The UnCorker

Sokol Blosser Evolution No. 9 Oregon

Just where does lie the history of the mondo-blend? Evolution No. 9 uses nine different grapes. Of course, by building their wine’s brand around this fact it makes it feel like a gimmick. But is this sort of profligate blending an advantage or disadvantage? Is there any logic in it? And as a new breed of wine snob that fetishizes minimalism and naturalism, should we reward such blatant busy-dom with our precious wine-bucks?

First of all, before you go off thinking single varietal wines are somehow more restrained and artistically valid efforts, it should be stated up front that blending is indisputably a part of the winemakers craft. Even within a varietal, winemakers will vinify the cuvees from various vineyards or lots within a vineyard separately then blend these together to achieve a house style or preferred style. And this just touches the surface of the blender’s art. Free run juices are blended with pressed juices. Champagnes are bascially assemblages of all sorts of complicated blending. Even in scientific winemaking where de-alcoholization techniques are used, they will actually remove alcohol from just part of the original wine. Within that isolated part they will remove varying degrees of alcohol in separate batches, and then, based on pure sensory preference, will blend these back together until the desired tasting result is achieved. And blending has never been associated with a lack of quality. Penfold’s Grange, one of the world’s most expensive wines, is a multi-regional blend with grapes sourced as far as 300 miles apart. Let’s face it. Winemaking is a subjective art, and blending is the most expressive, personality driven bit of the whole process.

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P.S. I’m Not Sure What To Think of You

Petite Sirah is a wine, that at least in California, is particularly difficult to make generalizations about - and that’s not only because folks can’t agree how to spell it. Part of this confusion is due to the immense variety within the vineyards themselves. A lot of California Petite Sirah bottlings are a “field blend” (aka a crap shoot of mixed grape varieties growing together). This mostly has to do with the history of this grape in the state. It’s been there a long time, planted in the 18th century by Italian immigrants, who didn’t always know exactly what they were planting. Compounding the confusion is the fact that the term was thrown around loosely to describe a variety of Syrah-like grapes in the region until 1997, when DNA testing proved that most of it really was the unloved (in France anyways) grape called Durif. But since many Petite Sirah plantings in California pre-date this knowledge, the wines carrying this grape’s name on the label can be a bit of a hodgepodge.

(Photo of Petite Syrah grapes in veraison by pixelish)

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A Manly Rosé: Parés Baltà Ros De Pacs

One of the tiredest arguments in all of winedom is that drinking rosé is nothing to be embarrassed about anymore.   But let’s face it - unless you’re standing on a petanque court with a bunch of Provencal pensioners- it’s not really something dudes order when they are out amongst themselves.  After all, the stuff’s pink.  And that’s all we need to say.  Therefore, those of us who lack total confidence in our ability to project manliness are drawn towards the dark and cranberry-tinted- the more extracted, medium weight entries of the genre.   These look a little less effete in the glass to the casual observer.  And if it tastes strong and bites back a little on the finish so much the better.  Nothing wrong with a little burn going down to compensate for the summery breeziness of the whole thing.

The king of manly Rosés in our opinion is Tavel AOC.   King Philip IV drank the stuff on horseback and declared it the only wine worth drinking - and this from a somber Spaniard who is on record for only laughing in public three times in his entire life.  Tavel can be a full-bodied monster that stands up to aging.  Known for candied aromas but often having surprising gravitas, Tavel’s masculinity is evident in it’s color and intensity of flavor.   But unlike a lot of ham-fisted new world attempts at big rosé - a contradiction in terms that denies what is nice about pink wine in the first place - it maintains it’s lightness, it’s minerality, and it’s refreshing acidity.  For the most part we agree with BTYH that the best rose’s come from France, but if we have a soft spot for dark, macerated asskickers it’s because it appeals to the dude in us (at least, those of us at the UnCorker who are dudes.)

