Organic Wine and Food Matching

Domaine Vigneau-Chevreau in Vouvray. Vouvray is like the girl with the Scarlett Johansson sweetness, Bette Davis wit, and knockdown Grace Kelly beauty that made all the boys in high school too dumbfounded to ever ask out (except for the dumb jocks, who’d never get a yes).  Yet Vouvray is a thinking man and woman’s white wine because it takes brains to see through the flowery, intoxicatingly perfumed qualities of the Chenin Blanc (the required grape of this AOC ), and look into the wine’s soul: the effortlessly acidic spine of the fruit grown in the Loire River Valley’s cold yet maritime moderated climate, and the deep, almost poetic substrata of flavor contributed by the soil (layers of flinty stone and clayish limestone over a plateau of solid limestone – the ultimate grape growing medium).  Earlier this month I ran into one California’s more intelligent, and artistically multiplisitc, winemakers named Larry Brooks (a founder of Acacia, former GM of Chalone, and now propri...

  Collette wrote of France’s Jurançon: when I was a young girl, I was introduced to a passionate Prince, domineering and two-timing like all great seducers… My lifelong affair has been with Domaine Tempier’s Bandol rouge , which began in the early 1980s, when I was first introduced to the French imports of Kermit Lynch.  In the beginning, I did not understand the compulsion: it was a red wine that always seem to have a spirit – whether it was in the mysterious, earthy, scrubby, leathery notes that often seem to engulf the aromas of berry liqueurs in the nose, or the slightly sparkly, lively, lilting quality in the texture of the wine itself, almost belying a meatiness of tannin and dried grape skin flavor. Bandol is, after all is said and done, a wine that never seems light or heavy, lean nor fat, zesty but never sharp, delicious with a stew of meat, and delicious with a stew of fish. In short, the perfect lifelong companion.  A few years years later, reading the c...

The highest elevation plantings of Garnacha and  Cariñena in Bodegas Marco Abella In recent years, the red wines of Priorat DOQ , from the mountains of Spain’s Catalonia, have become the El Toro, the Cyclone, The Incredible Hulk, the Aerosmith Rockin’ Roller Coaster of wines for vinous thrill seekers: heady, exhilarating, palate and mind blowing packages, black as the Egyptian night, that make you want to get out the kitchen and rattle those pots and tastevins. The 2004 Clos Abella Priorat Porrera (about $70), by Bodegas Marco Abella , is by no means a peak of perfection: there are blemishes, such as bludgeoningly high alcohol (fine with me, as it were), and a balsamic-like volatility that, depending on your point of view, is either like a distracting mole or a seductive, throttling beauty mark, just sweetening the pot of luscious berry, sticky licorice, gunflint black tea and tarry, stony notes in the concentrated aromas and flavors.   Slate ( llicorella) soil in M...

Domaine Marcel Deiss Burlenberg Pinot noir France’s Alsace region is not known for its Pinot Noir. Invariably they are lightweights; light in body, light in fragrance, light in flavor. But if there ever was a case for the veracity of biodynamic viticulture, it might be the 2001 Marcel Deiss Burlenberg (about $40); farmed by the current heir to the domaine, the incorrigible but inventive Jean-Michel Deiss, who found practical truths in much of the biological and spiritual teachings of philosopher/farmer Rudolph Steiner . Jean-Michel turned to biodynamics in 1997, after farming organically for some twenty years prior, shortly after becoming convinced that the one unique aspect of Alsatian wines among all other French wines – the bottling of wines by the grape variety rather than regional appellation – was utterly wrong. To Monsieur Deiss, the ultimate quality of a wine is the strength of its sense of place, or terroir , instead of varietal character.  Jean-Michel (...

Because something is happening here, and you don’t know what it is...  The 2008 Ca’ del Solo Muscat (Monterey County; about $18) is not just another pretty girl; as lightly sweet, delectable and fragrant a white wine as it is, blooming with notes of tropical flowers (jasmine and frangipani), lychee and white peppery spices (or as the back label describes it, with Nabokovan alliteration, “a musky, melodious, melon-like meditation on minerality”).  It also ranks as another battle cry against convention launched by a winemaker who has done more than make a career out of idiosyncrisity – he has made a career out of turning idiosyncrisities into norms.  Ca’ del Solo, for those of you who’ve been around the block, used to be a brand, formulated by Bonny Doon winemaker (and “President for Life”) Randall Grahm, signifying Italian inspired grapes, wine styles, and yes, leetle girl labels.  Today, Ca’ del Solo labels bear “crystalline” micro-snapshots of each wine, capture...

  The French have been making sparkling wine in California for so long, you almost overlook the extraordinary quality of their wines: the closest thing to fine, complex champagne grown and produced outside Champagne, France in the world.  Each of the major firms have made dramatic impacts on the industry: beginning in the mid-1970s, Domaine Chandon with its focus on the three classic grapes of Champagne (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) grown in the coolest section (Carneros) in Napa Valley; Mumm Napa with its brilliant blending in adjustment to California’s sunnier climes, Roederer Estate for its bold exploration of Mendocino’s Anderson Valley, and now, Domaine Carneros by Taittinger for its French-like sense of long-term sustainablility, moving towards 100% organic grape growing soon after establishing its 300 acres in Carneros in 1987.  Consider this: in the early 1990s it wasn’t quite hip to be green; especially among neighbors who, although they may farm...

Mas Estela in Spain's  Empordà region. Steve Miles, a Denver based importer of Spanish, French and Portuguese wines ( Steve Miles Selections ), labored for twelve years under another well known importer until he woke up one morning with the realization that his taste had changed, and he was not selling the type of wines he truly believed in. Basically, according to Miles, “wines were starting to taste all the same… people were making them more for the palate… delicious, yes, but just as often over-extracted, over-the-top in alcohol, and beaten to death with wood… and in the process these wines were all starting to miss a sense of place … the qualities connecting them to where they come from.” So in 2006 Miles did the only thing a conscientious wine man can do, which was start his own company, and comb the nicks and crannies of Europe (especially Spain) for wines that satisfy his newfound thirst for an authenticity related directly to the concept of terroir : wines that taste o...