Cork: The Most Dangerous Game

I think there have been volumes written already on the danger of continuing to use cork as a closure for wine and all of the many reasons why we, as consumers, will not allow a clean changeover to any other means of sealing wine bottles. I certainly don't want to re-hash old information because I assume, if you are reading this blog about wine, that you already know the basics about it. Far be it from me to bore you with things you have already heard a hundred times before.

In light of my step-father's loss of a magnum of Harlan Estate Cabernet to TCA, I promised him I'd create a blog entry so the $1000 bottle we had to pour down the drain was not a complete loss. I figured it was the least I could do. And what better time to hit this topic that when it strikes in the most costly of forms!

In recent weeks, I have been cursing the day that I became familiar with TCA and my ability to notice it in wine. I've been coming across more and more faulty wines. With the ability to spot TCA, you wind up dumping a lot of wines down the drain. I hazard to think of how many faulty bottles I may have consumed prior to the moment when that unwelcomed musty smell became all too familiar. In retrospect, I think that Texas Chardonnay that I bought at the Dollar Store out of morbid curiousity was tragically corked. I remember pouring that one down the drain, thank God!

It amazes me how many people will open an expensive bottle of wine, notice that something is off about it (most usually TCA), and force themselves to drink it anyway. Of course it hurts to pour any amount of money down the drain! But what's in the bottle is also not the product you purchased, nor the product that the winery and winemaker wanted you to enjoy. It would be like buying a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and opening it to find flavorless rice cakes. Gross! You probably would force those down if you were expecting Doritos. Why would you drink a faulty wine?

On a personal level, it makes for a very uncomfortable situation when dining or drinking with friends. As the professional sommelier, I generally have to be the person to announce to someone that their wine is toast and needs to be dumped. For example, when dining at Cuistot in the desert this past week with my folks, I discovered the '95 Dom Perignon he brought was infected with TCA. I thought there was a good chance Dave might catch this one, since we'd just had it at Spago a week before, but it slipped by him. Thankfully, I'd ordered a martini already and no one noticed that I wasn't drinking the bubbles. Kara chastised me for not saying anything, but it's very difficult to be the person to announce that your expensive bottle of wine can't be drunk.

In my experience, some wineries will take ownership of those faults, despite it not really being any wrong-doing of their own. I'm certainly not going to ask Harlan to replace a maggie because I don't think there's a snowball's chance in Vegas that they would, but smaller producers who are making a name for themselves or big producers who don't want to lose your business might. Sometimes, even the retailer who sold you the wine will take the wine back and deal with the winery or ditributor themselves so you experience a better level of service from their end. It's always worth a try, I think. Certainly at the restaurant level, we are obliged to keep you from drinking a faulty product that we are selling.

I'm becoming more accepting every month of any new form of closure. Watching all of this hard-earned money go to waste is becoming more sickening. Yes, there are concerns about longevity, oxidation, age-ability, and more. But what about the fact that all of this wine is being destroyed? And even more frightening, what if that had been someone's very first bottle of Harlan, thereby forming their first and probably only impression about that winery with a disgustingly corked bottle? The damage being done to wineries is almost more frightening.

I will get off of my soap box now. Every so often, I think most sommeliers have a build up that needs a release. Blowing off of steam, if you will. My advice to you as a consumer is to make a concerted effort to learn the smell of TCA in wine, if you don't recognize it already. Know if what you have in your bag is actually Doritos or if someone duped you with rice cakes. It's your moral obligation to yourself and the wineries you support with your precious dollars.

Easter Dinner with Family

For the first time in a long while, I got to spend a holiday with some out-of-town family. My folks returned from Palm Desert on Easter Sunday, which gave me an opportunity to prepare a special and festive dinner for them. While we might normally have gone out, it was highly likely that most places would have been closed down for the holiday.

