The Wine Curmudgeon

An Internet toast to Domaine du Tariquet

The Wine Curmudgeon loves wines from Gascony. They're cheap, well-made and use grapes that most people people have never heard of -- in short, my kind of wine.

And Domaine du Tariquet is one of the best of those Gascon producers. So imagine my more than pleasant surprise when Tom Johnson at Louisville Juice featured Tariquet this week: "Domaine du Tariquet has developed, over the years, a reputation for innovation."

Thanks, Tom.

Domaine du Tariquet, Gascon wine

Wine of the week: Lamura Organico Rosso 2008

A regular visitor to the blog sent me an email: "I tried one of the wines you recommended, an Italian red, and I didn't like it. It wasn't smooth." I answered him and told him he was exactly right, and should now consider himself a wine reviewer. The wine wasn't smooth in the way that California wines are; Italian wines aren't supposed to be.

I mention this for two reasons. First, as I may have noted once or twice, the only real rule of wine is to drink what you like. My job is to offer a bit of insight and to help you find what you like. Just because I like something doesn't mean you will. That's why, in my reviews, I try to explain what I enjoy about the wine, and don't use scores or winespeak. They just confuse the issue. My goal is to give you enough information so you can decide for yourself. All I ask is that you have an open mind if you try it, and be willing to try different things.

The second reason is the Lamura ($10, purchased). It's a red wine from Sicily, made with the nero d'avola grape.  As such, it doesn't have much in the way of ripe California-style fruit or tannins, and it's much more acidic than most New World wines. It's dark and plummy, a wine for grilled sausages, roasted eggplant with tomato sauce, and deep dish pizza. And, for summer barbecues, it's a lot less intimidating that most Australian shirazes. For the price, and given that it is made with organic grapes, the Lamura is a fine value.

But if dark and plummy don't interest you, or if you prefer less acidic wines, you may not like it. But that's OK, too. Wine is not an either-or equation. Which is one reason why it's so much fun.

cheap wine, $10 wine, inexpensive wine, Lamura, nero d'avola, Italian wine, Siciilan wine, red wine

Winebits 138: George Taber, wine laws, cheap wine

• Academics honor journalist: The American Academy of Wine Economists has named George Taber, the author of Judgment of Paris, as an Academy fellow. Which, considering that most academics consider newspapermen to be inaccurate on our good days, is quite impressive. Taber's book on the 1976 Paris tasting, in which select California wines beat some of the best from France, was turned into the movie Bottle Shock. He is also the author of the best book on corks vs. screw caps, To Cork or not to Cork.

• Oregon tightens wine laws: The state's liquor cops have reinterpreted the law that regulates home wine making in the state, forcing the Oregon State Fair to cancel this year's wine competition. The liquor commission says the law refers to home consumption, and any amateur wine consumed outside of the home violates the law. This includes, apparently, taking a bottle of homemade wine to someone's house for dinner. This type of action, as I have noted many times, is the real threat to wine distribution in the U.S. -- tougher enforcement at the state level, and not HR 5034.

• Wine guru praises cheap wine: John Mariani, who makes no secret of the fact that he doesn't have much use for cheap wine, has seen the light: "I found that, as never before, much better wines are being offered at much better prices, owing to a huge post-recession wine glut." Welcome to the fight, John. Among his favorites are Spanish, Italian and southern French imports, which regular visitors here should know well. Writes Mariani: "Is a $50 bottle really that much better than a $12 bottle? The answer is not quite so easy as it once seemed."

George Taber, John Mariani, wine laws, amateur wine, cheap wine, inexpensive wine

Striking another blow (or three) for regional wine

More kudos to hand out on the regional wine front:

• Dena Peterson, the chef at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, is putting together a dinner to honor the great Diana Kennedy, the doyenne of regional Mexican cuisine and one of the most important people in the history of the regional food movement. And the wines at the dinner? Regional, of course. Peterson told me she needs to finalize the list with Kennedy, but not to expect to see anything from Europe or California; instead, Texas certainly, Mexico probably, and perhaps something from South America. Peterson is to be commended, especially since so many other chefs doing similar dinners think the wine world ends at the Napa and Sonoma county lines. If you're in the Fort Worth area August 13, go to the dinner. I was lucky enough to interview Kennedy several years ago (negotiating the Mexican phone system in the process), and she is the kind of person who impresses even those of us who are difficult to impress. I can still hear her fussing me for daring to suggest that some store-bought tortillas are of decent quality.

