Some 19th Century quotes on Port and Portuguese wines

I’ve been browsing a few old books online, and came across a couple of nice quotes on Port and Portuguese wines from a late 19th Century text: ‘The mode of making port wine is extremely unclean, and the proceedings are very crude and elementary; nevertheless, so good a product is obtained that its faults are, as it were, drowned in its good qualities. The great object of the wine makers must be to produce good and durable wine with only so much alcohol as shall not be injurious to the wine drinker. This cannot be said to be the case with the ordinary thick, heavy, so-called loaded ports of 40 to 42 of proof spirit, and for this reason whole classes of society in Britain have ceased to drink any port wine whatever. Yet good port wine is one of the most wonderful productions of the earth ; and I am sure, when vinification in all its branches and variations shall be once fully understood on the Alto Douro, it will produce such excellent red wines as hitherto have not been exported from the Peninsula.’ ‘Portugal in itself, poor, yet climatically highly endowed, is capable of producing a variety of the most beautiful grapes, and a variety of wines, which, if properly made, would not be surpassed by those of any other country. The people are good-natured, industrious, and hard-working, and they have what is very agreeable to a person who comes from this country, a great regard for an Englishman. If these good people would continue to plant their vineyards with particular sorts of grapes, such as have been proved in the great Alto Douro districts, in Bucellas, or Collares, to be so excellent;if they were to abandon that horrid practice of making sweet and cooked wines; if they[…]

Jimmie Vaughan’s 1967 Fender Coronado (how friggin’ cool is that?)

From the “does this town rock or what?” department… Above: Guitar legend Jimmie Vaughan’s 1967 Fender Coronado and Ronnie James’s 1967 Fender Coronado bass. Photo via Hair by Felice. My friends often hear me say that moving to Austin to be with Tracie P was the smartest thing I’ve ever done. The second smartest thing? Moving to Austin to be with Tracie P. One of the coolest things about living in this central Texas town is how you can run into a guitar hero at the super market and then see him take the stage that night at Antone’s. When the super cool lady who cuts my hair showed me the above photo of Jimmie Vaughan’s 1967 Fender Coronado and the matching 1967 Coronado bass that he got his bass player to take on tour with them to support Jimmie’s new album, I BEGGED her to let me put it on my blog (you see, lady in question, Felice, goes steady with Jimmie’s bass player Ronnie James). And I gotta say, Jimmie’s new album is some pretty, bad-assed smoking music that puts some seriously deep-fried boogie in your butt. So far Tracie P’s favorite track is “Wheel of Fortune,” which features Lou Ann Barton on vox. We’re going to miss Jimmie’s show next weekend at Antone’s ’cause we’ll be out of town but that’s okay. I know I’ll run into Jimmie at Whole Foods market when we’re back… If you still had any doubt that Austin is America’s most rockin’ city, check out this photo I snapped yesterday by our favorite hippy-dippy convenience store/gas station. Buon weekend, ya’ll…

Buon Appetito, Piemonte

The latest edition of Bon Appetit (August 2010) includes a neat little feature on traveling to — and eating and drinking in — Piemonte. Included among its short list of eight highlights, I was very pleased to see two places that I visited on my most recent trip to the Langhe. The first of the two, staking down the second spot on the list, was Centro Storico, a place I'd like to see replicated, at least in spirit, in every town I have occasion to visit. It's that solid a recipe: great wine (and really great Champagne!), comforting food, no nonsense service and a friendly, makes-you-want-to-stay-there-all-day kind of vibe.A big congrats to Alessio "Ciccio" Cighetti and his wife Stefania for the recognition in such a major mag. I barely recognized Alessio in the "sultry-style" photo in Bon App (besides which, it's not available in the online version), so I'll stick with my own shot, taken in situ back in May.When you go... notice I say "when," not if, and use "you" in the universally inclusive sense, not in the one-or-two-folks-who-I-know-are going-to-go-anyway sense. When you go... it'll be fine if you mention the Bon Appetit spot to Alessio, but make sure to tell him you read about it here first! I really do love that place.Anchoring the B.A. list in the #8 spot is a restaurant of another sort, one that I couldn't imagine succeeding, if duplicated exactly as is, in any city in the United States. And yet, set just off the corner of a beautiful old square in Pollenzo, on the grounds of Slow Food's University of Gastronomic Sciences, it seemed perfectly at home (aside, perhaps, from the gate at which guests have to be buzzed in to gain admittance).That place is Ristorante Guido. It may be a Michelin[…]

