The Riggs Fulmer Newsletter
No. 3
March 12, 2009
No. 3
March 12, 2009
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Prices are set by retailers and restaurants; think of pricing info below as very educated guesswork
Prices are set by retailers and restaurants; think of pricing info below as very educated guesswork
Oh, goodness, friends and neighbors, look outside at this sweet, golden afternoon of ours! What a broad, blue expanse, nary a cloud, and if we could just get the wind chill out of the teens, we’d be in heaven! But, no complaints here, these days we’ve gotta take what we can get, and if what we can get is a jewel-bright day like this one, then we’re far the richer for it…
I’ve been on the scene this week, and have some exciting new events to detail, and not just the Blazers’ annihilation of that team from L.A. the other night (hello, Angelenos! The RFN loves you too!). We’ve got a recap of last week’s Ordoñez tasting as an appetizer, then we move on to the finest Southern Hemisphere tasting I’ve attended in quite some time, and then I’ll hint at the treasures on display at a gorgeous Burgundy luncheon thrown by our friends at Odom, at a beautifully light-filled clarklewis. Onward, then!
Spanish Wines at Pata Negra, hosted by Henry Wine Group
If you’ve never visited Pata Negra (1818 NW 23rd Place, PDX), you are in for a treat when you finally relent and check them out. The place is one of the best-smelling restaurants in Portland: you’ll swoon to enter a sweet waft of olives, cured meat, and fresh bread. Excellent tapas in a beautiful little setting, just across the street from Food Front over in Northwest.
This was my third Spanish tasting chez Pata, and was in many ways the best. The pros at Henry Wine Group, who always throw amazing trade tastings, are blessed to carry the portfolio of Spanish wine import genius Jorge Ordoñez, whose wines are arguably the most exciting Iberians to hit our shores. I mentioned two wines from this event in last week’s RFN (Bodegas Muga blanco and Rosado), and, as promised, here are notes from my other favorites:
Bodegas Borsao
How can I not begin with one of the world’s great producers of inexpensive wine, Borsao. Year after year, their Garnacha-based wizardry is on display, absolutely shaming many like wines at three to four times their cost. Every wine they make is eminently worth the money. I especially liked:
2006 Rosé $7
I am taken aback to re-read this vintage, as this wine is as fresh as a sunny breeze. It’s filled with bright, laughing strawberries and honeydew melon, with a crisp, dry finish.
2007 Viña Borgia $9
Always one of their best efforts, this year’s version is rich, lively juice, all fun cassis and black raspberries on gentle tannins, with a nice note of pepper on the finish.
2007 Borsao $10
I always think of this wine as their flagship, though they would likely beg to differ. Certainly their famous old-vine Tres Picos gets a large chunk of the love, but this eponymous little bottling is a sexy wash of garrigue-like brambly earth, with expressive flavors of cherries, cola, and blood. The best in some time.
2007 Bodegas Ateca Garnacha de Fuego $10
Another beautiful Garnacha value from Spain, G. de Fuego is lively, approachable, and summer-bright, a celebration of wild strawberry fruit, with a nicely minerally finish and balancing acidity. It’s clean, simple, and delicious- just what it should be.
2007 Bodegas Naia “Naia” $15
From the Rueda comes this lovely, thirst-quenching Verdejo. Naia, easily recognizable by its lovely orange label, is a perfect Mediterranean white, which, in this case, is to say, all light, creamy Key lime meringue, with gentle extraction and a perfectly snappy finish.
2007 Bodegas Botani “Botani” $25
This very rare, very special wine is one of the only dry Moscatels made on the island of Málaga. Normally Moscatel is made into a glorious, rich, often botrytized nectar, one of the world’s finest dessert wines. But these old vines are grown high up on a volcanic slope, where the grapes can attain a perfect balance of fruit, minerality, and vibrant acidity, allowing an eloquent dry white to be made. Botani salutes its common Muscat heritage with a bouquet of mountain wildflowers, mouth-watering green apple, and Galia melon. It has such lively acidity that it almost sparkles (not literally- it is a still wine) on the tongue, with that minerality that brings you back for more. A wonderful effort, worth seeking out.
