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wine in the berkshires

By greg

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

gregs motocycle

Last weekend Sue and I took advantage of her extra day off from the four-year-olds at St. Peter’s to pay a last-of-the-season visit to the Sandisfield house, and wrap it up for the winter.

Sue is a great cook (I live a charmed life), and because the Berkshires are crowded on Columbus Day weekend with the first “leafers” of the season, and our favorite restaurants were all booked out, we planned on a quiet dinner at home. She had brought most of what she needed, except for some grape tomatoes and fresh spinach, which I volunteered to get at Guido’s in Great Barrington.

That gave me an excuse to take the old Superhawk (above) on a last thirty-mile ride before draining the tank and taking out the battery, and the old motorcycle too, is wrapped up for the winter. Fortunately, before I left, I checked the refrigerator downstairs to see what wine might be available.

Hmm. A bottle of old Auslese from Johann Peter Reinert and a few Corona Lights left by friends of my son. Not the Saint-Amour of Georges Trichard, or the Château Revelette Rouge that I’d hoped to find. So I’d have to get a bottle of wine at Guido’s, too. No problem on the bike. My Victorinox backpack would easily accommodate a bottle of wine along with the rest.

It had been so long since I actually purchased a bottle of wine in a retail store other than Moore Brothers that I forgot what to expect.

The wine department at Guido’s is stocked with all the usual Yellow Tails and Rabbit Ridges and other industrial products, but I was pleased to find a small selection of real wines that just might be suitable, and settled on a Bourgogne Passetoutgrains 2005 from Domaine Robert Chevillon, a very good grower in Nuits St. Georges.

Big mistake.

It had been so long since I actually purchased a bottle of wine in a retail store other than Moore Brothers that I forgot what to expect. My bad. The wine smelled faintly of an old ashtray, along with hints of the slightly sweet decay that reminds me of Aunt Betty’s house, always closed up and overheated; suffocating in the winter.

What had slipped my mind is that almost all wine sold in America is stale: damaged by heat in transport or storage.

I am so accustomed to wine that was picked up at each winery in a refrigerated truck, then shipped, warehoused, and delivered to Moore Brothers in perfect condition, that the experience of tasting stale wine was jarring: sort of the reverse of the experience of first-time travelers who drink the house wine at a little farmhouse hotel in Abruzzi, and wonder why it seems so wholesome and compelling and good.

So I repeat: almost all wine sold in America is stale. Once again: almost all wine sold in America is stale. Without wine from Moore Brothers available, I would have done better to stop at the Barrington Brewery and picked up a couple of liters of their excellent, fresh Berkshire Blond.

Posted by Greg Moore

Categories : food with wine, learning

Tags : learning, our stores

grand cru sancerre…

By greg

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

Chene Marchand Label

Sancerre “Chêne Marchand” Domaine du Carrou
When the famous taster Pierre Bréjoux headed the I.N.A.O (the governing body that regulates wine in France), he observed that while tasting the greatest wines of Sancerre, “…one would like to have a throat as long as a swan’s neck.” His I.N.A.O never classified the vineyards of Sancerre, but if that ever happens, the chalky, sloping Chêne Marchand in the hamlet of Bué will be at the top of the list of its Grands Crus.

Dominique Roger has 0.37 hectares of forty year-old vines in Chêne Marchand, the crown jewel of his Domaine du Carrou. In most years, this tiny parcel yields fewer than 200 cases of round, elegant Sancerre.

Dominique Roger:
If you visit Dominique Roger (photo) at his Domaine du Carrou in Bué, don’t expect to spend a leisurely time indoors tasting the latest vintage and hearing all about the new Vaslin press or the Tronçais barrels from a famous cooper in Burgundy. Dominique Roger won’t try to impress you with his tools. But if you can keep up with him on a brisk climb through his immaculate, steep vineyards, you’ll learn a lot more about wine, and maybe find that you suddenly care a lot more about who grows it and where it comes from than you ever did before.

This wine:
This citrine-yellow wine has delicate nectarine, white peach and pink grapefruit in the nose, along with a suggestion of cassis and walnut, which on the palate turns to pistachio. There is fine minerality in harmonious balance with what Klaus Peter Keller calls “inner density” and lively acidity. This is sublimely elegant Sancerre.

As always at Moore Brothers, this elegant Sancerre was shipped and delivered to us in refrigerated containers, so it tastes exactly the same as it tasted at Dominique’s home in Bué, when I drank it with the tiny goujons, gardons, and eperlans, – fresh from the Loire, that Danielle Roger dipped in milk and seasoned flour, then fried and served in heaping mounds on large heated plates.

I thank you again for your continued support of sustainable viticulture, and the stewardship of these special traditions.

Greg Moore

Categories : food with wine, learning, loire, our winegrowers

Tags : learning, loire, our winegrowers

fun with lasagna

By David Moore

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

During Sergio Germano’s visits to our stores, we were answering lots of questions about which wine we’d serve with particular dishes. Tasting his Barbera, for example, I proclaimed it perfect for lasagna (of course, I’d never had it with lasagna, I just know it’s drunk with tomato-sauced, cheese-laden pasta in Piemonte).

So, putting my money where my mouth is, so to speak, last night Susan and I did the big Barbera ‘n Lasagna Taste-Off. We’ve been a bit busy these last few weeks, so I let the Severino family provide the lasagna, and grilled vegetables for the meal…besides, I’d bet their lasagna was a lot better than mine, and I was right. Fresh, handmade pasta, laden with cheese, and a delicious marinara – perfect!

