Montana trip: reaching its apogee on the Flathead River and with L'Ecole No 41

We ended our Montana trip with a day of rafting on the scenic Middle Fork of the Flathead River, at the southern boundary of Glacier National Park. Although most of it is mild whitewater rafting, the river has a few exciting class III rapids with fearsome names such as Tunnel, Bonecrusher, Jaws, Waterfall Narrows, and C.B.T. (Could Be Trouble). For us, Jaws was maybe the most thrilling of them all. It is where our 12 year old daughter suddenly fell out of the boat in the turbulent waters. Fortunately, she did not panic, swam back to the boat, and was quickly brought safely on board.


Rafting on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River, Montana

After all the excitement of the day, we really deserved a gratifying dinner. We were staying in Whitefish, Montana, which is a ski and summer resort with a lot of good restaurants. We decided to try Tupelo Grille, a restaurant specialized in Cajun and Southern cuisine. The place had also a fine wine list with a good selection of wines from Washington State.

I chose a 2002 L'Ecole No 41 Apogee to go with our entrees. Apogee means the point in an orbit most distant from the body being orbited. It is also the farthest or highest point; the apex. “We chose the proprietary name, Apogee, because its definition seemed to reflect all that we were trying to accomplish with this wine....reaching the highest point.” explains Martin Clubb, the winery co-owner and winemaker on the winery's website.

Apogee is a classic Bordeaux blend from the reputable Pepper Bridge Vineyard in the Walla Walla Valley. The wine was really enjoyable with our meal, rich but well-balanced, with plenty of dark fruit flavors and a long finish. And what a great way to end our Glacier adventures!

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Hiking in Glacier National Park and tasting Canadian ales

I am just back from a awesome hiking trip in Glacier National Park, Montana. Of course, we had many adventures, saw big horn sheep, mountain goats, marmots, and I still remember the fear I had when I saw my first Grizzly bear!

Our trip started with a 7.6 mile hike on the Highline Trail that took us to the Granite Park Chalet, a rustic backcountry chalet only accessible by trails.


Hiking on the Highline Trail

As we stayed two nights at Granite Park Chalet, we hiked the following day up to Swiftcurrent Lookout, which sits at 8436' on the Continental Divide, and to the Grinnell Glacier Overlook, looking down onto one of the largest glaciers of the park.


Grinnell Glacier Overlook

Then we drove to the bordering Waterton Lakes National Park, located in Alberta, Canada. This part of the park offers many interesting hikes too, including the Crypt Lake trail, one of Canada's best-known trails. It is a full day hike that takes you to great waterfalls, an iron ladder climb, a natural tunnel, an exposed cliff traverse, and finally a hidden alpine lake surrounded by snow covered peaks.


The 600 ft cascading Crypt Falls

Alberta's main brewery is the Big Rock Brewery, which offers a pretty good selection of brews from light, crisp lagers to rich, full-flavored stouts. Among the ones we tasted, our favorites were the Traditional, an English-style amber ale, the McNally's Extra, a stronger Irish-style ale with a 7% alcohol content, and on the sweeter side, the Honey Brown Lager with a touch of clover honey. After a long day of hiking, I can tell you: these beers were absolutely delicious!



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WBW #23: Grilled shrimp Charmoula sauce and Rueda

Bar-B-Que Wines is the theme for the 23rd edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday and Vivi at Vivi's Wine Journal is hosting. She asked us to fire up the grill, choose a wine, look at it, sniff it, taste it, drink and then write something about it before Wednesday July 5th. I'll be on vacation next week &mdash hiking in the Glacier National Park — so here is my contribution, a little bit ahead of time.

Choosing which wine to talk about for this WBW was actually a challenge because we have been firing up the grill almost every day since the beginning of the warm season and drank many different wines with our barbecued food. But then, last weekend, we made this delicious grilled shrimp recipe with Moroccan Charmoula sauce.



While the shrimp were grilling, I opened a bottle of 2003 Viña Sila Rueda Naiades, a 100% Verdejo wine. Considered to be the finest white variety in Spain, Verdejo is a native grape of Rueda, a wine region located in central Spain, northwest of Madrid, along the Duero river. Thanks to its sandy and chalky soils, Rueda can produce aromatic Verdejo wines of great minerality and body.

We looked at the wine: it exhibited a bright color with a pretty golden hue. We sniffed it: the nose was fragrant with floral and stone fruit aromas. We tasted it: it was full-bodied with a rich texture, almost like a Chardonnay but more aromatic. We drank it: it stood up to the spicy sauce very well. I made a note to buy more Rueda in the future.



