Wine Club Newsletter - January 2022
How Did Ancient Rome Wine Taste?
It's an understatement to say the Ancient Romans loved their wine. It's estimated that they drank 47 million gallons of wine each year -- one bottle per citizen each day (via CoolaBoo). The Ancient Romans drank it with all of their meals (yes, even breakfast).
According to Aveine, everyone in the Ancient Roman empire had access to it, including slaves. Simply put, it was a dietary staple, and it was ensured that wine, like food, was affordable to all. However, it wasn't always popular. That is, until the Ancient Greeks introduced it to Rome. Prior to this, wine was more readily consumed by the Greeks.
It then spread to the south of Italy, where most of the wine was eventually produced. In turn, Greek wine became a luxury and was more expensive to purchase. Per UNRV, as the Roman empire expanded, so did the number of vineyards.
Wine and grape production flourished, so much so that the Ancient Romans were farming more wine grapes than food. Thus, wine production was moved to different provinces (like France or Spain) and Italy became an import center.
We know they consumed something called wine, but what did this wine taste like? Similar to what people drink today? Actually, CBC describes Roman wine as unpalatable.
According to UNRV, wine production varied in Ancient Rome. Most commonly, the grapes were harvested, then stomped on by foot. CoolaBoo states that this would be done for hours by slaves in a large pot. This pot could be made from wood, terracotta, or iron, as well as other substances.
Whatever the material, it would affect the taste of the wine. Once this step was complete, the pot would be lined with beeswax and buried in the ground (via CBC) The top would be left open while fermenting and was later sealed with clay or resin. The result? The process gave the ancient wine a taste that Serious Eats compares to a "floor tile in a public restroom."
It's for this reason that the Ancient Romans would mix in seawater, honey, spices, and even chalk. This would alter the taste for the better and add what they believed to be a medicinal property.
More likely than not, they cut the wine with plenty of water. Besides improving flavor, it would also decrease the physical effects of the alcohol. And if someone did drink unmixed wine? They were believed to be barbaric (per Facts and Details). The Ancient Romans adored wine so much they had their own god for it, Bacchus -- not to be confused with the Greek god Dionysus (via Mythology).
Leslie Veliz
$400,000 Bottle of Wine Stolen
TMZ
A man and woman posing as a couple made off with an incredibly rare bottle of French wine that's 215 years old ... and valued at $407,000. That's not all though -- they also got away with at least 6 other bottles from the 19th century, which are worth a pretty penny too.
Here's what happened ... the guy and gal -- whom are reported to have been English speakers, and acted "refined" -- visited the Atrio restaurant/hotel in Caceres, Spain ... a Michelin-starred place famous for its top-notch wine collection that they keep in a cellar.
They checked in at some point last week, deciding to dine in the attached eatery -- and, at one point, asked the front desk hotel clerk to serve them more food ... who then ran back to the kitchen, leaving security cameras unmonitored. That's when they made their hit.
Cops say the guy went down to their cellar and smuggled out 7 bottles, including the high-priced 1806 Chateau d'Yquem ... a dessert wine from the Sauternes district of Bordeaux. They checked out early Wednesday ... paying with a credit card and leaving with a fat haul.
No word on how much exactly all 7 bottles are worth combined ... but it sounds like it might be well north of half a mill, at the very least. Folks there believe they were very much so professionals ... and pulling a heist on behalf of a wine collector of some sort.
Reason for the latter ... Atrio's owner says the $400k bottle is very well known on the market as their property, and it cannot be easily sold publicly without major flags being raised. So, either somebody wants it all for themselves, or is planning to sell it on the black market.
The good news, we suppose, is that all the stolen wine is insured -- but the crooks are on the loose and seem to have vanished without a trace. Local authorities are investigating.
...
Cheers!
Gary Parker, Owner
The WineSellar & Brasserie
2019 Anti Fuoco Chardonnay
Growing Region Veneto, Italy
Varietal Composition 100% Chardonnay
Fermentation Stainless Steel Tanks
Alcohol Content 12%
Suggested Retail $25.00
WineSellar Club Price $18.89
Broad Strokes:
The wine region of Veneto (near Venice) in north-eastern Italy has long been associated with fine wines, but also with the spirit of innovation which is typical of the region, and which made it an important area of Europe throughout history. Indeed, today Veneto's winemakers are recognized as the most modernized in all of Italy, using contemporary techniques to make the best of the high-quality grape varietals which flourish in the region. The region also benefits from a cooler climate, but one which is sheltered by the Alps, producing balanced and consistent climatic conditions ideal for viticulture.
