Open That Bottle Night - “A Special Occasion” in Acton, MA

Hi Wine Lovers,

As you may know, last night, Saturday, February 24th, was "Open That Bottle Night" created by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher of the Wall Street Journal. Dorothy & John have an excellent weekly wine column in the Friday edition of the WSJ. They created "Open That Bottle Night" to give wine lovers a good excuse or a "special occasion" once per year to open a fine wine. If you enjoyed a great bottle of wine last night in honor of "Open That Bottle Night" we would love to hear from you! Please respond and share your thoughts. We have posted our thoughts below.

Cheers,
Theresa & Ken

My wife and I love the concept of "Open That Bottle Night" as it presents a "special occasion" and a good excuse for us to dip into our wine cellar. We review wines for a living for the website. We have a lot of wine on hand as samples to drink. As a result, much of our own cellar wines wait patiently for us to drink. We are not complaining, mind you. We realize it’s a tough job and somebody has to taste all those samples. Wink. Wink. So at our house, if it is not a special occasion or a dear friend isn’t coming over, we don’t tap into our wine cellar as often as we should. Sometimes this lack of use leads to some disappointing results since some of those cellar dwellers might drift past their prime. That was not the case on OTBN!

This year for Open That Bottle Night, I chose to reach for a wine that I tried and really liked many years ago at the Boston Wine Expo. That wine is the 1999 Beaulieu Vineyard (BV) "Reserve Tapestry" Red Wine from Napa Valley, CA. Tapestry is a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Verdot, and Cabernet Franc. I was very excited to open it. I poured it into a Riedel "O" Decanter. There was very little sediment to disregard. It was about 30 minutes before I allowed myself to sip the wine. I couldn’t wait to try it. The anticipation was killing me.

This very deep purple wine has a wonderful fresh new leather belt bouquet with a touch of fruit. On the palate, this wine has developed remarkably over the years in the cellar. I have had a few others from the late nineties recently that have not stood up as well to the test of time as this wine. It has retained most of its fruit flavors, but has also turned smooth as silk. The wine is so nicely proportioned that it would be an excellent complement to several different tasty meals. For example, I can see it paired deliciously with a Pork Tenderloin or a Filet Mignon. The wine finish is very, very prolonged, a touch acidic, and dry. I really enjoyed this wine and I am glad I had this excuse to drink it. I think now is the perfect time for this wine to be enjoyed and I would highly recommend it if you have a bottle in your cellar. This was my last bottle of this gem, but the happy memory will linger for a while.

Dorothy, & John, we hope you enjoyed your OTBN as much as we did. Thanks for creating this "special occasion" for all of us to enjoy some fine wine!

Cheers,
Ken & Theresa

Wine Open That Bottle Night OTBN Tapestry Wine Cellar

KensWineGuide.com Wine Selections from the 2007 Boston Wine Expo

It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it. Every year, I enjoy going to the Boston Wine Expo to try hundreds of wines and report back to you which wines I think are the best I tried. Over the next few weeks I will be posting the reviews of the gems that I found. I will give you some of the standouts here. Please keep checking KensWineGuide.com for my more detailed Boston Wine Expo wine reviews. You can find them by clicking on the 2007 Ken’s Expo Picks link on the left navigation. I will be adding my more detailed reviews to the site daily over the next few weeks. Some are hyperlinked from here.

There were so many good ones. But listed below are the ones that stood out.

On Friday afternoon, I attended a seminar with Kendall Jackson to try their entire lineup of Chardonnays and the Highland Estate series of wines. All I can say is, “Wow,” what a portfolio. The Highland series of wines were terrific and a real bargain for the quality of wines you get. The two I will recommend here are going to be harder to find, I will give you all a chance to jump on them. The others I liked from the portfolio will be listed under the 2007 Ken’s Expo Picks link. I highly recommend the 2005 Kendall Jackson “Seco Highlands Estate” Chardonnay, $30 (Excellent) and the 2004 Kendall Jackson “Napa Mountain Estate” Cabernet Sauvignon, $60 (Excellent). The “steal” from the portfolio was the 2005 Kendall Jackson “Grand Reserve” Chardonnay, $20 (Very Good+)

Earlier on Friday, I went to a Sonoma Valley Vintners seminar and tried some wines that were quite impressive as well. The 2004 Inman Family “Olivet Grange Vineyard” Pinot Noir, $42 was an elegant and very food friendly wine (Very Good+). Peter Merriam just released his very food friendly 2004 Cabernet Franc, $45, that is showing quite nicely now. (Very Good+) I also met with Joel Peterson of Ravenswood Vineyards. I really enjoyed his 2004 Big River Zinfandel, $30 (Very Good+) and his 2003 “Pickberry Vineyards” Claret (50% Cabernet & 50% Merlot), $50 (Very Good+). I had lunch with Andy Wilcox from Lambert Bridge Winery. His 2005 Chardonnay, $32 (Very Good+) was quite appealing. I call it a 50/50 Chardonnay, because the oak integration is right down the middle, making it appealing to lovers of all styles of Chardonnay.

On Saturday at the Expo there were several standouts. The 2006 Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc, $18 (Very Good+) was the clear standout from New Zealand. Winemaker, Christian Tietje, of Four Vines Winery had another great showing across the board. The new wines I tried were the 2004 “Anarchy,” $30, the 2004 “Biker” Zinfandel, $20, and finally the 2004 “Bailey Vineyard” Syrah, $30. They were all Very Good+. White Oak was showing some soon to be released wines that will impress and are very good deals. The 2005 25th Anniversary Chardonnay, $20 (Very Good+) and the 2004 25th Anniversary Cabernet Sauvignon (Very Good+) were both quite impressive. From Down Under, I was really pleased with the 2004 Elderton Shiraz, $26 (Very Good+). With Riesling popularity growing, I went over to Germany and came away quite impressed with the 2005 St. Urbans-Hof “Piesporter Goldtröpfchen – Spätlese,” $25 (Very Good+). The 2004 Provenance “Rutherford” Cabernet Sauvignon, $36 (Very Good +) also caught my attention. Next I will cover some fun white wines that will appeal to both your wallet and your palate. The 2005 Greenvale Vineyard "Vidal Blanc" $12, the 2005 Newport Vineyards “Great White,” $11, and the non-vintage Sharpe Hill “Ballet of Angels” $11 were all Very Good. The bargain red on Saturday was the 2003 Dom Martinho “Red Blend,” $15 (Very Good) from Portugal. This wine has an “old world” style and would be a great BBQ/burger wine.

Saturday was exciting because I got a chance to say “Hello” to Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibraryTV.com. If you have not seen Gary’s wine review vidcasts you are missing some of the best wine fun on the Web. You have to check out Episode 182, its hilarious. He is helping you and me, “Change The Wine World”. (Albeit differently)

Sunday brought more wines and fewer crowds. Theresa joined me for the day as we tasted through several more wines. We started with some value white wines. Standing Stone from the Finger Lakes had a 2006 Riesling, $14, which was Very Good. We next saw the folks from Craftsman. They are from Hungary. They make very nice wines at good values. They also have very attractive new labels that we liked. We really liked the Cserszegi Füszeres (Very Good) which is an indigenous grape to Hungary. This is a great summer wine and a steal for $9. We also liked their non-vintage Torley “Grand Cuvée” sparkling wine, $12 (Very Good). You can’t beat the wine for the money. The next wine for me was a show stopper. The 2005 Truchard Chardonnay, $30 (Excellent) was won of the best wines of the entire Expo! I loved it. The best news is there are 3,000 cases of this beauty. On the red side, I was pretty impressed by a 2003 Bravante Vineyards claret called “Trio”, $34 (Very Good+) Other reds of note were the 2003 Eponymous Cab, $60 (Very Good+) & the 2002 Trefethen Merlot, $32 (Very Good+). My favorite Merlot was the 2004 Turnbull, $35 (Very Good+). To refresh our palates after these big reds we ventured back over to the NY State region to try some more Finger Lakes Rieslings. The 2005 Salmon Run Riesling, $13 was lively and fun. Another nice wine from the region was the Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards 2005 "Homestead Reserve" Riesling, $18 (Very Good). We plan to visit this region this summer, so this was a good kick off to our exploration. The best winery showing overall on Sunday was the Michael & David Phillips Winery. I was very impressed by their entire portfolio. I was very pleased with the 2005 “7 Deadly Zins”, $17 (Very Good). This is their best effort yet for this very popular wine. Even better was the 2004 Incognito Rouge, $19 (Very Good+). A blend of eight grapes, this kitchen sink blend was smooth and delightful. I really enjoyed the 2004 Earthquake Petite Sirah, $29 (Very Good+). It was smooth as silk. But then came the showstopper. I had a chance to try their 2004 "Lust - Maley Vineyard" Zinfandel, $55 (Excellent). I can’t say enough about this wine. They said it showed well at ZAP. I’m sure that was an understatement. Call them and beg for a bottle.

Lastly in terms of Boston Wine news, we met Dana and Jay of BostonUncorked.com. They are a fun group of people who put together wine events in the Boston area. Check out their site and attend one of their fun wine events. We plan to join them at one of their upcoming wine events.

Happy wine hunting! Please keep checking the website for these wine review details and many, many more.

Cheers,
Ken

Why Does Vintage Matter?

Sometimes in a restaurant the server brings the wine to the table, presents it, and the vintage on the bottle is not the year I requested. I simply reply, “Excuse me this is the wrong vintage. I wanted the 2002 as listed on your wine list and this is the 2003.” Then the moment of truth arrives. The server sometimes says something like, “Well, we must be out of the 2002, so we are on to the next vintage. No worries sir, I’m sure it is the same wine. This producer is quite consistent.” At this point, I usually choose a different wine. I always bring a list of a few back up wine selections that I have researched prior to the restaurant visit. I just move on to choosing one of them instead of embarrassing him/her.

So why does vintage matter? Since a vintage is a leading indicator for the potential quality of the wine in the bottle, it matters a lot. The vintage on the bottle is the year that the grapes were harvested. Lots of things can happen to a grape over the course of a growing season. With all the technical advances that have been implemented in the winemaking process the winemaker still needs good weather and good timing to produce a good wine. The one thing the winemaker can’t control is Mother Nature. So in an ideal weather year, you would have a very good vintage year. This predictor is typically indicated on a vintage chart. Most major wine magazines offer these vintage charts. Wine Spectator has a handy wallet sized card that comes in its January edition of the magazine every year and can be found on their website. Unless you are good at memorizing good years from every wine region, these cards are a handy tool to keep in your wallet.

What are some good vintage years and some bad ones and why? Here is an extreme example. Italy has had a fine run of very quality vintages over the last few years. But the 2002 vintage year was decimated by rain and flooding. They got more rain from July through October than they usually get in a whole year. For example, in Tuscany, Wine Spectator rated the Chianti Classico region a 92 in 2001 and a 79 in 2002. So if the server brought you a 2002 of the same wine, most likely you would be disappointed and overpay for the wine based upon its quality. The Rhone Valley also experienced a poor vintage year in 2002 due to early September rains & flooding. But 2003 & 2001 were excellent vintages. In Bordeaux, 2004 is considered a slightly off year, where 2003 was an excellent year. Closer to home in California, Napa Cabernet for 2003 is supposed to be an off year. Finally, In 2003 Oregon had a slightly off year due to an imbalanced growing season due to extreme changes in weather when compared to 2002 & 2004.

Vintage is only one component of the wine making processes. Several other factors can affect the quality of the wine. Some great winemakers can make a very good wine in a bad vintage year and some winemakers can make a bad wine in a great vintage year. Vintage charts and predictions are only a tool and leading indicator for what could be the quality of the wine. They should not be ignored. Other factors include: when the grapes were picked, how they were processed, whether the winemaker used stainless or oak barrels, whether those barrels were new or used, etc. The list goes on and on. As you can see the vintage is only one component. You need a good vintage to start, and then you can move on to the other variables to determine the quality of a particular wine. The next time the server brings you the wrong vintage, you may want to choose a different wine altogether.

Enjoy and cheers,
Ken

Wine Vintage Good Vintage Year Winemaker Vintage Charts

Grill 23 in Boston, Wine Director Interview

We decided recently it would be a good idea to interview Wine Directors and Sommeliers in and around Boston and ask them about their wine lists. The theme is, “Why is your restaurant a destination for wine lovers?”

So we start this series with an interview with Alex DeWinter, Wine Director at Grill 23 in Boston.

BostonWineBuzz (BWB): So Alex, please tell me a little about the Grill 23 wine list?
Alex DeWinter (AD): The list at Grill 23 & Bar fluctuates from 1,300-1,700 selections with a focus on California, French, and Italian wines. A little over a third of the wines are priced under $100 and range up to $4,000. The list is changed roughly every six to eight weeks to keep vintages and unavailable wines current.

BWB: What are a couple of your favorite wines on the wine list?
AD: Some of my favorite wines are the Rustenberg 2003 “John X Merriman” ($62), the Nativo 2004 Malbec ($42), the Franz Hirtzberger 2005 “Smaragd - Gruner Veltliner” ($74), and I recently tasted Chateau de Beaucastel 1989 “Hommage a Jacques Perrin” ($1,250).

BWB: What bottle would you recommend to your best friend if he and his wife came to the Grill 23 for their anniversary?
AD: First of all, the best way to start a meal is with Champagne: either a half bottle of Krug N.V. or a half of Duval Leroy N.V. For the first course, I would suggest a glass of Verget 2003 “Chablis Montee de Tonnere”, and for the main course: Renato Ratti 1998 “Conca – Barolo”.

BWB: What are a couple of the best deals on the wine list? And is there a steal on the list?
AD: Certainly the Nativo Malbec 2004 ($42) and the Clos de los Siete 2005 ($40) are two great wines for the money. As for a steal, I can’t give away all my secrets.

BWB: Talk a little bit about your wines by the glass program?
AD: Our glass program is constantly changing based on many factors: availability, price, vintage, etc. We try to offer many selections without being too redundant. We are currently in the process of trying to offer a wider selection of varietals, but the search takes time. There are only so many reasonably priced wines out there that taste great, are made in abundance, and remain consistent from year to year.

BWB: What is the best deal in your wines by the glass program?
AD: I believe the best deal is the Verget 2003 “Chablis Montee de Tonnere”. The wine is a perfect example of how great wine can be made in a challenging vintage.

BWB: Finally, why should the wine lovers of Boston come to Grill 23?
AD: Wine lovers should come to the Grill because the vast majority of us who work here are wine lovers as well. We certainly have many wines to choose from, as well as many people to help guide you in your search for the perfect bottle of wine for that moment.

Enjoy and cheers,
Ken

Wine Grill 23 www.bostonwinebuzz.com Wine List Alex DeWinter Wine Director Sommelier Restaurant