Rebel Rose

Let me review the logic here, because I feel like I'm missing something. Women buy 55% of the wines in the U.S. That's in a market where advertising has typically been geared toward wine geeks or wannabe geeks, with perhaps an assumption that men are the majority of buyers. Therefore, women must find something about traditional marketing to be successful. But now that the industry recognizes the purchasing power of women, it has suddenly decided that, due to its historically stuffy advertising, only Marian the Librarians are currently purchasing and enjoying wine, and that they can significantly bolster wine sales by appealing to Bubbles the Brainless. However, Bebe is sensitive and probably a lot smarter than they give her credit for, and while she enjoys novelty, she won't repeatedly buy a product that is a subject of ridicule among any of her friends and boyfriends. And while pink is fine for baby girls, how many women do you know with pink kitchens? Pink bedrooms? (Okay, maybe a bath here and there.) What am I missing?

There isn't an online link to the application map, but at WineryBound.com you can (if you have a fast connection or a lot of patience) pull up a satellite image of the Paso Robles area. Yes, it would include all wineries west of the Salinas River/Highway 101 border, from the Monterey County border down past a small triangle of Templeton. Turley-Pesenti and Dusi Ranch are just within the borders. As are Siot-Rotta and St. Peter of Alcantara old vine zin vineyards. In a way it does make sense because west of the Salinas riverbed the Paso Robles terrain changes markedly. However, I do feel that the Westside block does not recognize Templeton Gap as a long east west corridor with its own characteristics, and I'm a little nonplussed by the inclusion of the relatively hotter San Miguel area to the north, and the exclusion of the more temperate Templeton Village area to the south. Still, it's a beginning, and as wineries in the various subregions begin to recognize--and market--their own locales, I think we'll see some more definition into the areas I mentioned previously. I just hope that it will be done carefully and scientifically, and not as a result of vanity vineyard promotions. (By the way, I often refer to smaller areas as 'microclimates,' but that's actually incorrect. A 'microclimate' exists under the vines; a small viticultural area is a 'macroclimate.' Nevertheless, I like the sound and common usage of 'microclimate.') Yes, and exactly. I don't know, but I'm guessing within a month--with government holidays, possibly just after the New Year. Correction: I was operating from memory . . . now that I'm actually looking at the map, there's a thin dog leg running along Hwy. 101 through Templeton past Atascadero to Santa Margarita.

The westside Paso Robles wineries have just submitted an application for recognition as a separate appellation. An application for appellation recognition requires not only soil and meteorological reports, but also proof that the area is considered distinctive at local, regional, and national levels. Therefore, the application packet includes quotes from wine writers. For some time, wine writers have been referring to "west Paso Robles" as having significantly different soils, weather, and wines. Templeton Gap, which is the largest of several east-west wind corridors, starts at the end of Estero Bay, and is the steep cut through the hills that Highway 46 West follows. It begins to widen into a larger, flatter valley that points off through Wild Horse Winery, and extends into the El Pomar district well behind Wild Horse, out by Hansen Vineyard, Victor Hugo, et al. Although the terrain becomes flatter and less obviously a "cut," the wind tunnel effect flows back through the Gap well into the east side. Some wineries, while dubious that the boundaries are completely accurate, support the formation of a Westside appellation because they feel it is an important first step in recognizing the different soil profiles that characterize the east side and the west side. Which is not to say that one is better than the other, just that differences exist, and that the differing soil profiles each present their own viticultural challenges. I think it's interesting that Paso Robles has been so slow to declare subappellations, especially when local vintners have long referred to specific areas like Adelaida, Willow Creek, Estrella Bench and Templeton Gap. At dover Canyon we have been putting specific "microclimate" information on our back labels for years; our labels were used as part of the submission. For those of you familiar with Paso Robles, what do you think? Any questions?

I made some really good strawberry wine while I was in college. The trick is to get fruit that's very ripe and flavorful and DO NOT ADD as much sugar as most wine recipes call for. I would recommend buying an equipment starter kit separately from fruit or juice. Vintner's Vault in Paso Robles has a catalog of winemaking equipment and supplies. Santa Barbara Home Brew Supply even has iddle-widdle barrels! And Beerchurch.com has a list of sites around the US that sell beer and winemaking supplies. So . . . what do you think, everyone? Should we morph this thread into a dedicated "home winemaking" thread?

Justin only produces one syrah, and they are sold out. The next release will be in June 2006. You may be able to find some in the marketplace by using winesearcher.com, and you can call the winery and ask to be placed on their email list.

Bordeaux boycott looms as growers protest over prices

Thanks, Claudia!!

I just came across this really funny piece at OregonLive: Be sure to shell those frog legs from Arturo Ciompi, wine columnist for The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C. : "Are there any decaffeinated wines on the market?"

The San Francisco Chronicle experiments with personal shipping: Shipping wine? Don't ask, don't tell Do you plan to ship wine for Christmas?

SFGate covers recent openings of a rash of new wine bars in San Francisco: Small Bites and Big Glasses Anyone been? Favorites?

Gloves off as Halliday, Parker trade blows from Decanter.com: And from Jancis Robinson, a comprehensive transcript: Halliday sticks the boot in Thoughts?

You can also try Bootsnall.com, which offers a list of "Insiders," people who live in the area and provide free travel advice, lists of hotels/rates, travel blogs and travel forums. Planning is half the fun!

Very, very good points, carswell. Thank you. I also forgot to mention fruit flies, which isn't something most people encounter unless you're in wine country during harvest, but as I am still dealing with the little buggers being everywhere right now I'd like to mention that it isn't just the annoyance of having swimmers in your glass. Their little bodies release a nasty enzyme that smells to high heaven unless you fish them out right away. I can tell if there's a single fruit fly in my glass, in the dark, with my eyes closed. Good party trick.

Yes, not to worry. Jso, with your background in chemistry you won't need an explanation of tartrates, but for the benefit of our other members . . . tartaric acid is one of several fruit acids in a grape, and therefore in wine. Sometimes when a wine is deeply chilled the tartaric acid will precipitate out as crystals. If the bottle is still in its case box, cork down, the crystals will form on the cork, which can be a little startling, because it looks as if there's cut glass all over the cork after you pull it. The crystals are harmless, however. You can even lick them! Many wineries "cold stabilize" their wines at the winery, which is really just a fancy way of saying "let's chill the heck out of it and see what falls out before we send it off to the stores!"

Great review, ingridsf! Sounds like a really fun night. I'm impressed that the chef went to such lengths for a small party. Since I've decided to celebrate my -0 birthday all year, I will have to add La Folie to my birthday list.

Thanks for the great photos, sack! You're right, I don't think anyone else here was able to attend, so we appreciate the report, and I certainly hope you will follow up with some tasting notes. For more eye candy from last year's VI, see Lucy Vanel's (bleudavergne) report here.

Thank you for the insight. Sounds like a wonderful seminar, especially with an opportunity to talk with them one-on-one. How many people attend each seminar?

I would just love to attend one of those classes and be a problem child. Wouldn't you?

