Vol.2 No. 5…Bordeaux wine and wine in a box

Seems like an unlikely pair doesn’t it? Well, the connection is sketchy but the unthinkable is happening. Perhaps not so unthinkable when fraud abounds (in Padova, Italy, 9,000 bottles of fake Moet & Chandon champagne were uncovered in a shed where they were being produced…I kid you not!

In Vol. 2 No.1, TB wrote on some books he had been reading. One of them, Vino Business, by Isabella Saporta, showed just how greedy  Chateaux owners, thanks to the Chinese were among other things, forcing out smaller owners by changing regulations that were expensive to conform to…how about having a large parking lot??? But the main thing is the number of them that are owned by global conglomerates who will do anything to increase production especially now that they can bypass the chain and sell directly to the Chinese…who needs England and America…after all, they won’t pay the obscene prices for cru wines.

Not only that but they, who have claimed the exceptional ‘terroir’ of the Bordeaux appellations found a way to increase production by merely acquiring ‘adjacent’ properties – wait…isn’t that inferior wine? Not if you blend it…called assemblage. If the harvest is done in August or September, and the first tasting by the ‘eggspurts’ are in March (Parker is always the first and alone followed the next week by the rest of the critics. But wait: the wine is still in barrels awaiting the final blend. Parker loves his wines powerful…tannic, monster wines, while the Europeans prefer more balanced structured wines…a problem: simply take the samples from new barrels for Parker and the more mellow wines from used or neutral barrels…problem solved! Whatever it takes to get a 90+ score! Now do you see why TB says, never buy a wine on rating…especially a Bordeaux!

The above is simply a matter of preference. What is more significant is that not only are they forcing their less affluent owners out…by placing their men in charge of the INAO and the appellations, they are maximizing by over-spraying of pesticides and herbicides which is done by helicopter or mindless men driving tractors to the very edge of the property. Despite complaints by residents it persists. A local lab examined bottles of wine from every classified cru and guess what? They ALL contained chemicals, including some on the banned list! …and you, dear consumer are paying for that in your wine. A trade-off of either health benefits or health hazards, but in Bordeaux you can have both! Note that also, as mentioned in Saporta’s book, this extends to Champagne…quel horror! Pesticide Black List

Now, in closing, the mundane: we have all heard how great ‘wine in a box’ is  and how it saves money (bottles and shipping), resulting in lower prices to the consumer. Sadly, there is no way of knowing if you are actually saving money or getting lesser quality mass-produced wine. But that is a small point when you figure if you open a bottle of wine, even with a Vac-u-Vin, it keeps for two days at most. But next time you buy it notice the expiration date…yes, an expiration date on wine! Be sure to buy well ahead of it and due to the plastic liners which ‘could’ contain BPA or other chemicals that could contaminate the wine. So IF you choose to buy wine in a box, make sure you are well within the expiration date (and if the retailer is putting the expiring stuff to the front buy elsewhere, and remember that BIG box which is cheaper per liter may not be the best value since you can’t drink it all within a week…unless you are with friends…and do you really want to serve them box wine? Note this is not an issue of oxidation as the bag creates a vacuum, just a health safety issue…possibly. Not trying to create a scare like the one on arsenic levels in wine, just make you aware.

TB

©Copyright 2016 TBOW, all rights reserved.

 

 

Vol. 2 No. 4 It’s all about distribution

…and Prohibition! How so? When Prohibition was repealed the Feds wanted to ‘get the corruption’ out of the beer, wine, and spirits business. Interesting, as who ended up controlling it in those days? That is not to say it is the same today.

But what is the same today is the archaic laws on the books that enrich the distributors (the 2nd tier in the system, preceded by producers, and followed by retailers.). This in the name of protecting the buyers. B.S.!

Let’s go through the system in order and see how it works (I will base this on California law as that is what I am most familiar with).

Producers:

They have to file reports with the state showing the retail price of the wine. Then it is sold to distributors at a 30% discount, who in turn mark it up for restaurants and retail shops. That is the reason you can’t buy wine cheaper at the winery! The only exception to this is if they have a close-out on wines then they can reduce the price accordingly.

