Wine Jabber

Keller Expands Empire

Thomas Keller, chef/owner of the famed French Laundry in Napa Valley and Per Se in New York City, is stretching his talents to include frozen food and a burger joint. In addition to his two flagship restaurants, he also owns and runs two bakeries and two bistros. He is also wants to open a butcher shop and an Inn next to the French Laundry from reports in Bloomberg, the New York Times and Eater.com.

Pirate Quiz

Off Topic: The "What's my Pirate Name?" quiz rocks. Take it yourself.

Here's my result:

My pirate name is:

Dread Pirate Read

Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. Even through many pirates have a reputation for not being the brightest souls on earth, you defy the sterotypes. You've got taste and education. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Also, September 19th was "International Talk Like a Pirate" day. Put that on your calendars, please. Arrrrr. At VintageSpec we love all things Pirate - my first two woodshop employees were called "Scurvy" and "Rickets". Now there's Eel Dottore (he's an Italian pirate!), Sir Scabs-a-Lot, Hanker and Turd. (No, Garret, I'm still not kidding.) Need pirate supplies? Check out 826 Valencia Pirate Supply. Waaaaay better than Captain Rick's Booty Cove (the Wal-Mart superstore chain of pirate supply shops). Plus, Captain Rick wears socks with his Birks. Shudder.

Wikipedia has a good entry on Pirates as well.

Flaunt Fundraiser

The Futureself/Flaunt fundraiser tonight – this event has great energy, and differentiated itself from the great majority of charity events by actually being kinda interesting – held under the Colorado Ave bridge, freight trains rumbling behind the stage, Cirque-de-Soleil-ish performers jumping around before and between the models ... very unlike the basic hotel ballroom/silent auction/meat ‘n’ 2 veg dinner event. Rather, it’s like a convention for the disdainful, attractive and malnourished, who are frighteningly well-represented. This event seems fresh, though much more disorganized and perilously close to catastrophe at times. For 400 people, there are only 2 booths pouring wine – and not much food being served either. Stacy and I are pouring an easy-drinking Italian sparkler (for those of you who don't know her, she's in charge of the VintageSpec office and wine cellar). The other wine booth, though it has 5-6 people manning it and presumably lots more bottles than we, runs out of wine an hour before we do. From that point on, we’re slammed – and people are camping at the front of the line, telling us about their Italian adventures in mind-numbing detail, their private lives, and the occasional jerk who wants us to know, in no uncertain terms, how lame we are for only bringing one thing to pour. (Hey! We’re not getting paid for either the wine or our time, so shut up and enjoy. Next!). Thankfully, for the most part, people are cool and appreciative. When we’re almost out, I hide a bottle under the table for myself ...

The fashion show is fun – though models have generally been, in my opinion, the most tiresome people on earth. When you get an A for just showing up, why go for the A+? It was refreshing that a few seemed, well ... OK. Nice, even. I may have to change my opinion on these folks. Good thing the wine we brought is so eminently acceptable.

nv Adami, Prosecco, “Gabrel-13,” Valdobbiadene. Loads of toasty & yeasty pear and citrus on the nose. Very effusive mousse, and jumps on the tongue. The palate is full of pear and apple fruit, nicely delineated by lemongrass acids, with some structure and weight from flavors of bread and toast. Good minerals as well. Nice citrus finish. Drink now, not one to age, fresher is better. (3.0-nb) By the way, this is a fabulous value at $13 retail.

Cafe Brazil, Denver

Cafe Brazil, recommended by A, sits in an older strip mall-like building just north of the corner of Lowell and 44th. I'm a few minutes early, and it gives me a chance to look over the menu and wine list. Both are impressive - the menu features loads of dishes with shrimp, chicken or scallops as the primary protein. There's not a scrap of red meat on the menu; those all show up as daily specials, which sound lovely as well - there's lamb and beef selections. The wine list is short, concise, and very intelligently chosen - all South American, Spanish or Portuguese wines. I am really impressed - not a single one of the "usual suspects" restaurant wines on this list. There's Nora and Naia bottlings, as well as the fabulous Naiades from Spain. On the red side, there's 2004 Finca Dofi (gasp!) for $95 a bottle (double gasp!) - just a few bucks above retail! Things are looking really good.

