Champagne vs. Sparkling Wine

by Maggie Bernat Smith

Bubbles vs. Bubbles, what's the difference? There are endless choices now of fizzy wines to choose from. Champagne being the most well known and most expensive of all the fizzy wine is where the tradition started, it's the original masterpiece. Champagne is the region outside of Paris where the bubbles were perfected and is the gold standard of sparkling wine today. Depending on your budget and palate, you can get a wide range of fizzies now and this will help you pick the right one.

How Bubbles Happen

Champagne Method or Traditional Method. This is where the second fermentation in the bottle was invented and perfected. A natural biproduct of the fermentation process (fermentation is where the yeasts eat the sugars and the result turns into alcohol) is carbonation. If you ever looked into a bin of grapes fermentating, you would see the juices bubbling. Wine goes through one fermentation process and gets bottled. To make Champagne, you will introduce another yeast and sugar cocktail, put a crown cap on the bottle and now the bubbles are trapped inside. This method creates the most refined and complex type of sparkling wine. The entire Champagne process takes a minimum of 15 months to complete and most will age for at least 3 years longer then this at the winery. This is one of the reasons why this method is so expensive.

Charmat or Tank Method. This is a cheaper and more timely way of creating bubbles in wine. This is where the winemaker conducts the second fermentation process in large tanks instead of individual bottles. This way they can make and bottle sparkling wine within a few weeks. Italian Asti's and Prosecco's are a good example of this method of sparkling.

Transfer Method. This method follows the same path till the second fermentation however after the second fermentation these bottles are opened under pressure and then they are emptied into a big tank to be filtered and fined in a larger quantity. This process saves time and is not that expensive too. However, the wine made through this process lacks the benefits of aging of yeast lees, which is supposed to add complexity and character to the wine. The transfer method delivers more quatity with low cost.

Differences between the processes are readily noticeable in their end products. Both the transfer and Charmat wines usually have larger, less-long-lasting bubbles. Méthode Champenoise bubbles are usually more integrated into the wine and longer lasting. Also, because of the additional time Méthode Champenoise takes to clear the wine of sediment, the flavors of yeast autolysis (chemical breakdown) add complexity and a creaminess to the wine that is absent in the faster methods.

Now that you're all educated on how bubbles get into the bottle and how that can affect the price, lets talk about the style and price you want to pay!

Champagne - obviously the most expensive, refined, finessed, toasty, creamy, most Heavenly sparkler on earth. You can buy good ones starting at $35 and going on up to whatever you can afford. I would stick the lesser known producers that don't market their product heavily since that is what you are paying for in a lot of these Champagnes. Duval Leroy is a great starter Champagne. Charles Krug is a favorite among wine people in the know but more pricey.

California Sparkling - a good quality alternative to Champagne. Many producers from Champagne have set up shop in California (such as Louis Roederer, Taittinger and Mumm) to make quality sparkling wine outside of Champagne. Since the climate in sunny California is much different then cool gray skies of Champagne; so your grapes get much riper giving you a more fruit driven style then French Champagne.

Cava - from Spain; this is a great area for less expensive sparklers. Clean, crisp, citrusy, minerally and fresh are the adjectives I use to describe this fizzy wine. Cava is made in the traditional method which gives you that extra added complexity but at a fraction of the price of Champagne ranging from $5 - $20 for a good one.

Prosecco - from Italy; a more fruit driven, almost sweet style of sparkling wine. This is great if you don't like your wine too dry. Ripe apples, pears, apricots and stone fruit are typical of this Italian Sparkling. Most of these range from $10 - $15 per bottle. Perfect for Mimosas, brunches and apertifs.

These are all sparklers I recommend for whatever occasion you may be celebrating or if you just like drinking fizzy wine like me!

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Excellent quality also comes in a box

Cuvee de Pena is a "Vin De Pays" (country wine), a step in the French wine classification which is above table wine, produced in Pyrénées-Orientales in the South of France near the border of Spain.

It is imported by Hand Picked Selections, who Robert Parker says is "Perhaps the top importer in the United States for specializing in wines that sell for less than $10."

Wine critics call this a very "friendly" wine. I tend to agree. Usually I have been disapointed by inexpensive French wines, but this one was an exception. Friends that tasted it were pleased as well.

