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February 28, 2006
A Glass of Elegance
Aged for decades, Cognac ends a meal with style-- it's a city, a color, a digestif, a state of mind.
In fact, it's fascinating how one word can evoke images of crystal snifters, formal dinners, Cuban cigars and crackling fireplaces. And though some may prefer diluting its distinctive flavors with Coca-Cola or mixing them in a Sidecar or Stinger, Cognac remains the ultimate in liquid elegance.
"Cognac is more complex than a wine or any of the spirits," says Patrick Peyrelongue, managing director of Delamain, and a direct descendant of the family that founded one of the smallest yet most prestigious Cognac producers. "Not only is it complex (in the glass), but in five minutes (after aerating) it will be completely different. So if you should try to describe it now, you will have to do it again five minutes later, and then half an hour after that, and so on. It is constantly evolving."
Although each Cognac has its own distinguishing aromatic components, commonly used descriptors include nuts, fruit, caramel and various spices. The flavors mirror these elements, with the addition of honeyand vanilla, all in varying degrees. On the palate, good Cognac feels like heavy velvet.
Even with close to 200 different Cognac producers, no two are alike. Each Cognac house has a distinctive style, whether it be the wood-and-leather ambiance of Hennessy, the light fruitiness of Remy Martin or the delicate floral sweetness of Hine.
Perhaps that is why this classic after-hours drink can be intimidating, for rather than ask for a specific brand with an unknown flavor profile, most people simply say, "I'll have a Cognac," and wait for the sommelier or bartender to suggest something.
Cognac is distilled from wine in copper alambic pot stills, thus giving it many of the complex taste characteristics of the wine grapes themselves. These include a certain amount of acidity, often masked by the higher alcoholic proof of Cognac, plus flavors such as dandelion, red berry and other fruits.
Only a double-distilled wine brandy made in the Cognac region in west France -- just north of Bordeaux -- can be called Cognac. Thus, Cognac is both a distilled spirit and a geographical designation. That is why the excellent double-distilled brandies produced from California grapes by Germain-Robin in Ukiah are not called Cognacs.
Ugni Blanc -- known as Trebbiano in Italy -- is the main grape used in Cognac production, and it is prized for its high yields, hardiness and natural acidity. Ugni Blanc is so important in the production of Cognac and other spirits that it is France's most-planted white grape variety.
There are four primary designated districts from which grapes are grown for the production of Cognac. In order of prestige, they are Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies and Fins Bois.
In this case, the name "Champagne" has nothing to do with sparkling wine or the region where the famous bubbly is made; instead, it's an old form of "campagne," which means countryside.
Cognacs made strictly from grapes from the Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne districts -- with a minimum of 50 percent Grande Champagne grapes in the blend -- are often sub-labeled "Fine Champagne."
If Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne are the top two districts, one might wonder why all Cognacs are not made from just these areas -- or from Grande Champagne alone. This is due to the cost of the grapes and the quest of the maitre de chai, or cellarmaster, for a specific taste profile, because the growing conditions of each region impart definite characteristics to the grapes.
The grapes are fermented into wine, and that wine is then distilled into what's called eau-de-vie ("water of life"). Eaux-de-vie are then aged in barrels to become the components of Cognac.
Eaux-de-vie made from grapes harvested from Fin Bois tend to be full and forward in flavor, while those from Borderies are more floral. This is where blending becomes crucial, for it influences not only the final taste of the aged Cognac, but its ultimate retail price, depending on which grapes were used for distillation.
By law, Cognac must be aged in French oak cooperage for at least 2 1/2 years, but most age far longer. Cognac doesn't begin to develop until it's at least 5 years old and character rarely builds in less than a decade.
In fact, some exceptional Cognacs are allowed to mature as long as 60 years -- the maximum the finest eaux-de-vie can evolve before their flavors become overpowered by the wood. To halt the aging process, the spirits are transferred from barrels to glass demijohns (unlike wine, Cognac will not improve with age in bottles).
These demijohns are sequestered in dark, musty recesses of ancient cellars, waiting to be blended with other Cognacs -- some older, some younger -- to create an assemblage, or blend, that fits the cellarmaster's interpretation of the house style.
Often, these prized Cognacs are stored for generations. While exploring the caverns within the 7-foot thick stone walls of Otard's Chateau de Cognac -- a castle that dates from 1795 -- I discovered demijohns from 1820.
In the cellars of Delamain, I sampled the mellow softness of a Cognac from 1893, and the more pronounced presence of a 1914 vintage. Delamain's oldest demijohn, dating from 1847, is used sparingly in its extremely limited Reserve De La Famille.
Hennessy has the industry's largest stock of old Cognacs, some of which date to 1800. Its top-of-the-line Richard Hennessy brand is composed of more than 100 Cognacs ranging in age from 75 to 175 years, which produces an unparalleled depth of honeyed strawberry and cherry.
Although Cognac drinkers often refer to "average age" (for example, a 50-50 blend of 10- and 20-year- old Cognacs would have an average age of 15 years), Cognacs are actually categorized by the age of its youngest component eau-de-vie.
VS (Very Special) has a minimum age of 2 1/2 years, VSOP (Very Superior Old Pale) has a minimum age of 4 1/2 years and XO (Extra Old, a category created in 1870 by Hennessy for the family's private blend) has a minimum age of 6 1/2 years.
However, few Cognac producers confine themselves to these minimums. For example, Courvoisier VS is composed of Cognacs ranging in age from 4 to 8 years, Landy VSOP has an average age of 12 years and Remy Martin XO Excellence is a blend of 350 Cognacs ranging in age from 10 to 37 years, with an average age of 23 years.
There are also numerous prestigious proprietary blends. The elegant meatiness of Hennessy Paradis Extra ($250) comes from its blend of 200 eaux-de-vie aged between 25 and 125 years. The House of Hine, the chosen Cognac of Queen Elizabeth II and thus the only Cognac house holding a British royal warrant, cites a blended average age of "over 40 years" for its spicy fruit-and-tobacco-like Triomphe ($345).
And Martell Cordon Bleu ($180), which dates from 1912 and was chosen to toast the Armistice that ended World War I on Nov. 11, 1918, is a blend of almost 200 eaux-de-vie, averaging 25 years in age.
No matter what a Cognac's age or classification, the one overriding factor -- and most challenging aspect for the master blender -- is maintaining its consistency through the years. Consequently, the proportions of any blend will change in order to accommodate different vintages, harvests and growing environments, called terroir.
"Our Hennessy XO ($110), for example," says Maurice Hennessy, eighth-generation descendant of company founder Richard Hennessy, "must taste the same if you drink it in Los Angeles or San Francisco, New York or Hong Kong and whether you drink it now or had it 10 years ago.
"But you can't use a formula to recreate a Cognac -- for example, three parts of a 7-year-old eau-de-vie and four parts of a 20-year-old, and so on -- because next year, when you try to remake that same Cognac, the 7-year-old wine will be from a year that is one year later in the harvest, and so the taste will be different. So the blending becomes a matter of trial and error.
"But the master blender has several hundred Cognacs in stock, and knows them all because he's tasted them all. So ... a team of tasters ... do it in small quantities for control. They take notes ... because no one person can remember it all. But then comes the fine tuning.
"Blending Cognacs is like composing a symphony. You have to write the score for 100 instruments. But these instruments are different each year. For us, Yann Fillioux (Hennessy's seventh-generation master blender) is the composer and he wants the music to always be the same, year after year. So each time, he has to compose a new recipe."
It is because of this constant balance between aroma, flavor, strength and color that experienced Cognac drinkers develop loyalties to specific brands. But for the beginning connoisseur, the selection can be daunting.
"For someone who has never had Cognac before, I think a VS or VSOP is a great starting point," says Alexandre Gabriel, president of Cognac Ferrand, noted for its Pierre Ferrand 100-percent Grande Champagne single-estate Cognacs. "I might even suggest a VS on ice, as an aperitif. In the 19th century, people drank Cognac with a little bit of water because by diluting it, it becomes more approachable, as it is so packed with flavors.
"Then, slowly try something a little older in a snifter, like an XO or our 30-year-old Selection Des Anges, and you can start to see the difference from one Cognac to another. It's like wine in a way; it's all about experimenting. Of course, if someone is a wine drinker and they favor big reds like a Cabernet, then I might say they could go right into an after-dinner drink like an XO, which has the heaviness that a red-wine drinker might like."
But there is also the matter of price. Not all Cognacs are as expensive as Remy Martin Louis XIII, a blending of 1,200 different eaux-de-vie, ranging in age from 40 to more than 100 years; it sells for $1,500 and comes in a 750 ml Baccarat decanter. With an average age of 70 years, it has kaleidoscopic flavors of honeysuckle, peach, myrtle and wood bark. (According to bartender David Rowe at the lounge in the Mandarin Oriental San Francisco hotel, whoever orders the last snifter of Louis XIII -- at $135 a shot -- gets to keep the empty decanter.)
Landy VS, however, sells for less than $25 for a standard 750 ml bottle and is also available in 200 ml and 375 ml sizes.
When making Cognac-based cocktails or drinking it chilled straight up, I recommend Navan, a maceration of black Madagascar vanilla beans blended in Cognac and then aged in barrels. Meukow VS Vanilla Cognac is also worthy of cocktail experimentation.
Most Cognacs are 80 proof, or 40 percent alcohol. For a heavier hit, gently pour Meukow 90 ($37), one of the few 90-proof Cognacs on the market, over a spoon and into a tonic-filled glass; the Cognac will settle on top. Use a straw to drink down to it. I've also had Remy Martin XO served chilled (no ice) as an alternative to wine, an especially fine pairing with lamb.
However, for my tastes, there is nothing more convivial that a straight snifter of XO or older.
