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July 6 2006
I ran across this passage from Duff Cooper, a Britishdiplomat, author and noted man about town in the early to mid 1900s on the winerelated web site, Wine Lovers Page, it’s taken from his autobiography, Old Men Forget
"Writing in my sixty-fourth year, I can truthfullysay that since I reached the age of discretion I have consistently drunk morethan most people would say is good for me. Nor did I regret it. Wine has beenfor me a firm friend and a wise counselor. Often…wine has shown me matters intheir true perspective, and has, as though by the touch of a magic wand,reduced great disasters to small inconveniences. Wine has lit up for me thepages of literature, and revealed in life romance lurking in the commonplace.Wine has made me bold but not foolish; has induced me to say silly things butnot to do them."
- Duff Cooper, "Old Men Forget"
Itgot me thinking.
Let’ssay that a woman, with an average life span of 80 years, according to theCenter for Disease Control, started drinking wine on a daily basis when she was25 years old. Let’s assume that shedrank one glass of red wine a day equating to roughly 1.4 bottles of wine aweek. That’s 55 years and 2860 weeks ofwine or around 4004 bottles of wine in a consuming lifetime. Let’s also assume that she dines outoccasionally to frequently and drinks wine with her meals and enjoys awine-centric lifestyle. Because ofthis, let’s round up the total of wine bottles by 5% to get to 4204 of wineover a drinking lifespan of 55 years.
Let’sassume, as an average, between two price points of under $15 and over $25 abottle that the AVERAGE price per bottle is $17.50.
Thetotal lifetime retail value of the wine she has consumed is $73,570, assuming no appreciative value.
That’sa good amount of money.
Ifgiven a choice, at the end of your days, at the end of your wine consuming lifein, say 55 years, you could receive a check for $73,570 dollars IF you stoppeddrinking wine today and forever would you do it?
Nah,me neither!
Inorder to continue and justify my wine drinking life, I am going to open aninterest-bearing savings account and deposit $1000 dollars at 5.6% interest andthen add $150 annually thereafter. In55 years, I would have approximately $73,828.
Atthat point, if I were in this scenario, I would take that money and then buy an’05 Mouton-Rothschild, which will cost about that much then, anyways.
Good Drinking and Good Living!
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July 5 2006
TheStormhoek wine party went swimmingly well and the 25 or so people that sampledthe four varietals— Shiraz, Pinotage, Savignon Blanc and the Pinot Grigio alldeemed them very good.
Itwas a casual party hosted by a friend, Joe, in celebration of the 4thof July. My wife and I hang out with this group of folks that are allinvolved in pottery either as a hobby or as professionals—it’s an easy,enjoyable left-leaning, arts-savvy, NPR and Utne Reader kind of group that is moreorganically educated and enlightened then a straight yuppie bohemiancrowd. We like hanging out withthem.
Allthe people enjoyed wine on some level, so I knew they would be an eagerand receptive group.
Perhapsthe biggest challenge was identifying when, where and how to have the party atall.
Anothergroup of my friends are definitely less wine-oriented and certainly more in theyoung family with toddlers stage in life whereby a wine tasting is nice and funbut isn’t as interesting as the bundles of joy that might bestickingtheirfingerinalightsocketaswespeak.
Thisis to say that get-togethers become a sort of controlled chaos with ramblingkids as much as its an enjoyment of adult company in adult pleasures—which isfine, just maybe not the best environment to do a wine tasting built around akind of quirky story.
Ingeneral, explaining how and why eight bottles of S. African wine came into mypossession that needed to be drunk in a social environment to people that areInternet-literate, but not necessarily blog-literate was an interestingchallenge as well. By the end, I had my narrative down to anelevator pitch that made some sense and invited curiosity.
Givenall of the above, I actually wanted to do the wine tasting in conjunction witha local wine shop that holds a tasting every Wednesday—I would bring thebottles, act as quasi-ringmaster, explain the Stormhoek wine and the viral marketingapproach, snap some good photos and have a good story to tell as a result.
Ishould say, I wanted to do it that way, but the wine shop, or I should say, thewine shop owner, was kind of difficult to pin down.
Throughthe course of about four voice messages that were presumably given to him, butcalls not returned, a half dozen emails explaining the proposition and twotrips down to his store (at his specific request to be present at a tasting)about 25 minutes from my house in which he wasn’t there, it just became too muchof a time sinkhole to try to open eight FREE bottles for his customers.
I’dgive his web site here, but last I checked it was down. Which, really, should have tipped me off inthe first place.
When I explained the Stormhoek wine to the crowd gathered,everybody immediately was taken by the “cute” posters that Hugh atgapingvoid.com did for Stormhoek. If Ihad 10 more, I think those would have generously made their way out the door,as well.
Westarted the wine tasting, in conjunction with party style finger foods, so foodpairing gave way to
conviviality, which is the perfect format to drink thesewines. We started with the PinotGrigio, then the Sauvignon Blanc, the Pinotage and then the Shiraz.
Allare made in the new world style-fresh, lush and ripe. Both of the whites were much richer then I anticipated, in a goodway. The Pinot Grigio is fruit-forwardwith some apple, pear and maybe a bit of honeydew—well balanced—a nice foodwine if I had a light fish or pasta dish.
TheSav. Blanc was the winner of the whites and went quickly. It was a hot day and the acidity of thiswine coupled with similar notes of apple and pear made it seem very crisp,refreshing even. A bit “wetter” and less herbaceous then otherSauvignon Blanc’s—I enjoyed this as a gulpable wine.
ThePinotage was a surprise as well. Thisis a well-made, nicely balanced wine and without the incredibly dusty notes andhigh acidity that I’ve experienced in other Pinotage’s. Perhaps, the biggest goof on my part was I gotcaught flat-footed because I didn’t know what the Pinotage was crossedwith. I, of course, got the Pinot Noirpart down, but I missed the Cinsault portion of this S. African varietal—and noneof the guests had heard of it before, so I missed a chance to get thatright. It had ripe berry fruit, and waswell balanced with a medium body, medium-long finish and good tannicstructure. The Stormhoek tasting notescalled this Pinotage somewhat spicy, though I don’t necessarily share thatopinion.
TheShiraz, by contrast, was a spicy wine. Thiswas probably the best food wine of the bunch—rich, and dark fruit jammy withloads of pepper.
Theoverall victors were the Sav. Blanc and the Shiraz.
Allthe wines, however, were deemed to be good. I’ve seen prices on the Internet for Stormhoek in the $9 - $12 premiumcategory.
Formy money, it’s a good value. There ismore character and nuance to these wines then you’ll find in many othersupermarket-style wines at that price point.
Theseare pleasing wines designed for the American, ‘New World’ palate, but craftedjust enough to make it a good bet. Youget the sense from the quality and the marketing that these are not anonymouslarge lot wines, even though case production may indicate otherwise.
Iprefer these wines, I think, save for the Shiraz, probably as stand-alone drinkers. Wine drinkers of a certain depth will want alittle more out of their wine if paired with a fine dining meal. But, for a party, a social environment, ordrinking through the week, I think you’d be hard pressed to not feel like thesewere very good values for the money.
Thanks to the fellasat Stormhoek for sharing the wine. Agood plan well executed. And, now, thehard work begins because tugging through distribution to retail will be achallenge. But, I know about 25 peoplein Indianapolis that will buy it when they see it at the store, myself included.
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July 4 2006
The American Vine-Dresser’s Guide, 1826, by John James Dufour pg 26 -28
In this passage Dufour speaks in a loping narrative style about the Cape grape and his exploration of various grape varieties and their success—drawing a parrallel to varietals he has experience with in his native Switzerland and in the Bordeaux region.
… toodelicate to make strong and durable wine,the same case happens in cider countries. Among the apples, it is wellknown, that in
TheCape grape is, besides, not a very productive sort, yieldingonly from 100 to 250 gallons per acre; while the best are cultivatedin the Canton de Vaud,in Switzerland, produces from 500to 2800 gallonsper acre in one year, and ten pounds of grapes makes a large gallon of clear wine, and is, at the same time, one of the best tablegrapes. As to strength, it will depend on the climate, and on the sort of soilwhich produces it. It would be a good deal better and stronger if raisedon the pine hills about
If only the enemies of American wine had said that theCape grapes are wild or indigenous, Iwould make no observation here on it: but it is the opinion of oneof my particular friends, whom I hold in the highest estimation, of whom I claimhis indulgence if I differ inopinion, and doubt of the assertion, until I see it in itsoriginal state: for if it existed in the United States,particularly in the State ofPennsylvania, where they said it is to befound wild now, I ought to have met with it in my travelsthrough so many of the States of the Union, undertaken and performedwith the only purpose to studyall that had, or that may have, any relation to the cultivation of the grapes in the UnitedStates.
How could it be, then, that the best of the wild orindigenous grapes, if this isone of them, shouldhave alone escapedmy sight? Beside all theindigenous grapes I have metwith, are what Botanists are classing in the dioicia family, or male and female on differentplants, like hemp, hops, persimmons, one species of the laurel andseveral other plants—while allthe cultivated sort that I am acquainted with are hermaphrodites, or with the faculty, if fecundation initself, the male andfemale organsbeing together in the same blossom, like theapple tree, the peach being of the Latendria monogenia class ofSinuous.
I made that discovery first atFrankfort in Kentucky, in the garden of a gentleman, who had procured some vines of the sand grapes, from the Islands of theOhio; but happening that he had got only male plants his vines neverbore, but large branches of blossoms Ipruned and dressed those vines once myself, with no better success that raisedsuspicion in my breast, of what itwas, awl at the next succeeding blooming time, I plainly saw all the indigenousgrapes that have fallen since under myinspection were of the diociae family. The famous botanist, Michaux, in a Latin flora of South Carolina, tells it also positively,and since, I have found that same plant,which is a different one from the viniferousvines in different parts of Europe, particularly in the vicinity of the river Rhone, beforeits entering the lake ofGeneva; and is the hedges of a farm in the neighborhood of Bordeaux, calledLaguira, belonging in 1806 to Mr. Galay the Swiss Consul at Bordeaux. It is in favor of my readers, who may havethe chance and wish to ascertain that fact by themselves,that I have been so particular.
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July 4 2006
I had the Stormhoek wine party on July 3rd—a great little party hosted by a friend, Joe. All the bottles were very well received and I’ll have a full run-down in the next day or so. In the meantime, here’s an online photo album of the wine.
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July 3 2006
I have my weekly post on Wine Sediments posted here. In honor of the 4th of July I take a quick round-up of typical long weekend summer activities: camping, bbq, baseball with a vinous bent and I include a link to a recipe for Blueberry wine.
Yesterday, I went over to my brother’s house. He’s a good amateur chef and generally turns out very nice foodstuff’s for guests. I had visions of pairing the Trader Joe’s Amarone and the Trader Joe’s Ripasso with some hearty bbq fare—a smoked Boston butt for pulled pork, smoked pork spare ribs and a grilled tenderloin bathed in a sweetly hot bbq sauce from a Michigan company called Cherry Republic that does a slew of products with cherries.
I figured that the Amarone is a heavy, dense wine made for red meat, so the smoking would translate for the pork and the Ripasso is made from grapes in the Italian DOC Valpolicella that is fermented, then aged in barrels ontop of Amarone lees, which add some texture and flavor inexpensively.
Alas, both wines were exceptionally disappointing. I decanted both of them and the Amarone was done in the hour it was decanted and the Ripasso never got started in order to be done. The Ripasso was thin, short and flabby. I swore to myself I would never use the word flabby to refer to a wine, but this one fits the bill. My two cents: skip both at TJ’s and go for the Rabbit Ridge Zinfandel, which I passed over in favor of adventure.
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