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Failla Syrah Que

Under cute, festive titles sometimes lurk ambitious wines. Look at the Australians, for chrissakes, who have made a culture out of serious wine people competing for the dorkiest name possible to slap onto a label. The Que Syrah vineyard is in the northerly reaches of the Sonoma coast area - and is one of the cooler climate Syrah vineyards in all of California. Intrigued by top Syrah maker Failla’s success with this vineyard in the past, and noticing that they were no longer releasing wines made from this particular source of fruit, we decided to seek out where it was available now - which turns out to be Boheme Wines, who currently has a 2005 Que Syrah Vineyard Syrah in release.

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Niebaum Coppola Claret Commemorative Label 2006

Oh, how we’re looking forward to getting our hands on Coppola’s fun-sounding new Encyclopedia label - geared at educating younger drinkers in world varietals - with the nifty edutainment website and test-tube bottle design only sweetening the deal for us. Did we mention the uber-convenience of handling distribution through retailers such as Seven-11 and Walgreens? After all, it’s a lot of trouble to go out and find and understand such off-the-beaten-path varietals as  Tempranillo and Torrontes by drinking the actual indigenous wines on which their reputations were built - so we’re glad Francis and his people are making things easy for us. After all, the Godfather I, II, and, ok-even III, let us experience Mafia life without actually putting ourselves at risk of catching a stray bullet. But, alas, these wines are not yet available in the state of New York, so in the meantime we’re forced to stray up-label and drink Coppola’s “Diamond Collection” series of wines - including the best-selling of these, the Niebaum Coppola Claret - which is as good of $19 bottle that powerhouse marketing efforts are likely to ever land in front of you. We won’t bother to review it when Benito has done such a nice job here.

Our real question is - where is the commemorative label version of this wine? It somehow made it’s way into Snooth.com - where it sits unadorned with tasting notes or availability information and unrated. And we know Snooth wouldn’t clutter up the Internet with less-than-useful wine ratings, so we’re intrigued. Is Snooth posting phantom wines, or is this some inside California cognescenti thing that only a few Hollywood A-listers know about? And is it really a two-headed monster like the photo implies - sort of like a Diamond Collection version of conjoined twins? We love Coppola - and we especially love it when the guy commemorates. So if anyone knows where we can find this wine - please let us know. Of course, maybe it’s still in oak barrels somewhere, ahead of it’s release, and the publicists are just getting a jump on things. Either way, we wait with baited breath.

Weird Wine of the Week: 2008 RiqueWihr Gewurztraminer, “The Scholium Project”

In the spirit of intellectual nourishment, sometimes we punish ourselves. We override those shallow, superficial messages from the senses - you know, those ones that say hey, brain! this tastes like ass . We have to do this, otherwise the palate we have as a 16 year old would determine the course of our gastronomical lives and Bartles & Jaymes would be routinely poured for wedding toasts. Other times, artists are the ones punishing us. Modern architects in the 1930’s designed hard, glaring rooms and insisted their clients not soften them with curtains and throw pillows. Buñuel made film snobs sit through razor blades slicing eyeballs to prove a narrow point about cinematic montage theory. Then there is Abe Schoener - a man of the vine who insists that we think about what we drink. He sets out with the explicit goal - stated on his website - of making one taste decay, decomposition, and transformation. This is followed by a secondary goal - that the wines should make one happy to be drinking them. How much of a wine aesthete you are will likely determine how contradictory you find those two objectives.

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2006 Wolfer Estate Reserve Chardonnay

When you think Long Island and wine - and you do by now, right? - you naturally drift towards the North Fork. This is where Bordeaux grapes (especially Cabernet Franc) reign supreme - and a few big names like Schneider and Lenz have carved out a reputation for natural, old-world grace and command high prices for their wines. When you think South Fork & the Hamptons, what you probably don’t think about is Bridgehampton loam - but you really should. Because this is the stuff that is behind the scenes of a true off-the-beaten-path source of unique wines with exactly what the Frenchies dream of - typicity. Long Island itself is one big glacial morraine - which is the big mound of crud that a glacier dumps at it’s terminus. Sensibly, the glaciers in the last ice age decided to stop and turn around just before entering New Jersey. They left behind a giant mound of loamy goodness, perfectly suited for topping with Beaux Arts style waterfront McMansions with helipads. The previous owners at Wolffer Estate also recognized that nature had bestowed a great agricultural opportunity in this soil, so naturally turned to potato growing - and that’s the way they planted the place for a 100 years.

