All Reference Books, Great And Small (November 2017 Wine Product Roundup)

image: amazon.com

This month’s wine product review roundup requires you to get your reading glasses, as we’re taking a look at two upcoming wine reference book releases, one of them tiny (and insanely useful), the other heavy and large (and maybe a lot less useful).

First up is the venerable Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine, 2018 edition (Mitchell Beazley, 336 pages, about $17). This tiny marvel is updated annually, and at this point I struggle to say anything about it that I’ve not already said in my usual yearly boot-lickingly obnoxious recommendation of this mighty mini-tome. No wine reference book series even comes close to packing as much utility into such a small package, and doing it so consistently. That I know so may of the contributors probably only makes my endorsement seem even more boot-lickingly boot-licking, but that won’t stop me from highly recommending it. Again.

In the interests of offering a balanced appraisal, I will say that the supplemental material in last year’s 2017 40th Anniversary edition is, in my view, superior to this most recent release; so if you own that one already, you may want to skip this one and see what the 2018 edition has to offer.

Next up is a new edition of the much larger, heavier, and visually impressive Larousse Wine (Hamlyn, 656 pages, about $60). Headed by technical consultant Master Sommelier Georges Lepré, with a team of contributors that are primarily French-based or French-wine-focused, you’d think that a book with 800 photographs and 37 maps would be insanely useful. And you’d be half right…

image courtesy of Hamlyn

Nearly half of Larousse Wine is a gorgeously illustrated and well-designed multi-chapter treatise on the core aspects of wine in general, including its history, how it is made, how it can best be enjoyed, and why we have so many misconceptions about it. This portion of the book almost justifies its coffee-table style size and price. The second half of the book is a review of the world’s major wine regions, with producer highlights, but is dominated to an almost shocking degree by France. So much dead tree real-estate is dedicated to French wine here that the USA and Canada get only about 16 pages in total. Chile gets only about 4 pages… and you get the picture. This seriously reduces the utility of the second half of Larousse Wine for all but the most ardent Francophiles, and undermines its subtitle claim of being “the definitive reference for wine lovers” (just put the word “French” in there before “wine” and you’re welcome, guys, I just fixed it for you).

What is potentially more interesting than these reference releases (to me, anyway) is the fact that they are being released in hardcover, printed format in the first place. Why do we still have major paper-based updated editions to them in a nigh-always-connected world? I don’t have an answer to that, but I find it increasingly more old-fashioned, like making voice calls, using Quicken, or having landline phone  service. I mean, I like to page through a wine tome as much as anyone, but I recognize that at 45 years old, I’m just waxing nostalgic at this point…

Cheers!

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Copyright © 2016. Originally at All Reference Books, Great And Small (November 2017 Wine Product Roundup) from 1WineDude.com
– for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!
Source: http://www.1winedude.com/all-reference-books-great-and-small-november-2017-wine-product-roundup/

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Wine Reviews: Weekly Mini Round-Up For November 6, 2017

So, like, what is this stuff, anyway?
I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes with you via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be quirky, fun, and easily-digestible reviews of currently available wines. Below is a wrap-up of those twitter wine reviews from the past week (click here for the skinny on how to read them), along with links to help you find these wines, so that you can try them for yourself. Cheers!

• 15 Vina Cobos Cocodrilo Corte (Lujan de Cuyo/Valle de Uco): Did you know that cloves & dark plums could be sexy? Well, it’s true. $29 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 15 Terrazas de los Andes Reserva Malbec (Mendoza): Old vines + know-how + a lot of smoked meat = a can’t-go-too-wrong Malbec pick. $20 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 15 Nieto Senetiner Blend Collection Cabernet Franc-Cabernet Sauvignon (Mendoza): Friendly, fruity, fragrant, & f–king quaffable red. $13 B >>find this wine<<
• 16 Zuccardi Santa Julia Reserva Malbec (Mendoza): Witness your incredibly addictive gateway drug to juicy, spicy Argentine reds. $14 B >>find this wine<<
• 12 Luigi Bosca Finca Los Nobles Cabernet Bouchet (Las Compuertas): Rustic, funky, eclectic, and, above all else, sternly genuine. $70 A- >>find this wine<<
• 14 Meyer Fonne Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Sporen Vendange Tardives (Alsace): Death by marmalade might actually be a very good way to go $NA A- >>find this wine<<
• 13 Meyer Fonne Pinot Gris Hinterburg de Katzenthal Cuvee Eloi (Alsace): Heady, honeyed, late of harvest, & basically just heavenly. $NA A- >>find this wine<<
• 15 Meyer-Fonne Riesling Kaefferkopf (Alsace Grand Cru): If lemons went camping & used flint fire to toast their apple-&-pear dinners. $NA A- >>find this wine<<
• 15 Meyer Fonne Riesling Vignoble de Katzenthal (Alsace): Vines that almost literally storm the castle have gorgeously calm souls. $25 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 15 Stephane Aviron Morgon Cote du Py Vieilles Vignes (Beaujolais): The only thing old about this lively delight are those vines. $24 B+ >>find this wine<<

Grab The 1WineDude.com Tasting Guide and start getting more out of every glass of wine today!

