Vacationing in Provence

This year, instead of traveling all over France to visit our family, we rented a gite in the Drôme Provençale and asked everybody to visit us there. The place was called La Colline Bleue. The owners, M. et Mme Armand, are a very friendly couple and they love children. The kids are still talking about the beautiful collection of fossils from all around the world that they saw at their house. The gite was rustic but charming and spacious enough for our numerous family members. The main attraction was the pool, surrounded by pine trees and overlooking the Baronnies hills. Feeding everybody was made easy thanks to the village's well-supplied supermarket.


La Colline Bleue.

La Colline Bleue has an ideal location. There are many activitities to do in this land of olive, lavender, vines and apricot trees including visiting picturesque perched villages, buying local produces and souvenirs at provençal markets and hiking the local peaks for panoramic views of the Mont Ventoux and the Alps.


The village of Rosans

Nyons, the olive capital, is 30 minutes away. It is an attractive city with a medieval old town and a Romanesque bridge. Every Thursday morning, its picturesque Provençal market attracts large numbers of tourists as well as local families.


The Romanesque bridge at Nyons

Vaison la Romaine, the Roman city, is another half an hour drive away. It is the the largest archaeological site in France. The Roman bridge, crossing the river Ouvèze, is one of the very few antique bridges still in use today. Just above the bridge, the Medieval city is perched high on the rocks.


Ruins of a Roman villa at Vaison

We had a memorable dinner at the Moulin à Huile in Vaison, a Guide Michelin one star restaurant that offers a creative cuisine combining Provençal and exotic flavors.


Rable de lapin au romarin, beurre de moutarde, petit palet des hauts de côtes et pistache, mousse de petit pois, pomme de terre negresse.

Going beyond Vaison and towards Carpentras, you reach the Dentelles de Montmirail country, an excellent terroir for the Côtes du Rhône where the Grenache grape thrives. The picturesque route des vins takes you through the pretty villages and the caves of Cairanne, Rasteau, Gigondas, Vacqueyras and Beaumes de Venise.


A vineyard in Cairanne

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Bordeaux 2004

According to the June 2005 edition of Decanter Magazine, the 2004 vintage is, in Bordeaux, a classic vintage of promising potential. According to Steven Spurrier, author of the article, it is comparable to 1996 and 1995. The wines from both banks are among the most lively, fruity and fresh that Bordeaux has ever produced. Plus they have higher natural tannins than the 2003s which should give them a long enough life for the collector. But with high yields and soft market conditions, this will not be a speculative vintage.

The weather was cool and gray most of the summer but turned warm and sunny in September, helping the grapes to ripen. For the estates that were able to control the extremely high yields during the summer, this month of September is what really saved the vintage.

Based on barrel tastings notes that I have read so far, here are the wines that I decided to order:
Château Angélus
Château Pavie-Macquin
Château Malescot Saint-Exupery
Château Margaux
Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
Château Pontet Canet
Château Cos d'Estournel
Château Léoville-Barton

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A winemaker dinner at Vino Locale

The June Winemaker Dinner at Vino Locale featured this month the DeRose Vineyards winery. The fabulous multi-course dinner was prepared by Mabel Bialson, owner of the Incredible Edibles, a catering company.

DeRose Vineyards is located in the Cienega Valley . The winery has a rich history - it is the "oldest existing winery" in the State of California according to wine historian Charles Sullivan - and many of the estate wines are made from vines that are over 100 years old.

We had a great time dining in the beautiful courtyard of the historic Victorian house where Vino Locale is located. The menu was a seven-course feast, each course paired with a DeRose wine.

Ralph Hurd, winemaker at DeRose presented the wines and Mabel Bialson presented the menu:

Grilled Shrimp and Apricots, Apricot Relish
2002 Sharknose Chardonnay Cienega Valley
The wine had a bright golden color. The nose was fresh with grapefruit aromas. On the palate, it was medium-bodied with butterscotch flavors, followed by crisp finish, This Chablis-style Chardonnay worked very well with the acidity of the apricot relish.

