OTBN 13: A Night of Regret & Discovery originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
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Saturday, 30 June 2012
OTBN 13: A Night of Regret & Discovery
Although I was an avid and longtime reader of Dottie Gaiter and John Brecher’s weekly Wall Street Journal wine column, I never have participated in Open That Bottle Night (OTBN). Started in 2000, the event was created as an excuse to open a special wine that remains for whatever reason languishing in your cellar. I [...]
Deal Alert: 2009 Sanford Pinot Noir
Over the holidays I had a bunch of nice wines out to share with family. None drew more praise than a bottle of 2007 Sanford Pinot Noir.
Here are my notes on the 2007:
For me, this wine finds that elusive intersection between tasting really good and being high quality. Slightly darker than your average Pinot Noir. I get rich dark cherries, ripe strawberries, and slightly sweet baking spices on the nose. A really enjoyable mouth feel - ample presence but silky smooth. Higher than average viscosity: It's rich but has tremendous finesse. Never gets heavy. A real beauty. At 5 years of age, this is showing very nicely.
I liked it a lot. Guests went so gonzo for it I don't see how I could score it any lower. I don't think I've ever heard so many collective raves for a wine from this crowd [that appreciates wine].
93/100 WWP: Outstanding
It's hard to find this wine south of $30 regardless of vintage. In looking around a bit I found an amazing price on the 2009 vintage. 2009 is a great vintage for California Pinot and given the track record of this producer I'm willing to take a chance on buying some without tasting it first.
The price is $20.99/bottle at Esquin Wines, eligible for 5% off a straight 12 bottle case. Some retailers sell half bottles for more! (they assure me these are full bottles) Shipping costs vary depending on your location but top out at $44 for a case shipped to the east coast (they don't ship to MA, that would be illegal). $23.60 fully loaded or less depending on where you're located.
Esquin is based in Seattle and has a sister e-commerce site at MadWine.com. This wine is a newsletter special and isn't available online. The best way to order is old school over the phone:
Esquin Wine Merchants at 888-682-9463
Deal hound friends will note that this wine doesn't show up on wine-searcher.com without Wine Searcher Pro. Pro adds listings for retailers who don't sponsor their listings on Wine-Searcher and the ability to create email alerts for wines matching your desired criteria. For example you can create a listing for "2009 Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir that ships to MA for less than $60". That search might never turn up anything but it's worth a shot!
I'd love if you subscribed to The Wellesley Wine Press if you like hearing about wine deals like this.
Question of the Day: What do you think of this deal? Find any other good ones lately?
A Spitacular Competition!
For three days, our judges swirled, sniffed and spit their way through more than 3,500 wines from around the globe. Today they wrapped up by choosing the best of the best in each category. Results will be available next month, so stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy this compilation of expert spitters:
WBW 76: Barossa Boomerang
Not too long ago I drank quite a bit of Australian wine, particularly Shiraz. Given that this grape, also known as Syrah, expresses greatness in the Barossa Valley I could not pass an opportunity to revisit this region for this months’ Wine Blogging Wednesday. Our host, Adam from Wine Zag, proposed we look for any [...]
WBW 76: Barossa Boomerang originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
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Win Tickets to ZAP’s 2011 Grand Zinfandel Tasting at Fort Mason!
You heard correctly. Beyond Napa Valley is giving away 4 tickets to ZAP’s Grand Zinfandel Tasting at Fort Mason. All you have to do is write a Zinfandel-inspired Haiku. Click the link below for all of the details. We hope … Continue reading
Source: http://www.beyondnapavalley.com/blog/win-tickets-to-zaps-2011-grand-zinfandel-tasting-at-fort-mason/
2007 St. Emilion Grand Cru Classé
In this post you'll find an overview of the ratings of the 2007 St. Emilion Grand Cru Classé wines. We have gathered all ratings from Robert Parker, Decanter and Wine Spectator.
Source: http://www.wine4freaks.com/36/2007-st-emilion-grand-cru-classe/
Flatiron wines: my kind of shop
If I owned a wine shop, I’d stock it with wines from importers such as Kermit Lynch, Louis/Dressner, and Neal Rosenthal with a dollop of Burgundies from Becky Wasserman and a smattering of Spanish wines. I’d throw in some classic domestic wines and nouvelle vague ones too and aim for a few back vintages in [...]
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Caymus Wine Dinner Reveals Surprising Value Plays
Some of their more expensive wines were every bit as good as I hoped they'd be. And a couple of their more affordable wines showed absolutely spectacularly in an elegant setting.
Between the seminar and the dinner was a reception where Conundrum White was poured. According to Wagner, Conundrum was created to enjoy with Asian fusion cuisine. It's one of those wines that, I think, makes numerical ratings seem especially silly. Because either you like a slightly sweet fruity white wine or you don't. It's not a question of quality. It's a question of style. It carries a $24 release price and is readily available available at retail south of $20 thanks to 92,000 cases of the wine being made at last check (2007 vintage). They've recently introduced a Conundrum Red as well.
Wagner kicked off the evening by mentioning that Chef Daniel Bruce never makes the same dish twice for these wine dinners. The Boston Wine Festival runs from January to March and features some of the top wineries and the world. The Boston Harbor Hotel has these things down to a science. I thought the service was excellent.
Chardonnay
The first course was a Pan Roasted Cod Loin with a Georgia Sweet Pea and Chardonnay Sauce.
