To Blend or not to Blend....that is the question!!

A short while ago I read an article by a well known wine writer proclaiming that in a few years all wines will be blended wines.
I had just tasted a blended wine made up of and get this... Pinot Noir..Cabernet Sauvignon and Gamay Noir. Really now?
I chose to ignore this off the cuff remark. Then I read it again by another wine writer. Had these two gents attended the same wine conference? 

Now,as we have seen it reported over and over again, the US total yearly consumption of wine is now greater than in France. But those figures are like comparing apples and oranges. On a per person basis consumption, the US is still far behind France. But this statistic is based on a total population figure.
The significance however lies in the fact that wine is finally becoming much more a part of our culture.
Along with this new found thirst comes an eager search for more knowledge about wine. And thus statements such as the above might be taken seriously by our new wine loving friends and should not be made by responsible wine writers. There is just too much nonsense out there. At least that is my opinion. 
So I thought I would check with a couple of people who I respect highly and get their opinion.
First I checked with Alice Feiring. I take you to a post I did on her a couple of years ago. I loved reading her very interesting  book.
So here is what she had to say as per quotation.

"I have been in the blend camp for quite some time. I sort of feel it's the salvation of California as well as other regions that might have spotty 'great' terroir". 

Yes of course. Bordeaux, the 'King of Wines' producing some of the best blended wines in the world. 


Since I had used Burgundy's Pinot Noir and Germany's Rieslings as examples of single variety wines her response was as follows.

"The comparison to Burgundy or the Mosel is pretty unfair as those regions have been one grape grape one bottle for quite a while, but they spent 100s of years fine tuning which grapes grow best on the soils"

Ah, yes..Burgundy Pinot Noir ..the 'Queen of Wines"

Along comes modern day science and technology to help us out and it is now possible to determine which grape variety is most suited to a specific vineyards plot.

Dr. Pat Bowen has done extensive research in this field and by means of the GIS or Geographical Imaging System, site specific grape varieties can be determined. 

Poof.... hundreds of years can be bypassed by modern science.

Read the highlights of that research here. 

Going back to my archived blog entry on Alice Feiring, I realized that I had written about one of my favorite German vintners as well on that same blog entry. 

 

 Why are we smiling so much? Me ...because I had just tasted some wonderful Mosels and Johannes Selbach.... because he is justifiably proud of his single variety wines.
So I contacted him and again as per quote.

"We do NOT blend our Selbach-Oster Rieslings with anything else and have no intention to do so.

There are grapes that are suitable for blending and there are grapes with little flavour that benefit from blending but good, genuine Riesling certainly doesn't need it.

I firmly believe in the future of handcrafted, authentic varietal wines if they are grown in suitable climate and soil because they will offer the wine drinker a sense of place, terroir, as well as the pleasures of varietal character.

That being said, if the individual components don't have enough character to make a distinctive wine or if the blend is better than its components, blending makes sense. Blending also makes sense where the married components together enhance complexity and typicity ( and here Bordeaux certainly is a classic example for successful blends )."
So there you have it.
Let me finish with an image of my family blend of wine which consists of 55% Pinot Noir, 40% Pinot Noir and just to add a touch of complexity... 5% Pinot Noir. 

 I raise my glass of blended wine, straight from the above bottle, to you my dear readers!!

Global Cooling in Wine Country.....!!

On February 2, 2011 Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow and thus according to tradition an early spring was predicted. Within a week, I was snowed in and could not get out of my driveway. I finally managed to get out but on the way back in, I ended up teetering on the edge of the ditch and had to get a tow truck to help me out. Ended up parking my car at the start of my driveway and carry two big bags of groceries for about a 1/2 kilometer stretch down my driveway to get home. Miserable unseasonably cold weather. Fortunately I had plenty of wine on hand and a raging fire in my fireplace to keep me warm.

