Stop Tooting Your Horn about Biodynamic Wine!

We have all heard the litany about how wonderful biodynamic wines can be. Some people swear by them and others say it is a lot of hocus pocus. The fact is of course that any vintner going to great lengths taking care of his vineyard should theoritically produce a good wine. Its the cow horn part that bothers a lot of people and it bothers me as well but perhaps for a different reason.
I did not realize, until I did a Google search, how popular cow horn products seem to be.That takes a lot of cow horns.
Considering the fact that most dehorning of cattle is done at an early age, is there going to be a shortage of cow horns if biodynamic wine making becomes popular?
Now here is my problem. Do you know how painful and therefore cruel it is to dehorn an adult cow?
Since biodynamic growers are close to the earth, the moon and the stars, should they not also care for these creatures with horns that roam the earth?
Do they have to use a real cow horn? I am sure that with today's technology an imitation cow horn can be made. Now there is a business opportunity.
Can anyone enlighten me as to why a real looking fake horn could not be used?
In the meantime I have a wine buddy coming over for supper and I am making super sized hamburgers. He is bringing an 'organic' Malbec. No horns, no bull. Just an enjoyable night with a good wine expressing its terroir.

Drink Wine Today ... but use the right glass!

Just a follow up on my last post. I have been testing the tasting on the right day theory. I am happy to report I tasted 10 Sauvignon Blancs with my panel on June 15th, a leaf day, without any ill effects. I really tempted the lunar crowd last night, a root day of all things. Tasted a high end Super Tuscan and same thing, nothing but praise for the wine. Now I can relax and return to my normal drinking pattern. That is, enjoy my wines whenever and wherever the occasion arises.
I am NOT a wine snob, never have been and never will. Each wine deserves a chance to tell its story. But I have to tell you that I am a bit of a wine glass snob. I often bring my own glass when attending trade tastings. After all when tasting a series of wines, should you not give the wines a chance to show off their best? The rolled rim restaurant style of glass at these tastings are just not very helpful.
Recently I had the opportunity to attend a Riedel Glass tasting, sponsored by the largest wine shop in Victoria, Everything Wine. The Riedel representative introduced us to the latest in the Riedel series of glasses, the Vitis.
Before I sold my wine shop in Victoria, The Wine Barrel, I became a firm believer in what the right glass can do to enhance the wine drinking experience. While I think the Vitis series are beautiful and elegant and I now have a set of them, I do not think that they have an advantage over the Vinum Extreme series. Recently I shared a 1989 Opus 1 with a good friend and I chose the Extreme Cabernet glass rather than the Vitis Cabernet glass. The Vinum Extreme is, I feel, better suited to a big bold wine like the Opus 1. It still makes me drool when I think of this tasting.
Now to get to the point of this post. Some years ago, Riedel introduced an Icewine glass. The sales representative at that time, tried to convince me that since British Columbia makes some of the finest Icewines made anywhere, I should be selling these glasses. I was of the opinion that this new glass was just not the right one for our BC Icewines. I felt that they may be very suited for Ontario Icewines and they were in fact created using Ontario Icewines but BC Icewines are different. He reported this to Riedel in Austria and that started a challenge. In other words, put your money where your mouth is.
Well, OK then . I contacted a number of BC Icewine producers to get their opinions on the difference between BC and Ontario Icewines. As well I spoke to John Schreiner, the author of Icewine -The Complete Story and got his take on it and a number of other in the know individuals. Next I created an "Icewine Glass Evaluation Chart".
Click on it to get the enlarged version.
Next I collected 3 BC Icewines and 1Ontario Icewine and put a panel of 6 local wine experts together (OK, 5, I was taster #6), including bringing John Schreiner over from Vancouver. John, in my opinion is the world's number 1 expert on Icewines. I won't go into details but the long and the short of it was that my theory about the Riedel Icewine glass was proven correct when 5 out of the 6 panelists agreed that indeed the Riedel Icewine glass was the best for the Ontario Icewine but not as suited to the BC Icewines we tasted.
Since Riedel had been interested in my project, I forwarded them all the information. Guess what? If I would order 50,000 glasses they would create a glass according to my specifications for a BC Icewine. Well...it was fun!
When I visited Tuscany with my friend Sanjoy from California we had the pleasure of tasting the wines made by Alessandro Dondi, the winemaker at Castello di Bolgheri. I believe it to be 'the' super, Super Tuscan. I brought it back with me and it looks like we finally will have a distributor to bring it into BC. I shared part of the Castello di Bolgheri this week with some local wine experts and quickly added nitrogen preserve to the bottle. Their opininion was that it was outstanding. Elegant was one of the descriptors.Tonight I am sharing the rest of this wine with a wine loving lady friend. I guess I will use the 'elegant' Vitis Cabernet glass for this get together. Just done right BBQ'd steak and a great wine and great company.
Yes, I believe the right glass is essential to the ultimate enjoyment of a great wine.