If you have a small winery, why should you pay someone 30% off the top if there is good demand for your wines direct from consumers? Most don’t or do a combination of selling to distributors and on-line wine sales.

Ah, but shipping out of state is full of complex, differing regulations. More than a decade ago, some self-righteous prosecutor in New York set up a sting, order wines from some of the best known wineries. Then, when the shipments arrived the state filed charges against them as it was illegal to sell wine from out of state except through a distributor. Get the picture? This has nothing to do with protecting the purchaser, merely protecting in-state wineries and of course, and even more importantly, overpaid distributors.

New York and many other states have since amended their laws. Some allow a resident to purchase up to a certain amount of wine direct from another state. Washington State allowed only wines from in-state wineries to buy direct. All others had to be purchased through the state-owned liquor stores which are a joke and lack a good selection.

The burden for knowing all of these laws rests with the winery and for that reason some have transferred that responsibility to a shipper, such as Aero Packing, in Napa Valley.

Distributors:

Mark up the wine and sell to retail shops. Some do an excellent job. Some are frankly lazy which begs the question: why should a retailer tell THEM about a wine that they don’t distribute so they can mark it up and sell it to the retailer who told them about it? As mentioned above the ’boutique’ wineries won’t even sell to them unless they have to.

Then there is a Georgia law that once a distributor has a contract with the producer who then sees they are not showing his wine, cancels the agreement, cannot sell any wine in Georgia until the distributor has sold his inventory of it. Guess what? They hold back ONE case, hurting the producer and more significantly purchaser in Georgia?

This is a basic right and a law that prevents a resident of that state from getting what he wants, in order to ‘punish’ the producer who cancelled the contract because they weren’t doing their job!

Retailers:

Personally, if at all possible I avoid big liquor stores who carry wine and sometimes put it on sale but when you look you see it is a 2010 Sauvignon Blanc that has been standing upright on the shelf since they brought it in. Do they have knowledgeable help? That brings us to the Big Box stores like Beverages and More in California and the fast-growing Total Wines which is opening 50,000 square foot stores in a narrow radius in Minnesota. We have municipal liquor stores here and that and one big retail chain appear to be their target. First, I don’t believe municipalities should be in competition with privately owned businesses. For one reason, some will not allow a private retailer in their city! That said, it is the way it has always been, but what if they had the competition, got out of the liquor business and collected big sales taxes, wouldn’t that be better for the city and definitely for the state.

There is a Big Box store here called Liquor Boy, they offer a wide selection and fair pricing. It is owned by someone who owns no other liquor stores, TB has no quarrel with that store. They play fair and beat the competition on price. I was a fan of BevMo when I lived in California but I also supported three locally owned wine specialty shops. Most of my buying was done with them.

Now we come to a store that offers good values on some wines (high end where on some they make as little as once cent in MN because state law requires they be sold for a profit to promote competition. Total Wine, they act as a ‘faux’ distributor by making deals with wineries to be a large number of cases on the condition the winery doesn’t sell it in any state that they operate in. The markups on these wines can be as high as 33% – and a knowledgeable associate (yes, they are well trained), will kindly direct you to those stunning values.

Let’s talk about Trader Joe’s, owned by the German company Aldi. It started out in Los Angeles as Pronto Markets and the one in Pasadena came up with the name Trader Joe’s. Both Pronto and Trader Joe’s had a reputation for quality albeit with little selection but they used to (at least), have panels to taste, say mustards, and the winner was the one they would carry. This saves the store money and insures faster turnover of inventory

Finally, there is the wine specialty shop. Some may also carry beer and some liquor but the emphasis is clearly on wine. They may charge a bit more but for one or two bottles what does it matter. They frequently have tastings and sometimes classes, plus they don’t have bottles that have been on the shelve for five years! It is fine for wine to stand upright, but not for long periods of time where the cork can dry out.

What is the fastest growing segment of the wine market? Starting last year it shifted up to the $15-20 range, with no growth in high end and the low end stable. It is Millennials who are casting off their parents habits (especially Two-Buck Chuck – think how little of the price is actual grapes and labor…plus bottle, cork, label, shipping…is that what you consider value?) and finding their own ‘likes’. This is a repeat of the 1970’s when it was the Baby Boomers who branched out but for the most part stuck with the most well-known wines, and in came Robert Parker with his 100 point system which started as a good thing but has gotten way out of hand with probably a dozen different critics (most of whom you have no idea what they look for in a wine and which is very important since all that matters is what you like).

