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I hope you continue  to find WineZag a valuable resource for enhancing your wine  lifestyle and will enjoy some of the new  features that are planned for release over the next  months.  I continue to be amazed, humbled, and appreciative of all the  wonderful support so many of  you have offered as this  personal social media experiment  actually approaches a one-year anniversary.

Cheers!

Adam  Japko

Here’s the story.  Living less than two miles from my home, Malcolm is mostly a full-time musician, serious student of the keyboard, and accomplished player.  Malcolm’s wife, Kathleen, is a talented painter and supporter of the arts in Boston, helping to pioneer the Thayer Street/SOWA district in Boston’s South End in 2001 by co-founding the OHT Gallery (recently morphed to OHT Projects ).  I’m a media executive, my wife’s a physician, Malcolm’s summer home south and east of Boston, and mine on a northern lake in New Hampshire.  His daughter and my son were close friends and appreciated each others’ inquiring minds until the age of eight when they enrolled in separate schools and made new friends.  So, Malcolm and I have to force our worlds to meet, and when we do, we celebrate in a big way with wines that never escape our memories. 

When Malcolm was younger in the early to mid-eighties, he worked in a Boston wine shop and stashed away a serious Bordeaux, Rhone, and Alsace collection.  Without a formal cellar of his own back then, he squirreled away his wines around town, and one of those places was his mother’s home, lacking any of the usual temperature and humidity characteristics associated with reliable cellaring .  As such, Malcolm never trusts his wines’ fitness and has a need to constantly test their progress.  As a willing and lucky lab partner, I can attest that most of Malcolm’s wines are progressing just fine in his now state of the art cellar he constructed years ago.

Which brings us back to the 1982 Vieux Chateau Certan with an offer and retrospective look at Robert Parker’s fickle opinions of the wine spanning 16 years of bottle life.  First; my offer.  I am happy to open this wine with any reader that would like to taste it with me.  As fair trade, I am requesting the venue be Eleven Madison Park in New York City, on a mutually acceptable date, where I will gladly pay the corkage fee and supply the wine in exchange for you hosting the meal.  Please don’t interpret the EMP venue suggestion as anything other than an interest in getting back to a favorite top spot to eat and drink in New York (which you can read here in a past WineZag post).  I have another bottle of the same wine in case you are interested in expanding the group a bit larger or the response to this offer is robust.  Remember, Malcolm does not trust his cellaring, but I can vouch that he has less to worry about than his innate cellaring paranoia allows.  Just leave a comment here, or contact me at awjapko@gmail.com, if you are interested.  Depending on response, I will either be drinking this alone in my cellar with a slice of pizza or trying to figure out how to arrange a common date for up to eight people at Eleven Madison Park.

There is something interesting going on with this wine.  It is either the wine or the continual complexities of tasting and reviewing a product that evolves and changes over years in a bottle, and minutes in a glass.  Robert Parker recently revisited some 1982 Bordeaux back in June 2009, and he rated the Vieux Chateau Certan 93 points saying this:

Not yet fully mature, this wine reveals some amber at the edge as well as a complex, intoxicating nose of cedar, licorice, spice box, black currants, and cherries. While medium to full-bodied with sweet tannins, and beautiful concentration, it appears to me that more recent vintages are stronger and denser than the 1982. Nevertheless, it is a beauty that can be drunk now and over the next 15-16 years. Release price: ($175.00/case) (current price: $223-$290/bottle)

Not yet fully mature?  Well, what about these past review snippets by Parker?  He reviewed the wine in 1993  giving the wine 89 points and writing:

I have rated this wine higher, but recently it is revealing considerable amber and rust at the edge, and evolving rapidly. It exhibits a sweet, cedary, jammy nose with a meaty, soy sauce component. Fleshy and full-bodied, with low acidity, copious amounts of ripe, rich fruit, and high alcohol in the satiny smooth finish, this fully mature, chewy wine is capable of lasting 10-15 more years.

And then in the third edition of his Bordeaux book in 1998 he rated the wine 88 points and said:

Regular 750 ml. formats are soft and herbaceous, wonderfully delicious and round, but not that complex or concentrated…. The color is a healthy dark ruby with some amber.  The wine possesses a peppery, herb, olive, and vanillin-scented nose, and jammy black cherry fruit. Lush and succulent, with medium to full body, excellent concentration, and a low acid finish with no real tannin, this is a fully mature wine that begs to be drunk over the next 7-8 years.

And in June of 2000 Parker bumped his rating back up to 89 points saying:

An herbaceous, cedary, spice, and fruitcake-scented bouquet jumps from the glass of this medium ruby/garnet-colored wine. More complex aromatically than on the palate, this supple, velvety-textured effort exhibits abundant glycerin, an open-knit, expansive mouth-feel, but not the depth, power, or density of the vintage’s finest efforts. Fully mature, it requires consumption over the next 5-7 years.

