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Chris Sherman
Savennieres: Chenin blanc goes to the head of the class
Can’t promise that chenin blanc is the Next Big White, but the best of it now gets attention as a smart alternative to chard and sauv blanc.
Eric Asimov gave the chenin of Savennieres high marks in the New York Times and we agree. This small stretch of the Loire is distinctive but too often overlooked. Most wine lovers know the Vouvrays of the chateau country where chenin blanc is vinified sweet, dry and even bubbly, always pleasant if not exciting. Head downriver toward Nantes and the snappy muscadets, and midway in the Anjou region around Angers, chenin blanc begins to change and become complex, which is a critic’s way of saying it’s not for everybody. (Although few wines are.) Still the chenin has a lot of conflicting, challenging flavors not as friendly as Vouvray and what the NYT calls cerebral: the peach, apricot, quince and persimmon are more tart, sweet-sour, with nutty depths and stony, chalky edges.
2005 Dom. Closel Savennieres la Jalousie Sec (Loire) 16.99
Among Asimov’s top ten choices is Nicolas Joly, the leading wine maker in the area and a selection of ours for his 2004 Clos de La Bergerie ($49.99) and 2005 Les Clos Sacre ($29.99).
We also have a discovery of our own, 2005 Dom. Closel Savennieres la Jalousie Sec ($16.99)
Which drew a wow and a 92 from Rhett Bieletti.
“It is both nuanced and intense, starting shyly with stone fruits and floral essences aromatically, and revving up to an intense combination of sweet/sour fruits, racy acids and minerality.”
Rhett calls it an “intelllectual wine.” That’s not a dare, just a mighty tempting invitation.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
The Power of V: Va va Vouvray
2008 Chateau de Valmer Vouvray (Loire) $9.99
I’m over e-this, i-that, q-who and z-whatever. What about V? Now that’s a letter. Even has its own TV series (two of them), plus Vino, Venice, Vivaldi, Veronica, Vidalias, Velveeta…
Okay maybe V doesn’t always work, but it’s a great start to white wines worth exploring: Viognier, Vermentino, Vinho Verde, Vidal and very French Vouvray.
Vouvray is in that dreamy patch of chateau country midway along the Loire that romantics, hunters and anglers love, but wine snobs neglect. Here the noble grape is chenin blanc, and in the magic limestone caves above the river it can become dry, demi sec, doux or even mildly mousseux with bubbles.
Try the middle path in the 2008 Chateau de Valmer Vouvray ($9.99 and a double V!). This is bright gold in color aroma and taste, honeysuckle in the nose, ripe pears, pineapple and orange zest on the tongue, but not heavy, with a chalky minerality and a little acid for backbone. A wine made for seafood, salmon, mild curries and picnics. Worth buying several to lay down. You’ll be surprised how it grows up in a few years.
Speaking of picnics, stop by the chateau and gardens on your next trip to France. It’s like visiting… Versailles. And free.
2009 Crossings Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough, New Zealand)
2009 Crossings Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) $9.99
“New Zealand sauvignon blanc at fighting varietal prices and it has all the crispness of its neighbors. This packs tropical fruit and melons as well as telltale grapefruit zing and rippling creekbed minerality. Easy to drink, bouncy body, but not a lightweight. Buy a case for your next fish fry, clam bake or Chinese wedding banquet.”
89 Points, Chris Sherman
Staff Selection, May 2010
Top chefs of today, tomorrow cook up Ryan Wells dinner
Taste who’s cooking now and ten years from now at the annual salute to student chefs next week at the Sheraton Sand Key, one of the Nibbler’s favorite dining secrets.
The dinner for the Ryan Wells Foundation is unusual because the full course meal is both first rate and cooked by teams of professional toques and the top students in high school culinary programs. We’re fans of them — and alumni like Shane Clark who’s in the kitchen at Currents where B-21 hosts many a winemaker dinner.
There are more future Mario Batalis than you realize. While restaurant sales have slowed, the hunger to be a chef has grown rapidly. Pinellas County now has ProStart programs at Dixie Hollins, Northeast, Osceola, PTEC, and Tarpon Springs. Those students will bang pots with top chefs John Harris of Rusty’s at Sand Key, Chris Ponte of Café Ponte, Scott and Doug Bebell of Guppy‘s and Mystic Fish, Mark Hyrcko of Island Way Grill, Stephen Jordan of SandPearl, Tyson Grant of Parkshore Grill, and Tod Hess of the ACF.
Tickets are $300 a couple and supports scholarships that send students to further training at Johnson & Wales and other professional schools.
