Dr Vino's wine blog

America will soon be the biggest wine country in the world and we need a motto! Thanks to the 30 commenters who often had multiple suggestions–browse them all for a good laugh.

Ray Isle, Deputy Wine Editor at Food & Wine magazine, the frequent face of wine on the Today Show, a wine blogger in his own right and all around good guy joined me in narrowing the field of suggestions. So here they are, the finalists, for your voting. Decide America’s new wine motto here and now!

The one with the most votes as of Friday will be crowned the winner and will receive a signed copy of Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. That’s right, the book that tells the story of wine in France and America through the lens of industry politics will be on of theirs in time for the Fourth of July. Congratulations to site readers Mark Ashley, Patrick Henry (who knew?), and Katie for making it into the finals!

poll now closed

The United States of America will soon become the largest wine drinking country in the world. It depends on whom you ask, but some time in the next year or two or five, we will be downing more of the fermented fruits of the vine than any other country–including France and Italy. Of course, they still tower over us with 52 and 46 liters per person respectively while we manage only about 13 liters per American (somewhere between a third and a half of Americans claim never to drink alcohol).

So we have to be ready: we need a motto. Britain did it. Then Freakonomics blog urged their readers to come up with one for America in six words. Collectively, we drink and now YOU can decide: Post your suggestions in the comments here for America’s new motto as the top wine consuming country.

Ray Isle, who writes his own excellent blog (now with pictures!) when he’s not giving wine seminars in Aspen or writing his wine column for Food & Wine magazine, will join me as a mini-panel of flag pin-wearing judges. We will cull through your suggestions and select some finalists for your voting, starting next Tuesday.

And to up the ante from our usual prize of mere “glory,” whoever submits the winning slogan will win a signed copy of my just-about-released book, Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. That’s right, the book that tells the story of wine in France and America through the lens of industry politics could be yours for the Fourth of July.

So put down your flag for a second and start typing your slogan for America as world wine leader!

SPIT: wine ice cream!
Move over Cherry Garcia, here comes pinot noir ice cream! Well, assuming you’re over 21. Yes, the New York legislature passed a law preventing minors from getting their hands on the stuff since two gallons of the ice cream contains as much alcohol as one glass of wine according to one producer. Can’t be too careful, New York!

SIPPED: wine and war
Faced with budget cuts for veterans, the fabled French Foreign Legion has gotten into the wine biz to raise funds from the sale of a wine called “Esprit de Corps.” An officer who overseas the property had this tasting note for the wine: “Strong when attacked, solid on the onslaught, full of grapeshot on the frontline.” [AFP]

SPIT: tasting notes!
“From now on, wine drinkers, you get to mention three things you smell in a wine, max. Then you have to tell me something more interesting.” I guess he’d like the note for the “Esprit de Corps.” [Chicago Tribune, thanks, Stephen!]

SPIT: liquid soap!
A restaurant in New Zealand mistakenly served dishwashing soap to two customers thinking it was mulled wine. Courts awarded the stricken customers $752 each for their emotional harm. [AP News, thanks, Casey!]

SPIT: freedom in Illinois!
Wine-loving residents of the Land of Lincoln now have fewer choices: It’s confusing, but in a law effective today, wineries (both out-of-state in-state) will have caps on the amount they can ship to Illinois and out-of-state retailers will be banned from shipping to the state. While it’s a sad day and you can chalk one up for special interests let’s just hope this legislative folly goes the way of the foie gras ban soon enough. [Chicago Tribune]

SPIT: freedom in France
Liberté takes a back seat in France too where wine ads are strictly controlled in France and Microsoft has taken the unusually cautious step of removing wine ads from their ad service (Google ads still include wine on the internets in France). If anyone is looking at this site in France, remember, ceci n’est pas une pub! [thepost.ie]

SIPPED: wine education
An inside look at wine education at the Sommelier Society of America. [NYT]

SPIT: jugs!
Almaden and Inglenook, two wines known for their big jugs, will now come in the lightweight bag-in-box format. It sounds like old wine in new wineskins but because of the volume involved it will contribute to reducing wine’s carbon footprint. [Bizjournals]

SIPPED: corks in space
Schramsberg winery reports that Navy Commander Kenneth Ham is flying with bottles of the bubbly on board the space shuttle Discovery! If only. But he is taking some corks and labels from the Napa sparkling wine producer on the flight with him.

SIPPED: Wine books
A review of three wine books today in the NYT Book Review section follows one by Eric Aismov from ten days ago to review the spring crop of wine books. And, yes, my reviews will follow soon before you head to the beach this summer!

RIP: Robert Mondavi, the American wine colossus, who died at 94. [SF Chron, NYT]

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Red Hook, Brooklyn, will be the home of a new “urban winery” later this year.

Abe Schoener, excellent and unconventional winemaker from California, told DrVino.com yesterday that he will open the winery in a building on Beard Street sometime late in the summer 2008. Schoener’s partner will be his Brooklyn-based distributor for the NYC area, Mark Snyder of Angel’s Share.

The wine-making facility represents a first for Schoener. Although the former Greek philosophy professor makes compelling and hugely serious wines under his Scholium Project label from California, he does not have a winery there. The Red Hook winery will make exclusively wines from New York State grapes, purchased from vineyards up the Hudson River Valley and from Long Island.

With a slip outside the building, Schoener said yesterday that some of the grapes will be shipped to the new winemaking facility. Not for carbon footprint reasons, mind you, but just because the slip is there easily presenting that option.

Even though the space will be dramatic, with 60 foot ceilings behind door 15 the huge complex on Beard and Van Brunt, it is not yet determined whether it will be open for visitors like the Bridge Urban Winery and Tasting Room in Williamsburg.