 So in 1998 he gave the wine a sub 90-point rating and suggested not holding past 2005.  In 1998 the Wine Spectator gave the wine 91 points saying:

A lovely and harmonious red. Beautiful cherry, floral and berry character. Full-bodied, with velvety tannins and long, focused berry and milk chocolate flavors. Drink now or hold.–1982 Bordeaux horizontal

With Parker bumping his rating based on a 2009  tasting all the way to 93 points and giving the wine a life extension until 2025, are you now as curious as I am?  Just leave a comment here or send me an email at awjapko@gmail.com and let’s find out together at Eleven Madsion Park, and maybe I can even convince Malcolm to join us.

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Gathered around a few white cloth-covered tables under brighter than usual Saturday night lights, I hosted a group of 17 New England tasters to evaluate a dozen wines made from the Mencia grape.  Finally, the opportunity to examine Mencia in a critical environment presented itself and I looked forward to validating my developed preference that I have unleashed on restaurant wine lists across the country.  

Having never met a Mencia wine I didn’t like, I wondered what might happen in a blind, varietal peer group format.  We assessed a decent range of wines from vintages spanning 2003-2008 sourced from the Valdeorras, Bierzo, and Ribeira Sacra growing regions in Northwest Spain.  The wines ranged from 12%-14% alcohol content and retail price points started at $12 (2005 Flavium Crianza) moving all the way up to $80 (2007 El Pecado).  The event confirmed what I was discovering piecemeal trying these wines one at a time accompanied with food; strutting its stuff without attempts to hide anything, Mencia displays a combination of red/blackberry fruit, exotic and herbal aromas, rustic characteristics, and a richness that never feels too ripe.  On this evening, the wines seemed to organize themselves into two broad categories; (1) rustic earthiness combined with exotic, spicy aromas (2) deep fruit core with berry flavors and floral aromas relegating rustic, garrigue hints to the background.   

Before a lineup rundown and some words on the group’s favorites, it’s worth remembering that this grape is indigenous to these Northwest regions of Spain and not grown anywhere else.  There was a school of thought that the grape was related to Cabernet Franc, but the speculation has been suffocated by negative DNA tests.  As we gathered around our glassware, a friend and fairly steady tasting partner, Glen, reminded us that he has visited his son-in-law’s family who hails from these parts, and not to forget that Ribeira Sacra and Valdeorras (getting famous for the delicious white wines made from Godello fruit) are part of Galicia while Bierzo, 70 miles to the east of Ribeira Sacra, buts up against the same unique environmental influences that the Galician ocean and mountains offer.  The vineyards are found in both valley floor and terraced hillsides, with soils of stone and clay down below and granite and schist composition up top.  The wines are products of their home, and I noticed a few wines, including the overwhelming crowd favorites, moved toward a riper international market style, slightly departing from the brighter berry and herbal terroir driven qualities of the hills and ocean influences that Glen’s son-in-law is also a product of.  These few wines, while delicious, seemed to lose some of the tell-tale berry characteristics we were discovering through the evening. 

Here are the wines we tasted and some approximate retail prices: 

2003 Ribas Del Cua, Bierzo $20                              

2003 Tilenus, Bierzo $25                            

2005 Baltos, Bierzo $15    

2005 Flavium Crianza, Bierzo $12                               

2006 El Castro de Valtuille, Bierzo  $16                                                       

2007 Losada, Bierzo $20 

2007 Vina Caneiro, Ribeira Sacra $28                              

2007 El Pecado, Ribeira Sacra  $80                              

2007 Petalos, Bierzo $25                              

2007 El Cayado, Bierzo $20                           

2008 Pena do Lobo, Ribeira Sacra $17    

Bodega Jesus Nazareno as Chas, Valdeorras  $13 

Jay Miller at the Wine Advocate reviewed nine of these twelve wines and gave all of them 90+ scores.  He rated the El Pecado 98 points, saying: 

Its ethereal aromas are reminiscent of a great vintage of La Tache (readers will surely think I’m exaggerating) leading to a layered, sleek, elegant wine with tons of spice, that seems to melt in the mouth. 

The extraordinary wines of Raul Perez must be tasted to be believed. Words simply cannot do them justice. The problem is that they are produced in minuscule quantities. 