Made with Grenache, Carignan, Syrah and Mourvedre - "Not only friendly, maybe the world’s most versatile wine. Just try to find a food it doesn’t work with! Cuvee de Peña happily accompanies hot dogs, tuna casserole, gourmet burgers, roast prime rib of beef, fish sticks, chinese carry-out, pizza... You get the picture.

In warm weather stick it in the fridge for half an hour - it won’t lose aromas or flavors. Keep it on hand!

The world’s friendliest red wine. “World’s Best Wine Values”
Robert M. Parker, Jr.’s The Wine Advocate

"The Wine Spectator Ripe, dark fruit flavors dominate this medium- to full-bodied red, with lovely chocolate pudding notes and smoky elements on the finish. Drink now through 2007. 20,000 cases made." Score: 87. —Kim Marcus, August 31, 2005.

"The Wine Advocate Available in a 3-liter bag-in-a-box, the 2003 Cuvee de Pena reveals plum and blackberry aromas. Light to medium-bodied and silky-textured, this excellent value (3 liters for $20 comes out to $5 a bottle!) displays spicy dark fruits intermingled with hints of cedar in its expressive character. Drink it over the next year." Score: 86. —Pierre Rovani, June 2005.

Willamette Valley Harvest 2010--Thus Far

by Maggie Bernat Smith

We love wine because it tells us a story. A tale of where it was grown, different varietal expressions, what the winemaker did to it when it was picked, and how the weather was that year. Wine is a delicious voice of all these things. It’s what makes us listen to it, analyze it, debate about it, and keep going back for more.

The red wine voice of Willamette Valley Oregon is Pinot Noir. It just happens to be one of the most expressive red wines in the world. Its delicate nature and thin skin has this grape wearing its heart on its sleeve and for those of us with a love for Pinot accept it and will love her no matter what. I am here in Willamette Valley Oregon right now working this 2010 harvest where the grapes are still hanging on the vines (typically they would have been picked 2-3 weeks ago). I sought the advice of Van Duzer Vineyards winemaker Jerry Murray to help me understand and what to predict this vintage.

Despite the tough start to the year, and the rocky mid-season, the end of the season is giving us the sunshine which mother nature does not normally provide this time of year. Traditionally in Oregon, it’s a race to pick the grapes before the rainy season hits. Mother nature is being very kind to Willamette Valley right now so there’s hope to pull this vintage off yet. Jerry Murray, winemaker at Van Duzer Vineyards (one of my personal favorites) said “the problem with this season is that to get to the point of physiological maturity (100-110 days) we need to hang the grapes during a window that is typically not conducive to clean and concentrated fruit; rain and cold. We are incredibly lucky that the season has played out the way it has.” He picks exclusively on the flavor of the grapes, he says that if you relied on sugar ripeness alone, you may not get there this year but if the flavors and complexity are there then the wine will be good.

It’s extremely difficult to predict what the wines will ultimately taste like until they are maturing, most of the valley has not picked their fruit yet, but I asked Jerry what we can expect as a comparison to the 2007 and 2008 vintages which are on the shelves now. He says “these wines will obviously be low alcohol making them similar to 2007 and 2008. Unlike 2007, the wines should show good concentration because, as of yet and knock on wood, the rain hasn’t caused any dilution. I suspect that acids will be higher than the 2008’s, this season has been much cooler and the grapes are holding on to their acids. Expect classic Pinot; elegance, focus, layers. Expect these wines be rest on smaller, tighter, more compact frames than most vintages. This vintage is going to be one for TRUE Pinot Lovers, not those who prefer their Pinot’s to resemble Sumo Wrestlers in a dress.”

Sounds great to this classic Pinot Noir lover!

Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

by Maggie Bernat Smith

Since Noble Grape had to hire an entirely new staff due to all of the current employees running off to Oregon to work this years wine harvest, we thought it only proper to talk about Oregon wines for a spell and see why these wine enthusiasts would travel 2200 miles to help create wine there.

