This week, we have three wines from South Africa and three wines from Chile. All were received as trade samples and tasted blind.

South Africa

2012 De Morgenzon Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé DMZ
South Africa, Coastal Region, Stellenbosch
SRP: $15
Bright salmon-pink color. Wow, smells like strawberry bushes covered with white flowers and cracked pepper. Tangy, spritzy, full of fresh watermelon, tangy cherry, white flowers, red apple peel. Notes of pepper and mineral add complexity. The verve of this wine is awesome. Notes of yellow onion? A great bottle to serve with the salads and seafood of summer. (88 points IJB)

2009 De Toren Z
South Africa, Coastal Region, Stellenbosch
SRP: $26
Aromas of dark roasted coffee, crushed blackberry, hint of tart cranberry, dried leaves and soil as well. On the palate, firm tannins and wonderfully fresh acid. Interesting mix of fresh blackberries and cranberries, hints of roasted coffee and a hazelnut-toast aspect lingers on the finish. Well-played oak doesn’t overpower the pure fruit flavors. I love the hint of chewing tobacco, smoke and tilled soil on the finish. Very focused, but still very young and capable of cellaring for three-to-five easily. A Bordeaux style blend of 56% Merlot, 24% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Cabernet Franc, 4% Malbec and a 2% shot of Petit Verdot. (90 points IJB)

2010 De Toren Fusion V
South Africa, Coastal Region, Stellenbosch
SRP: $45
The nose… where to start? Plum cake, fig, currant jam, cedar, pine needles, mocha. Wow. Tart acid on the palate, firm tannins, and generous fruit. Plums and currants mix with earth and cedar and black olive. This is granite-structured, but the acid is wonderful. The notes of bay leaf and potting soil pay homage to the Old World, but the fruit has such richness. Aged 12 months in 50% new oak, but the toast and mocha flavors are extremely well-integrated. This wine is showing wonderfully now, but it’s a big one that will be even more interesting in five or eight years. A blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot, 13% Malbec, 11% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot. (93 points IJB)

Chile

2009 Emiliana Cabernet Sauvignon Novas Gran Reserva
Chile, Maipo Valley
SRP: $14
Aromas of roasted plum, blackberry jam, charcoal and a note that reminds me of Cognac. Tart on the palate, with snappy red cherries and blackberries. Notes of caramel, mocha, cellar dust and toasted oak as well. A flavor of brandied plums and charcoal lingers onto the finish. The alcohol and oak might be overdone, but it’s still quite pleasant. (86 points IJB)

2010 Santa Carolina Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva de Familia
Chile, Maipo Valley
SRP: $16
Tight nose of mocha, cedar and black currants. A young, compact wine with dense tannins, almost bitter like green coffee. Dark fruit dominates, black cherry, black currant, along with flavors of ground coffee, charcoal and mocha. Big, toasty oak and chocolate shavings linger on the finish. A little low on acid. This is a very tightly-wound wine that could probably use a good decant or a year to settle down. (86 points IJB)

2009 Tabalí Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva
Chile, Limarí Valley
SRP: $20
This wine smells of raspberry jam, red licorice, chewing tobacco and charred toast. Grippy tannins provide lots of structure, but it’s slightly low on the acid. The flavors of red plums and raspberries and rich and juicy, and it’s all backed up by toasty oak, campfire and hints of green pepper. Nicely wrapped together with a solid finish. (87 points IJB)

Thomas Duroux, showing us around the vineyards of Palmer.

Thomas Duroux is the pensive, sincere presence behind Chateau Palmer, Bordeaux’s third-growth wine that has captivated the interest and the checkbooks of wine lovers around the world.

Chateau Palmer produces wines that have the elegant charm and silky femininity emblematic of the Margaux appellation, but with a strength and tannic backbone you don’t always find in its neighbors. It’s a wine that gives you immediate pleasure, but also leaves you intrigued and wanting to explore more.

The property, bordered by an impressive castle-like chateau with “witches-hate turrets,” includes 55 hectares and produces an annual 120,000 bottles of Chateau Palmer and 96,000 bottles of its second label, Alter Ego.

Thomas Duroux, described in one word, is a listener. In managing the vineyards, he listens. “You need a strong relationship with the place, the vines, with everything,” he told me during a recent trip to Bordeaux.

Indeed, Chateau Palmer has started managing its blocks of vines more precisely and looks not only at the variety, age, and rootstock, but also at what is happening underground below the vines. Thomas now divides all blocks into pieces or “families” and then makes management and harvest decisions accordingly.

