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I may get to taste a lot of Grand Cru Burgundy, but I don’t get to drink a lot of grand cru Burgundy so this was my “treat for me” bottle this week. BTW… Grand Cru is the highest classification of the most hallowed, most historic place where Pinot Noir is grown… Burgundy, France.

This bottle has so many whole, brown spice notes it’s mind boggling: full dried star anise, cinnamon sticks, and dried orange rinds dominate. There’s a bit of “purple” scent, too… I’m smelling tulips and mulberries. 

The tastes is of black cherries and plum skins, and there is  enough tannin to stick your tongue to your mouth, but not enough to get in the way of drinking this without food. 

The more exotic flavors are of peach pits and molasses. 

With all these flavors, one would think that there might be that Gevrey Chambertin hint of robitussin medicinal fruit, but if anything this complexity of this wine comes from coming close to be medicinal, but instead diving into an roasting oven to make themselves into a pie that begs for you to slam your face into it, nose first.

Old World, Pinot Noir | No Comments

Bordeaux Blend

Ugh… another new vintage of a wine I fell in love with three vintages ago. Imagine falling in love with a man and then, only six months into your relationship, being forced to date the youngest of his three brothers… Falling in love with a wine and then realizing you got the last of your favorite vintage is not often pretty. 

With the Mulderbosch, I fell in love with the 2003. It was thick, earthy, chocolate-driven wine stew. Now, suddenly the distributor is shipping the 2005, and I’m supposed to drink up its juicy red currants and roasted green bell pepper flavors AND pay more?!

Well, if I’m having food with it, I will. The lighter consistency of the wine went perfectly with white meat (seared pork chops stuffed with red onions and minced garlic… and a side of butternut squash and peas in a fennel and clove butter). The Petit Verdot and Malbec in this classic full Bordeaux blend added a bit of shoe polish and rotten cherry. I kind of like it. 

It’s not the same wine it was in the 2003 vintage though. Wine grows and ages, and every year it’s different… so WHEN YOU FIND SOMETHING YOU LIKE… you should BUY A BUNCH OF IT! I wish I had done that with the 2003 of this great South African wine even though the 2005 is pretty freaking fantastic, itself.

Bordeaux, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, T.B. Ackerson Wines, Wine Reviews | No Comments

Call it a ritual, but I almost never drink (or pour out to guests) more than 1/2 a bottle of Bordeaux in a night; I want the second half of the wine to sit in the bottle overnight with the cork jammed back in it to poorly simulate an extra few years aging.

Bordeaux Vineyard

It’s a good thing, too, because last night this bottle was an uneven mix of cassis and brown, woody dirt, and tonight, it is a pancake breakfast in the glass. Maple, red berries, and a burnt brown sugar dominate the nose. The finish has slight bacony notes. There’s also the tiniest sliver of green bell pepper on the nose, too, and a briny quality that’s only perceptible with a strong swirling.

It’s amazing to me that a $20, six-year old Bordeaux has more structure, tannin, and finesse than the $75, four-year old Cakebread Cabernet I had the other day. It’s final blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot.

Bordeaux, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, France, Old World, Wine Reviews | No Comments

Roasted Garlic and Thyme Chicken from The NY Times

Simple, classic dishes create opportunities for some of the most obvious but most overlooked pairings. The usual thought is “If I’m making simple food, then I probably shouldn’t waste any money on an overly fancy wine.”

It’s wrong though because simply prepared high quality ingredients though are exactly the thing that can give a complex wine the extra lift it really needs to shine.

Take this NY Times recipe for garlic and thyme roasted chicken. The bird’s natural juices along with the simple yet savory herbs are exactly what a well aged Bordeaux needs. Of course, finding a well aged Bordeaux that is affordable is quite hard unless you’re shopping from your own cellar.

Chateau Bellevue Premieres Cotes de Blaye 2001 actually fits the bill just fine though, and it comes in at just under $20. It had flavors for dried fennel, cinnamon, red berries, and just a hint of celery leaves left in the attic, and everything about it soared when it hugged itself into the buttery, roasted meat from the recipe.

It needed about a half an hour of decanting. After that, it was everything that I’d forgotten a Bordeaux could be. Treat it gently though, otherwise, the flavors will runaway before they hit your tongue.

Bordeaux, Merlot, Old World, T.B. Ackerson Wines, Wine Reviews | No Comments

Viognier tastes like a lover who falls asleep too early. The flavors are both half-pregnant and overdone. No matter which fruit or flower you taste it will be at least wilted, chalky, heavy, or wrinkled.

In most Viogniers, I taste wilted flowers, dried apricots, dried lavender, and creamy egg nog (if oaked well). In this Viognier I taste apricot flesh, chalky skin (or dried milk powder), and mildewy lavender… or in other words, it tastes like an old house with new curtains.

That’s exactly what it is, too… a 2,000 year old grape planted in an entirely incorrect region in southern France; Viognier is traditionally grown in the Northern Rhone right beside Syrah vines, and this bottling sees it pulling a Kerouac down to Languedoc where it roasted in the heat and was plucked just a bit too early to fully blossom. It smells very much like a baby in a flower shop instead of a woman in a field of wild flowers.

Of course this “baby” is exactly 4x less expensive than the last woman I met in a field of flowers so I’ll just sit back quietly and enjoy a pretty darn nice glass of wine.

France, Langeudoc, Old World, Viognier, Wine Reviews | No Comments