The staff is super-friendly and accomodating as well, checking up on me until A arrives. Palmito is a lovely app, sliced and heated hearts of palm with a cream/wine/cheese sauce that is brightened with paprika and lime. A has the Camaro com Cachacha, a nicely prepared mix of prawns, garlic and peppers, with a coconut milk sauce. I have the halibut special - lovely, well-prepared and accompanied by a few deep-fried shrimp. Halibut can be a pretty boring fish if not propely prepared (honestly, I've had halibut that was no better than chewing cardboard), but the sweet sauce and vegetables make this lovely. As always, there's a hint of coconut milk in my sauce as well.

We splurge for the Finca Dofi. Far too much fun. By the end of the evening, she's threatening to flick her shrimp tails at me. Flick me not! Ha!

2004 Alvaro Palacios, Finca Dofi, Priorato, Spain.
A nose of dark chocolate, cassis and cranberries, alll with loads of earthy minerality - this is young, and the oak is a tad too present at this point, but everything in the nose indicates this will be a great wine after a few years of ageing. On the palate, cassis and plums, with rose petals, quarried stone, leather and earth. There's a healthy wallop of sweet vanillin oak (Palacios uses new barrels liberally), but everything seems in balance, so I have great expectations for this wine. Drink 2010-2017. Lovely ripe tannins on the finish (decanting helped a lot). (4.0nb)

Creede, Colorado

I spent three nights in Creede, Colorado last weekend. The first night we drink the following wine. More notes on the others will follow.

1999 Elio Altare, Barolo
The Altare winery and home sits just above the hamlet of Annunziata, above the Arborina vineyard. Next door are Mauro and Daniela Veglio, fine producers of modern Barolo. The Altare wines, however, are in a league of their own. Elio looks to Burgundy as his reference point - and I can't agree with him more. Critics who compare Barolo to Bordeaux or California Cab, on the basis of it being a long-lived, tannic and powerful wine, miss the point entirely. Classic Barolo is about a magical interplay of power and grace - the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove. What it lacks in sheer power (compared to Cab-based wines) it more than makes up for with subtletly and complexity - two qualities sorely lacking in most new-world style wines. Altare fully embraces the nuance and finesse of Nebbiolo, making spectacular wines vintage after vintage. (Full disclosure: I love these wines, have bought them for myself for ages, visit the Altares almost every year, and consider Silvia (Elio's daughter who now splits the winemaking job with her dad) a friend. She's also a fabulous drinking buddy. She's introduced me to all sorts of wines - the strangest being a Chinese Cabernet Sauvignon. It was corked, unfortunately. Strange, though - it had an artificial cork.) The Altare 1999 Barolo, made from a blend of vineyards, all from the La Morra hill, shows incredible complexity at just 8 years old. Aromas of black cherry, dried rose petals, mushrooms, some cassis and beautiful licorice emanate from the glass. This has remarkable coherence, and the aromas and flavors blend seamlessly. In the mouth, cherries, leather, violets and licorice dominate - there is a hint of the tar and truffle that is characteristic of these wines; I'm sure as it develops more of this will emerge. Lovey tannins, extremely ripe, and with a long, sweet finish. Drink 2009-2019. (4.5nb)

Last spring, in Monforte d'Alba, we drink 1991, 1992 and 1993 Altare Barolos wih Silvia. All show spectacularly well. These are all off vintages ... waaaaay off vintages, in the case of the '91 and '92 ... brought to us blind as a "stump-the-chumps" excercise by Nino Rocca from his restaurant's most excellent cellar. All exhibit loads of mature primary fruit flavors and aromas, as well as the secondary and tertiary aromas and flavors that Barolo develops wiht time: tar, truffle, leather, rose petals, minerals and earth. Lovely wines. I believe that the real mark of a winemaker's talent comes not in the wines crafted from a great vintage, but in those made in tremendously difficult years. Altare's '91 and '92 attest to his prodigious talent.

