Brad Ballinger

Without a doubt I believe that wine is becoming "standardized." But we have to use that term very carefully. To a degree, most wine throughout the ages has drifted toward standardization in that there are standards for growing grapes and producing wine in many appellations across the globe. If the wine is not in line with those standards, it doesn't get the cachet of an appellation on the label. That's being very literal in looking at the term standardization. But I have a feeling the word is being used to be more in line with the title of this thread -- which others have called "international style," "universal palate," "McWine," and even "Mondovino." In general, I believe more wines are being sold that could've been made anywhere in the world. Less and less does either terroir or true varietal character matter whether the wines are mass produced or artisinal. But both of those production extremes appraoch it from different directions. The mass produced wines are seeking a broad appeal. I hesitate to use the term least common denominator because that sounds too snobbish. But I've certainly seen others use that term. The producers of these wines are also savvy marketers. The artisanal wines (that one would label as "universal") are seeking a different consumership. They need to get a reputation -- and get it quickly -- to make a profit. The quickest route is to get some critic to gush over your wine and assign a large point score to it. To the extent that some (not all) "artisanal" wines are being made in a style that gets high scores, one could argue there is a trend toward standardization. Thankfully, as Florida Jim points out, there is still a lot of variety in winemaking worldwide. We may see something of a trend toward a world standard, but there is still enough wine available to appeal to a broad range of tastes.

click. I'm a fan of Blue Sky's natural and organic sodas. Saw the natural tea soda on sale at the co-op. Picked up a huge supply of Santa Cruz Lemonade instead on this trip. Anyone have any experience with this new Blue Sky product?

Any number of reasons. Did the restaurant get it cheap themselves? Do they need to make room for something else, and to so are they getting rid of this inventory of Lafite (and maybe some other wines)? Did they discover the wine to be "less than" and are now looking to dump in on an unsuspecting public? Has it always been priced at $200 from when they first received it? On winesearcher.com, a bottle of 75 Lafite has an asking price of anywhere from $154 to $460.

Shortly after that issue of Wine Speculator came out crowning the 96 Cinq Cepages as WOTY, I attended a retailer's pre-sale tasting. In usual fashion, there were about 50 wines to taste, but one table featured a blind tasting of the 95 CC, the 96 CC, and the 97 Sebastiani Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon (about $13 at the time). People were asked to rank the three wines. The overwhelming "winner" in the blind tasting was the 96 Cinq Cepages. I greatly preferred the 95. Always have every time I've tasted either wine beofre or since. But what do I know? BTW, the last time I had the 95, it, too, showed out of balance on the alcoholic side. This was remedied with a bit of aeration.

If something falls on the floor, it goes in the pan anyway.

I agree with your first point. Italy does produce wonderful wines from indigenous grapes, some of which are beginning to gain a reputation outside of Italy. But it's a slow process. It will still be a while before a larger part of the wine community embraces fiano, greco di tufo, falanghina, ribolla gialla, arneis, aglianico, lagrein, piedrosso, sagrantino, negroamoro, picolit, refosco, I could go on. Regarding marketing, there was a nationwide effort about ten years ago to market the wines of Italy as a country. The problem, at least in the United States, was that the traveling marketing show ended up primarily featuring wines from Piemonte and Toscana -- and we already knew about those. Also, it isn't helping Italy's reputation regarding quality when DOCG status is being handed out in return for political favors. What the French have done -- from purely a marketing standpoint -- with Beaujolais is solely limited to Beaujolais Nouveau, a wine that's barely drinkable. Most people haven't really had a good Beaujolais.

125 pounds for Mount Gisborne Pinot Noir is highway robbery. 40 USD is more in line. Singapore is a tough place to feel confident buying wine. I've been there, and would only drink the "newest" wines available. Given its location (one degree removed from the equator), I'm sure most of the wines there have been exposed to too much heat either in transit, sitting in the container at a port, or in a warehouse that is not air-conditioned. I almost always chose beer over wine when I was there. But I did bring some of my own wine. I'm not sure what would be the Italian equivalent of Pinotage. Maybe a lighter-styled Nero d'Avola??? Regarding Sfursat -- it's very hard to find in the U.S. Same with Valtellina or Valtellina Superiore. Nebbiolo is almost limited to Barolo, Barbaresco and Langhe wines.

Welcome to the Wine Forum, ingbakko. We look forward to your opinions and knowledge about Italian wines. I'm going to jump to the questions at the end of your post, and then I'll move my way up. "Can you give me an alternative to 20 Euros "SFURSAT" from Negri?" The short answer is "no." One reason, is that you'll hardly find any nebbiolo grown successfully outside of Piemonte and Lombardia. A second reason is that you will hardly find any dry wines outside of Italy made from grapes that are withering (shriveling, shrinking). I couldn't even give you an alternative to Sfursat at any price. "Can you give me an alternative to 17 Euro "Shyraz" by Planeta?" You should be able to find plenty. One option is Australian shiraz, particularly from Barossa (this is a growing region, not the name of a producer). My guess is you'll find more Australian wines in your travels than you will find California wines, but California syrah, paticularly from Napa Valley would be a match to Sicily's warm climate. About your "Pinot to Pinot" comment, do you mean Pinot Nero to Pinot Noir? Do you mean Pinot Grigio to Pinot Gris? Do you mean Pinot Bianco to Pinot Blanc? For the whites, I would recommend Pinot Gris or Pinot Blanc from Alsace. The wines will be different from the Italian alternatives, but equally enjoyable. I've not had much Pinot Nero, and there aren't many Pinot Noir wines that I like, so I'll leave it to someone else to answer that question. I don't think your price limit is preventing you from tasting good wines. There should be plenty to select from under 50 Euro or 70 USD. Rather, it may depend on what is available where you are traveling. I also assume you are enjoying the wines with food. And, for some, Italian wines in general tend to have higher acidity levels, making them better food partners. But many wine lovers I know stay away from Italian wines because they find them too acidic. Super Tuscans have found buyers in the U.S. You are right that the wines are priced high because Americans will pay those prices. Also, many Super Tuscans that have found favor with Americans don't even taste "Italian." Keep looking. You'll find some wines that will appeal to you. But you may wish to start looking more for good representative wines from the regions from which they come.

Every disclaimer about buying on vintage alone notwithstanding... If you plan on buying Burgundy from the 1993 and 1998 vintages, you'd be best off buy Grand Cru wines from top producers, especially for the 1998 vintage. And if you've shelled out for First Growth Bordeaux, I'm guessing you have the means to buy the Burgundy equivalents. If it is "staying power" you are looking for, you may also wish to consider late harvest wines from Germany 9labeled beerenauslese, trockenbeerenauslese, or eiswein). As to where to find them, especially, 1993 vintage wines, you may have to go to the online auction sites. You can google for wine auction, and find plenty. Also, keying in your criteria at winesearcher.com will also yield results.

Your Iowa City restaurant circuit isn't complete until you've dined at Linn Street Cafe.

Right. A way around this is to establish a friendship with someone in the states who can legally bring a greater volume northward across the border.

From Sandra Lee's bio: I'm not surprised. I'm also not surprised that her cookbooks were NYT Best-Sellers. I'm also not surprised she's from Wisconsin. Here in the upper Midwest, where cans of cream of mushroom soup are pantry staples, there's a whole bunch o' folk who would cook like SL and call it 100% gourmet. I'm related to many of them.

I've already been and returned. But thanks for the info for future use. I ended up having to go out to eat with a group of folks, and we went to Cowboy Ciao. So-so experience that I chronicled in the Cowboy Ciao thread in this forum.

Yes or no? No. A cork or stopper will do much the same for next day drinking. The vac-u-vin sucks the volatiles out of the bottle that sre still part of the wine.

I was at a tapas party this weekend -- bring a tapa dish and some wine. 1997 Clos Mogador, Priorat. I brought this wine because I knew there would be some geeks present. Little did I know that one woman would bogart a third of this bottle because it was the closest one to where she had parked her ass. And then with a good two ounces still in her glass, she topped it off with some loganberry wine (after the Clos Mogador had been emptied). Through pure luck in timing, I managed to steal 2-3 ounces. The wine is made from a single vineyard in Priorat. It is a blend of 35% garnacha, 35% cabernet sauvignon, 20% syrah, and 10% carinena. Aged in new French oak vats. The wine is very concentrated. Most of that is a result of the growing conditions – steeply terraced vineyards, no irrigation. The presses used at Clos Mogador are olive presses, which result in 50% less juice, adding to the concentration factor. This wine is also very delicious. There is a lot to enjoy here, and the wine is complete without being overly showy. Intense and inviting nose of blueberry, chocolate, smoke, plum jelly, wet earth, and roasting meat. In the mouth, the fruit, smoke, oak, and earth are in very nice harmony. The fruit concentration is evident, but the wine isn’t even in the same ball park as syrup. The tannins are ripe and silky, and provide a wonderful structure. Finishes with more earthy minerality than with fruit. It’s very good now, could still be on the way up, and should be enjoyable for 7-10 more years. Is this new world, modern winemaking of not? The grapes are left to suffer in the vineyard, and fight for water along with weeds and other vegetation. The only “manipulation” used in the winery is gravity from Mother Nature. And wine made from non-native grapes and new French oak doesn’t always mean modern. Regardless of where one falls on this debate, this particular bottle of Clos Mogador was one very good wine.

I would also add to Daniel's comments that dry wines (wines with very little or no residual sugar) can show more complexity and dimension that would otherwise be masked by sweetness. I realize this is a generalization, and there are many semi-sweet and sweet wines whose complexity blows some dry wines away. But many of the grapes that are used to make the wines that dominate the shelves in wine shops worldwide make better dry wines than sweet wines (how many late harvest wines made from cabernet sauvignon have you seen?). Very few grapes (such as riesling) can excel in dry, off-dry, and sweet end-products. Also, alcohol (and carbon dioxide) is a by-product of sugar and yeast. For dry wines, nearly all the sugar present in the grapes at harvest is converted into alcohol. Non-dry wines are made from grapes harvested later with higher sugar content where not all the sugar is converted into alcohol. And some grape varieties just can't hang on the vines that long without going bad. This isn't the complete answer to the question. Again, I'm merely adding to Daniel's excellent comments.

From my last trip to Great Britain (in 1999), I was becoming aware of Australian wines' increasing market share. Spain was also gaining more of a foothold in Britain at the time. Around that time, Gallo was undertaking a HUGE marketing effort in much of Western Europe, but it was still too early to know if the gamble would pay off. It appears now to be doing so, at least in Britain. I also think with more "New World" style wines (read primarily California and Australia) being produced in France, Italy, and Spain, one could make the point that there is a long ripple effect from the 1976 wine battle royal.

George, Thanks a bunch for dropping by, and for your openness to share your perspective and answer any questions. I'm looking forward to reading the book. Maybe I'll find out in the book, but I'm curious to know now -- are you a wine enthusiast? If so, were you one before covering this event, or did covering the event open that door? And what kinds of wines do you like? Regarding the event itself, I think we're still polishing the medal here in the United States (and I don't think we'll ever stop). There's no doubt that the judgment was a boon for the California wine industry in this country. But California wines have still never sold in Europe. Do you attribute that to anything? If the answer is "read the book," I'm okay with that.

1995 Ravenswood Zinfandel, Beaterra Vineyard, Alexander Valley. Opening this bottle was a bittersweet moment, and a potential milestone. It was my last bottle of any Ravenswood Zinfandel label in my cellar. And I don’t see myself buying any more. That’s not meant as a snobbish comment. But the single-vineyard labels from Ravenswood available where I live have been priced higher than what I’m willing to pay. I just can’t see myself spending $35-$40 for a bottle of zinfandel. I believe the first bottling of Beaterra from Ravenswood was in 1994, and had the California bear on a red-bordered label to mark the state’s 150th anniversary. I had that wine several years ago. They also produced a Beaterra in 1995 (210 cases made), which is what I opened. And after that, I don’t think they produced it ever again, but I’m not certain about that. But enough background; onto the wine… The nose gave off subdued notes of spice, mushroom, bramble fruit, a bit of toasted oak, and something stemmy. From a flavor standpoint, it was also subdued, yet balanced. Flavors of tayberries, smoky spices, undercurrent of oak, and still something stemmy that didn’t do much to curry favor with me. Tannins had been resolved, and the acidity was moderately low. It finished with a primarily berry profile, but the berries were skewered by green stems. In it’s youth, it might have had enough brashness to mask some of the stemmy quality, but at this age the fruit had given up some of its zip. Down to four bottles of zin in the cellar.

In the late 70s and early 80s, Leinenkugel's was the beer I bought by the case in college. Before that, it was the beer my parents always had at the cabin in Wisconsin (along with Walter's). Something bad happened after Miller bought the brewery. It's not the same beer, I don't care what anyone says. And then they started all these offshoots - Honey Weiss, Red, Northwoods Lager, Berry Weiss. It's all not very drinkable. I'm sorry WOFrank, but the Honey Weiss is way too sweet and doesn't have the carbonation or any hops character to combat it. It becomes almost cloying. The only thing worse is the Berry Weiss.

The entire story can be found here. Registration may be required, but it's free. I excerpted the above text to show that AVA designations do not have to take the quality of the final product into account whatsoever. Seems like just about any region that wants to can "go for it" to get an AVA designation. The wines made by the winery in the article include apple wine from orchards in the AVA, but also include wines made from cabernet sauvignon and other grapes trucked in from California.

Jim, I'm aware of this "knock" on J.J. Prum. I've never tried the oft-cited "penny in the glass" remedy for this type of sulphur problem with Prum's wines. I'm wondering if you have.

I'm going to get a bit technical with you, although I don't disagree regarding the pleasure Italian white wines can bring. I'm not so sure it's that the wines themselves are getting better as it is that better wines are being made available. Five years ago (one could almost reduce that to three) hardly anyone on an internet wine discussion board typed in the words Falanghine, Greco di Tufo, Fiano di Avellino, Arneis or even Picolit (but that last one is more of a dessert wine than all the others you list). Part of the reason these weren't being discussed is because not many were being imported. That's changing.

I had dinner here this past week. It was on my short list of places to visit, but I need to confess that may have been a result of seeing the name mentioned in articles and internet posts that were about wine more than about food (the wine list at Cowboy Ciao is enormous). I was there in a group of eight, and I was only one of two that even cared about wine -- and the other wine lover wasn't drinking that night. Onto the food. We ordered several appetizers for the table, all of which were only average in my opinion. We had the rock shrimp bruschetta that had a sauce that was not very remarkable. We also ordered regular bruschetta, which didn't do much for me. The Sweet Chile Prawns were another choice -- the "crust" was too thick; these weren't prawns as much as they were 21-30 count shrimp, and they were overcooked. Ciabatta with two types of tapenade was a final order that was only average. I did not have a hand whatsoever in the appetizer ordering, leaving it to the people who had been there before. We also ordered the famous chopped salad for the table, and this was quite good. It is an odd combination of ingredients, but works very well together. Refreshing and flavorful. For an entree, I had the elk loin, which was served with a mint gremolata, a veal demi-glace, and a wild mushroom risotto with bell peppers. The risotto was waaaaay too cheesy, and the rice was overcooked. The elk was cooked nicely to medium rare, and had a good flavor. But being served on top of the risotto, the meat didn't benefit from much of the demi glace, which pooled around the risotto. I'd rather have the meat on top of the sauce, and the risotto off to the side. The dish as a whole was average. Dessert was impressive. I ordered the Cuppa Red Hot Chocolate, which is an incredibly dense pots de creme made from chocolate and cinnamon topped with a chipotle cream, and served with a chili-spiced ginger cookie. I couldn't finish all of the dessert, but that's not because it didn't taste great. I would definitely order that again -- and I'm not one who typically orders chocolate desserts. A couple of others ordered the bread pudding, and commented that it was only okay. The wine list is impressive, and is organized by price -- the reason given is that most diners have a price in mind when it comes to what they want to order for wine. I've only been to one other restaurant that organized its list this way (Opera House in Madison, Wisconsin, which is not longer in business) and I always thought it was a great approach. There is something for everyone on the bottle list, which begins at $10 for some bottles. The glass list has a range from $6 to $50+ per glass, depending on what you order. Service was good. I'm not sure I'd eat there again, but would probably give it another shot in the event the kitchen had an off night. I would, however, go to Kazimierz Wine Bar, affiliated with the restaurant.

Whenever the daughter is away at camp or sleeping over at a friend's house, it's adult time. 1996 Chateau Musar Blanc, Bekaa Valley. Both the white and red wines from Musar are reputed to age almost forever. This was my first ever experience with Musar. A friend and I had been planning a night to open his white and my red. My first impression of this wine is that it tasted "Mediterranean." Not very helpful or insightful, I know. There was a fairly good dose of acidty, some tannin, and some "open vat oxidation" whether it undergoes that or not. The flavors showed of a mineral core with some hazelnut and almond, some spice, some wood, and really not much in the way of fruit (peaches, pear skin) until the finish. It may benefit from aeration. It's certainly a complex wine. 1996 Chateau Rayas, Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. We had this wine along with the Musar. I've had it once before, and this bottle is just a mineral-driven, nutty, floral, and balanced as the first was. The wine is definitely of a "mature" character, and you have to go digging for the stone fruits and the citrus, but they are there with a bit of melon. This wine continued to develop and open up in the glass. Very well balanced. 1990 Chateau Musar Rouge, Bekaa Valley. I've not seen them, but apparently there are photos of tanks following the harvesting trucks down the road, indiciating that there was a rush to pick the fruit when you could in 1990. This wine's density of color was fairly light, but not really bricking. It may have even been pinkish. And the fruit was bright and alive -- nothing either "green" or fading here. The saliva-producing acidity and tartness of fruit were stunning, and a great matchfor grilled pork tnederloin. The wine had secondary spice and smoke elements, and an earthiness for a backbone. A very nice surprise. 1995 Montus, Madiran. Not the presitge. Our host had this wine decanted for about 24 hours. We had this same wine about a year ago, and it was brash and showy with a healthy dose of tannin and fruit to match. I think this one may have been aerating a bit too long. Smelled like a grotesque combination of dung, sweat socks, and soap. Didn't get much better in the mouth. Dusty tannins upstaged the fading fruit -- but there was a nice rose petal component if one was willing to go looking for it. The lesson learned was that while this wine may benefit from an hour or two in decanter, it's one to drink when the fruit will still go toe to toe with the tannin. A couple of wines from Phoenix, which is where I'm writing this. Dinner at Cowboy Ciao last night. Gargantuan wine list, organized by bottle price. Didn't take long to find one that I could drink, that my dinner companions would also like, and that wouldn't make an accountant pick up the phone. 2001 Eric Texier St. Gervais Vieilles Vignes de Cadinieres, Cotes-du-Rhone Villages. This took about 15 minutes to open, but it was well worth the wait. There's spice, herbs, ripe blackberry, just-picked blueberry, some chocolate. The fruit is bright and playful thanks to the acidity level. The wine has some lovely layering and terrific balance. Tannins are soft, and it's a wine to finish up enjoying over then next couple of years. Until the next break from the daughter...