Maker's Table

SanSì

Azienda Agricola Scagliola
Barbera d'Asti Superiore "SanSì"
2008
14.5% ABV | Price: about $40

This wine is 100% barbera, and the grapes derive from the limestone and clay soils of the SanSì vineyard in Calosso. The color is deep orange garnet with a limpid rim. Aromas of fennel, smoke, plum, spice, black tar, and wild game rise from the glass, and the wine grips the palate with smooth, smoky-earthy tannin, sweet tobacco, and black fruits. The somewhat high level of alcohol in this otherwise old-worldish wine leaves a bit of burn in the middle of my tongue, but this apologetically tapers into a savory, succulent finish.

The winery notes that SanSì is named after the knightly San Siro. But there are in fact two Saints Syrus: one of Genoa—who concocted some miracles with boats—and the other of Pavia—who was somewhat more catholic in his saintly ministrations. Genoa is in Liguria, and Pavia is in Lombardia, and so neither saint hailed from Piemonte, sandwiched betwixt, whence this Barbera hails. So we'll just have to called it—and ourselves—blessed.

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Corse

Domaine de Granajolo
Corse Porto-Vecchio
2009
13% ABV | Price: about $14

André Boucher's Domaine de Granjolo comprises 20 hectares in the southern tip of Corsica. The granitic soils are farmed organically, and Boucher's daughter Gwenaele is the winemaker. This wine is 100% vermentinu (vermentino). 

Spritely aromas of bay leaf, sage, lemon, and citrus blossom rise to meet you. The wine has a smooth texture and succulent flavors of citrus and wild herbs, with a bitter cut that renders it cleansing and brightly refreshing. Lively, shimmering, and succulent, it would be a perfect mate for seafood, herb-roasted poultry, or fresh cheeses. Highly recommended.

 

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Zing

Twisted Oak
Grenache Blanc "Calaveras County"
2010
13.2% ABV | Price: about $24*

This wine is 94% grenache blanc and 6% viognier. Only a few dozen cases were made. It's a very pale, clear yellow, just this side of colorless. In the glass it yields subtle aromas of green apple, stone fruit, tangerine, fresh straw, and sweetgrass. But its predominant characteristic is its zingyness, its bracing acidity. This is a very juicy wine. I would call it "citrusy," but that's more its effect than its flavor.

Sharp and cleansing and sunshiny, and probably perfect with oysters—which are this evening, alas, in short supply.

 

*I received this wine in an exchange with the winery; I sent Jeff Stai a bottle of Bonny Doon Vineyard's Grenache Blanc; he sent me this bottle of Twisted Oak's.

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Pink and White

M. Chapoutier
Côtes-du-Rhône "Belleruche" Blanc
2009
13.5% ABV | Price: about $13*

Côtes-du-Rhône "Belleruche" Rosé
2010
13.5% ABV | Price: about $13*

A pair of wines from reputable Northern Rhône producer Michel Chapoutier, whose winery I visited in 2002 (see my article and notes).

The white is a blend primarily of grenache blanc, with clairette and bourboulenc. It has a very faint, appley nose, but considerable body and good mouthfeel, owing likely to the preponderance of grenache blanc in the blend. It's simple and clean, with a slight chalkiness, and as it warms, a little menthol woodsyness emerges, too.

The pink is primarily grenache, with cinsault and syrah. It's a pale salmon color, somewhat typical of Rhône rosés, and the nose is a bit earthy and stinky, but in a good way. On the palate it's a little peppery, likely from the grenache, with good acidity and that same mineral chalkiness of the white. But it has a little more edge, plus a pleasant heft and earthiness, and is my favorite of this tasting.

Neither is a serious wine, but they're capably made, and their stony, minerally chalkiness makes them good with fresh goat cheese. Best enjoyed young, which can be said, alas, of many things.

 

*I received these wines as press samples.

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Austrian

The venue: the quaint cellar room of the über-Victorian Norwich Inn, in Norwich, Vermont. The host: Rafael Flores, director of Artisanal Cellars, a boutique wine importer. The featured guest: Klaus Wittauer of KW Selection, an Austrian restaurateur turned wine exporter. The inn had laid out a spread of schnitzel with braised red cabbage, house-smoked salmon with crème fraiche, and delectable puff pastries with mustard sauce to accompany the nine lean, savory Austrian wines—from sekt to Riesling to Zweigelt—we had gathered to taste.

