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Vol. 2 No. 23…why care about someone else’s rating?

(TB must be getting old…just realized he had used this same title just two posts ago!!! Aarrgghh!! Growing old is hell! Hope this one works better and is more descriptive!)

Does a rating matter? Is it smart or dumb to buy wine based on someone’s rating. Here is a brief history of rating scores and how they work:

Prior to 1978, when Robert Parker started his newsletter which a year or so later morphed into The Wine Advocate, the only tasting scores were in professional tastings or wine festivals, state and county fairs, and others. The predominant scoring system was the one developed by UC Davis in 1959 (http://finias.com/wine/ucd_scoring.htm).  It is a 20-point system, which made it easy to combine scores and then average them to determine the best wines. Judges and their knowledge of wines varied and even in professional tastings, going through the lineup then reversing the order created confusion and inconsistency.

Years ago, I accompanied a friend who entered in Chili cook-offs. His chili was outstanding! We made it to the state level and then he lost. Why? Thanks to a friend who was also a judge I later found out that the chili right before his was mouth-burning hot and that is what caused him to lose. The next year he won the national title. Same goes for wine…on any given day, under different conditions, and with the same or other wines, huge discrepancies in scores can occur.

Parker’s contribution was the 100-point system which he compared to school test scores but with one major difference. 50 points is the base, meaning any wine will score at least a 50. Then there are several categories such as color, aroma, taste, etc., but here’s the biggie: 25 points is subjective! So one person might score a wine 100 and another as low as 75, even when all other categories are equal. Of course this is an extreme, but between 85 and 95? Clearly possible depending on what the reviewer likes in a wine. In addition, the 25 qualitative points vary from system to system. Parker for instance loves big, bold wines capable of aging, but since the majority of wines are purchased for immediate or near immediate consumption, that should not mean a thing to you, in fact, you might hate it. Read in Parker’s own words how it works: https://www.erobertparker.com/info/legend.asp

Not to confuse you, but so you can see the problem, here are rating classifications of several scorers: http://www.wine.com/v6/aboutwine/wineratings.aspx?ArticleTypeId=2

Parker came on the scene with the 1982 vintage of Bordeaux. Robert Finnegan, the former guru for buyers of these wines, panned the vintage. Shortly after, Parker declared it the vintage of the century. Goodbye Finnegan. Frankly, I bought a mixed case of those as futures on his recommendation. I didn’t, nor did some of my friends, see them as exceptional, but never mind, I sold them years later for a very healthy profit. Thanks, Mr. Parker!!!

Now read this:

“Scores, however, do not reveal the important facts about a wine. The written commentary that accompanies the ratings is a better source of information regarding the wine’s style and personality, its relative quality vis-à-vis its peers, and its value and aging potential than any score could ever indicate.”  Robert M. Parker

Huh? See, Parker is to himself and many others alleged to have the best tasting nose in the world. You know, insured with Lloyd’s of London for $1 million, like Bob Hope’s nose, or a singer’s voice.

As for his love of big, bold wines: he was criticized for years by Bourgogne winemakers for his lower ratings on his wines, finally some years ago he stopped rating them, turning it over to an associate. He is also a one-third partner in an Oregon Pinot Noir winery, Beaux Fréres, which to his credit he doesn’t rate…after all having his name gives it the imprimatur required to attract buyers anyway. Nothing wrong with that but compare and contrast to French burgundies and lo and behold  Beaux Fréres is not the same style and many Oregon vintners are now copying that style. If you like it fine, but TB prefers a pinot that is balanced and has more subtle flavors: to each his own.

Today there are literally dozens of critics using 100-point systems…some (many?) working with a distributor or retailer. Thus we have scoring escalation just like grade escalation in schools. Is 95, the new 90? If memory serves, in the 1982 vintage there were only two 100-point wines. That has increased and as one wine merchant quipped, “I can’t sell a wine with an 89 point rating; I can sell all the wine with a 90 rating but I can’t get them.”

Ah, but it gets worse as that translates into price! Not to mention 2008 when the Bordelaise were concerned about losing money in the financial crisis. No problem, the Chinese stepped in, buying up Lafite Rothschild, and other premier cru Bordeaux’s and driving the price to the moon, Alice, the moon! Of course, Lafite is a status symbol to wealthy Chinese. Most of it is given as gifts, or was, until the government forbid giving government officials gifts, and even when drunk it is commonly mixed with…I kid you not…tea or coke (the real thing not the drug)!  As with so many other products it has even been counterfeited the key being that Lafite is spelled with TWO ‘t’s on that label. That is where most Bordeaux wine goes today, and they have also bought up some smaller chateaux, the prestige ones are owned by conglomerates or mega-billionaires (too bad The Donald didn’t buy one of those when he instead bombed out on his ‘Trump Wine’).  The U.S. and Great Britain, once the primary markets were abandoned more or less due to the high prices…and by the way the use of herbicides and pesticides has grown at a time when other regions are cutting back.