As they arrived in the early afternoon, we began the day with a bottle of Andre Robert's Grand Cru Blanc de Blanc Champagne, Brut NV. I don't know that I've mentioned sparkler wine yet, but it has quickly become my new "house" Champagne. As well as the glass pour at Jar! It's a combination of three to four vintages and bottled from Grand Cru vineyards in Les Mesnil sur Oger. A very good value and satisfying bottle: Rich orange marmalade, citrus, very fruit driven with minerality behind it. While it has slightly less acidity and mineral than I might like, it has been a terrific crowd-pleaser both at home with guests and at the restaurant.

If there wasn't enough mineral in the Champagne for my personal palate, I got it back in spades on the next bottle: the Domaine Servin 'Butteaux' Chablis 1er Cru 2008. I served this wine with a trio of oysters that included Fanny Bay, Kushi and a local oyster from Carlsbad. I think we plowed through somewhere between two and three dozen oysters as we enjoyed this wine. The Chablis is still incredibly young, of course, and shows a lot of primary citrus flavors, but I was loving it with the oysters. I once heard someone say that a core of lemon flavor in your wine will preclude the necessity to add lemon to your oysters. While I don't usually add anything to my oysters, it's nice to re-introduce that layer of flavor to the pairing without tainting the integrity of the oyster itself. I think we all agreed the Kushi oysters were the best oyster and pairing. The Carlsbad oysters were a little too intense for the wine and showed a bitter radish finish that might have been better complemented by a Gruner Veltliner or something of the like.

The next course is one of my absolute favorites to prepare at home because the wine pairing just blows everyone's mind: a Brie and Blue Cheese Quesadilla with Brown Sugar and Pear Compote matched with Alsacian whites. I have traditionally matched a Gewurztraminer with this, but wanted something slightly less intense for my folks. I went with the Kuentz-Bas 'Eichberg' Pinot Gris 2004. It showed the rich, fat character of Alsace with honeyed notes of red apple, orange and pear. It was perfect with the warm, cheesy goodness oozing from the crisped tortilla. As I explained to my folks, I don't always gravitate toward Alsace for drinking because it's just a bit too heavy for me, but I would never drink anything else with this small plate of food. They don't have much exposure to Alsace wines, but I think this was an eye-opener for them.

After an extended break to digest, we opened the third course with French Onion Soup that we drank some Kistler 'Cuvee Elizabeth Bodega Headlands Vineyard' Pinot Noir 2004. This came from my step-father's cellar and was classic Kistler Pinot: dark fruit with perfumey florality, hints of spice and an overall feel of extra-ripe young Burgundy from the barrel. It worked well with the soup.

For dinner, I prepared individual Beef Wellingtons. I keep using this dish because it is fairly quick and easy to prepare, and continues to get "wows" from everone who cracks into that golden pastry. We enjoyed a bottle of Levy & McClellan 2004 with this course. This is the first time I've sat down for a meal with a wine from this producer, although I've tasted it before. The 2004 is their first vintage and is still showing incredibly young. Formidable tannins wrapped in black fruits, licorice, smoke, and chocolate. This is a monster of a wine and should not be opened for a number of more years to come. I blind-tasted mom on this wine and she said it was Harlan-esque. Good for her! Same winemaker, but different vineyard source.

Before I opened the Levy & McClellan, Dave had pulled a magnum of 2000 Harlan Estate from his cellar to enjoy over the rest of the evening. It was one of the most tragically corked bottles I have run into in a while. It's also the first corky bottle of Harlan I've experienced in my career. My mother, whose favorite wine is Harlan, noticed immediately after smelling it. While she doesn't normally notice corked wines right away, her vast exposure to this producer made it fairly obvious. After licking our wounds, Dave had me pull a 1999 Harlan Estate from his cellar instead to go head-to-head with the Levy & McClellan. This was a perfect bottle! It reminded me very much of a younger version of the 1993 I had recently tasted. Impeccable balance, graphite and pencil lead, blue and black fruits, florality, coffee, herbaceousness, anise and terrific depth of fruit. This wine also went very well with the Wellingtons, and was showing much better than the Levy & McClellan with the additional age.

In need of more wine as we settled in for the night, we also opened a Hundred Acre 'Kayli Morgan' 2005. My palate was fairly fatigued after the extended day of drinking and all of the monstrous California Cabernet we had just drank, so I will reserve any formalized tasting notes, suffice it to say that the style was consistent with the very rich and silky Hundred Acres I have enjoyed in the past. It was no slouch in comparison to the big dogs we had just put away.

