The Answer: Can I Find a Great Wine for Less than $50?

If you stroll into Paul Marcus Wines with $100 to spend on a bottle, you will walk out with a stunning, perhaps even unforgettable wine. Most customers, of course, don’t have that kind of loot, but fear not. For less than $50, you can certainly find a memorable, first-class wine to savor and appreciate. Next time you need to put an exclamation point on a special occasion or simply satisfy a connoisseur’s high standards, consider these standout wines.

2007 López de Heredia Rioja ‘Viña Tondonia’ Reserva ($49)
The standard-bearer in Rioja, Don Rafael López de Heredia first planted his famed, limestone-rich Tondonia vineyard on the River Ebro more than 100 years ago. This reserva spends about six years in large barrels, plus another handful in bottle before release. The 2007 version–75 percent tempranillo, 15 percent garnacha, and filled out by graciano and mazuelo–is a wine of both depth and subtlety, with finely honed tannins and pleasant notes of tobacco and spice. Aging potential of Tondonia wines is often measured in decades, not years.

 

 

2019 Domaine Huet Vouvray Sec ‘Le Mont’ ($47)
There’s a certain charm you find in a Vouvray sec that is difficult to replicate–a balanced richness that seems unique to the chenin blanc of that appellation. Those in the know say that 2019 might be one of the best vintages this venerable producer has ever seen. This bottle is already capable of delivering immense pleasure–steely, stony, and energetic, with only hints of the opulence it will deliver over time. When that lush, waxy fruit comes to life over the next 10 years, watch out!

 

 

2019 Girolamo Russo Etna Bianco ‘Nerina’ ($42)
Considered in some circles to be the “Chablis of Sicily,” the Etna Bianco DOC, featuring the carricante grape, produces wines that are dry, racy, and mineral-driven. Russo’s Bianco uses only 70 percent carricante, rounded out by an assortment of Sicilian varieties. Aged on the lees in a combination of steel and wood, the result is textured and intense, yet bright, with a volcanic edge and luxuriously long finish.

 

 

 

2016 Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico Riserva ($39)
There is something immediately gratifying about this sangiovese (mostly sangiovese, anyway, as this house, which dates back to 1846, still makes a point of adding a little dash of indigenous Tuscan grapes to the blend). This pretty riserva, which sees two years of oak, doesn’t try to do too much–the oak influence is understated, producing an appealingly red-fruited, medium-bodied wine that displays remarkable freshness and finesse.

 

 

 

Hidalgo Wellington Palo Cortado VOS ($38)
Without a doubt, this is one of the best values we’ve found in the world of fine sherry. Although the VOS label indicates a 20-year sherry, its average age is probably closer to 30. What I love about this refined palo cortado is that, despite its long oxidative aging, it manages to retain more than just remnants of its former life as a manzanilla. There’s still a sharp, saline tanginess that perfectly complements the nutty, butterscotch elements. Get yourself some jamón Ibérico and Manchego cheese, and you’ll be in business. Or, after dinner, sip it as a “wine of contemplation.”

/0 Comments/by Marc Greilsamer

The Answer: What’s the Purpose of Bottle Capsules?

While browsing around our shop, you might notice some bottles of wine do not utilize a capsule, while others have a simple black capsule or a decorative, colorful capsule. A few bottles might even boast a wax seal. Does it make a difference?

Why do producers use capsules?

Capsules are the metallic or plastic wrapping you’ll find around the neck of the bottle–the enclosure that you remove with a knife or foil cutter before popping the cork. The presumed purpose of this capsule is to protect the cork during storage from such things as insects, rodents, and mold. Capsules also help identify wines while stored horizontally.

If you’ve ever searched for a bottle of Champagne or Burgundy in our shop, you’ll notice most producers have very specific capsules that stand out from one another. In addition, they can also protect the label from wine drippings when the bottle is poured. Capsules were most commonly made from lead before the 1980s; today they are usually made from aluminum, plastic, or tin.

What does a wax seal indicate?

Some producers use a wax seal instead of metallic or plastic. While a wax seal is mostly for aesthetics, it can also aid in preserving the freshness of a wine. While a metallic capsule will protect a cork from damage, it does not affect the ability for oxygen to transfer between inside and outside the bottle. A wax capsule is mostly air tight, eliminating oxygen transfer (similar to a screw cap).

Due to the lack of oxygen transfer, it can be hypothesised that wax seals will reduce the ageability of a wine, although I was not able to find any definitive experiments on this. Below, however, is an image showing the aging progression of a wine using 14 different types of cork/caps. Note how the far left bottle, with a screw cap, has barely changed over the course of 10 years.

Various Wine Aging with Corks

Variance in aging of wines with different corks. (source: Australian Wine Research Institute)

Why would a producer decide to exclude a capsule?

Well, there isn’t a single answer, but it usually comes down to cost efficiency, elimination of waste, and aging capability. If a producer is making a wine that is intended to be enjoyed young, there is no need to account for storage, and chances of the cork becoming damaged are low. So if you find a bottle of wine without a capsule, this is usually an indication the wine should be opened in the near term. Eliminating the cost of producing all of those capsules can potentially allow the producer to reduce the price of the wine–and it is a more environmentally friendly approach as well.

Various Capsules

Various Capsules

Does the lack of a capsule affect the quality of a wine?

Nope! As mentioned above, the use of a capsule nowadays is mostly for aesthetics and has a minimal effect on the wine. When you find a bottle of wine without a capsule, it will often come from a smaller producer, or possibly a more eco-conscious producer trying to reduce its footprint. Whatever the rationale, you can be assured the quality of the wine is not dependent on the use of a capsule.

/0 Comments/by Hayden Dawkins

The Answer: What’s the Story with Orange Wine?

What is Orange Wine?

The term “orange wine” is a bit of a misnomer; a better term is “skin-contact wine.” Simply put, orange wines are white wines that have been produced in a rosé or red-wine style. By allowing the fresh-pressed juice to sit in contact with the grape skins, the wine color deepens and tannic structure increases. Without skin contact, all of the juice that comes out of grapes, regardless of red or white varieties, would be clear.

Most orange wines see anywhere from a few days to a few months of skin contact. (A traditional white wine sees zero skin contact.) The longer the wine is in contact with the skin, the more intense and complex the taste profile becomes. The production of orange wine is usually “natural” in essence, with minimal intervention and little-to-no preservatives or additives used during production or bottling.

The History of Orange Wine

Skin-contact wine has a rich and unique history dating back a few thousand years. Its origin derives from a country at the intersection of Europe and Asia: Georgia. Here the grapes were crushed into large clay pots called qvevris. These clay pots would then be buried in the ground where the wine would slowly ferment over the course of several weeks or months, with very minimal intervention. Eventually, this winemaking process started to pop up in areas of northeastern Italy and throughout Slovenia. Today, this production style is practiced throughout the world, including the U.S. and Australia.

A wine label featuring a Qvevri

While skin-contact wines were originally overly oxidized, very harsh wines, today you can find great variance in orange wines. Some winemakers only allow a few days of skin contact and then finish fermentation in oak barrels or stainless steel, producing slightly richer white wines; others continue to use qvevris or other clay pots with longer periods of skin contact to produce bolder, full-flavored wines.

Taste Profile of Orange Wine

It seems that people either love or hate orange wine–the taste profile can be a bit jarring for someone unfamiliar with the style or accustomed to drinking only very crisp, light white wines. As Wine Folly so eloquently puts it, “Often they’re so intense that you might want to make sure you’re sitting down when you taste your first orange wine.”

While that might be a bit of an exaggeration, orange wines are known for their ample structure–an increase in tannins and phenolic compounds–giving the wines their characteristic robustness. The aromatics of the wines tend to lean toward more bready, honeyed, and nutty expressions. Notes of yellow stone fruits, spices, and herbs dominate these wines. The wines also tend to lean toward the dry side, with a very vigorous mouth feel, in part because these wines are often unfiltered.

How to Pair Orange Wine

Since orange wines are bigger and bolder versions of white wines, you can typically pair them well with foods that call for a dry white wine or a lighter red wine. Think of orange wines as the middleman between a white and red wine. Any meal with a lot of spice will be complemented by the dry, robust profile of an orange wine. Try them with curry dishes, Ethiopian cuisine, Japanese and Korean meals, or hearty dishes like chili.

Other appropriate dishes include fish, chicken, strong cheeses, and preparations containing nuts, yellow stone fruits, root vegetables, or fermented ingredients such as kimchi. Orange wines can even stand up to beef, although a red wine will usually be more suitable.

Next time you visit Paul Marcus Wines, please make sure to ask us about our current selection of orange wines. Whether you’re an orange-wine aficionado or a newcomer to the style, we’ll be happy to help you select the right one for your needs.

/1 Comment/by Hayden Dawkins

THE ANSWER: What Are Five Low-Sulfite Wines Worth Exploring?

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The addition of sulfites is one of the wine world’s most confusing, controversial, and misconstrued subjects. For starters, there is no evidence they cause headaches. What’s more, they have been added to help stabilize wine for centuries. Plus, sulfites are a naturally occurring byproduct of fermentation, meaning that all wine will contain some level of sulfites, whether or not the winemaker chooses to add them during the winemaking process.

Used to stall oxidation and fight off bacteria, sulfites (referring to sulfur dioxide, or SO2) can extend the shelf life of a bottle. However, SO2 also changes (many say diminishes) the flavor profile of the wine, often preventing it from expressing the subtleties and distinctions of its terroir. It can also hinder a wine’s metamorphosis after opening, the proverbial “development in the glass.” In other words, what the final product gains in stability, it loses in vitality; what it gains in polish, it loses in personality.

While it’s true that some people have sulfite allergies, they are much less prevalent than it might seem. Though some of our customers complain of “red wine headaches,” these are likely caused by other, not-yet-determined factors–perhaps tannins or histamines. In fact, red wines have significantly fewer sulfites than white wines; that’s because the tannins in red wine help serve the role of antioxidant and protect the wine from harm, making the addition of sulfites somewhat superfluous. (For more about sulfites and natural wines, please visit our Guide to Natural Wines.)

Nonetheless, be it for health concerns or taste preferences, Paul Marcus Wines offers a wide range of low-sulfite wines for your enjoyment. Below are five noteworthy selections.

2018 Herrera Alvarado “La Zaranda” Sauvignon Blanc ($30)

Arturo Herrera and Carolina Alvarado have been making wines in Chile’s Marga Marga Valley since 2003, considered among the pioneers of Chile’s natural wine scene. Their sauvignon blanc sees no additional SO2, allowing more savory, oxidative flavors to shine through while still retaining the zip and energy expected from this varietal.

 

 

 

 

2017 Alex Foillard Brouilly ($48)

Foillard’s father, Jean, was part of Beaujolais’ “Gang of Four” along with Marcel Lapierre, Guy Breton, and Jean-Paul Thévenet–each considered trailblazers in low-intervention, sustainable, natural-leaning winemaking techniques. Although 2017 was only Alex Foillard’s second harvest, he is already making a name for himself. His Brouilly is an absolute stunner, boasting gorgeous aromatics, vibrant minerality, bright red and blue fruit, and a texture of velvet. Foillard’s wines, as befitting the family name, are unfiltered, unfined, and undergo whole-cluster fermentation, and he only uses a tiny amount of sulfur (if that) for bottling.

 

2016 COS Cerasuolo di Vittoria ($32)

This certified-organic Sicilian beauty is a blend of 60 percent nero d’avola and 40 percent frappato–the nero providing dark fruit and spice, the frappato offering floral lift. Fermented in concrete with indigenous yeast and aged in large Slovenian oak, this is a balanced, versatile wine that coaxes considerable depth and energy from its medium body. Founded by Giusto Occhipinti and his two buddies around 40 years ago, COS long ago adopted biodynamic principles–they’ve never used chemicals or synthetics in their vineyards–and Occhipinti believes in only a minimal addition of SO2 at the time of bottling.

 

2017 Breton “Nuits d’Ivresse” Bourgueil ($34)

Loire Valley legends Catherine and Pierre Breton have been certified organic for nearly 30 years. Although they make about a dozen cuvées of cabernet franc, the “Nuits d’Ivresse” (“Drunken Nights”) is the only one that is bottled without even a hint of added sulfur. Yes, you get a taste of that “barnyard funk” typical of many unsulfured wines, but it is merely one element of this generous, complex, and fresh cab franc. Made with fruit from 50-year-old vines and aged in barrel for a year, it will certainly help wash down a plate of lamb chops in fine fashion.

 

Alexander Jules Amontillado 3/10 ($33)

Alex Russan has been releasing his Alexander Jules line of barrel-selected sherry since 2012. As he himself points out, “Due to sherry’s unique aging processes, very little is actually necessary to ensure their stability.” Therefore, he never adds sulfur to any of his releases, which undergo only the most minimal filtration. The Amontillado 3/10 has an average age of 18 years, and it delivers a combination of saline tang (from its biological aging under the flor) and richer, though still gentle caramelized notes (from its oxidative aging).

For more information about low-sulfite wines, come visit us at Paul Marcus Wines. We’ll be happy to help you find a bottle to your liking.

/0 Comments/by Marc Greilsamer

The Answer: What Is the Best Way to Preserve Wine After Opening?

We get this question a lot at Paul Marcus Wines: What is the best method for preserving an open but unfinished bottle of wine? As we like to say, “Pour some more!” Of course, that is not always an option. When you need to save the remaining wine from an open bottle, there are various methods and products available to help, but which way is best?

The Reason Wine Spoils

Before we can discuss our options for wine preservation, we need to understand what makes wine spoil in the first place. There are two major components to wine spoilage.

First, there is acetic acid bacteria and vinegar. For the most part, when you open a bottle of wine, there will be trace amounts of acetic acid bacteria already present. Due to the low oxygen and stable environment, growth is inhibited. After a bottle of wine has been opened, however, oxygen will initiate chemical reactions among the acetic acid bacteria, ethanol, and sugar molecules available. This, in turn, produces vinegar. Vinegar is the product of alcoholic fermentation by yeast (ethanol) followed with acetous fermentation by acetic acid bacteria and any available sugar in the wine (glucose).

Second, there is oxygen and acetaldehyde. When wine comes into contact with oxygen, a chemical compound called acetaldehyde is produced. On the positive side, acetaldehyde leads to a concentration of color and helps bring out nuanced aromas and flavors–perhaps a hint of nuttiness, maybe notes of baked apples, sometimes a grassy factor. (This is why decanting helps accentuate a wine’s profile.) Too much oxygen, however, and the wine will no longer bear its fresh fruit or offer a strong nose; rather, it becomes flat-tasting, with little or no bouquet and a dull, copperish tone.

How Long Does It Take for Wine to Spoil?

The speed at which a wine spoils can vary tremendously, from a single day to more than a month. Depending on what type of wine you’re drinking and how it’s stored, there isn’t a single answer. Below we have listed the most typical ranges for wines using basic storage practices: cork in the bottle and bottle in the fridge.

Sparkling Wine – 1-3 Days

Sparkling wines can be expected to last the shortest period, simply because of the carbonation you need to retain to give them their sparkle. The longer sparkling wine is stored, the less brightness and effervescence will show on the next pour.

White Wine and Rose (Light) – 3-7 Days

Due to typically higher acidity and, often, employment of stabilizing chemicals, lighter whites can last a fair amount of time in a fridge. You can expect the wines to gain oxidized properties and lose their intensity over time.

White Wine (Full) – 3-5 Days

Now it may seem a little backward that a full-bodied white may not last as long as a lighter white, but this is because they will oxidize at a much quicker rate due to the nature in which they were produced.

Red Wine – 3-7 Days

Due to the phenols in red wine, you can expect a slightly longer storage time without degradation in quality. Red wines, over the course of a week, will begin to taste more like vinegar and lose their bright fruits. On the other hand, some wines require more time to breathe (more oxygen) in order to truly shine, often tasting better the next day. It’s certainly fine to store red wine in the refrigerator–just let it return to room temperature (if you want) before drinking.

Fortified Wine – 1-8 Weeks

Unlike other wines, fortified wines like port and sherry have a hefty amount of alcohol and are, for the most part, intensely oxidized, meaning they can be stored for a lot longer without noticeable loss in quality. Of course, this all depends on the type of fortified wine and your storage methods. A lighter, drier fino or manzanilla sherry, for example, will certainly lose some of its zip after a few days, while a richer oloroso sherry can survive for several weeks after opening.

As it happens, some wines can last for months on end. This is where we welcome Madeira and Marsala. These two fortified wines are heavily oxidized during production, and the grape must has been cooked, resulting in wines with intense flavor profiles and aromas associated with oxidation. While there are other fortified wines that can last more than a few weeks, these two will generally last the longest.

Image from Vacuvin

How Do You Extend the Life of an Open Bottle?

To preserve wine you need to create a controlled, oxygen-free environment. Once a bottle of wine is open, there’s a smorgasbord of chemical reactions taking place ready to do damage, and there is no turning back. The only option is to slow these processes down. Below are a few tools and techniques for increasing the storage life of an open bottle.

Refrigerator

The easiest step to take is simply placing your wine in the refrigerator after opening. By lowering the temperature of the wine, you will slow down the chemical reactions taking place. This goes for white, red, and even fortified wine. Red wines should be taken out roughly an hour before their next serving if you’re trying to reach room temperature.

Vacuum Wine Stopper

While vacuum wine stoppers have become the new trend in preserving wines, we tend not to recommend them. While they supposedly remove oxygen from the bottle, this creates a double-edged sword. The vacuum will create a negative pressure, pulling diluted gases out of the wine as well as its container. Some people therefore believe the vacuum effect inside the bottle also reduces aromatics in the wine and thus might harm the wine more than protect it.

Private Preserve

This is a simple and mostly effective method in which you spray in a mixture of three atmospheric gases: carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon. By replacing the oxygen inside the bottle with these inert gases, which do not cause the same detrimental effects, you are creating a low-oxygen environment that will reduce bacterial growth and retard the fermentation process. This spray can also be used for preserving other perishables such as fruits and vegetables, so it’s useful to have on hand.