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Copyright © 2016. Originally at Wine Reviews: Weekly Mini Round-Up For November 6, 2017 from 1WineDude.com
– for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!
Source: http://www.1winedude.com/wine-reviews-weekly-mini-round-up-for-november-6-2017/

source https://meself84.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/wine-reviews-weekly-mini-round-up-for-november-6-2017/

Latoque 2015 Reserve, Languedoc Roussillon

Latoque 2015 Reserve

Does this wine exist?  If it wasn’t for the fact that I found a bottle at a wine & spirits store, I would have to say “no”.

I read about the wine while perusing the PLCB’s website. They listed it as having a 90 point score from the Wine Advocate, being produced by the Les Vignobles Foncalieu winery in France, and being priced at under $11.  The website also showed that the wine was for sale all around the Philly region. That is the kind of wine I want to try. It may be good enough for our wine newsletter. However…..

Here are a few of the reasons it shouldn’t exist.:

1. It’s not listed on the winery’s website.
2. The  90 point review is not in the Wine Advocate’s database.
3. It’s not available in any wine shop anywhere (according to wine-searcher.com)

Here’s the mythical review that the PLCB published:

“Ripe, medium- to full-bodied, nicely concentrated and with ripe tannin, it has real Cabernet character, lots of dark fruits, scorched earth and chocolate aromas and flavors, and a good finish. Drink 2016-2022.”  (88-90) Points Wine Advocate

Here’s what we do know: it’s primarily  Cabernet Sauvignon with a bit of Syrah and  Malbec. It’s also quite delicious and drinks above its mysterious lineage.  Melted chocolate and blackberry and licorice on the nose. A bit of forest floor (sous bois) on the palate backed up with lush full-bodied tannins. The finish edges into bay leaves and black fruit. Very nice indeed.

The post Latoque 2015 Reserve, Languedoc Roussillon appeared first on Wine School of Philadelphia.

Source: https://www.vinology.com/latoque-2015-reserve-languedoc-roussillon/

source https://meself84.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/latoque-2015-reserve-languedoc-roussillon/

WOLVERINES! (Talking Albarossa For MyNameIsBarbera.com)

For my latest installment over at MyNameIsBarbera.com, we go in-depth on Incrocio Dalmasso XV-31, better known as Albarossa… as in Red Dawn… WOLVERINES!!!

The Albarossa grape has a history that winds almost as much as the roads throughout the Piedmont hillsides, and in its own inimitable, roundabout way ended up achieving what its creator set out to accomplish, though not exactly in the way that he intended. All of which is just so adorably typical of Monferrato.

If you’re interested in learning what this iteration of Red Dawn can do for you, check out the full story via the link below (invasions and grenades not required):

ALBAROSSA! A NEW RED DAWN IN PIEDMONT

https://www.mynameisbarbera.com/beautiful-albarossa/embed/#?secret=EPDeKGlxLC

Cheers!

Grab The 1WineDude.com Tasting Guide and start getting more out of every glass of wine today!

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Copyright © 2016. Originally at WOLVERINES! (Talking Albarossa For MyNameIsBarbera.com) from 1WineDude.com
– for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!
Source: http://www.1winedude.com/wolverines-talking-albarossa-for-mynameisbarbera-com/

source https://meself84.wordpress.com/2017/11/01/wolverines-talking-albarossa-for-mynameisbarbera-com/

Wine Reviews: Weekly Mini Round-Up For October 30, 2017

So, like, what is this stuff, anyway?
I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes with you via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be quirky, fun, and easily-digestible reviews of currently available wines. Below is a wrap-up of those twitter wine reviews from the past week (click here for the skinny on how to read them), along with links to help you find these wines, so that you can try them for yourself. Cheers!

