I visited Hungary for the first time in 1994. I had been overseas a number of times but I was still a beer guy and was a relatively young member of a US Department of Defense team working in Hungary. Thus, I never ordered the wine and was happy to drink whatever was placed in front of me. Our team leader, Frank, in addition to being a great mentor and living proof that you can be a nice guy and get results from people, was well traveled and conversant in wines. Frank wanted to try Bulls Blood which we all had heard about a great deal.
Our team members had been told that unscrupulous waiters and sommeliers would try to cheat us by serving us rotgut or watered down wine at high prices. We had not had this experience in Hungary or Romania to this point and laughed this off as a tourist 'urban legend.'
Sure enough, we went to a fancy restaurant in downtown Budapest. The uniformed waiter brought us a bottle of Bulls Blood that had "just been opened." The wine tasted OK to me but Frank took one taste and knew that the wine was watered down. He requested another bottle and asked the waiter to open it in front of us. The waiter did not even protest. The waiter brought us a second bottle and it tasted exactly the same as the first. We immediately challenged the waiter with a little more agitation. We were a group of eight males; some quite large. Flummoxed, the waiter asked us if we wanted another bottle. Frank asked for a carafe of the cheapest house wine. The waiter happily supplied it and guess what? It tasted exactly the same as the wine in the Bulls Blood bottles.
Showing posts with label Drinking and Tasting Stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drinking and Tasting Stories. Show all posts
Friday, April 22, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
The Mystery Red from Lion Gri
During my trip to Moldova, we met with the President and owner of Lion Gri winery. Lion Gri operates from a free trade zone at the edge of the city limits of Chisinau, the capital city. Lion Gri is impressively expanding into emerging markets like China and India. While we visited with the owner during our project evaluation, we were able to sample some wines. Upon leaving the production center, our generous host not only let us sample a number of wines but handed my colleagues and me a gift bag containing two bottles, one white and one red – both unlabeled. We had no idea what they were.
I brought the red home to the US. My father-in-law enjoys wine and a story. So, explained how I had received this wine from the production facility and had no idea what it was. What made the story more interesting was the recounting of meeting the winery president. She was an hour late and resplendent in high heels, a suit with shoulder pads and a ruffle collar shirt that would make Prince blush. It was a grand entrance.
We opened the wine sitting around the dinner table with my wife’s family. We ate pasta puttanesca with the mystery red along with salad and roasted vegetables as a side dish. By this time, Slava, my friend and colleague in Moldova informed me he thought the wine was a cabernet.
Anyway, we tasted it and we all enjoyed it. It went well with the puttanesca. I don’t think it was a straight Cabernet but a Cabernet/Merlot mix. The wine had a Cabernet taste but had low tannins, a soft aroma and seemed a bit too light in body to be a Cabernet. The wine was gentle but had enough taste to stand up to the capers. Everyone at the table seemed to enjoy the wine and the story. We managed to finish the bottle … the unlabeled bottle.
The moral of the story is if you receive an unlabeled bottle from Lion Gri, try it.
I brought the red home to the US. My father-in-law enjoys wine and a story. So, explained how I had received this wine from the production facility and had no idea what it was. What made the story more interesting was the recounting of meeting the winery president. She was an hour late and resplendent in high heels, a suit with shoulder pads and a ruffle collar shirt that would make Prince blush. It was a grand entrance.
We opened the wine sitting around the dinner table with my wife’s family. We ate pasta puttanesca with the mystery red along with salad and roasted vegetables as a side dish. By this time, Slava, my friend and colleague in Moldova informed me he thought the wine was a cabernet.
Anyway, we tasted it and we all enjoyed it. It went well with the puttanesca. I don’t think it was a straight Cabernet but a Cabernet/Merlot mix. The wine had a Cabernet taste but had low tannins, a soft aroma and seemed a bit too light in body to be a Cabernet. The wine was gentle but had enough taste to stand up to the capers. Everyone at the table seemed to enjoy the wine and the story. We managed to finish the bottle … the unlabeled bottle.
The moral of the story is if you receive an unlabeled bottle from Lion Gri, try it.