The foundation was started in memory of one such student chef who never got that chance, Ryan Wells, a promising senior in Tarpon’s culinary program who died in a car crash coming home from training in Miami.
This year’s dinner, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday May 5, will have a Cinco de Mayo theme.
Find out more at www.ryanwellsfoundation.com
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
Btw, just what is a gaffeliere?
2005 Chateau La Gaffeliere (Saint-Emilion) $99.99
The word appears on two legendary estates Chateau La Gaffeliere and Canon La Gaffeliere but the term escaped all the French speakers, native and well-schooled, at our dinner. I guessed that the old chateau could have been named for some kind of tree, say a grove of oaks. Or maybe a specialized kind of warrior, say a knight armed with a crossbow and a sling shot.
Not close, according to the one man who had the answer, Mr. Davies. The name meant a form of leper colony (gaffet was an old French term for leper), and the property had served as a leper estate in the 17th century. A quite charitable use although not appetizing enough that the name would pass muster in a modern marketing department, even for a crazy new zinfandel/semillon mix with a Ralph Steadman label.
There have been great advances since then developing treatments for Hansen’s disease that have replaced segregation in much of the modern world.
So I’ll drink to that.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
Wine storage for idiots: Stay away from the freezer
Ever get in a pinch where you decided to chill down a bottle of white in the freezer? You don’t have to admit it, I will. Did it last week with a very modest Cotes de Luberon ($6.99). And it froze solid. The wine critic in me would call it glacial amber. Waddya do? Throw it out or let it thaw as a scientific experiment or morality tale.
Good news: The wine survived, having frozen probably somewhere between 15 and 25 degrees, arou drinkable but not stunning, and no obvious change. Close toi he same easy-going plonck it would have been otherwise. The shrimp estate had served as and penne didn’t complain.
You can check the temperature of your wine with a True Fabrications Wine Thermometer ($8.99)
Bad news:
(which could have happened – and has). Freezing, expands and increases the pressure until the wine and the air will the cork and spew wine throughout the freezer. Or worst, shatter the bottle.
Even if neither of these happens, the wine can distintegrate slowly and scattter particulates of sediment in the wine.
Forget the freezer. If you try to chill wine in the freezer, do it with the first bottle, while subsequent bottles cool elsewhere. And set the timer. Freezers do freeze. Heck even refrigerators bring a bottle down to under 40 degrees.
Ultimate wisdom: Forget the freezer. We drink most whites too cold anyhow. Or pour a gin and tonic. Cool your jets and your whites the easy way.
Roaming Wither Hills, NZ, For good’n’ plenty sauv blanc
2008 Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc $8.99
The hills are in the view, the grapes are in Wairau Valley, a lovely chunk of Marlborough, and the sauvignon blanc is in the hands of a bright young crew led by Ben Glover.
Never heard of it? You will now. As we explore beyond the top brands, you’ll find many more hardy and fresh labels like Wither Hills and an SB that has more flavor and less price than most you know.
New Zealand does make sauv blanc for less than $15 at least at B-21.
Take it from Gourmet Traveller WINE, the glossy bible to down under drinking which gave the 2008:
“Supple, fruity wine with attractive pineapple/passionfruit flavours plus underlying gooseberry and red capsicum. One of the better examples of this vintage. Ripe with good balance and a hint of sweetness.”
For me there’s ample gooseberry, the fuzzy green fruit we call kiwi, with is its own soft sour slightly sweet fruit. Not as thorny as it sounds and shows here to be more like pineapple and melon. The grapefruit is not assaultive, more like a ruby seedless; the bell pepper is restrained. No cat spray either. Surprisingly round and easy to drink.
This will have a spot in your fridge this summer.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
But what about 2009, really? C’est vrai.
The French emissaries who did arrive had no doubts about the 2009. Mais oui, the Americans make a big fuss over famous vintages and ignore others. This time the French agree that this is the big one.
How does Emilie, who grew up in Bordeaux feel about 2009? “Exciting,” she says with a big smile. She returned to Bordeaux for Christmas with her parents and tasted the vintage when it was three months old. ”It already tasted like wine, fantastically balanced, it is never like that.”
“Wonderful” was the word from Coralie de Bouard from the great Chateau Angelus, her eyes widened with surprise. How could I not know or did I somehow doubt. Again, she cited the balance in the wines en primeur; yes they have strong alcohol but they do not taste so.
2009 Chateau Lilian Ladouys (St. Estephe) 19.99 (Futures)
The explanation is in the weather, of course, which Jeffrey Davies explains was optimal in all aspect and exceptional in one — cool nights, “We turned the air conditioning in our house on only twice.” The Bordelaise and their grapes enjoyed long hot days and slept in refreshingly cool nights, giving the vintage more hang time and long slow ripening.
