Wine Description

Muscat highlights in a nose balanced between floral and ripe white peach. Yellow green color with no browning whatsoever. Dense flavors with refreshing acid finish. Perfect for a lemon custard cake. Tasted in Fine Wines of the Southern Hemisphere class at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Southern Hemisphere class will next be offered as a Weekender in August 2011.

Wine Education

Even with the attention lavished on South Africa by the World Cup soccer matches, few people realize how accomplished the South African wine producers are. Founded at a time when New York City was still called New Amsterdam, the wine industry at the Cape of Good Hope flourished while Californios were still fermenting in cowhide bags. Sweet wines from Constantia were the toast of the Russian court during the late 1800’s, where they competed quite favorably with France’s Ch. d’Yquem and with the best Rieslings of Germany. Burgundy? At the time it was considered a backwater. Its wines couldn’t command one-twentieth the price of Vin de Constance, the luxurious dessert wine from South Africa’s premier winery, Groot Constantia, which had been founded on the estate of the Capes’ first Dutch governor, Simon Van der Stel.
     After Van der Stel’s death in the early 1800’s, Groot Constantia was split into three parcels and sold. Hendrik Cloete bought the homestead piece, and with his offspring raised the quality and recognition of Vin de Constance to worldwide acclaim. Cloete called his winery Klein Constantia. In Afrikaans groot means ‘great,’ while klein means ‘small.’ Phylloxera dealt a crushing blow to the South African wine industry, and by the end of the 1800’s Klein Constantia was in the hands of Abraham de Villiers and his American heiress wife Clara. They created an elegant party venue out of the estate, and even sent their nephew to U.C. Berkeley to study viticulture, but they did not resurrect the extraordinary reputation of Vin de Constance. That was left to the Jooste family, which purchased the property in 1980. Their U.C. Davis-experienced winemaker, Ross Gower, began the wine’s resurgence with his first release in 1986. Today son Lowell Jooste is in charge of the property, and Adam Mason has taken over as winemaker. Vin de Constance is reaching new heights every year.

Regional Description

As a wine producing district Constantia has three distinct characteristics, two of them related: (1) It is basically a suburb of Capetown, with correspondingly fine exposure to the marketplace (both domestic and international); (2) it is a very up-market piece of real estate, with sumptuous houses and beautiful landscaping; and (3) it is perhaps South Africa’s coolest (using the temperature sense of the word) growing region, no small factor when the tip of the continent is at 33º of latitude. Constantia is on the eastern side of a ridge running 20 miles south from Capetown along the peninsula which comprises the Cape of Good Hope. Constantia looks out to the east across False Bay (where the English landed to begin the Boer War). Technically I suppose Cape Agulhas (the southern tip of Africa) is the terminous of the Indian Ocean, but one could certainly argue (after swimming in it) that False Bay is the westernmost vestige of the warm Indian Ocean. The cold Bengula Current runs up the western side of the Good Hope peninsula, i.e. the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic side is not only colder, it carries much less moisture (cf: the Kalahari desert in Namibia further north). Constantia stands astride this divide, protected by its western ridge tops.

Food and Wine Pairing

Klein Constantia makes Vin de Constance from Muscat de Frontignan grapes (cf: Liqueur Muscat from Australia). They are picked very ripe, but not excessively dehydrated. Then they are matured over a four-year period in changing combinations of stainless steel and 120-gallon oak puncheons. The wine has more the 15% residual sugar, but also has very high acid for balance. In the 2005 vintage the pH is 3.45 with 8.75 g/l of total acid. Alcohol is less than Sauternes at a little over 12%, but considerably more than botrytized German Rieslings.
     On a one-dimensional scale of dessert wines, Vin de Constance falls somewhere between Canadian Icewine and Sauternes. It is not as honeyed, nor as volatile, as Sauternes. Which means milk chocolate and nut tarts are probably not going to be preferred matches. At the other extreme, fruit aromatics are a feature of Vin de Constance, but they are far from the only arrow in its quiver. Moreover the aromatics have a distinctly floral component. In the mouth the wine is an extraordinary balance of Vin Santo-like, dried fruit concentration, and refreshingly acidic length. A simple fruit dish, such as peaches with crème fraiche, would not do justice to this complexity.
     I believe the right answer is a custard cake. Decorate each plate with jasmine flowers. Buy or make a pound cake. Slice it horizontally into three levels. On top of level one put a layer of Meyer lemon custard. If you don’t want to make it yourself, you can buy a packaged product from the Jello Company, and tart it up with a real Meyer lemon or two. Include some zest from the lemon. On top of layer two put a layer of light caramel custard. Again, if you don’t want to make your own, use crème fraiche with some brown sugar stirred in. Layer three of the pound cake goes on top. I’d be delighted to eat the dessert this way, but purists will probably want to frost the cake. Once more, packaged frosting will suffice. Vanilla or butter crème would be my choice, but apply it sparingly. You don’t want any wine to have to fight its way through legions of butter and sugar. This dessert should be 75% cake, no less. And serve it in small portions. Things always work out better if the wine is slightly sweeter than the dessert.