The Schoener wine label is currently unnamed but will have a historic reference. It will not be part of the Scholium Project wines.

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SIPPED: discussion!
Eric Asimov of the NYT had a thoughtful article in Wednesday’s paper about exposing teenagers to wine in the home. It’s great to see a constructive discussion (325 comments long!) on his blog about fostering wine enjoyment in the home rather than the usual discussion of excesses. Related: we’ve discussed kids at wineries and how appropriate is the drinking age of 21 here. [NYT]

SIPPED and SPIT: NYC wine bars
Closing tonight is Divine Wine Bar East. Zagat reports they have having the Mother of All Happy Hours tonight to liquidate (ha) the inventory. Opening: Bowery Wine Company and the new wine lounge at Le Cirque. See the action on the NYC wine bar map!

SIPPED: The audacity of nope
French President Sarkozy, a self-proclaimed teetotaler (although see here and here for evidence to the contrary), has the nerve to ask to see the wine list at Windsor Palace before a state dinner. [Times of India]

SIPPED: resveratrol
“Researchers at the University of Rochester have shown for the first time that resveratrol, a natural antioxidant found in grape skins and red wine, helps to destroy cancerous pancreatic cells by crippling the diseased cells’ mitochondria, the minute organelles found in the majority of living cells which provide them with energy.” [FT.com]

Image: fair-use is made of a reduced size crop of an image that appeared in the NYT attributed to Lisa Adams.

Our family piled into the car this past weekend and made a getaway to wine country. No, not California but New York’s own wine country: the North Fork of Long Island! Yes, in the three years since we moved to the Empire State, I had never been to the closest cluster of vineyards to me. Gasp!

So we braved pouring rain and 50-mph winds that lashed the Island on Saturday. Louisa Thomas Hargrave, a friend and stateswoman of the region who planted the first vineyard in 1973, graciously arranged a few stops for us. I hope to write these up soon.

My main takeaway was that I had neglected an interesting region in my own proverbial backyard for too long. As part studying the carbon footprint of wine and writing about it, I’ve resolved to learn more about wines made close to where I live. Wouldn’t Governor Spitzer Paterson be proud? The alcohol levels are often low as a result of the coolish climate (for now), the best winemakers are not addicted to oak, and the best reds (and whites) don’t have residual sugar.

Our quick jaunt included some interesting wines such as a merlot at Lenz, a cab franc at Paumanok, and a solid pinot blanc from Lieb. Although I didn’t make it to Channing Daughters, which seems to be quite worth it, I did meet Christopher Tracy, wine geek extraordinaire, chef and the winemaker. He told me they have Tocai Friulano, Muscat, Gewurztraminer, Blaufrankisch and are planting Dornfelder–wonderfully wacky! They even do skin contact on some of their whites and make a “sauvage” Chardonnay that uses indigenous yeasts. I tried the refreshingly crisp and slightly aromatic “Mosaico” (find this wine) white blend as well as their summer-is-coming 2007 cabernet sauvignon rose (find this wine). I’m sure there are more interesting wines in the region and I look forward to exploring them more now that I know the way there.

One thing that did dampen my enthusiasm even when the rain could not was the price: all the wines I liked started at $17 and moved up from there making them, perhaps, more special occasion wines rather than everyday quaffers. Somehow I thought there might be some bargains since we were all in this same down-trodden currency zone together. So my question to you is: how much is drinking local worth to you?

Taste many of the wines for yourself at the annual Brooklyn Uncorked event on May 14, which will have many of Long Island’s most best wineries. It’s 4-8 PM at BAM Cafe in Fort Greene, $50.

I’ve been frustrated many times as a wine enthusiast when looking for a specific wine only to find it available at a store, say, in California. Since I live in New York, California retailers are not legally allowed to send it to me–though whether they will is another question. Eric Asimov, the chief wine critic for the New York Times, has admitted to being a “lawbreaker” as a result of these laws. Other retailers, such as Sam’s Wine in Chicago, will not ship to New York.

As a wine enthusiast, I’m for greater liberalization of wine shipping laws. Freer markets means greater availability and probably lower prices. The Supreme Court decision in 2005 paved the way for greater possibilities of shipping directly from wineries to consumers. But the legal situation of shipping from out-of-state retailers remains a murky area, illegal on the books of too many states.

A quick and dirty political analysis can help explain why. Wine wholesalers want the wine to pass through their warehouses so they can profit from the sale in their state. There are few distributors and they have a narrow economic interest and thus have the ability to lobby the state powers that be. As I discuss in my forthcoming book, Wine Politics: How Governments, Mobsters, Environmentalists and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink, this can really hurt you if you live in a smaller market.

The main economic counterbalance to distributors are shops and some local ones may not welcome out-of-state shipping. But many of the best shops want to able to ship freely to Texas, Florida, New York and beyond. And for citizens and wine consumers, wine shipping is so far down the list of policy objectives that we are never likely to organize around this issue. But the laws aren’t going to change by themselves.

So check out the Specialty Wine Retailers Association, the main group fighting for a liberalization of shipping laws. In fact, they are having an awareness campaign right now and you can even contribute to the organization to help fund their legal fight (I got an email from Sherry-Lehmann last week saying that Ken Starr–still hard to think of him as one of the “good guys” even after his role in the previous Supreme Court case–is leading the charge. Raise money to pay Ken Starr’s fees!). Yes, in the short term, their members stand to benefit from a reform in the legal situation. But in the long term, there will be greater innovation and perhaps even new entrants in the field as even Amazon intimated last week.

So check out the SWRA and support them in some way, if even by signing up for emails. Together, consumers and specialty retailers can form a coalition of the swilling to change the laws. Let’s push for change so that we don’t all have to wear “Free Eric!” T-shirts!

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