Category: Wine (Buying) History

Wine Blogging Wednesday #48: Hermann J. Wiemer Riesling

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Full disclosure… it’s almost certainly the Semi-Dry bottling that I was writing about, not the Dry bottling. And I’m laughing at my note that I probably wouldn’t order it again. I have, often, both Dry and Semi-Dry, and love them and love that people love them. I get antsy when at least one of them isn’t on the shelf at Copake Wine Works. I’m also laughing about my craving for “mind-numbing” acidity. These days, I often find myself bemoaning it as fashion and craving at least a bit of sugar. Oh dry bird of youth….

Originally published on August 22, 2o08.

Just a little over a week late…

The theme for this WBW was “Back to Your Roots” – the idea being to go back to one of the first wines that made some sort of impact on our wine-drinking selves. Although they were the first wines that actually touched my lips, I’m skipping the J Roget sparkling ‘champagne’ and Sutter Home White Zinfandel and going straight to Hermann J. Wiemer Dry Riesling.

The Wiemer winery is located in New York’s Finger Lakes region, which is also home to Cornell University, where I went to school. I wasn’t in the Hotel School, but my senior year, I took the school’s Intro to Wines class. This was an intimate wine education course for 500 – 800 people. It was a model of logistical efficiency – imagine the complexities required to get tasting-sized portions of 5 – 7 wines to an auditorium filled with thirsty college students.

The first tasting session focued on Cornell’s backyard – the Finger Lakes wineries. Since it gets cold there, the region is best suited to the same grapes you’ll find in Germany or Alsace – espeically Riesling. This was a lucky twist of geography because the Riesling is an easy grape to love, especially the trademark Finger Lakes style of that time (early 90’s) which was dry, but not too dry. It was the perfect first step into the ‘real world’ of wine beyond White Zinfandel and J. Roget sparkling ‘champagne’.

The Wiemer Riesling was one of the wines we tried that first class and the wine store just off campus wisely displayed bottles of it which many of us picked up on the way home. I introduced my friends to the wine and it was a confidence booster to see that they liked it as well. It felt like proof that wine didn’t have to be a scary, snob-ridden thing. The Wiemer not only introduced me to the world of wine-beyond-blush, but it also introduced me to the joy of sharing and introducing that world to others.

So the Wiemer was the wine I had in mind for this WBW. Of course I didn’t get my act together and the Wendesday passed without notice. But that Saturday I was at Terrior, leafing through their Summer of Riesling list….and there it was….the Hermann J. Wiemer Dry Riesling 2006!

So how did it taste? Like the really easy to love starter wine I remember it as. It didn’t have the mind-numbing acidity that I now tend to look for in my dry Rieslings. Nor did it have the precise balance of sweetness and tartness you find in the best sweet German Rieslings. But it was nice – notes of lime, minerality, hints of honey, enough sweetness to please a neophite wino’s sweet tooth balanced by enough acidity to raise the experience up a notch or two on the sophistication scale.

Would I order it again? 15 years into my (legal) wine drinking career, probably not…my palate has evolved and I like my Rieslings styled a little bit differently. Would I bring it into the store and recommend it to those just starting to get into wine? Probably. After all, you need to start somewhere!

It’s the End of the World as We Know It: Box Wine in a Fine Wine Store

Originally published on August 19, 2008

Time to confront all the snobbish notions you hold about wine and what it’s supposed to be….box wine has made the New York Times!! Check out Dr. Vino’s op/ed piece right here. For even more fun, check out the comments related to the article on his blog. I find these comments especially interesting for two reasons.

First, they highlight how complex the whole notion of ‘green’ consumption is. I’m not in the mood to get on my high horse about the complexities of organic vs sustainable vs the ever-looming carbon footprint, but trust me, you don’t want to come into the shop and ask for organic wine when I’m in an ‘educational’ frame of mind. You’ll leave with a nice wine, but your head will be spinning. It’s not a simple subject.

