The Other 49 States of America

A Pinot Noir from NY

You would be forgiven, if you visited a UK supermarket, for thinking that California was the only state of America to produce wine. Even if you visit a specialist wine retailer, you are unlikely to be offered the wines of more than two states. In fact all 50 states of the USA have wineries with North Dakota being the last to join the club in 2002. The wineries in many of these states concentrate on making wine out of fruit and vegetables other than grapes, and very often the wine never leaves the state, but nevertheless there are many places all over the USA making good wine out of grapes nowadays. If you click on this link, Fifty States of Wine, you will find an article from Time magazine by Joel Stein who describes tasting wines from all fifty states and he only found six of these undrinkable and twelve bad. That leaves 32 states producing drinkable wine. If you look in Hugh Johnson’s excellent annual Pocket Wine Book, you will find he describes the wines of about two dozen states. So why can’t we buy them over here?

An excellent selection of wines to taste in Richmond

The answer is that you can in many cases but need to go on-line to the very specialist wine merchants. Yesterday evening, we attended a very interesting wine tasting of American craft wines organised by David Swaddle of tasting Sessions in Richmond upon Thames. He had brought along Sue Chambers who has a specialist wine company importing the wines of Long Island situated in New York State. We tasted seven very interesting boutique style wines all available in the UK. So what did we taste and where can you get them:

VIRGINIA
I was particularly taken by three wines from Virginia which is an east coast state just below Washington DC now producing many excellent wines. These wines were produced by a winery set up be Gianni Zonin in 1976.

Barboursville Vineyards, Viognier Reserve, 2009. £23.50 from Famous Wines.
This 100% Viognier has no oak and is also not very sweet. Quite different from many Viogniers as it is not particularly full-bodied. Big notes of citrus and very much to my liking.

Barboursville Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2009. about £20 from Famous Wines.
Lovely bouquet, big blackcurrant flavour, some good tannins, this is a lovely Cab that would match well with roast lamb.

Barboursville Vineyards, Cabernet Franc, 2008, about £25 from Famous Wines
Nice vanilla notes on the nose, the taste is initially slightly sweet with berry, currants and cherry fruit flavours. Another lovely wine.

OREGON
I have been a fan of Oregon Pinot Noirs for some time and have also tasted wines and visited a winery in Washington state, so I already knew that the Pacific North West produced lovely wines.

FIresteed, Pinot Gris, 2008, about £15 from Good Wine Shop
A nice pineapple aroma, this was another very citrus flavoured wine with nice acidity and a good length. One of the nicest Pinot Gris/Grigios I have tasted in a while.

Albarino Wine Crystal

CALIFORNIA
In the UK we often get the big brand Californian wines so it was nice to taste a more artisanal product. This was from a biodynamic producer.

Bonny Doon Vineyard, Ca’ del Solo, Albarino, 2008, about £16.25 from Good Wine Shop.
This had a nice green/gold colour and not too much acidity except on the finish. You needed to really move it around your mouth to get the best from this wine. Very pleasant again.

NEW YORK
Funnily enough, I had been in New York state the week before and tasted some wines from the Finger Lakes region. I had been impressed how some of the Pinot Noirs from the area were improving. On this evening, however, we were concentrating on the wines of Long Island. I have to admit, I didn’t know they produced wines on Long Island!

Channing Daughters, Sauvignon Blanc, Mudd West Vineyard, 2010. £16.99 from Wine Equals Friends.
Very clear appearance, lime and lemon on the nose, it is a bigger fatter wine than most Sauvignon Blancs. Nice lemony taste.

The Lenz Winery, Estate Selection Merlot, 2002. £21.99 from Wine Equals Friends.
This was the hit of the evening with most people at the tasting, proving that Merlots are coming back in fashion having been hit sideways by the film of that name. It had a good bouquet of cherries and plums and a big warming taste. This is certainly a wine you should consider trying and buying. Sue is just setting up her web site but you should be able to get to it soon on www.wineequalsfriends.com. Currently you can visit her facebook page with a similar name.

So my conclusion from this excellent tasting is to try some more wines from some more US states. I would also recommend a visit to one of the Tasting Sessions evenings in Richmond.  Why not surprise the guests at your next wine evening or dinner party by serving them craft wines from Long Island and Virginia – be ahead of the trend.

Our Wine Safari to Farnborough

The April Tongham Tasters’ wine evening was to be a safari through the wines of Africa. Our guide picked us up at quarter to eight in Tongham and we drove into the furthest depths of Farnborough. Judging by the street names we were in the French quarter, but the natives seemed friendly……

Having travelled extensively in North and South Africa, John S, our host for the evening put together a very interesting selection of North and South African wines for us to try. With most wines there was some interesting story to tell of how he had bought the wine in some Moroccan souk or visited this particular South African vineyard etc etc. John also showed great skill in not serving his white wines over chilled.

Serious drinking?

So how did our team rate John’s wines? In order of preference after voting, here are John’s wines and our views on them. Scores are in the order: John E, Steve W, John S, Jane, Steve S and Sheila.

1. Bellingham The Bernard Series Old Vine Chenin Blanc South Africa 2010 £8.80 Majestic Wines
Four out of seven of us voted this the top wine of the evening. The nose was of marmalade with some pepper and spice and over-ripe pear. One might have guessed it was an Alsace wine from the smell but the taste indicated something different. The slight sweetness but good level of acidity immediately had some of us recognising this as a Chenin Blanc. It also had a slight spritz. Jane went golly, gosh, wow! – difficult to get a higher accolade than that. The scores were 11,17,17,19,17,15, A majestic white wine from Majestic wine warehouse.

2. Beyerskloof Pinotage 2009, Western Cape, South Africa, £7.21 Morrisons.
All seven had this wine in their top three and two of us had it at the top of the ladder. It was spicy and slightly sweet and Steve S quickly identified the grape variety. This wine changed the perceptions for some of what Pinotage could be like. Scores were 15,12,16,15,15,15. This is a wine that will have a few more of us shopping at Morrisons for their red wine..

3. Klein Constantia Sauvignon Blanc, South Africa, 2010 £9.60 Majestic Wines
One top vote, two seconds and a third gave this wine our bronze medal of the evening. The most expensive wine of the evening as it is normally priced at £11.99 but is on special offer at the moment. Initially it had a heady floral aroma that quickly became more typically Sauvignon Blanc. Ian and Jane were quick to identify the grape variety. For John E it was not as dry as he would like a Sauvignon Blanc to be but he still felt it had great balance and enough acidity to carry the slight sweetness. Scores were 13+,12,17,17,12,13. If you are into New World Sauvignon Blanc white wine  this could be the wine for you.

4. Chateau Elissa 2006 Grand Vin de Mornag Tunisia £6.25 Le Bon Vin
The best North African wine of the evening was from a retailer few of us had heard of – Le Bon Vin Ltd who are based in Sheffield and have a website http://www.lebonvin.co.uk/. I suspect a few of us hadn’t tasted Tunisian wine before either. Steve W had it as the runner up wine of the evening whilst the rest of us had it at number four or five. Ian found its aroma fascinating and identified a childhood reminiscence of Extract of Malt amongst the tar and black treacle. Most of us identified liquorices in the smell of this wine that had obviously started ageing and was perhaps slightly past its peak and perhaps this is why Sheila identified cabbage water as well. Scores for this red wine were 12,13,11,13,9.5,11. The blend had us guessing and we didn’t identify it as a cabernet, merlot, syrah.

5. Mornag Magon Blanc Vermentino 2006 £5.74 Le Bon Vin
Another Tunisian wine from our Sheffield retailer, this didn’t impress as much as the South African whites. Some felt that it was typical of wine from a hot climate. The initial impression was that it might be Viognier and nobody identified the grape as Vermentino, which is best known as a grape varietal in Sardinia.. It went extremely well with John’s olive oil dip. Although it had a floral smell it was actually quite sharp. Scores were 12+,12,12,12,9,12. Apart from Steve S we had an amazing consistency or scores for this white wine!

6. Mdeaillon Cabernet Vin Vieux Grande Reserve 2004 Marocco €7.00 purchased in Marocco.
This wine split the group as it had a third place from John E but five of the group had it in last place. It had a smell of molasses and tobacco and the tannins were still evident despite the age. It had some sweetness but this completely changed once one had it with some Mediterranean hummus. This was a good lesson in food matching for us – the right food really improved this wine. Scores were 13-,9,11,10,10,9. A red Cab Merlot blend that went well with hummus.

Overall some interesting wines that showed Africa in a very good light and accompanied by some interesting Mediterranean food such as the hummus, olives and falafels. Well worth the trip to Farnborough – well done John.

Next month we return to Tongham for Tongham Tasters’ founder John E to show us five interesting Sauvignon Blancs from different parts of France. The evening will be rounded off by a nice glass of something red. The date for your diary is Thursday May 12th. Click on Wine Circle at the top of the page for more details – all are welcome.

Languedoc-Roussillon

Where it is on a wine map of France

For those seeking good value French red wines, the Languedoc-Roussillon is one of the regions to look out for, although the really good wines can still set you back €20 or £20 in the UK; however, this price is still much less than a well known Bordeaux or Burgundy and there is real value to be had in the under €10/£10 category whether from good brands such as Gerard Bertrand (always reliable) or the small growers. When I first started drinking wine, the wines of this region were known for being cheap plonk and I used to avoid Minervois and Corbieres, whereas now I seek it out; the region has reduced production and increased quality. In our Tongham Village Hall wine tastings it was the first region we did, although we didn’t entirely do it justice as we mixed in with the Sud-Ouest. I was reminded of our holiday when drinking a really nice bottle of Faugeres (Domaine Thibault 2007 Cuvee Jaqueline Javy) last night, hence today’s blog. We were lucky enough to take a holiday in the region during April 2009. We were staying at Steve and Yvonne’s place near Beziers and their directions were “drive out of Beziers and turn right at the prostitute”. Unfortunately, she must have been attending to a client as we drove past, so we got lost! The holiday, luckily took an uphill climb after that and we sampled some lovely wines from the region and really enjoyed the food and countryside. The spectacular nature and greenness of the countryside were a surprise and if you’ve not been here is a taster...

Amongst my favourite appellations are Coteaux du Languedoc La Clape and Minervois la Liviniere. Whilst in the Languedoc the best wine maker we visited was Chateau Mire L'Etang in La Clape - their top of the range red at about €17 was really excellent.  Well worth a visit.   As mentioned in other posts the cooperative at Roquebrun (St Chinian) is normally great value.  Although we didn't get there, the wine of Les Trois Tomates (the three tomatoes) is a great recommendation from Steve. The Cote Sud restaurant in Beziers is very good and another must to try.  If you are a fan of oysters go to Bouzigues.