Malbec Description

     Malbec is au currant. It is selling briskly during a recession when most wines are retrenching. It goes great with a big hunka’ red meat, and confers a gaucho image which understandably appeals to salarymen everywhere. Dr. Roger Corder, a British pharmacology researcher, even says Argentine Malbecs are particularly rich in the polyphenols which help protect against artery disease. Good news when you’re having a big hunka’ red meat. And really good Malbec can be had for less than $25. Sign me up!

Malbec Wine Education

     The success of Argentine Malbec on the U.S. market over the last four years is the envy of wine producing regions all over the world. Wines of Argentina says they sold 628,000 cases of Malbec in America in 2005, and 3.15 million cases in 2009. Particularly jealous is the district of Cahors in southwest France, which specializes in Malbec (traditionally called Cot there), and from whence the Argentine vines are reputed to have come.
     Of course commercial success on our shores usually has more to do with pricing and adroit marketing than it has to do with what is in the bottle. I’d never bet against the physical attractiveness of any Argentine winery’s PR staff. And, until last month, exchange rates did give the Argentine wines an enormous price advantage over their European counterparts.
     By way of incentive, Argentina has 50,000 acres of Malbec planted, which is more than California has planted to Zinfandel. France has less than 15,000 acres, and even that has been steadily declining since 1970. Malbec vines are quite sensitive to mildew. Hence the variety seems logically more applicable to arid climates such as Mendoza (in the rain shadow of the Andes), than it would be in the frequent summer rains of southwest France.
     Nevertheless a battle of sorts has been joined, and vintners in both California and Washington State are paying attention. There are only 1,500 acres of Malbec in California. Which explains why in 2008 Malbec grapes sold for $4,550 a ton in Napa Valley ~ almost the same price as Cabernet Sauvignon, and nearly twice as much money per ton as Merlot. In Sonoma Malbec grapes were 15% more expensive than Cab Sauv. And in the Sierra Foothills Malbec is nearly 50% more expensive than any other grape. Supply and demand. You think Wall Street is a casino? Try farming.

Malbec recommendations

     Read this post in its entirety on the Stanford Wine Blog, including specific wine reviews and suggestions.

Wine Education

     There isn’t a huge amount of Grenache planted in California: about 7,000 acres in 2008 (down from nearly 11,000 acres in 1998), and 85% of those acres reside in the Central Valley (predominantly Fresno and Madera Counties). Hence the image, which artistic CA Grenache will eventually have to overcome, of sickly sweet swill labeled Grenache Rosé which was sold in bowling-ball-shaped jugs much prized by ‘60s-era hippies for making terrariums. Still, the enduring legacy of the Rhône Rangers in California has begat some new, green buds on the gnarly, weathered Grenache grapevine.
     Napa has less than 35 acres of bearing Grenache vines. Which may help explain why in 2009 those grapes sold for $3,520 per ton on average. That’s 50% more per ton than Napa Merlot in 2009. It would also predict a $35 per bottle retail price tag on those wines. In Sonoma County, which had 160 acres of Grenache in 2009, the average price per ton was $2,660, about 20% more than the average price per ton of Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon.

Wine Background

     Grenache (technically Grenache Noir) is really quite a fascinating grape variety. Sardinia, where it is called Cannonau, and Spain argue like cats and dogs over where it originated, and thus which direction it migrated during the 400+ years (from about 1300 to around 1700) that Sardinia was part of the Aragon kingdom. Either way, the sturdy Grenache vine has competed for several hundred years to be the most widely planted premium red grape in the world.

Matching Food to Grenache

     To read this post in its entirety, including specific wine recommendations, bargain examples, and suggested food – wine pairings, please visit the Stanford University Wine Blog.