A Tale Of Two Crus

Or: ‘One Step Closer to Being a Beaujolais Blog’ Leisurely wine-drinking hasn’t been an activity I’ve had a lot of time for lately, but I’ve still been tasting samples and sitting down with reps nearly everyday in search of wines for the list. For reds, the lighter and softer examples have been the most versatile with the flavours of the dishes (as expected). What use do monster reds really have in food pairing (besides charred, well done steak with mole sauce)? I’ve been searching for a good bottle of Cru Beaujolais that I could offer at a reasonable price (more of a daunting task that it should be) as many of the greatest vigneron-producers of the region aren’t available in BC, and when they are, the prices are discouraging. Case in point is Marcel Lapierre’s Morgon, which in California will often roll in at the low $20s (a great by-the-glass price!) as opposed to up here in the LDB at $39 (an impossible by-the-glass price). So far this week I’ve found two bottles of 2008 that I had never seen before. One is from Saint-Amour - the most northerly of the 10 cru villages and one known for its lightness. The other from Moulin-A-Vent, a few villages south of Saint-Amour, and likely the most revered cru for serious, age-worthy and structured Beaujolais. Henry Fessy ‘08 Saint-Amour Light and pretty with vibrant strawberry fruit, welcomed acidity, and a little depth. Gamay should have a prettiness and an allure, which this wine has. There is a good chance it will make an appearance on the wine list by next weekend. $25 at 39th & Cambie. Domaine Piron-Lameloise ‘08 Moulin-A-Vent ‘Vielles Vignes’ This one has a little more body and darker fruit. It showed some earthiness with the floral and cherry/plummy characters. This[…]

A Load of Santorini Assyrtiko Wines

The other night a few friends helped me to taste through a load of Santorini wines. I've discovered these wines only recently and am still just beginning to understand them. Here are the basics, as I understand them:--Assyrtiko is the most important grape grown on Santorini. It is yellowish and fleshy, and it retains its vigorous acidity even when very ripe. The other grapes that commonly appear in Santorini wines are Aidani and Athiri.--Santorini sees a lot of sun and a lot of heat. Vines are trained in coiled baskets in order to shield the grapes from the sun. Even still, alcohol levels tend to be high.--Soils are primarily volcanic rock and pumice. The pictures I've seen make it seem as though there is little soil, as I understand soil to be, in the vineyards of Santorini.--Vines are very old - supposedly the average age on the island is about 80 years old. And the vines are un-grafted, as Phylloxera seems not to have taken root, so to speak, on Santorini.--The wines really do need a few years to settle, to show their graceful side, as they are intense and assertive early on.I tasted some of these wines before and found them to be rather compelling. On this night I wanted to drink them with dinner. And that didn't happen. I had friends over, I made dinner and didn't get to focus as I would have liked. But there was wine left in all but two of the bottles and I sat down with them thoughtfully on day 3. I'll share some notes, but first a few thoughts.There are some sulfur issues with these wines. It can be confusing - are those smokey volcanic rock aromas, or sulfur aromas? With some bottles it was clearly sulfur, with others I felt[…]

The Organic Wine Journal presents the No-Spoof Zone. On Location at The Tangled VIne. Special Guests, Bisson Rose and HD in effect

And On The Final Day

This is some sort of crappy wrap up post to 32 Days. It is rambling, poorly written, long, ambiguous and completely useless. i hope you enjoy it. First off let me thank everyone who participated this year. i can’t tell you how great it is to have the range of people involved actually wanting to write for me for nothing except for their enthusiasm for the subject. My hat is off to all of you. We were sitting in Giovanni’s home with Luigi and Tony, Elvira and Francesco the weaver, drinking Giovanni’s excellent wine. Below us in the basement was Giuseppe’s wine room, the hum of thousands of crushed grapes fermenting. Teodalinda’s wine-flushed face as she posed for a photograph with her husband and a glass of their wine, the ever ringing bells reminding one of the presence of time even in a place like Bucita. They are all gone now. - Alfonso Cevola Most of us want authentic wine, in the sense of wine that tastes of the grapes used to make it — of nature — and not of the methods and equipment or new oak. - Edward Behr Getting smashed, eating well, and laughing with good friends are key to our movement. - Joe Dressner Fear the Thunderbird - Hardy Wallace Do we really care if there is a definition for “natural wine”? Last night i was sitting down and drinking a bottle of Domaine Gramenon Poignee de Raisin. It’s a natural wine. It’s not a traditional wine, given that is made under carbonic maceration. It’s a vin de soif, made for drinking right now. Why is it natural? Too often the debate on natural wines goes down a semantic rabbit hole, but instead of tea parties and disappearing cats it is just a debate on the[…]

