Category: Wine Wire

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Downton Abbey Wine

poster_season1What pairs well with an upper crusty dinner party at fabulous Downton Abbey? Chateau Coutet wine, of course.

That was on the table for the big bash thrown by the Granthams in Episode 2, Season 4, and the crew at Coutet were tickled to be featured on the British period drama.

You know you’re doing well when Carson, the Butler With Impeccable Taste,gives you the nod.

“We are thrilled to see Coutet featured on Downton Abbey,” said Aline Baly, co-owner and director of marketing and communications for Chateau Coutet, which is in the Sauternes-Barsac region in southern Bordeaux. The show is a favorite of the Coutet team and it’s icing on the cake that producers appear to have a fondness for the Bordeaux region.

Carson and Lord Grantham picking out the best bottles.

The wine, a 1919 Chateau Coutet, was selected to go with dessert, a logical choice. The wines are made with white grapes, mostly semillon with some sauvignon blanc and a small amount of muscadelle, that are allowed to hang on the vine until weather conditions create a condition known as Botrytis fungus (aka “noble rot”) which results in a very high concentration of sugar in the grapes.

I’m a fan of Coutet with dessert but in my opinion it’s even better with savory items. A really chilled glass with ripe blue cheese = perfection. Maybe Carson saved himself a glass to have in the pantry later with Mrs. Hughes. (I am so shipping those two.)

In 1919, the chateau was under the management of the Lur-Saluces family, who at that point owned Chateau Coutet and its neighbor, Chateau d’Yquem. The Baly family took over in the ’70s.

This wasn’t a pay-for-play moment. Producers of the show, who are known for their faithful attention to detail, approached the family and asked for permission to use the name and then made a prop bottle to use in filming.

Also featured was a Bordeaux red, Chateau Haut Brion, a “first growth” producer which, like Coutet, has a history stretching back centuries. This made for some sparkling dialog when special guest Nellie Melba (played by awesome opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa) was able to identify the wine with just a taste. Since stuffy old Lord Grantham (and what is up with him this season?) had initially balked at having a performer sit down to eat with the nibs.

Plot-wise things are looking a bit grim for the Granthams and their keepers. Daughter Sybil is dead. Mary is a widow and poor Edith has found love at long last … with a guy who has a mentally ill wife. Oh, Edith. Lord Grantham, meanwhile, seems to be mostly concerned with figuring out the quickest route to bankruptcy.

But wine-wise, things are looking good and I’m expecting to see more notable vintages popping up at dinner.

Cheers, classily.

Tasting note:

Chateau Coutet 2009: Coutet means “knife” and the estate’s wines are known for their fresh, crisp style which cuts through the sweetness, making for a more interesting wine. So you get lots of honey and ripe apricots, but the taste is never cloying. A touch of orange peel adds some zing.

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Coke’s glass act

Source: Riedel
Source: Riedel

When I was in daily news I sometimes worked on stories so big they were sent out as a bulletin series — two or three short sentences that moved on high priority. So, Twitter without the snark, basically. I mention this only because I wish I had something like that to highlight today’s big, big news which is that Riedel, Continue reading “Coke’s glass act”

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Duck Dynasty Wine

vcsPRAsset_521319_81228_4e1911a6-bad8-481c-9795-fabcac3e3733_0The Trinchero Family Estates – Duck Dynasty wine collaboration has ruffled some feathers.

Shanken News Daily is reporting that Duckhorn Wine Company is suing over the name, claiming trademark infringement. A Trinchero spokeswoman declined comment on the suit, saying the company does not talk about pending litigation as a matter of policy.

Earlier, Willie Robertson of the family behind the popular A&E reality show “Duck Dynasty,” was disinvited as a speaker at a church event because of the family’s association with wine.

Meanwhile, what of Duck Commander patriarch Phil Robertson’s controversial comments about gay rights and race relations to GQ Magazine? That earned him a suspension from the show, which triggered backlash from supporters, which was followed by A&E announcing it would resume filming this spring with the whole family.

Trinchero did not comment on that either, but referred us to the family statement on the issue and noted that Duck Commander wines has a no-discrimination policy.

