Wine News Review

Author: vinothekid

  • Sweet and bubbly: The chocolate and Champagne lover’s Valentine’s wine guide

    The e-mail message from Natalie MacLean pointed me to her book Red, White and Drunk All Over in case I was planning to offer some Valentine’s Day tips about matching wine with chocolate.

    Of course, there is that. And we’ll get to it in a bit.

    But my Valentine’s takeaway from her book comes from the part where she describes her travels in the region of France that conceived and produces that quintessentially amorous variety of wine, Champagne.

    Specifically, I mean MacLean’s quote of Louis XV mistress Madame de Pompadour, who discerned that Champagne is “the only wine that leaves a woman more beautiful after drinking it.” (Let’s forgive Jeanne Antoinette’s indiscretion in helping to spark the Seven Years’ War, huh?)

    And what man hasn’t felt a little James Bondish with a flute of Bollinger (or less costly bubbly)?

    MacLean describes the sensation this way:

    Champagne may be a celebratory drink, but it’s also an intimate ritual that transports you into a private world. There’s an adagio of the senses: the sweating cold bottle, the glinting stemware, the frothy pour, the small wrist action of raising the glass, the ocean-spritz on your face, the mouth filling flavor.

    In other words, Valentine’s Day without Champagne is like the Fourth of July without the fireworks.

    Speaking of Bollinger, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg at The Washington Post suggest paring a bottle of N.V. Champagne Bollinger Special Cuvee Brut ($55) with shrimp cocktail as a starter for Valentine’s dinner. As they explain, with their own notable quotable:

    We feel about Bollinger, actually, the way Lily Bollinger felt about champagne in general. As she famously said in 1961: ‘I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it, unless I’m thirsty.’

    They cite a few other bubbly favorites, in addition to several non-sparkling wines for other phases of the meal.

    At Wine Spectator Online, Laurie Woolever serves up four more sparkling selections, ranging from a Gruet Brut New Mexico NV ($14) to a Mailly Brut Rosé Champagne NV ($48). She throws in her own meal paring suggestions, including:

    Roses, jewelry, chocolates—there are some occasions when it makes sense to stick with the classics, and Valentine’s Day is surely one of those times. If you’re taking the date-night dinner into your own hands, you can’t go wrong with a classic surf and turf, with some simple accompaniments and well-chosen white and red wines alongside.

    And speaking of chocolate, here are MacLean’s top 10 wine/chocolate matchings for when you get around to dessert (her online matching tool supplies additional suggestions for you and your sweetie):

    1. Dark Chocolate and Banyuls, France
    2. Chocolate-Covered Biscotti and Recioto Della Valpolicella, Italy
    3. Chocolate-Orange Cake and Liqueur Muscat, Australia
    4. Chocolate with Nuts and Tawny Port, Portugal
    5. Milk Chocolate and Tokaji, Hungary
    6. Bittersweet Chocolate and Amarone, Italy
    7. Chocolate-Dipped Fruit and Icewine, Canada
    8. Chocolate Ganache Truffles and Sauternes, France
    9. Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake and Framboise, California
    10. Chocolate Hearts with Cream Filling and Cream Sherry, Spain

  • New and notable wine headlines, including tales of ‘juiced’ wine tourists

    Handpicked wine stories from across the Web…

    Getting juiced at wine tastings
    “California vintners aim to cork the problem of limos and tour buses bringing partyers to their venues.”

    Australian wines sell for $130,000
    Barossa Valley Ares Shiraz, Aphrodite Cabernet Sauvignon and Aerope Grenache — that’s right, just three bottles — from Australia’s Two Hands Wines.

    Two-Buck Chuck ain’t that bad
    Another wine reviewer discovers an age-old truth, and serves up a little backgrounder on the Charles Shaw legend.

    More on the Befuddlement of Liquor Laws
    In case you didn’t get the message from the earlier, aptly named ‘Befuddlement of Liquor Laws’ story.

    Drink No Wine Before IT’S Time
    Reflections on encountering old friends, late-night rituals and selecting the right wine at the right time.

    Sure, Screw Caps Are Fine—But on My Wines?
    “Am I a dinosaur? Should I be on the lookout for tar pits? Anyone? Anyone?”

    Why Do Wines Go On Sale?
    Finally, somebody asks. And somebody answers.

    Thirsty for more news? Follow up by digging into continuously updated feeds from national and international news outlets:

    • Reds (from Beaujolais to Zinfandel)
    • Whites (from Chablis to Sauvignon Blanc)
    • Organic (red, white, in between)

    To hit closer to home, try WNR’s Smarter Wine Search tool and see what columnists and wine experts may be writing about in your area. Once there, just type in your city and state (within quotation marks, as in, "Napa, California"), to get results ranked by relevance.

  • Experts’ weekend wine bargains: Serve some Super Bowl alternatives to beer

    Comparing the picks: A survey of recent selections from popular wine experts, spotlighting bargains and best values among other choices at their websites.

    2006 Quara Cafayate Valley Torrontes:
    Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, The Washington Post — ‘Suited for the Super Bowl’ is the apt headline for this fruity pick that’s “a perfect match for guacamole and even held its own against steak-topped nachos.” $9

    2006 Anderson Valley Gewurztraminer:
    Edward Deitch, TODAYshow.com — Another Super Bowl alternative to beer, this one is “dry and restrained, with signature gewürztraminer spiciness and classic lychee fruit.” $18

    2006 Domaine Allimant-Laugner Pinot Gris A.C. Alsace, France – Alsace:
    Natalie MacLean, Nat Decants — From a producer known for making “world-beater wines,” this best-buy white is an “amazingly flavorful wine with floral and citrus aromas.” $16.85

    2007 Angove’s Nine Vines Rose, South Australia:
    Jerry Shriver, USA TODAY — “There’s enough heft to this wine and enough juicy richness to convince me that rose wines aren’t just for warm-weather sipping.” About $12

    Tip: Print out this list and bring it to your local wine shop — even if a specific favorite isn’t available, ask the salesperson to recommend something similar. Or try browsing the latest wine reports from this custom collection of hundreds of news websites — filtered for bargains, continuously updated, and quick and easy to scan:

    • Reds (from Beaujolais to Zinfandel)
    • Whites (from Chablis to Sauvignon Blanc)
    • Organic (red, white, in between)

    To hit closer to home, try WNR’s Smarter Wine Search tool and see what wine finds local columnists and wine experts may be writing about in your area. Once there, just type in your city and state (within quotation marks, as in, "Napa, California"), to get results ranked by relevance.

    Or scroll down to the bottom of this page and dig into top wine lists from a variety of sources. You’ll also find links to everything from a food-pairing database to websites for comparative wine ratings.

    The Web is about community. So take a moment to comment about your experience with a particular wine — to help steer others to or away from it. And of course, have a great weekend!

  • The Web’s wine buzz: Including tips to make Chinese New Year more festive

    Tune in to what top wine bloggers and experts are decanting into cyberspace with handpicked highlights of their latest and greatest. In this episode, we find advice for long-unopened bottles, tips for making the coming Year of the Rat more festive and a long list of reasons to think again about Merlot.

    If you have a special bottle of wine gathering dust somewhere — the one that’s remained unopened through the years, perhaps with some fond memories sealed inside — start looking for the corkscrew.

    Because Saturday night, Feb. 23, is Open That Bottle Night 9, as good an excuse as any to finally have a taste.

    Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher at The Wall Street Journal explain:

    Imagine if an evil genie took some of your very best memories and hid them in a wine bottle. That’s what so many of us do to ourselves. These dear bottles have a special way of retrieving warm and often-forgotten memories, but you have to pop the cork to release them. That’s why we invented Open That Bottle Night.

    A nice read on what various friends of theirs have stashed and swear to finally open. You might be tempted to do the same.

    You’ll also find a handy primer on the care and handling on what might be rather fragile vintages.

    But that’s not the only wine-benefiting festivity on the horizon, as Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg at The Washington Post remind us.

    The Chinese New Year (Lunar Year 4706) begins on Feb. 7, ringing in the Year of the Rat. This most important of Chinese holidays, celebrated by one-quarter of the world’s population, merits an extended 15-day celebration, and its time-honored food traditions are beautifully enhanced by the right wines.

    Perk up the Chinese cuisine with their selections of fruitier wine, ranging from a “beautifully balanced, crisp, fruity and minerally” 2007 Rudolf Muller Riesling Kabinett ($11) to a 100-percent pinot noir-based NV Gruet Methode Champenoise Rose Brut ($16) from New Mexico, “with strawberry notes and a hint of vanilla on the finish … terrific with our Peking duck.”

    The article includes a sumptuous pairing chart, to bring out the best in, say, those shrimp dumplings or whole steamed fish.

    Meanwhile, at Wine Enthusiast, Tim Patterson offers a smorgasbord of reasons for reacquainting ourselves with that once top-selling red that has fallen from popular grace, Merlot.

    A widespread urban legend says that Merlot was whacked sideways off its pedestal in 2004 by a certain movie set in Santa Barbara’s Pinot Noir country. In fact, according to industry insiders, the leveling off started two or three years earlier. Mark Pucylowski, buying director for Sam’s Wines & Spirits in Chicago, noticed that some of his California producers were grafting over to Syrah well before Merlot became a cinematic expletive.

    In some cases, the fall from grace was well deserved, particularly the California Merlot that “was planted on marginal sites and/or asked to bring in too large a crop.”

    But there are still plenty of good ones to be had.

    And the Wine Enthusiast Tasting Panel brings us a long list of some of the best — originating everywhere from France, Italy and California to Washington State, Australia and New Zealand.

    And many of them sit well within the Wine News Review fairly frugal affordability index, including the Banrock Station 2005 Merlot (South Eastern Australia)  at $5 (not a typo).

  • Experts’ weekend wine bargains: From hearty Cab to ‘Wasabi’ white

    Comparing the picks:

    A survey of recent selections from popular wine experts, spotlighting bargains and best values among other choices at their websites.

    This weekend’s choices range from an Argentinian Cab and a “Wasabi” white to a run-to-buy Montepulciano and food-friendly French Sauvignon Blanc.

    2006 Terrazas De Los Andes Cabernet Sauvignon Mendoza, Argentina:
    Natalie MacLean, Nat Decants — A hearty Cab that boasts dark berry fruit, earth and spice. “Fantastic red for the money! Full-bodied with delicious aromas of black plums and chocolate.” Her best-value red. $13.85

    2006 Now & Zen “Wasabi” White Wine, Alsace, France:
    Jerry Shriver, USA TODAY — The headline on this selection basically says it all: “Ohmmm ahhhh.” It’s a “touches-all-bases blend” with a remarkable range of characteristics from Gewurztraminer and Pinot Blanc to Riesling and Sylvaner. Worth getting if only out of curiosity. About $11

    Valenosi, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (Abruzzo, Italy) “Quattro Mani” 2006:
    Michael Franz, Wine Review Online — “Run, don’t walk, to buy this wine! I can’t remember a better $10 red.” Especially if you’re looking for fruity opulence. $10

    Domaine Galetis 2004 “De La Clauso”, Sauvignon Blanc, Vin de Pays d’Oc:
    Beverage Testing Institute — The “best buy” selection among a tempting list of French whites, it presents a “dryish medium to full body of tart, tangy, Meyer lemon, melon, and ruby grapefruit flavors with a long, mouthwatering finish.” And food-friendly, too. $11.99

    Banrock Station Sémillon-Chardonnay South Eastern Australia 2006:
    Harvey Steiman, Wine Spectator — “Light, dry and fruity” … and you may pick up some grapefruit tones “as the wine lingers.” $6

    Tip: Print out this list and bring it to your local wine shop — even if a specific favorite isn’t available, ask the salesperson to recommend something similar. Or try browsing the latest wine reports from this custom collection of hundreds of news websites — filtered for bargains, continuously updated, and quick and easy to scan:

    • Reds (from Beaujolais to Zinfandel)
    • Whites (from Chablis to Sauvignon Blanc)
    • Organic (red, white, in between)

    To hit closer to home, try WNR’s Smarter Wine Search tool and see what wine finds local columnists and wine experts may be writing about in your area. Once there, just type in your city and state (within quotation marks, as in, "Napa, California"), to get results ranked by relevance.

    Or scroll down to the bottom of this page and dig into top wine lists from a variety of sources. You’ll also find links to everything from a food-pairing database to websites for comparative wine ratings.

    The Web is about community. So take a moment to comment about your experience with a particular wine — to help steer others to or away from it. And of course, have a great weekend!