Thanks for reading Wine Rocks. I don't plan to support this anonymous blog at this time.
I appreciate all your comments, and invite you to read my Very Close Friend's brand-new blog: http://wblakegray.blogspot.com/
Wine Rocks!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The end of the Colonel Sanders curse
This has nothing to do with wine, but it's a great story you won't see in the U.S. media.
The Hanshin Tigers are the Cubs of Japan -- a team with a great fan base but a long history of failure. Despite having a good budget as the main team from Osaka, Japan's second largest city, the Tigers have only won the Japan Series once, in 1985.
Celebrating that achievement, the crazed fans had a lookalike of each player jump in the Dotonbori River near the stadium. But they had a problem: none of the locals looked like their leading hitter, American slugger Randy Bass.
A Bartman-like fan decided that the Colonel Sanders statue outside a nearby KFC looked a lot like Bass -- also bearded, and a foreigner. So fans tossed the statue in the river.
Since then, Hanshin has had nothing but failure. As the legend of the Curse of Colonel Sanders grew, Tigers fans mounted dive expeditions into the river to find the statue, but always without success.
The Tigers have the coolest theme song (I like the Denki Groove version), the best logo and the most loyal fans, but the Curse of Colonel Sanders has continued to bedevil them, fans believe.
Until today. At long last, divers found the Colonel and winched him to the surface. He had drifted 250m, and his legs are still missing, but more divers are searching.
Look out Yomiuri, the curse is on its last legs.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
What "US wine" means to the rest of the world
What does the rest of the world think when they hear "U.S. wine?" The answer is very different from what U.S. consumers think.
The Wine Institute announced last week that U.S. wine exports topped $1 billion in 2008. Congratulations to Gallo and Constellation Brands, far and away the drivers of this trend.
For the most part, foreign consumers see U.S. wines in the "premium" price range -- roughly $7 to $10. Shipping and grape costs keep U.S. wineries from competing below that, while there isn't all that much interest in wines priced higher, given competition from the luxury brands of France.
Pricey U.S. wines that do sell well overseas are completely different from wines that consumers flock to here.
Sometimes there's a country-specific explanation. For example, Calera and Ridge are both popular in Japan. Ridge has a Japanese pharmaceutical magnate for an owner, which eases distribution challenges. Calera was featured in a popular wine manga as a sommelier retold the story of owner/winemaker Josh Jensen smuggling cuttings from Domaine Romanee-Conti, and is often seen there as a prudent woman's DRC substitute.
But in Europe, where 48% of U.S. wines go, there's a clear verdict on which of our wines are good -- and it's a lot different from the domestic opinion.
I ran through all the 45 U.S. wines currently available at Tesco, the gigantic UK supermarket. With one exception, they were big company wines. That exception was a McManis Family Vineyards Chardonnay. Bully for the McManis family, longtime farmers who decided to make wine because they couldn't make profits selling their grapes.
Here's what the Tesco website says about U.S. wine (italics are mine):
"When we say USA, we’re really talking Californian wine. The Golden State is still in love with Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon where it dominates the vineyards - producers Robert Mondavi and Gallo show how could (sic) it can be. Merlot and Zinfandel are popular too, and winemakers are producing increasing amounts of Syrah, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. Zinfandel is California’s very own red grape variety and is often used for the refreshing off-dry white zinfandel rosé wines as displayed in Blossom Hill’s example."
Does that sound like an endorsement of Chardonnay and Cab as the best we have to offer? Not really, especially considering that this is PR copy meant to convince you to buy some wine. It might be a coincidence that the webmaster couldn't properly type in "good" -- or maybe it represented what she was thinking.
If you wanted to buy a non-Constellation, non-Gallo wine in the U.K., you might visit Berry Bros. & Rudd, whose Heathrow Airport shop was a pre-9/11 must-stop on the way out of the country.
BBR pays respect to U.S. wines with 77 labels online, the fifth most of any country (France 1864, Italy 149, Germany 102, Spain 86, USA 77, then Australia 67). More than half cost more than 20 quid, but keep in mind that London is now the world's center of prosperity.
BBR has great wine buyers and I found their selections fascinating, both for what they have and don't have.
They like wines that are iconoclastic here: Qupe, Bonny Doon Vineyards, Au Bon Climat, Frog's Leap, Tablas Creek, Ridge, Andrew Will. Almost their entire selection comes from these wineries.
What BBR noticeably does NOT have is the bulwark of every U.S. wine shop's pricey section: Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. They have a couple, including Dominus and Opus One. But the British wine buyers seem to be thinking that if someone wants a Cab (or Merlot, for that matter), they'll buy a Bordeaux.
Right now the rest of the world often changes its winemaking style to attract the U.S. palate. Wouldn't it be interesting if it were the other way around? Go exports!
The Wine Institute announced last week that U.S. wine exports topped $1 billion in 2008. Congratulations to Gallo and Constellation Brands, far and away the drivers of this trend.
For the most part, foreign consumers see U.S. wines in the "premium" price range -- roughly $7 to $10. Shipping and grape costs keep U.S. wineries from competing below that, while there isn't all that much interest in wines priced higher, given competition from the luxury brands of France.
Pricey U.S. wines that do sell well overseas are completely different from wines that consumers flock to here.
Sometimes there's a country-specific explanation. For example, Calera and Ridge are both popular in Japan. Ridge has a Japanese pharmaceutical magnate for an owner, which eases distribution challenges. Calera was featured in a popular wine manga as a sommelier retold the story of owner/winemaker Josh Jensen smuggling cuttings from Domaine Romanee-Conti, and is often seen there as a prudent woman's DRC substitute.
But in Europe, where 48% of U.S. wines go, there's a clear verdict on which of our wines are good -- and it's a lot different from the domestic opinion.
I ran through all the 45 U.S. wines currently available at Tesco, the gigantic UK supermarket. With one exception, they were big company wines. That exception was a McManis Family Vineyards Chardonnay. Bully for the McManis family, longtime farmers who decided to make wine because they couldn't make profits selling their grapes.
Here's what the Tesco website says about U.S. wine (italics are mine):
"When we say USA, we’re really talking Californian wine. The Golden State is still in love with Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon where it dominates the vineyards - producers Robert Mondavi and Gallo show how could (sic) it can be. Merlot and Zinfandel are popular too, and winemakers are producing increasing amounts of Syrah, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. Zinfandel is California’s very own red grape variety and is often used for the refreshing off-dry white zinfandel rosé wines as displayed in Blossom Hill’s example."
Does that sound like an endorsement of Chardonnay and Cab as the best we have to offer? Not really, especially considering that this is PR copy meant to convince you to buy some wine. It might be a coincidence that the webmaster couldn't properly type in "good" -- or maybe it represented what she was thinking.
If you wanted to buy a non-Constellation, non-Gallo wine in the U.K., you might visit Berry Bros. & Rudd, whose Heathrow Airport shop was a pre-9/11 must-stop on the way out of the country.
BBR pays respect to U.S. wines with 77 labels online, the fifth most of any country (France 1864, Italy 149, Germany 102, Spain 86, USA 77, then Australia 67). More than half cost more than 20 quid, but keep in mind that London is now the world's center of prosperity.
BBR has great wine buyers and I found their selections fascinating, both for what they have and don't have.
They like wines that are iconoclastic here: Qupe, Bonny Doon Vineyards, Au Bon Climat, Frog's Leap, Tablas Creek, Ridge, Andrew Will. Almost their entire selection comes from these wineries.
What BBR noticeably does NOT have is the bulwark of every U.S. wine shop's pricey section: Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. They have a couple, including Dominus and Opus One. But the British wine buyers seem to be thinking that if someone wants a Cab (or Merlot, for that matter), they'll buy a Bordeaux.
Right now the rest of the world often changes its winemaking style to attract the U.S. palate. Wouldn't it be interesting if it were the other way around? Go exports!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Foie Gras ice cream!
Foie Gras ice cream goes on my Kiliminjaro food list: stuff I had to try just because it is there. As with braised fruit bat and scorpion toast, I ended up enjoying more than just the novelty.All credit to Humphry Slocombe, the creative San Francisco ice-cream shop, for pairing its creamy, savory product to its best advantage.
Most of Humphry Slocombe's outrageous flavors, like Salted Licorice (my fave so far) and Balsamic Caramel, are available by the scoop or pint. But the Foie Gras -- only occasionally available (maybe when the geese are flying?) -- is sold only in an ice-cream sandwich cookie ($4) made with ginger snaps.
The beautiful and helpful shopkeeper (how will she ever keep her figure there?) let me try the ice cream by itself after I announced my purchase, but before I handed her the money. She also didn't appear disheartened when I immediately reduced the number of sandwiches I wanted.
By itself, Foie Gras ice cream was a little unnerving -- very rich and like all of Humphy Slocombe's flavors, accurate. It tasted so much like chilly, milky foie gras terrine that I wondered if I would encounter chopped-up bits of liver (on my mind because I just read this excellent Japanese noir novel.)
The crunchy, slightly sweet ginger snaps make a perfect counterpoint, both in flavor and texture. You get the rich, creamy, meaty taste initially, and then just as your brain is starting to scream "liver, liver!" the ginger snaps take over. You need to crunch them in your teeth to finish the bite, and that's the final textural impression.
Now I can't want to try the Government Cheese flavor, which the shopkeeper tells me will only be served with an apple tart. Few patrons of pricey ice-cream boutiques know what government cheese actually tastes like, so the shop will have some leeway.
By the way, if you're a foie gras hater, you might feel more comfortable at this silly website where a vegan tells us nobody should eat meat because she has this pet that feels really nice when it lies next to her. Seriously. There are lots of great arguments for vegetarianism; this one has to be the worst I've ever heard. Lucky for her Humphry Slocombe doesn't do lapin a la moutarde ice cream. Yet.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The wine world will miss the Chronicle
The news that the San Francisco Chronicle might not make it through the year was predictably greeted with hootin' and hollerin' from the freeloading trolls who visit the sfgate.com website every day to complain about the quality of the free news they read there.
If noticed by the wine blogging community, it will also undoubtedly unleash a tide of "who needs 'em" posts.
But the wine world would suffer without The Chronicle, even though the newspaper has ended its weekly wine section. Most bloggers don't want to admit it, but there are certain functions a newspaper plays that blogs cannot substitute for.
Here's a key one: people who weren't even thinking about wine might, in their search for the TV listings or Dilbert, stumble upon an article about Austrian Riesling. That does not happen with blogs. You have to actively search for Austrian Riesling. Or, failing that, you have to be visiting an excellent blog like vinography.com, where you find an article about Austrian Riesling -- in which case you're clearly already interested in wine.
General interest newspapers are one of the few media that get people who aren't currently interested in wine to pay attention. Nobody surfs randomly through the Internet and happens upon Steve Heimoff's blog. But people do flip through a newspaper, when they're done with the sports section, and spot an article about value wines from Argentina. Maybe that's in the back of their head when they go to Safeway to buy tortillas and anti-perspirant, and they pick up a bottle. Maybe that's the bottle that gets them hooked. THEN they read Heimoff and Vinography every day, not before.
Go ahead and mock the traditional media for all its stodgy adherence to the 20th century. Few industries currently get better free publicity from anyone than the local food and wine industries get from The Chronicle. Considering the tiny budgets in the wine industry for outreach to newbie drinkers, the wine world will miss the paper more than any other industry.
If noticed by the wine blogging community, it will also undoubtedly unleash a tide of "who needs 'em" posts.
But the wine world would suffer without The Chronicle, even though the newspaper has ended its weekly wine section. Most bloggers don't want to admit it, but there are certain functions a newspaper plays that blogs cannot substitute for.
Here's a key one: people who weren't even thinking about wine might, in their search for the TV listings or Dilbert, stumble upon an article about Austrian Riesling. That does not happen with blogs. You have to actively search for Austrian Riesling. Or, failing that, you have to be visiting an excellent blog like vinography.com, where you find an article about Austrian Riesling -- in which case you're clearly already interested in wine.
General interest newspapers are one of the few media that get people who aren't currently interested in wine to pay attention. Nobody surfs randomly through the Internet and happens upon Steve Heimoff's blog. But people do flip through a newspaper, when they're done with the sports section, and spot an article about value wines from Argentina. Maybe that's in the back of their head when they go to Safeway to buy tortillas and anti-perspirant, and they pick up a bottle. Maybe that's the bottle that gets them hooked. THEN they read Heimoff and Vinography every day, not before.
Go ahead and mock the traditional media for all its stodgy adherence to the 20th century. Few industries currently get better free publicity from anyone than the local food and wine industries get from The Chronicle. Considering the tiny budgets in the wine industry for outreach to newbie drinkers, the wine world will miss the paper more than any other industry.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Are "special" wines really all that?
Last week I got a mailer offering me the unique opportunity to spend more than $100 a bottle for yet another limited-production Napa Valley red wine.
Here's how this wine was described: "a blend of three vineyards in the St. Helena appellation which (are) planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. The unique terroir of each site is apparent in the complexity of the blend. The backbone of the wine is from a rocky, highly elevated parcel east of St. Helena. Two additional vineyards in the western hills complete the blend; one parcel is north of St. Helena planted in dusty red soil, the other is nestled against the base of Spring Mountain amongst decomposed river rock."
I do not see the point of this wine. I'm not averse to wineries charging more than $100 a bottle -- they have every right to make as much money as they can. But what exactly is this product?
It's not an expression of terroir because the grapes come from such different places. It's not a dramatic blend of valley-floor Cab with nearby hillside Merlot, for example.
It's a Frankenwine that might possibly be three great lots of purchased grapes blended into a delicious beverage. But with a glut of expensive wines on the market, who needs another delicious beverage? If the producer of this wine spent so much money for these grapes that he needs to charge $115 a bottle, he overspent. They need to stand on their own in that price range or go into a cheaper bottle.
The luxury wine market will survive the downturn because people of means will keep paying a premium for name recognition and quality. But there's going to be a shakeout, and I hope wines like this, without a purpose, are among those to go away. A three-vineyard blend is perfectly fine, even expected, in the value section of the wine shop. It's insulting at this price.
Here's how this wine was described: "a blend of three vineyards in the St. Helena appellation which (are) planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. The unique terroir of each site is apparent in the complexity of the blend. The backbone of the wine is from a rocky, highly elevated parcel east of St. Helena. Two additional vineyards in the western hills complete the blend; one parcel is north of St. Helena planted in dusty red soil, the other is nestled against the base of Spring Mountain amongst decomposed river rock."
I do not see the point of this wine. I'm not averse to wineries charging more than $100 a bottle -- they have every right to make as much money as they can. But what exactly is this product?
It's not an expression of terroir because the grapes come from such different places. It's not a dramatic blend of valley-floor Cab with nearby hillside Merlot, for example.
It's a Frankenwine that might possibly be three great lots of purchased grapes blended into a delicious beverage. But with a glut of expensive wines on the market, who needs another delicious beverage? If the producer of this wine spent so much money for these grapes that he needs to charge $115 a bottle, he overspent. They need to stand on their own in that price range or go into a cheaper bottle.
The luxury wine market will survive the downturn because people of means will keep paying a premium for name recognition and quality. But there's going to be a shakeout, and I hope wines like this, without a purpose, are among those to go away. A three-vineyard blend is perfectly fine, even expected, in the value section of the wine shop. It's insulting at this price.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Tasting Christian Brothers Cab from the 1960s
Last night I had the opportunity to taste something really interesting: a non-vintage Christian Brothers Napa Valley Cabernet.The wine was bottled in 1967, but did not list a vintage year. Christian Brothers commonly made multi-vintage blends, but this may have been their top of the line and they might have ignored the vintage out of modesty. I guess most of the grapes were from 1965 but there was no way to know for sure.
The bottle read "Select Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon" on the front label, and on the back it said the grapes were from "a hillside vineyard." Single-vineyard hillside Napa Valley wines today regularly sell for $150 or more, but this wine was probably about $2 on release, and WAIT till I tell you what it costs now (below).
A religious fraternal organization, Christian Brothers was a major force in Napa Valley in the 1960s, making a variety of very affordable table wines as well as brandy and sacramental wines. Their winemaker, Brother Timothy, frequently made public appearances on behalf of Napa Valley wines, giving a good-humored, pious face to the industry in a country that was just a few decades removed from Prohibition.
One of their winemaking facilities, Greystone, is now the impressive home of the Culinary Institute of America. The Christian Brothers had access to some great vineyards back and despite being a religious organization, they also had serious winemaking talent: Justin Meyer was a member of the order, and he had not yet left to found Silver Oak.
The 40-something wine was drinking great last night. Had I tasted it blind, I would have guessed it was aged Bordeaux, perhaps Pauillac. I also would have guessed that it was a bit younger -- maybe the early-mid '70s -- because there was still some pretty good cherry fruit, along with the characteristic flavors of age like leather and orange peel. The balance was outstanding. This was a wine that went fabulously with food, though I tried to clear my palate completely for each precious sip. Some older wines are more intellectual pleasures; this was a wine fully fit for drinking, and it disappeared quickly.
Nine of us enjoyed this wine with dinner at the CIA, bringing it home at last. I'm sure Brother Timothy, were he looking down from heaven, would have been happy to see the good cheer and fellowship his wine brought us. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Wine is constant proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
The punch line is the price: My benefactor said she acquired this wine in the last month from K&L Wine Merchants for ... $15! I was going to race to the store in question but she said she wisely bought every last bottle. But it does make me wonder what other treasures lie forgotten in the far recesses of stockrooms.
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