The Wine Curmudgeon

Mini-reviews 37: Fourth of July edition

Reviews of wines that don’t need their own post, but are worth noting for one reason or another. Look for it on the final Friday of each month. This edition, in honor of July 4, focuses on wines worth drinking for the holiday:

 • Pepperwood Grove Groovy Green Pinot Noir NV ($7, sample): As long as you don't mind that it doesn't taste like pinot noir, it's an adequate red table wine with pinot and 25 percent syrah (the maximum amount allowed for it to be called pinot). And the Groovy Green bit? For its environmentally friendly packaging.

• Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis 2009 ($20, purchased): What's the Fourth of July without a French wine to honor the country that made our independence possible? The Brocard is chardonnay, but is rounder and softer, with more red apple fruit than the usual wines from the Chablis region, which have green apple and bracing acidity. Having said that, it's not worse, just different, and a nice way to end a holiday weekend.

• Pio Cesare Langhe Arneis 2011 ($20, purchased): Arneis is a rare Piedmontese white grape usually used for blending in expensive red wine, or to make flabby, simple stuff. This wine, though, has been taken somewhere it has never been before -- crisp and fresh, with an almost gewurtzraminer-like spice and subtle pear fruit. Yes, expensive, but highly recommended nonetheless.

• Kendall-Jackson Zinfandel Vintner's Reserve 2010 ($17, sample): Nicely done mid-weight zinfandel, with some heft, blackberry brambliness, and black pepper. But it is neither overwhelming, like the 15 1/2 percent alcohol zinfandels, or all fruit, like the poorly made cheap ones.

Fourth of July wine 2012

Some suggestions and a few thoughts about wine with your July 4 celebration next week, whether backyard barbeque or fireworks watching party (the latter with bubbly, of course):

• We’re in porch wine territory this time of year: lighter wines with lower alcohol, and that includes reds. Drinking a tannic, high alcohol wine when it’s pushing 100 isn’t pleasurable (unless you’re a wine masochist).

• Did someone say bubbly? We’re celebrating a birthday, aren’t we? Miquel Pons Cava Brut Nature NV ($15, purchased) is a Spanish sparkler that’s soft and generous, with sweet lemon fruit and bubbles that won't quit.

• Fontana Candida Frascati Superiore ($10, sample) is an Italian white that was a big deal a decade or more ago, and then fell on hard times. This vintage is much better made than it was then, with a fresher, more clean approach, very crisp lemon, and an almost orange tea aroma. Just 12 1/2 percent alcohol.

• When in doubt, go Falesco – the Assisi Rosso 2009 ($16, purchased), in this case. This Italian red blend is a step up from the producer’s wonderful $10 Vitiano line, with an herbal aroma and soft red fruit. But it’s sturdy enough for red wine occasions, including Fourth of July burgers, steak and brisket.

• Regional wine is always a July 4 staple, and Dr. Konstantin Frank Dry Riesling 2010 ($15, purchased) is a regional wine with decent national distribution. Look for candied lemon and the fresh, crisp acidity that New York state rieslings are famous for. And, as nice as this wine is, it's not nearly the best New York riesling available.

More about Fourth of July wine:

• Fourth of July wine 2011
• Fourth of July wine 2010
• Wine of the week: Louis Tete Beaujolais-Villages 2010
• Wine of the week: Luc Pirlet Pinot Noir Barriques Reserve 2010

Holiday blog schedule changes

That the Fourth of July falls midweek this year is not only inconvenient for those who like three-day weekends, but messes up the blog's schedule. I've had to made some adjustments for the holiday:

• The blog will be off on July 4, with the usual clever wine-related video appearing.

• The wine of the week, which usually appears on Wednesday, will post on Tuesday, July 3.

• The wine notes that run every Tuesday will appear on Monday, July 2.

Never fear. We'll return to our regular schedule on July 5, and we can all take a deep breath and hope we don't have to go through this again.

Wine of the week: Louis Tete Beaujolais-Villages 2010

Once, if you wanted an inexpensive quality bottle of wine, chances are you bought a Beaujolais. In fact, that was about the only decent cheap red wine – imported or otherwise – on most store shelves two decades ago.