On the 26th of February, I received an e-mail from my dear friend, Jan in California with a series of pictures, including the Myers lemon tree in her garden. The subject title was 'It never snows in Scotts Valley????'

California Wine Country was in for sub freezing temperatures on that day.

On Tuesday January 13th 2009, featured speaker Kim Cahill, a viticulture associate at UC Davis, spoke to the concerned Napa Sustainable Winegrowing Group and detailed a predicted warming trend due to climate change for Napa vineyards.


Now hold on a minute and fast forward to February 7, 2011. Forget about that warming trend because now a new in depth study carried out for the Napa Valley Vintners Association suggests that climate change may cool the Napa Valley.

Of course these days it is no longer called 'Global Warming'. There is no money to be made with such a scary concept and terminology. 'Climate Change' is the in thing and there are plenty of greenbacks to be made. 

Why not attend the III World Congress on Climate Change and Wine? For a mere 575 Euros you can get your VIP ticket and hear Kofi Annan speak. But you better hurry because after April 1st, the ticket price goes to 675 Euros.

The one that really gets me is the Carbon Credit concept. If you want to really understand what that is all about, look at this article on Carbon Credits.
This informative article was written back in 2008 and a mere $60 billion had already been traded worldwide. What are the figures for today?
Imagine trading and making money on Hot Air??

I think, I must do my part and trade my car in for a much more fuel efficient green car.                                                                                                 




And I cannot get the lyrics of Johnny Rivers' song "Green Green" out of my mind.
So sing along with me while we join the New Christy Minstrels.




I do hope that our Vancouver Island and surrounding Islands vineyards see a much warmer 2011 year. Most did not see their grape crops reach maturity because of the cold and wet weather. We want to see a return of Global warming!
Lets all drink to that!!

Dieting?... Check Your New Wine Label!

 Once again wine label requirements are under attack. This time it is the US and Australia. I did a post in January last year when Brussels was rattling its chains. Here is the link to that entry.

http://wwpress.blogspot.com/2010/01/wine-labels-under-attack-by-brussels.html

 It seems bureaucrats everywhere feel they must protect the dumb public by forcing wineries to print the number of calories in their wines on their wine labels. This would change of course with each vintage and thus creating additional costs for the wineries.
Australia is moving ahead on this requirement 
Now the US is also considering label changes. Now I ask you would anyone seriously look at a back label and do calorie comparisons between two or three wines?
'Look at this one  dear, it has 20 calories less than the one you are looking at'. 
When you buy your bacon do you for one minute think that it is not high in calories, but you better check all the bacon labels to see if you can shave off a few calories? How utterly ridiculous. 
We buy wines because we thoroughly enjoy them and we know they are good for our health.
How about equal opportunities and allow statements of wine being good for your health to be displayed as well?
Latest research has just discovered that red wine contains chemicals used in the treatment of diabetes.
Doctors are loath to tell patients that wine maybe good for their health for fear of turning their patients into alcoholics. But the use of wine in treating various ailments has been with us for centuries. 
I am in possession of a book called 'Healing Wines' by Manfred Kohnlechner  tracing the use of wines in medicine from antiquity to modern times. Fascinating reading. It was published and printed by Autumn Press in 1981, so its not likely too many copies are still around. But Roger Corder's The Red Wine Diet is readily available. It is a well written and thoroughly researched book. Decanter states " Quite possibly the most useful wine book published this year"
Roger's opening sentence in the first chapter is as follows:  "Wine drinkers generally are healthier and often live longer than people who don't drink wine on a regular basis"
I say Amen to that and raise my glass in a toast to all you wine lovers out there!!

Be Good Hearted... and Drink Red Wine!!

 It never ceases to amaze me how much research is deemed necessary before we finally come to the conclusion and accept the fact that drinking wine, especially red wine, is good for our hearts. And here is the latest as reported in BMJ..helping doctors make better decisions. The research paper is titled "Prospective Epidemiological Study of Myorcardial Infarction"

It is worth reading but you probably should have a glass of wine or two while consuming this information and if you proceed to glass number three, try saying the above title real fast three times.
Now here is some research that has just been reported. It has come to light that humans were drinking wine over 6000 years ago.
And we are still around doing our best to convince Neo-Prohibitionists and other anti-drinking groups that drinking wine is good for their health and we are going to be around for a long time.
My good friend Keith Watt over on Pender Island, owner of
Morning Bay Estate Winery and Vineyards, wrote a nice  sensible, summing it all up article on wine and health.
Good wines, good friends, laughter and love. How can we go wrong? Of course drinking too much wine may be bad for your health. Everything in moderation. I love crisp bacon and could eat it all day and every day but that would not be good for my health, would it now?
So let us make sure that when they dig around an archaeological site 6000 years from now, they will say that in the year of 2011,they sure knew how to live the good live.

 May you have a happy heart this year and every year and enjoy your wine in peace and in good company!

Peace, Wine Wishes and Tiny Bubbles for 2011 !!

  May I share with you, on this last day of 2010, my thoughts and wishes.

If you have been under a lot of pressure during this past year, then just let it all go and out of your system, like the Cremant d'Alsace in the picture below. But do not let your cares and worries build up inside you until the inevitable blow up happens similar to the mishap in the below right picture.

Well maybe I was having too much fun, or shall we say maybe one glass of wine too many with the obvious and dubious wording in the video below.



So for 2011 may your troubles be small, like the tiny bubbles in your bubbly.
May your days be filled with sunshine and even on the days when a little rain does fall into your life, may a beautiful rainbow await you at the end of the day.  
Peace, prosperity and tranquility to all for 2011! 


                                                                                         
 
And of course a day without wine is like a day without sunshine. Happy New Year to all my friends and followers of my blog!
Wilf                                                                                         

Become a Wine Expert

Many tastings, many events, many friends and wow, did I get snow,have kept me from doing a posting. Yes, Vancouver Island with the mildest climate in Canada did get its first and hopefully last snow. Thought I would share this picture taken on my front yard with a little Holiday holly added for the season.
The weather man of course was wrong as usual with the prediction of 4 centimeters and 10 for higher elevations. Well I am not that high, but I got 14 cms. Snowed in for 3 days, but plenty of food and good fire wood on hand to keep a blazing yuletide fire going. And of course tasted some wines from my cellar that had been waiting for a special occasion.
Now the title of this blog entry is 'Become a Wine Expert' and there are plenty of wine courses offered. But if you do not want to spend 3 to 4 hundred and even more dollars and tie up every Tuesday evening for the next 3 months, here is a fun way for the beginner and even those who already have some good understanding of wine, to learn.
It is even more fun when you get a small group of your wine loving friends together. Internationally known wine writer, taster and teacher, Michael Schuster has recently created a handy dandy, nifty little box full of cards loaded with great information. Pick a card, any card and you are presented with very useful information. It starts with a set of cards on the 'basics', then a set on 'grape varieties', followed by 'tasting techniques' and finally 'tasting lessons'. Some great advice for pairing wine and food included as well. Very, very well done Michael. Let the fun begin and you are on your way to becoming an expert.
On my trip to Italy and specifically, Tuscany, I relied heavily on the foremost expert on Italian wines, Joseph Bastianich.
Visit his site and go to media and then books. His book 'Vino Italiano The Regional Wines of Italy' is a wonderful, excellent read on Italian wines and his 'Vino Italiano Buying Guide, the ultimate Quick Reference to the Great wines of Italy' is a must have book. I took it along on my trip.
Joseph Bastianich is a foremost expert on Italian wines. He is the co-owner, with Mario Batali of some of America's premier Italian restaurants. But he also owns and produces wines on four wineries, three of them in Italy. Busy though he is, he has just finished another excellent Italian wine book, Grandi Vini, an opinionated tour of Italy's 89 finest wines. Now we are getting into some serious writing on Italian wines. With in depth details on wines and their producers, ranging from a superb Sangiovese from Emilia Romagna, to Barolos and a delightfully fresh, dry white Pietramarina from Sicily, Joseph captures the essence of them all. Every wine has its website information included. You will enjoy the hand-illustrated maps of locations of the wineries. Yes, Joseph's richly detailed descriptions of 89 of the world's best Italian wines will lead you to explore some of the world's finest wines. Great opinions and another must have book for any wine lover. I am planning my next visit to Italy.
Thank you Joseph.

No Apologies if you drink Sweet Wine from Alsace!

Recently a number of websites and blogs proclaimed that the wine industry owed an apology to sweet wine drinkers.
The headline from Wine Business.com read as follows: "How Sweet it is: Wine Industry Owes Sweet Wine Drinkers HUGE Apology!" Huge apology? Give me a break!
Harpers Wine & Spirit told us 'Sweet wine drinkers can be best tasters' But when Jancis Robinson's column told us we're all wrong, I wanted to put in my own thoughts.
Tim Hanni's statement: 'glaring errors in understanding by the wine industry have led to the disenfranchisement of millions of consumers and the loss of market share to other beverages' is in my opinion a misleading, headline seeking remark. If sweet white zin is your drink, nobody is stopping you from keeping it your go to wine. No need to say 'Forgive me Father, for I have Zinned'. And there is plenty of it out there.
Furthermore this is hardly a scientific study. It was based on analyzing 1500 'online' questionnaires looking for potential judges for the Lodi Consumer Wine Awards. Come on Mr. Hanni and company you can do better than that.
Now here is a bit of real research that may be worth a second look. At least by those who do not like the bitter taste of tannins in their wine. And nobody is suggesting we should apologize for looking down on those wine drinkers who like their wines less tannic and bitter. That pretty picture is a slide of lung taste receptors. Yes, that's right 'lung taste receptors'.
Dr.Liggett, a pulmonologist,
(and I am not pulling your leg, that is what he is) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and his team, found taste receptors in the lung that react to bitter compounds. Well now isn't that interesting. Perhaps we can now add lung observations to our tasting notes. Such as: 'I found the tannins in that Cabernet overpowering and I experienced a third degree cough'.
Now back to reality. I guess the sweet wine producers in Alsace are more than willing to share their sweet, lush Vendanges Tardives and Selections de Grains Nobles. No one will need to apologize to you for loving every single last drop of them.
On my recent visit to Alsace I had the pleasure of meeting Samuel Tottoli, the outstanding winemaker at the Kuentz-Bas Estate
A big thanks to Lucas De Jong, owner of the Hotel Husseren les Chateaux where I stayed during my last visit, for introducing me to Samuel. Samuel arrived at the winery in 2004 and has made great changes. As of the 2007 vintage Kuentz-Bas is certified organic. The great advantage in Alsace is, that mainly due to the calcareous/limestone soils, the grapes can attain high levels of natural acidity. And during this tasting I found out what an amazing influence that has on the wines.
Lucas, outside the Caveau de Degustation (tasting room) of the Kuentz-Bas winery. And always busy but never too busy to take time out to share his marvelous wines, that is Samuel. I was wrong every time when Samuel asked me to guess what the residual sugar levels were in some of the wines we tasted. That is picture of my notes and the 2007 Pinot Gris Trois Chateau . I have a notation calling it 'the pineapple express" Again I missed the residual of 34 grams on that one due to the amazing acidity.

So in closing this post let me say to all you sweet wine lovers out there, you haven't lived until you taste some of the delicious sweet wines from Alsace.

Me? I will stay with their big, bright, crisp, dry wines with that wonderful minerality and of course you can never get enough of their Cremants. As always, click on the pics to get a close up view. Next up is some bubbly talk and a great picture of a sabering gone wrong!
Cheers and happy drinking for now.

It Takes a Lot of Sunshine....to Make a Super Tuscan Wine !!

I do want to share some more on Alsace wine but this entry is dedicated to my friend Alessandro Dondi at Castello di Bolgheri.

Check out the rich history and tradition of the Castello di Bolgheri by clicking on the above link.
I had the pleasure of meeting Alessandro a couple of years ago while doing a tour of Tuscany with my California wine loving friend Sanjoy Ghose.
Castello di Bolgheri is located in the town of Bolgheri, on the Etruscan coast in the province of Livorno. We were scheduled to visit Ornellaia, the very well known and excellent producers of the Super Tuscan, Ornelaia. But since Sanjoy managed to get us to the coast way ahead of our appointment, we had plenty of time for lunch and a little sightseeing in Bolgheri. Just happened to walk into this delightful shop selling locally produced body lotions and creams. I asked the owner why do people drive all the way to the coast to visit Bolgheri. Ah, but of course, Bolgheri is where the famous Italian poet Giosuè Carducci wrote the poem "Davanti a San Guido", giving everlasting fame to the Viale dei Cipressi ( Cypresses ) As you drive into the town of Bolgheri these stately 200 year old Cypress trees line the road on both sides for a 5 KM stretch.
Then, the charming owner of the shop, Beata, asked me what brought me to Bolgheri. When I told her I was on a wine tasting, wine writing tour of Tuscany, she insisted we meet her husband Alessandro, the wine maker at Castello di Bolgheri. What a marvellous turn of events that turned out to be.

I won't go into details about Super Tuscans. I am sure you know about Sassicaia and the other Super Tuscans but both Sanjoy and I were overwhelmed and duly impressed by the amazing Super Tuscans Alessandro has produced.

The vineyards are about 70 meters above sea level. They are planted facing west southwest. The rows are perpendicular to the Mediterranean Sea which during the hot summer days allows the afternoon winds coming from the sea to cool the vineyard. The soils are sandy-clayey, skeletal and stone rich and a pH which is mostly basic. This "terroir" produces wines of great subtlety, smooth soft tannins and great complexity with rich aromatics. I noticed when Alex took us into the vineyards that he did a quick inspection of the Cabernet grapes, giving them a gentle squeeze. When I asked him about it
he explained that he wants the skins just
to start getting a touch of softness and that is when he wants to pick. Of course he does lab testing as well. Then he told us that they would be picking these Cabernet grapes tomorrow. Looking a few rows over, he indicated that those Cabernet, Castello was growing for Ornelaia, but that they were not planning to pick for a couple of weeks.






The close-up picture of Alessandro's grapes to the left shows them to be in perfect picking condition. Meanwhile back at the winery we tasted tank samples of the recently harvested Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah. Wow, I have tasted a lot of tank samples but these were amazing.


Now click on the map to enlarge it. As you can see, the Castello vineyards are located in the same ideal locations as the Ornellaia and Sassicaia vineyards. So what makes the Castello di Bolgheri wines so special? Because they are created by a winemaker with a passion. Truly an artist at work. One of the techniques he employs is called delestage. Very time consuming but with very beneficial results.
Alex joined the Castello in 2005 and as their cellar master here is his wine making philosophy. In his opinion when making a wine, the most important thing is to always have a clear picture in your mind of the kind of wine you want to make. Just like a good chef knows what he wants his dish to taste like, he images the texture,smells and tastes. He knows his grapes and the soils, then lets his feelings and emotions run with his artistic abilities.
And tasting his wines confirms that this winemaker truly makes a super Super Tuscan. In my opinion, among the very best of the Super Tuscans out there.
Fortunately for consumers here in British Columbia, finally almost three years after my visit with Alessandro, they are now available here in BC.
I am looking forward to visiting with Alessandro again and tasting what great wines are all about.

Sunshine into Wine.....!

Not this year, or at least not at many of the wineries on the west coast of Canada. Following up on my last blog entry, I contacted a few more wineries.

The song everybody seems to be singing is "Rain, rain go away, come back again some other day". But they say every cloud has a silver lining. Perhaps the sluggish economy of the last few years has left most wineries with enough inventory to carry them through till next year. At least those that as part of their marketing plan, hold back some of their inventory for a rainy day. When I spoke to Jerry Mussio at Starling Lane Winery he was fairly optimistic about this year, although their Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir was lagging behind. But since they make one of the best ( or in my opinion 'the best' ) sparkling wine on Vancouver Island that should make fans of their Célébration Brut happy. Over on Pender Island Keith Watt at Morning Bay Vineyard reports similar conditions and thanks his lucky stars to have a decent inventory. Then this morning, speaking to Eugene Kwan, the managing director of one of my all time favorite British Columbia wineries, once again a similar story emerged. Domaine de Chaberton is located in the Fraser Valley. Be sure to click on 'Winery' and then 'about us' to get the story behind this magnificent winery. I had the privilege of working with Claude and Inge as their Vancouver Island rep while running my wine shop, The Wine Barrel in Victoria. For all you Seattlelites, Domaine de Chaberton is located just across the Washington / British Columbia border and easy to find. Their Bacchus Bistro is very popular year round and is a must visit. Since I am leaving tomorrow to spend a few days on the mainland, I have made reservations at the Bistro and greatly looking forward to it.
Not everyone of course is unhappy about the rain. In the Bordeaux they were crying for rain and finally got it. Looks like they will be bragging about another good vintage and the first growth estates will be able to continue their obscene, outrageous prices.
My good friend Philippe, the export manager at Dopff 'Au Moulin" in Alsace sent me this picture of his Auxerrois and tells me harvest for the sparkling wines has begun.
I must tell you some more about why I love the wines from Alsace and my visit to Kuentz-Bas but will leave that for another entry.
In the meantime, rain, shine or otherwise, no matter how wonderful your wines might be, a little smart marketing goes a long way. So here for your 'viewing' pleasure is how one Okanagan Valley winery shares some fun with us. The View Winery makes a wonderful Pinotage and I reviewed the 2008 vintage for my newsletter. But Jennifer, the star in their video, tells me "Wait till you taste the 2009". OK Jennifer I am looking forward to it. So be sure to click on the above link to the winery and I am sure you will agree when you view the video that it is great marketing.

As always cheers and enjoy your wines!!

No Sunshine....No wine!

At least that appears to be situation developing on Vancouver Island. On the weekend I visited some of the wineries here on our island.
Veraison is barely visible and the only grape showing any signs of it that I saw, was the Siegerrebe grape at the Blue Grouse Vineyards.
If you click on the picture to enlarge it you might see some of the clusters picking up a bit of color. Summer took a long time coming and unless we see a lot of sunshine over the next 4 to 5 weeks, there will be no harvest this year. Although we might see a lot of sparkling wine produced this year and I do like my bubblies.
Meanwhile back to Alsace, the report I received from my friend Philippe Durst at Dopff "Au Moulin", in the middle of August, veraison was on its way. Slow start to their summer as well but the vineyards are shaping up for another good vintage. And of course that is where it all begins. That is cellar-master and oenologist Pascal Batot at Dopff keeping a close watch in the vineyards. Pascal's winemaking philosophy is that the quality of a wine starts first of all in the vineyards.

It definitely paid off recently when Dopff was awarded two gold medals at the very prestigious
Sélections Mondiales des Vins Canada in Montreal.
They received a Gold for the Riesling Grand Cru Schoenenberg 2007 and a Gold for the Gewurztraminer grand Cru Brand de Turckheim 2007.
Thought I would share with you a photo I took of the Schoenenberg Crus vineyard while visiting there in May. It looks like it is mostly hands on work required there, wouldn't you say?Yes, the fruit of the vine does like its share of sunshine!