Another great theme for WBW, thanks Vivi! And see you in 10 days or so!

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Pairing wine with Soccer

I can't believe that since the beginning of the Soccer World Cup, we have been watching an average of two Soccer games per day. For me, that's a lot of time spent in front of the TV, but watching these soccer games is simply too addictive!

Last weekend, we invited some friends to watch Argentina-Mexico, the first game of the round of 16. For the occasion, my sister in law brought an amazing soccer ball and shoe-shaped bottle of wine.

The wine inside was unfortunately not as memorable as the bottle itself. Produced by Cantine Fratelli Bellini, the Bellini Favola Vino da Tavola Rosso was a non vintage red blend of unspecified composition. It had a deep garnet color and some light cherry aromas on the nose. On the palate, it reminded me of some of the Chiantis of the past, too lean and tart to be well balanced. We finally switched to the fine 2002 Luigi Bosca Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva in honor of Argentina's victory.

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It's Too Darn Hot, I need a glass of rosé!

It was very hot last week in the Bay Area, with unusually high evening temperatures. Many people would quench their thirst with an ice-cold beer — one of the most refreshing beverages men had invented &mdash, but with the lamb that we were having for dinner, I did not feel like having a beer. On the other hand, a bottle of rosé that I had put in the fridge a few days before, was just screaming to be open.

A rosé is usually a crisp, fruity, and uncomplicated wine that can be served as cold as beer. It is also very versatile and can go with almost any kind of food. My bottle of rosé was a 2005 Vin de Pays des Côtes de Thau Rosé Hecht & Bannier, a varietal wine 100% Syrah produced by a friend of our friend Arnaud and now imported by K&L Wine Merchants.



The wine had a bright watermelon color and a sweet nose of wild strawberries. On the palate, however, it was dry, clean, leaving a crisp and refreshing sensation on the finish. It worked well with the lamb too.

It's too darn hot, sang Ella in the background, too, too, too darn hot.

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A tapas party and two Spanish wines

Making tapas is an easy but festive way to throw a summer party

For all of us, tapas are small plates of tasty appetizer-sized food served with beer, wine, or sherry, but literally, tapa means cover in Spanish. The word has different interesting etymologies that explain how the concept of tapas was born. One, commonly used, is that bartenders used to place flat items like saucers, cards or even bread on top of glasses of wine to protect them from flies. Eventually they topped these covers with snacks to attract more customers. A slightly different story says that bartenders, discovering that mature cheese could cover the taste of bad wines, decided to offer free slices of cheese with cheap wine.

Today, it is fortunately rare to have tapas with cheap, bad wine. My first great tapas experience occurred some years ago at my sister in law's wedding near Badajoz, Spain. Following the local custom, the wedding dinner started with an abundance of sliced Serrano ham, Manchego cheese, and olives, served with the traditional glass of Manzanilla. Sherry is an acquired taste and I have to confess that until that night, I didn't like this unusually yeasty, slightly salty, dry wine. But this wedding made me a convert.

More recently, we organized a little tapas party with some friends of mine and I was asked to bring the wine. This time, I did not dare bringing any sherry, as I was not sure whether any of my friends would like it. Instead, I chose a crisp white wine from the cool and wet Galicia on the Atlantic coast, and a Grenache-based red wine from the hot Priorat region on the Mediterranean coast, just south of Barcelona.



The 2004 Condes de Albarei Albariño was, without doubt, our favorite. It had a bright stray color with a light green hue, with attractive white flower and peach aromas on the nose. On the palate, the wine was mouthfilling with a bite of acidity on the finish, which made it the perfect complement to our gambas al ajillo (garlic prawns) and abuelita querida (goat cheese and chorizo rolls) dishes.

The 2001 Giné Giné Priorat had a deep garnet color with a nose of blackberries and distinctive notes of mint and eucalyptus. On the palate, it had a medium intensity with good acidity on the finish. The wine worked well with the traditional tortilla de patatas (Spanish omelet), as well as our carne con tomato dish (pork cubes in tomato sauce).



But next time, for sure, I'll also bring a bottle of my favorite Manzanilla, the Hidalgo La Gitana and I'll start converting my friends to the distinctive flavors of sherry.

