Gary’s Wine & Marketplace Blog

Sometime around mid-June last year, Gary took a week to fly to Burgundy for a little R&R. (”Research and Relaxation”, in his case.) On this visit, he and his friends made the acquaintance of a talented fourth generation winemaker by the name of Theirry Pillot (son of Paul Pillot, both of Domaine Paul Pillot) in Chassagne-Montrachet. They shared a few glasses of his stunning Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs, pre-tasted the 2006 vintage and found it more than promising, and before they knew it we had a few hundred cases of this small production wine promised to come our way come Spring. With one concession: Thierry must accompany them for a visit.

Fast-forward to April 2008, and the young Burgundian was true to his word. Thierry arrived on schedule along with his wines, and spent a few days pouring for our guests and friends. Saturday night, as a thank-you to Theirry and as a treat for some of Gary’s closest friends, we held a dinner at Gary’s house prepared by Craig Shelton and the OME Catering team and expertly paired with Pillot’s wines.

First, a quick background on the winery itself. Thierry’s great-grandfather, Jean-Baptiste Pillot, founded the Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet domaine in the late 19th century. He left the coopering profession to concentrate on winemaking, and with the help of his two sons Alphonse and Henri, created a family-run vineyard. The two sons grew up to cultivate two separate estates, and Henri then passed his land on to his son, current domaine namesake Paul Pillot. Paul was the one who managed to acquire some Premier Cru land in Chassagne-Montrachet, including the Clos St. Jean and Les Ruchottes vineyards. Today the domaine covers 17 hectares of prime land mostly in the Chassagne-Montrachet, Saint-Aubin and Santenay appellations, with a total production of about 65,000 bottles. Along with his sister Chrystelle, Thierry will be the one to carry on the family legacy of crafting these impressive wines.

Now on to the dinner….

We began with a duo of quail egg with white truffle puree and creamy bluefin o-toro with Iranian caviar. This was paired with Pillot’s fresh and refreshing Bourgogne Aligote. Aligote is the lesser-known white grape of Burgundy, taking a back seat to the rich and ageworthy Chardonnay. Nonetheless, Pillot’s Aligote is clean, light and crisp: a perfect match to light summer seafood dishes.

Next came the lasagna of ramps and cepes with herb emulsion, paired with Domaine Paul Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet Mazure 2006. When I asked Thierry about his opinion on the 2006 vintage, which follows a much-hyped vintage in 2005, he told me that as a matter of fact, he much prefers 2006 for drinking now. “2005 was for the journalists,” he said. “And yes, it should age well. But for drinking now…no question 2006 is better.” His “Les Mazures” is a perfect example of this: rich and buttery but with a balancing minerality, it’s showing beautifully now. This was perhaps my favorite of the Pillot wines for price and quality for current drinking.

Next came perfectly prepared roast Maine lobster with baby asparagus, morels and Chassagne-Montrachet butter (nice touch), paired with two Premier Crus: Domaine Paul Pillot 1er Cru Champs Gains 2006 and 1er Cru La Romanee 2006. Both single-vineyard wines, these were stunning and only promised to improve with age. The Champs Gains showed lovely stone fruits and a bit more buttery richness upfront, while the chalky minerality in the La Romanee showed through even more and promised to be the best-ageing of the lot.

We finished up with a course of spring lamb prepared three ways, paired with Domaine Paul Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge Vielles Vignes 2006. This is a lovely young Burgundian Pinot, with more red cherry fruit showing through than earth right now, but with enough underlying complexity that it should show interesting evolution over the coming years.

Thoroughly stuffed and satisfied from such a well-matched dinner, all of our guests reclined and lingered over the cheese course, finishing up their last drops of La Romanee and Vielles Vignes and conjuring up plans for their next trips to Burgundy, all hoping to see Theirry and his wines somewhere along the way… we’ll try to restrain ourselves from crashing the wedding in July, Thierry, but if the wine runs out here in NJ, we may not be able to keep them away!

Sake has never been the beverage that I’m the most well-versed in.  It’s one of those “neither here nor there” drinks; is it brewed, is it fermented, is it served warm or cold?  It’s understandable, I think, that so many of us have a hard time understanding and appreciating it.  So a few months ago, when

Since then, I’ve done my best to slowly grasp the subtle differences (and there are a lot) between ginjo and daiginjo, shinshu and nama, nigori and taru.  So when the opportunity came along to attend an afternoon seminar with renowned sake expert John Gauntner and a select group of master brewers from

Over the course of two hours, we tasted thirteen stellar ginjo (premiere) sakes, all imported by Vine Connections.  As we tasted, John detailed the intricacies of the brewing process as well as the advancements and experiments being carried out in the field.  But the one thing I took away from the day that was the most interesting to me was one of the first questions posed during the seminar: “Does regionality affect the style of a particular sake the way it does with wine?”  The answer, not surprisingly, was duplicitous.  Yes.  And no. 

