Tasting California Riesling with Other Wine Professionals

This morning I had a chance to taste a couple of wines with the winemaker who worked on the wines, as well as other wine professionals, and compare and contrast our own observations about the wines.
The wines in Question - both from Sterling Vineyards, both Rieslings. We tasted the 2008 Monterey County and the 2009 Mendocino County. Giving us the back ground was one of the winemakers from Sterling, Alison Crary. She studied and made wine in Germany, so is one of the more familiar winemakers with Riesling in California these days. Joining the group was Tom Meadowcroft, owner and winemaker of Magito Wines; Damon Dudley, Operations Manager and Winemaker with Winesecrets; Domingo Rodriguez, VP and GM with Winesecrets; Petar Kirilov, winemaker with Magito, as well as consultant with other brands; and myself.
While you think the "land of vintages every year" as California might be seen, there was a striking difference between the two, and not just from a vintage standpoint. The 2008 Monterey was fuller, softer, much more like a Pinot Blanc, while the 2009 Mendo had big up front aromatics, crisper acids, and was, well for lack of a better term, playful on the tongue.
Another interesting note was that, while both wines came across very well, and would definitely be great food wines (the 08 I would say would with white flesh fish, and the 09 with shell fish, or even slightly spicy Asian cuisine, which would pair nicely with the fruity notes), both wines were at 14.2 alcohol - and did not come across as such! This shows that each of these wines was well balanced, and would be a welcome addition to the cellar this summer. It was also nice to take some time out of the usual routine and talk with other wine people and sit and focus on just a couple of wines and talk about the vineyards the grapes came from, the processes, and how each of us described them (in case you're wondering, both wines received high praises around the table, but it was a pretty even split when one had to be picked, so both wines were really winners).
Also was told that Sterling is having a special on the 08 this weekend (Memorial Day weekend), so if you needed an excuse to go to Sterling, here ya go!!
Hope you find some great wines this weekend,
Best
David

Sometimes passing along the information does more good....

So, sometimes I find items that just strike me as "yeah - that's something that needs to have more people reading it", so today I pass along a couple of links that I found relevant to the current state of wine.
One is one How, even after 75 plus years, Prohibition still has sway over this country-
http://www.anotherwineblog.com/archives/4062

and another is on cork, and how closures seem to still be contentious in the world of wine-
http://wine-ophelia.blogspot.com/2010/05/put-cork-in-it.html
(just copy and paste into your browser). Hope you find them enlightening and entertaining.
Best
David

The future of Wine Selling and Marketing

I had a chance last night to speak to the E-Commerce class in the Wine Business program at Sonoma State University last night, on Direct Shipping of wine, and its associated regulations. As I talked to them about some of the items to remember when shipping wine direct to consumer (as, when it comes to wine, we are NOT the United States, one nation under whatever, but a patchwork of differing and sometimes conflicting regulations), I had a remarkable thought - these are going to be some of the people marketing wine over the next 25 years or so.
And, as we talked, how is most of this wine going to be marketed? - by electronic media - email, facebook, blogs, twitter and the like. This group of soon to be college grads turned wine professionals will be the most linked via electronic means than ever before. Since we can order wine, find out about wine, write about wine 24/7, what else might change about this?
My thought is that more web conferencing will happen over the next few years. For instance, it might be possible to attend a trade show by Skype (or some sort of web attendance), which would cut travel time and costs, while still being able to gather needed information. It might be possible to attend wine tastings (this is a little more of a logistical tightrope, but achievable). Many wineries already have virtual tours of their facilities, so I'm sure web tasting rooms are not far off.
Also in question is how this will all affect the experience of the winery visit. Will it replace the in person visitation of wineries? Well, not likely. There is still something ever so enjoyable and romantic about the whole winery experience, so even as this new generation of wine marketers comes into the industry, one thing the electronic medium can't replace is the human element. It can enhance it, but not replace it. Wine, as a very subjective element, will always have a human element associated with it.
Until next time, raise a glass to your direct interaction with the fruit of the vine,
Best,
David

More news from the TTB!

So, ever wonder how TTB gets their information out to the wine industry? They bring it out to the wine regions! See more about this year's seminars - from labeling to tax reporting to news rules and regs.
Copy and paste the following to an article I wrote, and is on the Wines & Vines website-
http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=73506&htitle=TTB%20Signals%20Closer%20Scrutiny%20of%20Wineries

Hope you enjoy learning more about this wacky world of wine!
Best
David

How a Bill in Congress can kill small and medium size wineries in the US

So, usually my posts are pretty enjoyable, but this one is going to be me on my soap box -
Every one who enjoys wine - and it doesn't matter where in our country you live - should contact their Congress member and tell them that they need to come out in opposition to H.R. 5034. It is titled "Comprehensive Alcohol regulatory Effectiveness (CARE) Act of 2010" - it is nothing more than a grab by the wine, beer and spirit wholesalers to try to regulate how alcohol is available in this country - oh, and by the way, they want it to be them. This is not, at its heart, a states rights issue, it is a business issue. 6 - that's right, just 6 - distributors in this country control 50% of the wine, beer and spirits distribution in the United States. It forces small and medium size wineries to either sell to them at razor thin margins, or cut production (and if they have to cut back, then they have to cut jobs as well). The big six wholesalers are making huge profits (not like the oil industry, but they are all living large), and this bill would cut off the ability for wineries - of any size - to sell directly to consumers in any state. It would also curtail the choices consumers have to get the wines that they want, since in many states, the direct to consumer option might be the only way for a consumer to get their favorite wines. If these wineries go out of business - and it would hurt some of them to that point - then not only are wine jobs lost, but associated industries, such as grape growers, would be hurt, as the options for who they can sell their products to takes a severe hit, resulting in lost jobs in those businesses as well.
take this seriously - we all need to contact our Congressional representatives, and tell them that support of this bill amounts to opposition to their re-election bid (I have contacted mine, and let her know!). Don't let your choice be controlled by the wholesalers!!!!
Until next time,
David

As much as we like the folksy "family" winery image.....

A lot of us like the folsky image of a family winery, nestled into some idyllic corner of a vineyard, and there are a ton of them out there. But, in a recent news item on Wines and Vines, while the number of wineries in North America has passed 7,000, don't think for a minute that the production is relatively evenly divided up between them. 93% of the wine production is handled by 6% of the wineries. That would mean at least 93% of the wine (by volume) on the average store shelf comes from a relatively few wine producers.
I'm not saying that's a good thing or bad thing - it's just the reality that wine is big business, and most of the players are big companies. Even if they are family run, they are still big companies. Also, keep in mind that the name of the producer on the bottle could be a registered trade name of a larger company. Case in point. A number of years ago, when I worked for a large chain drug store, I would often be on the "floor" hand selling and helping people decide on choices of wine during the holidays. One store I was at, in Modesto, proved that most people don't know that a big company is behind that wine. A nice, older woman wanted some wine for having with a holiday gathering of family. After going over what food was going to be served and what kind of wine she normally has, we narrowed down to 2 relatively safe varietals - Chardonnay and Merlot, and started looking at ones in a price range she had. She looked at a Gallo brand wine, and said "oh, I would never have Gallo", then looked at a Turning Leaf bottle and continued "but that Turning Leaf wine would be nice." I asked her if she knew where it was made, which she didn't, so I had her look at the bottler statement on the back label. Seeing that it was Modesto, she queried "oh, I didn't know there was another winery in Modesto!" When I told her there wasn't, the light went on that it was just another product from Gallo, to which she couldn't believe she was buying Gallo. Now, I have had some nice Turning Leaf wines, but if you know that it's from a large producer, it is usually easier to accept that you may be feeding a corporate machine - and, if you enjoy it, then that's not necessarily a bad thing - it just is what it is.
If you ever want to know who the main producer is of any wine, you can actually look it up - you can go to www.ttb.gov (who are the guys that handle wine related regulations on the Federal level), click on 'labels', then click on Public COLA registry; from there, you can enter the name of the bottler, and see, from the registered approved labels, who the main company who made that wine is. Of course, this works best for centrally located wineries, producing under several labels. Over that past several years, large wine companies have been buying out wineries, and with different locations, you may not know if that winery is part of a larger corporation (a notable example would Robert Mondavi Winery, which is now owned by Constellation, the world's largest wine producer; the label approval would still show Mondavi, as long as it was bottled at the Mondavi facility).
Like I said earlier, wine by large companies is not a good or bad thing - it just is. But if you are looking for a small family producer, it probably won't be available by the pallet at Costco!
Let me know your thought
Until next time
David

This cat has got legs......

That's right - we talked about it here last week - and it's getting more pr - that's right, Hello Kitty wines. It has now been on the "Today Show", and more recently, the "Colbert Report" - copy and paste for Dr. Colbert's take on it (along with some other antics -
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/270017/april-07-2010/tip-wag---hello-kitty-wine---pig-s-blood-filters
With the marketing juggernaut of Sanrio, it won't be long until you see this at Target!
Enjoy!
David