Viognier Review: Angoves 2009 Nine Vines from Australia

Posted by Keith Wallace on Jul 22, 2012 in Wine Reviews | 0 comments

This Viogner review is courtesy of the Wine School of Philadelphia and Bacchus Selections.

Hands down, this is the bargain sipper of the moment. Typical Viognier aromas of peach and perfume are on the nose, along with a trace of nutmeg. The attack is round and lush: it’s boasting a creamy weight that turns a touch sweet. The flavor transform into trail mix –dried peaches, nuts, apple—and then comes back with jasmine and lilies.  It finishes with a refreshing note of fresh peach. A lovely bottle of Viognier for the price, although a bit heavy for a summer day.

Angoves is one of the oldest wineries in Australia, dating back to 1892, and is still family owned. The “Nine Vines” label is their  value line, and for the most part does a very good job of keeping quality levels high. The name is an homage to  the surviving nine grapoe vines from the winery’s original vineyard in Adelaide, South Australia.

About Viognier, via Wikipedia. This shy bearing variety was until relatively recently restricted to a small northern part of the Rhône Valley, where it produced the famous wines of Condrieu and Château Grillet. Despite the fact that this variety crept to Australia inside the seventies, the particular explosion did not occur prior to the the 19 nineties in Languedoc-Roussillon and California. At its best, Viognier features a lush, aromatic quality, with distinctive peachy character, but it is often over-oaked.

Shoofly 2008 Freckle White, South Australia

Posted by Keith Wallace on May 19, 2012 in Wine Reviews | 0 comments

A Rhone-style blend from South Australia: Marsanne , Roussanne and a dash of Viognier. Aromas of fresh pear, ginger and almond, followed by mineral and melon on the palate. Medium bodied with a zesty acidity makes this a fun and easy bottle. It also offers enough complexity to keep any wine lover interested for a bottle or two.

Drink the Cheddar

Posted by Keith Wallace on Feb 5, 2012 in Philly | 4 comments

The first wine bar to exclusively feature wine from Pennsylvania is about to open in a few days. This is a significant moment for local viticulture: PA wineries have never been accorded this level of economic support and visibility in a major city. It would not be overstating that this is a historic first for our local wine industry. And it has been met with a limp silence from the media.

Why the silence? Because it’s common knowledge that Pennsylvania wines suck. They are sweet or taste awful. Or both. Local wineries are held to ridicule, and no one with aspirations of refinement and culture would ever speak well of a local winery. How do we know this? Because everyone says so!

So, Terry McNally opens the Paris Wine Bar (2303 Fairmount Avenue) without much fanfare. McNally is the owner of London Grill next door to the new wine bar. She is one of the first Philly restaurateurs to embrace the “Farm to Table” ethos, long before it was trendy.

The idea that Pennsylvania cannot produce good wine is bullshit, to be frank. The region has similar weather patterns (Köppen climate classification Cfa) as the Piedmonte in Italy. That, along with the long band of limestone soil that runs through the Brandywine valley, you have the foundation of high-quality viticulture. Add to that a decent amount of air flow, a few hills of degraded friable schist, or even a sandy valley, and you have the makings of top-shelf wines. Just make sure the vines have southwestern exposure, and that’s terroir in a nutshell.

What’s keeping local winemaker’s back? It’s all about the cheddar, baby. Unlike other east coast wine regions like Virginia, the state doesn’t invest much in the state’s wineries. Tellingly, Pennsylvania offers a wealthy of grant opportunities to farms, except for one’s growing wine grapes. This keeps funding for research and development of the PA wine industry continuing at a snails pace.

The other reason is you. And by “you” I mean in aggregate, the millions of wine buyers in the region. You buy Chardonnay and Merlot and rarely anything else. If you do buy a local wine, it is going to be a sweet one. For a local winemaker, this sucks. The grapes that work well here are not the ones people will buy.

There is a legend in the local wine trade about a hotshot young winemaker who came here from California and crafted what was probably the best wine ever to be made in Pennsylvania. Every sommelier and winemaker who tasted it agreed it was going to change the face of winemaking in the state. It was amazing. It was shipped to the wine stores, but no one would try it. Very few people were willing to give a Cabernet Franc from Pennsylvania a chance. Only a few hundred cases were sold. It was a total failure, and the end of the poor bastard’s career.

SO, until the cheddar start to flow, the PA wine industry will continue to tread water. Until then, amazing wines made from grapes like Bonarda, Barbera, Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc will remain theoretical. That is why a wine bar in Philadelphia means so much, it may mean the beginning of a new era for local winemakers. It very well could change how you perceive our local wineries.

It’s not just about drinking well. A recent report from Virginia showed that the local wine industry added $747 Million to the state’s economy every year. Most of that from a grape that few people have heard of: viognier. Drinking local brings in the cheddar, baby.

D’Arenberg 2007 Viognier “The Last Ditch,” Adelaide Hills

Posted by Keith Wallace on May 23, 2011 in Wine Reviews | 0 comments

This one finds its center of gravity on the richer end of the viognier spectrum than the Rolf Binder. It’s a barrel-fermented, Creamsicle-rich wine that you don’t want to chill down too much. Just pull it from the cellar, screw open the cap, and call it a night. You won’t want to leave the couch once you start sipping. $19.99.

2007, the First Great Pennsylvania Vintage

Posted by Keith Wallace on Jan 5, 2011 in News | 3 comments

Eric really should have told me to take the right infront of the Amish lass picking flowers. She was there everytime I sped past. Eric Miller’s voice, recorded and replayed several times over the feeble speaker on my cellphone, is calmly giving directions to turn right at Mansion street.

After a few more circles through the Brandywine Valley, I manage to accidentally turn up that correct street–Natmensing Road–and drive between an home that looked to be propped up by tall grass and a barn that should have been. I turn up the hill, and am suddenly –potholes be damned– driving into a hilltop vineyard at 40 miles an hour.

Hitting the brakes as the rows of empty vines flicker by, I tuck the car against the deer fence on the top of the hill. Getting out in a juggle of camera, notebook and cellphone, I make a few stumbling steps until I can get my self in order. Calm and professional, I start walking into the nearest row of vines. Within a few steps, I loose my footing again. This time, its not just my inherent clumsiness, it is pure amazement.

Eric, the winemaker & co-owner of Chaddsford Winery, had called me a few days before. There was a possiblity of a ladybug infestation and he had asked me to tag along as he inspected the vines. He was planning to finally harvest his Cabernet Sauvignon in a few days, but such a infestation would mean problems. The bugs –if accidentally harvested with the grapes– would give the wine a nasty swampy smell.

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