For a few brief weeks in May this king of mushrooms, this fabulous fungus, the magnificent morel, is in season.

So each year as I hunt them down – in civilized markets, I hasten to add, not the wild and unpredictable countryside –  I ponder just how and with what I am going to prepare them. This weekend I opted for chicken breasts browned in a skillet then cooked over low heat. Meanwhile the morels were sautéed with shallots. Finally the chicken pan was deglazed, the morels added, and the resulting sauce, something to make any true foodie’s heart sing, was poured over the chicken.

With it I drank the best Merlot I have ever tasted, at least from outside Bordeaux’s right bank – the Duckhorn Merlot, Three Palms Vineyard 2002.

Duckhorn have been a star of Napa winemaking for almost 40 years but the secret of this wine, along with their meticulous winemaking, is the source of the grapes. Three Palms Vineyard is owned by the Upton brothers who make no wine of their own but grow some of the most prized Merlot grapes in California.

Here the result is a delicious, rich and polished wine. Its velvety texture has real structure behind it. Also it’s not over-extracted – wine-speak for the New World’s unfortunate propensity to make jammy, over ripe, over-oaked reds. Cherry and vanilla flavors predominate at first but after a while spicier, earthier notes begin to emerge tinged with hints of licorice and cedar. Such complexity of intermingled flavors is the sort of rare treat one seldom encounters in California Merlot.

Duckhorn is known for tannic wines and this version is only now coming into its own. It will be spectacular in ten years time.

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Last night I paid off a large debt. At a charity auction an adventurous patron had bid a quite extravagant sum for a wine tasting by me for her and a group of friends featuring five superb wines: Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 2000, Cakebread Cellars Chardonnay 2010, Morgon, Ch des Jacques, Louis Jadot 2009, Shafer Vineyards Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, and as a finale, to wash down the Colston Bassett stilton from Murray’s Cheese, the fabulous Taylor Fladgate 20 Year Old Tawny Port.

All were enthusiastically received, especially the Taittinger and the Shafer.

It’s May so what could be a more perfect way to start a meal at NYC’s Jean-Georges than this spring combination, especially when washed down with Jean-Luc Colombo’s Hermitage ‘Le Rouet Blanc’ 2010, a luscious blend of Marsanne and Roussanne.

True, and I’m off to try it this afternoon. Report at NickOnWine.com tomorrow.

I know it’s only a second label, and I know 2001 was a piss-poor vintage, but this is, after all, Lafite, one of the world’s great wine properties, so I expected more than I got. Green, unripe tannins, and a pronounced acidity spoiled what would, in kinder vintages, be a super wine. True, there were aromas of violets and other floral notes along with hints of smoke and spice but it was, in the end, an un-integrated mess. Perhaps it’s one of those old-fashioned clarets that needs decades to loose its sharp elbows and become user-friendly.

The nose was so beguiling, complex and toasty, I almost didn’t want to spoil the olfactory delight by actually tasting it. But I need not have worried, the palate was pure delight. This Bolly manages to capture that ethereal Champagne magic of power, grace and delicacy all in one glass.  

Bobby Kacher In His Pomp

Great dinner Monday night with maestro importer Bobby Kacher and three of his French producers: Christophe Cordier, Southern Burgundy, Michel Ogier, Northern Rhone and Geoffroy Morot, Beaune, at the excellent Recette in the West Village.

One superb wine after the other but the standout – actually, the one I have the best picture of – was the Domaine Michel & Stephanie Ogier St Joseph 2009. It was round, polished and sophisticated for a St. Joseph, and an absolute joy with the tender pink duck breast encased in crisp, fatty, salty skin.

Duck Breast & the Ongier St. Joseph 2009

Wrong! This is errant nonsense.

These are people who have made a ton of money in other fields so presumably they have some business acumen, but here they seem to abandon all financial reason and become befuddled by the blandishments of a Napa lifestyle. Sure, why not put in a helipad?

This is, of course, business madness because in the long run it is the demand of market that determines what you can sell your wine for, not how much you spent on the swimming pool.

Bill Murphy of Clos LaChance Winery managed to avoid this trap. After a successful career at Hewlett-Packard he wanted to turn his grape-growing hobby into a full time business, but he didn’t completely loose his head in the process.

“It seems to me there’s a lot of muddled thinking in the wine industry” he told me, “and a lot of people are trying to justify the price of a bottle of wine based on the cost of the land, and I just think that’s ass backwards.”

Bill & Brenda Murphy

His first sensible decision was to avoid super-expensive Napa Valley and locate his winery in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, south of San Jose, where land is considerably cheaper.

“If you look at pricing from a price-plus standpoint you can amortize the price of the land, add in your farming costs and say ‘That means I have to charge $80 a bottle for my wine.”

“But another way is to say ‘Gee, how much is it worth? What is it worth to the consumer?’ and it seems to me that’s got to be the key to the pricing decision.”

This is of course a basic business fundamental – a product is only worth what a buyer is prepared to pay for it.

And it is this sensible thinking that has lead to his super Clos LaChance Chardonnay 2011 priced at an astounding $11 a bottle.

Santa Cruz is too warm for cool-climate Chardonnay so he sources his grapes from 20 year old vines in Monterey. Here the cool coastal nights, combined with minimal oak treatment result in a Chardonnay of unusual freshness.

“A lot of people say ‘gee, it doesn’t taste like a chardonnay’, but it actually does taste like a Chardonnay. “In a classic,” by this he means typical, “California Chardonnay you get a lot of oak. What we’re looking for is the Chardonnay fruit, and have that come through. And that’s what a Chardonnay grape tastes like.”

It’s more Burgundian than typically Californian in style, though it does have lovely ripe fruit. It reminds me of a 2009 Macon or St Veran, which is a comparison Murphy appreciates.

“I’d be okay if you wrote that. That’s the style we’re looking for, and we find that people like it. This is a new direction for California Chardonnay and we see very good acceptance for it, especially among younger drinkers.”

And that acceptance is in no way impeded by it costing only $11 a pop.

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These wines, so called because they are made in Tuscany from non-traditional varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, have a pretty spotty record, at least in my book.

Yes, one of the world’s great wines, Tignanello, is the Super T that kick off the whole show back in the 1970’s. But it is a swan amongst too many ugly ducklings. Well, perhaps not ugly ducklings – they are seldom undrinkable – but a raft of pretty boring, mediocre ducklings.

Enter the Widmer family, owners of a successful advertising business in Zurich. Enchanted, as many have been, by Tuscany, and looking for a holiday home, in 1981 they brought Cassa Brancaia that came with a disused winery. They planted vineyards. They made wine. It was a success, and in 1998 handed the reins over to their daughter, Barbara, who now oversees winemaking at three estates, two in Chianti Classico, and one in Maremma on the coast.

It was the latter that most impressed me when I tasted through a range of Casa Brancaia wines with Barbara over a recent dinner at A Voce in New York. What sets her Ilatraia 2009, $50, this week’s Five Star Nick’s Wine Of The Week, apart from many of its competitors is its unusual cuvée: 40% Petit Verdot and 20% Cabernet Franc, with the rest Cabernet Sauvignon.

Barbara explains why she chose this composition. “Maremma is very warm and it’s the perfect climate for those two grapes to mature in a perfect way. For Petit Verdot especially, I have a very strong love. It makes the wine fuller, more complex without being a real blockbuster.”

Barbara Widmer & NP

Ah yes, the blockbuster phenomenon. Too many Super Tuscans fall into this trap, so appealingly baited by high profile critics, but it is a temptation Barbara has avoided.

The Ilatraia has a lovely balance, though the closed tannins will require several years aging. It also shows a Super Tuscan ripeness, but this is deepened by intriguing hints of Bordeaux-like sous bois complexity.

And it was magnificent with A Voce’s Funghi al Forno, a combination of roasted, meaty, royal trumpet mushrooms and fonduta cheese.

So one of the best Super Tuscan I have ever enjoyed is made, not by an Italian, but by a Swiss.

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