Yes, regionality contributes to a sake’s style.  Within each Prefecture that produces sake, there can be different local strains of rice, different water sources (usually natural wells determining the placement of the brewery), even different types of local cuisine that determine what kinds of flavors the locals are used to pairing their beverage with.  Experts have even gone so far as to note that there are varying “drinking styles” from prefecture to prefecture.  (For example, locals in the Hokkaido Prefecture may be known as heavier drinkers than those in the Shizuoka Prefecture, so the style in the former would be lighter and more conducive to…well….guzzling…. than in the latter.)  All of these factors, when combined, have led to very different regional styles of sake.  Generally, it’s been observed that sakes from the Northern and mountain (ie colder) climates of Japan are tight, clean, light, dry and refined in style, while those farther to the West (where the weather is warmer) are known to be fatter, richer, and fuller in flavor.

But then there’s the no.  Rules are meant to be broken, right?  We then learned that while there are regional styles formed by tradition, there are also anomalies formed by modernization.  The ability to easily ship and trade raw materials means that brewers no longer HAVE to use local rice.  They can throw in any strain of crazy rice they choose to get their hands on.  Cuisines have evolved and fused, changing preferences in taste.  Now the former fresh-fish eaters of

What does this mean for the future of sake?  As far as I can tell, it means hold on to your hats.  Japan seems to be playing with sake styles now the same way

South Africa and its beautiful vineyards continued to impress on day 4, not at all to my surprise.  We were scheduled to visit the top of Table Mountain on Wednesday morning, but as the  clouds had created a bit of a “table cloth”, as they put it, we would’ve found ourselves stumbling around a very steep cliff seeing nothing but white.  Therefore, we decided to spend a liesurely morning wandering about Cape Town’s outdoor markets.  Afterward, we were treated to a scrumptously spicy Malay lunch at the Noon Gun Cafe.  Now amply relaxed and shopped out, we ventured out to Neil Ellis winery for a late afternoon tasting of their Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Syrah and Cabernet, followed by dinner. 

Neil is a fairly soft-spoken man, perhaps balancing his imposing height with an unimposing personality.  But he spoke of his wines with quiet and humble insight.  While it seems the trend in South Africa for everyone to tout their wines as “Southern Rhone in style,” Neil stated that they make two Shiraz and one Syrah in their line.  The reason, he explained, is that they felt the “Sincerely” Shiraz and the Neil Ellis Groenenkloof Shiraz are both more “New World” in style: open and friendly and fruit-driven, while the Neil Ellis Vineyard Selection Jonkershoek Valley Syrah is more Old World (ie. French), with deeper spices and smokier, brooding tannins.  I agreed, to a large extent. The Sincerely Shiraz ‘06 showed lots of friendly ripe red fruit mid-palate with a lightly spiced finish, but the Neil Ellis Groenenkloof Shiraz ‘04 showed enough smokiness and cinnamon bark and an elegant enough finish that I probably would have called this one Syrah myself.  (But apples to apples, or whatever the saying is.)  The Vineyard Selection ‘05 from Jonkershoek, easily the most complex but similar in style to the Groenenkloof, carried less smoke but more amped up spiced fruit and a bit of cigar box or leather.  Also notable at this tasting were their Vineyard Selection Sauvignon Blanc 07: a refined example of an unobtrusively oaked Sauv Blanc with a rich, leesy apple and lemon custard palate, and their Elgin Chardonnay ‘06, youthful with grilled pineapple and cantelope notes and just a bit of buttered toast from the oak.  At dinner with Neil and his partner Hans Peter Schroder, we enjoyed some earlier vintages of the same wines over a lovely buffet of ostrich and colorful salads, all beautifully set up in their (currently empty) barrel room.

Thursday was our final day of wine tasting, so we really packed it in.  The morning was spent at Spice Route, which has no “welcome center” or “showcase winery” to speak of.  Here, in the warm arid Swaartland vineyards of Malmesbury, the grapes are grown almost entirely on bush vines and made into wine in a no-frills barn-style cellar complete with (what I found were charming) cobweb-covered chandelier lighting. The hightlights here: a very apricoty Viognier, a blackberry compote-flavored Mourvedre, and their prize bottling, a dark, spicy, chocolatey wine called Malabar (2004).

The afternoon was spent at Goats do Roam’s tourist-friendly winery, where we tasted the sister Fairview and Goats do Roam lines.  The highlights here:
-another Viognier, the young 2007 Fairview, from the first Viognier vines ever planted in S. Africa.  (Allegedly.)  Very friendly and fruity with flavors of tangerine, peaches and cream
-The Beacon Shiraz ‘05, in all it’s spiced plummy goodness.

