Rebel Rose

Kev, if what you are smelling is a rotten egg odor, that is caused by hydrogen sulfite, and it is a winemaking defect. Overuse of sulfites will cause a burnt match aroma, and is generally much harder to detect unless you are experienced. Here is a thread that goes into a little more detail: Disgusting Things in Wine

Thanks, Nancy. Tierra Vegetables was mentioned upthread, but it certainly helps to give them more than one vote! I am nuts for their chipotle jam. I will have to check out Gonzales Orchards for the apricot jams, especially if they are spicy. We had a grill-rotisseried pork tenderloin last night, and I was wishing I had some good apricot preserves for an apricot, ginger, hot pepper salsa. I settled for a bruschetta of cherry tomatoes and basil from our garden, and baked tomatoes. It was good, but I'd had pork drippings and spicy apricots on my mind all day.

First, I’d like to thank everyone who has posted here for offering input on the direction of our fledgling project. Many of the comments made so far have been insightful and eloquent. Based on your suggestions, here are some followup notes on the WWCB’s proposed purpose and planned actitivities. Please feel free to add your comments, criticism and advice at any time. These plans are not cast in stone yet, so here is your opportunity to influence the future of wine and fine dining! Second, I’d like to thank Mike Steinberger of Slate Magazine for also asking some very insightful questions, which in turn forced me to sharpen my pencil on these issues. Here are some thoughts on the direction of the Women’s Wine Critics Board. Until harvest winds down, the founders probably won’t have much opportunity to discuss these ideas in depth, but you can bet that after that last ton is crushed we’ll be meeting for a glass of wine. Or two, or three . . . which is how we get into all this trouble in the first place. The core group consists of only seven or eight of us. We are all women winemakers except for Jan and myself. (I produce my own label but don’t consider myself a ‘real’ winemaker because I don’t have the daily decisions, pressures, and risk that the other winemakers face.) We will continue to clarify our mission and keep the core group small for now, and we will launch a Women’s Wine Critics blogsite later this month and invite other critics, journalists and readers to join us there. The other members of the founding group include: Signe Zoller, formerly with Meridian and now head winemaker at Templeton Wine Services, San Francisco Chronicle article on women and wine Molly Bohlman, Vina Robles Lisa Pretty, Pretty-Smith Vineyards & Winery Amy Butler, Edward Sellers Wines Elaine Villamin, Eden Canyon Jan Manni, owner of The Wine Attic in Paso Robles As women wine producers, we would like to see more women involved in the field of wine criticism. Whether they publish as independent critics, journalists, columnists, or essayists, we feel that the field of wine criticism is under-represented by women. It’s interesting to note that major food publications like Food & Wine and Bon Appetit have wine contributors who are women. Leslie Sbrocco, Andrea Immer, and Lettie Teague, among many others, are highly regarded wine writers. However, we feel that their influence has been colored by the media toward “householding” consumers into wine. We want to see women establish a toehold as fearsome wine tasting talents and critics. However, thanks to input from our male compatriots here and elsewhere, I don’t see our group as focusing solely on women. I hope that our group will be perceived as inviting and mentoring alternate voices and methods of criticism. How do we feel about scores? That was one of the first things we all agreed upon. A numerical score can convey a wine’s technical accuracy or style, and we do find them useful, but scores emphasize cataloguing wine, as opposed to experiencing wine. In our first tasting, we scored each wine on many levels, including clarity, aroma, flavors and finish, but we were also looking for versatility, food-friendliness, and the “romance factor.” We’re not trying to usurp the system. We’re trying to enrich the market by encouraging women to join in wine criticism and to express their views in their own voice. Although many women are achieving recognition as wine producers, retailers, sommeliers and critics, there is still a gender gap that exists in the wine marketing media. Sure, some of it’s fun, but the overall message of pink labels and silly names conveys that wine needs to be dumbed down for women. Why? Women are already the stronger buying gender in the wine industry. There is a whole market segment of women who are looking for substantial wines, wine information, and values. That market is not being successfully addressed. Our group hopes to meet monthly (except during harvest) and choose a particular varietal to explore at each meeting as a panel. When choosing varietals, we will also take into account the six to eight month lead time that national magazines require. For instance, our first tasting this summer was on domestic and foreign rieslings—as either a summer food wine or a Thanksgiving pairing. We’ll be looking at what information we can provide, as women winemakers, to women’s magazines and media. We’re not going to focus on scoring wines, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to do peer reviews anyway. But we will do a monthly wine tasting and we will be looking for outstanding wines that we feel deserve better representation in stores and restaurants. We’d also like to develop a mailing list of restaurants. (In fact, it was a male customer who suggested that we include a focus on restaurants.) We’ll be making recommendations for wines that we agree are excellent and a good value. In addition to the WWCB blogsite, we’d like to work closely with women’s wine magazines like Wine Adventure and focus groups like Women for WineSense to develop insightful articles that inform wine buyers with intermediate experience. There is also some strong writing in the wineblog community, and we’d like to invite other wine journalists and bloggers to contribute to our site as authors. Membership is something that has been suggested, but we have no real idea yet as to interest or criteria. Edited to add: If you would like to subscribe to the blog and monthly enews, please email us at wwcb@tcsn.net. Comments, questions, advice?