The partnership between the Trincheros and the Robertson family was launched with a celebratory dinner in mid-November.

“There are some natural synergies between the Trinchero family and Robertson family businesses.  Both companies were built on family values with a mission to provide consumers with quality products.  This has helped us both establish customer loyalty which continues on from one generation to the next,” Roger Trinchero, principal, vice chairman and CEO of Trinchero Family Estates, said in a statement at the time. 

Duck Commander CEO Willie Robertson said his family “decided to create Duck Commander Robertson Family wines because we know that many of our customers and our viewers choose to celebrate family moments with wine.  We knew we needed to find a family company in the heart of wine country that could produce authentic, quality wines. The Trinchero family is the right fit, and the wines are delicious.”

The first vintage included Triple Threat 2011 Red Blend, Wood Duck 2012 Chardonnay, and Miss Priss 2012 Pink Moscato, all produced from California vineyards.

 

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MacMurray Ranch: Hollywood Meets Vine

You know Fred MacMurray as a distinguished and gentlemanly actor. But did you also know he was a serious farmer and rancher in Sonoma wine country?

MacMurray and his wife, actress June Haver, raised Angus beef, not grapes,but these days the ranch, now owned by the Gallo family, is part of the wine scene with 425 acres producing grapes that go into the very good value MacMurray Ranch wines.

Most of the time the ranch is closed to the public, but over the Labor Day weekend it’s open as part of Taste of Sonoma, a terrific event held each year. (I just checked; this is sold out but there are a few tickets left to other events.)

When they bought the ranch in the 1990s, the Gallos asked Fred’s daughter, Kate, to stay on as brand ambassador and that turned out to be one smart decision. Kate is one of the warmest, nicest, most down-to-earth people you will ever meet, and I say that as someone who usually gets tongue-tied and self-conscious around the rich and famous.

I interviewed Kate earlier this year for a story on wines with celebrity connections and the visit ranks as one of my highlights of 2013. The ranch has been beautifully restored by the Gallos — they even hired a painter to touch up the vintage wallpaper — and is just as it was when the MacMurray family lived there, right down to the rocking chair with the wide, flat arms just right for holding the actor’s drink as he sat reading the paper in the evening.

The MacMurrays bought the property in 1941 from the Porter family who established the farmstead in the 1850s – their old wagon still stands in front of the house – and used it first for diversified farming in World War II and then for cattle. A display of panoramic photos in the old barn paints a detailed picture of the evolution of the area.

“It has a rich agricultural history and it’s very specific to Northern California,” MacMurray pointed out. ” If you held a mirror up to our ranch what would reflect back is the whole history of agriculture in Northern Califronia. It’s quite remarkable.”

MacMurray, star of such classics as “Double Indemnity” and “The Apartment,” and later the popular TV series “My Three Sons,” spent his free time at the ranch and was deeply involved in the local agricultural scene. The photo displays include fun pictures of Fred, June and their prize cattle looking very spiffy for competition days.

MacMurray Ranch pinot noir has been my go-to Thanksgiving wine for some years. It’s usually to be found for under $20, sometimes under $15 and it’s rich and silky and does a nice job of smoothing out the turkey-cranberry-stuffing trinity. I also tried the reserve pinot on this visit and, while it is a bit more. with a suggested retail of $35, it is worth the splurge.

Here are my notes:

MacMurray Ranch 2010 Ranch Russian River Reserve Pinot Noir: Dark garnet color, nice aroma of red fruit followed by more cherry and raspberry in the mouth. Finishes rich and smooth. ABV 15.2 percent.

And speaking of smooth, I was my usual urbane, suave self while interviewing Kate. Here is a picture of me striking a sophisticated pose.

Cheers, poisedly.

 

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My dinner with Yao Ming

Yao-Ming41It’s a warm summer evening in the Napa Valley and the clink of glasses echoes along the restaurant-rich main drag of tiny Yountville as two weddings, a college reunion and the usual Friday night dinner crowd get ready for some serious wining and dining.

Suddenly, heads turn and eyes widen as a tall man, a VERY tall man, walks into Michael Chiarello’s Bottega restaurant. Is it? It looks like … yes, it is Yao Ming, the retired Houston Rockets star who last year started a second career with his Napa-based Yao Family Wines.

