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!