Without false modesty, one of the finest Cognacs I ever sipped was a blend I made myself -- under the auspices of Hennessy master blender Laurent Lozano. Impossible to duplicate without access to Hennessy's cellars, it consisted of the following vintages: 3 ml of 1983, 5 ml of 1978, 10 ml of 1970, 7 ml of 1893 and 10 ml of Richard Hennessy (which normally sells for $1,800).
I pour from my personal blend sparingly, for as Ferrand's Gabriel told me, "The only problem with a very good Cognac is it's hard to go back to drinking something else."
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Appreciating Cognac
-- The outdated tradition of heating a snifter of Cognac over a flame should be avoided. The intense heat will release the alcoholic sting into your nose, masking the flavors of the blend.
It's better to warm Cognac gently by cupping the brandy snifter in your hands (that's why the bulbous bowl was designed in the first place). The gentle warmth will release its aromas. To cut the sting of alcohol even more, open your mouth slightly when inhaling.
-- Swirling Cognac in a snifter aerates it, much like wine, and releases more of the aromas. But unlike wine, Cognac should be swirled gently, as the short, squat snifter's design is conducive to splashing. It's also for this reason that only the bottom 20 percent of a snifter is filled, which leaves space to concentrate more of Cognac's bouquet into the mouth of the snifter.
-- However, the best way to taste Cognac is from a distiller's tasting glass, which has a round, bulbous bottom that narrows into a chimney, and concentrates the delicate aromas. Unlike a snifter, this glass should be held by the stem, so you can observe the Cognac's color better. This also makes it easier to swirl and aerate.
-- Tip a snifter or distiller's glass and watch for the "legs" of the spirit -- the thin film that adheres to the side of the glass. The longer it takes for the legs to form, the older the Cognac.
-- Most VS and VSOP designations have color added because of their young ages, but no color is needed for XO Cognacs and older.
-- Very old Cognacs are susceptible to air and light. They should immediately be recorked after pouring to prevent oxidation and evaporation.
-- By the way, some Russians drink Remy Martin Louis XIII with bourbon -- sort of a liquid glasnost.
Source: “Elegance in a glass,” Richard Carlton Hacker, San Francisco Chronicle, February 23, 2006
Picture: “Cognac glas,”designonline.se
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Premiere Napa Valley Auction 2006 Event Was a ''Gavel Breaker'' Setting New Records
In what must have been an omen for good luck, the auction gavel shattered into pieces early in the bidding at this year's Premiere Napa Valley(R) (PNV). The renowned mid-winter barrel auction, celebrating its tenth anniversary, brought in just over $1.87 million dollars on Saturday, February 25, a 28% increase in revenue over 2005's record setting earnings.
When the last gavel dropped, overall results for the sold out wine trade-only event featuring five-, ten- and 20-case lots of one-of-a-kind Napa wine futures, once again proved that Napa Valley wines are a hot commodity and an excellent investment. After a rousing round lasting just over 2 1/2 hours, 67 successful bidders purchased 181 lots (a 10% increase over 2005), with revenues going to support programs by the Napa Valley Vintners (NVV), the non-profit trade association of more than 270 member wineries that is charged with promoting and protecting the Napa Valley Appellation.
More than 1,000 winemakers, restaurateurs, retailers and wine wholesalers spent the morning rubbing elbows with while barrel tasting wines created exclusively for the event, held at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone (CIA).
"This is our annual bake sale where we raise money for our association's programs," said John Skupny, owner of Lang & Reed Wine Company and chair, along with his wife Tracey, of PNV 2006. "Perhaps most exciting for our vintners is the chance to spend time with our customers, many of whom we have been partnering with for years, and who have become good friends. Premiere is our signature event for the trade in Napa Valley and the vintner community is solidly behind the endeavor." Skupny's brand, Lang & Reed, made its debut with their very-first commercial release at the first Premiere auction in 1997 and this year their lot was one of the top 15.
More than 200 paddle holders, including a number of first time bidders, converged on the Napa Valley from as far as New York and Japan, to bid on a total of 1,195 cases of wine. Early in the bidding, renowned auctioneer Ursula Hermacinski lowered the gavel to close the sale of a lot and the oak gavel shattered in her hand, which proved to be the harbinger of robust action to come.
The top bidder of the day was Gary Fisch, owner of Gary's Wine and Marketplace with three stores in northern New Jersey, who is both a perennial attendee and high bidder. Fisch said: "This was the best auction yet. The diversity of wines made it even more exciting." This year Fisch purchased 16 lots totaling 115 cases paying a total of $220,500. He said: "The response to Premiere wines has been great. I sell them to my clientele bottle by bottle and people are starting to understand what I've been saying for years: the vintners of the Napa Valley go all out with these wines."
Bidding became heated at lot #37, a five case offering by Shafer Vineyards that sold for $75,000 to Ichizo Nakagawa from Nakagawa Wine Co., Ltd, of Tokyo, Japan. This topped by 50% a previous record-setting PNV bid set in 2005. Coming in as number two cumulative high-bidder for the day, Nakagawa said: "I used to drink only French wines, but I've been coming to the Napa Valley for a while and now I drink Napa Valley wines almost exclusively."
Later in the auction, the bar was raised even higher as the top selling lot of the day came near the end when V.J. Jazirvar from the Petroleum Club in Oklahoma City paid a record-setting $85,000 for a 5-case lot of 2004 Rombauer Cabernet Sauvignon. Last year Jazirvar set the high-bid record at $50,000 for another Rombauer lot, this year he exceeded his own high mark by 70%. Jazirvar said: "All five of the lots I bought last year are already sold out -- and I haven't even gotten the wine yet! These wines are a great investment. I'm so happy to see Napa Valley wines getting the acclaim they deserve -- equal to the elite wines of Europe." Asked how he thought the auction went, vintner Koerner Rombauer said: "It was great. Everybody was very comfortable, they like to come to this event and that's what we wanted."
Dan Duckhorn, co-chair of the inaugural PNV auction in 1997 said: "After ten years, it's quite evident that we have been able to sustain the momentum of giving the world a great view of Napa Valley wines and giving our new members a 'place in the sun.' The Premiere auction is outpacing the growth of the industry -- it's pretty neat."
For complete information and results from all prior years, please visit http://www.napavintners.com/auctions/premierenv.html.
Now in our seventh decade, the Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) trade association is the sole organization responsible for promoting and protecting the Napa Valley Appellation as a winegrowing region second to none in the world. Respect for our history reinforces our commitment to the preservation and enhancement of the Valley's land, wine, and community for future generations. We address the shared interests of our more than 270 members and aspire to be the essential organization for all Napa Valley vintners.
Digital images of Premiere Napa Valley 2006 are available on the Web site in both the Press Room and Auctions links and may be downloaded at 300 dpi at no cost.
Top 10 Bidders
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1. Gary's Wine & Marketplace, Madison, NJ
2. Nakagawa Wine Company, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
3. Capitol Cellars, Roseville, CA
4. Bounty Hunter, Napa, CA
5. Petroleum Club, Oklahoma City, OK
6. Hi-Time Cellars, Costa Mesa, CA
7. FQ Club, Reno, NV
8. Zachy's, Scarsdale, NY
9. Willow Park Wine & Spirits, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
10. The Grapevine, San Jose, CA
Total Trade Attendees - 595
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Representing 67 Restaurant Accounts, 99 Retailers and 96
Distributors and Importers
Top 15 Lots-------------
Lot #178 Rombauer Vineyards $85,000
Lot # 37 Shafer Vineyards $75,000
Lot # 154 Silver Oak Cellars $39,000
Lot # 155 Paraduxx $37,000
Lot # 57 Beringer Vineyards $35,000
Lot # 104 Lewis Cellars $32,000
Lot # 19 Joseph Phelps Vineyards $29,000
Lot # 44 Husic Vineyards $28,000
Lot # 148 Regusci Vineyards $27,000
Lot # 86 Gemstone $27,000
Lot # 174 Pride Mountain $26,000
Lot # 142 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars $25,000
Lot # 1 Lang & Reed Wine Company $22,00
Lot # 82 Saintsbury $22,000
Lot # 128 Darioush $22,000
Number of Lots by Wine Variety
--------------------------------
Aglianico: 1
Cabernet Franc: 7
Cabernet Sauvignon: 129
Malbec: 3
Merlot: 12
Nero d'Avolo: 1
Petit Verdot: 3
Petite Sirah: 2
Pinot Noir: 6
Proprietary Red Blends: 6
Syrah: 5
Zinfandel: 4
White or Sparkling: 2
History of Premiere Results
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2006 2005 2004 2003 2002
------------------- ---------- ---------- --------- -------- --------
Lots Auctioned 181 165 158 138 125
------------------- ---------- ---------- --------- -------- --------
Total Cases 1195 1135 1065 860 760
------------------- ---------- ---------- --------- -------- --------
Gross Revenue $1,870,500 $1,459,000 $987,200 $938,800 $798,100
------------------- ---------- ---------- --------- -------- --------
Successful Bidders 67 62 60 54 52
------------------- ---------- ---------- --------- -------- --------
2001 2000 1999 1998 1997
------------------- ---------- --------- -------- ---------
Lots Auctioned 120 104 108 99 101
------------------- ---------- ---------- -------- -------- ---------
Total Cases 735 595 675 725 820
------------------- ---------- ---------- -------- -------- ---------
Gross Revenue $920,800 $726,000 $630,500 $427,250 $412,400
------------------- ----------- --------- -------- -------- ---------
Successful Bidders 59 54 57 51 54
------------------- ---------- ---------- -------- -------- ---------
Contacts
Napa Valley Vintners
Terry Hall, 707-968-4217
thall@napavintners.com
Source: PRESS RELEASE - ST. HELENA, California, February 26, 2006
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Avenue Vine California Wine Country Weather Update
Tornado warnings and activity dominated the valley news this morning!
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The National Weather Service has issued WARNINGS!:
TORNADO WARNING until 10:00 AM PST
California Central Valley Counties: Solano, Sacramento, Solano, Yolo
No twisters in this one, though--lots of raining and spotty sites of heavy hail.
The valley can expect to see more warnings like this throughout the day:
The National Weather Service has issued a:
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING until 11:45 AM PST
California counties: Sacramento
This is the remnant of the TORNADO cell earlier–dence half inch hail is coming out of it at this time!
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A look at the wine country–Russian River at Guerneville, California the past few days:
Flood Stage is around 31 feet.
See Article: “California Bases For Another Round of Storms,” February 27, 2006, for more information.
WOW! WEATHER IS HAPPENING AGAIN AROUND HERE AFTER WEEKS OF SPRING LIKE CONDITIONS!
weather services?
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A Bordeaux's Biers Guide
The 2003 vintage is opulent, exciting and expensive
They may be slightly New World in style for their opulent fruit and ripe character, but the best 2003 Bordeaux remain classic clarets, displaying a richness and structure reminiscent of past great hot-weather vintages. You are going to love the wines—red, white and sweet.
I have now reviewed more than 500 Bordeaux from 2003, in independent blind tastings in Bordeaux and in my office in Tuscany. Almost all were reds, along with a couple dozen Sauternes and a handful of top dry whites.
I have rarely tasted young clarets with such muscle and concentration. Yet at the same time, the wines maintain a freshness and length of flavor that only Bordeaux can deliver, even in hot years. For the red wines of the Left Bank (Medoc and Pessac-Léognan), I rate the vintage 95 points. The Right Bank wines (St.-Emilion and Pomerol) are rich and exotic but verge on jammy, and I rate the vintage 94 points.
The main drawback will be pricing, which in many cases has already reached the stratospheric levels of the 2000 vintage when its wines were released in 2003. And the 2003 vintage is not an across-the-board smash hit for reds or whites. The year is not like the 2000 vintage, nor most of the other modern classics for reds, particularly years such as 1995, 1990 and 1989.
The best 2003 reds are extremely concentrated and structured, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon-based reds from well-known estates on the Left Bank. Some of the year's top-scoring wines (17 rated 95 points or more) scored higher than in the 2000 vintage. It's very hard to generalize, though, about which appellations were best in 2003. It seems to be more of a question of which individual wine properties were better able to cope with the record-breaking heat and sunshine during the growing season.
The character of the vintage was determined by the growing conditions: Exceptional weather produced some exceptional wines. The growing season was more like that of the Barossa or Napa valleys than it was typical of the Médoc or St.-Emilion. Some wine producers in Bordeaux preferred to call the weather during the growing season "extreme," since the region had its hottest summer on record in 2003. Temperatures in August reached almost 120̊ F in the afternoon sun at some châteaus. It cooled down by late August and through September, but the boiling weather left its mark—ultrahigh sugar levels in the grapes, relatively low acidity and big, velvety tannins. This character has been a hallmark of many of the great vintages of Bordeaux, most recently 1990 (97 points), 1989 (98) and 1982 (95).
Bordeaux's sweet wines are equally impressive in 2003. Nearly all are richer, thicker, sweeter and more flamboyant than their 2001 counterparts, but they lack some of the complexity and subtlety of the best from that year. The 2003s are rock and roll compared with the classical music of 2001.
The dry whites, primarily blends of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon, are big and luscious, resembling white Burgundies from a rich year more than the bright, racy whites typical of Bordeaux.
I plan to buy and drink many of the more affordable and less-structured reds in the near term, both at home and in restaurants. They are just too delicious to pass up. The fact that you can drink the wines so young may very well change the way many consumers look at Bordeaux.
A complete overview of Bordeaux 2003—including my exclusive buying recommendations, an in-depth analysis of the vintage and ratings for all the wines—is currently available to subscribers of Wine Spectator Online–See Below:
Sources: “Bordeaux's Brave New World,” James Suckling, Wine Spectator, February 22, 2006
*1.) “Bordeaux’s Brave New World,” James Suckling, Wine Spectator, Wednesday, February 22, 2006
*2.) “Tasting Notes-518 Ratings,” Wine Spectator
*3.) “Recommended 2003 Bordeaux,”James Suckling, Wine Spectator
And More:
Wine Spectator: Worth the Bucks!
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Tequila Distinguido New To Limited United States Markets
Houston, Texas-based SK Distillers has recently announced the launch Tequila Distinguido, a new line of ultra-premium Tequilas. Produced in Jalisco, Mexico, Tequila Distinguido Silver, Reposado and Anejo are made from 100-percent blue agave and spring water. The spirits are double distilled and each have 40-percent alcohol-by-volume. They are currently available in 14 markets, including Washington D.C., Florida, Maryland, Virginia, Colorado, New York, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, Nevada, Illinois, California and Texas.
“The Tequila market has grown tremendously in the past four years, but what has been missing is an ultra-premium tequila that is affordable, attainable and speaks to the new luxury consumer,” says SK Distillers founder Regina Gaines. “We are projecting sales of $125 million in our first year, and we are, or will be soon, available in every state in the U.S.”
Tequila Distinguido Silver is bottled straight from the column, has hints of vanilla flavor and retails between $43.99 and $48 a 750-ml. bottle. Reposado is aged for six months in American oak barrels that were previously used to age Bourbon and retails from $48.99 to $52.99. The Anejo is aged for three years in oak barrels that were previously used to age Reposado Tequila.
Source: “Tequila Distinguido,” Courtney Thompson, Wine Spectator, February 24, 2006
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Australian Grape Growers Get Low Yields Relief
There are hopes Australia's wine glut could ease slightly with early indications of only an "average" yield from the 2006 wine grape vintage.
While yields might be down, grape quality is expected to be "good to excellent" overall due to generally good weather conditions.
The Australian Wine and Brandy Council yesterday said that with 20 per cent of the crop picked, the harvest was expected to be about 1.8 million tonnes, down about 7 per cent on 2005. This figure does not account for grapes left on the vine.
Council information and analysis manager Lawrie Stanford said that last year about 2 per cent to 3 per cent of grapes were left on vines and there was every possibility of a repeat this season.
Some South Australian growers already have indicated they will leave some fruit on vines and, with an estimated 900 million litres of unsold wine still in storage from previous years, low grape prices are testing the viability of some growers.
Mr Stanford said the lower yields would be viewed with relief by winemakers holding excess wine in stock. "This will allow wine reserves to be reduced to more reasonable levels while good-quality grapes from the 2006 harvest will enhance Australia's competitiveness in vital overseas markets," he said.
The drop in yield was due in part by smaller berries and lower bunch numbers, while some growers had been trying to reduce yields in line with lower demand.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics says there were 1.93 million tonnes of grapes crushed in 2004-05, up 8252 tonnes on 2003-04's record.
The area under cultivation increased only marginally to the start of this vintage, the AWBC said. It will release another assessment in late April while the Winemakers Federation will release its vintage report in June.
Source: “Low yield a relief to grape growers,” Cameron England, Advertiser, February 28, 2006
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February 27, 2006
California Bases For Another Round of Storms
California expects 8 to 10 inches of rain over the next 24 to 72 hourrs –three storms are lined up out in the Pacific and headed for the west coast over the rest of the week.
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Last Thursday and Friday February 23rd & 24th, 2006, the temperature was 60 plus, here in Central California, a clear spring day--yet people were frantically filling sandbags in anticipation of the coming storms–surreal?
Hard to believe they were bagging sand, hard to look back just two months at the new years floods, with the sun shining down on a seemingly spring day–the mustard and fruit trees all ah bloom.
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Here’s a graphic representation of the Russian River at Guerneville bridge from January 1 and 2, 2006.
This graph shows the speed at which the Russian river can rise January 1, 2006. The right half (in green and pink) illustrates how fast the flow can decrease:
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This next illustration is showing just how fast the Russian River is going up today:
RISING at 3.5 ft. an HOUR!
Down stream flows increase over time.
The heaviest rains were last night and earlier this morning. By 8:30 am flood warnings were being issued for western slope and central valley streams–5 inches have already fallen in some counties.
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Forecast for the next couple days:
Today: Windy with rain...heavy at times. Isolated thunderstorms. Highs 55 to 60. Southeast wind increasing to 20 to 40 mph with local gusts to 60 mph possible...especially in heavier showers.
Tonight: Windy with rain and isolated thunderstorms. Heavy rain possible in the evening. Lows in the mid 40s to lower 50s. Southeast wind 20 to 40 mph with local gusts to 60 mph possible... especially in heavier showers. Wind decreasing late.
Tuesday: Showers likely with a chance of thunderstorms. Highs in the mid to upper 50s. Southwest wind to 15 mph.
Tuesday Night: Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Lows in the upper 30s to mid 40s. South winds to 15 mph. Chance of showers 40 percent.
Clearing on Wednesday. Rain likely. Highs in the mid to upper 50s. South winds to 10 mph...increasing to 15 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Chance of rain 70 percent.
Is there’s another one due in on the the heals of these two? We’ll keep you posted!
Weather Service?
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Wine Country Caves All The Rage
Don Magorian, like the BART tunnelers who mentored him and the railroad and ore tunnelers who are now his competitors, dug gold mine tunnels in the Sierra Nevada for 20 years before he discovered wine caves in 1997.
The owner of Auburn-based Magorian Mine Services never returned to those mountains.
"This is the new gold," said his veteran tunneler Mike Holley.
Deep inside a hole in a Napa Valley hillside, Holley rides a noisy vehicle with caterpillar tracks and grinding tungsten carbide teeth. On a good day, he chews through 3 feet of volcanic earth, creating a 14,000-square-foot space that will eventually wow tourists, store wine barrels at ideal temperatures and house the underground tanks for the future Arkenstone Winery.
Burrow into what's increasingly all the rage in wine country: caves. Vintners are burying whole wineries inside caves, carving out dramatic grottoes for entertaining or creating more utilitarian storage spaces.
In both cases, the wineries are realizing savings by cutting their construction costs - sometimes by as much as half - and reducing bills for heating and cooling.
Chuck McMinn's cave, with burgundy floors and beige walls, feels more like an upscale hotel amenity than a hole in the ground. A double stack of wine barrels lines the walls leading visitors to a stunning tasting room with overhead chandelier and room for 50 people.
"As soon as we walked through those doors we were 30 feet underground," said McMinn, owner of St. Helena's Vineyard 29. Showing off 1,000 feet of 3-year-old tunnels directly beneath a sauvignon blanc vineyard, he added: "In this cave, we can store up to 1,000 barrels. That's 25,000 cases of wine, two years' worth of production."
Magorian well remembers McMinn's tasting room, where his crew cut out and carted away a rock the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.
Wine caves, first dug in the 1880s by Chinese laborers at Beringer and Schramsberg wineries in the northern Napa Valley, now number at least 150 in Napa and Sonoma counties, Magorian estimates. A new generation of caves emerged in the 1980s amid the extra wealth of increasing U.S. wine consumption. The trend slowed for a while, but numbers are again taking off with a strong economy.
The idea is spreading now to private homes.
"One of our clients says it's his eye of the hurricane," said David Provost, president of Napa-based Bacchus Caves, named for the Roman god of wine. "We've got people who put an art gallery in. One person down south is putting in a library because they're in a fire danger area and want their books to be safe. Another guy back East wants a place to store 58,000 bottles of wine," he said.
Provost is digging an 18,000-square-foot cave for Napa's Meritage Resort hotel with room for 245-person dinner parties.
Why a hotel cave?
"Because of the cost of construction," he said. "They're on a hillside, and what better use of a hillside than a cave? It's obviously very unique, and they're hoping for that to be a big draw."
Sacramento-area wine country has caves, too, at Gold Hill Winery at Coloma, Sogno Winery at Shingle Springs, Dobra Zemlja Winery in Plymouth and Winery by the Creek at Fair Play.
"It's a great party spot," said Charles Mitchell, owner of Winery by the Creek. "There's a certain amount of people who don't feel comfortable. They don't want to be underground. I love it," he said. "I have about 150 to 200 barrels in there."
Mitchell said the cost of his caves and tasting room "pushed up against $1 million."
In the Napa Valley, caves typically cost between $125 and $300 per square foot to excavate and finish - and more for upscale lighting and doors, Provost said. Winery architects say similar outdoor production and warehouse space is a minimum of $175 per square foot, while hospitality facilities that include tasting rooms start at $350 per square foot.
Tourists find caves irresistible.
"We send them to Schramsberg," said Judy Cook, owner of Calistoga's Brannon Cottage Inn. "I also send them to Storybook (Mountain Vineyards). Their caves are amazing. People are very interested because most people don't know what a cave is."
"If I'm on a tour and I can't take my guests to a winery with caves, I don't even mention it," said Don Rickard, president of Solano County-based Platypus Tours. "If I do know I'm going to a cave that day, I play it up. People are very excited about it.
"It's almost an otherworldly activity," he said. "You're in the earth. People are fascinated by being way down, surrounded by rock and dirt."
In St. Helena, Magorian is close to finishing a 5,500-square-foot cave for retired timber executive Dan Voeschen, owner of 7-acre Motion Vineyards.
Voeschen is putting an entire winery inside the hill because "this is all the space we've got."
At about $135 per square foot, the cave will cost nearly $800,000 and house a processing facility, barrel storage and private tasting. That's at least $162,000 cheaper than the minimum for an outdoor facility.
Amid his finished walls and dirt floor, Voeschen can already picture his winery there this fall.
"It will be a cute one," he says.
Magorian by then will be digging into some new hill.
Inspecting the Voeschen job recently, he said, "When we started doing wine caves everybody said, 'This is OK, but when are we going back to mining?' "
Nine years later, no one asks.
Source: “Caves become the rage in wine country,” Wasserman, Sacramento Bee, February 24, 2006
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Big, Red Tempranillo On The Rise
Among the wine countries of Europe, Spain tends to get overlooked in the United States.
Italian and French wines long have been favored by Americans, and even Portuguese and German wines may have a longer and taller standing here than Spanish.
But that's changing. Imports of Spanish wines into the United States have grown from 1 million cases in 2000 to more than 3 million cases in 2005, jumping 17 percent last year alone, reported wine-industry analyst Jon Fredrikson at the recent Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento.
"Spain is becoming sexy in the United States," remarked another conference speaker, grape and wine broker Glenn Proctor. "Tempranillo and grenache are liked by Americans," said Proctor, referring to the black grapes largely responsible for Spain's more popular and esteemed wines.
Some American winemakers not only have noticed the rising popularity of Spanish wines in the United States, but are taking steps to capitalize on it. During the Unified conclave, about 40 of them gathered in a small meeting room of the Hyatt Regency Sacramento to form a promotional group, the Tempranillo Advocates, Producers and Amigos Society, or TAPAS.
They came from California, Arizona and Oregon, and they all have or are planting small plots of tempranillo and other grape varieties identified with Spain, such as grenache and albariño.
No one apparently was from New Jersey, although the buzz in the room was that New Jersey has 250 acres of tempranillo. Not so, says Gary Pavlis, an agricultural agent with Rutgers University. At best, New Jersey has 15 acres of tempranillo, but more could be on the way. A large but shy Spanish wine company has bought substantial property in southern New Jersey and is starting to develop vineyards on the site, though more albariño than tempranillo so far has been planted, Pavlis says.
At any rate, California land devoted to tempranillo stands at 731 acres, double what it was a decade ago but still a fraction of the vineyards planted to cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir and the like.
Oregon has far less tempranillo, and much of it seems planted at Abacela Vineyards and Winery in Roseburg, where Earl Jones is cultivating nine varieties of Portuguese and Spanish grapes.
Jones believes in tempranillo so strongly that he took the initiative to form TAPAS and is the group's first president.
"Tempranillo is a great variety that's been overlooked in America," Jones says. "The Spanish have been making outstanding wines for centuries. If they can make great wine over there, why shouldn't we?"
Tempranillo isn't better known in the United States, Jones suspects, because Americans have taken their wine-drinking cues largely from the British, whose palates early on developed an affinity for the table wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy in France rather than the table wines from Spain.
Over the past 20 years, however, Spanish wines have risen in prominence among American wine collectors, so Jones and his cohorts think the time is right to alert Americans that tempranillo, albariño, grenache and other grape varieties from Spain can turn out notable wines in the United States.
But is there room in the crowded American wine cellar for Spanish varieties?
"We don't know. The answer will come in 10 years," Jones said. In the meantime, he suggested, try one of those tempranillos over there.
No organizational meeting of a wine society is complete without an opportunity to taste, and Jones and several other vintners assembled a table of tempranillos.
As a group, they were richly aromatic, with scents often seductively floral. Fruit flavors were fresh and juicy, sometimes suggestive of blackberries, sometimes cherries and sometimes plums, with currents of green tobacco leaves, white chocolate, mint and oak here and there. Structurally, they ranged from giving to firm, with the more approachable examples benefitting from a year or two of additional age, a characteristic shared by tempranillo-based wines even from Spain.
Bottom line: Tempranillo is a big, red wine best opened when rib-eye steak, prime rib, lamb stew or something similarly dark, dense and husky is heading for the table, including the meatier kinds of tapas.
Still, tempranillo advocates know they face several challenges with the variety, which, incidentally, is pronounced tem-prah-NEE-yo. Producers make just small lots of the wine. Their releases tend to be more dear than many tempranillo-based wines from Spain. And many restaurateurs and wine merchants hesitate to add largely unknown wines to their lists and shelves.
"It's a great wine in the tasting room, but wholesale is more difficult," said winemaker Chuck Hovey of Stevenot Winery in Murphys, Calaveras County. He was indicating that consumers love his tempranillos when they find them, but that's usually in the Stevenot tasting room because distributors shy from carrying relatively obscure varietals.
On the other hand, says David Ramey, the wine world could use more varieties and styles of wine.
"No one wants to drink the same thing every night," said Ramey, a Sonoma County winemaker best known for his sleek cabernet sauvignons and chardonnays during tours at wineries such as Matanzas Creek, Chalk Hill and Dominus.
He has his own winery now, Ramey Wine Cellars in Healdsburg, and while he doesn't yet make tempranillo he attended the TAPAS session because he is thinking of adding it to his portfolio.
"The challenge with tempranillo is to tame the tannins without making too light a wine," he says. "When that is done, as with the best examples from Spain, you get cabernetlike structure with a different flavor profile. It has more fruit and less cedar."
Another Sonoma County winemaker, Penny Gadd-Coster of J Wine Co., is about to release two tempranillos under her own brand, Coral Mustang Wines. She's found the varietal to be versatile with a wider range of foods than many other red wines.
"It's the perfect food wine," Gadd-Coster says of tempranillo. "It's very easy to drink. Its tannins tend to be softer than some of the cabernets out there. It has more backbone than zinfandel, but not to the extent of a cabernet or syrah."
Domestic tempranillo is only going to get better, Jones predicts. Better clones of the variety are just being released here, and as they take root, he's confident that the American taste for tempranillo also will grow.
Eventually, TAPAS likely will stage tastings to introduce Spanish varietals to a wider audience. In the meantime, consumers curious about Spanish varieties might want to be on the lookout for tempranillos being made here. In addition to Abacela, Stevenot and Coral Mustang, American tempranillo producers include R.H. Phillips, Gundlach-Bundschu, Capay Valley, Clos du Bois, Twisted Oak, Anna Maria, New Clairvaux, Wild Horse, Barreto, St. Amant, Artesa, Meeker, Bokisch, Boeger, Pagor, and Dare, the latter a label of Viader.
While many restaurants shy from Spanish varieties, that isn't the case at Sacramento's tapas bar, Tapa the World - which carries tempranillos by Abacela, Stevenot, Pagor, Bokisch and Boeger - and Aioli Bodega Española, which carries tempranillos by Abacela and Boeger.
Source: “Tempranillo is big, red - and on the rise in U.S.,” Mike Dunne, Sacramento Bee, February 22, 2006
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February 26, 2006
Retrievers Put To Work On Grape Bugs
Dogs may help hound out vine pest in bark-to-bark effort
California vintners are going to the dogs in their fight against a new pest menacing state vineyards by training golden retrievers to sniff out the grape bane.
The dog squad, still in the pilot stages, is one of a number of strategies being considered to stop the vine mealybug, a little insect with the potential to stir up big trouble in wine country.
Small and secretive, vine mealybugs hide under roots and bark where they're virtually impossible to see with the human eye. Dozens of the males can fit inside one inch and given that inch, they'll take an acre, feeding on vines and producing a sugary excretion known as honeydew that encourages the growth of sooty mold and turns vine and grape cluster into a sticky mess.
Once established, it takes a considerable blast of pesticides to get rid of the bugs, an unpopular resort for an industry that has been moving toward using less chemicals.
"
The vine mealybug poses a huge threat to our progress toward both sustainable and organic farming practices," says Jeff Erwin, deputy agriculture commissioner for Napa County.
The vine mealybug showed up in Southern California more than 10 years ago and has been moving north, showing up in some prime grape-growing areas.
Ag officials in Napa have been running an intensive vine mealybug trapping and detection program for two years, putting more than seven traps per square mile of vineyard. So far, they've found 37 infestations, mostly involving fewer than 50 vines. County officials don't have official damage estimates, but Erwin says some growers have had to jettison damaged grapes.
Preventive efforts underway include using traps baited with a female pheromone to catch the males, which can determine if an infestation is present. Another approach is to try to control the ants that serve as vine mealybug protecters, fighting off predators to keep the supply of sugary honeydew coming.
But perhaps the most intriguing of the programs is the bark-to-bark approach of having dogs sniff out the root of the problem in the early stages.
"I like the fact that it's dogs. It gets away from chemicals," says Elaine Honig, creative director at Honig Vineyard & Winery, which plans to use the trained dogs if the program is successful. "How wonderful to be able to solve a problem, have it be fun, have it be scientific and have it be good for the environment."
Like fine wines, these puppies have good noses.
"A third of their brain is their olfactory system. There is no machine that can detect odor anywhere near their capabilities," says Bonnie Bergin, founder of the Assistance Dog Institute in Santa Rosa, which is conducting the training.
Growers in Napa and Sonoma counties have donated nearly $30,000 for the first year of training and are discussing raising more funds, said Jennifer Kopp, executive director of the Napa Valley Grape Growers Association.
So far, the dogs have been taught to identify the female mealybug pheromone and recently made the leap to identifying a piece of infected stock, much trickier since it meant dealing with competing, real-life smells such as mold and wood — "This was huge," says Bergin.
Field tests could begin later this year.
Erwin is intrigued by the possibilities, which could result in helping growers find vine mealybugs early enough that removal would be a relatively simple matter of removing a few vines or treating a small area.
"When you have a pest like vine mealybug," he says, "you look for all the possible ways of mitigating the damage and in our case we would love to see vine mealybug eradicated from Napa County."
Source: “Dogs may help hound out vine pest in bark-to-bark effort,” Michelle Locke, San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, February 22, 2006
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New Bulgarian Grappa Released
The Sonoma, California-based Bulgarian Master Vintners import company has released a new Muscat grappa. Peshterska Muskat Grape Brandy is named after the town Peshtera, which translates to “cave,” and is now available in six states.
Peshterska comes in a cobalt blue teardrop shaped bottle made of hand-blown Italian glass. The brandy has a Muscat grape flavor, according to the company, and has won two awards at international wine competitions. Currently available in California, Arizona, Nevada, Illinois, Georgia and Hawaii, the grappa will make its nationwide debut at the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA)convention in Las Vegas in early April. Peshterska has 40-percent alcohol by volume and retails for between $17 and $19 a 750-ml. bottle.
The Bulgarian Master Vintners have also re-released the Bulgarian wine label Vini, starting with the 2004 vintages of the brand’s Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Previously available in the U.S. with a different label, the Bulgarian Master Vintners revamped and expanded the Vini line in the hopes of making the Bulgarian product appealing to America’s mass wine market. The vintners chose winemaker Miro Tcholakov from Trentadue Winery in Sonoma County, California, to head the project.
“No Bulgarian wine has flourished in the United States,” says Vance Petrunoff, president of the Bulgarian Master Vintners. “I decided to create the first mass-market Bulgarian wine brand and become a negociant in the process.”
Vini wines, whose labels have the famous Veni Vidi Vici motto (I came, I saw, I conquered) on them, have 12.8-percent alcohol-by-volume and retail for roughly $7.99 a 750-ml. bottle. The wines are available in California, New York, Illinois, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Arizona, Massachusettes, Washington and Hawaii. Though only the Cabernet and Merlot are released now, the Bulgarian Master Vintners hope to bring in a Pinot Noir soon.
Source: “Bulgarian Vintners Release New Grappa,” Laura Pelner, Wine Spectator, February 23, 2006
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Recognizing Zinfandel
Naming Zinfandel as the official state grape of California won't do much to solve the Golden State's economic lethargy or void in leadership. But it's an idea we can celebrate, and one that state legislators in Sacramento should embrace.
State Sen. Carole Migden, a San Francisco Democrat, is sponsoring the bill, and of course, it's controversial. Zinfandel is just part of the state's unique viticultural landscape, but in terms of its history, no other grape is nearly as important or distinctive.
Migden's logic is that Zinfandel, a grape that came to California during the Gold Rush, warrants recognition because it is inextricably intertwined with California's winemaking history. And she's right. Napa Valley Cabernet may be more prestigious and Chardonnay may be more popular. But it's Zinfandel that captures the essence of California's wine spirit.
Zinfandel "is a grape that's very old in California, is appealing to all palates and can be served with all varieties of food," said Migden, whose district includes part of Sonoma County, one of the state's premier Zinfandel appellations.
The uniqueness of Zinfandel makes it a favorite. It has an underdog, rags-to-riches storyline; its vines are amazingly durable—they can live for well more than 100 years; its wines are versatile, and it is grown successfully in so many locales.
The past weekend, as I drove through Napa and Sonoma counties, I marveled at many of the winter-barren Zinfandel vineyards. Stark and gnarly in the brilliant February sun, surrounded by tall, green grass and yellow mustard plants, they were a comforting reminder of wine's importance to our society.
At times I think of the ancient Zinfandel vines in Southern California's Cucamonga Valley that have survived for decades and now stand in the path of urban sprawl and shopping malls.
Making Zinfandel the state grape probably won't save those vines. But it should remind us that grapes and wine have been an integral part of California's history—its past, present and future—and that, in its own way, wine has become one of California's most treasured resources.
Other official symbols of California—the California grizzly bear (now extinct), the golden trout and golden poppy, the dogface butterfly and the gray whale—were chosen because they depict iconic elements of our past and present.
Maybe California doesn't need a state grape, but if one is singled out, it should be Zinfandel. It's been here and stayed with us through good times and bad.
Source: “Zinfandel Deserves Recognition,” James Laube, Wine Spectator, February 24, 2006
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Spain’s Bad ‘02s–A Look Between The Vines
I've always said, of all those things that go into making a wine -- vineyard, vintner, variety, etc. -- the final confounding factor is vintage. Everything else can be just right, but then a bad year comes along and swipes everything else off the table.
Nowhere was this more in evidence than when I decided to revisit some of my favorite Spanish wines. For you see, Spain's top wine producing regions had back-to-back polar extreme years.
While 2001 was stellar, 2002 was, well, let's just say not so hot. Normally that might be meaningless, but we happen to be in that twilight zone between vintages, at least here in the states, where some Spanish wines on the shelves are 2001, some 2002.
And so my hand was shaking when I reached out to purchase two wines from one of Spain's best producers, both from vintage 2002. Dare I? I dare.
This producer, Alejandro Fernandez, has been making fabulous wines in the Riberio del Duero for decades. Certainly he could overcome a bad vintage. Then again, maybe not.
The first wine, Condado de Haza, 2002 Ribera del Duero, $21, truly has been one of my favorite international wines in this price range for nearly a decade. I've had bottlings at close to 10 years old and they're still wonderful.
But, alas. Not that the '02 was bad. It had some of that rustic, musty smell, with hints of earth, plum and berry aromas. Texturally, it had the usual dusky tannins and denseness. But when it came to flavor, I had an extremely difficult time picking out anything. Maybe plum and some earthiness, but not much. The question: Is there enough flavor behind that mask of tannins to sustain it? Probably not.
The Tinto Pesquera, 2002 Ribera del Duero, $28, is supposed to be the big gun in the Fernandez arsenal, and once again, this had some of those same musty, earthy, berry aromas, but a much softer texture and more forward berry and plum fruit flavors. There were also hints of roasted bell pepper and an herbal quality that I associate with underripe fruit.
I'm not totally dismissing these wines. There is a glimmer of the greatness these usually possess, even in just OK vintages. It's a good point of reference. One wine managed to escape the '02 jinx by keeping things simple. Go straight for the fruit, don't worry about beef and stuffing -- just make a nice simple wine.
The Lorinon, 2002 Rioja Red Wine, $12, is just that. No oak was used making it, and it is delicious. Cola, berry and cherry aromas lead to pretty flavors, soft tannins and slim texture. A real nice sipper.
And then there was the Abadia Retuerta, 2001 Sardon de Duero Rivola, $15. Talk about what a difference a year makes. It was splendid. While the above wines are 100 percent tempranillo, this is a blend of 60 percent tempranillo and 40 percent cabernet sauvignon. And that cab really beefs up the wine. Berry, earth and tar aromas give way to robust berry, plum and bitter chocolate flavors. The good acidity assures this of being a fantastic food wine. Paella anyone?
So you're saying to yourself, OK, why not just wait for the 2003 vintage? But think of the producer, importer, wholesaler, and merchant -- they have to sell through the 2002 vintage. There may be some heavy discounting coming up.
Speaking of which, I returned to the wine shop to buy some more of that 2001 Abadia Retuerta, and guess what? Sold out. They were already on the 2002 vintage..
Robert Mayfield's Between the Vines appears every Thursday in Weekend. Mayfield has reviewed wines for Northwest publications for 16 years and is the publisher and editor of the occasional newsletter The Wine Iconoclast. You can contact him at wineicon@aol.com or Robert Mayfield, P.O. Box 741, Ridgefield, WA 98642.
Source: “Between The Vines,” Robert Mayfield, Statesman Journal, February 23, 2006
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McGuigan Says: Wine Glut To Hang Around
Yet another blow to morale in the struggling wine industry, McGuigan Simeon predicts the wine glut that is forcing growers to tear out vines will remain for at least the next two years.
To make matters worse for an industry battling a strong dollar and retailers keen to capitalise on the oversupply, the country's second largest listed winemaker believes the grape harvest this year could surpass the record tonnage in 2005.
Yesterday, McGuigan Simeon illustrated the dire state of the industry when it posted a 61 per cent slump in half-year net profit to $6.19 million, which the company blamed on the grape glut and increased market competition. Revenue fell 6 per cent to $161.7 million.
Managing director Brian McGuigan said his company had passed the worst of the downturn but believed the "difficult operating conditions" would continue for the next 18 months to two years.
"They are the most difficult conditions I have seen during my 46 years in the business. I am confident we are past midnight. Yes, we are still in the dark but I can see … that the rays of dawn are on the horizon," he said.
Winemakers are responding by reducing their take of grapes from growers, which Mr McGuigan estimated would see contracted growers unable to get rid of more than 100,000 tonnes from this year's harvest.
McGuigan Simeon itself faces threats of court action after it suspended receipt of 50,000 tonnes from almost 200 growers contracted to the winemaker.
But chairman David Clarke said the basis for the contractual changes was "sound" and McGuigan Simeon hoped to resolve the issue this week. In total, the company is likely to crush as much as 240,000 tonnes of grapes this year.
Mr McGuigan, who will be replaced in the top job by former fast-food executive Dane Hudson next month, said retailers were negotiating tough deals because of the well-publicised grape glut but he urged the industry not to succumb to product discounting because of the damage it could do to brands.
"You can sell more wine by reducing prices but at the end of the day you don't have any image in the brands," he said.
Shares in the Hunter Valley company have more than halved in the past year. Yesterday they fell 3c to $3.01.
The directors cut the interim dividend by 5.25c to 5c. It is payable on March 27.
Source: “Wine glut to hang about, McGuigan says,” Matt O'Sullivan, February 23, 2006
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February 25, 2006
Open That Bottle Night!
February 25th is Open That Bottle Night! (OTBN)
The premise is simple:
Virtually everyone who stores wine for future consumption has at least one bottle held in reserve for that "special occasion."
Trouble is, that "occasion" never seems to come along and that special bottle languishes, in many cases, long after the wine was at its prime.
That's why Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, the married couple who write the "Tastings" column for the Wall Street Journal, decided seven years ago to create Open That Bottle Night, where the bottle itself is the occasion.
The day they picked for OTBN is the last Saturday in February. This year, that's the 25th, just a few days from now.
Their Books:
The New One:
Wine for Every Day and Every Occasion : Red, White, and Bubbly to Celebrate the Joy of Living
------------------------------And these:------------------------------
Snippets of their, Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, work concerning OTBN from the Wall Street Journal:
Tastings: Savoring a Storied Evening - The Many Ways to Celebrate Open That Bottle Night - Sediment and Sentiment
We invented OTBN for a simple reason: All of us, no matter how big or small our wine collections, have that single bottle of wine we simply can never bear to open. Maybe it's from Grandpa's cellar or a trip to Italy or a wedding. We're always going to open it on a special occasion, but no occasion is ever special enough. So it sits. And sits. Then, at some point, we decide we should have opened it years ago and now it's bad anyway, so there's no reason to open it, which gives us an excuse to hang onto it for a few more decades. So OTBN -- which is now always the last Saturday in February -- offers a great opportunity to prepare a special meal, open the bottle and savor the memories.
To be sure, the real point of OTBN is that those bottles should be opened throughout the year, not just on a special night. But we understand that sometimes it takes a village to open a bottle and, indeed, over the years, OTBN has gotten bigger every year. At first, it seemed to be celebrated primarily by couples and intimate groups. One of our all-time favorite post-OTBN notes arrived the first year from a couple in South Florida who opened a prized Chateau Latour 1986 with pizza fetched from a sentimental-favorite pizzeria after a two-hour-and-15-minute round trip. "The pizza was great," wrote the husband. "The Chateau Latour was good, not great. But it got better toward the end of our meal, and much better as we entered the Jacuzzi with Mr. Barry White in the background."
Now, we're hearing more and more accounts of OTBN being the main event at large dinner parties with friends and family. It is also being celebrated at restaurants, clubs, museums, libraries and wine stores such as The Wine Store in Alpharetta, Ga. OTBN was even a question on "Jeopardy!" last year (and the contestant got it right, for $200). We're especially touched by the event in Rochester, which will include an auction and a dinner at which each couple will bring a bottle of wine to share with their table. The Bivona Child Advocacy Center says it "is looking to establish this event as both the signature event for the agency and the pre-eminent OTBN party in Rochester." The center, which opened on Aug. 1, 2004, and evaluated more than 600 children last year, hopes to raise up to $75,000 at its event at the Oak Hill Country Club. "It need not be old. It need not be rare. It need not even be expensive. Just bring the bottle, and we'll make it special," the invitation reads.
So, how do you participate in OTBN?
First and most important, grab that bottle you are saving. Don't worry about whether it's over the hill. This event is about the memories, not about the liquid itself. As far as we can tell, just about every household in America has a bottle of wine saved from a trip to a winery, for instance. Now's the time to open it and remember the visit. If you don't have a special bottle on hand, think about buying a bottle of wine that brings special memories. Then, follow these steps:
1. Stand older wine up (away from light and heat, of course) for a few days before you plan to open it -- say, on Wednesday, Feb. 22.This will allow the sediment, if there is some, to sink to the bottom.
2. Both reds and whites are often better closer to cellar temperature (around 55 degrees). Don't overchill the white, and think about putting the red in the refrigerator for an hour or two before opening it if you've been keeping it in a 70-degree house.
3. With an older bottle, the cork may break easily. The best opener for a cork like that is the one with two prongs, but it requires some skill. You have four weeks to practice using one. Be prepared for the possibility that the cork will fall apart with a regular corkscrew. If that happens, have a carafe and a coffee filter handy. Just pour enough through the coffee filter to catch the cork.
4. Otherwise, do not decant. We're assuming these are old and fragile wines. Air could quickly dispel what's left of them. If the wine does need to breathe, you should have plenty of time for that throughout the evening.
5. Have a backup wine ready for your special meal, in case your old wine really has gone bad.
6. Serve dinner. Then open the wine and immediately take a sip. If it's truly bad -- we mean vinegar -- you will know it right away. But even if the wine doesn't taste good at first, don't rush to the sink to pour it out. Every year, we hear from people who were amazed how a wine pulled itself together and became delicious as the night wore on.
7. Talk about the person who gave you the wine, or the circumstances under which you received it. This makes the wine resonate in a very sweet and personal way.
8. Enjoy the wine for what it is, not what it might be or might once have been.
9. Save one last glass in the bottle. After the dishes are done, pour the remainder of the wine into your glasses (you might pour it through the coffee filter if there's a great deal of sediment, though, personally, we often like the gutsy taste of the wine with the sediment). Then drink up, and enjoy those very last moments of a special night.
10. Drop us a note at wine@wsj.com about your evening. Be sure to include your name, city and phone number, in case we need to contact you so that we can share your account with other readers.
What if you are having an OTBN party? We asked long-time OTBN reveler Enise Olding of Vancouver Island in Canada, who is going to celebrate the night with several friends and a Bordeaux she brought back from a wine museum in the Netherlands, what advice she would offer in that case. She responded: "Sharing this event with friends who enjoy wine makes the event more interesting, and there's more wine to taste and more stories to hear. Don't worry about whether your guests will feel pressured to have a story to go along with their bottle. There are
always stories and anecdotes, and you'll find everyone loves to tell them.
"Just make sure everyone knows that this is not a contest as to who has the best, oldest or most expensive wine, and that it's not a test as to what, if anything, anyone happens to know about the wine. It's an evening where wines are revealed, stories shared and we enjoy the company of others."
UNUSUAL STUFF:
One question we're asked from time to time is why Pinot Noir is not used as often as some other grapes to make red blends. Both the cost of the grapes and the nuances of the grape have a lot to do with it. So we were fascinated the other day when we heard about a wine called Rubeo "red, red wine" from well-regarded Penner-Ash Wine Cellars in Oregon. The 2004 wine is a blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Syrah and sells for $19. We called and without identifying ourselves as wine writers bought some from the winery. We opened it right away and it was delightful, with some grapiness and smoke and a lovely weight that would make it pretty well perfect with a wide variety of informal food.
Lynn Penner-Ash, the winemaker, told us, "It's one of those things that honestly we did it because we had a lot of Pinot Noir and Syrah that weren't working for us." Now, "we have a hard time keeping it in stock. We created a monster." Basically, they had "a young Pinot Noir site that never got fully mature" and Syrah grapes that weren't working out, so they put them together. She said they didn't want to "bulk it out because we put so much care into those grapes" or bottle it in "one of those cheaper second labels that I hate," so they blended them. She said people don't usually blend Pinot because it's an expensive grape and "a small amount of anything really impacts Pinot, changes the traditional characteristics. It's too delicate to blend." The Syrah, for instance, makes it "jammier" -- and we'd certainly agree with that, in a good way. They made 350 to 400 cases and it's sold in Oregon, Texas and New York. All over the wine shop today, there are fascinating blends that often defy easy explanation or description. That's why they're fun.Give them a try. *1.
Tastings: Talking Wine Around the Water Cooler For Clients and Colleagues, Our Holiday Wine Tips - Reading the Small Print
Here's where the eyesight comes in: If you look closely, there is a tiny registration number on a Champagne label. Most begin with "NM," which includes the big Champagne houses that buy most of their grapes, then blend the wine and ship it. If it says "RM," that means it's a grower's own wine. This Champagne will be rare, special and distinctive -- and there's an excellent chance it will be new to your boss. Not only that, but it will likely be a bargain -- often $30 to $40 -- because it is, after all, an unusual label that no one has ever heard of. The boss will understand just how special this is. You won't find RM Champagnes at every corner store, but many fine wine shops carry at least one... . .**2..
If you do something special for OTBN, Dorothy and John would like to know.
Email them at: wine@wsj.com.
*1.) Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, The Wall Street Journal, Jan 27, 2006
**2.) Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, The Wall Street Journal, Dec 9, 2005
Sources: “Juice Updates,“ Local Wine Events, “Tastings-.OTBN” The Wall Street Journal $4.95ea, and E-mail comunication with Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, February 22, 2006.
JUST DO IT!
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Brunello Goes Hologram For Prevention
High tech innovation used to protect wine's authenticity
The makers of Brunello di Montalcino, considered by many to be Italy's best wine, have turned to high technology to protect the authenticity of their product with a special hologram impressed in the wine cap .
The hologram system is the same used by the European Central Bank to thwart the counterfeiting of euro notes.
The first to adopt the new system is the Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona vineyard which produces some 40,000 bottles of Brunello a year .
The caps are being produced by the Luxoro agency which has the exclusive rights in Italy to use the holograph system developed by the Kurz group .
The German company currently offers its holograph technology to some 150 banks worldwide, including the ECB, and it is also used also to guarantee certificates for such prestigious brand names as Rolex and Ferrari .
The hologram on the wine cap has a mirror-like background on which letters and a special logo are printed in a combination of different colors is are near impossible to match .
The caps are then heat-shrunk over the cork. The Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona vineyard has been in the forefront in using new technologies to guarantee the authenticity of its wine and in 2002 became the first to experiment with a wine label which had a special microchip on it, containing information on the wine's origin and quality .
"We have always believed in innovation and we consider this new system to be an investment in our company's image, especially for the future in order to compete on a global level," Paolo Bianchini, one of the vineyard's owners, said of the new hologram cap .
Last year, several Brunello producers opted to use the so-called "talking label", which took the microchip idea a step further .
The brainchild of Daniele Barontini, whose company Modulgraf designs labels for the leading producers of Brunello and other top flight Tuscan wines, the talking label offers the potential consumer spoken information on the wine's vintage, its history, the method of production used, the area where the grapes were grown and can even suggest the best ways to fully appreciate the wine .
The label can be heard through a small reader, similar in size to a walkman CD player .
Thanks to the tailored label, "each wine can explain itself in the first person," Barontini said .
The latest Brunello will be presented to the public in the Tuscan village of Montalcino, south of Siena, this weekend at the annual 'Benvenuto Brunello' (Welcome Brunello) event .
Taking center stage will be the four-star 2001 vintage Brunello di Montalcino but the show will also offer Rosso di Montalcino and Sant'Antimo from 2003 and 2004 as well as some select Brunello Riservas, grappas and a sherry-like vinsanto .
Source: “Brunello gets hologram on cap,” ANSA - Rome, February 23, 2006
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St Emilion Grand Cru Classé Makes Garage Wineries Happy
Jean-Luc Thunevin has entered his three so-called 'garagiste' wines to be considered amongst the top growths of St Emilion.
As the date for the reclassification of St Emilion grand cru classés is brought forward to May, Thunevin is looking to get recognition for wines many consider to be the equal of some of the best in the region.
The announcement of the reclassifaction, which happens once every 10 years and is due this year, may be brought forward to ensure new rankings are finalised ahead of June's VinExpo in Hong Kong.
'There is a lot of work to be done, and the date is not finalised yet,' said Astrid Deysine at the Syndicat de St Emilion, 'but the hope is that the commission will be able to present their findings to INAO at the end of May, instead of September as previously expected.'
Thunevin hopes that Valandraud – the first great 'vin de garage' microcuvee – will be given Premier Grand Cru Classé A, Virginie de Valandraut Premier Grand Cru Classé B and Clos Badon Grand Cru Classé.
'I have created Valandraud over the past 15 years, and I don't have the history of many St Emilion chateaux. This may be difficult for some people to accept, but I know that I have made a wine that has the quality, the reviews and the market equal to the best,' he told decanter.com.
He added. 'Great terroir is being created all the time in Australia, California, Argentina, and right here in St Emilion. All good terroir comes from the men that work it – if there was no drainage in Bordeaux, there'd be no Yquem, no Cheval Blanc, no great wines of the Médoc. Of course no one contests their quality, yet there is a resistance to believing that the same thing can happen now.'
Around 20 new properties have submitted wines to be promoted to Grand Cru Classé – although unconfirmed, these are thought to include Fleur Cardinal and Bellefont Belcier. The commission can also declassify existing chateaux.
Source: “Garage wines make play for St Emilion premier league,” Jane Anson, Decanter, February 24, 2006
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Electric Wine Acid Taste
Which is more acidic -- Pepsi or Dole orange juice?
The word 'acidity' makes consumers think 'ouch,' but it's what makes a wine delicious
You might think OJ, because of its citric acid. Yet Pepsi is more than 10 times as acidic, according to figures provided by PepsiCo, which makes both.
Why am I writing about Pepsi in a wine article?
Because acidity may be the least appreciated quality of a wine's flavor. Crisp acidity in wine is delicious and refreshing -- just as it is in Pepsi -- but even many frequent wine drinkers think it's a bad thing.
Acidity is what keeps wine safe from microbes and helps it endure and improve over years in the cellar. It even makes wine smell better.
"When you move the pH (a measure of acidity) down to a more acceptable range, the bouquet changes," says chemical engineer and winemaker Thomas Coyne. "The aroma just seems to blossom."
But there's something about that word "acidity" that summons negative images. At best, it's Timothy Leary, and the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. At worst, it's sulfuric acid, battery acid, stomach acid, maybe even Phantom of the Opera. In fact, the first definition of acid in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary is "sour, sharp, or biting to the taste."
Last year, Wine Opinions of St. Helena surveyed frequent wine consumers about which descriptive terms found on Cabernet Sauvignon wine bottles appealed to them.
Some reactions were different by gender: More women were attracted to "jammy fruit," while more men wanted "heavy and full-bodied" wines.
But a plurality of men and women, young and old, agreed that they don't want wines described as "crisp or tangy with distinct acidity."
"Only 'dry and tannic' came out worse," says John Gillespie, founder of Wine Opinions.
Whoa. "Crisp acidity" is a phrase most wine writers, myself included, use as praise, particularly for white wines.
Hess Collection winemaker Dave Guffy says California wineries hear often from wine writers and restaurant wine buyers, among others, that they want wines with more crisp acidity.
Defining acidity
But, Guffy says, "Acidity for the consumer just boils down to tart or not tart."
Yet tartness and acidity are not the same. Like Pepsi, wines such as German Riesling can be tremendously acidic and not taste tart at all. Maybe wine professionals need to explain this better.
So here goes.
Crisp acidity is the taste of lemonade on a hot day. It's the salsa in a meat-and-cheese burrito. And yes, it's the main reason we think Pepsi tastes great with pizza before we're old enough to buy Sangiovese.
"Lower-acidity wines have a flaccid mouthfeel. They're just flabby," says Coyne, who owns Thomas Coyne Winery in Livermore. "If you get too high, they've got a bitey tongue-feel. There's a range you need to hit."
When I was a tyke, at the fringes of my memory, I drank milk with my food -- burgers, hot dogs, even vegetables.
Milk is almost neutral, with a pH of about 6.6 on a scale of 0 to 14, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A pH of 7.0 (water or soybean milk) is neutral; lower numbers are more acidic, higher numbers are more alkaline. Most wine is between 3.1 and 3.8, roughly the same range as applesauce and strawberries.
When I was deemed old enough to choose, I preferred soda with my meals. Sure, I liked the sugary sweetness and the fizz of carbonation, but even at that age, I also liked the way it cleansed my palate. Milk felt flabby in my mouth. It wouldn't wash out the flavor of pork chops, much less (ugh) asparagus.
"Soft drinks are very acidic. When I was a child, I remember my parents using Coke to clean out a radiator," says Hildegarde Heymann, a sensory scientist and professor of viticulture and enology at UC Davis.
Coca-Cola Classic is about the same pH -- 2.5 -- as Pepsi, according to Heymann. (The Coca-Cola Co. did not respond to requests for data.) They are both far more acidic than some things we think of as tart, including grapefruit juice and cider vinegar.
So why don't Coke and Pepsi taste tart? Because they also include a pile of sugar, which doesn't affect the actual acidity, but makes a huge difference in how we perceive it.
"More sugar will make it taste less acid," Heymann says.
The converse is also true: A completely dry wine allows you to taste its crisp acidity in a way that, for example, a white Zinfandel with residual sugar -- sugar that is left in the wine, rather than converted to alcohol -- does not.
"One of the things that makes white wine such a nice food wine is it cleanses your palate," says the Hess Collection's Guffy. "It's not as refreshing to have something sweet or flabby."
In fact, I would not describe Pepsi as having "crisp acidity," though it is far more acidic than the Sauvignon Blancs I now prefer with my meals. Not to knock Pepsi, but for wine drinkers, weaning oneself from the taste of sugar is part of growing up.
Perceived acidity is complicated; it's hard to tell just by tasting how acidic something actually is (See "Acid Eaters," Page F5). Sugar is not the only thing that can affect how acidic something tastes. The types of acid present and the form they're in are even more important.
Moreover, pH is not the only measure of acidity.
Measuring acidity
Wineries measure acidity two ways: total (or titratable) acidity and pH. Both are a measure of hydrogen ions -- these are what make an acid an acid -- but they measure them in different forms. Anyone who passed high-school chemistry is familiar with pH, but for wine, total acidity -- which includes all hydrogen ions, even from acids that are dissolved into other compounds -- may be more important to consumers because it affects the flavor more.
"An acid is by definition a substance that releases hydrogen ions into a water solution," says Palo Alto-based food scientist Harold McGee. "What our taste buds detect for the most part is hydrogen ions."
McGee points out that acidic foods and drinks are -- literally -- mouthwatering.
"Acidity stimulates salivation," says McGee. "It's a protective mechanism on the part of the mouth. Your mouth tastes something acidic and wants to neutralize it. Saliva is alkaline."
PH does not measure acids that have bonded with other compounds to create salts such as potassium tartrate. The glass-like crystals that you sometimes see attached to the inside of wine bottle corks are potassium tartrate. They're edible and harmless.
PH matters in winemaking because free-floating acids in wine kill unwanted microbes. If the pH drifts above 4.0, it's an open invitation for foul-smelling bacteria to breed.
"It wasn't until (Louis) Pasteur that we knew how wine was made. Prior to that, it was like magic," Heymann says. "In low-acid situations, you'd stick your nose in it and it would be disgusting."
Numbers don't show flavor
But the perception of acidity doesn't follow the numbers for either total acidity or pH. I learned that at a recent production tasting at Silverado Vineyards in Napa, where winemaker Jonathan Emmerich was considering what to do with several barrel samples of Carneros Chardonnay.
More than any other grape, Chardonnay is the harbinger of a nation's taste for acidity, because Chardonnay is arguably the most manipulable of wines. Chardonnays can range from the minerally, crisply acidic wines of France's Chablis region to mouthfilling buttery California wines.
The latter have been popular in the United States for years, but The Chronicle tasting panel's recent tasting of Napa Valley Chardonnays revealed that the pendulum may be swinging toward more balance and more distinctive acidity. Wineries say this shows the impact of restaurant sommeliers who appreciate the food-matching qualities of wines with crisper acidity.
Emmerich printed out a chart of the total acidity and pH of each sample for the Chardonnay tasting. His purpose was to decide whether to issue a new single-vineyard Chardonnay from recently planted vines whose grapes yield a distinctive olive-like flavor, or to blend that wine as a spicy element into a Carneros region bottling.
The acidity numbers appeared to play no role in his decision-making process; we talked about the aromas and flavors of the wines for hours, but never really discussed the statistics. But I was already working on this article, so the numbers were fascinating to me for their lack of predictive value.
The most tart-tasting sample of the day had only the third-highest total acidity; moreover, its pH was a higher number (indicating less acidity) than all but two other wines.
The sample in which Emmerich was most interested -- an unoaked wine from the new vineyard in Vineburg in the portion of the Carneros region in Sonoma County -- had far lower total acidity than almost everything else we tasted, and its pH number was the second-highest. Yet my tasting notes include "lemon-lime and lemongrass," and I liked it well enough that I might have anointed it with that consumer-unfriendly sobriquet crisp acidity.
Weather plays a role
Emmerich told me the wine didn't start out this way.
"2004 was an incredibly long year," Emmerich says, adding that the long, cool growing season led to acidity in some wines that he called "shrill." But he was able to turn down the acidity's volume, if you will, through malolactic fermentation.
Malolactic fermentation plays a huge role in the perceived acidity of wine. The tart-tasting malic acid that naturally occurs in wine grapes is converted by acid-loving bacteria into softer lactic acid -- the same acid found naturally in milk products. If you smell and taste butter in your Chardonnay, that's the product of malolactic fermentation (malo for short).
Malolactic fermentation can occur naturally, it can be prevented, or winemakers can inoculate their nascent wine with lactic-acid bacteria to make sure it happens in the winery and not in the bottle after it's sold.
"It's all about balance," says Emmerich. "We don't want too much butter, but malo does make the wine more complex."
The other main type of acid found in wine grapes, tartaric acid, is also easily manipulated by winemakers, simply by adding or subtracting potassium tartrate.
"I'm perfectly willing to adjust acidity as needed to make it so that it feels right to me," says Merryvale Vineyards winemaker Steve Test. "It's like adding salt to the soup. You do it until it tastes right."
Chardonnay, along with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, is easy to work with because its natural acidity tends to be balanced, Coyne says.
Syrah and Zinfandel often don't have as much acidity as required. This is ever-more true because winemakers are encouraging grapegrowers to leave their grapes on the vine as long as possible so the fruit gets ultraripe. The longer the grapes ripen, the more the hydrogen ions are absorbed into imperceptibility.
On the other hand, some grapes -- notably Grenache, Barbera and Sangiovese -- are blessed with high levels of natural acidity.
"I've been getting Grenache and Syrah from the same vineyard," Coyne says. "Grenache comes in with low pH and nice acid. The Syrah from 100 yards away will have high pH and need acid."
The age factor
Acidity is the key to a wine's age-worthiness. This is why Rieslings from chilly Germany can age far longer than most white wines, and why some wines from France are expected to taste fresh after decades. It's also a reason that many people wonder if classic-style California wines, with lower natural acidity than those of Europe, will age well.
"I've heard a lot of people wonder how long high-pH wines can last," says UC Davis Professor of Viticulture and Enology Andy Waterhouse. "The lower the pH, the longer-lasting the wine will be."
Let's review: Crisp acidity makes wine smell better, taste better and last longer. It will cleanse the palate during meals and protect wine from microbes.
In short, it's a good thing. So when you hear "acid," don't think about burns, blisters and excessive '60s rock. Think peaches, apples and raspberries. Or best of all, think of a delicious Chardonnay, Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon, and thank your lucky hydrogen ions.
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Try this at home
Want to prove to yourself the need for acidity? UC Davis sensory scientist Hildegarde Heymann proposes a simple experiment.
"Make up some sugar water," says Heymann. "Ten percent sugar is about what Kool-Aid is. Taste it. See how much you like it. Then add some lemon juice and do the same thing."
I tried it. The sugar water was boring and unappetizing. Moreover, it didn't taste anywhere near as sweet as the same sugar water with lemon added. That's a major reason why Pepsi and Coke are so acidic -- so they can deliver more sweetness.
"When you make lemonade, you add lemon not just for the flavor," Heymann says. "Even Kool-Aid has acid."
So consider this the non-electric Kool-Aid acidity test.
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Acid eaters
Here are the approximate pH levels of various foods and drinks, according to data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A pH of 7.0 on a scale of 0 to 14 is neutral; lower numbers mean more acidity, and higher numbers are more alkaline. The scale is logarithmic, so that basil pesto, at 4.90, is 10 times as acidic as cheddar cheese; red Delicious apples, at 3.90, are 100 times as acidic as cheddar.
2.0 -- 3.0
Lime juice 2.00 - 2.35
Lemon juice 2.00 - 2.60
Cranberry juice, canned 2.30 - 2.52
Grenadine syrup 2.31
Pepsi 2.5
Diet Pepsi 3.0
3.0 -- 4.0
Wine (about 3.1 -- 3.8)
Raspberries 3.22 - 3.95
Peaches 3.30 - 4.05
Apples 3.33 - 3.90
Ketchup 3.89 - 3.92
Dole orange juice 3.9
4.0 -- 5.0
Cherries, California 4.01 - 4.54
Cream cheese 4.10 - 4.79
Tomatoes 4.30 - 4.90
Pickled herring 4.50 - 5.00
Basil pesto 4.90
5.0 -- 6.0
Bananas (yellow) 5.00 - 5.29
Green peppers 5.20 - 5.93
Whole wheat bread 5.47 - 5.85
Garlic 5.80
Cheddar cheese 5.90
6.0 -- 7.0
Black olives 6.00 - 7.00
Egg yolks 6.10
Avocados 6.27 - 6.58
Peanut butter 6.28
Milk 6.40 - 6.80
7.0 -- 8.0
Soybean milk 7.0
Water 7.0
Lobster, cooked 7.10 - 7.43
Graham crackers 7.10 - 7.92
Camembert cheese 7.44
Egg whites 7.96
Source: “Acid test,” W. Blake Gray, San Francisco Chronicle, February 16, 2006
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