Made in America - Great Wines from The Fableist, Groundwork and Field Recording
Many customers have been asking me about the threat of Trump’s 100% tariff on European wines, and what the status is. The simple answer is that, for now the 100% tariff is behind us. But it is also still ahead of us. The USTR announced over the weekend that they will not be placing a 100% tariff on all European wines, as they threatened to do. But they would review that policy in 180 days. In the meantime they want to see that Europe is doing something about the subsidies it is providing to Airbus. Sadly, there is a tit-for-tat, in that Europe may be able to assess 100% tariffs on produce from America because of our subsidies to Boeing. That hearing is set for April in Europe. Whoever thought international trade was boring?
But life goes on, and I will admit, I did my fair share of European wine consumption this weekend – just in case that same bottle was going to cost twice as much on Monday. Fortunately it wasn’t. And also, in anticipation of a negative answer to the tariffs I had asked various importers to bring me some good old domestic wines that I would want to use either as a replacement or simply because they were very good.
The first tasting was today. I re-tasted, for the first time in a number of years the wines from The Fableist. These are wines produced by two of my favorite wine-makers – Curt Schalchlin, owner of the Sans Liege winery, and Andrew Jones, owner of Field Recordings. We used to sell a ton of these wines back when my friend Paul Meyers was the rep for them. Since he went off to open his own pizzeria (he was the sous-chef at Momofuku and Wylie Dufresne’s WD-50) in Binghamton, we haven’t seen them in the marketplace, until now. I tried the Fableist Chardonnay 163 Central Coast and the Pinot Noir 774 Central Coast – both of them excellent. Read more in the tasting notes. I tasted the Fiction Red from Field Recordings and I then retried a terrific Cunoise from Groundwork, also made by Curt Schalchlin. These two wine makers are still two of the most exciting wine-makers in California. Yes, you have the Jordan’s, and the Kistlers and a bunch of other stale, heavy handed Californian wineries that produce the same style, same kind of wine year after year. And if you like Veuve Cliquot you probably like their wines also. Their fame is to make high quality wine that tastes the same year after year. Nothing wrong with that, but chances are you don’t live in Brooklyn and you eat dinner at 5.30 every night.
The Fableist, Field Recordings and Groundworks are totally different. They aren’t scientific and they aren’t formulaic. What they are are exciting, nervy, dinner at Onoir types of wine – google Onoir, Montreal to see what I mean.
Fableist Chardonnay: 2018. $25.00. Think back to when Californian chardonnay was reminiscent of honeydew melon, cantaloupe and orange skin. Before it was laced with 100% NFO (new French oak). This is that wine. Fermented in stainless steel and aged in neutral oak. It is fresh and vibrant and tastes of creme fraiche and meringue.
Fableist Pinot Noir: 2017. $27. Aged 10% in NFO and 90% in neutral oak for 9 months. Delicate but well-rounded with balanced flavors of cranberry and raspberry. Neither fruit being overwhelming or dominant, and an underlying Unami of wild mushroom. This is much more compelling than most Californian Pinots at twice the price.
Groundwork Cunoise. $25.00. Beautiful rusty, ruby color – translucent and pure. This is so refreshing it begs to be drunk. Served ever-so-slightly chilled it will evoke, at least it did for me, memories of traveling the Cote D’Azur in a beat-up Fiat 500. And by that I really mean, it will transport you out of this time and place to a memory of excitement and travel. When you didn’t care about paying the mortgage because you didn’t own a home. When all that really mattered was what came that day.
Field Recording Fiction Red. $25.00. At the other end of the spectrum lies Field Recording’s Fiction. It pours the color of midnight oil. It smells like blueberry pie, pipe tobacco and your favorite leather chair. The blend comprises Zinfandel, Tempranillo, Grenache, Mouvedre, Tannat and Cabernet. I got a tiny bit of Zin, the Tempranillo and the Grenache, but what I loved is that none of them overpowered and yet you felt they were all there – the sum of the parts equation. The tannins are firm and the flavors are rich – think Maduro cigar in a well-seasoned humidifier.
4 great wines. One of each and I'll package them for $100!! That's the equivalent of about 20 Big Mac's. Which would you prefer?
All these wines are distributed by my friend Lance Mckee in Up-State New York. They deliver from one truck, once a week to Westchester. They don’t store a lot of wine so inventory is always thin. I think I have about 10 cases coming down on Friday – but that depends a little on what they have available come Friday morning! If you decide to unplug this weekend and sample some terrific, made in America wines, then let me know soonest so we can set aside some of these wines for you. They may not be ‘On-Sale’ but they still represent great value and they won’t always be available.
Enjoy