Indholdsfortegnelse for May 31, 2018 i Wine Spectator

Visit www.winespectator.com/053118 to find links to all of the following resources. FREE RESOURCES FOR ALL OUR WINESPECTATOR.COM READERS: MOTHER’S DAY TIPS: Have you planned the big day for Mom yet? Watch for our annual feature in early May when we’ll talk to a great chef and get a recipe and wine picks. Find more recipes and pairings with our biweekly “8 & $20” feature, showcasing easy-to-prepare weeknight recipes matched to great wines priced at $20 or less. Plus, sign up to receive regular recipe suggestions in our free, weekly Sips & Tips email newsletter. GRAND TOUR This spring, Wine Spectator hits the road with the world’s finest wineries, making stops in Washington, D.C., (April 20), New York City (April 24) and Las Vegas (May 5) to pour more than 250…

Napa Valley is known for its gorgeous acres of vineyards and for the rugged, oak-covered hillsides surrounding them. But do residents need to choose between vines and trees? Depending on who you ask, Measure C, a proposition that Napans will vote on in June, could force locals to do just that. Measure C is also known as the Napa County Watershed and Oak Woodland Protection Initiative of 2018. Its goal, according to proponents, is to amend the county’s zoning rules to further protect Napa’s streams, watersheds, wetlands and oak forests. But opponents, including many local wine-industry trade groups, fear the initiative will needlessly restrict hillside vineyard development. It’s a pivotal issue for a county that relies on both maintaining its natural beauty and sustaining a $50 billion wine industry. Napa…

In the waning days of 2017, opera singer Andrea Bocelli stood backstage at Madison Square Garden in New York; a crowd of some 19,000 awaited him. It was the tenor’s final performance of the year, which would mean the end of a weeks-long dry spell—the singer strictly abstains from alcohol while on tour. “It’s been 20 days since I’ve tasted wine, so at this point, any wine is good,” he replied when asked what he planned to open in celebration. But he was looking forward to one bottle in particular: His family’s Terre di Sandro Sangiovese, grown and vinified at the Tuscan farm the Bocellis have called home for centuries. It’s a favorite of the family and a symbol of the winery’s success since Andrea and his brother, Alberto, took…

Open a menu in any American restaurant these days and don’t be surprised if it lists distinctively nutty sesame oil in a salad, the earthy tang of Thai fish sauce in the steak marinade or the twang of fresh ginger in a fish dish. And that’s only the tip of a deep iceberg. Ingredients once found primarily on Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese or Indian tables are tempting American chefs and home cooks to expand their flavor tool kits. Introducing “foreign” flavors is a recurring theme in culinary history. Cuisines as we recognize them today have evolved dramatically thanks to explorers bringing back ingredients from afar. Tomatoes had no role in Italian cuisine until the 16th century, when trade began with the Americas, where tomatoes originated. French colonists tasted curry blends…

Chef Jean Denoyer LE COLONIAL www.lecolonialsf.com The aromas emerging from the oven while these baby back ribs are cooking will have everyone in the house sniffing their way to the kitchen; it’s that enticing. The meat falls off the bone, and the glaze, made from fish sauce–infused juices brightened with passion fruit puree, adds a simple but powerful punch. Chef-restaurateur Jean Denoyer and his partners opened the San Francisco branch of the New York original Le Colonial in 1998, taking over the rambling space vacated by Trader Vic’s. A standout not only for its well-executed Vietnamese dishes, Le Colonial also boasts a 200-selection wine cellar that has held a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence since 2017. Gordana Josovic, responsible for the cellar, began her career in San Francisco at Acme Chophouse,…

Chile is a huge winemaking realm. Vineyards thrive in dozens of valleys that extend along its narrow geography for almost 500 miles, from the green, verdant south to the desert dryness of the north. There are many fascinating districts, but for sheer concentration of top-rated wines, the Maipo Valley, located roughly in the center of the country, dominates, especially when it comes to reds based on Cabernet Sauvignon. The Maipo shares many of the attributes of its neighboring regions: a moderate Mediterranean-like climate, fertile soils, water from melting Andean snows and talented vintners striving to excel. In the Maipo, however, these traits are accentuated to form a near-perfect environment for the production of Cabernet Sauvignons that compare favorably with versions from California or Bordeaux, yet often at a fraction of…

As summer approaches, Nantucket Island beckons with the promise of sand dunes, blue hydrangeas and perfectly fresh lobster rolls. The Nantucket Wine & Food Festival, May 16–20, followed closely by Memorial Day weekend, marks the beginning of the island’s high season. Nantucket is small, but it boasts culinary riches ranging from seafood shacks to special occasion spots, including several Wine Spectator Restaurant Award winners. We’ll send you to the best places for wine and food lovers. Dining on the Island Website www.nantucketchamber.org/dine Start the day with brunch and cocktails on the patio of Boarding House, nicknamed BoHo, or opt for the cozier Black-Eyed Susan’s for the sourdough French toast dressed with orange Jack Daniels butter and cinnamon pecans. As lunchtime nears, check out the regionally focused American Seasons, or the Chanticleer,…

Wine lovers’ support for charitable causes was unflagging in 2017. Many charity wine auctions achieved their highest totals ever last year, including Destin Charity Wine Auction, the Rusty Staub Foundation Wine Auction Dinner, Auction of Washington Wines, Classic Wines Auction, Sonoma County Wine Auction and Emeril Lagasse Foundation’s Carnivale du Vin. Overall, 11 auctions raised more than $1 million at their respective live auctions, for a total of $41 million. (Major U.S. charity wine auctions have multiple revenue streams, but the live-auction segment is the sole event common to them all.) Naples Winter Wine Festival achieved a live-auction total of $13.49 million; the proceeds go to nonprofits helping disadvantaged children in Collier County, Fla. Top lots included a private collection of 100-plus bottles (among them rare wines such as Joseph…

When I tasted the 2015 red Burgundies from barrel a year ago, the vintage exceeded expectations. Despite a hot, dry summer, the wines revealed freshness, balance and charming fruit, with fleshy textures concealing the underlying structure. Now, tasted from bottle, these exceptional reds are beginning to take shape. Their still-youthful Pinot Noir fruit shows purity and ripeness, their nascent tannic structure is emerging, and their overall potential looks to be extremely promising. Many are harmonious and already enjoyable, full of juicy black cherry, black currant and blackberry flavors and lush textures, yet the best have the capacity to age over the next two to three decades. “I think 2015 will give a lot of pleasure as young wines, much more than 2005,” Olivier Bernstein told me in Beaune when we…

On the northeastern edge of France lies Alsace, one of the country’s great regions for white wine. Known for its structured whites made from aromatic varieties as well as luscious, ageable dessert wines, Alsace takes its place in France’s top tier alongside the whites of Burgundy and the dessert wines of Sauternes and the Loire Valley. Since my previous tasting report on the wines of Alsace (“Taking It Easy,” Nov. 15, 2016), I have reviewed more than 225 wines from the region in blind tastings conducted at Wine Spectator’s New York office. Alsace exports comparatively little of its production, so I ultimately focus my tastings on producers with historically strong track records for quality. As a result, about half of the wines I reviewed received outstanding ratings of 90 points…

Highly Recommended The issue’s most impressive wines. Includes top-scorers and wines that represent optimal purchases based on their combination of score, price and availability. 98 Domaine de la Vougeraie Clos de Vougeot 2015 $221 FRANCE Complex aromas and flavors of red berry, sandalwood, vanilla, floral and mineral are alluring, made all the more appealing by the elegant frame and vivid structure. Silky and harmonious enough to drink now, but this should really sing in five to seven years. Offers a fine, smoky finish. Best from 2023 through 2040. 390 cases made.—B.S. 96 Concha y Toro Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto Don Melchor 2015 $120 CHILE An elegant and rich-tasting red, full of concentrated red plum, cherry and currant flavors, backed by suave, medium-grained tannins. The finish offers a caressing palate of…

Mezcal, the Mexican spirit made from agave, is drawing new fans who once reveled in its more sophisticated cousin, tequila. Renewed interest comes thanks to its image of rustic authenticity—local artisans roasting plants in an earthen oven and grinding them to pulp in a mill powered by a horse pulling a huge stone around a pit. It’s the polar opposite of marketing-driven mass-production. “This is the real thing,” says Richard Betts, founder of Sombra Mezcal. “You say, ‘Tequila, I’ve got it. What else is out there?’ If you want to see the agave spirit of Mexico, the people, place, history and cuisine, this is what mezcal is.” The picture was not always so sunny. Malcolm Lowry set his 1947 novel Under the Volcano in Mexico and painted a dire picture…

Chef Pim Techamuanvivit KIN KHAO www.kinkhao.com This salad relies on layers of tartness from tamarind and lemongrass, zing from ginger, and heat from Thai bird’s eye chiles. All that flavor doesn’t compete with a stylish sparkling wine—instead, it lifts the wine to another level. Chef-proprietor Pim Techamuanvivit overcame a wineless upbringing to find ways to bring fine wine to her Thai cuisine at Kin Khao, where this salad is a popular first course. It’s worth steaming the fish and frying the flaked flesh, boiling the prawns and making tamarind water to compile the flavors and textures that make this match work with fine fizz in the glass. To match up with the tamarind, she suggests Champagne or a classicstyle sparkling wine with some richness of its own. Indeed, a grower…

As a young boy, Brice de la Morandière could barely see over the edge of the long oak table in the Domaine Leflaive office, just off the main square of Puligny-Montrachet in Burgundy’s Côte d’Or. Now that office is his. De la Morandière was named managing director of the domaine by the family shareholders following the death of longtime managing director Anne-Claude Leflaive, de la Morandière’s aunt, who died in April 2015 after a battle with cancer. “I remember this office, but in fact, the table was the other way with my grandfather and uncle,” recalls de la Morandière. He is referring, respectively, to Joseph-Régis and Vincent Leflaive, sons of founder Joseph Leflaive, who in 1910 bought a vineyard ravaged by phylloxera to create the domaine. “Puligny is a hard…

RIESLING Among the 2015 Rieslings are two of the most highly rated wines of this report, both earning classic scores. Zind-Humbrecht’s Riesling Hunawihr Clos Windsbuhl 2015 (95 points, $80) shows the racy backbone of acidity typical of the vineyard’s wines, partnered with a lively mix of nectarine, melon and spice. Trimbach’s Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Schlossberg 2015 (95, $75), which won’t be released for another year, marries power and grace, offering ripe white fruit, slate and citrus. In both cases, vineyard sites that often result in an austere style for Riesling are more approachable due to the fruit-forward character of the vintage. For Riesling with a bit more flesh to it, though still finely balanced and elegant, seek out Weinbach’s 2015 Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Schlossberg Cuvée Ste.-Catherine L’Inédit (93,…

It was the Torrontés that did it. In preparation for the notoriously difficult WSET Level III exam, Christine Bae had memorized the regions, varieties and winemaking styles of Italy, Germany, Greece, Spain and Portugal. Then came the fateful question: What is the Torrontés wine from Argentina? “And I said, ‘Oh, my goodness,’ ” Bae recalls. “ ‘Why?’ ” Bae, a Fort Lee, N.J.–based lawyer, had never failed a test in her life. “I passed my bar exam on my first try, the thousands of tests I needed to pass in order to take the bar exam, my driver’s license test,” she says. “And I failed my wine exam.” Bae had sailed through the first two levels of the WSET on the strengths of her decade-long deep dive into wine. Her…