Second, the comments highlight how much snobbery there is built into the whole wine experience. Call it ‘ritual’ if you want, but turning up your nose at screw caps or box wine simply because you miss the pop of a cork or the glint of light on a bottle….it really just blows my mind. These are two packaging options that are a good thing, period. You can’t argue that screw caps are the best way to cap off wine meant to be consumed within a year or two of bottling (which is most wines, really.) And there’s nothing about putting a wine into a tetrapak that magically turns that wine into complete crap. Just because there isn’t much good wine out there in a tetrapak doesn’t mean it can’t be done. And while the recycle-ability of tetrapaks vs. bottles may be debatable, the fuel savings related to shipping the lighter packing material aren’t.

Frankly Wines already carries one of the wines mentioned in the Times piece – the ‘unoaked malbec made from organically grown grapes’. It’s called Yellow + Blue (make green, get it?) and I brought it in for the same reason I bring in every wine – it represents great wine for the price. The fact that it was in a tetrapak was just an added bonus – it’s always fun to have something on the shelves that will tweak people’s expectations about what wine is supposed to be…good wine in a box? Absolutely!

Chateau Musar – Cellar in a Box

Originally published on August 9, 2008.

One of the things I like most about being a retailer is dreaming up cool ways of selling wine – hang tags with quirky tasting notes, 2 or 3-packs that play on a theme or a varietal, rotating displays and features, and so on. For a while, I’ve wanted to put together some 12-bottle cases that play on different themes – summer whites, a Bordeaux starter case, a wine course in a box – the list could be endless. But the day to day of the store seems to always come first. But when I heard that one of my distributors was pre-selling some Chateau Musar back vintages, I decided I had to act!

Chateau Musar is one of my all-time favorite wines with a back story that’s the stuff of legends. Winery and vineyards are located in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. Founded in the 1930’s, with wine produced in nearly every harvest despite battles waged among the vines. Cellars that served as bomb shelters in the 80’s. Certain vintages that taste of gunpowder.

What I really like about Chateau Musar is that it tastes like nothing so much as itself. When describing wine to customers, I’ll often compare regions and grapes, like some wino-version of a Hollywood pitch (it’s like a Beaujolais on steroids with a little bit of Shiraz-spice thrown in.) But with Chateau Musar, there are no comparisons. It’s a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, Cinsault and a few other grapes. It’s a constantly evolving mix of exotic spices, stunningly vibrant fruit, earthy, gamey, meatiness. It lasts practically forever and is a classic example of a wine that you want to keep tasting as it changes. You want to grow old together.

Ah, growing old with a wine – buying a case or two of a specific vintage, drinking one bottle every year or so until you decide it’s just the way you like it and then polishing off what’s left. Such is the dream…You read that advice everywhere, but it’s not so practical in real life.

So when I heard that the Musar importer was putting some of the back vintages up for sale, I decided I was going to put together a little Musar cellar-in-a-box. 12 bottles of various vintages, including one bottle of the highly obscure Musar white.

It will include:

  • 3 bottles each of the 1997, 1995, and 1994 vintages – three very different young (for Musar) wines to be opened now, later and much later to see how they evolve
  • 1 bottle each of 1991 and 1988 – two older wines that are generally thought to be the two best vintages of the last 20 years
  • 1 bottles of the 1995 white, which is a whole other bottle of uniqueness – read about a recent vintage here

While it’s not cheap, I’ve priced it to be a much better buy than purchasing all the bottles individually (if you could even find them.) And it’s still much less than buying even one bottle of a top Bordeaux.

I think it’s a pretty cool concept. We’ll see if anyone else does.

This Week’s 3-Pack…..

Originally published on August 7, 2008.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Over 10 year later and we’re still selling these wines up at Copake Wine Works. I walked in one weekend and there they were, on the shelf. Celene, my trusty manager who traveled up to the wilds of the Berkshires from Tribeca had tried them, liked them and added the to a recent order. Now she had never tried them back at the old store – they had left the market, or we had lost track of the distributor, or any of a million things that result in a wine disappearing from the shelves. But tasty wine at a good price (and yes, a cute bottle) will find a way to those who are always searching. Even if they are located way up in Copake!

….IS A 2-PACK!

