APPLES IN A BOTTLE The annual January apple blues have set in at my greenmarket. No matter which variety I buy, the once excellent apples of autumn have lost the last of their harvest-time zing and snap. Then, over the weekend, the good autumn apple returned in a bottle called Neige. A newly introduced ice wine from southwestern Quebec, Neige seems as fresh, yet more intense, than a just-plucked October apple – in this case, McIntosh and Spartan varieties. Pressed in December, the apples are left outdoors in barrels. As they freeze, water crystals separate out, leaving an apple essence which ferments into late spring. And essence of apple it is, its fresh sweetness cut by scintillating acidity. Alcohol is a modest 12%. A wedge of sharp Black Diamond cheddar makes a lively partner to Neige, just as it would to a real apple. Milder cheeses will be put in shadow by the brightness of Neige. ($24.95 per half bottle at Sherry-Lehmann)

SPOTLIGHT SHARING Wineries coming to town to show off their latest wares normally don’t put their competitors on the same table. But Mount Veeder, a classic Napa Valley producer, did just that last week. Intent on showing how its wine grown on steep mountain slopes differs from that grown on the valley floor, winemaker Janet Myers and viticulturist Matt Ashby poured their Mount Veeder Reserve 2002 ($80) alongside Cakebread Cellar’s Benchland Select 2002 ($100). Both wines are mainly cabernet sauvignon. Mountain-grown wines are supposed to be on the dark and brooding side. Sure enough, the Mount Veeder wine, grown on steep, terraced slopes, was the deeper and more reserved of the two wines. A flexed muscle of dark-scented fruit ran through it. Cakebread’s reserve wine was fleshier, fruitier, and more “up-front” in stating its credentials. The difference is due mainly to vines reared on thin, quick-draining mountainside soils that produce smaller, more tannic grapes than do the vines on deeper, richer, more water-retentive soils of the valley and its benchlands.

The last big red I’d tasted from Mount Veeder, 20 years ago, tore into my gums with its ferocious tannins. That was the era when “serious” wine was equated with painful wine. No longer. Tannin management has come a long way. If this Mount Veeder 2002 Reserve had been a movie star, it would have been a strong, silent, Gary Cooper without a gun in his hand. Was it preferable to the Cakebread 2002 Reserve, a wine with the gentler qualities of a Henry Fonda? Not to me. They’re cousins, quite different in personality. Putting one on the dinner table on Saturday night would make me look forward to the other on the next weekend.

BLENDING Steve Reeder, winemaker at venerable Simi in Sonoma’s Alexander Valley, less than an hour north of Mount Veeder, didn’t bring the competition’s wine to town last Friday. But he did put on the table at Aquaterra four component wines of his newly released Simi “Landslide Vineyard” Cabernet Sauvignon 2002. Before 2000, this 178-acre, 36-block vineyard of diverse soil types, product of an ancient volcanic upheaval, was designated as “Chalk Hill.”

“I love blending,” Mr. Reeder said. “It’s the true art of winemaking.” He poured the foundation wine of his 2002 Landslide, Block 14 cabernet sauvignon. It was not a fat wine. “I get red raspberries and an austerity that I like,” Mr. Reeder said. “Now we want to see it start to layer down.” Two of those layers, tasted in separate glasses, came from progressively fuller lots of cabernet sauvignon from the richer soils of Block 15 and Block 2. This last wine, chocolaty and velvety, was complete enough to have been bottled unblended. “I’m starting to build a pretty big cab here,” Mr. Reeder said. Now he added merlot from Block 5U. It smelled unexpectedly medicinal. “Band-Aid,” was Mr. Reeder’s more precise descriptor. In the mouth, it was more red fruit. “With this, I’m thinking to throw in some cherry spice and softer, side-of-the-mouth tannins,” he explained. Finally came a bit of petit verdot, always used sparingly in Bordeaux-style blends. “Petit verdot has tobacco and tar flavors that are really gripping, and I’m using just 1% of this lot to try to stretch out the aftertaste of the final blend,” Mr. Reeder said. That blend also includes 1% of malbec, which was not available to taste.

Except for the Block 2 cabernet sauvignon, none of the other components were tasty enough to stand alone. But blended into Landslide Cabernet 2002, and served with roast venison, they were more than the sum of their parts: intense aromas of ripe berries, then plushly-textured flavors of plums, currants, and even that bit of tobacco from the petit verdot. And a dollop of vanillan oak, as well. This wine cascaded with the fruit that is the signature of California, and especially Alexander Valley. “I am trying to be true to my soil and my consumers,” Mr. Reeder said. “I make wines for Americans. This is the wine I believe they like.”

TASTE BORDEAUX How did the unnaturally hot summer of 2003 impact Bordeaux wines? Find out this weekend at Zachys, when 11 top Graves chateaux will offer a free tasting their 2003 red and white wines, many of them just arriving here. Among them are Chateaus Pape Clement, Haut Bailly, and Domaine de Chevalier. Reds on Saturday, whites on Sunday, 1-4 p.m. If you don’t have a car, take MetroNorth to Scarsdale. Details are at zachys.com.