Meet the New Boss

Same as the Old Boss

- Pete Townshend, Won’t Get Fooled Again

I get a lot of wine samples (and no, I have not yet properly pimped out my wine storage to accommodate them all).  I know that many of you (because you’ve told me) hate it when I say that, because supposedly this is some sort of wonderful problem to have.  However, that position is based on two assumptions that generally are totally wrong:

1. The wine samples are primarily for my enjoyment.
2. The wine samples are primarily very good wine (or, alternatively, the wine samples primary purpose is to keep me intoxicated).

The fact of the matter is that neither are true (the samples are for evaluation and most of them are not ‘knock-yer-socks-off’ good), so I don’t buy the argument that I’m a dick for discussing issues I might have with keeping up with wine samples (I could buy alternative arguments for why I’m a dick, however).  I’m not going to complain if a winery producing limited amounts of excellent wine sends me a sample or two, because I know that most of you (because you told me) want me to write about those wines.  But, in reflection of the wine market in general, those ‘special’ wines reflect maybe 2% of the samples sent to me.

I’m telling you this because, if my sample profile is any indication, the wine market is focusing on budget/value, and targeting the general wine consumer using low price points.  Common sense would suggest that, in this time of economic meltdown challenge, the focus on producing budget wine is a logical new development in the wine market.

Logical conclusion, but wrong…

it’s wrong because it’s not new.

The wine market has been driven by the common-denominator quality level (in terms of being affordable to the ‘working class’) for centuries – it just gets more attention when the chips are down.  The nice thing about the wine industry now vs. 250 years ago is that the quality of the common-denominator level has never been as good, which suggests that the industry will weather this economic storm and be stronger for it in the long run.

There have been few really surprising developments for wine as a result of the global recession, actually.  One of them is that Bordeaux finally realized that it needs promotion and engagement with on-line social networking. But that’s for budget Bordeaux – if the big boys of the Left and Right bank participate in that, I’ll eat my hat.

You can cite numerous examples of wine industry developments in response to the recent economic downturn that seem extreme, but only in comparison to the high-flying `90s; when you compare them to hundreds of years of wine history, your reaction would be less “OMG!” and more “yaaaaaaawwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnn.”

By way of example, let’s take a look at 90+ Cellars. 

Here’s the skinny on what 90+ is all about, taken directly from their website:

“We are taking advantage of the current economic conditions and purchasing high quality and highly rated finished wines direct from wineries at a discount and passing the savings on to our customers. Our primary selection criteria for wine opportunities is not just price and availability – the wines we purchase must have a pedigree of 90 or higher ratings, best buy or gold medal accolades from major publications.  Other companies that offer this concept are usually buying the winery’s excess or distressed wine that they cannot sell on their own for pennies on the dollar. We are buying the winery’s best and most highly rated finished wine, which they would normally sell under their own label. Wineries are willing to sell to us because they either produced more than they need or sales may have slowed down. The wineries in return are promised complete anonymity, which we take very seriously.”

In summary: buy juice from wineries that they can’t sell and rebrand it so that those producers don’t lose face (a.k.a., lower prices).

A novel idea? maybe when applied to wine. But what does it tell us about the wine industry? That the producers are greedy and don’t want to lower their prices?  Not really.

It tells us that producers think the issues plaguing the wine industry due to the current economic situation are temporary.

And if you check into your wine history, you’d probably come to the same conclusion.

Cheers!

(images: timeinc.net)

And that is, the rapid-fire assessment, review, and perfunctory judgment of any given wine.  We are judge, jury and executioner of the glass’ contents, often within the span of two minutes.

We see this happen all the time – in fact in some cases (like certain Twitter Taste Live events, or the “speed dating” wine blogging at the Wine Bloggers Conference), it’s encouraged and necessary.  I often participate in and have grown to love those events, provided that we don’t take them too seriously.

And we shouldn’t take them seriously, at least as far as true wine appreciation is concerned.  Why?  Because every glass of wine, from the pedestrian to the sublime, is speaking to you, trying to tell you something about itself – you need only take the actual time to listen to it.

In the case of many wines made in the ‘Old World’ style (what my compadre Randall Grahm calls Modernist), where typicity of place and nuanced complexity are the goals, that message may be “Come back later.”  New World (Postmodernist) wines usually (and probably unfairly) fare better in rapid-fire evaluation scenarios, precisely because they more often offer their treasures quickly and liberally – “Hey! Over here! I’m talkin’ to YOU!”

In a globally-connected, information-based economy like ours, we are progressively programmed with positive reinforcement to spend as little time as possible on something – in fact, we’re rewarded for doing many things at once, and the more quickly we can shove them into the same time slot, the better.

The trouble is, if you want to appreciate wine fully, you need to dump the Speed Racer + Multitasking Pro persona.  Pronto…

The strange (and wonderful) fact is that you owe it to the wine in your glass to give it your full concentration, even if only for a minute or two.  It will, I promise you, tell you something during that time – you need only have the patience to listen.

How is it that you come to owe a glass of wine anything? Well, you know how people often quip that “everything happens for a reason?”  They’re right.  Sort of.  The Universe has, though a series of progressive events, lead you to this moment, with a glass of that new wine in your hands.  The journey that the wine itself has taken to be in front of you is a kind of miracle, from bud to grape to fermentation vessel to bottle… and let’s not even get into the dust of the stars settling to Earth from the Big Bang to create the molecules that eventually came together to form your glass.

And no, I am not drunk right now – the entire history of the Universe is coming together in this moment between you and that glass, and the meaning of life in any given moment is that given moment. So how could you not owe the moment with that glass to at least some degree?

If that’s too much Zen Wine for you, then here’s another take:

I often hear from budding oenophiles that they “could never pick out those nuances in a glass of wine” and that is best left to some sort of trained professional, as if they were scared of extending a gas line as part of a DIY home project.  It’s times like these when I need to suppress the urge to deliver a Chuck Norris-style roundhouse kick to the side of their faces (that would be rude, of course, since it would likely spill the wine in their glass).

That approach is total crap – if it was legit, it wouldn’t warrant the Chuck Norris face kick.  Anyway, if you pay attention, that wine in your glass will tell you everything that you need to know about it. No license required.

Paying attention to that wine, with total focus, will do more for your wine appreciation skills than reading 5 years worth of any wine periodical. 

So put the Chuck Norris smackdown on your wine multitasking!

Cheers!

I’m not usually at a loss for words (and I suspect that the condition is temporary and will wear off in a few nanoseconds), but my reaction to 1WineDude.com winning Best Wine Blog in the Foodbuzz.com Blog Awards is… uhmm…. WOW! And THANK YOU.  Thank you to Foodbuzz, to all of the people who took the time out to nominate and vote for the blog, and to you for putting up with me for so long!  Fellow nominee, ‘friend of the Dude’ and all-around wine blogging powerhouse Dr. Vino was voted “blogger you would most want to be your personal sommelier” (the other wine-related awards category).

I was quite surprised when I found out that 1WineDude was even nominated (which I’d discovered after voting had already started, upon visiting the site to vote for a friend’s blog in another category).  In fact, I didn’t even know that there was a Best Wine Blog category in the awards at first.  I was both amazed and humbled to have been nominated at all, and the competition was stiffer than the wooden staves that go into vats of el-cheapo American Chardonnay.  So I’m also amazed and humbled to have won.

I’m not gonna get all ‘Dick Cheney re-elected’ on you and say it’s a ‘clear mandate from the people’ in support of taking wine seriously but not taking yourself too seriously, and I don’t want to make more out of the honor than it should be, but winning this award did give me a few seconds of serious pause, because Foodbuzz.com seems to be a pretty big friggin’ deal right now (at least in the U.S.).

I was fortunate enough to have been contacted by Foodbuzz.com early in their development, as part of their Featured Publishers program, and I’ve watched them build a (very) large community of (very) talented foodies in a (very) short amount of time.  Their success is actually a bit staggering – Foodbuzz.com now gets millions of visits every month.  Their reach is, in a word, enormous (and it’s still growing).

Anyway, following is a snippet of the internal dialog going on in my head during that few seconds of serious pause (FSSP):

Me: Maybe 1WineDude.com really is making a difference in the world of wine and helping people to take an emboldened approach a potentially daunting topic? I suppose that stranger things have happened, right?

Me2: You mean like three wine critics and one Japanese cartoon driving a massive amount of wine spending dollars worldwide. Also, why are you using words like ‘emboldened’ and ‘daunting’ when you’re talking to yourself? No one should use 15th century words when they’re talking to themselves.

Me: Good points.  Jerk.

During the FSSP, I did contemplate taking a more serious approach on the virtual pages of the blog, now that I can officially call 1WineDude “award winning.”  Fortunately, that didn’t last very long.

I have one regret about of this this – I wasn’t able to make the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival, which by all accounts appears to have been a huge success (both Randall Grahm and fellow nominee Alder Yarrow had good things to say about the event while it was unfolding via twitter).  I plan on doing everything that I can to make the trip for next year’s event.

Congrats to all of the winners – it’s definitely worth checking out the other Foodbuzz Blog Award winners, especially if you’re a foodie-at-heart; there’s some really impressive blogging happening there.

Cheers!

And I’ve never tasted eight samples of Chilean Carmenere wines on an IT conference call.

So… how did it go?

I’m happy to report that I found the event to be great fun and quite well executed.  The technology worked well and I only found minor cavils – like wanting the in-conference chat to work like twitter, preferably integrated with twitter – which I think speaks to the professionalism and quality of the event overall if those are my only complaints.

Last week, I’d written that this event could prove to be a seminal moment in my wine-lovin’ days, as it focused almost exclusively on Carmenere, a grape with which I’ve had a troubled history.  In summary, I’ve been critical of Chile’s ability to deliver on the potential of the grape as (in my experience) they’d yet to get pyrazine (which imparts ‘green’ aromas of bell pepper and pine) truly under control and balanced with the dark fruit flavors of the grape.

I was placing (perhaps unjustifiably) a lot of pressure on this event, as I was expecting (perhaps justifiably) that Wines of Chile would ‘go big’ and bring some heavy hitters to the party – i.e., really show what Chile was capable of when it comes to Carmenere.

So… how were the wines?

In summary: a mixed bag…

Taking part in the event were the following winemakers – this was a (predominantly young and) lively group, who were happy to discuss their wines, and were able to shift gears easily from jovial puns to waxing philosophically about the virtues of Carmenere:

• Sebastián Labbé (Vina Carmen)
• Matias Rios (Cono Sur)
• Gonzalo Carcamo (Vina La Rosa)
• Arnaud Hereu (Odfjell Vineyards)
• Magdalena Sosa (Santa Carolina)
• Oscar Salas (Terra Andina)
• Felipe Tosso (Vina Ventisquero)
• Grant Phelps (Viu Manent)

The wines (representing primarily the Colchagua Valley, with Maipo, Central and Rapel valleys also in the mix):

• 2008 Santa Carolina Reserva Carmenere
• 2007 Odjfell Armador Carmenere
• 2007 Via Manent Carmenere Reserva
• 2007 Cono Sur Vision Carmenere (85% Carmenere / 9%^ Cab Sauv / 6% Syrah)
• 2008 Vina La Rosa ‘La Capitana’ Carmenere
• 2007 Ventisquero Grey Carmenere
• 2007 Terra Andina Altos Carmenere / Carignan (60/40)
• 2005 Carmen Wine Maker’s Reserve Red (50% Cab Sauv / 20% Carmenere / 20% Petit Syrah / 10% Merlot)

The standouts for me:

• The Carmen was easily the best wine of the event, and provided everything you’d expect from a wine in $44 price range. Plum, fig, sweet spices – sexy, refined, elegant (and expensive).  If this is any indication, both Vina Carmen and the Maipo Valley are key to watch for the future of Chilean Carmenere.
• Vina La Rosa’s La Capitana – cocoa powder, plum, a little boozy but… wow. It had the faintest hint of green pepper, which made the wine more complex rather than competing with the fruit for the most nose-filling power from the glass.  At $18, it’s a crazy good value.
• Honorable Mention goes to the Santa Carolina Reserva, which certainly had bell pepper going on but in a balanced way; a touch woody but the spiciness more than made up for that. For $10, the QPR is just off the charts.

As for the rest, there were definitely some interesting wines (the Cono Sur was intriguing, going from barnyard aromas to green garden veggies to dark berry fruit), and others that, while they didn’t exactly put the “eewwww” in “New World,” didn’t exactly float my boat, either.

My verdict: Carmenere is capable of making very good wine, and blended can help make excellent fine wine, but there is still a lot of work to be done to get pyrazines in check if Chile wants to be seen as the world leader in providing the most balanced Carmenere wines possible.

Cheers!

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I’m going to start by saying that I wasn’t totally blown away by these wines (received as samples), but I love, love the concept behind them.  I also love that their website includes streaming reggae music, and liberal use of the word “surfeit .”  But, as will come as no surprise to frequent 1WineDude.com readers, I digress…

The first, and the more impressive, of the wines hails from the sandy loam Margarita vineyard site in Paso Robles’ southwest – Martellotto’s 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon.  It’s pleasant, with decent balance, clocks in at a relatively restrained 13.5% abv, is farmed sustainably, and is spot-on priced at $18.  Interestingly, it’s the 5% Syrah component that really stands out for me on this wine (there’s 10% Merlot as well), which rounds out the finish with red fruit and peppery, dried herbs.

So why can’t you have any?  Well, you can, but only if you buy through Big Hammer Wines.  Oh, yeah, and there were only 34 barrels made of the stuff.

Although not quite as interesting as the Martellotto Cab, the next wine (also selling for about $18) definitely has a more interesting story…

The Agent for Change Wines brand bills itself as seeking “operatives for doing good works by drinking good wines” – they donate 50% (yes, that’s 5-0 and not 5.0) to charitable causes.  They bill their 2006 Zinfandel (also Paso Robles) as “not a Zin you need a knife and fork to dig into… it’s a Zin you just want to keep drinking.”

In terms of the charity benefiting from the Zin, here’s the skinny:

“Agent for Change Wines is a portfolio of négociant wines produced to create awareness and raise funds for worthy causes. By drinking charitably, Agent for Change Wines donates a portion of the proceeds (50% in 2006) to worthy non-profit organizations. The first vintage is donating proceeds to healthcare outreach/clinical care for vineyard workers.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but something strikes me as brilliant and obvious about that cause – as if it’s likely (long) overdue for a bit of attention from the wine world.

In terms of flavor profile, the A4C Zin has more in common with Italian Primitivo than it does with its geographically closer California Zin cousins.  I found the A4C to be chili-friendly with lower-than-expected alcohol, higher-than-expected acidity, and middle-of-the-road dark berry fruit.

Also available from Big Hammer – but only 500 cases were made.

Anyway, two fairly-priced wines, some good causes, and a difficult procurement factor – because you asked for it!

Cheers!

CNBC.com has updated their annual expert recommendations on wines for the holidays – and this year, there are a few interesting parties among the panel of wine smarties contributing their wine picks for your 2009 fourth quarter celebratory dining table.

Like me, for instance.

I know what you’re thinking.  How the hell did YOU get on the same list as Jancis Robinson?!??

I had the same reaction, my friends!

I’m in great, great company on this one, with quite a few fellow bloggers gracing the CNBC.com lineup, most of whom I’m happy and proud to call friends of the Dude:

• Paul Mabray of VinTank
• Bill Daley from the Chicago Tribune
• Jancis Robinson (www.JancisRobinson.com)
• Ryan Opaz of www.catavino.net
• Gary Vaynerchuk (www.GaryVaynerchuk.com)
• Craig Drollett (Bin Ends & Taste Live)

There are some great wine picks offered up in the list, so head on over to CNBC.com and check it out before you do your holiday dinner shopping this year.

Cheers!

This week just might mark a seminal event in my personal wine journey.  Either that, or a huge, disappointing wine bust served up on a bed of bell pepper and pine needles.

On November 4th, I’ll be taking part with a small group of bloggers in an on-line tasting event with Wines of Chile, the theme of which is “Discover Carmenere: The Lost Grape.”  Why is this a boom-or-bust wine moment for me?  Because I have what I would call a troubled relationship with Carmenere.

Of course, I love the idea of this grape, the story of Carmenere – it’s the stuff of which wine legends are made.

Carmenere was born in Bordeaux, and thought to be extinct after outbreaks of oidium and then the Phylloxera epidemic in the 1800s, which wiped out a good portion of the wine grape vineyards of Europe.  Though widely thought to be able to help produce high quality wines, Carmenere was pretty much abandoned in France in favor of varieties that were less susceptible to disease, ripened more consistently and produced better yields.  But, Carmenere was not dead – plantings were transported, from France to South America, along with vineyard workers looking for more gainful employment at the time (just prior to the Phylloxera outbreak).  For almost one hundred years, the vine thrived in Chile and was thought to be Merlot; it was discovered to in the mid 1990s to actually be the ‘lost grape’ – Carmenere.

So now we have a legendary Bordeaux grape long considered extinct, thriving in the New Wine World and growing on its own, ungrafted rootstock.  The modern wine Coelacanth.  The Grape from The Land of The Lost (Sleestaks sold separately).

So what’s the trouble?  Well, in my experience, the tale spun about the lost grape Carmenere is a lot more compelling than the wine that Carmenere is actually producing…

France’s reaction to Chile’s success with Carmenere seems to be “So what – they can have it.”  At least, they don’t seem to be joining the Carmenere new renaissance taking place in Chile and California.  One reason for France’s lack of involvement in the Carmenere love-fest might be the dearth of current examples in the current marketplace of the excellent wines that the cultivar is supposed to be capable of producing.

It’s not that I haven’t had very good Carmenere.  I have – case in point being a recent sample I received from Errazuriz (2007 Don Maximiano Single Vineyard Carmenere from the Aconcagua Valley, whose picture graces this post).  At its best, I’ve found Carmenere to produce dark-cherry, cassis-filled lush wines with heavy fruit, interesting spice, and a sizeable booze backbone to go with it all.  The big trouble for me is that all of that goodness can be overwhelmed by the green pepper and pine needle aromas that are the hallmark of the compound pyrazine, to which South American Carmenere seems particularly susceptible.

Pyrazine is potent stuff.  Think bell pepper – it doesn’t take a lot to go a long, looooooong way.  I love when there are extremely small amounts of the stuff in red wine – just enough to make things interesting.  The big trouble is that the line between “interesting” and “ruined” is a fine, fine one indeed when it comes to pyrazine in wine – and when it competes head-to-head with opulent dark fruit flavors and aromas, it becomes at best an acquired taste (and at worst makes you feel as though someone shoved a pine cone into your glass of Cabernet).

The flavor combination can be intrusive.  Look at it this way – if you were having a business lunch with someone you didn’t know, and that person showed up well-groomed and prepared but decked-out in a bright green suit with pine needles sticking out of it, you’d be totally distracted.  It wouldn’t matter how well this guy had his sh*t together, you probably wouldn’t catch half of what he was trying to tell you.  The entire you’d be thinking, “WTF is up with this guy’s suit?!??”  That’s how modern Carmenere presents itself to me.

I’m considering this week’s Wines of Chile event to be significant for me personally – if some of the best QPR Carmenere wines of Chile will be on display, then I’m gong to be judging just how much ground is being won in the South American battle to control pyrazine.  Will it be a victory for dark, cassis goodness? Or will we get KO’d by a giant Bell Pepper?

Stay tuned…

Cheers!

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Tonight marks the finale of the month-long salute to German wines taking place at TasteLive. October has more-or-less been “Riesling Month” for me (not that I don’t drink Riesling pretty much every month) in helping to get the word out about the events being hosted by TasteLive and Wines of Germany. 

Tonight’s twitter tasting event, at 8PM ET, is the final October Wines of Germany tasting event and will feature a handful of bloggers tasting through selections of Schloss Reinhartshausen wines from the Rheingau (the region typically home to Germany’s most austere and powerful Rieslings).  There will be one more public TTL event on Dec. 3rd that will feature a sample of Rieslings from various German producers – that’s one where you will be able to join in and taste; more to come on that from both me and the folks over at TasteLive.  For tonight, you’ll be able to follow along with the tasting action at the TasteLive website, or by following the #TTL search term using your favorite twitter client.

Here’s a bit about tonight’s highlighted producer, as lifted from the TasteLive website:

Schloss Reinhartshausen (Reinhartshausen Castle) has been identified with production of rare and majestic German Rieslings since 1337. Schloss Reinhartshausen embraces 15 separate vineyard sites located in the vicinity of the townships of Erbach and Hattenheim. These include a significant portion of the legendary Grand Cru Erbacher Marcobrunn vineyard, as well as the neighboring Erbacher Schlossberg site in its 15-acre entirety.

More on the wines for tonight’s event are below.  Interestingly, the TasteLive website lists a Trockenbeerenauslese among tonight’s selections, and I received an Auslese (more on those terms can be found here).  Not sure which one is correct.  I don’t have any experience with the wines of Schloss Reinhartshausen – the notes below are not my words but have been taken from the importer’s descriptions, so take those with a grain of salt.  Having said that, the descriptions have certainly whet my appetite…

Fountain Blue Riesling 2007

Current Vintage: 2007
Production:
Varietals: Riesling
Appellation: Rheingau
Price Range: $12-$15

Vinification: The early start of a strictly selective harvest on September 24th produced an average yield with amazing must weights. The gentle treatment and a slow and controlled fermentation of the musts led to a fresh, fruity and stimulating wine with a crisp acidity.

Color: Pale lemon yellow.

Bouquet: Lovely aromas of white peaches, apricots, cassis and honey.

Taste: Delicate flavors of peach, apricot and citrus are uplifted by a bright acidity on the palate.

Alcohol: 12%

Old Vines Riesling 2007

Current Vintage: 2007
Production:
Varietals: Riesling
Appellation: Rheingau
Price Range: $17-$20

Vinification: Despite a wet summer, a sunny September and October brought grapes of exceptional quality. Cool nights ensured preservation of good acidity and an optimal development of aromas. The Hohenrain, located above the old center of Erbach, is situated on a south slope with a gradient of 10%. That guarantees sunlight until the early evening hours. The site is composed of deep loess-loam and tertiary marly soil and is protected from harsh westerly winds by a 10-foot wall.

Color: Pale gold.

Bouquet: Intense fruit aromas of ripe peaches, apricot and yellow citrus fruits.

Taste: A well-integrated palate demonstrates a deft interplay of sweetness and acidity.

Alcohol: 13.1%

Erbach Schlossberg Monopole 2007

Current Vintage: 2007
Production:
Varietals: Riesling
Appellation: Erbach Schlossberg
Price Range: $25-$35

Vinification: The grapes for this wine are exclusively harvested by hand. They are pressed with pneumatic tank presses and the must is filtered through special juice channels during this procedure. The fermentation is temperature-controlled to maintain the vibrant aromas of the grapes. The temperature is kept low with a special cooling system for the tanks. Fermentation lasts 8-10 days.

Color: Lemon yellow

Bouquet: Fragrant aromas of citrus fruits

Taste: A full-bodied wine, redolent of white peach and exotic fruits

Alcohol: 13.5%

Erbacher Marcobrunn Trockenbeerenauslese 2006 (???)

Current Vintage: 2006
Production:
Varietals: Riesling
Appellation: Erbacher Marcobrunn
Price Range:

Vinification: The Marcobrunn vineyard site has a slightly inclined southern aspect in Erbach. This vineyard is widely regarded as the best and most famous site in all of Germany and guarantees top premium wines. The noble TBA wines come from strictly selected botrytised grapes. The immediate treating of the grapes is very important in order to keep the wines clear and to preserve their natural aromas and flavors.

Color: Gold.

Bouquet: Profoundly fragrant aromas of lychee, ginger and peach.

Taste: The aromas of lychee, ginger and peach are confirmed on the palate and linger on a long, unforgettable finish.

Hope to see you on twitter tonight!

Cheers!