- Brighter, fresher, textbook, with riper tannin and a little less obvious fruit but more balance. More savory in style, black pepper. A touch better than the ’87…
1989- More Barossa boot polish here! A little more of that cherry cough drop edge to the plummy, curranty fruit. Longer, with lingering coffee flavors on the finish
1990- Bottle was shot, unfortunately.
1991- More youthful, inviting warm, berry compote and sweet leather nose. Thicker, richer, definite turn in style. In a really good place. Delicious! Nice wine from a classic vintage that Lehmann prefers to 1990.
1992- This is together. More restrained, some herb and mineral. Yummy, very complete. A real knock it back style. Really engaging with a savory finish. Was the favorite thus far on the first go-round but the 1991 slid past on on a second look. Good wine from a mixed vintage where the top wines have held up surprisingly well.
1993- Dry Port. Obviously a warmer year? Green and stewed at the same time. Not a top effort.
1994- Two bottles of this one floating around that were quite different. The good one was classic 1994, an evolved medium to full-bodied effort with good fruit, easy texture, a bit of weight and clean lines. Considered a pretty good (not great) vintage on release and this wine showed it.
1995- Powerful, rich, but the tannins are drying and the wine doesn’t show the necessary balance to increase the old style points. Dark fruits, some coffee, more pepper and healing herbs creeping in.
1996- First hint of mint, bit of a sledgehammer. Rich, also pretty chewy. Packs a punch, lots of blackberry and cocoa flavors. Better than the 1995 but the slightly drying tannins still bug a little. All in all, an excellent wine from an outstanding year.
1997- A bit porty again (though not as much as the ’93). Also shows some complexing green notes (funny how the portier wines show greener) that don’t detract from the engaging plum and berry fruit. Very seamless, the most traditionally Barossa “slippery” of the bunch. Too easy to drink, not a great one, merely a good one. But I wouldn’t turn down a glass.
1998- Winner winner chicken dinner. There’s a reason why ’98 is considered one of the Barossa’s finest vintages. This wine is so complete. Powerfully built, but the tannins are ripe and melty. The wine’s expressive, super-rich, falling just on the right side of porty. Like the 1996, still young. Best wine on the table? Probably.
1999- The sneak attack. Following the 1998, this one had its work cut out for it and still availed itself nicely. Lots of fruit, fleshy, but higher-toned and more restrained than the ’98. Cooler customer in a more classic, old school barossa style. But that’s not a bad thing. Perfectly enjoyable, and one of the more together wines on the table.
2000- In hindsight this one probably shouldn’t have been made. but we can say that about many a wine from the 2000 vintage, argubaly the worst this taster has ever worked through. The signature 2000 diffuse, herbal tea leaf quality weaves its way through all the wines, leaving a short, uncharming, unstructured ‘bleh’. They did what they could but this harvest was DOA.
2001- Always a favorite vintage of ours and this wine did nothing to tarnish that love. Strapping black fruit flavors are the name of the game here. Reticent at first, but just a block of fruit on the palate. Impressive, with a violets and blackberry fruit profile that can’t be ignored, followed up with suave, plentiful tannins. A keeper and one of the faves.
2002- This wine has it all, deep, layered fruit, sweet tannins, cocoa-like texture…and a huge blast of mint. Steve isn’t a mint guy, and I can take it in small, complexing doses, but this wine smells and tastes like a spa treatment. Which is a shame because it aces the compulsories. This was a great vintage in the Barossa and Lehmann loves this wine, but the eucalypt character is a bit too prominent for us. Outstanding wine if it were mint-free.
2003-This one brought out the wine geek tasting notes. Tuscan bread soup? Salted plums? We usually don’t go there but this wine had us scratching our heads. Chalky tannins (Lehmann likes chalkier tannins) and a savory, beefy character lead the way. Not our cup of bouillon.
2004- Another winemaking shift? This one is jammier, with a confectionary, new school edge to the black fruit flavors. One side of the coin says hedonistic the other says gooey, but with a substantially tannic kick. We were polarized on this one, honestly. Steve dug it more than me but hey, in the grand scheme of things this wine does not suck.
2005- From a cooler year with a blast of heat at the end. Savory, smoky, leathery, Frenchy, tangy. Fun to taste but I don’t know if this is ‘classic Stonewell’ … pretty long on the finish, no lack of concentration, just perhaps maybe some focus.
2006- Much better, deep black fruit like the 2004 but more punch and focus. Impressive! We’ll have to wait until 2011 for this one. Could be the best since the 2001 (or, if you’re Lehmann, that minty 2002). Still super-young.
Our faves? Steve had his Top Five as the 2001,1998, 1992, 2004 and 1991, with an honorbale mention for ’99 and ’06. Me? I had the ’98 first up, followed by the sneaky ’99, the 2001, 2006 and 1989, with warm fuzzies for the 1991 and 1992. In general there was great consistency in quality, which what makes Australia Australia just like Napa is Napa. Seven out of 10 great years is more fun to taste than, say, Bordeaux’s four out of ten though, admittedly, the highs might be alittle higher when you’re talking Bordeaux. In the end, we hope a few of sommeliers in attendance and French wine faithful caught a glimpse of the ageability of Barossa Shiraz wines, as many other producers besides Lehmann can stand a decade in the cellar and come out smelling like a rose. We hope the versatility of the wines tasted at today’s event did not go unnoticed.
On a broader note, it speaks volumes against the accusations from a lot of folksout there that Aussie Shiraz is monolithic and monochromatic. These wines were respectful of their vintages, and weren’t overtly ‘made’. One shouldn’t confuse something like Rosemount Red Diamond Shiraz with soulful, purposeful efforts that show terroir and vaiation. Finally it is important to note taht out of twenty vintages (probably the last time they’ll be able to do this gig from the ‘beginning’, only a couple were ‘over the top’ and we suspect those instances were vintage related. Thanks again to the Hess people and Lehmann people for putting this gig on and props to XIV on Sunset for running a pro show.
