The Wine's the Thing
Mitch Kornfeld
12/9/02

Christmas Reds

I started to write this because a friend asked me to recommend red wines. With Christmas coming around I thought I'd focus on Zinfandel, but this one drifts around to a few other things, as it's another one of my no outline specials. The person it was intended for is one Terry (Theresa) Chan-Kraushar, a nice Chinese-Jewish-American "girl" (I know I should have said "woman" as she has two teenaged sons, but I think girl reads a little better; maybe I'm just old-fashioned - let me go back and put "girl" in quotations).

Dear Terry,

So Josh tells me you'd like to have some recommendations for reds. That's good 'cause 'tis the season. I'll start by recommending some Zinfandels, the All-American wine. I've tasted some recently, so the subject is fresh in my mind.

I sampled a few Ravenswood Zins at Union Square Wines and there are two stand-outs that you should try. They are both 1999's (an excellent vintage). The first is the Amador (county) and the other is the Mendocino (county, of course). 

The Amador is in the tradition of classic California Zinfandels. It's big, rich, fruity, spicy, with classic Zin-berry zippiness, and it is also showy and obvious (and delicious). It's your basic fruit bomb, straightforward and easy to understand. It's a Ludwig van of a wine. 

The Mendocino, by contrast, is quite different. It's nowhere near as fruity, but it's more penetrating and more intense, and it has a much longer aftertaste. If it wasn't 15.3% alcohol I'd call it European in style. 

I think you should try them both and see if you prefer one style over the other. For years I 've preferred the knock-your-socks-off Amador style of wine, and I still have a soft spot for them. But over the last decade or so I've gotten into the more elegant style of wine. I don't know how many of my columns you've read, but the New World vs. Old World - power vs. elegance dichotomy runs all through them. One of these days I really should do a column just on that. 

Meanwhile, the Amador and Mendocino would make for an interesting mini-tasting. (Or if you were invited to a holiday dinner…) One reason the Mendocino is so different is that it is only 82% Zinfandel. That in all likelihood means the grapes were in what is called in California "a field blend," which means the vineyards were probably planted by Italians some decades ago, sometimes even during Prohibition, or even before. (The 69th Anniversary of repeal was Dec. 5th. Be sure to have a toast.). The varieties that produced the hearty wines they liked were all planted together. Another reason for planting them together was that the grapes were often shipped to home wine-makers back east where they were all fermented together anyway. In addition to Zinfandel they almost always included Petite Sirah, Carignane (also spelled Carignan, which might explain why some California old-timers are apt to pronounce it "Kerrigan"), Alicante Bouchet, and what they called Mataro, which is called Mouvedre in France and Monastrell in Spain. With the exception of Petite Sirah they are all blending grapes (though Petite is used for blending often enough), which means they all add their own flavor to the stew and what you get is more complexity.

The wine is 8% Petite Sirah which adds fruit, tannin, intensity, and a boost to potential longevity. Carignane is a production grape from the south of France where it's responsible for a lot of vin ordinaire. In fact it has been called "distinctively indistinctive," but if you have old vines, that get enough sunlight and heat, and, most importantly, are pruned back for higher quality, you get an interesting wine with flavors coming from the earthy, forest floor, wet wool, barnyardy end of the flavor spectrum. It's hard to explain, but trust me. If you ever have a varietal Carignane you'll know what I mean. It's not my favorite variety but it seems to add some interest to this type of wine. By the way, Ravenswood is not the only winery that bottles this kind of Zin, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Alicante Bouchet is similar to Carignane in that it's a production grape from the south of France. It's famous for it's dark color and it's popular as a blending grape for that reason. When there are old vines and they are pruned back it's said to make a big, intense, and long lasting wine, but there aren't many varietal Alicantes out there and I have never tasted one.

Mouvedre is an important blending grape from the Cotes du Rhone and the south of France. It's one of the thirteen varieties legally allowed in Chateauneuf du Pape, and it can be an important part of the blend. In California and Australia it invariably shows up in Rhone style blends. The basic recipe calls for Grenache, Syrah, (Shiraz if you're an Aussie - it's the same grape), and Mouvedre. In fact there's an Australian wine named "G-S-M," to reflect these three varieties. In California it appears in Rhone-style blends about as often as Cabernet Franc does in red Bordeaux blends. Instead of Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot-Cabernet Franc you get Syrah-Grenache-Mouvedre. It's also said to be in the earthy and woodsy flavor category. (Robert Parker can detect leather, truffles, and mushrooms. Go figure.) It's an important grape. Obviously using all of these varieties works and these field blend Zins are really very good. (I bought the '99 Mendocino.)

