2008 Biltmore Estate Château Reserve Blanc de Blancs

Over the past couple of years I've tried several wines from the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. Recently I was contacted by a PR firm offering various wines from the Biltmore, and looking back over my notes, I saw that pretty much the only thing I hadn't tried was bubbly from North Carolina itself instead of California. A couple of weeks later, this bottle showed up at the house.

Now, it's not purely from the Tar Heel State, but it's close enough, and I was impressed. I was also impressed with the bottle of sparkling wine that Joe brought from Georgia, and of course most in the know are familiar with the delightful Gruet bubbles of New Mexico. And on top of that, I was pleasantly surprised by my recent encounter with the fizzy Moscato of Moldova. If you know what you're doing, good sparkling wine can be made in a lot of interesting places.

I still haven't forgotten my encounter with Belarus, though. Shudder

2008 North Carolina Blanc de Blancs Chateau Reserve
Méthode Champenoise
100% Chardonnay: 88% North Carolina, 12% California
$35, 12.4% abv.

The nose is light with a faint tropical fruit note. It's crisp and clean with a touch of lemony acidity. Decent bubbles with a short finish. I served this with a salad before a dinner of roasted pork, and I ended up sipping on it throughout the entire meal. A good complement with food and generally a fun wine to imbibe. It's not often that I enjoy vintage sparklers and I'm curious as to how this one will develop over the next few years.

Note: This wine was received as a sample.

Noroc! Exclusiv Vodca & Sparkling Rosé

Moldova is a small country sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, though historically, linguistically and culturally much closer to Romania and western Europe than the nearby Slavic nations of the former Soviet Union. Moldovan is a Romance language (practically the same as Romanian) and uses the Latin alphabet rather than Cyrillic. The history and geography are quite complicated due to different pieces of the modern country belonging to the Russian Empire, Kingdom of Romania, or the Soviet Union from the 1800s to WWII with the formation of the Moldavian SSR. It's also landlocked in what seems to be a purely punitive manner: the southeastern border near Odessa is just 2km/1.2 miles from an estuary of the Black Sea.

Although Moldova boasts five thousand years of wine production, there have been significant interruptions. 300 years of occupation by the Ottoman Empire, WWI, WWII, then half a century of making sweet wine and vodka for Russia, and most recently, since 2006 Russia has had a ban on Moldovan wine due to tensions over Transnistria. Losing their biggest export market meant that Moldovan winemakers had to look elsewhere for sales, which is how a bottle of bubbly and a bottle of vodka from Exclusiv ended up here in Memphis.

A friend asks, "How'd you get Moldovan wine and liquor?" I reply, "Well, it has a lot to do with the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the Cession of Bessarabia. How much time have you got?"

Exclusiv Vodca
Distilled from wheat
$9, 40% abv.
Typing notes about vodka is always interesting, because you'll have an Absolut and a Polish wodka and now "Exclusiv Vodca", all fun for the spell check. The vodka is clean and neutral with a quick finish. Very mild notes of grain. I sampled it both at room temperature and after a few hours in the freezer, and it's much smoother at low temperatures. The real deal here is that you can get a frosted-glass bottle full of decent wheat vodka for under ten dollars, a third the price of its anserine competitor.

NV Esti Exclusiv Moscato Rosé
Made from Muscat grapes
$9, 10% abv.
I was excited to try this, but I was afraid that it would be incredibly sweet, or perhaps evoke some of the memories of my run-in with Советское Шампанское. But I was pleasantly surprised. Slightly musky nose with touches of ripe plum, classic Muscat aromas but with a deeper edge. Great acidity and not too sweet, great balance. Not cloying on the finish. Fascinating dark flavors and reminiscent of the plump muscadine grapes that grow wild here in the South. It's still sweet enough that I'd recommend it as a dessert wine, though if you're looking for an introduction to Eastern European wines you'll be hard pressed to find one that's a better crowd pleaser. The bottle's non-threatening, it tastes good, and the Italians have made the word "Moscato" a safe one for the wine novice. Really a fun bottle, and worth checking out if you get the opportunity.


Note: These bottles were received as samples.

New Year's Eve Roundup

New Year's made for a fun weekend this year. I waited until almost the last minute to pick up some bubbly for the occasion, and decided to go visit wine retailer, fellow blogger, and friend Michael Hughes at Joe's Wines & Liquors. I let him pick out everything for me. Now, for the reader this might be confusing. Yes, there are thousands of wine reviews here on this site, and I'd like to think I can work my way around a wine shop or a wine list without too much difficulty. But Michael knows what I like, he knows his stock, and can point me in the direction of something I might have otherwise ignored. For instance, on December 30th I served this with dinner:

2007 Giovanni Galliano Brut Rosé
Piedmont, Italy
100% Pinot Noir
$32, 13.5% abv.
A truly wonderful experience. So pale a rosé that it looks white from certain angles. Crisp raspberry aromas and flavors with a touch of toast and lemony acidity. Medium bubbles and a long, lingering finish. Fun but dignified and definitely something different. If you think Italy is all about Prosecco and Moscato, this will change your mind. Highly recommended.

For the party on the 31st with Julia and her friends, I was looking for more casual but still well-constructed wines. Here's what Michael suggested:

NV Poema Cava Extra Dry
Penedès, Spain
35% Macabeo, 35% Xarel-lo, 30% Parellada
$13, 11.5% abv.

NV Poema Cava Brut Rosé
Penedès, Spain
100% Trepat
$13, 11.5% abv.

I love a fun and fizzy Cava, and these two did not disappoint. The Extra Dry was actually quite dry, but of the two I preferred the Brut Rosé. Both were crisp, refreshing, and fairly uncomplicated, but I liked the depth and broader fruit flavors in the pink.

The third bottle is an Australian McWilliams Riesling that ended up as a gift for the hostess to enjoy later, and I hope she likes it.

And then there was fondue... I used some leftover white wine and a splash of brandy with the cheese. And what cheeses? The bulk came from Jarlsberg and St. Paulin with some contributing notes from scraps of Parrano and an aged Gouda. This was not quite as good as it might sound, since it's been quite a while since I've made fondue and I was using an improvised bain marie. The flavor combination was great, but I couldn't quite get it smooth enough and it turned solid rather quickly once removed from the pot. Still, there was a ton of great food contributed by all the guests and we all had a wonderful time.