Wine and Food Adventures

California

Pale yellow-green with veils. Some sparkling effects. Very fruity with tones of lemons, peaches, green apricots and grapefruits. In the mouth then clearly peaches with surprisingly long finish. Still very young, but this is definitely the wine to drink young. In the summer sit outside and enjoy this Viognier with not too heavy fish smoked on the barbecue.

Easy to drink, in any case together with friends to have a good time. A bargain!

St. Helena, Napa Valley, California
46% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot

Nice deep black cherry colour, clear with a lot of reflexes. In the nose clean, very intense and complex. Spicy with aromas of cinnamon and nutmeg. Some tobacco in the background? Later some fruit aromas come more into the foreground. Black cherries and especially cowberries.

Very pleasant, mild, perfectly integrated alcohol. Tannins still present, but in a pleasant way. Harmonious with medium finish but in the main part smoothly lingering.

A complex wine which needs the taster's whole concentration. Absolutely on the top. Perhaps another two or three years.

Definitely the wine for your next tender beef filet.

Rheingau

The 2006 Nussbrunnen Riesling has a wonderful full golden yellow color. Clear and reflective. In the nose ripe mangos; pure, strong and racy. Nice sweetness with some acidity. Still fresh with a strong body – the term sinewy comes to my mind. In the mouth very present and also nice fruity aromas. The finish middle-long; perhaps a little bit short.

In total a nice Riesling Spaetlese and a very good example of this sweet wine style. Pair this wine mainly with some nice cream cheese, but not too strong. This wine is already well drinkable, but even in the half-bottle I believe it will improve in the next two years and will remain on this level of quality for another 3 to 5 years. I have another bottle in my cellar, I will check.

Balthasar Ress is a very good winery in the Rheingau in Germany with very innovative owners. The Vinothek (Wine Shop) in Hattenheim is worth to visit and on the website www.balthasar-ress.de all information is available in English, too. So something for your next Germany trip?

German wine classification is not easily understandable. In January 2012, Germany's VDP (Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates) agreed to further refine their classification concept, in which the origin and quality of a wine are inextricably related. On top of the pyramid created as part of the classification is the so-called "VDP.GROSSE LAGE" - best comparable to a top vineyard site. Indeed the Hattenheim Nussbrunnen is such a classified single vineyard "that unmistakably reflects the influence of their microclimate and soil structure, and shows especially high quality potential" (citation from Balthasar Ress website).

Also on the website you can find a good description of the Nussbrunnen: "The Nussbrunnen vineyard in Hattenheim has a south-southeast exposure. The name derives from a "Brunnen," or spring, that was once surrounded by nut trees. The source of the spring is still visible today. It lies well protected from cold northerly winds on the lower reaches of the slope, adjacent to the site Wisselbrunnen. Among the finest parcels of vines in the Rheingau is the 1.5-ha/3.7-acre parcel within Nussbrunnen that is owned by the Balthasar Ress estate. Its special soil conditions, e.g. deep, loam-loess soils that guarantee an excellent water balance, as well as the prevailing microclimate, are among the reasons that Nussbrunnen is such a top site. These are the prerequisites that enable grapes to consistently yield top-quality wines."

The wines:
- Bonterra Vineyards 2007 Viognier Mendocino County & Lake County, California
- Robert Sinskey Vineyards 2010 Pinot Noir Los Carneros, Napa Valley, California

The pork strips were served with a rice / lentils combo and sautéed Brussels sprouts wilth almonds.

Why two wines? The dish is complicated to pair due to the unusual food composition. Pork, Red Wine, Gorgonzola, ... The combination allows no straightforward decision. I thought that an off-dry white could work so I tried the Bonterra Viognier. It is not really off-dry but my feeling was it could work. On the other hand I tasted at Sinskey last year the Los Carneros Pinot with blue cheese. Wonderful. So I decided to try both.

Due to the Gorgonzola Red Wine Sauce the dish has a strong aroma. The rice with the lentils underlines the aroma where the medium prepared Brussels sprouts with the almonds give a nice counterpart. In total a very interesting dish with a lot of flavours. Both wines work - but on a different level. The residual sweetness of the Bonterra leads to a very interesting experience. Drinking the wine directly after some strips seems to kill the wine a little bit - the Viogner appears to be flat. But if you wait 5 seconds minimum a totally different view. Suddenly the fruity aromas harmonise with the dish. Nice thing.

However the Pinot works better. No difference if you drink directly or wait a little bit. Equal partners. The Pinot strengthens the aromas of the pork strips and vice versa. Another good example that a good prepared Pinot is a wonderful food pairing wine. Unfortunately my last bottle. I will be back to Sinskey during my next US trip definitely.

By the way: Tasting notes for both wines are also blogged.

Los Carneros, Napa Valley, California
Organic Grapes

Surprising dark ruby red. Crystal clear, reflective surface with medium colour depth. Pure aroma with good intensity. Typical pinot style but not too much as you can find it today very often in Pinots when the winemaker was over-motivated. Wonderful aromas of dark cherries. Typical for young Pinots. Very, very pleasant. Mild, warm and round with exactly the body needed. Long finish with some dominant fresh acid. This aftertaste acid tone was gone after four hours. Then the wine was nearly perfect. Gives hope for a longer life.

The Carneros Pinot from Robert Sinskey is a wonderful partner for a diner with salmon, not too heavily prepared meat, duck, ham, ... My favourite would be sautéed foods. But if you are looking for a nice glass of wine to drink in a summer evening sitting in the patio refelcting your life... no bad choice. You would be surprised how fast the bottle would be empty.

The wine is still young but very good to drink. I would say that the peak will be in two years to remain for another three or five years.

