2007-07-06

 

Detroit Grapes

Grapes have served civilization for millenia. Their cultivation requires elaborate social organization. When fermented, grapes summon creative muses and passify dangerous ambition. Grapes nourish and occupy communities more than individuals.

It has not been shown yet that Detroit can grow grapes for making wine, but for the purpose of making sweet, edible benediction, Detroit grapes are ideal.

Earth Works Garden is social healing through agriculture. It beautifies abandoned property in Detroit with linear rows of organic crops, teaches kids the integration of healthy food and healthy communities and feeds hungry people.




And they make the best pulpy jam you've ever tasted. The FDA just approved it for distribution and we wanted to be one of the first places to offer it. Does it feel good to swap a $5 bill for 227 grams of jam? That's for you to decide. Is it the tastiest jam you can get for money? I think it is.

SAVE YOUR SATURDAYS IN AUGUST and join a team of Cloverleaf and Detroit Drinks volunteers for a day of organic farming in Detroit. The date will be announced soon. Let me know if you're interested. We did this last year and it was informative and fun. Afterwards we can eat and drink at Slows Barbeque. 


Bordeaux Reborn

Hugh Johnson wrote in The Story of Wine:

     "There have been few times in European history when the rivalries of nations were more blatantly, petulantly, one could almost say childishly displayed than in the closing years of the 17th century. Whatever irked a monarch was a pretext to go to war. ...

     "We have seen repeatedly throughout our story how politics shape trade, and trade fashions the wine it wants from wherever it is forced to buy. At this juncture, politics pushed trade about until it grew almost dizzy. But at the same time trade had found a new impetus and new resilience: the wine trade in particular was supplying new classes of customers that encouraged it to diversify. ...

     "On April 10th, 1663 (a full three weeks since his last renewal of his fervent vow to abstain from wine entirely), Samuel Pepys, then aged 30, spent an evening drinking at the Royall Oak Tavern in Lombard Street in the City of London with Alexander Brome, an attorney, an editor and a poet of sorts, a merry companion "if he be not a little conceited". Next day in his peculiar coded diary Pepys wrote the most momentous note in the history of Bordeaux. "Drank", he wrote, "a sort of French wine, called Ho Bryan, that hath a good and most particular taste that I have ever met with." Pepys, no great connoisseur but a man who liked to be up with the fashion, was the first to record a completely new kind of wine, and that within a few years of its invention. ... What he had tasted was Haut-Brion, the first wine from Bordeaux ever to be sold under the name of the estate where it was made; the prototype of every chateau wine from that day to this."

Bordeaux is now a mature luxury lifestyle category, outweighed by its history, forced to conform to fossilized fictional ideals, to the point that it is scrupulously avoided by liberated modern wine enthusiasts. Bordeaux -- like the English empire that ascended after Pepys' note -- is now history, brand marketing, financial institutions, and grape manufacturing, not muse.

But what about the local grapes? Are there no "particular" tasting blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc being grown in Atlantic France? There are, out beyond the boundaries of Bordeaux in the low-rent, vegetable farming quarters of the Cotes de Duras, far from wine tourism and wine critics and celebrity oenologists.




Todd Abrams wrote on Detroit Drinks:

"The territory of my youth was Jefferson Avenue between downtown and North River Road. The mayfly hatch was indication of carefree summer. They'd get thick enough to dim streetlamps and the smell of their death or dying was oddly satisfying. Proof of my immortality I suppose. I wonder what I would have thought of a glassful of Cotes de Duras back then." (link)

2004 Cotes de Duras
Domaine Mouthes le Bihan, <$17

This is a very low-yield blend of Bordeaux varieties from middle-aged vines (20 - 30 years old) grown in siliceous clay. Because the fruit concentration is so great, there is no nead to build structure "into" the wine by aging it in lots of new oak barrels. It was aged in 1 year old wood.

There is a startling clarity to the flavors of this wine. At first it seems like nothing more than an agreeable claret, suggestive of black cherries, black currants, raw cocoa and mulling spices. Then, a particular natural brilliance seems to hit most beholders of it about two-thirds through a bottle. I remember drinking it with our neighbors a few weeks ago while we watched the dogs tear up the front yard. One of them had just returned from a thrilling and exhausting day teaching junior high students. The usual commentary about the happy spirit of dogs and epic challenges of public education proceeded through the first glass. It was during the second glass when everyone began to chime in, "what is this?", "this is delicious!"

Sensitive and cultivated palates are everywhere.

