Post-Christmas Rioja Miracle

If you’ve been a wine lover for a long time, eventually your savvy friends catch on and mark you as a person for whom it’s easy to buy gifts.  While the Voyager doesn’t view himself as particularly materialistic, he is nonetheless gratified when his friends remember him during the holiday season by bestowing especially precious bottles. 

And so it was this Christmas that David Brenner (a/k/a Buck), who has been the Voyager’s dear friend for 54 years, sent along a bottle that merits a post of its own.  Rioja is one of the world’s greatest wine-growing regions; its great grape, Tempranillo, is one of the earth’s vinous treasures.  The laws that govern the Rioja Gran Reserva designation mandate that the wines spend several years in oak barrels, followed by several more years of aging in the bottle before release.  The end result for these traditional wines is something so smooth and graceful that it truly defies description.  The bottle Buck sent this year is a sterling example of these extraordinarily harmonious wines…

Liquid silk -- magnificent

 2001 Faustino I Gran Reserva Rioja (Rioja, SPAIN):  Medium garnet, with some maturity on the rim – but the color is still rather youthful.  Trademark Rioja aromas of leather, violets, cherries and the scent of vanilla that comes from extended aging in oaken casks – integrated by further years of bottle age.  An element of iodine entered as the wine aired.  There comes a point, however, where the individual characteristics that make up the bouquet and taste of a wine become so knit together that the end result is much more than the sum of the parts – and this is very much the case with the 2001 Faustino I.  The nose is ethereal, and the palate is sheer red silk.  Certain wines are touchstones; time machines, really, that take you back to the things you first loved about wine.  This bottle reminds me of the 1970 Gran Reserva from Bodegas Olarra, one of the wines that made me fall in love with Rioja when I first started to taste excellent vintages.  This is seamless, classic, and utterly unforgettable.  *****

 (Note: five stars are reserved for wines of such evanescent qualities that they stand in a class by themselves.  This is the first five-star rating given by the Voyager.  Thanks, Buck, for a superb experience!  Especially welcome since the Voyager's beloved fiancé, Vyna, went home to Singapore this morning; an exceptional Rioja mitigates the loss just a bit.)

Riesling Riot for a Spicy Christmas / Chanukah

Treats for a festive season

Since his beloved fiancé Vyna was coming over to Boulder from Singapore for a two-week visit, the Voyager knew he would be in for some good, spicy Asian food during the Yuletide season.  And if those facts are not cause for celebration, the Voyager hardly knows what would be!

With all this in mind, I decided to carry through on an earlier promise and do a post on Rieslings from Germany and America.  I stocked up for a couple of weeks before Vy arrived, and here are the results…

We started the week with some chicken in Indian curry.  To supply the necessary accompaniment, I chose a wine from New York’s Finger Lakes region.  The wines from this part of the world are absolutely world-class, and this one was no exception…

A bracing wine from The Finger Lakes in NY

2013 Dr. Konstantin Frank Finger Lakes Dry Riesling (NY, USA): Pale yellow-gold.  Peach, Granny Smith apples, with a lovely layer of slate underneath.  What distinguishes this wine, and most Rieslings from the Finger Lakes, is the thrilling seam of acidity that runs through it.  Bracing and beautiful.  A food wine par excellence.  Konstantin Frank was the real pioneer in bringing European grape varietals to the Finger Lakes, and the long track record of this winery certainly shows.  ***1/2 - ****

Next up, we continued our culinary travels with some chicken in Thai yellow curry.  This was a pretty zesty dish, and called for something with some real snap.  Fortunately, the wine in question was up to the task…

A gem from Washington state

2012 Eroica Riseling Columbia Valley (Washington State, USA): Medium greenish-gold.  If you cut into a Granny Smith apple that had somehow been infused with lime, pear and crushed slate, you would have something close to this wine.  Beautiful, steely acidity hides any residual sugar, so that it finishes dry.  A lovely match with the Thai curry.  A collaboration between Washington state giant Chateau Ste. Michelle and Germany’s Ernest Loosen.  Superb.  ****

And this week’s Wine Face-Off pairs two excellent German Rieslings against one another.  The test dish: Vyna’s trademark Chicken Ciabatta, prepared in a wok with dried red peppers, onions and garlic, combined with roasted potatoes and rosemary along with roasted eggplant and garlic.  (We have only one rule concerning garlic in our kitchen: the only mistake you can possibly make is to use too little.)

