Port 101 and a tasting of a 150+ Year Old Port, Courtesy of Taylor Fladgate

Dessert wine is good. And Port is probably the most loved of all the dessert-y goodness.

Recently I had a really unique chance to sit down with Robert Bower, who is 8th generation from the family involved with Taylor Fladgate, which makes some amazing Port under a variety of brand names.

Robert, who was educated in the UK, had a fabulous British accent (Port was mass-marketed by the Brits and is still the largest market for the sauce so most producers have English roots) and a ton of energy and passion for his product. He had a dry sense of humor and an honesty that I really appreciated...and his stuff was awesome, so it was a good 2 hours of sipping and chatting!

Before I get into some super dork detail, let's review Port and how it's different from regular wine. For a gross simplification, here's a quick checklist:

• Pick grapes from special vineyards where it's ass hot (incidentally 80 varieties areauthorized for use although only 5 are used for quality stuff -- Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Cao, Touriga Franca, and Tinta Barroca are most common for red Port). Use a variety of grapes so you can get different flavors in the blend.

• Bring the grapes from the remote location where they're grown into a winery, take the stems out, and then stomp them by foot, press them really gently, or use a machine to create a grape soup. Ferment them for a short while.
   
• Just when things are getting frothy, pour an crapload of brandy into the fermenting vat, stop the fermentation, murder all the yeast and then figure out what you're going to do to affect the flavor of the wine. That means you either leave it a vat a while or age it in a bottle. The wine will be sweet and have high alcohol but this last point on aging vessel is no small one. It determines flavor and quality in a big way.

Robert was pretty straight with me about the world of Port. Although he's biased, I believed his assessment. He said that 80% of what is out there is crap and that although continental Europe drinks Port, most of it is bad stuff. The 20% of quality wine goes mainly to three markets: the UK, Canada, and the United States.

What makes good Port? Robert and Taylor Fladgate have been delving into this issue in a MAJOR way over the past decade and their experiments yielded some cool results. His team, looking for the next evolution of their products, decided to change their production methods and it's made a huge difference in quality (I got to taste stuff before and after the change and it was like night and day). There are three things that they've been monkeying with:

It all starts in the vineyard. 

Moving the vineyards to 100% sustainable agriculture. Using fewer pesticides and placing vines in places where they will best be able to thrive without irrigation and sprays, viticulturist Antonio Magalhaes has improved the quality of the grapes grown in each vineyard. He picks each plot when it's ready, not when it's most cost effective to have workers there. Also, the grapes are brought into the wineries in very small baskets to preserve grape quality and avoid crushing them too soon (this is bad because juice leaks out, fermentation from yeast on the skin could start and off flavors can result, etc).

The wineries are located near the vineyards (in Port sometimes they move the grapes great distances to get to the wineries since the vineyards are remote), so quality is preserved. Since you've got nothing without great raw material, this is important.

As an aside, although I generally think that Sustainable Agriculture is total BS, in this case, Robert explained that a lot of the vineyards ARE actually organic but the paperwork to complete in order to call them that in the EU is so unwieldy that they'd rather just call themselves sustainable (something I've heard many times before, BTW). That said, I'll add that the Douro has pest problems, so to support agriculture,sprays are kind of necessary. Still, whatever Taylor Fladgate is doing has yielded an improvement in grape quality, apparently.

Big changes in winemaking.

• Fermenting all together. They are doing something called co-fermenting. What does this mean? Well if you AREN'T co-fermenting, you take one grape type, pick it, crush it up, ferment it by itself, filter it to get the goop out, age it, and then mix it up with other grapes you want to blend it with. In the case of co-fermenting, you take the grapes you want to use in the approximate proportion you want to use them and ferment them all together. This is the old school way of doing things: how people used to do it before wine became more science than art and it's not too common. Robert says that it creates lighter, more floral flavors and a note of complexity and uniqueness to the wines that you can't find anywhere else. I buy it.

• Simulating the human foot. Taylor Fladgate did a crazy study to figure out the human foot's motion in crushing grapes and why the resulting wines seem to taste so much better than those crushed in mechanical presses. They created a special automated crusher/fermentation tank that closely simulates the motion of the foot. Although their higher end stuff is still tread (people dancing around in grapes), some of their mid-tier wines have seen improvements in quality with these custom tanks. Very cool.

• Use better sauce. Per my very detailed description above (I kid, I kid), you gotta pour colorless brandy (a spirit made from grapes) into the fermenting wine to stop fermentation and leave a little sugar in it. Most places use cheap brandy sold by the Portuguese government. Like in cooking, every ingredient matters. Taylor Fladgate raised the quality of the brandy they used in recent years and it's created a huge jump in quality -- you can taste it when you taste the wines.

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A couple more Port basics before I get into the wines. I need to give a little more context and detail. There are two main categories for Port -- ones that are aged in wood and ones that are mainly aged in a bottle.

Wood Aged

Wines that stay in a wooden cask for a long time are influenced by the oxygen that permeates the grain and spaces between the slats. The wines become a little oxidized, which means they have been exposed to oxygen and are changed by the time you pop them open. Most Port is aged in wood. Here are the types you should know about:

• Ruby -- Big, dark, fruity and simple, this berry flavored wine is strong and only aged 2 to 3 years in a barrel before bottled and sold. It will keep you warm on a cold night and it's not expensive! There's a Reserve version of Ruby as well, made with slightly higher quality grapes and approved by an advisory board to make sure it's up to snuff in flavor.
  