Is Vancouver Island in a pre-Cascade sunbelt? Do you think there's enough heat there to properly ripen chardonnay, or is it more suited to more delicate white varieties? Are there some other really good VI chardonnays?

Hi, Lauren. You will soon be able to use your wine evaluation skills to recognize medium-weight wines--those with enough grip to stand up to heavy meats, yet mellow and layered enough to be intriguing with lighter meats, seafood and pasta. By learning to evaluate aromas, mouthfeel and flavors in particular, you will soon be able to separate wines into your own personal categories. My personal categories are: food-friendly, cooking inspiration, fireside murder mysteries and chess by candlelight, barbecue, girlfriends, and 'online after 9 pm.' In learning to recognize wines that go well with a range of foods, I recommend trying and evaluating wine on its own first, as completely as you can. Then try the same wine, or wines, with small bites of food that represent a range of flavors including sour, sweet, oily, salty, and green. This would be a good theme for a tasting group. Rather than studying a particular varietal, each participant could bring a wine that they have experienced as being a versatile food wine, and the group could search out and compare the characteristics that make a wine "food friendly." In my opinion, the lighter red wines like pinot noirs, sangiovese, some old vine zinfandels, and classic table wine blends are a good choice. If your friends are not sure about trying a red, a dry rose' can also be very pleasing with a range of foods from salads, seafoods, and antipasto to veal, lamb, pork and pasta. And if, like me, most of your wine-drinking family members prefer white wine, a buttery chardonnay has the weight to go with many foods, and the tropical aromas and often powerful mouthfeel of a viognier pair well with spicy sauces, salmon and seafood. Do you have particular dishes in mind, or perhaps a holiday gathering?

Hi, Lauren, I'm glad that you are joining us here. With the approaching holidays, the subject of pairing wine and food is very pertinent to all of us, and in fact your particular question--how to choose one wine for a group of people, or a group of foods, is a situation that occurs frequently when families and friends gather. When dining with friends, I am often volunteered to choose a wine for the group, while the others are still pondering the menu. Rather than bludgeon everyone over the head for entree choices, I try to choose one interesting white, and one mellow but layered red. At the moment I'm rather fond of gruner veltliner as a white selection--it's a crisp white wine with an intriguing twist of black pepper. It goes well with seafood, salads, spicy sauces and even some lighter meats. My favorite red varietals for versatile food pairings are pinot noir and sangiovese.

Great photos, Craig! I'm glad to see an Oregon member chiming in here, particularly one who, ahem, mentored my earliest posts on eGullet. Will you be posting more photos and reports as the season progresses? What is the forecast for your autumn up there? Does harvest look like an all at once slam now that fruit is finally getting ripe?

Believe me, I did question him, and nearly let him go. We decided to stay with Bubba because our accounts--the retailers and wine bars--in San Francisco love him. He is very attentive to our accounts otherwise. He is lovable, just sort of a gooberhead when it comes to food. Unfortunately, it's not the only experience that we, and other wineries from all over, have with salespeople. Outside of Napa (Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez, Santa Maria, Edna Valley, Arroyo Grande, etc.) wineries do this sort of outreach and training themselves. And I'm not talking about the type of restaurants that carry $200 bottles--I'm talking about great family restaurants and small ethnic places that could have interesting wine lists but don't. So like I said before, it's not a huge problem for us, it's just something I've observed about the industry as a whole. What amazes me is this disconnect for many people that wine is wine, and food is food. I agree with John. I'd like to see more consumers suggesting varietals that actually go with their food. But I think our industry could also do a better job of communicating with restaurants than through a constantly changing sales force.

