My Italian Renaissance: 2004 Vinosia Taurasi Restored My Faith!

I'll acknowledge that I've been slackin' on the bloggin'. Sorry! But happily, it's because I've been building my wine education business here in the ATL, and I've been doing events at businesses and in people's homes. It's not all for naught.

And perhaps it was worth the hiatus, because out of one of the tastings comes this review of an amazing wine, about which you may never have heard...Taurasi. Get ready. It's more expensive than the stuff I usually review, but it's worth every penny, dime, nickel, and dollar (and it's only $24, so it's just a little indulgence, really).

Before waxing poetic on this massive, delicious, and low profile wine, I'll be really honest (shocking, I know): I've been off the Italian wine train for quite some time. Why? Not just because I really love Tom Stevenson (who writes Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia and laments the downfall of Italian wine too), but also because Italian wines of any ilk below $15 generally taste really bad to me -- either watery if they are whites, or way too rustic and rough if they're reds. When there is such great French, Spanish, German, Austrian, Argentinean, Chilean, New Zealand (you get the point) wines in that price point, and good Italian is $10 why buy it? That's been my philosophy and it's worked out pretty well.

The thing is, I kind of have a love affair with Italy (I know, so original) outside of the wine thing, so I feel like Tiger Woods right now. I lived there when I was in college for a semester and have been back several times both on wine business and because I just adore it (MC Ice and I plan to retire in Montalcino, home of Brunello). Hence, although I don't think the Italian wineries will hit me with a golf club through my car window, not drinking Italian wines makes me feel disloyal.

So happily, when an Italian tasting was requested I was able to rediscover some gems that I had previously forgotten (I'll review an excellent Gavi soon as well). One was the Vinosia Taurasi, a wine made from the Aglianico (said ah-ylee-ah-neek-o) grape.

When the Greeks settled in the Campania and Basilicata regions, they brought Aglianico. The name derives from the Latin word for Greek -- Hellenica. It was the principal grape of the famous Falernian wine in Roman times, and was enjoyed by lots of dudes in togas. Today, it's still cultivated in both Campania and Basilicata.

Taurasi is a town in Campania, the province that is home to Capri, the Amalfi Coast, and Pompeii. It's mountainous, hot, dry, and has lots of volcanic soils (we all know what went on in Pompeii in 79 AD right?). Not much but Aglianico can grow very successfully in this area. If yields are kept low, the wines produced from Aglianico are full-bodied, age-able, and can rival Barolo and Brunello in power and class, for a lot less $$.

Sadly, the stuff was basically unknown until about two decades ago when one producer, Mastrobernandino, began making higher quality wine from Campania and it got some attention. Now other producers are in on it, including the famous and modern Feudi di San Gregorio from which the winemaker broke off and started Vinosia, the maker of a lovely Taurasi, which I will now review...

The Wine: Vinosia Taurasi
Where It's From: Taurasi, Campania, Italy
The Grapes: 100% Aglianico
Vintage: 2004
Price: $23.99

Color: Deep, dark ruby with a brownish edge. It stains the glass on the swirl. It was practically opaque and held its color even when I tilted the glass down. I expected big flavor from so much color!

Smell: An endless stream of adjectives comes to mind with this wine. First coffee grounds, licorice, damp earth, dark cocoa powder, and tobacco leaf. The wine was not particularly fruity on the nose -- it was so much more mineral-like, earthy, and chocolately. The fruit came after the earthen scents -- dark cherry, prune, black raspberry, and cranberry weaved together subtly. It was really luscious and made my mouth water.

Taste: Wow. Although this could use a little decanting to allow the wine's tannins to soften up (oxygen helps the wine release its natural scents. I won't bore you with the chemistry lesson, but click here for more details) , the wine was imminently drinkable with a good swirl. It tastes just like it smelled, but with more ripe plum character and an unbelievably rich texture.

This wine is plain SEXY.

It's like box of Godiva chocolate truffles, but with a kick of acid and make-you-feel-alive tannin. Ripe fruit and rich mocha played so well with the mouth-watering acidity and the (not overly but just enough) mouth-drying tannin. This wine is so drinkable, and just lovely. It's ready right now, so if you have access to it, buy it and drink it tonight.

