Author: Christy

Why Wednesdays Aren’t As Fun Anymore

Originally published on November 25, 2008.

I used to really look forward to Wednesday mornings. While the rugrats watched whatever video they were currently obsessing over, I would drink my first cup of coffee while logging on to the New York Times web site and checking out the Dining section, especially the wine column. It was always fun to see what region or grape was being highlighted. The real fun was checking to see if I carried any of the wines actually mentioned by name. Let’s face it, ratings or no ratings, most people still look for wine guidance somewhere, and Eric Asimov’s column in the New York Times is one of the places they look. So if a wine is mentioned, it’s sure to get a nice little bump.

But Wednesday mornings just haven’t been the same. Now, those weekly wine columns seem to get published earlier and earlier. I just read this week’s column…at 9.45pm on a Tuesday night. Guess I’ll just have something else to read while I sip my coffee.

Thanksgiving Wines: Terres Dorees Beaujolais Nouveau (for those who always want the new new thing)

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: I still love Beaujolais Nouveau! It never gets old. Well, it does, but if never sticks around long enough for that to happen.

Originally published on November 25, 2008.

Wine people love to hate on Beaujolais Nouveau. “It’s all marketing, it’s all plonk.” Well, everything is marketing, even anti-marketing is still a form of marketing (as reverse snobbery is still a form of snobbery), and yes, much of it is plonk. But it’s hard to resist the original intent of Beaujolais Nouveau – which is to enjoy the first wine of the harvest. Wine so fresh and new that just over a month earlier, it was still grapes on the vine. Even the plonky stuff makes me smile because it reminds me of when I first started drinking wine.

But this year, there is some really good Bojo on the market (technically, it’s Bojo Nuvo). Frankly Wines carries Terres Dorees by Jean-Paul Brun. Jean-Paul is one of winemakers in the Dressner portfolio, so you can read all about him here. His Bojo Nuvo is delicious and it’s just the thing for the Turkey Day table. Think about it – Thanksgiving is a celebration of the harvest. Beaujolias Nouveau is a celebration of the harvest. One’s a holiday, one’s a liquid, but basically, they’re the same thing. And it really doesn’t get newer than a wine that was just released last Thursday.

But don’t take my word for it….Mr. Asimov likes it too!

Thanksgiving Wines: Dr. Frank Rkatsiteli (for those who read the New York Times)

Originally published on November 24, 2008.

I’ve had this wine on the shelf since the day I opened (well, maybe since the third day I opened: Dr. Konstantin Frank’s Rkatsiteli (Finger Lakes, New York.) It fits many potential Thanksgiving criteria: local (for the locavores), food friendly, and for those who like to know the wines they’re drinking have been recommended by someone with a byline, it was just recommended by Eric Asimov in this blog. So you don’t have to take my word for it, you can take Mr. Asimov’s word. I get a kick out of the mention because it seems to touch on the same points I always touch on:

  1. It’s hard to spell
  2. The grape is from “the former Soviet Republic of Georgia”, because if you say it’s from Georgia, people immediately assume you’re talking about the state (which isn’t a good thing for wine sales). And if you say Georgia-the-country without mentioning the Soviets, they just think you’re geographically challenged.
  3. It’s good!

But you don’t have to trust either Mr. Asimov or my admittedly biased view…you can trust the nice man older gentleman from “the former Soviet Republic of Georgia” who saw the bottle sitting on the shelf and bought if for nostalgic reasons. He came back a few days later and announced, “it’s not like I remember it…it’s very good!”

Thanksgiving Wines: Scholium Project (for the Adventurous without the Spanish accent)

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: The first skin contact sauvignon blanc that ever graced my shelves. And now, I have three on the shelves. One’s even sparkling. Oh, what a wild, wild wine world it’s become. (And yes, I did indeed drink this wine on that Thanksgiving Day. And it was delicious.)

Originally published on November 23, 2008

Scholium Project is one of those wineries that exists within the wine ether. I’m not sure where I first heard of Abe Schoener’s project, but I know it was well before the Eric Asimov’s NY Times piece this fall. Lucky for me, I can just point you to the NY Times piece as background…here, which I would rather do than reinvent the wheel.

While Mr Asimov’s piece gives good background on the overall project, I would rather just talk about one of the Scholium Project’s wine’s in the contact of turkey…

2006 Farina Vineyards the Prince in His Caves

This wine is everything you’re not supposed to do with Sauvignon Blanc: long fermentation, wild yeast, oak (some of it new, I think), skin contact. It should be absolutely horribly, but it’s not. It’s actually the perfect match for Thanksgiving. I think it even ranks above the LdH, which is pretty close to perfect. You get peaches…but not just peaches. Grilled peaches, with a bit of ginger spice. Enough weight to stand up to the side dishes, but not so heavy that it can’t play well with the turkey.

