Stark Wines of California

The fourth season of Game of Thrones will premiere on Sunday, April 6, 2014. And what better way to celebrate than to open up a few bottles of Stark Wine.

Now, I have to admit that there is no connection between this winery and the sword and sorcery works of George R. R. Martin. Nor have the publicists for the winery made any connection with the TV show. But as a mild fan of the series, it was the first thought that I had. Tonight, I'll be sipping from the cellars of House Stark.

In the reality of the world in which we live, the company was founded in 2003 by the husband and wife team of Christian and Jen Stark. The couple produce Rhone and Mediterranean style wines in Healdsburg, Sonoma. These are small production wines, so your best bet for finding them will be to visit the winery or order from their online store.

2012 Stark Viognier
Damniano Vineyard
Sierra Foothills
100% Viognier
$28, 14.2% abv.

A little caramel and toast with deep overripe pear flavors and a slightly vegetal finish. Utterly amazing with a chicken pot pie. I don't encounter Viognier often, but when I do, I always wonder why I don't have it more frequently.

2012 Stark Carignane
Trimble Vineyard
Mendocino County
100% Carignane
$34, 13.5% abv.

Ripe red berry flavors with firm tannins and a long finish. Gentle notes of tea and stewed fruit as it opens up over time. A rare and delicious opportunity to sample a great French grape that does not get the love it deserves.

2012 Stark Cuvée Julian
Mendocino County
100% Syrah
$44, 13% abv.

Light blueberries and raspberries, touch of black pepper, spicy tannic aftertaste. Out of the three red wines, this is the one that cries out for a hearty grilled lamb chop with lots of rosemary and a final dash of rich olive oil. While tasty now, this wine should improve over the course of the next few years.

2012 Stark Barbera
Damiano Vineyard
Sierra Foothills
100% Barbera
$36, 14.1% abv.

Gentle red plum aromas and flavors, low tannins, very smooth and delicate on the palate, almost like a Pinot Noir in its overall profile. I would recommend serving this one with gently seasoned pork tenderloin or rabbit, accompanied by a mesclun salad.

Note: These wines were provided as samples for review.

Snooth PVA: Wines of Scarpa

You are in a Chinese restaurant in Manhattan in a room full of strangers that you've only met through a computer network. You have been invited to try Italian wines that haven't been sold in the United States for twenty years. Your mission is to write about them.

There are moments in my life when, faced with a new situation, I wonder what ten year old me would think about it. Around that time, I can imagine such a scene as the start of a Choose Your Own Adventure book. I've traveled quite a bit in my lifetime and have gotten to do some amazing things, but there are still those unique experiences I think that ten year old would love to read about and dream about having.

The whole weekend was built around the Snooth PVA event, but for my fellow wine bloggers and me, most of our time was spent in two-hour tasting sessions focused on a specific wine region or producer. Our first was hosted by the charming Martina Zola of Scarpa, a Piedmont institution for 150 years. While that's relatively young in Italian terms, it's even more impressive that so much of the fame of Scarpa is a result of the 20th century enologist Mario Pesce, spoken of in reverent tones by Zola. In describing his ideal for his wines, he had three words: "Sunday lunch in Piedmont". Sunday lunch in the region can last for four or five hours and includes many courses, and his point was that wines need time to develop, time to mature, and time to be savored. It's a perfect concept for Barolo, which can take ten to twenty years to reach its true potential.

(A lot of these tasting notes are going to be somewhat incomplete--we were balancing information about the wines with our own notes, the comments of each other, and the comments coming from the hosts. After a while, I worry about cross-pollination of specific notes, so some of my reviews may be more general.)

The first part half of the tasting began with Barbera d'Asti "La Bogliona", so named after an ancient Roman road. These wines are made in massive, 2,000 gallon oak casks known as botti. (I've slept in cabins much smaller than these casks.) The botti aren't really broken in until they've been used for three years, reach their best performance at fifteen years of age, and can continue being used to make wine up to thirty.

