Under The Grape Tree

REDIRECTING

2010-02-16T17:29:00.003-08:00

Please visit our new blog at http://underthegrapetree.com/.

REPLANTING THE TREE

2009-12-29T17:34:00.000-08:00

With the close of the new year, we are moving over to Wordpress. The new URL is http://underthegrapetree.wordpress.com. Come over and check the new look.

THE REST OF THE BEST 2009

2009-12-28T12:39:00.000-08:00

Thinking about what wines I chose for my Top 40, there were some obvious oversights, as well as just no room for all the amazing juice of which I had sampled over the past year. I wanted to round up some other standouts that I missed, forgot, or just couldn’t get into the list (in no real particular order):

1. Smith & Hook Cabernet Sauvignon Central Coast 2006. From the our friends at Hahn Family Estates, this gorgeous Cab impressed many customers this year, showing that a Cab under $25 can beat even the priciest counterparts.

2. Dusted Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley 2006. Corey and Chad made quite an impression on me out in WA, and this wine was one of the first I reeled into the store upon my return. It’s a beautiful effort and affordable too.

3. Atalaya Almansa 2007. Another glorious red wine from importer Jorge Ordonez. Monastrell and Garnacha make up the bulk of this sexy beast.

4. Dei Sancta Catharina 2006. Usually on my Top 40 every year, I left it off simply due to the overwhelming amount of wines I came across this year. Catharina Dei is one of my favorite winemakers, and her signature red blend is a perennial guarantee of quality and phenomenal drinking pleasure.

5. La Gramiere Cotes-du-Rhone 2006. This tale of husband and wife buying a small plot of land in the Southern Rhone, and turning out a stunning red blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre that is a beautiful love story in a glass.

6. Poet's Leap Riesling Columbia Valley 2008. A gorgeous effort from the collaborative-happy Allan Shoup and the good folks at Long Shadows Vintners, this amazing Riesling is arguably their best and certainly their most affordable wine in the lineup.

7. d'Arenberg The Hermit Crab Marsanne-Viognier McLaren Vale 2008. D’Arenberg is one of the most deserving, unsung producers of Australia, turning out a vast array of values, including this tasty white wine. Just great bang-for-the-buck quality.

8. Intriga Cabernet Sauvignon Maipo Valley 2008. A sleeper wine that is produced by the Gras family (of MontGras) and made from almost 50 year old Cab vines. Dark, concentrated and rich beyond belief, this Cab really overdelivers.

9. Montes Folly Apalta 2005. I opened a bottle of this one with the Mrs. sometime back and really blew her away with the level of concentration and density this voluptuous red possessed both in bottle and glass. Drinking it with dinner was like eating leftovers in bed after previously engaging in some pretty steamy behavior. Just sin heaped atop of sin.

10. Achaval-Ferrer Malbec Mendoza 2008. Another usual suspect in my Top 40, I once again gave some other wines a shot on the premise that this is the BEST friggin’ Malbec under $30 year-in-and-year-out and doesn’t need my blowhard opinion to champion it, unless you haven’t tried it yet. Then my friends, I suggest you get up off your duffs and get yourself a bottle, grill some meat, open and enjoy.

Once again, new things are coming for 2010 so have a Great New Year, be safe, and see you next year!

THE THANK YOU LIST IS GROWING

2009-12-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

2009 has been an incredible roller coaster ride, to say the very list. Personally, I've managed to earn my first certification (Certified Specialist of Wine), visit the Windy City for some amazing Italian/French/South American wines courtesy of Palm Bay Imports, and be part of an amazing ride with the Washington State Wine Commission and the Washington Wine Road Trip. We've had two great events with winemaker Bruce Neyers (who moonlights as National Sales rep for Kermit Lynch), and I have met a lot of phenomenally talented winemakers throughout this year.

I want to take a few moments to thank my assistant Shannon, and the cast and crew of D.E.P.'s Fine Wine & Spirits for taking my vision to the masses, incorporating their own wine world view, and helping our stores continue their successful run (which makes the boss happy). Thanks too to all our sales reps who make sure that things are running smoothly around here by keeping the flow of product moving freely. Thanks to my buying counterparts (Jim, our GM, Rob - liquor, Mark & Brandon - beer) for helping out whenever possible - thanks for having my back, you know I've got yours.

A huge thank you to all the brokers, importers and winemakers who continue to amaze us all with their wares - it's the reason I love this business so much.

Many many thanks to my cohorts in the blogosphere: The Unofficial Ohio Valley Wine Bloggers Association (thanks Tom at Louisville Juice for that one) - Mike Rosenberg, Tim Lemke, Jonathan Seeds, Tom Johnson, and the amazing duo of Michelle Lentz and her husband Kevin Gerl. Thanks to Jeff at Good Grape, Joe at 1WineDude, David at Palate Press, Megan at Wannabe Wino, and everyone else who has been an inspiration to me over the past year and a half. I hope to finally meet many of you in person this year at the WBC.

And most importantly, thanks to all our D.E.P.'s customers and Grape Tree readers. You're the reason I keep doing this everyday, or at least one of the many. Cheers and Happy Holidays!

We'll be back in 2010 looking newer and groovier. See you then!

&#%$!

2009-12-23T08:21:00.001-08:00

Strange how my post the other day – “The Portfolio Shuffle” – caused a bit of confusion amongst suppliers. Seems somebody somewhere coughed up misinformation on importer Southern Starz and the correct distributor. My apologies to both Bryant and Solera (the Columbus, OH wholesaler who actually STILL handles S.S. for Northern Kentucky). Unfortunately, the confusion came from S.S. themselves. Hopefully, everyone up and down the chain has their story straight.

KNOWLEDGE IS KING

2009-12-22T13:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the Internet, there is a King’s Ransom in information available – all you have to do is seek it out. I’ve been at this wine thing awhile, and since the Internet came along, hours searching for articles and books at the bookstore or the library are replaced by minutes on the Web. And with all the various wine bloggers out there, I have access to dozens of perspectives and opinions that not only help me in my quest for ultimate wine knowledge, they help me stay better informed on the various trends in the wine industry – trends I need to know as a buyer.

There are literally thousands of wine blogs out there, with a wide array of points-of-view, all aimed at giving you another piece of the picture. The printed magazines such as Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and others, are one side of the vast landscape that is the world of wine, and they do a great deal to keep people up to date, yet they do have an agenda – it’s no surprise. They are in the business of selling magazines. They sell ad space and provide a reciprocity that is either overt or unintentional, but there nonetheless. I don’t fault them for it. I am in the business of selling wine, and need to do what is necessary to show reasons for carrying the wide range of wines the stores I work for do sell. Business is business. So when it comes to information, it is beneficial to the student to glean said information from as many sources as possible.

For wine, the best resource online is The Wine Lover’s Page, the brainchild of Louisville columnist Robin Garr and his army of likeminded winos. Assembled there is a huge wealth of knowledge all linked together in one neat Web site. It’s not elaborate by any means, nor should it be. The meat of the Site is the content, not the graphics. A great new resource is The Palate Press, founded by friend David Honig, and contributors include over 20 of the Web’s current bloggers including Joe Roberts of 1 Wine Dude, Jeff Lefevre of Good Grape, Gabriella Opaz of Catavino, Kori Voorhees of Wine Peeps, and our own local blogger friend Michelle Lentz of My Wine Education.

Some of my favorite must reads are Wine Enthusiast writer Steve Heimoff, one of the most articulate and irreverent bloggers out there, Samantha Dugan of Samantha Sans Dosage, a brutally honest writer who doesn’t back away from speaking her mind about anything, not just wine, and Tom Wark from Fermentation, the daily wine blogger who takes on the industry and doesn’t back down from the fight.

If you only look at the blog roll at the right of the screen, you can see the list is long and distinguished, and really gets longer every day. There is always a new voice to discover, and another piece of the puzzle to add. Knowledge is essential in this business. And if you are a true geek like me, it takes on a very twisted impression of fun.

THE PORTFOLIO SHUFFLE

2009-12-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

Seems like at the end/beginning of every year here in the Commonwealth, the various distributors/brokers/importers/etc. apparently get together and change their lineup cards a bit (I know that is not how it works). This distributor takes brand A from that distributor who gets brand B from another distributor who takes brand C from the first distributor, or there is a distributor going under so there is a feeding frenzy in the shark tank – you get the idea.

To stay in the game, retail buyers need to keep one ear to the ground and the other in the wind, just so they can know where what brands are going and to whom they are going. Couple all that with the recent Constellation restructuring, after all the mergers and acquisitions, and your brainpan will be spilling over. Sometimes I just want to stand up and scream “make up my friggin’ mind for me, would’ya?” My favorite resulting move is Constellation becoming Diageo Jr., by forcing their distributorship in KY to form its own house. And of course, they call it Starz. They are with Southern Wine & Spirits, hence Southern Starz. This is not to be confused with Southern Starz, the importer of Australian and South African wines that recently migrated from a small outfit based in Columbus, Ohio to Kentucky’s Bryant Distributing.

Trade-offs in just the past few months include Nevada Co. Wine Guild, Burgess Cellars, St. Supery, Paolo Scavino, Michel Picard, Las Rocas de San Alejandro, and more. Lord only knows what the new year is bringing our way in 2010, but change can be fun. It can also be a real big pain in the ass, too.

WHAT THE HECK IS GROWER CHAMPAGNE AND HOW DO I SELL IT?

2009-12-21T10:59:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of talk about grower Champagne and how it is far superior to the major Champagne houses that dominate the marketplace here in the states (i.e., Moet-Chandon, Veuve-Clicquot, G.H. Mumm, et.al). Though like most wine geeks out there, I have been enthralled by these amazing, small family producers who grow all their own fruit and make their own wine, completely free of the large negociants,

Wines from producers such as Chartogne-Taillet, Gaston Chiquet, Vilmart, Paul Bara and Jacquart are critical darlings, garnering incredible reviews from Tanzer, Spectator and others. Yet the big problem is the advert machines that churn out full-page spreads for the major houses and keep the public’s eye transfixed on brands like Perrier-Jouet Fleur du Champagne, Moet-Chandon’s Dom Perignon and White Star, and Piper-Heidsieck’s Sublime. I love having the grower Champagnes on our shelves, but despite the rave reviews, they are complete unknowns to our customers, and therefore, no matter the knowledge my staff imparts to them, they (the bottles) remain permanent dust collectors.

I recently pulled up a paper written by Kevin Pike and Terry Thiese (the biggest champion of grower Champagne in the U.S.), and they offered at least a manifest of sorts on how retailers and restaurateurs can better promote the growers over the major houses. Yet despite the “ra-ra-sis-boom-bah” cheerleading routine that it offers up, there still isn’t a clear cut methodology on successfully selling these brands.

I have tried tastings with these wines before, but the problem presented there is that these wines are typically directly imported (not regularly stocked by our wholesalers), and therefore, any tasting allocations are not in anyone’s budget. Couple this with the fact that, especially this time of the year, the big houses are wheeling and dealing, and I can get some pretty outlandish prices on things like Dom Perignon and PJ Fleur. The same thing can’t be said about the grower Champagnes, which for the most part, remain the same high prices as last year, if not having taken price increases.

I am unsure of where to go with this juggernaut. I want to promote these brands. I want the customer to experience these brands. But I don’t need these brands just sitting on the shelf. After all, aren’t we in the business of selling wine? My boss certainly doesn’t want me “collecting” wine on his dime. What is a poor wine geek to do? Suggestions?

COPPOLA SOFIA BLANC DE BLANCS 2008

2009-12-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

The Coppola Sofia Blanc de Blancs 2008 is a rather unique sparkler. Made from a blend of Pinot Blanc, Riesling and Muscat, this wine is remarkably vibrant and floral in the nose, with loads of peach, apricot and white flowers rising up from the glass. Now, I know what you are thinking. This wine is going to be sweet. However, this sparkler is done in an Extra Dry style, with minimal residual sugar. There are a lot of honeysuckle, pineapple and apricot notes, and this wine, as the winery describes, is indeed reminiscent of a Prosecco. Done in the Charmant, or bulk method, the Champagne fans may scoff a bit at this bottle, but it is actually a pretty nice sparkler for the price. I would definitely give this one a try.

ZARDETTO PROSECCO NV

2009-12-18T14:43:00.000-08:00

I wine I have truly missed around here and glad it’s back is the Zardetto Brut Conegliano NV, an incredible value in Italian Prosecco. Often a bit misunderstood, Prosecco is actually a grape variety used to produce sparkling wines in the Veneto region of Italy. Prosecco tends to be a bit more vibrant and much more exuberant in its fruitiness than Chardonnay, and the resulting sparkler is a real extrovert.

I have always felt that the Zardetto Prosecco Brut is far and away one of the best values in Prosecco, and certainly one of the best in quality as well. Produced entirely from Prosecco (some Proseccos do use Chardonnay or other grapes as a minor blender) and fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks, there is only zesty, vibrant peach, Clementine, and tropical fruit aromas and flavors. It would lend itself well as an aperitif, but would also be a great accompaniment to seafood and poultry dishes as well. If you want to try a great Prosecco and not spend a lot of money, look no further.

ANOTHER XMAS WISH LIST

2009-12-18T09:39:00.000-08:00

This time of year everyone asks you that question, “what do you want for Christmas?” To which I always feel compelled to either 1) shrug, smile and say “World Peace”, 2) tell them “a good woman, but I already have her” or 3) simply say “nothing.” I’ve never been a big fan of Christmas, only because I know what the true meaning of Christmas is, but most people seem more intent on celebrating it lavishly and superficially. Gone for me are the days of going to both sets of grandparents’ houses and having breakfast at one and brunch at the other, hanging out with the family, and just enjoying everybody’s company. Yeah, I know what you are saying: you just wanted the presents. I was a bit weird in my youth (obviously nothing has changed there). I actually remember scolding my parents for spending too much money on toys for my sister and I, telling them they should have used it to catch up on bills.

These days, despite my short fuse, and my unfortunate tendency to drag my afterwork angst home with me, what I love about the holidays is still hanging out with my wife and family, and watching the cats climb into the Christmas tree, dragging ornaments around and just enjoying their own brand of Yuletide spirit.

And no matter what your religious persuasion – Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Agnostic – December is a strange and beautiful season, a transformation from the blossoming to the transitioning of life-to-death-to-life again (here comes the Wicca in me) that is a time of peace, of hope and of family and friends.

So without getting too New-Age-y on you, instead of what I WANT for Christmas, here’s a few things I would like to SEE (and not necessarily just about wine):

1. A repeal of one of the three taxes on wine and spirits here in the state of Kentucky. The genius thinking that a sales tax on top of the excise tax AND wholesale tax was going to lift the Commonwealth out of its fiscal dilemma failed miserably and drove scores of wine and spirits buyers back to Ohio and Indiana (even though our stores continue to beat Ohio on the majority of wines out there). The cart-before-the-horse theory was a big bust. Now go put your genius hats back on and come up with a better solution.
2. Allowing retailers to deliver and ship via the Internet. It can be done, and there is a large group of folks who would use the service, opening up a new market and an increase in revenue for the state. And it CAN BE DONE without the threat of selling to minors.
3. The end of exclusivities in our state. Maybe it’s just me but my perception of exclusivity in this business means a huge insult to the consumer. In this economy, why would you want to exclude anyone from buying your product?
4. A true spirit of bipartisanship in our nation’s capitol. Amazing that I voted for someone who was suppose to embody that spirit yet the old dogs on both sides of the aisle are doing all they can to make sure that will never happen. A nation divided is easier to manipulate, just ask the last administration. And this isn’t just a rag on Republicans, no no no, you sorry Democrats get some of my piping hot ire too.
5. Personal responsibility. No one seems to want to participate in that. If people took more pride in that and followed it to the letter, perhaps there wouldn’t be the need to debate abortion, health care, the failure of the banking industry, and so on.
6. Better funding for education. We know where this would get us, don’t we? Smarter people means more opportunity for prosperity, less stress on our economic institutions, happier communities, and maybe even, world peace! Can’t have that now can we?
7. An end to world hunger and disease. If we could give the disparate and downtrodden of this world more opportunity for education, feed them, clothe them, keep them healthy and help them fend for themselves, hey, world peace!
8. Hell to freeze over. Because none of this will be possible until the day the Devil and his minions need snowblowers and thermal jock straps.

Believe in yourself. Dare to hope. Give love. Be safe. Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Muharram, Kwanzaa – or whatever you celebrate, and for all you agnostics out there, enjoy the mistletoe.

SPARKLING WINES: A DOWN-AND-DIRTY PRIMER

2009-12-17T10:53:00.001-08:00

As the year draws to a close, it seems almost a tradition to think about sparkling wine, although as a big fan, I could drink it anytime. Yet with the New Year’s festivities fast approaching, I thought it prudent to offer up some down and dirty points to remember when searching for a sparkling wine.

The biggest thing to think about is the difference between sparkling wine and Champagne. What is the difference? Nothing, except geography. Champagnes can only be called Champagne if they come from the Champagne region of France. Everything else, even it comes from another part of France, is sparkling wine.

And there is Cava from Spain, Prosecco and Franciocorta from Italy, Sekt from Germany and Austria, and of course good ol’American sparklers. Many Champagne houses actually have wineries in California (such as Chandon, Roederer, and Taittinger).

While vintage plays an integral part in your selection of still wines, the year is not always as significant with sparkling wines, due to the fact that most often these wines are a blend of several vintages in order to maintain a consistent product. While these wines should be referred to as “multi-vintage” wines, they are almost always known as “non-vintage.” However, there are vintage sparkling wines. The French government actually designates a vintage for the wineries of Champagne, which signifies that a particular year was extraordinary enough to note it on the bottle. Not every year is a vintage year, which is why you often see wines such as Dom Perignon skip a vintage or two.

Dryness is arguably the most important aspect of choosing a sparkling wine. Dryness is broken down into 6 levels, from driest to sweetest: Extra Brut (also known as Brut Sauvage or Brut Natural), Brut, Extra Dry, Sec, Demi-Sec and Doux. The most common wine is Brut, which has a residual sugar content of around 1.5%. Extra Dry, oddly enoughly enough is typically sweeter, or possessing more residual sugar than a Brut. The most popular Extra Dry is Moet & Chandon White Star NV. Sec, Demi-Sec and Doux are more like dessert sparklers, with Demi-Sec being the most popular of the three. Some of the most recognized Demi-Secs are Moet & Chandon Nectar NV, Piper-Heidsieck Sublime NV and Schramsberg Cremant Demi-Sec. Doux is the sweetest, with a residual sugar content of 5% or higher. It is pretty rare, and usually only found at the winery in which it is produced.

Sparkling wines are wonderful food wines, yet more often than not, are simply passed off as aperitif wines and toasting wines. It’s a shame. If you really want some decadence, try lobster with butter and a nice sparkler. It is a heavenly pairing. Or try it with sushi. I think you’d be surprised, or more to the point, amazed, at the combination.

I will have a few Champagne reviews and some more information on Champagne production over the next two weeks, so stay tuned.

THE WHEELIN' AND THE DEALIN'

2009-12-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

I am often plagued by tsunamis of self-doubt. (The word “wave” just didn’t drive the point home far enough in my mind.) I could give you a thousand reasons why, but suffice it to say, that dirty bastard just won’t leave me alone sometimes. We make for interesting bedfellows, self-doubt and I, especially during the holidays, where around here, in the wacky world of wine retail, you need to stay sharp, and focused.

This time of year, there is a multitude of buying opportunities for retailers here in Kentucky. It’s not like our neighbor to the North (Ohio for those of you not staring at a map right now), which is what is known in this business as a “control” state. [Note: A control state is where the state maintains a mandatory minimum markup from the wholesale price, effectively keeping every retailer in that state at the same price point, regardless of the volume they do.] In Kentucky, the more you buy, the lower you CAN go in price. Many people opt to take the extra margin, but not to blow our own horn, we play things a little closer to the edge.

So as I surf through the clearance items being lobbed at me, and various large deals for this and for that, I find myself a bit drained, and a bit vexed by my boss as he called me to tell me he was remerchandising our Fort Thomas store. At first, I was upset – I spend a lot of time and effort putting floor displays together, dreaming about how I will lay the floor out each month – and his idea of what has name recognition and my idea seem at odds sometimes. Yet I took a minute, remembered the April Fool’s joke our illustrious Kentucky legislatures stuck us with this year (our new sales tax on wine and spirits) and realized it is all about price point.

My quandary with pricing is that, when I started here nearly 8 years ago, my mission was clear: make this place a multi-dimensional wine & spirits store. We already had the low prices, I had to come in, train the staff, and make the store bigger, better and more esoteric – kind of like creating an adult candy store. While I succeeded for all intensive purposes, my work will always be “in progress” – never really finished. However, the focus has in many ways, had to revert back to price as our primary feature due to the perceived diminishment of price advantage with Ohio.

I have talked about it before, dozens of times since Governor Beshear signed into law the third level of taxation on wine and spirits, and it won’t be my last, certainly. From a glass-half-full perspective, at least I have been given a new challenge: find great deals for our customers and attract new customers with even crazier deals, making the drive across the bridges worth every cent.

Which delivers me back to the whole buying frenzy – distributors are blowing up my email and cell phone with this deal or that, as I am sure they are doing with my competitors – hey, it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there and I would be extremely delusional to believe I am the only one getting all the phone calls. The wine business is not and can never be a monogamous thing; wholesalers aren’t, retailers aren’t and even the consumers aren’t (you know you shop at more than one store, right?). I accept that. Just makes me work a little harder. I can’t speak for my competitors but, I know my kung fu is strong. Sometimes.

GREG NORMAN PINOT NOIR 2008

2009-12-15T13:49:00.001-08:00

I often like to review wines that don't or won't get any kind of love from the mainstream. It's a way for me as a retailer to provide my customers with information about a wine that is more along the esoteric lines. Yet occasionally I stumble onto a wine that has more of that "brand recognition" I still find so enigmatic, and I have to tell you about it.

Take for example, the Greg Norman Santa Barbara Pinot Noir 2008, part of Greg Norman Estates/Fosters Wine Estates California project, and a really nice surprise for Pinot Noir lovers out there. It is textbook Pinot Noir, with ruby red color, notes of strawberries, red flowers and slight nutty and forest floor tones in both the aromas and the flavors of this wine. Aged in both old American and French oak, there are slight woody elements, yet they are sublime and only give this wine another dimension of depth.

I usually shy away from the wines so wholeheartedly embraced by the supermarket chains and restaurant chains because more times than not, the wines are usually very pedestrian and have nothing to offer. Yet this effort from Greg Norman Estates is a remarkable expression of Santa Barbara Pinot Noir, and at a price you can actually afford. Way to go guys! Give this one a try.

THE ARRIVAL OF RIESLING (FINALLY)

2009-12-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

In Wine Enthusiast’s latest issue, magazine editor Adam Strum ranks his Top 10 Wine Stories of the year. In it, clocking in at #5, Riesling has finally begun a bit of a renaissance movement. The oft-maligned grape seems like it is finally getting its comeuppance. Mr. Strum points to itself along with scores of industry pros (like myself) who have been championing this grape variety for its near-perfection in food-pairing, and it nobility as one of the premier wine grapes of the world for its complexity and resilience.

I shock a lot of customers when I tell them I drink more Riesling at home than any red – including the Italian wines I am most fond of – and the looks on their faces are priceless when I say that to them. Why? WTF?! Should I be listening to you now?

Seriously though, I love spicy foods – Thai, Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cajun – and Riesling is remarkably apt at balancing itself best with these foods. It is as if Riesling and spicy foods were made for each other, a celestial pairing dreamed up by a ravenous, enamored deity, a secret ambrosia that had been leaked out from a higher dominion to us less-worthy souls.