It was wonderful to have a holiday with family again. I think we made the most of the opportunity. It certainly took its toll on our wine cellars!

Dinner at Spago with the Folks

My parents come in every year to spend a week in Palm Desert. They generally sandwich the trip with a couple of days in Los Angeles to round out the debauchery and truly secure the need for a complete detox when they return to Toronto. I've been singing the praises of Spago for a few years now and, after a couple of lunch experiences, they finally relented and agreed to dinner on their first night in.

The wine line-up was top-notch. We opened with a bottle of 1995 Dom Perignon which was drinking beautifully. I've always been a fan of Dom, as cliche as that is, but in blind tastings, I have a tendency to prefer it. Showing wonderful rich fruit and freshness, it's a Champagne that is drinkable today and will likely show well for a number of years to come. It was fantastic with the amuse of Tuna Tartare Cone that is a staple at Spago.

As we moved into the first course, I ordered a Lamb Gnocchi to match the Pierre Usseglio 'Cuvee de Mon Auiel' 2006. Kara, who would not miss the Sweet Pea Agnolotti, saved some Dom for this course. The pasta was magnificent, but I would be lying if I didn't admit to stealing a number of Kara's agnolotti. The butter sauce was an interesting pairing with the Rhone, but the gnocchi and lamb really allowed the perfumey character of the Rhone to shine. The Herbs de Provence and refined dark fruit, florality and pepper all melded beautifully.

Our sommelier, Maria, poured the two Bordeauxs side-by-side blind. Not that it was much of a challenge, but the gauntlet was thrown to determine which was the 1982 Pichon Lalande and 1990 Lynch Bages. We had all had each of these wines before. Personally, I found the decision fairly obvious. The 1990 Lynch Bages was still showing firm structure, primary fruit characteristics with some development, and merely a moderate amount of complexity, particularly in comparison to the Pichon Lalande. The Pichon, however, was exuding savory components that were mindbending: dried mushrooms, dried soy sauce, dried flowers, tobacco leaf and cigar box, integrated black currant and blackberry, baking spices and an astounding elegance. The 1982 Pichon Lalande was clearly the wine of the night and I was so happy to be drinking it yet again.

As we pulled back in to the garage, we spotted our neighbors who dropped in to enjoy a little more wine and beer with us. We cracked open a Marquis Philips 'Integrity' 2002, a Hundred Acre 'Kayli Morgan' Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, and a John Anthony Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 to party with. The Integrity was rich, intense, full-bodied and more port-like than wine-like. Not really my style, despite the high ratings. The Hundred Acre was perfumed with dark fruits and full-bodied as well. A delicious California Cab that few would argue showed typicity for the grsape and region. We were toast by the time we hit the John Anthony, but it was a decent follow-up to the Hundred Acre and did not disappoint, particularly for the price.

We hit it pretty hard the first night out, but we like to set the bar high straight out of the gate. This trip was no exception. I have found the recovery getting to be more challenging these years... Oh well.

Cooking Class at Jar

We periodically host a cooking class at Jar on Saturday mornings. Twelve lucky souls are ushered into the underbelly of Jar's kitchen to watch Chef Suzanne Tracht demonstrate how to make some of Jar's most popular dishes. I also get to make some guest appearances to showcase some fun wines to match the dishes being prepared. For the guests, it is a unique experience to have a personal chef and sommelier serving them for lunch.

The menu for this most recent class included our Little Gem Caesar Salad, Braised Lamb Shank with Sauteed Baby Broccoli, and finished off with Sandra's Chocolate Decadence.

I always start the class out with some kind of sparkling wine as an aperitif. We enjoyed a glass of Ca' del Roro Prosecco Brut NV this week. Notes of honey, lemon and green apple, dry on the palate and imminently drinkable. As I said to the class, "what else do you want to drink at 11am...?!"

