Archive for October, 2007

Yesterday I moderated a panel discussion on red wine fermentation at the Napa Grape + Wine Expo, and got to pump two of the valley’s, maybe the world’s, most accomplished winemakers. With my questions, and a lot more from an audience of mostly younger winemakers and other industry folk, the winemakers revealed a lot about their philosophies of winemaking and actual techniques and practices.

Celia Masyczek makes wine for nine Napa Valley clients, and was the Staglin Family winemaker for about 10 years. Bob Levy heads winemaking for Harlan Estate, Bond and The Napa Valley Reserve.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sure the owners of chateaux in Bordeaux don’t like the public tastings of their wines vs. California Cabernets. The California wines usually win, and the Bordeaux folks don’t need that kind of rejection.

But a recent tasting in Bordeaux, by a roster of chateau owners and directors, took a different spin. The Vintners Club of San Francisco, a non-profit group that since 1971 has been conducting tastings for its members, took its show on the road. The Vintners Club set up a nice, friendly tasting event in Bordeaux that only included California Cabernet-based wines from 2002. They took the wines to Chateau Brane Cantenac and last Friday a few dozen Bordeaux vintners tasted them blind.
Read the rest of this entry »

This has been gratifying, to sit back and watch the potential new names for American port roll in. Some have been just so-so, many have been snarky and snide, and in recent days more and more have been potential keepers.

The challenge to readers was to come up with an original name that conveys the character of port that isn’t made in Portugal, because an agreement between the United States and the European Union bans any new U.S. brand from calling itself Port on the label.

Two previous posts on this have now gathered lots of comments, and you can read the name nominees from readers there. See the first post that explains the political situation in some detail and the second that puts up two Riedel port glasses as the prize for the best category name submitted. The reward seemed to get everyone’s attention.

We’re going to bring the contest to a close at the end of this week, at midnight Pacific time, Saturday, Oct. 27, so get your new names in as soon as you can. A committee of Wine Enthusiast editors and I will select a winner thereafter. We will submit the winning name to any and all winery associations that might be interested in running with it.

Here are a few more that I came up with. When brainstorming for names, headlines, etc., I like to write down everything that comes to me, bad and good, and see where it leads. Maybe these will inspire some better terms. I was going with the idea that Port comes from the city of Oporto, which is a port of embarkation.

Embark
Embarcadero
Embarco
Wharfo (duh?)
Docko
Harboro
Robusto (ha!)

You get the drift. Thanks for all the help so far, and I welcome any and all new ideas.

I learned a few months ago that there’s a new demographic group out there: localvores. Sometimes spelled locavores, these people try to eat locally produced food. Some, like the San Francisco Bay Area’s Locavores draw a 100-mile radius around their home, and vow not to cross that line when it comes to groceries.

Whether herbivore or carnivore or ominivore, the localvore believes that it’s good for the environment to eat locally, and not incidentally you’re more likely to get food at its prime natural ripeness and freshness if you’re only sourcing locally.

It seems that a similar desire is changing the wines that some people drink, too.
Read the rest of this entry »

As a follow up to my ambitious post yesterday, in which I invited users to submit alternative names for domestic port, I have this to add: the person submitting the name judged best will win a pair of Riedel Vinum port glasses, courtesy of Wine Enthusiast. He or she will also have a fleeting moment of fame, and the admiration of all.

The idea is to help U.S. wineries that are just beginning to make or sell what’s been known as port, to find a new generic name for these wines, since the U.S. and the European Union made a deal. The deal gets the E.U. to begin recognizing U.S. wine appellations, but American wineries have to give up terms like California Port, Washington Port, etc.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been worrying about the producers of Port-type wines in the U.S. The new ones, that is. Any winery just starting out to make a sweet, high-alcohol dessert wine of the type that’s been called Port for several centuries is in trouble. They’re going to have to come up with a new name. But what will it be? Can someone coin a term that might be widely adopted, like Meritage for Bordeaux-style blends made in the U.S.?

The terminology ban is part of a deal between the U.S. government and the European Union that semi-resolves an issue that’s been a burr under the saddle of the English and Portuguese companies that make sweet, high-alcohol dessert wines in the Douro Valley of Portugal. They traditionally sent the wines down the river in small boats to the port city of Oporto before they were shipped to London. So it’s no surprise that those wines were and still are called Port.

Read the rest of this entry »

A significant rain soaked the Bay Area last night, and I’ve got to believe that the .75 to 1.5 inches that fell have at least a few winemakers worried. They always say that Cabernet Sauvignon is practically impervious to rain, and since much of what’s left to harvest around Napa and Sonoma counties is Cabernet there’s no reason to panic about the vintage.

But other grapes are still hanging out there on the vines, including some Merlot and Pinot Noir, which are pervious to water-borne problems including the bad form of Botrytis and various types of mildew that could move into the vines, especially if the weather remains lukewarm and humid. Rain at harvest time also can get drawn up by the roots and into the grapes, slowing the ripening process and potentially diluting flavors.

We got lucky and picked our Merlot for home consumption over the weekend when it was warm and dry. Forgive me for getting a little smug on Monday, bragging about finding free grapes to make wine with in some years. This year the story was a little different.

Read the rest of this entry »

The fun of making wine every year on a small scale comes in part from the the thrill of the hunt. My partner in home winemaking crime, Bill, and I don’t have our own vineyard to pick, so instead we go hunting, or more like scavenging, for good fruit for which nobody else has spoken.

More than half of the time we score completely free grapes, believe it or not. In Napa Valley, where farmland can cost $250,000 or more per acre, and wine grapes sell at an average price of over $3,000 a ton, we often get lucky enough to pay zero.

Read the rest of this entry »

I thought I was in a time warp yesterday when I sorted through the mail and picked out my K&L Wine Merchants newsletter. It’s not that this retailer newsletter still looks like it did in 1993, although it does. The prices of Bordeaux are what took me back in time.

Chateau Clerc Milon of Pauillac for $39.99 a bottle, Rated 91-93 by a major American critic. Chateau Gloria of St. Julien for $30.99, and rated 89-91 by more leading critics. Chateau Lagrange of St. Julien at $42.99, rated as high as 94 points! Chateau Pontet Canet of Pauillac, $69.99 and rated as high as 96 points in barrel tastings.

Read the rest of this entry »

My home state of Ohio has taken one giant leap backward, restricting Ohioans’ access to direct-shipped wines from out of state. Effective today, citizens from Akron to Zanesville and everywhere in between can no longer order wine delivered direct to their homes from out of state wineries that make more than 150,000 gallons (63,000 cases) a year.

This rules out the largest wineries but also a lot of medium-sized high quality wineries, too, whose products are in high demand. To me, it sounds like Buckeye-staters can no longer order wine directly from biodynamically farmed Benziger Family Winery, or single-vineyard Merlot from Duckhorn Vineyards, or Petite Sirah from Markham Vineyards.

Read the rest of this entry »