Antis Winery

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  November 2009

  Antis Reserve Malbec

  Snoothrank: Starting at $19^.99

  the 2007 reserve is really good. lovely vanilla nose, but nice tannins and structure. no perception of sweetness. velvety on the palette, but good spice. I really love it for the price

  Wine review by wineisfine

  
  

• November 2009

  I know a good majority of Ports are from grapes like Zin, Cab, Grand Noir, ... as I am sipping on a 2007 Antis Malbec, Mendoza Argentina

  Forum post in the topic What else would make a good... by kylewolf

  
  

• August 2009

  Since wine is not made from animal products, it's generally vegan unless a couple birds, snakes, or mice get into the grapes and get fermented with the juice. And insects. So if the wine has to be insect-free, I'm not sure there is such a thing. But I think mostly what you're... Read moreSince wine is not made from animal products, it's generally vegan unless a couple birds, snakes, or mice get into the grapes and get fermented with the juice. And insects. So if the wine has to be insect-free, I'm not sure there is such a thing. But I think mostly what you're referring to is the way they do the fining before putting the wine in bottles. Normally they filter out particles and then they add some egg whites. Those don't mix in with the wine, but tiny particles stick to them and it helps to clarify the wine. The egg whites are taken out and the juice is then bottled. That's the traditional way. But some people use a kind of clay called bentonite. Almost nobody tells you that on the bottle, and most distributors and importers don't know it either, and some wineries use both, depending on whatever reason they may have. So what you can look for is wine that is noted as "unfined and unfiltered" or at least, "unfined". As far as organic goes, as posted above, that's got to do with the way the fruit is grown. Generally people look at three things. First you can fertilze the ground with petro-fertilizer. Very few people actually do that these days for several reasons. A number of these had been created during WWI and II and after WWII, people wanted to recover from the devastation. At the time, France was probably the main wine exporting country and the US wasn't a wine drinking place, but the farmers needed money so they fertilized and increased yields and things looked good. But the wines weren't always that good and they weren't getting better. Finally they figured out the problem. Adding fertilizer was good for the plant in that it made the plant grow, but it did nothing to the soil. As the organic matter in the soil disappeared, going into the plants, the air, and leaching away, the soil became barren to the point that nothing would grow without fertilizer. Grape vines don't need a lot of nutrition anyway compared to most agricultural plants, so although well-intentioned, the efforts were counterproductive. Today most vineyards of any quality do not fertilize because the idea isn't to get the highest production, it's to get the highest quality and those two things can be in conflict. Next thing about organic is whether the vines are sprayed with petro chemicals. It's kind of a silly definition because petroleum is of course, very much "organic" so calling the derivatives "artificial" or not organic is mistaken. At any rate, what do you spray for? You could spray for pests. Some insects eat the grapes, the leaves, or other parts of the plants and some can actually kill the plants. To avoid that, people put chemical on the vineyards or the vines. Depending on the bug, in some cases, you can leave things alone because the bugs won't do that much damage and when the weather cools, or you get some rain, they'll go away. In other cases, you can find natural predators, like ladybugs, and get them to live in your vineyard to eat the smaller bugs. And in some cases, there is no known cure. Things like Pierce's disease for example, will simply destroy the grapevines. I may be wrong but I don't think there's any "natural" solution to that. The other thing you spray for, and this is probably the most common, is disease A disease like mildew or fungus can cause serious damage to the crop as well, and there really aren't that many "natural" solutions. Ladybugs don't eat fungus as far as I know. So you spray to kill the fungus, mildew, or whatever. But think about it for a minute. Where does fungus grow? Usually in damp places like your shower curtain, the basement floor where you threw some damp papers, or on vines that are in damp places. The most famous grape area in the world is Bordeaux and guess what? They're on the ocean and they