Brad Ballinger

I think the following is a good sumamry of why there is an apparent "crisis" in Bordeaux... The export market buying the types of wines listed above are of a different breed. The word "Bordeaux" on a label means little to them. Inside France, it may very well be a quality issue among those who know quality. Better (or at least more accessible) wines are being made in all parts of the world -- including other regions of France -- and they are getting noticed. This provides many "entry points" for the wine newbie, and not just Bordeaux AC as an entry point to classified Bordeaux. And from any of these competing entry points, the Bordeaux AC is no longer a stop along the road -- the motorway bypasses it altogether. A key phrase in the excerpt above is "well-marketed." Bordeaux has failed in this regard. Not for lack of trying -- there are continously efforts to elevate or re-establish Bordeaux's image as the world's premier wine region. Those efforts have certainly failed in the U.S., and I would guess elsewhere. Of course, for Bordeaux to turn it around, there will need to be plenty of cooperation among a large number of players. Fat chance.

I don't know if I'd call it a phenomenon, but there is certainly an increased interest in Spanish wines and certainly more of them available than there were 15 years ago. The article mentions importers, but there is also foreign money (American and European) helping more bodegas spring up. Where Spanish wines of old get a knock is that many tended to be quite rustic in style and the whole crianza, reserva, gran reserva bottle designation had mainly to do with the amount of time the wines spent in wood. And they tasted like it. Lee is right that more of the wines coming out of Spain nowadays are more "international" in style -- low acid, forward fruit. For some, one might taste the wine and think Spain. But for many, they could be made anywhere in the world. That doesn't mean they are not enjoyable wines, just that they're more international and less "Spanish." And for this style, they are competing very well.

Sometimes having family and friends know that you are “into” wine is not a good thing. What do I mean “sometimes”? Heck, most of the time it’s not a good thing. Over this past weekend, we hosted my wife’s cousin’s family for dinner. I had just returned from Singapore where I drank only beer, so I was looking forward to some wine. The cousin, knowing I am a wine person showed up with a bottle as a gift. How does one graciously accept a 2003 Charles Shaw Chardonnay – especially when the giving of it is prefaced by “you probably know the story behind this wine…”? You can’t pull out the standard, “Thank you, we’ll think of you as we drink it,” without sounding even a little disingenuous. So we talked about Two Buck Chuck, what a great place Trader Joe’s is, and ended it with me saying I’d serve the wine as a ringer at a blind tasting and let them know what happened. For anyone who drinks wine with me, don’t worry. I’m not going to do that. The wine is relegated to what Marcia can drink with her girlfriends on a girls’ weekend. Anyway, onto the wine we drank that evening. 1999 M. Chapoutier “Le Bernardine” Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. This wine was served with assorted cheeses and olives as a pre-dinner wine on the patio. It was probably a bit on the rich side for that setting, but I was in the mood for the wine regardless. There was a pleasant floral and lemon character to the wine, with some steely minerality. Texturally, the wine struck a balance between chalky/flinty and oily, if that’s even possible. A bit more astringent on the finish then I would like, but I suppose that just makes one take another sip. 1998 Evesham Wood “Le Puits Sec” Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley. Since the cousin’s family lives in Oregon, I had to open this wine. It was served with grilled salmon with a butter, lime, wine sauce and fresh diced tomatoes, saffron rice, and roasted asparagus. This pinot is much more my style than several syrah wannabes I’ve tried from California and Oregon. And it comes at one-half to one-third of the price ($19). Spicy cherry aroma, a little tar. In the mouth, the wine showcased bright fruit, supported by light mineral, oak, and spice. The wine isn’t going to win any awards for complexity, but it’s balanced well, and will gain a lot of fans, including me.

Dunno. Keller also makes a trocken, which would also be fun to try.

That Keller wine is about $25 U.S. If you can grab the same wine, but the Goldkap bottle ($40 U.S.), you will be in for a treat and a bargain. Up until very recently the Rheinhessen has been overlooked. But with Keller, Wittmann, and Gunderloch (and sometimes Strub), it's starting to get some recognition.

