This is Not a Top Ten List

This is not a top ten list.  This is a list of ten wines, selected with great difficulty and largely at random, that inspired me in 2010.  This was meant to be a New Year's Eve post... but I opted to unplug.  This is to say, drink wine... and don't forget to enjoy it.  This is to say, have a Happy New Year, dammit! 

Barbera d'Alba, Giuseppe Rinaldi 2008
Absolutely delicious, in an all one could possibly ask for from Barbera kind of way.  I have an ongoing love/hate relationship with Barbera but this was all love.  If only it were available in the US.... (My original write-up.)

Paso Robles Estate Rosé, L'Aventure 2009
One of the most memorable wines from my March trip to Paso Robles, CA, consumed during one of the most memorable events of the trip—dinner high up the Templeton Gap at the home of L'Aventure owner Stephane Asseo.  A dead ringer for the best side of Coteaux d'Aix rosé, with a dash more body courtesy of Cali-ripeness.

Barolo, Bartolo Mascarello 2005
Of the scores of Baroli from the 2005 vintage I've had the chance to taste this year, both at home and while in Piemonte in May for Nebbiolo Prima, Maria-Teresa Mascarello's stands out as the most graceful.

This is not a walrus.

Saar Ayler Kupp Riesling "Unterstenbersch" Faß 12, Weingut Peter Lauer 2008
The most inspiring Riesling I drank in 2010.  The combination of reserved character and intense depth in Florian Lauer's "Unterstenbersch" reminded me that I need to make it a serious mission to drink even more Riesling and to explore the M-S-R more thoroughly in 2011.  (My original write-up.)

Ribeira Sacra Summum, Guímaro (Pedro M. Rodríguez Pérez) 2008
The '08 Ribeira Sacra tinto from Pedro Rodriguez at Guimaro already received a nod in my 2010 in review post a few days back but what can I say....  It was one of the finest $15ish reds I drank all year and a bell-clear harbinger that, just as with Riesling (above), I'm in need of deeper exploration when it comes to the wines of Northern Spain.  (Original write-up.)

Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie "Vieilles Vignes," Château les Fromenteaux (Famille Luneau) 2005
I opened this just a couple of weeks ago, after the remnants of a bottle of Meursault proved inadequate for the evening meal.  The Meursault had improved over the course of five days but the Muscadet (which is farmed, vinified and bottled by Pierre Luneau-Papin, btw) still blew it right out of the water. Wonderful aromatics, brilliant minerality, fine balance, aging gracefully... it was one of those wines that made me pause and utter a little "Oh, shit!" under my breath after every few sips.  $12.50 seriously well spent—and proof that there is cellar-worthy wine out there in the sub-$15 price range.

Els Jelipins 2005
What was I just saying about Northern Spain...?  My friend Joe Manekin, whose own Top Ten of 2010 post was at least partially responsible for inspiring this one, included Els Jelipins on his list.  Here it is again.  Sometimes besotted minds think alike.  It's not often that I encounter a bottle that retails for $80 and feel compelled to run right out to buy some.  Heck, it's not often that I buy $80 bottles of wine, period.  It's even rarer that I call a wine "sexy," especially without my tongue firmly planted in cheek.  But that's exactly what I did, on both counts.  Not having been to Penedès, I can't really comment on the wine's terroir expression.  It would be equally feeble to declare it a great expression of Sumoll.  It's simply a great wine.  (Original write-up.)



This is crossing over....

Champagne Brut Blanc de Noirs "Inflorescence," Cédric Bouchard (2006)
In a year in which I had the opportunity to drink many excellent Champagnes, this was a tough choice.  But from its incredible up-front fruit richness and textural density, to its closing minerality and long, long finish, Cédric Bouchard's "Inflorescence" left a definite and lasting impression.

Sierra Foothills White Wine, La Clarine Farm 2009
Two American wines in my not-a-top-ten list?  I wouldn't have believed it if you'd told me but here it is....  It boils down to this: if more American wines tasted as good to me as does this Rhône-inspired white from Hank Beckmeyer's La Clarine Farm, as in "friggin' delicious" (cribbed straight from my raw tasting notes), I'd drink more American wine.  (Original write-up.)

Fleurie "Clos de la Roilette," Coudert Père et Fils 2009
As with the Champagne above, in a year in which I drank many excellent wines from the Beaujolais, this was a touch choice.  But not quite so tough.... Why?  Because the '09 Fleurie from Coudert is simply spot-on.  Whether to drink now or later, it's delicious wine—balanced, bright, expressive and incredibly enjoyable.  I'd be hard pressed to think of a wine I'd rather have a big stack of, sitting right next to me at all times, than this.  What better way to round out my "list"?  (Original write-up.)

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Exploring Guímaro and Ribeira Sacra

The inhabitants of the tiny village of Sober — all nine of them if the latest census reports are correct — must count themselves as lucky souls. That is assuming that young wine grower Pedro Rodríguez Pérez shares some of his tiny production of Ribeira Sacra with his neighbors.

Sober is located in the Amandi sub-zone of Ribeira Sacra, a D.O. area of modest proportion located in Galicia, not far from the northern border of Portugal in the northwest corner of Spain. Here, the 35-year-old Rodríguez has no choice but to farm his seven hectares of vineyards completely by hand, as those vines are perched on precipitous slopes above the River Sil.

Pedro Rodríguez Pérez overlooks his vines in Ribeira Sacra (photo courtesy of Triage Wines, Guimaro's distributor in the Pacific Northwest).

Pedro works fifteen separate vineyard plots, planted primarily to Mencia, along with small quantities of Caino tinto and other native black grape varieties, plus small parcels of Godello and Treixadura, from which he produces a single white wine. His vines average 40-years in age. There are three reds in his cadre, all of which, along with the one white, are bottled under his label Guímaro (which means "nonconformist").

Aside from Pedro's inclusion in Eric Asimov's excellent New York Times profile of Ribeira Sacra and other random tidbits around the Web, there's surprisingly little information available about the wines of Señor Rodriguez. So, ever in search of knowledge, I contacted Guímaro's importer, Jose Pastor, who shared with me the following details. (I've edited Jose's words for context and style but will still attribute them as a quote, as I would not have had access to such information without his help.) Says Jose,

"As far as I know Pedro makes four diferent cuvées:

• A barrel fermented white, mainly from Godello, naturally fermented with some batonage, bottled on the early side with no filtration. He makes 2 barrels every year.
• Then he does a basic red cuvée, fermented/aged in tank and also bottled on the early side, which goes by the name of Guimaro Joven (which means "young"). Since '08, this comes in a Burgundy bottle. (The '07 and some early bottles of the '08 were shipped in a Bordeaux bottle with a blue label, which may have caused some confusion out there; this is the same cuvée.) Starting in 2009, the Joven is going to be raised half in foudre and the other half in tank. Also, a small part of the cuvée will be whole-cluster fermented.

Lastly he produces two old vine cuvées:

• 'B1P' is made from old vine Mencia grown in Pedro's highest elevation vineyard; this one is fermented in open-top foudres with whole clusters.
• 'B2M' is also old vine Mencia but from a lower elevation plot. It is 100% de-stemmed, fermented in tank and then raised in used barrels.

Pedro told me that in 2009 both of these cuvées will be whole-cluster fermented as he likes how the B1P is developing. Current releases for the old vine cuvées are '07 and, as far as I know, are only available in California."

Given that only only 25 cases of "B1P" make it into the US, I was lucky to have started out my experiences with Guímaro right at the top of the range while in San Francisco last fall. More recently, I've had the chance to go back to step one.

Ribeira Sacra Summum, Guímaro (Pedro M. Rodríguez Pérez) 2008
$15. 13.5% alcohol. Diam. Importer: Jose Pastor Selections (Vinos & Gourmet), Richmond, CA.

This is the "Joven" bottling referred to by Jose in the technical notes above. The word "Amandi," which appeared on the front label of the old Bordeaux-shaped bottles but now appears only on the bottle's rear label, is a reference to the wine's place of origin. "Summum," in turn, is the highest designation for Ribeira Sacra; red wines thus labeled contain a minimum of 85 per cent preferred red varieties, 60 per cent of which must be Mencía. Summum wines can be labeled varietally (which Guimaro's is, as Mencia, again solely on the rear label) only if the wine contains 85% or more of that variety.

