red

You are currently browsing articles tagged red.

Grape 93: Malbec

May 3, 2022 in Uncategorized | No comments

Malbec is a special grape to me.  It is the grape that opened up the world of wine, the differences of vineyards and brands and lands of grapes.  We lived in Argentina at the time that I tried Malbec and it was so superior to any kind of wine, mixed drink or anything else that I had tried up to that point.  It was also everywhere in Buenos Aires and most came from one place – Mendoza.

On multiple weekends, I made trips from Buenos Aires to Mendoza on overnight buses, spent all weekend biking around the city and province, and then taking an overnight bus back before Monday began.  It was exhausting and glorious, and Mendoza presented itself as a location backdropped with mountains and tons of sun, yet was populated by many warm people who had little of the arrogance and Louis XIV heliocentricity more common in large cities with the national capital coexisting on top.

Over the years, Argentina Malbec has been a mainstay at our home, particularly when grilling and when carb-loading on pastas.  No grape has appeared more often in this wino’s glass than Malbec.  No grape has been so recommended and treasured and re-shared by friends and family members.  No grape is so prevalent in the boxes stuffed around our basement.

These two Malbecs are two of my favorites, and both are similar and elegant.  Both are also relatively affordable and up to the task for Wednesday Wine Night and for gifts to those that you really enjoy and who enjoy a great bottle of wine without the bravado.

  1. El Enemigo is the recent tour de force that shows up big in alcohol and taste, pulls back before its bigness becomes alcohol aggressive, and lingers all afternoon in relaxed longevity.  Hagrid, knocking on the door of the Dursley’s shack and making himself comfortable on the couch for the evening.
  2. Catena Malbec is the classic.  It’s the standard to compare all Malbecs by – and it envelopes you in violet and velvet, letting you know there’s alcohol but pulling you true-center toward fruit and ultimately, balance.  A classic toy gyroscope, when spinning beautifully and smoothly on its axis, permanent in its precision and present in that finite moment.

IMG_0016

Detail Up!

Random Googles:

  • Malbec – in France, it’s grown mostly in Cahors in SW France and is often used in blends
  • Malbec’s one of the 6 grapes permitted in red Bordeaux – Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Carmenere are the other five.
  • El Enemigo Malbec is from a joint venture between Adrianna Catena (daughter of Nicolas Catena) and Alejandro Virgil, noted passionate winemaker

Tags: , , ,

Grapes 87, 88 and 89: Callet, Mantonegro and Fogoneu

March 6, 2016 in Uncategorized | No comments

Buy glass here here

Personalized Olaf Glass here

Island of One
Callet, Mantonegro and Fogoneu – none of the wines seems to inspire much in the way of awe when made on their own. Words like rustic, simple, local, pale color, light-skinned/dark-skinned describe the single grape wines (hint: if people are talking about how thick/thin the skin of a GRAPE is in their description of WINE, it probably means they don’t like it or there isn’t much known about it; happens pretty often with obscure wines, often for good reason).

Beauty of Blend
But the beauty of these three wines is that their differences blend together really well. And for someone as profligate as your author, blending is beautiful. A bit of a light-skinned light wine here, add in a bit of that dark-skinned wine there, combine with something that has tannins heavy enough to sahara the windpipe, and voila — balance.

WWOD — What Would Olaf Drink?
Certainly there must be more to it than that, but the magic of dancing elixirs and spoonfuls of sugar that we people with kids watch on a daily basis has likely convinced us that all that is required for a truly beautiful blend of wine is the right melody and the right loveable dancing companion.

Taste:Fruity, slightly sweet, smooth — like a Mallorcan Merlot
T0007570_An2_600x2601
Detail Up!* AN/2 – Anima Negre 2012, 200855 (bottle number?) from Mallorca, Spain
* 65% Callet, 20% Mantonegro-Fogoneu and 15% Syrah

Random Googles:
* Mallorca — the Galapagos of Grapes — features these 3 indigenous grapes and many others
* Pliny the Elder — the original encyclopedia man whose work all subsequent encyclopedias were based — praised the wines of Mallorcan as some of the finest during the decades after Jesus was born.
* Selenho, frequent profilee in this blog, gets credit for pulling out two bottles of this AN/2 at Boqueria years ago… and on numerous subsequent occasions. Sommeliers like him are amazing. Friends like him are rarer than Fogoneu.

Tags: ,

Grape 86: Duras

February 25, 2015 in red | 1 comment

photo 2
Rare Grape, for all the wrong reasons
Rare is the grape that this wino comes across that fails to inspire in one shape or another. Perhaps due to a Pollyannic outlook on life or a natural proclivity to new experiences, it is likely a personality fault of some sort or other. Nonetheless, today is the day when a grape failed to inspire. That grape is Duras.

Duras – too similar sounding to Duress for enjoyment
Duras is a grape from the SW part of France in Gaillac AOC where it is reportedly required to be planted to preserve the indigenous grapes from the invading internationals like Syrah or Cabernet Sauvignon. And that is likely to the credit of those looking to protect their heritage and protect the wines that they (hopefully) love to quaff. For an ignorant outsider however, the wines are alcoholic juice boxes. Suitable for that special someone’s 40th birthday party with sippy straws but not to be paired with much beyond birthday cakes and pencil-esque amounts of frosting.

