The flying wine drinker

París, Fouquet's - Lunch in Transit

2011-10-16T03:55:00.000-07:00

Charles de Gaulle, in Paris, may be the the only airport where a long wait between flights get me in a good mood.

OK, same thing apply to Orly.

Basically, because i never stay on the airport waiting for my connection.

I take a bus and 40 minutes later I'm at the Arc de Triomphe, ready to start walking by Les Champs Elysees and feeling how great is to be a Dandy.

So I pass by the fancy shops, explore some of the streets, and like that, just by chance, I ended up just in front the "Fouquet's" which is one the nicer restaurant for tourists you can have.

Photos of movie stars & celebrities on the walls, waitres, maitres and sommeliers all around the place, all the French parafernaria ... and I say yes, you can take my coat, yes I will like to have some lunch. Yes, yes, yes, give me some more.

I seat and order a "brief lunch". Let's the pictures tell you the story. It will be easy for anyone to Imagine the happy spirit and heavy belly I got back on the bus heading to the airport...

Of course, once at the plane .. I slept like a bear.

This is the explanation of all the sins below... Viva la France

OSLO - Tjuvholmen Sjømagasin - Or Just bring whatever you want.

2011-10-16T03:11:00.000-07:00

The concept: super cool restaurant, exceletne design on the new top part of Oslo, up the fjord. It has a conference room, the menú based on seafood, and has its own fish market next door.

The waiter serves some water and takes years to return with the menu. The waiter returns. The waiter suggests the chef's menu for lunch. The waiter escribes it. We order. The waiter dissapear.  

The waiter returns 15 minutes later and says he will change the 1st dish bacuse the kitchen ran out of scallops. We say OK. We finish the first dish. We are ready for the main course. The waiter never come. 

The waiter comes late (he finally remembered the wine). He says he just sold the last salmon at the fish shop next door, hence, the chef can not cook what he had suggested. Asks if we want something else. We say, man, relax, bring what you want. But bring food!
 
In other words, the concept is great, but it does not work! However, check the pictures and see how good looking food came out of that chaos. Very handsome & artistic. The cook should certainly be a painter. And the waiter should be ... a bureaucrat.
ops... no scallops. You just been upgraded to oysters!

I know wesuggested Salmon, but c'mon, Cod is better ;-)
Not enough shrimps? No problem, lets improvise with some fried fish skin. Nham!

Lies in the wine world: Scoring wines. Introduction

2010-04-12T04:14:00.000-07:00

Hei guys...

Let me start with a statement: I have plenty of reasons to think all this giving points to wine is bit of an absurd. It has to do more with how to sell, than how to taste wine.
For now, let me share something I discovered during my last visit to Fenavin where a conference by Mr. Peñin was announced.
In Spain, the most important wine guide is the Peñin’s Guide. Good score on it can help the producer to sell a lot of his / her wines.

I sign in to understand how Peñin system works. So there I was, sitting side by side with journalists and a few producers, hunger for knowledge.
After an hour, we all came out of the conference as we enter: Withouth a clue about how Don Peñin give scores. Anyway, some things became clear:

1 - Don Peñin has a great attitude. He answer you whatever he wants, not what you asked. But it does so in a very cool way, and you end up just forgetting about what your question really was about.

2 – Mr. Peñin himself tastes all scored wines, with help of just one person.

3 – Often, tastings are made at the winery where the wine is produced. That means he knows the producer he is scoring, and have the owner right there with him. If you think that makes the tasting lacks objectivity, take a look in point 4.

4 - They NEVER taste the wines blindly, but with labels on sight.

5 - If they find the wine quite different from the previous vintages, they can ask for another bottle to evaluate it again.

Is a pity my professors at university didn’t followed this approach, so to get the best grades wouldn’t be so difficult. - "Your exam has not been very good, but don’t worry, come back tomorrow and I will ask you the same question again, to see if you answer better." ;-)

Apart from wondering about worthiness of some critics and scoring systems, my big question is: does Spain deserve Peñin?

Clint Easwood is not the last good thing about USA

2010-03-26T03:51:00.000-07:00

The flying wine drinker goes for business to a wine fair. But what he does afterwards?