• 14 Attune Pinot Noir (Carneros): Now this… this is just pure delight, & will get your lips smacking if you have any sense about you $48 A- >>find this wine<<
• 15 Attune Station Ranch Chardonnay (Carneros): The fruitiness and brioche you’d expect, with the politeness that you might not. $38 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 13 Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs Brut (North Coast): The mildest hint of red cherry, with the not-so-mildest hint of pure awesomeness. $40 A- >>find this wine<<
• 14 Claiborne & Churchill Claiborne Vineyard Riesling (Edna Valley): This one’s cooking with limes and gas -the petrol kind, of course $28 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 15 Knudsen Vineyards Estate Reserve Pinot Noir (Dundee Hills): Brought to you by the letter ’S’: Structure, Spice, and Spirit. $72 A- >>find this wine<<
• NV Aecovi Alexandro Oloroso Sherry (Marco de Jerez): Like a bowl full of toasted almonds at the bar, you just can’t stop tasting… $26 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 13 Poderi Oddero Rocche di Castiglione (Barolo): A treatise on structure that won’t totally be decipherable for many more moons. $79 A >>find this wine<<
• 16 Brancott Estate Letter Series B Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough): The perennial penchant for piquant passion fruit prevails. $23 B+ >>find this wine<<
• NV McBride Sisters Brut Rose (Marlborough): Like your bubbles brighter than a room full of smiles? Then this is your jam, my friend. $25 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 14 Hickinbotham The Revivalist Merlot (McLaren Vale): Got here too early for the wood, but supple sexiness awaits those who r patient $75 A- >>find this wine<<

Grab The 1WineDude.com Tasting Guide and start getting more out of every glass of wine today!

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Copyright © 2016. Originally at Wine Reviews: Weekly Mini Round-Up For October 30, 2017 from 1WineDude.com
– for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!
Source: http://www.1winedude.com/wine-reviews-weekly-mini-round-up-for-october-30-2017/

source https://meself84.wordpress.com/2017/10/30/wine-reviews-weekly-mini-round-up-for-october-30-2017/

Spanish Recipes from the Wine School

Wines for the October Sommelier Smackdown with Hai Tran

Patatas Bravas

• 2 pounds red skin potatoes, quartered
• 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 2 shallots, diced
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 cup crushed tomatoes
• ¼ cup white wine
• 1 cup mayonnaise

For the Sauce:

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a small saute pan over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the paprika, cayenne, and tomato and simmer for 20 minutes.  Allow the mixture to cook, then blend in a food processor until smooth, blend in the mayonnaise and chill for half an hour. This sauce can be made a day ahead, which will allow the flavors to meld.

For the Potatoes:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Toss quartered potatoes with half the oil and place onto a baking sheet in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove the pan and season the potatoes with a bit more salt. Transfer to a platter and drizzle with some of the aioli and garnish with parsley leaves. Serve hot.

Chorizo & Clams

• 36 of the tiniest clams you can buy
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 Spanish Chorizo sausage, thinly sliced.
• 2 shallots, diced
• 2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
• ½ cup coarsely chopped Italian parsley
• 6 threads of saffron
• 2 cups white wine

Scrub the clams, discarding any with cracked or open shells that fail to close when tapped.

Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Add shallots and cook over medium heat until lightly brown, about three minutes. Add wine and reduce for two minutes. Stir in the chorizo and tomatoes. Bring the mixture to a boil. Stir in the clams and tightly cover the pot.

Cook the clams over high heat until the shells open, about eight minutes. Shake the pan occasionally to give the shells room to open. Add the parsley and shake one last time. Ladle the clams and cooking liquid into shallow bowls.

Arragon Chilindron

• 3 pounds chicken, goat, lamb, venison or rabbit, in serving pieces
• 5  shallots, diced
• 2.5 ounces smoked paprika
• 2 pounds piquillo peppers (or red roasted peppers)
• 2 cup crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups white wine
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp Salt
• 4 tablespoons Nduja (a spicy Proscuitto spread)

Salt the meat and set aside for one hour at room temperature.

Heat a large pot over medium-high heat, and add the oil. Brown the meat on all sides in batches. Do not overcrowd the pot. Set the meat aside in a bowl when browned. Take your time and do this right. Add more oil if needed.

When all the meat is browned and set aside, add the onions and stir to bring up some of the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add salt. Cook until they begin to brown, then add the wine. Reduce for two minutes, then add tomatoes, peppers, smoked paprika, bay leaves and Njuja.  Add the meat back to the pot and mix well.

. Turn the heat back down to medium and stir well, scraping the bottom of the pot to remove any proteins. The level of liquid should be about 2/3 the way up the sides of the meat. If it is low, add water.

