The Wine Curmudgeon

Memorial Day and rose 2013

The Wine Curmudgeon has bad news for those of you who go out of your way to ignore rose – the statistics say rose sales are up. Lots, even.

Wine drinkers, as part of an overall shift away from oakier, more alcoholic wines, are turning to rose. This is especially true of younger wine drinkers, who see rose for what it is – cheap, well made and food friendly.

Which offers hope for my otherwise cranky outlook. I’ve been preaching the gospel of rose for years, but rose posts are always among the blog’s worst read items. Maybe not this year, and especially not for the annual rose roundup in honor of Memorial Day and the start of summer. More, after the jump:

Expensive wine 50: Contadi Castaldi Franciacorta Brut NV

The Wine Curmudgeon has never been able to figure out Italian sparkling wine, all those Proseccos and Astis, despite Herculean efforts from people like the Italian Wine Guy. And if those wines baffle me, you can imagine what I think of the newish sparkling moscatos, many of which are made with all the finesse of a 7-Eleven Slurpee.

Not all sparkling wine needs to taste like Champagne (long live cava!), but I appreciate the Champagne structure and style – firm, tight bubbles; a clean, long taste; and the balance between acidity and fruit.

That’s what makes the Castaldi ($21, sample, 12.5%) different from other Italian sparkling wines. It’s made with a couple of Champagne grapes (mostly chardonnay) and made using the Champagne method. The Franciacorta region, near the Swiss border, is the only area in the country where this is done.

And, as with well-made sparkling wine from Spain and elsewhere, it uses those techniques to make a terroir-driven wine. The Castaldi tastes like it comes from Italy  -- crisp, small bubbles and a bit of clean apple fruit that’s not a Champagne knockoff that oozes of caramel. Excellently done and much better than I expected.

This is Mother’s Day wine, whether for brunch on Sunday or to toast Mom for another year well done.

More about Mother's Day wine:
• Mother's Day wine 2013
• Mother's Day wine 2012
• Mother's Day wine 2011
• Wine of the week: Domaine du Tariquet Classic 2011
• Wine of the week: Casteller Brut Rose NV

Mother's Day wine 2013

Yes, you can buy Mom wine for Mother's Day. Why not? Doesn’t Mom like wine? Don’t you think she should have some? Keep the wine gift-giving guidelines in mind -- "Don't buy someone wine that you think they should like; buy them what they will like," as well as these suggestions:

• Regional wine: Mom can drink local, too. St. James Pioneer Red ($11, sample, 12%) is great, cheap regional wine from Missouri. Lots of black fruit, but also earthiness and acidity. Limited availability, but there’s likely a local wine near you that will do the same thing.

• Cune Rioja Monopole Blanco ($12, purchased, 13%). The Cune Rioja Blanco is a Hall of Fame candidate, and this Spanish white is even more impressive. Terrific food wine, especially if you're tired of chardonnay, with white fruit, some white pepper and a pleasant, if shortish, finish.

• Tormaresca Chardonnay 2011 ($12, sample, 12.5%). Italian white is amazingly consistent from vintage to vintage, with lemon and apple fruit, a hint of sweetness and a sort of stony finish. Clean and well made, without any of the excess of chardonnay -- fake oak, overripe fruit -- at this price.

• Trivento Amado Sur 2011 ($14, sample, 14%). Well-done malbec blend from Argentina, with lots of sweet red fruit, a little black pepper and even a bit of citrus in the middle. Balanced, but firmly in the new world style.

More about Mother's Day wine:
• Mother's Day wine 2012
• Mother's Day wine 2011
• Wine of the week: Domaine du Tariquet Classic 2011
• Wine of the week: Casteller Brut Rose NV

Wine of the week: Domaine du Tariquet Classic 2011

My mom enjoys a glass of wine now and then, and I’d like to think that I’ve helped her with that. She reads the blog, and is better informed when she walks into a liquor store to buy a bottle.

Which is one of the reasons why the Tariquet ($10, purchased, 11.5%) is the wine of the week with Mother’s Day coming up. Yes, I’ve praised this wine many times before, and it has been in the $10 Hall of Fame since 2009. But its great strength – and I don’t know that I’ve emphasized this enough – is that it’s table wine the way it should be but isn’t often enough in this country. You don’t need to be a wine geek to enjoy it. You don’t need to have piles of money. You don’t need to read the Wine Magazines or to parse scores.

