Wine Whines

Bulgaria, Restaurant Review: Uno Enoteca

2008-07-14T01:18:00.000-07:00

The wines of Bulgaria have mostly been impressing me with their value but not their complexity, to say the least. This has become so universally true that I have coined the phrase "Bulgarian Soft" to refer to them in my notes. It was time to venture forth to one of the better restaurants in the country to see what throwing money at it would bring.

What follows is a detailed review of the restaurant, but only a generic review of of the wines. As always I save the wine specifics for the readers of my newsletter. It is free and it is emailed so there is no trees to kill, and it comes with a password to unlock the full data base of all of my wine tasting notes. You may sign up for it here.

The restaurant that received our patronage this evening was the Uno Enoteca in Sofia, Bulgaria. This was the first white linen restaurant we have had a chance to visit in Bulgaria, and we had a great time. The staff was attentive and friendly, and everyone did their best to ensure that we enjoyed ourselves.

The food was simple. A little too simple for my taste. We tried ordering more Continental style fare, but even early on a Friday night, the kitchen had run out of our favorites. We opted then to try the more traditional Bulgarian style of dining, which they refer to as BBQ and I put under the heading of: kill it and grill it.

The Muscat from the Thracian region we opened the dinner with was delightful. Aromatic but crisp and dry. I have really been enjoying the many Muscats I have tried in Bulgaria. They all tend towards the drier side, and have been more successful than the other aromatic style whites I have tried.

I started with rabbit stuffed in a nest of potatoes, which I had high hopes for. It was alas, rather bland. There was no sauce at all, just a tiny piece of rabbit in the center of half dollar sized fried shredded potatoes. This was served with warm slices of cucumbers and carrots. There was no hint of herb, spice or apparently even salt in the dish.

My wife settled for a carpaccio of beef when we learned the carpaccio of duck was sold out. It was served in the traditional manner, with shavings of parmesan cheese and arugula, with a drizzle of balsamic and olive oil. This is mostly notable because olive oil is not common in Bulgaria, and it was good to see. The carpaccio was fresh, thin, and pretty much like every other time we have had it. Nothing to rave about, but perfectly nice.

Next up in the wine department we had a relatively pricey Merlot / Cab blend. At 140 Bulgarian Leva (around $115) it was the most expensive wine we have tried, even given the usual restaurant markup. It lived up the the "Bulgarian Soft" moniker, but with delightful fruit and more complexity we had seen in other Bulgarian wines.

I am a fan of the soft style in wines, Zinfandels and Pinot Noir usually being more to my taste than tannic Cabs. If your tastes are similar than you will enjoy a foray into Bulgarian wines. If you expect well defined tannins in your Cabs and Merlots, you are likely to be disappointed. I have only tried a dozen or so examples to date, but this seems to be the pattern I am noticing.

For our main course we had grilled meats. Lamb and a veal steak, ordered by weight. They came unadorned with limp grilled vegetables their only accompaniment. They were cooked perfectly, but they were, to us, rather boring. No complaints, it is just a matter of taste, and the Bulgarian love of grilled meats is not one that we really share.

The house kindly surprised us with a taste of an Austrian dessert wine, but I never got a good look at the bottle, and it happened too quickly to get details. Suffice it to say it was rich and flavorful and one of the highlights of the evening.

We finished with a small chocolate soufflé that was perfectly nice. I prefer to see them served with a bit of creme anglais, but once a saucier.... Not everyone share my penchant for sauce on everything. In this case it was more like sauce on nothing.

The ambiance of Uno Enoteca was delightful. With outdoor seating under an awning making the most of the warm summer night. The fresh air also helped disperse the ever present cigar and cigarette smoke that is a fact of life pretty much everywhere outside of the US.

The service was very good, in fact the only Western European service we have experienced in Eastern Europe to date. Usually the wait staff do their best not to be at all obtrusive, which looks a lot like being ignored to our standards. At Uno they were attentive, knew how to pour wine without over pouring, and did a fine job of making sure that everything was as perfect as it could be.

I definitely recommend Uno Enoteca to anyone dining in Sofia, and if your tastes run close to mine I can only hope that their full menu is available when you visit.

Bulgaria: Misket Varnenski

2008-07-01T05:59:00.000-07:00

I got to try a new grape variety today, Misket Varnenski. One of the down sides of traveling is that I have limited research resources with me. As far as I can tell this is a recent crossing of the widely planted white Bulgarian grape Dimiat and the ever popular Riesling.

The name certainly evokes Muscat, and the Varnenski either suggests or literally means "From Varna" (one of the famous beach towns of Bulgaria) but the wine I tried had nothing in common with the venerable Muscat grape. In fact it had nothing in common with Riesling for that matter. Perhaps it takes after Dimiat, I will have to search out a few examples and see for myself.

The wine I tried was from one of my favorite producers, so while there may well be better examples, I had high hopes. There was nothing wrong with the wine, there just was nothing special about it either.

I have an expression I use when I am speaking into my tape recording at wine tastings. It is designed to keep the winemakers or representatives from knowing exactly what I am saying. The term is NVNV and it stands for "no vice, no virtue."

That sums up this wine, and likely the grape from which it hails, perfectly.

It is not a bad little wine, it just has no real character. It tastes exactly like white wine, and save for a hint of dust in the nose and aftertaste has almost no specific flavors that I can find.

Why would a wine industry embrace such a grape? The usual, it grows well, it makes consistent wines, and it is probably cost efficient.

At least one technical report I found on the wine referred to its pleasant muscat like quality. I think the name fooled them into finding something that isn't there, or they had a far different example than the one I tried.

Am I bashing the grape? Not at all, it really is pleasant and that is saying more than a lot of other varieties can boast.

I have also read references to a red variety of Misket, I will keep my eyes open for it. Muscat also can be found in dark varieties, although as I said Muscat doesn't seem to be related to this grape variety (unless Dimiat is related to Muscat). They may well just be using the similar sounding name for marketing purposes.

If anyone has more information on this variety or Dimiat for that matter, please drop me a note or leave a comment.

Just one more vinous adventure in Bulgaria.

A taste of Greek wine and tourism

2008-06-26T02:47:00.000-07:00

I just had a little jaunt across the border into Greece. I got to taste a very nice Greek wine, and I had a not particularly Greek dinner at a very elegant Greek restaurant in Thessaloniki. While I do not often post restaurant reviews, I do have a few words to say on the subject.

For many of us the thought of Greek wine brings up recollections of pine needles and disinfectant. There is a world of Greek wine beyond just Retsina, and while my most recent foray was limited to a wine list it bears pointing out that there is a modern and thriving wine industry in Greece.

The wine list was full of the usual and all to ubiquitous Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlots that you would expect to find anywhere, except these were all of Greek origin. I didn't explore these transplants to the Hellenic wine scene, opting instead for a more traditional bottle of Asyrtiko .

Speaking of Cabernet Sauvignon's recent emergence in Greece, a recent book by Miles Lambert-Gocs "Desert Island Wines" suggests that Cab may just be tracing back its roots to its ancestral origins in Greece.

I won't do my usual song and dance about how Cab, Merlot and Chard are eroding the once varied landscape of international wines, honest. Suffice it to say that I have yet to go anywhere in my travels that these revered grape varieties, once relegated to France and California, have not been prominent on every wine list.

The Asyrtiko I had was a fun and different white wine indeed. It is hard to even find the descriptors for this wine, since the flavor is above all else, unusual for one used to the classic French varietals. This made the wine that much more interesting to try and to recommend you discover. It may well be that any examples of this grape you find in the US have suffered from the long boat ride, so if your impressions don't jive with mine, consider it an excuse to visit sunny Greece.

The restaurant we ate at was a delightful tourist trap perched high on the top floor of the Electra Palace Hotel. We went for the view, and were well rewarded for our efforts. The view and the wine were our favorite parts of the meal, but we knew this going in, and so were well prepared.

The view and wine were Greek, the food was closer to French than not. It was an ambitious menu, especially for an outdoor venue where night time temperatures never fell below 80. A lighter, more elegant approach would have been more to our taste than the heavy handed dishes we ended up with.

We started with a Crab Napoleon and a "Lobster," Shrimp and Scallop dish in a Parmesan Cream Sauce. The quotes are because it was of course a langoustine and lobster was probably just a translation.

The napoleon was fun, with a rich cream sauce in with the crab and pastry, but there was also a slightly sour cream sauce around the sides of the plate that went well with the roe it was decorated with, but clashed with the main sauce. The pastry itself was a bit soggy and even a touch musty tasting. The downside of being a few feet away from the sea. Had the pastry been made fresh it would have been more impressive.

The langoustine et al. was really flavorful, in a heavy tarragon cream sauce, but it became a chore in that heat to eat more than a few bites. The presentation was delightful, albeit hard to eat, with heads and shells intact.

We chose our main courses to accompany the wine, and ended up with Swordfish with Tomatoes and Capers, and an Escallop of Pork in a Mint cream sauce.

The swordfish was terribly overcooked and more reminiscent of tuna from a can than a fresh steak should be. But then it isn't like they pulled the swordfish from the bay we were overlooking. It was disappointing and dry.

The Pork to was cooked to death, but this may be due to the reflex to over cook pork that many restaurants have. It turned this potentially lovely dish into shoe leather. Missing too was the mint flavor. There seemed to be flakes of a dried herb in the sauce, but the mint flavo, if any was subtle even for my usually discering palate.

We paid dearly for the view, but honestly, it was what we were after. Our expectations were met right down to the server that forgot about us for over an hour, but it just gave us that much more time to drink in the view, and the lovely white wine.

I had in the back of my head finding a perfect little out of the way spot for a bit of moussaka and a few dolmas, to see how they compared to my own cooking, but Thessaloniki is a cosmopolitan city catering to tourists and our experience was probably more indicative of the flavor of the city itself.

For more on Thessaloniki and a look at the views, pop on over to our travel blog .

Bulgaria: Mavrud and Muscat

2008-06-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

Mavrud may mean black in Greek, but the wines I have tried from the grape of that name have been lighter than not. Exclusive to the Thracian region of Bulgaria, this unusual wine is pretty common through out the capital city of Sofia where I am currently residing.

The more familiar grapes of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are widely used in Bulgaria, but I know those, and so I have been experimenting with this local variety. The examples I have been able to taste so far have been memorable for their forest floor flavors and soft tannins. It is a taste that is not familiar to US wine drinkers, but that may be its main charm.

In its youth there is a strong mushroom flavor although pleasant and far from overwhelming. With age there is little change in flavors, just a gentle overall softening. Without pronounced tannins to resolve with time, there is little that would allow this wine to develop in the bottle. The relatively high acidity keeps the wine fresh and allows it to survive at least the 15 years of the oldest sample I have tasted.

It is exactly this crisp acidity that makes Mavrud work surprisingly well with food. It stood up nicely to a steak and fries, and didn't over power a delicate pizza.

Chances are this is not a grape that is going to travel well, so any Mavrud you find in the States may well have lost its charm, but be sure to try it if you get the opportunity to visit Bulgaria (I recommend it, we are having a great time).

Muscat has been our favorite white to date. This grape is found in almost every wine producing region of the world, and the Bulgarians have been pretty successful with it. American wine drinkers often think of Muscat as being a dessert wine, but in Alsace, and Bulgaria, it is usually produced in a drier style.

The result is a floral wine with just a hint of sweetness. Lighter than a riesling or Gewurztraminer, it is reminiscent of both. The ubiquitous pizza joints that are found every few blocks here in Sofia almost universally have a decent Muscat on their menus. For about $7.50 in a restaurant or $4 in the store, this wine is not only delicious and surprisingly perfect with pizza, it is too cheap to ignore.

I am still working out how I am going to visit the widespread wine regions of Bulgaria, but even if I don't get out there in person, I will continue to do my part to help the economy, one bottle at a time.

Good cheap wine in Bulgaria

2008-06-05T03:25:00.001-07:00

I have long asserted that one of the stumbling blocks to wine being more widely accepted in developing countries is the price, especially when compared to beer. I may be changing my mind a bit on that position.

I have only been in Bulgaria a few days, and I have only had a few very inexpensive wines so far. I would no sooner judge the Bulgarian wine scene from these examples than I would judge the whole of the US from 2 bottles of the cheapest wine I could find. That said, the $4 bottles of Cab and Merlot I tried were not bad. No real varietal character, but not bad.

Like I said, wine starts about $4 a bottle here, and beer runs closer to $.40 for a 1/2 liter bottle. At first blush this seems to support my original contention that wine cost so much more than beer that the locals eschew wine. In China where it is all about the alcohol this may be more accurate than here, but even then I have to wonder.

China's prices are similar, so if I just look at the alcohol content I see that it takes about 4 beers to equal the buzz of 1/2 bottle of wine. That makes the comparison much closer as the wine runs $2 and the beer then would be $1.60.

So the price difference is not as great as I originally thought, unless you are comparing volume to volume. As any neo-prohibitionist will tell you with alcohol equivalence one drinks more volume of beer than of wine.

And so I am rethinking what it takes to make wine acceptable to emerging countries. Maybe price is not the bugaboo I have always asserted it is. Culture, familiarity and habits play a much bigger part. Here in Bulgaria they have a rich tradition of wine that makes it much more likely that the locals will enjoy wine now and then, and not just beer.

In China they have no such traditions, and so just like the US not so very long ago, they are a nation of beer drinkers. India and Asia in general are in the same boat. No history of wine consumption. It is not just a price obstacle, it is a cultural one.

I will be bringing you more details on the wines of Bulgaria and in 3 months, even a look at the Indian wine scene, stay tuned.

The Wine Road Less Traveled goes International!

2008-05-23T09:18:00.001-07:00

The observant reader may have noticed the dearth of posts for... well, almost a year now. In the roller coaster that is life, it has been an eventful year. I moved from Colorado to California to work for a winery for 6 months, and I found it hard to keep up the blog after writing about wine all day.

I have been back in Aspen for a few months, and I haven't had the excuse of writer's burn out, so what has been keeping me from these pages? Planning. I have been working out the details for the adventure of a lifetime. My wife and I are taking a year off and going around the world, starting next week, June 1st.

The good news for my readers is that I will be visiting wine countries for about half of that time. Expect reports from Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Greece. Then in 2009 look for first hand accounts from Chile and Argentina.

Interested in keeping up with our adventures? My wife and I have put up a whole blog site along with copious photos (well, only a few for now, but we haven't left yet). You can find it here: www.jsrtw.com.

I have been writing and many of you have been reading this blog for a little over 3 years and nearly 100 posts. I still have plenty more to learn about wine, and as I learn it, you can be sure I will be sharing it with you.

The Barrel of Monkeys' New Clothes

2008-03-12T09:49:00.001-07:00

I have been pointing out for years that the hardest thing about judging wine is remaining objective. I have shared my own techniques for eliminating variables, which include always using the same glass, and tasting in the same order. Now Stanford University has published a report that illustrates exactly what i have been trying to stress. It is easier to fool ourselves than we think.

The report demonstrates that telling someone the cost of a wine influences their perception of it. This is very similar to telling someone to not think about a barrel of monkeys. Plant the perception, put people in a position where they defer their own opinions to an expert or a supposed fact, and you can make them believe almost anything. This is exactly why I keep my eyes open for wine quackery.

I recently gave a series of lectures at the International Restaurant (and Nightclub and Hotel) Show in Las Vegas (a hello and thank you to al that attended). The show floor was awash new and wonderful gadgets, ideas and do-das. Not to mention half naked women pouring every kind of booze imaginable.

Among the eye and literal candy there were several vendors demonstrating their "wine enhancement" products. The ones I am going to harp on here are not those that rely on unknown metaphysical forces, if I haven't convinced you yet to ignore those, then you deserve them. No, this time I am going after the devices that help wine to aerate.

I have already debunked the expensive crystal glasses in an earlier blog, but even then I wondered how well known wine personalities could be so enamored of them as to lend their endorsement to the product packaging.

The earlier glasses and the aerating products at the show did indeed make a difference to the wine. A slight difference, and one that is easy duplicated without the cost and mess, by simply swirling the wine in your glass.

So why then do these products continue to sell? Or even more to the point why were the reps at the show so surprised that they couldn't win me over when so many others had been praising their products?

The parable of the Emperor's New Clothes is so important to our society that it has become part of our social consciousness, far outliving Hans Christian Anderson. In the story we are told that only those who are worthy can see the clothes. Since everyone wants to be worthy, they all claim to see the clothes, and even convince themselves of fine details that don't exist.

Tasting wine is an odd pursuit in that each of us to some degree doubts our abilities. We almost always ask others of their impressions, and the response can not help but taint our experience, in the barrel of monkeys tradition.

Hand someone a taste of wine and tell them it is worth a great deal of money, and they will think better of the wine. That is the crux of the Sanford research. Tell them your product has greatly improved the wine and when they do taste that there is a slight difference, they will elevate that difference in their minds in an attempt to be worthy of "seeing the Emperor's clothes."

This is human nature, and it is exactly why people have been selling snake oil since the dawn of time. The moral of my lesson is to trust your own abilities and sense of taste. Stand up for what you taste in wine, and don't worry if no one else ever tastes what you do. It is all subjective, and your opinion is exactly as valuable as mine (I just have a better chance of telling you how it stacks up to other wines of the class or value).

You don't need to run out and buy the latest gizmo to enjoy wine. Just open a few bottles and have fun with the contents therein. Take the money you saved on not buying that gadget and buy a bottle of wine you have never tried before. Good or bad, the education you get from that wine will almost certainly be a better value than the myriad wine enhancers that keep popping up.

The rep who was so dismayed that someone didn't find their product earth shattering left me with this retort: "Why then do so many wineries buy our product? They wouldn't buy something that doesn't work!" It is hard for me, but I will refrain from a lesson in logic and simply point out what my regular readers already know. Not everything that a winery does, or any other human endeavor does, works.

2007 is over, long live 2008

2008-01-03T12:30:00.001-08:00

It is the time of year for lists. It seems everyone has posted their choices of top or bottom notable events for 2007. In my never ending struggle to be different, and characteristically putting myself on the line, I offer no look back. Instead, I proffer these prognostications.

I have shared my thoughts on future advancements. There is the near certain likelihood that we will see ever more control over everything having to do with growing and making wine. The future is about dialing in character. As well I have glimpsed a future where VineBots revolutionize the vineyard. These are things to come in the long run, but what about in the near future? Here then is my list of what 2008 may offer us.

1) The Internet

This is pretty obvious to someone reading these words on the Internet, but there is more to it than you may think. There has been an ongoing battle behind the scenes regarding who can buy wine from where and have it shipped. Some, backed in large part by the Wine Distributors, want to limit these options. They point to underaged drinking and other red herrings to support their platform of fear. They are losing ground.

More and more wine will be sold over the Internet, and 2008 will be a year of critical mass. I don't mean to imply that more wine will be bought on-line than not, rather I am foretelling a huge rush towards selling on-line. Those already well entrenched will see record sales, those late to the game will be rushing to catch up, and new players will take the center stage (I am even thinking of entering the arena).

Look for big changes at the local level. 2008 may well be the year it becomes common to order your wine on-line from your local store, who will then deliver it for free. As with all Internet businesses it is hard to compete on cost, so it is always better to compete on service.

2) Bye Bye Big Fruit Bombs

Watch for the 2008 harvest to be one where people start talking about terroir and character, and get away from the highly alcoholic wines that have dominated the market for the last few years. There has been a huge amount of press decrying the amount of alcohol in wines, and at least some winemakers are likely to react to the changing sentiment.

Europe is even more likely to market their wines to the US as being food friendly, highly individual wines that emphasize where they were produced.

For the record, I love huge alcoholic, intensely fruity... Zinfandels. I don't look for the same traits in my Cabernet Sauvignon.

3) Baby Steps

The wine vine's genome has been unlocked. While the lay press in particular has been writing about the amazing, and somewhat improbable potential of this, I think most of that potential is still a long way off. The human genome was mapped in 2003, and the world has not dramatically changed, yet.

What we will see this year are the first practical applications being announced. Even these will almost certainly still be at the research stage by the end of the year, but news will be made. Look for disease resistance to be a top priority.

4) The Year of the Container.. or at least the closure.

There is a quiet revolution about to hit our shores. Heavy, expensive, and fragile glass bottles will no longer be the only option for wine lovers. Already we have seen alternative packaging popping up for lesser quality wines, but just as with the screw top, a top producer will take the plunge and change the way we look at packaging.

Speaking of screw tops, they are no longer the only game in town. Nifty new players are starting to make inroads. My favorites of these are the glass enclosure. Sterile, easy to remove and even easier to recycle, there is a lot to be said for them.

And speaking of recycling...

5) Green, Greener, and Greenest

I am hardly going out on a limb to point out that environmental concerns are dramatically changing the market. Organic and Biodynamic are going to be big buzzwords this year.

Let me stick my neck out here and just say to watch out for these terms. Taking care of the land and paying attention to sustainability are important. Ignoring the technical advances of the last 100 years and burying cows heads at the full moon are not as important.

If you like the wine, then by all means support their efforts, but don't fall for hype, and certainly don't settle for less out of green guilt.

Carbon footprint is a term you will hear more in 2008, and one of my favorite ways for a winery to do this (besides geothermal cooling/heating , which only I seem to know about) is to start selling their wines in plastic bottles. Plastic is lighter, cost less to ship, uses less fossil fuels to ship, and it doesn't break as easily.

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And there you have it. My list may be half as many items as most lists these days, but there is more than enough there for you to ruminate over for the year to come. As always I welcome comments, criticism, and above all, investors that want to back my harebrained schemes.

Demi delicious

2007-10-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

Half bottles of wine are great, at least in principal. They are a perfect way to prevent having to deal with left over wine. I am delighted to find them in restaurants, as it gives me a chance to sample more than one wine through a meal.

All life it seems is a compromise. With half bottles you get great benefits, but there is the inevitable downside. A half bottle of wine is more prone to environmental circumstance. In other words, it goes bad more easily.

I have been in a position of late to try many half bottles in a row (I am temporarily single). These have been bottles of my favorite wines, and I was delighted to find them in 375s. The delight turned to disappointment, repeatedly, as one after the other was in some way less than I expected.

The smaller size means that any heat or vibration damage has a greater impact. It is the inverse of why Magnums are the perfect sized bottles for aging wine. Small bottles also tend to not fit well in wine racks, unless you plan for them in advance.

I am not saying that all half bottles are likely to be bad, far from it. My spate of bad luck can be attributed to the fact that I bought all of the wines from the same place. Whatever ruined the first bottle, probably was responsible for the downfall of the others as well.

I have had better luck in the past, and I am far from swearing off half bottles. I just thought it was important to point out that a bad half bottle or two is no reason to swear off the size in general.

Ask for half bottles in restaurants, let them know you are interested. This will help propagate them in the industry, so if your favorite restaurant doesn't have any half bottles now, perhaps they will in the future.

Wine by the glass in a restaurant is a great concept, but too often poorly implemented. If the bottle has been open too long the wine will be much worse than the little variation a half bottle may be prone to.

Speaking of restaurants, I love starting with a half bottle of Champagne. Then a half bottle of white wine followed by a half bottle of red, and perhaps even a half bottle of dessert wine to finish it off. This is ideal for two, but even for the solo diner 2 or more half bottles can still be ideal. Remember, no one said you have to finish all of the wine! By the way, I send my left over wine to the Chef - the kitchen rarely gets a tip.

To pick, perchance to bottle

2007-10-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

A couple of people asked me what happens when it rains during harvest. As the skies above some of the world's greatest vineyards seem to be dumping unending moisture on the fragile grapes, the questions seems particularly timely.

Water is an important part of the cycle of life. Almost nothing can live without it, and most non aquatic life will drown given too much water. In all things balance, and when it comes to harvesting grapes, less water is better.

Wet bunches of grapes tend to rot. Rot does not add pleasant flavors to wine. Even Nobel Rot (botrytis) which is responsible for the world's great dessert wines is not a good thing for dry wines.

Some grapes tend to have tighter bunches than others, and these are that much more susceptible to rot, since air can not easily get between the berries to dry them out. And air is the key. A few warm windy days following a heavy rain can save a vintage.

Even if the grapes do not rot, they may absorb the water and swell, reducing the intensity of flavors. Picking while it is raining poses a similar danger. Wet grapes add water to your wine.

If a grape swells beyond the skin's ability to contain it, it will burst. Now you have a grape that is exposed to insects and bacteria. The aphorism about bad apples is doubly true for bad grapes. You don't want these grapes in with the rest.

The best defense against the bad grapes, not only those that may have burst, but those that may have been damaged by birds or other animals, is to hand sort. This costly and time consuming procedure is exactly what it sounds like.

Imagine staring at a conveyer belt full of grapes and trying to pick out the bad ones (along with leaves and other non grape materials). Not much fun, incredibly labor intensive and for some wineries difficult or impossible to accomplish.

Even if your grapes survive the rains, the rot, the birds and the bees (ok, yellow jackets) you may have a whole new issue to deal with. Those cloudy cool days kept your grapes from ripening, and now you are faced with the prospect of leaving your grapes out even longer than you intended, just to get that little bit of extra ripening.

The longer your grapes are left out in the field the riper they get to be sure, but also the greater the risk. The later in the season it gets, the greater the chance of frost in some regions, and rain in many others.

Winemakers that find themselves staring at soggy vineyards this week are all posing the same dramatic query. To pick, or not to pick, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler of time to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.

They may not have to chose between life and death, but for some it may be the financial equivalent. To play it safe and make a lesser quality wine, or to take a chance for better quality and profits. Ay, there's the rub.

The Fluidity of Reality

2007-09-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

The scientific method is a great tool for examining assumptions. You postulate a theory, you develop a way to test your hypothesis and then you analyze the data. Eventually you publish your findings in a peer review journal. Then it is rinse and repeat.

In the world of wine the requisite experimentation that is the crux of scientific study can take a long time. A very long time in the case of vineyards. To observe a change in a vineyard often takes decades, and in the case of vineyard to well aged wine, a lifetime may easily pass.

This leads to many theories being put into practice before they have been tested. The real world is the laboratory of wine. It is easy to understand why one might be hesitant to experiment in their vineyard, a vineyard that may be the sole source of one’s livelihood.

The result are beliefs that remain in place without a great deal of study or scientific foundation to back them up. This was the subject of a speech given recently at the American Society of Enology and Viticulture conference by UC Davis’ Michael Anderson. The title “Busting Wine Myths” neatly sums up one of my own reoccurring themes. If you are so inclined, the link above makes a good read.

Anderson and others at the conference cited various well held beliefs as being facetious. They included the theory of removing fruit from the vine to help increase the concentration of flavor in the remaining berries, as well as checking assumptions regarding long held irrigation practices.

Myths persist in any field, but the mystique surrounding wine helps to perpetuate and maintain dogmatic points of view. Few are immune from this practice. I have seen my own convictions fall prey when tested. I have every reason to assume there are others yet to be toppled.

What is the lesson to be learned? That believing is easier than knowing, to be sure, but more than that it is important to remember that everyone gets it wrong now and then. Conventional wisdom changes with fashion and embraces fads, but empirical evidence stands the test of, well.. testing.

Monolithic wine beliefs seem to be overturned with each new vintage. New data, new experiments, and better testing models help us understand wine in a way not possible just a decade earlier. As this trend continues, and as technology continues to solve problems, I fully expect wine to become more consistent and of higher general quality.

I am not sure that the high end of quality will ever budge, a great wine is a great wine by any standard. What we will continue to see is the bar being raised on the low end. Bulk wines may someday be better than what was bought as special occasion wine a generation ago.

Through it all a few voices cry out warnings. “Beware that we do not lose site of ‘place’ in wine, terroir is what makes wine special.” Listen to the voices, it is variety that makes wine fun. Most of all, as always, listen to your own voice and drink what you enjoy. Busting myths make for great TV and we pundits love how it makes us sound when we espouse on the latest discovery, but it is, always has been, and always will be, just about the juice.

Tech Time

2007-09-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

If I wasn’t a wine writer I would probably be a technology writer. I certainly have blurred the line between the two on occasion in this very venue. Wine can be as high tech to produce as it is low tech to enjoy. A glass and a way to get the bottle open is all you really need to taste wine, but the number of choices technology brings to the modern winemaker is staggering.

There is of course already a catchy phrase for the coming wine revolution: Dialing In. The winemaker will be able to dial in exactly what they want their oak barrels to accomplish. They will have the opportunity to dial in traits for the yeast they use. Soon there may even be ways to dial in exact flavor components like black pepper.

Recent advances have pointed research in the right direction to someday be able to create the black pepper taste on demand in any wine. This is done in the vineyard, and that is where we will see some of the biggest changes.

The wine grape’s genome has recently been mapped. Now that we know what the genes are we can begin the laborious task of doing something about it. The sort of benefits we can expect include disease and pest resistant varieties, tailoring to specific micro climates and of course, greater defenses against drought and heat.

I have already postulated on robotic vine tenders, so I am hardly taking a risk to speculate that someday we could have vines that change color when they are ready to be harvested. They could even indicate their water and nutrient requirements, with easy to respond to visual clues. As the saying goes, the possibilities…

At this point some of you may have come to the conclusion that I don’t buy into the “frankenfood” hysteria. Anyone that knows me realizes that this is where I will *cite Norman Borlaug who “believes that genetically engineering crops is little different from the cross-breeding among plant species that occurs in nature, and he argues that it is irresponsible for affluent environmentalists to prevent these types of foods from reaching developing nations.*

Oak is getting the modern makeover as well. Gone are the days when a cooperage would only make a few types of barrels. Increasingly they are using computer control of heat and time to specify different barrel characteristics for different needs. This is exactly what they have been doing for centuries, but now they claim a precision that makes a barrel specific to white wine, or even a single varietal.

A little more or less heat over a little more or less time and you add more or less flavors like vanilla and clove and woody spices. Mix up the type of oak in the barrel and add or take away a characteristic. One can even go so far as to mix grain size or oak species in a single barrel. All in pursuit of control.

The hardest workers in a winery are also the smallest. The yeast may be tiny, but what the lack in size, they make up for in numbers. It would seem to make common sense that the more control over the fermentation process you have, the more control over the resulting wine you have. This is what the yeast companies are banking on, as they continue to separate strains of yeast into ever more specific cultures.

It is not just about picking yeast in an attempt to influence flavor profile, some yeast foams less, some unstick fermentations, some do better or worse in more or less alcohol. There is a fascinating glimpse at all of the choices one can make in selecting yeast here at the Winemaking Home Page. Genetics will be having a huge affect on yeast as well.

New techniques in filtering are making wines less prone to bacterial problems, while leaving less of a mark on the wine. Removing alcohol has been one of the most recent innovations to have a huge effect. it has been estimated that 40% of wines in some regions have been through this process. It allows one to use riper grapes without making a wine that is too overwhelming in alcohol, or to reduce the tax liability (wine is taxed on alcohol content).

The choices don’t end at growing grapes or making the wine, there are an increasing number of choices in bottles and closures. Everyone has seen a screw cap on a decent bottle of wine by now, but have you seen the Zork? This clever closure has a peel away strip, then you just pull out the top which makes a satisfying cork like pop as it is released.

I am particularly enamored of the Vino-Seal myself. This glass stopper has a tight fitting o-ring and all the benefits that sterile glass offers. The first time you open one you will have no doubt that the seal it makes is sufficient to protect the wine. It is also easily recycled and even easier to keep to reuse.

Glass bottles too are in line for a refreshing. Rising fuel costs have made weight a great issue while demand continues to outstrip availability. As new glass manufacturers come into play the industry may well see innovations in materials as the new companies find ways to distinguish their product lines.

Nifty barrels, new closures, even genetically designed grapes are all going to make a huge difference but as always it is the winemaker that makes the wine. I love technology; I love gadgets; I love the promise of a shiny tomorrow, but mostly I love what works. Sometimes the best solution is pencil and paper. Time will tell.

Love that Grape Crush

2007-09-09T18:57:00.001-07:00

It is harvest time in the Northern Hemisphere. I always liked the colloquial term “crush.” I suppose the association with the grape flavored beverage is part of the reason. The soda may even be responsible for the popularity of the phrase for everyone else. Whatever you call it, it is underway.

This is a delicate time for the grapes. Too much sun, too little sun, rain, frost, birds, these are all part of the litany of things that can effect the outcome of the vintage. It has been a wacky year for weather with much of the World getting soaked only to end up with earlier than usual picking times. Earlier than usual may be the one common thread.

It was warm all over. It is tempting to wag a finger at the omnipresent global warming specter, but weather trends are not the same as climate change. I read that a lot this year. Still, it was a warm year.

Wet, it was wet, with many parts of Europe plagued by rain. Wet means mildew, and mildew is an ancient nemesis of the vine. Chemicals help, as do thinning leaves and increasing air flow. It is not unheard of for higher end vineyards to hire helicopters to dry out the vineyards. Wet, especially combined with warm also means disease.

Without enough sun the grapes will not end up with enough sugar to make decent wine. With trends towards higher alcohol style wines, the grapes need that much more sugar. This means hang time, and hang time means gambling against the calendar.

Many great vintages have been concluded well into October. October can also see the first frosts, or the beginning of long rainy periods. Either of these conditions can ruin a crop that was waiting for the perfect degree of ripeness.

Ripeness doesn’t just mean sugar. It also means the development of flavors. Sugars increase during warm days, but flavors improve with cool nights. If there is not enough difference between the day time and evening temperatures, flavors will suffer.

Grapes evolved as a way for the plant to distribute seeds with the help of birds. Birds are quite willing to do their part, but most vineyard owners have other plans for the fruit. The scarecrow may have been replaced by ever escalating technology, but the birds haven’t given up yet.

Frost and mold have their places too. It is the mold botrytis that is responsible for many of the world’s greatest dessert wines. So we do want wet conditions, in the right place at the right time. Frost, or at least freezing rain is responsible for ice wines, another group of dessert wines I am fond of.

Crush then is a time to wish for sun, but not too much. Rain, but not too late or too early or too much. Cool nights, but warm days. Vineyard owners are also wishing for more help, more grapes, more certainty. Winemakers want more sugar, more flavor, more even ripening.

Wishes are not in my power to grant. If they were this would be a much different blog, and chances are I would not be writing it. I can offer a guarantee, with a modicum of solace. There will always be next year. Until there’s not.

Mything Logic

2007-08-25T14:22:00.001-07:00

I find myself about to debunk a product who’s claim I do not altogether doubt. The Eisch Glaskultur company of Germany has released a line of stemmed crystal that they claim “aerates beverages within minutes.” Their packaging states “A wine poured into a Breathable Glass for just 2 to 4 minutes will show signs of aeration equivalent to the same wine that has been decanted and aerated for 1 to 2 hours.”

Since I am on the record for saying that “breathing” is a wine myth, I can hardly fault a product that claims to do nothing, and succeeds. Of course the implication that they are using to sell glassware is that this stem will improve your wine tasting experience. This is what I set out to test.

Let me start by clarifying my positing on wine breathing. I have conducted various experiments over the years and the results have not done much to make me a believer. I am not saying that there is no difference from a wine that is decanted for an hour or two from a recently opened bottle, I am just not sure the difference is either significant, or difficult to reproduce with a few good swirls in a glass.

The premise is that allowing a wine to breath opens it up. It has a very poetic sound to it, except that wine does not respire so much as exhale. Wine vents volatile compounds into the air. The whole glass swirling thing is about releasing these compounds to make them easier to detect.

To say that a sitting wine improves is to say that these volatile compounds were in present in too great a number to begin with. This is certainly true with some wines that have off odors or excessive volatility, and in those rare cases I highly recommend a forceable decanting (so the wine literally chugs out of the bottle and splashes violently into the decanter).

If the wine was sound to begin with, it by definition was not excessively volatile. Vinegar is wine with way too much volatility, as an extreme example. Few modern wines you open will be vinegar-like. Some other off odors, such as the wet rotten leaf smell of a wine that has undergone malo-lactic fermentation in a bottle, may be reduced by decanting. A wine that went through MLF in a bottle will usually be slightly sparkling as well.

The experiments I have conducted include opening a bottle and tasting it blind against another bottle of the same wine which had been opened and or decanted some time before. The decanted wine may well have a different aroma and taste, but after a few minutes of swirling either wine, the differences balance out.

For the Breathable Glass (BG) I created a simple experiment. So simple that I concede that I do not have definitive proof of my hypothesis. On the other hand, it is simple enough that anyone can try it.

I put the same wine in the BG and another tall, well shaped glass and let them sit for four minutes without touching them. I then poured both wines into identical tasting glasses and tasted them blind. I did the same test again, only this time I swirled each of the wines reasonably evenly for 2 minutes before switching glasses and tasting.

In neither case did the wine from the BG exhibit any significant aromas or flavors that varied from the wine which had been poured into the regular glass. Therefore I can state unequivocally that I did not find anything remarkable or impressive.

My wording here is deliberate since Ronn Weigand who is one of the few combination Master Sommeliers and Masters of Wine is quoted right on the packaging as saying “I was especially impressed - Remarkable!”

The test I conducted were designed to be easily verified by my peers, and as always I urge them to do so. What I didn’t do is almost as important as what I did.

I did not test a wine that had been in the BG for 4 minutes against the same wine that had been in a decanter for two hours, as per the claim on the package. I did not run a spectroscopic analysis to determine if the crystal makeup of the glasses was richer in oxygen, the mechanism cited for the claim. I didn’t do many things, but I did what I did, and I didn’t find a difference.

The Breathable Glass line is fine crystal with a good feel to it, and at $20 a stem it is not outrageously priced. I got mine at Bed Bath & Beyond, and it is because it is being marketed to the main stream instead of to wine geeks that I felt compelled to try it.

My advice is to save your money and buy one of the $4 stems right next to it on the shelf, unless you like the feel of the glass and it is in your budget. Just don’t expect miracles.

Oh, and the title of the blog is indeed a nod to Robert Lynn Asprin’s entertaining Myth-Adventures series. I know a few of you were dying to ask.

The physiology of wine tasting

2007-08-19T12:29:00.001-07:00

I just finished reading a very interesting book. Sensi DiVini is a tiny 80 page treatise on how our brain deals with tasting wine. It is a collection of short essays written by various experts in their fields. It is quite technical, and while I love all things techie, there can be no doubt that some of it was completely over my head.

Even while plowing through descriptions of the various parts of the brain I could immediately understand the relationship of the material to my experiences with tasting wine. The book even gave some scientific insight into why we enjoy elaborate feasts such as my famed seven course dinners.

It has been explained many times in the past, even by me, that taste is nothing without smell. We can only taste 5 things (it used to be 4, but there is a new one now). Sweet, sour, bitter, salty and the newly recognized sensation, umami. Umami has been described as our ability to taste “savory” but the scientific description is more to the point, it is the taste of proteins.

It is the first three taste sensations; sweet, sour and bitter; that come into play in wine. The other “tastes” in wine are due to aromas. We may only be able to taste 5 sensations, but our ability to ascertain individual aromas is seemingly endless.

From a mere 300 aroma sensors (mice have 1000) we can distinguish grapefruit from lemon, bing cherries from maraschinos, and pleasant aromas from nasty ones.

It was the need to distinguish edible from less edible foods that helped us evolve this complex interplay of flavors and aromas with recognition and selection or rejection. If it tastes good we enjoy it, and we eat it. If it tastes nasty, we spit it out, sometimes even involuntarily as with a gag reflex.

The sense of aroma is almost directly tied into the brain, making smells one of most primal senses. It is for this reason that a smell can so easily conjure a memory. We also use visual and gustatory senses when tasting, and even the sense of somatosensory (touch). These other senses combine with aroma to form recognition and pleasure through a process referred to as binding.

Binding is taking the information from several parts of the brain and creating a single unifying experience. A great example from the book is when we watch tennis. We recognize the ball as a shape, we recognize the yellow of the ball as a color, and we recognize the movement to allow us to follow its trajectory.

I have long known that I taste more effectively when I am a little hungry. This follows the research that shows that our impression of flavor (which for this discussion is a combination of taste and aroma) is highly regulated by our current level of satiety for that flavor or even nutritional value.

We are not really good at craving specific nutrients, so instead our mind equates textures, shapes and colors along with flavor, as broader nutritional needs. This is why some foods sound more appealing to us at any given time than other foods.

Once you have been eating a specific food your ability to derive pleasure from it is reduced, as is your ability to recognize the intensity of the flavor or aroma. You may be satiated from one flavor, but a new different one has all the intensity and pleasure potential you got from the first item at the start. This is the scientific reasoning behind courses or even having more than one food on your plate.

I have long held that education of any subject increases your enjoyment of it. This is especially true of wine, and the entire rationale behind my given vocation. It turns out there is some empirical evidence to support this.

Sesi DiVini recounts a study wherein wine experts and wine novices where each placed in an MRI and given tastes of wine, and of course a control solution of glucose. The wine experts had much more activity in the brain, especially in the pleasure centers. Because the experts were analyzing the wine and the novices were not, the experts “got more out of tasting wine.”

I am not exactly a book reviewer, and this is not exactly a book review, but it is a look at a subject that I have never seen handled so scientifically. I had to write away to Italy to get the book, but they are looking into why it isn’t on Amazon any more. If you are intrigued and want a copy of your own, you can get it here.

Eating and drinking are rewarding in of themselves. Knowing how the brain reacts to flavors will probably not bring you more joy when you eat and drink, but knowing more about what you are eating and drinking will. As always I challenge you to get more out of your life by experimenting with food and wine at every opportunity. Taste something new today, it turns out the experience may even help you enjoy your old favorites all that much more.

Does Might Make Right?

2007-08-09T22:02:00.000-07:00

The wine blogosphere has been awash with news of Randy Dunn’s letter to consumers telling them to essentially stop buying wines they like. At the heart of the matter is once again the controversy over high alcohol wines. If consumers like these wines so much that it has changed the way wines are being made all over the world, what exactly is wrong with them? The short answer is “nothing.” The longer answer is “they all taste the same.”

Varietal character, the terroir (where the grapes are grown) and the winemaker all contribute to the wine. These are the factors that determine what makes wine x taste different than wine z. When the alcohol starts to creep up past 15% many of these differences are drowned out by the sweetness of the alcohol.

This is not altogether different than what happens on the other end of a wine scale. By leaving a touch of residual sugar in an inexpensive wine, vintners can make wines labeled with varietal names that while not nasty because the sugar hides the flaws, but they have no actual varietal character.

And so it is with high alcohol wines, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell one from another, much less one variety from another.

These big alcohol wines are fruity, rich, easy drinking, and easy to enjoy. In fact they are all the things I like in my favorite wine, Zinfandel.

Zins are often high in alcohol, and since they are all about fruit, it suits them. Cabs are a different story. They have traditionally been all about structure, the delicate interplay between acidity, fruit and tannin. The market seems to be demonstrating that consumers feel Cabs should taste like Zins (ironically I recently tasted several Zins that were so oaked as to taste like Cabs).

Chardonnay too has not been spared the hike in alcohol content. For over oaked heavily lactic (buttery) Napa Chards this may be a good thing. The same can’t be said for regions such as Santa Barbara where Chardonnay traditionally has developed decent varietal character.

Many bloggers and wine writers are complaining that these wines don’t work well with food. I never thought Cab and Chard went all that well with food anyway, but I do hate to see Pinot Noirs with too little acidity and too much alcohol.

What worries Randy Dunn and so many others is that the consumers have shown a strong preference for these high alcohol styles. They fear that the days of individual expression in wine are waning. They needn’t fear.

Dunn’s wines are expensive, as are so many other really good wines. The cost alone keeps most consumers from every experiencing any wine of this level. Add in scarcity, and there just isn’t enough great wine to go around.

Most of these high alcohol wines are in the middle price range, or the lower end of the middle. Certainly there are some high priced wines that have adopted this fad, but then there have always been wines whose price tags are not borne out by their quality (Opus One is my favorite whipping boy in this category).

For top end producers I have a cliché for you to hold on to: If you make it, they will come. Keep making great wines, and there will always be a market for them. It will never be the mainstream market, but then it never has been.

As for berating consumers, it seems a silly thing for a winemaker to do – usually that is my job. I have been suggesting for years that you go forth and try something new. Something different. The joy of wine for me is the incredible variety of styles available. High alcohol wines may have shrunk the number of choices, but there are plenty of others to explore. There is an entire world of wine that you may never have experienced, but I won’t lie to you, some of them you will not like, but how will you know until you try?

Looking for a head start? Why not run out and get a Gewurztraminer from Alsace? These nearly bone dry wines have a heady aroma and are outstanding with most foods. Prefer red? I do, so it is quite understandable. When was the last time you drank a Spanish wine? What about something from your own home state?

Do you really love the high alcohol wines? Then drink one, don’t let me, Randy Dunn, or anyone else tell you that your taste is anything other than perfect exactly the way it is. It is your taste after all.

The Return of the Prodigal Son

2007-08-03T07:05:00.000-07:00

A funny thing happened on the way to this blog. Since the late 70s I have been a resident of Aspen, Colorado. For the last 10 years I have been running my wine school and doing a bit of consulting. That has all changed, almost over night.

Three weeks ago I got a call on a Wednesday, asking me to start a new job in San Diego on the following Monday. In near panic mode I gathered up what I could carry with me, and headed down the road.

I finally have an apartment, and of course the new job, and most importantly to this blog, Internet access. In a word (or three): I am back.

The last four years I have written this blog, sharing bits of insight, the occasional bit of actual education, and the all too often gripe. I don't expect that to change.

What will change is my perspective. I am now on the other side of the fence. I am no longer a professional critic, I am one of the criticized.

It will be interesting to see how the tenor of the blog changes as I grapple with the realities of what has always been for me more of an abstract. No longer can I shake a finger at the industry from afar, that finger now points to me.

Where we will go, what we will discover together, and what my new position will bring to the table, all remain to be seen. What is sure is that I am not going anywhere, and you will be hearing more from me.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the hard part is not getting me to talk, it is getting me to shut up.

Sit back, enjoy the new view, and feel free to let me know what you would like to see here. Oh, and now that I am in a big city, chances are I will get to that box wine tasting I promised you.

The reddish grape from Kastela

2007-07-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

Humanity has had a love affair with the grape for a very long time. Very long. As with all cultivated crops, grapes were once only found in the wild. Unlike most cultivated crops there are still plenty of examples of wild grapes. There may be some right outside your window as you read this.

In scientific parlance grapes are known as the genus Vitis. Most wine is made from the species Vitis vinefera. But there probably more than 50 other species though, most of them in North America.

A few of the names would be familiar to those who have studied wine. Names like Vitis cinerea, Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia and Vitis rupestris. Rupestris in particular is known for its roll in creating phylloxera-resistant rootstocks.

While a few species have been crossed with vinefera, especially in the United States, the results have rarely been as successful as vinefera on its own in an appropriate climate.

The number of vinefera varieties is staggering. It is often estimated to be as many as 10,000 distinctly different types of wine grapes.

So how did there end up being so many different varieties? In no small part do to the deliberate processes of some person or another, but not always.

The "Classic" grape varieties are those with names like Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and the Pinots (Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc are actually just color variations of the same grape variety).

They are classic not just because you may have heard of them, but because their origins were lost in the haze of antiquity.

Now a days we use cuttings of vines, clones that are identical to their parent, a process that goes back hundreds of years. Before that, grapes were grown from seed.

The seed or a grape may be purely from a single variety, or it may be the result of cross pollination. As the chance crossing happened, new varieties were created and when they were given the chance to prove themselves, these varieties were then recognized and utilized.

Chardonnay was such an accident, having Pinot as one of its relatives and a now all but forgotten Gouais Blanc. Cabernet Sauvignon turns out to be a cross between Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc.

How do we know the progenitor of grapes who are so old? By using DNA fingerprinting techniques.

Carole Meredith is a Professor of Viticulture and Enology, University of California, Davis. She is widely recognized for her work with proving the origin of grape varieties using DNA.

It was Dr. Meredith who spurred the research that would find the origin of one of my favorite grapes, the Zinfandel.

Incredibly important in California, it seemed odd that this grape did not exist anywhere else, at least by that name.

In the 70s a connection to the Italian Primitivo was found, but it became clear that this grape had little history in Italy, and so was not the origin of Zin.

Miljenko (Mike) Grgich of the winery that bears his name, was convinced that Zinfandel hailed from Croatia, his homeland.

It turned out he was right.

It took years and an incredible amount of detective work before the origin of Zinfandel was discovered.

A few vines still exist in one single vineyard in Croatia. These may have been lost forever except for the diligent effort of a few hearty researchers.

The Croation, and therefore original name for Zinfandel is Crljenak Kastelanski, which means “reddish grape from Kastela,” a town near where the vines where located.

You can read more about this exciting detective mystery from Dr. Meredith's original report.

In recognition of the three faces of Zinfandel, there is something to be said for calling it by its new technical name ZPC - Zinfandel, Primitivo, Crljenak Kastelanski.

I will probably still call it my favorite wine, but it is fun to know where it, and all the other grape varieties came from.

America the Beautiful Wine Drinkers

2007-07-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

The Fourth of July. Founding Fathers, the Birth of a Nation. A lot has changed in the last 200 years, and not only politically. Pretty much everything about modern wine was introduced in these intervening centuries.

The Founding Fathers were wine fans. Benjamin Franklin told us "wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy. " Jefferson warned "no nation is drunken where wine is cheap; and none sober, where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage."

Wine was pretty important way back then, but it had a bit of a falling out. Beer became the beverage of choice for most Americans, because it was cheap and easy to make. But wine held on.

The European wave of immigration brought more wine lovers to our shores. These were not collectors like Jefferson, they were wine drinkers. They grew up with a bit of wine at every evening meal, and they brought the habit with them.

They settled around the country, trying to find the ideal blend of climate for the grapes, and opportunity for their wallets. Those that made it as far west as California found that making wine could be profitable.

Others tried, too often in vain, to make a go of it further east. The sunshine and fertile valleys of California won out, and for decades it was pretty much the only commercially viable location for making wine.

We all know that has changed. The Pacific Northwest has a thriving wine industry, as does New York State. Other States are catching on as they work out the vagaries of grape growing and wine production, suited to their climates.

And yet, California still shines both in the market, and in the minds of millions of wine drinkers.

To point out the technological advances in wine for the last 200 years would take much more than the breadth of this blog. Suffice it to say that only the most rudimentary aspects of wine making remain the same.

The past few decades have seen the most change. Not only in technology, or rising viticultural areas, but in the most fundamental of ways. Americans are drinking more wine.

A lot more wine. In fact our consumption is growing so steadily, that in a few years the US will be the largest consumer of wine.

This has world wide implications. As consumers Americans are like no others in the world. We have plenty of disposable income, and we vote with our wallets. Plenty of fine consumer products have failed in the US simply because we have not taken to them for one reason or another.

For each of these there are items whose success defies explanation.

Our taste in wine is changing the face of wine around the world. Our love of highly alcoholic wines in particular is being felt in the industry. As we grow to the largest consumer base in the world, more and more producers will cater to our taste. This is the invisible hand of the market at work.

So what is the down side? After all we are increasingly flooded by wines that are to our taste. But what if our tastes change? What if we grow tired of all wines tasting the same?

The joy of wine is in great part due to its incredible diversity. A world where all the wines are the same threatens this diversity. And given the approaching holiday it is important to remember that freedom of choice is one of our hallmark tenets.

So do your part, enjoy some diversity. Look around at the melting pot that is the US and celebrate this 4th of July with wines of the world.

Wine on the iPhone

2007-06-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

The Apple iPhone will be out in a few days. Unless you have been hiding under a rock you have probably heard about it. When I am not writing and teaching about wine, I am a Mac software developer. The iPhone will allow you to access an actual fully functional web page from your phone, and this brings up some interesting possibilities.

The games, all except the crossword puzzles, at WineEducation.com will work fine with the phone as is, as will the rest of the site. As a wine and computer guy who is itching to develop for the iPhone the question begs: What would you like to see?

There you are, in a wine situation armed only with your iPhone. Myriad choices assault you. Knowing it is your only hope, you click on your bookmarks, and help arrives in the form of WineEducation.com. You access maps, a glossary with pronunciation key (a real life saver) and if you have already signed up you access a data base with hundreds of my wine reviews.

Have I solved all of the world's mobile wine needs already? Does WineEducation.com contain everything that you will ever need to know?

You can take quizzes, you can play games, you can even watch my videos (on YouTube - once they are available I will put up a link). What else do you want to do with wine on your iPhone?

How about manage your cellar? Applications on the iPhone will be limited in their scope, but this is conceivably something I could create. The only real use I can think of for it is so that you could access your inventory from anywhere, say when you are buying wine.

A wine inventory is only useful when it is accurate. Other than in professional settings I have not seen a lot of people who are willing to run to their computer every time they take a bottle out of their cellar. This simple fact has kept me from devoting my life to creating the perfect cellar software.

So what is your next suggestion? Think outside the box. Drop me a line or leave a comment, and let me know what you want wine wise for your iPhone.

Box o' wine - no really!

2007-06-20T10:45:00.001-07:00

I have been advocating screw caps for a few years now. They are not only easy to deal with, but they completely eliminate corked (TCA affected) wines. This nasty taste is all too common to me, but many consumers miss it. Instead, they simply think the wine is not good. Until consumers recognize the need for screw caps, and start accepting them, we will all be subject to the occasional (1 out of 20) tainted bottles.

Screw caps are not the only change we are starting to see in wine packaging. The wine in a box is starting to make an impact on higher quality wines. The concept makes sense - put wine in a collapsable bag that keeps it from being damaged by air. Just as with screw caps, the reputation of wine in a box has been clouded by the cheap wines it has heretofore contained.

New alternatives such as the mini-tank will soon be common. Great for restaurants, this self contained wine bar takes up very little room and it keeps the wine safely preserved under nitrogen. The wine stays fresh and the mini-tank does a great job of marketing the wine just by sitting there. Most importantly the consumer gets a decent glass of wine that is not spoiled.

Spoilage is really what it is all about. For millennia the wine industry has tried to find ways to preserve wine. They were much more successful at hiding the spoilage by adding things like pine tar (which brought us Retsina) or covering up the sour, nasty flavors with a touch of sugar and fruit (today's Sangria).

The clay amphorae served for thousands of years, but it wasn't nearly as effective as wooden barrels. Wine was not placed into barrels for any flavor it might impart, that would happen generations later. Barrels were used because barrels were used for everything. It was simply the shipping container of the day.

Eventually, we would start to see glass bottles. Glass was great, but the perfect closure remained elusive until cork came on the scene only a few hundred years ago. Ironically, it would take just a bit longer to come up with a cork screw.

Finally, an airtight glass container. This allowed wine to actually age for the first time. It was the beginning of modern wine, but it had a few drawbacks. Cork is a natural product, it takes years to grow and it can be of varying quality. Modern techniques helped make cork even more suitable, but it also pointed out the flaw of spoiled corks (contaminated with a substance usually referred to as TCA).

And so now we have wines that are sealed without the danger of being tainted by the cork, but the problem of air remains. A screw top is very convenient to replace, but it does nothing to stop the air in the bottle from ruining the wine.

Nitrogen systems, either huge wine bars or small self contained units like the mini-tanks, are a great answer commercially, but are hardly practical at the home level.

There are various devices that remove some of the air from the bottle, or even spray cans that add nitrogen, but none of these works exceedingly well.

Enter wine in a bag. In theory if you put decent wine in a bag, it will remain decent for some time. In practice the only wines I have ever had from a bag were pretty awful to start with.

Aspen is a great place to visit, and even better to live in, but it is not where one goes looking for quality wines in a box - at least not until they start putting $20+ a bottle wine into bags. And so I will have to wait until I can get to a big city wine store.

Once I do have the opportunity I plan on conducting a blind tasting of the box wines with other bottled wines of the same price range mixed in. I will decant all of the wines into new glass bottles so I can be certain that there is as little prejudice as possible. And then I will report the results here.

I will then try the box wine after it has been open several days vs. the same wine in a bottle with one of those vacuum sealers, and see how much the box helps, if at all. Stay tuned.

A free flowing flood of thoughts during the WIne Classic

2007-06-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

So... We got flooded, again. Fans blowing everywhere, and water poring out of light fixtures. Oh my what fun. Of course, this all happens just as I am getting ready for the Aspen Wine Classic.

While I famously no longer exhibit at the Wine Classic, I am exhibiting. Just a block east at my wife's store Stefan Kaelin, I am set up and pouring wine. I am doing a little component tasting, and signing books, so if you are in Aspen, stop on by.

A big part of this wine weekend is dining out, and while I may be missing out on the fun in the tents, I am availing myself of the Aspen restaurant scene.

Last night we enjoyed a little patio dining and a great bottle of wine. The service was wonderful, the food was... well, I am picky.

The wine was a Zinfandel from Howell Mountain. Twenty years ago Ridge Howell Mountain Zin was one of my favorites, but it is long gone.

It is great to see that other producers are starting to rediscover not only the marvelous Howell Mountain appellation, but Zinfandel in general.

The beauty of Zin is the abundance of fruit. The intense jammy flavors without a hint of tannin. At least that is what I like about it.

I recently tried another style of Zin that was it not to my taste. The producer, a younger son of a famous wine family, seems to think that what is missing in most Zinfandels is oak aging.

And so the wine was oaky and a bit tannic. What it was not, was jammy. The fruit was completely overwhelmed by the oak.

A common complaint at least out of this wine writer, is that too many wines taste more or less the same. Big and oaky is not my favorite descriptor for Chardonnay, and it is even less desirable, to my taste, in a Zin.

Save the big and oaky for Cab.

As I sit here writing this I have spread out before me six bottles of wine that have been purposely taken out of balance, to better recognize the components of wine. One of these bottles, and certainly a component of many wines, is oak.

Oak is a wine making flavor, not a flavor of the grape. This would seem obvious enough, and yet counting the number of oaky wines, it seems many prefer the buttery oaky flavors of wine making, over the fruity, tart flavors of the grape.

I think wine should taste like grapes, at least predominately. And not just any grape, the primary grape of the wine. The grape juice flavor of Concord grapes is not what I am after, but rather the complex subtle flavors that each grape variety offers.

Few grape varieties can stand up to the intense flavors of new oak. Fortunately new oak barrels are expensive and so until recently, oak was not too often over used.

Barrel alternatives have changed all that. I am on record of saying that barrel alternatives are not a bad thing, and I am not about to contradict myself here, but it is a matter of judicious use.

Over oak a wine, and it tastes like oak. Do it to a Zin, and I am liable to think it is a sin.

25 Years of Wine Tasting in Aspen

2007-06-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

Next week is the 25th annual Food&Wine Classic, here in Aspen. Regular readers will remember that I was locked out after 20 years because I can not afford to buy 3 full page ads in Food & Wine Magazine (on top of the exhibitor fees). In between temper tantrums I remind myself that it is all water under the bridge.

If you are one of the lucky ones that are going to be visiting Aspen, come by Stefan Kaelin's (two blocks east of the Main Tent) where I will be signing books. And make sure to read about how to get the most out of the Wine Classic or any tasting. For the rest of you, let me tell you why you aren't missing a thing.

Sour grapes seem appropriate for Wine Whines, but I would like to think I am rising above that, and presenting a list of what to watch out for to organizers of other events.

First and foremost, the Classic has gotten big, really big, huge in fact. That means many bodies jostling for a taste of wine. This has really changed the user experience from the days when one could actually meet and speak to the winemaker. Now you are lucky to get a few words in with whoever is manning the booth, before being elbowed out of the way.

