The wines hidden inside brown paper bags came from Fronsac, Castillon, and the Haut Medoc. There were two token wines, one from St. Julien and the other St. Emilion.  The most expensive bottle of 2009 Bordeaux in the lineup was $33 retail, insuring that the evening’s foundation would be poured and hardened sans pedigree. Besides a good look at the vintage’s character, our Boston blind tasting group was poised to hunt value outside the boldly priced classified growths of the undisputed stellar 2009 Bordeaux release.

Great Bordeaux vintages used to be easy to deal with.  Buy the top wines in the best years and lay them away for 10, 20, 50, or 75 years.  That was a no-brainer strategy when first growths like Latour, Haut Brion, and Margaux sold for $50-$75 and second growths like Pichon Lalande cost less than $400 a dozen. Today, the average release price on wine-searcher for one bottle of 2009 Chateau Margaux is $1,352.  Without adjusting purchase patterns, it would be easy to spend $20,000 in every strong vintage on a half dozen cases for the cellar.  Since Bordeaux lives very near the top of the wine food chain in my world, creative acquisition strategies would need to replace shopping lists laden with venerable chateaus.  In the fall of 2011, Neal Martin of the Wine Advocate wrote this after tasting through more than 100 2009 Cru Bourgeois:

…for all those disenfranchised Bordeaux-lovers who vowed never to buy Claret again after facing escalating prices. I would urge you to consider some of the rich pickings to be found. These are wines that are a fraction of the price of the top names, these are wines that are physically available and these are wines that at best, give the Grand Cru Classé a damn good run for their money….They combine Bordeaux classicism with the ripe fruit that the 2009 vintage bestowed, the textures are often silky smooth and many display wonderful delineation, precision and purity on the finish.

Thinking about the glory in Bordeaux, it is impossible to escape the discussion of aging and balance; tannin for structure and its supporting role in aging, fruit for its terroir driven purity and charm, and acidity for the liveliness it gives to the fruit.  While some great vintages showcase riper fruit like 1990 and others more backward tannic cloaked wines like 1986, the best of the best vintages are about impeccable balance. I’ve concluded it’s that balance, along with the natural gifts of the Bordeaux growing region, that allows these wines to age into the gracefully elegant old claret that makes aging Bordeaux a worthwhile endeavor.  We discovered that very signature balance associated with the greatest Bordeaux years in the twelve bottles of humble 2009s we examined next to each other, blind.  If one consistent difference between the greatest chateau and these just might be length of time to maturity, the best of the wines we tasted should deliver magical silky drinking in 10-20 years.

Scanning my notes I noticed repetitive indications of good acidity, manageable tannins, and sweet berry fruit. A friend with one of the finest Bordeaux knowledge banks and tasting acumen despite having grown up in the Languedoc, Jacques, compared these wines to the best of the 2008 vintage; “balanced and nicely rounded….food wines”.  Jacques suggested that the wines would be at their peak in 12-15 years.  The one thing the entire group of 17 seemed to agree on is that the best of the wines we tasted were severe values, and a viable path to filling a piece of the cellar as homage to the ’09 vintage.  For my part, I will be buying the top five wines by the case and laying them away for at least ten years.  Here are some of the highlight wines of the evening:

$31 **** 2009 La Vieille Cure, Fronsac

The evening’s second place wine, and my own favorite wine of the tasting.  The color was the blackest and most opaque of all, with exotic aromas of soy sauce and Szechuan peppercorns, big, ripe, and a lengthy memorable finish.

$24 **** 2009 Chateau Boutisse, St. Emilion

My second favorite wine, but not voted on nor favored by the rest of the group.  Light in color with mocha and tobacco leaf on the nose, the wine combined rich ripe kirsch fruit flavor with a solid finish.  It boasts class and elegance now.

$24 ***1/2 2009 Chateau Bernadotte, Haut Medoc

This was the group’s favorite wine of the night.  I liked the wine, a beautiful perfumed nose, char, rasberry fruit, and excellent acid and tannin levels.

$29 *** Vrai Canon Bouche, Fronsac

While the wine won third place on point votes, it was a highly contested wine with half the group heralding it and the other half stingy in their praise.  I liked the wine for its strength in the mid palate, its richness, and massive mouthfeel.

The only two wines in the group that did not figure into anyone’s recommendations were the Roc and Bouscat Cadus.

Like so many older European winemaking regions, the Languedoc has instigated its own transformation during the last decade as more informed and new generations of winemakers introduced state of the art winemaking technique to showcase local terroir.  The development can not be taken casually since the Languedoc, combined with its southwest neighboring sister region Roussillon, represents more hectares of planted vineyards and total wine production than any other region in the world.  Once known as a simple French country-bulk wine producing region of average quality product, the Languedoc AOC has just split itself into three broad hierarchal classifications that include more than 30 already recognized appellations and designations to help consumers get a better handle on their high quality and value wines.

Consumers are responding as export growth from 2009-2011 has increased more than 20% a year.  But, the growth has not been straightforward nor easy.  Last week at the Boston trade tasting hosted by the Conseil Interprofessionel des Vins du Languedoc (CIVL), top retailer Bin Ends’ proprietor John Hafferty talked about how he needs to hand sell these wines in order to create the consumer discovery, and hopefully regional affinity, that he knows is in the best interests of his customer base.  Besides the small market segment of long time wine geeks who picked through these wines to find quality and value 10-20 years ago, almost nobody comes into Hafferty’s shop looking for this Minervois or that Corbieres.  Still, Hafferty finds a way to sell these expressive value wines by understanding what his customers like about their long time favorite producers and regions, suggesting he likes those very same things, and then presenting strange looking $15 bottles of things like Muscat de Frontignan as substitutes to favorite sweet or other styled wines.

The scope of Languedoc’s vast region creates advantages and challenges on the way to helping consumers embrace the region’s wines.  The influences of the Mediterranean, Atlantic, mountains, heat, garrigue fields, incessant sunshine, and dominant breezes affect each part of the region in different ways.  Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Caragnan, Bourboulenc, Clairette, Piquepoul, Nuscat, Marsanne, Rousanne, Viognier, and Vermentino are just some of the region’s more popular grape varieties, all growing predominantly or differently in one appellation or another.  It is all one big mess for consumers and Languedoc marketers to sort out, since nothing about the bottle labels make it easy for consumers to understand exactly what they have in their hands nor represent any expression of “official” quality hierarchy.  The Languedoc team did a great job of simplifying things with the above terroir chart describing the Mountain, Western, Central, Coastal, and Southern sub AOC character influences on baskets of appellations.

My personal lessons from tasting vast amounts of Languedoc wines at tastings like this over time are ones of variety, surprise, discovery, hidden excitement, and style diversity.  It is no wonder consumers have taken so long to catch on; none of these are “sure thing”nor “old reliable” descriptors.  At this recent Languedoc tasting I was reacquainted with an amazing ***1/2 value from Hecht & Bannier, a new discovery ***1/2 $13 Fabas Minervois Mourral , and a *** serious and pretty $11 rosé 2011 Sainte Eulalie Minervois Printemps d’Euilalie.

The highlight of this tasting of more than 50 Languedoc white, rose, sparkling, and red wines was the portfolio from Chateau des Karantes.  These wines are made only footsteps from the Mediterranean.  From the appellation of La Clape comes the **** $22 2009 Chateau des Karantes Blanc , a magnificent white wine half made from bourboulenc, and almost equal parts of vermentino, grenache blanc, and rousanne in the balance.  A viscous wine with straw field aromas combines with the rest of the nose and flavors of peach and lychee.  The mouthfeel is rich and luscious, but clean and balanced by good acidity.  It reminds me of some of the finest white Chateauneuf du Papes I have tasted.  This wine was a stunning needle in a haystack find at this Languedoc tasting, and something to seek out if you like white wines that are wholly expressive, rich, and balanced by abiding acidity.  The rest of Karantes’ wines including the bubble gum and floral 2011 Rosé, the rougher country, spicy, and balanced 2010 Bergerie, or the big fruit bomb and teeth staining La Clape 2009 Red were all worth buying and drinking.

It is worth getting your trusted retailer to hand sell you his or her favorites.  There are mountains, seas, and garrigue covered fields filled with discovery for anyone that is open to it.

What’s not to like about Sicily’s frappato grape?  Bright cherry and red berry fruit, silky juice, light body, excellent acidity, and great consumer value. Earlier this year I was knocked out by the frappatos and nero d’Avolas from Arianna Occhipinti, realizing how unadorned (maybe a good alternative to the overused “natural” marketing spin?) winemaking can turn frappato clean, pure, and luscious.  Moving through the year’s meals guzzling as much frappato as possible, it was only a matter of time before I uncorked Arianna’s uncle’s Azienda Agricola Cos wines.

In a 2010 interview, Arianna said this about her uncle Giusto Occhipinti:

“…he’s been an inspiration for me since the beginning. He has always worked with natural methods; understandably, he experimented with new techniques during the boom of technological advances in the ‘80s, but he quickly came back to his roots.”

That’s saying a lot when she also labels Gravner and Joly as influencers, both pushing the envelope as leading pioneers in biodynamic and natural (unadorned?) winemaking in Friuli and the Loire Valley respectively.

Frappato sometimes shows its simple food friendly fruit and acid pleasures like straight forward gamay and pinot noir might. Other times, it can be wholly expressive packing layered punches that satiates through multiple levels of flavor and character.  Every once in a while I open a bottle of frappato with elevated expectations and often enough the wine is quite good, but falls short of the amazingness I optimistically conjured in my brain. Not this time.

**** $25 2010 Cos Frappato is brilliant, fulfilling all expectations and then some. The bright red fruit is all there, delivered in a restrained richness, if you will, silky from entry to finish; a perfect balance of acid and fruit.  In addition, there is earthiness playing harmonically to its symphony of strawberry, cherry, and raspberry flavors.  This wine gives a perception of richness that almost makes it fell chewy despite its middle weight density.  The color is a somewhat translucent, alluring shade of red.  Most importantly, it is beyond delicious.

A stylish wine that presents frappato freshness wrapped in old world earthy charms, the 2010 Cos frappato is one of the most satisfying wines I have tasted so far this year; a glass of wine that will live forever in my tasting memory bank.  I can not recommend it enough at $25; beyond value.  Now with the utmost anticipation, I am going to open and taste the 2008 Cos Cerasuolo di Vittoria that beckons from my cellar.  Lucky me.

Blind tasting seventeen different examples of 2009 pinot noir in one sitting was repeated evidence, inside twenty five years of steady reminders, that side-by-side peer group blind tasting is the most legitimate format to learn about wine and your personal palate.  In Robert Dwyer’s opening paragraphs of his detailed Wellesley Wine Press tasting note post on this pinot noir extravaganza that our Boston group recently submitted itself to, he gets right to the points of eliminating bias and assumption.

If we can all agree that wine is meant to be enjoyed and not idolized according to label, then blind tasting remains the purest way to test your susceptibility to this sort of predilection in a totally controlled way. California enjoyed a great pinot noir vintage in 2009 and Robert and the rest of us had favorites we already tasted unblind, one at a time.  How would they stack up next to Italian, French, German, and other domestic versions? It is a scary naked moment for passionate wine drinkers with knowledgeable edges.

The wines came from the Sonoma coast, Santa Cruz Mountains, Santa Rita Hills, Anderson Valley, Russian River, Santa Maria Valley, Oregon, Pfalz, Gevrey-Chambertin, and Pavia. I even threw in a ringer grenache from the Santa Barbara Highlands that I swore had the coloration and other characteristics of pinot noir when I tasted it individually three different times (2009 A Tribute to Grace Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard grenache). A late entry, and not on the list above, was the Calatroni 2010 pinot nero.  Guess what?

With all votes cast blind, the Calatroni at $18 from Italy’s Lombardy wine region tied with the $60 Brewer Clifton Clos Pepe as the group’s favorite wine. Also, the Bouvier Bourgogne at $23 tied the $50 Soujourn Wohler Vineyard for second place. Finally, I was the only person (mainly by color and with the certain advantage of having tasted it before) that was able to pick the grenache out of this all-pinot noir group, and it finished in a 3rd place tie with the $26 Calera.  The $11 Castle Rock was one of four wines that finished tied at the bottom of the voting results, along with the Loring, Belle Glos, and Becker from Germany.

Robert’s post offers intensive tasting notes, so I will spare mine, as different as they might be.  I am not surprised the Brewer-Clifton took a top spot.  The pinots from the Santa Rita Hills are so impressive in most vintages.  Velvet, pretty, round, richly fruited wines that never feel heavy hail from this growing region and the 2009 Brewer-Clifton Clos Pepe held true.  The Calatroni was sheer prettiness with complex flavors, aromas, and old world styling.  It is utterly amazing that this wine is available in the US for $15-$18.  Another great value in second place came from France; Bouvier Bourgogne Le Chapitre.  It was full of coffee, leather, and attractive gaminess.  In third place, but my second place wine, was the Calera.  Medium dark, rich black cherry flavor, herbs, toast, and soy were all in full evidence.  I can not recommend these four wines enough.  Lastly, the grenache made by Angela Osborne is a new take on the variety that I have never witnessed in California.  Light, graceful as in its namesake….it was able to disguise itself as pinot noir.  If you can get your hands on Angela’s wines, you won’t go wrong.

These blind tasting results pointed to value in the US and Europe.  Their worthiness would never have been placed in such supportive context for me without the blind tasting event.  I continue to learn.

Like all great cities, eating and drinking in Chicago is a dual proposition.  While the likes of Alinea, Moto, and Green Zebra ping away at culinary pleasure sensors, the city’s midwest soul food circuits beckon.  I developed my own ritual patterns for Chicago’s simpler local eating more than twenty years ago, always making sure to integrate pilgrimages to Sam’s Wines & Spirits.  Chicago’s best pizza, hot dogs, and ribs learned to live side by side with Sam’s vinous bounties inside a city honoring BYOB far better than my current hometown (read: prohibition village); Boston.  This past weekend we revisited two old time favorites, a new twist on hot dogs, and a metamorphic iteration of Chicago’s old time retail wine mecca.

Sam’s Wines & Spirits (Now Binny’s)

Back in the day, Sam’s Wines & Spirits was a smaller Lincoln Park shop on North Avenue with a treasure trove of end bins that brought civilized wine collectors to their knees, crawling around floors laden with dusty wood crates in search of a few buried prize bottles at ridiculous discounts. Then, Sam’s moved a few blocks away to larger, more modern retail space. With serious selection and depth in all formats of Bordeaux, Rhone, and California wines, among others, the shopping experience became more comfortable and less geeky.  Competitive pricing accompanied vast selection.

Involving a long sad story of family disagreements and serious miscalculations, the Rosen family consolidated ownership under brother Brian, who turned around to sell majority interest to local private equity firm Arbor.  Things went bad with that expansion plan and deal.  It brought Sam’s to it’s knees, ending up in a sale of it’s locations to Binny’s in 2009, a local big box wine retailer busily scooping up local wine shops and outfitting them in shiny new Binny’s branding.  It was a sad moment in Chicago wine retailing history and I had not been able to convince myself to pay a visit to the old Sam’s, current Binny’s, until this weekend.  Three important notes on that visit:

1. Selection is still vast, especially California, Rhone, and Bordeaux. Format variety is robust and prices are competitive.  A glass front, temperature controlled cellar full of classics is on display at the back of the store. Staff is friendly and courteous.  But the place, just like in the Sam’s era when it departed from the retailing practices that once made it legendary, feels boxy and antiseptic. If you can get beyond nostalgic remorse, it lives on as a dynamite Lincoln Park wine retail spot, on the way to or from the airport or your favorite BYOB.
2. Turns out that last year the Rosen’s got back into the game as active consultants to Chicago start up Evolution Wines & Spirits in Northbrook, Ill.  Regional expansion plans exist and hopefully the Rosen’s will remember what originally made them successful.  I couldn’t get there this trip, but a visit to Evolution is firmly on my next Chicago agenda.
3. I picked up some of the newly arrived 2010 Chateau Pesquie Terrasses for $13.  More on that in a moment.

Twin Anchors Ribs and 2010 Pesquie Terrasses

I really like pork ribs and these are my favorite. They are slow cooked, moderately sauced, not smoked.  The meat falls off the bone; not the least bit of exaggeration.  Twin Anchors has been operating since 1932 and the ribs beat anything I have ever eaten in Kansas City, St. Louis, or Memphis. It’s probably worth sticking with classic Zesty sauce, even though there’s a new Prohibition sauce now that adds more heat. Since they’ll load your table with deep bowls of any sauces you want, try both out for yourself. While Twin Anchors is an institution, it’s nothing more than a simple, local Old Town neighborhood bar scene, nothing fancy at all, positively no dancing, a decent beer list, and a $10 corkage fee.

That’s right, a bar with the best ribs in the world and proprietors more than happy to let you pop the cork on any wine you want to bring from home, or in my case, Sam’s (woops, Binny’s).  You can’t be too fancy with ribs (leave the ’45 Petrus home), but the Zesty sauce is restrained enough to not overwhelm young wines.  I have popped new vintage Bordeaux, massive young California Cabs, and newly released Rhones inside this bar since the mid-eighties, washing down full racks of pork ribs that melt in your mouth.  It’s been a hedonistic ritual that I fully recommend.

I have been waiting for the 2010 Chateau Pesquie Terrasses to show up.  Chateau Pesquie was an early player in the Cote du Ventoux, getting in at the establishment of the appellation in the early 70′s.  While production is large, the wine is a ridiculous and intense value at $13-15.  While some vintages can be stylistically modern, chewy, and fruity, the region’s terroir is mostly present in this primarily grenache and secondarily syrah blend (70%/30% in 2010).  I have been curious about the 2010 ever since Parker awarded it 94 points, favoring it over Pesquie’s 2009 luxury cuvee Quintessence.

It’s stunning and Parker is on point here.  Fully reflecting the scorched earth of the Provencal region’s heated terraced vineyards, full of the aromatic wafts associated with its local wild herbs baking in mid day sunshine, the dark purple wine is so pretty and elegant in your mouth, showing tremendous rich cherry grenache fruit and sweet floral notes.  It is a complete and multi faceted wine of classy flavors and intensity without being overwhelming or in your face.  It might remind you of $100 Chateauneuf du Pape.  How amazing is it that a large production bottling can deliver such a stunning wine for $15 or less.  This is the kind of reference point value European wine I think about when I bemoan the lack of quality and value in California wine production. Buying a case of 2010 Chateau Pesquie Terrasses will most likely be one of my top recommendations this year for sensible wine appreciation.  Opening it at Twin Anchors for Sunday lunch with a full slab of ribs and bowl of Zesty sauce can not be underestimated.

Pizza and Hot Dogs

I tried one new spot for dogs and returned to a favorite deep dish haunt on this trip.  I can fully recommend The Art of Pizza; an easy quick drive from Wrigley Field.  It’s a simple spot in a small strip mall.  While the strip mall looks are deceiving, the deep dish pizza is mind blowing.  For me, raised on Brooklyn’s best pizza, deep dish is all about crust and sauce just like Sicilian pies back home.  Here, the sauce is sweet, light, and pure tomato joy.  The crust is crisp on the bottom, and light and doughy throughout.  I tried the sausage and cheese stuffed version.  It is ethereal.  I couldn’t eat more than a slice, but will hang onto its memory until my next visit to Chicago.  Very highly recommended.

At Franks ‘N’ Dawgs, you will be hard pressed to find a traditional Chicago dog experience.  But what better city to try “Dawgs Gone Wild”?  The Chicagoesque dog will remind you of traditional local renditions, but cranks it to a new level.  I don’t prefer it over the real thing, but it is a mighty rewarding dog experience.  It has all the usual toppings, but takes it to a gourmet level, if you will.  We also tried the Truffle Mac ‘n’ Cheese dog, and it is decadent.  But that’s what you come her for, along with another BYOB policy that allows you to wash down your dog and must-try Tripple Truffle Fries with more Chateau Pesquie from, ok, Binny’s.

See how easy it is to forget about obsessing over an Alinea reservation?