I agree with David that the wines of JJ Prum need to be left alone for a while. There is a high sulfur and petrol component to these wines that needs either time or air to be not so dominant. As regards pricing, I think we're coming to an end of the "good old days." If you've seen any pricing for the 2003 vintage either on pre-arrival or at retail for a few wines, the prices are increasing exponentially. Part of it (here in the U.S. at any rate) may be the strength of the euro against the dollar. But a lot more of it, IMO, has to do with hype. Edited to add -- Oh, and David (Reisling Fan) is in Massachussets.

There isn't merlot in this wine. It's 100% corvina. Merlo means blackbird, and is some reference either to the bird or to an area where there are a lot of them. And I will disagree with your conclusion that nothing says Italy. This wine is all Italy. And it can go 5-10 more years, easy. But if you had bleu cheese on the nose, I'd be worried that this could've been an off bottle.

Jay, I've had a few of these wines in the past. Quite in the past. The Salon is truly a stunner of a wine, and I'm partial to Champagne anyway. Do you happen to know when this one was disgorged? And it sounds like it can still go for a bit, contrary to many other 85 prestige cuvees I've tasted. And as enjoyable as that 1975 PX was for you, if you can ever get your hands on the 1972 vintage, it will blow the 75 away.

Yes, I believe the locals called them cockles. I can't tell if the juices were red, though, since the sauce was red -- and damned hot.

Final installment. I'm here at Changi airport using one of the FREE internet access terminals at 4:30 a.m., local time. Last night was not a satay bar, as I had thought. It was a satay club. In the downtown business district they close off one of the streets at 7:00 p.m. and fill it with tables and chairs. And very active hawkers. We had satay, fried black noodles, grilled stingray (which was nothing short of terrific), oyster omelet, grilled squid with chili sauce, and some tiny (I'd call them cherrystone) clams. And Tiger beer. We had picked a good night for it. It was actual tolerable to sit outside. What a long, strange and wonderful trip this has been.

I haven't had those. I have a 97 Rancia (one only) I'm sitting on. The 95 Rancia is drinking nice, though. FWIW.

I neglected to mention that I did have this. It came with sweetened condensed milk added into it, which was a bit of a surprise. But still dee-lish. I'm adventurous, but not an idiot Tuesday night, five of us went to an Indonesian place called Sunar (I'm pretty sure it's a chain). The food here was also good. Deep fried (not breaded, though) baby squid, satay with REAL peanut sauce (actual pulverized peanuts mixed with chili paste), some fried green veggies with chili paste, some strange but wonderful tofu-wrapped fried thing, and terrific grilled squid. Lunch on Wednesday was in the food court of a nearby office building, where I had Laksa (see a post above for a description). This dish delivered the heat, which I cooled down with a papaya puree drink. Tonight, I think I'm being taken to a satay bar. I'm not a fan of the weather, but I love the food here.

We didn't go to the seafood center. Hua Yu Wee is more of a "local" place with prices much lower than the tourist-visited seafood center. I was the only Anglo in the restaurant. Thank you for the recs on other dishes to try. I'm sure I'll find my way to sample a few of them. Today's lunch was in a hawker center and I had chicken rice and fried carrot cake (for non-Asians, this is different than even what you might possibly picture in your head). Fried carrot cake is spicy-sweet, great with rice, and in little pices with dough-like texture, although I can't be certain if it is actually "dough" or not.

Thanks for these suggestions. I'll certainly be looking for new and exciting places to try.

