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Climate project and wine guru Pancho Campo suggested this week that we might want to go back to the olden days of wine commerce. In order to avoid the tremendous amount of emissions caused by transporting crates of heavy wine bottles, we might want to return to the time when wine was shipped in bulk from the producer, and bottled in the city where it would be sold. Of course Campo didn’t put it exactly like this when speaking at Vinoble, the biennial sweet wine fair in Jerez, Spain; he simply put out a general call to rethink the wine industry’s carbon footprint.
Remember that only a few decades ago wine was still being shipped from France and Portugal to England, where it was bottled by local merchants like Harveys in Bristol (Sherry) and Berry Bros & Rudd in London (Bordeaux, etc.) before being sold their customers. Shipping was handled this way for hundreds of years. So now, do we really need to ship bottles that can weigh up to two pounds each? Except for Champagnes and sparkling wines which are finished in the bottle, maybe not.
For centuries, wine merchants — such as Berry Brothers and Harveys — were the guarantors of authenticity for the wines they sold. The custom of estate bottling wines which gathered steam during the 20th century is supposed to be a guarantee of authenticity. It also became a mark of prestige when in the 1920s Baron Philippe de Rothschild first used it to set his Bordeaux wines apart from the rest – and soon everyone followed his lead.
With the current technology for temperature-controlled, non-reactive shipping containers, would we now be better off bottling our wines at least in the country they are shipped to, if not in each individual city? Lighter bottles, screwcaps, tetrapaks and bulk wine in restaurants: all these methods of conveying wines to consumer can now be put in play. It’s started already. Champagne producers are cutting their bottle weights by 7% this year. In the UK, Berry Bros & Rudd is (again) supplying their labeled “Own Selection Wines” while in the US a few restaurants on the east and west coasts are reported to have wine on tap. Now, it’s up to the rest of us to decide how to save the planet – while sipping the wines of our choice, of course.

I wonder if this is true elsewhere? Apparently, recession mentality bottomed out for NYC fine dining customers in the 4th quarter of 2009. Now diners are not afraid to show off anymore, if they have money.

Last week, Wine + Spirits’ Joshua Greene moderated a panel with top NYC restaurant sommeliers Levi Dalton of Alto, Beverage Director Juliette Pope of Gramercy Tavern and Head Sommelier Rajeev Vaidya of Restaurant Daniel.

High-end sommeliers are busy rearranging their winelists and letting some of the less expensive wines fall off. That’s not to say everything is sky-high: summer is coming, and typically people want lighter wines which are often less expensive. Vaidya will be looking toward Chablis, Riesling and other German whites, Italian whites and Rhone reds and whites. Dalton and Pope are expressing seasonality in their wine lists with moderately priced wines, too.

Let’s see how the mini-barrel holds up over the next 39 days…

Before you freak, let me just tell you my theory: you can’t be a great biodynamic wine maker unless you are a great winemaker.

If you’re a great wine maker, going biodynamic* can add a whole other dimension to your wines.  More aromatics, more flavor components, subtle structural and finishing elements.

I saw this again at yesterday’s “Return To Terroir” tasting, an annual event I attend sporadically.  There were great wines and not-so-great.  But this year, everyone seemed to feel biodynamic isn’t a gimmick any more. It’s a growing system for people who are passionate about their grapes, their vineyards and their wines – in a certain way.

Winemaker/farmer Mike Benziger calls biodynamic a natural “energy management system.”  Basically, I think he is successful by paying very close attention to his vineyards and treating them like an integral part of Mother Earth instead of like grape-growing machines.  Modestly, he claims that in starting to farm biodynamically, “the biggest change is in the farmer!”

*Want to know more about what biodynamics is – and isn’t? Jim Fullmer was at this tasting, too, bringing biodynamic bread, cheese, yogurt, etc.  He’s the exec director of the US branch of the biodynamic certifying organization Demeter http://www.demeter-usa.org/

The KINGDOM of Navarra: a blend of super-chef, medieval castles, good to great wines and it’s green, too: 38 windfarms generate 65% of their energy.

