Warres is the Campeão

Check out Graham's Port blog's account of this year's Barcos Rabelos race.


http://malvedos.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/race-of-the-barcos-rabelos/

Yiannis Boutaris, Thessaloniki Mayor on a mission!

A wonderful New York Times profile of Yiannis Boutaris' latest project...Greek politics.   You should know Mr. Boutari from the wine empire he built, which he has turned over to his children.

"...Mr. Boutaris, a wiry 70-year-old with a gold stud in one ear, a buzz cut and a penchant for expletives, is trying something previously unheard of at this City Hall: employees are given job descriptions, goals, evaluations — and modest bonuses when they hit their targets"  You have to read this!!!

Greek Mayor Aims to Show Athens How It’s Done

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/world/europe/thessaloniki-tackles-greeces-problems-in-miniature.html?_r=2&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Greek Islands See Rise in Visitors

http://www.gotimeshare.org/news-items/763.aspx

Esporao White Reserva 2011 in The Wine Detective

A great review for the Esporao White Reserva 2011 from Sarah Ahmed in The Wine Detective.  She has so much wonderful information on her site...if you don't subscribe, why don't you?

http://www.thewinedetective.co.uk/blog/featured/in-fine-fettle-herdade-do-esporao-white-reserva-2011/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=June+Newsletter&utm_source=YMLP&utm_term=here

The Rising Tide of Green Wine

Memorial Day has already come and gone, and the Summer is unofficially on.  There may be no better wine for the season than Vinho Verde, Portugal's Green wine.  "Take a box to the beach!"  I like to tell people.  Light in body and alcohol with a little spritz and a lot of mouthwatering tangy lime/citrus, it's like squeezing a fresh pitcher of lemonade or limeade.  Pour a glass and let the relaxing and refreshing begin.  It goes with fish, especially ceviche and shrimp fajitas, barbeque, spiced shrimp or blue crabs.   Vinho Verde boldly goes where no wine has gone before, so if you were about to give up on wine and have a beer or a margherita, consider your summertime friend, Vinho Verde.   It's a picnic, a patio party, feet dangling off a pier, and hands trailing in the water.  It's the cold glass in your hand reading by the pool.  And as the shore rentals and ticking pump prices drain us of our hard earned cash, Vinho Verde is one place you can save a buck or twenty.   It's cheap, cheap cheap!!!

But despite the many ways in which Vinho Verde is a no brainer, there are actually lots of differences between the styles and brands, and the number of styles and brands available on your retailer's shelves has literally quadrupled in the last four years.   With 9 subregions, 20 allowable grape varieties both white and red, and yes, a Red Green wine, this might merit some discussion.  So The Native Grape is here to help you navigate the rising tide of Green Wine.  We'll tackle the region in three parts, dividing them the way they are divided in my brain, starting with the style most people think of when they say Vinho Verde which is the basic style that I have described so far and the only style that many people think exists.  Next time around we'll tackle the still wines from blends and single varieties other than Alvarinho (like the Loureiros) and leave the fine single varietal Alvarinhos for last.

Part 1

Although we think of Vinho Verde as a style of wine, it is actually an appellation-one of the largest wine regions in Portugal.  As is happening today in the US market, Vinho Verde was the original ambassador for Portuguese wines way back in the 15th Century when the wines became the first Portuguese wines to crack the European markets.   The region itself is in the lush and green Northwest corner of Portugal, the so called Green Coast.  Cool and wet with the strong influence of the Atlantic Coast, it's border to the West, the Entre Douro e Minho is bounded to the North by the Minho River (the Natural boundary with Spain's Galicia) and to the South and East by the Mountains that create the unique microclimates of the interior.   