Thai Lobster Roll with Peanut Satay, Lemongrass, Ginger Sauce 2002 Viognier Cienega Valley

The wine comes from dryfarmed vines over 100 years old. The nose was very aromatic nose, a rich mouthfeel with sweet peach aromas on the palate and herb flavors that reminded me of Chartreuse liqueur on the finish. Maybe a little bit too sweet for my taste but it complemented very well the Asian flavors of the Thai dish.

Pan Roasted Salmon with Cabernet Sauce, Sauteed Baby Broccoli
2003 Cabernet Franc Cienega Valley
For me, this was the best fish dish of the dinner and thanks to the Cabernet sauce, it perfectly matched the wine. The wine had a dark inky color, sweet fruits on the nose and rich mouthfeel followed by some acidity on the finish.

Glazed Grilled Long Island Duck Breast with Orange & Spice Marinade, Port Reduction Sauce, Orange Glazed Carrots
2003 Merlot Livermore Valley
The wine had berry aromas on the nose. On the palate, it was full-bodied and slightly tannic. Its flavors worked very well with the Orange Glazed Carrots.

Tenderloin of beef with Ethiopian Longberry Coffee, Sour Cherry, Hollywood Red Reduction with Caramelized Shallots and Sun Dried Cherries, garnished with Shaved Bitter Chocolate
2002 Hollywood Red Cienega Valley
This one was the best meat dish and thanks to the Hollywood Red reduction, the coffee/chocolate aromas and the fruity cherries, it perfectly echoed the flavors of the wine.

Grilled Summer Lettuces with Prosciutto wrapped Mozzarella, Balsamic Glaze
2003 Dryfarm Zinfandel Cienega Valley
Coming from 110 years old vines, the wine had a spicy nose with berry aromas. The palate was full-bodied palate with chocolate and raisiny flavors and a tannic finish.

Tiramisu with Blueberries, Raspberries and Strawberries, Belgium Bittersweet Chocolate
1995 Cabernet Franc Port
This port exhibited coffee and black cherry aromas with a rich mouthfeel, and the tiramisu was delicious!

Tasting the rich DeRose Winery wines with the complex and intense flavors of the dishes that complemented them so well was an awesome experience.

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A taste of the Santa Cruz Mountains

Last Thursday, we tasted several wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains as we needed to assemble a selection of wines from this region for a tasting event.

We started with the 2002 Mount Eden Estate Chardonnay Santa Cruz Mountains. Mount Eden Vineyards is a small winery, focusing on small lots of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The estate Chardonnay comes from a low-yielding vineyard located in the Santa Cruz Mountain Range, above the fog level at 2,000 feet and about 15 miles from the ocean. The proximity of the ocean keeps the daytime temperature low and allows dry-farming. This wine is considered by many connoisseurs to be one of the longest-lived white wines produced in California.

The wine had a bright golden color, the nose was very aromatic with tropical fruits and notes of honey. The palate was medium to full-bodied with additional butterscotch flavors. On the finish, it was fresh and not too oaky at all. This was indeed one of the best wine of the evening.

After the Chardonnay, we tasted the 2002 Varner Pinot Noir Hidden Block Santa Cruz Mountains. Varner is a garage-sized winery owned by two brothers, Bob and Jim Varner. They believe that the best wine comes from winemakers who grow their own grapes and they are entirely devoted to handmade, Santa Cruz appellation Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

The wine had a medium garnet color. The nose had some light cassis and raspberry aromas, followed by more earthy flavors on the palate. Interestingly, it got sweeter and fruitier by the end of the evening. Overall, the wine was very pleasant with some attractive complexity.

Our next wine was the 2000 Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Santa Cruz Mountains. The Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet is sometimes considered as a poor man's Monte bello, Ridge's flagship wine. It is partly made from lower elevation vineyards whereas most of the highest vineyard fruit goes into the Monte Bello. There are also vinification differences between the two wines: the Santa Cruz Mountain goes into second- and third-year American oak, typically for 16 to 18 months. Monte Bello goes into 100% new American oak for somewhat longer.

The wine had an intense purple color. At first, we found some turpentine-like aromas on the nose that evolved into bell pepper and berry flavors. On the palate, it was medium-bodied with a disappointing hollow midpalate and some astringency on the finish. Overall, we gave the wine a low mark.

We finished the tasting with the 2001 Storrs Zinfandel Rusty Ridge Santa Clara Valley . Storrs is a small winery located in Santa Cruz, dedicated to Santa Cruz Mountains wines, mostly Chardonnay and Zinfandel. The grapes for this cool climate Zinfandel were grown in two very old, gnarly vined vineyards on the foothills of the Santa Clara Valley.

The wine had a deep garnet color. The nose exhibited strawberry and vanillin aromas. On the palate, it was medium-bodied with spices and fruits flavors. Tannins were still present on the finish. A truly pleasurable wine to end the evening with.


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Does Wine Make You Fat?

This was the topic of Natalie Decant's latest newsletter.
Here is what she says: The good news is that you can drink wine without getting fat. When it comes to both calories and carbohydrates, moderate wine drinking won't ruin your diet. Wine has no cholesterol, sodium or fat, and it's low in carbohydrates. Several studies indicate that drinking a glass or two of wine a day may have little effect on our weight.

Regular, moderate wine drinkers tend overall to be slimmer than teetotallers, according to a study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. And a 1991 Harvard study, which followed 138,000 men and women over ten years, found that increasing their alcohol intake didn't cause the subjects to gain weight. In fact, the women decreased their body weight by an average of about 15%, instead of gaining the weight predicted according to the calories they consumed. (Intriguingly, the men's weight stayed the same.)

Of course, when it comes to wine, moderation is key. Drinking more than one or two glasses a day will pile on the calories, as well as increase your chances of liver damage and other health problems.

So all this is good news for us, female wine drinkers. Even if we plan to slim down and be ready for the bathing suit season, we don't have to abandon your dear daily glass of wine!


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ABC summer whites

Are you looking for some nice ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) summer whites?

I am increasingly enjoying white wines that are aromatic, crisp and fresh and made from indigenous grape varietals. They are teasing our palate with flavors that are different but unique.

Vernaccia di San Gimignano is a white varietal primarily grown around the Tuscan town of San Gimignano and considered to be one of Italy's finest white grape. As part of a recent tasting of the wines of Tuscany, I tried the 2002 Teruzzi & Puthod Terre di Tufi. A blend of Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Chardonnay, Malvasia and Trebbiano, the wine displayed aromas of citrus, white blossom and honeydew melon. On the palate, it had a generous full-bodied mouthfeel with a fresh and lively finish.

Chenin Blanc is a varietal that originates from the Loire Valley and was introduced in South Africa in the seventeenth century. The quality of the wines of South Africa has greatly improved recently and the country produces now very exciting wines. I enjoyed drinking the 2003 Rudera Chenin Blanc, a wine with an attractive golden color and a nose of white blossom and pear aromas. On the palate, it was fresh and subtle with almond notes, leaving additional mineral flavors on the finish.

Torrontés, a little-known Spanish white varietal that is thriving in Argentina makes uncomplicated wines perfect for summer sipping. The 2004 Dominio del Plata Crios de Susana Balbo Torrontés had a very aromatic nose with white peach and floral aromas. The palate was simple but clean with fresh grapey aromas.

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Making our own wine: update 3

In February, our group was invited for a barrel tasting of our wine at Crushpad. Unfortunately, I could not come, not feeling very well that day, and missed the tasting. So, earlier this month, I decided to pay a visit to Crushpad myself. Our winemaker Scott was waiting for me and took me to the barrel area. Several barrels have been made with the Clary Ranch Syrah and I was able to taste most of them. First, I tasted our wine. At this point, it has been aging in barrel for nearly 6 months and tasted very different from the fresh juice that we pressed last November. It had a lot of spicy and peppery flavors, a firm backbone and some good acidity. A promising wine indeed, very much in line with what we wanted to achieve. Then Scott had me try another Clary Ranch Syrah, this one being aged in a neutral older barrel which should have little influence on the taste of the wine. This wine was sweeter with more upfront fruits but not as elegant and balanced than ours. I also tasted a wine aged in a new barrel. This one had a lot of vanilla and caramel flavors and at this point, the strong oak aromas dominated the fruit. The last wine I tasted had been partially destemmed. I noticed stronger, fuller flavors in the wine, coming I guess from the stems, and found it very promising too.


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The perfect wine

Have you ever tasted the perfect wine?

A perfect wine would possess an ideal equilibrium of all its constituent parts, and would be seamless and composed, a unified, harmonious whole. A perfect wine would not simply be a great wine; it would be a paradigm with an otherworldly quality. [...] For me, perfection is to be found not in a set of intellectual criteria but in a particular experience when wine becomes an integral part of a translucent moment. Roger Bohmrich, MW.

I recently had the occasion to taste the perfect wine. It was a bottle of 1985 Château Lynch-Bages. This twenty years old wine was in perfect condition and was still showing a youthful color. The nose was fabulous with complex layers of smoky, tobacco flavors and a lot of cassis aromas. On the palate, the wine was rich, full-bodied with very smooth tannins and a lot of depth. The finish was long and lingering. Definitely an outstanding experience!

At the same dinner, we also had a bottle of 2000 Château Lynch-Bages. In comparison, this wine had an impressive concentration but was more tightly knit. It was great to see how a young powerful wine like the 2000 could potentially mature into a classic wine like the 1985.


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Making our own wine: update 2

We went back to Crushpad the following week. The fermentation was over, the Brix number having reached the desired value of -1/-2, and it was time to press the grapes.


The press.

First, we had to choose a barrel in which the wine will spend the next 12 to 18 months of its life. We were proposed a 1 year old oak barrel from Burgundy which should add subtle yet complex flavors to the wine, in line with our original goal of producing an elegant and balanced wine.


Our barrel.

We pumped the wine into the press and filled our barrel with the free run, which is the liquid that freely runs off the press without pressing. We also tasted the free run. The wine had some additional character since the week before. It was less sweet and a step closer to being a wine.


The free run coming out of the press.

Then, using buckets, we added the remaining must into the press and started pressing the wine. The hard press which is the result of pressing the must, was put in another barrel and will be used for topping off our barrel. We tasted the press wine and found it much more tannic and strong than the free run.


There is no wine left to press.

At some point, no more wine could be extracted from the must. We then left our wine resting in its barrel that will be its home for many months. The current plan is to bottle it around January 2006. In the meantime, we'll have opportunities to taste it in the barrel and monitor the aging process.


Our barrel is now full.


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Making our own wine!

With a group of wine enthusiasts, we decided to make our own wine with the help and support of Crushpad, a San Francisco based winery providing the complete materials, facility and services for new (or experienced) winemakers to create their own wines.


Our winemaker Scott Shapley.

First, we needed to define which wine we wanted to make and choose a varietal. Cabernet Sauvignon was not available anymore so we chose Syrah. The type of wine you want usually determines the vineyard selection. We wanted a Syrah in the Northern Rhône Valley style, spicy and complex but not too big and fruit-forward. With that goal in mind, Crushpad selected fruits from the Clary Ranch Vineyard, a cool area in the Sonoma Coast appellation, just a few miles west of Petaluma, California.

We decided to remove the stems before starting fermentation but keep the whole berries to give the wine a fruitier character.
Luckily, we did not need to add any cultured yeast to the must as it startedits fermentationn process with its own native yeast. We came during the fermentation time to punch down the "cap" which is the solid mass of grape skins, stems, and seeds that floats to the top of the fermenting vessel.
Punching down is important because it helps mix the yeast into the must, ensures that color, flavor and tannins and other phenolic compounds are added to the wine, helps dissipate heat that naturally occurs during fermentation and keeps harmful bacteria from forming.
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It is usually done two times a day.

Brix is a measurement of the amount of sugar in a liquid. The sugar converts to alcohol during fermentation. As Brix numbers decrease, the amount of alcohol in the liquid increases

Then, we measured the amount of sugar remaining in the wine. This is measured in Brix with a refractometer. As the sugar converts into alcohol during fermentation, the Brix number decreases. Our goal was to reach a desired Brix number of -1 or -2 for an optimum dryness.


