VINOGRAPHY: a wine blog
Wine and food adventures in San Francisco and around the world
~ Recently in White Wine Category ~
1990 Trimbach "Cuvee Frederic Emile" Riesling, Alsace
I can remember a time when the word "Alsace" only brought to mind dim memories of my 5th grade class discussion on some valley that people were fighting about in one of those big wars. In those days I definitely couldn't spell Gewurztraminer, and I had only tried one or two of them. Perhaps you'd call me a late bloomer when it came to Alsatian wine, but bloom I eventually did, and now I'm a quiet, but fierce devotee of what I believe to be some of the most individualistic wines on the planet. Alsace has always been an... continue reading 
- Posted by: Alder on May 7, 2008 9:20 PM
- Filed under: Older Vintages , White Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Domaine Albert Boxler Pinot Gris "Vieilles Vignes," Alsace
Like Jazz standards interpreted endlessly by masters and amateurs alike, grapes find infinite expression in the hands of winemakers around the world. These interpretations, filtered through the lens of a regions climate and geology, are often wildly different from place to place. Syrah from Paso Robles in California, the Barossa Valley in Australia, Cornas in France's Northern Rhone Valley, and Washington State's Colombia Gorge are so wildly different you might even question that they were the same grape in a blind tasting. Such variation serves to both delight and befuddle wine lovers at different turns, and can often prompt the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 21, 2008 10:58 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , White Wine , Wine Reviews
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2001 Benanti "Pietramarina" Bianco Superiore, Etna DOC, Sicily
I try to avoid getting into discussions about terroir for the same reasons I avoid arguing about religion: no one has any proof, but everyone seems to have strong opinions. I tend to share my own opinions only amongst those whom I have pre-screened as like-minded when it comes to issues of how and whether wines can actually taste of the place from which they come. Regardless of whether you are a believer or not, and independent of what elements of its origin you truly believe can be expressed in a wine, perhaps you can agree with me that at... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 27, 2008 10:23 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , White Wine
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WBW#41 Roundup Has Been Posted: Friuli White Wines
The white wines of northeastern Italy have never been on the radar for most Americans. Robert Parker's Wine Advocate only began covering this area in the past year, thanks to the addition of Italian critic Antonio Galloni to his staff. Yet this area produces some of the world's finest white wines. The best of these wines are made in very small quantities and are quite expensive and difficult to get ahold of here in the U.S. but as more importers seek out the nooks and crannies of the wine world, we are slowly beginning to see more wines from Friuli... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 25, 2008 10:13 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
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2002 Vodopivec Vitovska, Friuli-Venezia Giulia IGT, Italy
In the far Northeastern corner of Italy there lies a countryside that is better defined by wine than by any geopolitical affiliation. The far eastern edge of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia winegrowing region has been a member of many countries and many empires, and by now its people are used to living in different countries every three or four decades, it seems. The one constant in this area of small picturesque valleys and numerous natural limestone caves (good for hiding from whoever your present occupiers are), has always been wine, and in particular, white wines, some of which I will unabashedly... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 16, 2008 9:41 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , White Wine , Wine Reviews
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2006 HdV "De la Guerra" Chardonnay, Carneros
California's Carneros AVA (American Viticultural Area) is unusual in many respects. It's most well known eccentricity is that it exists divided between two other AVAs -- Sonoma County and Napa Valley. One of its other oddities, at least for me, is the fact that the best wines from this region are invariably made by producers who do not actually have wineries there. Many have argued with me on this point, but I maintain that, overwhelmingly, this is true. There is perhaps one striking exception to this belief of mine, and it's name is HdV, or Hyde de Villaine Wines. Not... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 24, 2007 10:51 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , White Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Lusco do Mino "Pazo Pineiro de Lusco" Albariño, Rias Baixas, Spain
Spain has many claims to fame in the wine world but it will always hold a special place in my heart for being home to the wine region that is the most fun to say: Rias Baixas. Confoundingly difficult to wrap one's English tongue around, as is most of the Galician language, this small region produces wines that most white wine lovers should want to wrap around their tongues. For the record it's reeyahs-bye-shuss, and it is tucked into the far northwest corner of Spain near the border with Portugal and the Atlantic ocean. Were it not for the fact... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 1, 2007 11:13 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , White Wine , Wine Reviews
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2006 Vincenzo Cesani Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy
If someone ever held my feet to the fire and forced me to name just one group of wines that I'm most excited about exploring these days, I would certainly squirm, as my curiosity for learning more about all the wines of the world does not have limits. However I would probably break down eventually, and with some honesty say that no category of wines really excites me as much these days, from a pure learning standpoint, as the indigenous white varietals of Italy. Throughout that country, on small farms and in small villages, winegrowers and winemakers are working with... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 12, 2007 6:07 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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1988 R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Reserva Blanca, Rioja Alta, Spain
There are few wineries in Spain whose names conjure the heritage and prestige evoked by R. Lopez de Heredia. Don Rafael Lopez de Heredia was born in Santiago, Chile in 1857. At the age of 12 he was sent by his family to Spain to study with the Jesuits, and nearly became a doctor before discovering the world of business, leaving his brother Fernando to realize the family dream of having a doctor for a son. When he was 19 years old, Don Rafael arrived at the railway station in Haro, Spain basked in the aromas of wine. The railway... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 18, 2007 11:59 PM
