Chica Chablis: 2014

Friday, August 8, 2014

Dry Rosés from Spain's Montsant and Bierzo

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Spain’s Montsant, a Denominación de Origen (DO) about 100 miles southwest of Barcelona. It was something I had wanted to do ever since I first tasted the rich and powerful wine from the area.

Although Montsant’s wine-growing history dates back to the middle ages, it’s still a fairly young appellation having been given the DO status in 2001. However, it almost completely encircles Priorat, the famous appellation that today produces some of Spain’s most sought-after and expensive big reds. In fact, Priorat has Spain’s highest classification Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOCa). Only Priorat and Rioja have been awarded this status.

Montsant and Priorat are ruggedly beautiful but I’d be surprised if many American tourists even know about these areas. You’ve got to rent a car to see them and driving on the winding, steep roads is not for the faint hearted. But if you’re brave enough to tackle the roads – or like me, lucky enough to have a friend who happily took on the task – you will see charming ancient villages and breathtaking vistas that remain unmarred by chain restaurants or shopping centers.

The wineries, also, do not have the touristy tasting bars that we find in most U.S. wine growing regions. Most require advance appointments, and the owners of Cal Torner, a charming seven-guest room hotel in the village of Els Guiamets, were able to arrange my visit to Cellers de Capçanes. This is a cooperative that was started in 1933 by five families from the village of Capçanes. In the 1990s it started to draw broader interest because it took the unusual step of making kosher wines in addition to its regular portfolio. The winery has also gotten attention because well-respected U.S. importer Eric Solomon has launched several custom cuvée projects with Capçanes.

While the Celler de Capçanes Mas DonisBarrica big, luscious red wine has been available in the St. Louis market for a few years, a newcomer here this year is the Mas Donis Rosat (Catalan for rosé), Although I was thrilled when I found it at Straub’s in July, I did have the kosher version a few months earlier when I conducted a kosher wine tasting for BaisAbraham Congregation in St. Louis.

Like it’s red counterpart, the Rosat is a powerful wine that’s fairly complex and a bit tannic for a rosé. In fact, it’s even closer to a light red than a pink. This vibrant wine, which is made from 80 percent garnacha, 10 percent syrah and 10 percent merlot, is packed with juicy strawberry fruit and ends with a citrusy finish.

Another new rosé in our market is the Armas de Guerra, 2013 Rosado from Bierzo, a Denominaciones de Origen (DO) located in northwestern Spain. Bierzo is becoming one of the country's new wine hotspots thanks to flavorful reds made from the region’s primary grape, mencía.

I absolutely loved this wine, which I found at Whole Foods. This unique wine is one of my new favorites this season. It’s made from 100 percent Mencía and is the first rosado (Spanish for rosé) I’ve tasted made from this varietal. A pale salmon color, it’s a refreshing rosé that combines citrus and tropical flavors with mineral notes and hints of bakery spice. Delicate and refined, this is a lovely aperitif wine that would go with appetizers and lighter fare.

Bot the Mas Donis Rosat and the Armas de Guerra Rosado are featured in my Aug. 6 Wine Finds column that appears in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

#wine #rosé #rosado #rosat #CellerCapçanes #WholeFoods #Montsant #Priorat #Straubs #ElsGuiamets #EricSolomon #Bierzo #Mencia #CalTorner

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

#SauvignonBlanc and #Sustainability. Hats off to @HonigWine

A number of years ago when I was working as a reporter for Reuters, I was assigned to cover an American Bar Association annual meeting in San Francisco. After a long day of sitting through panel discussions and programs, I knew I'd be facing a long evening in my hotel room typing on my laptop.

As a reward for what promised to be hours of writing, I felt I deserved a nice bottle of wine. Nothing on the room service menu did anything for me, especially since I was hoping for a great selection being in northern California. So I walked around the area and found a wonderful wine shop.

Since my hotel room had a little balcony, I knew I wanted a crisp white I could sip outside while I worked. I asked the salesman to recommend his favorite Sauvignon Blanc from California.

I'll alway remember his quick response: Honig.

I trusted his judgment and bought a bottle. It was everything I had hoped it would be, so beautifully balanced and refreshing.

When I saw that the Wine Merchant in St. Louis was hosting a tasting of Honig wines and that Michael Honig would be there, I couldn't wait to meet him. Michael is the grandson of the winery's founder, Louis Honig, who passed away a number of years ago. Michael took over management of the winery in 1984, when he was 22 years old. According to the Honig website, the winery was struggling at the time. It said that Michael used an old meat locker for an office and a shoebox marked "misc" for an accounting system. Although he had no formal training, he began canvassing the streets of San Francisco, selling wine and delivering it himself.

It the years that followed, the winery became famous for its award winning Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon -- the only two varietal wines it sells. But the Honig name is equally well-known for its leadership in sustainability both in the winery and vineyard.

In fact, Honig is one of the wineries featured in the 2014 book "Down to Earth, A Seasonal Tour of Sustainable Winengrowing in California." This absolutely beautiful book was written by Janet Fletcher and features breathtaking photos by the amazing George Rose, who has got to be the best in wine photo business. The book was published by the Wine Institute.

