Category: Wine

Vol. 2 No. 26 – are 90+ ratings worth the price?

There is a popular website, Wine Till Sold Out (wtso.com), mentioned in post 24. I have used it and recommend it but with a caveat: every wine they offer has at least a 90 point rating. They are offered at deep discounts to the ‘retail price’. I am not challenging them on it being accurate, I am saying that when a wine gets a 90+ rating (and if you can’t get at least one from the dozens of raters out there – some with self-serving interests – you shouldn’t be in the business!), the winery ‘creates’ a suggested retail price that ‘they’ cannot sell below which is why you shouldn’t buy wine when visiting a winery unless it is hard to get. If you really like the wine then join their wine club. One reason I do like buying direct is that the haircut is huge due to our three-level marketing system which serves no one well, least of all the producer and the consumer.

A couple of years ago, a friend with a highly respected, but small winery, noted that when the high ratings, especially by Robert Parker, come out, the price of the wine is no longer surging. It may be at the winery which is trying to capitalize on the rating but not like before. Furthermore, just because it is priced at $50-100 doesn’t mean it will be bought there. That is a function of so many wines receiving ratings of 90 or above.

Just in the past year or so the fastest growing segment of the wine market in the U.S. finally moved up from the under $10 range, to the $10-20 range, which is good, although that isn’t hurting Two Buck Chuck much. In post 25, my Ten Commandments of Wine, I suggested moving up a notch and seeing if you can notice an appreciable difference. I also suggested that very few except true enophiles can find differences above the $30-40 range, and fewer still above $50.

This bring me back to WTSO: the savings are incredible – from the winery-set price – but most of the wines I see there I have never heard of before, meaning many are buyers of fruit, make the wine, using time-tested formulas for 90 point ratings (again, let me emphasize my dislike of the 100 point system, and preference for the UC Davis 20 point system). Most of those ratings are achieved by following Robert Parker’s taste buds.

Don’t misunderstand, prior to Parker, there was no quantification (except in tastings at fairs, etc. or the famous Judgment of Paris tasting which brought California wines to the fore. What he did was to set a standard of quality. Originally, many wines received ratings of 86-90, fewer 90-95, and only a handful above that with only a couple of 100 point ratings. Now, a winemaker who can’t expect a 90 rating wouldn’t think of submitting her wines for close scrutiny, because as one store owner quipped, “I can’t sell any wines with an 89 point rating, but I can sell all the wines with a 90 point rating, but I can’t get them.”

So, as TB has been fond of saying: globally, good wine is chasing out bad (TBC excepted). But it has now reached absurdity since most couldn’t discern the difference between an 87 point wine and a 90 pointer.

Think of a ’90’ as being the initiation fee at a club. Those achieving it either ‘jack up’ the price immediately, or in the case of a well-known brand like Lafite-Rothschild, the demand from the Chinese does it for them. Bordeaux producers making large volumes of wine set their price and sell all of it (albeit no longer in the U.S. and U.K., the former principal purchasers), but the ability for other producers to do that has dissipated due to the huge number of competitors. Remember too, that a rating is on the ‘type’ of wine or the varietal, which you may or may not like. A good friend, cannot stand and recognizes any Pinot Noir and won’t/can’t drink it. I know, we have tried repeatedly to fool him and it almost makes him sick…must be some chemical inherent in the wine (?).

So now you have millions of gallons of wine in warehouses (expensive), in the producers cellars (taking up valuable space), and on retailers shelves. What’s a winemaker to do? Enter WTSO, which from what I can determine is one of the few that is approved of by the producers (based on limited questions).

Imagine you are a producer with a big inventory overhang. You could offer them to a distributor at a low price (provided the wine is not being offered publicly, such as an older vintage), for a pallet (roughly 50 cases or 600 bottles), and get immediate cashflow – the mothers milk of a winery. WTSO, unlike Trader Joe’s or other retailers, will offer it on their site, but they are generally up for an hour or less before being ‘sold out’.

The offering looks like this:

93 Pt. La Mannella Brunello di Montalcino 2011
93 rating and 65% off!

Free Shipping on 3 or more
Comparable Price*: $85.00
Yesterday’s Best Web Price (With Shipping): $N/A
Our Price:

$29.99

Buy Now
wine bottle Description
Appellation Brunello di Montalcino
Unit Size 750 ml
Varietal/Grapes Sangiovese
Vintage 2011
Country Italy
Region Tuscany
Alcohol Content 14.50

Here are the key points:

1.Comparable Price – nebulous because most have no ‘comparable’. Do they mean what it would cost in a wine shop? Winery (they used to say ‘retail price’ which was the one set by the winery per law).

2.Yesterday’s Best Web Price – lately they are like this one with a strikeout through the price, so it is useless.