It was my first full Austrian immersion, and I found the wines on the whole exceptionally pleasant: low-alcohol, savory, mineral-intensive, cleansing, serious, and food-friendly. My tasting notes:

 

2010 Hillinger "Small Hill White"
12.0% ABV | Price: about $14
A blend of 70% Riesling, 20% Sauvignon blanc, and 10% Muskateller, the wine is a very pale, clear yellow. Quite aromatic (predominantly of Riesling), with a palate that offers good but not overwhelming acidity and stony minerality with an over-layer of stone fruits. It has a long, savory, slightly tart finish.

2009 Tegernseerhof Riesling "Terrassen"
12.5% ABV | Price: about $20
This riesling is grown in granitic soils, and the wine is made from the first harvest picking. It offers great minerality and a nose that is not exactly petrol; more like diesel, or steel pennies. It is an exceptionally dry and serious wine, and the aromatics are a haunting riddle to one more used to German Riesling.

2009 Anton Bauer Grüner Veltliner "Rosenberg"
12.5% ABV | Price: about $18
This vineyard has loess soils, and the wine is vinified in stainless steel and aged in concrete vessels. It offers lively tropical aromas, with some pineapple and a little oiliness. Bone dry and cleansing on the palate, it also has great weight and intensity. Recommended, and tied for best of tasting.

2008 Tegernseerhof Grüner Veltliner "Loibenberg"
13.0% ABV | Price: about $33
This wine hails from the largest single cru in the Wachau. The vineyard is south-facing, with some loess and granite soils, and the wine, Klaus informs me, is built for aging. This '08 is still a child, but it has great elegance and savoryness. I would love to try this vintage again in, say, 2018.

2009 Weingut Michlits Pinot Gris "Graupert"
13.0% ABV | Price: about $20
"Graupert" translates to "ungroomed," and refers to the wild, uncultivated vineyard in which this wine is grown. The winery is fully Biodynamic, and uses no trellising or pruning in the vineyard, but the vines have adapted to this hands-off approach, voluntarily producing low yields and small berry sizes. The wine is concentrated and focused, and—perhaps I'm just suggestible—"wild" tasting.

2009 Steininger Cabernet Sauvignon Sekt Rosé 
Méthode Champenoise; disgorged February '11
13.0% ABV | Price: about $28
Cab sekt? It sounds like the start of an off-color joke. But the wine is wonderful: wildly aromatic, with bright cranberry and currant fruits, and more cranberry on the palate, plus a great texture and smooth, even mouthfeel. Pricey, but a show-stopper; a wine I'd love to serve to wine-knowledgable friends, blind. I can imagine the smiles. Recommended.

2010 Hillinger Zweigelt 
13.5% ABV | Price: about $18
This unoaked Zweigelt offered a sharp, black pepper nose that reminded me a little of Grenache. But the palate was vegetal—more green pepper than black pepper—and a bit tannic. Lean and tight, it perhaps needed some air to unwind. Or another three years.

2007 Anton Bauer "Wagram Cuvée 13" 
13.0% ABV | Price: about $20
A blend of 40% Blaufränkisch, 35% Zweigelt, 15% Cabernet sauvignon, and 10% Merlot, the wine delivers subtle pepper notes and brilliant berry flavors, but is restrained and settled overall. Lovely and a good value at $20.

2008 Hillinger Blaufränkisch "Leithaberg" 
13.5% ABV | Price: about $34
Vinified like Pinot noir, but aged only in neutral oak; only 3,000 bottles were made. A beautiful nose of wild roses, with a palate of blueberry and purple flowers, plus great acidity and a lingering finish of sweet tobacco. Highly recommended, and tied for best of tasting.

 

"In Austria, we are wine growers, not wine makers," Klaus said to me, smiling, echoing a refrain I'd heard often when talking with German wine producers. In other words, make the wine that nature gives you, and thank your stars you can. 

 

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Hunting

Margan Family Winegrowers
Sémillon "Hunter Valley"
2009
12.5% ABV | Price: about $18*

These sémillon grapes were grown on 40 year old vines in Margan's volcanic "Fordwich Sill" vineyard in the Hunter Valley. The wine is pale gold with a greenish cast. Its nose is a little funky, a little stinky, like a barn or sweaty leather (but this wine saw no oak, so this is probably not Brett). It also smells of lemon oil and thyme, and on the palate it's bright and citrusy and a tad frizzante, which is pleasing. But it has a soft, hollow place in the middle where I expect the fruit to flower open, and it gives me a bitter bite just before sliding into an edgy, tart finish.

Maybe that bite is minerality from the volcanic soils. Maybe the wine is wildly too young. But mostly the wine just feels a tad unintegrated, all elbows and knees. It's hard to write about, but—there you are.

 

*I received this wine as a press sample.

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Who Knew?

Jordan Vineyard and Winery
Chardonnay "Russian River Valley"
2008
13.5% ABV | Price: about $29*

Pale soft yellow, with a beautiful, fresh green apple nose. There is melon, too, and below all this a layer of beeswax or lanolin. It is a soft and unctuous aroma, like an overripe pear, like a box of wool, like butter. It is savory and grounding. The wine spent two months sur lie, subjected to regular bâtonnage, so perhaps what I'm getting here is simply the scent of umami. 

It tastes like spring flowers—Lily of the Valley, mostly, and daffodil—with great acidity above and measureless depths below. It is juicy and a little flinty, too, with brilliant grip and a lingering, minerally finish. It brightens me like sunlight, and wets me down like rain showers.  

I love this wine.

 

*I received this wine as a press sample.

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Moscato

Jacob's Creek
Moscato
2010
8.0% ABV | Price: about $9.00*

The wine is nearly colorless, though the blue-green bottle makes it look like summertime at the pool. A blend of juice from muscat of Alexandria and muscat blanc à petit grains, it offers typical moscato aromas of musk melon, peach, jasmine, pear, and tropical fruits. On the palate it delivers great acidity with lush tropical notes—particularly pineapple—plus green melon, citrus, and stone fruits. Just off-dry and lightly frizzante; the mouthfeel is a little coarse, but this texture is actually a nice counterpoint to the wine's floral sweetness.

A true bagatelle. Not a wine you want to think about too hard, and at $9 with 8% alcohol, you don't have to. Enjoy a glass outdoors by that sea-green pool, with Prosciutto-wrapped melon and an array of fresh cheeses. Then lick your fingers and dive in.

 

*I received this wine as a press sample.

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See Saw

See Saw Wine Company
See Saw Hunter Valley
2009
12.0% ABV | Price: about $11.50

A blend of 85% sémillon, 10% chardonnay, and 5% verdelho from Australia's Hunter Valley, a wine region about 150km north of Sidney. This wine is actually a pale straw gold (though pink when viewed through rose-colored tulips), with a very faintly floral, lightly citrusy nose. It's light-bodied on the palate and a bit briny, with some grassiness and pleasant acidity leading to a long, tart finish. 

Not a serious wine, but not a stupid wine, either. Meaning: no evidence of oak, not a fruit-bomb, and not very alcoholic. Not pricey. Good thing.

 

*I received this wine as a press sample.

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Scheurebe

Müller-Catoir
Haardt Scheurebe
2009
12.0% ABV | Price: about $29

Very pale clear gold, this Scheurebe at first offers a whiff of petrol and fresh pear. Once it warms it starts yielding tropical fruits—pineapple, passion fruit, a little oily citrus, and a hint of spring flowers, too, unless that's just what's in the air. On the palate the wine has great acidity and a salty, slatey backbone against which luscious guava and Asian pear and tropical fruit stand forward. There is layer upon layer of flavor, each yielding to the next in a delicate and felicitious interplay. The finish lingers long.

I visited Müller-Catoir on a recent trip to the Mosel, Pfalz, and Rheingau regions of Germany. During my group's scheduled tasting, I (somewhat ill-advisedly) engaged the winemaker in a debate about whether a keller could be considered part of a wine's terroir. The molds, yeasts, and flora of a cellar might influence the wine en route, I suggested, images of black cellar mold fresh in mind from our recent cellar tours. They help the wine be what it will become. (I was embolded a little when one of my colleagues, a winemaker, agreed with me.)

No, he said, terroir is the vineyard, tout court. Its influence ceases the moment the grape is harvested. After that, it's up to the winemaker to do as little as possible to the wine, to coax it forth and stay out of the way.

If he's right, then the slate soils of the Pfalz evidently do know what to do.

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