   
• Tawny -- Technically, these wines become kind of amber colored or orange-brown because they spend more time in a barrel and with lots of oxygen hitting them (oxidation) they lose color and get a tawny hue (sadly, the real inside dirt is that the bad producers sometimes use unripe grapes to achieve the color because they don't want to hold wine in the barrel for a long period of time, they'd rather just sell the stuff they have and let you think it is made well).
  
   
• Aged Tawny is a subset. It has to spend at least 6 years in a cask. It's nutty, mellow, and has a butterscotch flavor from the oak and from the age. You'll see 10, 20, 30, and 40+ years on the bottle, but this is another bait and switchy thing -- this isn't how old the wine is, but whether a panel of experts thinks it TASTES like the wine is that old. Weird.
  
   
• Late Bottled Vintage -- These grapes are all from one year, but they are bottled after the grand poobah of all Ports, vintage Port -- hence they are bottled "late," or 4 to 6 years after the harvest. There are a few different types -- those that aren't filtered and need to be decanted (and are similar to fine vintage Ports), those that are matured in a bottle for a minimum of three years (even more similar to vintage Ports), and those that are filtered and treated to have no sediment (this strips the flavor so these aren't that great but are most common).
  
  Taylor Fladgate invented this kind of Port in 1970, Robert knew a thing or two about this wine! Just for clarification, Here's how Taylor Fladgate eloquently describes vintage Port v. LBV:

"Vintage Port and LBV both present a selection of very fine full bodied red ports from a single year. The fundamental difference between the two styles lies in the way each is matured. Vintage Port is kept in wood for only twenty months or so before being transferred to the bottle where it will continue to age.

Late Bottled Vintage, as the name suggests, is bottled later, remaining in wood between four and six years. During this relatively long period of wood ageing, an LBV matures and settles down - it is ready to drink when bottled, does not need to be decanted and can be served by the glass for several weeks after the cork is drawn."

Bottle Aged(ish) Port

Vintage Port -- This is the most prestigious of all Port. The grapes are all grown in one year. Vintages are "declared" only 3 in 10 years, on average, and only when the fruit is essentially perfect. Rather than aging with the effects of oxygen, the wine is bottled after 2 years in a cask (that's why I say "ish," it actually does see some wood) and then left to age without any air. This is a slow process and changes the wines into powerful, complex, flavorful deliciousness.Vintage Port is expensive but has longevity: this is the stuff to collect.

There are other types of Port -- Crusted (unfiltered so it has lots of sediment but tastes very rich and complex), Garrafeira (special aging vessel is used), Colheita (tawny Ports from a single year that are aged for a super long time), white and rosé Port, but the ones above are the main categories to know about.

A note on pairing from Robert...go with the color:

Dark wine = fruity and great with chocolate

Light wine = nutty and great with creamy dessert (creme brulee)

Ok, so let's talk about some examples of this stuff for a tangible illustration. Taylor Fladgate owns a number of brands -- they acquired the old house of Croft a while back, Fonseca is theirs, and, of course, Taylor Fladgate.

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Wine #1: Croft Pink

From a three hundred year old Port House, now owned by the Fladgate Partnership, comes a new kind of wine! This is the first rosé Port ever made, however I'm not sure what I think about calling it a Port.

Although it's made like a Ruby Port, it tastes very little like one and is being marketed as a cocktail mixer, for all intents and purposes. It's sold in nightclubs and I bet it will show up in a rap song or two before long. I guess they are planning to pay the bills with this one so they can finance the finer Ports they make (and there are plenty of them, but let's be clear, it's costly to hold wine in a barrel for as long as is required to make this stuff).

Alcohol: 19.5%

Price: $16

Color: Kind of a dark pink color, this was like strawberry juice. It was a beautifully arresting color -- much darker than most rosé and it looked like a cocktail drink.

Smell: Not much to this to smell. Some mild strawberry and raspberry hopped out of the glass but it was very light. On the plus side, it wasn't syrupy, which I half expected.

Taste: "This is Port?," I thought to myself. Inconceivable! There was a mild strawberry flavor but this felt like something that needed to be mixed with club soda. It's a cocktail wine for sweet lovers, but I'm not sure it's for Port lovers.

Drink or sink?: Drink but when you're in the mood for a cocktail! On their Web site they have a few recipes for mixed drinks or additions to this wine that would make it a great porch sipper, but much the way White Zin is just barely wine in my mind, this sweet, not-so-winey beverage needs a different category. Great for a Sunday brunch party with some lemonade thrown in, though!

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Wine #2: Fonseca Porto, Bin #27 (Ruby Premium Reserve)

One of the biggest Port shippers, Fonseca has been around since 1822 and is reliable, if not always exciting.

Alcohol: 20%

Price: $20

Color: A dark plum color with thick, colored tears (the stuff that drips down the glass -- it's a combo of alcohol and sugar in this case. They are colored because the grapes had lots of ripeness and pigment to them when picked!).