3. Their price and discount to the ‘comparable price’. Also the number of bottles you need to purchase to get free shipping – a very good deal! the number of bottles required for this is inversely proportional to the price (i.e. $100= 1 bottle; $20 = 3 bottles, etc.)

4. The point rating can come from any number of critics, WTSO members (?), Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, etc., so you have to know which ones are reliable and which have their own interests at heart.

Before you think this is a scam consider, that it is an offering price, you have all the information you need (and some you don’t) to make an informed decision. That is all that business ethics require. I have purchased wine from them and found contacting customer service easy and responsive. I purchased some wine that was delivered in extremely hot weather. When I checked the bottle temp it was 90 degrees! They replaced it for me at no cost and held it until I felt it was safe to deliver and pointed out that they will hold the wine for you for up to a year (they ship quickly so if you are going to be away for a few days have them hold it, since a signature is required).

The point is that they try to serve their clients needs (both buyers and sellers), and judging from the volume of transactions, do both well. You, the buyer get the wine at a reasonable price, while the producer helps cashflow without damaging the value of future offerings.

But if they have a dozen or more offerings each and every day, what does this tell you about the retail price? It is too high…that’s Econ 101!

That translates to value for you, but note that ‘cult wines’ don’t face this problem: they have member lists, usually full and not taking names, small production, perhaps 250 cases, and if you want that, and can afford it, go for it. Personally, I would rather see the winery get 100% of the retail price, rather than distributors (some of whom are less than reputable and some downright lazy). The problem with wine club membership is this: shipping adds greatly to the cost, but in many areas like Minnesota, where TB lives, you ae not going to be able to get many of the best wines without joining.

As the popular phrase goes, “it’s complicated”.

Hope you found this useful and remember to support wineries you like, local wine shops that provide information and tastings, and keep trying new wines and ‘inching’ up your prices, that goes for restaurants where the biggest markup is on the cheapest wines.

Best,

Trader Bill ©traderbillonwine.com 2016

 

 

 

Vol. 2. No.24…TB’s new, improved rating system for wines!

In 1972, TB graduated from college and taken a job at Western Bancorp (later First Interstate Bancorp and now part of Well Fargo), in the Investment Department where he and his boss and mentor, F. Alden Damon, managed the bond portfolios of the 11 smaller banks. Those were largely comprised of municipal bonds, so he learned to distrust Moody’s and S&P bond ratings as they were higher for similar credits on the East Coast than west of the Mississippi.

Deciding to go back to school to work on a Master’s, at night, he had a finance class that required a term paper. He submitted one on “A New System for Rating Municipal Bonds”. The prof questioned him on it and said if you pursue it don’t expect a good grade, because Moody’s and S&P already do that. Really? Frustrated but determined to continue with the project he worked on it, drawing on some research of a predecessor at WBC. Focusing on New York City, TB showed how that rating should have been much lower than the ‘A’ it carried, for many reasons including demographics, amount of debt service, and several other factors. Figuring he would probably get a ‘B’ or even a ‘C+’, he didn’t put his heart into it. In other words an adequate job but not a stellar one, thanks Dr. Dunn!

When the papers were graded, mine had an ‘A1/A+’ on it…huh??? Furthermore, he told the class it was the best he had received and even read it to the class. What caused his change of mind? NYC’s problems were finally coming out and it was on its way towards the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history! What had the rating agencies done? Lowered it to ‘Baa/BBB)’. In other words, using ‘my’ rating system would have predicted dire if not drastic possibilities, while the agencies glossed over it.

What is the point? Well, besides prof’s needing to encourage new thought, it is that all ratings are not created equal. Nothing is more true than subjective tasting of wine.

Consider the Judgment of Paris tasting the showed the quality of California wines was on a par with French wines. Quel horror! Even then on the second pass when they reversed the order there was some differentiation but generally close, except for the French judge who called it a travesty. They were using a system similar to the UC Davis 20-point system mentioned in the previous post. Imagine if they had been using the Parker (or similar) 100-point system, where 50 is the base and after all elements, 25 points are subjective – that’s 1/4 of the total and 50% of the scoring area! Gimme a break!

Parker defends his system but adds (as mentioned in that post):

“Scores, however, do not reveal the important facts about a wine. The written commentary that accompanies the ratings is a better source of information regarding the wine’s style and personality, its relative quality vis-à-vis its peers, and its value and aging potential than any score could ever indicate.”  Robert M. Parker

Got that? They are meaningless comparing one rating with another on the same time, even under the same variables but when they are at different times independently, they are absolutely worthless!

Now drag that across, not the current three bond rating agencies, but perhaps two or three dozen wine critics with varying palettes and desired flavors (not to mention potential conflicts of interest by who they may represent – TB is shocked at this! Shocked!)