Do Not Drink Wine Today....!!

According to the Lunar calendar we are in a 'root' day face of the moon and drinking wine may be a No No. Really now?
( Calendar courtesy of Domaine de la Vougeraie--click to enlarge ) According to a recent article in the NewsScotsman there are days you simply should not be tasting wines.Two of the UK's major retailers, Tesco and Marks & Spencer's, who account for at least one-third of all bottles of wine sold in Britain, "now only invite critics to taste their ranges when the moon-related biodynamic calendar dictates that wine will be at their best...
Our first choice is a fruit day. We seek to avoid root and leaf days."
Today and tomorrow we are in a root day and a lunar node. Really bad! Had a lady friend over for lunch today. Made a nice salad and served a beautiful Pinot Gris from the Dessert Hills winery in the South Okanagan Valley in BC. Followed this with a hot beef dip on a bun served with the Dessert Hills Mirage, a big bold Bordeaux blend. Guess what? It was delightful. Then we went to a new release tasting of the wines of Tinhorn Creek, another great winery in the South Okanagan. Same thing! Tasted ten wines. Could not find a fault with any of them.What's going on here? The wines were fruity not rooty.
One wine merchant in Britain who does not subscribe to this theory is my good friend Nick, over at Bordeaux-Undiscovered. Nick writes an excellent, informative
blog and did a good review on this.Check out his take on this called Drinking by Moonlight
Could not help but wonder what Alice Feiring's opinion might be. Alice of course is the author of a gutsy little slap at Parker with her book called "The Battle for Wine and Love or How I Saved the World from Parkerization"
Since she discusses Biodynamics in her
book in several chapters and had a very interesting interview with Nicolas Joly. Nicolas is the unofficial leader of the worldwide biodynamic wine movement. So I wondered. Well Alice does have days when her wines do not quite taste right but has not attached it to any particular fruit, leaf or any other type of day.
So the question remains "Does wine change with the phases of the moon or do individual palates change with the lunar period?"
Tell you one thing though, while I was still practicing vet med, I did have some "colorful" character clients visit me claiming that their pets were not feeling well, Could never find anything until I looked at the calendar and found it to be a full moon period. Thankfully my wines taste good any old day.
What sayeth thou?

Rosé Wines by any other Name......

Is a blush wine a Rosé? Is a white and red wine blend a Rosé or just a blush wine? Is a white Zinfandel a Rosé? Not if the French have any thing to do with it. The continuing battle with the EU has a determined group of French wine makers up in arms about the pending EU Comission's decision to allow a white wine blended with a red to be called a Rosé. Now the Italians have joined the battle. The EU wine reform committee was to have voted on this proposal on April 27. Now,because the World Trade Organisation needed more time to look at the proposals this contentious issue has been delayed till June 19. In the meantime Rosé's popularity continues to increase. True rosé wines are even seeing rising sales in California, the home of US white Zinfandel. The good news is that all
this media attention is keeping rosé in the lime light. Just finished a rosé tasting for my newsletter with mostly rosés from Britsh Columbia and I love the way they are starting to lean to much drier versions. At this point in time the French have at least won the right to allow for a special label designation that their rosé wines are made with 'traditional' methods. Rosés are such great food wines and I for one am thrilled to see more and more of them available.Try them, you will love them!