Mendocino County & Lake County, California
Made from Organic Grapes



Nice golden yellow colour, reflective with some veil. Clean aroma, intensive and fine. Fruity with a lot of ripe peaches. In the mouth very pleasant, mild and round. 14.0 % alcohol well integrated. Smooth acid. In the finish a little bit too much alcohol, but in total very harmonic. Long aftertaste, still with peaches in the retro-olfaction. Charming.

Definitely not the wine to simply drink it in the evening. This wine needs corresponding food as partner. Exotic foods from India or the Caribbean always match, curry styled food could be a wonderful partner. However soft and semi-soft cheeses would fit perfectly. I'm a Raclette fan - and this wine is definitely a Raclette one.

The general opinion about Viognier is that the wines have to be drunk young. My experience is that Viogniers can be held for two years; sometimes five or more. This 2007 Viognier from Bonterra is on, perhaps a little bit over the top. Do not wait any longer.

The rating system I use is the well-known 100 points system. Very important: My rating bases on the day I drunk the wine. So no potential rating or something else. I hate that. If you want to know about my appraisal of the potential, read the blog.

Also important: Everything above 79 points means that the wine is really worth to taste and to enjoy. These are good wines or better from my perspective. Today more and more the 90+ hysteria goes around. So consequently I should avoid ratings, but on the other side everybody wants to see this. Hm. Gordian knot.

So my scheme:
- 99-100: Best of the best.
- 96-98: Fantastic. Wines for the best days of your life.
- 93-95: Outstanding. Wines for very special moments.
- 90-92: Also outstanding, but you don't have to wait for the special moment
- 87-89: Very, very good wines
- 83-86: Very good wines
- 80:82: Good wines; still above average

Ratings below I will not publish. This would not be fair to the wines because it is only my view. This blog is to inspire and not to blame wines perhaps because only I do not like them.

Hope these ratings help,
HPJ

Today I received it - my Coravin (www.coravin.com).



But let's go back half a year. A very good friend living in Oakland sent me a note about a new wine preservation system. Very interesting and during my US trips last year I followed the story behind it in the news. Also I saw the tool (unfortunately not in action) at Grgich Hills.

Import to Germany seems to be difficult due to the gas capsules. Strong TSA rules. However Coravin confirmed my request that import to Germany would not be a problem. Indeed it took only one week - 2 days transport from US, 5 days German customs - for delivery from US to Pforzheim in Baden Wuerttemberg.

I'm a man:-). So it took me 5 minutes to unpack, install and use it. Perfect "Getting Started" manual. Yes, I read it!

The victim: A 1994 Rosenblum Zin Richard Sauret Vineyards from Paso Robles. Still in wonderful condition with a lot of earthy tones, some wood and still some gentle blackberry aromas. The colour outstanding for the age. Nearly no ripeness tones.



So the wine was a real surprise. I will do the next test with the Coravin in one or two weeks. I will report...

If you read this blog it's your fault – not mine. I'm not a wine expert. Just a person who likes to drink wine. Especially wine from California and preferably with friends who share my passion.

The idea for this blog arose during my wife's and my last California trip. With friends we visited the wonderful tasting room of Tricycle Wine Co. at Arnold Drive inside Cornestone Gardens in Sonoma. We had nice discussions about wine, the wine business and wine from California and Germany. During these discussions paired with the wonderful wines from the Molnar Family, Kazmer & Blaise and Obsidian Ridge – Carole: many thanks for your outstanding hospitality – this blog was born.

I write this blog in English – even if my English is improvable. Why in English? Because it is mainly for my friends in the US. I learned during my US trips mainly two wine related things:

- Even in the US lots of people don't know about the fantastic wines produced in this country at wonderful wineries by remarkable people

- The knowledge about German wine can be improved

So I will concentrate mainly on the following topics:
- Wineries in the US and in Germany
- Wine Tastings – especially of Californian and German wines
- Wine and Food – my special view

So enjoy it and again "Be warned!"

Peter Joeckel
Hoehenstrasse 19
75179 Pforzheim
Germany
eMail: wine@tpjoeckel.de

Source: Rose & Partner (www.rosepartner.de)

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The wine: Two Hands 2010 Lily's Garden McLaren Vale Shiraz

One day a friend from Scotland presented us two cans of haggis. We mentioned for several times that we would really like to taste this Scottish national dish and so suddenly there was no further excuse. Of course we missed the Burns Supper at the 25th of January, but we are Germans - we are excused.



One week later we started the mission. The good thing with Haggis in cans is that the preparation is easy - which seems not to be the natural thing. Nearly all recipes we checked sound - let's say - interesting. Mostly we like that all of them end with drinking a whiskey - alternatively before, during and / or after eating.

So the most challenging thing for us was the pairing of food and wine. We wanted to avoid the traditional food pairing Swede and "neeps and tatties". We chose fried potatoes and beetroot. Excellent!

The wine selection was an easy thing at the end. Most recommendations were in direction of a strong red as equal partner. We selected a 2010 Lily's Garden Shiraz from Two Hands (McLaren Vale). Very deep coloured, full bodied and a wonderful aroma of black berries. A typical "Wow" wine from South Australia. Usualy not so easy to pair with food (from my perspective), but for the haggis it was an oustanding partner. Haggis is rich and has some "fat" aromas. The wine helps to reduce this "mouth feeling" and supports the intensive aroma without overpowering. My recommendation: Wait perhaps for 10 seconds before drinking the wine after a mouthful of haggis.

At the end a perfect Sunday lunch. We will definitely have haggis again. A wonderful dish for wine experiments.

For my British friends: You can get the wine (2011 vintage) at Majestics.

For my US friends: Import of haggis to the US is strictly forbidden because one part of it is sheep lungs....