Smell: This wine was made using Fladgate's new methods of production. Unlike a lot of Ports I've had, this one had a very interesting floral note to it and some menthol and strawberry stuff that I've never smelled in a Port. When I commented on this, Robert told me that it was due to the co-fermenting process. Apparently that creates softer, more floral notes.

The other thing I noticed was that despite the high alcohol, the characteristic cilia singing that I usually get in Port wasn't there. Robert's response -- better quality brandy doesn't smell alcoholic. Makes sense from my experience drinking Popov "Vodka" (I seriously don't even think that's real Vodka if any of you have had it) versus Grey Goose.

Taste: Wow! Blackberry, black plum, coffee, and mocha flavors filled out my mouth. The wine was full of fruit yet not heavy at all. And it didn't feel alcoholic /burn going down. The acid was a nice balance to the rich fruit and espresso notes. This is a flavorful, sweet wine, but has a certain lighter touch to it that makes it very pleasing.

Drink or sink?: Drink. Seriously, for $20 this is a great Port. For a giant brand that produces a lot of wine, they manage to keep the quality high. A very reliable bet if you're shopping for an everyday Port.

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Wine #3: Taylor Fladgate, Late Bottled Vintage 2005

Remember from above: this is the halfway house between the expensive Vintage Port and the other young Ports on the market.

Alcohol: 20%

Price: $23

Color: A little more garnet than the last one, due to age, this was still a dark crimson red with thick legs from the sugar and alcohol.

Smell: This was another surprise. This smelled more like a Cabernet than a Port. It was delicate, and elegant not syrupy and heavy. More like blackberry, raspberry, and cherry with some licorice to boot.

Taste: This was intense with cherry, raspberry, and blackberry flavors. It had a ton of licorice too and it felt heavy, but it was still kind of elegant because it had enough acid to balance the fruit, high alcohol, and sugar. Pretty decent tannins but they were balanced by the sugar. Very complex and I felt like the flavor went on and on.

Drink or sink?: Drink. Excellent wine. This would be so great with blue cheese, if you're a fan, or chocolate cake. Another great bargain for the price.

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Wine #4: Croft Vintage Port, 2009

Croft is the oldest Port house, established in 1588. It was the big competitor to Taylor Fladgate for over 300 years but sadly, in the 1980s Croft lost its edge, especially in the US, and couldn't make it work, financially. Taylor Fladgate bought the house in 2001. Improvements have been made and the wines are being restored to their former glory.

This vintage Port is from the prestigious Roeda vineyard, which has insanely high quality grapes and is considered one of the best vineyards in the entire Douro area.

Alcohol: 20%

Price: $65

Color: Seriously, this wine was almost black. Super dark and inky, this was going to be a stunner for sure.

Smell: Robust with lots and lots and lots of black fruit scents and a big dose of licorice, mint, and little saddle leather. But even with all that fruit, this wine was elegant and kind of like a women's perfume.

Taste: All power. Espresso, mocha, mint, and a creamy chocolate mousse flavor made this wine feel like dessert by itself. The wine was soft feeling but still had good tannin and acid to make it stand up. It had a ridiculously long finish -- the flavor just hung around and I was happy for that!

Drink or sink?: Drink. I would say that at $65, this is well-priced. This wine is one of the best Ports I've ever had. It's ready to drink now, so I don't know that I'd hang on to it for a long time, but it's worth the instant gratification if you've got the cash. It was insanely good and I think Taylor Fladgate buying Croft was an entirely positive thing.

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Wine #5: Fonseca 10 Year Aged Tawny

Alcohol: 20%

Price: $25

Color: The wine had a brownish center but was amber colored -- a little orange-brown from aging in a barrel for a long time.

Smell: It actually smells like a Sherry! It had a nutty sharpness to it that reminded me of eating almonds or cashews. A little raisiny too.

Taste: This was so nutty! Like a dried fig, it packed a little bit of a punch but was subtle and not overpowering. Great mouthdrying tannin and mouthwatering acidity made this a killer wine -- really well balanced.

Drink or sink?: Drink. This was a great wine but be prepared for the high alcohol and the astringency from the high tannin. I would have thought the wine would have mellowed with time but it was a little sharp. Not my favorite of the day, but still solid.

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Wine #6: Taylor Fladgate Tawny, 20 Year Aged

This is the most popular Port sold in restaurants.

Alcohol: 20%

Price: $45

Color: This was much lighter than the 10 year old tawny. It was amber/rust colored -- wine loses color with that much age and even though it's from a different brand, the comparison between the two was proof.

Smell: If you're a hiker, you'll know what I'm talking about when I say this wine smelled like GORP! It was like a nut mix with dried fruit. I smelled almond and apricot. So aromatic and savory.

Taste: I felt like I was drinking nuts (maybe hazelnuts?) flavored with dried thyme. This also had a Sherry-like flavor to it (a very good thing) but it was more herbal and had acid to give it a different feeling. The acid cleaned out the nuttiness and lightens the alcohol.

Drink or sink?: Drink. Much more mellow than the 10 year tawny, this is a delicious sipping wine. I can see why it's so popular in restaurants. It would be great with almonds or with creme brulee. A solid bottle of Port.

