From Atlantic Spain, a fresh white wine shows off its lovely fruit

As I write this on a warm, early autumn day, I am reminded that many fruits on the farm stands are at their peak: the last of the peaches are being scooped up as the apples and pears take their place; there may still be some berries around.

What made me think of this was a gorgeous white wine I am tasting from the Rias Baixas region of Galicia in northwest Spain -- the 2014 Abadia de San Campio Albarino from Bodegas Terras Gauda.

I have tasted this wine many times before. Never has it been this delicious, suggesting that 2014 must have been one heck of a vintage in Rias Baixas. Albarino is the region's most important grape and is in its glory in this $19 bottling, bursting with ripe tropical fruit and rich lemon tastes, fresh and lively with great balance between fruit and acidity.

I also detected a touch of brine, evoking the Atlantic orientation of Rias Baixas. In fact, I want to drink this wine with fish -- all kinds of simply prepared fish (but no rich sauces, please) and shellfish. Smoked salmon also comes to mind.

It's wonderful as well on its own,  a sophisticated and crowd-pleasing white whose alcohol is a lean 12 percent. Made without oak. My kind of wine, all around.

Imported by Avenu Brands, Baltimore, Maryland. Received as a press sample.


        

Anaba’s Winning 2012 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay

California chardonnay is often a difficult proposition for me. So much oak, so much alcohol, so little balance. That is, of course, a big generalization, but after so much criticism of the style, it’s remarkable how many California chardonnays are still made in that clumsy, overbearing style.

One that is not is Anaba’s 2012 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, a subtle and beautifully balanced wine that is also an excellent value at $28. There is opulent fruit here, to be sure, evoking apple with an orange punctuation mark. There are floral and vanilla notes as well along with subtle touches of caramel and butterschotch from judicious oak treatment.

This is medium-bodied chardonnay with alcohol listed at 13.9 percent. And that medium-ness, so to speak, is part of what makes it stand out. It’s “easy” to drink in the sense that it invites you back to sip and savor it it again. Enticiing and complex, a wine that other California producers  might do well to taste -- and contemplate. Received as a press sample.

Sips: From California, Donelan's Kobler Vineyard Syrah

I've been thinking a lot in recent weeks about a growing trend in California winemaking -- a return to more modest and elegant wines that still have great fruit concentration but with lower levels of alcohol. Some of this has to do with weather conditions, some with vineyard location and some with a winemaker's decision on when to harvest grapes (the longer they hang the higher the sugar and resulting alcohol levels).

You may have read about an excellent Dry Creek Valley zinfandel from Dashe Cellars that I reviewed in my column on NBCNews.com. Its alcohol is a modest 13.7 percent. Another superb wine in this more modest style comes from Donelan Family Wines in Sonoma, which produces a line of vineyard designated wines, mostly syrahs, but also a pinot noir, a chardonnay and a rousanne-viognier blend.

One of Donelan's syrahs, the 2010 Kobler Family Vineyard Syrah from the Green Valley of the Russian River Valley, is among the  most beautiful California syrahs I have tasted, a wine of retrained elegance, wonderful balance and gorgeous fruit. And here's the kicker: the alcohol level is a mere 12.8 percent, a function, to some extent, of the cool 2010 vintage.

What does this mean in terms of what you'll experience in the glass? This is a wine that is at once complex and effortless to drink, a wine that easily invites you to take another sip, to pour the next small glass. Sip again and repeat. Aged for two years in French oak, none of it new, the wine is plummy with raspberry and blackberry notes. There's some spice here as well, along with cinnamon and touches of licorice and white pepper.

The wine reminds me more of the northern Rhone than California, but is, hopefully, another sign of a broadening return to leaner times in California winemaking. The suggested price is $45. Recieved as a press sample.

Sips: A top pinot noir from Oregon’s Chehalem Winery

I taste a fair amount of pinot noir from California and Oregon, much of it in what I’ll call a big American fruit style, often with high alcohol levels that, to my palate at least, make some of these wines ponderous and cumbersome. One that falls pleasantly on the other side of the spectrum is Chehalem’s 2010 Stoller Vineyard Pinot Noir from the Dundee Hills of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. This is one of the most exciting American pinots I’ve tasted this year, notable for its generous fruit but also for its beautiful balance. One is struck first by its light ruby color, suggestive more of Burgundy than American pinot noir, which is often much darker. Alcohol is listed at just 13.1 percent, which is almost unheard of today and is reminiscent of levels not typically seen in West Coast pinots in decades. This is part of what makes the wine so fresh and lively.

On the palate, red fruits dominate, especially cherry and raspberry. Then there’s some orange and cinnamon stick followed by a touch of cookie dough and some blueberry on the finish. Oak integration is seamless. This would be a wonderful accompaniment to roast herbed chicken, grilled salmon and other dishes that won’t overpower this lovely wine, which, for me, should serve as a role model for the region. The suggested price is $48. Production was 368 cases. Received as a press sample.

Swirls: The coming out of organic wine -- some things to keep in mind

Suddenly, it seems, the organic wine crowd is coming out of the woodwork. From growers to importers to supermarkets and other retailers, the wine world is seizing on “organic” as never before. Some growers, of course, have been making natural wines for years, including quite a few in France’s Loire Valley where most choose not to call attention to the fact, preferring to let the wines speak for themselves. And many of them do as wines of distinction. So the bar is high for wineries that trumpet the fact that they are producing organic wines or wines made from organic grapes (I’ll explain the difference in just a minute). My guess is that the market is ready to embrace the organic wine movement more broadly, but the wines will have to demonstrate that they have character, passing the same critical (and consumer) taste tests that non-organic wines must endure.

One that does is Cirelli’s 2010 Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, a delightful and refreshing non-oaked white made from organic trebbiano grapes in the Abruzzo region of southern Italy. A group of friends really liked this $14 wine when we served it at a holiday dinner party a couple of weeks ago, and my only regret is that I didn’t buy three or four bottles of it from Chambers Street Wines here in New York, which, speaking of natural and organic and biodynamic wines, has pioneered the trend among retailers for some years now. With stone fruit, pear, herb and citrus notes, Cirelli’s trebbiano is enhanced by an underlying minerality and was excellent with cheeses and other appetizers. Alcohol is a modest and welcome 12.5 percent. (A Zev Rovine Selection, imported by Fruit of the Vine, Long Island City, New York.)

Few wines in this country are labeled “USDA Organic.” That’s because under Department of Agriculture rules, organic wines cannot contain added sulfites, which are used in varying degrees by the vast majority of wineries as a preservative (and which some people say gives them headaches). If a wine is made from organically grown grapes but has sulfites added, the label can only say that it is made from organic grapes, as with the Cirelli wine.

Before the other day, I couldn’t recall the last time I received a wine with the USDA Organic designation. The bottle was from Italy, La Cantina Pizzolato’s 2010 Organic Cabernet Sauvignon NSA, from the Piave appellation in the Veneto region. NSA refers to “no sulfites added,” and the labeling on this wine makes the point that it contains “naturally occurring sulfites.”

I didn’t quite know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. It's a light cabernet with an almost unheard of alcohol level of 12 percent (most New World cabs are in the 13.5-15 percent range). It has good varietal character with red fruit and blueberry notes and a subtle herbal touch. Made without oak, it reminded me more of Beaujolais than Bordeaux and was stylistically as far away from California cab as you can get. Delicate and refreshing and a bargain at a suggested price of $11. Try it slightly chilled with chicken, pork and veal.

The wine was sent to me by Natural Merchants, an importer of organic and biodynamic wines in Grants Pass, Oregon. Interestingly, I received a press release the other day from Whole Foods Market announcing the fact that it was the only national retailer to carry NSA wines from Italy and Spain, including the cabernet and others from Pizzolato, which it described as “Italy’s top-selling organic winery.” Organic and NSA, it seems, are about to go mainstream.

Daily Sip: From California, Gainey Vineyard’s 2009 Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir

I’ve been a fan of Gainey Vineyard for some time, and this latest release only reinforces my view of the winery in the Santa Rita Hills appellation of Santa Barbara County. The wine could serve as a  blueprint for how to produce reasonably priced (around $30)California pinot noir with balance and finesse. It all but jumps out of the glass with its lively acidity, delicious red fruit and moderate alcohol (13.9 percent), which make it a superb food partner that will match well with any number of dishes. In my notes, I described it as a “lean, lighter style” of pinot noir with lots of berry tastes – cranberry, raspberry, blueberry – along with cherry and punctuated by cinnamon and vanilla notes. Though it was aged for 17 months in French oak, only 22 percent of the barrels were new, so the oak influence is kept in check. These days, many California and Oregon pinot noirs are made in a dense fruit-high alcohol style that requires some effort to drink. Gainey’s pinot noir is a welcome exception. Wine received as a press sample.

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Sips: Enjoying two superb white wine values from the Finger Lakes

As I continue to focus on New York wines this summer, two whites from the Finger Lakes region stand out for warm-weather drinking, both of them from one of the region’s leading wineries. And as I post this after a dramatic day on Wall Street, with the  Dow dropping more than 600 points, it’s also worth pointing out that they are both under $15.  

It’s well known in the wine world that the cool-climate Finger Lakes produce some superb rieslings, and Heron Hill’s 2009 New York Dry Riesling not only supports that fact but demonstrates superb value at the modest price of $14. This light, lovely wine shows a good deal of complexity, with guava and other tropical fruit notes, tangerine, lime and a wet-stone minerality that distinguishes it from rieslings with lesser pedigrees. Its ample acidity not only makes it a thirst-quenching aperitif in these dog days of summer but an excellent match for a variety of lighter foods, including sushi, sautéed or broiled fluke fillets or other freshly caught fish, salads and grilled chicken. Alcohol is 12 percent.

I was also impressed by Heron Hill’s 2009 Ingle Vineyard  Unoaked Chardonnay, a single-vineyard wine that also sells for $14. The problem with many chardonnays made without exposure to oak is that they lack interest and depth beyond the fruit. In this one, however, the fruit notes, mainly green apple and lime, are balanced – enhanced might be a better word – by a delightful mineral component that gives the wine a lively complexity and reminded me of Chablis, the chardonnay from Burgundy also made, in its basic examples, without oak. This one, with alcohol also at 12 percent, will go especially well with grilled tuna and striped bass, as well as chicken and pork. What makes these wines so appealing to me is their finesse, achieved in part by their modest alcohol levels and cool-weather acidity.  Click here to go to Heron Hill’s Web site. Wines received as press samples.

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Sips: Long Island’s ‘Early Wine’ and ‘Right Coast Red’ stand out

I’ve been tasting a range of wines from the East End of Long Island in recent weeks, mainly from the North Fork, where the vast majority of the region’s 60 or so vineyards and wineries are located.  Among others, two under-$20 wines stand out for  casual, warm-weather summer drinking.

Macari Vineyards’ 2010 “Early Wine” Chardonnay brings to mind green apples and lime and may be this region’s best answer to Portugal’s Vinho Verde with its fresh and fruity style and, as far as American wines are concerned, its relatively low alcohol, which is listed as 11.5 percent. It was harvested by the winery in Mattituck late last August, fermented without oak and bottled less than six weeks later. Served quite cold on a warm and humid evening, it was a delightful apéritif and will serve well accompanying local fluke, either sautéed or marinated into ceviche, or with fried calamari or clams. Production was 1,045 cases. $17.

When friends invited us over last weekend for grilled pizza, the best of several wines we tried with these delicious homemade pies was Lieb Family Cellars’ 2008 Right Coast Red, an easy drinking yet interesting blend of 45 percent merlot, 20 percent cabernet sauvignon, 20 percent cab franc, 12 percent malbec and three percent petit verdot. Lots of red and dark fruit here, with blackberry, blueberry and raspberry notes, a subtle overlay of cedar and a peppery note. Yummy wine. The $30 price tag surprised me, but I guess that’s part of the price of drinking “local.” I also like that the bottle has a screw cap. Alcohol is 13.5 percent. Wines received as press samples.

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Swirls: Wine alcohol levels, China's domestic wine growth, Italy overtakes France

The issue of alcohol levels in wine is getting a great deal of attention these days, much of it focused on California, where the high-alcohol wine “bubble” seems to be deflating a bit. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I generally prefer wines with more modest alcohol levels. Yes, I realize that is something of a blanket statement, but I usually find wines in the 13- 14-percent alcohol range a bit easier to drink than those at 14.5 percent or higher.  Dave McIntyre in the Washington Post has a good, balanced discussion of this.

Fascinating story on the growth of wine in China, not just the increasing appetite among wealthy Chinese for top Bordeaux and other “status” wine imports, but the explosion of China’s domestic wine industry, which has gone from 30,000 bottles three decades ago to six million bottles today, surpassing Australia’s production. Read the full story on Australia's ABC.

And in case you missed it, Italy has surpassed France to become the world’s biggest wine producer, according to data released by the European Commission. Italy churned out 4.96 liters of wine last year, compared with 4.62 billion liters for France. Spain is in third place and the U.S. is fourth. Read more here.

Swirls: Thoughts on wine alcohol levels and disclosing them

The issue of alcohol levels in wines has received new attention in recent weeks after the San Francisco Chronicle announced that it would include alcohol percentages in its reviews. This is a positive development, though the Chronicle is not unique in the  practice. I, for one, have included alcohol levels in most of my reviews -- for MSNBC.com over many years and, more lately,    for this blog. Every time I pick up a bottle of wine, whether in a store or from a box of press samples I have received, the alcohol level is one of the first things I look at. Sometimes it is nicely visible, usually on the back label. But often it is printed in extremely small type in a lower corner of the front label, sometimes even requiring a magnifying glass (or my children’s eyes) to make it out. Are these wineries trying to hide something?

But why look for this number and disclose it in reviews in the first place? For one thing, the alcohol level, even with a permitted margin of error, is the best indicator for consumers of the style of wine they are about buy or drink (beyond a knowledge of specific regions and appellations, which many consumers don’t have). The higher the alcohol the longer the grapes spent hanging on the vine and accumulating  sugar, which is converted into alcohol during fermentation. Thus, so-called “big” wines have higher alcohol levels, often in the range of 14.5 to 15 percent or more. These include many California reds and some chardonnays. By contrast, wines we would consider “light” are typically in the 12 to 13 percent range and include such wines as the white Muscadet and red Beaujolais from France. It’s important to note that lower alcohol levels don’t necessarily mean that you’ll be drinking wines without character. Both Muscadet and Beaujolais, for example, can show wonderfully expressive and concentrated fruit.

Alcohol levels, of course, have increased substantially over the years, driven up by warming trends and, perhaps more importantly (and disturbingly), by a perception among some winemakers that certain critics have a preference for bigger and bolder wines. (I looked at a prized bottle in my collection recently, a Bordeaux from the famed 1982 vintage, and was reminded that alcohol levels in the region back in those days were a mere 12 percent!)  The problem with some big-fruit, high-alcohol wines is that they have been zapped of their natural acidity. They lack balance. There are exceptions, of course, and I have enjoyed some very big, very powerful wines from time to time. But I can’t tell you how many flabby reds and whites I taste every year – big, bold wines, many from California, that are hotly alcoholic and are chore to drink. For me, this is not what enjoying wine is about. The good news is that some winemakers seem to be getting the message that not everyone wants to drink wines in this style.

It is, of course, a matter of preference, but I, for one, will continue to scrutinize the labels in search of learner, less alcoholic, more elegant bottles that, in general, I find to be more refreshing and better partners with food. By the way, soon after the Chronicle said it would disclose alcohol levels, Decanter magazine announced a similar policy. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts on alcohol levels in wines and disclosing them on labels.

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