Food: You need rich food for this wine. Roasted meats, game, and eggplant dishes would work well. Don't even try to pair this with chicken, salad, white fish, or lighter pasta -- it will completely overpower the delicate flavors.

Drink or Down the Sink?: Drink now, and even buy a bottle or two to try in a year. If you like big wines, this is a wonderful choice that will rival the best Italian reds. It's a steal at $24, and it's restored my belief that Italy, when it tries to produce something with care (instead of en masse to make a euro), is a force to be reckoned with in the wine world. Readmore »»

Martin Ray Chardonnay: Not Today

About 6 years ago, I swore off chardonnay and declared myself an ABC drinker (anything but chardonnay). I was sick of drinking a glass of wine that tasted like melted butter, caramel sauce, and a 2x4. So I sought greener pastures in the world of white and fell in love with sauvignon blanc, pinot gris, albarino, gruner veltliner, dry riesling -- anything that wasn't chardonnay.

What lifted this completely idiotic boycott, which had closed me off to a huge part of the wine world, was a glass of Chablis. Not the kind out of a jug, mind you (which is no less than a defamation of this insanely historic, fabulous region), but the stuff from Burgundy, France. Chablis is a very cool, northern region in Burgundy (it's close to Champagne) that makes high acid, steely whites from 100% -- you guessed it -- chardonnay. It has clean, crisp, mineral-like flavors, certainly more like sauvignon blanc than the chardonnay I'd been trying.

The thing that I didn't realize about chardonnay is that it is the most malleable of grapes. It grows with vigor in nearly every wine region of the world and off the vine is fairly neutral. Never to take lemons and enjoy them at face value, being human means we must make lemonade, so over the centuries winemakers have figured out some ways to take this boring grape and give it a little sex appeal. Put it in oak -- it gets butterscotch, nut, wood, burnt caramel flavors with time. Motivate a secondary (malo-lactic) fermentation and tart green apple flavors turn into buttery cream.

In Chablis they don't generally use oak nor do the winemakers seek creaminess from malo-lactic fermentation, but further south in Burgundy they do both, and the results are luscious (try a wine from Chassagne-Montrachet or Puligny-Montrachet to see what I mean). The difference between these wines and the ones that I banned from my wine rotation is a little thing called acid.

I'd been drinking $15 wines from California. These wines were oaky, creamy, and flabby -- there was no kick of mouthwatering, tongue puckering acid. To me, simply put, this sucked.

What I learned later on, and I thought I'd share here, is that growing chardonnay in hot places essentially bakes the acid out of the grape and leaves you with a vat of flabby juice that, as a winemaker, you better oak and make creamy. Otherwise who the hell is going to drink it? It's more like flat Mountain Dew than wine. If you buy a chardonnay from a cooler climate (Chablis, other parts of Burgundy, New Zealand, the Casablanca Valley of Chile, Santa Maria Valley and the Carneros region of California), you can get a wine with a backbone and still enjoy some of the creamy or oaky.

In shopping for wines I always seek out cooler regions for Chardonnay, and the Russian River Valley of Sonoma is often a good bet. It's near the Pacific and it gets a ton of fog hanging out over it, so the hot Cali sun is tempered by this curtain of cool. If you've been there, you know that it's freaking freezing in the AM and the PM and pretty darn warm in the middle of the day. You have bring 5 layers just to be prepared. This is great for ripening grapes and often creates chardonnays that have a good balance of acid, fruit, oak, and cream.

That's why it's a shame that the Martin Ray Chardonnay was so unpleasant for me and M.C. Ice. It really made me want to reinstate my ban, although this time just against Russian River. Let's examine why this wine went off the rails:

The Wine: Martin Ray
Where It's From: Russian River Valley, Sonoma, CA
The Grapes: 100% Chardonnay
Vintage: 2006
Price: $13.99

Color: Ah...it all started out innocent enough. A nice yellow color, kind of like a Duncan Hines cake (we just made cupcakes for the hell of it and those I haven't devoured are sitting in my fridge, hence the reference).


