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Posts made in October, 2008
Posted
by Paul Howard
on Oct 29, 2008
in Reviews
When I think of Argentina I think of Colomé. This is one Argentina’s very best wines – benchmark Malbec at a great price.
Bodega Colomé is in Salta province, up near the Bolivian border in North West Argentina. This is the high Andes, a desert plateau at an amazing altitude for growing vines. Argentinean producers are very proud of their alt.credentials and so “mine is higher than yours” is a very big deal – you will see that altitude is frequently quoted on the back labels of Argentine wine bottles as a proxy for quality.
Colomé is the highest commercial vineyard in the world right now, at 3,002 metres or 9,849 feet. To put that into a UK perspective, take Ben Nevis and stack it on the top of Mount Snowdon – and that only gets you to Colomé’s lowest vineyard at 2,300 metres!
But why is altitude so important? Well, there is less atmospheric pressure and so less oxygen and carbon dioxide. Just as this affects humans so it does vines, and in both cases the mechanisms are still being researched. People first: altitude sickness can start for some at only 2,000 metres and is common by 2,400 metres, regardless of fitness or age. Symptoms range from feeling hung over (known as Soroche), to sleeping difficulties, an unshakeable cough, hyperventilation and finally fatal oedema. Acclimatisation cannot be rushed and descent is the only effective treatment. Meanwhile, vines get less carbon dioxide, which slows photosynthesis and retards ripening. But most importantly, the amount of UV radiation from the intense sunlight produces of thicker grape skins that contain hundreds of different complex phenolic compounds. Intense colour, fresh acidity and silky-smooth tannins in red wines is the result.
Colomé is hardly a new kid on the block. The original winery (of 4 ha) was founded in 1831 and so they also lay claim to being the oldest Argentinean vineyard still in existence. Another 11 ha of Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon were planted in 1854, and these are still productive today – pre-phylloxera vines brought from Bordeaux, planted on their own rootstocks with low yields. Now add some more high quality credentials into the mix – snow melt irrigates the thin desert soils, there is a long growing season, clear skies mean hot days and cool nights and there’s no pollution, while little rain means an absence of fungal diseases, though ants are a pest.
The current Swiss owners (Hess group) understood this potential and bought the 39,000 ha property in 2001, which is when the big investment really started. As well as 70 ha of vines at Colomé and a further 40 ha planted elsewhere in Salta province, the Bodega also has 160 ha of cereals, fruit and animal farming – it’s a long way to town. Modern miracles like hydro electricity, the telephone and Biodynamics have been introduced, while self-sufficiency is completed by a new winery, hotel, art gallery and a Church.
As well as Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon, red Syrah, Bonarda and Tannat and white Torrontés are also planted. The Estate Malbec 2005 featured here is actually a blend of 85% Malbec with 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Tannat added for extra structure and complexity. Part of this blend is sourced from those old vines, the rest from more recent plantings. 50% is fermented in French oak, while 75% of it is aged for 15 months in French oak barrique (of which 30% are new barrels and the rest second-use).
In the glass, the wine has a dense, almost black core with a purplish-black rim and slow pinkish legs. The nose is a rich mixture of black fruits (black cherry, blackcurrant, blackberry and even blueberry) with an herbaceous and floral top note. The palate is rich and smooth and has finesse and fine wine complexity. Density and power are supported by a structure of velvet tannins and fresh acidity. The bold bright fruit flavours are bound into a seamless oak and savoury framework. This is a very long and satisfying wine, with dark chocolate, black pepper and coffee notes appearing as it opens up in the glass. Despite the big alcohol there is no heat, just a moreish concentration capable of dealing with powerfully flavoured food.
Those big flavours are a sure fire hit with Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings. Alternatively, Beef (especially big juicy steaks) is such a classic Malbec match that it’s almost a cliché.
Estate Malbec makes for great drinking now while so young and vibrant. However, thanks to attending a seminar in 2007 on how Argentinean Malbec can age in bottle I’d say this is a wine capable of developing well over the next 10 years with a great future ahead of it.