Yesterday, there were two articles on legislative efforts to change wine laws. One in Arizona, which lists several varietals that cannot be shipped including Champagne, or any other foreign wine. Here is the link…must have been written by the distributors!http://wineindustryinsight.com/jump.php?utm_source=newsfetch&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nf&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnawr.org%2Fpress-releases%2Farizona-wine-bill%2F

The other in Michigan would have allowed out of state shipments up to 13,500 cases per winery and 1,500 cases at any one time was supported by the National Association of WIne Wine Retailers was killed in Committee. Not the sponsor, Rep. Yonker (R) could not get it through even with a GOP controlled House. It hurts the retailers while the wholesalers benefit…as they always do.

Frankly, it should be legal to ship wine from a winery to any adult individual in any state. Period.

In conclusion, let’s give the producers and retailers a break, and stop this abomination against what the people want.

TB

©Copyright 2016 TBOW, all rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

Vol. 2 No.3 Bigger is better in Wine

…or is it? Got you there because you thought TB had caved to the big guys. Bigger is decidedly not better. For instance, who is the largest wine company in the world? Who owns the most vineyard land in California? Will China (biggest country) become the biggest wine consumer and/or producer? What is the fastest growing price segment of American wines?

Most definitely, TB does not have the answer to these questions or many others but he can shed a little light.

Who (i.e. which corporation) is the largest wine company in the world?

If you said Gallo, you would be wrong but they are in second place. Also, they are not just the producers of Hearty Burgundy and other inexpensive but good quality for the price) American wine but have diversified into premium wines. Years ago they were the largest in California and had the largest intra-state trucking company (to move the wine of course!). But they are number two to Constellation Brands.

However, there are big changes going on in the wine industry, just as in brewing. In 2014, the U.S. became the biggest wine consuming nation overtaking France. Late last year, AmBev which owns Budweiser and is the largest brewing company in the world, began an acquisition of number two SABMiller for $108 BILLION. How could the U.S. and EU allow this to happen? All TB knows is that if the deal didn’t go through – for any reason – there was a breakup clause of $5 BILLION. Now ask this: would anyone in their right mind risk $5 billion when there are huge anti-trust questions? To TB, the answer is NO! The gears must have been greased with the EU…but what about the U.S.? It appears that the only concession that must be made is that they can’t sell BOTH Miller and Bud in the same bars. Big deal! Not sure if that applies to their super premium brand, Stella Artois.

According to Wikipedia, the third largest wine company is the Castel Group, which was started by a wine negotiant in Bordeaux.  They own 17 chateaux – none of which you have probably heard of the best being a Bordeaux Superior. Why haven’t you heard of the names? Because most are sold in…CHINA!!! More interestingly, they own a large 1,400 hectares in Algeria, and 1,600 in Tunisia, and Morocco. Those produced 640 million bottles, most sold, and I presume, bottled in France without disclosing it is not French wine – something that is finally becoming an issue there. Later, they added a distribution network by purchasing Nicolas, a wine merchant you can find all over Paris and other large French cities. TB adds this because they also have 25% share of SABMiller – South Africa that is creating some issues with the SAB/AmBev merger…probably will be worked out amicably…with Castel the winner.

But now lets shift to the fastest growing company that you probably have never heard of: Treasury Wine Estates, an Australian Company that has its U.S. headquarters right in Napa, California. Diageo was a big wine company, one of the largest but sold off their wine division to TWE, an Australian Company. In addition, Pernod Ricard, which went on a buying spree in 2014 purchasing Kendall Jackson, Stags’ Leap Winery (don’t confuse with Stag’s Leap Cellars that won the Judgement of Paris tasting that brought California wines to the fore), and makes one of TB’s favorite wines, Petite Sirah – nothing compares to it.

Other California wineries are Acacia, Blossom Hill, Sterling, Beaulieu,and most notably Beringer Estates, which they purchased from Foster’s who also got out of the wine business to focus on beer. In Australia, and New Zealand they have numerous holdings including Penfold’s, Rosemount, Rawson’s Retreat, and more. They also own Gabbiano of Italy.  https://www.tweglobal.com/brands

Think of the beer,wine and spirits game as a game of Monopoly, because that is what it has become, and in the process created an oligarchy, much the way the tobacco companies created barriers to entry through having multiple brands…same as beer.

The big lever today however is China. China, with its love of Chateau Lafite Rothschild, which even at $1,000 a bottle often mix with tea or coke as they do not like tannins. That however, is changing…rapidly…as wealth rises and just as in the U.S., the newbies want to show their worldliness and thus are shifting to wines. Their two largest wineries, Changyu and Great Wall, produced mediocre wines – at best, but the quality is increasing. Here is where TWE comes in. First, they are known in China and trusted and have found ways around the labyrinth of Chinese regulations, which can change as often as daily…or even hourly. Note their copyright laws do not protect the person who came up with the name, but the one who filed first in China…even if the real company has been doing so for years. Generally it is a Chinese filer so he has an edge immediately, and like the scam lawyers in the U.S. who search for old, obscure patents to extort money from major corporations to avoid being sued for patent infringement.

Just last week, TWE announced that demand and shipments to China are way above projections. This company, which KKR and attempted to takeover, yet the man behind it fought them off and won, has two advantages in China: first, proximity: no wine producer is closer to China which dramatically reduces transportation costs; and ssecond, they are a trusted name in China. So for the first time since buying Mondavi stock, and Chalone Group, while discarding Mario Andretti Winery, TB bought some of the stock on Monday.

First, let TB make this clear…he is in no way recommending the stock…just looked like a good buy to him.  It trades in Australia as TWE, and is only available in the U.S. on the Amex pink sheets, symbol TSRYY. It had gone nowhere but shortly before the announcement of the increased demand from China went from $3 to over $6 then settled back to that number which is where TB bought it. It is HIGHLY speculative, but could be a ‘four bagger’ as Peter Lynch used to say.

Finally, what is happening in the beer, wine, and spirits industry is huge transfers of ownership. It went from accumulation to disgorgement (to borrow a wine term). Look at the recent changes: Bordeaux’s main market has shifted to China, decimating sales to England and the U.S., which had been the main market; U.S. overtaking France in wine consumption; corporations doing what they always do: rush into the next new thing and then when it doesn’t produce the results they want, dumping it, as Coca-Cola did with Sterling (now part of TWE), or when they let New York wine company, Taylor, file for bankruptcy, unwilling to wait for the new vitis vinifera wines they had planted to produce.

That is why TB firmly believes in smaller individually or family owned wineries where passion still exists unfettered by the bottom line and therefore producing the highest quality wines. That’s what TB’s talking about…and all about!

 

 

 

Vol. 2 No. 2…how did TB do in 2015?

(Note I have two blogs. The other is   This article was supposed to be published on this site on 12/31 as the final edition of the year. While updating the other site I found it. Here it is. Mea culpa! The one on GSR’s is coming in a day or two. TB)

Like most of us TB does some reflecting at year-end and thought about his goals and how well he did this year – the first for the blog.

  1. Goal was to put out at least one blog every two weeks. While I more than accomplished it, the unevenness (due to a number of things), was disappointing to me.
  2. I met with and talked with several winery owners on trips to the Basque Country of Spain and France, La Rioja, Ribero del Dueros, California’s Central Coast, New York, Canada, and even a local winery.
  3. I covered the craze for cheap wine (Two Buck Chuck), and encouraged people to drink what they like but on one night a week try something different.
  4. I stressed that YOU are your own best wine critic and for that reason I don’t rate wines here but mention ones I have had and really liked.
  5. I read two books related to the Chinese and Bordeaux and how greed has taken over as wine hungry (and wine illiterate) Chinese pay exorbitant prices for First Growth Bordeaux while the Bordelais over-spray the crops to eke out every last drop; try to drive their neighbors from the non-classified and even some Third Growth chateaux, while lowering the quality of the wine. Why? Because only the Chinese can afford the wine and it is mostly speculation creating a huge bubble that hast to be near bursting. Note this has not happened in Burgundy where the vineyards are small and there is already a shortage of the best wines.

So how did I do? I ask you and would appreciate any comments or suggestions. Me? I gave myself a B-, mainly due to not staying on schedule even though I published six more columns than necessary.

Wishing you all the best in the new year and for all of 2016!

Trader Bill

Vol.2 No.1…GSR in wine???

Hi folks, hope you had a terrific new year’s eve and day. I felt I wanted to get started on the right track for 2016, so here goes:

The title is kind of a hook as it does not mean there is Gun Shot Residue in wine…although there could be in some of the cheap stuff. But there is arsenic in wine – some wine, most notably from the Central Valley where the San Joaquin Aquifer, the second largest in America, has been depleted, increasing levels of arsenic, but still not a health hazard…now if it was in water, it would be dangerous levels but unless you drink a couple of gallons a day of wine you should have no problems. But do keep in mind that arsenic is not water soluble and thus remains in your system and continues to build over time.

TB has become a big fan of organic (not necessarily certified organic but where vignerons try to keep it as close to that as possible), sustainable (the most common form of farming which reduces or removes the use of pesticides and fertilizers, relying on planting mustard, etc. between the rows), and biodynamic (think of the Farmer’s Almanac: planting at the right time, positioning rows for maximum light exposure, etc.).

In Vol.1 No. 30, TB recommended two books on the Chinese influence on  Bordeaux wines and it isn’t for the best. One was Thirsty Dragon: China’s Lust for Bordeaux and the Threat to the World’s Best Wines by Susanne Mustacich. Anyone who wants to do business in China is either very brave or naive. But it is the impact of this and the wealth in China that has corrupted the Bordelais. They have bought up dozens of small chateaux and then using them to bottle plonk using the chateaux name for credibility, or taking a name like Chateau Lafite and by simply  inserting a second ‘f’ (which is what the wine should be graded), selling wine of unknown origin and low quality to a people who have zero knowledge of wine. Worse, the government accommodates them by letting them copyright names…even well-known names of providers and then suing them and winning because under Chinese Law whoever copyrights it first wins…with a lot of palm-greasing I am sure.

This has changed the Bordeaux marketing process from having a negociant who buys the wine to sell to retailers, and a courtesan who is paid 2% of the cost to have the winery sell their wine to certain negociants. The Chinese have bypassed this process by going direct to the chateau and offering them incredible sums for their wine. This has made the negotiants pay the same price or higher and has minimalized buying of the wine by Europeans and Americans…it simply cannot go up in value like it used to, and the negotiants and retailers bear the risk.

The other book, Vino Business – The Cloudy World of French Wine by Isabelle Saporta  a french investigative reporter who, for her disclosures is surprisingly alive. Furthermore had she misstated facts she would have unquestionably been sued. Readers of this blog have heard the author refer to terroir, the combination of soils, climate, etc. that imparts a certain flavor in the wine. Very few changes have been made to the chateau rankings in the classification that goes back to 1855. But many changes have occurred since the Chinese invasion. Among them are requiring large parking lots for guests, a nice looking chateau, and many more variables but the most damning is that they are forcing out the small growers who in turn either have to sell to a classified chateau or to a Chinese. These are estates that have been in their families for hundreds of years. Worse, with the prices of the land skyrocketing if they don’t sell the estate taxes will destroy them financially.

Now let’s get to the quality issue. First, they have increased production which means that the wine should be cheaper not more expensive, ceteris paribus, as an economist would say. They are doing this in many ways: by over-fertilizing with chemical fertilizers and spraying vineyards with insecticides from helicopters! This has increased levels of cancer to locals and chemical analyses of all the classified growths shows levels of those chemicals in the wine, including some that are on the banned list!

Back to terroir, the boundaries of the appellations (Pauillac, St. Emilion, etc.), were established based on the very elements of terroir, and while no winery outside can list the appellation on the bottle…unless, the classified chateau buys an adjoining property outside the appellation and are then allowed to include the fruit in their wine! Where are the appellation controllee’s? Siding with the big chateau on virtually every element stated above, when their charter is to improve the quality of the wine for the benefit of all within the appellation. Recently, some irate small landowners in St. Emilion took it to court…and lost which is incredible.

Well, I got more into Bordeaux than I intended today but if it stops you from being stupid enough to buy the classified growths, it will well be worth it. In the meantime, there are many unclassified growths – with a house on the land instead of a chateau, and no parking lot. that are making excellent wines at a fraction of the price of the big boys.

So I am going to leave you hanging on what was meant by GSR…stay tuned…will be back in a couple of days with the full explanation and it may shatter some of your ideas of what the best wines really are.

Happy New Year, friends and readers!

Trader Bill

©Copyright 2016 TBOW, all rights reserved.

 

 

Vol. 1 No. 31…Wineries of the Quebecois

One of the first things that strikes you when you get to Canada these days is how expensive things are. That is because like us they use a $ sign for prices. In the investment business, $ is reserved for the Greenback, and Canadian is labelled C$. Otherwise it would be a mess trading currencies.

But the good news is there is a 30% discount on the Canadian Dollar. When TB was a teenager he remembers it at a 6% premium. We stayed at the beautiful Frontenac Hotel in Quebec. Old, charming, and we were put in one of the newly refurbished rooms…it was huge! Quebec feels so French, and it is quaint. Highly recommended and there are some very nice restaurants on the main street of Old Quebec near the Parliament and the hotel.

Driving back, we re-entered the U.S. in New York and then went over to (note ‘to’ not ‘over), Niagara Falls on the U.S. side. We took the Maid-o-the-Mist for an up close and personal view of the falls. Spectacular…and WET! From there we high-tailed it to the Canadian side via the Rainbow Bridge to find our hotel, the Marriott Fallsview, closest to the falls and our 9th floor room was perfect. For about $30 more (Canadian), we could have upgraded but we felt that was the best height to see the falls, and it was. A beautiful light show at night as both of the falls changed color. Leaving our drapes open we could see them from the bed, or we could have chosen the in-room Jacuzzi! Adding to the pleasure is a restaurant right next door to the hotel, The Keg. Don’t let the name fool you, it sure did me, but it was a very nice, not too expensive restaurant on the 5th floor of the hotel next to ours. It had the second best view of the falls…after our room of course!

The next day, we left Niagara and quickly found ourselves surrounded by vineyards…very nice ones too. The area is Niagara-on-the-Lake, home to more than thirty wineries. Our server the day before had recommended the Colaneri Estate Winery and it happened to be our first stop…and what a stop it was. We turned off the highway and a couple hundred yards down the road took a driveway to the left. At the head was what appeared to be an entire Tuscan Villa…beautiful! So now, not only were the wines good, but the estate was impressive…very!!!The Colaneri family came over from Italy (near Rome). There are two sons who now run the business and amazingly they married two sisters.

They make 18 different wines: 11 whites and 7 reds. How do you make red wine when it never gets much above 70 degrees? They pick the grapes at their peak, then move them to a huge building that has wire crates. This provides airflow to the grapes and allows them to ripen further. It is an Italian process known as ‘Rapasso’. I tasted all of them and they are amazing. Colaneri makes three ice wines (Cab Franc, Vidal, and Riesling, all between 9.2-10.8% alcohol, and 200-250 grams residual sugar!). Also amazing is the fact that it took six years to build the Villa so far and it will take another six to complete! Now that’s passion and dedication…and as I said to my tasting room guide, “looks like the old saying, ‘if you want to make a small fortune in the wine business, start with a large fortune.'” With a straight face he said, “no, start with a huge one!”

From there we drove to the best known winery in the area, Inniskillin, famous for it’s Ice Wine. I tasted them all and they are amazing wines…they are the model to shoot for by the other wineries, and also the most expensive. Actually, though, buying at the winery in Canadian dollars put them way below the price in the U.S., ranging from $42-80. One is a sparkling Cab Franc, one a Riesling, and the make two Vidal’s, one of which (and my favorite) aged in wood for 30 years! By the way, those prices are for 375ml bottles, not the standard 750ml, but they are worth every penny.

While there I heard that Inniskillin was sold and is now owned by Jackson-Triggs, who makes very nice ice wines at a fraction of the cost of Inniskillin. It is easily obtained in the U.S. Researching the comment however, when I returned home, I found that they had operated under the same owner, which explains the common quality, but following a series of mergers both were sold to…drumroll please…one of the largest wine producers in the world, Constellation Wines. Constellation has been hard at work buying up some of the best estates. Who are they? They were nobody until the purchased Robert Mondavi in 2004 (the peak of Mondavi nearly coinciding with the release of the documentary, Mondovino. Constellation’s only wine was Richard’s Wild Irish Rose – most frequently found on skid row. If it was in a liquor store, certainly not a wine shop, it would be on the bottom shelf. So Constellation bought respectability, and to this writer at least, Mondavi – first visited by this writer in 1969, and the only winery I ever assembled a vertical selection of cabs from (1966-2000). I sold one case at auction, and the other donated to the University of Nevada, Reno where it topped their wine auction. Mondovino did no favors for the Mondavi (hmmm was the name translated ‘World of Wine” or Mondavi versus the wine world? Just asking!

From there we drove to the picturesque town of Niagara-on-the-Lake where we had lunch. There are several good restaurants there and if you don’t stop, you will regret it as there is a huge void from there on.

After lunch we stumbled on Stratus a very modern looking industrial type building, with an uber-modern tasting room. Here, as in all the wineries we visited, the staff knew their wines – unlike so many U.S. wineries. It seemed that most of them, if not all, had been working there for years. I should add that I asked at every winery I visited if they used organic (or are organic-certified), sustainable, or biodynamic methods and virtually all practiced sustainable farming (as did most of the ones in New York!), which puts them ahead of California, and sadly, light years ahead of Bordeaux where toxic chemicals are employed, even in the classified wineries and worse, lab testing has shown residual elements in wine tested from every winery!

Every aspect of being environmentally-friendly was employed, and beautifully I might add. Not only were the vines treated with as few natural fertilizers, etc., but the entire building was built with recycled wood and steel products, and even more impressive, even their tractors were run on bio-diesel! Stratus is Leeds-certified as sustainable. Their wines showed this attention to detail. They produce a full range of wines from the usual suspects to their Stratus Red, a blend of the Bordeaux grapes (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec -seldom used in Bordeaux now, plus Tannat from Southwest France). A stunning, well-made wine with very complex flavors and big enough to hold up, and improve, for many years.

In addition, their whites include Stratus White (Chardonnay, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewurtztraminer, and Viognier). If the blend sounds like a ‘mouthful’ that’s because it is, bursting with flavors and nuances. Their ice wine (Viognier/Semillon) was very good, less on the sweet side with just 12 grams residual sugar, 14.3% alcohol (!), but the star of the show for me was their 2012 Botrytis Affected Semillon – wow! If you have never tasted a Botrytis wine you are in for a pleasant surprise. Only in years with the right moisture conditions late in the season does it exist. Amazing fruit bursts forth and this one, aged for more than a year in French Oak (60% new), is a keeper.

Next stop was Cave Spring Winery located in town in Lincoln, Ontario. That is the tasting room with the vineyards and winery a short distance away. They make a full range of white’s and reds, including sparklers and ice wines. I particularly enjoyed their Riesling, bursting with fruit flavors…tutti fruiti, comes to mind but not that cloying sweetness!

The last winery we visited is off the beaten path but Karen MacNeil mentioned it in The Wine Bible. I was there for one thing: their Gamay, which she says is the first really good one made outside Europe…that is a huge comment, pinot lovers as this Burgundian grape is off that style. Not a true Burgundy but soft in the mouth and a good every day wine.

From there, we began to wend our way home again, crossing into the U.S. over the bridge to Detroit from Windsor, Ontario on the Ambassador International Bridge. This aging bridge will soon be replaced by the Gordie Howe International Bridge, named after the hockey great of the Detroit Red Wings.

By the time we reached home we had driven over 4,700 miles in just under three weeks, we stopped along the way in Evanston, Illinois to stay with our friends then up to Wisconsin for the incredible tasting dinner at the Union House restaurant (see Vol. 1, No. 24). We never had to use an umbrella on the entire trip, but when we crossed the Mississipi into Minnesota, we had torrential rains for the final hour and a half home. Lucky, not only that we experienced the full beauty of the changing of the colors to Fall.

TB

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