Dauvissat

1996 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru La ForestPretty good. What I was worried might be oxidation, Eric clarified as something else, a bit of botrytis. That’s kind of interesting and I wonder if this is common in what people perceive as oxidized white Burgundy. Is all the later harvesting in the Côte d’Or contributing to rising levels of botrytis in the vineyards which the vignerons do not know how to handle? This led to a discussion of Thevenets wines and how they are able to manage the botrytis so elegantly. Always enlightening spending time with Eric.2000 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru La ForestA good bottle of this. Perhaps less bright and stone fruited than I would have wanted, but a good bottle nonetheless. I’d suggest going ahead and digging in. I think I liked this better a few years ago.Is this what we’ve come to? I don’t mind drinking my chardonnay on the early side, I like the tension and the acids, but it seems to me that Chablis from top vintages from top producers need to be enjoyed for their youthful vigor rather than their tertiary qualities? If that is the case, maybe we’ll see prices drop to reflect this new reality.

Snow White goes tasting

Snow White & wineCentre Pompidou, Paris (Visual story) A bizarre happening took place a few days ago at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, a cultural center also short-named as Beaubourg. In the basement of the Contemporary Art Museum and in...

On Reading Steiner and Natural Wines

Learning Steiner I enjoy receiving parcels. On Friday I received two books, one of them being Agricultural Course – The Birth of the Biodynamic Method, a collection of lectures delivered by Rudolf Steiner in Austria circa 1926. My thinking is that although some of what I have read so far is a little far-fetched, it’s a must read for anyone who believes in non-interventionist winemaking (and wine drinking). Cut through the fluff of what the experts say about sustainable winemaking and get straight to the source. Then read what experts, critics and bloggers have to say.  Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past year or so, the natural, organic, sustainable and biodynamic wine movement has been gaining momentum. Championed by importers, retailers, sommeliers and now the wine buying public, wines that are produced with minimal intervention are here to stay. And it’s not just about the environment that attracts wine drinkers to these wines – it’s the world class quality in the bottle. I have said this before and I will say it again, wines that are produced naturally aren’t always the best wines. I have taste plenty of biodynamic insipidness to know that just because a winemaker takes care of the land and the vine they need to understand how to deliver the harmony of the land, grape and climate in a bottle of wine.  The natural wine movement is here to stay and I believe so because as buyers, sellers and educators we have moved beyond the debate of the existence of terroir and instead are now focusing on why it’s important to deliver the best representations of individual terroirs. Wine does exhibit a sense of place. I am sure of it. What’s prudent now is how to share our findings with the wine drinking public and ween them off of the mass-produced big brand[…]

Cocktail Recipe: ABC Kitchen Rye Whiskey Manhattan

Eric Asimov discusses the Manhattan cocktail.

The best South African wines to drink while watching the World Cup final.

After pegging an article about Barberas to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, I promised myself that I would never again use an international sporting event as a hook for a wine column—it seemed too predictable, too trite. But as the World Cup approached, I began to waver. If I didn't use this opportunity to write about South African wines, the next chance to peg a column to a major quadrennial athletic competition wouldn't come until at least the 2018 World Cup (location: TBD). Between now and then, the global sports calendar is decidedly thin on wine links. The 2012 Summer Olympics will be held in London; the 2014 Winter Games, in Sochi, Russia; Brazil hosts the 2014 World Cup; and Rio de Janeiro will be the site of the 2016 Summer Olympics. For a sports-besotted wine writer, this looks to be a frustrating decade. My resolve was already crumbling when I read a crazy story a few months ago about grape-eating baboons decimating some South African vineyards (with winemakers using vuvuzelas to chase off the predators), and now, 62 games and four full weeks into the World Cup, it has collapsed entirely, hence this column. And, actually, if the World Cup has been a celebration of the new, post-apartheid South Africa, the South African wine industry is a potent symbol of the nation's progress but also offers sobering evidence that there is still much work to be done.[more ...] World Cup - Sport - Rio de Janeiro - 2010 FIFA World Cup - 2012 Summer Olympics