A Wine Journey: 1987 Dominus

Robert S., and Allison, members of faculty and administrative management, respectively, of a local university, and, in the case of Robert, a member in good standing of the Antonio's Tasting Group, are moving to another state in furtherance of Allison's career.  As a part of our send-off activities, a few of us got together with them for dinner at the home of Fred W., and Laurie L.

This was an occasion that merited a Wine of the Decade: a few showed up, including the 1987 Dominus, the 2001 Dominus (again), and the 1990 Dom Perignon (white, 750 ml).  This post covers the tasting of the 1987 Dominus.

Details of the Dominus Estate pedigree and winemaking philosophy and process have been covered in a previous post but a look at the label of the 1987 vintage provides new factual details.  The 1987 was the fifth vintage produced by the John Daniel Society, the name of the partnership between Christain Mouiex, Robin Lail, and Marcia Smith.  Second, the vintage has the pre-Bordeaux-style label with a non-dominant portrait of Moueix done by the Israeli artist Avigdor Arikha.

The tasting of the Dominus followed a wonderful "six-course" meal comprised of a jambalaya as a starter, followed by a gazpacho-style, apple-citrus soup, salad, planked salmon, grilled steak and a sherbert for dessert.  Many bottles of wine were consumed prior to, during, and after the dinner.  The 1987 was one of the post-dinner bottles.

The bottle was decanted by "I-need-a-light-source" HlyTerroir. Upon visual inspection, the wine had excellent color with hints of orange at the edges.  The legs were thin and evenly spaced and flowed relatively quickly back to the surface of the wine.  A perusal of the label for information on alcohol content is unrewarded but a  quick search online reveals that it is 12.9%; almost a teetotaler by the standards of today's Napa Cabernets.  That same online search also revealed that the wine is a blend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Merlot and that said blend spent 14 months in French oak of which 25% was new.

On the nose the wine presents cigarbox, cedar, sandalwood, vanilla, mocha, espresso, spearmint, and eucalyptus.  On the palate there is a muted green note, cassis and a pleasant old cigar.  The late-arriving wood tannins are well integrated into this smooth and very-well-balanced wine.

Robert and Allison, you will be missed but you are permanently seared into our memories, and our senses, through this capstone dinner and the meritorious performance of the 1987 Dominus as a wine of the decade.

Arsenic and Old….Romanee Conti?

Like sands through the hour glass so are the days our lives.
And you thought soap opera's only happened on tv... maybe not. How about at one of the worlds greatest wine estates, Romanee Conti? Ok, do I have your attention now.... so what exactly is going on at Romanee Conti these days? How about bribes, lies, and video tape? Well not exactly, but with all the story lines that can be written, would you believe blackmail or poison would be at the top of any inquirers list? Not!!

First off, what do we know about the Romanee Conti Estate? I think Clive Coates said it best. Romanee Conti is, “the scarcest, most expensive - and frequently the best - wine in the world . . . This is the purest, most aristocratic and most intense example of Pinot Noir you could possibly imagine. Not only nectar: a yardstick with which to judge all other Burgundies.” Hey, what a perfect place to attempt a blackmail extortion plot right? So what actually transpired? It appears that an unnamed, 57-year-old man is accused of attempting to extort 1 million euros from the estate by threatening to poison the vines. Did I hear right? Shocking to the wine world, but very true.

Aubert de Villaine, co-manager of the estate, told ABC News, “We received a first letter in January saying that we would be getting a second letter with some bad news in it.” Two weeks later, the second letter arrived in the mail. “The letter was saying that our vine stocks would be poisoned if we did not pay a ransom of 1 million euros,” Villaine also went on to state, “In order to show how serious he was, he had made a hole in each of the two vines and injected a liquid into them, some sort of weed-killer, like Roundup," As if the whole scheme wasn’t creepy enough, the perpetrator asked for the ransom to be dropped off in the cemetery of Chambolle-Musigny. Wow, what a great idea! Why didn't I think of this? Oh, I know why, keep reading.

In an attempt to catch the return of this nocturnal criminal, night-vision cameras were installed to oversee the vineyards. To buy time, the estate replied saying they needed to call a special general assembly to procure the ransom money. This gave the estate enough time to come up with a counter plan with the authorities. By the time the satchel filled with false bank notes was placed at the cemetery, it was all but over. The extortionist was immediately apprehended at the pick up site. Good riddance and where he's going, the wine list leaves much to be desired. Until next time...