At just over $40, it’s not inexpensive, but it is the single best wine I can imagine for Thanksgiving. It’s what I’ll be pouring.

Thanksgiving Wines: Lopez de Heredia Rosado 1997 (for the adverturous)

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Many vintages later, this wine is extraordinarily allocated. Like “here’s your six bottles” allocated. Which is less allocated than some wines, but for those of us that remember when we could buy as much of this wine as we wanted, whenever we wanted it, this hurts. Sure, it’s cool to see a new generation of going gaga for this wine, but still, it hurts, just a little.

Originally published on November 21, 2008.

Imagine Thanksgiving dinner (the food, not your crazy uncle or your tispy cousin-three-times-removed)

The cranberry sauce, the turkey, the yams, the turkey, the stuffing, the turkey. It’s a wine-pairing nightmare. But this is the wine that can handle it all. Delicate enough to handle the turkey (which let’s face it, is pretty bland), a little fruit to deal with the cranberries and exotic enough to stand up to the stuffing, yams, and even pumpkin pie. It’s perfect.

But it’s not exactly your typical rosé – it has some of the tangy-ness you’ll find in a good fino sherry, only a hint of fruit, and lovely exotic spices like cardamom and ginger.

So if you’re intrigued and looking for a little adventure, track down a bottle and include it in your turkey day wine spread. You should be able to find it for less than $30 which may be a lot for a typical rosé, but not this rosé (which is from 1997!)

Thanksgiving Wines: Teira Zinfandel (for the traditionalist)

Originally published on November 19, 2008.

Cranking on getting the Frankly Wines e-commerce site up and running (I’m falling behind on the homework my developer keeps giving me). So instead of writing a long, typical post on Thanksgiving Day wines, I’m going to do daily suggestions.

But first things first…if you’ve read even 1 of the annual columns that talk about Turkey Day wines, you know the meal is a wine pairing nightmare. Turkey is bland, there are gobs of highly varied, very different side dishes, too many different palates to please, to go American or not to go American blah blah blah….So the most important rule is…just drink whatever you want. If you’re looking for a reason to pull out the fancy stuff, pull it out. If you’re looking for a reason to stick with the cheap and cheerful stuff, know that most people at the table will be too stuffed to pay attention to the wine anyway. There’s a reason to justify almost any choice you make. My suggestions are just suggestions and wildly influenced by what I like to drink (and full disclosure, what I like to sell.)

Thanksgiving Wine for the Traditionalist: Teira Zinfandel

A lot of people like to drink American wine on this American holiday and Zinfandel is generally considered one of the most American of grapes. (Actually, the wine geneticists think Zinfandel may actually be from Croatia, but we won’t tell.) Zinfandel can be a very big, very full-bodied, very powerful wine – the type of wine that can beat a turkey over the head and turn it to mush.

But the Teira is a Zinfandel with a bit of elegance. No one would consider this a light wine, but it’s balanced enough that it won’t put the poor turkey to shame. All the flavor you want in a Zin, without all the weight. (Tastes great, less filling!)

Why I’m Not So Crazy About the Wine Spectator Top 100

Originally published on November 15, 2008

In no particular order:

  1. If you’re a retailer, it’s a lazy way to buy wine. We should be offering a more interesting point of view than “as many wines from someone else’s list that I can get my hands on before they sell through the distributor.”
  2. If you’re a consumer, it’s also kind of lazy. That said, I know the wine world is confusing, sometimes almost deliberately so. So I understand that any list anywhere is helpful. But here’s a little trick…if you want the Mollydooker 2007 which made this year’s Top 10, you might not want to immediately run away from prior vintages just because they wasn’t on this year’s list. If you’re prepared to like a producer this year, chances are very good you’ll like the producer any year. And the main difference may just be that you don’t have to pay the “Wine Spectator Top 100 Premium” that always seems to crop up around this time of the year. Better to use the list as a jumping off point than the end-all-be-all that a lot of people make it.
  3. Little undercover wines that I love sometimes crop up on the list. This sucks because then the big stores snatch all the wine and I can’t get it anymore. I hate that..I really hate that.
  4. A big ranking can be the kiss of death for new, up-and-coming wines. Here’s why…Not only can I not get the wine, but most smaller stores can’t. This is because the big stores beat the distributors over the head to get as much of the wine as they can. In some states, the distributors slap big case deals on these wines, like a 25% discount on 10 cases. Little shops can’t (and many don’t want) to tie up the cash needed to buy 10 cases of an $80 wine, even if it does mean a 25% discount. So these wines end up at big stores with big discounts. Now this isn’t a bad thing for the consumer – everyone likes good wine for less money. But then the next vintage comes around…without the big rating, so the big stores don’t want to touch the wine now. And the little stores are now reluctant to buy the wine as well – because this year the wine is probably more expensive (thank you ratings!) and consumers expect it to cost what it cost last year…in the big stores with the big discount. And people that buy off of the Top 100 list aren’t even interested anymore. So what was once a nice up-and-coming wine is now struggling with all this baggage.

