This year, one of my wine goals is to do more food and wine pairing. One of my wine buddies said he tried KFC and Sauternes. I looked at him with a puzzled look and realized that sweet and savory is a good combo. After all, I use bacon to wipe up excess pancake syrup, so I gave it a shot!

   I was lucky enough to dine at the French Laundry when I was in Napa last year. Chef/owner Thomas Keller has three restaurants on the same street in Yountville, CA. His newest restaurant is called Ad Hoc. A cult following has emerged for the Ad Hoc Fried Chicken Night. Using the Ad Hoc recipe, I had some friends over to try it out.

   This stuff was good! It is the most succulent, juicy and crispy fried chicken I’ve ever had. I opened a 2007 Argyle Brut and a 2008 Santa Julia Tardio Late Harvest Torrontes. Sparkling wine is very food friendly and the Argyle is light, crisp and toasty. It is a great combination that plays nicely with the chicken. The late harvest wine makes a nice contrast with the savory fried chicken. Its tropical fruit flavors and sweetness make for a great pairing. This is a great dessert wine and it’s cheap!

   Last Monday was the annual Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux tasting, this year featured the 2008 vintage in Bordeaux. Why is this one of my favorite tastings of the year? Other than the obvious world-class wine?

   It is because this is how I imagined wine tasting as a child: marble floors, marble columns, twinkling chandeliers, stereotypical overblown elegance. French men with unpronounceable names and French women with sharp, die cast looks, all pouring French wines with unpronounceable names. Tasters in button-up jackets swirling their wine glasses and proclaiming the virtues of the vintage. It’s stuffy but fun, and it’s intimidating being surrounded by people that surely have more insight, more illuminating things to say than I do.

   What about the wine?

   I started with the Left Bank, mostly because it was closest to the in door and not crowded when I arrived. There’s some good stuff here, but the general theme is dry and tannic, weedy and closed. Still, 2008 shows better than the ’07s we tried last year.

   My money is on the Right Bank, or it would be if I had any. These are characterized by more plush, weightier fruit that fills in the space and balances out the still present tannins. Favorites include the serious Angelus and the promising Pavie Macquin.

   What really stands out in my mind, though, are the dry whites and the sweeter wines. Chateau Climens shows the most complexity, but all from Sauternes and Barsac that I tasted are delicious as usual. The dry whites are exciting: Carbonnieux’s refreshing tropical and herbal notes, Smith Haut Lafitte’s funk (in a good way) and grass, Pape Clement with its modern, streamlined, spicy wonder.

   So I was getting worked up about these white Bordeaux when a friend who has been in this industry a long time gave me some advice: “Enjoy it; you won’t see it again.” I guess he’s right, but it is some consolation to know that the reds are pretty good too.

   I am always surprised at how often I have the conversation described in this blog post. To recap, it goes like this: I recommend a favorite wine that happens to be a blend, and the customer corrects me, saying they’d rather have the name of a grape on the label, just to be safe. Which I am completely fine with. We always find some other great wine. I just don’t want people to miss out on something special because of the misconception that blended wine is somehow less serious, or of lesser quality, or anything but the standard.

   Nobody talks about it much, but wine making involves a lot more science (and a lot less magic) than we like to imagine. A lot of modern wine making is chemistry; it’s just one reason why wine is better than ever right now. And perhaps the most fundamental tool at the winemaker’s disposal is blending, broadening the palette by adding varietals. Excuse me if I, ahem, mix metaphors.

   Blending allows a winemaker to create something original and special, often outside the confines of a single varietal. Beyond wines labeled as blends, blending is used extensively in varietally labeled wines too, adding layers of subtlety and complexity that a single varietal can’t achieve so easily. For example, a wine may be labeled as a varietal in the U.S. if it includes 75% of that grape, leaving plenty of room for other varietals without mention of them on the label.

   So how about some examples of blended wines that also just happen to be notable new releases of old favorites here at Binny’s?

   The new 2009 vintage of Amalaya just hit our shelves. The blend this year includes 75% malbec 5% below the 80% required by Argentine regulations for varietal labeling. The remainder of the blend is cabernet, syrah and tannat, bolstering the malbec at the heart of this wine. Amalaya is always an easy recommendation; it consistently overdelivers for the fifteen dollar price tag.

   The new 2009 Ridge Three Valleys is a blend in more than one sense: the 70% zinfandel mingles with petite sirah, carignane, grenache and mouvedre. As the name suggests, Three Valleys is also a geographic blend, a mix from subregions across Sonoma County, fermented separately and then blended to taste.
   Though Three Valleys is technically a blend, you’ll find it in the zinfandel aisle at most Binny’s stores. It is the most affordable red from Ridge Vineyards, and a great representation of the famous producer’s signature zin style: bright and fresh berry fruit up front with touches of barrel spice and light grip that add complexity.

   Another perennial favorite, the Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville is the prototypical Napa Valley Cabernet and a miniature version of the ubiquitous producer’s increasingly underappreciated Reserve Cabernet. Robert Parker likes the 2007 Oakville for its deep black currant fruit as well as notes of lead pencil shavings, camphor, and spice. That’s cabernet! So why include the Oakville in this list of blends?
   Because the 2007 includes 6% cabernet franc, a traditional Bordeaux varietal and a very common addition to Californian cabernet. In fact, when it comes to cabernet from California, I am hard pressed to come up with examples that don’t include other varietals.
   This is the part where I usually say that the Oakville is a great everyday value at $35.99, but as I grabbed a bottle from the shelf to take a bottle shot, I saw that Binny’s has it on sale for $22.99 all this month. So I think I’m going to buy a couple for myself.

What are your wine goals for this new year?  Try a First Growth?  Spend less on wine?  Mine include experimenting more with food and wine pairing and keep fining those underpriced, hidden gems.  

One gem I’ve recently found was while I was visiting Carter Cellars in Napa.  I was fortunate enough to meet the winemaker and was able to taste through a few of his other projects.  We tasted the Carter line-up which is fairly high end, running from $60 to $125.  Most of the wines are single vineyard designated as well.  Next we tasted the 2007 Tamber Bey Cabernet, a single vineyard Cabernet from Yountville.  I figured this costs around $100.  Not even close.  It is very underpriced at $32.99, and it is very high in quality.  This shows a lot of 2007 Napa fruit, but it is well structured and balanced.  It is everything I look for in a Napa Cab and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.  I can’t think of any single vineyard Napa Cabs even close to $33.  Give your favorite Binny’s a call for availability.