The climate tells a lot of the story in Vinho Verde and played an important role in the development of the unique style of the wines.  Famous wine regions often tell a tale of poor soils and struggle-the less is more dichotomy of vines pulling their DNA from the rock as they tunnel deeper and deeper through in search of water(I realize I just inadvertently plagiarized David Hinkle.)  Not so in this cool and rainy, green corner of the world.    Vigor is a big problem.  The traditional leafy canopies trained high on their Pergolas to make room for ground crops produced an abundance of plesantly shady patios and unripe grapes.  To make things worse, growers fearing the impending rainy season, often picked early to avoid losing their harvest to rot.  To combat the searing acidity, a secondary malolactic fermentation was encouraged.   Unripe grapes are extremely high in malic acid.  Malolactic fermentation (used in almost all red wines) transforms tart malic (apple) acids into the rounder, creamier lactic (milk) acids.   The byproduct of this secondary fermentation, was the light bubble from the carbon dioxide released which gave the Vinho Verde wine its characteristic spritz.  

In the region today, growers have many more tools in their bag of tricks to encourage ripening of grapes, from better trellising to green harvests.  Most producers elect to block malolactic fermentation in their white wines as you trade some purity and aromatic qualities to make a rounder wine.   And although it's a bit difficult to find anyone talking about this (I think the marketers must prefer the traditional image of a naturally occurring bubble) if they are going for a traditional style,  carbon dioxide is more often added to the wine at bottling.  

I sometimes hear the criticism that all Vinho Verde tastes alike.  I could not disagree more.  They do indeed share a family of characteristics, but instead of lumping them all together try thinking of Vinho Verde brands as Champagne houses.  They each have their own unique style and flavor profile.  Some will be almost fully bubbly, some just prickly.  Some are just sweet enough to balance the tang, and others much sweeter.  Some are still searingly acidic and some soft and sweetly limey.  It becomes more a question of how do you take your coffee?  Sweet Tea or regular?  There will be a style to suit everyone's taste.   We can extend the Champagne analogy in a few more useful ways.  There are many many Quintas or growers in Vinho Verde, like in Champagne, "In fact, the region’s 27,000+ grape growers farm over 50,000 acres of vineyards planted in small plots averaging less than 3 acres in size." CVRVV   So a majority of them sell to the large cooperative wineries who produce the large brands.  There are also a number of Quintas that grow and produce there own wines, and many of the larger ones often make several labels (think grower producer Champagnes or single quinta Port wine bottlings.)  Vinho Verde and Champagne also share the common practice of Non Vintage cuvee bottling, a method that allows for the crafting of a house style and consistency of quality in climates that present a challenge to fully ripening grapes.  I have just two universal guidelines when it comes to this style of Vinho Verde.

#1  It should be Green!
It may not be how it got its name, the Vinho Verde commision insists that it means young wine, not Green Wine, because it is bottled within 3-6 months after the harvest.  But one of the shared characteristics of young Vinho Verde is the light and lovely ocean green/blue hue that the wine possesses.   The color is echoed in a lot of the label art.  If you see a golden or straw color in a wine that is not a single varietal bottling, avoid it.  It's probably over the hill.

#2  It should be Young!

Many of these wines will be non-vintage, but regardless every bottle of Vinho Verde DOC wine has a bottled on date printed on the label as well as a Guarantee Seal number where you can track its history through the Vinho Verde commission.
http://www.vinhoverde.pt/en/vinhoverde/garrafa/garrafa_en.asp

With these two provisos in mind go forth and experiment.  You can afford it!

My plan is to start a page of Vinho Verdes that we will build on all summer long.  So here is a start, but come back often to check for more and please send me your own favorites with tasting notes and whatever you know about the wines...I will be happy to add them to the page!!  

 

 http://thenativegrape.blogspot.com/p/vinho-verde.html

Vinhos Borges Gatão Vinho Verde, NV

Made by the Borges cooperative since the early 1900's, Gatão was originally named after the tiny town where it was first produced.  As the popularity of the brand increased and production demands forced the winery to source grapes from a larger area, the Vinho Verde commission enocouraged Borges to assume instead the "Large Cat" as their mascot so as to avoid misrepresenting the origins of the wine.   This large cat has graced their labels ever since (although originally the cat was more of a Puss in Boots type.)  Gatão is one of the most successful brands of Vinho Verde in the world today, distributed in 50 countries on 5 continents.   

Grape Varieties: Azal, Pedernã, Trajadura, Avesso and Loureiro 

 I always describe Gatão as a wine Margarita.  It really captures that Sweet and Sour balance, never too sweet and always with plenty of attack and tang.   It clocks in at 9%  alcohol and sells so briskly, you are almost guaranteed to find a fresh bottle!

