MD Cru March 2008 Wine Tasting: Spanish Wines!

Good company is the best pairing with any wine. This past Saturday, I enjoyed what is becoming a classic pairing: wine and the MD Cru. MD Cru refers to a small group of wine enthusiasts who organize through the Wine Spectator forums to meet up once a month in the MD/Washington DC area to share wine, food and good stories. Venue ranges from the homes of some of the members to local restaurants. Each month we have a theme with the March 2008 tasting focusing on the wines of Spain. Overall the wines were very good and went great with the food menu (below). Here is the list of wines we tasted with my picks for “Wines of the Night”. A big thank you to PH, CS, and HWT for dealing with the organization and logistics of the event. A few wines received a score with a “+” symbol after it. This represents wines that I may have scored higher had there been sufficient pour volume and time to taste it over a few hours. Without further ado:

Wines of the night:

1. 2004 Alto Moncayo (Great wine, outstanding value even at $35- a must try for those new to Spanish Wines)
2. 2003 Clos Mogador (Still a bit young, but very good- hold 2-3 years or decant 2+ hours)
3. 2001 Cims de Porrera Priorat Classic (a load of ripe fruits, good structure and balance)

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I love it when friends come to visit - Cheeses, scallops, shrimp, ribeyes, Cabernet, Syrah and more!

I love it when a good friend comes to visit. It’s a great excuse to open a few nice bottles of wine and make a big dinner. Last night my friend Brandon drove down from Michigan for dinner and a 4 day mini-vacation. About 10 minutes after pulling into the driveway, we went to a local wine store for a wine tasting and to stock up for the weekend. From there we hit Whole Foods where we found some cheese, sweet potato’s, scallops, collosal shrimp, beef ribeye steak and a bison New York strip steak.
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Update on the Brunello saga: Response from Montalcino (apparently good news!)

I received this e-mail in response to my inquires to the Consortium of Vino Brunello di Montalcino Wine:
Cliffs notes: HOORAY - Appears this isn’t a problem after all!

26/3/2008
PRESS RELEASE
THE CONSORTIUM OF BRUNELLO CONTROLS ITS OWN PRODUCERS
Since the year 2004 the Consortium of Vino Brunello di Montalcino Wine was
put in charge, by the Ministry of Food, Agricultural and Forestry Policies, of
controlling both vineyards and wines with the Brunello di Montalcino denomination.
As in other occasions the Consortium of Brunello was the first one to be invested with
this role.
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Wednesday Wine Rant - 03/26/08 - Brunello, Brunello - say it ain’t so.

I LOVE BRUNELLO. You all are aware that Brunello di Montalcino is one of my favorite wines. The “Brunello” grape is a specific clone of the Sangiovese grape that is unique to the area surrounding Montalcino (Tuscany), having first been planted in the 1800’s by the Biondi Santi family. Today, Brunello di Montalcino is one of Italy’s most prized wines made by over 200 producers, all who have to stick to the basic formula:

• 100% Brunello clone of Sangiovese
• Normale Bottling: released 50 months after harvest (minimum 2 years aged in wood, 4 in bottle)
• Riserva bottling: released 62 months after harvest (minimum 2 years aged in wood, 4 in bottle)

The result of this process is a beautiful developed wine with concentrated, ripe fruits when young and delicate tannins with age. (Image taken this past November of downtown Montalcino, from the fortress!).

No one likes a cheat. It seems like some Montalcino vinters aren’t playing by the rules. Wine Spectator’s James Suckling blogged on the topic last week, mentioning the allegations that some winemakers are adding other grapes to their Brunello blend to make it more fashionable for todays wine consumer. He noted that this was merely allegations and no formal accusations were made towards any one vineyard.

Well today, our friends at Vinowire.com have reported that they have direct confirmation from the president of the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino, Stefano Campatelli, stating that the allegations are in fact under investigation and it appears there is some truth to them. I have contacted the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino for further comment and will update you when I hear anything.

From Vinowire: “Stefano Campatelli, who has confirmed that “irregularities” have been found in wines labeled as Brunello produced by at least twenty producers in Montalcino. According to outside sources who have requested anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly about the investigation, that number could be as high as 80 or 90.”

