Mollydooker
On a continuing theme of Parker bashing I thought I would talk a bit about Australia. I was once an anti-Australia wine geek, but I have slowly but surely been convinced that with the right dedication, Australia has some really excellent terroir, especially for producing the Rhone varietals, I've even seen some Riesling worth drinking. But this appreciation required overcoming some pretty deep rooted prejudice and coming to terms with the idea that Mollydooker just tastes bad to me. For those of you who have never heard of Mollydooker, it is a huge, fruit bomb, massively alcoholic Australian wine brand that has grabbed up enormous ratings from big name wine critics. The problem is, for me, is that the wine is like being stuck in a Yankee Candle Company store next to the town drunk. Mollydooker represents everything I don't like in New World Wine:High alcohol, fake and overripe fruit flavors, and a complete lack of nuance. While Australia rarely offers up truly old world wine due to its climate and geography, it does make some delicious terroir driven wines which gives off beautiful fruit. I'd recommend something d’Arenberg, Rolf Binder, and Two Hands.
Pairing
Food and wine pairing is a tricky point for me. I more than agree that wine improves food, but very rarely do I find food improving wine. Sauternes and blue cheese is a dead on winner for me, Sancerre and Chevre, Scallops and Marlborough, Lobster and Bollinger are all beautiful. And they all make sense. Make sure the body of the wine matches the weight of the food, the acidity is matched with fattiness or more acid, sweet and salty, etc... but the rule that will never make sense to me is "make sure your sweet wine is sweeter than your dessert". To me sweet wine and dessert is a recipe for diabetes, not delight. While the old guard of the wine world will probably write me off for this, with a rich, sweet dessert I'll skip the eiswein, give me a powerhouse red. Tempranillo, Monastrell, Cabernet Sauvignon and and Petit Syrah are the name of the game. Seriously. So, question of the day, do you have a weird pairing that you just love?
Sauvignon Blanc
My wine idol, Jancis Robinson, has been cited on more than one occasion that there is hardly anything to like in Sauvignon Blanc. After Riesling (Jancis' favorite white grape), Sauvignon Blanc is my favorite white varietal. To me the subtle, grassy, citric aromas are as haunting and captivating as any in the wine world. Sauvignon Blanc is also a great wine for starting wine drinkers because the aromas are so distinct and consistent. The old world (produced in Sancerre and Pouilly Fume in the Loire, and mixed with Semillon in Bordeaux) have a very distinct grassy and stony aroma, light body and a bracing but beautiful acidity. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, which is a great value that gets more expensive every year is the most distincitive wine always showing grapefruit/gooseberry flavors, and often the smell of cat pee. Buying a bottle of each and trying them back to back is a great way to train your palate. Just avoid California sauvignon blanc, often called Fume Blanc. It isn't that they don't make good Sauvignon Blanc but all to often they oak it or let it over ripen which steals the brilliant acidity and gives the wine a mucky flavor.
German Riesling
Why people don't buy more German Riesling is a mystery to me. It's super food friendly, cheap for its relative quality, and of course delicious. That's not true, I do understand why people don't buy more of it. Each German wine bottle has what seems to be a paragraph of seemingly random 14 letter long German words. So in desperation either the inexperienced drinker does one of two logical things: buy an American Chardonnay, or go for the bottle that just says Riesling and has a cute picture. Don't, those cute simple looking bottles are almost always bad. German wine is really not as difficult as it sounds. In fact, I think that the sheer Amount of information they provide makes buying German wine much more a sure bet than anything else on the shelf. Here's the 5 minute guide
First:
Dr. Loosen: This is the name of the producer, there are a few major names you will probably want to get yourself aquainted with, and Ernest Loosen is one of them, Donnhoff and St Urbans Hof are another couple.
2005: Vintage, unlike France, don't worry about it. There hasn't been a bad vintage in German in the last 5 years
Wehlener Sonnenuhr: There will always be two random looking words on the label, don't worry about what they are, just make sure they're there. The first word is the town, in this case Wehlen, and the Vineyard Sonnenuhr (in this case a super steep blue slate vineyard producing some world class wine). If they don't tell you the town and the vineyard, they're getting grapes from just anywhere, so don't trust it.
Riesling: The grape, you know this one
Kabinett: This is the ripeness level of the grapes when they were picked. The more ripe they are, the more sugar, and thus the sweeter. Kabinett is on the bottom, being just off dry and is my favorite and very food friendly. The higher levels from least to most ripe are Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese. At most budgets, you won' be drinking higher than Spatlese.
Qualitatswein Mit Pradikat (QmP): Quality Wine with Distinction. Make sure your wine says this. If it doesn't it will just say Qualitatswein or QbA. This is lower quality wine and to be avoided.
Mosel-Saar-Ruwer: This is Germany's most famous growing region. Other regions include Rhinegau, Pfalz, and Nahe. As a general rule, avoid wines that from the Rhinehessen.
That's all there is to it. Just make sure the wine is QmP rated, try Kabinett's with food and the higher ripeness levels on there own or with dessert. Oh, and if you see the work Trocken, than means all the wines sugar was fermented into alcohol.
