BeckySueEpstein.com » wine + spirits

Drink Port on Friday

Becky Sue — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:43:49 +0000

PORT PORT PORT. Friday January 27, 2012 is International Port Day. Have a bottle somewhere in the cellar? Always wanted to try port? Here’s your big opportunity. Sip and tweet #PortDay
And yes, you CAN have it with chocolate.

Clear, Non-fat Chocolate Dessert

Stay Away. Now Come Back. Chateau La Nerthe

Becky Sue — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:28:40 +0000

Stay Away: that was the first message I got from Chateau La Nerthe in the Southern Rhone area of France — in Chateauneuf du Pape, to be precise. On a wine trip there some years ago, it was clearly painful for them to have a few journalists admitted to this prestige domaine.

We were supposed to look around quietly, listen to a few words about the ancient vineyards we had traveled through, have a couple quick tastes and leave quickly and unobtrusively. Which we did. And I never thought much about the wines since that uncomfortable time. Or if I did, I mentally shrugged, remembering the wines as “not for the likes of us peons.”

So I was pretty surprised when I was recently invited to a luncheon in Boston featuring Chateau la Nerthe. I happened to be free, so I went over. And wow! The climate had really changed. New management? New attitude? Or was it that I was in the company of more salespeople today?

But as soon as I tasted the red wines, I didn’t care. Rich, luscious, balanced, powerful but at the same time elegantly crafted. The wines are blends of the traditional grapes of the area — grenache, syrah, mourvedre and cinsault – and they’ve been organic since 1998.

I looked up the pricing just now, and the average price for a bottle has been in the $40s for the past year or so, and I say: well worth it! On balance, drink vintages that are 3-8 years old to find them at their peak.

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Drink Armagnac, Live Longer

Becky Sue — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:23:19 +0000

Seriously beautiful countryside in Armagnac. This is the little alembic room at Chateau de Bordeneuve, tucked right up next to the vineyards. Spent the last week in the Armagnac region of France – in the Southwest region of Gascony, home of the swashbuckling Musketeers. It’s also home to all things duck, like foie gras – which is very mild here – and hearty beef and pork dishes, too. All of which I ate for lunch and dinner every day.
At the end of my visit, I was astonished to find that I hadn’t gained weight. They call this the Gascony Paradox. Drink Armagnac’s brandies every day along with the local foods, and live five years longer, too!
LISTEN to my snapshot of Armagnac info on iwineradio.com

Beer Wars movie LIVE

The Hospices de Beaune is coming up in a week or so, in Burgundy. But I was in Boston.

Becky Sue — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:48:33 +0000

Hospices de Beaune at dusk

Venerable Hospices de Beaune is the oldest charitable auction in the world, founded in 1859 – though the hospital it benefits dates from 1443. The event is also important because the auction prices are said to set market levels for the new vintage of top-tier Burgundy wines, each year.

I do love the walled, old city of Beaune. It’s brisk and medieval-feeling in the early dusk of November day when the Great Auction has just finished. Market stalls are bustling, lively entertainers sing and dance, and the lanes are filled with European tourists snapping up local artisanal foods: rich parsleyed hams, ultra-fresh crunchy-crusted breads, spiced honey-cakes. Alas, not for me, this year.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I received an invitation to taste some of the Hospice de Beaune wines from earlier years, as Christie’s (which took over the auction a few years ago) toured several US cities this fall. In Boston, we tasted at the First Republic Bank, so you can imagine it was a pretty haute crowd. Maybe next year I’ll get back to Beaune…

There were about 20 wines, mainly from 2009 and 2005, but with a few intermediate vintages too. My favorite reds were two of the 2005s: the Beaune 1er Cru, Cuvée Nicolas Rolin, and the Pommard 1er Cru, Cuvée Dames de la Charité. The whites were wonderful, notably the easy-drinking (are you allowed to say that about Burgundy?) 2007 Pouilly-Fuissé, Cuvée Françoise Poisard, and the beautifully balanced 2009 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru, Cuvée François de Salins.

Was this my last lunch with Bernard?

