a

1999 frédéric esmonin griottes-chambertin

a

beaune 1er les cents vignes for sale

a

a life uncorked, hugh johnson (2005)

a

a vinexpo punch-up plus exclusive lighting

a

frédéric esmonin 99 ruchottes-chambertin

a

frédéric esmonin 99 mazy-chambertin

a

a corking corton

a

a few foreign whites

a

2005 fourrier gevrey 1er les goulots

a

‘wine magazine seeks discerning palates’

Sports pundits, newspaper columnists, talk radio jocks and the entire ESPN organization LOVE controversy in their realm of coverage – it virtually ensures that there is something interesting to write and/or talk about on a regular basis. 

“Kobe is the greatest player in the game.” 

“No, Lebron is the best, and the more complete player.” 

“Blessedly, Brett Favre should stay retired.”

“Are you crazy, the chance to watch a Hall of Famer like Brett one more time is the blessing.”

The two drama-inducing sides of the sports coin and the ensuing pop analysis fuel more than a few news cycles; in fact they save sports from being the equivalent of the church newsletter, all events and benign fecund fun, drama not included.

Wine is no different. Though we may not have the personalities that define the conversation, we have the issues that re-occur time after time, acting as a lightning rod for as much controversy as wine folks can muster up.

With that in mind, here are the first five of the 10 issues, in no certain order, that, without passionate side-taking, would render the wine world the equivalent of the church picnic, all mustard potato salad, that one weird dish nobody eats, bad volleyball, polite small talk and zero interest.

Go ahead, and pick your side.

Wine Competitions

Wine competition interest by wineries is a product of the inability to get coverage (i.e. points) in the wine magazines. Say what you will, but medals in competition validate quality for consumers.  Having blind reviews by a panel of judges is as good of a measurement tool as any.  They’re good for wineries and good for consumers. 

Or

Wine competitions are ridiculous – have you seen some of the winners?  Besides the inherent flaw of judging with judges who have no standard experience baseline, its big wines that tend to show well, and, besides, it’s judging without food.  These competitions are completely bogus. 

Wine Magazines

Today’s wine magazines and content are a reflection of the interest that consumers and advertisers have in wine: lifestyle, luxury, aspiration and wine reviews.  They serve an audience and do it well.

Or

Today’s wine magazines suck.  They speak to a mythical audience segment that doesn’t exist, and if it does exist it’s a doctor that has a cellar and more money than wine sense.  Give me a magazine that actually is appealing to somebody that has wine chops, but a household income lower than $250K.

Restaurant wine prices

Restaurant wine prices are a reflection of the costs that go into running a dining establishment.  Without the built-in margin your entrée would be $45 instead of $30 and you’d use paper napkins instead of fresh linen. Forget about that fresh daisy on your table …

Or

When are these restaurants going to learn – if wine prices didn’t gouge you more people would be more inclined to buy a bottle regularly therefore increasing overall sales. Nowadays, I refuse to buy a bottle of wine, I’d rather hand over my ATM card to the owner so he can take out $40 bucks and put it in his pocket.  Restaurants would easily make up the margin based on volume of sales with reasonable pricing.

Parker’s Palate

It’s a fact.  I know winemakers that tailor their wines for Parker – and they’re big, rich, extracted, high in alcohol and completely undrinkable with a meal.  Kool-aid for adult kids.

Or

This whole Parker’s palate thing has gotten blown way out of proportion.  Do an analysis of his scores and they have been consistent with normal statistical variance over the years.  It’s mostly wineries that haven’t been reviewed him that are creating wines that THEY THINK he’ll like, and, for the most part, those folks continue to be on the outside looking in, perpetuating a myth.

Corporate vs. Artisanal Wine

Big wine companies are the death knell of the U.S. wine industry.  Before long, we’ll be swimming in oceans of unremarkable, cheap wine similar to the crap the Aussies have been exporting to us over the course of the last 10 years, if we aren’t already.

Not only that, but with many family-owned wineries on the verge of selling off over the next 15 years, we stand a chance of losing all that is remarkable about passionate winemaking where cases are counted by the pallet and not the truckload.

Or

This whole corporate wine thing is a big whine.  The top 30 wine companies in the country already represent over 90 percent of the domestic market by volume.  Am I supposed to worry about that percentage increasing from 90 to 93 percent in the next couple of years?

It doesn’t seem to daunt new wineries from starting – there are over 6000 of them now, and most of them are going after the same 2% of the wine buying public that buys wine over $25.  Corporate wine isn’t to blame here, the market share already exists.  What hasn’t happened yet is business Darwinism because these new wineries are launching without a clear articulation of how they are going to be successful.

Add a comment, based on which side of the issue you fall.  The balance of the Top 10 items that keep wine enthusiasts interested include, “100 point ratings,” “direct shipping” and more.

In the realm of the online world where the level of sympathy ranges from disconnectedly concerned to, “Glad it’s not me,” I find myself feeling genuinely sad after reading that wine writer Alice Feiring is on the cusp of discontinuing her blog, Veritas in Vino.

Usually a blog’s death is slow and painful as it slides into a catatonic state of neglect before dying of loneliness, with a commensurate amount of final mourners. 

Rare is the occasion when the plug is pulled, Kevorkian liberation regardless of circumstance.

Yet, Alice intimates just that – imminent blog death by her own hand.

In a blog post on the 10th of June, Alice recounts an exchange she had with another professional writer who bemoans the devaluation of the writing craft.  Alice, herself a lover of the long form, where research and cultivation of the art of telling a story is respected and valued with a monetary return for the author, is beginning to chafe at the chutzpah of Editors offering little more than exposure and nothing that comes close to affording a baguette and a glass of vin de pays, le Americain style.

As she notes on her site (excerpted):

Think of it before you jump all over us. The popularity of the blog has reduced writing to a 500-word postage stamp norm, and usually given away for free. For free. While a digest of words can be a fun exercise in craft, the indulgence the 2000- to 5000 word article was nirvana. Yes, the fee was great, but the process was the thrill and one that we exercised our chops for. And often took a pledge of borderline poverty before, because it was worth it. But now borderline is the real thing. Words and writers are no longer valued. Is it because of the blog? Oh no. For sure. But now the expectation is words are free.

But yes, I will clean up business, I’ll spill you about Austria, and there are a few words about Muscadet and a few more points to hammer before shutting the store. And then? Who knows.

It’s not hard to understand Feiring’s perspective.  A writer who has spent her professional life cultivating a body of work and a point of view is suddenly and swiftly asked to give the milk away for free from Editors who sit on high using the rubric of “traffic” and “exposure.”  This, coupled with thoughtful wine writing assignments, which are becoming as scarce as “value” wine articles are becoming plentiful, makes it hard to justify why a writer would continue to do their craft without separating from the morass of hobbyists.

Surely, a coroner who dispenses free counsel nights and weekends would excise that task if his practice suffered as a result, particularly under the weight of CSI TV show enthusiasts.

These are easy dots to connect, a writer largely does give it away for free in the digital media, particularly when blogging, so the translation is, “if you do it there, why not do it here.”

However, Feiring isn’t just another no name writer seeking a check for lifeless words that are fed into the daily maw of information consumption.

No, she is a singular voice that represents a singular point of view in American wine.

And, as she well knows, every cause needs a champion.  She might be just the champion to herald in a paying complement to the larger pay-to-play wine outlets, Advocate, Spectator and Robinson.

The answers are available, too.  Her web site could use a refresh with something akin to a navigational structure, and she could, indeed, charge for her content, adding the things that readers want to see – categories, topics and the longer pieces that fit into the paid work and the blogging that is akin to giving the milk away for free. 

Simply, I’m not ready to bid adieu to this writer online, relegated to searching for the random byline in Saveur or The New York Times magazine. 

No, this is a writer I’d be willing to pay for.

So, I humbly ask of Alice to reconsider and implore her to make an investment in her online writing.  Redesign the web site, double down your efforts and tackle the challenges that face wine writers and, yes, charge for it.

I’ll be your first subscriber.

In doing so, not only might she save the world from Parkerization, but she might save wine writers, too.

*Update*
Comments are not currently working for the site.  I’m working on the fix. 

My wife has a saying, something along the lines of, “Don’t Boo my Wow.” She likes to convey the equivalency of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” particularly when my sunshiny and warming brand of pragmatic idealism dances the fine line of disdain.

Depending on the perspective, it happens either very seldom (my perspective) or all the time (her perspective).

Understanding that, I hate to be a party pooper, but “wow” am I experiencing Murphy-Goode fatigue.

This program has officially turned into the boorish, loud-talker at the cocktail party that goes on for an hour talking about their boy-genius 1st grader, but fails to ask you your name.

Is this Murphy-Goode thing a promotional earned media opportunity or a genuine social media engagement program?

I honestly can’t tell which it is.

Murphy-Goode has gotten so much ongoing, persistent press out of this deal it almost obscures the fact that some really good, really talented people genuinely want the opportunity to work for them.

It’s almost like the Super Bowl when you realize on that early February Sunday that, yes, besides the hype and the commercials, there is actually a game to play.

And, in playing this game, the Murphy-Goode winner has to relocate, effectively leave their existing life and earn good money (not great money) for a six month temporary gig.

At the end of the day, it’s presented as a temp. job.

I dunno.  Maybe I just don’t have enough vision for how that six month gig might parlay itself into something better.  Maybe I’m not in tune enough with the zeitgeist that makes this so newsworthy.

And now VinTank layers on by offering $100K worth of pro bono consulting.  To be fair, I like Paul Mabray from VinTank, I used to work with him, and I think he is a classic entrepreneur – he has a vision for things that are still 250 miles away and very, very hazy for people until much closer to the destination.

That said, Paul is also a born marketer who knows when to catch a wave and when to beg-off on snaking a wave.

He also doesn’t shrink from a dissenting viewpoint which is why I don’t have a problem calling “bullshit” on the consulting offer, his catching a wave, so to speak.

I’d rather see him offer $10K of pro bono consulting to 10 wineries then to pile on this Murphy-Goode media reach-around.  It shouldn’t be hard – Paul can check out his Twitter followers for wineries that don’t also have a blog and/or a Facebook fan page, those that are toe-dipping and not fully engaged, and really help them grow a focused presence based on some actionable planning and in doing so measure their mindshare and sales increase. 

That would be genuinely helpful to the wine industry, spreading the seeds of positive progress.  It also helps build measurable case studies which the wine industry desperately needs, with many wineries adopting Missouri’s unofficial state motto for most things.

So, as I’m “Booing the Wow” here it was with interest that I saw a job listing for Italian Wine Merchants in the current issue of the Sommelier Journal.

To me, this gig, a Sales Portfolio Manager position, is a really good job (pun intended).

Maybe it’s appealing to me because I love Barolo but only get to drink it every full moon during a leap year.  Maybe it’s because the opportunity to penetrate the secret society of high-end collectors while acting as the equivalent of a trusted financial advisor is fascinating to me.  Regardless, Italian Wine Merchants (who didn’t respond to several inquiries for comment on the job posting) seems to have a good opportunity, natch, a great opportunity for the right candidate.

To boot, it’s a permanent position with openings in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Connecticut, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Washington DC, Hong Kong, Mexico City and London.  So, it’s in a neighborhood near you.

They are looking for (according to the job posting):

Ambitious, self-motivated and industrious sales professionals. The successful candidate will have a proven record of success in fine wine, luxury goods, wealth management, financial trading or exclusive real estate sales. The candidate will be responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with high net worth individuals, while simultaneously managing a portfolio of fine wines and other luxury products and bringing them successfully to market.

