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James Laube's Wine Flights
Aloft, Peter Mondavi's new Cabernet, is made by Thomas Brown
Posted: June 28, 2012 By James Laube
It's been a long time in the works. So it is with the Peter Mondavi family. It has always been the tortoise to Robert Mondavi's hare. The hare no longer exists as it once did, but the Peter Mondavi family, owners of Charles Krug Winery, is stretching its neck out with a new signature wine called Aloft, made by Thomas Brown. It comes from a family-owned site on Howell Mountain, above the Napa Valley floor, territory that is relatively new to the Krug Mondavis, as they're often known, who make most of their Napa wines from valley floor grapes.
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Stirring the Lees with James Molesworth
I made a quick stop in Châteauneuf-du-Pape at the new La Consonniere, then headed up to Domaine de Mourchon in Séguret
Posted: June 27, 2012 By James Molesworth
On my fourth day in France's Rhône Valley, I made one last stop in Châteauneuf-du-Pape at the new La Consonniere domaine, then headed up into the hills to Séguret, where I checked out the family-run operation at Domaine de Mourchon. Here are my tasting notes on the 2010 Châteauneufs at both domaines, and much more.
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
The wine world is full of people who seem to know it all
Posted: June 27, 2012 By Tim Fish
A long time
ago, before I started writing about wine and food for a living, I was a
newspaper reporter. I covered everything from fatal car crashes to rock
concerts, and interviewed everyone from movie stars to murderers on death row.
A lot of
the beats required little more than fearless interrogation skills and the
ability to type like an AK-47, but some called for specific knowledge and
experience, and that's when I learned that the line between passion and
snobbishness is razor thin.
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
Barb Stuckey, author of Taste What You're Missing, discusses the subjectivity of taste over lunch at San Francisco's Wo Hing General Store
Posted: June 26, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
Barb Stuckey loves a glass of good Sauvignon Blanc, often at the end of a day in which she might be tasting everything but wine. She might be called upon to weigh in on the latest efforts at tortilla chips, cereals, processed garlic purees and inventive pizzas or, as required recently, analyze a few upscale chain restaurants, all in her job leading the marketing and consumer research functions at Mattson, a Bay-Area company that develops new foods.
When she started at Mattson, the business school graduate had no clue what the food experts were talking about as they dissected the food they tasted. But she learned, and soon what she knew about tasting made dining in her nonprofessional life a more satisfying experience. That was the impetus for her book, published this year: Taste What You’re Missing: The Passionate Eater’s Guide to Why Good Food Tastes Good (Free Press, 407 pages, $26).
Blogs
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Stirring the Lees with James Molesworth
On my third day in France's Rhône Valley I visited a few of the south's benchmarks
Posted: June 25, 2012 By James Molesworth
On my third day in France's Rhône Valley, I visited a few benchmarks of the south, starting with Château de Beaucastel. After that I visited Isabel Ferrando at Domaine St.-Préfert, followed by a trip to Château Cabrières. Here are my tasting notes on the 2010 Châteauneuf-du-Papes and more.
Blogs
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Stirring the Lees with James Molesworth
On my second day of visits in France's Rhône Valley I made three more stops in Châteauneuf-du-Pape to check out the 2010 vintage
Posted: June 22, 2012 By James Molesworth
On my second day back in France's Rhône Valley, I visited three domaines to check out the 2010 vintage (and a few 2011s), beginning with Domaine Jean Royer. I then checked out Ogier, followed by Domaine de Cristia. Here are my tasting notes.
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
Some of America's best practioners of "foreign" cuisines aren't very foreign at all
Posted: June 21, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
When a foreign cuisine first wowed you in a restaurant, was it in a storefront run by a recent immigrant, or did it happen in a fancier place created by an American chef or restaurateur passionate about a cuisine that at one point was just as foreign to him or her as it was to you?
Some of the best-known practitioners in the U.S. of Thai, Mexican, Chinese and other “foreign” cuisines are Americans with no familial ties to the cultures in question. Andy Ricker recently opened branches in New York of Pok Pok, his hyper-successful Portland, Ore., Thai restaurant. Ed Schoenfeld of RedFarm, a stylized Chinese restaurant, and Alex Stupak of Empellón Cocina, a Mexican restaurant, have also wowed New York critics and customers. Rick Bayless of Chicago restaurants Frontera Grill and Topolobampo is acknowledged to be America’s master of Mexican cooking. All of them were referenced recently in a New York Times story, which asked who should best represent ethnic cuisines in the public’s mind.