I've been traveling quite a bit for work. As I sit in a Singapore hotel taking a break from the heat, I thought it best to catch up on some notes. 1999 H. de Montille Volnay. I brought this to the Netherlands with me looking for some wine types from my company to join me in drinking it. Finding none, I was on my own. This is, simply put, a pretty bottle of wine. In light levels, but well balanced, there is tart fruit, warm spice, buoyant acids. An earthy spine keeps everything together. 1996 R. Monnier Meursault, Le Chavalieres Premier Cru. This wine I was able to share. I was leading a distribution simulation called The Beer Game. I promised people they could drink beer during it (this was after dinner), but also provided wine for those few who didn't drink beer. Monnier's wines have only been so-so for my palate -- neither remarkable nor offensive. This one was firmly in that spectrum. The wine may still be on the young side. The aromas were apple/pear with a hint of oak. Creamy texture on the palate, with a decent combination of citrus and pear flavors. Enough acid to keep it intersting. Turns slightly woodsy on the finish. This was sipped on its own, and might have done better with some cheese. 2002 Domaine Metrat Fleurie "La Roilette" Vieilles Vignes. This was the red wine I offered during The Beer Game. Only one taker, which left plenty for me in the bottle to watch a poorly played soccer match between Netherlands and Germany afterwards. If I called the Volnay pretty, I don't know how to take that word to the next level to decribe this wine. This was a glorious wine. Beautifully perfumed, tremendous finesse. Equally enjoyable to smell and drink. Superb balance, and offers more complexity with every sip. 1999 Gini Recioto di Soave. There's a pleasant spiciness to this wine, but in the long run there's simply too much oak that shows up. Nice extraction of fruit, some live-preserving acidity, but it suffers from all the oak treatment -- both in fermentation and aging. 1999 Felsina Chianti Classico. For one of the two evenings I was home before flying off to Singapore, my wife and I shared this wine. If I look hard, I can probably find more of it. And that's something I'll be sure to do. This is a great CC. There is so much spice, graphite minerality, bright cherry fruit, and acid that make the wine a great food partner for a variety of dishes.

You would think so. I would argue that many of the the independent restaurants (that place a value on wine) do. But there are so many indies in the world, and not all emphasize wine. Earlier in this thread there is the mention of Asian restaurants in NYC (and not just NYC). You're just not going to see a great wine list of any wine -- small producer or not -- from many of them (unless it's Henry's Evergreen in NYC or Arun's in Chicago, as exceptions). The definition of indie restaurant is too broad. Same thing with the indie retailer. If that retailer emphasizes wine, yes they will do something to distinguish themselves. But not always can they get access to small production wines (from small producers or big names). They're beholden to distributors in the current three-tier system, and many simply don't have the clout to say to one of them "Look. I'm going to buy this wine direct and pay you a certain percentage for 'distributing' it to me" like some more influential retailers can get away with. And don't forget many indie retailers make more money on beer and spiritis than on wine.

Well, there's a shock. Has he heard about the Lindbergh baby?