Smell: Let's see...um, not good would be the first thing that comes to mind. In addition to the caramel-oak that overpowered everything else, there were secondary smells. Chemicals, dirty socks, sour and bruised fruit, and some indescribable foot-like smell wafted out of the glass.

Taste: The wine tasted only slightly better than it smelled. In a refreshing twist, we actually tasted a little of the cooked apple and caramel that should probably be there. Still, the chemical taste, the over-oaked flavor, and the complete lack of acid pervaded. And there was just this FUNK. I can't even tell you what it was like (toes?). I wish I could say that the bottle was flawed but it wasn't corked or turned or overheated, it was just gross wine. I couldn't finish my glass, and neither could M.C. Ice (which is shocking since he'll drink 2 Buck Chuck).

For a standard bearer of the Russian River Valley, this wine does not represent. Sonoma can be a great place for chard, but I would steer clear of this one.

Drink or Down the Sink?: I think you know what we did with ours after reading this review...

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Boekenhoutskloof Syrah: Good Wine But Needs Some Time...

A while back I was sent a shipment of Syrah for a Hospice du Rhône online tasting (yes, this wine was gratis, but I'm still going to tell you what I really think). I never got a confirmation that I was being sent wine for the event, so I didn't hurry to the FedEx to pick up the box. When I finally got down there and received the shipment, I had a horrifying moment of guilt -- I had missed the online gig by a day. Urgh.

The bright spot was that, in spite of the snafu, the organizers allowed me to keep these beautiful Syrahs that I've been making my way through. With this ridiculously frigid weather bracing Atlanta (didn't I move south for better weather?), Syrah is so warming and delicious that I'm happy I saved it a few weeks so I can really enjoy it.

Before moving on to the wine, I should probably explain what Hospice du Rhône is. It's a pretty cool organization that celebrates and elevates the profiles of producers who grow and make wine from the 22 varieties that go into Rhône wines. The organization has a big 3 day event every year for the public to educate folks on Rhône varieties through a grand tasting, which lots of international producers attend. If you love Rhône wines, get your ticket to Cali today, because it's in Paso Robles (South Central Cali) on April 29- May 1 this year.

Now, to this South African beauty of a Syrah. I have a special place in my heart for South Africa and South African wines. At the end of 2004 to 2005 (I spent New Year's there) I was lucky enough to go to this gorgeous place and explore wine country a bit (when I wasn't scaling rock face to get up the back side of Table Mountain and Lion's Head! Hiking is my other passion). I got to taste some wonderful wines, especially those from the Franschhoek area(where the wine below hails from), and got familiar with some of the stellar producers in the region. South Africa has a ton of potential and is worth trying if you haven't experimented yet!

The Boekenhoutskloof (AWESOME name, pronounced book-n-howeds-kloof) comes in a heavy bottle and is called Syrah. I bring up this second point because Shiraz and Syrah are the same grape, but producers use each term to indicate a style difference. Most South African producers want to be affiliated with Australian-style wines, so they use "Shiraz" on their labels. Interestingly, Boekenhoutskloof uses Syrah, which indicates to me that they were going for a more French style wine.I think they succeeded.

Here's the rundown:

The Wine: Boekenhoutskloof
Where It's From: Franschhoek, South Africa (near Capetown)
The Grapes: 100% Syrah
Vintage: 2006
Price: $40.00

Color: Um, just a little dark and opaque. Perhaps black would be a good description. The wine is intensely colored and although showing it's age with a brown edge, you can immediately tell that it was harvested in an area with a warm climate because of that dark color. Another giveaway -- the tears dripped so slowly down the sides of the glass, it was like honey. That indicates high alcohol, and the wine has almost 15% so my eyes did not deceive me.


Smell: I love Syrah because when it's good, the aromas just keep coming. Boekenhoutskloof
is layered and refined and complex. Rich dark berry, black plum, and raisins came first. Then coffee and mocha from the oak and a violet, dark flower perfume. There was a underlying mineral quality and a wet soil character that made this wine more Old World in style than New World. What an impressive nose! The only giveaway that this isn't from France -- you could smell the alcohol (Ok, time for a confession. Although I mostly drink wine, my dear friend and neighbor Lauri can vouch for the fact that I have a special place in my heart for Irish coffee. This wine smelled like coffee with whisky, Bailey's, and cream. Delicious.).