Beringer: Official Wine of the PGA Tour

Thanks to the good offices of Wineontheway.com, I was able to attend the first day's play of the 2010 Players Championship -- one of the premier PGA Tour events -- as a guest of Beringer, the now "official wine of the PGA Tour."  The announcement of the partnership, posted on PGATOUR.com, the official site of the PGA Tour, designates Beringer as the official wine of the PGA, Champions, and Nationwide tours.

The effect of the partnership was in full view at the Players Championship yesterday.  First, Beringer supported its guests with a fully stocked hospitality tent located in the Sawgrass Suites directly across from the 16th tee.  In the tent, guests were treated to the full range of Foster's (Beringer's parent company) and Beringer products.  The food offerings were anchored by a Halibut with Jeweled Rice and a Blackened Pork Loin.  Second, Beringer had a wine bar at the Benefactor, a high-visibility, large-format hospitality tent overlooking the 16th green and the arena around the 17th hole.  Third, at all other venues where wine was being sold, inclusive of the clubhouse, Beringer was the only brand available.

Source: Beringer.com

On one of my many return trips to the Beringer tent, I was able to speak to Matt Foley, Brand Manager, Beringer, about his company's association with the PGA Tour.  According to Matt, the partnership with the PGA Tour covers 12 premier events including the US Open, one of the four majors, and The Players, variously described as the fifth major.  The partnership was initially rolled out at the Northern Trust Open which ran from February 4 -7 at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades (CA).

According to Matt, the program is designed to: (i) increase brand awareness among the golf demographic; (ii) associate the brand with the lifestyle; (iii) provide a vehicle for promotional activities in event cities; and (iv) engage golf fans with Beringer.  Seventy percent of the people who watch golf also drink wine so, from Beringer's perspective, it makes sense to engage them in a brand conversation.  The program's success will be measured by bumps in sales in areas where it is implemented  as well as through customer feedback.

Between visits to the wine well at the Beringer's hospitality tent, I watched a few holes of golf.  I followed Tiger for five holes and he seemed none the worse for wear.

TastingRoom.com and its Implications

TastingRoom's announcement of its online wine marketplace represents an evolution of the application of its technology as well as an evolution of its business model.  In this post we will track the trajectory of the business model evolution as well as highlight its implications for market participants.

In December of 2009, TastingRoom, Inc., announced the introduction of a technology, which it called T.A.S.T.E. (Total Anerobic Sample Transfer Environment), which allows the transfer of wines from 750 ml bottles to smaller 50 ml "sample" bottles without compromising the integrity of the wine.  In April of 2010, TastingRoom announced deals with wineries such as Trefethen, Chateau Montelena, and Grgich Hills Estates whereby those companies would utilize the TastingRoom technology to reach out to the trade and their club members.  On May 3, 2010, TastingRoom announced TastingRoom.com, an online marketplace where consumers can buy sample bottles of wine from participating wineries and have those bottles delivered directly to their homes.

Source: TastingRoom.com

The concept behind the marketplace is that the consumer can taste the wine in this reduced-size form factor as an aid in making decisions regarding purchsing full-sized bottles.  The program is currently only available in California but will be rolled out to other states in the future.

At first glance this looks like a glorious opportunity for the consumer as the winery's tasting room is deposited at the front door and the pour is larger than available at the winery, but at the same price.  The consumer can eveluate the wine in the privacy of the home and make "no-pressure" buying decisions.  Once a decision is made, the consumer can either go back to TastingRoom.com to make the full-size purchase or can go to their neighborhood retailer or other favored channel.  In addition to using this approach as a buying decision, a consumer can use a winery flight pack as a vehicle for flight-themed wine dinners.  The only downside for the consumer would be reliability of access on a year-round basis.  For example, living in Florida, there is a narrow window during the course of the year when we can receive shipments from a winery.  One option is to do next-day air during hot weather but the wine still has some exposure and this approach adds to the procurement cost.

The wineries who sign on to the program run the risk of alienating some existing channels but the approach provides another avenue for getting their wines into the hands of consumers; in this case, an internet-savvy customer.There are two opportunities for increased sales here: the sample pack and, if the wine does its job, the follow-on sale of larger-format bottles.

TastingRoom.com will be viewed with suspicion by the neighborhood retailer.  In the first place, it keeps the customer in the home and, as such, reduces impulse buying, a key source of revenue for the retailer.  Second, the retailer has the same problem that the winery had before the advent of TastingRoom.com. That is, the retailer might be willing to give out samples as an aid in a purchase decision, but you have to be in the store to get that sample.  Third, this is competition for the retailer.