Half Bottle

The best method for preserving open wine, we believe, is using a smaller bottle to store it. If you can’t finish a bottle of wine, have a clean 375ml bottle on hand. You can pour the remaining contents into this bottle and place it into the fridge for extended storage times. While the wine has already come into contact with oxygen, the remaining headspace in the bottle is greatly reduced, slowing the negative processes and extending the life of your product.

Please visit us at Paul Marcus Wines if you have further questions. We’ll be glad to help!

Further Reading:

/0 Comments/by Hayden Dawkins

A Guide to Natural Wines at PMW

Hear ye, hear ye! Natural wines at Oakland’s most sophisticated wine shop – Paul Marcus Wines

What’s all this hullabaloo about natural wine? Here at Paul Marcus Wines we get questions – oh so many (wonderful) questions about wine from our customers. Many of these queries, and probably #1 in terms of frequency, involve food and wine. For example, what is the best wine to serve with grilled asparagus and roast chicken (we say Gruner Veltliner!). However, a close second most often involves which wines are produced from vineyards that are organically farmed, and even more specifically, bottles that are “natural wines”.

What is old is often new again, and such is the case with many principles and practices that encompass natural wine. You can learn more about the natural wine movement and its guiding principles in THE ANSWER: A Guide to Natural Wines.

Have we peaked your interest in natural wines? At the shop we’ve posted a natural wine legend (pictured above), to help you easily locate these vinous gems. Our natural wine guide accomplishes two things:

  1. Outlines our working definition and parameters for what constitutes a natural wine.
  2. Describes what each colored flower tag represents in terms of a specific style of wine. Namely, a red wine, white wine or orange wine (a white wine fermented on its skins, generally for a more extended length of time).

Note: these tags represent only a partial selection of natural wines available at PMW.

Of course, we are always here to answer questions regarding natural wines or provide a recommendation for you. However, we realize that sometimes folks just like to tour the shop, glean information on their own, then grab the perfect natural wine and go. If so, then our natural wine guide and nifty colored tags were made just for you.

We’ll see you at the shop!

/0 Comments/by Mulan Chan-Randel

THE ANSWER: A Guide to Natural Wines

What is Natural Wine?What is Natural Wine?

There is currently no official classification or set of standards for the term “natural wine”. However, the wine profession today acknowledges that natural winemaking employs a low intervention and unmanipulated approach to producing wine, both in the vineyard and winery. Working with grapes that are, at the very least, organically farmed, natural winemakers produce wines that are minimally processed in order to showcase their unique and vibrant characteristics.

Are Natural Wines the same as organic wines?

Wines under the “Natural Wine” umbrella, so to speak, come from vineyards that are farmed naturally. These vineyards are farmed either organically or biodynamically. As such, no artificial fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides or pesticides are utilized. Some of the vineyards may carry an organic or biodynamic certification. Two examples include Ecocert and Demeter, respectively. However, these types of certification are not a requirement of natural wine.

While natural wines come from organically farmed vineyards, not all organically farmed wines are “natural wines”. An example: A wine might come from an organically farmed vineyard, but cultured yeast is used to start the primary fermentation. A second example: Organically farmed grape must (unfermented grape juice) might be doctored with the addition of tartaric acid before the primary fermentation in order to increase acidity and improve the balance of a wine.

What is permitted and restricted in natural winemaking?

Throughout the winemaking process, natural winemakers adhere to the guiding principle “nothing added, nothing taken away.” More specifically, primary fermentation takes place via native yeasts, and without the introduction of cultured yeast strains either during the primary or malolactic fermentation (if this occurs). Natural winemakers also eschew any and all additions or subtractions to wine during the winemaking process. This includes chaptalization, acidification, must concentration, or chemical additions to alter the texture, color or tannic structure of the wine. Natural wines are also bottled un-fined and unfiltered, as natural winemakers believe that doing so alters the inherent quality, and in some cases, the age worthiness of the wine. Natural wines are bottled either with no, or minimal amounts of SO2 or sulfur dioxide.

Do Natural Wines contain sulfites?

Natural wines are bottled either with no, or minimal amounts of SO2 or sulfur dioxide. The decision to add or refrain from using sulfur dioxide at bottling is open to debate within the natural wine world. Certain winemakers avoid any SO2 addition before bottling, as they believe that the chemical additive alters the inherent quality and vibrancy of the wine. However, other natural winemakers bottle their wines with modest additions of SO2, (to prevent premature oxidation or microbial growth) to ensure that the wines are stable enough to travel overseas and withstand possible changing environments. In these instances, the levels of SO2 utilized are well below industry standards, often not exceeding 40mg/L.