Cover and cook at a bare simmer — just barely bubbling — for at least two hours. The chilindron is done when the meat falls apart and is extremely tender.
Right before serving, add the parsley. Serve with rice or bread. Simple sauteed greens are a good accompaniment.

The post Spanish Recipes from the Wine School appeared first on Wine School of Philadelphia.

Source: https://www.vinology.com/spanish-recipes/

source https://meself84.wordpress.com/2017/10/27/spanish-recipes-from-the-wine-school/

The Renaturating Three (Backstage With Claypool Cellars 2017)

Chaney Claypool shows off the CC wares backstage in Philly (2017)

Being a prog music geek (actually, make that a music geek in general), we’ve had our fair share of literal rock star wine producer interviews here on 1WD, probably none as effortlessly entertaining as those with Primus’ Les Claypool.

Claypool, along with his wife Chaney, are the proprietors of Sonoma-based Claypool Cellars, whose development I’ve been following (and on which I’ve been reporting) for several years.

Me, my drummer, & Les Claypool (if you have to guess who is who, then come back when you’re sober)

With the release of the new Primus album The Desaturating Seven  (highly recommended, by the way; think of it as a mix between the group’s older quirky-jam-based writing style, and the showmanship flamboyance of the more recent Primus and the Chocolate Factory) and its subsequent tour, Chaney and Les recently found themselves in Philly. By their invitation, my drummer and I found ourselves at their Philly stop pre-show, tagging along at one of the cooler aspects of Primus’ tour: fans can purchase a premium-VIP package that includes a Q&A session with the band, and (more pertinently in this case) a tasting of some of the recent Claypool Cellars offerings, with Les and Chaney (mostly the gregarious Les) taking questions and waxing philosophic about Sonoma County wines in general.

Since bringing on the Pinot Noir wunderkinder consulting winemaking duo of Ross Cobb and Katy Wilson, Claypool Cellars has gone from promising-and-devoted-side-project to ageworthy-kind-of-cult-wine levels of quality, so for me it’s always a pleasure to catch up with the Claypools and their wines (funky-ass basslines or not). Here are some thoughts on their continued vinous progress (see what I did there…?)…

NV Claypool Cellars Pachyderm Cuvee Select Brut Cormoyeaux (Champagne, $70)

I did not expect this; I’m pretty sure that no one outside of the Claypool inner circle expected a Marne Valley, Farmer Fizz release. According to Chaney, the Claypools went all-in on this, traveling to France to get involved in the nitty-gritty decision-making on importing about 200 cases of this Champers, the product of fourth-generation growers Jacky Bochet and Valerie Lemoine. Also unexpected is the slight predominance of Pinot Meunier (55%) in the mix with Chardonnay (15%) and Pinot Noir (30%); the result is a Champers with slightly darker berry fruit and pear on the nose, with ample floral notes and a ton of vivacity.

2012 Claypool Cellars ‘CC Pachyderm’ Rice-Spivak Vineyard Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast, $67)

Here we are… again… This is technically the second time that we’ve discussed this wine in feature-form on 1WD, the first time being back in 2014. Back then, I wrote that this wine was “about as complex as a good prog-rock anthem: aromas of herbs, tea, pepper, spices, and dark berry fruits, with a good deal of enticing juiciness on the palate, all uplifted by excellent acid and an overall sense of poise.” Not a whole lot has changed since then, with the exception of the wine getting a bit more concentrated and complex, particularly on the palate, which has developed splendidly. There is something special about the fruit from the small, slightly-inland, ash-laden soil of Rice-Spivak, and by special I mean that it makes a complex, spicy meatball of a Pinot.

2013 Claypool Cellars ‘CC Pachyderm’ Thorn Ridge Pinot Noir (Sonoma County, $68)

Only 200 cases of this elegant, stylish, and light-ish-on-the-abv (under 15%) Pinot were made. Steep, silty, and dry-farmed, Thorn Ridge has attracted the likes of Sonoma’s heavier-Pinot-hitters, such as Kosta Browne. The key word here is “bright” – that goes for the lifted red cherry and berry and floral aromas, the deeper red fruit flavors on the palate, and the energetic acidity that bolsters the whole package. Despite its lithe profile, there’s good structure here, and I’d recommend waiting for a couple of years (or at least through the listening of an entire Primus album) before yanking the cork out of it.

Cheers!

Grab The 1WineDude.com Tasting Guide and start getting more out of every glass of wine today!

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Copyright © 2016. Originally at The Renaturating Three (Backstage With Claypool Cellars 2017) from 1WineDude.com
– for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!
Source: http://www.1winedude.com/the-renaturating-three-backstage-with-claypool-cellars-2017/

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