One beautiful thing in common - Philip Bernot

A recent tasting of very different wines yielded a very encouraging result. Three entries from France, four from Italy, and one from California all had one beautiful thing in common: This group of wines was all delightfully dry and relatively low in alcohol (I can already feel mouses clicking by those looking for the latest points score for a 16% Shiraz!). All the entries were impressive wines showing great care in their making; there are no losers here. Every wine was a winner, and largely for the same reason-balance.
All prices as of 5/28/08 and will definitely change!

Moulin De Gassac Guilhem Rouge, 2006, Languedoc, France~ the definition of less is more; this wine is a classic summer red. Perfect mouth-feel and ratio of crisp acidity to sweet-tart fruit, this medium bodied red is a rare thing-a thirst quenching red. On the label it says “Un vin comme autrefois” or roughly “A wine like in the past” - is that ever true! If you are like me and really miss the refreshing and balanced wines of earlier days, you will enjoy this traditional effort. The alcohol checks in at the expected and appreciated 12.5%. The parentage of this wine is impressive as it is an affordable offering from the great Mas de Daumas-Gassac. I served this wine, cool to the touch, with Turkish ground lamb with tomato, mint, and yogurt sauce over lemon-pepper orzo and greens and it flat-out disappeared! It is very hard to explain this sometimes, but what some may find as a fault with this wine (the finish is a little short) is exactly what makes it work so well. You keep going back to the glass for another sip, trying to put your finger on just what’s missing, and before you know it the bottle is empty! Good thing it is such as remarkable value. Top Dog price $13.49


Macon La Roche Vineuse, Domaine Alain Normand, 2005, Macon, France~ Still, even after all of this time, something can come up and smack a smile right on to my face! I frankly didn’t know that wines from this humble, yet revered, region could have this combination of serious playfulness. Everything about this Chardonnay is special, and every time you taste it’s a treat. Just as the fruit decides to reveal itself as another charming, but simple, quaffer it morphs into a lengthy and truly impressive mineral-driven mouthful. You may think the price is a skosh high for this region, but this wine is worth well more than the going rate. A ripe, but totally balanced, 13% alcohol by volume. I have harped on this before, but if you like the taste of magic in your wine, you have to seek out small, individual producers like Domaine Alain Normand
Another winner from Roy Cloud & Co. at Vintage ’59 Imports-I’m a big fan.
Top Dog price approximately $24.00


Montirius Cotes-du-Rhone, 2006, France~ If you like to buy Cotes-du-Rhone as a fruity little quaffer that you don’t have to think about, please do not buy this wine! I was struck by the shear size and formidable profile of this 100% Grenache wine; yet it is all in @ 14% alcohol. There was a time that that number was the ceiling, now we see headache-in-a-bottle table red wines pushing 16.5%! It is for a very good reason I rail against those high-alcohol, high-extract reds. This domaine is biodynamic and you will not find excessive chemical stabilizers or other shortcuts in the wine. Those massive, jammy wines need a lot of chemical help to keep them from exploding in the bottle, and you pay the price for that the next day. I raved about a previous effort from this fascinating winery, and then had an unfortunate experience with another wine, but I always felt like this property was one to watch (They are just as proud of their approach to waste water treatment as their vineyard techniques!). Montirius has nailed it with this mineral-and-earth driven Rhone wine-perfectly dry with just the fruit necessary and no more. Apparently I am not alone in my appreciation of this family-run domaine as I hear the French Ambassador to the US is a big fan. A value without compare; let this wine breathe for hours and hours. Seriously, twelve hours is about right. Check their website for a nice primer on Biodynamics. Vintage ’59 Imports strikes again! Top Dog price approximately $15.00


Valpolicella Classico Superiore “Ripasso,” Marchese Biscarodo, 2003, Italy~
This is the first of three wines from this place. In the “Ripasso” style, this means that the wine gets a further fermentation on the lees, or expended skins, of the intensely ripe Amarone grapes. This adds body, grip, and a bit of sweetness to the wine. Even in the blazing hot 2003 vintage this wine clocks in at a reasonable13% alcohol helping the preserve the silky nature of the palate. The raisin-like finish more of a suggestion than a statement and you are left with a satisfying mouth feel. Fine, fun, and fairly priced. Inquire

Valpolicella Classico Superiore “Ripasso,” La Giaretta, 2005, Italy~ this is my kind of wine, like the Montirius you could instantly tell that this wine was alive. The first sniff is anything but promising, somewhat feral really. But I was pleasantly surprised to get a whiff of tobacco, cedar, and leather aromas that seem rare in today’s wines, having been replaced by the berries. This wine goes through more changes during 90 minutes in a decanter than the poor schmuck in a werewolf movie; so buy this one only if you are willing to work with it. This brawny beauty has a very dynamic range of flavors and its high notes, shimmering like a Philly Jo Jones high-hat, made it stand out from the group of other Valpolicelli. The bright high register acids and aromatics gave this wine a depth that was extremely impressive even after it was opened for 24 hours, not uncommon for a youthful red like this. While I don’t know this winery well, I’m sure they utilize traditional and modern techniques without prejudice to create their wine, and the result is warmly traditional without being slavish. This type of wine should be above the norm in alcohol, and it is at 13.5%, but the alcohol is never a signature in the wine. Top Dog price approximately $20.00

Valpolicella Classico Superiore, Roberto Mazzi & figli, 2005, Italy~ As my friend said while we tasted this one “That Marc de Grazia has struck a deal with the devil!” I have had the same thought myself. Importer Marc de Grazia has an unerring ability to bring us exciting and satisfying wine that could never be mistaken for anything but Vino d’Italia; it is easy to envision a Robert Johnson-like crossroads deal going down between Marco and the Prince of Darkness. The only thing I ask is to keep it up! Everything you want in a Vapolicella is in this wine, and in all the right proportions. I ultimately default to the La Giaretta for its rustic appeal, but this wine is first rate and highly recommended. Alcohol is 13% by volume. Inquire


Propieta Sperino Uvaggio, Piedmonte, 2004, Italy ~ we didn’t know a thing about this one, other than the beautiful and classy label, until we cracked it. Great wine lets you know that it’s in the house, and this one got my attention immediately. This region has many beautiful vineyard sites that have historically made truly impressive wines and have now gone into neglect. Propieta Sperino is from the village of Lesono, and this site is now producing wine again after a fifty-year hiatus. This effort is palpably exciting, and touches all the bases for a Nebbiolo-based wine, and never with clunky, excess weight. Native grapes Vespolina and Croatina round out the blend. Extraordinary fine tannins and crisp fruit on the palate follow a rich and expressive aroma. Let it breathe for at least eight hours to flesh out the superb fruit and tame the acidity, and serve at a cool temperature. This wine would be a savvy buy for the cellar, as I believe it is fully the equal of other great Nebbiolos that cost twice as much. This is precisely the type of perfectly proportioned wine that ages into something altogether superior. Exciting and impressive stuff, with a completely focused 13% alcohol. Top Dog price approximately $26.00


Woodward-Graff Cabernet Sauvignon “A-frame Vineyard” 2002, Chalone appellation, California ~ as I am writing this on Memorial Day, I hereby nominate this wine for some kind of a medal. This is perhaps the most courageous Cabernet I have tasted in recent memory, and I will tell you why: First, the wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. It is simply amazing to me that many consumers think that blends are some kind of new trend in the wine business; it’s likely that the wine Jesus created from water was some kind of blend. Yet if you have Cabernet of this quality why not ring the bell-loudly! And ring loudly it does in this unabashedly old-school California wine. The Chalone bench in Monterey County was planted with Cabernet in the 70’s, and the original owners of that historic name produce this wine. Sadly the wine that actually carries the Chalone name now is often a bad joke, having been marginalized by the evil Diageo Co., the same folks that ruined Veuve Clicquot Champagne. Second, is the bone-dry treatment of the lovely fruit. If you have never had a traditional style California Cabernet, with it’s the dry, round, olive–like fruit character and nothing that would be more at home in the center of a doughnut, you will probably hate this wine. But if you fondly remember the great wines of the 70’s, the wines that put California squarely on the world stage and many of which show beautifully to this day, than you will no doubt love this balanced offering. Alcohol is 14.3%, which is the highest of this group, but never does it present in jammy, unwieldy fruit; just what is necessary. Inquire

I could have filled pages writing about the character of each of these wines, but the central theme is this: When the alcohol is in correct proportion to the overall structure of the wine it’s magic time. No need to break out the peanut butter and bread for this group; there isn’t a hint of jammy fruit in any bottle here. Are they “easy to drink?” Let me put it to you this way-it’s “easy to eat” at McDonalds, but that doesn’t make it satisfying. Wines like this are for people who want to be engaged by what’s in their glass and will take the extra time to show the wine at its best. There was no reason to suspect that this set of wines would be anything less than wonderful, I’m sure no one in this lineup ever hired a focus group to “help” them make wine. It is becoming quite discouraging, however, to see who is juicing-up the sugar and alcohol levels in their wine to add sweet, thick, boring fruit. Nothing like that here, just complex, fascinating wine-wine like from the past.

Great Bordeaux - and why we don't sell them - Philip Bernot

I like the wines of Bordeaux, but have never been “in-love” with them as I am with wines from other parts of France. I have tasted many top-quality wines from Bordeaux from vintages ranging over fifty years. I have never had 1947 Cheval Blanc, 1945 Mouton Rothschild, 1928 Margaux, 1920 Lafite, or 1904 Haut Brion, or any wine from the 1800’s. Any Bordeaux wine, I mean. I have never visited Bordeaux; but I don’t feel bad about it. My feeling has always been this: These wines, especially the great ones, rarely shine their light of greatness on the observer. Often when you taste Bordeaux it’s impressive, but I’m rarely blown-away. I know this because when the stars align and you do taste great Bordeaux, in the right setting, when the wine is showing at top-form, it is amazing. When that light shines on you it’s like those searchlights at the new Chevy dealer - illuminating to say the least! But those experiences are few and far between. More often I have what happened today- a really nice, well-known wine from 2004 that I would sell for about $175 a bottle. It was really good, but I think for most people the better part of two C-notes is a lot to ask. Not that 175 bucks is the high end; far from it. The best wines from the 2005 vintage could be $3,500-$5,000. That is not for a case but a bottle. And that’s if you can find it; the list of hedge fund managers willing to slip a $60,000 case of wine into the boot of their gold-plated Bentley Flying Spur is a long one; thankfully that list is getting shorter everyday!

So we have a few Bordeaux wines. Like everything I buy I tend to seek out the properties that offer exceptional value. The difference between the fifty dollar bottle and the hundred and fifty dollar bottle is often quite small. And what about those high-flyers? I would love to tell you that we churn through hundreds of cases of first and second growth wines-but we don’t. It is literally a different business, and you are going head-to-head with mega-stores in mega-markets. In other words, a lock to lose for us.

And what about those wines I do love? I think Burgundy is the end-all, and you can still turn up some remarkable values. The best wines from there, however, are hideously expensive. But man-oh-man is there amazing wine from the south for the price! I am crazy about the delicious wines from Provence, Languedoc-Rousillon, and the Rhone. There are some pretty amazing values from Bordeaux as well, but I just love the earthy connection that the wines from the south have. Stop by sometime and talk to me about it; I always have something fun from those places.

A nice compliment/more Moshin - Philip Bernot

I recently posted a blog about the marvelous wines from Moshin Vineyards and the dynamic Rick Moshin. One of the things I love about the wine business is the many very smart people you meet-all doing something they love. In chatting with Rick he mentioned how the heavily extracted wines that are currently popular need so much more chemical stabilizing, so I asked if he could send me a few words on it:

Hello Philip,
Thanks for the great words in your blog. I said I would get back to you about the SO2 levels in my wines. SO2 levels in wines follow some recommended level depending on the pH of the wine. The lower the pH at bottling, the less amount of free sulpher is required. What we do at Moshin is to capture the acidity and pH at harvest, thus making our wines requirements for sulfites additions low from conception.
Also reduced oxygen levels in the wine due to little or no pumping helps keep our total SO2 levels in the measures of 20 to 50 PPM. We also work in the vineyards to reduce malic acid production in the berries. Thus after ML we maintain lower pH levels in the wine because of less malic acid. If you have more questions let me know.
Good luck with selling Moshin Wines in your store. Happy Summer! Rick Moshin

Thanks for the compliment Rick - Thanks for thinking that I am a LOT smarter than I really am! LOVE the wines, BTW :)

Philip