Additionally, when he’s thinking about the future of Bordeaux and the business of Palmer, he also listens. During my visit in March, he took the time to ask our group (four business school students) weighty questions about where we saw en primeur, pricing, and Bordeaux’s popularity heading in the future.

Chateau Palmer is an exciting property and, in my opinion, it’s an exciting and challenging time for Bordeaux as well.

Check out our interview with Thomas below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

Vare Vineyard Ribolla Gialla.

“At events like the 7% Solution, I find myself wondering if there are enough vineyard owners who have the vision and daring to follow in George’s footsteps. People who are willing to take a gamble on unknown grape varieties even though they could get more dollar-per-acre or ton for Cab.” John Trinidad returns to wine blogging with a thoughtful post about “farmers and vineyard owners… the unsung heroes of the ‘new’ California.”

On the blog for Tablas Creek, Robert Haas looks back at a time “When Terroir Was a Dirty Word.”

“I think that my taste is more complicated and more varied to be defined in such a black and white way.” Robert Parker recently sat down with French magazine Terre de Vins. Wine-Searcher has the highlights. 

Elsewhere in Wine-Searcher, Amanda Barnes chats with Uruguayan sommelier Charlie Arturaola, who was named the “Communicator of the Year” at the 2012 International Wine and Spirit Competition. 

“Just be honest with us. That’s all we ask.” W. Blake Gray urges wineries to label alcohol percentage accurately. 

“Researchers are breeding grapes that can survive frigid, cold temperatures and make delicious wine. They’re hoping names like Frontenac and Marquette will role off wine enthusiast’s tongues just the way Cabernet and Merlot do today.” On NPR, David Greene profiles the efforts of a dozen universities that are collaborating on an “extreme winemaking project.” 

From Buzzfeed, “the sleaziest wine commercials ever produced.” Wow. Not quite safe for work. 

In the Wall Street Journal, Lettie Teague investigates corkage fees in New York City. 

Wine & Dine Magazine profiles Leslie Sbrocco. 

Jeff Siegel explains why lowering the legal drinking limit isn’t the best way to solve the drunk-driving problem.  

In Palate Press, Tom Mansell reviews The Science of Sauvignon Blanc, the latest book from wine writer Jamie Goode, Ph.D.  

The TTB has issued guidance on the “Use of Social Media in the Advertising of Alcohol Beverages.” 

There are few white wines I’ve found that are as compelling, complex, and consistently outstanding as Franz Hirtzberger’s Rieslings from the Singerriedel vineyard in the Wachau.

For aromatic depth, finesse, and its propensity to age gracefully, Hirtzberger’s Singerriedel stands among the elite expressions of dry Riesling, alongside the top Grosses Gewächse from producers such as Dönnhoff or Klaus-Peter Keller, Trimbach’s Clos Ste. Hune, or other great dry Austrian Rieslings such as FX Pichler’s Kellerberg.

The Singerriedel vineyard is a terraced vineyard in the town of Spitz along the Wachau. Another vintner with plots in the Singerriedel, Franz Joseph Gritsch, has spoken before about the challenges harvesting it — harvesting is only possible by hand, as tractors cannot be used on the steep gradient.

There’s little ‘earth’ in the vineyard, but rather many varieties of stone including gneiss, mica and schist. The slope and terracing of the vineyard allow for all the Riesling vines to enjoy great exposure to sunlight, and Hirtzberger’s wines from this vineyard always manage to come across with a sensation of high ripeness and concentration even in cooler years, while at the same time conveying a finesse and elegance found in few other dry Rieslings.

Though the wines are rarely cheap, they’re some of the most thrilling and age-worthy white wines I’ve had the pleasure to enjoy, with powerful, ripe fruit and florality in their youth, and more savoury, complex and mineral flavours developing with time in bottle.

Tasting notes follow below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

Flickr, Wyoming_Jackrabbit.

“Now Bisson and her UC-Davis colleagues are questioning the conventional wisdom that brett is bad. Or at least that all brett is bad.” Dave McIntyre writes a wonderful column on the latest research surrounding brett. 

Alder Yarrow explains why wine tasting isn’t “bullshit.” 

“It can’t go on forever as it has up to now.” Mike Veseth predicts a “Crisis in Argentinean Wine.” 