As you probably know (and probably drank), the Willamette Valley is famous for its Pinot Noir. As highly regarded as it is today, that was not always the case. Once upon a time (in the late 1960’s) a couple of smart, curious, optimistic UC Davis rebels came up to the hills of Oregon (and into what is now the Willamette Valley) to find a place to plant their beloved grape Pinot Noir. Their alma mater said it was impossible to grow vinifera (the wine grapes that we know today) vines in this state. However their spirit, instinct and smarts took them there anyway. This fairy tale blossoms in 1979 when David Lett (one of the rebels and the founder of Eyrie Vineyards) entered his Pinot Noir in the 1979 Gault-Millau French Wine Olympiades and won top Pinot noir honors against France's best labels. The world stood up and took notice and the Willamette Valley became an official AVA in 1984. Even though it is mostly recognized for Pinot noir, it also consistently earns top honors for other such cool-climate varieties as Pinot gris, Dijon clone Chardonnay and Pinot blanc as well.

To put the Willamette Valley region in perspective--since Napa wins the prize for most visited wine area in the U.S.-- this region is approximately 150-miles long and 60-miles wide! I want to stress how large this AVA is because before coming here, It’s difficult to understand the scope and the “feel” that this wine country has compared to Napa Valley. If you’ve visited Napa-- which odds are you have if you love wine-- it epitomizes “wine country tourism.” There are wineries and vineyards everywhere you look. There are world renowned restaurants, shopping, picnic areas, B&B’s, five star resorts, spas, anything that you want or need to make a vacation complete. This is not the Willamette Valley. Along the main highways that run through it you will see; grass farms, straw farms, Christmas tree farms, apple and pear orchards, raspberry and blackberry fields. When you enter one of the many small towns in the area you will maybe find a humble B&B, a coffee shop, antique stores or a local pizza parlor. There are no resorts to cater to our wine-loving demographic, just humble beginnings and people that clearly care about the land on which their crops grow. (Note this is written in 2010 anyone reading this in 2020 things may have changed).

Oregon takes its pioneering spirit very seriously and has made considerable contributions to the modern success of Pinot Noir and wine in general. The winemakers here created strict labeling laws in the state which require any wine labeled Pinot Noir to be 90% Pinot Noir (California only need be 75%). The LIVE (Low Input Viticulture and Enology Program) certification program begun in 1997 by Ted Casteel of Bethel Heights, requires designated wineries to use minimal chemical additives, no off-farm chemicals and fertilizers, and strive for maximal biodiversity.

Benton-Lane winery for instance is not only is certified by LIVE but practice, sustainable, organic and biodynamic farming as well. They not only make award-winning wines but also truly care about the land and grapes they cultivate so the vineyard land will sustain itself when passed on.

The featured Oregon Pinot Noir of the week is Benton-Lane Winery. Benton-Lane Pinot Noir recently won The San Francisco International Wine Competition which is the largest wine competition in the world, evaluating wines from 27 countries and 28 states, a total of 3,897 entries. Benton Lane was the only Oregon winery entry to win a Gold Medal for its 2008 Willamette Valley Estate Pinot Noir and 2008 Williamette Valley First Class Pinot Noir! They have also made it to Wine Spectators top 100 wines of the year 3 times in the past 5 years alone, what a truly outstanding accomplishment! You can find their Pinot at The Noble Grape which is located at 802 N. Bishop St, in the West town neighborhood.

Here's a Cheers to Autumn Beers!

Temperatures are(slowly) dropping. The days are growing shorter. And in case you haven’t noticed, a flood of autumnal colors has begun filling the shelves of your favorite beer shop. Fall beers are here, so it’s time to prepare your palate for brews that have a little extra extra malt, sugar, and spice. Typical seasonals like malty Oktoberfests and spicy Pumpkin Ales are easy to find at Noble Grape. Their orange and rust-colored packaging is synonymous with falling leaves and gourd-filled cornucopias. Although IPA’s can be found year round, they’re so much fun to drink in the Fall with those exotic mulled spices! Come September and October, these beers get all the attention, so we’d like to take a moment to highlight some of these seasonal beers for you this week.

Often released as a fall seasonal, Pumpkin Ales are quite varied. Some brewers opt to add hand-cut pumpkins and drop them in the mash, while others use puree or pumpkin flavoring. These beers also tend to be spiced with pumpkin pie spices, like: ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice. Pumpkin Ales are typically mild, with little to no bitterness, a malty backbone, with some spice often taking the lead. Many will contain a starchy, slightly thick-ish, mouthfeel too. In our opinion, best versions use real pumpkin, while roasting the pumpkin can also add tremendous depth of character for even better results, though both methods are time-consuming and tend to drive brewmasters insane. We are offering the Brooklyn Post Road Pumpkin Ale, Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale and the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale just to name a few.

In March 1872, over 60 years after the first Oktoberfest, Spaten brewer Josef Sedlmayr attempted to brew a beer similar to the then popular Vienna style lager. His creation, called Maerzen by some for the month it is brewed and Oktoberfest by others for the festival when it is tapped, was a hit. The overall impression left by a good Oktoberfest/Maerzen should be malt but not in the nutty, bready way of a British Brown; after all this is still a German lager. The Vienna or Munich malts lay down a broad but light malt character. With only enough hops to balance, the malty character is dominant in the aroma and flavor without being overwhelming. The body should be light brown with a white head.. A hop lovers dream. Our latest and
greatest Oktoberfest beers new to Noble Grape is Three Floyds Munsterfest and Brooklyn Brewery Oktoberfest.

If you haven't tried the seasonal beers or if you're a seasoned pro, stop in, tis the season!

by Maggie Bernat Smith

Chile has definitely had its share of hardships the past year with the devastating earthquake earlier this year and now those brave souls that are trapped in the copper mine. Why don’t we honor the people of Chile and their country by drinking their wine and contributing to their economy this week?

With Chile's enormously long coastline occupying a 2,610 mile tract of South America's western seaboard, Chile has a terrific diversity of climate and geography. With the Atacama Desert to the north and the desolate ice-fields of Patagonia to the south, the scope for winemaking is confined to a small central belt of the country with a more moderate climate. Wine has been made in Chile for centuries. Indeed, there was a European heyday for its wines in the late 19th century as the phylloxera louse (this insect destroyed European vineyards in the late 19th century and reeked havoc on California vineyards in the 20th). ravaged the vineyards of the Old World and consumers and merchants turned to Chile for a reliable supply of good wine. But it was a century later in the 1990's that Chile stepped up a gear in terms of both international recognition and quality.

A large part of Chile's fascination with the big four grapes – Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc – revolves around its targeting of the American market. During the late 80's and early 90's when the Chilean wine boom really came into full swing, the American market was devouring wines that were not only made from recognizable grapes like Cabernet and Chardonnay, but also were sold at a reasonable price. To this day, the United States remains the premier importer of Chilean wine. One of the most interesting names to look out for on a Chilean label is Carmenère, a variety once believed to be Merlot, but now discovered to be a forgotten Bordeaux grape which has been living happily in Chile all along. It makes a vibrantly fruity and deeply flavored wine.

No More Merlot-Hating!

by Maggie Bernat Smith

Merlot once ruled the wine scene as the go-to red in the 90's, everyone loved it whether it be from California, Bordeaux, or the wonderful Chilean Merlot. Its soft tannins and lush fruit driven characteristics made it an easy choice for your red wine drinking experience. However when a little movie came out by the name of Sideways, the wine world changed. Pinot Noir was discovered and Merlot was dumped. Pinot Noir sales have drastically risen steadily even still today and Merlot sales have fallen consistently.

There are clubs, blogs, and facebook fan pages about hating Merlot and at least once a day we hear "I'll drink anything but Merlot." It just goes to show when someone in Hollywood says what we should be drinking a certain beverage or Oprah says we should be reading certain books, the masses will follow and agree. It's your palate and it's your sense of what you like so how can Hollywood make that decision for you?

Ask Château Petrus what there opinion of Merlot is. Château Petrus is one of the most expensive and sought after wines in the world from Bordeaux France (and it's 95% Merlot), their current release price, if you can buy futures on it, is $3,000 per bottle. The Cheval Blanc (which is what Miles most prized wine was and drank at the end of his miserable journey) the blend is more then half Merlot and is currently $1,200 for the 2009 release. Few film reviewers have commented that Cheval Blanc is a blend of mostly Merlot and it's what made the movie so ironic.

The fact is when consumer demand is so high for a certain grape varietal, the quality goes down the tubes for wine. It's what happened to Merlot, it is what's now happening to Pinot Noir and happens for every other grape varietal as well. Grapes need to be tended to, cut back, only planted in certain climates where it will reach its full potential and when these huge corporations are pumping out wine the cheapest way they know how, quality suffers. If you buy wine at small shops like The Noble Grape, they take care to taste each wine, and yes taste a lot of Merlot, and everything else to make sure we get good quality, not the simple tuity-fruity ones that saturate the market.

Every Merlot tastes different just like every Pinot tastes different (some you like, some you don't). Try Washington State as a go-to Merlot, give it another shot, it has a completely different flavor profile then California. The Columbia Valley shares virtually the same latitude line as Bordeaux France and you get a more elegant and complex style of reds, especially Merlot. If you doubt me or you have Merlot-hating friends, try blind tasting them. Buy a bottle of Merlot, Pinot and Cabernet, all at similar price points, brown bag them and have them rate the wines and even see if they can guess the grape types. We do this in the wine industry all the time to sharpen up our palates and it's great fun too!

Austrian Wine 101

by Maggie Bernat Smith

Austria is a country with some of the most exciting white wines around; of course if you've come across them at a wine shop or on a wine list anywhere, you may have avoided them due to the strange grape varietal names or assumed that Austria being next to Germany that they were probably sweet. Within the wine world we know these grapes very well and once you try Austria's Gruner Veltliners you're surely hooked. Gruner Veltliner is Austria's premier grape variety. It's the most planted grape in the country and not grown anywhere else in the world. Gruner Veltliner is a perfect food pairing wine, it's crisp, clean, fresh and delicious. It has very subtle flavors of green apple, citrus, its signature white pepper note, and a never-ending minerality that dances gracefully across your palate. It pairs particularly well with Sushi and also with starters and veggies (which are particularly difficult to pair).

Another misconception about Austria is their Rieslings. Their Rieslings are bone dry, mineral-laden, wines that truly express the soil from which they're grown. They have such subtle complexities with their whispers of peach, flowers and citrus; and with its high acidity, are very racy wines. They are built to last so you can age them for a long time and will just get better and better. Their white wines in general are not cheap (although you can find cheapish options) they are high quality wines and their prices tend to match.

The reds are not as ubiquitous as the whites are but still carry on the tradition of "unique" grape varietals. The red varietal that is most widely planted over yonder is a grape called Zweigelt. This fun-loving grape has a bright and vivid red fruit flavor profile with often exotic spices. They have a world-wide appeal of oak aging and are perfect in the summer since it's light to medium in body. If you tend to like Chianti or earthier Pinot Noirs, chances are you'll dig on Zweigelt's swagger.

Austria has always been famous for producing their late-harvest dessert wines made from either botrytised (a "noble rot" that shrivels grapes and concentrates flavors with often a honeyed or apricot creme brulee character to them) or late harvest grapes. They are similar to Bordeaux's Sauternes and taste like liquid heaven. Try them with foie gras or with after dinner with a delicious cheesecake.

We love Tito!

Tito's Handmade Vodka, Unanimous Double Gold Medal Winner of the World Spirits Competition! Distilled six times. Tito's Handmade vodka is designed to be savored by spirit connoisseurs. It is micro-distilled in an old-dashioned pot still, just like the fine single malt scotches and high-end French cognacs. This time-honored method of distillation requires more skill and effort than modern column stills, but it's well worth it.

Their handcrafted technique offers more control over the distillation process, resulting in a spectacularly clean product of incomparable excellence. Only the heart of the run, "the nectar" is taken, leaving behind residual higher and lower alcohols. the vodka is cleansed of phenols, esters, congeners, and organic acids it filtering it through the finest activated carbon available. Critics call Tito's "a homegrown symphonic spirit to applaud" and say, "it can go head to head with any of the world's greats and not break a sweat!" Shake once from the freezer. It's in the bottle, so enjoy! No sugar or gelatin added.

According to liqoursnob.com "As for the taste, it was straightforward and mostly prevalent on the front of the tongue, with of a woody or herbal back end. Very clean, very pure, very tasty. We suppose this is the advantage to distilling your liquor six times, and we finally understand why this stuff has been so lavished with praise from everyone who's tried it. "

Vodkabuzz.com says " Tito's Handmade Vodka is vodka at its finest. It is perfect for sipping or mixing. Even at double the price, Tito's would still be worth every penny. If you can buy Tito's Handmade Vodka in your area, you should be drinking it."

Are you not convinced yet? Come in and pick up a bottle only $22 this week, $20 per bottle if you buy 2! For every bottle you purchase you get an extra entry to win a special edition Tito's Epiphone Electric Guitar signed by Tito himself (valued at $299), whatcha waiting for!

New Zealand Pinot Noir perfect summer red

by Maggie Bernat Smith

There is no question that Pinot Noir is the perfect summer red wine. It’s light in body, high in acidity, and has beautiful, juicy, ripe red berry flavors. However, it’s not just the fundamental basics of the Pinot Noir grape that makes wine aficionados the world over revere this beloved berry--when done right, it can be the sexiest glass of wine you’ll ever encounter. If you think of the truly glamorous iconic women of the 1940’s--mysterious, sultry, complex, soft-spoken and elegant--this is what Pinot Noir is to many who know her well.

New Zealand is a latecomer to the wine game in general; the planting of Pinot Noir there began in the 1980’s. For a virtual freshman to the wine scene, the soaring popularity of not only their Sauvignon Blancs but all of their wines is unprecedented. Thank goodness they figured out that there are multiple regions around New Zealand that are suited to Pinot Noir (it’s a very fickle grape type that only adapts to certain climates) because the Pinot Noirs coming out of that country are simply delicious and could rival the best places around the globe in another 10-15 years of vine maturation and experience.

Regional differences are also starting to become more apparent in Pinot production, between the dark, delicious and spiced examples of Central Otago (some of the most southern planted vines in the world) to the more Burgundian expressions from the variety's local pioneer, Martinborough. Marlborough's midweight examples are getting more serious as well with more plantings in sub-regions such as Wairapa and Nelson. The great thing about the New Zealand Pinots is that they are better upon release than those of Burgundy, where one must wait on them for a few years. They have a supple, fruit-driven style coupled with interesting spice and complexity at an early age. You can enjoy your Kiwi Pinot Noir now while waiting on your Burgundies to age.

Vinho Verde - Portugese summer sipper

by Maggie Bernat Smith

If you’ve never had the wines of Portugal, you should definitely put them on your radar this summer. Portugal is becoming better known not just for their fortified dessert wine they are famous for, but also for their very reasonable red and white “every day” wines.

The wine known as Vinho Verde is the slightly effervescent wine that stems from the Northwest region of Portugal. The name Vinho Verde literally means “green wine” which refers to its youthful character. It is such a perfectly refreshing wine on these hot summer days in Chicago. Casal Garcia who is known as one of the best producers in the region is our featured wine this week. Its light body, fizzy effervescence, the high acidity, and whispers of citrus fruits and flowers (and low low price of $8) make it the perfect patio pounder!

The red wines should not be missed either. The main grape that they are known for is Touriga Nacional which is considered to be Portugal’s finest and is typically blended with other indigenous varieties for similar reasons they blend different varietals in Bordeaux. Touriga Nacional has similar characteristics to Cabernet Sauvignon as it provides tannin, structure and black fruit characteristics to the wine. Just like in Bordeaux, the French blend other grapes in with Cabernet Sauvignon to “soften” or bring different flavors and textures to the wine and the Portuguese take on those same traditions.

The Espirito Lagoalva from Portugal is a blend of Touriga Nacional and Castelao described as “the light raspberry fruit of Castelao is complemented elegantly by Touriga's deeper blackberry and pepper flavors, with a warm aroma and soft, sweet tannins. This is the perfect red for drinking as an aperitif as well as complementing a wide range of cuisines.” This delight is only $11 at The Noble Grape and the Casal Garcia Vinho Verde can also be picked up there as well.

Noble Grape is located at 802 N. Bishop St, basically Chicago and Noble. They feature free weekly wine tastings every Wednesday and Friday from 6pm - 8pm, stop in and try a taste. There is no better way to find out what you like and why!

Hate Chardonnay? Try Chablis!

by Maggie Bernat Smith

It's been fashionable in the last few years to completely break up with grape varietals like you would a tired old boyfriend that none of your friends like; however what if you discovered that your old boyfriend went to charm school, got a $60 haircut and started shopping at hip clothing boutiques? This is what I feel is happening to grape types like Chardonnay and Merlot that people love to hate lately. Chardonnay, Merlot and God forbid White Zin is actually what got Americans drinking wine in the first place. People loved the oaky-buttery Chardonnay, the easy drinking, lush, fruit-driven Merlot but somewhere along the way, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir kicked these grapes to the curb and have been gaining more and more fans with every vintage.

Chardonnay is still my all time favorite grape varietal after all these years of tasting wine from around the world. It's history begins and ends (as far as I'm concerned) in the region of Burgundy France and is the benchmark of Chardonnay at its best. The French have a long history of planting different grape varietals in different regions, soil types and climates to see what best expresses the land and are considered to be the experts. Chardonnay they found best expresses the region of Burgundy. Since the old world names their wines by the region they come from instead of the grape type, few know that 99.9% of any white wine from Burgundy is Chardonnay.

If you've never tried Chablis before (and I'm not talking about the $5 jug wine from the 70's), then you've never had the most purest form of Chardonnay on the planet. Chablis is the region north of Burgundy and 99% of all they do is pure, unadulterated Chardonnay. If they use oak on their wine, it's neutral oak and only used to oxidize the wine not to add flavor. Chablis is known for their kimmeridgian soil which is a chalky, limestone, and clay soil litered with fossils of sea creature (Chablis was once under a sea in ancient times). This soil type and the fact that they are so far north makes this very steely, minerally, flinty Chardonnay.

The winemaker from William Fevre (one of the biggest and best producers in Chablis) says he spends 99% of his time tending to his vineyards because without good grapes, there is no good wine. His goal is to really make the land speak to you through the voice of Chardonnay. If you are a Chardonnay-hater, give Chablis a try, it's so crisp and clean and perfect for these hot summer days. I guarantee that you wouldn't even recognize this form of Chardonnay, it's so fresh and so clean and so delicous!

Food pairing tip - nothing goes better with oysters on the half shell.

Benizger Family Winery - keeping it green

by Maggie Bernat Smith

After the Green Music Fest that took place this past weekend right outside Noble Grape, we thought featuring a 'green' winery here would be appropriate today.

At Benziger, they are about 3 things: family, great wine and healthy vineyards. For more than thirty years they've searched Sonoma County for the most distinctive and expressive vineyard sites. Once found, they tended these properties using certified Biodynamic, organic and sustainable farming methods. The result is a portfolio of authentic and memorable wines.

Benziger Family Winery likes to think their wines have character and conscience. This means that they're not only great in the glass, they're grown in a way that's good for the environment, too. Every wine in their portfolio carries a third party certification of green farming practices. Whether the vineyard is certified sustainable, organic or Biodynamic, it's carefully tended with the most eco-responsible methods available. They don't just farm this way because they think caring for the land is the right thing to do, it also happens to be the best way to make distinctive, authentic wines.

All four of their estate vineyards are Demeter-certified Biodynamic. Biodynamics is the highest level of organic farming. Developed in the 1920's, Biodynamics views the vineyard as a single organism. With this approach, eliminating synthetic chemicals is just the beginning. Biodynamics goes further, encouraging biodiversity, a closed nutrient system, the use of homeopathic teas and a close personal connection to the land. They began transitioning their home ranch on Sonoma Mountain in the mid-nineties. Instead of bagged fertilizer, weed killer and pesticides they rely on composting, natural predator-prey relationships, cover crops, and the animals that live on thier estate, to keep their vineyard healthy and balanced. There are no silver bullets in Biodynamic winegrowing. When you eliminate all the artificial crutches, you learn to trust your instincts and to trust nature’s ability and capacity to make a great wine and it shows.

Noble Grape loves Benziger winery for not only their wines, but for their pioneering in organic and biodynamic farming and recycling methods. When The Noble Grape business plan was being drawn, 'green' was definitely in the plans. They used Colori paint, recycle, they use the green-ware cups which are made from corn and biodegrade easily, energy efficient lights, their 6 bottle tote are reusable bags are made from recyclable material. Noble Grape is proud to carry Benziger's wines including their Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon, all certified sustainable. Take a bottle home and see if you can taste the earth in the wine!

Que Syrah, Shiraz?

by Maggie Bernat Smith

Are you one of the many confused wine drinkers out there that doesn't understand why some wines are labeled Syrah and some are labeled Shiraz? Lets do some myth busting and work this out!

Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape just different styles. Syrah has been around for....lets just say forever; and then here comes this Shiraz character appearing sometime around the late eighties! It was a new, exciting, and cool-sounding grape type that burst onto the scene, and people have been talking about ever since.

Lets look at Syrah first. Syrah traditionally comes from the Rhone Valley France (due south of Burgundy). The Northern Rhone Valley is where Syrah has its spiritual home. You may not know it but when you pick up a bottle of Cotes-du-Rhone, that you are actually buying Syrah. Up the price point a bit and you'll see names of villages like Saint Joseph or Hermitage, these wines are still Syrah just from specific villages in the Rhone and are known for a more masculine type of Syrah. Just like most places in the old world (France, Italy, Germany, Spain), the Rhone Valley names their wines after the place that the grapes come from; the grape is not as important as the wines origin.

If you pick up a traditional bottle of Cotes-du-Rhone or Cotes-du-Rhone Villages, you can most likely expect a medium-bodied wine, red fruits such as cranberry, raspberry and cherry, some black pepper spice and undertones of sagebrush. It's a great every day drinking wine and pairs wonderfully with lamb dishes.

Now the Aussies! Sure they have been growing "Shiraz" since the early 1800's, but we never really saw any of their wines till the late eighties. There are a couple of myths on how this name came about. One is from the ancient city Shirazi in Persia where the famous Shirazi wine was produced; but Shiraz as we know it today cannot actually be traced to this. There are documents of other countries calling this grape "Shiraz", but it's the Aussies that made it famous.

Australia being a much hotter climate then the Northern Rhone and even the central coast of California (where they produce a Syrah similar to the Rhone style), creates a much different style of this grape. Australia Shiraz is a very different animal then what is described above. It's a much more jammy, rounder, plumper, blackberry-filled, chocolatey, oaky, but still peppery, type of wine. So when you are shopping around town, and hopefully at the Noble Grape, pay attention to the labeling; this is the winery giving you hints to what style of Syrah/Shiraz they are making.

Get over your screw cap phobias!

by Maggie Bernat Smith

For all of those who think the screw cap means "cheap wine", I am going give you some good reasons why wineries and wine enthusiasts love the screw cap. Sure I myself was skeptical when I started to see them flooding the market around the year 2000 (especially from Australia and New Zealand), however once I learned why the Stelvin Enclosure (official name of the screw cap) is the best thing for the wine, I gladly welcomed this into my life.

I'm not sure if you knew this or not, but when you order wine in a restaurant and the waiter or sommelier pours you a taste, it's not to let him know whether you like the wine or not, he's pouring it for you to detect cork taint or spoilage. Being in the wine industry and tasting wine constantly we come across "corked" wine all the time. There is a 5 - 7% chance that due to a bad cork your wine is ruined. Have you ever had a wine that smelled like your grandma's basement or wet cardboard or newspaper....that is from a contaminated cork (known as trichloroanisole or TCA for short) and that is what the waiter is asking you to detect. So if you you were a company that had a defect in almost 10% of your product, wouldn't you figure out a way to get rid of the wine killer?

I give the Kiwis and the Aussies credit for this major roll out of the screw cap. They took a huge chance with putting about 90% of their wines they produce under this stigmatized enclosure. They knew that the world was going to have an issue with it; sure, the screw cap has been around for about 40 years but these wines were usually bought at 7-11! The Aussies have always been innovators on the wine scene, they don't have the strict laws of the old world so they do a lot of experimenting with new technologies on the wine front. They have found that this is the best alternative to cork and does not affect the wine at all.

So whether you were holding a $500.00 bottle of Bordeaux for 30 years or whether you just picked up a bottle for your BYOB that night, and come to find out that your wine tastes and smells like wet cardboard.....think twice about at the new screw cap enclosures and preach the stelvin gospel!