Life at a Great Wine Store

Walla Walla Wine in NYC and Join Us for #Winechat on Wednesday

2012-01-30T16:54:00.001-05:00

This Wednesday, Feb 1, I’ll (@melissa_ful) be co-hosting Wine Chat with Jameson Fink (@jamesonfink). Wine Chat is a weekly gathering of wine enthusiasts on Twitter, and we'd love for you to join!

This week, we’ll be tasting and tweeting about wines from Walla Walla Valley, Washington. Get ready to learn more about what makes this winegrowing area so remarkable, from its complex and varied terroir – combined with an optimal climate – to its passionate winemakers.

To join in is a breeze: Grab any wine from the region, log in to Twitter, and tweet along with us beginning at 9PM EST. Be sure to use the hashtag #winechat as you tweet along. You can save #winechat in Hootsuite or Tweetdeck (or your favorite app) as a single stream to follow, and chat with ease.

I’ll be exploring more Walla Walla Valley wines by opening Woodward Canyon Artist Series #16 2007, which is sold out at the winery (we @67wine still have a few bottles); magnums appear to be available through the winery.

As it turns out, the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance is in NYC this week. If you’re in NYC, taste a range of Walla Walla wines (with the winemakers) tomorrow night at Anfora Wine Bar at 7PM on Tuesday, Jan 31. If you around the city on Thursday, February 2, the grand public tasting is at the Metropolitan Pavilion from 5:30 to 8:30. We hear there are a few tickets still available, and you can use the discount code WINE for $25 individual tickets. Some of the participating wineries (and their Twitter handles) can be found below.

Notes from yesterday's Extraordinary Tasting - California Chardonnay

2011-05-27T09:43:00.003-04:00

We tasted 4 Chardonnays at yesterday's tasting.

Armida Russian River Valley Unoaked 2010 $17.99 (Reg $19.99) - The Armidia UnoakedChardonnay changed remarkably little during the course of the 3 hour tasting. Unusual for a white wine, this had a nose of bright, fresh strawberry, which followed through on the palate. Tasted blind, and by that meaning you couldn't see, this would be easily confused for a Provencal Rose.

Jordan Russian River Valley 2008 $23.99 (Reg $32.99) - The Jordan changed the most over the course of the tasting. I started out with a pretty oaky nose, bright red apple fruit and a mouthful of (almost harsh) acidity. The oaky nose quickly blew off, and the wine came into better fruit/acid balance. It became richer and rounder, with a creamy texture, but still finished extremely dry. Later on, the fruit faded, leaving the impression of fruit without much intensity. It retained the creamy mouthfeel, but the finish became even drier, quite tart.

Grgich Hills Estate Grown Napa Valley 2008 $29.99 (Reg $42.99) - This wine is organic and biodynamic. The Grgich Chard was the oakiest wine of the flight, with an aggressively oaky nose. On the palate, the fruit was of ripe apple and pear, and the oak expressed itself with a pleasantly bitter edge. Grgich Chardonnays don't undergo malo-lactic fermentation, leading it to have a fairly sharp acidity, which nicely cuts through the fruit and oak, leaving the mouth pretty clean and without the slightly cloying finish many oaky Chardonnays can have.

Flowers Andreen-Gale Sonoma Coast 2006 $39.99 Reg (54.99) - This wine was the real star of the tasting, outselling each of the other wines even though it sold for $40. The Flowers Andreen-Gale was a rich, round , creamy mouthful of flavor. Beautiful apple and pear fruit, and a complex background of secondary flavors made this a great sipping wine, and the moderately dry finish would make it an extremely food friendly wine. Even at age 5, the fruit was quite impressive, showing no sign of fading even after having been open for three hours. A truly delicious Chardonnay.

Paul Bressler
67 Wine California Chardonnay Buyer

We're the Feature!

2010-11-18T19:01:00.002-05:00

67 Wine is one of the features of the new edition of Beverage Dynamics magazine. It isn't a short article; it did a very good job of telling people who we are and how we work.

West Side Story | Articles | Beverage Dynamics

On the other side of the ledger, somehow my first name ended up on the proverbial cutting room floor (sob). In the article, I'm just Bressler - like a South American soccer star, I guess one name is enough. Nah.

Paul
11/18/2010

German Wine Labels

2010-11-18T18:20:00.002-05:00

One of the most difficult tasks in the wine world is deciphering a German wine label. In fact, as we were working on this week's NY Times/Wall Street Journal ads, we had a particular wine whose label we just couldn't figure out. As experienced as we are, including the boss, who has been in the wine business for over 30 years and loves German wine, we still couldn't figure out where the wine actually came from. Like many German wines, what looks like the back label to the consumer is actually the legal front label. The solution turned out to be too obvious - the wine has just a regional designation, which is unusual. We kept trying to get more specific, but couldn't. Now we know the reason why - it isn't there.

How can I be sure? I found this site: German wines: Understanding German Wine Labels which has a great diagram pointing out the features of a German wine label. I know I just bookmarked the site, and if you like German wine, you should, too.

Paul
11/18/2010

Thanksgiving Staff Picks!

2010-11-17T17:13:00.001-05:00

Hi all,
Welcome. As we are a retailer- I thought I would recommend some wines for you for the big, big dinner that everyone does next Thursday. Here are some of our Staff and their choices. The stipulations were that there could be one red, and one white- that the wine had to be good with thanksgiving.

New Salesman Robert Segal chose Dolium Petite Reserva Malbec. "This wine is Huge without being coarse and has a great supple texture that will work well with the Bird". Robert also suggested a great white- the E Prove Mastracci Blanc. A wine from Corsica made from mostly Vermentino, Robert said "Every time I drink this wine I want to go to the market and start buying things to cook, bring them home and cook with a good bottle for the chef!"

Evelyn Wing, our General Manager and Champagne and Loire White Buyer picked Vve Fourny rose Champagne because it is fully Biodynamic, and is very fruit forward, plus it would be a perfect pairing with all the great food, Finally because it is Champagne the fizz will keep everyone from being tired even after turkey! Evelyn also chose A Montluis Clos De La Chene. This beautiful wine is made from the noble Chenin Blanc grape and has just a hint of sweetness at the back of the throat, but is dry in every other way.

Salesman Brian Hayden follows tradition in recommending the great small production Zinfandel from Quivera vineyards in California. A classic for several reasons, Thanksgiving is an American holiday, and this is the American wine grape; plus the Quivera Zinfandel is perfectly balanced and drinks beautifully, as opposed to some of the monster, intense over oaked Zinfandels that abound from that state. For a white wine, Mr. Hayden suggests the great Pinot Gris from F. Mallo in Alsace. Now, I know you are thinking that he just mentioned the American holiday thing- but this winery has an American involved. And this Pinot Gris is well priced, tasty, and fits the cuisine that we all will be eating!

Our Spainish wine buyer for the store, Oscar Garcia, immediately brought the white Rioja 2007 from Sierra Cantabria, called Organza. It is perfect for side dishes with nuances of spice and round texture. For red wine, Mr. Garcia chose the always well made, intense and modern Torre Muga. This fits with the powerful fall flavors and American cooking without overwhelming the foods.

New daytime saleswoman Melissa Sutherland chose two wines for us as well. The Birgit Braunstein St. Laurent Goldberg 2004 is a Austrian red, the St. Laurent grape that shows lots of dark cherry and baking spice both ideal compliments to the cacophony of the Thanksgiving table. Austrian Reds offer a new experience to the traditions of the feast! The second Alsace Pinot Gris in our series is also recommended by Ms. Sutherland, and is the Julian Meyer “Fanny Elisabeth” 2006. This Pinot Gris is rich, layered and offers focused fruit that brightens the density of thanksgiving dishes. Alsace wines are immediate go to options for pairing with the flavors of fall.

Another staff member Paul Bressler, 67 wine’s Rhone and California Chardonnay buyer is planning on drinking a bottle or two of the Montelena Chardonnay 2008 from Napa. This wine is crisp and dry with a clean mouthfeel. Great with food, this is not a cocktail wine- but a true food wine, a rarity in California Chardonnay. For the red wine Paul will be drinking some Chateneuf De Pape from Cote de L’ange, the 2004. This is Delicious with ripe fruit and mild spice. A wine that is versatile with food like this is a gift on a holiday focused on the bounty of food!

Bordeaux Buyer Bernie Weisser was quite enthused about the possibility of opening one of his prized bottles of Domaine Weinbach 'Cuvee Lawrence' Gewertraminer from the Alsace region of France. “I love the wine. It is a stunning bottle, a complete wine with layers of flavor. It never gives up- and will not just match the food, but add an element of flavor as well!” He also suggested the Groth Cabernet Sauvignon from California’s Napa region. “It’s goes right to the heart of the matter, a great wine. Funny, some people will say this is wrong for the turkey, but it works great with all the sides and that is what I am planning to eat!”

French wine buyer Ben Wood suggests the following two wines: A red from the Loire, Poivre et Sel made by Olivier Lemasson Vin Contes winery. This is a great fabulously complex and beautifully spiced delicate wine. Great with the turkey, and with just enough spice to play against the sweet sides, plus a mouthwatering acidity and perfect balance so that your palate and body wake up and there is no tired feeling. A second great bottle, and one to go with the early part of the day- while still cooking and eating light bites is the Terres Dorees FRV 100 rose sparkling wine. This great bottle has a pun on the label (F, Er, Ve, sant- Effervescence) and its bubbly, light, fun wine that does not cost an arm or a leg. A great bottle for the holiday!

Saleswoman Liz Ledezma had the following to say “Thanksgiving dinner with family is one of the best traditions most of us get to enjoy. To make it and even greater meal pair your turkey day with Turley Dogtown Zinfandel 2005!”

Thanks for reading,

Ben,

11/17/2010

Notes from a Thursday!

2010-11-12T16:15:00.001-05:00

Hi all,
We host an exceptional tasting series on thursday nights here at 67 wines and spirits. This tasting was inspired by Bar Boulud's amazing sommelier Michael Madrigal. Michael has a great twitter feed and often tells us about his special large format by the glass pours (always only 25$ glasses, and often very, very very good older wines!). To that end we decided that we would take on a night of special bottles every week. These are always a Thursday night tasting- and next week will feature Antinori wines! Last night was a Bandol tasting- here are my notes which I prepared for both our customers and our staff.

Domaine Tempier Bandol

'cuvee classique' 2008 .750

The standard of the region, I have followed these wines avidly for several years. At first it was hard to get a hold of their wines, but as we have had all of them for the last several years, we get a nice supply of these stunning wines. The blend is 70-75% Mouvedre (the main grape in the Bandol AOC) and Grenache, Cinsault and a bit of old vine Carignan. 2008 was an interesting vintage, with beautiful fruit and a lighter body then several other vintages. Cherry and wild herbs and it will develop into leather, wild cherry and more body will come with time.

Chateau Pradeaux Bandol

2005 .375

These half bottles are from one of the most famous old estates in Bandol- with a young winemaker at the helm I expect more great things from them in the next few years. This wine is unblended Mouvedre, and the 2005 vintage was spectacular in Bandol (as it was in most of France). Complex and built for long aging this wine is just coming into itsearly drinking period (even in half bottles!!). Flavors of dark raspberries and wild herbs as well as the rich forest floor, this wine is perfect for heavy foods and has great weight already. Enjoy with a steak tonight!

Domaine Castel Raynoard Bandol

2006 .750

Not quite all Mouvedre, this wine is blended with a little Merlot and a bit of old vine Grenache as well. A quote from our owner- "not a wine for beginners!" this is a wine with a lot of funk: earthy, gamey, and intense the fruit ranges between red and black, and is supported by quite a racy acidity for a Bandol. Of course, being made predominantly from the Mouvedre grape it has the typical notes of wild herb and leather as well as the earthy funk notes. I love this wine for its atypical nature and stunning intensity.

Thanks very much for reading.

Ben

10/11/10

Daniel Ravier of Domaine Tempier

2010-11-09T20:08:00.001-05:00

Hi all,
Yesterday I was Invited to a great event here in the city, a tasting of the wines of Domaine Tempier with the domaine's winemaker Daniel Ravier. This was a great event put together in a partnership with Kermit Lynch Wine Merchants, and Blue Ribbon Downing Street Bar. Blue Ribbon Bar has a great wine list and is a casual small wine bar that merits several more visits, the list is filled with great bottles and a few are very competitively priced.

The food that I saw served was looked quite good, and I ordered for our table a plate of sopressata and bread which came with a spicy and great mustard spread. The wood paneling and hidden bathroom are bonus features, especially in a space that small. The staff was great, gracious, generous and quite knowledgeable as well. The treat for the night was Daniel himself behind the bar- available to answer questions about Bandol in general, and the stunning wines that he makes in particular.

The list of wines on the tasting flight was great (all of course from Domaine Tempier):
The 2009 Bandol Rose out of magnum. This pale salmon colored rose had all the hallmarks of great Bandol rose- a surprising weight on the palate, sincere flavors of peach and red berry, and a totally mineral finish.

Next up was the 2008 'cuvee classic'. This wine was racy with red fruit, berries and cherry along with its garrigue and mineral structure. This was perhaps the lightest vintage of the cuvee classic I have ever had. When I asked Daniel about this he told me the weather was quite wet in the early season, and then quite dry during the late summer and harvest . . . however it was not as warm as the previous year.

Following that was the Bandol 2005 La Tourtine. This is a single parcel, and one of the great wines of the region every vintage. Though still a blend, the more specific site shines through clearly. The wine is wild, with notes of game, leather and dark berries as well as structure and minerality. The acid was a little higher on this wine, but it still showed great, and was the most intense of the wines we drank.

Finally we tasted the Bandol 'cuvee classic' from 2004. The 'cuvee classic' is the "basic" bandol that Daniel creates at Tempier, and is a blend of the entire site- including small amounts of grapes from the La Tourtine and La Migoa sites. There is no 'cuvee classic' on the label- just seemed to be what everyone called this wine! In any case; this was my favorite of the night. Typical Bandol- stunning, wild, amazing. The wine was full of flavors of garrigue, blackberries, stones and herbs. Amazing mellowness to the structure and the darkest fruit flavors of the night. I loved it.

Thanks to Liz Farley and Daniel as well as all the staff at Blue Ribbon Downing Street Bar.
Thanks for reading,
Ben
10/09/10

The Lamb Club

2010-10-25T19:21:00.001-04:00

Hi All,

Recently I was invited to a dinner at the amazing new restaurant - The Lambs Club. This amazing location used to be a actors club - famously Dean Martin said about it "when I was made a Lamb, I felt like I had been knighted." Now a new American food temple in midtown (of all locations), the food was amazing, the cocktails and wine list are amazing- a very promising place!

The invite to this meal came from our connection to American Importer Neal Rosthenthal. Winemaker Etienne Portalis was in NYC, and wished to present some wines to people in a casual and fun setting. We started the evening off with sparkling Vouvray from Phillip Foreau- delicous and mineral with good concentration and nice texture- it was a good way to start of the evening in the upstairs bar.

After we moved downstairs we had some lovely food. I ate a simple delicious. During this portion of the meal we drank both the white and rose from Chateau Simone in Pallete- perhaps the smallest appellation in all of Provance. The white is fascinating- built for long term aging and yet agreeable now. This wine tasted of crisp rich white fruit, pears and apricots without any sweetness and great minerality. The rose is more then enough to stand up to grilled food, with a rich darker red/rose color and a solid weight on the palate, while still refreshing and tasty. A hint of game, flowers and berries- this was a great finish to the appetizer course.

The wines that accompanied my ricotta gnocchi and fresh shaved truffles were really amazing- a bottle of Simone Palette Rouge and two bottles of Pradeaux Bandol Rouge, A regular bottle of 2003 and a bottle of the Long garde 2004. Both the wines were amazing- rich and delicious- the Simone was a bit lighter, and more elegant with notes of red fruit and earth- and violets. The Bandols were meaty, with the weight and dark berry notes that go along with wines based in the Mouvedre grape. The Long garde was my favorite of the night with dark berries, coco, and lavender layered in a full bodied and texturally complex wine. Great stuff!!

Check out this great restaurant and these amazing wines- I should have some on the shelf early next month!
Thanks for reading,
Ben
10/25/10

A Fan's Point of View

2010-10-13T14:26:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
Sunday night brought the passing of a titan in our industry. Marcel Lapierre, the great Morgon winemaker passed away on Sunday night. Though I never met the man (I have met his son Matthieu) I am a huge fan of the wines, and feel that I have come to know a little about him through his amazing wines. A member of the cru Beaujolais wine making group nicknamed the Gang of Four by American wine importer Kermit Lynch. Marcel began making wines in the conventional way, but quickly came under the influence of wine dealer and scientist Jules Chauvet, who's ideas included using little or no sulfur and trying to harvest fruit ripe enough to ferment using native yeast.

Marcel Lapierre is considered to be the dean of natural wines and taught several other wine makers- not only the other members of the gang of four Foillard, Thevenet, and Breton; but many of the other wine makers all over France. The wines are incredible smooth, beautiful, aromatic, wines that taste of earth, flowers and sensuality (yes, romanticizing!). Sometimes rich, sometimes light, always amazing wines to drink. I have had several bottles of Morgon to celebrate and Honor one of my favorite winemakers.

Last night the NY trade held a memorial "wake" for him at the Ten Bells. This was industry highlights, and a great chance to catch up with several of our best and brightest. In attendence were Alice Feiring, Jenny Lefcourt, Joe Dressner, Members of the wine trade from retail and restaurant- all gathering to honor a wine maker who's touched all of our lives.

Cheers Marcel, I'm glad to have tasted so many of your wines, and enjoyed them a great deal!

Thanks for reading, and pick up a bottle of Morgon, Cuvee, or a half bottle of these amazing wines.
Ben
10/14/10

A Pax Upon You!

2010-10-09T14:20:00.001-04:00

Hi all,

Recently I was treated to a fine dinner with some friends and an amazing tasting. The wines were all from Pax Cellars, with one exception. Pax is a wine producer that makes amazing Rhone varietal's in several vineyards in California. These events are hosted by an amazingly generous client who helps us to learn and taste while enjoying fine company and great food.

The first wine of the night through a lot of people, I guessed the grape, but not without a lot of work . . At first I wondered if it might be some sort of California Sauvignon Blanc, but then I sensed a slightly different flavor and determined that the notes from wood (vanilla and some tannin) that I was getting actually worked with the wine. After another few minutes I found some of the flavours to be Rhone white style - but without the floral notes that come with Viognier. This narrowed it down to Marsanne or Roussanne. Having said all of this, I totally got the country wrong- I thought it was a modern producer from the Rhone Valley in France- when in fact the wine came from The Bennett Valley in Sonoma, California.

The Next several wines were red, and all came from the same grape- showing the multitude of terroirs that are available to enterprising producers in California. Starting of with the balanced Syrah Cuvee Christine. This wine was dark, rich and nice with notes of olives and charcol as well as a nice dark fruit. Following that was a bottle of Kobler Family Vineyard, from the Russian River area- a cool climate. This was a great Syrah that showed a very nice notes of bacon fat, blackberry with a nice floral note as well. The third wine was in fact my favorite of the night: Syrah Alder Springs Vineyard The Terraces. This is co-fermented with 3% of Viognier. The wine is aged in 100% new oak- which I don't usually enjoy, but this was not a huge wine and was quite delicous with blueberry and licorice plus hints of violet and a little savage blood element.

