huevos con vino

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I recently purchased a WineKeeper “Keeper” to preserve open bottles of wine.  My special circumstances prevent me from consuming an entire bottle of wine on an average weeknight, or even throughout an average week.  Therefore, I decided to take the plunge and spend the $100 on this device.

So, how’s it going so far?  Good question.  I’m going to run the blind taste test soon, in which I test the Keeper against a bottle with a cork in it, but before I do I need to drink my wine for WBW #30.  I’m leaning toward the 2000 Paracombe Adelaide Hills Somerville Shiraz, mostly because the name is so long.

Anyway, about 16 days ago I opened a bottle of 2005 Odisea Veritable Quandry.  For the past several days, I have kept about one slightly large glass of wine in the bottle, just waiting there for me to cook dinner again and make something worthwhile as a pairing.

Tonight was the night.  I made some chicken thighs and fresh baked bread, although I cheated and bought the Essential Baking par-baked bread that you finish baking at home.  Still, it’s very good stuff.  The best part of the meal in terms of wine pairing was the Kalamata olive tray I put out…they taste so much better when they are left intact rather than pitted.

But how did the wine taste after all that time?  I’ll tell you, it was very good!  There was a very faint degradation in the bouquet, but we’re talking 1% if that makes sense.  In other words, 99% of the original bouquet was still present.  The wine tasted terrific, but it did sort of fall apart after about 2 hours in the glass.

This result is very encouraging as I want to get a couple of taps and have a couple of different bottles open at the same time, but I don’t want any of the wine to go bad.  So I’m really looking forward to the “48 hours later” challenge between the Keeper and the cork.  Two will enter the fridge.  Only one will taste good.  Or both.  Or neither, I guess.  We’ll see.  I’m trying to remain impartial.

I was poking around a couple of Web sites today and I noticed something interesting.  It looks like Radio-Coteau is about to announce the customer allocations for their 2005 vintage.  Take a look at their Web site and you’ll see what I mean; click on the Mailing List link and you’ll see a note at the top of the page regarding the 2005 vintage release.

Now, the site has not yet been updated to reflect which wines are part of the 2005 vintage, or how many cases were made, and so on.  But I’m excited to see that we are getting close to the 2005 vintage allocation process, although I really do need to save more money.  Then again, I love Radio-Coteau!

A bit of background: the 2002 vintage was the first for Radio-Coteau.  In that vintage the Hellenthal Pinot Noir received the coveted “Best Pinot Noir of the Year” award and a 95-point score from the Pinot Report.  Stephen Tanzer rated a few of their wines highly that year as well, giving the Von Weidlich RRV Zinfandel a 94 rating.

The 2003 vintage featured 4 different Pinot Noirs that all received scores of 93-95 points from the Pinot Report.  The Zinfandel and Syrah also gained some notice again: Robert Parker gave them 90 points each and Stephen Tanzer rated them at 92 and 93 points, respectively.  Very impressive for a second vintage.

For the 2004 vintage, production doubled from about 1,450 cases to about 2,800 cases of wine (as cited in International Wine Cellar, May/June 2005).  The number of different wines increased to 8, with 3 Syrah releases this time.  The Pinot Report freaked out over the Savoy Pinot Noir release, giving it 97 points.  Now that’s a high score! 

Clearly, Eric Sussman is a winemaker on the rise and Radio-Coteau should continue to gain notoreity over the coming years.  I’m glad I got in on the third floor, so to speak.  And by third floor, I mean as opposed to the proverbial “ground floor,” which in this case would have been the 2002 release.  You get the picture.

This article discusses the increasing popularity of wine among affluent Chinese people.  It’s an interesting article, although I would have liked to have seen more detail in certain areas (such as the names of a few popular American wines).

I mention the article here only in passing, but also because I think a lot of the highly allocated US wines might start turning up in China someday.  I noticed that Wine-Searcher.com lists a Hong Kong merchant with some Sea Smoke for sale.  Very interesting.  The import duties would probably tack on so much cost that it makes US wines nearly prohibitive to purchase.  But, that may change at some point if the government likes American wine enough.

I find it interesting that a bottle of 1994 Petrus costs $2,154.  That’s not too bad for a restaurant price for Petrus, honestly.  I’m assuming some businessman will expense it, much like the Barclays Capital guys who had a $66K bar bill.  Now that’s how I want to get fired someday.  In my estimation, if that bar tab helped those guys win millions of dollars in business, I think they should have kept their jobs.  But I’m a forgiving boss.

“This is the best red wine I’ve ever had in my entire life.”

So said my friend Shawn last night upon drinking a glass of the 2003 Le Cadeau Pinot Noir that I brought with me to Ray’s Boathouse for dinner.  Granted, Shawn has not yet tried too many red wines in his life, but he’s no slouch.  He definitely has a good palate and he knows what he likes.  And he’s pretty buff, so you don’t want to give him any subpar red wine.

I also know what I like in a red wine, and Le Cadeau has plenty of “it.”  All of the recent hype that I’ve seen is justified.  But before I get into the wine, a little more about the evening and our dining experience.

Ray’s Boathouse is a Seattle institution.  I enjoy taking friends, and wines, to Ray’s because the atmosphere is good, the location is phenomenal, and the sommelier treats you right.  Lisa, the sommelier, swung by soon after we arrived.  “So, what interesting Pinot Noir have you brought in tonight?”  She was very intrigued by the Le Cadeau, particularly since she likes the Dundee Hills region of Oregon and Willamette Valley Pinot Noir in general.  She also likes my taste in wines and before we left she wrote down all of the details about the Le Cadeau so she could check it out later.  Nice.

For dinner, I had:

• Boathouse salad with blue cheese and dried cranberries
• Organic top sirloin steak with green beans and parsnip mash
• A couple of bites of my wife’s chocolate “folly” (delicious)

I got the steak to complement the wine on the advice of Tom Mortimer at Le Cadeau.  A wise choice, as it turned out: The wine paired beautifully with the top sirloin, which was done in an au jus reduction.  Speaking of the wine, the 2003 Le Cadeau Pinot Noir is a blend made from the 6 acres of vines that were bearing fruit in 2003, meaning there is a lot going on in this bottle.  Isabelle Dutarte served as the winemaker in 2003 and her experience with Domaine Drouhin shines through in this wine.  And at 630 total cases, the overall production of this winery is minuscule; this vintage is sold out through the winery and online prices start at $40/bottle.  Future production levels should be slightly higher, though, as Le Cadeau has 28 total acres of land with 15 acres planted to vines now, although only 10 acres of vines are currently producing grapes.

At 14.6% alcohol, the 2003 Le Cadeau is fairly potent, but it doesn’t feel quite as strong as some other wines I have tried lately, even those with lower alcohol content.  We opened this bottle and decanted it straightaway, barely touching it for 40-60 minutes before consuming it all with dinner over about 20-30 minutes.  I drank most of my share with my steak; the wine definitely required 45 minutes of decanting and a good meaty dish (such as a steak) to go with it.  No problem for me!  I didn’t taste the wine with my wife’s salmon or my friend’s black cod, but they loved the pairings as well.  It’s nice to see that versatility in a Pinot Noir.

Here are my notes on the 2003 Le Cadeau Pinot Noir:

• Aroma: There is a warmth in the bouquet that is not the alcohol but something else, sort of like a buttered toffee essence combined with red fruit (particularly cherry) textures.  Faint secondary notes of burnt caramel and coffee.  Approachable yet complex, evolved over a couple of hours into a balanced combination of red cherry and a lingering toasty scent.  Very impressive aroma.
• Flavor: “Purity of fruit” is my first instinct for a description of the flavor.  Ripe red plums, slightly sour red cherries, red currants, and a little loganberry all combine into a potent expression of Oregon Pinot Noir.  Nice acidic structure with very mild tannins.  This wine lets the terroir do the talking rather than pounding your tongue with extracted tannic force.  Amazingly light and tasty for a 14.6% alcohol Pinot Noir; I would never guess the alcohol content to be so high.  I have not tried a wine since the 2004 Hirsch Pinot Noir that was this focused and tasty.
• General impression: A wildly impressive wine, particularly when you consider that this wine was only the second vintage from Le Cadeau.  I look forward to their 2004 releases!

Instead of having dessert, I treated myself to a glass of 2002 Inniskillin Riesling Niagara ice wine, which I had been eyeing ever since I came to Ray’s a couple of years ago.  Tonight was the night to give it a shot.  Wow, it’s good, but it’s also very expensive.  What did I think?  Read on:

• Aroma: Pears, peaches, Meyer lemon, and a sharp minerality that is very appealing.
• Flavor: Very sweet, but not cloying.  Delicious, viscous, lip-smacking wine that has an almost Muscat sweetness to it.  Honey and sweet yellow fruits are in abundance here.
• General impression: Was it worth the $15 for 4-5 sips?  Probably not.  But it’s really darn tasty and I’m glad I tried the famous Inniskillin even if it was expensive.

So, the final verdict this evening was wholeheartedly in favor of Le Cadeau.  I am extremely glad I found their wines as the result of reading the Prince of Pinot newsletter and I look forward to many more evenings of incredible Pinot Noir from this winery!

POSTSCRIPT: A bit of full disclosure.  I modified this post within 24 hours of initial publication to reflect some corrections that Tom Mortimer, proprietor of Le Cadeau, sent to me regarding the vineyard size and number of acres of vines.

The first thing I wonder about when I see the name “DuMOL” is whether all those letters are really meant to be capitalized.  I mean, the label shows the winery name as “DuMOL,” so I assume that must be correct.  But here and there on the DuMOL Web site I see “DuMol” written out.  Very mysterious indeed.

But all mystery aside, the good people at DuMOL are extremely nice.  I had a call from Kerry Murphy Jr. this week, who is the son of DuMOL proprietor Kerry J. Murphy.  Kerry Jr., as he says when he answers the phone, wanted to know whether I was interested in being a part of the DuMOL pre-release membership opportunity. 

Now, I must say I was awfully impressed.  I have never had a winery call me up directly to chat about their wines, even in a sales capacity.  I signed up for the DuMOL mailing list but that was it, and when I did I assumed I’d get the same treatment as with every other boutique winery: a flyer in the mail heralding their upcoming release, listing a few reviews, extolling the virtues of dirt, etc., etc.  But not DuMOL!  They actually called me directly, and as a result I thought very seriously about joining their pre-release membership group.

First, though, I did some research.  DuMOL caught my attention because of an article in a Prince of Pinot newsletter.  The Prince had a tasting that compared “Three Amigos” of Russian River Pinot Noir: DuMOL, Kistler, and Rochioli.  Now, I had heard of the latter two on reputation alone, and I have seen lots of reviews of their wines.  But DuMOL was a new one and I became interested in learning more when I read this sentence:

“These three producers are alike in that there is no public tasting offered for these wines, all are sold almost exclusively through a mailing list, and they rarely appear on restaurant wine lists.” (link to original citation, PDF format, p. 7)

Clearly, a sentence such as that one piques my interest every time.  I started looking up other reviews of DuMOL wines and I saw scores in the mid to high 90s.  Very interesting indeed.  I also notice they make two general groups of wines: Russian River Valley blends of 5 to 6 different vineyards that result in highly regarded Chardonnay, Syrah, and Pinot Noir bottlings; and 3 different Pinot Noirs, 3 different Chardonnays, and 2 different Syrahs that all focus on more specific vineyards and clones.  They also make a Viognier that really caught my eye (and at 120 cases, it’s quite limited).  The 2002 ryan Pinot Noir looks like a particular press favorite, clocking in at 94 points in Wine Spectator and 94-96 points in Wine Advocate. 

So, on Friday I called Kerry Jr. back and we chatted for 10 minutes about Syrah/Viognier co-fermented wines before I gave him the go-ahead to ship me a six-pack of wines in May.  We also talked about future allocation procedures and his answers were very encouraging.  Basically:

• In May 2007 I will get 2 each of the 2004 Russian River Valley (RRV) releases - the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah
• Later in 2007 I will receive an allocation to purchase certain amounts of some or all of the other DuMOL wines.
• In 2008, I will be able to call Kerry Jr. again and specify the allocations I want for future purchases.  So if I only want a couple of Pinot Noirs and the Viognier, I can probably do that.

That’s really cool!  I’m excited to try these wines and see what all the fuss is about.  The average aftermarket price for the 2004 DuMOL RRV Pinot Noir currently stands at $75.50/bottle, while the list price is $58/bottle.  Good to know when you’re deciding to sign up for an allocation.  But in the end I don’t care about the aftermarket values of these wines.  I am much more interested in being a part of a very nice and interesting winery that clearly takes the time and makes the effort to consider their customers.  Now that’s a smart business model for a winery.