All official tasting behind us, we did a little frolicking with their ubiquitous goats at the nearby farm before meeting with Charles and Di Back for a very cozy dinner at their home.  We dined on potjie (a genius Cape curry dish made in cast-iron Dutch kettles suspended over coals) and a mountain of Goats do Roam/Fairview cheeses, of course alongside our favorite Fairview wines.

Before we left, our trusty tour guide Robin Back wanted us to see the striking views, the baboons, and an abundance of penguins on the Cape peninsula.  Friday was spent driving around taking all this in, enjoying our last day together in South Africa.

There are too many thanks to be said in this short space, but to all the winemakers and hosts that took us in, to our wonderful hosts at De Oude Paarl Hotel (including Sandra and Bowers, who kept Cuba open late for us to play cards), and most of all Robin Back and our beloved driver Mario:  “Buy a donkey, with pleasure!!”

I just returned from a week of checking out some wineries during the harvest season in the Western Cape of South Africa, where I really enjoyed learning about a wine region that’s still coming into its own.  Because there’s so much to cover, I’ll break the trip into two posts, so check back for more to come.

We arrived Saturday night to our first and only blackout, which suited me just fine.  After twenty-some hours of air travel, I was ready for some fully reclined sleep.  Sunday morning we got on the road around ten to see the Cape Town waterfront and took a ferry to Robben Island, the present-day World Heritage site that was a former political prison during apartheid (a very important place for any visitor to see).  We were treated to a warm welcome dinner of classic Cape fare at our hotel in Paarl that night under colorful tents in our courtyard.

Monday morning we got to business bright and early with a ride out to visit Hamilton Russell and Southern Right vineyards, both in the Walker Bay region.  Along the scenic drive, we had the fortune to catch glimpses of ostriches, a family of baboons, and the national bird, the blue crane. When we arrived, the Pinot Noir harvest was in full swing, as rains were approaching.  It was an especially late harvest for them; most years all the Pinot grapes are brought in by mid-February, a full month earlier.  Proprietor Anthony Hamilton Russell took a break from the business to show us around and welcomed us for lunch in his home after tasting some very impressive Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Hamilton-Russell as well as some great Sauv. Blanc and Pinotage from Southern Right.  The emphasis here was all about the right soils for the right wines: a study which Anthony has put much energy into.  Their aim is to mimic Burgundy in finding the most clay-rich soils for their Pinot Noir and Burgundy, and to leave the limestone-rich soils for the Sauvignon Blanc.  Their particular nature goes beyond terroir selection: in the cellar, they try to match each specific lot with the ideal barrel from the right cooper, the right forest, and the right toasting level.  (I’d call it borderline OCD if it didn’t make such good wine.) 

In the tasting room, all three of their varietals impressed.  Their Chardonnays (2006 and 2007) had a nice balance between minerality and buttery character.  The 2007 vintage carried pear aromas with a nutty finish, while the 2006 vintage showed richer with notes of lemon merengue and toast.  The 2007 Sauvignon Blanc from Southern Right (their sister winery) was very aromatic with a nose of gooseberry and passion fruit; however, minerality took over on the palate.  The result was a very “worldly” Sauv Blanc: a New Zealand nose paired with a Sancerre Palate.  The Southern Right Pinotage was tasted next, and really changed my perspective on Pinotage, which is well known for sometimes having an unfortunate “band-aid” smell.  This certainly wasn’t the case with thiers; the 2006 (91 points from Wine Spectator) carried aromas of red cherry and game with a little tanginess on the nose, followed by a dry and serious palate.  Very different.  The 2007 vintage (not yet released) showed softer, fruitier and fleshier.  More ripe cherry appeared on the nose, and the game arrived more on the palate, followed by a finish spiced by nutmeg and white pepper.  Finally, we tasted Hamilton Russell Pinot Noirs from 2006 and 2007, respectively.  The 2006 (92 points WS) showed well with a nose of cherries and raspberries and a bit of barnyard grain, but the 2007 was a bit more amped up with a headier nose of cherry and earth, riper fruit and a roundness that makes it show very well at the present.

The night ended with an entertaining and spirited dinner at a local eclectic outdoor buffet with dancers and some more recovery from the jet lag.

Tuesday morning we started out with a morning tasting with MAN vintners.  MAN (named for the first initials of each partner’s wife) is a fairly new enterprise, turning out some fun value wines that I imagine have their best place at a summer barbeque.  The highlight of these was actually their Chenin Blanc, a white varietal that doesn’t have the best reputation at present, but in their case is made only from free-run (unpressed) juice to avoid that certain soapy character from the skin of this grape.  It had a nice lemon-rind aroma, and a very clean flavor.