Interestingly, the El Pecado did not finish in the top 3 of the group’s favorites.  It was fifth.  I was surprised.  It showed its dark black color, was restrained in its ripeness, had deep black cherry flavors with a little pepper spice, tobacco leaf on the nose, and a sweet long finish.  It was in the evening’s first flight, and was my third favorite of that flight and fifth favorite overall.  Yet, the notes were consistent with the first time I tried this wine at Casa Mono (which you can read about in this post) when I sang its praise; 

…intense aromas of rich black fruit, raspberries, and earth with other stuff I could not even recognize in the nose.  Tasting this wine with dishes like bone marrow, fideos with chorizo and clams, pumpkin and goat cheese croquetas, crispy pork belly with apple salad, and duck egg with mojama (salt cured tuna) created a competition for aroma definition that had my nose raising white flags of surrender.  But, the intensity of the wine was something I had not experienced in a very long time…pure elegant fruit, laser point focus, and the silkiest mouthfeel imaginable for a wine as packed as this.  And the finish…wow that finish…..went on for minutes and the depth of flavors and fruit hung in there with rich blackberry, spice and earth filling my head and chest….I thought of some of the great Paulliacs I’ve tasted in classic vintages where gobs and layers of fruit packed elegantly into silk purses of soft supporting tannins, all with finishes to remember. 

The group’s, and my own, favorite was the 2007 Losada.  I loved this wine the first time I tried it at Toro, in Boston’s South End, which concluded in a search and destroy mission that had a dozen bottles land in my cellar.  On this evening, the wine showed its unusually dark black/purple color and meaty gamey aromas.  Amanda, one of our tasters and budding wine writer, discovered exotic barbeque duck spice and someone else reported tar-like flavors.  In past tastings of this wine I also noted cinnamon and fruit cake aromas.  The wine’s finish, as usual, was long and rich. 

The least favorite wine of the night was from the cooperative of Bodega Jesus Nazareno; as Chas.  Lightest in color of all the wines we tasted, it exhibited a barnyard, animal, manure smell that actually appealed to me, but repulsed a lot of the other tasters.  I turned my head to the wine’s lack of fruit and middle depth.  The wine was not horrible, but it was not in the same league as the others.  It might be nice to drink with some barbequed pork or heavily herbed salmon.  Not to be totally dismissed, it was the only wine that generated any real objection.  As such, all the wines in the lineup are recommended and represent, for the most part, strong values.  

Taking second place was the 2003 Tilenus.  It was good to see one of the wines with a little bottle age perform well.  It was black in color with sweet floral perfume, tobacco leaf, garrigue and lead pencil aromas.  Interestingly, the center of the the wine was in need of just a bit more fruit,  leaving me a little surprised and expecting lots more considering its intense aromatics.  

A wine that did not place in the group’s top three, but was my second favorite of the first flight of six wines was the El Castro de Valtuille.  A rich purple color with amazingly true Mencia character shining through, the wine had red berry crossing into strawberry and pomegranate seed aromas, sweet flower petals combining with a slight mustiness, and rich red and blackberry fruit flavors in the finish.   The wine is multidimensional and constantly changed in the glass showing its kaleidoscope character.  It did secure a few 1st place votes by the group. 

Third on the group’s overall list was the other 2003, Ribas del Cua.  The color of the wine was deep purple, with tar and cigar wrapper on the nose.  Deep black cherry flavors dominated. 

Worth noting in my top 5 was the Vina Caneiro from Ribeira Sacra.  The color was light purple with an alluring bright black cherry, cola, Pinot Noir-like nose.  The 07 Vina Caneiro delivered a rich fully coated mouthfeel, with one of the longest, velvet-like finishes of all the wines we tasted.  

With the tasting accomplished, I was restfully satisfied that these wines are for real and worth buying.   Wines with seven years of bottle age were showing well, there was a definite varietal streak that carried through all the various styles, and even when modern wine making gets introduced, the resulting wines are released with acceptable alcohol levels and restraint allowing for true recognition and enjoyment of the region’s special terroir.   I still love Mencia, even after the battery of tests we put it through this evening. 

]]> http://winezag.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/a-blind-mencia-tasting/feed/ 4 Adam tweet this post bierzo galicia IMG_5274 RibeiraSacra el pecado IMG_5277 http://winezag.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/wine-fiction-dining-out-for-one/ http://winezag.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/wine-fiction-dining-out-for-one/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:07:25 +0000 adamjapko http://winezag.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/wine-fiction-dining-out-for-one/ ]]>

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Last week Dale Cruse, the irreverently astute and bright mind behind www.drinksareonme.net asked if I was interested in playing along with a new game he cooked up called “crowdsourcing wine fan fiction”.  I knew it had to be some neat way to legitimize or make sense of the sensually interesting and edgy wine inclusive photos Dale has shared on his blog over the past months.

I bit. He sent me this photo and asked me to describe the scene in any way that my wine sensibility and creativity inspired me. What does the scene mean to you? Let your mind run wild. Go check out my take at Dale’s’ blog here and let Dale and me know what you make of the image. Have fun! Remember…it’s all FICTION!

Again, here is the link to my own fun fantasy interpretation:  http://drinksareonme.net/post/353379886/alone-but-never-lonely

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Ever wonder what would happen subjecting simple wines, intended for immediate drinking pleasure, to extended aging terms in unsuitable environments?  It’s a risky wager and not a fully recommended strategy, even with careful wine selection and pristine cellaring conditions.  While vinous curiosity has driven some oddball aging decisions in the hopes of padding my stash with more bottles showing advanced flavor and aroma nuances, (you can read more about when wine is ready to drink in this post at Palate Press), I  would never have purposely put in motion the unplanned experiment I wrapped up visiting my parents in West Palm Beach, FL this past weekend.

My folks live in Florida and I visit them once a year from Boston.  Bring the grandkids down, eat some of Mom’s Jewish soul food, snag a few authentic bagels, hack away at a round of rusty winter golf, hugs, kisses, and home.  When we all lived in Brooklyn together in the 60s and early 70s, we drank Manishewitz at Passover.  Fine wine was not part of the ethnic cultural fabric we were weaving in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.  But now, Mom and Dad enjoy when I bring home a decent bottle or two from a trip to the Winn Dixie (slim pickings as you will soon see).  Nothing special, just a drinkable quaff.  Somehow, I always buy one too many bottles forgetting that a glass or two is all Mom and Dad are looking for.

So, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I opened their sideboard cabinet to find four bottles sitting around from earlier visits including 1999 Ravenswood Lodi Zinfandel, 2001 Columbia Crest Semillon/Chardonnay, 2001 Columbia Crest Chardonnay, and 2002 Mouton Cadet White.  Nothing too exciting, but a good 9-10 years of bottle age to check out!  It was time to open these wines to see if we were in for a surprise, or more predictably, be pouring them down the drain. 

I remember buying the Ravenswood and the Columbia Crest wines, but not the Mouton Cadet.  This cabinet was not temperature controlled, and who knows what kind of temperature or humidity swings occur in my parent’s Florida home when air conditioning fails, storms roll through, and periods of travel interrupt steady cool air. 

Here were the results:

1)1999 Ravenswood Lodi Zinfandel:  This wine received low ninety point scores on release from the Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast.  I would have suspected that Ravenswood’s “No Wimpy Wine” approach would create the best shot at survival.  Maybe so, but the cork crumbled when disgorging.  The wine was totally oxidized, brown around the edges, all the fruit was missing, and alcohol and heat dominated.  My Dad actually liked it.   I think it reminded him of the cheap Schnapps that my grandfather would toast with.  Undrinkable.

2) 2002 Mouton Cadet:  Rusty orange in color.  Trouble in evidence before even opening.  The wine, composed of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, was also completely oxidized.  But, the cork was in excellent shape and there was no leakage.  There were vegetal, raw mushroom, and medicinal aromas.  The wine smelled a bit like urine.  Undrinkable.

3)2001 Columbia Crest Chardonnay:  The wine was a light, yellow, golden color.  Surprisingly bright and clear and still alive.  There were no advanced aromas in evidence on the nose, but a good waft of pears came through nicely.   The wine had solid structure, did not appear to be in decline AT ALL, and presented itself with a rich and full mouthfeel.  If I was told this wine released last year I would not doubt it.  Surprisingly drinkable and enjoyable, but not sure what was acheived in the aging process.  Not worth the wait, but battle tested.

4) 2001 Columbia Crest Semillion/Chardonnay:  While the wine was certainly in decline, it had a honeyed, roasted chestnut advanced aroma that was quite pleasing and enjoyable.  The wine was starting to get a little flabby around the edges, but still had a very nice round and smooth mouthfeel.  It was fun to drink, offered the most acceptable advanced flavors of the entire bunch, but was flirting with the end of its life.  I was glad to taste it, and would enjoy it with the right kind of food, but it was on the wrong side of it’s life curve.

The experiment produced a 50% drinkability rate.  Of the wines that were still alive, one did not advance and simply clung to its original identity. The other did advance, took on some old wine characteristics, but was flirting with the end of its natural life.  How surprising that the two white wines from Washington State managed to survive and the old world fruit from Bordeaux did not.  The Zinfandel has to be disqualified from the test due to cork damage.

It was unplanned, but an interesting experiment.  In the right cellar conditions, the outcome could have been more interesting and the Zinfandel might have lived and who knows about the Mouton Cadet.  I am going to buy a case of mixed mass-produced wines of decent quality and stick them away in  my cellar for 10 years.  It will make for a fun evening down the line, there is very little to lose, and lots to discover.