Wine and Dine.....at Home!

Higher priced wines continue to suffer a slump in sales. This seems particularly true in restaurants. Restaurants need to be imaginative during the current economic downturn. One of my favorite local restaurants is doing just that.
They feature a different theme for every day of the week.Thursday is their Thirty for Thirty with 30 bottles of wine each selling for $30.
An annual state of the wine industry report just released by the Silicon Valley Bank forecasts that economic conditions will have a lasting impact on the fine wine business.
Is this perhaps a time where dining at home will become increasingly popular? Dine out by all means but share that expensive bottle of wine with family and friends.
When visiting friends in California last summer they did just that. Click on the pic and you will see what I mean.
You have heard this one before, but I love cooking with wine and sometimes I even put some in the food.
With the excellent help and encouragement of Katherine Andes, I have been making some changes to this blog and my email newsletter. Sign up for her very timely and topical newsletter.
As you can see I have Nat's Wine & Food Matcher. But I have just added a great source for recipes. In Recipes Looking for Wine you will find some taste tempting menus. But I always check out two of my favorite sources for recipes when I want something unique and tasty.
When you visit my British Bordeaux friend on my link list, Nick Stephens, and click on recipes you will find the Angels on Horseback recipe.
I just love that one. Nick's blog is always very informative and a pleasure to read. And I can hardly wait to try out David Crowley's latest,Tortellini with Garlic Spinach Sauce. You will find him at my link to "Cooking Chat"
So now the question remains, do you pick your recipe and then find a wine to match or do you choose your wine and and then search for that great recipe?
Have fun always and enjoy this precious gift of the fruit of the vine!

Summit Needed to Stimulate Slumping Sales in Le Champagne

There has been a dramatic decrease in sales of Champagne and calls for drastic cuts in yields may be required. Domestic sales for the first two months of 2009 were down 29.3% and European exports dropped a whopping 47.7%.
So perhaps what Le Champagne needs is a great Ambassador. And of course no one was better at it than Napoleon Bonaparte himself. The image portrayed here
is of Napoleon and his good friend Jean-Rémy Moët in July of 1807 at Moët et Chandon
click on pictures to get the enlarged versions for more detail
It was Napoleon who commented "That in Victory you deserve Champagne,in defeat you need it." A lot of Champagne was bought and consumed.
When we visited Moët et Chandon
during the 2005 harvest season we were taken to the pleasant garden courtyard with the Three Emperors' Tree and taken back in time when Europe's great leaders met there to enjoy Champagne and of course talk about the issues of the day.




















It was a thrilling moment enjoying our own glass of Champagne and stepping back in time to March of 1814.This was followed by a magnificent lunch in the
Moët's residence formal dining room. Our hospitable host, Arneaud de Mareuil, the Vice-President Public Relations, Communication & Heritage was a true champagne ambassador.
That is Sanjoy, my wine travel friend, on my left and Arneaud on my right. The rest of the guests were media and movie types from Denmark. I ended up calling them the Great Danes (That's a veterinarian's mind)
So is it time to move forward and have a Champagne Summit to discuss how best to support the Champagne industry? The picture on the right shows who might be meeting under that old Three Emperors Tree today.
Now the faces may not fit too well as I adapted them to the lunch scene, but you get the picture. That is Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the left, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merchel and of course Obama. On the right is President Nicholas Sarkozy. Somehow, I get the impression that he may not be the most popular guest. I think the question could be asked 'What have you done for us lately?' A toast to you all!!

For Goodness Sake...Wine is Good for Your Health!

Seems like a day does not go by without some health minded organization or government agency telling us how bad wine is for our health. I say stop picking on wine and use those valuable research dollars to enlighten us about the benefits of drinking wine. Look at those grapes, one of nature's greatest gifts to humankind.
















For thousands upon thousands of years they have been picked and turned into the most pleasurable drink known to mankind. But no the tea drinking anti-alcohol crowd must tell the world about their latest research detailing how 3247 women and men were followed for the last three years (or were there 7423 ? ) drinking wine and now..ouch they have a 27% greater chance of getting cancer. I am not trying to make light of this terrible disease. There is nothing more devastating for a woman to be diagnosed and go through the ordeal of breast cancer but so many other factors have to be considered. I know of women who hardly ever drink wine or anything else and yet have suffered with this dreadful malady. Cancer needs a cure but there are many, many things that can cause it. So men, have you been taking extra folic acid supplements? It turns out that men who have, are at much greater risk of getting prostate cancer.
Of course there are studies indicating that drinking wine is a preventative for cancer. Barrett's Esophagus is a precursor to esophageal cancer and drinking wine may lower the risk by as much as 56%.And here is more good news. This study indicates that the combined polyphenols from red wine was found to be effective against breast cancer.
The latest anti drinking wine study finds that even your teeth are in trouble. Yes, they used cow teeth for this one.Could they not have found a human skull or a set of human teeth for this experiment? You will really be in trouble if you drink wine during dinner and follow that up with tea or worse if you get up and brush your teeth. Me? I usually don't drink tea after a delightful dinner with a good wine. I certainly won't be getting up to brush my teeth. How about grapefruit juice folks, which I happen to like very much, its very acidic. So could you please do some research to tell me I am going to loose my teeth prematurely?
Plato, wise man that he was, said, "Nothing more excellent or valuable than wine was ever granted by the Gods to man."
And would Jesus have turned water into wine at a wedding feast if he thought for one moment that it was harmful to the guests?

Peace be with you! Especially when you are enjoying the 'fruit of the vine.'

Feel the Love,When you Are a Wine Critic !

I set out to do a book review of Alice Feiring's
The Battle for Wine and Love or How I Saved the World from Parkerization
but instead will refer you to a very good in depth review by Brooke Cheshier on Vinography.
Apart from getting hints about the loves in her life, there is an inspiring passion about her love for 'natural' wines and her loathing for chemically manipulated, scientifically engineered from vineyard to cellar wines.
Her book has obviously made its mark in Spain where a translated version will be available in 2010. You can read about that on Alice's own site 'In Vino Veritas'.
Besides her book being easy to read you will find yourself coming away and wondering about how natural the wines are that you now consume. Since reading her book, I have had the pleasure of meeting several wine makers and asking them how much of an influence Robert Parker has had on their wine making.

There is hope out there Alice!
During a delightful lunch with Johannes Selbach of the Weingut Selbach-Oster, I posed this question to Johannes. With great pride and perhaps a touch of indignation, he suggested that since his famly had been making wines for a long time before Parker came on the scene (since 1661) they have been making wines in traditional styles handed down from generation to generation. The Selbach-Oster wines are known for their purity of fruit and fresh and delicate aromas. The mineral rich slate soils of the 'MittleMosel' and the ripe, juicy Riesling fruit are evident in all their wines. Interestingly enough both Robert Parker in his Wine Advocate and the Wine Spectator rate these wines highly with their 'points' in the 90+ range.
Alice has written passionately and you will experience that when reading her book. I admire her fearless approach on this controversial subject.
The video below takes more than the usual few minutes of videos seen on YouTube but this one on Vimeo is well worth watching. You can 'Feel the love' or otherwise, in this one. Oh, the life of a critic is not easy.
Go Alice, Go!


Robert Parker's Bitch from Josh Hermsmeyer on Vimeo.

Will the Real Green Wine Come Forward!

We hear so much these days about green wines and carbon foot prints but have we forgotten that there is only one wine that is truly 'the' green wine?
I am speaking of course about the Vinho Verde from the Minho Valley in Portugal.
It doesn't refer to the colour of the wine but rather that it is a wine produced under minimal growing conditions and one that should be drunk young. You do not age a Vinho Verde wine. I thought about this after reading the article in the Irish Times and the arrival of the the French schooner, the Etoile de France landing in the port of Dublin delivering 15,000 bottles of 'green' wine in time for St.Patrick's Day. Very admirable concept. The article even mentions that "each shipment is fitted with radio frequency identification to record and monitor the temperature of the alcohol during the voyage". OK, then what? So if this ship travels during the hot summer months are cooling systems in place to keep the wine from getting cooked? If yes, then what about the carbon foot print of all that energy used to do the cooling? And oh yes, that North Sea can get pretty turbulent during winter storms. Is this just a little bit of hyped up marketing going on? Really now, are we going to see French and Italian wines shipped all the way to the North American market on fancy frigates?


But hey, you know what? Tomorrow is St. Patricks day and what better 'green' way to celebrate then to enjoy a bottle of Vinho Verde, especially one with the cool green cat on the label.








I take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy and fun filled St.Patricks day and may the following Irish prayer come true for you all.

Notice the part about "may the sun shine warm upon your face" and "the rains fall soft upon your fields". Sounds very much like an Irish prophecy and ideal growing conditions for a vineyard. Who knows with a little bit of global warming, the Emerald Isle may become the next best place to grow grapes. Then you can anchor your schooner and expend no carbon foot prints at all. God bless the Irish and one and all!!

Travelling in Super Tuscan Wine Country!

Say Super Tuscan and surely Sassicaia and Ornellaia come to mind. In 1968 the first Sassicaia was introduced to the market and thus the Super Tuscan phenomenon was started. They are produced with non native varietals, using instead Cabernet Sauvignon and other grapes to make up a Bordeaux style of wine. So successful was the vinification with these Bordeaux grapes that in 1994 Bolgheri was officially recognized with its own DOC status.Today there are some 40 producers on 1300 hectares of vineyards.
Bolgheri is a very picturesque town and to get there you travel along 5 km stretch of road,the Viale-dei-Cypressi, lined by magnificent two hundred year old Cypress trees.The 19th century Nobel Prize-wining poet, Carducci immortalised this "sunlit green avenue" in his famous poem Davanti a San Guido. Italian school children are taught this poem at an early age.
Side roads will lead to the Bolgheri wineries. My trusty driver and friend Sanjoy had managed to get us here from Florence faster than we had anticipated for our appointment at Tenuta dell'Ornellaia. So we decided to visit Bolgheri and as luck would have it we met the wife of a local winemaker. She insisted we meet her husband and that turned out to be the best part of our visit. The Castello di Bolgheri winery is located right in Bolgheri and its winemaker is the brilliant Alessandro Dondi. Allessandro gave us the grand tour of the winery and the vineyards.
The Castello vineyards are located on the farm surrounding the castle. The farm consists of 130 hectares and 50 hectares are planted to vines. The vineyards were planted beginning in 1997 using the principle varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Syrah and Petit Verdot, specified for in the DOC Bolgheri wines.All the grapes had been harvested except for the Cabernet Sauvignon and had been fermenting in stainless steel for about two weeks. So we tasted straight from the tanks and I have to tell you, I have tasted freshly fermenting wines many times before but never anything this delicious. Allesandro drove us out into the vineyards where the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were waiting for his decision as to when to be picked. Gently squeezing a few grapes, he announced tomorrow would be picking time. Besides lab analysis, he feels the grapes and just when the firm skin begins to soften slightly,that is when it is optimum time to harvest for him. Back at the winery we had the opportunity to taste the Varvara, a very impressive entry level wine. But Allesandro beamed with pride when he saw the big smiles on our faces after tasting the flagship Castello wine, the Castello di Bolgheri.
This Super Tuscan is an amazingly well crafted wine made with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Aged in oak for 18 months and then a further 12 month aging in bottles. Rich, silky, smooth, this extremely well balanced wine is a pure pleasure to drink. What a fortunate stroke of luck to "discover" the Castello di Bolgheri and meet this very talented wine maker. Certainly a high light of our trip to Tuscany.
Since we still had time to go for lunch we asked Allesandro where he would recommend we go. So he took us to a restaurant a short distance from the winery and introduced us to the owner.
That was another great experience. Tourists and locals are treated to traditional Tuscan cuisine and of course wines from Bolgheri. If you happen to find yourself in Bolgheri be sure to visit the winery and have lunch at the enoteca Tognoni. You never know, you might find Allesandro taking time out for a super Tuscan meal and enjoying a truly super, Super Tuscan wine from the Castello di Bolgheri.