Following the MAN tasting, we joined Jose and Marie Conde of MAN and Stark-Conde wines for lunch at their home.  Over lunch, we tried their higher end Stark-Conde Cabernets and Syrahs from the Jonkershoek and Stellenbosch regions.  Their 2005 Jonkershoek “Twin Peaks” Syrah in particular was a treat: a concentrated fruit aroma with fine grained tannins, some cocoa qualities on the nose, and a little bit of a floral aspect.  I also enjoyed their 2005 and 2006 Stellenbosch Cabernet, both with dark and red fruit, the 2005 with a nice cinnamon nose and the 2006 a bit more savory…and not a bad value at all for its price.

The evening was spent at a dinner tasting at Boekenhoutskloof (pronounced boo-ken-HOOTS-kloof) in Franschhoek.  Winemaker and head honcho Mark Kent likes to do things his own way, and doesn’t have much regard for the things that aren’t “their style.”  (Among the things that aren’t “they’re style: advertising, brochures, tour buses, pretty winemaking equipment, tasting notes, technical notes, talking up vintages, terroir and soil science, and the term “estate grown.”  Among the things that are “their style”: no-nonsense winemaking, anything-goes varietal blends, the Rollings Stones and thick cuts of steak to complement their Cab.)

We started off with their Porcupine Ridge line, the best of which (in my opinion) was their very reasonably priced Sauvignon Blanc, full of tropical lime and guava aromas.  Next were the Wolftrap wines, of which I enjoyed their Syrah-Mourvedre-Viognier blend the most.  It carried really interesting spices and smokiness on the nose, and again a great pricetag.  Their Chocolate Block wine was an added bonus in itself: a mix of Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault, Cabernet Sauvignon and Viognier that starts out with chewy dried currant and blueberry and finishes with nutmeg, white pepper, and other bitter spices that REALLY last on the palate.  Finally we were on to the Boekenhoutskloof wines, a very nice Semillon, Cabernet and Syrah.  The Cabernet showed the best to me: it had a great bouquet of chocolate and cherry and a deliciously soft, round palate of bold fruit, cinnamon and lavender, spicy tannins and a lasting finish.  After all this fun, another day was over and there was just enough time to catch some shut-eye before we were on to the fourth day of our trip.

More to come!

Yes, we’ve been back from Napa for over a week, and now that we’ve gotten the chance to catch our breath, sort through our samples and our notes and catalog everything we found in those 9 days on the road, we have lots to report on this year’s trip the the annual Premiere Napa Valley Auction.

Once again, Gary was the top bidder at the auction for the sixth time this year, coming home with a whopping THIRTY stellar lots of unique, one-of-a-kind wines.  Overall, 2006 proved a much better vintage than any of us had anticipated, and the mountain appellations seemed to shine the brightest of all.  Brian Maxwell, ever the scholar and scribe, helped by culling together the tasting notes.

 Stewart Cellars: Deep ruby purple with a cassis and cedar bouquet.  Full to medium bodied with a nice core of ripe black cherry fruit and big ripe tannins.

Ladera Vineyards:  Dark fruits are tightly packed along with lots of sweet spices like cinnamon, clove and allspice.  Medium bodied with great tannic structure.  This wine packs a punch due to the Howell Mtn. fruit.

Peacock Family Vineyard:  Ruby purple color leads to a complex nose of blackberries, olive tapenade, and oak.  Fantastic mouthfeel to this wine; rich, ripe mid-palate.

Blackbird Vineyards: This Cabernet Franc and Merlot blend carried loads of floral notes along with mocha, plum and herbal flavors.  Well balanced, soft, elegant tannins and a super long finish.  Wow!

Parallel: Densely packed wine with intense cassis fruit.  Loaded with minerality and tannins.  Big, bold wine that has a kind of savory edge.

Chappelet Winery and Vineyard:  Slightly closed nose, but everything else is superb.  Real clean cassis fruit, impeccably balanced with great length and pwer.  A head-turner.

Martin Estate Rutherford: Almost black in color.  Big, bold, extracted wine with blackberry pie flavors.  Finishes with chocolate, mint and very soft tannins.

Cliff Lede Vineyards:  Cinnamon roll nose (perhaps Cinnabon?).  Candied cherry flavors that finish with cocoa and minty undertones.  Really mouthcoating with a finish that lasts over a minute.

Larkmead Vineyards:  Deep ruby to purple color.  Opulent dark fruits and great overall texture.  This has a streak of minerality running right down the middle.  Mouth coating tannins yet very vibrant and fresh.

Bighorn Cellars: Ultra-dark in color and flavor.  Ripe, concentrated flavors of plums and blackberries, really soft tannins and a velvety texture. 

Spottswoode Estate Vineyard & Winery:  Ruby to purple color with sweet forward fruit and notes of cardamom and other spices, still a rather reserved finish that will come out with time.

