Newsletter
September, 2000
WINES OF THE MONTH
1998 Louis Jadot Bourgogne Chardonnay, Regularly $13.99/Sale $12.99—Oh what a lovely world it would be if every $13 Chardonnay tasted like this. It’s not too fruity, not too oaky. Rather, it is stylish and complex, like a baby Puligny Montrachet. Is this price a mistake? Probably.
1998 Mas Donis, Tarragona Red, $10.99—You all know how much we love Spanish wines. Hope we’re not boring you. This is a big, red, hot-blooded wine. It’s primarily a Grenache cuvee with a hefty amount of old vine Syrah, rich and hedonistic wine. Perfect with a plate of “criadillas” (sliced, sauteed, bull testicles) after a bull fight in Sevilla, Madrid or Cancun, behind the Pemex station, though we normally require mescal after that clumsy slaughter. Mexicans, like Americans, just don’t seem to “get” bullfighting, but we love “criadillas.”
NEW ARRIVALS
1998 Anselmi Soave, Regularly $10.99/Sale $8.99: In his midnight blue Porsche Boxster, Roberto Anselmi is the absolute Italian "road warrior." And you need to be on the A4 between Milan and Venice to appreciate his driving prowess. Powerful, complex on the road and the bottle. This is his final Soave because he is leaving the appellation, feeling that it's all just slowing him down. Can't we all relate on Uintah? There is some bottle variation--from good to superb.
1999 Stonegate Sauvignon Blanc, Regularly $13.99/Sale $12.99: My oh my, check out the burst of acid here. It's a new winemaker at an old winery. This new guy was sensible enough not to transmogrify Sauvignon Blanc into an acorn flavored Chardonnay impersonator. Acorns are to be thrown at classmates, not drunk. Grows on you like a David Bowie song.
Gaston Chicquet, Brut Traditional Champagne, $35.99: Our new standard in reasonably priced, great Champagne. It's toasty, round, fabulous. Anything on earth (for what that is worth) should become possible after a bottle of this mind- expanding stuff. Al and "W" should try this...might give them an idea.
1999 Domaine de l'Ameillaud, Vin de Pays Vaucluse, $8.99: One third Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. But it's hard to pick any particular grape out. What you get is a pleasing, honest red wine. No mirrors or smog here. We purchased everything the importer had and doubt it will be around for long.
1995 Bairrada Reserva, Alianza, $7.99: A definite oddball, but some could argue that it has more character than the fine southern French wine above. This is, of course, Portuguese. And it has that ineffable, indescribable, olfactory essence that tells you such. Made from the tough Baga grape, it is ready to go. Serve with big food to big people.
1992 Kalin Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, $45.99: These are the darnedest guys. They like to hang onto their wines for much longer than the norm before release. This is their last Cabernet release! You get tertiary flavors in the nose and on the palate. By that we mean leather, sweat, brush, decaying vegetation. Okay, so we are mycophages to the core. But this gives you aged wine at the start. It's not the bright, perky, fruit and oak Cabernet that we see every ten seconds. Quite a rarity too. By the way, we have their champagne too. It's the "Salon of California." Only three or four bottles are on hand. Dear, but superb.
1998 Zind Humbrecht Pinot Gris, Herrenweg, $32.99: Don't let the relatively high price scare you off. This is fab stuff. It's wildly rich and complex with a satin mouthfeel. It reaffirms the greatness of Zind Humbrecht, if we ever forget. Really, too much. Forget it, we'll drink it ourselves!
1999 Nautilus Sauvignon Blanc, $13.99: Classic New Zealand SB. It has a crisp green apple bite, sprinkled with lime juice. Though it lacks the tender middle of Cloudy Bay, this is remarkable "kiwi" Sauvignon Blanc. Maybe it would be good with one of those odd fishes they catch there.
1998 Fess Parker Syrah, Santa Barbera, $16.49: Ol' Fess continually amazes. There is earth, berry and plum. Perhaps not so smoky and spicy as its Rhone forefathers, but pretty darn good. We give it three coonskin hats. Hope that's properly P.C. We love to hunt.
1997 Quinta dos Roques, Touriga Nacional, Regularly $24.99/Sale $19.99: The preceding vintage of this was cited by the QUARTERLY REVIEW OF WINES as one of the ten best wines of the 20th Century. Though this is not quite as utterly fabulous, it is good. Taste the grape, Touriga Nacional, and you'll get a prelude to what may become one of the world's most craved varietals. Just the smell is worthy of the cost. SAUVIGNON BLANC AND GOAT (CHEESE) AT PRIMITIVO
1998 Yalumba Oxford Landing limited release Viognier, $9.99- Most all non-Condrieu Viogniers have a certain bubble gum aspect that, well, makes us want to puke. This one does not it provides the disirable apricot and lychee qualities of a fine Coteau du Cheny Condrieu. The price is simply rediculous. Maybe we should raise it somewhat.
