Island Girl
Hauner
Salina Bianco
IGT
12.5%
Isole Eolie, Italy

Now that I’m on the topic of Sicily (see “Dinner with Billy: A Taste of Frappato,” Sept. 15, 2009 post), let me mention a refreshing wine, the 2008 Hauner Salina Bianco, from the Aoelian island of the same name off the coast of Sicily. This wine shows how the blending of two generally characterless varietals, inzolia and catarratto, can produce a distinctively dry wine—a graceful, youthful sprite. An ingenue. Carlo Hauner came to Salina in the 1960s to produce the sweet malvasia wines for which his estate is well-known and well-regarded. However, more popular to American tastes should be this pleasant, dry, medium-bodied white with youthful aromatics like almond, pine and lemon and—on the palate—apple, grapefruit skin and pear (one taster I spoke to detected caper), along with a bit of spice. And brine. Indeed, this is among the briniest wines I’ve tasted recently. And why not? These grapes are grown organically on a tiny island in the sea. All this flavor for only $12.00. Importer: Bacchanal Wine Imports, Inc. 9/15/09.

Clemens Busch
Vom Roten Schiefer
Riesling
2006
12.5% alc.
Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany

Collecting wine doesn’t necessarily have to be a hobby for the rich only.  It’s just that those on a budget must struggle harder to find well-priced wine to make an interesting cellar—or fridge or even Ikea shelf unit.  Rieslings are a good source for these wines: they are versatile and age-worthy, especially those  from the Mosel.  Not too long ago, I noted a fine undervalued riesling from the Lower Mosel. Then there also are the rieslings of Clemens Busch and his family, also from the banks of the Lower Mosel.  I recently sampled one of them: the 2006 Vom Roten Schiefer,  meaning “from red slate.” Busch has been farming organically since 1984 and today his wines are viticulturally biodynamic.  All of them come from the exceptional Punderricher Marienburg vineyard. The soil of this vineyard is slate—mostly blue, gray and red—but this particular wine comes from the Rothenpfad subsection, consisting almost entirely of red. Typically, Busch’s wines ferment a long time on lees in stainless steel tanks or fuders—1,000-liter oval casks—resulting in bottles that are dry/off-dry and exceptionally flavorful. This 2006 sample was attractively off-dry with crisp acidity well-balanced against some residual sweetness and well-integrated  medium alcohol. On the nose were aromas of kerosene, cold-cream, grass, pineapple, musk and grapefruit. The palate was broad with well-sustained, concentrated, supple flavors of pear, peaches, nectarine, tropical fruit, lemon and herbs.  The length went on and on in a pleasurable way, like a Victorian novel that doesn’t want to end. And when it does finally conclude, you can’t help but anticipate the next. Importer: Polaner Selections. $24.00.  9/8/09.

Here are a few utterly pleasant "quaffers" to enjoy in this waning season: 

Christian Venier, 2007 "La Gautrie."  From Touraine's "Garden
of France" in the Loire Valley, this biodynamically produced cabernet
franc is a pale garnet, pink-flecked red wine you could almost mistake
for a dark rosé. You'll get aromas of strawberry, rust, cherry, black

olives and asperagus. The alcohol content is lower than you might
expect, while the high acidity of this lean wine carries the tea, rose and
cherry notes on the palate to a nice long length. It has layered
concentration and tea on the finish. The tannins offer just enough of a grip
to give the wine backbone. And, as the wine opens up, it becomes slightly
silky. This is the perfect vin ordinaire for food ordinaire. Like bacon and
hard cheeses. Savio Soares Selections. $15.00

Alice and Olivier De Moor, 2004 Chablis "Rosette." This organic
Chablis producer keeps getting better and better. I held onto this wine
for a bit. After pouring, it sat pale gold in my glass.  Dry and lean, with
an acidity that's still crisp and energetic. The wine is medium bodied with
pronounced, clean, concentrated fruit flavors of Granny Smith apple,
quince and lemon, plus minerality. "Vivid," "pure," said my guest. Try the '07
De Moor "St. Bris Sauvignon." From sauvignon blanc grapes produced in a
tiny appellation nearby southwest of Chablis. The style is richer,
higher in alcohol, but with delightful acidity, nonetheless. Vintage '59
Imports and Louis/Dressner. $23.00 and  $21.00, respectively.

2008 Stift Goettweig Rosé. There are now so many rosés available under
$20.00, it's hard to choose among them. I only wish the grand supply
would last year round. This rosé comes from 64 acres of vineyard beneath
an impressively baroque Benedictine abbey of the same name in the
Wachau appellation of Austria. The wine is a pretty pale salmon. There
are tea, orange blossom and lemon zest on the nose, and the palate
matches those aromas, with a touch more of strawberry. Medium bodied,
with a slightly viscous mouth feel. The length is also medium. The
structure is harmonious, the flavor delicately rendered. You'll enjoy
this wine like a distant chant. The producer says it's blessed.
Imported by Winemonger. $19.00. 8/29/09.

Viñedo de los Vientos

Estival

2003

12.5% alc.

Atlantida, Uruguay

The link between wine and sex is a familiar, even hackneyed one, easily enough established. What has been overlooked are the burdens shared between the sex stud and, if you will, the wine stud: that he will deliver on the demand that the need for thrill and pleasure be satisfied. I was standing in a wine shop in Grand Central station in New York on my way to a casual party, looking for a couple of bottles of white wine, when this odd truism occurred to me. Now most every decent wine shop, like its sexual counterpart, will carry an interesting novelty or two. In this case, I happened upon the 2007 Viñedo de los Vientos “Estival.” From Uruguay. Now Uruguay is not along the wine route’s most trodden beat. Indeed, even in South America, Uruguay barely registers on the wine radar. By comparison its output is small. It still is strugging to emerge from its low-quality, sweet-rosé domestic wine market. But there are good wines to be had, and if you tend to prefer a European-style New World white wine, Uruguay—particularly its wines from the Cannelones sub-region near the eastern suburbs of Montevideo—may interest you.

Uruguay, by the way, is not too dissimilar from Bordeaux in climate and topography. The climate is maritime: warm, humid rain in the summers can bring on fungal diseases, but the Atlantic breezes—Uruguay is surrounded by water on three sides of the country—moderate the summer heat. The Cuchilla Grande on the eastern side of the clay-rich soil of Cannelones slightly interrupts the rolling plains of the low-level topography. This Atlantic-influenced climate and extended growing season allow for the production of aromatic but clean white wines from vinifera grapes. This type of white wine is what you get from Pablo Fallabrino’s “Estival” blend of gewurztraminer, chardonnay and moscato grapes. These grapes are grown on 4 hectares of calcareous soil from 15 year-old vines. The grapes are destemmed; the juice is fermented in stainless steel, fined and filtered. The 2007 vintage stood medium gold with pronounced tropical, apple, peach, grass and stone-fruit notes. Dry. Medium alcohol. Medium bodied. Once in the mouth, the drinker got a sunny bolt of pineapple, celery, grass and citrus with a strong lime finish. This wine had a well-balanced structure that was its virtue when looking for a flavorful food wine. What more could one ask from a one night stand with a stud of any stripe? Importer: T. Edward Wines, Ltd. $22.00. 8/16/09.

Luc Massy
Chemin de Fer
2003
13% alc.
Dézaley AOC, Switzerland

Some people find God in a church. But, as the old catechism put it, God is everywhere—to a few, he’s even  in a glass of wine. When I pour a glass of Luc Massy’s Chemin de Fer, from the steep Lavaux vineyards in Vaud, Switzerland, I imagine an ancient Romanesque church illuminated by a streak of light. This wine is from the chasselas grape. In former days, chasselas was widely planted in Europe. Today, it survives pretty much as a vinicultural relic. (I can imagine it enshrined in a side chapel of that church.) There is a neutral quality to chasselas: a quiet virtue that is a vice to a modern world of vinous cacophony. Only in Switzerland, primarily in Vaud and Valais, does chasselas produce a wine that can stand out.

The Lavaux vineyards stretch 30 kilometers along south-facing slopes on the steep northern shores of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne. The lake moderates the temperatures and reflects light onto the slopes, to create perfect microclimates that help ripen the grapes. The longstanding Massy family-run winery produces the Chemin de Fer from Dezaley, a Grand Cru tract of land in these Lavaux vineyards. Here chasselas was first planted in the 16th century. The soil there is Morain debris on a foundation of pudding stones, providing excellent drainage and light for the vines.

And what about the wine? Well, the 2003 vintage shows a pale gold core with light notes of caramel, almost butterscotch, flint and white flowers. It is a dry, full-bodied wine offering a broad palate of layered and penetrating flavors of stone, butter, hazelnut and citrus. There is a slight viscous quality well-integrated into the wine’s solid “romanesque” structure. The length is medium with a finish that simply recedes. Everything about the wine falls into place. Elegant and orderly: I want to hear  the clean pure melody of Gregorian chant when I sip this wine. Then again, it’s hard to round up singing monks. Perhaps serve the wine with sole meunière or pheasant. Importer: Robert Chadderdon. $38.00. 8/05/09.