A stunner from the Mosel region

2011 Dr. Heidemanns-Bergweiler  Bernkasteler alte Badstube am Doctorberg Riesling Spätlese (Mosel, GER):  Both yellow and green mixed in with gold.  Pure slate and gunflint at first, very shortly opening up to juicy peach and tangerine with an underlay of petrol.  Beautiful sweet fruit, lovely balance, creamy texture.  Seamless, elegant, complex Riesling – this wine has the whole package.  93 points from the Wine Spectator, and they may even have underrated this one.  Gorgeous!  ****1/2

Second place, but a very worthy bottling

2012 Dr. Loosen Bernkasteler Lay Riesling Kabinett (Mosel, GER):  Mostly greenish-gold, with some yellow tints as well.  Strong sweet pear aromas, with added lime elements as the wine opened up.  Distinct sweet notes on the attack, with a bit of minerality on the mid-palate.  Only moderate sweetness on the finish.  Nice texture, excellent with food.  Very fine wine.  ***1/2 - ****

So, a clear winner, but as is often the case, the loser faired quite well indeed.  The Dr. Loosen is missing a bit of richness and complexity compared to the Heidemanns-Bergweiler, and doesn’t have quite the same degree of acidity to balance out its sugar, but there’s no doubt that it's very well-made, and worthy in every way. Don’t let yourself be put off by any memories you might have concerning sickly-sweet Liebfraumilch or other generic Rieslings you may have tasted in your youth. Abandon any prejudices you might have about wines that have a touch of sweetness; you will do yourself a favor if you try both of these bottles with some tangy food.

And a Christmas bonus -- here's another German Riesling that's worth your time…

Simple but good with food

2012 Robert Eymael Monchhof Riesling (Mosel, GER):  Green/gold.  Pear and peach aromas most prominent, with some lime and mineral scents underneath.  A distinctive honeyed note after it had been preserved with inert gas for two days.  Soft, sweet attack, with more strong peach flavors on the finish.  Pleasant, very nice with food, but perhaps lacking the complexity of some other wines in this survey.  ***

The Other Malbec -- Cahors

Okay, raise your hands – who among you likes Malbec?  Hmm…just about everyone.  So many people love this grape, and there are plenty of reasons why.  It has tannin and structure, like a Cabernet Sauvignon, but also sweet tannins and the sheer drinkability of a Merlot. 

Even better, there are good wines made from Malbec at every price point; you can get perfectly acceptable bottles in the $12 range, truly interesting wines at $20, and fascinating specimens when you’re willing to go to $40-50.  What’s not to like?

Next question: how many of you, before you read the title of this post, knew the name of the ancestral home of Malbec?   It seems like the number of hands raised at this point is significantly fewer. 

Although Malbec is one of the six grapes that producers can legally put in a bottle of Bordeaux, in current practice it very rarely makes an appearance in the wines from that region.  Transported from France to Argentina in the 19^th century, Malbec took an immediate liking to the dry, high-altitude climate of the vineyards that arose in the foothills of the Andes Mountains.  The overwhelming majority of wines that made Malbec so popular in the USA are imported from Argentina.    

However, Malbec had a starring role in Cahors, in southwestern France, long before it became a supernova in Argentina.  In Cahors, Malbec produced what was known in times past as “Black Wine,” so named after the deeply-colored bottlings that came out of this region.  In days gone by – including the years when I first became entranced with wine -- it had fierce tannins to match.

Today’s Cahors is a bit less tannic than in years gone by – or perhaps we should say that the riper tannins in present-day Cahors are more approachable.  The intense color is still there, however, as are the aromas and flavors of a great wine that is the foundation for the Argentinian bottles so admired now. 

Today’s Wine Face-off pits two Cahors in current release against one another.  The initial test dish: green peppers stuffed with beef and rice.

a rich, complex winter red

2010 Chat. de Cénac (Cahors, FR):  Profoundly dark plum.  Bordeaux-like bouquet; leather, cedar, pencil lead, dark berries and spices – complex and beautiful.  Blackcurrent and dark berries again on the palate.  Long finish.  Nice with stuffed peppers – the dark fruit qualities emerged even more.  Serious wine, this is drinking well now, but I’ll bet it has some years ahead of it.  Truly lovely.  **** ½

a good wine, but less interesting than its opponent

2012 Clos la Coutale (Cahors, FR): Dark plum.  Red licorice, blueberry pie, mulberry and faint hints of sour cherries.  A slight medicinal note.  Soft on the palate, decent balance, but initially lacking a bit of complexity.  Darker fruit and some interesting cola notes come forth with food.   Pales in comparison with the de Cénac.

***

  

Well, here’s the closest thing to a knockout among the Wine Face-Offs I’ve done so far.  Let me stress that the Clos la Coutale is a fine wine – nothing wrong with it at all.The Chateau de Cénac simply beat it in every category; it was more perfumed on the nose, richer on the palate, and altogether more complex overall.  It was one of those rare wines that combine structure, balance and elegance.  A new favorite, and an estate I’ll be keeping an eye on in the years to come.