Appearance:
Nice clear glass bottle, which you know I like for white wines. And yes, I also love the screwcaps! The label is somewhat understated, maybe a bit indistinct, although it is pleasant to look at. The wine has a pale yellow-corn hue.
Nose:
Crispy and varietally correct Chardonnay fruit. Nice notes of Mandarin Orange, lychee nuts, ginger and even kiwi was noted. It has a rainwater freshness on the aromatics, which also reveals a light strawberry and melon component.
Texture:
The wine is medium to medium light in body and weight. Smooth, clean entry delicately tickles the palate before the lovely chardonnay fruit starts to show it’s stuff(ing). Smooth and easy drinking from the moment of your first sip until you make the swallow. Gorgeous, easy drinking wine!
Flavors:
Chardonnay traits of peach, apricot, and white tree fruit balance this graceful wine with lovely notes of Mandarin Orange, red apple, fresh pear and strawberry. As the wine finishes, you get the lychee notes, along with Honeydew melon and that lovely rainwater essence. So clean, so fresh, so pure!
Serving Suggestions:
A fabulous wine to sip . . . it is clean (no wood), smooth, vibrant, easy to quaff, having good depth complexities along with its freshness.
2017 Tempranillo, McCay, Lot 13 Vineyard
Growing Region Lodi, California
Varietal Composition 100% Tempranillo
Fermentation Barrel Aging
Alcohol Content 14.5%
Suggested Retail $32.00
WineSellar Club Price $23.39
Broad Strokes: 92 Points Cellar Tracker
Michael's wine making approach is “Hands On, Hands Off.” Hands On in the vineyard and Hands Off in the Winery. I look for certain and unique flavor profiles out of particular vineyards. It’s all about the terroir in the vineyard. The goal is to create the perfect balance between the vine and the fruit. In the cellar, it’s all about Native Fermentation. Through the practice of Native Fermentation, the terroir of the vineyard has a better chance of showing off its true characteristics.
Currently, I am working with five different Zinfandel vineyards, with the oldest vineyard being planted in 1915. These Zinfandel vineyards are scattered across Lodi from west to east, all with their own unique micro-climates and individual sense of terroir. The Winery’s production is typically in the range of 100- 500 cases per vineyard. McCay Cellars is a small winery that is all about presence and character of its wines.
Appearance:
I really like the packaging for this wine . . . the color of the label reminds me of the colors of Spain, which is of course where the Tempranillo grape is most famously produced. Nice back label story also! Black tea/cherry hue. Look for some sediment!
Nose:
The aromatics evolve quickly going from a wood/roasted nuts element, then to a honey/maple syrup sensation. Ten minutes later, it reveals some handsome dark cherry/dark berry notes. Expanding wood notes of fresh mahogany.
Texture:
The wine is medium in body and weight. The entry has some verve, showing firm acid over the nicely weighted fruits. The wine stays lively all throughout the start, middle and finish.
Flavors:
So interesting, this wine. The fruit is rich and sweet, but also a bit tart with the lively acid. Reminds me of the sweetest pomegranate fruit you could find. Good cherry fruit, with ripe plum, cedar/mahogany, and a bit of herb (dill, oregano).
Serving Suggestions:
This wine, because of its acidity, is outstanding with all kinds of foods. Try pastas, grilled and or BBQ meats.
2016 Barbera D’Alba Superiore, Cascina Adelaide
Growing Region Piedmont, Italy
Varietal Composition 100% Barbera
Fermentation 12 Months Barrel Aging
Alcohol Content 14.5%
Suggested Retail $40.00
WineSellar Club Price $26.09
Broad Strokes: 92 Points Wine Enthusiast
Home to Piedmont in Italy, Barbera is Italy’s third most popular red wine producing vine. Traditionally used in blends to add color and acidity, it is now more frequently bottled as a varietal wine. The grape produces relatively fruit forward wines often with a red fruit note of cranberries, redcurrants, and cherries. Although most are made for near term drinking, in good vintages it can successfully be married with oak, adding tannin and a spicy character that can benefit from a few years cellaring. Along with a few of Italy’s other popular grapes it is occasionally found in vineyards dotted across California. A wonderful intense example of this grape.
Appearance:
I LOVE the label and its contemporary design. It is SO creative! I also love the embossed bottle. The wine has a dark ruby and black coloring, and it is nearly opaque at the core. Perfect magenta rim on the edges, oily legs . . .
Nose:
Ripe dark fruits of blackberry, anise, leather, jam and coffee comes after about ten minutes of airtime in the glass. Dark cherry, plum, a bit of smoke, mushroom earthiness, vanilla oak, and spices.
Texture:
Medium full bodied with excellent ripe fruit richness on the entry to the palate. Feeling lush, filling, and satisfying. The overall balance is quite nice, smooth, showing firm acids and a long life ahead of it. The finish is tight and lengthy.
Flavors:
Dark berries, especially blackberry, marionberry, and some blueberry fruits. The acids hold tight the rich fruit. Look for a bit of gun smoke, mushroom, spices, and vanilla. Also notes of black pepper, star anise, cardamom, gooseberry, plum meat, and marmalade. The finish is still tight and lovely.
Serving Suggestions:
Still tight and lovely finish bodes for a few more years in the cellar, even though this is a 2016 vintage. Check it out in 3-6 years from now, why don’t you grab a few extra?
2016 Mourvedre, Cass Estate
Growing Region Paso Robles, California
Varietal Composition 100% Mourvedre
Fermentation 17 Months Barrel Aging
Alcohol Content 15.5%
Suggested Retail $38.00
WineSellar Club Price $32.39
Broad Strokes: 92 Points Wine Enthusiast
Steve Cass knew he wanted to move out of the San Francisco Bay Area. He had visited Paso Robles a few years before and really liked the area and subsequently heard it was quite the burgeoning wine country. A great place to start a vineyard. He then took on an exploratory trip to find a potential home and vineyard site. He was with a real estate agent and Paso Robles pioneer grape grower Jim Smoot when they came upon the then pastureland of Cass Vineyard. A year later in 2000 the 145-acre Cass Vineyard was established with twelve varieties to be planted. The barn to house all the farming equipment was built at roughly the same time. Once the vineyard began to bear fruit in 2003, the first vintage began. Two years later when the barn was finished being converted into a tasting room and the reds had aged a few years in the barrel, the Cass Winery tasting room opened its doors May 2005.
Appearance:
A well-disguised screwcap rings my happy bell. The bottle looks black, with a dark bluish label that, while I love the color of it, make the black font on the label hard to read. The wine is a medium garnet red, resolving to nearly clear on the edge of the glass.
Nose:
Especially for its youthfulness, the nose is broad, open, and keeps expanding. In typical Mourvedre fashion, the aromas consist of dark berry and dark red fruits (Bing cherry, black plum, and raspberry), spices, cocoa, and add in smoke and vanilla from the wood treatment.
Texture:
Silky smooth and even on the palate, but with solid fruit-forward richness than say, a Pinot Noir. The broadness found on the nose extends to the texture, leaving a near perfect, perfectly long finish.
Flavors:
Very evident dark, ripe black plum fruit, with dark cherry, Bing cherry, cherry cola, and a touch of cranberry. A bit of cocoa, red raspberry fruit and black pepper. Notes of rose petal, violets, and a sweet kiss of caramel and toffee.
Serving Suggestions:
This wine is lovely for drinking on its own, or with a fine meal consisting of lamb, roast pork, wild game, some charcuterie, and cheese.
2018 William Harrison Cabernet Sauvignon
Growing Region Rutherford AVA, California
Varietal Composition 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Malbec, 7% Each Petite Verdot & Cabernet Franc
Fermentation 20 Months New French & Hungarian Oak
Alcohol Content 14.5%
Suggested Retail $75.00
WineSellar Club Price $67.50
Broad Strokes: Only 500 Cases Produced
From the Winery: William Harrison grew up at his grandfather’s winery in the San Joaquin Valley. Bill began working for his Uncle Mario at the California Winegrowers Association until his grandfather passed away in 1976. A few years later (and 40 lenders!) William started a lucrative mobile bottling company, which gave him the resources to build his own winery. “Winemaking is part artistry, part science” Bill says, and “as luck would have it, I found a unique vineyard location in the Napa Valley which produces very good fruit and makes very good wines. In 1993, he produced his first vintage under his own label. For nearly three decades now, William Harrison Vineyards and Winery have been crafting classic wines that would have made his forefathers proud.
Appearance:
Nice, heavy bottle looking like a classic well-made Napa Valley California Cabernet Sauvignon. Even the label looks a bit familiar, similar to an older Forman Cabernet. The wine is black at the core, with a deep magenta hue on the edges of the glass.
Nose:
The aromatics are deep and brooding, yet unyielding for about an hour. Please be patient here, you will be rewarded with outstanding blueberry and black berry fruits, vanilla oak, spice, black pepper, and a touch of chocolate. Very complex. (Rutherford dust).
Texture:
Full bodied but a very smooth, well-rounded entry none-the-less. The tannins are relatively tame considering the size and youth of this wine. They are there though, as the wine tightens up with airing. Big, gushy fruit ends with a smooth, long impression.
Flavors:
Really powerful and dense black cherry, boysenberry, and sweet black fruits roger up this in-waiting cannon. Loads upon loads blueberry, sweet vanilla oak, cherry cola, root beer, leather, chocolate, and a dash of fresh herbs. Simply an awesome wine!
Serving Suggestions:
Well, we need to put some of this away in the wine cellar for sure. I am doing 6 bottles, and holding it for 10-15 years . . .
2018 Metrick, Pinot Noir, Rancho La Vina
Growing Region Santa Rita Hills AVA, California
Varietal Composition 100% Pinot Noir
Fermentation 1 year Neutral Wood Barrels, Unfined
Alcohol Content 14%
Suggested Retail $35.00
WineSellar Club Price $31.49
Broad Strokes:
From the Winery: There are two goals with Metrick. First, to make fresh and elegant wines that represent their vineyard origins. Second, to test techniques and theories on how to best craft wines so that they most accurately represent their vineyards. It's a very personal exploration for me. Vineyards are selected with the hope they will lead to the type of wine I want to make high toned, "mineral" whites and earthier, herbal reds; both with good acid. The vineyards usually have marked coastal influence.
Cellar practices aim to encourage the grapes to best their express terroir, and to encourage stability and longevity. First and foremost, this means crafting clean wines, free of defects which could otherwise eclipse vineyard and grape character.
Appearance:
Interesting drawing depicting an aerial view of the vineyard of the home vineyard of the wine in the bottle, with the X marking the exact spot of the vines used for the wine. This runs throughout the entire varietal lineup of his winery. I love that! The wine has a medium hue intensity, kind of a pale red, bleeding clear to the edges
Nose:
Delicate, smooth, earthy aromatics with mincemeat pie, red fruits (pomegranate, cherry and raspberry) and soft but present notes of wood barrel. Note the pretty elements of tobacco, cigar and earth that meld beautifully with white pepper, and the spices of Morocco (cumin, turmeric, allspice).
Texture:
Medium to medium light in weight. It enters the palate with a bit of lightness that is soon overtaken by the smooth, elegant red fruits. The acid is present, but also well-integrated into the fruit and its juiciness.
Flavors:
The flavors bring us lovely red fruits of raspberry, cherry, red plum meat, pomegranate, and strawberry, with notes of lead pencil. It also features the Moroccan spices mentioned in the Nose section, along with anise.
Serving Suggestions:
Winery suggests holding until 2030+, to which I agree!!!
White Bean Soup with Pancetta
This is a great recipe for these cold winter evenings we are having. It is also very versatile wine wise.
You can serve white, red or rose’!
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
- 1 pound Dried cannelini beans, soaked over night
- 4 ounces Diced pancetta
- 1 Medium onion, uniformly chopped
- 2 Peeled carrots uniformly chopped
- 3 Celery stalks uniformly chopped
- 2 Cloves garlic, finely chopped
- Fresh thyme leaves from 3 stalks
- 32 ounces low sodium good chicken stock, preferably home made
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
-
Cook the pancetta on medium heat until browned, not burned.
-
Remove the pancetta and reserve on paper towel. Do not wipe out the grease from the pan.
-
Add some olive oil, about 1 Tablespoon, if not enough grease to cook the veggies.
-
Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 7 minutes.
-
Add the other veggies and cook until soft.
-
Add the soaked, rinsed beans.
-
Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.
-
Turn down to med low and simmer until the beans are very soft. Add water as needed to be sure the beans stay covered in liquid.
-
Use the immersion blender to purée a bit of the soup so that here are still some beans, but there is also smooth consistency.
-
Salt and pepper to taste.
-
Top with sprigs of thyme and the cooked pancetta. You can also top with thinly sliced left over pork tenderloin!
-
Serve with crispy bread.