Marglin on Taste

Not all wine stores are created equal. You can buy a $10 bottle of California chardonnay at any corner liquor store, but when you’re looking for something interesting — or, more important, when you’re looking to choose from a variety of California chards, not to mention chards from Australia, Argentina, Chile, France, Italy, New Zealand, and South Africa — you want to go someplace more sophisticated. A really good wine store will have a big selection and a knowledgeable staff that cares about quality. Pricing at this level is fairly competitive; prices vary no more than a few dollars from store to store (unlike at restaurants, where wines swing wildly in price, depending on what you order and where you are).Two weeks ago I wrote about three of my favorite stores in downtown Boston; here are some that are farther afield.

Martignetti’s

1650 Soldiers Field Road, Brighton. Open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. (Other locations at 64 Cross Street, in the North End, and in the Parkway Plaza Mall in Chelsea.)

Martignetti’s is big. So big that it has supermarket carts. Unfortunately, it’s not near any public transportation, but it has 3000 wines on display, reasonable prices, and plenty of sales. I have to admit that at first I felt a bit at sea here, but over time I’ve come to know the staff, and I find them to be extremely helpful — especially Bob Kaplan and George Bardis, the wine director. These guys know their wine, and they know people. If anything, they may know a little too much: the knowledge can come so fast and furious that you may have to ask them to slow down. The store is wonderfully laid out, with plenty of space; the well-marked wines are arranged by both region and variety. Martignetti’s is strong in Italian, Spanish, and, of course, French and American wines.

Marty’s Fine Wines and Gourmet Foods

765 Washington Street, Newton, and 193 Harvard Avenue, Allston. Open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The main Marty’s, in Newton, is a lot like Martignetti’s: it’s a supermarket, also with 3000 wines on display, and it’s near nothing. Marty’s staff is solid — not as extensive or as forthcoming as Martignetti’s, but not as intimidating, either. And Marty’s has deals: people line up at the door for its irregularly held “close-out sales,” which recall the settling of the Oklahoma Territory — one big wine grab. As one fellow rube said, with a twinkle in his eye: “It’s amazing what the middle class will do for 20 percent off.” Marty’s also has Tom Schmeisser, who is universally recognized as the wine buying guru of the Boston area (and, in fact, of America: Schmeisser just won the European Wine Council’s award as American Merchant of the Year). Marty’s has a strong Burgundy and Italian section and the best selection of German wines in the state. It also has more than 500 kinds of cigars and claims to guarantee the best prices in the country. Tastings, usually organized by region, are held every Saturday from noon to 2.

The Wine (and Cheese) Cask

487 Washington Street, Somerville. Open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10:45 p.m.

The Wine Cask opened in 1968, the year after I was born, and I believe the first wines I ever drank came from here. This is where my dad bought most of his wine, always stuff under $15 (he thinks I’m a bit spoiled to drink anything more expensive). The store is so cramped, with bottles everywhere, that it never does wine tastings. Yet despite the crowded quarters, the Wine Cask offers 1800 wines. You come here for wines from Italy and Spain, the usual and not-so-usual suspects from France (check the selection of sweet whites from the Loire), and some eclectic American vintages. The staff prides itself on its ability to find inexpensive, drinkable, and — yes, Dad — enjoyable wines under $10. The monthly newsletter always features four $6.99 wines. The staff goes to Europe (on the Cask’s dime) and elsewhere to “source” wine — that is, to find excellent wines to import, rather than waiting for an importer to come to them. Basically, eclectic is the key word here (it certainly isn’t location), and these lads do go off the beaten track: you won’t see a better selection of “find” wines anywhere in Greater Boston.

*** Remelluri 1994 Rioja Estate Grown ($17.99, Martignetti’s)

A Spanish monster: a humongous, dark, deep-red wine, bigger than many cabs, but with fruit that lingers just below the surface. Tempranillo (the main Rioja grape) plus garnacha, graciano, and mazuelo, in that order. You could sit on this, but I say just let it breathe and drink it now.

*** Weingut Willy Schaefer Riesling Spätlese 1996 ($14.99, Marty’s)

A very precise, almost surgical German riesling, with super-crisp apple up front and pear on the finish. Very bright, with loads of sun coating the tongue. A super summer wine.

*** ¹/2 Domaine Des Baumards Quarts Des Chaumes 1996 (Loire) (full bottle $34.99, half bottle $17.99, Wine Cask)

Thick and sweet, with an almost fuzzy feel in the mouth: apple strudel and vanilla and apricots and pear tart rolled into one. I like the Loire Valley dessert wines that are showing up in local stores and will be exploring them soon.

You can read all the wine columns you like, and you can chat with friends to your heart’s delight, but if you’re like me, most of the “professional” conversations you’ll have about wine will take place in a wine store.Greater Boston may not be blessed with the best wine selection in the world in terms of variety or price, but we do have good wine stores. The trend in wine retailing these days is a more relaxed approach — after all, it’s in the retailers’ interest to help us find good wines in our price range and to educate customers about wine. Yes, some wine sellers are still snobs, but most of them are at least recovering snobs. And the better (read: friendlier) wine stores are becoming fairly cool places to hang out, to taste wine, and maybe to learn a little something while you’re at it.