     Give the Saturday seminars a pass. Go early on Sunday for the extra $50 ~ otherwise the best wines will be gone by the time you get in. Avoid the lengthy sweet-wine-and-chocolate queue. Hit the top wineries first. Then find some good white wines and start noshing. Finish with a third pass through the room to discover great reds from lesser known wineries.

Seattle Wine Scene

     The State of Washington is more than a little schizophrenic on the subject of wine and food. On the one hand, the citizens are very enthusiastic. Well-regarded Seattle restaurants (e.g. Elliott’s, Poppy, Wild Ginger, Ray’s Boathouse) are gigantic in size, well patronized, and far from cheap. Local culinary celebrities are lionized, and everyone is justifiably proud of locally produced foodstuffs. On the other hand, cheering for the home team is not exactly taste discrimination. A parade for third-graders, where everyone gets an award of merit, is not the crucible of competition from which great sophistication and a continually improving top-end generally result.
     Western Washington, where most of the people live, is a maritime climate with a maritime cuisine. Puget Sound is loaded with boats, with shoreline vistas, and with extraordinary seafood. There is a significant Asian influence. Eastern Washington, on the inland side of the Cascade Mountains, is a desert. By definition. It gets ten inches of rain per year or less. That’s where the grapes are grown. Many of the wineries are in western Washington, near the people. Seattle gets 60” of rain per year on average. But the grapes are grown 4 to 6 hours east in the Columbia River Basin on the opposite side of the Cascades. That is where summer temperatures are higher, necks are redder, and nothing but sagebrush would grow were it not for irrigation water from the Columbia River and its tributaries. Washington may call itself the Evergreen State, but that’s only true of the western half. To get one’s arms around Washington, one has to embrace a split personality.

Wine Event Description

     Taste Washington is an annual celebration of food and wine, which was held in Seattle last weekend. Two hundred Washington wineries participated, and about 75 Seattle restaurants. Therein lie two stories warring with each other. The room was awash with excellent Merlot and Syrah. There were some fine Cabernet blends, an occasional noteworthy Sangiovese, and one or two pleasant Malbecs. Meanwhile the best, most original food was heavily skewed toward great chowders, wonderful ceviches, fabulous salmon tartare, and to-die-for crab cakes. Only about a third of the wineries even brought a white wine, and less than 20% of the total wines on offer were white. Let’s face it: the Washington wine industry has more in common with Kansas or Texas than it has with Seattle. No shame in that; geopolitical boundaries were not drawn by locavores. Little hard for the PR agency and the civic boosters to accommodate, but heh, that’s why they live in those big condos.

Wine & Food Matching

     The best wine matches for the fabulous local cuisine of Seattle today come from Germany and Austria, and from New Zealand. It may be political heresy, but the Willamette Valley of Oregon and the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia also produce exquisite wine pairs for Seattle food. I’m talking Pinot Gris and bone-dry Riesling. Now, both these wine regions bristle with indignation if one fails to cite their red wines. And it’s certainly true the Pinot Noirs of the Willamette Valley are world class. (Perhaps not so true re many red wines from the Okanagan Valley.) But it is a gigantic oversight to miss the spectacular Pinot Gris of Oregon and British Columbia, especially with salmon or with something as delectable as a crab empanada. Yet it is almost impossible to find an Okanagan Pinot Gris on a Seattle restaurant wine list. Regional rivalry? Definite mistake.
     Savor this irony. Okanagan wineries sell almost everything they make in Vancouver. Okanagan Valley is not a big region, and Vancouver is a thirsty market. NAFTA notwithstanding, small Okanagan wineries view the considerable red tape of selling across an international border into Seattle as a major impediment. These producers don’t get much money for their Pinot Gris in the provincial wine stores of Vancouver. Hence the wine doesn’t get much respect. Meanwhile British Columbia wine journalists are extremely eager for Merlots and Cabernets from the Okanagan Valley to be seen by visitors as comparable to the Merlots and Cabs from Washington’s Columbia Valley. This eagerness seems to have something to do with perceived virility (and maybe bottle price). It completely ignores the market potential for world class Okanagan Pinot Gris in Seattle, in San Francisco, and in San Diego. Where, incidentally, bottle prices would likely be much higher than in Vancouver. If I were to stipulate hockey is the world’s toughest sport, could we just agree that nobody’s Merlot goes well with a scallop ceviche? Even if it’s great Merlot. And that five or six producers in the Okanagan Valley make Pinot Gris comparable to just about the best from Alto Adige, Alsace, or pretenders from anywhere else on the planet?