Becky Sue — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:29:20 +0000

If I was a Bordeaux chateau owner, I’d probably do the same thing: concentrate on China right now. Still, it’s a bit unnerving when you see it happening right in front of you. Like at the recent Chateau Palmer lunch, with the Commanderie de Bordeaux in Boston. Charming Palmer marketing manager Bernard de Laage played it down, but he was essentially handing us over to a second-in-command, while he does the Asia route. Second in command in this case is the equally charming longtime friend of Palmer Jean-Louis Carbonnier, whose French accent is even more charming, but still…

It was, however, a wonderful lunch: BYOB Palmer at Upstairs on the Square in Cambridge, Mass. Not being a Palmer collector, I was allowed to bring the apéritif champagne: Cuvée Louise 1996, which went over pretty well. OK, yeah, it was a wine-snob lunch, and we all enjoyed every minute of it.

The wines: Palmer’s delightful 2003, 1990, 1989, then finishing with a very young and fresh 1983. In the middle, the 1979 was corked, alas, but someone rallied with a 1990 Léoville Las Cases, very herby by comparison with the lush Palmers. The menu: Potage of Native Celery Root with black truffle dumpling; Szechuan-Peppered Duck Breast with vanilla mascarpone potatoes, red wine roasted figs, turnips and their greens.

With the cheese we had Alter Ego’s second vintage, the merlot-based 1999, alongside the Palmer 1999. Both were terrific, and the Palmer got to show off its refinement.

Chocolate? Convince me!

Becky Sue — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 22:22:42 +0000

Chocolate, chocolate, I’ll try anything chocolate. Sometimes I’m surprised. Like with Van Gogh Vodka’s new Rich Dark Chocolate. I’ve tried quite a few of their flavors before, and I’m not always convinced. This one was very convincing. First of all, it actually is a dark chocolate flavor. If you were expecting creamy sweetness, this was confusing. If you were expecting a flavoring agent, this was also confusing. Because it is, after all, vodka.

Van Gogh Vodka Rich Dark Chocolate

At 70 proof and with a strong chocolate taste, you’re not going to drown this by adding flavoring elements, you have to blend pretty carefully. A safe route would be to make your own version of a Black Russian or Kahlua-and-cream type drink. A bolder version is to add citrus, but lemon and lime flavors (not orange) which are recommended in Van Gogh’s “S’More” cocktail recipe: 2 ounces Rich Dark Chocolate Vodka, ½ ounce agave nectar, 3 ounces lemon-lime soda. The whole recipe includes graham cracker rimmers and other finesses I didn’t happen to have on hand, so I just went with the three main ingredients, which worked surprisingly well.
We also had fresh oranges, so we tried adding some of the juice and a slice of orange and that worked too – though I would recommend either the lemon-lime OR the orange, not both. Or try your own combinations. There’s plenty of vodka in that bottle.

Silence Improves Jacob’s Creek Wines?

Becky Sue — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 02:07:36 +0000

Actually, it was a relaxing Jacob’s Creek webinar the other day — once I calmed down and realized there was nothing I could do to get the sound to work on this laptop I took on vacation with me.
It’s been a while since I tried Jacob’s Creek wines, and I was favorably impressed with several of them.
So I tasted along happily with the quiet slides, making my notes and enjoying the silence.

Jacob’s Creek Chief Winemaker Bernard Hickin

Tasting notes on the Jacob’s Creek Reserve Wines:
1. Barossa Dry Riesling 2010: mineral and limestone, a touch floral. Acidity around the edges of a longish finish. Crowd-pleaser in the house, after the tasting.
2. Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2009: Peaches in the nose, but not too much vanilla. Good acidity. Mix of Old- and New-World styles. Lushness with positive citric qualities. Surprisingly pleasant discovery for me.
3. Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir 2009: floral and jam aroma, along with a saline quality. Jam with the barest touch of earth and a sweet finish. Very New World fruitiness.
4. Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2009: plenty of leafiness, black current in aroma and flavor, some minerality and heat in finish. A soft wine.
5. Barossa Shiraz 2008. Earth and butter, in a medium-light style. Very ripe fruit, as well. New World, easy to sip.

Exclusiv name, not price, for this vodka

Becky Sue — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:23:27 +0000

I’ve had some of the the Exclusiv Vodcas for some time now, and I’m glad I waited and sampled them over the course of several weeks, in different ways.
Exclusiv is a wheat vodka made in Moldova, a tiny country tucked between Romania and Ukraine.
First, I want to mention that the bottles’ design is lovely; they make a very attractive presentation.