2007 Scarpa Barbera d'Asti
La Bogliona
$72
Caramel, toasted nuts, sour cherry. Made in a French style, tart and bright.

2006 Scarpa Barbera d'Asti
La Bogliona
$52
Softer vintage, lower tannins. Continuing bright cherry elements, with firm acidity.

2005 Scarpa Barbera d'Asti
La Bogliona
$68
Much was said about the sandy soil which contributes to the character of Barbera d'Asti. This bottle was quite similar to the 2006 but showed a promising aging trend.

1998 Scarpa Barbera d'Asti
La Bogliona
$58
My table's bottle of this wine was unfortunately oxidized, and we did not get a chance to try a different bottle. However, we were quickly rewarded with...

1997 Scarpa Barbera d'Asti
La Bogliona
$95
Great vintage with a strong summer storm that damaged the grapes, leading one of the older vineyard workers to comment that "God made the harvest." Very limited production, and we were lucky to try it. Perfect red berry flavors with a soft, melt-in-your mouth finish. Finally, after all the years, the fruit and acid and barely present tannins combined in perfect balance. Highly recommended if you can find it.

I was excited to try the Barolos. It was my first chance to try this region since the 2008 tasting with my friend Mike Whitfield here in Memphis. We tasted Barolos from 1967-1996, representing many producers.

2005 Scarpa Barolo
Tettimora
$74
Initial aromas of spearmint and tea, with a chewy mouthfeel. Still quite young, but fascinating texture.

2004 Scarpa Barolo
Tettimora
$88
Similar to the 2005, but developing a meatier aroma and a milder body. Firm acidity with a puckering finish.

2003 Scarpa Barolo
Tettimora
$98
After ten years, the acidity and tannins are beginning to get softer, again, reaching a more ideal balance of elements. Zola spoke about how the aging cellars are not equipped with modern heating or air conditioning: temperature control is managed by the fact that it's 5m/15' underground and the occasional opening or closing of doors to moderate the little climate of the cellar.

2001 Scarpa Barolo
Tettimora
$130
Many vertical tastings are like a trip back in time, and this bottle was almost perfect in the progression of age. The fruit holds up so well in these wines.

1999 Scarpa Barolo
Tettimora
$105
Even after 14 years, this wine still had some tannins and acidity clinging to it, delivering an amazing flavor but still surprisingly strong. Most grapes would have given up all flavor long ago, but Nebbiolo has this incredible power to maintain.

1987 Scarpa Barolo
Tettimora
$250
My favorite of the tasting, and one that reinforced my feelings about Barolo in the sweet 20-30 year age range. Perfect balance with the acidity and fruit softened to a mild, relaxing experience. I can't suggest serving this with any food, but rather a wine of this stature needs to be sipped calmly and carefully over the course of several hours. And over time, the wine did open up and develop some new elements.

1978 Scarpa Barolo
Le Coste di Monforte
$500
With the fruit and acidity completely subdued, this Barolo had gone in another direction to meaty and earthy elements. My experience with the Barolos of the 1960s and early 1970s was again validated. It is an amazing, rare, and wonderful opportunity to try a much older wine, but side by side I have to say that the 1987 was much better.

For these Snooth PVA weekend posts, I'll also be linking to posts about the same tastings by some of my fellow wine bloggers new friends, and I'll add their posts as they come up. Right now you can read the different perspectives from these fine writers: VineSleuth "Wines of Scarpa (Piedmont, Italy)", Wannabe Wino "Scarpa via NYC", My Vine Spot "The Wines of Scarpa Master Class with Snooth", Wine Julia "Snooth PVA: Wines of Scarpa"

Note: This trip was provided by Snooth.

2006 Galil Mountain Barbera

To a lot of people, kosher wines are associated with heavily sweetened Concord grapes, much in the way that many folks think all pink wines are sweet. But in reality, there are a wide range of flavor profiles and sugar levels on both fronts, from syrupy-sweet to bone-dry. Personally I prefer my wines on the drier side, and in the past few years I've seen more and more kosher wines that appeal to those palates. One example is the 2006 Galil Mountain Barbera from the Galilee region of Israel, distributed by Yarden. $18, 15% abv, 100% Barbera. Certified Kosher for Passover. Lots of black cherry on the nose, with full plum flavors but a very mild and soft mouthfeel. Tannins are barely present, making this an incredibly smooth wine, probably great for Thanksgiving. I think the perfect pairing would be a properly roasted duck with a little pink in the middle of the breast. It's a great wine, and smells more Italian than you'd think--there's just a whiff of that Chianti tartness.

I'm not Jewish myself, but in the interest of keeping with the theme and in honor of the upcoming holiday, I decided to cook an old Italian Passover recipe. My kitchen is admittedly treif, much less properly prepared for Pesach, but ingredient-wise I stuck to the traditional ingredients. Jewish-Italian cooking is something of a historical and culinary curiosity, as Judaism has had a rough history in the country and Jews currently comprise only .075% of the present population. Scacchi (pronounced SKA-kee, means chess in English) looked like a pretty good bet, though when I was trying to convince friends to come over for dinner I had to describe it as "lasagna, but without pasta, tomatoes, or cheese". Matzo are used in place of noodles, and alternating layers have either a meat or vegetable filling. I followed the linked recipe with a spiced beef/raisin mixture and a spinach/mushroom mixture, though I replaced a lot of the onion with smaller doses of shallot.

It's an odd sort of dish, but it worked out great. Needs a bit of salt, but I had some kosher flakes on hand. Improvements? I think it might be better to mix two of the eggs in with the meat mixture, as most of the egg wash runs off into the dish. Also, given the size of commercial matzo, you end up with basically two separate 6"x6" stacks. You'll need more than a cup of chicken broth to soften all the matzo. Don't skip the pine nuts, they really make the dish.

An Italian grape grown in Israel and kosher recipes in Italy? It's not as strange as it sounds. One of the problems with the way geography is taught (and thus how it gets perceived) is in compartmentalization. Specifically regarding the subjects of this post: Italy is taught as part of Europe, Israel as the Middle East, and Morocco/Tunisia/etc. as part of Africa. In reality, they're all part of a Mediterranean region that's shared a lot of culture and food over the course of human history. You can start with olive oil and citrus fruits and find dozens of other common threads throughout these cuisines.

Ranting aside, I wish everyone a Happy Passover! !חג שמח

Online Tasting Announcement + 2003 Michele Chiarlo Barbera d'Asti

In the words of Professor Farnsworth, "Good news, everyone!"

I'll be hosting an online wine tasting for my hometown newspaper, The Commercial Appeal. It's an event held every Thursday night at 7:00 Central Time. On March 12 I'll be popping the cork on a bottle of the 2006 Redheads "Yard Dog" Red, a mostly Petit Verdot blend from Australia. Local readers should be able to find this in shops all over town for around $12. For my readers from outside the Memphis area, I don't know how widely it's distributed. Just look for the ugly, mean-looking dog on the label, but feel free to drop in if you want to give a shout-out.

My advice is to have a pulled pork BBQ sandwich ready for enjoying with the wine. If you can't find such a thing in your area or make it happen in your kitchen, don't forget the tortas or tacos al pastor of your local Hispanic neighborhoods. It's even better if you can find a Cuban place that makes a medianoche or some good lechon asado. Let me make it simple: find some flavorful pig to go with this wine.

I'll post a link the night before the tasting... Hope y'all can make it!

For a completely unrelated wine review that wasn't long enough for a full post, here's a nice little bottle from Italy:

The 2003 Michele Chiarlo Barbera d'Asti hails from Piedmont way up in the Northwest corner of Italy. 100% Barbera, $15, 13% abv. Vegetal, asparagus nose with a little black pepper. Black cherry and strawberry flavors with medium tannins and a dried fig aftertaste.

I served this with a braciola that didn't quite look good enough to show here. It tasted great, but I really didn't get the neat spiral cross sections you see in the food magazines. Plus I discovered that pounding out a flank steak becomes problematic in a house with dogs--as much as they may enjoy the random bits of meat that end up on the floor, the loud hammering isn't pleasant for them.