Ravenswood has good distribution and everything they make is worth trying. The wine they turn out in the largest quantity is the Vintner's Blend Zinfandel. It's a vintage dated wine and even at the entry level price of $10 it shows good concentration, the hallmark of Ravenswood wines. (Their motto is "No Wimpy Wines," and their 800 number is '888-NO-WIMPY.') I wouldn't serve it on Christmas, but for an everyday wine it can't be beat. (It's been my everyday wine before. I went through a bit of the '85 at around $7. Those were the days.)

Their second most abundant wine is the Sonoma Zin. While not quite the fruit bomb that the Amador is, it's very fruity by any standard and it captures the essential Zinfandel berriness and spiciness. It's worthy of your holiday table. By the way I recently uncorked a bottle of the 1995 version of this wine and it was a real beauty. The conventional wisdom on these high alcohol Zins is to drink them young when they have so much fruit and so much going on that you don't notice the high alcohol. As they age the fruit fades and the alcohol becomes more apparent so they can get out of balance, but if you have an excellent year such as '95 (or '99) where there's a wallop of fruit packed in, they can age into really nice table wines with plenty of bouquet, length, and complexity. They are different young and old but they are good both ways.

Ravenswood makes two more Zins in this "County Series," a Napa and a Lodi. I put "County" in quotations because Lodi is a town not a county, but it is the Lodi of "stuck in …again," fame (not the one in Joisey). The Lodi is also from fruit city and a good choice if you can't find the Amador (and is probably best consumed young). The Napa is perhaps a bit more restrained in the fruit component, though it has plenty of fruit, and plenty of complexity too. It's another fine Zin. All of these County Series wines approach the $20 price tag and they're all worth it.

Ravenswood has one more line of Zins, their single-vineyard series. They're up to the mid-$30 range these days, and I'm still getting used to that. (After all I remember when good Zins [though not as good as these] were one-tenth the price, and all right, I'm a middle-aged card carrying Boomer but I'm not that old. [Two years, six months, and eight days older than your husband, but who's counting?]) These single vineyard Zins are tremendously concentrated and full of character, some would say they have too much character, though I disagree. If you have wine loving friends over for the holidays they will be suitably impressed. They, the Zins not the friends, will stand up to any food you can throw at them. The ones you might see are labeled: Monte Rosso, Barricia, Old Hill, and Wood-Belloni. There are a few others but they don't often make it out to the East Coast. If you see any of them, and you are so inclined, buy one right away as they will sell out. They are pricey but if you are going to splurge this would be the time.

Remember the field-blend Zins? Well the one you have the best chance of finding is from Ridge Vineyards and it's called "Geyserville." Ridge is a venerable name in the California wine industry and they are justly famous for their Zinfandels. The Geyserville, interestingly, is not labeled Zinfandel as it falls below the 75% legal threshold for varietal labeling. It's down around 65% to 70% with the rest comprised of mostly Carignane and Petite Sirah. It's big and fruity when young and is a real ager. You might run into it at about $20.

Ridge's next wine is called "Coast Range Zinfandel." It "functions" (if that's the right word) as an equivalent to a Ravenswood "County" wine. The 2000 has been released, but you may come across a '99. The older wine is the one to prefer, but from what I've seen of the '00 whites (and a few reds) it's a pretty good, though not great, year. I'm sure it will be fine while young. You might find it under $20.

Ridge makes a bunch of highly regarded single vineyard Zins. With some luck you can find the Dusi, Lytton Springs, and the Pagani. They're all excellent, though over the years I've found the Pagani to be particularly big and powerful (and high in alcohol, so be careful). They're maybe $30's these days. The President-Wine Maker, Paul Draper, says that presently he's making his wines with a little more elegance and restraint but I haven't had a recent vintage to check it out. It's on my "to do" list.

A couple more of these field blend Zins - though don't hold your breath searching for them, they seem to keep them to themselves in California - come from Trentadue winery and is called Old Patch Red, and from Preston, one of my stock-in-trade "middle-class" wineries you can trust, and theirs is labeled Zinfandel. They're both from Sonoma, and both are reasonably priced.

There's one more "R" winery that makes fine Zin and that's Rosenblum. The R makes it easy to remember and it's the last of the "big three 'R' wineries" that specialize in Zinfandel. Their Vintner's Cuvee is analogous to the Ravenswood Vintner's Blend, and it's just as good, which is saying something. It's around the same price and is also widely distributed. After that they produce a range of mid-priced offerings such as Russian River Old Vines, Oakley, and an occasional Napa, and a variety of single-vineyard bottlings. Look for Maggie's Reserve-Samsel, Sauret, Hendry, Rockpile Road, and Brandlin Ranch vineyards, and the newest one I've seen, the Harris-Kratka Vineyard. I tried it at a Sonoma tasting last Spring and it was really impressive. We're looking at the mid- to high-$20s, but the value is there.

