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Posts about Wine
State wineries make a statement
Posted by: Bill Ward Updated: August 17, 2012 - 3:51 PM
The host state in general -- and a new kid on its block in particular -- came up big at Thursday's International Cold Climate Wine Competition. Four Daughters' 2011 La Crescent captured "best in show" among white wines in the fourth annual event at the University of Minnesota.
Four Daughters Vineyard and Winery, which opened just last year in Spring Valley, Minn., also won the Minnesota's Governor's Cup trophy for top wine from the state.
For the second straight year, Vermont winery Shelburne Vineyard's Marquette (in this case a 2010 Reserve) was named best red wine. The Midnight Voyage Dessert Red Wine from Danzinger Vineyards in Alma, Wis., was deemed best specialty/fortified wine.
The Marquette and La Crescent grapes (the latter is pictured below), developed by the University of Minnesota, showed especially well in the competition. Another Minnesota winery, Hinterland of Clara City, received one of just two "double golds" (panel judges unanimously designated it gold) for its Marquette Reserve. A Marquette from Indian Island in Janesville, Minn., and a La Crescent from Wild Mountain in Taylors Falls earned gold medals.
Cannon River Winery in Cannon Falls grabbed two gold medals, for its Sogn Blush and St. Pepin. Also garnering a gold was the Frontenac Gris from Whispering Oaks in Melrose, Minn.
This year's competition included more than 325 entries from commercial wineries in 12 northern states and Canada (only grapes that can withstand harsh winters are eligible). Twenty gold, 61 silver and 79 bronze medals were awarded; for the entire medal list, go here.
Old favorite returns
Posted by: Bill Ward Updated: August 9, 2012 - 8:38 AMMy Liquid Assets column today centers around popular brands that have gone missing. Those of us who love the smaller, more allocated wines can empathize.
Even with dozens of wine wholesalers in Minnesota – estimates run as high as 60 – some dandy smaller brands come and go. The reasons vary: Maybe the distributor went out of business, or the winery was sold, or not enough was moving here, or someone’s dog died.
So it was seriously great to see Navarro wines recently reappear on store shelves after several years’ absence. This Mendocino County winery makes some tasty pinot noir, but its main focus is on whites, especially the grapes that do especially well in Alsace.
Turns out they do equally well in Mendocino’s cool (literally and figuratively) Anderson Valley. Exhibit A: the Navarro Dry Gewurztraminer, which Sunset magazine recently named the West Coast’s best white wine under $20 (it’s just a tick above that price here).
Other offerings now lining Twin Cities shelves are the Mendocino Chardonnay ($20) and the Anderson Valley Pinot Noir l’Ancienne ($33).
All are worth checking out, and the Gewurz is a peerless introduction to that underappreciated varietal.
New wine mecca: Lilydale
Posted by: Bill Ward Updated: August 14, 2012 - 7:56 AMFor a city this size and a populace this sophisticated, we seem to fall woefully short in the wine-bar department. The quality is decent, the quantity decidedly lacking, in both the core cites and the suburbs.
So it's seriously cool to see the debut of Sunfish Cellars' wine and cheese bar in Lilydale. It's being steered by two of the Twin Towns' top mavens: Erica Rokke, late of France 44, for wine and Ken Liss of Premier Cheese Shop for the fromage side.
There will be small plates, a la the swell wine bar Toast, which like Sunfish cannot install a hood vent and thus has to keep the food in the flatbread/cheese/crostini/salumi bailiwick.
But what makes this enterprise special are the brands and prices on the wine list, especially the by-the-glass program: the fabulous Shafer One Point Five cab for $20 (yes, that's a steal); Bethel Heights' wonderful pinot gris for $5. These are retail prices in a wine bar, folks.
The BTG selection will rotate frequently and always include a mix of the familiar (Caymus cab, St. Supery sauv blanc, Kung Fu Girl riesling) and the lesser-known (Gamling & McDuck cab franc, Francois Chidaine Vouvray, Marcello lambrusco).
"After many years of searching for, and not finding, a place to get some good wine at low prices we decided to do it ourselves," read the email from Sunfish announcing the opening. "We have selected a mess of wines that are exciting and delicious to drink and then we priced them so that you won't be drained of your money at the end of the night."
True, that.
The Mondavis, back in the day
Posted by: Bill Ward Updated: February 13, 2012 - 2:14 PMA little more than a century ago, Cesare and Rosa Mondavi left Italy and headed for a place far from home, in distance and climate: Minnesota's Iron Range. Their grandson -- Peter Mondavi Jr., co-proprietor of the family's Charles Krug winery --shared some subsequent history during a Twin Cities visit this week:
"They left Ellis Island with about $20 in December 1908 and went straight to Virginia, Minn. There was some pioneering contingent of Italians there. Why, I don't know [chuckles].
"During Prohibition, the Italians were missing their wine. It wasn't a luxury, just an everyday beverage. The community rallied around my grandfather to go out to California and buy grapes. So he did that every year and even shipped some of them to illinois and other places."
"The Prohibition laws allowed 'the man of the house' to make 200 gallons of wine a year. Grandma ran a boarding house for miners. And her argument was that she had 16 'men of the house.' "
"My grandfather was a very, very smart individual."
Sounds like Rosa (below) could hang right with Cesare in the smarts department.
Rosa Mondavi
Solera kicks wine up a notch
Posted by: Bill Ward Updated: October 18, 2011 - 7:15 AMSo exactly how much flexibility does a guy have in modifying an all-Spanish wine list?
Enough, it turns out, to keep Solera assistant general manager Jay Viskocil busy for the last several months.
For starters, the Hennepin Av. tapas mecca now offers up a wider range of reds from Iberia.
“We basically expanded the core, added a couple of regions like Yecla,” Viskocil said. “Yecla wasn’t a region that I loved, but I found some wines that I loved from there. We also scaled down the whites.
“The biggest thing was finding a really good representation of each region. You can’t just have the whole [importer] Eric Solomon book. We tweaked by-the-glass a little, but the focus was more on the really popular regions – Toro, Catalunya, Ribera del Douro. We put in a few more Riojas and Priorats.”
Viskocil took on two more tasks:
Educating the staff on pairings: Many of executive chef Jorge Guzman’s new dishes taste complex (and delicious). But “our cooking style is very minimalist,” said Guzman, who migrated here from the Yucatan via St. Louis. He and Viskocil give all the servers a handout with the ingredients in each dish, and all the bartenders and waitstaff sample every dish and discuss the elements that might lead to good wine matches.
Making customers more comfortable with Spanish wines: “With an all-Spanish list,” Viskocil said, “the most important thing is to translate from California or France. So if someone says they like oaky, buttery chardonnays, I know what to get them.”
The list itself is impressive, both for its regional breadth and prices. Any wine list that includes 10 bottles at $30 or under, and well-chosen bottles at that, works for me.
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