Last week I taught a class on orange wine, and some really great  interesting discussions ensued.  

My focus in this class was to present orange wines as products of extended skin contact. There are wines that are orange in color for other reasons, such as the Tondonia Rose-- this is a rose wine that has aged to an orange color-- but these wines to me are not orange; they are oxodized or aged roses. When a red wine turns garnet with age we don't change its category from "red wine" to "garnet wine" because the wine is still the same thing-- the garnet is simply an aged version of the red. The same things applies to white wines: when a white wine ages and becomes golden in hue, we don't change its category from "white wine" to "gold wine;" again, because one is simply an aged version of the other. I think the same should apply to roses. When a rose ages and turns orange in color, it is still a rose-- the orange hued rose is simply an aged version of the rose. 

So, despite the fact that many other somms will categorize oxodized roses as orange, I don't; and for the purpose of this class I presented orange wines as white wines with extended skin contact. The extended skin contact-- to me-- is crucial in the definition of orange wine and the possibilities for flavor profiles within orange wines. 

By categorizing orange wines in this way (i.e. leaving out the aged roses and focusing only on extended skin contact), four distinct wine categories emerge:

White - wine made from white grapes that have had little skin contact
Orange- wine made from white grapes with extended skin contact
Rose- wine made from red grapes that have had little skin contact 
Red- wine made from red grapes that have had extended skin contact

Of course there are tons of exceptions (white wine made from red grapes, white-red blends of roses, viognier in cote rotie, etc.) but as an overarching concept of how orange wine fits into the grander scheme of things, I think the above simplified chart makes the common production methods easily digestible. 

By presenting wine production methods and colors in this way, what emerged in the classroom was a pretty big question: If orange wines are an entire category of wine with just as much production potential as rose, red or white wine, why aren't there more of them? Why are so few being produced?  This is a question I ask myself every day, and I'm pretty baffled by the fact that practically nobody is making these amazing wines. This is an entire untapped category of wine production.  Seriously- imagine a world without rose?  Imagine if people never experimented with little skin-contact in red wines and never created rose?  Imagine the gaping hole that would be left in your lifelong sensory wine experience without rose.  The lack of orange wines on the market is an equally tragic gaping hole in our wine drinking experience.  We are really losing out here. 

Other big questions on the table were: 
With such a global demand for high quality rich and powerful red wines, wouldn't this palate also be more inclined to like a tannin-driven, rich orange wine as opposed to white wine?  Is terroir transmitted or partially transmitted through skin contact, and if so, why have more white wine producers not experimented with extended skin contact as a way to enhance the emergence of terroir in their wines?  With the new idea that what we perceive as minerality in wine is actually sulfides and not, in fact, trace minerals from the soil as we had all assumed/hoped, then wouldn't extended skin contact in white wines be a way to actually get real trace elements from the soil into the wine? 


In the tasting portion of the class we went through: 

Shinn Estate "Skin Fermented Chardonnay" 2009 (North Fork of Long Island, NY)
I chose this wine to taste first-- I wanted to lead the drinkers into orange wine with that familiar chardonnay taste, but presented in a slightly orange way. Baby steps! 

Tissot "Amphore" 2009 (Jura, France)
I chose this wine to taste second- it's completely different from the Shinn and immediately showcased the diversity possible with orange wines. 

Paolo Bea "Chiara" 2009 (Umbria, Italy)
I chose this wine to show third- the color is extremely orange and it's such a classic wine with a great taste. 

Coenobium "Rusticum" 2009 (Lazio, Italy)
I chose this wine to show the diaspora of orange wines within Italy, and to show how Paolo Bea's influence spread to Lazio. 


It ended on a very positive note- lots of people who had never tried it before were really interested in finding out where they could get more.

Tasted this tonight: 

Torbreck "The Steading" Grenache-Shiraz-Mataro, 2007 
(Barossa, Australia)

This wine has a great story: winemaker/owner Dave Powell discovered some old & practically dead dry-farmed vines, nurtured them back to life, and then worked out a contract to share-farm them (he takes care of the vineyard management, and gives a portion of the fruit price to the land owner). He started making great Rhone-style wines from these phylloxera-free, century+ old, ungrafted vines while continuing to source old plots and arrange share-farm contracts. In this way, he has built up a collection of fruit from some of the oldest vines in Barossa. He labels his wines "Torbreck" in honor of the beautiful Torbreck forest in Scotland where he once worked as a lumberjack. 

He makes several different wines, including Rhone-style whites and an incredibly high end red called The Laird. 

The Steading best exemplifies what Torbreck is all about. It has that old-vine grenache aroma of dried black fruits, plus the meatiness that shiraz and mataro  give to to the blend-- charcouterie, bacon & braised meat. Great oak integration, tart acidity, soft tannins, and a peppery hot finish. 

(Mataro is Catalan for mourvèdre/monastrell) 

Here is the logo-- a gold-embossed wood cut of the beloved Torbreck forrest. 

The bottle shape is pretty interesting too. It's really easy to work with in the cellar, and it doesn't drip much. 

The New Zealand Wine Fair at City Winery last week in Manhattan was an eye opening tasting. 

It all began with a great presentation by Paul Grieco; his topic was... can you guess? Riesling! We went through 5 different regions and tasted two rieslings from each-- as you can imagine, the diversity was as brilliant as the wines themselves. 

The seminar was pretty early (if you work in a restaurant "early" is before noon), so most of the attendees were press and trade. The sommeliers were all asleep, and I must amidst the only thing that got me out of bed that early was the promise of a huge riesling flight from all over New Zealand. Nothing beats morning coffee like morning acid!

Paul made some great points- he spoke about his recent trip, partying at Pegasus Bay, but also went into some of the sticky areas of riesling: the perception of sulphides as minerality, using potassium from extra skin contact to offset acidity, the perception of "sweet", RS and acid levels, and the new IRF Riesling Scale.  

Here was the tasting lineup, each one so unique; I italicized my favorites: 

Dry River 2008 (Martinborough)- lemon meringue, white flowers, crazy acid
Te Kairanga 2010 (Martinborough)- funky, petrol, wild
Neudorf 2010 (Nelson)- white florals, earth, pears
Redoubt Hill 2010 (Nelson)- ripe peach, strawberry, rosemary
Villa Maria 2010 (Marlborough)- apple, quince, peach
Forrest The Doctors 2011 (Marlborough)- grapes, lime, sage
Mount Beautiful 2009 (Waipara)- lime skin, roasted coconut, earth
Pegasus Bay "Bel Canto" 2009 (Waipara)- pears, peaches, petrol
Rippon 2009 (Central Otago)- membrillo, apples, pears
Mount Difficulty "Target Gully" 2011 (Central Otago)- peach candies, lemondrops, white flowers
Fromm Spatlese 2010 (Marlborough)- ripe starfruit, pears, grapes
Seifried "Sweet Agnes" 2010 (Nelson)- smelled like strawberry Special K!

The rieslings were great-- but they weren't the only aromatic varietal that stood out. Time and time again I was blown away by the pinot gris (across the board- from all different producers). Do yourself a favor and pick up some of these next time you are in a wine store. They shouldn't be too difficult to find because pinot gris plantings have dramatically increased in NZ from less than 200 hectares in 2000 to almost 1800 hectares in 2010. Exports have followed this trend. Currently pinot gris accounts for 65% of aromatic white exports from NZ (riesling is at 26%). 

See the photo below for one of the most interesting tables at the tasting. Mt. Beautiful (North Canterbury) had a tablecloth on their tasting table with a detailed map of their vineyard topography and what varietals were planted there. Notably, you see the sauvignon blanc in green, some riesling in blue, pinot noir in pink, and a single vineyard of pinot gris in grey:

A few other wines that really stood out: 

Lawson's Dry Hills 2010 gewurztraminer 
Giesen 2011 riesling
Mud House 2010 pinot noir
Carrick 2010 pinot gris
Peregrine 2010 riesling
Elephant Hill 2010 chardonnay

Gasoline Alley Coffee recently opened up (Nov 2011) in a unique space on a thin strip of street divider just outside the Bleeker Street 6 train station.       331 Lafayette St. NY, NY 

Named for NoHo's former nickname (you guessed it, "Gasoline Alley"), the tiny shop has breezy doors and windows on both sides, kept wide open in beautiful weather. The space has an amazing, open feel to it-- no clutter at all, which leads they eye to the one prominent feature: a bicycle hanging on the wall right above the espresso machine. A few stools allow you to linger over your espresso for a few minutes, once in a while a laughing group will take over the corner or a loner will write poetry over a cappuccino. 

The baristas are the real deal- nice, charming people, just the right amount of hipster, and they make great coffee. 

The drink in the picture is their cortado-- a really small cappuccino. 

Punta Crena "Riene", Mataossu, 2009 (Liguria, Italy)


This is a truly special bottle from an equally special winery. The winemaker-- visiting on his maiden voyage to NYC from a sleepy town in Liguria-- stopped by in the middle of a crazy work day, and I tried a sip and had one of those zen moments. I fell in love-- all over again-- with wine. 

The grapes are grown on a tiny peninsula that juts out into the Mediterranean Sea, and they aren't just any grapes. The varietal is mataossu-- a thousand year old indigenous varietal that translates in the local dialect to "crazy grape" because of its high vigor. 

Its flavor profile is so unique-- I've never had anything quite like it. It smells and tastes so savory like fresh cut root vegetables-- potatoes, jicama, radishes, crunchy lettuce, all spritzed with some lemon juice.  

The wine is a dream pairing for the notoriously hard-to-pair foods like asparagus/eggs/eggplant. I paired it the other night with an heirloom tomato salad tossed with shaved radish peels and it was incredible. The next night I paired it with some asparagus puree under crudo sea trout topped with caviar-- the salinity in the wine was amazing with the caviar. 

Rekondo Restaurant in San Sebastian, Spain, is well known for their amazing wine list.  See below for just a page from the heavy tome showing almost a century of Vega Sicilia.  When we mentioned that we were headed to San Sebastian a winemaker friend of ours insisted that we eat at Rekondo and check out their wine list, filled with old wines at reasonable prices. 

To keep the drinking semi-local, we ordered a 1970 Rioja (it went great with the local delicacy of rustic fish stew). Martin Flea (the sommelier in charge of the amazing collection- really amazing guy, super nice with a quiet, dedicated personality) recommended that we remove the top of the bottle instead of trying to remove the 40+ year old cork. He brought out port tongs (pictured left) to get the job done. First he lit a propane fire beneath a round iron disk affixed to tongs. Once the disc was glowing red, he placed it over the neck of the bottle and held it there for about 1 minute. This super-heated a ring of glass at the very base of the neck. Then he removed the tongs and brushed the area with cold water. The neck of the bottle snapped off due to the drastic change in temperature. 

After dinner, Martin was very kind and took us on a tour of the wine cellar. We entered a temperature-controlled room lined floor-to-ceiling with wine-packed shelves on each wall. A grand table sat in the center-- I assumed this was a VIP private dining area. I made my way around the perimeter, marveling at all the Sauternes. Then, he opened a door and led us into another room-- filled very much in the same way with wine, a long banquet table, and with several glass cabinets housing and showcasing particularly amazing bottles (including what appeared at first glance to be a complete vertical of the Mouton Rothschild artist series); ok I figured, this must be the VIP private dining room and the real cellar.  

He opened one more door and led us into the real real cellar. This was an extremely large underground room, very dark and cave-like with wrap-around perimeter shelving and library-style shelves spaced throughout the room in rows about 3 feet apart. Here all the bottles were sleeping. It was pretty overwhelming being there-- each bin filled with incredibly amazing wines. We left in a dreamy daze.

As a side note, we had this incredible dessert: simple, sweet milk-soaked bread with vanilla ice cream. It doesn't look that impressive from the photo, but it was so delicious, I'm still dreaming about it. 

Chateau Raymond-Lafon, 1994 (Sauternes, France)
Famille Meslier,  no 010750, 13.5%

Got to sip this tasty juice last night!

It smelled like apricots, botrytis and orange zest, tasted so fresh with really vibrant acidity, and a real sleeper too-- still young-tasting despite the age! 

In an unusual and perhaps unfair twist of history this chateau remains unclassified. At the time of the major historic classification the wines weren't mature enough to be rated or included in the big exhibition. From 1850 when M. Raymond-Lafon founded the estate until 1972 the chateau changed owners several times and had some ups, but many downs (phylloxera, oidium, family tragedy, global depression). In 1972 Pierre Messlier (the manager at Chateau d'Yquem) bought Raymond-Lafon and whipped it into shape and by the late 1970s some seriously good Sauternes hit the market. Vineyard plantings are currently 80% semillon-20% sauvignon blanc, a ratio that roughly reflects the blend in the bottle. natural yeasts, stainless ferment, about 3 years in oak. 