The 2010 Mer Soleil SILVER Unoaked Chardonnay was showing beautifully. Crisp and creamy. Beautiful. Chablis-like in style. Clean pineapple aromas and flavors. The wine ferments and is aged in cement tanks which they choose to denote with distinctive ceramic bottles. Very cool packaging and a tremendous effort, especially south of $20 retail. 91 points WWP: Outstanding
This was poured alongside the 2009 Mer Soleil Barrel-fermented Chardonnay which provided a chance to assess the affects of a varying oak regiment on the two Chardonnays. I normally like the creaminess some time in oak can provide Chardonnay but this one took on a bit of an untamed "feral" note that I wasn't crazy about. Underlying this, the two wines were quite similar but I definitely preferred the unoaked SILVER. 84 points WWP: Good
Pinot Noir
Next up was were the Pinot Noirs. Chef Bruce prepared a Flash Smoked Slow Roasted Long Island Duck Breast in a Tomato, Wild Mushroom, and Wild Leek Broth. It was a brilliant pairing.
It's hard to think of a more reliably delicious sub-$20 California Pinot Noir than Meiomi, and the 2010 Meiomi Pinot Noir is no exception. It's a pizza-night staple around our house, so seeing it "dressed up" in this setting was interesting. I'd previously assumed that Meiomi was a blend of the single vineyard Belle Glos wines. It's not. None of the fruit in Meiomi comes from Las Alturas, Clark & Telephone nor Taylor Lane. But it was showing so well. Bright, rich, and pure berry fruit. I love California Pinot Noir and after tasting a bunch of [outstanding] Cabernet Sauvignon this was a luscious return to comfort. 92/100 WWP: Outstanding
The Las Alturas is typically my favorite, so I was pleased to see them pouring the 2010 Belle Glos Las Alturas Pinot Noir. In line with prior vintages which so many of us have adored, it's got this distinctive slightly sweet spice note and tobacco leaf that blends beautifully with juicy fresh strawberry aromas and flavors. I thought this wine was outstanding as well, but to be honest I liked the Meiomi just as much. 92/100 WWP: Outstanding
A Family Winery
I was sitting next to Joe at the dinner so I got a chance to chat with him quite a bit. He's only 29 years old, but coming from a line of five generations of winemakers has clearly provided him with a wealth of knowledge he's putting to good work. He's got five (5!) kids of his own and, charmingly, stopped to take a picture to send home to his kids of a Lego man they'd sent with him with the audience in the background.
Belle Glos is named after Joe's 96 year old grandmother Lorna Belle Glos Wagner. Joe said she drinks "whatever she wants" but mostly Conundrum these days.
Joe's brother Charlie focuses on white wines for the family. They have two sisters who are increasingly getting into the business. Even though production levels have increased since their first publicly released vintage in 1972, it's still very much a family affair.
I asked him what other California Pinot Noir producers he'd recommend for folks who like the Belle Glos style. Three he mentioned included Pisoni, MacPhail, and Peter Michael Le Moulin Rouge. Check 'em out!
Cabernet Sauvignon
The main course was a Herb Rolled Char Grilled Prime Tenderloin with Bacon Tossed Marbled Potatoes, Baby Zuccini, and Spring Onions. Sorry, no picture. I must have enjoyed it before remembering to snap a photo!
It was served with two Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignons: 2005 and 2009. It was interesting to taste these wines from the earlier seminar again, from different bottles, and along with food. The 2009 settled down a bit when paired with food (I thought it was extremely fruit-forward at this point) and the 2005 was vibrant with the tenderloin. Gorgeous stuff.
Dessert
A Warm Nectarine Crostata with Honey Strawberry Coulis and Honey Ice Cream was paired with a 2004 Mer Soleil Late Harvest Viognier. It was a delicious end to the evening.
Conclusions and Recommendations
If there's one thing the wines in the Wagner line-up represent, it's the intersection of delicious, approachable, high quality wines. Their entry level wines provide an affordable window into their style of winemaking and their more expensive bottlings are often rewarding purchases.
The Meiomi Pinot Noir is hard to beat south of $20. And the Mer Soleil SILVER Unoaked Chardonnay is one I'll seek out again. Combined with the always-delicious Belle Glos Las Alturas Pinot Noir, these are some of my favorites value plays in the market.
The Boston Harbor Hotel does a tremendous job with these wine dinners. Check out the Boston Wine Festival next year when it comes around again.
Disclosure: Attendance on a complimentary blogger pass.
Coming up next on the WWP: Trip reports on Littorai and Kosta Browne. I'd love it if you SUBSCRIBED to be informed of new posts.
Friday, 29 June 2012
Tasting Leelanau 2012 – Tandem Ciders & Left Foot Charley
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE I first noticed Tandem Ciders on someone’s Facebook posting, and with just a little bit of investigation, realized that this would have to be must-visit for Kim and this taster. We’ve found that we have an affinity for artisanal ciders, and the scuttlebutt about this Suttons Bay producer was all positive, [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gangofpour/uncZ/~3/twGS3RjkOME/tandem-lfc
Tasting Leelanau 2012 – Tandem Ciders & Left Foot Charley
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE I first noticed Tandem Ciders on someone’s Facebook posting, and with just a little bit of investigation, realized that this would have to be must-visit for Kim and this taster. We’ve found that we have an affinity for artisanal ciders, and the scuttlebutt about this Suttons Bay producer was all positive, [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gangofpour/uncZ/~3/twGS3RjkOME/tandem-lfc
The future of wine labels? Nutrition facts
Moscato–or mosc-HOT-oh–is barely wine. In fact, the one above has a nutritional analysis as foods do–the first time I’ve seen that on wine. According to a representative at the importer, Boisset America, because this wine is less than 7% alcohol, it falls under FDA regulation rather than the TTB and thus had to place the [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GuSC/~3/F2sVq17djvQ/
The Real Reason Wine Bloggers Are Not Relevant To Advertisers
Almost all of us don’t treat blogging as a business. And those few who do find building a community around a wine blog very, very difficult. Without hundreds of thousands of pageviews a month, advertising on blogs of any topic is not a viable business. Source: Typepad Via: FERMENTATION There are are a grand total [...]
The Real Reason Wine Bloggers Are Not Relevant To Advertisers originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
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Shut the Front Door: A Vinsane, Pay-it-Forward, Drinks 4X the Price Wine Recommendation
The problem with sleuthing out good wine under $10 is the recommendations usually come with provisos like, “This is pretty good for the price,” or “This isn’t bad for the style of wine.” Rare is the time that a wine recommendation for vino under $10 is just, “This is a fantastic wine.”
Who can blame the wine recommender for their caveats and written sleights of hand when they’re left to tout the middling amongst the insipid; the redemptive within the felonious? It’s like the back-handed compliment from the parents of an axe murderer who note plaintively from the front stoop, “He has a good heart.”
Adding insult to this injury, it seems like nearly all domestic wines under $10 are manipulated to appeal to a demographic. Far too often, they are oak chipped to a formula, softened, vortexed and plumped back up into a wine beverage complete with a label that screams, “Benignly vague and blandly appealing. I am inoffensive to a large group of people.”
And, forget about pairing under $10 bottles of vino with food. Do so only if your idea of wine pairing centers on condiments with artificial coloring and HFCS, so duotone are the wine flavor profiles.
When it comes to what should be reliable international value wines, forget about it – most of them aren’t even has-beens, they never were. France and Italy – I’m talking to you. For a sawbuck, these are sad, middling, barely potable wines evocative of an athlete whose entire identity is wrapped up in jockdom, but for whom life’s fate never provided him acclaim beyond the local playground. The fact that these wines often taste like a sweaty gym sock may, in fact, be no small coincidence.
Harrumph.
What I want is what most wine consumers want: A non-spoofulated wine with quality that stands on its own—a good wine at $9.99 that is a good wine, period. No half-hearted caveats associated with it. If the wine pairs with dinner, instead of being a digestif, all the better. Tie me up, spank me and call me Shirley if this mystical and elusive under $10 wine also has any of the following characteristics: Organic, old vines, unfiltered, native yeast, judicious oak, and complexity whilst being food-friendly.
I’m pretty sure I won’t have to have any dalliances in the wine S&M dungeon save for one emerging country.
Recently, I started to see glimpses of where quality, inexpensive wines might be coming from in the future when I tasted through a sampling of wines from the Navarra region of Spain. One $5 bottle of wine was so screamingly good it defied the law of reason.
And, then, I received a recommendation for Masia de Bielsa’s 2009 Garnacha, a Spanish wine from the Campo de Borja area in the Aragon region of Spain, southeast of Navarre and La Rioja. Adam Japko, a wino friend and author of Wine-Zag, and I did some horse-trading on bottles and he threw in a bottle of wine in a wine shipment to me and noted, “Curious what you think of this…”
What do I think? I think I owe you favors to last a month of Sundays for turning me onto a beauty.
Of course, wine recommendations don’t happen in a vacuum and the Masia de Bielsa 2009 Garnacha is no different even if it follows a certain circuitous Internet-borne dynamic that seems unusual even in this day and age of “brand vs. land, there are no secret wine values anymore…” online battle.
Jose Pastor is a wunderkind (30 years old) wine importer with a fast growing reputation amongst wine insiders for his portfolio of Spanish wines that are typically natural in style – producers who farm organically when possible, emphasize terroir, use ambient yeasts, filter sparingly and use minimal oak. In other words, his wines, and especially his inexpensive wine selections, are the anti-brand. Or, should I say, “They’re the antidote to brand wines.” The good stuff.
Jose’s wines won’t have an end-cap in stores with promotional materials, nor will they follow you on Twitter or ply you with faux-flattery for a “Like” on Facebook. Ditto that for Pastor playing the points scoring game. He doesn’t do it. The wines and wineries in his portfolio simply represent something good and honest and rely on smart trade buyers who know good juice when they taste it and are interested in paying that forward to consumer’s one bottle at a time.
This formula isn’t a recipe for getting rich, but it is a recipe for long-term, slow-burning growth based on a purity of vision.
When Richard Schnitzlein, a longtime wine buyer in the greater Boston area, took over the wine section at Ferns Country store in Carlisle, MA in early 2011, he started to remake the selection of wines on offer and that meant much more diversity, spreading the selection from two distributors to 14 over a seven month period.
A part of that remaking was to engage Genuine Wine Selections, a wine distributor in Massachusetts, who carries the Jose Pastor portfolio.
When Genuine Wine Selections partner Dennis Quinn showed up at Ferns in the spring with samples to taste, the ’09 Bielsa was a part of the mix.
Enamored, Schnitzlein started stocking the wine. “Initially (the Bielsa) was a hand sell, but (it) soon became a wine that people were asking for,” he noted.
Japko was turned onto the Bielsa from Schnitzlein and mentioned the Bielsa on his site in June. A September Ferns promotion dropped the price on the Bielsa from $11.99 to 9.95 and that yielded 15 cases of the Bielsa moving through the door for Ferns including a stock-up from Japko.
Within a week of receiving my bottle from Japko, I had taken to the Internet to find this wine and I bought a ½ case online from Marketview Liquor in New York state who sells it for $7.99 a bottle.
I’ve gifted a bottle to a friend at work, and, well, I’m writing extensively about this vino, too – my own pay-it-forward juju for having been tipped off to this wine.
The moral of this story? Finding a gem of a wine for $10 or under isn’t a hopeless process, but you do have to sift a lot of muck to find the gold nugget. In my opinion, you’re more likely to find a gem by keeping your ears open for word of mouth recommendations from wine-inclined friends or a local wine shop then to take to the wine aisles of your supermarket wine section playing brand roulette. Here, the internet and Wine-searcher.com is your friend, as well. In addition, Spain is a country that is producing some excellent wines across all price tiers, and my very recent and very anecdotal track record at the lower-end has been very good. And, finally, it pays to know people. It pays to know what Jose Pastor is all about, and it pays to know the Richard Schnitzlein’s and Adam Japko’s of the world who freely share where to find the good stuff, even if finding the good stuff requires an Importer in California, a wine buyer in Massachusetts, a generous friend and internet ecommerce.
2009 Bielsa Vinas Viejas Garnacha
Huge, pure nose with mulberry juice, black cherry, orange peel, earth and a meaty savory quality that gives way to an expressive palate with plum, black cherry, spice and fresh squeezed orange juice. The finish lingers with plum, pepper and earthiness. This is a varietally correct, gorgeous, natural, unfiltered wine that screams for food and would be a bargain at 4X the price. Highly recommended. At under $10 a bottle, you’d be foolhardy not to find this wine.
2007 St. Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé
In this post you'll find an overview of the ratings of the 2007 Medoc 2. Grand Cru Classé. We have gathered all ratings from Robert Parker, Decanter and Wine Spectator.
Source: http://www.wine4freaks.com/35/2007-st-emilion-premier-grand-cru-classe/
Thursday, 28 June 2012
Wine & The Connected Consumer
Randall Grahm is one of the true characters of the American wine scene. A self-styled terroirist, intuitive branding genius and all around eccentric, Grahm has taken his Bonny Doon Vineyard on quite a ride over nearly the past 30 years. After setting out in 1983 to make great Pinot Noir in California, Grahm was drawn [...]
Wine & The Connected Consumer originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
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2007 St. Emilion Grand Cru Classé
In this post you'll find an overview of the ratings of the 2007 St. Emilion Grand Cru Classé wines. We have gathered all ratings from Robert Parker, Decanter and Wine Spectator.
Source: http://www.wine4freaks.com/36/2007-st-emilion-grand-cru-classe/
Academy of Wine Communications-FLX: February Meeting this Thursday, 2/25/10
Update: February meeting canceled due to winter storm warning for the region. We’re working on setting up our next meeting for Thursday, 3/18/10. Watch here for more details. February’s meeting of the Finger Lakes Chapter of the Academy of Wine Communications will be held on Thursday, February 25, 2010 at Three Brothers Wineries & Estates [...]
Source: http://familylovewine.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/awc-meeting-this-thursday-22510/
On Being an Enthusiast and Sharing Useful Information
An excellent blog post popped up in my Flipboard Google Reader feed this morning. It has nothing to do with wine but it was useful, interesting and made me think a lot about the things I write about here on this blog.
The post is about procuring new wheels and tires for a BMW by Chris Parente. The steps Chris went though researching, ordering, tracking, negotiating, receiving and assembling the order were very familiar to me. They're eerily similar to what we go through as wine deal hounds.
With the exception of installation, I do all of these things when I'm buying wine. Sure, there's the occasional impulse buy at a local wine shop or grocery store, but the bulk of my buying these days is online, in response to email offers, or winery direct. Like Chris with his interest in specific wheels and tires, once you've gone Wine Berserkers you want very specific wines.
What I liked about the post is that he gave specific examples of resources he used and how he went about the process. I can see my way to leveraging his techniques and having a more enjoyable experience by getting better products and service at the best possible prices. Coincidentally, if I had once sentence to describe the mission of this blog that would be it.
What got me thinking the most about his post, though, is the question of whether it's worth it. Or rather, whether I'm interested in getting into another high involvement hobby. You can tell how much time and research went into tires and wheels for one of his cars - imagine extending that across the entire enthusiast experience. You've got to want it and it's got to be a priority to do it well.
I spend hours each week thinking about wine. Reading articles, blogs, consulting and contributing to CellarTracker, looking for deals on wine-searcher.com. Buying it, drinking it, visiting wineries, attending events - writing about it.
When I need new tires or wheels I just got down to DirectTire and they take care of it. Similarly when I needed a new bike for our 7 year old recently. We just went to a couple shops nearby and bought what seemed to be a good fit for our needs. And maybe that's fine for the occasional purchase. Spend the time saved burning up the web for the best deal on healthier pursuits. Life in balance, right?
But I wouldn't mind being more savvy in more domains. And that's why I enjoy acquiring and sharing knowledge via blogs and social networks. Mainstream publications just don't cover this stuff in a way that's as focused on the consumer experience.
You can't go too deep into too many hobbies. But you can learn a little from someone who's deep in a topic and can share useful information. Chris does that and reading his post reminded me to try to do a little more of that here on this blog.
Check it his blog here: Work, Wine and Wheels
You can follow Chris on Twitter: @cparente
I'd love it if you SUBSCRIBED to The Wellesley Wine Press
PS This post was written on an iPad with Blogsy.
The post is about procuring new wheels and tires for a BMW by Chris Parente. The steps Chris went though researching, ordering, tracking, negotiating, receiving and assembling the order were very familiar to me. They're eerily similar to what we go through as wine deal hounds.
With the exception of installation, I do all of these things when I'm buying wine. Sure, there's the occasional impulse buy at a local wine shop or grocery store, but the bulk of my buying these days is online, in response to email offers, or winery direct. Like Chris with his interest in specific wheels and tires, once you've gone Wine Berserkers you want very specific wines.
What I liked about the post is that he gave specific examples of resources he used and how he went about the process. I can see my way to leveraging his techniques and having a more enjoyable experience by getting better products and service at the best possible prices. Coincidentally, if I had once sentence to describe the mission of this blog that would be it.
What got me thinking the most about his post, though, is the question of whether it's worth it. Or rather, whether I'm interested in getting into another high involvement hobby. You can tell how much time and research went into tires and wheels for one of his cars - imagine extending that across the entire enthusiast experience. You've got to want it and it's got to be a priority to do it well.
I spend hours each week thinking about wine. Reading articles, blogs, consulting and contributing to CellarTracker, looking for deals on wine-searcher.com. Buying it, drinking it, visiting wineries, attending events - writing about it.
When I need new tires or wheels I just got down to DirectTire and they take care of it. Similarly when I needed a new bike for our 7 year old recently. We just went to a couple shops nearby and bought what seemed to be a good fit for our needs. And maybe that's fine for the occasional purchase. Spend the time saved burning up the web for the best deal on healthier pursuits. Life in balance, right?
But I wouldn't mind being more savvy in more domains. And that's why I enjoy acquiring and sharing knowledge via blogs and social networks. Mainstream publications just don't cover this stuff in a way that's as focused on the consumer experience.
You can't go too deep into too many hobbies. But you can learn a little from someone who's deep in a topic and can share useful information. Chris does that and reading his post reminded me to try to do a little more of that here on this blog.
Check it his blog here: Work, Wine and Wheels
You can follow Chris on Twitter: @cparente
I'd love it if you SUBSCRIBED to The Wellesley Wine Press
PS This post was written on an iPad with Blogsy.
On Self-Actualizing Wine Interest, Purple Pages, the Kindle Fire and Gutenberg
While it has been cited that we’re living in a “Golden Age” of wine writing, what is interesting to me these days is NOT the subject of wine writing.
My interest is in a broader understanding of the consumption of the wine writer’s output – self-identified wine interest by consumers who are seeking out wine information. This is a seismic shift more important than the vagaries of who writes what, where, when and for how much.
Something much bigger and amorphous is at work.
It used to be that people self-identified by their job or some other affiliation that produced recognition from others, a status-marker of sorts—“I work for IBM, I have two kids and we’re Protestant.”
However, nowadays, people, principally online (which is moving center stage in our life), are self-identifying by their personal interests which, often times, diverges greatly from their profession and their family situation.
Look at Twitter profiles or a body of status updates from somebody on Facebook. People are no longer duotone and defined by work and family. They’re multi-layered and complex and defined by their interests. The modern day self-description goes something like this: “Passionate about wine and travel. I build furniture, follow the San Francisco Giants, and work in a non-profit by day. I also volunteer to ensure clean water for sub-Saharan Africans. Dad to two wonderful kids”
In diamond-cutting terms, it’s more Peruzzi than table cut and it seems we’re all on a journey to be the most interesting man person in the world.
This kaleidoscopic advancement in sense-of-self is a very important development because, on an individual level, we tend to project externally how we see ourselves in the mirror. By stating publicly online that we’re a wine enthusiast, a foodie, a jazz lover, who does dog rescue and loves college football with a fascination for all things digital, it’s like writing down a goal. A goal written down means something to most people and people are likely to actuate their activities around it, even if aspirationally.
This is a very subtle point and I hope I’m conveying it faithfully: Societally, we’re changing how we view ourselves, we are stating how we view ourselves and consequently we’re more likely to pursue knowledge around those interests because we’ve put it out there.
In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, we’re all self-actualizing.
So, when it comes to wine writing, while I’m very happy for Alder Yarrow’s assignment in writing a monthly column for Jancis Robinson’s Purple Pages, I also tend to look at it within a much broader context because there will be more Alder Yarrow Horatio Alger-like stories in the years to come.
More to the point however, and within a bigger picture, what Alder writes now and in the future on his own site or at Jancis’ site is likely going to be viewed by an increasingly larger audience who, based on the aforementioned self-actualization, have become more inclined to seek a wide-range of information that supports a myriad of personal interests, including wine.
This online growth in information-seeking is, indeed, a very good thing particularly for the wine business who is caught up in a focus on Gen. Y, when the more important point is that there is a mass of people of all ages who have increasingly ready access to information online that allows them to easily pierce the veil of wine. And, the implications for that for shouldn’t be understated because the view of the wine world is likely to be altered to be much more inclusive of all types of viewpoints – think the streets of New York instead of Pottery Barn.
The Kindle Fire tablet by Amazon.com may represent the next step in this evolution, driving the potentiality of mass on-the-move content delivery. No, it’s not as important as the printing press or any other God Complex hyperbole that is assigned to Steve Jobs, but it’s an important step forward nonetheless.
Where laptop computers are functional machines designed to execute work, and tablets (like the iPad) are a lightweight, portable device that act as a multi-functional hybrid between a smartphone and a laptop, here comes the Kindle Fire which is a device designed almost exclusively for content consumption, all kinds of content – blogs, digital magazines, digital books, videos, music, etc.
The Kindle Fire, to me, is a device that enhances the trend we’re seeing in the increased complexity of how we define ourselves because here’s a device that lets users pursue content around their interests anytime, anywhere and it’s reasonably affordable at $199, at least half the cost of other tablets on the market.
For example purposes, let’s say I have an interest in German Riesling, but I don’t really want to buy another paper-based book because I already have a stack of 14 books at my bedside that I haven’t read (or, perhaps, I don’t buy that many books, period). Likewise, it isn’t convenient for me to read a book on my laptop because, well, that’s not really a form factor that works for me because I’m already hunched over my laptop for 12 hours a day. In addition, I don’t want to print out a 150 page pdf because that’s paper I have to carry around. Previously, with all of the aforementioned caveats, I would have let a deep dive into knowing more about German Riesling be a fleeting thought—an opportunity that would lay fallow.
Ah, but the Kindle Fire will let me consume this German Riesling content in a nice, portable, convenient, lightweight manner that is designed to do expressly that. I’m now looking forward to pouring through Terry Theise’s 2011 German Riesling catalog and reading part II of Mosel Fine Wines 2010 vintage report.
All of this distills down to an essential takeaway: When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with movable type, the tangible output was the ability to have ready access to print books. However, the bigger impact was the spread of knowledge which led to the Renaissance period which inalterably changed the culture of the world.
That’s where I think we’re at now, particularly with wine and the spread of information. The conversation can be about who is writing and where they come from, but the conversation with far greater impact is what the end game is for this mass adoption of personal nuance lived out loud.
In simpler terms, the wine writer, like Descartes in the Renaissance era, had a great, lasting influence, but the Renaissance period was much bigger than Descartes.
The key for the wine business in this seismic shift in wine affiliation and the pursuit of information thereof is to decide whether they want to support the status quo and perpetuate business as usual or open themselves to all kinds of thought.
Wine writers already are and so are the consumers seeking out this information.
Littorai Visit and Tasting Report
Littorai is a Sonoma based winery focused on the sustainable production of high end Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Founded in 1993 by Heidi and Ted Lemon, they seek out sites with outstanding potential then let those vineyards reveal their unique character in the wines they produce.
I visited Littorai a month or so ago and got a chance to see first hand what makes them special. When you talk about "off the beaten path" in Sonoma it has an entirely different meaning than in Napa. If you think a small mailbox with a family name is charming, try visiting Littorai. They take take it to the next level. Ask for a visit and you'll be greeted with directions and a gate access code for a property you'd never find on your own with no signage whatsoever.
When I visited I met with assistant winemaker John Wilson who most recently worked with highly regarded Thomas Rivers Brown of Schrader/Outpost/Rivers Marie fame. He took me for a tour around the thirty acre site - only three of which is dedicated to vines in the form of The Pivot vineyard. The site is also home to Littorai's winery which is built with hay bale walls and features gravity flow wine movement.
We tasted through the Littorai Chardonnays first. Ted Lemon has a great line in the video embedded below along the lines of "Chardonnay's first duty is to make you forget red wine." These white wines were brilliant and delicious and made me think I should drink more white wine - especially Chardonnay of this style. They're flavorful and powerful yet elegant and light. Really pretty.
The Pinot Noirs showed fabulously as well, each with different characteristics that rang true to the Littorai focus of letting sites speak for themselves. All of the Littorai single vineyard Pinot Noirs are made exactly the same way. The only difference is the site.
My only complaint with the tasting experience is that it was a little chilly so it was hard to differentiate the Pinots as much as I'd have liked to. The room felt south of 55F and I like to taste Pinot in the low to mid 60Fs.
When I got home I had a chance to sit down and spend some quality time with a 2010 Littorai Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. It was a beauty. Here are my thoughts on that wine:
13.3% alcohol
$38
Aromatically expressive immediately upon opening with rounded edges of strawberry and raspberry fruit, spice box, and tea notes. Elegant on the palate with a touch of acidity and tannic grip, it's a pleasure to drink.
Serious, but not overly so. This wine succeeds in finding the intersection between being terroir-driven and letting the site speak for itself and revealing the California sunshine. A tremendous introduction to the producer.
93/100 WWP: Outstanding
Lemon was named winemaker of the year in 2010 by The San Francisco Chronicle. Check out this excellent piece by Jon Bonne.
Check out this outstanding video with wine director Raj Parr of Sandhi Wines and Ted Lemon from Littorai:
(try http://vimeo.com/39280943 if the video doesn't embed sucessfully)
Littorai's wines can be hard to track down. You can do a wine-searcher.com search for retailers in MA that sell the wine but you won't currently find any. But check out The Urban Grape in Chestnut Hill if you're in the area. They've got a bunch of 'em. Case club?
You can sign up for their mailing list by visiting their website: http://littorai.com
Question of the Day: Have you visited Littorai or tasted their wines? If so, what did you think? Either way, what are some of your favorite terroir-driven California producers?
Winners, Losers, Surprises and Upsets: Tasting 2009 Pinot Noir Blind
Would I be able to pick my favorites out of the line-up? Would I be able to differentiate California from Oregon and elsewhere? Would my favorite be a cheap wine - and make me feel like a fool for spending so much energy chasing after and exploring increasingly obscure producers the past few years?
The line-up included producers I'm familiar with and enjoy like Sojourn, Belle Glos, and Loring. Familiar names like Patricia Green, Melville, and Calera. Some I was looking forward to trying for the first time - especially Kutch. Some old world Pinot Noirs, including a few Burgundies, were thrown into the mix as well. And a low-priced ringer: Castle Rock.
All of the wines in the tasting were 2009s, and the focus was primarily on California. Wine Spectator has called 2009 California Pinot Noir the best vintage ever. 2009 red Burgundy is said to be an amazingly fruit forward vintage. A perfect time for folks like me to explore the region. 2009 Oregon Pinot Noir hasn't received the accolades 2008 did, but 2009 is a warmer vintage and the wines are more generous on release as a result. More like 2006 Oregon Pinot Noir - which I liked.
The wines were tasted blind in 3 flights with the wines assorted randomly. We knew the wines being tasted and their price points but we didn't know which of the 17 wines was which.
Flight 1
| Patricia Green Estate Pinot Noir (Oregon) | $35 |
| Kutch Savoy Vineyard Pinot Noir (Anderson Valley, CA) | $68 |
| Montinore Estate Pinot Noir (Oregon) | $28 |
| Friedrich Becker Estate Spatburgunder (Pfalz, Germany) | $25 |
| Sojourn Sangiacomo Vineyard Vineyard Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast, CA) | $50 |
| Brewer-Clifton Clos Pepe Vineyard Pinot Noir (Santa Rita Hills, CA) | $60 |
Thoughts on the flight: Tons of stylistic diversity here. Guessing a lot of these aren't from California. Probably a couple are from Burgundy or Oregon.
Flight 2
| Calera Pinot Noir (Central Coast, CA) | $26 |
| Belle Glos Clark & Telephone Vineyard (Santa Maria Valley, CA) | $43 |
| A Tribute to Grace Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyards Grenache (CA) | $42 |
| Domaine Eden Pinot Noir (Santa Cruz Mountains, CA) | $32 |
| Loring Graham Family Vineyard Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley, CA) | $48 |
Not as much diversity here. Thinking all of these are from California. Good wines but no huge standouts.
Flight 3
| Lignier-Michelot Cuvee Bertin Gevrey-Chambertin (Burgundy) | $70 |
| Castle Rock California Cuvee Pinot Noir (CA) | $11 |
| Sojourn Wohler Vineyard Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast, CA) | $50 |
| 2010 Calatroni Pinot Nero (Italy) | $18 |
| Melville Terraces Pinot Noir (Santa Rita Hills, CA) | $56 |
| Bouvier Bourgogne Le Chapitre Gevrey-Chambertin (Burgundy) | $23 |
Best flight of the night. Diverse and a couple of standout what I'm guessing are California Pinot Noirs.
Winners
The wines from Sojourn, Brewer-Clifton, and Melville showed well for me personally. And Sojourn and Brewer-Clifton showed well according to the group at large.
Losers
Belle Glos caught my eye on the list going in. I though it would be a benchmark wine of sorts that I might even be able to pick out having tried several bottles of their single vineyard wines and detecting a consistent stylistic pattern. But, speaking in March Madness terms, it was upset in the first round. The wines from Oregon (Patricia Green and Montinore Estate) didn't do particularly well either.
Surprises
A late entry - an $18 Italian Pinot Nero - tied the Brewer-Clifton for wine of the night. Quite an accomplishment for such an affordable wine. And who says bigger wines always show better in this kind of tasting?
Upsets
I'd never tried Kutch but finishing near the back of the pack - and weighing in at $68 - has me spooked. Also, the most expensive wine in the tasting - a $70 Burgundy - didn't do much to impress either.
Tasting Notes (sorted from my favorite to least favorite)
2009 Sojourn Wohler Vineyard Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast, CA) $50 94 WWP: OustandingTasting Note:
Powerful with ripe strawberry and fresh produce aromas. Caramel notes remain in the glass after a couple sips, but it's balanced with fresh fruit and layers of more serious structure. Complex. Love it.
Observations:
Tied for 2nd amongst the group, this was my favorite wine of the night, and just a bit better than the Melville Terraces in the same flight. The Sojourn showed a purity of fruit and balance that others were lacking. Pleased to see this producer come out on top.
2009 Melville Terraces Pinot Noir (Santa Rita Hills, CA) $56 93 WWP: OutstandingTasting Note:
Ooo - pretty. Pure California. Round. A little heat. Is this Melville or Belle Glos perhaps?
Observations:
I've enjoyed Melville's entry level bottling (~$30) even though they occasionally have some rough edges and a little heat. This one was very nice. Edged out by the Sojourn because I thought the Melville's fruit was obscured just a touch behind what seemed like a fairly substantial oak regiment.
2009 Brewer-Clifton Clos Pepe Vineyard Pinot Noir (Santa Rita Hills, CA) $60 92 WWP: OutstandingTasting Note:
Powerful flavors but balanced nicely with a good amount of acidity. Really nice. With a touch of heat it clings to the glass. But it's vibrant. This could be Sojourn. Or Belle Glos?
Observations:
I had no experience with Brewer-Clifton prior to this tasting. I hear the winemaker is the same as Melville so maybe it's not surprising to see them near each other in my rank order. A little on the spendy side but I'd buy more of this if I could find it in the $40s retail.
2009 Domaine Eden Pinot Noir (Santa Cruz Mountains, CA) $32 91 WWP: Outstanding
Tasting Note:
Limited aromatically but radiant and flavorful. Elegant. Pretty. If this is California, it's doing it in a restrained style. Kutch?
Observations:
A nice surprise here from an affordable producer I'd never heard of. And from the Santa Cruz Mountains too. If this is what I think Kutch would taste like after reading about Kutch, and this wine is quite a bit more affordable, I'll definitely be seeking this one out.
2009 Sojourn Sangiacomo Vineyard Vineyard Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast, CA) $50 90 WWP: Outstanding
Tasting Note:
Happy magenta color but the flavors are melancholy. Beautiful nose of black cherry, raspberries, and mushrooms. Secondary flavors of cola and coconut. Long finish. Like it.
Observations:
Another winner for Sojourn and looking back on the notes it sounds like one of the most compelling wines of the night. Would definitely buy again and recommend others check out Sojourn. They've got one of the most consumer-friendly mailing lists I've come across.
2009 Loring Graham Family Vineyard Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley, CA) $48 90 WWP: Outstanding
Tasting Note:
Dark in color. Caramel, then strawberries and cranberries. Some rough edges. Is this Sojourn? Might be a little much, but it tastes really good. Could this be Belle Glos?
Observations:
A solid showing here for Loring and the tasting notes are not too surprising having tried a number of their wines from this and recent vintages. Along with Siduri I consider Loring to be a bell weather value-priced high quality California Pinot Noir producer. The single vineyard bottlings climb up a bit in price. As with many single vineyard wines I'm not sure they're always worth it. Another consumer-friendly mailing list to check out.
2010 Calatroni Pinot Nero (Italy) $18 89 WWP: Very GoodTasting Note:
Oregon? Bubble gum. Don't think it's got that California Pinot Noir flavor profile. Nice, but not my favorite.
Observations:
Tied for 1st among the group. That's saying something for an Italian wine in a line-up of stacked California wines costing many times more. At $18 I'd try this one again if I could find it. Very interesting. Try to find it on Wine-Searcher
2009 Calera Pinot Noir (Central Coast, CA) $26 88 WWP: Very Good
Tasting Note:
Lively fresh fruit. Highish viscosity. Probably California. Straightforward. Tasty.