Wine Education Background

     This game of misplaced priorities and mismatched foods and wines is far from over. Seattle seafood fanciers may well find some Washington wineries eventually catering to their needs. Chinook Winery, for instance, offered both a crisp Sauvignon Blanc and a well-balanced Chardonnay at Taste Washington. Charmingly named Buty Winery had both a White Bordeaux blend and a very nice Chardonnay. Several wineries were experimenting with Rhônish whites, and the occasional Viognier showed good promise. A couple of new AVAs have been approved in cooler areas of Washington (Columbia Gorge and Lake Chelan) where the potential for wines with greater delicacy and stronger natural acid will be enhanced. Riesling is still very widely planted in Washington, and once in a while (e.g. Ch. Ste. Michelle’s ‘Eroica,’ where Ernest Loosen is the consultant) one of those wines seems to indicate a quality break-through may be imminent.
     At the same time several very high-end Washington producers of red wines (Col Solare, Quilceda Creek, DeLille, Leonetti) are gaining international stature, to the point where they are routinely tasted blind against the best from Napa, Tuscany, and Bordeaux. That’s a different venue; a red wine venue; a steakhouse venue. Washington State wines compete favorably in those circumstances, but they are usually brought by collectors. They are not automatically included when the tasting is in Chicago, or New York, or London. Perhaps the problem is that Seattle image of salmon being tossed around the Pike Place Market. Maybe Washington wine marketers need more images of Marlboro men and fewer of Microsoft-Amazon-Starbucks geeks. Talk to Boeing.

Wine Education Background

     Gary Pisoni is a wonderful incarnation of a colorful, eccentric lineage of wine personalities in California. They go back a long way, and they’re legendary. Agoston Harazthy, who claimed to be a Hungarian Count, and reputedly died in Nicaragua while trying to cross a crocodile-infested stream on a small tree limb. Paul Masson, who delighted in hosting sparkling wine baths for actresses at his Saratoga mountain winery during the waning years of the Victorian age. His successor, Martin Ray, who sold shares in his winery (Mount Eden) to investors, then denied them access to the property, while pricing his wines at three times more than any other examples on the market. Dr. David Bruce, Randall Grahm, Jim Clendenen. Mike Grgich, always ready with a double-entendre, and a staunch claimant to never having owned a pH meter. Or my favorite, Marilyn Otterman (Sarah’s Vyd), who always responded in interviews as two separate people: as herself and as Sarah. Marilyn was such a delight. She always described her wines in the female gender. As in, “My Ventana Chardonnay is always the center of attention at parties. You know, all boobs and hips. Whereas my Estate Chardonnay is more reserved, tall with a Greek nose. She hangs back, and waits for maturity on your part.”
     It’s an extensive thread ~ completely wacked out, and further distinguished by the fact they ALL made (or make) excellent wine. Gary Pisoni fits right in. He reminds me of Mario Batali: tuxedo shirt and madras shorts; catnip for the high-end collector and socialite crowds …

Read this entire post, including information on the World of Pinot Noir festival, descriptions of 6 current-release Pinot Noirs from Pisoni Vyd grapes, and 6 older examples, on the Stanford wine blog.

San Francisco Vacation

Bruce Cass Wine Lab Weekenders are three-session, fine wine classes at historic Fort Mason in San Francisco with plenty of free time for participants to see the sights, and to partake of the abundant SF culture. Call it a Wine Education Vacation in America’s most romantic city. Trees have been sprouting flowers for three weeks in San Francisco. Grape vines will start pushing buds by the time class starts. Temperatures are in the mid 60ºs; with frequent sunny days and crystalline clear skies ~ a formula for the most magnificent views.

Wine Event Description

     The California & Pacific Northwest Weekender is three seminar sessions each with sophisticated lecture and slides, plus 12-15 high-quality wines in each session adroitly chosen, and painstakingly acquired, to illustrate points from the lecture when tasted side-by-side. Retail value of all the wines tasted is nearly $2,500. Total class fees are $259 single; $479 couple.
     This class will cover all the important growing regions of America’s Left Coast, explaining how they differ in climate and topography, and how those differences show up in the flavor of the wines. Moreover, additional emphasis will be placed on differences in regional lifestyle, which result in price disparities and varied food matches. Handouts will recommend places for visitors to stay and eat when touring these districts.
     Find full course outlines and examples of previous course wine lists on the Wine Lab website. Also find convenient places to stay in San Francisco, entertaining restaurants, and fun leisure activities in the Bay Area. You can even print out maps for San Francisco Wine Bar Walking Tours.

Future Wine Classes

     Weekender wine classes are taught several times each year in San Francisco. After Calif & Pac NW this March, Fundamentals of Taste & Smell will be taught May 21 – 22 – 23. [It will be repeated August 13 – 14 – 15 in Nevada City, about an hour east of Sacramento, up in the Sierra Foothills.] Then a specialty class, comparing the best wines from the Old World with the best from America and the Southern Hemisphere (Europe vs. New World) will be held in San Francisco on Halloween weekend in October. That’s right. Halloween in San Francisco. Everybody should do it once in their life..

Tasted in Art & Science of Fine Wine class in Menlo Park (see Class Descriptions). Wine sells for around US$100, but would be hard to find in an American retail store. I use this wine to illustrate a lecture point on pruning and trellising decisions. The wine is very unusual, and not everybody likes it, but personally I always find it enormously impressive.

Background Wine Education

     1998 Wynn’s ‘John Riddoch’ Cabernet Sauvignon is from Coonawarra in the state of South Australia. Many people consider Coonawarra to be Australia’s finest Cabernet district. It is about a day’s drive south of Adelaide, and perhaps two day’s drive west of Melbourne. In short, it is way-the-hell-and-gone away from civilization. The first time I visited, in 1980, the only pub in town was still divided into separate men’s and women’s sections ~ smoke in either. Of course that was nearly two generations ago. The point is Australia has a very meager viticultural labor force under any circumstance, and Coonawarra’s isolation exacerbates the situation there.
     Things have changed somewhat in more recent vintages, but in 1998 anything a machine could do to replace manual labor was something the vintners of Coonawarra employed machines to do. That would be the polar opposite of (say) Chile, where men do so much of the work machines do in Australia. Up through at least the 1998 vintage, in Coonawarra the vines were frequently hedged rather than pruned. ‘Hedged’ implies something akin to a military haircut. Instead of one bud left on each of (say) five evenly spaced, 1” spurs vertically positioned along the cordon arms of each vine, hedging allows perhaps eighty 6” spurs protruding in all directions from the cordon arms. There may be several buds on each spur. The result is a canopy that looks like a thickly tangled cylinder, with the cordon arms running down the center. Leaves on the inside of the cylinder are in the shade all summer long. Those leaves consume nutrients, but they do not contribute to ripening.
     Coonawarra is naturally a fairly cool growing district. It’s only 37 miles from the coast, and there is persistent cloud cover. ‘Degree-days’ is a technique for measuring the highest daily temperature throughout the growing season. [Don’t try comparing these Australian numbers to those you might see from California. The Australian figures are in ºC, while those from the U.S. are usually in ºF.] Coonawarra only gets about 1,365 degree-days, while Barossa Valley, north of Adelaide gets 1,832, upper Hunter Valley, north of Sydney gets 1,743, and balmy Margaret River, hard on the Indian Ocean gets 1,629. Ultra-ripe is not a description applied to Coonawarra Cabernets in general, and back when they were grown on hedge-pruned vines, they were reliably expressive of Cabernet’s historic ‘leafy’ character.

