1982, Thirty Years Later
On April 14, the Pebble Beach Food and Wine festival hosted a retrospective tasting of the 1982 Bordeaux vintage. All five first growths were poured, plus Pichon-Lalande, Cos d’Estournel and La Mission Haut-Brion. (Stepping into the hotel conference room where the tasting was being held, I felt that I suddenly understood the British attraction to aged claret in a new light, greeted by a pervasive perfume somewhere between an Anglican church and a humidor: all incense and polished wood and pipe tobacco.)
New York Times columnist Eric Asimov recently wrote about a similar tasting hosted by collector Mark Taylor in Atlanta and provided a summary of the controversial 1982 vintage and its significance—so I won’t repeat all of that here. The CliffsNotes version: a warm year with high yields, ripe wines championed by Robert . . . Continue reading →
The Coldest Vineyard in California
Giuseppe Comollo standing above his vineyard
Giuseppe Comollo’s moustache has its disadvantages. “I say it is my fog-collector,” he jokes, using his sleeve to wipe off the collecting droplets of mist. The heavy fog rushing in from the Pacific nearly blots out his cherry-red Alfa Romeo, illegally parked twenty yards away on the shoulder of Highway 1.
It’s early November. To the southeast, we can hear the waves of the Pacific crashing into the pylons of the Golden Gate Bridge. Four years ago, Comollo came here to plant what must surely be California’s coolest vineyard: a half-acre of nebbiolo on a steep, windswept patch of Franciscan mélange that, on sunnier days, yields a clear view of downtown San Francisco.
“Nebbiolo is a delicate grape,” he says. “Piemonte—people think I’m crazy when I say . . . Continue reading →
In pursuit of balanced chardonnay…
... how low can you go?
Lioco’s Matt Licklider speaks with attendees at this year’s In Pursuit of Balance tasting in San Francisco
For last year’s In Pursuit of Balance tasting at RN74, Rajat Parr (Michael Mina) and Jasmine Hirsch (Hirsch Vineyard) brought together a who’s who of California’s artisan pinot noir producers to raise some questions about what constitutes balance in domestic pinot noir. There was no single principle uniting all the represented wineries, but many of the producers shared an approach that favored lower alcohol and/or traditional Burgundian winemaking methods and/or particularly cool vineyard sites and/or minimal use of new oak.
Raj Parr and Jasmine Hirsch
This year’s tasting, held at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco, included chardonnay as well, and while I expected to spend most of my time focusing on pinot, ultimately the chardonnays stole the show. Many of these . . . Continue reading →
Montalcino Vintages 2010 & 2009
The producers of Brunello opened this year’s presentation of new releases in Montalcino with a Trifecta—or, to use a more appropriate soccer metaphor, they did the hat trick. For the first time, all three vintages on show—this year, 2010 Rosso di Montalcino, 2007 Brunello, and 2006 Brunello Riserva—had been awarded Five Stars. Though the Consorzio of Brunello, which rates the vintages, has in the past been (rightly) accused of boosterism, this year’s rankings were definitely not grade inflation: all three vintages were the real thing, though in three quite different ways.
The Consorzio describes the 2007 Brunello as “both elegant and structured, with good polyphenolic components and balanced acidity”—a judgment most of the journalists present and all of the winemakers I spoke to concurred in. To my palate, its freshness and accessibility were striking: this . . . Continue reading →
Chianti Classico Vintage Preview: 2010 and 2009
At the Chianti Classico Collection in February, 152 Chianti Classico producers showed close to 300 different wines—regular bottlings from 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007; Riserva bottles from 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006. The most intense focus naturally fell on the two most recent vintages, both high in quality.
The 2009 and 2010 growing seasons differed markedly from each other. A gentle winter preceded a mild but very rainy spring in ’09. That in turn ushered in a hot June and July, followed by an August of fluctuating daytime temperatures but uniformly cool nights—the latter optimal for good ripening and rich aromatics. Rain and sun alternated in September, with the October harvest yielding top-quality fruit.
By contrast, the 2010 crop started with a real winter and an unusually cool but normally wet spring. June and July went to the other extreme and were very hot, but . . . Continue reading →