Beaujolais, the French wine region just south of Burgundy, has fallen on hard times since then, something you’ll read about it in the trade press every once in a while. Sales have declined significantly, mostly because Beaujolais drinkers are dying off. The 1990s were a long time ago in the wine business, and Beaujolais was a Baby Boomer wine. And quality, despite assertions from the region, is inconsistent. Some of it is so badly made that it’s difficult to believe it’s a 21st century product.

Fortunately, the producer Louis Tete has held up its end. I bought this wine, its basic Beaujolais ($10, purchased), mostly for nostalgia value, not expecting much. But it was Beaujolais the way it should be, with just enough grapey flavor (courtesy of the gamay grape) so that you could tell it was from Beaujolais, but also lots and lots of character. There was acid and freshness, rare for a Beaujolais these days, as well as an earthiness and even some dark fruit.

This is the quintessential porch red wine, perfect for hot summer days (just 12 1/2 percent alcohol), barbecues and Fourth of July picnics. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2013 Hall of Fame.

Winebits 235: Wine packaging

The glass bottle may not be endangered, but more producers are opting for different formats than ever before:

• Paper bottles: The world’s first paper wine bottle will likely be on British supermarket shelves in the fall, reports the drinks business trade magazine.  GreenBottle, which makes the paper product, is finalizing negotiations with a top UK grocer to sell one or two wines in the new container later this year. The bottle has a plastic coating on the inside of the box, which gives it a 9- to 12-month shelf life. GreenBottle founder Martin Myerscough says he has seen “huge interest” from retailers in Australia, California and France, and plans to expand outside of Britain in 2013.

• Airline wine: Increasingly, those single-portion bottles served on airlines are made of plastic, says BeverageDaily.com. Cost-conscious U.S airlines are driving demand for the bottles, which are made from lighter, cheaper PET – an oil-based plastic called polyethylene terephthalate. PET bottles not only cost less, but are 100 percent recyclable and easier to dispose of in a cramped airplane galley.

• Box wine growth: It’s impressive, reports Shanken News Daily. Two of the biggest brands, Black Box and Bota Box, sold almost 4 million cases between them in 2011. And, though overall sales for boxed wine are still only 2 percent of the U.S. market, it’s growing rapidly – 27 percent in the 52 weeks through mid-March. What makes this even more impressive is that many retailers don’t like to sell box wine, since it doesn’t fit easily on their shelves, which are designed for bottles. That’s why, in so many stores, the box wine is off in a corner.

On the wagon

But not necessairly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

That's because, once or twice a year, the Wine Curmudgeon contracts what can only be described as The Rot. For those more medically inclined, it’s a viral infection that includes sinus headaches and blisters on my throat. Which means I feel like hell for a week to 10 days, and even swallowing can be difficult.

So, obviously, no wine during The Rot. I’m dehydrated enough as it is, and given how crappy I feel, I wouldn’t be able to appreciate it anyway. Mostly, I mope around the house and feel sorry for myself between doses of chicken soup and vitamin C.

So how does a wine writer go a week without wine, like I did last week? It’s easier than it seems, mostly because I feel so awful. In fact, one way I know I’m feeling better is that I start to think about wine again.

The real problem, given the demands of the blog, is dragging myself to the keyboard to write. Writing is about focus, and it’s not easy to focus when all I want is Tylenol with codeine to make the pain stop. True story: My doctor was reluctant to prescribe the Tylenol about a year ago until he looked down my throat. “That’s gross,” he said, and reached for the prescription pad.

Fortunately, I’m usually two or three posts ahead, so I don’t have much day-to-day writing to do. What presents difficulties is that I didn’t taste the 10 or 12 wines that I normally taste in a week. Only about a third of the wine I taste is worth writing about, so, given how much I write, I need to taste as much wine as possible.

In other words, if the wines on the blog later this summer seem a little less than usual, blame it on The Rot.

Is cheap wine bad for the wine business?

That’s the question W. Blake Gray poses:

“[I]n 10 years Bronco has sold 600 million bottles of Two-buck Chuck. Whatever good the brand has done in introducing wine to people, it's hard to look at that figure and not think that a few million bottles of other wines would have been sold if Two-buck Chuck wasn't around."

It’s an intriguing argument from one of the most perceptive writers in the business, and it’s not uncommon. It made the rounds last fall, when the George Taber book “A Toast to Bargain Wines” sang the praises of inexpensive wine and received scathing reviews for its point of view.

What’s interesting, though, is not the question, but why people keep asking it. Why does it bother so many people that Americans drink cheap wine? More, after the jump: