More sex, please...Robert Giorgione's An Epicurean Odyssey: Sommelier Stories

Anyone who has ever spent time with sommeliers knows they can get pretty wild when they’re off duty. It must be a reaction to the enforced discretion of their professional life. After hours, and away from clients, a group of sommeliers determined to enjoy themselves can be an eye-opening – even a fearsome – sight. I remember scenes straight out of one of Hunter S Thompson’s more lurid fantasies after a sommelier awards ceremony at a big London hotel. And, as we’ve seen from the splendid revelations in books like Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, outrageous high jinks in restaurants aren’t confined to after hours.

Veteran sommelier and consultant Robert Giorgione has seen a thing or two himself, during 12 years pulling corks at some of London's best restaurants. ‘I went downstairs to the basement,’ he writes. ‘I needed to check on a couple of things. Whilst doing so I could hear a noise coming from the toilet. Someone was having sex (and quite enthusiastically by the sound of it) as I could hear much grunting and groaning.’

Moments later he surprises the restaurant manager and the sous chef snorting coke. Now, if this had been Bourdain, he would have joined them (the cocaine sniffers, not the rutting couple, though one never knows), and the episodes would have been the lead-in to an exhilarating chapter on the sort of behaviour that takes place behind the swinging doors marked ‘In’ and ‘Out’. If I remember, two of the main reasons Bourdain got into cooking were the thrill of back-heeling heavy oven doors shut, and the equally heady kick of seeing a chef shagging a female junior behind the waste bins. Oh, and the drugs, of course.

Giogione is a different pair of trousers, as they say. An Epicurean Odyssey: Sommelier Stories is a detailed look at the development of a sommelier, from his Anglo-Italian upbringing (his mother’s English, his father Italian), his four adored grandparents, their recipes for Minestrone and Papardelle pasta with rabbit sauce, and his apprenticeship through La Tante Claire, Orrery, the Oxo Tower, Fifth Floor Harvey Nichols….

He’s not afraid of putting the boot in. He offended Gordon Ramsay (who seemingly bore a grudge for ever after) and is waspish about various colleagues he doesn’t think up to the mark. ‘When it came down to it, not only did the guy have a bad attitude and was very petulant – he was also pretty useless.’ That about David Charvet, who I gather is a well-known huckster (if not, Giorgione had better get in touch with his lawyer, as indeed I should). One gets the feeling that he’s an exacting taskmaster, unforgiving of mistakes and jealous of his own successes. ‘I…demonstrated great skill and imagination and was rewarded with nominations for best wine list three years in a row…’

But the problem is, he’s just not nasty enough. That sommelier training – and they’re all butlers at heart – has gone too deep. Discretion is now part of his DNA. He quotes an anonymous source’s hardly world-shattering opinion that chefs are motivated by sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, but there’s precious little of that here.

Even when it looks like he’s going to open up a bit – ‘I met a beautiful woman, who I went on to date briefly’ – it’s not to be. That ‘briefly’ is freighted with loss, and we want to hear more. Then: ‘I mentioned her to my parents, but I never had the opportunity to introduce her to them.

At the end of the book I feel I know no more about him, or the running of a restaurant, than I would have learnt had he been pouring my wine for the evening at La Tante Claire.

Giorgione is a well-liked figure in the London wine world, and I suspect he imagines little knots of colleagues past and present looking over his shoulder as he slaves over the hot keyboard. ‘Deservedly at this point I need to mention…for their hard work’: a list of half a dozen names of interest only to a tiny coterie of London restaurant folk.

Sommeliers are the most mysterious of beings, carrying more knowledge of wine in their little fingers than most punters learn (or want to learn) in a lifetime. They are omniscient and inscrutable, and they work in the heart of great restaurants - and everyone from Orwell to Bourdain knows how fascinating they can be. So what we want from a sommelier like Giorgione is dirt, not paragraphs beginning, ‘I cannot stress enough the importance of good back-of-house practice and sound financial management.’

Sound financial management....is all my brain and body needs: Ian Dury

Good writing needs to be well-spiced. On the one hand I hugely admire the effort Giogione has put in – this book (as is I’m sure the preceding volume, A Road Trip Round New Zealand) is so obviously the work of a man in love with, and very good at, his profession. But unfortunately niceness and good will don’t make for compelling reading. We want more sex, more drugs, more rock ‘n’ roll. Let it all hang out, Robert. After all, Ian Dury wouldn’t have made much impact if he’d sung, ‘Sound financial management, discretion and ability to deal with difficult customers is all my brain and body need.’

The full mojito...the weird and wonderful wines of the Scholium Project

‘This is not a tasting,’ Abe Schoener says, opening his laptop, which has a death’s head motif on it – not the Scholium logo but the Alexander McQueen grinning skull. Schoener, burly, bookish, bespectacled (with a passing resemblance to the actor John Goodman), is a philosophy teacher-turned-winemaker, and he’s at the Sampler wine shop in South Kensington to explain his Scholium project – and to make every effort NOT to explain his compelling wines.

A Scholium tattoo

Scholium is hard to pin down. It’s best described as an experimental winery, based in the Tenbrink Vineyards in Suisun Valley,  Solano County, east of Napa City. As far as I can gather the operation is run almost entirely with devoted interns. One told the New York Times that working with Schoener was akin to falling in love.

Another intern, journalist and Decanter writer Courtney Humiston, who helped on the 2011s and continues to work in the vineyards, said, 'Abe is a great teacher, but what you learn most from working with him is that we are all students and the wine is the teacher...the vineyards, the vines, the microbes, the yeast, the mysterious transformation that takes place during fermentation. We can only seek to understand; it's not something you aim to master.' They all talk like that at Scholium.

The wines are produced in tiny quantities – 50 cases here, 160 there – sourced from small parcels throughout Napa and Sonoma. Schoener describes finding parcels of ancient Sauvignon Blanc behind garages (tended, one assumes, by toothless old men in bib overalls). He also makes wine in North Fork, Long Island.

Sourcing grapes is going to get more difficult, Schoener says, as this ultra-boutique style catches on. ‘Many of us are having success in using unheralded vineyards and unheralded grapes like Petite Sirah and Verdejo. There’s more competition for vineyards now.’

If you’ve been bruised by the "natural" wines kerfuffle (we’ve had it bad in London), Schoener might make you twitch, but he insists he's not a "natural" winemaker. His wines are unracked, unfined, unfiltered, untopped-up (which can lead to a sherry-like growth of flor). Fermentation is uncontrolled (the Choephoroi Chardonnay 2008 took two years to ferment), wines are never inoculated, SO2 used only rarely. He makes “natural” winemakers look like laboratory technicians, but he says, ‘most people expect me to be an exponent of natural winemaking but I’m not.’

His tastings are eccentric, to say the least. He lectures from his laptop while the wines are poured. He won’t allow spitting: ‘You are to drink all the wine, and you are to drink only the wine.’

Schoener is the type of philosopher-winemaker that only California can produce. A fierce admirer of Napa Chardonnay guru John Kongsgaard, under whom he trained, he talks about the metaphysical – ‘that unseen realm’ – and uses words like ‘heuristic’ (no, me neither). He brings in the 14^th century Arab philosopher Ibn Khaldun. Indeed, he quotes him at length, warning us, ‘I’m now going to quote him at length’.

'I am not a natural winemaker'...Schoener

It might sound rather too rich a mix, but it’s leavened with disarming asides and tangents (on his no spitting rule – ‘I was drunk halfway through the last lecture’). The audience, moreover, is loving it, full of questions. There seem to be a lot of Americans – South Ken is brimming with diplomats and other rich expats – and they’re more attuned to this sort of thing.

‘I’m not going to talk about barrels,’ Schoener says, and keeps his discourse to the general rather than the particular. Winemaking is all about ‘preservation in the face of spoilage and preservation is achieved by the husbanding and management of microbes that would cause spoilage under only slightly different circumstances. So we as winemakers spend our lives hovering on the edge of disaster.’

What surprises you about the wines is the peculiar vividness of the flavours – it’s as de Quincey, say, or Aldous Huxley might experience them. So you don’t just get cigar box cedar notes, but a Siglo V on a balmy Sonoma evening; that’s not mere mint or spearmint in the Prince in his Caves, but the full mojito, complete with garnish and paper umbrella, and who knows, handed to you by a beautiful mixologista in white shirt and black tie. Tasting them makes for an intense experience – rather like looking at a minutely detailed canvas. You can’t appreciate the whole unless you step back and take a breath.

The ‘tasting’ was topped and tailed with a couple of grower Champagnes -  David Leclapart l’Amateur and one of the Sampler’s top grower sellers, the André Beaufort, and a Collet de Bovis from Bellet in Provence. Fine wines but after the technicolor delights of Schoener’s wines they seemed very much in a minor key and I couldn’t think what to say about them.

All the wines are available at The Sampler. It’s Scholium’s first London listing – the UK is now its 4^th largest market: New York is strong, as is Chicago, and he’s just sold some to Japan. ‘My wines are out of place in the US,’ he says. The Sampler has had them since October, manager Ben Slater tells me, and they sell out. ‘I can tell you that certain current wines have been impossible to keep up with demand for, especially given the small volumes available. With this in mind, I am confident that Abe will increase our allocation.’

THE WINES

Midan al Tahrir 2010

£28

526 cases made

Verdejo, Gewurztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay

Extraordinary honeyed nose with dense aromas of nettles and gooseberry leaves. Sharp, oxidised acidity – hot, but it’s not alcohol burn, more a kind of gentle lemongrass warmth. Salinity reminiscent of fresh lobster thermidor, bolstering sour apple – crabapple, that is – lime, lemon meringue pie and custard. Lots going on, all integrated discrete flavours. Refreshing, long.

The Prince in his Caves 2011

£42

263 cases made

Sauvignon Blanc. Blind, you’d say you had a mojito in your hand – great gouts of fresh crushed mint, citrus and tropical fruit, earl grey tea. Oxidative palate, more tea and spearmint, cut granny smith, pear, gooseberry, very fresh crushed pink rose petals, powdery, tannic acidity, (dust on a bowl of rose leaves). Sharp, tannic length. Superb, eccentric, like no other Sauvignon I’ve ever tasted.

Choephoroi 2008

£42

300 cases

14.5% alcohol. Severely botrytised Chardonnay – Schoener said ‘the grapes were rained on and turned into slime by the botrytis’. The skins were broken down but so fast that there was not enough spore activity to suck out the moisture and sweeten the juice. Fermentation took two years, with 5-10 gallons of wine lost in each barrel, flor-like growth in airspace. The nose is cabbagey but not disagreeably so. When that clears, there is more oxidation, composted tea bags, faint and sweet odours of rotting vegetable matter, then honey and tropical fruit – lychee and kiwi. Complex, powerful tannic acidity, sharp peppery flavours of coriander and rocket, lovely gentle honeyed length. Excellent and would go beautifully with robust seafood.

Chuey Chard 2010

£67

60-80 cases

Chardonnay, from Nelligan Rd Ranch, Spring Mountain, Sonoma

Nose of leather and spice – not just cedary notes of old cigar box but a Cohiba run lengthwise under your nose. Then peppery gooseberry, honey and sweet white flowers, apple, quince, tea (more earl grey), citrus, key lime pie. Bright zesty acidity detonating juicily on the end palate. Delicious

1MN 2011

£42

Cinsault, 140-year-old vines

40 cases

Dense dock leaf nose, summer hedgerow on a misty morning, minty violet perfume, very bright aspirated fresh nose. The palate is much more conventional, agreeable peppery green notes, good cherry and damson fruit leading to red fruit, raspberry and strawberry with muscovado sugar. Suave tannins but with very present grip carrying through to a food-friendly finish. Very good.

Bricco Babelico 2009

£42

Petite Sirah from Tenbrink Vineyards in the Suisun Valley,  Solano County, east of Napa City. About 160 cases

16.25% alcohol (the 08 was 17%, a Sampler staffer tells me proudly)

Baked earth nose with hot wet stones. Great sense of controlled power on the palate: christmas spice (clove and cinnamon) and sour cherry, fragrant plums and good sweet ripe acidity. Reminds me of Valpolicella Ripasso (are there raisined grapes in here?). Fine tannins tending to dryness for a young wine, some juice left but there won’t be much in a few years time. No burn from the extremely high alcohol, overall soft, dense length. Drink with rare game: grouse, venison. Good though would wonder about ageability of those tannins.

www.scholiumwines.com/

www.thesampler.co.uk

'We've got two wine OBEs in the audience today...'

Some of Napa’s finest wineries came together in London for a Masterclass last week. Nothing unusual in that, but what was notable was the personnel the wineries fielded – Delia Viader, Doug Shafer, Chris Hall (the list is at the bottom), and the wealth of wines on show. The idea wasn’t simply to showcase the wines but also, I think, to show development of style over three vintages, the 02, 05 and 08. ‘Cool, cooler, coolest’ as Tim Atkin, chairing, characterised them. 2002 had a dry, cool spring with rain, an average summer and a warm, windy September. Yields were low. In 2005 the crop was far bigger and the harvest was late – mid to end of October, rather than the more normal end of September. 2008 was the coolest of the three, with widespread frost damage (some estates on Howell Mountain reported 30% losses of fruit) then a cool summer with heat spikes, and an Indian summer to follow. At the time, winemakers were optimistic for an elegant vintage, hopes that were borne out in many of today's wines.

The first thing to say is that the tasting reinforced (as if it needed reinforcement) the concept of vintage variation in Napa. I don’t know why I even have to mention it, frankly, but there you go… The 2008s were invariably more austere, tighter – look at the Stag’s Leap District wines: Chimney Rock and Pine Ridge have a very different profile in 08 to the wines before them. And it’s not just that they are younger wines: the taut tannins and nervy acidity speak of wines that are going to mature into an elegant old age.

Three sparklers from Schramsberg. The Napa fruit is all Carneros, and accounts for 50-60% of the blend. The balance is Sonoma, Mendocino and Marin County. What lovely wines they are, the 02 especially, but I loved the tight, closed 08, which will mature beautifully. In 1972 Richard Nixon chose the 69 Blanc de Blancs to toast the Chinese premier Zhou Enlai after that old rogue Henry Kissinger had worked his magic on him.

Nice surprise...

The Merlots were an odd bunch. I kept thinking of Sideways and Miles’s ridiculous diatribes, and felt I could agree… And just as Sideways revolutionised California Pinot production (I went from Los Angeles to the top of Napa on a Pinot trip in 2006, and in every meeting, that great film was mentioned within ten minutes. Sales went up 16% in 06/07, and even Riedel felt the effect, its Pinot glasses flying off the shelves, sales up 45%, or so they said at the time) so it stuck a knife into Merlot, the grape disappearing from wine lists.

Oddly enough for what is still America’s favourite red grape, the Merlots here were presented as outliers. Andre Crisp at Luna was almost apologetic, pointing out the ‘only 100s of cases’ that they produce. For me they were mixed: the best had lifted cherry fruit and refreshing acidity, but many were marred by vegetal flavours, hints of cabbage and ammonia. Are they picking too young, chasing that ‘notion of Euro-elegance’ as Parker once said of Tim Mondavi? Note that Jean-Claude Berrouet, formerly of Petrus and Dominus, is now consulting winemaker at Twomey, from the 2012 vintage onwards.

There was a feeling of lift-off when we got to the Cabernets. This was by no means a pushover though: there were disappointments. Over the last few vintages we’ve got so used to elegance in Napa, that it can be a shock to remember there are still some big, hot beasts doing good business. The Shafers, for me, seemed old-fashioned. They weigh in at 15% and more and the alcohol makes its presence felt. Still, as Doug Shafer said, they may be big, but they certainly sell. Pleasant surprise was Chimney Rock, which people can be rude about. I loved them. In fact, just to make sure, opened a bottle of the Chimney Rock 2008 Tomahawk Vineyard yesterday, and it was very fine – tight and closed at first, pure fruit, juicy tannins. 24 hours later it had developed into a silky classic. And I have to mention the brilliant Viader, if I haven’t been effusive enough in the notes below. Among the finest wines in Napa.

Dynamic, thought-provoking, slightly chaotic (minor cavil - too many wines in too short a time. We all found ourselves hurrying through...) But what a great tasting (and did I mention the lunch?). It was packed - standing-room only - with bigwigs. Atkin began proceedings by noting 'We've got two wine OBEs in the room today' - that'll be Jancis Robinson MW OBE sitting right at the back, and Gerard Basset MW OBE MS smiling into his moustache. The only person missing was Steven Spurrier, who Napa holds dear.

Thanks to Emma Wellings for putting it all together, and Cessa Beckett of Napa Valley Vintners, and to The Palm in Pont St for hosting

The wines

Schramsberg Vineyards 2002 Blanc de Blancs Napa Valley

Creamy ripe citrus nose, with hints of crème brulee. Bright sweet melon, pineapple on the palate with racy acidity. Lovely smoky, woody end palate.

Schramsberg Vineyards 2005 Blanc de Blancs Napa Valley

Some earth and brioche notes on sweet nose of pineapple and sweet lemon. Nutty spice on the palate, around cut apple and more citrus notes. Nice long finish

Schramsberg Vineyards 2008 Blanc de Blancs Napa Valley

Hardly evolved, nose quite closed. Dense acidity and sharp spicy notes on the palate, with fine tropical flavours half-submerged but ready to burst. Crisp acidity and fine finish

Luna Vineyards Merlot 2003 Napa Valley

Ripe dense earthy slightly rotted nose. Powerful acidity and some early nose of ammonia (sulfites?). Powerful and dense, bright cherry fruit leading to slightly drying finish to the tannins

Luna Vineyards Merlot 2010 Napa Valley

Sweet plum and cherry on nose with a nice delicate vegetal hint. Powerful acidity, cherry and plum carried through. Tannins angular, the whole slightly boxy and four-square

Twomey Cellars Merlot 2002 Napa Valley

Jean-Claude Berrouet, formerly Petrus and Dominus, is consulting winemaker.

Evolved colour, dark red with rim of lighter brick. Slight hint of cabbage on first sniff, then attractive cigar-box aromas and dry crunchy leaves. Very fresh acidity, nice black hedgerow fruit, mostly blackberry. Sharp, angular tannins.

Twomey Cellars Merlot 2005 Napa Valley

With 4% Cabernet Franc

That slight cabbage aroma again, then on the palate powerful acidity and dry, chalky tannins which dissolve into sweetness and juice at end palate. Much more successful than the 02, with nice bright cherry fruit really integrated with the tannin. Will last.

Twomey Cellars Merlot 2008 Napa Valley

13.7% alcohol. Raspberry on the nose then sharp palate showing early-season, slightly unripe plum. There is sweetness fighting to climb above the acidity, but not quite managing to get its head up.

Chimney Rock Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, Stag’s Leap District

In magnum. 14.2% alcohol. Lovely bright cherry fruit nose with notes of cedar and earth. Beguilingly perfumed with parma violets and mint. Ripe dark plums on the palate with bright sweet tannins. Very fresh acidity. Good.

Chimney Rock Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, Stag’s Leap District

The nose is fresh and bright with sweetish dark fruit – blueberry, black cherry, leading to an austere palate mitigated with a heft of cherry and tobacco. Elegant but lush.

Chimney Rock Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, Stag’s Leap District

Austere nose, quite closed, hints of cedar and vanilla (not pronounced). Palate is loaded with sour/saline plum, damson, cassis, with supple tannins and superb length. Excellent.

Long Meadow Ranch Winery EJ Church Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, Napa Valley

Founded in 1989 by Ted Hall, who took on renowned winemaker Cathy Corison as consultant throughout the 90s. Long Meadow was catapulted into the premier league by the purchase of 36ha of prime Rutherford vineland in January this year: it now joins Inglenook, Quintessa, Beckstoffer and Beaulieu Vineyard as one of the 10 largest land holders in Rutherford. There’s no 2002 in the lineup – LMR lost all of its library vintages – including the 2002 - in the devastating, and deliberately set, Vallejo warehouse fire of 2005 .

Long Meadow Ranch Winery EJ Church Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, Napa Valley

13.5%. Attractive green tinge on nose with ripe sweet blackberry and cassis. The palate is elegant and fresh with sour fruit notes, dense acidity and quite tough dry tannins.

Long Meadow Ranch Winery EJ Church Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, Napa Valley

Sweet ripe cherry on nose. Palate has ripe and racy acidity with real grip to the tannin and real definition to the fruit. Complex palate – there’s earth there, and aromatic summery forest floor, soft black fruit, leading to a fresh and juicy, food-friendly finish

Pine Ridge

Pine Ridge is celebrating its 30^th anniversary this year. It makes wine in five Napa AVAS – Howell Mountain, Rutherford, Oakville, Stag’s Leap and Carneros.

Pine Ridge Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, Stag’s Leap District

Nose of blackcurrant, hint of sweet vanilla. Powerful leather and black fruit on the palate, gripping tannins, hint of agreeable greenness. Fresh acidity, great length.

Pine Ridge Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, Stag’s Leap District

The nose is savoury, with hints of bovril. Palate sweet black fruit, blackberry, cassis, superb dryish gripping tannins. Very smooth though slightly marred by a hot finish

Pine Ridge Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, Stag’s Leap District

Bright nose with sour plum and damson, palate taut and nervy, full of fruit with nice tension to the acidity, dense dry tannins

Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2002, Napa Valley

83% Cabernet Sauvignon, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot

Bright fresh nose, very open with violet notes and cedary oak, and hints of grassiness. The mid-palate is elegant, there’s good blackberry and cassis, some mintiness, but sense it’s not firing  on all cylinders – slight hollowness before dry tannins kick in and resolve into juiciness. Slightly unsatisfying

Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2005, Napa Valley

85% Cabernet Sauvignon, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot

A powerful tannic wine, lots of blackberry, cassis, dark plum and dark sour cherry. Tannins are dense but integrated and never dominate, still juicy at end

Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2008, Napa Valley

Powerful chalky grippy tannins. This needs time – still young and tough, tannins dominant throughout but with dense dark fruit peeping round the edges. Big and brooding chocolatey finish.

Shafer Vineyards Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, Stag’s Leap District

The three Shafer wines are 15-15.5% alcohol

Lovely open nose with textured dark plum and blackberry fruit. Dense sweet black fruit on the palate, powerful tannins though smooth, notes of iodine and licorice. Complex

Shafer Vineyards Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, Stag’s Leap District

Dense, knotted, sweet nose, powerful and elegant. Some green notes. Huge palate – blackcurrant, mocha, cassis – but still very fresh. Alcohol: while it doesn’t burn, it makes its presence felt, giving a slight misgiving of imbalance. But nothing a hefty rare T-bone wouldn’t remedy.

Shafer Vineyards Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, Stag’s Leap District

Huge. Licorice, salinity and iodine alongside blackcurrant fruit on the nose. Deep palate, robust tannins complemented (aided and abetted) by brisk acidity, huge doses of blueberry fruit and coffee. Massive sense of alcohol (see the 05 above – it doesn’t burn but it’s an aggressive presence). When was this opened? I would leave half a day open – but in any case don’t come back to it until at least 2015.

Silver Oak Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, Napa Valley

82% Cabernet, 11% Merlot, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot

Really superb nose, savoury textured dark fruit, repeated on the palate. Tannins after 12 years are full of energy, great grip, chalky and detonating juicily on the tongue. Very satisfying. Lots of life left in this.

Silver Oak Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, Napa Valley

Great juicy tannins at first but falls down on the mid-palate – the fruit is bullied by insistent acidity, and the tannins close in and add to the ruck. Closed for the duration? I couldn’t decide about this. There’s primary fruit there but will it come through? Will the tannins get any sweeter? Jury’s out.

Silver Oak Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, Napa Valley

Ripe red fruit. Lots going on here, cherry and salty plum, violets. Tannins are soft at first and building into attractive dryness becoming mouthwatering for the finish. Very nice indeed.

Viader Vineyards and Winery, Viader Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 Napa Valley

Roughly 60/30 Cabernet Sauvignon/Cab Franc.

Delia Viader’s eyrie clings to the side of Howell Mountain but is some 200m outside the AVA, hence the Napa Valley designation. Never mind. Superb ripe blackcurrant nose with fresh mint notes and exotic spice (what? all-spice? Marijuana?) as well as some green. Vibrant, powerful, effortless. Lovely earthy structured wine, built around elastic, silky but ultimately dense tannins with grip. Viader loves her Cabernet Franc, and it shows…

Viader Vineyards and Winery, Viader Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 Napa Valley

Roughly 60/30 Cabernet Sauvignon/Cab Franc.

Powerful nose of blueberry and old leather. Refreshing acidity in a palate subtle with black fruit. Tannins bright and ever-present lead to food-friendly finish. This was Michel Rolland’s first vintage consulting for Viader.

Viader Vineyards and Winery, Viader Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 Napa Valley

Roughly 60/30 Cabernet Sauvignon/Cab Franc.

Bright and fresh with incredible young, chalky tannins. Bright fresh palate with earth and leather, plum and ripe black cherry. Exuberant, very elegant, unfussy. Delicious.

Waterstone Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 Napa Valley

Started in 2000, Waterstone sources fruit from all over the valley, much of it hillside. The 2002 is mainly (or all?) Oakville and Rutherford. Bright, minty nose with aromas that act on the nasal passages like a vapor-rub. Wonderful. The fruit is at that indeterminate end of the red spectrum, wild strawberry and raspberry with blackcurrant, then earth, leather, cherry and sour plum. Excellent

Waterstone Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 Napa Valley

Some smoke and earth on the nose, then the first hint of green, then a blistering (almost literally) palate with black fruits scrambling over each other for attention, and alcohol very noticeable. It’s still young though I wonder where that alcohol is going?

Waterstone Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 Napa Valley

First off on the nose is bright cherry, then woody blueberry fruit, some licorice. Superb refreshing acidity and ripe, suave tannins with grip. Long and lush. Excellent

Who was there:

• Schramsberg: Maryann Bautovich, Export Representative
• Luna Vineyards: André Crisp, President of Sales
• Twomey: Vivien Gay, International Sales Manager
• Chimney Rock: Elizabeth Vianna, Winemaker & General Manager
• Long Meadow Ranch: Chris Hall, General Manager & Proprietor
• Pine Ridge: Michael Beaulac, Winemaker & General Manager
• Robert Mondavi: Tim Fogarty, VP International Sales & Marketing Europe
• Shafer: Doug Shafer, President
• Silver Oak: Vivien Gay, International Sales Manager
• Viader: Delia Viader, Owner & founding winemaker
• Waterstone: Brent Shortridge, Owner

Wonderful old Rioja

Many of us have been banging on about this for ages: Rioja represents the best value for money of any wine, anywhere. The oldest and finest I’ve tasted was Murrieta’s Castillo Ygay 1959, an exquisite, delicate mouthful with flavours of sweet quince, with a wonderful old age ahead of it. That wine sells for around £200. The equivalent in Bordeaux or Tuscany would be many times that. Or how about the superb Viña Tondonia 1994 (one of the great vintages of the decade) from Lopez de Heredia – about £70, or great wines from vintages classed ‘Excelente’ by the Consejo Regulador – 2010, 2005, 2004, 2001, 95, 94 – from world-class producers like Muga, La Rioja Alta, Contino, Murrieta, many coming in at less than £50.

Superlative...Faustino 1970

At entry level, Rioja is reliable. As we all know, any corner shop in the UK is required by law to carry Campo Viejo Tempranillo (it used to be the Crianza). I defy you to find a better wine for £8.50 - and at Crianza level, CV has huge competition, from Beronia, Caceres, Riscal, Faustino…

On Monday, Wines of Spain and the Rioja Consejo, via veteran hispanophile Sarah-Jane Evans, treated us to eight superb vintages, all 'Excelente' or 'Very Good' years, from CVNE’s Viña Real 2005 back to Marques de Riscal Gran Reserva 1964. It was an eccentric evening in the Spanish Embassy. A few gran quesos were there:  Víctor Pascual, president of the Consejo Regulador of Rioja, Pedro Sanz, president of the Rioja government, and HE Federico Trillo-Figueroa, the Spanish Ambassador to London. Pedro Sanz reminded us all that the UK drinks 33 million litres of Rioja a year, more than 10% of production. A wine was served, in unmatching glasses, by cadaverous waiters who didn’t know what it was. In fact, nobody knew what it was - even Maria-Jose Sevilla of Wines from Spain couldn’t find out. A mystery. Very nice wine though.

Then we were allowed to taste. The wines were a delight, none (except possibly the Riscal) anywhere near retirement age. The best of them (and really, that’s all of them) are bright, with confident elegant tannins that dissolve into sweet juice at the end palate. There is a spectrum of fruit, from the sweet quince of Ygay to the spicy plum of Luis Cañas. Wonderful Rioja.

The Wines (stockists and prices at the end)

CVNE Viña Real Gran Reserva 2005, Rioja Alavesa

Tempranillo and 5% Graciano

2005 was graded ‘Excellent’ by the Consejo. This is a Gran Reserva, matured two years in French and American oak, three years in bottle. Very sweet red fruit on the nose, first strawberry then raspberry with hints of balsamic, ripe cherry and muscovado, molasses. Lots going on there. Palate has bright fruit and dense, ripe juicy tannins which actually seem quite developed, secondary leather notes coming through. But lovely length of earth and dry bark, carrying through to a food friendly finish. Very good

Luis Cañas Gran Reserva 2001, Rioja Alavesa
Excelente. This is LC’s classic offering – if you want to see what modern Rioja style looks like in the hands of an expert, see its Hiru 3 Racimos, which is all blackerry-toast-and-vanilla. It wins a major medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards every year. This Gran Reserva has bright smooth leathery nose, some smoke and wood, sun-warmed wood. Really powerful sour plum and spice on palate, intense linear tannins (they seem much less developed than in the first wine, the 05). There’s nothing big or brash about this – it’s got a superb fresh zesty length, very austere and elegant. Excellent.

Marques de Caceres Gran Reserva 1994, Rioja Alta

1994 - another ‘Excellent’ year – was the first great vintage of the 1990s, and was a welcome fillip after the dull 93 and 92. Many reckon 94 marked a turning point for Rioja, the year when the first ‘modern’ styles started to appear. The 94 spent eight years ageing in bottle, released at the end of 2002. Exceptionnally bright spiced and perfumed nose with molasses, balsamic, sweet black treacle and licorice. Amazing combination of aromas in a 20-year-old wine. Wonderful supple tannins, sweet and ripe, powdery at first then dissolving on the tongue to sweet juiciness. Excellent.

Marques de Murrieta Castillo Ygay Reserva Especial 1994, Rioja Alta

1981 was 'Very Good'. 76% Tempranillo, 14% Garnacha, then Mazuelo and Graciano. Four years in American oak, four years in bottle, released 2002. 13% alc. Of the three bottles the first was corked so we had to share glasses.

One of my favourite bodegas, run by the brilliant Vicente Cebrian and winemaker Maria Vargas. Cebrian has just spent €25m razing the entire c19th Castillo Ygay and rebuilding it stone by stone, exactly as it was before – very Borges. Ygay is one of the few estate vineyards in Rioja, and one of the world’s greatest and longest-lived wines. Lovely nose of quince and earth, sun-baked forest floor, and a hint of incense. Sweetness on the palate – cherry, wild strawberry, baked apple, set off by ripe, supple and precise tannins, and crisp acidity. Stupendous.

Campo Viejo Gran Reserva 1981, Rioja Alta

Developed savoury nose with hints of beef after the leathery opening. Deep aromas of earth and cedar, vivid sweetness of rot and spiced plum. I could smell this for hours. No need to taste. Palate is full of life though, with slightly salty tannins with a seductive powdery grip for the last three-quarters. Elegant, subtle length, crying out for food – how about lamb with rosemary? Academic actually, as there's none left. The few remaining bottles are in the Campo Viejo museum

Beronia Cosecha Fundacional Gran Reserva 1973 Rioja Alta

Before official vintage ratings came in, 73 was considered outstanding. Aged four years in American oak. 12.5% alc

Warm brick colour, bright. Subtle, dense and woody nose, fresh and elegant, a really youthful 40-year-old nose of supple old leather and moist earth. The palate is earthy with cherry and plum coming shyly through. Finish is fresh with only a hint of dryness to the tannins. Excellent. Only a handful of bottles left, in the Beronia library

Faustino Gran Reserva 1970, Rioja Alavesa

Also an outstanding vintage. The best of the lineup. Bright nose of marinaded cherry, pot pourri, dried rose petals. Wonderful salty, powdery, intense tannins underscoring fresh bright fruit – cherry and quince – and hints of turkish delight. Tannins detonate on the tongue and lead through to a superb finish. Superlative, and with years of life ahead of it.

Marques de Riscal Gran Reserva 1964, Rioja Alavesa

Outstanding vintage. Lots of bottle variation. My first glass was marred by a dry, metallic finish. The second was perfect. What a wonderful cedary, vintage cigar-box nose. So venerable, like an antique snuff-box lined with velvet, spicy and aromatic. There are hints of raspberry – cooked raspberry - balsamic, bright cherry and pot pourri. The palate has some aniseed notes alongside this lovely ripe red fruit. The tannins are still juicy and fresh. An amazing wine, nearing retirement but with a sprightly few years ahead. Perfect with Manchego and jamon serrano.

List of stockists and prices:

Faustino Gran Reserva 1970 – RRP approx. £55-£65. Listed on Matthew Clark, Cellar Trends currently stocks 6 cases which are available for sale and Drinkshop.com will list and arrange sale if required.

Marqués de Cáceres Gran Reserva 1994 – no longer available on the UK market. Sample was provided from library by Chief Oenologist. If any retailers have any bottles remaining in the UK, est. RRP would be £23-£25.

CVNE Gran Reserva Viña Real 2005 – RRP £21.49 from BBR, Harrods, Oxford Wine Co, D. Byrne & Co, Cambridge Wine Merchants.

Beronia Gran Reserva Cosecha Fundacional 1973 – no longer sold commercially in the UK. Library bottles remaining.

Campo Viejo Gran Reserva 1981 - current vintage is 2005. The 1981 is no longer sold – the few remaining bottles are in their museum.

Marqués de Murrieta Gran Reserva Castillo Ygay 1994 – est. £80-100. Handford, Fine & Rare Wines and Coe Vintners have a very small amount of stock.

Luis Cañas Gran Reserva 2001 – RRP £24.99. There aren’t many stockists of the wine as they are now on to the 2005 vintage. Alliance Wine

Australian Shiraz comes of age

‘We’re the pretty ones now,’ Allister Ashmead of Elderton said to me once, in relation to his newly-elegant Shiraz. Who’d have thought to hear an Aussie, a Barossan, say that?

Matthew Jukes’ extraordinary 100 Best Australian Wines tasting this week has confirmed to me that Australian Shiraz has graduated to a new and sublime level. And it seems absolutely right – as if the best producers of the Barossa, McLaren  Vale, Clare, Coonawarra and the rest are simply taking the next step on an evolutionary journey.

Extraordinary nose of dark rotted fruit...Jamsheed

Oh, there are some monsters still (and I mean that as a compliment). But the mighty ones – Ben Glaetzer’s Bishop, Grant Burge’s Meshach (the old testament names put you in mind of those stiffbacked pioneers in their rusty black hats, beards full of grit) – sit comfortably in their skins. They are behemoths, but they’re balanced and practical, there’s no alcohol burn, and the tannins don’t rip your teeth out and kick them down the street.

But before we got to those there was a line-up of excellence. Jukes knows what he’s doing of course (though no Elderton?), he should do, he’s been at it long enough – this is the 10^th anniversary of the 100 Best, and the big hall at Aussie House was packed.

Back to the Shiraz. I haven’t used the word ‘delicate’ so much since I was reviewing Dresden china for Tea Service Weekly. Wine after wine was bold, bright, uncompromising but not brash. The thread that ran throught the 30-odd I tasted was the quality of the tannins. Typically a nose of ripe plums, bruised damsons, white pepper (not black so much, as it used to be), savoury grilled meats and so forth, repeated on the attack and then quickly picked up by a delicate (there we go again) but firm wave of ripe tannins, dry at first then explodingly juicy, and carrying right through to the end.

They are such complete wines. There is no fatigue (although I did trip over the fluted columns a couple of times), just a constant pleasure in tasting wines that are crafted by artisans at the very top of their game.

The difference between now and five or eight years ago is the tannin management. Big Australian Shiraz could make you feel you’d just drunk a glass of sand laced with mint and juicy berries, but no longer. These wines have tannins that are tough and muscular, there’s no doubt about them, but they don’t dominate except in a couple of cases.

Then there's the freshness of beautifully-balanced acidity, sitting alongside the tannin and fruit, adding to the mouthfeel.

This is the new Shiraz. The pretty ones. What a superb selection of masterful wines.

Lindemans Bin 50A Shiraz 2012 SEA £8.99

Very bright cherryish nose. Confected dense sweet cherry palate with sugared almonds, spice. Ripe soft tannins and good spicy length. Brilliant for the price

Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz 2011 SA £9.99

Serious earthy, slightly rotted nose, quite one-dimensional palate but still there are decent notes of plum, damson and pepper. Good

De Bortoli Windy Peak Heathcote Shiraz 2012, Heathcote, Victoria £10.99

Sweet white pepper nose. Blackcurrant rush on the palate, lovely powdery tannins exploding into juiciness towards the end. Good

Tyrells Vat 9 Shiraz 2010, Hunter Valley NSW £34.99

Really fine meaty nose, savoury with earth and damson. Gentle tannins with real chalky grip. Charming, with long delicate length

Paringa Estate Peninsula Shiraz 2010 Mornington Peninsula Victoria £27.60

Delicate fresh plummy, cherry palate with gripping ripe tannins and this wonderful exotic spice (cinnamon and sandalwood). Juicy and pretty. Good dry (powdery) length. Excellent

Jamsheed, Garden Gully Vineyard Syrah 2011, Great Western, Victoria £35.00

Extraordinary nose of dark rotted fruit – challenging at first but mellowing into dark notes of forest floor, blackberry, black cherry, coffee. Firm linear tannins which carry through to a superb dry length. One of the wines of the line-up. Excellent

Fox Gordon Eight Uncles Shiraz 2011, Barossa, SA £18.75

Lovely bright red fruit nose, plummy but overall reddish fruit on the palate, superb juicy tannins, precise and lengthy. Of all the wines in the lineup this might not have the heft in the middle palate but it’s charming for all that

Wirra Wirra Catapult Shiraz 2011, McLaren Vale SDA £13.99

Bright minty aspirated nose, all eucalypt and sweet mint (spearmint). The tannins enter late, ripely, and pick up the red cherry and plum and carry it through to a long and lingering finish. Excellent

Chapel Hill Shiraz 2011, McLaren Vale, SA, £23.49

Savoury nose with animal skin (a hint of marmite). Dense and sweet black briar fruit, textured like the skin of a kiwi, very delicate tannins give the lie to the power of this wine. Very fine

Teusner, The Riebke Shiraz 2012, Barossa Valley, SA £19.99

More earth and general deliciously rotted forest floor on the nose. Brilliant nose. Cooked macerated plum, damsons, chocolate, coffee notes. Very complex, could go on smelling this for minutes on end. The palate is the same, with very precise tannins holding up more plum and dark stone fruit. The length is perfect: warm, powdery tannins which finally dissolve into juiciness and don’t disappoint for a full minute. Superlative wine – and what a price!

Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz 2010, Coonawarra SA £14.00

I’d tasted the altogether more expensive Michael and John Riddoch with Sue Hodder that morning… This has sweet definite red cherry and blackcurrant on the nose – very pure – then a ripe rather commercial (though not jammy) palate. But as soon as you start thinking, ‘commercial’, the tannins kick in and lift everything out of easy sweetness and into more serious territory. Great length. Very good.

Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz 2010, Hunter Valley NSW £34.99

Ah what an amazing nose, so open and perfumed, full of fruit and life. Palate of damson, blackcurrant and cherry with spicy tannins (clove, it has to be, and star anise), following through beautifully

Clonakilla Shiraz/Viognier 2011, Canberra District ACT £66.99

Not a cheap wine, I have to say, and a disappointing end to the palate for the price. The Viognier adds a layer of parma violets to the nose, and there are velvety sweet violets, along with blackberry and white pepper. But ‘celestial’, Matthew? The only celestial thing about it is the price. There’s unbalance here – nothing serious, but within this lineup the tannins lack juice.

Best Great Western Bin 0 Shiraz 2009 Victoria £39.99

Open spicy peppery classic Aussie Shiraz nose, mint and menthol at the end. Tannins are old-fashioned monsters, but they don’t overwhelm the superb earthy dark fruit flavours. Until the end palate, when they’re drier than I’d like in an 09. Are they going to get any softer?

Giaconda Warner Shiraz 2008 Beechworth Victoria £75.00

This has a perfect modern nose, a cornucopia of plum and damson and robust red fruits, strawberries marinaded in balsamic, raspberries ripe and bruised. Lovely delicate palate, open and fresh. Excellent

Jim Barry The McRae Wood Shiraz 2009, Clare Valley SA £27.00

A touch of iodine and bandages on the nose – nothing disagreeable and rather refreshing, attractive. Lots of mint, eucalypt on the palate, blackcurrant and blackberry to the fore. Good

Penfolds Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz 2010, Barossa Valley £46.00

Open, fresh, sweet nose with all kinds of red and black fruit – cooked raspberries and balsamic strawbs, fresh mint. Opulent, generous. The tannins are deep and lush, give impression of really cherishing the fruit they support. Powerful and fine

Charles Melton Nine Popes 2010, Barossa Valley SA £34.99

Shiraz/Grenache. I’d been looking forward to this and it didn’t disappoint. A wonderful, muscular, copper-bottomed hulk of a wine, clinker-built for ocean-going. Lithe, with a cocktail of sour plums and sweet damson on the nose and dense opulent dark fruit on the palate. The tannins have an iron grip but don’t overwhelm,and carry through to  juicy end. It’s old-fashioned, uncompromising, full of vibrant, sinuous life. Excellent

Ulithorne Frux Frugis Shiraz 2010 McLaren Vale £34.95

Mint and eucalypt, white pepper and plummy dark fruit. Tannins full of power and grip, but charming for all that. Old-style muscular Shiraz. Good.

Torbreck The Factor 2009, Barossa Valley £89.00

Wonderful wine, fine blackcurrant and sweet plum on the nose, carrying through to the palate, picked up and rocked by sinuous, gritty tannins that remind you to eat a very large, very juicy rare steak with sea salt and black pepper, immediately. An old charismatic monster.

John Duval Entity Shiraz Barossa Valley SA £2009

No note! What happened? Must have been distracted. Pity as I love John Duval’s wines and had clocked this one earlier. What does Matthew say? ‘Grunt and more spice overlaying the chocolate, plum and mulberry theme… oak exotic…’ Damn.

Jim Barry The Armagh Shiraz 2007, Clare Valley SA £120.00

Superb and muscular, a wine for laying down for a dozen years before you even attempt it. But the tannins on this 2007 are ripe and sweet and rather kind to your back teeth, the fruit is open and opulent, with an almost Grenache-like juiciness before the tannins grab you and usher you firmly into another world. Very fine.

Glaetzer Bishop Shiraz 2010, Barossa Valley £35.00

From the immensely talented Ben Glaetzer, a beast. Brooding meaty nose, savoury, with sour-mash plums, licorice, dark berries. Sweet densely-knit tannins carry more plumminess and damson, chocolate and more licorice. Huge, and with a slight alcohol burn (only 15.1%) at the end, but then it’s very young and we can forgive that.

Rosemount Estate Balmoral Syrah 2010 McLaren Vale SA £78.00

Sweet dense nose loaded with chocolate, leather (old saddle leather), tar, dark fruit. There’s such elegance here for a big wine, the dark fruit palate carried by ripe tannins that carry it all the way to the end. Brilliant.

Grant Burge Meshach Shiraz, 2008, Barossa Valley SA £88.00

More tar, sweet and pungent, rotted dense plum, molasses, wonderful perfume. Very ripe, very beguiling in a massive way. The tannins are ripe and powdery, exploding into almost viscous juice on the end palate. My last wine of the day and what a send-off.

Penfolds Grange 2008, SA £500

Empty bottle. Bastards.

New York State: Every wine a pleasure

Kareem Massoud shrugs a shoulder when I mention how the Californians tend to dismiss New York wines. ‘They would, wouldn’t they?’ he says. Massoud is the winemaker and owner of the excellent Long Island winery Paumanok; he and half a dozen of his east coast colleagues are showing 70-odd wines at the London Wine Trade fair (or village fête, which is what this truncated event has come to resemble). Still, I wasn’t complaining. Everyone’s relaxed, you can get to talk to the winemakers, and you can taste and take notes without being jostled by fellow-travellers.

I’ve never been to New York State wine country. I’ve hardly ever tasted their wines. We don’t get to see them in the UK, really. They enter a handful of wines for the Decanter World Wine Awards every year, and win a few bronzes, perhaps a silver medal. They're just not very visible.

So it’s been an education to see their range (and Virginia as well, of which more later).

New York State sits between the 38^th and 48^th parallels – the same latitude as most European wine country (Bordeaux is on the 44th parallel, southern Spain goes down to the 38^th). It’s a region cooled by vast bodies of water – the Atlantic to the east, the Great Lakes to the north and west. Soils are deep and well-drained, varying from the slate, clay, sand and silt of Finger Lakes to the sandy well-draining soils of Long Island.

The Finger Lakes region is the oldest and best-known – for its Rieslings, then there’s the Lake Erie region to the west, Hudson River above New York City, and Long Island, its producers concentrated on the two forks at the east end of the island.

New York State is a huge region, second only to the behemoth California in US wine production, with some 1500 growers and 309 wineries in nine AVAs.

The list of grapes farmed is long, from the recondite (Baco Noir, Chancellor, Marechal Foch, Valvin Muscat, Catawba) to international staples (the Bordeaux varietals, Chardonnay, Gewurz, Pinot Noir, Riesling).

If you want to find the wines in the UK, the best importer is Wine Equals Friends, which lists around 70 wines. Most of them are on-trade – a few dozen restuarants around the country, including some top names: Arbutus, The Glasshouse, Hakkasan, Hedone, Hix Mayfair, The Modern Pantry, Pollen Street Social, Gidleigh Park, Nathan Outlaw, the Seafood Restaurant, Padstow and others – including of course the Vineyard at Stockcross, which has the most comprehensive American wine list in the country.

The wines aren’t cheap – hardly any clock in at less than £15, with the average seeming to be £18-25, and the big icon reds and whites hitting £40-45. For the on-trade the wholesale price starts at £18-odd, so on wine lists you’re going to be looking at £50-60 bottles at least.

It was a fascinating tasting, every wine a pleasure, none that I wouldn’t recommend. If you take as the benchmark question, Is this the best expression of this grape, for the region and the terroir? Then I’d say the Bordeaux blends stand above the rest for their complexity and finesse. The reds seem to me to bridge the Old and New Worlds – they have elegance and precision along with exoticism. Tasted blind, you’d say unmistakably New World.

The Rieslings are lovely, but in some I thought the sweet aromas on the nose promised much, but the follow through would be slightly dry. Often the acidity didn’t dance on the palate alongside that lemony fruit, but fell to a dry shortness.

This is only a snapshot. I only tasted one Pinot and didn’t think much of it, but that’s hardly representative. I didn’t have time for the Chenins (I would have loved to see them) or the Chardonnays, the ice wine, the late harvests, the Gewurzes… what a cornucopia.

New York (and Virginia) play second fiddle to California, which has the market and the reputation, and the bombast. And as the Californians find more and more elegance in their Cabernets, as those reclusive hillside growers shake the dust off their boots and make a bit more noise about their wonderful Mountain Cabs, New York’s not going to find the going any easier. Can they find a market in the UK? I don't know - we've got a blind spot when it comes to American wines.We just don't get them, in more ways than one.

Riesling

Tierce Dry Riesling, Finger Lakes 2011

A joint venture between three vineyards - Anthony Road Wine Company, Fox Run Vineyards and Red Newt Wine Cellars. Honeyed fruit with white flowers, good dense acidity, quite dry, full of character.

Konstantin Frank, Finger Lakes 2012

Very floral sweet nose with dry white flowers, palate of sweet citrus and orange blossom. Slightly short in the finish but very attractive and pretty

Hermann J Wiemer Riesling, Finger Lakes, 2012

Bright spicy lemon and lime (lemon meringue pudding, with that touch of creaminess), palate full of bright exotic tropical fruit, racy (but slightly drying) acidity.

Red Newt Cellars, Sawmill Creek Riesling, Finger Lakes 2011.

This winery produces around 400 cases a year. Interesting grassy aromas and dense petrol notes on the nose. It gives an impression of a serious wine, mineral, elegant and light, with flavours of cut pear, hints of honey and aromatic citrus.

Paumanok  Riesling, North Fork Long Island, 2012

Sweet citrussy nose with minerality setting off pineapple, lemon and lime. Very open and fresh, sprightly acidity, great length. Excellent

Lamoreaux Riesling, Finger Lakes 2012

Delicate nose with hints of white pepper, good peppery acidity on the palate, stone fruit, minerality and racy acidity. Length falls a little short

Sheldrake Point Riesling, Finger Lakes 2011

26 g/l residual sugar

Dense sweet powerful nose with gasoline secondary aromas, and on the early palate. Full of tropical fruit and sweet apricots and peach, cut pear. Interesting, very fine until a slight hot burn at the end

Reds

McCall Pinot Noir 2011 North Fork Long Island

Very advanced light brick red colour – looks much older – very light. Rather odd sweet perfume, slightly cabbagey. Palate is a bit hot and confectioned. Should have had another bottle

Paumanok, Cabernet Franc, North Fork Long Island 2011

2011, Massoud says, was one of the most challenging he’s known, with heavy rains from mid-August to harvest, disease, rot and other horrors to cope with. So if he can make Cab Franc like this in a bad year… it has lovely bright fruit on the nose, almost Grenache- like in its juiciness, and good powdery tannins which burst refreshingly on the end palate. A pretty, charming wine.

Palmer, Cabernet Franc, North Fork Long Island 2009

Two and  half years in French and Hungarian oak

Powerful  nose with earth and (dare I say it?) a bit of brett (they hate any mention of that, these New Worlders. Miguel Martin, the Spanish winemaker, sticks his nose in the glass) but this is fine, lending a sharp forest-floor tang. Red plums, damson and leafy bramble on the palate around dense, chalky tannins. Very good

Palmer Merlot, North Fork Long Island 2009

This superlative Merlot has the same earthiness on the nose as the Palmer Cab Franc, with sweet cooked plum and soft red fruit – raspberries and sweet balsamic – on the platate. Superb, youthful, with grippy, supple tannins. (Martin, winemaker, see above, describes them as ‘elastic’, which is spot-on – elastic implies higher tension than suppleness.) Excellent.

McCall Merlot, Long Island 2010

Lovely grassy flavour on the nose, those cherished herbal (‘erbal) notes. Sweet cherry and damson palate, superb defined, precise tannins. Very fine indeed.

Wolffer Merlot, Long Island 2010

Good sweet red fruit on the nose, ripe gripping tannins, raspberry, damson, sweet briar palate, juicy fresh tannic length

Wolffer, Fatalis Fatum Bordeaux Blend, Long Island 2010

48% Merlot, 28% Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and PV

Good juicy sweet blackcurrant then ripe, cooked raspberries on a base of precise minerality. Very fine spice and perfume (cloves, pot pourri). An exotic wine, almost eastern-Mediterranean. Very fine, moderate, balanced, food friendly.

Paumanok, Assemblage Bordeaux Blend, North Fork Long Island 2010

35% Merlot, 33% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% PV, 11% Cab Franc

16 months in oak, 30% new French

Blackcurrant, damson and dried plum nose, then the Petit Verdot giving pot pourri and aromas of quince paste, then (complexity!) (h)erbal notes. Palate has fresh raspberry, red cherry and red plums, and some cinnamon, coffee, all set off by fine tannins that carry through to a sharp, food friendly finish. One of the best I’ve tasted from the region.