Tasted this tonight!  

Corvalle "Rutherford Runway Vineyard" 2011 
sauvignon blanc (Napa, California)
This tasty juice had a restrained elegance, grapefruit, starfruit. 

The wine is made by a fresh face in Napa winemaking: Ryan Moreland. He started off as a chemist, began chemically analyzing wines, and then made the switch to winemaker after working a few harvests.  He makes three wines, a sauvignon blanc, a chardonnay and a syrah-- all from different places around Napa. 

This sauvignon blanc comes from a special vineyard that his parents own, right where a runway once existed for small planes early last century on Gustave Niebaum's estate (Inglenook), hence the name "Rutherford Runway Vineyard."

Ryan has a deep understanding of agriculture; his family is a major almond and honey producer. The name of his winery "Corvalle" means "Soul of the Valley" and has a great story. Read more about it here. 

This is a new line up from D'Arenberg-- usually this juice gets blended into the iconic Dead Arm, but Chester Osborn recently decided to experiment with some of the single vineyard expressions in the market-- he was so enthralled by the vineyard differences in the cellar that he held back about 10 barrels from Dead Arm to share them with us as a special line. There are two grenaches and three shirazes. The three shirazes are all single vineyards, the two grenaches blend vineyards from small areas. 

The wines have just been released on the market at a special time: exactly 100 years ago Chester's grandfather bought the D'Arenberg vineyard and started the winery with profits he had made from selling racehorses. In a way, these single vineyard expressions help commemorate the first exciting century of this interesting family owned winery in McLaren Vale. 

I love this-- in true Chester personality, he has put a little cartoon of himself on every label in this line! This is The Fruit Bat shiraz label which depicts him stuck under the label. 


He has a unique and sustainable philosophy toward winemaking and vinegrowing. 

In the vineyard: sustainable farming, low yields, no copper, no fertilizer (he believes that fertilizer makes it too easy for the grapes, and he's noticed that since he stopped fertilizing the grapes have grown thicker skins). 

In the winery: everything is basket pressed, submerged cap fermentation, no racking, no filtering, no fining. 

D'Arenberg Grenache "Blewitt Springs" 2009
This is from old bush vines planted in the 1930s. Sandy soils with deep clay beds and ironstone pockets. This particular bottling isn't a single vineyard, but it is a single district (Blewitt Springs).
 dried strawberries, dried flowers, nougat, a hint of earthy meat. 

D'Arenberg Grenache "The Beautiful View" 2009
The namesake of the wine comes from McLaren Vale's history. It used to be two towns: one of them was called Bellview (Beautiful View in translation) and the old name was absorbed into the larger McLaren Vale. Bellview had actually been taken already as a wine name, so Chester calls it the next closest thing: Beautiful View. This is a blend of two properties; one has grey loam over clay & limestone and the other is terra rossa. 
This one has an amazing earthy aroma that still manages to balance delicate floral aromas. 

This is the shiraz line up: 

The Eight Iron '09
grey loam over limestone soils. 
crushed fruits, fennel, licorice, earth. 


The Little Venice '09
This vineyard was named thus because Chester officially purchased it while he was in Venice, and also because there is a spring-fed damn on the property. Here we have shallow soils with limestone popping up through the surface. 
mixed berries, fennel, chalky wood structure.  

The Fruit Bat '09
Limestone & red-brown earth soils. This vineyard was named The Fruit Bat because a shed (artistically depicted in the lower right hand corner of the label) always has fruit bats in it. 
blackberries, blackberry leaves, lavender 

Chester says Cheers!!

Here are some pictures from a mint julep filled Derby Day at Eleven Madison Park!  The event was sponsored by Makers Mark & Billecart-Salmon. Makers Mark even made a special label just for the event (see lower right)

Bands played outside and inside.

Large format mint julep. 

 

The staff served up chicken n' waffles to an endless line of hungry people.  

chicken n waffles
cornbread
truffle soup

Everyone took a break and came out to watch the race.








The crowd went wild when I'll Have Another broke ahead and won the race in the last few seconds:

My favorite hat of the day!
Worn by designer Michelle
Also featured in Women's Wear Daily!