What’s the best wine for Thai takeout? Domaine Marcel Deiss Riesling cuts the heat of shrimp curry with lemongrass perfectly, according to NorthJersey.com.
As for Deiss’ premier- and grand-cru offerings, check out these videos (all in French) of him explaining the distinction anf interplay between grape varietal and terroir in providing character in Alsatian wines, along with lengthy discussions of Altenberg de Bergheim, Burg, Rotenberg, and Burlenberg.
Wines of Chile filmed a great video featuring Eduardo Chadwick, Steven Spurrier and the atmosphere at the Berlin Tasting in New York. As follows:
Our friends in Calistoga have a beautiful new website up at Montelena.com, with gorgeous graphics and photos, an excellent history of the estate, and some cool interactive videos (and a behind-the-scenes look at them here). This is one of the best, most detailed winery websites we’ve seen, a great introduction to a legendary estate. Check out one of the site’s many videos, this one on the 1976 Judgement of Paris, below.
Steven Tanzer has a great video up of Mounir Saouma, the man behind Lucien Le Moine, posted on his blog, Winophilia. Mounir discusses the 2008 vintage (still in barrel) methods, including extensive lees stirring (even topping his barrels off with lees!), late malolactic fermentation, and one of the longest barrel aging regimes in all of Burgundy. The result, says Mounir, is an extremely principled one; to not simply make wines that have pleasant fruit, but wines that have real character, both of their vintage and their vineyard.
“I am against this point where people say, ‘I bottle early to capture the fruit.” We saw it in the last years, we finished bottling the 2007’s in September 2009, and we have a lot of fruit, we just tasted a lot of fruit, out of 2007. So these years, these ‘classic’ years like ’06, ’07, ’08, there is a lot of fruit, and I think it is a mistake to make weak body. The fruit is there, but are you going to buy a bottle of Première Cru or Grand Cru for $150 or $200 to have just the fruit, or do you want that depth and aftertaste and something that stays for a long time in your palette.”
We couldn’t agree more. The full video as follows:
Mounir Saouma interview from Stephen Tanzer on Vimeo.
Jancis Robinson has a great video up on her site featuring Château Margaux’s Managing Director Paul Pontallier and owner Corinne Mentzelopoulos discussing the 2009 Pavillon Blanc. Concerned that the wines might become too rich with higher potential alcohols, the Margaux team opted for a more restrained style, using canopy management to keep the ripeness of the Sauvignon Blanc in check. The resulting wine, says Jancis, “is much leaner, racier, more mineral – and probably longer-lived.”
David Berry Green, Sandrone’s importer in the UK, has another video up, discussing Sandrone’s philosophy of great Nebbiolo. Luciano feels that low yields, achieved through extensive green harvesting, are the key to quality fruit, and that, by fermenting small lots with wild yeasts and giving the wines extended fermentation times (up to 50 days!), the true essence of Nebbiolo can be captured in the Valmaggiore, Le Vigne, and Cannubi Boschis.
Jaime Goode of Wine Anorak has an awesome video up shot during the 2009 harvest at Quinta do Noval. You can see just how steep the hillsides of the estate are, with only two or three rows of vines per terrace. After picking, the whole clusters are cleaned, and the film ends with a great shot of one of the shallow concrete lagares, where the grapes are crushed by foot. Remarkably, all of the grapes harvested at the estate are tread in the lagares, a labor-intensive practice that yields the best, gentlest extraction of flavors.
Canada’s Lifford Wine Agency sits down with Frank Mitolo and Ben Glaetzer of Mitolo, where Frank explains his G.A.M. and Ben details the repasso, amarone style of the Serpico.
Wine of the Week: Interview with Mitolo from Lifford Wine Agency on Vimeo.
Lifford Wine Agency in Canada has a great little video on the Shaw + Smith M3 Chardonnay, explaining all the reasons this wine is one of the benchmarks for Aussie whites. The cool climate of the Adelaide Hills leaves this wine with lots of fresh acidity to balance its exotic stone fruit and tropical notes, all rounded out by Martin Shaw and Michael Hill Smith’s subtle use of oak.
Shaw and Smith M3 Chardonnay from Lifford Wine Agency on Vimeo.
America’s Pinot Pioneer explains his wines for Counter Wine Bar and discusses his affinity for making Burgundy-style wines in the Santa Rita Hills. Great stuff!