TastingRoom.com is an innovative and relatively inexpensive approach to gaing access to a wine prior to making a purchase decision or as a means of having flight-themed diners.  The key things to look at going forward are (i) how many, and what quality, of wineries jump on the bandwagon, (ii) how broadly it is rolled out around the country, and (iii) how they address the year-round shipping problem.

A Wine Journey: 1970 Vega Sicilia Unico

This foray into the the thicket of McNamara's Wines of the Decade takes us, once again, to the land of Ribero del Duero and that icon of classy elegance, Vega Sicilia Unico.  For many years the winery, and its wine, stood alone against the wines of Rioja so it is only fitting that the tasting of the 1970 Vega Sicilia Unico take place in a setting designed to highlight the wines of Rioja.

On the evening following the Vibrant Rioja professional seminar, this blog teamed up with Vibrant Rioja to host a dinner called A Dinner with Rioja.  The dinner was held in Lake Mary and Parlo, at whose home the dinner was held, worked closely with the chefs from Hospitality Concepts, Inc., to ensure that a food menu suitable to the occasion was on offer.  The final dinner menu consisted of four food courses and five accompanying wines:

• First course -- Arugula and Mojito Prawn Insalata, Salsa Verde, Manchengo; paired with a 2008 Marques de Riscal Rosado
• Second course -- Divers Scallop Escoviche, Cilantro Tomato Puree, Candied Lime; paired with a 2001 Marques de Tomares Reserva and a 1995 La Rioja Alta Reserva
• Third course -- Sugar-cane-charred Churrusca (Skirt Steak), Creamed Yucca, nest of Asparagus, Chimichurri; paired with a 2005 Maetierra Dominus "quatro pagos"
• Fourth course -- Trio of desserts: Guava Cheese Tart, Coconut Flan, Pineapple Tres Leches; an unusual dessert pairing of 2007 Tobia Graciano.

I welcomed the 35 guests, thanked them for coming, and turned it over to Dhane of Vibrant Rioja.

She, in turn, made a few remarks and then turned it over to Adrian Murcia, our designated driver for the evening.  Each course was preceded by an explanation of the food course by one of the chefs followed by Adrian's explanation of why the particular wine was so well-suited to the food with which it was paired.

The meal was a gustatory tour de force as course after mouth-watering course flowed across our palates and seared themselves into our collective memories.

Chef was in rare form and Adrian more than rose to the occasion.  The Marques de Riscal, Marques de Tomares, and the Graciano had all been tasted earlier in the day at the seminar and had not been exceptional.  Paired with the food, as they were that evening, they shone, especially the Graciano which was used as a dessert wine almost as an experiment.  The class of the Rioja's that evening, however, was the 1995 La Rioja Alta Reserva, two magnums of which were consumed.

After completion of the dinner, and a lot of congratulatory back-slapping, a team was assembled for the tasting of the Unico.  The team was comprised of all attending members of the Antonio's group as well as the members of the Vibrant Rioja team (Yup, the Rioja guys could bring themselves to drink juice from the "hated" Ribera del Duero if it was Unico.).

I had earlier removed the bottle of 1970 Unico from its position of honor in the cellar (in the display window and next to the 2001 Giacomo Conterno Monfortino Reserva Barolo) and I now handed it over to Adrian of Vibrant Rioja (after all, he was the most senior sommelier present) to do the honors.

As he reverently extracted the cork from the bottle, I made note of the serial number: 44631.

The wine was decanted for residue and then poured into the waiting glasses.  Even after being in bottle for well nigh 40 years, the wine had a bright color and was devoid of bricking.  To the awe of the participants, the wine offered up an aromatic feast of coffee, mocha, spice box, leather, mint, faded red flowers, raw meat, morcilla, dried currant, sandalwood, and dried tobacco.  It exhibited great structure and balance and had a very long finish.

The tasting team was blown away by the quality and finesse displayed by this wine as well as its vibrancy even after 40 years of "life."  This wine truly deserves its place on the Wines of the Decade list.

The Terroirs of St. Emilion and the 2004 Vintage

B-21s Annual Bordeaux Grand Tasting and Sale had advertised a seminar titled "The Terroirs of St. Emilion and the 2004 Vintage" which was to be led by Stephane Derenoncourt, proprietor of the right-bank property Domaine de L' A and consulting oenologist to many.  Like many other travellers in that time period, Stephane fell victim to the the travails of the Icelandic volcano and could not meet his B-21 commitment.  With an agility belying its age, B-21 quickly arranged for Jeffrey M. Davies, the American-born, Bordeaux negociant, to step in to fill the gap.  The seminar retained its original title but was sub-titled as "The Wines of Stepahne Derenoncourt ... presented by Jeffrey M. Davies."

