Thoreau Wine Society's blog

Announcing a Champagne Lallier Dinner at the Chef's Table of Olives, Union Square NYC - Nov 12

 

Dear Friends,

As a teenager in Concord, MA, I worked many odd jobs -- catering, plowing, shifts behind a cheese counter, selling produce at the market; the four seasons of New England with all of their tastes and impressions laid the foundation for a lifelong obsession with gastronomic and vinous splendor.
An early splurge was a dinner at Todd English's Olives in Charlestown (which he opened in 1989), which, in my experience, was an unforgettable masterpiece. While the Chef has now become a global brand, his talent and experience certainly merit his success (to have trained under Jean-Jacques Rachou at Cote Basque...). I will never forget that dinner, a warm and elegant interior, a farm table, little bites of splendor, a glass of champagne or two ... surprising and dazzling perfumes.

And thus I am thrilled to announce that we are going to rival that gastronomic memory at Chef Todd English's Olives New York.  Diners will gather around Olive's signature Chef's Table with views into the open kitchen and will be joined by Francis Tribaut the owner of Champagne Lallier in Ay, France. I have written about these intensely focused Champagnes and they have deservedly been finding their way into the hearts of the critics and sommeliers throughout the world (this Blanc de Blancs is the house Champagne of the three-star L'Auberge de l'Ill in Alsace). We will be tasting these great vintages and Grand Cru blends paired alongside a four-course chef’s tasting menu featuring seasonal ingredients from the neighboring Green Market in Union Square. This is sure to be a fabulous pre-holiday Tuesday evening.

Lallier Grande Reserve
Lallier Blanc de Blancs
Lallier Rose
Lallier Zero Dosage
Lallier Millesime 2002
Lallier Millesime 2005

Tuesday, November 12, 7:30 PM
$125 per person, tax and gratuity included.
Limited Seating.

To reserve, you can call Olives directly at (212) 353-8345 or email: [email protected].

Hope you can join us!

Warmly,
Mary

A Wine for the (Dead) Nobles

Dear Friends,

It's a really perfect Halloween day out there -- appropriately grey and ominous. Tonight I will be serving a brooding but superb Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, the wine for the one-percent (of the sixteenth century). (Winemaking was first mentioned here in 789 -- and perhaps the remnants of old ghosts are still to be found.)

Halloween aside, why Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is not more of a household name is partly because there are only 40 or so producers making the wine and there has been an old habit of mediocre winemaking and overproduction. Some producers grew accustomed to making a field blend, but in 1989 Italy changed the law to restrict other varietals but for Prugnolo Gentile, which is otherwise known as Sangiovese. The soils here are very sandy and thus produce quite fleshy wines, but what is really critical is the efforts by the wine growers.

Salcheto, the recently reinvigorated estate in Siena, makes a particularly poignant example of this Tuscan appellation. They have converted the production into entirely chemical-free sustainable vineyard practices (achieving organic certification as of 2012). There are no maneuvers in the winery to cut corners, no industrial yeasts or added tannin. Here we have such low yields that only one bottle is produced per plant, restrained extraction and alcohol levels reach a modest (for the region) 13.5%.

I found the wine plump and juicy, clean, perfumed, warm and rich, a supple tannic robe, an earthiness and a delightfully enveloping redolence of dark fruit and roasted meat with a hint of oak. A superbly rounded wine of integrity. A je ne sais quoi meets an excellence. Ready to drink now. I would suggest this for holiday meals or a simple dinner.

Salcheto Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2009

Yours,

Mary

 

 

 

 

Autumnal Rhone Winemaker Dinner in Manhattan -- October 29

Pierre Henri Morel hosts a Southern Rhone Dinner at Back Forty West!

Dear Friends,

Now that we are really, really into fall it is time to sit fire-side and enjoy farm-to-table fall flavors courtesy of Back Forty West, Chef Peter Hoffman's cherished Soho restaurant, once known as 'Savoy.' The second floor dining room with its oversized farm tables and crackling fireplace
makes for the perfect setting to celebrate the change of season.

Pierre Henri Morel is a young winemaker in the Rhone with a whale of experience. At a mere 24, Pierre was appointed by, as some say "the father of Biodynamics," Michel Chapoutier to run the entire Chapoutier operation as Managing Director. Pierre lost himself in work for a dozen years until he realized it was time to go back to his roots, literally. With the help of Michel, Pierre took hold of a vineyard within the Chateauneuf 'lieu-dit' of Pignan (very rare to see this), and went from there to vinify from other vineyards in Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Cotes du Luberon, Signargues (a Cotes du Rhone appellation), resulting in wines of complexity and precision. Pierre's style is extremely deliberate - no fast tricks, but a labor of slow and natural vinification taking wave over Rhone fanatics and the press. I can't wait to see how these two Chefs (Chef de Cuisine, et Chef
d'Entreprise) weave their skills together.

