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!

Yet that’s more-or-less where I’ve found myself when it comes to France’s Burgundy, home of both ethereally-exquisite, mind-blowingly-good wines and overpriced, cabbage-in-the-bathwater bad swill, with little to guide the consumer from choosing one over the other apart from painstakingly acquired detailed knowledge of the region’s négociants… and we’ve all go those guys’ details committed firmly to memory, right?!??

Ahem…

And so, when you get invited to a vintage tasting in NYC for a Burgundian producer with whom you have no prior experience, even as a critic-of-sorts you steel yourself for what is surely to be the inevitable dropping of the other shoe; as in, having to taste wines that smell like the other shoe dipped in someone’s droppings.

And then, when you’re not only pleasantly surprised by the outcome – as I was at Blue Fin last week, after going through the 2009 lineup from Père & Fils’ Domaine Chanson – you’re practically blown away… Well, then you have to endure the odd-paired painful pleasure of watching your personal assessment of both that producer’s abilities and your own douchebag rating simultaneously skyrocket. [ Editor's note: This pain was salved slightly by the fact that Père & Fils’ was pouring bubbly from Champagne producer Bollinger, which they also own, and which I can now tell you from personal experience washes down the taste of crow with elegant, floral appeal. ]

Much of Domaine Chanson’s rise to within-spitting-distance of Burgundy’s upper-echelon (and therefore arguably the wine world’s upper-echelon) can be attributed to the hard work of its President, Gilles de Courcel – an amicable guy with thinning brown hair, a quick smile and eyes that light up when he gets a chance to exercise his borderline-obsessive passion for describing the tiny geography from which Chanson’s top-tier, tiny production Grand Cru wines originate…

The only real problem in meeting Gilles and tasting his wines is the stark realization that the Capitalist laws of supply and demand will almost certainly assure that even if you could find those tiny production Grand Cru wines, you almost certainly won’t be able to afford them. It’s like seeing a great movie and then minutes later contemplating the sadness of the human condition and the tragedy of your own worthless mortality in the grand Universe.

And it mostly hurts because really, really good Burgundy wines are a bit like crack cocaine for wine geeks; they just might reset the bar for you on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and leave you fruitlessly chasing those initial highs for the rest of your miserable-ass life.

But I’m gonna tell you about them anyway, because misery most certainly loves company when it comes to this kind of pain:

2009 Domaine Chanson Corton Vergennes Grand Cru
Price: $114
Rating: A

From a tiny hillside vineyard that once belonged to Louis XVI’s counselor. At first sniff, this comes off as lemon water, not Chardonnay. There’s literally almost nothing there. Then the waves start rolling in – limes, spices, wet rocks, tropical fruits… and keep coming until the whole thing aggregates into a sense of total, elegant indulgence, which keeps on going even seconds after you swallow the stuff, after which you will feel like storming the Bastille on horseback, banners flying wildly in the wind, while trumpets herald your attack. Of course, you’d probably be shot instantly by the French police but another sip will take you right back to fantasy land.

2009 Domaine Chanson Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru

Price: $215
Rating: A

From relatively prime real estate in tiny Burgundian terms, in an upper part of an Eastward-facing hill in Gevrey Chambertin. A wonderful balancing act of structure – acidity, minerality, tannins, spices, ripe and dried fruits, blah-blah-blah… And that’s all just on the nose of this Pinot. Something like twenty-seven different red berry fruits then present themselves, delicately lifting up your will and then crushing it and playing with it like a cat toy. Which you won’t mind so long as there’s still another sip in the glass (which their won’t be, at least not for long).

Two selections from Chanson’ slightly lower-tier Premier Crus stood out for me at the tasting – so much so that I thought offering them as somewhat-easier-to-possibly-locate and somewhat-more-affordable alternatives:

2009 Domaine Chanson Puligny-Montrachet Hameau de Blagny Premier Cru
Price: $65
Rating: A-

From clay and limestone soils near Meursault (not that you care, probably). Sensual, textural, floral, elegant, but almost biting in its acid as its still in the Puligny-Montrachet version of wine diapers. Visions of scallops will likely appear at first sip. I’d suggest this Chardonnay for a hot date, but then that date would expect this kind of wine every date night and then eventually the only thing that will get screwed will be your bank account.