I tried to explain to this impromptu band of enthusiasts about petulant 17th century monarchs and Samueland low-yield vines grown in clay, but I didn't get very far. It was my only bottle and dinner was ready.




Our new stray/adopted puppy: Ростислав (Rostislav).

The name means "usurper of glory." call him "Slava" or "Rusty" for short.

2007-06-29

 

Thirsty?

 

I understand we can expect a pair of sunny, cool summer days this weekend. Naturally, this makes me think of beer.

Do you want a slow-brewed beer with lots of flavor? I do. But lately I find the malty weight of typical Belgian, British and American craft brews to be a bit too much. (For me, no amount of bitter hops can adequately brighten and freshen some of the more caramel-flavored beers that are so popular these days.)

If this sounds familiar, maybe you should try a bottle of Hitachino Red Rice Ale for $7.89. It is packed with dry, nutty, toasty, yeasty, fruity, bitter, cereal flavored goodness, and yet it is almost weightless on the palate.





At Cloverleaf we don't have shopping carts. Please allow us to carry your order to your car. This customer has just purchased a variety of very dry, natural white wines for less than $12 a bottle:





Cloverleaf is packed full of highly rated wines. Not only did the (very rare) white wine pictured below earn praise in Wine Spectator, I believe the French publication Gault Milleau also rated it one of the two best in its class. To my palate it tastes like luxurious, lemony white burgundy. It sells for around $25.





The people who lived in my house many decades ago probably never drank 91 point wine. However, during a remodeling project several years ago, we found evidence that they did enjoy the taste of drinks aged in oak barrels:





This is Florentino Soro. His friends and neighbors call him "Tino." He has one of the more attractive and well-maintained front gardens in our neighborhood:





I have ambitions to match his effort some day, but my dog Peanut has too much puppy and too much terrier in her still. I'm lucky if I can grow weeds before she tramples them.





This is what she sees when I'm working on the Cloverleaf Newsletter:





Dogs are amazing creatures. They draw people into their own specific social logic. This is Diosdado Hernandez. I believe he is originally from Cuba. I can't understand a word he says but we both like dogs. He has taken a particular interest in Peanut, even providing her with cans of food on occasion:





Peanut appreciates him in her own way. 

2007-06-22

 

Teleology

Wine nihilists (there are probably more of you than there are of us), go ahead and skip this newsletter. But please visit Cloverleaf anyway. We want to hear from you. If you’re thirsty for something other than water I think we can save you some money.

Remember this: every single sun-ripened grape ever grown, no matter what variety or where it is planted, is perfect. 100 points. Every wine made from these sun-ripened grapes is perfect. 100 points.

So why are there so many imperfect wines for sale? The answer is simple: because they are mishandled. Even the lowliest of vineyards planted with the least distinguished grape varieties are capable of producing perfect wine. The problem lies in preserving it.

Yes, even poor old Central Valley Thompson Seedless grapes can make the most gorgeous, delicious and nutritious wine imaginable, the kind of wine that makes people sing forth the praises of everything good, the kind of wine you imagine drinking in a rowboat on a shaded river laughing out loud at your good fortune with your mate by your side (and a picnic basket with some nice sandwiches in it).

It’s just that these Central Valley Thompson Seedless grapes don’t have the acids and mineral structure to make a wine that stays fresh for more than a few weeks. You’d have to drink it practically straight from the vat, while it was still fizzy and yeasty. So preservative efforts are used to make Thompson Seedless stable (sterile filtration, sugar, acidification, tannisol, etc.) and these tend to suppress and obscure the fragile, exquisite fruit character that is the hallmark of perfect wine. Some wines need more “help” than others.

(In reality most Central Valley grapes are mechanically harvested and therefore are a mixture of some perfectly ripe grapes, many unripe grapes and maybe even a few rotten grapes. These problems can be fixed with chemistry too!)

 

poorly lit, perfect citrus

Good winemaking is nothing more than an effort to preserve grapes. Purists believe keeping vine yields reasonably low is the best way to achieve stable perfection. This concentrates the juice and makes it last longer, maybe even long enough to remain perfect after it is bottled and shipped to points of sale all over the world. Unfortunately, many wine pundits mistakenly jump to the conclusion that concentration is the equivalent of perfection. It is not.

Fresh, fizzy Vinho Verde from Portugal is typically very nearly perfect -- especially with market fresh fish -- and it is one of the least concentrated grape wines made.

Good vineyard selection is another way to grow perfect grapes that have the special quality of producing naturally stable wine that tastes fresh for very long periods of time. Low yields from good vineyards almost guarantee a wine will be perfect and reasonably stable. That’s not to say that such wines can’t still be mishandled and ruined in some way.