• The inestimable Todd Kliman has fired another broadside at the local food movement and its hypocrisy when it comes to local wine -- and in the cyber-pages of the tony Local Beast. (It's not often I get to link to something that chi-chi, is it?) My favorite bit of Todd's article: He quotes a sommelier as saying "The quality in most of these wines you're talking about is just not that great." Todd's rejoinder? "The quality of most wine isn't that great." My experience, when sommeliers say silly things like that, is that they haven't tasted local wines in a while and are basing their opinion on a wine they tasted once about 10 years ago. Or, worse, they have tasted regional wines recently, but went into the tasting with their mind already made up about how bad the wine was going to be. Which is how the Wine Magazines do it.

• Perhaps the most important recent development was the announcement that the Wine Bloggers Conference, which has traditionally been as California-centric as possible, will hold its 2011 event in Virginia. Yes, that Virginia, where DrinkLocalWine.com staged its 2010 conference. My cohort in DLW, Dave McIntyre, is characteristically modest about the role we played in the process, but I don't mind taking our fair share of the credit. Heck, even the Virginia people are giving it to us. Dave and I got a very nice note from Annette Boyd of the state's wine marketing board, which sponsored DLW: "I’m not sure that we would have been on anyone’s radar if it weren’t for the Drink Local Wine conference.  This has been an amazing opportunity for Virginia wines. Thanks guys."

regional wine, DrinkLocalWine.com, Todd Kliman, local food, local wine, Wine Bloggers Conference

Wine review: Biltmore Winery

Long before there was regional wine, there was North Carolina's Biltmore Winery. It has been making wine since the early 1970s, and producing professional-quality wine for almost 30 years. In fact, Biltmore has been doing this for so long and so successfully that it has added a line of California wines to keep up with demand; the winery produces more than 160,000 cases a year.

The Wine Curmudgeon, of course, is most interested in the North Carolina wines, and I'm happy to report that Biltmore continues to do the state and regional wine proud. I was especially impressed with the cabernet sauvignon ($19, sample) and viognier ($15, sample). Both are made to reflect what winemaker Sharon Fenchak can get from North Carolina grapes, and not to fit some marketing flavor profile.

The cabernet, though only 13 percent alcohol, is ripe and full, with some cherry fruit and well done tannins. In this, it's similar to what I've tasted from Virginia -- a New World-style wine, but one that maintains an Old World-style perspective. The viognier has honeysuckle aromas, a rich mouth feel and a tingly finish. It has been aged in oak, but this doesn't overwhelm the wine. It's another in a long line of well-executed regional viogniers that show up most California viogniers that I've tasted.

Biltmore Winery, wine reviews, cabernet sauvignon, viognier, regional wine, North Carolina wine

Wine and your computer

The Wine Curmudgeon's life would be so much easier if he had one of those USB dispensers.

There are many things that make this video worthwhile (even though it's in French), not the least of which is the alcohol warning at the end. The video is courtesy of jcisio at YouTube, and a tip o' the Curmudgeon's fedora to my pal Olivia Wilder at BlogTalk radio for sending it my way.

wine trends, USB wine

Making wine easier

The wine industry has had a revelation: Wine is too difficult.

First, an important British advertising executive told the industry: "You've seen it – the way people in restaurants nervously pass round a wine list. It's fear. You as an industry have encouraged that fear. The wine industry is the most fragmented market I've seen. Fragmented, confusing, impenetrable."

Then, Tom Klein, the new president of the Wine Institute, said more or less the same thing: "In general, we need to make wine more accessible to everyone. It can be a bit intimidating to some people. Could we do a better job at explaining wine and making people more comfortable? Yes, but that's beginning to happen."

What's going on here? Has the wine business finally come to its senses? Can we expect real change and not just lip service? Will we finally see labels that do more than patronize with cute design or confuse with jargon and platitudes? The answers are after the jump: