WINE TALK
LEAD: THESE days, restaurants and rented halls in Manhattan bring to mind caravan stops along the ancient Silk Route between China and the West. The modern nomadic traders are vintners and their representatives, with visions of holiday sales dancing in their heads.
THESE days, restaurants and rented halls in Manhattan bring to mind caravan stops along the ancient Silk Route between China and the West. The modern nomadic traders are vintners and their representatives, with visions of holiday sales dancing in their heads.
Their arrival is heralded weeks in advance by invitations to tastings. Once here, they unpack case upon case of bottles on premises hired by distributors, foreign-government trade offices and wine societies. Then retailers, restaurateurs, consumers and writers carry out ritualistic rounds of day-in, day-out tastings.
In recent weeks, I have been sniffing, swirling, sampling and mostly spitting out scores of wines (only a Goliath dares to swallow). The tasting notes have slowly piled up the way sawed logs do on a Vermont back porch as winter draws near.
As the wine examiners make their circuit, they sample three categories of wines: simple ones for pleasurable daily drinking, more sophisticated ones for entertainment and special ones for long-term maturation in cellars.
Merchants suggest buying these wines by the case. I do not recommend the practice, 10 percent discount or not. Sure, it's easy and comfortable to find a wine you like and then stick with it. But that's boring. If you don't like adventure and risk, Cherry Coke offers an easy way out. It's cheaper, it's a swell drink, but it harbors no surprises, no delights.
After all, wine, a living object (unless pasteurized), is as varied as life itself. That is why I rarely return to old favorites, even at the cost of missing them at their peak.
Years ago, when I was an undergraduate at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., the poet John Ciardi warned us against winding up with 'an armored and concluded mind.' Applied to wine, his words encourage restless exploration of new varietals, new brands, new blends, new vintages and new styles.
So let us ramble through a few wines that were new to me and that are well worth buying.
A brut nonvintage Champagne made by Delamotte Pere & Fils is increasingly visible in New York City wine stores. The brut, and other Champagnes in the Delamotte line, are imported by a New Jersey company (Speciality Spirits Ltd. in Princeton), and it sells in Manhattan for $21.99. It is light, simple, toasty and has tantalizing tiny bubbles.
I especially liked an '85 Vouvray, Cuvee du Centenaire, from the Loire shipping firm of Monmousseau. It is a blanc de blancs made of 100 percent chenin blanc grapes and sells for $7.20 at the standard 50 percent retail markup (but seek out discounts). The wine elegantly balances sweetness and acidity, as West German rieslings do.
Look, too, for the stylish Vouvrays of Marc Bredif, which is owned by Baron Patrick de Ladoucette, a leading Loire shipper of Chablis. The easy-drinking '85 Vouvray has a honeyed bouquet and tangy, off-dry flavor ($9.21). The creamy '84 has a congenial citric bite ($6.99). These are imported by the International Vintage Wine Company, Hartford.
For an agreeable aperitif, serve the '86 Arneis Blange, a white made by Ceretto, an outstanding winery in Italy's Piedmont district ($14.99). It is slightly tart and tickles the palate with a little fizz.
As a pre-dinner wine, the '87 fume blanc, a white from Penfolds, an Australian winery, is a good value for $5.99. It has a lightly grassy aroma and is full of young vitality. Penfolds' '85 Koonunga Hill, a shiraz-cabernet sauvignon blend, is a velvety, grapey quaffing red well worth $6.99.
Oddly, I had not caught up with the fine wines made by Rutherford Hill in California, except for a spritzy full-bodied gewurztraminer relished some years ago in Maine. A serious oversight. The other day, I sampled Rutherford Hill Napa Valley merlots and cabernet sauvignons made from 1978 through 1983 and found these reds almost uniformly savory.
Some are still on the market and are drinking very well. The '83 merlot, light in body, is subtle and complex and needs perhaps two more years of bottle age to show off its best qualities ($10.99). The '82 cabernet, whose bouquet exudes loads of fruit, offers a luxurious flavor ($11.56).
Jerry Luper, one of California's top wine makers, joined Rutherford Hill two years ago. The high quality of its merlots was defined by his predecessor, Phillip Baxter, who is now the wine maker for Domaine Michel, a new, promising Sonoma County winery. Given Mr. Luper's record, Rutherford Hill's merlots surely will continue to rank with some of my favorites - those made by Clos du Bois in Sonoma and by Duckhorn Vineyards in Napa.
The classiness of Clos du Bois comes through in its '85 Calcaire Vineyard chardonnay ($19.99), which is buttery, supple, a touch spicy and nicely oaked. The winery's generously flavored '82 Proprietor's Reserve cabernet sauvignon ($21) is showing very well.
Clos du Bois, incidentally, scored a coup when British Airways recently selected two of its wines - the freshly fruity '86 Calcaire Vineyard chardonnay and the smooth, flavorsome '82 Briarcrest cabernet sauvignon - to serve to first-class passengers worldwide. (Both will be available in New York City in December.) The contract is the first major one with an American winery, an airline spokesman said.
One of the better, easy-drinking merlots I encountered was the '85 from Vichon Winery in the Napa Valley ($15). The '84 merlot from Sanford Winery in Santa Barbara County, Calif., is sweet and lip-smacking good - what the French call a 'serious wine' ($13.95). The '84 merlot from Clos du Val, in Napa, was attractively sweet and mouth-filling ($15.75).
The '86 pinot blanc made by Edgar Schaller et Fils, an Alsace vintner, is ravishing (about $6). Its effusively pear- and peachlike bouquet carries through into its fruity flavor. It is masterly, perfectly balanced and alive with youthful verve, and is expected fairly soon at Quality House, 2 Park Avenue near 32d Street. The importer is Robert Kacher Selections of Washington.
Lar de Barros's tinto reserva '83, a red wine from Estremadura, Spain, is a light, sweet, grapey refresher - a country red that washes down simple fare and brings a smile of satisfaction. It is $6.99 and is imported by Middleton White, Cold Spring Harbor, L.I.
If you want to spend next to nothing, lay out merely $2.56 for the R. H. Phillips Vineyard Night Harvest nonvintage cabernet sauvignon, from California's central valley, and $3.99 for the River Oaks Vineyards' nonvintage premium red wine, from California's north coast. Both, highly drinkable, were finalists in a 'best of the bargains' competition for wines $4 and under sponsored by the International Wine Center, a Manhattan wine school.
The House of Mommessin, one of the large negociant (shipping) companies in Burgundy, is deservedly well-known for its Beaujolais, and soon its '87 nouveau will be here. However, when the chairman, Didier Mommessin, passed through town recently, his mind was on his premium red Burgundies from the excellent 1985 vintage.
The young-fruit flavors of his '85 Cote de Beaune Villages, especially the cherry, were overwhelming ($14.39). The '85 Beaune Les Bressandes, a Premier Cru, is loaded with fruit, especially raspberries, and has a huge potential that long cellaring will realize ($22.50). The opulent Corton exudes the perfume of new raspberries, and the texture is meaty ($25). All three are winners. The importer is William Grant & Sons.
As for dessert wines, two words describe Cockburn's '83 vintage Port ($30): rich, generous. It is distributed by Frederick Wildman & Sons. Still in its infancy, this Port may live on until the last syllable of recorded time, or later.