 

The story of Stephane Derenoncourt, his rise from relative obscurity to the pinnacle of the wine world, his right-bank wines, and the 2004 vintage in St. Emilon have all beeen succinctly covered in the January 6, 2009 edition of the Organic Wine Journal so we will not plough that ground again.  Instead, we will detail the property not mentioned in that article (Chateau Clos de l"Oratoire) , pass on any insights gleaned from listening to Jeffrey on that day, and share the findings from that day's tasting.
 
Davies was extremely laudatory of Derenoncourt's farming practices.  Davies felt that his aeration practices afforded the vines better protection in both rainy and drought periods and, in addition, allowed them to extract more mineral complexity from the soil.  His predilection for dry farming stressed the vines and forced vertical growth and the associated increased complexity of the resulting wines.  Davies also felt that the lack of crushing and pressing during the sorting process allowed for fruitier, softer wines.
 

We began the tasting with the 2004 Chateau Clos de l'Oratoire, wine produced from a 10-hectare vineyard residing on clay, limestone and Fronsac "molasse" ("sandstones, shales, and conglomerates formed as terrestrial or shallow mineral deposits in front of rising mountain chains") for the hillside plots and clay and sandstone for the foothill plots.  This 35-year-old vineyard is planted to 90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Cabernet Franc.  Grapes for the 2004 vintage were harvested (Merlot, October 5th through 7th; Cabernets, Octber 16th) into small plastic crates, twice sorted, and then fermented in temperature-controlled oak tanks.  Malolactic fermentation occured in 80% new oak barrels with aging on fine lees.  The final blend was 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc.
 
On the nose, this wine displayed characteristics of sandalwood, licorice, dark chocolate, and mushrooms.  It had good acid, good length, and pronounced aromatics.  Davies identified length-of-finish as a good indicator of a quality wine and also pointed out that the lack of oaky notes signified good integration between the tannins and wood.
 

La Gaffeliere, a Premier Grand Cru estate, is located in the foothills looking south to the Garonne on sandy-clay soils.  In the 1500s and 1600s, the Chateau, which has been in the same family since the 1400s,  served as a hospital for lepers.  Derenoncourt, according to Davies, began working with this estate in 1983.  When right, again according to Davies, this wine exhibits quintessential elegance.  Qualities exhibited by this wine included chocolate, black fruit, some vegetality, phenols, spice, and saltiness.  It had green tannins and a rich, silky softness.  This wine was aged in 100% French oak, a practice that Davies sees Bordeaux dialing back on as oak and toast tend to hide the fruit. The probable final blend for this wine was 50% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon.

 

 

Jeffrey was very enamored with the Clos Fourtet.  The vines sit on soil that has a little clay and a lot of limestone.  The wine has a great mouthfeel and is fresh and delightful to the taste.  For Davies, everything is in harmony as the wine is beautifully balanced, with great length on the finish.  This wine is approachable now but, in Davies view, can be cellared for an additional 10 years.

Davies pointed out that Stephane started his career at Chateau Pavie Macquin, a vineyard that sits on a clay-limestone plateau.  The wine exhibited forest floor, dank minerality and mineral complexity.  It had a good mid-palate and good tannin and acid structures.  Davies believes that this wine has a drinking window of about 10 years but, that being said, he is reluctant to place drinking windows on Bordeaux wines.  In his view, the best vintages in Bordeaux can now be drunk young, medium-young, medium-old, and old.

I had hoped that with the vineyards having similar viticultural and vinicultural practices, resulting from the commonality of Derenoncourt's oversight, any differences that came through would be a reflection of the terroir associated with a specific wine.  But, as indicated in the notes, the wines also differed in final blends, another factor that would affect the perception of the wine by a taster.  All in all this was a very interesting exercise with seminar attendees having an added layer beyond what was expected in that we had the opportunity to have Jeffrey Davies expound, in his inimitable style, on Derenoncourt, his practices, his wines, and the terroir of St. Emilion.

A Wine Journey: 2001 Dominus

Our random walk -- a wine journey -- through Andrew McNamara's Wines of the Decade continues with the 2001 Dominus from Dominus Estate.

