The news never stops coming, and keeping up with everything is an impossible task. Regrettably, there are too few hours in a day that one can devote to reading, and though I attempt to stay on top of as much as I can, my stacks of newspapers, magazines, and books are always beckoning (and expanding). There’s wine and food, of course, but there’s so much more, from literature and cinema to essays and profiles. Here’s a look at a few things that caught my eye this week.
Esther Mobley has written a piece about the “doom loop” in which Republic National Distributing Co. finds itself. The company quit doing business in California last year, leaving more than 1,700 employees (and retailers and producers) in limbo. The worst appears yet to come for the organization. Read it here.
From bad to worse: Michel Bettane, writing in “World of Fine Wine,” says that “the wine world is on the brink of the biggest struggle for its survival since the phylloxera era.” Bettane is retiring after 20 years of working with the magazine, and he’s not, shall we say, overly optimistic about wine’s future. Here’s his missive.
The wine industry is facing many vexing issues, including consumers who are drinking less.
Pete Wells, who was the chief restaurant critic of “The New York Times” for more than a decade, has recently been writing about how he developed healthier eating habits, and while he says he had little trouble cutting “some of the idiocy” from the way he ate (no more duck skin or sticky buns) and found it easy to come up with substitutions for white rice and and other starchy food, recalibrating the way he drank was a hurdle. Here’s Wells on his beverage journey.
Wine snobs need to go away, says Dusan Jelic.
No one likes a wine snob. They might provide amusement, but I’ve never enjoyed the pleasure of the company of one. However, do they deserve the death penalty? If you believe Dusan Jelic they do. He proclaims here that “we’ve let the Wine Snob hijack the industry for too long.”
Daniel Cathiard, from grocery store owner to competitive skier to Smith-Haut-Lafitte owner.
Daniel Cathiard passed away on Wednesday; he was 81. Cathiard was the co-owner of Bordeaux’s Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte and Napa’s Cathiard Vineyard, among other properties. His life was a grand adventure.
I meant to include this dialogue between Terry Theise, a man I’ve admired for a long time, and Meg Maker in a previous “What I’m Reading,” but here it is now. A wonderful discussion about wine writing. (Here’s a Wine Talk featuring Theise.)
George Saunders has published a new novel, “Vigil,” which came out this week. He once thought he was going to die while traveling in a jet that was hit by geese, but he did not. Here is a fun read about the author.
Thomas Bernhard’s literary output is prodigious. (Still from ‘Thomas Bernhard: Three Days’ by Ferry Radax)
Thomas Bernhard is one of my favorite writers. He was perhaps not the most pleasant man to spend time with, but his writing is magical, moving, profound, and honest. He has influenced many writers, as Oscar Dorr explains in this piece.
Memories of wines I’ve tasted persist, in some instances for a long while. I left Brooklyn — bound for a newspaper job in Abu Dhabi — back in 2008, and a few evenings before my departure I shared a table with a friend at a favorite restaurant near my apartment. I brought along a 1991 Château Pavie, and remember still my first sip of that bottle. Elegant and ethereal, well suited to the weather, cuisine, and occasion. On another evening I was in Paris, at a wine bar in the Marais hanging out with colleagues after work celebrating a milestone publication. The bottle this time was something from the Languedoc, an inexpensive little red wine that likely cost all of 10 euros (a 1999 Château Pavie can be had for $279.99 on FineLiquors.com). These two wines had nothing in common, save their country of origin, and both are indelibly etched in my memory.
I would love an endless supply of this.
That’s what wine, at its best, can do. It allows us to enjoy the moment, the foods we pair with the bottle, the design and sounds of the dining room, the smile of a friend, the profound immediacy. Then, months, years, or decades later, the memory of the wine brings pleasure once again. You have similar memories, I imagine, of bottles and tables and dishes and the people with whom you shared wines and conversation. Sounds and scents and images and tastes and … so much more that might not be knowable to you until one day you are sitting alone at a table in a restaurant and into your mind slides memories of that long-ago dinner and the wines served at it.
I try to keep this in mind when opening a bottle, whether I’m sampling for reviews or sharing, say, a Pfalz riesling with friends at a meal. I know the wine means something in the moment, and the idea that certain wines will sustain me in manner other than in-the-mouth gustatorily gives me pleasure.
Now, on to a new year of tastes, flavors, dinners and dishes, and, of course, memories.
Chris Kajani has been making wine at Bouchaine Vineyards since 2015.
I tasted three different 2023-vintage chardonnays from Bouchaine recently, and winemaker Chris Kajani is, based on my impression of these wines, continuing her astute, intuitive stewardship of the Carneros AVA estate. The lineup included Unoaked ($40), Estate ($40), and Reserve ($70) chardonnays, and I sampled them at one sitting, each bottle chilled to 52 degrees Fahrenheit.
The 2023 growing season was, according to Bouchaine’s team, “a lesson in patience.” A cooler summer led to slower ripening and later harvest — the end of September instead of the more typical late August. The chardonnay fruit had additional time to develop, and that time and quality is well represented in these wines.
A ‘naked’ chardonnay from the Carneros AVA.
The Bouchaine Unoaked chardonnay is suited to those who like to drink wine made from this noble grape devoid of oak influence, malolactic conversion (some winemakers, however, do allow no-oak chardonnay to undergo malo conversion) or bâtonnage. I like wines from Chablis, and I really liked this chardonnay from Napa’s Carneros district. Sweet-tart apple aromas, a touch of lemon blossom and other citrus flavors, fresh, crisp, vibrant, and excellent with grilled shrimp basted with garlic butter — my pairing for dinner on the evening I sampled these Bouchaine wines. Drink now, or hold for a year or two if curious about how it will age. Click here to purchase.
The Estate Chardonnay made by Kajani does see oak, and here’s some specificity from the Bouchaine team: It was bottled on Aug. 5, 2024, and aged for 10 months — 50 percent malolactic conversion, 90 percent barrel fermented, 10 percent tank fermented, 18 percent new oak. Kajani produces more than a dozen chardonnays from the estate’s blocks and blends what she deems the best of them for the final product. I liked this wine’s beguiling combination of richness and vibrance. Oak is not overwhelming, and the mélange of citrus and apple made me very happy. There’s no reason to not serve this with a roast pork loin and share with a few good friends. Click here to purchase.
This chardonnay pairs well with scallops.
The final bottle I tasted from this trio was the Reserve Chardonnay. The Bouchaine team said its intention here was “to create a concentrated, lush style of Chardonnay,” and Kajani succeeded in that. It was fermented 100 percent in barrel (38 percent new oak), and aged for nine months. Fruit was harvested from October 16-19, and bottling took place on Aug. 5, 2024; 200 cases were produced. Malolactic conversion is in full force here, along with sur lie aging. Carneros chardonnay is known for its cool-climate leanness and acidity, and that shines in this wine; the symbiotic play of oak and malo conversion and Bouchaine’s 1984-planted chardonnay performs with aplomb here. On the evening following my Bouchaine tasting session I wrapped some sea scallops in jamón Ibérico and seared them, and I drank the Bouchaine Reserve Chardonnay with those scallops. Delicious, sensual interplay. Purchase here.
This dry amber wine from Georgia is a great value.
Another 2023 I sampled recently is the Vazisubani Estate 3 Qvevri, an amber wine from Georgia. It’s a blend of rkatsiteli (15 percent), mtsvane (40 Percent), and kisi (45 percent), grapes identified with the country that many consider the birthplace of wine: research has documented more than 8,000 years of continuous winemaking in the region. Qvevri refers to the clay vessels traditionally used by Georgians; wines are fermented in the vessels underground. This orange wine carries a suggested retail price of $19.99, making it in my opinion a great value. Fruit, from vines planted between 1,500 and 1,800 feet above sea level, was harvested by hand and partially destemmed. Great acidity and robust tannins, dried apricots, green almond, licorice root, orange peel. This sees no oak, but something in the mouth is evocative of baking spices or vanilla. I’d love to drink this wine with a chicken dish featuring a walnut-based sauce.
Cleto Chiarli is a historic producer of Lambrusco.
Rounding out this tasting roster is the Cleto Chiarli “Centenario” Lambrusco di Modena DOC Amabile ($15). I am an avid booster of Lambrusco, and Cleto Chiarli is one of my favorite producers. The Centenario was introduced 100 years after the winery’s 1860 founding, and is 100 percent Lambrusco Grasparossa. Alcohol is 8 percent, so keep that in mind when you are looking for something refreshing to drink with pizza or a hamburger. The high acidity of this wine balances its sweetness in a manner that makes one keep going back for one more sip. The Charmant method is used here, and if you are wondering, “Amabile” refers to a wine that is sweet, but not so sweet that dessert is its only wise pairing. I would, however, have no issue if you chose to open this bottle and drink it with a slice of not-so-sweet chocolate cake. Purchase here.
The news never stops coming, and keeping up with everything is an impossible task. Regrettably, there are too few hours in a day that one can devote to reading, and though I attempt to stay on top of as much as I can, my stacks of newspapers, magazines, and books are always beckoning (and expanding). There’s wine and food, of course, but there’s so much more, from literature and cinema to essays and profiles. Here’s a look at a few things that caught my eye this week.
Wine and its relationship with human health is a topic that has produced words aplenty. Morley Safer’s episode on “60 Minutes” in 1991 has long been cited in this discussion, and more recently the WHO has weighed in, stating in a widely read proclamation that “no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health.” Dr. Erik Skovenborg, a Danish family medicine doctor who specializes in the health implications of drinking, has weighed in about wine and dementia, and his words make for good reading.
Morley Safer and ’60 Minutes’ convinced Americans to increase their consumption of red wine.
Speaking of wine and health, the CEO of the U.S. Alcohol Policy Alliance, Mike Marshall, says the guidelines issued this month by the U.S. government are “a win for the alcohol industry” (and, I add, its lobbyists). Gone are serving-size regulations; instead, the government advises, “consume less alcohol for better health.” Here is one look at the report.
This year, some of the wines Eric Asimov wants you to drink have “been the victims of stereotypes.” Others have “fallen by the wayside because of evolving tastes, changing attitudes about health, and busier lives.” His 10 genres of wines in this piece , which highlights the “unfashionable, ignored, or dismissed,” includes selections from Bordeaux and Napa, bottles of port and Madeira and sherry, and sweet Rieslings. I approve of his directive.
Don’t forget the vinyl.
Natural wine. Should I stop here? I’ve long grown tired of the phrase and all of the accessories and (often) misguided performances that have come to be associated with it. I like good wine, wine that appeals to my palate and makes my food better. I suspect you share my method, though dictated by your palate. Well, no matter. Natural wine has made its impact, and here’s one take on just that.
When’s the last time you opened a bottle of wine hailing from the Snake River Valley AVA? How about the Lewis-Clark Valley AVA or the Eagle Foothills AVA? Idaho’s winemakers want you to get to know their products, and here’s a primer on the state’s viticultural universe.
Jean-Charles Boisset is a busy man. His Boisset Collection oversees Raymond Vineyards, DeLoach, and Buena Vista, not to mention Oakville Grocery. Two actions the Frenchman recently took might free up some of his time: He closed two of his Napa Valley tasting rooms. Mon dieu.
The always dapper Jean-Charles Boisset strikes a pose in one of this establishments.
A writers’ festival in Australia has come asunder after its organizers disinvited a Palestinian-Australian author, a decision that writers including Zadie Smith and Percival Everett reacted to by disinviting themselves from Adelaide Writers’ Week. Words matter.
Staying in Hollywood, Matthew Deller writes that the drinks business could learn a thing or two from cinema. “Wine’s opportunity is to reclaim its place at the center of the table by restoring the social clarity that once defined it,” Deller says. Read the piece here.
Arnaldo Caprai, who passed away on Jan. 4, was a vital ambassador of Sagrantino. (Arnaldo Caprai image)
I spent the winter holidays in Umbria one year, and fell in love with the land, wines, and cuisine there. A visit to Arnaldo Caprai was for me one of the highlights of the sojourn, and news that the founder of the winery passed away on Jan. 4 saddened me. He was a kind man, and Montefalco and Sagrantino owe him much. Here’s one appreciation of the vintner.
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