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
Cellaring wines for your children can be a history lesson
Posted: June 20, 2012 By Tim Fish
With all the great California Cabernet Sauvignons that came after, people tend to forget the 1991 vintage, but it was an excellent one. California Cabernet came into its own with the 1985s, but for me the early benchmark was always 1991.
From the start, the wines showed great depth and balance, and were immediately drinkable, but you had the sense they would age gracefully. For me they had an additional significance: My daughter Sophie was born in 1991.
We celebrated her 21st birthday last week and I opened a few of the 1991s I've had in my cellar since they were released. The bottles were in great shape and the wines had aged beautifully. They made up for all those bottles I've opened with anticipation over the years only to be disappointed.
Blogs
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Stirring the Lees with James Molesworth
On my first day back in France's Rhône Valley, I visited Jean-Charles Cazes at Sénéchaux and the Coulons at Beaurenard
Posted: June 19, 2012 By James Molesworth
My flight was on time. My train was on time. And I even figured out the rental car in short order, getting that frustrating "eco" function off to avoid the maddening engine stop at red lights, as well as figuring out where the parking brake was.
After a quick lunch at La Mère Germain, I visited with Jean-Charles Cazes at Sénéchaux and Daniel and Frédéric Coulon at Beaurenard, where the 2010s are superb.
Here are my tasting notes.
Blogs
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Stirring the Lees with James Molesworth
I'll be checking out the 2010s from France's Northern and Southern Rhône Valleys, as well as a smattering of 2011s and, likely, quite a bit more
Posted: June 18, 2012 By James Molesworth
Well, I'm off to the Rhône. Again.
It's probably no secret that France's Rhône Valley is my favorite wine region, and so while any trip there is technically work, it's always a little bit of fun too. I feel very much at home whether on the rolling plateau of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, along broad terraces of Gigondas in the southern portion of this region or on the steep slopes of Cornas, Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie in the north.
I'll be covering both the south and north this time, as I'm making just this one trip to the region this year. This time around, I'll be focusing primarily on the 2010s, which are just being bottled, and I might get an early look at some 2011s as well.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
The 2007 Heitz Martha's Vineyard ranks among the great Cabernets in Heitz' 50 years of tradition
Posted: June 15, 2012 By James Laube
Along with Ridge Monte Bello, Heitz Martha's Vineyard is one of California's longest running single-vineyard Cabernets. Since 1962 for Ridge and 1967 for Martha's, these two Cabernets have been made continuously by the same respective wineries. They are grands crus in the purest spirit of the word.
Last year, Heitz celebrated its 50th year in business, and the Martha's Vineyard Cabernet remains a consistently complex, well-defined, distinctive expression of terroir. When the 2007 Martha's (94 points, 1,330 cases made) passed through my office the other day in a blind tasting, I wondered if the wine in the brown paper bag could possibly be Heitz. It had all the telltale signs: the minty chocolate-covered cherry aromas, the firm, dense and concentrated body, and long, persistent finish. It's the best new Martha's I can remember in years. Make that decades.
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
Sonoma's young AVA is a distinctive place that makes distinctive wines
Posted: June 13, 2012 By Tim Fish
How can you not like a wine region called Rockpile? The name alone brings up all sorts of images, of prehistoric-style rugged countrysides or chain gangs busting stones in the godforsaken sun. The reality of the place is not all that different from that.
Rockpile is a rustic landscape and a distinctive place that makes equally distinctive red wines, particularly Zinfandel and Syrah. Some of the wineries that make wine from the region's fruit include Carol Shelton, JC Cellars, Seghesio, St. Francis and Valdez Family.
That day, people were practically crawling across the Meadowood lawn like it was the sandy Mojave in search of something cool and refreshing. And all they could find was Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. Warm Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. They could have raised $100,000 on a single chilled bottle of rosé that day. I would have chipped in.
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
Oregon's 2010 and 2011 Pinot Noirs offer pleasant surprises
Posted: June 11, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
After a week in Willamette Valley tasting Oregon’s 2010 and 2011 Pinot Noirs, I am impressed. If delicacy is what you crave, these vintages provided the framework for it. If you love rich wines and think delicate Pinot Noirs can’t have ripe flavors, these vintages might persuade you otherwise.
