A REPRIEVE IS LONG OVERDUE

This past weekend, our stores put on a Kendall-Jackson tasting, and the reaction was pretty astonishing. At least it was to me, in that, after so many years of selling the wines of Kendall-Jackson, I realize that this is one brand I have seriously taken for granted.

Everyone knows KJ Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay - it's one of if not the best selling American Chardonnay on the market here in the U.S., and it is surprisingly good considering how mass produced it is (a million plus cases a year). Yet what I think I lot of us forget in this industry are the other wines that they make or have a hand in making/marketing.

One such example was the over-the-top amazing Highland Estates Syrah Alisos Hills Syrah 2003. The Grade: AMAZING (of course). The Mojo: This brilliantly produced Syrah from Santa Barbara County is remarkable, showing loads of dark black fruit and smoky oak in the nose, with (Parker's favorite word) copious amounts of black currant, dark plum, roasted meat, black truffles, tobacco and spice box all through to the thick and jammy finish. It's simply a gorgeous wine, and should really warrant new-found respect for all that they do.

THE ALIEN INVASION FOR MARCH

Our main wine sales guy, Alfonse (aka the Alien) has his featured selections for the month of March. These wines are always ones that I will have difficulty keeping in because he's busy sending them home with the customers. Check 'em out:

2008 Sebeka Chenin Blanc South Africa $6 Crisp and refreshing with lemon zest and zingy acidity.Perfect spring refresher with a chicken ceasar or shrimp.

2007 Mac Murray Ranch Pinot Gris Sonoma $15 The perfect complement to spring fare with melon andhoney notes. A long, soft finishand plenty of citrus.

2007 Souverain Chardonnay Alexander val. $13 Buttery and expressive with honeysuckle and fresh apple pienotes. Perfect with rare Ahi tuna.

2007 Sebeka Shiraz/Pinotage South Africa $6 Blackberry jam and currantsmesh with a hint of mocha andspicebox. Perfect with a shitakemushroom sandwich or a burger.

2007 MontGras Carmenere Chili $12 Poweful and complex with darkchocolate and mint notes. A uniquetwist on this hard to find bordeauxvarietal. Great with braised ribs.

2005 Three Saints Cab Santa Ynez Ca. $20 One of the best wines in the store under $50. The perfectcelebration wine. A cellar selectionthat can be consumed now or in10 years. Perfect with a porterhouse with sauteed mushrooms.

MEZZACORONA MOSCATO 2007

Another product of my visit with Jen yesterday was the Mezzacorona Moscato 2007, again from the Dolomiti in Italy. Normally the minute one hears the word "moscato" they are bombarding with images of sugary sweetness dripping from their teeth as the enamel slowly melts away, as if covered in sulphuric acid or something. However, Surprise! Surprise! Here's a stunning Moscato that is reminiscient more of an Austrian white than an Italian. (Not a coincidence Austria is merely on the opposite side of the Alps from here).

The Grade: OUTSTANDING. The Mojo: The Mezzacorona Moscato 2007 is a delicious, lively white wine that gives you all of the fresh peach and nectarine gusto you come to expect in a Muscat, yet there is no real syrupy sweetness at the finish. What you get is lots of honeysuckle and apricot tones in the nose, scores of stone fruit flavors up front and in the middle, with a surprisingly balanced melding of mineral and acidity to give you a refreshingly, uncloying white wine that is bright, lively and clean. Coming very soon to our stores!

TOLLOY SAUVIGNON BLANC 2007

My first review of the month is a terrific new white wine from the folks at Mezzacorona of Italy, the Tolloy Sauvignon Blanc 2007. Jen Thieman, our current RNDC-Cumberland Division sales rep (and my former assistant/protege - is that a narcissist thing for me to say - protege?), brought this wine by Wednesday afternoon, a small recess from an otherwise hyperbolean day.

While we tasted several wines - including the Tolloy counterparts Pinot Grigio and Pinot Noir - I have to say that this one stood out simply because it is not often you get to taste a really good SB from Italy for under $15. So the grade: OUTSTANDING. And the mojo? Here is a stunning effort in SB from the Dolomiti area of Northern Italy. There are notes of fresh peach, pineapple and star anise, with fresh cut orchids and hints of mint and basil. The flavors are crisp but not piercingly so, with delicate citrus and elements of tropical fruits and mineral leading to a vibrant and sassy finish. Look for this wine in our stores soon.

DR. JAY'S MAGIC SNAKE OIL

I have this ongoing issue with Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. No, I am not talking about wine ratings (that's the other 800 lb. Gorilla in the room). And not with Mr. Parker per se, but with one of his current contributing reviewers, a Dr. Jay Miller. I have written a few emails to the magazine, complaining that Dr. Miller's coverage of Australia, South America, Spain and pretty much anything he does, is a bit frustrating, because of all these wines he scores, yet offers no tasting notes whatsoever.

In a response on the first go-around, I was actually told that he DIDN'T EVEN PROVIDE THE MAGAZINE WITH HIS TASTING NOTES! I responded, "Why does he even bother? And more directly, why do you?" I can't understand how somebody can do their job half-ass and still keep it (insert joke about a politician or corporate executive here).

I was then told that they're isn't enough room in the magazine. I told them to do at least what Spectator does, whatever content doesn't fit in the print medium, list it as WEB ONLY. Hell, that alone is why I subscribe to the online versions of all these wine mags.

Isn't that the smart thing to do?

Which brings me back to my complaining to RP, this whole compulsion to dole out "LISTS" of "VALUE WINES." The fact that it is simply the low end of the economic spectrum shows you that the intended audience of this magazine is the high-end trophy wine buyers who couldn't give a crap about a good $10 wine. The fact that said $10 wine scored 90 points should be enough right? But in using these reviews to help sell wine (which I unfortunately am forced to do in this market), I need more than points. Customers want to see what it was that earned the wine such a score, or at least see where the taster's mind was when trying said wine.

It's tough for me to bash on RP. For years, I have looked up to David Schildknect, Wine Advocate's resident reviewer of German and Austrian wines (since going full-time for RP, he has added Alsace, Loire, South Africa and other regions to his duties). David is considered one of, if not THE authority on German and Austrian wines in the world (so much so that Jancis Robinson had David rewrite the German section in the latest edition of the Oxford Companion to Wine), so it pains me to be complaining to his employer, but if Mr. Parker is trying working toward turning his magazine over to a younger generation, or just wanting to move into a Publisher's role (like Marvin Shanken at WS), then he should expect nothing but the best from his reviewers. David, along with Antonio Galloni, who is arguably one of the best Italian wine reviewers out there, and Neal Martin who works on New Zealand, as well as wine writing illuminaries Kevin Zraly, Karen MacNeil, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Mark Squires and Lettie Teague, I have to say that Dr. Jay Miller - you are the weakest link.

GATHERING UP RUNAWAY THOUGHTS (AND PUTTING THEM TO SLEEP)

A few things are on my mind today:

I had posted the nominees for the 2009 American Wine Blog Awards, and over the weekend, some of my twitter friends were discussing the surprises on who was and who was not nominated. I imagine that the judges had a helluva time narrowing the field down to 4 for each category, given the crowded landscape of literally thousands of wine bloggers out there. Yet, everyone is going to have something to say about who got it and who didn't, and the term "sour grapes" will most assuredly be bandied about in some fashion.

I'm sure however, as the nominees now become reliant upon their peers to actually win the award, the best of these will most certainly be picked, right?

Secondly, the whole tax increase thing on not just here in KY, but all across the country, we "sinners" are being penalized for our passion for the grape. Anyone who has been following us here at Under The Grape Tree, will know that I have been railing against the pricks and demons in our state house who chose impracticality and temperance-driven philosophy over fairness and reason. And I have learned that our KY House Speaker, Greg Stumbo, is really sticking it to all the Northern KY legislators that voted against the tax increase but effectively killing any bill they may be presenting on behalf of the good people here in the Northern part of the state. Good to see that partisanship will never die.

And the truly baffling thing is that you would think folks would actually want to sell their product in a time of economic shit such as this - you know, lower prices and all that. Nope. I have spent the better part of the day raising prices because the costs to me have increased. It's frustrating, and for certain brands, it is their death knell. If you have been buying a $4 wine that is suddenly $6 or $7, would you still buy it at the new price? What about a $10 wine that now costs $15? Some of these wineries are pricing themselves, at the very least, right out of our stores.

Anyway, these are just a few more reasons to hate Mondays.

STEVE IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, AND THE FINE ART OF LEAVING OUT THE ELOQUENCE OF REPRISALS

Recently, Steve Heimoff, writer for Wine Enthusiast as well as a blogger and fiction writer, posted on his own wine blog a piece about relationships. He spoke of a particular cult Cab producer that, while he was at Wine Spectator, should him the respect and courtesy one should to the press, when being dependent on them to help market thier wares. Well, Steve spoke of leaving WS for WE and this producer subsequently snubbed him until recently, where, now that the economy sucks and no one can really afford to spend lavish amounts of cash on high-dollar wine, this guy is looking for a review.

Needless to say, Steve was not impressed, and essentially told the guy to fuck himself/herself.

Right on, man!

Steve was stressing the importance of maintaining relationships in any business, but in the wine industry especially. And I agree with him wholeheartedly. Yet unlike Steve I will share with you my own story, and I won't be discreet and omit the wineries' name.

When I first started working in the restaurant business, just around 20 years ago, I was an aspiring singer in a rock band, "daylighting" as a busboy/server at a small bistro in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The place was primarily a bakery, yet served lunch through the week and dinner on select evenings. The wine list was small but offered terrific house wines by E. Guigal - their Cotes-du-Rhone Rouge, Blanc and Rosé. This was my first introduction to French wine, and it stuck with me for years, as I developed a real affinity for these wines and all wines from the Rhone (my humble little cellar today is made up of nearly 50% Rhone).

Wherever I was in this industry, inevitably moving back to Ohio and from restaurant to retail, I found myself always selling the wines of E. Guigal, and selling them proudly.

Fast forward to my present gig, which began 7 years ago, here as the wine buyer for Liquor Direct. You see, Kentucky is plagued by all of these exclusive agreements with various producers, importers and brokers, and the wines of E. Guigal (represented by Ex Cellars Wine Agency) is one of those wines, which if you simply travel across the Brent Spence Bridge (which links Ohio and Kentucky in the heart of the Cincinnati Metropolitan area), virtually every wine store in Ohio sells these wines. Yet here on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, no dice! Only 3 stores carry these wines, two of them our competition, one chain downstate in Louisville and Lexington. This exclusivity agreement was put in place long before we had gotten into the wine business, and for the life of me I cannot understand why it still stands.

Now exclusivities are fine when a brand - such as Quilceda Creek from Washington State, or Ken Wright from Oregon, goes exclusive with one store, because production is limited and there is just not enough to go around. Yet E. Guigal is quite large -275,000 cases of their Cotes du Rhone Rouge are produced in a year (as opposed to someone like Quilceda Creek, who produces only a fraction of this for all of its wines), so it begs the question, "why is it exclusive?"

I asked that very question not long after I started, calling the owner of the Ex Cellars Wine Agency, Fred Ek. Not really caring one iota of my curiosity, I was dismissed, rather rudely by Mr. Ek, evidently because I was with some pissant wine store who didn't merit the time or day. After the frustration of the initial call had passed, I decided to phone his partner, Patrick Will, to see if I could change his mind. No dice! Though Mr. Will was at least much more professional in his rejection. His reason behind not opening things up was that their was not enough wine.

Eventually, I spoke to distributors of Guigal in Ohio, Illinois, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina - all of whom said they had tons of Guigal to sell, and I realize I was once again getting the shaft.

Guys like these take the easy way out - they fill a purchase order of considerable amounts and without having to lift a finger (or visit a particular market) - they make their money. Easy-peasy right? But at what cost is that for the producer they represent? I admit that US consumers have been tough on French producers this past decade, but I still get calls for their wines. I just know now that for wherever I go in this business from now on, I won't bother even acknowledging Guigal's existence since they certainly could care less about my stores.