2009 Domaine Chanson Beaune Clos des Fèves Premier Cru
Price: $66
Rating: B+

This is Burgundy Pinot Noir from a “monopole” vineyard with an eye looking slightly towards the Sonoma Coast. It’s seductive and juicy, and isn’t shy about dishing out raspberries and baking spices towards your nostrils. The vanilla and oak here come off more like a cleverly-applied hint of perfume and less like, well, vanilla and oak: drawing you in for a closer look rather than turning you off in sneezing fit.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Song Of The Happily Depleted Burgundian Bank Account (Domaine Chanson’s 2009 Grand Crus Hit High Notes, And High Prices) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

Considering that I’ve been so surprised by the high quality of some Aussie white wines in the last several months, it seems surprising that I should be surprised at all when Aussie wine surprises me these days.

And yet, my mind is simple enough (and apparently entrenched enough in its own little preconceived notions) that the Aussie wine surprises keep coming (good and bad, but probably much more good than bad right now).

Such was the case at last week’s A+ Aussie Wine public tasting event at Espace in NYC, called “Around Australia In 80 Sips” and organized jointly by Bottlenotes and Wines of Australia (of whom I was a media guest). [ By the way, the "A+" thing is their marketing label, not mine. ]

The Aussie’s in the biz who attended refer to this sort of public tasting event as a “swim through” – I’ll let your imagination fill in the blanks on what that means, but let’s just say I had to fight to make my way to poorly-placed spit buckets, and I was by far in the minority in terms of actually using them.

The volume of imbibing aside, it was great to see so many people (a few hundred NYCers) – and predominantly young people, who apparently haven’t heard (or are just ignoring) the misinformation that Aussie wine is dead – coming out to get a crash-course in what Aussie wine has to offer the U.S. market.  Something like forty wineries participated – mostly the big ones, which very likely isn’t a true representation of the diversity of the Aussie wine market, but was certainly an accurate representation of the Aussie producers most people are likely to find available on our shores.

The surprises for me this time? The reds…

While it is true that the reports of the Aussie wine market’s death have been greatly exaggerated, they haven’t been quite so exaggerated when it comes to the reds, especially the lower-end of the Shiraz product range which has garnered a rep for tasting too much like berry compote, brown sugar, wood and grain alcohol shoved into a container full of Pepsi and mixed together.

And I did find a few such examples at this tasting, for sure – but those on the other end of that spectrum? Well, they were a different story entirely: concentrated, for sure, but spectacular in their complexity and in some cases their potential food-friendliness. A few from cooler Aussie climes could have passed for Syrah from some hip, modern Rhone producer in a blind tasting.

So on to the juice – here are four reds that stood out for me as being particularly surprising, pleasure-inducing, and worth their price tags (or more):

2008 Turkey Flat Butcher’s Block Red (Barossa)
Price: $27
Rating: B+

A serious red made from old (seriously old) Shiraz, Grenache, and Mourvedre vines from Turkey Flat’s own Barossa vineyards, this wine is a study in what intense concentration is supposed to taste like; when it’s natural, from old-vine small berries with clusters that don’t ripen uniformly, and not when it’s induced by borderline-raping grapes during crush and fermentation. It’s deep, intense, tense, and tart (it’s the tart part that never shows up in the over-extracted, heavy-handed styles), and it will make you feel simultaneously enlightened but also like you just got your ass kicked, like Neo in that dojo scene with Morpheus in The Matrix.

2008 Schild Estate Sparkling Shiraz (Barossa)
Price: $29
Rating: B+

I hard time coming to terms with this wine. I am still having a hard time coming to terms with this wine. By most accounts, it shouldn’t work. It’s the thickest, meatiest, blackberry-pie-est sparkling Shiraz I’ve tasted in a long time. It’s like high-end Barossa with bubbles, a dark berry meat samosa, and yet… it just… works. Wine snobs aren’t supposed to like wines like this… so I’m quite glad I am not a wine snob. Your mileage may vary – keep an open mind about this one and you’re in for one of more unique bubbly wine experiences you’ve probably ever had.