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Wine Blogging Wednesday

Solera of the Caribbean Sea, Papirusa of Puerto Rico, and the Batard of Bayamon, Ron del Barrilito (rum from the little barrel) offers palates predisposed to character-rich wines a welcome midwinter alternative.  Three Fernandez generations have crafted a mysterious, deceptively complex, amber-hued, full flavored rum using the same secret family recipe since 1880.  For full appreciation and escape from frozen tundras, you can visit the Fernandez clan clinging to their patch of quaintly pastoral Bayamon, Puerto Rico land where the rum has been made and aged for more than 100 years.  Or, simply throw on some fresh logs, crank up the Reggaeton, pour your rum neat, and transport yourself beyond January’s icicle tinged rooftops with thoughts of whooshing grand ceiling fans, palm trees, and the saline air of an unspoiled Caribbean belonging to generations past. 

I am consumed by wine appreciation and neither understand nor collect fine rum.  Yet, when my family retreats to Isla Verde, Puerto Rico every year around this time for 25 years running, we robotically stock our beachside apartment  full of Barrilito ”Three Star” within a couple hours of arriving on the island.  I put wine aside and luxuriate for days on end in its aromas and depth of flavors akin to fine Cognac, Sherry, Brandy, and over-the-top Chardonnay.  My nose gravitates to the glass no less often than if Montrachet filled the vessel three fingers high.  Needing to fill in blanks and relieve some curiosity, I convinced a small group to join me on an uncharted path (really hard to find) to visit the Fernandez family at their hacienda. 

Don’t think Bacardi or Don Q.  There are no tours or fancy tasting rooms, you will be the only ones there, and your hosts will be third and fourth generation Fernandez’s.  You can click this image to meet them: 

Click image to meet Fernandez family

Forget about learning how they make the rum.  It is a closely held family secret, never written down and now protected by a third generation Fernandez who happens to also be a Cornell trained chemical engineer.  The business has passed from Fernando to Emanuel and then again to the current day Fernando.  They survived prohibition launching a rubbing alcohol (dreamy stuff called Alcholado Santa Ana made from eucaliptic leaves and alcohol intending to rejuvenate without the sting of traditional rubbing alcohol) business which carries on today, tough local government laws that prevents them from making the pure alcohol which they have to source from Bacardi, a choking local tax levied by the government, and instances of eminent domain highlighted by the Puerto Rican government’s seizure of a parcel of Fernandez land to erect a penitentiary that still casts an ominous shadow along the perimeter of Ron del Barrilito. 

Total annual production is 14,000 cases of two rums; Two Star and Three Star.  There is no difference in the formulas, just the age of the rums that make up the final blends.  Two Star is aged three years in 132 gallon used Sherry barrels sourced in Spain.  The mass market rum factories on the island, such as Bacardi, employ old whiskey barrels.  The more exotic Three Star is  blended with rums that have rested in wood for 6-10 years.  Each year the blend is slightly different, but the commitment is always to include some 10-year-old rum.  The deeper color in the glass on the right gives away the rich advantages of longer term aging for the Three Star compared to the Two Star on the left. 

The Three Star offers up a nose of roasted nuts, vanilla, toast, essence of butterscotch, and cream soda aromas.  While  there are those hints of sweetness on the nose, the mouthfeel is serious and rich, with a warming and long smooth finish that defies the strength of its 86 proof guts.  It’s not even related to the white rums that are mass-produced and line the shelves of our nation’s bottle shops.  Fernando Fernandez recommends drinking the Three Star “over rocks with a green lemon peel”.  For the Two Star, which is similar but more restrained on all fronts, he jokingly grants permission to mix it with Sprite, Coke, or whatever other rum infused drinks grab your fancy.  But never, never consider pouring the Three Star in any fashion that will obfuscate the intrinsic flavor and richness values they strike in final blending.   Watch and listen to this brief video clip of Fernando Fernandez on this and related topics by clicking on his image.  

Fernando grew up on the property replete with windmill once used in production but now serving as an office.  A house erected in the early 1800′s by the Fernandez family has been designated, along with the windmill, historic monument status by the government.  I guess it’s the least they could do running roads and jails through what was once a meandering sugar cane farm and hacienda.  You can view the three bedroom, one bath house that Fernando continues to live in by clicking this short video clip. 

Click for video clip

 The Three Star rum sells in stores in Puerto Rico for about $20 and the Two Star can be bought for around $13.  If you visit Ron del Barrilito, you can buy a 3-pack of the Three Star for $36!  No worries about channel conflicts down here.  The rums are available in a few major markets in the US.  

Forget any palate memory you have of rum, and discard the images of Mojitos, Pina Coladas, and Long Island Iced Tea.  This is a serious beverage that can be appreciated by the most advanced wine palate.  And, it will warm the soul and tickle the taste buds in the depth of winter when we need it most.  

