Archive for March, 2010

Well, sort of one, anyway.

I’ve been collecting wine for more than 20 years now, and I’ve heard the repeated complaints–largely from the French–about how Americans only buy wines in the greatest vintages. If we stipulate that greatest means possessing a unique combination of ripe fruit, extreme complexity, intense concentration and the ability to evolve positively over time, I’ll certainly plead guilty to that. Let me explain.

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I’ve always had a soft spot for Cabernet Franc. To me, it’s one of the more seductively refined yet pronounced grapes used to make great wine. It speaks of its terroir like few others, painting a landscape of its origins through varying characteristics and intensity. It is a significant component to some of the world’s greatest and most sought-after wines, particulary Bordeaux blends, like Château Cheval Blanc and Château Ausone. It can also be used to produce a single-varietal wine, of which there are stunning examples made throughout the world including California, Washington, New York, Italy and Canada, among others. Given its prominence and permeation, why does the grape get such little respect?

It’s time for us all to Franc-ify ourselves. But where to begin?

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A friend sent me a YouTube link to a “Make Your Own Video” skit that hilariously tackles the myth and romance of starting one’s own winery and/or becoming a winemaker.

Once I stopped laughing, I started to really think about what it takes to be happy and successful in those endeavors (other than a ton of money in the case of starting a winery, incredible patience and a work ethic of steel). As the video spoofs, it’s not often about glam and glitter, but a serious, grass-roots devotion to creating an agricultural product that speaks of the place in which it’s grown and made. That’s no easy feat.

I turned to some sage voices in the wine business to ask them what kind of advice they would impart to a person seriously interested in pursuing a life as a winery owner or a winemaker. Here’s what they said:

“Winemakers and winery owners must have extreme passion and a huge connection to the wine. It’s a tête-à-tête relationship with a living organism, and like a human, it evolves over time. Through this personal, in-depth relationship, you’ll also get to know yourself better. Approach it artistically and do not cling too much to concrete objectives.” -Jean-Charles Boisset, owner, Boisset Family Estates

“Winery ownership is not easy. Pleasurable sometimes – but not always. Glamorous, maybe – but not as a rule. Winery owners are pretty hard. They like to go camping and sleep on the ground. They like spinach. They love young Cabernet Sauvignon. There is always a little pain to go with the pleasure. “ –Mike Ratcliffe, owner Warwick Wine Estate

“Vino is mother nature’s precious gift but to produce a beautiful wine is only one step in the process. The challenge is to get the fruit of your labor onto the tables of wine lovers across the globe. In a world full of great wine and thousands of labels, the focus is not on the wine you want to make but one that consumers will enjoy. Next, how to bring it to market with great value? Making and sharing wine is romantic but achieving distribution, brand building, marketing, and investing time, resources and finances is decidedly less so. Worth the ride? Yes, by the glassful!” –Cristina Mariani-May, owner, Banfi Vintners and Castello Banfi

“My advice to an aspiring winemaker? Know what you want. Are you interested in Chardonnay, Sangiovese, Pinot Noir or Verdelho? To make volumes of good wine; or small amounts of great wine? Do you want to incorporate both the vineyard and the winery? Go work at a winery doing what you aspire to do. And work overseas, too. To an aspiring winery owner: First, know how to sell the wines you want to make. Find the best site to make them. Focus on vineyards that can produce them. Use your capital carefully. Or, buy a winery that does what you want, and manage it carefully. For most, winery success requires persistance.” -Zelma Long, pioneering California winemaker and winemaker for Vilafonté Winery

“You must really love and be passionate about what you do, otherwise when the hours get long you will start to hate the job. It definitely is not a 9-5 job (more of a 5 -9 and that is on a good day in the harvest). Be prepared to put in many extra hours, not only during the vintage (6-8 weeks of the year) or when one needs to blend and bottle a wine, but when marketing and promoting your wines throughout the rest of the year. The upside of the job: all of the above if you love wine and live and breathe it, as well as the ability to travel for and with your wines. We have met wonderful people and made many friends through the common bond of wine. Wine is beautiful! –Cathy Jordan, Owner, Jordan (Jardin) Wines

What in your mind is the right approach for the aspiring winemaker or winery owner? Is it more grit than glamour, or a romantic ride?

He was the Indiana Jones of his day: As Davy Crockett, he was the star of our favorite adventure films of the 1950s. He was a hero to an entire generation of goofy kids. He was the calm center of a media and merch blitz. Very few people have worn that mantle with such grace.

Fess Parker died on March 18th at his home in the Santa Ynez Valley, California. He was 85. In his story on our Web site, Steve Heimoff did a fine job in sketching the biographical details. Steve noted that the man who played Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett was also a pioneer in Santa Barbara County wine country; he and his son Eli purchased 700 acres there in 1987.

If you want to toast Parker’s memory properly, Heimoff has plenty of suggestions.

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I’ll admit—I’m an amateur whisky (I’ll use the term “whisky” here to encompass Scotch, American and Irish, for simplicity’s sake) fan, but a dedicated one. I was initially drawn to the spirit because of the romance and glamour it evoked. Like many before me, I grouped serious male whisky drinkers—beyond those who just had a penchant to swing back Jack at the fraternity house—into two (very) broad and admittedly slightly vague categories: distinguished, swifter-collecting older men—the same breed that gravitated toward fine Cognac, Nantucket, tweed smoking jackets and cigars—and the more brooding, soulful artistic types (think James Dean, Jack Kerouac, Johnny Cash). Female fans of this “ultimate man’s drink” had even more cachet and consisted of dangerous femme fatales (Marlene Dietrich was probably a Scotch or Bourbon drinker), older, wiser Mrs. Robinson figures or hard-skinned, convention-flouting Joan Jett characters. Interesting company indeed.

 I was intrigued, though it took a while (as does any activity with a learning curve) before I finally decided to take the plunge. “Scotch on the rocks,” I said assertively to the mustached, suspender-donning bartender at a pseudo-speakeasy one evening. Whatever respect he may have had for me quickly vanished when I responded to his next question—“What type of Scotch?”—with a blank stare.

 Despite this less-than-auspicious start, I went on—I’m happy to say—to develop a more schooled appreciation for whisky. There’s the taste from the fiery, smoky single malt Scotches to the sweeter, mellower Bourbons, the abundance of different styles, terroirs even and blending techniques to which any wine geek can relate and—though this may be unique to me—the restorative, reflective, even intellectual feeling you have after a few good sips of the stuff.

 It’s never made me particularly giddy or excited (the way other libations have done in the past) but it often leaves me feeling calm and content—especially on a cold, blustery night—and even a bit reflective. If I were inclined to drink while writing or creating, whisky would be my chosen libation.

Share your own ruminations about whisky with me, and tell me what I should be trying in my whisky exploration.

As a wine critic, I taste and review a lot of wines without ever seeing the label. What’s in the glass is what counts, and that’s something wine writers have espoused for decades, if not centuries. If a wine tastes good to you, it shouldn’t matter what a critic says…or what the label looks like.

Or does it? Obviously, wineries spend a lot of time, energy and money developing labels for their bottles. The label is the first point of contact for many consumers and gives the producer a unique chance to make an impression.

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Man o' War's vineyards on Waiheke Island

Something like 90% of the New Zealand wine imported to the U.S. is Sauvignon Blanc, which makes it easy for American wine drinkers to completely disregard the other 10%. Sure, some folks go on about Pinot Noir–the latest flavor du jour in the U.S. and New Zealand’s most prominent red wine grape–but what’s remarkable is the diversity of grape varieties now being grown in this remote corner of the world.

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