8 wines, many courses, 6:30-9:30 Tuesday October 29
$85 all-in (tax and tip included)
Limited seating but love to have you.

You can let me know how many tickets are of interest, or call Back Forty West
70 Prince St. @ Crosby St.
Telephone: (212) 219-8570

Or better yet, sign up here:
http://backfortynyc.com/events/southern-rhone-wine-dinner/

I hope to see you there!

Mary

A Wine for Harvest Time

Dear Friends,

I am loving this slow step into fall -- (never mind the fever) -- and thus my inner sommelier is directing me towards the nutrients of deep red. I pulled out my old copy of "Barolo, Tar and Roses, A Study of the Wines of Alba," and found an old Robuchon menu stuck within its pages. The harvest is about to commence in both Burgundy and Piedmont and is by all accounts a disquieting time for the growers. In celebration, I have an apropos Piedmontese offering for today, a wine I lapped-up by the caseload this year for my birthday, that being the 2009 Langhe Rosso from Aldo Conterno.

Montforte d'Alba, in the southern part of the Langhe, is an ancient place with dramatic landscapes, dramatic food, and operatic family dramas. The Conternos have roots going deep into Piedmontese history; Aldo is the younger son of the famed Giacomo (of Monfortino). In the 1960's Aldo and
brother Giovanni had a philosophical split; Aldo went off to develop the wines of his Bussia vineyards and opted for modern techniques such as shorter macerations to soften up his wines, directly opposite brother Giovanni's traditionalist practice of long maceration to make harder and more tannic Barolo, exciting the familial rift. One could argue each side, and yet Piedmont has been awash in the "clash of modernists and traditionalists." This rift has happened quite often in winemaking families: I was reading a story about the wonderful Voerzio brothers dividing their family winery with a brick wall down the middle. Operatic!

The Langaroli, hardworking inhabitants of the Langhe, love their Freisa, a varietal often mistaken for Nebbiolo: low-yielding, deep smokey-blue, and thick-skinned. Monforte d'Alba is very similar to Serralunga (I love these names) with their sandstone soils and resulting deep wines with great
minerality and acidity. This beautiful Langhe Rosso from the 2009 vintage was made by the fourth generation of winemaking Conternos: Aldo's sons Stefano, Giacomo and Franco, who have made vast improvements since the nineties, such as cutting down the estate's production by half to raise
quality and using more gentle vinification techniques. The aforementioned Freisa peppered with a touch of Cab and Merlot, all grown in Monforte d'Alba, along with 6 months in French oak, and 3 subsequent years of aging in bottle lead to an incredibly appealing bottle of smokey, exuberant,
soulful wine.  Highly recommended.

Poderi Aldo Conterno Langhe Rosso 2009

To your health,
Mary

An Articulate Chénas

Dear Friends,

During my younger years, sometime in the mid-nineties, I managed to get myself into an acting course in Dublin, Ireland. I was too foolish to fully appreciate it, although one might argue that its influence has seeped under my skin. One afternoon they invited an Irish 'storyteller' to perform for our class--a Mr. Seamus Heaney, to whom I dedicate today's humble wine offering.

These holiday weekend clouds have afforded me hours of guiltless reading, for I am the annual curmudgeon who gets very excited for the end of this hot season in favor of the clarity of fall. And so I chose a wine that feels like that clarity--a Chénas from the rolling hills and Roman villages of Southern Burgundy.

Dominique Piron is a man of kindness and sanity, extremely committed to his 60 hectares dispersed like a cincture around his home and cuverie in Morgon. I love his range of wines, both pure and expressive of the soil; he is both an intelligent farmer and an adept winemaker--our favorite combination.

One such masterpiece is Dominique's Chénas, a commune called such because of its forests (chêne = oak). The wines from this commune were a favorite of Louis XIII long before the French AOC system was installed in the 1930's. These vines are owned in part by the 3-starred Michelin restaurant Lameloise (the greatest of all dining in Burgundy) and in part by Piron. Chénas is the most granitic of the Beaujolais crus; (Morgon, in contrast, is more laden with iron-oxide). The paradox of this wine is that the vines are very old; in fact, I am told that the oldest vines in France are in the Beaujolais. Why Beaujolais is a completely different wine than it was 20 to 30 years
ago is because there is no longer much of the old practice of overproduction. Now, Beaujolais farmers have learned to limit their crop in favor of better wines. And gamay is quite often my favorite grape variety of all. We slip cru Beaujolais into serious blind Burgundy tastings--chipping away at it's spurious reputation. There remains a hostile boundary between the Burgundians and their southern neighbors. I am here to tell you that you can get delicate fresh perfumed structured beauty every bit as sophisticated as a Burgundy or Barolo for a lot less money. This Chénas does just that.


