On a holiday trip in America, breaking some bread with the inventor of White Zinfandel

In the period between American Thanksgiving and American Christmas (the secular observance falling on December 25), life can turn into one big cranberry if you let it.

This directly applies to the flavour profile of the wines you may encounter, especially if you go along with the idea that White Zinfandel is the made-to-order match for Butterballs with all the fixings, festive holiday luncheons and the heaps of leftovers that emerge as turkey club sandwiches.

White Zinfandel is not something that I had ever knowingly tasted. If I had ever stopped to give this style of wine any thought, I'm sure I would have assumed that I would continue avoiding it, come gleaming 20-lb stuffed turkey or high water.

But quite recently, during a trip to New York City, I discovered there was a chink in my armor. Perhaps this was hubris, or even worse, holiday hubris, which often comes wrapped in coloured cellophane with a tacky wine accessory attached.

AN INAUSPICIOUS END TO DELICIOUS START

BrooklynGuy Neil, whom I met up with while I was visiting New York, lead me from Pineau d'Aunis blend to Pinot Noir bubbly, steering me entirely clear of any Zinfandel of any kind, even though Thanksgiving had just passed.

We drank Muscadet and we drank Touraine. And even in leaving behind the Loire Valley -- practically a polar winter to any Zinfandel grape -- I only strayed as far as the Mâcon.

And when my bottle of Mâcon-Villages spilled onto the sidewalk in Hell's Kitchen (yes, it was me who was the good Samaritan seen picking up glass shards at the corner of Eighth Avenue and 49th Street at noon on Saturday, December 1) I merely crossed the street and got another one almost identical to the first.

One day, change was afoot. I was feeling like something more spicy for a trip to the NoHo Star so I shopped for a lusty red wine. But I blindly passed by the Ravenswoods and Clines and picked up an Alfrocheiro from Portugal (which was a really exciting find -- my first 100% varietal from Portugal -- and it drank beautifully, almost like a light and spicy Rhône).

It would seem there was not a bottle of Zinfandel in the world that would reach this Canadian in New York during the festive season. Or was there one, silently sitting there waiting for me?

Glasses clinked and November became December. My departing train came too suddenly -- I was whisked up to Albany, where Amtrak's 15-minute layover greeted me and my hastily purchased turkey chimichanga with a small and curious bottle of Sutter Home Family Vineyeards White Zinfandel 2005 (the only wine sold in the entire train station -- thankfully with a screw top, the most teensy-tiny one I've ever seen). My train home about to pull out of the station so I wasn't about to split hairs. But I rolled my eyes and grabbed a stout as a back-up (the stout, unlike the wine, was not a screw top, and it went straight into the garbage).

Is this how it would all go down? A White Zinfandel neophyte chugging along Lake Champlain with a $2 bottle of blush to declare at the Canadian border? (For the record, Quebec only imports three brands of White Zinfandel: Gallo, Baron Herzog, and Beringer's sparkling version; Ontarians have a full dozen of White Zin options, including the one I had before me here, but their increased exposure to this blush is because the Ontario wine industry produces some even more ersatz stuff of their own -- namely White Zinfandel-Vidal -- to up the tally.)

Surely such an amazingly eye-opening trip to the Big Apple filled with great food and wine would not be concluded like this?

Well actually, it was the only time during my visit when I had nothing better to do than write tasting notes, so yes, it would be the culmination of my trip.

Eyes: This is actually a blush wine, and not just any old rosé, so it's a paler shade of pink.

Nose: Cidery, both distinct wafts of cider vinegar and aged fruit. How quaint. I'm still amazed at this point that I bought this bottle.

Mouth: Mulled wine on the palate -- practically juice. At first I felt like dumping it, but the line for the train toilet was too long to make it worthwhile. Soon, I starting coming around to it. Totally cranberry profile -- it tastes like Thanksgiving right out of one of those cranberry jelly tins. Not bad tannic presence, who knew a blush (though I think it's got more than a hint of pink) could be so grippy and drying, which mercifully complemented the sweet side of this wine's attack.