Switchback Ridge and Robert Foley Vineyards (joint venture):  Big, fat, opulent, dark fruits.  Full bodied wine with soft, silky tannins.  Very, very rich with a finish that lasts a long, long time.  (Did we mention it was big and rich?)

Rockledge Vineyards:  Deep purple color.  Sweet ripe fruit and a hint of smoke and earthiness.  Tannins are abundant but should soften.

Realm Cellars: Opaque black with edges of violet.  Strong cassis fruit and plum compote.  Fine-grained tannins that are pretty wild, and lots of new oak flavors.  Tightly-wound right now, this will reward some patience.

Bond:  Beautiful, complex nose of violets, toasty oak and toffee.  Really sweet ripe black cherry fruit that has a minty quality.  Soft, elegant tannins and a super-long finish.

Cornerstone:  A well balanced wine that has a tight tannic structure, with cherry fruit flavor.  Savory notes such as sage and rosemary.  Medium to full bodied wine with a great mid-palate.

Ahnfeldt Wines: Deep, dark fruit flavors with cocoa and licorice.  Well balanced tannins are pretty aggressive.

D.R. Stephens Estate:  Ruby purple in color.  Really complex nose of mocha and dried figs.  Blackberry fruit is mixed with a tea-like quality.  Well-balanced wine that should last a pretty long time.

Stelzner Vineyards: Good spicy red fruits on the nose and palate.  Cherry cola flavors along with licorice are present on the palate.  Nicely balanced despite the fairly high alcohol content.

Raymond Vineyard and Cellar: Wild nose of dark chocolate and blueberries.  Hints of vanilla and sweet spices.  Soft and silky finish. 

Fantesca Estate Winery: Dark cassis nose.  On the palate there is a hint of anise seed and great minerality.  Great concentration of mountain fruit.  Finishes with a slight dusty quality.

Eagle and Rose Estate:  Deep ruby color.  Bouquet of red berries and flowers with notes of plum and spice.  Very elegant finish.

Vineyard 7 & 8:  Bright purple in color.  This wine shows plenty of raspberries, cloves and cinnamon.  Hints of cedar and tobacco leaf.  Finishes with toasty oak components.

Pine Ridge Winery: Really briary nose, red fruits and mocha.  There is an herbal character that mixes very well with the concentrated fruit flavors.  Silky smooth with a nice, long finish.

Wolf Family:  A classic Cabernet nose of creme de cassis and spice.  Super clean red fruit flavors and impeccable balance.  Made by one of our favorite winemakers, Karen Culler.

Oakville East:  Ruby to purple color.  Nose of wildflowers, dark cherry, black olive and rosemary.  Ripe tannins and a nicely balanced finish.

Renteria Wines: Rich, decadent wine.  Huge amounts of dark fruit and a hint of black pepper.  This wine had one of the roundest mid-palates tasted.

Jericho Canyon Vineyard: Opaque.  Bouquet of blackberries and licorice.  An abundance of dark fruits and mocha on the palate.  Perfectly balanced (even as a barrel sample) with a finish that’s still going.

XTANT:  A real find for us.  Ripe cherry and raspberry jam nose.  Red-fruited flavors with touch of coffee.  Well balanced wine with superb richness.

Diamond Terrace: Big, powerful wine with an exotic nose of red fruits and smoke.  Deep dark fruit flavors that turn into more savory notes of earth and minerals.

 In a few words, all spectacular.

For the Napa Valley Register coverage of the auction itself and a great picture of Gary in action, visit this page.  

For our own coverage of the week, with day by day accounts of all the great vineyards we visited, wines we tasted and mountains we blew up, check out our own travel page here.

There’s nothing better than getting ready to choose the wines for the coming month’s wine club and thinking to myself, “huh.  I have no idea what I’ll use.”  I know it sounds odd, that I’d relish the idea of starting from scratch.  Sounds like a lot of work.  Is a lot of work.  (I logged some good hours this month, guys.)  But you know what?  It’s fun work.  “What’d you do today, Maggie?”  “Well, I need some Spanish wines for February, and I haven’t been tasting much Spanish wine in the last few months.  So I sat down with a few dozen bottles and got crackin.’  What’d you do today?”  “Eh, taxes.”

So after trying some great ’01’s and ’04’s, some of the first good ’05’s and the last good ’96’s, (and a few not-so-great ’01’s and ’04’s and everything in between, for that matter)…I settled on the selections for February’s “Viva la Vina d’Espana” feista.  (And I’ve officially exhausted 89% of my retained 12th grade Spanish vocabulary.)

I think the main reoccurring theme this month was old-world style versus new.  As I said in the intro of the newsletter, perhaps nowhere else in the world does the contrast between old and new have such poignancy as in Spain right now.  Their cuisine, their architecture, their music and yes, even their wine, all seem to play on this dichotomy between ancient and modern, traditional and revolutionary. 

Take, for instance, Rioja and Ribera del Duero.*  You’ve got the old-school producers, holed up in old third-generation bodegas who love nothing more than the strict D.O. guidelines that say you’ve got to age a wine in barrels, then age it a little more in the bottle, until it’s super caramelly and mellow (and maybe, just maybe a teeny bit oxidized), before you let anyone drink it.  Then you’ve got the new wave of winemakers, the ones housed in edgy, modern wineries, cranking out juicy, jammy, fruit-packed wines that they won’t be bothered to age for a moment, D.O. designates thrown to the wayside.  And you’ve got EVERYTHING in between. 

As much of a mixed-bag as Spanish wine may be right now, it works.  After all, what could be better to go with the hodge-podge of bold and subtle flavors that are Spanish cuisine, whether you’re hopping from bar to bar for tapas or attempting to get a coveted reservation one of Ferran Adria or Jose Andres’ restaurants?  What would be better to reflect the eclectic architecture of Antonio Gaudi and Santiago Calatrava?  Or the music of Carlos Cano and Gigatron? Everything goes in Spain, folks, so grab a glass and jump right in.  You just might be surprised by how traditional (or non-traditional) your tastes turn out to be.

*Incidentally, a good friend of mine, Joseph Campanalle, wrote a great article on this very topic for October 2007’s Beverage Media.  If you have the means to get your hands on a copy, it’s a good read.

Happy New Year, winelovers!  First and foremost, my apologies for letting the entire month of December pass by unblogged.  That’s one of the hazards of working in retail around the holidays; I was so manic running around the store picking out Christmas Cabernets and New Years bubbly with our customers that I never found a moment to write.  Luckily, my buddy Thomas from our Bernardsville store stepped in to provide us with a great post on wine as a gift, and now that things have finally returned to a normal pace, I can get back to the computer.

This month is one I’ve been looking forward to, not only to catch my breath from the holiday madness but because I’ve been waiting for the weather to get cold and dreary enough to devote an entire month of Wine Club to rich, smoky South American wines.  The idea was that they’re the perfect wines to curl up with next to a roaring fire on a winter night.  As it happened, this week’s weather happens to be averaging around 62 degrees here in New Jersey.  But who could’ve known?  I tried.  Think snow while you’re drinking.

A good number of the picks for this month’s Wine Club hail from Argentina (6 out of the 8, to be precise), a bias that stems from my August trip to Mendoza and Cafayate.  The exceptions were Errazuriz Wild Ferment Chardonnay from the Casablanca Valley, Chile (a Chardonnay that employs naturally-occuring wild yeasts for fermentation, hence the terrific complexity…an amazing Chard for under $20), and Don Melchor Cabernet from Concha Y Toro (a wine that both Wine Spectator and Robert Parker agreed is the best Cab coming from Chile right now.)

The Argentine selections, on the other hand, were an absolute cinch for me to pull together, as there were so many finds I was excited about from this year’s trip.  For each club level, I made sure that at least one Malbec-centered wine was offered.  For the Vintners Club, it was Finca El Origen Malbec 2006: a wine that we featured at an October wine dinner with winemaker Sven Bruchfeld.  (See previous post on South American Winemakers Dinner).  For our Reserve Club members, it was Bodega Ruca Malen Kinien Malbec 2004.  Kinien is the Mapuche word for “unique”, and this wine certainly is.  I was actually quite disappointed that I wasn’t able to fit a visit to Ruca Malen into my schedule during my August trip, so their ambitious winemaker, Antoine Thibaud, came striding into our store one September afternoon with the current vintage of Kinien in hand to make sure that I didn’t miss out on this one.  (We’re all very glad he did.)  For our Premiere members, it was Nicolas Catena Zapata, a blockbuster Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec blend from the lauded Catena family in Mendoza.  (Seriously, it seems like anything Laura and Nicolas touch turns to gold.)  And the Cellar Malbec was a special find: one of Trapiche’s Single Vineyard Malbecs from 2004.  Now, I knew all three of their single-vineyard bottlings were great when I tasted them five months ago.  What I didn’t know was that Robert Parker would sing their praises in mid-December with 93-94 point scores, causing the entire lot to all but disappear from the shelves in an instant.  Luckily, we stashed away just enough of the Vina Pedro Gonzalez 2004 and Vina Carlos Gei Berra 2004 to split between our Cellar Club members…but it got a little dicey there for a while. 

The final wines rounding out the January selections were Michel Torino Don David Torrontes (an insanely aromatic, fresh white wine from Cafayate, a northern desert valley in Salta), and Luca Pinot Noir 2006, which I can safely say is absolutely THE best Pinot Noir coming from Argentina right now, hands down (and incidentally, also created by the Midas touch of Laura Catena.)

Am I a little biased toward the Argentine wines right now?  Possibly.  But once these wines hit our Club members’ doorsteps (their 62 degree New Jersey doorsteps…sigh), I doubt they’ll mind the prejudice.  Drink them in happiness and good health, whatever the weather wherever you are!

Now that the weather has turned colder and the Holiday season is fully upon us, so is the stress (ahem, “wonderment”) of gift giving.  What do I get my boss and their spouse?  How about the mailman, Uncle Bob, my Cousin Thomas the wine-lover, and for that matter, what am I going to bring to the 22 holiday gatherings I’m attending/hosting? 

Relax.  Take a deep breath.  I’m here to help.  One of the easiest gifts to give when you don’t know the recipient’s size, favorite color, style or fashion sense is wine. (Have you EVER heard of someone going to return their wine bottles on the 26th?  Doesn’t happen.) And buying wine for the novice, the enthusiast or the connoisseur doesn’t have to be intimidating. 

First things first: decide on a price range for each person or group that you’re looking to buy for; there are plenty of great wines that fall into any price range.  A good wine shop (like Gary’s) has 91 point $10 wines and little-known $100 finds alike.

Second, figure out how many parites you will be attending and/or hosting and consider buying some wines by the case, rather than buying individual bottles for each occasion.  In doing so, you’ll make the decision-making process easier, allowing yourself to focus on finding one great wine to present at each gathering (call it your signature wine)…not to mention it will let you take advantage of case discounts!  Every year at this time, I buy a case of red and a case of white in preparation for those last-minute invitations and friends who pop in unannounced, so I’m never left empty-handed or rushed to find a gift.

Third, a little trick of mine: I avoid buying easily recognized wine brands unless I happen to know that it’s the one and only wine that the receiver really enjoys.  It may seem strange, but I have good reasons for this.

1.  Many people who know wine know the popular labels, which means they likely know the price you paid…..not always something you want to broadcast, one way or the other.

2.  Part of the experience of buying someone a gift of wine is buying something that they might not normally buy for themselves.  What’s a gift without a little excitement and intrigue, eh?  Buy them a wine they’ve never tried before and you might be one step closer to recreating that “six-year-old waiting to tear open a new toy” feeling. 

3.  By seeking out a wine from a small or lesser-known producer, it shows that you put some thought, effort and uniqueness into the gift you’re giving.  Even though it doesn’t necessarily take longer or cost more, it’s a gesture everyone will appreciate.

Now when you’re really stuck and don’t know if the person likes red or white, Bordeaux or Beaujolais, you can almost never go wrong with sparkling wines such as Champagne and Prosecco.  The great thing about sparkling wines is that they bring to mind a sense of celebration.  If they choose to open it immediately, it’ll kick the party off in a festive spirit.   And even if they don’t get around to opening it that night, they’ll pull it out on the next special occasion and think of you.  (Then it’s almost like two gifts in one!)

Finally, when you’re looking for something REALLY special for the hard-to-please wine-lover, that’s what the experts are here for.  Give one of our wine consultants a call, (888-99-GARYS, shameless plug) take the pressure off yourself, and find the perfect gift for anyone who loves good wine….after all, it’s what we’re trained for and what we love to do!

From all of us here at Gary’s Wine & Marketplace, have a happy and healthy holiday season!

It’s the morning after Thanksgiving, a holiday which readers of my previous posting will be happy to know I am spending in my homeland of backroads PA. (And no, we didn’t have squirrel on the table this year.)  What we did have was an absolute gorge-fest of turkey, stuffing (in the turkey and out, to make everyone happy), potatoes (mashed, sweet and “those,” to make everyone happy), sides and pies (pumpkin and sweet potato to make everyone happy, though we still can’t figure out who needed the canned pumpkin.)

Everyone’s happy.

So I rose this morning and thought, though I’m no calorie-counter, that maybe a walk would do some good.  Y’know, burn off maybe 1/87th of the mass I put on last night
(which is totally mom’s fault.  Dinner at 4 in the afternoon begets a second plate around 8 or 9.)

So a walk I will have.  But first I needed coffee to get me going.  So I sat down and occupied myself by perusing other wine blogs while the caffeine kicked in.  It’s something I do often, cause there are just so many people out there with interesting takes on wine and food and all the good things surrounding both.  And with fortuitous coincidence, I happened upon a feed I had never read before:  Winehiker Witiculture.  What a happy little coincidence, as I was just about to go for a hike myself (and by hike I mean up the hill on my dirt road, then back), right after updating my own little wine blog. 

But how, I wondered, did wine and hiking…go…together?

Luckily, there was an explanation on the side of the page for those not yet familiar with the advent of winesport.

“It’s a wine blog.  It’s a hiking blog.  Yes, it’s a winehiking blog.”