Funky-looking bottles. Funky blends from a funny, little-known region of France. Lots of interesting facts for the wine-geeks among you, but for those just interested in good juice, this fits the bill.

Producer: J. MOURAT PERE & FILS – Father and son team, practicing organic.

Region: FIEF VENDEENS MAREUIL – An obscure region within France’s Loire Valley, near the Atlantic Ocean (“only a handful of minutes away” to quote the lovely translation on their web site). The region is part of the equally obscure VDQS classification. VDQS basically stands for “wine classified as superior quality”. It’s always mentioned in the the more academic (some would say pedantic) wine tasting courses out there, but rarely do you see it in real life – until NOW!

J Mourat ‘Collection’ Rouge: A blend of Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, and Negrette. (This is the definition of funky.) Soft red fruits from the Piont Noir, a litle bit of garden-fresh earthiness from the Cab Franc, and some extra structure from the Negrette. What, never heard of the Negrette grape? Neither had I until the day I bought this wine. And on that very day, I tried two different wines which had Negrette in the blend. This one, as well as one from Greece. Perhaps it’s the start of a trend?

J Mourat ‘Collection’ Blanc: A blend of Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc. (We did say ‘funky’.) I don’t know if it’s a rule, but both whites I’ve tried from this region were a blend of Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc. The Chenin Blanc gives the wine a crisp, almost racy acidity, citrus peel notes, and some minerality. All that raciness is balanced by the fuller Chardonnay which also adds a little hint of pear. It’s an odd combination but it works.

Summer Wines Almost Under $15: A Big Bottle of German Happiness

Originally published on July 30, 2008.

At $15.99 it’s just over $15, but it’s a Liter, so if you equivalized it to a standard 750ml bottle, it would be under $15. And a big bottle of happiness is worth the extra dollar.

This wine is the liquid equivalent of a summer beach read (chick-lit, to be specific): a little sweet, a little racy, and it goes down quick and easy. It has more in common with those trashy celeb-filled magazines than with War & Peace, but a life filled only with Russian novels can be a little overbearing.

Halbtroken’ means ‘half dry’. And if you’re one to turn up your nose at the idea of any wine with a bit of sweetness to it, then you’ll be missing out on a really fabulous summer drinking experience. That little hint of sweetness makes this wine the perfect pairing for spicy foods. Or salty foods. Or just an empty glass in need of liquid fulfillment. It has classic Riesling notes of lemon/lime, minerals, green apples with the crisp acidity that plays off against the sweetness and makes you want to sip.

Not much more to say – this isn’t a wine meant to inspire rapturous analysis and discussion. It’s meant to be drunk. Cold, and often. Enjoy.

Desperately Seeking Cheap and Cheerful Pinot Grigio

Originally published on July 21, 2008.

Cheap and cheerful Pinot Grigio – it’s one of those bread and butter items that every neighborhood store has to have. And I have been having a devil of a time keeping one on the shelf. My usual $10 – $11 bottle was out of stock at the distributor. It’s now back in stock, but before I could get more than a case or two, the distributor shut down. For two weeks. During a heat wave. Another week to go before they open and there’s no more cheap and cheerful Pinot Grigio on my shelf and the weather is still pushing 90+ degrees.

Sure, I have the Livio Felluga Pinot Grigio, which is a fabulous wine, but at more then $20/bottle, it’s not what most people want when they come in looking for a Pinot Grigio. I also have a nice Godello from Spain – Valdesil Montenovo. To my palate, it’s more interesting than Pinot Grigio, but still has that crispness, slight citrus edge and general neutralness that most people want in their Pinot Grigio. (In wine-speak, ‘neutral’ means ‘doesn’t taste like much’ or ‘alcoholic water’ or, to take a phrase from my Polaner rep Linus, ‘refreshingly inconsequential’ which frankly, is what most people look for in a Pinot Grigio.) And while the Godello can stand in for Pinot Grigio in a pinch, at $13, it’s still a couple dollars more than most people want to pay for their ‘refreshingly inconsequential’ beverage – and most damningly, it doesn’t say “PINOT GRIGIO.”