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WBW #22: 1999 Château Langoa Barton

Today is Wine Blogging Wednesday, hosted by Tim Elliott of Winecast. For this 22nd edition, Tim asked us to choose a lite (alcohol) red wine, meaning 12.5% alcohol or less. With this theme, Tim brings up an important issue: the rising alcohol levels in almost all the wines worldwide.

Alcohol is an essential component in wine. It is a powerful flavor extractor and it gives wine body and a sweet mouthfeel. However, if the alcohol content is too high, the wine can be out of balance, heady, and leave a hot, burning sensation in the mouth.

Drinking wines with high alcohol content can be an issue for wine lovers that want to moderate their alcohol intake. A 5-ounce glass of 9% German Riesling contains 0.45 ounces of ethanol. A similar serving of 14% California Chardonnay contains 0.7 ounces of ethanol. Moreover, pairing high alcoholic wines with food can be challenging as they easily clash with well-balanced dishes.

Now, the level of alcohol that is specified on the wine label may not be exactly what you think you're going to get. According to the Epicurious Wine Dictionary, “for table wine, the United States requires a minimum alcohol level of 7 percent and a maximum of 14 percent. The label variance can be up to 1.5 percent. For example, a wine stating "Alcohol 12.5% By Volume" can legally range anywhere from 11 to 14 percent.”

Many wines from Bordeaux can be found at 12.5%, although Bordeaux follows now the general upward trend and I have seen some 2002 wines that are already at 13%.

The 1999 Château Langoa Barton was the wine with an alcohol level of 12.5% or less that we drank the most recently. We shared this bottle the other night with a good friend of ours that was visiting from Chicago.

Château Langoa Barton is a classified third growth from the Médoc commune of Saint-Julien. It is under the ownership of the Barton family who also owns the second growth Château Léoville Barton, also from Saint-Julien. Every year, I like to purchase some amount of these two châteaux. They are of reliable quality at a reasonable price — I only paid $25 for the 1999 Langoa Barton — and I really appreciate their elegance and classy style.

That night, the 1999 Château Langoa Barton was perfectly ready to drink after some decanting. It was deeply colored with an appealing nose of blackcurrant liqueur and licorice. On the palate, it was full-bodied, well-balanced, with a rich mouthfeel and a stylish finish. The alcohol content was 12.5%, just perfect for WBW #22!

Now, to conclude on a poetic note, did you know that an eulogy of Château Langoa Barton had been written by a 19th century poet called Pierre Biarnez (Wine-Journal.com)?

“Admire you this Château with its style correct
There, facing the park, with its grandiose aspect?
This is a third growth, which a hand most attentive
Lovingly looks after with care most preventive;
And so, with such prudence, the fruit's never lost
Sincerest and bestwine that ever there wast!
Ah! If all such great wines had a similar master,
The glory of Médoc would shine with more luster.”

And thanks again Tim for hosting this 22nd edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday!

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2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Ink Grade Vineyard Howell Mountain

No, there is no mistake, we are talking about the 2006 vintage! This is another wine that we are making with Crushpad, the community winery located in San Francisco. We enjoyed making the 2004 Syrah Clary Ranch Vineyard so much that we decided to make another wine with Crushpad, a Cabernet Sauvignon this time. The wine is in the planning phase now and the first thing that we had to choose was a source for our grapes. We selected the Ink Grade Vineyard in the Howell Mountain AVA.

Located northeast of the town of St. Helena, the Howell Mountain AVA is characterized by hillside vineyards at an elevation ranging from 1,600 feet to 2,200 feet just above the fog level. Thanks to the elevation and the lack of fog, the temperatures are cooler during the day and warmer at night than in the valley floor, allowing grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon to fully ripen every year and produce wines that are concentrated and structured.

Ink Grade is a beautifully terraced 200-acre vineyard of mountainous terrain high above the valley floor. Planted in 1990, the vineyard provides fruits to a few premium Napa wineries including Behrens & Hitchcock.

Our goal is to produce a rich and well-balanced wine, hopefully not too alcoholic, with enough acidity and tannins to age well. This is reflected in our winemaking plan that we made with Kian Tavakoli, Director of Winemaking at Crushpad, which defines target Brix and pH levels, type of yeast, cap management, type of barrel etc. Of course, there are tough questions that are difficult to answer right now: should we add some acid to the fermenting must to increase the acidity level, should we add water to dilute the sugars and lower the alcohol level?

In the meantime, we may be able to visit the vineyard soon and take some pictures so stay tuned...