The reason for the high prices and limited selection, by the way, has to do with the complexities of the state’s liquor-distribution system, but that’s a story for another day. A word of advice: when you go into a wine store, don’t prowl the shelves silently. Find someone to speak to; tell the person your price range and what you like, and do not be afraid. Here are some of my favorite shops.

Bauer Wines

330 Newbury Street, Boston. Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Bauer has been around a long time. Indeed, you might even say, quite literally, that it has been around the block once or twice. The store first opened in 1960 on Mass Ave, around the corner from its current location on Newbury between Mass and Hereford. That’s across the street from where it was a couple years ago, which happens to be across the street from where it was before that. The current owner, Susan Fortuna, seems to have settled down in her new location, and her staff — led by Howie Rubin, a gregarious guy who often does a spot on our sister station, WFNX — is fun, friendly, and well-informed about wine. Bauer is a small store and there are gaps in its selection, but it’s good at paying attention to customers’ needs — and plenty of good palates are on staff. Bauer sponsors infrequent tastings at the Vault (co-owned by Fortuna) and offers fairly low-key tastings in the store every Saturday afternoon from 4 to 6:30 p.m.

Brookline Liquor Mart

1354 Comm Ave, Brighton. Open Monday through Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Brookline Liquor Mart — “BLM” to wine nuts — is a classy store. That’s a pun: it has the same ownership as Classic Wine Imports. This means that it essentially doubles as Classic’s showroom, which is both a strength and a limitation: what they’ve got, they’ve got a lot of, but there’s an awful lot they could have that you won’t find here at all. BLM has possibly the best and broadest local selections of Bordeaux and Burgundy, but don’t come in here to cherry-pick cult California cabs. On the other hand, it has a good supply of varieties you can’t find anywhere else — including Rhone-style wines from Edmunds St. John, one of California’s finest producers of such wines. Ditto for Sean Thackrey, Nelson Estates, and others. You can buy incredibly expensive wines here, but the racks also include many solid imports at everyday-drinking prices. Tastings are held Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m. throughout the year, organized by theme.

Merchants Wine & Spirits

6 Water Street, Boston. Open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Merchants is a small wine shop in a basement downtown. Its large, knowledgeable staff (which often outnumbers customers two to one) is led by one of the owners, Marc Sachs, who is among the friendliest people in the business. Tastings, held Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m., focus more on informal socializing than on interesting wines. An expansive free newsletter lists new finds and seasonal and holiday suggestions (like the right gewürztraminer or zinfandel to have with Thanksgiving turkey). The store is, admittedly, very market-driven: Marc and his all-star staff (including Megan O’Connell, who doubles as sommelier at La Bettola in the South End, and Joe McGuirk, who put together the wine list and tends bar at Cambridge’s Chez Henri) try not to be arbiters of taste if they can avoid it. “Don’t worry about being right about a given wine,” Marc says. “Worry about being happy.” Columnists like me do enough nitpicking over wines; Merchants takes the sensible position that in the end, you have to find the wines you like to drink.

Here, we just tell you what we like. That gets some corks popping. When you do decide what you like, tell us. We’re open 24 hours at dave@taste.com — and we don’t card. Here are this week’s recommendations, which may get your feet in the door of these stores and, we hope, chatting about something equally tasty.

*** Chateau Rozier 1995 St. Emilion Grand Cru Jean-Bernard Saby ($19.95, Merchants Wine & Spirits)

Big, voluptuous, and fruity, almost like an Australian cab, this wine packs a berry wallop. It also draws some sharper, peppery notes that stick in the back of your throat on the long finish.

*** ¹/₂ Chateau Tayac 1989 Côte de Bourg Gironde ($24.99, Bauer Wines)

This elegant wine, an 80 percent cab/20 percent merlot blend, comes from a small region upstream a little from St. Emilion and offers exceptional balance. It can be coy, hiding its fruit and biding its time, but it drinks so smoothly — and with a modicum of racy spice — that you can’t put your glass down for very long. It will pair well with any lamb or light meat dish.

*** ¹/₂ Chablis Grand Crus 1991 Dauvissat-Camus Les Preuses ($38.99, Brookline Liquor Mart)

Minerals and vanilla meld seamlessly with melon and a nice, (un)healthy fat “content.” Just as round and opulent as Chablis can be, it has some flinty (even faintly chalky) notes, but they are refreshing, like a mountain stream. Will pal well with cooked oysters, monkfish, or even a holiday ham. A charmer, well worth the price.

A few great wines may be produced in Los Angeles, and some decent ones as far south as San Diego. But when you get right down to it, Santa Barbara County — just above LA — is our southernmost prominent wine region. Indeed, Santa Barbara County (”SBC”) is quickly making a name for itself as the nation’s hottest wine spot, literally as well as figuratively.Santa Barbara is California’s wine frontier. It was here that the so-called Rhône Rangers began to ride their varietals into battle: the syrahs, mourvedres, grenaches, viogniers, roussannes, and marsannes that are all the rage right now were first championed in this once-sleepy region.

It once seemed unlikely that this area, so far south, could produce good wine at all. But some botany-oriented pioneers decided in the early ’70s that the SBC microclimate would yield good fruit. These were hippies and wine freaks more than businessmen or farmers; by now, they’ve struck liquid gold.

SBC’s anchor tenant, so to speak, is Au Bon Climat, or ABC to its fans. Jim Clendenen, owner and chief vintner of ABC, is the region’s chief promoter: a consummate showman, a long-haired hedonist, and — to quote my favorite wine writer, Oz Clarke — a visionary. The cult success of ABC (which, like Scientology, seems to be on the verge of moving into the mainstream) has helped put this unlikely region on the map. ABC is known for its vineyard-designated chardonnays and pinot noirs, some of which have bizarre names like “Bauge au-dessus” and “Le bouge d’à côté.” And Jim is renowned as the Robert Mondavi of Santa Barbara County.

One of Jim’s colleagues is Bob Lundquist, who makes Qupé. While Clendenen was concentrating on Burgundy-style wines at ABC, Lundquist was working on wine in the style of France’s Rhône valley, and he paved the way for Rhône Rangers like Craig Jaffurs and Andrew Murray, both of whom have namesake wineries (Jaffurs Wine Cellars and Andrew Murray Vineyards).

SBC boasts several other top winemakers, including Ken Brown, from the wildly successful Byron (bought recently by Robert Mondavi). He makes a stellar Reserve chardonnay (**** for the 1995 — a blockbuster) and a very decent regular chard (**¹/₂ for the 1996), which is lean, light, and super-crisp. There is also Kathy Joseph, who makes Fiddlehead Cellars pinot noir (the 1995 was scrumptious and a steal at $20: ***), and Steve Clifton, a wild and wonderful fellow who makes the notoriously difficult-to-find Brewer-Clifton wines (his Marcella chard is out of this world). Frank Ostini at Hitching Post makes pinots so opulent you taste them and think they’ll need another 10 years just to be ready to rock, like a massive Burgundy.

Richard Sanford, however, must be credited as the grandfather of Santa Barbara winemaking. He was the first to plant pinot noir in the Santa Ynez valley, way back in 1971. He and his then-partner, botanist Michael Benedict (the two became estranged in 1980), planted a hundred acres on the north-facing slopes of the Santa Ynez river. The rivers in SBC run east-west, and are banked with wonderful, north-facing slopes that are shrouded in mist much of the morning and during the late afternoon; they never get too hot from direct sunlight. This makes them ideal for growing Burgundy and Rhône varietals, and this is why this region has risen to such heights.

So don’t let the latitude of Santa Barbara get you down, because this region, long-known by wine insiders, is on the rise. Let your merchant guide you around.

Here are some wines from Santa Barbara worth trying:

** Byron Pinot Gris 1996 ($14.99, Martignetti’s, Marty’s)

A lively but slightly sour exemplar of this up-and-coming varietal. Not exciting, but extremely palatable with any spicy appetizer, or with cheese and fruit.

** ¹/₂ Zaca Mesa Syrah 1995 ($16.99, Martignetti’s)

A wet, wild wine that is so concentrated it tastes a lot like cherry cough syrup at first blush, but offers considerable depth for those willing to wade through that initial burst of sweetness.

** ¹/₂ Qupé Syrah 1996 Central Coast ($14.99, Marty’s)

Central Coast means the fruit can come from many vineyards in the region stretching from SBC to San Luis Obispo County and Paso Robles to the north. Smoky and meaty with plenty of flesh on it, this flabby fellow has hints of mint and cedar, but is ultimately not the most subtle representative of syrah’s potential.

*** Jaffurs Matilija Cuvee 1995 ($19.99, Martignetti’s)

This Rhone blend is mainly mourvedre with equal parts syrah and cabernet franc, resulting in a slightly lighter and more approachable wine than straight syrah. A very precocious wine, offering restrained fruit with boysenberry accents and a smooth tapering finish. Delightful with smoked meats.

*** Rancho Sisquoc Merlot 1995 Santa Maria ($21.49, University Wine Shop)

A softer, gentler merlot, that is still maturing in the bottle. The round fruit (blackberries and plums) is still quite restrained, but the overall complexity will reward those willing to be patient. Also look for the 1996 sauvignon blanc (**, $11.99) which has plenty of tart tropical fruit flavors to go with some mint and wheatgrass notes and a hint of casaba melon.

*** ¹/₂ Sanford Chardonnay 1996 ($19.99, Martignetti’s)

I think that this gives Landmark’s Overlook chardonnay a run for its money as best chardonnay under 20 bucks. A zippy, peppy popper, with lush pineapple, clean crisp fruit on the nose, and a not-too-buttery style. It is a leaner, greener sort of chard that can stand up to any fish or vegetable dish, but still offers gushing tropical flavors. Also look for the Estate, $29.99; it is stunning.