2007 Txomin Etxaniz Chacolí de Guetaria $26
First off, the Basque name’s easier than it looks: just remember that “tx” equals “ch,” and that z’s, as in Spanish, are soft s’s. Thus,
…and, for the super-rich among you…
2005 Benjamin Romeo “La Viña de Andres” $185
One of the most stunning modern-style Riojas that I have ever tasted, I can only dream of the heights this wine will achieve with some age. The nose is a staggering gush of spearmint, black cherries, truffles, and leathery earth. On the palate these flavors seethe and brood, almost glowing in the mouth. This is a wine of piercing complexity and gorgeous, head-spinning elegance, almost like Côte Rôtie meets Clos de Vougeot, while remaining unmistakably Spanish.
Alvear Pedro Ximénez Solera 1830 $186/ 500mL (non-vintage)
PX Sherries have, for the most part, suggested themselves to me as super-decadent pairings with French vanilla ice cream, but this wine… This wine is a solera from 1830, meaning that it is a wine reblended over the years, made up of vintages dating back to 1830! It’s like tasting history, in the best way. Opaque as molasses, the wine is a waterfall of roasted hazelnuts and walnuts, typical raisin flavors, but atypically exquisite, a fan of dried grapes, all poised against cedar fronds and puckering, absolutely perfect lemony acids. Without a doubt the finest PX I have ever experienced.
Wines of the Southern Hemisphere, at Hotel deLuxe
…Moving south of the equator, I attended Young’s-Columbia’s Wines of the Southern Hemisphere tasting, held in the French-influenced digs over at the Hotel deLuxe (www.hoteldeluxeportland.com; 729 SW 15th, PDX). I was in for a treat, and not only because I spent the first hour there sampling a great variety of my favorite varietal, Riesling!
From Australia, to New Zealand, to South Africa, to Argentina, the tasting highlighted not only the fabulous diversity of these far-flung regions, but the great strides forward they have been making- challenging, and in some cases surpassing, the finest values of the North. To my mind, the standouts were:
Elsa Bianchi (Argentina)
This was unquestionably the value star of the tasting. These three wines were better than some wines of their type at several times the price. I happened to glance down at my tasting sheet in time to go through these charmers, just ahead of the flashing lights and the increasingly aggressive (though lovely) catering staff. The most striking values to come out of Mendoza, Argentina’s sexy, high-altitude appellation at the foot of the Andes, in a good while. These are wines to lay in by the case, no question.
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon $10
On the nose, it’s all flesh, blood, leather, dark berries, and eucalyptus, with a breath of gunpowder funk. On the tongue these rich flavors achieve a remarkable, brooding depth, with framing tannins and a delicious herbal lift to the finish.
2007 Malbec $10
Whew! Find me another Malbec as good as this one at this price and I will kiss you! Or not, as you prefer. Okay, maybe I’ll just grin and shake your hand. Anyway, this killer malbec has an enticing nose of sexy, spicy berries, with wonderful restraint, and none of the over-blown aromas this variety often displays when vinified too ripe. Here a deft hand is evident; the palate is a riot of mint, smoky clay, and bloody minerals, almost South African in profile. Yum!
2006 Syrah $10
Not just a tremendous value, but probably my favorite South American Syrah ever. I hate to hyperbolize (and my faithful readers can attest to that), but I can’t back off of that statement. That this wine should be priced at ten bucks is almost silly. Light, dancing aromas of cherries and wild strawberries fill the bouquet, and the palate preens with deep black cherries and spice. Not much bacon fat or pepper, this wine is nonetheless decidedly more Syrah than Shiraz.
2008 Yellow Tail Riesling $9 (Australia)
No, I’m not kidding, and, no, this is not because they gave me an all-expense-paid surfing/ winetasting trip to Oz (although I would- ahem- be open to such from me mates at Yellow Tail). In the interest of completeness of varietal coverage, and also because I have long fantasized about a jug wine tasting, I tried this wine… And was shocked to taste a damn fine little Riesling, kind of a mind-blower, really, given what I (snobbily?) expected. The nose was all peaches, flowers, and acidity, and the palate was alike, with a bit of fruity sweetness up front, but a long, minerally! rather dry! finish! My notes on this include “wow!” and “OMG!” if that says anything.