My enthusiasm comes with a couple of caveats, however. One is the weather, which posed serious challenges in both vintages. Unlike 2008, when making exceptional wine was pretty much a no-brainer, negotiating the cool, rainy conditions of 2010 and 2011 required skills that only those who had experienced them before could muster. As a result, you can’t just pluck a bottle off the shelf. A significant percentage of producers missed. Some missed by a wide margin.
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
Now that the weather is warm, it’s time for a good dry rosé
Posted: June 6, 2012 By Tim Fish
You could actually get a glass of rosé at this year's Auction Napa Valley. And why not? It was a beautiful, warm afternoon on Saturday. I remember an auction back in the late 1990s and it was so sweltering under the tent that I thought of a classic line from Biloxi Blues: "It's Africa hot. Tarzan couldn't take this kind of hot."
That day, people were practically crawling across the Meadowood lawn like it was the sandy Mojave in search of something cool and refreshing. And all they could find was Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. Warm Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. They could have raised $100,000 on a single chilled bottle of rosé that day. I would have chipped in.
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
A rock of reason in Barolo
Posted: June 4, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
I had not seen Aldo Conterno, the legendary Barolo producer, in more than 20 years. I had made an appointment to visit him at the winery outside the town of Monforte d’Alba while on vacation with my wife. We drove up to the hilltop building on a showery Monday morning in April. Aldo’s son Giacamo met us and conveyed his father’s regrets that he could not be there. He was in a hospital recovering from pneumonia.
Late last week, when the sad news reached us that Aldo was dead at 81, I flashed back to a sunny day in the late 1980s when I first visited him at the winery. We sat in the warm courtyard after the obligatory tour of the cellar and a drive through the vineyard, and talked about the revolution that was under way in Piemonte.
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
Few bargains as the 2010 and 2011 vintages come on the market
Posted: May 30, 2012 By Tim Fish
Zinfandel has gotten more expensive in recent years, there's no arguing that. Zin vines will crank out buckets of wishy-washy juice if you let them, but it takes effort and time and money to make great Zin.
That's particularly true with the 2010 and 2011 vintages, in which Zin makers faced every plague but locust. Good Zins from those vintages selling for less than $15 or $20 a bottle will be few and far. In my annual report, "Zinfandel Elegance" in the June 30 issue of Wine Spectator, I was so concerned about the challenges and quality of those vintages that I didn't give readers enough good advice on value.
Consider this the makeup test.
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
We used to know what they meant
Posted: May 29, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
Few things make me grumpier than encountering words that have been twisted to mean something other than their original intent. Wine is apparently not immune to this scourge. And I’m not talking about innocent confusions, such as acidic (the tartness of grape acidity) vs. acetic (the flavor of vinegar). Or the wholly unnecessary distinction that wine textbooks make between aroma (that part of a wine’s smell that comes from the grape) and bouquet (from winemaking), a technical nuance useful to winemakers but not really to those of us who just want to drink and enjoy wine.
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
Going behind the scenes of California's most-diverse wine region
Posted: May 23, 2012 By Tim Fish
Sonoma can't be done in one day. It's a big, rambling county that's twice the size of its neighbor Napa and has a patchwork of winegrowing regions that would put any GPS to the test.
I've lived in Sonoma County for 23 years and have watched it evolve and mature. It has become more upscale but retains much of its unpolished charm. Traveling the local wine roads all these years, I'm a veteran tour guide, which came in handy while we were working on the June 15 cover story for Wine Spectator, "Exploring Sonoma: An Insider's Guide." Here are a few highlights.
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
Wines from the 1960s star in a retrospective dinner
Posted: May 22, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
My donation to the Central Coast Wine Auction this year included some California Cabernets from decades long past, which were contributed to a fantastic charity dinner.
I have had great bottles of mature California Cabernet Sauvignon on many occasions, but seldom a lineup as consistently rewarding and educational as this one. All eight bottles were in great condition and they perfectly represented their eras, their vineyard sources and their house styles. When you’re dealing with older wines, that’s luck.
This was the annual dinner wherein my friend Archie McLaren and I dig into our cellars for the wines to pour in a San Francisco restaurant. This time we ferreted out four California wines each, offering two from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Chef Jan Birnbaum from Epic Roasthouse in San Francisco came up with an inventive menu for the all-red wine roster.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
The 2009 Napa Cabernets are rich and structured; Sonoma Pinot Noirs are great again in 2010
Posted: May 18, 2012 By James Laube
The more I taste the 2009 Napa Cabernets and 2010 California Pinot Noirs, the more I like them.