On a continuing theme of Parker bashing I thought I would talk a bit about Australia. I was once an anti-Australia wine geek, but I have slowly but surely been convinced that with the right dedication, Australia has some really excellent terroir, especially for producing the Rhone varietals, I've even seen some Riesling worth drinking. But this appreciation required overcoming some pretty deep rooted prejudice and coming to terms with the idea that Mollydooker just tastes bad to me. For those of you who have never heard of Mollydooker, it is a huge, fruit bomb, massively alcoholic Australian wine brand that has grabbed up enormous ratings from big name wine critics. The problem is, for me, is that the wine is like being stuck in a Yankee Candle Company store next to the town drunk. Mollydooker represents everything I don't like in New World Wine:High alcohol, fake and overripe fruit flavors, and a complete lack of nuance. While Australia rarely offers up truly old world wine due to its climate and geography, it does make some delicious terroir driven wines which gives off beautiful fruit. I'd recommend something d’Arenberg, Rolf Binder, and Two Hands.
Pairing
Food and wine pairing is a tricky point for me. I more than agree that wine improves food, but very rarely do I find food improving wine. Sauternes and blue cheese is a dead on winner for me, Sancerre and Chevre, Scallops and Marlborough, Lobster and Bollinger are all beautiful. And they all make sense. Make sure the body of the wine matches the weight of the food, the acidity is matched with fattiness or more acid, sweet and salty, etc... but the rule that will never make sense to me is "make sure your sweet wine is sweeter than your dessert". To me sweet wine and dessert is a recipe for diabetes, not delight. While the old guard of the wine world will probably write me off for this, with a rich, sweet dessert I'll skip the eiswein, give me a powerhouse red. Tempranillo, Monastrell, Cabernet Sauvignon and and Petit Syrah are the name of the game. Seriously. So, question of the day, do you have a weird pairing that you just love?
Sauvignon Blanc
My wine idol, Jancis Robinson, has been cited on more than one occasion that there is hardly anything to like in Sauvignon Blanc. After Riesling (Jancis' favorite white grape), Sauvignon Blanc is my favorite white varietal. To me the subtle, grassy, citric aromas are as haunting and captivating as any in the wine world. Sauvignon Blanc is also a great wine for starting wine drinkers because the aromas are so distinct and consistent. The old world (produced in Sancerre and Pouilly Fume in the Loire, and mixed with Semillon in Bordeaux) have a very distinct grassy and stony aroma, light body and a bracing but beautiful acidity. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, which is a great value that gets more expensive every year is the most distincitive wine always showing grapefruit/gooseberry flavors, and often the smell of cat pee. Buying a bottle of each and trying them back to back is a great way to train your palate. Just avoid California sauvignon blanc, often called Fume Blanc. It isn't that they don't make good Sauvignon Blanc but all to often they oak it or let it over ripen which steals the brilliant acidity and gives the wine a mucky flavor.
German Riesling
Why people don't buy more German Riesling is a mystery to me. It's super food friendly, cheap for its relative quality, and of course delicious. That's not true, I do understand why people don't buy more of it. Each German wine bottle has what seems to be a paragraph of seemingly random 14 letter long German words. So in desperation either the inexperienced drinker does one of two logical things: buy an American Chardonnay, or go for the bottle that just says Riesling and has a cute picture. Don't, those cute simple looking bottles are almost always bad. German wine is really not as difficult as it sounds. In fact, I think that the sheer Amount of information they provide makes buying German wine much more a sure bet than anything else on the shelf. Here's the 5 minute guide
First:
Dr. Loosen: This is the name of the producer, there are a few major names you will probably want to get yourself aquainted with, and Ernest Loosen is one of them, Donnhoff and St Urbans Hof are another couple.
2005: Vintage, unlike France, don't worry about it. There hasn't been a bad vintage in German in the last 5 years
Wehlener Sonnenuhr: There will always be two random looking words on the label, don't worry about what they are, just make sure they're there. The first word is the town, in this case Wehlen, and the Vineyard Sonnenuhr (in this case a super steep blue slate vineyard producing some world class wine). If they don't tell you the town and the vineyard, they're getting grapes from just anywhere, so don't trust it.
Riesling: The grape, you know this one
Kabinett: This is the ripeness level of the grapes when they were picked. The more ripe they are, the more sugar, and thus the sweeter. Kabinett is on the bottom, being just off dry and is my favorite and very food friendly. The higher levels from least to most ripe are Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese. At most budgets, you won' be drinking higher than Spatlese.
Qualitatswein Mit Pradikat (QmP): Quality Wine with Distinction. Make sure your wine says this. If it doesn't it will just say Qualitatswein or QbA. This is lower quality wine and to be avoided.
Mosel-Saar-Ruwer: This is Germany's most famous growing region. Other regions include Rhinegau, Pfalz, and Nahe. As a general rule, avoid wines that from the Rhinehessen.
That's all there is to it. Just make sure the wine is QmP rated, try Kabinett's with food and the higher ripeness levels on there own or with dessert. Oh, and if you see the work Trocken, than means all the wines sugar was fermented into alcohol.
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