Wine & Words

More wines that go with this season of good food and good friends.
 
No. 1 Family Estate Cuvee Number Eight (Marlborough, New Zealand) Regular price $29.99, Feature price $24.00
The story of the No. 1 Family Estate in New Zealand reminds me of the one I’ve often told of the Gruet family from Champagne, France bringing their traditions to the dry hills of New Mexico. The New Zealand vineyard was set up in July 1997 by Champagne maker Daniel Le Brun, his wife Adele and their children Virginie and Remy. Their first wine, Cuvee No.1, one of our favorite wines for special occasions, was released in 1999. The Le Bruns are dedicated to making wines in the methodes traditionelle that they used back home in France. All the Estate’s wines are produced from top-quality, hand-harvested grapes processed through state-of-the-art equipment imported from Champagne.

Cuvée Number Eight is a blend of mostly Pinot Noirwith a small amount of Chardonnay. Itwas awarded 5 stars, a “Top Ten” rating and was the highest-placed New Zealand sparkler in Cuisine magazine in 2003. It was also awarded 5 stars and a Trophy from Winestate Magazine, which declared No. 1 Family Estate “Sparkling Wine of the Year.”
 
We’re re-introducing this great wine now because I’d like everyone to consider it as a feasting table wine. We Americans tend to think of sparkling wine as being for toasting special occasions or serving as an aperitif with French Brie at a reception. But remember that Pinot Noir is a great food pairer. The crisp acidity, pale salmon color and easy sparkle of the Cuvee Number Eight make it a wonderful companion to seafood, veal or poultry, as well as making an event out of an ordinary dinner for two.
 
 
Tissier Sancerre 2006 (Loire Valley, France) Regular Price $22.50, Feature Price $18.00
 
When white wine drinkers lean toward “ABC” (Anything But Chardonnay) is their quest for great food pairing wines, they sometimes fall in love with crisp, racy Sauvignon Blanc. The sharp, grassy Sauv Blancs of New Zealand are often seen as the world paradigm, but for food pairing these are much too extreme. Just as I like my Chardonnay in the classic style of Burgundy, I like my Sauvignon Blanc in the classic Loire Valley style of Sancerre. Sancerre is high in the Loire, where the chalky soil and cool weather grows Sauvignon Blanc grapes that show their true type, with a characteristic gooseberry and lime aroma. To preserve this true type, the Tissier winery uses no oak and causes the secondary malolactic fermentation that gives the wine a rounded, majestic quality. You simply must try this Sancerre while we’re Featuring it. It’s one of the unrivaled pleasures of the world of wine.
 
 
Morandé "Terrarum Reserva" Pinot Noir 2007 (Casablanca Valley, Chile) Regular Price $13.25, Feature Price $10.60
 
There is no better work horse wine for the holiday feasting season than Pinot Noir. Its lighter body and slight edge of acidity make it the go to wine that goes with everything. But, as was made clear by the character Miles in the movie Sideways, Pinot Noir is a temperamental grape that only rises to greatness when handled properly. That’s why I’ve always baulked a little when someone comes in the store and asks for “a good cheap pinot.” The good ones, especially from California’s Central Coast or the grape’s native Burgundy, are usually not cheap. But that’s changing. Winemakers around the world are learning how to bring the best out this fickle rascal. This wine was requested by a customer who had tried it at a restaurant. We’re always interested in a heads up from our wine loving fans, so we’re introducing it…at a price that’s sure to please.
 
Chile’s Casablanca Valley, about 90 miles south of Santiago, is a lot like the Carneros region of California’s Sonoma county. It lies between the Pacific coast and the Andes Mountains and has the same sea breezes and sandy soils of its mirror image north of the Equator. In other words, it’s a perfect place to grow cool weather wine grapes – Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Noir.
 
For two decades, Pablo Morandé was one of the leaders of the team making wines at Concha y Toro, a very well-known Chilean vineyard whose wines range from the Food Lion jug variety to the Melchor de Concha y Toro, which in 1997 was rated 12th out of 5,000 wines by Wine Spectator magazine. This was the first Chilean vineyard to obtain a rating of over 90 points for one of its wines. Pablo is currently considered to be one of the three best wine-producers in Chile. In 1996 he founded Viña Morandé to do on his own what he had done at Concha y Toro, merge a concern for value and affordability with the highest standards and traditions of Chilean winemaking. We bring you the result, a wine of clarity, typicity and interest at a truly astounding price.
 
 
Domaine de Boissieu Beaujolais-Villages 2006 Regular Price $18.80, Feature price $15.04
I’ve never been to the great winemaking regions of France, except in photographs (see above). Or word pictures. Like this one from Vintage ’59 Imports:
 
If the Loire is pastoral, Alsace majestic, and Languedoc rugged, then the Mâconnais and Haut Beaujolais are enchanting. This is HobbitLand, full of hills and dales and little stone villages, and a skyline dominated by the twin cliffs of Vergisson and Solutré.
 
Though the geographic region of the Beaujolais appellation is really the northernmost reaches of the Rhone valley, from the perspective of French wine law it is in Burgundy (Bourgogne). In the red wines of this region the Gamay grape is king. This plummy, fruity grape used to be grown all up into the Burgundy region but in 1395 Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy ordered all the “inferior” Gamay ripped up and replaced with what we now associate with red Burgundy wine, Pinot Noir. Gamay held on in Beaujolais and the Mâconnais, much to our benefit, as it makes a lovely wine that pairs beautifully with our fall treats, like ham or lamb or roasted fowl.
 
Beaujolais wine has three different levels, from the too young Beaujolais nouveau released on the third Thursday in November (and mostly a marketing hoax outside France) to the mid-level Beaujolais-Villages and culminating in wine from one of the nine crus regions (including the famed Moulin à Vent, Juliénas, Fleurie and Morgon). This cru Beaujolais is one of the delights of the wine world, and the best command prices to match.
 
We’ve selected this Domaine de Boissieu Beaujolais-Villages 2006 because it has plenty of ripe and fresh Gamay characteristics at a price that makes it affordable as a multi-bottle accompaniment to the groaning board. The 2006 is the last vintage made by Bertrand de Boissieu and his wife, Anke (she’s
Dutch) and bottled under the Boissieu label. Bertrand and Anke were the first in the Beaujolais region to farm according to the ecological principles of
lutte raisonnée, or “reasoned fight,” a pragmatic approach to organic farming that was, in their younger days, a radical thing. Beginning in 2006, their son Xavier, with his wife Kerrie (an American woman Xavier met while he was serving a winemaking apprenticeship in California) is taking this one step further by converting the château’s 28 acres of vineyards to biodynamic farming. Certification is expected in 2010. The new wines will be bottled as Château de Lavernette, the original name of the property. We can’t wait to try them.