Measuring the Brix.

We tasted the wine of course. The juice had a deep purple/garnet color and was deliciously simple but good. There was still some sweetness in this baby wine and also some lively acidity.

We are now waiting for the fermentation to complete and plan to come next week for the pressing.


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The 12 predictions of Robert Parker

Robert Parker, the famous wine guru is predicting the future of wine in the October 2004 issue of Food & Wine.

1. Distribution will be revolutionized: I believe this one will eventually happened but latter than sooner.

2. The wine Web will go mainstream: easy, this has already started.

3. World biding wars will begin for top wines: I've read China is now a strong market for fine wines. It is going to be harder to find/buy collectors wines and they will be reserved for speculative wine investors.

4. France will feel a squeeze: easy, this has already started.

5. Corks will come out: I am not so sure that corks will completely disappear. Screw cap closures usage will increase for sure. It could eventually be used for the 95% of the wine production that does not need aging. But I also read somewhere that the cork industry is working on new techniques to prevent cork contamination.

6. Spain will be the start: Spain is definitively enjoying a new birth. But also Southern Italy, Southern France, South Africa, etc.

7: Malbec will make it big: again Malbec in Argentina but also Carmenère in Chile, Nero d'Avola in Sicily, etc.

8. California's Central Coast will rule America: that's the Sideways effect!

9. Southern Italy will ascend: see #6 and #7

10. Unoaked wine will find a wider audience: the popularity of the new Morgan Metallico Chardonnay is an example of a new trend looking for fresher wines showing their fruit and terroir. There is also a worldwide trend to grow grapes in cooler sites.

11. Value will be valued: I believe that wine consumers are getting increasingly educated and are looking for better wines at better prices. But I am also surprised to see prices to continue going up.

12. Diversity will be the word: I think that we'll see more and more wines made of local varietals on the market. Do you know Vernaccia, Torrontés, Counoise or Frappato?


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Launching a new site for wine collectors

I have been working on it for a year now, and after 6 month of "beta testing", I am finally launching my site: ManageYourCellar.com. It is an online wine cellar software for wine collectors. I am just starting a Google AdWords campaign to get visitors and hopefully users.

There are still a lot of things that I need to work on but one has to start at some point....

I want to make it very easy to use because maintaining your wine collection up-to-date is very time consuming. It is also important to have a large wine database so that people do not have to enter all the wine information when they add new wines to their cellars.

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Poème sur le vin

I found this poem beautiful and it let us dream about all these all aged bottles that you wish you had in your cellar....


Le Vin

Longtemps, dans l'atmosphère humide des caveaux
Sous la voûte profonde et de nitre imprégnée !
Sous la poussière et sous les toiles d'araignée
Le jeune vin vieillit dans des flacons nouveaux.


Il faut que dans le calme et l'ombre des tombeaux
La sublime liqueur dure plus d'une année,
Avant que d'accomplir la noble destinée
D'exalter un instant nos coeurs et nos cerveaux.


Ainsi, Chaze, il en est de la pensée humaine,
C'est par un très secret et très lent phénomène
Qu'elle se plie enfin au rythme harmonieux.


Un doux sonnet mûrit comme un bordeaux suave
Et tu fais bien, ami, qui né dans une cave,
De lire des beaux vers en buvant tes vins vieux.

François Coppée 1842 - 1908

 

About me

I don't remember exactly when I really started enjoying wine, maybe during one of my college year that I spent in Bordeaux. I didn't know much about wine at that time and I remember buying wines based on the label design rather than on the name of the château.

I realized how ignorant I was when I got invited to a wine tasting weekend at a friend's family house near Chablis. Each guest was asked to bring a wine and hide its identity by pouring it into a different bottle. I had no clue about the differences between a Bordeaux and a Bourgogne or any other appellation for that matter, and I could not guess any of these wines.

I don't know whether I could, even today, blindly identify a wine from Bordeaux from a wine from Burgundy, but for sure, I am still amazed at how much there is to know about wine.