Prosecco is an Italian sparkling wine that is often made Dry or Extra Dry.  Unlike sweeter sparkling wines, today’s Prosecco is intended to be on the drier side.  Though Prosecco is often used as a Champagne (or other sparkling wine) substitute, it has its own distinctive taste.  While Champagne and other sparklers are sought after for their complexity, Prosecco is manufactured to be lighter, fresher, and much more on the plain side; it works very well as a pleasant palate-cleanser between courses, and even between wines during select wine tastings.  Enjoyed chilled, like Champagne, Prosecco works as an aperitif on its own; however, it is frequently paired with hors d’oeuvres like bruschetta, canape, crostini, soft cheeses, stuffed mushrooms or shrimp, and even olives.

Vintage Series Legacy Wine Credenza (3-door model)

Unlike Champagne (whose second fermentation process occurs in the bottle), Prosecco’s second fermentation process occurs in stainless steel tanks.  This is one of the main reasons why it’s often less expensive than Champagne; it’s less expensive to produce.  Unlike other sparkling wines that do ferment in their bottles, Prosecco is meant to be consumed within three years, lest it become stale.  (Some higher quality bottles of Prosecco may be kept up to seven years, but if you’re in doubt, drink it while it’s young!)

To keep your Prosecco at the proper serving temperature, consider using a stylish wine cabinet like the Vintage Series Legacy Wine Credenza, or the Le Cache Wine Vault 3100.  Always remember to drink your Prosecco while it’s still young!

Happy February, wine lovers! Stay tuned for some fun, yummy Valentine’s day content coming up soon!

We often don’t hear much about Romanian wines, but Romania is in fact the 5th largest wine producer in Europe; only France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal produce more wine than Romaina.  With a history of winemaking that goes back over 2,500 years, coupled with unique geography (mountain ranges, valleys, coastal winds, and several microclimates), Romaina’s land is perfect for growing grapes and producing wine.  Like other European countries, Romania boasts several varieties of indigenous varietals, as well as some western ones.  Some more well-known native varietals include Grasa de Cotnari, Feteasca Alba, Feteasca Regala, and Tamaiosa Romaneasca.  For reds, varietals include Feteasca Neagra, Babeasca Neagra, Cadarca, and Negru Vartos.  Romaina’s largest wine-producing region is known for its production of Cotnari wines, which are sweet dessert wines similar to Tokaj.  The southern regions of Muntenia and Oltenia make excellent red and white wines (as do Crisana and Maramures in the west), while wines from the picturesque Transylvanian plateau are mostly white.  If you’re looking to try a decent Romanian wine, here are a few picks that range from about $10 to $25:

• Prince Mircea Merlot, 2008
• Prahova Valley Reserve Pinot Noir, 2009
• Terra Romana Pinot Noir, 2009
• Castel Starmina Riesling, 2001

Perhaps you’ll find one of these to your liking?    Noroc!  (That’s “cheers” in Romanian.)

A portrait of Beethoven holding the "Missa Solemnis" by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820

Children are often amused to learn that, years before Kraft Foods, Ludwig van Beethoven’s favorite dish was macaroni and cheese!  For adults–even those of us who still enjoy mac and cheese–it may be more interesting to note that one of Beethoven’s favorite wines was a white dessert wine from Hungary’s Tokaj region.  Situated northeast of Budapest, the Tokaj region is nestled in the Zemplen Mountains.  The region’s soil consists mostly of clay, with an underlying volcanic layer.  Sun filled summers and dry autumns help to nurture the precious Aszú grapes used in this wine.  (These grapes possess an unusually high concentration of sugar, and are picked and painstakingly sorted by hand at harvest time, which is rather late.)  In fact, the Tokaj region was Europe’s first ever classified wine region.  Today, some distilleries exist where select Single Malt Scotches are put into former Tokaji wine casks for a few years, imbuing the whisky with a hint of the delightful aromas (and a hint of the characteristic sweetness) of Tokaji wine, itself.

Considered a prized wine of nobility, Tokaji wine was also adored by Franz Joseph Haydn, Beethoven’s one-time instructor with whom he had a falling out.  Franz Schubert, an early Romantic composer who idolized Beethoven, also had a preference for Tokaji wine.  Schubert set numerous poems by Goethe, Heine, and Schiller to music, and each of these famous authors, incidentally, had a passion for Tokaji.  After his early death at age 31, Schubert’s music was championed by several prominent pianists, including Franz Liszt, and Liszt–a descendent of the pedagogical lineage of Beethoven–also happened to like Tokaji wine.  (We do not know if he also liked mac and cheese!)  Liszt’s personal philosophy regarding the contemporary music of his time also contains a reference to wine: “new wine requires new bottles.”  In short, this motto can translate as follows: new music will require new forms.  Liszt’s quotation is also a nod to Luke 5:37: “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins.  If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.”