Widely available in the USA, I’ve seen listings from as little as $17.99. So raise a glass with me – to altitude.
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Posted
by Nicki Sizemore
on Oct 27, 2008
in Features
Cooper Mountain Vineyards has released a hand-crafted 6-year-old balsamic vinegar made from certified organic and biodynamic grapes grown on their estate in the Willamette Valley. The Vecchio Tradizionale Apicio Aceto Balsamico was produced from 27-year-old chardonnay and pinot noir vines following the 2000 harvest and was aged in a succession of wood barrels (oak, chestnut, mulberry, cherry and robina) from Modena, Italy.
Cooper Mountain hopes to bring the concept and the standards of Aceto Balsamico Tranditionale from Modena to the US.
Although the current release is young for a traditional balsamic (Aceto Balsamico is aged a minimum of 12 years), Apicio has a texture and flavor that is surprisingly mature. It is thick and rich with aromas of port, caramel and wood, showing none of the sharpness or fruitiness typical of a young balsamic. It’s not a vinegar to be splashed recklessly about; it’s best drizzled over a platter of ripe pairs and salty cheese or as a final flourish on cooked meats and vegetables. With only 150 3.5-ounce bottles available at $60 apiece, careful consumption is a wise idea, assuming you can get your hands on a bottle.
Luckily there are also 12- and 15-month-old selections in the works.
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Posted
by Adam Morganstern
on Oct 18, 2008
in Features
Organic Wine Journal editor Adam Morganstern was interviewed live by LifeTips Radio. Along with hosts Byron White and Amanda Smyth, Adam discussed the basics of organic and biodynamic wine, why many winemakers don’t tell you their organic and made plans to start the first organic wine race from California to New York. Listen to the full interview below.
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Posted
by Adam Morganstern
on Oct 17, 2008
in Reviews
Napa Valley’s Ehlers Estate recently received their organic certification. We joined in the celebration by having a night out with their wines. Here are our tasting notes.
Ehlers Estate 2007 Sauvignon Blanc
Clean, low acid with a note of honey and green melon in the palate. Would pair well with a simply prepared swordfish or salmon steak.
Ehlers Estate 2005 Cabernet Franc
Nice acidic bite with a good balance of fruit and a lot of oak. Almost more of a “mellow zinfandel” than a traditional Cabernet Franc.
Ehlers Estate 2005 Merlot
Classic Merlot with deep intense flavor of sweet ripe grapes and black cherries with green herbal notes. Perfect for a roasted chicken and roasted potatoes.
Ehlers Estate 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
Very minty – from nose to plate to finish. A very “correct” and straighforward Cabernet Sauvignon.
Ehlers Estate 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon “1886″
Named after the year the original stone winery was built on the estate. A powerhouse meritage red style with plenty of sweet chocolate and oak flavors which linger on the long finish.
Visit Ehlers Estate online at www.ehlersestate.com.
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Posted
by Deborah Gavito
on Oct 13, 2008
in Features
“Let’s go to Sanford Winery. They make the best Pinot Noir in California.” – From the very first vineyard stop in the film Sideways.
After serving in the Vietnam War Richard Sanford decided to farm grapes, make wine, and as he put it, “reconnect with something more natural than the war experience”. Richard loved and appreciated Burgundy style wines, Pinot Noir in particular. Using his knowledge as a geography graduate from UC Berkeley, Richard researched California climate records dating back to the 1900’s. He discovered that the climate of a particular part of the Santa Rita Hills, the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County, was similar to that of Burgundy. There, a transverse mountain range runs east to west which, moderates an otherwise scorching climate with cool ocean breezes. Along with a partner he raised money to purchase land there and the new venture was named Sanford & Benedict Winery.
Richard was the first serious winegrower, and the first to plant Pinot Noir grapes, in Santa Barbara County. He had the fortitude to plant a vineyard from scratch in an area that no one believed quality grapevines could grow, especially the finicky Pinot Noir. He had the patience to tend and nurture his vineyard for five long years before the first bottle of Pinot Noir was released to acclaim.