To digress a bit (surprise), at that tasting they had a Rosenblum white that stood out. It was a Dry Creek Valley (Sonoma) Marsanne, a white Rhone variety that you don't often see as a varietal wine. It was super - 14% alcohol and packed with flavor and intensity. If you find any get one, no, get two, and tell me where you found it so I can get the rest.

Before I leave Rosenblum I'd like to mention the owner-winemaker, who I've never met, one Kent Rosenblum. It certainly sounds like he's a lantzman, and he's a veterinarian by trade. He still works one day a week as a vet, but he does it on a pro bono basis. I ask you how many people who own a decent-sized and fairly prestigious winery (that he built from scratch) are likely to be doing charity work one day a week? It's not a big point, but I'd thought I'd I mention that I think it's nice to give your business to someone who you like or is doing the right thing (or even a business you like, such as Ravenswood). You can say that Ravenswood has faceless corporate owners (as many wineries do) but I've always liked their style, and obviously I'm very fond of their wines.

Leaving the All-American Zin grape behind (even if it's real name is Crljenak kasteljanski and it's originally from Croatia, the mystery was solved in the last year), I thought I'd mention Pinot Noir. California has been making steady progress with Pinot Noir, but I'm still partial to Oregon when it comes to American Pinots. It's a full subject all by itself, but briefly, I've always recommended starting at the beginning of the alphabet with Oregon Pinots. The last Thanksgiving dinner I can remember participating in (before having to work them for six straight years) was in 1995 and I brought along some1990 Arterberry Pinots. Oregon Pinot Noir works just fine with turkey. You can try Aldesheim, Amity, Archery Summit, and Bethel Heights, for starters, which isn't fair to Ken Wright, who is making really fine Pinots, and some of the others in between, such as Ponzi, Evasham Wood, and Willamette Valley Vineyard.

Oregon Pinot Noir isn't cheap, the good ones start at around $20, but they are so satisfying. Oregon has had a good run of vintages starting with 1998, and the now on the market 2000's seem to be very good right out of the chute.

There's a California Pinot that I tasted a few weeks ago that was quite beguiling. It was a DeLoach 2000 Russian River Valley (Sonoma), from one of the best regions for CA Pinot. It's about $22. It has a complex and fragrant nose, even at its young age, and those qualities come through in the taste too. Even though it is light in color, it has plenty of flavor and it nicely illustrates how Pinot Noir is an exception to the "more color equals more flavor" rule.

DeLoach is another name you can trust. Cecil DeLoach is a retired San Francisco firefighter and a really nice guy. (Mrs. DeLoach is very nice too, as you would expect.) I met Cecil at a tasting about twenty years ago, when I was still in Ladder 6, and I asked him how he got started as a winery owner, and he told me, one fireman to another (to paraphrase F. Lee Bailey), how many acres he started with, how much he paid, how much he put down, the interest rate, the whole bit. What a guy. Needless to say I might be a little bit biased when it comes to his wines, but they are really solid. (And the operation has grown steadily, so they must be doing something right.) He makes some old-vine single vineyard Zins but they sell out rapidly and rarely make it out here. If you're looking for whites, and there's always someone who wants a white, DeLoach makes good Chardonnays. The last time I tasted them I preferred the regular to the Reserve, but I damn near oscillate when it comes to the subject of oak vs. no-oak Chardonnays. Generally the no-oaks go better with food and are cheaper than the Reserves, but the Reserves have more going on than the regulars, but you can't go wrong with either one.

Merlot is a crowd pleaser and also a good choice to go with turkey, but for the good ones from California they begin to get a little pricey. You can't get really good ones for under $20. For a few dollars less I like the more Euro-styled Long Islands (Bedell, Pelligrini, Paumanok, and Palmer for starters), and for a few dollars more you can get a California Cabernet Sauvignon. With that said you can't go wrong with the St. Francis Sonoma Merlot, the Chateau Souverain (also from Sonoma), or the Markham (from Napa). Franciscan Merlot (Napa) is very good these days (like the Zins we're looking for 1999's), and it's only $20, but for five dollars more you can get their Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, a fine wine from a justly famous category. Speaking of famous categories, a week ago I tasted the Franciscan 2000 Napa Valley Chardonnay from their Oakville Estate and it's fine. It tastes exactly like Napa Valley Chardonnay, which is to say delicious, and it's only $16. For an entry level "essence de Napa Valley," it can't be beat. There are certainly other Napa Chards with more depth of flavor but there's no free lunch and you have to pay for more flavor. The Rombauer 2000 Napa Chardonnay comes to mind. It's $28 and a wonderfully deep Chardonnay; I highly recommend it, but the Franciscan does resemble it in its taste of Chardonnay fruit. You decide who's coming for dinner, what your budget is, and you make your pick.

