Responsible indulgence January 2021

Responsible Indulgence: Wine Notes

It is a new year, and while I don’t want to put to much pressure on 2021, I am feeling cautiously optimistic. With that attitude, we shall wine and not whine! We shall drink our wine, continue to enjoy our days our meals, our loved ones, and look with promise toward the return to greater freedom and a healthy and happy year!

I wanted all the wine in this month’s box to be new to me, to the store and to all of you. Typically the January box is a celebration of the past year’s favorites, but it is time for a new approach. Make it new, different, and a little mysterious. I hope you enjoy these tasty wines!

Super Value 3 Pack

Deux Moulins Sauvignon Blanc is a bright, fresh and cheerful Sauvignon Blanc with some weight and character. It is a traditional style Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire, with fruit that comes from gravel and schist soils in Anjou and Tours. The texture is a product of the environment and the climate. It is vinified in cold temperatures and in stainless steel which contributes to the fruit and refreshing style. I just want this while I cook with a pice of French goat cheese, perhaps Pico, runny and soft with a pungent nose!

Quinto do Encontro Sparking Rose from Portugal is a surprisingly interesting and tasty little wine for not a lot of bucks. It has just a hint of rose on the glass with energetic tiny bubbles climbing up out of the glass and calling you in. On the nose there is a soft delicate freshness, citrus mixing with sweet berries. In truth the wine reminded me of the scent of winter air just before the snow arrives. On the palate it is refreshing, crisp, and light, with a touch of tea leaves and grapefruit pith on the finish. Every sip delights and leaves the palate cleansed for the next bite. A blend of Bical, Arinto, and Maria Gomes grapes in the Bairrada region of Portugal. I enjoyed this with a slice of quiche and a salad, and it was an ideal wine for the dish!

Finca Sophenia Altosur Red Blend. This blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, and Syrah from Mendoza will warm you with its rich, juicy fruit and its spice. It comes to us from 4000ft, harvested by hand in the sub region of Tupungato, gravity pressed and aged 4 months in oak—French and American barrels. This is a lot of wine for a very good price point—it over delivers! I like its forward fruit with a pan-seared New York Strip. The fruit is balanced with a touch of paprika and chili pepper, and the oak gives the wine character, a vanilla touch and floral aromatics. Enjoy this with richer dishes or a big piece of cheddar and some chorizo.

Value Wines

Corte Moschina Soave The delicate aromas of tropical fruit and hawthorn flowers makes me close my eyes, imagining the coming spring. It has a refreshing tanginess on the palate, crips and citrusy but also melon and ripe gala apple flavors that give the wine some texture and weight. This is a pleasant wine with a surprisingly food friendly balance of fruit and acidity, flavor and boy. I am going to enjoy this with a roasted chicken and potatoes anna.

Aveleda Follies has a deep dark color in the glass and aromas of cassis and cherry with a tough of cocoa. You will note on the nose a touch of wood that will give the wine structure and texture. This wines is bog and bold and will satisfy those seeking a complex, rich wine for dinner. It is a blend of Touriga National and Cabernet Sauvignon that spends a year in a combination of new and aged oak, which gives a charming playful wine depth and character. It rides a fine balance between freshness and power. I would enjoy this one with a mushroom risotto and a thick cut roasted pork chop.

Corte Rugolin Valpolicello is made from a blending of Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, and other local varieties, harvested by hand, fermented on the skins, lightly pressed and matured in oak for several months before release. The wine is an approachable, fresh, youthful red with a deep ruby color and a playful fruity aroma of cherries and plums, which translates onto the palate. Full bodied, and fleshy, this one invites you to dance! Enjoy it with pasta bolognese.

Select Wines

Turkheim Pinot Blanc is a perfect example of the friendliness of Alsatian wines. Pinot Blanc and Auxerrois grown in sandy soils and carefully hand harvested. On the nose, fruit and more fruit—apples, pears, and peaches, with just a hint of citrus. On the palate it is dry, approachable and balanced. Yes, all that rich fruit, but as much wonderful acidity that the wine is dry and cleansing. This is ideal for starters, salads, fresh cheeses, and would really shine with fondue!

Ermitage du Pic St-Loup. Hands down, one of my very favorite wines in the shop and one of the many examples of a natural (actually biodynamic!) wine that outshines it moderate price point. The blend of Syrah, Grenache, Mouvedre (in that order) is surprisingly lighter than you would guess with 50% Syrah, but that is not the only compelling feature. The wine has character, each sip offering other layered nuanced flavors that hide from one corner to the next. There are berries, plums, cassis, with a touch of spice, and a wonderful chalkiness on the finish that satisfies those seeking minerality in their wine. I have had this wine with everything from roasted fish to vegetable stew to roasted lamb, and it just works. It is food flexible, so let me know what you love it with!

Domaine du Chapitre Mon Bon Plaisir is the fruit of Frederic Dorthe’s labors on his family’s 20 hectares of vines on the right bank of the Rhone River where he produces a small amount of highly-drinkable wines. This one has full flavor impact with a medium body. It has fresh deep fruit flavors of plum and cassis, red berries give it a freshness which is balanced by the tannins and good acidity that gives this wine complexity and character. This is a food friendly red that would be delicious with a wide variety of things, but stay regional for the best result—think brasserie, quiche, roasted chicken, beef bourguignon.

Collector’s Wines

This month I happen to have a few treats that I cannot resist passing along to those of you who want to enjoy exceptional wines. Perhaps my favorite producer from the Champagne region is the Dumont house. I have met members of the family both here in New York at tastings and in their winery and home in France, and the wines are exceptional quality and the family is welcoming, warm, and friendly. They are the kind of people you want to support, and when you taste the wines you will see how easy that is to do. Each one of their labels is unique, beautifully crafted, elegant and delicious. Each year, I am thrilled to get my hands on a limited amount of the two I have included for your enjoyment.

The Solera is a blend of several years of chardonnay, from which they draw off just enough to produce a small bottling of this remarkable wine. It is an opportunity to experienced aged champagne, and it is hands down one of the best I have had. The red, (prepare for your mind to be blown) Dumont La Voie de Chanay, is 100% pinot noir, still red, elegant, soft, approachable, and delectable. Enjoy either now, or be rewarded by aging them as long as you can stand it!

The Importer’s notes, Wine Traditions:

Champagne R. Dumont & Fils

Aube
22 hectares

The Champagne house of the Dumont family is situated in Champignol-lez-Mondeville, a village in the southern Champagne region of the Aube, some 90 miles southeast of Reims and Epernay. Characterized by forested hills, streams and vineyards, it is a natural and reflective environment that has attracted people such as Saint Bernard (Clairvaux) and Renoir (Essoyes). The Dumonts have owned vineyards in this area for over two hundred years and today three Dumont brothers work together to produce champagne exclusively from their own 22 hectares. The soils are a geological extension of those in Chablis, namely kimmeridgian chalky clay. The vineyard is planted with 90% Pinot Noir and 10% Chardonnay. Bernard Dumont’s comments are insightful. “We grow grapes on the same soils as the vine growers in the Chablis region. There, they produce white wine from white grapes and here we produce white wine from red grapes.”

Solera Reserve

Dumont is one of the very few Champagne producers who produces a champagne using the solera method. Bernard Dumont has dedicated one stainless steel tank to the project which was first filled in 1991. He works exclusively with chardonnay for this cuvée and has been adding to the tank every year, making it at present, a blend of approximately 20 vintages. This solera system produced its first release in 2010. One of the most striking features of this champagne is the different effect created by producing a champagne from aged wine (the aging occurs after the first fermentation) followed by the typical duration of two years “sur lattes” as contrasted with a champagne produced from relatively young wines which are aged for a long time after the secondary fermentation and thus remain in contact with the lees “sur lattes” for an extended period. The dosage is 6 grams. Production is about 400 cases annually.

Coteaux Champenois "La Voie de Chanay" Rouge

The Coteaux Champenois appellation is for non-sparking wine from Champagne and is traditional in the region of the Côte des Bar. Bernard Dumont’s “La Voie de Chanay”comes from a single parcel of very old Pinot Noir vines situated at the highest altitude in his village with an exposition that allows the grapes to become very ripe, resulting in beautiful ruby colored wines. The grapes are whole-cluster fermented, then rest on their lees in stainles steel vats for 10 months before they are bottled, unfiltered.

Maria ChiancolaJanuary 2, 2021