Archive for the ‘Wine’ Category

First thing first: roses are not always sweet. Sweet rose wines are more the exception than the rule. White zinfandel is a pink wine, also called blushed wine, but not a rose. Roses can go from pale pink to light red in color and can have more or less fruit on the palate.

There are two main ways to make a rose:

Roses de saignee are obtained by "bleeding the vats". The winemaker decides to open the vats early in the maceration to let the first juice out. This decision is made to produce a more tannic red and/or a rose de saignee.

Roses made by skin contact. The juice is in contact with the skins for few hours only. The method known as "blending" (mix white wine with red wine) is discouraged and not very common (except in Champagne, but even there winemakers don't use this method very often).

Roses containing white grape varietals are very rare!  Roses are easy to pair with all kind of food, being even more versatile than white wine or red wine. Light food (salad, seafood, chicken, etc.) calls for a light and crisp rose (Cotes de Provence, Anjou, Tavel, Chinon, etc.), while heavier food (steak, cheese, etc.) would pair perfectly with a darker, "fruitier" rose ("Il Mimo" for one, Italian rose made from Nebbiolo grape). More generally, roses pair very well with good company, sun, swimming pool, barbecue, etc.   Have fun and drink chilled roses all summer long!

Sean Larkin stopped in to Station Plaza Wine Tasting Bar with his small production "Boutique" wines. The Tin Knocker Sauvignon Blanc, Grand, his Napa Valley red blend and the Larking super small production wines, some with as little as 70 cases produced. From 99 -- 07 the Larkin Cab Frank scored over 90 points from Robert Parker every year.  Wines available at www.StationPlazaWine.com Buy Grand at www.StationPlazaWine.com - Sean Larkin's Stimulus Package Wine. Its 1/2 the price of the Larkin wines.

Sean bought ½ ton of Cabernet Franc grapes in 1999 and has never looked back. Since its release in 2001 this wine has scored over 90 points by Robert Parker every year.  He is true small production “boutique” winemaker and loves to talk about his wines. We hope to have him back soon.

Here is the label of The Tin Knocker a reminder of his days as a steel worker.

Fanny Croisy of Chateau Miraval stopped in to the Station Plaza Tasting Bar and showed us some great wines yesterday. The Rose is called Pink Floyd because they recorded part of "The Wall" there. Some interesting tidbits: Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie live there and have it rented till 2011 and Sting, Sade and a bunch of great artist have recorded there at their recording studio.

But for us its all about the vino and this stuff is good. Pick some up at WWW.StationPlazaWine.com

Earth Day at Station Plaza Wine was all about Organic and Biodynamic wines.  Olivier Richard of Chateau de la Selve stopped in to the Tasting Bar and talked about Organic Farming. The wines were great and very affordable.   

 Christophe Sabon runs this estate along with his father, Aimé, and his sister Isabel. They produce three different Châteauneuf red cuvées, a regular Châteaune runs uf-du-Pape, the Chât eauneuf-du-Pape Chaupin and the Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes. Although the two top cuvêes, Chaupin and the Vieilles Vignes, have both been rated highly in the past few vintages.
 

Young Christophe Sabon, with his sister by his side and his father in the background, is doing as great a job turning out terrific wines as any vigneron in the world. With nearly 200 acres of vineyards, 45 of them old vines situated in Chateauneuf du Pape, there is enormous potential, all of it being exploited. The 1998s, 1999s, 2000s, and 2001s were all fabulous at this estate, the 2003s were slightly irregular as well as tannic, the 2005s were great, the 2006s are fabulous, and the 2007s may be the sine qua non of all his vintages.

The white wines are not to be missed as they are some of the freshest, most perfumed, lively whites of Southern France. The value picks represent remarkable bargains. The bottled 2006 low end wines are all in the marketplace. While they are not quite at the level of the 2007s, there are some gorgeous choices for consumers. Janasse’s 2007 Chateauneuf du Papes are outrageous, all of which performed brilliantly despite  having just completed their malolactics after 11 months of fermentation. With all of the excitement over the 2007s, readers should not forget just how great Janasse’s  2006s have turned out. They are performing as well as they did last year, perhaps even better.

Domaine de la Janasse

This domaine was created in 1973 by Aime Sabon and is composed of 50 hectare throughout Chateauneuf, Cotes du Rhone, Cotes du Rhone villages and vin de pays. Christophe Sabon took over for Aime in 1991 after receiving a BTA in winemaking and oenology from Beaune and a BTS in marketing at Macon. Christophe was joined by his sister, Isabelle, also oenologist, in 2001. 
This estate employees partial destemming (50% to 80% inclusion depending on stem maturity), very long maceration (3 to 4 weeks) and even some micro-oxegenation on their vin de pay wines. The grenache sees primarily vat ageing where as the syrah and other varietals see small barrique, including new, for 12 to 14 months.
This winery produces a traditional cuvee, a Chaupin cuvee which is typically 100% grenache from a single, cool climate plot that sees 30% barrique, ¼ of which is new and a Vieilles Vignes blend which is a blend of the oldest vines that sees 40% in barrique with ¼ being new.