2006 Nederburg Cabernet Sauvignon $13 (South Africa)
I love South African wines, by and large. There are many great values to be found here, and these two from Nederburg are a great point of departure. The Cab has a sexy, smoky nose of varietally-correct black currants, while on the palate this delicious, smoky theme (typically, scrumptiously South African… and a gorgeous match with barbecue, called braai in Afrikaans) is given a wild cherry twist.
2007 Nederburg Pinotage $13 (South Africa)
Pinotage, the infamous child of Pinot Noir and Cinsault (called Hermitage by the locals), only came into existence in 1925, and has been much-maligned by the foreign wine world. When burnt rubber is the signature aroma, who can blame them? However, the grape has begun to come into its own, and I have tasted more than a dozen tremendous versions over the last couple of years. This is one of the best, dollar-for-dollar. The nose is all bright raspberry acid over smoky South African clay, and the palate is just gorgeous, filled with braai-happy lack cherries and earth.
2006 Kim Crawford Dry Riesling $18 (New Zealand)
Although Kiwi in provenance, this smelled classically Australian, a lemon-blossom nose of maritime breeze and stony acidity. It has great fruit, compellingly visceral and gushing, dry and snappy without being austere.
2007 Kim Crawford Unoaked Chardonnay $20 (New Zealand)
Unapologetically delicious! This is the best naked Chard I’ve had since J. Christoper’s excellent 2005 Chehalem Mountain Vineyard. Bright, tropical, grapey flavors hang on a sexy structure of thirst-quenching acidity and even a hint of minerals. This is pretty much grape Bubble Yum made into an awesome dry wine- you’ve got to taste it to see what I mean. Nice work indeed.
2008 Peter Lehmann “Layers” White Wine $18 (Australia)
An ingenious blend of Semillon, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, Muscat, and Chardonnay, this wine is an obvious foil to Thai food. The nose is a floral cascade, flaunting its Muscat and Gewurz, while the palate shows a great tropicality up front, with citric acids on the dry- but not austere- finish.
2007 Pegasus Bay Riesling $26 (New Zealand)
My Riesling fave at the tasting. The nose showed more intensity than any Riesling in the room, all blueberry skins and grapey acid. On the palate it’s an explosion of sweet, rich fruit, with lovely grip and blushing minerality. Loooong in the mouth, it feigns sweetness, yet finishes rather dry. Nice.
2005 Henry’s Drive Reserve Shiraz $56 (Australia)
A beautiful nose of eucalyptus, cherry cola, and suggestive wet clay hovers over a sea of raspberry mocha, suspended there by a welcome hit of bright acidity that suggests that this wine will age beautifully. Remarkably restrained in fruit (relatively speaking), with perfect tannic grip.
2004 Craggy Range “Sophia” $60 (New Zealand)
One of the best Bordelais blends from New Zealand I can remember, this intoxicating cuvee of Merlot and Cabernet Franc has a gorgeous, erotic spine of blueberry funk and wave after wave of earthy spice. On the palate it has wonderful structure and fruit, though it’s all about the terroir here, all sotto bosco blood with a swooningly long finish.
Well, mes amis, that’s all she wrote for this installment. Next week we will peruse the amazing Burgundies from Odom’s Frederick Wildman tasting at clarklewis (www.clarklewispdx.com; 1001 SE Water Ave, PDX), starring the gorgeous, precocious whites from the 2007 vintage, and a swath of nice little Pinots as well.
You should also keep your ears to the ground for news of my upcoming foray into the exciting, frenetic world of multimedia- no, not the Erotic Albariño Chat Room I’d hoped to start, alas- in partnership with two young deities of the local wine scene. Let’s just say I’m in excellent company, and glad to be there… and that’s all you’re getting out of me on that count as of yet!
Enjoy our gorgeous weekend- I hope to head mountainward, and would be lucky and delighted to see you all up there… That is, unless you’re clogging the lift lines… We’ll meet at the Alpenstube for a pint of Double Mountain and some nachos! It’s a date!
Till soon,
yrs,
Riggs
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