The Wine Broad's Board

Eating in OZ: mountains of marron

Before my trip to OZ in February, I had only a vague idea of what people in Australia eat. Vegemite sandwiches? Shrimp on the barbie?   Endless "WD40" cans of Foster's lager? 

To my gluttonous glee, I was met in Western Australia with a gorgeous array of fresh seafood--particularly a large and delicious freshwater crustacean called a "marron." (At left: shrimp on the barbie.)  

While in OZ I made it my mission to eat as many of the lobster-like beauties as I could jab a fork in. When I wasn't busy shooting photos of wine bottles and vineyards, I pointed my camera at my dinner plate. I ended up with so many marron shots that I joked about devoting a photography exhibition to them: "Marron I Have Known (and Subsequently Eaten)."

Wineries are home to some of the best restaurants in Western Australia (Voyager, Leeuwin and Capel Vale come to mind). The food is top-notch, beautifully presented and wonderfully creative. Unlike many U.S. tasting rooms, which send you on your way with an empty stomach as soon as you're finished sampling the wines, the wineries in WA invite you to relax on a beautiful patio overlooking the vineyards while enjoying a fantastic meal--served with their wines, of course. This is the way it should be done, people! (Above photo: marron at Leeuwin; below: marron at Salitage.)

At this pace, you can't hit five wineries in a day, but so what? I'd rather take the time to stop and smell the marron.

Stay tuned for Part II: Dukkah and Pies.

(Below: shrimp, scallops and marron at Voyager Estate.)

 

More Time To Blog: HA!

When I embarked on this latest chapter of my wine-writing career--that is, being a free agent rather than a magazine staffer--I optimistically announced to readers (and to myself) that I would now have more time for blogging.

As if.

I quicky discovered that without a regular paycheck, I would have to hustle to pay the bills. Pitch, pitch, pitch! Thankfully, I've had plenty of people come to me with offers of work, which has kept me amazingly busy--and as a result, kept me from spending my time on Ye Olde Bloge. (Write something I'm not getting paid for? You gots to be kidding!)

I think that's the trouble with professional writers having recreational blogs: When you spend your whole day writing, it's not always that thrilling to sit down at the end of the day and write some more--and it's even less motivational when you're doing it for free. The most avid wine bloggers, I've noticed, are people who don't spend eight hours a day writing about wine. Go figure.

Of course, the bonus of blogging is that you don't have to pitch your blog topics to some editor, who may very well reject them and crush your pathetic little dreams. You can be as controversial/goofy/irreverent as you damn well please.

Don't think I'm giving up on the blog, though. I've just returned from an amazing winery tour of Western Australia, where I collected plenty o' blog fodder. (I not only saw kangaroos, I ate 'em!)

Stay tuned, patient readers! As soon as I deal with these deadlines...

A New Twist on "Old-Vine"

A while back I asked readers to share their views on the meaning (or, more accurately, the lack of meaning) of the term "old-vine." Is there any point to putting it on wine labels if there's no legal definition? For some vintners, old-vine might mean 15 years old; for others it could mean 80. Who's to say? No, I'm not about to rehash the whole drama: I actually have something new to add to the discussion.

While researching my February "Marketing Matters" column for Wines & Vines, I conducted an online survey of California vintners to find out where they stand on the issue, and received 172 resonses. Here's what I found out:

• 71% believe the term "old-vine" should be regulated (this was surprising to me--I thought everyone was fed up with rules!)
• When asked how old an "old-vine" vineyard should be, 63% chose 50 years old as the minimum legal age, while 28% chose 20 years old as the legal minimum.
• 39% of survey participants who said they their wines as "old-vine" said their "old-vine" vineyards are only 15-49 years old. (So what happened to that 50-year minimum?)

Of course, the real question is: What do wine-drinkers think the term means? Do they care? I did a little online survey for that too:

• More than half of the people who responded had no idea that there's no legal definition of "old-vine."
• Most (84%) said they don't think "old-vine" wines are any better than younger-vine wines (take that, wine marketers!). Even so, 63% said they think there should be a legal definition of the term.

W&V subscribers can read the full story online. In the meantime, I'll pour myself a tasty glass of Beaujolais Nouveau.

