The Feiring Line

A new way to punch up your wines

 

A winemaker friend in Sonoma (thank you, K.H.)  was kind enough to send me a new miracle drug. Adding small amounts (5%--well within legal limits)  of Ficklin ports to you zin or any other red you might want to:

+ enhance varietal character

+soften tannin

+Improve mouthfeel

+slightly increase residual sugar

+deepen color and richness.

According to the brochure I have in my hands it states, "Your wine would benefit from this type of addition." 

If you give them a call, as for Russ. They promise all inquiries and discussions will be treated with confidentiality.

Linda St. John, Duane Cerney, closing their shop

Bye-bye, DL. Cerney.

Linda's one of my dearest friends and the building on 7th street, right next to McSorleys is being sold, and you know what that means. She can't afford to stay and  all of the dudes and dudettes are crying.

Linda, amazing artist and writer and clothing visionary who talks about her perfect man by his neck and arm length (her husband Duane as it turns out)...decided to close doors by November the latest.

This is only the second sale in history for them! Their stuff never goes on sale. 20%-50% off.

The mens stuff--classic 30s,40s,50s.  The women's stuff, eclective, 40's-early 60's. Country glam.She's got plenty of celeb clients (she had me take them off the site the last time I slipped), artists, designers, writers...and wine and food writers, some who are related to Jancis Robinson. 

The details:  3 E. 7th St., New York, NY 10003 

nr. Third Ave.  
212-673-7033 

(old videos but the clothes are classics)

 

In this series of videos' Linda talks about some new finds at her store: Feiring favorite? The Emotional Coat

 

  

 

The revolution in wine shops

A few months back I was walking with my friend Howard and stopped into a wine shop on 6th Avenue. The Wine Hut (http://thewinehutnyc.com/) I expected dreck, merely because of location and because I had

never heard of it. What I got was  Radikon! 

 

and then I got  more Bornard then I ever saw in one store. And then?

On 6th Avenue? Pineau D? 

And then.......as if a total set up the owner was reading me.  

You'll find things in the store that other's are sold out of, so well worth stalking. 

213 Avenue of the Americas  New York, NY 10014
(212) 229-2409

 

Then, today. I was on the way out to Great Neck for a bad movie and worse kosher Chinese. Had time to kill in Penn Station so I browsed the wine store, I thought a perfect Cuozzo hangout.  

But what did I find? Nikolaihoff!  

more pineau d'aunis, in the form of            Emile Hérédia's Domaine de Montrieux

Guillot-Broux's 2009 Gamay and more Ryme Cellars. 

My grandfather was born the year the lightbulb was discovered, the changes he saw in his life were staggering.  In the same way I'd never believe that Penn Station, the very scene of aesthetic destruction, would be a wine safe zone.

If you've any doubt that there's a wine revolution afoot. I rest my case.

234 W. 31st  Penn Station, New York, NY 10001 (212) 630-0219

 

Dirty & Rowdy in a bottle

Did an angel lose it's wings? Did a cigarette kick the butt? Or did the revolution in American Wine just get a littlel stronger, longer and ...Hardy?  Wait, let me uncork a bottle of Bereche pere et fis.  (pop, fizz, ploop, ploop, ahh.)

I finally got to taste the much anticipated wines from the cherub of the west (by way of Massachussets and Georgia) the inimitable Hardy Wallace (Dirty) and his friend Matt (Rowdy).

Hardy, who has turned  ADD-kind of energy into an asset, has been on the most interesting path since he escaped the south by winning a public audition in a promotional job search by Murphy-Goode. He soon jumped ship to follow the wines that  motivated him to get out of bed with a  cherubic smile. That took him to Kevin Kelley (Salinia) and helped start up the NPA project, of bringing natural wines, deliverable milk-bottle model. Then in his alternative to wine school path, he went north, west, and all around, doing crazy stints in Bordeaux and ending up looking for love, (found) grapes, land, eggs and truth.  

What this means, is that there is yet another fledgling winemaker joining the new winemaking ranks of Los Pilares, La Clarine, Ambythe, Schollium Project, Angela Osborne, Martian, Broc, Donkey & Goat, Arnot-Roberts, Ryme Cellars...to name just a few.  Not that big wine is going away any time soon, but there's way more choice than there used to be.  More people are side-stepping UCDavis,  tuning onto this no add thing, and looking for wines at lower alcohol and high on grace. Drinking gets better and better in the states. And you know what? Just in 2008 I thought the situation was near hopeless. Now all we need is some more wines at friendlier price points. 

 

 

that was last summer, the morning after a lot of Tempier @ Hank and Caro's place. (La Clarine Farm. Thanks again, H & C, for a fab stay.) 

 

Dirty and Rowdy 2011 Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard Mourvèdre

Cuyama Valley, CA.

12.4% Alcohol.  

Silt. Blackerry. Cooked. Tar. Spice. Happy drinking and yes.  $34

 

I did like it. It had a freshness, and was an easy drinking wine, but with the lack of structure I think of with that part of the counry. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with different soil, when he gets his Shake Ridge fruit.

This is what Hardy had to say about this nice drink:

Grown at 3200ft, on the Eastern side of the Sierra Madres (more Texas Chainsaw Massacre than hot tubs and super-yachts). 

The Alta Mesa block is a mix of sandstone and clay.  The sun it gets is intense, but it the block gets shaded by a 5400ft peak directly behind the vineyard.  Night time temps drop like a rock. 

 100% Whole Cluster Fermentation. Native yeast. No temperature controlled fermentation. Very lightly tread by foot throughout fermentation (2x a day at first, and moving to just 1x a day, sometimes just by hand towards the end of fermentation).  Aged in neutral french barrels and racked only at bottling. Bottled in mid-Feb 2012 to try and preserve the freshness.

Though open-topped, the whole cluster with minimal berry squashing captured a huge dose of carbonic characteristics.   These rows are just above Angela's Grenache for A Tribute to Grace.

 

 Dirty and Rowdy 2011 Napa Valley Semillon

Yountville, CA.

Alc. 12.5% 

Green almond, grapefruit rind, a little foxy, and still a little tropical (no way around it) pretty 'wet' but the green almond thing makes it work.  $28

 

 I'm still not sure why they boys wanted to work with semillon, from Napa no less, especially expensive fruit. So I asked him. 

I was planning on getting a few rows of Compagni Portis Vineyard (used by Arnot-Roberts for their old vine white blend), but the 2011 yield was so low, that AR needed to keep the entire block-- At first we were bummed, but it isn't up to us.

We purchased a Nomblot egg in the Summer to use for the old vine white wine-  with Compagni Portis out, we needed to find another white- (mid-september when most everything was spoken for)  

In our scrambling, I saw a post offering a few tons of Semillon from a farmer I've known since 06-  Tom Gamble.  All  organic, his family has farmed the land for 3 generations, I like him and trust him.  

Semillon was far from a white that I ever thought about making (kind of like how I fell into Mourvedre), and the connection with Tom just felt like fate.

The wine was  divided into 2 separate, native fermentations-  1 portion was pressed and fermented in a concrete egg.  The second portion was destemmed and skin fermented in an open top fermenter (foot tread or punched down 1-2x a day). 

The skin fermentation portion was put into neutral French oak after primary fermentation, and the concrete fermented portion was put into neutral French oak after secondary fermentation.

 

From Morocco to the Moon

My latest article on some unusual places for wine, for Newsweek is up. 

For all of my regular wine people, warning: Newsweek is for general readers. So while all of us might go, Thailand? Morocco? England? Canary Islands?  Ho hum. Most people might be tickled with surprise to find out. 

 

L'episode Cuozzo--makes perfect sense

Included in astute Episode Cuozzo commentary were Eric Asimov, Jon Bonné  and  Talia Baiocchi--who I believe broke the story.  Analysis of this train wreck was so spot on I didn't think I could possibly have another thing to add. Really, I should  be telling you about the sad time the vines are having in Burgundy or about the wonderful wines of Jean -Yves Bizot--but I after going in search of gas in Beaune, cursing the provincial idea that the gas station at LeClerc only accepts European credit cards I realized I'm not finished with the subjet.

To begin with: most restaurant critics know little more than red, white and pink about wine.  They mostly avoid mention, usually a wise move because when they do opine, they can step into a smelly pile of it. And a pile is exactly what The Post's Cuozzo squished into with his inept spanking of Lee Campbell's list over at  Reynard's.