Rieslings from Donnhoff, Joh. Jos. Christoffel, Robert Weil and Dr. Loosen have populated my wine cellar for years, and my wife has become more infatuated with them than I have. Though I rarely have the energy to drink at home these days, when I do, I reach for a Riesling, because I will usually want to have a glass with dinner.

My recent travels to Washington state reinvigorated my passion for Riesling, with a reintroduction to the wines of Pacific Rim, along with amazing Rieslings from Chateau Ste. Michelle, Barnard Griffin, Milbrandt Vineyards, Columbia Winery, and the Poet’s Leap Riesling from Long Shadows. I am amazed at the level of balance achieved with this grape variety. And there is more out there than sweet Rieslings, to be sure. The terms trocken and halbtrocken should be household wine terms sooner than most other German winespeak, the “dry” and “half-dry” respectively. At least in our store, dry Rieslings are becoming extremely popular for their versatility and liveliness, as well as their ability to compliment a vast array of cuisines.

Whether it’s Riesling from Australia, New Zealand, Austria, the Alsace of France, Washington state or the Trockens of Germany, there are enumerative dry versions of this noble grape out there for you to try. Who knows? You may too become a believer.

COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU

2009-12-14T08:54:00.000-08:00

My favorite rock singer-turned-winemaker Maynard James Keenan (Tool, A Perfect Circle) and his partner-in-crime Eric Glomski, are being featured in a documentary entitled "Blood Into Wine" and thanks to my pal Michelle Lentz, I now know that the release date is February 19th (premiering in Phoenix, AZ). Hopefully, there we'll get to see it around here, but who knows.

The trailer is up at http://www.bloodintowine.com/. Wine Spectator's James Suckling, as well as my favorite zombie-killer Milla Jovovich and funnyman Patton Oswalt make cameo appearances. Hopefully I can get a few bottles of Primer Paso to take into the theater with me when it comes around. Stay tuned.

THE TROUBLE WITH NAMES

2009-12-13T09:20:00.000-08:00

I run into this issue every year, when the holidays bring in new faces and new customers. It is an issue I have a harder time dealing with as I get bombarded more and more with new wineries, grape varieties and wine regions. The issue is “name recognition.” In other businesses, I understand this because if you are looking for a tractor, you first look at John Deere, if you are looking for soda, Coke or Pepsi, I get the whole brand recognition thing – but when it comes to wine, the days of old (Robert Mondavi, Silver Oak, Caymus, Cakebread) doesn’t really hold my attention anymore, and I wonder why it still does with the average consumer. Not to bash or bang on those brands or any other, but with hundreds of thousands of incredible wineries out there, how can you just focus in on these?

Obviously, it is a question of awareness, and knowing that these juggernauts are still brands that the general wine-buying public know very well, regardless of what else is in the market. Yet I am sure I speak for most of the wine retailers out there when I say that for every “marquee” brand there is at least 10 to 20 wines of similar or surpassing pedigree, and more often than not, anywhere from 20% to 50% cheaper than those marquee brands.

Still, they want a brand that their guests, friends, etc. will recognize. It yields an interesting conundrum in that so many of us bloggers decry the magazines for exerting too much power and emphasis on wine scores – and these scores supposedly drive sales, right? One winery in particular I have complained about several times here at UTGT, I have people walk into my store every day and ask for this brand, yet I can honestly rarely get. These wines for the most part, get panned by the critics, getting scores in the high 70s and low 80s, and still people want the wines. It’s the name. Granted the wines of this producer are good wines, but to me, why should I charge $50 for a Chardonnay that I should be selling for under $20 – and I can easily recommend a dozen under $20 Chardonnays from Napa or Sonoma or Santa Barbara that in my mind, are better in every way than this producer, and I can get them without any degree of difficulty, and customers can come back for them at any time they choose. I am not singling out any one brand by any means, I am just using them as an example. But there are dozens of wineries that charge too much, produce too little, are almost completely obsessed with being in restaurants-only, and rely too heavily on their past glories of marquee status, while there is an infinite wealth of up-and-coming wineries that offer customers value and quality, and will go much further to impress your wine geek friends, whether at a party, for a gift, or with dinner.

It is a continuous source of frustration, not to be able to put a great value in a customer’s hands. Often times I find myself a bit jaded toward these marquee brands – the sales reps for these wines usually come off as stuffy, self-absorbed and unwilling to admit their wines are overpriced. One winery rep in particular visited our store a few years back, and was pissed we were selling their Napa Cab for nearly $10 under the National average. I told him we couldn’t sell it at the price we had it in the kind of volume he was looking for – just how much volume can you generate for a $70 Napa Cab anyway? – and the visit went downhill from there.

There are wines we won’t get access to because of where we are in the country – Kentucky – and where we rank in the general scheme of the wine business – at the very bottom. Shafer, Pride, Peter Michael, Harlan – you can pretty much forget about those guys. I find myself laughing some hysterically disturbing laugh whenever Shannon or one of my wine staffers ask if any of those are available. I laugh mostly due to our proximity to Cincinnati – we are considered part of the Greater Cincinnati metropolitan area, separated only by the Ohio River – so I find myself staring over the flood wall, looking at Carew Tower (Cincy’s tallest building – right now), and thinking “what would it take for Northern Kentucky to secede to Ohio?”

Overall, those marquee brands do more to piss me off than anything else. I usually only give them shelf space and attention in December, choosing to spend my time promoting wines that seemingly want to be sold to the masses, wines that would like to find a home on as many retail shelves as possible. I get the whol supply vs. demand thing – some of these wines are just not mass-produced. I get that and appreciate that. Yet if it is available to our competition in Ohio, it should be here in Northern Kentucky. Our customers are the same customers that frequent stores across the river – we share the same metropolitan boundaries for crying out loud. My only wish in this industry is that consumers who shop for these marquee brands begin to realize the degree of difficulty in getting many of these brands, the sometimes diminished quality of these brands, and the presence of so many alternatives to these brands.

In looking at the glass half-full, I should be thankful that people are coming into the stores wanting to spend money – and believe me, I am. Extremely. I guess it is the knowing that there is far more than just a few marquee brands out there in the wine world. I want the world to see them, try them, and enjoy them as I do.

VILLA MONTELEONE SANTA LENA VALPOLICELLA 2007

2009-12-11T13:55:00.000-08:00

I've become pretty fond of these wines from Domenico Selections, and one in particular I am liking right now is the Villa Monteleone Santa Lena 2007, a Valpolicella Classico from (of course) the Veneto. A traditional blend of Venetian grapes Corvina, Rondinella, Croatina and Molinara, this sultry red has aromas and flavors of black and white pepper, blackberry, dried herbs and hints of nutmeg and allspice. There are notes of mulberry and boysenberry alongside well-balanced minerality, leading into a really nice finish.

I plan on cracking open a bottle of this at home with a basil and pomegranate pork tenderloin and some roasted rosemary potatoes. (I shouldn't really write when I am hungry.) I have actually adopted the Santa Lena as our "house" Valpolicella because it is everything you should look for in a wine from this appellation: fruit-driven, well-balanced, rustic and imparting a warm, homespun feeling. Give this one a try.

ME AND MY BIG MOUTH

2009-12-10T13:00:00.000-08:00

Often times, I find myself opening my mouth before I have actually given my brain a chance to process whatever information I am being bombarded with at the time. We all do it at one point or another; we react to a situation instead of responding more appropriately. When it comes to the wine business, a passionate individual finds him or herself reacting far more often that they should, and that can be quite problematic at times.

My biggest reactionary points have been, this past year: 1) As always, the 100-point rating scale, 2) the now TRIPLE-taxation on wine and spirits here in Kentucky, 3) Exclusivity agreements, 4) Interstate Shipping restrictions, and 5) winery line-extensions.

1) The 100-point rating scale that wine magazines such as Wine Spectator, Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast, and others rely heavily on is that lecherous, skulking beast that breathes laboriously in the dark corner of the room. You know it’s there, you are never getting rid of it, so you reluctantly try to coexist. I don’t think anyone can ever prove to me that the 100-point system is a good thing now, despite what it has done for the industry. It is the overreliance on these scores that drive me crazy.

2) The Triple-Tax on Wine & Spirits in KY: Ah, here’s a new one. First, the excise tax, which I think has always existed. Wineries have to pony up this fee in order to sell their wares in the state. Second, the wholesale tax, which is paid at the wholesale level, to the state. And finally, added just this year, the 6% sales tax, which was begun April Fool’s Day this year. A brilliant move by a state whose tourism revenue is supported in part by all those Bourbon producers, as well as a wine industry that is still in its infancy, that is generated by only 25% of the state’s counties, yet spread across all 120 counties. Not very fair and just, but when did politicians ever care about being fair and just?

3) Exclusivity agreements never cease to amaze me. In the 21st Century, some importers still want to be dependent upon one retailer for an entire state. Granted, thanks to the brilliance of our Kentucky lawmakers, most wineries and importers cringe or scoff at the very thought of the Kentucky marketplace – they think we are a bunch of ignorant, uncultured hillbillies anyway, right? Yet in bridge store scenarios like Louisville and Northern Kentucky, where across the river, a particular item tied up in exclusivity is widely available, it adds to the frustration level that my #2 point continues to exacerbate. Maybe the nostalgia-maniacs at some of these import companies will decide that total market representation is better than, as the old adage warns of “putting all your eggs in one basket.”

4) Interstate Shipping restrictions: man, don’t get me started.

5) Winery Line-Extensions: In this economic climate, the continued process of expanding a lineup of wines by diluting what you have with wines you shouldn’t be making make me not want to do business with you at all. Rosenblum Chardonnay anyone?

Today has just been one of those days where I want to punch the first person I see. So better to sit in my tiny office, vent a bit, and think about something nice in this business, like standing atop the hillside at Red Willow Vineyard. Breathe in… breathe out.

The thing I need to constantly remind myself of in this business – because it is so easy to forget – is that I shouldn’t take things too seriously. Unfortunately, with the level of absurdity perpetrated in this industry by lawmakers, and the seriously bloated and archaic distribution system we in the U.S. contend with daily, I find myself ready to break off a boot in some poor sap’s ass – even though most people usually see me as an easy-going, mild-mannered sot.

Me and my big mouth.

REALE CARDOMONE 2006

2009-12-10T07:48:00.000-08:00

Another great wine from Strappo and the gang at Domenico Selections is the Reale Cardomone 2006, an extremely unique red blend from Campania. One thing that struck me as both peculiar and intriguing about Domenico Selections was the number of wines they represent from Campania vs. the rest of the country. One thing I have learned since my initial introduction to these wines, there are a lot of great wines from Campania not getting the attention that they deserve.

The Reale Cardomone 2006 is a blend of 70% Piedirosso and 30% Tintore, a rare red grape even by Campanian standards. This wine is completely native Campania, seeing primarily tank-fermentation, with zesty, lively notes of cherries and red pepper. With well-balanced acidity, this red would be a very durable food-pairing or an aperitif. Give something truly original a try with your next meal at home.

SYRAH'S BIGGEST PROBLEM

2009-12-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

I was checking in with Wine Spectator, as I do nearly every day. It’s part of my job to stay on top of what all the wine mags are discussing/promoting/championing these days. In James Laube’s latest online article, “20 Great California Syrahs,” he unwittingly points to an ongoing consumer dilemma with Syrah and its tenuous place within the wine market today.

Thanks to the Australian wine boon earlier in the last decade, Shiraz (arguably Syrah’s brawnier alter ego) is perceived as being primarily an under $15 red wine by consumers and retailers alike. Despite the fact that Syrah almost always has been a much less affordable counterpart ($15-$30 is an okay price point, but not as attractive to the average consumer as say, ten bucks or less), the general perception is that Shiraz and Syrah should be priced well under $15.

Is that fair? Not particularly. Not when you incorporate the reds of the Northern Rhone, such as Hermitage, Cornas and the like from producers such as A. Clape, E. Guigal, Jean Louis Chave and Jean-Luc Colombo. Yet in Mr. Laube’s article, he reviews 20 Syrahs from the Santa Barbara, all except one priced $25 to $40 a bottle (the exception being a $125 from Jonata), and all of these with less than 900 cases produced.

The obvious point being made here is that these wines are not like the Australian Shiraz, but more like the Northern Rhone version of Syrah (the progenitor of the grape variety), yet an even bigger, more resounding yet less overt point being made is the sad fact that Syrah, in its most glorious form, is thought of, at least by Mr. Laube and the folks at Wine Spectator, that Syrah is just as much an elitist grape variety as Cabernet Sauvignon.

True enough, I make a bold leap with such an assessment, yet, the 20 wines he reviews in this article are wines that the overwhelming majority of wine consumers will NEVER see. Zaca Mesa, Jaffurs and Brander may be the most recognized in the list, yet these particular wines may not see distribution outside of their own state of origin.

Wine Spectator made a colossal leap toward the mainstream with their recent Top 100 list, incorporating a larger cross-section of real values (wines under $20) that have larger production, and greater market saturation. Yet the reviewers continue their self-indulgent ways by spending time writing about wines we as consumers will most certainly never experience.

Furthermore, this exercise in wine elitism seems to undermine the very goal producers of Syrah are trying to accomplish – reaching a bigger audience and undoing the cheap image that the Australian wine glut has perpetuated over the past decade. At present, the only savior I really see for the grape is Washington State – the only area with the sense to produce Syrah comparable to the Northern Rhone, except with a price tag more palatable to the masses. Most of the California Syrah producers fail to understand that you cannot, in the consumer’s eyes, jump from a $10 Australian Shiraz to a $40 Santa Barbara (or Napa or Paso) Syrah in the blink of an eye. And Mr. Laube (though it’s nice to see he can look beyond Napa Valley once in a while), needs to not aim for the bleachers every time. A base hit works just as well at winning the game as a home run.

FOR A SENSE OF COMMUNITY

2009-12-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of chatter on the wine blogs of my wine brethren in recent weeks, everyone from local guy Tom Johnson from Louisville Juice, to Jeff at Good Grape and Wine Enthusiast writer Steve Heimoff. One of the discussions I found interesting was one Tom had initiated, related the frequency with which political bloggers exchange links through their comments sections (Tom is a former political blogger himself) and the extreme lack of linking amongst the wine blog counterparts.

For the everyday wine consumer who doesn’t spend much time (if any) in the blogosphere, this discussion topic is difficult to understand or empathize. Yet in the growing world of social media communications and more succinctly how ideas in the wine world get exchanged, there is some real world correlation and significance to the debate.

It is no secret that the print media is dying, though I suspect that most traditionalists will not part with the printed word completely, and many magazines will adapt themselves to the digital age quite nicely, so while they (magazines) won’t disappear, the expanding influence of blogs (and their inevitable genesis into more conventional constructs) will become increasingly more significant and relevant to the average reader/consumer.

So what am I trying to say?

For almost two years, I have been slowly finding my way with this whole blog thing. It was born out of a combination of several things: 1) My overwhelming urge to write about anything (I am a frustrated novelist and poet BTW), 2) An extension of my day job as a buyer for a small group of retail stores and the need to give exposure/knowledge/insight into the wines I bring in that DO NOT have any national or international coverage (reviews in the wine mags, etc.) and 3) My demented sense of sharing with the world around me my left-of-center opinions about this wine business I love so much.

In following along with the conversation perpetuated by Tom, Jeff and others, Tom’s points brought out a lot of great responses in relation to the wine bloggers’ lack of interconnectedness, including a list of ten truths about wine bloggers found on Jeff’s site. The credibility of wine bloggers, the geographical context within the wine bloggers write, the content of their bloggers, and so on – the top blogs from Steve Heimoff, Tom Wark (Fermentation), Joe Roberts (1 Wine Dude), Eric Asimov (The Pour), Deb Harkness (Good Wine Under $20) and Alder Yarrow (Vinography) have branded themselves well, and are always first when talking about the national blogs. Good friend Michelle Lentz (My Wine Education) has done a great job of branding herself locally, and rising to national recognition, as well as Jeff at Good Grape, Tim Lemke at Cheap Wine Ratings and Mike Rosenberg of The Naked Vine.

There are thousands of wine blogs out there, all struggling to be heard. We struggle against the perception of incestuousness that permeated the wine blogosphere several years ago, the perception of self-absorption and smarminess that many of us have intentionally or unintentionally emanated from ourselves over the last two years, and the reluctance to exchange ideas more often, comment more often and involve our peers more often, since deep down, I think that is why we all started these wine blogs in the first place – to provide a forum for such idea exchanges amongst our fellow winos. It seems though that somewhere along the way, we got a bit sidetracked, became somewhat self-indulgent, and found ourselves presenting opinions and commentaries whilst shunning any outside critique, regardless of how positive or negative it may be.

Yet a comment was made by Jeff Stai, from Twisted Oak Winery, suggested that a lot of the bloggers are active participants in the biz, and therefore, to paraphrase, need to be a bit more restrained. Being on the retail side of things, I found myself agreeing with him, because as most folks know, I can run off the rails and launch a vulgarity-laced tirade like no other, and it tends to get me into trouble (with suppliers, importers, my boss).

When I first learned of the Internet a decade ago, I learned that the whole premise was for scientists to have a means to exchange ideas, proof theorems and experimentations, and otherwise build upon a foundation of scientific insight in order to make a better, closer knit world. I think that the wine bloggers (and bloggers in general) have the same goals, and should exercise the same level of informational camaraderie. No one person is going to be entirely right (and the one most wrong will most undoubtedly be me), so the burgeoning egos we wine geeks may have (not saying that everyone does, just mostly talking about me) should be checked at the cyberdoor.

Who knows, come next year, these 1000+ wine blogs may all be interconnected. Here’s hoping so.

MUSTILLI PIEDIROSSO 2008

2009-12-07T10:36:00.000-08:00

Another very cool red wine offering from Strappo and the gang at Domenico Selections is the Mustilli Piedirosso 2008 from the Campania region of Italy. Native solely to Campania, this is a truly unique grape, producing a vibrant, zesty and light-bodied red wine that gives you red pepper flake, dried herbs, raspberry and pomegranate notes and a balance of juicy red fruit and acidity all the way through the finish.

I was quite intrigued by this wine, not only for its uniqueness to the market, but because of its value in the red wine category and its lively, exuberant personality. Whether you are pursuing your Century Club membership, or you are just in the mood for something different (and still exceptional) grab a bottle of the Mustilli Piedirosso 2008, some home-cooked pasta, and enjoy.

Shannon's Top 10

2009-12-05T10:08:00.000-08:00

Choosing my top 10 wines of 2009 has proven to be a difficult task. This year I have not only tried some incredible wines, but I have truly tried to immerse myself in wine culture, hence meeting some wonderful people, and traveling to some wonderful places, along the way. These wines reflect my wine journey this year, and none of these would have made the list without the experiences I had alongside them. Thank you to everybody who shared these bottles with me, I have not only learned from the wines, but I’ve learned from you, too.

10. Pierre Gimonnet et Fils Brut NV. I get the most enjoyment from drinking sparkling wines, especially Champagnes. I tried this gem at the Vanguard trade show, alongside some other grower Champagnes…the difference between these and the generic ‘Cliquots’ is insane! I’m definitely proud to stand on my soap box and tout the wonders of grower Champagnes, like this one.

9. Penfolds 707 Cabernet Sauvignon 2006. I’ve never been overly impressed by Aussie wines, but at a Penfolds tasting earlier this year my mind was changed! This wine had every characteristic I crave, dark, black fruits, a bit of austere earthiness, and the slight hint that it would only improve over time. I even liked this better than Grange!

8. Burly Cabernet Sauvignon 2005. This is the quintessential Napa Cab for me. Like the name suggests, it is big, bold, and in your face. With explosions of ripe fruit, medium tannin and a lengthy finish, it was perfect with steak. I brought this bottle to a friends house for a housewarming dinner, it we still remember and talk about it.

7. Rosenblum Viognier Kathy’s Cuvee 2007. During a blind tasting seminar I came across this unique white. Corey S. and I were in Indianapolis, preparing for our 1st Level Sommelier Exam, and the Master’s were instructing us as to the proper techniques in blind tasting. I think I guessed this as a Pinot Gris, Corey may have identified it as Chenin Blanc. We were both wrong! This surprising Viognier has a flowery, powerful nose, a crisp and delightfully round palate, the finish had a decent amount of acidity. Delicious!

6. Novelty Hill Merlot 2005. I’ll admit it. I’ve jumped on the Washington State bandwagon with Kevin. No one on Earth is making merlot like them! This is one of my favorites, exhibiting the classic blue fruits that Washington State merlot is known for, this has the silky, cool texture that I’ve come to seek out in wine. I can’t wait to continue trying wines from Columbia Valley and elsewhere, as they just keep getting better and better.

5. Chateau Lynch-Bages 2001. I was very fortunate this summer and was able to go with my mother and sister on a trip to Bordeaux. After a tour of Chateau Lynch-Bages, we ate at a café on the premises and had a lovely lunch, accompanied by this bottle of 2001. What an experience! This was dark, austere and had a nutty taste to all of us, something like hazelnuts. It paired well with our pommes frites! This was one of my favorite wine moments, and I was so happy to be able to share it with my family.

4. Caldwell Syrah 2005. This summer I planned a girl’s weekend at a lakehouse in Indiana; 8 of my closest girlfriends from school were driving in from all over the country for a weekend of girl-talk, cocktails and getting some sun. But to my early dismay, a group of guys surprised us and crashed the party! This proved to be a blessing in disguise because one of the gentlemen had just come back from a trip to California, and brought this bottle of wine. I had had the Rocketscience before, but this was in a league of its own. With large, powerful bursts of black fruit, this wine benefited from the use of a vinturi. Let’s just say the girly-cocktails were put on the back-burner for awhile.

3. Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe 2007. I’ve said it before, I was born on the wrong continent. I love everything French, and this wine is no exception! From my favorite wine producing region, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, comes this iconic wine. I was with a group of wine lovers at Belterra and we uncorked this bottle as good luck before hitting the casino. Wow! Initially on the palate the alcohol was apparent, but the longer I had the wine in my glass the more this blew off, showing aspects of dried herbs like thyme and oregano, followed by a gorgeous texture and a finish of plum and baked fruit. Cette vin est tres délicieux!

2.Ladera Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain 2003. One word, luscious. It definitely has some heat to it, but otherwise this wine absolutely sings. Dark, smoky fruit…the oak is detected by the vanilla bean undertones. The finish goes on for days. Perfect for a birthday or holiday gift, however, if it were me I’d be selfish and drink this one all by myself.

1. Chateau Cos d’Estournel 2007. A Bordeaux barrel tasting! Our first stop on our Bordeaux trip, this Chateau was the very picture of elegance, refinement, and some good old fashioned grape farming. We were very lucky and the usual tour guide was off the day we visisted, and so we were shown around by the winemaker Dominique Arangoits. His pride in his work was evident and well deserved…the wines were phenomenal. The 2007 was still young, a baby, but promised to be great. The tannins were very pronounced, but so was the elegant and balanced fruit. This wine also had some nuttiness to it, and the finish showed a bit of alcohol and smoke. My favorite wine, and favorite wine experience, of the year!

SOMETHING UNUSUAL FROM PIEDMONT

2009-12-04T11:40:00.001-08:00

Continuing with my introduction to the wines of Domenico Selections, the sole Piedmontese offering from Strappo and the gang is the Cascina Gilli Vigna del Forno 2006, a red wine made from 100% Freisa. I know what you are saying: “what the f*%# is Freisa?” Well, here you have an obscure Piedmont red grape that is similar to Nebbiolo in its tannic and acidic content. Generally, the grapes primarily produce a slightly effervescent wine with hints of sweetness.

Yes, you heard right. Sparkling wine.

However, here you have a still wine, with marked intensity, pronounced raspberry and blackberry aromas and flavors, and even a hint of red flowers and spice. The tannins are softer than generally found with this grape variety, which is good, because it has a much softer tone on the palate. This wine is definitely more a walk on the wild side than the usual suspects from Piedmont or elsewhere, and would give your next lasagna or pasta dinner a big boast.
Freisa is a grape variety rarely done outside of Piedmont (though I seem to remember Bonny Doon making a Freisa sparkler some time ago). Think outside the box and give this one a try!

MONTECUCCO AND A GREAT ITALIAN RED

2009-12-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

Finally, we received our inaugural shipment from Domenico Selections, a small but dynamic importer of Italian wines. For those of you who know me, or have read this blog a bit, know that I am a BIG fan of Italian wines, primarily for their food-friendly flavor profiles, as well as their charm and varietal correctness (amongst other things). Yet I concede that Italian wines are the most difficult wines to educate your staff and customers on, because of how vast and infinite the subject is.

You see, as I have talked about before here at UTGT, every state in Italy produces wine, and each state is completely different from the others, in that primarily, they have their own grape varieties they use to make wine. While grapes such as Sangiovese, Trebbiano and Montepulciano are found in many regions, you can also discover varieties such as Bombino, Arneis, Nerello Mascalese, and Cesanese, just to name a few. Truth be told, there are thousands of grape varieties used in Italy to make wine. So I will attempt to offer you up a bit of a primer, at least where the wines of Domenico Selections are concerned (I hope I get this right Terry).

The first wine I’d like to discuss is from Tuscany – the Piandibugnano L’Erpico 2005, which hails from the Montecucco DOC. Now, Montecucco is a pretty new DOC appellation (wine region). Established in 1998, it surrounds the lava dome of Mt. Amiata, in the Maremma portion of Southern Tuscany. Montecucco is a traditional wine region, and strict laws prohibit use of those “non-traditional” grape varieties I mention from time to time (you know, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, etc.) – the grapes we all know and love.

With the L’Erpico, and many Montecucco reds, the wine is 100% Sangiovese, the cornerstone for most Tuscan red wines. DOC laws allow no less than 85% Sangiovese, with a blend of other Italian varietals making up for the rest, but in the L’Erpico, it’s 100%. This wine sees some malolactic fermentation to tone down the acidity and tannin, and aged in oak barriques.

There are not a lot of Montecucco wines in the American marketplace, so it’s nice to stumble across one, especially one that rocks! This wine makes a great addition to our collection of kick-ass Italian wines.

K2'S TOP 40 FOR 2009

2009-12-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

I find it a bit fascinating to compile a list of my top selections because as a retail wine buyer, I am automatically jaded right? And while I do lean heavily toward certain producers, importers, distributors, etc. – for this list, I am not relying on my retailer point-of-view, but my personal one. And there is a difference, or at least, there has to be a difference.

I often tell my customers that if it were up to me personally, the store would be almost certainly, nothing except for Italian wine. I am a huge Italian wine fanatic. So when it comes to buying for the store, I have to be aware of what audience a particular wine would have – would customers buy it? And these aren’t necessarily ones I have reviewed either. No these 40 wines are ones that have come across my palate this year, and have stood out, towering high above the rest.

So without any more time-wasting, here are my top 40 picks for this year (in reverse order):

40. Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2005. I am not usually one to choose a Napa Cab but I was truly impressed by both its power and grace on the palate. This wine is a real hit, proving great Napa Cab doesn’t have to cost you three-digits.

39. Seghesio Zinfandel Sonoma County 2008. Once again, Seghesio scores with their value-priced Zin. A cooler 2008 climate gives you a less bombastic, more food-compatible red, yet still in possession of exemplary Zin character.

38. Roberto Anselmi Capitel Croce 2005. Having been a fan of Anselmi for years, my first opportunity in some time to taste this flagship white wine – 100% Garganega from Veneto – is a revelation for white wine enthusiasts and everyone else.

37. Sparkman Chardonnay “Lumiere” Columbia Valley 2007. Introducing one of the many wines on this list from my Washington trip. Winemaker Chris Sparkman is urging me to bring his wines to our area, and hopefully, sometime mid-2010, you will know how great these wines are. While known for reds, this amazing Chardonnay was well-balanced and reminiscent of a Puligny-Montrachet.

36. DeLille Cellars D2 Columbia Valley 2006. Another in a host of great wines from Washington State, the D2 2006 was one of several we finished up with on our Washington Wine Road Trip. Host/WWC Commissioner Jay Soloff had all their wines opened, yet this well-structured red Bordeaux blend stood out for me.

35. Milbrandt Vineyards Legacy Syrah 2005. Despite the unfortunate use of the word “Legacy” – they were slapped with a “cease and desist” by none other than Jess Jackson over its use – this is one incredible Syrah, particularly due to it being half-price in our store right now. Poured it at a recent tasting, and hooked a lot of folks into its charms as well.

34. Buty Semillon/Sauvignon/Muscadelle Columbia Valley 2008. An incredible white Bordeaux blend I was fortunate enough to try while out in Walla Walla. Winemaker Caleb Foster is a rising star on the West Coast, and with any luck, you will all soon know it too.

33. Feudi di San Gregorio Patrimo 2005. Here is an unbelievably extraordinary Merlot from the Campania region in Italy. It has power, elegance, concentration, depth and finesse, all rolled into one beautiful red, equal to that of Petrus or Le Pin. Absolutely glorious!

32. St. Helena Winery Seduire Napa Valley 2005. I tried this with our former Fort Thomas store manager Ray Burwick (now our rep for the Crown Division of Southern Wine & Spirits) and another former DEPS alum (and our sales rep for Tramonte & Sons) Devon Ward. It was one of those moments where none of us need say a word. Just looking at each other’s faces was recognition enough that this was a truly decadent and beautiful wine. A stunning effort in a Bordeaux-style blend from a family winery in Napa Valley.

31. Domaine de Nizas Coteaux du Languedoc Rouge 2005. I don’t think I could make a list of my favorites without once again, incorporating one of my all-time favorite reds. This G/S/M blend from the folks behind Napa’s Clos du Val, time and again, create this sheer powerhouse, a wine a love recommending because for all its heft and density, it still costs less than $20.

30. Piandibugnano Nanerone IGT 2007. A new discovery from new friend Terence Hughes, and his import company Domenico Selections, this gorgeous, playful dessert wine – 100% Aleatico – is a sweet red wine begging for those intimate, flirtatious evenings with the one you love. It’s sexy, soulful, and alluring.

29. Chateau Ste. Michelle Ethos Cabernet Sauvignon 2005. I tasted this at a dinner held at Chateau Ste. Michelle, and heard the explanation for its inception – whilst the winemaker creates many single-vineyard wines, this beautiful Cab is a creation of the winemaker himself – an expression of his mind, soul and palette. It is a remarkable effort.

28. Jean-Luc Colombo Cornas La Louvee 2005. 100% Syrah from Northern Rhone. This is Syrah as it is truly meant to be – dark, voluptuous, and smoky, with a finish that lingers almost eternally. I truly believe Monsieur Colombo is an unsung master of this grape.

27. Some Young Punks The Squid’s Fist South Australia 2007. Something crazy about the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea meets Ed Wood label, but this Sangiovese-Shiraz blend was an amazing discovery. A big, bold, jammy red from Down Under that didn’t have to punch you in the face with its exuberance, it teased you with it, and before you knew it, you were hooked.

26. Santa Rita Carmenere Pehuen 2005. This dazzling blend of 85% Carmenere and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon was an awesome red wine – and really was the catalyst for me changing my tune on Santa Rita on the whole. Big, bold, yet possessing some velvety smooth tannins, this red is what most of Chile aspires to be – f-ing delicious!

25. Belguardo Serrata Maremma 2005. One of the two Mazzei family projects on this list, the Serrata is a stylish, vibrant blend of Sangiovese and Alicante Bouschet. The Alicante portion of this wine gives it sass, and an almost jammy, brambly Zin character to an otherwise-straightforward Tuscan-style red.

24. Barnard Griffin Sagemoor Partners Reserve Columbia Valley 2007. One of the real treats I partook of in WA., this stunning Cab-based blend from a cooperative of vineyards, released only through Barnard Griffin’s tasting room, is absolutely phenomenal. There was just loads of juicy dark fruit flavors and aromas, and even though the 2004 and 2005 vintages of this wine that I tasted were drinking a bit better, coming from the amazing 2007 vintage, this wine showed infinitely more promise.

23. Mulderbosch Rose of Cabernet Sauvignon Stellenbosch 2008. I am always amazed by this wine but couldn’t have been happier with the 2008 release. Always a huge fan of dry pink wines, this is another one of my consistent go-to wines for customers, and one I love to take home whenever possible.

22. Domaine Fontsainte Corbieres 2007. Another hidden gem in the Kermit Lynch portfolio, this delicious red blend of Carignan, Grenache and Syrah is one of Fontsainte’s finest releases to date. Subtle notes of blue and black berry fruit hit you first in the nose, then across the palate. Though slightly rustic, a bit of time opened reveals a plushness sure to please anyone.

21. Pascual Toso Malbec Reserve 2007. Pascual Toso is one of the most consistent names for value in Argentine wine, and their Reserve Malbec gives you plum, blackberry, clove and creamy vanilla tones to make for a rich and extremely enjoyable taste of Mendoza.

20. Barrister Cabernet Franc Columbia Valley 2006. Another great wine from my WA Wine Trip, Barrister is heralded as the premier WA state producer of Cab Franc – my favorite Bordeaux grape. You get all the great characters of Cab Franc and none of the bad. This is just sheer red wine drinking pleasure.

19. Bodegas Godeval Vina Godeval 2007. One of my favorite white wines, made from the Godello grape, this hidden gem from importer Jorge Ordonez is round yet possessing nicely balanced acidity. If you are tired of all that Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio, and you want to try something new and REALLY good, give this one a go.

18. Bodegas Almirez Toro 2007. Having lost the Numanthia wines out of his portfolio, importer Jorge Ordonez found a new and remarkably talented producer from the Toro in Bodegas Almirez. This red made from 100% Tinto de Toro (a Tempranillo clone), is rich, dense and possessing a lot of power.

17. La Spinetta Barbera d’Asti Ca’di Pian 2006. One of my favorite producers from the Piedmont, the affordable Ca’di Pian is 100% Barbera, rich and luscious, with the red fruit and spice character you come to expect in a classic Barbera.

16. Spring Valley Frederick Walla Walla 2006. My first vineyard walk in Washington was at Spring Valley, and it was a sheer marvel to see the gorgeous countryside that is the source for this amazing red blend. While the Uriah dons our shelves, the hard-to-get Frederick is more powerful than its sibling, showing much more prowess and potential.

15. Chateau La Vieille Cure Fronsac 2006. Bordeaux and Value are two terms that don’t seem to go together very well, yet this delicious Merlot-based red from the Right Bank is a remarkable find.

14. Yering Station Shiraz/Viognier Yarra Valley 2006. I have grown wary of Australia in recent years, because all that bombast just turns me off anymore. Yet here is a Northern Rhone-influenced red that shows tremendous elegance and finesse.

13. Selene Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2005. I have often said that Mia Klein is my Eric Clapton, and once you try this Napa Valley Cab, you’ll understand why. She is like Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel in Lord of the Rings, an elvish queen bestowing her magic on already amazing Napa fruit. In her presence, and in the presence of this wine, I am forever in awe.

12. Bunnell Family Mourvedre Northridge Vineyards 2007. A wine I encountered unexpectedly in Washington state – I am a big sucker for Mourvedre, and this one had me dumbstruck for at least a half-an-hour. Everything I love about French Mourvedre from Bandol – it was right there in that glass of Bunnell. Just breathtaking.

11. Pacific Rim Riesling Organic Grapes 2008. Yes I love Riesling. Yes even sweet Riesling. I think Riesling is the best white grape, and one of the best grapes overall. This Riesling, made from organically grown grapes (for whatever good that may be), is a herculean effort at crafting a Mosel-influenced white wine right in the heart of the Yakima Valley.

10. Gordon Brothers Columbia Valley Syrah 2005. I would hazard to say that this is the best f-ing Syrah from the U.S. for under $30 you will ever find. Period.

9. Zisola Doppiozeta 2006. Another hidden gem I was able to find at the Palm Bay show in Chicago this year, this remarkable red from Sicily is the other Mazzei family venture I was alluding to earlier. A blend of the native Nero d’Avola, along with Syrah and Cabernet Franc, this sultry red is silky smooth, sexy and dark in the glass. It leaves a sensuous stain on the palate that just won’t go away. And you won’t be complaining about it either.

8. Champalou Vouvray Cuvee des Fondraux 2007. Another great treasure from the Kermit Lynch portfolio, this seductive Chenin Blanc is remarkably full-bodied, only slightly sweet from its pronounced fruit flavors, and charms you to your very core.

7. Musto-Carmelitano Serra del Prete 2007. Another amazing discovery from Domenico Selections, this exceptional red wine from the Basilicata region of Italy (comprised entirely of the Aglianico grape) shows incredible earthen qualities with a supple texture of tannins that would almost fool you into thinking it has “new world” origins. Almost. Yet this wine is undeniably Italian. And that is the biggest reason why I dig it.

6. L'Ecole No. 41 Apogee Pepper Bridge Vineyard 2006. Yes, more Washington State. This exceptional red Bordeaux-blend has always been remarkable, with the 2006 continuing its phenomenal run. Loads of power and grace - I am simply amazed each time I try it.

5. Paolo Scavino Barolo 2004. The “value” Barolo from this superstar of the Piedmont, we recently showed this wine at our in-store holiday show. Though extremely young, it shows tremendous promise, and even now, displays smoothed-out tannins, intense fruit complexity and a remarkable propensity for age.

4. Cote Bonneville DuBrul Vineyard 2004. Winemaker Kerry Shiels has one of those intoxicating smiles that always begs the question, “what is she up to?” I almost didn’t get to meet her, or try her wines because she arrived to the tasting a bit late in the evening. But it was worth the delay. This otherworldly red Bordeaux blend is almost beyond words. Describing it as delicious, incredible, amazing – those terms just cannot do the wine true justice. The DuBrul Vineyard is a fairly new vineyard source that I have no doubt you will come to know like you do Stagecoach or Beckstoffer from Napa, Cannubi from the Piedmont, or Richebourg in Burgundy. And this wine, almost inconceivably extraordinary (even that doesn’t quite get it).

3. Long Shadows Vintners Pedestal 2006. I love this wine. I had before my trip to Washington State. Yet after meeting winemaker Gilles Nicault from the winery, I was even more impressed with this wine. The effort of Gilles and famed enologist Michel Rolland, this Merlot is a Columbia Valley expression of the Pomerols of Petrus and Le Pin.

2. Papapietro Perry Pinot Noir Russian River Valley 2007. How can these guys, year-after-year, create Pinot Noirs that are every bit as massive as a Napa Cab WITHOUT sacrificing the inherent grace and delicacy of the Pinot Noir grape. Think it can’t be done. You haven’t tried Papapietro Perry.

1. Bookwalter The Protagonist 2006. Not because with winemaker John Bookwalter’s help did I get in on this year’s Washington Wine Road Trip, but because this wine is just that good did I put this one at the top. At long last, I am able to sell Bookwalter in Kentucky, and in finding a kindred spirit in all things writing, have I found the perfect wine for my poetry.

Please keep in mind, these are wines that I ENJOYED this year, and even though I enjoyed A LOT of wine this year, these were my standouts. There were many honorable mentions – really too many TO MENTION. Yet here it is, my Top 40 countdown. (BTW, why do I call it a Top 40 countdown? For those not already clued in on the whole music tie-in, Kasey Kasem/Kevin Keith – we are both K2s.)

GOING OUT WITH A BANG

2009-12-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, we finished off the 2009 D.E.P.’s Fine Wine & Spirits Tasting Schedule with what we affectionately like to call our Holiday Show. It’s a two-part event that we’ve been quietly doing for the past 4 years. Part one is always at our Covington Store on Friday night, and repeated Saturday at our Fort Thomas location, while part two takes place at Fort Thomas Friday and reversed at Covington for Saturday.

Usually, we toss in some extra-nice sparkling wines and dessert wines, yet this year, we opted to focus on all table wines, though none of them were what you would call “value.” No, for this tasting, we focus on the stuff we wouldn’t normally get to try our customers, opting for a great deal of higher-end and extremely limited wines. As always, these tastings weren’t about highlighting a particular style of wine, grape variety or wine region – these tastings were simply a thank you to all of our customers for all of their patronage this past year.

The line-up was as follows:

Friday at Covington: Illumination Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 2007, Saintsbury Pinot Noir Cerise Vineyard 2006, Domaine Tempier Bandol 2006 and Silver Oak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2003. Saturday: Muller-Catoir Riesling Kabinett Trocken 2007, Domaine de la Charbonniere Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee des Perdrix 2005, Charles Joguet Chinon Chene Vert 2007 and Bookwalter The Protagonist 2006.

Friday at Fort Thomas: Muller-Catoir Riesling Kabinett Trocken 2007, Domaine de la Charbonniere Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee des Perdrix 2005, Charles Joguet Chinon Chene Vert 2007 and Bodegas Norton Perdriel 2003. Saturday: Illumination Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 2007, Saintsbury Pinot Noir Cerise Vineyard 2006, Domaine Tempier Bandol 2006 and Chateau Senejac Haut-Medoc 2005.

Overall, the wines should very well, and it was a nice follow-up to a fairly chaotic Thanksgiving Day week. I would have to say my personal faves were the Charbonniere, Charles Joguet and Muller-Catoir, but it is not an easy thing for me to choose a favorite – the wines on our shelves are all my babies, and it is impossible and just plain wrong to choose a favorite child. (And in case you didn't notice, we slid in a few different wines, with each store concluding with a different big boy, just an extra treat.)

I want to thank all of our customers for coming by on their holiday weekend and sharing in these wines. For those of you that missed it, I would highly recommend seeking out these beauties to try for yourself sometime. They are all seriously worth it.

WHAT LIES AHEAD

2009-11-30T13:08:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving down. Next up Christmahanukwanzaa and New Year's Eve. The last 6-8 weeks of every year seem to be in constant high-speed motion in the retail biz - which is why most of us diehards are in it in the first place. We had a pretty nice, solid influx for T-Day, but to quote the late, great Karen Carpenter, "we've only just begun."

I just finished the last of the order faxes, and I am knee-deep in advert-planning, so I thought I might take a few to figure out what it is I am doing on UTGT this month. Obviously, we have my obnoxiously-self-serving "K2's Top 40 for 2009" - my own contribution to the vast array of narcissistic top wine lists out there in cyberland, as well as my cohort Shannon's top picks. Of course, I will be featuring the incoming wines of my new friend Terry Hughes and his Domenico Selections - amazing values from Italy, as well as some "champippley" reviews, a bit of reflection on the past year in the wine business, here in Kentucky and around the country, and the usual skewed perspective from yours truly.

Stay tuned.

CHEERS TO YOU AND YOURS

2009-11-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

We'll be taking a break until the weekend. The next few days at the store will be busy and of course, Thanksgiving is Thursday. So from all of us at UTGT and D.E.P.s Fine Wine & Spirits, we wish you a safe and happy Thanksgiving. We'll be back on Saturday.

BEAUJOLAIS: A QUICK PRIMER

2009-11-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Beaujolais. When you say the word in the context of wine, most people tend to think “Nouveau!” But despite the fact that Beaujolais Nouveau is the world’s most popular French wine, Nouveau is just scratching the surface of this great wine region. We wine geeks often lump Beaujolais in with Burgundy, yet the region was really never part of Burgundy. However, when the northern portion was annexed to the department of the Saône-et-Loire, Beaujolais administratively became part of Burgundy.

The strata of Beaujolais can be explained thusly:

1. A.O.C. Beaujolais and Beaujolais Supérieur = This is the largest portion of the appellation, and the simple Beaujolais classification constitutes 99+% of the production in this tier. These wines are simple, fresh, with only slight amounts of barrel aging.

2. A.O.C. Beaujolais Villages = This is the most common appellation of Beaujolais, and encompasses the center of the Beaujolais region, which is divided into 38 communes. These communes can legally replace “Villages” on the label with the name of their commune, yet most chose to remain a “Villages.”

3. A.O.C. Cru du Beaujolais = These wines are the best that this region has to offer. There are 10 communes, running along a narrow strip of land between the Mont-Brouilly and the Mâconnais. In order from south to north: Brouilly, Côte de Brouilly, Régnié, Morgon, Chiroubles, Fleurie, Moulin-à-Vent, Chénas, Juliénas and Saint-Amour. These wines see more time in oak, and some have the propensity for longer-lived wines in the cellar.

The primary red grape of this region is the Gamay noir à jus blanc, or the Black Gamay with the white juice. While Pinot Noir is also produced, as are Chardonnay and Aligoté (which are used for Beaujolais Blanc), the wine production is almost entirely made from the Gamay grape. These wines have gone hand-in-hand with the Holiday Season mainly due to the release date of Beaujolais Nouveau, the third Thursday of November, yet the softness of the Gamay grape make it an ideal pairing with the diverse menus that accompany all of the different holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.).

The most recognized producers in the Beaujolais are Georges Duboeuf and Louis Jadot, but some other wonderful winemakers such as Chateau Thivin and Michel Chignard produce some exceptional wines as well. Ask your wine store about cru Beaujolais, and see what they have in stock. They are terrific wines, especially for Thanksgiving.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THANKSGIVING

2009-11-22T12:51:00.000-08:00

It’s a bit of a mad rush leading up to Turkey Day, and I have done nothing but shuttle boxes of wine from our warehouse to the store. These days I rarely do anything else. It’s a good problem to have for a retailer, selling product. Yet one thing I had hoped to do sooner, was throw my two-cents out there in suggesting wines for Thanksgiving.

We get the question twenty, thirty, forty times a day in the week leading up to T-Day, and it’s fascinating the responses you get when you bring up things like Pinot Noir, Riesling, Gewurtztraminer, Rosé, etc. Often the customer asking the question is a Cab or Chard drinker, and these wines are as alien to them as common sense is to a politician. And for those folks, I say unto you, “Drink what you like.” There is no real requirement to drink something you are most likely not going to enjoy.

The suggestions my retail brethren and I make to customers all over are merely the best guess scenarios. Sure, these wines are going to compliment the foods one serves for a traditional Thanksgiving Day feast much better, but that doesn’t mean that a Cab or a Chard aren’t going to offer as much enjoyment during said feast.

I have always been most partial to rosés, simply because they are some of the best food wines overall. I am a particularly huge fan of the Montes Cherub 2008 and the Mulderbosch Rosé 2009 right now. Both have a bit more power than most pink wines, yet both still have the balance and acidity to pair with lighter and more diverse foods. My wife leans towards Rieslings, and the Donnhoff QbA Riesling 2007 is a fairly dry, very balanced Riesling that is ideal for T-Day. A wildcard for me would be the Librandi Ciro Rosso 2007, a red akin to Pinot Noir – light, soft, with lots of berry and cherry notes – that is 100% Gaglioppo. But there is a laundry list of great wines that would work – just go into your favorite wine shop and ask the staff. Hopefully, your favorite wine store is D.E.P.’s Fine Wine & Spirits. But if not, there are a lot of great wine stores out there with a trustworthy staff that knows what will make your T-Day sing.

Cheers!

VENTA MORALES TEMPRANILLO 2008

2009-11-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

The Venta Morales Tempranillo 2008 is a brand new La Mancha venture from Jorge Ordonez, the perennial leader in Spanish wine imports. 100% Tempranillo that is completely tank-fermented, this juicy, vibrant red really overdelivers, demonstrating loads of black cherry, raspberry and dried herbs. It possesses some balanced acidity and shows off good tannic grip on the finish. Never one to disappoint, Jorge Ordonez delivers yet another great value. Try it out!