The final wine of the night was not from Pax. Always a treat to taste highly rated and rare wines, the final wine of the night was a dessert wine from Sin Qua Non- the Mr K Strawman Vin De Paille from 2000. This wine has a 99 point score from Robert Parkers Wine Advocate. While tasty, I thought it was interesting, but not remarkably complex. Sweet and viscous with marzipan and honey, the wine was quite good with the remarkable chocolate cake it was paired with.

The evening was a great time, with delicious food, great wines and remarkable company. Thanks to all involved.
Ben
10/9/10

A night at The Ten Bells

2010-10-06T12:10:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
I spent my Monday night this week hanging out at a favorite wine bar in NYC. The Ten Bells is New York's foremost "natural" wine bar. They have a great selection of organic, natural, honest wines to drink and a nice almost European ambiance. I was invited by two wine bloggers who came into town to hang out, eat, drink, and be tourists for a few days. My friend David McDuff, and Joe Manekin were both in town at the same time, and I wanted to gossip, talk wine, and check out what it would be like to drink with these writers.

As I arrived we opened some Muscadet from Pepiere in Magnum. The cuvee we drank is called Gran Moutons, and is stunning mineral and delicious wine. Mineral with notes of lemon and salinity. This was the perfect offset to meeting Joe and David. We talked about large wine tastings, the health of the wine industry, how to make sourdough bread (Joe's girlfriend is a professional baker!). After a bit, Pamela Govindi, and Chrisotpher Desor arrived as well. The conversation turned to other things- our love lives, traveling in Northern Washington state and more! Though we don't have the Gran Moutons, we do usually carry the Pepiere in regular bottles.

Another wine was selected- the Pithos, from Cos. We carry two wines from Cos, a Frapatto and a Nero D'Avola. The Pithos, however is a Cerasuolo di Vittoria. This bottling is a blend of the two native Sicilian grapes, Nero D'Avola, and Frapatto . . however it is fermented and aged in a terracotta amphora! Great red that was very smooth and had some nice notes of cherry and earth. Delicious wines, and a great time hanging out with some very cool people who write well, drink well and know how to have a good time!
Thanks for reading
Ben
10/06/10

Crozes Hermitage, from the Times Tasting Panel

2010-09-30T20:13:00.001-04:00

On Wednesday, the NY Times Tasting Panel headed by Eric Asimov and Florence Fabricant took on the wines of Crozes Hermitage. While they were not particularly happy with the wines in general, 67 Wine came out pretty well.

The Times reviewed 10 wines out of the many they tasted, I get to stock about 6 Crozes-Hermitage. We actually intersected 4 times, with the wines of Alain Graillot, Bernard Ange, Domain des Remizieres and Domain du Colombier all making the cut.

Even some of the wines we aren't carrying have been in our consciousness. In the past, I've carried the wines of Domain des Lises, but when I decided to reduce the overall price of the Northern Rhone section I replaced it with the A
Les Peyrouses Cotes du Rhone (100% Syrah as well) from highly regarded Cornas producer Alain Voge. Ben has wanted me to carry the Dard et Ribo for some time now, but I still haven't had the opportunity to try it. I actually have two bottles from Domaine Belle in my personal cellar, albeit much older vintages.

NY Times: An Economy Tour of Rhone Syrahs

Crozes Hermitage | Northern Rhone | France | 67 Wine

Paul Bressler, Rhone Buyer
09/30/2010

Staff Education Session #15

2010-09-20T20:59:00.001-04:00

Staff Education Notes: Ben Wood Instructor Wednesday 09/15/10 Reading: World Atlas of Wine 6th Edition, Beazley, Johnson, Robinson Page 35 Oak and Alternatives Page 74 Beaujolais Cru's Oak and Alternatives Oak barrels are used in wine for several reasons. For aging or elavage, to assist as clarification and stabilization vessels, and for texture. But, we all know the main reason to use oak is for the flavor it gives wines. These range from a subtle hint of cedar to full on vanilla and wood splinters. Oak is often considered integral to wines, and in many areas is required by law. Today we will cover some of the effects and methods involved. In white wines using oak barrels adds a deeper creamy vanilla flavor, and enhances the buttery effect of malolactic fermentation. Most whites go into barrel for shorter times then reds, starting with about three months; find red wines often see two full years in a barrel. For white wine, the oak effects can often be imitated by serious near continual lees stirring. For red wines the oak factors in a sweetness, some cedar, or vanilla and often some of the chocolate or coco notes. Decisions the wine makers have to consider for oak is new oak vs old oak (i.e. first use vs. later use barrels a few years old). How heavy the toast is on the oak- the hotter the fire is during the stave bending the more charred wood is on the inside of the barrel. This is what is called toast, and it can range from lightly brown to heavily blackened! How often the wine is racked is very important and can enhance or mitigate the oak flavors- quite famously Silver Oak in Napa California uses a 200% new oak regime, using a high toast new oak barrel for 1.5 years, and racking the wine right into a 2nd brand new high toast new oak barrel! Racking is performed more often in Eroupe then in the United States, imparting more air and less oak flavors to the wine. Size of the barrel is the next factor. In Rioja, Spain, the traditional barrels are very, very large . . While in Bordeaux, France the barrels are the much smaller Barrique size of about 240 ltr. In Barolo wines made in the Piedmont region of Italy the favored wood for a long time was not even oak, but large chestnut barrels! Finally the location from which the oak comes is very important. Quality oak comes mostly from the forests in France, however people are looking now to other countries as well, the United States (especially in the aforementioned Rioja area- they prefer American oak), Slovenia, Hungary and more are producing good quality wood for coopers to make barrels from. In France, the Limousin forest is the most southerly, but has nice porous wide grained wood. In the Troncais and Vosges the woods are tighter grained andless porous allowing less contact with air and less transfer of oxygen. Alternatives to oak include chips and staves to add to either a fermenting or resting wine in another type of container. This practice is widely considered to be a new and poor substitute, but there is documentation from the 1600's recommending these procedures.More insidious is the use of liquid oak (by the way widely outlawed both in the U.S. and Europe) a chemical that claims to replicated the effect and flavors of barrel aging. Beaujolais Cru's This wine making region in France is in the central northern half of the Beaujolais area.Very hilly with beautiful rolling hills and not a few mountains as well. Only 15 miles or so north to south, and 7 miles or so wide this section contains one of the best examples of terroir ever conceived- all the wines are from the same grape (Gamay) but each of the cru's have a personality. The soils on the hills range from bassalt over granite to limestone over granite- the main unifying factor is the granite second layer of soil that runs though out the area. Here are the cru's from south to north: Brouilly is the largest cru, and is very typical, but can vary greatly from producer to producer. Cote De Brouilly is a mountain in the area that has sandy soil and the wines are fragrant mountain wines. Morgon is the 2nd largest area in the region and the wines are rich and structured. Cote de Py is another mountain in the area, and the soils there are magnese. Regnie is the most western cru and also the youngest. Regnie was granted Aoc status in 1988! The wines are soft and forward Chiroubles are wines from the most beautiful of crus in terms of wine and land - very pastoral and green hills covered in vines that produce easy floral fruity wines. Flurie is central Beaujolais. The wines are easy with a strong scent of fruit. Moulin a Vent is north west and creates wines with depth and structure that are the best wines of Beaujolais to age. However they are often a little backward when young and need the time to develop. Chenas is just north of Moulin a Vent and is the smallest cru and is quite like the Moulin a Vent wines, but lighter and more aromatic- especially when young. Julianas are great wines that are flashy, fleshy and fuller with a high standard. St amour is the northern most cru and has a great advantage to sell there pretty wines during the valentines season! Thanks for reading Ben Wood 09/20/10

Staff Education Class Session #9

2010-08-26T13:16:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone,
Here is another look in on our in house staff education process. . . my notes as a teacher for this weeks class.

Staff Education Notes: Ben Wood Instructor Wednesday 08/24/10

Reading: World Atlas of Wine 6th Edition, Beazley, Johnson, Robinson
Pages 28-29 The Wine Growers Year
Pages 68-70 Cote Chalonaise and the Maconnais

The Wine Growers Year

Harvest is the most important part of the year for any winery or vineyard. This time and the weeks following it are bar far the most critical time for anyone involved in the production side of the wine business. This time of year is so important that I am surprised the book started this section in January!

January Vineyard Tasks: Pruning. Cutting the shoots to allow them to produce the best fruit, this also allows for training the vines properly for the vineyard according to the training plan. This needs to be done while the sap is as low in the plant as possible. January Winery Tasks: Malolactic fermentation. This is the process by which the higly acidic green apple flavors of malic acid are transformed (through bacteria) into the less acidic higher Ph Lactic acid with flavors of milk, or butter and a rounder mouthfeel. Usually by this point in the year this is well underway.

February Vineyard Tasks: Pruning and Mending. At this point in the year (usually after the hard freezes have stopped) the posts, wires and stakes in the trellis system are usually repaired. Most Vineyards try to wait until after freezes to cut down on “motion” while installing these (the contraction from freezing to non frozen soil can move a post a few inches). February Winery Tasks: Topping Up. This is done to keep oxidation to a minimum in the barrels or tanks- and frankly most wineries keep a eye on this right up until bottling.

March Vineyard Tasks: Ploughing the soil to control weeds. This is often done several ways. . . many estates use tractors, but the amount of animals used for this task are growing. See the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSJ-GbngymI. March Winery Tasks: Bottling. Usually wineries will bottle the wines that are intended to be drunk young. This also includes batch testing to make sure there are no bacterial infections, or other problems in the wines (done before or during the bottling process to ensure that the wines are stable).

April Vineyard Tasks: Desuckering. A simple trimming of the vines ensures that the vines are not to vigorous (removing leaves, and the several of the buds). This allows the vineyard to keep the correct amount of bunches on each vine. April Winery Tasks: Racking. Racking is the process of moving wines from one resting or fermentation container to another. This is often done to remove sediment, and lees that can cause bitter flavors and chemical problems in the wine.

May Vineyard Tasks: Frost Protection. This is a critical task, particularly after the buds have begun to show. There are all sorts of ways to accomplish this- from large flamethrowers to small smoke pots. A famous example is Domaine Leflaive hiring a helicopter to dry their holdings in Le Montrachet after a rain shower before a frost that could have damaged the harvest that year. May Winery Tasks: Order Fulfillment. Preparing and shipping the orders for the wines- labeling, boxing and shipping the wines to customers, stores and distributors.

June Vineyard Tasks: Shoot Positioning. Positioning the shoots to enable the vine to turn sun into grapes is one of the more important tasks performed during the growing season. This is done by taking the fruit bearing shoots and turning them so the grapes hang down and the leaves get great exposure to the sun. June Winery Tasks: More Racking. This task needs to be finished before the onset of summer heat.

July Vineyard Tasks: Spraying Vs. Pests. Pest control becomes very important at this point in the year. Spraying can be done using chemical pesticides and herbicides or can be attempted using other methods. A few biodynamic preparations can be used at this point in the year as well (a specific is the stinging nettle preparation which can be sprayed on leaves to ward of insects). Keep in mind that the “pests” can be birds, mice, or even fungus infections, not just bugs and parasitic plants. July Winery Tasks: Bottling “fine” Wines. This is the point of the year when most wineries dealing in ultra premium or premium wines (i.e. classified growth Bordeaux, and the like) bottle the wines. 2010 harvests will most likely be bottled in July of 2012 unless tradition or law require additional aging.

August Vineyard Tasks: Verasion. This is when red wine grapes turn from green in color to red. During this time some quality producers make a green harvest. Green harvesting is cutting bunches of grapes of the vines to concentrate the flavor into less grapes. August Winery Tasks: Prepare the Winery. Basically this is the point at which the winery needs an extremely thorough cleaning. These days that means sterilizing everything from tanks to barrels to tubes to bolts that attach the tubes . . . one of the biggest changes in winemaking in the last 70-50 years is the understanding that foreign chemicals cause lots of chemical problems in wine, and one simple way to avoid that is to clean well before harvest and before winemaking.

September Vineyard Tasks: Harvest! The most important decision that a winery can make is the exact date of harvest. It affects the flavor or success of the wine from that vintage. If harvested to early, the wines might be unripe and have green flavors, if harvested to late there is a serious risk of rain or hail or other weather damage. Rain will dilute the wine, and hail will destroy the grapes- drastically lowering the production. September Winery Tasks: Winemaking. Make the wine- frantically trying to get the grapes in, press and beginning fermentation. The winemakers and vineyard staff are often spending 24 hours a day in the winery working every few hours and sleeping when the can.

October Vineyard Tasks: Preparing For Dormancy. Hopefully at this point the vines are preparing to reach their resting state. The leaves are turning brown, and the sap is starting to fall. October Winery Tasks: Punching Down. This process keeps the fermentation going. There is a cap of semi solid material that forms on the top of the fermenting wine, and some of that material is active yeast which is needed to ferment the sugar into alcohol. The yeast will die if left exposed to oxygen and allowed no sugar. Some wines might need punching down – shoving the cap back into the fermenting juice. Some might need a pumping over- taking the fermenting juice and pumping it back on top of the cap (this also allows the wine a little more exposure to oxygen). Often this task is performed several times a week on each batch.

November Vineyard Tasks: Cover Crop. Planting the cover crop in between the rows is done at this time. Also the plant usually reached a dormant state during this month as well (at the time when the leaves fall off, and the sap reaches the root system). November Winery Tasks: Fining. Clarification of the wine is done at this point in the year, as hopefully the primary fermentation is done or nearing completion. Fining or clarification can be done using several substances, including egg whites, gelatin, clay, and isinglass (ground fish gills!).

December Vineyard Tasks: Pruning, and Vine Propagation. December, it is winter and the vines are fully dormant. Once this is the case, Pruning can begin and often this is when the cuttings removed to the greenhouse and turned in to new plantings to be planted in a few years. December Winery Tasks: Early tasting. The winemakers often start tasting the wine at this point and begin deciding what else each batch will need (2 years in oak, a month in steel; that sort of thing) and what blends will be. The malolactic fermentation begins usually at this point.

Cote Chalonaise

This southern region borders the south end of the Cote d’Or at chagny. Less hilly, more pastoral these areas actually have a higher elevation then most of the Cote d’Or. Mostly made up of slopes of limestone (often smaller then the great plates of it contained in the more famous areas to the north). Though it is further to the south, the higher altitude requires a longer growing season and a higher risk due to the need for a later harvest.

The most celebrated AC’s are from north to south are listed below, first the Cote Chalonaise. Bouzeron: This village is one of the few villages that only produces wine from one grape – not even the famed Burgundy Chardonnay- but instead the less known Aligote. The AC is a reward for perfectionist winemaking by some of the famous winemakers who live there (namely Aubert De Villaine – famed co owner of Domaine Romani Conti who grew up in this village and drinking and championing the crisp whites made there).

Rully: mostly a white wine producing village, but a few reds are made there. The style of the wine is lean and crisp for white, and austere but classy for reds.

Mercurey: The largest AC village in the Cote Chalonaise. This is a red wine village, with very few whites made; the style of wine is like the Cote de Beaune; rustic but age able. There is a lot of 1er cru “inflation” in the last 30 years the amount of 1er cru sites here went up from 5-over 30!!!

Givry: Smallest producing village in the Cote, this is also a red wine area. The wines are light, fresh and fruit driven and drink well quite a bit younger then Mercurey reds.

Montagny: Located 6-8 miles to the south of Givry, this large village produces mostly white wine. The AC area includes Buxy; and the local Buxy Co-op is one of the best in the Cote Chalonaise with a rich style Chardonnay that is delicious.

The Macon

The Macon is one of the largest regions in Burgundy. White wines are mostly Chardonnay. Red wine in the Macon is often made from Gamay which when grown here on the limestone soil takes on a more structured style then when grown slightly to the south in Beaujolais on the granite soil there. In the Macon the labeling system is pretty simple- the basic wines say Macon on the label, the Better wines say Macon-Villages on the label, and the best wines say either Macon followed by the name of the village or the name of the village alone. Here are the villages with descriptions of the wine.

St Veran is a white wine village with crisp, lean, high acid wines.

Pouilly-Vinzelles and Pouilly-Loche used to be great cheaper versions of Pouilly Fuisse, however they are now in the process of developing their own identities. Great wines are being made here by producers like the Bret Brothers.

Macon-Prisse, Lugny, Uchizy and Chardonnay (village- not grape!) are good well priced and plump white Burgundy with good value, but little to no oak.

Vire and Clesse are two villages producing great wine for very good values. Combined they make up the newest AC in the Macon (Vire-Clesse).

Overall these areas are making wines that have an enormous range in style from new world wines to clean crisp austere wine. Some of the wines come with a French accent and many in a full international style.

Tasting

St Veran ‘La Grande Bruyere’ Domaine Roger Luquet 2008 Color: Pale Straw Nose: Lees, mineral and apples Palate: Crisp, mineral and high acid- a lean wine.

Macon Fuisse ‘Les Grandes Bruyeres’ Domaine Cheveau 2008 Color: Pale Gold Nose: Apple, quince, spice, earth, deep and rich Palate: Rich Fruit with nice weight and nice balance. Nice finish

Givry ‘Champlalot’ Domaine Faiveley 2006 Color: red/brown fades out at edges Nose: Cherries, Minerals, Pepper Palate: Tough, rustic Pinot fruit with peppery finish.

Macon Rouge ‘Terroir de Tournus’ P. Pauget 2008 Color: Purple Red Nose: Earthy, funky, juicy with just a hint of the Gamay grape’s candy apple flavor Palate: Nice rich wine with clove and red apple flavors and a nice savory finish.

Thanks For Reading.
Ben Wood
08/26/2010

Saturday Night Dinner - Lamb Chops & Dolcetto

2010-08-24T19:06:00.001-04:00

Had this for dinner with shoulder lamb chops on Saturday night. The chops were kind of tough (as you would expect) but very tasty. The wine was delicious. Medium bodied, with good red cherry and black cherry fruit, some brambles and earth. Very tasty, with good complexity for a 2003.

67 Wine Poderi Luigi Einaudi Dolcetto di Dogliani 2003

Staff Education Notes

2010-08-19T20:14:00.002-04:00

Hi guys,
This is a quick inside look at our internal Education system at 67 wine and spirits. We hold these classes once per week. These are my notes for this week!

Staff Education Notes:

Paul Bressler Instructor

Wednesday 8/18/10

Reading: World Atlas of Wine 6^th Edition, Beazley, Johnson, Robinson

Pages 26-27 Terroir

Pages 66-67 Gevery-Chambertin

Terroir is derived from the following aspects of a vineyard or plot of land:

Geology

Geography

Climate

Orientation

Altitude

Geology is the soil and soil types.

Examples of topsoil include central valley of California which is extremely fertile and where most of the jug wines from California come from. This supremely fertile land makes less “quality” wine. At the opposite end of the spectrum is Chateaunef De Pape, which has no topsoil in most location (just galets- football sized rocks). There are some others, Clay- very water retentive. Sand is very expedient at drainage.

Subsoil is the next layer down, and includes Sedimentary limestone and volcanic soil- these are both great for wine.

Geography are all the things that are affected by latitude and longitude. These include sunlight; temperature, wine, and that sort of thing are all affected. One other factor is the proximity or location on a mountain, a valley or plain. An example provided was the valleys that are open to water at one end hold the moderating influence from the body of water until the end of the region.

Climate is temperature, rainfall and that sort of thing.

Growing temperature during the season is really important. Hot wine areas have shorter growing seasons, and cooler growing regions have longer seasons, but risk rain or hail at the end. The Diurnal difference is really important for wine grapes (diurnal is the difference in temperature from day to night!). Rainfall is good- most wine grapes need 20-30 inches of rain a year, but not at the end of the growing season- or during harvest! Fog has an effect as well- mostly a massive cooling, and sun blocking effect- this works well in the Caneros region in California where they can grow some great pinot noir!

Orientation is the facing of the exact land the vines are on. This affects vine training, for instance in vineyards with south facing slopes the vines need more foliage, where if the vines are on a north facing slope (rare, but several parcels of Gigondas from Domaine Les Pallieres are facing this way to preserve freshness in a part of the Rhone that can create a lot of stewed fruits and overripe wine!) you need less foliage to allow the grapes exposure to the sun to ripen!

Finally altitude affects vineyards in several ways as well. Generally speaking there is a direct temperature difference with height – 5 degrees cooler for every 1000 feet up! Even a couple of feet up or down a slope can make a degree or two change. This is one reason why vineyards on steep slopes are harvested by hand, often in several passes over the course of a week or two. There is a larger diurnal temperature difference as well the higher up a slope you get, the cooler the nights become. Also included in this is the surrounding area- if you are on a slope that leads to a valley, the deeper the valley is the cooler the slope will become, as it takes longer to heat up and longer to cool down as well (there is more air to affect).

There was a section on the technique of vineyard mapping. There are maps for quality of grapes, yield of grapes, plant available water, electro-magnetic maps. There are all kinds of reasons to use these- the first growths use them to decide what parcels go into the second wines.

Gevery Chambertin

This is quite far north in the Burgundy region, and consists of almost all red wine producing areas. At the south end you have Chambolle Musigny which contains some of the most famous grand cru vineyards in the whole of Burgundy- Musigny on the south west end, and Bonnes Mares at the North West end of the Chambolle Musigny appellation. Musigny grand cru are known for being savory and perfumed, with umami flavors. Bonnes Mares have a little more finesse, with more fruit and pretty rather then savory notes.

Morey St. Denis is a large area, and one that also produces a few whites. From the top of the slope on the North West side of the vineyard the wines are bigger, from the middle the wines are lighter.

Gevery Chambertin is the other major growing area. This appellation consists of a lot of contiguous grand cru vineyards. The World Atlas of Wine says basically nothing about this area in terms of the character of the wines produced here. This lead our instructor Paul to posit that the area varies so much, both by producer and by where exactly the site is.

Tasting:

Chambolle Musigny Sigaut 2006:

Nice Wine! Color is pinkish red and fades to clear at the edges of the glass.

This wine has scents of earth, flowers, mushrooms and cherries that combine nicely and provide a compelling nose. The taste is light, elegant and has great fruit on the palate with a nice acid level that is not to high or bright.

Gevery Chambertin Rossingol Trapet ‘aux etoiles’ 2005:

Big muscled wine. The wine is dark red in color giving us our first clue that this is more ‘intense’ wine. The nose of this wine is a little closed, but consisted of dark raspberries, earth and a little forest. Acidic and edgy tasting, you can tell this wine has some evolving to do . . . it will change into something great after another two years or so.

Thanks for reading,
Ben
8/19/10

Le Tour hits the southwest!

2010-07-17T12:56:00.001-04:00

Hi all,

     Today I'm honored to be guest posting on David Mcduff's blog. He has covered the Tour De France in a vinous way for the last several years, and this time we managed to have him up to 67 wine for a tasting last week (while the race was in the Jura region) and I am writing about today's stage from Rodez to Revel. The course for this day is a fast rolling romp through the southwest part of the French countryside. The riders start quite near to one of my favorite wine regions: Galliac; and they pass Fronton- another great wine region in the southwest of France.

Unlike the stereotypical professional cycling racer, these wines are not steroidal monsters with chemical injections (kidding). The wines are however, racy, controversial and fascinating. All of the great wines of these areas are made from native grapes that grow for the most part only in the south west. Fascinating grapes like Bracul, and Duras for red wines, Ondonc, Mauzac and Len De l'el for white, and sparkling wines. These are unique grapes rescued from obscurity by winemakers like Patrice Lescarret at Causse Marines.

     These are wines of whimsy, interest and intensity. A member of the "vins naturals" movement, Lescarret practices organic farming with some bio dynamic ideas as well as extremely minimal intervention in the cellar. The wines are focused on the native grapes in the region- include a cuvee named Les Greilles, an AOC Gaillac made from all of the local grapes. A beautiful crisp white wine with honeysuckle and mineral notes, dry on the palate and refreshing, one of my favorite wines to drink.
     There are some telling images on the label:

(the large mouse, and the no badger symbol) involving the personal mythology (Mssr Lescarret is called the mouse, and badgers hunt mice . . . This was the story I was given- A good mystery for you!).
    A second wine from Gaillac that I love is made by Brigitte and Alain Cazottes of Domaine des Terrisses. Racy and good the red from this estate has proven to be one of our best selling wines. The grapes are farmed biodynamically, and the soil site has quite a lot of clay (up to 60% in some parcels) and because of this the wine comes through with strong aromatics and great flavor. Firmly in the syrah camp, this wine smells of garrigue (a bit) and dark red fruit, with soily mineral notes and a hint of game. Beautiful and complex it is racy and thirst quenching with just enough weight to make you know it is wine!

Tomorrow will be a fast, and hopefully interesting stage as the riders pass some very great vineyards- makes me wish I was there to eat the food, drink the wines and cheer on the riders!!
cheers,
Ben
07/17/10

Tour De France Hits the Rhone Alps!

2010-07-14T17:32:00.001-04:00

Hi all,

I was recently involved in a planning a tasting here to honor the Tour de France.

This past Sunday we played host to vinous cycling fanatic David McDuff- who came up to the store and hosted a tasting of 3 wines from the Jura region. The race passed through the Jura on two days of racing Saturday and Sunday. Sunday's race left 7 time winner Lance Armstrong 12 minutes out of the race lead, and basically out of contention for the win. However, Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans both rode very well- and that sets up this years edition of the race to be one of the most open and exciting in a long time. Keep up at Cyclingnews.

On to the wines we tasted: As Sunday was a mountain top finish in the Jura we chose to taste several of our great wines from the area. Two whites and a red. The first up was the red from Domaine De La Tournelle 'L'uva arbosiana'
This wine is made from Ploussard, one of the regions defining grapes. This wine undergoes carbonic maceration, and is a great light red leaning toward pink. Scents of earth, forest and light strawberry expand out of the glass when served cold. This juicy red can be enjoyed with light fair or grilled foods.

Next up was the Arbois Chardonnay from Villet. Here is my tasting note on this wine from our first taste with great importer Savio Sores:
nutty notes with great minerals and earthy golden apple aromas on the nose and on the palate, but on a somewhat brighter, fresher style. The palate is slightly rustic, earthy, Terroir driven, harmonious and balanced by a great acidity. The finish is quite long and inviting. Overall, one will find substance, body, length, minerals and dry, earthy yellow fruit in this well rounded, medium bodied, autumnal white wine.

Finally we tasted the great L'etoile Savagnin from Montbourgeau. This is one of types of wines that you love! L'etoile is a region that has land shaped like a star (if scene from above) and Savagnin is one of the great grapes of the Jura and really does not grow anyplace else. This is a oxidized wine that tastes like a light sherry- with more complexity. great aroma and a wine that keeps you coming back- it changes just about every 4 minutes or so adding a layer or removing a flavor . . .fascinating! This wine is a great pairing with Hummus and Falafel with heavy spices.

I would like to thank the generous and intensely talented David Mcduff- please check out his well written blog. David gave his time for this and then got dragged around the city to The Ten Bells (a great natural wine bar) and then to Puppets Jazz to hear my band Franglais play. I very much enjoyed the day talking about wine, music and biking with another fanatic!
Cheers,
Ben
7/14/10

Second iPad

2010-07-02T12:35:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that we put up the second iPad. This one is on the first floor, and it's filled with high end Chardonnay, California and White Burgundy. It's actually set up opposite the White Burgundy section, above the Italian whites. Paul 07/02/2010

Sud De France Tasting

2010-07-01T20:17:00.003-04:00

Hi, Last week we hosted the Sud de France tasting a week or so ago. The store was decorated beautifully for this event and we tasted some very good wines.The decorations and our hostess for the tasting Sarah with all the Sud de France displays. Sarah, William and our staff member Liz holding up a glass of great southern French wine! The line up of wines! From right to left: Minervois D'Oupia a blend based in Syrah and made old school, fruit and herbs in a fairly robust wine- great stuff. Mouressipe Cacous- pure Grenache made by Alain Allier, this is incredibly complex and pretty wine. Mas Cal Demoura Rose- a Coteaux de Langeudoc, Great and clean beautiful rose from the Langeudoc. Rimbert Petit Corchon Bronze- From St. Chinian and a great bottle of crisp rose. Isa White from Chemins de Bassac- a great languedoc white- clean and yummy. Cheers, Ben

32 Days of Natural Wine

2010-07-01T17:44:00.001-04:00

Recently I had the honor of posting as part of the great series 32 days of natural wine- for those who did no see it- here is the post:

32 Days of Natural Wine:

The experience of selling “Au Natural”!

Hi,

So, I am a big fan of Saignée, and after having several discussions with Cory about last years 31 Days of Natural wines, I thought I might attempt to pen something down. Unlike a lot of writers in the series, I work for a retailer. Our goal is to sell wines (of course!), however I have a very large personal bias toward natural wines and wines with an honest sense of place. To that end, I’d like to talk about the experience of selling these wines.

First, A few definitions that we use all the time at work (there are a lot more that can sometimes be helpful, but here are the basics):

Biodynamically grown: this is a label given to wines that are made from an estate practicing biodynamic agriculture, but is not certified or undergoing any certification process.

Organically grown: these are wines from an estate that practice organic agriculture, but are not certified or undergoing any certification process.

Certified Biodynamically grown: a label given where an estate has completed a Demeter or similar certification.

Certified Organically Grown: wines produced from an estate that has completed some form of outside organic certification.

Second, A few definitions that have very little meaning in our way of thinking:

Sustainable: a catch all for wines that wish to, in many ways, to generally green wash. It is neither a definition that we use, nor do these wines get any sort of special labeling online or in the store.

Lutte Raisonnée: the same idea as sustainable, a green washing idea that gets no extra advantage online or on our shelves.

Of course, as all of you know, we get asked questions about these types of wines all the time: “Do you have organic wines?” “Are there any good organic wines?” “What is biodynamically grown?” And so on. We love getting these questions and challenging the customers who ask them to try natural wines. A favorite to sell is the Domaine Deux Anes Premier Pas. This is a great wine imported by Jenny and Francois selections. One great selling point is the rough translation of the wine’s name, “Two Asses,” with another being the visual appeal of the label, depicting the two donkeys that work the land. The caveat is the flavor, which is quite earthy and funky right out of the bottle (but like most great wines, gets truly delicious after about 20 minutes).

Many of the complaints we get with natural wines include, “It’s cloudy, so something must be wrong,” “The wine tasted ‘bad’, so it’s corked,” all the way up to “Why organic? That type of product always tastes bad.” On one hand, there is a reluctance to experience new things. There is a resistance towards organic products that originate from the days when all organic products were unscientific, and generally not as good as they are now. On the other hand, people in my age range and younger are more eco conscious and often look specifically for organic wines. Some of my favorite moments include educating our customers about the amount of chemicals that go into a mass produced wine . . . Enzymes, colorants, liquid tannin, and more, and then seeing their reaction. Another one is explaining about the difference in the sulfite levels, and how that comes about (not adding sulfites to control the winemaking and using a limited amount during bottling) and what it might mean for them as consumers.

In short the arguments, discussions and conversations around these great wines make them a joy to sell. Here is a quick list of some of the ones I love to sell and the “pitch” I use:

Alain Alier’s Mouressipe: these are wines made in the middle of a beautiful forest and is tucked away from traditional vineyards that surround it.

Lopez Heridia’s Gravonia Blanco: a great wine made in the old tradition of Rioja. This wine is light, beautiful and earthy.

Domaine Guillot-Broux Macon-villages: this wine is a saline and beautiful chardonnay that tastes primarily of minerals with a hint of lime.

Natural wines are enjoyed by a full range of customers; however they are more important to some smaller segments of our demographic. They are really quite popular with the “younger” age group- especially millennials. As the youngest group of wine drinkers, they seem to be very eco conscious, and consume the largest amount of wine per capita in the history of this country! Millennials are also among the most educated consumers and the most adventurous in terms of willingness to try new wines, such as Groilleu, Bracoul, and other various blends from all over the world). Due to their desire to experience new wines and their eco-conscious mentality, these wines are perfect for them (and anyone else who wants to try some good wines!).

These wines are the most fascinating thing to sell, discuss and share with our customers due to the story that comes with each bottle of wine: the honesty that comes from working the land yourself, as well as vinifying the grapes in a natural and non-manipulated way. Interacting with the people involved in natural wines has also been a joy, ranging from our customers who regularly buy these wines to the importers and wine makers. Each one has an interesting story about the wines they love and are pretty cool people to hang out with.

Thanks,

Ben

A Great Use Of A New Toy

2010-06-05T17:07:00.001-04:00

A problem we were facing here at 67 Wines and Spirits was how to give customers access to the older, rarer, and/or more expensive inventory we have in stock, while keeping those wines in a cool, safe environment to preserve their integrity.

We are now using an iPad as a medium of display and interaction. With the introduction of the iPad, we are able to give customers a chance to digitally scroll through the wines that we have in our cold room.

This project was two months in the making: taking pictures of each individual bottle, editing them, and finally, finding a format that customers can easily interact with. The first “test iPad” went up a few weeks ago and we have had great responses to the new technology in the store.

While some come to just play around with the new toy, others have taken advantage of being able to see the conditions of older wines we have in stock. Not only can people see the actual bottle being sold, they can zoom in on specific conditions as well as read a review by a wine critic.

As of right now, the first iPad is neatly placed upstairs in the Bordeaux section, where it is up and running, allowing customers to page through a myriad of Bordeaux wines. These include a great selection of Lafite Rothschild and Latour, among other big names, in vintages as new as 2005 and as old as 1883!

In the upcoming weeks, we will be placing several more iPad’s throughout the store to display the great Chardonnay’s, Italian’s, and Burgundy’s (just to name a few). Whether you are a connoisseur searching for that missing piece to your collection or just looking for a great bottle as a birthday gift (I am born in ’87 but that is one vintage we do not have!), don’t hesitate to come in and play around with a new toy.

In a world where so much is “hands-off”, this is one item that we encourage you to put your hands on.

-Matthew Aglialoro

Summer Time Wines!

2010-06-04T11:47:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
Here are some recommendations for Summer wines that you might enjoy in this 90 degree heat!

Rose:
Puro Movia Sparkling Rose- an occasion wine. I personally have three coming up . . a 100th birthday in my family, my anniversary, and a friends birthday. This great wine would be fun to serve at any of these!

Clos St. Magdeleine Rose- A great pale southern france rose from the quaint little fishing village: Cassis. Great complex and balanced with beautiful structure and fruit- Plus this, like the Movia is Biodynamic. Delicious.

Whites:
Angiolino Maule Masieri Bianco- Garganega, yes that is right, it's hard to say and amazingly good to drink! Complex, earthy, clean and refreshing this white has a great nutty-ness that is quite compelling. . . Try some of this Biodynamic wine and remember to try pronouncing Garganega!

Uby Colombard Ungi Bl- Colombard and Ugni Blanc grapes farmed in the same area where they make Armagnac; in fact this vineyard is owned by the family Lesgourges, who own a famous Armagnac producer as well. A great summer white, crisp, light, with great fruit. A luscious alternative to Sancerre or New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Red:
Jean Maupertuis Cotes du Aevergne La Guillaume- This stuff is the Bootsy Collins of wine! Funky and amazing this is one of my favorite reds to drink with a slight chill (or a good chill) in the summer; it moves from pure funk and barnyard to a beautiful expression of terroir and fruit.
Enjoy the heat!
Thanks for reading,
Ben
06/04/2010

The New Taste Of the Upper West Side

2010-05-27T14:19:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
We recently were involved with this event that features all of the best restaurants on the upper west side and several local wineries, stores and spirits companies. Its a great event. Here are a few photos of the night:

The Table.

Oscar pouring some wine for the young lady.

Ben pouring wine for a gentleman

This customer had a great way to store his fork and spoon!

Ben and Oscar explaining some openers to a customer.

The scene- shot one, facing Columbus ave! (East)

The scene- Facing 76th street.

The Scene- The final shot.
That's it from the event floor today!
Thanks,
Ben
05/27/2010

Beaujolais Tasting

2010-05-24T19:26:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
Here are some photo's of our recent Beaujolais tasting:

Our Hostess for the day- Kirin

Kirin helping a customer

The line up: Beaujolais Blanc Terres Dorres, Beaujolais Dupeble, Regnie Fessy, Morgon Lapierre, Chenas Granger.

Individual Bottle photos: Beaujolais Blanc Terres Dorres

Beaujolais Dupeuble

Fessy Regnie

Morgon Lapierre

Chenas Granger

All delicious wines that you can buy, especially good at outdoor events (memorial day BBQ's anyone??)
Cheers,
Ben
05/24/10

A NYC wine trade event not to be missed!

2010-04-30T12:28:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
As many of you know- or will figure out by reading blogs it is high tasting time here in NY for the wine trade. Recently there have been several very interesting tastings. One of my favorite events just happened: the 2010 Kermit Lynch Wine Merchants NYC tasting. A great event and a chance to taste most of the Lynch imported wines that are available to us. Here are my comments on several of the wines (some of which we carry) and some quick photos.
The Scene:

The Scene 2:

The first couple of tables were sparkling wine- at the moment we don't carry any. However up next was the great wines from Domaine Ostertag inlcluding the sylvaner Old vines and the great Riesling 'vignoble d'E'. both great dry white wines from the crus of Alsace.
A table later was perhaps my favorite section of the tasting: Beaujolais! Hosted by Mathieu Lapierre, son and heir apparent of famous Morgon producer Marcel Lapierre. These are among the best Beaujolais in the world. Raisins Gaulois vdp Des Gauls was bright, clean and very gulpable. The Morgon was smooth, and richer. The 'Cuvee Marcel Lapierre' was big, clean and very good. Also on the table was a library vintage of the 2003 Morgon- who says Beaujolais can't age! This was astounding, fresh and very complex.
After tasting through Kermit's very nice selection of Burgundy producers, we came upon the tables from the Loire valley. Aside from the Beaujolais this is perhaps the strongest section of the book. I tasted some of my old favorites- Salavard Cheverny Blanc; a mineral blend of Chardonnay and Savignon Blanc. Another one that I love is the Hippolyte Reverdy Sancerre. This wine is a textbook example of great Sancerre- beautiful, aromatic and chalky with great flavors and good balance. The Red Cheverny from Salavard was smoky and still light- very nice. Charles Joguet's Chinon's are always good, but this batch was very nice- the 'Cuvee Terrior' was nice, with wild herb flavors and very dry.
New to the Kermit Lynch portfolio is the amazing wines from Cathrine and Pierre Breton. This couple growing in both the Bourgueil and the Chinon areas are making some of the best wines in the Loire. The Bourgueil Trinch is delicious and clean. The 'Nuits D'Ivresse' is rich and rounder. They also brought a library vintage: a 1996 Bourgueil 'Les Perrieres' Funky and smooth- impressive.
Here is quick photo of our Host and I:

Some of the other great wines I tasted there were the amazing bandols from Domaine Tempier- here is a shot with Daniel, the winemaker of Domaine Tempier:

Here are some links to the unique wines he makes: Domaine Tempier Bandol. Rich and dry with great flavors of dark berries, chocolate, lavender and thyme. Domaine Tempier Bandol La Migoua. Incredible mouvedre wine with coco powder, blackberries and lots of spice- this is a special cuvee made from all south facing old vines . .
Great wines and a fun day- this was a really enjoyable well run tasting.

