In Vino Veritas by Jonathon Alsop

Supertuscans, or super Tuscans?

2010-06-09T13:40:00.003-04:00

Wine lovers are a little confused about the Supertuscan category. The name itself is seemingly unequivocal. Even if you don't know what a Tuscan is, you intuitively understand that a super version is going to be bigger, better, and probably dosed with more Tuscan.

In fact, the Supertuscans are a class of wines that deviate profoundly from the rules that traditional wines from Tuscany must follow. The class was born from the desire to blend Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and other popular (and profitable) new world grapes with Sangiovese, the traditional grape of Tuscany. In practically no time, of course, it occurred to wine makers, why use Sangiovese at all?

Angelo Gaja made his reputation in the north of Italy re-inventing Nebbiolo for us moderns. His new project in coastal Tuscany produces a Supertuscan called Ca'Marcanada Magari that is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. It's about $75 a bottle, tastes absolutely mind-bending, but contains 0% Sangiovese.

If anything, you could make the case that these wines end up not more Tuscan, but less for the effort. In the shadow of the Supertuscans are a whole world of super Tuscans that are keeping it real by keeping it old school.

Conti Contini Sangiovese (about $15, should be available everywhere, distributed by wine industry giant Moët Hennessy USA, www.capezzana.it) Conti Contini is the second, maybe third label of Capezzana, a winery that was making wines in the Supertuscan style decades before the term was invented. Capezzana has been blending in a little Cabernet Sauvignon since at least the middle 1960s. Conti Contini is true to Tuscan style, rugged and rustic, full of tangy bing cherry flavors. The aroma is herbal and aromatic, and I think I smell rosemary, dill, and even some black pepper. Best news of all: this 100% Sangiovese costs about a third of the winery's flagship wine.

Wine, Cork & the Size of a Baby's Head

2010-05-25T08:23:00.003-04:00

When you see how small, light, and compact some of these new wine closures are, you have to wonder why a cork is so big.

It's doing the same job as the screwcap or the glass cap, but in comparison, it's huge. If my math is right, 10,000 corks take up about half a cubic yard in volume alone. With some of these new screwcap systems, which actually machine the closure in real time during bottling, you can get 10,000 of them in a large desk drawer.

Technically, the traditional cork is the size it is because of the pressure it needs to exert over its relatively large surface area in order to maintain its seal. The screwcap, in comparison, focuses its seal on just the very top surface of the mouth of the bottle. In surface area alone, it's a tremendously smaller job, and that makes it much easier to get right closer to 100 percent of the time.

Cork represents the analog solution to closing up a bottle of wine. Although it's sealing only a small opening of about 3/4 of a square inch, it's a critically important seal, so we throw some bulk at it, two or more inches of cork, maybe dip it in wax, just to make sure.

In practical terms, cork is so big for the same reason a baby's head is so big. The newborn brain doesn't really work all that well for the first bit -- just spend some time watching a newborn baby's irregular breathing. Nature, in its wisdom, made the baby brain freakishly big, and being so big, it manages to work well enough. This is the same philosophy behind how we stopper a wine bottle. Corks are 100 times bigger than screwcaps because they have to be.

Clean Slate Riesling (about $10, distributed nationally by Click Wine Group, 800-859-0689) German wine has an image problem. In America, at least, people think it's sweet and sugary, and frankly cheap. Yes, there are $100 half-bottles of immortal dessert wines, but these are just as elusive as a satisfying $10 bottle like the Clean Slate.

This Riesling is simultaneously ripe and fruity, but crisp and edgy as well. It has a base of lush, lightly tropical fruit nectar that's set off by a whole citrus component of zippy, bright, and somewhat racy acidity. I guess you can taste the slate from the Rhineland vineyard soils, but it's hard not to after the name so audaciously suggests it. Most of these Mosel wines are dry -- technically without sugar -- and their flavor profile really tends toward earth instead of fruit.

If you follow the Mosel River west, out of Germany and away from the Rhine, it eventually enters France and becomes the exact same river called the Moselle. The food gets better and better the closer to France you get, and the wines get drier, more complicated, and honestly, more contemplative and French. Many of these German white wines possess a level of minerality wine lovers pay two or three times as much for in famous French regions like Burgundy, but right now, they're highly undervalued.

I respect immediately anyone who will attempt to utilize serious foreign idiomatic expressions. Clean Slate, the name itself, invites us to put aside our old ideas, to try riesling anew and forget about yesteryear, all just so much plonk under the bridge.

Gris With Envy

2010-05-21T00:13:00.002-04:00

America's taste in wine has trended remarkably red in the last few years. One of the long-term effects of this red wine focus is that when wine lovers return to white wines, they find their taste has been changed.

After experiencing the size, presence, and personalities of the reds they've been drinking, they want more distinct, more present, and much drier white wines that are frankly more like red wines. Pinot Gris is the perfect grape for this type of post-modern wine lover. It has genetic relatives firmly in the white wine world – Pinot Blanc (which the Italians call Pinot Bianco) – and a super famous red wine relation in Pinot Noir (Pinot Nero).

Pinot Gris is probably more well-known as Pinot Grigio, practically Italy's national beverage. They both mean the same thing in translation, the Pinot grape that's halfway between white and black: the Pinot gray. Although I have absolutely no scientific evidence to back this up, I believe this accounts for the popularity of Pinot Gris among people who don't really drink white wine.

Chateau Ste. Michelle Pinot Gris ($15 and less, distributed widely, should be available almost everywhere) Wine people talk about balance a lot. They can mean the balance between fruit flavors and barrel flavors, between acidity and sugar, or even the balance between how much you like a wine and how much it costs. This Pinot Gris has a great balance between bright, zippy, citrus flavors and a rich, almost weighty texture. It's as if you took the too-too much crème brulee character out of Chardonnay but kept the smooth, slightly viscous texture. Italian Pinot Grigio is sometimes nothing but citrus, and French Pinot Gris is sometimes too sweetly Riesling-like, but Chateau Ste. Michelle is right in between. They have managed to synthesize the two classic styles beautifully. The “buy” flag is flying high for this wine right now. Also very good is the Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay; it has a full measure of oak and butter, but also with great balance and ripe forward fruit.

Prosciutto & Pineapple
(Serves 6)

It is classic to see prosciutto lounging on top of cantalope or honeydew, and a glass of Pinot Grigio is usually not far away. First time I had prosciutto over pineapple was at Andrea Ferrini's excellent but now-shuttered Firenze in Brookline MA, a close-lying suburb of Boston. The contrast between the tropical citrus in pineapple and the richness of prosciutto is what gives this dish its personality.

1 pineapple
12 slices Parma prosciutto
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt

Peel and core the pineapple. Halve the long way, and cut each half into six slices lengthwise. Arrange two pineapple slices on each plate. Take two slices of prosciutto per plate and arrange on top of the pineapple. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a tiny pinch of sea salt.

HINTS & TIPS Use medium/small salad plates and chill them for an hour before you prepare this dish. Plates and pineapple may be chilled, but the prosciutto should be room temperature. You can serve with a small piece of thin toasted bread – crostini, in Italian. I make the same dish with speck, which is sort of prosciutto from nothern Italy and southern Germany that's both cured and smoked. It is super as well.