Louis XV, by Maurice Quentin de La Tour, 1748

Exploring the history of this much-loved wine outside the musical community, we learn that Louis XV of France once presented a glass of Tokaji as follows: Vinum Regum, Rex Vinorum.  (Wine of Kings, and King of Wines.)  Louis XV’s father, Louis XIV, probably introduced Tokaji wine to his son after receiving several bottles as a gift from Francis Rákóczi II, Prince of Transylvania.  Since then, this beverage became a staple in the Court of Versailles.  American connoisseur Thomas Jefferson had several bottles imported for his presidential feasts in the early 1800’s, while yearly on her birthday, Queen Victoria received numerous bottles of this very wine from Austrian Emperor (and Apostolic King of Hungary) Franz Josef.  Even Napoleon Bonaparte purchased barrels of Tokaji for his Court on a yearly basis, and King Gustav III of Sweden would not drink any other wine!

Given its rich history, why is this wine so little-known, today?  In short, several prominent Hungarian vineyards were ravished by phylloxera in the late 1800’s and did not recover quickly.  Couple this with the onslaught of WWI, the deterioration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the advent of WWII, followed by the ascent of Communism, and you have a recipe for run-down vineyards!  Only recently has the wine enjoyed by Beethoven, Goethe, Louis XV, and Thomas Jefferson been reproduced after a long period of hibernation.  Will it regain its former glory and win over the artisans and world leaders of our day?  Only time will tell.  For more information about wine and history, check out Vintage Cellar’s Wine Storage Education Center r check out our “Wine History” category here on the blog.  Cheers!

Dreaming Tree: a collaboration between Dave Matthews and Steve Reeder

Dreaming Tree…  That’s a song title, right?  Actually, it’s the product of Dave Matthews’ musical mind, along with winemaker Steve Reeder’s wine talents.  When Matthews was performing at Robert Mondavi Winery, Steve Reeder was there and conversing with representatives from Constellation wine brand.  Ideas centering around the perfect union of wine, food, and music were flowing, and someone asked Reeder’s opinion about working with Dave Matthews to create wine.  After a little research, Reeder called Matthews “a true artist,” in the sense of the multi-talented artists of the Renaissance, adding that Matthews also has a small Virginia winery, as well as a farm.  In short, Reeder was delighted to initiate a collaboration.  Reeder sent Matthews some Simi wines to sip, and Matthews reported back what he liked, and why he liked it.  After some trial blends, the duo of “Dreaming Tree” has produced three new wines.  These include a Chardonnay, a Cabernet Sauvignon, and a red blend.  Sold at around $15 a bottle, the wines are “Wine Institute certified sustainable” meaning that their bottles are lightweight and eco-friendly.  Reeder commented that Dave is concerned about being socially responsible, and that this type of packaging is the “right” thing to do “for the right reasons.”  Reeder also commented that just as Dave Matthews loves music, so does he love wine!

Photo by Mike Gifford

In the U. S., the label “Champagne” is used generically to denote almost any sparkling wine (some good, some bad), but in almost all other countries it is used specifically to identify a sparkling wine made in France’s Champagne region.  Champagne used to set the worldwide standard for sparkling wine, and the wine consists of three grape varietals: the white Chardonnay grape, and red Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir grapes.  Today, there are quality sparkling wines produced in California and Australia that are giving true “Champagne” a run for its money.  Still, in countries other than America, these wines are not called Champagne.  The “Champagne method,” however, is used by quality, sparkling wine producers worldwide.  The method includes a secondary fermentation process that happens right inside the bottle!  Because quality sparkling wine (which my or may not be, technically, “Champagne”) is created this way, a wine’s label often reads “Traditional Method” instead of “Champagne Method.”  (And has your Champagne ever looked a little more on the red side?  If so, you probably drank Champagne rosé, which is just a type of rosé Champagne made by creating a blend of red and white wine.)  While in America, “Champagne” is used generically to denote a good, sparkling wine, true Champagne only comes from the Champagne region of France.  This does not mean, however, that other sparkling wines from California and Australia are inferior in taste and bouquet.  It just means that, technically, such wines should be called “sparkling wines.”  Cheers!

Want to learn more about sparkling wines, how to store sparkling wine, or the “traditional method” that produces them? All that and more can be found in the Wine Storage Education Center!