A Wine Tasting at the Purcari Winery in Moldova
In December 2010, I was performing an evaluation of a USAID program to build competitiveness in the Moldovan wine, IT and apparel industries. One of the benefits of evaluating the wine industry is you do “field visits” to wineries which essentially means … wine tastings. With my colleagues, Colin and Veaceslav, we braved a horrendous ice storm and nearly skidded off the road while driving to the Purcari Winery in Moldova.
Purcari, one of the more successful Moldovan wineries, produces more than a million bottles per year and sells in 23 countries. The winery built a pleasant country inn near its vineyards with a nice dining room, billiards area, pond and wireless internet in a rustic valley. The fare offered in the dining room, a bit on the expensive side, was disappointingly bland and cold. The menu emphasized continental specialties rather than local.
Before dinner, we had a tour of the Purcari facilities. The facility was impressively clean and modern with imported processing equipment and French oak casks. We wound our way through the cellar and saw bottlings specifically for British royalty.
After the tour, we returned to the hotel for a wine tasting featuring Purcari’s eight principal wines. All of the wines we drank were produced by Purcari in 2007. The wine tasting was a bit academic. Because of the bad weather, the hotel guests all checked in late and the wine steward wanted to go home. The result was a lecture on the wines that seemed like a class in didactics rather than a fun wine tasting.
The first two wines were whites, a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc. The Chardonnay was acceptable; good for an Eastern European Chardonnay if you will. But the price difference with a good California Chardonnay is minimal, so there is not much reason to drink it unless you are unable to buy a California, French or other Chardonnay. The Purcari Chardonnay was flowery and more on the crisp side as opposed to being buttery. The Sauvignon Blanc was significantly better. Moldova and Romania are able to produce reasonable Sauvignon Blancs, dry with enough fruit, not as subtle or as smooth on the palate as a high-end Sauvignon Blanc but drinkable and tasty.
We then moved to the reds moving from the lightest wines to the heaviest. We started with a Pinot Noir which was solid. A friend who went to medical school said that when you received a “solid” in your student evaluation that it meant there was nothing wrong with you but you were not impressive. The Pinot Noir was solid. The Merlot was medium bodied and not quite as dry or robust as one would hope. It may have been one of the more disappointing wines because Moldova can produce some fine Merlot. The Cabernet was next. It was nice and had some fruit but it finished rather quickly. For the price, it’s definitely worth drinking if you’re not insistent on a “Big Red.” The varietals we tasted ranged from $8-12 per bottle.
The next two wines were the two premium blends made by Purcari, Rosu de Purcari (Red by Purcari) and Negru de Purcaru (Black by Purcari). The wines blend Cabernet, Merlot and Saperavi, a Georgian grape. Negru is the super premium wine and sells for $20 per bottle or more which is quite high by Moldovan standards.
The Rosu had nice color, balance and fruit. It was a little timid. I had a difficult time smelling the bouquet. The Negru was the event’s best wine. (Colin thought the Rosu was the best wine. Slava thought the Sauvignon Blanc was.) With a dark color and the strongest scent, Negru de Purcari had the most complexity and flavor of the group. Despite its relatively young age, the Negru clung to the glass and gave us some ‘legs.’ We finished by tasting the Cahor dessert wine. I must admit I am not much of a dessert wine drinker and really am unable to properly judge the Cahor. Nonetheless, my opinion is the Cahor is pleasant, not too cloying and would accompany many desserts well.
I should note that I may be a bit overcritical of the wines because I drank a number of Purcari wines from 2003 and they were a superb value. The 2003 Pinot Noir was outstanding. Lush and velvety on the palate, the Pinot was great with food or solo. I gave a consulting client a bottle of Rosu de Purcari 2003 as a Christmas gift and had a new project two months later! Thus, 2007 may not have been a great year. The winery staff told me that 2010 was not a great year for grapes because the weather was too wet. I would summarize by saying that the Purcari wines are eminently drinkable and enjoyable wines, particularly at their price point, but not superlative, and look out for Purcari wines from 2008 and 2009.