As mentioned in the prior blog, we have rating escalation (where no one tries to get you to buy a wine with a rating less than 90! So we have a lot of 91-93 ratings, fewer but still many 94-95 ratings and fewer still with 95-98 and 99-100 ratings. But even Parker has increased the number of 98-100 ratings since 1982 when he rated just two bordeaux wines that high. Here is a link to  a list of his 100-point scoring wines…you decide:  http://www.wine-searcher.com/robertparker.lml

So TB got to thinking. IF there is compression, we need a bigger scale. Here is TB’s proposal of a 1,000 point rating system!!! Consider that there would them be 100 categories of wines – 100 times the number in the current system. Imagine telling your friend that you own a 1,000 point wine and his is only a 980. What plonk that must be!

Here is a comparison to all three scales:

20-point       100-point                                         1,000 point

Appearance                            0-2                    0-5                                                     0-50

Color                                        0-2                     <             included in Appearance        >

Aroma/Bouquet                    0-2                    0-15                                                    0-150

Volatile Acidity                     0-2                     n/a

Total Acidity                          0-2                     n/a

Sweetness (sugar)               0-1                      n/a

Flavor (!)                                 0-1                    0-20                                                 0-200

Astringency                           0-1                      n/a

General Quality*                  0-2                    0-10                                                    0-100

*Only subjective category in UCDavis system; In 100-point it also included potential for further evolution and improvement – aging.

TB’s system has the advantage of making broader distinctions between a 94-95 point wine…TEN whole points…wow! Hopefully, you see this charade for what it is, because IF that became the norm, it would be even more impressive to say “my wine is a 950, yours is just a 940…peon!” But here is the incredible thing: even more price escalation! Because those ten points might now mean $50 more cost to the consumer! Yet it still might not impress if your guests tastes weren’t aligned with the raters.

UC Davis

17-20  Wines of outstanding character having no defects

13-16   Standard wines with neither outstanding character or defect

9-12     Wines of commercial acceptability with noticeable defects

5-8       Wines below commercial acceptability

Since Robert Parker’s was the first, here is his rating meanings:

  • 96-100 — Extraordinary; a classic wine of its variety
  • 90-95 — Outstanding; exceptional complexity and character
  • 80-89 — Barely above average to very good; wine with various degrees of flavor
  • 70-79 — Average; little distinction beyond being soundly made
  • 60-69 — Below average; drinkable, but containing noticeable deficiencies
  • 50-59 — Poor; unacceptable, not recommended

Here is a link that show the minor differences in various 100-point systems. if the same person was using any of the systems they should not vary by more than a point or two.  http://www.wine.com/v6/aboutwine/wineratings.aspx?ArticleTypeId=2

Now to throw a monkey-wrench into the works, here is a personal story: in 1976, TB moved to Reno, Nevada on a job transfer. We met lots of people but they only liked beer (guys) and wine coolers (girls). One day, one of them asked if I could teach them about wine. Having brought dozens of bottles with me in the car and wondering how they held up TB said he would do it, with one caveat: they would have to work. How so? They would have to score the wines using the UCDavis system which was the only one at the time. At first they balked, but reluctantly agreed. There were eight wines in the tasting, and it was amazing how close their scores were when they had to evaluate the variables of the wine. As a ringer however, TB inserted a bottle of Gallo Hearty Burgundy at the end. Bingo! That one took best overall.

So what did we learn? That differences in preferences can be overcome by paying attention to everything that comprises a wine…to hell with the critics. This is especially true when a winemaker can take his wine to a lab in Napa, Bordeaux, or other places and be told what they need to do to get a 90 rating from Parker. That is the problem with ‘Parkerization’. Question: do you want to live in a world where all the wine tastes the same? Not TB!

As they were leaving, they asked TB to arrange a trip down to Napa Valley. It was agreed but as they were leaving one friend came up quietly and said that his uncle owned a small vineyard there and we could probably visit it. Oh sure, no problem the then-wine snob, TB said. Only when we got down there did we find out that his uncle was Joe Heitz! His wines were the most coveted in California at the time. We spent a lovely Sunday on their deck drinking Riesling with sausages from the Sonoma Cheese Factory (there was none in Napa at the time!). Then Joe and Alice took us on a tour of the winery culminating with a tasting of their wines, including the 1974 Martha’s Vineyard Cab. TB loved it so much he bought a case at $25 a bottle…most expensive wine I had bought at the time! It was so good, however that whenever we had someone over we had a bottle…until there was just one left. Never drank it and finally sold it at auction for $800, more than recovering my cost of the entire case (also sold a bottle of 1992 Screaming Eagle, it’s first vintage made by Heidi Peterson Barrett, for $1,200 – a Jeroboam sold at the Napa Valley Wine Auction for $500,000, the highest price ever for that auction – along with many 1982 Bordeaux I bought on Parker’s recommendation but didn’t personally care for as did some of my friends who also bought futures. That was the vintage that ‘established’ Parker as the reigning guru, Robert Finnegan, had panned it, and was over-ruled by Parker.

