Seek out your desert-island wine picks
With so many terrific wines in every conceivable style rolling in at great prices from around the globe, it is silly to ask, "What's your favorite wine?" Just enjoy and share any well-made bottles at hand with friends and good food.
But speculating about "desert island" wines can be fun, too. It is a variation on BBC Radio 4's long-running program "Desert Island Discs."
Since 1942, myriad songwriters, musicians, actors, filmmakers, authors and British politicians have imagined themselves as an island castaway. Each guest lists and discusses the reasons for selecting the eight -- and only eight -- musical recordings they would take with them. Candid responses sprinkled with humor, stories and philosophy give personality insights beyond public images.
In applying the same game to wine, limit the selections to only one white and one red. This complements the full range of food possibilities while forcing hard choices. Consider these tips in choosing the wines and reasons behind.
The wines need not be "perfect," whatever that means. As with people, wines with quirky eccentricities can be intriguing.
And the wines need not be expensive. Desert island castaways have no use for the rank snobbery of paying astronomical prices for prestige.
Ignore national wine publications' numerical ratings. Rather, rely on your own experiences and preferences, because desert island wines must never be boring
For this castaway, all desert island wines should share four traits:
• First, intense, complex, and enthralling aromas are essential. Splendid aromas arrest the senses and open the imagination. They set the stage for extraordinary pleasure as the curtain rises on enjoying the flavors, texture and balance.
• Second, the wines should evoke a sense of place, what the French call "vin de terroir." The aromas, flavors and texture should carry the unmistakable identity of the particular place where the grapes were grown. Transporting the imagination to places far away is critical on a desert island.
• Third, each wine's personality and distinct style should reflect the winemaker's unmistakable signature. Like accomplished artists with confident "voices," great winemakers avoid rote formulas and technological crutches while expressing grape-growing traditions. They humbly and brilliantly interpret Nature's raw materials to create singular wines. Such wines provide vital companionship on desert islands.
• Finally, desert island wines should create transcendent experiences. The sum of the wine's parts must magically engage the wine drinker's passions and feelings. Then, time stands still, and, like hearing a marvelously well-performed piece of music, indelible memories occur. Such moments are indispensible to every castaway's survival.
My first desert island wine hails from France's northern Rhône Valley: Yves Gangloff relentlessly toils in the rocky soils of Condrieu's steep, terraced hillside vineyards overlooking the majestic Rhône River. The hallmark purity, concentration and quality in the 2006 Yves et Mathilde Gangloff, Condrieu, France (Pennsylvania Special Liquor Order 63775, $97.99; available nationally at $66) reflect Gangloff's open, unaffected style.
By fermenting only perfectly ripe Viognier grapes, his white wine offers marvelous aromas of pineapple, citrus and honeysuckle without clumsy, overstated oak influences. Then lush fruity flavors envelope the palate as stony mineral notes and vibrant acidity provide flawless balance through the lingering, dry finish. The wine delivers audacious, exhilarating and complete pleasure. Highly Recommended.
To the south, the small stone houses in the hillside village of Gigondas huddle along steep, narrow cobbled streets in alluring rustic serenity and enduring mystery dating to the Roman era. The plain below sprawls out in a sea of vines.
Here Domaine du Cayron's Michel Faraud and his three daughters make superb, long-lasting, and idiosyncratic red wine in an ancient cellar winery under their modest home just off the town square. Relying on hot, hard work in rocky vineyards with vines averaging more than 50 years old, the ever-modest Faraud presents Mother Nature's harvests with glorious honesty and unadorned authenticity, quirks and all.
The 2006 Domaine du Cayron, Gigondas, France (Specialty 19528, $29.99) blends Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Mourvèdre for complex, untamed aromas of dark fruit, nuances of garrigue -- the mix of wild lavender, thyme, rosemary and fennel prevalent in the area, and meaty, earthy notes. The mouth-filling, pure ripe fruit flavors with meaty nuances lead to robust tannins and pure acidity through a long, lingering finish. Highly Recommended.