Don Lahey, Author at Wine Blog from The International Wine of the Month Club

So What Do I Drink …Off the Job?

April 3, 2012 by Don Lahey

I have a pretty eclectic palate, which leads me to search out all kinds of wines to match the food I’m eating, the weather outside, or the mood I’m in on any given day. I truly love to eat and I enjoy almost all kinds of foods and types of cuisines, so there isn’t going to be one wine or type of wine I always gravitate to. I rarely drink the same wine two days in a row, though I confess that I could drink Champagne every day. However, at home we eat a Mediterranean diet more often than not, so the wines of California, Italy, Southern France, and Spain make regular appearances at my table.

For starters, I am very fond of many of the white wines of Northern and Central Italy. Most are light, fresh, and increasingly well made with little or no oak. They drink well on their own, so they make excellent aperitifs, and they can double as unobtrusive accompaniments to seafood and light pastas at any time of year. Moreover, they are what I like to refer to as “no headache wines.” Without massive amounts of alcohol or layers of new oak, they are easy on my head as well as my palate. No wonder these wines are increasingly popular in Europe as well as America. Gavi from the Piedmont, Orvieto from Umbria, Verdicchio from a hand full of premium Verdicchio producers in the Marches, and Vernaccia from Tuscany are just a few of the Italian white wines I have especially enjoyed recently.

Spain’s enological renaissance in the last decade has delivered some excellent light to medium-bodied white wines, too. The Spanish white wines I admire most usually have a high percentage of Verdejo or Albarino in the blend. I enjoy Spanish Cava, as well. Nobody makes better dry sparkling wine for the money than Spain’s Cava producers. But what about the red wines, you ask? I’m hardly finished with the white wines I drink at home, so we’ll save red wines, Chardonnays, Sauvignon Blancs, and other white wines for another day.

A Votre Santé!

Don Lahey

Don’s March Collector’s Series Top Picks

March 20, 2012 by Don Lahey

Who doesn’t like a crowd pleaser? And who makes more crowd pleasing wines than California’s Jeff Runquist? Jeff keeps racking up well deserved Gold Medals and Double Gold Medals for his crowd pleasing Syrah, Petit Sirah, Barbera, and almost any other varietal he chooses to fashion. So, Jeff’s 2009 R Syrah, a deep down, full throttle red that is already oohhh so fine to drink even in its tender youth, merits one of this month’s top picks. No question in my mind on this one. The second pick, however, causes me palpitations.

Tolaini’s 2007 Super Tuscan Valdisanti is a beauty for sure. It’s a polished, classy wine that appeals personally to me. However, I confess to being truly impressed by Domaine du Vieux Lazaret’s 2008 Châteauneuf-du-Pape, too, and given the 90 plus point ratings it’s received from the most prestigious wine magazines, I am not alone. White Châteauneuf-du-Pape is not quite a rarity, but the quality of Domaine du Vieux Lazaret’s white 2008 Châteauneuf-du-Pape is indeed extraordinary. Consequently, in a photo finish, my second March top pick goes to Domaine du Vieux Lazaret’s white 2008 Châteauneuf-du-Pape. My only question now is this: Will I be able to sleep tonight?

A Votre Santé!

Don

Don’s March Premier Series Top Picks

March 13, 2012 by Don Lahey

Feudi di San Marzano’s 2010 Primitivo is unquestionably one of this month’s top Premier Series picks. Why? It tastes great, and it could easily serve as the poster child for Primitivo – the missing link to California’s Zinfandel. Yes, Primitivo, the ancient early ripening varietal that hails from Greece and/or the northern Balkans is the forbearer of California Zinfandel. Primitivo was most likely brought to southern Italy more than 2,500 years ago by the Greeks, who named Apulia and the nearby Italian peninsula Enotria – land of the vine – because of Apulia’s natural proclivity for the production of wine. Today, Primitivo remains one of the most important grape varietals of southern Apulia, especially on the Salento Peninsula. Moreover, Feudi di San Marzano’s Primitivo is the ideal accompaniment to southern Italy’s signature dishes.

My other top pick is a tougher choice. I am very fond of Pazo de Arribi’s wines. They do an excellent job with Bierzo’s two traditional varietals, Mencia and Godello. Nevertheless, Edgbaston’s 2011 Honey Pot gets my nod this month. Why? It’s an excellent example of how far South Africa has come in producing wines that the rest of the world wants to drink. Edgebaston’s Honey Pot is a tasty blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Viognier. It wasn’t too long ago that South Africa could barely give away its rustic, full-bodied reds, now it is making world class red and white wines.

A Votre Santé!

Don

Not All Wines Are Created Equal

February 28, 2012 by Don Lahey

Anyone who has known me for awhile knows my mantra: “You can’t drink a label or a price tag, or anyone else’s palate.” And I do hold these truths to be self-evident to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, our nation’s first devotee of wine. Although it should be evident that not everyone shares the same taste in wine (and the same can be said for food, art, or almost anything else for that matter), this realization doesn’t negate the quality factor in wine. Not all wines are created equal. And I do believe they are not.

Some wines are endowed with greater body and balance, not to mention longevity and what the French refer to as a certain je ne sais quoi. Some are made from mature vines, grown under perfect or near perfect conditions, expertly pruned, hand harvested, and their wines crafted by men and women who understand art as well as science. Other wines spring from less favorable terroir, while still others are mass produced in an industrial mode and hardly receive the care and attention required to make the highest quality wine. It’s fine to drink such wines, if you enjoy them, but just as there is great, aged beef and then there is tough or overly fatty disappointing beef, the same spectrum of quality exists among wines. And we are not talking about preferring one cut of beef to another or having a preference for apples over pears. There is such a thing as good beef and bad beef, better quality apples and lesser quality apples, and most people can tell the difference when presented with the choice. In fact, the majority of the population could be professional wine or food tasters, given the desire, experience, and money to pursue such an avocation. Only about 20% of the adult population is estimated to suffer from serious palate or olfactory deficiency that precludes them from fully appreciating various scents and flavors in food and wine. All others are capable of considerable discernment. Yet, one person may prefer filet mignon and another hamburger. Who is to say one is better than another? Such a choice is truly a matter of preference and experience, not quality. The question of quality arises when the talk turns to good hamburger as opposed to bad hamburger, good Cabernet versus bad Cabernet, and the spectrum of quality that lay in between.

So in short, it’s good to like what you like, but sample as many wines as you can, and then ask yourself two questions. What is quality? And what is preference?

A Votre Santé!

Don

Don’s February Collector’s Series Top Picks

February 17, 2012 by Don Lahey

It’s time for my monthly confession. Yes, confession is good for the soul. My top picks this month are both red wines. I know there may be a special warm place for me in the life hereafter for passing over a truly fine white Burgundy that I must confess I really liked, but in the month of February I believe I can be forgiven without having to suffer a colossal penance. Why? It’s cold in February and this month’s Collector Series reds can take the chill out of cold winter nights.

Furthermore, Valenciso makes great Rioja Reserva (their one and only wine) and the 2005 Valenciso Reserva is quite extraordinary. It is a flawlessly balanced Rioja that is delicious now but will continue to improve in bottle for a decade or more. My other top pick is Alejandro Fernandez’s 2005 El Vinculo. Alejandro Fernandez is Spain’s King of Tempranillo and El Vinculo is La Mancha’s greatest old vine Tempranillo. It’s a knockout. For my penance, I will enjoy Jacques Girardin’s 2009 Les Terrasses de Bievaux Santenay in between drinking this month’s reds.

A Votre Santé!

Don

Don’s February Premier Series Top Picks

February 15, 2012 by Don Lahey

There is quality and there is preference. Sometimes, it’s difficult to ascertain where one begins and the other ends, especially when forced to choose among four high quality wines, all of which I enjoy. Nonetheless, a choice must be made. With that in mind, my top wine picks this month belong to Donati Family Vineyard’s 2007 Claret and Gilles Noblet’s 2010 Domaine de la Collonge Macon Fuissé. Why? Let’s start with this month’s primary white wine: Nobody makes consistently better Macon-Fuissé and Pouilly-Fuissé than Gilles Noblet, and he does it at a fair price so that savvy consumers can afford to purchase his wines more than once a year.

My other top pick is Donati’s delicious 2007 Claret. Donati, like so many other small California wineries outside of Napa and Sonoma, has flown under the mainstream wine press’s radar for far too long. Wines from smaller wineries such as Donati can go un-tasted and therefore un-sung amidst oceans of more commercial brands. A juicy blend of Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc, the 2007 Donati Claret is both immediately satisfying and subtlety complex. I also believe blends are one of California’s potential growth areas and true strengths, but such blends are often eschewed in favor of varietal bottling. On the subject of blends, give this month’s Gualbenzu Vierlas a try. It, too, is an artful blend from a lesser known region of Spain.

A Votre Santé!

Don

What’s Your Favorite Wine?

February 8, 2012 by Don Lahey

Once someone realizes what I do for a living, I anticipate the question. I can’t help it. I’m not telepathic, but I know what’s coming. And invariably, “the question” does come: What’s your favorite wine? I used to answer the question with a litany of favorites, but after decades of wine tasting I have more favorites than I can count, so that conversation can go on for a very long time. So now I respond to the question with “the wine in my glass.” A true statement, simply because I don’t drink wine that doesn’t please me and the fact that a particular wine remains in my glass offers testimony to the immediate gratification it is providing me. Hence, a new favorite wine!

This candid but somewhat flippant sounding response also frees me to recall a few special wines and to ask the questioner about his or her favorite wines – a topic that I find more intriguing than my own preferences. What I have come to conclude from others’ responses is that everyone’s palate is a bit different. And although most experienced wine drinkers can reach a consensus on a wine, they don’t always. Why? Ambiance, experience, or lack of experience, personal preferences, and whatever else a person has consumed that day can alter one’s perception of a wine. Moreover, I have learned over the years that there are only three immutable facts about wine drinking, and they are these: no one can drink a label (even though some people try, either to impress or to hide their lack of experience), a price tag (that’s only for snobs), or anyone else’s palate (a true waste of time and wine). Think about it!

A Votre Santé!

Don

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