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11/03/1999 Archived Entry: "More Wine Buys"

Carol Berman, our radio sommelier, has so far presented us with four winning Wine Buys of the Week. For the first two, look at the Maven’s Diary entry for Oct. 21.

Last week’s wine was Finca Luzon 1998 (Tempranillo in Mamaroneck, N.Y., is the importer), from Jumilla, which is south east of Madrid, in Spain. It’s a dark, purpley wine, so intensely colored it even stains a glass. It’s a very potent wine (I don’t mean alcoholic) with the flavor of cassis (red currant) and other deep, dark fruit flavors. When you open the bottle, the bouquet and flavors are rather “closed,” as they say in wine circles, but with exposure to air the wine “opens up.” Taste the changes as you drink it, or pour it into your glass a half-hour before drinking it, or decant the wine so the maximum amount is aerated. Simply opening a bottle of wine “to breathe” doesn’t work. In that case, only the wine in the neck of the bottle is exposed. You want all the wine to be exposed to oxygen. Finca Luzon is a great wine to go with grilled meats. I drank it with a broiled steak – sauteed onions and mushrooms on the side. It retails for under $10.

This week’s wine was Vernaccia di San Gimignano 1998, the single-vineyard version from (the producer) Fontaleoni (it’s a Mark DeGrazia selection imported by Micheal Skurnik in Syosset, Long Island.). This has to be the richest, most earthy and substantial Vernaccia I've ever drunk. San Gimignano, in Tuscany, is known for its many towers, but its wine, though highly considered, is rarely this complex. It’s more expensive than the other Wine Buys we’ve discussed, but I thought well worth the $12.99 it sells for in most stores. (There is another, less expensive, not single-vineyard Vernaccia from Fontaleoni). I’d drink it with full-flavored fish dishes, but it has enough body to pair off with roast chicken. As an aperitivo, I’d make sure to have some good olives and/or roasted nuts to nibble with it.

Carol Berman is an accomplished wine educator. She calls herself The Traveling Sommelier and her services Class in a Glass because she will go to your home or other venue and conduct a wine tasting. She brings everything, including the wine, her deep knowledge of the subject, and a vocabulary that everyone can understand. If you’d like her to conduct a tasting event for you, your charity, your club, etc., call her at (732) 381-7613. She’s based in New Jersey, but has wine and will travel.