Wine Regions Archives - Page 14 of 15 - Wine Blog from The International Wine of the Month Club

Where to Find the World’s Best Wine Values

July 18, 2013 by Don Lahey

Where do you find the world’s best wine values? I think that depends on one’s tastes and how adept a person is at ferreting out wines from relatively unknown viticultural areas. It never ceases to amaze me how much good wine remains undiscovered and appreciated, simply because they hail from relatively obscure wine regions and undiscovered wineries and wines makers. Many of the world’s good wines, even some of the world’s great wines, flow from places not exactly on the tip of everyone’s tongue.

Let’s take Uruguay for example. Yes, I do mean that tiny prosperous South American country with a stable democratic government, a temperate climate, and a centuries’ old tradition of winemaking – all of which remain hidden from most wine lovers in North America. Why? Two reasons appear as culprits. First, the folks in Uruguay truly enjoy wine and drink most of what they make themselves and secondly, we in the U.S. tend to be mistrustful or at least oblivious to anything we haven’t seen highly advertised or rated by a dozen or more critics, whom we tend to believe are more adept at determining our tastes than we are.

Happily, Uruguay is no longer content to keep its best wines to itself. And Artesana, an ultra-premium producer from Uruguay, is another example of a very good wine producer from a relatively obscure locale. Artesana recently featured some of their estate wines at the International Wine Bloggers’ Conference to considerable acclaim. Artesana’s 2011 Tannat/Merlot comes across as a crowd pleaser, though the winery’s more traditional and tannic 2011Tannat (a French grape, which lends its name to the word tannin) shows well, too. And Artesana is just one of a growing number of producers of fine wines from Uruguay whose wares can now be found in the U.S. Artesana’s wines are well worth seeking out.

Cheers!
Don

Where to Find the Best Wine, People, and Places

June 20, 2013 by Don Lahey

The world’s viticultural areas are renowned for their natural beauty as well as their wines, but many have succumbed to crass commercialization and often exude an exulted sense of themselves, but happily not all. If you truly love wine and are looking for an exciting young wine country with many exceptional wines, plenty of friendly and passionate people, and an unspoiled land that offers a true feast for the eyes as well as the palate, try British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. Situated in a scenic valley between the coastal mountains and the Canadian Rockies, Okanagan flows north for nearly 125 miles from the border with Washington State to north of Kelowna. The Okanagan’s vines lay primarily on sunny, well drained bench lands that overlook the countryside’s deep glacial lakes. Think Lake Tahoe.

So, yes indeed, the scenery is knockout beautiful and the Okanagan is serious wine country, too, so what more could you want? How about 200 fun loving wine bloggers, dozens of winery owners to go along with the picturesque scenery and fine food, the latter emanating from fresh sustainably grown foods from farms nearby! The organizers’ of this year’s International Bloggers’ Conference, which was held in Penticton, British Columbia, wisely chose to highlight Okanagan during the 2013 International Wine Bloggers’ Conference. Imagine spending four days with 200 passionate wine bloggers, hundreds and hundreds of wines from the Okanagan and from around the world, and passionate winemakers.

A good time was had by all. And in case you’re wondering, the wines of Okanagan are well worth searching out. What began earlier this month as a voyage of discovery has already yielded great fruit in the form of many of Canada’s most compelling wines. Stay tuned for more about Okanagan and this year’s wine bloggers’ conference.

Don

Bordeaux: What’s in a vintage?

April 16, 2013 by Don Lahey

In some wine regions of the world, the quality of wine doesn’t vary tremendously from year to year. The reason is that the weather in some wine areas remains fairly consistent and predictable. In other wine lands such as Bordeaux, vintage means everything. The weather in Bordeaux varies enormously throughout the growing season and from year to year, and because weather largely determines the quality of the vintage and the resulting wine, vintage speaks volumes in the most hallowed of French appellations. The saying in Bordeaux is June makes the quantity, August the style, and September the quality. If the flowering and subsequent berry set go well in June, growers can look forward to a bumper crop. And by August, the vignerons know roughly what to expect in style. But it’s September that ultimately determines how good the Bordeaux will be, particularly the reds, based largely on the amount and frequency of rain that falls during the month. If a tropical depression sweeps in from the Atlantic, all bets will be off. With this said, Bordeaux has enjoyed a bevy of fine vintages in recent years, and no two back to back vintages in memory rank higher than 2009 and 2010. Although the resulting wines are different in style, each of these vintages enjoyed ideal weather in September and October. The years 2009 and 2010 produced from top to bottom some of Bordeaux’s most drinkable and profound red wines. Consequently, I’m putting as many 2009 and 2010 red Bordeaux in my cellar as I can afford because Bordeaux doesn’t get much better than in these two vintages.