“There is a powerful effect to throwing out a day’s itinerary and replacing it with a simple curiosity about small towns, their people, and their produce.” In Palate Press, Evan Dawson urges wine travelers to “slow down once in a while.” 

Lily-Elaine Hawk Wakawaka visits Shake Ridge Vineyard. Wow. 

Steve Heimoff defends the tasting note.

In the Portland Press Herald, Joe Appel profiles one of my favorite winemakers, Melanie Pfister. 

In the Wine Spectator, Augustus Weed reports that “Bacchus Capital Management, a private equity firm with six wineries and brands in Oregon and California, is placing a big bet on wine in the Pacific Northwest with two new deals.” 

In the Sacramento Bee, Mike Dunne explains why the Dry Creek Heritage Zinfandel offers “another way to honor California’s long and respected history with the varietal.” 

Aaron Nix-Gomez attends the latest portfolio tasting of Robert Kacher’s wine imports. 

Wine bloggers headed to this year’s North American Wine Bloggers Conference might face some challenges at the border.

Two midwest wine geeks, Marcus and Emily Taplin, are raising money to produce a documentary on wine in Minnesota and Wisconsin. They’ve just launched a kickstarter campaign — check it out!

Not many causes are as unequivocally good as the American Heart Association. Combine this great organization with the generosity of wine producers, wine lovers, and numerous other partners in the DC community, and you have Heart’s Delight, a five-day, wine-centric fundraiser in the nation’s capital.

This event, which started in 1999, raised a net $985,000 this year and aims to hit $1 million by the end of June. All funds go directly to the American Heart Association.

A few Terroirists, including David, Scott, Winn, and me, had the opportunity to attend several of the functions this year and they were really special with exquisite wine, delicious food, and enthusiastic participants. If you haven’t had a chance to get involved in Heart’s Delight before, I highly encourage you to do so. More information can be found on the Heart’s Delight website and Facebook page.

See below the fold for a few highlights from the event: Read the rest of this entry »

Not that orange...

“The question, then, of whether so-called Orange wines express terroir, would seem to rest not only in the technique itself, but also in the source of the wines’ fruit.” Lily-Elaine Hawk Wakawaka publishes the fourth installment of her series on skin-fermented whites. It’s an excellent essay.

In Palate Press, Erika Szymanski writes a thoughtful (and geeky) essay exploring whether or not we can actually taste terroir.

“When people are uneasy, they seek validation.” W. Blake Gray writes a passionate (and correct) criticism of the blog post heard round the world, “wine tasting is bullshit.” 

Meanwhile, in Wine-Searcher, W. Blake Gray profiles Jean Bourjade’s “quest to develop a classification system for Beaujolais.” 

The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that the states reduce the allowable blood-alcohol concentration to 0.05 percent. Sarah Longwell of the American Beverage Institute has called the idea “ludicrous.” I agree. 

Trevor Butterworth writes a brutal takedown of Pennsylvania’s anti-alcohol minions. (H/T: Tom Wark.)  

This could be big. Spanish and Swedish engineers have “devised what they call an ‘electronic nose’ that they say detects fruit odors more effectively than the human sense of smell and could someday be used in the winemaking industry.”  

“Even as Europe remains South Africa’s biggest export destination, with between 60 percent and 70 percent of sales, Vanderspuy said the market on both sides of the Atlantic is changing amid demand for higher-quality wines.” In South Africa, wine exports are predicted to hit a record high this year. 

Steve Heimoff predicts that the “global wine shortage could be good news for struggling wineries.” 

Rupert Murdoch has purchased Moraga Vineyards, a 16-acre estate winery in Los Angeles’ Bel Air area. The asking price? $29.5 million.

Aaron Nix-Gomez shares his tasting notes from MacArthur Beverages’ annual California futures tasting.

As regular readers know, I write a free, twice monthly wine column that’s distributed to newspapers across the country.

These columns are hosted by Palate Press: The Online Wine Magazine. If you don’t see my column in your local newspaper, please send an email to your paper’s editor and CC me (David – at – Terroirist.com).

My latest column, in which I praise courageous American winemakers for producing unusual varietals and exploring unheralded regions, went out this morning.

Embracing the Obscure

This past weekend in Sonoma County, California, 17 vintners gathered for a wine tasting they dubbed “The 7 Percent Solution.”

As the organizers explained, “roughly 93 percent of Northern California vineyard acreage is planted to eight major grape varietals. The remaining 7 percent is home to numerous lesser-known varietals, [which] are finding anchor with a small but growing number of winemakers.”

The event enabled consumers to explore the wines being produced by California’s revolutionary vintners — those willing to embrace the state’s vast and varied climate by avoiding popular grapes and bottling the obscure. Whether they’re producing unusual varietals or exploring unheralded regions, these winemakers are worth celebrating.

That certain regions of California might be better suited to, say, Albarino than Chardonnay makes sense. Across the globe, commercial wine is produced from a whopping 1,368 different grape varieties. It defies logic to assume that grapes native to central France will thrive in all the world’s new vineyards.

Check out the rest of the piece on Palate Press: The Online Wine Magazine.

From Wikimedia Commons.

A recent week in London provided Jon Bonné with “some upbeat signs about what California can accomplish — and a few stark reminders about how the world has perceived its wines of late.”

“There is no great wine without a great forest.” In the International Herald Tribune, Eric Pfanner writes about an issue that gets wine enthusiasts all worked up — “whether to ferment or age wine in wooden barrels, usually made of oak.” His focus? The wines of Champagne Henri Giraud. 

“There is nothing more fashionable in Australian wine at the moment than what they call ‘alternative varieties.” In the Financial Times, Jancis Robinson writes about the rising popularity of obscure grape varieties in Australia — despite all the work involved in getting “an imported vine cutting through quarantine and into production.” 

It’s self-promotional, to be sure, but Lyle Fass’s latest blog post – which explains how direct-sale importers are changing the game – is worth a read. 

“How much do wineries really make? 6.9% pretax at the 2012 year end. That’s a lot less than dreamy consumers imagine.” Silicon Valley Bank’s Rob McMillan provides some interesting data on the financial performance of the wine business. 

“The clincher: custom-made Semillon T-shirts!!” Stevie Stacionis of Serious Eats covers the apparently epic party known as #Semageddon.  

On Decanter.com, Chris Mercer reports that “Tasmanian officials are heading to Champagne to promote their island as a budding investment opportunity for sparkling wine.”  

In the San Jose Mercury News, Laurie Daniel predicts that the Uruguayan wines will become increasingly popular in the United States. 

In Bloomberg Businessweek, John Mariani names “several Spanish red wines” he plans to “drink through spring and summer.” 

From Bill Ward, “a not-to-do list for wine tastings.” It’s worth sharing with friends who are new to wine. 

“Hard cider sales are showing remarkable growth in the U.S. market.” Shanken News Daily has the details.

Alder Yarrow chats with Charles Banks about his acquisition of Mayacamas Vineyards and the future of Terroir Selections.

Uploaded to flickr by judepics.

“To me, a perfect wine leaves you speechless – at a loss for words as you try to describe the flavors and textures that swirl about the palate. The notepad is set aside, the pen put away as the search for words begins. And they don’t come.” On the blog for J.J. Buckley, Chuck Hayward writes a thoughtful essay on Torbreck’s “The Laird.”

“A decade ago, Finger Lakes wines weren’t discussed a lot outside upstate New York. But now that the wines have received glowing media attention, a book-length treatment, and choice placements on restaurant wine lists, some outsiders are asking, ‘What’s all the fuss about?’” In Wine-Searcher, Tyler Colman discovers the Finger Lakes. 

In the Wall Street Journal, Lettie Teague profiles Barbara Banke, chairman of Jackson Family Wines. 

“Everyone with a big cellar realizes in the end they don’t have enough friends to drink it all with.” The Guardian covers the sale of wine writer Hugh Johnson’s cellar, which goes on the auction block today. 

On Decanter.com, Louis Villard writes about sommelier Rajat Parr and winemaker Sashi Moorman and their plans to launch “Domaine de la Côte” in the Santa Rita Hills AVA of Santa Barbara County.  

In the Wall Street Journal Europe, Will Lyons praises Frances “distinctive Appellation Contrôlée system” for being “an easy-to-digest classification that categorizes wines based on their origin and production.” And he urges Italy to mimic it. Is France’s classification system really easy-to-digest?! 

In Slave to the Grape, Mick Cameron offers the second part of his interview with Boris Champy of Domaine Louis Latour. (In case you missed it, Part 1.) 

Aaron Nix-Gomez writes about “Vintage After Vintage of Moët & Chandon and Krug Champagne.” (As regular readers know, Isaac James Baker covered this event for Terroirist on Thursday.)  

In New York, Julie Ma sits down with Cheryl Durzy, the founder of MommyJuice Wines.