Rebel Rose

Thank you. Must have been a slow news day at Wine Business Monthly. . . But seriously, it is a silly trend right now. I mean, we make comparatively high alcohol wines, 13-14%, but I've tasted recent zins that approach 17% and taste prunier than our zinfandel port! Blech. (Although it seems the wine industry is always getting something wrong--a few years ago it was overoaked and overbuttered chardonnays.) And Brad is right about balance, of course. I love low, high, dry, sweet, white and red wines. For me, it's all about varietal character. Here in Paso, we have a long, warm growing season and it's very easy to get fruit ripe. Just the opposite of many European countries. (Although our average temperatures are cooler than the southern Rhone, but then who isn't?) Our difficulty is that autumn is generally warm too, and late season heat can jump Brix up quickly. Grapes can be 22 one day, and suddenly poof! through the roof two days later. Zinfandel, which must be picked quite ripe and will have a few raisins, is particularly susceptible. Another potential difficulty is that ripe fruit may measure 23 Brix just after crushing, but after fermenting or cold soaking for two days, the Brix can jump up alarmingly because any raisins in the crop will rehydrate and release more sugar. An experienced winemaker knows to anticipate this and watch the vineyards closely during harvest. So I look at these over-alcohol wines as inexperienced and sloppy winemaking. And a put-it-in-the-bottle-the-masses-will-buy-it-anyway attitude. Mind you, I'm talking about the 15-17% prune bombs here. We still love our 12-14% alcohol wines. As long as the zins sing pepper, pepper, pepper, and syrahs sound like Hall of the Mountain King, I'm happy! And to support Julia'sChild's comment, here's a interview with Stefan Asseo of L'Aventure by the LA Times. Although I completely disagree with his comment about zin, of course! He's happy as a pig in slop to be making wine in a warmer climate, and his wines are just as bold as anyone else's here.

Wow. That's great, Chris!! How exciting. And I liked both pictures!

We might have an early harvest here in Paso Robles, at least with the whites. The reds seem to be on schedule, maybe just a little early. Keeping our fingers crossed for a nice, normal hang time! Our syrah looks like your petit verdot, the zinfandel is quite a bit further along.

For Zins, we generally recommend 5-7 years. Wines that carry higher alcohols, Zins in particular, will not cellar well beyond seven years--higher alcohol levels will "cook" the fruit, resulting in rapid development of butterscotch and caramel flavors. Plus, due to the uneven ripening of Zin clusters, the tannins are different, less reliable than Cabernet and Syrah. Syrahs and Rhone blends have high tannin contents and can go for many years, but they also have frequently high alcohol levels, so your cellaring plans for them should be based on a study of each wine's basic fruit profile, tannin content and alcohol. Practice, practice, practice, I say! Viogniers ditto on the high alcohol note. Drink them young and fresh! Another note, and one that was discussed in an earlier thread, somewhere . . . is that many modern wines have a very high pH and low acidity, resulting in a thick, pleasantly soft mouthfeel now, but lacking the necessary acidity for elegant aging. These wines are delicious for a short time, but quickly become flabby because there's no "high fruit." Fruit tires faster than tannins and oak, so it's really important to make sure fruit is the star. For a wine you'd like to cellar, look for bright, slightly acidic fruit (after all, if there's no fruit to preserve, what's the point?), tannins that don't spank the fruit down with a two-ba-four, ditto that on oak, and moderate alcohol. If a young wine tastes astringent and tight, and you're having trouble deciding if it will age well or just always be nasty, the finish can give you a clue. A young, tight, astringent wine with a layered, interesting finish probably has a great deal of promise. No guarantees, though. . . It's sort of like having vinous relationships . . .

I'm afraid I agree with Craig. There's a certain proprietary pleasure in opening and decanting your own wine. It's not at all uncommon for the owner of a bottle to want to have the honor of opening and decanting it, although serving is generally done by the waiter.

Now, wait a minute. Are they saying I would hold my chicken over my vegetables, cutting boards and dishes while I rinse it? Or that I sling it around my kitchen in a circle to whip it dry, spraying raw chicken rinse all over everything? What a dumb statement!!!!!!!!!! I buy my whole chickens as locally as possible, but always rinse them just in case--over a stainless steel sink, duh. I've found that not all chickens are properly cleaned inside, and quick rinse and massage also identifies stray pinfeather cuticle-thingies. Chicken then goes onto the meat cutting board for prep--not the kitchen counter . . . who carves up a chicken on the countertop? Quick pat dry, rub in some spices and maybe some olive oil, and then on to roasting. Whole fish, ditto, as part of the prep.