2004 Mount Langi Ghiran Langi Shiraz (Grampians)
Price: $44
Rating: B+

My on-the-spot tasting note for this beauty reads “Pepper! OMG, we have honest-to-goodness PEPPER!” Sooooo much Aussie Shiraz is made that is utterly devoid of cooler-climate Syrah’s black pepper spice that it’s enough to induce depression in Rhone Valley wine lovers, which is what made this wine stand out from the pack of 80 at the NYC tasting. This wine is the Zoro of Aussie Shiraz, dazzling you with a display of black fruit before going in for the spicy kill and, then stealing your horse and riding off with your wife, and all the time you’re thinking “damn, that guy is soooo smooth.”

2004 Cape Mentelle Cabernet Sauvignon (Margaret River)
Price: $50
Rating: A-

Again, I’ll start with the brief on-the-spot tasting note, which reads: “uhmmm… wow; lovely.” That sums it up, but for those who aren’t into the whole brevity thing, I’ll add that this wine struck a fantastic balance between dark berry fruitiness (yeah, we are tasting wines from Down Undah, here), wood spices, earthiness and tangy red currants. Just smelling it had me thinking about potential food matches, which is a relative rarity in Cab from just about anywhere these days, so it came off like a breath of fresh air, as if some kind-hearted soul had just opened the window on a bright spring day and offered you a slice of pie, a massage, and a date with Heidi Klum.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Surprising Stars From Aussie Wine’s “A+” NYC Event from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

Why? Because there’s nothing “wrong” with it.

I am here today to tell you that Pinotage is not bad; it is simply different. And if you don’t like this oft-maligned but more-oft-misunderstood South African cross between Pinot noir and Cinsaut, that’s your prerogative. Just stop drinking it and shut about it, already, then. I mean, Pinotage has some high-profile wine critics who are haters right now – for Pete’s sake, Lettie Teague expresses disdain for it on her friggin’ homepage.

Yes, the worst of them (Pinotages, I mean, not wine critics) smell too much like overly-aged smoked meat wrapped in bananas and dipped into a vat of acetone that’s being bioled over a tire fire. I fully acknowledge that, okay?

But riddle me this, Wine Man: what bargain-basement version of any variety doesn’t have its fair share of sh*tty-tasting bottlings? Ever had really bad Cab? Terrible Pinot? Of course you have. Pinotage is no different than any other fine wine grape (yes, I meant to put the “fine” part in there), in that bad fruit in incapable winemaking hands results in a terrible wine, overemphasizing the worst qualities of any grape. It just so happens that Pinotage has more ammunition with which to work than most in the off-odors department.

That doesn’t mean that Pinotage cannot be beguiling when the right fruit gets into the right winemaking hands. It just means that there’s a little more of a deft balancing act to be attained when dealing with Pinotage.

But I know it can be done, and done well, because I’ve tasted some first-hand…

I suppose that I should expect a great deal of challenging push-back on this, since many seem to be strong with the Dark Side of the Pinotage Hate Force these days. So why the crotchety words on Pinotage-hate? Because I’m sick of wine variety bigotry, in which one style or grape gets maligned unfairly simply for being… itself..

The bottom line is that a lot of people dig the red fruit, leather, bacon, tropical fruit kitchen-sink mix of aromas that Pinotage has to offer – and they’re not wrong. You can shift your perspective to see their Pinotage-loving point of view, by the way – you just need to approach it with an open mind.

Am I saying that you should happily gulp-down any old Pinotage that reeks of acetone? NO – pour that shiz down the drain where it belongs. But I am saying that Pinotage that is complex, interesting, even compelling and doesn’t reek of acetone is, in fact, totally worth seeking out because it may end up being one of the most eye-opening, unique wine experiences that you’ll ever have along your personal journey towards vinous enlightenment.

For example, this bottle that I pulled from the growing ocean of samples in my cellar…

2008 Kanonkop Pinotage (Stellenbosch)
Price: $27
Rating: B+

The 2008 Kanonkop deftly captures the entire BBQ picnic in a single bottle; toast, smoked meats, red fruits, bananas, leather purses & all. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a great introduction to high-end Pinotage and actually delivers quality and complexity levels a bit above its price point.