To match the Caesar Salad, I poured a new wine that we've discovered at Jar and are currently pouring by the glass: The Paring "The Point" Chardonnay 2009. This is something of a second label for newcomers Jonata. These wines are meant to be food-friendly and easy to drink. The Chardonnay fits the bill perfectly! The classic green apple and pear flavors are there, but much crisper and cleaner. There is a salinity to the wine and a green edge that shows like a fresh parsley. Unoaked, no malo, and delicious.

Matching the Lamb Shank, I poured Scholium Project's 'Babylon' Petite Syrah 2005. This is a monster of a wine! Dark wild berry fruit with firm structure, licorice, baking spices and a soft herbaceousness. This producer is very unique and some of the efforts they are making with their wine production is very impressive. This is my favorite bottling from them. And it worked great with the lamb shank, playing off the star anise Suze uses in the braise.

The group had a wonderful time, as always. As challenging as it is to get up so early on a Saturday morning after a Friday night service, I always have a great time myself. It's exciting to have a captive audience and the opportunity to pull out some of the overlooked wines from Jar's list.

Dana Estate 2007 at Spago

I love Spago. I know it's cliche, but there's a reason it's still around after all these years and you will almost always find foodies and wine-lovers alike. In fact, today virtually every wine person I know in Los Angeles was present at different tables. And Mario Batalli was sporting his orange crocks at a table just across the patio. There's just nothing like lunch at Spago!

Well, on to the wine: Good friend Daniel Ha who runs Sales and Hospitality up at Dana Estate in Napa contacted me to attend a little trade lunch. They don't have any wine to sell until later this year so it was really more of an opportunity for we sommeliers to actually sit down with the wines we have sold but rarely tasted. Fellows sommeliers from Bouchon, Valentino and Capo were also at the table.

Dana Estate is the most successful of the new line-up of "cult wineries". The Helms Vineyard and winery exist on the former Livingston-Moffet property just behind Whitehall Lane in Rutherford. The winery proper was built out from the original ghost winery. The facility is nothing short of amazing and is the quintessential example of sparing no expense. Famed designer of the Harlan and Bond facilities, Howard Backen, was brought in to design Dana. The concept in much of what they do ties a little of something old to something new.

The same can be said for their wines. They nod their head to the traditional wines and seek out some of the minerality and structure one might expect from Bordeaux, but utilize all new winemaking technology available for their wines. Famed winemaker Phillipe Melka is on staff, but also has a new budding winemaker straight out of school working with them as well. The vineyard was originally planted in the 1880's, but now plays home to a brand new winery in Dana.

Dana's first release was the 2005 Helms Vineyard, which had a very limited distribution as there were a mere 500 cases. From what I understand, the winery kept their hands on a very large portion of it for future use. Right out of the gate, press was favorable with a 94pt score from Parker. The next vintage incorporated two more vineyards into the line-up: the Lotus Vineyard from a hillside vineyard further north in St. Helena and the Hershey vineyard which is on Howell Mountain and produces under 100 cases at the moment. Press was favorable again in 2006 with the two distributed labels earning 94 and 95 pt scores.

And then - the highly revered 2007 vintage struck! Most winemakers are raving about this vintage for its decided New World-ness and ripeness. A large handful of wines were awarded the elusive 100 pt score and Dana was no exception. The Lotus vineyard took the lead with Helms trailing at 97 and Hershey 96+. Dana was off and running in a mere three years, absorbing all of the clamoring collectors looking for the next big wine list to be on.

My first experience with these wines was visiting the property at Daniel's invitation. He poured the 2006 Helms and Lotus vineyards for me. I found the Lotus to be a much more heavy-handed style that I would have a hard time drinking, showing super-ripe fruit and alcohol. The Helms, however, stopped me in my tracks with its balance, complexity and typicity. I also had the opportunity to taste the 2007 Lotus late last year when first released and found the bottling, at that time, to be consistent with my feelings on the 2006.

