Vino Nobile di Montepulciano exemplifies the confusion surrounding Italian wine labels. This wine’s meteoric increase in quality over the past decade has yet to be matched by its price, so it’s definitely worth unraveling the name.
The Italians name their wines by place name, such as Chianti, or grape name — think Pinot Grigio — or both, Dolcetto d’Alba. … Read more
Everybody loves a deal, and some of the best deals in Bordeaux these days are the “second” wines of the top-rated Bordeaux properties. “Second wines” come from parcels of the vineyard or barrels in the cellar that, for whatever reason, just don’t measure up to the producer’s standard for that particular year.… Read more
The following notes are based on barrel samples tasted (unblinded) at the chateaux, at an unblinded tasting organized by the Cercle Rive Droite de Grands Vins de Bordeaux, an association of Right Bank producers, an unblinded tasting organized by Bill Blatch, a respected négociant, or at blind tastings organized by the Union des Grand Crus de Bordeaux.… Read more
After a week in Bordeaux, where I tasted more than 400 wines from the 2005 vintage, there is no question that this is a great vintage for red, dry white and sweet white wines. Although nature was equally benevolent across the regions, winemaking techniques (how long to macerate, how much new wood) and decisions (when to pick) resulted in dramatically different styles of wine, especially in Saint-Emilion.… Read more
Shiraz (aka Syrah) is now firmly in place as Australia’s most popular grape–and wine. But it wasn’t always that way. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, plantings of Shiraz went down by half (to about 12,500 acres) because the Australian government paid growers to pull out vines as consumption of red table wine fell from fashion.… Read more
The labels say “product of Australia,” but red wines from Western Australia are about as un-Australian as you can get. Those expecting super ripe flavors and 15 percent alcohol so common in Australian wines are in for a major–and pleasant–surprise. These wines, whether made from Cabernet or Shiraz, have elegance, finesse and complexity.… Read more
The current fashion in wine, certainly in New World wines, is for ripe, fruity flavors and the massive alcohol that invariably accompanies them. Consumers looking for alternatives need to look outside the mainstream. Wines from New York State, which certainly qualify as “outside the mainstream,” offer an extra touch of ripeness that is the New World’s signature, while retaining vibrancy that a cool climate imparts.… Read more
It is the part of restaurant dining that most people dread. You are with a group of colleagues or friends, or perhaps on a special date. The conversation is flowing, everyone is relaxed and having a good time. Then, the waiter gives you the wine list.… Read more
Paul Lukacs, author of “American Vintage: The Rise of American Wine” (Houghton Mifflin, 2000), has written another great book about American wines that every wine lover, especially Francophiles, should own. The beauty of his new book, “The Great Wines of America: The Top Forty Vintners, Vineyards, and Vintages” (W.W.… Read more
Barolo is the king of Italian wines. Made from the nebbiolo grape grown in a small, sharply delimited area surrounding the village of Barolo, near Alba in Piedmont, it requires a king’s ransom to put some in your cellar. Even after paying $50 to $100 a bottle and often more, you need plenty of patience because it’s a wine that needs many years of bottle aging before its complex glories emerge.… Read more
Bait and switch, an unsavory tactic in the used-car business, is finding its way into the wine industry. Think of the bait as a New World reserve wine that is produced simply to generate a 90-point-plus score from a top wine critic.… Read more
Vintage Port, though one of the world’s great wines, is made the same way as all Port. The grapes are harvested, crushed, and fermented for only three days, instead of the usual 7-10 days for red table wine. At that point, the winemaker adds brandy, which raises the alcohol to 20 percent and kills the yeast, stopping fermentation before all the grape sugar has been converted to alcohol.… Read more
Back in the ’80s, when syrah, grenache, and mourvèdre were hardly known outside their traditional home in France’s Rhône Valley, a group of winemakers advocated growing them in California.
One of these Rhône Rangers was Byron ”Ken” Brown, who introduced Rhône varieties into the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County while working at Zaca Mesa Winery.… Read more
Although the film “Sideways” highlighted Southern California as pinot noir country, Oregon is also a leading source of superb wine made from that grape. Many comparative tastings have shown that Oregon’s pinot noirs rank with the world’s best, and to many consumers it has become that state’s signature wine.… Read more
The major criticisms of wines from the New World are that they have too much fruit and alcohol and too little subtlety and elegance. Critics go on to say that these wines are unbalanced and fail to develop complexity and layers of non-fruit flavors as they age.… Read more
Frank Altamura, the winemaker at his eponymous property in California, is a farmer at heart. ”The big fun is in the vineyards,” he says.