Vinhos Messias "Santola" Vinho Verde, NV

The excellent Santola bottling by Vinhos Messias was recently recommended in the Washington Post.  The review said the wine tasted "a bit like Sprite."   I can see where they're coming from,  the Santola is really limey and of course has a bit of bubble.   But we have to take a little issue with that.  I don't think Dave Mcintyre has been driven by thirst at a kid's birthday party to tip a 2 Liter of Sprite in a while, because let me tell you, that stuff is sickeningly sweet!  The Santola on the other hand is on the drier side for Vinho Verde, and the bright acidity will refresh not cloy.  Made from Loureiro and Arinto varieties.  Here's what I get:

 On the nose: Fresh lime, lemon, freshly grated lemon zest, lime leaf, white pepper, basil and whiff of salty sea air. 

On the palate:  More freshly squeezed lemon and lime, a juicy mid palate of granny smith apple, the wine is squeaky clean and only prickly with a mouthwatering profile that finishes with a kiss of salt.

 

Anjos Vinho Verde 2011

 Made by the fine Quinta da Lixa estate in the Sousa subregion, the Anjos Vinho Verde consists of 40% Arinto, 30% Trajadura, and 30% Loureiro.  Imported by our good friends Wine in- Motion, this is a really quality wine for the money.  A much riper and gently sweeter style, it also has a little more bubble and an all around softer attack.  I almost wonder if they do a little partial malolactic on this one?  I get:

On the nose:  Powdery white flowers, wild yeasts, plantain, white pepper and pineapple.

On the palate:  Pineapple, apricot, fleshy sweet peaches, peach pit, mandarin orange and a long tangy and sweet finish of tropical lifesavers-orange, lime and lemon.

I thought I knew a thing or two about Prosecco

I thought I knew a thing or two about Prosecco.   I was pleased as punch when our Gasparini Venegazzu Brut arrived with it's shiny new Asolo DOCG label.   We're often vying for case stack spots with the Villa Jolanda Prosecco...very cute bottle, but the wine is from the Piedmont.  Prosecco from the Piedmont?  Why?  Because it sells of course.  Prosecco has been getting more and more popular every year and as it does more and more people are trying to get into the game.  So I for one welcomed the new clarification between the original zone of Prosecco producers and everybody else.  I also didn't really understand the argument that this was making too much of Prosecco-that Prosecco isn't complex enough a wine to warrant DOCG status.   But Moscato d'Asti is?   Just look at poor old Moscato...it's long had the DOCG distinction, and sadly this has done nothing to stem the tide of Moscato from everywhere from Australia to California.

Well, if you want to pack your brain with more info than you would have thought there was to know about the classic Italian bubbly, check out this back and forth between two guys that know a lot about Prosecco, Alan Tardi and Jeremy Parzen on Jeremy Parzen's terrific Do Bianchi blog.  A response to a response about Tardi's article in The NY Times,  “Prosecco Growers Act to Guard Its Pedigree”
http://dobianchi.com/2012/05/23/prosecco-polemic-alan-tardi-responds/
there are more interesting little factoids in these three pieces than there are bubbles in a glass of Prosecco.

I will say that it's a little strange to see Parzen refer to the wines of Franco Adami, one of Prosecco's most passionate and devoted advocates who had been fighting for years to obtain the DOCG distinction, described as "an expression of the consumerist hegemony that has choked my beloved trevigiano since the 1990s when Prosecco became a brand in the U.S."   With so many boogeymen "brands" to blame for the bastardizing of Prosecco, Adami seems an odd target.  I mean there's a Santa Margherita Valdobiaddene bottling and that Lunetta Prosecco by Cavit for God's sake!!  Or how about that juice from the Piedmont?  Maybe the real Italian wine guys don't even speak of these names.  But I didn't really mean to get into the fray here, because of the many things I learned reading this back and forth, my main take away was that I have a lot to learn when it comes to Prosecco.  If you feel like me, then this is a great place to start.