But the era of prices going ballistic on a high, 90+ rating is coming to a close. A friend who owns a winery the 25-50% increases have withered, instead take a look online at any of the e-retailers. They show the list price, say $90, then offer them for $60…or even  $30. You never see a wine with a rating less than 90 there and the average is probably 92!

Then of course there is ‘Parkerizaton’. This is not his fault but winemakers are blending wine to get those high Parker ratings. So? So do you want to buy wine from anywhere in the world and have it taste the same…no character or terroir? TB doesn’t. Instead, he prefers wine made well in a style the winemaker chooses. He is risking his reputation and money to do that, just as he does when competing to the mega-producers who blend for consistency. As winemaker Carles Pastrana of Clos de l’Obac told Robert Mondavi when he visited his winery in Priorat, Spain: he used exactly the same blend of grapes each year. Mondavi said: that’s crazy, in different years you get varying amounts of fruit. Carles replied, “then I must be crazy. But tell me this, if you always make your wine taste the same why bother putting the year on the bottle” Mondavi was not pleased with this. Frankly, any large or ‘bulk’ producer must do this because those buyers expect the wine to taste the same every time. But Carles is not crazy…he is smart and passionate about his wine!

Lest I leave you thinking ill of Mr. Parker, remember an early statement of TB: globally good wine is chasing out bad. Several articles lately have criticized or outright condemned the 100-point systems. Frankly, many of those 90+ ratings, especially by sellers, are probably 87-90 point wines. What to do? Trust your local wine purveyor…support him/her over the supermarkets and big box wine stores that have appeared on the scene. In closing here is a joke that indicates whether  someone is a wine snob:

Customer tasting wine in a wine shop: “This wine is horrible, worst I have ever tasted.”

Clerk: “Really? Parker gave it a 90.

Customer: “I’ll take two cases!”

There you go…pay more and get less…less of what YOU like and as stated earlier, you are the only critic that counts…

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as TB enjoyed writing it!

TB

©2016, Traderbillonwine.com

Vol 2 No 22 -a wine importer/distributor worth knowing – and a Spanish region worth knowing: Priorat!

Last April, while visiting Spain and Portugal, a name came up a few times: Eric Solomon. He specializes in smaller ‘unknown’ wines from France (Languedoc/Roussillon) and Spain. I am reasonably confident that there are others out there like Solomon, like my friend, Kermit Lynch, who did similar in the Valcluse, Chatenauf-de-Pape (Viex Telegraphe), Bandol, and others. Seek them out because the stand behind and are deeply involved in the vineyards and wineries they represent.

Solomon made a concerted effort, along with Joâo Riveras of Quinta do Infantado, just outside Piñao, Portugal, in the heart of the Douro Valley. For over a century, the small growers had to sell all of their grapes to one of the large port shippers who bottled under their names like Dow, Sandeman, Niepoort, etc. Rivera’s family was one of the early protesters of this policy and struggled to get the law changed and in the 1980’s they succeeded. The two met and Solomon tried desperately to promote, not only small vineyard ports, but other wines like Dão, Vinho Verde (Albarinho – same as Albariño in Spain), Douro and others. The market simply wasn’t ready for that. To this day, go to the Portugal section of any wine store and you will see only a few besides Port, such as Lancer’s and Mateus, along with a few others. The missing ones represent great value, especially as Spanish wines are gaining in popularity causing prices to rise.

Rivera told me that the failure to gain acceptances was mostly due to “our failure to speak up for our wines…we are our own worst enemy” (this comment was also mentioned in Spain!). Eventually, Solomon found Portuguese wines a costly venture with no upside in sight, so he now focuses mainly on Spain, Southern France, some in Italy, and one each in Switzerland, and yes, even Macedonia (and up and coming region also). There is a word in Portuguese, ‘saudades’ (sa-da-ye), which means a nostalgia and warm feeling for the past. This is bittersweet in Portugal’s case, once one of the most powerful nations in the world. At times it seems that all of those former territories bear a cross of what once was.

What can you do? Be adventurous, try some of the wines and TB believes you will be pleasantly surprised, not just on quality but on price points. Don’t wait until it is too late.

Recently, I tried ten of Solomon’s wines (6 French and 4 Spanish), at a tasting in Excelsior, MN, at the Wine Republic, now approaching its second anniversary. Their unique niche is carrying only wines that are organic, sustainable, or dynamically produced. Why should you care? Because many of the expensive wines, especially in Bordeaux, France use chemicals as herbicides and pesticides (the U.S. is slowly moving away from this practice), and there are trace elements of these chemicals – some on the banned list, by the way – in the top Crus). Note that organic is not the same as ‘natural’ wine, which, while produced organically, tends to be unstable, and can be cloudy in appearance.