Back in 1994 I brought the Chateau Souverain 1991 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon to a holiday dinner and it was a big hit. Cabernet Sauvignon for Christmas? Absolutely. The big red will stand up to all the big flavors. The Souverain, as I learned to call it (that used to be its name way back when - I always thought the "Chateau" was a little pretentious, though everything else about the operation is not), is only about $20. It's quite good and a good value. The same thing can be said about their Chardonnay (about $14).

Besides Chat. Souverain and Franciscan here's a bevy of good "middle class" California Cabernet producers out there. Try Simi, Benziger (their 2000 Carneros Chardonnay is delish and a steal at $12), Estancia, (they have a $30 Meritage, a Cab. Sauv-Cab. Franc-Merlot blend, that is really good.), Sterling, J. Lohr, Beringer Knights Valley, Eberle, Turnbull, Alexander Valley Vineyards, Kunde, or Fetzer Barrel Select. Fetzer doesn't get the respect they deserve, and gets overlooked, because they put out a lot of mass-market stuff, but they give value at every "price point" (as they say), and the Barrel Selects and the Private Reserves are really very good. The Barrel Select Cab is under twenty and it can age too. Before I leave Fetzer I want to mention that they're the largest grower of organic grapes in California. Their Bonterra line of wines (a made up name, it's supposed to mean "good earth") is made entirely from organically grown grapes. The Bonterra Chardonnay is very tasty and they are doing good and interesting things with Rhone varietals, Syrah, and the Rhone whites, Marsanne, Rousanne, and Viognier.

There. That should keep you busy for a while. Now before I finish I'll mention just one more wine. It's more or less my house wine these days. It's Spanish, from the Navarra region (not to be confused with Navarro, the flagship winery of Mendocino County's Anderson Valley) and the name of the wine is: Vega-Sindoa 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon 60% - Tempranillo 40%. (Look for the rare front label typo.) It's in the international style, which means fruity, and it has no oak at all. It lists for $8 though Garnet Wines (Lex. Between 68th and 69th across from Hunter College) sells it for $7. I got it at the on-the-mailing-list sale price of $5.99. You ought to drop by Garnet and get on the list. It's just footsteps from the Hunter stop on the Number 6. The wine isn't the greatest in the world but it's fruity, tastes good, and they've gotten the blend down to where you can't tell where the Cab ends and the Tempranillo begins, so it's interesting to boot. For the price it's a terrific everyday wine. When you don't feel like cooking, have Josh boil up some ravioli and heat up a jar of tomato sauce. Grate some Grana-Padano, crack open a Vega-Sindoa, and you'll have a meal, not fit for a King, but maybe a Prince, even if you aren't a Princess.

To quote the eminent Yankee-ologist Michael Kay… "See ya."

© Mitch Kornfeld 2002 All rights reserved

Send your comments or questions to...
mitchk@unionsquarejournal.com


Previously by Mitch Kornfeld...

A Brief Visit to Waughsville (02/06/02)

Get Bubbling with California Sparklers (12/27/01)

The Napa Valley Comes to Town, Part II (09/04/01)

The Napa Valley Comes to Town, Part I (07/12/01)

Windows on Long Island (06/13/01)

Bully for Your (05/30/01)

Big Euro Tasting, Part III -- Remembrance of Bouquets Past (05/17/01)

Big Euro Tasting, Part II -- Greater Burgundy (05/09/01)

Grand European Tasting (05/01/01)

King Cab, Part V -- Spain, Chile, Argentina, Australia (04/18/01)

King Cab, Part IV -- Italy (04/04/01)

King Cab, Part III -- California (03/21/01)

King Cab, Part II -- Bordeaux (03/07/01)

King Cab, Part I -- Some Basics (02/27/01)

For a Big Red, Think Petite (02/18/02)

Tannic Monsters from the ID (02/08/01)

New York Wine and Restaurant Deals (01/30/01)

Dad's Cardinal Zins and Other Clichés (01/20/01)

Some Basics for a Winter's Eve (01/12/01)

And if They're Spanish That's Fine (01/05/01)

Hello Carbon Dioxide (12/29/00)

Wines for Christmas (12/22/00)

Nouveau Beaujolais, Etc. (11/24/00)

Going to a Tasting 101 (12/01/00)