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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
“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.
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.
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?
The perfect vacation, driving through the French countryside, stopping at the little mere et pere farms and wineries along the way, seeing how the pastoral half lives… This is the daydream of France that exists in the minds of many AMericans, a dream in perilous danger amidst the modernization of France and the shunning of traditionalists [...]
A 300 year history permeates Vergelegen; one of South Africa's most prestigious, reknown and visited wineries in the Cape. The original homestead was built in 1700; originally a barren wilderness it was transformed into a vibrant farm with fruit orchards, orange groves, oak trees, vines, cattle and sheep. Passing through a succession of owners the estate was eventually purchased by Anglo American Farms in 1987. The last 21 years have seen a renaissance.
It is a wonderful spot for visitors; even if you have only a passing interest in wine - there's the oldest oak tree in Africa (a hollow Old English Oak believed to be 300 years old) and gardens aplenty (rose, herb, camellia, fynbos, hydrangea). The homestead is open to visitors and is full of classical Cape Dutch furniture and there are picnic areas too (although you don't bring your own food but buy pre-packed boxes at the estate) and, for posher-nosh, the Lady Philips Restaurant.
We were there for the wines though. A pouring of the Sauvignon Blanc was served alongside fresh oysters - to general acclaim of my compatriots, but not moi as I 'don't do' oysters. But my 'line fish' in the Lady Philips restaurant, later, was beautifully moist and accompanied the lightly oaked Vergelegen Chardonnay 2008 superbly [picture].
Review0.3 Wine Tasting Note: Vergelegen Sauvignon Blanc, 2008, Western Cape, South Africa. [More: Adegga / Snooth] 97% Sauvignon with the remainder being Semillon. Lovely crisp, frim fruit, fresh. Touches of fig, gooseberry and a pleasant leafy-ness (straw, green peppers, peas) Alcohol 13.5%. Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 88/100 [3.5 out of 5]
Review0.3 Wine Tasting Note: Vergelegen Chardonnay, 2008, Western Cape, South Africa. [More: Adegga / Snooth] Medium bodied by design, 60% in oak giving a subtle oak-complexity, not too heavy either (medium bodied). Pear, cream, apple flavours; a typicla Chardonnay. Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 88/100 [3.5 out of 5]
Review0.3 Wine Tasting Note: Vergelegen Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, 2008, Stellenbosch, South Africa [More on Adegga / Snooth] A single vineyard wine - the 2 hectare vinyard on the lower Schaapenberg. More complexity here with a little lees contact giving a creaminess to the flavour and a more rounded texture. Floral touches enliven the herbaceous palate. Minerals, peach stones and citrus play around too. Beautiful. Alcohol 14.5%. Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 92/100 [4 out of 5]
Review0.3 Wine Tasting Note: Vergelegen Cabernet Reserve, 2005, Stellenbosch, South Africa. Price: £9.99 [More on Adegga / Snooth] Cabernet dominates here (91%) with Cabernet Franc and Merlot splitting the remainder. Superb berry aroma - very, very Bordeaux-like. Savoury depths, touches of herbs. Firm palate, but smooth until the great burst of tannin led blackfruits hits the tastebuds. The grapes were selected from Vergelegen's Stonepine, Rondekop, Rooiland and Kopland Vineyards. Alcohol 14.5%. Age worthy; a 2004 was also sampled. Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 92/100 [4 out of 5]
There isn?t a day that goes by when I don?t think of Abruzzo from my first visit there in the early 1980?s, when they adopted me as one of their native sons, to the years of friendship and collegiality among the many winemakers there.
The Gran Sasso, the Great Spirit Mountain that looks over the area, is as much a product of the trembling earth of the millions of the year, as the people now trying to rebuild their lives.
The land oozes soul; the grapes burst their energy forth for lively wines. When one hears about all the tankers of Montepulciano that move north at night to vivify weaker wines in the north, this is an unsung hero of a region.
My friends at Illuminati, not trampled by the crashing bricks or rumbling dirt, but none the less affected by their neighbor?s cries of pain. Over the years their wines have changed, like their labels, but always for the better. Today they are a success story for Abruzzo. Some of their neighboring wineries near Aquila are searching for their way through back to the future.
Some day they will open bottles of sparkling wine to celebrate a gathering, a success, a landmark.
For now, we remember those whom we have given up to the Greater Power.
How bittersweet it is to be so blessed to live in Italy and then have to die and say goodbye to all of that beauty.
Rocket Science 2004 Proprietary Red $45 Wine Label says: “Son, your 21 years old. It’s time you learned the art of wine tasting.” “I already know how you taste wine,” replied the sure young man. “This wine has an inky, purple hue with a sensational purity, flavors of a blackberry liqueur with a creme de cassis intensity and [...]
In an age of backlash against big-business agriculture and of increasing value placed on local, sustainable living, the phenomenon known as urban farming flourishes. From tiny planters on the balconies of chic lofts to reclaimed industrial lots, city dwellers in some of America's larger urban centers are finding joy and sustenance in growing their own organic food.
My friend, winemaker Bryan Harrington, has planted Pinot Noir in several places within the San Francisco city limits over the years and I know a couple of people who have a few vines in their back yards in the city, which they use to make tiny quantities of wine.
Urban viticulture may have just entered a new era, however, as a substantial commercial vineyard has been installed in the city limits of London. A joint venture between a local horticultural college and the urban farm that provided the land, Forty Hall Vineyards hopes to produce a commercial product in time for the 2012 London Olympics.
I wish them luck, if only because I'd love to see more of these types of experiments that can bring wine that much closer to everyone's back yard. With a little more global warming, I might just be able to put a couple of vines in mine.
Vinrock has been growing grapes in McLaren Vale for 30 years though traditionally most of the grapes have been sold to Tatachilla. They now make wine under their own name too. You need a subscription to The Wine Front to see this part of the post
I’m a big fan of brevity, probably why Twitter suits me so well. Here: Paul Ford’s 1000+ 6-word reviews of songs by bands attending SXSW. I don’t really care about most of these bands, but the sheer number of bon mots in this little document is worth a scan. For example: “Finally, Swedish bluegrass I can [...]
The wine reviews below are based on the following scale:
XXX = Exceptionally Cool
XX = Fo' Shizzle (Highly Recommended)
X = Gets It Done (Recommended)
No thatās not a typo. There are wineries in North Carolina. Really. More than 21 of āem. And thank God. I was in Durham visiting my father and needed to write the trip off.
To expedite matters I emailed a local wine writer/friend in Durham to get a better idea on who/where to visit. He gave me the āfab fourā as theyāre known locally. I contacted said four wineries, and three decided it was worth their time and effort to actually email me back. So hereās your itinerary for your one day in NC wine country:
Start at Childress Vineyards. Not too early. Time it so you can taste, tour and then eat lunch in their deli/restaurant that overlooks the wine cellar. If the name (Childress) sounds familiar it should. Itās owned by Richard Childress of auto racing fame. (The guyās got his own museum forchristsakes!) Anywho, the winery could easily be transplanted to Napa Valley. Normally thatād be an insult (to the winery), but itās a beautiful facility complete with large tasting room (read: tchotsky emporium) and comfortable deli/restaurant.