Aged in 30% older oak barrels--for aeration, not for oak typicity--this luscious gamay has a deep color, an exuberant nose--medicinal, mineral, sous bois but fresh--beautifully precise on
Aged in 30% older oak barrels--for aeration, not for oak typicity--this luscious gamay has a deep color, an exuberant nose--medicinal, mineral, sous bois but fresh--beautifully precise on the palate, gripping acidity and structure, juicy and delicious.

Dominique Piron Chénas 2010

Slainte,
Mary

Wine from the Dolomites

Dear Friends,

Just a quickie for Friday.

At the top of the year I flew over the Dolomites on my way from Munich to Bologna for a tour of the magnificent academic town I had yet to explore. Air Dolomiti is a great little airline, everyone dressed in aqua and burnt siena, my head pressed against the window as we flew quite low over some of the most dramatic mountainous landscapes. The Dolomites rest in the heavily German influenced but Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Sudtirol, which we people of the vine refer to as simply the 'Alto Adige,' a wine-producing region considered among the Meccas for wine geeks for its world-class producers mixed with curious varietals and stunning mountainside vineyards.

Nals Margreid is a 400-year-old cooperative incorporating 140 growers who cultivate an average of about 1 hectare each (2.5 acres). I am becoming increasingly interested in high-quality cooperatives such as these which allow for small farmers to remain small while having a business network to help them make a steady income from their crops. Reality is that not every grape grower is a great wine maker. On the flip side, there are a lot of mediocre wines being made at coops--so we must explore. In this case Harold Shraffl is the winemaker, a man well respected for his unique understanding of these complex mountain terroirs, his natural non-industrial processes and his attention to typicity.

At a lunch with the winery representative, I tasted 6 of their wines and found a perfect Sauvignon (blanc). I am not usually a fan of grassy gooseberry Sauvignon (I don't even understand gooseberries--probably because they were banned in the U.S. for the majority of the twentieth
century because of a fungal disease they carried. (I digress.) To me, a Sauvignon blanc is at its best when allowed to exemplify the primitive rock under which it's grown, in this case being granite, slate, limestone, gneiss and porphyry. I've been a Sancerre snob because I love the chalky charcoal flinty quality of great Sancerre. In this case we have a similarly quiet elegance, a subtle hidden complex mineral expression.

Nals Margreid Sauvignon 'Mantele' 

Slainte,
Mary

Ischia, the Gulf of Naples

Dear Friends,

I am going on an imaginary trip to the Mediterranean island of Ischia--northwest of its much more inflated neighbor, Capri. Ischia is a volcano speckled with pretty boats; a favorite of the Etruscans,
then the Greeks, then the Romans (including Virgil), then the Barbarians, and now tourists looking to rejuvenate in hot springs.

There are vines and consequently, wine, one of which I have found to be simply incredible: that from La Pietra di Tommasone, with 7 hectares of robust vines planted upon (within) phosphorus- and potassium-rich soils. These vines lay dormant for 20 years after the death of the winemaker, Tomasso Monti. Then, in 2000, Antonio, Tomasso's son, returned to the island to reinvigorate the land and carry on his family's legacy. Antonio is a modern winemaker in the sense that he is post-industrial: Grapes are handpicked; historical and indigenous varietals are planted; and the ordinance that requires the mainland vignaioli to send their pomace (remains of pressed grapes) to the distiller does not apply to the Ischians, so that they instead recycle their compost as fertilizer--which means that these wines never meet chemical treatments of any kind.

The wine in question today is a Biancollela. Ever heard of it? It's been planted here for hundreds of years. A pure straw-colored expression of divinity, with lovely viscosity; the honey-flecked juice
rolls around slightly unctuous but refreshingly high-toned acidity. A smokey volcanic nose, a slight hint of sesame seed and ripe lemon, plump and waxy; a green-olive briny flavor leads into a long luscious finish. Grilled sardines and a bottle of this can very well transport you there in 5 seconds.

Tommasone Biancollela 2011

Slainte,
Mary

Wine for Cowboys

Dearest Friends,

I just returned from the wilds of Wyoming, where even the bears and eagles say good morning to each other, and the crisp nights and hot dry dusty afternoons up on the mountain trails lend themselves to cleaning one's slate and thus finding new causes for adventure. One particular evening, in a strange house, along a long sequoia dinner table with a serving of elk ribs under a dim chandelier and the soft touch of a cowhide under my feet, I realized nothing in the world
paired better in such a moment than the bottle we had before us of Schioppettino from the great winemaking region of Friuli in northeast Italy.