What made the wine tasting particularly nice was that they left the opened for the three of us to finish. So, we managed to polish off nearly all of the seven drinking wines and stumbled upstairs to the winery’s nicely appointed hotel rooms to sleep off the wine tasting and begin the difficult work of evaluating another wine producer.
Purcari, one of the more successful Moldovan wineries, produces more than a million bottles per year and sells in 23 countries. The winery built a pleasant country inn near its vineyards with a nice dining room, billiards area, pond and wireless internet in a rustic valley. The fare offered in the dining room, a bit on the expensive side, was disappointingly bland and cold. The menu emphasized continental specialties rather than local.
Before dinner, we had a tour of the Purcari facilities. The facility was impressively clean and modern with imported processing equipment and French oak casks. We wound our way through the cellar and saw bottlings specifically for British royalty.
After the tour, we returned to the hotel for a wine tasting featuring Purcari’s eight principal wines. All of the wines we drank were produced by Purcari in 2007. The wine tasting was a bit academic. Because of the bad weather, the hotel guests all checked in late and the wine steward wanted to go home. The result was a lecture on the wines that seemed like a class in didactics rather than a fun wine tasting.
The first two wines were whites, a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc. The Chardonnay was acceptable; good for an Eastern European Chardonnay if you will. But the price difference with a good California Chardonnay is minimal, so there is not much reason to drink it unless you are unable to buy a California, French or other Chardonnay. The Purcari Chardonnay was flowery and more on the crisp side as opposed to being buttery. The Sauvignon Blanc was significantly better. Moldova and Romania are able to produce reasonable Sauvignon Blancs, dry with enough fruit, not as subtle or as smooth on the palate as a high-end Sauvignon Blanc but drinkable and tasty.
We then moved to the reds moving from the lightest wines to the heaviest. We started with a Pinot Noir which was solid. A friend who went to medical school said that when you received a “solid” in your student evaluation that it meant there was nothing wrong with you but you were not impressive. The Pinot Noir was solid. The Merlot was medium bodied and not quite as dry or robust as one would hope. It may have been one of the more disappointing wines because Moldova can produce some fine Merlot. The Cabernet was next. It was nice and had some fruit but it finished rather quickly. For the price, it’s definitely worth drinking if you’re not insistent on a “Big Red.” The varietals we tasted ranged from $8-12 per bottle.
The next two wines were the two premium blends made by Purcari, Rosu de Purcari (Red by Purcari) and Negru de Purcaru (Black by Purcari). The wines blend Cabernet, Merlot and Saperavi, a Georgian grape. Negru is the super premium wine and sells for $20 per bottle or more which is quite high by Moldovan standards.
The Rosu had nice color, balance and fruit. It was a little timid. I had a difficult time smelling the bouquet. The Negru was the event’s best wine. (Colin thought the Rosu was the best wine. Slava thought the Sauvignon Blanc was.) With a dark color and the strongest scent, Negru de Purcari had the most complexity and flavor of the group. Despite its relatively young age, the Negru clung to the glass and gave us some ‘legs.’ We finished by tasting the Cahor dessert wine. I must admit I am not much of a dessert wine drinker and really am unable to properly judge the Cahor. Nonetheless, my opinion is the Cahor is pleasant, not too cloying and would accompany many desserts well.
I should note that I may be a bit overcritical of the wines because I drank a number of Purcari wines from 2003 and they were a superb value. The 2003 Pinot Noir was outstanding. Lush and velvety on the palate, the Pinot was great with food or solo. I gave a consulting client a bottle of Rosu de Purcari 2003 as a Christmas gift and had a new project two months later! Thus, 2007 may not have been a great year. The winery staff told me that 2010 was not a great year for grapes because the weather was too wet. I would summarize by saying that the Purcari wines are eminently drinkable and enjoyable wines, particularly at their price point, but not superlative, and look out for Purcari wines from 2008 and 2009.
What made the wine tasting particularly nice was that they left the opened for the three of us to finish. So, we managed to polish off nearly all of the seven drinking wines and stumbled upstairs to the winery’s nicely appointed hotel rooms to sleep off the wine tasting and begin the difficult work of evaluating another wine producer.
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