Louis/Dressner Selections Spring Tasting

2010-04-23T11:56:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
Yesterday I was privileged to attend on of the best wine tastings in NY. Louis/Dressner is one of my favorite importers. The focus of their portfolio is natural wines, be they organic or just traditional. As you might imagine it's always a pretty exciting tasting. In addition to this they usually bring several of the winemakers over to speak with everyone and explain the wines. However, the volcanic cloud had a lot to of influence on if a winemaker came over or not.

The international symbol of the volcano- located on the table for George Descombes and Damien Coquelet, two great wine makers from the Beaujolais region the make great wine (and were supposed to pour in our store while they were here), representing the cloud of volcanic ash that kept them from flying here from France.
These are some of my favorite wines, cru Beaujolais that show amazing flavors and great elegance.
The next table over featured wines from producer Marc Ollivier, his vineyards are located in the Muscadet appellation. Pretty, complex and dry whites and astoundingly good reds which were new to me. The red from Cabernet Franc grapes was clean, earthy and great. Medium bodied with bright cherry flavors.
I made my way around to the De Moor table where I tasted their amazing Aligote and Chablis wines, and a special cuvee of Aligote made from vines planted in 1902- centenarian vines! These are very concentrated wines for non Chapitalized, non Yeasted, and non wooded wines. In short great stuff.

One more great French Wine from the Sud Quest- the south west part of the country- Causse Marines from Gaillac. These are great wines with different grapes from what we are used to - Bracul sometimes know as Fer Servadu for the red, and Mauzac, Ondenc for the white! Astounding wines, smooth and complex.
After that it was on to the Italians. I tasted with Alessandra Bera who made it from Italy despite the air travel problems. She showed a great Dolcetto that I did not really know that well, it turns out that Bart has carried them here at 67 for some time! Smooth and delicious and it can take a slight chill.
Arianna Occhipinti showed all three of her wines from Sicily, and a great bottle of olive oil (if you ever see this- buy one!). She grows bio-dynamically and makes delicious wines. My favorite bottle of wine last year was a bottle of the 2007 Frappato, an indigenous Sicilian grape that is light and elegant with raspberry, smoke, and pepper but not heavy at all.
Finally I tasted the wines from sister team Fontereza in Montalcino- A great Tuscan wine estate that produces bio-dynamic wines. These wines will be presented at the store tonight by Francesca Padovani from 4.30-7pm (april 23rd). Full bodied and delicious she makes a nice range of Sangiovese wines including a lovely Rosso Di Montalcino, and a Brunello.
See you for the tasting tonight!!
Thanks, and Thanks for reading.
Ben
04/23/2010

A Quivira Tasting

2010-04-16T10:30:00.001-04:00

Hi All,
yesterday we hosted Evan Lewandowski, the assistant winemaker from the Quivira Vineyards and Winery. This Sonoma, California based winery is known for being biodynamic and organic and making some very attractive wines wines at delicious prices. Evan Chose to pour Quivira's Zinfandel, Grenache, Grenache Rose, and Savignon Blanc.
Each of the wines was very good; clean and show the grapes very well. I found these wines to be compelling and quite nice, especially for the price.

Liz and Evan explaining the wines to a customer.

Evan preparing to pour the next wine of the flight.

Evan looking at customers tasting the wines he made.

Evan showing of his own tasting skills! (sorry this shot is a little out of focus!)
Thanks,
Ben

New features on the website, finally!

2010-04-16T09:22:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
We just add a great new feature to our website: Customer Reviews! This feature allows you to review a wine on the 67wine website, and once approved it will be public! Any wine is fair game. Have fun, get some wines, and review them! If you check the website at this link, you can see some special offers regarding this (including a discount for reviewing items, and a very special contest!).
Thanks,
Ben

He's Right - Lamb and Older Bordeaux

2010-04-14T10:43:00.001-04:00

Wine Pairings: Lamb and Lynch Bages Bordeaux - On Wine - WSJ

Are Single Vinyard Wines Really Better - A Winemaker's Persepctive

2010-04-07T14:15:00.001-04:00

As far as I can remember, every winery I have ever visited (all in California, unfortunately) makes their wine not just vineyard by vineyard, but block by block. The wines are usually (not always) kept separate until the final blend is put together just before bottling. Many choose their best barrels, from whatever particular vineyard or block, and combine them for a "Reserve" bottling. I would guess that if you used many different vineyards, and one (or more) was consistently better than the rest, then a single vineyard bottling makes sense.

Unfortunately, it's easy to go overboard, making a number of mediocre single vineyard wines when judicious blending could have made one or two very good wines (see Pinot Noir, Oregon).

Are Single Vineyard Wines Really Better? « Artisan Family of Wines

A Birthday Party for one of our staff!!

2010-03-29T20:24:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
Yesterday we had a quick event for our staff here in the store as a celebration of our long standing employee Phyllis. Bernie initiated this first thing in the morning by saying it was her 11th birthday, and we should celebrate. At 5pm we had a cake from Soutine's and some great Bollinger Champagne!
I quick ran and got the camera:

The Birthday Girl, the proud parent, and the cake!!

The birthday girl got the first slice of course!

And, a close up!

The cake . . . it was quite yummy!

A photo of the staff celebrating: Lana, Evelyn, Paul, Mike,
Bernie, and honorary staff member, Dorthy.

It was a little fun celebration!!
Cheers, thanks for reading,
Ben
10/25/10

A few days of wine bars!

2010-03-25T12:59:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
Recently I've been on a little kick for trying out new wine bars here in NYC. As anyone reading this is a wine drinker, it's always worth knowing where the best glass or bottle near you is. Here are a few I've liked:

Tangled Vine:
A new bar that opened on the upper west side, at 81st and Amsterdam. This is a great spot the features well executed mostly local food, and a great list of wines which are at all sustainable, organic or bio-dynamic. A few of us went to check it out after work last weekend. We were seated quite fast despite the crowd. After ordering a few quick bites for the table, the homemade potato chips and the house cured olives with chili, and citrus. The olives were delicious. We chose a bottle of wine: A red from the Teran grape made by Clai Bijele Zemlje in Croatia! Gamey and meaty this is a nice bottle to have with some solid preparation of meat. For dinner, people selected the pork belly sliders, and a beet salad- both were excellent, and very enjoyable! This is a great spot and necessary for the upper west!

The Ten Bells:
This is the most famous "organic" wine bar in New York City- a great space in the East Village. I have been here several times of the last 8 months, and enjoyed each trip for different reasons. This last time I was coming after being out at Tangled Vine. Ordered two glasses, one of the Deux Anes Corbieres Primer Pas, which was as always, funky and tasty. One glass of the Tete Julianas, light and elegant. Both are great organic wines that we carry in the store. A great selection of music was on and for once it was not totally crowded (though that can be nice as well!) . . .A Nice time.

The Bodega bar:
This is a brand new bar in the Greenpoint area of Brooklyn which opened just last week, and has not even had their "grand opening". This is an amazing space, with old school rustic touches and a granite bar that was really solid. They have a stage, and hopefully will start music soon. The owners Ben and Gina are great, friendly and enthusiastic, with a great list so far, and solid plans for expansion. I went in to say hi, and have a glass, and was treated like a visiting dignitary! After thirty minutes the bar started to fill up, and seemed to be mostly Greenpoint residents relaxing with a good glass of wine or beer at the end of the day. I am looking forward to returning on March 30th for the grand opening!

Thanks,
Ben

Natural Winemakers Week!

2010-03-17T18:02:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
We recently were involved in a great event here in NYC, the natural winemakers week- sponsored and hosted by Jenny and Francois Selections. We carry a decent selection of wines from this great importer; Their Focus is on wines made organically or biodynamically in the vineyards, and very minimal winemaking techniques in the cellar. These are spectacular wines that are very unique and interesting!
As part of this week full of events, I attended the portfolio tasting, and we hosted a winemaker tasting. Here are some photos I took:

The scene at The Smith- for the Jenny and Francois tasting.

Another side of the same room- more New York wine trade people tasting these great wines.

Troy Bowen, our contact with Jenny and Francois explaining the wines.

Kate, explaining the wines and pouring . . . sorry about the compression of the picture!

Paul Darcy of Darcy and Huber (a great Austrian wine importer)
tasting the wines and enjoying the tasting.

Jenny Lefcourt (one of the owners of Jenny and Francois), brilliant wine importer!

The tasting was on Monday, and on Wednesday we hosted several of the great winemakers here in the store for a tasting that included Tire Pe, Chemins De Bassac (isa) Tony Coturri and Colombaia. A great combination of natural winemakers. Here are some photos of that event:

The man, The myth, the Legend- Tony Coturri!

Coturri's wines from the tasting- the amazing field blend alberello, the sandocino and, zinfandel. All great organic, unfined and unfiltered wines from Mendocino county in California

Tony and Lynda pouring and chatting.

Isabella (of chemins de bassac) and Dante (of Colombaia) chatting about the wineries in france.

Remy (chemins de bassac) and David (Tire Pe) tasting and talking with the customers.

A little signage!

And finally a picture of all of the winemakers, their hosts (Troy, Jenny, and Francois) in front of our store! We were proud to host them and be part of this great event!
Thanks
Ben

One of My Favorite Wine Facts

2010-03-06T13:03:00.001-05:00

Lenn Thompson's blog, once called Lenndevours, now called New York Cork Report, had an article by Ton Mansell that piqued my interest. In reading it, I found him repeating one of my favorite wine facts: When you smell cherries (or in this case rose petals) in wine, what you are smelling is the same chemical compound responsible for that scent in cherries (or rose petals) themselves.

"In 1999, researchers at Cornell determined that the signature aroma of lychee/rose in Gewürztraminer comes from a compound called cis-rose oxide (diagram at right). Unsurprisingly, this molecule is also found in rose petals."

For the full article, see the New York Cork Report: Growing Up Gewürztraminer: Varietal Character and Ripeness

Paul
3/6/2010

Not Here!

2010-03-06T11:32:00.001-05:00

Consumers Skeptical Of Organic 'Hippie Wine'

The article implies that people are less willing to pay a particular price for organically grown wine than they are to pay the same price for a non-organic wine. I can say categorically that isn't true here.

One thing about the way we've integrated organic wines into our store was to resist the temptation to create an "Organic Ghetto". Every wine we carry has to carry its own weight among its peers. We think that every wine we choose, organic or not, has to be sold for what it's worth.

I won't ask the customer to pay a higher price because the wine is organic. I will choose the organic wine over a "conventionally" farmed wine of equal price and quality. Most of the time, I don't find out that the wine is organic until after I've tasted it. A great example of that is the Domaine Grand Veneur Cotes du Rhone Village Les Champauvins. I bought it for the store in December. It wasn't until late February, when one of the owners of the Domaine was in the store, that I found out that it is not only being farmed organically, but that they have filed for Organic certification. We've now identified that with a green label. The price didn't change - and it's still delicious.

Paul
3/6/2010

A old thing lying around!

2010-03-03T13:57:00.001-05:00

Sometimes you find things that have been around for a long time- today we found these bottles of older Coteaux du Languedoc from Chateau De Cazeneuve. These are from the 1997 vintage, and have been in our store for a long, long time!

Once we found them, I decided that we needed to sell them, but I knew nothing about this wine! First, I checked out the website from the winery. Next, I tried to read up about it on review sites- not a lot out there! Next up, I tasted one:

The wine had a lovely color of brick and a slight fade to orange at the edge of the glass- pretty typical of wines this old. The smell was compelling with a lot of floral, mineral and complexity. A few minutes after opening it grew into intense cinnamon and floral noise. The flavor on the palate was clearly berries and spice, with nice soft entry. I enjoyed it up until the finish, which has a bit of heat, and was somewhat overpowering for me. Paul, our Rhone buyer, liked it so much that he took a bottle!

Thanks, and Enjoy some wine today!
Ben
03/03/2010

Another big storm!

2010-03-03T13:06:00.001-05:00

Hi all,
Today was another big snow storm here in the city. The store was open (of course) and to prove our dedication I thought I would take some photos . . .They all came out blue; and I'm not really sure why!
here are a few shots:

This was take from the second floor window; Looking out over 68th street and Columbus Ave.

Another shot out of the second floor window, this time looking at our local bodega- the Great Farm on the northeast corner of 68th street and Columbus Ave.

This one was a bit more fun- Laila outside playing in the snow.

Finally, Maggie and Laila outside enjoying a quick break by playing in the snow!
Thanks for reading, and again, apologies for the blue tone in the photos.
Ben
03/02/2010

Fake Wine!!

2010-02-19T09:44:00.001-05:00

Hi all,
Some interesting news in the wine trade over the last several days about some large wine companies buying Pin-no No-ior grapes. Apparently there are some suppliers for two of the largest wine groups in the world sold them wine that was supposed to be Pinot Noir, and in fact was Syrah! While the wine trade is not new to scandal (Brunello with Cabernet in it, Beaujolais that has been chapitalized, Sauvignon Blanc with fake aromas . . . ) or these types of fraud and manipulation; there are protections supposedly in place within the DOC and AOC structures. Sometimes these fail, or are manipulated by producers . . . Still, its the best we have in place now. Here are a few articles about the scandal:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j6NPLZsjfEpPDe3r1j53EdzXmPjA

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/french-winemakers-convicted-for-duping-e-j-gallo/19361466

As I said, Interesting reading.
Thanks,
Ben
02/19/2010

Snowed in!

2010-02-15T13:50:00.001-05:00

Hi all,
Here are a few quick photos to show you our dedication! We were open during the big storm last week! Here are a few quick shots I took during the day:

looking out our display window!

The van, waiting to start its run out to deliver wines!

A view in the display window with snow on the awning.

Thats it from snowy NYC today! Thanks,
Ben
02/10/10

Iron Horse Tasting

2010-02-06T20:37:00.001-05:00

Hi,
These are some shots from our tasting yesterday with Justine From Iron Horse winery. We carry all the great Sparkling wine from this famous California Winery.

Our hostess and her great wines lined up in the tasting area.

Justine explaining the wines to our staff member Liz.

A detail of the wines in line up . . . Rose Brut, The Wedding Cuvee, The Russian Cuvee,
The Vintage Brut and finally the Blanc De Blancs.

Justine showing the wines to some very happy customers!!
A quick note about the Russian Cuvee that I just saw was not on our site anyplace else! This wine was so named due to the fact that it was drunk by President Regan and Gorbachev at the summit meeting in Washington DC in 1987.
That's it for now.
Thanks For reading!
Ben
02/05/10

Dinner at Spice Market

2010-01-30T20:34:00.001-05:00

Hi All,

Last night I went out to Spice Market - Jean Georges Asian fusion restaurant in NYC. Here is a little review of the food, drinks and wine that we tasted there. It is restaurant week here in NYC - and its a great time to go out and eat. First interesting thing was that we arrived for out 9.15 reservation at 8.30 due to unforeseen transportation details. To my very great surprise they seated us right away, and the entrance and facilitation of this was quite easy and effortless!

After being seated, we ordered and had a quick bite of papadoms (chick pea chips with black pepper) and tomato chutney. These were great and quite interesting; like a chips and salsa from India! Our drinks arrived next- a whiskey fizz made with Bulleit Bourbon that was quite complex and great. The second drink was a raspberry Bellini. The cocktails were quite good- though the bellini was good it was a little too fruity for both my wife and me.

The next course was chicken samosas, and a mushroom egg roll with glangal in it. I didn't get any of the Samosas, but the rolls were very, very, very good; and came with a variation on sauce: a mint and yogurt sauce rather then a duck sauce. Earthy, bright and brilliantly flavored - I loved this dish. These are quite good, and I would go back for this dish alone!
Next up was a soup and salad course. The soup was a butternut squash soup that was good, and a nice dish considering the temperature outside (near zero degrees with wind chill here in the city!). The salad was green papaya, apples and ginger. A tasty balance of acid and fruit notes.

The final course of non-sweet food was the main course. MY wife selected cod, which she said was good, but not great. My vegetables in green curry sauce was great however - each of the several different kinds of veggie was cooked to perfection and the green curry was spot on, smooth and a little spicy.

Now for the two little problems. One was that the service was almost perfect, but the food runners, while extremely polite and clearly good at their job, seemed a little nervous; not that this caused any issues for us. The second was that the dessert was a disappointment. We ordered a Ovaltine kulfi, which came with caramelized banana, and spiced milk chocolate sauce. It was basically a big bar of chocolate flavored ganache with some sauces . . . This seems to be a trend in the pastry chef world- but I wish it would stop.

All in all, a restaurant I would return to in for a night of small plates or cocktails and a snack. The service was excellent; and the room is totally beautiful. Plus the food was very, very good if not exceptional.

Thanks,
Ben
1/30/2010

Austrian Winemakers Tasting

2010-01-29T17:43:00.001-05:00

Hi all,

Yesterday, 67 Wine and Spirits was lucky enough to host two very talented winemakers from Vienna, Austria: Michael Martin and Gerhard Lobner. These two gentleman are amazingly talented winemakers working on two projects each, and creating great wines for both! Michael is making great wines under the Martinshof label, and also makes wine for the Heuriger 'Zum Martin Sepp'. A heuriger is the name for wine bars in Vienna, and these are great easy drinking wines that they serve in the bar (named for Michael's grandfather!) We tasted the Gruner in this line, but they make a lovely Zweigelt in this series as well. We also tasted several of the higher end Martinshof wines- including this amazing Pinot Noir.

Here are some photos:

This actually has Gerhard, Carlo Huber, and Michael Martin. Carlo is one of the two people who import these wines.

Next we tasted a bunch of wines from Mayer am Pfarrplatz and Rotes Haus. These are both made by Gerhard Lobner. The Mayer am Pfarrplatz Riesling is crisp, dry, and really elegant. The wines from the Rotes Haus (which has a little house in the middle of the vineyards) were great- the Gemischter Satz Nussberg Reserve is a classic beautiful field blend from the only wine style to win an award from the slow foods movement for tradition and sustainability in wine making! Gerhard also makes a great sweet wine called Rotes Haus Traminer that we stock in half bottles- great sweet wine that we often pair with fruit tarts, or fois gras.

Here are some more shots from the tasting:

Carlo and Gerhard deep in conversation!

Gerhard explaining his wines to a customer while Michelle from David Bowler Wines looks on.

