Rebel Rose

Thanks for the notes, torrilin. Germans sound like a good bet for summertime. But tonight, I am tasting: Concha y Toro Casillero del Diablo 2005 Carmenere Central Valley, Chile About: $8? The back label claims the wine tastes of chocolate, coffee and spice with raspberries and blackberries. I'd say that's pretty accurate, but I'd add that it has pretty grippy tannins and a tobacco-like finish. I forgot the price . . . about $8 I think? It would be good with a fatty cut of meat, honey spareribs and grilled beef and vegetables. For the price, I would recommend it to people looking to broaden their horizons into deep and tannic wines. It's also pleasant chilled, and I bet it would be really good in sangria.

The full article is here. If it's true, then the Two-Buck Chuck winning all those medals isn't the same plonk available at Trader Joe's, that's for sure! ← Now that's interesting. Because if the wine is sold just about everywhere stateside, that would be 21,000 / 52, right? Which would be 404 cases per state. A wine bar in San Diego (Wine Steals) has already sold over 120 cases of our $19 zinfandel in just 6 months, so I imagine that many stores would blow through their 2$C inventory even faster. . . So would 400 stores get 1 case each? Or would 40 stores in each state get only 10 cases each? Or would only 10 stores get 40 cases per vintage? So clearly it can't be the same stuff . . .

I frequently serve a viognier or viognier/roussanne blend with salmon. Always a good choice, esepecially with salad. I make a mango/peach salsa with a mild kick that is great with salmon, and a slightly chilled Rhone white is a good pairing for that combination. -------------------------------- I forgot to add tadik to my list of earthy things served with salmon. Salmon and basmati tadik are definitely a pinot noir moment, in my book.

I am now jonesing for some chilled rose' with boiled prawns, Ceasar salad and a crusty roll. What a simple but uplifting combination for summer weather. I usually enjoy pinot with salmon, especially if the dish involves sundried tomatoes, wild rice, mushrooms, truffle oil or other earthy elements. I have discovered, however, that pinots with a mineralesque or gravelly finish do not go with those flavors and give me that "hollow" tasting experience you described. I'm not a fan of super-extracted Calipinot, but perhaps something not that far out? Just a little more muscular, like an Arcadian perhaps?

This week's wine tag theme is all things "M." So reach for a bottle of something delightful and share your notes!

Josefina 2006 Syrah Rose' Paso Robles Bottled for Trader Joe's by Maddelena Vineyards, Los Angeles About: $4 Simple, solid strawberry flavor, good acidity, 12.5% alc.. It's dark enough and strawberry enough that it survives a deep, perspiring chill. On it's own, it has a little bit of a tin foil finish, mostly when it starts to warm up. But super chilled, with a cornbread crust kalamata and goat cheese mini-pizza, yum.

Exactly. Chemically (atomically?) I don't think it would hurt the wine anymore than a slow warmup, but the possibility of overcooking it is high. Shoot, I can't get frozen corn dogs at a consistent temperature for 30 seconds. Sometimes hot, sometimes not . . . On other wine sites there are up to four pages of discussion on how microwaves work and how molecules rub together, but for me it all comes down to the possibility of human error. If I can't get a corn dog right, why would I nuke my wine?

I think John's experiment was a response to online conversations about whether or not warming wine in the microwave would have a detrimental effect on the wine. What to do when you come home from work, take that half-full bottle of red wine out of the fridge, and don't want to wait for it to warm up? Why, you pop your glass in the microwave and zap it for 5 seconds, that's what! Personally, I have never tried this. Rumors abound that it happens in restaurants . . .

Great idea, Jim! What kind of rating system will you use? Cigar Aficionado uses four 'puffs' (for their wine ratings), some newspapers award 'stars' . . . too bad we don't have a little 'munching' emoticon just for you . . .

Maybe this should have gone in the "Odd News" thread, but it's so bizarre I think perhaps it needs its own: The rest of the story . . . Note that the police and reporters got the grill menu, and it's featured in the opening paragraphs.

I went with loads of cherry and pear tomatoes this year--my family loves them. Last year I was SURE racoons were eating all my cherry tomatoes. Every one had been carefully picked off as soon as they were ripe. I was steamed. So I sprayed my plants with pepper spray to keep them off. When I mentioned it to my SO and sons I caught them exchanging furtive, sheepish glances. We also have green and purple tomatillos this year, which are now taking over the earth. Last year I found an orphaned tomatillo growing in the orchard; it hadn't been watered once during the summer but was thriving. I'm not sure what I'll do with all these tomatillos, but they are really pretty plants.

Dave,my 'complaint' was not about a producer. It was a frustrated tongue-in-cheek riff on a store. And I wasn't buying futures, just trying to get a $36 bottle of Copain. Which never materialized, by the way . . . If you read Swick's first post, he said he has far more experience with other (primarily California and southern Rhone) styles and has only recently begun to taste Bordeaux. To say that other people are screwups, too, doesn't negate the fact that sometimes futures orders go unfulfilled. That's something that any futures neophyte should be aware of. It's not always the fault of the merchant--as I have already pointed out, sometimes they simply don't get their promised allocations. The buyer invariably gets his money back, but one can expect a long wait. I still feel the best way to get one's feet wet in a futures market is to learn about wineries and productions close to home, and follow the wine's development from barrel to bottle. There are more than a few wineries offering this option. Some wineries advertise that the option is available on their websites or at events, and some don't, but discreet inquiries will turn up opportunities to purchase. I agree that domestic futures are not always as great a deal as they initially present themselves to be; but the opportunities are often fun, educational, and cheaper than release price. I guess one's approach would depend on one's focus: are you interested in the hunt for new productions and the pride of owning something first, or are you interested in saving money on acclaimed selections? There are opportunities either way.

