Michel Rolland Speaks of "Coca-Cola Style" Wines

Cheers all,

Here is a bit of a diversion from my intended track today, but I thought I'd better present it. The following is a response I gave to two gentlemen in the French Wine Society LinkedIn group who were defending Mr. Rolland and his less-than-lofty hopes for wine and wine-drinkers, and is my thought in general on the subject of the "Coca-Cola-ization" of wines. Naturally this could have been written in response to anyone, and I have left out the gentlemen's names to protect the (Innocent?)

We shall not capitulate!

Dear Mr......

It is my opinion that, in the same way that laws in the government are (ostensibly) made for the protection and good of the citizenry, and that doctors take the Hippocratic oath to heal their patients and do what they can to improve their lives, people who know about wine, whether as amateurs or professionals, share and dispense that knowledge in order to increase the demand for good wine, and lower the demand for bad. It has nothing to do with expense, as you suggest, by the way. There are good 10-dollar wines and bad 10-dollar wines for example; many more of the latter. Given the choice, which one would you rather have?

Once you find a good wine, don't you believe that it is imperative to share that knowledge of an up-and-coming wine-making area or producer with your fellow wine drinkers? Isn't it important to educate people about the ambiguities of wine and share with them the means to embrace those ambiguities? Isn't it important to always remind people, even oneself, not to get attached to one wine, good or bad, because there are thousands of them out there, and the one you like will most likely be different next year anyway?

As you point out, though you don't recognize it, consumers DON'T KNOW what they want (even though you suggest that they do). You speak of marketing. What does marketing do? It TELLS consumers what they want. Instead of giving them marketing; give them education!

Zu unserem verehrter Herr ...... aus Merdingen: Wir mussen immer die Gelegenheit nehmen um Weinliebhabern Wein Erkenntnis beizubringen. Oder?

Prost,

The Vinucator

Bemelman's Bar at the Carlyle

Q: What do Woody Allen, Leonardo diCaprio, Tom Selleck, Nicolas Sarkozy, Mick Jagger, and The Vinucator have in common?

A: We were all staying at the Carlyle and drinking at Bemelman's a week ago (not that we were hanging out together in my room, mind you. I am not sure that could have afforded all of the furniture that Sarkozy and Jagger would have broken, what with Sarkozy getting second billing in Carla Bruni's closet and all).

Bemelman's (the fabulous old-school NYC bar in the even-more fabulous old-school NYC art-deco Carlyle Hotel - http://thecarlyle.com/) is known for celebrity sightings and murals depicting the illustrations found in Ludwig Bemelmans' "Madeleine" series of children's books. Drinking at the bar itself, however, is not child's play, as drinks can run upwards of $20 a piece, but not all there is centered on negronis, martinis, and gimlets. The bar and hotel also offer a very serviceable wine list to go with their classic as well as their more modern dishes.

Here were the pairings that were suggested by our mutual friend, The Vinucator, for a group of about fifteen:

Appetizer:

Bibb Lettuce with Blue Cheese, Poached Pear, Toasted Walnuts, and Truffle Dressing

Wine: 2006 Domaine de Ladoucette Pouilly Fume

Main#1:

Grilled Hawaiian Swordfish with Broccoil Rabe, Roasted Peppers, Garlic Herb Potatoes, and Lemon Butter Sauce

White Wine: 2006 Bruno Giacosa Roero Arneis

Red Wine: 2007 Domaine Joblot "Clos de la Servoisine" Givry 1er Cru

Main#2:

Individual Beef Wellington with Bordelaise Sauce on a Bed of Wilted Spinach

Wine: 2004 Chateau Leoville-Poyferre St. Julien

I don't suppose there is any need to say that the pairings were wonderful, and based on the level of quality of everything at the Carlyle, the prices of the wines were not insufferable, as they would be in many other places.

Check it out sometime! If, however, you can't go to Bemelmans or the Carlyle, pair these wines with this this menu at home. Even if you don't get to see Jagger and Sarkozy fighting over Carla Bruni, or listen to Woody Allen play the "Magnum, P.I." and "Titanic" themes on his clarinet, you'll save yourself a few bucks and have a great dinner with your (somewhat-less-glamorous) friends anyway!

Salud, dinero, y amor!

The Vinucator

A New Beginning; The Vinucation Blog Starts in Earnest

Hi all,

Here we go again. When I initially created this blog two years ago, I did it as an experiment to see how much time, in order to do it well, I would have to spend on it every day. I discovered that it would be over an hour, and concluded that that would be too much. I now intend to carve out that time (or perhaps a little less), so look for my first new post tomorrow, and keep on coming back.

Upcoming posts:

Bemelman's Bar at the Carlyle Hotel in NYC;

What to Drink on the Deck of a Mobile Bay Waterfront Vacation Home; http://www.vrbo.com/170332

The Coney Island Experience;

Good Wines for Camping;

Sushi and Sake on the Upper East Side of Manhattan;

The Best Mai Tais in Hawaii;

The Distillation of Armagnac in Gascony.

When Wine Grows Up

Here's a set of questions that I hear pretty often:

What is the difference between an aged wine and one that's been made to drink upon release?
If they taste the same, why should I bother with a wine that isn't ready in the first place?
Why should I wait ten or even twenty years or more until the wine that I've stored is "ready"?
Worse yet, why should I go out and spend a fortune on a wine that someone else has stored for all of these years?

The answers to these questions are part of one of the guiding principles of VINUCATION that we have held since the inception of the company in 2000:

There is a difference in taste between a young, ready-to-go wine and a wine that needs time to reach its maturity. The difference, very simply, is in the levels of flavor. Young wines, no matter how soft or approachable, will always be more "monolithic" in their taste or "flavor profile". Mature wines, given that the quality level is the same as that of the young wine, will always have many more layers of flavor. If you plan properly, you won't be waiting for the wine to mature per se, as you will always have mature wine to drink once you make the effort to start your cellar.

It's true that most people in this country, even those who drink wine on a regular basis, will never get the chance to drink a wine that was meant for aging in the first place and then drink it at the peak of maturity. This is true because most people simply run to the liquor store on their way home from work. This can be avoided, even if one does not have a great deal of money. In France, Spain, Italy, and Germany, among other wine-bibbing parts of the world, much of the middle class has at least a small collection of wine down in some dark, dirty hole (often a root cellar) that is regularly replenished. Each family, in this way, is able to open a bottle or two with each meal, or at least with a few good meals during the week.

How does one get started?

Talk to you soon...

WWJD? What Would Jesus Drink?

Today's Post just happens to be the wine of the day as well. Enjoy!

VIN SANTO

The "holy wine of Tuscany" is capable of being one of the world's great sweet wines. The wine is made with the ancient Mesopotamian method of drying grapes on beds of reeds before the press, and is fermented and aged in small sealed barrels known as caratelli for as much as seven or eight years.

Vin Santo is very sweet, but, when made correctly, has a high level of acidity to balance the sweetness, and is a concentrated wine with great length. Vin Santo is made in several DOCs, one of which is Bianco dell’Empolese.

BIANCO DELL’EMPOLESE (DOC)

Although wine has always been produced in the hills of this industrious town along the Arno river, Bianco dell'Empolese is one of the more recent white Tuscan DOC wines. The local winemaking tradition goes back to the times of the Medici family (who had one of their most important villas built at Cerreto Guidi), and continues today with great dedication, which ultimately resulted in the creation of the DOC in 1989. Both the number of producers and its renown has grown in the last couple of generations. The denomination does not include only white wine, but also Vin Santo. Grape varietals used in this DOC are limited to Malvasia and Trebbiano, while in some other DOC’s where Vin Santo is made, Grechetto may also be used.

FATTORIA MONTELLORI

One of the best producers in the region, Montellori has earned its reputation for producing “Supertuscans”, but their attention to detail and observance of the most rigorous production methods has kept them in good standing for years, and been made evident in their Vin Santo Bianco dell’Empolese.

Serve chilled with a good dry pastry like apple tart!

Love and Wine The Vinucator

Old World versus New World

You've heard about it before: the Old World versus New World debate on wine. I must admit, it is one of the reasons for the existence of VINUCATION. Below, you will find a comparison of Bordeaux versus California, but this is just a simple example that roughly illustrates some of the trends in the two viticultural worlds. When I think about it, I probably should have begun this blog with such a discussion, simply by virtue of the fact that it is such an important issue, but that's alright. We'll be talking a lot down the road about this sort of thing.

I will tell you: I do believe every wine has its place. If a wine is well made, we should drink it, whether it be a five-dollar Chardonnay from China or a five-hundred-dollar bottle of Burgundy. The trick is to know when, where, and with what. Some wines are made as beverages, and some are so much better with food than without, that it is pure silliness to drink them unaccompanied simply because of the fact that you are not tasting the wine at its most delicious. The fact is, so many wines from the New World are made as beverages, that this is a rule that you can look toward in determining how to drink your wine. Obviously this rule is mutable, and may change completely one day, but because the "New World" by definition does not have a long-standing deeply-ingrained culinary tradition, as does the "Old World" - French cuisine; Italian cuisine; Spanish cuisine - and does not have the long-standing viticultural tradition, there is not yet a natural symbiosis between the wine and the food in the New World. It will come in time, but it may take several hundred years.

I will continue this with you a little later. Until then, think about each of these comparisons and try to remember any recent wines that you've had which prove the premise.

CALIFORNIA	BORDEAUX
Tend toward interventionist winemaking	Tend toward laissez-faire winemaking
More high technology	More artisanally-produced wines
Fruitier	Earthier
Round	Angular
Rich in oakey aromas	Allows character of grape to show more
Simpler, distinct, yet often profound flavors	More complex; more subtle flavors
Less versatile with food	More versatile with food
Better alone	Generally not as good alone
More expensive here than in California	Sometimes cheaper here than in France
Cult wines	Slow, steady price increase
More single-varietal oriented	Blend of up to five varietals more common
No concept of terroir	Fairly well-formulated concept of terroir

Nota Bene:

Please remember that some of these comparisons are subjective in nature, and are, therefore, left to the taster to determine.

Prost!

The Vinucator

Just A Few Words From Some Folks Who Know

A hard drinker, being at table, was offered grapes at dessert. 'Thank you,' said he, pushing the dish away from him, 'but I am not in the habit of taking my wine in pills.'

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

I think wealth has lost much of its value, if it have not wine.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Drink wine, and you will sleep well. Sleep, and you will not sin. Avoid sin, and you will be saved. Ergo, drink wine and be saved.

Medieval German saying


If the world's leaders would simply discuss things over a bottle of good wine, much of the trouble that plagues us all would never come to pass in the first place.

The Vinucator