When $199 wine is "cheap."

I've come down with a terrible sickness of late - I've begun to view $100-200 wines as cheap bargains.

The horror!

Last Friday, some intrepid friends of mine traipsed along with me to Troquet in Boston, sharing a 1996 Dom Perignon (199 list), a 2005 Roty Pressonniers Bourgogne (59) and a 1996 Dominus (179). We had to have the 96 Dom, it was almost free at 200 USD!

The Bourgogne was the steal of steals, less than $75 for a top vintage Bourgogne from a veritable producer!

The 1996 Dominus may have trumped them all at a paltry 179 - the current release price for Dominus is $125!

I'm not sure where or how I contracted this most vile of diseases, but the madness must stop. I could have gotten tipsy for a year on beer with the money I spend on one night's dinner plus wine. Not to say the experience wasnt amazing, but 244 USD all in needs to be a once in a while splurge, not a weekly event.

Anyone have an antidote for this affliction?

Bubble's Burst

Well the Euro and weakening US economy have derailed my immediate plans to visit Champagne. I was saying nightly prayers to the Gods of Avize, perhaps they'll be answered in 2009?

Still I visit the region in my mind as I sniff, swirl and sip my way to the bottom of another bottle of the world's greatest beverages.

Popping the cork on my first Selosse, a Brut Initiale, soon, so there's nothing to despair. I'll probably visit Champagne 4 times in the course of the next week.
Health and plenty of Champagne.

I've got it all.

2001 Ridge Monte Bello

After purchasing a sealed OWC case, I had to check in on a wine that I last tasted in November during a Boston vertical of Ridge Monte Bello. After plowing through 10 other vintages that night ('75, '76, '78, '80, '85, '88, '96, '97, '99, and '00) plus bonus wines - my palate and sobriety were obliterated.

In any wine lineup where you reach back several decades and then arrive within a stones throw of present day, the latter wines are going to seem absolutely gigantic.

And so it was with the '01 Monte Bello that night.

The '01, while bursting with fruit and potential, felt oaky while sandblasting my tongue.I had to revisit with pork ribs and bbq chicken.Purple in color, this fills the room within 20 feet of the decanter with restrained oak spices, cedar and a burst of black currant.

It's one of those wines you wish you could make into an air freshener - as it is, it costs around $100 to smell this juice.Tobacco, black currant and spices abound once you get around to actually drinking the wine. Amazingly approachable, with a great acidity lifting the fruit.........and then the tannins intrude.

While not ruining the experience, they're there. Glad I dropped in for a checkup - I think the future is going to bring enormous rewards once the tannin unwinds.

Sex Appeal

Read enough wine literature and tasting notes and you'll quickly come (no pun intended) to understand "wine porn."

You could change around a few words here and there and you've got a steamy article from Penthouse rather than musings on wine. I have always been of the mind that people who constantly using sexual metaphors aren't having any actual sex.

Guilty?

Anyway - I opened a 1996 Paul Pernot Volnay 1er Cru Carelles to go with chicken, and I immediately was seduced by this 12 year old......Burgundy. This wine is so sexy, it immediately made me think of the smell of a woman's neck. Must have been the fresh/clean, floral and feminine spice notes that are packed into women's perfumes - translated into the wine's bouquet. Holy geez does it smell great.

This is the first time in around 4 years of drinking wine that I have called a wine sexy. I hope it isn't the last.

TN: Gorgeous floral bouquet with perfumed, feminine spices blending in with the red cherry notes. Graceful, elegant and sexy - this wine makes me think of the smell of a woman's neck. While not overly complex, this is extremely well-made and fresh, with a lip smacking finish and nice acidic punch to the fruit. Yum.

Presto Chango - 2003 Chateau Malmaison becomes....

....a 2004 Chateau Clarke!

Amazing, I wish I could have turned it into something like a 2005 Haut Brion or a 1982 Lafite. Darn!

I love when humans mess up. There's something rare and exciting about it, even if there's nothing rare or exciting about a 2003 (or is it 2004) Chateau Malmaison (or is it Chateau Clarke) on its surface. I remember collecting baseball cards as a kid and hoping to get an error card.