Michelle of David Bowler Wines giving details about the wines to a customer.

This final photo features Paul Darcy opening a bottle for the customers! Paul is the other member of the import team for these wines.

Thanks to Darcy and Huber, Bowler, and Michael Martin and Gerhard Lobner for hosting this event; it was a great tasting! Ben 01/28/10

Salcheto wines tasting 1/16

2010-01-20T17:53:00.001-05:00

Hi all,
Here was the scene at a tasting we held last week- a lot of fun!

This great Tuscan winery is owned by our friend Ron Prashker. Here is is presenting the wines.

And the wines that Ron opened for us, including great vino nobile, and Salco- a special cuvee.

Another great image of the same thing; this time with the prices up!

Here are customers enjoying the tasting. I hope people had a good time!

Mathew explaining the flavors he was getting in the wines to a customer.

A few shots of Ron chatting with customers.

one more shot of Ron talking about the wines.

This tasting was a lot of fun, and I hope at some point you'll check out the great wines these folks make in Tuscany!

Mid January day at 67

2010-01-11T19:37:00.001-05:00

Hi all,
Today was a pretty typical day here at the store. Working on some projects - trying to get things organized in the "cool room" and selecting some wines to order. I had one appointment with the great importer Savio Soares. We tasted several very good wines. I'd like to mention three of them here:

The first- coming in this week is the Mouressipe Cuvee Tracassier from Alain Allier. This is part of the very new school of french winemakers making "Vin Naturel" bottles made from organically grown grapes and non interventionist winemaking- plus bottled without sulfur added. A great grenache wine with nice color and a slight cloudyness from being unfined and unfiltered. The nose was amazing- with complex herbal notes (tarragon and chives); and great dark berry fruit. secondary flavors of tar and tabacco are present as well. On the palate this wine is pretty and complex with great smooth texture and nice weight. The finish goes on and on. In short a great wine!!

The next two are wines that we already stocked, but I thought that since we had them both I'd refresh them.
The first is the great biodynamic Bordeaux Champ Des Treilles. This great estate is farmed biodynamicly, and makes some great bordeaux at really reasonable prices.
I loved this wine at the first taste- and still do. It's got nice color, and really nice clean notes of plums and cherries as well as coco. In the palate is has nice mellow tannins.

The final wine I'd like to mention is an Arbois! Phillipe Bonard's Pupilin Chardonnay 2006. A great Chardonnay that is full of earth with mushrooms, bright melon and clean stone minerals . . . Lovely wine.
Check those wines out and check out Savio's website- he is fast becoming a great importer and very focused on natural and organic and biodynamic wines!
Thanks,
Ben

A Party at a famous wine writers!

2010-01-04T19:56:00.001-05:00

I was invited to a party at the home of a great wine writer this weekend to celebrate the changing of the decade.

What a great event! I was treated to a gaggle of very interesting people who were super nice with great stories and opinions! A great time. Aside from this there was some very good wine (more on that in a second . .); and amazing food. I brought two homemade focaccia breads; one with rosemary, one made with sage. Also served was a great biryani and some lovely cheeses.
The wines of the night are pictured below:

Now, we of course carry only one of these wineries. . .but the others are well worth seeking out.

The wines were a Bourgueil from Domaine Guion. A lovely wine made in the Loire- I tasted red fruit, earth and a lovely strength for a Loire valley wine.

The next wine was the Herve Souhaut Syrah made in the Cotes du Rhone in France . . this is great wine, and a few years ago was quite my favorite wine at the Jenny and Francois wine tasting. Dark berries; smooth, beautiful, and great!

Next up was the Clos Rougeard Saumer Champigny- This was the wine of the night as far as what I got to try- beautiful, lush, earthy with bright berries and totally great subtle mouthfeel.

Last up was the wine that tasted (as an astute observer noted) like syrup. The Stags Leap Cask 23 1997. One of the best wines of California, but strange at this gathering . . intense and syrupy with no tannins left and nice flavors, but not too enticing for my palate compared to other wines I did not know!

The host, famous wine writer and natural wine heroine Alice Feiring, is one of the great pleasures about working in wine, please go and check out her amazing writing. Also in attendance was Abe Schoener from the Scholium project- whose Red Hook (yes, as in Brooklyn!) wines were opened and you'll see them in the store soon! I love a good party, especially when it gives me a chance to hang with my favorite food blogger, and social media master, Zachary Adam Cohen- check his Farm to Table blog out- great ideas about food and other society issues.

There were a lot of cool people that i met for the first time at this event- I wanted to shout out to a few of them right now! Pam Govinda is a wine and lifestyle writer who has composed several of my favorite articles; the ones about counterfeit wine are amazing!

Last but not least- Adam Morgenstern and his wife- Thecla. Adam and Thecla are very funny, and both have a great nose for wine- he edits the great online magazine- Organic Wine Journal. Great stuff from all these talented people, plus great wine, and food made for a great night!

Thanks all,
Happy New Years!

Ben
01/04/2009

The Scene at the tasting right now!

2009-12-30T17:57:00.001-05:00

Terry Theise Grower Champagne tasting!
Here are some shots from the tasting we are hosting right now! Great wines, all growers, and all amazing!

Tad talking about the wines!

Tad talking about the wines! and a better view of the wines
and presentation.
Come taste!

New and Possibly, Soon to be New

2009-12-20T22:34:00.001-05:00

Tonight with hangar steak my wife and I drank a new 2007 Cotes de Rhone Village. The full name is about a foot long, and I'm going to call it "Champauvins" until someone tells me I'm getting it wrong. It's in stock and sells for 20 bucks.

Medium bodied. Four distinct flavors, all with decent intensity: Red fruit, dark red fruit, spice, funk. The funk is the mildest and is apparent only after the wine opens up a bit. Good acidity. No tannin to speak of. Drink now because it's tasty, and hold a few back because its going to improve for a while. Grace A.

One night this past week we drank a bottle of unoaked Chardonnay provided by Karen Conery, our Winebow rep. If I can buy it a the right price, our customers are really going to love this.

Paul
12/20/2009

Winter Storm Wines!

2009-12-19T21:57:00.001-05:00

Hello Cold World!
We are in the midst of a blizzard here in NYC! The first and hopefully not the last time we will see real snow here in the city this winter (the city is quite beautiful in the snow!). I thought I'd make some quick wine recommendations for brooding inside, and waiting out a storm.
The First- Leon Barral Faugeres 2006; a great wine made by an amazing winemaker. Naturally farmed and no chemicals or odd processes in the winemaking this blend of southern french grapes is amazingly complex, and will tide you through a few hours of sniffing along with a good book!

Next up-L'etoile Domaine de Montbourgeau Vin Jaune- A wine for working though ideas if ever there was such a thing! Typical color- quite straw colored and yellow, with flavors of almond, quince and hazelnuts. This is delicious and very different wine from the Jura area of L'etoile!

Finally- the next big thing in Italian wine- Aglianico del Vulture from Biscegila. This great grape from the area near Mount Vulture is known for its chocolate and cherry scents, and great texture in the mouth- a true pleasure to drink these wines offer a lot of flavor and interest for very little money!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the snow!!
Ben
12/19/2009

The best bottle of italian wine I had this year!

2009-12-05T21:52:00.001-05:00

I recently was converted to Sicilian wines. I was treated to a bottle of frappato from Ochipenti. I was floored! This wine was so good! light, elegant, with great upfront fruit, hints of tobacco and leather, nice earthy complexity! Totally amazing. The wine is made in a biodynamic way; and frappato is an amazing grape that only grows in Sicily. It is the lightest grape that I've tried from Sicily. We just got in some Frappato from the collective COS. This collective is three winemakers, Giambattista Cilia called Titta, Giusto Occhipinti and Pinuccia Strano. They make wine biodynamically, and really great wine. I am looking forward to trying this wine!
Happy Holidays!
Thanks for reading,
Ben
12/5/9

"it's Too Good to Drink!"

2009-12-05T21:41:00.001-05:00

Hi all,
So A tasting group with several of our clients invited me to a dinner entitled "It's Too Good to Drink!". The concept was that we would all bring a bottle or two from our cellars to drink that we would open in no other situation. Several of the gentleman invovled outdid themselves and brought astounding bottles!

The first wine was a great fresh white Bordeaux Chateau de Fieuzal, with a nice flavor showing bothof the grapes of this undervalued style of wine. I was suprised when the vintage was revealed to be a 1993, as the wine was still quite alive!

The second wine was a astoundingly old barolo from Bosca, Il Re Dei vini, A 1962! some of the gentleman felt this was passed its prime, and a little oxidized. I love that style and this wine reminded me of older Lopez de Heredia wines that I have tasted! A truely compelling nose and quite dry but nice on the palate.

The next bottle was the one that I brought from my cellar. Being the wine geek that I am I brought a magnum of one of my favorite producers in burgundy, but from a terrible harvest! The vineyard did well however, as did many sites in Volnay during that year! This wine had a great pinot flavor, and lovely dark color as well as a nice weight to it! Fun burgundy! The fellas got the region overall but guessed a younger year.

The Next four were pretty good! We started this batch with a bottle of haut brion 1996. Unfortunately for my palate the Haut Brion was a little off, like the storage was
not perfect- still, it was impressive wine, with a nose of coco and berries, and just was flat on the palate.
The Pape Clement was a shocker to me, I had tried this wine and found it to austere and a bit to much tobacco in the past- but it showed beautifully! totally plum and cherries, clean with a hint of earth- just great!
Palmer was amazing, as always, and I was just thrilled since it's my birth year! rich, still together, clearly a well cared for bottle that drank just great!

These three did not get me as well - The Marguez wine, a Bernard Marguez wine was well made, just not my thing- it was totally modern, oaky, overextracted and totally intense. Several people liked it a lot- I felt it was too much.
The Etna Rosso was a mystery to me, and I had not much thought about it; not really sure even to provide a good note! (we'd had a lot of good wines by this point!).
The Catina Zacannini showed really quite nicely against a host of other wines, a hint of earth, nice fruit and very smooth, this wine was a bit of a ringer; but held itself up well against a lot of other (and rather more expensive) wines.

The first two dessert wines, a sauternes; and a muscadelle. The Sauternes was intense, rich, and sweet- and went well with the cheese course. The Muscadelle is much more of a palate cleanser. Sweet, yet balanced with a little lift of bubbles. A pretty nose, and a nice flavor. I liked this wine a lot.
There was a final bottle- a vin santo that was pretty amazing as well- and was accompanied by the traditional biscotti!
All in all another great meal- Thanks so much for having me gentleman!
Ben

Marquis de la Tour

2009-11-10T13:45:00.001-05:00

Last night, to go with Spaghetti Carbonara, we had a bottle of Marquis de la Tour Brut sparkling wine from France's Loire Valley. It isn't Champagne, which is far to the East, and isn't made with the same grapes. Still, it's very good, and very inexpensive. It has good acidity, good flavors, and the carbonation helps cut through the richness of the egg and cheese.

Paul
11/10/2009

Chateau Musar

2009-10-27T14:29:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
Yesterday I was honored to attend a tasting of Chateau Musar wines at Hearth. This tasting was hosted by Serge Honchar, the owner of the Chateau. Musar is a winery located in the Bekka valley, Lebanon! The wines are unique, natural and Bordeaux influenced for reds, and totally amazing indigenous grape blends for whites. The wines are built to age- especially the white wines. Current release for the Musar Red is 1999; and the same for the White!
In this tasting we tasted several older vintages in a seminar format. It was great fun to taste these with the owner who gave us a lovely running commentary.

The vintages and tasting notes for each wine are below:
Musar Red:
2000- Color was pretty, red, and not fading at all. The nose was full of berries and some complex minerality. On the palate, this wine was smooth and plush with ample tannins and bright acidity.
1995- This wine was much darker red, with just a hint of brown at the edges. The nose was full of toast and oak with vanilla. The taste was more intense and tannic, with much more wood in the mouth.
1981- Brown in color this wine was fresh at first, but oxidized quite fast- it was faulted for this by several of the tasters, and by Serge as well. He said "I like when I wine has problems, it is good to talk about it, and most winemakers won't dare to! I find this still pleasurable, and it still has something to say"
1972- Brick red in color this wine carried a lovely orange edge to it. Scents of berries and nuts with good mineral and complexity . . and real smoothness to the taste, with a few minutes of waiting.
1966- The final red of the tasting, I wanted to share with you Serge's comment about this "A good wine has something to say, a great wine will give you a few minutes of conversation, a truly great wine will speak for hours!" This was amazing- oak, smooth, fruit, mineral, and all of this was despite a slight corky-ness!

Now on to the whites!!
The grapes are unique to the Bekka valley, and Mountain Lebanon. Obeideh and Merwah are the names and are very very special. I'd just like to highlight the 1959 white which was still very fresh, alive, and had amazing complexity- a sublime experiance tasting these with the owner of the estate and several famous wine profesionals from New York.

Thanks,
Ben

two days of south of france tastings!

2009-10-17T21:05:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
So for those of you paying attention to our tasting schedule we had two very special tastings over the last two days. I would like to post my tasting notes to you for these special Sud France festival in NYC tastings.

Night one we played host to the always charming Phil S. from Kermit Lynch wines. We love their wines, and its always fun to have them here. The weather was bad, but we sold a lot of great wines!

The wines we tasted were:
Chateau La Roque Benadictins coteaux de Languedoc Blanc:
A lightly oaked complex dry rich white made from Rolle, Marsanne and Roussanne grapes from very old vines. The vineyard was first planted by the Benadictine monks! This was lemon, mineral and a bread notes. Great!

Gris de Gris Domaine De Fonsainte Corbieres:
A great rose, with notes of orange, strawberries and good length for the low price it sells at. This was the first Rose I bought this year, and perhaps will be on of the last roses that I drink (its really started to be red wine weather!).

Domaine De Terrebrune Bandol Rouge:
From half bottle!
Bandols often are my favorite wines from the provance area! This wine is meaty, dry, with a bit of funk, and a lot of herbs and spice as well as a lovely core of fruit to it. A great bottle for the lunch box!

And the two stars of the night:
Domaine Leon Barral Faugueres
Leon Barral is a great small winery run completely naturally, by Didier Barral. The domaine is named for his grandfather. The production is done in a quite unique way- one third of the vinyard space is held as grazing space for his herd of cattle (his assitants!), and this is rotated every year or two. The wines are big, intense, yet totally balanced and beautiful with big upfront fruit and great drinkablity young! We tasted two.
Domaine Leon Barral Faugueres:
This cuvee is a four grape blend of syrah, mouvedre carignan and grenache. A great easy to drink wine very nice finish. Nice complexity from the notes of tar and tobacco.

Domaine Leon Barral Faugueres Jadis:
Jadis is a cuvee made from 80% Syrah. Delicous, a bit more gamey and a bit richer, this is also quite good to drink now, though I think it will age a lot more as well.

Next up, Day two- a multi vendor showdown of natural wines from the south of France!

The scene at our recent tasting!

2009-10-13T12:19:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
Here is the scene from our last major tasting of burgundy- with importer Jeanne-Marie Deschamps.
This tasting was a lot of fun, but very crowded. We apologize for anyone who had issues with the rather large crowd.

This is Jeanne-Marie explaining passionately her wines.

And, again- just a moment later- explaining the soil
differences for each of the wines poured! A paramount
issue in Burgundy!

This is our General Manager Evelyn Wing and her family-
our special guests for this event!

Cheers,
Ben

Great wine dinner

2009-09-24T12:56:00.001-04:00

Hi all,

I was privileged to attend a lovely dinner this week at one of our clients homes. The theme of this dinner was 50/50. All the red wines were from great vintages around 50 years old!! The amazing thing about this was that all the bottles were from "lesser" estates and still showed amazingly well. It astounds me when wine that old shows beautifully, proving that vintage trumps many other concerns (At least in the case of these wines!)

The wines we tasted were (in order):

NV Col Vetoraz Valdobbiadene Brut

This did not fit the theme (fifty years old), Not French either. Was fun, easy bubbly with a nice fine mouth feel. Very refreshing with light current and berries as well as toast flavors.

1959 Chateau Guillot, Pomerol

This was nice, despite a sad looking label. Nice nose of black and red fruits. Good color and really quite pleasing to look at, smell and drink!

1959 Chateau Cantemerle, Macau Bordeaux (Fifth Growth)

A little closed on the nose, but really together with great structure and still a hint of tannin as well as a nice flavor- good but not astounding.

1959 Chateau Rauzan-Gassies - Margaux (Second Growth)

First, a disclaimer, I am a great fan of this, and have had two bottles of 61 (one in a magnum) and now a bottle of 59! This was balanced, intense, with great red fruit and earth. Lasting a good long time in the mouth this had the strongest finish of the flight. Nice wine. My favorite of the night!

1961 Chateau Lascombes - Margaux (Second Growth)

Lascombes was served as a desert wine- very interesting choice!! It showed up porty and with lots of chocolate and blackberry notes and some hints of smoke and nutmeg. At first I Thought it was rather much sweeter, after a few cheeses it was quite dryer . . an amazing change!

2001 La Chapelle de Lafaurie-Peyraguey - Baummes, Sauternes

A great young Sauternes- a slight twinge toward too sweet . . pretty good stuff. I really enjoyed this, but it was a little overripe and it lacked the complexity of many of the older Sauternes I have tasted . . a lovely case for the 2001 vintage.

Thanks,
Ben

Some Scores from Vinography

2009-09-19T11:53:00.001-04:00

Alder Yarrow writes a serious and well written wine blog called Vinography. Based in the San Francisco area, he recently attended TASTE Sonoma, and posted scores (on a 10 point scale) for many of the wines he tasted. Of course, the wines he tasted are the newest releases. We carry the previous vintage of many of the wines that got high scores, including the Landmark Overlook Chardonnay, the Macrostie Wildcat Vineyard Chardonnay, Sonoma Cutrer Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, Arrowood Cabernet Sauvignon, and Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon. We have the correct vintage of the Gary Farrell Chardonnay, but very little of it.

You can see the enitre list at Top Wines of Sonoma: Tasting Notes from Sonoma Wine Country Weekend - Vinography: A Wine Blog.

One other great feature on this site is that he has an aroma card. It's similar to the UC Davis Aroma Wheel (which is better) but this one is free to download.

Paul
9/19/2009

New and noteworth, plus a few opinions!

2009-09-08T18:40:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
Here at 67 wine we are busy again, tasting all of the new things that you can enjoy this season. Happy school days, Happy high holy days, and all of that stuff!! A few gems crept into or back into our stock this week- including Domaine Tempier Bandol Rouge 2006. As Always, this is a pretty limited wine and somewhat hard to get a hold of. Saint Martin De La Garrigue Bronzinelle also came in, as did some Terres Falmes cinsault (which got a 89 pt score, not bad for a 12.99 wine!). Finally Lappiere Morgon is back on the shelf again, this is silk in a bottle- and one of my favorite wines in the world!!
So that is it for new things off the top of my head, however- I would like to make some general comments about the wine buisness. Today I sold a bottle of Pichon Lalande from 1975 in magnum, and two bottles of DRC Echezaux 2004 . . . In addition to the regulars, some barolo, a few cases of this and that . . . Granted; this was a pretty exceptional day, but there is some movement of things at the high end. I bring this up among a lot of doom and gloom in the market (both the wine market, and other markets!). I find this situation somewhat amazing due to the level of bottles we are able to sell. Thankfully, many of our suppliers are aware of the economic situation and willing to make some adjusments in your favor. This is great! It has allowed our customers to buy wines at a price that would be very low for many of the most high end wines in the world. I guess what I am really getting at is that it is clearly a buyers market for wine right now- some of our best and most interesting wines are at great prices!!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you are enjoying the start of the school year!
Ben

Kermit Lynch imports wine tasting!