Stomach: The Adobe turkey chimichanga I got from Whole Foods was packed with shredded turkey, kernels of corn and spices. I actually felt like I was having a movable Thanksgiving feast, post-dated one week.

So overall, not a bad wine to crack open on the Amtrak Adirondack at 10:30 am (let me qualify that slightly by saying the café car wasn't selling anything with alcohol until noon that day).

Next stop Schenectady, where I picked up a wireless signal long enough to gather the following information on White Zinfandel, U.S. patent #2934857396684759760157495731110490928658.

(Like the wireless bandwidth, the following was stolen from an unacknowledged source.)

In the 1970s Sutter Home Winery was a producer of premium Zinfandel in the Napa Valley. One technique they utilized to increase concentration in their wines was to bleed off some of the grape juice prior to fermentation to increase the impact of compounds in the skins on the remaining wine. The excess juice was separately fermented into a dry, almost white wine that Sutter Home's Bob Trinchero called "White Zinfandel." This wine became the classic example of the varietal style. An "invention" that is Delicate blush pink in color, with sweet aromas of strawberries and watermelon. It is fresh and lively with a crisp finish. Enjoy well chilled.

Varietal Information

Produced from red Zinfandel grapes grown in the upper Sacramento and northern San Joaquin valleys. Grapes for this bottling were harvested early in the growing season (early to mid-August) at low sugars (18-19 degrees Brix) and relatively high acids to maximize the freshness typical of this wine.

Nutritional Information

5oz serving size, 5 servings per 750ml container:
Calories | Carbohydrates | Fat | Protein
108.000 | 008.300 grams | nil | <1 gram

Happy Accident (Detailed information)

In 1975, Sutter Home's White Zinfandel experienced a "stuck fermentation", a problem that occurs when the yeast dies out before consuming all of the sugar.[3] This problem juice was set aside. Some weeks later the winemaker tasted it, and preferred this accidental result, which was a sweet pink wine. This is the style that became popular and today is known as White Zinfandel. Sutter Home realized they could sell far more White Zinfandel than anything they had produced to date, and gradually became a successful producer of inexpensive wines. The demand for White Zinfandel resulted in extended commercial viability of old vine Zinfandel vineyards, which saved them from being ripped out.[4] When the fine wine boom started in the 1980s, demand for red Zinfandel picked up considerably and these vineyards became prized for the low yields from century-old vines.

Rather than use the leftover juice from premium Zinfandel production, Sutter Home (and most producers today) grow grapes specifically for use in White Zinfandel in places like the Central Valley of California. Production costs are substantially lower and fruit quality is not as important to the final taste as it would be in a dry table wine.

In the 1990s the Trinchero family, owners of Sutter Home, began production of a new brand of fine wines, M. Trinchero.

Napa, California, U.S.A. 9.5%.

Midtown Manhattan's best picnicking (plus five more picks from New York City)

Jump to: Picnic pick | Eric Asimov's wine pick | Brooklynguy's wine pick | Alice Feiring's wine pick | Doktor Weingolb's wine pick | Special BYO resto pick


The plan was to blog but I stopped fighting the weak wireless signal that gave me the Internet one minute and totally disconnected me the next. So I decided to leave the laptop in my room and hit New York hard. While that made for a bit of gap in my blogging, I now have lots to say about my five-day getaway, including a few juicy tidbits about wine and food.

Consider this update as five posts in one (use the anchored links at top to navigate through it -- it's lengthy). I hope this makes up for the recent inactivity.

* * * *

First of all, as I alluded to my last post, New York City is fiery hot pit of asphalt and sweat in the summer months, especially when you are caught in Midtown or on a subway platform, or worst of all in Midtown on subway platform (Warning: Never take an uptown train from the 47th-50th Streets/Rockefeller Center station without a towel). What I discovered is that but just 10 streets down from that sauna stop on the B, C, F and V line, I discovered an oasis of refreshment and air-con at the corner of 37th Street and Madison Avenue, also known as the Morgan Library & Museum. The collection alone is well worth the price of admission, but what I went in for was its fantastic café which is at the centre of this amazing building complex.

