Winetastings in 2011

Here is a summary of the wines tasted in 2011.
Loire Sauvignon blanc
Red Tail Ridge 2008 Dry Riesling
1994 Dehlinger Russian River Valley Syrah
Paradigm and Merus: A Celebration
2007 Paumanok Assemblage
2009 Petit Chenin
Alma Rosa 2007 Pinot Noir
2009 Laurent Kraft Vouvray
2007 Vietti Nebbiolo
Thermovinification and 1995 Chateau de Beaucastel
2009 Domaine Cheveau Macon Chaintre Le Clos
2010 Domaine Huet Clos du Bourg
Lopez de Heredia
Etienne Terlinden's Wines
Chateau Ksara 2008 Reserve Du Couvent
Kistler 2002 McCrea Vineyards
Desperately Seeking a Good Barbera
2001 Lopez de Heredia Gravonia --- A Taste of Viura
1995 Philip Togni Cabernet Sauvignon
Dunn Howell Mountain 1997
2009 Bernard Baudry Chinon

Celebrating Hajji Firuz Tepe---Evidence of Neolithic Wine!

Contemporary man can use a number of tools at his disposal to investigate where wine might have originated. The best indication currently points to Hajji Firuz Tepe (dating to 5400-5000 B.C.) located in the northern Zagros Mountains of Iran.¹
In Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture, published in 2003, Patrick McGovern credits the 1991 wine conference at the Robert Mondavi Winery as the impetus that lead to the discovery of evidence of Neolithic winemaking. McGovern decided to look in "his own backyard", the well-documented artifacts collected and housed at the University of Pennylsvania Museum for chemical evidence indicative of wine or winemaking.

Grapes contain tartaric acid. In fact, grapes, the baobab tree and the tamarind fruit are the only plants that contain tartaric acid, so tartaric acid can be used as a fingerprint or marker for the presence of grapes and it's products such as wine.³ Analyses of a yellow residue that came from sherds located in the University of Pennsylvania collection revealed the presence of tartaric acid as well as calcium tartrate. McGovern says that the presence of tartaric acid can be taken as a good indication that wine or a product of winemaking such as vinegar was stored in the jar.
As we enter another year in the 21^st Century, salute and cheers to our Neolithic Winemaking Heritage!
1. Ronald S. Jackson, Wine Science: Principles and Applications Third Edition 2008.
2. The chemical structure of tartaric acid was drawn by the freely available drawing program from ACD Labs called ACD/ChemSketch Freeware.
3. Patrick McGovern, Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture.

2009 Bernard Baudry Chinon

I so wanted to like this wine because when I looked at the back label, it was imported by Louis Dressner. The color was a clear ruby, but the aromas were of funky barnyard bordering on...bandaids? Once past the nose, the wine was tasty, but getting past the nose was difficult to do. I couldn't finish the wine but left it in my glass and the smell emanating from my wine glass hung around the kitchen for a long time. Could this be the dreaded Brettanomyces, a yeast commonly called Brett for short? This was another one of the discussion topics in our UC Davis online forum and people had very strong opinions about Brett infection. Most agreed that Brett infection in the winery or winery equipment was not a good thing, but there wasn't the same kind of consensus when it came to Brett infection in the wine. Brett is a Janus faced yeast because it produces both 4-ethylphenol (4-EP) and 4-ethylguiacol (4-EG). ¹

The unsavory aromas come from 4-ethylphenol whereas, the more acceptable aromas of leather and spice come from 4-ethylguiacol. Nevertheless, where there is 4-EG, there will be 4-EP.³
This morning, I looked in the appendix of Alice Feiring's book Naked Wine and found that she had recommended it.
References:
1. Principles and Practices of Winemaking, pg. 365.
2. All structures were drawn by the freely available drawing program from ACD Labs called ACD/ChemSketch Freeware.
3. Jamie Goode's Blog, Wineanorak: Brettanomyces is an interesting read.

Dunn Howell Mountain 1997

Our generous friends invited us over for dinner on Christmas and the among the potent potable offerings that they served was a 1997 Dunn Howell Mountain. I had to taste this wine because of the recent buzz that I read about in the November issue of Wines and Vines called Wines Lunatic Heros written by Clark Smith about Randy Dunn using reverse osmosis. I was ready to cast aspersions on the wine but it proved to be very well balanced with leather and chocolate tones. It's not clear to me when Randy Dunn started using reverse osmosis for his wines, but I think that a wine should be tasted with the appropriate foods and then judged on those merits. I had their five year old daughter (whom I'm not so secretly training to be a sommelier, that is with parental approval) smell the aroma and she said definitively "peanuts". I got a whiff of reductive aromas but I think my nose is too keen on smelling any kind of sulfide notes. The wine opened up and the sulfide blew off, or my olfactory receptors tired as the evening progressed and the superbly crafted beef tenderloin was the appropriate foil for the Dunn Howell Mountain Cabernet sauvignon.