Becker Vineyards has quickly become one of the flagship wineries for Texas wine.  They are located right outside of Fredericksburg and have a large tasting room.  Their claret has been a standard at my dinner table for some time.  On my recent visit to the winery, I picked up a bottle of 2009 Culinaria.  This was a wine produced specifically for the 2010 New World Wine and Food Festival in San Antonio.  It is a blend of 50% Cabernet Franc and 50% Merlot.  I found it to be a great wine with a bit of a western flavor and boldness that easily complements any steak.  The dark ruby red color glistens in the glass and the wine has enough dark fruit and spice to keep it interesting.  I found it to have a slight but pleasing leatheriness that would make it pair well with any southwestern dish. I had mine with a grilled buffalo top sirloin.  Culinaria is available only at the vineyard and in short supply so get there fast!  While there, be sure to check out the lavender fields and pick up some of Becker’s homemade herb de provence. It is outstanding on grilled fish. 

JANUARY: CHAMPAGNE

    No drink is more synonymous with the New Year then champagne.  When most people toast in the New Year, it is more often then not a glass of champagne or sparkling wine that is in the glass.  Champagne has become the drink of special celebrations.  It is often the drink of choice for weddings, anniversaries and any special occasion.  You could say that champagne has become more of an attitude in itself.  It has become a status symbol.  People purchase bottles of Dom Perignon or Cristal to say “Hey, look at me!”  In fact, Cristal started off in just this manner. Czar Alexander II of Russia wanted exclusive champagne for himself that was not available to the lower aristocracy.  The czar ordered that the bottles be shipped in leaded crystal bottles. Thus Cristal was born and meant to be champagne for the elite. 

    Champagne does not have to be only for the elite, however.  There are many champagnes and sparkling wines out on the market that do not cost a fortune.  There are good sparkling wines made here in the US. Of course in the US, we often tend to think of any sparkling wine as champagne, much to the offense of the French.  To be considered officially as champagne, it must come from the Champagne region of France. This is an area about 90 miles northeast of Paris.  The area is known for its very white chalky soil and is one of the coolest wine producing regions in the world.   The drink itself is actually a blend of up to 60 different wines. These wines usually consist of three main grapes, chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier.  Chardonnay is the only white grape of the three.  What makes champagne special is that champagne undergoes two fermentation periods. This originally happened by chance.  The wine would traditionally be made in the fall and left to age for the winter.  Often, the cold temperatures in the region would freeze the yeasts stopping the first fermentation process.  Then when spring arrived, the yeasts would warm up and begin fermentation again, creating bubbles in the wine.  Dom Perignon himself tried to rid the wine of the bubbles, as it was well known then that bubbles in your wine was a bad thing. Lucky for us, he never succeeded. 

    For the New Year, I decided to taste three different sparkling wines.  The first was Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin Brut.  This is one of the premier and most well known champagnes apart from its two more expensive counterparts mentioned above.  It is a great champagne and usually agreed to taste better then Dom Perignon.  Luckily, it is also considerably cheaper. It costs about 40 dollars at most grocery stores making it the Dom for the working man.  It is a crisp, dry, champagne with notes of vanilla and well balanced citrus acidity.  It has a long finish and is everything good, traditional, champagne should be. 

    Moving from France to Napa Valley, I decided to try Mumm Napa Brut Prestige.  I first heard about this champagne when I was in Napa.  After tasting red wines for most of the day, this was a suggested spot, as the bubbles from the champagne can help to cleanse your palate and rejuvenate your tongue, as taste buds can tire from tasting so much wine.   This was a very acidic sparkling wine and did not have the balance that Veuve did.  The price on this is only about $15, so not a bad buy if you are on a very limited budget. 

    Texas also produces some sparkling wines as well.  When I was at the Flat Creek Winery I picked up a bottle of their Flat Creek Cellars Private Cuvee Sparkling Almond Wine.  This is a sparkling wine with a very sweet almond flavor.  This is great choice to have a glass with cheese and of course nuts either before or after a meal.  Stay with a regular sparkling wine for the main course. 

    Tasting champagne and sparkling wines can be fun and doesn’t always have to break the bank.  Next time you are looking for a bottle of wine, why not grab a bottle with a little sparkle?  Celebrate today. Who says the celebrating has to stop on New Year’s Eve? If for some reason, you don’t care for the particular brand, you can always add some orange juice and make a mimosa.

DECEMBER: DEL DOTTO 2006 CABERNET SAUVIGNON
ST HELENA MOUNTAIN 9 OAKS FRENCH SELECT   CONNOISSEURS' SERIES

One of the great educational experiences in Napa Valley is to pay a visit to Del Dotto Caves Historic Winery and Tasting Room.  Here the tour does not take place in the vineyard, but in a wine cave.  Many wineries have wine caves that have been dug to keep the wine barrels in a cool and dry area.  The emphasis at Del Dotto is as much about the barrel as it is about the wine.  The type of barrel and quality of the oak has as dramatic of an effect on the wine as the quality of the grapes.   Wine barrels are made out of either American or French oak. Traditionally, French oak tends to have a more subtle flavor.  A lot of factors go into the flavor that the barrel imparts to the wine.  Barrels made from Oak trees that grow in cold and dry climates are usually preferred. When a tree grows in this climate it grows slower and the trunk forms narrow growth rings creating a tightly grained dense wood.  Dense wood tends to create a better balanced oak flavor, and creates barrels that produce better balanced wines.  France has many forests of narrow, dense, oak trees that were originally grown to make ship masts, and conveniently also work perfectly for making wine barrels!  Taking a tour at Del Dotto, you get to sample the wine right out of the barrels at different stages in the aging process.  You can also taste and compare the same wine varietal that has been aged in different styles of Oak such as French or American.   Another variable in Oak that creates different flavors is how long the Oak was toasted for.  Barrels traditionally made are placed over fire to help bend the wood together and form the barrel. When this is done, the fire toasts the wood and brings the natural flavors out of the barrel.  How the barrel is toasted, and for how long, can bring about different flavors in the wine such as vanilla, caramel, tobacco, or spice. One of my favorite Del Dotto wines is the 2006 St. Helena Mountain Cabernet 9 Oaks French Select Connoisseurs’ Series.  This wine was aged in a barrel made from 9 different styles of oak, both American and French.  This makes for a very complex yet well balanced cab with flavors of dark fruit, cinnamon, and vanilla.  It really is incredible how the oak brings out so many different flavors in the wine! I recommend anyone wanting to learn more about wine to visit Del Dotto. There is no shortage of wine during their tasting and you will learn a great deal, that is if you can remember what you learned after tasting from their large selection of barrels.   All the more reason to go back for another visit! Cheers!