As part of my month of continuous business travel, I found myself in Gorinchem, Holland, for eight nights. My company has a distribution center there, and the warehouse also has an office attached which serves as our European headquarters. Prior to traveling there, I had pleaded with the Gorinchem office to put me up at a hotel in the center of the city (not at the AC off the autoway 5 km outside of town). All my reasonaing failed, and I was left in this sterile hotel in the middle of farmland. The only thing I ate there was the breakfast included in the room rate. Fortunately the office provided me with a car. This resulted in several trips into Gorinchem (no ventures to nearby Rotterdam or Utrecht since most of the time I was accompanied by someone from the Gorinchem or Minneapolis office). So I was on a mission to find some decent food in this industrial town of 35,000 situated on the confluence of three rivers. Satehut. This was the first night in town. I had been doing my best to stay awake the entire day after the overnight flight, and just wanted something simple. If I could find Indonesian, I'd take it. This place (which may be a chain, I don't know) would do fine. I had some pork satay that was nicely flavored, but the peanut sauce was too thick and bland. Oh well, it was food. Grandcafe 't Gelagh. On the second evening, a Minneapolis co-worker and I found this place. I was attracted to it for the seating underneath some huge trees in a quaint plaza. The food was also a step up. I had a mushroom strudel made from puff pastry that had good earthy flavors, and a type of whitefish for an entree. The fish was perfectly undercooked. Along with it came the requisite bowl of french fries (accompanied by mayonnaise) and another bowl of salad. Although I'm a wine drinker, there are too many good beers available from both Holland and Belgium that I went that direction for much of the time. So it was Duvel on this evening. I found the beer very dry and then discovered why -- 8.5% alcohol. Bistro de Poort. This was the site of the best meal in Gorinchem. It is positioned next to a lock on one of the rivers. And four of us had the porch all to ourselves. This was the third time I'd seen carpaccio listed as an appetizer (must be a thing here), so I went for it. This treatment was different than the typical Italian approach, including tomatoes, crispy fried angel hair carrots, and some other flavors. For the entree, I ordered a first for me -- kangaroo -- at the recommendation of the server. I found it to be much like venison, and quite good. No fries tonight. Instead, celery in a mustard sauce. Vos beer to start but then wine with dinner -- my colleagues knoew of my wine hobby and asked me to order for all of them. Solo. This restaurant has the best reputation in Gorinchem, but I thought de Poort to be better overall. I was on my own this evening, and since I was driving to Maastricht early in the morning and then onto Hasselt, Belgium, for dinner with friends, I stayed in town. Solo has two seating options -- formal dining room or brasserie/bar. Nicely dressed people were in the restaurant. I sat in the bar. The wine list didn't do much for me, so I had Grolsch. I went for carpaccio as an appetizer a second time. This one had pumpkin seeds, greens, and other stuff I can't remember. Pretty good. For dinner, I asked the server for a recommendation among the fish options. He selected the sole. Makes me wonder about the other ones since the sole was very average. The vegetables accompanying it seem to have been from a frozen veggie bag. The bowl of fries was good. the menu option also included dessert. I had the profiteroles with ice cream and caramel sauce. The sauce was excellent, and this was the best course of the meal. Dinner in Hasselt with friends, and lots of wine, topped all of the dinners in Gorinchem combined. Our host is an excellent cook. I especially enjoyed the white asparagus (we now get this in the states with some regularity, but it's never as good). The remaining dinners in and around Gorinchem were all of the large group variety. There were managers meetings during the day and activities planned for the evening. One of those took us to a glass-blowing facility in Leedham, that has a brasserie attached. There was a buffet laid out, and at least I got to try raw herring and eel. I was the only American to have these items, and they were far better than many other options in the buffet line. More to explore when I return in November.

I've been experiencing a month of virtually non-stop business travel. This week, it's Singapore. It's also my first trip to Asia. The flight here from Minneapolis is one I don't envy anyone having to make very often. Door to door from my house to hotel room it was 23 hours, and that includes a plane transfer at Tokyo-Narita. But this is about food, not travel. I arrived here on Sunday at 12:40 a.m. No interest in food after th flights. I was much more interested in sleep. I did wake up in time to partake in the hotel-provided (Le Meriden, Orchard Road) breakfast, an interesting but pedestrian combination of Western and Asian cuisines. The daytime I spent walking around (and ducking into several air-conditioned places to cool off and rehydrate). In the evening, I met a co-worker of mine who is the GM for our office here and another co-worker for dinner. They wanted someplace close to the hotel, and we ended up at a very average place called Brasserie across from the Presidential palace. The menu options are from just about everywhere in the world. I ordered a Caesar salad that had ranch-style dressing instead of Caesar dressing. I also ordered spaghetti with black pepper sauce and chicken. It wasn't very good. For Monday lunch, a group of us drove from the office to the Laguna Country Club. I couldn't believe there were people on the golf course in this heat, but they must be used to it. I had a dish of seafood and noodles in a chili paste sauce. Now this one was good and spicy. The big treat (so far) came in the evening. Eight of us went to Hua Yu Wee, 462 Upper East Coast Road, where we had a fantastic Chinese seafood dinner. We had drunk prawns (that were first put on the table fresh and jumping before being doused in the liquid that would cook them). We had chili crab and black pepper crab that were both incredibly flavored (we were offered to select the crabs for the dish before prep). Being the default "guest of honor" on this evening, I was given the left claw of both of the crabs. We also had squid, shark fin soup, and then some odd choices of sweet and sour pork and venison thrown in. And lots of Tiger beer. Our local host (the sales manager here) and some others from the office kept giving me warnings about the level of spice, showing surprise that I was so (in their opinion) adventurous, not affected by the spice, etc. The other people that come here must be wimps comparatively. I have no other explanation. This was a killer meal, and the bill for eight of us came to only S$237. This morning everyone wanted to make sure I had no "ill effects" during the night. I finally said something -- "Look, I'm fine. That was a great meal. What impression have others given you of American eaters? We don't all have fussy palates and delicate constitutions." I think they finally got it. Today, the food agenda is Chicken Rice and a trip to a hawker center. More to report later.