Here are the wines I tasted, all are curent release 2014(?) *Asterisks indicate the ones I liked best as I disavow any use of ratings as the last blog pointed out):

Lafage Cote d’Est, Roussillon, France ($12), a blend of Grenache Blanc, Chardonnay, and Marsanne. A bargain a this price!

Lafage Cuvee Centenaire, Roussillon($15), Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, and Roussane). *Big brother to the first, more complex, and a very well-made wine!

Lafage Tesselle Old Vine GSM, Languedoc-Roussillon ($16), Grenache, Syrah, Mouvedre are the stars here, hence the GSM moniker. *These are vines that are 30-50 years old and while they produce less fruit it is more intense. GSM has become very popular among winemakers everywhere, and again makes for a complex wine of merit.

Lafage Tessellae Carignan, Languedoc-Roussillon ($16). 100% Carignan, a grape commonly used in the Rhone and in Argentine and Chilean wines. ***This was my favorite of the flight. Carignan and Grenache are not understood well in the U.S. thanks to producers Like Gallo who produced insipid, sweet Grenache wines in the 70’s and 80’s. Give them a try!

St. Jean du Barroux L’Argile, ($28,(note how the price increases when you move to the Rhone Valley). 50% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 10% Cinsault, 10% Carignan. My favorite of the tasting with jammy fruit and many complex flavors (note TV is not good at descriptives)

Chateau Puech-Haut Prestige, Languedoc ($22), 50% Grenache, 50% Syrah. Once you get past the name, (pooch), this is another great find…and again lower in price.

Castaño Hécula, Yecla, Spain ($15), 100% Monastrell (8 months in neutral oak). Good value, but see the next one:

Castaño Solanera, Yecla, Spain ($19), 70% Monastrell, 15% Cabernet Franc, 15% Alicante  Bouchet. *this shows how the Spanish have adapted to blending the stronger Monastrell with our varietals to make a better finish wine.

Capcanes Mas Donis, Montsant, Catalunya, Spain, 2013 ($16). *Montsant is like a claw partially surrounding the higher elevation and more recognized – and prized – Priorat region. Again, this wine is a very good value!

Black Slate Gratallops, Priorat, Spain ($23). Priorat is one of only two regions in Spain with the DOC and higher region, the other being La Rioja. This wine is 60% Carignan, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Syrah. ***Perhaps the best value in Priorat, and from Grattallops, the oldest town and where grapes have been grown since for over 600 years! Also in Grattallops is Clos de L’Obac, which TB visited and where the owner Carles Pastranes, developed one of the original six vineyards. It was due to Alvara Pallacios, who made his reputation in La Rioja, and declared Priorat to be an excellent wine growing region. His L’Ermita ($400-800), is the benchmark here, Scala Dei, is the oldest winery here, having been operated by monks at this monesterio. Clos de L’Obac makes incredible wines in the $60-100 range.Vall Llach, which TB also visited is another fine producer. Quality? Consider this: they make three labels, Idus, Embruix, and Porrera (the village where the winery is located), when we visited last April the labels and cartons had been printed for the Porrera de Vi, their top of the line wine. Alberto, the son of the founder, and winemaker, decided the wine was very good but not to the standards he wanted for his signature wine, so it was not bottled: this wine has only been produced in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013. That is caring, it cost a lot to declassify that wine but it is what buyers should expect of a quality winemaker. It is distributed by Michael Mondavi’s Folio Wines.

Ending with a love story, Eric Solomon met and became close friends with Daphne Glorian, whose Priorat wine, Clos Erasmus, is another pricey benchmark wine selling for over $200 a bottle. Eventually the were married and both they and their wines are doing just fine.

Whew! That is the longest blog I have ever written…hope you find it of interest and seek out the wines mentioned. Don’t forget to support your local wine merchants who do a good job, are both knowledgeable and helpful, because they are at risk from the ‘big box’ stores like Total Wines, and even supermarkets that don’t display and store wines properly and when you learn that you can buy better wines at similar prices from your local merchant, reward their research and investment by supporting their effort. It’s in all of our interest.

 

 

Vol. 2 No. 19…what is WTSO?

Some friends told me about a website that specializes in closing out lots of wine.

It is http://www.wtso.com – Wine Till Sold Out.

Here’s how it works. You go to the website and register…and you can look at what is available. If not interested, just sit back and wait. You may get 3-5 emails a day but all you see is a picture and a description as shown following commentary.

I bought a 95 point Ribero del Duero from one of the best winemakers in Spain. Original Price was $39.99. Order two and you get free shipping. Also you can adjust the delivery date in case you are going to be away. Original Price was $135. They give you the best available price $65.

Number of bottles required for free shipping varies from 1-4 depending on price.

Check it out. I think you will find it a good resource for wines that are hard to locate.

TB

92 Pt XXXChianti Classico
92 rating and 57% off!

Free Shipping on 4 or more
Original Price: $30.00
Best Web Price (With Shipping): $N/A
Our Price (Delivered):

$12.99

Vol 2 No 17…are you a Giffen or Veblen type?

The correct answer to that question should be: neither, and damned proud of it! There is no comparison between buying any wine of similar quality, whereas there is between a Rolex or Prada knock-off. After all it is you, dear reader, that should trust YOUR palette. Me, you ask? Yes, ‘you’ because if you don’t like it who cares what Trader Bill or Robert Parker, or any other critic says about it. Truth, TB does not consider himself an expert, just someone who knows what he likes and trusts his own palette. Of course, this only came after a few years of buying what Parker liked, then serving it at a dinner and no one raving about it. Is he wrong? No, not for him, but the downside of this is to get that coveted 90-point rating, producers are sending samples to labs who tell them what they need to do to make it one. In other words: how can you buy someone’s rating without knowing what she likes in a wine? I believe it was Gerald Boyd, who asked this in a column of his decades ago.

In economics, there are two ‘effects’ that violate the laws of supply and demand. Rationally, as the price rises there should be less demand for a product, yet some goods actually see an increase in demand above a price point. These goods fall into two categories:

Giffen Goods are goods that when the price is raised the demand increases. I would suggest that Apple computers and iPhones are examples of this. It tends to affect the middle class and below as they might see a perceived scarcity value

A Veblen good is similar then that as the price rises more people buy the product because of a belief (rightly or wrongly), that a higher price suggests better quality. This is applicable to wine, and to upwardly mobile people who want to be perceived as better off than they are.

Wine, to TB, would be the latter. In terms of quality, labor, etc. a $20 wine should be better than a $10 wine so people will shun the cheaper one to own the higher priced one. But what about a $50 bottle and a $200 bottle? Is the higher priced one truly better? Let’s say it’s 10% better…or even 20% better. Was it worth paying 400 times more? We aren’t NASA where the success of a mission can depend on quality and for 98% reliability they might pay 400 times more (not talking about those $400 hammers we read about).

So pick your price range: for every day drinking, for when guests are over, or for a really special event. I suspect most of you will be much closer to the $50 wine than the one costing $200. Think about it.

But what causes this to occur? It could be ‘wine snobbery’ (after all we see this with whisky that has no aging potential…a definite Giffen good), or fear of being embarrassed, or any number of things.

There is a blogger (reversewinesnob.com), who says you should never pay more than $20 for a bottle of wine. Really? …and he knows this because? Then of course there is Two Buck Chuck (Charles Shaw), creator Fred Franzia, who says never pay more than TEN dollars for a bottle of wine…does this mean a price increase is coming???

The blogger even devised a tasting scale (although he admits to never having taken a wine course). Let’s say that two wines score an 8 and a 6 respectively. The first is $20 a bottle so he adjusts the rating down to say a ‘7’; the other gets boosted to say a 7 also. Obviously you liked the higher priced one more so your decision should not factor in price but enjoyment (as long as it is in your price range). I will make no further comments on this except to ask if being a ‘reverse’ wine snob is perhaps as being the real thing. You decide.

I suggest going to a good wine shop or liquor store that places a high emphasis on wine. As fellow blogger, Mike Veseth says, there is a ‘wine wall’ that is overwhelming and makes it very difficult to decide. In the wine shop you can get suggestions or perhaps advice on what wine you might like. I believe you will do much better this way than the ‘pig in a poke’ method at the supermarket.

Lastly, so you don’t think I am opposed to paying high prices for wine. Set your budget and work within it. I believe there is much better quality in the $20 range…even the $15, and perhaps that exists up to $30 a bottle. Above that the differences are very hard to detect (usually and for most casual drinkers). One reason is that the big producers know the price points and that keeps them pushing towards lower than higher to maximize sales. At the extreme is Two Buck Chuck which produces more than a million bottles a year (he also owns 40,000 acres of vineyards making Bronco the biggest vineyard owner in the U.S. The grapes are not hand selected, rather, he makes the rows as long as possible so the tractor reduces the number of times it has to turn around. Both ripe and unripe grapes are picked as well as anything else that wanders on to the vines (use your imagination). Also, when the wine goes to the stemmer or crusher further sorting is not done by hand – a necessity in a premium quality wine. If you like it, fine, but you do get what you pay for.

Think about that for a moment: winemaking is an art, yet we are attempting to turn it into a science just to please the palette of one man, who by the way, likes big, dare a say HUGE, bold wines with heavy tannins and often high alcohol. It is for that reason, he no longer personally rates Burgundy wines, having been demonized by those winemakers for trying to make their wines something they are not (unfortunately, some of our pinot noir growers in Oregon have followed his lead and tried to make a ‘power’ wine from one that is supposed to have subtle nuances). This is furthered by a winery he and his brother own there that did just that. He doesn’t rate his own wine, but does he have to? Isn’t a critic or a buyer going to ‘know’ that simply because he makes it, it must be the benchmark?

Part of the problem is our ‘elevated’ status of winemakers. In France, and Spain, there is no word for winemaker. In France, it is ‘vigneron’ or one who tends to the wines; the spanish use the term elevador, or one who tries to improve (elevate) the wine. That takes much of the ego out of it. I was once told by the pioneer California winemaker, Joe Heitz, that “people romantize wine…it’s farming…agriculture.” Of course, Joe was a farmer, and also one of the finest winemakers in America. He knew, as all people in the industry know, that you can do everything right and still end up with a mediocre or worse wine. If it is a bad year and you are a premium wine producer who cares about quality over profits, wouldn’t you sell the grapes in a bad year or produce them under a second label? Not so, in many regions, particularly Bordeaux where the prices move in one direction – even before the Chinese drove prices to the moon – and sadly they are aided by the critics. Did you know that Parker tastes the wine a week before the rest of the critics, and that in both cases assemblage has not occurred? That is the blending of the various barrels to achieve the best quality wine…note that we are still talking about wine that is just six months old! Furthermore, since Parker likes heavy tannins they provide him with a sample from a heavily oaked barrel, whereas the Europeans like softer tannins. Yet we buy based on these absurd ratings. Also, I believe that the critics fear writing a bad review as they might not be asked back, quel horror! Yet we salivate to find and buy these wines because we don’t trust our own palette…or worse, because we are ‘wine snobs’ who buy based on price and rating, not what appeals to us. Furthermore, the best wine in the world can taste awful, or at least not at its best, when paired with the wrong dishes.

Having returned a month ago from Spain and Portugal, and seeing the values in wines there, I continue to be amazed at how people cherish ‘cult’ wines. Furthermore, how much more you can get by producing fewer bottles. Not only that, why people clamor to buy a 90-point wine by one of the half-dozen or more critics, yet shun an 88 or 89 point wine. It certainly isn’t economically sound given the huge jump in price between those two levels.

Do you honestly believe you can tell the difference between the two? Do you even understand the 100-point rating system that Parker thrust upon us nearly 40 years ago?

Originally, there was the UC Davis scoring system, of 20-points that broke it down in categories where you might award 1-3 points for color, clarity, nose, complexity, and an equal component taste. It was thus a way to determine if a wine is well-made. Parker changed all this with his 100-point system that he saw as mirroring school grades. It actually did it so well that is now suffers from the same affliction: grade inflation!

Originally,  Parker didn’t tell us how he did it but it comes down to this:

Of the 100 points, FIFTY are automatic: no criteria, so it is really a fifty point system. Then, similar to the UC Davis system, it is broken down into categories, but the real clincher is that 25 points are totally subjective, based on your overall opinion (the operative word here), of the wine. So let’s say it ‘aced’ all of the other categories. You add in the 50 points and you are at 75. Now, dependent on how it tastes to me, the critic, I could award 5, 10, 20 or even 25 points to the rating. A sham? No, because I know wine…and it damned well better taste the way I like it!

So what we have is a system that rewards the winemaker for ‘standardizing’ to my specifications the wine. In Europe, aka the old world, there is much more emphasis on terroir, the characteristics of the soils, site situation, micro-climes, and more in deciding how good the wine is. Well, in Bordeaux not so much, thanks to the 1855 classification that delineated the regions ‘based on quality’. Uh, not exactly, they took the five most expensive wines and determined that they must be the pinnacle, really. Then they built the appellations (St. Estephe, St. Emilion, Pomerol, etc.) around those vineyards. Beyond those first growths came 2nd’s, 3rd’s, 4th’s, etc. Beyond those you were outside the appellation. But is that meaningful? Not when Lafite Rothschild can buy an ‘adjoining’ vineyard ‘outside’ the appellation and blend it with their production. Furthermore, the big chateaux are mainly owned by corporations or billionaires now, and what do they want? To force out their neighbors, especially since 2008 when the Chinese got on board. Did you know that to be a ‘classified’ growth now you have to have a large parking lot, among other things, which has resulted in some formerly classified growths becoming losing their status. Some are irate, some say their customers know the quality of the wine so they won’t fight it…if they could, that is because the fix is in.

But it gets worse: at those prices they don’t want to lose a single grape. So they spray, from helicopters, pesticides and overuse herbicides, to insure a good yield, So, samples of all the classified cru’s were sent to a lab. Guess what? They had traces of chemicals – including a couple that are on the banned list! So much for quality, but if that was all, it wouldn’t be so bad. But their flagrant use of spraying is contaminating water supplies and more making children and others sick, but that is not their problem. Ever hear of Flint?

Don’t take TB’s word, instead read Vino Business, by Isabelle Sapporta, a French investigative reporter who for some strange reason hasn’t had a ‘hit’ taken out on her. Critics: why are you ‘outing’ this obscene behavior. Should we have to take a bottle for chemical analysis to insure it is something we want in our bodies? You decide.

In closing, my favorite quote is by famed winemaker Heidi Peterson Barrett, who when told a Jeroboam of her famed Screaming Eagle Cabernet sold for $500,000 at the Napa Valley Wine Auction, said she was pleased but added this: “it’s wine, you drink it, it’s gone.” Think about that and also the number of well-known people who end up auctioning off their wines because they realize they will never be able to drink them all (or even make a dent), in their lifetime (TB’s wife is known to accuse him of this and his cellar isn’t that big!).

Hope you enjoyed this…comments are welcomed!

TB

Vol 2 No 16…Tarragona, Barcelona and more…

Tarragona is anything but a sleepy Spanish town…it sprawls..so we jumped on a city tour tram which is the only way to see everything in a short period of time. But that doesn’t mean it is unimportant. Besides being a regional capital with the same name, it was a major Roman city with extensive ruins and especially an amphitheater situated with the sea in the background.

Windstar always has one special event and this was to be it. They took over the amphitheater! We had cava, red and white wine, and tapas overlooking the site. That alone was great but they did more. In Tarragona there are a number of clans (?) that compete biannually in the Castella. It is a huge event normally held in the soccer stadium. The point is to build a human tower and the clan that does the best according to the judges takes honors. With the towers reaching eight tiers it is dangerous and hard work!

We had the privilege of seeing one of the groups ‘build’ a castel. They get in a big circle and the leader makes the assignments. Then they use each others bodies as braces and up go three men to form the base of the next tier…then more join them to brace them…all barefoot and standing on other people’s (yes, there are women too!) shoulder’s. After this platform is built one gets on their shoulders and is joined by two more…and this goes on for each tier…until the last one, usually a young boy or girl to keep the weight down. I said it is dangerous and so when they sense something is going wrong they come down, regroup, and try again…it took three attempts for the group we saw to make it with an 8-year old at the top. They do not remain there for long and immediately begin to retreat. It is fascinating and colorful. After that, they invited six people from the ship to join them. It was spectacular, especially with the sea and our ship in the background.

We returned to the ship and set sail having dinner at sea. We were off to Barcelona and the end of our voyage. Having been to Barcelona twice before and wanting to visit with winery owners we engaged the services of NiSo Tours. We were met at the ship by co-owner Sophie, who then drove us to Monserrat,  situated on a hill with spectacular views and a great history  which began with building a monastery, Santa Maria de Monserrat. How they did it is beyond belief given the steep cliffs but if you are in the area and don’t go you are making a huge mistake and missing one of the most breathtaking views on the planet. We were so glad we made the side trip!

Sophie then drove us to Sitges (rhymes with beaches), and the best way I can describe it is a mini San Sebastian with two major differences: Sitges has a population of about 35,000, that is year-round but in the summer months it swells to 150,000 or more. It is a unique town with I believe eleven beaches…that run from family, to gay, to nudist. They are relatively small and all together are smaller than the two beaches at San Sebastian. Then comes the other difference: there is no there there as Gertrude Stein once quipped about Oakland, California. But it doesn’t need a ‘there’ you go to Sitges to relax. Like San Sebastian they have a film festival and a jazz festival but here is the biggest difference: you don’t have to drive through the new city to get to the old…there is no new city! They also have a gay pride week which was just before we arrived with many of the participants still there. It is a wonderful melting pot with quaint winding streets that criss-cross the town but are out of sight. To the uninitiated it appears as though it is only a few blocks deep and just runs along the ocean.

We found NiSo Tours by being introduced to Nicole Andrus a year ago when she was representing Michael Mondavi’s Folio Wines (her parents started and owned Pine Ridge Winery in Napa so she knows wine). In 2008, Nicole and Sophie decided to start an upscale touring company offering personalized tours. It is a success! Is it expensive? YES!!! …and worth it.

The next day, Sophie picked us up and we headed south…funny because when we headed up into the mountains we were just east of Tarragona! The region I wanted to see was Montsant and it was right before us…huge imposing cliffs and as you rise you find yourself in Priorat. It is one of the most difficult regions in the world to grow grapes and is only one of two DOQ’s in Spain (Denominacío d’Origen Qualificada), the other being La Rioja…now that’s quality. Montsant on the other hand while making very good wines is simply a DO. Wine has been produced here for over 700 years, being introduced to the area by the monks at Scala Dei, however as in La Rioja, eventually the phylloxera eventually wiped out the vines. So don’t look for ‘old vines’ in Priorat as most are 20-35 years of age but they seem like much older vines in less formidable locations. It is rocky, unfriendly ground for growing grapes but like in the Douro region and other areas in the world that are steep and require terracing, the grapes are stressed.

