B-21 on Facebook
winemakers
Gary Pisoni; In his own words, except those better left unprinted
Gary Pisoni
Gary Pisoni fielded my questions during a lively lunch and tasting at Café du Frain on Harbour Island in Tampa last month. Btw, the café has undergone a renaissance with the addition of some top Mise en Place veterans. My favorite plate: poached egg on kobe tartar. (Don’t even think corned beef hash).
Back to Gary:
Q. What’s the best way to drink pinot noir?
With meat, fish and in the bathtub.
Q. What other areas can grow great pinot, Oregon, Carneros, New Zealand?
New Zealand, I really like New Zealand.
Q. What does California have over Burgundy?
Their soil is old. They’ve been growing grapes in the same place for hundreds of years.
Q. Any other grapes likely to make it big in your part of the coast?
I like riesling, (Otherwise) it’s pinot noir and a little bit of syrah.
Q. what’s your advantage?
We’re farmers. Our family still has 1000 acres. So many (other wineries) are not farmers. They haven‘t even grown flowers. Once you grown vegetabes grapes are easier.
Q. How long will your pinots last?
The ’03 has barely evolved. It will go 15 years.
Click here to see wines by Pisoni
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
Organic, schmorganic: It’s nothing new at Beaucastel
Perrin grandpere’s reasons were straightforward, “He wanted to have the best fruit he could. That’s the way to make the best wine. Exactly. It’s as simple as that,” said Mathieu.
Well, not so simple in Chateauneuf du Pape, for Perrin wanted all 13 permitted grapes at their varietal best, from Syrah down to Picpoul and Vaccarese. You might only use 1 percent in the mix, but that small drop must be, say Picpoul, at its best.
2007 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel (Paso Robles) - 95-97 Points, by Robert Parker's Wine Advaocate. ($49.99)
Most of these old grapes are no longer common and need to be tended carefully. Consider the winemaker’s crucial decision every year of the right time to start picking. At Beaucastel, that decision has to be made 13 times. “It’s a challenge,” Perrin said, “that’s why most people don’t grow them all.”
He’s glad the New World is planting Rhone grapes, including Paso Robles where the Perrins are involved in Tablas Creek. “You can make good wine every where in the world. The technology is easy,” he says by making wine that reflects the local terroir through those grape varieties. “You can only make Beaucastel here,” with the right mix of stony ground and chalk and the special rhythm of the temperatures in that patch of southern France.
Btw, the good vintages just keep coming, and Perrin notes that the 2009 vintage now in the very early stages looks to be the same classic as 2006.
Perrin’s Tour de Rhone by fork not bike
Mathieu Perrin of Perrin & Fils
The parade of wine superstars never stops. This week Matthieu Perrin of the new generation of Perrins took B-21 fanciers at Currents restaurant in Tarpon Springs on a grand three-course, three flight tour of the southern Rhone. It’s the home country of Perrin & Fils and the grand Beaucastel.
For starters, the group wheeled their way through the simple Cotes of 2007, CdR ($9.99) then Cotes du Rhone Villages ($10.49), and the Perrin’s Nature ($10.49) a GSM which is certified organic as well as the family’s own biodynamic principles. Best food match of the appetizers was just as earthy – bruschetta with mushrooms, thyme and goat cheese.
2007 Chateau Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape ($79.99)
More exciting was the roast pork-fueled middle stage through the Perrin’s favorite villages, Vacqueyras and Gigondas (mine too) and the far northerly commune of Vinsobres. Heckuva name for a place that is #89 on the Top 100. It is a luscious blend of Syrah and Grenache, but I think the licorice and pepper of that latter show best. Maybe the name scares people off, it’s still a bargain at $19.99.
The climax was Chateau Beaucastel CDP itself from the last two fabulous vintages (2006 and 2007). Beaucastel follows the old 13-grape step because it works, making a well-structured wine that is richly complex in flavors. More so in 2006, a voluptuously thick, dense wine, and at Currents a taste of the even more sumptuous 2007; best southern Rhone year in a decade.
