Altos Las Hormigas, Vineyard Selection Reserva Malbec 2007 (Mendoza, Argentina) $19, 14.6% abv

Tips for pairing wine with procrastination:

1. Do choose a wine that is widely available, either via your own cellar or at the wine shop. Since you really should be writing the chapter that’s due this evening (I’d like to point out that there is technically still three hours of “Sunday” left), you shouldn’t be opening something you’d linger over. Plus if it turns out you open a bottle you dig, you can always go back for another when you don’t have a deadline looming.

2. Do choose something on cheap & cheerful side. Again, since you really need to churn out four more pages (single spaced), don’t be getting into a wine so profound that it distracts you from your storyline.

3. Do choose something that might turn you on. Some writers talk about making a soundtrack to get them into the mood to write. Like that background music, you need to pick a wine that balances your need for it to fade into the background (so you can concentrate on nailing dialogue) with keeping your mojo flowing.

4. Do choose a wine that is versatile enough to pair with anything lurking in the deep recesses of your refrigerator. Staring at a blank Word document long enough will cause you to wonder if the caramelized onions you made this morning will taste good wrapped around pickled okra. Or is that just me?

5. Don’t choose a wine high in alcohol. For obvious concentration reasons.

So the Altos Las Hormigas wins on all points but the last one. It’s absolutely saturated in a purple-y ruby all the way to the rim with lots of staining tears. Yet the nose is not super-explosive, and it’s dominated by blackberries and dried black cherries with granite and a hint of florals. It’s medium (+) in body with velvety tannins, medium amount of acid, and flavors of bright blackberry and more granite on the palate.

As for the alcohol, I didn’t really smell it or taste it harshly on the palate. Just to be safe (as the book is not just going to write itself), I recommend pairing this wine with Procrastination Pizza. Tonight I’ve chosen Mystic Pizza, but you may feel free to substitute your favorite frozen pizza here.

Transparency: this wine is imported by my employer.

Pannonhalmi Apatsagi, Pinot Noir 2007 (Pannonhalma, Hungary) $25, 12.5%

Wow. I really like this wine.

Blinded this on the train with the boys, and it was guessed right away as a Pinot Noir due to its pure, fresh red fruits and some wet-stone minerality. The word 'elegant' was used a number of times.

So varietal established, where is it from? Given the elegance, the debate started in Burgundy...a few decent producers were thrown out there, but when pressed for a commune, the gang settled on Bourgogne Rouge from a pretty good producer. New Zealand and Oregon were briefly considered and discarded because one would expect a little more extraction and concentration from these places (the wine was a pale ruby red).

Ha! A Hungarian Pinot Noir! Swing out with your bad self!

Pannonhalma lies about half way between Budapest and Vienna and is one of the smallest of Hungary’s 22 wine regions. This estate is an old monastery that grows plenty of traditional Hungarian grapes (Welchriesling, Ezerjó and Sárfehér) as well as international varieties like this Pinot Noir.

To me the Apatsagi would be appealing to Burgundy drinkers, though I didn't get any forest-floor-mushroom-whatnot earthiness that I typically get from that part of France. The acid was rather soft compared to a Burgundy as well. Still, the pure, bright red fruits (nothing green) were nicely framed by some sweet oak notes. That pretty fruit base was enhanced by a streak of minerality, juicy acid, and a fine texture, making the Apatsagi a delicious, unusual find.

(The wine is almost as pretty as these flowers.)

Transparency: this wine is imported by my employer.

Faiveley, ‘Les Lavières’ 2004 (Nuits-Saint-Georges), $50, 13% abv

Stood up on a Saturday night.

If a guy says ‘don’t worry, I’m not a player’, that means he’s totally a player, right?

Could someone remind me why I should be all enthusiastic about being single?

*sigh*

Oh wait! Ha! I just remembered: being alone means I can order up whatever wine I want without having to consider stylistic or budget preferences of my significant other!

Burgundy it is. (Nah nah.)

The evening is starting to look up.

The 2004 vintage was not a ripe year for Burgundy and some wines I’ve tasted are downright mean & green. I bought some anyway because it’s the clichéd wine to drink while you’re waiting for your 2005s to mature. Still, I have some friends who gag at the vintage the same way they would gag if presented with pureed White Castles at a dinner party (ha! You thought it was paté!!) But I’m not a hater on the 2004 Burgs because a) I’m not overly sensitive to green notes, and b) it’s nice to know that the wines of this under-ripe vintage were not Tammy Faye’d out to be something bizarre.

Faiveley is a fairly large (for Burgundy) vineyard owner and winemaker based in Nuits-Saint Georges. ‘Les Lavières’ is not a 1er Cru (as it is in Savigny-les-Beaune) , but a lieu-dit, or named vineyard without being all special enough to be classified. A few other producers (including Daniel Rion and Domaine Leroy) make wine from the same vineyard.

This Burgundy was not showing that green note typical of the 2004 vintage, though rather stemmy on the palate. Overall, I find wines from Nuits-Saint-Georges to be more towards the masculine side, but this wine was bursting with full-on strawberries, like the first strawberries of the season that are stronger in florals than ripe aromatics. And there was a really strange floral thing going on. Strange because it wasn’t white blossoms or red roses but it was so familiar. It was…fabric softener scent: fresh and borderline soapy.

Huh.

So not quite the happy ending I was looking for on this solo Saturday night either, but the wine paired just fine with last week’s episode of The Biggest Loser (courtesy of hulu.com).

Lapierre, 'Cuvee Marcel Lapierre' 2007 (Beaujolais), $39, 13%

“Just looking.”

I was wandering the aisles of Astor Wine and Spirits (has anyone who reads this website ever been able to leave that store empty handed?) and I thought: I haven’t had much New World wine lately.

I’ll pick up something from the New World for dinner tonight.

Ok, New World section, here I come.

I can do this.

New World.

New.

New, new, new.

Nuevo.

Nuovo.

Neu.

Nouveau.

As in Beaujolais Nouveau.

Est arrive!

Ok, focus. New World.

What is Astor’s Beaujolais selection anyway? Oh look! Lapierre!

Oh! Lapierre was the wine of summer 2008! That was the summer I lived in Paris and the Morgon AC was easily available throughout the city and I could afford it. And the half bottles were novel: instead of the traditional sloping shoulders, they were bottled in tall thin bottles, like the way Canadian ice wine is usually bottled.

Anywhootle, that’s how I went from looking for a New World wine to Beaujolais.

Lapierre is a wonderful producer in Morgon who practices a minimalist intervention style of winemaking in both the vineyard and the winery. Most of their fruit is from Morgon, and the Cuvée Marcel Lapierre is one of their top bottlings. Indeed, my friend Nick Gorevic (the genius behind HomeWineSchool.com) worked the 2009 harvest at Lapierre and said the Cuvée Marcel Lapierre is not made in every vintage, includes a selection of the best grapes, and is released later than the regular AC bottlings.

I had it on a slight chill and gave it a quick splash decant. The underlying fruit profile of sour strawberries and black cherries was similar to my memory of the Morgon AC bottling though this was more advanced in tertiary development with respect to a dry earthy note and had was more round on the palate.

A really beautiful Beaujolais with my duck confit (what were you expecting I would have for dinner?) and though I would wait a few years before opening the next one…

Gypsy Dancer Estates, ‘A&G Estate Vineyard’ Pinot Noir 2006 (Dundee Hills) $53, 13.9% abv

“Wines that dance in your mouth” promised the cork.

A slight exaggeration, but a delicious wine nonetheless. I made some venison potstickers, so my thoughts went to an Oregon Pinot Noir to pair it.

The Gypsy Dancer was grown biodynamically on the famous volcanic Jory soils of Oregon, and had all the earthy dark fruit of a higher-priced California Pinot Noir but without the accompanying alcohol burn I sometimes get in those.

The color was ruby (just shy of a medium intensity…you could certainly read through it) with a very thin rim. I don’t think I would mistake it for a Burgundy on sight or aroma profile, which was not too intense, and included damp moss, dark raspberry, blackberry, cocoa, baking spices, and a small truckload of vanilla (is it just me? I love cocoa in a wine, but cocoa and vanilla? Not my favorite). On the palate, the Gypsy Dancer was a good balance of medium body, alcohol, and dusty tannins. Classic medium (+) acidity for Pinot Noir was intact. The blackberry finish pleasantly went on for a bit. I’m not sure I’d hold on to this wine for a long time as the vanilla is liable to take over after the fruit fades.

Markham, Petit Sirah 2003 (Napa), $25, 14.8% abv

In my quest to continue to understand the new-new grape, petit sirah, I had a glass of Markham Petit Sirah recently.

I would have mistaken this wine for a Zinfandel (though ultimately, I think Zinfandel shows more figs and raisins). Aromas were only medium-intensity (I thought it would be louder) and included jammy blackberry, loads of granite, blueberries, cinnamon, slight vanilla, and maybe some violet. The tannins were ripe and a long finish was carried by juicy blackberry and smoke.

Not quite my cup of tea (wine?) but this Petit Sirah seriously rocked out with a bowl of buffalo chili with cilantro sour cream. In fact, with the tannins tamed, the juicy fruit came gushing out. In the right setting, this could be a real crowd pleaser.

The Crusher, ‘Grower’s Selection’ Petite Sirah 2008 (Clarksburg) $13, 13.5%abv

Happy Singles Awareness Day.

I was looking through my cellar for something to pair with my special Valentine’s Day chili (it has lots of beans), and I found this guy, brought to you by the same negotiants who bottle Pepperwood Grove and Smoking Loon. Nielsen reported that Petite Sirah is among the four most discussed grapes on the internet, so let’s see what the fuss is all about.

The wine is a saturated inky purple. Aromas and flavors were predominantly dark jammy plums and red liquorice but there was also an intriguing white pepper note. The intensity of aromas was a little shy of medium, even after letting the wine warm up some from cellar temperature. The texture on the palate was medium-bodied and soft finished by a small amount of drying tannins.

So far from being The Crusher I was thinking of (i.e., my last trainer at Equinox), this was a good everyday wine for its interesting aroma profile. I think I might seek out another Petite Sirah in the near future.

Gristina Vineyards, Merlot 1995 (North Fork), $NA, 12% abv

My friend insists the best burger on the North Fork of Long Island is at Jamesport Country Kitchen. A charming little café on the Main Road, their wine list emphasizes local wines, including the largest collection of library Long Island wine I’ve ever seen. Two local red wines from the mid-90s were even offered by the glass.

I ordered a glass of the 1995 Merlot from Gristina out of morbid curiosity: Gristina Vineyards have had two more owners since this wine was made. I don’t have a lot of experience with older Long Island wine but I’m happy to commit to a glass.

While it was open, Gristina’s wines garnered attention from Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and Robert Parker. Gallucio Family Wineries bought Gristina in the summer of 2000 and continued to co-opt the Gristina name for a short time. Gallucio planned to expand production but was advised against it by his Bordeaux consultant Michael Rolland right before September 11th happened.

The property was on the market for a few years before Macari Vineyards bought half of it in late 2007 (the other half was sold to the Peconic Land Trust earlier in the year.)


This 15-year old wine was medium (-) intensity of garnet with a little bricking showing on a thin rim. The aromas were medium intensity and included dried plums, raisins, green herbs like parsley, and then a slight dank earth & cinnamon. The aromas didn’t evolve after the first five minutes, though that was partly because the day’s special was a fried flounder sandwich so when that arrived to the table next to me, all I could smell was Long John Silvers.

The flavors were dominated by sour dried plums, cocoa, and bitter espresso beans, with a somewhat short finish. There was a low amount of stalky tannins still in the wine that were a bit distracting. Acid was a little less than a medium amount, so I suspect the tannins from the stalks (or maybe there was some barrel age?) was what was helping to hold this wine together through the years.

The burger was interesting. I had the ‘Jamesport Burger’ which comes topped with Boursin Herb Cheese (the Velveeta of France, no?), a vaguely Dijon-mustard flavored sauce, and served on a pizza-slice wedge of Focaccia Bread. The fries were crisp, hot, and perfect.

A Night of 1988 Burgundies

And so it was, that on a Tuesday a few weeks ago, that yours truly plus eight others descended upon Apiary to help relieve a friend of several 22-year old Burgundies.

1988 was the year that construction on the pyramid at the Louvre began, and also considered an excellent year for Burgundy. Many critics said the weather that year produced healthy grapes overall, though structures were firm and would need time to soften. Perfect! Overall, I think these wines are enjoyable now, and in some cases (choose your producer carefully), have some more time to go.

I’d be negligent to not mention that Apiary runs a free-corkcage on Monday night. The restaurant has a very wine-friendly menu (the chef was brought over from Veritas) and includes a $35, three-course pre-fixe menu too. I think it’s an excellent place to take a first date. Especially if she’s a redhead.

After we dispensed with a bottle of Champagne, here’s what we drank:

Prince de Florent Merode, ‘Le Marechaudes’ (Corton)
Started off slow with a wine that was pleasant enough, but started to shut-down after 15 minutes. It was of medium intensity showing all the characteristics of a red Burgundy (dried cherry, forest floor, some white pepper) before it closed up, never to recover. It was past its prime.

Turns out this house is known for making wines that are meant to be consumed immediately (a restaurant wine). They don’t macerate on the skins and only press gently so that the emphasis is on fresh fruit and no bitter tannins.

About Corton: like Chablis, it’s a Grand Cru divided into a collection of climates (including Marechaudes). When Chardonnay is planted here it’s called Corton-Charlemagne.

Don’t you love Burgundy?

Prince de Florent Merode, ‘Clos du Roi’ (Corton)
This wine displayed much more brooding earthiness, structure, and the fruit was holding up much better than in the Marechaudes. Clos du Roi has a better sun exposure and more lava in the soils.

Comte Armand (Domaine du Clos des Epeneaux), ‘Clos des Epeneaux’ 1er Cru (Pommard)

Medium-intensity with relatively youthful red and blue fruits and a slight amount of wet earthiness. The structure was very well resolved. This wine was a favorite by most of the crowd.

In the 1980s when this wine was made, the domaine only made this one 1er cru (since the 1850s really) and that’s why it adopted the name (kinda like Clos de Tart in the Cotes de Nuits). As they don’t have much to work with, the grapes are harvested by the age of the vine (so, 5-10 years old, 10-20 years old) and vinified separately like that. Later the lots are blended to make their one bottling. Today they own many more properties.

‘Clos des Epeneaux’ is not on many maps because it straddles ‘Les Grand Epenots’ and ‘Les Petits Epenots’.

Marquis d’Angerville, ‘Clos des Ducs’ 1er Cru (Volnay)
Marquis has always sounded more regal to me than king or emperor, and it’s fitting that this is one of the most respected domaines in Burgundy. Most of the domaine’s holdings are in Volnay with this and ‘Champans’ 1er Cru the largest parcels. I see these wines on many restaurant’s lists.

The wine was a little more shy than the last few but had a strong forest floor component that I love, and a gorgeous velvet texture on the palate.

Joseph Drouhin (Latrecieres-Chambertin)
A little dank but otherwise dark fruits, sweet red fruits, and a slight minerality. A touch on the too-advanced side, but not a total waste of time.

Drouhin owns many vineyards throughout Burgundy (and Oregon) and is also a negotiant. I find the wines to be honest and reliable, maybe occasionally exciting, but I think it’s an easy house to buy. Latrecieres-Chambertin is a negotiant bottling.

Domaine Louis Trapet (Latrecieres-Chambertin)
Compared to the Drouhin, this was a more youthful and expressive Latrecieres. Red cherry, earthiness, and even gaminess made this wine complex.

Trapet has been around for many generations, and I find the wines to be a consistently good.

Domaine Dujac (Echezeaux)
Ah, Dujac. I can count on the wines from this house to be rather powerful (for Burgundy). I believe this is due to a combination of waiting for ripe grapes and use of 100% new French oak on all 1er Crus and Grand Crus. At 22 years old, this wine was still singing.

Aromas included strawberries, blackberries, red flowers, wet earth, and baking spices. The length held on to fruit and acid, and went on forever and ever.

Domaine Dujac (Clos de la Roche)
I adore Morey-Saint-Denis, but have been only lukewarm on Clos de la Roche Grand Cru. Despite this, this was one of my favorite wines of the night. This vineyard catches a lot of sun, and, as the name suggests, is on very poor, rocky soils, so we might see more concentrated grapes. Maybe I just drink Clos de la Roche too young?

This wine displayed wonderful red and dark fruits, with baking spices, stones, damp earth, and a savory aspect. Palate is velvetly and still showing bright acidity.

Domaine de la Romanee-Conti (Richebourg)
DRC, the holy grail of Burgundy, did not fail me. Do you know the feeling I’m talking about? If this wine was not spectacular, I probably would have sold my whole cellar for charity and become a bingo-announcer for a retirement community in south Florida.

This wine was just gorgeous. Cherries and figs, exotic spice box, forest floor, roses, soy sauce, a length that went for a long time displaying all those elements again. The structure was a whisper on the firm side, just enough to suggest that this wine still has a long, healthy life ahead of it.

A moment to reflect on happiness please.

OK, last wine of the night:

Mongeard-Mugneret (Richebourg)
Tough coming on the heels of DRC but still a beautifully expressive wine. The difference here was that fruit was more cherry and cranberry, plenty of dank earthiness, and baking spices didn’t seduce the way the DRC did. This wine was still plenty ripe and drinking beautifully, and is worth searching out.

This domaine owns a lot of parcels throughout Burgundy with Richebourg being one of the smallest holdings. We were blinded on the Echezeaux later but I failed to write down any notes. Sorry.


Domaine Leroy (Richebourg)
I lied. We had one more wine. But it was off. Doesn't count, though I have hit-or-miss with Leroy, so I was really looking forward to this one.

Black Ridge, Pinot Noir 2006 (Central Otago, New Zealand), $29, 13.5%

A few years back I was a Garagiste Wine junkie. It was a painful day I had to unsubscribe to their tempting emails, but I had a mortgage to pay, so no more impulse buys (damn you, internet). It was that bad.

I’ve had a 90% success rate with Garagiste’s selections, meaning I never tasted a thing they offered before I bought it, and I loved 90% of that. To me, that’s an awesome hit rate. And their draw is very affordable wines too. See why I was heading down a path to poverty?

On to the wine.

It’s actually really yummy. Burgundy it is not, but the wine is going down the path of ripe California fruit + minerality like you’d find in Burgundy + New Zealand funk I get on a lot of Central Otago wines. All three components in equal amounts. That green rot ‘funky’ has always turned me off on New Zealand Pinot Noirs, and here it’s subtle enough to add complexity. Medium intensity of classic red-fruit Pinot Noir aromas jump out at you and the sour fruit finish goes on for about 30 seconds. Really yummy. Sad I only picked up four bottles.

1997 Chateau Carras (Cotes de Meliton), $26 (retail), 13% abv

Where??!

Do you know?

Don't scroll down yet!

I’ll give you a hint – this wine was a Bordeaux blend plus a little Limnio.

Give up?

It's from Greece.

Cotes de Meliton is on the Khalkhidhikhi peninsula in northeastern Greece. (Yea, I can’t believe you didn’t get that either.)

Yep, at CityZen last night in Washington DC, I had a 12-year-old Greek wine to go with my venison. Ok little wine. $80 was price of admission for the novelty (way overpriced list overall, but it's located in a hotel).

‘Twas an elegant, rather than brawny, Bordeaux blend. Didn't draw much out of the additional Limnio.

In other words, the wine was meh.