Observations:
Tied for 3rd in the group. Pretty much in line with what I wrote when I tasted this non-blind for the first time a couple weeks ago. I like this around $20 and my enthusiasm would increase more closer to $15. Can't see my way to the 92 point rating and accolades Robert Parker bestowed on this one but it is very good in my opinion.
2009 Friedrich Becker Estate Spatburgunder (Pfalz, Germany) $25 88 WWP: Very Good
Tasting Note:
Think this one is from Oregon. A little green and twangy. Low viscosity. Pretty, but not my favorite.
Observations:
Affordable and interesting to try a Pinot Noir from Germany.
2009 Castle Rock California Cuvee Pinot Noir (CA) $11 88 WWP: Very Good
Tasting Note:
Very enjoyable and surely from California. Liked it a lot but it lacks some markings I look for in California Pinot Noir flavor-wise. A little dusty and quirky.
Observations:
Pretty strong showing here for a widely available wine that can be found significantly south of $10 if you look around.
Bouvier Bourgogne Le Chapitre Gevrey-Chambertin (Burgundy) $23 88 WWP: Very Good
Tasting Note:
Leuden's cherry cough drops which I tend to like, along with some vegetal components that knocked it down a bit. Is this Grenache?
Observations:
Tied for 2nd in the group. An affordable Burgundy with some things I liked and others I didn't.
A Tribute to Grace Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyards Grenache (CA) $42 87 WWP: Very Good
Tasting Note:
Tied for 3rd in the group. Light in color. Muted nose. Some quirky notes. Germany? Not California.
Observations:
Well this one confused me. I was surprised to see a California Grenache so light in color compared to Pinot Noirs. Interesting.
Lignier-Michelot Cuvee Bertin Gevrey-Chambertin (Burgundy) $70 86 WWP: Very Good
Tasting Note:
Flinty with quirky bubble gum notes. Not bad but quite a few off notes.
Observations:
I think I said at the time, "typical Burgundy: An expensive wine nobody really cares much for". Nobody at the tasting had anything nice to say about this one and it was the most expensive wine tasted. I know it's a far reaching generalization to bag on Burgundy and some day I'll come back and laugh at myself for being resistant to Burgundy's charms, but this one did little to compel me to go deeper into Burgundy. The Wine Advocate rated this wine 90-92 points.
Belle Glos Clark & Telephone Vineyard (Santa Maria Valley, CA) $43 85 WWP: Very Good
Tasting Notes:
Smoky. Some slight nail polish notes distract. A really nice wine but too many off notes. Definitely California.
Observations:
Wow. What a huge surprise to see a single vineyard Belle Glos show so poorly blind when I've found their wines to be so utterly (and reliably) delicious. I will say that the Clark & Telephone is my least favorite of the 3 single vineyard Pinot Noirs they produce (Las Alturas being the favorite, and Taylor Lane being the second favorite).
I was disturbed by this result so I opened another bottle of it the next night at home. While I can see why I wrote the things I did, when tasting on its own there's no way I would have rated it this low. This wine has a unique style. It's bold and yes some of the notes are a little less than pure fruit. I'd probably rate the bottle I tasted from at home 90 points. Blind tasting is humbling once again.
Kutch Savoy Vineyard Pinot Noir (Anderson Valley, CA) $68 85 WWP: Very Good
Tasting Note:
For a moment I thought this wine might be corked but it wasn't. Pungent with fruit that's muted and dominated by menthol (spearmint?) aromas. Low viscosity. Don't think this is from California. Quirky.
Observations:
Perhaps more of a disappointment than the Belle Glos. I'd never tried Kutch before and I just finished a month-long search to acquire some. Now I'm wishing I'd shown more restraint. I've read that their wines used to be bigger but were showing more restraint in a Rhys-like manner lately. Come to think of it I wasn't too thrilled with a bottle of Rhys I opened recently either. Definitely interested in trying more but will try my best not to fall under the spell of the pretty label.
Patricia Green Estate Pinot Noir (Oregon) $35 84 WWP: Good
Tasting Note:
Perfume nose. Falls a little flat on the palate. Kind of fake-tasting. Tastes like California but not high quality?
Observations:
Totally missed the mark here. I had a bottle of this ('08 vintage) and thought it was good but typical Oregon Pinot Noir. My tasting note makes it sound like I thought maybe this was the Castle Rock.
Montinore Estate Pinot Noir (Oregon) $28 78 WWP: Average
Tasting Note:
Not from California and possibly flawed. Smells of damp cellar floor or Home Depot near the fertilizer.
Observations:
Well, it wasn't from California. I didn't hear anyone else say TCA so I don't think it was flawed. But it was funky.
Conclusions and Recommendations
What a tasting - full of winners and losers, surprises and shockers. Once again blind tasting proves to be a valuable tool for removing bias and analyzing wines without preconceived notions.
It was reassuring to see the Sojourn wines show well in this blind format. But not just for their brawn (some call them a Cab-drinker's Pinot Noir) but for the diversity they showed. They're definitely allowing the personality of each site to be reflected in their wines, but showing them in their best possible light. Like a portrait photographer.
The wines from Brewer-Clifton and Melville, along with some other recent favorable experiences from the region renew my enthusiasm for exploring Pinot Noir from Southern California. They're often plush and forward but when done well like these they can be quite enjoyable.
Both the Sojourn Wohler and the Brewer-Clifton Clos Pepe showed well with the group.
The $18 Italian Pinot Noir tying for 1st in the group was quite an accomplishment. I liked it (but didn't love it) and would be open to trying more Italian wine made from this grape.
The Domaine Eden (91 Wine Advocate, 91 WWP) is an intriguing play. I'd like to learn more about them.
If you like California Pinot Noir I'll be writing up a trip report from a recent trip to Sonoma. I'd love it if you subscribed to the Wellesley Wine Press to hear about those visits.
Question of the Day: What do you think about these results? Or blind tasting in general?
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