Calling all Pinot Producers

I just received an e-mail from my friend Barbara Drady, who told me about a silent auction she's organizing as part of the 6th Annual Pinot Noir Summit on March 2nd, at San Francisco's Fort Mason Center. The auction will benefit Lou Gehrig's Disease research, in honor of wine judge/writer David Jones, who was recently diagnosed with the disease.  Wineries willing and able to donate auction items should contact Barbara: bdrady@affairsofthevine.com.

If you've never attended an Affairs of the Vine event, you might want to check this one out. Rather than a typical walk-around tasting of random wines, this is a blind tasting of 40 Pinot Noirs pre-selected by an expert panel of judges. Participants rate the wines according to their preferences, and the results are tallied and pitted against those of the expert panel. The event also features Pinot workshops and an awards ceremony for the top Pinots at the end of the day. And knowing Barbara, it's sure to be a great time!

Wine Culture in America: It's Here!

Some said it would never happen--that the uncouth, brewski-swilling American public would never embrace wine as a part of everyday life. But according to the Wine Market Council's latest consumer tracking study, the term "American wine culture" is no longer an oxymoron.

WMC's reserach shows that the U.S. reached some impressive wine-related milestones in 2007:

* Wine consumption topped 300 million cases for the first time ever, taking over Italy's spot as the second-largest wine consuming country in the world.

*Adult per-capita wine consumption reached 3 gallons.

*Adult wine-drinkers in the U.S. now outnumber non-wine drinkers.

*The average age of "core" wine drinkers (those who drink wine at least once a week) was younger than that of marginal wine drinkers.

That last one is important: It indicates that young adults are playing a major role in the increase of U.S. wine consumption.

This is obviously good news for the American wine industry, because more people than ever are drinking wine--and more expensive wine at that. But that's not to say there aren't challenges ahead: For one, the Millennial wine drinkers who are driving the increase in consumption aren't necessarily drinking domestic wines. In fact, their generation is the one that's most likely to buy imports. Then there's the looming recession, which threatens to put the brakes on America's wine spending.

But overall, there's plenty to celebrate. I've certainly done my part to bring that per-capita comsuption average to the 3-gallon level.

Moving On

You may have noticed that I've been writing a lot of freelance articles lately: consumer-oriented wine, food and travel pieces for publications like Via and US Airways (see "Articles I've Written" sidebar on the right for links). Well, I'll be doing a lot more of that in the coming months, along with more blogging. Yes, after five great years, today was my last day as a full-time editor at Wines & Vines. Don't worry, I'll still be writing my monthly "Marketing Matters" column for the magazine, along with occasional features and news, but I'll be doing it from the freelance-y comfort of my living room sofa.

Why? Sometimes you need a kick in the ass to do something different. For a while now I've been thinking about doing more writing on the consumer side of wine, and widening my focus to other passions like food and travel. Whether this means pure freelance work or another full-time post, I'm not sure: I'm keeping my options open.

In the meantime, let's all drink a toast to change. Salute!

Tasting in Texas

While visiting my in-laws in Texas, my husband and I embarked on a little wine tasting excursion to the Hill Country (aka, the Texas equivalent of Napa Valley). Maybe I’m spoiled living in Sonoma County (OK, not maybe: I am spoiled), but the experience was pretty odd. The first winery we visited (Stone House) had some very nice wines—a well-made dry sparkling wine, a tasty Tempranillo, some very good Shiraz wines. The odd part? They’re all produced in Australia. Stone House produces only two Texas wines—both made from Norton (and if you’ve never tried Norton, it’s definitely an acquired taste).

During the tasting, one single-vineyard Shiraz we sampled was obviously corked. I politely told the guy behind the bar, and he commented: “I’ve never really liked that wine.” Hmmm.. maybe that’s because the wine is corked! Did he open a new bottle of wine? Nope. I’m sure that, as soon as we were out the door, he continued pouring samples from that same bottle—which, by the way, was not cheap at 40-plus bucks. Crazy. The tasting room fees also seemed a bit steep: $5 for the standard tasting, plus an extra $10 for reserve wines and an extra $5 for two additional port-style wines. (And don’t expect anything to be knocked off the tasting fee if you buy a few bottles to take home.) Do these folks know they’re in Texas?

