Zester Daily

6.10.13 -

Summer is almost officially upon us, and that means stocking up on plenty of easy-to-serve, yet interesting-to-drink white wines. This bright, fresh, bold-flavored 2011 Y Rousseau Old Vines Colombard comes with a screw cap; notes of tangy lemongrass, spicy peach and citrus; and a fascinating succulence that makes you crave another sip.

The real surprise for me was how good a California wine made from Colombard grapes could be. One of the most planted white varietals in the state, it has long been the backbone of cheap white plonk blends. It’s also a mainstay grape in Cognac, where it makes high acid wines that are quickly distilled into brandy. This wine made me seriously rethink the grape’s New World potential.

Winemaker Yannick Rousseau made his first Colombard in his native region of Gascony, the “Three Musketeers” territory in southwest France. Since 1999, he’s been in California, and worked at wineries such as Napa Valley‘s Chateau Potelle on Mount Veeder. He struck out on his own in 2007, when he found a four-acre plot of 36-year-old dry farmed Colombard vines in cool-climate Russian River Valley, and last month, he opened his own very small winery and tasting room south of the town of Napa.

The elaborate plume logo on the Y Rousseau label celebrates the so-called fourth musketeer, Comte d’Artagnan, known as a dedicated bon vivant. (Their just-released red wine from Tannat grapes is named The Musketeer.)

This Colombard is an award winner

There’s no official definition of “old vines.” But as vines age, they produce less fruit so the grapes concentrate flavors, and the wine expresses more depth and complexity. This 2011 Old Vine Colombard, aged in stainless tanks and old barrels, is  also blissfully free from the heavy hand of oak. No wonder it won a double gold at the San Francisco International Wine Competition last year. Its crisp stony minerality, refreshing citrus notes, jazzy acidity and satisfying texture make it a perfect summer sipper — but one with a very distinct personality.

Top photo composite:

Y Rousseau label, next to a harvester at the Russian River Valley winery’s vineyard. Credit: Courtesy of Y Rousseau

5.20.13 -

In the 1970s, ’80s, and part of the ’90s, Italy’s Soave wines used to have a bad reputation as cheap, insipid, mass production whites, the kind you definitely want to avoid. But in the past couple of decades, a determined younger generation has been reviving the region’s even older tradition of quality. This crisp, almondy 2011 Inama Soave Classico, with its combination of smoky minerality, spicy fruit flavors and mouth-filling texture is a great everyday bianco that’s widely available at a very good price.

The Veneto region around the city of Verona, in the northeast of Italy, is Soave country. The wines are named for the town of Soave, and the best ones, like this Inama, come from rugged surrounding hillside vineyards of mineral-rich basaltic rock in the Classico zone, the original Soave area mapped in 1927. Only wines made in this zone can use the word Classico on the label.

The grape is late-ripening Garganega, which very much reflects where and how it’s grown. Soaves made from grapes grown on the flat valley floor outside the Classico zone tend to be pretty neutral. Though up to 30% of a Soave can contain Trebbiano or Chardonnay, Stefano Inama sticks to 100% Garganega, from old vines, which he believes give wines more richness and complexity.

Giuseppe Inama, the estate’s founder, began assembling a patchwork of small top vineyards in Classico zone in the mid-1960s, but sold his wine in bulk. Starting in the mid-1990s, his son Stefano shifted to organic viticulture, cut yields and started bottling the wines.

Climbing the Soave ladder

Inama makes three different Soaves; this is their basic, entry-level bottle, fermented and aged in stainless steel. The other two, which come from special parcels and single vineyards on Monte Foscarino, are fermented in barrels.

If you’ve dismissed Soave as just white plonk, it’s time to try again. This 2011 Inama Soave Classico is a low-cost introduction to the good stuff.

Top photo composite:

2011 Inama Soave Classico label. Credit: Elin McCoy

Vineyard. Credit: Courtesy of Inama

5.13.13 -

Over dinner a few nights ago, I was reminded of how delicious Oregon Rieslings can be. My husband and I were sipping this fresh, incredibly bright 2010 Brooks Ara Riesling, which has wonderful orange blossom and honeysuckle aromas, a sophisticated taste mix of juicy pear and herbs, powerful mineral spine and plenty of zingy acidity.

