Wine Hits Of 2006
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

It’s a curious thing about wine and memory: Like certain faces briefly gazed upon in the subway, certain wines embed themselves in our memory for reasons that are not always understood. Youthful beauty can be the reason, whether in a face or a wine, but sometimes it’s something less obvious that we can’t forget. Whatever it is, your memory is marked. If wine can’t do that to you, then you might as well drink a beverage incapable of producing individual and lasting memories, like Diet Coke.
For wine professionals, who may taste dozens of wines in a day, hundreds in a month, thousands in a year, the memory bar is raised higher than for amateurs. At year’s end, the experience of so many wines risks turning into one big red, white, and rosé haze. Still, when I asked several of New York’s wine pros if any particular wine or wines stood out from the pack, none of them hesitated in recalling their most memorable wines of 2006.
I first queried Frank Johnson, a tweedy and scholarly presence at wine events over several decades, whose eponymous wine importing firm sticks to European classics. “My most memorable tasting experience came at nine o’clock one morning last May in Bordeaux,” Mr. Johnson said. “I was tasting the impressive 2005 vintage from barrel in the cellars of Jean-Pierre Moueix.I always taste in a progression, and the final wine is always the great Pomerol, Chateau Petrus [a tiny property producing Bordeaux’s priciest wine].This wine used to be described as monstrous, intense, overwhelming. It really isn’t that kind of wine anymore. It’s become gentler, more complex, even Burgundian. This 2005 was black in color, almost sweet, with many layers of ripe flavor.”
Next, I called Mary Ewing Mulligan, president of the International Wine Center and the first female American Master of Wine. “What came at me this year was how often I tasted blind that a wine that I loved would turn out to be Pinot Blanc,” she said.
Among her picks was a domestic version from Ponzi in Oregon at $14. The Alto Adige region of Italy, where the grape is called Pinot Bianco, provided a few examples. Also on her list was a Tiefenbrunner Pinot Bianco 2005 and from the Colio region, Schiopetto’s Pinot Bianco.
“Of course, there are the Alsacian versions,” she added. “A day after opening a Josmeyer Mise du Printemps Pinot Blanc, it was so good that I scored it up a point. And I almost forgot an older Eyrie Vineyard Pinot Blanc from Oregon — it evoked tangerine, white pepper, orange peel, and a little mustard. So this grape was my slow but steadily building memory of wine during the year.”
Tyler Colman, also known as Dr. Vino (drvino.com),found his best wine memory of 2006 in a humble but highly useful wine. “My wife and I had lunch at Otto. I ordered a carafe of Pinot Nero [Italian for Pinot Noir] 2005 from Hofstätter. We really enjoyed it, and I looked for it locally and bought a case. It’s not a wine that will make old bones, but great for drinking now. It has delicate fruit and acidity, wonderful aromas, and a good finish.”
Put a particular wine in the right setting, and it can become memorable. That’s how a Grenache made by Santa Barbara restaurateur and winemaker Doug Marjerum stuck in the mind of Eric Zillier, sommelier of Alto on Madison Avenue.”The local vintner’s association had brought in sommeliers from all over the country,” Mr. Zillier said. “We convened in Doug’s cellar to play Texas Hold ‘Em. Doug pulled out this very special cuvée of Grenache. It had a little bit of frizzante, and it was such a pure expression of the grape that everyone just stopped gambling and reveled in the wine.”
For Alice Feiring, a blogger (alicefeiring.com), and author of the forthcoming “The Battle for Wine” (Harcourt), there was the unforgettable evening last spring when she dined with Maria Jose Lopez de Heredia, a member of the eponymous Rioja winery, whose sinewy style stands firm against the plusher tendencies of New Wave Spanish wines. “We were in the restaurant at Los Agostinos, a convent converted to a hotel in Haro, where Lopez de Heredia is located,” Ms. Feiring said. “After doing damage on a bottle of champagne, Maria opened a bottle of her 1981 Grand Reserva white, which had become toffee-ish and tinged with licorice. Then a bottle of Grand Reserva Tondonia 1985 that was herbal, elegant, twiggy, and powerful. Finally, she opened a 1981 Vina Bosconia red, intense with cinnamon and rose petal. Just the two of us couldn’t finish all those wines, of course. God, do I wish I had a doggy bag.”
WHERE TO BUY:
Tiefenbrunner Pinot Bianco 2005, Alto Adige, $15 at Appellation Wines (156 Tenth Ave. at 19th Street, 212 741-9474. appellationnyc.com)
Hofstätter Pinot Nero 2005, $23 at Post Liquors (510 Jericho Turnpike, Syosset, N.Y., 516-921-1820, postwines.com)
Lopez de Heredia Vina Bosconia 1981 Grand Reserva, $92 at Crush Wines (153 E.57th St., between Lexington and Third avenues), 212-980-WINE, crushwineco.com)