7.35 PM in Dusseldorf. Prowein is getting empty. Vincenzo, an Italian export manager suggests: - "Let’s go where the Americans ..." – and he add -"... you will love it.- Zinfandel is not my favourite grape, but I have some time before going dinner with a cocky French producer, so I accept.
Getting there, the 1st winery is not from California, but from ... Texas. A lady with a ‘50s movie hairdo gives me the welcome and pours wine in my glass. The wines are not spectacular, but the idea of drinking Texas wine is quite out of the ordinary. Suddenly she says:- "You better talk about the wines with my husband: Gary Mc Person" introducing him as if he were a Michelangelo’s statue.
Gary is a tall man, which makes you think he felt asleep at the beach without sunscreen when you look at his red and wrinkled neck. He wears boots and a cowboy hat. He talks like John Wayne. I do not understand a word he is saying, but he doesn’t seem to care. - "Have you tried my Chardonnay young man?" He asks, hands on his hips. "Yes Sir, it’s very nice”. “HA! Yeah, you're gooooooooooooot dammed right!” He screams and slaps me on the back spreading my wine all over the floor.

We are interrupted by a fat man with NY cap and beard that looks just like Michael Moore – By that moment I started to think that Americans come out of a Hollywood catalogue or something - Michael say we should try the Red truck wines, and before I say anything, Gary is gone.

So Vincenzo and I follow him towards the stands of wineries of California and some of New York and Fingers Lake. Everybody there seems to be having a great time, relaxed, eating chips, drinking and talking. I check the time. Oops ... dinner ... my French producer is one of those guys who talk about himself as if he is curing malaria in Africa –or something as relevant - rather than making wine.

In front of me, a lady called Mary Sue (Or that is what the tag on her shirt says) takes a big stereo from under her stand, press play and the tannic voice of The Boss Springsteen sounds all over the place singing "Glory days" . Suddenly, all those farmers - whom I’m sure, have a dog, a pickup, and play bowling- double the size of their smile while yelling Wow! Yeah! C’mon! And things of the like. Everybody sings, with a glass of cold oaky Chardonnay. Somebody is dancing with Mary Sue. He looks like Michael Douglas in “Falling Down” Everybody comes together, as if in a football game. Vincenzo ask: ”Non è bellissimo??"

I have no choice but to call my French producer and tell him I'm late.

Trip to Galicia - Part 2

2010-03-19T05:03:00.000-07:00

Next day, I’m chatting with Mr. T. on the bus, going to the fair. We talked football, Priorat, and Serrat, who happens to be his friend. I take note mentally - and then forget about it - to ask for an autograph for my mom.

At the fair I taste mostly white wine. I'm surprised by Ribeiro, where they forget single variety and work with everything available, which is not chardonnay and semillon, but Treixadura, Loureiro, Albariño and Torrontes. I recomend:

Viña Costeira, made of treixadura 70%, 20% og 10% Albariño torrontes in fruits, flowers and freshness.
Viña Farnanadas, listen to the blend: 85% treixadura, godello 8%, 3% Albariño, 3% torrontes y. .. 1% Loureiro, elegant, freshnes and soft acidity with good intensity, very cute!
And Emilio Rojo, a Ribeiro with Burgundian spirit, it comes out of one and a half hectare in Arnoia, and the owner (Emilio), according to his daughter, "will love to have his dog's instinct" Say no more.

At the end of the show, together wit Mr. T, we resolve to NOT get back to the hotel and make a gastronomic raid instead. We walk the medieval streets of Ourense and his small taverns where we drink some simple red wine made of Mencia. In Galicia the wine is served in bowls, not in Riedel glasses "But who the hell is ridel ...?!! Ask the owner of the tavern - and I love him for that.

We move to another bar / restaurant, run by a couple that looks older than injustice. No decoration whatsoever here. We order some typical food and the old man look at us as if we had asked for uranium.- "Something to eat" I say. - "Ah ...! Why you just don’t say that?” Says the old man, and immediately yell like crazy: “Maria, put a octopus for the gentlemen!”

And Maria, who is two feet far from him and steady like an Ikea furniture, suddenly moves and cut the tentacles of the octopus anddrop it on the casserole right in front of us.
She adds olive oil, salt, red pepper powder, and leaves the plate over the counter. Incredibly TASTY, fantastic food, forget molecular cousine! We drink two bowls of the house wine (No… Mr. Riedel hasn’t been around here neither) and after some hours, head towards the hotel as happy as you can be.

Upon arriving I’m in good mood and wants to swim, but it is way too late and the swimming pool is closed. I go up to my room, uncork a bottle that the organization left on my room as a gift, grab my Kerouac book (that I will not read, but give me good company), and sit on the balcony watching the estuaries. I take two glases of Treixadura before falling sleep on my chair in the balcony.

Life has a funny way....

2010-03-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

Last time in Baires, I went for dinner at El Obrero with Iduna Weinert and her brother Bruno. We eat like if it was the last night on earth, took 4 bottles of Chateau Vieux - the most Weinert wine of Bodegas Lopez? - discussed Maradona, Pelé, and of course, wine.

Weinert (more precisely, Hubert Weber, the oenologist) make wines in a Bordeaux style, very classic and elegant, with some icon wines on the portfolio as the mythical “Estrella Malbec 1977”. Prices are good, but let’s say, medium high.

When talking about the market, Bruno mentioned the “huge amount of crap” some big wineries are putting on wines to make them commercial. He also explain how hard is to remain true to core values & being competitive at the same time, while old family wineries are absorbed and / or purchased by those whom Bruno refers as”Pepsi and all such criminals"

The next day, I went shopping to a small supermarket near my Buenos Aires’ home. Lost between bottles of Coca Cola, olive oil and wine in tetrabrik, were some forgotten bottles of Weinert Gran Vino Malbec 1996 at a ridiculous low price.

I swayed between joy for my good luck and melancholy over the fate of the wine, lost between bottles of those “artificial” wines that Bruno hates so much. Brave new world, your lost is my gain I said, and took 2 bottles with me.

Biodynamics PART ONE

2010-03-05T06:28:00.000-08:00

Have you ever hear people asking things they don’t really want to know? That’s me when I hear the question: What is a biodynamic wine / producer?

But I answer anyway:
“Well. A biodynamic producer believes the welfare of his / her winery is controlled by cosmic, supernatural powers descending from outer space leaking into the depths of Earth”.
At that very moment, everyone in front of me looks as if they heard a joke, and expressing a bit of disbelief, attempt a: -“Really? How come?" More or less, this is how the thing goes:

"-Mm…The winemaker use, lets say, a little help of some friends, called Biodynamic Preparations. - Biodynamic preparations? - Yes, like numbers 500 and 503. – And what 500 and 503 stands for? – Well, it will sound peculiar to you, but is about ripe compost packed tightly into cows' horns, and "sausages" of chamomile wrapped in cow intestines, respectively. – You might be kidding!… - No, this is how it is, but it will not have the proper effect unless… – Unless you fire a funeral pyre and dance naked around it, ha ha ha!! – He he…well… no, no… unless the preparations are buried around the fall equinox and unearthed on the spring equinox after having amassed astral forces –You said Astral forces? - Astral forces for which the horn serves as an… amplifier. –And what any of all this have to do with the wine? – Good you ask… then the winemaker will use half a pound of the manure in about 2.5 acres of land to… -C’mon, half a pound in 2.5 acres, what for?? - …to supposedly aid root growth. That’s the shit on the horn… the chamomile is applied to the compost pile, where it stimulates growth and stabilizes nitrogen.

This is the moment when I hear after a silence: “...aha, hm… interesting” as the audience remain silent, looking the wine inside their glass. Then they smile, zip/spit their wine, say thanks and leave.

Vintage or Consistency?

2010-02-26T16:51:00.000-08:00

I use to think Matt Skinner (Wine writer and sommelier at Jamie Oliver restaurants) was Australian. But considering the excuses he produced to get out of the hook, I will say he is Argentinean.

The case: On his book “The Juice”, good mate Matt wrote detailed descriptions and recommendations about wines he never tried. Somebody found this out, and make it public. So how did Matt explain such a fat sh#t?

