Wine Beneath The Palms

Italian wine classes starting

     Readers often ask where they can get started learning about wine. Here’s a good place. Wine educator/salesperson Julie Mushett is starting a series of classes on Italian wine at 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Fri., Dec. 5 at Gulf Liquors and Fine Wine, 1681 Alton Rd., Miami Beach

     She’ll talk about wine labels, wine styles, grape varietals, food pairings and prices.

     You’ll sip wines from various parts of Italy to compare and contrast, including the 2007 Sant’Elena “Klodic” Pinot Grigio from Friuili; the 2004 Pelissero “Piani” Barbera d’Alba; 2002 Valdicava Rosso di Montalcino from Tuscany; 2001 Fontodi “Cru Sorbo” Chianti Classico Riserva from Tuscany; 1997 Sant’ Elena “Tato” Cabernet/Merlot from Friuli and 2000 Firriato Camelot Cabernet/Merlot from Sicily.

     At the class, she will discuss timing and topics for further classes about Italian wine. Price is $30 per person including wines and written materials.

     Call 786-942-3600 or email julieswine@gmail.com.

Wine from British Columbia? Why not?

   "People hear Canada and they think cold," says Peter Wille, scoffing, "so they

don't think good wine can be made there."

   In fact, his area of British Columbia is so balmy they call it the Banana Belt. They

even grow peaches there, says Wille, who represents Mission Hill Family Estate winery, 240 miles east of Vancouver.

   All things being relative, it still means winter nights of 15 below zero, near the

point where the vines start to die.

   Summers can veer from 105 degrees in the afternoon to 40 degrees at night, but that's good for grapes. They ripen during the day, then shut down at night, preserving the acids that give wines their crispness.

   Mission Hill controls 1,000 acres of vines in the Okanagan Valley, which runs 100 miles north from the U.S.-Canadian border, nestled between the Coast Mountains on the west and the Manashee Mountains on the east, which protects them from Arctic winds.

   It also puts the valley in the rain shadow of the Coast Mountains, turning it to near-

desert with only 12 inches of rain a year, but unlimited irrigation water from melting

glaciers.

   It's still a difficult place to grow grapes. Vines are planted on slopes above the

valley floor, so the coldest air can settle below them. Huge, propane-powered fans pull

down warmer air from 50 feet up to further moderate the chill. The growing season is

called "short and intense."

   But any grower will tell you grapes do best in the very farthest reaches of where they

can survive at all. See Champagne. See Chablis. See Sherry.

   Here, Vancouver-born wine broker Anthony Von Mandl bought out a defunct brewery and, in

1997, built a state-of-the-art, $40 million winery with tasting room, culinary school and

restaurant that lures 110,000 visitors a year.

   Given the climate, it's no surprise that Mission Hill wines are mostly lean and

restrained, with pure, intense fruit. It's also no surprise that the winery makes ice

wines -- super-sweet dessert wines from grapes dessicated from hanging on the vines into

January and freezing. When they're crushed, still frozen, the sugars and acids are

released and the water is left behind with the skins.

   Mission Hill wines are just entering the United States. In South Florida, they're

available at Total Wine & More plus restaurants including Miami City Club, Ruth's Chris

Steak House, Cielo and Vix at the Victor Hotel.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

   • 2003 Mission Hill SLC Syrah, VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia: complex aromas

and flavors of black plums, tobacco, black pepper and meat: $39.

   • 2004 Oculus Red (merlot, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, petite verdot grapes):

shifting aromas and flavors of mint, licorice, black raspberries, bitter chocolate; medium

body, firm tannins; powerful and ageworthy; $70.

   • 2004 Mission Hill SLC Riesling Ice Wine, VQA Okanagan, British Columbia: moderately

sweet, very crisp, spicy; pure apricot flavors, excellent balance; $80 per 375-mililiter

half bottle.

   RECOMMENDED

   • 2006 Mission Hill SLC Chardonnay, VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia: aromas and

flavors of oak, green pineapples and vanilla; buttery, very dry and fruity; $29.

   • 2003 Mission Hill SLC Merlot, VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia: pure, intense

black raspberry and black coffee flavors; lean, firm tannin; $40.

   • 2006 Mission Hill SLC Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon, VQA Okanagan Valley, British

Columbia: oak, green apples and vanilla, very dry and crisp, food-friendly; $29.

   • 2006 Mission Hills Five Vineyards Riesling Ice Wine, VQA Okanagan Valley, British

Columbia: very sweet, soft; candied orange peel flavors; $20 per 187-mililiter one-quarter

bottle.

   • 2006 Mission Hill Reserve Riesling Ice Wine, VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia:

quite sweet; flavors of golden apples, coconut, apricot; $60 per 375-mililiter half-

bottle.

News of the weird in wine

     The 2005 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild is just sitting on wine shop shelves, even though its $549 price is half what it was going for six months ago. Hard economic times hit even rich connoisseurs.

     Copia, the wine museum opened by Robert Mondavi and Julia Child, is closed.

     England, to encourage moderation and health, is pondering doing away with happy hour.  So much for "this happy breed of men."

     On a happier note, researchers now say drinking wine may help to reverse Alzheimer's Disease.

Last year's Thanksgiving wine suggestions

I’m feeling a little guilty because my Thanksgiving wine column this year was about what kinds of beer to match with the big meal. And I realize a lot of you aren’t going to do that.

So, to give you some wine suggestions, I’m re-running last year’s Thanksgiving wine column below. Keep in mind that the vintages and prices may have changed.

One of the best things about Thanksgiving is the predictability of the meal -- turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, that green bean casserole from the recipe on the side of the soup can . . .

It conveys a sense of stability, an idea that some things, even now, can be counted on.

You can go that way with the wine, too, if you want -- a California chardonnay, followed by a California cabernet sauvignon. But that would stretch predictability to the point of boredom, right?

Why not sneak in some creativity with the wine, if for no other reason than to keep Uncle Ralph from nodding off before the game begins? With so many dishes on the table, there's no way to create a dish-by-dish match. This frees you to choose any good, rich, hearty wine you like -- red, rosé or white -- and know it will go with something.

What follows is a list of good wines I've tasted recently that will be a nice change of pace and still go well with the big feast.

WHITE WINES

Highly recommended:

* 2006 Gundlach Bundschu Gewürztraminer, Rhinefarm Vineyards, Sonoma Valley: super floral camellia aromas, lychee flavors, soft and rich; $25.

Recommended:

* 2006 Columbia Crest Riesling, Grand Estates, Columbia Valley, Washington: rich, crisp and dry, with flavors of white peaches and minerals; $10.

* 2006 Clay Station Viognier, Lodi, California: rich and soft, with flavors of guava and tart peaches; creamy and fruity; $9.

* 2006 Fillaboa Albariño, Rias Baixas, Spain: steely, spicy, full-bodied, with floral aromas and mineral flavors; $17.

* 2006 Frei Brothers Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, Russian River Valley: full-bodied, full-flavored, crisp, grassy, flinty; $13.

* 2004 La Moynerie Pouilly-Fumé (sauvignon blanc) by Michel Redde: very dry and crisp, flinty and minerally; $15.

ROSE WINES

Highly recommended:

* 2005 Rosenblum Rosé (gamay and grenache), Appellation Series, North Coast, California: crisp and dry, with tart strawberry flavors; $18.

Recommended:

* 2006 La Bretonniere Cabernet de Saumur, AOC Saumur, France: light and crisp, with flavors of tart peaches; $14.

* 2006 Lynmar Vin Gris of Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley: very crisp, very dry, with tart cranberry flavors; $20.

RED WINES

Highly recommended:

* 2004 Chateau Ste. Michelle "Orphelin" Red Table Wine (syrah, mourvèdre, grenache, cinsault, sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot, souzao, touriga, malbec grapes), Washington State: Rhône-style, with ripe flavors of black cherries, black pepper and smoke; $30.

Recommended:

* 2006 Louis Jadot Beaujolais-Villages, AOC Beaujolais: intensely fruity, medium body, soft tannins; zingy, spicy; tart raspberry and strawberry flavors; $12.

* 2005 Toasted Head Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast: soft and rich, flavors of maraschino cherries, chocolate and earth; $14.