WINE TASTINGS
PRIMITIVO
Imagine a Crottin de Chavignol laid upon a bed of diaphanous cucumber slices, a drizzle of olive oil, a twist of cracked black pepper, a firm baguette and a sublime Sancerre, Pouilly Fume or New Zealand SB. In the world of food combinations, it doesn't get much better. To re-waken our sleeping sensibilities, we will conduct a tasting of diverse Sauvignon Blancs and equally diverse goat cheeses at Primitivo. There are some magnificent Sauvignons from France and some equally great items from New Zealand. We'll mix it up and see what happens with the various cheeses...fresh, dry and aged, horny goat (our favorite). And other appropriate stuff too. The date is September 26, 2000, the times are 6 p.m. or 8 p.m. (we have two, 20 person seatings, due to severe clogging in the past). The price is $40/taster. Call us as you can to reserve a place (475-9700).SYRAH/SHIRAZ DANCE AT THE CRAFTWOOD
After Nebbiolo (Barolo/Barbaresco), Syrah/Shiraz is our favorite red grape. It has nose, color, body, concentration and finish. I shan't go farther. We will taste an array of Australian, French and Californian (there are agreeable ones there) at the Craftwood in on Thursday, October 12th at The Craftwood Inn. It will be a blind, sitdown experience. The price is $35.00 and we will begin at 6:00 p.m. Their creative kitchen will concoct tidbits to enhance the wines. Please call us to reserve your spots 475-9700. Should be a "raving" success.WINE TASTING 101 AT MACKENZIES CHOPHOUSE, DOWNTOWN
The first class sold out and we had several requests for a repeat. Covered will be the basics of how to taste wine and understanding the terminology that so freely flows from the mouths of wine lovers. In the process we will be tasting some very nice wines (and great values) that we feel are representative styles of domestic varietals such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Red Zinfandel, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Chef Deneb Williams at Mackenzies Chophouse will provide tasty tidbits. The date is Thursday, October 26th at 6:00 PM. "Tuition" is $25.00 and seating is limited to 30. This will be our last introductory class before graduating to the next level. Call soon to reserve your seat, 475-9700.
Past Tasting Updates
by Bob Elliott
We were feeling just a little guilty that some of you have not been able to attend our tastings. In one of our famous brainstorming sessions we came up with the idea of providing a synopsis of some of our past tastings highlighting some of the favorite wines. Of course, it’s much more fun to be there, but just in case you weren’t:
One of the highlights of the summer was the Chardonnay tasting held at the Craftwood Inn. The tasting was held “blind” which is something we haven’t done in a while. It was very successful in producing the desired effect, namely, not to be influenced by brands or prices. The only wine which was not served blind was the reception wine, the 1995 Pacific Echo, Blanc de Blancs from the Anderson Valley in California ($22.99). With it’s elegance and toastiness it primed us perfectly for the wines to come. Some of the highlights were:
1999 Kim Crawford from Marlbough, New Zealand, $14.99 What the group liked about this one is that it’s unoaked so very crisp, but due to malolactic fermentation it is still a bit creamy. This was the bestseller of the tasting.
1998 Flora Springs, Lavender Hill Chardonnay, Napa, $29.99 Contrasting the Kim Crawford this one has oak but no malolactic fermentation. The oak is French and light and the wine maintains a great acidity.
1998 Testarosa, Bien Nacido from Santa Maria Valley, CA, $30.99 This wine is one of our personal favorites from the tasting. It has seamless oak and a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg spice.
1997 Ferrari-Carano, Reserve $33.99 This is a blend of grapes from Napa and Sonoma. This wine is well balanced, with great pear fruit. Best of all, the oak is not overpowering.
Another tasting favorite! Another great tasting was our French Rhone tasting held at Primitivo. Of course, Primitivo always provides wonderful foods and the wines were top notch. Combine this with the fact that seating was limited to 20 and it’s no wonder it filled so quickly. In fact, we started something new. We realized that we had so many on the wait list, that we opened another seating at 8 pm. We’ve continued that with the Sauvignon Blanc and goat cheese tasting, September 26th. So for those of you who did not attend don’t miss these great wines while they are still available:
1998 Cotes du Rhone, Domaine St. Luc, $14.99 With its slightly earthy nose and rich flavors of black pepper and cherry this was sure to be a hit. It is one of our best selling Cotes du Rhones.
1998 Cote Rotie, Les Essartailles, Vienne, $44.99 Often called the queen of Syrah. This wine was one of the “stars of the show.” As a product of the three masterminds of the Rhone (Guillard, Cuilleron and Villard) this wine has it all. A distinctive nose with floral and licorice notes, a silky elegance on the palate and a beautiful finish.