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Tasting the wines of Oregon

“With a degree of self-conscious pride, Oregon has cultivated an image of rustic charm and natural simplicity as opposed to glamour or sophistication, although its producers are stubborn individualists rather than simple peasants.” The Oxford Companion to Wine edited by Jancis Robinson.

Today, Oregon has one of the country's most exciting and innovative wine industry and it was great to hear that our friend Arnaud had chosen Oregon as the theme of his May wine club tasting.


View from the Aurora vineyard (Ponzi Winery)

Winemaking started in Oregon in the 1840s when Italian and Swiss immigrants began planting wine grapes. After the Prohibition, it was only in the mid-1970s that the state slowly emerged as a productive wine-growing region. Today, Oregon is a premier producer of cool-climate grape varieties including Pinot Gris, Riesling, Chardonnay, and especially Pinot noir.

Most Oregon wine regions lie in valleys between the southern Cascade Mountains and the Coastal Range to the west. The Willamette Valley, Oregon's leading wine region, has two-thirds of the state's wineries and vineyards and is home to more than 200 wineries, most of them small and family-owned.

For this tasting, Arnaud had selected a variety of wines from the Willamette Valley, three whites, two Pinot Noir wines from the challenging 2004 vintage and two from the warm 2003 vintage that he thought, would be interesting to compare.



Our first white wine was a Pinot Blanc from St, Innocent Winery, a winery founded in 1988 that produces small lot wines including seven single vineyard Pinot Noir, two Chardonnay, two Pinot Gris, and one Pinot Blanc. The 2003 St. Innocent Pinot Blanc Freedom Hill Vineyard had a light yellow color, a lemony nose with mineral notes, and a dry, full-bodied palate. This is a wine that we thought should go well with Asian cuisine.

Our next wine was a Chardonnay from Chehalem Winery. Chehalem (Chuh-hay-lum) is a local Calapooia Indian word meaning gentle land or valley of flowers. The winery grows Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Gamay Noir, and Riesling in its estate vineyards, and crafts wines using estate fruits only. The 2004 Chehalem Inox Chardonnay Willamette Valley is entirely tank fermented, without malolactic fermentation or lees contact. INOX™ is the abbreviation of the French word acier inoxidable, which means stainless steel. I already had this wine before, and once again, I enjoyed the wine's pear and peach aromas and the crisp and fresh mouthfeel on the palate.

Our last white wine was the Sokol Blosser Evolution, a non vintage blend of nine different grapes, named, explained Arnaud, after the Beatles' song Revolution 9. Luck? Intention? is the question on the label, referring to the famous quote by Thomas Edison: success is 90% sweat and 10% luck. The Sokol Blosser Evolution 9th Edition was a fun wine to drink, uncomplicated but very aromatic. Light in color, it had a floral nose with white peach aromas, followed by notes of honey and exotic fruits on the palate.



Our first two red wines were from the 2004 vintage, a challenging year in the Willamette Valley. After a harsh winter freeze, there was a spurt of warm weather in the early spring followed by some cold weather that halted the plants growth. The summer season was dry but then, a cold and wet weather period occurred in the middle of September. Finally, the season ended with sunny, cool, and breezy days that allowed the grapes to slowly finish ripening.

We started with a Pinot Noir from Ponzi Vineyards. Founded in 1970, Ponzi is one of Oregon's oldest and best-known winery. It offers today limited productions of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Arneis, Dolcetto and White Riesling. The 2004 Ponzi Pinot Noir Willamette Valley had a vibrant ruby color, an aromatic nose of fresh cherry and some bright acidity on the palate. The wine was not overly complex but nonetheless, very satisfying and delicious.

Our second Pinot was from Archery Summit, a winery founded in 1993 and dedicated to the production of distinguished Pinot Noir. Its portfolio includes single vineyard wines from the four estate vineyards: Archery Summit Estate, Red Hills Estate, Arcus Estate, and Renegade Ridge Estate, and a Premier Cuvée, which is a blend of the four vineyards. The 2004 Archery Summit Pinot Noir Premier Cuvée had a deep red color. It was woody, concentrated, with spices, cinnamon, and sweet berry flavors.

Our last two wines were from the great 2003 vintage. In 2003, the year started well with warm weather in late spring that provided ideal conditions for uniform flowering. Then a warm and dry summer encouraged excellent flavor development in the grapes. Record heat in the fall led to an early harvest with unprecedented sugar levels.

