Littorai

Vintage: 2007
Producer: Littorai
Region: Sonoma Coast
Grape : Chardonnay
Vineyard: B. A. Thieriot

On My Palate:

Tropical and candied with rich vanilla up front. Moves into a fresher, mineral-driven second half.

The Dregs:

Mike, one of two tasting partners tonight, visited Littorai and described the experience as “religious.” Ted Lemon, the man behind the label, is a Université de Bourgogne-educated and domaine Guy Roulot of meursault-trained winemaker. He is inspired by and actively exemplifying biodynamic and sustainable winemaking practices.

On paper, this wine expresses the ocean-blasted, fog-shrouded, rugged sonoma coast; a place so desolate and exposed to every pounding vagary of the pacific’s weather that i can understand mike’s look to the heavens as he stood in Littorai’s impossible ridge top vineyards.

So why am I reminded of piña coladas in the tropics when i drink this wine? A mineral acidity drives the second half of the wine like an afterthought. I wonder when Littorai will guide its winemaking principles and magnificent site towards veracious, unique wine that may not please the most ignorant hedonist but will turn the head of the dogged, truth-seeking wine drinker.

Where:

In the empty lounge at Addison del Mar. The Sabonet silver clinks against the Bernardaud porcelin and echoes under the vaulted ceiling.

Schloss Gobelsburg

Vintage: 2007
Producer: Schloss Gobelsburg
Appelation(s): Heiligenstein, Langenlois, Kamptal
Grape : Grüner Veltliner
Sweetness Level: Trocken (Dry)

On My Palate:

All of the lemon except the actual meat of the fruit. Ginger, lemongrass. A creamy, oily body. Screaming acidity.

The Dregs:

A proven point that rich, complex wine can be made without oak. Is America listening? When I’m in the mood for the sweet seduction of the vanilla orchid against a rich, creamy background, I eat vanilla yoghurt. Yet the new generation of wine drinkers is infatuated with getting a buzz off of toasted vanilla. Not in Austria. Broke wine geeks are comparing Austrian Grüners with the best white Burgundies. Why? Because they offer a lush, compelling expression of vineyard place, not of the sap of a French oak forest. Yet the umlauts and seven-syllable German words succeed in thoroughly confusing the average wine drinker and keeping international demand, and prices, for these Austrian wines low.

Where:

In the empty lounge at Addison del Mar. The Sabonet silver clinks against the Bernardaud porcelin and echoes under the vaulted ceiling.

Must Experience

Domaine Joseph Roty

Vintage: 2001

Producer: Domaine Joseph Roty

Region: Gevrey Chambertin

On My Palate:

Vicks vapor rub screams off the nose. “Miso,” a tasting partner aptly throws out. An iron minerality closes the back door of the wine.

The nose never backs down to let the fruit and other complexities express themselves.

The Dregs:

Dumb stage? Maybe we should have decanted it or waited another five years to

check development. The Vicks note points to something gone wrong in the winery or bottle, not to a defining characteristic of place.

I expect more from Joseph Roty, by all accounts the quintessential old guard winemaker who still inspires mystery in wine and reiterates the winemaker as both peasant and nobleman.

Could a UC Davis lab intern help him pinpoint the malignant bacteria or sulfite causing the “problem?”

Where: In the empty lounge at Addison del Mar. The Sabonet silver clinks against the Bernardaud porcelin and echoes under the vaulted ceiling.

Amiral de Beychevelle

Vintage: 1989
Producer: Amiral de Beychevelle
Appelation: St. Julien, Bordeaux

On My Palate:

Sour cherry but overwhelmingly poopy (brett !) on the nose. A led, mineral core on the palate with high red fruit tones struggling to express themselves.

The Dregs:

Mike, one of my tasting partners, says that brettanomyces (“a rogue yeast that negatively affect the taste and smell of wine”) in small doses can add a degree of complexity to a wine. American wine drinkers’ are calibrated to fruit-fruit driven wines. When the odd, non-fruit component of an old world wine spikes their tongue, they typically pucker the mouth fiercely and reach for another bottle of Rossi or Gallo or, on special occasions, Mondavi; all three American wine pioneers. Yet, the curious wine drinker, like Mike, looks, even yearns, for non-fruit character, which this wine is full of.

Here, however, on my palate, the brett renders this wine one-dimensional, and is just as bad as a one-dimensional, American fruit bomb. While new world wineries are criticized for being too sterile, many French wineries could use a centennial spring cleaning.

Again, old world traditionalists can learn from new world modernists.

Amiral is the second label of Chateau Beychevelle, a fourth-growth wine from the Haut-Médoc; and 1989 has been proclaimed a stunning vintage.

The true test of any big boy wine is his younger brother….

Where:

In the empty lounge at Addison del Mar. The Sabonet silver clinks against the Bernardaud porcelin and echoes under the vaulted ceiling.

Giuseppe Quintarelli

Vintage: 1996
Producer: Giuseppe Quintarelli
Region: Valpolicella Classico Superiore
Vineyard : Monte Ca’ Paletta

On My Palate:

A savory, tomato nose. Fucking singing. Touch of raisin (classic Valpol), without being oxidized. Chalky minerality on the tongue. Veggie and savory. The quintessential food wine?! Still zinging. Wow! Wide open. Wanna dip my head in it.

The Dregs:

Wow. Indigenous grapes matched with traditionalist winemaking and a scrupulous winemaker can create a unique, standout wine. Giuseppe Quintarelli, labeled “the Master of the Veneto,” is the artisanal winemaker with unique, stunning, faultless wines that back up his reputation. He ages his wines in large, Slavonian oak casts for up to seven years or more. This traditionalist recipe can often spell tired, fruitless, oxidized wines for the wine drinker (think Rioja Gran Reserva at its worst), but, based on this example, not so.

Wine can be more complex that rich black and/or red fruit, and some acclaimed winemakers fetching premium prices are still making wine fit to be paired with food other that chocolate chip pancakes topped with blackberry syrup. Drinking this wine makes my mouth water and lust after any Venetian dish containing tomato.

Where:

In the empty lounge at Addison del Mar. The Sabonet silver clinks against the Bernardaud porcelin and echoes under the vaulted ceiling.

Exceptional

Pax

Vintage: 2004
Producer: Pax
Grape : Syrah

Appelation: Sonoma Coast

Vineyard : Richards Family Vineyards

On My Palate:

Rich blackberry syrup. Put it on your pancakes.

The Dregs:

Pax aspires to produce “reference point syrah based wines that are indicative of where they are grown,” and they have been garnering industry and press attention for doing just that. They released 13 syrahs sourced from individual sites from the 2006 vintage.

Yes, this wine is indicative—of over-oaked, over-extracted new world Syrah.

Where:

In the empty lounge at Addison del Mar. The Sabonet silver clinks against the Bernardaud porcelin and echoes under the vaulted ceiling.