"Labrusca" Lini 910 Lambrusco Rosé, 2009

With a totally different style of rosé the subject of my previous post, why not delve into another here? This wine is a frizzante style as well, meaning that it has some effervescence - in the manner of all Lambrusco wines from Emilia-Romagna in Italy. The producer, Lini Winery, was founded in the town of Correggio in 1910, and is gaining momentum across the United States as a known producer of fine sparkling wines. They strive to keep the philosophy and traditions of their forebears at the core of their wine-making; the outcome speaks for itself, because this just tastes great.


A rich salmon red in the glass, much darker than most other rosé wines I have tried. Strong cherry and cranberry aromas on the nose lead to some floral notes: lavender, lilac. Bold and fruity in the mouth, but light-bodied, with a zingy acidity to match the fizz. Totally surprising, completely delicious. We paired this with ribs roasted in a clay pot after being covered in home-made dry rub and slathered in BBQ sauce, home-made potato salad, and sautéed greens. $15.

Château d'Oupia Minervois Rosé, 2009

After a cold and aggravating winter, we have made it to my favorite time of year - the transition from spring to summer. Sure, the weather doesn't know it yet, and nobody seems to want true heat yet, but the air has the right flavor. The flavor, my friends, of smoky barbecue. Time for all that moos or bleats to stampede in retreat - the pits are fired, the charcoal piled hillock-high. And what do the textbooks say to pair with grilled steaks? Zinfandel, of course, or a nice Bordeaux, or a Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon, or maybe even a Brunello di Montalcino. But if you aren't grilling steaks, if your focus is instead on the humble rib, on sauces full of cilantro and tomato paste, Worcestershire and garlic, what wine holds up? None of the above, not consistently.

But rosé does. And a rosé is the focus of today's post. The 2009 Château d'Oupia Minervois Rosé, from the Minervois AOC in the Languedoc-Roussillon region, was a great find, perfect on its own but definitely possessed of the weight needed to stand up to goods from the grill. It is blended from my favorite Rhone grapes: Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault, and shows deep salmon pink in the glass; excellent clarity. On the nose I found an overwhelming abundance of fresh, ripe strawberries, with a buzzing zip to back them up. Good weight, and the wine is bone dry. More bright berry fruits in the mouth, quenched by delicious acidity in a lingering finish hinting at cherries and orange zest. You can find this wine for under $15 a bottle. Try it with grilled tuna, hummus platters, salmon slathered in aioli, or babyback ribs.

Cline Ancient Vines Zinfandel, 2007

I just love Zinfandel, as a proper Californian, and frequently linger over both the black pepper raspberry jam of lush Lodi to the anise and blackberry of a Primitivo from Apulia in Italy; whatever Zin my glass holds, my glass is full. So why the total lack of write-ups on here? My camera was never handy; my hand was shaky; my memory gone. Excuses, excuses.

Whatever the reason, my hiatus ends with this wine, the 2007 Cline Ancient Vines Zinfandel. The soul of California liquified and bottled. Bold claim? I don't care. Deep inky red with hints of purple in the glass, showing extremely punchy fruit on the nose: juicy raspberries, blackberries, backed by notes of mocha and white pepper, with vanilla and other spicy hints. Nice dose of new American oak in this one. It reveals more ripe dark fruits in the mouth, with big tannins that cloak your teeth; well-balanced, but a bit lush, this wine ambles in a very satisfactory manner to a long finish. Pairs with almost anything red you would put on a grill. $13.

"Tai Rosso" Rezzadore, 2007

Spring. No other time of year is as confusing as spring. First the air warms up, flowers bud, birds get territorial, jeans become shorts, jackets are flung into closets... and then it all gets rewound by the somehow-always-freezing Sundays of April and May. This past weekend was like that, beautiful Friday, cold Sunday. Everybody became confused and hostile, in need of something reliably comforting, something to pair with grilled Italian sausages or drink on its own.

Enter the 2007 "Tai Rosso," an Italian Grenache from the Veneto region, produced by Rezzadore and imported by a small company out of New Jersey (great guys, met them at a local tasting last spring, when it was too cold to be outside... interesting). A wine with gusto. A wine with spark. A wine with a nice red ruby color in the glass, hinting at tangerine, and then a veritable A-Team of aromas: tart cherries, cranberries, fresh-picked strawberries, hints of orange peel, loam... each time I open a bottle, I get a different set. These wonderfully rich aromas are followed by a bright mouthfeel, with acidity doing its two-step on the tongue while the fruit lingers with some soft tannins at the medium finish. $12. That is right, friends. $12. Buy a case.

Silver Thread Pinot Noir, 2007

Pinot Noir: the grape that makes the fabled wines of Burgundy. Unmatched in sensuality. Layered, aromatic; bemusement in a bottle. Sometimes. Sometimes, it just produces decent, tasty wines we can love casually, much like Mallomars.

The 2007 Silver Thread Pinot Noir, the first produced by this fine maker in upstate New York, falls somewhere between those two extremes. In or out of the bottle, it in no way resembles a Mallomar, but also reaches for humbler goals than the grand cru Burgundies people like me wish they could try, if only once. I hope not to offend the hordes of Mallomarian faithful with this statement. Anyone who adores the fine Mallomar can leave this posting content in the knowledge that I would love to walk the hills of La Romanée with a whole box in hand.

Moving on: I found this wine to be tuna or hibiscus red in the glass, with coppery undertones, decent clarity. Aromas of lilac and cranberry to dark cherry, jammy fruit, with earthy and herbal notes in the mouth. Lovely acidity, good balance, with very soft and subtle tannins, as expected from a cool-climate Pinot. Medium finish, with a nice texture and lingering fruitiness. Pair with roast turkey or duck, or herb-encrusted veal. Or Mallomars. $22.

Serafini & Vidotto "Il Rosso Dell'Abazia," 1999

Today's post is about the 1999 Serafini & Vidotto "Il Rosso Dell'Abazia," but begins with a long digression.

Only one wine has ever brought me to tears. It is unfortunately not eligible for this forum due to its extraordinary price ($350-400 retail), but I name it now to establish my benchmark for truly great wine: the 2004 "Astralis," the flagship Syrah from the Clarenden Hills collection. At first whiff it was the wine that will always haunt me, setting the bar for every wine I've tasted since. Huge, dark, brooding, pungent, rich - but it was an infant! Even then, I knew that the 2004 Astralis was a wine that would not be ready to drink until 15-20 years later; it is still barely approachable now. L'Enfant terrible. Shockingly good.

Which brings me to the focus of today's post: the 1999 Serafini & Vidotto "Il Rosso Dell'Abazia." It has nothing in common with "Astralis," not on the surface. "Astralis" is fermented from Syrah; this wine is made using Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc, a Bordeaux blend. Clarendon Hills is located 25 miles south of Adelaide, and northeast from the McLaren Vale in southern Australia; Serafini & Vidotto have their vineyards in Montello, a hilly area on the right bank of the Piave river in Treviso, a sub-region within Veneto (see photo).

"Astralis" is an ultra-boutique wine, a world-class luxury item made in a truly New World style. "Il Rosso Dell'Abazia," on the other hand, is an exemplar of Cabernet Sauvignon in its Italian expression, but following the vinification philosophy and techniques of the great French makers. What do these wines share, what intangible quality? Easy: greatness. Why wax eloquent? It is greatness.

I opened the "Il Rosso Dell'Abazia" to celebrate moving to Brooklyn. It was to be paired with prime rib, roasted potatoes, and sauteed mushrooms, the first meal made in our new kitchen. If wine and food pairing could be considered a tango, this wine was definitely the leader. Textbook blood orange fading to pale rose-brown at the rim in the glass. On the nose, the first pour offered devious aromas, almost all secondary: rose petals, waterlilies, tar, olives, hung meats, and hints of dark fruit. In the mouth, "Il Rosso Dell'Abazia" felt like velvet. Over a decade of bottle-aging softened the tannins beautifully, giving it one of the finest textures of any wine I have tasted since "Astralis." More dark fruit in the mouth, along with tobacco and a definite touch of balsamic spice. Long finish, echoing the completely even and balanced experience this wine provides. It touches greatness.

Normally a bottle retails for $80, but I found some for $16 at wholesale. Buying another half-case today. I do not think it will last another year, having just peaked, so find this wine immediately. Pairs with roast game of any kind, simpler fare; let the wine lead you.

Royal Oporto Vintage Port, 2004

I am a dessert wine kind of guy. Not a "give me some of that wine with my Snickers" guy, rather a "stop, wait - with dinner over, let us retire to the crackling fire and wait for the snow to stop falling with glasses of Tokaji" kind of guy. Noting that it had been some while since my last post, and noting I that almost never review dessert wines, I decided to try some port.

Port is a wine with an extremely dynamic and varied past. The appellation where it is produced, the Douro Valley region of Portugal, was demarcated in 1763, making it the third-oldest appellation in the world, after Chianti and Tokaji - two of my other favorite places. Usually a sweet red dessert wine, and is always the result of blending a wide number of grape varieties - up to one hundred types of grape are permitted, but principally Touriga Nacional (Tempranillo), Tinta Roriz, and Touriga Francesa are used, as in the wine under discussion for this post. Fermentation is stopped using a neutral grape spirit called aguardente, which leaves residual sugar in the wine while also boosting alcohol content. The wine is then stored in oak barrels in caves, or cellars, for differing periods of time, depending on the final wine being produced.

It seems appropriate to briefly examine the most common types of Port available:

Tawny Port - this style is produced from red grapes aged in oaken barrels using the Solera process, exposing them to gradual oxidation and evaporation, resulting in a golden-brown color. Aging in oak imparts nutty flavors and aromas to this type of port, which is blended to match the producer's house style (like NV Champagne). Tawny ports are sweet or off-dry and generally considered a dessert wine.

Ruby Port - this is the cheapest and most widely-made type of port. After fermentation, it is usually aged in stainless steel tanks to prevent oxidation, and preserve its rich red color. The wine is fined and filtered before bottling, and is not intended for aging, as its quality will not improve. Ruby port often exudes fresh fruit aromas, and seems bright in the mouth. Meant for casual consumption, this serves as a decent "party port." Like tawny port, this wine is also blended to match the house style.

LBV (Late Bottled Vintage) Port - Late Bottled Vintage port is wine that originally had been destined for bottling as Vintage Port, but because of lack of demand was left in the barrel for longer than had been planned. LBV port wine is intended to provide some of the experience of drinking a Vintage Port but without the need for lengthy bottle aging. This style can feature some great bargains.

Vintage Port - The finest style, representing only about 2% of a Port house's total production. These wines are made from grapes grown in a single exceptional vintage year, showing the finest qualities that can be achieved by that producer and appellation. Vintage ports are aged in oak barrels for a maximum of two and a half years before bottling, and generally require another ten to thirty years of bottle aging before reaching maturity. Since vintage port wines are aged in barrels for only a short time, they retain their dark ruby color, along with fresh fruit aromas and flavors. Particularly fine vintage ports can continue to grow more complex and fascinating for up to a century after they are bottled. Clearly, not every year is a vintage year.

So, this particular wine, the 2004 Royal Oporto Vintage Port, merits attentive description.On the nose, it shows wonderfully full aromas of black fruits, such as cherry and plum with distinct undertones of hazelnuts and dark chocolate. I also caught some notes of burnt caramel and anise. It has a lush, silky mouthfeel, with well-rounded tannins and great balance. Delicious. $15 for a half bottle.