Much of this really has more to do with production volume and distribution than anything else. But if it means more people are drinking wine (however loosely we might put some of these beverages in that category), it can't be all bad.

I'm in the middle of a hellacious travel schedule. But there have been some wine moments. Last week I was in Miami, in the middle of weather that is suited more toward beer. But I happened to have a very nice bottle of 2001 Bruno Giacosa Roero Arneis ($42 restaurant price, not bad). The wine had great mineral and lemon oil. Oh, how that bottle was a comfort in that steamy land. Today, I'm in the middle of a stretch in the Netherlands. Most people drink beer here, a combination of Dutch and Belgian brews, and I've joined in with them. But tonight with some co-workers here in Gorinchem (middle of nowhere, trust me) I did have a bottle of 2002 Chateau Guiraud Saint-Chinian that was luscious and juicy, with some very nice mineral backbone (25 euros restaurant price). And it paired well with kangaroo (yes, real kangaroo). That was a first for me. I also found a wine shop here and walked away with some hard-to-find (in the states) Beaujolais. I also came across a bottle of 1990 Bertani Recioto di Amarone without a price tag. There was only one, and I was hoping for a steal. But the person working the shop had to call the owner at home, and I was told 75 euros. Oh, well, can't be faulted for trying. This weekend off to drink wine with friends in Belgium, and there will certainly be good wines to report about.

Minor clarification -- If you are looking for it in print and not vocally, you will find the Rhone blend bottled as Alec's Blend.

Hi Jean, As you may know, I've raved about this wine in the past (prior to my eGullet days). This is a great summer quaffer, as you mention, but it also a terrific wine with simply grilled lighter fish and shellfish. Great with soft-shelled crab! And you've reminded me to stock up on more of it once I return home.

Lewis Cellars Back when I was buying California wine that wasn't zinfandel, this was a Cabernet a gravitated toward. And at a tasting I hosted a couple of years ago, the 1993 Lewis Cab showed incredibly well, overshadowing wines of more-written reputations from supposedly better vintages. My first experience was with a wine that wasn't even a Lewis Wine. In 1991, Oakville Ranch Vineyards bottled a Cabernet Sauvignon with a "Lewis Select" designation. I still have a bottle of this that I should open pretty soon. In 1992, Randy Lewis came out with his own label, but the 1992 Cab had an Oakville Ranch designation. I've not had recent vintages of the wine, so I can't comment as to whether or not the style has changed. But the ones I've had have been nicely balanced, and matured well.

1996 Champagne Chartogne-Taillet Fiacre Brut, Montagne de Reims. Chartogne-Taillet is a Recoltant Manipulant producer in Merfy, but the grapes were grown on property owned in Montagne de Reims. Fiacre is their Tete de Cuvee. It is blended from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and was disgorged June, 2003. This is a complex Champagne that shows great balance and character. The nose features a strong burst of yeasty toast, smoke, and nuts. As it opens up, there are also elements of lemon zest, cherry blossoms, and mushrooms. The flavors in the mouth begin with bright citrus and add layer upon layer of minerals and tart red fruits. The beads are very active in the glass. In the mouth, the mousse is loosely woven, and very long-lasting, imparting a creamy texture to balance the high acidity of the wine. It finishes with cream, mushrooms, toast, and lemon pith. This is a wine to be served with a main course, and went well with grilled salmon.