Dominus Estate is owned by Christian Mouiex who, in addition to his Dominus responsibilities, manages his family's properties in Pomerol and St. Emilion,  properties that include the likes of Chateau Petrus and Chateau Trotanoy.  Moueix, whose scholastic accomplishments include a Masters in Enology from UC Davis, was, upon his return to France, given responsibility for the family holdings.  While in California, he had developed a love for Napa Valley and enlisted the late Robert Mondavi to assist him in finding a property that would allow him to produce high-quality wine in Napa.  Robert introduced Christian to Robin Lail and Marcia Smith, daughters of the legendary John Daniels and current owners of Napanook vineyard (Napanook was the former Inglenook Estate and, under John Daniels, had become famous for its Inglenook Cask Selection.).  Grapes from this site were highly sought after for the production of high-quality Napa Cabernets.  Moueix entered into partnership with the two vineyard owners in 1982 to create an entity called Dominus Estate which would focus on producing a Cabernet-based wine.  Moueix eventually bought out the sisters and took full ownership of the property in 1995.

Napanook, located in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains, has a history that goes back to 1836 when George Yount, who gave his name to Yountville, planted the first vines in the valley there.  The farm is 124  acres -- 108 of which planted to vines -- with volcanic, heavy clay, and loam soil types.

Chrtistian believes that the best wine is made from the best grapes and, to that end, the company expends enormous amounts of energy in the vineyard -- crop thinning, canopy management, separating clusters, leaf plucking, and rinsing, for example -- to ensure that the best possible grapes are produced.

The estate produces 6,000 - 8,000 cases of wine annually with one half of the production meeting the stringent requirements for Dominus and the remainder either being bottled as the estate's second label -- Napanook -- or sold off in bulk.  Dominus, in the Bordeaux tradition, is a blend.  Early vintages were 75% - 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and the remainder Merlot.  Cabernet Franc was added to the blend in1986 and Petit Verdot in 1989.  The first 13 Dominus vintages were crushed and aged at Rombauer Vineyards but, in 1996, production was shifted to a 50,000 sq. ft., Dominus-owned winery which was designed and built by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.

According to Dominus Estate, the 2001 vintage is truly a classic and will benefit from years of aging.  This vintage was characterized by an early bloom and long growing season that yielded grapes of exceptional maturity.  This wine has the unique ability to be rich and complex while possessing a smooth and silky texture.  The blend for the 7,000 case production was 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot, and 4% Merlot.  The fermented wine was aged for 18 months in French oak barrels, 40% of which were new.

Tasting the 2001 Dominus was an exercise in perseverance.  I had this wine in my cellar but, inexplicably, bought a bottle from an online retailer for the purpose of the tasting.  I took the bottle to our regular Friday tasting at Antonio's and was disappointed to see that only four of the regulars had shown up for this, my thought, blockbuster event.  It turned out to not matter.  The bottle was not good.  One member of the team thought it might be corked while another thought it was funk that would blow off.  We set the bottle aside and came back to it half an hour later.  The "corkiness" had disappeared somewhat but there was still an unidentified smell that should not have been there.  On the palate, the wine was disaggregated and phenolic with high alcohol.  A chalky residue persisted on the tongue.  This group has had extensive experience tasting both the 1991 (one of our favorite wines) and 1997 Dominus so there was a flavor profile that we were looking for and it was not showing up. Needless to say I was very disappointed and platitudes like "It's not your fault" and "better luck next time" did nothing to pick my chin up off the floor.

I had been invited by Keith M. and his wife Nancy to have dinner with them on the following night as my wife was going to be out of town.  I saw this as an opportunity to re-taste the 2001 Dominus and took a bottle out of my cellar for this purpose (I also took another bottle which I will discuss at a later date.).  So I show up at Keith and Nancy's at 6:30 pm sharp, walk into the kitchen, and begin opening my bag of goodies.  I begin telling Keith that we were going to revisit the scene of the crime, as I pull the 2001 Dominus out of the carrying case, when he points out that he already has a bottle (same wine, same vintage) in the decanter on the kitchen counter.  He had seen how disappointed I was the day before so he was giving me a piece of candy to make me feel better. Oh well.  By the way, he prepared the meal and a wonderful one it was:  Osso Bucco, butternut squash risotto, and roasted asparagus.

Keith had opened his bottle at 1:30 pm and placed it back in his cellar at 57 degrees until 6:30 pm.  We began tasting it at around 8:00 pm. Black fruit and black olives were dominant along with muted hints of graphite.  On the palate there was a distinct creaminess and a hint of coconut.  The wine was smooth and had a very long finish.

This wine is a baby and needs another 5 - 10 years to begin to reveal itself fully.