Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Brickstone Cellars 2005 Finger Lakes Chardonnay

Finger Lakes is a relatively young wine region, comparable, in a sense, to one of my favorite ones: Alsace. No wonder that Riesling and Gewurztraminer are prominently cultivated. As in most US wine regions, wine makers are experimenting with lots of different grapes and styles, which makes hard to categorize the area in a well defined way. At the moment, wines show very good acidity, fruity flavors and sweet or semi-sweet flavors. This Chardonnay from Widmer Wine Cellars, located on Canandaigua Lake, is a dry, barrel fermented wine which lacks some balance but shows the potential of the region. I'm very happy to be around here for the next few years.

Tasting notes: The color is yellow-gold with green reflections. The first impression at the nose is the oak flavor (which accounts for the "Barrel fermented" reading in the label) which is not completely blended with the other flavors in the bouquet: citrus (lime and grapefruit) and flowers (orange flowers). The palate is buttery, maybe too much, with a good acidity, though. The finish is clean and pleasant. Not a bad wine, overall, with just too much oak and greasy flavors.

Score: 80/100

Price: 10.99

100-point wine rating scale

I guess I should have posted this at the beginning of my blogging... Anyway, here I am. This is the wine rating scale I'll be using for my reviews. I don't completely agree with it, but it seems to be used by most people and it's consistent with Wine Spectator's 100-Point Scale. BTW, I've shamelessly copied it from cork'd.
  • 99-100 Points A jaw-dropping, heart-stopping effort—not just everything you’d expect, but MORE than you could reasonably expect from a wine.
  • 96-98 Points Overwhelming. A rare level of greatness for wines that knock your socks off with their massiveness or make your hair stand on end with their elegance.
  • 92-95 Points Rocking wines that achieve something special within what they try to be. Occasionally wines in this range are a bit one-dimensional, but that one dimension will blow you away.
  • 90-91 Points High quality wines that make you go back to the glass looking for (and usually finding) something more. Wines that are not just enjoyable but pique one’s curiosity.
  • 85-89 Points Above average wines that perhaps lack that little something extra that makes them worthy of a 90-point score. Satisfactory. Drinkable and unobjectionable.
  • 80-84 Points Something about the wine just rubs you the wrong way, but it has some redeeming features.
  • 70-79 Points Very average wines capable of quenching thirst but little else. Straightforward and unremarkable.
  • 60-69 Points Flawed wines to avoid at all costs. Practically undrinkable.
  • 50-59 Points So poor that the 60-69 range is insufficient to describe their inadequacy. Undrinkable.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Gouguenheim Malbec 2007

I'm not a huge fan of Malbecs in general, but a few of them may be enjoyable, if properly harvested when ripe and aged a little bit (a couple of years, no more). This Argentine Malbec from Mendoza Province is no exception: it doesn't express its full potential, probably because of an early harvest. Anyway, it's a correct, drinkable wine and the price is correct for its value.

Tasting Notes: Purple red with ruby reflections. The nose is spicy (white pepper and anise), fruity (plum and blueberries) with some bitter and "green" flavors. The palate is interesting even if a little disharmonious with a medium finish, lacking some cleanness and finesse.

Score: 79/100

Price: $7.99

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Cloudline Oregon Pinot Noir 2006

While Bourgogne remains my favorite choice for Pinot Noir (and also a wonderful tourist spot), Oregon comes as a close second. It is also a very nice place to visit: my wife and I spent a memorable week there in 2006, visiting the wine country. 

Since my moving to the States, the geographic closeness and the unfavorable Dollar-Euro exchange rate pushed me to taste more U.S. wines than I was used to (not necessarily a bad thing, though). So, I tried lots of different Pinot Noirs available at Marketview Liquor, one of my favorite liquor store. Most of my pets are in the $30-$50 range and I was looking for more affordable choices: 2006 Cloudline, which I never tasted before, was offered with a 10% discount. I paired it with my specialty hamburger (ground chuck roast mixed with ham, onion and american cheese) and I enjoyed it. Though, there are better alternatives for the same price.

Tasting notes: The 2006 Cloudline is deep ruby red with purple reflections, a sign of its very young age and, probably, too much extraction. The nose confirms the extreme youth, especially in the bitter, somewhat smoked smell, which characterize most Pinot Noirs under 4 years of aging; alcohol is also prominent. On the good side, there are very evident varietal flavors (cherry and raspberry), some spices (coriander and nutmeg) and just a hint of oak. The palate is smooth, alcoholic, with good correspondence to the nose. A little bit unidimensional and not very long in the end. Probably better in 2 years from now, when the youthful roughnesses might have faded.