DOMAINE DE NIZAS ROUGE 2005

2009-11-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite wines is the Domaine de Nizas Rouge Coteaux du Languedoc 2005. Every year, I am continually impressed by this monster Syrah/Mourvedre/Grenache Noir blend. Always demonstrating both power AND grace, this Rhone-inspired red is a dark garnet color in the glass. Its aromas of black and blue berry fruit mixed up with a veritable spice rack speaks the language of a carnivore, and its flavors of herbs, spices and dark blackberry, blueberry, loganberry and black cherry notes instill visions of hearty meat dishes, hearth-baked breads, roasted root vegetables, and a warm night dining by the fire – Autumn or Winter time.

This wine has been, for the past several vintages, a favorite amongst our entire staff, even the folks that are NOT French wine drinkers. This wine speaks to a universal palate, bringing a little something to the table for everyone. Give it a try!

CONFESSING A GUILTY PLEASURE

2009-11-18T10:30:00.000-08:00

The Wine Spectator Top 100 list for 2009 is out, and my regular customers are just starting to blow up the phones. It is frustrating because it takes a lot of work to find out what is still available in the market, get it all in the stores, in our systems, priced and placed on the shelves, a list compiled and posted online, our staff trained on what there is, how much there is and where it’s at in the stores, and so on. All for a little bit of wine that will be almost completely sold out in a week or two.

As much as I bitch and moan about Spectator, their ratings, and their subversively elitist bent on the wine biz, I have to say that it is my last blast of fun when it comes to wine buying – at least during the holidays. With the constant shopping of our local competition, our Ohio competitors, trying to stay ahead of the whole extra tax thing this year, and just the usual keeping everything we sell a lot of in stock, it’s tough to allocate even a small amount of time to look for things like the WS Top 100 wines. Yet this year – perhaps coincidentally due to the large amount of more value-oriented selections – I was able to get a hold of the most Top 100 wines I have been able to get in the past 10 years. You can actually take a look at the list at http://www.depsfinewine.com/.

What intrigued me the most was that there were a lot of Australian wines on the list, which seemed extremely fortuitous considering the recent doo-and-gloom reports circulating about how abysmal the Australian wine business is right now. The presence of such wines as #14 Two Hands Bella’s Garden 2007, #24 Penfolds St. Henri 2005, #39 Yalumba Viognier Eden Valley 2008, and the values of Shoofly, d’Arenberg, Peter Lehmann and Heartland have to be a real shot in the arm for the industry Down Under right now.

And I had a vicarious sense of pride in seeing all the Washington state wines in there (#1 Columbia Crest, #26 Cayuse, #33 Novelty Hill, #36 Efeste, #38 Chateau Ste. Michelle, and so on. It was a beautiful thing.

So I guess I have to say that I have mixed feelings about this list. While it drives me crazy, and has for a decade at least, it is still a guilty pleasure to hunt these down and land a few. Hopefully, my customers will appreciate the acquisitions.

WINE & MUSIC MONDAY: DUOS

2009-11-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

I was feeling a little bit “mushy” as my wife would call it over the weekend. It was one of those lazy Sundays where we listened to the cats and napped on and off all day, and I couldn’t help but think about spending as much time with her as I could, although she was pretty zonked out most the day. So I was trying to figure out what to write about for my Wine & Music Monday, and decided that the most apropos notion to speak of would be duets, duos, twosomes – like my wife and I. So for the music part, I found the duet between two of my favorite singers, Tori Amos and Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, performing Tori’s song “Muhammud My Friend.” I became enamored by Tori’s voice years ago when I was living in South Carolina. Her voice is haunting yet very angelic. And of course one of the best rock singers around, Maynard, is also an up-and-coming winemaker, with his Caduceus and Arizona Stronghold Wines out in the market (though not here in KY). And despite the fact that their music couldn’t be any more different, they have been known to collaborate over the years, like this performance:

A collaborative wine effort is the Eroica Riesling 2007, made by Washington’s Chateau Ste. Michelle and Germany’s Dr. Loosen. A delicious, late-harvest Riesling made from Washington state fruit by Ernst Loosen, one of Germany’s top producers, the Eroica is seductive and alluring, with supple, rich stone fruit and honey notes, and a finish that leaves the drinker in a passionate state of euphoria. Tori and Maynard and Chateau Ste. Michelle Eroica, a beguiling combination.

GORDON BROTHERS SYRAH 2005

2009-11-14T10:55:00.000-08:00

One of the highlights of my trip out to Washington State last month was visiting the amazing Gordon Brothers winery near Pasco, WA. Their estate sits atop a hillside overlooking the Snake River, which was pretty breathtaking midday, with the vineyards interspersed amidst a sea of wheat-colored landscapes, and underneath a brilliant blue sky. It's enough to make me doughy-eyed just thinking about it.

Walking around with winemaker Tim Henley, we got a great sense of the land, and were made instantly aware of the fact that their wines are entirely from their own vineyards. Even though we strolled through some Malbec vines, the real star of the show at Gordon Bros. is Syrah, which we sampled out of bottle, barrel and tank.

The Gordon Bros. Syrah 2005 is a remarkable example of how Washington State is really getting this grape right, avoiding the easier Aussie comparatives by holding up the Syrahs of the Northern Rhone as the compass to guide them. Present is a deep, dark ruby-purple color, heady aromas of black cherries, blueberries, clove and cinnamon, and on the palate, a luxurious berry base with elements of cedar, leather, black and white pepper, fresh brewed espresso and spice box crescendoing into an enduring finish.

This certainly ranks up there amongst the best American Syrahs, and indeed their 2002 vintage received the International Trophy for Rhone wines over $10 from Decanter Magazine, beating out some of the Northern Rhone's best reds. This newest vintage is one of which the Gordon family and winemaker Tim Henley can be extremely proud. And I have to say that the upcoming releases for this wine are going to be even more incredible.

MILBRANDT LEGACY SYRAH 2005

2009-11-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

So while I was out on the Washington Wine Road Trip, and all of us roadtrippers were congregated within Precept Brands' Canyon Ranch, in the midst of a big Columbia Valley winery hoedown, I ran into the good folks at Milbrandt Vineyards. We had recently brought in a ridiculous amount of their Legacy Chardonnay, and upon seeing my name tag, they remarked, "so YOU'RE the one."

"Yes I am," I smiled, already a wee bit buzzed.

"I've got a deal on the Syrah too."

"Let's go," I eagerly replied, knowing the track record of Butch and Jerry and the folks at Milbrandt Vineyards. And thus, the arrival of the Milbrandt Legacy Syrah 2005 - the last vintage with the Legacy name on the package (a winemaker in California by the name of Jess Jackson wasn't happy with their use of the word "Legacy") - a remarkable Syrah with a little more than 3% Mourvedre splashed in to give this wine the complexity of a fine Chateauneuf du Pape. There is a richness and density that is amazing, with a thick, sanguinesque appearance in the glass, and lush aromas and flavors of black and red berries, leather, coffee, smoke, white pepper, violet and lavender. It is a superb red wine and added proof that Syrah is done well and done right in Washington State.

TIEFENBRUNNER PINOT BIANCO 2008

2009-11-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

I am always on the lookout for a good white wine, seeing as how my wife doesn't like too many reds anymore - the tannins and phenols mess with her too much. So I am glad to have back in the store the Tiefenbrunner Pinot Bianco 2008 from Italy's Alto Adige region. I've always been a fan of Tiefenbrunner, and their Pinot Bianco is one of their best wines. Ripe Golden Delicious apples and hints of spicy pineapple are in the nose, and continue across the palate, alongside mineral, pear, nutmeg and persimmon. It's perfect for poultry, asparagus dishes, and seafood. And keep this one in mind for Thanksgiving too. Give it a go!

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES... AGAIN

2009-11-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

[EDITOR'S NOTE: While I disagree with WS and the concept of the 100-point review, the following is merely the culmination of nearly twenty years of restaurant and retail experience and the headache the WS Top 100 list creates for those of us in this tier of the business.]

I knew I was dreading something…

Next week, the Wine Spectator Top 100 for 2009 will be revealed, starting with the teaser for wines #6-#10 on November 18th and #2-#5 on the 19th before the entire list is unvealed on the 20th. We in the retail business refer to it as Doomsday, Armageddon, the Apocalypse – you get the idea.

I would like to take a few seconds to reiterate to you out there in cyberville that this list is a compilation of previously released reviews, ones that may be 10-11 months old. Therefore, the wines in this compilation list are LONG GONE, SOLD OUT, or as Kansas would sing, “all they are/are dust in the wind.”

Like all the other retailers in America, we will be scrambling for the remaining wines, grabbing the list nanoseconds after it is posted to call our sales reps and drive them batshit crazy that morning until all the remaining wines are bled dry from our suppliers. We will all do our best to meet demand but in most cases, the ships have already sailed.

So continue the countdown, cue up the old Europe (“The Final Countdown”) or Iron Maiden (“2 Minutes to Midnight”), and wait for the air raid sirens to kick in and “at my command, unleash Hell.”

TUA RITA ROSSO DEI NOTRI 2008

2009-11-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

What seems to have been a difficult acquisition in years past, the wines of Tua Rita had more-or-less escaped me. Then, ironically, right before we were to cut ties with Winebow several years ago, we landed a couple. Fast-forward to now, and our realignment with Winebow has yielded the remarkably delicious Tua Rita Rosso dei Notri 2008. A young red blend of Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Syrah, this little Tuscan jewel is remarkable.

Bright ruby red in the glass, there are expressive aromas of jammy blackberry, black cherry and dark plums, followed by more dark fruit flavors and hints of rich chocolate, spice and licorice for good measure. The tannins are soft and the acidity is well-represented, yet this is a juicy AND vibrant red that is ideal for grilled meats, lasagna, and pizza. Give this one a try!

WINE AND MUSIC MONDAY: MONTES ALPHA SYRAH AND ALBERT KING

2009-11-09T10:59:00.000-08:00

I am not what you would call a big celebrator. Yeah, today is my birthday, but I’ve not a lot of special plans. I do take satisfaction in the fact that 20 years ago today, the Berlin Wall finally came down. Now that was a cool birthday present (I know it’s not all about me). So in lieu of self-serenading a few bars of that dreadful Happy Birthday song, I would much rather share with you one of my favorite blues guitarists, Albert King, and his hit “I’ll Play the Blues for You”:

I’ve been asked most of the day what kind of big plans I have. It’s funny, because my biggest superstition is not working on my birthday. I have maybe taken three birthdays off from work since I started working, and every time I took off, something bad happened. Hence my working today. And due to the craziness of this business I participate in on a daily basis, a nice quiet evening with my wife and my four-legged children is the best thing I could hope for, along with a simple dinner and a good bottle of wine. Tonight, I think it may be a Montes Alpha Syrah 2006. While not a big splurge, the Alpha Syrah has always been one of my favorites and a rock-solid example of great Syrah from anywhere in the world and the fact that the Alpha Syrah hails from Chile makes it even more special.

Albert King and Montes Alpha, two things that make for a very nice birthday, or any day for that matter. Cheers!

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS...

2009-11-07T10:29:00.000-08:00

Just mulling over the impending arrivals and new stuff that are on their way to our stores – it’s enough to make one’s head spin. First off, a big shout out to the great wines of Domenico Selections due in just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Good friend Terence Hughes, owner of Domenico and blogger over at Mondosapore and Muddy Boots, along with our friends Wendy Huff and Mike Monnin, have orchestrated us getting in these extraordinary Italian wines for the state. Also due at some juncture, the wines of Washington State’s Airfield Estates and Terra Blanca, both recent finds from my adventure out in WA last month. I met Amy from Airfield and Heather from Terra Blanca at the Columbia Valley tasting us roadtrippers went to out at Precept Brands’ Canyon Ranch Vineyards. The wines from both wineries were awesome, and great values to boot. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas indeed. And we are also excited that some of our favorite Spanish wines are coming back to the market courtesy of importer Grapes of Spain. Don't worry, we'll keep you posted when they arrive.

A SIMPLE MATTER OF NEEDING HELP

2009-11-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

The “silly season” (the holidays for those at home) is fast descending and as luck would have it, we here at D.E.P.’s Fine Wine & Spirits (the wine store formerly known as Liquor Direct Wine & Spirits) is short-staffed. Before the parade of “sounds-like-a-personal-problem-to-me” jokes come out, let me just say that not having enough people on hand to handle the business makes for a “tumultuous” holiday season. Hell, it’s no wonder my blood pressure is way up. Yet the guy bearing the brunt of it all, is our newly-ordained Fort Thomas store manager, Matt, who seems to already be working holiday hours, and we ain’t even in the thick of it yet. If he was getting paid by the hour, his overtime costs would probably bankrupt the company.

It has me thinking, “what irony?” because of the still recovering economy, and unemployment up in the double digits, we should, by a simple law of averages, have a stampede at the door looking for work. Yet it seems every able-bodied person we do hire decides to fuck-all and not show up for their first day. Nice, right?

It is just another little nuance to make the business we are in all the more interesting. BTW, if you are in the Cincy area, and know a little bit of something about wine, and you need a job – send us your resumé at greg@depsfinewine.com. Come join the team – we need ya.

ALTESINO ROSSO DI ALTESINO 2007

2009-11-05T10:58:00.000-08:00

In keeping with the Italian bent I have been on as of late, the Altesino Rosso di Altesino 2007 is a "Super-Tuscan" style blend of 80% Sangiovese and 20% Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon that is fermented and aged completely in stainless steel tanks, giving it a lot of vibrancy in its color, aromas and flavors. Ruby red in the glass, it gives up scents of fresh berries and cherries, violets and red flowers, and a soft hint of mineral. Across the palate, there are loads of juicy red and black berry and cherries, notes of red tea, mineral, and herbs, with a firm grip and well-balanced acidity to lend generously to its dry yet lively finish.

Altesino is considered amongst the best producers of Brunello, and this "non-traditional" red blend gives them a chance to show the world what it can do with those "non-traditional" grapes (such as Cab and Merlot) while still keeping true to their Montalcino traditions.

Give it a try!

DI MAJO NORANTE RAMITELLO ROSSO 2005

2009-11-03T12:36:00.001-08:00

The Di Majo Norante Ramitello Rosso is a blend of 80% Prugnolo (Sangiovese) and 20% Aglianico from the Molise region of Italy. I always used to confuse this blend with a Cab/Merlot, mainly because of its Bordeaux-like structure. A deep-ruby color is the canvas for a wine that smells of violets, plums and cherries with an essence of new saddle leather and licorice whips. Across the palate, more plums and cherries, with a soft expression of cedar and tar. The finish is long and dry, and the acidity resonates throughout. Seeing both tank and barrel fermentation, this wine has a lot of depth and complexity for a relatively inexpensive red, making it ideal for roasted or grilled meats. Try it out!

WINE & MUSIC: WINE SCORES AND BOB SEGER

2009-11-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

I’ve been a pretty big Bob Seger fan ever since I was a kid. I guess it had to do with his Midwestern sensibilities. So it is a bit of irony that I find myself thinking of Mr. Seger’s hit “Feel Like A Number” (from 1978’s “Stranger in Town”), what with the impending release of Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list for 2009.

Most of you who are familiar with this blog know of my hate-hate relationship with wine scores. I am not a big fan of them in large part to their extremely arbitrary view on something as subjective as taste. Scores don’t really give you the entire story behind a particular wine – they are a feeble attempt at encapsulating all that a wine is supposed to be for the consumer in a mad rush to get from point A to point B without any pausing or stopping along the way. It is an abridgement, a synopsis, and a flawed one at that.

Yet this is the time of year that I am coerced into paying more attention to them than I would like to do. Often times, I will have tasted a wine during the course of the year, and will have chosen not to carry said wine for one reason or another – be it I found the wine boring, bad, or just one of those “I have 20 similar wines at the same price point, do I need one more?” Then all of a sudden, an 88-89-90 point score, and I am suddenly suppose to say, “Wow! That wine is really good!” Kind of hypocritical, I feel. Yet these are the decisions that I have to make. These reversals due to an overdependence of scores that seem to permeate the mindset of some in this industry and at this company. I have to accept it, though I find myself gnashing my teeth every day about it.

As for the impending release of Spectator’s Top 100 – the bane of my retail existence – there isn’t really anything I can do about it, except prepare myself for the onslaught. What I find amusing is that the scores ranked by WS are previously released scores, and for the most part, the wines have come and gone without much hullabaloo. The list seems to make those wines more desirable, even though the scores didn’t change. It’s one of those “where were you when the scores first came out?” kind of mentality.

Yeah, yeah. Whatever whatever. It is what it is.

Right?

So I leave you with Bob, and I will stop whining about the inevitable.

LIBRANDI CIRO ROSSO 2007

2009-11-01T11:20:00.001-08:00

A wine I had almost forgotten just how good it was, is the Librandi Ciro Rosso 2007 from the Calabria region of Italy. What on a map could be called the "toe of the boot," Calabria is a warmer climate, nestled between the island of Sicily and the other southernly mainland regions of Basilicata and Puglia. The Librandi Ciro Rosso is 100% Gaglioppo, a grape variety seldom seen outside of its Calabrian habitat. The Gaglioppo grape is usually left for blending, giving its blend a softer edge. The Librandi Ciro Rosso is much like that of a Beaujolais or red Bourgogne, with soft red fruit, hints of allspice and cinnamon, notes of walnuts, and a bright, acidic backbone that matches up nicely with spicy meats, stuffed peppers, and lamb.

This red makes for a fun alternative to the norm. Give it a try.

ALLEGRINI PALAZZO DELLA TORRE 2006

2009-10-31T10:25:00.001-07:00

After a long hiatus, our stores have finally welcomed back to our shelves the amazing Italian wines of Leonardo Locascio and Winebow, and most importantly, one of my all-time favorite values from Italy, the Allegrini Palazzo della Torre 2006. From the Veneto region of Italy, this something of a "Super-Venetian" red is a blend of Corvina Veronese, Rondinella and Sangiovese, which makes it an amped-up Valpolicella blend, more-or-less.

Possessing hints of smoky dark fruits, with hints of tobacco, spice and raisin characteristics, this plush, full-bodied red has the right amount of power and acidity to fare beautifully with roasted meats - or maybe a little Osso Bucco, perhaps? - and is ideal for this time of year.

Fermented in stainless steel tanks, the fruit is on full-display, with 15 months in French barrique and 7 months in bottle to give it added depth and complexity. There is a lot of wine to behold for just under $20, and many have come to call this Allegrini's "baby Amarone" for good reason - it's deep, dark, rich and delicious. Give it a go!

SOMETHING ABOUT ITALIAN WINE, CONTINUED

2009-10-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Continuing from yesterday, we are back with more Italian primer – this time taking a brisk walk through the Italian wine landscape, starting at the top of the boot, with the tiny region of the Valle d’Aosta.

Valle d’Aosta is the smallest of the Italian wine regions, bordering Switzerland to the north, France to the west, and Piedmont to the south and east. An ancient growing region, grapes have been cultivated since the Roman days, with around 22 varieties authorized for growing, including Picotener (the local name for Nebbiolo), Neyret, Vien de Nus, Fumin, Mayolet, Prie Route, Petit Rouge, Pinot Nero (Pinot Noir), Gamay, Dolcetto and Syrah for the reds, and Moscato Bianco (also called Moscat de Chambave), Pinot Grigio (also known as Malvoisie), Blanc de Morgex, Prie Blanc, Muller-Thurgau, Chardonnay and Petit Arvine. There are no DOCG wines from this area.

Piedmont means “at the foot of the mountains.” This region is by far one of the most recognized regions in Italy. It is the second largest region and has the most DOC wines (over 40) and DOCG wines (7). Most of the production of wine originates in the heart of Piedmont, the Po River Valley. Here you will find Barolo, Barbaresco, Gattinara and Moscato d’Asti. The first three I mentioned are all made with the Nebbiolo grape, and the last mentioned is from the ancient Muscat grape. Dolcetto and Barbera are also widely planted red varieties, as well as Freisa, Grignolino and Brachetto. The most popular white grape is the Cortese, used for the DOCG wine, Gavi. Arneis (nicknamed the “white Barolo”) and Erbaluce di Caluso are also grown. Another important wine product produced here is Vermouth, made with at least 70% wine, and fortified and flavored with various roots, spices, herbs and wood – this is what is known as an “Aromatic” wine.

Lombardy sits in the semi-circle created by the Alps that enclose Italy to the north. The mountainous north and the flat Po River Valley in the south define the topography of the growing regions, which are divided into three: the Valtellina in the North, the Oltrepo Pavese in the southwest, and the Franciacorta in the east. Nebbiolo, known locally as Chiavennasca, is the primary red grape grown in the Valtellina. The Oltrepo Pavese is known primarily for Pinot Nero. And the greatest sparkling wines from Italy come from the Franciacorta, and is derived from Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco and/or Pinot Nero.

The Trentino-Alto Adige is the northernmost wine region in Italy, bordering Austria and Switerland. It is divided into two parts, the Trentino and the Alto Adige. Vineyards are planted on terraces or light well-drained alluvial soils and clay. Alto Adige is known for Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Sauvignon Blanc, and the red grape Teroldego. Trentino boasts primarily whites as well, with Sauvignon Blanc, Moscato Giallo, Muller-Thurgau, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Riesling Italica, Riesling Renano, Sylvaner Verde, Chardonnay, Traminer and Veltner, with red grapes such as Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Lagrein, Malvasia Nero, Merlot, Pinot Nero, Schiava Gentile, Lambrusco, Marzemino and Teroldego. Friuli-Venezia Giulia borders the Veneto to the west, Slovenia to the east and Austria to the north. This region has been relatively anonymous until the 1960s, when modern winemaking techniques were introduced, despite there being a large volume of wine produced in the area. There is 1 DOCG (Ramandolo) and 9 DOC wines in this area, with primarily grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Nero, Chardonnay, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc being cultivated. Local varieties such as Refosco, Verduzzo, Tocai and Picolit are also cultivated, and making a resurgence.

Veneto is located in NE Italy, along the Alps to the Adriatic Sea, bordering Austria and the Trentino-Alto Adige. Veneto is the third largest wine producing region (behind Apulia and Sicily). The most cultivated grape varieties in this area include white grapes Garganega, Prosecco, Tocai, Verduzzo, Trebbiano di Soave, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco, and reds like Corvina, Rondinella, Molinara, Raboso, Negrara, Merlot, Pinot Nero and Cabernet Sauvignon. The most significant wines are the 3 DOCG wines (Recioto di Soave, Soave Superiore and Bardolino Superiore) and the 22 DOC wines (including Amarone, Valpolicella, Bardolino, Soave, Lugana, and Prosecco di Conegliano). Ripasso is a traditional technique that introduces a secondary fermentation to Valpolicella on Amarone lees, usually drying out the grapes and pouring the Valpolicella juice over the top.

Liguria is often called the Italian Riviera, found just beneath Piedmont along the Mediterranean coast. Many grapes are grown here, including Ciliegiolo, Dolcetto, Barbera, Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Rossese, and Alicante, along with white grapes Albarolo, Bianchetta, Bosco, Pigato, Vermentino, Moscato Bianco, Albana, Greco Malvasia and Trebbiano. There are 6 DOC wines, yet no DOCG. Emilia-Romagna borders the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Tuscan Apennines to the South, the Ligurian Apennines to the west and the Po River to the north. It is one of the largest wine producing areas and is divided into the western Emilia and the eastern Romagna, with the city of Bologna right in the middle. The first white DOCG – Albana di Romagna – is found here, made from the Albana grape. Also grown here are Pagadebit (known in Apulia as Bombino Bianco), Sangiovese and Cagnina (related to the Refosco grape of Friuli).

Tuscany is the most prestigious and recognizable region in Italy, with the region serving as the epicenter for a great many changes in Italian wine law, including the inclusion of non-traditional grapes such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Chardonnay in blends traditionally thought of as native Italian grapes only. The primary grape variety is the Sangiovese, with its clones comprising the most noteworthy wines of the region – Brunello di Montalcino (the Brunello clone), Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (Prugnolo), and clonal types in Morellino di Scansano, Carmignano, Chianti and Chianti Classico. There are at least 650 different clones of Sangiovese in Montalcino alone, and these same grapes planted in Chianti produce completely different wines. Some other varietals cultivated in Tuscany are Canaiolo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Merlot, Vernaccia, Mammolo, Malvasia Bianca, Trebbiano, Pulcinculo (Grechetto Bianco), Vernaccia, and Malvasia del Chianti.