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2007 Kingston Family Syrah Casablanca Valley Lucero

A sure sign that the world’s wine tastes might be turning away from heaviosity for good is when the Chileans - yes, the Chileans! - head for the coast in pursuit of cool climate growing conditions. Actually, a more accurate statement would be that the wine business in America has decided to look and see if there is anything besides the bargain behemoths Cab Sav and Carmenere coming out of the country and take a chance on trying to sell it. New world wine regions like Argentina, Chile, and Australia are increasingly complex and hard to generalize, and that’s a good thing. Value lurks here - even for you Burg-hounds and Rhone-snobs. Last week we reported on the fabulous Chilean-Argentinian joint venture in sparkling wines - Bodega Cruzat. Today let’s focus on the Casablanca Valley northwest of Santiago - a coastal valley with cool nights and dense morning fogs.   These are Carneros-style conditions that are perfect for Syrah, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir, and the wines reflect that style.  Intertestingly, Chile’s hottest wine region - Aconcagua - is a neighbor just to the north - so this is a true microclimate.

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Weird Wine of the Week- 2004 Coturri Zinfandel Frieberg Vineyards

At first glance, you might be thinking, “what in the world is weird about another Cali Zin?” After all, we know that California produces veritable oceans of the stuff- from the Central Valley to the Napa Valley.   Drank by the miners back in gold rush days, Zinfandel was in decline until the mid 1980’s when the ‘craze’ for ‘white’ zinfandel spread like a blight on the land. While its popularity declined, zinfandel properly vinified took off with cult producers like Turley demanding huge sums for its polished single vineyard zins.

Still to the question of why the Coturri zin is weird, which we wish it wasn’t- Oh God, how we wish it wasn’t weird at all. We at The UnCorker fervently hope to one day be able to consider this a delicious but un-weird wine- common even, which it certainly is not. Let us consider the ways. Its organic- and yes, lots of Cali wine is organic, but the Coturri folks put the O in organic. No SO2, no inoculation with sulfites, no yeast cultures, no use of concentrates to boost sweetness(yes, people do that all the time in California), no added water, acids, or other manipulation of the wine, all of which can be done in a wine deemed ‘organic’. The Coturri winery is a small production family run outfit- 3rd and 4th generation Coturri’s manage the vineyards, pick the grapes, and unlike just about everyone else, make the wine- no consultants, no lab technicians,  just farmers making wine.

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Hey Importers! Where’s Our Cruzat Larraine?

Few seem to be aware that Argentina has a terrific specialist in sparkling wines - Bodega Cruzat.  Think southern-hemi Schramsburg.  Carefully made, ambitious and captivating sparklers - clearly made for the world stage and intended to provide a high-quality, high-value alternative to the wines of Champagne. Good restaurants in Buenos Aires pour this stuff almost to a turn.  American expat living in Chile, Liz Caskey, blogged her recent visit to the winery here, which reminded us that we love this stuff too… and it remains our favorite-wine-we-had-all-over-Argentina-but-can’t-seem-to-get-at-home wine.   (As opposed to lugged-home-5,000 miles-only-to-find-it-widely-available-and-cheaper-here-wines.)  It’s time to raise the general level of chatter about just where the heck is this stuff in the Northern parts of the world?   A well-funded, modern producer, nice slick labels and fancy Flash winery website, decently large production runs, a romantic story and paternalistic “man of terroir” at the helm…. what’s the deal?

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