The last two videos are really worth viewing.  This one includes Fernando’s tips on where to buy the rum in the US.  This last informative video offers a tour of the barrel room and inspection of some of the old barrels.  A ”freedom barrel” of rum made by Fernando’s father in 1942, along with a commitment to open it in the town square of Bayamon to share freely (they will pay the taxes too) with its citizens when Puerto Rico achieves independence, still sits patiently in the dark humid cellar.  Enjoy them and soak up the restorative warmth and history in this Puerto Rican liquid treasure.

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I recoiled and pushed away the crystal stemware wondering if some savory syrup was masquerading as wine, and that maybe its destiny was to spread like jam on slices of peanut butter slathered Wonder Bread.  This sensory collision with high alcohol and unrestrained ripeness was triggered a few years back cracking open a 2005 Mollydooker The Boxer screw top, a wine Robert Parker awarded 95 points to in a first release following the Marquis’ split with the Grateful Palate and Dan Phillips.   The critical bandwagon for overly alcoholic wine and companion exuberance for more honest, restrained, varietally classic, and less alcoholic wines are firmly established and need little campaign expansion here. 

My eyebrows rose just a bit further this week when a notable winemaker announced he stopped drinking his own critically acclaimed wines and when a mortgage consultant placed his industry’s root problems next to the wine industry’s alcohol death spiral in one kindred bucket. 

This week, the LA Times reported (note: in a comment to Decanter’s coverage of the LA Times’ reporting, winemaker Adam Tolmach of Ojai Vineyards suggested he was “misquoted and misconstrued“):

Tolmach of Ojai

After 25 years, Santa Barbara’s original cult winemaker has had a crisis of conscience. “We got the scores we wanted, but we went away from what I personally like,” Tolmach says. “We lost our rudder when we went for ever bolder, riper flavors.” Specifically, he says, the alcohol levels of his wines, at 15% and higher, are too high.
 

Tolmach doesn’t deserve public thrashing for his admission of intentionally, or unintentionally,  making wines to please critics that can make or break his economics.  Nor should he expect any excessive praise for his public shift in thinking on style and vineyard management.  While he claims to no longer enjoy his wines, let’s also not forget background economics for the global wine market make it prudent to address overripeness and high sugar levels at harvest.  Just look at the Australia wine market crash and the rejection of overly ripe Zinfandel as leading indicators.  But whatever the motivation, wine enthusiasts are emerging as winners and you don’t have to look too much further than Tolmach’s very same article of admission to find that proof: 

The goal is to produce 14%-alcohol wines with nuance, Tolmach says. He wants to avoid overripe prune and jam flavors and preserve acidity to allow the more delicate floral and herbal qualities to emerge. “I want to take the Eurocentric sense of balance and apply it in California. We add no acid. No water. It’s about picking at the right time and from cooler climate vineyards,” he says. 

“By farming better, I can have full ripeness earlier,” he says. It’s a matter of spending more time in the vineyard to reduce grape yields in stages while increasing the leaf canopy to shade the grapes from too much sun. Naturally balanced wines produced naturally, he says. 

Separately this week, Corky Watts, a professional in helping mortgage lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk (yikes),  scribed a Mortgage Daily News post that opened this way: 

During my work yesterday at the wine competition, I learned an interesting bit of information about a trend in their industry that sounded similar to a recent trend in the mortgage industry.  Let me explain. 

Twenty plus years ago, the percentage of alcohol in red wines was around 12%.  Today, many red wines are 15% or higher.  According to seasoned judges, wine with higher alcohol can mask the actual characteristics of the fruit, leaving little differentiation among wines.  Not only does it compromise the taste of wines, wine enthusiasts can get intoxicated quicker.  So why did this happen? 

Wine sales are driven by the ratings of 3-4 wine publications such as Wine Spectator.  A higher rating from these publications boosts the sales and profits of wineries.  Over the years, the higher alcohol wines have seen higher scores, driving more and more wineries to produce higher alcohol content wines.  

Check.  Watts drew the comparison of greed by recapping: 

As competition increased and margins declined for [30 and 15 year fully amortized fix rate loans that banks, savings & loans, and the GSEs provided the liquidity for ...and borrowers had to qualify for ...by documenting their ability to repay the loans], a few large mortgage bankers created exotic loan programs with compromising credit guidelines to help increase production and margins.  These companies saw an increase in production and profits.  Like sheep, other mortgage participants followed and began originating these products as well. 

Changing Wine Tastes

And we have seen where that ends up.  With wine, the manifestations of greed are less economically cataclysmic resulting in a correction in preferences and sales volumes following a period where consumers ingest massive amounts of wine with little to no distinct personality.  Watts, with a seemingly late hitch-up to the bandwagon, closes with outsider conjecture and urging: 

I’m not an expert in the art of wine making, but I have found many wine enthusiasts frustrated that some wines taste more like a martini than a glass of wine.  Is the higher alcohol wines really higher quality or is it the influence of a couple publications that just like high octane wine? Let’s hope wineries don’t make the same mistake participants made in the mortgage industry. 