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Wine #7: Scion 1855

At the end of the tasting, Robert pulled out this bottle. I can't do justice to the story, so I'll link to it, but long story short, the Taylor Fladgate winemaker, David Guimaraens, learned about a Port that had been made before the Charles Manson bug that killed all the vineyards of Europe, Phylloxera, was in the picture.

I know that this wine is not normal and that it's a rare experience but I wanted to share it here because it's a piece of wine history and it's kind of interesting to know that a wine can age for this long and still taste great.

The wine had been in a cask for 150 years (since 1855) and the family who owned it refused to sell it. Finally, the owner passed away and there were no descendants, so the folks managing her estate decided to sell the casks. the wine contain was in perfect condition, something totally unheard of normally.

Taylor Fladgate acquired the barrels in 2010 and decided to bottle it as a collector's item. There are only 1,400 bottles left and each is $3,500 a bottle.

This is the oldest wine I'm sure I will ever have and probably the most fascinating. I can't even begin to describe it well, but I'll try.

Color: Brown, thick, and heavy looking, I was pretty amazed that this was so old. It was completely in tact visually -- excellent storage, the alcohol, sugar, acid, and tannin from the oak had preserved this wine well.

Smell: The wine smelled like earth. It wasn't musty or old-smelling, like I expected. It had a dirt-like smell with a molasses or leather undertone. I really didn't know what to expect.

I know this is so dorky to admit, but I actually felt nervous tasting this. This is an historical marvel in the world of wine and an experience that I'll never have again.

Taste: I was floored. This was delicious. Like maple syrup and honey, dried apricots and melt-in-your mouth nut butter from a dessert. But it wasn't heavy at all. The acid was completely kicking and the wine was totally balanced. It tasted like terroir/earth but this was still Port -- with sweetness, acid, and a nutty, dried fruit character. It was earthy, fresh, and mellow unlike anything I've ever tasted.

Drink or sink?: I can't describe to you how fabulous this wine was...and it's not just because it was supposed to be good because it was old. I think, given how Port is made and all the natural preservatives in it, the excellent storage conditions of the cask of wine, this had aged into something remarkable (I'm not sure that in the absence of high alcohol and sugar, regular wine would hold up as well, honestly, but I'll probably never find out!).

What an amazing experience Robert gave me -- one that I will remember for the rest of my life and never be able to replicate. Tasting this wine is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I feel unbelievably grateful and lucky to have had it.

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Although the Scion made this tasting experience one of the most memorable of my life, I have to say that the other wines in the portfolio were high quality, excellent wines that I'd drink any day of the week. Fonseca, Croft, and Taylor Fladgate are exceptional Port houses and I feel like I have more direction about what to buy after this tasting...one of those brands (and Graham's, which is also terrific) are it.

*Pictures courtesy of Taylor Fladgate, Croft, and Fonseca.

A Tale of Two Rieslings: Rheingau & Pfalz

If you're a regular blog follower, you know that I'm a big Riesling proponent. I love the stuff. I love its versatility with food, the fact that it comes in so many different styles (yes, Riesling can be dry as a bone), and that you can get amazingly high quality for relatively little cash. 

Quarterly, I'm lucky enough to receive two bottles from the Wines of Germany program (yes, they are free, but I'm still always honest about whether I like them). They are generally outstanding wines and they always represent a good variety of styles and regions.

Photo Wines of Germany

This time around I've got another one from Rheingau (you can learn more about the region in this post: LINK) and one from a larger, much warmer, and somewhat less prestigious area for Riesling, Pfalz (PHAL-tz).

Because I've detailed it in the other post, I won't reiterate information on Rheingau but I do want to make two quick notes on the wine from Schloss Schönborn, the winery from Rheingau before I talk about Pfalz. 

First, I reviewed another of their wines from a different vineyard a while back. If you want to read about it and make the comparison, here's the link.

Second, it bears mention that Schloss Schönborn is really historic. It was established in 1349 and they've been making wine since. The family is rich, as they shamelessly tell you on their Web site and they've got some prestige -- among their members is the archbishop and cardinal of Vienna. Despite the pomp and ego of the site, they do own a lot of top properties in Rheingau, including "Pfaffenberg" or Priest Mountain, a low-lying vineyard near the Rhine River that makes awesome wines, which I talk about below.

Map from Wines of Germany

But onto an area of Germany I haven't discussed before...Pfalz. 

Also called Palatinate, this is a weirdo area for German winegrowing. The problems that plague other regions -- frost, cold, generally marginal climate for grape growing -- aren't an issue here. This place is warm. It's southwest of the more prestigious areas of Mosel and Rheingau and it's the sunniest and driest wine region in Germany. The climate is almost Mediterranean, if you can believe that -- so sunny and warm that they can grow stuff like figs, almonds, oranges, and red wine grapes. It's the second largest winegrowing region in Germany (after Rheinhessen), but quality wines have just started popping up abroad in the last 10 or so years.

That said, this place isn't new to the wine game. Records are patchy, but there are a lot of native grapes growing in the area so we think that even before the Romans came in about 1 AD and started to formalize viticulture, people were making the sauce. Kind of cool. 