"Three Things They Don't Want You to Know"

Who's "they," you ask? It's restaurants, retailers, wineries and, yes, wine writers

http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/46784?icid=em_com

This Blog Post by Wine Spectator Veteran Matt Kramer is in my opinion a little, well...beneath him.    I'm a bit wary of anything that sets up a divide between the consumer and trade and you can't help but feel that the "and yes, wine writers" was thrown in reluctantly at the end to deflect potential fall-out.  Outside of the 'premox' portion about prematurely oxidizing white Burgundy, you can't really find a motive for a wine writer to be complicit in this supposed cover-up.  It almost makes you wonder if some waiter ticked him off by not recognizing him and charging him full price for a glass of Viognier.   There is nothing untrue, new or particularly revelatory in his "outing" of restaurateurs and retailers for being for profit, and his recommendations for diners somehow seem so ten years ago.   Yes you have a better selection by the bottle.  Yes your wine by the bottle will not be oxidized and will be a better deal.  If you don't know these things, where have you been?  It also doesn't really give credit to the many restaurants that have gone to great lengths to address these issues, from  vast  by the glass selections and wine flights to those fancy machines that keep the wine fresh and measure pours (A $70,000 investment for  a state of the art piece of equipment.)   There is a very real cost involved in wine by the glass (even if you didn't spend the $70k on one of those machines)...it's called waste.  Those complaining about the problem of open, oxidized wines are illustrating this point themselves.  If you don't sell any more than that one glass from the bottle quickly, down the drain the remainder of the wine and all your profits go.   What a bunch of robber barons.

How about revealing something useful...like there is no margin in wine compared to most retail businesses to begin with.  The moisturizing cream on your face, the shirt on your back (even if its from Ross!) and the shoes on your feet all fetched a fine return on investment.  When I worked in wine retail we were down the street from a Salon.  I couldn't help but notice the dichotomy of the difficulty many women had spending even $10 on a bottle of wine, while $100 or so of "product" dangled from their wrist in a fancy bag.

The whole Big Box world that we live in promotes this idea that having a margin for profit in your business somehow makes you a crook.  There is a misconception that Big Box stores are Robin Hoods bringing affordable goods to the masses.     Every one of these outfits are making plenty of money.  This doesn't make them crooks either, it makes them businessmen.   They may not be making their money on that bottle of Cliquot you can't believe your local shop would charge you so much for, or those fancy high end bottles Mr. Kramer is encouraging you to buy from them or an online outlet, but they are making it somewhere, and plenty of it.  I won't start talking about loss leaders...but I think as reasonable people in the world we all know these things to be true.  We just like a deal. And we don't want to feel bad about it.  Maybe it would be a little more fair to own that, and stop trying to make independent merchants feel they are immoral profit seekers. 

Of course you can shop around.  The remnants of prohibition and the puritan American approach to alcohol as a controlled substance makes for wildly different import/distribution tiers throughout the US which can translate to sometimes wildly different prices.  Again, this is a fact of laws binding the buying/selling practices of wholesalers, retailers and importers in your State, City and County...not a rape the consumer scheme.  You can seek out online product reviews and make your own selections.  You can find better deals on the internet.  You don't need your local wine shop to do these things for you, you can of course do them yourself.  But that takes a lot of time.  Now you're doing all the work.  Apparently diners have taken to price checking the bottles on wine lists before they order.  The somm makes a recommendation and Joe Q is on his i phone checking Parker reviews and retail prices on Wine Searcher.   So much for the dining experience.   And this gets to the heart of what I really dislike about this- the encouraging the consumer to mistrust the wine professional in front of them.  Don't take the Sommellier's word for it, take Matt Kramer's.

Lastly the they in the title, "Three Things They don't want you to know," also smacks a bit of the "Make them Pay" piece that Ben Gilberti wrote in the Washington Post many years ago (one that became something of a swan song as he departed his duties as bi-weekly wine critic not long after) opining bitterly about the occurrence of corked wines in restaurants and the lack of tastevin wielding Sommelliers to ferret them out before the foul liquid and vapors penetrated the innocent nostrils and taste buds of the all important critic...heh hem...customer.   A crime for which he wanted to "Make Them (the restaurants) Pay."   Gentlemen...get over yourselves.