The grassy knoll. The main tasting area for the Wine Classic is in a series of giant tents, placed in the middle of our downtown rugby field. Grass smells fight with the aroma of people and food, but that is not the worst of it. A sprinkle of rain turns the entire affair into a woodstock-like fight for survival. Elegant, well dressed people taking a spill with wine glass in hand may have its slapstick appeal, but it isn't much fun when it happens to you.

Food has always been a big part of the event, so I don't begrudge those that are cooking in the main tents, even if the smells tend to overwhelm the wine. It is the giant automobiles and airlines exhibits that are in the way. I understand that the demographics at wine tastings are attractive, but it does seem to dilute the space that could be used by more food and wine oriented booths.

There didn't used to be hard liquor either. This has really changed how inebriated people tend to get. For those trying to "get their money's worth" this is an easy opportunity to get much more hammered then they ever could on wine alone.

I miss the old Aspen Wine Classic as it was once called. It may not be possible to go back, but anyone planning a wine event would do well to emulate those early days.

The Classic was once small and personal enough that winemakers and winery owners would come themselves. They would be met at the airport and escorted by volunteers, some of who would even host the winemakers in their homes. The loss of these personal touches, and the zoo that the Classic has become means that we are much less likely to see winemakers or owners, than we are to see the same ole sales representatives.

Finally, the cost has become insane. For both the exhibitors and the participants. It has become a celebration of an elitist lifestyle, rather than the joy of food and wine. This is punctuated by the $1,000 price tag.

And for all that, I miss it terribly.

P.S. I have donated a Aspen Wine School course to the online charity auction. You can search for it, and bid on it here.

A Matter of Taste

2007-05-30T17:01:00.000-07:00

I just got back from another trip to Missouri. I am associated with a nascent winery out there called Casa de Loco. It is not exactly a Missouri winery, since it sells California wines, but it is built on the site of an old insane asylum.

I could go on and on about how cool the place is going to be when it is finished (it is still under construction) but I will save that for my next trip out. Let it suffice to say that it is going to be worth visiting, especially when I am out there teaching seminars. Instead I want to talk about something else Missouri taught me: taste.

I am a pretty big snob, and there are some snobby things I could say about the state of food and wine in Missouri, but ultimately it is a question of taste. I had some great dinners, and some not so great, but the one dinner that really made a big splash, was the one I cooked.

I invited the owner of the winery, his banker and their spouses. I also hosted the managers of the winery, who have been to Aspen to take my course. I wanted to challenge myself by preparing a Classic French seven course meal. This means that the foods all had to be gathered from close at hand. They also had to follow this order: Swims, flies, and then grazes.

I kept the menu simple (and I will share it with you below) but I probably could have been more adventurous. I had no problem at all in gathering the ingredients I needed, and since I brought my own knives and pots and pans, I was set.

I am a trained chef. I spent several years in a classic French style apprenticeship out here in Aspen. But then there are plenty of trained chefs in the world, and not all of them cook to my taste. This is the key, I cook to my taste.

Therefore, it was with some surprise that my meal was heralded as "the best food I ever tasted." Sure, it was good, and I am usually pretty hard on myself, but I never expected that sort of reception.

Could it be that these people had never been out to dinner in their lives? No, they are well traveled beyond the confines of Lake of the Ozarks. Then what was it about my dinner that made it so well received?

Taste. Or more exactly, my taste.

When I cook for guests I go out of my way to meet the needs for each of them. If there is a vegetarian (or in this case someone with allergies) I never hesitate to prepare a special dish or a substitution for them. But for all the accommodating, I still make the food to my taste.

Restaurants too often try to cater to all tastes. This is of course impossible, so they usually err on the side of being inoffensive. This leads to food that is designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

I cook for me, to my taste, to the way I think it should be. If you like it great, and if you don't, no offense taken. I can get away with it, i am playing host, and not taking your money. But would this work for a restaurant?

Many years ago I worked in an exceptional little restaurant that was daring. It had a new menu every night, and there were always items that took risks. For some of the patrons this was exciting and they flocked to our doors. For others it could be summed up in one of the more memorable comments "this food has too much flavor."

Eventually the restaurant gave in to the prevailing winds, and toned down the fare. For a time it worked and the average diner was happy. But eventually the adventurous customers gave up on it, and they stopped telling their friends to dine there, and in time it just became another watering hole without much to recommend it.

Wine makers have to make a similar decision: Do they make wine for the masses, or wine for the discerning? As one who is discerning I prefer the latter, but it is the safer former that makes money. I have hounded this point to death over the years.

My taste is not better than yours, or anyone else's, it is just mine. It turns out that some people share my taste, but don't know it until they have the opportunity to be exposed to it. Now my tastes are their tastes.

This is why I have been writing a newsletter for almost two decades. Not because my wine reviews are "right" or "accurate" but because there are those that share my taste. This is the key, find restauranteurs, winemakers, and above all wine reviewers that share your taste.

Of course, don't forget to explore. You may not know what is to your taste if you never get a chance to try it.

So what did I cook for dinner? (sorry, I don't have the notes to get the wines exactly right)

Cilantro BBQ Shrimp
- Moscato Allegro

Corn/Lobster Chowder with a Lobster Quenelle
-Paraiso, Pinot Noir

Chicken Breast in a Cherry Reduction with Candied Orange Zests
-Jadot, Echezeaux

Refreshment of Frozen Moscato Allegro with Tarragon

Tenderloin of Beef stuffed with Wild Mushrooms and Several Cheeses topped with a light Hollandaise sauce
Served with Asparagus with a ribbon of Maltaise sauce (orange hollandaise) and Potatoes au Gratin
-Beckman, Syrah

Assorted Cheeses with fruits and nuts
-Late Harvest Zinfandel

Cheesecake topped with Balsamic Strawberries and fresh cracked Black Pepper
-Justin, California Port

It took me about 6 hours to prepare the meal because there were a lot of courses, but honestly, behind all the fancy names, this is a relatively simple (and evidently successful) dinner.

While I am certain that there are any number of you out there that would have enjoyed this meal, there are many that simply would not have cared for it.

A great meal or great wine can spoil you, but more importantly it can open you up to a world of possibilities. Better to have tasted and to not taste again, then to have never tasted at all - or something like that.

VineBots to Be

2007-05-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

I have heretofore used this soapbox to speak of those things that are. Occasionally, I speak of how I wished things would be. Today, I venture into the realm of how I think things may become.

Robots have been a part of our lives for the greater part of a generation. Not the kind of robots from the Jetsons, but robots none the less. The dishwasher in your kitchen is a prime example. A machine designed for a single task which it performs autonomously.

I propose now a future vine tending robot. Like your dishwasher, this will be a machine with a single purpose, to produce the best possible wine grape. This will not be a mobile mechanized vineyard manager, it will be in charge of a single vine.

This will be the age of the VineBot (you heard the term here first according to Google). A machine that can respond to the needs of an individual vine and its grapes.

There was a time when an entire vineyard was treated the same way. Then we learned to tailor treatments to the needs of sections of vineyard. When GPS came along, it dramatically improved our ability to treat a single vineyard as many small sections.

The VineBot will be the apogee of this trend. Not only will the robotic nursery be able to treat vines individually, it will be able to ascertain the needs of individual grapes.

Why would we benefit from this level of scrutiny? Because a bunch of grapes that are of a consistent quality will create wines that are of a higher consistent quality.

This is according to Mark Greenspan, Ph.D. of Advanced Viticulture, LLC. While Dr. Greenspan has published evidence to support his claim, it resonates with my own common sense.

Better grapes, better wine.

The VineBot will be able to measure an individual grape's progress by using lasers to determine color and sugar levels. It will be able to manipulate the vine so that it can ripen more evenly than would ever be possible now.

It will be able to administer appropriate nutrients or pesticides to just one vine, so there will be no need to spray great quantities of chemicals around a field. This will greatly aid in sustainable viticulture.

Harvest will be completely automated. A small vehicle will travel the rows, receiving the bunches of grapes that are ready to be picked. The system can work at night, it can be incredibly selective, and it doesn't require skilled workers.

This is the key. It cost a lot of money to hire skilled pickers, and the number of pickers decreases every year. Ask any California farmer, and you will hear an ear full.

Eventually, it will become uneconomical to employ people to do the job that a machine should be doing, and thus the VineBot.

There is already mechanical harvesting, and as I mentioned GPS has really helped cut down on the over use of chemicals, but the VineBot still seems inevitable. The ability to consistently grow high quality fruit is a strong lure, and it is sure to drive research in this direction.

Perhaps vineyards of the future will be hydroponic, the several story long root systems replaced with tendrils in a nourishing gel, but I wouldn't bet on it.

That the vineyards will be more mechanized? That they will have even greater control over the vines? That there will be robots of some sort? I would call that a sure bet.