How many grapes can be produced by a single vine? As a rule of thumb for quality wines about 2.5 pounds or about a kilo. Left alone in an area with a lot of water you could get as much as 14 pounds of grapes from a wine…with quality inversely proportional. Two Buck Chuck lovers and those who hate wine snobs take note: while there is nothing wrong with it…there is nothing that stands out about the wine…and consider the cost (witness the retail price) of ‘TBC’ and what it takes to make a world-class wine. If you don’t care about that, you can stop reading here.

In both Priorat and the Douro, the best grapes are on terraces with roots reaching down as much as 20 meters…over 50 feet! Think of the vines pulling water from cracks in the slate and carrying the nutrients up to the plant…that is stressed!!! Add to this the sweltering heat in the summer months and rain that is concentrated in 2-3 months of the year…and no irrigation is allowed after the plants are two years old. In these regions they are lucky if they get one pound of grapes per vine and more likely much less. Now for the two wineries we visited:

First was Clos de l’Obac in Grattalops…note that Clos in Catalan is pronounced ‘close’, unlike Spain. We were guided by the owner Carles Pastrana, a really nice guy with a shock of hair that keeps getting in his eyes. Carles was a journalist who decided he ‘had’ to make wine…good wine. He was one of the original five wineries in the 1980’s all beginning with ‘Clos’ and they produced the wine together for the first three vintages before each had its own winery. To say Carles is passionate about wine is a gross understatement. Also, he shuns many standard winemaking principles and does it ‘his way’ which seems to work because it is incredible. When TB’s book is complete you will hear more about Clos de l’Obac…in great detail! I love this man and his wine!

After a great lunch in Falset, we drove to Porrera to see Celler Vall Llach (double ll’s are pronounced as ‘y’ and celler means winery in Catalan). It too is a very small town and as in all of Priorat, winemaking is the main industry. The wineries are clustered around the town square and river that flows through it. It was started in the 1990’s by Lluis Llach and Enric Costa. Llach died but Costa and his son Albert still run the winery. Again, quality is key. The day after we were there the bottling was to begin. Boxes had been delivered with the wine names on them as well as labels for their three wines: Idus de Vall Llach, Embruix de Vall Llach and Aigua de Llum de Vall Llach. Albert tasted the wine from the barrels of Aigua and said while they were very good they weren’t the quality for their premium wine which has been produced just three times in the past five years. Now that had to be an expensive decision but it illustrates the focus on quality in Priorat.

The next day we had at our leisure and enjoyed the beaches and strolling in Sitges, our second meal at the Santa Maria, the first time with Filaboa albariño, the second with a Condrieu Cava – Anna (named for the last member of the family that brought Champagne techniques to Spain and available in the U.S. for about $12…don’t confuse cava…good cava…with Asti Spumante or any other sparkling wine. This is made with viognier and exactly the way champagne is…reasonably priced too!

…the perfect ending to the perfect trip.

 

 

 

 

 

Vol 2 No 15…Almeira, Cartagena, Ibiza (Days 4-6)

I apologize for the long lag between #14 and today’s #15…a lot going on. Should run smoothly from now till the end of the trip! TB

As usual, we did most of our cruising at night…kind of like being rocked to sleep…except for one night when it was a little ‘rockier’. We left Malaga well before sunset and no wine tasting due to our shipboard barbecue which was truly memorable. Windstar always has one of these sometime during a cruise. A barbecue…so what? The chefs and Steve had been busy at the market picking up fresh local food items. How about a 200 pound tuna? A whole roast suckling pig? Not to mention lagostinos, lobster, shrimp, local cheeses, paella, and much more. The crew also served us cocktails especially the ones like the Negroni, and Cobbler (the original cocktail…filled with fresh fruit ‘cobbled’ with crushed ice and with Dry Sack Sherry…all this while relaxing on deck watching the coastline of southern Spain. This was followed by the talent show (Line Dancing) put on by the crew. A fun evening!

The next day we arrived early in Almeira, originally a Moorish town often referred to as ‘an extension of Morocco. The streets are narrow and as you wind up the hills to the Alcazaba, an ancient fortress with incredible views of the city and countryside. As you near the fortress, you have to walk up rather steep, winding paths (thankfully paved!). The hike is well worth it.The gardens are beautiful and water flows down ‘gutters’ between the steps adding to the peaceful surroundings.  There are some shops in town but I preferred taking in the ambiance by  walking through the streets. That afternoon, Steve (aka Wine Geek) hosted another wine tasting. To recap, after the tasting the three wines were always poured at dinner so you could have any one or all of them and as much as you liked!