This week Cloverleaf invites you to buy a handful of limited, perfect wines. None of them experienced any degree of mishandling and as you might expect, each one scored 100 points in our entirely impartial tasting trials. I will do my best to describe them, but please realize that I am unable to capture in words the utter perfection of these divine, natural items.

2005 Les Hérétiques, Oupia
<$10
While this may be more concentrated than the familiar 2004 version – a final cause of deeply rooted Carignan vines in a balmy, dry Languedoc 2005 September – it is still a good example of perfect wine that is not immensely concentrated. In fact, you may want to make sure that it is the first drink of the day. Otherwise your palate may be too saturated to accept its fresh, bright signature flavors. On one recent afternoon, several card-carrying steakhouse hedonists mistook it for a $35 item. One smell calls to mind an image of crushed blackberries by the bucketful, doused with grape seed oil and garnished with a sprig of lovage. On the palate it offers tangy, oily black fruit essences driven by stony, herbal tannins and acids. The finish is bright and sappy, revealing unadulterated happy vine energy. Thank you vines! It was hand harvested and naturally fermented. It was shipped to Detroit from France in April and has been stored properly at every point from the winery to our store. This is what carafe wines taste like in the wilds of southern France. The fact that it may taste better there, to some people, is proof of our limited powers of imagination. 100 points.

2005 Muscadet, Domaine de la Pepiere
<$13
This wine is actually fairly concentrated in terms of mineral weight. The fruit is as much reminiscent of white grapes as it is of green apples. Some people are shocked when they first encounter it – with its raw and naked fruit flavors, a little bit salty, viscous in spite of its chalky, structured edges. Any of these aspects can be overwhelming, especially to a palate accustomed to the kind of un-fresh, lobotomized whites made to fill the industrial white wine brand pipeline. People who travel a lot on business know what I mean. (I am occasionally faced with no other choice myself and I’ve found it amazing what a little sparkling water can do to a lifeless Pinot Grigio). Don’t get me wrong. We need lifeless Pinot Grigio, if for no other reason than it makes such a thrilling contrast with this pure sun-given nectar. Vivid, hand-harvested, naturally fermented Muscadet gives Pinot Grigio engineers something to aim for. 100 points.

2005 Pinot Noir, Touraine, Thierry Puzelat
<$26
Usually obscure newsletter selections that cost over $20 don’t sell terribly quickly. I suppose I enjoy taunting the public with these rare, perfect items that can’t be replaced. Truth or dare? Why not both? Did you ever wonder what finished Pinot Noir tasted like straight from the vat? Unencumbered with oak and minimally sulfited? It tasted like orange peels and cinnamon and oozing red berry sugar, vengefully smooth. It doesn’t taste like brand name Pinot Noir. It goes better with Peking Duck. It goes better with salami on buttered crusty bread. It causes wine drinkers to behave irresponsibly. Less than a few hundred cases were made, and less than 50 were imported. 100 points.

2005 Bourgogne, Domaine Catherine & Claude Marechal
<$29
David Schildknecht in The Wine Advocate rated this wine 88 points. Mr. Schildknecht may be using the nihilistic version of the 100 point scale, where all wines start from zero and are graded up based on how much concentration they have and how durable they seem. By that scale it may have been 88 points on the day he tried it, but the fact is that this wine is clearly 100 points (because it is), "a petit vin", a simple wine of charm and inconsequence. This Burgundy is different from all the others mentioned above. It ages well. Wines like this that age well always go through an intermediary stage where the freshness and perfect sweetness of fruit is hidden by what may be called “structure” – that natural combination of tannin, acid and mineral extract that make a wine durable. It’s like an inverted bell curve. When this red wine first finished fermenting it tasted sweet and glorious, like fruit cocktail. Once it was stabilized in oxidative oak barrels, the austere preservative structure of the skin tannins and fruit acids moved into a phase where they tasted predominant. Some people like this phase, and it can work perfectly with the right food (i.e. potatoes baked in cream and cheese or roast chicken stuffed with herbs and mushrooms). But as miracles never cease, this terroir and grape variety provide for another phase, a point sometime in the future where the muscle and power of the vine begins to loosen its grip on the fruit (the fruit is its reason for being, its final cause). At that point it will seem there are many wilting, delicate transparent layers of fresh fruit and sweet spice in a three dimensional space that is either ornate or sublime depending on the vintage and the vineyard. When will that point arrive? Sometime after we sell our last bottle, probably in a few years. Jayson C. said so too.

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