Yes, white wine works like a charm, but it must be poured on immediately, then thoroughly rinsed out with water. The white wine prevents the pigments and proteins in the red from 'setting.' When tasters here at the winery spill on themselves I hand them a small dixie cup with a little white wine, with instructions to rinse the spot with wine and then water (in the bathroom of course . . .). It always works, but leaves me with the perpetually unasked question: "Why did you wear white?"

Pan, sorry to hear of your discomfort! May I suggest activated charcoal? I've relied on it for twenty years, always keep it in the house, carry it on travels, and it's comforted my son through many gastrointestinal distresses. It is completely natural, works quickly, and has no side effects. You can take 2 capsules after every meal, but you probably won't need to as it's very effective. And $5 for 100 capsules. (Just don't burp after taking it, or you'll expel a little black cloud! ) Here's a link to iHerb.com, where I do most of my vitamin shopping. Some liquid acidophilus culture might be helpful, too. I prefer the strawberry flavor by Continental. I hope you feel better soon!

You're missing the joke, hon. Only 21 year olds? Precisely 21 year olds? Not 22, 23, 24, 36, 48 . . oh, unless we're talking measurements. I was asked that once!

Let's just say, oh, theoretically, that maybe once in a while a friend of a friend encounters something that looks like ground glass in their wine. It would be very unusual, in fact almost impossible, for that to happen. Bottles are sanitized and inspected before leaving the warehouse. Bottles are sparged with nitrogen to clean them again on the bottling line. It is inconceivable that glass particles would pass through the micron filters installed on every line. It is possible, I guess, but highly improbable. However, it frequently happens that tartaric acid, a natural component of grape juice and therefore wine, will precipitate out of the wine and form glass-like crystals that adhere to the cork and fall into the wineglasses of unsuspecting drinkers. It can be very alarming. We recently encountered a woman in a local restaurant who was freaking slightly over crystals in her 'J' Chardonnay. Dover Dan explained that they were not only edible, but the source of cream of tartar. He dared her to eat the crystals, offering to buy her two more glasses of 'J' if she did. Done deal. Now, I'm thinking that if a winery, say, a large winery, had a lot of that to contend with, they might possibly want to just recall the wine instead, dump it into a tank, cold stabilize it to drop the crystals out, and repackage it. It would be cheaper, easier, and more marketable than trying to explain the concept of edible glass to consumers. Just a theory. I could be wrong. I dunno . . . Edited for typos.

Charles, how did you know I would check in on this thread? A few more notes on ZinAlley . . . They only produce 450 cases a year, so snap it up if you can. Frank Nerelli is also part of the Pesenti Vineyard family, and was the last Pesenti winemaker before the old vine zinfandel vineyard was sold to Turley in 1999. (That's Larry Turley, of Turley Zin fame. Turley has renovated the winery and tasting room on the property, and winemaker Ehran Jordan splits his time between Napa and Paso Robles.) Frank's zinfandel vineyard is dryfarmed and headtrained, and very near the original Pesenti vineyard. It is, I'd like to add, extremely healthy and well-kept, and Frank knows each of his vines as well as he knows his children. The Bella Luna is also excellent, and I am hoping to try their wines again tonight at our annual vintner's barbecue! Rabbit Ridge is a large production winery, and they have recently relocated to Paso Robles. Ridge, Rosenblum and Ravenswood also buy zinfandel from Paso Robles . . . Zins 'R' Us! Which brings us to little Dover Canyon. Although slightly larger than ZinAlley, we are, at only 2500 cases, still a wee winery. (Would that be a weenerie?) We specialize in Zins and Rhones, and we do small releases of vineyard designate wines. Our releases are generally 100 to 300 cases. One of my personal favorites, well they're all my personal favorites, but the one I want to mention here is the Benito Dusi Old Vine Zinfandel. We buy old vine zin each year from Benito Dusi--the same old vine zinfandel sold to Ridge for their Paso label. Beni is such a character. This is how business is done the old Paso way: Beni never presents us with a weight tag or an invoice for the fruit. We agree verbally on a price and I just set some funds aside for him until he's ready, which is usually in January. On a rainy winter weekend after harvest, he'll have his vineyard crew prepare pans and pans of fresh enchiladas, and when they're ready, he calls us and brings some enchiladas by in exchange for his check. The exchange also involves drinking several bottles of zinfandel. . . I'm glad you think Paso is God's Country, because I do, too.

I notice they didn't say "at least 21." (Can I say that?)

Try checking out Avalon Wine.com They have a great selection of NW wines, many at very reasonable prices.