1998 St. Joseph, L’Arzelle, Vienne, $29.99 This wine was extremely popular at our tasting. From the same three Rhone masters as the Cote Rotie, this wine is also 100% Syrah. It’s elegant, has some firm tannins and is nicely balanced. Almost everyone at the tasting found this wine to be quite the value and we do too!
Just as a reminder, we are conducting one more beginner class on October 26th before moving on to the next level. The subsequent classes will concentrate on various regions and their varietals.
FOOD AND WINE ADVISORY
La Cuisine Nicoise (Nice Grub)
Nice, France—Looking about this place, one might justly ask, “How do the people of Nice keep themselves generally so slim?” For they are always snacking. They even have a particular name for a snack, “la merenda.” And this is something finer than the normal French “casse-croute” (break crust) such as a “croissant” or “pain au chocolat.” These Nicoise snacks are simple, yet beautiful, apparently quite healthful and in the end hopelessly addictive.There is a restaurant in Vieux Nice (Old Nice) called La Merenda. The restaurant is only four or five years old, but has attained institution status. It is operated by chef Dominique Le Stanc, who fled the stellar Michelin two star kitchen of Chantecler at the Hotel Negresco. At La Merenda, he has gone back to basics, i.e., simple preparation of the freshest, local ingredients. So the name “La Merenda” is appropriate though his offerings are more substantial than a snack.
When I walked into this restaurant, around 1 p.m. one day, it was packed. There is no telephone, so you must come personally to make a reservation or just show-up, hoping to get a seat. You eat “coude a coude” (elbow to elbow) on small tables that are pushed together. Everyone is seated upon stools that are about as comfortable as sitting on a traffic pylon. Whenever someone gets up or the waiter distributes the food you are jostled or bumped a bit. Maybe this is how the Nicois remain thin. It goes without saying that in these conditions the food must be better than good for anyone to come.
And the food is above good. I wanted to try a small range of Chef Le Stanc’s dishes. So I ordered stuffed sardines, polenta and Gorgonzola, stockfish (dried cod), “daube” (beef stew) and a lemon pie for dessert. In general, I thought the food had a certain Italian connection. The stuffed sardines, polenta and Gorgonzola and the stockfish would make anyone think such. I was particularly attracted to the stockfish. Italians are the most discriminating stockfish, or as they call it, “baccala,” eaters in the world. In fact, Norwegian stockfish shippers take excruciating pains to make certain the Italians get the best of the air dried fish. Of course, the Portuguese eat the most dried cod and are said to have 365 different ways of preparing it. Beside all this trivia, I have always wondered how the item got to the Mediterranean, where as far as I know, nary a “baccala” swims.
“The Vikings brought it here during their raiding missions,” the waiter informed me with a mild snort. This comment highlights the fact that the “cuisine Nicoise” is largely built on recipes from other places that are enhanced with the fine local herbs, spices and other fresh food stuffs..
This was the same waiter who had recommended that I not order the stockfish. “It’s a stinky fish, you Americans will not like this.” Oh, but I’ve delighted in “stinky fish” in Italy, Portugal and Norway for years. So I ordered it.
But the waiter was right. I wasn’t crazy about La Merenda’s rendition of stockfish. It wasn’t the smell. It was the chewy texture and watery broth in which the fish was floated that condemned it. However that evening at another restaurant in Old Nice I had the finest “baccala” I’ve eaten anywhere in the world. That will be described later. On the plus side for Mr. Le Stanc, the polenta was as ethereal as “corn mush” can be and the lowly “daube” filled my mouth with delicious sensations.
Getting back to “la merenda” concept of Nicois eating. Some of Nice’s most popular snacks are “pissaladiere” (like the Alsatian tart d’oignon, but with some anchovies with the onions), crunchy “courgettes” (squash blossoms fried in batter), “pan bagnat” (a small sandwich of tomatoes, raw vegetables and slices of hard boiled eggs). They call this the “roi de la Merenda.” And this is not to mention the “salade Nicoise” and Nicoise olives that we have all enjoyed.
Perhaps Nice’s most basic snack is “socca,” which is thought to have come from Italy by way of workers from Cuneo, in Piemonte. It’s made from chickpeas. I’ve seen it compared to a pancake and a crepe, and had something similar to it in La Spezia, Italy called, “farinata.” The Nicoise “socca” I’ve sampled is not thin and delicate as a good crepe, nor is it doughy as too many pancakes. “Socca” has some texture and can be kind of crispy if you like. The ingredients are but chickpeas, flour, water and a little olive oil. It’s cooked on flat pans of almost a meter in diameter and to be really right the cooking should be done in a wood fired oven to add a hint of smokiness to the flavors. Sadly, not everyone adheres to this precept.