I found myself craving a platter of Oregon Dungeness crab, the wine’s ideal partner. Still, it was a fine match with scallops sautéed with paper-thin slices of lemon and baby bok choy. Given this white has only 11.5% alcohol, there was no reason not to finish the bottle.

Brooks winery was founded in Oregon’s Willamette Valley in 1998 by the charismatic, visionary Jimi Brooks, who passed away suddenly in 2004 at the untimely age of 38. He’d made wine at WillaKenzie Estate and Maysara Winery, and practiced organic and biodynamic farming well before many others in Oregon. His own wines have always had a remarkable purity of fruit and are among the most interesting in the state.

Brooks’ son Pascal, now a teenager, inherited the winery, and Jimi’s sister, Jamie Brooks Heuck, took on the role of managing the business until Pascal can take over. That involved acquiring a winery on a hilltop on Eola Hills Road in 2008 that had passed through the hands of several Oregon wine pioneers. The winery’s Eola Hills estate vineyard is 20 acres, but about two-thirds of the grapes come from diverse vineyards in the Willamette Valley.

The name “Ara” is a constellation in the Southern Hemisphere; its name is Latin for “altar,” and the wine is only produced, says the Brooks website, “when the stars are in the right alignment.” They sure were in 2010.  The 2006 vintage of Brooks Ara Riesling was served at President Barack Obama’s first state dinner at the White House, honoring Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh.

If you find yourself in Oregon wine country on Memorial Day weekend, Brooks is holding an open house on Saturday, Sunday and Monday where you can taste all their stellar 2012 whites and current releases of their Pinot Noirs. Just don’t miss this 2010 Ara Riesling.

Top photo composite:

Pascal Brooks, heir to the Brooks winery.

Label for 2010 Brooks Ara Riesling.

Credits: Courtesy of brookswine.com

4.29.13 -

I’ve long been a fan of the “other” Cabernet, but most of the ones I prize are French. This spicy, delicious 2011 Broc Cellars Cabernet Franc, with fresh, plummy fruit and savory accents, is, surprisingly, from warm Paso Robles in California. It’s a light, layered, easy red, with hints of olives and the kind of sappy acidity that makes a wine wonderfully food-friendly.

Last week, a West Coast wine colleague brought a bottle of this gulpable wine to a lunch at Le Philosophe, a tiny French bistro on Bond Street in New York. Since one wall of the restaurant has large black-and-white photos of famous philosophers, the wine seemed an especially appropriate choice: Broc Cellars’ owner and winemaker Chris Brockway obtained a degree in philosophy before eventually turning to wine. With the restaurant’s creamy blanquette de veau, this Cabernet Franc, his second vintage of the variety, was perfect.

One of the several interesting urban winemakers in the Bay Area, Brockway works out of a 1,400 square foot facility in Berkeley. Committed to a thoughtful wine philosophy of minimal intervention in the cellar, he’s part of the new wave of winemakers who are changing the taste of California wine. He dumps whole clusters of grapes into fermenting vats, relies on indigenous yeasts for fermentation, uses an old fashioned basket press and a tiny percentage of new oak barrels for aging, and adds only a small amount of sulfur for stability. The result is a wine with a pure, transparent, mineral character that speaks of the grapes’ terroir.

Cabernet Franc one part of the experiment

Brockway started making his own wines back in 2004. An experimenter, he offers a dozen or so bottlings, many from varietals popular in southern France such as Counoise and Picpoul. In the way of so many winery startups, he searches out organic vineyards with great terroir and buys the grapes.

On May 11, he’ll be pouring some of them at Bergamot Alley wine bar in Healdsburg, alongside 16 other vintners who make wines from little-known grape varieties. The tasting is billed as the “Seven % Solution,” which refers to the fact that 93% of the vineyard acreage in Northern California are planted to just eight varieties.

Well, Cabernet Franc is hardly an unusual varietal,  but the 2011 Broc Cellars version is an unusual example from California, one that I can hardly wait to try again.

Top photo composite:

Broc Cellars Cabernet Franc label and bottle. Credit: Courtesy of Broc Cellars

4.22.13 -

The 2009 vintage in Bordeaux was hyped as yet another “vintage of the century,” and the top chateaux released prices that were astronomical. Luckily, there are also some serious bargains to be had, like this dark, soft, plush 2009 Chateau Fourcas-Borie, a wine with a personality as silky and seductive as its sexy black lace on red label.

