I endeavor to write about wine a bit more often, though hopefully in an interesting way that, even if you are not a wine lover, you might gain a few insights.
As I’m leaving Shanghai this month, I’m throwing or attending a number of wine dinners with various groups of friends. For one of these, I took along a bit of wine, about 10 bottles, as I work to clear out my inventory. And I thought I’d write about them, and more generally their diverse wine types.
Dinner was wonderful, with about 20 tapas dishes at a new Spanish restaurant in Shanghai, but my focus is on the wines, which I will endeavor to discuss in a helpful manner.
Starting bubbly
We started out with a very nice Cava, the famous Spanish sparkling wine that I certainly encourage you to try. Very similar to Champagne, it’s made the same way but with different grapes. Cava tends to be a bit fresher and perhaps fruitier, though a lot depends on the maker, the grapes, etc.
Like Champagne, Cava in its various flavors can be paired with a wide variety of dishes. In fact, I endeavored at one time to have a full and diverse 5-6 course meal, paired with only Champagne or Cava, but, alas, I’ve yet to pull this off. But I will.
Seeks out and try a sparkling red
After enjoying the Cava as our traditional welcoming beverage as folks arrive and assemble, we moved on to a Sparkling Red from Australia. I encountered this wine some years ago in a wine dinner and ended up with a bottle that’s been in the cooler, begging to be drunk for a very long time.
So, we drank it. And while sparkling rosés are seen more and more often these days, true sparkling reds are fairly unusual. This one was about 10 years old, and very dark, but also very yummy. It’s reportedly a mix of Cabernet, Merlot, and Syrah, hence the dark color, though it was also a bit sweet, and thus felt to us like drinking a sparkling port. Very interesting and you should hunt one done when you can. Along with a sparkling rosé from time to time.
More broadly, don’t get trapped into drinking only Champagne (especially if it’s cheap Champagne) or inexpensive Prosecco. Rather, branch out for more affordable Cava, the better Proseccos, and other sparkling styles served especially cold in the heat of summer. These are all traditional adult summer refreshments for good reason.
Rosé, rosé, rosé
Americans are slowly warming to rosé wines after decades of living with the terrible White Zinfandel. Led by the light and fresh French style, folks are discovering the joys of these chilled and relaxing wines. Typically Provençal style light and/or delicate pink they’re usually from the Grenache grape so popular in France.
For our dinner, we had a much bigger rosé. Bigger in wines usually means stronger, with more flavor, more depth, and more complexity. Our Mulderbosch from South Africa’s popular Stellenbosch region was a very good and interesting rosé wine.
This darker and deeper rosé was awesome, and a great discovery for my wine friends. Made from Cabernet Sauvignon, it has far more depth and diverse flavors than a French rosé, including acid and a deeper base that really matches a lot of interesting foods. I was lucky to have had a case of this sustain me in hot weather over the years, and the last bottle was as good as the first.
And, aside from the taste, the best thing about this wine is it’s only about $10 and does seem to be available in the USA if you only search a bit. I will be searching.
Oh, Chardonnay
The star of the evening was the Salus Chardonnay from Napa’s Staglin Winery. This $50 wine was astoundingly good. Made in the Burgundian style with great grapes and plenty of acid, it also included solid Napa oak flavor plus real depth and complexity. We all said “Wow!” when this was passed around.
Big nose, big flavor, and much appreciation. And even at 10 years old, we all agreed could it could easily do 10-20 more years, a rare feature in white wines, requiring solid tannins, acid, and structure.
It was as good as any nice white Burgundy such as Montrachet or Meursault, with similar depth, nose, and feel. These classic French wines, often regarded as the finest whites in the world have a lot of minerality and acid but also deep and complex flavors and structure. Their excellence is hard to believe until you’ve had one. Or two. Or more. But bring a big wallet, as first-class Burgundies are pricey.
Try to find and afford a nice white Burgundy once in a while.
Good American Chardonnays are pricey, too, as it seems Staglin makes an even higher-end version, at $125, a very Burgundy price and, I certainly hope, taste. I’ll hunt one down and see how it is, for someone has to do it.
The Reds
After such nice white and rose wines, it was time to break out the big reds, and the yummy steak to accompany them. Note the food accompanies great wine, not the other way around. Some chefs seem to misunderstand this.
Our first red was a big 2005 Napa Cabernet from Bond, a project of the famous Bill Harlan, and a gift from a friend, as Harlan’s wines are impossible to get any allocation of.
It was nice, big, and flavorful, though at 16 years, probably still a little young, though it was showing quite well so far. With big wines like this, it’s hard to know when to open them, so we opted for an hour early without decanting. Perhaps it needed more.
The second red was one of my favorites, the Bridge Shiraz from Australia. Only exported for a few years, and now very hard to get, to me it’s one of the best Shiraz wines.
Many of these famous Australian wines are huge alcohol and spice bombs that completely overpower any possible food combination. As such, they are rarely fun, and other than for BBQ or ribs, they rarely pair well with gourmet foods in my experience (though many will disagree, especially the Aussies).
And while the French wines from the same grape (called Syrah outside Australia) are softer and more sophisticated, they often lack the big power and boldness of good Shiraz. Finding the balance seems quite a challenge, and for sure the Bridge has done it, and done it well.
It’s just too bad we cannot get more of it. May we endeavor to again find similar big, balanced, and integrated Shiraz in the future.
Ice & Wine
Finally, the Spanish cheesecake arrived and we broke out our last wine, in the tall thin bottle, the Inniskillin, well-known Canadian ice wine from Ontario. At 15 years old, this was both really yummy and new to a lot of folks. It was very well-received.
Ice wine, which Canada has made famous, is made by letting the grapes freeze on the wine (not that hard in Canada) and immediately picked. This freezing helps remove the grape’s water, leaving more concentrated sugars and flavors, perfect for making strong sweet wines.
Quite expensive, since it takes a lot of labor to pick on short notice (the first night the grapes freeze) and only produced in low volumes, it’s still worth seeking out if you’re a fan of nice sweet wines to match your favorite dessert.
Try your wines
And that was it. A very nice and exploratory wine dinner, with many fine 10-15-year-old wines brought to life after a decade sitting in my wine refrigerator. They were all good, and many were really outstanding, well-worth hunting down again when I’m back in America.
I hope you can also seek out these and similar wines, trying new and interesting things as you explore your wine tastes, too.