With no formal winemaking training, he learned by doing, first at Sterling Vineyards and then at other notable Napa Valley properties: Trefethen, Caymus, and Dunn.… Read more
Although Spain has been producing wines since the Phoenicians settled there, they have become fashionable only recently. The modernization of Spain’s wine industry and leap in quality come from an influx of investment after it joined the European Community in 1988.… Read more
Like other fine wine, champagne can improve with age, as Duval-Leroy’s nearly 10-year-old vintage champagne demonstrates. Although 1996 produced excellent wines throughout France, no region did better than Champagne, where it will rank as one of the greatest vintages ever.
Most champagne is nonvintage; a blend of wine from several years’ harvests aimed at producing a consistent house style year after year.… Read more
The French speak passionately about terroir, a concept maintaining that the character of a wine comes from the unique climate and soil where the grapes are grown. They claim grapes are mere vehicles for transmitting the flavor of the earth into the wine from which they are crafted.… Read more
Chile, initially known for its well-made under-$10 wines, has entered the upscale market with bottlings in the $60-plus range, such as Almaviva, a joint effort of Bordeaux’s Mouton Rothschild and Chile’s Concha y Toro, Casa Lapostolle’s Clos Apalta, and Vinedo Chadwick.… Read more
With wine, as with most of life, it pays to listen to people with experience.
George Bardis, who runs the wine department at Martignetti’s Soldiers Field Road store and tastes thousands of wines each year, recently returned from Hungary where he sampled scores.… Read more
It’s always a treat to run across a wine that delivers more than it is supposed to. And it’s a special treat when the wine is made from chardonnay, since wines made from that grape can be monotonous.
Although Californian and Australian chardonnay dominate the American market, the finest ones come from Burgundy.… Read more
Christian Moueix, perhaps the most influential wine figure in Pomerol and St. Émilion where he oversees his family’s ten properties, also owns Dominus Estate in the Napa Valley. During a recent trip to California to supervise activities at Dominus, he stopped in Boston and we met and tasted for three illuminating hours in my kitchen.… Read more
Champagne, without doubt the world’s best bubbly, is a good but pricey way to alleviate end-of-summer blues. Often, we must make do with a less-expensive alternative, sparkling wine.
Notwithstanding the label of some California sparkling wines, true champagne comes only from a specified method using chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier grown in the Champagne region of France, about 100 miles east of Paris.… Read more
One sip of torrontes, made from Argentina’s most widely planted white grape of the same name, will keep you in the summer spirit; it is the perfect summertime wine.
It is likely the grape arrived in Argentina from Northern Spain, but its precise lineage and origin remain obscure, so don’t bother looking for a European counterpart.… Read more
By now, many wine drinkers are accustomed to ordering malbec, currently Argentina’s signature wine. But how many know or have even heard of bonarda, Argentina’s second most important red wine grape? As recently as 25 years ago, it was Argentina’s most popular red grape, as growers planted it after they ripped out malbec.… Read more
Perhaps people who spend their entire life with Merlot become like the wine: easy-going and charming, without hard edges. That describes Christian Moueix, a man who is remarkably straightforward, especially for someone so important and influential in the world of wine.… Read more
Christian Moueix was born with merlot in his blood, which makes what he has done in Napa Valley all the more amazing. His family owns or controls the most prestigious properties in Pomerol, including Chateau Petrus, one of Bordeaux’s finest wines.… Read more
New York wines lack the cachet of those from California, which is too bad since some, like Riesling, are stellar and more exciting than their West Coast counterparts.
The Finger Lakes region, with almost 100 wineries, accounts for 90 percent of the state’s wine.… Read more
WINE NEW ZEALAND SAUVIGNON BLANC
Carry-out Chinese food has been one way to get through the worst heat spells this summer. That begs the question of what to drink with it.
Some prefer beer, while others complain that it’s too heavy.… Read more
Elin McCoy’s ”Emperor of Wine, The Rise of Robert M. Parker Jr. and the Reign of American Taste” ($25.95; Ecco) is an essential book for anyone interested in wine, but it would also be enjoyed by general readers, especially those interested in a uniquely American accomplishment.… Read more
Although they may lack the cachet of wines from small growers, such as Lafarge or Mongeard-Mugneret, the Burgundies made by négociants, especially in 2002, are not to be missed. Négociants are companies, either large or small, that buy grapes or newly made wines in bulk from growers.… Read more
It’s important to trust your palate when it comes to wine. Recommendations from so-called experts and friends are helpful, of course, but should never be the final word because sometimes reviewers disagree. Take, for example, Grgich’s 2002 Chardonnay. A national specialized wine magazine gave it an average score, 76, earlier in the year, but I’ve tasted it twice recently and thought it was terrific.… Read more
Chenin blanc gets no respect, and there’s a reason: Most wines made from this grape are insipidly sweet and characterless.