With the following attributes (edited):

• Highly motivated individual; thrives in a competitive environment
• Active learner with initiative, drive and salesmanship
• Demonstrated professional demeanor
• Refined communication skills, both over-the-phone and face-to-face
• Strong knowledge of, or interest in the fine wine industry
• Experience making phone/face-to-face sales calls (cold calls included)
• Capacity to work with a client base of high net worth individuals and to grow that client base
• Ability to identify high-level clients from large lists of leads
• Strong presentation skills to both small and large groups (20 — 100 people)
• Ability to formulate, present and implement selling plans and work within a CRM system

You can tell from the job posting that this is a serious job, for serious candidates, with the opportunity to make serious money, while being immersed in the wine business.  The previous job history they are looking for in a candidate virtually ensures a six-figure income opportunity.

Call me crazy, call me Shirley, call me whatever you want, but the longer this Murphy-Goode thing goes on with the stroking of the press, and the candidates inducing themselves into a Darwinian game of social media chess, the more my skepticism (and my empathy for the participants) increases.

They won’t be a social media consultant, they’ll be a monkey in a Twitter zoo.

If the 500 or so Murphy-Goode candidates are serious about a career in wine, the opportunities exist for a really goode permanent job, no gimmicks attached.

A part of the mainstreaming of wine in American culture is the broadening of the types of wine information we consume.

It’s happening slowly, but surely.

Every other industry in the country reports business information intermingled with enthusiast information.

Unfortunately, our popular print wine media, in their focus on lifestyle, have really hampered public awareness in terms of communicating an understanding of the ways and means in which grapes get into the bottle and how that bottle is subsequently delivered to our table.

It’s too bad, too.  If a glossy took the time to consistently report on wine in the same manner that any other industry reports on itself, we’d probably be a lot further ahead on key fronts – consumer shipping comes to mind as do distribution issues, amongst many others.

By analogy, if you’re a car buff, do you think the car rags talk about the business of the business?  You betcha.

If you’re a coffee buff, you think that the coffee community talks about fair trade and other economic issues?  You betcha.

If you’re a locavore-type kitchen foodie, you probably know more about Monsanto and Cargill then you want to.

Is this the case for wine?  Generally speaking, no its not.

And, it’s exactly this information morass that impedes knowledge and understanding on issues – issues like what the heck is “Biodynamic” anyways and how is that different from “sustainability” or even “organic.”

Or, “help me understand why exactly my friend in Ohio can get wine shipments, but I cannot?”

Go ahead, ask any random person in your supermarket wine aisle if they understand the three-tier system, wine shipping, or the myriad of other business issues that are bandied about in the industry or on blogs and you’ll get a blank stare.

Based on this lack of awareness, there are precious few wine consumer barbarians at the gate so issues remain fallow in the field.

Not only that, but since issues of transparency seem to be prevalent in all walks of life, it’s not just inevitable, but perhaps manifest destiny that this happens in the wine world, as well.

Let’s hope so.

I’ve chosen to talk about wine business and marketing on this blog because I find it personally interesting, but also because you can see wine slowly but surely catching up with the way other industries are covered.

It’s a natural evolution and plays into a phrase I’ve used at least a half dozen times on this site – I want to know what time it is AND I want to know how the watch is made.

When I first started learning about wine, I wanted to know about the business side, as well.  My choices were expensive wine business books used in college enology programs and a subscription to Wine Business Monthly.

I bought the books. I got the subscription.

Flash forward 10 years later and Tyler Colman writes a book called Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink, published in the summer of 2008, it seems like something of a lark on behalf of his publisher, even if the book is really interesting and well-written.

In fact, in my Amazon.com review, I noted much of what I am reiterating today:

Starting this book and reading it cover to cover would get a wine novice up to speed and conversant across subject matter that is frequently difficult to penetrate … (this is) a book that every wine lover should read … If you are interested in learning the dynamics and back-story of how and why wine gets to our table in the manner that it does, in a way that is understandable and concisely explained, I cannot think of a better book to help guide you down the path to greater understanding.

Well, it seems that trending is finally happening to the extent that even if our glossies don’t cover these issues, publishers will.

Off press or soon to be printed book titles include:

From Demon to Darling: A Legal History of Wine in America by Richard Mendelson (publishing June 15th)

The Business of Wine: A Global Perspective by Per V. Jenster (published May 28th)

The Little Red Book of Wine Law: A Case of Legal Issues by Carol Robertson (published January 25, 2009)

The Business of Wine: An Encyclopedia by John and Geralyn Brostrom (Published December 30, 2008)

For each of these books, I offer my good wishes for profitable sales and an increasingly growing awareness amongst wine lovers for the myriad of issues that go into the glass.

Everybody would be better served by an increased and ongoing review of the business issues in wine, just like virtually every other industry.

Or, put simply in marketing terms – let’s give people less sizzle, and more steak.

More Wine Business—Amazon.com Wine Update

According to an article published at TechFlash, a site that extensively covers Amazon.com, Amazon has been inviting select wine industry members for a beta preview of the site the week of June 15th.

Catavino has traveled more this year than ever before, and just when life has settled to a peaceful calm, we’re off again. This past weekend we visited Benidorm, Spain, a place that you should see at least once in your life; not for the wine, mind you, but for the odd combination of location, tourism and the sheer mass of humanity.

We attended the inaugural conference of Road Web TV, and having very little concept of what we were walking into, we were especially impressed by the results of the event. The idea was simple: get everyone related to webtv in Spain in one location and see what happens! What happened was a considerable amount of conversation, brainstorming and networking. It was exciting to see so much fervent energy and creativity around video blogging in Spain, while truly promoting it as a valid and an incredibly affective tool in new media. Thanks to everyone who took the time and energy to make the conference such a success, and if you want to see some videos about the importance of wineries embracing video on the web, make sure to check out our blog at: http://catavino.net/services/blog/

Chardonnay in Rioja

In other news, Chardonnay is now an official variety in Rioja. I personally file this one in the “do I care” category. Rioja, as of late, is still riding the wave on the success of its own name. No innovation, no change, just a move to allow varietals that many wineries have already planted long ago in anticipation that this change would occur. And now that the regulation has passed, all Chardonnay vines that currently exist will make wines for the current vintage, rather than waiting the normal 5 years it takes for a new vine to contribute. This quote is a gem though:

Ricardo Aguiriano San Vincente, director of marketing for Rioja’s Consejo Regulador, told decanter.com: ‘With these new varieties we are trying to make Viura more fruity and fresh as that is what consumers want.’

Have you ever had a Lopez de Heredia white wine? We still have a few bottles of 1989 vintage laying around, and if you try one, you will see that Rioja doesn’t have a problem with its white wines. This wine is amazing, but it takes a long time to make and few people have the patience. Hence, the quote above should read: “With these new varieties, we are trying to avoid having to do any real work to make great wines from the grapes we already produce.” In other words, quality whites from Rioja take effort. Adding Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Verdejo, as well as the native Maturana Blanca, Tempranillo Blanco, and Turruntés just makes it easier to make commercial wines faster. Then again, bodegas like Tobia and Dinastia Vivianco in recent years have proven that you can make great whites if you have a little patience. Their recent releases have been crowd pleasers and still adhere to tradition.

Catavino Spanish Wine Education Scholarship

Please let us know if you want to enter! Classes start next week in Denver, and throughout the rest of the US following this schedule. We would love to see bloggers, not just wine bloggers, attend this certification, as it is a great opportunity to learn about the wines we adore! To make the deal even sweeter, we’re going to offer a free DeLong Iberian Wine Map to the first person to send in a post for the contest! So make sure to leave a comment and link here to enter! All it takes is a post  answering the following: why do you want to learn more about Spanish wine? You can write an article, make a video, take a descriptive picture, or record a podcast. If you can’t find a date that works, please pass on the information to people who you think can! Don’t let this opportunity slip by!

Bodegas Mendoza Tasting

Finally, at the Road Web Tv Conference, we had the chance to participate in a small casual tasting. Bodegas Enrique Mendoza contributed the wines, and we tasted the 2005 Shiraz and the 2004 Santa Rosa. Gabriella and I both found that the Shiraz was either not showing well or had a fault. Our first glass was bitter and acrid, and the second while better, still did not do anything for either of us. That said, the Santa Rosa was very nice, rich and complex, though sadly, we were drinking out of cheap bar glass, so the wines did not have time to breathe. Interestingly, earlier in the day, we also tasted their Chardonnay and a 2008 off-dry Moscatel. The Chardonnay was nice, though a bit austere, and lacking the weight I was I looking for. That said, the Moscatel was a brilliant balance of sweetness and acidity, which combined beautifully with a light perfumey nose. This is a highly recommended treat!

That’s all for now!

Cheers,

Ryan Opaz

Follow us on Twitter: @catavino, @ryanopaz, @gabriellaopaz

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It seems the car accident has been cleaned up and traffic is back to moving at a normal pace after last week’s New Vine Logistics closure. The mouth agape panic coupled with “they sucked anyway …” schadenfreude has now given way to a collective, “Hmm ... what happens next?”

News reports indicate that Inertia Beverage Group has stepped in with bridge debt financing to get New Vine Logistics (NVL)  operational while they do the equivalent of estate management for the deceased.

“Sheesh, they owed how much to FedEx?”

“Goodness, Uncle Bob invested how much in ’02?”

Winston Wolfe from Pulp Fiction probably had the easier job ...

The Wines & Vines article practically reads like magnanimous customer charity on the part of Inertia, but there’s more to it, methinks.

As much as I would like to think this is about the wineries immediately impacted in the abrupt closing, I really think it’s still about Amazon.com and the NVL software.

In addition, in the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I worked for Inertia from September of ’06 to February of ’08 – it was an inestimable 18-month rollercoaster ride that included about 150,000 air miles, and the attendant challenges you sign-up for when working for an early stage company supported by what I affectionately refer to as OPM – “Other People’s Money.”

I’m proud of my accomplishments in that brief time. We put the Direct-to-Trade program operationally in place, paid for Hinman & Carmichael San Francisco Giants season tickets 5X over by double-checking compliance issues, and booked the first business through the system while signing up almost 50 wineries, all while working with finite resources (read:  a powerpoint slide deck). 

Never did go to AT&T Park, either. 

Context aside, I need to further note that while I am still friends with a couple of the folks at Inertia, I have NOT talked to anybody about the New Vine Logistics situation.  My opinions hereafter are precognitive and based on circumstantial logic. 

Logically, I would say Inertia wants to work with Amazon.com in a big way.  Logically, I would say Inertia cares more about the NVL/Amazon.com relationship and the NVL software than they do anything else related to NVL, including the customers and the facilities.

Amazon.com getting into the wine business has the opportunity to radically change the playing field in online wine commerce.

As noted at several sites, Amazonwine.com is in alpha testing using the NVL software platform.

Now, mind you, this whole “Amazon.com gets into the wine business” thing didn’t turn up overnight.  Nor did Amazon.com happen to choose New Vine Logistics without doing some industry due diligence. Ahem, read into that what you will, it’s not anything you couldn’t hear at Boon Fly Café over breakfast.  But, Amazon did some due diligence and having NVL assets now gives Inertia a chip to play and a relationship to build upon.

Amazon.com working directly with wineries is a threat to a company like Inertia, without their involvement, a completely different ball game than a wine.com (a retail play) or americanwinery.com who sells essentially on consignment.

NVL has a back-end platform.  Inertia has a front-end platform.  Amazon.com can bring customer scale, using their own front-end, in conjunction with the NVL back-end platform.

