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WINE SHORTS  Wine News (the magazine)After a couple of email requests, a FedEx box filled with Wine News magazines arrived last week, much to my surprise and delight. It's a nice magazine, built on extended features illustrated with great photographs; extensive (maybe too extensive) coverage of wine auctions around the country; long and well-written profiles of wineries, winemakers and their grapegrowers, the often unsung heroes of this art; and of course tasting notes with obligatory 100-point scores. The Buyline section mimics buying guides in The Wine Enthusiast, Decanter and other consumer wine pubs, but doesn't have enough value-priced selections in my view, although as the economy continues to tank I suspect the editors may change that. Thoughtful editorials and wine news "vignettes" share space with trade ads that are consumer-oriented, as fits the style of the magazine. All-in-all, a well-done publication - my principal complaint is that the headlines use a typeface that looks like it's a bit squashed, and the body type is just too small. U.S. Wine Exports grow 6% to above One Million, er, One BILLION Dollars! The CA-based Wine Institute reports that U.S. wine exports, 90% from California, passed a billion dollars for the first time in 2008, up 6% from 2007. For more info on this pretty big development, go here. Nose in the Glass, not in the Air Wine writers too often write tasting notes that, well, smell. Of snobbery. And silly, flowery descriptions that make us laugh...or something else. A fellow wine writer dissects the trend as he returns from a writers' symposium. Trading Down...to the Good Stuff! Most of us are even more aggressively dropping our sights out of the $20 range down to the under $15 category, and more, as the recession continues to loom over us like torrential rain a month before harvest. You don't have to drink plonk at that price, either, as Laurie Daniel tells us. MUMBAI MILLIONAIRE In case you were inspired by the eight Oscars that Slumdog Millionaire brought home, here are some suggestions for pairing wine with Indian food. And a pairing chart is available here with suggestions for other foods and wines.A great wine with Indian food is a mix of Chenin Blanc and Viognier from Pine Ridge...it's pretty great with all kinds of Asian food too, and you should be able to find it anywhere in the US. My very favorite Indian pairing is 100% Pinot Blanc - you can try one of many from the Alsace region of France, such as Meyer-Fonne Pinot Blanc Vieilles Vignes, or one of many domestic Pinot Blancs such as WillaKenzie from Oregon. Good stuff that! One other option is a dry Rose, say, a Cabernet Franc-based rose (such as a Chinon from France). These fully dry Roses will offer a different experience but I think they're great with lamb dishes and curries. With the chicken dishes I'd stay with a Kabinett-style Riesling or the Chenin Blanc. And many say beer is the best pairing. It's good - but wine is better! (Always!) Labels: Chenin Blanc, Meyer-Fonne, Pine Ridge Winery, Pinot Blanc, Slumdog Millionaire, WillaKenzie, Wine-Flair STATE OF DENIAL Have you recently visited an out-of-state winery and wanted a case sent home, only to be told it's illegal? Confused by wine shipping laws? You're not alone. First let me say that I support the right of wine retailers, wholesalers and distributors to exist and make a living. The idea that we could or should just toss aside the three-tier system and buy all our wine, as the Brits might say, via "the post" is neither practical nor fair for all concerned. Having said that, wineries simply ought to be able to ship directly to consumers, too, with few or no restrictions and with as little administrative burden as possible. For small wineries that cannot command the attention and shelf space of major brands, and that simply cannot afford far-off sales people or promotion, this can make the difference between modest success and, well, insolvency. That's hardly fair and not smart either. And I think you'd be hard-pressed to make a case that this poses a threat to the distributors and retailers, to be honest. Producers of small lot, truly "hand-crafted" wines add a lot to our enjoyment and for most of them, direct-to-consumer is about they only way they can prevail. Free the Grapes, a consumer advocacy group that supports unfettered wine shipping among and within all 50 states, has an interactive map that shows what's what where you live. If you're interested in buying wine directly from producers and retailers at a distance, take a look and see where things stand. Labels: Free the Grapes, State of Denial, Wine shipping laws, Wine-Flair WHINE COSTS This morning's Decanter online has a story about what seems to be the collapse of the high-end Bordeaux wine market, including En Primeur, the method by which certain European producers offer wine for sale while it's still in the barrel. In other words, you pay for it 12 to 18 months before you can even get your hands on it. You're paying, of course, for the promise of a great vintage (or the heartbreak of a bad one), the prestigious names on the labels, and the cachet of getting a wine that's not for sale in any store. En Primeur applies only to certain wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhone and Port wines.In the U.S. and other places, though, there's something called "allocation" in which the wines are sold only to people who are on a list carefully maintained by the winery. These allocated wines, similarly, are rarely or never sold in stores and in some cases there's a long (sometimes years or even decades) wait to get on the list. Kinda like NY Giants season tickets... Well, that used to be the case, anyway (for both the wine and the Giants). But just from December to now, I've received calls from three luxury California producers offering me allocated wines that I was only "wait listed" on, and two that I merely visited once. Unheard of! And like lots of you out there, in these times I can't spend the significant, though very reduced prices, that these wines fetch. So, to be sure, the gravy train has ground to a halt on its track. But it's hardly the fault of the Bordelaise (the people who grow and vinify those costly Bordeaux En Primeur wines) or limited to French wines. The wine collector segment everywhere, including the U.S., Australia, and across all of Europe, has been hit hard. And it's extended to the so-called Luxury, Super-Premium and Premium wines, the higher-priced wines that you can always find in better retail stores but that make you say "how can one bottle of wine, no matter how good, possibly cost so much?" Well, this painful and unfortunate economy may provide a "market correction" that injects a bit of sanity. Now none of us wants the Budwesier-ization of wine. Bud is fine, mild, pleasant, pretty much never spoiled, rather inexpensive, mostly water and tastes like it. But if wine became more affordable and approachable for more people, the entire industry would benefit and many more consumers could enjoy the pleasures of wine. I hope the wine world starts to take note - there's still a huge market out there, but please don't tell me I "must" have a bottle that costs a month's salary. No, I musn't. Nor must you. Labels: Bordeaux, Budweiser, En Primeur, Luxury Wine, Robert Parker WINE-FLAIR'S NEW LOOK
As you check out the new Wine-Flair.com, please take advantage of the resources on this site. First, click the Fun Stuff tab and take advantage of a wine and food pairing chart; a wine notes sheet for recording your impressions about wines; and tables that list the grape varieties found in a number of red, rose and white European wines.
Two other places to get useful information: The Wine FAQs tab, where you'll find a glossary of wine terms written in language you can understand, and some Q&A around the questions we're asked most AND - Don't forget to scroll down for the WINE QUIZ and WINE NEWS frequent features. Labels: Fun Stuff, Wine FAQs, Wine-Flair, Words of Wine BOTTLE SHOCK NOW ON DVD Bottle Shock, a movie about the famous "Judgment of Paris" in 1976 when two '73 California wines were judged superior to several esteemed French wines, is now out on DVD and in the rental stores. Go rent it!The big deal? The judging was done in France, it was "blind" (the bottles were covered up and the judges did not know what was in their tasting glasses) and only one of the eleven judges was an American. Another was British, and the rest were the cream of the crop of the French wine and culinary worlds. And only the French scores were counted! While it's not very accurate historically, it's still a lot of fun. It didn't do so well in the theaters like many "art" movies, but is certainly great for a Friday night, with your significant other and of course a bottle or two of your favorite wine. To do justice, of course, you should have a bottle of both red and white at hand, toss around a little a French at the right moments ("merde!" and "mon dieu!") and do lots of ostentatious swirling before you taste. But do remember, before you gloat too much, that the French still make some of the world's best wine. Labels: Bottle Shock, DVD, Eliza Dushku, merde, mon dieu |
Main photograph by Christine Costello (View of Gloria Ferrer Vineyards, Carneros, CA).