Marches resides along the Adriatic coast, and is one-third covered with rolling hills, with the rest being covered by mountains. There are 12 DOC wines here and 1 DOCG. The primary grapes are Montepulciano (this grape should not be confused with the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano of Tuscany, which is made from the Sangiovese clone of Prugnolo), Verdicchio, Sangiovese, Vernaccia, Pinot Bianco, Ciliegiolo and Trebbiano. Umbria is the only region which is completely landlocked. It is home to the DOC wine Orvieto, made from Trebbiano and Malvasia, and two DOCG wines – the Sagrantino di Montefalco, made primarily from the indigenous Sagrantino grape, and Torigano Rosso Riserva, a blend of Sangiovese and Canaiolo Nero primarily. Latium is a very historic region, residing around the capital of Rome. The most renowned wines of this area are Frascati, and Est! Est! Est!, both white wines made from Trebbiano and Malvasia, as well as reds made of Montepulciano.

Abruzzo has undergone a wine revival of sorts, elevating it to the sixth largest wine producing region in Italy despite it specializing in just two DOC wines – white Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (made from Trebbiano) and the red, made from Montepulciano. Grape varieties planted recently included Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Riesling Italica, Riesling Renano, Sylvaner Verde, Traminer Aromatico, Tocai, Vetliner, Pinot Nero, Merlot, Dolcetto and Malbec. Molise is small by even Italian standards, and borders Abruzzo to the north, Latium and Campania to the west,

Apulia to the south and the Adriatic to the east. Only two DOCs come from this region, Biferno and Pentro di Isernia, both producing red, white and rose wines.

Apulia is reputed to have produced wine since 2000 B.C. It is one of Italy’s largest wine producing regions and is undergoing a winemaking revival of its own. Over 80% of the wines from Apulia (also called Puglia) are red, including the Primitivo, Negroamaro, Uva di Troia, Bombino Nero, Sangiovese, barbera, Aleatico and Malvasia Nero grapes. White grapes include Verdeca, Bianco d’Alessano, Bombino Bianco, Malvasia Bianco and Trebbiano. The major DOC wines are Salice Salentino, Castel del Monte, Copertino, and Primitivo di Manduria.

Campania boasts the historic cities of Naples, Avellino and Salerno, as well as the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and of course Mount Vesuvius. The rich and fertile volcanic soil makes this warm-weather macroclimate ideal for grape growing. The principal grapes found here are Aglianico, Aleatico, Barbera, Piedirosso and Sciascinoso for the reds, and Biancolella, Coda di Volpe, Falanghina, Fiano, Greco, Malvasia, Verdeca, and Trebbiano for the whites. Taurasi DOCG is the most famous of the reds, and is often referred to as the “Barolo of the South.”

Basilicata is one of Italy’s most mountainous wine regions, and is formed by the southern extension of the Apennines. The only DOC is the Aglianico del Vulture, made from Aglianico grapes grown on the slopes of Monte Vulture, an ancient volcano. Other grapes grown in Basilicata are Sangiovese, Uva di Troia, Montepulciano, Barbera, Malvasia Bianco, Moscato, Fiano, Santa Sofia and Bombino Bianco.

Calabria is almost entirely mountainous or hilly, with the mesoclimates within the region varied from subzone to subzone. There are 8 DOC wines, mostly producing red or rose wines. Some of the grapes produced here are Gaglioppo, Greco Nero, Nerello Cappuccio, Nerello Mascalese, Guarnaccia, Greco Bianco and Moscato. The most noted DOC wine, Ciro, comes from the Gaglioppo grape, and has been produced there for several thousand years.

The island of Sicily lies to the southeast of Calabria, and is one of Italy’s largest wine producing regions. The DOCs include the Cerasuolo di Vittoria, Enta, Malvasia delle Lipari and Moscato di Pantelleria, as well as Marsala, a fortified wine that resembles a Port, and is done both sweet and dry. Grapes include Nero d’Avola, Nerello Mascalese, Cataratto Bianco, Verdello, Inzolia, as well as Chardonnay, Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. The island of Sardinia is home to 18 DOC wines and 1 DOCG, the Vermentino di Gallura. Other grapes such as Cannonau (Grenache), Monica, Carignan, Vernaccia, Vermentino, Moscato, Nuragus and Malvasia are grown here. Viticulture was believed to have been introduced either by the Spaniards in the 14th Century, or perhaps much earlier, by the Phoenicians sailing from Lebanon 5000 years ago.

From this extremely brief overview, you can suddenly understand that there is a heckuva lot more going on in Italy than just Chianti and Pinot Grigio. Much more than this small “primer” (information derived from the Society of Wine Educators Study Guide) can provide. For more about Italian wine, visit Italian Made or our good friends at the Italian wine blogs Montalcino Report, On The Wine Trail in Italy and Mondosapore.

In the next few days, I’ll have some reviews up for some of the latest new Italian wines we have in our stores, and hopefully, I can get some of you as jazzed about Italian wines as I am.

SOMETHING ABOUT ITALIAN WINE

2009-10-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

A few months back, I was asked by good friend Michelle Lentz, one of the top wine bloggers (her site is My Wine Education), asked me to help contribute to her blog while her and her husband were out of town. I was one of several people that chipped in. My contribution was a two-part post on Italian wines – my passion. It is a difficult subject to cover when training wine sales staff, or just passing information to our customers, because the wine landscape is so vast and so complicated, that trying to squeeze even a fraction of that information into a brief amount of time is near-impossible. You see, while other countries in the world dedicated specific areas of their lands to viticulture (growing grapes), in Italy, there are vineyards everywhere, in each of the 20 regions (provinces actually), with each region as diverse as the others.

So I wanted to repost that article here, with some minor tweeking, due in large part to our renewed selling of the wines of Winebow, arguably the largest U.S. importer of Italian wines, including such wineries as Allegrini, Falesco, Tiefenbrunner, Zenato, Altesino, Prunotto, Bruno Giacosa, just to name a few. This import group was really the one that got me full-on interested in Italian wines, and I owe a large part of my continued affinity for these wines to Winebow.

Italy has long been in the top three in wine production, becoming #1 in 2005 with a total of over 8.5 million metric tons that year (over 2 million metric tons more than France!). Italy can be divided up into 4 main sections:

1. Northwestern Italy
2. Northeastern Italy
3. Central Italy
4. Southern Italy

The Northwestern portion of Italy consists of 6 regions spanning from the greater portion of the arc of the Alps and Apennines, which slope toward the Po River: Valle d’Aosta, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany. Topography, soil, climate and grape varieties vary from one region to the next, and much of this area is considered very prosperous, with the cities of Florence, Milan, Turin and Genoa all inhabiting this area. A total of 27% of Italy’s wines are produced here.

The Northeastern portion of Italy is also called the Tre Venezie, or “Three Venices”. The three regions are Veneto – the largest producer of DOC wines, Trentino-Alto Adige – which has the highest percentage of DOC wines comparatively to total output, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Together, these 3 regions producer a total of 17% of Italy’s wines.

There are 5 regions within Central Italy: Marches, Umbria, Latium, Abruzzo and Molise. There is ample sunshine and moderate temperatures, as well as rolling hills and mountains that provide an ideal environment for wine production. 19% of Italy’s wines are made here.

The Southern portion of the country has six regions: Campania, Apulia (Puglia), Calabria, Basilicata, and the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, all considered the cradle of Italian enology. This region is experiencing a new winemaking renaissance, and accounts for 37% of Italian wine production.

What compounds the issue of regional diversity is the fact that in virtually every region, there are a completely different set of grapes used in wine production, and even more complicated, is the fact that wines can either be labeled varietally (as in California) or by region (as in France) – even in the same region.

The wine laws of Italy are also quite difficult to fully understand, although the main things you need to understand are the D.O.C. (Denominazione di Origine Controllata, or controlled origin) is the bulk of Italy’s wines, denoting over 300 different DOC zones and at least 800 different table and sparkling wines. The first wine given DOC status was actually a white wine, the Vernaccia di San Gimignano of Tuscany in 1966 (the year I was born no less!).

DOCG wines are a step up, referring to the pinnacle of quality and stature. DOCG stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, or Controlled and Guaranteed origin. There are only 29 DOCG regions currently, including Barbaresco, Barolo and Moscato d’Asti of Piedmont, Franciacorta from Lombardy, Soave Superiore from Veneto, and Brunello di Montalcino, Chianti and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from Tuscany. Wines can be eligible for DOCG status if they have had DOC status for at least 5 years. A sub-zone of a DOC can be promoted separately from the entire zone as well. For example, Carmignano Rosso is now a DOCG, yet the Rosato and Vin Santo from this zone are still only DOC wines.

A new category was created in 1992 called IGT, or Indicazione Geografica Tipica. It is nearly equivalent to the French Vin de Pays, and was created in response to pressure to conform to the European Union’s standards. The IGT designation often goes to what Italian’s refer to as “non-traditional” varietal wines, such as a Veneto Merlot or a Tuscan Cabernet Sauvignon.

Tomorow, I'll finish this little primer with a breakdown of each region, and highlight some of each region's top wineries. Ciao!

WINE & MUSIC: MORRISSEY AND JEZEBEL

2009-10-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

I’ve always been one of those peripheral fans of The Smiths. Not because I don’t like, because I do, but because I kinda missed the boat. I wish I would have heard them when they first came out, but I was too busy listening to Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. It would be a decade later that I’d discover them, and a lot of the other Brit pop (The Cure, Stone Roses, etc.) and find a more kindred sound. The Smiths were always a bit controversial in their lyrics, which I seemed to gravitate toward, having grown up on horror novels and the poetry of Ginsberg and Bukowski. One of my favorite Smiths’ songs is “Meat is Murder” – a pro-vegetarian tune (despite the fact I am one of the biggest carnivores I know). Just the title alone is enough to bring a chuckle (no offense to my vegan friends).

Something a bit more apropos is their single “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want,” which comes off their compilation disc “Louder than Bombs.” Check it out here:

In thinking of The Smiths, a wine I think that would pair nicely with listening to one of their CDs would be the Jezebel Pinot Noir 2007 from Daedalus Cellars. I had to carry Daedalus wines in the stores just because of the whole tie-in with “Ulysses”, my favorite book. Of course the blokes in The Smiths are English, and James Joyce was Irish, but hey, it’s all the U.K. right?

The Jezebel Pinot Noir gives you some soft, smoky, red fruit notes with hints of earth and toasted hazelnut for a seductive, brooding Pinot Noir that would fare well with the sounds of tracks from “Strangeways, Here We Come,” or any song from The Smiths, or even Morrissey himself.

(Reports came in that Morrissey collapsed onstage and was taken to a hospital. We at UTGT hope for a speedy recovery. Cheers, mate.)

JRE PETITE ROUGE 2006

2009-10-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

I met John Eppler of JRE wines a couple of months back, when one of our customers, Larry, brought him by just to see what we were all about and they came by on a Saturday afternoon, when the joint was really rockin'. We had carried John's wines before, as they had previously been with two other distributors. Now, he was on to Heidelberg. The JRE wines would seem to just get lost in other books, but with Heidelberg, John was hoping for a new start in this area.

The JRE Petite Rouge 2006 is a blend of 44% Petite Sirah, 41% Syrah, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Petit Verdot. A sort-of Rhone/Bordeaux tag-team, this wine is deep, dark purple in the glass, with all kinds of violet, currant and dark berry fruit in the nose. It is rich, opulent, and shows creamy tones with plums, blackberries, cassis and notes of milk chocolate and mocha on the finish. This is one of those wines that will be in soon, but right now, you have to wait for it.

SPRING VALLEY VINEYARDS URIAH 2006

2009-10-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have been a huge fan of SVV for several years, and for us in KY, it was a big deal that the winery was purchased by Chateau Ste. Michelle because that meant, at long last, I could finally carry the wines of SVV in our store. Granted, there isn't a lot of the Spring Valley Vineyards Uriah 2006 to go around, but if I could sell some bottles, I was pleased nonetheless.

The Uriah is a beautiful blend of 54% Merlot, 33% Cabernet Franc, 7% Petit Verdot and 6% Malbec. It is every bit as Bordeaux as a St. Emilion or a Pomerol, both in composition and in style. Winemaker Serge Laville, a Bordeaux expat himself, lends all his expertise in crafting this gorgeous wine. There are layers of dark berry fruit in the nose, with touches of mineral and wood. On the palate, blackberries, black currant, anise and cedar dance atop French Oak essence and a strong backbone of tannin and acidity. What you have here is a beautiful wine.

Visiting Spring Valley Vineyards first on my first trip to Washington state, I experienced the origin of this marvelous wine, and learned a little bit from winemaker Serge as well. In tasting this wine, I hope you see a little of what I have seen, and experience a bit of what I have experienced. You too, will be a believer.

TAMAS ESTATE DOUBLE DECKER RED 2007

2009-10-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

One thing I just stumbled onto recently was the new Tamas Estate Double Decker Red 2007, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah and Barbera that leads you into a really nice, crowdpleasing red blend that offers good red and black fruit aromas and flavors, good weight and grip on the palate, and a smooth and easy finish for those last hurrahs on the grill before winter comes.

I like the new direction Tamas Estates is going, leaving behind the Cal-Itals they were known for a decade or so ago, opting for a more universal appeal with wines like the Double Decker red. Give it a try!

PANARROZ 2007

2009-10-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Just when I return from Washington State, I am shown a wine that for years, I have not been able to get, because of one of those archaic exclusivity agreements, and they (the distributors carrying this brand) tell me it is going national. Cool, I grin silently inward as they pour me the Panarroz Red 2007 from Jumilla. A bright blend of Monastrell (Mourvedre), Garnacha and Syrah, this 100% tank-fermented red is all about bright red and black fruit aromas and flavors, hints of white and black pepper and even some floral notes that give you plenty of acidity to lend itself to all your everyday meals.

Give this wine a go and join me in welcoming the importer of this particular wine into the 21st Century!

HOW K2 GETS HIS GROOVE BACK

2009-10-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

Getting back into the groove – finally – after a few weeks in the store – I have been inundated with a lot of direct import shipments, new wines and new vintages, and a slew of blowouts. As any retail buyer will tell you, the media may be saying the economy is looking up, but with unemployment still in the double-digits, people are still living day-to-day, and that disposable income so many of us were banking on (groan!) is just not there anymore. So it is more important than ever before to keep prices down and inventory down (not easy to do thanks to those troglodyte reprobates in the Kentucky legislature triple-taxing wine and spirits here in our great Commonwealth). In order to keep prices down, bulk buys are almost a necessity.

So this week, I will bring some wine “reviews” to you, in the midst of my newest shipments from Winebow and The Grateful Palate, new wines from Hitching Post, Alma Rosa, Panarroz, Almirez, Tamas Estate, and upcoming additions from good friend Terence Hughes and his Domenico Selections, John Eppler’s JRE wines, and some impending nuggets from Washington State.

In the meantime, I leave you with one of my favorite good mood songs from Ace Frehley – “New York Groove” – a favorite from the ‘70s. Cheers!

WINE & MUSIC: THE CURE AND BOOKWALTER

2009-10-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

I have been having a helluva time re-acclimating myself to Midwest time – just 5 days on the west coast and I am wrecked. I’ve been processing a lot of different ideas, notions, vibes, etc. and one of the things that I have been doing to readjust to my surroundings is listening to some old The Cure. Yeah, call me crazy but that shrill-melancholy vocal styling of Robert Smith is just what I need to get my morose-mojo back.

I wasn’t into them when they first came out back in the ‘80’s. I really didn’t show up for the party until the early-‘90’s, when a friend of mine played “Disintegration” for me. The song “Fascination Street” is still one of my all-time favorites. Check it out here:

Still thinking about the wines of Washington State, one that has been great to drink, in remembering all that was phenomenal about the trip, is the Bookwalter Subplot NV No. 23, a smooth, lush blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, and even Barbera, that is full of plush, velvety notes of red, blue and black fruit flavors, aromas of spice and berries, and a long-lingering finish that will forever conjure a night beneath the Pacific Northwestern skies, at the foot of the Cascades, nestled comfortably in the bosom of Mother Earth.

The Cure and Bookwalter – an odd combination, yet one that works the magic back into the strange world we fumble around in.

WASHINGTON WINE ROAD TRIP, EPILOGUE: WOODPECKER'S GHOST

2009-10-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

So what did I take away from this trip I have been waxing lyrically about for two weeks now (my coworkers are ready to tar and feather me ritualistically en masse)?

For starters, Washington IS a phenomenal state, and their wine industry IS legitimately on par with the rest of the great regions of the world. They (the WA winemakers and growers) have nothing to be timid about and everything to be proud of when it comes to their craft.

Columbia Valley IS NOT in South America, but in one of the most beautiful places on earth - Washington State. It was never all that noticeable before, but now, when I mention the region "Columbia Valley" to customers, they either think Chile, Argentina, or Oregon. Why on South America? I guess they think of the country, which is spelled C-O-L-O-M-B-I-A, not Columbia. And Oregon, well, so many wine textbooks have spent decades putting Oregon and Washington together as one subject, when they are two completely different regions (despite the fact that there are 3 AVAs the two states share).

The breadth in experiences amongst my fellow roadtrippers was awe-inspiring. Whether they realized it or not, I was seriously impacted and influenced by them, even though I only got to know a handful of them. A big shout-out to Doug Zucker (who ended up on most of the tours I was on), Director of Wine Operations at Stew Leonard's in Norwalk, CT; D'Lynn Proctor (the baddest man in Texas), Sommelier and Wine Educator at Grailey's Fine Wine in Dallas; Patrick Brendel (my unofficial drinking buddy), from Atlantic Wine in Atlanta, Sean Chaudhry (the funniest man I have met in a long time); GM and Owner of Hinsdale Wine Shop, in Hinsdale, IL; Rhett Gadke, Wine Director at Bounty Hunter Rare Wines in Napa; Steve Hamm (I seem to see you everywhere), Wine Buyer for Whole Foods in Columbus, OH; Rachael Johnson, sommelier at David Burke's Primehouse in Chicago; Aaron Patrick (the man who never seemed to come down), Sommelier, Bourbon Steak in Scottsdale, AZ; Jay Yang, owner/wine buyer Smyrna World of Beverages, Smyrna, GA; and to everyone who "tripped" with me for a week.

There were so many M.S.'s, M.W.'s, C.W.E.'s, C.S.W.'s and the like on the trip, I almost felt like I'd choke to death on alphabet soup. It was extremely humbling and motivating at the same time and for the experience, I am indebted to all who participated.

There was a lot of talk about tipicity out on this trip. Soil tipicity that is. You hear about it so often when talking about European wines, and to a lesser extent, from other places in the New World of Wine. Yet, Washington, with all of its fledgling aspects of their wine industry, seems like they are unsure what "terroir" may be indicative of their wines. And while that question seems presently unanswerable, the real fact is that the wines of Washington State have enormous character of fruit and tannin, a testament to the love and passion the growers and winemakers of this region exert into their wares. Whether it be the value wines of Hogue, Covey Run, and Columbia Crest, to the ethereally-crafted higher-tiered wines of Leonetti, Quilceda Creek, DeLille and Cote Bonneville, the wines - red, white, sparkling, and dessert - are exemplary across the board.

While I admit, the trip has me a bit gobsmacked and awestruck. Yet I was a believer in these wines BEFORE I went. It is simply that there aren't that many available in this part of the country. Now, I am on a mission to bring as many of these wines to the market as I can. It won't happen overnight, and it will take some convincing - but as I show off these fantastic wines to my customers, there will be many a convert on the horizon, I assure you all.

Once again, thank you to Shayn Bjornholm, WWC Executive Director Robin Pollard, Marketing Director Chris Stone, Communications Director Gary Werner, Senior Communications Mgr. Ryan Pennington, Senior Marketing Manager, Madeline Dow, Marketing & Events Coordinator (and the Grand Marshall of the Road Trip Parade) Rob Andersen, and Communications Coordinator Erica Waliser, for an extraordinary experience.

To find out more about the Washington Wine Commission, and all there is to know about Washington Wines, visit http://www.washingtonwine.org/.

WASHINGTON WINE ROAD TRIP, DAY FIVE: THE WOODPECKER'S LAST STAND

2009-10-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday (October 8) was the end of the road. Waking up in Woodinville, I couldn’t believe that the trip was coming to an end. It was a bit heartbreaking, because I met a lot of great people, experienced a phenomenal part of the country, and learned more in 4 short days than I have in the last 15 years. Yet here it was, the 8 a.m. wake-up call, heading to my final winery exercise at Columbia Winery, which was just across the street from Chateau Ste. Michelle.

Sitting down with Linda Conklin, our winery host for the day, as well as Kerry Norton, the current Director of Winemaking, we tasted blind through 4 vintages of single vineyard Cabs from Columbia, all made by the late David Lake. Three of these Cabs came from the Red Willow Vineyard and the 1993 vintage, which bore David’s name prominently on the label, came from the Otis Vineyard, another great source for them.

Our task was to put them in order from oldest to youngest, with the 1993, as well as the 1999, 2002 and 2003 vintages. These wines were impressive, and surprising. The ’93 showed well, yet leveled off a bit as the time went on. Yet the other three were still babies, opening up and evolving in the glass as Kerry talked about David, the future of Columbia, his difficulty in taking the job, and our time spent in Washington State. We took a look at soil samples from their different vineyard sources, and watched as the fog that lay thick across Columbia’s front lawn dissipated, revealing an absolutely gorgeous day.

The rest of the road trippers arrived for our last comparative tasting, this one on Cabernet Sauvignon, led again by our Education Director Shayn Bjornholm, along with panelists Bob Betz M.W. and fellow roadtripper Fred Dame M.S., President of the Guild of Sommeliers. I stared at these wines with all the attraction of an ex-girlfriend, the one that drove you crazy, but you missed something terrible. Guess a hangover will do that to you. Three stunning Washington Cabs from Walla Walla Vintners, Cote Bonneville and Col Solare, followed by 6 blind Cabs, 3 more Washington State Cabs (Buty, Feather and Woodward Canyon) mixed in with Chateau Lascombes Margaux, Joseph Phelps Napa and Jim Barry from Australia.

The day was winding down as the WWC crew rounded us up and bussed us just minutes down the street to our final stop, a farewell luncheon at DeLille Cellars with our host, DeLille co-owner Jay Soloff. A fitting way to end the trip with the man who kicked things off, at least for me, Jay’s winery is a beautiful, almost Chateau-like place, with phenomenal grounds, an intimate tasting room, and even some sheep residing in a paddock next door.

We tasted some great wines from DeLille and Doyenne (their Rhone label), as well as more fantastic wines from around the Woodinville area. Lunch was served, and Education Director Shayn and the WWC staff thanked us for being a part of this trip. It was a remarkable ride that I owe eternal gratitude to Shayn and everyone at the Washington Wine Commission for inviting me, and allowing me to share in this “fantastic voyage.”

Next time, what I took away from this trip.

WASHINGTON WINE ROAD TRIP, DAY FOUR: WOODPECKER SINGING IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT

2009-10-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday (October 7) was a busy day for us Road Trippers. Today, despite a later wake-up call (7 a.m.), we were spending most of the afternoon driving from Yakima Valley to Woodinville, a 3 hour trip (feeling a bit like Gilligan). Our day began though with some winery exercises (a reverse of the previous day), with my group hopping the bus aptly named “Truckin’” to sojourn off to Hogue Cellars.

When we arrived at Hogue, we were initiated into the surprisingly fascinating art of data collecting regarding the phenolic content of Hogue’s wines. It is apparently a really big innovation in winemaking, so much so that after a ten-year study, this manner of statistical analysis is being sought after by winemakers around the world. I have always known Hogue’s red wines were particularly big and tannic – I still have a few older vintage Reserve Merlots in my cellar. Now I know why. The research they have spent a decade compiling has yielded dramatically powerful, forceful wines with enormous tannic grip.

The day became a bit convoluted itinerary-wise when we met up in the parking lot of Airfield Estates to switch buses and go off onto our vineyard exercise, which saw me board “Low Rider” and head out to the acclaimed Bouchey Vineyard, source for wines from Betz Family, McCrea, DeLille, Long Shadows, Three Rivers, and many more. Dick Bouchey took us on a tour of several vineyard lots before coming to rest at a particular plot, where we met up with his wife, and a view of numerous grape varieties and a few examples of their finished wines. Tasting the grapes and then tasting the wines made from these grapes was an interesting exercise, one that gave us a more complete perspective of what it takes to create these beautiful wines. Of course, it wouldn’t have been complete without some food to ease the imminent afternoon buzz, topped off by Mrs. Bouchey’s amazing chocolate truffles (I think I have a cavity from the four I ate).

From there, we stopped off at a general store, where one of my fellow roadtrippers picked up some homemade fried chicken, and we headed out to what I feel was the highlight of the trip, a visit to the venerable Red Willow Vineyard.

Red Willow Vineyard can be found at the northwest corner of Yakima Valley, on the southern slopes of Ahtanum Ridge, near the Yakima Indian Reservation. Mike Sauer, the legendary vineyard manager there, oversees some of the most hallowed ground in Washington State, something akin to La Tache, Richebourg, or La Chapelle. Indeed, atop one of the hilltops on the property, sits a small chapel, similar to the one found in Northern Rhone’s La Chapelle vineyard. On this site, Mike Sauer, longtime Columbia winemaker David Lake, Washington viticulturist Dr. Walter Clore, and others, planted the very first Syrah vines here, and as legend has it, buried bottles of Hermitage and other Northern Rhone reds to edify the vines, show them what they were to grow up to be.

It was there that we attended a Comparative Syrah tasting, led once again by our Education Director, along with speakers Mike Sauer, Gramercy Cellars winemaker Greg Harrington, and our fellow roadtripper, Jason Smith M.S., the wine director for the Bellagio in Las Vegas. It was a bit somber due to the fact that Washington State wine pioneer David Lake has passed away earlier in the week, succumbing to a long illness. Mike was still reeling from the loss, and offered up a touching toast to his dear friend along with us. I would say that my visit to Red Willow was almost a religious experience.

Leaving Red Willow, we boarded the buses and headed off for Woodinville, where we hit the hotel, what would be our final night’s stay in Washington, before venturing off to Chateau Ste. Michelle for a magnificent dinner with such terrific winemakers as Bob Betz – another Washington wine luminary, John Bigelow (of JM Cellars) and Brennon Leighton of Efeste.
After dinner, we returned to the hotel, where I decided that the mass quantities of wine were not enough, and exercised some of my homesick demons with a few glasses of Jack Daniels and cola. The hangover gods would have something marvelous in store for me in the morning.

Next up, the finalé!

WASHINGTON WINE ROAD TRIP, DAY THREE: HERE COMES THE WOODPECKER

2009-10-16T06:37:00.001-07:00

Tuesday (October 6) was somewhat muted chance to be more sightseer than frantic participant in the Road Trip. A 7 a.m. wake up call found us taking in a slower-paced breakfast before climbing aboard “Truckin’” for our vineyard exercise, today being held at Goose Ridge.

Goose RidgeVineyard is found in Richland, Washington, and is considered the largest contiguous vineyard site in the entire state, encompassing over 1400 acres (which comparatively speaking, the entire Red Mountain AVA is less than 1100 acres). Goose Ridge provides fruit to several large wineries, including Chateau Ste. Michelle, the leader in the Washington Wine industry.

We got another lesson in canopy management, and got to take a bird’s-eye view of a mechanical harvester picking Merlot (very cool, but don’t try this at home). Goose Ridge makes wine under its own label, yet only uses about 20% of its fruit for its own purposes. It is a very large operation, and I had renewed interest in their wines (look for their Merlot and G3 in our stores soon).

We ventured to the restaurant Anthony’s on the River for a luncheon hosted by Gordon Brothers owner Jeff Gordon (no relation), and from there, my small group went to our winery exercise at Gordon Brothers, with winemaker Tim Henley. Instead of the usual stuff, Tim opted to let us try some 2009 Merlot, still in tank, and after trying examples of wines aged in various oak barrels, asked us our opinions on what type of oak to use on his newest juice.

Returning to the hotel, we got a small break before heading off to Precept Brands’ Canyon Ranch vineyard site, where we would meet up with various Columbia Valley winemakers for a regional tasting and a homespun barbeque, under the stars.

I found a lot of amazing wines at this tasting, like Bunnell Family’s Mourvedre, which was every bit a Bandol, and the wines of Airfield Estates (really amazing values), Owen Roe (please come to KY, y’all), the Barnard Griffin Shiraz Port (coming soon), and the wines of Terra Blanca and Cote Bonneville. I visited John Bookwalter, whom I met just prior to the trip, and tasted through his outstanding reds again (The Protagonist rules!). At dinner, we were joined by winemaker Kerry Shiels of Cote Bonneville and National Sales Manager Leo Kirk of Kestrel (terrific wines too, by the way.

We also discovered the playhouse that sat adjacent to the dinner – a renovated barn equipped with a bar, a pool table, air hockey table, and other leisurely sundries that made the night complete. My fellow roadtrippers were kids in a candy store, and the camaraderie was at a phenomenal level.

Next stop, Yakima Valley!

WASHINGTON WINE ROAD TRIP, DAY TWO: FLY LIKE A WOODPECKER

2009-10-15T05:56:00.001-07:00

Monday (October 5th) was an early one. After sleeping off the middle-aged pain I just had to encounter my first trip to Seattle, I awoke at 4:30 a.m. (well, it was 7:30 back home, usually when I was already in the car and on the way to work), to shower and collect myself before heading back to Sea-Tac to fly to the wee-little town of Pasco, WA (part of the Tri-Cities area). All was good, and the WWC was keeping us on schedule until we arrived at the gate and discovered our little plane was delayed nearly an hour.

Yeah.

After touching down in Pasco, we boarded our appropriated buses (I ended up on the one called “Born To Run”) and headed out to our first vineyard exercise in Walla Walla. I was lucky enough to go to one of my favorite wineries, Spring Valley Vineyards. Hanging out in the vineyards (after a really brief breakfast – something had to be abbreviated to put us back on time) with winemaker Serge Laville, we got our first lesson in canopy management, or how we keep from turning the grapes into raisins 101. Serge walked us through row after row of beautiful Merlot and Cabernet Franc vines, as well as demonstrating the various stages of a wine’s evolution by tasting some wines in varying stages of ferment.

Once done, “Born to Run” headed to the Marcus Whitman Hotel in downtown Walla Walla, where we met up with the rest of the group for a Comparative Riesling Tasting, to be led by our Education Director, Shayn Bjornholm, and a panel of Riesling experts. Washington prides itself on being a world leader in Riesling, and I believe (if memory serves) the Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling is the top selling Riesling in the world. I may be wrong there, but you get the idea – Washington is a big player when it comes to this noble grape. The format for this tasting was simple: we tried 3 Washington State Rieslings, and then tasted 6 more Riesling blind, to determine which ones were Washington State, and which ones were of more international origin (Australia, Germany, Austria, Alsace, etc.). It was a very fascinating exercise, one that I know opened many eyes (and palates) in that room.

After the tasting, lunch was served in the parking lot, via the Taco La Monarca taco truck, which serves up the best f-n tacos on earth. It was dine-on-the-run, as we were scooped up by our Walla Walla winery hosts, and transported to various wineries for our afternoon exercises. My small group headed out with Chad and Corey, winemakers for Dusted Valley Vineyards, to do a few chores in their facility such as “punch-downs” and “pump-overs” and we even went all Bill-Nye-Science-Guy by working a bit in the lab (my Liberal Arts background really helped in that part of the exercise).

Dinner was precluded by a tasting of nearly 20 producers from the Walla Walla, all conducted at L’Ecole Winery’s tasting room. Some of the best wines from Abeja, Beresan, Bergevin Lane, Buty (pronounced Beauty), Cougar Crest, Dunham, Dusted Valley, Gramercy, L’Ecole (of course), Long Shadows Vintners, Nicolas Cole, Northstar, Pepper Bridge, Reininger, Seven Hills, Sleight of Hand, Spring Valley, Walla Walla Vintners, Waterbrook, Waters, and Woodward Canyon were present. I was looking forward to Tamarack Cellars being there, but alas they were a no-show.

Some of the standouts were everything from Abeja and Buty, the Beresan Cabernet Franc, the Nicolas Cole wines, the Seven Hills Pentad, and the Apogee and Perigee from L’Ecole, although I must say I didn’t have a bad wine all night.

We were served dinner just a walk down the road at L’Ecole’s next door neighbors, Woodward Canyon, and were plunged into an evening of debauchery and reverie, with several of the local winemakers joining us. It was a very communal spirit that permeated the day, with the strange feeling that we were more extended family than mere guests. Day two had truly been an amazing day.

Next stop, the Tri-Cities!

WASHINGTON WINE ROAD TRIP, DAY 1: THE WOODPECKER HAS LANDED

2009-10-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

I flew out of CVG early Sunday morning (October 4th), on a long flight non-stop to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, en route to the rendezvous for the 2nd annual Washington Wine Road Trip, a little extravaganza put together by the Washington Wine Commission to promote all things Washington State Wine. My travelling companions would be a small, eccentric collection of fellow winos for a 4-day caravan ride across the state and back, visiting some of the best vineyards and wineries in the Pacific Northwest.

I arrived at Sea-Tac, and made it to one of the first shuttles to the hotel in Seattle, the Edgewater Inn, which sat majestically right upon the Puget Sound, just a short walk from the Space Needle. Meeting up with the first of the group, we hooked up with DeLille Cellars co-owner Jay Soloff for lunch and a few brews at a local sports bar, catching some football scores before jumping into the business of Washington State wine.

Meeting back at the hotel, we were introduced to two of the co-conspirators of this cavalcade of wine decadence, Washington Wine Commission Director of Education, Shayn Bjornholm M.S., and Marketing & Events Coordinator Rob Anderson (who I will hereby dub, “The General”). A quick orientation, and they gathered us up in buses and shuttled us over to the Space Needle for a nice, relaxed introduction to some of the best wineries of the Puget Sound area. One of my favorites, Cadence, was in attendance, pouring their gorgeous red Bordeaux blends, as well as the wines of Andrew Will, Syncline, McCrea, Camaraderie Cellars, Soos Creek, San Juan Vineyards, Tsillan Cellars, Vin du Lac and Walter Dacon. What stood out for me, besides the amazing view of the city from the Space Needle’s SkyLine level, were the new entry-level Coda from Cadence, The Cuvee Elena from Syncline, and the Andrew Will Two Blondes.

Of course, I did something I hadn’t done since my last trip to San Francisco – I pulled muscles in my lower legs (must be walking in very hilly cities), so I ducked out of the tasting, pausing long enough to take some pictures from the top of the Needle, before hailing a cab and skulking back to my room to rest up for an earlier departure the next morning.

I met quite a few of my future travelling-companions, as well as some of the terrific WWC staff, and looked forward to a long day of hitting the road and getting out to Walla Walla. Alas, the lightweight in me was already showing.

Next time, the real excursion begins!

WINE & MUSIC: WASHINGTON WINE ROAD TRIP, THE SCORE

2009-10-12T05:32:00.000-07:00

Last week, I had the privilege of attending the 2009 Washington Wine Road Trip, orchestrated by the folks at the Washington Wine Commission, and illuminated by such wineries as L’Ecole No. 41, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia, Abeja, Bunnell Family, Bookwalter, DeLille Cellars, and nearly 75 more. Wine Buyers and Sommeliers from all over the country were along for the ride, on buses called “Free Bird”, “Truckin’”, “Low Rider” and “Born To Run”. 40 attendees in total, from Vermont, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco – it was truly a national group.

WWC Education Director Shayn Bjornholm and his team of Washington oenophiles led us from Seattle, to Walla Walla, to Yakima and Woodinville, highlighting a comparatively young wine industry that in my mind, is far and away superior to California in terms of variety, value and exuberance. And in meshing great wines and scenery, they even provided a great classic-rock-tinged soundtrack for the drunken choreographic aspect of our trip. Songs such as “Free Bird”, “Life is a Highway” and “Takin’ it To The Streets” served as backdrop for a 4 day excursion through vineyards and mountainscapes. I only wish they would have put on the greatest road trip wake up song in Deep Purple’s “Highway Star”. Check it out:

Over the course of this week, I will highlight some of the wonderful stops and some of the great wines we were able to taste and witness being made during harvest. Washington wines deserve to be included in the amphitheater of great wines from places such as Bordeaux, California, Burgundy, Germany, and the Rhone, and hopefully, after this week, you’ll have some idea of why.

BENT OVER ONCE, BENT OVER TWICE

2009-10-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

In this business, you always try to politely decline certain brands, because somewhere down the line, a company may have burned you in one manner or another, yet in the future, you may still have to work with them. Early on here at LDWS, I was introduced to a particular portfolio of European wines that I was excited about, and ordered an ample first shipment in. The supplier and the distributor were both excited as well, yet the product was delayed due to various legal snags, until finally, it (the order) showed up, unannounced, at our main store. Typically, an order of this size goes to our warehouse, where (at least at that time), we divided up what we needed, and sent it to the store down the street, keeping excess backstock in a more manageable environment.

As if that weren't enough, the order was missing items, some items were out altogether, and many vintages were not the ones I had ordered. Upon some sleuthing, I determined that the distributor's sales force was pulling sample bottles out of our order (shipped directly to the distributor from the supplier), and prices were misquoted, etc. etc. etc. Needless to say, the experience left such a bad taste in my mouth, I sent it all back to the distributor, and ended my relationship with this supplier before it even began.

Now, the importer has returned, with a new wholesaler. I have been approached with these wines several times. They are good wines, and they do get those wonderful reviews that we retailers (have to) love so much. Is it time to let bygones BE bygones? Or am I just asking for it all over again? Many of the doubts have been alleviated with the new wholesaler and a new broker for these wines, yet I am still on the fence. And with so many wines out there, should I really even worry about all of this?

WHAT COMES IN THE MAIL SOMETIMES

2009-10-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

I get some goofy stuff in the mail here at the store. My boss hates getting solicitation stuff so he has sometimes concocted aliases like Todd Jones and Candy Kane (that one always makes me chuckle). Most of the stuff I get though is from wineries, almost as if I can order these things THROUGH THE MAIL. Wouldn't that be nice, eh?

I got a flyer from one of my favorite impossible-to-get wineries, Spottswoode, the other day. Honestly, in my lifetime, I have managed to finagle maybe 2 bottles, and that was just from the 2005 vintage (so recently). Spottswoode is one of those legendary Napa producers that makes unbelievably powerful reds, the kind of Cab and Cab drinker really WANTS to drink. Yet getting offered any kind of allocation for this wine is kind of like trying to land a Golden Ticket from Willy Wonka.

I realize that the mystique must be kept up for restaurants when it comes to wines of this caliber (and price point). Especially seeing as how we here at LDWS are something akin to the "Lowball Express" if you catch the way I've drifted.

Perhaps this holiday season, we may land a few more bottles of the always impressive Spottswoode Cab. Or maybe the Grinch will still my Christmas again? (Damned Lehmann Bros./AIG/etc.)

AN APHRODISIAC FOR EVERYONE

2009-10-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, I attended a re-introduction seminar for The Australian Premium Wine Collection, featuring winemakers Allister Ashmead (of Elderton), Dean Hewitson (of Hewitson Estate), John Larchet (owner of TAPWC and wineries Wishing Tree and Hill of Content among others) and Patrick Gehrig, winemaker for Rutherglen Estates. During Patrick's portion of the seminar, we tasted through 5 of his wines, including one I have been very fond of for some time: the Rutherglen Muscat NV. Now, this particular "sticky" (as the Aussies call them), is made from the Muscat a Petits Grains grape, fortified, and completely decadent from the word "Go!"

It was a bit sad that this wine was served mid-seminar, because I honestly would of just curled up in a ball on the floor after a smoke and some spooning of the person next to me. Caramel, toffee, maple candy, mocha, gingerbread, cinnamon, roasted almonds and hazelnuts, spice box, coffee... it just went on and on and on. The depth and richness with which it played upon my palate, it was truly one of those HOT DAMN! moments.

Can't wait to take a bottle home for the Mrs. Mmmm mmmm mmmm!

WINE & MUSIC: CHRIS WHITLEY AND A NEW ITALIAN

2009-10-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Years ago it seems, a friend of a friend played a CD for me that would be an almost-surreal moment in my musical life. The artist was named Chris Whitley, and the CD was “Livin’ with the Law.” I think the year was 1991, and I was poised to embark on a strange new trip that would lead me through a frenetic marriage, the single best group of musicians with which I ever got to perform, and a stark, numbing breakdown that brought me back to my hometown and to a state of reinvention. Throughout all those times, I could always rely on the sounds of Chris Whitley to guide me on my way to a happier place and time, whether it was the heavy blues histrionics of his second CD “Din of Ecstasy”, to the accessibility of “Terra Incognita,” the simply beautiful “Dirt Floor” and on into his experimental discs “Rocket House” and “Soft Dangerous Curves” to his final releases, “Reiter In” (with his band The Bastard Club), and the stirring “Dislocation Blues” with Aussie bluesman Jeff Lang.

Chris’ music always seemed to watch over me, influencing me in some good way. Indeed, many critics thought Chris to be some wayward angel, possessed to stir our souls toward some unpronounced path to redemption. He passed away not long after my 39th birthday, in 2005 after suffering from lung cancer. His musical path wasn’t a popular one, opting to follow his strange muse down a different road, one that many never truly understood. I kind of think of him as our generations’ Robert Johnson, creating songs that seemed only the soundtrack to the thoughts and feelings within his own world and mind, and if anyone else was to hear them, that was fine with him. Take a listen to a live rendition of his song “Hotel Vast Horizon,” the title track to his 2003 release:

With music as stark and as haunting as Chris’, it seems odd to even bring up anything as trivial as wine, though there are those cherished bottles that have moved me much like Chris Whitley’s songs. One in particular is something I actually just had over the weekend, courtesy of new friend Terence Hughes, one of the geniuses at Domenico Selections, as well as my favorite distributorship, Heidelberg and good friend Brad Nichols. Unveiled to Shannon and myself, the Musto-Carmelitano Pian del Moro 2007 is 100% Aglianico del Vulture from the Campania in Italy. It is a dense, rustic, powerful red that is chock full of tannic goodness, leaving you salivating for something along the lines of an Osso Bucco or Bracciola. I like how the dark red berry fruit and the chalkiness of the wine really transported you to a happier place (wine does that for me, I guess ‘cos I gave up trippin’ ecstasy a long time ago).

Chris Whitley and the Pian del Moro from Musto-Carmelitano – it’s an odd combination, but to me, they are two gifts from the Big Man Upstairs. Saluté!

WHERE THE HECK IS THE SAN JUAN REGION?

2009-10-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

This month, I picked out two new wines from Argentina's San Juan region, which lies a bit north of the well-recognized Mendoza region. The wines are from Bodegas Cailla, the Alta Pinot Grigio 2008 and Alta Shiraz 2008. Both of these wines impressed me in that there were at once very unique in relation to their country of origin, and also to their grape varieties.

The Pinot Grigio 2008 is light, acidic, and clean, yet with a focused bit of ripe peach, nectarine and kumquat. There is a soft hint of white flowers in the nose, and the palate sees a round fleshy stone-fruit character that is remarkedly different from many of those Italian Pinot Grigios. The Shiraz 2008 is also somewhat different and unexpected. With hints of plums and figs, along with fresh-cut tobacco leaf and notes of mint and basil, it straddles the line between a Barossa Valley style Shiraz, and its cousin from the Northern Rhone. There is a good presence of acidity within its design, giving it terrific food-accompaniment potential.

I love it when I can find good wines at a great value, and with each of these clocking in under $10 a bottle, it's doubly cool.

POST-INVENTORY BLUES

2009-10-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

As a retail buyer, I think no matter what facet of the biz you are in, you want everything you bring into your store to be a success. Yet no matter how often the planets and stars line up in your favor, you are almost guaranteed to be "sitting" on inventory. I hate it. Not just because I hate staring at product that hasn't moved in months, but I know my owner sees that stuff, and I can hear him screaming at me in some parallel universe, "WTF were you thinking?"

My head is still metaphorically bleeding all over my desk right now, and there isn't an Exederin large enough to remove the tiny Migraine army that has just laid siege to my Hippocampus and Cingulate Gyrus (huh?). What that means for all you wine shoppers out there is something we like to call pinktagged. Sounds pornographic, I know. But we slap these sale signs on wines we want to just make go away, using these almost-hot-pink-colored card stock, to shout to all passersby, "Hey! Take me! I'm good and I am DQ'd!"

It's not that these wines are bad by any means. It is just that with the cyclone of new wines coming in almost-daily, some things are bound to get lost in the proverbial shuffle. Hence, pinktagged.

Inventory is excruciatingly meticulous, yet a necessary evil (kind of like Republicants and Demoncrats). It is the two-to-three day expanse of time I liken to a prostate exam done by Jack the Ripper. Invigorating!

Just a day in the life I suppose. Now back to your regularly scheduled chaos...

A BOUT OF EXISTENTIALISM AND OTHER RANDOM SUNDRIES

2009-10-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Every so often I tend to lapse into self-evaulation mode, assessing and reassessing what it is I am doing these days, especially in this business. I tend to have an overdeveloped sense of melodrama and a remarkably excessive tendency toward unnecessary urgency. What the heck does all of that mean? I am the living breathing epitome of self-doubt.

I have spent a year-and-a-half chronicling the daily machinations of my work, here on the front lines of the third tier, the retail side of the wine industry. I am by no means a representation of all that goes on in this business. I have a quirkiness all my own, for good and bad. The frustrations come in all guises, whether a competitor beats me to a great deal, I am shut out on one allocation or another, the dumbasses in our state legislature pass some stilted new tax, or some reviewer proports his or her opinions to be the be-all-end-all opinion for the industry. Whatever the case, I feel compelled to hurl my two-cents out into the blogger-verse as if my localized, blathering opinion can counteract the status quo.

Just having one of those semi-spontaneous moments of introspection.

FYI, I've added a couple of new blogs to the National Roll: a new Italian wine blogger, Jeremy Parzen, and his blog site, Do Bianchi, and Wine & Spirits Magazine's Peter Liem's blog, Besotted Ramblings and Other Drivel. Both are very cool reads.

CAPESTRANO MONTEPULCIANO 2007

2009-10-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Capestrano Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2007 is another great value red from the folks at Vias Wines. Made by one of the premier producers of the Abruzzi region, Cataldi Madonna, specifically for Vias. Montepulciano is one of those confusing wines that is both the name of a grape, and a region, yet are two completely separate wines. The Montepulciano grape typically comes from the Abruzzi region (as well as several other more Southern wine regions in Italy), and is thought to be primarily of the table wine variety – no Reserves or single-vineyards done from this grape (although there are some). The Montepulciano region is actually in Tuscany – a city where the famed resorts and spas of Italy reside. It is also home to the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano wines, which are made from Prugnolo (the regional clone name for Sangiovese).

Back to the Capestrano, this is a delicious, light-bodied red that is full of soft cherry and red berry fruit aromas and flavors, with hints of spice and earth. It is a terrific table wine, and durable for virtually any type of cuisine. Give it a try!

CANTELE SALICE SALENTINO 2006

2009-09-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago, I was re-introduced to one of my favorite Italian importers, Vias Wines, and a red blend from Puglia, the Cantele Salice Salentino Riserva 2006. The Salice Salentino DOC region is one of the most southernly wine regions within the Puglia (the “heel of the boot”). This particular producer’s Salice Salentino is a blend of 85% Negroamaro and 15% Malvasia Nera, and is primarily fermented in stainless steel tanks for a cleaner presentation of fruit. It sees a bit of malolactic fermentation to round off the acidity, lending to plusher presence on the palate.

I love the wines from Puglia, mainly because they are affordable, easy-to-drink, and extremely food-friendly, whether you’re having burgers, pizza, pasta or even some Sweet-n-Sour Pork. By design, they are built for food. The Cantele Salice Salentino is a terrific wine for dishes like the Baked Ziti I made (per my wife’s instruction) over the weekend. There is a bit of rustic, earthy character, yet there are loads of blackberry, mulberry, clove, and roasted herb notes throughout its smooth finish. Give it a try, and become an Italian wine convert tonight!

100 POINTS? SO WHAT

2009-09-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I think this beast will never die…

I saw last week on Tom Wark’s Fermentation blog that he has thrown his lot behind the 100-point rating scale, endorsing it, and saying that wine drinkers like it. I realize that many of the wine bloggers out there, along with a growing disgruntled contingency, were left with their jaws scraping the asphalt upon reading this, but like Tom, I have to agree with him, at least on the allusion that the scores make it easy for wine drinkers to find good wines.

However, I would have to disagree with him on just about everything else.

I spent all weekend debating on whether or not to chime in on the comments portion of Tom’s blog, or write about it here, or just simply let a sleeping dog lie. Obviously not one to leave the dog alone, I feel compelled to throw out another two cents into the cesspool of opinion, a pool that seemingly holds more garbage than anything else.

I agree with Tom that the 100-point scale has made it remarkably easy for wine consumers to breeze into their local wine haunt and pick up the latest 90+ trophy from Wine Spectator, Robert Parker, etc. But it has done something else too. It has taken away that explorative aspect that makes getting into wine so thrilling. Granted, many wine consumers just don’t have the time to do the research that many of us wine geeks (sommeliers, wine writers, winemakers, etc.) love to do. Yet I can’t tell you how many customers over the years I have talked to who tell me, “I bought this wine the other day… it was 92 points in (whatever magazine) and they said it was excellent… I took it home, and I thought it was terrible. Why?”

The easy answer is that that particular reviewer’s tastes and the customer’s are very different. Does that make the customer wrong? Hell no! Does it make the reviewer wrong? Again, no. The simple truth is that one person’s tastes are completely different from the next, and trying to place a cumulative score on something as subjective as a wine is near-impossible. Sure, it is done daily thanks to the Internet and the gazillion wine reviewers online at any given moment. Yet it would be difficult to say that their critiques carry into the majority of wine drinkers. Maybe yes and maybe no. The bottom line is that there are no absolutes, and anyone who says one reviewer or one palate is better than the next, is just crazy.

Over my career in this business, I have learned to “interpret” the reviewers” and detect their biases. I have come to rely mostly on Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar to give me the least biased, although they seem to be especially hard on Australian wines. Nevertheless, with Tanzer, each wine earns every point they get. Wine Spectator’s reviewers seem to have certain biases based upon the beats they cover (James Laube=Napa, Harvey Steinam=Australia, James Suckling=Tuscany perhaps), though the main bias seems to be the high-end wines, the ones that 95% of the wine consumers out there will never, ever try. I like Wine & Spirits because of the credentials many of their writers possess (lots of initials following many of the writers), and Parker is at least known for his impartialness (though most of the great reviews lean heavily on big, massive fruit bombs).

I’ve had these discussions with my owner, who was buying the wines here long-before me, and he will always say, “press is King.” And even though I see the immediate results at the register, ultimately, as I have discussed this with the editor of a major wine magazine, is that the time is now for the system to reinvent itself. We need something that is going to give the customer more information in as concise a manner as the simplistic 100-point score. As ones indoctrinated by the 100-point system via the American education system (I am beating that dead horse again), we simply see 90 points and think it’s an A- or a B+, depending upon where you grew up. Yet what does that really tell you about the wine? And how the heck did the reviewer come to that score? What sets it apart from all the other 90 point wines?

More people ask these questions all the time. And still more customers still don’t know what the heck the score is supposed to mean? I still have customers that see the score, and go, “so what?”

So what indeed.

WINE & MUSIC: OTIS TAYLOR AND GROS NORE BANDOL

2009-09-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

(I originally wrote this piece for the Web site my oldest friend Dale Adams runs and hosts for his music engineering company, The Architek. Dale is a recording engineer and producer in Atlanta, and thought it might be interesting content to write a post on some new music and wine, something we both appreciate. Though it was penned a year ago, I wanted to share it with everyone on Under The Grape Tree. This is an excerpt from the original post, entitled ."Haunting The Senses". The music is Otis Taylor’s “Truth Is Not Fiction,” and the wine is Gros Nore Bandol 2006.)

Otis Taylor is a bluesman in the rawest sense of the term, penning songs that are steeped in roots, folk and soul, choosing to utilize instruments like banjo and cello to paint stark, bitter landscapes that he labels “trance blues.”

My wife and I first became aware of him while watching the recent Mark Wahlberg movie “Shooter.” Part of the movie’s soundtrack was an amazingly stirring tune called “Nasty Letter.” Emotive and effecting, the story brings out raw, bloody feelings of longing and despair. Conjuring images of dust, dark and cold earth, it is amongst the most primal of songscapes I have heard since first hearing the old mono recordings of Robert Johnson and Elmore James.

There are 12 songs on his Truth Is Not Fiction CD. The first song on the disc, “Rosa, Rosa” is an homage to freedom fighter Rosa Parks. “Kitchen Towel” follows with the tale of a Native American family’s failure and brutal demise. “Comb Your Brown Hair,” “Babies Don’t Lie,” and “Be My Frankenstein” all touch on love, life and living in such a desolate, vividly provocative way, his vocals resonating up from subtle to berserk, reminiscent of Screaming Jay Hawkins. Like driving a long desert highway, as you come over the horizon, the song “House of the Crosses” delves deep into human suffering with a fictitious story of a young boy who grows up to be the prison guard to his murderous father. With only acoustic guitar and cello behind him, the story winds through a barren landscape.

With each passing song, the images of a long journey, wrought with anguish, foreboding and despair wash over you, with an underlying naked beauty that glimmered hope in at least the tiny corners of its tone. “Nasty Letter” chimes in with a cold reminder that love is not always kind, the story revolving around a harsh goodbye. Again, only acoustic guitar and cello are there to prop up the heartbreaking lyrics.

The record finishes up with the standard “Baby Please Don’t Go,” a plea to the listener to stay awhile, and give solace to the words and music Taylor constructs.

While I wanted to post the video for "Nasty Letter," what I found on YouTube was weird so check out the song "Walk On Water:"

So why Bandol? Well, Bandol in general is predominantly Mourvedre from the Provence in France. Legendary reds that cry out “dusty, earthy wines” the Gros Nore Bandol is indicative of the terroir – red clay and pebbles. The Mourvedre gives the wine a gritty tannic grip, like walking in a desert for days with no water. Grenache and Cinsault ease the dryness with glimpses of sexy red fruit, lending to its acidity and complexity. The Mourvedre however, gives the wine a dark, brooding depth, almost mysterious with its opaque color in the glass, and the dense, concentrated mouthfeel. Robust and feral, the wine gains momentum in the glass, taking in oxygen and releasing increasing glimpses into its shadowy personae.

Otis Taylor and Bandol. Light a candle, plug in, pour and enjoy.

STONEBROOK CABERNET FRANC

2009-09-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

I have to hand it to good friend Terry Shumrick, winemaker for Kentucky’s own Stonebrook Winery in Camp Springs. I am a HUGE Cabernet Franc fan, and to try a Kentucky Cabernet Franc – I was shaking in my boots. But much to my surprise, I was really knocked out. A ten dollar Cab Franc, from Kentucky, that tasted really good – who’d have thought?

Last night, we had Terry in the store to feature both his Stonebrook wines, and his ShumDaddy BBQ sauce, as he brought in some BBQ pork to share with our customers. Very cool, and a really great idea to venture down the road maybe 20 minutes, for dinner on a Saturday night (the only night they are open for dinner at the winery). Yet the Cabernet Franc – what a hit that one was!

Sure it is not Cheval Blanc, but it’s not a mortgage payment either.

Smooth, medium-bodied, with playful blue and black fruit aromas and flavors, it is a very accessible, user-friendly red wine that will be great for burgers and steaks on the grill. It is not a really tannic, stemmy tasting Cab Franc like some kind, with that overt vegetative aftertaste that makes you wish the winemaker took a pass on that Cab Franc fruit – no, this one is really good.

Cab Franc from Kentucky. Now anything is possible.

APPLYING CHAOS THEORY TO WINE RETAIL

2009-09-25T09:45:00.001-07:00

For starters, I am no mathematician, which sucks because I could use a bit better background on accounting and economics every now and again, but I can at least understand the numerical portion of supply-and-demand every time I get a paycheck. The impending OND season (October-November-December for all you non-retailers out there) is descending quickly, and as I have hinted before, it gets a little crazy around here.

The fun of it all is meeting new customers, and getting better acquainted with old ones, seeing their continuing evolution of the whole wine adventurer thing. It's nice to be a stop on their journey, and at times, it gets downright communal in here, like the general store or local diner of yore.

The downside of the chaos is the long hours, the in-fighting with staff and management, the disgruntled and short-fused lot that pop in on the days when you feel your most crappy. It never fails this heaping helping of "oh shit!" that comes one's way when wearing the uniform of wine schlub. Don't get me wrong, I love this job. But yeah, the days are coming when the 24-7 Christmas music makes you want to drive a steamroller over a crowd of little kids and puppies, and you'd seriously like to subject the ghost of Norman Rockwell to the eternal damnation of watching reruns of MTV's Real World forever.

Gearing up for the holidays, it is almost like a scavenger hunt, trying to find those deals and products that will one-up the competition, driving traffic off the highways and into OUR stores. The boss is screaming at me to pay more attention, harass the sales reps, pressure supplies, etc., customers are asking everyday for those "holiday blowouts" and suppliers are begging me to add all these brand "line extensions" at a time when the focus needs to be the best bargains I can get.

Ah, the joys of wine buying.

Adding inventory into the mix (which our stores are doing next week) and you have an expanding hole in the stomach and a spike of Biblical proportions in the blood pressure. But hey, I eat stress for breakfast (with big thick strips of bacon and strong black coffee, bee-yatches!).

Just taking a moment on a rainy Friday to bitch before the weekend. Bring on the chaos.

FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND

2009-09-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

I read today that Havens Winery in Napa is being liquidated. Essentially, it is no more, thanks to its most recent owner, Billington Imports, going out of business. My wife and I, along with our LD CVG wine dude Alfonse, visited the winery in 2004, and had time to chat with then-owner, Michael Havens. Michael sold the winery in 2006 to Billington.

It’s a real shame – Havens was known for making some of Napa’s best Merlots, and were even one of the few to produce a California Albarino. Not sure what Michael is up to these days, but it is definitely a sad day. My wife and I had bought a bottle of Havens Bourriquot on our wedding night, at the now-defunct Mushroom Wine Store in Mt. Adams (Cincinnati). We drank it not too long ago to celebrate an anniversary, so Havens has always had a memorable place at the Keith household. It seems as though we are hearing more and more about mainstay wineries dying at the hands of the big investors that have been swallowing up brands over the past few years. Check out Vinography's article today.

R.I.P. Havens Winery.

ANOTHER SLICE OF HUMBLE PIE

2009-09-23T07:55:00.001-07:00

Humble Pie – it must be my favorite dish, because my wife often likes to serve it to me whenever I am wrong about something (which is usually 99% of the time). Take for example the fact that I feared that my assistant Shannon, was not ready to take the first level of her Master Sommelier test. Indeed, it is a difficult program, and a very selective process attaining one’s Master Sommelier certification. Shannon is very young, and hasn’t been in the business for very long (despite the fact that Liquor Direct is a family business, run by her father). Those in my position would be understandably concerned.

Shannon, along with one of our newest team member’s, Corey S., ventured to Indianapolis Monday to undertake their first level MS test, and I am happy and proud to report that they both passed the exam. To coin an old Genesis album (I am old), “And then there were three.”
I have been really hard on Shannon. Her position here is unenviable in that she has a lot to prove. And no, I am not referring to gender in this business, which is tough enough, but that aspect is getting better. No, I am talking about age. Most people in this business tend to look at experience first and foremost, and a long, track record in the wine industry goes a long way toward respectability. Shannon is at a disadvantage in that department - she is in her early twenties. Yet what she lacks in experience, she more than makes up for it in intelligence and exuberance, and unfortunately, I don’t often give her enough credit for those.

I will more than likely continue to be hard on her, if only to try and motivate her to become the best she can be in this field. I only hope she can understand where I am coming from, and I hope that she sees that respect is something she is earning, and has earned, from me and from her peers.

Congratulations to both Shannon and Corey for passing, and for taking the first step toward becoming a Master Sommelier. And pardon me for I have to finish eating this last bit of pie...

A LONG-LOST COLLECTION RETURNS

2009-09-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

I've written a few things of late about our good friends at Tramonte & Sons, and today is no different. This small, family-run distributorship serving both Ohio and Kentucky, has just picked up The Australian Premium Wine Collection, a fantastic importer of quality, vineyard and terroir-specific wines from across the continent and country of Australia. With owner/winemaker John Larchet leading the charge, wineries such as Elderton, Rutherglen, Hewitson, and others, have become long-sought-after staples for any fan of Aussie wines.

This afternoon, I was invited to a seminar, hosted by Mike and Matt Tramonte, at Jag's Steakhouse in West Chester. There amongst several other restauranteurs and retail shop owners and buyers, we were treated to a "meet-n-greet" tasting with John Larchet, Dean Hewitson (of Hewitson Estates), Allister Ashmead (winemaker for Elderton) and Patrick Gehrig (winemaker for Rutherglen). 23 wines in all were featured from each winemaker (with John Larchet walking us through his projects The Wishing Tree, Hill of Content, The Old Faithful, and Tir Na'Nog).

For the first time, I actually "tweeted" my tasting notes as I was tasting, so feel free to check them out at http://twitter.com/k2whino. Suffice it to say, there wasn't a dud in the bunch. The only bad thing was that the very first wine of the event, the Hewitson "Lulu" Sauvignon Blanc 2008 was a no-show on account of being sold out. Aside from that, everything was amazing, and I say that with some surprise, specifically because I have become bored with Australian wine as of late. The whole over-the-top, high-alcohol, "I just got 109 points from Robert Parker" thing just sends me into fits. I taste so much wine at work, when I drink it at home, I want something that will go good with whatever the heck I am cooking/ordering in so something of the "left-handed" persuasion is best left to go on my pancakes, not in my wine glass.

With the wines from TAPWC, the wines are almost "anti-Australian" in that they are well-balanced, with enough fruit bombast for the Parker disciples, yet enough structure and elegance to satisfy the rest of us. And the big focus, thankfully, for TAPWC, is quality AND affordability. Wines like The Wishing Tree Shiraz 2006 and the Rutherglen Red 2006, are phenomenal reds for the price - both clocking in under $15 - while the Chardonnays from The Wishing Tree and Elderton, as well as the amazing Rutherglen Alliance 2008, are exceptional values for white wine, from anywhere in the world.

My favorite though, and this has always been my weakness, are the dessert wines of Australia - affectionately dubbed "stickies." The Rutherglen Muscat NV and the Elderton Botrytis Semillon 2007 are remarkably priced sweet wines that just finish eternally. The Rutherglen Muscat particularly was just divine hedonism, if there could be such a thing. It was one of those eyes-rolling-back-in-my-head moments that wasn't boredom, but ecstasy. And of course, the Elderton Command Shiraz 2005, TAPWC's answer to Penfolds Grange. A powerful, dense, concentrated Shiraz that possesses the ethereal prowess and density to weather a 20-year stint in one's cellar, or just a blow-the-doors-off-an-evening for friends or family at a hearty steak dinner.

Several of the wines from The Wishing Tree, Elderton and Rutherglen are returning to the store this week, after a lengthy absence from this market. And just in the nick of time too. My Australian section was getting pretty damn dull.

WINE & MUSIC: 30 SECONDS TO MARS AND LA SPINETTA

2009-09-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, so my wife accuses me of having a “bro-mantic” crush on actor Jared Leto, who also happens to front the band 30 Seconds To Mars. While I have to emphatically deny such scuttlebutt, I do really like the band, and yes, I do like his work in such films as “Fight Club”, “Requiem for a Dream”, “Lord of War” and “Panic Room.” The new 30 Seconds To Mars disc, “This Is War”, comes out in November.

I was a bit stunned when I first heard the band on the old Canadian music channel, Much Music. The song was “Edge of the Earth,” and I was shocked because it was actually really good. Most actors-turned-musicians tend to have some really contrived, boring, and sometimes just plain shitty music, but Jared, along with his brother, Shannon, and bandmate Tomo Milicevic, have been turning out some really impressive tunes. Check out the single “From Yesterday” off their second disc, “A Beautiful Lie”:

Likewise, it could be said I have a fairly big crush on Italian wines, with one in particular that I have been fond of for some time, La Spinetta Ca’di Pian Barbera d’Asti. In particular, the 2006 continues the long string of hits winemaker Giorgio Rivetti turns out year-after-year. A much fuller-bodied Barbera than its counterparts, the Ca’di Pian has the potential of aging up to 20 years, though it never makes it that long at my house. It has all the cherry and blueberry fruit you could want, with the perfect marriage of acidity for all those traditional Italian dishes. 30 Seconds to Mars and La Spinetta – an interesting duo that my wife will go on for eternity as being my two bromances. So be it.

CANNONBALL CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2006

2009-09-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

Every now and again, you come across a wine that really surprises you. As a wine buyer for two retail wine stores, I taste a lot of wine each and every week, and it is easy to become jaded and cynical with the parade of tired, flabby wines that were concocted by get-rich-quick-schemers or big-Parker-points-chasers who fail to find their focus. Much to my chagrin, our good friend and LD alum, Devon Ward from OH/KY distributor Tramonte & Sons, showed Ray and I the Cannonball Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 from California. A really sexy red that is 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Petite Sirah, 5% Petit Verdot and 3% Syrah, this inexpensive Cab has a lot to offer, considering we are all still in recovery-mode in this crappy economy. Who wouldn't like to get a good Cab for under $15?

Dark, robust and showing a surprisingly good level of concentration, this Cab demonstrates loads of blackberry, black cherry and baking spices in both the nose and on the palate. Red and black berry flavors continue through its long and satisfying finish. We'll be bringing it into our stores first week of October so look for it, and bring home a bottle or a case of this terrific new wine.

BOGLE PHANTOM 2006

2009-09-19T12:30:00.001-07:00

Bogle Phantom 2006... One of our staff favorites has just come back in stock, just in time for the cooler weather. This brawny, brooding blend of 49% Petite Sirah, 49% Zinfandel and 2% Mourvedre is dense, dark and full-bodied. This is the kind of wine that you'd serve during one of those "Beef...It's What's For Dinner" commercials, with a fresh grilled porterhouse coming off the flames, and actor Sam Elliott's voiceover still ringing in your ears. We usually like to have a good supply of it around here because it is definitely one of the high caliber selections in our wine arsenal.

Got steak? Lamb? Venison? Get Phantom.

ZINCINNATI ZINFANDEL 2007

2009-09-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

The Zincinnati Zinfandel 2007 is a concoction produced by McNab Ridge from Mendocino County, with our friends at Tramonte & Sons (of Mason, Ohio) overseeing the blend – including former LD alum Devon Ward. This is the second release of the wine from McNab Ridge and Tramonte, and is a stunning effort. Everything a Zin-lover looks for in a Zinfandel: juicy black and red berry fruit aromas and flavors, hints of vanilla and spice, a smooth mouthfeel, with just a little kick at the finish. Plus, this delicious red has some really well-balanced acidity for good measure. All-in-all, this is a great little wine that won’t be around for very long, so you gotta get it while you can (it is pretty much exclusive to this area, though you may be able to track some down at McNab Ridge in California). Cheers!

PARTNERING WITH THE LITTLE GUYS

2009-09-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, our Fort Thomas store manager, Ray, and I went up for a private tasting at the warehouse of one of our distributors, Tramonte & Sons. Devon, our Tramonte rep, is a former Liquor Direct employee who moved on to work the wholesale side of things with them several years ago, and she invited us up to try some of the new wines they have just acquired.
Tramonte & Sons is one of the “little guys” – a distributor who lives and breathes wine, and represents some pretty amazing up-and-coming wineries from California, as well as wineries and importers from around the world. They are fairly new to the game in this area, and do business in both Ohio and Kentucky.

Now, when I say Ray and I went up for a private tasting, it was not a big, over-the-top affair. It was just Ray, myself and Devon, popping corks in the warehouse and trying out a lot of great new wine, as well as a few things we already have in the store.

I won’t give you the play-by-play, but I will tell you that Ray, a 12-year veteran in the wine business, was really surprised and impressed by the roster of wines we tried. I too, was impressed by the great new acquisitions they accumulated. The Broadside Cabernet Sauvignon from Paso Robles winemaker Chris Brockway, The Hoopla Chardonnay from Oakville and winemaker Mitch Cosentino, the Il Campo, also from winemaker Brockway, and the St. Helena Winery Seduire from winemaker Kristian Story – these were just some of the amazing wines we tasted, and served as a terrific indicator for the things to come for this family-run wholesaler.

Matt Tramonte and his father Mike know what they are doing, and that is evident as they have become the distributor for probably my favorite Australian importer, the Australian Premium Wine Collection. Wines such as The Wishing Tree Shiraz, Elderton Command, Aramis Black Label, Tir Na N’og Grenache and Rutherglen Red will be back in the store, and I couldn’t be happier.

It is wholesalers like Tramonte & Sons that help make us successful by bringing to the market exceptional wines that our customers can enjoy and often come back for, again and again. We’ll be integrating some new selections from Tramonte in the coming weeks, just in time for the holidays. To everyone at Tramonte & Sons, thanks for having us, and thanks for being a great business partner.

CHATEAU LA CROIX MOUTON 2006

2009-09-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

My last stop on my latest Bordeaux value roundup is a Bordeaux Superieur, which is both an area of the Right Bank of Bordeaux, as well as a classification of quality. By definition, Bordeaux Superieur wines are basic wines that can come from anywhere within the Bordeaux appellation. However, there are delineated areas that are called Bordeaux Superieur.

Got it?

You can find them due east of the subregion of Pessac-Leognan, and due south of Graves. Or you may find it running between the Cote de Blaye and Cote de Bourg and the communes of Pomerol and St. Emilion. More often than not, the wines are primarily Merlot, with Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and/or Petit Verdot rounding out the blend.

The Chateau La Croix Mouton Bordeaux Superieur 2006 is a blend of 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot, and comes from the area just outside of St. Emilion, part of the stable of amazing wines from winemaker Jean Phillipe Janoueix. It is an impressive claret that shows off its cedary, black currant complexity, making the most of the impeccable fruit delivered by the vineyards of the Janoueix family. It has a good grip on the palate, and demonstrates a great deal of smoky, fruity aromas and flavors.

The interesting thing about Bordeaux Superieur wines in general is the latest controversy to roll out of the French wine industry. The current Bordeaux Superieur appellation is quite possibly soon to become Bordeaux Grand Cru – a confusing moniker to an already near-indecipherable list of names associated with French wines. While the French wine lawmaking body – the INAO – is deliberating the proposed name change, many feel that this is merely a ploy by the French wine industry to shake a few more euros out of the consumers. Whatever the case may be, I am satisfied simply by ignoring the controversy, and enjoying another glass of the Croix Mouton.

WINE & MUSIC: THE SUNDAYS AND DOMAINE DE NIZAS

2009-09-14T15:40:00.000-07:00

Back when my first marriage was in “disintegration” mode, I had discovered a band that for me at the time, was something really out of the norm. I was a rock singer – or more to the point – a heavy metal singer, and listening to something that was to be dubbed “dream pop” was virtually unheard-of. The band was a British quartet called The Sundays, fronted by the most wonderfully-sublime singer I had ever heard, named Harriet Wheeler. The Sundays were an innocent breath of fresh air, and my first introduction to them was their sophomore release entitled “Blind.” On the CD was the most incredible Rolling Stones cover I had ever heard – “Wild Horses.”

Every time I played the CD, I was transported to a place I needed to visit, a calm island of nowhere without any stress, pain or disappointment. I found more creative energy listening to The Sundays than I ever did listening to stuff like Megadeth and Anthrax (no offense to those guys because I am still huge fans of theirs too).

The only thing that disappointed me with The Sundays was the long span between CDs. “Blind” was released in 1992 and their next disc, “Static and Silence,” didn’t come out until 1997. And since that time, they have been on hiatus, singer Wheeler and her guitarist-husband David Gavurin are spending the time raising their two children (which I can’t fault them for at all). But their sound is something I have truly missed. Check out their cover of “Wild Horses”:

Something else that has always comforted me, though for different reasons is wine, and one of my favorite comfort wines is the Domaine de Nizas Coteaux du Languedoc. A big robust red blend of Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache, this has become one of the staples of the French section here at Liquor Direct, but also one of the staples of my home consumption and all the Autumn and Winter cooking I do. Especially when the weather starts cooling down, I love making a braised lamb or some slow-cooked beef stew with roasted root vegetables, and sit down with the Mrs. to a couple glasses of the Nizas Rouge and some simple home cooking.

The Sundays and Domaine de Nizas: wine and music meant to stir the heart and warm it too.

AND NOW, FROM THE LEFT BANK...

2009-09-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

Margaux is one of the more renowned Bordeaux communes, and is found on the Left Bank of the Gironde as part of the larger region of the Medoc. Considered a more Cabernet Sauvignon-driven wine, the reds of the Margaux are usually much bolder and more tannic than their Right Bank counterparts. The Chateau Paveil de Luze Margaux 2006 is a remarkably accessible, more plush red than many of its brethren, displaying lots of up-front red and black fruit aromas and flavors. It is a surprisingly concentrated Cab-based claret that shows off quite a bit of depth for its price range.

You could call this Bordeaux the house red Bordeaux for the supplier from which I buy this wine, for they carry it in multiple sizes (magnums, double magnums) so it is definitely what you could call a “core” Bordeaux for us.

The Chateau Paveil de Luze is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc for a rich, sultry red that will most certainly convert anyone who doesn’t already enjoy a good Bordeaux.

BRINGING SEXY BACK TO MERLOT

2009-09-12T12:10:00.001-07:00

Fronsac is a region that, prior to the Classification of 1855, was one of Bordeaux’s most popular wine producing communes. In the hills along the rivers Dordogne and I’Isle, this commune lies just west of Pomerol – what would be considered Right-Bank wines. The Chateau La Vieille Cure Fronsac 2006 is a remarkable new find for me. American-owned, this Chateau is quite impressive. Predominantly Merlot (75%) with the balance being made up of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon (20% and 5% respectively), this Bordeaux shows off its cedary and red fruit sinew, intermingling with some black currant, licorice, earth and morel notes – this would make for an excellent barbeque wine, or just steaks on the grill, with the smell of smoke and falling leaves in the background.

There are several other wines from Fronsac that you should seek out, including Chateau de la Riviere, Chateau de Carles, and Chateau Fontenil. Who knows, La Vieille Cure (or any of these other Chateaux) may just help bring the sexy back to Merlot.

SOMETHING UNIQUE AND INCREDIBLE

2009-09-11T11:35:00.001-07:00

So I am on vacation, and while I am “reviewing” a few 2006 Bordeaux reds while I am away from the store, last night my wife and I joined my assistant, Shannon, her mom, Susan, and good friend and co-worker Christina for the Kermit Lynch Wine Dinner at Turfway Park Racing Club last night. Hosted by the folks at Turfway, alongside our friends at Heidelberg Distributing, and winemaker Bruce Neyers serving as our guide for the evening, we ventured into a gourmand’s decadence with a champagne and appetizer reception and a seven-course meal that left all of the guests feeling unbelievably euphoric. Couple the dinner with an evening of horse racing (and horse track betting) and you have what was an extremely unique experience.

The event is part of a series of special events being held by Turfway in honor of their 50th anniversary in the region. It is a great facility, and much to our surprise, has an unbelievably talented chef in the name of Peter Haubi. Classically-trained, chef Peter showed off his old-world skills by turning out one incredible French-inspired dish after another, all paired up with some phenomenal wines from the Kermit Lynch portfolio. From the Veuve-Fourny Brut NV through the Clos Ste. Magdeline Cassis Blanc and Domaine Rousset Crozes-Hermitage, to the Domaine du Durban Muscat de Beaume de Venise – it was an amazing peek at what the Kermit Lynch portfolio has to offer.

Now, I have blogged about Kermit Lynch wines before, and with good reason. The wines Kermit represents are small-production, family-operated wineries, many of which have been in business for over a century (or two). I have always felt that the French section in our store was incomplete, at least until we were finally able to add the wines of Kermit Lynch to our shelves. The value and the quality found in these wines are second-to-none.

I don’t want to drone on about how amazing each sip and each morsel was, because I don’t want to gloat. If you were fortunate enough to attend last night, you know what I mean when I say it was an incredible event, and the folks at Turfway should be proud of the impeccable job they did. If you missed it, you should take a day and go visit Turfway Horse Park, or check out http://www.turfway.com/ and look for more culinary events like last night. There are not just about horse racing.

A NICE, UNCOMPLICATED BORDEAUX

2009-09-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

For a brief refresher, Bordeaux is divided into two distinct regions, with regards to red wine, thanks in large part to the Gironde River, which flows almost through the middle of Bordeaux, fed by the tributaries, the Garonne and the Dordogne. The Left Bank of the Gironde, which consists of the communes of the Medoc (Pauillac, St.-Julien, St.-Estephe, Margaux, etc.), is primarily Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant wine, while the Right Bank is home to more Merlot-dominant wine from Pomerol and Cabernet-Franc dominant wine from Saint-Emilion.

The estate of Chateau d’Aiguilhe is found in the hills alongside the right bank of the Dordogne River, on the border of the Cotes de Castillon and Saint-Emilion. This “right-bank” producer focuses on Merlot and Cabernet Franc, as is fast becoming one of the top producers of the Cotes de Castillon AOC. The Cotes de Castillon is a region in Bordeaux that is synonymous with value, and the second label to Chateau d’Aiguilhe, the Seigneurs d’Aiguilhe 2006, is no exception.

80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc, this red claret is a drink-now red, with lots of red plums, blackberries, dark cherries and hints of spice that I automatically thought of when making pizza tonight. French wine with Italian cuisine, you say? This would be no different than serving a nice California Merlot with the same dish. It worked really well, with the soft, suppleness of the Merlot-driven wine with the tomato sauce, fresh basil, spicy pepperoni and doughy crust of the pizza.

I love vacations when they are kept simple and uncomplicated, and pizza with the Seigneurs d’Aiguilhe was all I could have hope to get out of a casual meal at home with the wife. I brought this wine into the store because 1) I knew this was a ready-to-drink Bordeaux 2) yes it did get some nice press from Parker, but most importantly 3) I could sell this wine for $17.98 a bottle. Very cool to get the customer a very-pleasing red Bordeaux for under $20 and it not taste like blackberry Kool-Aid. Give this nice claret a try with your next meal at home, or just sitting on the back porch with a fire lit and watch the night sky with friends, lovers, or both.

TALKING ABOUT BORDEAUX 2006

2009-09-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

This week, while am enjoying a bit of R&R, I plan on exploring a bit of the 2006 Bordeaux wines that just came in to our stores. With the follow-up to the downright uber-ripe 2005 vintage – wines that most would argue mirror those from Napa in density and richness – the 2006 vintage was by most accounts, a solid vintage. The issue isn’t that the wines are good (because they are). No, the issue is that the vintage comes after a very, highly-sought-after vintage, one which found collectors stockpiling and neophytes clamoring to get their share.

Many of the wines I brought in from the 2006 vintage were the usual, consistent suspects such as Chateaux Lynch-Bages, Smith-Haut-Lafitte, Leoville-Poyferre and Gloria. Yet my focus, as is with most buys these days, is value; I wanted to bring in the most “bang-for-your-buck” wines from this storied region.

In doing so, I stumbled onto four very solid choices: the Chateau La Vieille Cure Fronsac, the Chateau Croix-Mouton Bordeaux-Superieur, the Chateau Paveil de Luze Margaux, and the Seigneurs d’Aiguilhe Cotes du Castillon. Each one offers a bit different style, yet each one satisfies the curiosity of wine buyers eager to try Bordeaux, yet unwilling to sacrifice a car payment or a utility bill for a bottle of the stuff.

Over the next week, I will offer up my notes on these four particular wines, while also offering up a bit of insight into the places from which they came. Hopefully, you’ll get a bit more understanding of the venerable and often-misunderstood and maligned region of Bordeaux.

Stay tuned.

WINE & MUSIC: DAVID BOWIE AND SMITH & HOOK

2009-09-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

My musical tastes growing up were warped, indoctrinated into music via the mellow pop of the seventies with stuff like The Carpenters, Bread and 10CC. My dad had his jazz records, and there was some rock infused with the Funk scene I was exposed to thanks to my growing up in Dayton, Ohio (one of the focal points with hometown bands like Roger and Zapp, Heatwave and Ohio Players). I thank friends of mine who turned me onto groups like KISS, Boston and Queen, opening the door to rock ‘n’ roll for me. My tastes just kept getting broader the older I got.
One artist I of which I have always been a fan is David Bowie. Even the old stuff like “Rebel Rebel”, “Suffragrette City”, “Jean Genie” and “Space Oddity.” I don’t really remember where it was or when it was that I started listening, but I do know that I love listening to any artist who has the guts to reinvent himself as the times change.

When his record, “Let’s Dance” came out in the eighties, it was a melding of the New Wave stuff going on with some great blues, courtesy of an emerging guitarist named Stevie Ray Vaughan. I still love that whole record (CD, whatever). “Earthling” came out in the nineties with guitarist Reeves Gabriel, and the sound was totally different. Check out his duet/remix with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails:

A wine that I’ve known for years is Smith & Hook Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2006 is a rich, full-bodied red that is dark, brooding and really complex. It has always been a good Cab, but recently, perhaps in the last couple of vintages, it has taken on that David Bowie-chameleon-like personae, morphing with the times to become something equally as good, but something completely different than what I remember it being.

The Smith & Hook Cab is one of my most-recommended California Cabs, outshining a lot of Napa and Sonoma Cabs, for both its complexity and its price tag. Pick up a bottle today, and go back and listen to some David Bowie, be it “Ziggy Stardust”, “China Girl” or even “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson.” Try ‘em together and see why change is always good.

LIFE IS CHANGE AND PERSPECTIVE IS THE KEY

2009-09-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

You never know when inspiration will strike you. I sift through wine blogs and wine magazines, wine texts, as well as just stroll through the aisles of the store, just looking for something, on the rare occasions when my mind is nothing more than a blank sheet of paper, balled up next to that great big trash can of Life.

And then it hit me.

Soon, the stores for which I have worked the past 7 years will be changing their names from Liquor Direct Wine & Spirits to D.E.P.’s Fine Wine & Spirits. “Why?” is the question I am sure we will be getting a lot in the weeks and months to come, most likely because most people don’t do well with change. I’ve never been sure why that is, but there it is – I said it. However, change is good, and keeps things new and fresh, and with our name change, we wanted to reflect the direction we have been heading for the past several years, which is more wine sales. Our owners, Greg and Mark Depenbrock, have been at it for a long time, and both of them often go by the nickname “Dep” – short for Depenbrock (get it?). Also, our mantra has always been “Discount Everyday Prices.” D-E-P, get it?

It’s not much of a stretch, and the fact that when you walk into our stores, Liquor is certainly not the first thing people see, although we still sell spirits. Yet our growth has been in selling wine, which is why, after several years of deliberating, our owners have decided a moniker change is needed.

With the change, there will be the standard questions: “Are you under new management?” “Who bought the place?” “Are you part of a chain now?” I am sure that many questions will come. But what’s in a name, really? We aren’t replacing our staff – arguably the best damn wine staff in the Midwest if I do say so my damn self – and our pricing and selection won’t change. Sure, the Web site will change, the signs out front, the logos on our shirts, etc., etc. – sure all that will change, but not “us.”

I thought about the name change when one of the staff recently brought up the negative side of it. The questions – the new management thing – I could see their point of view, yet all things change over time. It is an evolution of things, morphing into a newer, more focused wine store, still growing, still striving to open up people’s minds and palates, getting them to be more adventurous, and exploring the ever-burgeoning world of wine.

Life is change. The good and bad are all in the way you look at it.

BETWEEN KNOWING THE PATH AND WALKING THE PATH

2009-09-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

It’s official, I am a Certified Specialist of Wine, thanks to my passing (barely) the CSW exam held in Atlanta by the Society of Wine Educators. Now, for many of you, that begs the question, “What the hell does that mean?”

Well, for starters, the Society of Wine Educators is a non-profit educational organization, founded in 1974, to help promote wine education through various professional development programs and certification processes. The CSW certificate is the first step in becoming a Certified Wine Educator, one of the many letters I have been chasing for several years now.

I’ve passed the first level test of the Master Sommelier program, which was a 75 question test, multiple choice, and you had a day-and-a-half seminar which served as an overview/prep session for the CS (Certified Sommelier) and Advanced Sommelier tests. While it took many years to study and prepare for the 1st level test, the review session helps fill in some gaps you may have from information overload. Unlike the first MS test, the exam for the CSW is 100 questions, based solely on the study guide they provide, and is far more detailed and far more specific than the former. It is a much tougher test than the first MS. It is a different focus – restaurant for the sommelier, education obviously for the SWE – yet the intentions are the same – excellence in the field of wine.

It is a weird feeling to being one step further in my own pursuit of all these certifications (the two aforementioned along with the Master of Wine (MW) program). I really backed into this line of work, thinking I would be an English professor or a Linguist. All the years of schlepping around in the restaurant biz led me here. One down and many more tests to go. I just hope it won't take as long as I took getting my Bachelor's degree (14 years). I just might be ready for retirement by then.

WHEN TOO MUCH IS TOO MUCH

2009-09-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest gripes I have as a retail wine buyer is when a producer gets it in their head to “add” to their line of wines. I can understand the natural evolution and growth in business, but when you are a producer of let’s say, 6 wines, decides to suddenly double their line, or when they have wines in the $9.99 price point and $15.99 price point, and they suddenly decide to come up with a line of $12.99 wines – it is simply ludicrous.

I have been inundated recently with line extensions from brands the world over, but mostly, the greatest lunacy comes from California. I understand the glut of juice and all, but why don’t these producers just increase production on their current selections? Why do these producers feel compelled to confuse customers with similar labels and self-competing price tiers?

Long-time friend in the business, Michael Honig, gets even more respect from me these days because he is dedicated to producing two varietals – Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. Sure, he does a single vineyard Cab and a Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, but that is it. Four wines. Meanwhile, other producers have escalated to 30-plus wines. One of my biggest targets for ridicule these days is the Diageo-owned Rosenblum, for decades, renowned as a top Zinfandel producer. Recently they just released a Vintner’s Cuvee Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. What what WHAT?!?! You know that someone has become irrelevant when that someone decides to do what everyone else is doing.

I chuckle to myself when some of my reps come by with these new items. I think, “does Chateau So-and-So really need five different Chardonnays or three Reserve Sauvignon Blancs?” “What the hell are these wine producers thinking?” “Are these winemakers out there bored, or just gigantic whores for the almighty dollar?”

Every retailer is forced at some point to just say, “No more.” I have always prided myself on being easy to work with and laid-back enough to find a way to help my sales reps out when they need placements, but, it is starting to become ridiculous. Line extensions should not muddy a winery’s market presence. The extension of brands should add to the brand’s image, not diminish it. Just because you put a different label on it, the consumer isn’t automatically going to think it is a different wine. This market saturation may have worked 10 years ago, but I think wine consumers are too savvy now, and aren’t fooled. I say to the winemakers out there, do what Mr. Honig and many other focused winemakers do – do what you do best, and stick with it, and you will get all the success you need.

Champagne Rivalries by Shannon

2009-09-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

This weekend I participated in celebrating a friend’s birthday, and naturally there was Champagne involved. However, what I noticed while out this weekend is that it seemed like everyone in Cincinnati was celebrating something, because everywhere I looked, people were drinking Champagne!

I’ve always been a huge lover of Champagne. I love the way it sparkles, fizzes and leaves me with a giddy feeling. Not to mention it represents happiness and a good time. Over the past few years in the wine business I’ve been fortunate enough to try some really great Champagnes, and to learn about what is called a ‘grower champagne.’

Grower Champagnes are admittedly the underdogs. They constitute about 3% of the Champagne market, and most people really have never heard of them. Champagne as a region is dominated by a handful of brand names, with most farmers and growers selling their fruit to these large houses. Instead of selling their fruit to the big guys, small growers (recoltant-manipulants) may handcraft their own Champagne, creating something unique, which expresses their beliefs about Champagne and about the specific region where their vines are planted. Supporting Grower Champagnes is comparable to supporting your local coffee shop, instead of Starbucks. These winemakers are brave souls in an industrialized age, offering up their life’s work to the world market.

So I found myself in quite the dilemma sipping on a glass of Veuve Cliquot this weekend, and actually really enjoying it. It had just the right amount of fizz, and the finish had a subtle yeastiness. The orange label of the bottle practically screamed, ‘Let’s Celebrate!’, so I found everything about the experience appealing. Until the guilt set in. Shouldn’t I be drinking a grower, someone like Pierre Gimonnet & Fils? (my favorite producer of Grower Champagne).

Out later that night, I ran into my friends Michelle and Kevin of the blog, My Wine Education, who were radiating with the glow that can only come from drinking through two bottles of Dom Perignon. I know Michelle shares my love and appreciation for Grower Champagnes, so I knew she was also sharing in some of my brand-name-imbibing guilt. We finally decided that given the opportunity, we would choose a grower everytime. However, everything has its time and place, and perhaps a big brand Champagne on special occasions doesn’t hurt. We will continue to stand on our soap box for the little guys, but if someone happens to bring us a cup of Starbucks while we’re up there, hey, we’ll drink it.

WINE & MUSIC: RACHMANINOFF AND PLANETA, COMPLICATED YES AND NO

2009-08-31T10:05:00.000-07:00

The first time I heard classical music, I was staying over at my Grandma Brennaman’s house in Dayton. She would play it while Grandpa was at work, just softly in the background. I never really thought about it all that much until later in life, when I was introduced to what would be my favorite composer, Sergei Rachmaninoff, considered the last of the Russian Romantics (along with Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov). One piece of music I always count amongst my favorites is his Piano Concerto No. 2, which I will listen to often while writing.

Yet the piece that fascinates me, as it does with so many musicians of any ilk, is his Third Concerto, which is often considered the most difficult piece to play. It was even rumored that Rachmaninoff himself declared if anyone was to play it better than he did live, he’d never play it again. And that day did come, when Vladmir Horowitz accomplished the feat while performing for Rachmaninoff in the basement of Steinway & Sons in 1928. Rachmaninoff was so impressed, he never performed it live – only once recording it with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1939.

If you have seen the movie “Shine,” the docudrama of pianist David Helfgott, then you would know it is Concerto No. 3 (often called “Rach 3”) that drives him to a psychotic break. Helfgott was one of only a few who actually performed the piece live, along with Horowitz, Rachmaninoff himself, and Martha Argerich (the only woman to perform it ever). Check out her performance below with the Berlin Orchestra:

A difficult wine region to understand is Italy, due to the vastness of the wine producing landscape, as well as the overwhelming number of grape varieties cultivated for grape production, as well as many grapes with regional pseudonyms – I always find it difficult to talk to customers without a little information overload on my part.

One particular region I really get into and enjoy promoting to customers is Sicily. Due to its almost perfect climate of warm summer days and cool coastal breezes on all sides at night, the wines emerging from this region are breathtaking, and many at a terrific value. The Planeta Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2007 is a 60%/40% blend of Nero d’Avola and Frappato, two indigenous grapes that are really getting a lot of attention. Nero d’Avola often promotes itself as Sicily’s answer to Merlot, with bright red fruit, well-balanced acidity, and a soft fruit finish. Frappato is a less-known grape that lends its spicy, juicy character to this blend, which is the newest DOCG appellated wine from Sicily (the Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita – which denotes the highest quality in wine from Italy). Soft, medium-bodied, with a great deal to offer, this uncomplicated wine in the guise of something quite complicated is something to enjoy at almost any time. Likewise, Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 is a gorgeous piece of music that, once you get past its reputation, is something you can enjoy anytime.

Try them together. It may be an unconventional pairing, but it will be pleasing nonetheless.

MONOPOLY ON TAP

2009-08-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

According to Wikipedia, “In economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos / μονος alone or single + polein / πωλειν, to sell) exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it.[1] Monopolies are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition for the good or service that they provide and a lack of viable substitute goods.[2] The verb "monopolize" refers to the process by which a firm gains persistently greater market share than what is expected under perfect competition.”

Recently, it was announced that Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors were hiking prices in the fall, though it was unknown how much prices would go up. The AP reports that Pete Marino, spokesman for MillerCoors, said the increases would be determined regionally, depending on market trends. The logic behind this, according to Marino, was that pricing was competitive enough that the company could stand a moderate price increase. Call me another crackpot conspiracy guy, but methinks me smells a Monopoly.

Obviously, none of these guys at A-B and MillerCoors are struggling to make ends meet. Most folks have little or nothing when it comes to disposable income, yet the six-packs and 12-packs that most working folk buy on the way home from work on Friday perhaps could sacrifice a gallon of gas or shave $10 off their credit card payment?

I am always baffled by the logic these corporate individuals in the beer, wine and spirits industries use to justify any kind of price increase, let alone one during economic down time. Maybe John Nash can come and explain it to me, or some other whiz Economist, but pricing should remain static for now.

The real problem I have with price increases of any magnitude is that, working in a “bridge” store environment like Northern Kentucky - along with the triple dip taxing that our state government has inflicted on consumers - people who come across the bridge into our store or one of our competitor’s, they will find that beer pricing is actually higher than it is at their neighborhood convenient stores. Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do about it. The beer guys have the canned “blank stare” when our beer buyers press them on the reasons for any price increases. It is as if the beer guys simply turn on some subliminal radio station playing “Tubthumping” or “Mambo #5”, this voiding out any logical inquiry into the obvious Monopoly gamesmanship going on.

It is interesting to note that, according to the AP article, sales of both A-B and MillerCoors are down during this recession.

I still say, even though the price for it has gone up as well, people should abandon A-B and MillerCoors altogether and support Sam Adams, the only real large-production American brewery anyway, or get into Micros and good import beers. The crap A-B and MillerCoors sells isn’t technically beer anymore anyway, not with all the additives used to allow for those “Born-On” dates. Or maybe we can stage something akin to a Boston Tea Party, chucking Budweiser in the river or driving Miller Beer trucks off ocean piers. Would that make a difference? Probably not. But maybe, it would be another excuse for a party.