If you take Adam Tolomach’s recent comments at face value and as representative industry commentary, then the horses are well out of the gate and appear to be stumbling through the stretch. 

At the end of 2009, I shared a story via WineZag about certain personal manifestations of authenticity, passion, and honesty.  The post received a significant amount of traffic and motivated me (and gave me enough courage) to share this two-part video interview with Willie Garcia, who to the unknowing eye is just a “hot dog man” making a living for the past 38 years from a pushcart umbrella stand on the same 6′ X 6′ patch of sidewalk that meets the Island’s north coast sands.  But to those that know him, he is a Zen master, achieving enlightenment through repetitive meditative action, self-contemplation, and intuition from his post on the beach. 

The location of the stand is anything but trivial, casting a constant, cooling, shaded time-out on this Isla Verde beach and creating a stage for Willy’s developed personal peace, passion for community building, and authentic communication.   Willy is respected and loved, almost in grandfatherly fashion, by fans of Isla Verde waves.   He has knitted a community of followers; surfers, residents, local laborers, and repeat tourists who hypnotically seek out their own “Playa Karma” through a visit to Willy for a hot dog, steak sandwich, hamburger, and a few words; all mixed with a touch of salty air and sandy underfoot, delivering the same tastes and memorial sentiments year to year.

Willy is 72.  I have known him for 25 of those years.  He held my children when they were born and fed their grandparents with smiles and hot dogs alike.  His outlook has been chiseled from a life of hard and honest street vendor toil.   As a direct result of this surf-side community engagement and accompanying clean beach air, Willy is of sound physical and mental health, far beyond most men or women that any of us will have the chance to meet in our lifetimes.  He revels in life’s simplicity and thinks with intoxicating clarity. 

Here is a two-part interview with Willy.  I hope you can enjoy and connect with Willy just a little, even without meeting him in the flesh.   He is embarrassed by his English, learning most of it at the hot dog stand.  I told him that I thought it was just great.  Isn’t it?  This first part will introduce you to the simple Zen he practices on the beach of Isla Verde.  Click on this image of Willy pointing to his beach.

Click Image For Part 1 Video Interview

The second part of the video is about the hot dog.  These are not your everyday hot dogs.  First of all, they are chicken dogs that sit in clean, hot water until ripe.  Then, they meet bun and a host of homemade ingredients that Willy’s wife prepares every day of the week, filling his cart with before it hitches to his vintage station wagon to be transported across Puerto Rico to his revered spot on the beach.  I have eaten the best hot dogs in Chicago, Coney Island, and elsewhere.  Nothing compares to a Willy dog.  It simply slides down like velvet showing subtle complexities through the finish.  It is the Lafite of Hot Dogs!  Watch closely by clicking this image of Willy and the wine bottle. 

Click Image For Part 2 Video Interview

To all of the Willy’s that have touched our lives, thanks for the pleasures and lessons of knowing you.

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When a wine and its fruit are born from a low yield program, organically farmed, raised in vineyards planted at the end of the 19th century, hang from old vines, retail around $15, hail from a Loire Valley appellation, and find their way to the US as a Louis/Dressner Selection, it gets my attention.  This fusion of vinous genetics brought me face to face with the 2008 Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Gamay which lives up to expectations as a wine of unique character, finesse, and richness, flashing its seductive food friendly qualities and manageable 12% alcohol to earn its righteous place on the dinner table.

The winery’s program is built around multiple varietals, and after having some experience with Clos Roche Blanche Sauvignon Blancs, this successful Gamay now underscores winemaker/grower agility for me.  Here is what Louis/Dressner Selections has to say:

The vineyards of Clos Roche Blanche were planted on the Touraine hills bordering the Cher river by the Roussel family at the end of the 19th century and have remained in the family since. Catherine Roussel took over this 28-hectare estate in 1975 from her father, and was later joined by Didier Barrouillet, who tends the vineyards and makes the wine. Both are enthusiastic proponents of non-interventionist winemaking.

Their soil is poor, mainly clay with flint over a limestone subsoil. The varietals grown are Cabernet (Sauvignon and Franc), Gamay, Côt (or Auxerrois, the grape of Cahors) and Sauvignon Blanc. Roussel and Barrouillet keep yields low by maintaining old vines, using organic fertilizers in moderation and growing grass between and plowing under the rows.