The second winery we visited—Spicewood Vineyards—offered more of a Texas experience. All of their wines are made from estate fruit—that is, unless a particularly crappy growing season, complete with hail, wipes out most of their grapes. That’s what happened last year, so the winery is buying some grapes from California to help get it through the rough patch. Spicewood makes a nice Sauvignon Blanc from local grapes, though they had to release the 2007 vintage a bit early since they had no 2006 left to sell. Our final stop was recommended to us by the tasting room manager at Spicewood. The winery—I’m not naming names to protect the guilty—was in the process of building a new log-cabin-style tasting room, but in the meantime, visitors sample wines in the cramped, musty-smelling production building. I’m a big fan of funky, low-key tasting rooms, as long as they’re pouring some good wine. But I can honestly say that these wines were, across the board, the worst I’ve ever tasted. They weren’t just bad: They were infected with something—some kind of bacterial flaw? Each of them had the same bizarre, disturbingly awful aftertaste. My husband and I exchanged astonished looks as the couple next to us complimented the hideous Muscat we’d just tasted. Could they have been serious? It was all we could do to keep our exclamations to ourselves until we peeled out of the parking lot. In a word: yikes!

Too bad we had to end our mini winery tour on that note. There’s no excuse for serving corked or flawed wines to tasting room visitors, even if they’re “just” locals. Winery owners (not only in Texas, but all over the country): Please train your tasting room employees (or, if you’re doing the pouring, train yourselves) to detect common wine flaws, and to taste every new bottle before pouring it for potential customers. Sure, dumping a bottle of wine down the drain costs money, but is it really good business to serve spoiled wines and hope nobody notices? That’s a rhetorical question, you know.

Not the Same "Auld" Bubbles

Well, it's almost New Year's Eve, and you may still be wondering what you're going to drink when the clock strikes 12. If you're looking for something different this year, why not go for a sparkling Gewurztraminer or sparkling Chambourcin? No, really! Is there some kind of law that says you have to drink Champagne on New Year's Eve? For recommendations, check out my column on Wine Review Online.

Happy New Year! And stay tuned for a report on wine tasting in Texas...

Time To Give

I wish I'd known about Menu for Hope sooner, so I could have rounded up some prizes to add the raffle. But, it's not too late to give! This worldwide wine- and food-blogger fundraising effort is offering some amazing wine-y and foodie prizes, which could be yours for the price of a $10 raffle ticket. Just select the prize or prizes you want to win, and donate $10 to the cause. For details, visit http://chezpim.typepad.com.

Repeal This

Today marks the 74th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition: Let’s get drunk!

On this day in 1933, the nation’s decade-plus dry spell officially ended. Of course, the “dry” part never really began, since Americans could get all the wine, beer and other booze they wanted through the miracles of bootlegging and home winemaking/distilling/brewing. As someone who grew up in the ‘70s, it’s hard for me to imagine that there was ever a time in U.S. history when drinking anything stronger than milk was illegal—yet, there are plenty of wine-industry veterans who remember those days.

Early on in my wine industry career, I helped put on an “Anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition” event hosted by Wine Institute. My job: dress as a 1920s flapper and check in guests at the door. (Don’t laugh, it was kind of fun—I got to wear a cool vintage dress rented from the costume department of San Francisco’s ACT Theater.) One of the highlights (aside from Robert Mondavi winking at me and calling me “sexy,” and another ol’-timer commenting that ladies in the ‘20s were more flat-chested than me—but that’s another story) was listening to guys in their 80s reminiscing about the good old days. That’s right: the good old days! Despite the underground nature of the industry, the wine biz was actually booming during Prohibition--at least for some producers.

Probably the biggest effect of our nation’s failed experiment in temperance was the near-disappearance of Eastern wineries. Before Prohibition, Ohio was the hub of the U.S. wine industry (no kidding!). But by the time of Repeal, many of those wineries had gone under, and the wine industries in those Eastern states are only now starting to re-emerge. There are some really good wines coming out of states like New York and Virginia these days, but imagine how much better they’d be if the industry hadn’t been put on hold for several decades!

Another lasting effect of Prohibition was the change in Americans’ wine preferences. Before Prohibition, dessert wines were Americans’ grape-based drink of choice, but by the time of Repeal, they’d gotten used to drinking dry European table wines. Wineries that managed to survive Prohibition had to switch gears pretty quickly to stay in business.

Fascinating stuff, this.

So, as we mark the 74th anniversary of Repeal, pop a cork and raise a toast to all the great American wines at our disposal. Unlike your grandparents, you won’t even have to worry about getting tossed into the Paddy wagon for it.