Douro! Douro! Douro!

Why not shout about the wines from the Douro (rhymes with Toro) Valley in northern Portugal? They are surprising, exciting, unique.

I’ve just returned from two days in the region. The landscape includes a meandering river, sweeping valleys, terraced vineyards, and winding roads that aren’t for the faint of heart (especially when driven by Portuguese bus drivers, who love to tailgate).

Port wine, a fortified beverage that is often aged for years, has been produced in the area since the 1600s. But table wines are babies – they’ve only been made for 15 years! There are some white wines produced in the Douro, but it’s the reds that play the leading role.

When young, the red wines of Douro can be too much for many palates- certainly mine. The acidity makes the side of your mouth tingle, the fruit is powerful, but rough, the tannins are sometimes out of control, and there can be bitter flavors and stalky vegetable notes that don’t work. However, when in the hands of a skilled winemaker and when given a few years to mature and a few hours to decant, the wines are delightfully approachable and always food friendly. In fact, I believe that drinking them without food does them a disservice. I found that when I was eating – whether a full meal or a few marcona almonds-- the wines uniformly tasted better. The very high acid in the wines makes them great matches with many foods.

One of the controversies in this very young wine region is what to grow and how to blend it. Touriga Nacional is a popular grape variety that produces a full bodied, inky dark red. Many Portuguese wine makers are making single variety wines with it. However this is a departure from tradition in the Douro, where field blends are commonly fermented. I was unfamiliar with this practice, but learned that older vineyards have a huge variety of grapes--as many as 50 or more--mixed together in the fields. In those vineyards, the winemaker waits until everything ripens then ferments it all together.

Many winemakers are getting away from that tradition in an attempt to serve a market that expects to see grape varieties listed on the label. They’re replanting old vineyards with five common varieties in order to make new style wines. When I met Cristiano Van Zeller from Quinta do Vale dona Maria, he said this was a mistake. His field blend wines are gorgeous, so he makes a good point. Personally, I think that the tradition of field blends is one of the aspects that makes Portuguese table wines unique.

It will be fascinating to watch and taste the development of this up-and-coming wine region. Just remember to decant!

Seven Hills, Lots of Wine, EWBC Anticipation

I am packing my bags, downloading ISpeak Portuguese, and counting the hours until I fly into Lisbon this Friday morning. The object of my anticipation is the European Wine Bloggers Conference.

I’ve had the pleasure of visiting California twice for the North American Wine Bloggers Conference, and I’m really looking forward to its sister conference across the pond. I have to hand it to Gabriella and Ryan Opaz and Robert MacIntosh, conference organizers, for putting together a stellar weekend.

One of the best things about these conferences is that they give wine bloggers the opportunity to meet. The friends I’ve made in this funny little world of online wine writing have always delighted me with their intelligence, humor, and joie de vivre.

I’m thrilled that the conference site is Lisbon. I’ve never been to this European capital, and I’m glad that the conference has given me the excuse to go. From its historic monuments to its seven hills, Lisbon looks quite magical. I’ll have to squeeze in as much touring as I can during my brief stay.

When I heard about the Saturday night dinner it sealed my decision to attend. We will be dining at Restaurant 11. I recently purchased a top 10 book of Lisbon, and the number one restaurant cited was –you guessed it—Restaurant 11. At last count, 15 courses were being planned with appropriately matched wines.

After the conference, there will be three straight days of vineyard tours, including two days in the beautiful Douro Valley. I am always thrilled to visit the lands where grapes are grown, to speak to the winemakers, and to get a sense of the place that goes into a wine. This truly enriches the experience of wine for me and inspires my writing.

Not to be forgotten in all this touring, interacting, and dining, is Portuguese wine. At the North American wine bloggers conference I had the opportunity to taste a lot of wonderful, full bodied red Portuguese wines. These were rich in fruit and tannin and extremely good values for the money. I can’t wait to visit the land where they were made.

Taste New York

Let’s all taste some Rieslings from the Finger Lakes. The idea spanned several states and multiple blogs, beginning with the plan’s originator Lenn Thompson of the blog Lenndevours: New York Cork Report. Here's his report of Taste NY.
And so, a shipment of Riesling was sent to New York City and sat waiting for bloggers until last Friday night. It was then that Erika Strum, Robbin Gheesling, Rob Bralow and I held court at a corner table in Lily’s restaurant in the Robert Smith Hotel and tasted through the bunch.
On the way, there was a cheese plate and some lamb lollypops and good conversation and a discussion of whether and where to have dinner (the answers were “yes” and Apiary).
As I posted recently on my Manhattan Wine Examiner Column, here are my tasting notes:
Hermann Wiemer 2007 Dry Riesling—Fresh nose with lots of ripe honeydew. Very pronounced on the attack with high acid. Tangy, tangerine flavors, but a disappointing finish.

Red Newt Cellar 2006 Riesling -- White flowers on the nose and a bit of petrol. Lots of lime on the palate, a very tangy wine that could be a good food match.

Atwater 2007 Dry Riesling – Another high acid wine, with a bit of spice and a splash of lemon on the finish.

Fox Run 2008 Riesling – Complicated nose that began with pretty floral characteristics, but gave off an odd note after a couple minutes. Tingling acid and flavors reminiscent of peach pit.

Hazlitt 2008 Homestead Reserve Riesling – Fresh nose, a lot of acid that tingled on the inner cheeks, nice pear flavor.

Billsboro 2008 Riesling– Big nose, rich flavors, especially ripe pear. The best of the night.

Anthony Road 2008 Semi dry Riesling– Winner of the 2009 Governor’s Cup, a lightly sweet wine with good acidity.

I'm looking forward to reading what other bloggers have to say about the bunch. There are still more unopened bottles of Riesling that need a taste.

Diane Letulle--Manhattan Wine Examiner

I’ve had a range of jobs in my life – working in marketing, public relations, doing freelance writing, even teaching music—but I’ve rarely been so excited about taking on a new role. I’m very pleased to announce that I am now the Manhattan Wine Examiner.
That means I get to take one of my favorite activities—checking out wine in New York City—and write about it for a national web site.
I recently went downtown to visit City Winery. My first post focuses on the After-Work Backyard BBQ free music series (check out the slideshow), but follow-up articles will include an interview with the founder Michael Dorf and news about their custom crush program.
Please check in with the site often, and if you have recommendations for a Manhattan wine event, store, or program that you think I should examine, please feel free to let me know.
I’ll still be posting to this blog, but I hope you’ll visit me at the examiner. Cheers!

10 "AHA" Moments from the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference

1. Wineries love bloggers – we were spoiled rotten in Napa with beautiful meals, walks, talks, and tastings
2. Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is consistently priced out of reach of everyone I know – $100 a bottle Cabernets abound.
3. Melissa Dobson is a great date for the weekend
4. Petite Syrah is hot – although I still don’t “get” this grape
5. Rick Bakas really does eat bacon 7 days a week, but 5 of those he’s doing turkey bacon
6. Portugal’s red wines are terrific – full bodied, flavorful and well-matched to many foods
7. Despite his new found celebrity, Hardy Wallace is as nice and self-effacing as ever
8. Stag’s Leap was named for a hunted stag who jumped over a promontory to escape death
9. The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone is a breathtaking facility and, according to its director, “Hogwarts for food and wine lovers”
10. Barry Schuler has the historical perspective and contemporary insight to be able to explain just what’s happening in print and electronic communications, e-commerce, social media and more

