Looking Back 2022 Wine

 2022

Interesting year for  food, wine and travel.

Wine- Random thoughts

Smoke and fires impacted wines in California and Oregon from the 2020 vintage. some top wines in  Napa Valley and the  Willamette Valley produced limited wines in 2020. Domaine Drouhin and Cliff Lede among them. Buyer beware of long term cellaring of 2020 wines from those regions. Smoke taint is a very complicated subject.

Wine writers of the year Eric Asimov of the NYT, Neil Martin of Vinous and Lettie Teague of the WSJ.

Wine publication change of note. Lisa Perotti Brown left the Wine Advocate. I never received any notice of the change. She was in charge of the publication. The Wine Advocate is still running on Robert Parker's name. Nor sure what they are all about today. One reviewer, Erin Brooks has been giving very inflated ratings to some California and Oregon wines.    

Wine trends to watch. Disgorgement dates on non-vintage sparkling wines. Without disgorgement dates how do you know how old the wine is? How do you know what wine is being reviewed. The Wine Spectator  does not give disgorgement dates yet they have a senior person in charge of reviewing sparkling wines.- Go figure. 

Alcohol content of wines. Due to global warming and some taste trends, the alcohol content of many wines(ABV) is quite high. I have seen wines at 16% abv. which is 33% more alcohol than most Champagnes.

 I currently subscribe to Vinous, Wine Spectator and Jeb Dunnock.   Just discontinued the Wine Advocate. Cellartracker is still my favorite software to track my wine. Vinous now has a cellar tracking service which I have not checked out yet.  

Prices of wine can really fluctuate and shipping from online purchases can be onerous.  A number of stores  have unlimited shipping for a set price which can be a good deal. Check out Gary's. the Wine Library and Wines.com although the price of wine on Wine.com can be exorbitant.   

I find that buying wine online allows you buy carefully and compare pricing for a wine.

I am getting a bit tired my enrollments in winery wine clubs. My inventory from these wineries keep growing and I find it slightly inhibiting to my buying new and different wines. 

Comic Relief- Found this review of a Champagne today-Laurel, bay leaf, lime bonbon and bergamot aromas. Fragrant freshness and a long spine of tingling minerality. Glittering four-cornered structure. Green and gold and steel. Incredibly mouth-watering, and then into an arrow of piercing triangularity on the finish. 

I really love wines from Bordeaux.

Wine area of the year -St Emilion

Wineries of the year:

Chateau Valandraud, ClosBadon and Virginie de Valandraud. All from St Emilion    and made by the same owner - Thunevin.

Municipal Wines for their experimentation and  willingness to try new types of wines.

Wines of the year. With links to Cellartracker  

2016 Kunin Pape Star

2019 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 2016 Domaine Carneros Estate Brut Cuvee 2017 Virginie de Valandraud

2016 Clos Badon Thunevin

  2016 Château Valandraud                                                                                                                            

2010 Bodegas Muga Rioja Selección Especial

         2018 Keplinger Fuego y Mars 

2016 Château Monbousquet

 2019 Denner Mother of Exiles 

Red 2010 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La C

2019 Potek Riesling Kick-on Ranch

  

2010 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau

                      

2015 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir Louise

 

2015 La Massa Carla VI Parcel 6 2019 Drouhin Oregon Roserock Pinot Noir

Bordeaux, Paris, Viking River Cruise Nov 2022, Part 1

Viking Bordeaux River Cruise ( Chateaux, Rivers and Wine)

 I am not a cruise person. I had never been on one until recently when we went on 7 night Viking river cruise that started and ended in Bordeaux. We had been to Bordeaux before and the cruise only sailed short distances each day. In addition Viking provided some good incentives like free airfare and free wine and drinks. We chose a French Balcony room which is very small but has a sliding glass door that opens to a railing. The room was comfortable and was well equipped. there was no reason to be in the room except to sleep so the room was fine. 

Viking provides a free excursion almost every day. We paid for 2 excursions. One was very good and the other was basically the free excursion with lunch. The lunches on both excursions were the weak points of the excursions.

The cruise was fine; everything was first class. The boat was spotless; the crew friendly and responsive. The food was good but not impressive. Being the food snob that I am, they could have done a much better job. The special dinner of the day was not really specific to the Bordeaux area. Desserts were meh( I brought my own to dinner a few times, no shortage of patisseries in France ) and the breads so-so. We had their silver spirits package(provided for free) and the wines were impressive. Any bottle under $50 on the wine list was free. There was very small markups so we drank some very good Bordeaux's. Champagne by the glass was included and they had rotating Champagnes including Veuve Cliquot. Also there is no corkage charge if you want to drink your own bottle of wine.

We booked the trip through Viking directly. Things worked well but a few things to know upfront. check your credit cards for their trip insurance benefits. Travel insurance is getting very expensive these days. We have 2 very good cards that provide very comprehensive trip benefits for free if you use the card for the travel. 

Most importantly we received "free" airfare from Viking. However I wanted to fly on United since I have status. We also were extending our trip 2 nights in Paris so I wanted the non stop United flight to Newark. If you want to control your air flights you pay Viking $100 - $150 per person for the privilege. In hindsight it was the best thing I could have done. If you let Viking book your flights they  can change your itinerary each week up to the week of your flight. On the cruise we heard awful stories from people with crazy flights. Orlando to Montreal to Amsterdam to Bordeaux. coming home 6 hour layovers in Boston to get to Philly. A number of people had luggage delayed a few days and some never saw their luggage.

Another thing is that the itinerary of the boat is flexible. 2 of our stops were changed due to river conditions and dock issues. We did not go to Cadillac and Pauillac. The don't really announce it and the excursions are adjusted but it just something to know. 

A few other things to note. Chateaux in the cruise name refers to the wine chateaux's in Bordeaux. We spoke with several people on the cruise who thought it referred to castles and they were disappointed with the cruise tours.

This cruise was definitely an older crowd and many were big time Viking cruise fans. Also despite the cruise going all through Bordeaux I did not meet any real wine aficionados. Most people just wanted to go on a Viking river cruise that they had not been on before. One final point, the cruise directors are great.

The boat.

Check this out. A floating dock.

Libourne

A really good food market in Libourne (indoors and out). The prices are cheap for the quality and variety. 

Check out the prices. Remember a kilo is 2.2 pounds.

St Emilion, a very upscale town with a number of very good wine shops.

We had lunch at this restaurant on one excursion. Very pretty place but food not to my taste. Main course was pot roast, ugh! 

We visited this winery Siaurac in Lalande de Pomerol. They make several wines The wines were ok. They tend to provide tastings of off vintages at Bordeaux wineries. It seems that the good stuff goes out of the area.

Stay tuned for part 2.