 Wine choice can well fall in neatly along the lines of  politics. Mostly, how one chooses wine has a lot to do with personality. Do you stay in your comfort zone or not? Are you adventurous or not? Will you eat local food? Are you curious? 

Anyone who has ever ventured out into a foreign country without enough facility in a language can attest to the unwarranted terror of being seen as stupid. Some get their courage up and start to speak, showing off lousy accents others buy what they need through their concierge. Perhaps they eat at McDonald's,  look for the comfort of  The Gap or Starbucks, even in Paris.  Perhaps theytravel only on tours. Many tourists go out of their way to stay familiar so they aren't confronted with their lack of sophistication, experience or knowledge.  

In this way, in Cuozzo's  article on Reynard's Cuozzo focused on the need for wine to be familiar, he never said good. But familiar. Recognizable. And that is the issue.

 Mr. Cuozzo  looked at a list, put together by a  talented sommelier who could have guided him to pleasure, yet he was pissed she spoke another language. She had the skills to communicate to him, he wasn't going to tolerate her accent. 

We must not forget the man writes for a tabloid-esque newspaper.  It's The Post for Godsake's. I had a harder time when the New Yorker didn't get its sherry right. I mean, they're supposed to know, or at least know when they don't know. The Post, afterall,  is most famous for Page 6,  not its news.  We are afterall, a  tribal bunch. Sometimes humans are  xenophobic. This gets demonstrated historically through serious issues like immigration to tamer ones  such as Picasso couldn't paint. The  Guggenheim was the toilet on 5th Avenue. Cuozzo felt stupid.

I have no idea if Cuozzo knows about food ot not but I would bet good money he has very little knowledge about wine, except that he likes big reds from obvious, pronouncable locales. But one thing he has spot on, knowledge of his audience and plays to their Archie Bunker stereotype (whether or not the stereotype is true.). He plays it safel, making sure he doesn't encourage them to go to the tabac, on an errand, in, God forbid,  a foreign language. 

 

(but really, the LeClerc in Beaune SHOULD accept global credit cards. I mean, I don't need them to write it in English, they don't even need to take my Amex, just take my damned credit blue.)  

 

Moët Gets the Ice Treatment

Why does LVMH get so peeved by the knocked-off pocketbooks for sale on Canal Street or the Champs? After all,  they seem dead-set on doing down-marketing damage to their brands all by themselves. Not that Moët had that far to fall, but they've plunged to a new low point with their latest flavor extension at a high price. Moët  on Ice. ($58.99 per bottle).

Full disclosure, I've not tasted it.

I am prepared to eat my bubbles if I'm proved wrong and it's actually delicious.

The press release tells me that this is a new 'must-have,' just like a new required seasonal accessory. Really? Pass the cheap Pet'Nats for my summertimebeattheblues bubbles. Or take the $60 and get something like Franck Pascal Sagesse, or Bereche for $18 cheaper, and save yourself the sugar/S02 hangover?

Anyway, formulated (?) for ice cube drinking--take a peek.

 

Historically, LVMH has never demonstrated a desire to be something for everyone. They are what might be considered an inspirational brand. But when it comes to champagne, one of the few affordable 'luxuries' they have, they seem to insist on embracing the lower-middle class as well as the princes of Versailles--for  le connoisseur as well as for the soda slurper. A friend, an ex-director of a luxury brand once told me, LVMH excels on the 'appearance of luxury, hence their vinyl-impregnated bags.' That seems to sum them up. Face cream or Champagne, marketing matters not product. 

Hence, those slick soundbytes from the mouth of  their director of marketing. Hold on to your refraichoir: "Moët Ice Impérial is a radically new way to drink champagne, and with a single sip, whisks you away to its warm and sunny world,” said Arnaud de Saignes, International Director of Marketing and Communications for Moët & Chandon. 

I'd have loved the gig. I could use a well paying one. And, if I had had the writing assignment I would have summoned up the advise from my wise friend Elizabeth in Rome, "Close your eyes and write." Because the whisking away to warm and sunny," could not have been written with eyes wide open.