Here are the wines to look for:
X Childress
2006 Sauvignon Blanc
Barrel Select $19
Clean, crisp and floral, nice balance and nice finish.
X Childress
2005 Chardonnay
Barrel Select $15
Nice fruit, good balance and a touch of butter and oak.
X Childress
2005 Chardonnay
Reserve $20
More butter and oak than above, but still has nice, crisp acids and a nice lingering finish.
X+ Childress
2006 Riesling
Barrel Select $19
Off-dry, classic riesling aromas and flavors, and a decent lingering finish.
XX Childress
2006 Sangiovese
Ginani Vineyards $17
Nice spicy red fruit, a decent amount of oak/wood, and real character on the finish.
X Childress
2005 Cabernet Franc
Barrel Select $17
Nice red and black fruit, light earth, some floral elements, and a lot of oak which makes it sticky on the finish.
X+ Childress
2005 Cabernet Franc
Reserve $25
More concentrated than the barrel select, a bit chalky though and a little sticky on the finish. Needs time.
X Childress
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
Barrel Select $17
Straight forward cab, with clean fruit and a nice finish.
X Childress
2005 Merlot
Barrel Select $17
A bit more character than the cab ā more spice ā with hints of celery in the smooth finish.
X+ Childress
2004 Syrah
Barrel Select $17
Good black and blue fruit, some spice and a velvety lingering finish.
XXX Childress
2006 Late Harvest Viognier
Select Berry $25
Very icewine-like, concentrated, silky smooth and a wonderful lingering finish.
After lunch, head west/northwest to Westbend Vineyards. In contrast to Childress, this is a quaint setting with more European-style wines.
Nowā¦ Westbend wines are very European. Iām not crazy about European wines (read: earthy, not fruit forward). Iām a new world palate kinda guy. So thereās not a whole lot I can honestly say I liked here. BUT WAIT. If you like Euro-centric wines ā and there are a number of you who do ā please go to Westbend and try their wines. And donāt skip the Port. Itās pretty tasty.
Last, but not least, head south to RayLen Vineyards. A marriage of Childress and Westbend, the facility boasts a comfortable tasting room and scenic views from its porch.
Here are the wines to try at RayLen:
X RayLen
2005 Chardonnay
No Oak $12
Fresh fruit, crisp acids and a nice lingering finish.
X RayLen
2005 Chardonnay
Barrel $14
No overly oaky (which is nice), a bit more concentrated than above, and a nice crisp finish.
RayLen
2006 Chardonnay
SMV $15
I only mention this wine because there are a lot of you that still think chardonnay should taste like oak and butter. Get over it!
X RayLen
2006 Shiraz $12
Nice black and blue fruit, some smoke, and a bit sticky on the finish.
X RayLen
2005 Merlot $13
Red fruit, plum, a little woody, with a nice round body and finish.
X RayLen
2006 Merlot $13
A bit more intense than above, but still still and chewy on the finish.
X RayLen
2006 Cabernet Franc $15
Nice fruit, a little stiff and a bit chalky on the finish. Needs time.
X+ RayLen
2006 Category 5 $18
Best wine in the group: ripe fruit, smooth body and soft lingering finish.
Vintage Note: Quality of vintages from 2004+ get better with each year (excluding 2008). So check it out for yourself. See if you agree with the winemakers.
When in Lexington, you gots ta stop at a barbecue restaurant in town. Unfortunately, most only serve sweet tea. The exception: The Barbecue House which serves beer and wine.
Mocksville
Ketchie Creek
844 Valley Rd
Mocksville, NC 27028
(336) 751-9147
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?
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
I have long been an admirer of Susana Balbo and her partner in crime, Pedro Marchevsky. If you are not entirely familiarized with what they do, stated simply?they are Argentina?s artisan wine power couple. For one, Susana Balbo is one of Argentina?s most celebrated enologists, as well as the current President of Wines of Argentina. Her husband and partner, Pedro Marchevsky, holds a distinguished faculty position at Mendoza?s Universidad Nacional de Cuyo.
The most important thing to consider, however, is that they are together blazing a path for Argentine wines that in my view at least, all New World wine producers should closely follow. Through their joint Dominio del Plata winery, as well as their own labels (BenMarco, Crios and Nosotros), Susana and Pedro craft highly expressive, idiosyncratic wines that represent intelligent values at several price points. The ethos underlying their production centers on extracting a faithful imprint of the Argentine terroirs they work with (various Mendoza and Salta microclimates), and in the process, stating a very distinctive point of view in the process. If we regard this point of view alongside Sartre?s assertion that no action lacks deliberate political connotations, then in Susana and Pedro?s wines, we can discern what a amounts to a categorical refusal to pursue one-note, Mendozan imitations of classic old world styles. Nevertheless, I feel that we should step back for a moment to consider what this winemaking philosophy actually implies in Argentina, as well as what it can imply across various New World contexts.
The horizon has changed dramatically throughout the whole of Argentina?s wine panorama during the last few decades. In my grandparents? time, which does not span so many decades ago from now, well before the age of origin-branded marketing and the great race to export en masse, the consumer?s range of choices in the country?s internal market closely mirrored Australia and California?s. People used to pick up bottles of imaginatively labeled ?Chablis,? ?Bourgogne? and ?Bordeaux,? among several other, imitative yet unflattering possibilities. If during these times, one was naive enough to ponder whether the quality of an Argentine wine would ever be prized or sought-after by anyone outside of the country, the reaction would have been marked with a great deal of sarcasm and condescension. Furthermore, to have proposed that the Mendozan producer should stray away from the classic paradigm (generally Bordeaux), would have only elicited further ridicule.
When reconsidering the contemporary scene, however, I realize that it has been the dedicated labor of visionaries such as Susana and Pedro who have shown other producers the way in terms of crafting wines that convey true expression of their origin and individuality. Ironically and much to the chagrin of the global style homogenization evangelists (see Mondovino), Pedro and Susana?s wines have garnered considerable acclaim, all without having had to sacrifice authenticity and go the way of taking the advice of Michel Rolland and other ?Flying Winemakers.? (Once again, I cite Mondovino as a seminal source for a more complete background on the phenomenon).
Quite sadly, there is an large market presence of Argentine, as well as other New World wines that conform to the global, homogenized style predicated by such ?consultants? all over the world?s major export markets. Despite it being quite easy for a wine producer to be seduced by their rationale, I have no reservation, as an Argentine, in regarding their advice and agenda on par with that of the IMF and World Bank?s neoliberal guidelines that, along with some already shaky Argentine leadership, lead to economic ruin in the past few decades. Why do I equate these types of recommendations under the same analogy? Very simply put, the wine style homogenization gurus as well as the failed neoliberal trade models (FF to min. 18) are both centered on the faulty notion of a one-way street relationship between the supplier and the demands of its clientele. In the context of Argentina?s political economy policies, the IMF and World Bank used the leverage of illegitimately acquired debt (military dictatorship) to enslave the nation, at all costs, to serving the specific demands of its trade partners. In turn, when we consider this type of mentality in the context of the wine trade, in turn, should people like Rolland have their way, Argentina?s producers would theoretically be well-off, though incapable of producing and exporting actual Argentine wine anymore. The ironic, Twilight-Zone-esque quality of this scenario would ultimately amount to a strange relation of servitude where the production goals of a nation with an actual wine heritage would largely be dictated by those from nations with, generally, no wine heritages to speak of, where wine is simply a luxury good no different than a designer handbag. How ironic?a world in which a boring, upper middle-class Japanese or American management type with a cooler-wine cellar would be able lecture me on what the wines from my country are supposed to taste like. It is when considering these grim scenarios and quasi-realities when I am most grateful for Susana and Pedro?s example.