Our first 2003 Pinot Noir was from Domaine Drouhin. The story of Domaine Drouhin started in 1961 when Robert Drouhin, head of Maison Joseph Drouhin, made a visit to the west coast in order to promote the Drouhin Burgundies. Now, as Robert Drouhin was traveling throughout the western states, it was Oregon, a remote wine region at the time, not California, that caught his eyes. Finally, in 1987, more than two decades after Robert's first visit, the Drouhin family decided to purchase some land in the Red Hills of Dundee and start a winery with Robert's daughter Veronique as winemaker. Today, Domaine Drouhin has 70 acres planted with Pinot Noir, and 13.5 acres with Chardonnay in the Willamette Valley. The 2003 Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir Willamette Valley had a dark garnet color and a nose of vanilla and berry. On the palate, it was sweet with ripe fruit flavors, a little bit too ripe and sweet for my taste.

Our last wine was from Domaine Serene, a winery using meticulous vineyard practices and insisting on extremely low yields. The 2003 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir Evenstad Reserve Willamette Valley had a dark garnet color and a vivid cherry nose. On the palate, it had some good acidity and complex fruit and spice flavors followed by a well balanced finish. I had this wine before as part of another tasting and I was glad to have the opportunity to retaste it. Overall, the wine was the most complex and balanced wine of the selection and ended up being everybody's favorite.

Many thanks to Arnaud for selecting these superb wines and also to our friendly hosts Sabrina and Marty for sharing their beautiful house!

Technorati tags: wine food & drink

The world's most planted grape variety

What is the world's most planted grape variety? If you read the June issue of Decanter Magazine, you may know the answer.

It is not Merlot, France's most planted varietal (more than 100,000 hectares/247,105 acres planted in Bordeaux, South-West and Languedoc), although it comes in second place (sorry Miles) with 262,151 hectares/647,789 acres planted worldwide.

It is not Sangiovese, Italy's most popular red grape with over 250,000 hectares/617,763 acres under vine, nor Chardonnay, California's leading varietal with 37,810 hectares/93,431 acres planted.

The answer is far from being obvious. It is Airén with 306,058 hectares/756,285 acres planted worldwide, mostly in Spain.

Airén is easy to grow, produces high yields and is extremely drought resistant. It is planted throughout the semi-arid plateau of central Spain, particularly in the regions of La Mancha and Valdepeñas. Traditionally, it is used as a base wine for Brandy. In Valdepeñas, it is often blended with Tempranillo to create Clarete, a fruity red wine, light in color and flavor. With improved vinification, Airén can produce light, refreshing dry wines, although somewhat neutral.

As for me, I'll stick to Merlot.

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Nice, the Flower Market, and a Bandol rosé

I just got back from a short visit to my family near Nice. When I am at my parents' house, one of my favorite activities is a stroll in the old town of Nice and through the famous Flower Market on the Cours Saleya. This popular place, which is lined with cafés, seafood restaurants and souvenir shops, is filled every morning with flowers, fruits, and vegetable stalls.



So last Wednesday, we drove to Nice and parked near the old town. After a leisurely walk through the stalls, we had lunch at one of the many seafood restaurants facing the market. For me, it was an opportunity to enjoy some of the classic Mediterranean specialties that are sometimes hard to find in California.


Mediterranean Fish Soup with rouille


Grilled Sardines

With our food, we ordered a bottle of Bandol Rosé that coincidently happened to be another Bandol from La Bastide Blanche. The wine had a lovely salmon color with light and fresh aromas on the nose. On the palate, it was dry, crisp and balanced with a touch of honey and stone fruit flavors.

In the south of France, people rarely drink white wine with seafood. They prefer rosé, which, when you think about it, is not a bad idea at all.

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WBW #21 & IMBB #26: Summer Daube and Bandol

You may think that Daube Provençale, a hearty beef stew cooked in red wine, is not the right food to eat when it is warm and summery outside. But in fact, a lighter version of the dish exists that is delicious even in summer. It uses white wine instead of red wine and is equally good served hot, warm or cold. So, it happens that the other day, I felt like making a summer daube.



Any full-bodied red wine, although not overly tannic, would work well with the dish. So that day, while making the daube, I felt like having a Bandol.

Was the first bottle of Bandol sold in this country imported by Berkeley's Wine Merchant Kermit Lynch? Hard to know but Kermit Lynch was certainly influential in introducing this unique Provençal wine to Americans. Who has not been inspired by the vivid accounts of his friendship with the Peyraud family of Domaine Tempier and by the mouthwatering descriptions of Lucien Peyraud's wines and Lulu Peyraud's recipes?