Please, say it ain’t so…

For more on the topic, check out the story on Vinowire.com. I’m almost afraid to follow this story to find out which of my beloved Brunello producers are guilty of this terrible crime. More reading and initial report here: Vino al vino

Tasting Report: 8 Spanish Wines!

Hooray for me: I gave blood today (thanks for the support, Miranda!). I actually gave two units of blood, which is great since it helps twice as much. That said, when giving this much blood, they have to pump saline and plasma back into your system so you don’t pass out or get sick from blood loss. The sensation of room temperature saline/plasma going abck into your arm and system was quite interesting and resulted in tingling lips and a plastic taste in my mouth. When it was all said and done, I drank a 32 oz Gatorade, 64 ounces of water, ate a big lunch, then waited 6 hours and figured “why not go drink a bunch of wine?”. So, Kim, Donna (who it was great to finally drink wine with again!) and I attended a tasting tonight at the Chesapeake Wine Company in Canton. The following wines were served with a Spanish Chorizo, Bread and the following cheeses: San Simon (smoked cow’s milk), Roncal (aged Sheeps’s Milk, Pyrennes), Murcia (Drunken goat, with olives).
The tasting notes are below:
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Wine Club March ‘08 Meetup: The Recap!

This past weekend the F&WB Wine Club met up for an Easter-eve wine tasting. We had a good turnout this month with 13 attendees including 5 (two of which I am pictured with below near our bar) new people who haven’t been to any previous tastings. There were more than 10 cheeses, multiple salmon-based finger foods, grilled chicken and a bunch of other treats on hand. The theme was to bring a bottle of wine under $20 that was something you have had before and enjoyed. The hope was to find a handful of great value wines that would be outstanding for every-day consumption. About half of the wines fell into this category while the other half were randomly picked. The wines were all brown bagged and tasted blind and rated. We voted on our favorites at the end of the night before removing the bags. Below is a list of the wines on hand in descending order of how they were rated (I present the sparkling wines first which were tasted non-blind). The unanimous winner was the 2006 Fat Catz Cat Amongst Pigeons Syrah/Cabernet blend which I scored blind 91 pts and is an outstanding value.
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Resaurant Review: Pho #1 Vietnamese Restaurant - Highly recommended!

Pho #1 Vietnamese Restaurant
Ambiance: Casual, smoke from the grill filled, small bar area, dark stained wood decor. Food: Authentic Vietnamese Cuisine
Service: Outstanding
Wine List: You’ll want to order a beer with this cuisine.
Pricing: $$ ($40 for two people with beers and tip)
Corkage: N/A
Attire: No specific dress code.
Overall: Very good: Traditional Vietnamese food, good service, great pricing
Location/Contact Info:
5764 Baltimore National Pike
Baltimore, MD 21228
(410) 719-7500
Click here for a map to Pho #1 Vietnamese Restaurant

This casual Vietnamese restaurant is hidden from the chaos of downtown Baltimore, but don’t let the location (in a strip mall next to Sam’s Club) fool you! The service was great, the meats were perfectly tender and spiced, and the Pho was out of this world. I highly recommend trying Pho #1 and am quite confident that once you do, you’ll wish there was one closer to your home (at least they do take-out)! Make reservations for dinner on Friday’s or Saturday’s since it can get quite busy. (image from wikipedia.com) Read more

Drink wine and you get shrinkage - of your hippocampus! (Overview of a recent study and rant on the media and science)

I was holding off on commenting on this study until I reveal a project I’m working on, but so many wine blogs out there have talked about it, I feel like adding my $0.02.

As you may be aware, I am a medical researcher who spends countless hours each week studying the hippocampus. Each day I take little glass electrodes and place them on brain cells in the rodent hippocampus observing changes in cellular calcium and electrical current in response to glutamate (excitatory neurotransmitter) stimulation that I control with a laser. My research has implications in memory and epilepsy. As a neuroscientist studying the hippocampus and a wine enthusiast, the recent topic of the effects of wine on the hippocampal volume hits pretty close to home.

Here is my overview of the study (I’m trying to not be too technical here - please leave a comment with questions): Read more

Wednesday Wine Rants - 3/19/08

Enough with the cork already! Glass enclosures for wine bottles are becoming increasingly popular. As I have opened three corked wines in the last 2 weeks, I can understand why! I’m fed up with old-school corks and ready for the industry to transition to glass enclosures or screw caps. Sure the magic of the whole uncorking process will be gone, but if it prevents me from pouring out another $30 bottle of wine, then so be it!