An ancient tradition of wines and spirits, and very modern hearty but beautifully balanced red wines, often temperanillo and temp blends.  And a few lyrical sauvignon blancs, too.

We had all this recently with the inventive yet simple food from noted chef Enrique Martinez of Hotel Maher in Navarra – who cooked at Boston’s Estragon Restaurant.

To sample each dish was to uncover surprises in the infusion of mushrooms, sprinkling of toasted chopped nuts, ribbons of herbs.  But most of all it was about texture: perfectly cooked lobster nearly translucent as tender as possible.  And fish with firmness that spoke of being taken off the heat just as it came to the exact moment of doneness.  A meal memorable for the mouthfeel as much as the taste.

For dessert, the piquant Ochoa 2007 moscadel, made from the “petits grains” muscat: aromas of flowers, orange and mint; not too sweet, balanced with a touch of citrus peel and finishing nearly dry.

After that, a sip the ancient custom of a digestif of relatively Pacharan, sometimes poured over ice, the red liquid glowing in the glass.  In September and October, people pick sloe berries and add them to some anisette liqueur they’ve bought.  Tradition says the Pacharan is ready to drink for the July fiesta, when the berries are a red carpet at the bottom of bottle, having given their color and flavor to the liquor.

http://how2heroes.com/videos/beverages/champagne-history

http://how2heroes.com/videos/beverages/champagne-buying-guide

After tasting the DuBoeuf Beaujolais Nouveau earlier and enjoying the light fruitiness of the wine, I was surprised to return to the covered glass a few hours later and find the flavors had all but disappeared.

But I did not despair.  I got out a wine gadget: the Vinturi Wine Aerator — the little one that makes the fun slurping noise.  In seconds I was sipping a more rounded, more developed wine, a glass of flavor that lasted me throughout the meal.

Maybe I’ll try some more pairings tonight: more Nouveaux with different gadgets…

Suddenly one October afternoon I fell in love with Albariño, the bright and lovely Spanish white wine.  I had visited the home of Albariño before; it’s a charming, ancient land of rolling hills touched by Atlantic breezes in the northwest corner of Spain.

Yet, here I was in New York city, at the annual Great Match of Spanish wines, in the corner of a ballroom, when it hit me. The wines ranged from enchantingly light to beautifully mouthfilling.  They were well-balanced, with fruity aromas yet minerally interiors, finishing dry.  The wines worked with a variety of ethnic bites like delectable shrimp shumai, potato-pea samosas, slightly spicy Thai shaved beef and tuna empanadas.

I sipped half a dozen and smiled.  I tried them with a variety of tapas, then sighed because now it was time for me to move on.  Here are the wines I tasted:

Paco & Lola 2007 Albariño, Adega e Viñedos Rosalía de Castro

Salneval Albariño 2007, Adega Condes de Albarei

Terra Firme Albariño 2006, Agnusdei

Brandal Albariño 2007, Adegas d’Altamira

Burgáns Albariño 2007, Bodegas Martin Códex

Laxas Albariño 2007

By the way the home of Albariño is Rias Baixas [pronounced REE-ahss BY-shahss] in the region of Spain called Galicia.  These wines are all DO Rias Baixas, retailing for $10- $22.

You might know all about wine cork, but it made a real difference to me to stand in a cork forest in Portugal recently.  And to see the whole process of wine corks being made. (Courtesy of Amorim, which is the largest cork producer in the largest cork-producing company in the world.)

Cork oaks are relatively small, with large numbers emblazoned on their trunks, representing the year the thick bark was last harvested.  It takes about 25 years for the first harvest, then it’s every 9 years until the tree is around 150 years old.  So it makes sense to me that cork producers are into sustainability.  They’re sustaining the forests for their descendants, as well as for the birds and animals that inhabit these ecosystems.

The big question: is cork better than screwcap? I did learn that corks are now much better than they used to be: Amorim says it has reduced cork taint (which spoils wine in the bottle) 85% since it hired a full-time scientific staff to beat the problem (finally) in 1999.

It would be great if we knew exactly how wine interacts with cork, but even in this scientific age, we don’t have it all down.  Screwcaps seem a fine alternative for the 95% of wines that are made to be consumed within a year or two. After that…???