If Amazon.com gets in the game in a big way would anybody buy direct from a winery web site, Inertia’s bread and butter?  Uh, no, just like we don’t buy books straight from the publishers.  Fundamentally, that would be a threat to the Inertia business which is predicated on winery sales volume through their software.

The Inertia acquisition of NVL debt and assets squelches those risks.

For further food for thought, note that, according to TechCrunch, Inertia CEO Ted Jansen is noted as an “angel investor” in Snooth, effectively also hedging his bets in the other prevailing business model for online wine commerce, which is essentially a search-to-tasting note-to-retail commerce mechanism.

So, Inertia and/or Ted Jansen has the Inertia business of a winery selling directly to a consumer, the software assets for NVL and a relationship with Amazon.com selling wine to a consumer, a stake in Snooth, and for good measure the Direct-to-Trade platform which can also benefit from NVL infrastructure.

That’s what you call an Octopus playing baseball with four gloves.

Last week I wrote that the value in New Vine Logistics, from Amazon’s perspective, wasn’t the customers, it wasn’t the facilities, it was the software.

That still holds true today given a lot more disinfecting sunlight.

So, was I wrong last week when I speculated that Amazon.com might be bleeding out NVL?  Who knows, I don’t think anybody truly knows what Amazon.com is thinking, but it appears that they are proceeding into the wine business and the process of going through the bloody mess to learn the truth in the court of public examination won’t be necessary.

With apologies to the wineries who have unnecessarily been injured in this fracas, I have to note – unfortunate though it may be, In my opinion, I was fundamentally right—it’s the software that has the inherent value, and not the immediate revenue or customers.  Nor is it the wine shipping facilities, which will likely be spun out to another purchaser.

Make no mistake, this Inertia/NVL/Amazon.com thing isn’t about the here and now – it’s not about a winery shipping a club shipment this week – it’s about the future of direct-to-consumer wine business.

Amazon gets what it ultimately wants which seems to be a monogamous date to the dance without a long-term commitment and Inertia gets what it wants which seems to be a hedge against whichever direction the online wine market shifts.

My guess is that while there may be some sore customers in the short-term, in the long-term this winnowing and re-trenching will prove to be a good move for Inertia and the industry.

*Disclaimer –I do want to note that I realize this post is entirely speculative.  I’ll buy a round of drinks if I end up being wrong, money I don’t think I’ll have to spend, but this is my opinion without any first hand knowledge.  This NVL/Amazon.com thing will turn out to be significant and the core aspect of this shakeout.  Take it for exactly the $0.02 cents its worth.

* Note* The Amazon.com wine glass photo is courtesy of winecast.net

*Update* - Tom Wark from Wark Communications, PR counsel for Inertia Beverage Group notes in the comments that Ted Jansen is not an investor in Snooth.  I took attribution for that “fact” from a Tech Crunch article dated January 16, 2009.  In the same article, it is mentioned that Ted is an Advisory Board Member for Snooth, as well.  The TechCrunch article is linked from the Snooth web site under the Media section, without apparent correction to the record.

Someone asked on a previous post on Valencian cava whether the wines mentioned were available in the UK. I had a quick look and drew a blank. This set me thinking. I travel to the UK fairly frequently, and I generally return with a few English wines to give to friends and to keep in reserve to surprise those that still scoff at the notion of wines from Britain. One of the joys of doing this is, of course, that it is not possible - at least as far as I know - to buy English wines in Valencia, or anywhere else much. Even in England, the last time I asked, Oddbins wasn’t offering a single English wine. Apart from the quality of the wine itself, I feel as if I’m handing over something rare and of special interest. I assume there’s no need to go into detail about all the excitement about developments in English wine - if more information is needed, here’s “Raise your glass to the great grapes of Britain” and “Wine lovers of Britain rejoice“. There’s even a brand new vineyard in London at Forty Hall.

Naturally, there is a lot more Spanish wine in the UK than the other way around, but even so, it is often hard to find wines that are outside the mainstream. Such is life, and then the challenge is to track them down. As I wrote in my reply to the comment on Valencian wine, my first port of call is the normally www.wine-searcher.com (free version as yet, rather than the “Pro Version” which I’m saving up for), where you just put in the name of the wine and the country you’re looking for it in, and out comes all sorts of information. For example, Andrew Chapman, the designer of the cover of “Valencia Land of Wine” is someone I’ve worked with a fair bit over the years. For this particular job, he suggested part payment in wine, which I thought showed both discernment and commitment to the project.But how to get Valencian wines to him down in Brighton?

By great good fortune, wine-searcher.com came up with Cooden Cellars a couple of times when I looked for wines mentioned in the book, and they happened to be very close to Brighton, in Eastbourne just down the road, and even to deliver free there. I promptly made an order comprising three bottles of “Les Alcusses” (DO Valencia, from the southerly Clariano subzone, an intense blend of monastrell, syrah, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and tempranillo - GBP7.13 each in early 2008), the second wine of Pablo Calatayud’s Celler del Roure, whose star wine “Maduresa” was instrumental in convincing smart Valencians to drink their own wines. There followed two bottles from Bodega Mustiguillo “Mestizaje” (50% bobal, plus tempranillo, syrah, cabernet sauvignon and merlot, GBP10.50), another apparently overexuberant blend that just happens to work a treat, and which I’ve mentioned before, and at twice the price their sleeker and more sedate “Finca Terrerazo” (70% bobal, 25% tempranillo, 5% cabernenet sauvignon, GBP21.50). Then a couple of bottles of Rozaleme from Utiel-Requena (70% bobal and 30% tempranillo), not bad going for Eastbourne to have a bobal blend, and a good value at GBP6.50 each) and a bottle of Sequiot (cabernet sauvignon, tempranillo from Vinos de la Viña in DO Valencia, a wine I’ve yet to try. Finally, just to show that I’m not entirely limited to Valencian wines I threw in a bottle of Emilio Lustau’s Don Nuno Dry Oloroso (GBP5.95). Funnily enough, Andrew’s reply mentioned that he’d been a fan of “Les Alcusses” from his own local off-licence for ages, without ever realising before that it was from the Valencia region.

Looking through wine-searcher.com across all countries, it’s good to see that there are plenty of wines from the Valencia DOs out there in the USA, Germany, UK and elsewhere. I’m guessing that it will still be a while before I can order English wines from the comfort of my armchair for my friends outside the UK. I’ll keep trying, though.

Cheers,

John Maher

Learn more about Blogging and Social media

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Somewhere in the haze of polemic wine punditry, where every old idea can be given a fresh coat of paint and proffered as original thought, Napa got caught up in the overripe wine discussion, lumped in with the hegemony of “Parker’s Palate,” given “poster boy” status.

With my decidedly ‘New World’ palate, it’s a subject I find of interest, if for no other reason than to explore a categorical rebuke that can’t possibly be as tidy as others may make it seem.

Simply, in my worldview, there has to be striations in this “Parker’s Palate” category. 

Surely, we’re not all tasting the same thing and throwing entire categories of wines into this bucket … entire categories like “Napa Cab,” for example.

Here’s my take: in the realm of New World wine styles, where 14% + alcohol and French new oak are de facto standards, most Napa Cabs, flagships for California wine, are unnecessarily painted with the black brush of ill repute, the Scarlet Letter of what’s wrong with the domestic wine scene, reactionary victims to the power of one man, caught up in the collateral wreckage.

Simply, I do not, have not, and will not buy into the notion that Napa Cabs, as a category, are overripe, unctuous, hedonistic fruit bombs.

Dare I say it, but I would go to the extent to say most Napa Cabs have an acid streak that makes them food-friendly, provided that food is a steak, ideally off a grill. 

Now, this whistling in the wind on my part shouldn’t be an indicator that I don’t believe these offending candy-like wines exist – they do, I’ve tasted them.  In fact, I find that many (not all) Australian Shiraz, Central Coast Rhone reds, Lodi Zins, and Argentinean Malbec’s fall into that grapey, oaked, viscous, vanillin, “what the hell do you eat with this” category.

Just not Napa Cab.

No, these are steakhouse wines.  Foils for a porterhouse, or bone-in ribeye, but not foils for the quasi-Old World, draping themselves in food-friendliness; the anti-Parker contingent.

If anything, brush them with the acceptable “New World” brush, just not the “Parker’s Palate” brush that immediately polarizes …

Call them expense account, wood-paneled, ego-driven powerful wines, just don’t lump them into the Parker bucket of offensive wines.

Here are three good ones, all would be dandy with a grilled hunk of red meat … all have enough backbone and nuance to complement a memorable meal.

2004 Cornerstone Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon
2002 Trefethen Oak Knoll District Cabernet Sauvignon
2006 Merryvale Starmont Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

More wine social commentary on the back of a napkin ...

Um, yeah, to say Robert Parker is having a bad stretch would be an understatement.  He stirred up a hornets nest of ire by disparaging wine bloggers categorically. A blogger broke a story on some alleged discrepancies in his ethical policy and those of this writers, a story that eventually hit the Wall Street Journal, he lost the top spot in the Decanter “Power List” and, finally, he’s going to trial for defamation of a former colleague.

Perhaps not ironically, the tsunami of apologists coming forward to defend him seem to number, ahem, a small number relative to those waiting for his comeuppance.

More social commentary sketched on the back of a napkin ...

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At the end of March, Decanter.com broke the news that Domaines Barons de Rothschild - more often referred to in China as DBR Lafite or merely ‘Lafite’ - has teamed up with CITIC, China’s largest government-owned investment company, to produce a ‘Chinese Grand Cru’ in Shandong province’s Penglai peninsula.

CITIC hails from the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping; and its remit from the outset was to attract foreign investment. Decanter would have first heard about the venture from importer Summergate, DBR’s Chinese distributor. Summergate partners Ian Ford and Brendan O’Toole were apparently involved early on in a project whose origins stretch back some fifteen years. In 2006 O’Toole and Ford also visited Penglai with DBR’s Christophe Salin (when site selection and grape sourcing was no doubt on the minds of all involved).

Since the story broke, journalists and bloggers have gone mad with speculation as to precisely what this joint venture will yield. No one can be blamed for getting excited or even voicing some scepticism (especially those sceptics who have been exposed to Chinese wines, some of doubtful provenance, before). There are real questions involved as to what kind of wine or wines will eventually be produced, whether exclusively Chinese grapes will be used and what kind of price point(s) v. quality Chinese consumers can expect from whatever DBR-CITIC eventually bottles.

At the same time, the speculation-fuelled fire has, well, run wild. It is surely more constructive to wait to see what DBR Lafite produces for its nominal ‘Chinese Grand Cru’, whilst concentrating on more immediate phenomena: for example, the dominance of France in the Chinese import wine business. Consider also the cross-cultural exchange of perceptions in which France’s ‘Chinosierie’ has been projected back onto the French by a Chinese wine-drinking public whose love of tradition, ancient narratives and wine-making dynasties easily chime with what France can offer.

True enough, most emerging wine markets begin with France. That the majority of the grape varieties deemed ‘international’ originate from that country also clearly plays a role. Although a depressing amount of distinctly average French wine reaches Chinese shores, the crème de la crème are also present (even if ‘Grand Cru’ is something of an abused term in China), mainly in the shape of Bordeaux. But some domaine Burgundy and even more eclectic gems from other French regions are beginning to appear.

On the face of it, anything labelled ‘Lafite’ could sell in China. But why not equally the other Bordeaux first growths or other French properties that have made wines in countries outside France before? (These don’t do too badly, admittedly!).