Swicks, there are plenty of small and new California producers that offer futures buying. If you are new to this kind of investment, I recommend that you experiment with California pinot and Rhone producers first. If you physically visit some of these producers, you can taste the wines in barrel, which is very exciting. Also, there is less likelihood of your middleman-merchant losing his allocation or futures order. There are plenty of threads on this board about members who paid for Bordeaux or Burgundy futures and their merchant never received the wine (or claimed they didn't.) Years go by . . . Another advantage to starting with domestic producers is that you will have the opportunity to learn first hand how wines change from their in-barrel profile to their finished and bottled personality.

So according the article in Decanter, a wine merchant sued Latour because after 20 years of receiving 15 cases of this wine for their customers, their allocation was cut off. I can see that they would be pissed, disappointed, hurt, even financially hit. But is it the business of the French courts to dictate that Latour must supply this merchant? However, the above statement may be key. If the en primeur allocation was cut off after the merchant had pre-sold the wine, that would be very damaging to his business, and harmfully unprofessional on the part of Latour. Now that may be true.

California is not state-mandated. It's free enterprise three-tier. I can choose to use a distributor to deliver and sell to my clients, and to further develop our sales list. I can also choose to sell direct to any store and restaurant I want. I can use the 3T system and sell direct. I have complete freedom of choice. In my distributor's range, I gladly defer all sales to them out of courtesy for their professionalism and because they're better at following up with accounts. But if I wanted to personally schlep the wine over to Villa Creek, and write an invoice for Villa Creek, and make follow up sales calls every week I could. In a free enterprise state like ours, or like Colorado for example, the middlemen hustle for both winery clients and retail accounts. (Check out the distributor I linked to in CO. Are these wines available in PA or CT?) The levels of professionalism and the choice of products are much, much higher than in captive, state-controlled markets.

This is not a thread for the faint of heart. So far we've made fun of old ladies, snobby winemakers, snotty sommeliers, wannabe wine snobs, Jamie Fox and Samuel L. Jackson.

The 3T system works very well in some areas. As I've said before, recently, it's state-mandated models that don't work. They don't work for producers, and they don't work for the public. It's like a stove with one burner, and an oven that only heats to 300 degrees. "You want another burner? What for? How much food can you eat at once?" "You want it hotter? Buy a barbecue." "It works, it's not broke, what's your complaint?" "We're providing you with a good product, which we have personally chosen for you at a state level, and at a price that can't be beat--locally." "It's safer this way. Minors won't get burnt."

I spoke with my mother yesterday (July 4th) on the phone. She seldom drinks but enjoys a glass or two of wine with the rest of us at our July family reunions. She was so proud of herself yesterday because she had stopped at a winery in Washington state and bought six bottles for our upcoming gathering. "That's great, Mom!" I said. "Did you get a white or a red?" "No," she responded gleefully, "It's yellow!" Can't argue with that . . .

Ouch. You're right on the math--it is $3-$4 a bottle. Still, even that is going to deter interstate orders of cheap-o wines, isn't it? I have never met a small producer that is "against" the three-tier system. All the ones I know happily use distributors and brokers--when they represent our product respectfully and professionally. What I object to is a MANDATED three-tier system. It creates rampant entitlement, laziness, disrespect, and unprofessionalism.

A bottle of wine (or booze) weighs 3 pounds. It costs approximately $10 per bottle to ship said bottles from California to almost anyplace outside the state. I sincerely doubt that anyone is going to pay $30 a case for their Beringer WZ, Jim Beam, Barefoot Cellars merlot, or Yellowtail chardonnay because they can find it for less in another state.

The Feds don't hate us, mickey, but the local police despise the wine industry. They worry about traffic fatalities and injuries, as well they should. States will not lose alcohol tax income on direct mail shipments into the state. Unlike sales tax, we collect alcohol taxes for any state that requires it. (I love the NH reporting form--one page, simple form, nice people, email reminders--and I collect the NH 8% alcohol tax for every order to NH and submit it monthly.) As for controlled states and free market enterprise, the three-tier system is healthy and effective in uncontrolled states. To say that it's "okay" for someone to cross a county or state border to find better selection and prices is to acknowledge that the concept of control does not work.

In the latest newsletter from Amorim, they offer a synopsis of a recently completed Bordeaux study on oxygen transmission rates: 'Impact of storage position on oxygen ingress through different closures into wine bottles,' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 54(18), 6741-6746, 2006.

I can dig it.

You know, it has just really come home to me that I am dealing in a controlled substance. I have never really thought of it that way before, in spite of all our regular reports to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which is now the Tax and Trade Bureau, and in spite of having to re-register every year as part of the Bio-Terrorism (I almost typed Terroirism) Act. In spite of the fact that most people with a faintly altruistic/governmental bend hate us. In spite of the fact that the local police forces despise us (except for the police chief, who loves fine wine and often participates as a spotter at auctions) yet they still hammer us for donations for every department in the surrounding 100 miles. So, not to get "po" or anything, but I am clearly a little annoyed. Dan and I make our own wine. We plant the vines. We replant the vines after beheading the gophers that ate them. We picked our first harvest ourselves. (Subsequently we hired a crew. ) We crush the grapes. We ferment the grapes. We argue over which yeasts to use. We taste the wine as it develops in the barrel. We choose names for the wine with more fervor than we devoted to our children. I am sitting in my screened in sunporch looking out at an old-fashioned, dryfarmed, head-trained vineyard [picture placemark here] in the early morning sun and thinking about being a dealer in a controlled substance.

Can you get it in your state? On Sundays? Can you special order wines like Loring, Arcadian, Screaming Eagle, Linne Calodo, Saxum . . . wines that have a two-to-ten year waiting list . . . and have them delivered like artisanal cheese or foie gras? No animals were harmed to bring you this message.