The Bandol appellation lies between Marseilles and Toulon on the hillside of a natural amphitheater facing the Mediterranean sea. Its unique terroir is characterized by arid and well-drained limestone soils, the dryness of the soil being fortunately balanced by the humidity of the air coming from the sea and by some occasional rainfalls. It is the only region where the use of Mourvèdre is required in red wines: by law, the red wine of Bandol must contain at least 50% Mourvèdre, although many quality-oriented producers use more than this.


Maison des Vins de Bandol

The origin of Mourvèdre must be Spanish and the varietal is better known as Monastrell in Spain. It is believed that the grape moved to France some 400 years ago and was then planted in Languedoc, Roussillon and Provence. It is a late ripening and demanding grape but it thrives in sandy, rocky soils and in sunny and hot sites tempered by sea breezes. Mourvèdre is recognized for adding backbone and aromatic complexity to blended wines.

To accompany the daube, I chose a 2001 Bandol Domaine de la Bastide Blanche, a blend of Mourvèdre, Grenache and Cincault. The wine had a dark purple color and a gamey, spicy nose with notes of black fruits. On the palate, it was full-bodied and opulent with a mouthfilling texture and a long finish. What a wonderful wine, elegant and wild at the same time! And without boasting too much, the daube was delicious too!

Summer daube, serves 4

2 pounds cubed stew beef or short ribs
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 carrots, sliced
2 stalks celery, sliced
6 potatoes, quartered
1 cup dry white wine
1 strip of orange peel
1/2 cup black olives
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tablespoon flour
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon herbs of Provence
salt, pepper
fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Preheat oven to 300.
In a heavy dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat.
Add beef and saute. Season beef with salt, pepper, and herbs.
Dust beef with flour. When nicely brown on all sides, transfer meat to plate.
Add onion and garlic. Cook until softened.
Deglaze with wine, scraping pan to loosen browned bits.
Add tomato paste, bay leaf, carrots, celery, orange peel, and beef.
Add broth to cover the meat.
Cover and bake at 300° for 3 hours.
An hour before the end, add the potatoes and black olives.
Serve topped with chopped parsley and with a good red wine.

This was Wine Blogging Wednesday #21 and Is My Blog Burning #26, co-hosted this month by Lenn over at Lenndevours and Alberto at Il Forno. The theme was Fabulous Favorites Festival, a wine and food pairing exercise where cooks become sommeliers and wine lovers become cooks: cook your favorite dish and pick a wine that goes with it or pick your favorite wine and cook a dish that goes with it. Maybe more work than usual but a lot more fun!

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Chardonnay Blind Tasting

I have to confess that I am usually an ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) kind of person. I like crisp and refreshing whites with distinctive fruity and floral aromas and I am often disappointed with Chardonnay. Nevertheless, Nothing But Chardonnay, or NBC, was the theme of our last blind tasting, which ended up being very instructive. Four out of the six wines that we tasted that evening originated from Sonoma County. The remaining two were from Italy and New Zealand. All came from cool climate wine regions and had a similar light straw color. None showed excessive oakiness.

This was the first time that we were blind-tasting white wines and we discovered that our tasting ritual was not well adapted to whites. We usually pour a little bit of each wine in different glasses in order to compare the wines side by side. But while red wines generally evolve nicely in the glass and reveal their personality with time, white wines become quickly too warm, dull and flat, and are thus harder to judge. So next time, we'll go back to tasting red wines!

Our first wine was the 2003 Belvedere Healdsburg Ranches Chardonnay Sonoma County, a gold medal winner at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition — Chardonnay $14.00 to $19.99. A blend of fruits from the cool Russian River Valley and from the warmer Alexander Valley, the wine had a nose of ripe pear with a hint of oak. On the palate, it was round with aromas of cooked apple. Overall, the group liked this well balanced wine and ranked it #3.

Our second wine was the 2002 Waugh Cellars Chardonnay Indindoli Vineyard Russian River Valley. Waugh Cellars is a small Napa winery that has one main purpose: to bring a taste of passion to our life. 2002 was the winery's first vintage of Indindoli Vineyard Chardonnay. The wine was barrel-fermented but no new oak was used. The wine had a sweet nose with notes of butterscotch. On the palate, it was smooth with strong apple cider flavors that some of us found overpowering. The wine was ranked #5.

