Exploring Some Wild New Wines
No matter how much you love steak, you’d probably get tired of it night after night.
The same goes for wine. I’ve got my favorite varietals, my favorite producers. And I’m certainly more partial to reds, especially this time of year.
But lately, I’ve been busting out of my rut by exploring some offbeat blends.
Like pinot noir and zinfandel, for instance. Those unlikely partners are paired in a wine called Zinotage. It was made in 1996 by Laurel Ridge, an Oregon winery in the Willamette Valley.
This tres nontraditional wine is a mix of 64 percent pinot and 36 percent California zinfandel, which makes for a lush, deeply colored red. It has the bright fruit for which pinot is famous, along with a touch of peppery spice that’s the hallmark of a great zin.
What’s surprising is that the winemaker is a Frenchman, a native of the Rhone region named Pascal Valadier who was looking for a way to beef up a very light vintage of pinot.
“I said we should try and have a little fun,” Valadier said in a recent phone interview from the winery.
Zinotage is not what I’d call a serious wine, but at a paltry $7, it’s nothing to laugh off, either. I found it on evineyard.com, a Web site I wrote about last month.
That’s also where I picked up a bottle of Vireton - the only white made by Archery Summit (a highly respected producer of Oregon pinot noir). The Vireton is a blend of pinot gris and chardonnay, with a little pinot blanc to boot.
This wine was such a treat - rich without being too buttery, fruity but not sweet. It was a fine complement to roast chicken, bringing a little lemony zest to the party.
It sells for $20 but was a most worthwhile splurge.
I’m also crazy about Falesco’s Vitiano (the ‘98 is on the shelf), an Italian wine that’s a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and sangiovese. It’s smooth but no lightweight. The wine is aged in French oak, giving it some heft. It certainly tastes much more expensive than its $9 price tag would lead you to believe.
When the weather warms up, I look forward to diving into a refreshing white with quite a provocative name, Menage a Trois. It’s from Folie a Deux, a Napa winery owned by two former psychiatrists.
Their “Trois” is an unlikely trio of chardonnay, muscat de frontignan and chenin blanc. It’s a crisp sipper, with a faintly floral quality. It sells for around $10.
Bonny Doon’s Big House Red is a regular fruit salad of varietals including barbera, sangiovese, zinfandel, carignane, mourvedre and valdiguie. The ‘98 vintage is on the shelves, tasting kind of earthy and intense. But that’s nicely balanced with black cherry and raspberry flavors. Look for it under the Ca’ del Solo label.
Hedge Cellars smooths out the sharp edges of sauvignon blanc by blending it with chardonnay. While I was initially put off by even the idea of this combo, each vintage seems to be getting more elegant. The fume-chardonnay makes for a great aperitif, but also has enough character (and crisp acidity) to make a fine complement to seafood and pasta dishes. It’s under $10.
Other choices for shaking things up a bit include a syrah-malbec blend from an Argentinian producer called Balbi. It’s around $7.
Rosemount, one of Australia’s leading producers, makes a couple of unusual blends: one combines grenache and shiraz, another pairs traminer and riesling.
Caymus creates its “Conundrum” using chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, semillon, viognier and muscat. It’s a wine that truly tastes like the sum of all its parts. It also smells slightly sweet, but tastes dry - a real conundrum. It sells for around $25.
Finally, Shenandoah Vineyards in California’s Amador County takes full advantage of that area’s reputation for fine zinfandel and gives it a twist by adding sangiovese. It’s called zingiovese and sells for around $13.
Armchair travel
The best way to learn about a country’s wine is to go and experience it in person. But we can’t all afford a trip to France. Not this year, anyway.
I’m not going to say Robert Joseph’s latest book is the next best thing to going abroad, but it’s an entertaining read. And it’s full of gorgeous photographs.
“French Wines” (DK Publishing, 1999) covers all the major regions and many of the minor ones (including Savoie and even Corsica). Joseph provides a brief but concise history, a guide to reading labels and hints for pairing food and wine. All in 240 pages.
But what really drew me in were the photos of some of the traditions that make French winemaking so uniquely French: coaxing grapes out of rocky soil, hand-harvesting them in baskets and aging the wine in cellars carved out of stone.
This fine overview sells for $18.95. Round-trip airfare to France is $800.
Save the date
Think locally and drink globally at the 20th annual international tasting sponsored by the Enological Society of the Pacific Northwest. The Seattle event features wines from the world’s best-known producers. Advance tickets for the March 25 tasting are $35. It will run from 2:30 until 8:30 p.m. at the Seattle Center’s Northwest Rooms. Call (206) 937-2935 for ticket information or e-mail george.seltzer@gte.net.
Somehow, someday I’m going to go to the annual pinot noir love-fest in McMinnville, Ore. In late July, this three-day event focuses on the world’s finest pinot - from Oregon, California and, of course, French burgundy.
The whole shebang, which includes a mini-tour of the Oregon wine country, costs $625. But someday, I’m going to go anyway, hang the price.
Call (800) 775-4762 for additional details.