Unfiltered

A wine by and for jarheads, sweet wine by the spoon and the spritz, and royal honors for a hot-tempered chef

Posted: January 11, 2006

• The movie Jarhead may not have gotten rave reviews, but a wine that shares its name is starting to make its mark. Adam Firestone, president of Firestone Vineyard in Santa Barbara (and the older brother of former Bachelor Andrew Firestone), has just released Jarhead Red, a $10 Cabernet Sauvignon. The bottling helps to raise money for the Marine Corps Scholarship Fund, which supports marines' children, particularly those whose parents were wounded or killed in action. Firestone, a former marine, made the first small batch of Jarhead Red for a Marine Corps dinner a couple years ago. "We repeated it for the last several dinners, and it got a little bit of a following, and with that came a request to use it for other dinners," he says. In response to the increased demand, 674 cases were produced from the 2005 vintage; the wine is available over the Internet and at retailers in New York and Los Angeles. So far, Firestone has raised enough money for two $10,000 scholarships, and he is now working on a third. "A lot of people would think that marines aren't cultured enough to appreciate good wine," says Firestone, "and we've proven that wrong."

Wine so sweet, some restaurants serve it by the spoonful.

• Welcome to our fine restaurant, sir. Now open wide … here comes the wine choo choo! The Royal Tokaji Wine Co., which produces the Hungarian region's incredibly rare Eszencia, is releasing its 1999 vintage with a crystal sipping spoon. Two restaurants in Budapest are already offering the wine by the spoonful for about $18. That may sound a bit pricey, but the botrytized wine has such a high concentration of sugar that it takes years for even a little bit of it to ferment. (After six years in the cellar, the wine only has about 2.9 percent alcohol.) If you want a whole 500ml bottle, that'll run you about $500; about 600 of the 1,200 bottles produced will be available in the United States in the spring, complete with the spoon. "Those Chinese snuff bottles with a tiny ivory/plastic spoon gave me the idea," says Ben Howkins, managing director of the Royal Tokaji Wine Co. "The liquid of Essencia is so different from anything else that it needed to be treated differently and seen to be treated differently." Along those lines, the bottles are numbered, and the first one from every vintage is given to a world leader. The No. 1 bottle of 1993 Essencia was given to the recently appointed Pope Benedict XVI. There's no word yet on who will receive the first bottle from the 1999 vintage. But if they're taking nominations, Unfiltered, known for a serious sweet tooth, is hoping they'll waive that pesky world leader requirement.

Cologne that looks like a wine bottle and smells like a wine barrel.

• Speaking of botrytis, apparently there's nothing quite as seductive as the scent of noble rot. If you're in the market for a new perfume or cologne, French wine merchant Ginestet has created three fragrances that draw on the flavors of wine for their scents. For men, there's Le Boisé, which is reminiscent of oak barrels, while women can choose between Sauvignonne, with its fresh, citrus smell, or Botrytis, with honey and quince notes similar to those of a Sauternes. Not to be outdone, French perfumer Cava Parfums has come out with its own line of viniferous fragrances called Château Roxane. Sold in 100ml wine bottles, the perfume and cologne are meant to evoke Montrachet and Gevrey-Chambertin, respectively. Just make sure you don't accidentally put them down on your dining-room table.

Why is Gordon Ramsay smiling? He's been honored by the Queen!

• It was an exciting start to 2006 for Michelin-starred English chefs Gordon Ramsay, who stars in the reality TV shows Hell's Kitchen and The F-Word, and Heston Blumenthal. Both were placed on the New Year's Honors list to be awarded Order of the British Empire medals by Queen Elizabeth. The OBE (which is not the same as a knighthood), is bestowed upon those who have demonstrated chivalry and valuable service. Given Ramsay's notoriously hot temper, played up on TV, we're not so sure about the chivalry part. But improving British cuisine certainly qualifies as a valuable service.

• A is for … Alabama wine. Washington, D.C., restaurant Charlie Palmer Steak, which holds Wine Spectator's Best of Award of Excellence for its wine list, is continuing its quest to expose diners to wines from all 50 states. The latest promotion: Wine Wednesdays, during which discounts will be offered on glasses or bottles of one wine from a different state each week. As the promotion will run alphabetically, it kicks off today with Alabama. Unfiltered isn't sure that's exactly going to lure customers in droves. But considering the restaurant is in the capital, at least it didn't start off with a polarizing state like Texas or, in the current political atmosphere, it might have faced a dining filibuster.

• Making a Big Move: Damian North, winemaker at Oregon's Benton-Lane winery, who shared his thoughts on this year's harvest in Wine Spectator's Voices of the Vintage series, is taking his family back to his native Australia. He wasn't just homesick. He had the opportunity to join Leeuwin Estate, one of the highest-profile wineries in Oz; the Margaret River winery's Art Series Chardonnay has made it onto Wine Spectator's Top 100 list two years in a row, in 2005 and 2004. North will be No. 2 on the ladder, under senior winemaker Paul Atwood. "[North] is a great winemaker," says Steven Girard, owner of Benton-Lane. "His wines--the fruit just leapt out of them. We're sorry to have Damian move on, but he's leaving as a good friend." North's replacement is Edna Valley winemaker Tim Wilson, who will make the move from California's Central Coast to Oregon in mid-January.