The frenzy continues! A Beverly Hills store has been so enthused (or despairing) about  the bubbled wine that they sent out not one but two promotional emails. $195 gets the starlet or salamander on the beach who wants to look cool and groovy or at least have something to sell at their next yard sale,

2 bottles of the crap

2 Moët  goblets  

1 Moët  ice bucket.

++

I had one reaction to that: barf.

Psst. Better idea for people on the beach? Gin and tonic. Or the above mentioned Pet'Nats (Grange Tiphane's Rosé Rosa Rosam for one) 

To think, $195 could get me three bottles of exceptional  austere, non dosé, perfect for summer or a case of low sulfur fizzy pink pet nat or Casa Coste Piane Prosecco.

 

(Thanks to CC of SM for the heads up.) And...for Samantha's take on this...I offer her post on a visit to a Southern Tasting. As she actually tasted it, poor thing. 

Tête de veau in Blanceret

I gave into tourism, because I do know a rare sight when I see one and when I saw Madame Monique do her thing, with implements of dissection,  

I knew this was indeed rare. Yes, folk, on a Thursday in August, this little restaurant in Blanceret was packed.  The 29.50 euro menu  was the Maison Mayançon main event, the Thursday specialty, Tête de veau.

 

 

That would be the chin, Monique said to me. Ah yes, I thought, hair and all-- nestled between the blanched onion and the boiled carrot and some cartilige and whatever. 

 

To think it all started life as one of these .  

 

Now, one of the best versions I've come by how to make this gelatinous gloop, bolito misto-like boiled body part comes from Nicolas Lander.  Monique, as powerful as  a hummingbird attacked one head after the other. I  was just compelled.  

 

and then for a closer look....    that's the

ear, she said to me, that thing falling off the plate.

The head is split, stuffed and cooked beyond recognition.

 The great thing about this presentation is that you can ask for the bits you want, and hence the packed crowd. So if you want to avoid the hairy chin, it's possible! 

And so I ordered a plate of tomatoes that I thought was a safe bet in August. But no. That didn't quite work. But it came with a sublime though surprising poached egg, (Russell said that Monique had feared for my nutrition, thus the supplement.)  For a traditional, home cooked place if meat is your game, fresh eggs and well picked animals, this is a swell spot for a spot of that old-world Beaujolaise. I enjoyed the theater and saved my stomach for dinner.

 To drink? A beaujo blanc, raised in Acacia. Actually not bad, not natural, had that enzymed texture, but  still,  well, you know, wet.  

Burgundy's Hautes

My latest at Newsweek on the new, (sometimes rasta, sometimes roll) energy in the Hautes-Côtes. 

The cheese/wine seminar wines

Vermont makes wine? Yup. And I presented them along with Sean Buchanan this past Sunday. A week before hand, I had only had La Garagista's--and that's it. So it was a moment of discover for me and that? Always fun.

They're focusing on the winter-hearty hybrids which makes sense. But one of the problems I found was a desire to make a wine that tastes a certain way rather than a wine that is what it wants to be. Reminds me of when my father bought me a pair of purple knickers when I was 14 years old. They weren't me. They were what he wanted me to be. Loud instead of shy. Most new wine regions--fall into this pitfall. As the region grows, so will the wine's identity.

However, the  wine star for me was Louise Swenson which seems like it could be similar to kerner and ice cider--tart, sweet and zingy. Le Crescent could also be a winner. And the reds? Those are a little more difficult, but I know something interesting there can work. After all, slate and schist? I don't know, I am thinking, mondeuse?

Anyway, here was our program of wines, posted as promised. 

 

Cheese: VT Butter & Cheese Bonne Bouche

Wine:        Lincoln Peak Louis Swenson

            + Shelburne Vineyard La Crescent

 

Cheese: Grafton Village Cheese Bismark 

Wine: East Shore Vineyard Frontenac Rose

 

Cheese: Springbrook Farm Raclette 

Wines: Lincoln Peak Marquette

           + Shelburne Vineyard Marquette

 

Cheeses: Consider Bardwell Pawlet & Shelburne Farms Smoked Cheddar

Wines: Snow Farm Vineyard Vidal Ice Wine 

              Boyden Valley Vermont Red Ice

 

Cheese: Shelburne Farms 2 Yr. Cheddar 

Wines:  Eden Ice Cider

           Newhall Ice Cider