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tokalon winery not-for-profit jess jackson massale selection wine & spirits magazines kenny shopsin next generation apple the psychology of wine the vintners art australian wine vinexpo jay mcinerney the gaslight anthem the pioneer woman james laube chimney rock elevage cornell enology wine tycoon game stavin kelly fleming national wine & spirits kurt andersen " "new world wine" poseurs macari vineyards sette 7 swanson vineyards sunbox eleven wine winery sponsorship champagne sales wine criticism cork'd 2008 vina mar reserva sauvignon blanc randy caparoso wine + music midwest wine culture hunningbird wine beaux freres jon bonne the wine case climber white agency nil charlie weis sugar free wine a very goode job 2007 sean minor four bears pinot noir trefethen generation y and wine 2009 auction napa valley sonoma county wine wipes san francisco wine competition clary ranch tim hanni discoveries pathfinder wine bar bets the winemakers tv australia wine fantesca judgment of paris women in 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July 6 2009
For the longest time Rosé has been an inexplicable mystery to me as were the people that enjoyed drinking it – and many of these people are my people: wine people.
What is wrong with them, I wondered?
At my kindest, I can call Rosé a dry White Zinfandel, but in terms of something I’d be interested in putting in my mouth, I’d rather host an episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on a Southeast Asia excursion.
What do other people see in this wine simpleton?
I mean, sales have been going through the roof ...
It’s not that I dislike Rose, it’s just I don’t like it; more of a blasé indictment in the court of uninterested wine opinion, than proactive vitriol – kind of like Brussels sprouts; I’m not on a crusade against Brussels sprouts, I just avoid them if I can.
If Brussels sprouts and artichokes married and had eight kids, I’d still avoid them as surely as I do certain reality television shows. Your novelty isn’t immediately inclusive of my interests.
Then, I had my Rosé epiphany.
Frankly, given this sudden absolution of Rosé, I’m running out of wine epiphanies. I’m going to need a new antagonistic foil; man cannot love wine without a doppelganger, maybe sweet Rieslings will be next …
My epiphany came with the 2008 Macari Vineyards Rosé – a lovely and lively New York wine with refreshing zip, I opened it after a surprisingly enjoyable romp with a Chilean Rosé, the 2008 Carmen, a perfect foil for some BBQ ribs I had recently.
No surprise for those that know me, my epiphany is related to first over thinking Rosé as a wine category before resetting and enjoying it at a very base level.
You see, Rose wine is simple, of the moment, for the moment. Cue Lynard Skynard’s “Simple Man” for the pairing to a summer soundtrack.
The problem is, I’m not really that simple. I’d rather wade through layers of complexity to prepare myself for the future then to jump into this very moment with an easy certitude. So it’s no surprise that it took a while to reconcile my feelings around the pink …
When I was in college there was a group of girls, mostly blonde, mostly vivacious, and mostly attractive early in the evening when hope played itself out in five hours increments and totally beautiful late as hope gave way to reality.
This was a group that you wanted to come to parties – they were type of girls that were not going to knock you over with a nuanced dissertation on the news headlines, they weren’t going to break down Chaucer, nor were they the type that you really wanted to take home for Easter, but they almost surely guaranteed that wherever they were at the time was the place you wanted to be as well. Springtime was their time as the winter doldrums gave way to a short springtime calendar, clothes to match and a march to the end of the year with a joie de vivre that made every weekend seem like imminent chaos held together by the thinnest of strings.
There’s a lot to be said for that.
Rosé is like that for me, and since I’ve wrapped some context around it, I’m now able to enjoy it.
Rose isn’t a thinking man’s drink. It’s not a ponderous revelation, no. It is enjoyable, it is refreshing, it is of the moment, it is fun, and it pairs with just about anything you’re eating, ensuring a good time.
Kind of like blondes that like to party.
I do, however, have one slight peeve that I need to note related to Rose – points scoring. I have resolved myself to understanding and enjoying Rose, in all of its simple glory, but to assign a point’s score to a wine that is intended to be enjoyed within a year of release, on the veranda, in the summer, is like stack ranking a Summer of Saturday’s to see which is the best – foolish, yes, productive, no.
So, now that I know what I’m dealing with, all small talk beautiful, I say bring on the Rosé, summer’s finest companion, the party girl wrapped in pink.
July 4 2009
Since this summer’s zenith is upon us with the suddenness of a menopausal hot flash, now is a good time to celebrate not only our independence as a country, but also the freedom of place that is our lives, regional identification within the framework of national sovereignty.
Yes, America is great place, but it’s made more so by the unique richness of our regionality, our local terroir, if you will.