Wine Taste Description

     Vintners in Napa Valley have discovered over the last fifteen years, as they replanted vineyards threatened by phylloxera, that Cabernet vines with all their leaves in sun will ripen faster than those on sprawling trellises with a lot of shaded leaves. Faster, more complete ripening removes any trace of the pyrazine flavor, a characteristic Cabernet Sauvignon shares with its biological parent, Sauvignon Blanc. That pyrazine flavor is similar to green peppers. Riper Cabernet grapes move toward a cassis character, and away from that green olive or haricot vert character.
     The Wynn’s ‘John Riddoch’ Cab from 1998 is a throwback. Old school. From the very start it was loaded with pyrazines. Not sprinkled; fully inundated! It was complex, wonderfully structured, and long in the finish with supple tannins. But many tasters were never able to get past the intense herbaceous smell. Which is one reason why there aren’t many (if any at all) Cabernets made in this manner anymore. Call it “Epitaph for a Cabernet” (my apologies to David Masumoto). Personally I’m a fan of the green olive style. In fact, I’d call it the aromatic signature of red wines from Pessac-Leognan in Bordeaux. I like it because I think it clearly distinguishes Cabernet Sauvignon from other red grapes. If I want a red wine smelling of sour cherries, I’ll buy a Syrah.
     I further believe the big payback from this older style of Cabernet comes when the wine gets seven or eight years of bottle-age under its belt. To me the pyrazine smells of youth are precursors for the unlit pipe tobacco smells I enjoy so much as bouquet. The Wynn’s 1998 Riddoch goes several steps beyond pipe tobacco. We’re talking big tobacco leaves, the ones meant for cigar wrappers, drying in a not too well ventilated barn. The 1998 Riddoch Cab is, today, extraordinarily intense in the nose with a wonderfully full, round, textured smell. It is still nicely balanced in the mouth, and long, but you barely notice the flavors or structure because the bouquet is performing such a thorough waterboard interrogation on your face.

Wine – Food Pairing

     I think the perfect way to pair this wine is to go all gaucho on it. Simple too. Get yourself a flank steak. Mash up a bunch of parsley, and a couple anchovies, in butter (you can use anchovy paste). Slather the mixture fairly thickly on one side of the flank steak. Roll the steak up tightly, with the paste on the inside. Once rolled, wrap the outside in Saran-wrap to secure the roll. Place it under the back of your saddle as you spend the day punchin’doggies on the Pampas ~ or leave it 8 hours in your refrigerator if somebody else is employing your horse for the day. Then grill it over hot coals that night. Serve with a baked potato and chives. Es muy macho!

Wine Classes

     Tasted in Art & Science of Fine Wine class held in Menlo Park (see Class Schedule). Beaulieu 1994 and 1995 Private Reserve Cabs are priced around $150 per bottle (if available) in most fine wine stores. Reference year-to-year California growing conditions on this website under Useful Wine Info – California Vintage Reports.

Wine Education Background

     Beaulieu ‘Georges de Latour’ Cabernet Sauvignon is a classic of the American landscape, and has been for a very long time. Originally crafted by the legendary Andre Tchelischeff, from grapes grown on Napa Valley’s Rutherford Bench, the wine was famously aged in 100% American oak. That gave the wine a considerable relationship with Bourbon ~ also aged in American oak, as is Australia’s most expensive wine, Penfold’s Grange Hermitage. What more could any cowboy want? Big slab of corn-fed beefsteak, and to wash it down, a drink that smelled like Whisky Sour and pipe tobacco. Made in America, like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Modestly expensive, but not rare. For a long time, Beaulieu made 25,000 cases of the ‘Private Reserve’ Cab each year.
     Things have changed a little bit since Andre’s time. In the 1990’s Beaulieu replanted much of their venerable BV #1 and BV #2 vineyards as a phylloxera precaution. During the process they did some clonal experimentation, concluding that while a mix of Cabernet clones was desirable, the best outcomes always included a big percentage of UCD Cab clone #6. That clone produced smaller berries, and smaller clusters than the others. It also got riper faster, and retained better acid. Beaulieu also began adding a little Merlot to the Private Reserve. And they started using some French oak as a complement to their American barrels. BV PR Cab is not the strapping hulk of yesteryear, but it’s still pretty robust.

How Does the Wine Taste?