Nobody drinks vodka neat, at room temperature – except samplers like me – so Exclusiv is obviously made to be consumed chilled. This was most apparent with the unflavored version. Adding citrus, either lemon or lime, was a plus for the unflavored. But it proved unnecessary with the flavored versions.

With any flavored liquor, the manufacturer has several choices. This producer chose to use an orange oil type flavoring which has two advantages: it’s not too sweet, and it holds up well when chilled. However, it’s not so easy to get this type of flavoring for other fruits, so the raspberry is somewhat sweeter, even when chilled.

Also interesting is the price: a premium vodka, only around $13 for a fifth, or $20 for 1.75 liters.

Finally, a book about French wines by French wine experts – in English!

Becky Sue — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:21:09 +0000

I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me before that this was lacking.
Well, problem solved: the new Guide to the Wines of France is out in English. It’s by top wine critics Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve, who have both been prominent in their field for several decades. They have published this volume in French for many years; finally, we get to read it in English.

When I first started going to France a lot (about 10 years ago) I would run into Michel Bettane everywhere. In Alsace, in Bordeaux, in Champagne… He was always there at the winery, had just left, or was about to arrive. Luckily for me. I knew if he was around, this was a winery worth covering. And later, when I got up the nerve to talk with him, he actually answered my questions.

When you start reading Bettane and Dessauve’s new guide to French wines, you realize this isn’t about whether or not French people would favor their own wines over other countries’. It’s about men who have grown up in France, know the history of the wine regions, and can provide context for each winemaker as well as current evaluations of the wines.

One of the best parts of this book is also the worst part. It’s the front section of the book, where the authors talk clearly about wine in general and French wine in particular. This includes everything from wine labels and grapes to “How to Use this Guide.” Unfortunately, these pages were given to a designer who slapped these fascinating paragraphs into large, unreadable blocks of text: they look good on the page, but are impenetrable to a reader.

Design in the rest of the book is much more user-friendly. Divided into wine regions, each page contains short, pithy paragraphs about each winery’s history and how it fits into the region. These descriptions are followed by brief wine tasting notes, along with guidelines on when to drink both current and recent vintages.

This is a great book to pick up, after you’ve introduction to wine. Assuming the design flaws are corrected in future editions, I would recommend the Guide to the Wines of France as a great source for anyone who wants to delve a bit deeper into one country’s wine.

Bettane & Dessauve’s Guide to the Wines of France. By Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve. New York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2011. $35.
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17-year-old+ ice balls = The Macallan

Becky Sue — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:22:53 +0000

The Macallan. Why does “the” sound so pretentious at first? And now it just rolls of my tongue. Actually, I haven’t had any tonight. Recently I sampled several (again), from ten- to 25-year-old.

My favorite? The 17-year-old, which was elegant, smooth, with good body. I’d prefer to sip that one in the evening with its hints of flowers and fruit, whisps of peat and smoke.

The Macallan is single-malt, which means it’s all made in one distillery. Sort of like estate-bottled wine. At that tasting I also learned that the US is the #1 market for The Macallan. The second is Taiwan, which surprised me. And, apparently every country has their own preferences for aged scotch. In Italy they drink 5-7 year old with tonic. The UK likes 10-year-old. In Japan it’s 17-year-old, which I think has something to do with the symbolism of the number. And in the US, our favorite is 18-year-old.

That same day I met the new Northeast Brand Ambassador, who was just being broken in – I mean introduced – to the market. His name is Charlie Whitfield and he’s British, which means we love his accent. Actually, he’s Scottish. Or is he Scotch? Anyhow, we were in Boston that day and though he’s based in NYC, he had sense enough to talk about the Red Sox (though he mentioned he thought NY had a baseball team too).

Whitfield got to do the ice trick at this event. Somehow, he took a large block of ice and compressed it into the shape of a ball with a special copper machine. It doesn’t take long, maybe a minute or less, and it’s a great bar trick. If I had a bar, I’d get one of those machines from The Macallan people.

What you end up with is an ice sphere that fits perfectly into a glass, and melts slowly to create the perfect melding of The Macallan and water at a cool temperature. I wonder who in Boston has an ice ball machine?

Dinner Party hosted by a great Scot