The very idea of screw caps offends me. They do not make that fuldilling cheek-popping sound. They contribute to the "sharp steel litter" problem that the beer industry came under fire for. They do not make attractive bird houses, trivets, and bulletin boards. Personally, I like the square boxes with repaceable pop-tops that broth and tomatoes come in. Instant open, instant close. No lost tops or corks. Nothing to step on in the middle of the night. Best of all, you could stack your wine containers on their side, or upright, with no wasted air space in between!

I was afraid you would say that. I love the browning, but I'd prefer to get it without having to add a lot of insulating fat. They're a bit expensive, around $110, but if you invest in an All-Clad pan you can brown stuff to your hearts content and easily clean it up afterwards. We've been buying one pan a year (from Santa Claus).

In the states, it's a little more confusing since the BATF keeps changing the rules. Always a pleasure dealing with the Men in Black. A few years ago our winery bottled a "Primitivo Zinfandel" and we were huffily informed by the BATF that consumers might think that primitivo is a clone of zinfandel. The rules listed them as separate varietals. Now the rules apparently state that zinfandel and primitivo are considered the same varietal, like mourvedre/montaro. However, the grapes are different, and most local growers here consider primitivo to be a clone of zinfandel, which is a varietal with a lot of, well, variation anyway! Unfortunately, we only have 2.2 acres of defined primitivo in our appellation, Paso Robles, but oldtime growers confess that they planted their zinfandel vineyards with primitivo. Yet back then, 1920 to 1960, they were required to call it zinfandel, and zinfandel it remains. ::shrug:: So, in the states at least, to be labeled primitivo it must be sold to the winery as primitivo and bottled as primitivo. But, a lot of the zinfandel you like might be primitivo as well, but nobody really knows it!

Great blog! We have apricots coming out our ears right now, but I never thought to try a sorbet. Yum. Looking forward to the rest of the week! Bring on the wines.

Brad, I'm enjoying your tasting notes, but I've never encountered an oaky Viognier that I liked! Please PM your shipping address and I'll send you a selection of local Viogniers--Garretson (Mat Garretson is the founder of Hospice du Rhone), Alban (John Alban grows only Rhones) and of course, Dover Canyon (Dover Dan has made Viognier for twelve years and was recently nominated for Winemaker of the Year for a 3 appellation area). All three producers (friends, by the way), use neutral oak, second fill at least.

We have shot berries in our zinfandel as well, but ours are due to uneven pollination. We have not had any heat here to speak of--days are seldom over 82 on the west side of Paso so far. But we have had a lot of wind, and that can interfere with proper pollination. Zinfandel clusters ripen unevenly as a matter of course, so we really don't like chick berries. They tend to stay green and bitter and affect the wine's pH. Fortunately, only a few rows on the edge of the vineyard are badly affected. We will either drop the fruit, or see how they come along and do selective harvesting. Edited to say I'm not sure the reporter fully understood what he was reporting. Shot berries are an early phenomenon, and in your area are probably caused by the heat causing flowers to drop prematurely, not because the heat affects each berry individually.

Yow! My 2 pound bag of sea salt is $7.29!!!! Of course, in my small California town I can only find good sea salt in the health food store, where the markups are beyond high. I like to support our small local stores, but with markups like that, and their weird, earth-muffin hours, I have begun to shop online for health and specialty foods. I still won't find salt for 7 cents a pound, though. That's amazing.

Good for you, andie! Perhaps if you'd known about the other shopper you could have goosed him with your cane!

My store has stopped offering both, but a checker told me with a that the store is tightening costs, and apparently the paper costs more and takes up more storage space. However, if I pipe up I can still get paper! Since I put my groceries in the back of a Bronco and have to tote them up a hill when I get home, plastic just doesn't cut it. Ever had a burst open tub of yogurt rolling around on your SUV carpet?

I encountered one gentleman who wanted to know if we use 'steroids' in our wine, because he objected strenuously to the use of 'steroids' in winemaking! I dunno, seems like a fast way to get it into your bloodstream, and it would sure make lifting barrels easier . . .

Yes, that will be in the "Disgusting Things in Wine' thread!

Totally agree with Rachel. Although this particular lunkhead also sounds like he was on a power trip. Some people indulge in this kind of behavior just for the petty satisfaction. We can take that away by being helpful . . . "Moving slowly today, huh? Eyesight fuzzy? Boy, that must have been some party! Need some help reading that receipt?" I guarantee it will be a while before he risks the fast lane again, whereas you'll be greeted warmly by the checker even when you have a few "extra" items!