Superb Cabernet from Frog's Leap

Full disclosure: I am a longtime fan of Frog’s Leap wines.  All of them.  Zinfandel, Sauvignon Blanc but especially Cabernet Sauvignon from estate vineyards on the Rutherford bench in Napa.  Owner-winemaker John Williams was saved from being a New York dairy farmer when he discovered wine and moved to California.  After learning the basics at UC Davis, Williams worked at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Spring Mountain Vineyards. He also learned to appreciate classic Napa Valley Cabernets like Inglenook and Beaulieu.

Over the years he has acquired several Rutherford Bench vineyards  and treated them with the respect great vineyards deserve.  They are all organic and dry-farmed.  When a vine is not irrigated, the roots dig down deeper in the soil searching  for water and  leading to more complex wines. Irrigation was not common in Napa the 1970s, so the Napa classics that Williams admired were dry-farmed.

I believe that wine made from dry-farmed grapes express the terroir, the local dirt. These wines are wines from a particular place, a particular season. It’s what great wine is all about. 

The 2015 Estate grown Cabernet from the Rutherford AVA is a superb wine. On the palate, the wine is balanced and elegant with long and deep flavors, rounded with a touch of minerality. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, it hits all the right flavor points.  It’s a wine to linger over with good friends, good conversation.

John Williams believes it will be at peak in about ten years.  Sorry John, I can’t wait that long for this superb  wine.

Chill Out With Besa del Sol Sangria

My wife and I were sitting on a shady terrace overlooking the Guadalquivir River in Seville.  It was August. It was hot.  We didn’t even know what the temperature was.  Afraid to ask.

We were nibbling on olives and thin slices of Bellota jamon. We had finished a couple of copitas of chilled fino Sherry but it hadn’t managed to chill us.

A waiter passed our table carrying a large pitcher of sangria and several glasses on a tray.  The pitcher was frosty and so were the glasses,  taken from the freezer only moments before.

Ann turned slightly in her chair to follow the progress of the sangria toward a table of young women who greeted the waiter and the sangria with welcoming smiles.

“Why didn’t we think of that,” Ann asked?

What, I ventured, would happen if two wine nerds were spotted drinking sangria?

She gave me that look.

I signaled the waiter and ordered a pitcher of sangria.

Might have saved our marriage.

*

So come on, people. Loosen up.  It’s summer. It’s hot. And I have some virtual sangria for you.

Besa del Sol Sangria from Spain has just arrived in the US market in red, white and pink versions and it is delicious and cooling, The wine base is made from a single estate in the Valdepeñas wine DO. The red and pink versions are made from Tempranillo, the white sangria from Airén, the most widely grown white wine grape in Spain.

The wines are refreshing on the palate with a welcoming edge of acidity and a touch of citrus leading to a just off-dry and slightly spicy finish. Serve it over ice or straight up from the fridge. It comes in a 3 liter bag in box, a 1.5 liter glass bottle and 500ML TetraPak.  It is fairly low alcohol, at only 8.5%.

Just try it. Nobody’s looking.  Besides even wine nerds can chill out when the weather is so hot.

Another round, please.

And make mine pink.

'Way Cool' Wines From Marimar Estate

There was a time not so very long ago that wine ‘experts’ decreed that California’s climate was just too hot for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  Those experts obviously spent too much time in their office and not out in the field checking the temperature.

Now there are any number of winegrowing regions in California that are producing outstanding Pinot Noir and Chardonnay---coastal Santa Barbara, Monterey County, the Carneros region in Napa and Sonoma and the Anderson Valley in Mendocino are just a few examples.

There is also outstanding Pinot Noir and Chardonnay being made in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County, especially Green Valley, only a few miles from the Pacific.  Which leads me to the wines of Marimar Estate,  where Marimar Torres (of the Catalan wine family) and her staff are making outstanding wine.

She has just released two Pinots and two Chardonnays that offer a good window into the terroir of the Russian River Valley and into her particular style of winemaking.  All her wines are estate bottled from organic and biodynamic vineyards.

Let’s have a virtual taste.

Marimar Estate La Masia Chardonnay, Don Miguel Vineyard, 2015.  $39. The vineyard is only ten miles from the Pacific and is a high density planting (over 2000 vines per acre) which gives balance and concentration to the grapes. There is classic green apple with a touch of citrus on the nose, followed by a hint of spice in the mouth.  The finish is long and layered, with a touch of cinnamon and white pepper.

Marimar Estate Bonita’s Hill Chardonnay, Don Miguel Vineyard, 2014. $49.This is a barrel selection of the best the vineyard has to offer.  It is an intense wine with good minerality with just a touch of oak.  The mouth feel is long and lean with layers of flavor wrapping around the palate.  This is serious Chardonnay and one of California’s best.

Marimar Estate Stony Block Pinot Noir, Don Miguel Vineyard, 2014. $59.  An elegant wine with typical cool climate Pinot Noir spice ---a touch of cloves ---and lively red berry fruit.  The finish is complex and balanced with good minerality to back up the fruit.   It will undoubtedly age well, but who can wait.  Buy a case for aging and another to drink now!

Marimar Estate Cristania Pinot Noir, Don Miguel Vineyard, 2014. $65.  Flat out one of the half-dozen best Pinots in California.  An intense wine with balanced concentration of fruit, ranging from red cherries and dark plum. There is good acidity minerality as well with a long echoing finish.  If you can manage, keep this one for a decade. It should develop beautifully.

Food Notes

Marimar Torres is an excellent cook. She has written two fine cook books, The Spanish Table, and Catalan Country Kitchen, so she understands the role good wine plays with food.  Because her wines are balanced and layered with nuanced flavors, they pair well with a wide range of food. The Stony Block Pinot Noir would be a good match with a classic Spanish paella.

--- Ann Walker

Colombard---From Gascony to Napa

When Yannick Rousseau came to California to work as an assistant winemaker at Newton Vineyards in Napa, he did not intend to spend a lot of time here.   His roots go deep into Gascony, in southwest France.  He recalls having his first taste of wine at the age of five.  It was a homemade wine from Pepé, his grandfather.  This introduction to wine sparked a love affair with the grape that has never waned.

After earning his degree in enology in France, he was curious about California.  He worked as an assistant winemaker at Newton Vineyards in Napa, and spent six years as the winemaker at Chateau Potelle, also in Napa, and fell in love with high elevation mountain vineyards.  He also fell in love with Susan, a woman from Texas who shared Yannick’s passion for wine.

In 2008, they started their own winery, Y. Rousseau.  The winery is not a show place.  It is one of Napa’s urban wineries, located in an industrial work space in the city of Napa.  The winery is all about the wine, not the architecture. The husband and wife source top vineyards for their Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Tannat.  And the wines are first rate, all in the four and five star range. But what I want to talk about today is the Rosé of Tannat and the Colombard.

First, the Colombard.  The wine is made from dry farmed old vines from the Russian River Valley. It was the first wine Yannick and Susan made when they founded their winery in 2008.

Yannick shows what can be done with Colombard when the vineyard is right and the winemaker pays attention.  The 2015 bottling opens with a rich aroma of peaches with a slice of pear.  There is a biting minerality balancing the fruit, which invites another glass.  The finish is long, with echoes of the opening fruit.  Priced at $20, it’s a real find.

I’ve been tasting (and drinking) a lot of rosé lately. More about that another time but (spoiler alert) it does involve a book to be published in 2017.  Yannick’s Tannat rosé is a winner.  It is made from Solano County grapes grown especially for rosé The color is a lovely pale salmon, The nose is all about strawberries and watermelon with a touch of lime zest.  On the palate, the opening aromas are picked up with an added herbal note and a more pronounced lime/citrus flavor and a pinch of white pepper.  The price is $24.

Y. Rousseau wines are in limited production so may be hard to find.  Check the winery website for availability.

Food in books: blackberry

In these trend-driven times it’s good to revisit old friends.  In this case, the old friend is a winery, Grgich Hills.

Tasting through a selection of current Grgich Hills wine, I was impressed by what I call the Drinkability Effect.  Grgich is making elegant, approachable wines that don’t rise up in the glass and slap you up alongside the head.

Grgich hasn’t taken the popular Napa path of creating massive in-your-face wines that all too often score high points and win gold medals.  Why? Because palate-weary judges  and critics tend to pay attention to wines that stand out.  They don’t always stand out for the right reasons.  I know.  I’ve been there, done that.

OK. End of rant and back to the wines.

The 2013 Chardonnay has a racy acidity with tropical fruit and peach flavors backed by a rich mouth feel. Leading to a long finish.  It’s a good food wine as well and would work nicely with roast or grilled chicken and creamy pasta. 

The 2014 Fumé Blanc is made from grapes grown in the cooler southern part of Napa Valley. The wine has good minerality and makes an especially nice apero.

The 2013 Cabernet has good structure with a rich mouth feel with layered flavors of dark berries and a touch of licorice laid on to yummy chocolate tones.  The finish is long and rich. This is a wine to enjoy with roast pork, grilled lamb and a rich beef stew.

The 2012 Zinfandel is from a vineyard near Calistoga, in a warmer part of the Valley.  A dash of Petite Sirah adds an edginess to the wine. The opening flavors include raspberries, a hint of black berries and a lively black pepper tone. A good grill wine.

I’ve saved my favorite for last. The 2012 Merlot is a superb wine, one of the better Napa Merlots I’ve tasted in a while.  At first sip I was reminded of the Merlot-based wines of St. Emillion in Bordeaux. There’s bright flavors---black cherry, licorice and a pinch of chocolate, all in an elegant, beautifully structured wine.  There is good acidity to match the fruit.  All together a remarkable bottling from a ‘first growth’ Napa winery.

