Spanish wines from Jumilla are on the rise

Spanish red wines have long been favorites, but until recently, we limited our selections to wines from the fantastic Rioja region or to those of Ribera del Duero in north central Spain.  Having the chance to run Pangaea Wine Bar, we've had the opportunity to try wines from areas all around Spain.  While we love the powerful wines of Priorat in Catalonia, they tend to be a bit pricy for our by-the-glass list.  So for that reason, we were very happy to be introduced to the full-bodied red wines of Jumilla (who-MEE-uh).

Jumilla is a hot, arid region in the southeastern area of Spain.  The predominant grape of the region is Monastrell, or as it is commonly known in France and the US, Mourvedre.  Monastrell has typically been resistant to the phylloxera louse that decimated nearly all European grapevines through the late 19th century, and therefore many of the grapevines are very old - producing intensely concentrated wines.  The wines of Jumilla are still being introduced to the US market, but based on the flavor profiles, these wines should become hugely popular here.  Jumilla's climate, with its hot, dry summers and over 3000 hours of sunlight, produce smooth wines that are naturally high in alcohol, which we're finding is currently the taste of the American palate.

100+ year old Monastrell vine at Bodegas Olivares

Last year, we introduced the wine of Bodegas Juan Gil to our customers, and this monastrell was a huge hit at Pangaea.  In June, despite the popularity of Juan Gil, we decided to try a little something different and brought on the monastrell of Bodegas Olivares.  This wine is a bit unique even among Jumilla monastrell: Olivares' sandy soil drains very quickly, which makes it much more inhospitable to the phylloxera louse.  Therefore, Olivares has a large tract of ungrafted vines, some of them over 100 years old.  Vines as old as this tend to have a lower yield, producing fewer grapes, but the grapes they do produce have a greater depth and complexity than their younger counterparts.   In addition, the vineyards at Olivares are dry-farmed, with little to no irrigation.  This requires that the vines dig deeply to find nutrients, adding an additional layer of complexity.

We are finding that our Bodegas Olivares Altos de la Hoya Monastrell is an excellent wine and a big hit with our customers.  We encourage you to check it out - and don't be afraid to pick up some wines from areas that you're not familiar with.  You will likely be pleasantly surprised!

As always, drink what you like, and like what you drink!

Greek wines - It's Time to Discover Them

Greek wines have long held a sentimental place in our hearts.  On our honeymoon, we would finish each day relaxing on roof deck of our hotel with a view of the Acropolis lit against the night sky, enjoying crisp, minerally whites.  At our favorite restaurant Krasopoulio, we drank Rapsani, the Xinomavro based red wine that was rich and spicy.  We were grateful that our server brought out a ice bucket, which was necessary even for red wine when dining outside in the warmth of the late Greek summer.  We sampled the house rose at a taverna in Plaka, and we'll never forget our server who brought out the wine in a clay jug, poured us each a glass, and the clinked our glasses for us.  Nor will we forget buying our Greek rugs from Susie and Theo, where the deal was sealed with many glasses of Theo's homemade rose wine (Theo also nicely filled a 2-liter Fanta bottle with more of the rose for us to take with us).

Greek wines have progressed by leaps and bounds even since that experience almost 10 years ago.  We recently attended a Greek wine tasting, and were very impressed by the high quality of the wines.  We were also impressed by the passion of the winemakers who had travelled to Boston from Greece to share their wines with the world.

Recently, there have been increased marketing efforts to educate the world regarding Greek wines.  Saveur Magazine recently did an article highlighting the wines of Greece, and a group called the New Wines of Greece have also stepped up marketing efforts with a video on You Tube that makes you yearn to be magically transported to the Mediterranean Sea.

We spoke about Greek wines in a previous post, and they continue to be favorites.  We encourage you to discover them!

As always - drink what you like, like what you drink!

Wine industry seeks to attract Latino customers

While the Europeans who originally brought knowledge of the vine, vinifera as we know it, were instrumental in developing the wine industry in California, can it be said that any one ethnic group has had as much of an impact as Latinos?  The Contra Costa Times reports that wine consumption among Latinos has increased dramatically, and as such the industry is making greater efforts to focus its marketing efforts on this rapidly growing demographic segment.

It is fairly widely known that Mexican migrant and resident workers make up the bulk of the field workers in California, but Latinos are also becoming more and more prominent in the winemaking process itself.  Gustavo Brambila, featured in the movie "Bottle Shock" as a part of Chateau Montelena, and who then followed Mike Grgich to spend 23 years at Grgich Hills, is a primary example of the rise of Mexicans in the California wine industry.  Brambila is one of the first Mexican-Americans to earn a degree in fermentation science from UC-Davis.  (Little known fact: Gustavo was not actually at Chateau Montelena around the time of the Judgment of Paris.  Following his 23 years at Grgich Hills, Gustavo joined up with Thrace Bomberger to make wine for their eponymous GustavoThrace.  Gustavo was also the winemaker for Peju Province and now Taylor Family Wines.)  

Similarly, Elias Fernandez, who has been with Shafer Vineyards for more than 20 years, has been instrumental in the success of Shafer.  Elias Fernandez grew up in St. Helena, and initially wanted to study music but switched to winemaking at UC Davis.  Fernandez has been with Shafer since its early days as a 5-year winery.  In recognition of this dedication, Shafer Vineyards has dedicated its wine called "Relentless" to Elias, to honor his relentless pursuit of quality.

One of the biggest misconceptions perhaps is that wine, particularly red wine, does not pair well with Mexican food.  However, many Latinos are discovering that their traditional cuisine does pair well, as the Contra Costa Times article points out.  Suggested pairings include enchiladas suizas with Viognier, or tostados with Chardonnay.  Because traditional Mexican food isn't overly spicy, several meat dishes pair very well with red wines such as zinfandel, or a red wine that is fruity or spicy, such as a Syrah, an Argentinian Malbec, or a Spanish-style tempranillo.

Given all the contributions Latinos have made to the California wine industry, how about cracking open a bottle of wine, rather than a beer or margarita with your next Mexican meal.  You might be pleasantly surprised!

Test your Argentinian wine knowledge!

Argentinian wines, Malbec in particular, are becoming increasingly popular in the United States.  Less than 20 years ago, virtually no Argentinian wines were on the shelves in the U.S.  In the last 10 years however, exports of Argentina's full bodied, food-friendly red wines have skyrocketed.  Argentina is primarily known for Malbec, a grape that originated in Bordeaux, France (now primarily only grown in the southwestern part of France, where it is known as Cot).  Malbec is a thinner skinned grape which has thrived in Argentina, but there is a great deal going on in Argentinian winemaking besides Malbec!

Test your knowledge of the wines, the regions, and the styles of Argentina in this great quiz sponsored by the Wines of Argentina, and learn a little something new about this up and coming area.

The 100 Point Scale and Wine Critics

Hello Everyone!  It has been some time since you’ve heard from us, but our venture at Pangaea Wine Bar has been taking up most of our time.  It also has given us plenty of new things to think about.

In your wine buying adventures, you have probably come across scores given either by Robert Parker of the Wine Advocate, or the Wine Spectator, or perhaps Wine Enthusiast.  All of these scores are based on a 100 point system.  Wines with a score of 90 points and better are considered great wines, wines that score in the 80s are “good” wines, and less than 80 points are “okay” wines.  While this may sound very scientific, we think that there are many things that most people aren’t aware of in relation to the scoring system.

The Point Scale

Robert Parker developed the Wine Advocate in the late 1970s, and came up with the 100 point system for rating wines.  At the time, the Wine Spectator was using a 20 point scale, but switched to the 100 point scale soon after.  However, most wines that are scored fall within the 80 to 100 point range, so a 100 point system is rather arbitrary.  In addition, unlike cooking competitions like Top Chef or Iron Chef, there is no predefined spread of points awarded for color, clarity, aroma, etc., in wine ratings.  There is no rigid scoring where the wine gets 20 points for each of five characteristics and then the points are added up and the score assigned. The process is far less scientific; the critics taste the wine and then assign a score as if the number just magically appears to them.  Finally, for the most part, scores are assigned by a single person or very small number of people, rather than being evaluated by a large committee as was done with the famous “Judgment of Paris.”

Experience would be able to help you discern 100, 95, 90, 85 and 80 pretty easily.  We would liken a simple scale such as this to the scale used by Dorothy and John formerly of the Wall Street Journal – Delicious, Very Good, Good, Fair and Blech, which is very understandable.  But how do scores like 89 or 91 or 92 get sorted out?

The Tasting Method

Once you understand the point scale and system that will be applied, the method of tasting is critical to understanding how the scores are generated.  The first key is whether the tasting is blind or open.  With a blind tasting, the critic does not know which wine is being tasted and there are often several wines in the tasting.  This method reduces bias in the knowledge of the label, ensuring that the taster doesn’t subconsciously judge the wine on factors other than taste.  Additional critical keys in tasting are the order of the wines, and having enough of a palate cleanser in between each wine to ensure that each wine is tasted and judged solely on its own merits.  The processes for wine tastings and ratings vary depending on the evaluator.  For The Wine Spectator for example, a single taster or a small group of tasters evaluate a group of wines in a blind tasting.  (Wine tasting for ratings purposes is rarely done by a large committee of diverse palates.)  The film documentary “Mondovino” shows a scene from a Wine Spectator tasting, and the pair of evaluators tasted each wine using the same glass, and came up with a single number to rate the wine following the tasting (“This tastes about like an 80-point wine”).

Robert Parker, on the other hand, does not do blind tasting.  He either tastes at the winery (often invited), or wines may be sent to his home in Maryland.  When there is no blind tasting, the critic can possibly factor many other pieces of information into the score beyond taste and smell.  Critics frequently say that they don’t care about a wine’s pedigree, etc.  However, knowledge of the wine presents preconceived biases, both good and bad.  Does the critic know the winemaker or have a long-standing relationship with the producer?  Is Michel Rolland a consultant to the winery?  Is it a new winery from California or “Garagiste” from Bordeaux?  It’s human nature to factor all of these variables into the score.  Wine tasting and evaluation is by its nature subjective, and knowledge of the wine being tasted can only add to preconceived opinions.

The Critical Bias

All critics have a bias, whether he or she is a food critic, a movie critic, or the like.  Everyone has individual bias.  So it’s not surprising that wine critics have bias too.  Some favor Italian wines, some think the best wines in the world come from Burgundy, and some critics like bold, highly extracted, high alcohol wines that are dark in color.

If you were to look at a trend of Robert Parker’s highest scores, it is pretty evident that his tastes lean toward big Bordeaux blends that are deep in color and more often than not higher in alcohol and lower in acidity that other wines.  In effect, he prefers a sweeter wine.  It’s easy to see the impact that ratings can have: when you compare different wines in California, there has been a definite trend towards higher alcohol, lower acidity, and riper fruit than in the past.  In comparison, Parker does not frequently rate wines from Burgundy, where the wines are designed to last longer and be consumed several years into the future.

The Final Score

After tasting the wine – a critic may rate the wine with one to three tastes – a score is assigned with a few words for the write-up.   There’s no question that ratings drive trends in winemaking.  In the ‘90s, there was a rush for rich, oaky, buttery Chardonnays when those same wines began receiving high critical scores.  Based on the influences of the likes of Parker, the current trend for red wines has been towards riper, slightly sweeter, more alcoholic wines.  People often complain that wines have been “Parkerized,” which means the winemaker has adjusted his techniques to fit the palate of Robert Parker.  Wines such as this are achieved through over-ripening the fruit or using techniques such as micro-oxygenation (adding oxygen during fermentation, giving the wine the impression of more time in the barrel).  And finally, a not unexpected side effect of the ratings system is the effect that high ratings have on pricing – scores in the 90s, particularly 95 and higher, lead to wines that are out of financial reach for many of us. 

Another potential downside of the trends we’ve alluded to is what many have called the internationalization of wine.  Fifteen years ago, wines from Bordeaux were clearly different than California wines, and the wines of South America would never be confused with either of them.  Wines from areas such as Greece, southern Italy, and Sicily carried a certain rustic flavor that clearly reflected the terroir of those countries.  Today, due to the trend of internationalization, many wines are starting to taste very much the same.  Wine consultant Michel Rolland, often called the “Flying Winemaker,” consults for hundreds of wineries all over the world, and deploys many of the same techniques.  Today, some of the wines are sadly beginning to lose their rusticity and their sense of terroir, and taste much the same. 

Luckily the world of wine is big enough that you can generally still find a wine to fit your style, whatever it happens to be.  We personally favor drier red wines with more acidity, particularly a Cabernet Sauvignon that has a hint of bell pepper taste, which is a sure sign of lower ripeness.  We also don’t typically put much stock in wine ratings but the wines we favor are those with scores in the mid-80s, because the pricing is often better and they usually haven’t been manipulated to fit the critic’s palates.  We like a wine that still shows where it came from, has the vintage character, and has not been so manipulated by blending, adding frozen carbon, or by micro-oxygenation.

We hope that this gives you a bit more insight to what the critics like and what the numbers mean.  As we always say:

Drink what you like, like what you drink!