The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine of the week: Domaine de Nizas Rose 2011

Labor Day marks the end of summer, which traditionally means two things: One can’t wear straw hats anymore and one has to stop drinking rose. It’s a good thing the Wine Curmudgeon isn’t hung up on tradition. Because where I would be without my straw and my rose?

The Nizas ($10, purchased, 13.5%) is one more example of the general, all-around brilliance of rose. For one thing, it’s a previous vintage, and it’s still fresh and crisp and refreshing, something that’s not easy for cheap rose to do. Look for cranberry and raspberry fruit and a long, satisfying, fruity finish.This is another standout effort from an excellent producer from the south of France; serve chilled and drink on its own or with any Labor Day weekend festivity, from barbecue to picnic.

Speaking of which, I’ll be back at the annual Kerrville Labor Day music extravaganza this weekend, talking about Texas wine and plugging The Cheap Wine Book. Stop by and say hello if you’re there. I’ll be the curmudgeonly fellow with the straw hat.

Wine of the week: Bieler et Fils Rose 2012

The United States would not be celebrating its 237th birthday this week without its French ally in the Revolutionary War, and especially without a French victory in a naval battle off Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay in 1781. The latter made it possible for George Washington to force the British surrender at Yorktown that ended the war.

So what better way to celebrate The Fourth than with a French rose made by an American? The Bieler ($11, sample, 12.8%) comes from Charles Bieler and family, who shows up on the blog a lot for his cheap and extremely well-made wine. This one is no exception.

It’s from the Provence region, where some some of the best rose in France is made. It’s bone dry, but shows a little more fruit than usual (cherry and raspberry?). This is another indication of its quality, because the extra fruit doesn’t make the wine taste sweetish (an effect some producers go for to make the consumer think the wine is sweet). That’s because there is more than enough acidity for balance – what Bieler calls tension. When he makes the wine, he says he wants a balance between ripe grapes, to provide fruitiness, and unripe grapes, to provide acidity. He found it here.

Highly recommended. Serve chilled on its own or with any holiday barbecue or meal (and yes, that means red meat), from now through Thanksgiving.

More about Fourth of July wine:

• Fourth of July wine 2013
• Fourth of July wine 2012
• Wine of the week: Gruet Brut NV
• Memorial Day and rose 2013

Memorial Day and rose 2013

The Wine Curmudgeon has bad news for those of you who go out of your way to ignore rose – the statistics say rose sales are up. Lots, even.

Wine drinkers, as part of an overall shift away from oakier, more alcoholic wines, are turning to rose. This is especially true of younger wine drinkers, who see rose for what it is – cheap, well made and food friendly.

Which offers hope for my otherwise cranky outlook. I’ve been preaching the gospel of rose for years, but rose posts are always among the blog’s worst read items. Maybe not this year, and especially not for the annual rose roundup in honor of Memorial Day and the start of summer. More, after the jump:

Wine review: Charles & Charles Rose 2011

The blog has made substantial progress in its five-plus years of existence – helping wine drinkers appreciate cheap wine and local wine in particular, and adding to the limited number of resources written in English for beginning wine drinkers.

Its great failing, though, has been in rose. No matter what I do, I can’t find a way to interest you in dry pink wine. The rose reviews are rarely well read, and at a time when thousands and thousands of people visit the blog, their poor showing seriously hurts my numbers.

Someone more business savvy or better attuned to the ways of the cyber-ether would get the message and cut back – or even eliminate -- the rose reviews. Needless to say, the Wine Curmudgeon is neither of those.

Because roses are worth drinking, even when it’s not summer. The Charles & Charles ($10, purchased, 13%) is bone dry, food friendly, balanced and fruity – the sort of wine that would go with any informal dinner, afternoon wine sipping, or friends in the living room. It has lots of strawberry and watermelon, which is balanced with pleasant acidity and a touch of minerality.

This is what U.S. rose should aspire to -- enough fruit to please Americans, but not so much as to confuse it with sweet, blush wine.

Mini-reviews 40: Red Newt, Rene Barbier, Quincy, Steelhead

Reviews of wines that don’t need their own post, but are worth noting for one reason or another. Look for it on the final Friday of each month:

• Red Newt Cellars Semi-Dry Riesling 2011 ($15, sample): This New York white, which I tasted as part of a Finger Lakes Twitter event, didn’t have as much varietal character as I expected. More sweet than anything else, without enough fruit or minerality to balance the sweetness.

• René Barbier Mediterranean Rose NV ($5, purchased): The best of the three Rene Barbier wines (and the most difficult to find), made more like a New World rose with strawberry fruit. Highly recommended.

• Domaine du Adéle Rouzé Quincy 2010 ($20, purchased): French white from the Loire is imported by the always reliable Charles Neal. Lots and lots of lemon; the wine may require a little more time in bottle to even out. Needs food, and probably seafood (boiled or grilled shrimp, steamed mussels).

• Steelhead Red 2010 ($15, sample): California blend is heavy on the cabernet sauvignon, so it needs beefy food. But it has lots of character and oomph, as well as blackberry fruit and dusty tannins.

Mini-reviews 39: Schug, Anne Amie, Acrobat, Colores del Sol

Reviews of wines that don’t need their own post, but are worth noting for one reason or another. Look for it on the final Friday of each month. Today, wines to enjoy over the Labor Day weekend:

• Schug Chardonnay Sonoma Coast 2010 ($25, sample): Elegant chardonnay that is a huge bargain at this price. It retains California freshness and fruit while showing some of the length and breadth of a fine white Burgundy.

• Anne Amie Pinot Noir Cuvée A 2010 ($25, sample): Classic Oregon pinot (and always a favorite), with berry fruit and earthiness that balance each other, and a fine value at this price.

• Acrobat Pinot Noir Rose 2011 ($10, purchased): Nothing really wrong with this Oregon rose, but mildly disappointing if only because it’s not up to the quality of the Acrobat pinot gris. Tastes of red fruit with almost sauvignon blanc-like acidity.

• Colores Del Sol Malbec 2010 ($12, sample): At $8, this is a nicely done grocery store wine, featuring the typical blueberry cola aroma. But, unfortunately, it doesn’t cost $8.

Catfish meuniere, Randall Grahm, and Spy Valley

Honest wine is the best pairing for honest food.

The most important lesson I ever learned about seafood came from the late, much loved and much missed Merlin Kleinpeter: If you can’t buy it from Robert at Bayou Seafood, she used to say, then don’t buy it.

Which was Merlin’s way of telling me that fresh is what matters, and that any supplier who wasn’t honest about things like freshness wasn’t worth my time and money. If the crabs weren’t good that day, then Robert told her so, and Merlin didn’t buy them.

I mention this because food and wine are inextricably linked, and not just about which wine goes with which food. Pairing wine with most takeout pizza, which never tastes as good as you think it should, is one thing. That’s what $10 grocery store merlot was invented for.

But pairing wine with honest food – food that someone cared about and that required them to make an effort when they prepared it -- is another matter entirely. More, after the jump: