The Wine Curmudgeon

Tuesday tidbits 46: 15 percent cabernet, restaurant prices, counterfeit labels

• High alcohol wine: The Robert Mondavi Cabernet Reserve, usually one of Napa’s top wines (and one of its priciest at $135), has 15.1 percent alcohol in the 2005 vintage. If this isn’t a record for a super-premium wine, it should be. I got a sample last week, and after it sits for three years or so, I’ll report back on what it tastes like. By comparison, the 2005 Chateau Margaux, another of the world’s great wines, is about 13 percent alcohol.

• Dollar signs and restaurant spending: Restaurant customers spend more money when no dollar sign precedes prices on a menu, according to a recent study at the Culinary Institute of America. The study found that menus "without an overt reference to money" -- prices with just the number and no dollar sign-- resulted in an 8.15 percent increase in average spending per person. The study didn’t target wine sales, but it seems likely that the same principle would apply. How soon before we seen wine lists without dollar signs?

• Counterfeit wine bottle: British and French researchers have developed a system to date wine bottles, which should help deal with the growing problem of high-end counterfeit wine. The process can determine the date of the bottles, so that wine buyers will know that the 1945 Bordeaux really wasn’t made in 2005. “"We sell bottles every day for between $2,000 and $10,000," said the Briton involved in the project. “Counterfeiting is something we have to be very diligent about."

Technorati Tags: wine news,wine trends,Robert Mondavi,California wine,counterfeit wine,wine prices

5 1/2 days in Bordeaux

 

Yes, I had a wonderful time. Yes, I found cheap wine, and yes, I found really good cheap wine. The full account is here (though, at 1,100 words, you might want to read it in stages). Hopefully, I'll also be able to get some pictures up in a slide show over the next week or so.

What's worth noting now is something that I think many of us in the New World forget about French wine. They have been doing it a very, very long time, and that makes a difference that is almost impossible to understand.

The modern California wine industry dates from the end of World War II, or about 60 years. Many of the 14 chateaux I visited had vines that old or older. In Texas, where so many winemakers and winery owners are eager to hurry up and make great wine, our vines are 20 years old at best. The average age of most of the vines at the dozen or so chateaux I visited is almost 10 years older than that.

Age brings experience which brings quality. Jean de Cournuaud, the ninth generation of his family to make wine at Chateau Mazeris, told me he had to pull out some vines a couple of years ago because they were too old and had stopped producing. The vines had been planted at the beginning of the 20th century, when France had been devastated by phylloxera. That's like finding out your grandfather played baseball with Babe Ruth. France just doesn't make wine. It makes history.

Technorati Tags: French wine,Bordeaux,chateaux

State Fair of Texas wine seminars

See the Wine Curmudgeon in person! For free!!

John Bratcher, my partner in the Two Wine Guys, wine guru Dan Peabody, and I will hold Wine 101 seminars at the State Fair of Texas through Oct. 19. The classes, held in the Wine Garden in back of the Food and Fiber building, are free. They last 15 or 20 minutes, and we cover wine basics.

The schedule through the end of the fair is here.

Technorati Tags: wine classes,State Fair of Texas,Wine Curmudgeon,Wine 101

McPherson Cellars

This is one of an occasional series detailing Texas wineries. The complete list is here.

Let’s get the full disclosure stuff out of the way first. I like Kim McPherson, who runs Lubbock’s McPherson Cellars, and consider him a friend. His broker, John Bratcher, does wine tastings with me as part of the Two Wine Guys, and is a good friend. But I’d say the following about McPherson even if none of that was true:

Kim McPherson makes damn fine wine.

Three Australian winemakers, part II

This is the second of two parts about selected Australian wine and winemakers. The first part is here.

In one respect, Rosemount, Robert Oatley Vineyards, and Jacob’s Creek/Orlando are completely different companies. The first is part of a huge multi-national, the second was formed not to be a huge multi-national, and the third is the high-end label for a huge multi-national.

But what they have in common is a willingness to make something other than shiraz that blasts away at your senses – and they aren’t shy about saying that. That’s a most welcome development.

Here’s a sample of some of their most interesting wines:

Wine of the week: La Poule Blanche 2006

Or, for those of you whose French is a little rusty, chicken white wine.

La Poule Blanche ($11) comes with an excellent pedigree. Sacha Lichine, the man behind it, is the son of Alexis Lichine, one of the legends of the French wine business. And the wine is that good.

It’s a blend of chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, and viognier that combines a New World fruitiness (very ripe apples, maybe) with French style. That means crispness, minerality and not a touch of oak. I drank it with roast chicken (big surprise, huh?), but it would work with seafood pastas, white pizzas and cheese courses. If it cost $1 less, it would make the $10 Hall of Fame.

Technorati Tags: Sacha Lichine,white wine,wine reviews,wine of the week,La Poule Blanche

Tuesday tidbits 45

• State Fair of Texas: The fair’s Wine 101 classes, which proved such a big hit last year, will return when the fair begins Friday. Look for the Wine Garden, in back of the Food and Fiber building. And, yes, that will be the Wine Curmudgeon holding classes, rotating with well-known wine types John Bratcher and Dan Peabody.

• Manhattan gets a winery: Urban wineries are popular, but in Manhattan? Nevertheless, City Winery, which is set to open this fall, has imported a French winemaker and is run by several well-known New York restaurant types. The biggest question, of course, is price vs. value. How can a winery paying Manhattan rents (and. in this case, SoHo rents, produce wine at a competitive price?

• More wine score sighing: This, from the Wine Blue Book, which compares wines based on price and scores: 2005 Lewis Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Reserve ($113) --average score, 95 points; cost is 41 percent of the average of a similar scoring West Coast cabernet sauvignon. This means it’s a "Great Value." Have we fallen so far that a $113 wine is a great value?

Technorati Tags: State Fair of Texas,wine scores,Manhattan winery