Chef Dan Barber & Winemaker Randall Grahm on the "Roots" of Terroir in Wine

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“It turns out that the mechanism [mycorrhizal fungi] is a pre-requisite for great wine.  I learned this from Randall Grahm, the iconoclastic winemaker of Bonny Doon Vineyard, in Santa Cruz California.  “Mycorrhizae are microbial demiurges—they bring minerals into the plants,” he told me.  “What does that taste like? Persistence.  The best wines are powerfully persistent.  You breathe out your nose and taste the wine over again, or you leave the bottle open for a week and the wine still tastes alive.  Persistence doesn’t fade, and it doesn’t oxidize.  That’s from the minerals.” - -  Dan Barber, The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food; Chef-partner, Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Blue Hill NYC

Chef Dan Barber and Gerry Dawes in the kitchens of Blue Hill at Stone Barns,

Pocantico Hills, New York, June 2015.

What my staff and I been finding out to our amazement with our terroir-driven artisanal wines from The Spanish Artisan Wine & Spirits Group – Gerry Dawes Selections, especially the ones with minimal intervention in the winery, that wines leftover after tastings that I merely put in a small refrigerator with just a cork in them and no Vacuvin stoppers, are still drinking beautifully a week later, often even better than when we opened them. Last night, August 30, 2015, I was reading Dan Barber’s book and came across this amazing quote from Randall Grahm, a winemaker from California, ironically where commercial producers have been trying to deny the existence of mineral terroir for decades.

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Gerry Dawes

Presidente-Jefe & Chairman of the Boar

The Spanish Artisan Wine & Spirits Group - Gerry Dawes Selections
Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel

370 Cushman Road

Patterson, NY 12563

gerrydawes@spanishartisanwine.com

gerrydawes@aol.com

Cell phone: 914-414-6982

Teléfono movíl (en España): (011 34) 670 67 39 34

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Spanish National Gastronomy Award 2003

Food Arts Silver Spoon Award (Written by JBF Outstanding Chef José Andrés)

Décima Amandi Mencia Tinto 2011 Ribeira Sacra, "one of the finest examples of Mencía I have ever had the pleasure to taste." John B. Gilman, View From The Cellar

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Décima, José Manuel Rodríguez, Vilacha (Lugo)

José Manuel Rodríguez, President of the D.O. Ribeira Sacra and producer of  Décima, showing
California chef Michael Chiarello around his precipitously steep Ribeira Sacra vineyards on the Sil River.

Photo: Gerry Dawes©2012 / gerrydawes@aol.com

Décima Amandi Mencia Tinto 2011 Ribeira Sacra 12.5% 12/750ML $21.99   

José Manuel Rodríguez is the head of the growers’ association and regulatory agency of Ribeira Sacra, and makes one of the finest examples of Mencía I have ever had the pleasure to taste. Like the Don Bernardino Mencía, these two lovely vintages of Décima hail from very steep vineyards overlooking the Sil River in the village of Amandi. The 2011 Décima weighs in at a very classic octane of 12.5 percent and roars from the glass in a sophisticated and utterly classic nose of pomegranate, lead pencil, slate, a nice touch of gamebird, coffee bean and a gentle medicinal topnote that is vaguely reminiscent of Hermitage. On the palate the wine is fullish, complex and very intensely flavored, with laser-like focus, fine mid-palate depth, tangy acids and great length and grip on the very softly tannic finish. Utterly classic Mencía! 2012-2020+.  94. - - John Gilman, View From the Cellar

“My favorite tinto (red wine) was the sophisticated 2010 Décima made from the mencía grape in the Ribeira Sacra region.  Beautifully structured,  quietly scintillating, almost poetic, it requires a patient, careful reading.” - - Howard G. Goldberg

Thomas Carter, Wine Director of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, pours Décima Ribeira Sacra Mencia 2011,
Manuel Formigo Finca Teira Ribeiro 2011 and Viña Catajarros Cigales Rosado 2011 by the glass. 
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2012 / gerrydawes@aol.com

The unique, rich, pomegranate-like fruit-driven Décima Mencia (with 10% garnacha tintorera) from Amandi is underpinned by a graphite-like slate minerality that comes from the preciptiously steep pizarra terraces on which Décima’s vineyards grow. The vineyards are owned and farmed by José Manuel Rodríguez, who in addition to farming his own vines, is also the President of the Consello Regulador de La Ribeira Sacra.  This wine is a masterpiece, reminiscent in style and quality, if not in Pinot Noir flavors, of a wine from Burgundy’s northern Cótes de Nuits. 

I have been visiting vineyards and bodegas with José Manuel for nearly a decade and count him among my best friends.  He has not only introduced me to the bodegueros and wineries we are bringing in, he has lead me to nearly three dozen other bodegas and tasting of hundreds of wines, which helped me immeasurably in the research for my articles on the region, but also in finding this particular set of unique wines.  - - Gerry Dawes