I live in Indiana, a flyover state by most accounts, the Crossroads of America, our state motto.
Many people think of Indiana the way I think of Kentucky, even if both perspectives (theirs and mine) are based on incorrect archetypes.
Speaking of incorrect archetypes, people from St. Louis refer to being a “Hoosier” with smirking snark normally reserved for white table cloth restaurant guests that are seated near the kitchen, out of sight of the main dining room and the front window that doubles as human zoo exhibit for the beautifully bespoke animals with colorful plumage.
I live here by choice.
Some estimates indicate that Indiana has access to perhaps 5% of the available wine in America, and direct shipping largely occurs sotto voce or not at all.
I still live here even if I’ve had opportunities to move away.
In large part, I’ve reconciled the yearning for wandering that marks the freshness of youth when the world is still our oyster, not yet the subject of life’s circumstance.
I’m no graybeard, but as I get older I find myself appreciating the nouns in sentences more so than the verbs – it’s the nuance of time, people and place that I appreciate, the fine details that mark something as special, not necessarily its active movement in the grand scheme of things.
Most people call this perspective, I think; it feels mature, as mature as you can get without having gone through the life changing alteration of bringing a fresh set of wondering eyes into the world.
On my way up to our family’s cottage for this holiday weekend, sugar cream pie stowed in the cooler, a Traminette and Valvin Muscat from local winery Oliver tucked in next to it, the Chardonel left for another day, we pulled out of the driveway, peonies in bloom, two red Cardinals kerfuffling airborne pirouettes in the backyard, and headed up state road 13 for a meandering trip through small town America before turning into our cottage, a long gravel drive addressed with no street name, rather an emergency medical lane number.
Along the way, we passed a Penguin Point (a poor man’s In-N-Out Burger) advertising pork tenderloin sandwiches, something of a state delicacy, fried to deliciousness, adorned just right with mayonnaise and pickles, while breezing by a couple of Port-a-Pit barbecue fundraisers, not just uniquely Indiana, but uniquely Northern Indiana. Dashing past road side stands with hand painted letter boards calling out fresh corn, our largest agricultural crop, we arrived.
A week or three back I read an article from a woman who visited the Midwest from her home perch in California only to go on and on in a narrative that can only be described as akin to a mouth agape stranger in a strange land.
She might as well have been a Baptist seeing her first Shaman in a urine-soaked alley in India.
Within the context of infrequent travel, the author wondered aloud about the cultural peccadillos of shopping for produce in, horrors, a regular grocery store.
Yes, in fact, they still grow iceberg lettuce, a good many people still prefer it to the arugula micro greens, in fact.
We’ve all been in conversations with strangers, those that indicate they are from California, Florida, New York, or other parts deemed more glamorous in our minds eye.
We’ve all given glancing short shrift to our place of origin.
But, in this day and age of being a locavore, and the glory that is our backyard, I’ve come to peace with Indiana.
Yet, there is much work to be done to foster this regional acceptance in the domestic wine world.
Saveur magazine has had it right for years – the glory in our lives is in our regional traditions and foodstuffs (including wine).
It’s our local terroir, if you will, translated beyond just mere a sense of place for wine.
So, on this 4th of July, a transformational time of great progress marked by wild instability, join me in celebrating what is good not about Indiana, but what is good about YOUR backyard – the independence that you enjoy as an American, a freedom to choose in a free land, and the local things that make it special in our world of abundant choice.
Recipe for Port-a-Pit Chicken (Fantastic if unconventional marinade for grilled chicken and mighty tasty with a local wine, I drank Traminette, a hybrid).
• 1 lb (.5 kg). butter
• 1 cup (225 ml) water
• 1 cup (225 ml) vinegar
• 4 tbsp (60 ml) salt
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) pepper
• 4 tbsp (60 ml) Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 oz (28 grm). Accent
Boil marinade and let cool. Marinate chicken for 24 hours. Grill over medium heat.
July 2 2009
Wine wisdom earned is wine knowledge learned.
One of the most valuable aspects of being a wine lover is the lessons wine imparts, mostly with subtlety, sometimes with blunt force, always valuable – a Zen master or Buddhist monk-like giver of insight into the world around us.
Being a lifelong learner, something my mother imparted upon me, I don’t ever consider myself a finished product – what’s next is always going to be even better than what just passed. Are we ever done? Perhaps, we’re done only if you’re running a sprint through life and not a marathon, a draining choice that presents short-term gratification, but long-term agony. Related to wine, the answer is a definitive “no.” There is always something new to learn, a region yet to discover, a varietal still to try, an interaction that leads to inspiration …
Here are just a couple of things that wine has taught me.