Eh?  Scrolled down some more. 

“I’m Russ Beebe, author of Winehiker Witiculture. I’m an experienced wine tasting host and hiking guide, and I regularly organize winehiking tours in the California wine country.”

Ahh.  So…you drink the wine….while hiking.  It’s an ambitious idea.  There are lots of things I’m inspired to do after enjoying a day of wine tasting.  Most of them involve sitting.  None of them involve hiking boots…though I’m open to the idea.  Perhaps this is something I’ll try one day, but baby steps will be necessary.  I’ll start with more of a mini-hike, say, round the backyard, after a low-alcohol glass of German Riesling like Leitz Dragonstone or Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese.  Then I’ll work my way up from there.

But today, I think I’ll stick with the caffeine.  You’re a more ambitious wino than I, Mr. Beebe.

 Choosing the wine selections for November’s Wine Club brought on a few moments of nostalgia for me.  Our theme for this month is the Pinot Family (as in Noir, Gris, Grigio, Blanc and other lesser-known mutations of the pine-cone shaped cluster of grapes).  We chose this particular family of varietals for November because these tempermental, earthy grapes go so well with the earthy harvest foods that don the Thanksgiving table.  But when it came time to choose the ideal food pairings, I found myself censoring my suggestions.  And the reason for my self-censorship, I realized, was a matter of “country-mouse moves to the city” syndrome.

Hailing from the backroads of Western Pennsylvania, I’ve had to make a few lifestyle adjustments since I moved to New Jersey a little over three years ago.  I’ve learned to lock the front door before I leave my house.  I’ve trained my dog to relieve himself on a much, much smaller square of grass.  And I’ve learned not to bring up rabbit or venison as dinner suggestions unless I enjoy scoffs and snorts.  It seems the word ”game”, culinarily speaking, is largely lost on the city-dwellers and suburbanites I’ve made friends with here in the Garden State. 

In general, I can understand this fact.  The kind of shotgun-toting that goes on in rural PA probably wouldn’t translate well here on the densely-populated East Coast.  And “crop damage” is a much less common excuse for partaking in a bird, rabbit, or deer here and there.  But at Thanksgiving time, the lack of “adventurous meats” dismays me more than usual.  Largely, this is because I know what my urban friends are missing out on when they fill their harvest table…a whole set of proteins that are a match made in carnivore-heaven for Pinot Noir.

SO….

I figured that the blog, that great little forum I have in cyber-space, was the perfect place for me to fulfill my real Thanksgiving pairing wishes.  Who knows?  Someone in Texas or Wyoming just may be reading, and appreciate some game pairings for their Pinot too.   Or maybe New Jersey will just enjoy a chuckle.  Either way.  I present:

Maggie’s REVISED November Wine Club Pairings: Country Edition

Ponzi Vineyards Pinot Gris 2006
NJ Approved Pairing: Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese
PA Pairing: Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese with Spy Apple Chutney

Hayman & Hill Santa Lucia Highlands Reserve Pinot Noir 2006
NJ Approved Pairing: Turkey and Clove-Spiced Cranberry-Orange Sauce
PA Pairing: Pheasant and Clove-Spiced Cranberry-Orange Sauce

WillaKenzie Estate Pinot Gris 2005
NJ Approved Pairing: Seafood Bisque
PA Pairing: Pecan-encrusted Trout with Brown Butter

Villa Mt. Eden Bien Nacido Vineyard Pinot Noir 2004
NJ Approved Pairing: Carrot, Potato, and Parsnip Gratin
PA Approved Pairing: Rabbit Stew with Carrot, Potato and Parsnips

Erath Estate Selection Dundee Hills Pinot Noir 2005
NJ Approved Pairing: Wild Mushroom, Oyster, and Chestnut Stuffing
PA Pairing: Wild Mushroom, Sauteed Squirrel, and Chestnut Stuffing

Marimar Estate Don Miguel Vineyard Pinot Noir 2003
NJ Approved Pairing: Warm Lima Beans with Sour Cream and Dijon Mustard Sauce
PA Pairing: (That’s a PA-inspired dish, so we’ll leave this one alone.)

Saintsbury Brown Ranch Carneros Pinot Noir 2005
NJ Approved Pairing: Cedar Plank-Grilled Salmon
PA Pairing: Pan-Roasted Squab, Quail, or Duck with Cherry Reduction

Beaux Freres “The Beaux Freres Vineyard” Pinot Noir 2005
NJ Approved Pairing: Spinach Salad w/ Roasted Butternut Squash, Beets and Pecans
PA Pairing: Venison Tenderloin Roasted with Butternut Squash, Beets and Pecans

 Yes, my family once served squirrel on the Thanksgiving table next to our turkey, and my dad was darn proud. 

My grandma, on the other hand….