Good Grape Wine Company

June 16 2006

Maryland Wine Dispatch

I picked up the obligatory travelers newspaper this morning--USA Today. It’s the soundbite newspaper perfect for the guys and gals on the road that make headline based small talk for the better part of everyday. 

And, while traipsing through the airport I got sucked into a Maryland schwag shop.  I’m such a sucker for local wine.  Even if its bad, it’s still feels somewhat philanthropic to support a small, regional winery. So, buy I do. 

The wine rack in this Maryland shop was, for the most part, filled with fruit wines like Raspberry/Strawberry mixes.  As I noted in a previous email on the "The Long Tail" of wine marketing, this is pretty much stock-in-trade for wineries that aren’t in states that begin with CA, WA or, perhaps, OR.

I picked up a 2004 Syrah from Boordy Vineyards for $16.95.   Information is scant about the wine on the Internet leading me to believe that this is probably not distributed out of the state.  I think Boordy does a pretty handsome business as a winery and doing wedding receptions.  There’s another winery in Northern Michigan called Blackstar Farms  that this web site and winery reminds me of. 

The Boordy web site indicates that the family that runs the place, and Rob Deford, in particular, went to school at UC Davis for Enology. 

Actually, you can tell this is made by somebody that is professionally trained at a place like UC Davis because it’s a darn good wine--one of the better wines I’ve tasted from vinifera grapes East of the Mississippi.  They say it’s crafted in a Rhone-style, which is probably right.  It’s low in alcohol--just 12%.  If I had it sooner, I might have used it for the Wine Blogging Wednesday that just took place and was centered around reds under 12.5% alcohol--which, I am to believe, is pretty tough to scare up in this "New World" day and age. 

The Boordy is much less of an in-your-face Syrah, like a Bogle, for example, and medium-bodied with a heady bouquet of strawberries, spice and some earthiness.  It goes down easy with medium length.  I made it through my first glass without giving it much thought. Nobody likes a quitter, so I poured another glass.  Overall, I’m not sure it’s a $16.95 wine, but you could do significantly worse in your local wine shop.  I came away impressed.

While sitting in the airport scanning the USA Today, I also ran across a couple of three things that I thought were interesting.

There was a blurb about the Park Hyatt in Chicago introducing "sensory branding" whereby the hotel will have a signature scent--the Hyatt will smell like green peppercorns, with overtones of red habanero peppers.  Anybody that has ever walked by a Cinnabon knows what this is all about.  I can barely smell cinnamon now without my stomach grumbling for a 1300 calorie cinnamon sugar bomb.

But, the real thought that I had here was that sensory branding really means that a brand is made up of touch, taste, smell, sight and sound.  Wine is probably one of the very few consumable products that encompasses all five.  Wine X magazine created wine bars with Jelly Belly jelly beans, wouldn’t it be fun and interesting if a winery did a scratch and sniff sticker or multiple single scent stickers on the outside of their bottle encompassing the flavor profile--raspberry, earth, violets, etc ...  what a great opportunity to differentiate on the shelf.

Also in the Life section was a blurb on Jerry Shriver’ daily under $15 wine pick.  Today’s pick was the Kendall-Jackson Zinfandel which he dubbed, "A hamburger wine if ever there was one."  To make five recommendations a week would seem like a pretty tough job, but when you consider how many nationally distributed wine SKU’s there are now, it’s actually not that tough--especially given that most mass produced wines are pretty clean and consistent.  It doesn’t have to be great, it just has to be non-offensive.  Like a house guest, kind of.  Interestingly, to bloggers at least, he doesn’t have a whole lot of comments--which, to me, means by sphere if influence, a lot of bloggers are doing better traffic than USA Today. 

The final thing that caught my eye was a review on the book "Heat" whereby the author, Bill Buford, left his writing gig at The New Yorker and did an apprenticeship with Mario Batali at his Babbo restaurant.  First, I think Batali is the only Food Network chef that has been able to transcend the medium to a mass platform and still keep his credibility intact.  Secondarily, it mentions that Batali is a wine drinking machine that can down 12 bottles over the course of an evening with a companion.

I mean, seriously, twelve bottles!!!  Anybody that can drink more than 4 bottles with somebody else deserves a special mention and notice.  Can you say "Under the Table?"  Can you say "Headache of Titanic Proportions?"  This may also explain Batali’s  girth because those 3000 calories alone exceed the daily allowance for a man and I know Mario is eating in there, as well.

Have a wine soaked weekend!

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