I could probably come up with more, but I don’t want to spend any more time thinking about this list than I already have.

Next up, an obligatory Thanksgiving wine list. Yes, they’re sort of annoying, but I’m a retailer… I have to do this!

Things That Make You Go Ick: Wine Spectator Top 100

Originally published on November 15, 2008 .

It’s that time of the year…the Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of 2008 will be published on Monday (just in time for holiday buying!) I’m not a big fan of this list, for reasons I’ll put in another post (Top 100 Reasons Why I’m Not a Big Fan of This List coming up soon!!!) But everyone does “Top X of Y” lists at the end of the year (the better to help you with your holiday gift buying), so I wouldn’t expect the Spectator or the wine industry in general to really be any different.

This year, they did this daily reveal of the Top 10…Monday: 10 & 9…Tuesday: 8 & 7….with the #1 wine revealed on Friday (I’m not telling, did you really think I would tell???) The full list is released Monday at 10am.

The Spectator is filling the weekend gap with a Wine Challenge quiz. I like quizzes, so I happily clicked onto the quiz. Even if I’m not crazy about the publication, I always like to test my wine knowledge – I am at heart a wine geek.

Q1: In 2008, about how many wines did Wine Spectator review in blind tastings? A: ICK.

Q2: What are the criteria for selection in the Top 100? A: ICK!

Q3: How many countries (the largest number to date) are represented on the Top 100 of 2008 list? A: double ICK!!

I stopped after that, it was just too icky. I realize the Spectator is one of the most self-referential publications out there, but this really takes it to new heights. Does anyone aside from Marvin Shankin (the owner of the WS) actually know the answers? Does even Marvin know the answers?

Ick.

More Validation of My Good Taste: Eric Asimov Writes about Lopez de Heredia Whites

Originally published on November 11, 2008.

Oh no, the cat is starting to get out of the bag. Eric Asimov from the NYTimes just wrote about Lopez de Heredia. Sure, everybody seems to write about this particular old school Rioja producer, but they usually go on about the reds. Mr. Asimov writes about their whites. Luckily, he spends more time writing about chicken (fingers and breasts) and football than he does about the wine, but still, the cat is out!

I tried some of the older whites at a tasting and fell so in love that I bought a small stash of vintages from the 80s. I’m a sucker for this style of wine – slightly oxidized, a bit of sherry-like tang coming through, a little bit of nuttiness, almost some waxy notes. Not much in terms of fruit, but somehow, the wines remain incredibly fresh and vibrant. While more exotic, Chateau Musar whites somehow seem to have something in common with LdH blancos. Intrepid Wine Company’s 2005 Asprinio also manages to balance an impression of weight and richness with incredible freshness. I have no idea if this is typical of the Asprinio grape – I’ve only ever had one in my life.

These are all wines for people who say they don’t like white wines. They’re worlds away from Piont Grigio, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc, which may be why they’re so difficult to describe. Even most wine geeks struggle to find words for these weirdly wonderful whites. “Beeswax” may not sound very appealing, but you’ll have to trust me…it is.

Or don’t trust me…then I can keep the wines for myself!

Validation of My Good Taste

Originally published on November 10, 2008 .

Little wine stores like to sell wine that you can’t find anywhere else. It makes us feel special. And we hope it makes you feel special. And to be honest, small shops can’t really sell the big brands you see everywhere because they tend to offer really big case discounts which we can’t participate in. Small stores can’t really afford to buy 25 cases of anything, even the cheap stuff. (And money aside, 25 cases would pretty much take over my entire basement.) As a result, big stores can sell big wine brands for less money that I can even buy them.

Luckily, there’s a lot of wine in the world and plenty of small wineries and wines to discover.

But somehow, I still seem to wind up with the same wines as the neighboring wine shops. 

We don’t overlap very much, but I always find it amusing seeing where we do. Like this wonderful, yet relativley obscure Oloroso Dry Sherry by Emilio Hidalgo which I tried at a tasting and immediatly ordered because it was so delicious. Or the red Txakolina (yes, red) that I wanted but they managed to snag the new vinage first (and any neighborhood really only needs one red Txakolina.) Or Slingshot, an atypially restrained Cabernet from Napa Valley. And perhaps most amusingly, the Yellow + Blue Malbec in the eco-chic (cringing at that phrase even as I type it) tetrapak.

I could get all crazy about this overlap, but I actaully find it as a validation of my good taste. I know I understand how to buy wine, but as a new business owner, it’s easy to second guess your choices. So when a well-respected, well-established shop decides to stock some of the same wines I do, it makes me feel like I know what I’m doing. Especially if I have it first, like with the Yellow + Blue malbec and the Slingshot cabernet.

So a little overlap is kind of nice…but just a little…