In light of the above considerations, Susana and Pedro?s achievements are unbelievable when considering the pressures of the points-based, often fashion-inspired, consumer manipulation machine that New World producers have had to contend with in the most rewarding export markets they seek entry into. This unfortunate reality rewards certain producers for very particular styles (mostly ?easy drinking,? globalized ones), regardless of origin, resulting in the hyping and artificially inflated and increasingly unaffordable prices for those wines. It is precisely when one considers the ramifications of the complete picture, the whole cycle, when one starkly realizes that Susana and Pedro?s wines truly represent an exception to the rule. Their great international success verges on the allegorical because it can serve as a viable example, yet transcends mere irony and luck; it represents a new possibility that completely changes the way in which this game can be played. Think about it: A New World winemaker sustainably farms fruit, handcrafts expressive, elegant wines that score incredibly well with the wine press, as well as with consumers? pocketbooks. Once uncorked at home, the wine itself transports the consumer to Lujįn de Cuyo and entirely informs their impressions of that land, not a ?consulting winemaker.?
Upon tasting these wines, one comes away with a sense that this manner of production can truly lift Argentina beyond the threshold of being considered a classic region into something that would well approach more of a critical consensus?and amazingly, at no cost to the country?s image or integrity. The chapters of our national narrative that precede these times, from the 1970?s onwards, in particular, have truly injured our self-image as Argentines, a precarious amor propio. I feel that winemakers such as Susana and Pedro are a credit to our amor propio, conveying the real potential of Argentine wines that we want those outside of our borders to perceive. Furthermore, wines such as these showcase much more than the potential that Argentine wine can achieve. They forebode, in no uncertain terms, a new paradigm that any New World producer can emulate?a new, better way from which producers can achieve both financial success as well as renown, honoring the terroir prominently instead of relegating it to a secondary postcard-like image on the label.
The bottom line that the wine lover should ultimately come away with? Susana and Pedro?s wines are real winemakers? wines. The following selection that I enthusiastically recommend represents unmissable values at three distinct price points, from recent vintages.
Susana Balbo and Pedro Marchevsky Playlist:
*2006 Crios de Susana Balbo Syrah-Bonarda?This is a gorgeous 50-50 blend of Syrah and Bonarda. This is the most affordable of my selections (at about $11). Loved the intense aroma of black raspberries. Here?s my review on Snooth, to save you some reading.
*2006 BenMarco Cabernet Sauvignon?An indisputable bargain, even steal in the $15-$20 range, depending on the retailer. A blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and soft, supple Malbec stepping in as the other 15%. My favorite of the trio here, this is one of the best Mendoza Cabernet-lead blends out there. Pedro?s Cabernet is a must-try bargain and full of sophisticated balance and expression. Insanely intricate, layers of depth, blackberry, spice, cedar and concentration where the oak accompanies the band instead of playing at a higher volume.
*2005 BenMarco Expresivo?If you are tired of Bordeaux-themed New World red blends that all seem to be made in a uniform style, I heartily recommend this wine. In a nutshell, the Expresivo represents a master class in blending by Professor Marchevsky. Again, I have also rated this one on Snooth. This one retails in the $35-$45 range, depending on where you can get the best deal available.
Tong: Sounds like my kind of wine magazine – not full of adverts for cigars and wine ‘investment’ funds. I must get hold of a copy sometime. Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal, but it will revert to ’subscription’ in a few days, so read it now! a ‘wine magazine seeks discerning palates’
The judges have narrowed the field down to three finalists. To the Juice Crew members: Please vote for your favorite label by sending a message to me by 5 December. I will tally up the votes and announce the winning design shortly thereafter. Thanks to all the contestants!
1999 Frédéric Esmonin, Ruchottes-Chambertin Medium, medium-plus colour – paler than the Mazy. The nose starts quite dark and oaky – some dark toast notes that take at least 30 minutes to lift. Redder, less dense fruit is the result, though the dark oak slowly turns to make a nice coffee ‘coating’. Nicely [...]
BUYING AND STORING OLIVE OIL
Choose containers that keep out light: dark glass, ceramic, even metal. With pricey oils, taste before you buy, and look for seal-of-approval initials such as DOP (Italy), DO (Spain) or COOC (California). Keep your oil tightly sealed; store it in a cool, dark place; and use it within two years (some say 18 months) of harvest, or one year after opening. Oh, and that plastic Jug Oā Oil from the C word? Donāt go there. Thereās inexpensive, and then thereās swill.
WHATāS YA FLAVA?
Fruity, peppery, buttery, appley, grassy, herbal, nutty? Youād think you were talking about wine. Thereās actually similar flavor chemistry going on in olive oil and wine. Early-harvest olive oils taste greener and more pungent, like an herbaceous sauv blanc. The longer the hang time, the riper the fruit, the smoother the mouthfeel, the mellower the flavors. Late-harvest oils come across more like a full-tilt chard. Both can be great; itās just a matter of what you like and how you plan to use it. (Uh, you are gonna use it, right? You want to decorate your kitchen counter, buy a bonsai.)
GOT AN EXTRA VIRGIN?
The terms āvirginā and āextra virginā really are more than just sexy sounding hype: they measure the percentage of harsh-tasting oleic acid in the oil (lower is better), which can translate to quality. āExtra virginā oils must have less than 1 percent acidity (many clock in below .5 percent) and require as much care in growing and production as boutique wines. Oils with up to 2 percent acidity earn the āvirginā tag. Forget the sluts, er, oils over 3 percent. And also forgo ālightā olive oil: the only thing itās low on is flavor.
IN THE KITCHEN, AT THE TABLE, ALL AROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH
Thereās a reason for the large variety of oils: different oils suit different purposes. Think basic wine pairing: match light with light and heavy with heavy. Use subtle oils on mild salad greens or as bread dips, or drizzle a bit on fish, chicken or simple desserts like fruit salad, pound cake or biscotti. Big oils can stand up to red meat - try the Tuscan trick of finishing off a thick grilled steak with a slosh of spicy, robust oil. Better yet, brush the oil on with a rosemary branch while the steak sizzles.
Sometimes the best cooking is no cooking at all. Thereās nothing simpler or more satisfying than setting out three or four bottles of oil at the dinner table, along with your chosen vino, some good bread and a cheese or three, before, during and/or after your meal. (If everyone wears black you can feel really superior and Eurotrashy.)
TIPS FOR TASTINGS
Tasting olive oil is a lot like tasting wine: you can stick to one country (Spain, Greece), one region (Tuscany, Sonoma), or one varietal (manzanilla, arbequina) and compare six or eight side by side. Or you can taste a random assortment, and maybe throw in a flavored oil that has citrus or herbs blended in. Add some cubes of chewy bread, little bowls or paper/plastic tasting cups and some easy-drinking wine. Kick back. Speak to each other in Spanish. Wait for Penelope Cruz to show up.
FOR MORE INFO
Check out The Flavors of Olive Oil by Deborah Krasner (Simon & Schuster, 2002) and the Web sites of the International Olive Oil Council (http://www.internationaloliveoil.org) and the California Olive Oil Council (http://www.cooc.com). Or just Google āolive oilā and click around the 50 million or so sites that come up.
OLIVE OIL TASTING NOTES
XX. Antara 100% Arbequina Olives Tarragona - Spain $16/750ml The Ellen DeGeneres of olive oils - easygoing, smooth and slightly nutty. Close to XXX.
XX. Nunez de Prado Extra Virgin Family Estates Crop; Baena - Spain $24/500ml Chris Rock hosting the Oscars - dark, intense and zingers start to finish (but you know what youāre gettinā).
XX. Caroliva Extra Virgin Estate Grown and Bottled; Andalusia - Spain $20/500ml Think a big, buttery chard on steroids. Rich gold color, soft, round and juicy. Close to XXX.
XX. Columela Picual and Hojiblanca Olives Andalucia - Spain $19/500ml Gael Garcia Bernalās eyes - big, deep and dark. Touch oā pepper on the finish. Close to XXX.
XX. Gasull Arbequina Olives Catalonia - Spain $22/500ml Cool deep-green bottle with a long slim neck. Purrs like Scarlett Johansson in a Ferrari: soft and elegant with a long, smooth finish.
X. Jordan Hand-Picked, Extra Virgin, From Italian Varietals Alexander Valley - Sonoma $25/375ml Kind of a bait-and-switch: starts out sweet and fruity, then morphs into a porcupine by the time it smacks your tonsils. Close to XX.
X. LāEstornell Extra Virgin, Organic Arbequina Olives Catalonia - Spain $15/375ml Like Erica Christensen in most of her movies: all sweetness and light in the opening scene, but she grabs you by the throat in the last act. Close to XX.
X. Molino de Leoncio Gomez Extra Virgin, Unfiltered, Picudo and Hojiblanca Olives Cordoba - Spain $11/500ml Gotta hunt for the flavors at first, then they do the Big Bang in the back of your mouth. Close to XX.
XXX. Pons Extra Virgin, Arbequina Olives Catalonia - Spain $16/473ml Yo-Yo Ma playing a cello concerto - rich, deep and resonant. Pale gold, medium body, with layers of fresh apple, almond and spice flavors, and a nice little kick on the finish.
XX. Poplar Hill 2005 Extra Virgin Spring Mountain - Napa Valley $20/375ml Light, airy, silky, delicate and balanced; buttery, hazelnutty and smoooooth. An obvious late-picked oil (check the harvest date!) that deserves nothing more than a chunk of good bread and a pinch of salt. Close to XXX.
XX. Skipstone Ranch Melinaās Harvest, November 2004, Extra Virgin Alexander Valley - Sonoma County $25/375ml Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby - brawny, punchy, ends with a surprising knockout.
XX. Soler Romero 100% Picual Olives Andalusia - Spain $18/500ml Why does this taste like nectarines, white pepper and grass? Starts fruity and sweet, then turns tangy on the finish. Slather some on sliced oranges with red onion slivers, lemon juice and salt.
X. Unio 100% Arbequina Olives Siurana - Spain $16/750ml The NZ sauv blanc of olive oils - spicy and green start to finish. Makes a great pesto with basil, anchovies and good parmigiano reggiano. Close to XX.
X. Zoe Extra Virgin Castilla-La Mancha - Spain $9/1-Litre Tin A tad rustic and rough, but a good value. Great for stir-frying veggies. Close to XX.
Ever get one of those annoying scam emails asking you to accept stolen credit card numbers and send your product overseas? Who are these scam artists? Who are their victims? Can they be stopped? Dover Canyon Winery has just published a five-part series of articles called Inside a Wine Scam. The series has resulted in FBI subpoenas for the operators accepting money transfers at a remote location in Oklahoma. In a surprising twist, the 'front man' for the scam may herself be a victim of 'work from home' fraud.
Every time Spring rolls around, I find myself thinking wistfully of Argentina. I spent a wonderful three weeks there a few years ago just after the harvest eating, drinking, and generally appreciating everything about the country. Now, especially as our family budget gets tighter, I reminisce about amazing dinners for $25 and great bottles of wine for $15.
So I dug through my notes a little just for nostalgia's sake and found a really nice wine that I discovered while I was there, but didn't end up writing about for some reason. I had asked the sommelier at Cabańa Las Lilas to recommend a Malbec that I likely couldn't find easily in the United States, and ended up with this gem from Adagio.
Sure enough, when I got home, I searched far and wide to find it, and couldn't, at least not on the Internet. Which may be why it took me so long to review this wine. I hope you'll forgive me for waxing enthusiastic about it in the absence of my ability to provide you with an easy way to get a bottle.
A joint project between four entreprenurial friends, Adagio is located in Mendoza's Lujan de Cuyo appellation or "department" as it is locally known. Of the 17 different departments in the province of Mendoza, Lujan de Cuyo has the distinction of being the only DOC designated growing area (and one of only three in the entire country). Located in a region known as the Northern Oasis, an odd name considering the region is technically a desert, this appellation sits in the foothills of the Andes where it receives very little rainfall and extremely large differences between day and night temperatures, two key characteristics that make for excellent growing conditions. Most vineyards lie in a relatively wide band between 1500 and 4000 feet in altitude.
There seem to be two primary stylistic directions for higher-end Malbecs made in Mendoza: those which lean towards the earth, and those which lean towards the fruit. The former have a leatheriness to them, and more tannic structure, while the latter are rounder and more polished, with more characteristics of California Cabernet, including sweet oak tannins. Adagio's wines are in the former camp.
This wine sits at the top of Adagio's portfolio of wines, and represents their best efforts every year. The grapes for the wine are hand picked into small boxes, which are then sorted carefully when they reach the winery. With the boxes containing lower quality grapes relegated to other wines, the clusters are then destemmed and the grapes sorted individually to remove anything but the most perfect fruit.
About half of the grapes are crushed, and the rest are poured into the fermentation tank whole, where they all soak together for several days at low temperature before fermentation is allowed to begin. After fermentation, the wine ages in new French oak for about 14 months before bottling, and then for another 12 months in bottle before release.
Tasting Notes: This wine is a dark garnet in the glass with a slight cloudy opacity that hints at the lack of filtering or fining. The nose has subtle, restrained aromas of dark wet earth, dust, and a graphite-like minerality. As it sits for an hour or so, the nose begins to show more cassis aromas, which, along with earthy black cherry flavors make up the fruit flavors on the palate. The more air the wine gets, the more the cassis begins to show. In the mouth, the wine is smooth and round with very well integrated tannins. A hint of leather enters the finish, which is long and with singleminded intensity similar to the wine's flavors. This focus is both to the benefit and detriment of the wine, which has a very distinct personality, but is missing a certain depth of complexity that would take it from being an excellent wine and push it into the realm of stellar. Having said as much, this is one of the best Malbecs I have tried. Based on the wine's performance over the course of a day or so, I'd suggest this wine will improve with 5 or so years in the bottle.
Food Pairing: I'll save you the trouble of ever asking an Argentine what to eat with your bottle of Malbec. There is only one answer, with many variations. I chose a rib-eye, grilled to perfection, accompanied by fried potatoes.
Overall Score: between 9 and 9.5
How Much?: $30
This wine is sadly not available for purchase on the Internet.
This is a premium Montenegrin red wine made from the indigenous Vranac grape. The Reserve is produced from particulary good years, in small quantities, aged in barrels for several years. It is also aged in bottles for one year before being released to the market.
This is a dry wine, with a pleasant fruity nose. However, the impressions are far lower than it’s price. If you want to experience the Vranac variety the Montenegrin way, go for a regular Planta?e Vranac or their Vranac Pro Corde. They are much cheaper and the experience is almost the same.
Wines of the Vranac variety are produced throughout the region, apart from Montenegro, you can find them in Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Herzegovina.
In the wine and food business we are a little like social anthropologists. There is something about the search for the best pizza, the ripest peaches, the home cured salumi and the perfect little café in the neighborhood. When it really gets down to it, the fancy wine list and the latest trend, from molecular gastronomy to collision cuisine, what I really want is a great bowl of pasta with a bottle of wine that I can enjoy and afford to drink regularly.
Easy enough to find in Italy. But we live in America. Ok, so we take it home and do it there. Yes, we can. But, but, but we all want to go out and have a nice time. A little recreation time at the table. Maybe that is what?s wrong with the way we look at dining in America. It started out as a special occasion and chefs and restaurateurs just keep trying to outdo the next guy. I see it all the time. Out in the suburbs a shopping center has erected a building to look like a gambling casino, complete with the fancy limo in front. The message is, ?You cannot get this at home. Don?t even try. Sit back let us take care of you. Relax. You deserve it.?
Is that the direction Americans are going these days?
So where are we going? Everywhere you look, you see the words local and sustainable and organic and artisanal. Good ideas that have become buzz words to bandy about in building a brand that has no center. What good is it to get grass fed beef if the line cook over salts it? Organic peaches that find themselves in a perverse ménage ą trois with blood oranges and jalapeno chutney? Why?
Talking with a couple of food journalists recently and the idea of the young chef came up. And the question was, ?Does the young chef have anything to say with their food if they haven?t gotten enough life experience to be interesting with their creations?? Dining out wasn?t intended to be a reality show (unless it?s Hell?s Kitchen). The little CAFÉ sign I found on the street at midnight in Old East Dallas, oh how I would have loved to go back in time and see what was going on in that kitchen. This time, culinary archeology. And I find in the conversations around the table with friends, here and in Italy, we are looking for that wonderful Carbonara, that simply perfect Margherita, the espresso that one finds so easily in gas stations in Italy. Why is it so darn hard?
Wine lists. Working with several clients over the last few weeks, and really finding some very different opinions. But more and more I am seeing restaurant people rethinking the way they serve wine in their places. Less popular is buying a wine for $17 and reselling it for $65. The wave I have been seeing, in Houston, in Dallas and Austin, is that same wine on a blackboard for $39. You know at $39 a party of four will buy two bottles. At $65 they might nurse that bottle of wine. So the establishment sells one bottle and had $48 in gross profit. Selling two bottle for $39 and they have $44 to work with. A smaller profit? Yes. A happier clientele? Most assuredly. And most likely to return sooner. This is a wave that is coming from San Francisco, from Southern California, New York, and Texas is right there, too, with these ideas. This is exciting stuff for the wine producers back in Italy who have a storeroom full of wine right now.
Maybe that young couple who bought beer with their pizza or took it to-go to have with their Chianti at home can now have a reason to sit down in their neighborhood café and have wine instead of beer, dine-out instead of take-out. Maybe dining out might just come back in.
Going against the better advice of my high school English and sex education teachers, this story starts with the climax. For anyone involved in wine, the three months from the end of August until the end of November are both the most exciting and the most frightening of the year. These three months dictate the final say in whether you happily learn that your wines will be served at the White House or whether you become the largest vinegar producer in your neighborhood. These are months of 60- to 80-hour work weeks (and many times more) that on one hand require complete control of the environment around you and on the other hand require you to give in completely to the whims of nature. These are months where all thoughts of family and friends dim in an ever growing purple haze as your sleep deprived mind attempts to reconcile the hundreds or thousands of details that'll make or break the next year of your life. This is Crush.
More specifically this is my accounting of Crush for David Coffaro Vineyards and Winery. This vineyard/winery is owned and operated by (take a big guess here) David Coffaro and I'm his assistant winemaker (i.e. only employee). This is the inside scoop of what we have to do in order to put a prime bottle of vino on your table. David Coffaro Vineyard and Winery consists of 20 acres of grapes that Dave planted in 1979 and a winery building that he's been operating since 1994. We make wines that are big and red; zinfandel, petite sirah, carignane, an "Estate Cuvee" (a blend of the previous grapes plus cabernet sauvignon) and a "Neighbors Cuvee" (our only non-estate wine whose blend changes from year to year). Like a sandblaster to Tammy Faye Baker's face, I hope to strip away the layers of overglamorized marketing rhetoric and highlight the best advice I ever got about becoming a winemaker -- "Don't do it!"
The excitement of crush takes place on two separate but intertwined stages that seem to spin and twist in independent motion. The first of these stages is the vineyard. The 20 acres of vines we grow is minuscule by industry standards (There are certainly vineyards that are smaller but we are definitely of the side of pretty-darn-tiny). The first job we have in the vineyard is to wait for the grapes to turn from a rather pretty translucent pink color into an intense dark purple/black color. This process is called veraison. Once the color changes we're in the picking ballpark and ready to play the game. The second step is doing a large amount of grape sampling from each block of vines. It's amazing how grapes will vary from one small block to another, even if they're only 10-100 feet away. For about a month before the actual harvest, my job is to pick a representative sampling of all the grapes we grow and monitor them for sugar content. In general we're looking for a level of 24 to 25 percent sugar, which we measure as 24 to 25 degrees Brix.
The Brix reading is only the second stage however. Knowing the sugar level lets you know the technical ripeness of the grapes but not their actual flavors. Somewhere in the early to mid-twenties (sugar level), grapes go through an incredible change of flavors that ultimately add to the complexity of flavors in the finished wine. This change can only be determined by tasting the grapes themselves. So during the final week before harvest Dave and I walk through every block and randomly snack on grapes to make sure they have the flavors we want. If the sugars are perfect but the flavors aren't there then we simply wait until they develop before picking. Once they do, Whamo!, it's time to wake up really damn early and pick some grapes!
Harvesting grapes is a demanding and sticky job. The grapes are about 25 percent sugar and as the workers dump their picking tubs into the half-tons bins, grape juice splashes everywhere. It's well worth the effort, however, because I get to drive a really cool tractor. Once the half-ton bins are full they are driven to the winery and weighed. From there they're taken, by forklift, into the winery and the grapes are put through a machine called a crusher/destemmer. Now, agricultural machine manufacturers are not very creative when it comes to naming their equipment. When I say we dump the grapes into a crusher/destemmer you can be well assured that the machine will probably crush (lightly) the grapes and destem then, doing very little if anything else. We then pump the destemmed/crushed grapes (a.k.a. "must") into a one-ton bin (again, no big guess on how much it holds). The must is then inoculated with yeast and the transformation into wine begins. [As a side note I should mention that this is specifically the process for making red wine. White wine is processed in a similar but distinctly different manner. I'll get into the whites later.]
The addition of yeast is technically a winemaking choice and not a requirement. Native yeasts, which accumulated on the grape skins in the vineyard, will naturally transform the grapes into wine. But most winemakers don't trust these native yeast strains for the same reason you don't let your crazy cousin Leroy baby-sit your kids -- you just don't know what might happen and, even though the results might be fine, it's just not worth taking the chance. Yeast contribute four things to the winemaking process: heat, alcohol carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfites. The heat and alcohol produced make it possible to adequately extract the flavors and characteristics from the grape skins (almost all of the character and all of the color of red wine comes from the skins being broken down). Alcohol acts as a solvent that extracts organic compounds in the grape skins and the heat aids in and speeds up the chemical reaction involved in fermentation.
The CO2 has a separate and interesting effect on the fermenting grape skins. As the CO2 is released by the yeast cells it catches in the grape skins and causes them to float to the surface of the fermentation bins. This forms a solid layer of covering the top of the bins like ice on a lake. This layer is called the "cap" and can get so thick in larger tanks that a full-grown person can walk across it without falling through. The cap, however, presents a small problem. Since most of red wine's character comes from the skins, having them separate from the juice during fermentation can be bad. This small problem is solved by either "punching down" or "pumping over" your bins or tanks. Punching down involves taking a stick-like device (a 2x4, garden hoe, etc.) and breaking up the cap while at the same time mixing it with the juice. Pumping over involves hooking up a pump to the bottom of the tank and pumping the juice over the top of the cap. These actions insure that the grape skins have enough opportunity to breakdown into the wine.
We monitor the fermenting bins at Coffaro constantly and record the residual sugar levels and temperatures at least once a day. When our measurements show that there's one percent sugar or less left in the wine we prepare the press. We use what's called a bladder Press (For $200, what item is inside this press?). The bladder press is a long cylinder made up of a perforated screen. We pump the fermented juice and skins into the press and rotate it while inflating the internal bladder. This is such an efficient form of pressing that when we remove the grape skins -- the squeeze-dried skins is now called pomace -- they are dry, warm and flaky. They serve no real further purpose and are dumped back into the vineyard as fertilizer.
The pressed wine is pumped from the press into a selection of barrels that we've pre-chosen dependent on the wine varietal and individual character it exhibits. At Coffaro we use six to 10 different cooperages, with barrels ranging from American, French and Hungarian oak. However, this doesn't mean we make "oaky" wine. Barrels serve two general purposes; the first is storage and aging; the second is imparting flavor. Barrels only contribute oak flavors to wine for the first two-to-three years of their life, then, after that, are considered "neutral." As storage containers they can be used for decades with the proper care. So, although all of our wines are barrel aged, we only use 20-25 percent new oak to contribute delicate oak flavors. (This percentage varies from winery to winery. Some use as much as 100 percent new oak, some don't use any depending on the varietals grown and the style of wine preferred by the winemaker.
Once the wine is in the barrel we inoculate it with a malo-lactic starter. All red wines and most whites go through a process called malo-lactic fermentation (ML). ML is a bacterial process that changes the malic acid that's naturally found in wine (it's the same acid that makes green apples taste tart) and changes it into lactic acid (the same acid found in milk). This process makes reds more chemically stable, and for white wines it adds flavor (i.e. that "buttery" flavor in most chardonnays). Now that this is done both the wine and the winemakers get a chance to take a short break and recuperate before it's time to start the whole process over again.
Next time we'll learn why they call cellar workers "rats."
Check out Brendan's "Harvest Diary -- A week in the life of Crush at David Coffaro Winery" at http://www.coffaro.com.
After years of struggling to prove itself to the rest of the world, it seems the California wine industry has finally arrived. There's no disputing the quality of California wines, and never before have they enjoyed a finer reputation. But at what price?
Somewhere in the uphill struggle to world-class status, the California wine industry lost a very important tradition. The French still have it. Bovine festivals still have it. Even garlic, cherry and apple growers still have it. But when autumn rolls around in California wine country, the folks are left empty-handed. Without representation. Without hope. Without...a queen!
Things weren't always this dark. In the 1950s and '60s, wine queens reigned over the California vineyards like welcome spring showers. Each October, at the California State fair in Sacramento, vintners chose a local lovely to represent them as their queen during National Wine Week. Some queens were blonde, some brunette. Some even studied dramatic arts. All, of course, were beautiful.
For seven glorious days, the newly crowned Vintage Queen would take her position as wine's goodwill ambassador, making appearances at vintage festivals, attending dinners and proclaiming the excellence of California wines. But perhaps the most important duty of the Vintage Queen was posing for stunning publicity photos, personifying the glamour, grace and charm of California wines. Even some 40 years later, the message comes through loud and clear.
It's time for these photographs to charm the world all over again! Let's raise a toast to these lovely ambassadors of the grape and honor their contribution to the success of the California wine industry as it stands today. In fact, why stop there? Let's be the first to shove all the nineties politically correct crap aside and elect new wine queens to lead us proudly into the 21st century!
Long Live The Queens!
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Everything grows large in California, they say! The beautiful 1950 Vintage Queen has the proof, as she playfully prepares to drink a giant glass filled with California Champagne.
The charming 1950 Vintage Queen pauses from her grape picking duties to flash the lucky cameraman a smile.
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Sultry! 1951 Vintage Queen Jeri Miller pauses during the wine grape harvest to adorn her hair with grape clusters. No wonder the grape was America's third ranking tree fruit that year!
Beautiful Jeri Miller, 1951 Vintage Queen, toasts National Wine Week and wonders where she left her house key.
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Diane Bagshaw, 1953 Vintage Queen, wears the traditional grape picking outfit favored by field workers of the day.
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Dee Hardy, 1957-58 Vintage Queen, has a sunny disposition in spite of the grape vine growing out of her head.
The lovely Dee Hardy, a 23-year-old San Francisco dramatic arts student, is pictured here trying to figure out where she left her glass of Chardonnay.
Dreamy Dee Hardy, 1947-58 Vintage Queen, prepares to sip California Champagne while bubbles dance around her head in admiration.
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Wine Queen June Adler reigned over National Wine Week, October 10-17, 1959. She is truly the picture of glamour!
1959 Wine Queen June Adler raises a toast to California wines after a day of hosing down tanks in the cellar.
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Making wine is hard work, but Marilyn Lockway, 1963 National Wine Queen, makes it look easy!
I don’t drink much Riesling these days, not sure why but I always seem to want Chardonnay or an older Hunter Semillon…or a Red. I think Mattinson is starting to have a bad influence on me… You need a subscription to The Wine Front to see this part of the post
One of my favorite things about setting the goal of drinking wines from every region in Italy--a process that began in 2008 and will continue through 2009--is that I buy wine I wouldn't taste otherwise. These are often the wines I remember months later because they were unexpected treats, wines that caught my imagination even though I often have low or no expectations and no real frame of reference for what I am tasting.
That happened last week when I opened up the 2005 De Tarczal Cabernet Franc. I purchased this in April 2008 from Garagiste in Seattle, received it in November, and promptly put it in the back fo the cellar for the month I finally got around to Trentin0-Alto Adige. ($16.90, Garagiste; available elsewhere for $19)
When I opened it, I was greeted with promising aromas of bell pepper, sour cherry, earth, and minerals. It struck me as less weedy than Cabernet Franc from the Loire, with a depth to the cherry aromas that made me eager to taste the wine. Flavorwise, the wine had a lovely, satiny texture wrapped around earth, leaf, and sour cherry notes. This was a really lovely, well-balanced Cabernet Franc from a region that (perhaps in my ignorance) I don't usually associate with Cab Franc. Excellent QPR.
Mushrooms go beautifully with a wine with this kind of flavor profile. Make yourself a portobello burger slathered with pesto mayonnaise and topped with roasted peppers and arugula--your tastebuds will thank you.
Tequila. Whether it conjures images of swarthy, ammo-strapped banditos sidled up to the bar in a captive Mexican border town or fantasies of idyllic hours in hammocks on tropical vacations, the word tequila is perhaps the most evocative in the drinker's lexicon.
Tequila's siren song is mysterious and sexy, with a hypnotic off-key recklessness. She lures you in by seducing your mind, secure in the knowledge that your body - and taste buds - will have no choice but to follow.
While this exotic spirit has tempted drinkers around the world for centuries, few of us who make margaritas a staple of summertime understand or appreciate the journey tequila has taken from Mexico's highlands to the local supermarket shelf. It's not all blender drinks and body shots. Tequila has a long and increasingly turbulent history - one that's almost as complex as the spirit itself.
Once Upon A Time In Mexico...
The tale of tequila is at least as long as the history of Europeans in North America. The spirit's precursor, mezcal wine, was produced shortly after the Spaniards arrived in the New World in 1521. Unaccustomed to drinking plain water (which, in their European homeland was rife with bacteria and bugs, and often a one-way ticket to the plague pit), the Conquistadors were eager to create a new alcoholic beverage. They found the makings at hand in pulque, a nutrient-packed brew derived from the fermented sap of agave plants, which had been a staple of the native diet millennia before the arrival of these thirsty men. The Conquistadors set to work distilling pulque into a drink considerably more potent, and in less than a century they were cultivating local agave and turning pulque into mezcal wine for exportation back to the Old World. Fortunately for generations of drinkers that followed, the Conquistadors never did know how to leave an indigenous people's traditions well enough alone; mezcal wine eventually evolved into the treat we now call tequila.
Though the origin of the word itself remains a mystery, it's believed that tequila was named for the small town of Tequila in the Jalisco state of Mexico. The "Father of Tequila," Don Pedro Sanches de Tagle, Marquis of Altamira, saw the potential for this potent liquor and established the first tequila factory in his hacienda in 1600. Over the next hundred years, tequila was used for everything from generating taxes for public works to curing New World illnesses. It became so popular, in fact, that Spain's king began to worry about the competition tequila was causing, and in 1785 banned production of all spirits in Mexico in order to promote the importation of Spanish wines and spirits. Unwilling to give up their livelihood to a monarch an ocean away, makers of mezcal wines simply continued their trade in secret - at times literally baking agave underground - until the ban was lifted when King Ferdinand IV took the throne the following decade.
The tequila manufacturer who remains perhaps the most famous today, Jose Antonio Cuervo, was the first licensed manufacturer in Mexico in 1758. His family's Casa Cuervo proved very profitable, by the mid-19th century boasting fields of over three million agave plants. Cuervo was the first distiller to put tequila in bottles instead of barrels, selling the first in 1906. Though other tequila distillers rose to compete with Cuervo and continue to join the market today (perhaps the most notable being Sauza), pioneer Cuervo remains the world's largest tequila manufacturer.
Improvements in transportation during the 19th century helped take the fruits of Mexican distillers' tequila labor into North America and beyond. As its popularity increased beyond Mexico's borders, tequila also experienced a growing reputation within the country during the revolution of the early 1900s, when the drink became a symbol of national pride. Caught in a nationalistic fervor, Mexicans quickly cast aside imports in favor of home-grown products of all kinds. Before long, tequila became synonymous with hard-living, fearless gunslingers like Pancho Villa - heroes of the era. In America, the Mexican favorite experienced a surge in popularity during Prohibition, when thirsty drinkers were tempted by tequila smuggled across the border, and again during WWII, when hostilities made European imports scarce.
Legend has it that the drink tequila made famous, the margarita, was first mixed in Mexico or a nearby state sometime between 1930 and 1955. The cocktail made its way into gringo hands, and no lime or Mexican flag on a toothpick has been safe since.
Don't Call It Cactus
Though often confused, mezcal and tequila are not one and the same. Both are distilled from the agave plant, a succulent from the same family as the lily and the amaryllis, but only liquors made from the blue agave are called tequila. Contrary to popular belief, agave is not a cactus. Though agave shares a common habitat with many prickly cacti neighbors, it has a different life cycle, and there are 136 Mexican species in its own unique agave family.
The process of creating tequila begins when the blue agave plant ripens, usually eight to 12 years after planting. Because the plant must be ripe enough to have sufficient sugars for fermentation, a jimador first performs the crucial task of chopping leaves away from the plant's core to assess its ripeness. If the plant is deemed ready, the core - or piƱa - is cut away and taken to a distillery for roasting in furnaces called hornos. After roasting, the piƱas are shredded, and the juices pressed out and placed in vats or fermenting tanks. Once in the vats, yeast is added to the juices to convert the sugars of the agave to alcohol. These agents are so vital to the process and to creating unique tastes in tequila that distillers keep very tight-lipped about their individual yeasts. The resulting juices then ferment 30 to 48 hours before undergoing distillation twice. The outcome is a rich, potent, colorless liquid between 70 and 110 proof. The color comes later, brought on by wooden barrel aging, or from the addition of caramel or wood essence. In the final step of processing, most tequila is filtered through cellulose filters or activated carbon before bottling.
Protecting a National Treasure
Mexicans are understandably proud and protective of their national alcoholic spirit, and between World Wars I and II, the Mexican government began efforts to closely monitor production and distribution of tequila. In 1944, the government decreed that any product called tequila had to be made by distilling agave in the state of Jalisco. Today, there are only five regions where tequila can be legally made; most are in the semi-arid plateaus and highlands of Jalisco and the adjoining states of Guanajuato, Michoacan and Nayarit, and
the northeastern state of Tamaulipas.
To help guarantee the quality of tequila, in 1978 the Normas Oficial Mexicana (NOM) was established, regulating all agricultural, industrial and commercial processes related to the spirit. Since then, the industry has continued to grow, with more than 50,000 hectares of agave under cultivation and more than 500 brands of tequila available today. To help control the burgeoning industry, the Tequila Regulatory Council (TRC) was founded in 1994 to oversee industry production, quality and standards.
The fundamental standard set by these oversight agencies categorizes tequila based on the percentage of blue agave juice it contains. Tequila 100 percent Agave must be made with solely blue agave juices and bottled in Mexico. Tequila or "ordinary tequila" must be made with at least 51 percent blue agave juices and may be exported in bulk for bottling in other countries according to the NOM standard.
Which tequilas are "best" is primarily a matter of individual taste. With increasing manufacturers pumping cash into spiffy packaging, sexy bottles and glossy ads, a more expensive tequila doesn't necessarily mean a better product. There are numerous quality tequilas available for $20-$50 USD. Most brands available for under $20 are usually mixto (not 100 percent agave) and are mass-produced for local markets. A good and tasty way to find a favorite is to sample a wide variety of brands in the different styles: Blanco for its young, rough edge and rich agave flavor; Reposado, which is sharp and peppery; and the woody, smooth Anejo. Trying to settle on a personal favorite is a good excuse to work one's way across the tequila shelf at the local bar, one bottle at a time.
Tequila's Uncertain Future
While tequila has a good-time reputation as the key ingredient of backyard fiestas and frat parties, there's a dark side to this South-of-the-Border libation. The popularity of Mexico's national treasure has, in some ways, caused tequila more harm than good. Growing demand has led to discontent among agave farmers who, in 1996, organized a protest against exploitation by some producers. Their blockade ultimately cost the industry millions, and the loss was passed on to consumers via price increases.
Another blow struck the tequila industry in 1997, when producer Don Jesus Lopez Roman was killed in a gangland-style execution outside his factory. Roman, whose Tequila San Matias distillery was founded in 1884, had become unpopular after taking a vocal stance in support of bottling all tequilas in Mexico and banning bulk exports to ensure content and quality. His murder remains unsolved.
If labor disputes and murder aren't enough, a recent plague of pests, diseases and impending shortage of agave has led to potential crisis. Faced with spiraling agave costs, several distillers have discontinued their low-end brands to concentrate on their premium, higher-priced tequilas. The buzz among bartenders is that as availability of blue agave declines, the price of tequila will rise and quality may not go along for the ride.
But those who love tequila for its unique, sultry taste and colorful history won't be dissuaded by these natural and man-made dramas. As the Conquistadors discovered, once you've been captivated by this ancient spirit, there's no turning back from tequila.
RECIPES
True aficionados say the only way to enjoy tequila is straight up, but these tasty recipes are definitely worth a shot.
1 1/2 oz. tequila
1 oz. Galliano
1 oz. Blue CuraƧao
Cream
Shake tequila, Galliano and CuraƧao with ice, and strain into cocktail glass. Float cream on top.
How to Drink Tequila
Leave lime-and-salt shooters to the chain restaurant happy hour and sip tequila slowly. This is a rich, complex liquor that deserves full sensory attention.
Serve tequila at room temperature (though those who like it icy can keep a bottle in the freezer).
Enjoy Tequila Blanco and Reposado from a traditional "caballito" glass; sniff the aromatic Anejo from a snifter.
Serve up Blanco and Reposado with a "sangrita" made of tomato and orange juice with salt and chili.
When drinking tequila on the town, ask your server to bring the bottle and pour it in your presence to be sure you get the gusto you deserve (and the brand you actually ordered).
What About That Worm?
Everyone's heard tales of folks who ate the worm in a bottle of tequila and were rendered temporarily able to glimpse into a parallel universe. Truth is, tequila worms and their supposed visionary properties are the stuff of Hollywood movies and high school urban legends. One will never see a worm in Mexican-bottled tequila, though some U.S. bottlers toss in a critter for novelty.
If you're really hankering for a worm with your booze, it's possible to find some types of mezcal that include a gusano or "butterfly caterpillar" in the bottle. Even this isn't a Mexican tradition. Those in the know say the addition of worms was a marketing ploy developed in the 1940s - the drinkers' equivalent of the toy prize in cereal boxes.
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Tecnorati
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.
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 
There isn?t a day that goes by when I don?t think of Abruzzo from my first visit there in the early 1980?s, when they adopted me as one of their native sons, to the years of friendship and collegiality among the many winemakers there.
The land oozes soul; the grapes burst their energy forth for lively wines. When one hears about all the tankers of Montepulciano that move north at night to vivify weaker wines in the north, this is an unsung hero of a region.
My friends at Illuminati, not trampled by the crashing bricks or rumbling dirt, but none the less affected by their neighbor?s cries of pain. Over the years their wines have changed, like their labels, but always for the better. Today they are a success story for Abruzzo. Some of their neighboring wineries near Aquila are searching for their way through back to the future.
Some day they will open bottles of sparkling wine to celebrate a gathering, a success, a landmark.
A few weeks ago, when organizing the 
This is a premium Montenegrin red wine made from the indigenous Vranac grape. The Reserve is produced from particulary good years, in small quantities, aged in barrels for several years. It is also aged in bottles for one year before being released to the market.
In the wine and food business we are a little like social anthropologists. There is something about the search for the best pizza, the ripest peaches, the home cured salumi and the perfect little café in the neighborhood. When it really gets down to it, the fancy wine list and the latest trend, from molecular gastronomy to collision cuisine, what I really want is a great bowl of pasta with a bottle of wine that I can enjoy and afford to drink regularly.
So where are we going? Everywhere you look, you see the words local and sustainable and organic and artisanal. Good ideas that have become buzz words to bandy about in building a brand that has no center. What good is it to get grass fed beef if the line cook over salts it? Organic peaches that find themselves in a perverse ménage ą trois with blood oranges and jalapeno chutney? Why?
Talking with a couple of food journalists recently and the idea of the young chef came up. And the question was, ?Does the young chef have anything to say with their food if they haven?t gotten enough life experience to be interesting with their creations?? Dining out wasn?t intended to be a reality show (unless it?s Hell?s Kitchen). The little CAFÉ sign I found on the street at midnight in Old East Dallas, oh how I would have loved to go back in time and see what was going on in that kitchen. This time, culinary archeology. And I find in the conversations around the table with friends, here and in Italy, we are looking for that wonderful Carbonara, that simply perfect Margherita, the espresso that one finds so easily in gas stations in Italy. Why is it so darn hard?
Wine lists. Working with several clients over the last few weeks, and really finding some very different opinions. But more and more I am seeing restaurant people rethinking the way they serve wine in their places. Less popular is buying a wine for $17 and reselling it for $65. The wave I have been seeing, in Houston, in Dallas and Austin, is that same wine on a blackboard for $39. You know at $39 a party of four will buy two bottles. At $65 they might nurse that bottle of wine. So the establishment sells one bottle and had $48 in gross profit. Selling two bottle for $39 and they have $44 to work with. A smaller profit? Yes. A happier clientele? Most assuredly. And most likely to return sooner. This is a wave that is coming from San Francisco, from Southern California, New York, and Texas is right there, too, with these ideas. This is exciting stuff for the wine producers back in Italy who have a storeroom full of wine right now.
Maybe that young couple who bought beer with their pizza or took it to-go to have with their Chianti at home can now have a reason to sit down in their neighborhood café and have wine instead of beer, dine-out instead of take-out. Maybe dining out might just come back in.