Well... he said producers he recommended deliver, year after year, popular wines on good accessible price and consistent quality. Therefore if he don’t taste them, no problem – Somebody can ask then: why we need Matt’s opinion at all?
But that is another matter.
Beyond crucifying poor Matt – something Decanter did already very well - for being lazy and cheat on his followers, all this make me wonder another thing: Is it important to mention vintages, or is it enough to talk about the producer? Do you remember the vintage of the wine you had just last night? Honestly...

Before my fellow sommeliers jump to my neck like the vampire guy in twilight let me explain:
Wine – and men, and rice - change from one year to next. That is an unquestionable fact.
Once that have been said, does any consumer in the words have a favorite vintage for Marques de Caceres, JP Chenet, Alamos, Casillero del Diablo or Jacobs Creek?
It’s difficult to imagine. So in some wines (by coincidence, the biggest wines / brands the world is drinking) vintages doesn’t seem to be SO important.

In Bordeaux, Mecca of the wine world, every year specialists gather to taste wines “en primeurs” and seal the reputation of a vintage. But also in France champagne is made, actually one of France’s top products. In champagne vintage is the exception, not the rule. Why? To not compromise quality and bring consistency, explain the same French people.
So maybe, is not THAT bad not giving importance to vintage?

I don’t know, it sounds really bad to me, but maybe?

Trip to Galicia - Part 1

2010-02-19T02:29:00.000-08:00

When eating sushi in Oslo with my good friend Alvaro, we usually order a bottle of Terras Gauda O Rosal. This charming white sparked my curiosity about Galician wines. Consequently, I said "Yes thank you very much" to an invitation with all expenses paid to an exhibition of these wines.

Travelling Norway - Galicia is time demanding: First plane Oslo - Barcelona – Ourense; Then by car along the Minho river and its diversity of bridges (ancient Roman, modern Calatrava), while the landscape of Galicia gives you a warm welcome. Arriving at the hotel I was surprised: Swimming pools with thermal water right in front of a beautiful lake surrounded by hills. I was hallucinating about the great time I’ll have there when looking around I noticed the average guests were about …75 old? Of curse, it's a place to cure rheumatism and things like that ... Suddenly I felt misplaced.

But later at the lobby I meet other visitors aged between 25 to 50, men and women from different countries. Among them, a girl who was a mix of Scarlett Johansonn and Lisbeth Salander caught my attention. Since I am very sensitive to beauty, I decided to sit near her that night during the welcome dinner. She happened to be a 27 years old sommelier from Valencia, with boyfriend and a vertical tasting of Vega Sicilia Único on her CV. Food was neither bad nor good, but Nora, a white Albariño, was great, and help conversation to keep flowing until somebody’s welcome speech interrupted it, and send us to the hotel in order to wake up early next day for the wine fair. Along the way, Scarlet Salander disappeared in the night with a group of ladies.

Sommeliers are not arrognats

2010-02-18T14:41:00.000-08:00

We do it all for your own good ... And it's hard: We can't enjoy a zip without analyzing it. "Mm ... an OK wine, but ... it lacks acidity, too much wood, or sulfur, or..." We do not make wine, we dissect wine.

French wine rarely is wrong. Gewurtsaminer from Alsace? Mm... pungent but interesting scent. But put away that Torrontés from Salta, Uhg!
French regions is what counts: those vineyards in Heiligenstein or Gratallops not impress me much. What really matter is the ability to recite many "Grand Cru" from Bordeaux and Domaines from Burgundy.

For us, is not about oranges with lovely orange flavor, but rather if the orange tree is at your house's garden, the orange should taste like the "your house's garden" We call this principle terroir.
Paradoxically, after saying wine should express terroir, we insist on "test profile" of grapes.
Riseling is Pfalz, not Wachau, Sauvignon blanc is Loire, not Marlborough, and above all things, Pinot noir is Beaune, no, never ever anywhere else.

Often, we have to say "minerality". Is not sure what we refer to, we all have different meaning to it. Nevermind, sounds good.
We COMPLICATE the whole wine experience, and call it complex because it sounds elegant. We can't admit that wines with wood, dosage, chips, reverse osmosis, or for these purposes, a cheap wine, cant make us happy.
It is a freaking difficult job, but we do it for your sake. :-) Let's banish the pleasure of wine from vulgar people who love to drink with friends and family, reluctant to listen the nonsense we have to say.