My Fading Dream: Europe in November: The Euro is killing the dollar. I’m planning a two week “food and wine” extravaganza with my father to Austria, Italy and Spain this November but with how bad our dollar is, the trip almost seems like a bad idea! With the Euro KILLING the dollar, it seems to make more sense to head to either California or perhaps South America. But I don’t know if I can trade in two weeks of drinking Priorats, Gruner Veltliner’s and Barolo’s for Malbec and Cabernet! There has to be a light at the end of the black hole that has become our economy!

You have to be kidding me: Krug recently unveiled their 1995 Brut Blanc de Noirs Clos d’Ambonnay Champagne. The priciest Champagne released to date is targeted towards the super-wealthy (read: those who don’t realize they are being ripped off) and will cost around $3500 USD. Only 250 cases were produced, so get yours today!

What haven’t you read about 2005 Bordeaux? “Vintage of the century”, “best vintage since 1961″, a “powerhouse vintage”…and the list goes on. Having tasted only a handful of 2005 Bordeaux’s, I’m taking the word of the hordes of experts that agree that 2005 was outstanding. I’ve purchased a few wine futures and am anxiously awaiting their arrival. That said, I’ve heard enough! The prices on the ’05’s are going up week by week. Maybe if we stop parading about how great the vintage is, the prices will stablize and more people will be able to afford a few bottltes to conclude for themseleves whehter or not this is the greatest vintage ever? With the prices of the first growth’s well into the $1000’s (per bottle!) and with James Suckling giving 8 wines 100 pts, I doubt we need this vintage to by hyped up any more. Why not start talking about Bordeaux’s that most people can afford - what wines are drinking well from the 2002 and 2004 vintages?

More Maryland Liquor Law: Define “BEER!”

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While waiting for the hearing on SB-616, Kim and I sat in on the hearings of other bills on the docket. These ranged from SB-675 which sought to outline voting districts in Carroll county to SB837 which proposed to allow for wine sales at a new retail complex in Prince George’s County. These bills weren’t very exciting, but one other bill was actually quite interesting and I think exemplifies the difficulty of licensing and lawmaking when it comes to alcoholic beverages. (Image from wikipedia)

At face value, Senate Bill 745 seems quite straightforward. Senator Colburn proposed the bill to acknowledge that by definition, Flavored Malt Beverages (FMBs) such as Jack Daniels coolers should be classified as “beer” for wholesale licensing and retail distribution purposes. Seems easy enough, right? Beer and FMBs have similar alcohol content, are sold together on store shelves, and both are carbonated, light alcoholic beverages. In the present system, FMB’s are defined as “distilled spirits” yet taxed at the rate of beer which is $0.09 per gallon. In contrast, “distilled spirits” are taxed at $1.50 per gallon. Why FMB’s aren’t currently taxed at the rate of spirits (which they are defined as) is beyond me. Regardless, this new bill would protect FMB’s by saying they are “beer” and maintain their tax rate (and licensing) at the current “beer” level.
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Wine Club Meetup - Saturday, March 22, 2008

Theme: Your favorite wine under $20. Location: Mike’s House - Directions will be provided with RSVP. What to bring: Your favorite wine, under $20! Also, cheese and H’orderve contributions are appreciated!

Click here to find out more or RSVP!

The Green Fairy - Absinthe

Awesome post in our forums today by donna that deserves front page status!

Donna gave an overview of Absinthe (The Green Fairy) that discusses how it’s made, it’s recent comeback, legal issues and what makes it so magical! Thanks Donna!

Click here: Read the post and join in on the discussion!

The return of Bravo’s Top Chef

The season 4 premiere of Top Chef aired last night on the Bravo network. For those of you unfamiliar with this show, Top Chef takes 16 contestants of various culinary experience and background and gives them the opportunity to prove their skills in head to head competitions. Week after week contestants face off in two types of challenges; a “quick fire” challenge, in which they can win small prizes and immunity from elimination in the larger, more serious “elimination” challenge. It is in this challenge that chefs must perform - the least favorite dish in this competition wins a one-way plane ticket home. (image of judges table courtesy of Wikipedia.org)
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Wine Shop Shelf-talkers: Do they influence your purchase?