The interesting thing about this wine, for me, is that it’s also a bit of a crowd-pleaser. I’ve served it to people without telling them what it is, and most happily drink it up and actually perform a bit of a head-fake when I later tell them it’s Pinotage. Now, it definitely tastes like Pinotage, it’s just that it’s fruity enough that the smoked meat and tropics are part of a balanced whole, so they don’t dominate. If I have a cavil about this juice, it’s that it’s a bit oaky – but even that demonstrates a fairly unique quality that Pinotage possesses, which is an ability to absorb amounts of toasty oak that would cripple other varieties and yet still offer a balanced and pleasing drinking experience.

So is this a commercial for Pinotage, harkening it as my new fave fine wine variety? No.

But it is a minor plea against the undeserved hate.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Stop Hating On Pinotage, Already from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

In the world of winemakers, Heidi Peterson Barrett is a household name, and not just because she shares a last name with her husband, who founded the only winery that can rightfully claim to be a full-fledged movie star.

That Heidi Barrett is a household name, a winemaker’s winemaker, can be attributed to two words: Screaming Eagle – Napa’s Cult Cab among Cult Cabs, manifest in concentrated style, produced in small quantities and regularly fetching over $1000 per bottle.

Those slugging back bottles of SE in the comfort of the temperature-controlled cellars inside their custom yachts probably don’t know that Heidi Barrett landed her first head winemaking job back in 1983, when at the young age of 25 (now that I’m nearly forty, I can call 25-year-olds “young”) she was hired by St Helena’s Buehler Vineyards (for more on Buehler, check out my interview with owner John Buehler’s daughter Helen, who now looks after their Social Media and Sales).

So when I was invited to talk shop over lunch by long-time wine biz veteran (and very nice guy) Bob Trimble, I was intrigued by the selection he picked to help us wash down our meal – Buehler’s Napa Cabernet Sauvignon from 1985 – since it was not only a glimpse into Napa Cab’s past, and into Buehler’s past, but also an opportunity to turn back the clock on Barrett’s (now storied, but then just promising) career…

Given the opportunity to taste that wine (which most of you know by now is not one I’d be likely to turn down), I hope you’ll forgive the hastily-taken and relatively low-res image of the bottle from lunch!

Anyway… what does this bottled blast from a cult winemaker’s past have to tell us?

Quite a bit, actually.

The first thing you should know about this wine is that it was Bretty (by which I mean, it had the funky, Band-Aid whiff characteristic of some Brettanomyces, and while I didn’t send it to the lab for chemical analysis, I’m confident enough in ID-ing that smell to say that if it’s not actually Bretty, I’ll eat my senakers). Which makes it the umpteenth Napa Cab I’ve had from the 80s that was at least a little bit Bretty – enough of a volume that I’m now borderline frightened by Napa Cab bottles vintage-dated from the decade that brought us rolled-up jeans pant legs, the skinny tie, and oddly cubist-style haircuts; because it also brought us the Napa-Brett-that-blooms-late-in-bottle.

The second thing that you should know about this wine – and the most important thing, at that – is that it was a far, far cry from being undrinkable; it possessed an impressive amount of tangy red fruit, and after an hour and half or so opened up with secondary aromas of earth and cloves. It struck me as a wine that, while showing its age in the wrinkles near the corner of its eyes, was still full of vigor and a zest for life – or, more accurately, a zest for food.

At less than 14% alcohol, that tangy fruit stood up to fairly spicy beef chili (try that one with a 15.5% abv fruit bomb…). And that opened bottle of Buehler juice went a few hours worth of laps with food and air at the lunch table, and seemed to hardly break a sweat in the process – as time passed, it got more interesting and compelling, and showed only small touches of oxidation. In other words, it was looking pretty hot for a wine that by most measures would be considered as entering retirement age.

For those keeping score at home, that’s damn-near thirty years on, still fruity, still friendly, now also compelling, and all while probably being handicapped by a bit too much Brett. I’d call that a success story – and a finely crafted one at that. A cult wine it’s not, but after tasting it, the fact that it’s winemaker eventually went on to make coveted cult juice doesn’t seem at all far-fetched.

But then, I suppose that I can’t really tell you that for sure, since I’ve yet to try Screaming Eagle – a fact for which my daughter’s college fund has already thanked me a few times over…

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Blast From A Cult Winemaker’s Past: Buehler Vineyards 1985 Cabernet Sauvignon from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!