Beginning is Easy, Continuing is Hard
Saying you’re a wine fan or enthusiast is easy, real easy. A couple of bottles in a countertop bottle rack, correctly pronouncing Viognier and you’re pretty much down the path, never having to explore much deeper than the supermarket wine aisle, which a good many people don’t. That’s okay, certainly, but it doesn’t come close to opening up the lifetime of enjoyment that wine can bring – the most notable, as mentioned, is the contribution to lifelong learning because wine is such an inexhaustible subject. My grandmother will be 101 years old in November with her good health and mental acuity intact – should I live 64 more years I know I will never conquer wine, and I like that.
The other key aspect is the appreciation of the flavor components in a wine – identifying “mushroom” versus “forest floor” may be tiresome for some wine fans, hard work, a commitment to understanding something that is of relatively little consequence in the grand scheme of things, but it’s really at the core of appreciation, and it takes continuing effort.
Likewise, in my opinion, passive wine fandom, while giving of enjoyment, doesn’t give the passive participant enough context to appreciate the alchemy that can only occur when good food, good friends and a perfect bottle co-mingle to capture that picture perfect mental snapshot of time and place.
Without an understanding of the wine in the glass at sunset, at that beach, with those laughs, and the food marks a mental vivid snapshot, surely, but it will never quite transcend to a moment in time that you spend the rest of your life trying to recapture.
Wine Wisdom: Wine has taught me persistence, to ask the additional question, to be adventurous in spirit, to keep an open mind and to continue on … to learn perpetually. The gift it gives for those who pursue its delights are returned to the recipient 100-fold.
Everything is Funny, as Long as it happens to Somebody Else
Wine is wrought with unspoken protocol that, let’s be frank, isn’t native to a lot of people.
I’ve seen firsthand a friend who bought a $150 worth of wine as a gift, didn’t realize its perishable nature, and let it simmer in a hot car on a 95 degree summer afternoon. The corks pushed. An analogized lesson from the wine retailer on whether or not you would keep a gallon of milk in a closed, non-air conditioned car for five hours and $300 worth of total wine purchased, it’s a good laugh ipso facto.
I’ve also been witness to a tasting room crowd where a very loud guy went on and on about how good the “Mer-Lot” was, pronouncing it with a hard “t.”
And, I’ve been at a holiday party where the hostess prepared a glass of red wine for a guest, in an appropriate glass, on the rocks with ice.
Wine Wisdom: Wine has taught me that for all of its seriousness, enjoying the light and absurd moments can be fun, and bring welcome perspective to laughing at ourselves, not always an easy task – a task made easier and given as perspective especially if we’re enjoying a harmless and discrete chuckle at the expense of someone else.
Don’t Worry, Be Happy
We’re truly living in a golden age of wine. Aside from a wine that may be a bit “hot” or have externally caused issues from a bad cork, etc. how often is a bottle of wine truly, technically undrinkable? In the highest probability circumstance, maybe 1 bottle in a 100? I like those odds.
And, in addition, I may never have a DRC, a Chateau d’Yquem, or a 1st Growth ’82 Bordeaux with regularity, but in the grand scheme of things, I will have tried dozens, perhaps, 100s of bottles that were sublime at the moment, and especially in my mind’s eye.
Wine Wisdom: Wine has taught me to appreciate what I have, my experiences earned, and to not regret the things I do not have.
Overall, there are hundreds of lessons that wine teaches you, but in this day and age, with the crush of information, the news that is one button push away from invading our thoughts and anxieties, realizing that wine helps you be a lifelong learner, to be lighthearted while appreciating and savoring the small blessings in our life seems like a powerful antidote to our times.
Postscript
This blog was inspired in part by a recent post at Under the Grape Tree where writer Kevin muses on wine as a “life condiment” a turn of phrase I really like.
In addition, wine writer Elliott Essman is completing a wine book called, Using Wine to Make Sense of the World. It will be published in the fall. You can join his Facebook fan page to keep up to date on the books progress.
What I Wrote About a Year Ago
July 1 2009
Your Daily Laugh
If you’re not in the habit of reading Decanter.com news, you’re missing some of the best comedy in the world of wine, laugh track not included.
Literally, on a daily basis, it’s a treasure trove of folly.
Based on a sometimes arched eyebrow approach I take to a lot of wine issues, I looked up the definition of “curmudgeon” just to make sure that at my still spritely age of 36, I wasn’t turning into too much of a “crusty, ill-tempered man, usually old.” I feel safe in now saying that, no, I’m not a curmudgeon just a head-scratching observer of foolishness.