It’s true that chemicals such as pesticides, weed killers, fungicides and fertilizers used in the fields do cling to the grapes and seep into the fruit’s pulp and trace amounts can make it to your wine glass. Typically, as many 18 different chemicals are used on non-organically grown grape crops during the growing cycle. The process of fermentation however breaks down a good portion of them. Still, the use of chemicals does impact health indirectly by disrupting ecosystems and communities. The runoff can contaminate groundwater and harm people and wildlife.

Organic wine consumption has grown by double digits over the past several years, some years as high as 28% (in 2005 to $80 million) with good reason.  One reason is sulfites, which do occur naturally in wines during fermentation, but most producers add more to prolong shelf life. In the US, non-organic wines can contain up to 350ppm (parts per million) of sulfites. This can be enough for those estimated .04% of the population or about a million people that are allergic to them and even those with a low tolerance for sulfates to have adverse reactions such as redness and flushing of the face, burning sensations, hives, cramps, headaches or heartburn.   Organic wines have no sulfites added but can have a natural accruing sulfite count somewhere under 100ppm in all finished products.(I am not sure what the actual number is, I’m finding different ones) Most organic wines contain less than half of that.  There are more and more people coming into Station Plaza Wine and asking us for sulfite free wine. This does not really exist, but they swear that organic or low sulfite wine does not give them that adverse reaction. So we looked into it and expanded our organic selection and it seems to be working well.

Sustainable farming is thought to be the next best thing to organic. This is the practice of using as little outside interference as possible and does not require the added cost, filing and dealing with the buerocracy that the certified organic label inteals. Take Shafer Vineyards in Napa Valley, for example. Shafer makes some of the most highly regarded wine in America, and they use owls, songbirds, hawks and bats in place of insecticides and rodent poisons.(So does Disney fyi) They recycle their water, make their own compost and have converted to 100 percent solar power. Sustainable? Absolutely. Certified organic? Nope. Ninety percent of the wine produced in the America is made from grapes grown in California.  If you drink California wine you can check this list from the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance of wineries and vineyards who have made a commitment to sustainable winegrowing. Continue reading “Is Organic Wine healthier for you?” »

The Grapes are from North Fork Long Island, The Winery is in Red Hook Brooklyn and the winemakers include Abe Schoener of the Scholium Project and Robert Foley, two all star California winemakers. With a list of participants also including the on-site winemaker Christopher Nicolson and Mark Snyder of Angles Share Wines how can this project miss?

 The wine is not at all what you would expect. It’s totally different. The unfiltered Sauvignon Blanc has a beautiful deep gold color of a wine that is older than it’s vintage. This is not your every day Sauv Blanc.  Very, very interesting.  

We tasted these at the StationPlazaWine.com Tasting bar and of the 25 or so people that joined us the most common expression was a widening of the eyes and a smile then a gulp and – wow, that’s different.

The Red Hook Winery Jamesport Vineyard The Electric 2008

The Red Hook Winery Jamesport Vineyard Chardonnay 2008

The Red Hook Winery Jamesport Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2008

Here’s a video from youtube, it takes about 30 seconds to play so just fast forward. Click the photo below to watch:

Cheers, raise a glass to NY,

Kevin

Jayson Woodbridge, Napa Valley’s talented winemaker has done it again. First came his Hundred Acre wines which have all scored well, most in the 90’s and some as high as 100 points by Robert Parker. These are a bit pricey though, figure $200 -- $300+ a bottle (but worth every drop). Then came his Layer Cake wines which are made by the same winemakers that make the Hundred Acre. These are priced from $14 -- $25 and drink like they cost a lot more.  His newest addition to the boutique wine world is the CHERRY PIE PINOT NOIRwhich just hit the East Coast – 3 bottles later I can tell you – go with the Stanley Ranch if you like a more fruit forward, cherry piei-sh, almost a cab -- type of vino. If you’re into a more terroir driven classic Pinot Noir try the Huckleberry Snodgrass. We opened one at lunch today (From The Huckleberry Vineyard) it was a bit earthy for off the bat, then over time the fruit fought its way through. But where the Huckleberry left off – 3 hours later the Stanly ranch picked up. Talk about a deep, cherry pie-ish, fruit forward vino that explodes on your pallet and leaves you with a yearning for another sip. By the  time we finishes bottle 3 we put in an order for 20 cases (to start with) and have 2 tastings scheduled. One Saturday the 13^th and the next Thursday the 25^th. A nd Thursday we’ll have some real cherry pie to go whit the Cherry Pie…  Cherry Pie Video PS you gota love the cork, it says, "Congratulations you have made the correct decision to opening this…  commence having fun"

If you like Pinot Grigio try a Pinot Gris from Alsace France! I’m enjoying the Gerard Metz2007 tonight and it’s a real step up from the basic Pinot Grigio. Don’t be afraid of a little age, I had a 2004 on the 4th of July last year that I will never forget!