There are exceptions. The Loire village of Vouvray is home to fruity but racy wines made from chenin blanc that are definitely not insipid and go down quite nicely in the summer heat.… Read more
If there was ever a wine that should fly off the shelves based on the name alone, especially south of Boston, it is Domaine Henri Bourgeois’s 2002 Quincy. Fortunately, the wine doesn’t have to rest solely on labeling; it’s delicious and well priced, too.… Read more
Duckhorn Vineyards made a name for itself in the late 1970s by producing an exceptional wine from merlot, a grape considered at that time best suited for blending. … Read more
Some grapes are unique to a locale. Carmenere is one that used to be. Along with cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and merlot, it was used in 19th-century France to make red Bordeaux. But it was exported to Chile at that time, when the modern Chilean wine industry was getting started, and now it is found throughout that nation and rarely elsewhere.… Read more
In 1395, Phillip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, banned what he called the ”très mauvais” (very bad) gamay grape from Burgundy, relegating it to Beaujolais, a less prestigious area further south. But as with many royal decrees, not everybody listened. So there is still plenty of gamay planted in Burgundy, even though pinot noir is considered the red grape of that region.… Read more
White wines from Sancerre and its neighboring Loire River town of Pouilly, which gives us Pouilly Fume, have grown so popular that it is unusual to find a bottle from either for less than $20. Their appeal comes from a lively combination of minerality and zestiness derived from the sauvignon blanc grape grown on the region’s limestone soil.… Read more
Many of the world’s greatest wines, which can be labeled ”estate bottled” according to US regulations, come from vineyards the winery owns. Vineyard ownership gives the winemaker control over two critical components that determine quality: grape yield and harvest time.… Read more
Montalcino, a tiny town perched upon a mountain just south of the Chianti region in Tuscany, is home to one of Italy’s greatest red wines, Brunello di Montalcino.
Brunello is the local name for sangiovese grosso, a variety of sangiovese, Tuscany’s most important red grape; it ripens well on the surrounding hillsides to produce a wine with power, complexity, and suaveness.… Read more
Although Spain is firmly entrenched in the Old World viticulturally — they label the wines by where the grapes grow rather than by grape name — talented young winemakers are experimenting as though they are working in California, and no region exemplifies the dynamism of Spanish wines better than Ribera del Duero.… Read more
Red Burgundies, the vast majority of which are made from pinot noir, have tempted wine connoisseurs for decades. And even though excellent pinot noir from Oregon, California, and, most recently, New Zealand has been increasingly available, it has remained a bit of a cult wine.… Read more
In all of Burgundy there are only six white wine vineyards called grand cru, the French government’s highest ranking. Two of them lie solely within Puligny-Montrachet and two, Le Montrachet and Batard Montrachet (literally, the bastard Montrachet), are shared with Chassagne-Montrachet, the neighboring town.… Read more
Although some occasions call for inexpensive bubbly, Valentine’s Day is the time to splurge on the good stuff, rosé champagne, the most romantic drink in the world. With gorgeous pale pink color and strawberry or raspberry overtones, it is a sensual drink that goes well with a wide variety of foods, including chocolate.… Read more
The blistering heat in Europe during the summer of 2003 explains the character and the enormous variability of the wines made that year. Most parts of France recorded the earliest harvest on record as searing temperatures ripened grapes rapidly. Winemakers in Burgundy, Beaujolais, and the Rhone Valley all told me that they had never experienced conditions like those in 2003.… Read more
In wine, freezing temperatures mean it’s time for port, a fortified wine made from grapes grown in Portugal’s Duoro River Valley. Port starts life like any red wine: Up to five kinds of red grapes are harvested and crushed, sometimes still by foot, which allows the sugar-laden juice to come in contact with yeast so fermentation can begin.… Read more
The 2002 vintage was terrific for both white and red Burgundy, the best since 1990. Consumers should snap up those remaining on retailers’ shelves because few are available from the wineries. And those that are will be purchased using dollars that are far weaker than when the 2002s were bought initially.… Read more
White Burgundy, made almost exclusively from chardonnay, is one of the most sought-after wines in the world.
Despite tremendous advances in California and other New World locales with chardonnay, white Burgundy remains the benchmark for wines made from that grape. But buying Burgundy is not easy.… Read more
Although Chile is located in the New World, its wine industry is rooted in France. During the prosperity of the mid-19th century, Chilean families who had acquired great wealth, often from mining, imported vines and sometimes winemakers from Bordeaux.
Over 100 years later, in the late-20th century, another emigration of Bordeaux wine talent has reinvigorated the Chilean wine industry.… Read more