Taste: The wine delivered on the nose, which was great. It tasted like deep rich fruit, with more identifiable stuff on the palate than on the nose. Blackberry, dried cherry, prune, and cranberry were pronounced.

The secondary notes were interesting and yummy. The wine was like a main course and dessert in one. The entree featured a distinctive dark earth, bloody, meaty flavor. I'm a pescatarian but I just loved this character. It was raw and delicious. This was followed by a finish that was like dessert -- with coffee, mocha, espresso and chocolate hanging around and leaving a last impression. I guess you can drink a meal (even without that Jack La Lanne juicer liquifier thing that is always on infomercials).

Before I wrap on the taste, the texture is worth noting. On the positive side, I was surprised that I didn't taste the alcohol, which I expected to feel after smelling it and seeing in in the glass. That said, the wines seemed to lack acid to balance the tannin. Although I liked this wine, I found it fell flat on the finish. The flavors were there and the tannin strong, but without the acid the wine was just pretty good, not phenomenal.

With that criticism, though, I got to give the marketers some props -- on the wine note they acknowledge that the vintage is really tight, needs cellaring, and that it shines in secondary and tertiary, rather than primary, flavors. I couldn't agree more. Good for them for being honest and not trying to spin. We need more people like that in wine. It makes me want to buy more of their product and support them (if it's true that all they need is a few years in the cellar to bring this back to life!).

Food: Given the bloody quality of the wine (at the risk of sounding vampiric, I mean this in a positive way), I think a complementary pairing with rare steak is your best bet. This wine requires heavy stews and rich, dark flavors. Beef, mushroom, braised pork -- you get the gist.

Drink or Down the Sink?: Drink, but not now. It's a little pricey for the quality as it stands. If you buy this wine you will need to cellar it for 3-5 years. If you're willing to wait, it should be well worth it. I have a feeling that with some time, the tannins and delicious flavors that are in this wine now will develop into something heavenly!

Bonus picture: me atop Table Mountain after a LONG climb


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Come Meet Me at My First Tasting at Parish Restaurant, Intown Atlanta

SHAMELESS Self-Promotion. For all my Atlanta followers, it's short notice, but I'd love to meet you at my Chardonnay and Pinot Noir tasting at Parish tomorrow evening in Inman Park. Please come if you can and forward it on to anyone you think may be interested. Details are below! Thanks!
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We're pleased to announce that after a short hiatus, Parish Wine Tastings are back with a new format and a fresh face! Please join us in welcoming our new wine educator, Elizabeth Schneider,* who will be doing our monthly tastings at Parish. Our first tasting will be Wednesday, March 3rd at 7 PM.


Here are the details on the event:

From Beautiful Burgundies to their Californian Counterparts
Getting to Know Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Around the World

Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the great wines of Burgundy...and they're not slouches from the US either. Do you love them or hate them? Or are you not sure? These wines are chameleons so it can sometimes be hard to make a blanket statement about what you like or don't like. Growing in different regions and in different winemakers' hands they can taste like they are made from completely different stuff.

So, before professing unwavering love of California Chardonnay or a loathing of all French wines, let's first take a closer look at a few Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. In this tasting we'll talk about how to evaluate a wine like the pros so you can pinpoint what you like and don't like about the wine specifically. Then we'll use this skill to discuss these two amazingly complex grapes in great depth.

Learning the similarities and differences in the wines, and helping you figure out the characteristics you like will get you set up for a new appreciation of the varietals and prepare you to explore new regions and wine styles when you're next out with your friends or shopping for wines at the liquor store.


Wines and Cost: $25 will cover three high-end Pinot Noirs and two Chardonnays served with the Chef's assortment of Charcuterie from the Market at Parish.

If you're interested in attending the tasting, please call us at 404.681.4434 to reserve seats, as space is limited

We look forward to seeing you at Parish on Wednesday!

www.parishatl.com
240 N Highland Avenue Northeast
Atlanta, GA 30307

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