The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine of the week: Casamatta Toscana 2008

One of the best parts of this business is finding a wine that turns out to be something that you can happily drink for the rest of your life. Which is exactly what the Casamatta ($13, purchased) turned out to be.

How well made is this wine? The Wine Magazines and the Wine Curmudgeon agree that it's a terrific wine at a terrific price. And how often does that happen?

The Casamatta comes from a leading Tuscan producer, Bibi Graetz, who makes traditional Italian wines using some of the best New World methods. That combination produces a bottle that reflects the qualities that are the strength of Italian wine, like low alcohol and balanced acidity, but does so in a consistent, dependable manner that the hit or miss nature of too much Italian winemaking often can't do.

The Casamatta is made with sangiovese, so look for some sour cherry fruit, a firm acid backbone, and lots more finish than a $13 wine should have. It's almost embarrassing how much more interesting this wine is than similary-priced Chiantis from big-name wineries. Highly recommended. Serve this with everything from spaghetti and meatballs to roast chicken to cheese and olives.

wine reviews, wine of the week, Italian wine, red wine, sangiovese, Bibi Graetz, Casamatta

Winebits 146: Champagne corks, social media, grocery store wine

• No more Champagne corks? Duval-Leroy, a leading Champagne house, will start selling bottles with aluminium tops later this year. This will be the first time cork has not been used for its sparkling wine in the company's 350-year history. I like the quote from the Decanter editor when informed of the news: "I am sure there was an equally big outcry when they first stopped using goatskins and started putting wine in bottles." Actually, the sparkling wine equivalent of screw caps is nothing new. Several U.S. producers have been using plastic tops for a number of years.

• Even old geezers use Facebook: Older Americans users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about social networking tools, reports the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled, from 22 percent in April 2009 to 42 percent in May 2010. This is especially significant for the wine business, which sees social media -- Facebook, Twitter and the like -- as a way to reach young drinkers. But the idea that people my age are amenable to learning about wine through social media is still a subject of much discussion. I'll have something more on this later this week -- The Wine Curmudgeon as social media expert.

• Even old geezers use Facebook: Seattle wine writer Paul Gregutt did a faceoff between a variety of cheap, grocery store wines. And while he didn't always appreciate the back label oversell ("the hype-laden packaging included a lot of blather about 'pairing well with the planet,' as if our Mother Earth were a piece of cheese"), he liked what he tasted. The best wines, he wrote, were a couple of $8 Kenwoods -- "Packaging is simple and the excellent quality of the fruit is immediately apparent. Both blends are thoughtful and delicious."

Champagne, corks, social media, cheap wine, grocery store wine

Happy Labor Day

Why is the Wine Curmudgeon running a video of a Dallas Celtic rock band doing Blitzkrieg Bop (courtesy of CelticSouthland at YouTube)? For two reasons. First, because one can never have too much of the Ramones. And second, because The Killdares were one of the featured performers at the Kerrville Wine & Music Festival, where I was on a couple of wine panels over the weekend. And, in one of those truly weird twists of fate, they play at the State Fair of Texas down the block from the Texas Wine Garden, where I hang out.

Enjoy the holiday. The blog will be back Tuesday with the usual features.

 

Local chefs and local wine

Many of us were skeptical earlier this year when the National Restaurant Association reported that U.S. chefs had identified local wine as one of the top restaurant trends in 2010. Or, as I noted at the time, "it remains to be seen if the chefs who have taken up regional wine in the survey will do so in their restaurants."

Well, son of a gun, they may actually be doing it.

The wine program for this year's State Fair of Texas, which starts in three weeks, will feature a series of interviews with Texas winemakers, wine personalities, grape growers, sommeliers, and writers. John Bratcher (the Other Wine Guy) and I, who are putting the program together, wanted to include local chefs. But we weren't sure how receptive they would be. Turns out very receptive -- no one has said no, and we may be getting one of the biggest chefs in the country. We'll have the final lineup next week, and it will be posted on the State Fair Web site.

Obviously, some of the chefs' enthusiasm is because they'll be getting good publicity. And some of them know John and I, and want to help us out. But for the most part, the enthusiasm is because they believe in local wine. Or, as Joel Harloff, the chef at the re-born Green Room told me, "Anything I can do to help I'll do. Just let me know."

It's not news that regional wine matters. What is news is that the people who can make a difference in helping regional wine gain acceptance are doing just that.

Texas wine, regional wine, chefs and local wine, State Fair of Texas

Labor Day wine 2010

Yes, Labor Day is a wine drinking holiday. Call it a picnic holiday, like the Fourth of July or Memorial Day. That means lighter wines that pair with picnic food and barbecue. This week's wine of the week works, too. And, assuming the forecast isn't 100 degrees, it may even be time to pull some cabernet sauvignon or merlot out of the wine closet.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Riondo Pink Prosecco NV ($13, sample): Technically, this isn't a rose, since Italian law says a rose can't be called prosecco (thanks, Alfonso). Having said that, this sparkling wine sure looks and tastes like rose. And, though the Wine Curmudgeon isn't a big fan of prosecco, this is an exception. It's light and fresh, with a hint of strawberry fruit, and not as 7-Up-ish as many are. Serve it well chilled to make up for the lack of bubbles, and use a corkscrew to open it. Really.

• Llano Estacado Viviana 2009 ($23, sample): Texas wine has been getting a lot of national cyber-love lately, and this white blend is one reason why. This is its second vintage, and it has more structure and less residual sugar than the first. In this, it seems to have morphed from a Conundrum knockoff into a very well done white French-style wine, with a long mineral finish. Availability will be limited outside of Texas.

• King Estate Acrobat Pinot Noir 2009 ($18, sample): I took some flak the other day for saying that an $8 pinot noir didn't taste like pinot noir. This is not an $8 wine, but it does taste like pinot, and is about as close to a value pinot as exists -- classic berry fruit, low alcohol and minimal tannins.

For more on Labor Day wine:
• Labor Day wine 2008
• Labor Day wine 2009
• Wine of the week: Tormaresco Neprica 2008

holiday wine, Labor Day wine, prosecco, pinot noir

Wine of the week: Château l'Ermitage Rosé 2009

The Wine Curmudgeon was drinking rose the other day, and a question came up. Why, if so many roses are supposed to be dry, do some California roses seem sweet?

Two reasons. One is the idea of perception of sweetness, in which our brains assume that something that tastes fruity is going to be sweet. Hence, a rose with a lot of strawberry fruit is going to seem sweeter than it is, since our brains associate strawberry flavor with sweetness. (Thanks to the great James Tidwell, who told me about this and explains it much more eloquently than I do.) The other follows from the first, and is part of the difference between New World and Old World styles. New World wines, like those from California, are fruitier than Old World wines, and the extra fruit flavor implies a sweetness that isn't there.

Which, in a roundabout way, is where the l'Ermitage ($10, purchased) fits in. It's the opposite of a New World rose -- a classic French blend of syrah, grenache and mouvedre that makes a surprisingly complex $10 wine. It has a very stony finish, a dazzling light pink color, and a touch of red berry fruit without any perception of sweetness. In this, it's one of the best-made roses I've ever had, and is as enjoyable as many, more expensive ones. Don't be surprised if it shows up in the 2011 $10 Hall of Fame.

Chill the l'Ermitage, and drink it over the Labor Day weekend on its own or with whatever picnic or barbecue you have planned.

cheap wine, $10 wine, inexpensive wine, Old World wine, rose wine, French wine, Château l'Ermitage, wine reviews, wine of the week