Enough with the regulatory stuff... The wine leads off with a fresh, very lively nose of blueberry, black cherry and wild plum fruit, spiced up with whiffs of bay leaves and tobacco. Very coolly textured, round and smooth in the mouth, with a fine acid/tannin balance and a distinctly mineral finish. It's both firm and taut yet not at all hard. And it cries out for food. I paired it with a pasta dressed with a sauce of crushed tomatoes, a pinch of coarsely chopped garlic and a small tin of anchovies, all of which I sauteed in a little olive oil. I don't think that's an even remotely Galician dish but it was a pretty freakin' delicious combo, nonetheless. Riding solidly into day two, there was still plenty of bright red fruit, a slight leaning-out in the textural department, and the emergence of enticing aromas of cured meat and salami spices.

On the surface, this is juicy, pleasurable, hard-not-to-drink-the-whole-bottle vino, but there's the kind of meaningful substance to it — structure, length and penetrating flavors, a real sense of individuality — that delivers far beyond the overwhelming majority of wines at its $15 price point.

Addendum: Caught up in the rigor of writing, I nearly forgot to add that today's post also provides the answer-in-full to last weekend's episode of Name That Wine.

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NOPA San Francisco

So, you’ve just spent an afternoon, evening or late night at Terroir (or your other SF wine bar/haunt of choice) and you’re looking for some good grub to fill that nagging void in the pit of your belly?

Even with well over 4,000 restaurants in San Francisco (Yelp lists 4,373 and I’m guessing they’re missing at least a few), I can’t think of any reason not to head to NOPA. So what if it’s half way across town? Granted, I’ve hardly put a dent in the SF restaurant scene, and I’ve only been to NOPA once. Sometimes, though, you walk into a place, feel the energy, peruse the menu and wine list… and you just know. When the food arrives and solidifies those first impressions, and when you’re already trying to suss out when you’ll next be able to visit before your meal comes to an end, then everything, at least in the moment, is right with the world. NOPA is that kind of place.


Shortly after being seated we were welcomed by NOPA’s Wine Director, Chris Deegan. It turned out that Chris was the very accommodating soul with whom I’d spoken when I called to change our reservations after our planned quick afternoon break at Terroir turned into a four-hour mini-marathon session. He was keen to get the lowdown on what we’d tasted at Terroir and was equally keen to guide us through the finer points of both NOPA’s menu and wine list.

I settled in with a glass of 2008 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay from Natural Process Alliance, perhaps the greenest orange wine out there. Kind of had to try it after reading about The NPA on just about every Bay Area wine blog at one point or another over the last year or so. It didn’t disappoint; not as tannic or oxidative in style as Paolo Bea’s 2007 "Rusticum," with which I’d started the day at Terroir, but more gently drinkable for it and really quite delicious.



Meanwhile, we all settled in with some apps for the table: warm marinated olives, wood grilled sardines, the flatbread of the day…. As inviting as some of the more creative main courses sounded, I’d already been told by Cory, among others, that I had to – not should, but had to – order the burger. No disappointments there, either. This was not the coarse ground, loosely packed burger so typical back home in Philly but a fine ground, firm, very geometrically correct yet not overworked patty. Perfectly juicy and tender, its real standout characteristic was its high yet perfectly distributed seasoning, as if a little elf in the kitchen had caringly placed a single grain of sea salt on each individual ground morsel of beef. Top it off with melted cheese, pickled onions and a grilled brioche roll… oh yeah.

What to drink with the NOPA burger? The choices were many – Mr. Deegan has put together a very cool wine program – but having chosen comfort food, I kind of wanted to drink something that was a little outside my usual range. Chris steered us toward Spain, into Galicia, and directly to Guimaro’s 2007 Ribeira Sacra “B1P.” Crunchy, juicy and fresh; medium bodied, red-fruited and just a tad on the herby/spicy side. It’s something I really must explore again, just as NOPA is a place that I really must visit again. And again. And again. Problem is it’s 3,000 miles away. Hmmm….

NOPA
560 Divisadero (at Hayes)
San Francisco, CA 94117
415-864-8643

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