What does TB drink today? Mostly wines in the $20-$40 range except for wines that are bought from the winemakers who have the passion I want. Not big estates, not corporate owned entities. Wines that taste different from year to year and are produced for the pleasure of the owner/winemaker…not some critic.

Another lengthy one but hope you found it interesting…and useful.

TB

Vol 2 No. 20…wine tidbits

Here are just a few things TB has observed since the last missive:

BPA’s – no longer a health hazard in wine due to the amount you would have to consume to have a negative health effect, this from the FDA. BUT TB advises those of you who drink from box wine encased in plastic to observe expiration dates, they are there for a reason, and if you see a lot of boxes with them, find another wine merchant as it shows their lack of inventory control and attention to wine products.

Corks – a lab has been able to isolate different phenol’s in corks. IF they can nail this down and why not? They did it with gene’s afterall. It would then be possible for a winemaker to isolate and use corks that would enhance the taste of their wine but also to make that taste more consistent in both the same and subsequent vintages.

Wine Theft – Having lived for nearly 30 years in the S.F. Bay Area, I have visited many of the wine shops around San Francisco, and weeded out the ones that did not meet my expectations. The main one I eliminated was Premier Cru in Oakland, but on the basis of snobbery prior to their arrest on multiple criminal charges that has not been adjudicated yet, but a lot of customer money was lost and will not likely be recovered – they better watch their backs though because one group they preyed on was Chinese wine buyers of Bordeaux futures and California wines for export to China…one never knows.

One I respected was Beltramo’s in Palo Alto, which sadly is going out of business after more than 50 years. Just before the last day theives broke in and stole $55,000 worth of wine in a case similar to last year’s French Laundry winery (not the same perps as they were caught and the wine recovered although the condition will only be known by tasting it). Foe their closing sale the owners had brought their library wines out and put them on display making the theft a ‘piece of cake’. Let’s hope they catch them and throw the proverbial book at them!

WTSO – in No. 19 I talked about www.winetillsoldout.com. I have now made two purchase from them. I wrote to customer service on both issues. The first was on the retail price shown first. I asked this because I was seeing prices well below that. It was explained that they use the one provided by the winery at time of release, but also list the ‘best’ online price, so you can compare. This satisfied me fully! The second was on a delivery problem that I won’t mention because they handled it ethically and I don’t want anyone to get the idea and try to get wine for free. I will only say it was a slipup that they stood up for and offered me a full refund or more of the same order. That was very responsible and I don’t know many online companies that would do the same. The point is: if you have a complaint write to them immediately. I was amazed at how fast they responded allowing us to resolve the problem to my, the customer’s satisfaction.

Meiomi Pinot Noir – originally, it was an extremely good value and available at Costco and other retailers who stocked it after tasting it and noting the quality. I wasn’t aware of this but it was owned by the Wagner family who makes Caymus, Conundrum, and other brands. This is from the Wine Spectator and is shocking but not surprising to me:

“Aiming to become an even bigger player in the California wine business, Joe Wagner has agreed to sell his Meiomi brand to Constellation Brands for $315 million. The 33-year-old Wagner told Shanken News Daily that he’s selling Meiomi—one of the U.S. wine market’s hottest brands—because the deal will give him the liquidity necessary to become a much larger landowner. Wagner says he hopes to amass 2,000-3,000 acres of California vineyards over the next five years.

“Constellation is paying a hefty price for Meiomi. Wagner told SND, a sister publication of Wine Spectator, that the deal price was roughly a 24 times multiple against the brand’s present and future earnings.

In striking the deal, Constellation adds a brand whose recent performance has been nothing short of astonishing. Wagner developed Meiomi in 2006 while he was a winemaker at Caymus, which is headed by his father, Chuck, and the wine was released in 2009. In 2010, the brand sold 90,000 cases. Last year, the California wine brand won Impact “Hot Brand” honors after advancing by 41 percent to 550,000 cases and was named Wine Brand Of The Year by Impact sister publication Market Watch magazine. Wagner told SND that Meiomi, which retails for around $25 a 750-ml., is on pace to sell more than 700,000 cases in 2015.

In other words, it went from a limited production wine to a mega under Constellation which nobody even heard of (unless you were a wino who drank Wild Irish Rose), and only gained ‘credibility’ by buying the Mondavi brand then going on a shopping spree which has made them one of the top three wine companies in the world. Wagner noted that “no vineyards were included in the sale.” It’s cheaper now…and now YOU, the consumer know why. What next? Boost production to 1 million cases to compete with Fred Franzia’s ‘Two Buck Chuck’? For those not aware his company is Bronco Wines, which owns 40,000 acres of vineyards in California, and bottles as Charles Shaw (an interesting story in itself), and is sold almost (?) exclusively through Trader Joe’s. For the record, Franzia is a convicted felon for using inferior grapes and bottling them as varietals. He didn’t go to jail but instead paid a several million dollar fine (the prosecutor said not sending him to prison like the others involved was the biggest mistake of his career…why didn’t he? Franzia convinced him that the town where it is located, Ceres, Ca., would suffer economic disaster without him). Oh, and about those 40k acres: the longest rows of any winery. Why? So the ‘tractor’, not hand pickers, doesn’t have to waste time turning around, but note you get unripe grapes, stems, and an occasional poor rodent in the mix, but hey at $2.99 or so, who cares? Not the people, mostly seniors, that drink it. There have been efforts made to elect him to the California Winemakers Hall of Fame, which will lose all credibility if it does and shame those who deserve it. Franzia is not a winemaker, but he isa a marketing genius whose only  claim to fame is getting rich…but isn’t that what Constellation Brands as done off Mondavi’s reputation? Wonder what’s in the Woodbridge these days?

Last week I attended a telecast with the Wagner Family at Total Wines, discussing their brands followed by a tasting of their full line, sans Meiomi obviously and all were great.

Sorry for the rant, but TB is about people with passion who make REAL contributions to the wine industry and are not in it merely to enrich themselves or use their fortunes to bid up Napa Valley land (and other places..including Bordeaux), to make small lots of wine with a flying winemaker, get a 90 point rating and sell it at absurd prices due to the small volume. That is wine snobbery at its worst. Not saying these wines aren’t good, just ridiculously priced!

If you are still with TB…thanks for reading…I know I feel better now!

TB

Vol. 1 No. 26 …not what I want to write about!

…BUT, I must. This website is about a passion for wine: winemakers, wine shops, wine enthusiasts, and of course, TB.

I read a blog yesterday that bothered me. Won’t go into who it was, but it was praising someone who runs completely counter to what we are about here. I will continue to read the blog because it is of interest to me, but have stopped reading another one that says you should never pay more than $20 for a bottle of wine, and developed a rating system (although the writer/author admits he has never taken a wine course, never participated in a wine tasting, which he is critical of, and to TB’s way of thinking is comparing apples to oranges – or should I say ‘wine’ to ‘plonk’).

While there are many good wines at less than $20, and some ‘passable’ ones (but lacking character), below $10, that is not what we are about here. Instead, we are about learning more about wine by trying new wines and most importantly, trusting your own palette as you are your own best wine judge. If you don’t like it, so what if Parker or some other wine writer gives it a 90? To do otherwise makes you a wine snob, not an aficionado.

The last three updates have been on, in order of appearance:

  1. the buyout of SAB Miller by ImBev, creating a global monopoly in Beer, and the corporate giants that are absorbing smaller, high quality wineries, which will ultimately result in lowering the quality of the wine due to the emphasis on ‘the bottom line’. The top three of these are Constellation Brands (virtually unheard of and with no quality label before acquiring Mondavi), Gallo, which is another of the top three globally, and Bronco Wines, maker of Two-Buck Chuck;
  2. a book, Tangled Vines by Frances Dinkelspiel, which covers the dark side of the wine ‘industry’ (don’t you hate that word?), and also the first California wines which were in Los Angeles in the 1800’s; and
  3. Dr. Konstantin Frank and the winery bearing his name. A true innovator, as was his friend Andre Tcheleschieff (the great California legend who trained so many well-known winemakers), and who collaborated with Doctor Frank.

TB hasn’t said boycott the brands of those big wine companies (although he did suggest doing so with the breweries), especially Two-Buck Chuck. Instead, he took a positive approach: drink your ‘Chuck’ or other inexpensive wine during the week but experiment on the weekends with at least one new, quality wine.

So what made TB feel the urge to crusade today? the blog mentioned at the top of this edition which was about a wine event to be held in January, the Unified Wine and Grape Industry Symposium, the largest wine industry trade show in the U.S. Bet you won’t see a lot of the small wineries represented there, and if you do it will be to keep their presence known, perhaps looking for a buyer?

Now to the meat: the blogger noted that Fred Franzia, CEO of Bronco Wine Company will be the keynote speaker. Franzia is a super-salesman and innovator, having bought Charles Shaw, and turning it into Two-Buck Chuck with the help of Trader Joe’s (no relation to Trader Bill but along with Trader Vic part of the inspiration for his pseudonym). This winery produces 20 million cases (240 million bottles!) a year and has produce over 6 billion, yes billion bottles since inception in the 1970’s. It no longer sells for $2 but more like the $4-5 range, but Franzia has said “never pay more than $10 for a bottle of wine”. Is the fact that he didn’t say $5 a warning of a price hike ahead? Time will tell…always does.

The blogger had visited Bronco’s operations in Napa (distribution center), Lodi (some vineyards of the 40,000 total in their portfolio), and Ceres in the San Joaquin Valley where the bulk of the grapes come from. He commented on the cleanliness and attention to detail. That however, is disputed at http://www.snopes.com/business/market/shawwine.asp

In addition, as I pointed out to the blogger, Franzia was convicted of a felony for blending inferior grapes with zinfandel and others, resulting in a huge fine of $4 million, but allowing Franzia (no longer associated with the box wine company of the same name), to not go to prison as several others did. Don’t just trust Snopes on this, Tangled Vines, talks about it in length including comments by the investigator and the prosecutor.

Having the distribution center in Napa, Bronco called it Napa Valley wine, until the AVA objected but they can still say, Napa, California. Does that sound like a high quality wine to you?…or one that is out to make money on volume? Sadly, I find people, mostly seniors, that only drink, Two-Buck Chuck. As reported everywhere: good wine is forcing out bad all over the world. That, however, does not mean all wines are high quality, just no serious defects, i.e. you get what you pay for.

To TB, despite all the efforts by those truly interested in making high quality wine, not simply making money, these wines thrive but people are reaching ‘up’ according to a wine industry study which saw the most growth in sales in the $10-20 range instead of stagnating in the <$10 range.

Now let’s look at the profit: Gallo Hearty Burgundy, once a darling the late Robert Lawrence Balzer, the pioneer wine writer, who seemed to equate it with the best California Cabs, in his reviews, is sold in magnums, 1.5 liters, instead of the normal 750 ml bottles. The price of a magnum is considerably less than two bottles of TBC. Also, there are wines sold by the gallon or in boxes of 2 liters or more, that are as good or better and cheaper.

Trader Joe’s acts as distributor and retailer (except in New York which prohibits it). This may have been the impetus for Total Wines to do likewise. A normal discount to a distributor is 30%, so Trader Joe’s is making a nice profit, as Total does with its ‘bin’ wines where it too buys direct from the winery resulting in profits of 30% or more, while making small profits on high quality wines – which are actually the best value to you, the consumer. Keep that in mind when you are looking for ‘bargains’.

Now let’s look at this from an environmental standpoint. The San Joaquin aquifer is the second largest in the U.S. Believe or not in climate change, that aquifer has been largely depleted by well-drilling by farmers, largely grape growers in an area that was and is not a natural agricultural area (oldies like TB will recall the 1986 book, Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner, and last revised in 1993, one of the first ‘green’ books, as was the documentary movie, The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson written in 1951, and we didn’t learn from that either).

The depletion by wells deeper than the height of the Empire State Building, is causing the land to sink, and arsenic levels to rise; not a good combination. In fact, there has been at least one class-action lawsuit over arsenic levels in wine from the valley. To TB’s knowledge, all have been dismissed as the levels, while high were not serious in wine do to the low consumption relative to water. The valley is very heavy in Almond trees and grape production, both of which consume large amounts of water, and in the case of wine, for what? To enrich the winery owners?

That is now off TB’s chest so he will get back to the New York and California wine pieces discussed far too long ago.

Best,

TB

©Copyright 2015 TBOW, all rights reserved.

 

 

Vol. 1 No. 14 – from Natches to New Orleans – actually much more

That was not this trip, actually it was Florida to New Orleans then up to Natchez, across to Nashville, west to Memphis then to Arkansas and headed north to home. So why the title? Because one of TB’s favorite shows growing up Maverick (Brett not Bart), and that was part of the theme song: “Natchez to New Orleans, Livin’ on Jacks and Queens, Luck is the lady that he loves the best…” Okay, corny but what the hey?

Did you know there are wineries in all 50 states – yep, including Alaska and Hawaii. In some cases the grapes are purchased from OR/WA/CA growers. Why? Because the wine grape, vitis vinifera, can only grow between the 30th and 45th parallels at each end of the globe. There are other grapes that do not observe these boundaries (Concord, Muscadine – not related to Muscat – and others).

Back in the day, when TB was beginning his wine experience, most of the wine came from California or New York (most notably Taylor which having transitioned from a family-owned winery to a corporate entity, has now fallen by the wayside – remember what TB says about winemakers: they are passionate about what they do…they see it as agriculture, i.e. farming, with little romanticism or mystery to it. Corporations, especially today where the ‘long run’ is the next year or quarter, have no feelings and are not expected to have them: they exist to make profits, in what used to be labelled ‘free-market capitalism’ but is virtually non-existent today in an era of bulbous executive compensation – mostly for mediocre performance. Ethics? A thing of the past…and that is the biggest. The theory was that a corporation would never do anything that would endanger its long-run survival and profitability. Sure there were scandals but those were uncommon and usually related to price-fixing. We only have to look back to 2008 to see that fiduciaries (or supposedly so), including the biggest banks, threw ethics and service out the window: not for the benefit of shareholders who couldn’t see it but for greedy CEO’s and other financial executives. Poor Martha Stewart, she went to jail for a trivial violation.

Fast forward to the present and you will find that there truly are wineries in all 50 states. The principal grape in the southern U.S. is Muscadine, which is almost a weed and the only native American grape. There are several varieties but the other main one used in wine making is Carlos, a sweet white grape.  Sometimes other grapes are blended with it and for Cabernet and Chardonnay, they import grape juice from California (unfortunately, as the taste tells you, much of that is from the Central Valley – Gallo territory). I have yet to find a red wine produced in this area that has the right character. On the other hand semi-sweet and sweet wines are pretty good and at less than $10 represent value if you want to sit on your patio on a hot summer day.

We started our journey in Tampa, Florida and drove up the panhandle. There are at least 18 wineries in Florida, seven in the northwest alone. In addition, I found that in the 11 states we transversed plus Minnesota, there are 407 wineries: Missouri 107!?!; Iowa 76!?! Plus 3 with <40 wineries!

Our first stop was the Dakotah Winery in Chiefland. There Dr. Max Rittgers and his son, Matt, have created a winery started in 1985. The wines were well made and they produce eight of them which they are eager to let you taste free of charge. The reds, which they make to satisfy a limited number of customers – hard to think of a dry red wine there – were well made but not to my liking. The sweeter wines including a Port and a Cream Sherry were good value at $13. They also sell a Muscadine grape juice for $7 which I purchased to enjoy while driving. The tasting room is well designed and very comfortable. The U-shaped tasting bar had creative ‘spit buckets’ at each station – something not always found in small wineries, and a big plus unless you are trying to taste yourself into oblivion. Not wise, if you are driving. This is a great stop if in the area.

Next was Montecello Vineyards and Winery in Talahassee, which grows 18 varieties of Muscadine for their wine lineup. Note that they are certified organic too!

We spent the night in Destin, half way out the panhandle. Emerald Coast Wine Cellars is located there. This is more of a tasting room as they purchase their grapes from various growers. We drove briefly through Alabama which has 15 wineries but all were way to the north

After visiting New Orleans we headed up to Baton Rouge past the St. Amat Winery in St. Amat and Vacherie Winery at Becnel Plantation. All fruit wines, blackberry both sweet and dry (more like semi-sweet), and the next day to Natchez (where Jerry Lee Lewis did his first professional performance in 1955…saw him perform at Jazzfest and although he walks with a cane (he is 80) he can still play as good as ever), home to Old South Winery – Mississippi’s only winery!  It is just outside of town and has a large lineup of wines from dry (?) to sweet. Again, the reds were well-made but not to my liking. They did a good job though on the semi-sweet and sweet wines which were priced at just $8.99.

We then drove up the Natchez Trace which is a beautiful run all the way to Nashville and with NO commercial vehicles. Sometimes we drove for as long as five minutes without seeing another car! Highly recommended!

All of Tennessee’s 42 wineries are located from Memphis to the west past Nashville to Johnson City near the state line. They are just above the 45th parallel where vitis vinifera can grow. I confess that we were overwhelmed by the number of wineries and didn’t visit any this trip.

Oklahoma has 48 wineries. All but one are in the southern part of the state near Texas. There is one near Kansas, Cimmaron, but could find no information on when it is open, and website would not open up. Lots of bad comments here and mostly fruit wines. One standout was Sommerset Ridge, well south of KC. Due to the composition of their portfolio, a mixture of fruit and grape wines, and the distance we passed. Of all the states we visited, this one was the most perplexing and frustrating.

We spent the night in Kansas City, that’s Missouri, not Kansas. In the morning, crossed the bridge to K.C., Kansas and then up to Iowa. Most of Iowa’s 76 wineries are in the eastern part of the state. Eagles Landing, which produces 36 wines. Of particular interest to me was the use of oak barrels along with stainless steel fermenters. Good reviews and might be worth a trip. We are now in ‘cold weather’ country so the predominant grape here, as in Minnesota is Marquette along with other hardy grapes. This is the one area I might want to revisit sometime as there are nine wineries along the Mississippi east of Des Moines.

The upshot is that it seems most of these wineries cater to locals and while some are friendly, more are not so much and some of them have closed down. Few have website and that shows a lack of passion: if you have it, you want to tell others about it. So while wine may be made in all 50 states, good wineries in each are few and far between. If you find one: support it!

TB

©Copyright 2015 TBOW, all rights reserved.

Vol. 1. No. 13 …a rosé by any other name…

Just got back from an incredible trip. Flew to Florida where we rented a car in Tampa and drove up and along the panhandle, crossed Alabama, and through Mississippi to New Orleans, then up the Mississippi to Minnesota. Fantastic trip (with the added benefit of a great deal on car rentals: from Mid-April to Mid-May you can rent any car from any of the majors for about $10 a day, drive it anywhere so long as it is north – they need to get these cars out of Florida now that the snowbirds have returned home – and drop off at any airport with no additional fee. The taxes are about as much as the car rental. See you can get good info at TB on wine!).

But I digress…I was going to write this post on the wines and wineries we visited along the way, but some friends who own a very nice innovative wine shop (Wine Republic) in nearby Excelsior (on Lake Minnetonka), that features only organic, biodynamic, or sustainable wines, held a tasting of rosés at their shop on Saturday afternoon. I wrote that I wouldn’t be getting home in time to be there and they graciously let me sample some of the TWENTY-FIVE wines from the U.S., Europe and Argentina. “Ugh, rosés you say.” Curb your tongue, knave! These are not the wines that most Americans think of as rosé. A little history:

The biggest California and American winery back in the 1960’s was Paul Masson (remember Orson Welles, “we will sell no wine before its time” – ah, if only that had been true), and most of the wines were cheap, under $2. Good wines sold for less than $5 as late as the early 1970’s! TB can’t remember all the names but there was Chablis (no wonder the French hate us and forced us to stop using names like that and Champagne on …er…crap!), Riesling, Pinot Noir (the lesser quality ones simply said Burgundy), Cabernet Sauvignon – note that only in the mid to late 1960’s did the best producers (Louis Martini, Charles Krug, Robert Mondavi, Beaulieu, and a few others) bother to put the vintage on the label. Rosés were usually of the Crackling Rosé variety – you do know that that is what Neil Diamond was singing about don’t you? Listen to the lyrics and you will understand.

Next came the ‘pop’ wines, made popular mainly by Gallo (who now also produces a premier label), such as Boone’s Farm, Thunderbird, Madría Madría Sangría (created during the grape picker strike and used a Latina saying “my ‘hosband and his oncle’ make this wine” – perhaps the lowest thing the Gallo’s ever did.

From there, we grew up: sweet was ‘out’, subtle wines were ‘in’.  No self-respecting person would drink the pop wines any longer. No siree. But here is the rub: despite great reviews by Robert Parker and other established wine writers, sweet wines were all lumped together. Those included German and Alsatian Rieslings and heaven-forbid Sauternes (due to confusion with California Sauterne – a totally different animal).

But also in the early 1970’s a few guys experimented with one of TB’s favorite wines: Zinfandel, and lo and behold White Zinfandel came into existence (it actually had a slight pink tinge to it since Zin is a red grape with red juice). Robert Lawrence Balzer, the first of the early wine critics, praised this as “being on to something”, which was true because they sold millions of bottles of the stuff. At least it was better than the rest of the lot…actually the only California rosé TB could stomach was a pretty good, inexpensive, Zinfandel Rosé produced by Pedroncelli.

So here we are in the twenty-first century and following the lead of the well-known Tavel Rosé from France, there are a plethora of wonderful rosés as witnessed by having a tasting of 25 of them – five each from five distributors (a representative of each was at the tasting). Now look at this. The price range: $10.99 for a Le Rosé des Acanthes (which TB liked) to $24.99 for an incredible Commanderie de Peyrassol Rosé. The average price was $17.64, but note that thirteen were priced under $16, and three under $13!

Summer is fast approaching. Don’t let preconceived notions stop you from having something refreshing to cool you while you relax on your patio on those hot days. Trust TB, you won’t be disappointed – not one bit because all of these wines which have varying degrees of sweetness (more like tart), finish with something that hits the back of your tongue and throat the way tannin does thus preventing a lingering sweetness in your mouth which might otherwise be cloying. You will probably find this more suitable than the Sauvignon Blanc you might have served. Don’t take TB’s word for it: try some and compare…then you decide!

Once again, good wine is forcing out bad, all over the world and we, the wine lovers are the beneficiaries. Life is too short to drink bad wine.

One last note on this: a few weeks ago there was an article in a column on a wine from Portugal, a red called Portada, a deep red wine exploding with berry flavors (you decide which). No this is not one of the California ‘fruit bombs’ that are 15% or more alcohol. This one weighs in at 12.5% and is thus a very enjoyable wine for even those who are not wine fans. The price? $10-12. The author said if it was from California it would be at least a $30 wine – TB concurs! Having been to Portugal twice and going again in October, trust him, it is not just about Port! Vinho Verde, which used to be poorly made is now on a par with Spanish Albarino’s, and at half to two-thirds the cost.

Start looking at wines from other places around the world recalling that the best ones will be in the range of 30°to 45° latitude – north or south. That is the only area where vitis vinifera, the wine grape thrives.  

The world of wine is getting bigger…and better.

TB

©Copyright 2015 TBOW, all rights reserved.