Our third Chardonnay was the 2002 Jordan Chardonnay Russian River Valley. Established in Alexander Valley since the early 1970's, Jordan Vineyard & Winery is a renowned winery producing a popular Cabernet Sauvignon from Alexander Valley and a Chardonnay from Russian River Valley. The Chardonnay is cool fermented in stainless steel tanks and then aged in French oak barrels (35% new). Malolactic fermentation is only partial to retain the natural crisp acidity of the fruit. The wine had a fresh nose of citrus and peach. On the palate, it was light, crisp, and not oaky at all, although some guests found it too acidic. It was ranked #4.

With our fourth Chardonnay, the 2003 Vie di Romans Chardonnay Ciampagnis Vieris, we left California and moved to Italy. The Vie di Romans winery produces wines from Friuli Isonzo, an appellation located in the northeast corner of Italy, not far from the Slovenia border. The Ciampagnis Vieris Chardonnay is an unoaked wine that undergoes a complete malolactic fermentation. It had a floral nose with notes of white peach and citrus. On the palate, it was smooth with sweet pineapple flavors and a long, aromatic finish. For most of us, this was our favorite wine and the group ranked it #1.

Our next wine was the 2001 Kistler Chardonnay Vine Hill Vineyard. Kistler Vineyards is a family-owned winery renowned for its Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley. Vine Hill Vineyard is a twenty acre cool site in the Russian River Valley, producing Chardonnays with tremendous concentration and complexity of flavor. Unfortunately, the bottle seemed to be flawed. The nose was musty with some chemical off-flavors. On the palate, it was tart with not much fruit. The wine was ranked #6.

With our last wine, the 2004 Neudorf Chardonnay, we moved to the southern hemisphere. Neudorf Vineyards is a small family-owned winery producing Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Gris in Nelson, New Zealand eighth largest wine region. Nelson is situated on the north-western corner of the South Island and is particularly well adapted for growing cool weather varietals. The wine was made from hand picked fruits from Neudorf's own vineyards. It was then fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged in barrels (20% new oak). The nose was attractive with citrus and tropical aromas. On the palate, it was crisp, earthy and well-balanced with a slightly oaky finish. Overall, everybody liked it a lot and ranked it #2.

Other recent blind tastings:
• Pinot Noir Blind Tasting
• 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon Blind Tasting

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Pairing wine with sushi

The traditional accompaniment to sushi is of course sake, one of the oldest brewed beverage in the world. Beer is also a popular selection in Japanese restaurants. But what about having wine with sushi?

The word sushi means vinegar (su) and cooked rice (meshi, shortened to shi). Then, the rice is usually combined with other ingredients such as raw or cooked fish, other seafood, cooked egg or vegetables, and can be wrapped in dry seaweed called nori. Finding a wine that goes well with sushi can be a challenge because the wine has to stand up to the tartness of the vinegar, the oiliness of the fish, the saltiness of soy sauce, the spicy taste of wasabi, and the exotic flavors of pickled ginger.

I recently attended a sushi class organized by a Japanese friend of mine. She showed us how to make California rolls and Chirashi-zushi, or scattered sushi, which is rice spread in a bowl with fish and vegetables scattered on top.



Making sushi was a lot of fun and not as hard as I had imagined. And last but not least, at the end of the class we organized a little wine pairing exercise. We first try our sushi with sake. The sake had a mild, slightly sweet taste that mirrored well the flavors of the sushi rice. But not being a sake connoisseur, I have to confess that I did not get too excited about it.



Then we tasted a Champagne J Lassalle Brut. I found that the toasty and yeasty flavors of the Champagne added more stylish and distinctive notes to the sushi. The bubbles and acidity of the wine had a lively cleansing effect on the palate, which helped us better appreciate the complex flavors of our food.



Finally, we tried a Corazón Gewürztraminer from Anderson Valley. The wine had a discreet flowery nose and a dry, crisp palate with green apple and typical lychee fruit aromas. The wine had a lot of finess and I really liked the way it enhanced the flavors of the food.



So wine is great with sushi. My personal taste goes toward dry, fruity, and crisp whites. I also heard that light, non tannic red wines such as Pinot Noir or Beaujolais work as well. If in doubt, however, don't forget that a lively bubbly will always be fine.



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How do you tell if a wine is too old?

The truth is, you don't, until you open the bottle. A recent Beaujolais tasting proved again how difficult it is to predict how wine age.