I sampled it recently in Bordeaux at a dinner with the chateau’s owner, Bruno Borie, who’s better known as the proprietor of the great second-growth Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou in Saint-Julien.

The Borie family bought Chateau Fourcas Dumont, in the Listrac-Médoc appellation of Bordeaux, at the end of 2008, and renamed the property Chateau Fourcas-Borie. Their first vintage was this 2009, which we sipped alongside a dish of white asparagus wrapped with salty bacon and topped with thin slices of parmesan cheese. This red was a surprisingly good match. The key to pairing wine with asparagus, says Borie, who also happens to be an excellent chef, is adding other, more wine-friendly ingredients, such as the bacon, to the preparation.

Listrac is one of the six appellations in Bordeaux’s Haut-Médoc region, and one of its least prestigious. The Borie family has a history there — Borie’s mother was born at  another estate, Chateau Ducluzeau, which has been in her family for generations.

The wines of Listrac, all red, have the reputation for being lean and dry. This area south and west of more famous Saint-Julien is fairly far from the temperature-moderating influence of the Gironde River and Borie says Listrac’s cooler climate makes it tough for Cabernet Sauvignon to ripen easily. Part of what makes this 2009 Fourcas-Borie red so appealing to drink is its high proportion of Merlot.

Merlot works well

for Chateau Fourcas-Borie

The estate’s 30-hectare (74-acre) vineyards are divided between clay and limestone soil, where Merlot does well, and gravelly soil, where Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot are planted. The wine spends 12 months in barrels, less than one-third of them new and Borie makes it in a deliberately juicy, round, approachable style, aiming for a mix of sturdiness and elegance.

No, this 2009 Chateau Fourcas-Borie doesn’t have the grandeur of Borie’s 2009 Ducru-Beaucaillou, which sells for 12 times more. But it does have lovely richness and real Bordeaux character at a more than reasonable price.

Top photo: Chateau Fourcas-Borie owner Bruno Borie. Credit: Elin McCoy

4.15.13 -

In recent years, Oregon Pinot Noirs have become awfully expensive, with some
topping $100 a bottle. So I was delighted to sample the more-affordable 2011 Ponzi
Tavola Pinot Noir, with its spicy cherry flavors, silky texture and bright savory notes on
the finish.

While this fruit-forward, juicy, recently released red isn’t layered or complex,
it is a gulpable everyday wine that wonderfully complemented a simple dinner of roast
chicken with tarragon, earthy mushroom ragout, and creamy polenta.

Dick and Nancy Ponzi founded the winery 40 years ago. Part of the wave of
pioneers on a quest to produce great Pinot Noir in the Willamette Valley, they helped
start one of the world’s best wine events, the International Pinot Noir Celebration,
founded a culinary center and wine bar showcasing top Oregon vintners in Dundee, and
even established the state’s first craft brewery.

The second generation is now running things. (Brother Michael bowed out this
year to pursue songwriting.) Luisa, who apprenticed at famed Domaine Roumier in
Burgundy, became winemaker in 1993. She’s always had a delicate touch with Pinot Noir
that some might deem “feminine.” Her aims are classic balance and elegant textures –
both evident even in this entry-level wine.

A Pinot Noir graced by a ‘miracle’ of sun

Ponzi makes half a dozen Pinot Noirs, including an impressive $100 single
vineyard bottling, and first introduced the Tavola in 2003. (“Tavola” means “table” in Italian.)
Vintage 2011 wasn’t a slam dunk. The season was late, and in the last part of August
Ponzi was still wondering whether the grapes would even ripen. As often seems to
happen in cooler wine regions, a “miracle” of sun in October saved the day. Picking was
the latest ever, into the middle of November! The result is wines with lovely intensity of
fruit, combined with very reasonable alcohol levels.

Though their 120 acres of vineyards aren’t farmed organically, the Ponzis are
serious about sustainable winemaking. The new winery, built in 2008, uses solar panels
to provide energy and a reflective metal roof to help maintain cool temperatures in the
cellar. The non-irrigated vineyards and winery are certified LIVE (low input viticulture
and enology), which means a commitment to using non-chemical approaches to weed and
insect control.

All this, and the wines are delicious, too. Drinking the Tavola Pinot Noir is a good
introduction.

Top photo composite:

2011 Ponzi Vineyards Tavola Pinot Noir label and bottle. Credit: Courtesy of Ponzi Vineyards