Champagne, France

Zinfandel grapes (image from Wikipedia)

White Zinfandel makes up 9.9% of U.S. wine sales, which is six times greater than sales of Red Zinfandel.  This could mean people prefer whites to reds, or perhaps many folks are simply unaware that Red Zinfandels exist, which has been my experience. But they are well worth getting to know! Zinfandel grapes thrive in cool, coastal locations–like California’s wine country–and arrived in this state in the early 1800′s.  Red Zinfandels are spicy, peppery wines containing complex berry or dark cherry flavors.  In my own kitchen, they have paired very well with both American and Italian foods.  Hamburgers, steaks, and hearty pasta sauces make for delicious Red Zinfandel companions!  Like Rosés, Red Zins also work well as solo summertime sippers. 

While many people mistakenly refrigerate Red Zinfandel wine, it should be served around 65 °F.  Though this is sometimes “room temperature” to folks experiencing a New England winter, the same can’t be said for the rest of the country!  To keep Red Zins at their ideal temperature, consider investing in a small wine refrigerator that has a setting for serving temperature (as opposed to storage temperature, which is around 55 degrees). 

With all that said, what’s the difference between Red and White Zinfandel if the grape used to make both is the same?  Answer: Red Zinfandel is made using the entire Zinfandel grape, while White Zinfandel is made with naked Zinfandel grapes (the skins have been removed). Skins impart color, flavor and tannins to the wine, creating the characteristic differences between red and white wines.

Beaujolais Nouveau is a very young wine (hence the “nouveau”), grown in the Beaujolais region of France (part of Burgundy).  It is fermented for only a few weeks before it is officially released for sale each year on “Beaujolais Day,” the third Thursday of November–just in time for Thanksgiving.

Beaujolais is made from the Gamay grape, which has been used to make French wine since the 1360s.  All grapes in the Beaujolais region must be harvested by hand.  After they are picked, the grapes undergo carbonic maceration, a type of fermentation that emphasizes the fruitiness of the resulting wine, but doesn’t extract the tannins from the skins and seeds of the grapes.  This results in a very light, soft wine.

Beaujolais Nouveau is not a complex wine.  It lacks structure and depth.  But for Thanksgiving, it might just be the perfect choice.  Its soft, light characteristics make it easy to drink and pleasing to a variety of palates.  These characteristics also mean that it won’t overwhelm any of the various traditional Thanksgiving dishes.  It works with both light and dark meat, pairs splendidly with the herbs in the stuffing, and doesn’t clash with the vegetable dishes.

Beaujolais Nouveau might just be the perfect choice for Thanksgiving.  So this year, stock up on this food-friendly wine and please your guests from mashed potatoes to green bean casserole.

Chardonnay grapes ready for harvest.

It’s that time of year: the leaves are changing and we’ve traded t-shirts for sweaters and scarves.  Soon, we’ll settle in for a long winter’s nap.  But what to drink in the meantime?

Sure, there are the rich, deep reds that warm you from the soul, like Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon.  These are the quintessential wines of fall.  But not all the dishes of the season call for something so rich; in fact, wines like these overpower many dishes.  And by no means should you be limited to red wine when the temperature starts to drop.  So let’s talk about a perfect fall wine that’s maybe not so common: unoaked Chardonnay.

Unoaked Chardonnay, if you haven’t tried it, is a great pleasure, and a truly different taste from the Chardonnay you’re probably used to, which is aged in oak barrels to impart that strong, oaky taste to the wine.  What you might not know is that unoaked Chardonnay is a throwback to the way the wine used to be made.  Winemakers of old may have aged their Chardonnay in barrels, but they were usually old barrels that all the flavor-changing chemicals had long been leached out of.  Chardonnay makers today use new barrels that impart the maximum amount of flavors from the wood to the wine.  And so while we might not realize it, what we think of as Chardonnay isn’t much like the “real” thing.

Many wine experts think that modern winemakers have gone overboard with their oaky Chards, and that these flavors overpower the more delicate flavors of a good Chardonnay.  So try an unoaked Chardonnay and taste this great varietal the way it was originally meant to be enjoyed.  You might be surprised by what you find.

Be aware: the vanilla, butter, and creaminess that you might love so much about Chardonnay won’t be present in the unoaked version: they are all flavors that come from the wood.  So what does an unoaked Chardonnay taste like?

A good unoaked Chardonnay should have strong fruit flavors and a bright, refreshing acidity.  Common flavors are pear, apple, and other stone fruits.  The wine might have a mineral taste or even citrusy notes.  Sound like a Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio? It’s not.  The fruitiness of the Chardonnay grapes keeps the wine bigger and more flavorful.

It’s this tastiness factor, combined with the acidity, that makes unoaked Chardonnay a great choice for fall.  The full fruit flavors make it a big enough wine to be satisfying, but the acidity makes it the perfect candidate to pair with the rich, buttery dishes that are so often served as the temperature drops: the acid cuts through the fattiness, leaving your palate refreshed for each comforting bite.  Try it with a chicken roasted simply with fall vegetables and served with crusty bread: it’s sweater-weather perfection.

A bottle of kosher wine

Kosher wine’s got a bad rap.  But is it deserved?

A decade ago, there weren’t very many wine options available to observant Jews.  There was really only one choice: Manischevitz, a syrupy, sickly-sweet wine made from Concord grapes.  Concord grapes are typically only used to make three things: grape jelly, grape juice, and–you guessed it–kosher wine.  Needless to say, this isn’t the ideal wine grape.  Unfortunately, this cough syrup-excuse for a wine became synonymous with kosher, and the reputation of kosher wines has suffered ever since.

But in reality, there’s no reason that kosher wines have to be any worse than any other wine.  In fact, many of them can be just as good.  Let me explain:

Kosher wine can be grown from the same grapes, harvested the same way, as any other wine.  The difference is in the production: to be kosher, the grapes must be handled only by Sabbath-observing Jews.  A rabbi or specially-trained supervisor must oversee the whole process, and no winemaking can be done on the Sabbath.

Kosher wines also can’t have any non-kosher ingredients.  This can (but doesn’t necessarily) mean that things like casein (which comes from dairy products, gelatin (from non-kosher animals) and isinglass (from non-kosher fish) won’t be in the wine.  They are replaced with kosher substitutes.

At Passover, there are two kinds of kosher wine which may be served: meshuval and non-meshuval.  The Jewish faith dictates that non-meshuval wines must only be handled by Jews if it is to maintain its integrity.  This stems from the long history wine has played in many non-Jewish religions; according to Jewish law, wine isn’t kosher if it might have been used for “idolatry.”

Meshuval wine is wine that has been treated and is thus considered safe to drink, no matter who has handled it.  In the past, this was achieved through boiling the wine, which completely changed the wine’s chemical structure and so, its taste.  This is another reason kosher wine has such a bad reputation.  However, modern-day flash-pasteurization techniques ensure that the wine is meshuval without damaging it.

So technically, there really isn’t that big of a difference between kosher and non-kosher wines.  Kosher wines can be made from the same great grapes, processed nearly the same way, as any other wines.  Kosher wines have experienced huge increases in popularity over the last few years, and their ratings have been steadily climbing.  So don’t be afraid of kosher wine…just stay far away from that cough syrup stuff.  L’chaim!  (“Cheers” in Hebrew.)

A beautiful Syrah leaf

It’s still hot outside, but it won’t stay that way for long.  Soon, fall will be here, and its chilly breezes will make you crave wines that are deep, rich, and robust.  One perfect wine for fall?  Syrah, sometimes called Shiraz.

Syrah or Shiraz is a very dark wine grape–almost black in color–that produces bold and rich wine.  Syrah grapes have long been grown in the Rhone region of France–the first vines were likely planted around 600 BC.  Great Syrahs, along with Viogniers, have been cultivated in this region ever since; in fact, about half the Syrah grapes in the world are grown in France.  Syrah is also grown in many other parts of Europe, as well as Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, Uruguay, and the United States.

It’s also widely grown in Australia, but there, as well as in Canada and New Zealand, it’s called Shiraz.  Since Syrah was the original name, on this blog, that’s how we usually refer to it.

Syrah is used sometimes alone, sometimes in blends.  It makes the famous wines of Côte Rotie and Hermitage, as well as playing the major role in most Rhône blends, including the famous Chateauneuf du Pape.

Syrah makes very dark, blackish-violet wine.  Syrah wine has a bold, rich flavor and a heavy, chewy texture.  It tastes more of spice than fruit, with clove, thyme, bay leaves, and black pepper commonly noted flavors.  From the terroir, or soil it’s grown in, it can attain flavors of earth or even truffles.  Syrah is often a great candidate for aging, and some years in the cellar will impart to it secondary and tertiary flavors of rich wood, tobacco, and smoke.

When pairing Syrah with food, you’ll need to serve something with strong flavors to match up to the intensity of the Syrah.  Grilled red meats like lamb work well, or try it with an intensely herbed and perhaps spicy sauce.  Syrah is perfection when its deep, rich flavors are allowed to play off of something rich but simple, like grilled sausage and mustard.  So as the weather starts turning colder this year, start thinking about Syrah.