During the tasting at the Wine Merchant, I sipped the Honig Napa Valley 2013 Sauvignon Blanc that was on sale for $14.99 and its Rutherford Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, which was $22.99. Both were delicious. The Rutherford Reserve is aged in oak, making it rich and toasty.

I was able to review the Honig Napa Valley in my July 23 St. Louis Post-Dispatch column, which focuses on wine under $15.

If you're a Sauvignon Blanc fan, but aren't crazy about the pungent ones from New Zealand, do yourself a favor and try the Honig wines. You'll be glad you did.

#wine #napavalley #sauvignonblanc #sustainability #wineinstitute #honig

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Learning about #wine from #UnionSquareCafe

While I am absolutely terrible when it comes to remembering people’s names, for some strange reason I can often recall the label of a wine, where I was when I was drinking it and with whom. It's as if wines take on their own little stories inside my brain.

For example, last week my St. Louis Post-Dispatch column featured a sparkling wine produced by the New Mexico winery Gruet. In a related blog, I discussed having it for the first time at Tabla, the now defunct restaurant that had been owned by Danny Meyer. I remembered clearly that I had been sitting at the bar with my friend Marjorie when the bartender recommended the sparkling wine with the restaurant’s Indian spiced popcorn. It was that experience that led me to start experimenting with pairing sparkling wines with all sorts of casual foods.

Since I had bought a bottle of Gruet for a July 4th celebration, it made me think about Tabla. I couldn’t remember exactly what year the restaurant had closed, so I began to search the internet. I found that it had closed in 2010, making it the first of Meyer’s restaurants to close after he launched his successful empire in 1985 with the famous Union Square Café.

As I was on the computer doing my research, a headline popped up that Meyer had just announced he was closing Union Square due to soaring rents in the neighborhood. Talk about a flood of memories. It made me realize how much I learned about wine from Meyer’s various restaurants.

Sometime early in Union Square’s history, a server recommended a Bedell Cellars Merlot from the North Fork of Long Island. The restaurant was a real champion of locally grown and produced foods and wine was part of its promotional efforts. However, I was extremely hesitant to order that Merlot because wines from Long Island were not particularly well known in the mid 1980s. In fact, Bedell itself is only about 30 years old. However, Union Square’s sommelier was on to something because Bedell wines are now highly respected and its Merlot became the first New York wine in history to be served at the inauguration of the President of the United States.

Another wine I can remember at Union Square is from South Africa’s Thelema Mountain Vineyards. It was a Sauvignon Blanc. It was June 23, 1995 and my mother and I were celebrating her 73^rd birthday. The previous year she had survived a massive heart attack and emergency open heart surgery. Although the odds had not been good, she promised me she would live because she had to return to Union Square Café for her birthday. We chose the Thelema because my mother’s name was Thelma.

I wrote about the experience in a commentary that was published in the St. Louis Jewish Light.

At Meyer’s Gramercy Tavern, I remember tasting the 2010 "Viña Tondonia" Gran Reserva Rosado from Spain's Rioja region. The year was 2011 and I was visiting my friend Marjorie Shaffer. Marj had tasted the wine previously and insisted I would love it. She was right.

This wine was unique. A complex rosé that had been aged in oak, the wine was a combination of two red grapes, Garnarcha and Tempranillo, and one white, Viura. It was by far the most delicious — and unusual — rosé I'd ever sipped.

So once again, thanks to Danny Meyer for introducing me and countless others to foods and wines we might not have ever experienced and enjoyed.

#wine #rosé #sparklingwine #dannymeyer #unionsquarecafe #rosado #gramercytavern #thelema #gruet #merlot #northforkoflongisland

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

#Sparklingwine for #July4-- remembering the #DannyMeyer restaurant Tabla

Danny Meyer, the famous New York restaurant owner who hails from St. Louis, once had a contemporary Indian restaurant called Tabla in Manhattan’s Flatiron district. Although the regular menu was somewhat pricey, you could eat for far less in the restaurant’s Bread Bar. One of the most memorable things about that bar was its popcorn, which came dusted with cumin, coriander, and chile pepper.

It was an addictive combination and my pal Marjorie Shaffer and I were hooked. With all the possible choices in Manhattan, we frequently found ourselves drawn back to the Bread Bar longing for that popcorn.

Although the restaurant closed in 2010, I can still remember the taste of the popcorn and the wine that one of the bartenders recommended as a match. It was the Gruet sparkling wine from New Mexico. I was pretty shocked the first time he suggested it. For starters, sparkling wine was not something I would have thought to order with popcorn. And then, New Mexico? Who knew they made sparkling wine in New Mexico?

But it was a great combination and I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Gruet because of that. It also made me realize that sparkling wine goes well with all sorts of salty and fried foods. And because there are plenty of sparkling wines that are more affordable than Champagne, why not have them with your popcorn, French fries and bratwurst?

Our Tabla excursions happened when I was working as a correspondent for Reuters and I was so inspired by the popcorn and Gruet combination, that I wrote a piece about unusual sparkling wine pairings. The feature got picked up in numerous newspapers during 2002 and even got translated into Spanish. One of the reasons the story probably got so much attention is that it mentioned Hooters was offering a party promotion pairing Dom Pérignon with chicken wings.

I'm remembering this now because of upcoming July 4th celebrations. It seems to me that sparkling wines produced in the United States would be perfect for whatever you're doing or eating that day. First of all, sparkling wines are festive and we should be toasting to our country's independence. Second, these are wines made in our country. Third, they go with everything and finally, they are affordable.

Personally, I prefer sparklers made through the méthode champenoise, which is the same process used to make real French Champagne. In this method, the wine goes through a second fermentation in its own bottle rather than in a tank. There are many excellent American sparklers made this way. Most come from the following California wineries: Schramsburg, Domaine Chandon, Mumm Napa, Gloria Ferrer, Iron Horse, Roederer Estate and Korbel.

Another significant American producer of sparkling wine made through méthode champenoise is Domaine Ste. Michelle in Washington State. The Domaine Ste. Michelle "Michelle" Brut and the Gruet Brut are featured in my July 2, 2014 St. Louis Post-Dispatch column.

#dannymeyer #sparklingwine #july4 #domperignon #champagne #méthodechampenoise #hooters

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Broccoli rabe, bok choy and bargains from the southern Rhône

When I moved to St. Louis from New York City, I quickly discovered that the chain grocery stores did not carry many of the ingredients that I easily found either in Manhattan’s greenmarkets or the numerous compact family-owned foods stores and delis. Broccoli rabe, bok choy and even a full bunch of fresh mint had suddenly gone from being staples to delicacies.

Finally I learned there was one place where I was bound to find all of my old favorites and even some new ones. That store is Global Foods, 421 N. Kirkwood. It is truly the one spot in the St. Louis area frequented by members of all ethnic groups. The store was founded by Suchin Prapaisilp, who moved to St. Louis in 1970 from Thailand. He like many other immigrants could not find the food that they enjoyed back in their homelands.

Today Global Foods has items from just about everywhere. If you go to the website, there’s even a map of the store showing which aisles carry a particular country’s products. And while food is the main attraction, the store also has a small but intriguing wine section with a moderately priced selection. While I admit that I’d be hesitant about buying some of those bottles, there are some pretty nice budget wines to be found.

For example, the store stocks some French wines from France’s southern Rhône valley. While that’s home to the superb and expensive wines that come from the appellations of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas, it also produces some affordable, good quality reds that are great for everyday drinking. Some of these French wines at Global are from lesser known areas or labeled as Indication Géographique Protégée (IGP) rather than from a specific appellation. But I figured they would be fine for a casual dinner and they were.

One was the Domaine des Rozets 2010 Grignan-les-Adhemar priced at $9.99. I had never heard of the Grignan-les-Adhemar appellation but I could have sworn I had seen that label before. Turns out that I had. Grignan-les-Adhemar used to be called Coteaux du Tricastin, an appellation that was created in 1973 at the northern edge of the southern Rhône. In fact, when the cashier rang up my receipt it still identified the wine as Coteaux du Tricastin.

About a year after Coteaux du Tricastin was created, a nuclear plant was built in Tricastin. The existence of the plant along with an accident in 2008 caused wine sales to drop. Although no contamination was ever proven, the appellation’s image had been tarnished and the name on the label turned consumers away.

So wine growers petitioned for a name change with I.N.A.O., the French agency that oversees the country’s appellation. The I.N.A.O. approved the change in 2010. When authorities changed the name, new rules for improving the wine from the appellation also went into effect. For example the maximum permitted grape yield was lowered and the use of herbicides was restricted.

The Domaine des Rozets is made from a blend of typical Rhône varieties: 60 percent grenache, 35 percent syrah and 5 percent cinsault. This is an earthy, medium-bodied red that’s quite dry with tangy herbal notes. It would pair well with burgers and charcuterie.

Another southern Rhône wine I found at Global is the Domaine de Couron 2011 Merlot IGP Ardèche priced at $9.49. Although this medium-bodied merlot comes from an area in the Cotes du Rhône, it cannot carry the official Cotes du Rhône designation because it’s not made from the appellation’s allowed varietals. IGP is the Europe-wide term for vin de pays or “country wine.” This category doesn’t mean that the wine is of lesser quality, but instead focuses on geographical origin rather than style or tradition. It gives winemakers more freedom than having to abide by the rules to obtain an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) designation. In this case, the winemaker created a wine made of 100 percent merlot, rather than from traditional Rhône varieties. The result is a soft, fruity, fresh red that’s very quaffable and would go well with a variety of foods including burgers, chicken and pasta.

The Domaine de Couron and the Domaine des Rozets are featured in my June 25 Wine Finds column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

#rhone #tricastin #grignanlesadhemar #INAO #cotesdurhone #IGP #vindepays #countrywine #ardeche #wine #winewednesday

Chica Chablis