I found myself with a parcel of 2006 Schioppettino from the masterful Fulvio Bressan. Now, by all accounts, Bressan is a complete madman--a ninth-generation Friulian making wine in an extreme but incredibly attentive fashion. (I have to be careful what I say lest I get a knock on my door.) More than just an iconoclast, Fulvio Bressan is a verified lunatic/genius who takes up falconry in his spare time. He treats his grapes as though he were a shepherd or maybe a sorcerer. Friuli is a hotbed of wine extremists, and here is no exception. All the while, Bressan achieves depth, balance, and structure while adamantly using only ambient yeast, dry farming, and extended aging in ancient casks; (as an example of what I mean by 'extended', his current release of Pinot Grigio is 2006). The word 'schioppettino' apparently means 'gunshot', and this indigenous Friulian varietal has been named as such because their skins are likely to explode. There are few who have mastered the complex art of bringing this varietal to a great wine. Leave it to the falconer.

There is magic happening in Friuli.

As much as I am usually slightly more center of extreme left in my wine choices, this is one not to miss. Notably unique and extremely evocative. Enjoy this serious, dynamic, earthy, bootstrap, snakeskin, dark-red-fruit, spicy, complex, befuddling wine on a hot night. You'll thank me.

Very Limited.

Bressan Schioppettino 2006

All my best and stay cool,
Mary

A House Champagne

Dear Friends,

On Sunday morning I dug up an offer I had sent some 5 years ago--three little paragraphs describing a wine from Montagny--calling to memory a perfect moment in the bosom of France's countryside. It is hard to keep up one's writing style, especially given that my stories have changed so and France is now a place to which I travel; it is long since it's been a place where I live. But travel there I do, voraciously, and will do so again at the end of the week--this time to Bordeaux on a maiden voyage to VinExpo, the great bi-annual wine fair.

The rain has been falling heavily in France this year. In fact, last April we were told there hadn't been meaningful sunshine in months. Nonetheless we hit a rare and perfect Sunday and witnessed Paris bursting with long-deprived serotonin; the winding streets were transformed into one contiguous outdoor cafe, and it seemed millions were laying about the Tuileries. Alas, dinner was scheduled in Epernay and meetings to be had in Ay. I could have soaked up Paris like this for days.

The great Champagne Lallier is still somewhat an unsung hero in the US although keenly beloved among the Scandinavians and Japanese, with their refined tastes. Lallier, technically a negociant Champagne house, faces Deutz in the little square of the small city of Ay (pronounced Ayee), and is owned by a Monsieur Francis Tribaut who, by all accounts, gained the reins of this 200-year-old property not long ago by virtue of his hard work.

The vines associated with the house are found in Grand-Cru vineyard blocks speckled along the northern mountains of Reims, in places such as Bouzy and Ambonnay, Cramant, and Chouilly. You get these lovely names that have the sound of Champagne: "Chouilly." Never mind the glamour we are taught to associate with the region, this is a hands-in-the-dirt operation. No herbicides or pesticides; instead all the growers seem to be turning to the more costly moth-confounding
practice of sexual confusion. No industrial yeast. Restrained malo-lactic fermentation to preserve acidity (it took me years to comprehend what this meant). And the minimal dosage which comes from local beet sugar--7 grams per liter to be precise. Extremely minimal sulphur--less than half that of the big brands.

The result is balance between precision and power, depth and brightness, elegance. Ethical yet flirtatious yet academic--a great house Champagne.

The Burghound's review: "An expressive nose of lemon, green apple and soft baked bread nuances leads to a very rich and full-flavored mid-palate as the relatively high proportion of pinot noir is
definitely evident. There is ample mousse and when coupled with the marked pinot character it combines to create a distinctive Champagne of excellent depth if not necessarily great refinement. This could easily be enjoyed now or held for another few years first." 91 points

A rare price-to-quality ratio in this category.

Lallier Grande Reserve, Grand Cru, Non-Vintage

 

Slainte,

Mary

 

 

Liquid Light

Dear Friends,

I just read the quote, "Be light; it moves faster."

The wines of Laura Aschero achieve so much more than pristine minerality -- they have a luminosity. For those of you who have been urging me for Italian whites, it doesn't get much better.

As grace would have it, I stumbled into the most pure perfect Pigato from Liguria. Laura Aschero is a story of a woman and a winery in a Mediterranean village: the eponymous doctor's wife who came back to her father's trellised vines to make a beautiful expression of her family's land.

The estate is 5 hectares as the Alta Valle descends into the Mediterranean. The Riviera di Ponente zone is the home of Pigato, the spotted grape brought by the Greeks or the Romans, we don't know. The Vermentino came over from the middle east and was planted throughout the old world. These are not textbook, but mysterious intangible expressions of divinity, magically fragrant and poised, hauntingly subtle. Vines are 150 meters above sea level. Whites are made with some extended skin contact, very little temperature control; they achieve tension and vibrancy; a mere 12% alcohol. A lightness full of grace, and no banana peel or manipulated flavors. This is your summer Italian white.

Laura Aschero Pigato Riviera Ligure di Ponente 2011