East Coast Food & Wine Festival Offers Relaxing Taste of NJ

Some wine festivals are mob scenes—hundreds of people crammed under a giant tent, all pushing their way with glass extended to the overwhelmed winery staff. But the East Coast Food & Wine Festival in Pennington, NJ, offered a bucolic alternative to those over-crowded fests.
As soon as my car bumped over the lumpy clover field to the parking, I knew I had reached the heart of New Jersey farmland, a heritage forgotten by out-of-staters who have heard too many “What Exit?” jokes.
But this is, after all, the Garden State. Pints of New Jersey blueberries were stacked high, their purple-blue hue peeking through their clear plastic containers. In the produce tent, vendors sold lettuce harvested just two hours before, as well as fresh beets, peas, and more. There I met Mikey Azzara, a friendly pioneer of the Jersey locavore scene who runs Zone 7. He drives to farms to collect just-picked produce and then delivers it to local restaurants.
But what about New Jersey wine? All in all, it was a mixed bag, and some wineries showed much better than others. Unionville Winery offered the best reds I tasted. I particularly liked their more expensive (still only $22-$26) reds, including a medium weight, fruit-forward 07 Montage, which blended 50% Chambourcin and 50% Pinot Noir. I also enjoyed The Big O, another 07 that was a big, tannic wine with lots of fruit. This is another 50/50 blend, mixing Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. I’m guessing the Cabernet Sauvignon doesn’t ripen sufficiently to make a varietal wine, but it blended nicely with the earthy Cab Franc.
Unionville is able to grow their own Merlot, while another winery I won’t name sources grapes out of state for theirs. This is one of my pet peeves. If I’m visiting a local winery, I want to taste the local wines, not ones from the West Coast or New York. I suppose it’s a money-maker for them to offer Washington State Pinot Noir, but I question how NJ can establish itself as a quality wine-producing state if its wineries sell out-of-state products? I believe that more NJ wineries need to embrace lesser-known varieties that grow well in their soil and climate, rather than trying to offer the standard Pinot Noir & Cabernet Sauvignon.
For example, Hopewell Valley Vineyard, the festival host, offers a flavorful Chambourcin. Originating in the 1950s in the Loire Valley, Chambourcin grows very well in NJ and I'd feel safe buying it at most NJ wineries. It produces a medium weight red wine with rich ruby color, good fruit, and light tannins, and it pairs well with lots of dishes.
One thing that a lot of wineries got dead wrong was their Chardonnay. I tasted more than a couple that were over-oaked. One of my tasting notes said, “I feel like I’m sucking on a 2 x 4.” I asked Gary Pavlis, a festival speaker who judges NJ wine competitions, “Why do so many NJ wineries over-oak their wine?” His answer was that they didn’t get enough flavor from their fruit. I thought about the European wineries that wouldn’t produce any wine during a bad harvest in order to preserve the quality of their brand, and wished the NJ wineries would make the necessary changes in what they grow or how they grow it to eliminate the need for such masking techniques.
I found one quality Chardonnay that was not available for the general tasting. This buttery Chard from Unionville retails for $45…which made me question how many people would pay that much money for a NJ wine, even if it is quite good. My choice for the best priced, high quality white wine was at Cape May Winery’s booth: Victorian White. This blend of white grapes produces a pleasing, medium-weight wine, light gold in color with a punched-up, fruit flavor.
When I asked several winemakers and local experts, the consensus was that New Jersey wine is improving, but it has a long way to go.
But as far as wine festivals go, the East Coast Food & Wine Festival got it right: multiple tents that were leisurely spaced-out, a great-sounding country band, food vendors offering delicious gourmet fare, and terrific speakers including TV Chef Michael Colameco, Judgment of Paris author and journalist George Taber, and the charming chef and wine expert Maureen Petrosky. On a sunny, blue-sky weekend, the East Coast Food & Wine Festival was the place to be.

The Many Moods of Beaujolais

Beaujolais has a reputation as a simple wine, but maybe it’s got more going on than meets the eye.
I never thought of the grape as very age-worthy, but last night at a tasting at Snooth headquarters on Madison Avenue organized by Gregory DalPiaz, I heard tell of 10 year and older Beaujolais showing very well, comparing favorably with younger Burgundies. Well, I haven’t tasted old Beaujolais, and I’m not in a big rush to do so, because, frankly, I like Beaujolais very much for its youthful, fresh taste.
When it comes to Beaujolais, I subscribe to the Kevin Zraly school of thought. In his Windows on the World Wine School, he talks about it as a great choice for a bottle when out to dinner with friends. It’s the red that can work well enough with both fish and red meat. He also likes to drink it at the end of a long day, when he doesn’t want to analyze his wine.
But analyze we did, at least enough to figure out that there are some substantial differences in the Cru Villages. While wine marked Beaujolais Village is a blend of grapes from across the region, Cru Village Beaujolais (it will have the name of the village on the label) comes from one of the ten small towns that have earned this designation.
The wine that stopped me in my tracks was the 2007 Thenevet Grain & Granite from the village of Régnié. This was a darker, fuller bodied Beaujolais with greater tannins than any I had ever tried. I enjoyed the wine, but felt like it wouldn’t be my first choice if I wanted to reach for a typical Beaujolais. The Domaine des Terres Dorrees Jean-Paul Brun Cotes de Brouilly was also a bigger version of the wine.
More in line with my expectations were the wines from Fleurie, Chenas, St. Amour & Julienas. This were lighter in color & flavor and offered the fresh, strawberry goodness that I love in Gamay.
My personal preferences: when I want a typical Beaujolais that still has a bit of character, I’ll go for Fleurie or Julienas, two of my favorites, and serve them chilled, as they do in France. However, I won’t turn down a glass of the bigger Beaujolais if I’m in the mood for a heavier red wine.
No matter what the style, one thing to love about Beaujolais is the price. You can buy the best ones for under $25. Now how many wine regions can you say that about? I think of Beaujolais as a spring wine—when temperatures rise it’s often nice to have a lighter red. I recommend sampling wines from several of the cru villages in order to find the mood of Beaujolais that suits you.