As you can tell from the photo I posted at the top of this entry, the food is just as inviting as the cool and airy space of the café (pictured below), which the Morgan website accurately describes as "a casual dining atmosphere in the glass-enclosed central court, evoking European alfresco dining." You bet, alfresco! This is by far the greatest place for a picnic during the dog days of summer. Save Central Park for less humid weather.



The brilliant thing is that the Morgan Café emulates a real outdoor courtyard: the high ceiling is composed of a lattice of glass and steel slats, there are trees amid the small dining tables, and on exceptionally warm days like when I was there last week, the sunlight enters the space in bearable measured amounts through the help of automatically shifting shades along the glass structure (follow part of that transition in the photos below).



As for the café menu, plenty of picnic-perfect choices but my order of a plate of cold cuts, goat's cheese and olives is an amazing deal. For only $8 you get to make a couple of your own prosciutto and salami sandwiches (just slap on the cheese and that lettuce onto the complimentary rolls they offer you!) and for $7 more, get a glass of wine. (I felt like I won the lottery the instant this $15 alfresco feast started -- surely you can do no better in Manhattan.)

I chose the Château Routas Rouvière Coteaux Varois 2006, a salmon-coloured rosé from France's Provence region. It was thirst-quenching, quite dry and very likable alongside the spicy marinaded olives and salty cured meats. It had a drinkable table-ready style that some alcohol-drenched rosés from Provence don't handle as deftly. Light and appetizing, this wine is meant for casual lunches when it's really hot out. But I don't need to tell you that. See more detailed notes on this wine.

With this kind of fuel I had energy to wine-shop...

MÂCON, MÂCON-VILLAGES, AND THE MANY RESOURCEFUL TOWNS SOUTH OF THE CÔTE D'OR

My initial instinct was to take a tip from Eric Asimov and so I went for white Mâcon -- Burgundy's best summertime deal. If wine is your bag, Mr Asimov is much-respected and hard-to-miss in the blogosphere. Of all his recent recommendations, I'm finding these white Burgundies to be the most up my alley.

I love this style of Chardonnay, which is full of mineral and bright citrus flavours, though some deem it too light. I happen to value light, and not just because it often translates to light-on-the-wallet. This is Eric's point about Mâcon and its hinterland, known on the label as Mâcon-Villages.

While the results are not yet in on any specific Mâcon bottles (for that please refer to Eric's notes), I can report that New York definitely has better price-points on these wines than here in Quebec. These $12 bottles in Manhattan routinely convert to $20 bottles here in Montreal (and this is not usually the case with most French wines). Expect tasting reports for some Mâcons soon around here, most imminently for the one pictured here!

MACON, MACON & STUYVESANT, AND THE MANY GREEN STREETS OF BEDFORD-STUYVESANT

When I met the wine-wonderful Brooklynguy for lunch in TriBeCa, we discussed our common interest in wine and love for MTA buses. They are certainly cooler transportation than the subway and are routed all around the city and its four boroughs. To get to Macon Street in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy neighbourhood, buses are the best means of public transit and, much to the glee of Brooklynguy, I recounted how I traveled along the #43 - Franklin, the #48 - Lorimer and the #25 - Halsey.

Why do us winos like buses so much? Besides being street-level and perfectly temperature-controlled (most of the time), they are wine-shopping-friendly, or to put it more precisely, they are bottle-friendly. This is because they have padded interiors and are rather spacious if you like to buy by the case. Most importantly the differential in ambient temperature between a shaded bus stop and the coach is a lot less bottle-shocking than sweltering subway platform and meat-locker train car. (Also the bus is more personable, even when you haven't got a supply of wine on you: just before getting off at Classon Avenue, a kind Bed-Stuy rider pointed out all the globs of sunscreen smudged across my face that I had missed smoothing out.)

Brooklynguy, being the generous and knowledgeable guy that he is, suggested I take advantage of a rare Beaujolais while I could and snap up the Domaine du Vissoux Pierre-Marie Chermette Beaujolais 2005. It's not that difficult to find in Manhattan. I would certainly get it again. It's an unfiltered wine and you can sense it immediately, as in I-can't-believe-it's-not-Beaujolais-cru. My uptown hosts thought it was bold, round, rich and delicious. A hit from an advised expert... check out the full review on Brooklynguy's Wine and Food Blog.

A HEAVY FAVOURITE FROM LANGUEDOC-ROUSSILLON

I have never met Alice Feiring, New York-based wine enthusiast of great expertise and integrity, though she has responded to my brusque queries and desperate emails. She is the one who saved New Year's Eve for us when we hadn't a clue where to take our Cervaro Castello della Sala Antinori Chardonnay for a hopping good time. Well, Alice answered that question and supplied so many more reliable suggestions, like this next wine pick, for instance.

Yes, it was a total no-brainer to instantly buy the Domaine des 2 Ânes Fontanilles 2004 when I happened past it at Astor Wines & Spirits. She wrote about it as an everyday wine with substantial value back in February so I wasn't sure it would still be in supply. Luckily it does seem to be quite well stocked. But unfortunately, it's put into one of those extra heavy bottles that sit in your bag like a stone and makes you wonder why you're schlepping around so much weight at a free jazz concert staged in Washington Square Park. My advice: Make your purchase on the way home rather than when setting out. Astor's open till 9 pm every weeknight.

I'D LIKE A SIX-DAY VERNACCIA IN NEW YORK

For THE best Vernaccia di San Gimignano that gets made you've got to try Mormoraia. It's a little more expensive than most Vernaccia varietals at about $16 per bottle but it does taste like the height of Vernaccia di San Gimignano, a grape that gets very little respect.

Respect is something that it may not need if pure aromatic refreshment comes this easily and this cheaply. In the Mormoraia Vernaccia di San Gimignano 2006 you also get great balance, nutty depth and a profound finish for an otherwise lightweight varietal. I wish I could've brought back more of this across the border. I certainly could've afforded more. As it stands on my map, I've clearly marked down New York Wine Co. (it's 21 Warren Street near the Chambers Street subway station), the Lower Manhattan wine shop that sold me this great stuff.

WHERE TO TAKE YOUR WINE PICKS OUT TO DINNER . . .

And to save the best for last, there's Petite Crevette, the longtime fish-specialty restaurant on Hicks Street in Brooklyn. I had the pleasure of taking a friend of mine out for a birthday lunch there even though she does not eat fish. Fish lover or not, this is a cozy little nook that charms you and sates you, thanks to Neil Ganic, "a chef who has a knack for turning out satisfying, homey but refined dishes that value flavor over frills."

Here's a guy who can single-handedly chat up your table and whip up a codfish burger at the same time. That neither one comes out overdone, rushed, or inauthentic makes this restaurant a true winner. Evenings are much busier so if you like the welcoming chit-chat and attention, definitely try it for lunch. Also definitely bring you own bottle of wine. There's none of those huge corkage fees here. Perhaps a vivacious and slightly rustic Greco di Tufo dei Feudi di San Gregorio 2004 to handle the flavourful fish and mouth-watering appetizers (two words: Cremini mushrooms!) as well as all the other non-seafood plates that are served.

WBW #35 Spanish Wine Values: Castillo de Liria 2006

This fantastically appealing WBW theme (I bet there will be more participants than ever even though blogging efforts tend to wane in the summer) seems to pick up where mine left off. Like WBW #33 Languedoc-Roussillon value wine, this event is based a huge wine-producing area and an effort to seek out strong values.

I definitely found an outstanding value. It's so cheap I can't remember ever paying so little for bottle. And the beauty of it all is that a lot of plonk is more expensive than this $8 wonder.

It's called Castillo de Liria Valencia Rosé 2006 and it rings in at only $8.15 in Canadian funds. If you were to convert that to the US dollar it would be $7.70 -- well under $10 limit suggested in the WBW 35 theme. (In fact if you factor in the relatively high taxes levied on all wine bought in Quebec, this is basically a Spanish wine that retails for $6.65 US.)

Opening a bottle this affordable is what I call a no-risk endeavour. Nevertheless, I have the usual consumer-guide notes to provide.

This rosé is a transparent but bright fuschia in colour. On the nose there are strong scents of strawberry shortcake -- both sweet and fruity and bready and yeasty.

On the palate this wine is all juicy cherries but with some minerality for structure. A stunning crisp and clean finish that's quite tight is what convinces me that this a fine value. It's not at all cloying or syrupy. This rosé had none of the sugary aftertaste that I was expecting.

It went down great with pizza garnished with green peppers, tomatoes and ham. Overall, Castillo de Liria makes a unidimensional wine but renders it into such a nice and versatile quaffer, I'd gladly recommend it, especially for scarfing down simple dinners or for having a drink in the sun. It is 100% Bobal grape, which was introduced to me only recently at a wine shop tasting in the form of an interesting Languedoc-Roussillon sparkling rosé.

I've had some of the line of products made by Gandia Wines in the past and nothing from Vicente Gandia ever grabbed me. I'm happy to see that one of his most rock-bottom-priced wines is convincing.

Thanks to Michelle at My Wine Education for getting me back into the wine-blogging-Wednesday game after a month off to recuperate from my WBW hosting duties. Michelle, I hope you enjoy all the reviews you're getting sent your way and I'm looking forward to the round-up in a few days!

Chiva, Valencia, España. 12%.

Poolside wines: What balance

Will Jancis topple over without my support? Is drinking four glasses of wine before lunch on Tuesdays part of a well-balanced lifestyle? Do cheap-o rosés have any poise, elegance or integrity to them at all?

Vin de piscine or "poolside wines" -- the theme of the final lunchhour wine tasting at the Cour Mont-Royal SAQ -- is the focus of this entry. While that may be focus, the focal point is Jancis Robinson's superimposed face on a summer babe body because the photos I took at this event (which was staged in a mock backyard setting rather showily constructed in the tasting corner of this "gants blancs" store) were entirely deleted in less than a second. They were deleted by me. I was buzzed.

The wine that inspires you will only defy you, especially if it's before noon, which is when these lunchtime midi conseils typically get under way. More proof that cheap wines, thanks to inelegant use of sugar, will get you blitzed quicker? Or, beneath it all, it is really that I secretly miss Jancis so much (in a rather disturbed and unhealthy way!) since my membership to her subscription site expired last month? Perhaps I need a new way to get her attention now that that gated online forum of hers is off limits to me.

CAN I BE TRUSTED?

So now that I've admitted to incompetence, here are my mini reviews of the four cheap-o rosés the SAQ opened for guzzling (so cheap in fact that they did not charge the usual five dollars to participate in the weekly tasting):

First up was Mousseux Rosé J.P. Chenet, a wine entirely made of Bobal grapes, typically a Spanish variety. This isn't at all a bad Languedoc-Roussillon wine, but it is not promoted as a Vin de Pays d'Oc, nor does it indicate a vintage, as is the wont of many reputable sparkling wines. The distributed notes say that the J.P. Chenet brand sells a bottle and a half every second of every day. Total global export domination! It's actually not too shabby what all these people are buying for $12, if a bit gregarious with added sugar and no shortage of yeasty toastiness.

The second position was not a good one to be in after the heaps of sweetness of the Chenet. Bounding around the room was Cerasuolo Colle Cavalieri Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2006. It's funny how much of this stuff you seem to get poured into your glass (when the tasting is poolside rosé rather than Pouilly-Fuissé or something else more treasured you really get treated like a king). Anyway this $10 bottle is standard Italian pink to me: hard candy notes with a lightly bitter finish. In comparison to the sparkling before it, it's bone bone dry. Suffered from a bad transition in a tasting room with no palate cleansers.

From Chile, the PKNT Rosé 2006 with a big hot pepper picture on its label was up next. Was I too easily suggestible, too drunk, or totally correct in thinking this wine tastes exactly like hot peppers? Buzzing grapefruit notes reigned in by thoroughly green tannins from the 100% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes gives this wine a startling flavour profile similar to a bag of jalapeño-flavoured potato chips. Oddity. $12.75. I bet the PKNT Carmenère with its green pepper tasting note is equally as bizarre.

It was at this point I recall snapping a picture of the woman next to me who had pulled out an SAQ plastic water bottle. That's right! SAQ H20. It looked like one of those Tim Hortons bottled waters but with Société des Alcools du Québec written on it in trademark colours and typeface. I thought it was hilarious to make an effort to stay hydrated at a lunchhour tasting. Or maybe she knew about the hot pepper wine and came prepared. Ay, caramba!

While I realize rosés are cheap, this tasting definitely was bottom-of-the-barrel, even for pink wine, until the final bottle. Was everyone wasted by the time it flowed? The Domaine du Vieil Aven Tavel 2006 was $20 and better than the others yet I would counter to suggest you get a better deal on this blended style of pink wine with Michel Gassier's $14 Château de Nages from Costières de Nîmes. Sure, it's no Tavel, but it's not far off from the exclusively pink A.O.C. zone known as Tavel. This rosé is said to be age-worthy for five years. Maybe that what's the extra $5 are for?

So there it is -- just in time for this week's approaching heatwave. (Also please refer to these always-dependable rosé wines and this article on heatwave wining and dining.) And this also all comes just in time for the return of Joe of Joe's Wine. He's back in Montreal after some time in France and the wealth of posts he's accumulated and brought back with him is impressive. This post is for Joe, who always reported all the other SAQ noon tastings that I sadly could not attend.

Until next time, enjoy the heat folks!

Saturday, June 24: La Fête de la Saint-Jean Baptiste (avec du Domaine de Gournier rosé)

The only rosé I've had this season is also the only rosé I've bought multiple bottles of. Easily pleased? Perhaps I am. A couple of Domaine de Gournier Vin de Pays de l'Uzège 2005 won't let you down when you and three friends are on a summer holiday picnic...



...unless you plan on remembering your hat.

Doktor Picnicblog: Château Bellevue La Forêt

There are so many things about this photo that I am not sure of. Who took it? And when was taken? And, uh, what am I doing?

These answers are all lost in the mists of time. Yet I can almost certainly recall that the pink stuff in my glass was Château Bellevue La Forêt. It's a thoroughly dependable rosé from the Côtes du Frontonnais region of southwestern France (click on my wine glass in the image above for more details). During my formative years, Bellevue La Forêt was practically synonymous with weekend lunches on Mount Royal.

Perhaps a little too formative based on this unraveled Lotus position I am demonstrating here.

TIPS ON SERVING TEMPERATURE

But remember folks, it's not how much you drink, it's how you drink it. Yesterday’s post, which featured a stunningly beautiful painting-like photograph, shows that picnics don’t have to be limited to a bottle or two if you want your wine perfectly chilled. On hot summer days though, volume can present an issue for wine reaching the right temperature. Thermal sleeves are the best devices for traveling with wine bottles that need to be served cold. Put the bottles and their sleeves in the freezer separately during the hour before your departure. Can’t get those rosés too cold when the air temperature will instantly start warming it up.

Backwash
Thanks to Collin C for pointing out to me that I might need a little adventure in the picnic equation I wrote out yesterday. Here’s what I’m working with now: picnic = wilderness + friends + wine + food