Quite an unusual combination for the Balkans, since Syrah is fairly rare in the region. Skovin is probably trying to follow the world commercial trends with this Syrah Cabernet Sauvignon combination, and it’s not doing a bad job. Syrah brings in the spiciness and the earthy taste, which brings memories of those strong South African tastes of Syrah wines. Cabernet softeness it a bit, so overall it’s a nice wine, but distinctively dryer than the famous Australian Syraz-Cabernet’s.

Rating: 6/10
Price: 400 RSD (5 euro)
Retailer: Super Vero

Technorati Tags: Macedonian Wine, Skovin, Shiraz, Syrah, Syrah Cabernet

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).

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I’ve been thinking these past weeks about how to post a number of reviews I have in my Evernote tasting log. After experimenting with different formats I think I have arrived at a good starting point that will be refined as I go through your feedback and by just posting reviews. Since wineries have sampled more than they ever have over the past few months, many of these reviews will be disclosed as such and this got me thinking about a more formal disclosure about how I taste and review wines.

When I started 4 and a half years ago I bought all my wines at retail. I still buy a fair amount today and these wines are not labeled after the retail price I paid. Since I live in a State that likes to tax and control the sale of alcohol to the extreme, your retail price will most likely be lower. All samples provided for review are labeled after the winery suggested retail price with the “/sample” tag. For the rare case of wines tasted in tasting rooms, wine events or trade tastings I will be using a new tag, “/tasting”, to denote that I have tasted under these conditions. I usually do not post these reviews as I will be tasting a number of wines in the, “sniff, taste, spit,” routine. Wines I especially like will be tasted twice before I make notes. Most of the notes posted here with this tag will be in more controlled winery tasting room or barrel cellar conditions.

I think these disclosures are important to the reader as it shows how long I have spent with each wine before writing down my impressions. For all samples and wines bought at retail this is typically over the course of 2-3 days, in controlled conditions with and without food. After tasting, the bottles are topped with inert gas to prevent oxidation. Notes written at tastings are 2-3 minute snapshots of wines which tends to favor the most concentrated and aromatic wines which is why I typically don’t post those reviews. Usually I pick up bottles of the wines I like at tastings to taste later at home. Unless I make it clear in the review none of the wines are tasted blind. As samples accumulate from the same varietal, I will do more blind tastings and indicate this in my notes.

There are a smattering of scales used on reviews here over the years. I used a 20 point scale (1-10 with half point increments) for a while before converting to the 100-point scale (using Robert Parker’s method). Over the past several months I have exclusively used a 5-star scale I proposed for bloggers some time ago and plan to continue to use this scale going forward. I really don’t like putting a numerical rating on wines but it does provide the reader with some context even if highly subjective. I will also start posting all reviews on Snooth and linking back to each review here to help readers find these wines.

Finally, I have no formal wine education other than reading books and tasting wines on a nearly daily basis since 1982. While Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule might suggest I have reached some sort of expert status in evaluating wine I, like other tasters, still have a lot to learn. My intention is to continue to taste as many wines as I can exploring new varieties and regions and share what I like here. It’s really as simple as that.

Let me know if you have any questions and check out my code of ethics and samples policy posted elsewhere on the site.

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.

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

• Open that Bottle Night
• WBW#44 - Cabernet Franc
• N.V. Alvear Montilla-Moriles Amontillado Carlos VII
• Osborne Wines and Tasting Notes
• And we’re back to our Regularly scheduled program!

Dulka is one of the most famous wine producing families in the town of Sremski Karlovci, near Novi Sad in Vojvodina. They produce wine since 1920 and have won a handful of awards at the Novi Sad agricultural fair throughout the years. Apart from producing wine, this familiy also produces bermet and brandies of highest qualities.

They have just recently started growing Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2005 is their second vintage. However, this wine is quite rich in both aroma and taste, much richer and deeper than other pure Cabernets around. The color is dark ruby red, the nose rich, so reminiscent of forests and the flavours are those of forest fruit and chocolate. It’s a good wine, can be enjoyed on it’s own.

Score: 8/10
Price: 540 RSD (?6.5)
Retailer: Rodi? MB, Airport City, Belgrade

Technorati Tags: Wine, Serbian Wine, Vojvodina, Sremski Karlovci, Novi Sad, Bermet

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

Pulpit Rock Brink Family Pinotage 2006

This is a monster. Powerful nose, powerful palate and powerful dark ruby colour. Which I like at times but something is not quite in balance here. There is a pungent, smoky quality that is burning my senses and I'm picking up too much sulpher which I believe I'm sensitive to. Some black fruit coming through, nice firm tannins and a bitter finish.

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.

Reader Dag from Norway (Oslo rep-re-sents!) poses a question about Eiswein:

"May I raise a question after a discussion we had in Luxembourg recently, about icewein.

Must be picked at minus 7 degrees and pressed while still frozen.

But, I was once told that there is also something else happening to the wine stock at minus 7. That some “elements� are withdrawn from the grape during this freezing process, which also contributes to the divine taste of eiswein. Therefore, real eiswein should/must be made this way ??

Have you heard about this process and which elements are withdrawn ??

Hope you have the answer.

Eager to hear from you.

Best regards from an eiswein lover in Norway."

Well, Dag.  Allow me to first refer you to a fun article I wrote a few years ago called, "Ripeness or Ruin."  It is my understanding that the divine taste of Eiswein is derived from the fact that the extract is devoid of most, if not all, water (since it's frozen).  Thus the extract is fruit-essence goodness (sugars, -ols, etc.), which apparently ferments slower than typical must.  Perhaps the combo of less/no water and slower fermentation adds to the otherworldly flavor of Eiswein.

Any Eis-experts out there care to chime in?