Dr Vino's wine blog

We did it! Congratulations, America! According to analysts Gomberg, Fredrikson, we are now the biggest wine consuming country in the world! USA! USA! (hat tip: winebusiness.com)

We’ve overcome challenges as a country. Even a scant four decades ago our parents had trouble finding good wine here. And our domestic wine industry, which makes about two-thirds of wines sold here today and is the fourth largest in the world, had yet to reach acclaim on the world stage. But now we put away more of the stuff than France and Italy despite the fact that we can’t easily buy wine via stores on the internet. Triumph over adversity, part deux!

What with a large domestic population, it’s understandable that we could do it. But we still need to work on that per capita consumption rate, where we’re currently below the likes of Ireland and Equatorial Guinea. So let’s raise a glass in honor of America!

Obviously, a lot of issues are on the metaphorical table as President Obama entertains China’s president Hu Jintao. But what’s in the glass? They can’t serve Lafite, after all, since the White House only pours domestic wins and this menu is set to be “quintessentially American.”

Given previous bombs served up by the White House usher, I chuckled when I saw the headline at the nytimes.com: “White House looks to avoid gaffes during Chinese visit.” But that’s just what they’ve done with a conservative menu and wine pairings. Read more…

W$Jay was slumming it with zinfandel recently. He had a passing remark about the origin of Sutter Home white zin. Thanks to the Regional Oral history Office at Cal’s Bancroft Library, we have access to the first-hand account of Bob Trinchero, then winemaker at Sutter Home.

Trinchero said that there was something of a zinfandel arms race in the early 70s. In 1972, to concentrate the red zinfandel, he bled off 550 gallons of (white) juice at the crush that he then didn’t know what to do with. He thought about adding it to his “gallon-jug chablis.” But Darrel Corti, Read more…

All too often, Zinfandel is a highway to a quick, cheap buzz. It’s often confused with white zin, rarely celebrated by wine writers aside from patriotic holidays, and it’s almost never aged.

However, there’s Zin, and then there’s a wine like Ridge Geyserville.

I had a chance to visit the property and talk with the cellar masters this past spring. Although I also tasted some spectacular wines of Monte Bello, I was looking forward to the tasting of old zinfandels dating back to 1973, including multiple pairs of Geyserville and Lytton Springs–could a Zinfandel age gracefully, I wondered? Read more…

Three hundred people a week are injured in “glassings” in British pubs. The rate is so high that doctors have recommended substituting plastic tumblers for all glasses. In two test cities where the switch has been put in place, the incident rate has declined sharply. (I guess Riedel needs to think about making a plastic pint and plastic, stemless wine cups.)

What would happen if guns were allowed in bars and restaurants? We will find out here, apparently. According to a NYT story from Sunday highlighted a change in four state laws that now allow loaded weapons to be carried into bars and restaurants. Twenty other states, including New York, have legal gray areas and thus could be up for a challenge soon from gun-rights groups.

There is a catch, however that’s possibly more important than a trigger lock: those carrying weapons cannot drink alcohol. That does give a slight twist on the ordering process: will waiters now have to ask if you’re armed before they serve you? Red or white? Packing or not? And what about winery tasting rooms? The Tennessee legislator who sponsored the bill there highlighted the need for security between car and the restaurant. So if a winery visitor wanted to pack heat before tasting some fruit bombs, would he or she have to check the gun at the door? How would this affect the tasting room experience? Should wineries ban guns?

Have your say in the comments or the latest poll!
[poll id=”17″]

The Whole Foods Market in Winston-Salem, NC, sells wine grapes by the pound. $2.49 a pound for “Organic Red Granache (sic) Wine Grapes,” “Organic Green French Colombard Wine Grapes,” and “Organic Black Carignane Wine Grapes.” Taste the difference, pre-wine! Or maybe it is another DIY wine thing?

Even though the store sits on the edge of the fastest-growing wine region of the country, the grapes are from California.

Thanks, Mark, for the cameraphone pic!

Sutter Home and white Zinfandel are practically synonymous. The Trinchero brothers of Sutter Home started making the sweet, pink wine from (red) Zinfandel grapes in the mid-1970s. To everyone’s astonishment, the wine exploded in popularity and within a few years was selling a million cases a year.

While this story is well-known, at least within the industry, what’s less well known is that white Zinfandel had been made before that time. In fact, George West had made a pink wine from Zinfandel near Lodi in the 1860s according to Charles Sullivan in his book Zinfandel: A History of the grape and its Wine. In the 1880s, Charles Wetmore, a journalist and head of the State Viticultural Commission, had suggested that making a rosé from free run juice zinfandel. Even In the 20th century, Sullivan noted that David Bruce made a white zinfandel in the 1960s.

Recently, we caught a glimpse of a white zinfandel from Ridge Vineyards, Yes, the esteemed Ridge, maker of Monte Bello and many excellent Zinfandels!

I wrote to Draper and asked about the curious history of white Zinfandel at Ridge. He was kind enough to elaborate on a topic that probably isn’t the first thing he’s like to discuss. His comments follow after the jump: Read more…