Richard met Thekla Brumder in 1976; they married and together started Sanford Winery in 1981. With Thekla’s encouragement to eschew synthetic chemicals, herbicides and pesticides, they planted their first 100% organic vineyard in 1983. The first certified organic vineyards in Santa Barbara County were Sanford estate vineyards.
Richard lived without electricity for the first eight-years as a winegrower and made his famed Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines in a small rented building. In an effort to grow Sanford Winery, Richard and Thekla brought in investors and built a state-of-the-art winery designed with all consideration to sustainability. When they were forced by investors to scale back on sustainability and organics, Richard and Thekla left Sanford Winery and started anew.
Once again the Sanfords are producing some of the finest Burgundy style Pinot Noir and Chardonnay at their new Alma Rosa Winery & Vineyards, also located in the Santa Ynez Valley. Instead of scaling away from a sustainable future their new business embraces their core values more than ever. In Spanish Alma means soul. Alma Rosa is an expression of the soul of their vineyards. According to Thekla, “the future for us is to build on what we’ve learned. Through the years we’ve tried to do everything in a green way and will continue working toward a business which is greener and more sustainable. This new venture is an opportunity for us to become even more committed to the environment and to share what we’ve learned with others.”
Deborah Gavito is the owner of Counter Restaurant and Organic Wine Bar in NYC.
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Posted
by Kelli White
on Oct 13, 2008
in Features
… Or How I learned to stop worrying and let Michael Dorf steal my squeegee.
(Photo by Kfir Ziv, KZNY Studio)
Given my penchant for braggadocio, anyone who’s spent more than five minutes with me learns a couple things: 1, that I worked a crush in Burgundy and 2, that once upon a time I was in a band that played the Knitting Factory – two huge highpoints in my little life. So it was with a hiccupping heart that I, last Friday night, found myself at City Winery hosing freshly pressed Cabernet skins off a sorting table alongside Michael Dorf, owner and founder of the Knitting Factory and now owner and founder of Manhattan’s only winery.
City Winery is an actual wine-making facility located on Varick street at Vandam in SoHo, specializing in custom barrel production for consumers and groups. Let me reemphasize: this is an Actual Winery in MANHATTAN. You can take the SUBWAY there.
The idea behind CW is elegant in its simplicity: they circumvent existing wineries and work directly with the vineyards (just California and Oregon thus far), purchasing fruit and shipping it in meticulously temperature controlled trucks. The grapes arrive in pristine shape in the same tiny crates that workers laid them into 4-5 days prior. These crates are then unloaded onto a sorting table where, as a consumer, you can sift through your own berries, discarding the unripe and Reagan-shaped alike. Then, under the supervision of head winemaker David Lecomte (a Rhône-native whose resume includes Chapoutier and Herzog), it’s off to the crusher-destemmer followed by tank or barrel– wherever your variety of choice is destined to matriculate.
When my friend Alyson started working there I confess I was a bit skeptical. Big deal, I thought, someone’s making wine in New York. There have been far too many social situations wherein someone’s uncle finds out I’m in the wine industry and suddenly I’m hearing all about his bathtub Zinfandel and would I like a bottle? So I envisioned an upscale New York version of that—some business man’s Basement Merlot glory project. In my mind I imagined they were purchasing juice or must, stirring in some dried brewer’s yeast, and sitting back bobbing their heads to the rhythmic thwacking of a back well-patted.
But that was before I stepped foot in the place.
City Winery is not necessarily a new concept. It seems that as recently as the year 2000 there was a kosher winery (Kedem) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The novelty lies in the totality of the vision. Given Dorf’s lauded musical past, it naturally follows that the winery would be attached to an events space that looks, in all its raw and sawdust-coated glory, like it will rival the most established downtown venue. I got a sneak peak at the tentative performance line-up for 2009 and it is nothing short of star-studded. Even if there wasn’t a fully-functional winery behind door number one, you would still find my fanny regularly parked on one of the many curvilinear booths (VIP, surely) that demarcate the stage area.