There's a ton of sub-regions in Pfalz, and it's one of the more tourist friendly wine areas in Germany, with a clearly marked wine route. Deidesheim, where the wine I'm about to talk about hails from is located kind of near Alsace, France -- home of rich, silky, oily whites that benefit from sunny days and low rainfall. The wines of Deidesheim are similar, which is why this is one of the best wine sub-regions in Pfalz. If you ever head here, keep in mind that there's rumored to be a kick-ass wine festival in mid-August with about 100,000 people in attendance or something crazy like that.

But I digress.

The producer of the wine below, Dr. Deinhard, was founded about 500 years after Schloss Schönborn, in 1849. It was recently acquired by new owners (2007), who have flipped the script a bit. For starters, they stopped using fertilizers and herbicides and 10% of their vineyards are now Certified Organic.  Makes for better tasting wine, for sure. Also, great for us across the pond, they've started to export to the US, so we've got access to them.

Ok, enough background. Let's get to it.

Wine #1: 2009 Schloss Schönborn Hattenheim Pfaffenberg, Riesling Kabinett

Translation:  

• Schloss Schönborn is the producer
• Hattenheim is the town
• Pfaffenberg is the vineyard area
• Riesling is the grape
• Kabinett is ripeness/sweetness level -- you may see Spätlese, Auslese, which are more ripe
  

The Grape: 100% Riesling
 

Alcohol: 11%

Price: $21 

Color: Carbon dioxide was trapped in the bottle after fermentation to give a nice bubble to the pale, pretty, pear juice colored wine.  

Smell: This smelled so ripe and juicy -- like biting into a ripe nectarine or even a mango. It was like a bowl of summer fruit with honey but there were some smells of wet rocks and baked bread too. The wet rocks are very typical, the bread is a little oddball. Usually that comes from wine sitting on the lees/dead yeast cells, but that's not a common practice with Riesling so I'm not sure what was up with that. It was good either way. 

Taste: Loved the spritz from the CO2 -- it make my tongue tingle on the top, which was a nice balance to the intense watering that I got from the super high acid of the wine. It was off-dry/slightly sweet but with the acid and bubbles, it was so refreshing and not sticky at all. Lemon-lime, fresh green herbs, a little butter, and then a super-fabulous smokey/toasted marshmallow-at-a-campfire flavor linger after I swallowed.  

Drink or sink?: Drink. This wine is classy. It has a lot going on but still manages to feel light and refreshing. This goes on the list of fantastic wines. Love it. 

Wine #2: 2009 Dr. Deinhard, Deidesheimer Mäushöhle Riesling Kabinett Halbtrocken

Translation:

• Dr. Deinhard is the producer 
• Deidesheimer is the town 
• Maushohle is the vineyard area 
• Kabinett is ripeness/sweetness level 
• Halbtrocken means half dry, or slightly sweet 

The Grape: 100% Riesling 

Alcohol: 11.5% 

Price: $20

Color: The wine was so pale it was almost platinum! It had virtually no yellow tones to it and was a little green (sometimes indicates young wine or high acid wine). This one also had some CO2 trapped in the bottle to give it spritz. I was hoping it was as delicious as the Schloss Schönborn.

Smell: It smelled a little like dried apricots (because they are more tart than sweet nectarines or peaches) with some lime juice scents and a little bit of flowers. There was also a smell of petrol/gasoline, which I've said before -- sounds gross but actually smells really good. It's something super common in Riesling, and people either love or hate it. I'm a lover.

Taste: I felt like I was drinking limeade. It was tart -- the back of my tongue was feeling bitter lime (different from tart, think argula lettuce versus a lemon) -- but the wine was sweet at the same time. I tasted a little bit of ground up rock flavor (go with me -- how that smells or when you're on a road with rocks and the rock dust gets kicked up by your car) but the wine was mostly a battle between sweet and bitter flavors. 

Drink or sink?: Drink, sort of. I like limeade, so I liked this wine. It was pleasant. That said, for $20, I'd rather have the Schloss Schönborn or a fabulous Mosel Riesling, both of which have a certain finesse and elegance that this wine was missing for me.

Wine For Normal People Radio: Episode 046, Food & Wine Pairing Revisited

This week, it's another crack at food and wine pairing. But this isn't just an overview, we get kind of dorky, talking about chemical reactions and shifts in your perception based on certain combinations.

Here's a LINK to it

...and the outline:

• We do a quick review of basic pairing rules -- heavy with heavy, light with light, follow the flavor
• Then America's Wine Test Kitchen strikes again -- we talk about the experiment we did with Sancerre (acidic Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley in France), lemons, and sugar. MC Ice was blown away!
• We address great pairings with acidic wines and the flavors you can expect from pairing
• Then we hit on tannin, alcohol, and sweet wines and why you have to take these factors into consideration when you're pairing.

If you like the podcast, please review it on iTunes, drop a comment below, or join the awesome conversation on Facebook (Wine For Normal People page) and Twitter @normalwine!

 

If you've got a question you want us to answer, post it on any of those places and we'll include it on the show!

Thanks for listening! We can't wait to hear from you!

Podcast music: "Café connection" by morgantj / CC BY 3.0, ©2009 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Map: Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license

Virginia Wine 101: Monticello and Loudoun County

Sometimes people say funny things about wine. There are lots of euphemisms. Things like: "those wines are really unique" or "they have a style all their own" or "they're really different" always seem to translate the same way: the wines taste horrible or are completely unimpressive but are from an area with small producers who no one wants to diss.