For the beginning “socca” eater, the best place to taste the “snack” is the Cours Seleya market in Old Nice. If you are into food or visual adventure, this market is a profound treat. You have sections for flowers, fruits and vegetables. The best “socca” is had in the flower market. It is sold by Theresa Ashor. She tends a steel barrel containing a healthy fire. This is to keep the pans of “socca” warm that are brought by her husband, who makes it several blocks away.
We don’t need Peter Mayle to tell us that rose is the mother’s milk of southern French wine drinking. And Nice has its own famous and rather hard to get version of the species. It is from the appellation above town called, Bellet. I’m almost certain that the glass I drank with Madame Theresa’s “socca” was not from Bellet. It was too cheap. Bellet rose, like its friend Bandol rose, down the coast, is highly esteemed and fairly precious in price.
If you drive to Bellet, you get a 360 degree view composed of Nice, the Mediterranean and the Maritime Alps to the north. You rarely see a vineyard. You see a lot of greenhouses for flowers and flashy houses in construction. We went to one of 14 wineries in operation called Chateau de Cremat. It was set within a chateau-like building holding rooms with coffered ceilings and parquet floors. It has a professional kitchen and the facilities are let-out to groups or corporations in need of a venue for seminars, confabs, celebratory dinners and the like.
The winery was equally decked out. The manager, Lucien Biancarelli, and a smartly dressed woman, apparently a PR person, let me taste their most recent produce. Like most every Bellet maker, they produce a white, red and rose. The 1997 white, made from 90% Rolle and 10% Chardonnay, was produced in the “International Style” with malo-lactic fermentation and detectable oak in the nose and on the palate. It was pretty good. The 1996 red wasn’t bad either. It was still youthful with purple colors and also showed some oak. I’d been warned about Bellet reds, but this was agreeable. Perhaps I’m just a rose fanatic, but for me that wine was my favorite at Chateau de Cremat. We tasted the 1998. It oozed lusty Mediterranean fruit. But later I learned that Chateau de Cremat is not the greatest Bellet maker, though solid. I learned this from Yves Botasso at Auberge des Arts, where I also tasted the finest “stinky fish” of my career.
Amid the Baroque buildings of Old Nice, this comfortable “auberge” of wood beamed ceilings and ladderback chairs offers “la cuisine Nicoise” with a personal vision. This comes from the chef, David Faure. Take the “stinky fish” which appears on the menu as “Le veritable stockfisch a la Nicoise.” First of all, it wasn’t in the least stinky. Monsieur Botasso (who perched at my table after he divined I was trying to write a story) explained that this was because it was soaked in water for seven days. “In the old days the Nicois would do this soaking in the water closets of their toilets,” he chuckled. Auberge des Arts does this off the kitchen, not in the toilet. It offers the fish in small cube sized chunks in a stew of tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and olives. There are, according to Botasso, two other keys to the dish. “There must be some fish intestines in the stew, in this case from haddock, and there must be excellent ‘pastis’ (the Provencal herbal liqueur) in the concoction.”
The result was the finest dried cod I’ve ever tasted. All of this was a bit of a revelation for an old cod fish eater. The other revelation was that we were able to drink a white wine with the dish. A bottle of 1997 Chateau de Bellet. This would be entirely unthinkable in Portugal, where a velvety, red Dao is religiously served with any cod dish. The wine was fairly delicate and made with 100 percent Rolle grapes in contrast to Chateau de Cremat's 10% drop of Chardonnay. Since Botasso's cod was relatively constrained, the wine could hold up to it. I learned that Chateau de Bellet aims for more of a traditional style wine than the Chateau de Cremat of my earlier visit.
During the course of the meal, I tasted three or four other Bellet wines. I found myself more taken by the whites and roses than the reds. The reds built upon the Folle Noire grape don't have a lot of intensity and complexity. I think you are better off purchasing red wines from the nearby Var appellation that are often based upon Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. I noted that was precisely what many restaurant goers do in Nice. In fact, the house red wine at La Merenda comes from the Var.
Much of the gastronomic production originates in Old Nice, in the Cours Seleya market. There is a riot of Nicoise colors and ample foods. Besides Theresa's "socca," there are stalls tumbling with flowers, lemons, violet tipped artichokes, plums, candied fruits and tomatoes. The air is scented with herbs and flowers. Even a non-serious eater could enjoy the sensory spectacle.
RESTAURANTS
La Merenda, 4 rue de la Terrasse, no phone, no credit cards, about $70 for two with wine.
Auberge des Arts, 9 rue Pairoliere, Telephone 04 93 85 63 53, takes reservations and most credit cards, about $120 for two with wine.
WINERIES
Chateau de Bellet, Les Seoules, Telephone 04 93 37 81 57.
Chateau de Cremat, 442 chemin de Cremat, Telephone 04 92 15 12 15.
COALTRAIN
Wine & Spirits
330 W. Uintah
Colorado Springs, CO 80905
719-475-9700