On the Dôle! 2007 Favre et Fils Dôle, Valais Switzerland

Rarely do I see a wine from Switzerland in a store.  Switzerland doesn't produce a huge amount of wine, so not much of it is exported.  When I saw this lone bottle of 2007 Dôle from the Valais (Favre et Fils), I grabbed it.   Unfortunately, I did not pair it with racelette, fondue, or a Swiss Colony snausage log.

A little background on Dôle.  It's not the name of a grape, it's the name of the wine.  Primarily made with Pinot Noir grapes, there is also some Gamay blended in. Yes, our little friend Gamay that is synonymous with Beaujolais.  Some of you will say... comment?  pourquoi would you mix Pinot Noir with anything, let alone Gamay?

For starters, the French have been doing it for 100's of years.  Sometimes you'll even see a bottle here; it's called Passetoutgrains (meaning literally, press all grapes).  Pinot Noir is found in Burgunday, and Gamay is the starring grape in the Beaujolais region due South. 

Back to Switzerland.  This wine is from the Valais region, in the southwestern part of the country.  Can't visualize... it's right above Northwest Italy.  Not surprisingly some of the same grapes like Pinot Noir and Petit Arvine grow well on both sides of these Alps.  At any rate, the famous Rhone river flows east to west through the valley creating steep slopes that equal awesome in wine growing terms.  It allows for maximum sun exposure in a place that can often be a little chilly.  I just got an image of a St. Bernard and a chalet.

This wine totally tastes like you think a blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir would taste.  It has a medium body, a brambly, cherry, and somewhat burnt molasses nose, and on the palate there is an earthiness, a slight bitterness and a big burst of black cherry.  It's the perfect harmony of the these two grapes.  I'm just not sure I want to drink a blend of these two grapes.  This Dôle was about $24 and I think I would have preferred an Oregon Pinot Noir or a Beaujolais Cru for that amount of money.  The novelty factor was very enjoyable and it made me happy to support the Swiss wine industry.  I know that there are amazing Swiss wines out there, and I will be happy to drink them when I find them!

color: dark black cherry red
nose: burnt sugar, boysenberry, black cherry
palate: lean and high in acid, earthy and minerally, black cherry

The Sweetest Aunt on the Top Shelf; Tia Maria!

I happened to belly up to a bar in Connecticut this weekend with some friends (you know who you are).  Since I was in a sweet mood, I ordered an Amaretto Sour for myself.  My boyfriend had a Tia Maria on the rocks and I couldn't stop drinking his drink.  Sorry! 

I don't generally like coffee flavored anything.  I am not a big coffee drinker in general.  This is why my high praise of Tia Maria really a huge accolade! 

So there is a crazy story that the brand would love you to believe that involves a Jamaican uprising in the 1800's, a rich noblewoman, and a loyal maidservant who managed to spirit out an old family secret recipe for a unique coffee liqueur.  We all know that a story is very important in selling; however, what we really need to know is how it tastes and what goes in it!

Tia Maria is a coffee liqueur made with the base of a sugarcane spirit.  Jamaican coffee, roasted coffee beans, vanilla, and sugarcane also go into the mix. Kahlua seems to me to be a little more mainstream.  The difference is that Kahlua is made from Mexican coffee instead of Jamaican and the neutral spirit base is different.  Although I can't seem to get onto their website, I'm guessing that it's a wheat or corn based neutral spirit as opposed to the sugarcane spirit base of Tia Maria.  The sugarcane gives a lightness to the liqueur.  Although Tia Maria is sweet, it's not cloying.

The color is cola brown.  It has a beautiful vanilla mocha aroma.  The palate has a rich coffee flavor along with a hint of chocolate.  It's really delicious!!! 

Maybe you think of Tia Maria as a throwback to the 1950's and 1960's.  Maybe you remember Iman's commercials from the 80's hawking it as a 'dark spirit'.  Perhaps you have a bottle of Kahlua instead.  I strongly recommend that you give ole' Auntie Maria a chance to be a sweet end to your meal!  or a starring role in a cocktail!  yum!

color: cola brown
nose: roasted coffee bean, cocoa powder, Mexican vanilla
                   palate: smooth coffee, not overly sweet, vanilla fudge

Funky Furmint

I was at Clo earlier last week.  It's a cool wine bar in the Time Warner Center on the 4th floor at the doorstep of PerSe.  They have over 50 wines in an oenomatic machine and you can buy a pre-paid card and get little tastes of this and that.  It's been unacceptably hot out lately, so I sauntered over to the white wine cases.   They had some cool things; Rieslings, Verdicchio, a gorgeous Sancerre, and a little nicely-priced Austrian wine made from the Furmint grape.  It's the Heidi Schrock Furmit from Austria.

Furmint is best known for producing the amazingly complex and sweeet Tokaji wines made in Hungary.  Those are awesome, but Hungary is also producing some dry wines made with Furmint, and so is Austria.   Heidi Schrock was one of the few winemakers that re-introduced Furmint to the Bergenland (borders Hungary anyway), her part of Austria, in the 1990's.  It's name has is from the french word "froment" meaning wheat.  It often makes a wheat colored wine.

They also had some nibbly-bits available at Clo.  I suppose it was Happy Hour after all.  I grabbed a few almonds and a little hunk of Parmesan, and they were the perfect accompaniment to my Furmint!  There is a certain honey and almondy quality about the nose of this wine and a bit of spice.  The palate has more of a quince-like, refreshing zesty quality to it.  It's also not a light bodied wine even though it looks like it might be.  You really get a bit of heft.  I thought it was really cool.  It was the first Furmint that I have tried (outside Tokaji) and I will try one again!

color: straw colored
nose: quince, honey, lanolin, linden flower, spiciness
palate: somewhat weighty for a white, definitely some heft and unctuousness, more quince on palate with a little lemon and pear, lots of minerality.  Great balance - very interesting.