The Wine Broad's Board

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.

Separated at Birth?

Remember the food-pairing wine brand released about a year ago, Wine That Loves (fill in the blank)? It was widely criticized (or, in my case, mocked) by the wine press for its no-brainer approach: "No need to trouble yourselves with details like grape variety or appellation! All you need to know it that it goes with chicken/pizza/pasta/yak/squirrel terrine!"

I never got a chance to taste the wine (what a waste of a perfectly good yak), but they did do a nice job with the packaging--and who knows, maybe some consumers out there welcomed the Garanimals approach to wine-pairing. Frankly, I haven't heard much about it since its release.

Well, there's a new food-pairing wine in town: Goes With (fill in the blank) wines. The concept with this one is exactly the same as for Wine That Loves, including the lack of varietal/origin on the label. The only difference seems to be that Goes With includes a recipe on its back labels so you can cook the dish that goes with the wine. The brands are so similar in concept, packaging and story that when I received the GW sample last week, I was sure it had a be a re-launch of the WTL brand. Apparently not, which makes me wonder: Were the GW people blatantly copying the WTL concept, or were they totally oblivious? Not a great endorsement either way.

The GW brand is still in prototype stage, so the Sonoma-based company is looking for feedback: Is this something consumers want?

Well, readers, I'll leave it to you to answer that. What do you think about the concept (assuming the pairings actually work): Clever or crap?

 

Tube-ular Wine

There's good news for those of you who wouldn't touch wine-in-a-box with a 10-foot straw: It now comes in tubes! Revelry, a new brand from Washington's Columbia Valley, is exclusively packaged in nifty 1.5L tubes. The line includes a 2005 Merlot, 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2005 Chardonnay.

I've seen wine-in-a-tube before, but this two-bottle version is more compact. In fact, when I first saw it I thought it held only a single bottle.

It was a little tricky getting the tap into the right position to pull it through and open the thing, but once I did, it was smooth sailing. The Merlot is perfectly respectable everyday wine, with smooth black cherry flavors and a touch of spice. The bonus feature is that, in it's recyclable bag-in-tube package, it will stay super-fresh for a month.

Now for the bad news: I have absolutely no idea how much the wine costs. The Revelry folks sent me a folder crammed with information about the company, founder Jared Burns and the wines. Conspicuously absent was the retail pricing info. As a former wine PR rep, this sort of thing makes me insane. Why bother to send all that info, only to make the wine writer call you to find out a crucial piece of information like price? (No, it's not on the website either: I checked.)

So, this wine could be a great value at, say, $10, or it could be a rip-off at $30. Which is it, Revelrers??? 

New development: I finally got over my annoyance (damned curiosity!) and called for the price: $19.99 for each tube-o-wine. This is a bit better, I think, than your average $10 California Merlot, so that's not a bad deal.

Spotted in Sonoma: Bob's Bitch

So there I was, making the rounds at a trade tasting in Sonoma, when I ran into none other than Haiku-master Randy Hall. He spotted my name tag, introduced himself, then proceeded to open his flannel shirt to reveal the t-shirt underneath: You guessed it, Robert Parker's Bitch. Gotta love it! Randomly stumbling across Randy wearing this shirt seemed like a little too much of a coincidence.... Does he wear it every day? Man, I sure hope so.

By the way, Randy is a host on the excellent wine-y podcast, Wine Biz Radio. Each week the show takes a lighthearted look at what's going on in the industry. Special guests may include winemakers, industry gurus or even... Wine Broads. Yes, Randy has asked me to come by and sit in with the crew on Monday, the 19th, and I have a feeling it's going to be fun. Bob says: Check it out! (OK, he didn't actually say that, but I'm sure he would if he saw Randy sporting that shirt.)  

Michigan Wine: Apple of My Eye

If you think good American wines can only come from California, you need to get out more. A couple summers ago while visiting my family in Michigan, I tasted some excellent wines in the Leelanau and Old Mission Peninsulas, near Traverse City. (If you're a Michigander, now is the time to hold up your left hand and point to the pinky area to show the location.) They make some delicious Rieslings and Gewurztraminers up that way--most of which are better than any I've had from West Coast wineries.

During my most recent visit to my homeland, I was introduced to a surprising new favorite: Gill's Pier Icebox Apple Wine ($10). If your eyes automatically roll back into your head at the mention of fruit wines, because you think they're all tooth-achingly sweet, think again. This one is refreshingly tart, with a crisp fermented apple aroma.

I've you've ever been to Barcelona and washed down your tapas with Sidra, the local sparkling hard cider, Gill's Pier's Apple Wine has that exact flavor (minus the sparkle). I'm an absolute junkie for Sidra, and you just can't find the stuff in the U.S. (at least, I haven't seen any). I'll definitely be placing an order with Gill's when my annual tapas party rolls around.

So, how do they make the stuff? 

Winemaker Bryan Ulbrich (who made excellent Rieslings for Michigan's Peninsula Cellars, and now has his own winery called Left Foot Charley), uses four different kinds of apples: Northern Spies, Golden Delicious, Rhode Island Greenings and Ida Red. It's made like a white wine in that it is cool fermented for four to six weeks and only aged on the light lees for about two months. They bottle it with about 2.5% residual sugar (yet it's surprisingly dry). The winery only bottles 250-300 cases per year, so get your hands on some while you can.

Exploring Petaluma

“Wine Country” towns like Healdsburg, Sonoma and St. Helena may get all the attention in glossy travel mags, but there are plenty of great small towns in Northern California that are well worth exploring. Take Petaluma: During the last five years, the town has evolved from sleepy to hip-and-happening, while managing to maintain its small-town charm.

For highlights of “new Petaluma’s” coolest shops, cafes and restaurants, check out this story I wrote for Via, the AAA magazine.

Let me tell you, it wasn’t easy narrowing my picks down to a measly seven! If I’d had my druthers, my list would have included a few more places. Such as:

- Hiro's: Anyone who says Rohnert Park's Hana has the best sushi in Sonoma County hasn’t tried the fab fish at Hiro’s. It’s wonderfully fresh, gorgeously presented and the restaurant has a hip and stylish atmosphere. And no, city skeptics, it’s not just “good for Sonoma.” (I do like Hana, by the way, but it’s a totally different vibe.)

- Dolce Vita Wine Lounge: For only being open for a few short weeks, this place has attracted quite a following. The wines are offered in flights, by the taste, by the glass and by the bottle. Though the list includes some interesting Sonoma County selections, it also features some tasty and well-priced international wines. You can even buy a bottle (at a reasonable retail price) in the wine-shop part of the bar, and they’ll open it for you to enjoy in Dolce Vita’s modern lounge.

- Risibisi: You won’t find any lasagna or spaghetti and meatballs here, but you won’t miss them when you taste the alternatives—dishes like Warm Goat Cheese Yogurt Pannacotta, with Corn Cakes, Black Truffles and Pistachio Pesto; and Pappardelle with Braised Beef Short Ribs, Porcini Ragout and Shaved Parmigiano. I’ll admit that the restaurant can be inconsistent at times (ranging from good to excellent), but owner Marco and chef Fabio always make me feel like an old friend—and that keeps me coming back. Bonus feature: It's one of the only restaurants in town (sorry, but Denny's doesn't count) that serves dinner after 10 p.m.!

I could go on, but I’ll save that for another article. Besides, it’s making me hungry!

Anyone want to weigh in on their favorite “undiscovered” small towns?