     What are the best vintages for BV Private Reserve? Depends whether you want to drink it at age eight, or at age twenty. Andre always thought his best vintages were the hottest years; vintages such as 1958, 1966, and 1974. Perhaps he was anticipating the current fad for ultra-ripe Cabs. 1974 was a perfect example. Temperatures during the Summer of 1974 were relatively mild, but they soared from late-August through September. The Cabs were intense, fruity, and softly supple when released. They sold like hotcakes. Contrast the 1973 vintage. It started late, due to a cold, wet Spring. Summer was cool. Harvest progressed under sunny skies, but without high temperatures. Cabs from 1973 were nicely balanced, but more acidic, and roughly tannic in youth. When superseded in the marketplace by the lush ‘74’s, the ’73’s retreated from buyers’ radar. That is until it became fashionable in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s to compare the two vintages side-by-side. At age twenty, BV PR 1974 Cab was flabby, with prune-ish overtones, while the 1973 BV PR Cab had all the structural integrity in the world, a rich cigar box bouquet, and enormous persistence in the glass.
     The results from comparing BV PR 1994 Cab to the 1995 version were similar, although the chronology is reversed. In this instance, 1994 was the dry, mild Winter followed by a balmy Summer and a dry harvest. The ’94 Cabs were smooth, concentrated, and very impressive upon release. 1995 was a wet, cold Winter and Spring. Budbreak was delayed; Summer was cool. Harvest was very late, but conducted under cool, dry skies. The ’95 Cabs were hard, closed, and unrelentingly tannic upon release. In 1999, I would have preferred (hell, I did prefer) to drink the ’94 BV PR Cab rather than its successor.
     Tasted last week, the ’94 BV PR Cab was squat and stodgy compared to its ’95 brother. Nothing wrong with it; just that its singing days are clearly numbered. Its vaunted fruitiness was diminishing and dehydrated. Twenty minutes swirling in the glass left the ’94 bent over gasping with its hands on its knees. The ’95 was much more lively in the glass. No longer tight, its walnut pesto bouquet was rich, deep, and obvious to everyone in the room. It was longer on the palate, and in the memory. It finished with the reminder of black stone fruits, and it maintained that impression for an hour. Today, I wouldn’t be disappointed with either wine served by itself. But I’d be much happier with the ’95, if I got my choice after tasting them both side-by-side.

Wine-Food Pairing

     Beef is on the menu for most people when Beaulieu Private Reserve is on the sideboard. But I think not roast beef. I think the key is grilled beef, and that implies a smokey flavor. It is a natural match with the heated leather overtones in the bouquet of bottle-aged Cabernet Sauvignon. Moreover, I don’t mind doing a little chewing when enhanced flavor is part of the deal. That implies tougher cuts, maybe grass-fed beef, longer marinade times. Think Argentine-style indoor grill.
     BV PR is a good investment wine. Not in the sense of money for resale. But certainly in the sense of consistency, reliability, and track record. Laying some bottles down, from adroitly selected vintages, for ten years of maturation in your cellar is always a good idea. It is a strategy which will allow you to drink well-developed Cabernet at a noteworthy financial savings: comparable to investing the same amount of money at an interest rate of 7% compounded annually. Call it portfolio diversification; very liquid assets.

Wine Market Background

     In class I often extol the virtues of Sauvignon Blanc by pointing out there are several world-class examples priced between $15 and $19. I then exclaim, “There’s no such thing as world-class Chardonnay under $20!” And I do believe that statement to be true. At least it used to be. Which is not to say there haven’t always been a handful of eminently pleasing Chardonnays priced under $20. It is just that competition amongst Chardonnays has always been so much more intense than it is in other white wine varieties. In America, Chardonnay outsells both Pinot Gris (Grigio) and Sauvignon Blanc individually by a factor of four or five. Good Chardonnay can easily command $20 to $40 a bottle, and great Chardonnay commands $50 to $100. The only reason for a winery to price a very fine Chardonnay under $20 would have been when they needed to sell 50,000 cases of it, or if they had very limited confidence in their sales and marketing capacity. Of course, this Recession economy is creating many unusual, and enjoyable surprises for buyers.

Wine Education

     There are several justifications for the expense of a good bottle of Chardonnay. First, the grape itself is not particularly distinctive. It doesn’t have the unique aromatic signature of (say) Gewürztraminer. Nor does it have the strong flavor of (say) Sauvignon Blanc. That means concentration is doubly important and, in Chardonnay, that translates to lower yield. Lower yield means higher price per ton. Whether one gets three tons per acre in Sauvignon Blanc, or five tons per acre, the distinctive flavor is still going to be fairly obvious. Not so with Chardonnay. Taking a Chardonnay vineyard from three tons/acre to five tons/acre would have an effect…

Wine-Food Matching

     Read this post in its entirety, with wine descriptions and food-wine matches, on the Stanford Wine Blog.

California can do world-class Riesling. Not many, and not every year. Still, a handful of producers have proved the potential over decades. The hardship is their best examples are better with six or seven years of bottle age. And consumers just don’t get that concept. The result is a population of soda-like, eminently forgettable, Rieslings from the rest of the CA pack aimed at the mass market. Riesling should not be a mass market wine. Let the masses drink Pepsi. Or Arbor Mist.