Note: all wines contain SO2 (collectively known as sulfites), as it is a by-product of fermentation. Even wines that are bottled without sulfur may concentrations of SO2 of up to 10 ml/L.

My glass of natural wine is hazy and has sediment, is this normal?

Natural wines are in most instances bottled un-fined and unfiltered, as natural winemakers believe that doing so compromises the inherent quality, wine experience, and in some cases, the age worthiness of the wine. This applies to all styles of wine including red, white, rose and sparkling. This being the case, it is not unusual, and completely acceptable, for white wines to exhibit a slightly hazing appearance, or for red wines to contain residual sediment at the bottom of the glass.

How can I identify Natural wines?

There is currently no official certification for natural wines. As such, a definitive list of natural wine producers is somewhat nebulous. However, a great place to familiarize oneself with natural winemakers and wineries is to check out Raw Wine. Founded by Master of Wine Isabelle Legeron, Raw Wine is a website dedicated to promoting natural wines via education and their annual wine fair. Included on the site is a list of producers around the world who adhere to natural winemaking principles.

It is important to note that many wineries who do not actively identify with the natural wine movement have in fact been making wines in this manner for generations. The guidelines of natural winemaking are in many instances the same principles that winemakers employed more than a hundred years ago, and before the rise of agri-business in the second half of the 20th century. This being the case, it’s also a great idea to ask your favorite local wine merchant exactly which producers employ natural winemaking principles.

/0 Comments/by Mulan Chan-Randel

THE ANSWER: What is Rosé Wine

With the arrival of spring, Paul Marcus Wines is ready to showcase our growing rosé selection!

What does a light pink wine signify? Will a darker hued rose taste sweet? Making a fruity but balanced pink wine is no small task. In fact, many winemakers confide that vinifying rosé wine can be more challenging than red or white wine production.

Why is this so? The answer: A rosé wine must walk a tightrope, balancing components of fruit, acid and alcohol with very little margin of error. Too much of any one component leaves what should otherwise be a fresh, crisp and vibrant pink, flat on its back, tasting ponderous and dull.  However, making the perfect pink wine is not just a matter of mixing red and white grape juice…

How is Rosé Wine Made?

High quality rosé wine is made utilizing the following 3 production methods:

Direct Press Method

After harvest, red grapes undergo skin contact for a short period of time before being pressed off. How much time exactly? Anywhere from almost immediately to 16 hours or so. During this period, a limited amount of color is extracted from the skins, often resulting in a lightly colored juice. A very pale and barely pink wine is sometimes referred to as a Vin Gris.  If the grapes are left on their skins a bit longer, a darker hue will result. A rosé produced via the direct press method is pictured above.

Saignée Method

The process saignée or bleeding off juice, was originally employed as a method of concentrating wine must before fermentation in order to produce a more robust red. Red grapes, either crushed or uncrushed but broken (preferable), are chilled down and macerate, generally between 1-4 days. The juice is then be drawn off or “bled” and without being pressed. This juice is then often fermented at cooler temperatures, in a similar manner to that of a white wine the finished rosé is generally a more robust and deeply colored wine. A rosé produced via the saignée method is pictured above.

Note: the finished color of a rose does not indicate a sweetness level. If all the sugar has been converted to alcohol during the fermentation process, the resulting wine will be a dry one, regardless of the color.

Blended Method

After fermentation is complete, white and red wines (usually around 5%) are blended together in order to achieve a desired level of pink or blush tint. The blending method is rarely employed in making still rosé wines and is illegal in the EU. However, the blended method is commonly used in the production of high-quality rosé Champagne as well as high quality sparkling wines around the world. The Champagne house Billecart-Salmon produces their iconic rosé Champagne in this manner.

With so many rosé wines, and so little time, it’s time to dive in and get started!

 

 

These 2018 rosé wines from our local winery friends are now available at Paul Marcus wines and ready for you to take home.

Expect to see a steady parade of pink over the next several months, from wine regions across the globe, and produced via the 3 methods of rose production described above. As you may know, we’re huge Rosé fanatics, and we can’t stop talking about Pink!

We’ll see you at the shop!

/0 Comments/by Mulan Chan-Randel

THE ANSWER: Corked Wine

Wherein the folks at Paul Marcus Wines get to the bottom of our most FAQs in the shop.

Is my bottle of wine corked?

You show up to a friend’s party with two bottles of your favorite Côtes du Rhone. The first bottle tastes great! Fresh, vibrant and juicy…just as you remembered it. However, the second bottle smells a bit like wet cardboard, and doesn’t have nearly the same fruit nuances and charm as your first bottle. Is your bottle of wine corked?

I. What exactly is a corked wine?

Cork taint is a wine fault that is caused by certain molds sometimes present in the bark of cork trees. These molds can and do live in cork after it’s been harvested, processed and shipped out in the form of finished corks. For most people these molds are undetectable, until they co-mingle with chlorine or chlorophenol compounds at any time during the winemaking process.

When these cork bark molds and chlorine interact, an aromatically unpleasant compound derivative 2,4,6-Trichloroanisole can develop. This compound is more commonly known as TCA.

As you can imagine, the possibilities for the formation of TCA are numerous. For instance, cork bark undergoes sterilization in the production of corks, and bottles need to be sanitized before being used.

Of course, chlorine is found in our water supply, and in many cleaning agents. For this reason, wineries are vigilant when it comes to their water source and how they sanitize not only bottles but all winery equipment, and often eschew such chlorine detergents in favor of peroxide based cleaners.

II. What does a corked wine smell like?

While small amounts of TCA a wine can result in a very subtle loss of aromatic fruit and vibrancy, higher levels of TCA can impart distinctive and downright unpleasant aromas.

Descriptions of a corked wine include: moldy cardboard, old sofa, swamp, wet dog or stale fruit flavors.

(Note: older bottles of wine will often display earthy and dank nuances when opened. This is not an indicator of TCA. Aged bottles of wine will often shed primary fruit notes and develop more secondary nuances. As such, special attention should be given when evaluating older wines)

III. What is not an indicator of a corked wine?

  1. An old, or crumbly cork. The physical appearance of a cork does not indicate that a bottle wine is contaminated with TCA. Older bottles with corks that look less than pristine, often do a fantastic job protecting wine over the years, and with no evidence of cork taint.
  2. A pushed cork, or one that rises above the level of the bottle most often indicates that the wine was exposed to higher temperatures at some time in the past, or that the bottle was overfilled. This condition is not necessarily an indicator that a wine is corked.
  3. Bottle seepage or capsule corrosion. Wine seepage or a corroded capsule are unrelated to TCA contamination and do not indicate that a wine is corked.
  4. Mold on the cork. Frequently bottles of wine, especially older bottles that have been stored in humid conditions may develop some sort of mold or fungi around the wine capsule or cork. These fungi are not necessarily related to molds that cause TCA.

IV. What should I do if I think that I have a bottle of corked wine?

If, after careful evaluation you’ve concluded that TCA might be the culprit, here’s what you’ll want to do.

Don’t pour out the bottle of wine. Re-insert the cork and save as much of the wine as possible. A reputable wine shop will exchange a bottle of wine that is contaminated with TCA. However, they will want evaluate the bottle in person before making a definitive judgement.

/0 Comments/by Mulan Chan-Randel

Wine Parties: A Guided Wine Tasting

What Is A Guided Tasting?

In the interest of sharing my passion for the broader world of wine with the people close to me, I decided to have a group of friends over for a guided wine tasting – that is, one in which one person (me in this case) guides the discussion and helps draw out responses from everyone. My goal was to share a bit of my knowledge and to help my friends understand better what exactly they’re getting when they order a bottle of wine in a restaurant or bring one home from a store. And as Mark said in our previous newsletter, “the goal, as in other kinds of parties, is good conversation and good times spent with good friends.” I wanted my tasting to be fun and not to get bogged down in formalities.

Choosing Your Theme

I had come up with several ideas for tastings, including one that focused on the formal techniques of wine tasting. One evening over dinner, I bounced my ideas off my partner. He’s a valuable resource in this discussion, since he has a good knowledge of wine but doesn’t take it too seriously. His suggestion seemed like the best: a comparison of common California wines and their French counterparts. The idea was to analyze how differences in climate, wine making, and culture can affect what’s in the glass – a conversation that sounded fun to me. This kind of tasting also would give me a chance to clear up the mysteries of French wine labels and help folks get an idea of just what expect from a particular bottle of French wine.

To Blind Taste or Not?

With this theme in mind, I decided to make it a formal, blind tasting of four reds and four whites. I chose Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon for the reds and Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay for the whites, with a California and French example of each of the four types. I chose to do the tasting blind (i.e., with the bottles in paper bags to cover up the labels) so that no one would be tempted to jump to conclusions based on any preconceived opinions in favor or against either California or French wines.

Having chosen a theme and format, I invited four couples over for an after-dinner wine tasting party. That made the total ten people, an ideal number, and with various prior engagements, the group whittled itself down to eight. I offered to supply all eight wines and to host the party at my house, asking others to bring some snacks to munch on while tasting. (Bread, cheese, and pâté are great to have on the table with a tasting – they help clear the palate and put something in your stomach besides wine.) I also borrowed some glasses from a co-worker. The idea was to do two flights of four wines – first the whites and then the reds.

I had the luxury of 64 small wine glasses (8 per person), but it would be possible to do this kind of tasting with 32 (4 per person) or even 16 (2 per person). In the latter case, you’d simply taste the wines in flights of two rather than four.

Keeping Conversations Going

I put a lot of thought into how to facilitate the conversation. I wanted to avoid my tendency to get too pedantic, knowing that no one wanted a lecture. But I also wanted to make sure that there was at least some serious discussion about the wines. I figured the best way to facilitate discussion was to minimize my spiels and ask everyone else questions. There are a few basic questions to ask when tasting wine that can help you start to make distinctions:

  1. How are these wines similar?
  2. How are these wines different?
  3. What do I like about each wine?
  4. What do I dislike about each wine?
  5. Which wine do I prefer, and why?

Providing Common Ground

I’ve experienced firsthand that dazed expression in other people when I start using language to describe wines that is routine to me. I wanted to avoid the pressure that people feel to come up with “good” descriptors and instead ask everyone to say in their own words what they thought of the wines. These basic questions provide a framework for discussion while allowing each person to respond to and talk about the wines in an individual way.

As my guests arrived, I assembled the wines in the kitchen, opened them, and smelled them to make sure that none of the bottles was corked. I put each of the bottles in a brown bag and wrote a letter on the bag (A through H) so that we’d have a way to refer to the wines as we talked about them.

Starting With Whites

Starting with whites, I poured two Sauvignon Blancs, 2001 Honig from Napa ($12.99) and 1998 Château Reynon Blanc from Bordeaux ($11.99), followed by two Chardonnays, 2000 Handley Anderson Valley from Mendocino ($15) and 2001 Trénel St.-Véran from Burgundy ($12.99). We tasted the wines first in pairs and then together as a group of four. After a few minutes of quietly sampling the wines, we had a short discussion and then ranked each pair according to personal preference.

In a tasting where all of the wines are a single varietal or style, it is common to taste all the wines and rank them from 1 to 8, according to preference or perceived quality. Since the different styles of whites and reds in this tasting are hard to compare with one another, I asked each person to pick a favorite from each pair.

It’s no surprise that opinions differed wildly from person to person. I was expecting the more familiar California wines to be favored, but that was not universally the case. The Honig Sauvignon Blanc was preferred over the Château Reynon Bordeaux Blanc, but both the Handley Chardonnay and Trénel white Burgundy had its share of admirers.

Follow with Reds

For the reds, we first tasted two Pinot Noirs: 2001 Elk Cove Willamette Valley from Oregon ($18) and Heresztyn Bourgogne Rouge from Burgundy ($16). (I could’ve substituted a California Pinot Noir for the Oregon one, but the Elk Cove seemed like the best West Coast Pinot from the store in the price range.) Then we finished with two Bordeaux style blends (wines based on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot): 2000 Surh Luchtel Mosaique ($24) and 2000 Château Teynac St. Julien from Bordeaux ($19). The Oregon Pinot Noir was definitely the favorite, but the Bordeaux stood its own against its California counterpart.

Tasting a group of wines like this is a great opportunity for friends (new and old) to get together, with a built-in topic of conversation. Of course, after a few glasses of wine, people’s spirits are lifted and the conversation can go many directions. I selected a special bottle of wine from my cellar to enjoy after the main tasting – something a bit more complex than the relatively simple, inexpensive wines we’d tasted formally. It was a nice reminder that wine offers us all the opportunity to get together and enjoy our friends.

Editor’s note: This article is the second in a series on how to organize and host wine parties. The first article, in our March 2003 newsletter, discussed the types of wine parties and the basic procedures and considerations for any type. If you’d like to host a wine tasting similar to the one that Paul C. did – or something completely different – come talk to us. We’re eager to help you select the wines and provide pointers to help ensure that the party goes off well.

List of Wines Tasted

Here is a simple list of the wines we tasted:

Sauvignon Blancs

  • 2001 Honig from Napa ($12.99) and
  • 1998 Château Reynon Blanc from Bordeaux ($11.99)

Chardonnays

  • 2000 Handley Anderson Valley from Mendocino ($15)
  • 2001 Trénel St.-Véran from Burgundy ($12.99)

Pinot Noirs

  • 2001 Elk Cove Willamette Valley from Oregon ($18)
  • Heresztyn Bourgogne Rouge from Burgundy ($16)

Bordeaux Blends (Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot)

  • 2000 Surh Luchtel Mosaique ($24)
  • 2000 Château Teynac St. Julien from Bordeaux ($19)
/0 Comments/by Paul Marcus Wines