As luck would have it, one of my sales reps happened to have a sample handy of a nice little Pinot Grigio that fit my cheap and cheerful requirements. I like to try everything I sell, even those wines that fall into the cheap and cheerful category (in the Frankly Wines case, that’s $9.99, or $10.83 with tax). I especially like to try those wines. I think if people see that you take as much care selecting your lowest priced wines as you do with your higher priced wines, they’ll have more confidence in your entire selection.

So I tried the wine and it definitely fit the bill – . It’s not life-changing wine, and if you don’t already like Pinot Grigio, it won’t make you a fan (try the Livio Felluga for that). But it tastes crisp, clean, with a hint of citrus, clearly says Pinot Grigio on the bottle, and will sit happily on the shelf at $9.99. Actually, given the heatwave, it probably won’t do much sitting.

Unfortunately, i don’t remember the name of it, but that’s not really the point.

More Summer Wines Under $15: Domaine de la Noiraie Bourgueil Rose 2007

Originally published on July 19, 2008.

This is the time of the year when wine stores should be selling the roses they already have on hand – not buying new ones. But when Eva, one of my reps brought this one in to try, I just had to throw caution to the wind and bring some in. Good idea it appears – we sampled it on Friday and went sold almost 2 cases in 2 hours. For a little store like mine, that’s pretty stunning. Needless to say, more of this little gem will be arriving on early next week.

Domaine de la Noiraie is located in Bourgueil, a sub-region within the larger Loire Valley region. If it says Bourgueil on the lable it’s Cabernet Franc in the bottle. Outside of the Loire, it’s unusual to find a wine that’s 100% Cabernet Franc. It’s most often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and/or Merlot to make a Bordeaux-style blend (unless of course you’re actually in Bordeaux, where’s just called, well, Bordeaux). But in the Loire, in regions like Bourgueil and Chinon, Cabernet Franc is the star grape and makes wines that are unique, food-friendly, and relative bargains.

As a red wine, any true expression of Cabernet Franc will have a little bit of funky earthiness to it, like the scent of a garden after a rainfall – fresh, wet, green earth. It may sound icky when put in these terms, but combined with the usual red fruits of the grape, it makes for the perfect summer red – a little lighter than Cabernet Sauvignon, but still capable of being very serious. The wine can be made in such a way that the little bit of green funkiness disappears, but then what’s the point – might as well just drink a Cab Sauv if that’s what you want.

This happy little Cab Franc rose has that little green edge as well. It comes through as celery or maybe cucumbers and combines with the berry/watermelon notes to make for a very refreshing drink. If you’ve ever had a Pimms Cup, then you know a little bit of cucumber is a good thing in a summer beverage. If not, you’ll just have to trust me.

The producer, Domaine de la Noiraie has a blog tracking the harvest activity. It’s in French and the google translation renders it even more incomprehensible. One of the posts is titled ‘Repliage Chopsticks!’ I have no idea what it means, but it sounds as exuberant and happy as this wine tastes. So raise a glass and make a toast……….Repliage Chopsticks!!

Another Summer Wine Under $15: Domaine de la Madone Beaujolais-Village

Originally published on July 12, 2008.

Beaujolais was the first red wine I ever drank and it remains my go-to recommendation for people just starting to cut their teeth on red wine. Made from the Gamay grape, it’s light, low in tannins, can handle a bit of chill. The wines i like have what I call a ‘sweet-tart’ quality and offer up a nice balance of fruit, earth, and crisp acidity.

(This is where trying to describe a wine can get you in trouble – some people hear ‘sweet’ and think yuck, some people hear ‘tart’ and think yuck, but I say it and think ‘yum’. For me, it’s shorthand for the sort of lip-smacking sweet-and-sour combination that makes so many foods and drinks so refreshing, like a Tom Collins or Sidecar made properly with fresh juices.)

Anyhow, I love Beaujolais for it’s ‘sweet-tart’ quality.

Beaujolais has somewhat of a bad reputation among ‘serious’ wine drinkers as being little more than a fruity-tooty version of red wine. And certainly a lot of the bigger, more commercial Beaujolais brands are more fruity than tarty (maybe that makes them tarty in a different way?). But there are plenty of smaller producers making a more classic, old-school version. And not every wine needs to be ‘serious’ to be good. That’s like never going to the beach because you could go to the library instead. And I’m not even going to get started on Cru Beaujolais which, aside from just sounding gorgeous as it roles off the tongue, can be absolutely serious and age-worthy.

So for me, for summer, it’s all about a nice, easy Beaujolais-Village. I currently have one on the shelf: Domaine de la Madone ‘Perreon’ Beaujolais-Village 2006. It’s got the fruit-tart goodness that cools you down on a hot summer day, or brightens up a rainy summer day. It even pairs well with air-conditioning. What more could you want for less than $15 (including tax).

Summer Wines Under $15: Casamaro Rueda

Originally published on July 9, 2008.

Love this wine. First tried it at T.B. Ackerson while working there last summer and pretty much drained the distributor of their last several cases.

I put it on my list of “must buys” for when I opened my own shop – and managed to lose that list. But then this summer, while looking for a new Rueda to replace one which had taken a price increase, I stumbled across this old friend. Good thing too – because it’s a great value and a great summer wine.

Casamaro is the name, Rueda is the region (in Spain), and Verdejo is the grape. It’s everything I look for in a summer wines – crisp, lively and refreshing with notes of peaches, citrus, and bright mineralty. (For those who aren’t sure what minerals are doing in their wine, it’s just wine speak for a crisp, almost stone-y note that you don’t so much taste as feel. Gives the wine a certain zip.)

It drinks very well on it’s own, but is a nice match for light summer foods – could even stand up to salads thanks to the racy acidity. And especially important for a summer white – it’s well-priced (under $15), so you can just drink it without getting all serious about it. It’s the bottled equivalent of a summer beach read – it goes down easy, doesn’t require a lot of heavy thinking, and makes you smile. Perfect!

The Joys of a DI Order

Originally published on .July 5, 2008

DI = Direct Import.

Normally, a winery will sell a certain amount of wine to an importer who will ship it to the US. The importers sell it to various distributors across the country who then sell it to stores and restaurants and then we sell it to you, the lucky end drinker aka the consumer. Each link in the chain buys a certain amount and hopes they’ll be able to sell it without being stuck with a bunch of unwanted or slow-moving inventory.

Not so with Direct Import. With the DI system, wines are pre-sold. So the chain moves in the opposite direction – I’m given a list of wines and tell my distributor how much I want of what. They place the order with the importer who places it with the winery. So nobody buys any more than they think they’ll sell. If you’re an established shop with a well-developed customer list, you can even pre-sell the wine on your own – just put out a list of what’s available and only buy what your customers have committed too.

Fantastic – you’re only spending money that you know you’ll get back! Limited risk for anyone!

My problem – I’m a new shop, so the I’m still developing my customer list and don’t have the funds to place a bet as to what I’ll actually be able to sell in a few months when the wines arrive. So I can only buy so much.

My real problem – these pre-sell wines typically include a lot of fabulous higher-end stuff which I want to keep and drink myself. And the annual DI lists are the only times they’re available. So pouring over these DI lists, it’s like Christmas for adults. I make out my list which usually includes about 5X more than I can actually buy, whittle it down in a fit of depression, and realize that I can’t actually keep all the bottles to myself.

The list I was going over last night – Terry Theise’s 2008 German wine catalogue. I love German wines, but don’t know as much about this as I should. And Terry’s write-ups make everything sound simply fabulous so I want to buy just everything. And these wines last forever, so I want to buy some for now, for a little later, for a little after that, for much much later, etc etc etc. And that’s just what I want – let alone what I want for the store. To make it even more difficult, Frankly Wines is located not too far away from Chambers Street Wines which is pretty much Mecca for the Riesling-crazed, so absolutely no sense in trying to become Mecca #2 (I guess that would actually be Medina). Bottom line – I’ll be getting a little mini-shipment of goodies come October, and if you’re really nice, you might even convince me to actually sell them.

Anyhow, enough about buying wine…next post will actually be about drinking wine!!