Fake Wines

Has everyone read the New Yorker’s article about the Rodenstock 1787 Jefferson bottles? I highly recommend it. Let’s leave aside the veracity of Rodenstock’s claims for a minute – I’m more concerned about the integrity of well-known and published wine experts and critics who have vouched for the authenticity of these bottles after trying them. Now, I have no quibble with critics and wine auctioneers getting sloshed at tastings and declaring a wine “delicious” or, in some cases, “100 points – perfect.” However, I do have an argument with these folks, who wield incredible influence, declaring them genuine simply because they tasted so good. Good does not necessarily imply genuine. Frankly, how good could 200-year old wines be? These were described as being fresh and vibrant, with life still in them. Baloney. If wine is kept in perfect conditions at 35-38 degrees, perhaps it will keep indefinitely, as evidenced by the Champagne bottles that were salvaged from a circa 1900 Baltic Sea shipwreck a few years ago … but 200+ years, even, as claimed, in a deep Parisian cellar … c’mon, guys. Where were your critical faculties when you need them? I’m embarrassed for my far more famous colleagues – utterly seduced by the idea of drinking history. According to the article, there is some evidence that the bottles bearing the initials Th.J are not genuine, and Rodenstock has not provided more than very hazy provenance information. I am ashamed for the wine profession that those bearing such influence were so easily duped, and acted without substantially verifying wildly implausible claims.

Some auction house experts have built much of their reputation on the basis of tasting from Rodenstock finds – what if all these bottles turned out to be fakes? No wonder the wine trade in general doesn’t want any of this out, much less discussed. Rodenstock himself has sued almost everyone who has publicly doubted his claims for the authenticity of his bottles. Sounds like desperation to me … Must.Not.Let.House.Of.Cards.Collapse. Or something to that effect.

More disturbing for those of us not spending upwards of a few thousand for a bottle is the alarming amount of fakes of highly-rated current releases out there. I am convinced that some of the 1990 Pertimali Brunello Riserva that I purchased from a Midwestern retailer was fake – it tasted nothing like the regular bottling, and lacked all fruit and balance. It tasted of dried plums, metal and tart acids, not unlike a minor Chianti (it did not taste like a damaged wine – it tasted like a different wine). Though the bottles had the correct labels and the very proper pink governement-printed DOCG strips glued under the foils, I remain convinced that these were adulterated bottles. I was convinced of this when I bought a few bottles of the same wine from another, more reputable, source – these were (and still are) lovely and delightful, deep and soulful, and had a family resemblance to the regular bottling, which was spectacular in itself.

Where does that leave us, the great mass of wine lovers, the rubes who cannot trace the convoluted paths that some wines take to market? I want to know that I’m spending my hard-earned lucre on something genuine, not something put together in a lab, or bottled by counterfeiters. As a wine retailer, I’d say that the best thing to do is to STAY AWAY FROM GRAY MARKET WINES. Am I being clear enough? Loads of wines are bought by consolidators and - how do I say this? - less than scrupulous wine brokers from around the world, then shipped to locations where there is a better price, typically in the US or directly to an auction house – essentially, arbitrage in the wine market. The problem is, we have no effin’ clue what happens to many of these wines in transit – and I suspect this is where a lot of adulterated and fake wines are slipped into the marketplace. Stick to a retailer who gets his wines direct from the winery’s chosen and publicly listed importer – where there are no questions about the provenance of the bottles (if you're the least bit hesitant, just call up the importer directly and see if any of the given wine was was sent to that retailer). When you get a call from the wine guy who just happened to find a container of “top wines” in Europe, from producers you want really really really badly and whose bottlings are not available, neither for love nor money; sold out at the importer and distributor and at every retailer you can find … hey, I would be tempted as well. Who wouldn’t be? But honestly: run, don’t walk, for the exits.

Stochastic New Yorker Humor

An alert reader sent in this link - hilarious.

From the article, the premise is: "A theory resulted: That the rate of humor found in New Yorker cartoons is the exact same as naturally occurring humor in the world. That is to say, in the case of any decent drawing set-up, one could pair a drawing with any caption and reasonably expect to laugh the same amount."