We picked our estate zinfandel on Friday, October 28. Dan rousted us out of bed at dawn and we joined the pickers as the sun rose. Our two pickers were bashful and didn’t want their pictures taken, and my hands were full—picking lug, clippers, gloves, fruit—so I wasn’t able to snap many shots. As the sun rose it shone through the stained glass colors of the vines. Doves, sparrows and quail carried on their morning conversations from the walnut trees and grassy creekbed nearby. As the sun rose it rapidly became warm, and so did we. By 9:30 am I had stripped down to a tank top and jeans even though our breath was still frosting in the air. Juan and Lucky picked the upper portion of the zinfandel, which was fairly uniform. Papa Eddie and I were assigned the creekside portion as there was a lot of variation and would need to be very selectively picked and pruned. Dan, being el patron, drove the tractor and moved the picking bins around. As you can see by comparing the photo above to the one of the dryfarmed zin upthread, the vines are now much drier, and are beginning to hibernate. The same weekend, we also brought in a little more syrah, and some zinfandel from Dove Pond Vineyard. Later, we also purchased cabernet from Jimmy’s Vineyard, all Templeton Gap fruit. All of our fruit this year was destemmed and fermented as whole berries, except the Jimmy’s Vineyard cabernet, which was crushed at Doce Robles and then delivered. Their crusher was set for heavier maceration, so you can see here that there is more juice in the fermenting bin. After the red grapes are destemmed or macerated, it’s time to add the yeast. The yeast comes in vacuum packed bags like coffee. If you’re a wine geek, it can be fun reading the yeast catalogs—various yeasts emphasize different qualities—spice, floral aromas, color extraction, palate, etc. During harvest, our winery fridge has at least one shelf packed with various yeasts, a crisper drawer full of yeast nutrient, a shelf of beer, and a freezer full of lamb racks. You know what they say, “It takes a lot of good beer to make great wine.” When adding the yeast, we generally add a little nutrient first, sprinkling it over the surface of the fermentor and patting it in a little with a punchdown tool. The yeast nutrient is mainly ground yeast hulls, whilch are high in Vitamin B. Then we add the yeast to one corner of the fermentor and punch it down into the wine about one foot. This allows the yeast to establish a warm, healthy colony overnight. The next morning when we do a thorough punchdown, the colony will be distributed evenly throughout the fermentor. Once fermentation starts, the cap of skins rises to the top and will form a crust. Therefore, we punch the cap down into the fermenting juice two to three times a day. Since all of the pigment and tannin, and much of the flavor, comes from the skins of red grapes, it’s important to keep the cap of skins hydrated and stirred into the juice at all times. This is a custom punchdown tool for hand punchdowns. (Other options are to use hoses to pull juice from the bottom of a fermentor and sluice it back over the cap, or use a pigeage tool designed for grape stomping, sort of like a pogo stick.) We start in one corner of the fermentor and press the cap down, down, down. Then lift the tool, move it over a few inches and repeat until every inch of the cap has been pressed down. When the skins are soft and the must is juicy, it’s time to test the wine for dryness, press it, and move it into barrels. As the season progresses, we usually have a range of activities happening in any given week—some vineyards being picked, some lots going through fermentation, and others ready for pressing. In the meantime, the white grapes have been pressed upon arrival and are fermenting in their barrels. They have special bungs with a little “Parkay lip” top that allow gases to escape so the bungs won’t pop out. Although Dan is known mostly for his red wines, he loves babying his whites. He used three different yeasts on the viognier and roussanne, and he will frequently ask me to smell the various barrels and listen to the soft sizzling sound of the fermenting juice, just like a proud papa checking on his sleeping daughters. We finished punchdowns earlier this week. Dan no longer has to get up before dawn, and punch down again after dark. (On the other hand, he’s burning with unexpended energy and health so he likes to follow me around looking for things for me to do.) We have one more pressing—the Benito Dusi old vine zinfandel. Like children, each vintage is a blessing, and each wine has its own character. You can only do your best and then let them go, hoping that they will mature well, and that someone you have yet to meet will cherish and appreciate them. Although we still have a little more to do—pressing, malolactic inoculations, racking—the end of the harvest season approaches. Questions, anyone?

Abra, I'm late to read your blog, but I just want to say that the recipes and photos are incredible, Riley is adorable, and your culinary assignments are very courageous. You are also making me deeply homesick and I am looking forward to two more days of eye candy. (I am from Washington, and my son was born on Orcas Island, where I lived for several years.) I can't wait for the rest!

Fantastic story, John. I really enjoyed reading it--great storytelling. Congratulations and thanks for sharing your adventure!

Yes, and all barrels may be charred inside, French, American, Baltic, whatever. A winemaker can order light, medium, or heavy toast, and with or without toasted heads. Furthermore the "winery workers" do not "jump in the barrels" and burn them. The cooperage firms that produce the barrels carefully and evenly char them over an open flame. And what's with all these claims of "chemicals" in American wines? What chemicals, oh wise ones? Sulphur? I thought that was a mineral. Copper? A mineral. And the U.S. has arguably the tightest controls on wine additions. Australians can include four times as much copper sulfate in their wines as American producers. These guys are really doing a disservice to their customers, aside from the 4x price gouging. (Thanks for looking up those prices, Brad!) Their newly "educated" customers are going to speak up at a business dinner and embarrass themselves royally.

Some essays on viticulture science might be informing. Maybe we should separate them out by calling them '301.' Working backwards from drinking (101) to winemaking (201) to wine growing (301). Hmmm. . . . sticky note to myself: ask Dr. Tom Rice, head of soil science at California Polytechnical Institute if he would be a guest here. He drops into our tasting room frequently, and he's very entertaining. I just hand him some paper and felt pens, ask a question or two about terroir, and away he goes. Customers love it. Is anyone interested?

Hey, you're the Texan. You should know.

Hmm. Correct you are, Elie. I hadn't thought of Googling for more info. At Wineguy.org, they report attending a class and provide the list of wines: And their review blurb actually says: