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May 8 2008

Vin de Napkin - He Has Spoken

For lack of better phraseology, it must be a pain in the arse when your livelihood is pinned on one opinion. If New York restarantuers think they have it bad with the New York Times dining section, imagine having all of midtown or Greenwich Village predicated on the penstroke.

From this article:

BORDEAUX (AFP) — Influential US wine critic Robert Parker has drawn long faces in Bordeaux, handing out a series of low scores, and telling buyers not to bother with the 2007 vintage unless chateaux owners cut prices substantially.

“There is unquestionably little need to buy these wines as futures, unless dramatic price reductions occur. I don’t expect that to happen,” said Parker in his annual vintage review, titled “2007 Bordeaux: Who Will Buy Them and at What Price?”

Posted in, Good Grape Daily: Pomace & Lees. Permalink | Comments (1) | Print | Email This

May 7 2008

Vin de Napkin - For the People by the People??

In my old age I’ve really been turning the dial on skeptical cynicism. To that end, nothing rankles me more than more government. Well, at least more government where it shouldn’t be. Saving people from themselves, yes. Helping those that need help, yes. Ensuring children can maximize their potential, yes. State-run liquor stores, no.

So, it was with much shock and chagrin that I read an article about the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PCLB) spending $3.6M dollars for store design improvements and general recommendations designed to improve the shopping experience ... in order to become a world-class retailer.

The upshot is that the Governor of the state, Ed Rendell, told the head of the PCLB, PJ Stapleton, to, “Run this place like a business, not a government bureaucracy.”

Gee, I can’t imagine anything as government-like as a $3.6M dollar contract with a branding firm. Now that I think about it, it’s awfully corporate, as well.

I want to say: guys, I’ll take a consulting fee of 10% on that $3.6M and save you the balance. With the savings, the PCLB can do one of two things--either drive to New York City with a bunch of MBA students who need a capstone project and go to every retailer in the city. Subsequently steal ideas from all that is good. Alternatively, head to Costco, the largest wine retailer in the country, and study how to sell high-volume low qty. sku’s to an adoring public.

There, I just saved them a bunch of money. I’ll wait for my check to arrive.

Posted in, Good Grape Daily: Pomace & Lees. Permalink | Comments (1) | Print | Email This

May 5 2008

Vin de Napkin - eHarmony and Wine

Inspired by a comment I received from Josh at Pinotblogger in response to my review of a BioD wine (found here). He raised the question, a very valid question, about whether I would enjoy the wine as much if I tasted it blind. He’s right. How much is my tasting the “vitality” in a BioD wine related to my own psychosomatic predisposition to being intrigued by BioD wines made with natural yeasts?

But, just as soon as you start to go down one path of mental resolution, you open up a $22 bottle of BR Cohn Silver Label Cab and a Trader Joe’s $5 bottle and you realize that the TJ’s wine is better. A normal predisposition would say the more expensive wine is better.

It’s all subjective; fortunately I’m a sales and marketing guy with a liberal arts degree so I don’t have to get bound up in quantifying the science in it all. This subjectiveness is illustrated as much by our desire to date to attractiveness (or, in my case, marry) demonstrated by eHarmony (it don’t mean a thing without the picture). Blind tastings and personalities matches are great, but, yeah, I guess the label does matter.

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May 3 2008

2006 Cooper Mountain “Mountain Terroir” Five Elements Series Pinot Noir

Perhaps it is serendipitous that my Amazon.com purchase of Alice Feiring’s new treatise, The Battle for Wine and Love, came at approximately the same time that I pulled the cork on a winery sample from Cooper Mountain Vineyards.

Feiring’s book is a broadside against technology in winemaking and the Cooper Mountain “Mt. Terroir” is as about as natural of a wine as they come.

(Cooper Mountain) Mountain Terroir (Five Elements Pinot Noir) is a blend of some of the best grapes harvested from our three vineyards sites (Grabhorn & Meadowlark & Johnson School). Singled out in individual barrels for aging, the contents of this bottle have been carefully brought together to convey what we hope to be the best expression of Cooper Mountain’s terroir, of our environment.

And, frankly, you have to love a winery that produces only 90 cases of a biodynamic Pinot Noir Cuvee from estate-grown grapes and they decide to sample some to the blogosphere. It is a bold choice and demonstrates an incredible insight into old-world winemaking technique and the new market dynamics of the modern day. And, it helps that it is a fantastic wine.

I feel like I was a part of an experiment. Ostensibly, this sampling was a litmus test by Cooper Mountain. The wine is certified organic and biodynamic, fermented with native yeasts. They wanted to know whom the rube is, who does not “get it.”

It is not hard to “get” this wine. And, in parallel to Feiring’s book, it is not hard to see the immediate point of natural winemaking.

Of all the biodynamic wines that I have tasted, each of them has expressed a certain “it” factor.

Now, mind you, just like NFL quarterbacks, it is very difficult to describe what “it” is. Sometimes you just know it when you see “it.” The liveliness, the je ne sais quoi … the LeBron James or the Peyton Manning factor at work, as opposed to the merely good, at the highest level.

Biodynamics wine is a controversial subject, some view it as poppycock, a skepticism about some of the mysticism.

Here’s where I come down on BioD wines – there’s room enough in the world all variants of winemaking, but it’s hard to argue with what frequently gets delivered in the bottle. BioD wine is hard to describe, but you know “it” when you taste “it.”

That is a point that Alice Feiring argues and Cooper Mountain delivers.

My review is found here.

Posted in, Good Grape Wine Reviews. Permalink | Comments (4) | Print | Email This

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