That's true. But isn't it sad when you have a winery offering an Italianate varietal or blend, or wines that pair well with pasta dishes and fish (and you're selling them in a seafood city) and your own salesmen can't think beyond the bread and butter wines? I'm not criticizing the restaurateurs. I'm saying they are not being served well by our own industry. Or to be more precise, the middlemen between the wine and food industries are thinking of themselves as mere salesmen when they have the potential to be facilitators. Our winery is represented by individual brokers and boutique distributors--not behemoths like Southern Wine and Spirits. So we're actually very fortunate. I'm not thinking of this as our problem, per se, but as a disconnect within our industry. Which is another reason I started thinking about this from a consumer's viewpoint. Yes, that pretty rep with the grist to take the time will win those accounts. But once she does, the restaurant staff will be thoroughly trained in one distributor's portfolio. At that point, the owner/manager doesn't want to rock the boat. She's spoiled him with attention, perhaps offered multi-case discounts, and made sure the wines are easily reordered and replenished each week (restaurants don't have a lot of storage space for wine, so on time deliveries are important). Believe me, I want our sales reps doing the same for us. But I don't feel it serves the public well. What you end up with are Italian family restaurants with artisan food but no good Italian wines or varietals, and barbecue joints with big, jammy zins but not a single pinot noir. I think Craig really nailed the situation. You've got to have reps that have a true passion for wine and an understanding of how wines go with food. But selling wine is a hard living--commission-based, lots of driving, trying to sell a product to a chef or restaurant owner that doesn't, in their minds, have anything directly to do with their product. So reps come and go, as frequently as restaurant staff. Another odd thing is that most wineries really value good restaurant placements. Sometimes even more than critical scores. So why does this broken current between winery -> dining -> consumer continue to exist? PS. Thanks for the compliment, shelora. I'll be sure to promote myself. Unfortunately it sounds like more work for the same pay. At least I get paid in wine.

After several years' of doing marketing junkets with wine brokers and distributors in Los Angeles, the central coast, and San Francisco, I have to say that I am depressed by the complete insensitivity and lack of interest most wine salespeople have toward restaurant themes and menus. It really came to a head for me during a recent trip to San Fran when my broker (let's call him "Bubba") and I walked into a downtown Italian restaurant where they make all their own pasta from scratch. Naturally I read the menu while we were waiting for the owner. Bubba had sold him our syrah and chardonnay. I started talking food with the owner, really showing an interest in what he was doing with the food--that is the point isn't it? And I suggested our lesser known but excellent sangiovese, and pointed out that the viognier would go well with two specialty dishes. His eyes lit up, he placed orders, and we had a nice visit as well. The whole day was like this. Hit the ball, drag Bubba. At the end of the day, over dinner in yet another Italian restaurant, he asked me to elaborate on this amazing concept of actually presenting wines that would go with specific foods. I think I can feel pretty confident that he's not reading these forums. In addition to beating this drum with our own representatives ("think food, think food"), I have done ride-alongs with other sales firms simply because the reps or managers are friends. I have seen restaurant owners turn over management of their entire wine list to one sales rep, simply because she was pretty, charming, and took the time to do it for them. Naturally those lists feature that rep's portfolio almost entirely. Naturally higher end restaurants with a sommelier or knowledgeable wine person on staff will have well chosen selections, but there are many, many restaurants out there that are nice family places, semi-high end, or very popular who do not have that expertise on staff. Do you ever wonder how some of these wine lists are managed? Do you ever make suggestions to restaurant management? Is this a west coast only problem?

And congratulations once again! I am pleased that you would share your accomplishments with us, and your insightful posts are always a pleasure to read. It sounds as though your book is becoming more comprehensive each year.

I'm curious about these: 1992 Santa Cruz Mountains Vineyard, Duriff, alc 12.5% (84% Duriff (petite syrah), 8% Merlot, 8% Chardonnay) 2000 Siduri Arbre Vert Pinot Noir, alc 13.8% 1997 Sean Thackery Orion Old Vines, alc 13.9% and how was the Ohio chardonnay?

I guess a reader's expectations would depend on whether that person is "process" or "product" oriented. People interested only in an impartial review of a finished product would prefer to read critics who have a "don't touch me" attitude toward their market, and who focus solely on the dishes and service as presented. "Process" people, like me, are avidly interested in how this food came to be, what the chef's goals are, where the food came from, and how it is prepared. I like food and wine critics who are unafraid to develop contacts within the industry, and delve for background material. They are by far the more interesting writers and are almost always more aware of emerging trends. For me, books like Turning the Tables and Kitchen Confidential are fascinating. I am only halfway through Turning the Tables. I finished Kitchen Confidential the same week my son began working as a line cook, and I was, well . . . worried!

Ah! Then we are indeed talking about two very different animals.

Hmm. I think I lost something in translation here. By caterpillar, do you mean a wine that matures from something simple into something beautiful and delicate before your eyes?

Want to see me get slapped around? Beat over the head? Told that we (Dan and I) have our heads in the sand for still using corks? And maybe I have a girlfriend? Whew. And that was just the eRobertParker thread on closures. The internet can be a violent place. (Although the girlfriend comment was tongue-in-cheek. I mean . . . aaaaaaaarg! Never mind.) My point is, there are apparently some proponents of screwcap technology who simply do not want to consider that, while showing more consistency than corks, it may still have faults. I am still reading my way through some of the latest findings, published this month in Wine Business Monthly. While there is much good news on all the closure fronts: improved screwcap technology, new methods for cleaning corks, improvements in synthetics, there were also some negative discoveries discussed during the ASEV "Science of Closures" seminar. This information is only avilable in the print publication and not at the WBM website, so I will try to quote as briefly as possible. (Note to moderators: quoted material is much less than 10% of the articles.) Most speakers cited the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) long term closure study. They found that in general, "the results from the synthetic [closures] were more reproducible than the corks." However: quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- from "Science of Closures, Wine Business Monthly, September 2005 The wine's particular phenolic composition plays a major role in the wine's ability to absorb oxygen. . . Ella Robinson noted one of the more interesting findings of the AWRI study: the development of "reduced" aromas in the bottle in white wines stored under the most "air-tight" closures (tin-lined screw caps, synthetics and some technical closures) after several years (from 24 to 63 months in the AWRI Study). Since "reduced" aromas like "struck flint" and "rubber" tend to be associated with thiol compounds, it is likely that the lack of quinon formation contributes to the development of these reductive odors. Interestingly, Robinson noted that "neither the change in fill height nor extra SO2 seemed to influence the intensity of the "struck flint" character. Consequently, Robinson argued that the reductive aromas that develop in some wines under closures that have very low oxygen transmission rates arise because "not enough oxygen may be introduced to oxidize the thiols that have slowly formed, and they may end up at a level above the sensory threshold." ------------------------------ From "Wine Intelligence Survey," Wine Business Monthly, September 2005 Attitudes to closures among U.S. consumers are evolving but perhaps not as rapidly as the wine industry would expect. Natural cork remains unquestionably the industry standard . . [Two surveys, in 2004 and 2005, show that acceptance of screwcaps has risen from 47% to 57%. Acceptance of natural cork dropped from 99% to 96%.) --------------------------------- According to another article, "screwcaps still represent less than 5 percent of the closure market." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Granted, there are a lot of things that go wrong with a wine under cork. Screwcaps are more consistent. But there are still problems that are just beginning to be identified, and solutions sought. So, for now, being classic car type of people, we will wait to see how the new vehicle performs after a few more road tests. Do you have a preference for corks or screwcaps? Do you accept both? And on what types of wine? Does a winery's choice of closure affect your perception of the producer? If a winery still uses corks would you assume that they do not care about their product or their customers?

To Phil, and to anyone else who might be confused by the fact that The Future of Dining forum is closed: the roundtable discussion was held for one week. However, although special guests Michael Ruhlman and Clark Wolf have departed (I am sure they are still around in their spare time!) the discussion can continue here. While I'm thinking about the future, screwcap closures are likely to be a significant and in some places (like eBob) highly charged issue. But let's take discussion on that issue to Looking for Closure: Screwcaps vs. Corks, Love 'em or Leave 'em.

Well in that case I'm also fond of broiled mild jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. I can only eat one or two before developing an immediate capsaicin sunburn, but they're oh so good with syrah.

I would second everything Carolyn suggested. However, I'd also like to suggest trying the wines on their own first, then going back through and trying them again with wine. While syrah certainly invites smoky flavors and can stand up to a lot of hearty flavors . . . fats in cheeses, oils, and the vinegar inherent in an olive tapenade will affect your perception of the wines. Fats make a wine seem more tart and lively, olives and other vinegar-based preserves make a wine seem sweeter and fatter. Sometimes a wine that didn't impress in an initial taste through becomes a real star when paired with these foods. I'd be interested to see what your group thinks.

In addition to a few winery blogs, there’s a whole universe of excellent wine blogs on the internet. And wine blogs are becoming quite sophisticated in terms of news, discussion, and wine reviews. Print media are turning more and more to internet chat forums and individual blogs for information and ideas for topics. I have noticed a trend in some industry publications like Wine Business Monthly to publish bullets of timely information online and to focus more on indepth coverage of issues in the printed publication—I think of it as sort of a retroactive trend back to real and thoughtful journalism. I check WBM's internet site regularly in order to stay up on industry news, and I thought their last print issue, with its lengthy and technically intensive discussion of alternative closures, was very informative. I think we’ll see more successful publications exercising their strengths in each medium, instead of trying to be one publication in two media. A growing internet wine scene also means that wine reviewing is no longer the exclusive domain of a few wine critics. Although I think of a “critic” as someone with the knowledge and experience to judge a wine in several important contexts, critics also have their own tastes in wine, and are often very far removed from popular interests. The internet provides us with a place for discussion, a source of industry news, and a wealth of consumer reviews on a wide range of wines. Would you position the wine industry as being more or less aware of internet potential than other food industries? Are there things the top wine publications could be doing to maximize or make better use of their internet presence?

We'll be getting to that soon in the 2005 Vintage Wine Blog.

True, but to take that a step further, American producers generally categorize sweet wines as either late harvest or fortified, with both types of wines falling in the dessert category. Sloppy American semantics, I suppose. However, I have tasted many late harvest wines that were more raisiny, pruney, and caramelized than some fortified wines, as the process of fortification ideally stops the fermentation process at a balance of sugar and alcohol. To add to the muddle, the (AT)TTB former BATF insists that any wine over 14% be submitted in the dessert wine category, which carries a higher alcohol tax. So there are a lot of California dry table wines out there that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Trade and Tax has registered as dessert wine!

Well, I guess the Future of Wine is looking dry, as it's the only thread with no responses. Except for Steve's (aka Fat Guy's) brief note that most Americans have to drive to dining destinations. But what does that answer mean? That more restaurants will not choose to offer wine, or improve their wine lists? Why not? After all, Americans can only drive to one restaurant at a time. So, to bring it all home to the wine peeps, here are the questions. If you were a roundtable panelist, what would your answers be?

Observant questions, Claudia. We pick into picking "lugs" which are large plastic trays, and the trays are dumped into half-ton picking bins which are hauled around behind a small tractor. In some vineyards they use "gondolas" which are one or two ton steel wagons that can be lifted and dumped into trucks or presses. The pickers use a small curved knife with an orange handle. They set the picking lugs on the ground, slice off the bunches at the stem with one hand, break their fall with the other hand, and sort of bounce the bunches into the lug, while kicking the lug along the row with one foot. There's a scene in Walk in the Clouds where Keanu Reeves races the vineyard owner in a macho picking contest. Dan is very choosy about when fruit is picked and delivered. It must be picked first thing in the morning, kept cool, and delivered by noon. If a grower can't get it picked and delivered in the morning, then he'll have to wait and finish picking the next day. The mass of a half ton of grapes will keep itself cool for an hour or two, but if the bins are sitting out in the vineyard until 2 pm in mid-afternoon heat, and then delivered to the winery, and then processed in our crusher, the fruit will become warm and possibly rush through fermentation or attract nasty organisms.

Although I generally prefer cheese and sesame-glazed walnuts with a port-style wine, this is exactly the kind of dessert and dessert wine pairing I would enjoy. The wine might have been a late harvest style, as it sounds as though it retained some exuberant fruit and not ripened to that pruny, raisiny level found in many ports. And a lemon tart with nuts and huckleberries would mirror the flavors in the port while providing enough acidity to refresh the palate. So a diner would take a bite of tart-sweet, then a sip of sweet-tart, and feel like starting all over again. To me, that is the goal of any food and wine pairing!