DBR Lafite was, of course, swift to translate its website into Chinese and has clearly been visiting China from early on (the argument that ‘Lafite’ is easy for Chinese consumers to pronounce does not actually wash when ‘Margaux’ is even easier for them to say). Much consists in names. But not only Lafite grabs attention in this respect. The Chinese translation for Chateau Beychevelle (??Longchuan, meaning ‘dragon boat’) has helped that property’s wines do particularly well here. Our own company Dragon Phoenix has also played a modest role recently in helping Chateau La Lagune find an evocative Chinese name (one that both ‘transliterates’, i.e. sounds similar in Chinese, but also captures the meaning of ‘La Lagune’ itself: hence ??? LangLihu, i.e. ‘the beautiful lake’). But with Sopexa on hand, the rest of France is hardly doing all that badly here either.

Less trumpeted, but as intriguing, however, is the presence of Torres in China, not only in the form of distributor Torres China, but in a winery called Silver Heights. Silver Heights is located in Ningxia province, a good deal west and in a much drier part of the country than the rain-soaked Shandong (which receives most of its precipitation post-flowering and, frequently, during harvest).

The vineyard is at high elevation (1,200m above sea-level) in the Helan Mountains; whilst the winery has garnered the expertise of returning Chinese winemaker Emma Gao (who completed stints at Châteaux Calon-Ségur and Lafon-Rochet). Admittedly, these Bordelais ‘origins’ are not absent from Torres China’s literature - why should they be? - but it will be interesting to see if a Spanish influence as well as the Bordelais one comes to bear.

Torres China is also making wine together with Grace Vineyard of Shanxi province under the ‘Symphony Series’ label. To date, an off-dry Muscat designed to partner with different forms of Chinese cuisine promises potential. Grace Vineyard, especially in its 2006 and 2008 vintages, is also going from strength to strength and has recently opened a Beijing wine club with other wineries planned in other Chinese regions.

So, at the risk of speculation, what does the future hold? Will the Lafite-CITIC wine be able to sell on name and association alone? It’s worth bearing in mind that, for better or worse, a lot of wines are sold in this way in many a country besides China. But judging by the quality of what DBR Lafite has produced in other parts of the world, the DBR side of the equation is unlikely to be happy with an underperforming wine (in quality terms). True, CITIC probably doesn’t have to worry from competition from local producers in the form of Great Wall, Dynasty or Changyu now they have Lafite on their side. But the distribution and sale of the wine, of course, remain to be seen.

A final thought: if this ‘Chinese Grand Cru’ is anything like young red Bordeaux, what kind or kinds of Chinese cuisine will it suit? Red Bordeaux generally needs considerable bottle-age to match well with certain Chinese dishes (e.g. certain Cantonese classics or the lighter dishes of Huaiyang cuisine). But whatever the scenario, I hope this new venture produces a Chinese wine in the best sense of that phrase.

Cheers,

Edward Ragg

All content protected by a Creative Commons License2005-2009. Catavino.net.

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Quite often, we receive requests from people visiting Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon or Oporto, as to which wineries they can visit by train, taxi or foot. Our responses have commonly been, “Good question! And to be quite honest, I don’t know!” Well, maybe Oporto is the exception, as you have a plethora you can get to, but the rest are rather iffy at best.

As mentioned in several articles on Catavino, enotourism in Iberia is rather primitive at best. Very few wineries even allow visits, less have someone speaking anything other than their regional language, and just a handful will actually go out of their way to make your transportation to their winery convenient and easy.

That said, we decided to do a considerable amount of research to find out which wineries are worth your time visiting while in Barcelona. Of those wineries suggested, I called each and every one to inquire if you can get there by train, and what services they offered. And to be frank, this process was as enjoyable as poking myself in the eye with a rusty nail.

Example Conversation: (in Spanish because the first 10 wineries didn’t understand me in English)

Winery: Yes

Me: Hi, I was wondering if you have visits to your winery

Winery: Who are you?

Me: Um, just someone who wants to visit

Winery: Yeah, but where are you from and why do you want to visit?

Me: Um, because I like your wine and I think it would be interesting to come see you. I’m American.

Winery: Oh, okay. Sure we have visits.

Me: Great, how much do they cost?

Winery:  We would have to analyze the group to give you a price.

Me: Ahhhh, how about a ballpark figure for 2 people who would like a tour in English

Winery: Weekday or weekend?

Me: Weekend [why does this matter?!!!]

Winery: Morning or afternoon

Me: Um…let’s say afternoon [Again, why does this matter?!!!]

Winery: Well, it’s 6 euros per person, but you need to spend 70 euros during your visit, unless you want a tour of the vineyard and our house, but that would depend of course if the translator is here, and that cost would be different as well. But if you come on Tuesday from 9-12 that cost is….. [shoot me!]

Me: Do you give tours in English or French? [you know, the relatively common languages other than Spanish]

Winery: Oh, we don’t give English tours for any group less than 10, but we can do Dutch for 2 people.  [Logically]

Me: Can I bring my children?

Winery: Of course you can!! [Easiest and most consistent answer from every single winery in Iberia - children are welcome]

Me: Can I get there by train?

Winery: You can get anywhere in Spain by train [great marketing ploy, but so not true]

What I can tell you for certain, is that there are many wineries in Catalunya that are “generally” enotourism friendly. What does that mean? Good question, because I think this term is rather vague, as you an see from this article, but I will define enotourism friendly in the following way: able to speak multiple languages, convenient visiting hours, interesting tour, ability to taste their wines without paying a small fortune, opportunity to see the vineyard, child friendly services, capacity to purchase their wines in house, free transportation from the train station, and most importantly, winery tours given based on your level of knowledge and expertise. Now, you’ll notice that I said “generally” enotourism friendly. This qualifier is key, because most wineries in Spain will not meet every single one of these qualifications. You may get someone who speaks English, but you’re required to book a visit a month in advance. Or, there is a 30 minute winery tour, but no wine tasting or vineyard tour. You get the idea

However, allow me to suggest a little tourism friendly advice: always  email prior to your visit!! You might imagine that like the USA, you can swing by and say hello at anytime, but this is not the case in either Spain or Portugal. Nor can you assume that every winery will meet your specific needs. Hence, my suggestion is to save yourself a headache and contact the winery prior to your big adventure with a specific list of your needs.

The Following Wineries Can be Visited from Barcelona by Train: (to purchase ticket, go to the Barcelona Sants Train Station)

40 minutes from Barcelona

• Rimarts (Sant Sadurni Station) minimum of 5 euros for tour and tasting; multi-lingual; multi-sized groups okay, 5 minute taxi ride
• Freixenet (Sant Sadurni Station) 6 euros for tour and tasting; multilingual; multi-sized groups okay, within spitting distance of the train station
• Codorniu (Sant Sadurni Station) up to 8 euros pp for tour and tasting; multi-lingual tours available, multi-sized groups okay, 25 minute walk or 10 by taxi
• Gramona (Sant Sadurni Station) price varies from 6 euros up for tour and tasting depending on size and type of tour; multi-lingual tours available; 15 minute walk
• Marfil Alella 5 euros for tour and tasting; hours fluctuate; language available dependent on size of group; bus available from train station
  
• Castellroig (Sant Sadurni Station): 5 euros for tasting and tour: multi-lingual tours available, multi-sized groups okay; 20 minute walk or 10 minute taxi to winery
• Can Feixes (Sant Sadurni Station) free tasting and tour; multi-lingual; multi-sized groups; 15 min taxi ride from station
  
• Pages Entrena (Sant Sadurni Station) 5 euros for tasting and tour: multi-lingual tours available; multi-sized groups okay; 15 min taxi ride

1 hour from Barcelona

• J. Miquel Jané (Vilafranca del Penedès Station) Only for large groups (min. 10) for a 3 hour course; multi-lingual; prices vary from 35-40 euros pp; 5 min taxi
• Pares Baltá (Vilafranca del Penedès Station) 10 euros pp for tour and tasting; multi-lingual; multi-sized groups okay; 5 min taxi ride
• Abadal (Manresa Station) 5 euros pp for tasting and tour; multi-lingual; multi-sized groups okay; 20 minute taxi ride

1 hour 30 from Barcelona

• Josep Foraster (Montblanc Station) Free tour and tasting; multi-sized groups okay; tours in many languages; 10 minute walk to winery
• Simó Palau (Montblanc Station) 3 euro tour & tasting; hours fluctuate; size of groups dependent on day; tours in French, Spanish and Catalan; 15 min walk to winery
• Rende Masdeu (Espluga de Fracola Station) free tour and tasting; Spanish and Catalan only; multi-groups; 5 min walk to winery
• Can Bonastre (Masquefa Station): free tasting and tour; multi-lingual tours available; multi-sized groups okay; 5 minute taxi ride or 15 min walk
• Milmanda-Torres (Vimbode Station) minimum of 2 euros pp for tour and tasting; multi-lingual; multi-sized groups available; 5 minute taxi ride
• Avgvstvs (El Vendrell Station) 5 euros pp for tour and tasting; multi-lingual, multi-sized groups okay; 3 minute taxi ride
• Jane Ventura (El Vendrell Station): 5 euros for tasting and tour; multi-lingual available; multi-sized groups okay; located right next to the station

2 hours from Barcelona

• Celler Laurona & Clos Figueres (Marca-Falset Station): free tasting and tour; multi-lingual tours available; can pick you up at train station
• Costers del Siurana (Marca-Falset Station) 25 euros for tasting and tour; multi-lingual; multi-sized groups; 15 min by taxi
• Fincaria Vins (Montsant) I can’t get through to these guys, but we’ve visited them in the past! Suggest dropping an email.

Don’t forget to tell them that Catavino.net sent you! And if you have any suggestions of wineries that should be added or subtracted to the list, please don’t hesitate to let us know your thoughts below. As each of us have our own unique perspectives and experiences, we value your contribution! Stay tuned for similar winery visits for Madrid, Lisbon and Porto!

Cheers,

Gabriella Opaz

This list has been created with the help of Juan Manuel Gonzalvo,  correspondent writer for Catavino.es and an enologist; Anthony Swift, founder of Wine Pleasures Wine Tours; Alex Duran, founder of SommelierAlumni; Henrik Heikel of Winepick Wine Tours; and Yuko Satake, our resident Japanese blogger devoted exclusively to Spanish wines.

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With all of the ongoing talk about the calamitous state of affairs in the U.S.—auto manufacturers filing for bankruptcy, the state of California facing very real financial peril, nuke testing in North Korea (and that’s just the last couple of days), is it any wonder that the pull for mental respite, escape, seems, well, inescapable?

Just the other day I talked about the transformative effects of quiet solitude with an instrumental CD well paired with a bottle wine.  Today, I am longing for armchair travel … the golden hour light that seems to occur at all hours in Sicily, making it seem like the place to be, even if presented on celluloid.

Perhaps the best movie that you have never seen is a sub-titled Italian film (takes place in Sicily), released in the U.S. in 2000 called, “Malena.”

Malena is a wonderful movie that transcends its box office success, or lack thereof; it’s a wonderfully shot, languid tale of boyhood coming of age, adult jealousy, and ultimate redemption with the beautiful Monica Bellucci and an amazing soundtrack.

I saw the movie at the Raven theatre in Healdsburg in 2000, a glorious venue to see a small indie flick, now a performing arts stage-oriented theatre.  In Sonoma years back, watching the movie Malena was merely a side trip in between tastings to Quivera (pre-Biodynamic changeover), Dry Creek Vineyards, Teldeschi, Hop Kiln, A. Rafanelli and several other wineries.  Yet, unlike dozens and dozens of other movies, it never quite left me even as memories of several of the winery stops did.

Owning the DVD, yet never actually watching it, collecting dust as a memento to time and place, I popped it in the other night and grabbed a glass.  To pair with this movie, I chose the 2006 Frescobaldi Remole Toscana Rosso.  Yeah, yeah, it’s not a Sicilian wine, I know.  If I wanted to pair wine to movie accurately, I would have chosen a Sicilian Nero d’Avola, or the movie Under the Tuscan Sun, but my Remole and Malena worked just fine for me as a one hour and 32 minute vacation.

Put Malena in your NetFlix queue and give it a watch, it’s sub-titled so you’ll have to block out distractions.  Grab a glass of wine and enjoy a brief vacation from our otherwise harried world, airline ticket not needed.

Catavino has always dedicated itself to one primary mission: to educate the world about unique and interesting Spanish and Portuguese wines through our travels in Iberia. However, as Iberia is chock full of fabulous wineries and regions to visit, we’ve only touched the tip of the metaphorical iceberg in our quest to cover the Peninsula. With time, our name and reputation have preceded us, however, allowing us to form strong contacts and new, life-altering friends. One such contact has been with The Wine Academy of Spain. Founded by Pancho Campo, the enigmatic figure who’s Master of Wine title was the first to be granted to a Spanish national, The Academy’s mission is to educate the world, from pole to pole, about Spanish wine. Every year, they hold courses worldwide to educate professionals and journalists on everything from terroir to native grape varietals within Spain. But beyond this, Pancho is also the proud creator of the Climate Change and Wine Conference (see our articles here) and are organizers of the Wine Future Conference, which will be held in November of this year.

This year, Catavino will ensure that the entire Wine Future Conference is streamed online, while obtaining the maximum exposure it possibly can achieve. We also be conducting interviews with many of the participants and live blogging the event in an effort to show the reality of  “The future of wine online”. As a result of this opportunity, we met the dedicated crew who are not only making The Wine Future Conference a reality, but who are also the foundation of The Spanish Wine Education programs in the USA. And as a result of this meeting, we’re elated to announce an incredible opportunity for any US based blogger!

Starting on June 12th, the Wine Academy of Spain will begin its 2009-2010 USA tour. Following Catavino’s suggestions, they will give 1 free scholarship per USA city to a blogger. And although the Wine Academy of Spain is on the forefront of education, they are still in the beginning stages of utilizing on-line communication effectively; hence where we come in. Catavino will be responsible for the organization and development of this initiative.

The course itself is a 3 day intensive certification course on the major Spanish Appellations, climates, soils, history, wine styles, grape varieties, etc. Each course will allow you to taste over 50 wines - including sherry and cava, provide you with a solid education foundation, and will hopefully incite you with a passion for Spanish wine. And to boot, the top 15 high-scorers, across the USA, will be treated to a week long Spanish Wine Tour covering Spain’s top DO’s.

Catavino is very excited to be able to offer this Scholarship and we hope that many USA bloggers will enter to win a spot! We’ll be announcing the winners early next week; whereby allowing you time to register. Unfortunately, this contest will only be available for all events after the Denver course held this June. That said, if you’re a blogger in Denver who wants to participate, please contact us and we’ll see what we can do.

To Participate:

1. you must have a wine, food or travel blog for over 6 months and with a minimum of one post a week
2. you must write one post answering the following: why do you want to learn more about Spanish wine? You can write a post, make a video, or record a podcast, as long as you post your entry on your blog before June 15th and leave a comment on this post with a link back to your entry.
3. all entries will be judged by the Wine Academy of Spain and Catavino for originality, quality of content, and for the fun of it, best conversation in the comments section.
4. winners will be announced on June 20th on Catavino.net
5. the prize is 1 admission to:
   The Spanish Wine Education Program - This is a 3-day professional training course on Spanish wines. - This program provides to the participants 2 certifications: “Spanish Wine Educators” and “Certificate on Andalusia and its Wines”. Value: 465 us dollars
6. you must make absolutely clear in your post which ONE of the following cities you would like to take the course: Houston TX, Chicago IL, Boston MA, New Haven CT, Atlanta GA, Seattle WA, Portland OR, San Francisco CA, San Diego CA, Cleveland OH, Washington DC, New York (only one blogger per city)

Any questions about this contest can be left in the comments below.

We’re elated to offer you this opportunity, not only because we’d love to take this course ourselves, but also because it coincides with our mission to encourage all of you to continually break out of the norm and try wines you might not have ever tried in your life. Life is about exploration, curiosity and passion. Even if you wouldn’t categorize yourself as a huge Spanish wine fan, why not challenge yourself to see if maybe, just maybe, this course could change your mind. Go ahead and participate!

Good luck!!

Gabriella and Ryan Opaz

Terms and Conditions: This contest is only good for 1 pass into 1 Spanish Wine Academy Course in each of the specified cities, and does not include food, lodging or transportation to and from the course.

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Josh Hermsmeyer, the guy behind the must read Pinotblogger site, has issued a challenge to all wine bloggers and will reward the winner with a prize of up to $1,000 depending upon how many respond to his call. In a nutshell, he is asking us to answer two questions:

• Why are you passionate about wine/what motivates you to blog about it?
• Is it appropriate for a wine reviewer to prescribe the ways in which a wine should be made or is their job chiefly to review what?s in the bottle?

Times being what they are, I will attempt to answer these somewhat provocative questions and perhaps give you some more insight into what makes amateur wine writers tick. Or at least how I come at this craft.

So the first question is pretty straightforward. I blog and podcast about wine because I can and like to do so. Like a lot of wine bloggers, I was the guy everyone asked for wine tips so I found it easier to just write them down and record reviews. Now I just point people here for my picks as opposed to trying to remember them at will. My podcasting got me into blogging due to the same software being used (Wordpress). It was easy to blog so I did so soon after I started to podcast in late 2004. I got into podcasting after something clicked with me in September of 2004 when I first discovered the genre. At the time there was something like 25 podcasts but no one was doing anything about wine so Winecast was born. Over the years the podcast has ebbed and flowed but I still will be posting shows and continuing until I don’t find it enjoyable. So I guess I do this because I love wine and like sharing what little I know about it. I had much the same answer a couple years back but with a slightly different spin.

The second question is a bit more complicated. I think Josh is asking this in response to Robert Parker’s recent statements about wine bloggers (or shall I say “blobbers”?). Mr. Parker has long been accused of influencing winemaking styles in order to garner higher scores which many times leads to more demand and higher prices. The biggest beneficiaries of his ratings has been the classified growths of Bordeaux but some Cali cult wines and Aussie Shiraz has benefited, too. And I don’t blame any producers for making such changes in order to get the scores. It helps sell their wine but is also something that I hope we will get away from in the next decade as Mr. Parker retires and drinks down his cellar.

Wine writers of any level should tell the story of the wine they are reviewing and not dictate what that story should be. Sometimes this is a terroir story, sometimes it’s not. For a review to communicate the essence of the wine, as much context as possible is required. I’ve not delivered on this ideal as much as I would have liked in the past but hope to help invent the new language of wine reviews going forward. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I’ll keep trying new things to communicate how a wine moves me. Wine is a living being that is in constant change. Those of us who write about it should respect this and attempt to bring all the nuances displayed in the glass into our writing.

Unless it’s plonk, of course

A couple of thoughts on news from the wine front …

Parsing New Vine Logistics

Unless you are in and around the wine business, or, like me, know too much about how the sausage is made in the wine business, you’ve probably never heard of New Vine Logistics (NVL), a wine shipping and compliance management company based in Napa Valley. 

All I really know about them is they were (emphasis on ‘were’) the gold standard for winery shipping to consumers and they have, over the years, had a ton of venture capital poured into them, on multiple occasions. UPDATE:  A wine business insider and commentor to this post tells me NVL was never a gold standard.  Fair.  In my experience in the wine biz., NVL was the lead dog, though perhaps not a ‘gold standard.’   They have been a veritable sinkhole for third-party money.  In fact, it has been alleged in an unknown, but known kind of way that New Vine has never truly been financially solvent. 

Well, all that VC money seems to be for naught now because NVL sent an email to customers over the weekend indicating that they are suspending operations, as reported by Wine Business Monthly.

What “suspending operations” means exactly is anybody’s guess, but it appears as if they are not fulfilling any new orders.  The likely circumstance is they are trying to salvage what is salvageable. 

This is all unfortunate, though not quite on par with the General Motors bankruptcy that happened today, June 1st, as well.

However, what is interesting is the relationship between New Vine Logistics and Amazon.com.  It was reported circumstantially at Wine & Spirits Daily today:

Recall that Amazonwine.com had planned on partnering with New Vine once the website and its foray into the wine business officially began (which was expected sometime this summer). Initially it was thought that Amazon would unveil its new business in October of 2008. The word on the street is that Amazon’s delay caused New Vine to go under.

Megan Haverkorn, the writer at Wine & Spirits Daily goes on to say:

As a result, it’s looking less likely that Amazon will enter the wine business at all, particularly not anytime soon.

Not so fast, Megan. An Amazon.com delay may not have anything to do with their desire to enter the wine business.  Now, I want to say that I have absolutely no first, second or even third hand information on this situation – but what I do have is experience with a similar situation.

The thing to remember is that lion’s eat their young.  Amazon.com is a lion.  When a lion takes over a pride they may kill all of the young cubs that are not genetically their offspring.  Why raise them as they may be weak lions, not their genetic link?  This also hastens the female lions in the pride to go into heat for fresh reproduction with the new lead lion.

Now, without rehashing too much of my own first hand experience, I will note that a publicly traded company (or even a well-capitalized company) like Amazon.com would not let a company that it was relying on to make its foray into the wine business falter.

Or, would they?

Typically, in any joint venture or strategic partnership type of situation, particularly because Amazon.com is publicly traded, they look at the books of potential partners.  Surely, Amazon.com knows the financial health of NVL. 

What Amazon.com likely saw was a company that was bleeding in a neutral to good economy and close to being mortally wounded in a down economy.

Now, if you look at this situation from a business perspective, what does Amazon.com want from New Vine Logistics?

Do they want their winery customers?

Not really. 

Do they want their logistics expertise?

Not really.

Do they want their wine shipping facility?

Maybe.

Do they want all of the compliance knowledge and proprietary systems specific to the wine business, software that has been custom built just for New Vine?  Software that is difficult to replicate and build from scratch?

Yes, why yes they probably do want the software.

So, what does Amazon.com do in this situation?  They see a partner that has assets they desire, but needs cash.  A lot of cash.  Does Amazon.com buy into it with a lot of debt load, and significant venture capital obligations or do they bleed out the relationship with delays and a non-committal stance, with a company that was likely bowing at its altar? 

The logical, business-oriented answer says they let it die a death of a thousand paper cuts and subsequently buy the assets out of bankruptcy, taking what is good, taking what they want and leaving the rest ...

... that’s what I would do, at least.  Not being in the business of making money by throwing my good money after somebody else’s bad money. 

Capitalism is survival of the fittest.

That’s the way it went down in the situation I was a part of.  Contract a joint venture, take a look-see at the books and then let the company bleed itself out while said company simultaneously seduces themselves into thinking that a Knight in Shining Armor has appeared.  And, then said Knight pick’s over the carcass. 

Interesting to note, unsubstantiated, but stated at the blog Overabarrel.net, that Amazon.com has the first right to buy NVL. 