If you recall, the first Albariño was a Burgan’s which makes a good benchmark for the varietal. This time we had Pazo Señorans, an intense, citrusy, ‘knock your socks off’ version, which along with Filaboa (which we visited when we were in Rias Baixas), mark my two favorites, with the latter showing more minerality but nicely balanced with the trademark citrus flavors (note that all wines served on the cruise are available in the U.S., which was a prerequisite of Steve’s…what’s the point of tasting it if you can’t buy it when you get back home?

The next was Castaño Solanera, Las Ruesas, mainly monastrel with 15% each cabernet sauvignon and Grenache. A beautiful red combining sweetness and medium tannins and a hint of blackberries…wow!

Last was Celler de Capcanes Mas Donis Barrica. This wine gushed with fresh fruit…more blackberries and is from Montsant…a region that only came into the sights of Americans over the last five years or so and is most famous for its Priorat region which is surrounded by Montsant. While Montsant is the larger and less known of the two, it is producing more and more quality wines. Capanes is a five family co-op. Try this one with lamb or spicy dishes like pork, and with cheese.

Needless to say, the dinner was incredible with these wines!

Cartagena was next on our itinerary and it did not disappoint either. Another Moorish town that is now a resort…a huge contrast with Almeira…the main streets are all polished stone (and very slippery in the rain), with many small places to settle into for a drink…but since it was raining not too many outdoors…but the rain let up and it was pleasant walking in the town, which is the major naval seaport of Spain.

Our tasting that afternoon began with Lustau Puerto Fino,  a sherry from Jerez made from 100% palomino grapes. Don’t like sherry? Try a Fino with seafood…and of course olives or creamy mild cheeses and you will change your mind…at least I did! Sherry is back on my list.

Next came Rafael Palacios As Sortas, a beautiful white wine made from Godella grapes…look for it…citrus, fruit, and spice…it has it all. Palacios is a very well known producer, is organic, and harvests by hand.

This was followed by Abadia Retuerta Seleccion Especial, 75% tempranillo, 15% cabernet sauvignon, and 10% syrah…wow…again…wow! Want something to serve with game or red meat…give this one a try!

Due to the tasting dinner we were treated to another wine Mas Doix Costers de Vinyes Veilles, one of the top Priorats and expensive. Great fruti on the nose, soft tannins and perfect for hearty stews, sausages, etc.

The chefs and Steve had been busy shopping again with Steve managing the pairings for dinner…and what a dinner it was:

Apple Rosemary Lobster or Smoked Bison Salad or Beets & Berry Salad…while it says ‘or’ you could try them all. That was served with the Godello (note on the second night out there was a fire alarm…the captain came on and said remain in your cabins…I noted that this was what the captain of the Crystal Concordia said…but it was soon announced that it was merely a technical problem. I had asked Windstar Corporate Chef Michael Sabourin, where they found Bison…in Spain??? He brought it with him from the U.S. and was smoking it when it set off the alarm…so being awakened at 3am was worth it after all).

Main course choices were Spicy Grilled Corvina and Filet Mignon with Foie Gras (guess which we chose…although we order a Corvina for the table as Chef Michel Nischan had shown us how it was prepared in a cooking demonstration…yummy!).There was also a Lemon Pasta for vegetarians. Dessert was Toffee Apple Cheesecake…another hit!

The next day we visited Ibiza, one of the Balearic Islands…we were told we would be getting under way before dark as lots of strange things happen at night there. It is a strange mix of locals and jet-setters who go to some strange (dare I say ‘swinger’?) clubs and dress up like animals in a Carnival type atmosphere. So we took the tame route and visited a local winery, Sa Cova, where the owner and his son showed us around. The wine was not of the caliber we had come to expect on the trip but still very good – good enough that I brought back a bottle. It is hard for me to imagine how they make a good living but apparently do, judging from the modern winery and nice buildings. I liked both their red and white wine and it is just about all consumed on the island.

The tasting that evening was Scala Dei, Les Brugieres, garnatxa Blanca (remember ‘tx’ is pronounced ‘ch’ in Cataluyn. Another beautiful Priorat, this time white, and again great with rich seafood…think bouillabaisse!  This was followed by Vall Llach, Embriux, and another great Priorat, which is a spicy, rich wine with soft tannins….great with tapas, stews, etc. The final entrant was Torres Milmanda, a single vineyard chardonnay (reminded me of Marimar Torres Don Miguel Chardonnay from Sonoma!). It is easy, but wrong to dismiss Torres as a bulk producer as they make a wide range of wines, and pardon the comparison, like Gallo, have quality in every range.

Next: end of the line…Tarragona and Barcelona…arriva! arriva!