No doubt about it, at 7-foot-six, the first thing that strikes you about Yao is his size. But it doesn’t take long before you’re impressed by other things, like his gravity, intelligence and complete lack of diva-tude.

How serious is Yao about his new line of work? Well, I’d hoped to meet him at this year’s Napa Valley wine auction, where Yao Family Wines had a lot in the live auction. Turns out he couldn’t make it because he had finals. It’s true. A guy who is more than set for life financially is polishing up his business acumen by studying for an economics degree in his hometown of Shanghai and plans to get an MBA after that.

Yao was hosting the dinner to give a sneak preview of a new wine to be released soon, the 2010 Napa Crest which will retail at $48 a bottle. That’s quite a bit less than the winery’s two other releases, a Napa cabernet sauvignon priced at $150 and a Yao Ming Family Wines Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, produced in very small quantities, that goes for $625. The wines are primarily cabernet sauvignon with other Bordeaux varieties such as merlot and petit verdot blended in and are delicious.

Obviously, a $625 or even $150 price tag is not for every budget, including mine, but I asked Thomas Hinde, president and director of winemaking at Yao Family Wines, about that $150 price tag and he said it came from benchmarking the wine with quality Napa cabs and 3rd- and 4th-growth Bordeaux and setting the price accordingly.

(Funny story. I took my resident expert in all things basketball and Chinese, Mr. Ho, to the dinner. As I’ve mentioned a time or twenty, he’s a little on the frugal side and I asked him what he thought about a wine priced at six-twenty-five. “It’s good,” he said. “I’d buy this.” I was stunned. Could this be Two Buck Chuck’s No. 1 fan talking? And then I figured it out. “Honey,” I said, “it’s six hundred and twenty five dollars, not $6.25.” “Oh,” he said.)

Yao is interested in being part of China’s booming wine market and his wines were first released in his home country. He told me that he was introduced to wine by his dad (both Yao’s parents were basketball players in China) and continued his education as an NBA player through going out to dinners with the other players and enjoying a glass of wine. “At that time, I don’t know what is good or what is bad, I just want to enjoy the moment,” he said.

Yao, who retired two years ago, has since developed his palate and gives input on the style of Yao Family Wines. He sees wine as something like “a time machine that can bring you to a special moment when you can just relax.”

Ultimately, selling wine is a business, “but it’s a very lovely business,” he said. “You not only sell this to make a profit. I believe it changed my life. I believe that it will change others, too.”

 

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A Toast to Gay Marriage

rainbow-wedding-cake__fullLooking for just the right wine to toast the recent court victories bolstering gay marriage?

Here’s a story I wrote earlier this month about some wineries that have come out in support of gay marriage by putting that message right on the bottle — and backing it up with donations from sales of the wine.

To recap, the wines I found were:

Same-Sex Meritage based in Northern California and cutely named since “meritage” means a Bordeaux-style blend and sounds a lot like marriage. For each bottle sold, $1 goes to the advocacy group Freedom to Marry.

Egalite, a bubbly from the Burgundy region of France. Each quarter, a portion of profits is donated to a LGBT nonprofit organization chosen by fans of the wine on Facebook; $15,000 has been donated since the wine’s January launch.

Genetic Pinot Noir, which refers to sexual orientation having genetic origins. Stand Tall Wines was founded by Larisa Stephenson and partner Dana Sabin. The wine is being made in the Napa Valley using grapes shipped from Oregon’s Willamette Valley and 1 percent of Genetic sales is being donated to the Napa LGBTQ Connection.

Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, this one was a surprise to me, but it turns out Barefoot has been supporting marriage rights for gays for 25 years, donating to local LGBT centers and other organizations, investing in Pride Week events, even putting up a 20-foot-tall inflatable wedding cake in front of San Francisco’s City Hall to show support for gay marriage.

All this talk about marriage has got me thinking about my own wedding to Mr. Vinecdote, which took place 28 years ago this month. It was a beautiful, sunny Sunday in North Texas. Just us and the local Justice of the Peace, a Texas official who can perform marriages. She met us at the courthouse on the way to get her usual Sunday papers (ah, those were the days, children) and it was cool having the whole building to ourselves, our footsteps echoing down the empty halls. Afterwards we went to Carrows and had the two-egg breakfast special. Because that is how we roll.