I gotta be honest: I'd heard these words used to describe Virginia wines so I was skeptical going in.

For non-US readers, Virginia is a state located in the Central East Coast of the US. The climate is very different from the winegrowing regions of the West Coast (California, Oregon, Washington State). There's a ton of humidity and really challenging, unpredictable weather...kind of like parts of Europe. Virginia is one of the areas where Europeans first settled, and people have been trying for over two centuries to grow European wine grapes (for you dorks, the species vitis vinifera) and make good wine. For most of this time they failed miserably.

Probably the most famous dude who made a go at it was Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the US. He was a HUGE wine lover and tried for decades to cultivate vineyards in Central Virginia near his beautiful home in Charlottesville, named Monticello. After failing at this pursuit, he instead became a huge importer of French wines.

Attempts were made up and down the East Coast but with the exception of wine made from native American grapes or French-American hybrids, for most of history the East Coast was out of the winemaking game. That is, until about 30 years ago when people in Virginia, New York State, and Long Island (lower New York) started making wines which eventually had to be taken seriously.

On two recent visits to the Monticello American Viticultural Area (pale green, in the center of the map, left) and to Loudoun County (orange on the map), just an hour outside of Washington, DC, I was surprised and delighted to put definition around the euphemisms: this place DOES make wine in a style all its own but it's nothing weird or bad, quite the opposite in most cases.

Below are my impressions of the two areas that I visited. There is more than just these two regions, but these are the largest in Virginia and the most heavily visited. I'm reviewing the specific wineries in separate posts, and I'll be posting those soon.


Central Virginia/Charlottesville/Monticello Area
I didn't know what to think upon arrival in this area, which is two and a half hours southwest of Washington, DC. My sister attended the University of Virginia for law school so I'd been there to visit but I had very little sense for what I'd find wine-wise.

The first, and most important thing to know is that the grapes aren't anything weird or unknown. As opposed to the past, where French-American hybrid grapes were grown (things like Seyval Blanc, Norton, Chambourcin), these days it's all the stuff we know and love and feel comfortable with. The biggest success stories seem to be Viognier for white, and Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Bordeaux-style blends for reds (a combo of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, mainly).

What's interesting: The temperature is a little too cool to grow Cabernet Sauvignon, which needs lots of heat, but too warm to do a great job with Merlot, which likes it a tad cooler. Except in rare years, these grapes are only appropriate as blenders. Cab Franc seems to be the Goldilocks solution, which is why it's commonly made as a standalone wine. The wineries also make a whole lot of Petit Verdot as a standalone wine. I don't really get it, since I think Petit Verdot tastes like a leaf off a tree and is has too much tannin and acid to be anything but a supporting player to tastier stuff like the three grapes mentioned above, but that's just me (and people from Bordeaux, I guess, since they never make purely Petit Verdot wine for the same reasons!).

A few things to give you a point of reference about Monticello:

• The style IS vastly different from what you'll find on the West Coast of the US. The wines generally have lower alcohol (most were around 13%, similar to European wines), have an earth quality and fruit flavor, but in moderation. They have great acidity and moderate mouth-drying tannins. These wines are flavorful, but also mild and elegant. They're not as earthy as European wines, nor as bold as those from California or Australia.
  
• The industry is small in Central Virginia and there is a divide between great and not so great wineries.
  
• An Italian wine family (Zonin) invested here 30 years ago and has led the charge in producing quality wines -- like a lot of things on the East Coast, you can feel the connection to Europe in these wines and see the influence.

It was clear that the wines were great, but what was less clear: how are the producers able to get this moderate, mild profile from their wines when they're in an area where overnight temperatures can stay in the 80s(F) during the summer? Normally you need cool nights for the grapes to rest, shut down, and build up acid.

The answer seems to lie in a few things.

Charlottesville and the surrounding areas are located in the rolling foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The elevation makes the area cool enough for grape growing but the sunny (HOT) days of summer allow the grapes to ripen. The pockets of different climates or microclimates in the area mean there are tons of places that viticulturists (grape farmers) can grow grapes that have a balance of sun and coolness. The variety of soils, good drainage (hugely important in getting great tasting grapes for wine!), and improved farming allow the people here to make the most of the land.

With some help from Virginia Tech, an excellent state university that has a viticulture program, farmers have been able to figure out the best sites and the best grapes to grow for this area.

Besides the fact that the setting is beautiful, another thing I love about this area is that these wineries are forging their own way, not trying to compete with West Coast wineries. They are growing the right grapes for their area and making great wines as a result. The buzz from the tasting room staff was that this wasn't always the case. In the past some of the wineries tried to make wines in the bolder, fruitier California style and as a result produced pale, nasty versions of things that the left coast could do far better at a lower price.

The Zonin family who own Barboursville, as well as a few others, made big changes in the late 1990s and now the wines from most places have a delicate balance and elegant taste that is truly unique.

My take: for the most part the wines kicked ass. Although small now, if it continues on this upward trajectory, Monticello will be a premiere area for fine wine in the US, just like old Thomas Jefferson had hoped! They made a believer out of me.