Wine Tasting

     The 1996 Madroña Riesling was tasted in a Varietal Series class, which are held the second Friday evening of each month in Nevada City, CA (see Wine Education Vacation). It’s a great way to start off a romantic getaway in the mountains. Nevada City is the cultural centerpiece of the Sierra Foothills ~ live music, good food, palpable history, original art, quaint shopping, wonderful scenery. And several good wineries to discover. Call it The Liquid Gold Country.
     One portion of the class compared this bottle-aged Madroña with two older Rheingaus: a 1992 Robt. Weil Spätlesen and a 1988 Domdechant Hochheimer Hölle Spätlese Halbtrocken. The Weil had the lightest color and the most acid. Its aromatics were all green apple, even at 17-years-old. It continued to develop throughout the weekend, and was even more fragrant on Sunday. The Hochheimer smelled more of caramel, but also had some Pippin apple in the flavor, and it was the least sweet of the group. Neither German wine walked on the Madroña. Both German wines had less than 10% alcohol, while the Madroña had 12%. That’s not a recommendation. But the Madroña also had a lifted fruitiness and a very refreshing acidity. Most importantly the Madroña had completely shed the blocky rough edges of its youth. Once it got a little air, the wine had a burnished luminosity that was just delicious.

Background Wine Education

     As a general proposition California is never going to be a great a producer of Riesling. Washington makes more of them, and quality is usually better in Canada or upstate New York. In the 1960’s there were hundreds of (pretty mediocre) Rieslings made in California. Remember, that era predated White Zinfandel. The number of CA Rieslings dropped to just a dozen or two by the turn of the century. Most of California is just too hot. Riesling here tends toward nicely fruity, but flabby sweet, or else awkwardly alcoholic.
     Nevertheless, California is a really big place. There are lots of extreme climatic and topographical opportunities within CA’s borders. Both the highest point (Mt. Whitney) and the lowest point (Death Valley) in the contiguous U.S. are located in California, and they are not even two hundred miles apart. Two ways to gain more delicate structure, better natural acid, and more pronounced aromatics in CA Riesling are: (1) grow the grapes close to the Pacific Ocean; or (2) grow the grapes at higher elevation. The two best practitioners of these techniques are, respectively: (1) Greenwood Ridge Vyds; and (2) Madroña Vyds.

Winery Descriptions

     Greenwood Ridge is technically in the Anderson Valley AVA of Mendocino County, but the vineyard is actually up on a promontory south of the valley overlooking the coastal village of Elk. Greenwood Ridge gets a lot of rain and fog. It ripens slowly, and retains a lot of acid. Usually finished with around 2% residual sugar, the Greenwood Ridge Riesling always improves over 6-7 years in the bottle. It becomes more aromatic. Madroña can argue its case for highest vineyard in CA at about 3,500 feet of elevation. It is up the hill above Placerville in El Dorado County. They get snow in the vineyard every year, and share the characteristic of high rainfall with Greenwood Ridge. What they don’t share is diurnal fluctuation (difference between low temperature at night and high temperature during the day). Greenwood is cool all the time; Madroña is cold at night and hot in the middle of the day during July and August. Even with a percent or so of residual sugar, Madrona Riesling is a hard wine when it’s young, brusque and unforgiving. It softens with bottle-age, and shows its aromatic features more easily.

Food – Wine Match

     To be impressive in age, Riesling must have strong acid. Some tension between that acid and a bit of residual sugar is nice to give the wine focus. Sushi is a very broad category, but all of it shares an affinity for the cleansing effects of a clean acid bite. I have a local sushi place, in a not-too-distant strip mall, run by a couple young, pierced and goateed Americans, by all appearances under-employed musicians. They’re clearly well traveled. They do a roll with spicy tuna and shrimp tempura inside, wrapped with fresh salmon and avocado. They top it with a sweet mustard, with hot sauce, and with tempura ‘crunchies.’ Traditional? Perhaps not. But a spectacular match with an old Madroña Riesling. As the wine ages, its peachy fruit aromatics take on a noticeable honeyed tone. That character is matched by the tempura. The wine’s slight sweetness modulates the hot sauce, and the acid cuts through the oiliness of the salmon, the tuna, and the avocado. Wonderful match. Rolls are half-price between 2:00 pm and 4:00 on weekdays. For my birthday I plan to eat three of them, with a bottle of wine and a nap.