An additional note. The judge was a friend of ours, a fabulous woman named Arthur Bea Williams who was the first black JP to serve in that county. She had just been elected which worked out well for us because the previous guy refused to perform mixed-race marriages, a problem for my Caucasian self and Chinese-born spouse.

Change. Sometimes it really is for the better.

Cheers, romantically.

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Vintage Downton Abbey

 

DowntonAbbey1OK, now here’s a celebrity wine I may not be able to resist.

Wines that Rock, a company that makes wine under the names of rock groups including the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, is coming out with blends inspired by the ultra-fabulous Downton Abbey TV series. According to a story in The Drinks Business, the wine is being made with the French company Dulong Grand Vins de Bordeaux.

“Dulong has been in the same family for five generations and has over 130 years of experience, so these are wines the Crawley family would have been proud to serve at Downton,” Bill Zysblat, co-owner of Wines That Rock, told DB.

Wine has been a big part of the British series, from the dastardly (but I confess, I have a soft spot for him anyway) footman Thomas nicking wine from the cellar and then trying to blame it on Bates, to butler Mr. Carson’s painstaking stewardship of the wine service at dinner.

Here is Anna, the maid who recently became Mrs. Bates but only after a great deal of drama, giving pairing advice to a nervous Mr. Mosley when he has to serve as stand-in sommelier.

“Mr. Carson likes to serve two white wines, which you should open and decant just before they eat. A light one for the hors d’oeuvres, then a heavy one with the soup. Keep that going for the fish, and then change to the Claret, which you should really decant now. There’s a pudding wine, and after that whatever they want in the drawing room with their coffee.”

Four wines at dinner and a little something extra in the drawing room after? It’s no wonder the ruling class came a cropper. They must have spent half their time sloshed and the other half nursing right royal hangovers.

And speaking of things that can leave you feeling woozy in the morning, here is the funniest mashup ever, put together by The Colbert Report and featuring the Abbey boys in the world of the gritty TV series Breaking Bad. NSFW, at least not without headphones, because of foul language, albeit foul language delivered in a charmingly upper-crusty fashion. Skip to 1:45 if you don’t want to watch Colbert’s intro.

Cheers, classily.
 

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Two buck fifty Chuck

charles shawAttention bargain (wine) shoppers. Two Buck Chuck, the wine famous for costing $1.99 a bottle (in California at least) is now 2.5 Chuck.

Yes, Charles Shaw wines, sold only at Trader Joe’s grocery stores, saw a price increase this month, going up to $2.49 a bottle after a decade under the two-dollar line.

That’s still pretty cheap, but it’s an indicator that grape prices are picking up after a world-wide grape glut followed by recession had the market awash in bargains. With the economy slowly recovering and two difficult growing years (2010 and 2011) chipping away at inventory things are looking very different.

Charles Shaw comes from Bronco Wines, the Ceres-based company run by the iconoclastic Fred Franzia, one of the most powerful vintners in California … and the only industry power player I ever interviewed in an office tucked into a single-wide trailer.

Franzia’s family got into the wine business in California in the 19th century but later sold their company, which means the boxed Franzia wine you see in grocery stores has nothing to do with Bronco. Franzia, along with other members of the younger generation, started over with Bronco, keeping costs down by cutting out the middleman. They own the land, grow the grapes, own the bottling lines and run the trucking companies.

There seem to be two schools of thought on Charles Shaw. You either love it as great value for the price (count Mr. Vinecdote in this camp) or hate it as a commercial, mass-produced product that lacks individuality. (You’ll find the majority of wine critics over here.)

I’ve written about this wine a few times. When it first started to get popular and again when it won a blind tasting competition, much to the chagrin of the h8trs.

As for me, I’d have to say selling multiple varietals (i.e. cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, shiraz, etc. not just “red” and “white”) for less than $2 a bottle for 10 years is a remarkable achievement that probably has put a lot of wine on a lot of dinner tables that didn’t have wine before.

Cheers, thriftily.