* 2004 Beringer Alluvium Red Table Wine (merlot, cabernet sauvignon, malbec, cabernet franc), Knight's Valley: intense aroma of violets and flavors of black cherries and milk chocolate; rich and smooth; $30.

* 2003 Ruffino "Lodola Nuova" Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, DOCG, Italy (sangiovese and merlot): full-bodied and full-flavored, with ripe black plums and cinnamon; smooth, long finish; $22.

Try beer with each course at Thanksgiving

     With the rise in quality and quantity of craft beers in America, the time has come for them to come sit with us grownups at the Thanksgiving dinner table. If there's a wine to match every course on turkey day, there's also a beer.

   I'm not talking about Budweiser with the broccoli or Coors with the cranberries. I'm talking about beers crafted to have complex, varied, distinctive flavors to justify having them with the meal's huge variety of flavors.

   In matching beer instead of wine, similar principles apply. As an aperitif, you want the lightest, frothiest lager to whet the appetite without sating it -- a role played by champagne in the wine world. With the main course, a powerful, hoppy, high-alcohol ale will cut through the rich and fatty flavors -- with the bitter hops taking the place of the tannin in wine. At dessert, the beer should be sweeter than the pumpkin pie -- same as with wine.

    A problem with beer: It's foamy, and it fills you up. But you can serve it in small quantities. I like to pour it into little three-to-four-ounce cocktail glasses like the ones pubs use for beer-tasting flights. That way you can try a number of flavor combinations.

   Here's a course-by-course list of Thanksgiving beers, loosely based on one that
appeared in 2006 in Beer Advocate magazine:

      Aperitif: As guests arrive, you hand them something crisp and cold, light as air. They sip and whet their appetites, but don't fill up. The world's lagers are made for this.

   • Stiegl Goldbrau Premium Lager, Stieglbrewery, Salzburg, Austria, alcohol not listed: bright golden color, big, creamy head, light flavors of malt and hops; $3.19 per 1-pint, 9-ounce bottle.

   Hors d'oeuvres: As you pass around the canapés, you give your guests pale ales, somewhat fuller in body, hoppier, able to deal with shrinp with sauce, cheese balls and the like:

   • Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, California, 5.6 percent alcohol: amber in color, full-bodied, malty, hoppy, spicy; $1.60 per 12-ounce bottle.

   • Lagunitas Maximus India Pale Ale, California, 7.5 percent alcohol: deep amber, brutally hoppy, with flavors of pine and citrus; $3.99 per 1 pint, 6-ounce bottle.

   Dinner is served: For the full, complex and fatty flavors of and all-out Thanksgiving main course, you want a muscular beer, with the hops and alcohol to cut through. The category called Belgian-style strong ales works here.

   • Collaboration not Litigation Ale, Colorado, 8.99 percent alcohol: dark brown color, sturdy beige head, starts fruity, then the powerful alcohol kicks in. It'll handle Cajun turkey, even red meat; $8.49 per 1-pint, 6-ounce bottle.

   • Ommegang Brewery Rare Vos Belgian-style amber ale, Cooperstown, NY, 6.5 percent alcohol: coppery color, fruity, spicy, muscular, flavors of burnt sugar; $5.79 per 1-pint, 9.4-ounce bottle.

    Dessert: With beer, as with wine, the drink should be sweeter than the dessert. The following will handle pecan or pumpkin pies.

   • Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, Delaware, 7 percent alcohol: a full-bodied brown ale brewed with real pumpkin, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg, it tastes like all of them; $10.49 per 4-pak.

   • Rogue Chocolate Stout, Oregon, 7 per cent alcohol: Yes, they add real imported chocolate to the brew, plus oats and hops, and it tastes like all of its ingredients, with the smooth power of alcohol and a bitter-sweet finish; $5.79 per 1-pint, 6-ounce bottle.

   Digestif: After the meal, when you're mellowing out, watching the game, and need something to settle your stomach. You need something big and rich and soft and sweet.

   • Dogfish Head Raison d'Extra Ales, Delaware, 18 percent alcohol a big, brown ale brewed with of malt, brown sugar and raisins; $6.25 per 12-ounce bottle.

   • Great Divide Brewing Old Ruffian Barleywine-Style Ale, Colorado, 10.2 percent alcohol: smooth, sweet fruit and caramel flavors give way to powerfull hops; $5.29 per 1-pint, 6-ounce bottle.