Davies cautions that not all the wines will be terrific and require careful selection but, “The best of them will be the best of my career.”
I’m happy that our selection is in the hands of Messrs. Sprentall and Bieletti, who have already scouted out three smart buys including a rare rosé of merlot from Larcis Ducasse ($9.99) to Ch. Lilian Ladouys in St. Estephe, a spicy cabernet James Suckling calls “a gorgeous young wine”, 92-95 points ($19.99). That’s a a bet I’m happy to make.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
The French are coming, The French are …
NOT (all of them) but B-21 still had a barrel of fun!
B-21's Dinner with Jeffrey Davies at Currents in Tarpon Springs
The ash cloud over Iceland cast its long shadow even over the Tampa Bay area last weekend. Flight cancellation to the U.S. grounded some special guests coming to the annual Bordeaux tasting, both celebrated winemakers and consultants, and their infant prodigies, barrel samplings of the beloved new 2009 vintage.
Several stalwarts were in the U.S. before flights stopped including Coralie de Bouard of Chateau Angelus, negociant Jeffrey Davies and Emilie Riebel-Dombey representing Chateau Le Gay.
And the 2009’s arrived in spirit and starred in the table talk at the Bordeaux dinner at Seasons 52. “Good as they say?”, “That’s not what I read.” “I’m absolutely going to buy,” but when and at what price? Will the prices be highest for the first futures or later tranches? Will the dollar buy more now or later?
Actually if the samples had arrived, they might have distracted our conversation.
Besides we had 2005s in our glasses and they were not abstractions. They set a high standard for the ’09s to match and sparked their own debate.
Smith Haut Lafitte (Pessac-Leognan) $89.99
The winners were Smith Haut Lafitte ($89.99) and La Gaffeliere. ($99.99) I put the left-banker first because it was so big and smoky and friendly like a coat by the fire. Smart and passionate tasters went for the La Gaffeliere from St. Emilion, with more berries and chocolate, in five years I may switch sides. A strong minority report supported the neighboring Canon La Gaffeliere ($109.99), which was the sleekest and most approachable. If you ask one to dance tonight, the Canon is your partner.
Seasons 52, Tampa’s “it” restaurant of the moment and the newest location of the Orlando concept was luminous that night and the menu had all its vaunted style and spunk. “I‘ve been to many wine tastings in my career but I’ve never had chiles relleno,” confessed importer Greg Miller, “and I think the Bordeaux stood up well.”
He’s right. Nothing timid about husky smoky ancho chiles with goat cheese and punchy pico de gallo, smoke fire and a pinch of sour. Yet first quality right bank 2006’s were bold enough. My choice was the 2006 La Croix St. Georges, ($59.99) from Pomerol, a spiced creamy fudge that made a mole with the chiles.
But as a Tuesday night go-to Bordeaux for Mexican spice and big flavors like Seasons 52’s crackling flatbreads , the 2008 Croix Mouton ($10.99) has value and excitement. Jean-Philippe Janoueix makes this in the Bordeaux Superieur appellation on the left bank; a merlot for all seasons with more guts and finish than you expect.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
Hold the puttonyos: Dry Tokaji from Hungary?
2006 Chateau Dereszla Tokaji Dry $8.99
Yes and it’s a wonderful bargain, a crisp and clean dry wine from the same furmint and muscat grapes that make the royally rich dessert wines that made Hungary famous.
Chateau Dereszla’s 2006 Dry Tokaji ($8.99) collects all those fruit and nut flavors in the emerging category of alternative whites we might call Peachy. (Torrontes, Viognier, Albariño et al). Plus you get a lush texture and great balance. Proof that there’s more to life than chard, sauv blanc and pinot grigio.
This lovely dry Tokaji is also what I call a Next World Wine, wines from underplanted or overlooked corners of the New and Old World. Mexico and Uruguay, Eastern Europe, Thailand and India all grow grapes and make wine, better and more available every year.
The vision for Ch. Derezla comes from winemakers with deep roots in Chamapagne and Bordeaux and an itch to revive or start first class properties elsewhere, from Alta Vista in Argentina to… legendary Tokaj.
B-21 has a wide range of Derezla’s sweeter botyrized, late- harvest wines, from traditional three and five-puttonyos up to grand Aszu, the most precious at $79.99.
You can however have a taste of tomorrow for far less. Chill down dry tokaji and fire up fresh shrimp.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler