July 21 2006
According to a Gomberg-Fredrikson Report released in Aprilof this year, California wine alone represented some 185M cases and over $16Bin retail value.
Whatwasn’t germane to that bit of information, but piqued my interest nonethelessis the amount of glass that 185M cases represents—some 2.2B bottles, if my mathis right. Billions of bottles … andthis doesn’t count any imports or wine from the 49 other states—just Californiawine.
Fiveor six years ago I was selling to a company called Saint-Gobain Containersthat was a leader in glass packaging for the wine and food industry … at thetime one of their major accounts was Mondavi wines. And, the technology project I was working on wanted to digitizeall of their wine bottle drawings so they could be accessed electronically andon the fly—saving a tremendous amount of duplication of effort and work.
Itwas a technology problem, but not at all inconsequential as the cost formaterials in the winemaking process gets heavy scrutiny.
But,not all companies like Mondavi outsource their wine bottle production. Companies like E.J. Gallo are verticallyintegrated and do as much as possible themselves in order to save money. An article that can be found here notes thatGallo Glass Co. produces 2.5M wine bottles A DAY.
Thisis all well and good, but the point I’m leading up to is about recycling.
Accordingto an entry on Wikipedia on container deposit legislation, or “bottle bills”--the legislation that reimburses consumers for recycling based on an upfrontcharge per bottle.
Studies also show that the recycling rate for beveragecontainers is vastly increased with a bottle bill. The US beverage containerrecycling rate was 39.4% in 2001. States with bottle bills recycleapproximately 78% while states lacking bottle bill legislation only recycleapproximately 23%.
It’s really a shame that a glass bottle would go into aplastic trash bag to be taken to the dump, when it can easily be recycled.
Ifyou live in a state that doesn’t do bottle tariffs, my public service messagefor the day is to simply recycle them—save them up and drop them off at a glass-recyclingbin. It’s easy and gets folks to besocially conscious about our consumption, even if it’s around a pleasurablepursuit like wine.
And,the cool thing is glass can be used over and over and over again. So, if you recycle your wine bottles andyour neighbor recycles too, you can be assured that your bottles will end up insomething else that can then be recycled. Wine bottle to spaghetti sauce jar to beer bottle to a jar ofmayonnaise.
In keeping with this spirit,and in advance of the Rose that you might drink this weekend, I rounded up ahandful of wine bottle recycled types of items in the event that you’re morecrafty then environmentally conscious.
A wine bottle guitar slide for the musically inclined ...
A flattened wine bottle platter…
A wine bottle candler holder ...
A wine bottle decanter and glass set ...
And, for the chic amongst us ... a decorative wall of empty wine bottles ... an aspect of wine appreciation we can all rally behind ...
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July 21 2006
Comingoff of a wine trip, pulling the cork on your next bottle at home isn’tsomething to take lightly. I didn’twant to pull the cork on a clunker as I eased back into normal quaffing thatmixes in the inexpensive everyday stuff. It is a departure from a couple of the $40+ bottles that found their way inside my heart and my wallet while in PasoRobles.
Itended up being an inspiring choice. Iended up reading in bed for 20 minutes longer just to finish the glass. And, I crept downstairs to make sure I gave it an extra pump or two on the Vacu-Vin to make sure it stayed with me til I could reach the end of the bottle.
And,you gotta love a winery that has the following quote on their web site:
“Twothings that most readily fire the imagination: making love and drinking wine.”
Thisis an excellent, well-crafted wine. Thecolor is a deep ruby shading to purple and concentrated. The finish is longer then the finale of the1812 Overture and, to my palate, had notes of cotton candy—in a pleasurable wayand none of the white pepper that is characteristic of the varietal. And thenose was pure fruit--blueberries, black raspberries and caramel. Well balanced, this is a wine that I willbuy again (and again).
I read the S.F. Chronicle’ Thursday wine articles andcoincidentally, they had a feature on Lake County, the source of the grapes forthe Syrah and the location of the Steele Winery. Mountainous with rugged terrain, the Lake County region is noted for offering a geographical challenge to winemakers.
Despitea long history of growing grapes, Lake County’s modern wine industry is stillin its infancy, with only 14 wineries—11 with tasting rooms. A mere fiveyears ago, there were only four wineries. Industry giant Kendall-Jacksonstarted its business here in 1982 with the persevering talent of Jed Steele,the winemaker who helped create Kendall-Jackson’s successful style of Chardonnay.Steele left Kendall-Jackson to make his own wine in 1991 and opened hisKelseyville winery in 1996. Now, the iconoclastic Steele’s winery is theunofficial first stop for new arrivals looking to make stellar wine in thecounty.
Youcan find another article from Touring & Tasting magazine here.
Idid a spot check at a couple of stores in the Indianapolis market and the Syrahis not carried, and information is scant on the information as well. Jed Steele prides himself on being boutique,so you may have to hunt for this one, but if you find it, I think it’s wellworth the money!
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July 20 2006
The blog Grape Juice has a good post on what makes for agood tasting room experience. Part I of II, with the second part coming ...
Having visited a dozen or so tasting rooms in the lastweek, this is particularly timely—and the author, Erin, leads off the post witha spot-on accurate assessment of tasting rooms that need to have a touch ofcustomer service.
Wewere there based specifically on a recommendation of my friend’s good friend—anoenophile himself with noted good taste and a lover of a blend this wineryspecialized in.
Whilein Paso, I had tasted a Viognier at Edna Valley that had distinct, overt notesof orange zest on the finish—it was an appealing characteristic that added somezing to a varietal that I enjoy.
Whileat this unnamed winery, I noticed similar orange notes in their Viognier andmade the observation that I was picking up some orange notes since the tastingguy was staring at me expectedly. Ifollow the rule that other wineries don’t want to chit chat about your othervisits, so I mentioned nothing of the other Viognier as a reference point—justthat I was getting pleasant orange notes on the finish.
Hewas a guy that looked like a teacher that had put his 25 years in at a schoolsystem and retired to the tasting room, but had never lost the hang-dog worldweariness that teaching can exact from you—as if he had traded having to deal with kids for having to deal withadults—and both were a nuisance that required paying a pound of flesh.
His response to my observation was to not so subtlety correct myMidwestern “vion-yay” pronunciation to the apparently more correct“vee-ohn-YAY” --the difference between a long "o" and a short "o." And then he let me know that he had the wine with dinner lastnight and he hadn’t picked up any orange notes “AT ALL.”
All right, then. I’m the idiot.
Whenmy buddy said, “I’ve heard great things about the <inset winery specialtywine>. Can you tell me about it?" The response was, “What wouldyou like to know?”
Itdevolved from there … their stellar wine, and what they are known for, wastight and taut. When my friend gave ita “Interesting” upon the guys expectant gaze, he remarked that the bottleneeded some air—pronouncing at least 24 hours as a good decanting period oftime and that the wine showed much better after three days of air.
Decantfor 24 hours? Better after threedays?
Whenwe sampled a Zin that had 15.9% alcohol, we got the, “most people that knowabout wine look at it as exceptionally balanced.” I took this as a direct slap.Acutally, he was half right, the wine would have been balanced if it had been aPort.
Whilethis experience, overall, wasn’t completely unpleasant, the tasting staffperson’s personality and churlishness did add a sour note to the visit—the onlyone of 12 wineries we visited that I wouldn’t visit again.
Checkout the post at Grape Juice and see if you don’t agree that personality andbedside manner matters when tasting wine.
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July 20 2006
Inmy post on the 18th I referenced a post by Alder at Vinography basedon an incredibly long string of messages at eRobert Parker—just scroll downthis page to see the post “Around the Blogosphere” and the links.
Thegist of the message thread is that this guy in California believes thatretailers are getting The Wine Advocate in advance of consumers and jackingretail prices. There was someconsternation about when the newsletter was released electronically on the sitebecause some might actually receive their newsletter in hardcopy beforeelectronic subscribers received notification thereby missing a window toacquire the wines without retail price gouging. The argument also crossedgeographical boundaries because if it’s mailed from the east coast it takeslonger to get to the west coast, etc
I’llrefrain from too much editorializing on this subject, because in my mind thisportion of the wine market is incredibly insular and clique-y and out of touchwith the not only the mainstream, but also the majority of enthusiasts—this oneincluded. It’s one thing to use Parkeror Spectator numerical values as a benchmark for buying wine, it’s an entirelydifferent level of “engaged grandiosity” to worry that you might get scooped onthe wine in the same day that the newsletter is released.
Thereason for this post is, very coincidentally, I’ve been reading the Emperor ofWine, the biography on Parker published last year, trying to figure out whatParker’s back story is so I can make some grander contextual sense of wine on aglobal stage. Obviously, I understandthe surface detail and his influence over the course of the last 20 years, buthow it came to be is of interest to me. And, while reading the book, I’m realizing that this entire scenario hastaken place before and is included in the book.
Excerptfrom page 131:
Parkerguarded the new scores closely before an issue of The Wine Advocate was mailed,careful never to reveal them at a tasting or even to his close friends. They knew not to ask. Parker had realized early on that someonewho had the scores ahead of everyone else could use that knowledge to cornerthe market on a highly rated wine. Nowthat a high score guaranteed immediate frenzied sales, whether fromdistributors to retailers or retailers to wine lovers, there was money to bemade by buying big before the demand hit and then later jacking up theprice. Parker, fiercely determined tohold on to his integrity and worried that someone might try to bribe hisprinter, insisted that the printing contract include a stiff penalty if thescores were leaked before publication. Rumors persisted for years that Parker made the scores available earlyto certain people—favored brokers in Bordeaux, certain importers and retailers,and perhaps a few friends. But, hisenemies’ suspicions notwithstanding, no one has ever come up with anyconvincing evidence of this.
But,knowing those scores as soon as possible became so important that around 1988Bob Schindler, owner of Pinehurst Wine Shop in Baltimore and Parker’s friend,started offering (and still does) a “Wine Advocate Bounty” to get a jump on hiscompetition. Whoever brought him thenew issue of The Wine Advocate before Schindler’s copy arrived in the mailcould pick out any 90 + point wine in the store, for free. If someone received his copy before 9 a.m.Schindler would send a driver to pick it up. He would quickly flip through the pages, note the five top-scoring winesand then get on the phone to his distributors. If he had the issue as little as an hour before anyone else, he’d beable to put a lock on the wines and buy all the available cases. If he didn’t, he’s probably lose out—someoneelse would get them.
Themorale of this story? I was quick tojump on the guy in question as not being able to see the proverbial “forest forthe trees.” I retract the statement. He may have a point. Maybe this is a re-hash of the same issuethat has been festering since 1988—the time when this anecdote took placeaccording to McCoy.
Certainly, Parker is influential—to the industry and toacolytes, but just as Parker came of age with the Baby-Boomers, I suspect thatsomebody else will come of age in this new wine generation, and turn the tables… all of the tea leaves point to a more organic method of wine criticism—less dogmaticpalate and more history and narrative, and in this case, in a fragmented mediaworld, it’s likely to not be a single person, but a number of people—perhaps we’reready for the wine equivalent of the Algonquin Round Table. Until that time, though, I suppose those that are on the outsidelooking in at this Bread & Circus will continue to try and make some senseof what can best be described as looking like Bizarro Superman—those that areoperating in this upper echelon niche of the wine world on the boards ofeRobertParker probably presume that they are super elite. But, to outsiders it appears like a paralleluniverse gone wrong.
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July 18 2006
Now that I’m back in the saddle here are a couple of blog posts from the last week or so that I found interesting ...
Josh at PinotBlogger is going through the UC Davis Wine Marketing Short Course and sharing his thoughts and notes on the content of the program--this is a really good series of posts and content I would love to get my hands on ... also of interest in a more "pop-culture-sort-of-way" is the fact that Andrew Firestone from Firestone Winery in in the class. Reality tv fans will remember Andrew from his turn as "The Bachelor" a couple of seasons ago. Though, graciously, Josh doesn’t mention that dubious achievement.
Alder at Vinography highlights a looooooooooooong comment thread on eRobertparker about this loon that is peeved because he gets his newsletter a couple of days after other people and he thinks that retailers jack up the prices of the wine as a result and it’s costing him money ... or something like that. He may be right, but call it "analysis/paralysis," "in the weeds," or "forest for the trees syndrome" and this guy is experiencing it. Robert Parker himself weighs in calling him a "points whore." Check out the post at Vinography and then check out the messages.
Twisted Oak Winery, who launched their blog fairly recently, and have a uniquely irreverent style, are offering a standing offer to send a free bottle for review ... to anybody ... they are diligent about shipping, so check out the site and see if they ship to you.
I, apparently, wasn’t the only person struck by Michael Stajer’s suggestion that the wine industry needs a universal database. He has a follow-up post that can be found here. Still, he doesn’t step up to the plate for the project saying that everybody he heard from thought their information was proprietary and he throws the bone out to the general Internet population. It’s a damn good thing Brian Behlendorf, one of the co-developers of the Apache server that runs virtually all web http servers, didn’t think the same thing or we’d all be writing our blogs in Word files to save to our hard drive ...
Hugh from Gapingvoid has a cross-post at the Stormhoek blog site on wine marketing that’s worth a read ... this story continues and while it may be old hat for those that are deeply in tune with the blogosphere, I suspect that it’s preparing to go mainstream. I’m already readying my rally against Stormhoek just as any hipster rails against the underground being co-opted by the man. I’m kidding. Sorta.
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