We sat down to lunch and enjoyed a 2006 Raveneau 'Montee de Tonnerre' Chablis with the many amuses and salads. It was an amazing start! The Bacon en Croute is to die for! The Raveneau, while still a baby, showed boatloads of minerality, slate, chalk and salinity, but all wrapped up in this wonderful ripe sheath of lemon, lime and baked apple. The minerals clung to my palate for the rest of the afternoon. A true benchmark in Chablis and worth every penny you pay for it.

The Dana wines were poured with a truly amazing steak course. The 2007 Helms Vineyard offered ripe black currant and cassis, crisp blackberry acidity, ripe tannins that are not intrusive, cedar, spice, chocolate and an incredibly long finish. This was a riper version of the 2006 which I adored. An herbal overtone adds further complexity with time in the glass and, I must say, this wine changed pretty frequently during the course of the meal. The 2007 Lotus Vineyard was also consistent with my last tasting and the style of the 2006. Right out of the gate, it was flamboyent and fruity, almost like a young vintage port. A soy and mineral character is also present, but more challenging to find beneath the gobs of ripeness. Plush texture, blackberry jam and candied cherries, taking full-bodied to the next level. Very intense fruit with brown sugar and chocolate notes. With time in the glass, this bottling also began to settle into itself and find more balance. Hopefully, time in the cellar will do the same.

This is a very impressive operation and certainly one to experience, if the opportunity should arise. Unfortunately, many of these wines are already hibernating in collectors' trophy cellars and won't arise again for a few years. If aging is not kind, we may see some on the markets before too long. But with a release price of almost $300, meager production, and all the press, at what cost will they resurface?

Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary

Kara and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary this week. We decided to grab a bottle of Harlan 'Maiden' 2005 and go grab a burger from Morton's for lunch. While basic, it's one of the best burgers in the city. Sure, Father's Office has a more interesting make-up, but for a hearty and comforting (not to mention monstrous...) burger - Morton's rocks!

After a delicious Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA (one of my new favorite beers!) to match with the Wedge Salad, we tore into the Maiden. It was drinking beautifully right out of the gate! More precocious than one expects from the Harlan Estate label, it was rife with blue and black fruits, florality, graphite, and coffee. The tannins were present, but ripe and integrated. The acidity was noticable enough to keep the wine lifted and feeling fresh. The expected maturity dates on this wine seem to go longer than I would suspect, based on the way it's showing today. Hard to say, though, with such a short track record at Harlan so far. The '93 we had recently was amazing!

While we might have gone out for a fancy dinner and had more amazing wines, Kara and I opted to invite a few close friends over to celebrate. We cracked out a bunch of beers and (I'm completely embarassed to say...) ordered Papa John's. I guess the romance is truly gone when that's how you spend your anniversary, but we had a great time anyway.

A Wine Lunch at Jar

Well, I was tempted to title this entry as "The Day I Discovered I Despise Old Cali Cabernet", but I didn't really think it was a fair fight to make such a declaration. Some important age-worthy Cabs were missing from the table and, while these were from the most highly regarded vintages of the 1990's, it doesn't necessarily make them age-worthy.

So, the set-up: Jar is not open for lunch, but we had a regular guest ask if we could host a lunch for his wine tasting group. Suzanne put together a three-course meal to match with reds, a cheese course and dessert. Ten guys showed up, each with a bottle in hand, and the horses were off and running. The theme was California Cabernet from 1994 through 1997. The wines were broken into flights by vintage and poured with each course. An informal tasting, the guys voted on their favorite from each flight.

I sat down with all of the wines after the event had ended to revisit some old acquaintances from years ago. The players in this particular show were all very familiar and read like the wine list from a Ruth's Chris or Morton's Steakhouse. "Boring", is my first repsonse, but I always like to offer myself a little reminder that these wineries are so highly established for a reason. And then Preech (our Chef de Cuisine) walks up and says "Beringer used to make some good wine back in the eighties", almost as if he heard my thoughts and responded.

The first flight included a wine that was completely outside of the theme: Leonetti's 1993 Merlot from Washington. It was tragically corked. Next, the Caymus 'Special Selection' 1994 which was decidedly one of the wines of the tasting for me. Ripe blackberry and black cherry, cigar box, cedar and spice, soft tannins and still vibrant fruit. Drinking great today! The Dunn 'Howell Mountain' 1994 was the wine I would have suspected to like best, but really wasn't giving up much today. Very reluctant nose, but typical dusty, herbal Dunn-style. Very lively acidity and tannin, but the fruit was challenged. Perhaps in a dumb phase?

The second flight started with the Flora Springs 'Rutherford Hill Reserve' 1995 which I could barely get past the nose to taste. The volatile acidity on the nose was horrific but the palate came across okay with ripely flavored black fruits that tasted sweet like cherry candy. Showing as I expected was the Silver Oak 'Alexander Valley' 1995, which had its typical dill note on the nose, but little else. Same for the palate - completely over the hill and lacking fruit, but with the body of a somewhat youthful wine. A Pride 'Reserve' 1995 was finished at the lunch so I did not get to try it.

The third flight featured the Beringer 'Private Reserve' 1996. It was at this point I looked at Preech and asked "Is my palate off or do these wines all taste like nothing?!" My notes simply read: lacking anything - dry, astringent and not much fruit or nose. Following that was the B.R. Cohn 'Special Selection' 1996 which was all kinds of disjointed: a slightly unappealing cocoa note (if that's even possible...) with black cherry that came together like a $.99 box of Queen Anne Cordials that someone left in the cabinet for two years. There must've been some residual sugar because it tasted sweet, dry, old, and funky all at the same time. Thank God for the Peter Michael 'Les Pavots' 1996 which showed perfect balance and restraint. The fruit was ripe but integrated, and the tannins were present without being astringent. Cedary and herbal notes with spice played in nicely. I think this one can even go a little longer.

The final flight included a "wringer" that turned out to be the Napa Valley Reserve 1997, made by Bob Levy and Bill Harlan. One suspects this wine must be leftovers from Bond or Harlan and it kind of tastes that way. While owning some of the ame trademarks and elements of those two wineries, they just don't seem to come together as seamlessly. The espresso, graphite, cedar and black fruits are all there, but this bottling is more bitter and astringent on the finish. The tannins are still ripe and coated in fruit, but not as much. I did like this wine, but as a comparison to its siblings, it tastes like a third label. I poured the Beringer 'Private Reserve' 1997 next, which I did not get to taste, but have had plenty of chances to taste and felt like it was gone many years ago. Next, the 1997 Phelps 'Insignia' which I've had varying experiences with over the years. In fact, there were actually two different bottles and they were wildly different in flavors. I believe one of them was cooked or faulty in some way, to be honest. The better of the two bottles showed balanced fruit, a dusty character and was drinkable but not exciting. This wine is an enigma to me. And everytime I decide it's just gone for good, a brilliant bottle will come around and pull the rug out from under me. Sadly, this was not that bottle... And finally, the 1997 Dominus: an overlay of black cherry and currant, anise and earth. Nothing exciting here and surprisingly not as much in the Bordeaux-style as one would expect. Decent and probably as good as it's going to get.

I'm not going to get up on my soap box about European wines, but when these wines from California reach this age where minerality would really begin to show through, it becomes glaringly obvious that we just don't have that kind of minerality here at all. Clearly the wine world is in flux and it will be interesting to see what happens down the road when these New World-styled Bordeauxs reach maturity. Will they still be capable of expressing the same minerality as they did when made in a more archaic/classic style? We'll see in about ten more years...

I'm not encouraging anyone to go out and dump all of these wines down the drain! I'm simply stating that in a completely critical and analytical frame of mind, these wines were not really impressive. To ME! Some were good, some tragic, and many in the middle-of-the-road. If I popped the cork on one of them for dinner one night at home, I would drink it and be happy I had the experience. Mostly, I'm just really glad I sold many of those wines a few years ago for a healthy profit.

Wine is foremost about what you like and I just seem to have really outgrown this phase... And I'll outgrow the phases I'm in now, likely. But being comfortable knowing and saying what you like is more important than anything, especially when it comes to wine. Not being afraid to try new things is a pretty close second, but like mom always said, "How do you know you don't like it if you've never even tried it?"