And now we arrive at the point of the whole darn thing. After years and years of washing down great music with cheap beer and Jack Daniels, Dorf, a long-time wine fanatic, just wanted a place where, when the music stopped, the libation could share the ovation. Couple that with a mind wired towards the creative process and voila: City Winery is born.
In addition to a world-class stage and sound system, the space will also include a restaurant with a comprehensive wine list and a long, winding Murray’s cheese bar. Illuminated behind the VIP area is a glass-enclosed barrel room where expectant parents can pat swollen oaken bellies and listen to the crooning yeast between sets.
But, you may argue, its one thing to dazzle the Professional Dabblers of the Ultra-Elite, but what about us die-hard wine snobs? What about us brutes of the restaurant industry whose sweat-blinded eyes can barely read the labels of the 82 Bordeaux that pass from our hands to these same potential barrel-owners? How will you impress us? What about localism and Small is Beautiful and nerdy indigenous varieties and our right to hate anything that smacks of accidental entrepreneurialism? I know many a wine professional who, upon hearing of City Winery, dismissed it out of hand with a shrug and a roll of the eyes. I know, because I was one of them. But no one who’s actually spent a minute inside the place has walked away with anything other than a sense of awe. It feels like a winery, it smells and sounds like a winery, and if you stand around dumbly for long enough you WILL get yelled at in French….
…which brings me back to Friday last. I entered the winery innocently enough, intending simply to pick up said friend Alyson, maybe to go out and get a few drinks, some pizza…. Next thing I know the two of us are pushing grape skins around the concrete floor in shoes that, properly ebayed, could buy and sell the whole crop a few times over. My attention was split between avoiding the spray of the power-washer and attempting to choke down the chicken bone of hero-worship caught in my throat when Michael Dorf, ghost writer of so many of my favorite New York nights (no matter which side of the guitar monitors I found myself on), turns to me hands-out and demands my instrument. Confused and thinking I had perhaps failed some sort of manual labor exam, I wondered aloud as to why the progenitor of such an operation would require my mop mid-task. He faced me squarely and explained,
“Because I LIKE to squeegee.”
————————————————————————
This is not just a blog post, this is an invitation!
Please join me this coming Wednesday from 10pm- 12am for a midnight crush at CITY WINERY. This event is specifically organized to help you wine professionals get your hands dirty. We will be crushing two different batches of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Napa Valley. First will be a Kosher Krush (yes there will be a Rabbi on hand!) from the Bertinelli vineyards in Oakville followed by Atlas Peak’s Haystack vineyards.
You can read more about the vineyards mentioned at http://www.citywinery.com/barrelowners/vineyards.html
I hope to see you there!
City Winery
143 Varick Street • New York, NY 10013 • 212-608-0555 • info@citywinery.com
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Posted
by Adam Morganstern
on Oct 8, 2008
in Events
Counter Restaurant will host NYC’s second annual Organic Beer Bash on October 25, 2008 from 12 pm – 4 pm. Sample over 30 organic beers and ciders from around the world. Savor a Wolaver’s Wit beer spiced apple purse or a Peak Nut Brown Ale pecan pie; swig a Grizzly Beer (organic whiskey, lemonade and brown ale) or Bloody Beer (spiced tomato juice and pale ale). Brewers will be at the event representing their beers and discussing their brewing practices.
Proceeds will be donated to the Greenmarket (CENYC) & Food Systems Network NYC. Greenmarket promotes regional agriculture and the continuing supply of fresh, local produce for New Yorkers. Food Systems Network NYC is a collaborative of not-for-profit organizations, government agencies, professionals, and food advocates dedicated to improving awareness of nutrition and access to it.
WHERE: COUNTER. 105 First Avenue (6th & 7th st.)
WHEN: Saturday October 25th, 2008
TIME: 12:00 – 4:00pm
COST: $30
RSVP: deborah@counternyc.com or 212-982-5870
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