The wineries I visited were: Barboursville (owned by the Zonin family of Italy), Jefferson, Keswick, King Family Vineyards, Veritas, and Pollack. All were at least good, some were outstanding. I'll follow this post up with a review of the wineries...so look out for that.

Loudoun County/"DC's Wine Country"
About 30 miles outside of DC is Loudoun County, an area that has as many wineries as Monticello (around 30). We only stayed for a day versus two in Monticello, but the vibe here couldn't be more dissimilar. Whereas Monticello is very rural, quiet, and understated, the wineries of Loudoun County were much more touristy.

People were clearly there to enjoy a day on the picnic grounds, boozing and having lunch outside. The larger places were almost more like farms that happened to serve wine as opposed to tasting rooms and wineries focused on the wine itself. There was a "factory" feel to these larger places that didn't work for me.

If you look on the county's website and drive around the area, you'll see there is a heavy emphasis on the tourist aspect -- special events, weddings, corporate functions, and family reunions are all heavily marketed by larger wineries. The revenue stream seems to be diversified, to say the least -- i.e., there's less focus on the wine and more on garnering visits from DC.

From our limited time there, the group of us -- MC Ice, my dad, and stepmother -- who had also been to Charlottesville together, agreed that, with one exception, the wines of Loudoun County didn't hold a candle to quality that we had further south.

I'm not sure why. This area has been making wine for 25 years and they've got good soils, microclimates, and, very importantly, access to talent from consultants and industry folks who can fly easily in and out of DC. The grapes here are similar to those of Monticello -- Chardonnay, Viognier, Cabernet Franc, Merlot ,and red blends are pretty popular but they've also made a go of working with French-American hybrids, Seyval Blanc and Chambourcin, and the native Norton grape.

Despite similarities, I'll be blunt in saying that the flavors weren't as good and the wines seemed less polished and elegant than those of Monticello. I didn't have an undrinkable wine when I was in Monticello, but I can't say the same about Loudoun County. I know I didn't take an exhaustive look at the area, so I'll have to go back and try again, but I've got to say that if you're looking for the best Virginia has to offer, right now my advice would be to drive the 2.5 hours from DC and head to Monticello.

I'll review the three wineries we visited in a separate post. They were: Chrysalis, Sunset Hills, and Notaviva (the standout of the bunch).

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By no means is this a comprehensive look of all Virginia has to offer, but it's a basic starter if you're interested in exploring the area...which I'd encourage you to do. I guarantee that you'll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.

Being an East Coaster myself, I'm so proud that we're churning out great wine up and down the seaboard!

Have you had VA wines? What did you think? Drop a comment below!

Source of pictures 1 & 7 (and a handy resource for planning your visit): http://www.monticellowinetrail.com/

Wine For Normal People Radio: Episode 45 -- How to Fill a Case of Wine

Sorry to be so late with this one -- a death in the family has taken us off schedule with lots of things, including the podcast.

But we're back on track this week! And I think this one will be useful.

This week MC Ice and I give some suggestions on what to buy if you're shopping for a case of wine (which makes sense because you usually get a discount for doing that!).

Here's a link to the podcast: LINK

Since I know you're not going to be able to take notes on everything, here's the rundown of our recommendations:

Sippers: Cava, Albariño, and French Rosé (dry, not sweet blush wine!)

Versatile/Food Wines

Whites: Sauvignon Blanc, lightly oaked Chardonnay, dry Riesling

Reds: Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Chianti or Barbera, Malbec or Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon or a red blend that contains it

The Wild Card/Something New

Sky's the limit but we mention...Grüner Veltliner,Monastrell, Torrontes, and Nero d’Avola

The grape of the week is Petit Sirah...and we explain why it's not just mini Syrah!!!

If you like the podcast, please review it on iTunes, drop a comment below, or join the awesome conversation on Facebook (Wine For Normal People page) and Twitter @normalwine!

If you've got a question you want us to answer, post it on any of those places and we'll include it on the show!

Thanks for listening! We can't wait to hear from you!

Podcast music: "Café connection" by morgantj / CC BY 3.0, ©2009 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)
Map: Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license

Sancerre: Sauvignon Blanc Like You've Never Had Before

For all my talk of Sancerre in classes and on the podcast, I can't believe I've never written about it here. I think partially it's because whenever I get my hands on a bottle, I wind up downing it (along with a chunk of goat cheese or Brie, both great pairings) before I have a chance to write the kind of notes I like to write for the blog. Well fortunately, the other night I was finally able to restrain myself long enough to jot down some thoughts.

So here we are, back in France...the land of place names, not grapes. Given that, it should stand to reason that Sancerre is not a grape, but a place and an old place, at that. People there have been at this winemaking thing since the Romans picked a river-side site for vineyards to feed their legions of thirsty soldiers/pillagers/conquerors in the first century AD.

The vineyards are in the center of France, on the very eastern point of the Loire Valley (aptly, they're called the Central Vineyards -- see the very right hand side of the map below). The Sancerre area has a climate kind of like Champagne or Chablis in northern Burgundy -- continental, with warm summers and cold winters, where the threat of frost (hence total vineyard annihilation) is imminent through the spring and fall.

Map from http://www.terroir-france.com/wine/loire_map.htm

For most of history, Sancerre and its sister area Pouilly Fumé were actually linked to Burgundy (south of Sancerre) rather than the Loire Valley, of which it's now part for wine purposes. What did that mean for wine? Pinot Noir and Gamay (of Beaujolais fame), the reds of Burgundy, were grown here. With a cooler climate than Burgundy and more chalky soils, these grapes were like a smart kid with bad grades -- they never quite lived up to their potential.

Then something happened that could have been horrible, but actually worked out fabulously well: the serial killer bug that injects the roots of grapevines with its poisonous saliva, thus spreading vine murder and mayhem, landed in Sancerre in the late 1800s. Phylloxera, as it's called, devastated the vineyards. The Pinot Noir and Gamay died out and Sancerre was left with no choice but to start over.

I wish I could tell you that after extensive research and great spiritual quest they settled on a grape that could be one with the land, but as I've said before, wine business is all about the mighty coin. After phylloxera, these guys needed to turn a profit quickly. They needed something that was hearty and could be easily grafted onto American grapevine roots (which are immune to phylloxera, since the US is where the damn bug originates and from where it booked a trip on a ship overseas... the downside to a global economy). Their answer: Sauvignon Blanc.

It made sense. Sauvignon Blanc originated in Bordeaux, along the river banks. It likes cooler climates, so Sancerre's northern latitude and cooler winters were fine by this grape. When the vignerons (vin-yer-OHNs or winegrowers/makers) were looking for something to churn out in great quantities, this was an awesome solution to their needs. With a prolific grape and a location close to Paris, Sancerre became the "sipper" of choice in the bistros of the city of lights from the 1920s through the 1970s and kept them in business. From that point on, white Sancerre (80% of the area's production, with the other 20% very light Pinot Noir) has been 100% Sauvignon Blanc.

But things just kept getting better for Sancerre. Having made money by exploiting the Parisian market, some producers started to think more about quality rather than quantity. Sauvignon Blanc is really subject to terroir (all the things about the vineyard that make it unique -- sun exposure, soil, water drainage, slope, etc listen to the podcast for more on this). Grown in a special place, a special wine results. In Sancerre, it just so happened that the grape and the place were compatible beyond anyone's greatest hopes.

The terroir of the 15 villages that make up the area of Sancerre is particularly unique in that the soil varies, so the wine flavors are slightly different. For instance there is:

• Flint, which allows wines to taste like chewing on rocks
• Gravel, which makes more lemony, apple-like wine
• Chalk, which makes heavier floral, grapefruit-like wine, and
• Limestone and clay, which makes very high quality, rich, full more herbal wines (like fresh thyme or tarragon) that still taste a little like drinking from a waterfall.

Despite the nuance from each small vineyard area or town, all Sancerre has similarities: screeching acidity and a taste of minerals or rocks or waterfalls like no other Sauvignon Blanc in the world. Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand has high acidity, but unlike those ripe, fruity wines, Sancerre is barely fruity. Although there will be variation in each Sancerre you try, you're going to find these characters in them all -- it's the style of the place.

The harsh acids and mineral tastes can be rough to take if you have these wines without food. They may strip a little enamel from your teeth (I'm kidding, but they are freakin' acidic), and your mouth may water endlessly. Sipping them may even feel like sucking on a lemon. But all this changes with a small hunk of creamy cheese.

With a creamy food, the wine smooths out. It has a briny almost salty quality sometimes, that enhances the saltiness of the cheese and makes everything more harmonious. Thetexture of the wine and its light herbal and floral notes neutralize thegaminess in the goat cheese. The tangy acidity of goat cheese is countered well by the crisp acidity of Sauvignon Blanc. The cheesefeels lighter and more balanced with the wine.

So you're now that you're gunning to try this (with food, of course), here's a good one to look for:

The Wine: 2010 Domaine de la Perrière
(2010 was a solid year in Sancerre, with a cold winter followed by a good growing season. There was lots of healthy vines to pick from so you can find more consistent quality!)

The Grape: 100% Sauvignon Blanc

Alcohol: 12.5%

Price: $18.99

Color: The wine looked like a cool climate, high acid wine. What does that look like? Good question! In cooler climates the grapes don't get as ripe and the skins don't get quite as much color, which means the wine is virtually clear. This lack of over-ripeness also usually means the grapes have higher acid. This wine was a little green too -- another indication that the grapes weren't over-the-top mature.

Smell: All I could smell was minerals and chalk. It was like sitting on a hot rock near a waterfall (I like to hike so that smell is familiar to me but if it's not one you know, just think of chalk dust). After a few more sniffs, then the wine smelled like flowers, grass, and a little lemon and grapefruit. My mouth watered just smelling this stuff. I love wines like this and the fact that my eyes were watering just by smelling it made me pretty excited.

Taste: Oh yeah... This wine had an acid burn. It was so acidic that I felt it in the hinge of my jaw. It taste like lemons, grass, and a little like minerals but the main impression was acid. My biggest criticism: it was a little watery. There wasn't the fuller flavor that I like in Sancerre to back up that acid bite.

Drink or sink?: Drink. Sancerre is always a little pricey, but it's worth it. I love this one and if you can find it, I'd highly recommend chilling it down, getting yourself some chevre (goat) cheese and rocking this out!