Layne’s Wine Gig Presents
WINE & ART
By Layne V. Witherell
So, it’s Valentines Day and you and your date have managed to snag that last available cozy table in the most recently nationally reviewed HOT restaurant in these parts. The wine steward (pronounced slowly and deliberately as som-ill-yay) glides over to your table to recommend their latest acquisition. It is a 95-point rated wine, priced at a mere 300% markup from wholesale, but you didn’t know that.
It’s famously great until you turn the bottle over and see the skull and crossbones printed on the back label, a new addition as recommended by the guy in the admiral’s uniform, the official Surgeon General of these United States. This isn’t a mere skirmish, but it is an all-out war. The neo-prohibitionists versus wine drinkers and wine lovers.
GAJA BARBARESCO, 2011, Pricey ($300 & up)
This is a profound example of the art of the winemaker. To me it is the ultimate symbol of winemaking as art. I enjoyed it as a celebratory bottle for my first retirement from the wine biz in 2011. I fondly remember interviewing him when I was a rookie freelance writer for an article that appeared on November 5th, 1997, “Winemaker Pours his Soul into Transforming Industry,” Richmond Times Dispatch.
Angelo Gaja at 80 is alive and well and has received every global industry award. He single-handedly transformed the quality of Italian wines through a lifetime of study and modern innovation.
How was the wine? From my notes it was “total balance and perfection.”
HERE’S THE REALITY:
Your “El Cheapo” house wine probably won’t be going up in price because there is an ocean of it panting and begging to be bought. A billion gallons or so are waiting. But the masterpieces that I refer to as “Wine and Art” will rise in cost to you not based on rarity but based on lost restaurant and retail store sales. This undoubtedly is due in part to the terror instilled by that skull and crossbones resulting in lost restaurant revenue. As their sales drop they must do something to make up for the loss.
SOCIANDO-MALLET, HAUT MEDOC Red Bordeaux, $50 (retail)
This is the retail price for this underpriced, overperforming Bordeaux. At 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Franc, it could use some time developing in the glass. Speaking of glasses, these are locally made and hand blown by the great Ben Coombs.
-All photos courtesy of Layne Witherell
Invite your best friends over to taste the flavors of blackberry, thyme, sage, mocha, and a touch of leather all contained in a fabulous Bordeaux as a work of art in glasses that are works of art. These are ridiculously difficult glasses to make and, frankly, I don’t really know if he makes them anymore.
Have it with a nice steak… if that is still allowed.
TAYLOR FLADGATE PORT
One of the most disgusting moments of the new wine prohibition will be the removal of your skull and crossbones from the back label and placing it on your priceless Waterford Crystal decanter that was left to you in your sainted grandmother’s will. This imparts a homey touch.
Taylor was founded in 1692 in Oporto, Portugal. Oporto was soon shortened to Port, and shortly thereafter the Brits became enamored with the stuff and became their best customers. Basically, it is a blend of a partially fermented red wine with the addition of Brandy making it one of the world’s great dessert wine experiences. Port, Stilton cheese, and walnuts are savory, divine, and transform the flavors of all three. Look up umami. This is it.
The beauty of Port is that it performs in all manner of styles and prices depending on your taste and your wallet. The prices are retail although you can usually find from one to several styles by-the-glass in restaurants.
- Ruby – Simple, sweet, light, and savory ($16 bottle).
- Tawny – More complex with some barrel age ($16 bottle).
- 10-year Tawny – Very mellow after spending ten years in a barrel. A great by-the- glass restaurant experience ($20.00).
- 20-year & 40-year Tawny – These are official designations and can run big bucks. They used to bottle mini four packs for the holidays, but today they are too pricey. Usually $40 and up per bottle.
- Vintage – Prices range from 2017 at a mere $150 a bottle to a whopping $9,500 for a bottle of the 1863 vintage in its own presentation box. Perfect for sticking both that skull and crossbones on, adjacent to a picture of Surgeon General Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy, along with a tribute to his $403,000 a year salary.
ULTIMATE WINE & ART
Of course, the prize has to go to Champagne. While Gaja grows grapes and crafts to perfection, Bordeaux just makes you enjoy life as the locavore that you are. Port signals the end of a fabulous meal while Champagne personifies romance. You don’t toast with Pinot Grigio when you are engaged. Also, you can share stories, some real, some imagined, of the major characters in the saga.
Dom Perignon didn’t invent the bubbles, the brand was created in the 1940’s to honor the old guy, but he did equally glorious things. He made clear still wines in an unpredictable area for weather. He created the classic blend of grapes (called a cuvee), the sum being better than the parts. Also, he was the one who brought heavy English glass to protect the by then fashionable bubbly wines of the 17th century. The bubbles are from a second fermentation in the bottle. Only Champagne is Champagne…the rest are simply sparkling wines.
PERRIER JOUET FLEUR DE CHAMPAGNE, EPERNAY, BRUT “BELLE EPOCH BOTTLE” (various vintages, sizes, and prices, expect $250 and up).
Octave Gallice, a director of the firm, met the famous Le Belle Epoch Art Nouveau glass artist Emile Galle in Paris during the 1889 Eiffel Tower World’s Fair and had him design a label of a spray of Japanese white anemones. Galle was the great master of flower designs. The label became iconic.
What is Champagne? It is 81,000 acres of grapes in northern France and is “the best example of what can be achieved when nature, climate, and human intervention come together,” according to Michael Bittane, France’s premier wine authority.
- Non-vintage – 80% of Champagne production. A blend of grapes and years.
- Vintage Champagne – From a single vintage, usually aged longer.
- Prestige Cuvee – Specially selected from the finest vineyards and are “the prize bottles of the house,” says Bittane. These are the famous ones that include bottlings of Krug, Dom Perignon, and Louis Roederer Cristal, as well as Perrier-Jouet Fleur de Champagne.
The best moment, other than having it as your proposal wine or marriage wine, would be to toast that optimistic time known as the “Belle Epoque” while celebrating from under the Eiffel Tower. The era of Art Nouveau, “joie de vivre,” joy of life, in the time of the Wright Brothers, the telegraph, and cars. Where would we be without all that?
The wines mentioned today are masterpieces of civilization. A skull and crossbones plastered on one of Emile Galle’s Japanese white anemones would be an absolute affront to civilization.
LAYNE’S WINE GIGS
I will be adding private, group, or individual tastings to my schedule in 2025. Wine author, Master Knight of the Vine, historian, and fun guy. Pick the topic and the place, and I will provide the entertainment and knowledge. For event thoughts, e-mail me at lvwitherell@gmail.com.