2009-08-29T21:45:00.001-04:00

Hi,
Today I thought I'd present the visual images of a great tasting here at 67 wine! This was fun one for me, as most of the wines are here because I chose them for the store- and they are all amazing (as one might expect for wines from one of the United States top importers). We were honored to have Liz Farley here to pour for us. Supremely knowledgable as well as being charming, she is the East Coast manager for Kermit Lynch wines. Here are the images:

Liz, Bart and some happy customers!

All the happy tasters!!

The first wine - Jouget Touraine; Chenin Blanc
from the loire valley . .crisp and amazing.

The second wine- St. Martin de la Garrigue's fantastic
Picpoul de Pinet. Crisp, full, and in Oc the Picpoul
translates as mouthbiter!

The final white of the tasting. This is a favorite of mine,
Bandol Blanc from Terrebrune- certified organic too!
On to the reds!

Foillard Morgon cote du py. 2007. Like jouget, totally
a founder of the natural wine movement in france.
This is a structured meaty light red . . silky and great!

Traverses de Fontanes . . .A cabernet Sauvignon grown in a
biodynamic way, and so light and earthy- in the best way . .
steel aged and fermented- just amazing wine!

Finally, the Maxime Magnon La demarrante 2008.
The garagiste of the tasting, still renting his Cinsault and
Carignon vines, and making amazing natural beautiful
southern French reds!

Finally, a sweet treat- a sauternes . . fun and delicous!

Thats it for tonight! I'll see you all on monday!
Ben
8/29
9:45pm

Cucumber Margaritas

2009-08-20T12:17:00.001-04:00

We first had this drink at Rick Bayless's Topolobampo restaurant in Chicago. It was unusual, and I'm surprised that I was the one to order it, considering that it's green. It was delicious, and very refreshing on a hot summer day.

Bayless, by the way, just won Top Chef Masters, and I'm not surprised. His food is incredible, and after watching the show this summer, you can see that he's a great technical cook as well as a great chef.

Anyway, this was my first try at making this drink. It was good, but I learned a lot. I used 2 parts Sauza Hornitos (100% Agave) Tequila, 1 part Cointreau, 1 part fresh lime juice, and about 2 parts fresh cucumber puree.

Lessons learned:

Strain the blend. The little bits of cucumber don't improve the drink, just make it a little grainy.
Less lime juice. It was just too tart.
Chill the ingredients. This really needs to be cold, and waiting for the ice in the glass to chill it didn't cut it.

Taking these lessons, I'm hoping to try again next week. Maybe I'll be able to come up with a recipe as good as Bayless's. I doubt it, but it was definitely good enough to keep trying.

Paul
8/20/2009

Cocktails, Liquor, Margaritas, Recipe, Spirits, Tequila

Tasting Details on Last nights Night's New York Wines

2009-08-18T15:34:00.001-04:00

Tasting details on last night's wines, A request from M.

Yesterday at the store (as we do every Monday night) we tasted a selection of NY state wines. The two on tap last night were the Wiemer Blanc De Noir and the Keuka Lake Gently Dry Reisling. Here are my tasting notes:

Wiemer: A great bottle of NY wine. A little citrus or lemon, nice touch of yeasty bread notes and a clear sense of bubbles. Fun to drink and very good bottle.

Keuka Lake: Delightful dry Riesling from the Finger Lakes. This has all the great elements one would expect of this grape. Apricot, stone, petrol, floral, some nice acidity, and a hint of sweetness. Easy fun wine!
Thanks for reading.

Ben
08/18/2009
3:29 pm

Wiemer, Riesling, wine, NY, Finger, Lakes

Steamed Monkfish with Saffron-Lemon-Garlic Sauce

2009-08-18T12:17:00.001-04:00

Sunday night dinner - I rode up to Fairway for some fresh fish, and monkfish is one of my favorites. The complete recipe is on the website.

I combined bits from several different recipes to come up with the final version. The steaming method came from Cooks Illustrated (no surprise there) and it worked really well. I lined a steamer basket with fresh basil (from my the pot in my window), lemon slices and the shallots left over after I used what I needed for the sauce. It went into a pot with about an inch of water and steamed for 12 minutes. Tom Colicchio, on an episode of Top Chef last season, went on at some length about letting monkfish rest before serving, so that was also part of the plan.

I started the sauce right before I started steaming the fish. I started off by sautéing the shallots in butter, then adding the garlic (tip: add a bit of water to the crushed garlic and it won't burn nearly as fast). I then added flour to make a roux, letting it cook for a minute on medium low heat, not letting it brown. Into that went 1/4 cup of Fino Sherry, and a 1/4 cup of milk. At this point, you have to whisk briskly so the milk is properly incorporated; at first, it looks sort of broken into fine grains. Once it smoothed out, I added a pinch (about 10 threads) of saffron. It then simmered on low heat, whisked often but not constantly, while the fish steamed.

After I took the steamed fish out of the pot, I left it on the steamer basket to rest. I then added 1/4 cup of the steaming liquid (now flavored by the basil, lemon, shallot and fish) to the sauce. I cooked it over medium low heat until there was about 1/4 cup of thickened liquid in the pan. I turned the heat as low as it would go, and added 1/2 a stick of cold butter, one teaspoon at a time. I whisked it constantly at this point until the butter was completely incorporated. I added the juice of half a lemon (still whisking) and about 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper, and voilá.

It would be best served with a nice Chablis, but the Quincy (100% Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley) we served with it was excellent as well.

Paul
8/18/2008

Fish, Recipe, Wine, Quincy, Monkfish

Bordeaux Secrets Tasting!

2009-08-15T20:23:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
Here is a quick series of tasting notes for our Bordeaux secrets 6 pack that was advertised in the NY Times. These are great wines and a nice tour through the region!

Chateau Bellevue Rougier Bordeaux 750ML 2006:
Color: Nice light red, a little clay.
Nose: Mineral, a hint of flowers, a hint of plum.
Palate: Mineral a hint of earth, spice and a strong streak of acidity. Nice.

Chateau de Lugagnac Bordeaux 750ML 2006:
Color: Dark red, a bit of purple.
Nose: Clean cherry fruit, a hint of earth and a bit of clove.
Palate: More cherry, some plum and a nice soft texture. Good finish.

Les Sources du Chateau de la Riviere 750ML 2003:
Color: Rich, still pretty red, but moving in to darker colors.
Nose: Nice complexity, good notes of plum, coco, earth.
Palate: Pretty, nice smooth texture, rewarding and complex.
My personal favorite of the tasting!

Chateau Roland La Garde Premieres Cotes de Blaye 750ML 2006:
Color: Purple, a hint of red.
Nose: Nice with hints of coco and vanilla, plum, Cinnamon
Palate: Soft, round, and fruited. A good finish. Pleasant

Chateau Real 750ML 2007:
Color: Rich purple with a slight fade at the edges.
Nose: Vanilla, Mineral, plum and coco.
Palate: Firm but soft tannins, pleasant fruit. A good wine.

Chateau Tour de Gilet 750ML 2005:
Color: Inky and dark purple.
Nose: Berry, leather, intense and leaping out of the glass.
Palate: Intense and rich with dark berry flavors. Really intense!

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy these wines and note the special sampler price!
08/15/2009
8pm

Following Eric Asimov of the Times Part 2!

2009-08-15T19:29:00.000-04:00

Hi all,
So, to continue the post that I started this morning I would like to talk about the great wines of Lopez de Heredia from the city of Haro in Rioja, Spain. These are beautiful old school wines made in the most traditional of ways; with no chemicals in the vinyards, and an extremely natural process in the winery. This estate is "a world treasure" (The battle for wine and love; Alice Feiring, 2009- here is a link to her blog); and one of my favorite wine producers in the world. They make a beautiful wines out of the regular grapes from the region, both red and white. in the red wines they are making three cuvee's- here are my tasting notes:
Vina Cubilo 2002-
Color: light red with hints of brick
Nose: nice floral minerality, great notes of bright red berries and a serious dose of earthyness.
Palate: Subtle, beautiful, good flavor, hint of fruit, a nice smooth texture and a finish that reminded me of cloves if they didn't hurt to eat! All in all a great wine, and can be drunk with chicken, fish, salads, and just about anything. The lightest red in the line.

Vina Bosconia 2001-
Color: Dark red with clear hints of brick
Nose: Intense stone, Dark berries and some gamey notes
Palate: great flavor, intense and meaty but not at all heavy with notes of rasberries and coco. An astounding wine with great structure and dusty tannin with a nice long finish of black pepper.

Now on to the whites. First up is a discription of the style of these amazing wines- they are somewhat unique, often evoking notes that would generally associate with more expensive sherry wines and dessert wines. Dispite that the wines are completely dry and very satisfying. All in all these two whites are among my favorite wines every vintage. Fun amazing wines to try- just don't drink up my supply!

Vina Gravonia Blanco-
C: medium caramel, a bit more yellow.
N: toffey, crisp apple, burnt orange- astounding!
M: dry, and refreshing- pretty and very clean- but a hint oxidized. This wine is delicious!

well, that's it for now! Check us out again tommorow when I blog about our new 6 pack of Bordeaux wines!
As always, thanks for reading!
Ben
Friday 8/14/2009
6 pm

Dinner at Cafe Boulud

2009-08-14T16:29:00.001-04:00

Emanuel Moosbrugger the gracious and very knowledgeable sommelier at Cafe Boulud on East 76 St. recommended a few super bottles two nights ago.

First was Terres Doreés FRV100, a delightful sparkling "Beaujolais rose", I thought it looked more red than rose, with a tad of residual sugar. Light refreshing non aggresive moderatley small bubble, fruit and more fruit. It tasted a bit like our Vin du Bugey-Cérdon , by Elie & Alain Renardat-Fache, also a delicious sparkler but definitely rose in color. We went through the FRV100 lickety-split.

Then the serious wine came a bottle of Alain Voge Cornas Vieille Vigne 1991. It was fully mature, medium bodied with very nice fruit and just a hint of whole peppercorns.

Lastly we had a Chaume des Coteaux de Layon, Chateau Soucherie 2003 that was just lusciously sweet (but not weighty like Sauternes) with a bit of Botrytis "Noble Rot" made from chenin blanc, a really neat wine.

Emanuel swirling 3
glasses at once

Cornas Alain Voge
1990 (off bottle)
2 glasses and our
1991 (Wonderful)

Bernie
August 14, 2009

Technorati Tags: Boulud, Beaujolais, dressner, cornas, bugey, cerdon, voge, soucherie, frv100, dorees, chaume

Following Eric Asimov of the Times!

2009-08-14T12:24:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Today I am going to pass on some tasting notes for several of the wines that Mr. Asimov has written about in the last two weeks. He is one of my favorite wine writers and has a great style and palate. Last week Eric covered Beaujolais Cru. As many of you know I am the buyer for the Beaujolais region and a great fan of the wines. Several of the wines that Eric wrote up we carry. Here are some tasting notes for related wines:

Domaine des Terres Dorees (Jean-Paul Brun) Beaujolais Blanc 2008
This wine is made from a very small plot of chardonnay the Jean-Paul owns and is one of the best examples of non oak influenced chardonnay available from France. The color is very clear pale straw. The nose of the wine has a great deal of minerality and some melon and earth to it. The taste is all fruit upfront and quite a good amount of structure with a long dry finish . . simply put: Amazing wine!

Domaine Des Terres Dorees (Jean-Paul Brun) Beaujolais Rose 2008
This is Jean-Paul's Great rose . . . one of the best roses we got this year! This is made from 100% Gamay grape and there is very little of this made each year. It's a pink wine- Really pink! The nose evokes white flowers, great minerality and zesty red current and ripe cherry. A fun and highly rated rose that has a very limited availablity!

We will be tasting both of these wines and a few more amazing Beaujolais including several Cru wines from Jean-Paul and other winemakers Today from 4-7. Come by and check them out!!

Next up- Following Eric Asimov of the Times part 2!
Ben 8/14/09
12pm

Chateau Clinet 2004

2009-08-14T11:22:00.001-04:00

Two Saturdays ago I opened Chateau Clinet 2004 for dinner. I was grilling hangar steaks outside, while my super chef wife was cooking green peas (from the local farm stand) in the Roman style, that is sautéed in butter and olive oil with pearl onions and prosciutto.

I often hear that wine smells of this and that, and just as often think some of the smells are stretches of the imagination. Well it was amazing! Black currants just filled the glass with the sweetest most beautiful aromatics, so pretty that I felt compelled to write.

In the mouth the wine was intense with cassis and the vanilla oak was just so well done that it complemented and intertwined with the mouth filling flavors that this beauty presented.

Best,
Bernie
August 14, 2009

Marinated Feta with Sumakh & Rose

2009-08-03T23:21:00.001-04:00

This is a good sounding recipe. I like the idea of paring it with a Rosé.

The one I would choose is the Cave de Tavel Les Lauzeraies. Try them both, the recipe and the wine, and let me know what you think.

WineSkinny.com — Wine, Food, Pairings, Tastings! » Wine & Cheese: Marinated Feta with Sumakh & Rosé

Paul
8/3/2009

A New Wine

2009-08-01T14:50:00.001-04:00

Hi all,

So I feel a little bit like I stored all of my blog writing up until today! Still, two posts in one day is a good bit of writing for me. This post is about a new wine we just got in last week that is amazing.The bottle is the Maxime Magnon La Demarrante. It is a Vin de Pays de la Valee du Paradis and is made by Maxime in Corbieres.

Maxime arrived in the Languedoc region of France about 7 or so years ago with no money. He rents his Vines, he rented a shed to make the wine in at first, but now is renting from a winery near his home. Maxime spent time working in Morgon (in beautiful Beaujolais) with Foillard. Made from organically cultivated Carignan and Cinsault grapes, this is one of my new favorites! Bursting with the smells of flowers, raspberry and soil, the flavor is very nice, and once in the mouth its dry easy structure is fun to taste. The finish does go on a bit- just as wine drinkers like! This is wine for people who know wine and need a reminder why we love it so. A great bottle to drink now. Enjoy.

Thanks,
Ben
8/1/09

Cool Room Pictures

2009-08-01T14:23:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone,

This something that is going on here at 67 Wine over the summer. We worked hard on getting in some new wines (as always) and I have been focusing on adding to and organizing our "reserve" collection. We have a temperature control room on the second floor available to us again and I think it is really starting to get together! Below are some photos of this part of the store taken in the past week or so.

The door! Very shiny!

Door open- Shots of the bottles that are
very large. Notice the Petrus 3 Liter!

The view inside the door- shelves of wine!!
Lots and lots of wine!

The wall- singles, doubles and a few odd
bottles (items we have one or two of!).

The view from the back of the room looking
to the big bottles near the door.

Finally, A shot of the famous
DRC La Tache in the original wood case!

Hope all our readers enjoyed this little tour of our climate room; perhaps some of you saw wines that you thought would be delicious to taste! All of the wines in this are for sale at the store. Check these out next time you are looking for a special amazing treat.

Thanks,
Ben

Blind Blog Off- 1st time ever!

2009-07-23T18:44:00.001-04:00

Hi,
So yesterday I invited a bunch of famous New York wine bloggers to 67 wine to write some tasting notes; and taste with the customers. For this event the guest writers were Lyle Fass of Rocks and Fruit; Karen Ulrich of Imbibe and Zachary Adam Cohen of Farm to Table. This event was a lot of fun. They all got to introduce their writing to some of our customers, and it is always fun to taste blind.

So- before I reveal the wines i thought i would post my tasting notes. Then I'll post the notes that each of them wrote- with pointers to photos, and films, and each of their blogs.

White Wine #2- Nutty, a slightly bitter flavor with almond and floral notes, not particularly complex, but solidly made.
Karen's Notes read: Taking a turn towards the stonier fruits, this one’s the color of yellow straw with aromas of candied apricot and peach.

White Wine #1- The wine of the day. Great complexity, grass, amonia, minerals, apples, quince, amazing legnth and texture. Great lightness and nice flavor on the palate. Intense, delicous and far and away the wine of the day.
Mr. Fass notes: A nose that made me scream "Dagueneau!", "Cepas Velhas!", "Txakolina!" until I finally settled on Austrian Sauvignon Blanc.
Karen says: Pale straw in color, with a powerful nose! Passion fruit, grass, a touch of minerality, and a bit catty. Delicious!

Rose- This showed a bit of strawberry bubble gum, or strawberry yogurt. It was ok, but lacking intensity or any acidity.
Lyle comments:
The 3rd Wine is a rose that smells like ethanol and and tastes like nothing. Poof. Nothing. Strawberry fruit that is light and elegant but also with a forced sweetness.
Karen thought: The strangest color I’ve ever seen! Neon pink with a trace of salmon–surreally electric in color…artificial strawberry yogurt on the nose and palate.
Red Wine #1- intense, ripe fruit, overpowering fruit, little grip, and very low acidity. ok.
Lyle says:
The 1st Wine is a red with a nose of sweet cherry, well-water and dustiness. I yelled out Sangiovese!" and one person argued it was not. We'll see. The palate was sickly sweet and seemed forced. There is a trace of dusty tannins on the finish and it was
not horribly made. I was wrong as it turned out when the wine was revealed. Way wrong. But that's the beauty of spoofilation it can taste like it comes from anywhere!
Karen Says:
Simple, easy drinking wine. Tastes like a sangiovese; we’ll wait and see…

Red Wine #2- Much dryer, very french . . .good verital character- but acidic. Gained weight on the palate as it sat open- grew in fruit; but did not gain the typical graphite and bacon fat notes that this grape usually has.
Lyles comments before the reveal:
The 2nd Wine started out herbal and funky on the nose but soon the palate developed a sweetness that I found off putting. It got sweeter and sweeter. And oakier and oakier.
Karen notes:
Ruby red with soft vegetal aromas, earth, and spice. I’m left with a coated mouth and a slightly sour cherry/sour milk finish.

So- the reveal:
White Wine #2 was the Quattro Mani Toh Kai from Movia Winery in Brda Slovinia.

White Wine #1 was The amazing Jutta Ambrositsch Gemischter Satz! This was again far and away the wine of the day for me!! just great. A special thanks to Paul of Darcy and Huber for the bottle!
Mr. Fass coments after knowing what the wine was:
It was revealed to be something actually pretty interesting. It was the 2007 Jutta Ambrositsch Wiener Gemischter Satz Sommeregg Reserve which is wine from the vineyards within the city limits of Vienna. On the web site of the importers Darcy and Huber its says that apparently the Wiener Gemischter Satz is the only winner of the Slow Food Ark of Taste and Presida award for authentic winemaking.