Blaue Gans, New York City

Dinner the next night at the Blaue Gans, a lovely Austrian neighborhood restaurant owned by the same chef that runs Wallse, and Café Sabarsky in the Neue Galerie Museum on upper Fifth Ave. It’s a small, lively room, and it smells really good in here, plus it’s about 20 degrees cooler than outside – it’s been a sticky hot week. We start at the bar, where there are addictive baked thick pretzels to accompany the beers and glass wines. Dinner is fabulous – a steak tartare is presented in a small round glass bowl, with an egg yolk cradled in a depression in the top of the chopped sirloin, with condiments arranged artfully around the edge of the large square underplate – chopped shallot, cornichons, caperberries, parsley, mustard and spices. I mix it all together - deee-lish. A beet salad and a smoked trout palaschinken are also fantastic. The main courses don’t disappoint either – a suckling pig special is melt-in-your-mouth and the Jägerschnitzel is thin-pounded pan-fried veal topped with a mushroom and bacon cream sauce. Spatzle is well-done, accurately creamy, while a creamed spinach side is so perfectly and intensely spinachy green-tasting that it’s like rediscovering something you thought you knew really well, much to your surprise. The service was self-assured and relatively prompt, if a tad ragged. The wine list is heavily Austrian, short but well-chosen. This is much like the cooking with which I grew up; its cadences and combinations are intimately familiar … comfort food at the deepest level. The Blaue Gans (Blue Goose) bears a culinary resemblance to the nearby Danube (a jewel-box of an Austrian-Hungarian restaurant; I love this one as well), but at a fraction of the price, and you can go to the Blaue Gans in jeans. I’m coming back.

2005 Stadlmann, Rotgipfler “Classic” Austria
This reminds me of a super-dry Gewurztraminer in its flavors, aromas and structure – loads of white spices, apples and cantelope, some floral notes, and loads of spicy red delicious apples on the finish, long and dry. Really nice. Drink young, this one has no ageing potential. (2.5nb)

2005 Karthauserhof, Grüner Veltliner Achleiten, Smaragdt, Austria
Lovely pale color, with the soft fruits I associate with wines from Veltliner. (Did you know that “Veltlin” is the German version of “Valtellina,” the valley in Lombardia that produces such excellent Nebbiolo-based wines? Interestingly, the white wines from Valtellina are called “Chiavennasca” after the village of Chiavenna, and have nothing to do with Grüner Veltliner.) The wine is crisp and lively, with peach and nectarine framed by citrusy and apple elements. There’s a good deal of minerality in this one as well, and it goes perfectly with the first courses. Drink now-2008. (2.5+nb)

2003 Feiler-Artiger, Blaufrankish Umriss, Burgenland, Austria
Typically grapey and forward, with an appealing Beaujolais-Villages-like freshness and unpretentiousness, this one fills out a bit in the mouth, with good plums and earthy notes framed by the slightest hint of tannins. Lovely. Drink now-2010. (2.5+nb)

Vino Vino
After dinner, we head a few blocks over to Vino Vino, a wine shop/wine bar a few blocks from A & T’s home. Along one wall, a long banquette, with low tables, on the opposite wall, divided from the banquettes by a glass wall, a wine shop. At the back, a bar/serving area. All simple, clean design and looking good. There’s a fine selection of wines by the glass, and you can purchase a bottle in the shop and have the servers open it in the bar for a corkage fee. The owner is over in the shop, discussing the relative merits of his Spanish selections, for example – he’s obviously an enthusiast and knows his stuff. The wines in the shop and bar are not all the usual suspects – there’s definitely some intelligence and independence exerting itself here.

T and I stay later, enjoying 2003 Dutton-Goldfield Pinot Noir and a 2003 Marchesi di Gresy Martinenga Barbaresco. Both are nice, drinkable, serviceable wines, nothing special, just enjoyable with a good conversation. I neglect to take notes. We stumble home about 1. The twin spotlights at the WTC site are shining up in tribute.