Legalese
Caveats abound of course – maybe this wine from 2011 was supposed to be drunk much earlier, maybe this is not repreesentative of the grape overall, maybe (definitely) this is the entry rung of this producer, maybe (probably) this wino chose the cheapest bottle of this wine with this grape because it was a new grape, maybe, maybe, maybe. And yet, the fact remains – this wine was only better once slightly oxidized and past any semblance of its prime. And with little knowledge and a minuscule geographic footprint for this grape, this grape is bearing the brunt of that sippy cup angst. Because birthday cake should be eaten on its own. Never paired with wine.

Taste
* Day of opening (curmudgeonly reviewed before flying away from home) — Juicy and harsh, lots of alcohol throughout. Those who like it will probably call it rustic.
* Several days after opening (begrudgingly reviewed again, after a flight to home) — Smoother after a few days – still juicy but less like a high-alcohol young Beaujolais and more like a young California Zin. Meaty pasta is a good pair.

Detail Up!
2011 Initiales by Domain Rotier (apparently now called Rouge as they have a White and Rose too) – made with 80% Duras grapes and 20% Braucol into a 14.5% wine from the Gaillac AOC in SW France

Random Googles:
* At first, I thought this wine had two new grapes – Duras, along with Braucol. Turns out, that grape has many names, one of which is Mansois that was reviewed previously. Kinda glad to have this blog in moments like this.
* Duras grapes are only found in the Gaillac region. Understandably.
* Duras grapes are typically blended with other grapes. A wise move.

Tags: ,

Grape 84: Liatiko

June 8, 2014 in red | No comments

liatikoImperfect Memory
As much as I would love to have a perfect log and memory of every grape and wine that has passed my lips, the reality is so far removed from that aspiration that it’s equivalent to wishing for world peace.. and just as naive. Wine people love to romanticize “that first wine,” “that night they fell in love with Amarone” and “that unknown wine on the left bank of the Seine” but let’s be clear – this is about much more than wine. Wine people romanticize wine because that’s what they’re about. Beer people romanticize beer in much the same way. Flower growers do the same thing, and people in general romanticize youth like a bunch of Baudelaire devotees.

Past sweet nothings
That is normal and thank goodness everyone does romanticize their past. Life can use a whole lot more romance than it currently has and is likely to have in the near future. Can anyone please romanticize Excel and/or Powerpoint? Correct – and please don’t try.

Getting old – better than the alternative
Because sometimes (and probably most times) it is much more important to enjoy the night, enjoy the romance of the moment and be utterly grateful that the moment exists and that you were there and can remember something of that moment, even if it’s imperfect, imprecise and heavily filtered by time. Precision and accuracy can follow to pick through the crumbs of the memory from the feast of the moment, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Detail Up!
Drank at M. Wells Steakhouse with Selenho. No further details available.

Taste
Like a barolo with spice and more umami savoriness. Very smooth and long lasting – bit harsh on the finish on its own. Fragrant with medium body and floral and spice. Solid compliment to poutine. Spicy red fruit, like raspberry with spices.

Random Googles:
* Liatiko is actually named after the month of July (July = Iouliatiko in Greek, lingua franca of Astoria, NY). Ιούλιος is how it appears when you flip past June on your Greek calendar.
* Wine is grown on Crete – on the eastern part of the island – and is believed to be the most planted grape on the island.
* Liatiko has very high acidity (up to 16%), which perhaps explains why it went so well with steak and lots of other delicious, rich foods.

Tags: ,

Grape 83: Piedirosso

May 25, 2014 in red | No comments

Piedirosso – think Pompeii
Piedirosso is an Italian grape that prefers volcanic soil and makes a wine called “Gragnano” so even before finishing this well-written article on Piedirosso, I needed to google where Gragnano is located and if it is close to Pompeii. Please see embedded map. Yes, right next to Vesuvius is Pompeii and right next to Pompeii is Gragnano, home to inky pastas and fizzy red wines. A short 39 minute drive down from Naples that requires driving around Vesuvius.

Volcanic Wine
Quite literally, when pairing that pizza at Motorino’s with Gragnano, you are drinking the volcanic fruits of an enormous eruption from nearly two thousand years ago (79 A.D. per helpful wikipedia). Fittingly enough, Vesuvius vino is fizzy. That bottle of red might look normal and dry but open it up and you’ll notice the bubbles raising to the surface, trying to find that cone of the volcano. Try shaking the bottle – will it explode all of your Pompeii doilies? An experiment still to be tested, perhaps in 2079 in memorial of the 2,000 year anniversary. That would be my 98th birthday and certainly seems permissible at the age of 98 to be as crazy as you like. Future nursing home – please consider yourself forewarned. I may bring Alka-Seltzer.

photo

Taste:
Slightly fizzy, bit mid body with surprisingly little fruit. Somewhere between Sangria and Lambrusco. Long and dry finish

Detail Up!
Piedirosso grape of Penisola Sorrentina “Gragnano”, Monteleone 2012 from Gragnano near Naples in Campania, Italy

Random Googles:
* Gragnano is the region in Naples province that makes this Piedirosso grape into the slightly fizzy Gragnano
* Gragnano is often cited as a fantastic accompaniment to pizza, one of the rare wines that Italians will actually drink with pizza. Beer is the more popular choice apparently.
* Piedirosso literally means “red feet”. Jancis Robinson points that that this is because the bottom of the vine of this grape used to have red feet that looked similar to the red feet of pigeons… perhaps the only cute thing about pigeons.

Tags: , ,

« Older entries