Ever wonder about how the government regulates wine?

Some of you out there know that one of my areas I work on, besides be able to evaluate wine, is on the government regulatory side as well. Ever wonder about that? If you are a winery, you might want to take a look at the piece that I wrote for an e-mailer for Winesecrets, the company I work with in my weekday life. I got to spend a week in Cincinnati this summer at TTB Expo 2009, and got a lot of good information to share. I can send you the full piece - email me at winetopics@gmail.com.
David

More warm fall evening wines....

So we're still in the middle of the heat of early fall, so what to do when you want a nice wine to go with some cool cuisine - specifically, home made Cobb salad, with grilled chicken, smokey bacon, and the works. With all those flavors? For my monry, a lightly chilled flavorful white - in this instance, Balletto Vineyards 2007 Gewurztraminer. With some spice to marry with the bacon, the crisp acidity to go with the salad, and just that hint of sweetness to compliment the grilled chicked, this was a wonderful pairing for a warm fall evening - plus the company of family made it a great way to end the week!
More later, including A Taste of Lodi!!!!
Cheers,
David

PINOT PINOT EVERYWHERE!!!!!
With the harvest going full tilt, if you are a fan of Pinot, then 2009 will be your year - there is a lot of it (especially compared with the last few years), and the quality is extremely good. I have been tasting quite a bit of the new stuff from all over the North Coast (Anderson Valley, Napa-Carneros, several appellations in Sonoma County, even Marin County), and it is yum-yum-yummy!
The quantity is WAY up - the frost damaged vines from 2008 have fully recovered, producing a bountiful crop, that, for the most part, had a nice mild growing season, and are bursting with flavor. One good thing for consumers - prices on these wines should be reasonable, given the amount of fruit, growers trying to find a place for all of it, due to the sluggish economy. I know of some growers who got $5,000 a ton (and more) last year stuggling to get as low as $1,500 a ton this year.
Now, some of these wines won't be on the market for a while, but with a good supply ready to hit, we should start to see prices ease up a bit on this most alluring of reds!

OK, so here we are in the middle of grape harvest, the weather is hot, there is fruit everywhere, and this is a blog about wine - the last thing most of us want to see are GRAPES at the end of the day. While I am a big fan of a nice cold beer at the end of these hot days, out here in west Sonoma County, we have a jewel of a place - California Cider, who make the Ace brand of fruit ciders - apple, berry, grape, and our house favorite - PERRY. It's crisp, it's dry but fruitty, clean and refreshing! Goes with grilled sausage, fish, chicken - you name it, on a warm summer night - it is the bomb!
They also have a great pub out here (on the main highway, between Sebastopol and Graton), where they serve a host of British pub favorites (the owner is originally from the UK), with a Sonoma County twist of freshness. Great bangers and mash, salads, and don't miss the fish n' chips!
Some local grocers (Raley's, Pacific Market, etc) are carrying them, but ask for them at you favorite store - and if all else fails, contact them through their website at www.acecider.com.
More later from the middle of harvest.....

Wines for a warm evening......

Ok, so we've hit that wonderful time of year of "Indian Summer", or that stretch where we get a shot of warm, warm days and moderately war evenings, just right for enjoying some whites - and not just Chardonnay (we'll get to thoughts on Chardonnay in later episodes). The real test of any wine, especially a white, is that it can go with vastly different foods, and be perfectly enjoyable - so here goes......

With these warm evenings, and long days at work (it is harvest after all), quick meals are a neccessity. Friday night was reaaly warm, so we fired up the grill for some hot dogs, and served along with potato salad (from the store) and fresh fruit. Saturday was a little cooler, but we didn't feel like fussing over dinner, so we had thawed out some salmon filets, marinated them in terriyaki and honey, put a little seasoning and panko and quickly pan seared, and had this with a mixed salad, of assoted veges and greens that we got at farmer's market. You might think this would call for different choices for wine, but we served the same wines for both meals, and if you haven't had these wines, seek them out.

The first one, with the meal, is from Burford Family Wines, under their Melanto Terrace label - a 2008 Verdelho (They also produce Verdelho under their Lady Grace label as well). If you're not familar with this varietal, it's historic home is Portugal. Owner and winemaker, Peter Burford, sourced his fruit from Lodi (a growing center for Spanish and Portugese varietals), and this wine will quickly become a top house at your place, as it has mine. With it's light gold color and subtle fruit and floral aroma, the mouth explodes with wonderful white nectarine, light apricot and white grape notes, with a surprising structure and balance that one would most would think you would only get in a red wine. It was refreshing and engaging at the same time.

The other wine we had, mostly at the end and after dinner is an even more surprising, Dreirebe, a combination of three German varietals, from Mokelumne Glen Vineyards. The one we had was a 2006 Dreirebe Late Harvest grown out in Lodi. As one might expect, from a late harvest wine, it is sweet, but has a great balance with acid as well. The flavors of Persian apricots, white peaches with a hint of subtle spices one would find in a fruit cobbler, which is a great sipper for finishing a relaxed late summer meal.

While these are not large production wines, you can ask for them at you favorite wine merchant, or visit their websites (Frin more information about Burford Family Wines at www.burfordandbrown.com; you can contact Mokelumne Glen Vineyards at www.mokelumneglen.com). More on some more wines for these wonderful late season days and nights later......

Harvest is in full swing, and there are a lot of grapes out there! Not nearly as many as in the GINORMOUS crop of 2005, but the biggest year since then. Quality is outstanding, as the summer was realitively mild, allowing for good flavor development, and now the heat is turning up, bringing the sugars up up up. BUT, there are a lot of grapes out on the vines, and with the economy in the state it is still in, many growers are still looking for homes for fruit. Some wineries, big and small, custom crush et al, are offering to crush and ferment the fruit now, for a large percentage of the wine later (I've heard of one place that will crush, ferment and store for 10 months, in exchange for HALF the wine next year). Even in this down market, if wineries can reduce the cost of goods (in this case fruit), it can mean a huge upside for the consumer, since the wineries can then offer up some of the great 2009 vintage for much less than normal, and if that gets more people enjoying wine, so they buy more in the long term, then everybody wins. Fortuneately, with prices on earlier vintages dropping (because of the market), we don't have to wait unti later to enjoy some fine wine! more on some of the wines I'm enjoying later.....

Ok, so you may be wondering my background in wine to have a blog on it, so, here goes -
Italian grandparents (on my Father's side), wine was a part of growing up. After the college thing (music), and some teaching, ended up landing a job as a wine and liquor guy with a large West Coast chain drugstore. This lead me back to some college (UC Davis) in wine (really, viticulture and enology), and finally into working for wineries - production, vineyard, tasting room, you name it. This also lead to me being a wine writer (such magazines as D'Vine Magazine, and others), as well as wine judging (San Joaquin Fair, California State Fair Home Winemakers, Amador County Fair, Mother Lode Fair, Sonoma County Harvest Fair), as well as work at American Winesecrets, where we specialize in help wineries fine tune their wines through various technologies. There's a whole lot more, but that gives you the overview.....
More tomorrow, and until then, enjoy a glass of your favorite tonight with dinner!

Welcome to WineTopics! With all the wine out there, there is a lot to taste, share, and learn - and this is a place for all of this! I hope you find this entertaining, informative and, most of all, fun!
Thanks!