The bonus feature is that the wines are very reasonably priced for Napa, ranging from the low-mid $30s to just under $100.

/Larry Walker

Anytime Is Rosé Time

The Chef and I (aka The Wine Chap) would like to ask our faithful wine and food followers to quit thinking of rosé as a ‘summer’ wine.

Listen, people, I am not even sure what a ‘summer’ wine might be but rosé is a year around wine.  Case in point: The Chef and I just had a picnic in our living room, as you can see in the photo.  It was a coolish day for San Francisco, temperature in the mid-50s and our favorite picnic spot (a table in the Presidio overlooking the Golden Gate) would be in the shade soon.  So we packed our picnic into the living room where the sun shone warm and cuddly through the western facing windows, popped open a bottle of Marqués de Cåceres rosé from Rioja, ($6.99 at Trader Joe’s, yes, really) matched it with some good charcrut from The Spanish Table and Falletti Foods deli (handy in the ‘fridge) and enjoyed a splendid picnic.

Point is, rosé is a wine for all seasons.  Sure, it is a great hot weather wine—something we rarely experience in San Francisco—but  on a cool January afternoon it brings the warmth of summer into your glass.

Rosé is also a wine for all foods.  The Chef loves just about any dish from the Mediterraneé, and we have yet to have one that wasn’t a good fit with rosé.  Rosé is a must-match with paella, for example.  Vegetables  with rosé.  Try it with Thai food, too. Snapper Veracruzano or Fish Tacos.  Let rosé, an affordable wine, be your go to wine anytime.

Some recent favorites, besides the Cåceres, include Muga, another Rioja rosé, another Spanish entry welcome on our table anytime is Chivite Gran Feudo Navarra Rosado. From California, try a glass of Uvaggio rosé, or if you want to go slightly upscale, Bonny Doon Vin Gris Cigare is marvelous  For bubbly, go to the  Antech “Emotion” Cremant de Limoux Brut Rosé from France, Roderer Estate Brut Rosé from California or Segura Viudas Brut Rosé from Catalonia.   Most of these are under $15.

So, please, no more nonsense about rosé being a summer wine.  Think  pink year round.

 The Chef (Ann Walker) and The Wine Chap (Larry Walker)

Riots and Rosé---In the Market at Narbonne

The bar at La Bodega des Halles was jammed with hungry people, jostling for space amid dozens of bottles of wine and tempting displays of ham. La Bodega is one of about 70 food stalls in the  bustling market of Narbonne, the ancient French port in Languedoc Roussillon, one of the oldest ports in the western Mediterranean.

Roman traders knew the port well more than 20 centuries ago.  They would have a hard time of it today because the harbor silted up and the city is now some ten miles from the sea.

One of the major items of trade was wine. That has not changed. Narbonne is still a center for the wines of Languedoc Roussillon, as was clear from all the bottles on display at La Bodega. But we were not there to just look at the wine and food. We were there to eat and drink.  And we did that.  We being Chef Ann, Prof David, Tene the Terrific and me, the Wine Chap.  We were on a brief French road trip from our home base at Maison Voltaire in Maury, on a constant quest to sample the food and wine of the region.

We started by sampling several wines, all local, before settling on two bottles, a moderate amount for four hungry and thirsty travelers. A bottle of Viognier was a good match with a plate of Beaufort cheese, a cow’s milk cheese from Savoie in the French Alps, that the Chef had foraged from a nearby cheese stand.

Then the ham. Oh, my. There was pata negra, jamon blanc, sobrassada ( a raw cured pork sausage, originally from the Balearic Islands) and others that didn’t make it into the notes.  With the ham came a delicious bottle of Chateau de Valflaunés rosé from Pic St. Loup.

The Pic St. Loup wine region is one of the mostly unknown treasures of the Languedoc-Roussillon. The vineyards are higher elevation and somewhat cooler than many area vineyards.  The wines are little known in the US, although Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant in Berkeley imports some Pic St. Loup wines.

After tidying up the last bit of rosé we did a walkabout in the plaza outside the market, where there is an mural depicting the wine protests and riots of the early years of the 20thcentury. Angry grape growers from all over southeastern France gathered in several cities, including Narbonne, to protest the importation of cheap and inferior wines from Algeria.

French farmers are still pissed off about inexpensive imports. In the news this morning there are reports of highway blockades and super market boycotts as farmers press the government for more support. The French are not shy about taking to the street

After all, for the French, eating and drinking locally is more than a trendy slogan. It is about enjoying and supporting a culturally rich and centuries old matrix based on the land and how humans live on it.

—Larry Walker

(One of a series of snapshots focused on food and wine in the Languedoc-Roussillon of southeast France)