Hmmm …

Equally true is the fact that Amazon.com probably has first right to buy assets from NVL, out of bankruptcy—assets like software that allows Amazon to build-out their own consumer direct wine shipping program, not relying on anybody else. 

Yeah, lions eat their young. 

A few months ago, we shared a crazy idea with you to use the QRcode on winery labels so as to provide more information to the consumer. Two of Catavino Marketing’s clients are now using this technology; and today, we want to refer you to the very first, as far as we know, Spanish winery jumping onboard. Cingles Blaus, a winery located in the Montsant region of Spain, has with the cooperation of Somosene.es, developed a wine label where the code takes precedence. The label, with “The gateway to more wine culture” printed on the side of the bottle, is a stylish version of a data matrix code in black and red. It is proudly displayed on the side of two of the winery’s wines: Octubre 2007 and Mas de les Moreres 2006. I love these labels, and the idea of making the code so prominent; however, I am disappointed that the URL redirect in the code goes to a non-mobile ready site. Granted, it’s a small issue, but one that is important if people are to really embrace this technology.

Continuing our rant about our dream to have all wines use these codes, the number one question people have asked us is, “How many wineries are using them?” As of now, our answer is 3, though please prove us wrong and send examples of others. The second follow-up question is, “will it take awhile to reach a critical mass”. Our response is twofold. First, yes it may take time for wineries to adopt this technology, but that is no reason not to implement it. It’s free, and anyone can create a code and use it. Currently, more and more people are downloading the software to their phones to scan a wide range of products which are adopting the code. Second, it will happen - either in this form or another. Look at what happened in Japan, a country that tends to be ahead of the technological curve, where cell phones ship standard with a code reader already on them. Everywhere you go in Japan, as I understand it, people are scanning codes for more information. Check out the videos at the end of this page: http://www.i-nigma.com/personal/japan.asp.

Ok, so enough of the code, how is the wine? Well to tell you the truth I was waiting for a gimick wine to go with the labels, but was happy to find something worth drinking. Big bold modern wines, that show bright fresh acidity to create a wonderful balance! Rich fruit and nice minerals without heavy wood influence. Tonight they’ll be paired up with a few grilled burgers alongside grilled asparagus, red pepper and blue cheese - a pairing I doubt will fail.

As wineries begin to realize the need to listen to the their customers, they will look for easy tools, such as QR codes, to begin the dialoge. I applaud Cingles Blaus and encourage you to both look for these tasty wines and to download code reading software to your mobile phone just in case you come across one in your next wine shopping adventure!

Cheers,

Ryan Opaz

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“There’s something happening here / What it is ain’t exactly clear…”                             — Stephen Stills, “For What It’s Worth”

I’ve been away from the blog for much of this month but have been keeping up with my reading and, oh course, tweeting. A few weeks ago Tyler Colman, who blogs as Dr Vino, posted some legitimate questions about policies at The Wine Advocate. What transpired was a discussion of wine writer ethics that at one point featured Robert Parker labeling wine blogs, “…the source of much of the misinformation,distortion,and egegious falsehoods spread with reckless abandon…”

Needless to say, I was not pleased with this comment and wrote a 3,000 word response that concluded with some advice for Mr. Parker, open letter-style. But I never published that post because I thought it would not really do anything positive except, perhaps, make me feel a bit better. Fellow bloggers Joel Vincent and Joe Roberts covered this ground a bit more diplomatically than I did, but with much the same tone.

So I was somewhat surprised to see this issue rehashed this week in the Wall Street Journal. Another discussion broke out on the subject on eBob which was somewhat capped off by a mea culpa of sorts by Mr. Parker. In my book, case closed, but I’m sure there will be some additional chatter in the blogosphere because it creates more traffic and comments.

But I think all this raises a more fundimental question; what is the future of wine writing?

Jeff Lefevere over at Good Grape made a good point about bell curves the other day and it’s clear that dominance of The Wine Advocate and other wine review newsletters is on the downward slope of the curve. Local newspapers are cutting back on wine writers even in big metros such as Los Angeles and New York. As I’ve written here before, I don’t think there is a great future for wine glossies such as the Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast unless they transform their business models quickly and figure out how to make money online.

So the future is wine blogs, right? Perhaps, but there are some, such as Alice Feiring, who doubt it as she recently blogged:

And who knows if wine writing will exist in any form. If what only exists is the blog world, God help us. I’m not saying that some of my colleagues don’t give great blog, but finding the knowledgeble folk who don’t have something to ’sell’ is tough. And then finding some voices who have done homework is even tougher.

Whatever the format, there will be a void in wine writing in the next decade that will be filled by new voices. With the rise of Millennials as major wine consumers, this format will no doubt be digital and presented online in several contexts (text, video, audio, mobile). The question at hand is if the serious wine consumer of the future will pay for this information or will expect this to be freely available and ad supported.

My gut tells me it will be a bit of both but I seriously doubt there will be a solo critic success story like Robert Parker. It’s not because the talent doesn’t exist but that the circumstances are vastly different than they were 30 years ago when Mr. Parker got his start. Back then you didn’t have to be independently wealthy in order to sample the top wines of the world. You could buy them and share them with friends at weekend tastings where everyone chipped in for the wines. This is how the wines for The Wine Advocate were financed along with Mr. Parker’s rather generous personal wine budget (how he talked his wife into this early on would make a great story, but I digress).

Today it is nearly impossible for the independent wine blogger to buy the sufficient amount of wine to provide the breadth of coverage required to attract enough readers to make a wine blog financially viable. Yes, we do receive samples but this alone doesn’t provide enough tasting opportunities; the reviewer still needs to travel and purchase more wines at retail. Both not easy given the current economic climate but even in better times one would have to spend at least $100,000 a year in order to review enough wines to make a serious go of it.

But I do think that several wine bloggers working together at a single blog is the future of wine writing. Each could cover a wine region or variety in depth and in aggregate this content would attract enough of an audience to sell sponsorships, drive affiliate programs and other monetization opportunities. Think Engadget but for wine.

I think we will see such a blog launch yet in 2009 and there will be several existing wine bloggers who will be convinced to write for this site as they continue to maintain their own blogs. The “Robert Parker of the future” will be a blogger but I doubt he or she will go it alone. But together, even a small team could create enough content and traffic to build the next wine publishing empire.

The time is now; the question is who will step up and try to do this first?

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Last month, while at the London International Wine Fair, we had brought a few bottles from Spain to share with our hosts. We always like to bring wines from our cellar, wherever we travel, knowing that we’ll magically find the need to open them among friends. This trip we opted for a California treat, S.Anderson’s 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon, a wine that I had bought many years ago on the advice of a nice Parker review. Having never tried it, we could only hope that a 10 year old Cali Cab would be a fun warm up to whatever wines were in store for us at the LIWF.

During dinner of our first night in London, we popped open the bottle, and despite its age, and rough ride in the belly of our British Airways flight, the wine showed beautifully. Paired with a roasted lambshank simply tied up with fresh rosemary, alongside roasted potatoes, the subtle delicate Cabernet flavors aged perfectly with a touch of oxidation on the nose and palate. It was a wine that gave each swallow a tinge of sweet regret as you longed for the flavors to linger on.

As the bottle slowly disappeared, the final drops savored, I felt sad thinking about the amount of people who drink wine immediately without holding onto it. We have no temperature controlled cellar here in Terrassa, but we do our best to keep the wine out of the sun, and as cool as we can. That said, many people would draw a rigid line and say that you should never store a wine in such conditions, and as a result, they never do. Sadly this means that many people miss out on the joys of a well aged wine. (Fickr phot by jenny downing)

Tonight, we’re grilling Paella on the grill and due to a head cold all of our wines will be aging a day or two longer. No need wasting some good juice on a congested head!

Have a good week and enjoy the start of summer!

Cheers,

Ryan Opaz

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A few weeks ago, when organizing the London Food and Wine Blogger’s Gathering, I was asked whether Henrietta Lovell, owner of the Rare Tea Company, would be able to conduct a tea tasting during the wine tasting. My first reaction was that of astonishment, wondering who in their right mind would want to sip on a hot bitter tea after a glass of cava and before a sip of sherry? Wouldn’t that be rather, off setting? But the request continued to suggest that the tea tasting would teach us the subtle qualities of good tea, and its capacity to cleanse the palate, leaving your mouth feeling refreshed and invigorated, as if nothing had ever touched your palate previously. Clearly, I couldn’t say no.

Not surprisingly, the tea did exactly as promoted. Having enjoyed a big, bold Tempranillo from Rioja and a thick slice of Camembert cheese, I was a little astonished to find that the luke warm paper sippy cup filled with a light, herbal smelling green tea literally washed my palate clean. So clean, that when I purposefully filled my glass with a  German Reisling, it was if the gripping tannins of the Tempranillo that previously wrestled with my tongue into submission not 2 minutes earlier, had never existed.

I admit that I am rather addicted to Henrietta’s teas. Having quit coffee not 1 month ago, I now wake up and savor a pot of her green tea every morning. But it was Henrietta’s passion when talking about tea and its relationship to wine that truly piqued my curiosity. And if it piqued my curiosity, I had faith it would incite yours as well. So today, I bring you a short interview with Henrietta Lovell, and thank her for taking the time, after her whirlwind trip to Malawi, to answer my questions.

1. How did your incredible passion for tea grow?

I used to work in financial print- not the zenith of excitement- but it did take me round the world. Working in Asia I was privileged to be ‘wined and dined’ by clients and in China that often meant tea. They are extremely proud of their teas which have been cultivated for around 5000 years. Instead of buying an expensive wine to impress a guest they would think nothing of ordering a $100 pot of tea. That might seem extraordinary but so was the tea.

Coming from a proud tea drinking nation I was so often stunned by the incredible complexity and variety of teas from around the world that just weren’t available at home. I began to realise that we only knew one kind of tea- mass produced, industrial black tea. What was worse was the low quality green tea the unsuspecting consumer was being fobbed off with. Interest peaked in green teas because of the health benefits of less processed teas but the UK consumer has been lead to believe that it must be a bitter brew for the virtuous because they had no access to the delights of the good stuff. Over and over again I meet people who say they don’t like green tea only for them to dry a decent one and be immediately won over.

You can buy tea for pennies a kilo and thousands of pounds. I realised that BIG TEA was all about margins and volume and both the farmer and the consumer were getting a bad deal.

2. What makes the Rare Tea Company so “rare” or “unique”?

I started Rare Tea to cause a revolution- to give people access to the very best teas they had been missing out on. Not just tea connoisseurs but every day tea drinker’s. I didn’t want to put people off with complicated names and a vast array from the mediocre to the good. I offer a small selection of the best. I’ve traveled the world seeking out the finest so that my customers don’t have to be experts to enjoy good tea. Hopefully people will trust me and branch out into new worlds of flavour. I source all the teas myself and work directly with small farmers.

What is rare is that I am not looking for vast volumes so I can work directly with small farmers and craftsman. I don’t buy from a faceless tea-broker. I’m not looking for massive margins and I can pay my farmers what they need to craft their tea.

3. Where do your teas come from, and what is the deciding factor in choosing which teas to carry?

Flavour. It has to taste good. There are terroirs for tea just as there are for wine. The finest White Silver Tip Tea, for example, is found near the small town on Fuding in the Fujian mountains of China. Just like champagne the tea differs from farm to farm depending on varietal uses, soil, rainfall, growing methods, harvesting and production. Teas may have the same name and come from the same place but they are not all equal. I look for the best flavour.

However, its not always that simple. The environmental impact and conditions on the farm are also important. I just got back from Malawi where I’m working with a farm that is doing amazing things to help the local communities as well as protect the delicate ecosystem.

