Arabic Hell's Angels wine wins Divas' love

The wine in question is Albiker ($11.99), a wickedly delicious 2004 Rioja from Bodegas Luberri. This is not your typical Rioja. It's young, fresh, fruity, and sin roble (no oak). It's the sort of thing you drink in tapas bars in northern Spain. We've been enjoying it with all kinds of summer foods, including some spicy Mediterranean dishes. This is an excellent barbecue wine, but it's certainly not limited to that application.

Albiker was the favorite wine of the evening at a recent dinner attended by the Dining Divas and their Dudes. (Cheryl said that I had to mention them, though why I'm not sure, since they have neither a Web site nor a blog and don't admit new members - ah, the lust for gustatory glory....) Albiker's competition for the Divas' favor included a Pegäu Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2000 (no longer available from PMW) and Remelluri Rioja 2001 ($29). Maybe it was that outlaw biker thing that got the Divas going. I personally found the Châteauneuf and Remelluri more compelling, but I wouldn't argue with Albiker's direct appeal and all-around food friendliness.

We also carry Bodegas Luberri's Rioja Reserva 2001 ($17). 2001 was an excellent vintage in Rioja, and the reservas have started to arrive. If, like me, you're a fan of Rioja, now is a good time to try some of the 2001s.

"What's the difference between Albiker and Luberri's regular Rioja", you might ask? Albiker sees no oak, as I mentioned. Rioja Reserva must by law be aged for at least one year in oak and at least three years total (barrel aging plus bottle aging). In addition, Albiker is made with a technique called carbonic maceration, in which the winemaker delays crushing the grapes and lets the whole berries ferment for a time. The result is a wine with intense berry aromas and freshness.

Paul Marcus points out that Albiker reminds him of how certain Côtes-du-Rhônes smelled some years ago, before the current fad for more intense wines and higher alcohol took hold. Let's hear it for light and lithe red wines!

I suspect that Albiker is the wine that Luberri's Web site calls Maceración Carbónica or a variation thereof, named and labeled for the American market. So where the hell does the name "Albiker" come from, I wonder?

Feelin' fine with Lagrein

Last night was the Eccolo/Paul Marcus Wines Alto Adige dinner, and four of us from PMW joined three of our favorite importer/distributors for an excellent meal by chef Christopher Lee. The canederli in brodo were especially delicious with Ansitz Waldgries St. Magdalener Classico 2004 ($13.99). Chris had tipped us off to the oxtails and sausages braised with peppers and garlic over polenta, so everyone at the table ordered it. The perfect match - and star wine of the evening - was Ignaz Niedrist's Lagrein Gries 'Berger Gei' 2002 ($33).

I continue to be fascinated by the wine (and cuisine) of the Alto Adige. In a country of unique and worthy gastronomical regions, this one is perhaps the most unique - and certainly worthy.

The Alto Adige - 1900 and 2005

We've been preparing for the Eccolo/PMW Alto Adige dinner tomorrow night. Erik put together an inspiring article about his visit to the Alto Adige a couple of months ago.

I fished through the stuff I brought back from a brief visit to the Alto Adige last fall. I had time to visit only a few producers, but the highlight was meeting Josephus Mayr of Erbhof Unterganzner in Bolzano - a man of remarkable energy and personality. In his brochure is a wonderfully evocative photo of a party in the courtyard of the family's estate in 1900. Men with bowler hats, large moustaches, and impressive pocket watch chains lounge around the courtyard as a six-piece band plays. One fellow sits astride a barrel marked "Lagrein 1900". There is something bittersweet about viewing such a photo - the knowledge that all of those people are gone combined with the inspiring realization that people like Josephus carry on their work.

We have one or two bottles left of Josephus Mayr's St. Magdalener 'Klassisch' 2002 ($18). I can't wait to taste the 2003.

ABC

No, not "Anything But Chardonnay", but "All Bottles Chardonnay". Last week, friends came over for a clam bake. What better wine to drink than chardonnay - especially with lobster and buttered corn?

N.V. Larmandier-Bernier Champagne 'Tradition' ($42): OK, so it's only half chardonnay (and the other half pinot noir), but Larmandier-Bernier is a Côte de Blancs producer, and we didn't get the Blanc de Blancs in until later. I love this producer - so terroir-y, so vivid - farmer fizz [PDF file] at its best. Champagne is wine, and wine is food. We have it in stock.

Walter Hansel Russian River Valley Chardonnay 'Cuvée Alyce' 2000 (~$25 several years ago): Excellent wine, especially after about half an hour. Excellent, small producer. We should carry his wines again.

Leroy Bourgogne Blanc 1996 (~$20 several years ago): Quite reserved, even after a couple of hours. Extremely promising. I should've bought more bottles.

Mountain Eden Vineyards Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay 2000 ($30): The wine of the night. Rich but balanced, nicely evolved, great with the lobster. This wine confirms Mount Eden Vineyards as one of my favroite California producers. Their wines are consistently generous, fun to drink, and resonably priced for the quality. We have the 2002 Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon in stock.

Lafon Meursault A.C. ($81 - thanks to Chad for bringing it): Seriously impressive, but still tightly wound. If I hadn't had the Mount Eden Vineyards first, I probably would've gone gaga over this wine. The Lafon clearly is the superior wine, but right now, the Mount Eden is all smiles. Three to 10 years from now, it will be no contest. We still have a few bottles in the store - cellar keepers, take note.

Mediterranean match

Tonight was another example of the versality of Côtes du Rhône rouge with far-flung cuisines of the Mediterranean. Cheryl cooked up stuffed eggplants with tomato-pomegranate sauce, a Syrian dish from Paula Wolfert's book The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean. We happened to have open a bottle of Alain Jaume 2003 Côtes du Rhône 'Réserve Grand Veneur' ($9.99). It's one of those more animally, earthy, baby-Châteauneuf-y style Côtes du Rhône, and it matched the dish - particularly the stuffing of Enzo's wonderful ground lamb - perfectly.

Improvisation and forgetfulness

Late last week, Cheryl invited some friends over for an acorn-shelling party - part of her research for an article in the inaugural issue of Edible East Bay, a new, quartlerly newsletter of which she is the editor. She fed her friends on a soup of roasted tomatoes, Gravenstein apples, bay, mint, and dill - a recipe of her own devising inspired by an indigenous American recipe that she read somewhere many years ago. (Come by the shop on a Sunday and ask Cheryl for a detailed recipe.)

Also late last week, I opened a liter bottle of Darting 2002 Riesling 'Dürkheimer Nonnengarten' ($16). I drank a glass or two, stashed it away in the refrigerator, and forgot about it during a weekend flurry of Spanish visitors.

These two seemingly unrelated events converged this evening. Cheryl added some roasted corn, arugula, hot pepper, and leftover gazpacho (courtesy of the Spaniards) to the soup. She also discovered the Darting riesling in the fridge. What a great combination - and great argument for the staying power of an open liter of German riesling! The touch of sweetness in the wine played beautifully off of the Gravenstein apples, and the sour elements in the soup highlighted the wine's tart acidity.

Before re-discovering the riesling, I was enjoying a copita of Sherry: Lustau's Fino ‘Jarana’ ($15/750 ml or $8.50/375 ml) - also open a couple of days. I didn't expect the piercing dryness of a Fino to work with the soup, but oddly enough, it did. The Sherry's tangyness played up the tartness of the apples rather than their sweetness, and the wine's smokiness emphasized the roasted qualities of the corn and tomatoes.It was a completely different experience from eating the soup with the riesling, but no less pleasing.

So don't hesitate to improvise in your cooking and your wine pairings. And don't be afraid to forget about some open bottles in your refrigerator for a few days - especially when they're riesling or Sherry.

What Would Don Quixote Drink?

Last night, my Spanish discussion group came over to my house for dinner and conversation about the essay España según Don Quijote. I opened Strub's 2003 Riesling 'Niersteiner' - $16 in the bigger, happier, longer-lasting liter bottle. It's not very Spanish, but it was damned good - particularly with the Valdeón cheese and fig cake that my friend Michelle brought from the Pasta Shop. Actually, I got started on that liter before the guests arrived, as I was madly chopping vegetables for a quite quixote-esque pisto manchego. Riesling liters are great that way - they can take you from cooking to aperitif to dinner to cheese with nary a hiccup.

Pisto manchego, by the way, is a vegetable stew from Quixote's region of La Mancha - "manchego" being the adjectival form denoting anything or anyone from La Mancha, including the famous Manchego cheese. (If you want a recipe for pisto manchego, come by the store and ask me.)

So this evening, Cheryl and I warmed up some of the leftover pisto. "What would Don Quixote drink with this?", I wondered. Probably not riesling. Probably a nice, everyday tinto from La Mancha, like the excellent $15 bottle we have in the store but whose name escapes me at the moment. Or maybe he would've brought back from his travels something like the Balbas 2003 Ribera del Duero 'Tradición' ($13.99). All I can say is that it worked for us. This young Ribera has intensity and depth, but without the animal, gamy qualities of some or the overt oakiness of others. (Not that there's anything wrong with those qualities, but they're not what I'd want with a simple vegetable stew.) So here's an everyday Ribera del Duero that won't overwhelm lighter fare - or weigh down a knight errant before his next adventure.