For fresh white wine bargains, head to France's Gascony

The Gascony region in France’s southwest is most famous for Armagnac, but the grapes used in the brandy are also used in some excellent fresh white wines that offer real value.

One of my favorites is Domaine du Tariquet’s Cotes de Gascogne “Classic,” and the newly released 2014 vintage is one of the best I’ve tasted. This $8 blend of ugni blanc, colombard, sauvignon blanc and gros manseng is light and fruity with tastes of white peach, exotic fruit and citrus, mainly orange, with honey and a touch of minerality along the edges. There is good complexity here at a bargain price, and the wine is easy to drink with alcohol at just 12 percent. It’s great on its own and will match well with simple fish and shellfish.

Equally impressive is Domaine du Tariquet’s 2014 Chenin Blanc-Chardonnay, a winning $11 blend that’s 75 percent chenin and 25 percent chardonnay. Again, there’s good minerality here, and the chardonnay gives it a little richness. Apple, lemon, orange and tropical fruit notes are followed by a touch of cream on the finish. Alcohol in this one is also 12 percent and the wine is made without oak. It’s a satisfying alternative to much more expensive wines from the Loire Valley and Burgundy. For chicken, fish and everyday quaffing.

While these are quintessentially summer wines, they’re the kind of refreshing whites I like to start off with just about every day of the year. Imported by Robert Kacher Selections, New York. Received as press samples.

In the under-$10 wine crapshoot, an impressive Spanish white

In the middle of summer, I crave fresh, lighter white wines, preferably with little or no oak but with good complexity and a price that will permit me to buy plenty of them to have on hand to sip with weekend lunches, before dinner or with the fresh fish and shellfish. 

With those requirements, I tend to gravitate to the wines of the lesser-known appellations of France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, which can still offer excellent values. One of them is  Avelino Vegas’s 2013 “Abadía Real” verdejo-viura blend, a $9 Vino de la Tierra from the large Castilla y León region of northwest Spain.

In the classification hierarchy of Spanish wines, Vinos de la Tierra are a step below  Denominación de Origen wines, but as this one shows, they can over-deliver on quality for the price, which is exactly what I’m looking for. With modest alcohol of 12 percent, the wine is both easy to drink and interesting, with pear, white peach, tropical fruit and subtle vanilla notes. An impressive summer value. Imported by Spain Wine Collection, Congers, N.Y.

Sips: Chardonnays that come alive when blended, plus a southern French “classic”

In case you missed my current “Weekend Wines” column on MSNBC.com, I’m linking here to my piece on Domaine du Tariquet and how this winery in southwest France is making some exciting chardonnay-based blends. They’re good examples of what a large, commercial winery can do in the $10-$15 range. After I  wrote about these wines, I also tasted Tariquet’s 2010 Classic, a zippy blend of colombard and ugni blanc, which remains a top under-$10 quaffing white that is a must-have for warm-weather drinking and for fish and shellfish. Rating: VERY GOOD. Imported by Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC. Wines received as press samples.

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Sips: An odd couple that proves to be a superb food and wine matchup

I had a delightful revelation about food and wine the other night. But first, a little background on how I got there. For years, I’ve had an unwritten rule about Italian-inspired food: match it with Italian wines, which so often seem just the right choice. With linguine and white clam sauce is there anything better than a pinot grigio from Alto Adige or a Vernaccia di San Gimignano? Don’t tomato-based sauces, with or without meat, seem made for Chianti Classico or Barbera d’Alba? With that in mind, I was headed in the direction of Italian wine the other night as I made a simple sauce built around the last Ziploc bag of tomatoes I had picked at their peak ripeness in late summer and early fall, then frozen to be enjoyed many months later.

After cooking the tomatoes down and breaking them apart with a wooden spatula, I poured them into my favorite cast-iron skillet, in which I had sautéed three or four cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil. I tossed in a handful each of chopped basil and parsley  and a pinch or two of salt and cooked everything for a few minutes more. A quick taste revealed a sauce sweeter than anything that might have started in a can, confirming the rewards that come from the time and trouble of storing fresh tomatoes. Meanwhile, a pot of fusilli was now done to al dente, which I combined in the skillet with the sauce. To finish things off, I sprinkled a generous amount of chopped fresh mozzarella over the pasta and put the skillet under the broiler until the cheese and the top layer of fusilli were a crispy brown, but not burned (cast-iron is best for withstanding the high temperatures of the broiler).

Now about the wine. Since my instinct steered me toward Italy, I opened a bottle of red I had on hand, a negroamaro from Salento in Puglia. Alas, I knew immediately that this wine was not going to cut it. It was earthy with low acidity, a wine more for a juicy roast than a lively sauce. I wanted something that jumped out of the glass, a wine with refreshing acids that wouldn’t be overpowered by the tomatoes. And so, throwing caution to the wind, I opened a red from France’s Loire Valley I had bought that day.

By now you might be thinking it was a cabernet franc, the region’s principle red, or perhaps a pinot noir or a cot, as malbec is called there. In fact, it was the 2009 Gamay from Serge Batard’s Domaine Les Hautes Noelles, a Vin de Pays from this top producer of Muscadet from Cotes de Grandlieu sub-zone. Its transparent, light-ruby red color suggests a wine of delicacy that might easily be overpowered. But just the opposite was the case. Packed with flavor and with great underlying acidity and minerality, it more than held its own against the sauce and, slightly chilled, provided the perfect refreshing counterpoint. With flavors or red and black cherry, a touch of gingerbread and a very long finish, this is a wine of unusual finesse and, at just $10 here in New York, is one of the great bargains out there right now. Alcohol is 12 percent.

And so, my rule about Italian food and wine was broken. A humble gamay, the same grape grown in Beaujolais, proved itself exceptionally well with, of all things, a big-flavored pasta sauce. A Daniel Johness Selection, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, New York.

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Video: Five great summer white wines

Last night I joined Chuck Scarborough on his NY Nightly News program on WNBC’s New York Nonstop Channel to talk about five exciting white wines for summer. For detailed information about the wines, see the post just below this one.

View more videos at: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/

Technorati Tags: Domaine Felines Jourdan Picpoul de Pinet,Picpoul de Pinet,Edwad Deitch,Channing Daughters,Channing Daugters Sauvignon Blanc,Sella & Mosca La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna,Sardinian wine,Viore Verdejo Rueda,Spanish white wines,Trapiche Torrontés,Chuck Scarborough,New York Nonstop

Sips: Five Top White Wines for Summer

When I was asked to put together a summer wine segment and appear on WNBC’s New York Nonstop channel, I immediately thought of lighter whites that are easy to drink, match well with a variety of simply prepared foods and are good values. Beyond that, I wanted to introduce viewers to some wines they might not have heard about that are very much worth exploring. With that in mind, I chose five wines from five countries, each made from a different grape. What unifies them is that they are refreshing as both aperitif and food wines, especially with fish and simple chicken dishes, and are made without fermentation or aging in oak. Although I have nothing against chardonnay, I decided to keep chardonnay out of the mix this time around because it is so well known and popular. So, enjoy these five whites with your summer dining. I’ll have many more to share in coming weeks.

Channing Daughters 2010 Sauvignon Blanc “Mudd West Vineyard,” Long Island. $20. Light, delicate and elegant sauvignon from this Bridgehampton winery. The wine is made from grapes grown in a North Fork vineyard and shows subtle green apple, herb and citrus notes.

La Cala 2009 Vermentino di Sardegna, Sardinia, Italy. $12. A delicious example of this Mediterranean variety, this is an easy-to-drink yet interesting wine that will pair well with a variety of foods. Pear and apple notes and a good deal of minerality. A natural for linguine with white clam sauce. Imported by Palm Bay International, Boca Raton, Florida.

Domaine Félines Jourdan 2010 Picpoul de Pinet, Languedoc, France. $13. One of my favorite wines of the summer so far. Picpoul de Pinet is the name of the grape and it’s grown only in Languedoc very close to the Mediterranean Sea. The domaine, which I visited last month on a tour of Languedoc, overlooks oyster farms, and the wine, in fact, is just perfect with oysters. Very fresh with a little brininess, good acidity and lots of complexity. Notes of lemon, herbs, a little honey and vanilla and a good deal of minerality on the finish. Imported by Gabriella Importers, Bohemia, New York.

Viore 2010 Verdejo, Rueda, Spain. $9. I’ve been tasting a lot of verdejos in the last month or so and was newly impressed with this variety, which is the most important white grape in the Rueda region. This one is quite racy and almost jumps out of the glass. Complex with notes of apricot, tangerine, some herbs and smoke on the long finish. Imported by Vintage Wines, Staten Island, New York.

Trapiche 2010 Torrontés, Mendoza, Argentina. $8. Torrontes has become a new darling among fresh and lively white wines, and I saved this one for last on tonight’s TV segment because it’s the most aggressive of the five whites. The variety is highly aromatic and this one, beyond the flower notes, is like biting into an orange. It’s a warm-weather thirst quencher and a real bargain at just $8. Imported by Frederick Wildman and Sons, New York.

Sips: An under-$10 white goes down well with the heavy hitters at a charity event

When friends invited us to be their guests at a benefit dinner last week, we found ourselves in the fancy Pierre Hotel here in New York, mingling with men in suits and women in just the right dresses, which is to say people with the means and a desire to make a difference for a good cause, in this case Partnership with Children, which lends a big helping hand to thousands of underprivileged kids in this city’s public schools. Food and wine were not the main concerns, of course. Raising money for the Partnership was, and this group of supporters – a couple hundred of them or so – was very good at it. At the start of the dinner, the Partnership raised more than $100,000 in less than 15 minutes  as guests, encouraged by an auctioneer, punched in substantial sums in their BidPals, little i-Phone-like devices  we were all given that let you contribute and bid from the privacy of the palm of your hand. It was a breathtaking display of generosity and was just one of the evening’s fundraising activities.

For me, the dinner also highlighted the fact that you don’t have to serve expensive wines to satisfy well-heeled folks at an event like this (all the more money to benefit the children), and one wine in particular stood out in this regard. Domaine du Tariquet’s 2009 “Classic” is an under-$10 white Vin de Pays from Gascony in southwest France, which is far better known for producing Armagnac. Indeed, Tariquet’s wine is made by blending two Armagnac grapes, ugni blanc and colombard, which results in a delightful and fruity wine that went down especially well during the pre-dinner reception. I've reviewed this wine before and was glad to have come across it again with its pleasing green apple and citrus notes. It's widely available, perfect for the warm weather and will fool your guests, if you so desire, into thinking it's a much more expensive wine, as I'm sure it did with more than a few those at the Pierre the other night. Imported by Robert Kacher Selections, New York.

Technorati Tags: BidPal,Partnership with Children,Edward Deitch,Domaine du Tariquet,Domaine du Tariquet Classic White,Gascony wine,Armagnac,Ugni blanc,Colombard,Under-$10 wines,Robert Kacher Selections,Pierre Hotel,Vin de Pays

Sips: For fish, shellfish and beyond, think Picpoul de Pinet from France’s Languedoc

Ask casual wine drinkers about Picpoul de Pinet, as I did with a couple of friends this week, and you’re likely to get looks of confusion and bemusement. It’s understandable. Picpoul de Pinet, though not uncommon in this country, is well off the beaten wine path. The first thing to know about Picpoul, as it’s called, is that it’s a white wine from France, from an area on the southern edge of the Languedoc region on the Mediterranean Sea. The second thing to know is that Picpoul de Pinet is the name of both the wine and the grape. This is unusual in France, where the name and the grape variety are usually two different things. (Sancerre, for example, takes the name of the town in which the grapes are grown, but the grape is the sauvignon blanc). The third thing to remember is that Picpoul is a largely underappreciated summer wine value. Find a bottle that you like and you will have discovered a superb wine for fish and shellfish, particularly oysters, and a refreshing and original aperitif wine.

I was reminded of Picpoul’s charms last week as I traveled through Languedoc and tasted several examples. Picpoul is  Languedoc’s answer to the Loire Valley’s Muscadet and deserves to be better known. After one forgettable bottle we ordered at a restaurant, I was introduced the next day to the wines of Claude Jourdan right,  and her Domaine Félines Jourdan, which makes about 15,000 cases of Picpoul, in addition to other wines, each year. The property, which is located on the banks of a large lagoon fed by the Mediterranean and used for oyster farms, is in a cool terroir that benefits from the Mediterranean breezes and produces refreshing wines with ample acidity. That was immediately apparent on tasting the 2010 Picpoul, a delicious blend of grapes from three different sites within the property. The wine, fermented and aged in stainless steel, is fresh and round with lemon, honey and vanilla tastes as well as a distinct minerality and a subtle briny note that reflect the domaine’s proximity to the sea and its chalk, limestone and clay soils. Claude Jourdan, who took over the domaine in 1996 from her mother, noted that the grapes are picked quite late (in late September). “I am looking for a maturity in the grape, a roundness,” she said. The wine sells for about $14 in the United States and.

Other notable wines from Domaine Féline Jourdan include  the 2010 Languedoc Blanc, a blend of 90 percent roussanne and 10 percent picpoul with apple, spice and grapefruit notes, and a trio of attractive Vins de Pays – red, white and rose – that are real bargains at $8.

Technorati Tags: Picpoul de Pinet,Languedoc,Languedoc white wines,Domaine Félines Jourdan,Claude Jourdan,Jourdan Picpoul de Pinet,Fish and shellfish wines,Edward Deitch

Swirls: From “Flasq” to the Food Network to “Mommy” wines, thoughts on wine packaging, branding and gimmickry

Almost every day, the wine business brings us news of a new kind of packaging, branding gimmick or commercial tie-in. This week I read about FLASQ Wines, which bills itself as “the first domestic  wine sold in 100% recyclable and quick-chilling aluminum bottles.” Would you be at all surprised to learn that the wines were developed “to suit active, highly mobile lifestyles and Mother Earth herself?” (Check out the Web site, especially the “Any Time” category with its heavy emphasis on boating, in which DWI happens to be a significant  problem.)  Ah, yes, and then there’s the wine itself. “No doubt,” says a press release, “FLASQ’s Chardonnay and Merlot varietals taste great, hailing from California’s prominent  Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties.” The wines are priced from $5.99-$7.99 for a 375 ml (half bottle). I have little doubt about the environmentally friendly qualities of the aluminum bottles cited by the company, JT Wines of St. Helena. But at its heart, this seems to be yet another example of a company coming up with a wine “concept” in which the wine itself almost plays a supporting role. It joins a growing list of wine bags, wine boxes, wine bladders, and other motley containers entering the crowded wine space. If any small, artisanal producers have turned to any of these packages, I haven’t heard about it.

Then there’s the line of wines, due out in August, announced last week by the Food Network, a powerful brand that will undoubtedly push sales of the wines far. The wines are (again) from California, this time from Wente Vineyards. They’ll be called Entwine and the project, we are told, was in development for 18 months. And what did they come up with? A a pinot grigio, a merlot, a chardonnay and a cabernet sauvignon, all priced at $12.99.

Before this week, I had no idea that there were two wine brands that appeal directly to overworked moms and capitalize on the word “Mommy.” Yes, there’s “Mommy’s Time Out,” which includes a garagnega-pinot grigio blend and a primitivo from Italy, and “Mommyjuice” from Clos Lachance Wines in California. It turns out, as Reuters reported, there’s a trademark fight involving the two brands, which, if nothing else, should send sales through the roof – and for far less money than any marketing campaign.

Technorati Tags: FLASQ,FLASQ Wines,JT Wines,Food Network wines,Wente Vineyards,Mommyjuice wine,Mommy's Time Out wine,Clos Lachance,Edward Deitch,Wine packaging,Wine marketing,Wine gimmicks,Wine branding

Sips: From organically grown grapes, an impressive line of $10 wines from Argentina

To be honest, I don’t taste a lot of $10 wines that get me excited, and so I had only modest expectations on opening a shipment of new releases the other night from Argentina. But Trapiche, the big  Mendoza winery, has done something right with the inauguration of a new brand called Zaphy. The wines, all from the 2010 vintage, are  made from organically grown grapes and include a torrontes, a malbec and a cabernet sauvignon, each with a suggested $9.99 retail price, which means it’s likely that you’ll find them for a bit less.

The torrontes is impressive and should be a hit among those looking for lighter but distinctive wines for summer drinking. Citrusy, with lemon and lime, a touch of vanilla and subtle flower and herb tastes, it’s especially noteworthy for the minerality on the surprisingly long finish. For Asian foods, especially sushi, salads and as a zesty aperitif. Alcohol is 13.5 percent.

The malbec, after a little aeration, shows lovely red berry fruit notes set against a subtle frame of oak with good complexity and tannic structure. Young and fruity, it’s style reminds me of Beaujolais. It should compete easily with comparably priced malbecs like the popular Altos Los Hormigos. Alcohol is 13.5 percent.

The cabernet, while a bit more generic, offers blackberry and spice aromas, a decent tannic structure and is preferable to many California cabs at this level. I am an advocate of organic and biodynamic methods, and these wines show how the power of a big winery can be harnessed to produce impressive results at a very modest price. And in case you were wondering about the word “zaphy,” it’s an indigenous word for “root,” “beginning,” or “origin.” Imported by Frederick Wildman and Sons, New York. Wines received as press samples.

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Sips: A tasting reveals some exciting white wines from France’s Languedoc

I stopped off briefly yesterday afternoon at a media and trade tasting here in New York featuring the wines of Languedoc in southern France, the world’s largest wine-growing region. Languedoc is making a concerted effort these days to increase awareness of the region, which, despite its vast size and production, doesn’t enjoy the stature or popularity of many other French wine regions. And yet, the more I taste the wines – at least those being showcased in this country – the more I believe that consumers and the trade should pay more attention to them given their quality and attractive pricing.

At tasting events like this one – there were more than 60 wines  being poured – I like to zero in one or two appellations with an eye toward finding a few memorable wines. And so I made my way over to a table featuring the still white wines of Limoux, which is best known for its sparklers (Blanquette de Limoux and Crémant de Limoux). Most of these still wines, which are part of a new Grand Cru level in Languedoc, were chardonnays and reflected a range of styles, from crisply refreshing, lightly oaked examples (my preference) to those with a much more pronounced wood influence that will benefit from some bottle age to bring them into balance.

When I looked up the wines I liked on winesearcher.com, most  were under $20 and one was under $10, making them real values given their quality. Alas, availability seemed quite limited for these wines, but hopefully that will begin to change as they become better known. The first wine I tasted was actually not a chardonnay but a chenin blanc, Château Rives-Blanques 2008 “Dédicace,” $17, which was crisp, lemony and refreshing and would be a perfect accompaniment to shellfish. The chardonnays I preferred included a delicious 2008 example from Domaine de Mouscaillo, $22, which was racy with lime and exotic spice notes; Vignerons Sieurs d’Arques’ 2009 Toques et Clochers “Océanique,” $17, which showed citrus, green apple and vanilla notes; and the real bargain of the group, Domaine Astruc’s 2009 “d’A,” a subtle and complex blend of 95 percent chardonnay five percent mauzac, which I found listed for $9.

Selling these largely unfamiliar wines to a broader audience here in this country is going to take some work, but with their quality and attractive prices, the effort should be worthwhile and consumers will be the winners.

Technorati Tags: Limoux,Limoux white wines,Langudoc wines,Winesearcher.com,Edward Deitch,Languedoc chardonnay,Languedoc chenin blanc,Château Rives-Blanques,Chateau Rives-Blanques Dédicace,Sierus d'Arques,Toques et Clochers,Océanique,Domaine Astruc,Mauzac

Swirls: Wine in a bag – ‘Indulge’ line from California make its debut with ‘Astrapouch’ technology

As I write this, I am sipping a glass of white wine that came out of an unusual container. The tipoff when it arrived the other morning was on the shipping box – a big red sticker that warned, “Do not open with sharp object.” Inside, I found what immediately reminded me of an I-V drip bag. In fact, it was a liter and a half of 2009 California North Coast sauvignon blanc from a company called Indulge.  The bag or pouch or whatever it was  appeared to be the grownup equivalent of the ubiquitous little juice containers known as “Tetra Paks.” But instead of inserting a straw in a hole at the top, you break off a hunk of plastic and remove a piece of foil on the spout at the bottom of the bag to dispense yourself a glass of wine. Now let’s take a look at what this is all about.

The bag is called the Astrapouch, or AP. It came out of South Africa a couple of years ago and seems to be a sturdier variation of the bags, or bladders, in boxed wines.  It caught the attention of Pierre LaBarge IV, who wanted to market a line of varietally correct wines in an alternative package that could travel easily – to the beach or an outdoor concert, let’s say -- and was environmentally responsible (the  Astrapouch’s weight is said to be 98 percent wine and just two  percent packaging). The bag,  which purportedly keeps wine fresh for up to 30 days once opened, stands up so it can fit upright in the refrigerator (or on its side if you prefer). It has two sets of holes at the top so it can be carried like the bag that it is or perhaps  placed on a pole and left to hang (I can’t help but think of that I-V image again).

“There’s a paradigm shift occurring in the wine business right now,” LaBarge declares in a press release and then states rather obviously: “Consumers and their taste are increasingly relevant. Scores may still matter, but what matters more is what the consumer enjoys. They want good wine at good prices. It’s that simple.” On that last point, he is absolutely right.

As for his sauvignon blanc, he is right about that is well. It is good wine, though not outstanding. It’s quite racy with green apple and lime tastes and some minerals on the long finish, though a bit leafy as well. At $20 for a liter and a half (the equivalent of two conventional wine bottles), the price should be a draw. The sauvignon and a pinot noir at the same price, which I haven’t received yet, are the first two offerings and are available only in California at this point but will be distributed nationally this summer. Cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and syrah are also in the works. It will be interesting to see whether they rise above so many inexpensive, generic California wines being marketed these days in colorful clothing.

Technorati Tags: Indulge Wines,California sauvignon blanc,North Coast sauvignon blanc,Astrapouch,Edward Deitch,Wine packaging,Pierre LaBarge IV,Alternative wine packaging

Sips: Cheap red wine – discovering an excellent $10 Chianti

For better or worse, we eat a lot of pasta in our house, despite often-expressed waistline concerns based on the narcotic-like effects of good pasta sauces. (How many of us can really resist the temptation to go back for second helpings?) And because we enjoy pasta so much, I often find myself in short supply of good, inexpensive Italian wines, especially reds, which for me are de rigueur for tomato-based sauces.

Budget Italian reds are a hit-or-miss affair, especially in the $10- and-under category. Yes, there are lots of cheap nero d’avolas from Sicily and primativos from Puglia around, not to mention the familiar big-brand Chiantis from Tuscany and Valpolicellas from the Veneto, most of them ordinary. One that rises above that  status is a $10 wine I brought home the other night from my local wine store, Vincenzo Cesani’s 2008 Chianti Colli Senesi “Pancole.”

This estate-bottled wine from a respected grower in San Gimignano also known for its white vernaccia is one of the better budget Chiantis I’ve tasted in recent years. It’s high in acidity (a requirement for good food wines) with spicy cherry and raspberry tastes, a leather note and a  tannic structure often lacking in wines at this price. Slightly chilled, it was a satisfying match for our tomato and meat sauce. Colli Senesi is perhaps the best known of the “other” Chianti appellations and is generally less expensive than Chianti Classico.  Alcohol in this sangiovese-based wine is 12.5 percent. Imported by Montecastelli Selections, New York.

Technorati Tags: Italian red wines,Edwad Deitch,Chianti,Chianti Colli Senesi,Viincenzo Cesani,Pancole,San Gimignano,Vernaccia,Tuscany,Tuscan reds,Budget wines,Budget red wines,Cheap Italian wine,Cheap red wine,$10 wine,Sangiovese