To Bob: Here's the real scoop on late-harvest riesling

 

     A note to “Bob,” who called me on Linda Gassenheimer’s WLRN show Food News & Views last Thursday: You asked me about some good late-harvest Riesling dessert wines, and I gave you bad advice. Sorry.

     Here are some good producers who make late-harvest Riesling: Hogue, Beringer, Chateau St. Jean, Dolce, Erath, Grgich Hills, J. Lohr, Navarro. They cost $9 to $25 a bottle.

     Late harvest dessert wines are made of grapes – Riesling, sauvignon blanc, Semillon, gewürztraminer-- that are left on the vine until very late in the fall, well past the usual picking time of September or so. They get riper, and they shrivel, concentrating their sugars and acids. Sometimes they’re attacked by botrytis – the “noble rot” – that pricks tiny holes in the skins, concentrating them even further.

     The result: sweet wines with honeyed viscosity and the flavors of ultra-ripe peaches, nectarines and/or apricots. They’re great with dessert, especially fruit tarts made of apples, pears, apricots, plums. I like to have them not with dessert, but as dessert.

     So if you know a guy named Bob, call him and let him know.

Inexpensive everyday wines from Sicily

      One of the great joys of travel is visiting vineyards in exotic places. The ancient, narrow caves of Tokaji in Hungary, the parched plains of Spain's sherry region, the neat lines of vines reaching down to the Columbia River in Washington on the route Lewis and Clark took to the Pacific. A quick e-mail to make an appointment, a warm welcome at the winery gate.
   For a while, sadly, wine travel may have to take a back seat to paying the mortgage and putting food on the table. But we can still do it vicariously. Call this a virtual mini-tour:
   • Sicily: Wine was made here centuries before Christ, long before it caught on in the mainland of Italy. But only in the past five years have Sicilian wines made an impact in America. The island's searing summer heat and low rainfall, plus cool nights in vineyards up to 3,000 feet in elevation, make it ideal for several varieties.
  Sicily makes such international varietals as chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, even the finicky pinot noir. To our good fortune, it also perseveres in two ancient indigenous varieties -- grillo, the white grape often used in making marsala cooking wine, and the sturdy red nero d'avola.
    State-of-the-art wineries, such as the solar-powered Fuedo Arancio, by Gruppo Mezzacorona, are springing up. We'll be seeing a lot more of these well-priced wines.
   • France's Languedoc Region: Even if we could travel, we'd find the Languedoc hard to visit. Nestled between the Mediterranean and the Massif Central mountains in the far south of France, it's spread out and lacks the glamorous chateaux of Burgundy, Bordeaux or the Loire.
   What it does have is lots of new vineyards, planted mostly in such international varieties as cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and syrah. And its relative obscurity has an advantage: very nice prices.
   A new line of such wines is Petit Bistro, imported by Palm Bay International.
  Both Sicily and France's Languedoc are rushing to provide just what we need today: good, inexpensive, everyday wines. Next year, with any luck, we'll be drinking Chateau Margaux.

RECOMMENDED

   • Nonvintage Fuedo Arancio
Grillo, Sicilia IGT: aromas of herbs
and tea; flavors of limes; crisp and
minerally; $9.

   • Nonvintage Fuedo Arancio
Nero d'Avola, Sicilia IGT: aromas
and flavors of black cherries and
espresso; sturdy tannins; $9.

   • Nonvintage Fuedo Arancio
Pinot Noir, Sicilia IGT: spicy cassis
flavors; full-bodied and smooth; $10.

   • 2006 Petit Bistro Cabernet
Sauvignon, Languedoc, France: pow-
erful cassis flavors; big, rich, smooth
and soft; $10.

   • 2006 Petit Bistro Chardon-
nay, Languedoc, France: aromas and
flavors of ripe Golden Delicious
apples; big, rich and soft; $10.

   • 2006 Petit Bistro Merlot, Lan-
guedoc, France: black cherry and
black coffee aromas and flavors; ripe
and soft; $10.

   • 2006 Petit Bistro Pinot Noir, Languedoc, France:
black raspberry and blueberry aromas and flavors; rich
and soft; $10.