A “shelf-talker” is a written or pictoral descriptor designed to describe a wine which is placed on the wine rack near the wine it describes. The content on shelf-talkers range from a few words describing flavors in the wine or specific numerical ratings, all the way to details about the producer and in depth tasting notes made by a wine critic, the shop owner or staff. I’ve even seen images of a brain inside of a prohibited circle (such as the no smoking sign) - these wine purchases are a “no-brainer!” However they hang, shelf-talkers are meant to be helpful to us consumers by giving us information about wines we are going to spend $10-$100 on so we know what we’re getting ourselves into. Nothing spells letdown more than buying a $40 bottle of wine and finding it unpalatable!
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SB-616: Maryland Direct Shippers Bill - Update from Annapolis: No resolution today!

If you ever thought about spending 6 hours in a senate hearing without eating anything before hand, let me tell you…DON’T! Kim and I just sat through what was actually an interesting afternoon before the Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee. We heard about some interesting bills before the senate, including a “definition of beer” bill that I’ll review at some other time. For now, we’re sitting at a wine bar on Main St. in downtown Annapolis, enjoying a glass of wine, waiting for food, and eavesdropping on a few of the opponents arguments of the bill sitting two tables over!

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Recipe and Tasting Notes: Grilled Lamb Ribs and a 1995 Brunello di Montalcino

Some Thursday night meals are just better than others. This one was, well, better than most. As you may know, twice a year I buy a whole lamb from our vet who owns a farm (we buy a cow, as well!) and takes outstanding care of her livestock. It’s quite nice to know you’re buying meat from animals that were well taken care of, especially with all of the problems with abuse in the large slaughterhouses. The result of this great care is beautiful cuts of meat that are filled with flavor!

For tonight’s dinner I came up with a rub using some ingredients we had around the kitchen and used it to make grilled lamb ribs. I really enjoy cooking when we haven’t gone shopping in a while; it’s a fun challenge and I usually come up with combinations I haven’t tried before. The result this time was a rib of lamb, rubbed with a dry rub of sage/garlic/thyme/capers (and more) and grilled to juicy perfection!

Here are the tasting notes on the wine (from my favorite wine region in the world, Montalcino) which I acquired recently from a collector with a cellar deep in Italian greats. Overall, the wine was very good- making me miss Montalcino even more!
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Today’s News: Amazon.com to sell wine (oh boy), Maryland senate meets tomorrow on wine shipping bill

Amazon.Com steps into the wine market

Internet retail mogul Amazon.com has recently announced that they will enter the online wine sales market. Their partner-in-crime and newest affiliate is the online wine retailer Wine.Com. Yes, the same Wine.Com that performed its own sting operation last year by ordering wine from competitors websites and having it shipped to states where the action was illegal (read about it here). So maybe it’s not a new partner in crime as if it were crime, Wine.Com would turn themselves in!

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WBW #43 - Comfort Wines

Today is another Wine Blogging Wednesday! This month our host is Joel at WineLifeToday. The theme is something dear to all of us wine lovers, comfort wines. Our mission:

“choose a wine, any wine, that you love to unwind to and tell us about not only the wine but what makes the experience special and relaxing for you!
“

This one’s a no-brainer for me: Sparkling Wine - more specifically, Avinyo Brut Reserva Cava.
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Dining: Siberian Husky Style

A nice dinner we made at home last week featured two medium rare strip steaks, fettuccine with shaved white truffles, and outstanding olive oil (Croce di Mezzo) and a nice Brunello (2001 Santa Lucia Riserva) we picked up in Montalcino this past November. As you can see, we weren’t the only ones anxious to eat the meal, nor were we the only ones to enjoy it. Gotta love Huskies! (For a video of this action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b16N9f6CiZg)

Wine Pairing: Seared Tuna with a 2006 Stefani Wine Syrah

Wine rules: White wine with Chicken and Fish. Red wine with meats. Blah blah blah…

Forget the rules. If you like red wine with fish, drink red wine with fish. If you like a light, crisp, acidic white wine with your 44 oz porterhouse steak cooked rare, MORE POWER TO YOU! Sure there are some classic pairings that make the whole food and wine experience an epiphany (Sauternes and Fois Gras comes to mind) but in general, if it tastes good to you drink it. If it doesn’t, then DON’T drink it.
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