Will Bordeaux 2011 Be Remembered for Whites?

There has been a tremendous amount of excitement in the tasting rooms and cellars of Bordeaux that 2011 is shaping up to be a very good year for white wine.

Paul Pontallier, managing director at Château Margaux, has described his white wine Pavillon Blanc as one of the best he has ever made, and fellow First Growth Château Haut-Brion has a memorable La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc. Meanwhile, the Graves châteaux such as La Louvière, Carbonnieux and Domaine de Chevalier, have made white wines with freshness, length and massive concentration. These will undoubtedly be talked about as great wines.

But it is in Sauternes, home to the glorious sweet, golden wine, where vignerons believe conditions conspired to make the most interesting wine.

First Taste of Pomerol 2011

Thick fog descended on the Côtes de Bordeaux yesterday, hanging in the valley and impairing visibility, making driving conditions treacherous on the 40-minute drive up to Pomerol for a first taste of the 2011 vintage.

Pomerol experienced an unseemingly hot spring last year, with dry conditions and various heat spikes through the summer until July and August, which were cool and rainy. Those who made good wine have done their work in the vineyard, undertaking canopy management, thinning out the grapes that have either ripened unevenly or succumbed to rot.

Of course it is difficult to generalize, but if there is one commonality between the wines I tasted in Pomerol, it is that time and time again they possessed a saline minerality and freshness on the palate.

Bordeaux Price Falls Expected

Today marks the beginning of the Bordeaux “Primeurs” week, one of the most important dates in the wine-tasting calendar and the most important for Bordeaux, the world’s largest fine-wine region. Over the next five days, more than 5,000 wine connoisseurs—critics, commercial buyers, négociants and sommeliers—from as far afield as Tokyo and Shanghai descend on the region to taste the 2011 vintage. It follows two spectacular vintages in 2009 and 2010, which saw prices rise by as much 50% for some châteaux and, in the case of the five First Growths (Lafite, Latour, Margaux, Haut-Brion and Mouton Rothschild), achieve release prices of around €600 a bottle. The price increases, the highest ever attained in Bordeaux, and challenging growing conditions in 2011 have caused many commercial buyers to call for wholesale reductions of 50%.

Lebanese Wines from Chateau Musar

Food and wine pairing is always a tricky business, but somehow I suspected that the wines of Serge Hochar and the cooking of April Bloomfield would make a perfect match. Bloomfield’s cooking is earthy and elemental, characterized by intense flavors and quirky in the best sense, always surprising us somehow, and much the same could be said about the wines of Chateau Musar, the Lebanese winery founded by Serge’s father Gaston Hochar in 1930. Last night Hochar was at the Spotted Pig hosting a dinner that featured some of the most original and eccentric reds, whites and roses that I’ve ever tasted.

Sampling Sauvignon Blanc

Although Cabernet Sauvignon is the grape that brought Napa Valley both fame and acclaim, another sort of Sauvignon—Sauvignon Blanc, also happens to thrive there as well. It’s not surprising, given the two grapes are actually closely related (Sauvignon Blanc crossed with Cabernet Franc created Cabernet Sauvignon hundreds of years ago). And of course, the two grapes are planted in many of the same places in the world (i.e. Bordeaux).

Sauvignon Blanc does well in a wide variety of circumstances, but it buds late and ripens early, which means it can do well in a warm region like Napa since it gets a limited exposure to the heat. Although my most recent trip to Napa focused on great Cabernet, I’m always looking for a refreshing white drink.

Riesling is Beloved, but Lemberger is on the Rise

Winemakers from the Finger Lakes region in New York know how to produce – and promote – Riesling. It’s the grape they all talk about though they grow many others including Gewurztraminer, one of my favorite Finger Lakes-grown-grapes.

I was surprised and delighted when I stopped by to taste the Fox Run Vineyard wines at New York Drinks New York (an event at Astor Wines) this week and vineyard manager Dan Mitchell actually wanted to talk about Lemberger instead. It’s a red grape that’s currently taking New York by storm, according to Mr. Mitchell. “We can’t keep it in stock.”

The Rise and Fall of Wines from Oz

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Chardonnay grapes at a vineyard near Melbourne.

The rise and fall of Australian Shiraz has been one of the more dramatic stories in the wine business in the past several years. And there aren’t many bright spots ahead- at least not yet.

Sales are still down by a considerable margin (save for a few pockets of growth) and wines from heralded producers like Jeffrey Grosset are no longer even imported to this country. Entire import companies like Dan Philips’ Grateful Palate have disappeared. Grateful Palate went into receivership about two years ago and Philips himself seems to have vanished.

Legislative Update: Wine Stored in State

The New York State Senate is voting on a piece of legislation that calls for wine companies to have all wines that are sold to the New York market to be held  “at rest” in the state for 48 hours.

Super Tuscan Seconds

Super Tuscan wines have gone in and out of fashion several times since someone first thought up this moniker for wines that didn’t fit the DOC rules for Chianti.   Among the first Super Tuscan wines to make a splash were Tignanello and Le Pergole Torte which were, like Chianti, sangiovese based wines.  But the term has come to be most closely associated with Bordeaux-blend wines from the Bolgheri region, particularly since Sassicaia grabbed the attention of the wine world with its spectacular 1985 vintage.

Age Worthy? WSJ Readers Weigh In

The issue of age weighs heavily on the minds of WSJ readers.  The age of wine, that is. Almost three dozen men and women sent me emails last week, in response to my column on the subject.

Aging wine raises a lot of questions… and worries.