- Filed under: Older Vintages , White Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Spencer Roloson Grenache Blanc, California
It's particularly pleasurable to watch a small wine label mature and make a name for itself in the world. I guess that could sound patronizing if I didn't make clear that I underline this sentiment with the utmost admiration for the hard work and talent that is required to have a wine label survive at all, let alone thrive. I have been watching, and drinking, Spencer Roloson wines since I first started writing about wine. At that time they were on their third or fourth vintage, and owner winemaker Sam Spencer was still settling into his groove, as it were.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 6, 2007 10:29 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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The World's Best Prosecco: Tasting Conegliano Valdobbiadene
We Americans aren't deprived of much in the world when it comes to wine, but if there's one segment of the wine universe that remains highly unexplored by the average American wine drinker it's the world of non-Champagne sparkling wine. And I'm obviously not not talking about California wine. I'm talking about the hundreds of different types of sparkling wine made in dozens of countries around the world. Thankfully, as more people begin to appreciate the pleasures of bubbly but can't always spring for the price tag of Champagne, there is an increasing demand for alternatives, such as Prosecco. Prosecco... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 14, 2007 11:58 PM
- Filed under: Sparkling Wine , White Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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Hospice Du White Rhones
Last weekend was the 15th Annual Hospice du Rhone festival, an event that every year draws a couple of thousand people to Paso Robles to learn, drink, and to celebrate wines of (or in the style of) the Rhone Valley. This was my first year attending the event (it's usually not held at a good time of year for me, but this year I got lucky), and I was excited at the opportunity to attend an event that incorporated Rhone wines from outside of California. As regular attendees know, the French and the Australians show up loaded for bear, and... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 9, 2007 9:57 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
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2004 Remelluri Bianco, Rioja, Spain
It's hard not to be jealous sometimes of the old world wine producers. While new world winemakers, and those pioneering winegrowing in new regions of the world have to make their own stories as they go, winemakers from the old world have plots of land that speak volumes already. Who needs marketing when you've got 10th century grape crushing equipment carved from stone by Hieronymite monks on your property? You could work on branding, but why do that when you've got seven centuries of grape growing history you can point to? The Remelluri estate is blessed with such history.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 8, 2007 10:48 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Reviews
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1991 Gravner Ribolla Gialla, Venezia Giulia, Italy
When it comes to winemaking there's New World, and there's Old World. There's new school, and of course, there's old school. And then there are a select few people and wines who make the old school winemakers look like young tykes with newfangled toys. In a world where "traditional" or "natural" winemaking has now become a self imposed designation of the most extreme proponents of biodynamic and non-interventionalist winemaking, Josko Gravner puts them all to shame. These people proclaim how in touch they are with the "traditional" methods of winemaking, but they're still using what Gravner would call modern technology:... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 26, 2007 10:26 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Older Vintages , White Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 French Rabbit Chardonnay, Vin de Pays d'Oc, France
In case you hadn't noticed, the wine packaging revolution is upon us. Or should I say, upon us again. It was only about a thousand years ago that wine came in a wide variety of packaging, from the scraped bladders of Eurasian mammals, to clay jugs, to woven waxed baskets, to precious glass bottles. Times changed of course, and wine packaging converged on the convenient, durable, and increasingly inexpensive glass bottle, but these days we are seeing a renaissance of options for toting man's favorite beverage. These days, the choices are even more varied than deer bladder vs. sheep bladder.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 14, 2007 10:43 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Activities , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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2005 Pascal Cotat "Les Monts Damnés" Sancerre, Chavignol (Loire), France
Call them old school, call them luddites, call them crusty old throwbacks, but whatever you call them you've got to love the winemakers that see no reason to fuss with all the trappings of modern high-tech winemaking. After all, some of these old farts (and their children, or even their children's children) are making some of the most profound, unique wines in the world. Perhaps more so than the younger generation of passionate prodigy-winemakers, it is the grizzled old poet-winemakers that evoke the romance of wine more than any other. Perhaps not surprisingly, there are a lot of these folks... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 6, 2007 10:40 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , White Wine , Wine Reviews
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2003 Bibich Debit, Skradin (North Dalmatia), Croatia
In my last post here on Vinography I mulled, tongue-in-cheek about the impact of wine on the hallowed halls of civilization, and in particular on the English language. Fun and games aside, wine and language are just as inextricably entwined through history as wine and culture. Lest there be any doubt, one need look no further than the northern coasts of Dalmatia, which has been making wine from a grape with a strangely (to English speakers) familiar name for two centuries. Actually the winemaking traditions in Croatia go back well before the Roman Empire, though it was the Romans who... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 6, 2007 6:06 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , White Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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2005 Hook and Ladder "The Tillerman" White Blend, Russian River Valley, Sonoma
Old winemakers don't die, they just start another label. I've never seen this bumper sticker on any old pickup truck in Napa valley, but in addition to being cute, it's certainly a truism if I've ever heard one. While making wine is tough work, the better you get, the more you've got other folks who can do the heavy lifting for you while you make the critical decisions that ultimately determine the nature of the wine that is produced. That's why it's possible for us to have the cliché of the crusty old winemaker, still tottering around through the vineyards... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on December 9, 2006 1:28 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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2005 Boutari Moschofilero, Mantinia (Peloponnese), Greece
OK. So I'm on a bit of a Greek wine kick these days. Trying to poke my nose into potentially up-and-coming wine regions. Although, as I've mentioned, Greece would be entering perhaps it's "third time around" as a major global wine region. Certainly there's a lot of wine made in Greece, but less than historical times, and only some of it is gradually winning acclaim on the world market for being high quality. Quality seems like it has two ways of building in the marketplace of any wine region, at the well-financed hands of the big guys, and in the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 19, 2006 10:56 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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2001 Weinrieder "Poysdorfer Schneiderberg" Riesling Eiswein, Weinviertel, Austria
Winemaking can be a nerve-wracking business. A lot of things can go wrong in the fermentation process, strange things happen in barrel sometimes, and there's always a bit of nervousness when the wine goes into the bottle and suffers a condition known as "bottle shock" where it usually tastes lousy for several weeks to several months until it settles down in its new home. But perhaps the most nerve-wracking aspect of winemaking for most winemakers, one that can never be completely erased no matter how many years of experience they possess, is the day and time of picking. A lot... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 8, 2006 12:26 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Dessert Wine , White Wine , Wine Reviews
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2004 Argyros Estate "Barrel Select" White Wine, Santorini, Greece
I go out of my way to taste wines from up-and-coming, out of the way, and generally obscure wine regions. I never know what I'm going to find, and sometimes I'm really surprised. Greece can hardly be considered any of those things, perhaps with the exception of up-and-coming, but if one were to be wholly accurate you'd have to say "up-and-coming, again." The Greeks have been making wine for a long long time (since roughly 1600 BC), though unfortunately their reputation as winemakers suffered a setback in the 1960's with the dramatic rise in popularity of retsina, a white wine... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 2, 2006 9:59 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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1996 Domaine Marcel Deiss "Burg" Riesling, Alsace
I can remember the first time I heard of a place called Alsace. I was sitting in my middle school world-history course with some teacher whose name I've long forgotten, and we began to talk about a region called the Alsace-Lorraine. At that point, it was a vague strip of land which seemed tiny and insignificant in scale compared to the European continent surrounding it, and I remember wondering just why the French and Germans both cared so much about the place. I'll come clean and say that my understanding of the significance of the Alsatian role in geopolitical history... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 28, 2006 6:30 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Older Vintages , White Wine , Wine Reviews
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Tasting The Terry Theise Champagne Portfolio
The average wine consumer can name the number of champagne brands they know on the fingers of one hand. Many might not be able to blurt out more than "Cristal" or "Dom Perignon." Like in many industries, the world of Champagne (and at this point I'm not talking about sparkling wine in general, but literally the stuff from the Champagne region of France) is represented in the minds of many and the world media by a few mega-brands. By some estimates, however, there are more than 3500 producers within the bounds of the (relatively small) Champagne appellation. For those willing... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 24, 2006 11:41 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Sparkling Wine , White Wine , Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
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2004 Kiona Vineyards Late Harvest Riesling, Red Mountain, Washington
Frequent readers know that I'm not the greatest fan of dessert wines. Most sweet wines just don't have enough acidity to keep me from feeling like I'm drinking syrup, and many are just too sweet for me to take. Even though I had a huge sweet tooth as a kid, these days it's pretty easy for less than stellar dessert wine to push me into the zone where I feel like I ought to be taking insulin pills along with each sip. Dessert wines, however, are certainly one of the wine world's most hedonistic pleasures. When they are good, I... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 9, 2006 5:10 PM
- Filed under: Dessert Wine , White Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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2004 Palmina Pinot Grigio, Santa Barbara County
You know how some entrepreneurs seem to start businesses in their sleep? They create a company, make it profitable or sell it to someone, and then it seems like a week into their "vacation" they're starting another one, and another. The most successful of these seem to have the Midas touch, with each business more successful than the last, as if they can't help but make tons of money. There's an analogue to this type of personality in the wine world, and it is readily demonstrated by one Steve Clifton. Clifton is best known for his partnership in Brewer-Clifton wines... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 22, 2006 5:11 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , White Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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2003 Movia Ribolla Gialla, Brda, Slovenia
I am, like many of you readers, supremely lucky to be able to buy and to drink a wide variety of wines. Certainly the selection of wines here in California is exceptional, unfettered as we are from state-run liquor monopolies. Despite such an abundance of wines from all over the world, it never ceases to amaze me how many people seem to be stuck in the rut of only ever drinking a few basic California-produced varietals. While the number of different types of wine produced in California is growing all the time, it still pales in comparison to somewhere like... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 1, 2006 10:46 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , White Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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