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Arnie
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( 2.9 / 126 )I'm going to start something new - a virtual tasting group. Every week, I'll select a wine that is widely available and priced between $10 and $25 per bottle.
If you'd like to join in, purchase the wine and submit your tasting notes as an email or as a posted comment.
I will reply and post our common notes with the next suggested wine the following week.
Let me know what you think.
This week's wine: 2005 Château Lagarosse, Premières Côtes de Bordeaux, $15-$20/bottle ($14.99 at Esquin Wine Merchants).
Regards,
Arnie
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( 2.7 / 92 )Every once in a while you come across a wine that says "right back at ya!" It's almost scary how much power, weight and density resides in the fragile glass - I half expect it to burst apart!
Such is the case with Chateau du Cedre's 2005 Cuvée Prestige Cahors.
Cahors has been famous for its so-called "black wines" since the Middle Ages. It's wines were in great demand long before Bordeaux became an important wine center, up through the 19th century. The Malbec grape originated here, where it is known locally as Côt or Auxerrois.
Du Cedre's Prestige is 90% Malbec and 10% Tannat, another local grape of southern Gascony. It is an impressive example of those truly "black wines." Staining the glass with its impenetrable dense purple color, the dark wine harkens you to an earlier, more primitive epoch when monks and bandits roamed the deep, dark, ancient forests. The aromas are brooding, smoky, bristly with the blackest of fruits in its feral embrace. On the palate, rich flavors of black berries, black plum, licorice, bitter chocolate are balanced by smooth but big tannins.
This wine will age for 5-10 years and goes well with sausages, goose and smoked game like wild boar. I'd enjoy it with well-aged Gouda cheese and a creamy Bleu d'Auvergne.
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( 2.9 / 75 )The wine world lost one of its most original, iconoclastic and brilliantly talented winemakers yesterday, Didier Dagueneau. Didier died piloting his small, light aircraft over the Cognac region Wednesday morning, September 17th.
His untimely death at 52 years of age reminds us that much in our lives is evanescent, even though it may seem rooted to our earth, bigger than life itself, with the expectation of permanence. His charismatic, rock-like presence will be missed. He leaves behind four children.
I met Didier for the last time two years ago in Seattle. He pretended not to speak or understand English so we spoke in French. He was pouring his wines, amazing, mind-breaking wines, mostly from Pouilly-Fumé in the Loire. His Sauvignon Blancs had hair on their chests; they were (are) giants just like their hirsute creator. Unlike him, though, they were meant to age. So in addition to pouring his new releases, including his stunning dessert wine "Gardens of Babylon (Les Jardins de Babylone) from the Jurancon, he poured 10 year old Sauvignon Blanc of his Silex and Pur Sang cuvées. Incredibly powerful and fresh, they were still puppies.
Didier's Silex is 100% Sauvignon Blanc, from old vines in flinty soils, aged in oak. He also made cuvees such as Pur Sang (Thoroughbred) and Buisson Renard They are beasts that can age for up to two decades. Without any formal training, Dagueneau made wines that transcended their appellations.
Didier was the fourth generation winemaker in his family. Prior to making wine, Didier left his village of Saint Andelain in 1978, aged 22, to spend 5 years in international motorcycle side-car racing. In 1982, he returned to the family home and family tradition - making wine. Racing never left his blood though. He later took up dog-sled racing, which consumed many of his Winters. He had won both European and World Championships. Not your typical vigneron.
Always following his own star, he tended vines and made wine his own way but with a deep respect for tradition. Practicing organic viticulture, he did nothing halfway, horse-plowing the soil, extensive labor-intensive de-budding and pruning, hand harvesting and pursuing very low yields. In the cellar, he aged his best wines in a combination of large barrels or foudres of 450 to 600 liters and the famous 350 liter elongated "cigar" barrels he designed himself. The cigars were disposed after one or two uses.
His intense non-conformity earned him the nickname, "the madman of Saint Andelain."
Dagueneau's extremely rare dessert wine is made from Petit Manseng, a local grape. This wine is from his property in Southern France's Jurancon region from a vineyard located in Babylone. Thus the wine is called, appropriately, "Les Jardins de Babylone" or the Gardens of Babylon.
I am amazed that, once news of his death spread, our phones rang off the hook with people calling for his very expensive wines. What a morbid rush to buy! For months, his expensive ($124.99) Silex Pouilly sat on our shelves. I tried to sell them by educating our customers but with little result – it’s not really unusual with very expensive, obscure white wines. Nevertheless, we at Esquin believed in his wines, always purchasing any new releases available. 2007 was his last vintage. We expect a healthy allocation once it’s released, perhaps in January 2009. I look forward to a contemplative tasting of Didier's last vintage.
Regards,
Arnie
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( 2.9 / 94 )My recommendation is to choose a thin-walled stemmed glass or crystal glass – avoid a rolled lip on the edge. The bowl should be at least 5 inches high with a moderate 2.5 inch throat. This ensures enough air space in the glass to swirl the wine vigorously and thoroughly assess the wine’s variety of aromas and flavors. The thin wall and thin lip assure you are as close to the wine as possible.
Premium glass manufacturers like Riedel, Schott, Eisch and others make many different kinds of glass; in the extreme, Riedel makes one for nearly every type of wine! As a wine guy, I have four different types of glassware: a Riesling, a Riesling/Zinfandel all-purpose, a red Bordeaux and a red Burgundy glass – oh, and Champagne flutes! That’s probably more than anyone needs. For most occasions, a good all-purpose glass is fine. Look for a Riesling/Zinfandel/Sangiovese glass – it’s great for reds and whites.
Use the stem and its base to hold the glass, avoiding holding the bowl. Holding the bowl adversely affects the temperature of the wine due to glass contact with your body heat. Swirl the wine while holding the glass on a firm base, like a table, in order to avoid spilling the wine.
To evaluate the wine’s color, hold the glass away from you at a 45 degree angle, preferable tilting the glass against a white table cloth or paper, in a well-lit room. This way, you can see all the wine at once in the glass allowing you to better assess the density of color and saturation of hue and the clarity of the wine. A clear wine is well-made (white wines can show bright stars of light below it) while a cloudy wine is a red flag; the wine may be unstable or have undergone an unintended secondary fermentation in the bottle.
Examine the color, or lack of it, of the rim of the wine or where it touches the glass. A clear rim indicates a young wine while, conversely, an orange, amber or brown rim may indicate stages of possible oxidation.
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( 2.8 / 103 )
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