The Wine Curmudgeon

Restaurant wine: An inside look

Restaurants get a lot of criticism from the Wine Curmudgeon –- poorly executed wine lists, crummy service, and armed robbery prices.

But that doesn’t mean they aren’t trying to do better. In the past couple of weeks, I did a couple of functions with representatives of two important U.S. restaurant chains. At each, I said I wanted to write about what they thought about wine and the problems that many restaurants have, and promised them anonymity. They agreed. What they told me was quite encouraging.

Wine review: Masi Campofiorin 2005

Italy, being the most complicated wine region in the world, really doesn’t get a fair shake in the U.S. There are so many wines, and they are made with such odd grapes, that most of us opt for what’s easy –- Chianti and sangiovese blends, poorly-made pinot grigio, and the odd Barolo or Montepulciano.

So, when the Wine Curmudgeon gets a chance to taste something off the beaten path, he takes it. And when the wine is well done and not especially expensive, like the Masi (about $15, though availability may be limited), it’s a treat. It also helps that most of Masi’s other wines are, four, five and even 10 times more expensive.

This red wine is a blend, made mostly with a Veronese grape called corvina, grown almost nowhere else. It’s partially dried, somewhat like a raisin, before crushing. This gives the wine a darker, deeper flavor, though it isn’t particularly fruity. Serve it with red sauce, as well as roast meat, including chicken. It would also make a terrific chicken cacciatore.

Technorati Tags: Italian wine,red wine blends,corvina,Masi

A new look for the Wine Curmudgeon

Call it whimsy. Call it branding, since I'm coming up on a year of doing this and all the experts say you’re supposed to refresh your look at about that time. Call it TypePad’s fault, since the platform that I use for the blog has upgraded its design capabilities.

The changes should make the blog more streamlined, simpler to use and and easier to read. The navigation bar on the top has simpler subscription options (no more of that silly-looking box that was always mistaken for a search gadget). Plus, you can send me an email by clicking on the link in the navigation bar in the upper right hand corner. I also added a category on the left sidebar for Texas and regional wine, since that has developed into one of the focuses here.

Still to come: An actual search engine and maybe even some ads.

Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments.

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Wine of the week: Colonia las Liebres 2007

Argentina is best known for malbec, which it has turned into the country’s national grape. Wine drinkers associate malbec with Argentina in the same way that people associate shiraz with Australia. But that doesn’t mean the country’s winemakers don’t produce other interesting wines.

The las Liebres (about $10) is made with an Italian variety called bonardo (by Italians in Argentina, apparently), and it’s worth a taste. The wine is fruity and ripe, with lots of blackberry, very little in the way of tannins, and no oak. It’s a heftier, darker version of Beaujolais nouveau. Drink this with with any tomato-based Italian dish, grilled sausages or barbecue.

Technorati Tags: red wine,Argentine wine,bonardo,Colonia las Liebres,$10 wine,cheap wine

Tuesday tidbits 50: Munson bio, wine shipping, Beaujolais nouveau

• Munson bio wins award: Roy E. Renfro Jr. and Sherrie S. McLeRoy have won the international Gourmand Award’s Best Wine History book for their Grape Man of Texas: Thomas Volney Munson & the Origins of American Viticulture, published by the Wine Appreciation Guild. This is a big deal; Munson was the Texan whose pioneering work with grapevines helped save the French wine industry during the phylloxera epidemic a century ago.

Cap*Rock Winery

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

What’s noteworthy about Cap*Rock Winery is not so much the wine that it’s making, but that it’s making wine at all. The past couple of years have not been kind, and have included changes in ownership, marketing and distribution, and production. In all, it has not been an easy time for the Lubbock winery, one of Texas’ oldest.

Still, when I tasted the wine in September, progress had been made. The winery is still making only about a third of the total that it did at its peak about a decade ago, but several of the wines had promise and the current ownership has started an Italian wine program.

Wine review: Bonny Doon Bien Nacido Syrah 2005

This is an intriguing, almost quirky wine that’s difficult to describe. It doesn’t much taste like a California syrah, because it’s not nearly as ripe or jammy as most. It doesn’t taste like a French syrah, because it’s too fruity. And it certainly doesn’t taste like an Australian shiraz, because it’s too subtle. Plus, it’s $40, and what is the Wine Curmudgeon doing reviewing a $40 wine?

Mostly because it’s made by Randall Grahm, and he almost always gets the benefit of the doubt. So here’s what I suggest. Buy it as a holiday gift and put it away for two or three years. Seriously. Come back to it in 2011 or so, serve it with steak frites, and marvel at how unique, unusual and well made it is. If you have to drink it now, decant it for at least 30 minutes before serving, and have it with food. If you drink it by itself, you’ll wonder what I could possibly be going on about.

Technorati Tags: wine reviews,Randall Grahm,syrah,Bonny Doon,Bien Nacido vineyard,red wine