Dr Vino's wine blog

Writing in yesterday’s NYT, Eric Asimov delivered wine education a puzzling broadside in the last paragraph of a story about beer:

Beer consumers are a far more confident lot than wine consumers. They’re at ease with beer, mostly because they’ve had a solid grounding in their subject, unlike wine consumers who’ve been brainwashed into believing they must be educated or taught how to “appreciate” wine before they can enjoy it.

Who are these “beer consumers” and “wine consumers”? Are they the average consumer, who drinks mostly Bud and Yellow Tail or are they the dedicated hop heads and wine geeks? Some specificity would help the discussion.

Further, how did “beer consumers” gain such confidence–through Super Bowl ads? Doing keg stands in college? I assume through tasting, talking, reading and perhaps taking a class; I doubt they were born with a knowledge of the effects of dry-hopping and decotion on the finished beer or knowing differences between a saison, a pils, a kölsch, and a Berliner Weisse. As exciting as the craft beer revolution is, it takes some education to successfully navigate increasingly complex beer menus or beer selections at specialty stores. And, fortunately, it’s the kind of research that a lot of people can take pleasure in.

Finally, which “wine consumers” feel “brainwashed” into thinking that they have to have studied wine to enjoy a wine? (And who is doing the brainwashing–the wine education/book publishing/bulletin board industrial complex?) This sounds like a straw man to me as I have never met a wine consumer who couldn’t simply pull a cork, pour, and enjoy a wine without having a categorical knowledge of its production. And I’m not really sure where his advancing the brainwashing position takes the discussion. Surely Asimov is not arguing that tasting, talking, reading and perhaps taking a class about wine is a waste of every one’s time–how did he gain his knowledge, after all?

The comparative question of how craft beer enthusiasts and wine geeks, the most die-hard of the two constituencies, achieved their knowledge is interesting and worth pursuing. If I were to look into it it variables I would examine include: the role of critics in each beverage; the role of online discussion boards and user-generated reviews/ratings; the extent of home wine making or beer making; the availability of formal classes or training; and the geographic proximity of an enthusiast to a microbrewery or winery. Hmm, thinking about this makes me want to go crack open a nice cold wine and enjoy it without angst.

Sometimes these spoof wine videos come in waves–remember the animated wine trade videos? Now, the meme of the moment appears to be “Hitler yelling” videos, such as the one we saw recently.

This new one, entitled “Downfall of a Cult Californian Winery,” depicts the plight of a cult winery owner during this time of a changing of the critic at the Wine Advocate. A little “inside baseball,” but pretty scathing and some good LOLz to start your day.

Just when you though that the passing of 9/11 would mean the end of talking about the tasteless 9/11 memorial wine that Tony Bourdain hates, think again. In his first show after 9/11, Stephen Colbert ripped on “giftportunities,” or the various form of cashing in on the tragedy. Included was the 9/11 memorial wine from Long Island’s Lieb Cellars, which Colbert described as “perfect for when you’re drinking to never forget.” And no, it’s not priced at $9.11, which would be crass, he says, but $19.11. “You don’t want to honor the heroes with some cheap-ass nine dollar wine.”

Even the Daily Show’s Samatntha Bee piled on the 9/11 wines, saying “This is real. You can drink this. If you’re a f^(king asshole.” Colbert video below:

The most recent newsletter from Marcasin (pdf), written by owner Helen Turley and husband John Wetlaufer, makes for fascinating reading. Consider some of the tidbits. Readers learn:
* They are avid observers of golf.
* Marvin Shanken asked Helen Turley to increase his personal allocation of Marcassin while presenting her an award from his magazine, Wine Spectator.
* Robert Parker tasted the wines with winemaker Helen Turley. I guess these weren’t among the “more than 60%” of wines that he purchases.
* Robert Parker loved them! More than La Tache 2006!

Really, the newsletter is shocking in the aggressive swipes it takes at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti-La Tache. At their tasting together, the Marcassin owners poured the ’06 for Parker alongside their ’06s. Predictably, Parker continues his cartoonish recent trashing of many Burgundies, calling the La Tache calling it “almost undrinkable (stemmy, metallic, frightfully tart because of green acid, and obviously made from underripe fruit.” Meanwhile he heaped praise on the Marcassin handing out high scores and calling it “prodigious.” It’s not that DRC wines are beyond reproach; rather, even though I have not had the pleasure of trying it myself, the wine has received praise from Burgundy fans. I suppose that it could possibly be acceptable of Turley and Wetlaufer to quote Parker’s reaction to their little experiment, no matter how self-congratulatory or unbalanced their reporting. Yet in the next section of their newsletter, they trash not only DRC for inconsistency but also all of Burgundy! Really, if this is really one of America’s best pinots, why just stand on your own accomplishments and not lash out at Burgundy?

Of course, whether Marcassin is, in fact, one of America’s best pinot noirs is highly debatable. Parker has not reviewed the wines of Burgundy personally for over a decade and was even sued by Faively, which united many producers in the region against him. The Wine Advocate lost much of the credibility the publication had for Burgundy. (I asked the Advocate’s new Burgundy critic Galloni what he was going to do try to recapture that; Galloni will also review California wines for the publication and it will be interesting to see his opinions of Marcassin.) But the Wine Advocate’s dearth of coverage in the region left a significant void for Allen Meadows and his publication, the Burghound. Marcassin’s strident newsletter has a certain fin-de-regime character, as if they feel the tectonic plates shifting in the wine world and know they are heading out to sea.

The Marcassin style is controversial. Consider these tasting notes. Read more…

I always relish the rare opportunity to taste a California wine from the 1970s, the era before rising temperatures and fruit bombs. But I recently had something even more rare: tasting the BV, Georges de Latour, Private Reserve, Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon, 1958.

The wine was made by the venerable Andre Tchelistcheff, the “dean” of California winemakers of his day. Georges de Latour, a Frenchman, bought Beaulieu in 1899 and apparently made a fortune selling sacramental wine during Prohibition (people were so devout during Prohibition!). With the end of the Prohibition profits, de Latour decided to embark on the quality route and went to France to find the best Frenchman for the job. But in 1938, he returned with Andre Tchelistcheff, a Russian refugee as winemaker. The Private Reserve slightly preceded Tchelistcheff’s arrival (the first vintage was 1936), but it as the flagship for the estate, it was his signature wine for much of his career. In 1969, Beaulieu sold to Heublein; now it is owned by Diageo.

The 1958, a legendary wine, was showing gloriously at a recent tasting at a collector’s house. Easily one of the best California wines I have ever tasted, the gorgeous mature cabernet from start to finish was spectacular: the wine was still structured and very much alive. Some dark fruit remained but there was also a a dose savory, earthy notes. More than anything, it was the texture of the wine and the finish that just wouldn’t quit that really set it apart and made it so downright drinkable, enjoyable, and worth savoring every drop. It was so outrageously good that even showed better than the 1971 JJ Prum that was at the same tasting–and this was according to one of Riesling’s most ardent fans was was also at the tasting.

Incidentally, I checked out the back label and was amused Read more…

Saul had his conversion on the road to Damascus. Wells Guthrie had his conversion on the road home from Burgundy.

The lanky, California maker of pinot noir, chardonnay, and syrah told me at his Sonoma winery that he had his conversion in 2005, after returning from a trip to Burgundy and the Rhone. He tasted the pinot noirs and syrahs he had been making since starting his own label, Copain Wines, in 1999. The wines were made in a big, full-bodied style and had received high scores, including some 95s from Robert Parker. (Wells’ resumé includes working a year at Turley, as well as briefly at Marcassin, and two years with Michel Chapoutier.)

“A light went on,” he says Read more…

Last night the Obamas played host to Angela Merkel for a “State Dinner” (even though she is the head of government, not state–gasp!) in the Rose Garden. The meal included a salad from the White House vegetable garden; the full menu follows below. Oddly, the wine pairings were not announced! Has the usher at the White House grown tired of the slings and arrows from the blogosphere with each state dinner menu?

No matter–that leaves us a chance to do the pairings ourselves! Read more…

Weather: it’s what you discuss in elevators or with the in-laws. But if you’re a winemaker or even a wine consumer, it can actually be pretty important.

And things are heating up in talking about weather in the wine world. Especially if you are in Bordeaux that is, since it is en fuego! Or something like that: The heat has been abnormally high and the rainfall is way below average. So if the drought-like conditions keep up, the reduced supply of grapes could push wine prices even higher! Is it 2003 all over again? The vintage in Burgundy is also advanced.

By contrast, cut to the Auction Napa Valley this past weekend and people were breaking out the umbrellas rather than the sunscreen. Weather has been cool across the state. Rhys Vineyards has vineyards in more of the marginal weather areas of California and therefore is rightfully weather-obsessed, so their Twitter feed is an excellent source of weather info. Temperatures at their Skyline Vineyard, perched at 2,300-ft elevation, hovered at 49.6 degrees Fahrenheit in May, making it one of the seven coldest Mays since 1931; their vine shoots are about two or three inches behind, they tweet. They say that weather in late June is key for the fruit set so they don’t mean to sound gloomy. And after California’s cool and damp 2010 vintage, the “high-octane,” “fruit-bomb” style is taking it from all sides these days.

Australia was in the headlines for the devastating Queensland floods earlier this year. But even some of the wine growing regions were hit by heavy, “seven year rains” that rotted unpicked grapes quickly and made for a lot of grape selection both in the vineyard and on sorting tables. The Sydney Morning Herald explicitly linked the “soggy” weather to lower alcohol levels.

It’s weird that California and France appear to have flipped weather so far for 2011–there’s something you can talk about in your next elevator ride. Just don’t let the Mayans know since I think that was part of their their 2012 prophecy…