Please The Palate |

Please The Palate Pick of the Week: Irvine & Roberts 2016 Pinot Meunier

There are three grapes grown in Champagne but most people are aware of two of the grapes - Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The third grape is Pinot Meunier, a grape that gets less acclaim. I have tasted a few Champagnes that are predominantly, or exclusively, Pinot Meunier, but I had never had a still red wine made from 100% Pinot Meunier until now. And that is why the Irvine & Roberts 2016 Pinot Meunier from the Rouge Valley in Oregon is the Please The Palate pick of the week.

Pinot Meunier is a clonal mutation of the Pinot group, which means that it is related to Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and others. Pinot Meunier is considered a quiet workhorse in Champagne and is not as challenging to grow as Pinot Noir. It is also a rather "ugly duckling" in the vineyard. The vines can look sickly at first glance as the underside of the vines' leaves are covered with a white fur. This is what inspired the name, Meunier, which is French for "miller".

18 May, 2019

Watch Out Champagne! British Bubbles Are Here!

The world of sparkling wines is vast and the king of sparkling wine is Champagne. When I sat down for a seminar at Pebble Beach Food & Wine, the glasses in front of me looked like Champagne and had some of the same mineral, citrus and brioche aromas. But, in fact, it was not Champagne in front of me. Nor was it Italian sparkling wine or California sparkling wine. It was, in fact, British sparkling wine, a category that I had been hearing about but had not had the opportunity to taste, until now. British Bubbles are a very exciting category which I wrote about in the Napa Valley Register, which you can read here, and I look forward to continuing to explore British Bubbles in the future.

I took a look at the glasses on the table. The liquid was a pale gold with a stream of small bubbles. The nose ranged from mineral and citrus to apple and brioche notes.

A simple guess was that Champagne was in front of me. But it was not. I had eight glasses of British Bubbles in front of me as I sat down for a seminar at Pebble Beach Food & Wine titled “Oysters, Pearls and British Bubbles” led by Champagne-lover Kim Beto, Sommelier Tim Smith, an American living in England, Master Sommelier Joe Spellman and English-born Master Sommelier Laura Rhys. Kim recalled a few years ago when Chef Gary Danko first asked him about English bubbles. He had no answer then but today, make no mistake that British Bubbles is a serious category of wine.

16 May, 2019

Five Decades of Ridge Monte Bello

One of the most iconic California wines is Ridge Monte Bello. It is a Cabernet Sauvignon that needs little explanation. It is a wine that is admired and enjoyed and I had the privilege to sit down for a tasting of eight vintages at Pebble Beach Food & Wine, as I wrote about in the Napa Valley Register and you can read here. ************* Ridge Monte Bello is considered “the most internationally admired producer of American Cabernet Sauvignon” by the Oxford Companion to Wine.

Since 1962, Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello has been garnering recognition, from placing fifth at the 1976 Judgement of Paris to receiving four 100-point scores from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. So, when I had the opportunity to sit down and taste wines spanning five decades of this historic vineyard at Pebble Beach Food & Wine, I did not hesitate.

Ridge Vineyards’ Monte Bello is an iconic California wine. However, is it also one of the most unusual. For one thing, it is not from Napa Valley, or any other marquee regions, but rather the remote Santa Cruz Mountains. In fact, it is the wine that defines the Santa Cruz Mountains.

14 May, 2019