The Rose was Domaine Deux Anes Corbieres 2008.
Post reveal comments from Lyle:How about this? It's the 2008 Domaine des Deux Anes Corbieres Rose. Natural wine. Sometimes it's just a bit too natural. I'm sure if we kept opening bottles one of 'em would be good. This was like $16.99 or something

Red Wine #1 was O Fornier Centauri Red 2007
Lyles Coment after the reveal: The wine was 2007 Bodega Fournier "Centauri Red". So the modern Sangiovese I thought this wine was, turned out to be a Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Carignan (yes that's right) Carignan blend from Argentina. Blind tasting is humbling. I am humbled.

Red Wine #2 was Domaine De Bonserine Cote Rotie La Sarrasine 2005.
Lyle after the reveal: This turned out to be marked down to $19.99 from $44.99. Even marked down I did not like it but can see the appeal as it is $20 Cote Rotie.

Great discussions of biodynamics, and organics, of faked or spofulated wines, of taste and web 2.0 ideas, about the future of wine criticism. Great fun day. I have a lot of respect for each of our guest writers, and really enjoyed having their presence in the store. According to the Biodynamic almanc- yesterday was a leaf day. Some people feel that this affects the way that things taste (especially wine!) and could account for what was a poor showing buy rather the majority of the wines we poured.

Here is a few comments from Zachary's blog:
Fun stuff all over. Here’s a sip, and be careful to spit!
His blog contains some great shots, and a couple of links to films as well as a great deal of info on food and sustainablity issues here in the city. Just amazing information, and a great writer who's cheeses and bread made the tasting that much more fun. Also- Zachary is very technically savvy; he was posting the photos live to twitter, facebook and films as well to those sites as well as youtube! Very web 2.0- totally geeky and cool as can be!

Here are links to image s and the 2 videos.

Thanks so much for all of that work you guys, I'm glad you had a good time!
Ben

Henri Bourgeois 'Petit Bourgeois'

2009-07-22T11:10:00.001-04:00

Henri Bourgeois is one of my favorite Sancerre producers (his La Porte du Caillou is excellent.) Like many producers from that region, he also makes a Sauvignon Blanc from Le Jardin de France ("the Garden of France") which is an area classed as Vin de Pays, a lower designation than an AOC.

It happens to be a really good wine, called Petit Bourgeois. It's dry, minerally, with great citrus fruit (lemons and limes, predominantly.) It's a nice summer wine, perfect for sunsets on the roof.

Paul
7/22/2009

New interesting wines!

2009-07-02T19:13:00.001-04:00

Hi all,

So I thought I'd actually write a blog about some wines that arrived recently here at 67 Wine. Despite the summer season, which is traditionally slow in our business; we are still trying to acquire new and better wines! The following are some of those new to our store this year:

Hermann J. Wiemer Blanc De Noir:
This wine from the 2002 harvest is made mostly of pinot noir, and has about 15% chardonnay in it as well. A great sparkling wine that competes well with much more expensive wines this Blanc de Noir is made the Methode Champenoise. The nose has Apple, Citrus and hints of spice. The palete shows more complexity with the addition of a distinct nutty edge. Great fun wine!

Bandol Tempier Rose 2008:
This Rose of Mouvedre is often considered the best in class. A great bandol Rose that in this vintage is very easy drinking, fresh and quite delicous. The pale salmon color is typical of this wine and region. Notes of Berries, earth, good acidity and a hint of seaside, this wine is absouluty devine with popcord- just add a little olive oil and thyme as well as your salt and pepper!

Arbois Ploussard Fredric Lornet 2005 :
Red wine from the Jura Region. Made from a local grape called Ploussard, the wine is quite light, almost rose in color, and is one of the best summer reds available. Pale and see through red in the glass the wine is delicous with notes of berry, straw and hints of refreshing minerality. Tastes great- perfect for pannini and salad lunches! This wine is also organic!

Regnie Grain et Granite Charly Thevenet 2007 ,
Gamay! The newest of the Beaujolais Cru Appellations, this bottle of Regnie is made by the son of one of the famous 'gang of four' producers all of whom reside and make wine in Morgon. The style is distinct, richer then most Beaujolais, with a very low amount of sulfur added at bottling, if any. A medium bodied and complex wine complemented by great fruit and nice pleasant acidity. This bottle is one of the best Beaujolais I have ever had!

Terrabianca Campaccio 2004:
SuperTuscan, Super Pricing, and three different sizes of bottle on offer! Campaccio is a very modern style super tuscan made from 70% Sangiovese and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon. A great, rich, full bodied wine, this bottle is quite good and tastes slightly vanilla with a beautiful core of fruit. Very intense flavors that stand up to rich food- try it with a really big BBQ! We have this wine in Half Bottles, Full Bottles and Magnums!! One each for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Well,
Thats it for now- enjoy!
Thanks for reading,

Ben
7/2/2009

Organics from the South of France!

2009-06-26T15:38:00.001-04:00

Hi all,

Yesterday we played host to Troy of Jenny and Francois Selections. They are importers of fine natural wines from France. The wines are great. The tasting was designed to showcase some of the new wines we carry from their portfolio. Natural wines at the very least means to me that the wine is hand made with no use of pesticides or herbicides, and has no designer yeast. The wines we tasted and have in stock are all of these things at a minimum. I will post two tasting notes here, and I hope you will try the wines and enjoy them!

Isa White, Vin de Pays, Cotes de Thongue, 2007.

A delicious organic white wine that is made from the classic Rhone grapes Marsanne and Rousanne with a touch of Viognier in there as well. This wine is great, fun and easy with a nice refreshing acidity and a great touch of fresh fruits. It starts out a bit mineral, but after being open for a little while it really opens up into a sweet grapefruit compote flavor and a hint of Meyer lemons. Nice medium finish, and very little spice. All in all a fun summer quaffer.

Rose Corbieres, Domaine des Deux Anes, 2008

A mostly Grenache Rose made Biodynamically! The label even has a picture of the two donkeys (a politic way of translating the name of the wine from french to english) that help the growers work the land on it! Fantastic Rose that starts out with spicy notes, then shows a great sense of terrior with a hint of earth on the nose. After opening the wine, it slowly develops into an excellent crisp rose of medium red berry character. Fun with a long finish for this type of wine, and a hint of peppercorn on the finish. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!
Ben

What I drank this past week . . . .

2009-06-15T20:16:00.001-04:00

Hi all,

So- I took a few bottles with me on a trip to Northhampton, Ma. This neat little town is home to Smith College. There is an event there every year called Django in June. This is a music camp and two concerts that happen every year in the month of June. I went to learn, teach and hang out- some of you might know about my band Franglais . . which has some relation to the music of Django Reinhardt and Gypsy jazz in general. Its a great opportunity to get together with friends- who can help me drink!

The bottles I chose this year were a bottle of Cour-Cheverny from Domaine du Moulin Les Petits Acacias. This unique wine from the Loire Valley is imported by famous natural wine importer Joe Dressner. Its made of a grape called Romorantin! A neat grape which when well made is delicious, nutty and complex with notes of flowers and a great dry crisp refreshing mouthfeel- just fun interesting wine. The other white wine was a Muscadet from great producer Domaine Pierre de la Grange; however we did not get to open this wine!

For a red I brought a bottle of young Bordeaux from Champ des Treilles. This Bordeaux wine is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet and Cabernet Franc. Made biodynamically, exciting and tasty this was delicious and fun to drink- it started the night with a slight chill, and developed into its normal earthy self. Notes of plum, cherries, and coco followed by a developing palate that coats a bit and leaves a nice lingering finish. Fun to drink.

Finally I took a few roses with me. One, the Provance wine Costelplane was quite good in a "very pale" rose style. Notes of quince, apricot and mango followed by a dry refreshing palate. The glass left you wanting a bit more or a bit of cheese or nuts. Pech Redon makes a rose wine in the Coteaux de Languedoc La Clape. Their rose is delicous in a more heavy darker style- The extraction and fruit shine through, and unlike their red which is quite live with very bright acidity this wine has a much smoother profile. Notes of apple, cherry, marzipan and earth. It was a fun easy quaffer that my music student friends couldn't resist. The wine did get a couple of comments on the color; a lovely dark red that still manages to look like a rose!

Thanks for reading, check out the links and the wines!

Ben
06/15/2009

World tour of wines dinner

2009-05-26T10:15:00.003-04:00

Hi all.
Once again thanks to a generous client I was able to attend a nice dinner with some nice gentlemen and drink a bunch of interesting wines. The theme was based on the world travels of our host- and included wines from many interesting places in Europe, Africa, and the Middle east.

The first wine of the night was the Blanc Du Castel 05. This is a Chardonnay from Israel, and a nice interesting new world style wine. Its clearly harvested pretty ripe, and put through new oak barrels in the best traditions of Napa. Pretty, with wood and a lot of good fruit, some creamy notes of lees aging. Nice- but to oaky for my taste. A good first wine to wake us up, and remind us that wines don't always come from expected places- a theme that would last through the night!

Typically at tasting nights such as this people typically start with a bottle of bubbly. Today we did this backwards, starting with a still wine and then moving on to the bubbles. This of course was the bottle above- a bottle of Movia Puro; made by Alec Kristanc in Brda, Slovenia! This is perhaps the "showcase" of the night . . .its a bit difficult to open; The wine is not disgorged - the process of removing the dead cells of yeast from the secondary fermentation (the one that makes it have bubbles). This means that you as a consumer have to do this. Its a lot of fun! Chill the bottle upside down, then take the cage off, place the bottle in cold water and loosen the cork- it will shoot out into the water with the dead yeast cells- then flip the bottle rather quickly out of the water without pouring too much wine in the bucket. It smells of strawberries, bread and stone- and evolves quite slowly, so drink not to fast- to let the nose develop. I loved it!

Wine from Lebanon! This is the most famous and oldest of the wineries in the Bekaa Valley, the best appellation in Lebanon. Owned by Gaston Honchar, and made in a decidedly french style as if making a high end Bordeaux. By general consensus this was the wine of the night- as in the one that surprised the most people. It is a delicious mix of traditional Bordeaux varietals with Carignan added in for spice. Medium bodied and intense with notes of candy, cassis, kirsch and earth- and just a hint of barnyard and mint. Tasty!

Sorry for the photo quality, but this was an amazing bottle of wine- by everyone's judgment the overall best on the day- even better then the Musar; though that was more suprising! In case its to blurry, the bottle is a bottle of La Mission Haut Brion 1998. Earthy, young and still very powerful this was a very typical Graves wine. Nice nose of blackberry, coco and just a hint of herbaceousness. I enjoyed it very much.

Coming up on the last wine here- this was a bottle of red dessert wine made of the Raboso grape in the Veneto Region of Italy. Served with the cheese plate it went perfectly- intense with notes of raspberry, chocolate and spice it was like sweeter version of a Grenache. Beautiful and fun.

As a final wine- the Kracher Trockenbeerenauslese Cuvee 10, from 1999 . . .amazingly sweet and thick this dessert wine was over the top for my taste. Apples, candy, sugar and cream without to much acidity, but still just barely balanced- it was a nice way to end the night!

Thanks to the Guys, and I hope you enjoyed reading about this great tasting. . . the wines we carry are linked in the pictures, so please- if one of these appeals to you- click on the photo to get our sales page for that wine.

Thanks,
Ben
5/25/2009

Wine for Shrimp Dinner

2009-05-20T11:50:00.001-04:00

Mud House Sauvignon Blanc 2008: A very typical New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Some nice citrus flavor, rounded out by some green melon. Quite herbal; my wife felt it was too grassy, but I liked the intensity of flavors.

Paul
05/08/2009

Wine 101 Tasting Part 2

2009-05-13T15:43:00.001-04:00

Hi,

So I was recently asked to put together a wine 101 tasting for a friend who has just started in the wine business. He wanted to taste all of the major wines of the world in one sitting (while this is not really possible- its a fun challenge). We put together a list of wines, and a list of information that he should know. I thought I post the red wines and some tasting notes for them.

Marsannay J. Roty, 2002: Great Red Burgundy. Pinot noir comes out clean and well made. A touch of earth, soil, cherry, and dark spices of cinnamon and cardamom . Great flavor and texture with a nice long finish. The first red to be opened, and the first wine to be finished as well! 9 out of 10 were into this.

Eric Texier Cotes Du Rhone Chasclan 2007: The second to last red opened . . and thus a very short note! Syrah, Grenache, clean, still a bit tight but showed well. Nice.

Lascombes 2004: an example of a Margeaux. Big bold, with low notes of sandalwood, high notes of vanilla, lots of extraction and size . . decent, well made and really not my thing! Still, a lot of people enjoyed it. 5 out of ten were into this.

Beychevelle 1975: The 'old' wine of the tasting. I have a few of these, and thought it would be good to get some feedback on how they were tasting . . All in all the wine of the night in my opinion, and several other people agreed. smooth and great- good color with brick red middle section and fading to pink at edges. nose of earth, strawberry and plum with hints of minerality and orange peel, cinnamon, and black pepper. Complex and delicious with smooth palate and still containing a lot of life, but no tannin left. This was drunk right at the right time! Great. 9 of ten people were really into this.

Thanks,
Ben

My Last Few Wines

2009-05-12T12:38:00.001-04:00

I can never seem to catch up, but I'm trying to post at least a few notes a week.

Vidal Fleury Cotes du Ventoux - Good, solid, well made Rhone blend. Tasty, good with food, certainly a good value. My only issue with it is that it's a little boring, but that is mostly because I drink so many Rhone wines (I'm the buyer) that I'm always looking for something a little different. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this; most people don't drink as many Cotes du Rhone as I do.

Fougery de Beauclair Bourgogne Rouge - We had tuna steaks, so I decided to try this well priced Bourgogne Rouge. All Bourgogne Rouge is, by law, 100% Pinot Noir. Another good, solid well made wine. It's on the light side, flavor wise, and fairly simple. All the flavors are correct (black cherry, a little cola) and a good wine for a Monday night dinner.

A to Z Pinot Gris - A really delicious little Pinot Gris. We drank this with scallops, dredged in Parmesian cheese, with a sauce made from butter, more cheese and white wine (vermouth). Good acidity, that cut through the sauce. A creaminess that went beautifully. Great citrus and peach flavors that added to the meal. Excellent.

Montinore Pinot Noir - With Salmon. Good Oregon Pinot Noir, Biodynamic. Very straightforward Pinot, with good cherry and black raspberry flavors. Some spice, a hint of more. Could use some bottle age - basic Oregon Pinot Noir, in my experience, peaks three to five years after the vintage. In all, a nice wine for a nice, but simple, dinner.

All of these were at least good, solid values. The real winner of the bunch was the A to Z Pinot Gris, which I really enjoyed. All the rest served exactly the purpose I intended for them. They are good wines that are well priced and very suitable for a mid-week dinner.

Paul
5/12/2009

Wine 101 Tasting

2009-05-11T20:54:00.001-04:00

Hi,

So I was recently asked to put together a Wine 101 tasting for a friend who has just started in the wine business. He wanted to taste all of the major wines of the world in one sitting (while this is not really possible, its a fun challenge). We put together a list of wines, and a list of information that he should know. I thought I could post the wines and some tasting notes for them.

Wine 1:

Smile Poysecco: A sparkling wine from Austria made from gruner vetliner and gelber muskateller. Clean, fruity and bubbles with a large bubble feel and nice apricot and citrus fruit. Simple, fun easy apertif wine. 2 out of 10 were very into this (it had gone flat before several people got it- an oversite on my part . . . apologies!)

Wine 2:

Fleury Cordon Rouge Brut NV: The first biodynamic producer from Champagne; a great complex, crisp champagne with notes of citrus and soil. Not a lot of wood or forest on this one. Great. 3 out of 10 were very into this.

Wine 3:

Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Sauvignon Blanc: A great Loire Valley wine with notes of lemon, soil, and nuts. Very complex and quite dry . . . just delicious. The most liked wine of the night; 9 out of ten were very into this.

Wine 4:

Sedgna Napa Chardonna: I did not really like this wine, oaked and candy with notes of applesauce, wood and candy . . .simple and overextracted. It is well made, and good wine - just really not my thing.
1 of 10 were into this (she and I disagreed!)

Wine 5:

Martinshof Gruner Vetliner Lifeball: A great example of a Gruner; crisp and clean with very Gruner notes - apple, citrus fruit, white pepper. Perfect Gruner. This was liked by about half the people, 6 out of ten. Also,a pairing note - went perfectly with the great local asparagus that my amazing wife cooked!

I'll save the reds and the dessert wine for tommorow.

Thanks for reading.
Ben
5/11/2009

Catching Up, Yet Again

2009-05-01T09:25:00.001-04:00

A few of the wines I've had recently:

Pio Cesare Barolo 2004 - Very impressive. Delicious now, still needs a lot of time before peak drinking.

Pio Cesare Nebbiolo d'Alba 2005 - Outstanding. Great purity of flavors.

Arrowood Chardonnay - Big in the tropical fruit/oak California style, but has great acidity. Despite the big fruit flavors, it's never cloying or simplistic.

Galliard St. Joseph - 100% Syrah from the Northern Rhone. Excellent on the second day (it was an almost full sample bottle that David of Village Wines left for me the night of the organic tasting, but I didn't get to it until the next night.) Classic black plum/black raspberry with some black pepper and a little smoke. I can't help thinking that I would get just as much pleasure from the Gaillard VdP Syrah for less money.

Giacomo Sangiovese - Very rich for a Tuscan Sangiovese at this price. Definitely a more complex wine than either Monte Antico or Santa Christina. It has an earthy element that you just don't find in the other wines. The Giacomo still has a good bit of fruit, but it isn't a "fruity" wine. The other elements keep the flavors well integrated.

That's it for now.

I'm keep telling myself to work on this more often, but somehow, I start making notes and never get back to it.

Until next time,

Paul
5/1/2009

Tasting notes from trade tastings

2009-04-30T19:53:00.001-04:00

Hi,

Once again it is the "trade" tasting season. Its a great time of year, good weather (well, ok, hot then cold), nice people . . . and a whole lot of wine!!!

Tuesday I attended two (yes,two!) tastings. The first was hosted by Domaine Select. Included in this tasting was a great number of the top end wines offered by this company. Wines like Movia, Alfred Graitien, and a host of wines I did not know. The surprise of the tasting was the Chateau Musar wines from Bekka valley in Lebanon. This wine was not new to me, just new to Domaine Select. A great bottle, and from years that were good- just amazing wines. A nice feature of this was the fact that they made available one whites and two reds; from different vintages. Some notes:

Musar 1993: Redish brown, still very deep, with hints of orange at the rim. Nose of cassis, coco, soil and raspberry. Palate of red fruit, smooth with a great long finish.

Musar 1998: A warmer vintage, with plenty of extraction, richness and power. Thankfully less brett then the last time I tasted this wine (in 2003). pretty, smooth and big on the palate with a nose of smoke, soil, blackberries and a bit of vanilla. in the glass color was a deep redish purple, with pink edges.

Musar Blanc 1995: Beautiful intense golden color. Honeyed nose of straw, minerals and lemons. Great dry flavor with nice intensity. All in all pretty good (note grapes are very interesting:Obeideh and Merwah).

We will stock the red, for a start the 1998 as soon as we sell all of our 1999!

Movia has been covered very well before on this blog, and several others- it was nice to taste the new vintage of Veliko Rosso 2002.

Movia Veliko Rosso 02: Rich red color. great nose of grape, minerals, soil and flowers- just everything one could want (this had been open several hours at this point). palate was smooth and pleasant, medium body and pretty- with good fruit, and acidity, great complexity. Nice wine!