   • 2006 Petit Bistro Rosé (cinsault, grenache and
syrah grapes), Languedoc, France: strawberry and cherry
aromas and flavors; medium-sweet; rich, ripe and soft;
$10.

   • 2006 Petit Bistro Syrah, Languedoc, France:
black cherries and licorice; rich and soft; $10.

News of the weird in wine

     Presidential Preference: What kind of wine does president-elect Barack Obama drink?  Well, we don't know if he drank it, but, in a recent People Magazine profile of him, a bottle of Kendall Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay was sitting on his kitchen countertop. Knowing opportunity when he sees it, KJ owner Jess Jackson quickly shipped two cases of wine to Obama, care of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C.  He points out that Nancy Reagan liked the wine, so it was often served in the White House of Ronald Reagan.

     Grape Growers Hurting: It's not quite as big as the recent Chinese bailout of its economy, but the Canadian government has bailed out the country's grape growers to the tune of $4 million.

     Wine a bad investment? I wrote recently that some affluent wine fans, scared off by the stock market, are investing in wine -- buying it and asking the wine retailer to keep it in perfect storage for them. Well, forget that. Comes the news now that fine wine sales fell 12.4 percent in October, with the hallowed Chateau Lafite Rothschild down 27.9 percent. Might as well drink up.

Carmenere. Is it the new Chilean Bordeaux?

Mr. Tasker,

    I recently found a South American wine called carmenère. I’ve tried a number of South American wines and had never heard of this one from Chile. It has a great, full-bodied flavor without being overpowering (I hope I sound like a wine snob). The bottle said it is a variety of grape. The maker is MontGras and the price is great!

Mike Ruth

Mike,

     I'm glad you asked. It’s an interesting story. The rich, red grape called carmenère was widely planted in France’s Bordeaux area in the 1800s. Late in the century, as faraway Chile was trying to modernize its wine industry, it imported carmenère along with cabernet sauvignon, merlot and other Bordeaux grapes.

     It was a good thing. As 1900 approached, Bordeaux’s vineyards were devastated by an aggressive root louse called phylloxera. Most of its vines were destroyed. But phylloxera never reached Chile, which was protected by distance, the Pacific Ocean and the Andes.

     As Europe slowly recovered from phylloxera, carmenère  was not replanted there because it ripened late, risking killing frosts, and often set few berries.

     In the 1990s, as Chile started entering the international wine market in a big way, visiting growers noted that the country’s huge vineyards of merlot had some maverick grapes intermingled. The leaves were different, it ripened later. But the growers had just been tossing it in with the merlot.

     Finally, scientists using DNA testing discovered that the maverick grape was carmenère. Intrigued, Chilean winemakers started cultivating it separately and using it with conscious effect in their wines.

     The difference is stunning. To demonstrate it, pour yourself a glass of Casa Lapostolle Merlot, at about $13, which is 100 percent merlot. And pour a glass of Casa Lapostolle’s Merlot Cuvée Alexandre, at about $22, which is 85 percent merlot and 15 percent carmenère, and taste the difference. The carmenère adds richness, smoothness, opulence and a nice mulberry/mocha scent to the wine.

     For more inexpensive proof, try the Miguel Torres Santa Digna Carmenère Reserva or the Viña MontGras Carmenère  Reserva, both at $9.

     As Chile’s wine industry continues to grow, carmenère  may become as important to that country as malbec is to Argentina. Snap them both up before they realize what they have and jack up the price.

   

Where are the wines, she asks

Dear Mr. Tasker,

     I appreciate your information on wines. I would be happier, though, if I could know where to get these wines in Miami. Especiallly the ones that are not expensive. I have asked in some stores and they don’t know what I am talking about.

Mary A. Jorda, Miami

Dear Ms. Jorda,

      Good question. For the inexpensive wines in the item below, I checked the prices of every one at my local Publix. I’m sure Winn-Dixie carries most of them as well.

       A tip: Sometimes supermarket clerks don’t know how to find the wines on their shelves. A good way to locate a wine is to see what country it’s from. Many supermarkets keep their U.S. -- mostly California -– wines in one shelf area, and their international wines in another area. Italian wines will be together, as will wines from Australia, Chile and so on.

    Good hunting.

Fred Tasker