NYC

From Denver to NYC to visit my sister A and her family. My niece and nephew call me Uncle Allie, but it comes out as Unka Lallie. I wander the city over the next few days, museum hopping, a quick visit with my father, and enjoying the cul-chah. (That's "culture" for everyone not from the Northeast).
As a former Noo Yawker (I was born here) I always have a great time – and people are so friendly if you let them know you’re from out of town. My sister A, who lives about 8 blocks from the WTC site, says that people have become vastly more open and friendly since 9/11, instead of recoiling instinctively when approached. I talk with a really nice homeless man on Fifth Ave, whose cats are sprawled out on the sidewalk while he is sitting on church steps, and a handicapped woman in the Modern who is using a Segway to get around. She vastly prefers it to a wheelchair.

With Thai delivery the first night, at A & T’s apartment:

2006 Groth, Sauvignon Blanc. Talk about a big surprise. Groth is known for its big, ponderous, high-scoring reds, kind of a disaster formula when applied to a light white. I thought this would be no different, and I'm wrong. Lots of crisp citrus, some melon and flowers, and best of all, an artificial cork! Very tasty and simple. (2.0nb)

2006 Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc, Chile. Funky earthy aromas, then clean cirtusy and floral elements. Apple fruit on the palate. Nice, simple, with a twist-off top. (2.0-nb)

The next night, A cooks. She went to the Cordon Bleu school in Paris for a year, and is, shall we say, pretty darn talented. Whenever she cooks, I want to give her shit about her place being “barefoot and in the kitchen” but then I remember how she used to beat me up when we were little kids, and I’m not entirely convinced that she’s dropped that habit. Besides, her cooking is really good.

2002 Vall Lach, “Embriux” Priorato. In NYC at my sister’s home, with a seared pork loin and farmer’s market green beans. Loads of chocolate and red plums on the nose and palate. Though the wine is a touch one-dimensional, it is delicious and satisfying – just not overly complex. Frankly, from the variable 2002 vintage, this wine is quite an achievement. The finish is all smoke and plums, with solid tannins that keep the whole thing tightly structured. Nice. (3.0+nb) A&T and their kids E & O live in Tribeca, which is a funky, fun neighborhood – loads of great restaurants here, such as Chanterelle, Danube and Montrachet. I’ll write about the restaurants I’ve visited here in a future VintageSpec Monthly newsletter.

At Rioja

At Rioja, the Denver Restaurant, on Wednesday night. It’s been a few months since I last visited this place, which has been one of my faves in Denver. I’m meeting A, who I knew slightly in college and haven’t seen in 21 years. I’m nervous, actually. A lot. We hit it off famously, I think, diving right into lively conversation. As for the meal: the “Fresh Bacon” app is still on the menu – I looooove the audacity of this dish. A cube of slab bacon on a bed of bean purée, supremely tasty and perfectly salty. Remember – a day without porkfat is not worth living! A tuna sashimi/tartare combo is also delicious, but with a touch too much acid on the tartare for my taste; it seems to overwhelm the delicacy of the fish. We skip the pasta course (Why does an ostensibly Spanish menu have Italian-style pasta? The tyranny of the marketplace?), and go on to a well-prepared salmon dish, the skin perfectly crisped, and a rare hanger steak, with seared bitter greens. Both are excellent – and I am emphatically not a fan of salmon. Service is professional and not overly intrusive; overall, Rioja is still holding its own. One of the glasses of wine that we ordered with the apps is slightly oxidized; it was probably opened two days ago. If the management would get some stabilizing gas (cheap!) to the bartenders to use after pouring wines or at the end of the night on any unfinished bottles, this problem would be alleviated. Also, I wish they would get their bottled wines into better storage conditions – the only consistent complaint I have about this place is that the bottles of red are always too warm when served. Frankly, the company is so good tonight that I barely notice the wine temp, even though this detail has been diving me bonkers since my first visit.

2003 Muga, Reserva, Rioja. (Half-bottle) The wine has a plummy garnet color, and gives a copious bouquet of cassis, berries, chocolate, some vanillin oak and minerals. On the palate, the fruit is very pure, and is nicely framed by discreet tannins – they blend into the fabric of this wine so well it takes effort to discern them. Chocolate, spices and pencil lead finish off the flavor profile, and the finish is very smooth. Drink now-2015. (3.5-nb)