So how do I get to the bottom of this? I mean, obviously there was no fishy business going on. This was, after all, a $13 bottle of 2003 Bordeaux from a petite Chateau.

I get the connection between Chateau Malmaison and Chateau Clarke (both in the Rothschild family) - but it leaves me wondering if I'm in fact drinking Malmaison or Clarke, and whether it's from 2003 or 2004!

Might keep me up all night.

My first 2005 Bordeaux - Château Haut Nadeau Réserve du Propriétaire

Grabbed this today for $11.

Had never heard of the Chateau before - but I love that it's the Réserve :) It was part of a stores newsletter and for short money sounded intriguing. The first 2005 Bdx that I've tasted and I must admit, it's a solid wine, if blatantly and unabashedly new world. Note, I didn't say Bdx. VERY new world.

I was taken aback by the color, just a gorgeous deep red with some purple tint.There is some serious black cherry fruit buried underneath the oaky/vanilla exterior, but it's of a raisiny-plummy character and reminds me of a $8-15 Cali Zin/Syrah hybrid - minus the pepper/spice. It actually is a dead ringer for the Juan Gil Jumilla red, if you've tasted it.

I honestly think there was a great wine here that the Chateau masked with oak, and it tastes more like the floating wood chip variety than barrel. There's nothing too complex about the wine, but there are some nice leather/tar nuances, also buried under the oak. You need to seek it out, but it's there. All backed by the "trademark" (from what I've heard) 2005 tannins.

I'm always amazed at how wine changes, and on day 2, this has softened and lost some of the oak-soaking. Definitely more pleasant, but still not very Bordeaux-like.

All in all, for $11, I may buy one or two more just to see what happens once/if the oak integrates and the tannins slough off. At worst, it will be a hit with the relatives at Thanksgiving/Christmas.

Seismic Cellar Shift

There are certain aspects to wine collecting that are inevitable.

Your collection will always grow to meet (and in most cases surpass) your available storage space.

You'll establish a wine budget that will be exceeded just as soon as you learn more about each wine region.

As you learn, your collection will grow, causing your wine budget to implode, drawing the ire of your spouse.

And the journey that starts with Aussie Shiraz and California Cabernets will eventually lead you to the wines of France as your palate develops.

Voila! My cellar is now 46.88% French, eclipsing California for the first time.

I had read many accounts of this phenomenon but initially found Red Burgundy stinky and earthy. Bordeaux wasn't much different, though I kept wondering where the fruit was. And Syrah (shiraz) wasn't supposed to have any type of complexity beyond the layers of black, inky fruit.

And Champagne was just a gassy, sweet beverage that you had to struggle to choke down during the occasional celebration.

Now I'm a Champagne freak, pouring equal amounts into both a Zalto glass and a Les Imployitables #4. I favor good Red Burgundy over Cali/OR pinot noir, Bordeaux over Cali Cabs, and Northern Rhones over syrah from anywhere else.

In some ways it's freeing. There are no mailers or minimum/maximum purchases for French wines and most every wine is vielle vignes (old vines).

In some, it's not. The best wines are unattainable financially for my meager bank account and the sinking dollar just makes these wines all the more expensive.

Oh, and I'm running out of cellar space, blowing through my wine budget and raising the ire of my wife!

Which brings up another inevitable - the more things change, the more they stay the same.

When I die...

....I want to come back as soil from Champagne.

Some people want an afterlife where they're skinnier, richer, taller. I want to be soil from the Cote des Blancs. Particularly Avize or Mesnil.

I'll settle for visiting, as none of us are assured of any afterlife. I personally think we just decompose into the soil anyway - but that's for another blog.

There's clearly something special going on there. It's a tactile sensation, similar to Rutherford Dust in Napa Valley. Elusive and difficult to describe - but real all the same. The fruit has this lithe, graceful, creaminess. Not heavy-handed creamy, like oak aging would give a cabernet. This just fills your mouth with fruit, coating it like milk would. And just underneath that layer of fruit is a handful of soil. Chalk and minerals, minerals and chalk.

I never thought I'd become so enamored with the Chardonnay grape, that I'd want to become the soil from which it grew.

And so it goes....