Score: 79/100 

Price: $17.99

Thursday, December 11, 2008

The Surprise

One of the biggest surprises I've ever had was to witness with my own eyes (well, with my nose and mouth) a toad turning into Prince Charming. We were blindly tasting a few Bourgogne reds while I smelled an intense, foul odor in one of the glasses: it reminded me of a stable, actually a dirty stable! It was so bad that I immediately thought that the wine was flawed. But, wait! The bottles were opened already and Sandro had, for sure, already checked them in advance. Was this some kind of test? Nonetheless, we were told to persist and oxygenate the wine for a while. Then, the miracle: after ten minutes of vigorous oxygenation, the breathtaking, deep and elegant scent that only the Pinot Noir is capable of emerged in all its magnificence. I was astonished, in just a few minutes a liquid that I wouldn't dare to drink for a large lump of cash was transfigured into a precious elixir I couldn't stop smelling and drinking. It turned out to be Méo-Camuzet Clos de Vougeot 1989. That day I discovered a great wine and, moreover, I learned that you can't judge a wine at first smell!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The Disappointment

Back in 1995 I was attending a master class on French wines. On the night dedicated to Bordeaux, we blindly tasted 6 reds from different appellations. The last one, supposedly the best, was Château Margaux 1990, the perfect wine according to, well, everybody: 3 glasses, 5 stars, 100 points, you name it! While I couldn't find any particular flaws in it, I wasn't carried away either. We discussed a lot about it and for days, weeks, months I felt somewhat miserable from the experience. I wasn't able to understand and appreciate what the experts considered the paradigm of perfection. (Yeah, at the time I still had the reverential fear for the gurus).

It took me a while to get over it and learn a great lesson: there are no perfect wines and there are no absolute experts. A tasting experience is influenced by more than the intrinsic qualities (and flaws) of a wine: feelings, emotions, companions, environment, everything can affect the results (in a sense, Luca Maroni is perfectly right).

So, my recommendation is: listen to anybody, challenge everything and judge by yourself. You are the ultimate reason for a wonderful experience.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

The Revelation

Several wines moved and touched me in several ways but the one that gave me my first vivid emotion was probably Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 1987. In 1992 I was attending a tasting course hosted by Sandro Sangiorgi (my first mentor: an amazing connoisseur, a passionate teacher and a true wine lover) on the great wines of the world: we tasted several gems from French, Germany, Spain, Chile, Australia and USA. Every single one was truly amazing but when we got to the Caymus I had  an epiphany: it was powerful yet subtle, complex but immediate and direct, fruity, spicy, full bodied without being heavy and with a breathtaking, endless after mouth. It kept evolving for the twenty-something minutes that I managed to have my glass last and all the time it didn't stop to amaze me. In a sense, it was not a perfect wine but it was absolutely fascinating. Probably, for my taste of today, it was too oaky (yes, I was into oak at the time...) but it showed me what a wine could be (and compelled me to visit Napa 3 years later).

Friday, December 5, 2008

The myth of wine and food pairing

I always loved food and I've been serious about wine for at least 20 years. I've studied a lot of books and magazines, attended several courses, traveled in different continents, discussed with winemakers, chefs, sommeliers, wine lovers and casual drinkers but I've never really understood the art of wine and food pairing. To me it's just another myth, used to sell books and magazines and by self-called experts to brag about how knowledgeable they are.
The organoleptic analysis is almost an exact science: tons of chemical compounds create complex scents, flavors and textures that we can recognize with our senses. You can be good at it, you can train yourself if you are not, but, usually, there is a general agreement on the qualities of a wine. That doesn't mean that a good (or an excellent) wine is good to everyone. And this is the first problem. The second problem is that a recipe is a complex artifact by itself. If you add the complexity of a wine, the result is experienced differently by different people.
The biggest disappointments I had in my life were mostly when I chose the recommended wines with a dish or a menu: either I didn't like the wine or I didn't enjoy the pairing.
When I host a tasting dinner I try to pair 2 to 3 wines for a single dish so we can compare the wines and decide what we like the most. Surprisingly, almost everybody agrees on which one is the best wine but no consensus is found on the best pairing.
I'm comforted in this opinion by 2 great chefs I've been lucky enough to meet: Gualtiero Marchesi and Pietro Leemann. For both, the best approach to wine and food pairing is to take a great dish, add a great wine and enjoy!

Why this

I've never been a fan of blogs in general, I still prefer personal contacts, especially for hobbies. When I was living in Italy, I used to invite my friends for dinner almost every week. I also used to host tasting dinners at a friend's wine bar. As I can't do it anymore (actually, I'm still looking for a wine bar/restaurant here to replicate what I consider an excellent model) I've decided to share my experiences on the web, hoping to reach more people and, hopefully, learn from others.
I like to learn, I enjoy new experiences and I'm not scared of challenges. Please, don't be shy: if you like what I say, tell me; if you don't, tell me! But, please, please, please, don't force me to moderate comments: trolls and jerks are what I hate the most of the Internet.