“Hi Linda,

Thank you for contacting me.  We feel that the demi-sec sparkling is not too sweet to be served as an aperitif and that it is a very flexible wine to pair with a broad range of foods.  It is also a very festive way to kick off an event!  I would suggest pairing with fruits and cheeses, especially blue cheese.  A thin crostini or cracker topped with a slice of fig, a crumble of stilton or chevre, a drizzle of honey and a touch of black pepper.  Prosciutto with melon would be a simple option.  A light field greens salad that features citrus fruit, dried cranberries, toasted hazelnuts and something like a cracker or goat cheese to add savoriness.  Because it has a pretty high acid it would probably pair well with anything that has BBQ sauce on it.  Crab cakes with a spicy habanero Aioli would be a nice option as well.  The sweetness helps to counteract spicy foods.  If you want to be really fancy, it is a great pairing with foie gras and foie gras pate.  I hope this gives you enough ideas and I would love to hear what you end up deciding on and how it went!”      -Ian

So for the unititiated, the fact that we are writing about harvesting our Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in November is nothing short of extraordinary.  We have been harvesting from our three Stags Leap rows, located in the Steltzners’ vineyard, since 2007, and in the last five years we have never harvested this late (we are almost two full weeks behind even last year’s exceptionally late harvest).  But we are the lucky ones . . . our fruit looks GREAT, it is finally ripened after some magical halloween heat (80+ degree days all last week!) and no rain.  So when we brought in our grapes and started the process of hand sorting the harvest on the sorting table at Reynolds Family Winery, we were thrilled: ripe, plump, dark purple berries with rich, sweet flavor.  In short, DELICIOUS!  So what is the sorting table you ask (picture below)?  It is a vibrating conveyor belt that slowly moves the grapes from the destemming machine (where the grapes are separated from the stems and taken off the cluster) to a bin or barrel where the initial fermentation of the wine will take place.  Ian and I stand on either side of the table with other sorters (like awesome Alma (in the sunglasses in the picture next to Ian) and we pick out the bad looking grapes, any leaves, stems, and hitchhikers (little spiders). So it is a little like that scene in “I Love Lucy” at the chocolate factory, and we do eat a lot of the grapes as they come along the conveyor belt (for fun, not out of dire necessity like Lucy and Ethel).

Click here to listen online to “The Price of Business” and hear an interview with Ryan Levy from Nice Wines!

The show airs live today,  at 11:15am.

If  you already missed it, we will post a link to the recorded interview when it becomes available.

Ok, so the volcano didn’t erupt again.  Actually it has been erupting non-stop since June 4th.  So we are the misfortunate downwind recipients of the volcanoe’s subterranean lithic flatulence (a silent and deadly ash cloud) that has blown across the Andes Mountain range and across Argentina.  Even if we could get back to B.A. by the wonderful and scenic (read sarcastic) 14-hour bus ride, our flight to IAH would probably also be cancelled.  The airport is shut down technically but, on technicality the airline booking system has not yet updated with that information.  Ryan was politely informed by the Star Alliance Priority Desk associate that their current ticket change policy did not mention anything about volcanoes and that we may incur a $250 change fee.  His response “Are you sure?  Did you look under “V” for volcano?” came out with a grin, clearly amused by his own mocking.

The good news is that after three days of tedious blending and tasting we finished creating our Nice Malbec 2009!  Success!!!  Here is Ryan, Mario and Alberto sampling the wine directly from the tank.  It all came down to getting the perfect balance of wine aged in French Oak Barrels for some of the dark chocolate flavors we like, wine aged in American Oak barrels for a touch of vanilla, and then having just the right acidity to pair well with food.  It also has the characteristic Malbec plum, red and black cherries, and lite tobacco and cedar aromas.

]]> http://nicewines.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=206 1 http://nicewines.com/blog/?p=195 http://nicewines.com/blog/?p=195#comments Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:48:27 +0000 Ian Eastveld http://nicewines.com/blog/?p=195

Volcano Eruption in Chile

So we finally arrived in Mendoza yesterday!  Our flight barely made it into  Buenos Aires before all of the incoming and outgoing flights were cancelled due to a Volcano eruption in Chile.  The volcanic ash cloud blowing across Argentina caused our next flight from BA to Mendoza to be cancelled as well, so our only other option was to catch a last minute, 14-hour, bus ride.

So after one night on an airplane and the next one on a bus, we got to our hotel 2-hours before we were to arrive at Bodega Cecchin.

As always, we were shown amazing hospitality by our grower Alberto Cecchin and his wife Fabiana, who treated us to lunch in their restaurant located on their farm.  Ala Sombra is named after the big tree canopy that covers a main part of their outdoor dining area that is located right in the vineyards.  They feature authentic regional Argentinean cuisine in a very simple, warm and inviting atmosphere.  The food is awesome!

Peeking into the kitchen

Ala Sombra - Dining Room

Ala Sombra

Kind of like the Disneyland of Tasting rooms!

We just returned from Napa Valley where we spent the week blending and then bottling our 2008 Nice Cabernet Sauvignon at the Reynold’s Winery.  I only posted pictures of the few other places we visited since I already have pictures of bottling lines in previous posts.

When we weren’t hanging out at the winery, we were running up and down the valley making connections with local wineries  (such as Bell Wine Cellars) who we will feature in one of our up and coming wine club shipments!

One of the most well known places to stop for lunch while making your way up Highway 29 is Dean & Deluca.  The pictures speak for themselves!

Of course Del Dotto is not one of those small wineries, we just stopped in to check out the over the top tasting room and try out some of their Clay Pot wines, that are fermented and aged in large Amphora instead of Oak Barrels.

Cheers!

I have to admit, I am totally fascinated by the speed and efficiency of the bottling line! Each step in the process is under the positive pressure of nitrogen gas, so that oxygen never has a chance to get into the bottle and oxidize the wine. This video shows the empty, sanitized bottles going into the part of the machine that fills the bottles with the Malbec and then shows them exiting full of delicious organic Nice Malbec wine!

The women who affixed the Nice labels to our bottles of Malbec have some of the most steady hands I have ever seen. I thought the length and shape of the labels (they are almost the exact length of the straight edge of the bottle) would make hand application difficult. But as you will see in this video, these women are pros- they make it look easy. Trust me it is not! Watch me botch a simple bottle wrapping job in the next post to get an idea . . .

The day we bottled the wine, we had to work very quickly because it was unseasonably hot in Mendoza. We managed to make sure the wine stayed cool and protected during the entire process, but I was equally concerned that the skilled ladies labeling each bottle of Malbec also “kept their cool”. I think there is a future for me as a fanboy!

Why did I ever agreed to let Ian videotape me trying to wrap one of the Malbec bottles in tissue paper? As you will see, this job should be left to the true professionals. We decided to wrap each bottle in tissue paper to protect the bottle and the label during its travels to your dinner table. Once you taste the amazing job Alberto, Carlos and Ian did making this Malbec wine to our flavor specifications, you will know why we have spared no expense in protecting the bottle at every step.

The capsule is the top enclosure of the wine bottle. It is usually made out of tin, aluminum or in some cases PVC. It provides a sanitary, decorative seal over the cork and lip. Our white capsules are placed on each bottle by hand and then held under a “crimping” machine to get a tight seal around the bottle lip.