Some time ago, I helped a friend of mine make an inventory of his wine collection and upload it into my Wine Cellar Management website. I noticed that his collection included some aging Beaujolais bottles and urged him to drink them soon. He then explained to me that these were leftover bottles from a Beaujolais Nouveau party that he had organized in 2001 and that he had simply forgotten them.

More recently, I asked him again about his Beaujolais. “You see, I am not really a Beaujolais fan and so I still haven't drunk them.” he replied. And then he added, “Maybe I should just dump them down the drain”

“Let's try them instead.” I told him. “Maybe we'll be surprised!”

So the other day, he brought a 2000 Beaujolais Louis Jadot, a 2001 Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau Domaine Piron, and a 2001 Beaujolais Nouveau Domaine Ruet. To tell you the truth, we were not expecting much from the last two, especially the one simply labeled Beaujolais Nouveau, the lowest appellation in the Beaujolais hierarchy.

A Beaujolais Nouveau is a light, fruity, uncomplicated wine, and is not made for aging. After a short vinification process that takes only two weeks, the wine is traditionally released the third Thursday of November following the harvest. The wine should be drunk right upon release or within the next few months.

On the other hand, the 2000 Beaujolais Louis Jadot looked more promising. A Beaujolais is aged at least a month longer than a Beaujolais Nouveau and is slightly more age worthy. Moreover, 2000 was a great year in Beaujolais.



We started pouring the wines. They all had a bright red color showing no obvious signs of age. But the first one had a corky nose and unfortunately, this was the Louis Jadot. The second one had a sweet nose of strawberry and a fermented fruit juice taste typical of Beaujolais Nouveau. This was the Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau Domaine Piron. The last one was the wine we preferred by far and unexpectedly, this was the Beaujais Nouveau Domaine Ruet. The nose was fruity with banana aromas and the palate had a pleasant structure and earthiness.

The fact that these Beaujolais Nouveaux had not turn into vinegar after all these years really surprised me. The Domaine Ruet was actually very drinkable. We even finished the bottle that evening. There is no doubt that these bottles had been kept in optimal storage conditions, which is great news for the other bottles still slowly maturing in my friend's wine cabinet!

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An awesome Sunday with Wangari Maathai

Last Sunday, I had the privilege to meet and hear Professor Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement. She had come to Palo Alto to launch the East Palo Alto Tree Initiative organized by the city of East Palo Alto with the assistance of Canopy, a Palo Alto-based environmental organization.

The goal of the East Palo Alto Tree Initiative is to plant 1,000 trees in East Palo Alto by 2010, but Wangari Maathai does not think this number is high enough. As she was planting the first tree — an African olive tree from her country, Kenya — at the new Wangari Maathai Grove, she challenged the local residents to plant not one tree but at least 10 trees each. She herself helped African women plant 30,000 trees on their farms, and in the vicinity of their churches and children's schools.



Professor Wangari Maathai is a beautiful and charismatic woman who knows how to deliver powerful speeches. “Citizens need to be empowered.” she says, “They can't wait for the government or someone else to do it for them; they need to take action themselves.”

To illustrate her point, she likes to tell the tale of the hummingbird, a story that she heard in Japan:

When the forest where the hummingbird lived went up in flames, the other animals ran out to save themselves. But the hummingbird stayed, flying to and from a nearby river with drops of water in its beak to pour on the fire.

From a distance, the other animals laughed and mocked it. "What do you think you are doing?" they shouted. "This fire is overwhelming. You can't do anything."

Finally, the hummingbird turned to them and said, "I'm doing what I can."

After the planting tree ceremony, Canopy had organized a reception and dinner in her honor during which guests and local businesses could contribute to the initiative. The wine that was served at the dinner was generously offered by K&L Wine Merchants, Mumm Napa, Picchetti Winery and Ridge Vineyards. From K&L Wine Merchants, we had an organic wine, Domaine l'Attilon from the unusual Marselan variety, while Mumm Napa donated a refreshing sparkling rosé, Picchetti Winery, their crisp Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay, and Ridge Vineyards, their fruity Zinfandel Three Valleys blend.


Wangari Maathai with my friend Catherine Martineau, Canopy’s Executive Director

As I am writing this, I look out the window and notice that the hummingbirds are back, attracted by the tiny red flowers of the Rosemary Grevillea bushes that grow in my garden. I am thinking about the four R's she talked about during her keynote address: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ... Repair. And all of a sudden, I am asking myself: how can I also become a hummingbird?


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