4. At the tasting, your eyes literally sparkled with excitement when sharing each of the tea’s unique aroma, color and flavor. As a wine lover, can I transfer any of skills I use to appreciate a wine to the way I might appreciate a tea?

All of them. A tea tasting is very much like a wine tasting. The aroma comes first. You suck in as much oxygen with each sip as possible and roll the tea around your mouth, Unless you want to be awake for a week you must spit which is just as hard when you’re tasting gorgeous teas as it is when tasting fabulous wines.

There are as many different teas in the world as there are wines- maybe more. The tastes are just as fabulously complex and diverse. One of my first advocates was the Sommelier Katie Exton from Chez Bruce, in London. From her I realised that people who were interested in wine were fascinated by flavour and easy to win over with their first taste of the good stuff.

5. Wine has very specific way in which it should be cared for, depending on the specific style of wine. Are there specific ways we should care for a tea in both its storage and preparation?

Yes- most teas are very sensitive to light and air. They really should be kept cool and dark and most importantly airtight.

When making good tea the leaf to water ratio is crucial. It is best to measure a teaspoon of tea per cup and infuse for about 3 minutes. Pour all the infused tea leaving the leaves dry (not steeping) in the bottom of the pot. It’s a bit like taking a steak out of the frying pan when it is cooked to perfection. The leaves can then be re-infused several times revealing different subtleties of flavour. This can’t be done with cheap tea-bag teas because the tiny particles have a massive surface area and give up their flavour straight away like floosies.

6. Like wine, there are high quality teas and low quality teas. Are there specific signs we can look for when searching for a high quality tea?

If it comes in a paper box, and inside are bags, the people who made it don’t care about it. The tea will be stale before you open it. It’s like leaving a fino sherry in a decanter or wine without a cork.

The best teas come from whole or large pieces of leaf- these need room to unfurl as they infuse so they are always better loose. Cramped in a tea-bag whatever shape or material- even the best tea wont be at its best.

Like wine you get what you pay for. If it costs 99p there is a reason and you can be sure they have compromised on taste.

If the tea is full of herbs, flowers and flavourings its generally because the tea itself is no good.

7. In a wine tasting, you showed us that tea can be used to cleanse the palate? Are there specific teas we should use for white wines, heavier red wines, sparkling wines, fortified wines, sweet wines, etc.? Or is there a tea that is essentially, the jack of all traits in cleansing the palate?

Oolong is the most flexible. Good oolong has such depth of flavour it can stand up beside the richest reds but is subtle enough to work with delicate white.

Generally I would suggest using whole leaf green teas with white wines. With softer red you need a good oolong and as you move into really full bodied reds the best pairing is a rich black tea like the malty caramel of Emperor’s Breakfast.

The important thing to remember is the first sip of tea is overwhelmed by the residual wine in you pallet. It is the second sip that the flavours are revealed.

8. What is the number 1 misconception you come across with people’s perceptions of tea?

That tea needs milk and sugar to make it palatable. The good stuff is delicious on its own. I’m not saying you must drink it black or that its sacrilege to add sugar but that it is GOOD on its own. This is not true of industrial teas, of course.

Second misconception: Tea is cheap. It can be made cheaply by vast agribusinesses so that our supermarkets can use it as a loss leader. But the good stuff needs to be crafted and what you pay for is a concentration on flavour rather than volume. If we were prepared to pay a bit more for our teas it would benefit not just us in terms of flavour but the small farmer.

9. If someone is conducting a wine tasting and would be interested in calling on your services to guide them through a wine and tea pairing, is this something you can offer?

Claro que si! [Which I assume she means, "Absolutely Gabriella, I would love nothing more than to infuse the masses with my undying passion for tea"...or something to that affect]

10. If we are interested in purchasing your teas, where can we find them?

www.rareteacompany.com worldwide, Waitrose in London, Ocado, Selfridges, and at good restaurants and delis across the UK

Henrietta will also be conducting tea and wine tasting at The Taste of London. For more information, please contact Henrietta at henrietta.lovell@rareteacompany.com

Cheers,

Gabriella Opaz

Follow us on Twitter: @catavino, @ryanopaz, @gabriellaopaz

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As a wine hobbyist among professionals and experts, I often feel that I have the advantage of being able to sit back and enjoy what comes to hand rather than having to analyze endlessly. Another privilege of the enthusiast, be it golf, sailing, ornithology or anything else, is the feeling that you can drop your subject into conversation to universal approval. We all know that this is not always the case, but while attending the Seville Book Fair in a professional capacity this week, I was out having tapas with some competitors (or as we like to say “people who share the same market space”) and from what started off as rather a stiff conversation, when I mentioned that I also did bits and pieces relating to wine, the head honcho of the other, Seville-based, company perked up no end. He asked me all about wines from the Valencia region, which he wasn’t very familiar with (though everyone seems to know Enrique Mendoza wines, which are appearing on smart wine lists everywhere), and the next thing I knew we were agreeing to send each other some wines.

This led me to point my computer towards a couple of online wine sellers when I got home to Valencia. I first visited Vinos-Valencianos, which I’ve browsed before but never bought from. It has an interesting array of bottles from all Valencian denominaciones de origen, but you can only buy unmixed cases of six, which is not what I wanted on this occasion (even if delivery is free).  I then went to Lavinia, which I have bought stuff from a few times before, but their regional offering was a bit high end (kicking off around the 20 euro mark and rising), which I wanted to avoid both out of meanness and to keep this as a personal rather than corporate exchange. I had a further look and ended up at Vinissimus, which was just what I wanted. You could mix your own selection and there were less expensive wines along with the luxury stuff. I picked a few in a hurry, and it was only when I’d finalized the order that I noticed that I was top-heavy on Alicante wines. My selection was:

• Cristal·lí: a light, elegant sweet moscatel from the mountains of Alicante, 9.30 euros,
• Mestizaje 2007: a heady blend of 50% bobal with cabernet sauvignon, tempranillo, syrah, cabernet sauvignon and merlot for good measure, from the grand Bodegas Mustiguillo, which is in Utiel-Requena but has its own Vino de la Tierra El Terrerazo status, 9.95 euros
• Salinas Mo Monastrell 2006: monastrell, garnacha tintorera, syrah and cabernet sauvignon from the new Alicante Bodega Sierra Salinas part-owned by Yecla’s Bodegas Castaño, 6.80 euros
• Al Muvedre 2007: old vine monastrell made in Alicante by Riojan flying - or “driving” as he insists - winemaker Telmo Rodríguez, 4.70 euros
• Enrique Mendoza Selección Peñón de Ifach 2003: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petit verdot, because I recently climbed the magnificent Peñón and we had to have a Mendoza, 12.75 euros
• Laderas de El Sequé 2007: monastrell, with some cabernet sauvignon and syrah, and another Alicante wine project involving winemakers from outside the region excited by the possibilities here, 4.90 euros
• Impromptu 2007: I reckon that it’s not a bad idea to pay a little more for an interesting white wine and this is a sauvignon blanc from another ambitious young bodega, Hispano-Suizas, in Utiel-Requena, 17.75 euros

I don’t know what the recipient will make of these wines, but looking again at what was a quick buying trip rather than a deeply thought-through selection, I think that it suggests that there’s a real buzz about Alicante, with winemakers and investors being drawn from all over Spain to join the party, and that DO Valencia may lagging behind its neighbours when it comes to eye-catching wines. It also strikes me that it is the thrusting new bodegas that have worked to get their wines into online wine stores. I’d have liked to include a traditional wine from a long-established bodega, maybe Raspay from Primitivo Quiles, but I couldn’t see anything along those lines. But what I put together isn’t a bad snapshot of what’s going on out there. A bit of bobal, plenty of monastrell, often in interesting conjunction with international varieties, red predominating over white, it could have done with a dry moscatel and a cava to give it greater range, but there you go. All in all, it’s a selection that I’d be happy to receive, and I hope it helps turn a business rival into a personal friend.

Cheers,

John Maher

All content protected by a Creative Commons License2005-2009. Catavino.net.

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Recently, Ryan and I were inspired by both Lenndevours and Spittoon, two wine blogs on either side of the vast Pacific Atlantic, for creating simple and straight-forward articles on wines they’ve tasted, and at times, just haven’t had the opportunity to share with others. Due to a large quantity wine notes slowly slipping through the cracks and not seeing the light of day, we’ve decided to follow suit, by also sharing wines we’ve tasted, despite the fact that we may not have visited either the winery or the region. Consider these little breathers away from our normal mammoth-sized educational posts. When possible, we’ll try to include some information on the wines availability and any relevant facts that came through in the press releases that accompany them.

A few weeks ago, we were sent two wines from a winery located in Begues, Spain, not 15 miles south of Barcelona called, Montau de Sadurní. Descendents of the Sadurní family - possible namesakes of the Cava capital, Sant Sadurní d’Anoia - the winery has been makign wine wine since the 15th century, evolving from a bulk wine producer into a private label winery. Currently, they are producing 3 labels: Arrels de Montau de Sadurní, their mid-range line composed of blends; Senor de Montnegre is made up of younger fruit-forward wines; and their high-end line called, Mantau de Sadurní, featuring two Gran Reserva cavas.

We had tried both the 2004 Arrels de Montau de Sadurni Crianca and their Gran Reserva Brut Nature. Made from 100% Chardonnay, the Crianca (or Crianza), oddly enough, did not list a vintage anywhere on the bottle or cork. According to the tech sheet, however, it was a 2004 vintage fermented in stainless steel and aged for 6 months in oak. For me, the wine gave off a brilliant pale golden color with a funky savory nose laced with bright aromas of green grass and herbs right after a rainstorm. In the mouth, the wine shows tame but integrated acidity with a medium body and medium short mature pear and light wood finish. Summed up by Ryan, “Not an explosive wine, but nice and simple.” Neither of us would rush out to buy this.

The Gran Reserva Brut Nature, on the other hand, was incredible, showing tiny vivacious bubbles which dance in a dark golden brew. While Ryan found more expressive lemon and citrus notes on the nose, I found it to be yeasty with hints of caramelized honey, musty cellar, raw almonds and butterscotch. In the mouth, this is a toasty and rich with loads of lemon and citrus notes. Full and complete, we really enjoyed this wine for its overall balance, medium acidity and medium short finish of mature ripe apple and bread notes. Worth checking out and would make a great start to any “rooftop bbq”!

I would highly suggest checking out their blog as well, as they not only publish regularly, but also write in German, English and Spanish - a rarity in Spain.

Cheers,

Gabriella Opaz

• 2005 Bodegas Julián Chivite Navarra Gran Feudo Moscatel
• TN - 1996 Racimo de Oro Valdepeñas Gran Reserva
• 1996 Mestres Cava Brut Nature Millessimé
• Brut vs Brut Nature, where ignorance is the only winner
• Agustí Torelló - Kripta , High End Spanish Cava

Following our discussion of why there are so few tasty low priced wines from America, particularly compared to imports, I put the question to wine importer Bobby Kacher. Robert Kacher Selections is strong in bargains from Southwestern France; I highlighted the Tariquet Sauvignon (find this wine) in my book with wine recommendations, A Year of Wine, as one of 10 great wines under $10 (REDS from Patrick Campbell was also included).

Question: why there are so few good American wines under $10 while there are many more imports at that price point?

Bobby Kacher: A related question is why do so many American wineries make such expensive wines? So many American wineries have developed new, highly-allocated wines from very young vineyards that sell for $150 or more a bottle. They are trying to sell you the spin of romance and lifestyle. I visited a winery in California once and calculated just how much it cost to make the wine using expensive techniques–new barrels, farming technique, plant material, labor–and figured it was about $10 worth of wine they were selling for $300. Sure, the land was expensive and they spent millions on the winery that is a shrine to themselves so all that comes to play in their corporate profitability objectives.

It’s a strategy of luxury cuvees. Let’s just say you’re going to open a restaurant: Would you want to charge $10 for a main dish or $30? The food costs are similar but the profits may not be. Take rose: Domaine Ott decided years ago that they wanted to be the Rolls Royce of rose. I can assure you that they are not farmed any differently than my $10 roses. Sure, the way they are made, they can age for two or three years.

But I actually like to drink wine, not worship it. Do you think a farmer in the Cote Rotie wants to put a bottle of his $50 wine on the table every day? No, he is buying a $5 wine for drinking every day.

I went out to a restaurant with one of my producers who was visiting recently. The restaurant had his wine on the list and he was going to treat me. But he saw it was $150 a bottle and he realized that he couldn’t afford to buy his own wine! And maybe, just maybe, there were other people who couldn’t afford to buy it either.

I try to bring in a lot of wines under $20 with a lot around $15. (Because of the dollar’s weakness, that’s really where the $10 wines from a few years ago are now). To find those wines as an importer, you’re going to have to go to some crazy places on the back roads. And sell the principle that “why shouldn’t you have a wine that represents value to the consumer–maybe something that sells for $13?” Certainly if you have the equipment to make a $75 wine, then you can make a $13 wine.

Ultimately, many of my producers have lower costs than their New World counterparts. The vineyards were bought generations ago and have no debt. They don’t have five flat screen TVs in their home. They don’t have a 5,000 square foot home. They don’t have the “lifestyle” with pools, guest houses, guest kitchens and so on.

In that regard, Fred Franzia has some similarities to them since his family bought lots of their acreage decades ago when land prices were a lot lower.

Related: Tasty American wine under $12: why so little of it? Industry replies, part I
Fred Franzia and American wine under $10

Drawing on the New Yorker profile of Fred Franzia, champion of wine under $10, last week we pondered the puzzle of why so few low-cost wines–say under $10 (or, perhaps, $15)–made in America are just not tasty. By contrast, several imported wines in the price range have appeal despite having to be transported and pass through the importer’s company as well.

Over 30 of you had your say in the post from last week. So I decided to put the question to several people in the trade. Today, we hear from Patrick Campbell and Veronique Drouhin Boss. Patrick Campbell of Laurel Glen Winery in Sonoma makes a tasty $10 California wine, REDS, billed as “a wine for the people.” Veronique Drouhin Boss is the winemaker at Domaine Drouhin in Oregon and is co-winemaker at her family’s negociant house in Burgundy, Maison Joseph Drouhin, which a Beaujolais Villages that is particularly lip-smacking in 2007 and is widely available for $9.95. Tomorrow, we will hear from an American wine importer with his views.

Question: why are there so few good American wines under $10 (or slightly higher) while there are many more imports at that price point?

Patrick Campbell, Laurel Glen and maker of REDS (find this wine)

I think the answer is pretty easy: we begin with vineyards rather than bulk wine.

1) We pick out vineyards we want to farm, and which, based on experience, we know will work together in the final blend. The vineyards can’t be located in the prestige areas, because their fruit would be too costly. So we scout out other areas, particularly in Lodi, where the grapes are affordable, the vineyards well established (one vineyard we farm is 120 y/o), and the production limited by the good farming practices.
2) We avoid expensive grapes like cabernet or pinot noir
3) We ferment the grapes in rented facilities, so we avoid overhead costs.
4) We age the resulting wines in rented facilities, ditto.
5) We use neutral barrels, at $50 per barrel, rather than new barrels at $500 ? 1000 each.
6) We make big enough volumes (about 12,000 cases a year) to secure reasonable costs on supplies.

Why don’t we use bulk wine like most copycat RED-themed labels or brand du jour bottlers do?
1) because we want consistency of style, not some concoction of whatever mélange of grapes is currently in over-supply on the bulk market
2) I like working with vineyards, and I really dislike tasting through hundreds of samples of bulk wine to find a few tolerably good wines, that may have already been sold by the time I got the samples
3) And so on??

Veronique Drouhin Boss, of Domaine Drouhin Oregon and Maison Joseph Drouhin (find the Drouhin Beaujolais Villages; about $10)

I am not sure I have an answer to your question but reading through the various comments I didn?t see anyone, except Paul Gregutt, mention the importance of where the grapes actually grow (we call it terroir) and vineyard yields.

All over France great wines are being produced, many different varieties but all growing in the region they should grow or do well. The home of Gamay is Beaujolais, the home of Pinot is Burgundy. This is an important fact to start with. Secondly: it is no secret that the more you ask a vine to produce the less good the wine will be. I believe when money drives everything then to produce a $10 bottle of wine expecting high return you need big yields. Quality can?t be there. In France, by law, yields are controlled. In a given area of production you can not produce more than what is allowed. To my knowledge it is not the case anywhere in the US, or any new world producing regions.

So the trick to produce a good $10 bottle of wine is: choose the right place, control your yields, the cost of production and do not expect to make big margins.

John Brecher and Dorothy Gaiter, the wildly popular wine columnists at the Wall Street Journal, published an updated glossary of handy wine terms in Saturday’s column. Here’s their headline:

Singing the ABCs of Wine
The columnists’ updated glossary swaps Parker for Dr. Vino and Vayniacs; why there are 27 entries

It was very nice of them to give Dr. Vino a shout out! (Click through for their full comments.) And to hold up my book A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys, and What to Sip for Each Season in the accompanying video! Check out their glossary for other fun wine terms, such as Xinomavro and Zweigelt (also good in Scrabble).

After uncorking a bottle and enjoying the wine, probably most people throw the cork in the trash. Certainly there’s worse waste: It’s not as if there are junkyards full of corks, and since they are the bark of oak trees, they are biodegradable. But surely we can do better than simply throw them away. Here are ten ideas!

1. Kicking things off, consider this gorgeous “bowling ball” from Minnesota artist Jan Elftmann. We’ll come back to her at the end, but this is a good one to get things, er, rolling.

2. The wall o’ corks as you may remember from the 15,000 cork wall at Frankly Wine, a Manhattan wine shop

3. The cork vase: easy and can bring back some wine memories. As seen here at Pottery Barn. (Where we saved you $14 last year!)

4. Exquisite miniatures emerge from the Design Within Reach annual contest: the foil, capsule, wire, and cork from two Champagne corks to make a chair. Behold this year’s judge’s choice (and previous winners):

5. Recycle! A sustainable building firm in Missouri will collect corks to recondition into building materials: Since 2004, wine consumers have mailed in 1.5 tons of corks (approximately 400,000). Amorim, the large cork producer from Portugal, has also started a program called “Recork America” that may reconstitute wine corks into flooring and bulletin boards. There are drop points at some wineries and Whole Foods locations. But since flooring is boring to look at (except when serving as the background for this web site), here’s a picture of the cork cover for the iPhone!

6. Tip out a clock: similar to the popular cork wreath but a little more sleek and stylish. This one’s available for purchase at Etsy.

7. A trivet/hot plate pad or cork bulletin board. Classic yet practical–as well as actually feasible.

8. Apartment Therapy saw some nice ‘n easy place card holders.

9. Make a cork castle, such as this one in a wine shop window in Chicago’s Lincoln Square. And why not put Obama there? ChiBart

10. A chair made of 3,000 corks. Click through to the Gabriel Wiese gallery for many more styles…

11–BONUS! But the person we all need to emulate for cork artistry is clearly Jan Elftmann. In over 20 years, she has collected 50,000 corks. Perhaps her piece de resistence is her truck, which is covered in 10,000 corks. She also had a display of her Cork Bowling Alley at the Minneapolis Institute of Art click through to her site for videos and more of her art.

So what are you waiting for? Start uncorking your favorite wines! Or check out corks for sale on EBay. What do you do with your leftover corks?

SPIT: wine in France!
Over the past year, as the economy has been grinding down, some Parisians have decided to cash out of wine by pawning their wines to the Credit Municipal, who, in turn, just auctioned off 2,500 bottles. [AP]

SIPPED: wine the beverage
“Red wine patches? No thanks, I?ll take mine orally,” quips Mark Fisher about a resveratrol ad he saw in his Sunday paper. He continues, “What?s next? A suppository?” Hey-oh! [Uncorked]

SIPPED: haggling!
The NY Post delights in the fact that the recession brings the end of water sommeliers. And they point out that negotiating with the (wine) sommelier is now not only acceptable but encouraged at David Burke’s restaurants: diners are given a list of “auction selections” where they can bid. The sommelier has “never been insulted” by an opening bid.

SIPPED: change at the Times dining section
Come August, Frank Bruni will be pushing back from the restaurant reviewing table at the New York Times and heading over to the Magazine. [Diner's Journal]

SIPPED: the printed word
I’ll be signing copies of my book, A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys, and What to Sip for Each Season, this Saturday in New Canaan, CT. Although the event is in conjunction with Elm Street Books, it will be at a new wine store called The Respected Palate @ 21 South Ave., New Canaan, CT 06840. 12 - 2:30. And, yes, there will be free wines available to taste!

Stephen Colbert has a hilarious send-up of the dog food vs paté research paper we recently discussed. Check it out! (and see what he puts in his mouth–ack!)

In further canine wine news, also check out “Learning to sniff out corked wine” in the current issue of Food & Wine. Inspired in part by a grudge against a beagle from Customs and Border Protection, Ray Isle engages in a competition with a Sonoma winery dog (no dog food consumed by either party).

Fred Franzia, creator of Two Buck Chuck and founder of Bronco Wine Co, has a somewhat laudable if self-serving goal: no wine should sell for over ten dollars a bottle. While tasty wine under $10 is something wine consumers could rally behind even in the best of times, the recession certainly makes value have greater appeal now. The only trouble with Franzia’s wine is the that they just aren’t that tasty.

The current issue of the New Yorker has a lengthy profile of Franzia that is well worth reading, especially if you’re not familiar with his story. Here’s how the author describes his winery in Ceres, California:

It also irritates Franzia when people describe Bronco’s facility, with its four hundred and fifty-two stainless-steel storage tanks–including six liquid oxygen tanks that once held fuel for intercontinental ballistic missiles and are now being used to make champagne [sic]–as being reminiscent of an oil refinery.

(In addition to the satellite image above, click here for a street view of the flags. Franzia had this to say about the flags in the story: “No California flag–they’ve screwed us too many times. We shouldn’t fly the US flag, the bastards. They have a felony on us.”)

One of the biggest puzzles about the American wine market is why there are so few tasty values made in the USA. Imports, somewhat paradoxically, offer better value despite traveling a farther distance and often having to pass through another tier, the American importer.

What do you think are the key reasons that American wines under $10 are so often uninspiring? (Granted, there certainly are uninspiring imports under $10 but there are also some rustic wonders that sell for three to six euros in Europe.) Here are some variables to toy with: short-ish history of American wine with relatively few small growers, recent industry consolidation, the soil and/or climate, high land prices, producer greed/pride, the three tier distribution system, or the consumer as chump.

Swirl. Spit. Discuss. And while you’re at it, let us know your favorite American wines under $10–or even cast the net wider to include wines under $15 if under $10 is too hard. Maybe in a future post we’ll do a low-cost throwdown, domestic versus imports.