Take this Decanter report for example. The CEO of Vinexpo, Robert Beynat, in response to an inquiry about new media replacing trade shows, an industry that is being hammered in the global recession, said:
The Internet is not the right medium for the sale of wines and spirits, it is not a real alternative to traditional sales circuits and will never reach more than around 8% of the market.
Besides the absurdity of the 8% reference, a number seemingly pulled from thin air, it’s a very narrow view of the world and the future of technology. Though, being a Luddite and French isn’t a mutually exclusive proposition.
I’m reminded of Thomas J. Watson, the formative President of IBM during the first half of the 20th century, who is often credited for famously saying, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
Internet sales of wine may be an infinitesimally small percentage of overall wine sales now, but all bets are off for what happens in the future. Methinks blanket statements of fact based on misguided perspective are funny.
Put another way, with the completely life-changing effects of the Internet and mobile that has occurred since 1995, should anybody really be making such foolish, “head in the ground” declarations? Hell, is anybody really certain what’s going to happen three years from now, let alone 10 or 20?
In more humorous Decanter.com reporting, pundits at Vinexpo called France and Bordeaux “dysfunctional.” This, of course, is no revelation and seems as obvious to me as saying “rain is wet.”
Welcome to the Party
Elsewhere in “news of the weird,” the National Consumers League (NCL) is getting on a bandwagon with a lot of other people who are singing the same tune about preservation of place in wine labeling, while banning misleading identifiers.
Now, mind you, I’m not dismissing the need for “truth in labeling.” In fact, I advocate for it, but what I am poking a little bit is the notion of outsiders getting in on the action without understanding the issues. It reminds me of Jesse Jackson or the Rev. Al Sharpton both of whom are notorious for getting in front of any cause as long as there is a camera crew present.
The NCL’s letter to the Department of the Treasury and Timothy Geithner in December originally took the tact of advocating for labeling information on alcoholic beverages related to nutrition and caloric information. Now, their press release from June 29th indicates a different focus on labeling information based on origin of source.
It’s just not politicians that move with the wind, it’s advocacy groups, too.
The National Consumers League even cites Champagne as an example – a word that has largely become extinct for makers of U.S. sparkling wine. I’m surprised they didn’t reference Port, too – another product descriptor that has largely been banished to its rightful home in Portugal.
The National Consumer League notes in a press release:
NCL’s comments reflect growing consumer support for more accurate wine labels. A recent national survey of U.S. wine consumers found that 79 percent agree consumers deserve protection from deceptive claims on food and beverage labels, and 63 percent support a law prohibiting such misleading wine labels.
You can almost imagine the survey question that led to this survey result, “Do you agree that you should know where your food and drink comes from and you should be protected from acts of deception?”
Um, is there more than one answer to that?
Good for the National Consumer League for advocating the important work of indicating that detassling corn for teenagers can be dangerous work, but they need to sharpen their pencil and stick to a position if they’re to lobby Washington effectively around wine issues and if they are really hardy souls they should wade into the minutia of AVA’s as the real source of contention. I doubt they have the fortitude for that level of self-interested public interest work.
Or, alternatively, they can just advocate for the use of an electronic nose, as reported from London, a device that:
Researchers analyzed the compounds in vaporised samples of wine to produce detailed chemical signatures that can be matched against a database of characteristics to identify a wine’s source. They did so by using a kind of electronic nose, known as a mass spectrometer, reports The Telegraph.
From the Office of the Obvious
I tend to revisit several topics with regularity – traditional wine media for missing most of the audience for wine enthusiasts, lemming-like groupthink amongst wine lovers and academia for lumpy bits of research that are in the moment of the cultural zeitgeist, but hardly newsworthy or groundbreaking.
Take, for example, an article yesterday from Wine Business Monthly.
A professor at Sonoma State University indicates from a survey sample size of just forty Millennial’s, who were likely not randomly selected:
In conclusion, based on this short SSU survey of Millennial wine marketing preferences and the statistics highlighting how Millennials have embraced technology, there appear to be new opportunities for wineries to expand their online marketing, as well as to continue to reach out to Millennials in face to face settings at events and other tasting venues. Of key importance, is maintaining an authentic and honest brand message which highlights how your winery and wine is different from others.
Now, take the three major components of this summary:
1) Millenials embrace technology
2) There are new marketing opportunities for wineries
3) Brands must be authentic and honest
Anything new here unless you’re Rip VanWinkle awaking from a five year slumber?
And, in other breathtaking wine consumer research, it’s reported that woman prefer wine to beer … which is actually funny for its like obviousness, but that was put on the wire in a press release, as well.
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