A surprise visit from Ferdinando Frescobaldi of Marchesi de Frescobaldi
From Italy to Tarpon Springs, Florida, Ferdinando Frescobaldi, President of Marchesi de Frescobaldi paid us a surprise visit this morning. Mr. Frescobaldi spent time chatting about wine with B-21 Proprietor, Bob Sprentall, and B-21′s Italy Correspondent, Steve Rayman. He also took the time to sign all of the Frescobaldi wines on our shelves. Yes, even the 2004 Frescobaldi Castelgiocondo which incidentally is #15 on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of 2009. Other bottles he signed include the 2006 Frescobaldi Giramonte Super Tuscan ($99.99), 2006 Frescobaldi Mormoreto Toscana ($59.99) and the 2006 Frescobaldi Nipozzano Chianti Rufina Riserva ($19.99).
The Frescobaldi family has a 700-year history as wine merchants and growers in Tuscany. Thirty generations have dedicated themselves to the production of great Tuscan wines, with over 1,000 hectares of estate vineyards and nine estates and an unwavering commitment to quality. As one would suspect a wide range of wines are available from an estate of this size. Nippozzano is one of my favorites, what is one of yours?
BTW – 1st come, 1st serve on the bottles he signed today! To make sure you get the signed bottles, give us a call to order, or stop on by the store! (1-888-221-9463)
Hugh shouldn’t have dismissed the southern Rhones…
Freddy Mattson of Vineyard Brands walking us through 2007 Perrins
Freddy Mattson of Vineyard brands opened a presentation of the Perrin wines with a 1983 declamation from Hugh Johnson dismissing southern Rhones and their rusticity and high strength. In 1983 his eminence insisted that common grapes could only make common wines.
On a day with wonderful Grenache/Garnacha from Spain and Australia as well as from the Perrins, Mr. Johnson would have been more embarrassed than the southern Rhone.
Where- or what, is Coudolet anyhow? Coudolet de Beaucastel 2007 is a bargain and a great property of the Perrins on the wrong side of the tracks, in this case, the A-2 from Chateauneuf du Pape. Actually, it was in CdP at the beginning of the century, but planners laid the monster highway smack through the district. That left a chunk of vineyards on the east that big shots excluded from a redrawn Chateauneuf du Pape, and dumped into Cotes du Rhone; that became Coudolet ($29.99). Made of the same terroir and the four major grapes, largely Grenache and a big helping of devlish Mourvedre.
No crying over spilt politics now. We’ll laugh all the way to the wine cellar, tucking away a Coudolet full of black fruit and black candies, better than many CdPs but $50 less for a few kilometers.
A big case of holiday spirits
For wine lovers the holidays are too crowded to be dreary and flat. Look what’s coming this year with some big red letter days:
Nov. 16: Wine Spectator counts down its top 100.
Nov. 20: The 2009 Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivee.
Nov. 22: THE BIG B-21 CELEBRATION. The store brings out all its best, including that boatload of Spanish wine that’s just arrived in Miami. No Santa, but Chris Ringland, one of the real wizards of Oz will be here. Plus Freddy Matson to take us through the properties of the Perrins, a guided tour of Germany’s best terroir and instruction in the mysteries of sherry, the most delicious Spanish wine you’re not drinking. And ME, Mr. B-Blog, to help you plan wine gifts, pick wine for holiday meals, or calculate party needs. See you there. Seminars start at 12, tastings at 2. Get your tickets now.
Nov. 26: Thanksgiving, aka What Wine Goes with Turkey Day. Dozens, so be thankful
Dec. 1: Rhone dinner at Currents with Matthieu Perrin, from Chateau Beaucastel, which makes exceptional wine from every appellation from Châteauneuf du Pape on down. You know I can’t resist that one. (Glad I got my ticket because now its sold out!)
Dec. 24: Christmas eve and last chance shopping. Don’t forget Gift Cards are always a quick option!
Dec. 31: Welcome the New Year with new bubbly.