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May 25 2006

Sending a Boy to Do a Man’s Job:  Winemaking

Lastyear as a wedding gift from my wife she bought me a gift certificate to aU-vint place so we could make some wine together.

Iwaxed philosophic as I remembered my grandfather having a nip of some homemadefruit wine with neighbors when I was a kid. I was channeling his spirit forthe day when I too could open an unmarked brown bottle and admire and sip the sweetnectar.

Thisgift was also given after two failed attempts to do this myself in the basementwith kits a couple of years ago at which point I started looking down my noseat the kits thinking they were for the kind of people that think the local summer Italian festival is like going to Rome.

Mygrandfather’s spirit notwithstanding, there is a difference between theneighborly fruit wines of the day and the concentrate.

TheU-vint place itself was one of those concentrate kit places that is permittedby the state as a winery. I think theco-owner has a Russian mail-order bride whom he kind of lords over waiting tocorrect her when she gets off message in a thick Eastern European accent formore than 15 seconds, but that’s a whole ‘nother story. At this place, you do a tasting, you pick outthe wine you like, you do about 45 minutes worth of work with yeast, water withsome carboys and your concentrate and then you come back six weeks later tobottle it.

Mostly,because of the concentrate nature, the white wines work a little bit betterthan the reds because of the level of finesse required between the two in anactual winemaking operation.

Despitethat, I still chose a red wine. Forevery one bottle of white I drink, I drink 10 bottles of red, so if I was goingto make four or five cases of something a red it was going to be.

Whenwe bottled it I sampled a half glass of it. They tell you to let it bottle age for three months and even longerwould be better.

This,I have now found, is absolutely true.

Whenbottling, to say the wine was dreadful wouldn’t be fair. To say that it was good wouldn’t have been fair,either. It was straddling the linebetween favorable doubt and enjoyment—something that doesn’t even, really, lenditself to gift giving to friends and family.

Now,some five months later, I am happy (very happy) to report that the wine isdefinitely quaffable. It’s a drinkablered. It’s positioned as an Amarone, butbecause decent Amarone’s from Italy are $50 and up, let’s callthis Paisano Red with an off-dry raison-y undercurrent. This is definitely best served after ½ hr. inthe fridge to chill it off of room temperature.

Theidea of wine concentrates and U-vint places is a derivative off of a robusthome winemaking market that seems to be growing by leaps and bounds.

Ihave heard of pockets of folks in New Jersey and California that actually make winefrom their own grapes, but for the most part, a lot of folks do the equivalentof car customization with their wine kits and tweak, tweak, tweak the wine totheir satisfaction.

Itshould come as no surprise that the bold winemakers amongst us want to entertheir vino in competition against like competitors to see how well theyfare. Winemaker magazine held an amateurwine competition and had a record 2,417 entries. Wow. That’s a lot of wine. I’mguessing that magazine bake-off’s don’t get that many entries and there are alot more people that bake muffins then make wine.

FromWineMaker magazine:

FromApril 28 to April 30, wine judges evaluated a record 2,417 entries in the 2006WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition. The 2006 edition of theWineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition represented the largest andmost diverse collection of amateur wines ever assembled. The 2,417 entriesarrived from hobby winemakers living in over 40 American states and 8 Canadianprovinces. Over the course of three days, judging panels worked through over450 flights, examining each wine using the UC-Davis 20-point wine scaleevaluating appearance, aroma, taste, after taste and overall impression. Thewines were entered in 50 different categories and included an astonishing arrayof varietals and wine styles. Kit wines competed alongside fresh-grape entriesin this blind tasting.

Interestingly,in the results for straight varietals, you will find a ton of kits.

I’minterested enough to try it again when I get into a bigger house with betteraccommodations for winemaking and sanitation, etc. And, interested enough to drink it down anduse it to cook with.

Ican recommend it as a nice gift giving opportunity around the holidays, too,for casual wine drinking friends that will dig the novelty.

But,make no mistake; nobody will mistake this wine for anything that will bring aman to his knees in deep reflection. Forthat, I believe, you must go the fruit or the grape route and manage the entireprocess yourself and trial and error through thousands of dollars and and a dozen years.

At least the wine shop is close by.  I hear wineries are exploding in growth.

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May 24 2006

New World

Inspired by the overall Biodynamics debate and this blog post from Wine Caveman.  An overview explanation from his post:

It is difficult to speak of biodynamics without waxing philosophic.While it parallels organic farming in it’s use of organic materials forenriching the microbiology of the soil, it embraces a much moreholistic vision that sees any farm as a single organism whose successor failure is dependant upon the health of the greater organism in it’sentirety. Unlike both chemical and organic agriculture, it is notsolely based on the ‘soluable,’ the simple reduction of a plants needsto elemental additions of nutrients, but ties the plants health into amore unified ecological vision. It is concerned with the subtlemanipulation of life forces (energies) and aims to work alongside theserhythms of nature.

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May 24 2006

Mario Batali:  Zen Master of Food & Wine

When in New York recently my bride and I enjoyed a sevencourse wine-paired tasting menu at Esca—Mario Batali’s fish restaurant.

Imentioned in a post before that the absolute standout of the wines presentedwas a barbaresco. I was mildly franticwhen I came home because I had tucked away the menu so I could have a record ofthe wine and only within the recesses of the suitcase, tucked behind a dirtypair of socks from nine trips ago, did it materialize. The menu changes frequently and my hopes forrecovering the name of the wine served were probably pretty good, but still itwas a relief to find it nestled amongst some dirty laundry, just the same.

Thebarbaresco was the 2000 Cascina Morassino. Made from the Nebbiolo grape, which is notorious for being very difficultto drink in its youth based on extreme tannins—though, this one wasexceptional. Medium bodied and pairedwith fish, it was lively and eminently drinkable—so much so that I drank mywife’s glass, as well.

Batali’s partner in crime …er… restaurants is a guy namedJoe Bastianich, who is also a wine importer in his own right, so I was somewhatsurprised that he wasn’t pimping just his wines, but Mario and Joe, from adistance, both strike me as extremely authentic in that the food and thecustomer come first and profits will arise out of that service—a mistakencontrast for so many other businesses.

From the importer’s web site:

 The ten acre CascinaMorassino farm is located in the steep Ovello zone of Barbaresco proper. Run byRoberto Bianco, age 38, and his father Mauro, it is one of Barbaresco’s oldestproducers. Though Roberto continues to attentively adapt to each vintage, a1971 Barbaresco Morassino he and I recently enjoyed, shows that his fatherMauro did things spectacularly well in the pure, old fashioned style. Needlessto say, Roberto and Maura do everything themselves. They would never even thinkof passing off vineyard work to someone else.

ItalianNebbiolo producers have been working with the wine to make them more drinkable while they are youthful. The importer’s web site for the Cascina Morrassino seems to alludeto this:

Roberto’swines show the unique, fragrant side of Nebbiolo but they never lose the spicygrip of Nebbiolo. These wines show that Barbaresco in the modern day does nothave to give up its deeper roots.

Ironicallyenough, I found this wine and purchased it online at … a NYC wine shop—one thatTyler from Dr. Vino recommends—Crush Wine & Spirits. Had I known that, I certainly would havebought it while in town. But,nonetheless, this beauty of a wine is worth $30 in shipping

Eventhough it was very nice with a strawberry-ruby hue and a soft bouquet, Iimagine it was well-decanted.

Whileat MoMA on the same trip, I saw an incredibly handsome decanter for anincredible price. It has six grooves inthe stopper so it disperses the wine down the sides of the decanter—and,supposedly, creates more opportunity for oxygenation. The L’Atlelier Du Vin was $145, however. If you are dying to spend money on adecanter the likes of which has dubious merit above and beyond the $15 versionat Bed, Bath & Beyond, you can find it here.

But,for my money, if you were asking for a recommendation, I would buy 4 bottles ofthe Cascino Morrassino for the same amount of money.  It’s the wine that makes a meal and event and certainly our meal was an event made special by a delicious wine.

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May 23 2006

Old News with Fresh Perspective, Notes & Dusty Bottle Items (Part II)

While I was out of town for a couple of days, Tom Wark,from the wine blog Fermentation, had an interesting post on the wine and foodblog portal site the WellFed Network/Wine Sediments.

Interesting in that he found a brand-spanking new academicjournal dedicated to the semi-annual review of the economics of wine.

Tom suggests that this may be a leading edge indicator thatwine, as an industry, is reaching maturity, because the scope of scholarlyresearch has expanded from the mechanics of manufacturing to using brainpowerand tools to expand its reach.

It’s the “make as much as you have a market for” modelmoving to the “make as much as you can to sell to as many people as you can”model.

I agree with him, but with an important distinction. While the wine industry itself might bereaching maturity, the consumer market is only reaching, according to anadoption lifecycle curve, the outer reaches of the “early adopter” stage.

To use a technology reference point, this would be thestage where a technology, like the DVD, goes from niche market to “everybody isgetting rid of their VCR’s.”

What does this mean for wine? The salad days are upon us.

And, this should actually be a good time for wine-relatedservices specialists and consultants because in a time of economic swoon in anygiven industry, more outsider expertise is engaged in order to maximizeeconomic opportunity.

That economic quirk aside, the journal, which can be foundhere, has several excellent articles that are available for PDF download. It’s heady stuff. You know you’re getting in deep when the economic theory the“Hedonic Technique” is used for the article: “What Determines Wine Prices: Objective vs. Sensory Characteristics.”

Thanks to Tom for the head’s up.

                                                          X X  X  X  X

Related to the above, and my post last week that talkedabout the new Google ability to do trend analysis with different searchphrases, I missed the other part of the Google announcement that came out.

Google Co-op was announced in the same press activity. And, the real interesting aspect of it, isit allows wine experts to use their embedded knowledge to create verticalsearch portals off of inquiry strings. Think of About.com crossed with the user-based news .com site Digg.

With a proliferation of wine content and people writingabout wine, it is entirely conceivable that a new generation of wine expertscould be born out of this (like a Stephen Hawking, for example, just in thewine industry and not quantum physics/space), just as some folks have raisedtheir wine profiles from hobbyist to pseudo-expert via blogging.

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Afriend sent me a link to this http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/22/hungary.apes.reut/index.html">CNN article about Hungarian zookeepers feedingthe apes wine. Not much to say here,except that they drank 55 liters—or the approximate equivalent of 68.75 bottlesof wine and the zookeepers say it boosts their red cells.

No word on whether the apes, in the French Bourgeois tradition, enjoy a smoke, as well.

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May 23 2006

Generation NEXT: A New Generation of Winemakers are Ready for their Cue

Inthe popular wine press, I’ve noticed a greater emphasis lately on personalityprofiles and a concerted attention on boutique vintners—but these are vintnersthat are making artisan wines that are not artisan as a part of an allocatedmarketing strategy—these are truly micro-wineries. Mostly, these passionate winemakers are young—under the age of35, and in some cases in their mid twenties.

Atthe same time, ESPN the Magazine publishes an annual “Generation Next” issuehighlighting athletes from all types of sports that are young as well as up andcoming influencers in the next generation of sports stardom; this not too mention Pepsi using  a similar kind of  youth mantra.

Inthe sports arena, pundits and columnists often dig for the commonality, the ‘friendsoutside the game’ angle and who is going to be next to ascend to greatness—sometimesthere is a hardscrabble story and occasionally a tale of pending greatnessdespite the odds—the kid who shot a thousand free throws a day with a milkcrate nailed to the light pole in the alley …

Ourfood and wine press is beginning to do the same …

Food& Wine magazine’s May issue featured young winery employee’s—asst.winemakers, vineyard manager’s and the like and discussed their own personallabels that they work on under the auspices of the “nights and weekend”program.

Arecent article in the San Luis Obispo Tribune highlights some of the young winemakersin the Paso Robles area—most of them 2^nd generation vintners and intheir early 30s.

Behindthe continuing evolution of Paso Robles wines and wineries is a new generationof winemakers who are preparing to take the wines and the region to a new level.About a dozen young men — most in their early 30s — are playing key roles inthe wineries their fathers started. Many went to school together, and allconsider themselves friends and co-supporters in what is often a verycompetitive industry.

Amongthe things they share is a commitment to the area, a willingness to experimentand a drive to make the very best quality wine possible.

Oneof the leaders of the wine youth movement, at least in the Central Coast area,seems to be Peachy Canyon, which is starting to enjoy wide distribution andgenerally favorable reviews.

Whenhe was growing up, Josh Beckett says he swore that he would not go into hisfather’s wine business.

DougBeckett started making wine in 1988 and sold his first 100 cases out of theback of a pickup. Since then, the winery output has increased to 54,000 cases,and Peachy Canyon Winery has emerged as a respected producer of premiumzinfandels in the country.

Astint working in Australia after college changed Josh’s mind about the winebusiness, and he has now been head winemaker since 2002.

Atage 31, he has a casual attitude about the winemaking process, but he is alsodriven by the competition around him.

"Whenyou see a particular winery getting some of the scores they are out ofPaso," he said, "that just gets you in gear, and makes you realize itcan be done."

Regardinghis motivation and that of his peers, he says, "We’re not in it for thepaycheck; we’re in it for the recognition."

Another very cool business model for acouple of young and young at heart couples is the A to Z Wineworks in Oregon.

A to Z is taking the negociantbusiness model seriously and they are making very premium wines at affordable prices. They make a Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, PinotBlanc and a couple of other varietals and are growing rapidly.

A very good article on the negociantbusiness model from Bloomberg can be found here:

The article says:

(Thereis) a growing band of ambitious, innovative, new-style negociants: instantvintners with no vineyards or wineries who are stirring up the wine businessand offering some of the best wine deals around. Traditionally, a negociant(French for merchant) purchases barrels of wine from a small grower who’sharvested the grapes and made the wine.

Thenegociant blends it, sometimes ages it and then bottles and markets it underhis own label. This business model has a long history in Europe, especially inBurgundy, where hundreds of tiny domaines find it less risky to sell their wineto one of the region’s major negociants such as Maison Louis Jadot or Drouhinfor a guaranteed price than to invest the capital to bottle and market itthemselves.

Theadvantages are obvious: The growers get cash flow, while the negociants avoidthe overhead of owning vineyards (although some do that, too) and can,presumably, keep prices down.

Unfortunately, A to Z is distributedin 40 states, but not my own, so I picked up a bottle of their Pinot Noir whilein New York recently.

It’s delicious.  If it’s 100% pinot, it represents a ripeness that is only seen in wines with a touch of Syrah cut in ... very velvety with a lot of fruit, nicely balanced.

TheA to Z Pinot Noir is crafted from over twenty different wines selected andblended by A to Z from over sixteen of Oregon’s best Estates. A multitude ofPinot Noir clones and styles of winemaking are represented as facets in thismultidimensional blend. Aged in 100% French Oak of which 40% was new for 9months, 17,000 full bottle cases were made.

Those that have been around nascent stars--athletes on the rise, or rock bands in a ‘scene’ talk about the palpable sense that something new, different and exciting is happening.  From my quiet chair in the heartland, thousands of miles away from California and Oregon, I can’t help but feel the same for winemaking and the youthful zest that seems to be pervading the industry.

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