are damp and they have fungal problems. Years ago they came up with a blend of copper and sulfur called the "Bordeaux mix" which is dusted on the grapevines. It's a turquoise colored powder and it's also use for roses and other flowers and crops that can be attacked by some fungal strains. It actually doesn't work very well and better products have been created. But the newer products aren't considered "natural". So if you don't mind eating copper sulfate, the wines made with that are generally OK to be labeled organic. Regardless of the law, there is some debate about that in the "organic" community, so you need to make your own decision. So what to do. Bordeaux is cloudy, damp, and miserable. That's why everyone gets excited every five or six years when they have lots of sun. Those vintages are called "the vintage of the century" and usually result in ratcheting the prices up where they'll stay until five, six, or seven years later when you get the next "vintage of the century" and they go up again. But if you look at the south of France, Greece, Italy, most of Spain, much of California, Australia, Argentina, what do you see? Mostly desert. Because they're so dry, those places don't have as much pressure from disease and consequently, whether they label their wines as such or not, many of them would easily pass any definition of "organic". If you're a farmer, you'd rather grow your grapes like that because spraying is just one more chore that you don't have to do. However, you also want to hedge your bets and if you happen to get a freak year with clouds and rain, you may need to spray or you go bankrupt, so many growers don't apply for any certification, in spite of the fact that they've practiced "organic" farming for years. In addition, due to some EU rules, some of them can't apply anyway. So you can look for bottles that are labeled as organic. Lacking labels, you can also look for wines that are produced in hot, sunny dry areas, and if you're nervous, if you know that a vintage was particularly and unusually wet, don't buy from that vintage. Regarding the "leaven" mentioned above, that is of course what we call yeast. It is in fact all around. You can leave some grape juice out and it may start fermenting spontaneously. That's in fact how they made wine until they learned what was really happening. I make bread like that sometimes. Or you can use a strain of yeast that you've saved or purchased. Some people call those "artificial" or "Industrial" yeasts, but again, those are terms that assign value, not fact. They may simply be yeast strains that were captured in your vineyard and nurtured, just as you'd nurture a sourdough starter if it has a flavor or other characteristic you like. Maybe it came from your neighbor's vines, or his uncle's on the other side of the river or mountain range. Maybe someone took two yeasts and let them mix and produced a cake of yeast that seemed to work better than either separately. It's kind of like crossing vines to get a grape you like, no? So I'm not sure any of those are no longer natural. It's interesting that people don't object to planting specific clones of a grape but they have an issue with using a specific strain of yeast. Like many things with wine evaluation, it's rather arbitrary. Moreover, even if your grapes start fermenting "spontaneously", unless you plate the yeast and examine it, you never know whether it's because of a yeast that blew in from the big co-op down the road or from something your neighbor was experimenting with that he picked up from a laboratory. And then there are the biodynamic producers. They try to be as "organic" as possible and have concocted a brainless rationale to give their behavior a "spiritual" or "cosmic" gloss. As mentioned above, sulfur is usually added to wine to help it keep - it's an anti-oxidant and without it, you run the risk of spoiling the wine. But some people still bottle "sans soufre" or without sulfur. That's usually considered OK by organic people because it's an element you find naturally in the ground, although clearly there is nothing whatsoever "organic" about sulfur. Too much sulfur can affect the taste of the wine but very little is usually added. As far as I know, there is no scientific evidence anywhere that demonstrates a correlation between sulfur or sulfites and headaches, notwithstanding the fact that many people make the claim. So that's that. As far as NYC, you can try Chambers Street, Astor, and Frankly WInes in Manhattan, Sip in Brooklyn, Court Square Wines in Queens. All of them look for organic producers.    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Good Organic and Vegan wines?... by GregT

  
  

• August 2009

  Different Greg but I was literally just was discussing this. It's tough to make a hard and fast rule since both tannin, primarily for reds, and acid, primarily for white serve as anti-oxidants. In general the acid seems to be more resistant to oxidation, making whites more... Read moreDifferent Greg but I was literally just was discussing this. It's tough to make a hard and fast rule since both tannin, primarily for reds, and acid, primarily for white serve as anti-oxidants. In general the acid seems to be more resistant to oxidation, making whites more structurally durable. However I find that the subtle and fresh flavors in whites are more susceptible to decay. When an earthy, leathery red, for example, turns earthier and leatherier it's not a big issue and might actually be perceived as an improvement. With whites on the other hand one is more likely to see fresh fruit flavors turn nutty and dried. For most folks that is definitely not an improvement. As tough as it is to generalize I would say that reds generally last 50% longer or more than whites.    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Question about a Shiraz....... by Gregory Dal Piaz

  
  

• July 2009

  dmucker - the rationale is exactly the point. There's a debate as to how it fits today and that's what we're seeing in all of these cases. Several approaches have been tried. In the Granholm case for example, they trotted out the idea that minors would have access to alcohol if it... Read moredmucker - the rationale is exactly the point. There's a debate as to how it fits today and that's what we're seeing in all of these cases. Several approaches have been tried. In the Granholm case for example, they trotted out the idea that minors would have access to alcohol if it were allowed from out of state wineries. The Court swatted that one away. They also tried the argument that it's harder to collect taxes from out of state wineries. That also got swatted aside. The concurring opinion in this current case talks at length about the evolution of the law and how anachronistic laws are dealt with. It's interesting that you don't see a lot of arguing about organized crime and I'm wondering if that isn't because people are so afraid of being politically incorrect these days - our esteemed former Governor Cuomo was famous for stating that there was and is no such thing as the mafia and that reference to it was simply anti-Italian sentiment. This particular ruling is interesting because when the Supreme Court has essentially said that certain arguments don't pass the laugh test, it's hard to make those arguments the heart of your case. In earlier cases, the SC simply commented that the three tier system was legitimate. But it's legitimacy was not the heart of the case, so their comment is essentially what's called dicta. In this ruling however, Wesley seems to have transformed the issue and because he can't bring up the old arguments, his entire holding seems to be a defense of the three-tier system - as it is run in the state of NY. Thinking about it a little more, his ruling is even stupider than I thought earlier because the three tier system was not the issue. The issue is alcohol, not business practice and the three-tier system has no Constitutional protection as it is only one of many possible systems that we can imagine. And it still exists although two of the legs may be in other states. But that's the beauty of the Commerce Clause - full faith and credit to the laws of the other states. Although the historical roots of the 3 tier system may be Al Capone, I can't imagine anyone bringing him up today when his level of gangsterism seems almost quaint. So we get stupid rulings like this one, where the system is defended because it has been called legitimate by the Supreme Court. Of course, legitimate does not mean essential, and that's where this ruling is going to fail. The analysis Philip linked to is pretty good too.    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic New York wine lovers mourn... by GregT

  
  

• June 2009

  Hi Dm, and thanks for the feedback. There are several issues at play here and while I can't get too detailed I can say that the Hermitage and Latour matches were no good because of an issue with the pricing. This system was designed to work my pairing a recipe with wine. In order... Read moreHi Dm, and thanks for the feedback. There are several issues at play here and while I can't get too detailed I can say that the Hermitage and Latour matches were no good because of an issue with the pricing. This system was designed to work my pairing a recipe with wine. In order to make the wines valuable for the broadest market the algorithm imposes a pricing cap on the wines. When we then go to pull the reverse matches it's as if those wines don't exist so they then get paired with default recipes. We are working on a fix for that issue and I would expect you might see better matches soon such as:http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Venison-Chops-with-Blackberry-Compote-109323 And the Latour might find a match like:http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Filets-Mignons-with-Mushroom-Sauce-10050 AS you can imagine this is very much a work in progress. It's only by having users such as yourself offer comments and feedback that we can discover the issues we have and remedy the problems they cause. Once we get these issues resolved we will be able to work towards refining the matching to take into account issues such as the relative level of maturity of the wine, types of cuisine and such. As Philip alludes to our repertoire of recipes is destined to increase. Unfortunately the percentage of chicken recipes is most likely destined to remain fairly constant though it appears that the surfeit of chicken at the moment is due to a programing glitch as opposed to an anti-avian predilection on my part. Just rest assured we are hard at work making this the best it can be though certain issues will always allow for quibbles and questions.    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Food and Wine by Gregory Dal Piaz

  
  

• May 2009

  So how does your family drink the wine with breakfast? Have to admit I have had wine in the morning in France quite a few times, and even Calvados with coffee at 'working class' bars in France and (shock to the Swiss system) Geneva. And beer at breakfast in Germany. This coming from... Read moreSo how does your family drink the wine with breakfast? Have to admit I have had wine in the morning in France quite a few times, and even Calvados with coffee at 'working class' bars in France and (shock to the Swiss system) Geneva. And beer at breakfast in Germany. This coming from someone who is very anti hair-of-the-dog, so I'm always curious about early morning libative customs... ;-) Greg's suggestion of sharing wines with friends is a huge part of what I think wine is about. Find restaurants and liquor stores you like to frequent that will interact with you about your wine interests, desires, food combinations and more. Also keep participating in this forum and you're sure to get plenty of other ideas, too. Cheers! P.S. I assume from your moniker you like your caffeine, too?    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Hello all! by dmcker

  
  
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  May 2009

  Antis Malbec 2003

  Snoothrank:

  No written review

  Wine review by scruffy

  
  

• April 2009

  "Philip, Syrah and Languedoc are showing up as miss-spelled...anti-French bias?" What do you mean mis-spelled? I couldnt find the error

  Forum post in the topic Syrah/Shiraz by Philip

  
  

• April 2009

  Geographic is the only difference I'm aware of. New world wines tend to refer to the grape as Shiraz, while old world, France in particular, refer to it as Syrah. With the increase in popularity of New World wines, though, I think some French wines, particularly from Languedoc, are... Read moreGeographic is the only difference I'm aware of. New world wines tend to refer to the grape as Shiraz, while old world, France in particular, refer to it as Syrah. With the increase in popularity of New World wines, though, I think some French wines, particularly from Languedoc, are switching, or incorporating Shiraz. As far as pronunciation, it would depend on where the speaker is from, though all end with the z sound. Philip, Syrah and Languedoc are showing up as miss-spelled...anti-French bias?    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Syrah/Shiraz by Stephen

  
  

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