A Thirsty Spirit

Hiring an artist to design a wine label is nothing new.  Mouton Rothschild has been featuring the work of artists on their labels since 1945 and some impressive ones at that: Chagall, Miró, Kandinsky, Picasso and the list goes on.  Grateful Palate Imports has a notable line-up of Australian and Californian wines, most with eye-catching labels and some with distinctive names like “Evil” or “Bitch”.  They purposely hire artists who have never designed labels before to keep their bottles looking fresh.

I’ve never been one to select a bottle of wine based on its label, no matter how sweetly the penguin, kangaroo or frog stared out at me from the shelves.  That being said, you may be surprised by my purchase over the weekend:

It's not a wine, it's a lifestyle

To be fair, the fridge at the wine store where we found ourselves was quite small and the other options were Sutter Home White Zinfandel, Relax Riesling and Barefoot Chardonnay.

Audigier hails from Avignon in the south of France and he’s currently putting out wines under both the Ed Hardy label as well as well as the Christian Audigier label (more expensive with even more audacious labels).  Both lines are bottled in France, yet have different distributors in the U.S.  They’re available at places like Whole Foods, Costco and at some random wineshop in the Catskills area of NY.

This wine was not bad – inexpensive ($10.99) and a thirst-quencher, with notes of red berries and plenty of watermelon.  We had the 2008 vintage from the Vin de Pays d’Oc – vin de pays is French for country wine, a step up from table wine.  There are 6 of these regional vin de pays and the Vin de Pays d’Oc is located in the Languedoc-Roussillon area in Mediterranean France and produces the most wine at this quality level.  I couldn’t find the exact blend, but my best guess is some combination of Grenache and Syrah.   Despite the label,  it neither pierced my heart nor showed me true love.

Tinta Negra Mole grapes in Madeira

Now that you know a little history and winemaking, here are some common styles of madeira:

1. Sercial – made from the grape Sercial, which goes by another,  catchier name on the Portugese mainland, “dog strangler” (Esgana Cão).  These are the driest styles, with residual sugar of 0.5% to 1.5%.  The touch of sweetness is offset by searing acidity and you’ll find plenty of almond aromas.

2. Verdelho – made from the grape Verdelho, which also is planted in Australia.  These are moderately sweet (1.5% to 2.5%) with a pronounced smokiness and a tangy acidity.

3. Bual – made from the grape Bual, or Boal in Portugese.  Ripens more to achieve higher sugar levels than Sercial or Verdelho (2.5% to 3.5%) and is dark in color, with notes of raisins.

4. Malmsey – made from the Malvasia grape.  Malmsey is an English corruption of the word Malvasia.  The sweetest of the lot (3.5% to 6.5%), but rarely cloying because of their high acidity (notice a theme, here?).

These 4 grapes are the principal noble grapes grown on the island of Madeira.  Many of the best vineyards were destroyed by a vine-eating pest called phylloxera at the end of the 19th century causing American hybrids or the less-distinct, local Tinta Negra Mole grape to be planted in place of the noble varieties.

Insufficient quantities of the noble varieties have forced some producers to label their standard blends as follows; dry, medium dry, medium sweet, medium rich, rich or sweet.  So, check the label – if the varietal is listed, it will constitute at least 85% of the wine.

A great thing about madeira is that once it’s opened, it can last for many months.  It’s already been oxidized and cooked, right?  Try some with chocolate and you may be a changed person afterward.

1. If you have a wine list, hand it out.  Don’t make people ask for it; just give it to ’em along with the menus.

2. While you’re handing out said wine list, don’t automatically give it to the gentleman at the table.  I can tell you that I’m always the one who selects the wine, yet 9 times out of 10 I’m not the one who gets handed the list.  For all of you servers out there, here are a few ways you can avoid making this mistake: make eye contact with all guests in the party and see who seems most eager to get the list, determine who the host of the party is and give the list to him/her, or simply put the list down on the table and leave it up for grabs.

3.  Make people feel good about the wine they order.  There’s no shame in looking for good value wines on a list, especially in this economy.  I rarely order expensive bottles when I go out.  Call me cheap, but I know how much that bottle really costs.  If a guest asks for a recommendation, the server should point out wines at different price points and not just the expensive stuff.  Now, as a diner, it’s always best to have an idea of what you’d like to spend before you ask for help to avoid any awkward moments with the server/sommelier/your guests.

4. Don’t try to trick people by offering a “house wine”, because there’s no such thing.  All wine, whether white, red, sparkling or pink, is made by someone somewhere and unless you’re in a little trattoria in Italy, it’s doubtful that the wine was made on premises.  Sure, some restaurants have wine specially made for them, but the producer/region/vintage should still be noted.

5. Train the people serving the wine so they know what they’re doing.  Now, I don’t expect Court of Master Sommelier steps of service every time I go out to eat, but there’s not much worse than a server at a table who looks like she might drop the bottle or hurt herself in the process of opening it.

Here are a few other niceties to consider: offering a taste of a wine by the glass if someone’s not sure what to order, allowing someone to purchase just a 1/2 glass or letting 2 folks share a glass.

Keep in mind that great wine advice, especially when it comes to food and wine pairing, really makes for a memorable meal.