They converted the vineyards to organic farming and, with the 1995 vintage, received the official “organic agriculture” accreditation. The vines are treated with copper and sulfur solutions, and plant decoctions (a mixture of nettles and other herbs) used in biodynamic viticulture

The 2008 version of the Gamay has a nose consisting of black cherry, also some redder berry fruit, and while a bit of sweet candy notes comes through, it does not dominate.   After 15 minutes in the glass, the berry aromas make room for wafts of sage brush, pepper spice, and flowers that added some earthy grounding to the luscious fruit.   This Gamay has a remarkably rich mouthfeel without the anticipated density or fullness (know what I mean?),  and it offers great extraction and depth of fruit without any associated massive weight.  The wine finishes medium long, but never in an overpowering way that gets in the way of the food.

We paired it with a fowl dish heavily treated with rosemary and garlic.   The wine and food knit together perfectly, almost as if we had tasted in advance to discover the wine and food’s blood type match. Instead, the perfect matrimony was nothing more than stroke of luck.   While the wine could keep me amused and focused drunk all by itself, pouring it without some herbed fowl, lighter meats, or stronger fish would be akin to watching a talented Rockette dance alone on the Radio City Music Hall stage, all night long.

In a year that closes with elements of dreary history for lots of Americans, it also marks a period of time that has encouraged so many of us, including me, to reconnect with their passions and conduct their lives in ways that feel highly authentic and measurably more important. Personally, I have upheld new commitments to my family, in both specific and broad terms, to stay increasingly present and in the moment with them no matter the extent my brutal business travel limits our physical proximity.  We make our time together count more than ever, and our time apart less of an impediment to family intimacy.  I have stopped postponing for later the conversations and activities that can legitimately create intimacy and connection today.

In my business, blessed with a seat on a management team composed of forward thinking, real, respectful, and practical colleagues, I learned it is possible to stay undeterred by the challenges of an economy climbing out of the brink of disaster by taking one step at a time towards a sensible outcome and horizon, no matter how uncharted the path appears.   Together, hundreds of us are recreating a traditional media company rooted in the housing industry and are generating immediate validation and an energy, both inside the company and with our customers, that will drive an incredible outcome that has yet to be authored. 

These developments have created the backdrop for “me” to be “me”

And, that (with some urging from colleague, Viralhousingfix author, and social media thought leader Dan McCarthy) begat WineZag.  Since May, this thing I started to do for myself, sort of an expression or release valve for my thoughts about the facilitation of wine as a lifestyle component, has become a labor of love and source of inspiration that was simply not apparent to me when I committed back in May.  In my entire life, I have never met as many naturally authentic, serious, and passionate people through any one single venue as I have in the wine writer community I am still getting to know as a result of creating WineZag as an extension of “me”.  The easy tools of social media have bridged the challenging paths to new connections. 

Yesterday, two guys that so many consider to be operating at the pinnacle of the wine writer 2.0 community, Dale Cruse and Robert Dwyer, bestowed an honorable recognition on WineZag by recognizing the blog as one of the best to launch in 2009.  Using his remarkably engaging platform “Drinks Are On Me” Dale said: 

Best New Food and Drink Blogs 2009

In the future, we may look back upon 2009 as the year that food and drink blogs finally started to make a difference.

The quality and quantity of writing has never been higher, as evidenced by the blogs listed below. Each of these nine sites began publishing in 2009 and here a few notables explain why these are their favorites.

Robert Dwyer, author of  The Wellesley Wine Press , and one of the most practical, down to earth, sensible, and helpful creators of content for the wine enthusiast community had this to say about WineZag:

Just a real honest collection of writing from someone with a long history with wine that likes to share his passion with the world

In Robert’s short sentence, three words captured the essence of the learning I referred to at the start of this post.  Honest. Real. Passion.  The words have become tenets for a new outlook born out of 2009′s era of dwindling hope and despair for many.  They are not dependent on employment, market indices, access to credit, or any of the other hurdles or shortages we are adapting to as 2009 comes to a close.  They are available to most of us, and represent hope and joy, and a real chance to blaze important new personal and professional paths.

It feels like a trivial oversimplification to think that family adjustments, innovative business approaches, wine, social media, writing, and powerful dashes of honesty, passion, and authenticity (to taste) can offer the profound rewards that I am inferring is possible.  They did for me. 

I love wine because it is a lubricant for human connection.  I enjoy the media business because it is completely dependent on constructive human interaction.  Writing is a tool for connection.  Social media puts the tool on steroids.  And finally and ultimately for me,  the people most important to me live under the same roof that covers the house that I call home, even when I am not there. 

It only took a one line summary of how a community of wine enthusiasts interprets my body of writing to come face to face with the lessons I have been learning all year-long submitting to honesty, passion, and authenticity in all aspects of life.  Try it, I promise you will like it.  And, Happy Holidays.