All you need is $10. Good wine shouldn’t be more difficult than that, should it?

This vintage of the Tariquet isn’t as grapey, which is one of the things I always enjoyed about it. Look for more citrus, probably because this year’s blend has sauvignon blanc in addition to ugni blanc and colombard, the classic grapes of Gascony. But the wine is still balanced, clean and fresh -- very well made and not only among the best cheap wines in France, but in the world. Highly recommended. Drink a toast to mom with it on Sunday; I know I will.

Wine of the week: Gruet Brut NV

The Wine Curmudgeon used to regularly pour this wine blind, and dare anyone who tasted it to guess where it was from. It was, of course, a trick question – there’s no way anyone would guess New Mexico.

Unfortunately, Gruet has been a victim of its own success. It was probably the first regional wine with distribution throughout the U.S., and it long ago had to start using grapes from California to ensure it could make enough to meet demand. And its price hasn’t been $10 in a number of years (to say nothing of the company’s other problems).

I was also unsure about quality after the addition of the California grapes. It might have been my imagination, but something seemed to be missing the couple of times I had tasted it. So I was relieved to find that the Brut ($13, purchased), Gruet’s entry level wine, was up to its usual standards this time around.

Look for lots of tiny bubbles, some crisp green apple and a little something more than most bubbly at this price has. In this, it’s less austere than a cava but not quite as complicated as a well-made, medium-priced California sparkling. Which means it’s an ideal wine for The Holiday That Must Not be Named; you can still get a smile when you tell the other person the winery is in New Mexico.

Expensive wine 47: Etienne Sauzet Puligny-Montrachet 2006

During the publicity blitz for the Cheap Wine Book and the Kickstarter project (Q&A explaining how Kickstarter works; Kickstarter link; What the book is), I did a virtual talk show with a group in Napa Valley. One of the questions I got was why I drink only cheap wine; what did I have against expensive wine?

The Wine Cumurdgeon is so misunderstood.

I don't have anything against expensive wine. I even drink it myself when the occasion arises. My point is that we expect everyone to drink expensive wine, whether they want to or know anything about it instead of realizing the limitations involved. It's like learning to drive -- you don't start with a Lamborghini, do you?

In fact, I told the people on the show, I look for the same thing in expensive wine that I look for in cheap wine -- value. And the Sauzet ($50, purchased) delivers on this count over and over and over. It's chardonnay from the French region of Burgundy, and specficailly the area called Puligny-Montrachet. In this, the wines are elegant and always in such balance that it's almost impossible to believe.

Sauzet is just one of many excellent producers from the area. The 2006, which I've tasted three times, has changed -- and for the better -- each time. Always, it's a mix of green apple fruit, spiciness (cloves or white pepper?) oak nestled in the background, and the  minerality that defines this wine.

This would make a lovely gift for The Holiday That Must Not be Named, as well as for any dinner with someone you care about.

 

Valentine's Day wine 2013

The Wine Curmudgeon does not usually do a post for The Holiday that Must Not be Named. This year, though, one of my resolutions for the blog is get more of you to drink sparkling wine. So Valentine’s Day seemed like a good place to start. And the wine of the week on Wednesday will be bubbly as well.

The Champagne and sparkling wine primer is here. You can also find suggestions in the sparkling wine category on the right side. This year, probably because of the hype over sweet red wine and moscato, I got several sweet sparkling wine samples, which is several more than I usually get. As noted in the primer, sweeter sparkling wines are rare in this country.

The less said about those wines the better. They were not cheap, and very, very sweet, with little else to note about them. One day, I suppose, I’ll stop underestimating the wine business’ ability to insult the consumer’s intelligence.

So what are some good choices for the holiday? How about:

• Mittnacht Freres Cremant d’Alsace NV ($21, sample): Crisp with pear fruit (also on nose). Fairly sophisticated, especially for Alsace cremant, and with long, minerally finish. Made with pinot auxerrois, not a common grape.

• Mumm Napa Brut Rose NV ($15, purchased): Widely available and solidly made -- fruity and dry with strawberry fruit. I don’t remember it being this cheap in a long time.

• Graham Beck Brut NV ($18, sample): South African sparkler is clean and fresh, halfway between cava and California bubbly. Some vanilla with apple fruit in the middle.A nice change of pace.