Don

A Special 83 Year Old Winemaker Named Angel

September 13, 2012 by Don Lahey

On a recent visit to Spain I had the opportunity to spend time with Angel Rodriquez, one of Spain’s most revered winemakers. Anyone who has met Angel Rodriguez stands in awe of his tremendous accomplishment. Visiting this spry, witty 83 year old winemaker and his beloved Martinsancho Vineyard is a rare treat and valuable lesson in the value of dedication, history, and wine. Angel’s story is the story of a unique grape called Verdejo. Although Verdejo is one of only a handful of truly noble Spanish white grape varietals, it was in serious danger of extinction by the early 1970s due to the pervasive planting of more prolific native varietals such as Viura and Palomino and the introduction of international favorites such as Chardonnay. Through his loving refusal to uproot his ancient 17^th century vineyard called Martinsancho, Angel Rodriguez saved the delicious, but shy bearing Verdejo from extinction

The original majuelo or 17^th century vineyard of Martinsancho comprises less than two acres of ancient vines, all of which are in excess of 250 years of age. These gnarled, ungrafted vines grow out of a bed of stones over thirty feet deep, preserved in isolation as a museum of pre-phylloxera viticulture and a continuing source of undisputed varietal authenticity. Once considered an anachronism and an economic liability, nurseries throughout Europe now treasure the Martinsancho Vineyard and its beloved Verdejo for the vine cuttings it provided and the viticultural legacy it has preserved. Yet, more than forty years ago no one seemed to care about this old vineyard with its unprofitable, extremely low yielding vines; in fact, few had even heard of Martinsancho’s existence. Verdejo was on the verge of extinction as it was deemed not profitable enough then by most experts to preserve, let alone grow, despite the vine’s noble pedigree and the undisputed quality of the wine it produced. Yet, in spite of the prevailing pressure and “expert advice” to uproot the old vineyard, Angel Rodriguez preserved it, and then undertook the near impossible and what many have called sheer lunacy: he re-grafted Martinsancho’s Verdejo by hand into 25 acres of a nearby vineyard with nearly identical soil – a monolithic undertaking.

Subsequently, other Rueda growers have planted Verdejo with the help of Angel Rodriguez, to the point that today Verdejo is once again the leading white grape varietal in Rueda. For his great sacrifice and untiring efforts in favor of re-establishing Verdejo’s prominence in its region of origin, Angel Rodriguez has been officially honored by King Juan Carlos of Spain. Yet, in spite of his great accomplishment and the recognition that has followed, Angel Rodriquez remains a humble man who believes in tradition. He steadfastly maintains a very low-tech approach to the natural production of his wine, which is totally organic and includes little or no added sulfites – a rarity, especially among white wines. Look for Angel’s Rodriguez’s outstanding 2011 Martinsancho Verdejo in an upcoming feature.

Don

Priorat

September 10, 2012 by Don Lahey

It’s hard to imagine a more inhospitable climate and a more remote, godforsaken locale than Spain’s Priorat. Nothing but grapes could possibly thrive in such a rugged terrain scoured by gales and mistral like winds, a land set apart from life as most of us know it. Tiny towns, which cleave to Priorat’s precipitous mountains and are inhabited by fewer than a hundred hardy souls, pay testimony to the area’s isolation and add to the region’s desolate feel. In Priorat, unlike Rioja, Ribera del Duero, and most other Spanish wine regions, there are no golden fields of waving grain or long undulating rows of vines stretching as far as the eye can see. So, what makes Priorat so appealing? It’s the region’s high mountain vineyards and dramatic scenery that make this inaccessible part of Catalonia hallowed ground. Nowhere else in Spain does old vine Garnacha and Cariñena produce such dramatic wines – full-bodied beauties – that are often blended with hedonistic dollops of Syrah, Mourvèdre, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. What I find so appealing about Priorat are the many variations on the same theme, all with pure natural flavors, simple elegance, rusticity, and warmth. These are high alcohol wines with heart and soul and plenty of sensual appeal. Stay tuned!

Don

Shiraz or Syrah?

June 26, 2012 by Don Lahey

Whether we refer to this great varietal as Shiraz or Syrah, we are talking about one of the world’s most illustrious red grape varieties. It is also one of my personal favorites. Grown for centuries in the Rhone Valley of France, where it is responsible in all or part of many of the greatest red wines of France (Hermitage and Châteauneuf-du-Pape specifically), the exact origin of this full-flavored varietal remains in debate. However, historians do agree that it was brought to Europe from the Middle East, but when and by whom remains a mystery.

Some historians maintain that it was the Crusaders, who first brought Syrah to France, while others point to the earlier Roman legions under Probes, and yet others claim it was the remnants of Alexander the Great’s army on its return from Persia. The latter theory is particularly intriguing since Alexander himself was so enamored of the rich, powerful wines he found around the city of Shiraz in Central Persia, that he insisted on staying there, apparently far longer than he should have, since that is where he met his end. Nonetheless, the one point that has been ascertained that everyone seems to agree upon is that the name Shiraz, from the Persian city of that name, is the origin of the varietal’s name. The grape’s name changed to Syrah as it traveled west. In any case, Syrah flourishes today not only in the south of France but in other Mediterranean climates. It fares particularly well in Australia, California, and South Africa, where it is often called by its original name – Shiraz. Australia’s Barossa Valley, South Africa’s Western Cape and several appellations throughout California produce a bevy of lush, polished Syrah/Shiraz wines that are not to be missed.

A Votre Santé!

Don

Have You Ever Been Wine Tasting on a Bike?

May 25, 2012 by Kristina Manning

A great area to go wine tasting on a bike is in the Willamette Valley area in Oregon. There are over 150 wineries to choose from and you can visit at least four in 5 miles. The tasting fees are lower priced than Napa or Sonoma, most are around the $10.00 range. Many of the wineries donate a portion of the tasting fees to Ecotrust’s Farm to School Programs to help the local schools and farmers.

All the wineries are open for Memorial weekend, many with special BBQ events, music, barrel sampling, and specialty food pairings. Good weekend to visit some of the region’s small, family-owned wineries rarely open to the public as well as larger wineries and tasting rooms.

Oregon Wine Country

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