Thanks,

Ben
4/30/2009

PS. Tommorow- notes from the Dressner tasting!

Photo Blog #2: Earth Day tasting

2009-04-24T13:09:00.001-04:00

Hi all,

Earth Day was on Wednesday (I hope everyone did something earth friendly!). Here at 67 Wine we held a big wine tasting, featuring organic wines from several of our great vendors. The wines were delicious and this gave our customers a chance to taste some great wines. Our staff and our vendors were able explain a little about organics, biodynamics and sustainability issues. Here are some photos:

The general feel of the tasting

More of the general feel- from farther away.

Andy with some Casa Lapostalle, whose Cuvee Alexandre wine have gone organic.

and the bottles of Casa Lapostalle

Happy wine guy Tim Finch of Ibanez Pleven Selections.

Wines of Ibanez Pleven and Lauber, Downstairs.

Maria-Teresa Appendino and Tim saying "hi" with wine.

A Few White wines from Domaine Select.

Marc of Domaine Select showing Sancerre, Gruner and Slovinian Pinot Grigio!

Marc explaining biodynamics to a customer.

Colin from Carlei Wines of down under- great wines with some unique ideas (Nebbiolo from an
Auzzie?)

Our local Runner, and organic wine guru, Bart Hopkins speaking with customer.

David O'Flaherty of Village Wines holding up wine from Coturri- a great organic California wine!

Lee Campbell of Louis/Dressner serving white wine and speaking about terroir and organics!

Lee serving Maurpertuis- a Gamay from a little known A.O.C. in france.

Bart speaking with David and Lee. Like all good wine talks- over some bottles with glasses in hand!

Customers trying the French and Califonia mix at the tasting table. Serving is David O' Flaherty of Village Wines.

Thanks for reading and looking- see you at the next tasting!

Ben

Photo Blog #1, A tasting with Eva Steininger, Friday, April 20

2009-04-21T09:47:00.001-04:00

The lovely and charming Eva Steininger acting as hostess with customers and Jim from Prescott Wines in the background

Another shot with from the same moment.

Eva Steininger working the bottles!

Jim, Eva, And a friend.

Well, there are some shots from one of our tastings- so you can get a feel.

Thanks,
Ben

Rose Time!!

2009-03-27T18:15:00.001-04:00

Hello,

Today I'd like to talk about Rose wines!

It is the start of rose season, and today was the first day of amazing weather which inspired me to write this blog. We are happy to have a quite good selection at this point, and of course we are trying to expand the selection.

Several of my favorite wines have already come in in the 2008 vintage. Several more are reorders from last year in wines that we think are drinking even better now. Below is a list with some pertinent information- like weather it is organic or not and a quick tasting note.

Rose Bandol Terrebrune 2007
Amazing, clean and complex organic rose from Bandol

Rose Blanes Catelanes 2008
Catelan rose! Fresh strawberry and minerallity farmed organically and made by a woman winemaker.

Rose Borsao 2008
Fruity and quaffable easy drinker from Spain

Rose Esterelle 2008
Dry and complex a hint of earth an coco as well as red fruit in this provancale rose.

Rose Brun Folie 2008
Organic Rose from Gamay grapes by fantastic winemaker Jean Paul Brun- Just perfect for picnics in the park.

Rose Provance d'Escalans 2007
Provancale Rose thats organic and very pale and refreshing with bright fruit and flavor

Well, that is a short list of what we have in stock so far. More links to be filled in later- all of these wines should be on the website soon- with a few more spots to be filled before rose season really kicks in!
Thanks,

Ben
3/28/2009

A Special Tasting

2009-03-27T17:39:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Tomorrow March 28th we are having a great tasting of wines from all over the world. This takes place at our normal tasting hours of 4-7pm. During this tasting you will get the chance to taste a bottle of wine made by Ales Kristanic from Movia winery. We are very happy to make available for the public a taste of Veliko Rosso 2000. This is a biodynamic wine made in Slovenia! This wine is completely natural, unfined, unfiltered, and using minimal SO2. We will be tasting a host of other good wines as well (including the great sancerre from Alphonse Mellot). For more info on Movia, please see my previous post.

Thanks,
Ben
03/27/2009

New from the south of France

2009-03-16T19:57:00.001-04:00

Hi all,
We have some new wines in from the south of France. These are unique and exciting wines from exciting producers who are making things that have a great quality for price ratio. The first is our first wine from the Appellation Controlee of Gaillac. The producer is Domaine Des Terrisses. Gaillac is in the heart of the southwest of France. This organically grown wine is made from a blend of 2 "native" French grapes that basically no one has heard of and one you might recognize. The grapes are Braucol and Duras plus a dash of Syrah. The color on this is a rich dark red, with hints of purple. On the nose this wine smells of minerals, jam, berries, and bricks. Great bright wine with a long finish and just a hint of spice.

Next up we have two wine from the Cotes de Provance estate Domaine du Jas D'esclans. The red is a typical provancal red blend, Syrah, Cinsault, Cabernet Sauvignon. A purple black beauty of a wine, with great size and a big mouthfeel, this certified organic red has a great mellow flavor. Scents of garrige, herbs and red fruit come wafting out of the glass, followed by a hint of woodsy earthyness. Fun to drink, and great for nights out at the barbeque. Last, but not least we also snagged the rose from Jas D'esclans! Fantastic mellow rose to drink outside in the sun. Light, refreshing and crisp, but not so light as to have nothing. This wine is pale pink and shows notes of strawberry, liqorice and earth. Fantastic new wines from two new estates for you to try.
Thanks for reading. Next time: New Half Bottles!
Ben

A Good Sample, from David O'Flaherty

2009-03-10T20:34:00.001-04:00

Domaine du Colombier Crozes Hermitage 2006 - Nice bottle of wine. Full bodied, fruity, spicy, peppery. Good acidity, not viscous or sweet. $27.99 is the regular price, and it's a fair price. I'm going to take 10% off tomorrow and for the next week, and put it on the home page. It's going to to be a good deal.

Paul
3/10/2009

Say It With Me: Mo-Vi-A! Mo-Vi-A! Mo-Vi-A!

2009-03-05T19:49:00.001-05:00

Movia!

Amazing wine from Slovenia. We just got in a few bottles from "rock star" winemaker Ales Kristancic this week. These are great wines grown in a biodynamic way with minimal intervention in the cellar. So much so that the sparkling wine requires us as consumers to disgorge it! We hosted Ales here in our store for a staff tasting in the fall of 2008; the wines are impressive and delicious 'vin natural'. All of the wines are unfined, unfiltered, cloudy but amazingly flavorful and intense. Ales often talks about the energy of the vines. Explaining how he is a bit like a conductor, teaching each vine its role in the shaping of the vineyard, and thus the wine!

Movia is the prime label- with cuvees named Veliko, Lunar, Puro and a varietal labeled Pinot Nero. The Puro Rose sparkling wine is made from 100% Modri Pinot Nero. Delicious and round in flavor with a nice core of fruit and earthy notes. The white Lunar is basically a wine of finesse and beauty with great notes of apple and quince. A spiced midpalate and a great crispness followed by a really long finish! Just amazing wine.

Thanks,
Ben

Nougatine!

2009-02-25T19:31:00.001-05:00

Hi,

Last night my wife and I finally managed to celebrate our Valentine's day. We decided to go out to the Nougatine dinning room of Jean Georges. This is located on the ground floor of the Trump tower at 59th Street and Central Park South.

The room is beautiful, the foods were pretty amazing - staff was quite polite and very gracious. As I was looking at the wine list, the sommelier Stephen Meyer (sp?) came up and asked if he could help with selection. I asked for the larger list, and explained that I was mostly interested from a professional aspect. He provided, and then returned to the table with a taste of Jean Louis Chave's Hermitage Blanc from 2004. An amazing gesture! The wine was delicious, rich and round with flavors of peach and lychee. A nice treat- Thanks Mr. Meyer!

The food I enjoyed was a dish of "goat cheese fondue" with a frisee salad. The cheese arived wraped in an egg roll crust- just amazing, and delicious. The desert was a Rose Custard, and a Peanut butter chocolate dish. Both of them were delicious. All in all the restaurant lived up to expectations, and was quite enjoyable.

Thanks,

Ben
2/25/2009

The dreaded cold!

2009-02-19T18:38:00.001-05:00

ARGH!!

I am suffering from my first cold of the season . . .so dreadful. What a pain! I had to cancel two tasting appointments, and miss a great Austrian wine tasting today with Darcy and Huber. This is a great company, owned by a friend and client. They are bringing in really exciting wines that we hope to feature soon! I hope I feel better tomorrow! There are a bunch of cool events starting up tomorrow around the return to Terroir event here in NYC. This event only comes to the East Coast once in a great while (the last one was two years ago) and the organization was founded by the patron saint of biodynamics in France, Mr. Nicholas Joly. It should be a lot of fun. Reviews to come. The first big event for us around this is a tasting you can all come to with Tony Coturri here on the second floor of the store in our tasting area. He will be here to answer questions about the great Zin, Cabernet, Pinot and blends that he makes with all organic fruit! Its going to be great!

Thanks,
Ben
2/19/2009

The eternal battle of pricing!!

2009-02-12T21:01:00.001-05:00

Hi,

Today I'd like to chat about wine prices...

Yes, those of us who work in the wine trade are aware of the recession. Yes to some extent it is affecting our business. We are working very hard with our customers to attempt to drive our average price down without really any sacrifice in quality. Of course, this is a struggle, but we are trying quite hard.

An industry wide problem is that a lot of distributors who we buy from are still suffering from the prices they paid when the Euro was quite strong against the Dollar. This is changing as they move into stock that was purchased more recently . . but slower then we would like.

This is much more of a problem in spirits then wine. One way we are working on this problem is that we are trying to get better relationships with our suppliers and we are trying to take in our usual interesting range of great wine. We are also trying to lower our price by buying in somewhat larger quantities.

Thanks,

Ben
02/12/09

A new wine

2009-02-06T10:03:00.001-05:00

Hi,

I decided to bring in a new wine this week that I am very excited about. The wine is from the Coteaux du Languedoc, La Clape. La Clape is the most famous area for wines in the Languedoc and the winery, Pech Redon is up at the top of the hill of La Clape. They are ecocert certifed, and are using some biodynamic practices as well. The wine is a typical La Clape bottling - with Syrah, Grenache and Carignan. Here is a picture of the gate at the winery!

Great wine, with berried fruit, with a heady whiff of garrigue (wild herbs - rosemary/thyme), tar and a hint of cocoa. Excellent concentration of dark plum and blackberry fruit with lots of other flavors; licorice, smoked meat, and a hint of rosemary.It has the bright acidity that the non-interventionist winemakers have (usually I associate this with people who have very low sulfer bottlings); making it great with greasy food, and fun to let evolve over a few days! Good long finish; and fun to drink- especially at this price!

Ben
2/7/09

Landmarc at the Time Warner Center

2009-02-01T12:09:00.001-05:00

Good food, excellent wine prices. I had Spaghetti Bolognese and my wife had a hangar steak. The steak was good. The Bolognese was excellent. Big chunks of tender, braised meat, the way it's supposed to be. No ground beef.

We drank a 2003 Chianti Selvanella from Cantina Mellini. Good Sangiovese flavor - sour cherry, some leather, some wet earth. Nice acidity, easily complementing the tomato in the sauce. Some ripe tannin that adds, rather than detracts, from the enjoyment. Wine price was $48 for a wine that we sell at retail for $28 - an incredibly low markup for a NY restaurant.

Paul
2/2/2009

"Bacon and Eggs" - A Failed Experiment

2009-01-28T18:18:00.001-05:00

Not really bacon, and not really eggs. This was supposed to be Braised Pork Belly Over Egg Noodles. Get it? Pork belly is the part of the pig used for bacon, and the egg...

Unfortunately, I made a litany of mistakes, and the result wasn't very good.

It was marinated overnight in pomegranate and orange juices, with onions, garlic and spices (adobo and a few additional spices.)

The meat on the pork belly is in three distinct layers. There is the bottom layer of meat, then a layer of fat, then a second layer of meat, then a second layer of fat, the top layer of meat, another layer of fat, and finally, the skin. My first mistake was that I over-browned the skin. The first step in a braise is to sear the meat, but I went too far on the skin side. Next was the critical mistake. I was supposed to start the braise skin side down, covered, for the first two hours. I went to turn the meat at the appointed time, and I had put it in skin side up.

I then had to decide what to do next, and I made a bad decision. What I should have done is turn the meat so it was skin side down for a couple of hours, then finish it skin side up in a hot oven to just crisp the skin. Instead, I did not turn it. I just uncovered it and let it finish cooking.

Anyway, the top was both overcooked and rubbery, not crisp. The bottom layer of meat, which was in contact with the pan the whole time, was dried out. The marinade, which became the braising liquid, was over-concentrated, too strongly flavored and too heavy for the noodles. I couldn't even force it through a strainer. I could have used a food mill or an immersion blender, but as strong as it was, the last thing I wanted to do was blend in all those onions and garlic.

I learned a few lessons. First, follow directions. It may not have been perfect, but it would have been a lot better if I had. I also learned that you can dry out the meat in a braise. You can't leave unprotected meat (there was no fat or skin beneath the lowest layer of meat) either up and uncovered or down in contact with the pan for too long. Next, you can't let the braising liquid get too thick, or you end up without a sauce. You can always add liquid during cooking, but it doesn't taste the same if you try to thin it at the end. Finally, in a step I haven't mentioned so far, when cooking pork belly, there is so much fat rendered that you have to refrigerate it overnight so you can skim the solidified fat. They tell you to just cover the whole thing and chill. Next time, I'll wrap the meat and the gravy separately. The gravy will go into a taller, narrower container, so that I will have a thicker layer of fat to take off. This way, there was a thin (but not too thin) layer of fat over the whole pan that was hard to skim.

The wine was excellent - Bernard Ange Crozes Hermitage. It's 100% Syrah from the Northern Rhone. It had great black plum and blackberry fruit with great acidity. It's a puzzlement why more producers can't harness all that great fruit and yet make a lively wine. This one was peppery and bright, and I'll be happy to drink it again.

Paul
1/28/2009

A good winter warmer

2009-01-28T18:04:00.001-05:00

Hi,
recently I have been looking for a great winter wine- white and red. Like most of us here in NYC, I have been enjoying the amazing snow and hating the wet and the cold! In our job we are always looking for great wines; here are my cold and wet picks!
Guy brossard sparkling wine from the Loire valley- amazing, pretty with mineral and lemon on the nose and a great dry finish.
Minervois Coupe Roses, a great southern France red wine with floral and earth. A great core of dark berries in the mouth. Clean wine from clean winemaking techniques- it's just delish!
thanks,
and enjoy the weather!
Ben
1/28/09

Champagne and... Mac & Cheese?

2009-01-23T21:39:00.001-05:00

That's right. And the mac & cheese was a lot better than the Champagne.

A couple of years ago, the NY Times published a two recipes for mac & cheese in the food section. One was called crunchy, the other was called creamy. My wife, who is a really good cook, has experimented with the crunchy until it is now incredibly good. It's real cheese and it's seasoned and it's delicious.

We paired(?) it with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot she was given as a holiday gift. Now, Clicquot was never my favorite Champagne, at least the Yellow Label (NV). The Gold Label (vintage) is excellent, and the Grande Dame is wonderful, but the Yellow has always been too citrusy for me.

This Yellow Label reminded me, more than anything else, of Pinot Grigio with bubbles. It isn't as tart as it used to be. While I never liked the way that tartness was carried forward, it was at least real. This bottle wasn't bad; it was too inoffensive to be bad. It just didn't have enough flavor. I guess it's been too long since I had more than a taste of it.

When someone asks me to recommend a Pinot Grigio, I try to steer them to the ones that have real flavor. I've heard, more often than you would imagine, that the buyer doesn't want one with flavor. The reason they drink Pinot Grigio is because it doesn't bite back. For myself, I like wine with edges.

I always recommended Perrier Jouet and Piper Heidseick for people who only drink Champagne on special occasions, because they were always the softest (lower acidity). Well, soft has a new champion, and I shouldn't be surprised. It wasn't just marketing that put Clicquot on top - they changed the juice to reach the lowest common denominator. P-J and Piper, while still soft, at least have some flavor. I'll still recommend them for that reason; but I'll ask what kind of wine the buyer generally drinks. If it's Pinot Grigio, well, that's a person who will love Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label.

Paul
1/23/2009

Clicquot, Champagne

Always Trying to Catch Up

2009-01-23T09:37:00.001-05:00

I always want to keep up with the blog, but before I know it, two weeks have passed and I still haven't posted my notes. With that said, here is an older note. It was sitting in my draft folder, waiting for me to add a couple more.

Chateau Les Ormes de Pez St. Estephe 2001 - My New Year's Eve wine. Incredibly good. The cassis fruit is so pure it was like a laser to the taste buds. The fruit was followed by very pretty leather with a little vanilla oak. The finish went on and on. Not really comparable to the 1996 Mouton from Christmas, but it's one tenth the price. Very much in the same style, but lacks the complexity of the Mouton.

Paul
Written 1/12/2009
Posted 1/23/2009

Texier Côtes Du Rhône

2009-01-22T21:51:00.001-05:00

Eric Texier Côtes Du Rhône 2006

This is a very good CdR. It's spicy. It's got some nice red cherry fruit, and some fresh, ripe tannin. I would say that it's the spice that takes it above the usual CdR. There's a lot going on here. Enjoyed with some simple sauteed chicken and long grain and wild rice.

Paul
1/22/2009

Bart's Organic Blog

2009-01-15T15:30:00.000-05:00

There is an interesting commercial being broadcast on the radio about auto headlights. The advertisement presents two similar scenarios where a vehicle encounters a deer on the road. The first driver has to swerve around the deer because he didn’t see it until the last minute. The other driver, who had a new pair of headlights, saw the deer in plenty of time to avoid it. The message of the commercial was to change your headlights regularly to avoid danger on the road. This reminded me of how grape growers deal with fungal problems in the vineyard.

Conventional farmers are like the driver with poor headlights. They wait until a problem is upon them, then they swerve out of the way of the problem with a barrage of chemical treatments. When fungal diseases appear, spraying is the only answer.

Biodynamic growers, on the other hand, can foresee problems before they occur, and deal with them in a more natural fashion. As described by Rudolph Steiner in his lectures on Agriculture, fungal diseases originate from the water element, and are seen as a rising up of the level of the soil. Like the driver with a good pair of headlights, the biodynamic grower can avoid the problem before it starts. What causes the water element to rise up above the level of the soil usually has much to do with the lunar element. A biodynamic grower can anticipate the rising moon, as well as the ascending moon and perigee, all of which can influence the rising up of the water element. As rain can also be a contributing factor, the weather report is also important to pay attention to. To combat fungal diseases, such as mildew and gray rot, preventive measures such as the application of horn silica to the leaves, as well as nettle tea, willow tea and horsetail decoction, can ward off the water element before it develops into a problem. Good canopy management, that provides air flow through the leaves, also helps stem the effects of water and humidity. Being prepared for a potential problem is far better than fighting it off after it has already begun.

Such are the ways of biodynamic growers, as they have a clearer understanding of their vineyards and the forces that affect them.

Bart
01/13/09