I chose two Barberas: A Barbera d’Alba from Sergio Germano, and the just-arrived, Barbera d’Asti from Roberto Ferraris. Both are off-the-charts, wonderful renditions, and neither tastes like the other.

Sergio’s Barbera, for example, is a bright, snappy red, with a structure typical of the wines from his village of Serralunga. Roberto’s Barbera is typical Asti, all plush, dense, black fruit, with a fine “grain.”

Which worked better with our lasagna? That’s a tough call, and subjective. I loved Sergio’s with the grilled eggplant and peppers, and aromatically it sang with the marinara. Roberto’s was seamless with everything, and delicious – but just a touch “polished” for the setting. Both are going to have a home in our fridge…it’s hard to imagine wines more flexible.

Posted by David Moore

Categories : dinner with susan, food with wine, piemonte

Tags : dinner with susan, food with wine

copper river salmon and oregon pinot noir…

By greg

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

laurent

Willamette Valley Pinot Noir Reserve Clos Julien
OK, the fish came from the Copper River in Alaska; not the Willamette. But the wine came from three of the top vineyard sites in Oregon: Gran Moraine, Willakia, and Laurent Montalieu’s own Hyland Vineyard near McMinnville – all certified “Salmon Safe” by inspectors who analyze the impact of agriculture on salmon habitat.

I was only thinking about what to drink with the wild, buttery Chinook salmon, fresh local favas, and the first corn of the season that Sue prepared last Wednesday. And lest you assume that twenty years of sommellerie in French restaurants makes me an OLDE-WORLD SNOB, I want you to know that this all-American wine-and-food pairing was one of the most perfect in recent memory.

Here is another great red wine for the summer: no lumbering cumbrous fruit-bomb, but a classic Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, deeply aromatic of ripe sweet cherries and cloves, with fine minerality and length.

Laurent Montalieu:
Twelve or thirteen years ago, you might have bought a Laurent Montalieu Pinot Noir at our first store in Pennsauken. He was a partner and the winemaker at Bernard Lacroute’s WillaKenzie Estate in Yamhill. While still there, he and his wife Danielle Andrus bought an eighty-acre vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, which they named Domaine Danielle Laurent, and established Soléna Cellars. In 2003 he founded the Northwest Wine Company in McMinnville, a state-of-the-art winery that provides technologically advanced winegrowing expertise for more than twenty-five clients, including his own Soléna Cellars.

This wine:
In the glass, this wine has a limpid garnet color. The nose is pure smoky Pinot Noir, with aromatics of strawberry preserves, black cherries, rhubarb, and cloves. On the palate, the wine is light to medium bodied, with a beautiful sweet core of fruit, bright fresh acidity, and a long, fine-grained finish. This is another wine that puts on weight over time in the glass.

As always at Moore Brothers, this wine was shipped and delivered to us in refrigerated containers. Last week at home with Sue it tasted as fresh as I can imagine it would, on a leisurely picnic at Bridal Veil Falls State Park in the Columbia River Gorge, about twenty-five miles from Portland. Sometimes in a detour from “wine travel,” I visit a great old friend there – who was best man at my wedding almost thirty years ago.

I invite you take advantage of this special offer, and thank you again for your continued support of sustainable agriculture and sensitive, artisan winemaking.

Greg Moore

Categories : food with wine, tasting notes

Tags : food with wine, tasting notes

singing sauvignon…

By greg

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

Touraine Sauvignon Domaine de la Potine Vincent Ricard
Oh my, I do live a charmed life, and I’m grateful for it. But I don’t always pay as much attention as I should. Just ask Sue.

So for the days when I can’t remember what she told me she’d planned for dinner, I keep a few bottles of what I call “really adaptable” wines in the fridge. There’s usually a clean Provence rosé or a fresh Barbera available; and a dry Riesling, of course; but I always try to have a Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc on hand. There is nothing quite as versatile. It happens that this amazing wine was there last night, just when I needed it to accompany a filet of hake roasted with a mustard and yogurt sauce.

Wow. I thought I knew my friend Vincent Ricard’s Domaine de la Potine inside and out, but this bottle was singing.

This is startling, terrifically concentrated wine, with aromatic complexity and minerality not found in Pouilly-Fumés at three times the price.

Vincent Ricard:
When he took over the family estate in 1998, Vincent Ricard immediately quit the Oisly-Thésée Cave Cooperative, which had been founded by his grandfather, and began estate-bottling the wines. He never looked back, and is now one of the Loire Valley’s most admired young producers.

The Domaine de la Potine comes from a 2-hectare parcel of Sauvignon Blanc planted on a gentle slope of sandy clay-limestone that looks over the river Cher. The farming is organic, incorporating practices taken from the discipline of biodynamics, which Vincent encountered during a brief stage with François Chidaine in Montlouis. The wine ferments in stainless steel cuves, and is bottled in late winter.

This Wine:
This hand crafted, organically grown Sauvignon Blanc has a limpid delicate yellow color with flashes of pale green. Grapefruit, lemon zest, boxwood, and fresh herbs dominate the nose, with Asian pear, bitter honey, and ripe black currant on the palate. A long, persistent finish. This is especially good with fresh goats cheeses, but the wine is very adaptable (I like it with red-sauced pasta).

As always at Moore Brothers, this wine was shipped and delivered to us in refrigerated containers. You won’t find it in better condition, even if you drink it at Le Bon Laboureur in Chenonceaux, one of the best restaurants in Touraine, only a few kilometers from the winery.

I thank you again for your continued support of small-farm viticulture.

Greg Moore

Categories : food with wine, learning, loire, our winegrowers, tasting notes

Tags : learning, loire, our winegrowers, tasting notes

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